MIAMI COUNTY

 

 

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Miami County was formed from Montgomery, January 16, 1807, and Staunton made a temporary seat of justice. The word Miami, in the Ottawa language, is said to signify mother. The name of Miami was originally the designation of the tribe who anciently bore the name of "Tewightewee." This tribe were the original inhabitants of the Miami valley, and affirmed they were created in it. East of the Miami the surface is gently rolling, and a large portion of it a rich alluvial soil; west of the Miami the surface is generally level, the soil a clay loam and better adapted to small grain and grass than corn. The county abounds in excellent limestone and has a large amount of water power. In agricultural resources this is one of the richest counties in the state.

 

Area about 400 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 137,922; in pasture, 7,159; woodland, 23,601; lying waste, 2,338; produced in wheat, 956,331 bushels; rye, 1,578; buckwheat, 87; oats, 454,112; barley, 27,349; corn, 1,520,000; broom-corn, 9,690 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 8,175 tons; clover hay, 7,806; flax, 833,800 lbs. fibre; potatoes, 47,593 bushels; tobacco, 463,120 lbs.; butter, 536,213; cheese, 13,400; sorghum, 4,731 gallons; maple syrup, 8,627; honey, 6,225 lbs.; eggs, 433,940 dozen; grapes, 26,635 lbs.; sweet potatoes, 1,927 bushels; apples, 1,395; peaches, 102; pears, 831; wool, 22,088 lbs.; milch cows owned, 6,033. Ohio mining statistics, 1888: limestone, 8,635 tons burned for lime; 73,096 cubic feet of dimension stone; 45,275 cubic yards of building stone; 5,007 cubic yards for piers or protection purposes; 27,582 square feet of flagging; 37,850 square feet of paving; 30,558 lineal feet of curbing; 8,077 cubic yards of ballast or macadam. School census, 1888, 12,038; teachers, 266. Miles of railroad track, 121.

 

 

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Population of Miami in 1820, 8,851; 1830, 12,807; 1840, 19,804; 1860, 29,959; 1880, 36,158, of whom 28,832 were born in Ohio; 1,882, Pennsylvania; 599, Virginia; 570, Indiana; 321, New York; 243, Kentucky; 1376, German Empire; 413, Ireland; 159, England and Wales; 93, France; 48, British America; and 14, Scotland. Census, 1890, 39,754.

 

Reminiscences of Clarke's Expedition.

 

Prior to the settlement of Ohio, General George Rogers CLARKE led an expedition from Kentucky against the Indians in this region, an account of which follows from the reminiscences of Abraham THOMAS, originally published in the Troy Times. Mr. THOMAS, it is said, cut the first saplings on the site of Cincinnati:

 

In the year 1782, after corn planting, I again volunteered in an expedition under General CLARKE with the object of destroying some Indian villages about Piqua, on the Great Miami river. On this occasion nearly 1,000 men marched out of Kentucky by the route of Licking river. We crossed the Ohio at the present site of Cincinnati where our last year's stockade had been kept up, and a few people then resided in log-cabins. We proceeded immediately onward through the woods without regard to our former trail, and crossed Mad river not far from the present site of Dayton; we kept up the east side of the Miami and crossed it about four miles below the Piqua towns. Shortly after gaining the bottom on the west side of the river, a party of Indians on horseback with their squaws came out of the trees that led to some Indian villages near the present site of Granville. They were going on a frolic, or pow-wow, to be held at Piqua, and had with them a Mrs. MCFALL, who was some time before taken prisoner from Kentucky; the Indians escaped into the woods leaving their women, with Mrs. MCFALL, to the mercy of our company. We took those along with us to Piqua and Mrs. MCFALL returned to Kentucky. On arriving at Piqua we found that the Indians had fled from the villages, leaving most of their effects behind. During the following night I joined a party to break up an encampment of Indians said to be lying about what was called the French store. We soon caught a Frenchman, tied him on horseback for our guide, and arrived at the place in the night. The Indians had taken alarm and cleared out; we, however, broke up and burned the Frenchman's store, which had for a long time been a place of outfit for Indian marauders and returned to the main body early in the morning, many of our men well-stocked with plunder. After burning and otherwise destroying everything about upper and lower Piqua towns we commenced our return march.

 

In this attack five Indians were killed during the night the expedition lay at Piqua; the Indians lurked around the camp, firing random shots from the hazel thickets without doing us any injury; but two men who were in search of their stray horses were fired upon and severely wounded; one of those died shortly after and was buried at what is now called "Coe's Ford," where we recrossed the Miami on our return. The other, Captain MCCRACKEN, lived until we reached the site of Cincinnati, where he was buried. On this expedition we had with us Capt. BARBEE, afterwards Judge BARBEE, one of my primitive neighbors in Miami County, Ohio, a most worthy and brave man, with whom I have hunted, marched and watched through many a long day, and finally removed with him to Ohio.

 

Early Settlements.

 

From the "Miami County Traditions," also published in the Troy Times, in 1839, we annex some reminiscences of the settlement of the county and its early settlers:

 

 

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peacefully hunting through the country. Early the next spring, in 1798, Mr. KNOOP removed to near the present site of Staunton village, and in connection with Benjamin KNOOP, Henry GARARD, Benjamin HAMLET and John TILDUS, established there a station for the security of their families. Mrs. KNOOP, now living, there planted the first apple tree introduced into Miami County, and one is now standing in the yard of their house raised from seed and then planted that measures little short of nine feet around it. . . .

 

Dutch Station. - The inmates of a station in the county, called the Dutch station, remained within it for two years, during which time they were occupied in clearing and building on their respective farms. Here was born in 1798 Jacob Knoop, the son of John Knoop, the first civilized native of Miami county. At this time there were three young single men living at the mouth of Stoney creek, and cropping on what was afterwards called FREEMAN'S prairie. One of these was D. H. MORRIS, a present resident of Bethel township; at the same time there resided at Piqua, Samuel HILLIARD, Job Garrard, Shadrach HUDSON, Jonah ROLLINS, Daniel COX, Thomas RICH and _____ HUNTER; these last named had removed to Piqua in 1797, and together with our company at the Dutch station, comprised all the inhabitants of Miami county from 1797 to 1799. In the latter year John, afterwards Judge GARRARD, Nathaniel and Abner GARRARD, and the year following, Uriah BLUE, Joseph COE and Abraham HATHAWAY, joined us with their families. From that time all parts of the county began to receive numerous immigrants. For many years the citizens lived together on footings of the most social and harmonious intercourse - we were all neighbors to each other in the Samaritan sense of the term - there were some speculators and property-hunters among us, to be sure, but not enough to disturb our tranquillity and general confidence. For many miles around we knew who was sick, and what ailed them, for we took a humane interest in the welfare of all. Many times were we called from six to eight miles to assist at a rolling or raising, and cheerfully lent our assistance to the task. For our accommodation we sought the mill of Owen DAVIS, afterwards at Smith's mill, on Beaver creek, a tributary of the Little Miami, some twenty-seven miles distant. Our track lay through the woods, and two days were consumed in the trip, when we usually took two horse-loads. Owen was a kind man, considerate of his distant customers, and would set up all night to oblige them, and his conduct materially abridged our mill duties.

 

With the Indians we lived on peaceable terms; sometimes, however, panics would spread among the women, which disturbed us a little, and occasionally we would have a horse or so stolen. But one man only was killed out of the settlement from 1797 to 1811. This person was one BOYIER, who was shot by a straggling party of Indians, supposed through a mistake. No one, however, liked to trade with the Indians, or have anything to do with them, beyond the offices of charity.

 

Beauty of the country. - The country all around the settlement presented the most lovely appearance, the earth was like an ash heap, and nothing could exceed the luxuriance of primitive vegetation; indeed our cattle often died from excess of feeding, and it was somewhat difficult to rear them on that account. The white-weed or bee-harvest, as it is called, so profusely spread over our bottom and woodlands, was not then seen among us; the sweet annis, nettles, wild rye and pea vine, now so scarce, everywhere abounded - they were almost the entire herbage of our bottoms. The two last gave subsistence to our cattle, and the first, with our nutritious roots, where eaten by our swine with the greatest avidity. In the spring and summer months a grove of hogs could be scented at a considerable distance from their flavor of the annis root. Our winters were as cold, but more steady than at present. Snow generally covered the ground, and drove our stock to the barnyard for 3 months, and this was all the trouble we had with them. Buffalo signs were frequently met with; but the animals had entirely disappeared before the first white inhabitants came into the country; but other game was abundant. As many as thirty deer have been counted at one time around the bayous and ponds near Staunton. The hunter had his full measure of sport when he chose to indulge in the chase; but ours was essentially an agricultural settlement. From the coon to the buckskin embraced are circulating medium. Our imported commodities were first purchased at Cincinnati, then at Dayton, and finally Peter FELIX established an Indian merchandising store at Staunton, and this was our first attempt in the way of traffic. For many years we had no exports but skins; yet wheat was steady at fifty cents and corn at twenty-five cents per bushel - the latter, however, has since fallen as low as twelve and a half cents, and a dull market.

 

 

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Top Picture

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

 

THE COUNTY BUILDING, TROY.

 

Bottom Picture

D. ARGEBRIGHT, PHOTO., 1888

 

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Troy in 1846. -Troy, the county-seat, is a beautiful and flourishing village, in a highly cultivated and fertile country, upon the west bank of the Great Miami, seventy miles north of Cincinnati and sixty-eight west of Columbus. It was laid out about the year 1808, as the county-seat, which was first at Staunton, a mile east, and now containing but a few houses. Troy is regularly laid off into broad and straight streets, crossing each other at right angles, and contains about 550 dwellings. The view was taken in the principal street of the town, and shows, on the right, the Court house and town hall, between which, in the distance, appeared the spires of the New School Presbyterian and Episcopal churches. It contains 2 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Wesleyan Methodist, 1 Episcopal and 1 Baptist church; a market, a branch of the State Bank, 2 newspaper printing-offices, 1 town and 1 masonic hall, 1 academy, 3 flouring and 5 saw-mills, 1 foundry, 1 machine shop, 1 shingle and 1 plow factory, and a large number of stores and mechanic shops. Its population in 1840 was 1,351; it has since more than doubled, and is constantly increasing. It is connected with Cincinnati, Urbana and Greenville by turnpikes.

 

The line of the Miami Canal, from Cincinnati, passes through the town from south to north; on it are six large and commodious warehouses, for receiving and forwarding produce and merchandise, and three more, still larger, are in progress of erection, and four smaller, for supplying boats with provisions and other necessaries. The business done during the current year, ending June 1, 1847, in thirty of the principal business houses, in the purchase of goods, produce and manufactures, amounts to $523,248, and the sales to $674,307. The articles bought and sold are as follows: 174,000 bushels of wheat, 290,000 bushels of corn, 100,000 bushels of rye, barley and oats, 17,000 barrels of whiskey, 17,000 barrels of flour, 1,300 barrels of pork, 5,000 hogs, 31,000 pounds of butter, 2000 bushels clover-seed, 600 barrels fish, 3,000 barrels salt, 30,000 bushels flax-seed, 304,000 pounds bulk pork, 136,000 pounds lard, 1,440 thousand feet of sawed lumber, etc. The shipments to and from the place are about 20,000 tons. - Old Edition.

 

Abraham THOMAS, from whom we have quoted in the "Miami County Traditions," published, was one of the first settlers; he came with his family in 1805, and died in 1843. He was a blacksmith and his shop a log-pen. He made his own charcoal. The panic during the war of 1812 extended to this then wilderness, and at the slightest alarm the women and children would flee to the forest for safety. The "County History" gives these items:

 

At the beginning of things hogs fattened in the woods and not five bushels of corn were needed to fatten up a hundred hogs. Corn was raised only for food, and by hoeing and digging around the stumps. A man who would go to mill with 2 bushels of corn was considered a prosperous farmer. Potatoes were a luxury introduced a long time after the first settlement. Having no fences, bells were put on the stock, which, notwithstanding, wandered off and got lost. The sugar used was homemade, the coffee was rye, and the tea sassafras and sage. The first grain was cut with sickles, which were considered a wonderful invention.

 

Staunton was the first place of permanent settlement in the county, and the nucleus from which its civilization spread. It was the first plotted town. Among the earliest settlers of Staunton were Mr. Levi MARTIN. His wife, when a young girl, about the year 1788, then living not far from Red Stone Fort, on the Monongahela, was knocked down and scalped by the Indians, and left for dead. The family name was CORBLY, and hers Delia. They were on the way to church and shot at from the thicket, when Mr. CORBLY and three children were killed outright. Two younger daughters were knocked down, scalped, and left for dead, but were resuscitated. One of these was Mrs. MARTIN, who lived until 1836 and reared ten children. Her wounds extended over the crown of her head wide as the two hands. Her hair grew up to the scalped surface, which she trained to grow upwards, and served as a protection. At times she suffered severe headaches, which she attributed to the loss of her scalp.

 

Another noted old settler was Andrew DYE, Sr., who died in 1837 at the age of 87 years, having had eight sons and two daughters. At this time his posterity amounted to about five hundred, of whom three hundred and sixty were then living ranging down to the fifth generation.

 

 

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The first survey of Troy was made by Andrew WALLACE in 1807, with additions from time to time. On the 2d of December of that year Robert CRAWFORD was appointed town director, who gave bonds to the county commissioners to purchase the land for the seat of justice and lay it off into streets and lots. The original plans selected for the now beautiful town of Troy were then a dense forest, bought for three dollars per acre.

 

Troy, county-seat of Miami, is about sixty-five miles west of Columbus, about seventy-five miles north of Cincinnati, on that D. & M., I. B. & W. Railroads, and the Miami river and Miami & Erie Canal. County officers, 1888: Auditor, Horatio PEARSON; Clerk, John B. FOUTS; Commissioners, John T. KNOOP, Robert MARTINDALE, David C. STATLER; Coroner, Joseph W. MEANS; Infirmary Directors, David ARNOLD, William D. WIDNER, Thomas C. BOND; Probate Judge, William J. CLYDE; Prosecuting Attorney, Samuel C. JONES; Recorder, E. J. EBY; Sheriff, A. M. HAYWOOD; Surveyor, H. O. EVANS; Treasurer, George H. RUNDLE. City officers, 1888: George S. LONG, Mayor; John H. CONKLIN, Clerk; Noah YOUNT, Treasurer; George IRWIN, Marshall; W. B. MCKINNEY, Solicitor; H. O. EVANS, civil engineer. Newspapers: Trojan, Republican, Charles H. GOODRICH, editor and publisher; Democrat, Democratic, Jay P. BARRON, editor and publisher; Miami Union, Republican, C. C. ROYCE, editor; Sons of Veterans Corporal's Guard, Charles W. KELLOGG, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Catholic, 2 Baptist, 3 Methodist, 1 German Lutheran, 1 English Lutheran, 1 Presbyterian and 1 Christian. Banks: First National, H. W. ALLEN, president, D. W. SMITH, cashier; Miami County, HAYWOOD, ROYCE & Co., Noah YOUNT, cashier.

 

Manufacturers and Employees. -Troy Spring Wagon and Wheel Co., carriages, etc., 127 hands; the Troy Buggy Works, bodies, etc., 146; KELLY & Sons, windmills, etc., 8; John & William YOUTSY, lumber, 5. - State Reports, 1888. Population, 1880, 3,803. School census, 1888, 1,218; C. L. VANCLEVE, school superintendent. Census, 1890, 4,590.

 

Troy has several fine 3-story business blocks, and is a favorite place for trade for the large, rich agricultural country of which is the centre. Prior to the railroad era it was a noted grain market.

 

The new county court-house here is an evidence of the wealth and liberality of the people. It is one of the most magnificent structures of the kind to be found anywhere. The architect was J. W. YOST, Columbus, and contractor, T. B. TOWNSEND, Zanesville. It stands in the center of the square, with bounding streets of 230 by 330 feet. The building itself is highly ornamented, and is 114 feet 2 inches square; its material is the beautiful Amherst sand-stone. To the eaves it is 60 feet in height, and to the top of the dome 160 feet. Its entire cost with its furniture, including the heating and lighting appointments, amounted to about $400,000. The first building used for courts was at Staunton, on the east side of the Miami. The first court-house was of brick, and stood in the center of the public square; the second is shown in our old view.

 

Piqua in 1846. - Piqua is another beautiful and thriving town, eight miles above Troy, and also on the river and canal. It was laid out in 1809 by Mssrs. BRANDON and MANNING, under the name of Washington, which it bore for many years. The town plot contains an area of more than a mile square, laid out in uniform blocks, with broad and regular streets. On the north and east, and opposite the town, where the villages of Rossville and Huntersville, connected with it by bridges across the Miami.

 

 

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grist-mill and tannery, with two steam iron-turning and machine establishments, constitute, with the rest, the amount of steam and hydraulic power used. With these are over 100 mechanical and manufacturing establishments in the town, among which are twenty-five cooper shops - that business being very extensively carried on. There are also fifteen grocery and variety stores, twelve dry-goods, three leather, one book and three hardware stores; the printing office, four forwarding and three pork houses; and the exports and imports, by the canal, or very heavy. South of the town are seven valuable quarries of blue limestone, at which are employed a large number of hands, and adjacent to the town is a large boat yard.

 

In the town are 600 dwellings, many of which are of brick and have fine gardens attached. Along the canal have lately been erected a number of three-story brick buildings for business purposes, and the number of business houses is ninety-eight. During the year 1846 eighty buildings were erected, and the value of real estate at that time was $476,000.

 

The population of Piqua in 1830 was less than 500; in 1840, 1,480; and in 1847, 3,100.

 

The Miami river curves beautifully around the town, leaving between it and the village a broad and level plateau, while the opposite bank rises abruptly into a hill, called "Cedar Bluff," affording fine walks and a commanding view of the surrounding country. In its vicinity are some ancient works. From near its base, on the east bank of the river, the review was taken. The church spires shown, commencing on the right, are respectively, the Episcopal, Catholic, New School Presbyterian, Wesleyan Methodist, old school present Presbyterian and Baptist. The town hall is seen on the left. - Old Edition.

 

The old view of Piqua was taken a few rods only below the present bridge, both occupying the same site. In 1846, when a part of John RANDOLPH'S negroes were driven from Mercer County, they camped here at this place in tents. Three years later John ROBINSON'S elephant fell through the old bridge.

 

From the Miami County traditions we annex some facts respecting the history of Piqua.

 

Jonathan ROLLINS was among the first white inhabitants of Miami county. In connection with nine others he contracted with Judge SYMMES, for a certain compensation in lots and land, to become a pioneer in laying out a proposed town in the Indian country, at the lower Piqua village, where is situated the pleasant and flourishing town under the name. The party left Ludlow station, on Mill Creek, in the spring of 1797, and proceeded without difficulty to the proposed site. They their erected cabins and enclosed grounds for fields and gardens. But the judge failing in some of his calculations was unable to fulfill his part of the contract, and the other parties to it gradually withdrew from the association, and squatted around on public land as best pleased themselves. It was some years after this when land could be regularly entered in the public offices; surveying parties had been running out the county, but time was required to organize the newly introduced section system, which has since proved so highly beneficial to the Western States, and so fatal to professional cupidity.

 

Indian grief. - Some of these hardy adventurers settled in and about Piqua, where they have left many worthy descendants. Mr. ROLLINS finally took up land on Spring Creek, where he laid out the farm he now (1839) occupies. While this party resided at Piqua, and for years after, the Indians were constant visitors and sojourners among them. This place appears to have been, to that unfortunate race, a most favored residence, around which their attachments and regrets lingered to the last. They would come here to visit the graves of their kindred and weep over the sod that entombed the bones of their fathers. They would sit in melancholy groups, surveying the surrounding objects of their earliest attachments and childhood sports - the winding river which witnessed their first feeble essays with the gig and the paddle - the trees where they first triumphed with their tiny bow in their boastful craft of the hunter - the coppice of their nut gatherings - the lawns of their boyhood sports, and haunts of their early loves - would call forth bitter sighs and reproaches on that civilization which, in its rudest features, was uprooting them from their happy home.

 

 

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some past offense took it in his head to kill one wives. He was following her with a knife and tomahawk around their cabin, with a posse of clamorous squaws and papooses at his heels, who were striving to check his violence. They had succeeded in wresting from him his arms, and he was standing against the cabin, when several of the white men, attracted by the outcry, approached the group. One of them, small in stature but big in resolution, made through the Indian crowd to the offender, struck him in the face and felled him to the ground, while the surrounding Indians looked on in fixed amazement.

 

When the country had developed somewhat flatboats were constructed at Piqua on the river bank. They were about seventy feet long and twelve feet wide. They were loaded with flour, bacon, corn on the cob, cherry lumber, furniture and other products and taken down the river, sometimes to New Orleans. From thence the boatman often walked all the way home again, passing through what was then called the Indian nations, Choctaws and Chickasaws.

 

Navigating the Miami was risky, especially in passing over mill-dams and following the channel through the "Ninety-nine Islands," a few miles below Troy. It required the utmost skill and quickness to guide the unwieldy craft through the swift, crooked turns.

 

Piqua is eight miles north of Troy, on the Miami river and the Miami & Erie Canal, at the crossing of the P. C. & St. L. and D. & M. Railroads. City officers, 1888: G. A. BROOKS, Mayor; J. H. HATCH, Clerk; Clarence LANGDON, Treasurer; Walter D. JONES, Solicitor; W. J. JACKSON, Engineer; James L. LIVINGSTON, Marshall. Newspapers: Call, Republican, J. W. MORRIS, editor and publisher; Dispatch, Republican, D. M. FLEMING, editor; Evening Democrat, Democratic, J. Boni HEMSTEGER, editor and publisher; Der Correspondent, German, Democratic, J. Boni HEMSTEGER, editor and publisher; Leader, Democratic, Jerome C. SMILEY & Co., editors and publishers; Miami Helmet, Republican, I. S. MORRIS, editor and publisher; Pythian News, Knights of Pythias, Harry S. FRYE, editor and publisher. Churches: Methodist, 3; Presbyterian, 2; Baptist, 3; Lutheran, 1; Episcopal, 1; Catholic, 2; German Methodist, 1. Banks: Citizens' National, W. P. ORR, president, Henry FLASH, cashier; Piqua National, John M. SCOTT, president, Clarence LANGDON, cashier.

 

Manufacturers and Employees. - The Piqua Straw Board Company, paper and straw board, 62 hands; BOWDLE Brothers, machinery and castings, 13; I. J. WHITLOCK, builders woodwork, 25; C. A. & C. L. WOOD, builders woodwork, 30; the FRITSCHE Brothers, furniture, 10; the Wood Linseed Oil Co., linseed oil, etc., 8; the Piqua Manufacturing Co., mattresses, etc., 35; L. W. FILLEBROWN, machinery, 5; the Piqua Handle Co., agricultural implements, 43; the Piqua Straw Board Co., paper, 25; the Piqua Oat-meal Co., corn-meal, 10; SNYDER & Son, carriage shafts, etc., 111; C. F. RANKIN & Co., handlers of malt, etc., 15; Leonard Linseed Oil Co., linseed oil, etc., 20; W. P. ORR Linseed Oil Co., linseed oil, etc., 22; J. L. SCHNEYER, lager beer, 4; Mrs. L. E. NICEWANNER, flour, etc., 5; the Piqua Hosiery Co., hosiery, 76; the F. GRAY Co., woolen blankets, etc., 62; L. C. & W. L. CRON & Co., furniture, 165; CRON, KILLS & Co., furniture, 178. - Ohio State Reports, 1888.

 

The Bentwood Works are the largest of the kind in the Union. Over a million bushels of flaxseed are annually crushed, making it the largest linseed oil centre, and excepting Circleville, no other place equals or surpasses it in the production of straw board. On the Miami are extensive and valuable limestone quarries.

 

Population, 1880, 6,031. School census, 1888, 2,717; C. W. BENNETT, school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $968,500. Value of annual product, $1,626,000. - Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887. Census, 1890, 9,090.

 

 

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Top Picture

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

 

PIQUA.

From the east bank of the Miami. The elephant of John’s Robinson’s circus in 1849 broke through this bridge.

 

Bottom Picture

C. A. Gale, Photo, Piqua, 1886.

 

PIQUA.