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 Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. I

©1888

 

BUTLER COUNTY

 

Page 342

 

BUTLER COUNTY was formed in 1803 from Hamilton and named from General Richard BUTLER, a distinguished officer of the Revolution, who fell in St. Clair’s defeat. With his brothers he emigrated from Ireland to America, before 1760, and was for along time an Indian trader. Area, 460 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 149,560; in pasture, 28,864; woodland, 29,874; lying waste, 8,798; produced in wheat, 233,791 bushels; oats, 542,322; corn, 3,335,595; broomcorn, 176,190 pounds; tobacco, 502,849; cattle, 18,817. School census 1886, 14,234; teachers, 208. It has 77 miles of railroad.

 

 

 

 

Population in 1820 was 21755; in 1840, 28,207; 1860, 35,840; 1880, 42,579, of whom 31,530 were Ohio-born.

 

Butler county has been termed “THE GARDEN OF OHIO.” It is within the blue limestone formation and is one of the richest in the State. The Great Miami, river runs through it. This valley here averages a breadth of twelve miles, and the soil of its bottom lauds are of a deep black and famed for their immense crops of corn, while the uplands are equally well adapted to wheat and barley. The county is traversed by so many small streams that over 1,000 bridges are in use. The uplands are beautifully undulating, forming charming scenes of pastoral beauty. A large proportion of its population is of German descent. “Butler county,” says Professor Orton, “stands scarcely second in productive power to any equal area in the State. No qualification certainly would be required if the valley of tile Great Miami and that portion of the county lying east of the river were alone to be taken into account. This region might put in an unquestioned claim to be styled the Garden of Ohio.”’

It was intended as a place of deposit

Fort Hamilton

References.—A. The old fort built by St. Clair.

B. Addition a. Officer’s Quarters b.

Mess room. C. Magazine. D. Artificer’s shop

c, f, g. Block-houses.

C. Bridge across the Miami shown in the view of Rossville.

Page 343

for provisions and to form the first link in the communication between Fort Washington and the object of the campaign. It was a stockade of fifty yards square, with four good bastions, and platforms for cannon in two of them, with barracks. In the summer succeeding an addition was made to the fort by order of General WILKINSON, which consisted in enclosing with pickets an area of ground on the north part, so that it extended up the, river to about the north line of the present Stable street. The southern point of the work extended to the site of the Associate Reformed church.

 

The plan given of the fort is from the survey of Mr. James McBRIDE, of Hamilton, made by him several years after. The following items upon the early history of Hamilton are from the MSS. of James McBRIDE:

 

Major Rudolph at Fort Hamilton.—Late in the fall of 1792, all advance corps of troops, under the command of ^-Major RUDOLPH, arrived at Fort Hamilton, where they wintered. They consisted of three companies of light dragoons, one of rifle, and one of infantry. RUDOLPH was a major of dragoons from lower Virginia. His reputation was that of an arbitrary and tyrannical officer. Some time in the spring seven soldiers deserted to the Ohio river, where, procuring a canoe, they started for New Orleans. Ten or fifteen miles below the falls of the Ohio they were met by Lieut. (since Gen.) CLARK, and sent back to Fort Hamilton, where a court-martial sentenced three of them to be hung, two to run the gauntlet, and the remaining two to lie in irons in the guard-house for a stipulated period. John BROWN Seth BLINNS and GALLAHER were the three sentenced to be hung. The execution took place the next day, on a gallows erected below the fort, just south of the site of the present Associate Reformed church, and near the residence of James B. THOMAS.

 

Execution of Deserters—Five hundred soldiers were drawn up in arms around the fatal spot to witness the exit of their unfortunate comrades. The appearance of the sufferers at the gallows is said to have been most prepossessing. They were all young men of spirit and handsome appearance, in the opening bloom of life, with their long hair floating over their shoulders. John BROWN was said to have been a young man of very respectable connections, who lived near Albany, N. Y. Early in life he had formed an attachment for a young woman in his neighborhood of unimpeachable character, but whose social standing did not comport with the pride of his parents. He was forbidden to associate with her, and required to pay his addresses to another. Broken-hearted and desponding, he left his home, enlisted in a company of dragoons, and came to the West. His commanding officer treated him so unjustly that he was led to desert. When under the gallows, the sergeant, acting as executioner, inquired why the sentence of the law should not be enforced upon him, he replied with emphasis, pointing to Major RUDOLPH, “that he had rather die nine hundred deaths than be subject to the command of such a man,” and was swung off without a murmur. Seth BLINN was the son of a respectable widow residing in the State of New York. The rope being awkwardly fastened around his neck he struggled greatly. Three times he raised his feet until they came in contact with the upper part of the gallows when the exertion broke his neck.

 

Immediately after the sentence had been pronounced on these men, a friend hastened to Fort Washington, where he obtained a pardon from Gen. WILKINSON. But he was too late. The execution had been hastened by Major RUDOLPH and he arrived at Hamilton fifteen minutes after the spirits of these unfortunate men had taken their flight to another world. Their bodies were immediately committed to the grave under the gallows. There, in the dark and narrow house in silence, lies the only son of a widowed mother, the last of his family. A vegetable garden is now cultivated over the spot by those who think not nor know not of the once warm heart that lies cold below.

 

Running the Gauntlet.—The two other deserters were sentenced to run the gauntlet sixteen times between two ranks of soldiers, which was carried forthwith into execution. The lines were formed in the rising ground east of the fort, where now lies Front street, and extended from Smithman’s corner to the intersection of Ludlow street. One of them, named ROBERTS, having passed eight times through the ranks fell, and was unable to proceed. The attendant physician stated that he, could stand it no longer, as his life had already been endangered.

 

Fate of Rudolph.—Some time after Gen. Wayne arrived at the post, and, although frequently represented as an arbitrary- man, he was so much displeased with the cruelty of Major RUDOLPH, that he gave him his. Choice—to resign or be cashiered. He chose the former, returned to Virginia, and subsequently, in company with another gentleman, purchased a ship, and went on a trading voyage to Europe. They were captured (it is, stated) by an Algerine cruiser, and RUDOLPH was hung at the yardarm of his own vessel. I have heard some of those who were under his command in Wayne’s army express satisfaction at the fate of this unfortunate man.

 

 

Page 344

 

out to graze on the common below the fort shower of rain coming on, they retired for shelter under a tree, which stood near when e sycamore grove now is. Some Indians, who had been watching from under the covet the adjoining underbrush, rushed suddenly upon them, killed one, and took the other prisoner. The latter was Henry SHAFOR, who after his return, lived until a few years past two or three miles below Rossville, on the river.

 

Arrival of Wayne’s Army.—In September ‘93, the army of Wayne marched from Cincinnati to Fort Hamilton, and encamped in upper part of the prairie, about half a mile south of the present town, nearly on the me ground on which Gen. St. Clair had encamped in 1791. Here they threw up breastwork, the remains of which may yet be aced at the point where the present road strikes the Miami river, above Traber’s mill. A few days after they continued their march ward the Indian country.

 

Gen. Wayne detailed a strong guard of en for the defence of the fort, the command which was given to Major Jonathan CASS, the army of the Revolution, and father of the Hon. Lewis CASS, of the United States Senate. Major CASS continued in command until the treaty of Greenville.

 

Hamilton Laid Out.—On the 17th of December, 1794, Israel LUDLOW laid out within Symmes’s purchase, the original plat the town of Hamilton, which he at first, after short time only, called Fairfield. Shortly after a few settlers came in. The first settlers were Darius C. ORCUT, John GREEN William M’CLENNAN, John SUTHERLAND, John TORRENCE, Benjamin F. RANDOLPH, Benjamin DAVIS, Isaac WILES, Andrew CHRISTY, and William HUBBERT.

 

Previous to 1801 all the lands on the west side of the Great Miami were owned by the United States, consequently side there were no improvements made on that side of the river except by a few squatters. There was on log-house built at an early period near the west end of the bridge now owned by the heirs of L. P. SAYRE. On the first Monday in April, 1801—at the first sale of the United rates lands west of the Miami, held at Cincinnati company purchased the site of Rossville, on which, March 14, 1804, they .laid out the town. Mr. John REILY was the agent for the proprietors.

 

Early Events.—The first settlers of Hamilton m suffered much from the fever and ague, and being principally disbanded soldiers, without energy, and many of them dissipated but little improvement was made for the first few years. In those early times horse-racing was a favorite amusement, and an affair of all-engrossing interest. On public days, indeed on almost every other Saturday, the streets and commons in the upper part of the town were converted into race-paths. The race-course comprehended the common from Second to Fourth street. At Second street, a short distance north of the site of the Catholic church, was an elevated scaffold, on which stood the judges of the race. On grand occasions the plain within the course and near it was occupied with booths erected with forks and covered with boughs. Here everything was said, done, eaten, sold, and drank. Here was BLACK JACK with his fiddle, and his votaries making the dust fly with a four-handed, or rather four-footed reel; and every fifteen or twenty minutes was a rush to some part to see a “fisticuff.” Among the bustling crowd of jockeys were assembled all classes. Even judges of the court mingled with the crowd, and sometimes presided at the contests of speed between the ponies of the neighborhood.

 

Soon after the formation of Butler county Hamilton was made the county-seat. The first sessions of the court were held in the tavern of Mr. TORRENCE, now the residence of Henry S. EARHART. The sessions of the court after this were held in the former mess-room of the fort. It was a rough one-story frame building, about forty by twenty feet, weather-boarded, without either filling or plastering, and stood about where the market now is. It was elevated from the ground about three feet by wooden blocks, affording a favorite shelter for the hogs and sheep of the village. The judge’s seat was a rough platform of unplaned boards, and a long table in front, like a carpenter’s work-bench, was used by the bar. In 1810 the court was removed to a room over the stone jail, and in 1817 transferred to the present court-house.

 

The court, at their July term, in 1803, selected the old magazine within the fort as a county jail. It was a heavy-built log building, about twelve feet square, with a hipped roof coming to a common centre, and surmounted by a ball. The door had a hole in the centre shaped like a half-moon, through which air, light, and food were conveyed, while on the outside it was secured by a padlock and hasp. It was very insecure, and escapes were almost as frequent as committals. It was the only jail for Butler county from 1803 to 1809. A small log-house, formerly a sutler’s store, was used as a clerk’s office. It has since been altered into a private dwelling, at present occupied by Dutch JACOB. The house erected by Gen. WILKINSON in 1792 for officers’ quarters (see a plan of fort) was converted into a tavern kept by the county sheriff, William M’CLENNAN, while the barracks and artificers’ shops were used as stables.

 

Page 345

 

 

Page 346

2 newspaper printing-offices, 3 flouring-mills, cotton-factories, 3 saw-mills, 2 foundries, 2 machine-shops, and about 16 mercantile stores. In 1840 its population was 1,409, since which it has considerably increased. Hamilton is destined to be an important manufacturing town. The hydraulic works lately built here rank among the best water-powers west of the Alleghenies. This work is formed

 

Drawn by Henry Howe, 1846

PUBLIC SQUARE, HAMILTON

[The new and very elegant court-house occupies the site of the one shown above.]

 

 

by a canal, commencing at the Big Miami, four miles above the town, and emptying into the river near the bridge at Hamilton. By it a very great amount of never-failing water-power has been created. It is durably constructed, and is adding much to the business of the community. Hamilton is neatly built, and has an elegant public square, on which stand the county buildings; it is enclosed by an iron fence, handsomely covered with green turf; and shaded by locusts and

 

Drawn by Henry Howe, 1846

VIEW OF ROSSEVILLE FROM HAMILTON

[Rossville no longer exists as a separate town, and is now a part of Hamilton.  An a elegant wire sus-

pension bridge has taken the place of the old wood structure.]

 

 

Page 347

the Miami. It contains 1 Presbyterian and 1 Baptist church, 1 flouring-mill, about 18 mercantile stores, and had in 1840 1,140 inhabitants. Its population has since increased—Old Edition.

 

HAMILTON in a bee-line is about twenty miles north of Cincinnati, but by railroad the distance is twenty-five miles. It is situated on both sides of the Great Miami river, and is in the line of the C. H. & D., C. R. & C., and C. H. & I. railroads. The Miami and Erie canal passes through here. Hamilton is the county-seat, and has one of the most magnificent court-houses in the State. It stands on the site of the old court-house shown in the engraving.

 

The county officers in 1888: Probate Judge, W. H. HARR; Clerk of Court, A. J. WELLIVER; Sheriff, Isaac ROGERS; Prosecuting Attorney, C. J. SMITH; Auditor, Richard BROWN; Treasurer, W. M. BOYD;  Recorder, Robert M. ELLIOTT; Surveyor, John, C. WEAVER; Coroner, Thomas B. TALBOTT; Commissioners, Frederick BERK, William MURPHY, M. B. HATCH.

 

Newspapers: News, non-partisan, C. M. CAMPBELL, publisher; Herald, Democratic, daily, J. H. LANG publisher Butler County Democrat, Democratic, .J. K. AYDELLOTTE, publisher; National Zeitung, German Democratic, L. B. DE LE COURT; Telegraph, Republican, C. M. CAMPBELL, publisher. Churches: 2 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 Universalist, 1 Episcopalian, 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Congregational, 1 Lutheran, 1 Irish and 2 German Catholic. Banks: First National, Philip HUGHES, president, John B. CORNELL, cashier; Second National, William E. BROWN, president, Charles E. HEISER, cashier.

Manufactures and Employees.—The A. Fisher Manufacturing Co., canned goods, etc., 255 hands; Gordon & Maxwell Steam Pump Co., 156; The Niles Tool Co., machine tools, 475; Louis Snider’s Sons Co., paper, 149; Hamilton Tile Works, art tile, 31; The Ritchie & Dyer Co., engines and saw mills, 28; Martin Bare, agricultural implements, 48; C. H. Zwick & Co., hosiery, 127; Anderson & Shaffer, flour barrels, 11; W. B. Brown & Co., corn meal, 5; Sohn & Rentchler, iron castings, 75; The Phoenix Caster Co., casters, 44; The Black & Clawson Co., paper mill machinery, 123; The Lung & Allstatter Co., agricultural implements, 210; Beckett, Laurie & Co., paper, 71; H. P. Deuscher, iron castings, 77; Carr Brown, flour, etc., 25; The Sohn Ridge Implement Co., agricultural implements, 39; Davidson & Doellmann, steam boilers, 14; The Hoover, Owens & Rentschler Co., engines, etc., 170; Bentel, Margedant & Co., wood-working machinery, 78; J. F. Bender Bros. & Co., builders’ wood-work, 33; Schuler & Benninghoffen, paper felts, blankets, etc., 68; The Sortman & Bulen Co., furniture_, 34; J. H. Stephan & Son, hubs, spokes, etc.; Semler & Co., flour, etc.; The Stephan-Hughes Manufacturing Co., flour-mill machinery; P. Burns & Co., plows, wagons, etc., 15; John Donges & Co., bent wood, spokes, etc., 17; Anderson & Shaffer, flour, etc., 13; Charles F. Eisel, builders wood-work, 11; L. Deinzer & Son, bent wood-work, 9; L. & F. Kahn & Bros., stoves, etc., 160.—State Report 1887. Population in 1880, 12,122. School census in 1886, 4,777; Louis R. KLEMM, superintendent.

 

The manufacture of malt, distilling and brewing are great industries here; the malt aggregates during the season about half a million of bushels; the Hamilton Distilling Company has a daily capacity of 2,500 bushels of corn and pays an annual tax of nearly a million. Peter Schawb’s famous brewery turns out annually 30,000 barrels of beer.

 

 

Page 348

mand he captured a battery, and personally spiked the cannon. At the close of the war he retired from the army and for about three years was engaged in furnishing supplies to the troops stationed on the upper Mississippi. After this, he resided for a number of years at Newport Ky., and devoted himself to philosophical researches connected with his favorite theory. In a short circular, dated at St. Louis, in 1818, Capt. SYMMES first promulgated the fundamental principles of his theory to the world. In this he said, “I ask for 100 brave companions, well equipped, to start from Siberia in the fall with reindeer and sleighs, on the ice of the frozen sea; I engage we find a warm and rich land stocked with thrifty vegetables and animals, if not men, on reaching one degree north of the latitude of eighty-two degrees. We will return in the succeeding spring.”

 

From time to time, he published various articles in the public prints upon the subject. He also delivered lectures, first at Cincinnati in 1820, and afterwards in various places in Kentucky and Ohio, and also in all the Eastern cities.

 

In the year 1822 Capt. SYMMES petitioned Congress, setting forth, in the first place, his belief of the existence of a habitable and accessible concave to this globe; his desire to embark on a voyage of discovery to one or other of the polar regions; his belief in the great profit and honor his country would derive from such a discovery; and prayed that Congress would equip and fit out for the expedition two vessels of 250 or 300 tons burthen; and grant such other aid as government might deem necessary to promote the object.

 

Page 349

The theory of SYMMES met at the time with great ridicule and “Symmes’ Hole” was a phrase more or less for a term of years on everybody’s tongue; the papers in the decade between 1820 and 1830 were more or less full of Symmes’ Hole. If one suddenly disappeared, the reply often was, and with a grin: “Oh, he’s gone, I expect, down into Symmes’ Hole!”

 

Butler County Men

 

Rich as is this county in its production it has been equally rich in its production of useful, strong men. John REILY was born in Pennsylvania in 1763; in 1791 went to Cincinnati, and in 1803 settled in Hamilton. On our first tour he was one of the five surviving members of the Constitutional Convention of Ohio. His friend Judge BURNET, in his Notes, gave an eloquent tribute to his character and services. He was clerk of The Supreme Court of Butler county from 1803 to 1842. He died at the age of eighty-seven years. He was a man of clock-work regularity of habits and system; could in a few moments find a paper he had not seen in twenty years. In every respect he was a first class man.

 

The governor of Ohio during the Mexican war, 1846-1848, was William BEBB. He was born of Welsh stock in 1802 on the Dry Fork of Whitewater, in Morgan township. He had been elected by the Whigs. We met him here a well-formed man, rather tall, with a dark complexion, and at the time noted for his easy; eloquence. He was especially strong as jury lawyer; it was said his appeals to a jury were very touching; he could weep at an time. His old home is yet standing in the southern part of the county. He remove to the Rock river, Illinois, early in the fifties where he had a large farm. He later went to Europe and led a colony of Welsh colonist from Wales to the wilderness of Scott co., Tenn. The colony was broken up by the Civil War. BEBB lived to be a pensioner examiner under Lincoln and help in the election of GRANT; he died at his home in Rockford, Ill., in 1873.

 

Middletown, in this county, early in this century was the birthplace of a sculptor o great promise who, dying young, was written about as “the gifted and lamented CLEVENGER.”

 

JOHN B. WELLER, born in Hamilton count in 1812, had a high career. When but twenty- two years of age was elected to Congress an so on for three successive terms; led the Second Ohio, as lieutenant-colonel, in the Mexican war, and returning thence led the Democratic party in the bitter gubernatorial fight of 1848, and was defeated by Seabury FORD, of Geauga county, the Whig candidate.^. In 1849 was commissioned to run the boundary line between California and Mexico. From 1852 to 1857 he was United States Senator from California and then was elected governor. In 1860 he was appointed by Buchanan Minister to Mexico. He died in New Orleans in 1875, where he was practising law. “Nature,” it was said, “had gifted him with an easy, declamatory eloquence,” but his bent was politics rather than law.

 

JOHN WOODS was born in Pennsylvania in 1794, of north Irish stock; came when a mere child with his parents to Warren county; served in Congress from 1835 to 1829; then edited and published the Hamilton Intelligencer; from 1845 to 1851 was auditor of the State, in which office he brought order out of confusion and “left indelible marks on the policy and history of Ohio.” Later was interested in railroad development, and from his habits of industry and restless energy proved a great power. He died in 1855, aged sixty-one years. It seems that from early boyhood he determined to get an education and become a lawyer. The country all around was a wilderness and he contracted to clear a piece of land for a certain compensation. In this clearing he erected a hut, where he studied nights when others slept, and this after having chopped and hauled heavy timber all day.  Then regularly every week he went over to Lebanon to recite and receive instructions from Hon. John McLEAN, later Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In this Woods was, however, but a fair sample of Ohio youth of that day, to whom obstacles served as lures to tempt them to fight their way. The history of Ohio is profusely dotted all over with them. On their brows is stamped “invincibility;” over them flies a banner bearing just two words, “will and, work.”

 

JOHN M. MILLIKIN was one of the numerous and intellectual MILLIKIN family of Hamilton, who died about 1882 in advanced life. He was a large gentleman of “tremendous push and go;” was by education a lawyer; had a most excellent large stock farm near Hamilton; was at one time State treasurer and long president of the State Board of Agriculture; wrote a great deal for the material interest of the State and especially upon its farm animals and agriculture. One of his sons was a professor in Ohio State University, and another was Colonel Minor MILLIKIN, killed at Stone river. Whitelaw REID characterized John M. MILLIKIN—Major MILLIKIN, as he was usually called—as “one of the foremost among that body of retired professional men who adorn the vocation of Ohio farmers,” etc.

 

THOMAS MILLIKIN, of Hamilton, born in 1819, stands pre-eminent, among the lawyers of Ohio; is especially strong in will cases; so wide his fame that another word here is useless.

 

Page 350

try. He began life as an apprentice by picking up type on the Cincinnati Gazette; was sent by the Whig party to Congress in 1849; became chairman of the ways and means committee. In the civil war was for a time a colonel of an Ohio regiment; minister to Mexico 1866 to 1868, and from 1871 to 1873 again in Congress.

 

GENERAL FERDINAND VAN DERVEER is a resident of Hamilton. He was born in this county in 1823, a lawyer by profession, and made a fine record in the war for the Union. He was one of the most earnest of war Democrats, and his was the first Union regiment to enter Kentucky. In the great campaign between Brough and VALLANDINGHAM, the latter did not receive a single vote in his regiment.

 

JOHN W. IRWIN, of Hamilton, is the most aged and experienced engineer of Ohio. He was born in Delaware in 1808 and early came to Ohio and engaged in public works, first upon turnpikes, then upon canals and railroads. In 1842 he was appointed resident engineer of the Ohio & Erie Canal, and had full charge of the system between Cincinnati and Toledo. He spent nearly forty years in that capacity, locating all the works, passed over every foot of the ground many times, enduring many hardships. The Hamilton and Rossville and many other hydraulics were constructed by him, and in 1838, by draining the “Big Pond,” in Fairfield township, he brought into cultivation some of the richest farming land known anywhere. No man can be more respected than he most deservedly is by his fellow-citizens.

 

The manufacturing development of Hamilton has been advanced by MR. WILLIAM BECKETT, a man of large public spirit and a general public operator. If any project is thought of for the good of the community the first inquiry is: “Where is BECKETT?” He came into Ohio at an early date, 1821—came into it in the best possible shape, being born into it—the precise spot Hanover township, Butler county. With an enterprise on foot to enthuse him he is probably the most easy persuasive talker in Ohio, and no one can well be more liked by fellow-citizen.

 

J. P. MacLEAN the archaelogist, is also a resident of Hamilton. With the exception of Ross, Butler county has more antiquities than any other in the State; the most known of these in Butler county is Fortified Hill in Ross township. Mr. MacLEAN has been an indefatigable explorer. His published works are “archaeology of Butler County,” “A Manual of the Antiquity of Man,” and “Mastodon, Mammoth and Man”

 

There died in December, 1887, in his seventy-fourth year, in this county, a literary character of unusual eccentricity, especially so in his selection of topics for his muse. His name was JAMES WOODMANSEE, who called himself the “Bard of Sugar Valley.” The county history thus notices him: He was a son of Daniel WOODMANSEE of New Jersey, who settled in Butler county in 1809. The poet was born in 1814, and early developed a fondness for verse. He received a good education and was brought up to agricultural pursuits, but this life did not have any attractions for him. James WOODMANSEE has written two epic poems, “The Closing Scene, a Poem in Twelve Books_’” and “Religion, a Poem in Twelve Books. “The subject of the first named is the great war between Gog and Magog, ending with the “Wreck of Matter and the Crash of Worlds.” The second shows religion from the time the “Spirit travelled over the water’s face” to the millennium. Besides these he has written “Wrinkles from the Brow of Experience,” “Poetry of the Lessons,” and “The Prodigal Son, “a drama in five acts. “The Closing Scene “and “Wrinkles,” published some years ago, received much praise both in America and Europe. Thomas N. TALFOURDS, a great critic and judge of Westminster, said: “The Closing Scene” rivals the “Divine Commedia” of Dante, and Samuel ROGERS, author, called it the “Paradise Lost of America.” Mr. WOODMANSEE had travelled considerably in Europe and all over America.

 

DANIEL W. VOORHEES, U. S. Senator from Indiana, was born in Butler county in 1827. His speech in the defence of Cook, one of the comrades of John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, gave him a wide reputation for eloquence, being published alike in our country and Europe.

 

JOSEPH EWING McDONALD, an eminent Indiana lawyer and statesman, is also a native of this county. He is of Scotch extraction and was born in Fairfield township August 29, 1819. When he was seven years of age his widow mother removed to the wilderness of Montgomery county, Indiana. He was educated at Wabash College, supporting himself by intervals of work at the saddler’s trade, which he had learned. In 1856 and 1858 he was elected attorney-general of Indiana. In 1864 was defeated for governor by Oliver P. MORTON, He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1875. His reputation as a lawyer is very high, and as a man he has largely the respect of the public irrespective of political creeds.

 

 

Page 351

There are within three miles of Middletown eight flouring mills on the river and canal. Middletown was laid out in 1802 by Stephen VAIL and James SUTTON. Calvin MORRELL, James BRADY, Cyrus OSBOURN, Daniel DOTY, Elisha WADE and Richard WATTS were among its early settlers. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Baptist and 1 Methodist church, a classical academy, 16 mercantile stores, 2 forward­

Drawn by Henry Howe, 1846

LABANON STREET, MIDDDLETOWN.

ing houses, 1 grist mill and 1 woollen factory, and, in 1840, had 809 inhabitants. The view of Lebanon street was taken at its intersection with Broadway. Liebee’s block is shown on the right, Deardorf’s mill and the bridge over the Miami partly appear in the distance.—Old  Edition.

 

Frank Henry Howe, Photo, 1887

STREET VIEW IN MIDDLETOWN.

 

Page 352

Manufactures and Employees.--The Wilson & McCallay Co., tobacco, 470 hands; The Warlow Thomas Paper Co., paper, 52; Ohio Paper Bag Co., 29; The Wren Paper Co., paper, 32; The Gardner Paper Co., 61; R. E. Johnston, paper bags, 46; W. B. Oglesby Paper Co., 65; The Tytus Paper Co., 48; The P. J. Sorg Co., tobacco, 647; Middletown Buggy Co., 15; Middletown Pump Co., 74; The Card Fabrique Co., playing cards, 34; W. H. Todhunter, printing, 11; Ling & Van Sickle, carriages, etc., 8; La Tourrette & Co., machinery, etc., 20; George Ault Flour Co., flour, etc., 7, Wm. Caldwell, builders’ wood-work, etc., 31.00 – State Report 1887.

 

Population in 1880, 4,538. School census in 1886, 2,023; F. J. BARNARD, superintendent.

 

The Holly Waterworks supply the town with water, and it is lighted by the Brush electric light from eight lights on a wrought-iron tower 210 feet up in the air.

 

Middletown is known throughout the country for its paper mills, which manufacture all grades from the common straw and manilla for wrapping to the finest writing. The medium writing grades are however most manufactured. One of the men most prominent in building up this great industry is Mr. Francis J. Tytus, born in Virginia early in the century and locating in Middletown when a very young man. Middletown enjoys the great advantage of good and cheap water-power, and manufactures, besides paper, agricultural implements, pleasure vehicles and tobacco to a large extent.

 

In the south part of this county is a stream called Paddy’s Run, and because in the long ago it was the death of an Irishman. To further commemorate the sad event the post-office in the region was also named Paddy’s Run; and when a year since the government changed the name to Glendower, out of compliment to some of the Welsh stock thereabouts, the population arose in their might and by a pungent petition had it reverted to Paddy’s Run. They were doubtless actuated by a spirit of humor in desiring to perpetuate a name so comic. Ask any one living there “where he is from?” and he will often answer, with a smile, “O! Paddy’s Run.” Therefore the retention of such a name in a sad, care-laden world shows their wisdom.

 

We allude to it here, not because of a death, but because in its valley something valuable sprang into life-an editor: the identical one, MURAT HALSTEAD, of whom the public would like to know more about. He who supplies reading for the people and all about themselves and the queer extraordinary antics some of them at times perform is naturally fated to take his turn and be read of.

 

Murat HALSTEAD’S grandfathers were John HALSTEAD, of Currituck county, N. C., and James WILLITS, of Wyoming, Pa. John HALSTEAD married Ruth RICHARDSON, of Pasquotank county, N. C., and their oldest son, Griffin, was born in North Carolina June 11, 1802. Soon after they removed to Ohio by way of Cumberland Gap, having proposed, when leaving their native State, to buy lands in the blue-grass region of Kentucky, about which North Carolina was in those days filled with marvelous tales.

 

The land-titles in Kentucky were unsettled and John HALSTEAD crossed the Ohio at Cincinnati, intending to settle on the Miami bottoms. He stopped there and built a cabin, but the first great Miami flood shocked his tide-water experiences, and the escape of himself, wife and children on horseback from the overflowing water, such as had never been seen in the neighborhood of Albemarle sound, was one of the memorable incidents of his life. This led to his taking land on Paddy’s Run, the stream tributary to^, the Great Miami, running southward near the line between Morgan and Ross townships, Butler county, six miles from the western boundary of the State. The half-section of land which is still the HALSTEAD farm was equally divided between hill timber and fair bottom lands, and out of the way of floods.

 

James WILLITS, of Wyoming, when a boy, was one of a party of emigrants to Ohio, and drove a wagon from the Susquehanna to the Hockhocking. Another of the party moving from Pennsylvania to Ohio was Amy ALLISON. James WILLITS and Amy ALLISON were married and settled on Paint Creek in what is now Ross county, Ohio, where their oldest child, Clarissa, was born March 20, 1804. A few years later James WILLITS, with his family, moved to the neighborhood of New Haven, in the northwestern corner of Hamilton county, and there Griffin HALSTEAD and Clarissa WILLITS were married Nov. 1, 1827.

 

 

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the oldest son of the oldest son for several—the story is for seven generations. He has one sister, Mrs. John 31. Scott, who lives at the old home, and one brother, Col. Benton HALSTEAD, who resides at Riverside, Ohio. His mother died Aug. 29, 1864, and his father Oct. 29, 1884.

His mother taught him the alphabet, using the Hamilton, Butler county, Telegraph, as a primer, and he was able to read fluently when first sent to school at five years of age. The house where he was born was of hewn timber, standing nigh a spring that had been a famous place for Indian hunting encampments, a great number of stones in the neighborhood being burnt with many fires and the ground strewn with arrowheads. The spot is marked by a tree, a solitary elm.

 

When Murat was two years old the family moved to a house meantime erected on a pleasant foot-hill, 100 yards southwest of the spring and the elm. There had appeared south and west of this house in the summer of 1829 a remarkable group of sycamores. They are shown in the cut of the house and are a lofty and beautiful grove. As they are of the same age as Mr. HANSTEAD they have always been associated with him, and he values them very highly.

 

In his boyhood Murat HALSTEAD worked on the farm in the summer and attended school in the winter. At nineteen years of age he became a student at Farmer’s College, College Hill, seven miles north of the Ohio at Cincinnati, where he graduated in 1851, and at once made his home in Cincinnati, and wrote stories for the city papers and letters for country papers. While he was the literary editor of the Columbian and Great West he had an offer to go upon the Commercial, which he accepted March 8, 1853. He became a member of the firm of M. D. Potter & Co. May 15, 1854.

 

March 2, 1857, he married Miss Mary Banks, a native of Cincinnati. Twelve children have been born to them, of whom seven sons and three daughters are living.

 

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than any other man living; and having a good constitution and a healthy relishing appetite, with apparently many more years of work before him, it is expected he will continue increasingly to beat himself, until he finally reaches the ancient order of Patriarchs.

 

OXFORD, On the C. H. & D. Railroad, 39 miles northwest of Cincinnati and 12 from Hamilton, is a beautiful village, famous for its educational institutions. It has the Miami University and two noted female seminaries. “Oxford Female College” was founded in 1849, since which it has had 500 graduates and over 3,000 pupils. L. Faye WALKER is principal. It now has 13 teachers and 109 pupils. The “Western Female Seminary” was founded in 1853. Helen PEABODY  principal. Teachers, 16; pupils, 156.

Newspapers: Citizen, Independent, S. D. CONE, editor; also Oxford News, Brown & Osborn. Churches: 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Methodist, 1 Catholic, 1 African Methodist Episcopal, 1 Colored Baptist, 1 Colored Christian. Banks: Citizens’, Thomas McCULLOUGH, president, F. S. HEALTH, cashier; Oxford, Munns, Shera & Co. Census, 1880, 1,743  School census, 1886, 581; Wm. H. STEWART, principal.

 

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

MIAMI UNIVERSITY AT OXFORD

[Miami University is a large enclosure of over fifty acres, covered with green sward and many

noble forest trees.  The college campus is faced by pleasant residences with ample grounds. There is

very little change in the bguildings since the view given was drawn.]

 

 

By an act of 1803 Congress empowered the Legislature of Ohio to select a township of land within the district of Cincinnati to be devoted to the support of a college. The commissioners selected what is now the township of Oxford, which was all unsold, excepting two and a half sections, which deficiency was made up from the adjoining townships of Hanover and Milford.

 

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have become leaders. As an illustration a few of the names of the many are here given:

 

Clergy—Wm. M. THOMSON (author of “The Land and the Book”), Th. E. Thomas, David SWING, D. A. WALLACE, Henry McCRACKEN, B W. CHIDLAW. Governors, OHIO—Wm. DENNISON, Chas. ANDERSON. Medical, Alex. DUNLAP (surgeon), John S. BILLINS, S. W. SMITH, E. B. STEVENS. Business—Calvin BRICE, Geo. M. Parsons, Wm. BECKETT, United States Senators—Benjamin HARRISON, Ind., Republican candidate for President of the United States, 1888; J. S. WILLIAMS, Ky. Editors--Whitelaw REID. Lawyers—Samuel GALLOWAY, Thomas MILLIKEN, Wm. J. GILMORE, C. N. OLDS, John W. CALDWELL, Wm. S. GROSEBECK, Win. M. CORRY, Robert C SCHENCK, Samuel F. CARY, Samuel F. Hunt M. W.  OLIVER, etc.

 

TRAVELLING NOTES.

Monday—April 12.—Oxford is on very high ground, a breezy place, with a good literary name. The University is 975 fee above the sea and 370 above Hamilton From its tower, to which I ascended with President McFARLAND, I found a magnificent panoramic view of a rich country undulating mall directions with cultivate and grass fields, interspersed with woodlands and dotted with the habitations of prosperous farmer whose families have had largely the educational  advantages of this favored spot. So well up to the skies is Oxford that the President tells me that before the shortening of the tower the highlands east of the Little Miami, forty miles away, were discernible The eye takes in the valley of the Great Miami and that bounteous tract lying east in this county called “The Garden of-Ohio,” so exceedingly fertile is it. Bayard TAYLOR standing on the same spot, said : “For quiet beauty of scenery I have never seen anything to excel it and nothing to equal it, except in Italy. “But Bayard was ever of amiable speech. HUMBOLDT is stated to have re marked after an interview with him that he had travelled more and seen less than an man he had ever met—a natural spurt for matter-of-fact, dry scientist to give in the direction of a poet.

 

Oxford is purely a college town: and it various institutions are each in localities wit pleasant outlooks. Among them is a sanitarium, the “Oxford Retreat,” a private institution for the treatment of nervous diseases and insanity. Through its ample grounds winds a little stream named by General Wayne Four Mile Creek. After leaving Fort Hamilton on his march north he crossed a stream which he named from its distance from it Two Mile Creek. The next was Four Mile Creek, then “Seven Mile,” farther on another, “Fourteen Mile,” etc.

 

Among the present residents of Oxford is Waldo F. BROWN, a noted writer on horticulture and agriculture. Also David W. MAGIE, famed as the originator of the Magie or Poland China hog, produced from four distinct, breeds of bristlers about the year 1840. They are now shipped all over the world, even to Australia, where they help to fatten and to swell out the ribs of the descendants of the “canaries,” as the early enforced settlers were called from the color of their garments. Mr. L. N. BONHAM, so widely known as an agricultural writer and President of the State of Board of Agriculture, has here his “Glenellen farm,” the raising of fine stock being his specialty.

 

President McFARLAND is a native of Champaign county, graduated in 1841 at Delaware, was seventeen years professor here, twelve at the State University, and then was unanimously called to his present position. He is a cheery gentleman, and I was pleased to see between him and the young men that sort of older brother relation so helpful and advantageous everywhere in this learning world. His specialties are mathematics, astronomy and civil engineering. In connection with the general discussion of the glacial epoch a few years since he completed the calculation of the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit at short intervals for a period of over four and a half million years, and I have no doubt, if the occasion should arise, will be ready to go a few millions better.

 

“How doth the busy bee ,

Improve each shining hour! “

 

Associated with the thought of industry, flowers and honey, with now and then an sting, comes the bee. And if any man has a natural right to devote his life to this little golden-winged creature, it is one who has such a pretty alliterative name as Lorenzo Lorraine LONGSTRETH. And he is found right here in Oxford in the person of a retired clergyman who has made a specialty of cultivating bees and written largely upon them.

 

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and then said: “I want to show you some­thing that may be useful,” whereupon he passed his tongue over the pencil mark. “Now,” said he, “that, when dry, will be as ineffaceable as if written with ink”—a useful thing to know in the spiriting away, the Hegira of one’s inkstand.

 

In turn I showed him a sort of comic poetical extravaganza I had just that hour conceived. Being in a happy mood, it pleased him, as I hope it may now and then some reader, as it illustrates a phase of experience not unusual with young married people who, disappointed in the sex of their first-born, find in after years an occasion for rejoicing.

 

 THE LASSIE MUSIC.

 

‘Twas at creation’s wakening dawn,

When Music. baby-girl, was born;

The angels danced, the new earth sang,

And all the stars to frolic sprang,

While mamma cried, and papa run

And groaned, because ‘twas not a son.

 

But when to years the lassie grew,

The happiest child the whole world knew,

Her sweet notes trilled so joyously,

And soothed all care so lovingly,

That mamma laughed and papa run
And danced. because ‘twas not a son.

JAMES McBRIDE

My old friend, from his fondness for bees, has been termed “the Huber of America.” Some thirty or more years ago he wrote a book upon “the busy bee,” and I am told there is no work upon the subject so fascinating, it is so filled with the honey of a benignant kindly nature. [Since the above was written Mr. LONGSTRETH has passed away.]

 

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He had scarcely arrived here when he; and his researches into the local history of this region, gathering it directly from the pioneers. In 1869 was issued by Robert Clarke & Co., in two octavo volumes, his “Pioneer Biography of Butler County,” and it was estimated he left no less than 3,000 MS. pages on local history and biography. He was the earliest archaeologist of Butler county, and in connection with Mr. John W. ERWIN, now of Hamilton, supplied 100 MS. pages, notes, drawings, plans of survey to Squier & Davis for the “Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.” He was a convert to Symmes’ theory of “Concentric Spheres,” and furnished the means and wrote the book describing it. He gathered a library of some 5,000 volumes, largely illustrating Western history, and its destruction was an irreparable loss, from the great amount of rare original material it contained. He never was so happy as when buried in his library pursuing his solitary beneficent work. He was a silent, modest man, avoiding public gatherings and all display, of sterling integrity, and charitable to a fault. Mr. McBRIDE contributed for my original edition the early history of the county, beside other important matter. His writing was peculiar; round, upright, plain as print, and written evidently with laborious painstaking care, and with a tremulous hand. I can never forget how in my personal interview I was impressed by the beautiful modesty of the man, and the guileless, trustful expression of his face as he looked up at me from his writing while in his office over there in the old court-house square in Hamilton; and then unreservedly put in my possession the mass of his materials, the gathered fruits of a lifetime of loving industry. The State, I am sure, had not a single man who had done so much for its local history as he, unless possibly it was Dr. S. P. HILDRETH, of Marietta, whom I well knew, and who resembled him in that quiet modesty and self-abnegation that is so winning to our best instincts.

 

He was fortunate in his domestic relations, and when he had attained the patriarchal age of threescore years and ten his wife died. From that moment he lost all desire to live, and prepared to follow her, which he did ten days later—a beautiful sunset to a beautiful life, and then the stars came out in their glory.

 

A large number of the graduates of Oxford were officers of the Union army in the civil war. Among them was Col. Minor MILLIKIN, born at Hamilton in 1834, the son of Major John MILLIKIN. He was a perfect hero, a Christian gentleman and of the highest type in moral qualities. His will began with these heroic words: “Death is always the condition of living, but to the soldier its immanency and certainty sums also the condition of its usefulness and glory.”

COL. MINOR MILLIKIN.

 

He was a college mate of Whitelaw REID, who wrote of him: “He was my long-time friend. His death was the cruellest personal bereavement the war brought me. No one on the sad list of the nation’s slain seems more nearly to resemble him than Theodore Winthrop.”

 

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THE-SOLDIER’S CREED.

I have enlisted in, the service of my country for the term of three years, and have sworn faithfully to discharge my duty, uphold the Constitution, and obey the officers over me. Let me see what motives I must have had when, I did this thing .It was not pleasant to leave my friends and my home, and, relinquishing my liberty and pleasures, bind myself f to hardships and obedience for three years by a solemn oath. Why did I do it?

1. I did it because I loved my country I thought she was surrounded by traitors and struck by cowardly plunderers. I thought that, having been a good government tome and my fathers before me, I owed it to her to defend her from all harm; so when I heard of the insults offered her, I rose up as if some one had struck my mother, and as a lover of my country agreed to fight for her.

 

2. Though I am no great reader, I have heard the taunts and insults sent us working-men from the proud aristocrats of the South. My blood has grown hot when I heard them say labor was the business of slaves and “Mudsills;” that they were a noble-blooded and we a mean-spirited people; that they ruled the country by their better pluck, and if we did not submit they would whip us by their better courage So I thought the time had come to show these insolent fellows that Northern institutions had the best men, and I enlisted to flog them into good manners and obedience to their betters.

 

3. I said, too, that this war would disturb the whole country and all its business. The South meant “rule or ruin.” It has Jeff Davis and the Southern notion of government; ire our old Constitution and our old liberties. I couldn’t see any peace or quiet until we had whipped them, and so I enlisted to bring back peace in the quickest way.

I had other reasons, but these were the main ones. I enlisted, and gave up home and comfort, and took to the tent and its hardships.

 

I have suffered a great deal—been abused sometimes—had  my patience severely tried—been blamed wrongly by my officer—stood by  the carelessness and dishonesty of same of my coin comrades, and had all the trials of a volunteer soldier; but I never gave up, nor rebelled, nor grumbled, nor lost my temper, and I’ll tell you why.

 

1.  I considered I had enlisted in a holy cause, with good motives, and that I was doting my duty. I believe men who are doing their duty in the face of difficulties are watched over by God.

 

2. I felt that I was a servant of the government, and that as such I was too proud to quarrel and complain.

 

3. I know if with such motives and such a cause I could hot be faithful, that I could never think of myself as much of a man, afterward.

 

And so I drew up a set of resolutions like this

1. As my health and strength had been, devoted to the government, I would take as good care of them as possible; that I would be cleanly in my person and temperate in all nay habits. d felt that to enlist for the government, and then by carelessness or drunkenness make myself unfit for service, would be too mean an act for me.

 

2. As the character I have assumed is a noble one, I will not disgrace it by childish quarrelling, by loud and foolish talking, by profane swearing, and indecent language. It struck me that these were the accomplishments of the ignorant and depraved on the other side, and I, for one, did not think them becoming a Union soldier.

 

3. As my usefulness in, a great measure depends on my discipline, I am determined to keep my arms in good order, to keep my clothing mended and brushed, to attend all drills, and do my best to master all my duties as a soldier, and make myself perfectly acquainted with all the evolution^,; and exercises, and thus feel always ready to fight. It seems to me stupid for a man to apprentice himself to as serious a trade as war, and then try by lying and deception to avoid learning anything.

 

 

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dustry: Manufacturing building material.  Bank: “Corner Bank,” John HOWELL, president Ohio M. BAKE, cashier.  Population in 1880, 329.

 

WEST CHESTER is twenty-one miles north of Cincinnati, on the C. C. C. & I. R. R.  Newspaper: Miami Valley Star, Independent, Peter WRIEDEN, manager and editor.  Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Cumberland Presbyterian, and 1 Catholic.  Population in 1880, 281.

 

 

 

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