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| AncestorStuff.com :: Ohio :: Ohio: Warren: The History of Warren County, Ohio. 1882 W. H. Beers & Co. [with biographies]. Softcover. 2 vols.
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This page is part of the Warren County Ohio GenWeb project
Warren County Local History by Dallas Bogan
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Historian Recounts 18th Century Warren County Events For Readers
Contributor:
| Dallas Bogan on 22 July 2004 |
Source:
| Dallas Bogan, Warren County, Ohio and Beyond (Bowie Maryland:Heritage Press, 1979) page 1 |
Wayne's victory over the Indians on the 20th of August 1794 (Battle of Fallen Timbers), slowed down the frequent Indian commotion and disturbances. Still, occasional uprisings, horse thievery and frequent engagements with the whites led to no type of permanent agreement.
The treaty of peace, or the Treaty of Greenville (concluded August 3, 1795), virtually put an end to the Indian/white man engagements.
Before the peace settlement and shortly thereafter, protection from the Indian attacks was needed. A site was selected and entire neighborhoods would join in and erect what was called a blockhouse.
Small cabins were built which would surround the blockhouse; log pickets were built as fence lines for protection. This type settlement was called a station.
About a month after the peace agreement, on September 21, 1795, two groups of surveyors left Cincinnati to explore the Mad River area near Dayton, one under the command of Daniel C. Cooper, and the other under the surveillance of John Dunlap. William Beedle was assigned to Dunlap's party. Beedle's purpose was to begin a new settlement. In his possession were a wagon, tools and provisions.
The party followed Harmar's Trace to Turtlecreek where Beedle, with his brother Francis, left to begin his community.
...
In Beer's Warren County History, the Hamilton Township section states that William Mounts and five other families settled in the County October 1795.
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Beer's 1882 History states:
"William Bedle probably purchased from Daniel Thompson a land warrant issued by Symmes, as his deed for Section 28, Town. 4, Range 3, was executed by Jonathan Dayton and dated November 30, 1795."
Beedle's blockhouse was a dwelling built of round logs. Various ways were used in the construction of a blockhouse. The stockades were built with posts or logs solidly set in the ground and sometimes sharpened at the top, and arranged so as to enclose a region.
The stronger blockhouses were generally built conforming to each angle, and the lines between them filled with stockades or with cabins, one connecting the other, thus completing an enclosure.
The heavier built fortifications were constructed of heavy hewn timbers, and were sometimes of two or even three stories.
The smaller stations were built to accommodate fewer families and had a single blockhouse with cabins close by, and sometimes were without pickets.
The secluded blockhouses between the Miamis were typically crude buildings made with nothing but the common ax. The materials consisted of straight round logs, notched at the ends and hewed on the upper and lower edges to lie close together.
One identifiable characteristic of the blockhouse was that the upper part of the structure, above the height of a man's shoulder, was extended outward for about a foot or two over the lower part. This reasoning was that rifles could be thrust into the openings and defense of the blockhouse/station could be stabilized.
Judge Jacob Burnet describes life in the stations. He writes:
"Each party erected a strong block-house, near to which their cabins were put up, and the whole was enclosed by strong log pickets. This being done, they commenced clearing their lands and preparing for planting their crops. During the day, while they were at work, one person was placed as a sentinel to warn them of approaching danger.
"At sunset, they retired to the block-house and their cabins, taking everything of value within the pickets. In this manner they proceeded from day to day and week to week, till their improvements were sufficiently extensive to support their families. During this time, they depended for subsistence on wild game, obtained at some hazard, more than on the scanty supplies they were able to procure from the settlements on the river.
"In a short time, these stations gave protection and food to a large number of destitute families. After they were established, the Indians became less annoying to the settlements on the Ohio, as part of their time was employed in watching the stations.
"The former, however, did not escape, but endured their share of the fruits of savage hostility. In fact, no place or situation was exempt from danger. The safety of the pioneer depended on his means of defense, and on perpetual vigilance.
"The Indians viewed those stations with great jealousy, as they had the appearance of permanent military establishments, intended to retain possession of their country. In that view they were correct: and it was unfortunate for the settlers that the Indians wanted either the skill or the means of demolishing them."
Most of the early emigrants of the Miami Valley were Presbyterians. The Turtlecreek Presbyterian Church, built about 1798, was located a mile north of Beedle's Station. This was one of the first churches in Warren County, its members being mostly from New Jersey. (Isaac Miller and Francis Beedle were among those persons credited with starting the church.).."
