History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches

Front matter

1789. HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY OHIO, WITH Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. COMPILED BY Henry A. Ford, A.M., and Mrs. Kate B. Ford L.A.WILLIAMS & CO., PUBLISHERS, 1881. FROM PRINTING HOUSE OF W. W. WILLIAMS, CLEVELAND, OHIO. Prefatory Note, It should ever be borne in mind that the office of an historian is one of immense responsibility; that it always tells for good or evil; and that he will be held responsible for the consequences of a want of fidelity. — [Hon. Jacob Burnet, Cincinnati, Miss E. H. Appleton, librarian of the Historical and Philosophical society; Mr. John M. Newton, of the Mercantile library; Chester W. Merrill, esq., of the Pub lic library ; Colonel Sidney D. Maxwell, superintendent of the Chamber of Commerce; and Mr. H. A. Ratter man, secretary of the German-American Insurance com pany; all of Cincinnati — and to Louis W. Clason, mayor of Madisonville.

An earnest and very laborious effort has been made to compose this history in the spirit of Judge Burnet's remark. No source of information available to the writers has been left unsearched, nor any effort or ex pense spared to produce a work which should satisfy the reasonable expectations of a city and county which have waited nearly a century for the compilation and publica tion of their annals. The list of works consulted is too large for convenient citation here. It includes those of all the earlier writers — Burnet, Cist, the Drakes, Mans field, and others — with a multitude of later volumes, and pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, and manuscripts in numerable. It has not been practicable in so many cases to secure formal permission for the use of books con sulted or quoted; but it is trusted that due respect has been paid to all copyrights, and that no author whose writings have contributed to this volume will object to such use as has been made of them.

Acknowledgments are also due to many persons, in all parts of the county and at several points elsewhere in the State, for their kind and helpful aid in the preparation of this book. Particular mention should be made in this connection of It may seem, in some cases, that public institutions or private interests of public importance have not received the notice that was due to them, or are, possibly, wholly unnoticed in these volumes. It may be concluded in such cases, with scarcely any exception, that the omission is the result of failure on the part of those possessing desired information to co-operate with the historian. The compilers regret most sincerely that their inability to read some of the proofs has resulted in many errors of typography, and a few of statement. It is hoped, however, that all of any importance will be found cor rected in the errata at the close of the respective volumes.

Chapter I. Description

There is a land, of every land the pride, Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside, Where brighter suns dispense serener light, And milder moons imparadise the night; A land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth, Time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth : The wandering mariner, whose eye explores The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores, Views not a realm so bountiful and fair. The valley of the Ohio is about five hundred feet be low the general level of the county; while the valleys of the Great and Little Miamis, of the Dry fork of White water, of Mill, Duck, and Deer, Taylor's and Blue Rock creeks, and many small streams corrugate further the sur face of the country. Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air. Man, through all ages of revolving time, Unchanging man, in every varying clime, The characteristics of some of these streams were no ticed by travellers at a very early day.

Captain Thomas Hutchins, of His Brittanic Majesty's Sixtieth regiment of foot, afterwards geographer of the United States, during his service with the British armies in this country in the last century, made many explorations in the western wilderness between the years 1764 and 1775, the results of which are embodied in a valuable Topographical De scription published in London in 1778. It contains, probably, the first printed notices of the Miami river ex tant. He says: Deems his own land of every land the pride, Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside ; His home the spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest. James Montgomery, "My Country. Hamilton, the second county erected in the territory now covered by the State of Ohio, but, almost ever since, the first in the State in wealth, population, and general importance, is the southwesternmost subdivision of the Commonwealth.

It is bounded on the south by the river Ohio, next beyond which are the counties of Camp bell, Kenton, and Boone, in Kentucky; on the west by Dearborn county, Indiana, and at the southwestern corner by the Great Miami river; on the north by Butler and Warren counties, Ohio, formed from its own territory in 1808; on the east by Clermont county and the Little Miami river, beyond which, from the northeastern corner of the county, runs a narrow strip of Warren county. Upon no side of its territory is the boundary a direct line throughout. The tortuous windings of rivers supply great curves on the eastern and southern boundaries, and also break up the western line as it nears the southern ex tremity; and the northern line is considerably zigzagged by the irregularity of the early surveys in the Symmes (or Miami) Purchase.

Little Mineami river is too small to navigate with batteaux. It has much fine land and several salt springs; its high banks and gentle cur rent prevent its much overflowing the surrounding lands in freshets. Great Mineami, Afferemet, or Rocky river has a very strong chan nel; a swift stream, but no falls. It has several large branches, passa ble with boats a great way; one extending westward towards the Wa bash river, and then towards a branch of the Mineami river (which runs into Lake Erie), to which there is a portage, and a thitd has a portage to the west branch of Sandusky, besides Mad creek, where the French formerly established themselves. Rising ground here and there a little stoney, which begins in the northern part of the Peninsula, between Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan, and extend across the Little Mine ami river below the Forks, and southwardly along the Rocky river to Ohio.

A part of Captain Hutchins' description would hardly be approved nowadays. However industrious he was in observation, he would have necessarily to rely much upon hearsay; and no little knowledge that he seemed to have appears absolutely incorrect, or vague and indefinite, when confronted with the facts. The area of Hamilton, once so great as to include about one-eighth of the present territory of Ohio, is now among the smaller county areas of the State. It includes but about three hundred and ninety square miles, or two hundred and forty-nine thousand acres. Its surface was probably part of a vast plain many thousands of years ago, but has become exceedingly diversified and broken by the long wash of streams and by the changes of the Imlay, an English traveller, wrote in 1793, evidently borrowing from Hutchins: The Great Miami is about three hundred yards wide at its mouth, is a rapid stream, without cataracts, with several large branches navigable for batteaux a long way up, the principal of which intersects with a branch of the Miami river, which runs into Lake Erie, to which there is a portage, and a third has a portage to Sandusky. geologic ages. •i a This region forms one of the richest, as well as the most beautiful, sections of the State, an extension, indeed of the far-famed "blue grass region" of Kentucky.* The system of agriculture in this valley is esteemed the best in the State, except that of the Western Reserve.

By underdraining and other permanent soil-improvements and ameliorations important changes have been effected. It is the most famous tobacco region of the State, and in it more than forty per cent, of all the tobacco raised in Ohio is produced. The very richest bottom lands are selected for this crop, and the average yield for five years is ascertained to be eight hundred and sixty-six and one half pounds per acre. In the early day comparatively little wheat was grown in the valley, but within the last quarter of a century it has sown a greater breadth, and harvested a larger quantity than any similar area in the State. A comparison of the Miami valley with other parts of Ohio, made a few years ago, showed that fifty per cent, wider breadth of soil was sown to wheat in this valley than in any other part of the commonwealth.

The corn crop was also very large, averaging thirty-eight and one-fourth bushels per inhabitant, against thirty seven and one-half bushels per inhabitant for the general average of the State. Says the report cited below: it now does, the greatest breadth of the city, it is justly reckoned, notwithstanding the pollution of its water by manufactories and other establishments along its borders, an important element in the topography of the city and county. Other streams, except the Miami and Ohio rivers, are comparatively insignificant, although some of them, in the course of the ages, have come to occupy broad and deep valleys. North of the range of hillg, adjoining, or rather now mostly in the city, in the country beyond Avondale and the Walnut Hills, is a spacious basin or amphitheatre of about twenty-five square miles, in which a splendid city might advantageously be located, but to and through which the city of Cincinnati will undoubtedly one day extend.

It is traversed by the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, and the Montgomery and other turnpike roads. The soil in this and the northwest portions of the county is for the most part friable clay, resting on limestone, which gives them an excellent character as grass-growing regions, from which much of the hay to Cincinnati is supplied. Permanent springs are not very numerous in the county, but well water of excellent quality is in general obtained without difficulty. Ponds and morasses were formerly frequent, especially in the northern part of the county, but are less known now. The farms throughout the valley are, as a rule, in good order; the surroundings in neatness and good taste more nearly resemble the Western Reserve than does any other valley in the State. Many of the inhabitants are Peansylvanians and Marylanders, who have brought with them their ideas of good shelter and care of domestic animals; hence, throughout the valley are found well-constructed and good sized, comfortable barns and other outbuildings.

The interiors of farm-houses, especially the more recent ones, are well arranged for convenience and comfort, and many of them are even luxuriously fur nished, f More attention is given in this valley to grain and wool-growing than to stock-raising. The secretary of State's report for 1877 says: The lands are entiiely too dear to be devoted to sheep growing so wool; hence comparatively few fine-wooled sheep are in the valley, the bulk of the sheep being "native" and mutton breeds. As early as 1816 attention was being directed to the improvement in the horse stock of the valley, and from that time until the present that interest has been fully maintained. Those who are familiar with the strains of thorough breds will find that many of the famous horses of the west either were bred in this valley or else traced back to stock in this region for its an cestry.

Less attention is given to cattle in this valley than other agricultural operations indicate, or than the wealth and fertility of the valley warrant. But the lesser interest in cattle is fully compensated by the greater interest in horses and in swine. This latter species of domestic animals is one of the "leading agricultural pursuits" of the region. The justly famous "Magie" (pronounced Mag-gee) breed of hogs is claimed to have been originated in this valley. Early maturity and large weights are the peculiar commendatory qualities of this breed, it being no unfrequent occurrence that a head of fifteen or twenty are slaughteied averaging near about six hundred pounds net. How greatly and essentially the character of the county is changing, however, is shown by the following extract from the report of the secretary of the Hamilton County Agricultural society to the State Board of Agriculture, published in its annual report for 187 1.

He says: Our county is no longer a farming community. Our farms are now occupied as dairies, rented by gardners, used as pasture or meadow, and on the railroads and leading thoroughfares are being subdivided and improved as country homes by the business men of Cincinnati. Other crops are produced in great abundance and va riety from the soil of Hamilton county; the fertile valleys near Cincinnati, especially the broad valley of Mill creek, which has a peculiarly favorable location, are in great re quest for market gardening. The lands here, and indeed generally throughout the county, are exceedingly valuable; and large sums are invested in and large fortunes realized by the pursuits of agriculture in this region. The average throughout the State is eight head of swine for every one hundred acres of area.

In the Miami valley the average is over thir teen head, or sixty-three per cent, more than the general average; or, the State average is seventy-seven head for every one hundred inhabitants, and in this valley there are, in round numbers, seventy-nine head to the one hundred inhabitants. When it is remembered that more than one-fourth of the population of the State resides in this val ley, it will be seen at once that one-fourth of all the swine in the State are grown here. Notwithstanding the Scioto valley has fifty-eight head of swine more to the one hundred inhabitants, it has less to the hundred acres than the Miami. The Mill Creek valley just mentioned, which consti tutes one of the most prominent and important physical features of the county, begins near Hamilton, in Butler county, not far from the valley of the Great Miami.

In deed, it is said that in wet seasons the water is discharged from a large pond near Hamilton at the same time through Pleasant run into the Great Miami and by Mill creek into the Ohio river. This creek becomes a con siderable stream as it nears Cincinnati; and traversing, as The climate of this part of the Ohio valley is mild and genial. The average temperature of the year is about 54° Fahrenheit, above zero, against 52° at Mari etta, also in the Ohio valley, 50° on the south shore of Lake Erie, and 49° to 48° in the highlands, of the interior. In the early day the temperature was even milder Dr. Drake, in his Notices concerning Cincinnati, published in 18 10, says: *Ohio Geological Survey, vol. I, p. 26. fOhio Secretary of State's report for 1877. "The latter [the Ohio river, which he was compar ing with the Delaware at Philadelphia] at this place is but seldom blocked up with the ice which it floats, and was never known to freeze over."

In his Picture of Cincinnati, published five years later, he notes the average temperature of 1808 as 56.40; that of i8n as 56.62°, and the average for the eight years, 1806-13, as 54-25°) which, he says, "may be regarded as an accurate exponent of the temperature of Cincinnati." One hundred degrees, from below zero to above, was the mean temperature of those years. During nine years' observation the thermometer at Cincinnati was below zero but twice in a winter. The mean summer heat for those years was but seventy-four, and the thermometer stood at ninety degrees or above for an average of but fourteen days a summer. In those times, according to Dr. Drake's observation of six years, there was an average per year of one hundred and seventy-six fair, one hun dred and five cloudy, and eighty-four variable days.

The annual fall of rain and snow amounted to thirty-six inches, while now it is forty-seven and forty-three one hundredths inches at Cincinnati and along the Ohio valley, against thirty-six in the northern part of the State. Said Dr. Drake, in his publication of 1815: ters of 1870-1, 1872-3 and the three succeeding winters, and those of 1877-8 and 1878-9 have been among the coldest known in the valley. AmOng warm winters that have been observed are those of 1792-3-4, i795~6> 1799-1800-1, 1805-6-7, 1809-10-n, and 1879-80, the last of these warmer than any other since T827-8, and io° warmer than any other since 1835-6. The thermometer exhibited 69° above in the shade on Forefathers' day, December 20, 1877, although that was a generally cold winter, and stood at 63° or more for some days. The average rainfall per year, during the eighty-three years designated, has been 39.71 inches, and somewhat lighter, 37.61, for the last twenty-five years of the period.

Least fell in 1856 — 22.88 inches; and most, 69.42, in 1847. The average snowfall annually is about twenty inches, against thirty-five in central and northern Ohio. The greatest depth at one time ever observed in southern Ohio was twenty-eight inches, January 18, T862, though twenty-two fell January 19, 1846. Sixty-nine inches fell in the winter of 1855-6, and sixty-five just ten years thereafter. Snowfalls in April sometimes occur, but very seldom later. April 20, r8i4, ten inches fell, and five April ii, 1874. Forest trees abounded in the early day in great variety, and are still, notwithstanding the dense population and extensive cultivation of the soil in the county, prominent among its physical features. Dr. Drake in his day enu merated over one hundred and twenty species, and from their number and the luxuriance of the forest growth he argued the superiority of the soil to that of the United States generally — "for it has as many kinds of trees above sixty feet in height as all the States taken together, while it has only one-half the number of species."

He also enu merates a great number of such herbaceous plants as are deemed useful in medicine and the-arts, most of which are indigenous to the soil. Of trees, the following-named are twenty of the most common species in Ohio, which are now found in Hamilton county, in the relative order of abundant growth in which they appear in the list: Oak, beech, hickory, sugar maple, poplar, walnut, elm, sycamore, ash, locust, mulberry, pine, cottonwood, white walnut (butternut), cherry, gum, soft maple, tulip, buckeye, and silver maple. In 1853 the county still had eighty-eight thousand one hundred and twenty-three acres, or thirty-seven and seven-tenths per cent, of the area, in forest; within seventeen years thereafter fifty three thousand six hundred and fifty acres were removed, and in 1870 it had but thirty-four thousand four hundred and seventy-three acres in forest, or fourteen and seventy six hundredths per cent, of its acreage — by far the least of any county in the State — and the breadth of its woods is annually decreasing.

This country has never been visited by a violent storm, either from the northeast or southeast, nor do the clouds from any eastern point often exhibit many electric phenomena. But from every direction on the opposite sides of the meridian they come charged with lightning and driven by impetuous winds. Of these thunder-gusts the northwest is by far the most prolific source. They occur at any time during the day and night, but most frequently in the afternoon. He gives a vivid description of such a storm, which occurred May 28, 1809, and of which some notice will be found hereafter in the history of Cincinnati, in this work. For eighty-three years ending with the last day of 1879, during which observations had been taken at Cin cinnati, the average temperature of the year was 57° 65', and for the last decade of that period it was 53° 65', showing a change of five degrees for the colder since 1797.

Some of the cold seasons in that day, however, were intensely severe. The lowest degree of Fahrenheit's thermometer ever registe-ied in the city was noted Jan uary 8, of the year last named, when, according to the observations of Colonel Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the Northwest Territory, it went to 18°, and would have gone lower, it is believed, had not the then dense forests of southern Ohio and the Cincinnati basin broken the icy northwest wind that prevailed. The winter of 1806-7 was also thoroughly frigid, and the seventh of February, of that season, when the thermometer marked n' below, has come down in local tradition as "the cold Friday." Other cold winters were those of 1855-6, 1856 7, and 1857-8, when the thermometer thirty-two times indicated temperatures below zero, and at one time the Ohio was for two months so solidly frozen over that loaded wagons crossed safely.

Another severe winter was that of 1863-4, which brought so much suffering to soldiers in the army. On the first of January, 1864, which has a permanent reputation in meteorology as "the cold New Year," 14° below was touched at Cincinnati. Since then, the win- The great municipality of Hamilton county, as all the world knows, is of course Cincinnati, with its area com prising about one-fourteenth of the entire territory of the county and its population of more than a quarter of a million. The townships of the county along the Ohio river are : To the east of Cincinnati — Anderson, between the Little names, and catalogued them. It does not fall within the province of this work to present a list of these. It may suffice for our purposes to say that the paleontological catalogue published within two or thiee years by Pro fessor Mickleborough, of the Cincinnati normal school, and Professor Wetherby, of the University of Cincinnati, represents no vertebrate, and their presence in the rocks of Hamilton county is exceedingly rare; but from the sub-kingdoms are presented fifty-seven species of annu losa (besides seventy-eight undetermined), one hundred and forty-five of mollusca, one hundred and thirty-nine of molluscoida, sixty-three of ccelenterata, and nine of protojoa, besides sixteen species representing, in a very small way, the vegetable kingdom.

Miami and the Clermont county line, and Spencer, ad joining the city; west of Cincinnati, in order — Delhi and Miami. Those west of the Great Miami are Whitewater, Harrison (in the northwestern corner of the county), and Crosby (east of Harrison on the lines of Butler county and the Little Miami river). Other townships in the northern tier, between the Great and Little Miamis, from west to east, are Colerain, Springfield, Sycamore, and Symmes. There remain, all these adjoining Cincinnati, Green township on the west, Mill Creek township on the north, and Columbia, between Mill Creek and the Little Miami. The post offices of the county, besides Cincinnati, are [February, 1881]: Banesburgh, Bevis, Bond Hill, Califor nia, Carthage, Cedar Point, Cherry Grove, Cheviot, Cleves, College Hill, Columbia,* Creedville, Corryville,* Cum minsville,* Delhi, Dent, Dunlap, East Sycamore, Eliza bethtown, Elmwood Place, Evendale, Forestville, Fruit Hill, Glendale, Grand Valley, Groesbeck, Harrison, Hart well, Karr, Linwood, Lockland, Ludlow Grove, Ma deira, Madisonville, Miami, Mill Creek,* Montgomery, Mount Airy, Mount Healthy, Mount Lookout, Mount Washington, Newton, North Bend, Norwood, Oakley, Plainville, Pleasan Ridge, Pleasant Run, Pleasant Valley, Preston, Reading, Remington, Riverside, Sater, Shann ville, Sixteen Mile Stand, Sedamsville,* Spring Dale, Sweet Wine, Symmes, Taylor's Creek, Terrace Park, Transit, Trautman Walnut Hills, Winton Place, West Riverside, and Wyoming.

Many of these are also incorporated villages; those marked* are within the corporate limits of Cincinnati, and are branches or "stations" of the Cincinnati post office. The duty of the historian, in this, one of the opening chapters of this work, is to present something of the to pography and geology of the county. In accordance with our custom in this series of local histories, we rely almost exclusively for these upon the authorized Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio, for which the section relating to Hamilton county was prepared by Professor Edward Orton, now of the State university at Columbus. What follows is taken almost verbatim from his report, with the addition of two or three foot-notes, and some slight changes in and arrangement of the text. 1. TOPOGRAPHY. The prominent topographical features of Hamilton county divide the surface into two main divisions — high land and lowland.

The first division embraces all the higher table-lands of the county, which have a general elevation of two to five hundred feet above low-water at Cincinnati. All of these areas, though often covered with superficial drift deposits, are underlain with bedded rock, which is every where easily accessible, and which impresses peculiar features upon the face of the districts that contain it. The description of Hamilton county will be incident ally continued through the next, necessarily a much more elaborate chapter. _ To the second division are referred the valleys of the county, and not only those which hold the present rivers, but also those in which no streams of considerable size are now found, but which are due to the eroding agen cies of an earlier day. Both of the classes of valleys are often filled with heavy accumulations of drift, but they agree in being destitute of bedded rock — except at the levels of the streams they contain, or, as is often the case, at considerably lower levels.

Chapter II. Geology And Topography

Where is the dust that has not been alive? — Young, "Night Thoughts." There was life in the valley of the Ohio untold ages before man came to gaze upon its beautiful hills and waters. Away back in the stately march of the geologic epochs, the Silurian seas here swarmed with animate ex istence, many of its forms so small that the aid of the microscope is needed to trace them; and some so nu merous that great and valuable layers of rock are com posed almost wholly of their remains. The history of the countless varieties of sentient life that so abounded here æons on æons ago may be read for us only in the rocks of the valley and the hills. It is otherwise un written, except in the books of their Creator. Industrious inquirers, working slowly and carefully through many years, have traced the forms of them, have given them The thickness of the drift beds does not generally ex ceed one hundred feet, and -thus it will be seen that in the Ohio valley the lowlands have a maximum elevation of one hundred feet above low-water at Cincinnati; but as we follow back the Miamis and the lesser streams, we find these beds assuming higher elevations, as the floor of the country that sustains them is gradually elevated, so that they sometimes attain, in the northern and eastern portions of the county, a height of one hundred and fifty or even two hundred feet above the same base.

In other words, the highlands of the county are the areas in which the bedded rocksremain, to an elevation of three hundred feet and more above the Ohio river, while the lowlands are those areas from which the rocks have been removed, at least to the existing rivers and lesser streams. northeastern part of Crosby township, which bears due westward from the present course of the Great Miami. Near the west line of the township this old channelis deflected to the southward, and is thenceforward occu. pied by the Dry fork of Whitewater, until it is merged in the valley of this last-named river. That the streams which hide themselvas in this great valley to-day have had next to nothing to do with its excavation, is evident from the fact that there is not one of them whose course agrees with the direction of the valley, but all cut across it transversely.

More than half of the townships of Crosby, Harrison, and Whitewater have been thus worn away and made to give bed to the rivers in the successive stages of their history. The channel above named can be confidently set down as another of the earlier courses of the Great Miami. The slopes that connect these two kinds of areas are commonly precipitous, as in the river-hills of Cincinnati; but sometimes the descent is broken by the interposition of drift deposits. The valley of the Ohio, which here runs in an east and west direction, makes the southern boundary of the county, and, though deep, is comparatively narrow. Sev eral of the north and south valleys that traverse the county are absolutely wider than the Ohio valley; and when the volumes of the streams that they contain are taken into the account, the disproportion between them and the first-named valley is very great.

A similar state of facts obtains through southwestern Ohio — the valleys that trend to the west of north especially having been excavated on an ampler scale than the rest, other things being equal. These facts seem to point to glacial erosion as a prominent cause in the production of the sur face features of the country, as the glaciers are known by the striæ they have left to have advanced from the northwest. Still a third of these old channels, more interesting in some respects than either of the two just named, is found near Cleves, Miami township. By reference to the map, it will be observed that the river here approaches within a mile of the Ohio; but, instead of entering the great val ley at this point, it makes an abrupt detour to the west and south, and only reaches its destination after a circuit of ten miles.

Its approach to the Ohio at Cleves is blocked by a ridge that is interposed, one hundred and fifty to two hundred and seventy-five feet in height. A tunnel that was carried through this ridge, in the con striction of the Whitewater Valley canal, and which is at present used by the Indianapolis & Cincinnati railroad, shows it to be composed of glacial drift. The di rection of this channel is in the line in which the glaciers advanced, so that its existence can be quite plausibly ascribed to the great agents of denudation. Whether or not the origin of this channel can be referred to the glacial period, its closure was certainly effected there. An examination of the map of the county, * in the light of the facts already known, will serve to show, what an acquaintance with it abundantly confirms, that its sur face has suffered a vast amount of erosion.