(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 325 married to Sarah Swayen; Mary, the wife of Caleb Renunger; Christina, the wife of Adam Swartz, of Indiana; Henrietta, the wife of Jesse Herron; Charlotte, now married to Charles Becker; Hannah, Mrs. John Swayen; Elizabeth, married to Francis Markle; and Susie. Henry Flinchpaugh was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, March 9, 1792. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the French army and took part in the campaign against Moscow, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, suffering all the privations of the terrible retreat. He fought in the battle of Leipsig, also in Waterloo, and in the latter battle escaped without a wound. In 1817 he came to America, and, while passing through Pennsylvania, at the town of Lancaster, married Johanna Schrnidlapp. The same year he settled in Butler county, Ohio, where he remained about a year, when he came to Hamilton county and settled at first in the town of Miami, but afterward moved to a farm in Miami township. The place is now owned by Emanuel Faigle. He came to America poor, but succeeded in amassing a large property. He was a member of the church of United Brethren, and in politics was a Democrat. His death occurred October 7, 1852. His wife died October r, r863. Their family consisted of twelve children: David, now married to Maria Fleming; Henry, married to Cynthia Creech; Hannah, the wife of William Creech; Mary, married to Frederick Ulmer; Caleb, married to Rachel Ingersoll; Jacob; William, married to Eliza Brown; Harriet, Mrs. Gottlieb Metzzer; John, married to Fanny Yanney; and three that died in early childhood. Caleb Flinchpaugh was born in Hamilton county, in the house in which he now lives, in the year 1828, February 14th. He has always followed the business of farming. He was married February 27, 1851, to Miss Ingersoll, of the same township. She died August 13, 1879, leaving eight children. He is at present township trustee, an office held by him during the past six years. He has also been on the board of education fifteen years and has a deep interest in everything pertaining to the cause of education. A zealous member of the United Brethren church, he has had several offices of honor and trust in the church. Politically he is a Democrat. He has an interesting family of eight boys, all living, and all at home. Their names are—William a, David, Wesley R., Isaac Y., Jacob S., Frank, Anderson, and Eddie. John M. Flinchpaugh was born in this county in 1838, and has always been a farmer from preference. He was married in 1863 to Miss Fanny Yanney, of Miami township. A Democrat in politics, he has filled the place of councilman of the village one year. His five children are—Charles E., Nora L., Harry E., Jennie, and James E. Henry Flinchpaugh was born in the town of Miami in 1819, and followed the business of farming till of age. Then he opened a store on Taylor's creek, in which he remained five years, when he removed his stock of goods to Harrison, and remained another five years. He is a natural mechanic, and has worked considerably at, the gunsmith's trade. During the gold excitement in California he made rifles for a number of men who went over the plains to that State. He is now engaged at his trade. He was married in 1843. In politics he is a Democrat. His three children are—Harriet L., now Mrs. Valentine Fagely; William M., married to. Julia Siepen; and John F., still living at home. David Flinchpaugh was born in Butler county, Ohio, in 1818, and was moved with the family to Miami township the same year. He has held the office of township trustee three years, and has been school director more than thirty years. In politics he has always been a Democrat. He married Maria Fleming, a native of Pennsylvania, in 1842, and settled, the same year, on the farm which he now occupies. John B. Matson was born in this township in 1796, and married Lucretia Y. Buck, of the same place, in the year 1826. She died after thirteen years, leaving six children. Two years later he was married to Milchia Vangorder. His first settlement was made on the farm now owned by Mrs. A. W. Flowers, the same on which he was born. He was a Democrat, and has been in the office of justice of the peace for one term. He died on the same farm in 1875, at the age of eighty years. His nine children are James, married to Elizabeth Houts; Oliver, married to Louisa Stephenson; John B., married to Cynthia A. Brown; Lucretia, who died when four years old; Job, married to Catharine Derrick; Lovina, who died in infancy; Albert, married to Anna Chambers; Charlotte D., now the wife of Amasa W. Flowers; and Narcissa, Mrs. Richard C. Flowers. John B. Matson was born in this township in 1831. He attended Farmers' college, at College Hills, one term. In 1854 he was married to Cynthia A. Brown, of the same county. He is a Democrat in his political belief. His children are James B., married to Mary McSweety; Minnie, the wife of Asa C. Bouham ; Mary, now Mrs. Thomas M. Gerard; Kate, Fannie, who died at the age of seven years; Frank, who died at three years of age; Hattie, now living at home, and Bessie, who died an infant. Chalon G. Guard was born in this county on March 15, 1819. In 1841 he was married to Leah H. Comeges, of Dearborn county, Indiana. He was township trustee for several years, and, in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was a member, he was steward during many years. In his political faith he was a Republican. He died October 2 1, 1873. His children are Angeline, Maton B., married to Sophia D. Moore, and now living in Indiana; Simeon G., married to Inez M. Lewis, and now in Kansas; Rachel M., Ezra G., Almira H., the wife of Stephen W. Rittenburg; and Eunice W., now Mrs. Luther Fisher, of Illinois. John McGee was born in New Jersey in 1807. He came to Ohio in 1829, and settled on the farm on which he now lives in Miami township. In 1833 he married Nacky Brown, from Clermont county. He has held the office of trustee in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a member. He has long been a Republican. His children are Sarah, Robert, married to Sallie Fazely; John, Jane, now Mrs. Michael Sargent, and Annie. Abel Ingersoll was born in New Jersey in 1794, am' 326 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY,. OHIO. was brought to Ohio in 1801. His first home in this State was in Whitewater township, on the farm owned at present by Mr. Hopping. He married Elizabeth Polk, of Pennsylvania. At one time he served in the place of constable during a series of years; was a member of the United Brethren church; in politics was always very liberal, voting for the man that seemed to him best. He died in this township in 1850 at the age of sixty-six. Seven years later his wife died. They had eight children: Isaac, married to Mary A. Herron; Patience, married first to John Herron, and afterward to Arthur Henry; Rachel, the wife of Caleb Flinchpaugh; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Robert Martin, of Indiana; and four that died in early infancy. Isaac Ingersoll was born in this county in 1817. October 31, 1844, he married Mary A. Harron. Several years he has served as township trustee, and two years was township treasurer. He has always lived on the farm on which he was born. He is, in politics, a Democrat. He has five childrenr Joseph, now married to Florence Marklin; Nancy, Daniel, and Elizabeth, not living at home, and one that died while an infant. William Maensley was born in Virginia in 1785 , where he married Nancy Bussel. She died, leaving six children, in Miami, in 1822. He came to this State in 1815, but had lived for a time previously in Boone county, Kentucky. His first Ohio Settlement was made at North Bend, on the farm now the property of Charles Short. In politics he was an Old Line Whig. He died in Ripley, Indiana, in 1837. He had six children : James, at present in Texas; Moses B., now married to Eunice Hayes; John B., married to Mary J. Ingraham; Eliza, the wife of David Jones, of Indiana; Samuel, married to Catharine Gronendike; and Stephen W., married to Mary Vangorder, and a resident of Indiana at the present time. Moses B. Maensley was born in Boone county, Kentucky, in 1814, and was, while very young, brought by his parents to North Bend, Ohio. He has held the offices of constable and treasurer for his township, and has also been steward in the Methodist Episcopal church, where he has a membership. In politics he is a strong Republican. In 1846 he built a warehouse at Cleves and began the buying of grain, which he followed twenty years, when he abandoned it and took up farming. Twelve years previous to the above date he was in business on the river between Cincinnati and New Orleans. It took an entire year in those days to make one trip. In 1839 he was married to Miss Eunice Hayes, of this township. They have had nine children: Anderson B., married to Mary H. Lewis; Anna H., and Alvin C.; James F., married to Anna Markland; Abiatha B., the wife of Otto Lowe, of Indiana; Fanny M., Job H., Arabella, and Chalon G. Job Hayes was born in this county—North Bend—in 1791. His father, Job Hayes, died on a boat three months before his birth; he was buried on the bank of the Ohio river with such care to conceal the body from the Indians that even his friends were unable to discover the place of his burial. He always followed the business of farming. His children were: James, married to Penina Conner; Sarah, the wife of Levi Miller, now living in Indiana; and Job, married to Johanna Hayes, and living in Iowa. Job Hayes, jr., owing to the great distance to school, was obliged to study evenings at home, which he did by the firelight as best he could. He married Johanna Hayes, of Butler county, June 29, 1816, and first settled on the farm now owned by the Miller heirs, in Whitewater township. In politics he was a Democrat; in religion, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He died in Madison, Iowa, February 4, 1868. His wife died at the same place four years later. Their family consists of eleven children: Mary, Levi M., Joseph H., married to Sarah Myers; Omer, married to Mary A. McEllhaney; Sarah M., the wife of Isaac Stephens, of Indiana; Isaac D., married and-living in Iowa; Martha, Jacob, Samuel F., married to Mary Marsh, and now of Iowa; and Buelah, married first to Corydon Swift and afterward to Barney Mullin. Joseph H. Hayes was born in this county in 1824. In 1852 he married Sarah Myers, also of this county. He has served as township trustee one term, is a member of the Methodist church, and in politics is a Democrat. His seven children are: Job W., Enos, Alice D., Isaac D., Joseph G., Wilson, and Charles. Thomas Markland was born in Maryland, in 1765. He was a cooper by trade, which business he carried on with farming all his life. He married Anna M. Somers, a native of Virginia, and came to this State in 1805. He reached Green township, of this county, on the second day of April, and settled on the farm now owned by Charles and Washington Markland. At that time the nearest white settler was two miles distant, and the nearest church had to be reached by going eleven miles. The school was two miles from his farm, and the nearest grist-mill twenty-seven miles away. There was no sawmill within reach. He helped Bailey Guard land at Lawrenceburgh, Indiana, about the' year 1Soo; was the first manufacturer of barrels in that part of the county. In politics he was an Old Line Whig. He died in 1825, and his wife's death occurred in 1837. They had a family of eleven children, eight boys and three girls—Elizabeth, the wife of William Rogers; Leah, wife of Henry Towner; Martha, now Mrs. James Anderson; Jonathan, married to Julia Sammons; Benjamin, married to Fanny Rogers and after-warts to Emily Edwards; John, whose wife is Mary Miller; William, whose wife is Mary Sammons; Noah, married to Jemima Sammons; Washington, married to Mary Hammond; James, now in Indiana, whose wife was Phoebe Moore and afterward Eliza Creech; and Charles, married to Jane Gardner. Noah Markland was born in Kentucky, April 25, 1803, and came to Ohio with his parents when about two years of age. He remembers the building of the first school-house in Green township. It was made of logs, on the farm now owned by Simeon Pounder. The first teacher was Moses W. Cotton, who taught in 1809. He also remembers the building of the first church, on HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 327 the site of the present Methodist Episcopal church, called the Ebenezer church. He learned the cooper's trade with his father which he followed but a short time, when he turned his attention to farming in which he is now engaged. In 1832 he came to this township and settled on the farm now owned by Charles Short. In 1825, April 5th, he married Jemima Sammons, of Hamilton county. She had seven children, and died October 16, 1844, at the age of forty-one years. He then married Rebecca Laird, of the same county. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics is Republican. He has eleven children—Jesse; Leander, not now living; James, married to Sarah Gooden; William, married to Jane Wade; Charles; Francis, married to Elizabeth Flinchpaugh; Mary J., the wife of William B. Welch; Martha, the wife of George T. Redfern and living in Tennessee; Annie M., the wife of James F. Maensley; Samuel, and Elizabeth H. Moses Argo was born in the State of Delaware, in 1771. A farmer by choice, he came to this State and settled near Mount Pleasant, this county, in October, 1803. He married Sarah Bruin, of New Jersey, and his marriage license is the second on record in the probate court of this county. In politics, he was a Jacksonian Democrat. In 1813 he moved to Miami township, and began his home on the farm now owned by William Brawley. He died in 1842; his wife had died nine years previously. They had nine children: Libbie, now the wife of Lewis Fowler; Lucinda, wife of Daniel Helterbrine, of Indiana; Alexander, married to Mary A. Walhiven, and residing in Illinois; Ebenezer, who had three wives; Amanda Tapel, Hannah Spinning, and Laura M. Oldruve; Anna, who was the wife of Thomas Kinkaid, and is now married to Enos Gray, and living in Indiana; William, Elizabeth, and one that died in infancy. Ebenezer Argo was born in this county in 1810. When fifteen years old he began the trade of shoemaking. In 1836 he came to Cleves, and opened a shop in the building now used by him as a wareroom. In 1842 he married Amanda Yapel, of Illinois. She had three children, and died in Cleves in 1848. He then married Hannah Spinning, of New Jersey, who died in 1867. His third wife was Louisa M. C. Oldruve, a native of England. She died in 1876. In February, of 1861, he sold out the boot and. shoe business to Michael Miller, and began dealing in groceries and hardware, in which he is still employed. He is trustee and elder in the Presbyterian church, of which he is a member, and is a Republican in politics. He has three children: Sarah A., married t0 Edmund Kane; William, whose wife is Melissa Hearn; and James E. Samuel Burr was-born on Long Island, in 1766. He married Debora Fleet, of the same place. In 1793 she died, leaving one child. He afterwards was married to Phoebe Dodge, of the same place, and she died, leaving two children. He was an excellent mathematician, a self educated man. While in New York, he was appointed head clerk in the general post office, under President Washington, and served until the seat of government was moved to Philadelphia, when he resigned. In 1817 he came to Ohio with his family, and settled on what is now known as the Oliver Spencer farm. While in Ohio, he followed farming and surveying. The first year after he came here, he was appointed trustee of the Cincinnati college, which office he held for a number of years. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics he was an Old Line Whig. His children are Edward M., now on Long Island; William P., married first to Cynthia Brown and afterward to Lydia M. Morehead; and Deborah F., the wife of Henry Dodge, of Long Island. William P. Burr was born on Long Island, August 17, 1808. He came to Ohio with his parents, and settled on the same place. His business has been farming and surveying... He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics was first a Whig, but more recently has been a Republican. In 1827 he married Miss Cynthia Brown, of this township. She died March 18, 1834, leaving five children. He afterward married Lydia M. Morehead. His family has numbered twelve: Mary, Edward, Martha A., Robert, Samuel, Deborah, Eliza, Emma F., Phoebe, and three others who died in early infancy. Jesse Hearn was born in North Carolina in 1783, came to Ohio when about twenty-one years of age, and settled in North Bend. He was a farmer, which business he followed all his life. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church for a great many years, held the position of trustee from the time the Miami church was built until his death. In politics he was a Democrat. He died June 28, r854. His wife was Nancy Kyle, of the same township. She was born December 26, 1789, and died the same date, 1859. They had nine children: Elizabeth; Harriet, the wife of John Brown; Edward, married to Sarah Palmer; Mary A., the wife of Isaac Ingersoll; John, married to Patience Ingersoll; James, who has had three wives, Hester A. Rogers, Jane Mark-land and Kate Hayes; Purnel, married to Ann M. Noble; Anna B., the wife of Joseph Schermerhorn; Patience, who died an infant; and Jesse, now married to Henrietta Flinchpaugh. Purnel Hearn was born in this township IN ovember r, 1823. He was formerly a butcher, but is now a farmer. In 1850 he married Ann M. Noble, of Green township. One year he has served as township trustee, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and, in politics, is Democratic. He takes a deep interest in religious matters, has been class leader, trustee, and superintendent of the Sabbath-school for a number of years. His children's names are: Missuria, William, Elizabeth, Phoebe J., Frank T., George M., Purnel 0., and one that died when very young. NORTH BEND. When Judge Symmes found that he was to be disappointed in his hopes of founding a large city at the mouth of the Great Miami, he was easily persuaded to plant his colony where it had landed on the second of February, 1789, at the northernmost point of the great bend in the Ohio. Here, he writes, "I flatter myself with the prospect of finding a good tract of ground, extending from 328 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. river to river, on which the city might be built with more propriety than it would be to crowd it so far down in the point, from the body of the county round it." Here, accordingly, he made his settlement, calling it North Bend, he said, "from its being situated in the most northerly bend of the Ohio that there is between the Muskingum and the Mississippi." Forty-eight lots of one acre each, and of four roos, or sixty-six feet, front, were staked off, of which every other one was a donation lot, granted to actual settlers up0n condition that the donees should build immediately thereon; and one was also reserved for each of the proprietors. It should be here observed that these proprietors did not include all the associates or partners of the East Jersey company, but were those belonging to a special company of twenty-four, formed March 15, 1788, under the auspices of Judge Symmes and Dr. Thomas Bondi-not, to found the expected city of Miami and sell the property within the townships the judge had reserved to himself between the Ohio and the Great Miami. The business of the company was managed by Symmes and Bondinot, and the latter had given the judge power of attorney to sell "shares of propriety" in the said city and townships until all were disposed of. Each proprietor was entitled to choose an entire square or block in the city, when founded, which should be exclusively his own, subject to no future division with other proprietors. Under this arrangement Symmes was now proceeding with his settlements in the Miami peninsula. On the twelfth of September, 1789, Judge Symmes' partners wrote him that their choice for the site of the city was where he had landed and made his settlement in February—namely, at North Bend—and instructed him to lay it off there. He set about the survey during the later fall and early winter, and reported on the ensuing first of January, as follows: We find the ground rather uneven, hut, on the whole I hope it will do better than I formerly thought it would, especially as it embraces several valuable springs which never fail. Some of the squares are very good ones, but others of them are very indifferent, owing partly to Camp- creek's running across the plat, as also to very considerable hills and deep gutters which are interspersed through the isthmus. The city does not reach quite over to the banks of the Miami, for I have laid it out exactly on the old plan and on the cardinal points, not receiving any instructions from you authorizing me to throw it into an oblong, which would have shot it better across the neck of land from river to river. The new survey completed, the vacation of the old plat, which was included within it, and the nullifying of the arrangements made with settlers for donation and other lots. The judge was naturally appehensive of resultant trouble; but he wrote in his January letter: I believe that I shall have very little difficulty in procuring the relinquishment of all the lots which are sold and given away in North Bend. Those which have been paid for I hope will be restored on reimbursing the purchaser his money, though several of these purchasers are not on the ground at present, therefore I cannot say what objections they may start. The most of those who had donation lots in this village are well pleased with the new arrangement, as they now get five acres, and had but one before. This seems to pacify them, though they have generally built cabins on the acre. Some special interest attaches to the judge's next remark, as showing the primitive character of the dwellings then upon the site: Very fortunately for the proprietors, not one man in the village, but myself and two nephews, have been at the expense of building a stone chimney in his house; therefore they can the more readily cast away or remove their former cabins and build new houses on the proper streets of the city. The expense of clearing and fencing their lots is what they most lament, as this labor goes directly to the benefit of other people who take up such cleared lots. I shall, therefore, be obliged to make them some compensation for this in order to keep up the quiet of the town. The judge had taken a rose-colored view of the prospects, which was not answered by the outcome of his destructive and constructive operations. In about five months (April 30, 1790) he was compelled to write to Dayton: I must enjoin it upon the proprietors to send out some of their body with discretionary powers to act for the good of the whole without being subject to subsequent control by the proprietors, for you cannot conceive the disorders that have been occasioned by breaking up the old village of North Bend to make room for the city. Some have left the town offended at the measure, while others are quarreling about the use of the cleared land which was opened last year. Captain John Brown fenced one of these lots in order to sow it with hemp, but the same night his fence was all burnt and laid in ruins. He charges Daniel Gard and Peter Keen with the fact. Symmes himself was obliged to make a plea to the board of proprietors, for the preservation of his own improvements, which were threatened with the common fate "in the general wreck of the village," he said. In the course of this he introduces the interesting description of his houses, which will be found a few paragraphs hereafter. The "city of Miami" was, nevertheless, duly laid off in a square of about a mile, the streets intersecting at right angles, regardless of hill or valley, height or plain, and running with the cardinal points of the compass. On the east (Mr. F. W. Miller, in Cincinnati's Beginnings, says also on the north), running from river to river, a strip 0f land was reserved for a common. The judge had no instructions as to the width 0f this, but took the responsibility of laying it forty rods, or an eighth of a mile wide. He wrote: I would have left a wider common, but at this dangerous time when we have already had a man murdered within the square of the city, to leave a larger extent of unoccupied land between the city and small lots, would have looked rathe1 like trifling with the lives of citizens who are obliged to go daily to their labor on the donation lots beyond the common. By "small lots" the judge must have meant the smaller out-lots—those of ten acres, which lay next beyond the common. "The ten acres," he wrote, "I shall throw round the hills and city in the nearest manner I can. The lots within the city—some of them, at least—were of the unwonted size, for in-lots, of five acres. Beyond the ten-acre tracts, in order, were out-lots, first of thirty acres, then of sixty. This was Symmes' plan for any other towns or cities he might lay off; and this was the main element in the embarrassment and uncertainty caused by the delay in fixing the site for the city, as mentioned in a previous section of this chapter. He was also anxious to know whether be might sell the proprietors' alternate reserved lots at North Bend, for which he had many offers; and had taken the responsibility of selling one "to a valuable citizen," rather than lose him, for "half a joe," or three dollars. He wished to sell m0re of them, to encourage emigration; and his anxieties t0 get the foundations of a HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 329 settlement at the bend well laid form the burden of a number of his letters to his associates: He notes that his surveyors were having a hard time of it, at work as they were in midwinter, with snow deep, the cold severe, and supplies short. One of them, Noah Badgley, who lived at Losantiville, but was formerly of Westfield, New Jersey, had lost his life by drowning during a freshet in the Licking river, while returning with others in a boat from a place in Kentucky where they had procured some "bread-corn." The two men who were with him had a narrow escape with their lives, being rescued from a treetop in the midst of the raging waters, where they had been for three days and nights. Under the new arrangement fifty of the small lots were to be given to the first fifty applicants, on condition that they should build a house and agree to reside three years in the city. They were rapidly taken up, and by April 30th the judge could write: We have parted with all the donation lots around the city, and I think it highly incumbent on the proprietors to add one, fifty more thereto, as, people being refused out-lots when they apply, go directly up to the back stations where they are sure to have them. He also asked the privilege of giving away about thirty-five acre lots at South Bend, which was now going rapidly, and he desired to encourage the settlement there. The proprietors seem to have acted liberally with the infant settlement, and to have given the judge ample powers of grant or gift; for, more than five years afterwards (August 6, 1795), he wrote to Dayton: There are yet several hundred donation lots in the plan of the town that have never been accepted by anybody, and very few indeed will purchase a lot when they can have such a choice of one gratis. The inlots given to actual settlers in the city were soon taken up, and, as applications continued to be made, further surveys were extended up and down the Ohio, until over one hundred acre lots were laid out, giving the place a front on the Ohio of about one and a half miles, or nearly half of the present extensive frontage, according to the nominal boundaries of the village plat. Judge Symmes remained for six weeks in the rude shelter he had built for his family upon first landing, and 'then removed into a more comfortable log cabin, which by that time was encloses}, and roofed. He subsequently wrote the following description of his own group of habitations and other buildings at this point : I have gone to considerable expense in erecting comfortable log houses on the three lots, which I had taken for myself and two nephews, young men who are with me. The lots in North Bend were four poles wide; we have therefore occupied twelve poles of ground on the banks of the Ohio. This front is covered with buildings from one end to the other, and of too valuable a construction for me to think of losing them in the general wreck of the village. That the proprietors may be more sensible of the reasonableness of the request, I will give you a description of them. The first, or most easterly one, is a good cabin, sixteen feet wide and twenty-two feet long, with a handsome stone chimney in it; the roof is composed of boat plank set endwise, obliquely, and answers a triple purpose of rafters, lath, and an undercourse of shingle, on which lie double rows of clapboards which makes an exceedingly tight and good roof. The next is a cottage, sixteen feet by eighteen, and two and a half stories high; the roof is well shingled with nails. The third is a cabin, fifteen feet wide and sixteen feet long, one story high, with a good stone chimney in it; the roof shingled with nails. The fourth is a very handsome log house, eighteen feet by twenty-six, and two stories high, with two good cellars under the first in order to guard more effectually against heat and cold. This large cabin is shingled with nails, has a very large and good stone chimney which extends from side to side of the house, for the more convenient accommodation of strangers, who are constantly coming and going, and never fail to make my house their home while they stay in the village. In this chimney is a large oven built of stone. Adjoining to this house I have built me a well-finished smoke-house, fourteen feet square, which brings you to a fortified gate of eight feet, for communication back. All the buildings, east of this gate, are set as close to each other as was possible. Adjoining to and west of the gate is a double cabin of forty-eight feet in length and sixteen feet wide, with a well built stone chimney of two fire-places, one facing each room. This roof is covered with boat-plank throughout, and double rows of clapboards in the same manner with the first described cabin. In these several cabins I have fourteen sash-windows of glass. My barn or fodder-house comes next, with a stable on one side for my horses, and on the other one for my cows. These entirely fill up the space of twelve poles. This string of cabins stands—poles from the bank of the river, and quite free from and to the south of the front or Jersey street of the city. . . The buildings have cost me more than two hundred pounds specie, and I cannot afford to let them go to stranger; for nothing—the mason work alone came to more than one hundred dollars. There is not another house on the ground that has either cellar, stone chimney, or glass window in it, nor of any value compared with mine. August 10, 1796, the judge writes: I am building a dwelling house and grist-mill, both on pretty extensive plans, and obliged personally to superintend the whole without doors by day, and to arrange my accounts by night, so that, from early dawn to midnight, I am engaged with my buildings or my farm. I had this season a wheat and rye harvest of fifty acres, and have one hundred and fourteen acres of land planted With Indian corn, and a stock of one hundred and fifty head of cattle. Most of the settlers who received the original donation lots had fulfilled their obligations with reasonable promptness, and by the middle of May following the landing of the colony, about forty of the lots had each a comfortable cabin erected upon it, covered with shingles or clapboards, "and other houses still on hand," as the judge wrote. Not three donation lots, he added, remained at this time unappropriated. The new city is designated as the City of Miami in Dr. Goforth's letters and in old official documents. Judge Burnet, in his Notes on the Settlement of the Northwestern Territory, says the place was known as Symmes, and it was frequently called Symmes' City. Whatever name or names it may have borne, however, the settlement continued to be popularly called North Bend, and it has never wholly lost that cognomen from the hour of its christening to the present day. The place grew rapidly during its first two or three years, and in 1791 was deemed worthy of a garrison of eighty soldiers, who, according to Dr. Goforth, were stationed there. The presence of the troops had a great deal to do with the prosperity of the settlement, and when they were withdrawn the people rapidly followed them to Cincinnati, or removed to other points deemed more secure than North Bend, so that the village was for a time almost deserted. After St. Clair's defeat some years later, there was a perfect stampede to the back country. August 6, 1795, the judge wrote: The village is reduced more than one-half in its number of inhabitants since I left it to go to Jersey in February, 1793. The people have spread themselves into all parts of the Purchase below the military range since the Indian defeat on the twentieth of August, and the cabins are of late deserted by dozens in a street. He remained steadfastly by his city, however, doing all he could to reanimate and resuscitate it. He built 42 330 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. another residence in the northwest part of it, whose site is still plainly marked by the remains of a cellar and a heap of stones near a large honey-locust, on the north side of the road, in the southeastern edge of Cleves, west of the tracks of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, & Chicago railroad. Here he was visited in 1808 by the romancing English traveler, Thomas Ashe, who afterwards published in his book of American travels the following memoranda of his visit. They afford a very interesting picture of the judge's household, and their employments in the later years of his life: I left Cincinnati with an impression very favorable to its inhabitants, and with a higher opinion of its back country than I entertain of any other. Seven miles [ I] below my departure, at a place called North Bend, I stopped to take breakfast with the hospitable Judge Symmes, the original proprietor, after the extinction of the Indian title, of the whole of the country lying between the two Miamis. The situation which the judge has chosen for his residence cannot be equalled for the variety and elegance of its prospects. Improved farms, villages, seats, and the remains of ancient and- modern military works, decorate the banks of the finest piece of water in the world, and present themselves to view from 'the principal apartments of the house, which is a noble stone mansion, erected at great expense—and on a plan which does infinite honor to the artist and to the taste of the proprietor. Differing from other settlers, Mr. Symmes has been studious to give the river-sides a pastoral effect by preserving woods, planting orchards, and diversifying these with corn fields, sloping pastures, and every other effect incidental both to an improved and rural life. From this expr ssion of elevated judgment you may be prepared to know that the proprietor formerly resided in England, and after in New York, where he married his present wife, a lady distinguished by elegance of mind and a general and correct information. They have no children, but there resides with them a Miss Livingston, on whom they fix their affections, and whom they treat with parental kindness and respectful urbanity, the one being due to her intrinsic merit, and the other to her family, which is eminent by birth, property, and talent in the State of New York. The judge passes his time in directing his various works, and the ladies read, walk, and attend to numerous birds and animals, which they domesticate, both for entertainment and use. Miss Livingston is much of a botanist—a practical one. She collects seeds from such plants and flowers as are most conspicuous in the prairies, and cultivates them with care on the banks and in the vicinity of the house. She is forming a shrubbery also, which will be entirely composed of magnolia, catalpa, papaw, rose, and tulip trees, and all others distinguished for blossom and fragrance. In the middle is erected a small Indian temple, where this young lady preserves seeds and plants, and classes specimens of wood, which contribute much to her knowledge and entertainment. When the beauties of the fine season fade, and the country becomes somewhat inert and insipid, the judge and the ladies remove to Cincinnati, and revolve in its pleasures till fatigued, when they again return to their rural economy, and to the prosecution of happy and inoffensive designs. I could with great difficulty tear myself from persons so amiable. This mansion is said to have been then the most spacious and commodious in the State. It was destroyed, however, in March, 1811, as was believed by the torch of the incendiary; and with it a large number of papers relating to his transactions in the Purchase, including the certificates of the original proprietors of Cincinnati, upon which the judge had executed deeds to the purchasers of lots, and the loss of which was irreparable. Of some of the papers duplicates were in existence; but the destruction of his files gave the judge infinite trouble, and aided to embarrass and embitter his closing years. Suspicion of the incendiarism rested upon a man named Hart, residing near North Bend, who was known to be a violent enemy of Judge Symmes—simply, it is said, because of the judge's refusal or neglect to vote for him when a candidate for justice of the peace. Hart was arrested, indicted, and tried; but, although the evidence against him seemed strong, and most of the North Bend people believed in his guilt, he was acquitted by the jury. The judge died in Cincinnati in 1814. His will may be found, with other related matter, in our annals of the city for that year. His remains were brought back to North Bend, in accordance with his wish, and buried in the cemetery, about a mile southeast 0f his former residence. The inscription on the tablet in the brickwork above his grave is as follows: Here rest the remains of John Cleves Symmes, who, at the foot of these hills, made the first settlement between the Miami rivers. Born on Long Island, in the State of New York, July 21, A. D., 1742. Died at Cincinnati, February 26, A. D. 1814. One of Judge Symmes' sons-in-law, as before mentioned, was the distinguished general and afterward President of the ,United States, William Henry Harrison. He also came, after his marriage with Miss Annie Symmes, to reside in North Bend, which is now only known to the world at large as the place of his residence and burial. The famous "log cabin" of the Presidential campaign of 1840 was located here; but that, as usually pictured in the newspapers and on banners and transparencies at that time, was a myth, originating, it is said, in the sneer of a writer for a Baltimore Democratic paper at the general as a dweller in a log cabin. A part of the Harrison mansi0n was, indeed, originally built of logs; but a large frame structure was subsequently added, and the whole clapboarded and painted white, making a comfortable, and for the time a quite superb mansion. It has long since disappeared, except the excavation for a cellar; and some remains of the flower garden and other improvements may still be traced upon the grounds, which have been abandoned since the fire. The large farm formerly cultivated by the general in the vicinity has also passed to other hands, and his descendants have disappeared from the region, except a granddaughter, Mrs. Betty Eaton, daughter of the Hon. John Scott Harrison, who resides with her little family half a mile from the village, on heights commanding, probably, the finest view in Hamilton county, extending into three river valleys and three States. Harrison married Miss Symmes in November, 1795. The tradition goes that the father opposed the match, and that the young couple were obliged to slip away from her home to the residence of Dr. Stephenwood, one of the justices of the peace for the county, near the subsequent site of 'Cleves, where they were married without the presence of the father. The tomb of the general and ex-President, as is well known, is on the heights back of North Bend, west of the tunnel formerly used by the Whitewater canal and now used by the Indianapolis railroad. It is a plain mausoleum of brick work, suitably inscribed. For a time it fell into neglect, and became somewhat dilapidated; but has been restored of late years, and is now in good repair. Among other notable early settlers was Brice Virgin, who was made a captain in the militia in 1790, among the first appointments by Governor St. Clair, upon the erection of Hamilton county. He afterwards removed to Princeton, Butler county, where he died. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 331 Among the early ministers who preached to the people at North Bend, were the Revs. John Tanner, of Turner's Station (now Petersburgh), Kentucky, and Lewis Dewees, also of Kentucky, who officiated from time t0 time during the years 1792 to 1804. Each of these was a Baptist, as was also the celebrated Rev. and Senator John Smith, of Columbia and Cincinnati. The Rev. James Kemper, Presbyterian, also sometimes came out from Cincinnati and preached. About 1804 Rev. M. Oglesby, of the Methodist Episcopal church, preached here, and afterwards Rev. John Langdon, of the same. In the early day, the male worshippers here, as at Columbia and Cincinnati, always went to church armed. North Bend village proper, has had no large growth, and is now simply a moderate cluster of houses at the original site. A large town plat, however, known by the same name, has been laid out for more than three miles along the river, with a width of about two-thirds 0f a mile west of North Bend station, and over two miles east of it—that is, three sections wide, and extending back from the river something more than half a mile at the station to very nearly two miles on the eastern boundary, which intersects the river half a mile above the mouth of Muddy creek. The site thus comprises one thousand four hundred and forty-eight acres. Several railway stations—as Shuts, named from the Hon. John Cleves Shut, son of Payton Shut, and grandson of Judge Symmes, whose descendants live here; also Devins's and Griffiths' stations, are within the North Bend corporation. The certificate of its incorporation, for special purposes was filed with the secretary of State, August 25, 1874. The village had four hundred and twelve inhabitants by the last census. SUGAR CAMP SETTLEMENT. A little colony bearing this name is remarked in the Ohio Historical Collections as having been founded about the same time as North Bend, three miles down the river from that place and two miles from the Indiana .line, upon the farm of W. H. Harrison, jr. It had at one time about thirty houses, but afterwards became extinct. The block-house built in the early day for the protection of the settlers was still standing in 1847, but was much dilapidated and did not last a great while longer. A figure of it as it then appeared is given in the collections. CLEVES. This place standing tipon or very near the large tract covered by the "City of Miami" plat, a mile north of the present North Bend station and on the Great Miami river, was originally 'called Clevestown, and bore that, as well as it bears its present name, in honor 0f the maternal branch of the Symmes family, from whom the judge and many others derived in part their given names. It was laid out by General Harrison in 1818, the recorded plat bearing date November 7th of that year. In 1830 it had one hundred and ten inhabitants; fifty years later, by the tenth census, it had eight hundred and thirty-six. Notwithstanding its comparatively light pop- ulation, it has a large corporate limit, including nearly an entire section, or five hundred and ninety-five acres. It was incorporated for general purposes March 17, 1875. The post office at this point has done duty at times during the decadence of North Bend, for both that place and its own. Under the presidency.of General Harrison Mr. J. M. Runyan was postmaster. His successors were Thomas Archer, James Carlin, George Cassady, Mr. Crofoot, and Charles Ruffen, the last named of whom now holds the post. The most notable event in the history of Cleves was the anti-slavery agitation of nearly forty years ago, which resulted in serious disturbances at this place. The following account of them appears in the Life of Senator Thomas Morris, formerly of Hamilton and then of Clermont county, by his son B. F. Morris: Cleves, in Hamilton county, Ohio, was the scene of violent resistance to free discussion. In the spring of 1843 the pastor of the Presbyterian church, Rev. Mr. Scofield, and a majority of his flock called a meeting for free discussion on slavery. Samuel Lewis, Jonathan Blanchard, now president of the Galesburgh college, Illinois, and Thomas Morris, whose manly voice for freedom, integrity of principles, and firmness of character, have enrolled his name among the early champions of free speech and free soil, were the speakers. A mob was organized and a riot threatened. A number of students from Lane seminary went down with the speakers. Landing at North Bend they passed the mansion and tomb of the lamented General Harrison, on their way to the church. The doors of the meeting-house were barred against the friends of freedom. Prominent and influential men were with the rabble that prevented the convention from occupying the meeting-house. The convention, thus forbid to enter the house, occupied the road in front. Rev. S. Lewis, an able and faithful laborer in the cause of freedom, recently gone to an honored grave, kneeled on the ground and offered a most solemn and impressive prayer. For a moment the rioters were palsied in their nefarious operation. One of them often said, "That prayer I shall never forget." An infidel was converted, and "the wrath of man was thus made to praise God," and advance the cause of freedom. At the invitation of Richard Hughes, a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church of Berea, a mile distant from Cleves, the convention met at that church and held its sessions two days. The impression of that convention abides to this day ; fires were kindled that are burning brighter and brighter. The Cleves rioters, not satisfied with driving the convention from the village, smashed the windows of the meeting-house, mobbed the house of the pastor, threw his buggy into the canal, and shaved the tail of his horse. The perpetrators of these deeds of darkness chose the covert hour of night for their mob performances. They were of the baser sort in the community, but were instigated and backed by quite a number of those of reputation. These mob scenes created an era in the history of that region and will be long remembered. A more detailed and very interesting narative of the same transaction is given in the life of Samuel Lewis, who was also of the party of visitors and speakers at the meeting, a biography also written by a son: Mr. Lewis was again at work in the spring and summer of 1843 laboring and speaking in behalf of the liberty party and of the slave. A meeting was appointed in Cleves, one and a half miles north of North Bend, and care was taken to ask and receive consent of the elders and trustees of the Presbyterian church; and notice was accordingly given. Judge Short and Dr. Thornton, relatives of the family of General Harrison, as well as J. Scott Harrison, son of General Harrison, and now member of Congress from that district, took umbrage at the project of an anti-slavery meeting so near their homes and expressed themselves in the strongest terms against the sitting of the convention in that place. The consequence was that a violent excitement soon prevailed in the vicinity, and threats of violence were made by vicious and irresponsible persons. As it was understood that these threats would not influence the withdrawal of the appointment, a public meeting was called at which it was 332 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. resolved that for the purpose of maintaining peace and good order during the present excited state of the community, a committee of seven be appointed by the chair, whose duty it shall be to repair to the church on the seventh instant, and quietly and peacefully remonstrate with those who may present themselves as Abolitionists against the use of the church for the dissemination of their doctrines. The seventh being come, some fifty persons went down from Cincinnati to meet those who might assemble. Mr. Lewis was early on the spot from another direction. When he arrived there, some time before the coming of the city delegation, he was advised by a personal friend by no means to venture to show himself at the church, as he could not do so without danger of extreme personal violence. He replied that "the danger he spoke of was the very reason why he should be there; that when there was no difficulty and danger in proclaiming the principles of freedom he would then leave the work to others and rest in the comforts of the family and home, with which God had blessed him." As the anti-slavery men presently came up the street toward the door of the church, Mr. J. Scott Harrison stood forward in the crowd (and such a crowd ! made up of boys and half-grown men, with a few of those who did not advocate the doctrines of the Washingtonians), that awaited us at the door of the house, and stated "that he was there in behalf of a committee appointed by a meeting of the citizens of Miami township, to protest against that church being occupied by the convention;" giving as a 1eason that " the citizens of Miami township were believed to be generally opposed to the doctrines of the Abolitionists, not one in seven favored their incendiary doctrines, and they did not wish thei1 peace disturbed by them; and if they attempted to hold a meeting there for the dissemination of these doctrines they could not be responsible for the consequences. But they prayed that the proceedings might not end in violence." Mr. Lewis then followed him in a short and earnest address, and with visible effect. He said "he was there among others to advocate no principles but those of the gospel of Christ and the American declaration of rights. He defied him to find in the crowd six men who were opposed to us who could tell what Abolitionism was; and, as to threats of violence, if violence was threatened, there were men present who, if they were disposed to do so, could prevent it; that they, and they alone, would be held responsible by God, and an enlightened public, for any violence which might occur. He appealed to them, as one living in their midst, whose person and habits of life they well knew, and asked them whether it had come to this, that American citizens could no longer peaceably assemble and present their veiws to each other without being met at the threshold and threatened with violence, and for no other reason than that they were a minority, only one in seven!" Mr. Harrison, who withered sensibly under his earnest pathos and strong good sense, said that, if there were any persons present who had power to prevent meditated violence, he prayed Almighty God that they might exercise that power. Rev. J. Blanchard, after a few moments more of conversation, proposed that the people present should say, by dividing to the right and left, whether they would have the discussion or not. This he recommended as a peace measure, as in no ways declaring the right to prevent a minority from discussion. The people divided as requested, and a clear majority appeared in favor of the discussion, Mr. J. Scott Harrison not voting at all. The free discussion party, of course, embraced all the men of good sense, and all the ladies present, one of whom, a pious old resident of the place, quietly remarked : "Ah, well, I heard tell of the separation of the sheep from the goats, but I never expected to live to see it." The left hand multitude were indeed a most forlorn-looking set. Long, lank boys, crooked, and sallow, and thin, most of them carrying clubs, with here and there a rusty musket, their cheeks distended with tobacco and their mouth resembling the closely drawn pouch of the opossum, enameled brown with the juice of the same—their rags and their rage together gave them quite a unique and comical appearance, which fully justified the Scriptural allusion of the pious old lady. Mr. Lewis called to the chairman to stand forward and see how the vote stood. Mr. J. Scott Harrison answered from a distance that he had done his duty and could do nothing more, and made off as rapidly as he was able. His associates, of whom he was evidently ashamed, remained behind to disturb the meeting ; and the meeting itself, being invited to another place a short distance off, they repaired thither and held their convention. First, however, they sang "How firm a foundation," etc., and then Mr. Lewis led in prayer in the open street. That prayer, offered as it was in the very face of men of blood and violence, whose clubs were ready to be drawn over his head, and whose brows were lowering with the rage that maddened them, that very prayer led more than half a score to truth and liberty. Even the hymn rang in the ears of Mr. J. Scott Harrison for months, according to his own concession. More than forty persons avowed themselves liberty men, with the venerable Judge Matson at their head. FERN BANK, a place of suburban residence, laid out on the north side of the railways, in the southwest part of section one, between Riverdale and Short's station, just outside the limits of North Bend corporation. GRAVEL PIT, a station now little used, on the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, about two and a half miles southwest of North Bend, near Fort Hill, named from the extensive deposit of gravel here opened for the ballasting of the railway tracks. It was the scene of stirring times at one period during the war. In the early part of September, 1862, during the so-called siege of Cincinnati by Generals Kirby smith and Heath, a battalion of Squirrel Hunters was ordered here to guard a ford across the Ohio—it being a season of very low water—against the possible crossing of a force of rebel cavalry. The Squirrel Hunters remained until the sixteenth of September, when they were relieved by the Nineteenth Michigan infantry, a new regiment, which had just been ordered to the field. It en camped at first between the station and the river, and then on the higher ground above the station for two or three weeks, without special incident, and then returned to Cincinnati and advanced into Kentucky. POPULATION. Miami township had two thousand three hundred and seventeen inhabitants by the census of 1880; one thousand five hundred and forty-nine by that of 1830, just fifty years before. MILL CREEK. GEOGRAPHY AND BEGINNINGS. The present township of Mill Creek is bounded on the south by the city of Cincinnati, on the east by C0lumbia township, on the north by Springfield township, and on the west by Green township. It is named from the stream which flows through it from northeast to southwest, almost bisecting the township. The Indian name of this creek was Mah-pet-e-wa. The shape of the township would be a regular parallelogram, six sections long by four broad, but for a little more than a quarter section, still belonging to Mill Creek township, projected by the Avondale corporation south of the north line of the city, between Corryville and Woodburn, and for the projection of the city into the township, in its turn, about two miles and a half, by the annexation of Cumminsville. The present acreage of Mill Creek, originally very nearly an entire surveyed township, is but eleven thousand, seven hundred and ninety-nine, of which almost one-third is covered by village sites, leaving but eight thousand and ninety-seven acres in strictly rural districts. Previous to 1810 the inhabitants of this territory were partly under the jurisdiction of Cincinnati and Springfield townships; but in 1809, up0n the petition of the commissioners of Hamilton county, Mill Creek township was set off upon that part of the Symmes purchase kn0wn as fractional range two, t0wnship three. A glance at the Symmes plat shows that this township then contained nearly thirty-six sections (square miles), the fractional sections being numbers one and seven on the Ohio river. Its southern line was on the parallel along which now runs Liberty street, Cincinnati. The first election for township officers was ordered by the county commissioners for February, 1810, at the house of Peter Mays. Since then Cincinnati has encroached upon the southern part of the township, taking into the city two rows of sections (twelve square miles). Cumminsville has also been taken into the corporation of Cincinnati, so that Mill Creek township proper now contains something less than twenty-two square miles. The surface of Mill Creek township is hilly in the western part, the level lands lying along the creek and to the east upon low hills. Of the grand old forests, beneath whose shade the Indians roamed in freedom, not more than a thousand acres remain, the rest having been long since cleared away to give place to the farms, gardens, and busy corporations which cover the land. * The material for this chapter has been supplied very largely through the intelligent industry of Thomas M. Dill, esq., of Carthage, and much of it is given in his own words. Soon after the organization of Hamilton county, in January, 1790, so great was the influx of pioneers and adventurers from abroad, that Cincinnati, cramped in by the towering hills, as the village was, could give neither employment nor subsistence to the people, and it became a practical question with many, whether to remain and starve in sight of Fort Washington or fight their way to the north, through woods, wolves, and Indians. Many chose the latter alternative, and the rapidity with which the pioneers extended themselves north from Cincinnati to the Great Miami is easily accounted for. The campaigns of Harmar in 1790, of St. Clair in 1791, and of Wayne in 1794, were all planned in Cincinnati, and the expeditions were composed, to some extent, of men from Columbia, Cincinnati, and North Bend, together with many from Kentucky. The soldiers went on foot and on h0rseback. The right wing of the armies extended as far east as the present Lebanon pike, while the centre and left wings moved north on the present Hamilton pike, reaching towards the west to Mill creek and to the foot of the hills beyond. Upon these expeditions those who were fortunate enough to return had ample opportunity to acquaint themselves with the lay of farm lands, the supply of water for mill purposes, the location of springs and stone quarries, the best sites f0r buildings, natural means of defence; and also the shortest and safest communication with the parent settlements. So strongly did the beauty and advantages of the Mill Creek valley impress the early surveyors, the hunters, and the soldiers, that within three years from the first landing at Columbia in 1788, Ludlow's station and mill, at the second crossing of Mill creek, with White's and Caldwell's block-houses and mills at Carthage, offered both protection and subsistence to all who were pushing towards the present sites of Hamilton and Dayton. A good notion, as to the rapid settlement of the townships north of those 5.1 the Ohio, may be gained from a few statements. In June, 1790, a force of one hundred and forty men landed at Cincinnati and commenced the erection of Fort Washington on the spot afterwards made classic by the bazaar of Mistress Trollope. In December of the same year General Harmar came with more troops, increasing the garrison to four hundred and forty, and these, with the "eleven families and twenty-four batchelors," made up the population of the village. In 1798 (October 29th) Governor St. Clair gave notice to James Smith, sheriff of the county, requiring the free male inhabitants of the townships to meet and elect representatives to serve in the territorial assembly. This - 333 - 334 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. election was held on the third Monday in December of the same year, when four hundred and fifty-six voters were enrolled. In the governor's proclamation he states that "sufficient proof has been given me that there is a much greater number than five thousand free male inhabitants" in the district. In the following year the population had increased so much as to entitle the people to two more representatives, and an election was held September 12, 1799, at which five hundred and thirty-six votes were cast. From 1800 to 1805 Cincinnati's population increased two hundred, while near twenty-five thousand immigrants passed on into the upper counties. In 1840 the population of Mill Creek township was six thousand two hundred and forty-nine, and forty years later, at present date, it is but one thousand two hundred and thirty-five. Previous to 1810 the history of the people who inhabited Mill Creek township is inseparable from that of Cincinnati. Before the sales of lands by Judge Symmes, in what is now Mill Creek township, adventurers would slip out from Cincinnati, put up rude cabins, clear little patches of ground, make war on wolves and wildcats and maintain a precarious existence until driven back to shelter under Fort Washington. These hunters and squatters frequently entered parts of sections as "actual volunteer settlers," and sometimes laid claim to the Forfeit Corners by right of occupancy. As early as 1795 purchasers from Symmes would find their deeds scoffed at by prior claimants, who had manufactured titles by starvation, peril, and perhaps blood-letting, which titles were assigned from one to another, until claim and possession were determined and given by the courts of law. Abstracts of title in the Miami purchase date back to the first sales by John Cleves Symmes, but from 1788 until final purchasers received their deeds, perfected in full possession. Beyond the purchasers of the original Symmes sections in range two, township three, were many men and women who labored, suffered, and died in obscurity. Their lives were unwritten, and now, when the laborer's spade or ploughman's share turns out their skeletons, our inquiries start, but no answer will ever come to tell us who they were. INCIDENTS OF EARLY HISTORY. Among the names which appear frequently in the history of the Miami purchase, and upon the land records of Hamilton county, is that of Ludlow. The brothers, Israel and John Ludlow, were prominent men in their day. Israel Ludlow became surveyor, and a joint proprietor, in place of the unfortunate Filson, with Denman and Patterson, in laying out the village of Losantiville. He was captain of the Cincinnati militia in 1790—1, and his descendants are widely and reputably known. John Ludlow and family came from Buffalo to Cincinnati in November, 1789, occupying first a double-roomed log cabin on the northwest corner of Front and Main streets. The following year he became the first sheriff of the county, and in 1798 was elected to the first territorial legislature. The first execution was done by Sheriff Ludlow, James Mays being the condemned man, and costs were allowed him by the commissioners, for "gallows, coffin, and grave-digging, fifteen pounds, eight shillings and nine pence." William D. Ludlow, son of Sheriff John Ludlow, communicated to the writer of this, two or three incidents of early life, which are here given: I came to Cincinnati in 1789, when a boy five years old, and soon became used to the hardships, the frights, the incursions of savages, and the tramp of soldiers, who were either drilling, going to, or returning from war. All persons were obliged in those days to be industrious, and I learned to work when quite a little boy. Sometimes I went to school, and the first master I knew was an Irishman by the name of Lloyd. His school-house was on the river bank, now the Public landing, near Main street. We children were sent to school on the safest side of the village. One day in the spring of 1791 the Indians came over the hill-tops right down in sight of the fort, and fired away, killing Henry Hahn, a Pennsylvanian, who was clearing a lot. My uncle Israel gave chase with his militia company but did not overtake them. Harmar's expedition did not intimidate the Indians, but made them worse; and while I was a boy in Cincinnati I saw armed men and soldiers every day, and heard Indian stories every night. When there was service in the village church I went with my parents, and every man was obliged to have his gun by his side. I remember once my father's colored man was sent up over the hills to look for our black mare, which had strayed away. The Indians had taken her from the outlot, and got away with her as far as where Ludlow grove now is. The thieving fellows had taken the bell from her neck to decoy those who should be sent after the mare. The darkey was led on and on by the tinkling bell, for he was one whom they would rather capture than kill. Feeling sure of him, they put the bell on the mare's neck, tethered her and secreted themselves. Just as he walked up the Indians jumped out after him, and the race began. The darkey was a good runner, and kept ahead of them to the top of Vine street hill, where the Indians gave up the pursuit. The darkey, however, improved his chances until he reached our house, where, pale with fright and gasping for breath, he shouted, " De black mare gone, gone ! Massa John, you neber see dat black mare any more, suah ! De Injuns got her !" I do not remember St. Clair's start on his campaign in 1791, but remember the return, the arrival of the wounded, and the funeral of Captain Mike, Who died of his wounds in Isaac Martin's house, next to my father's. The turnout of the soldiers, the black pall, the coffin, the slow pace of those who carried his body, and the dead march sadly and solemnly affected me. The Indians were continually hanging 'around, watching along the Miamis, stealing from cabins and horse-lots, from Columbia to North Bend, and back in the country from the river, wherever any one had ventured to fix a stopping place. Once our horses were missing from the wood-lot. Pursuit was given at once by four men, John and James Spencer, John Adams, and Peter Cox. These were known as the "northwestern spies." Cox had a new rifle, and as they started Cox called out to my father: "'Squire John, the Indians shall never get this rifle unless they kill me at the first fire." These men found the horses and Indians just north of Spring Grove cemetery, near Platt Evans' house, and fired into them, killing two. The Indians returned the fire, disabling Cox. Knowing he could not escape from the twenty or more who came after him with a yell, Cox told his companions to go and save themselves. The last seen of Cox was with the muzzle of that new rifle .in hand smashing it to finders against a tree, as the savages closed upon him. In my school-boy days I used to pass that sugar tree and look upon the mutilated bark, where poor Cox had smashed the stock and lock of his gun the moment before the tomahawk fell upon him. While General Wayne was drilling his troops at " Hobson's Choice," preparatory to his campaign against the Indians, I was a frequent witness of camp and field proceedings under the iron-countenanced old general, and on Sundays I used to perch myself in the top of a beech tree and look down upon the sham battles below. General Wilkinson usually commanded the riflemen, who, as whooping Indians, filled the woods, while Wayne directed our soldiers. These sham battles were often exciting, and I shall never forget old Wayne's appearance, his warlike manner, and his stentorian profanity, which could be heard above the noise whenever anything displeased him. This year (1794) Wayne's army left the town, going up Main street, over the hill and up the Mill Creek valley, the footmen and horsemen crossing the central parts of Mill Creek and Springfield townships, the left wing passing over the present sites of Cumminsville, Spring Grove, Carthage, and Springdale. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 335 Soon after the army left, my father moved his family out to the country, at what is now known as Ludlow Grove, where my brother John so long resided. The ford here became known as Ludlow's ford, or the " Second Crossing of Mill Creek," as Wayne's army crossed here on the route to the " Third Crossing," at White's station, in northern Carthage. I was ten years old when we came to Ludlow's place, and soon learned that we were in an Indian country. Captain Jacob White, Thomas Gaudy, Sarah Freeman, Abby Cochrane, riding horseback, and several wagons came with us from town. These pushed on towards White's station, two miles above. In less than an hour we heard the cry, "Indians! Indians!!" and soon came those on horseback, together with some running on foot. Thomas Gaudy, the lawyer, and the ladies mentioned, rode on by to Cincinnati, but Captain White swung his hat, hurrahed for White's station, and left with a fighting party to attack the Indians. They reached the station, however, without seeing anything of the savages. In this affair two of our men were killed at the first fire, the Indians shooting from behind some burr oaks which stood on the west side of the road, close to a run, not many feet from the brick school-house which stands there now. The two men were buried just south of the stream, near Allen Huffman's present residence, and my father called the stream "Bloody Run,' which name it bears to this day.* The Indians were only stragglers who did not care to meet General Wayne. Like other guerilla parties, they preferred to straggle about and steal, watch the roads to the mills, fire into a station from safe distance, kill men, women, or children, pick up what the armies might have lost or thrown away, and make themselves troublesome generally without getting killed or hurt. At one time they came to my father's house in the middle of the night, and tried to force an entrance. Our seven men inside stood ready, with weapons in hand to receive them; our dogs outside attacked them, dividing their attention and skill. After failing to pry open the doors, they left. Shortly after this they stole our only good horse and five broken-down pack-horses. One afternoon the men had been rolling up log-heaps for burning, which my father and I fired in the evening. After the men had gone up the ladder to bed in the loft they saw seven Indians about the log-heaps, but a rifle-shot among them sent them off in a hurry. Notwithstanding Wayne's victory in August, 1794, these depredations continued for months afterwards. A party attacked. White's station and were repulsed, leaving several of their dead in sight of the station. I saw some of their swollen bodies on the north side of Mill creek, soon after the fight. They lay in the bottom land west of the Miami aqueduct, near the ford, and were partially covered with stalks, weeds, and earth. One lay with his head pillowed on the • root of a tree ; by his side was a new rifle, and on his bosom was tipped up a piece of looking-glass, reflecting his dead face. Few persons of to-day can form any just conception of our constant apprehension, our constant sense of danger in those days. My father made it a rule for each of his men to have his rifle loaded and in hand on going out in the morning, and the supply of ammunition was to be constantly attended to. The plowman carried his gun on his back ; the man with the hoe placed his gun from time to time against the first tree ahead, and when engaged rolling or raising logs, sentinels were placed in the outskirts to prevent surprises. The narrator of the foregoing was one of the best men that ever lived— truthful, honest, kind and obliging. In early life he was united in marriage with an estimable woman, Charlotte Hand, by whom he had twelve children, but few of whom are now alive. His wife dying in 1846, he was afterwards married to Mrs. Abigail Bonnell, one of the pioneer women who came to Columbia in early days. With Abigail he lived happily during the remainder of his life. William D. Ludlow was industrious until the infirmities of age forbade longer labor. His last years were devotedly given to work in the Christian church at Carthage, where, by pastoral work, by prayer and exhortation, he endeared himself not only to the congregation, but to all who knew him. He fell dead on a street of Carthage in 1863, aged seventy-nine years. His last words were spoken to Mrs. Elizabeth Bonnell, a moment before he fell. "Good morning, Sister Eliza- * In later years, while making improvements here, two skeletons, supposed to be those of the murdered men, were exhumed by the workmen. beth," said he; "I'm just taking a morning walk—never felt better, and enjoy the sunshine. My work for life is about done; my house is in order, and I am ready to go whenever the Master shall call." A moment after, he fell dead. His remains lie in the cemetery at Reading, close to the grave of his friend and Christian brother, James Dill. They had previously chosen their last resting-places, and now sleep together. Among the earliest to break the forest in Mill Creek township were the Columbia schoolmaster, John Reily, and his companions. He bought his tract of land, comprising part of the present site of Carthage, in 1791, but did not associate himself with Pryor and others for improvements in this region until 1793. The short story of their attempt in the wilderness is thus told in the sketch of the life of Mr. Reily, in McBride's Pioneer Biography: Their land being entirely in timber, they spent the first week in making a small clearing and building a rough shanty, and the second in digging a well. They then continued clearing their land. Their horses were stolen by the Indians, but, not discouraged, they procured others and continued their improvements. After some time Mr. Pryor, in company with two other men, engaged to make a trip from Fort Washington to Fort Hamilton, with provisions, on pack-horses, the usual mode of transportation in those days. On their way they encamped on a branch of Pleasant run, four miles south of Hamilton. . . . In the morning they were attacked by the Indians, and Mr. Prior was killed. Mr. Reily was so discouraged by the death of his associate that he stopped his improvements and returned to teaching in Columbia, removing afterwards to Cincinnati, and finally to Hamilton, where he died. We shall hear more of the Pryor family when the history of Springfield township comes to be related. A belief in witchcraft, singularly strong and persistent, prevailed in parts of the Mill creek to a comparatively recent day. About the year 1814 a wealthy and respectable family resided on the creek and owned a number of fine horses, some of which died of a strange and unaccountable distemper. No remedy for it could be found, and the conclusion was arrived at that they were killed by witchcraft. A sharp lookout was consequently kept for sorcerers or fortune-tellers, and means were taken to punish them, if any there were, by boiling certain herbs and other ingredients over a hot fire in a cauldron, with pins and needles, which were believed to prick the witch or wizard, at however great a distance. While a mess of this disinfection was boiling furiously at the residence aforesaid, the head of the household happened to take a view from a door which overlooked a large part of the farm, and saw his daughter-in-law at the moment hastening from her cabin, about a quarter of a mile from the house, to a spring, for a bucket of water. His excited imagination at once connected her movements with his calamities and incantations, and he ordered his son to remove his family from the farm. He suspected an old and feeble woman named Garrison, residing eight or ten miles from his place, to be the author of all his troubles; and, having been advised to shoot a silver bullet into the next distempered horse he had, which would kill the witch and cure the animal, he prepared one and shot it presently into a very fine brood mare which was affected with the disease. Contrary to his expectations, the shot 336 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. killed the beast; but, as Mrs. Garrison also died soon after, it was finally believed by some that his silver bullet had brought her to her death. EARLY INDUSTRIES. Thomas Goudy, esq., the Cincinnati lawyer mentioned in the Indian story, had a flouring mill on the creek, whose capabilities and facilities for work he set forth in a long advertisement in the Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette for May 15, 1799, closing as follows: As to disposition of business, I need say no more than that Mr. Jessup had three and one-half bushels ground on her [sic] in precisely eight minutes. I hope to gain a general custom, but she is absolutely idle for want of work at present. From the same region, forty years afterwards, as Mr. Cist notes, a surplus of three hundred thousand barrels of flour was sent annually to New Orleans. Some time before 1826, Duvall's paper mills, owned in Cincinnati, were in operation at Mill Grove, presumably in the Mill Creek territory. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. James Sisson, Robert Menie, Abraham Wilson, James Lyon, Joseph McDowell, 1819; Robert Menie, John Ludlow, Bela Morgan, Jacob Stewart, 1825; Jacob Stewart, John Ludlow, John Burgoyne, Nathaniel Williams, 1829; Enoch Jacobs, William Bowman, E. P. Joseph, 1865; Bowman, Joseph, John A. Rudel, 1866; Joseph, Rudel, Henry Erchel, 1867-8; Joseph, Erchel, J. C. Cross, 1869-70; Joseph, 1871-2; Samuel Kemper, 1873-5; A. C. Kaylor, Elon Strong, 1876-8; Kaylor, J. N. Skellman, 1879; Kaylor, Solomon Tice, 1880. RELIGIOUS HISTORY. After the erection of the First Presbyterian church in Cincinnati (1792), religious services at or near the outposts were only such as fathers or mothers conducted in their families, or when, upon appointment, a few would meet at the rude home of a neighbor to listen to a wandering preacher, who, with Bible, hymn-book, and rifle, was going through the forest wilds to gather together the Lord's people. Previous to the year 1800 very many had never listened to a sermon by a regular preacher, except at a funeral. When peace was practically acknowledged after Wayne's treaty, the preachers rode or walked. from post to post, from cabin to cabin; and meetings began to be held once a month, or. once in three months with something of regularity. The early preachers made themselves known at the country weddings, at the bedsides of the sick and dying, at the solemnities of the grave, 'and at the "big meetings" which were held for days at a time, and in the woods, when the weather permitted. Some of these preachers are remembered by the children of those who first attended the services in Hamilton county, and a few of the names here given have deservedly found their places in the ecclesiastical annals of the country. Among these were the Rev. Messrs. Rice, Kemper, Smith, Burke, Wilson, Robinson, Root, Simonton, Stone, Lyon, Graves, Cavender, Wetherby, Challen, O'Kane, Scott, Dudley, Worley, and Runseler. In connection with Mill Creek township, which was a part of Cincinnati township until 1810, it may be said that the membership of the different denominations in that year was less than one hundred. Fifteen years later —that is, in 1825—the following representation was made by the several agents at the distribution of the ministerial fund: MEMBERS. Methodist Episcopal church, William D. Ludlow, - 73 Presbyterian church, James Lyon - 62 Christian church, William Snodgrass, - 22 Baptist church, Thomas Cooper, - 14 in all one hundred and seventy-one members, to whom was allowed from the fund fifty-one dollars and thirty cents, or thirty cents a member. In 1835 distribution of the fund was made as follows to the church agents: MEMBERS. Methodist church, A. L. Cook - 24 Lane seminary, Presbyterian, James Lyon - 26 Christian church, John Ludlow, - 99 Walnut Hills Presbyterian church, E. G. Kemper - 14 Baptist church, John H. Davis, - 15 Methodist church, Elijah Wood, - 125 in all three hundred and three members, to whom was allowed one hundred and fifty dollars and fifty cents. In 1850-1 the church lists showed the following: MEMBERS. Methodist Episcopal church, Fulton, E. H. Filmore, - 246 Christian church, Fulton, A. D. Filmore - 46 Walnut Hills Presbyterian church, F. A. Kelliher - 37 Asbury Methodist Episcopal, Cincinnati, John C. Nye, - 101 Walnut Hills Methodist Episcopal church, W. H. Wheeler, - 17 Baptist church, Lockland, David McFarland, - 7 Christian Church, Carthage, John H. Sheehan, - 61  Presbyterian church, Mt. Healthy, William Cary, - 77 Christian church, West Fork, William T. Roller, - 50 Methodist Episcopal church, Cumminsville, J. G. Smith, - 44 Reformed Presbyterian church, Archibald Burns, - 6 Presbyterian church, Cincinnati, J. C. Clopper, - 23 Presbyterian church, Reading, A. Ruffner - 9 Methodist Episcopal church, Carthage, A. L. Cook - 31 in all seven hundred and seventy-five members. This number shows very nearly the total of professed religionists in the township, being less than the real number, inasmuch as there were some others who, not having organized churches, did not apply for the ministerial aid. As before stated, the first services were conducted in private dwellings, in barns, in school-houses, and often in the woods. The beautiful groves at Carthage, its easy approaches by the old beaten roads, its accommodations and hospitalities, made it the great rallying place for the Methodists, the Campbellites, as they were called, the Millerites, and some others; and, from the earliest times to late years, Carthage was known for its religious gatherings, as well as for its political meetings, horse races, fairs, and militia musters. Soon after Alexander Campbell became known as a leader, some of his adherents found their way to Mill Creek township, and about 1830 the Rev. Messrs. Campbell, Stone, Challen, and others began to visit and preach throughout the neighborhood. Meetings were held in the Carthage school-house, in Solomon Rogers' barn, in Smalley's woods (now Schmucker's), and in 1832 a band of fourteen enrolled themselves under the leadership of Walter Scott, a colaborer with Campbell in the work of tearing down human Creeds and building up churches on H. ATTEMEYER. Henry Attemeyer was born in Horstl, Prussia, in the year 1806. Having a desire to see the New World, he left his native place and sailed for New York, where he landed, after an uneventful voyage, in the year 1837. From New York city Mr. Attemeyer went to Michigan, where he remained for nearly two years. In 1842 he came to Cincinnati, and commenced work as a stone-mason, in the cellars of the buildings on Pearl street. At this time he was moneyless; but cheered by the encouraging words of an excellent wife he went to work on low wages, and soon became known for his intelligence, industry, and correct business.. From day-labor and small wages, Mr. Attemeyer soon turned his abilities to contracts, big buildings and the gains which, by honesty and persevering industry, make a man rich. In the year 1845 he contracted for the material and stonework of St. John's church, on Green street, and this job being soon satisfactorily disposed of, Mr. Attemeyer increased his facilities for larger operations, and became at once a reputable contractor, builder and manager. Among other buildings, too numerous to be mentioned here, reference must be made to the sub-structures of the Carlisle buildings, Burnet house, Jewish synagogue, numerous buildings on Pearl and other streets, and the house of refuge at Camp Washington. The latter is one of the most magnificent stone structures, and in substantiality and finish is comparable with the best known edifices in the State. Having done his work well, established a splendid reputation, and accumulated a hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Attemeyer retired from business. To St. Bernard, north of Cincinnati, he removed some sixteen years ago, where, with his aged wife and children, he is now resting in the enjoyment of the good things of earth. A Democrat on State and National controversies, Mr. Attemeyer cares not for party restrictions or prejudices in local affairs, and in the township, county and corporation elections, always votes for the best man. In religion, as in politics, he is always liberal with those who do not entirely agree with him; and devotedly attached to the Catholic church, he is a defender of that faith with a kindly regard for the opinions of his neighbors, and is perfectly willing for any person to go to Heaven who wants to go—and can get there. With no enemies, but many friends, Mr. Attemeyer's fine residence and improved grounds, his genial manners and generous hospitalities are attractions which make this suburban house the resort of many friends and place of pleasant visits by many from abroad. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 337 the New Testament. Walter Scott was a scholar, editor, and impassioned speaker; he was industrious and courageous, and proclaiming a new order of things, and haling men and women from the centre to the four quarters of Mill Creek township, he threw the denominational camps into consternation. Without requiring anything of candidates beyond confession of faith in Jesus and a promise of good behavior, he proceeded by day and night to baptize his converts in Mill creek or the Miami canal. Mr. Scott preached incessantly, printed the Evangelist, and in 1832 had a comfortable brick meeting-house built, a corps 0f capable church officers, and a large congregati0n. Among the first who j0ined hands with Walter Scott, may be mentioned a few names which appear elsewhere in the county's history: Solomon Rogers, the first bishop, and Mrs. Rogers; William Myers and Richard Dillino, first deacons, with their wives; Adaline Hubbell, and Emeline Ross; Thomas Wright and wife; Elijah Brady and wife; Mr. Stephens and wife; Hezekiah Woods and wife; John Ludlow and wife. After these came, as officers, bishops, deacons, and teachers, Robert Richardson, Harvey Fairchild, James and Samuel Dill, William Thomas, James McCash, Solomon Niles, John McCammon, Benjamin Watkins, Isaac Bruin, Daniel Riggs, John Sheehan, William and Louis Pinkerton; also, to assist in church work, sisters Abigail Bonnell, E. Swift, Mary McCammon, Sarah Rodgers, Sarah Scott, and Hettie Ludlow. In the words of the church scribe (Robert Richardson, afterwards a professor at Bethamy college, Virginia), "as the word of the Lord prevailed, many were added to the church." The words of the historian were true; the congregation prospered, and remains to this day, in faith and practice, with the children of the pioneers. In this old church the Millerites proclaimed the end of the world, and in 1842 pitched their tents in the adjacent grounds and, posting their proclamations and pictures on the trees and rocks, awaited the fulfilment of their vain expectations. This place lies in two townships, having the larger part, one 'hundred and fifty-five acres in Mill Creek and Carthage, but fifty-eight (two hundred and thirteen in all) in Springfield township. It had one thousand and seven inhabitants by the census of 1880. In 1818 Edward White, sometimes called Edward III, laid out the village of Carthage, on the "forfeit corner" of section twelve, in the northeast part of Mill Creek township. The recorded plat is dated December 23, 1815. In the previous year Levi Frazee had sold the east forty-six acres of the forfeit corner to Captain Jacob White for six hundred and fifty dollars, who immediately disposed of it to Edward for the same sum, six hundred and fifty dollars. The next year the town was laid out and the lots advertised for sale. It was then bounded east by Dayton street, south by Deerfield and west by the Hamilton road, which then bore a little east of north, on the beaten track of St. Clair's and Wayne's armies, which passed north from Fort Washington in the years 1791 and 1793. The north boundary of the town plat was the east and 'west line between the townships of Mill Creek and Springfield, established in 1809-10. Previous to 1815 White's mill, on Mill creek, just above the town, and Griffin's Station, on the west near by, were as well known in the early days as Columbia or North Bend. These mills and stations were the principal places for safety and supplies between the Miamis north of Cincinnati. A wagon r0ad connected Whites Station with Columbia, crossing Harmar's trace one mile southeast of the present village; another led east to Covalt's Station, on the Little Miami; and another road, on the old Indian trail, passed near Griffin's (Caldwell's Mill), westward to the Great Miami, and on to North Bend. This road connected almost directly with Dunlap's or Colerain Station on the Great Miami. Between White's and Griffin's Stations (in upper Carthage), passed the great road from Fort Hamilton, southward to Ludlow's Station (North Cumminsville), and thence to Cincinnati. Limited space prevents, in this place, a digression upon the natural advantages of the Mill Creek valley around White's and Griffin's; and the names of those who first fought the red men here, who first cleared the forest away, must also be passed reluctantly over. The names of the greater landholders will, however, lead to important dates. The present corporate limits of the town enclose the corners of four sections, six and twelve in Mill Creek township, and one and seven in Springfield. Section seven, the northwest corner of the present corporation, was entered by warrant in 1792, by David Griffin, and in the same year Griffin also entered section one, in behalf of Jacob White. Section six, (Mill Creek), was entered in 1789 by Samuel Bonnell, Mies Pryor locating on the "forfeit corner" of said section. The same year David Tuttle recorded his warrant for section twelve (Mill Creek); and soon after we find Richard S. Clark vacating the " forfeit corner" of said section twelve because of a debt which he owed to John-Vance, who established his claim thereupon: In close relation to the four mentioned, Daniel Griffin, Jacob White, Samuel Bonnell and David Tuttle, appear the names of James Henry, Joseph John Henry, Israel Shreve, Moses and Luther Kitchel, Henry Runyan, James Mott, Silas Condit, Robert Harper, Darius C. Orcutt, John Brazier, Daniel Cooper, Samuel Martin, Moses Pryor, Samuel Dunn, Stephen Flinn, Caleb Camp, James Flinn, Richard Hawkins, Zebulon Foster, Jacob Dungan, Edward and Amos White, James Caldwell, William Ludlow, Benjamin Ludlow, Robert and Richard Dill, Samuel Williams, Silas Halsey, John Wallace, Andrew Goble, James Winans, James Cunningham, and some others, who, though not crowded uncomfortably close, were neighbors and frequenters of White's and Caldwell's Mills. These men were mostly land owners, holding entire sections, halves, or quarters, on "forfeit corners." The Whites were a numerous family, as were also the Flinns, while the Ludlows had located claims through out the Symmes purchase. Many of the names above are no longer continued on the county records, and have vanished from the memory of the living. There were one hundred and fifty-two lots sold to fifty eight different purchasers. Many of these purchasers 43 338 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. never resided in the village, and, as some disappeared before the town was much improved, only a few names are given of those who bought lots, remained, and built up the place. Archibald Burns took thirty-eight lots, put up a fine residence, and built a factory and machine shop. John Brecount bought four lots, and built and kept the first public house, known as the Mansion house. John Evans took several lots, and was known as the first resident bricklayer in Carthage. Sidney and Ephraim Knowlton were early pork merchants and storekeepers, and were afterwards in the canal business. Their boat, the first one here, was "The Hannibal, of Carthage." Benjamin Irwin, property holder and first storekeeper, at the corner of Fourth and Main streets. Leicester Nichols and James Hefferman, were the first carpenters. John Shanklin was the first wagonmaker. He died in a few years, and was followed in the same business, in 1829, by Richard Rancevaw, who still resides in the village. The Millers—Isaac, Thomas, and Adam—were early residents, owned property, and had a saddler-shop on Hamilton street. Rev. Isaac Ferris was the preacher from Duck creek; and Solomon Rogers, a retired, wealthy steamboat captain, was also ever engaged in good works. Mr. Rogers established a silk cocoonery, and endeavored to develop the silk business, but failed in the enterprise. He improved his property, however, and did much for the village. Andrew Smalley owned thirty-five lots, kept the Clifton house (afterwards Belser's tavern), was the first postmaster, encouraged the county fairs, and delighted in horse racing. Joel Tucker and Nathaniel Williams were blacksmiths on Main street. Their successors in iron working were Messrs. Burns, Castner, and Tucker. The Townsends—James, John, and Pernal—were coopers and carpenters. The Williams family—Nathaniel, Miles and Martha—were lot owners. In 1821 Thomas McCammon & Sons, from Cincinnati, came t0 the neighborhood, and are remembered as the first cabinetmakers. At this time (1821), there were only a dozen houses in White's Carthage, and but five or six in sight west of the village. These were the houses of Major James Caldwell, Richard Dill, Abram Wilson, and Thomas McCammon, and the Bull's Head tavern, south of Wilson's, on the Hamilton road. In 1826 Samuel Caldwell made an addition of seventy lots, on the west side of Hamilton road, opposite old Carthage, the same year that the Miami canal was cut through the east side of the village. Many strangers came to the place, some bought lots, many new houses were put up, and the town began to present an appearance of thrift and prosperity. The children, who had been attending an old time school far below the village, in what is now South Elmwood, were better accomm0dated in a comfortable brick school-house, east of the canal, at the corner of Second and Mill streets. This was one of the first three brick buildings at that time in the neighborhood, and remained standing until recently, when modern demands put it away for the more pretentious school edifices which are now conspicuous in Carthage. For a while church services were occasionally held at private residences, or in the school-houses, or groves; but in 1832 the Christian church, organized by Walter Scott, built a brick meeting-house on the corner of Jackson and Fourth streets, whereon the new edifice, erected in 1878, now stands. The first officers of this church, coworkers with Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott, were Solomon Rogers, William Myers, Richard Dillino, Hezekiah W0od, Elijah Brady, and John Ludlow. Dr. Richardson, later a professor at Bethany college, was clerk of the church. In connection with this church a Lord's Day school was established; and the names of the first verse reciters—children then, old men and women now-- who memorized and recited twelve thousand three hundred and ten verses, are here given, as worthy a place in the history of Carthage and its neighborhood : Noah Wright, Stephen Dillino, Boyd Thomas, William Evans, James Harvey, Boyd Dillino, John Scott, Isaac Chase, William Hefferman, Thomas Wright, David Pigg, Nelson Derby, Ephraim Knowlton, Jonathan, John, and Benjamin Bonnell, William Scott, Isabella McCammon, Ansenith Harvey, Mary Thomas, Elizabeth and Emeline Emily Scott, Charlotte Myers, Elizabeth Wright, Lucinda Chase, Joanna Bonnell, Isabella Felter, Louisa Mayhew, Sarah Flinn, Elizabeth Pigg, Caroline Riggs, and Emily Baldrick. Many of them are still alive, though widely separated. Their parents and grandparents were among those who landed at Columbia, Cincinnati, or North Bend, in the earlier days. One of those named, Jonathan Bonnell, is now leader of the choir in the village church, a place he has filled almost continuously for forty-five years. The instruction of the common school was supplemented in private schools by that of the academic, wherein mathematics, philosophy, Latin, Greek, painting, and music, were taught, and good students made. Walter Scott edited and published a paper in the village, and, being a notable orator in things divine, classes were formed in theology, under his direction, and at least a respectable number of professi0nal writers and speakers of to-day date the beginnings of scholarship and goodness to the classical and religious instruction received in Carthage fifty years ago. Among the early teachers were Messrs. Armitage, Matthews, Wheelock, Wood, Wiley, Jehial Woodworth, Isaac Goodwin, William Pinkerton, Providence White, Mrs. Sophia Wright, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Eliza McFarland, Elizabeth J. Dill, and Flavius Josephus Hough—all previous to 1850. Of all these the longest and best known of the village teachers was Mrs. Eliza McFarland, who, in a long experience of thirty-five years, taught two generations—the childrens' children—and, in 1877, at the HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 339 age of seventy-five, closed life's labors beloved by all who knew her. Going back to the days of the first school-house (1830) wherein occasional church services were held, it appears that Anthony Cook and wife were industrious workers in behalf of early Methodism in the place. They conducted a little Sunday-school, entertained itinerant preachers, labored for the establishment of their church, and are remembered as pioneer Methodists in Carthage—only remembered, the writer is obliged to say, for the most industrious inquiry fails to obtain anything of recorded facts. The cause, however, for which the first Methodists labored, did not fail, although the church never numbered more than a few, and the services have not always been continuous to the present day. About the year 1850 a neat meeting-house was erected on East Second street, opposite the old brick school house, and herein was formed the little society of the Methodist Episcopal church in Carthage. The building of the house was largely the work of John K. Green, esq., who, with his family, regularly attended for years, taking an active part in the Sunday-schools and in the revivals which occurred from time to time. Mr. Cook and Mr. Green were wealthy, and contributed freely to the support of the church. With their names are associated Godfrey Peters and family, William Gibson and wife, Henderson Warner and wife Rosanna, Caleb Thayer and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Stephens, Mrs. Ludlum, J0hn Sweeney and wife, Miss Hannah Radcliffe, Mrs. Maria Wilson, Henry Hart and family, and a few others. Death and removal have taken away nearly all of these, so that not one of the early Methodists remains a worshiper 1n the congregation. At present the Rev. Mr. White conducts Sunday night services, and a Sunday-school in the morning is well attended. It is much regretted that no records of this church can be found. In 1869 the Catholics, by Archbishop John B. Purcell, purchased the block on the northeast corner of Fourth and Lebanon streets, and put up a neat church edifice, with rooms for a school. The total cost of lots and house was ten thousand dollars. The trustees were Edmund Oberle, John Bickers, and Henry Lammers. The church was f0rmally opened and dedicated in 1869 by the archbishop and numerous assistants, after which Father John Allbrinck was installed as the local priest. After him came priest's Henry Recken, Benjamin Broering, and Henry Brinkmeier, the last in 1879. Father Brinkmeier recently took charge of the convent west of the village, and the church and school of St. Borromeo are, now under the control of the Franciscan Fathers. The communicants number about sixty, the day scho0l thirty, the latter being managed by two of the Sisters. In 1871 John W. Sprung and John H. Eggers donated the lots on the northeast corner of Sixth and Lockland avenue to the society of German Protestants, and a church building and a pastor's residence have been finished thereon. The congregation numbers forty, and the Sunday-school fifty. The Rev. Mr. Baum is now the resident minister. Previous to the establishment of schools and churches the people entertained themselves much with shooting-Matches; firing at turkeys at sixty and one hundred yards, county fairs, and horse races also commanded full attention. The first race track was on the township line, east and west, between Springfield and Mill creek, from western Carthage, near Dill's, to the hill on the east, where the grounds join Morris' grove. This was a line well known, and still not known, to numerous lawyers and surveyors, who almost yearly measure, calculate, and wrangle over the property rights on both sides of the line. The Miami canal cut this track in two in 1826, when another was laid out from Knowlton's corner, at the Second street bridge, northward to White's station on Mill creek. After this Smalley's track, on what is now Major Caldwell's farm, became a noted place for races and militia musters. On these first tracks, in early times, the boys coming to Caldwell's and White's mills, used to speed their "quarter nags," furnishing a good deal of amusement and occasional opportunity for "chances" and "odds," with money attached. Here racers and riders became famous; the political conventions and fairs drew large crowds, and the place acquired a wide reputation for good displays, hospitable entertainments, and horse races. "Old Smalley" was a noted equine practitioner; so, also, were Hamer, Hutchinson, Coffeen, Stubbs, and Wade. Among the riders, "Jockey" Pryor and Shep Smalley were up in reputation, and when a youngster got a "whip-around" on Kenton, Yankee Tom, or Deacon Wade's horse, Orphan Boy, he gained an enviable notoriety. While many persons came to see the governors of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois, who were often here, and to listen to the speeches of Colonel Dick Johnson, General Harrison, Henry Clay, Bellamy Storer, Tom Corwin, Duncan, and other celebrities, it was plain that excitements on the track and discussions on blooded stock had much to do in persuading attendance. In Smalley's stables, and for many years later in Belser's and Vankirk's, good horses were kept the year round, and when Kentuckians chanced across to talk about speed and put up the money on their horses, they were generally accommodated, and the nags put upon the track. As an index to the crowds who came to the first Carthage entertainments, it may be stated that the stables at Belser's and Vankirk's were always ready for the accommodation of a thousand horses, and the tavern tables, in order the year round, were ready on short notice for as many horsemen or hungry politicians. These races and old-time fairs continued up to 1850-4, when they gave place to the modern expositions and trotting races on the Hamilton County fair grounds, in northern Carthage. The later fairs commenced in 1854-5 by the purchase of extensive grounds and the erection of expensive amphitheatres. They are fully set forth in the printed reports of the County Agricultural society. The more tragic history of Carthage begins with the killing of Moses Pryor and his two children, by the Indians, in 1792-3, and the murder of the pack-horsemen at Bloody run, just south of the present village, in 1793. 340 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY; OHIO. Edward White, the founder of the place, was killed at Galena, Illinois, while acting as an arbitrator, about 1840. His decision was adverse to one Dr. Stoddard, who drew a pistol and shot him dead. Lewis Bonnell was killed by the fall of a tree in 1831. Two boys, named Swift and Robinson, skating on the canal, were drowned in 1831, below Second street. An unknown man, taking shelter in a hollow tree was killed by lightning in 1845. In 1846 the stage was overturned in Mill creek, and one child was drowned. Charles Hughes, while swimming in the creek, west of Third street, was drowned in 1847. In 1853 a stranger stopped over night at Mr. Fowler's, upper Main street, and was found sitting on the front stove plate in the m0rning, dead. James  _____ , also an unknown man, drowned his sister and horse accidently at the ford above the village in 1854. A fast woman and fast horse were drowned by a careless driver at the Hamilton Street bridge, in 1854. Mr. Huber was drowned in the creek near by, in 1855. In the same year two men, a fireman and section hand, were killed by the cars on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, one at the depot the other below. Mr. Chumley, an old man tired of life, put himself on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton track, and was killed, in 1858. A brakeman on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad was killed at the bridge above the depot, in 1861. About 1853-58 four men, all unknown, were drowned, on as many different Sundays, in the same place where the woman and horse lost their lives in 1854. William D. Ludlow, the pioneer, dropped dead near Jackson and Third streets in 1862. Mr. Ludlow was at this time the second husband of Abigail Ludlow, whose first husband, Lewis Bonnell, was killed by a falling tree in 1831. A driver of a mule team, from the camp in upper Carthage, was killed by being run over by a wagon in front of Southwell's blacksmith shop in 1863. In the same year Mrs. Susan Ramsdale fell dead near Third and Lebanon streets. In 1863. when Mrs. Dugan (mother of Susan Rams-dale, just menti0ned) saw the young man killed in front of Southwell's shop, she said: "Let my death be just, as' sudden." A few days afterwards she was thrown from her wagon and instantly killed. An unknown man, hit with a stone, was killed near the corner of Third and Lebanon streets. It was done by a man now in the penitentiary, whose name is not remembered. In 1864, Mrs. Mary Eliza Ewing, but recently married then. , was thrown from her carriage at the corner of Fifth and Jackson streets, and instantly killed. Oscar Musser, engaged in the camp here in 1864, was kicked by a horse and died immediately after. Mrs. Mary Dill, widow of Richard Dill, an early settler, was found dead in her bed in 1863. Aged ninety years. Miles Riggs, while engaged in pleasant conversation, died instantly, in 1868. Caleb Thayer was found dead in his own cistern in 1868, a supposed suicide. Hiram Sloop was tired of life and hanged himself in his own room, at the corner of Jackson and Anthony streets, in 1869. Mrs. Ann Vankirk was found in the canal, near Centre street, in 1870; also a supposed suicide. Mrs. Philip Foltz, standing at her front gate with her baby in her arms, engaged in conversation with a neighbor, fell instantly dead, in 1873. A boy named Norton was drowned in Mill creek, near Centre street, in 1876. Rachel Carrico dropped dead at the depot, on West Second street, in 1876. A child, parents unknown, was found dead on the towpath side of the Miami aqueduct, in 1878. John Nutts was found dead in a sandbank, at the corner of Fifth street and the canal, in 1879. Adolphus Dill was killed by the cars on the Dayton Short Line railroad, in 1879. James Fitzpatrick, a school boy, was drowned near Sixth street and the canal, in an ice-pond, in 1879. Benjamin Tegeder, in trying to recover his brother from under the ice, was himself drowned, near the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton bridge, on Sunday, December 12,1880. The foregoing narrative is exclusive of the casualties within or connected with the numerous public institutions around Carthage. The soldiers from Carthage who volunteered in the late war were: Alcorn, Fielding, in the cavalry, a prisoner four months. Bonnell, Warren, cavalry. Bowen, Putnam, cavalry. Calden, Jerry, infantry, wounded at Rich Mountain. Castner, Peter, gunboat service. Castner, Jonathan, gunboat service. Curtis, James, cavalry. Curtis, Morton, gunboat service. Dooley, William, infantry, wounded at Perryville, Kentucky. Dillano, Samuel, infantry, taken prisoner at Stone River. Dorman, John, wounded at Vicksburgh on the gunboat Carondelet. Flinn, Jesse, infantry, wounded. Flinn, Edward, infantry, killed at Atlanta. Ferris, Henry, cavalry. Fowler, William, cavalry, prisoner in Salisbury. Folz, Philip, cavalry, wounded in action. Hauck, Harry, infantry, died in hospital. Kellerman, Henry, gunboat service. Kroeger, Fred., gunboat service. Musser, Jerry, cavalry. Musser, Albert, cavalry. Morris, Clarence, artillery. McLean, Jesse, infantry, wounded at Mission Ridge. McLean, Edwin, infantry and musician. McClellin, James, infantry. Phillips, George, infantry. Riggs, Philip D., infantry and cavalry. Robinson, Frank, infantry, starved to death at Salisbury. Rictner, William, gunboat service. Southwell, George, cavalry. Smedley, Daniel, surgeon. Snyder, John, infantry, killed at Fort Blakely. Schmucker, Jacob, infantry. Wilson, William, cavalry. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 341 Winder, John, infantry. Kaylon, George, infantry. Shackles, Noah, cavalry. Since the platting of Carthage in 1815 there have been several additions : By Samuel Caldwell, in 1826; James N. Caldwell, in 1848; Lee, Wilson & Bullock, in 1850; Caldwell & Paddack, in 1850: Samuel Greenhorn, in 1858; Theophilus French, in 1868; Jacob Schmucker, in 1869; Eggers & Sprung, in 1875; and by T. Colling, the same year. The village was inc0rporated September 22, 1868. Its first mayor was Jonathan R. Bonnell; the second, Richard A. Morton, who served from 1869 to 1874, inclusive; third, Richard Phillips; fourth, Smith Stimmell, the present incumbent. Since its incorporation the streets have been properly widened and graded; expensive gas works were put up, and the streets are well lighted. There are four churches, with graded public schools, both German and English, and a parochial scho0l attached to St. Borromeo's Catholic church. The hotels are well kept. There are four public halls, of which Coke hall, on North Main street, is accounted the finest in Hamilton county, outside of Cincinnati. The Miami canal passes Carthage on the east, and the Short Line railroad on the same Side ; the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad on the west side, both roads giving sixty trains a day to and from Cincinnati. Mill creek is the extreme northern and western boundary of the village. About fifty of the residents do business in Cincinnati. It had a population of one hundred and forty-eight in 1830, and two thousand four hundred and nineteen half a century afterwards, by the census of 1880. In the State Gazetteer of 1841 Carthage is noticed as then containing two hundred and eighty-three inhabitants, with fifty-five dwellings, ten mechanics' shops, three stores, two taverns, two groceries, one meetinghouse, and one school-house. The Gazetteer adds: "This town is situated on a sandy soil, which gives it a pleasing appearance. Its location being in the centre of the county makes it a noted place for large gatherings. The annual fair of the Hamilton County Agricultural s0ciety is held there. It has two mails per day." The old Caldwell graveyard, near where Griffin's station stood, in western Carthage, is now nearly plowed over, and not a single stone remains to tell the name of the dead beneath. The last to disappear was that of Richard Dill, who put up the first brick house in Cincinnati, his assistant on that work being James Dugan, who later was in Hull's surrender, and died a few years since in Carthage. The grave of James Caldwell is now no longer to be distinguished, even by the writer, who was at the burial (in 1843), and who, in boyhood, used to "play horse," riding the old sword-scabbard which Wayne presented to Caldwell with a major's commission when out in the campaign of 1793-4. The old White graveyard lies on the brow of a low hill, a half mile east of Caldwell's and close to where the station stood. When old Providence White last visited this last resting place of the pioneers, thirty years ago, he walked mournfully around, read over the inscriptions on the fallen stones, and to some curious listeners who knew nothing of the tender emotions in his bosom, recounted the events of his earlier days. By his request James Dill replaced the stones as they were in the long ago. But modern school boys, with little knowledge of pioneer history, and less respect for the graves of the once brave dead who lie in them, have overthrown the walls and broken and scattered the stones so that but few are left to mark the place. When the writer visited this old cemetery in 1878, he counted sixty sunken graves, but there were many more before the Miami canal, cutting through in 1826, obliterated all trace of them. On one mutilated stone appears the following: Mary, wife of Amos White. On another this: 1834, in the 50th year of his age. Consider, friend, as you pass by, As you are now, so once was I, As I am now, soon you shall be, Prepare for death and follow me. This is remembered as the stone of Mr. Jehial N. Woodworth, a schoolmaster. Amos White, died September 25, 1819, age seventy years. Edward White, the first, born, April, 1714; died, September, 1802. Edward White, the second, born, November, 1746; died, October, 1798. On a large tablet: Josinah, consort of Jacob White, born November 6, 1760; died March 26, 1834, age seventy-three years four months and twenty days; has left the church militant to join the church triumphant. On a tablet: Alcy, wife of Jacob White, born May 3o, 1775; died September 20, 1835, aged sixty years three months and twenty-one days; has gone to join the assembly and church of the first born. A few rods southeast from this graveyard, near the north side of the county farm, in a well recently covered over, Moses Pryor was killed by the Indians in 1792. Just northeast of the graveyard a short distance, in the southwest corner of the grounds of William R. Morris, esq., was the grave of the Indian chief killed by Captain White in the attack on the station in 1793. The place of the chief's burial was pointed out by old Providence White on one of his later visits there; and in 1847, while improving the grounds, the workmen accidently exhumed the chief's skeleton. A full account of the battle at White's station will be found in the history of Springfield township. AVONDALE. This is a large tract (seven hundred and fifty-five acres) adjoining the city north of Walnut Hills, platted in part as a suburban village in 1854, to which considerable annexations have since been made. Its area is not far from one thousand acres, comprising the whole of section nine, the northwest part of section eight, between Woodburn and Corryville, in the city, and a part of section fifteen, in the south of which, just outside the city, are situated the zoological gardens. The section nine was conveyed by Judge Symmes in 1795 to Samuel Robinson. The next year Robinson conveyed three hun- 342 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. dyed acres in its northeast part to John Hardin ; in 1797 one hundred and twenty acres in the southwest part to William McMillan, of Cincinnati, whose remains were buried here for more than half a century, but now rests in Spring Grove cemetery; in 1798 the tract north of McMillan's and west of Hardin's was sold to John Hunt; and the southeast part, comprising the entire remainder of the section, was afterwards acquired by the celebrated William Woodward, founder of the Woodward High school. McMillan became a further purchaser here, together with Jonathan Dayton and Elias Bondinot, of the East Jersey company, making the Miami purchase. After the death of Dayton, a subdivision was made in November, 1846, by Jonathan Bartlett, administrator of his estate on both sides of the Lebanon turnpike (now Main avenue), but mostly east of the road, which he designated as "a plat of house lots at Clinton, three miles from Cincinnati." This was the first subdivision made in what is now Avondale. Two years afterwards James A. Corry made a plat in the southwest part of the section, upon the McMillan tract, which he styled the Locust Grove subdivision. About the same time still another subdivision was made by Spencer and Corry. In 1852 Samuel Cloon made a subdivision of about one hundred and fifty acres, covering the "Clinton" tract, upon which Miles Greenwood, of Cincinnati, had built his suburban residence in 1847. The Cincinnati & Chicago railroad made a subdivision on the Corry lands in 1854, to which the engineer in charge of the survey gave the name of Avondale subdivision, from which the village to be derived its name. One of the first suburban residences on this tract was the brick mansion on the Lebanon pike, built in 1835 by Luke Kendall, who, two years before, had bought ten acres from Mr. Corry at one hundred dollars an acre. This was then the "outpost of Cincinnati," as Colonel Maxwell styled it in his Suburbs of Cincinnati, to which we are indebted for most of these facts. In 1836 his partner, David B. Bassettake, built a brick residence out here; and the number increased gradually year by year, until one of the most notable suburban villages in the world' has been formed, with several churches, a fine public hall, recently erected, the German Protestant cemetery, and a large public school-building on the west side of Main avenue, south of Rockdale avenue, built of brick, seventy by thirty feet, with a hall and six rooms, whose schools are superintended by Mr. A. B. Johnson, one of the veteran teachers of the Miami country, who has held the post of principal here for near a quarter of a century. The Grace Protestant Episcopal churoh is situated upon a two-acre lot on Main avenue, north of Glenwood avenue. It was first occupied February 27, 1870, when a sermon was preached by the Rev. William A. Snively, of Christ church, in the city. The church and grounds cost twenty-five thousand dollars. The Grace Methodist Episcopal church was formerly called Mears chapel. It is on the south side of Forest avenue, west of Washington. In 1868 the building was handsomely repaired and improved, at a cost of two thousand two hundred dollars. The Presbyterian church of Avondale, originally Old School, was occupied about the first of February, ,868, under the pastorate of the Rev. Joseph Gamble. It is situated on the north side of Rockdale avenue, a little way from Main. A beautiful new town hall, consummating an enterprise which had been long under discussion, was dedicated December 31, 1880. It occupies a fine site on the south side of Rockdale avenue, just west of the main avenue. It is modified Queen Anne in style, of blue limestone trimmed with Ohio freestone. The outside dimensions are sixty by one hundred and ten feet. Entering from Rockdale avenue, the main hall divides the offices of the mayor and clerk. Beyond these offices are the cloak room on the right and the principal staircase to the left, below which is the pork cochere; large doors at the south end of the main hall open to the assembly room forty-five by sixty, with stage and four dressing-rooms. Over the offices and entrance hall is the council chamber, extending across the entire front part of the building. This room with its panelled ceilings, polished wooden mantels and elegant chandeliers, is one of the features of the building. Accommodations for the police and fire departments are provided in the basement. The necessary height of the ceiling for the smoke-stack of the engine is afforded by the elevation of the stage floor. The large stage in the hall is, or is to be, provided with a complete set of scenery for private theatricals and similar entertainments. The commodious hall, with its polished floor, and lighted with five superb chandeliers, is devoted to a variety of uses, not the least of them being the elegant assemblies for which Avondale society is noted. Mayor Strickland made the principal address at the dedication, in which he indulged in the following pleasant reminiscences: As a community, we have certainly made wonderful and rapid strides in growth and prosperity. From a few houses grouped together upon either of the turnpikes, with here and there a farm-house just in sight, surrounded with blossoming fields and well-stocked orchards, we have grown to be a community of three thousand inhabitants, embracing among them all classes, from the merchant and capitalist, to the skilled artist and daily workman. In the earlier and more primitive times the journey to and from the city was not the luxury such as we have known it. Hunt street—then termed the bottom—from the old corporation line to the foot of the hill, was, during the winter season, an almost endless sea of mud, and woe betide the unskilled and luckless driver, whose sight was not keen, for no friendly gas illumined the trackless path to enable him to safely pilot his way. No friendly policeman guarded the dark passes of the hillside, ad home was often reached after adventures that tried the bravest and most resolute among them. Our patriarchs now were then the hardy pioneers of our civilization; and although the necessity for block-houses had passed away, great care was necessary to protect themselves, their families and their property from the depredations of tramps and footpads. As our Queen City grew with all ever-increasing prosperity the flow of population to the hill-tops and surrounding country set in, and our delightful suburb has 1eceived its fair share of acquisitions. The little square school-house gave away to a more pretentious and imposing building located on a part of this lot, and it, too, has subsequently grown in size with the increasing demand of the times, until the old town hall, located there, was, of necessity, called into 1equisition, and its walls now recho the merry chatter of our children. The old town is a bright memory of the past. In it have gathered the young and old of our village for many years, but the history of that time is too crowded with events to even warrant me in an attempted reference to them. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 343 There was hardly any division upon matters of church and State. From going to the city to attend worship, as had been the custom, each to his or her favorite church, they united for Sunday observance upon a Platform so broad and generous in its orthodoxy that all could fairly stand upon it, and the references that are now made to the good old days of union and harmony in church matters are convincing proof that the spirit of good faith and good fellowship then implanted has grown and strengthened as time had tried them. And in State affairs, so firmly rooted and grounded became the practice then inaugurated that to this day officers of our different boards are chosen and elected without reference to their political views. A community, pronounced Republican in its majorities, has thrice honored our distinguished guest, ex-Mayor Johnston, and has kept in our school board and in council some of the most efficient and honorable of our citizens. Long may the system continue that works such good results. No scandals have ever been uttered in our midst attempting to impeach in the slightest degree the integrity of any of our public officers. No improvement so great, no expenditure of money so large—involving at times thousands of dollars—has ever tempted the abuse of a public trust. No scheme of merit but what has received and will receive respectful consideration, and the question has never been asked, "What are the emoluments?" A notable instance, and one of which we should all feel proud, is the building of this hall. Almost without a jar it has risen in its fair proportions, and so close have been the calculations of architect and contractor, and so painstaking the committee in charge, that the completion has been effected with extras aggregating less than two hundred dollars. It reflects great credit upon them all, and it is my duty, as well as a great pleasure, to refer to it here. We have improved and beautified in many directions. Old avenues have been remodelled and improved; new ones have been constructed and opened; good and substantial sidewalks abound, and every thoroughfare is as well lighted with gas as those of any of .our surrounding neighbors. We have established a police force, have an organized fire-department, and have constituted a board of health, composed of gentlemen who are thoroughly alive to the sanitary interests of our village. It will thus be seen that we have achieved much as a municipality. We have, step by step, advanced, keeping always in view the comfort, convenience and happiness of all. We have conspired, aided largely by nature, in making this an attractive and desirable place in which to dwell, and yet we have not accomplished all that we should. Avondale was regularly incorporated as a municipality July 28, 1864. Some of its mayors have been: A. R. Dutton, 1866-7; Daniel Collier, 1868; Robert A. Johnston, 1869-74; John Dixon, D. W. Strickland. It had a population of two thousand, five hundred and fifty-two by the tenth census. BOND HILL is a little over a mile east of north of Avondale, with a station on the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad. It was founded by the Cooperative Land and Building association, No. 1, of Hamilton county—a company formed in 1870, but not fully organized until February 3, 1871. It purchased thirty acres, on the Reading or Lebanon turnpike, at five hundred 'dollars per acre, situated at what was known as Colonel Bond's hill, from which the suburb takes its title. It is about two-fifths of a mile from the station, on a slightly inclined plat, offering many eligible building sites. This was subdivided into spacious lots for suburban residence. The by-laws of the association required dwellings to be erected in the centre front of each lot, and fifteen front from the sidewalk, and also prohibited the sale of intoxicants in the village. A fine public hall was early erected. The suburb has had a good growth, with the usual institutions of such a place, including the Bond Hill circle, a dramatic reading society, which gave weekly readings in the private houses during the cool season. The village had eight hundred and ninety-six inhabitants in June, 1880. The St. Aloysius's German Catholic orphan asylum is situated near Bond Hill, on the Reading road, north of the Marietta & Cincinnati railway. It owns and occupies here a noble tract of fifty acres, has a three-story brick building, with basement and extensive two-story wings on each side—the lower story in each used for school rooms, the upper for dormitories. The property was valued at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 1874, and has accommodations for about three hundred orphans. This asylum is supported by the regular contributions of more than two thousand subscribers, at three dollars and twenty-five cents a year, and three celebrations or picnics per year—on Washington's Birthday, the Fourth of July, and on anniversary day, the third Sunday in September—from which about seven thousand dollars are annually realized. Orphan boys may be kept here until twenty-one years 0ld; girls until they are eighteen. The Sisters of Notre Dame, under the direction of a reverend father, conduct the asylum, with a board of trustees to manage the finances. It is regarded as a most beneficent charity. Bond Hill had three hundred and ninety-two inhabitants by the tenth census. CLIFTON. In 1843 Mr. Flamer Ball, a prominent attorney in Cincinnati, deemed it best for the health of his family to remove from the city and take a small farm in what is now Clifton. The region was then without schools or churches, police, or anything else that savored of city or village life; and there were not even good roads. After Mr. Ball had been there a few years, he thought the time had come to reap the advantages of a village government, and in 1849 he presented a petition to the legislature, accompanied by the draft of a law for incorporation of the village, to his neighbors and other property owners in the proposed municipality. Among those who signed the petition were the distinguished or well known names of Philip Mcllvaine, Justice McLean, Chief Justice Chase, Hon. William Johnston, R. B. Bowler, Robert Buchanan, William Resor, Winthrop B. Smith, W. G. W. Gano, and B. R. Whiteman. In March of the next year, accordingly, a beginning was made of Clifton (for so the village was called), as a separate government. The writer of Cincinnati Past and Present adds: Mr. Ball consented to serve as its mayor, and for nearly twenty years held that office; and as mayor and ex officio president of its council he drafted and enforced all the ordinances of the corporation. He originated the law for impounding stray animals—a law which he enforced through much opposition, but lived to see it meet the general approbation, and a similar law prevail throughout the State. Under his administration a church, a good school, and good roads, together with good order, were secured, and Clifton became the most beautiful suburban village to be found in the United States. It is hardly too much to say that he was the founder of Clifton. Mr. Ball was mayor from 1850 to 1869, when Mr. Robert Hosea took the office and held it some years, when he was succeeded by James Bergher, who was in the mayor's chair from 1872 to 1874, inclusive. Clifton comprises one thousand, two hundred and eight acres. It took its name ftom the Clifton farm, which was within its present territory. It is situated just north of those parts of the city known as Cliftom heights 344 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY; OHIO. and Camp Washington, and between Avondale and the Twenty-fifth ward, or Cumminsville. King's Pocketbook of Cincinnati says it "comprises about twelve hundred acres of land beautifully diversified with hill and dale, and has a population somewhat exceeding one thousand persons (one thousand and forty-six in 1880). In its precincts there is neither shop, factory nor saloon. It has over seventeen miles of avenues, lined with fine shade trees, two thousand of which were planted in the years 1877 and 1878; and this planting is to be continued from year to year. The town hall is a handsome brick structure, surmounted by a tower with a clock. This building contains the public offices and the school-room. The school, though a public one, is known as the Resor academy, and was established originally through the enterprise of the late William Resor, one of the earliest residents of Clifton, and always identified with its interests. The main hall of the building is elegantly frescoed in the Pompeian style and hung with choice photographs from works of the old masters and the modern painters, the gift of the mayor, Henry Probasco. The ladies of the Sacred Heart have also a school for girls in a large stone mansion, with spacious and beautiful grounds, purchased at a cost of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Numerous handsome Cottages with attractive grounds are scattered throughout the town. . . Calvary Episcopal church is the only edifice for public worship. It is a neatly designed stone building, having a memorial tower. The outside is covered with iron, and presents a beautiful picture. The interior is well finished and handsomely frescoed, and decorated with scripture mottoes." The last census gave Clifton me thousand and forty-six inhabitants. COLLEGE HILL. This is another fine suburb of five hundred and sixty-three acres, situated near the northwest corner of Mill Creek township, about eight miles from fountain square, Cincinnati. It is conveniently reached from the city by College Hill narrow-guage railway, or by the old Hamilton turnpike, commonly called the College Hill pike. The site of College Hill, which is among the highest localities in the county, was included in a large tract bought from Judge Symmes in October, 1796, by Nehemiah Tunis, who had the title conveyed to Jabez C. Tunis. From him William Cary bought four hundred and ninety-one and one-half acres, in section thirty, upon which the village is located, for three thousand four hundred and forty dollars. Freeman G., son of William Cary, in 1833 founded, in a pleasant situation upon this tract, Cary's academy, which was chartered in 1846 as Farmer's college, and the latter institution gave the name to the place. The name is further justified by the location here, upon the same hill, of the Ohio Female college. About 1855 there was a large emigration to College Hill of Cincinnati business men seeking attractive suburban residences. Among them were Messrs. Charles and Charles E. Cist, George C. and Norris S. Knight, the Rev. Clement E. Babb, J. C. C. Holenshade, A. D. E. Tweed, D. B. Pierson, G. Y. Roots, and others. After a time the Female college building was opened to summer boarders, and that gave a further impetus to the place. It was formally incorporated as a village September 9, 1857, and again July 21, 1866, when a general system of local improvements was instituted, which has aided to make one of the most inviting suburbs about Cincinnati. Among its mayors have been: Edward De Serisy, 1867; Norris S. Knight, r868; Henry M. Cist, 1869; Cyrus S. Bates, 1870; L. T. Worthington, 1880-1. The population of College Hill when the census was taken, in June, 1880, was one thousand one hundred and nine. Farmer's college was chartered with all the powers usually granted to collegiate institutions, and secured an endowment, in buildings, grounds, money, etc., of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. It was highly prosperous for many years, and then fell off somewhat in popularity and strength. Embarrassing debts were incurred, and an effort to endow an agricultural professorship failed. Special attention is given, however, to the applications of natural science to agriculture and the arts, and to botany and vegetable physiology. The college faculty has included a principal and an actuary of the farm department, the former of whom was also professor of science and practical agriculture, and the latter teacher of landscape gardening. A botanical garden was also among the projects of the founders. At the time of pecuniary embarrassment, relief was afforded in an act of the legislature enabling the college to sell the college farm, which realized enough to pay the debt and leave a surplus of fifty-two thousand dollars, which is an irreducible fund, the interest only being available for the current expenses of the school. The Polytechnic hall was dedicated in 1856, with an address by Professor F. G. Cary. A valuable agricultural and horticultural magazine, called the Cincinnatus; was conducted about this time by the faculty of the college and published at the Hill. Five volumes of it appeared. The original Cary's academy was at the junction of the old Hamilton road with Colerain avenue, within the village limits. The female college was chartered in 1848. The honored Justice John McLean was president of the first board of trustees, and S. F. Cary was secretary. The corner-stone of the main edifice was laid September 9, 1848, and the institution went into operation in the fall 0(1849. Its first building was destroyed by fire, but another was soon erected. In r851 the college received a new charter, giving it the usual powers of colleges for young men. In 1865 it came into possession of Messrs. Samuel F. Cary, Franklin Y. Vail and Joseph Brown. Their interests were severally bought up by the trustees, and the school flourished until April 23, 1868, when its buildings were the second time burned. Recitations went on to the close of the school year, however, the citizens generously opening their homes to the students, and in a few months a finer building than ever went up on the old site. It is of brick, one hundred and fifty-five by fifty feet, with freestone quoins and trimmings, a HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 345 mansard roof and tower. The last is called Alumni tower, each graduate of the college having finished one of the stone quoins in it. The grounds are beautifully situated, and occupy fifteen acres. Besides the educational institutions, College Hill is also the site of a famous sanitarium or private lunatic asylum, opened in 1873, and said to be the only strictly private insane retreat in the country. The building it occupies was originally put up for the Ohio Female college. By the will of the late John T. Crawford, of Cincinnati, his farm of eighteen and one-half acres, just north of College Hill, in Springfield township, is to be devoted to the purposes of a home for the aged and destitute colored people. The first Presbyterian church here was organized in 1853, by thirty-three members of the Mount Pleasant society. The Rev. E. H. Bishop, D. D., then of Farmers' college, was one of the prime movers in the new departure. The new church worshipped for several years in the College chapel, but got a building erected about 1855, which it occupies to this day. The Grace Episcopal society was 0rganized in 1866, and likewise worshiped for a time in the College chapel. In the early part of the next year, however, a beautiful brick church was built on the site of the old Cary academy, costing sixteen thousand dollars. The building for the colored church stands on Cedar avenue. There is also an excellent school in the village, occupying a brick structure on Hamilton avenue, north of the Presbyterian church. About 1857 a very prosperous Farmers' lyceum was maintained in and about College Hill, meeting once a month from house to house, and commanding an interested attendance from a wide extent of country. The members and visitors brought their wives and children, and baskets of provision, and made a day of it at each meeting. The Harvest Home was also a flourishing institution of those days, and somewhat peripatetic, its gatherings not being confined to College Hill, nor even to Mill Creek township, as the meeting of September 29, 1856, assembled at Miamitown, Whitewater township. ELMWOOD. A small subdivision laid out in 1875, along the Dayton Short Line railroad, near the lunatic asylum and just southwest of Carthage, by Messrs. Frank L. Whetstone and L. C. Hopkins. It had one hundred and thirty-six people by the tenth census. LUDLOW GROVE. This place occupies the site of the grounds and graveyard of the heroic old pioneer of 1793-4, John Ludlow, esq., near the junction of the Dayton Short Line and Marietta & Cincinnati railroads, about nine miles from the Plum Street depot. The original Ludlow homestead is still standing. In 1854 the tract was mostly covered with trees, where the city people delighted to keep holiday. With the completion of the Marietta & Cincinnati, however, the prospects of this region for a suburban village began to brighten, and in 1869 the site was subdi vided by Benjamin Barton, H. S. Brewster, and Charles Folz. It is now included in the corporation of St. Bernard, for which it furnishes the sole postal facilities, under its old name. MOUNT AIRY is an incorporated village of large size in point of territory, immediately west and southwest of College Hill and covering a little more than two square miles (one thousand three hundred and twenty-six acres) in Mill Creek and Green townships, of which seven hundred and forty-seven acres are in the former. Its certificate of incorporation as a village was filed November 20, 1865. Some of its mayors were: Anthony Shouter, 1897-8; Oliver Blown, 1869; R. Creighton, 1870; B. H. Kroeger, 1874. The St. James Catholic church, under care of Father F. Schonfelt, with its parochial school of two departments and one hundred and fifty pupils, and its confraternities of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary, are located at Mount Airy. The village, considering its large tract, is still rather sparsely settled. It had one hundred and sixty-two inhabitants in 1880. ROLLING RIDGE is a small settlement on the Winton turnpike, about half a mile north of Winton Place, and a mile from the north line of the township. ST. BERNARD. This extensive suburb lies south of the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, and immediately north of Avondale, partly on the Carthage turnpike. It was laid 0ut in 1850 by Joseph Kleine and J. B. Schroder, and has been so .extended as to include the suburb of Ludlow Grove. It was incorporated as a village March 8, 1878. It is largely inhabited by the Germans, who have here the St. Clemerts Catholic church and parochial school (with about one hundred and ten pupils), and the attached Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, all under the pastoral care of the Rev. Father Gregory Faugman. The building for this church was erected in 1873. It has six hundred sittings, and a spire one hundred and seventy feet high. The St. Bernard Catholic cemetery is in the southwest part of the corporation, near the canal. The extensive starch factory of Mr. Andrew Erkenbecker, of Cincinnati, are also in this place. The village has a well organized fire department, with full apparatus for extinguishing fires. In June, 1880, its population was one thousand and seventy-three. SPRING GROVE CEMETERY, with the County infirmary, Longview lunatic asylum, and Zoological gardens, all either county or city institutions; are wholly in Mill Creek township. They receive full notice in their appropriate places elsewhere in this work. WINTON PLACE. This delightful suburb adjoins the Spring Grove cemetery on the east, due north of Clifton. It was formerly called Spring Grove, and gave the name to the great cemetery and to Spring Grove avenue, which runs far into the city. It was platted in 1865 by Sylvester Har 43 346 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. and Samuel Troome. Chester Park, a famous place for speeding horses, is located here. The village had three hundred and eighty people, by the tenth census. POPULATION. Mill Creek township had ten thousand five hundred and fifty-two inhabitants in 1880. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH FREEMAN GRANT CARY was born in Cincinnati April 7, 1810. His father, William Cary, emigrated to the Northwest Territory in 1803 and settled on a farm he purchased at the head of Main street, Cincinnati, where he resided until 1814 when he removed to College Hill. His thirty-two acres in Cincinnati were sold and he bought section thirty in Mill Creek township—now College Hill—where he resided until his death March 25, 1862. Here in the wilderness, the subject of our sketch, the oldest of three sons, with his two brothers, William Woodward, and Samuel Fenton, received his early education. He afterwards attended college at Miami university, and graduated with honor in the class of 1831. This was fifty years ago; and since that time Mr. Cary has left -a marked impress of his character for good which in the history of the county is inerasable. He has devoted more than thirty years of his life to teaching. He established Cary's academy, originated Farmers' college, into Which the academy was merged; also originated for females what afterwards became the Ohio Female college; which institutions were eminently successful until after he resigned the presidency—the Farmers' college at that time numbering three hundred students. The Female college was likewise quite successful. Mr. Cary's fort was in government, and was also a successful teacher. During his presidency he associated with him men of ability in the various departments of his, institution—we say his institution, for he exercised entire control of it from the first until he resigned his place in it. During the period of its existence under him he educated, to a greater or less extent, some three thousand young men, many of them now occupying distinguished positions north and south, in the ministry, at the bar, as physicians, or becoming active business men. Mr. Cary's character is marked by a combination of striking traits; being possessed of a strong constitution, of temperate habits, of good health, giving him physical ability to successfully accomplish whatever he undertakes. He has made his own place in society and is known to be presistent, energetic and self-reliant, never seeking aid from others, much less place or honors of office. The arduous and responsible duties that have fallen to his lot have been discharged so as to reflect credit upon himself and the honorable positions he has filled. He has now reached the age of over three score and ten, and is still in possession, to a w0nderful degree, of th0se characteristics which have distinguished him through life. He seems to be thoroughly conversant on all subjects of natural science, especially those pertaining to agriculture and horticulture of which he is proficient both in practice and theory. He has connected with his residence an admirably arranged conservatory and greenhouse, on his own plan, in which he spends much of his time in experimenting for his own gratification. He established and edited an agricultural periodical, The Cincinnatus, which for five years had a wide circulation, and only ceased by reason of the Rebellion, which placed such literature at a discount, many of the subscribers being in the south. He was one of the distinguished early leaders and supporters of the Cincinnati Horticultural society, being several times its hon0red president. Mr. Cary is not only an adept in the natural sciences but is also a good classical and mathematical scholar, his education and ability eminently fitting him for marked prominence. He was selected as one of two to represent the great State of Ohio—under Buchanan's administration—in a congress of the States for the promotion of agriculture, with Marshall and Wilder at its head. After over a quarter 0f a century's labors in the schools originated and constructed by him, he retired to a farm in Butler county, where, with his wonted zeal and industry, he devoted himself to rural pursuits, leading a quiet and retired life. His residence, planned by himself (see engraving), is a model of taste and fine architecture, combining more conveniences than almost any structure in the county. His place is set with the choicest fruits grown in the climate and with fruits, evergreens, and deciduous trees his residence is completely encircled, and all is in keeping with the intelligence of the man, amply repaying any one with the information he would receive, on almost every subject, from a visit to his place. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian church for over forty years, and its active, zealous supporter. His wife, Malvina McCan, to whom he was married April 4, 1833, was a native of Chillicothe, a daughter of a pioneer, who was a man of fine education and was an extensive surveyor. She died in the month of January, 1872. He had by her eight children, five of whom survive. His second wife was the widow of Dr. James Richardson, and daughter of Clark Bates, one of the earliest pioneers of the west. He was married to her March 6, 1873, with whom he still lives. His mother, Mrs. William Cary, now ninety years of ages intelligent and still active, lives with him. Notwithstanding her advancement in years she enjoys all her faculties of mind. William Woodward, named after. William Woodward, the founder of Woodward college, died in 1847. He was a farmer, a man of sound judgment and mathematical education. General S. F. Carey, of world wide renown as a lecturer and popular orator, is the youngest of three brothers. The Cary sisters, the celebrated writers, are his cousins, and were greatly aided in their first efforts by the subject of this sketch. We may say, few men, in an independent and unaided life and on their own resourses, have exerted a more extended influence than has F. G. Cary. SPENCER FORMATION AND GEOGRAPHY. Spencer township was erected some time in the early '40's, to relieve the embarrassment caused to some of the people in transacting township business or voting, from the size of Columbia, which had always been a large township, and had now become populous. The new municipality began at the eastern line of Cincinnati township, being the "second meridian " referred to frequently in a previous chapter, or the range line dividing Mill Creek and Columbia townships, and extending to the Ohio nearly at the foot of Barr, a short street running from the river to Eastern avenue, west of Pendleton. North upon this meridian to the second section line, at the northwest corner of section thirty-two; thence due east to the Little Miami river ; thence by the Little Miami and Ohio rivers to the place of beginning, completed the boundaries of the township. It contained within its limits the old village of Columbia, with Pendleton and the present sites of Tusculum, O'Bryanville, and a part of Mount Lookout—all now included within the city; also Linwood, East Linwood, Russell's, Turkey Bottom, and part of Red Bank. Its greatest width, a mile south of the north line, was but three and a half miles, the breadth dwindling to less than a third of a mile at the mouth of the Little Miami. Its length varied from four miles, on a line drawn from the present northeast corner of the city, at Mount Lookout, to the junction of the rivers, down to one and a quarter miles on the western boundary. It has a water front of five miles and a half on the much-winding Little Miami, and four miles on the northward-bending Ohio. Yet it was, at its best estate, but a small township, having only four entire sections, with nine fractional sections, altogether hardly making the equivalent of eight square miles. The township proper has, within the last decade, been further encroached upon by the movement of the city eastward. By the annexation of Pendleton, Columbia, and the districts to the north of these, it has lost the whole of sections twenty-five and twenty-six, thirty and thirty-one, together with parts of sections nineteen, twenty-four, and thirty, restricting the territory over which it has exclusive jurisdiction to half its former limits, 0r about four square miles, including the whole tract adjoining the Little Miami, and one and a half miles front upon the Ohio. What remains of the township (only two thousand one hundred and eighty-four acres, and but eight hudred and sixty-nine outside its villages) is almost exclusively in the valley; is low and flat, but exceedingly rich and fertile. Much of the triangular space between the Little Miami railroad and Mount Lookout is, however, on the hills, and gives many picturesque views up and down the valley, and across to Mount Washington and the heights of Anderson. Besides the Little Miami road, Spencer is also intersected by the Cincinnati & Portsmouth narrow guage railroad and the projected line of the Ohio River & Virginia railway. Within the city part of old Spencer, two dummy lines of street railroad connect the terminus of the horse-car lines at the east end 0f Pendleton with Columbia and Mount Lookout, respectively. The Union Bridge pike runs from Linwood about a mile southeastward to the splendid structure over the Little Miami, noticed in our chapter on Anderson township; the New Richmond pike, from Columbia toward the mouth of the river, crosses it below Mount Washington ; the old Cincinnati and Wooster pike intersects the whole township from Cincinnati to Red Bank, on the Little Miami, at the northeast corner of Spencer ; and it has numerous other fine roads. The drives over the hills and along the valley in this direction are among the finest in and near the city. A very handsome and valuable improvement was made in this township some years ago, at the expense of the c0unty, in building a very strong and costly union levee or roadway, of about a mile's length, across the Little Miami bottoms, from the Union bridge to Linwood, upon which the Union Bridge turnpike now runs. It is forty feet wide on top the whole way, and in many places from fifteen to twenty feet in height, containing an immense amount of earth and stone, and costing near eighty thousand dollars. It is designed to raise this, one of the most important roads into the city, over which most of the wagon transportation and carriage travel from the eastward comes in, altogether above the annual floods of the Little. Miami and the Ohio, which overflow this part of the valley, and had often grievously interrupted the use of the old highway. Upon completion of the levee, the county also generously proceeded to displace the antiquated, rough wooden Union bridge by the present superb iron crossway, which is suitably mentioned elsewhere. The township received its distinguished name in honor of Colonel Spencer, one of the early colonists of Columbia, and father of the Rev. Oliver M. Spencer, whose story of Indian captivity supplies one of the most interesting leaves in its history. ANCIENT WORKS. The following notes of antiquities in Spencer township are taken from Dr. Metz's paper on the Prehistoric Monuments of the Little Miami Valley: - 347 - 348 - HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO. Immediately south of Red Bank Station, Little Miami railroad, commences a gravelly ridge, having an average elevation of about forty to fifty feet above the general level of the surrounding plateau, and extending in a southwesterly direction for three-fourths of a mile along the course of the Wooster turnpike. On this ridge and on the estate of Dr. 0. M. Langdon, we have a tumulus and a circular excavation. The tumulus has an elevation of nine feet and a circumference of two hundred feet at base. It has not been explored and is covered with young forest trees. Three hundred yards southwest of this tumulus is the circular excavation. Its diameter north to south is forty feet, east to west forty-four feet, depth seven feet. An old settler related that fifty years ago remains of stakes or palisades could be seen surrounding this excavation. The southeast slope of the ridge near this excavation is covered with huge conglomerate masses, under which are two small caves; no evidence exists about them as to their having served as habitations. Hall a mile west of this ridge is an elevated plateau sloping to southward, until it coincides with the first bottom of the Little Miami river. On this plateau, at its highest elevation just south of the Little Miami railroad and at the junction of Oak and Elmwood avenues of the Linwood Land company's subdivision, was a mound recently removed in the grading done by the Land company. The superintendent of the grading informs me that there were two circular layers of human remains, one near the general level of the ground, and one three feet above the lower one ; he gives. its height as eight feet and its circumference at base of two hundred feet. The Hon. Judge Cox states to me that this mound was enclosed by a circular work that had a diameter of eight hundred feet. South of this mound, distant two hundred yards, was a mound which was explored fifty years ago. My informant, Mr. Riggle, remembers that in a kind of stone coffin, as he describes it, were two skeletons lying side by side, with their feet to the east, and that their faces were covered with layers of mica. The five acres west of these mounds are known as the Indian Burying Ground, now subdivided into lots by the Linwood Land company. The square hounded by Elmwood, Walnut, Oak, and Maplewood avenues covers the greater part- of the ancient cemetery, and an excavation made anywhere within or near those boundaries will reveal human remains. The inhumation was usually at length with head to east. A short distance east of the Linwood station, on the south side of the railroad, can yet be seen a portion of the mound remaining. This mound was removed to make way for the Little Miami railroad. Many relics were found in grading down these mounds and levelling the ground over the cemetery, which are in the collections of Dr. H. H. Hill and J. J. Hooker, of Cincinnati, and of the writer and others. Southwest of another mound, and at about the same elevation known as Linwood Hill, distant about four hundred yards, is the site of a mound; it has been graded down. I could learn nothing positive as to its dimensions, the Anderson house occupies its site. Still further westward, a quarter of a mile distant, and at the same elevation on the Land company's property, is a mound four feet high with a circumference of one hundred and fifty feet. It has not been explored. The history of the western half of the old township now belongs to Cincinnati, and has been mostly considered in the second part of this book. As, however, the landing of the first white settlers in the Miami purchase was undoubtedly upon the present soil of Spencer township, with which this, the oldest town in Hamilton county and the second founded in Ohio was identified for many years, we have reserved for this chapter the history of the beginnings of Miami settlement at COLUMBIA. The movements of Major Benjamin Stites, who was not merely the founder of Columbia, but in the first instance of the Miami purchase also, preliminary to his emigration to the west, have been detailed in our chapter on the purchase, in the first part of this work. To Stites were sold, by the East Jersey company, twenty thousand acres, mostly in the Little Miami valley, and including, 0f course, the subsequent site of C0lumbia, and some tracts elsewhere. In July, 1788, he arrived at Limestone with a party of emigrants from the Redstone Old Fort, and there joined a company which had arrived on the fifth of June, having left New York and New Jersey during the spring, accompanied by the Rev. John Gano. They had been attracted to the Miami country by the representations of the Rev. William Wood, of Kentucky, who had visited New York toward the end of 1787, and confirmed the glowing statements which Stites, and then Symmes, had endeavored to spread at the east. Judge Symmes, with his party, arrived soon after, and the now large company of Miami immigrants here remained together until winter was very near. The character of Stites's arrangements with Symmes, in part at least, may be learned from the following documents, which we find, all but the last, in Colonel A. E. Jones' valuable address on the pioneers of the Little Miami valley: Captain Benjamin Stites enters ten thousand acres and the fraction on the Ohio and Little Miami rivers, and is to take in Mr. John Carpenter as one of his company, to be on line or sections on the Ohio and Little Miami from the point, and ten thousand acres on equal lines and sections at the Mill-stream [Mill Creek], falling into the Ohio between the Little and Great Miamis—which, when the certificates thereof are paid and the Record Book open, shall be recorded to him and to such of his company as join therefor. [Signed.]         JOHN C. SYMMES. New Brunswick [N. J.], 7th of September, 1787. A supplement follows, without date or signature: The last ten (10,000) thousand acres is to be taken in the following manner: Two sections at the mouth of Mill creek, and the residue to begin four (4) miles from the Ohio up Mill creek. Captain Stites takes four (4) sections on the Little Miami with the fraction adjoining the ten ( 10,000) thousand acres where it comes to the Little Miami, an , four sections with the section next above the range of township, taken by Daniel , esq., on the Little Miami. By the eighth of February, 1793, Captain Stites had paid in full for his tracts, as the following receipt evinces: CINCINNATI, February the 8th, 1793. Received of Benjamin Stites, esq., at different payments, certificates of debts due by the United States, to the amount of ten thousand six hundred and fifty-two dollars and twenty-three-one-hundreths of a dollar, in payment for different parts of the Miami purchase, lying, as may appear by location of Mr. Stites, ten thousand acres round Columbia, seven sections on the waters of Mill creek for different people, as will appear by the Miami records ; and about three or four sections in the neighborhood of Covalt's Station, and in cash orders and other articles to the amount of one hundred and fifty-eight pounds, eight shillings, and eight pence, for which lands, accommodated to the several locations, I promise to make a deed in fee simple, so soon as I am enabled by receiving my deed from the United States. Attest : JOHN S. GANO, [Signed.] JOHN C. SYMMES. The following letter from Major Stites, written a few months after planting his colony, will be read with interest in this connection: COLUMBIA, June 18, 1789. SIR:--After my respects to you and family, I would inform you that, after further deliberation on the subject of the second purchase, that if you should find it valued, that you would endeavor to purchase or come in with the owners of the point, if you can find who they are, so that we may hold some lots in and some out. Sir, do what you can, and we will be on the same terms of the article of agreement betwixt us. This from your humble servant, BENJAMIN STITES. To JOHN S. GANO, Washington. SAMUEL M. FERRIS. Samuel Marsh Ferris, of Linwood, was born October 12, 1817, in the old Ferris homestead at Mt. Lookout (now Cincinnati), where his mother, now in her eighty-fourth year, still resides. Isaac Ferris, the great-grandfather, came to Columbia from Connecticut in the year 1789. During the Revolutionary struggle both he and his son Ebenezer were engaged as soldiers under Washington in the battle of White Plains. After coming to Ohio he became one of the constituted members of the first Baptist church organized in Columbia. He was a faithful member until his death which occurred in 1819, and it may be said of his numerous descendants that they are, so far as known, strict adherents of the Baptist church. Mr. Ferris had five sons—Ebenezer, Isaac, John, Abram and Ezra; the last-named was a practicing physician in Lawrenceburgh, Indiana. John lived in the old homestead. He was a captain first, afterwards a colonel. Abram kept a tanyard in Cincinnati. Ebenezer, the grandfather of S. M. Ferris, moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where he lived and died. He had three children, two girls and one boy—Isaac Ferris, father of the' subject of this sketch. Isaac Ferris was born in Lexington, Kentucky, April Is, ins, and when only four years of age came to Hamilton county, Ohio, where he resided up to the time of his death. He came to Ohio to live with his grandfather, and learned the shoemaker's trade with his uncle Abram, Not liking this business he soon afterwards learned the trade of a blacksmith, which he followed successfully fifteen years. Out of this business grew the hame business, which he conducted until his death, and which has since been conducted by his sons. In the year 1816 he married Phoebe Marsh, who had come to Ohio from New Jersey in 1805. From this union there came nine children, five of whom are now living, S. M. Ferris being the eldest. At the early age of sixteen Isaac Ferris became the subject of Divine grace, and soon after united with the Duck Creek church, then almost in its infancy. He was baptized by Elder William Jones. Though an apprentice and residing six miles from the church, such was his love for the communion of the saints, and his delight in the public worship of God, that his place in the sanctuary was seldom vacant. In the year 1825, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, then having been a growing member for thirteen years, he was licensed to preach; and after his aptness to preach and his ability for usefulness was determined by a test of experience, he was ordained to the work of a minister. For ten years he preached to the church in which he was a member. He was afterwards thirteen years pastor of the East Fork church. This was the field in which his labors were most signally blessed, a strong church growing up under his care and an organization effected which was a great power for good in that community. Here eighty converts were baptized by him in a continuous revival of eighteen months. He also led the flocks at Newton, Cloughs, Hammer's Run, and elsewhere, and, as was necessary in those days to meet appointments, many hardships were endured. He still labored all those years at his trade, blacksmithing, and farming, and kept up his religious work: in the cause he loved so well. He was accustomed to manual labor and was an active, energetic man, and in consideration of the arduous work performed was truly a great man at that time. He died, loved and respected, December 22, 186o. Those who knew him credit him with hiving a meek, humble disposition, and an unassuming manner. His mind was clear; reasoning and understanding, deep; while his arguments and exhortations were very effective, and upon great occasions, when aroused into action, the power of the man was most fully felt. The early life of Samuel M. Ferris, the subject of this sketch, was spent on a farm and in the shop with his father, the latter association predominating and forming his life pursuits in business. In the year 1838 he married Miss Mary Z. Ferris, daughter of J. J. Ferris. She was born April 27, 1818; her father was a cousin and brother-in-law of Andrew, Joseph, and Eliphalet Ferris, who came to Ohio from the east in Air, and who became prominent men. The two families of Ferris were not related, but the ancestry of all are traceable to the days of William I, the conquerer of England. S. M. Ferris and his people are characteristically blue-eyed, fair skinned, and light-complexioned; while those of his wife's people are dark-complexioned, with dark eyes and dark hair. For two years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Ferris lived in Mt. Lookout and then moved to Linwood, in 1841, where for forty years they have resided. In 1833 Mr. Ferris was taken into the Duck Creek church, three miles north of Columbia, in which church he has always been a most active and useful member. In this church he was clerk for twenty years; was treasurer and deacon for ten years, and after he moved to Columbia, in 1865, was made deacon in the Baptist church at that place, which position he has held ever since, and in all has had an experience of forty-eight years in church work up to this date. He also took a lively interest and management in the erection of the costly and elegant church building in Columbia in 1866 and 1867. To this work he devoted of his means lavishly, and its success as an organized society is due largely to the efficient and never-tiring labors of Mr. Ferris. His first business venture, owing to small capital, was as a village blacksmith, which, with that of wagon-making, he followed for many years with some success, for by rigid economy and untiring industry he was able, in 1856, from his earnings, to build a hame shop and open business on a larger scale. In this business, with its additions, he has since continued. Prior to 1865 he carried on his business alone, but at that time he took his two brothers into partnership, built a large, new brick factory, thoroughly equipped it with modern machinery, and has since conducted a large and growing business under the firm name of S. M. Ferris & Co., of which Mr. Ferris is the financial manager. His children, seven of whom are now living—four daughters and three sons—are in prosperous circumstances. Appreciating the advantages of study, Mr. Ferris has given his children liberal educations. Mrs. Anna M. De Armand De Armond, the oldest daughter, and Mrs. Harriet Smith both live in Linwood. Mrs. Emma Hawkins lives in Clark county, Ohio, her husband being a farmer. Mrs. Clara M. Waters also resides in Linwood, her husband, Charles G. Waters, being engaged in mercantile business in Cincinnati. Mr. Ye Armand is a member of the firm of S. M. Ferris & Co., an:1 Mr. A. E Smith is a member of the firm of Roots & Co., Cincinnati (commission merchants). Frank Ferris, the oldest son, resides with his family in Linwood, and is a farmer. Howard, the second son, is an attorney-at• law, practicing in Cincinnati, and is a member of the law firm of Cowan & Ferris. Elmer E. Ferris, the youngest son, is engaged in the hame factory. Mr. Ferris has always lived an active and useful life. He is a quiet, unasuming man, cares little for office notoriety; although, had he been an aspirant in that direction, we presume he could have secured high positions of trust and responsibility. In his township, for the sake of good government and needed reforms, he has held every office except that of clerk. He helped organize his school district, and for eighteen years following served as one of the trustees on the board of education. He has always believed in the power of the school to elevate society, and so he has been a generous friend to educational interests, all his children, save one, having enjoyed the advantages of collegiate studies at the schools at Granville. Mr. Ferris, though conservative in his habits of thought and retiring in his disposition, is emphatic and pronounced in his views. His judgment is formed slowly and his conclusions are generally well regarded by his neighbors. Though he has been engaged in active business for over forty years, yet he has not neglected to improve his mind by reading and study. He has been a most faithful student of history, not only of our own but also of other countries, and having enlarged his views by travel in this and foreign countries, he has a fund of information which makes him a most agreeable companion. In business and in church circles Mr. Ferris is highly esteemed; but it is in his home relations that his influence is most deeply felt and appreciated. Here, surrounded by a large family of children and grandchildren, he is the central object of interest. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO - 349 The original agreement with Judge Symmes, when the project of the Miami purchase was broached to him by Stites, in the spring or summer of 1787, provided that Stites should have ten thousand acres about the mouth 0f the Little Miami, lying as nearly in a square as possible, as a reward for his discovery of the country and his consequent scheme of purchase, and shoulo be allowed as much in addition as he could pay for. He appears by the receipts, however, finally to have had to pay for all the lands he acquired. During the long wait at Limestone, in September, a party of about sixty went down the river, landing at the mouth of the Little Miami, and exploring the back country thoroughly for some distance between that point and the great North Bend, where Symmes afterwards planted his colony. The judge was with them, but Stites was not. He was busily engaged with preparation for his settlement, making plans for the village plat and the fort, and getting out clapboards for roofs from the woods about Limestone, with the hearts of timber prepared to fill the spaces between the logs of his prospective cabin, cut of boat-plank doors, with their hangings all ready, were also made. He and hit son Benjamin were mainly engaged in this work, and in storing them in a boat ready for the movement. At this time a sharp lookout had t0 be kept against Indian attack; and people walked about the streets and vicinity of Limestone habitually with arms in their hands. Nehemiah Stites, indeed, a nephew of the major, was killed by the savages while passing to or from the woods in which his relatives were at work. Another important item of preparation was also accomplished during the delay at Limestone, in the execution and signature of an agreement required by Stites, and assented to by about thirty persons, to form a settlement at the mouth of the Little Miami. Some were scared off afterwards, by the persistent rumors of disaffected Kentuckians, perhaps anxious to divert immigrants toward Lexington and other settlements on their side of the Ohio, that a large party of hostile Indians was encamped at or near the point of intended settlement. The majority held to their signatures, however, and it is pretty well settled that the original body of the pioneers of Columbia and the Miami purchase was composed as follows:* Major Benjamin Stites and family, including Benjamin Stites, jr.; Elijah Stites and family, including Jonathan Stites; Greenbright Bailey and family, including John F. Bailey and Reason Bailey; Abel Cook and family, Jacob Mills and family, Hezekiah Stites, John S. Gano, Ephraim Kibby, Elijah Mills, Thomas C. Wade, Edmund Buxton, Daniel Schumacher, Allen Woodruff, Joseph Cox, Benjamin Cox, Evan Shelby, Mr. Heampstead, twenty stout stalwart men, with two well-grown, capable boys (the Stites sons), were of this band. "And there was woman's fearless age, Lit by her deep love's truth; There was manhood's brow, serenely high, And 1he fiery heart of youth." Mr. Robert Clarke in his useful pamphlet on Losanti- * For the accuracy of this list, as well as for many other facts embraced in this narrative, we confidently rely upon the statement of the Rev. Ezra Ferris, D. D., long of Columbia, afterwards of Lawrenceburgh, as embodied in his communication to the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, date of July so, 1844. ville, has added the following names of subsequent but still early colonists at Columbia: James H. Bailey. Zephu Ball Jonas Bowman. W. Coleman Benjamin Davis. David Davis Owen Davis. Samuel Davis. Francis Dunlevy. Hugh Dunn Isaac Ferris. John Ferris. James Flinn. Gabriel Foster. Luke Foster. William Goforth. Daniel Griffin. Joseph Grose. John Hardin.  Cornelius Hurley. David Jennings. Henry Jennings. Levi Jennings. Ezekiel Larned. John McCulloch. John Manning. James Matthews. Aaron Mercer. Ichabod B. Miller. Patrick Moore. William Moore. John Morris. — Newell. John Phillips. Jonathan Pitman. Benjamin F. Randolph. James Seward. John Webb. — Wickerham. The names of Kibby and Schumaker (or Shoemaker) appear in the list of grantees of donation lots at Losantiville, distributed by lottery January r, 1789. Several other Columbia pioneers also acquired property, and some made perfnanent settlements at Cincinnati, their names being identified with the early annals of both places. Colonel Spencer, the Rev. John Smith, Colonel Brown, Captain Jacob White, afterwards of White's station, Mr. H-- John Reily, the schoolmaster, and others, were also of the early Columbia—all, says Judge Burnet, "men of energy and enterprise." The Columbia argonauts—"more numerous," says Burnet's notes, "than either of the parties who commenced the settlements below them on the Ohio"—led by Stites in person, he, as Symmes wrote shortly after to Dayton, "having a great desire to plant himself down there," floated out upon the broad river from Limestone, it is believed, on the sixteenth of November, 1788. The first stage of their journey took them to the mouth of Bracken creek, on the Kentucky side. An interesting incident of the voyage is thus related by Dr. Ferris : They descended the river to Bracken creek; and from that place they started, as they supposed, in time to float down the Little Miami by sunrise, so as to have the day before them for labor. Previous to their leaving Maysville, a report had been in circulation that some hunters had returned from the woods who had seen five hundred Indians at the mouth of the Little Miami, and that the Indians had heard the white people were coming there to settle, and intended to kill them all as soon as they should arrive. On its being announced at break of day that they were near the mouth of the Miami, some of the females were very much alarmed on account of the report alluded to. To allay their fears, five men volunteered their services fo go forward in a canoe, and examine.. If there were no Indians they were to wave their handkerchiefs, and the boats, which were kept close to the Kentucky shore, were to be crossed over and landed. If there were, the men were to pass by and join the beats below. The token of "no Indians" was given, and the boats were crossed over and landed at the first high banks (about three-fourths of a mile) below the mouth of the Little Miami, a little after sunrise on the morning of the eighteenth of November, 1788. This landing was on the present soil of Spencer township, outside the corporate limits of Columbia, a few hundred yards further up the river, where is still a considerable settlement, some of the buildings in which are very old. The traditional place of landing is pointed