Exerpts transcribed for Fair Use only. Emphasis added.
http://www.egovlink.com/public_documents300/colerain/published_documents/Historical%20Documents/Colerain%20Township%20Revisited.pdf
It is noticeable that all the villages were to be found on the turnpikes. There were three in the Township - the earliest one (Colerain) bisecting the Township from north to south. Harrison Pike skirts along the southern edge, while the other early Turnpike (Hamilton) is found on part of the eastern line of the Township.
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[Was this a later version of 1976 - Our Heritage: Colerain Township, Ohio. Colerain Twp. Bicentennial Committee?]
"TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Dedication
Colerain Township
Government 1
Acknowledgements 1
Villages 2
Roads 3, 4
Description 5
History
Indian Attack on Dunlap's Station 5-9
Colerain, the Second Town 9-13
Turnpikes and Inns 14,15
Schwing's Corner (Blue Rock and Springdale) Pictures taken in the1800's of Toll Gate and Home 16
Dunlap (Georgetown) 17-19
Bevis 19
Groesbeck (West Union) 20
Groesbeck Pictures 21-22
Pleasant Run 23,25
Picture of Jim & Andy Huston Home on Pippin Road 24
Military History
List of Men in Colerain Township of Military Age (Mexican War) 26,27
Civil War (Muster at Camp Colerain) 27
(Encounter with Morgan's Raiders) 28,29
World War II (List of Men and Women Serving 30,31
Was It Arson (Burning of the Covered Bridge in 1893) 32,33
School History
Early Schools to Present Day Schools 34-42
Pictures of Early Schools (Blue Rock, Barnesburg, Groesbeck) 43
Church History
Early Churches 44-48
Old Churches (Groesbeck Methodist, Millcreek Valley Baptist and
St. Paul 45
Present Day Churches 49-53
Early Doctors 54
Postal Service 55
Transportation 56
Cemeteries 57,58
Fire Department History 59-63
Population and Subdivision Growth 64-66
Recreation in Colerain Township 67
Industrial Growth - from the nineteenth into the Twentieth Century-66-73
Pictures - Victims of the 1913 Flood 74,75
Pioneer Families 76-103
Dunlap Station Families, Richards-Gilbert, Families from Cape May, New Jersey, Hatt, Pouder, Willsey, Barnes, Cloud, LaBoyteaux, Cilley, Hardin, Skillman, Aston, West, Stout, Bevis, Huston, Williamson, Sparks and Compton."
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SETTLEMENTS OR VILLAGES
Its earliest settlement was Ft. Coleraine (source of the Township name) established by John Dunlap in 1790 and commonly called Dunlap's Station. He was one of Symmes' surveyors and a native of Coleraine, Ireland. Another station was established by John Campbell about 1795 probably opposite to Miamitown on the east bank of the Great Miami River. Little is known of it. All trace of the first village of Coleraine disappeared. It was situated on the great band of the Miami several miles below the bridge to Ross.
A second COLERAIN was started just above the (Venice) Ross bridge. In 1819 David Stone of New Hampshire built a cotton mill at Colerain where Toad Creek enters to Great Miami (River Road just east of its intersection with Colerain Pike). In 1821 this was sold to Giles Richards and Timothy Goodman. A grist mill and saw mill were built. A Tavern and Dye House were added. A thriving town grew up here. The cotton mill later became Matson's Woolen Mill. This village had virtually vanished by 1875 and nothing remains to mark its location today.
The village of BEVIS was established by Jesse Bevis on the early Colerain Road about 1816. When the Turnpike was built, leaving the line of the old road, he relocated it about a quarter mile or so west of its original site. In 1835 it was given a post office with Jesse Bevis being the postmaster, replaced by James A. Bevis in 1861.
GROESBECK was founded as WEST UNION sometime later. It got its name from Charles West, a Methodist lay preacher, who gave land for the church, so named for him and the union of the Olive Branch and Asbury Methodist congregations. The name was changed to Groesbeck in 1857 with the advent of the postal service. There was another West Union in Ohio making a name change necessary.
GEORGETOWN (DUNLAP) was laid out in 1829 at the junction of Colerain Pike with Kemper Road (an early road connecting Springfield Pike and Colerain). The post office was established in 1837 with David Wallace as postmaster.
PLEASANT RUN, named for the stream, was located on the east line of the township, half a mile south of the Butler County line. James Huston became its postmaster in 1846, with Paul Huston taking over in 1854. An early hotel, Farmers' Rest, was located here. This was on the Hamilton Turnpike."
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TAYLOR'S CREEK is a small community east of Miamitown and the Great Miami River. It is located on the Harrison Turnpike. In 1857 John A. Davis became its first postmaster. Later the post office was located in the Althaus store.
BARNESBURGH, a village straggling along the Blue Rock Turnpike, was named for the early settlers - the Barnes family - who came from Kentucky in the early 1800's. The post office was located in the tavern and store of Alois Jutzi in 1874. Nothing but its name remains today because of highway construction.
Another little village on the Blue Rock Turnpike was CREEDVILLE located in the area where the Blue Rock Pike and Cheviot Roads conjoin. At the point where Hanley road joins it was the toll house for Blue Rock Turnpike - the post office was in this building, also.It is noticeable that all the villages were to be found on the turnpikes. There were three in the Township - the earliest one (Colerain) bisecting the Township from north to south. Harrison Pike skirts along the southern edge, while the other early Turnpike (Hamilton) is found on part of the eastern line of the Township.
ROADS
The only access to the early forts or stations for a time was by water - the Little Miami, Mill Creek and the Great Miami River - but soon trails overland were started. These followed the best ways of using the natural terrain, many times using trails established by the Indiens to reach their hunting grounds in Kentucky. These early trails were only wide enough for pack horses at first, but as settlements grew were widened to accomodate wagons. The Military Road for the armies followed the Mill Creek valley, but hill trails were developed for use by soldiers who were sent as flanking parties to protect the main army - the Hamilton Pike was developed in this way. The Colerain road was first laid out about 1796. Its survey states: "Comencing at Colerain, (Ft. Coleraine)" then following surveyors' description "to the Great road leading from Cincinnati to Ft. Hamilton, thence with the said great road to Cincinnati making in the whole distance seventeen miles and fifty chains." (this was present day Hamilton Avenue) and until the Turnpike was built, Colerain Road started at Hamilton where Belmont Avenue leads off today (Belmont was named Colerain Road until recent years). In 1814 John Ludlow was ordered to view the State Road lately laid out by Ezekiel Hutchinson. He reported favorably saying that about one third of the road is laid out on new land and the other two thirds where the road formerly was. This later became the Hamilton Pike.
The early applications for roads to be laid out give a lot of information about the area - having the names of the early pioneers appearing on the documents. Most of the early roads, with the exception of the Turnpike bear the names of early families who lived on them. For example: Struble, Banning, Day, Yeetman, Poole, Thompson, Scull, Flick, Lockwood Hill, Althaus, Gosling, Hanley, Bierman, Sheed, Hughes, Compton, Mullen, Buell and Pottlnger - all are named for early families.
To have better roads, Turnpike companies were formed, stock sold to build the network of turnpikes. This started about the 1830's and continued until near the end of the century when counties began buying them and making public roads of them. With the advent of Turnpike the to tollgates appeared. They were usually located about every five miles."
The early applications for roads to be laid out give a lot of information about the area - having the names of the early pioneers appearing on the documents. Most of the early roads, with the exception of the Turnpike bear the names of early families who lived on them. For example: Struble, Banning, Day, Yeetman, Poole, Thompson, Scull, Flick, Lockwood Hill, Althaus, Gosling, Hanley, Bierman, Sheed, Hughes, Compton, Mullen, Buell and Pottlnger - all are named for early families.
To have better roads, Turnpike companies were formed, stock sold to build the network of turnpikes. This started about the 1830's and continued until near the end of the century when counties began buying them and making public roads of them. With the advent of Turnpike the to tollgates appeared. They were usually located about every five miles."
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The job of "supervisor of highways" was to see that the roads were kept in repair. Each property owner was required to do a certain amount of work on this road or hire It done, Piles of flat stones were placed along the side of the road and the worker would usually have a piece of carpeting to sit on astride the rock pile and crack the rocks into small stones with a "knapping hammer" (a round iron head looking something like a doughnut mounted on the handle). A picture of the toll gate on Hamilton Pike, where Hammond North is located, shows the pile of stones waiting to be cracked.
Everything had to be done by hand labor or with teams pulling primitave equipment. When Colerain Turnpike was built the road was rolled with a big iron roller, one of which is now used as a monument in the Richards-Gilbert Cemetery on River Road and half of another is the watering trough on Old Colerain Pike Hill.
The toll gate was a small building at the edge of the road with a bar, very much like the ones you see on at a railroad today. It was lifted when you paid your toll and you were permitted to pass. Deephole was based on The mileage and the number of horses used all the wagon or Carrie. Holes were generally generally just a few cents each gate.
One of the earliest roads was present day Springdale Road. In 1806 a petition was presented to the County commissioners to open a road from "the road leading from Cincinnati to the mouth of Taylor's Creek (Harrison Pike) to to the Springfield frame meeting house on the road from Cincinnati to Hamilton (Springfield Pike), (this meeting house was in what is now Springdale). Some of the signatures on the petition were: James Hardin (treasurer of Colerain Township), Elias Hedges and Abraham Crum. Other well-known names were Stout, Compton and Runyan.
Another petition in 1806 was to build known today as KEMPER ROAD - to start at "Stimson's Cabins on the Colerain Road leading to Cincinnati" (Dunlap) to cross the New Hamilton Road at Springfield meeting house" also another which seems to be BANKLICK ROAD as it led to the county line. (The Hamilton Road referred to above was the Winton Road).
The original petition to create BLUE ROCK ROAD was signed April 6, 1807 - "beginning at the road leading from Northbend to Colerain (EAST MIAMI RIVER ROAD) at or near the mouth of the Blue Rock run, thence the best & nearest way to Ezekial James Hutchesons fuling mill on Mill creek; thence into the road leading from Cincinnati to Hamilton at or near Mchenry's & there to end" (this was on present Spring Grove Avenue in Cumminsville). Some Colerain Township names on that document were Abraham Barns, Isaac Sparks and Thomas Larrison. Steven Ludlow was the surveyor.
EAGLE CREEK ROAD was established in June of 1830. Petitions for SOUTH THOMPSON, LOCKWOOD HILL and ALTHAUS were submitted in January of 1833. Thompson Road originally went all the way to the Great Miami where Thompson had a ferry to cross it. In 1846 John B. Groesbeck, Absolom Foster, Alexis Lemmon, John A. Davis and others asked that the portion of Thompson Road from East Miami River Road to the river be vacated as the ferry was no longer in use. DRY RIDGE was laid out in 1832 starting on "Colerain Road near Jesse Bevis' Tavern to Hanreye Mill on the Great Miami River". OWL CREEK ROAD emerged in 1840. GAINES ROAD - in 1832 - starting from the North Bend Road (Springfield Road as it was known as the road to North Bend) to end at the Pleasant Ridge Road (now known as WEST FORK ROAD). In 1826 a petition was received for a road to be built from the North Bend Road to the Blue Rock Road marked Burnt School House Road. This was definitely present day CHEVIOT ROAD the surveyor's platt shows it beginning at the sharp bend in North Bend Road and where it joined Blue Rock Road today. It also shows the contination going on to Toole Road, but it was marked Hatt road on the plat."
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COLERAIN TOWNSHIP HISTORY
Colerain, the largest township In Ohio, has an interesting history. Now, becoming mostly urban, It was originally rural. The earliest settlers came in along the Great Miami River and farmed the rich valley area. The little settlements which grew up along the three principle highways catered to farmers needs. The very early comers were mostly from the New England States, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. They were generally of English extraction. By the mid 1800's German immigrants began to pour into the country, many coming to settle in Colerain Township.
They came largely to the hilly areas of the township. Many of them developed orchards.
The area Jr. Springdale Read near Blue Rock had so many large peach orchards that the neighborhood became known as "PEACH GROVE". On the steep hillsides along the roads leading down to Harrison Pike were to be found vlnyards. Even today one can see traces of the early terracing for the grape vines. It is said the Jacob Kleinfelter had a wine press and pressed the fruits for neighboring farmers on shares. His huge stone barn and wine cellar still exist today. This was in the TAYLOR'S CREEK vicinity.
The area of the second town - COLERAINE - where old Colerain Road meets the Miami River Road coming in from Hamilton, Ohio, was a thriving manufacturing town for some years. The Miami River supplied the power to create mills for grinding grain, sawing wood and making cotton cloth. The Cotton Mill was later converted into a Matson's Woolen Mill. This area then was known as CLIPTOWN from the clips of wool.
In the areas settled by the Germans may be seen many lovely old stone houses and other stone buildings. Many are gone but some still are to be found. Gone today is the old brewery which was said to be in the Sheed Road locally. These interesting old stone buildings give a unique flavor to Colerain Township. Stone masons and carpenters were to be found in every village, as well as a blacksmith. Those occupations were essential to life in the mid nineteenth century.
EARLY DAYS
The first settlement in the township was made in 1790 by John Dunlap and a small band of settlers, whom he led up the Miami River to build a little fort which he named Ft. COLERAINE at the great oxbow bend overlooked by Bowling Green, the big hill found by the East Miami River Road where Dunlap road joins it. The newcomers built a little village outside the fort, planted crops and had cattle. But the danger posed by Indians always lurking about made it dangerous, so they always came into the fort at night for protection. The settlement became known as DUNLAP'S STATION after its proprietor. Several youths were taken into captivity by the Indians and held captive until the Treaty of Greenville. They were John Crum, aged twelve and David Gibson, aged sixteen who were held captive until 1795.
An interesting account of the Indian attack on the little station was given in the biography of John Reily. "On the 10th of January, 1791, the settlers of Columbia were alarmed by an express which arrived from Cincinnati, with intelligence that an attack had been made on Dunlap's Station at Colerain, by a large body of Indians. The information had been brought to Cincinnati by some persons who had been out in the woods hunting in the neighborhood of Colerain, and were sufficiently near the fort to hear the firing when it commenced in the morning, and judging that the garrison was attacked, they immediately returned to raise the alarm..."
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A company of volunteers was very soon raised in Columbia, Mr. Reily among the number, armed with rifles and mounted. They formed under the command of Lieutenant Luke Foster, and marched to Cincinnati in the night where they joined Captain Alexander Truman, with thirty-eight regular soldiers from the garrison at Fort Washington, and thirty-three volunteer citizens under Lieutenant Scott Traverse, all mounted. They started for the relief of the station before daylight next morning. Two nights previous it had rained and frozen, and afterward snowed so that the ground was covered six or seven inches deep. John Reily and Patrick Moore, who both rode white horses, were directed to proceed a short distance in advance of the main body, as a picket guard or spies, to give notice if the enemy should appear. Samuel Davis was one of the volunteers from Cincinnati, on that occasion.
When the party had advanced about six miles from Cincinnati, they met John S. Wallace and William Wiseman, who had left the station during the night, to inform the garrison at Fort Washington of their situation. Between ten and eleven o'clock the party arrived at the top of the hills overlooking the plain on which Dunlap's Station was situated, when it was discovered that the Indians had abandoned the siege and retired.
On arriving at the fort they learned that the garrison, although in imminent danger, had sustained but little injury. On the first fire, the Indians shot into a building called the 'mill', where the hand-mill was kept for grinding the corn of the neighboring settlers and the garrison. It stood on a line with and near the block-house, and being neither chunked nor daubed the Indians shot between the logs, by which means they killed one man and wounded another. The body of Abner Hunt, who had been taken prisoner by the Indians a few days previous, was found near the fort, shockingly mangled and stripped naked, his head scalped, his brains beaten out, and two war clubs laid across his breast. He, in company with John S. Wallace, John Sloan, and a Mr. Cunningham, had been exploring the country on the west side of the Great Miami river. On the night of the 7th of January they encamped on the river bank a short distance above Colerain. Next morning, after roasting their venison and taking breakfast, they set out to explore the Miami Bottoms near where the town of Venice, Butler county, now is. They had not proceeded from their camp more than a hundred yards when they were beset by the savages, in the rear, who fired a volley of eight or ten guns. Cunningham was killed on the spot; Hunt, being thrown from his horse, was made prisoner; Sloan, although shot through the body, kept on his horse and escaped, Hunt's loose horse following him. Wallace was on foot at the time, and took to the woods pursued by two Indians, but owing to his uncommon activity he out-ran them. During his flight he was twice shot at but without effect; his leggins loosened as he ran, and at the moment of the first shot they tripped him and he fell. The Indians supposing him struck by the bullet, raised their shout 'wah! hoo!' calculating to a certainty on getting his scalp, but Wallace hastily retied his leggins and resumed his flight. In about two miles he overtook Sloan with Hunt's horse following him, which he caught and mounted. The Indians had ceased their pursuit. Sloan complained of faintness from his wound, and by the advice of Wallace thrust a part of his shirt into the bullet hole to stop the flow of blood. Crossing the Miami they directed their course toward Cincinnati, but at length they halted and held a consultation, the result of which was a determination to go back to the station and apprise the garrison of the presence of Indians in the neighborhood, and put them on their guard."
(Note - Venice (est. in 1817?, is now called Ross. This was north of DsS in Butler Co., on the west side of the Miami.)
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When they arrived there, Sloan was very weak and faint, and his wound began to bleed afresh. Lieutenant Kingsbury, who commanded at the station, with true soldierly hospitality, surrendered his narrow quarters for the accomodation of the wounded man. The next day a party of five or six men, accompanied by Wallace, went out in search of the body of Cunningham, which they found tomahawked and scalped. They buried it where they found it, and returned to the station.
Before sunrise on the morning of the 10th of January, just as the women were milking the cows in the fort, the Indians made their appearance before it and fired a volley, wounding a soldier named McVicker. Every man in the fort was immediately posted to the best advantage by the commander, and the fire returned.
A parlay was then held at the request of the Indians, and Abner Hunt, whom they had taken prisoner as before mentioned, was brought forward securely bound, with his arms pinioned behind him, by an Indian, or as some say, the notorious Simon Girty, the leader of the party, holding him by the rope, mounting him on a stump within speaking distance of the garrison, he was compelled to demand and urge the surrender of the place, which, in the hope of saving his own life, he did in the most pressing terms, promising that if it were done, life and property would be held sacred. Not a single individual in the fort, however, would agree to a surrender. Lieutenant Kingsbury took an elevated position where he could over look the pickets, and promptly rejected all their propositions, telling them that he had dispatched a messenger to Judge Symmes, who would soon be up to their relief, with the whole settlement on the Ohio. He failed, however, to impose on them. They replied that it was a lie, as they knew Judge Symmes was then in New Jersey; and informed him that they had five hundred warriors, and would soon be joined by three hundred more, and that if an immediate surrender were not made, they would all be massacred and the station burned. Lieutenant Kingsbury replied that he would not surrender if he were surrounded by five hundred devils, and immediately leaped from his position into the fort. The Indians fired at him, and a ball struck off the white plume he wore in his hat. The prisoner Hunt was cruelly tortured and killed within sight of the garrison.
The station was completely invested by the Indians, and the attack was most violent. They commenced like men certain of victory, and for some time the garrison was in great danger. The Indians fired, as usual, from behind stumps, trees, and logs, and set fire to a quantity of brush-wood that had been collected by the settlers, and then rushing in with burning brands attempted to fire the cabins and pickets. The vigilance and close firing of the besieged, however, prevented the accomplishment of this object. One Indian was killed just as he reached the buildings. In the night they threw blazing arrows from their bows, against the stockade, and upon the roofs of the buildings, with the intention of firing them, but in this they were also unsuccessful. The garrison, well knowing that their lives depended upon it, met them at every point. The attack was continued, without intermission, during the whole of the day and the succeeding night, and until nine o'clock in the morning of the 11th, when the Indians, despairing of success and perhaps apprehensive of the arrival of reinforcements from Cincinnati, raised the siege, and retreated in two parties, one to the right and the other to the left, as was afterward discovered by their tracks.
The whole strength of the garrison was eighteen soldiers and eight or ten of the settlers capable of bearing arms; the entire number in the fort, including women and children, not counting the soldiers, did not exceed thirty souls. The Indians were estimated, by those in the fort, at from three to five hundred, led by the infamous renegade, Simon Girty, as was ascertained seven years after, on the return of a white man who had been taken prisoner near the station a few days before the attack."
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The little garrison, although but a handful compared with the host by which they were assailed, displayed great bravery, in some instances amounting to rashness. During the incessant fire from both sides, they frequently, for a moment, exposed their persons above the tops of the pickets, mocking the savages and daring them to come on. Women, as well as men, used every expedient in their power to provoke and irritate the enemy. They exhibited the caps of the soldiers above the pickets, as marks to be shot at. According to their own accounts, they conducted themselves with great folly as well as bravery, though their apparent confidence may have induced the Indians to raise the siege the sooner. When the garrison was in danger of falling short of bullets, the women melted down all their pewter plates and spoons to keep up the supply.
John S. Wallace, who, as was said above, had made his escape from the Indians a few days previous, was still in the fort, and at night volunteered to pass through the enemy's lines to Cincinnati to obtain aid from General Harmar, at Fort Washington. At ten o'clock he made an attempt, but the place was so closely invested that he could not make his escape. The river side of the fort suggested itself as the place for another trial, as there were apparently no Indians on the west side of the river. Fortunately the night was very dark, and about three o'clock in the morning, Mr. Wallace, and a soldier named William Wiseman, got into a canoe and silently paddled across. They drew up the canoe on the opposite shore and concealed it among the bushes that it might not be discovered by the Indians, and then silently and swiftly made their way through the woods down the river bottom for a couple of miles, where they attempted to cross through the floating ice. The water proving too deep, they pursued their course down the river a mile or more, when they affected a crossing near where the town of New Baltimore now is, and striking through the woods for Cincinnati, they met the before-mentioned party from that place and Columbia, going to their relief, and returned with them to the station. A portion of the soldiers remained there to assist in strengthening the fortifications, the party to which Mr. Reily belonged returning to Columbia that evening.
Colonel John S. Wallace, who volunteered his services to make the hazardous attempt to leave the fort, afterward resided in Cincinnati, much respected as an amiable and worthy citizen, and holding several offices of honor and trust, at the time of his death, being auditor of Hamilton County. He died at his desk in the office. Mr. Wiseman, the soldier who accompanied him, was living when last heard from, in the vicinity of Lancaster, Ohio."
John Reily lived in Columbia, starting to teach school June 21, 1790, later moving to Cincinnati, where he was elected clerk and Collector in 1802. He moved to Hamilton in 1803, and when in the same year, Butler Co. was organized, he became its first clerk, holding that position until 1840 when he declined reappointment.
Apppendix D from Mr. Reily's biography gives the following account: "In 1790, John Dunlap, who had been one of Judge Symmes' confidential surveyors, formed a settlement on the east side of the Great Miami river, at a point eight miles from where the town of Hamilton now is, and seventeen miles from Cincinnati. The river there makes a great bend to the west, inclosing in its curve a very fertile tract of land of about a thousand acres, which is bounded on the east by a range of hills almost one hundred feet high. On this bottom is one of those ancient works, supposed to have been constructed by a race of people who inhabited this county previous to the present race of Indians. The embankment, which is of earth, and in some parts is yet eight or ten feet high, encloses near one hundred acres of land. At the angle of the river below is a..."
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hill two hundred eighty feet high, on the top of which is a mound ten feet high, commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country. (Bowling Green) On the south side of this tract of bottom land, immediately on the bank of the river where the water is deep, the settlers erected a fortification for their security. It consisted of several block-houses built of logs, and a number of cabins, with pickets in the unoccupied space between them, in the form of a square, inclosing a little more than an acre of ground. On the south side it was protected by the deep waters of the river. The cabins, for the sake of convenience, were built with the roofs sloping outward, the very reverse of what they should have been for defense. The outer eaves were so low that it was no uncommon thing for the dogs, when shut out of the fort, to spring from an adjacent stump upon the roofs of the cabins and thence into the enclosure. The station and settlement were named after Mr. Dunlap. He also laid out a town at this place which he called Colerain, from his native place in Ireland. He failed, however, to perfect his title to the ground, and the settlers who had purchased from him lost their claims. Colerain afterward became the name of the township where the land lies. This was the first settlement in the interior back from the Ohio river.
For some time after the establishment of the station, the Indians gave these pioneer adventurers a great deal of trouble and anxiety. In 1790, David Gibson was taken prisoner by the Indians when passing, one day, along a narrow trace between the base of the hill and the river, a short distance below the station.
He remained a prisoner until Wayne's treaty in 1795. During the captivity, he married a white woman, who had been taken prisoner in Pennsylvania ten years previous to his own capture. When released, by the terms of the treaty, they settled in the south part of Butler county, where they resided many years, and finally removed to Indiana. William Crum and Thomas Larrison were chased at the peril of their lives into the station, and the inhabitants hardly dared venture after their cows when they strayed off into the woods. They applied, in the winter of 1790-1791, to General Harmar, then in command at Fort Washington, for a detachment of soldiers for their protection, and he detailed for that purpose Lieutenant Kingsbury, with a party of eighteen soldiers".
NEXT SETTLEMENT
After the Treaty oF Greenville removed the danger From Indians, settlers began arriving rapidly. Farms soon dotted the countryside and villages began to appear. The next settlement to emerge was the second town of COLERAINE, located on the River Road from Toad Creek to where the bridge to Ross was later built. It was a thriving town in the mid eighteen hundreds, but had totally vanished by the 1880's. A good account of it was published in the Venice Graphic in 1887. It was written by a reporter named Robert Mulford, of the old Times-Star, who spent his vacation in the area and wrote articles entitled "A Fortnight in Colerain": "Just one mile From here [Dunlap), at the foot of the hill crowned by this little hamlet, is the deserted village of Colerain. Once upon a time - it was less than Fifty years ago - Colerain was about the busiest little manufacturing town in Hamilton County. There was a woolen mill, grist and saw mills, a still house and a stone warehouse, all on the banks of the big Miami, while a colony of dwelling houses gave the place quite a metropolitan air. Even Hamilton could not compete with it then, and Harrison had not even been heard from. But the Whitewater Valley and the C. H. S. D. Railroads were built, and Colerain's boom died. Now there is nothing oF the old town but a couple of old rookeries in the last stages of decay, and the woolen mill which..."
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Pleasant Run is situated upon the little stream whose name it bears and immediately upon the east line of the township, half a mile south of the Butler County line. One of the early Baptist churches was located in this region, which had twenty-five members in 1836. The Rev. William Thompson was pastor in 1810, and For some time after.
At this place the Rebel General John Morgan's force occupied the Colerain pike, moving eastward, during the famous raid of 1863. Two or three of his men were captured by citizens here, and one resident, who was mistaken in the dusk of the evening for a rebel, was killed by the Federal cavalry who were in the rear of Morgan." So states the Ford'sHistory of Hamilton County - 1881.
This area called Pleasant Run is associated with some of the very early history of Colerain Township. The first road to Ft. Hamilton from Cincinnati Followed the line of Pippin Road north of New Burlington. Today Pippin Road ends at the Butler County line. Originally it went on For two more miles in Butler County, coming down the "big hill" onto present day Muskopf Road, joining the River Road to Ft. Hamilton at its crossing of the Pleasant Rd. Stream.
This is probably the spot where Corp. Michael Hahn and two other soldiers were ambushed by Indians as they were taking a cow out to Dunlap Station. Imprudently, they had put a bell on the cow, which attracted the Indian's attention. He was the son of Michael Hahn in Dunlap Station, who was, in turn, killed the next year. Some accounts list this attack as occurring at "the big hill" near the Pleasant Run Stream. Also at the point where it intersected the road leading off to Dunlap Station.
Another incident taking place at that same spot was the ambushing of Col. Robert Elliott, a contractor carrying supplies for Wayne's army, was returning from Ft. Hamilton with a wagon team and a servant, when they were attacked at "the big hill." Elliott was killed, the servant escaping with the team, returned to Ft. Hamilton. When the savages attempted to scalp Elliott, to their surprise they pulled off a wig - one disgusted Indian calling it "a big lie." The next day the servant returning with a box for the body, was himself killed near the same spot. An armed party then set out from Ft. Washington and recovered the bodies and brought them back to the fort. The Colonel was buried in the Fourth Street Presbyterian burying grounds, later being moved to the ground on Twelfth Street, now Washington Park. In 1835, his son, Commodore J. S. Elliott, United States Navy, placed a monunent there. When Twelfth Street grounds were closed, the Colonel and his monument were removed to Spring Grove Cemetery.
After the Treaty of Greenville, population increased rapidly. One of the large land holding families coming into Colerain Township were the Hustons Two sons of Capt. John Huston, Paul and Samuel, came to the Township in 1795, Paul, settling on the Colerain pike near Dunlap and Samuel, acquiring extensive tracts of land, settled in the Pleasant Run area. (The present Pleasant Run Elementary and Junior High Schools are located on some of the original Huston land). Samuel's son, James Stewart Huston, was a distiller and owned some fifteen hundred acres on the Hamilton Turnpike, of which he was a large shareholder. His house was built in 1819 on Pippin Road (then the main road to Hamilton) opposite the end of Houston Road. The county should correct this signing, for it was originally Huston Road, the lane from theTurnpike leading to the farm..."
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"FIRST" FAMILIES OF COLERAINE
The first settlement in what is now Colerain Township was made sometime prior to April 30, 1790. In a letter to Jonathan Dayton on that date, John Cleves Symmes reported: "We have established three new stations some distance up in the country, one is twelve miles up the Big Miami (Coleraine or Dunlap's Station), the second is five miles up Mill creek (Ludlow's Station) and the third is nine miles back in the country from Columbia (Covalt's Station on the Little Miami River)."
Very little is known about these "first" families. Stephen Decator Cone in Indian Attack on Fort Dunlap says: "There were on the north side of the fort, Horn, McDonald, Barrott and Barkit (Bergit), with their families, and on the south side, White, with his family and Mcdonald, whose family was not at the station; all of whom were busy at their clearings during the day, but sought the shelter of the fort in the evenings."
Ford's History of Hamilton County (1881) does not list any of the settlers, but refers to John Dunlap as one of Symmes' confidential surveyors, who was inclined to land speculation. He set stakes down in the bend of the Great Miami, surveyed off a town site and offered lots for sale. He made some sales, cabins were erected, a fortified station built and other improvements made. However, he had no valid title and his settlers lost both their land and the money they had paid to Mr. Dunlap. Ford lists the first township officers in 1794 as John Dunlap, clerk; Samuel Campbell, constable; John Shaw, overseer
of the poor; Isaac Gibson, Samuel Cresswell and John Davis, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages.
Nelson's History of Hamilton County (1894) gives this list of inhabitants of Coleraine or Dunlap's Station: Thomas Larison; Martin Burkhardt; Michael and Nicholas Lutz; John, David and William Crum; David and Isaac Gibson; John Young; Samuel Carswell; James Barratt and Michael Hahn.
West to Ohio, by Alta Heiser, has information on another member of the Dunlap Station pioneers - Mrs. Margaret Ewing was living with Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison's wife during the War of 1812. She had been Margaret McDonald, in the Station during the Indian attack - her task being to mold bullets. She told thrilling stories to the Harrison children.
Lt. Kingsbury's report to Gen. Harmar after the attack states that they had been surrounded by 200 Indians, who killed the cattle, burned all buildings outside the fort and destroyed the crops. One soldier, McVicar, was wounded during the attack. The siege lasted twenty-five hours, during which time Abner Hunt, captive of the Indians, was cruelly tortured to death.
Others known to have been in the Station were James Barrett, James Brady, Sylvester White, Henry Whitinger, Angus McDonald, Thomas Larrison, Whilliam Crum and John Thompson.
What hardships these brave pioneers endured to begin the settlement of Colerain Township. We owe thanks to all those who followed them to make the Township the place it is today."
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At the Battle of Ticonderoga, one of the low points in the Revolution, his son Jonathan, was captured by the British, under the command of General Burgoyne. The General, upon learning the boy's identity, allowed him to return to his father. Before releasing him, he outfitted him with clothes that the British had captured from the Americans. Colonel Cilley was present at the surrender of General Burgoyne and retired to Nottingham at the end of the war. He left his retirement briefly to quell Indian uprisings in his neighborhood.
Major General Cilley had ten children. His third child was Jonathan Cilley, born March 8, 1762. Jonathan Cilley remained very active after the war. He and his father were both charter members of the Society of Cincinnati, formed by General Washington, and composed of men who had served with him three years or more during the Revolution. In 1805, Thomas Jefferson, then President, assigned Jon. Cilley to the command of the Newport Barracks across the Ohio from Cincinnati. He left with his family and came down the river from Wheeling on a flat boat to Cincinnati. One of his grand-daughters wrote in her letters that she had heard her mother say that Jonathan's carriage was the First one to come up the public landing. He served one year at the Newport Barracks and then decided to leave his residence in Cincinnati. He planned to sell his attractive plot of ground there and move out to the new settlement at Ft. Dunlap. His farm adjoined the site of Dunlap Station Cemetery. He continued his life as a farmer and country gentleman and was found dead in his Field in 1807, apparently from a violent fit of coughing. He is buried in the nearby cemetery at Dunlap Station. (From a speech given by a descendant, Harry
H. Garrison, for the Memorial Service at Dunlap Station Cemetery in 1967).
James Hardin
James Hardin, one of the earliest pioneers of Colerain Township, was born in 1757 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, son of James Hardin, a native of England. He served in Capt. John Pearson's Regiment, Continental Line.
In 1799 he brought his family down the Ohio River on a flat boat to Cincinnati. In 1800 he bought land in Colerain Township on Springdale Road and built a house of hewn logs. That house was used to hold the presidential election of Thomas Jefferson in Colerain Township. So few settlers lived in the Township at that time that they had to send the constable out to bring them in to vote to make the election legal. James Hardin died in his log home in 1837 and was buried in the family burying ground on his farm.
He had a son, Samuel D. Hardin, born in 1798 and died in 1851, who built the beautiful home still standing on Springdale Road across from Northgate Mall. He had a son, Harry Cilley Hardin, born 1800 and dying in 1875. Samuel's wife was Mary Cilley, born in 1800 and died in 1875. The graves in the Hardin farm burial ground were moved to Bevis-Cedar Grove in 1937. Their records of the removals show an interesting relationship of families.
James Hardin's wife was Eleanor Davis, (1764-1852); Mary Cilley Hardin (1800-1875), wife of Samuel; Bradbury Cilley Hardin (1831-1854); Rebecca Hardin Poole (1784-1875) daughter of James Hardin and wife of William Poole; William Poole (1789-1868); Ellen Poole Stout, 1st wife of Ephraim Brown Stout; Elnora Hardin Smith (1795- ?); Joseph A. Waterhouse (no dates)."
