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.
Township And
Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Township And
Census |
1840 |
1880 |
Fairfield |
3,580 |
14,692 |
|
Oxford |
3,422 |
3,644 |
Hanover |
1,680 |
1,352 |
|
Reiley |
1,758 |
1,499 |
Lemon |
3,065 |
6,775 |
|
Ross |
1,524 |
1,692 |
Liberty |
1,479 |
1,458 |
|
St. Clair |
2,307 |
1,252 |
Madison |
2,208 |
2,555 |
|
Union |
2,118 |
2,163 |
Milford |
1,868 |
1,884 |
|
Wayne |
1,562 |
1,728 |
Morgan |
1,726 |
1,884 |
|
|
|
|
Courtesy of The Library Lens
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.
In the summer of 1792
two wagoners
were watching some oxen, which had been turned
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.
HAMILTON IN 1846—The large and flourishing town of
Hamilton, the county-seat, is
twenty-two miles north of Cincinnati, on the left bank of the Great
Miami. It
contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopal, 1 Methodist, 1 German Lutheran, 1
Associate Reformed, 1 Baptist, and 1 Catholic church, a flourishing
female
academy,
Page 345
THE
BUTLER COUNTY COURT-HOUSE, HAMILTON
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.]
other ornamental trees. A noble bridge,
erected at
the expense of about $25,000, connects this town with its neighbor,
Rossville,
on the opposite bank of the Miami, which the engraving shows as it
appears from
the market in Hamilton. Rossville is also a flourishing place, superior
to
Hamilton as a mercantile town as that is as a manufacturing one. This
arises
from the circumstance that it is more convenient to the greater
proportion of
the farmers of the county who reside on that side of
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.
JOHN CL.EVES SYMMES, the author of the
“Theory
of Concentric Spheres, demonstrating that the Earth is hollow,
habitable within, and widely open about the Poles,” died at
Hamilton,
May 28,
1829. He was born in New Jersey, 1780. His father, Timothy SYMMES, was
the
brother of John Cleves SYMMES, well known as the founder of the first
settlements of the Miami valley. In the early part of his life he
received a
common-school education, and in 1802 was commissioned an ensign in the
army. In
1813 he was promoted to a captaincy, in which capacity he served until
the
close of the war with honor. He was in the hard-fought battle of
Bridgewater,
and at the sortie of Fort Erie, where with his coin-
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.
This petition was presented in the Senate by Col. Richard M. JOHNSON, a member from Kentucky, on the 7th day of March, 1822, when (a motion to refer it to the Committee of Foreign Relations having failed), after a few remarks, it was laid on the table—Ayes, 25. In December, 1823, he forwarded similar petitions to both houses of Congress, which met with a similar fate. In January, 1824, he petitioned the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, praying that body to pass a resolution approbatory of his theory, and to recommend him to Congress for an outfit .suitable to the enterprise. This memorial was presented by Michajah T. WILLIAMS, and, on motion, the further consideration thereof was indefinitely postponed. He advanced many plausible and ingenious arguments, and won quite a number of converts among those who attended his lectures, one of whom, Mr. James McBRIDE, wrote a work in its support, published in Cincinnati in 1826, in which he stated his readiness to embark on a voyage of discovery, for the purpose of testing its truth. met with the usual fate of projectors, in living and dying in great pecuniary embarrassment. In person, he was of the medium stature and simple in his manners. He bore the character of an honest, exemplary man, and was much respected. He was buried with military honors in the old burying ground at Hamilton. His son Americus put up there a monument to his memory surmounted with a hollow globe open at the poles, and with suitable inscriptions. It is standing to this day in the public square. Thirty years later Americus believed in his father’s theory and lectured upon it. A convert to SYMMES’ theory, J. N. REYNOLDS, a graduate of Miami, after his death started an expedition for the South Pole to test its truth, an account of which is under the head of Clinton county.
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.
Lewis D. CAMPBELL,
born in 1811, died in 1882,
was early known to the entire coun
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.
MIDDLETOWN IN 1846—Middleton is twelve miles
northeast of
Hamilton, and twenty below Dayton, in a rich and beautiful country. The
Miami
canal runs east of the central part of the town, and the Miami river
bounds it
on the west. It is connected with
Dayton and Cincinnati, and with West Alexandria, in Preble county, by
turnpikes. The Warren County canal enters the main canal at this town.
Two or
three miles above a dam is thrown across the Miami, from which a
connecting
feeder supplies the Miami canal. This work furnishes much water power,
which,
with a little expense, can be increased and used to great advantage.
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.
Middletown
is on the Miami river and canal thirty-seven
miles north of Cincinnati on the C. H. & D., C. C. C. & L, N.
Y. P.
& O. and L. C. & D. Railroads. Newspapers: Signal, Democrat, J. Q.
BAKER, editor; Journal, Republican.
Churches: 1 Baptist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Methodist
Protestant, 1 African Methodist Episcopal, 1 African Baptist, 1
Episcopal, 1
German Catholic and 1 German Lutheran. Banks: First National, D.
McCALLEY,
president, J. R. ALLEN, cashier; Merchants’ National, Chas. F. GUNCKEL,
president, G. F. STEVENS, cashier; OGLESBY and BARNITZ.
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.
Murat HALSTEAD was born Sept. 2, 1829,
Page 353
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.
Upon the death of M. D. Potter in 1866, the firm of M. HALSTEAD & Co. was organized, and January, 1883, the famous consolidation of the Cincinnati Commercial and the Cincinnati Gazette took place and Mr. HALSTEAD was elected president of the Commercial Gazette company. He is now more active and constant in daily labor than thirty-five years ago, and has repeatedly written three thousand words of editorial matter a day for a hundred consecutive days, the aggregate frequently exceeding five thousand words in one day’s paper, written in one day. He did this in 1856 and in each presidential contest since, and as much in the third campaign of HAYES for Governor, and in each of FORAKER’S campaigns. It is probable, as this productiveness has continued with few intermissions (the whole not exceeding a year) for more than thirty-five years, and was preceded by voluminous writing in early youth of a romantic and miscellaneous character, that Mr. HALSTEAD has furnished more copy for printers
Page 354
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.
In 1816 the corner-stone of the
University was
laid, and in 1824 the main building finished and the college duly
opened, Rev.
Dr. Robert H. BISHOP being installed President. The funds had come from
the
accumulation of rents from leases of the college land. Mr. BISHOP was
born in
Scotland and was a graduate of Edinburgh University. He acted as
President
until 1841 and then as Professor until 1845. The institution maintained
a high
standard of scholarship and from its course of study was called “the
Yale of
the West.” Among the early instructors were Robert C. SCHENCK and W. H.
McGUFFEY, the last famed for his
“Eclectic” Series of school books. Anti-slavery agitation and the
dismemberment
of the Presbyterian Church in 1838 brought dissensions into its
management. In
1873 the institution was suspended and so remained until 1885, when the
Legislature made an appropriation of $20,000, the first State aid it
had
received, and it again resumed under the presidency of Robert W.
McFARLAND. It
has graduated nearly 1,000 students. Among them are many names of men
who
Page 355
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.
In the spring of 1868 there came into my
office in
Cincinnati a large, portly gentleman with rosy cheeks, a perfect
blonde, a
stranger who cheerily called me by name and put out his hand with the
familiarity of an old acquaintance. I answered: “I do not remember
having seen
you, sir.” “Not surprising,” replied he; “it is forty years since we
met. My
name is LONGSTRETH.” I then recollected him a stripling in college at
New Haven
and of going fishing with him—both of us
boys together—I the little boy, he the big boy, and in a pure mountain
stream
with hook and line we brought up the crimson and golden beauties. In
the very
social time that ensued he gave me his history and how his life had
been marred
by a strange mental malady, an alternation of seasons of excessive
uncontrollable joyousness and exoneration spirits, followed by dreadful
turns
of despondency and mental agony. Before he left he wrote a note and
directed it
in pencil
Page 356
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.]
In my original visit
to this
county I made the acquaintance of Mr. James McBRIDE, the historian of
the Miami
valley. In my varied experience I have been blessed in meeting and
knowing many
fine characters, ever to be fragrant in my memory, but none occupy a
better
place than Mr. McBRIDE. He was of Scotch descent, born near
Greencastle, Pa.,
in 1788. His father soon after was killed by the Indians in Kentucky,
so he was
the only child. He came to Hamilton when eighteen years of age, and at
twenty-five years was elected county; sheriff, the best office then in
the gift
of the people, and later to other offices. When I saw him he was clerk
of
court, yet public office occupied but comparatively few of his years.
He was in
easy though not affluent circumstances from ventures made to New
Orleans in the
period of the war of 1812, which gave him the leisure to devote to his
loves.
Page 357
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.”
Personally a splendid swordsman, he was
shot while
leading a desperate cavalry charge at Stone River. His Soldier’s Creed,
found
among his papers after his death, is given here as illustrating his
character,
and the sentiments that influenced the multitudes on entering into the
war for
the Union. From its tenor, he evidently wrote it for circulation among
the
soldiers.
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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.
COLLEGE CORNER is on the Indiana State line, and
takes its name
from the number of schools located here, and three counties cornering
at this point.
It is on the C. H. & D. R. R., forty-four miles northwest of
Cincinnati.
Newspaper:, Investigator,
Independent, J. L.
SCOTT, editor.
Churches: 1 United Presbyterian, 1 African Methodist Episcopal, 1
Methodist
Episcopal, and 1 Presbyterian. In-
Page 359
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.
SOMERVILLE,
fourteen miles northwest of Hamilton, had in 1880 370 inhabitants.