Average. Corn - 4,810 Wheat - 3,364 Oats - 764 Tobacco - 171

Highest 1913-5,255 1907-3,970 1912-1,583 1907— 260

Lowest. 1908-4,353 1905-2,885 1910— 233 1911— 123

The following are the assessors' returns for the yield per acre :

	Average.	Highest.	Lowest.
Corn Wheat Oats Tobacco	45 bu. 16 bu. 31 bu. 841 lbs	1913— 52 1/2, bu. 1906— 22 1/2 bu. 1912— 46 bu. 1906-1,021 lbs	1904— 39 bu. 1912— 8 1-3 bu. 1908— 12 bu. 1904-700 lbs.

PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 253 In 1913 there were one thousand nine hundred and eighty-three acres in timber. A small acreage of rye is grown, somewhat variable in amount. A sufficient amount of garden crops and the different kinds of fruit are grown to supply the home demand. The only fruit growing on a considerable commercial scale is done by J. S. Kuth, in section 6. The newly sown crop of wheat was attacked by Hessian fly in the fall of 1899, and again in the spring of 1900, and totally destroyed. Not a bushel of wheat was harvested in the township that year. The farmers of the township early learned the use and need of rotation of crops. The rotation followed has varied somewhat from time to time, the rotation at the present time being chiefly corn, wheat and clover. About the year 1883, or a little later, the use of commercial or chemical fertilizers was introduced into the agriculture of the township, being used first with wheat almost exclusively. Its use has gradually extended to other crops, but it is still used very largely for wheat. Acid phosphate is in most common use, generally the fourteen per cent. or sixteen per cent. grade. Some experiments in the use of lime are being made and its use is likely to be extended in the future. Between twelve thousand and thirteen thousand bushels of wheat are consumed in the township each year. The balance is sold to be shipped away. In a general way, about ninety per cent. of the corn produced is consumed in the township, being fed to farm animals, to some extent to beef cattle for market, but to a much larger extent to hogs. According to the assessor's returns there were 880 horses in the township in February, 1914 ; 642 milch cows and 848 other cattle; 491 sheep, and 7,495 hogs. Farmers of the township have suffered considerable loss at different times because of the ravages of hog cholera. In 1913 the loss from this cause amounted to something over eleven hundred head, valued at more than nine thousand dollars. It seems probable that the loss from this source will be greatly reduced, if not entirely prevented, in the future by the use of hog cholera serum. EARLY HISTORY OF THE TOWNSHIP. The history of Jackson township begins, for our purpose, with the coming of the white man. The Indian occupied the land before the white man came. The Mound Builder was here before the Indian, and no doubt some race, or possibly many races, lived here before the Mound Builder. It was, and is, a goodly land and one which, we can well believe, has at- 254 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. tracted man and beast through many ages. The Indian had, gone, or was going, as the white man came in. All the others had gone, and had left but little in the way of record behind them, less in Jackson township than in some other sections. Probably the first settlement in Jackson township was made in the year 1805 by Ayres Taylor, near Four Mile creek, in section 29. He entered a quarter section of land and settled on it, but, being discouraged by the • hard life of a lone pioneer in the wilderness and despairing also of being able to make the back payment on his land, he sold out the next year, 1806, to Henry Paddack and went back to Kentucky. The United States government was selling land at that time on the following terms : Two dollars, per acre, either cash or in payments, one-fourth down, one-fourth in two years, one-fourth in three years and one-fourth in four years. As the early settlers had but little to sell and little or no market, it can be readily understood that making payments for land, even at two dollars an acre, was no easy undertaking. Henry Paddack, who came from Kentucky, was more fortunate than Taylor, or perhaps made of sterner stuff, and he stayed on. He raised the first crop in the township and planted the first orchard. He lived to see his family grow up around him, and died at an advanced age. Many of his descendants are still living in the township. In this same year, 1806, John McCormick settled about a half mile north of Henry Paddack, and Robert McCormick built a log cabin in section 34, but rented it to Rice Price, who became a permanent resident of the township. McCormick went back to Kentucky. In March, 1807, Andrew Morrow settled in section 9, on Elkhorn creek, coming from North Carolina. The same year, or the next, John Hardin came from Germantown, Montgomery county, and settled lower down on Elkhorn creek, near the state line. During the next two or three years Michael Browell, David Sidwell, John Bosworth, Amos Higgins, William Neal, and the three Wade brothers, Joseph, John and William, settled near Hardin, and, together with others who came later, formed what was known as the Elkhorn settlement. Settlers were coming in on the Indiana side at the same time, and as many of them on both sides of the line came from Kentucky, the whole. section of country came to be known as "Kaintuck." John and James Melling, and probably others, came in about the same time in the eastern part of the township. John Wolf settled in 1811 in section 10, John McCord about the same time in section 4, William Cooper in section 34 and the same year, Jacob Neff in section 36. Between 1812 and 1820 came Thomas Mc- PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 255 Whinney and his family, including his three married sons, John, William and Matthew, John Campbell, Jacob Cline, Jacob Swain, Jeremiah Frame, Archibald Stark, John and George Morrow, brothers of Andrew Morrow, John C. McManus, Jesse Stamback, James McCowen and family, including his sons, John, William and James, and many others. By this time the extreme pioneer conditions were passing away. Some of these early pioneers remained but a few years and then moved on. Others became permanent residents and the descendants of many of them are still numbered among the people of the township. The census of 1820 showed there were 615 people living in the township. Immigration continued and the population increased until in 1840 it reached 1,260. The population in 186o was 1,578; in 1880, 1,296; in 1900, 1,255, and in 1910, 1,157. IMPROVED CONDITIONS. With the passing of the years and the increase of population came improved living conditions. The one-room log cabin gave wave to the frame dwelling, a little larger and more commodious. These, in turn, later on were replaced by other dwellings, still larger and better arranged and more permanent. The, log stable has been succeeded by large and well-appointed barns and other necessary buildings, until today the improvements on the average Jackson township farm have cost thousands of dollars. The value of land has gone up from two dollars an acre in 1805 to one hundred dollars or more at the present time. The assessed valuation of real estate in the township for taxation purposes. in 1914 was $1,913,600.00; of personal property, $504,620, and of the public utilities, $572,310, or a total valuation of $3,014,460.00. The tax rate for all purposes is 8.9 mills, divided as follows : School levy, 4 mills ; road, 1.65 mills; total township, 1.9 mills; county levy, 2.55 mills; state, .45 mills, form the total taxes levied and collected. PIONEER LIFE. It is difficult for us to realize or appreciate what the pioneer life meant to the early settlers. Life was reduced to its simplest and lowest terms. The father of the family was at once a farmer, a carpenter, often a blacksmith, a hunter, a tanner and a shoemaker. He might, on occasion, be forced to turn his hand to some other trade, or even profession, and to fail would mean hardship and suffering, or even death. The mother was not only a mother and homekeeper, but she spun the 256 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. thread, wove the cloth, and made the garments which clothed her children. She helped with the necessary preparation of the raw material before it was ready to spin, and in the hour of need she was the family doctor. Of necessity, every family had to prove sufficient unto itself, and no better proof could be offered of the wisdom and hard sense of the men and women of that day than the fact that so often they proved equal to the occasion. All honor to the courage, resolution and persistency of the pioneers who made the present Jackson township possible. ORGANIZATION OF JACKSON TOWNSHIP. Jackson township became a separate township by act of the county commissioners on December 18, 1816, being formed out of portions of Jefferson and Dixon townships. The first election was held at the house of Adam Starr. John Starr and John McCord were elected justices of the peace. William Stevens, who emigrated to Louisiana soon afterward, was elected township clerk. It is not known who the other officers were. The township house and township offices are located at Campbellstown, in the center of the township. The township trustees at the present time are H. E. Ashinger, John Barr and S. S. Hart. Frank G. Thompson is township clerk and James Shumate treasurer. RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES. The first meetings of a religious nature were held at homes of the early settlers. About 1810 a congregation of the Christian, or "New Light" denomination was organized under the leadership of Elder David Purviance, who had come out from Kentucky a few years before and settled in the southwest corner of what is now Jefferson township. Shortly afterward, probably about 1815, a frame church building was erected on the Indiana side of the state line, opposite section 7 of this township. The church and congregation adopted or received the name of Shiloh and became the religious center for miles around. The membership lived in both states, but the greater part of it on the Ohio side. A graveyard was established nearby and many of the early settlers found a last resting place there. Later on, the congregation declined in numbers and became extinct, and the church building was removed many years ago. About the time the Shiloh congregation became extinct—1840—a new congregation of the same denomination was organized in the neighborhood around New West PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 257 ville, and a church built there. After a few years the congregation declined in numbers and became extinct. In the year 1851, under the leadership of Elder James Neal, the Union Chapel society, also of the Christian denomination, was organized in the southeastern part of the .township, and a church built on the township line in section 25. This congregation held regular services until about 1890, and occasional services a few years longer, when the society passed out of existence. In the year 1842 a Christian church was built at West Florence and services were held there for a few years. In 1859 people belonging to different denominations about West Florence, the Christians and Universalists leading, united together and built a large brick church, known as the People's church. Services were held in this church for about twenty years, when the organization, owing to differences among the members, passed out of existence. Occasional services were held in the church until 1905, when the church building finally became the property of the owner of the land on which the building stood. In the years 1899 a congregation of the Christian denomination was organized and a modern and well equipped church built at Campbellstown. This society is strong and vigorous and promises to be a potent and lasting influence in the future of the community. It will thus he seen that the Christian denomination has had a church and congregation somewhere in the township from the earliest times and has been a constant factor in the religious life of the people. Among the ministers of this denomination have been David Purviance, John Adams, Reuben Dooley, Josiah Conger, Levi Purviance, James Neal, T. M. McWhinney, W. A. Gross, Hiram Simonton, W. A. Broderick and Peter Sullivan. In very early times a small congregation of the Methodist Episcopal church was formed in the northern part of the township. They held services first at the houses of members, but later in a building erected about 1825 for the purpose, on the farm of James Morse in section 3. This society ceased to exist after a few years. It was succeeded about 1845, largely through the efforts of Robert McCord, a local preacher, by a society which had a church about a mile south of New Westville. This society continued to hold services until about 1880, when it passed out of existence. For more than sixty years, beginning with the year 1847, a Methodist Episcopal congregation had a church and held services at New Hope. This society has now ceased to exist and the church building is devoted to other uses. Many of the ablest men in the Methodist Episcopal church ministered (17) 258 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. in the early days to the congregations in this township, John Durkin, Werter Davis and W. H. Raper being among the number. A congregation of the United Brethren existed from the earliest times, partly in Jackson and partly in Washington township. At first, services were held in the houses or barns of members, but about 1815 a log church was built, and in the year 1830 a better house was erected near the township line in Washington township. In 1847 a brick church was built in New Hope and this became the home of the congregation. A handsome frame building took the place of the brick structure in 1882, and this was remodeled and improved in 1905. This society has had a continuous existence of more than a hundred years, and has exerted a great influence on the life of the people of that community. It is flourishing and vigorous and has before it, apparently, many years of useful service. Rev. E. P. Huddle is the present minister. About 1872 a society of the Christian denomination was organized and a church built at New Westville. Elder James Neal conducted services in the church for a few 'years, when it passed .under the control of the Main Street Friends meeting at Richmond, Indiana. It has since been maintained as a mission branch of that society. Rev. Irwin Stegall is the present minister. The Baptists had a society at one time in the southwestern part of the township and built a church about 1820, near the southeast corner of section 20. About 1840 the society passed out of existence, and a little later the church was removed. In 1900 a society of the Disciples, or "Campbellite" church, was formed and a church built at Campbellstown. There have been no services in this church for two or three years. BURIAL PLACES. The first burial place in the township was in section 19 on the Indiana line. The first person buried in this graveyard and the first who died in the township was Thomas Hollet, a young man, who was killed by a f alling tree. This cemetery is still used and is well care for. There was a graveyard at Shiloh church, but it was abandoned many years ago and is grown up with bushes and small trees. At a very early time there was a graveyard near the northwest corner of section 10. Only a few persons were buried there and it has long been abandoned, and is now a part of the adjoining cultivated field. What is PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 259 known as the Frame graveyard is in section 25. The first burial there was in July, 1816. It is still used and properly cared for. The New Westville graveyard adjoins the site of the New Westville Methodist church. The first burial there was in September, 1845. It is still used as a burying ground. NEW WESTVILLE. New Westville was surveyed and platted by George Worthington, due acknowledgment being made before Isaac Stephens, justice of the peace, July 16, 1816, and this became the first town in Jackson township. The town was known at first as Westville, and letters were addressed to Mc. Cowen's Cross Roads. The name was changed to New Westville in 1840, when the postoffice was established. The first store in the village was conducted by James McCowen. The town thrived and grew, and in the forties was a place of considerable importance. A number of the people of the town died in the cholera epidemic of 1849. Others were frightened away, never to return, and the building of the railroad, a mile away to the south, in 1852, was the finishing touch. The town never recovered its former importance. The population at the present time is about sixty-five. Milo Stegall keeps the general store. WEST FLORENCE. West Florence was laid out by John McCowen in 1816, but the plat was not recorded until March 18, 1835. McCowen named the proposed town Knoxville, after the county seat of Knox county, Tennessee, his former home. When the plat was received the name was changed to Florence, and when the postoffice was established in 1839, the name was again changed to West Florence. At first, part of the town was in Dixon township, but for many years the town has been entirely in Jackson township. John McCowen had the first store, opened in 1816. P. C. Flora conducts a general store and does a good business. The population is about sixty. NEW HOPE. New Hope was laid out by Daniel Hawk, June 11, 1841. Additions were made in 1842 by Abraham Leedy, and in 1847. by Jacob Cline. The first store was kept by William Brown, and he became the first postmaster April 2, 1844, the postoffice being called Upshur until it was discontinued. The population is about one hundred. 260 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO CAMPBELLSTOWN. Campbellstown came into existence with the coming of the railroad in 1852. A station was placed at the center of the township and named Florence Station. The postoffice was named Campbellstown. Harvey McWhinney opened a general store soon after the railroad began business, and bought and shipped grain and stock. Later he operated a saw-mill and pork-packing establishment. McWhinney died in 1863, and a few years later the packing business was discontinued. O. B. Cooper has the general store at the present time and W. C. Swisher ships grain and live stock. Both do a good business. Miss Amy Arrasmith has charge of the postoffice. The population of Campbellstown is about one hundred. C. C. Gard ships' live stock from Riota, and Richards Brothers & Company run the grain elevator at that place. I. N. Watts owns and operates the only saw-mill in the township at the present time, at "Jughandle," on the Eaton and Richmond pike, in section 10. A saw-mill has been operated continuously at that place since 1850. HIGHWAYS. The first roads in the township probably were made by the settlers in their efforts to get to their newly purchased lands with their wagons. These trails were afterward extended in different directions as the requirements of the settlers made it convenient or necessary. For a long time but little in the way of improvement was attempted, and the roads remained practically in a state of nature. About 1810 a road was surveyed and opened across the township from Eaton to Richmond, entering near the middle of the east line and leaving at the northwest corner of the township. About the year 1837 a company was formed for the purpose of grading and graveling this road and making a toll road out of it. It was completed to the Indiana line in the fall of 1844, the gravel being placed on the portion from New Hope westward in that year. The gravel was hauled from banks a little more than a mile west of the Indiana line. It remained a toll road until the year 1886, when it was turned over to the county to keep up. For forty years it was practically the only improved road in the township. About the year 1885 the people began in earnest the work of improving their roads. When once begun, the work of improvement went on rapidly and at the present time there is scarcely a mile of unimproved road in the township. The supply of gravel has been nearly exhausted and crushed stone is taking its place for repairing the roads. PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 261 In 1852 the Hamilton, Eaton & Richmond railroad was built across the township, very largely through the aid of local capital. The building of this road resulted in greatly improved markets. In the year 1902 the Dayton & Western Traction Company began the construction of an electric road from Eaton to Richmond, Indiana, following the line of the Eaton and Richmond turnpike. The work of construction was completed the next year, 1903. On July 4, 1903, cars were run from New Westville to Eaton during the day, carrying passengers, but regular service was not inaugurated until two or three months later. During the year 1901, the Eaton Telephone Company extended its lines into the township, something near one hundred patrons becoming subscribers. Service was begun in October of that year. The Jackson township usiness was handled at first through an exchange at Campbellstown, but later this was abandoned and the telephone connected directly with the exchange at Eaton. There are now about one hundred and sixty subscribers in the township. Sometime during the year 1900 the United States government established a rural free mail delivery route out of Richmond, Indiana, which gave service to about twenty families in the northwestern part of Jackson township. About a year later this route was extended to include about thirty more families. April 1, 1902, E. H. Cook began delivering mail on a route starting from Campbellstown and which gave service to about one hundred families. Other routes starting from Eaton which had begun delivering mail February 1st of the same year, gave service to a large number of families in this township. A readjustment of the routes early in the year 1906 gave service to all the families in the townships. After eleven years of carrying the mail, Mr. Cook resigned as mail carrier and J. W. O'Hara took his place March 16, 1913, and is still acting in that capacity. SCHOOLS. In the first years of the settlement of Jackson township the population was too sparse and the families too far apart to make it possible to establish or keep up schools. There was little or nothing in the way of a school system. There were no public school funds whatever, and the early schools were all "pay,” or subscription schools, maintained wholly at the expense of the patrons. The school houses were built of logs (in one case an abandoned blacksmith shop was used as a school house) and were lacking in about everything that goes with a modern school house. The school 262 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. term was short, not over three months, and about all there was of the school was a teacher, often with little qualification, and the children, eager to learn. The schools were far apart and apparently were changed about from one neighborhood to another. Thus the children of one family, living near the east line of section 9 attended a school one winter near the present site of the New Westville graveyard ; another winter the school was nearly a mile over into Jefferson township, and another winter it was near the east line of section H. The children made their way through the dense forest as best they could. The first School house in the township, it is said, was built on the present site of West Florence in the year 1814, and the first school was taught there the next winter by John Taylor, known to his neighbors as "the little Scotchman." There were twenty-five children in the school and it was very difficult to get that many. Taylor appears to have been a good teacher, and afterward taught in other parts of the township. Jesse Hopkins was another one of the early teachers, and still another was Alexander Barr, a native of Ireland, who grew up to manhood in that country. He was a very well educated man for that time. He moved with his family from Pennsylvania in the year 1815, and made a home in the southern part of Jefferson township. He taught school for many years in southern Jefferson and northern Jackson. As the pioneer conditions passed away the township was divided into nine sub-districts, with a school house in each one, at first built of logs, but succeeded later by frame houses. During the years 1869 to 1872 substantial brick school houses were built in all the districts, with spacious yards and necessary outbuildings. In April, 1895, the voters of the township decided, by a majority of twenty-eight, to establish a township high school. A handsome and convenient building was erected, at a cost of five thousand dollars, and school commenced early in October, with R. K. DeMotte as teacher and fifteen pupils in attendance. The length of term was six months each year and the course of study covered three years. The term has since been extended to eight and one-half months and the course of study to four years. In the fall of 1896 Mr. DeMotte was elected county surveyor and B. S. Davis -took his place in the high school in the fall of 1897. He, in turn, was succeeded three years later by C. R. Coblentz, the present township superintendent. In November, 1912, the voters of the township gave a majority of seventy in favor of centralizing all the schools of the township. Because of decreased attendance many of the schools had already been consolidated. PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 263 The following facts relating to the schools are furnished by Mr. C. R. Coblentz, township superintendent : Township high school, established 1895; cost of .building, $5,000.00, now township house. Consolidation of sub-districts began in 1910; completely centralized since January 1, 1913. Bond issue for present centralized school building voted in January, 1910; amount, $15,000 at 5 per cent., $1,000 payable. annually, with accrued interest. First direct vote on centralization, November, 1910, defeated by 33 votes. New building occupied January 1, 1911, by high school and six subdistrict schools, New Hope, New Westville and No. 7 schools being left out. No. 7 brought to the central school on September 1, 1911. New Westville school brought in in September, 1912. Second vote on centralization, November, 1912, carried by seventy votes; "Last school, New Hope, brought in January 'I, 1913, completing the consolidation of all the schools in the Central school. COST.

Central school building Heating and ventilating system Acetylene light system Barn, 120 ft. by 30 ft., outhouses, walks, etc Water system installation Four acres of land	$19,572.00 3,100.00 300.00 1,200.60 432.00 1,100.00
Total	$25,704.00

PRESENT SYSTEM. Transportation: Hacks, 11 ; average cost, new, $175.00; owned by township. Drivers, 11; two paid $2.25 per day, eight paid $2.50 per day, and one paid $2.75 per day. Drivers under contract and bond of $100 to carry out contract to satisfaction of board of education. PUPILS. Enrollment, 1913-1914— Elementary - 185  High school - 54  Total - 239 264 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. Enrollment 1914-15— Elementary - 191 High school - 62 Total - 253 High school enrollment, 1910, year before consolidation, 37; now, 62. Graduates of high school, not including class of 1915— Boys - 59 Girls - 57 Total - 116 TEACHERS. Present Corps : Edna Horner, first and second grades, salary, $60 per month; Mabel Cail, third and fourth grades, sewing, $60 per month; Myrtle Benham, fifth and sixth grades, cooking, $60 per month; W. H. Wisman, seventh and eighth grades, $65 per month ; Clarence Thompson, high school, manual training, $65 per month ; Blanche Rinehart, high school, $100 per month; J. S. DcDivitt, principal of high school, $112.50 per month; C. R. Coblentz, superintendent, $1,200 per year. Average wages of teachers below high school, fifty cents per day higher than before centralization of schools. Average teaching experience of entire corps, eleven years. Length of school term, now eight and one-half months. Board of Education : W. W. Gard, president; B. F. Campbell, vice-president; C. F. Miller, J. H. McWhinney, G. A. Laird. The course of study includes sewing and cooking and manual training in the grades. The high school course of study includes one and one-half years each in algebra and geometry, one year in physics, and four years in Latin. Instruction is also given in agriculture in the high school. The Central school building is large, well arranged, well appointed and up-to-date in every respect. The school has been brought to a high degree of efficiency through the labors of Superintendent Coblentz and his faithful and capable corps of assistants, and everything pertaining to the school is in every way creditable to the township. THE OUTLOOK. Coming now to the end of Jackson township's first century, it may not be amiss to look forward for a moment into the future. The gift of prophecy PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 265 is given to few, if any, men, but some just concept may be formed of what is to come by what has passed. In very truth, the coming event casts its shadow before. With a school system which comes near being a model of its kind in meeting the needs and requirements of the people which it serves; with roads which are already good, and which presently are to be made better by the application of newer and more efficient methods ; with steam and electric railroads and auto-vehicles to solve the problem of transportation; with all the world brought near by the telegraph, the telephone and the free delivery of mails; with the inventions and discoveries of the coming years, whose benefits are to be for country as well as town, and, finally, with a population, intelligent, progressive and capable of grasping and using the good that is in all these things, surely for Jackson township and Jackson township's people "the pathway of the future is spanned by the bow of promise." CHAPTER XIX. JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. By C. W. Bloom. The formation of Jefferson township as a separate entity as it now exists, is fully set out in the chapter on Organization of the County. Suffice it to state that in 1916 the township will round out a century as now formed. If there were any further public records of the early organization they were very meager and have not been preserved. It is proable that there was not, for several years, any real official organization, for the population was sparse, consisting only of a very few settlers who had established themselves in log cabin homes in little "clearings" they had made in the primeval forest which covered practically the entire territory of the township. In this dense native woods were thousand of noble and giant specimens of oak, ash, walnut, poplar and other now valuable timber, and thousands of feet of it was split into rails or burned to make room for cultivation of crops. Not until 1829, so far as any available records reveal, was there a board of trustees, and this first one was composed of James Jackson, James Graham and John Campbell. PHYSICAL FEATURES. Jefferson is the northwest township of the county, and lies along the Indiana-Ohio state line. Darke county is on the north, Monroe township on the east and Jackson on the south. A watershed, which passes through Somers, Israel, Dixon and Jackson township, enters Jefferson in section 33, trends nearly north into section 22 and then east and northeast into the northwest corner of Monroe, through section 12 of Jefferson. This divides the waters flowing westerly into White-water and easterly into Seven Mile creek, which takes its rise in section 22, in a county ditch, which runs southeasterly and passes out of the township a short distance below the hamlet of Gettysburg. The most easterly branch of Whitewater, known as Little creek, draws PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 267 the water from the western slope of the dividing ridge, and the eastern slope of a smaller ridge running between the branch stream and Whitewater creek. Elkhorn creek has its source in the drainage ditches: of section 34 on the south boundary of the township and just east of the main ridge. In the southwestern part a short spur of the main, ridge runs west and empties its southern waters into another branch of the Whitewater and the northern waters into the creek proper. Entering at the middle of the western boundary, and passing northeast. and north through section 18, 8 and 5, .is a ridge separating the waters of Whitewater on the east from those of a smaller stream on the west. The landscape of Jefferson township is varied and very pleasing in its scenic features. The southeastern half is greatly rolling, and excellent agricultural land, while in the northwestern part, along the course of the larger streams, the surface is more rugged, the hills, in places, being suggestive of a mountainous country, though these hills are not lacking in fertility and produce good crops. Extensive and charming views are obtained from almost any one of the range of hills bordering the Whitewater in the neighborhood of New Paris. . North and south may be seen the silvery thread of the stream, winding between the bordering hills, while to the west the horizon loses itself in the beautiful hills of Indiana. All along the Whitewater and its tributaries are enormous deposits of excellent gravel, the sedimentary deposits, no doubt, of the glacial epoch. This gravel is first-class material for road buildings and has been utilized to the extent that practically all of the seventy-five miles of road in the township is good, graveled highway. These roads are well cared for by the authorities and are known as among the best in the county. These deposits of glacial gravel are of enormous extent and many of them are yet practically untouched. Originally there extended across the township from northwest to southeast a glacial moraine of granite boulders, many of them of great size, and in places in great number, but as the land has been cleared and brought under cultivation they have been gradually removed by the farmers until they are no longer" much in. evidence. In the valley in the vicinity of New Paris there is an outcrop of limestone of the Niagara group, one hundred feet in thickness and of the best quality. From very early days this has been quarried for building stone and hundreds of thousands of bushels of lime have been burned and shipped. Changing conditions, however, within recent years have led to the abandonment of both these industries, and now the stone is quarried and crushed for the market in one of the largest crushing plants of the state. 268 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. STATISTICS. The area of the township embraces 22,095 acres of farm land, valued for taxation at $1,610,680. Adding to this real estate of New Paris, $403,870, gives a total valuation of real property of $2,014,550. The personal property of the township is $1,118,730, and of New Paris $409,910, a total of $1,528,640, or a total valuation of the entire township of $3,543,190. SETTLEMENT. The original settlers, who came here to divide the occupancy of the primeval forest with the Indians, arrived about 1806. They came principally from Kentucky and most largely from Bourbon county in that state. Most prominent among them were the Flemings, Irelands, Purviances, Morrisons and Mitchells. All of these families acted prominent parts in the early history of the township, and a few of their lineal descendants are still found here. Most, if not all, of these early settlers stopped in the western part of the township, along the Whitewater, but it is notable that they built their houses, not on the lowlands of the valley, which were then, no doubt, wet and swampy in most places, but on the hillsides and more elevated locations, and usually near a spring of water. Among the very earliest settlers of Jefferson township and one of the most prominent and influential in shaping the affairs of the new country, was David Purviance. He was born in Iredell county, North Carolina, in 1766. His parents, who were strict Presbyterians, reared him in that faith and he was thoroughly drilled in the catechism. At the age of twenty-three, he married Mary Ireland, who also was among the early settlers of Jefferson township. Soon after his marriage they emigrated to Tennessee and settled near Nashville. From there he later removed to Kentucky and settled on a farm in Bourbon county. His land, covered with a heavy forest and thick canebrake, was difficult to clear and presented difficulties involving much labor and privation. But here he toiled until 1791, when he was selected as a representative to the state Legislature. Then it was that his abilities were first revealed and it was discovered that he was really a great man. In 1807 he emigrated to Ohio and settled in section 31 of Jefferson township. He was a pioneer preacher and among his first activities was the organization of a church of the New Light, or Christian, faith, to which Elder Purviance had given his adherence during his residence in Kentucky. He had not lived here long until the fame of his powerful speeches in the PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 269 Kentucky Legislature followed him. In the fall of 1809 he was selected to represent Preble and Montgomery counties in the state Legislature and served one term of two years. In 1812, the district having been changed. he was elected to the Senate by the counties of Preble, Darke and Miami, where he served four years. He was in the Senate at the time that Columbus was made the capital of the state. He was instrumental in securing the location of Miami University at Oxford, and for many years was a trustee of that institution. Although coming from a slave state, he was much opposed to the institution of slavery and while in the Ohio Legislature his vigorous support of a bill for the repeal of the "black laws of Ohio" made him, for the time, very unpopular. But he never wavered in his convictions on the subject and his efforts on behalf of the slaves were never relaxed. In 1826 he was again elected and he always took a strong interest in political affairs. In the Legislatures of Kentucky and Ohio together he served fifteen sessions, and he was also on the electoral ticket in 1812 when James Madison was re-elected President. He died in 1848 and lies buried in the old cemetery at New Paris. A SOLDIER OF 1812. Elder Levi Purviance was the oldest son of Elder David Purviance and was a worthy successor to him. He was born in Iredell county, North Carolina, in 1790, and moved with his parents to Tennessee, and thence to Kentucky. At the age of sixteen he came with his father to Jefferson township and assisted him in the work of clearing his land. During the first year he cleared six acres and put it in corn, and this was probably the first corn ever raised in the township by white men. In 1811 he was married to Sophia Woods, of Wayne county, Indiana. In 1812 he volunteered and served in the army at Fort Nisbet under the command of Capt. Silas Fleming. Fort Nisbet was located just across the north line of Jefferson township, on the edge of Darke county, and was one of the numerous forts erected in this section as defenses against the Indians. In 1823 he was ordained a minister of the gospel and continued in this work until the time of his death. All this time, except ten years spent in Illinois, was spent in Ohio, five years in Miami county, five in Warren and the remainder in Darke and Preble counties. Elder Purviance was the constant attendant of his father, and when David died Levi took up his mantle. About 1852 he removed to Morristown, Illinois, and after ten years returned to Ohio. After preaching for 270 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. some time in Covington and Franklin, Ohio, he accepted a call to Eaton and died there April 9, 1873, in his eighty-third year. David Ireland was born in 1765 in North Carolina. His father, John Ireland, was a native of Ireland and his mother of Irish descent. They emigrated to Tennessee, whence they came to Jefferson township in 1808 with their son. David was born in North Carolina and was a Revolutionary soldier, being only seventeen years of age when he enlisted, and was elected captain of a company. He died in 1847. His last surviving son, James Ireland, died nearly thirty years ago, at a good old age, at his home a short distance north of New Paris. John Harvey was another pioneer who came from Tennessee in 1808 and settled on a farm in sections 4 and 5. John Wasson came from Kentucky in 1810. James Fleming came from Kentucky about 1808. He was one of the most enterprising citizens of the new community and was noted for being closely identified with every enterprise calculated to promote its interests. He was one of the founders of New Paris. His brother, Judge Peter Fleming, who was also closely identified with every interest of Jefferson township, settled about the same time just over the line in Indiana between New Westville and Richmond. John Mitchell, born in North Carolina in 1784, emigrated to Kentucky, and in 1810 came to Jefferson township and settled in section 14. His sons, Franklin and Samuel, the last remaining members of his family, died here, the former in 1905 and the latter in 1909. Lewis Mitchell was born in Kentucky in 1796 and emigrated to Jefferson township with his parents, Elijah and Sarah Mitchell, in 1807. He died here in 1857. Adam Reid, who was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, about 1788, settled in this township about 1810, where he died in 1840. His son, William B. Reid, who was the last survivor of a family of five children, was a well-known citizen of the township until his death, in 1891. In his earlier manhood he conducted a hatter's shop in New Paris, and later was a successful and- prosperous farmer, and for many years owned and operated the farm now owned by his grandson, E. R. Clark, in section 32. John Curry, progenitor of a numerous family, many of whom yet remain, was born in Pennsylvania in 1804 and emigrated to this township in 1814. In 1832 he married Nancy Ann Brinley, who was born in New Jersey in 1808. Thomas W. Porterfield was born in Virginia in 1777. His wife, Cynthia Ireland, was born in 1791, and died in 1869. They emigrated from PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 271 Tennessee at a very early day and entered two hundred and forty acres of land in section 8 of Jefferson township. They arrived here before the woodman's axe had touched the native forest, and built a cabin, but the Indians were so troublesome that they returned to Tennessee and remained there until the close of the War of 1812, when Mr. Porterfield returned and cleared his land. It is notable that nearly all of these pioneers came from Southern states, which were then slave territory, and, almost without exception, they held the strongest convictions against the institution of slavery, a fact which doubtless accounts in a large part for their emigration to the wilderness north of the Ohio, which was free from the hated institution. Thus was founded new communities in which were sown seeds of the conflict which, fifty years later, culminated in the elimination from the nation of this relic of barbarism. Hugh Marshall was born in Kentucky in 1789. In the year 1813 he emigrated to Ohio and settled in section 16 of Jefferson township. He had married Elizabeth Pitts in 1811 and his wife and child were his only companions during the journey. It is related of them that their only possessions were a horse, a kettle and a feather bed. The latter was used by Mrs. Marshall as a saddle, as she rode, carrying the baby and the kettle, her husband performing the journey on foot by her side. They had a family of eleven children, one of whom, Hannah, married: James Brown. Her son, W. A. Brown, still resides in New Paris. Michael Hahn, who was born in Cincinnati in 1794, emigrated to Jefferson township in 1816 and settled in section 7. He was the father of Joseph Hahn, who was born in 1812 and came here with his parents at the age of four years. The remainder of his life was spent in the township, most of it on the old farm, but in his later years he removed to New Paris, where he died in 1889. He is yet remembered by many of the older citizens as a man distinguished for the uprightness and probity of his life. John Brinley, who was born in New Jersey in 1782, emigrated to Butler county, Ohio, in 1811, where he remained until 1816, when he removed and settled in section 14 of Jefferson township. James Norris, born in Maryland in 1781, afterward moved to Pennsylvania, whence he moved to Ohio in 1816, settling in section 35 of Jefferson. His son, John McD. Norris, succeeded him on the old place. Gideon Garretson was born in Delaware in 1776, and in 1818 emigrated to Ohio and settled in section 18 of Jefferson. William Stockton, born in 1790, in New Jersey, came to Hamilton 272 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. county, Ohio, in 1804, thence removing to Butler country and in 1818 to Preble county, where he settled in section 11 of Jefferson township. Andrew Scott was born in Ireland in 1819, and, when only two years of age, emigrated with his parents, Robert and Jane Scott, to Rockbridge county, Virginia. In 1829 they came to this township and settled in section 19. Samuel King, born in Warren county in 1808, came to Preble county in 1818 and settled in Monroe township. His son, Samuel King, Jr., afterward lived for many years on the farm in section 34 of Jefferson township, the same that is now occupied by his son, James A. King. Peter Bilbee, born in 1803, came with his parents, Peter and Isabella Bilbee, in 1820 and settled in section 23. John Swerer came from New Jersey about 1820. His children were Lewis, George, Warren, Agnes and Sarah. James Harvey Young emigrated to Ohio in 1831 and settled in section 22. John McFadden was born in 1794 in Virginia, and emigrated to Ohio in 1834, settling in section 22 of Jefferson township. James Woofter was born in Virginia in 1796 and emigrated to. Ohio at the age of nineteen. He came to Preble county in 1827. In 1833 he built a flouring-mill a short distance north of New Paris, and this was afterward operated for many years by his son, Daniel F. Woofter. The latter finally lost his life in the mill by a fall through a hatchway. He was captain of Company F of the One Hundredth and Fifty-sixth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the summer of 1864. James Graham, a great hunter, came from Virginia about 1822. He was considered the best shot in the township. Thomas Miller came from Ireland in 1824 and settled on a farm in the very center of the township. His children, Robert and Joseph Miller and Mrs. Mary Graham, were well-known and respected citizens of the county, but are all now dead. Arthur Duffield, born in Pennsylvania in 1810, settled in Gettysburg, in this township, in 1838. For eighteen years he kept a general store and finally became an extensive land owner. John McKee came from Pennsylvania in 1822 and settled in section 14. William McKee came to Jefferson township in 1822 from Pennsylvania. Andrew McKee was born in Pennsylvania in 1802 and came to this county in 1822 with his parents. He died in 1870. PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO - 273 John Harshman was born in Virginia in 1792, and came to Jefferson township and settled in section 26 about the year 1822. He was the father of Franklin, William and Daniel Harshman. The latter served as county commissioner and in other official positions. Daniel Jaqua, unlike most of the pioneers of Jefferson township, was not from the Southern States, but was born near Kinderhook, New York, in 1787. After various removals to Pennsylvania and Cincinnati, Ohio, he finally, in 1824, reached this county and .located on a farm in Jefferson township, from which he cleared the native forest. He died in 1871. His son, Reuben Jaqua, was one of the early school teachers of the county and is yet well remembered by many of his former pupils. MARTYRED FOR HIS PRINCIPLES. One of the best remembered of the early citizens of Jefferson township was Thomas Barber, who became martyr to his anti-slavery principles in 1858 or 1859. He emigrated to Kansas about that time, just as the breaking out of the "Kansas troubles" over the question of the extension of slavery. True to his principles, he took an active part in the contest there and soon became known as one of the hated "abolitionists." He was shot by an assassin. The poet, Whittier, thus honored his memory : "Plant the buckeye on his grave, For the hunter of the slave In its shadow cannot rest; And let martyr, mound and tree Be our pledge and guaranty Of the freedom of the west !" Coming down to later times in the history of the township and bridging the period between the days of the pioneers and the present, we may mention a few of the citizens who were more or less prominent in the business and political life of the township. Samuel Smith came from his native state of Pennsylvania in 1838 and settled in section 20 of Jefferson township, on the farm adjoining the east corporation line of New Paris. In 1840 he bought the mill here formerly built and owned by Peter Fleming, and for thirty-three years operated it. In those days almost every mill had as an adjunct a distillery, or, as they were generally known then, a "stillhouse," and Smith's was no exception. (18) 274 - PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO. However, after, a few years this feature of the enterprise fell into disuse and was abandoned. Mr. Smith was also engaged for many years in the stone and lime business and owned and operated the extensive quarries and kilns located on the northern outskirts of. New Paris. He was succeeded in business by his sons, Thomas J. and William C. Smith, the latter operating the milling business, while the former conducted the stone and lime enterprise on an extensive scale for a number of years during the seventies and eighties. Mr. Smith died in 1879. Thomas J. Smith, who was born in 1841 and married Nellie McPherson in 1863, was prominent in the township for many years for the large employment he gave to labor in the extensive lime and stone business which he conducted. He it was who first conceived the improvements in the New Paris quarries, which finally led up to the extensive crushing plant now in operation there. It was while engaged in making the excavation for the railroad track leading into the quarries in 1892, that he lost his son and business partner, Nathan J. Smith, who was killed by the fall of a large derrick. This was a hard blow to Mr. Smith and his own death followed in 1893, largely the result of exposure and overwork, leaving his cherished plans incomplete and to be carried into execution by others. Mr. Smith is, perhaps, best remembered by his useful devotion and incessant labors through many years in the temperance cause. Himself a victim, in his earlier years, of the liquor habit, he became.interested in 1877 in the "Murphy movement." For the remainder of his life he remained true to the total abstinence pledge which he then took. For years he was the official head of the temperance organization in New Paris, always present at the numerous meetings that were held, frequently visited other localities to organize and assist the work, and, though one of the busiest of men in his large business activities, he was never too busy to lend a helping hand in the work of the reform which was ever nearest his heart. Of him it may truly be said that he was one of those "whose good works do follow them." Saul Thomas came to western Ohio in 1817, where he lived until his death, in 1880. Most of that time was spent in or near New Paris. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 and for seventy years was an active business man. James Paul came to Jefferson township from Adams county, Ohio, in 1836. He was the father of James H. Paul, who died in 1891. Dr. Albert Hawley, born in Warren county, in 1822, after graduating in medicine in 1846, settled at Gettysburg, where he continued in the practice of medicine until a few years before his death, which occurred in 1913.