[draft... Emphasis added...]
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| 1881 |
History of Hamilton County Ohio
pages 56-65
transcribed by Laura Vogel
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MIAMESE AND THE INDIANS.
| Let us welcome, then, the strangers, |
| Hail them as our friends and brothers, |
| And the heart's right hand of friendship |
| Give them when they come to see us, |
| Gitche Manito, the Mighty, |
| Said this to me in my vision. |
H. W. LONGFELLOW, "Hiawatha."
|
| Friendship was in their looks, but in their hearts there was hatred. |
| Straight there arose from the forest the awful sound of the war-whoop, |
| And, like a flurry of snow in the whistling wind of December, |
| Swift and sudden and keen came a flight of feathery arrows; |
| Then came a cloud of smoke, and out of the cloud came the lightning, |
| Out of the lightning thunder, and death unseen ran before it. |
LONGFELLOW, "Courtship of Miles Standish."
|
Brothers of the Wyandots and Shawanees: Hearken to your brother, who is coming to live at the Great Miami. He was on the Great Miami last summer, while the deer was yet red, and met with one of your camps; he did no harm to anything which you had in your camp; he held back two young men from hurting you or your horses, and would not let them take your skins or meat, though your brothers were very hungry. All this he did because he was your brother, and would live in peace with the red people. If the red people will live in friendship with him and his young men, who came from the great salt ocean, to plant corn and build cabins on the land between the Great and Little Miami, then the white and red people shall all be brothers and live together, and we will buy your furs and skins, and sell you blankets and rifles, and powder and lead and rum, and everything that our red brothers may want in hunting and in their towns.
Brothers! a treaty is holding at Muskingum. Great men from the thirteen fires are there, to meet the chiefs and head men of all the nations of the red people. May the Great Spirit direct all their councils for peace. But the great men and the wise men of the red and white people cannot keep peace and friendship long, unless we, who are their sons and warriors, will also bury the hatchet and live in peace.
Brothers! I send you a string of beads, and write to you with my own hand, that you may believe what I say. I am your brother, and will be kind to you while you remain in peace. Farewell!
JNO. C. SYMMES.
Jan. the 3d, 1789What was the immediate effect of this epistle upon the aboriginal mind has not been recorded; but a few months afterwards a white man, Mr. Isaac FREEMAN, going in from the Maumee towns with several captives released by the Indians, was charged in reply with the delivery of the following address to Judge SYMMES:
MAWME, July 7, 1789
Brothers! Americans! of the Miami Warriors! Listen to us warriors what we have to say.Now, Americans! Brothers! we have heard from you, and are glad to hear the good speech you sent us. You have got our flesh and blood among you, and we have got yours among us, and we are glad to hear that you wish to exchange. We really think you want to exchange, and that is the reason we listen to you.
As the Great Spirit has put your flesh and blood into our hands, we now deliver them up.
We warriors, if we can, wish to make peace, and our chiefs and yours will then listen to one another. As we warriors speak from our hearts, we hope you do so too, and, wish you may be of one mind, as we are.
Brothers, Warriors - when we heard from you that you wished to exchange prisoners, we listened attentively, and now we send some, as all are not here nor can be procured at present, and therefore we hope you will send all ours home; and when we see them, it will make us strong to send all yours, which cannot now all be got together.
Brothers, Warriors - when we say this, it is from our hearts, and we hope you do the same; but if our young men should do anything wrong before we all meet together, we beg you to overlook it. This is the mind of us warriors, and our chiefs are glad there is hope of peace. We hope, therefore, that you are of the same mind.
Brothers, Warriors - it is the warriors who have shut the path which your chiefs and ours formerly laid open; but there is hope that the path will soon be cleared, that our women and children may go where they wish in peace, and that yours may do the same.
Now, Brothers, Warriors - you have heard from us: we hope you will be strong like us, and we hope there will be nothing but peace and friendship between you and us.
In explanation of a part of this missive it should be said that SYMMES held at North Bend ten Indian women and children, who had been left with him by Colonel Robert PATTERSON, as captives taken in a raid from Kentucky to the Indian towns, to be exchanged for whites when the opportunity should offer. FREEMAN had been sent by SYMMES to the Maumee, with a young Indian for interpreter, to arrange such exchanges. Subsequently, while under a flag of truce approaching the Indians on a friendly mission, FREEMAN was fired upon and killed.
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to make away with this little band of wandering savages and their humble property at once. SYMMES prevented them, however, and would not allow the Indians to be harmed or their stuff to be taken. About half the Kentuckians, therefore, after giving him all the trouble they dared by their disorderly conduct, deserted his party and started for home, leaving him almost defenceless in the perilous wilderness. The rest of the men of Kentucky soon also showing an intention to desert, he was obliged to leave his exploration but partially accomplished, and make his way as rapidly as possible back to the Ohio, up which he pushed again to his headquarters at Limestone. FILSON, who, together with PATTERSON, had accompanied the expedition, also deserted it about the time the first Kentuckians went, through fear of remaining longer with either detachment of the party; but, strange to say, in his eagerness to make greater haste out of the wilderness, he decided to confront its dangers solitary and alone, and so swung away from even the feeble protection which he had with SYMMES and the remainder of the escort. He was never seen or directly heard from again. Within three hours from the time of his abandonment of the party, it is supposed he had fallen a victim to the ferocity of the Indians. The locality of the occurrence, thinks Mr. MILLER, author of Cincinnati's beginnings, was "probably not far from the northern boundary line of Hamilton county, and the northeast corner of Colerain township." With FILSON also perished his plan of Losantiville, which had been carefully prepared at Lexington, and is believed to have been on his person at the time.
In a letter from North Bend, January 17, 1792, SYMMES
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relates how "General ST. CLAIR, by much importunity, gave Mr. DUNLAP a guard of six soldiers. With these the settlers returned to Colerain [DUNLAP's station]. In a very few days after the station was re-settled, the Governor ordered the six soldiers back again to Fort Washington. But the next day General ST. CLAIR set out for Philadelphia, and Major ZEIGLER came to the command. His good sense and humanity induced him to send the six men back again in one hour's time, as I am told, after General ST. CLAIR left Fort Washington, and be assured Mr. DUNLAP that he should have more soldiers than six, rather than the station should break. Majors sometimes do more good," he naively adds, "than generals." Dr. GOFORTH, then of Columbia, wrote September 3, 1791:
The number of militia at these stations, from the best accounts I have received, are at Columbia, 200 Cincinnati, 150; South Bend, 20; City of Miami, 80; DUNLAP's, 15; and COVALT's, 20.
A considerable number of these stations, more or less strongly fortified, are known to have existed within the present limits of the county during the period of Indian warfare; and it is quite possible that the memory of others has disappeared. So far as known, they were as follows:
1. COVALT's Station, at Round Bottom, twelve miles up the Little Miami, below the present site of Milford. This was erected in 1789, and Mr. John G. OLDEN, author of Historical Sketches and Early Reminiscences of Lockland and Reading, is disposed to place it first in chronological order, although similar claims have been made for CLEMENS', GERARD's, DUNLAP's, and LUDLOW's stations.
2. CLEMENS' station, also on the Round Bottom, about half a mile below COVALT's.
3. GERARD and MARTIN's station, on the west side of the Little Miami, and about two miles from its mouth, near the present Union bridge.
4. DUNLAP's station, established in the early spring of 1790, in Colerain township, on the east side of the Great Miami and in the remarkable bend of that stream which begins about half a mile south of the county line.
5. CAMPBELL's station, also on the east bank of the Great Miami and in Colerain township, opposite the present site of Miamitown.
6. LUDLOW's station, whose site is now embraced within the limits of Cincinnati, about five miles from Fountain square, in the north part of Cumminsville. It was also established in the spring of 1790. This was the most famous of all the stations.
7. WHITE's station, probably established in 1792, on the bank of Mill creek, northeast of the present site of Carthage, near the aqueduct, and about where the ice-pond now is.
8. TUCKER's station, on section four, Springfield township, east of the old Hamilton road and about a mile and a half northwest of Lockland.
9. RUNYAN's station, also of 1792, on section nineteen, Sycamore township, about a mile and a half north of Sharonville, and near the present county line. This was the outpost in that direction.
10. GRIFFIN's station, established, probably, in the fall of 1793, about half a mile west of WHITE's station, where the Carthage and Springfield turnpike now crosses Mill creek.
11. VOORHEES' station, in the south part of section thirty-three, Sycamore township, on the west bank of Mill creek, built early in 1794.
12. Pleasant Valley station, on the line between sections four and ten, Springfield township, near the "Station Spring." Also built in the spring of 1794, by the builders of TUCKER's station, to protect them and another party which had moved in to the westward.
13. MCFARLAND's station, in Columbia township, near the site of Pleasant Ridge, established in the spring of 1795, and believed to be the last founded of the pioneer stations in this county.
Some of these stations were the scene of fierce Indian attacks, and others of cowardly murders by the savages. Their story will be more particularly related in the histories of the townships. In 1794-5 Mr. Benjamin VAN CLEVE, then of Cincinnati, but soon afterwards of Dayton, made many interesting memoranda of affairs in the Miami country, among which we find the following, made in the latter year:
On the twentieth [of August], seventeen days after the treaty [of Greenville], Governor. ST. CLAIR, General WILKINSON, Jonathan DAYTON, and Israel LUDLOW contracted with John Cleves SYMMES for the purchase and settlement of the seventh and eighth ranges, between Mad River and Little Miami. One settlement was to be at the mouth of Mad River, one on the Little Miami in the seventh range, and one on Mad River above the mouth.
Two parties of surveyors set off [from Cincinnati] on the twenty-first of September - Mr. Daniel C. COOPER, to survey and mark a road and cut out some of the brush, and Captain John DUNLAP to run the boundaries of the Purchase. I went with DUNLAP. There were at this time several stations on Mill Creek: LUDLOW's, WHITE's, TUCKER's, VOORHEES's, and CUNNINGHAM'.1 The last was eleven miles from Cincinnati. We came to VOORHEES's and encamped.
A limited number of regulars was stationed at several of these by General HARMAR or his subordinate officers. All together they afforded protection and food to a large number of pioneer families, who must otherwise have been driven out of the country. They were of use elsewhere among the early settlements, as well as for local defence, and the pioneers in other parts of southern Ohio were less annoyed, after their establishment, because the Indians had to spend a part of their time in watching the stations, instead of taking the war-path against the scattered and isolated settlers. They regarded these defences, indeed, with peculiar disfavor. Judge BURNET accompanies an interesting paragraph upon the stations, in his Notes, with these remarks:
The Indians viewed these 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 fortunate for the settlers that they wanted either the skill or the means of demolishing them. The truth is, they had no idea of the flood of emigration which was setting towards their borders, and did not feel the necessity of submitting to the loss to which immediate action would subject them. Their great error consisted in permitting those works to be constructed at all. They might have prevented it with great ease, but they appeared not to be aware of the serious consequences which were to result, until it was too late to act with effect. Several attacks were, however, made at different times, with an apparent determination to destroy them; but they failed in every instance.
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The chief (the others sitting around him) wished to be informed how far I was supported by the United States, and whether the thirteen fires (States) had sent me hither. I answered in the affirmative, and spread before them the thirteen stripes which I had in a flag then in my camp. I pointed to the troops in their uniform, then on parade, and informed the chief that those were the warriors which the thirteen fires kept in constant pay to avenge their quarrels, and that, though the United States were desirous of peace, yet they were able to chastise any aggressor who should dare offend them, and to demonstrate this I showed them the seal of my commission, on which the American arms are impressed, observing that while the eagle had a branch of a tree as an emblem of peace in one claw, she had strong and sharp arrows in the other, which denoted her power to punish her enemies. The chief, who observed the device on the seal with great attention, replied to the interpreter that he could not perceive any intimation of peace from the attitude the eagle was in, having her wings spread as in flight, when folding of the wings denoted rest and peace; that he could not understand how the branch of a tree could be considered a pacific emblem, for rods designed for correction were always taken from the boughs of trees; that to him the eagle appeared, from her bearing a large whip in one hand and such a number of arrows in the other, and in full career of flight, to be wholly bent on war and mischief. I need not repeat here my arguments to convince him of his mistake, but I at length succeeded, and he appeared entirely satisfied of the friendship of Congelis (for so they pronounce Congress) to the red people.
Captain BLACKBEARD staid a month or so in the neighborhood of Judge SYMMES, with whom be had frequent friendly conferences; and whose hospitality he accepted, especially when it took the form of whiskey, without reservation or stint. Notwithstanding subsequent martial events, some of which must have come very near to his lodge on the Maumee, BLACKBEARD seems to have remained friendly to the whites, and long afterward he repaid with interest the kindness and hospitality he had received from SYMMES by requitals to Judge BURNET and other lawyers and federal officials on their way through the wilderness from Cincinnati, to attend the courts in Detroit.
While Mr. FREEMAN was at the Indian towns he was lodged at the
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house of a chief called Blue JACKET, and while there be saw the pack-horses come to Blue JACKET's house loaded with five hundred weight of powder and lead equivalent, with one hundred muskets; this share he saw deposited at the house of Blue JACKET. He says the like quantity was sent them from Detroit, to every chief through all their towns. FREEMAN saw the same dividend deposited at a second chief's house in the same town with Blue JACKET. On the arrival of the stores from Detroit, British colors were displayed on the housetop of every chief, and a prisoner among the Indians who had the address to gain full credit with them and attended at their council-house every day, found means to procure by artifice an opportunity of conversing with FREMAN. He assured FREEMAN that the Indians were fully determined to rout these settlements altogether; that they would have attempted it before this time, but had no military stores; but these being then arrived, it would not be long before they would march.
Confirmation of these reports was received about the same time from two widely separated points at the east and west, from Vincennes and from Pittsburgh.
On the other side of the Purchase, the settlers at Columbia were greatly troubled after the depredations and attacks once began, which was not until nearly a year after the founding of the colony. In time too soon, however, the dreaded blows fell. Among the cultivators of the soil to whom Major STITES had leased the rich clearing known as Turkey Bottom was one James SEWARD, who occupied a lot upon it for his daily labor, but had his residence on the hillside near the village. Two sons of his, Obadiah and John, aged respectively twenty-one and fifteen years, were at work in this field one afternoon, September 20, 1789, when they were surprised by a small party of Indians, at a hickory tree which had been felled for nuts, whose bushy top gave the savages an excellent opportunity for concealment and stealthy approach. Obadiah gave himself up at once, and was securely bound by withes or twigs; but the other ran for his life, in a circuitous course towards home. The Indians easily gained upon him, however, and one of them hurled his tomahawk at the boy with such force as to cleave his skull immediately behind the right ear. He dropped in his tracks, and, when overtaken an instant later, was again tomahawked and was then scalped. His mangled form was not found until the next morning, when John CLAWSON, one of the pitying neighbors who gathered around, carried it on his back to the bereaved home. Strange to say, young SEWARD was not yet dead, though unconscious, and in his delirium, as his clothing and the surroundings showed, he had dragged himself round and round upon his knees. He actually survived the terrible injury for thirty-nine days, his senses returning to him, and even cheerfulness and good spirits, so that he was able to give a correct and detailed account of the affair. Obadiah was for some time unheard from; but a captive returning at length from the Indian country brought word that he had been killed by a bloodthirsty and drunken Indian, simply for taking the wrong fork of a trail. The young man, it is said, had long cherished a presentiment that he should perish at the hands of the savages. The doubly bereaved father afterwards removed to Springdale, where he suffered the loss of another son by the fall of a tree.
The captive just mentioned was Ned LARKIN, an employe of Mr. John PHILLIPS who was seized and taken by the Indians the same day the young SEWARDS were attacked. He was alone in the field at the time, cutting and binding cornstalks for fodder, and was bound and marched through the wilderness to Detroit, where his captors sold him to a French trader. By this man, who seems to have had a heart in his bosom, LARKIN was liberated not long after, and with other released captives made his way to Pittsburgh, whence he found conveyance down the river to Columbia.
In 1790 there were further outrages by the Indians at this place. At one time the families, of whom there were several, located on that part of the face of the hill afterwards called Morristown, lost all their clothes hung out to dry. A party of the thieving redskins being suspected, was pursued, the property found in their possession and partially recovered; but they had already destroyed the coverlets to make belts. James NEWELL, one of the most valued of the early settlers of Columbia, also lost his life by the red hand of Indian murder - at just what date we have not ascertained.
One of the most interesting incidents of the Indian period in Hamilton county occurred July 7, 1792, on the river between Cincinnati and Columbia, and about four miles from the present Broadway, then Eastern Row. It was the custom of boats on the river, both large and small, to hug pretty closely the Kentucky side, as being the safer from Indian attack; but a canoe which left Cincinnati for Columbia on the afternoon of the day named had neglected this precaution, and was proceeding up what was designated, from its perils, as the "Indian shore." It contained one lady, Mrs. COLEMAN, wife of a settler at Columbia, two men named CLAYTON and LIGHT, and another whose name has not been preserved, and a
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young lad, Oliver M., the only son of Colonel SPENCER, a prominent pioneer then residing at Columbia, and who had served gallantly in the war of the Revolution. The boy had been to Cincinnati to spend the Fourth of July, and had remained for two or three days after. The stranger, a drunken soldier from the fort, presently lurched overboard, nearly upsetting the canoe; but managed to get ashore, and was soon left behind, thus escaping massacre, although his late companions, looking back at him, remarked that he "would be good food for Indians." The boy also took to the water-side path, and walked along near the party remaining in the canoe. A pair of Indians had concealed themselves near the path which connected the two villages, and as the boat approached fired a volley upon its occupants. CLAYTON was wounded at the first fire, fell overboard, was at once dragged ashore by the Indians, killed and scalped. LIGHT was also wounded in the arm, bit not severely, and throwing himself into the stream, swam off with one arm through the fire of the Indians and escaped. Mrs. COLEMAN likewise flung herself into the water, and the Indians, saying, "squaw must drown," left her to her fate. She was buoyed up by her clothing, however, and floated down a mile, to a point where she could get ashore, then took the path for Cincinnati, crossing Deer creek at its mouth, went to the house of Captain THORP, at the artificer's yard near Fort Washington, where she obtained dry clothing, and remained until recovered from her fright and fatigue. The Indians had seized young SPENCER, without doing him injury, and hastily departed with him, carrying him into captivity. He was taken to their towns on the headwaters of the Great Miami, where he was adopted into an Indian family, and lived with them several months, when he was ransomed for one hundred and twenty-five dollars through the intervention, it is said, of President WASHINGTON, who had a very high regard for his father, Colonel SPENCER, and secured the ransom of the son through the British Minister and the commandant of the British forces at Detroit. Young SPENCER afterwards became a distinguished citizen, a clergyman and bank officer in Cincinnati. In his manhood he wrote and published a narrative of his capture and captivity.
The settlers at Columbia became exceedingly hostile to the red men, and with reason, as these narratives show. Their labors were greatly interrupted by the constant necessity for the exercise of vigilance against the onset of the wily foe. For a time they had to work and watch in equal divisions, as many as one-half standing guard, while the other half labored, the divisions being exchanged in the morning and afternoon. Their annoyances, and the outrages from which they suffered, bore their natural fruit in an intense and abiding desire for revenge. On the principle, we suppose that the devil must be fought with fire, they even adopted some of the Indian methods. Colonel WHITTLESEY, of Cleveland, contributes this corroborative paragraph in one of his valuable historical pamphlets:
In 1844 I spent an evening with Benjamin STITES, jr., of Madisonville, Ohio, the son of Benjamin STITES, who settled at Columbia, near Cincinnati, in 1788. Benjamin, junior, was then a boy, but soon grew to be a woodsman and an Indian fighter. Going over the incidents of the pioneer days, he said the settlers of Columbia agreed to pay thirty dollars in trade for every Indian scalp. He related an instance of man who received a mare for a scalp, under this arrangement. The frontier men of those times spoke of "hunting Indians," as they would of hunting wolves, bears, or any other wild animal. I met another old man who then lived near Covington, on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, who said he had often gone alone up the valley of the Miami on a hunt for scalps. With most of these Indian hunters the bounty was a minor consideration. The hatred of the red man was a much stronger motive.
A tradition goes that on one occasion a reeking scalp, just torn from the head of an Indian, was brought on the Sabbath into or near the house of God in Columbia, breaking up the meeting and sending the inhabitants home to prepare against an attack from the savages.
The settlers of Cincinnati of course shared the general peril. Some fifteen or twenty of them were killed by the Indians in the one year 1790. Not only was it necessary to post sentinels when at work in the out-lots or improving the town property, but rifles were carried to service by the congregation of the First Presbyterian church, whose place of meeting was close by where the same society worships now, near the corner of Main and Fourth streets. A fine of seventy-five cents was imposed upon male attendants neglecting this precaution; and it is said to have been actually inflicted upon Colonel John S. WALLACE, noted hunter and Indian fighter of those days, and perhaps upon others.
In 1790 the road from Cincinnati eastward crossed the mouth of the water-course near the then eastern limits of the town, as noted in the account of the adventure to Mrs. COLEMAN. At the point of crossing there was a dense forest of maple and beech, with tangled grape-vines and a heavy undergrowth of spicewood. Mr. Jacob WETZEL, of the village, had a successful day of hunting, October 7th, of that year, and on his way home to get a horse with which to bring in his heavier spoils, sat down here upon a decayed tree-trunk to rest. He shortly heard a rustling in the woods; his dog pricked up his ears, growled, and a moment afterwards barked loudly as he saw an Indian presenting his rifle from behind a large oak tree. WETZEL caught sight of him at the same instant, and, springing behind another tree, both fired together. He received the Indian's fire unharmed, and succeeded in wounding his enemy's left elbow. Before the Indian could reload, WETZEL took the offensive and charged upon him with his hunting knife, and the Indian drew his to defend himself . The conflict that ensued was sharp and desperate, a life-or- death struggle. The white man made the first blow as he rushed, but the red one parried it, knocking the other's knife from his hand to a distance of thirty feet or more. Nothing daunted, WETZEL seized him with a vice-like grasp about the body, holding down and tightly against it the arm with the knife. In the struggle both were thrown, but the Indian got uppermost and was about to use his knife with deadly effect, when the dog sprang at his throat with such a savage attack as made him drop the weapon, which WETZEL seized and instantly stabbed his antagonist to the heart. The Indian so far had maintained the contest on his side alone; but after
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the victor had despoiled his body of its armament and gone a little distance on his way home, he heard the whoop of a party of savages, and ran hastily to the river, where he seized a canoe and escaped to the cove then existing at the foot of Sycamore street. He afterwards learned that the Indian killed was one of the bravest chiefs of his tribe, by whom he was greatly lamented.
The savages were also making mischief this year on the other side of the river, in the interior. Judge SYMMES wrote the last of April:
The Indians are beyond measure troublesome throughout Kentucky. They have destroyed Major DOUGHTY and a party of troops on the Tennessee. If the President knew of half the murders they commit, he surely would rouse in indignation and dash those barbarians to some other clime.
After the defeat of General HARMAR in two actions by the Indians, in October, they grew bolder, but still made no concerted attacks upon the settlements on the SYMMES Purchase until January, when DUNLAP's station was attacked, as will be presently narrated. November 4th the judge writes:
The strokes our army has got seem to fall like a blight upon the prospect, and for the present seem to appall every countenance. I confess that, as to myself, I do not apprehend that we shall be in a worse situation with regard to the Indians than before the repulse. What the Indians could do before, they did, and they now have about one hundred less of their warriors to annoy us with than they had before the two actions; besides, it will give them some employment this winter to build up new cabins and repair by hunting the loss of their corn.
The settlers at them [the stations] are very much alarmed at their situation, though I do not think that the houses will be attacked at those stations; yet I am much concerned for the safety of the men while at work, hunting, and travelling.
----http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohhamilt/histhc/056.htm---
Judge SYMMES did not divine with his usual prescience in this case. Scarcely more than two months had passed after this deliverance before the Indians appeared in force but a few miles from his home and made a desperate attack upon one of his stations. On the eighth of January, 1791, Colonel John S. WALLACE, of Cincinnati, lately mentioned in this chapter, together with Abner HUNT, who was a surveyor, John STOANE, and a Mr. CUNNINGHAM, engaged in exploring the country, fell in with, this war-party, or a detachment of it, somewhere on the west bank of the Great Miami, where the whites had encamped the night before. When setting out that morning to explore the bottoms above their camp, towards Colerain, or DUNLAP's station, they had got but about seventy yards away when they were assailed by savages from the rear, an ambuscade having evidently been prepared for them. CUNNINGHAM was shot down instantly; HUNT was violently dismounted by the fright of his horse, and made prisoner; and SLOANE was shot through the body, but managed to keep his feet and effect his escape. WALLACE also dashed off, but on foot, and was followed by two Indians, when he overtook SLOANE and mounted HUNT's riderless horse, which had kept along with its companion. Both WALLACE and SLOANE thus escaped safely and uninjured to DUNLAP's station. Colonel WALLACE had a narrow escape, however. He was repeatedly fired upon in his flight, and at the first shot his leggings became loose, the fastenings perhaps cut by the missile, when he tripped and fell. Coolly but rapidly he retied the strings, in time to resume his flight without being overtaken. HUNT's fate was terrible, being that which too often befell the captive among the savages. During a lull in the siege of DUNLAP's station, the third night after the capture, they occupied themselves in the torture of the hapless prisoner. He was prostrated across a log with his legs and arms stretched and fastened in painful positions to the ground; he was scalped, his body agonized by knife-wounds, and the cruel work completed, as one account relates, by building a fire upon his naked abdomen, or, as others have it, by thrusting blazing firebrands into his bowels, which had been exposed by the cutting and slashing to which he had been subjected. In this dreadful situation his remains were found after the Indians had retired, and were taken up decently and buried by the garrison.
| Chapter VIII. The Miames and The Indians... |
Judge SYMMES did not divine with his usual prescience in this case. Scarcely more than two months had passed after this deliverance before the Indians appeared in force but a few miles from his home and made a desperate attack upon one of his stations. On the eighth of January, 1791, Colonel John S. WALLACE, of Cincinnati, lately mentioned in this chapter, together with Abner HUNT, who was a surveyor, John STOANE, and a Mr. CUNNINGHAM, engaged in exploring the country, fell in with, this war-party, or a detachment of it, somewhere on the west bank of the Great Miami, where the whites had encamped the night before. When setting out that morning to explore the bottoms above their camp, towards Colerain, or DUNLAP's station, they had got but about seventy yards away when they were assailed by savages from the rear, an ambuscade having evidently been prepared for them. CUNNINGHAM was shot down instantly; HUNT was violently dismounted by the fright of his horse, and made prisoner; and SLOANE was shot through the body, but managed to keep his feet and effect his escape. WALLACE also dashed off, but on foot, and was followed by two Indians, when he overtook SLOANE and mounted HUNT's riderless horse, which had kept along with its companion. Both WALLACE and SLOANE thus escaped safely and uninjured to DUNLAP's station. Colonel WALLACE had a narrow escape, however. He was repeatedly fired upon in his flight, and at the first shot his leggings became loose, the fastenings perhaps cut by the missile, when he tripped and fell. Coolly but rapidly he retied the strings, in time to resume his flight without being overtaken. HUNT's fate was terrible, being that which too often befell the captive among the savages. During a lull in the siege of DUNLAP's station, the third night after the capture, they occupied themselves in the torture of the hapless prisoner. He was prostrated across a log with his legs and arms stretched and fastened in painful positions to the ground; he was scalped, his body agonized by knife-wounds, and the cruel work completed, as one account relates, by building a fire upon his naked abdomen, or, as others have it, by thrusting blazing firebrands into his bowels, which had been exposed by the cutting and slashing to which he had been subjected. In this dreadful situation his remains were found after the Indians had retired, and were taken up decently and buried by the garrison.
The attack on DUNLAP's began in the early morning of January 10th. About five hundred Indians appeared before the stockade, with three hundred more in reserve in the neighborhood, and demanded its surrender, promising the garrison and settlers safety. They are believed to have been led by the notorious white renegade, Simon GIRTY, who was guilty of so many atrocities and barbarities toward the whites, and is said to have died himself, in the centre of a blazing log-heap, where he was placed by a party of avengers, who recognized him long after Indian hostilities had ceased. GIRTY's brother was also in the attacking force, with Blue Jacket and other well-known chiefs. During the parley with KINGSLEY, which lasted two hours, Simon GIRTY was seen holding the rope with which the prisoner's (HUNT's) arms were tied, and sheltered behind a log. Lieutenant KINGSLEY was in command, but had only eighteen regulars, who, with eight or ten armed residents, made but a feeble garrison in point of numbers. Nevertheless the Indian demand was refused and fire was opened by the garrison, being promptly returned by the besiegers. As soon as possible a runner was got off to Fort Washington for reinforcements, and the defence continued to be stoutly maintained. The women in the station kept up the supply of bullets to their defenders by melting spoons and pewter plates and running them into balls; and the fire on both sides was scarcely intermitted for hours. The Indians entirely surrounded the stockade on the land side, their flanks resting on the river; and their fire was hot and distressing. It was kept up until late in the afternoon, when the Indians drew off and during the night put HUNT to the torture in full view of the garrison, between the fort and an ancient work remaining near. The attack was renewed in the evening and maintained in a desultory way until midnight, when the beleagured people again had comparative rest, but no refreshment in their weariness and terror except parched corn, their supply of water being cut off by the merciless foe. The Indians in this attempt set fire to the brush about the station and threw many blazing brands upon the structures within it, but they were happily extinguished before serious mischief was done. Again the Indians came on the next day, but were met with the steady, unrelenting fire of the garrison, and hastily withdrew, probably hastening their retreat from the report of their scouts that relief was
~pg 63~
marching from Fort Washington. In their retreat the Indians shot all the cattle within their reach. A force of thirty regulars and thirty-three volunteers had been dispatched from Fort Washington, under the command of Captain TIMMONS, reaching, the neighborhood of the station the next forenoon about ten o'clock, but finding the Indians already gone. They went in pursuit at once, but with little effect, the detachment not being numerous enough to make an effective attack.
This heroic defence of Colerain against an overwhelming force of savages is one of the most noteworthy incidents in the history of the county. Sometime before the fight David GIBSON and John CRUM, of the station, had been taken prisoners by the Indians, and Thomas LAWISON and William CRUM driven to the stockade, to the imminent danger of their lives. The inhabitants there were kept in a pretty constant state of alarm, and, after the defeat of General ST. CLAIR the following November, the settlers at DUNLAP's, vividly remembering the attack which followed HARMAR's misfortune, and reasonably expecting a similar sequel to ST. CLAIR's, abandoned the station, and were only persuaded to return with considerable difficulty. It was important that this station should be maintained. Judge SYMMES wrote in January, 1792: "Colerain has always been considered the best barrier to all the settlements, and when that place became re-peopled the inhabitants of the other stations became more reconciled to stay."
The attack on DUNLAP's began in the early morning of January 10th. About five hundred Indians appeared before the stockade, with three hundred more in reserve in the neighborhood, and demanded its surrender, promising the garrison and settlers safety. They are believed to have been led by the notorious white renegade, Simon GIRTY, who was guilty of so many atrocities and barbarities toward the whites, and is said to have died himself, in the centre of a blazing log-heap, where he was placed by a party of avengers, who recognized him long after Indian hostilities had ceased. GIRTY's brother was also in the attacking force, with Blue Jacket and other well-known chiefs. During the parley with KINGSLEY, which lasted two hours, Simon GIRTY was seen holding the rope with which the prisoner's (HUNT's) arms were tied, and sheltered behind a log. Lieutenant KINGSLEY was in command, but had only eighteen regulars, who, with eight or ten armed residents, made but a feeble garrison in point of numbers. Nevertheless the Indian demand was refused and fire was opened by the garrison, being promptly returned by the besiegers. As soon as possible a runner was got off to Fort Washington for reinforcements, and the defence continued to be stoutly maintained. The women in the station kept up the supply of bullets to their defenders by melting spoons and pewter plates and running them into balls; and the fire on both sides was scarcely intermitted for hours. The Indians entirely surrounded the stockade on the land side, their flanks resting on the river; and their fire was hot and distressing. It was kept up until late in the afternoon, when the Indians drew off and during the night put HUNT to the torture in full view of the garrison, between the fort and an ancient work remaining near. The attack was renewed in the evening and maintained in a desultory way until midnight, when the beleagured people again had comparative rest, but no refreshment in their weariness and terror except parched corn, their supply of water being cut off by the merciless foe. The Indians in this attempt set fire to the brush about the station and threw many blazing brands upon the structures within it, but they were happily extinguished before serious mischief was done. Again the Indians came on the next day, but were met with the steady, unrelenting fire of the garrison, and hastily withdrew, probably hastening their retreat from the report of their scouts that relief was
~pg 63~
marching from Fort Washington. In their retreat the Indians shot all the cattle within their reach. A force of thirty regulars and thirty-three volunteers had been dispatched from Fort Washington, under the command of Captain TIMMONS, reaching, the neighborhood of the station the next forenoon about ten o'clock, but finding the Indians already gone. They went in pursuit at once, but with little effect, the detachment not being numerous enough to make an effective attack.
This heroic defence of Colerain against an overwhelming force of savages is one of the most noteworthy incidents in the history of the county. Sometime before the fight David GIBSON and John CRUM, of the station, had been taken prisoners by the Indians, and Thomas LAWISON and William CRUM driven to the stockade, to the imminent danger of their lives. The inhabitants there were kept in a pretty constant state of alarm, and, after the defeat of General ST. CLAIR the following November, the settlers at DUNLAP's, vividly remembering the attack which followed HARMAR's misfortune, and reasonably expecting a similar sequel to ST. CLAIR's, abandoned the station, and were only persuaded to return with considerable difficulty. It was important that this station should be maintained. Judge SYMMES wrote in January, 1792: "Colerain has always been considered the best barrier to all the settlements, and when that place became re-peopled the inhabitants of the other stations became more reconciled to stay."
----
HAMILTON COUNTY OHIO - History (published 1881) Colerain Township - pgs 255-26
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Colerain Township - pgs 255-262
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History of Hamilton County Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches.
Compiled by Henry A. Ford, A.M. and Mrs. Kate B. Ford, L.A. William & Co.,
Publishers; 1881.
" ~pg 255~
COLERAIN TOWNSHIP
GEOGRAPHY.
Colerain is bounded on the west by the Great Miami river; on the north by that
stream and Butler county; on the east by Springfield township; and on the south
by Green and Miami townships. Its eastern boundary is the range line; the range
line next to the westward cuts across about four and a half miles of the
township until it intersects the Great Miami near New Baltimore, between
sections four and thirty-four. The north line of this township between the river
and the northwest corner of Springfield township, is much more regular and more
nearly on a right line east and west than the devious boundary of Springfield on
the north. It is about two-fifths of a mile north of the dividing line between
Crosby and Harrison townships and Butler county, the "jag" occurring at the
Great Miami.
The lands of Colerain lie in three entire ranges--those numbered one and two in
township one, and range number one in township two. It hence results that there
are in its territory three sections numbered one, being one in each corner of
the township except the northwest; and two each numbered two, three, four,
seven, thirteen, and nineteen; besides fractional sections numbered eight,
nine, ten, and twenty-five, duplicates of entire sections similarly numbered.
There are thirty-five whole and eleven fractional sections in the township. The
section lines are much more nearly straight in this township than in Springfield
and Sycamore, but they more remarkably diverge in many cases from the true
direction. The vicious system, or careless want of system of Judge
SYMMES' surveys, is nowhere in the Purchase more glaringly exhibited than here.
Some of the sections, as those numbered from twenty to the north line of the
county, are by the divergence of their lines on the east and west approached
closely to thrice the dimensions of those next them on the west. The township is
seven sections, or about as many miles, in length from north to south, and
nearly eight miles in its greatest breadth, from the westernmost point of the
fractional section nine, nearly opposite the terminus at the river of the south
line of Crosby township, across to a point in the eastern line of Colerain
opposite the north part of Mount Pleasant village, in Springfield township. Its
breadth at the northern boundary is four miles, at the southern seven; its
average width about six.
The surface of the township, near the Great Miami, which washes its western and
northern fronts for about twelve miles, partakes in part of the general
character of the Miami valleys near the rivers. It is broad, flat, and fertile,
except where the hills impinge closely upon the river bank, as they do for some
miles. Back of this belt of lower country is the highland, or the ancient
plateau, which extends upon a general level, to the eastern and southern
boundaries, near which it overlooks the valleys of Mill creek and the West fork.
It is deeply cut through, in the southernmost part of the township, by the
course of TAYLOR' creek, whose headwaters take their rise toward the southwest
corner, in sections thirteen and fourteen, and, after uniting their streams in
section nineteen, dip down over a mile to the southward in Green township, near
the northwest corner of which the stream emerges again in Colerain, and flows in
an exceedingly tortuous course toward every point of the compass for about two
miles, until it reaches the Great Miami exactly at the southwest corner of
Colerain. Another stream of modest size, the Blue Rock creek, cuts nearly across
the township on a general east and west line about three miles north of the
southern line; another, with numerous branches, flows through the northern part
of the township until it makes its exit into Butler county, a little over a
miles east of the Great Miami; and several other and more petty brooks,
tributaries of the Great Miami on the west or the West fork of Mill creek on the
east, aid to diversify the topography and water the fertile lands of Colerain.
The township is pretty well provided with wagon-roads; but the great highway
through it is the famous Colerain pike, which intersects it almost in a diagonal
from Mount Airy, first beyond the southeast corner of the township to a point
upon the river-road in the direction of Venice, Butler county, very near the
northwest corner. It is described in KING' Pocket-book of Cincinnati, as
"a continuation of Central avenue. At the junction of Central avenue with DENMAN
street, the site of the old BRIGHTON house, it takes a northerly direction,
passing through Camp WASHINGTON by the workhouse and the house of refuge,
through Cumminsville (by the Wesleyan cemetery) and Mount Airy, on to Colerain
township, from which it received its name Continuing, it passes through Venice
and Oxford, in Butler county, which his known as the Cincinnati pike. The
road is well macadamized." After leaving Mount Airy at a mile's distance,. it
passes the village of GROSBECK, in Colerain township; a little more than two
miles further it passes through BEVIS, and at about three miles' distance the
old village site of Georgetown. All the villages of the township, except
Pleasant Run, a hamlet in the northwest corner, are situated upon this fine
road.
Although Colerain is one of the largest townships in the county, the peculiarity
of its topography and of its
~pg 256~
situation, with reference to Cincinnati, the inevitable and only railway centre
in the county, have hitherto prevented the laying of iron road on its soil. Two
railway lines have been projected to intersect it, however, one, the Cincinnati
& Venice railroad, to enter the township at the wagon-bridge near Venice, thence
southeastward and southward with a general parallelism to the
Colerain pike, until it leaves the township, near St. Jacobs, in Green township,
and passes nearly due South by Weisenburgh, to a junction with the Cincinnati &
Westwood narrow-gauge, a little south of Cheviot. Its entire course through
Colerain, if built upon this line, will be a little more than seven miles.
Another route, known as the Liberty, Connersville & Richmond railroad, is
planned to enter the county in Crosby township, three miles west of the Great
Miami, which it will cross at New Baltimore and run southward and eastward about
three and one-half miles in Colerain to a junction with the Cincinnati & Venice
road, near BEVIS. The prospects of these schemes are not just now very hopeful.
Other lines have at tithes been in discussion, and not many years are likely to
pass before the township is supplied with railway facilities.
ANCIENT WORKS
Some of the finest remains of the Mound Builders, although not very numerous,
are to be found in this township. Upon the height known as Bowling Green, near
the Great Miami river, about a mile above New Baltimore, is a well-defined
mound, of somewhat extensive base, and several fret in height. It was probably
used as a mound of observation.
In the forest one mile west of BEVIS and about the same distance south of Dry
Ridge Catholic church, is an interesting ancient enclosure. It is an exact
circle, of about fifty feet in diameter, and its parapets at present with an
average height of two feet. The site it occupies is elevated, overlooking a wide
tract of country. Its symmetry has been considerably marred by the running of
fences and other modern improvements across it, but its form is still clearly
outlined.
The principal ancient remain in Colerain township, and one of the most
interesting in Hamilton county, is situated near the singular and abrupt bend of
the Great Miami, which begins about two miles southwest of the county line, on
the Colerain side. This bend, which was until recently the main channel of the
river, is now being gradually deserted by it, the waters having made their way
by a shorter cut across a part of the bend, thus forming an island containing
sixty to seventy acres, belonging to this township. About ninety-five acres are
enclosed by the famous "work"--a fortification or sacred enclosure, the parapet
of which is still pretty well preserved, and in places is eight to ten feet
high. It is at the angle of the river, below a hill some two hundred and eighty
feet in height, upon which is a mound of observation ten feet high, commanding a
broad and far-reaching view of the valley and surrounding country. It is now
fitly occupied in part by a cemetery. In the same remarkable neighborhood, not
far from this old work, stood the not less famous modern fortification known in
the history of the Miami country as
DUNLAP'S STATION
The first settler in the tract now covered by Colerain township was undoubtedly
John DUNLAP, an Irishman from Colerain, in the north of Ireland. In 1790 he made
his way up the valley of the Great Miami to this notable bend, about seventeen
miles from the Cincinnati of that day, where he determined to found a colony,
and laid out a village, which be named from his native place in the old country,
and which, though it presently became extinct, perpetuated its musical name in
the designation of the township. A few settlers joined him here; and they
promptly built a fort or station at the spot selected. It consisted simply of
their little cabins clustered together upon a space of about an acre, built to
face each other and, with a singular want of forethought, their roofs so
placed as to slope outward, and the caves so low that it is said the dogs were
accustomed to jump from the stumps without to the top of them, and so get into
the enclosure.1 This was constructed of a stockade of rather weak pickets, made
of small timber or logs split in half and thrust into the ground, above which
they stood only about eight feet high. Small block-houses were built at the
corners of the square formed by the stockade. Within this dwelt about thirty
persons -- men, women, and children -- including only eight or ten capable of
bearing arms. Upon the erection of the station, however, and application duly
made at Fort Washington for a garrison, Lieutenant KINGSBURY was sent with
thirteen soldiers to strengthen the defenders. When the terrible occasion
came, too, as we shall presently see, the heroic women of the little fort proved
capable of rendering invaluable aid toward its salvation from capture by the
merciless savage foe.
Dunlap' station is principally memorable as the scene of the fiercest and
longest sustained Indian attack recorded in the annals of Hamilton county. For
several days in early January, 1791, the savages had been lurking in the
vicinity in considerable force. On the eighth they made the fatal attack upon
WALLACE, SLOAN, HUNT and CUNNINGHAM, as is related in our chapter upon
"The Miamese and the Indians." SLOAN who escaped wounded, and WALLACE who
escaped unhurt, took refuge in the station, and the next day (Sunday) the latter
guided a party to the scene of the disaster, where they found the body of the
unfortunate CUNNINGHAM tommy hawked and scalped. They buried it on the spot, and
returned without molestation. HUNT made his appearance before the station the
succeeding day, but as a hapless prisoner in the hands of his torturers and
murderers. The story of the siege is admirably narrated in Volume I. of
MC-BRIDE' Pioneer Biography, receiving many of its touches and details, we
suspect, from the hand of the accomplished editor of that work, Mr. Robert
CLARKE, of Cin-
~pg 257~
cinnati. At the risk of some repetition--the facts having been given in brief in
the first division of this work --we quote the main portions of the narrative
here: Before sunrise on the morning of the tenth 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 parley 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 overlook 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 was not made, they would all be massacred, and the
station burned. Lieutenant KINGSBURY replied that he would not surrender if he
were surrounded by ten thousand 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 brushwood 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.
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 invite 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.
The garrison, though in imminent danger, 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 garrisen. It
stood on a line with and near the block-house, and, being neither chinked 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 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.
ANOTHER STATION,
founded by John CAMPBELL, probably during the summer or fall of 1793, is said by
Mr. OLDEN, in his Historical Sketches and Early Reminiscences, to have been
established seven or eight miles southeast of DUNLAP' on the east bank
of the Great Miami, opposite the present village of Miamitown. Little seems to
be known concerning it. Mr. OLDEN says: The settlers around the station were
few in number; no preparations for defense were made; and, having been
established late in the period of Indian hostilities, no depredations were
committed in the neighborhood, consequently no important historical events are
attached to it.
ORGANIZATION.
Colerain is one of the oldest townships. It is the creation of the court of
general quarter sessions of the peace of 1794, when its boundaries were defined
as follows:
Beginning at the southwest corner of the fractional township on the Big Miami,
in the second entire range, thence up the Miami to the north line of said
fractional township, according to SYMMES' plat; thence east to the meridian on
the west side of the college township; thence south to the southern boundary of
said fractional township thence west to the place of beginning.
This extensive boundary brought in a tract of five sections breadth in what is
now Butler county, additional to the present limits of the township in that
direction,
The cattle brand of the township was ordered to be the letter G.
In 1803 the boundaries of Colerain were so defined as to include townships one
and two, in the first entire range, and the western tier in township three, same
range, and sections eighteen, twelve and six, in township two, and section
thirty-six in township three, second fractional range, and so much of the second
entire range as lies north of and adjoining the said township of Colerain. This
definition of boundaries gave the township all its present territory, together
with the western tier of sections in the present Springfield, the three
easternmost sections in the north tier of Green, and the northwestern-most
section in Mill Creek. The provision for taking in a part of the second entire
range gave the township only its present short line of sections on the north, as
Butler county had just been erected, and the remainder of the range lies within
its borders. The total area of Colerain is now twenty-six thousand seven hundred
and forty-eight acres.
By the order of 1803 the voters of Colerain were directed to meet at the
dwelling of John HARYMAN and choose two justices of the peace.
The following named were the first officers of the township(1794):
John DUNLAP, clerk; Samuel CAMPBELL, constable; John SHAW, overseer of the poor;
Isaac GIBSON, Samuel CRESSWELL, John DAVIS, viewers of enclosures and appraisers
of damages.
In 1809 Judah WILLEY was appointed by the governor of the State a justice of the
peace for Colerain township, "to continue in office for three years from the
third day
~pg 258~
of April, instant." The following named citizens of Colerain are also known to
have served the township as justices: 1819, Isaac SPARKS, John RUNYAN, James
CARNAHAN, Joseph CILLEY; 1825, William H. MOORE, Jonathan CILLEY,
Stewart MCGILL; 1829, Stewart MCGILL, Noah RUNYAN; 1865, John L. HAUKINS, George
T. MARSH, George W. HAISCH; 1866, the same, with Martin BARNS, Jr.; 1867-8, same
as 1866, except HAUKINS; 1869-70, BARNS, MARSH, J. H. WYCKOFF; 1871, BARNS,
WYCKOFF, Thomas P. MCHENRY; 1872-3, MCHENRY., WYCKOFF, John LEIBROOK;
1874, LEIBROOK, WYCKOFF, Joseph JONES; 1875-6, Wyck-off, Jones, Barns; 1877,
Wyckoff, Barns, William Arnold; 1878-9, Arnold, Wyckoff, John HAMKER; 1880,
Arnold, WYCKOFF.
SETTLEMENTS.
Among the early settlers in Colerain township, besides DUNLAP, CAMPBELL and others already named, were the BROWN,
HALSTEAD, HUSTON, and other old families, some of which will be found noticed in the brief narratives below.
In 1796 the HUGHES family, the head of which was then Ezekiel HUGHES, and which was afterwards prominent among the
pioneers of Whitewater township, settled upon a tract in the valley of the Blue Rock creek, nearly opposite New Baltimore,
awaiting the time when the Congress lands west of the river should be open to settlement With them was Edward BEBB, father
of Governor William BEBB. Some interesting notes of their residence here will be found in the history of Whitewater township.
Hon. Nehemiah WADE was born in Cincinnati, August 18, 1793, and died near Venice, Butler county, July 24, 1879. He was the
son of David E. WADE, an old pioneer of Hamilton county, and was married to Miss WALLACE of Cincinnati. Four sons and a
daughter were the fruit of this union. His second wife was Mrs. Jane DICK, daughter of Isaac ANDERSON, and widow of
George DICK. To them was born one daughter, Sarah,-.who was the wife of Rev. MCMILLAN. Mr. WADE was a teller in one
of the Cincinnati banks when only seventeen years of age. In 1818 he was elected justice of the peace of ROSS township, and
continued in office for six years; in 1841 was elected by the State legislature an associate judge of the court of common pleas for
Butler county, and was reelected in 1847, serving in that office for twelve years.
The Oxford Female college received a donation from him of ten thousand dollars. He united with the Presbyterian church of
Bethel in 1818, and in 1828, with a few others. joined in organizing the Presbyterian church of Venice, and was a ruling elder of
this church until his death.
John HUSTON was born in Ulster, Ireland, and is the great-great-grandfather of the HUSTONS whose sketches are annexed
below. He came to America in an early day, and served in the battle of Brandywine, under Washington, as a captain of a
company. He was long lived, and possessed a sturdy character, which traits seem to have been transmitted to his numerous
descendants, as an inheritance. He was buried in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Three of his sons, Paul, Samuel and David,
emigrated to Colerain township in 1795, David settling finally in Greene county, where he was for twenty-one years an associate
judge and sent twice to the State legislature. His numerous descendants are in Butler county and around Dayton, Ohio.
Paul HUSTON was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, September 18, 1767; Jean (CHARTERS) HUSTON, his wife, was born
in Glasgow, Scotland, December 14, 1771. Her parents emigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania in 1774. Their offspring
were William, Mary, John, Paul, John, Jennet, Samuel, Martha, Nancy, James and Elizabeth, the last named being the mother of
Paul H. WILLIAMSON. Paul was the grandfather of Paul S. and his cousin Paul A. J. HUSTON. Samuel was the grandfather
of Andrew and James HUSTON.
James HUSTON, son of Paul and father of Paul A. J. HUSTON, was born in 1811 and died in 1878; was a farmer in Colerain
township, and, like the HUSTONS in general, was remarkable for his thrift and good worth. Paul's mother was Martha CONE,
daughter of an old pioneer of Crosby township. His father was married twice; the second time to Miss Mary MORRIS, and was
the father of six children in all, of which Paul A. J. was the oldest. P. A. J. HUSTON owns part of the extensive tract of land
possessed originally by his father, being in the vicinity of Pleasant run. He is a farmer and a prominent man in his county, having
filled many township offices and been a member of the State legislature. He was married to Miss Mary BEVIS in 1859, and is
the father of six children. He is public spirited, and lives an honored citizen of his community.
Andrew and James HUSTON are the grandsons of Samuel HUSTON. Their father, James STEWARD, was a distiller, and
owned an extensive tract of about fifteen hundred acres of land besides; a part of which Andrew and James received as
patrimony. They also possess large interests in the Hamilton and Cincinnati turnpike, and are also large shareholders in the
Springdale pike. The Hamilton and Cincinnati turnpike is probably one of the best managed pikes in the State. In addition to all this
these brothers have considerable property in the city of Cincinnati.
Paul S. HUSTON, also of Colerain township, grandson of Paul HUSTON and son of William, was born in 1823. William died in
1848, since which time, until her death, Paul's mother lived with him on the old place near Pleasant run; his sister Ann Elizabeth
also lived with him several years. Paul S. HUSTON was never married.
Thomas HUNTER, of Pleasant run, Colerain township, is the only son, and Mrs. ARNOLD, of Louisville, Kentucky, is the only
daughter of Paul HUNTER, who is still living. William HUNTER, his grandfather, came from Pennsylvania to Colerain township
in 1800. Thomas HUNTER was married in 1858 to Miss GASTON, of Mount Pleasant, from which union they had two children.
He is a farmer.
Charles STOUT was born in Hopewell township, New Jersey, in 1783. From this State he came directly to Ohio, and settled in
Colerain township in 180l. His
~pg 259~
death occurred in the same region January 14, 1866. His business was that of a farmer, and he was a member of the Baptist
church for about twenty-five years. His wife, Mary DUVALL, was born March 3, 1790, and died January 10, 1859. Of their
twelve children, Ann Elizabeth STRUBLE died in 1834, Stephen in 1821, and Mary R. in 1828. Jane STOUT resides in
Groesbeck, Joseph R. in Illinois, Oliver in Indiana, Charlotte HILL in Hamilton county; and Eleanor BEVIS , Axsher BEVIS,
Benajah, Andrew J., and William remain in Colerain.
Thomas HUBBARD, Sr., was born in North Carolina in 1780. He came from that State to Ohio, and settled in Colerain in 1807.
His death took place May 25, 1852, at the same place. His wife, Elizabeth HUBBARD died also at their home in Colerain, June
27, 1868. She was born in 1790 The twenty-one children are: William and Charles, now in Missouri; Laura BOLTON, Aurelia
CARNAHAN, Maria KELLOGG and Margaret WILKINSON of Indiana, Susan TATERSALL, Sarah HAT and Matilda
KELLY of Illinois, and Ann HUBBARD and Thomas HUBBARD, Jr., of Colerain. Those who have died, are Thomas dying
August, 1815; Samuel, July, 1822; Cynthia, July, 1834; Wesley, June, 1837; Hannah, April, 1847; Mary, August, 1852; Elizabeth,
1869; Eleanor, 1865, and Dalson, July, 1868.
The children are scattered, but ten only are living. Thomas HUBBARD owns part of section seven of his township; was married
in 1828, but has no children. His sister Ann lives with him.
David K. JOHNSON, the only son of twelve children of Abner JOHNSON, of New Jersey, came here in 1809. Abner
JOHNSON was born in the year 1759, hauled government supplies for Washington's army during the war, and with the script
made in that way purchased part of Judge SYMMES' tract, near Ross, in Butler county, on which farm David K. JOHNSTON
still lives. Mr. JOHNSON is now in the eightieth year of his age; has been blind eleven years, but otherwise is hale and hearty.
He has been successful in shipping much produce in his line to New Orleans, out of which he has made money. He was married
in 1831 to Miss Elizabeth HEDGES.
The JOHNSON family, with but few exceptions, lived to the good old age of eighty, and upwards.
Elias JOHNSON, nephew of David K. JOHNSON, and grandson of ABNER, lives on part of the same purchase (Judge
SYMMES), in the vicinity of Ross, Butler county. Squire JOHNSON is known among his neighbors as a man of good judgment,
of possessing more than ordinary abilities, and withal is noted for general thrift and good worth. He is a Republican, was a
delegate to the general assembly in 1873 for revising the constitution; has always taken an active part in the public questions of
the day. Has been a director of the Colerain turnpike, and secretary for the company since 1857. He was born December 30,
1816, and was married in August, 1871.
George POUDER made his first settlement in Ohio, at Cincinnati, in 1817. He came to this State from Baltimore, Maryland,
where he was born October, 17, 1804. In 1870, December 23, he died, at Colerain township. The wife, Hannah G., was born in
this township in 1805, and died in 1871. The surviving members of the family are George and Harriet WEST, both residing in
Colerain township, and Mary J. COLLIER of Baltimore, Maryland. Five have died: Samuel died in August, 1834; Elizabeth
COLLIER, September, 1859; John, May, 1864; Margaret, May, 1848, and Mary, March, 1844.
George POUDER, of Barnesburgh, Colerain township, is a native of the county, but has only lived in the village during the past
three years, in which he owns eighteen acres of good land and twenty-seven and a half acres of the old homestead near. He had
a brother killed in the late war, near Dallas, Georgia, and was himself a member of the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Ohio
national guard. One company of this regiment was composed solely of teachers, of which John HANCOCK, superintendent of
the Cincinnati schools, was a private.
John POUDER was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1764, and came to Ohio and settled in Cincinnati in 1817. He died in Colerain
in 1836. His wife, Elizabeth POUDER, born in 1784, died four years before her husband. The surviving children are Joseph and
Harriet, now residents of Indianapolis, Indiana; Mary, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, and Lemuel, of Colerain.
Leonard POUDER owns forty acres two miles west of Taylor's, Colerain township, and came here in 1840. Andrew, his son,
enlisted in the Fiftieth Ohio regiment, and was taken prisoner at Franklin, Tennessee, and sent to prison at Chahaba, Georgia,
where he was closely guarded for three months. After being exchanged, in company with two thousand one hundred others, he
was put on the ill-fated Sultana, and when above Memphis, about two o'clock in the morning, the boiler burst and the boat was
blown up. He secured a life-buoy, and after remaining on deck as long as possible, cast himself into the water, and swam to a
sycamore log. He was picked up about four hours afterwards and taken to the hospital in Memphis, at which place he remained
three weeks before going home. Only about three hundred of his comrades were saved.
A. H. Cone, of Ross township, Butler county, was born in Hamilton county, but now lives on a part of the Yankee purchase of
two and a half sections near Venice, owned by his father and grandfather. Charles CONE was major of militia during the Hull
engagement. His grandson, A. H. CONE, is at present justice of the peace of Ross township.
Giles RICHARDS, the father of George RICHARDS, was one of the old pioneers of Colerain township, a man of considerable
ability, foresight, and sagacity, and one who did much towards public improvements, for both State and county. He was the
projector of the Colerain turnpike, of the river bridge on that road, and also of other undertakings. During the war he contributed
about sixteen thousand dollars of his own funds in various ways for the furtherance of its cause. He was born January 6, 1792, in
Boston, Massachusetts, was a mechanic, merchant and farmer, and made his money during the War of 1812. He then had a
button factory and made buttons for the army, and saddlery ornaments of various kinds. He came to Cincin-
~pg 260~
nati in 1820, where he soon had a saw-mill, grist-mill and woollen factory. In 1830 he purchased a large tract of land, of several
hundred acres, surrounding what was then the thriving town of Colerain. Mr. RICHARDS was successful in accumulating a
large amount of property, and also in securing an enviable reputation among his fellows. He died in 1876, having lived during the
last two years with his son George, who was born in 1843, and in 1869 married to Miss Josie JOHNSON.
In 1818 Isaac ERVEN made his first settlement in Ohio in Cincinnati. He was born in 1807, March 15th, in the State of
Pennsylvania, and came from that State to Ohio. For fifteen years he was school director, and also served as ministerial
director. His wife, Elizabeth GOSSAGE, was born in Maryland in 1816, and died in Colerain township in the year 1879.
The children are: Isaac ERVEN, of Illinois; Henry and Giles, of this township; Ezra, and Ellen WOLVERTON, of Oregon;
Francis M., also of Colerain; and Charlotte WILSON, living near Dayton, Ohio.
William MARTIN is a descendant of Virginia stock, who were early settlers in Colerain township. William's grandfather,
Samuel S., was a farmer and an undertaker. Samuel MARTIN, his father, lived on the farm William now owns. Mr.
MARTIN, although born in 1822, has always preferred single blessedness to a married state.
Williamson PAUL, (sic) of Colerain township, was born May 25, 1837. His paternal grandfather was William WILLIAMSON,
whose wife was Anna VORHEES; they were of Teutonic and English origin. His great-grandfather, on his father's side, was
John WILLIAMSON, whose wife was Lucretia TICE. John was born fourth of May, 1749; Lucretia TICE the twenty-sixth of
April, 1749. They raised a family of ten children: John, William, Jacob, Garret, Mary, Henry, Ann, Sarah, David, and Luretia. John
was married to Hannah SMITH, August 29, 1771. They raised a family of ten children, Jacob, Cornelius, John, Lucretia, Simeon,
Amos, Catharine, David, Ann, and Henry. David WILLIAMSON, Paul's father, was born June 6, 1808; his mother Elizabeth
HUSTON, was born April 24, 1814. They were married May 22, 1833. Their children were Hannah, Jean, Paul H, Mary E., and
Albert. David WILLIAMSON came of Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, John, having served under Generals GREENE and
WASHINGTON, and fought and was taken prisoner during the war. David was an edge tool maker and an early pioneer and
settler of Colerain township, having emigrated to this place in 1811, and when twenty-five years of age married Elizabeth
HUSTON. Paul WILLIAMSON, their eldest son, was liberally educated and perfected his studies at Farmer's college; for nine
months following he was a successful teacher, for which he seems to have been adapted in manner and method. In May, 1857,
he went to Iowa and found employment in agricultural pursuits, and in the fall of that year, with three friends, travelled by wagon
through the greater portion of this State, Missouri; and Kansas, and during the following winter taught a flourishing school at
Aviston, Illinois. In April, 1858, in company with a friend, he started overland to California, meeting at Leavenworth an emigrant
train, which he accompanied to the same destination. Their route was via Santa Fe and the thirty-fifth parallel, Lieutenant
BEALE' route across New Mexico. While on this wearisome journey the party was attacked on the Colorado river by Indians,
and eight of their number slain. They lost their wagons and stock, and, passing through a gauntlet of hostile Indians, suffered the
most terrible privations, and were compelled to return east a distance of seven hundred miles to Albuquerque, at which place Mr.
WILLIAMSON left the party, taking his way to El Paso, Mexico, remaining there two weeks, then joining a Mexican wagon train
went to San Antonio, Texas. In a short time he left this place for Seguin, Texas, where, for nine months, he again taught school.
In the fall of 1859 he made a journey to Columbia, Arkansas, on horseback, where he again became teacher, and filled this
position with great success, until the breaking out of the civil war; thence he proceeded to New Orleans, again north to St. Louis
and to Cincinnati, in which vicinity he has since resided. From February, 1870, until 1874 he acted as deputy clerk of the probate
court of Hamilton county. In October, 1873, he was elected county auditor, which position he filled with credit to himself and to
his county for one term; was renominated, but deflated by a very small majority. He was married November 1, 1870, to Miss Ada
JAYNE, daughter of a pioneer of Clermont county, and of Adeline LEONARD, whose ancestry were of Scotch Irish descent,
and who came over in the Mayflower. Paul H. is a Democrat. His life is one of startling incidents and romantic adventure.
Baxter VANSICLE, father of Eliza, came from Maryland with his father and settled on the present site--about one mile west of
Sater--in the year 1812. Mr. VANSICLE farmed in the summer and fished in the winter, the river at that time furnishing plenty of
that kind of meat, and the market being as good then as now. Mr. VANSICLE died March 12, 1872.
Thomas MCHENRY came with his father to Colerain township in the year 1812, where he has resided since. The farm was
purchased of a Mr. RICHARDSON and was then about the only settlement made in that vicinity. Mr. MCHENRY' is a member
of the Presbyterian church.
Mrs. Eliza SCOTT resides at the mouth of DUNLAP creek, where James Henderson SCOTT, her husband, lived many years
before his death. He was the proprietor of a sawmill on the Miami river, and engaged chiefly in that business. Mrs. SCOTT was
born in Hamilton county, but when six years of age her parents moved to Illinois, where she remained until twenty-one years of
age. She was married in 1856, and in 1876 her husband died.
Peter POOL, deceased husband of Mary Jane POOL, was born March 2, 1822--died August 10, 1864; purchased about forty
acres near the school-house, district No. 7, Colerain township, where he remained many years before his death.
James POOLE resides on the Locus farm, the beautiful site near GROSBECK' Colerain township. He was born March 29, 1824,
in Hamilton county, and has been iden-
~pg 261~
tifed in the interests of that portion of the State during his life: He was a soldier in the late war, and is an active member of the
church. His father, William POOLE, came from Vermont in 1816, and died in Springfield, Ohio, in 1868. James POOLE was
married January 3, 1857, to Emily CILLEY, daughter of Bradbury CILLEY.
John GAISER was born in Germany in 1829. In 1850 he came to Ohio and first settled in Green township. His wife, Wilhelmina
GAISER, was born in 1835, and died in Cincinnati in May, 1871. The children living in that city are Katie, Eliza, and Lottie. John
C., Caroline, George W., and William H. are now living in Colerain. Mr. GAISER has been in township office and was a farrier
at Camp Monroe during the war.
John BARNES was born in 1812, in Kentucky, from which State he came into Ohio and made settlement. His wife, Aremento
BARNES, died in Colerain township in 1874. The surviving children are Abraham and Mary Jane, now of Colerain; Hugh of
Harrison; Daniel, of Indianapolis, Indiana; Alfred W, of Mill Creek; and Catharine, of Miami. Peter POOLE, the husband of
Mary Jane BARNES, died of typhoid fever in the army of Virginia in 1864.
Charles WILLEY was a native of Massachusetts, and settled in Colerain township. In 1864 he died in Indiana. Tullitha WILLEY,
his wife, born in 1802, is still living in Colerain as also are his two daughters, Sarah and Mary. His son Joseph is now a resident of
Indiana.
W. G. ARNOLD, of TAYLOR' a farmer, was born in 1836. He bought land here in 1872, since which time he has resided in the
village.
Louis R. STRONG of TAYLOR' was born and raised near the village, and owns fifty-three acres at that place. He was born on
the sixth of August, 1827.
A. B. LUSE, M.D., an experienced physician (old school) of over forty years standing, was born in Butler county in 1809; came
to Mt. Pleasant in 1830, where he has practiced his profession ever since with an exception of but three years, during which time
he pursued his profession in Hamilton, and was there during the cholera epidemic of 1833-4-5. In 1835 he returned to Mt.
Pleasant, where he still resides.
Mrs. Agnes CILLEY is the wife of Columbus CILLEY, eldest son of Bradbury Hedges CILLEY. Columbus CILLEY was born
November 4, 1839, in Colerain Station, Hamilton county, Ohio. After perfecting his studies at College Hill he enlisted as
wheel-driver First regiment Ohio light artillery, December 2, 1861, and served until December, 1864. He was in the battles of
Gettysburgh, Fredericksburgh, Chancellorsville, Manassas Gap, and other hotly contested engagements. Mr. CILLEY was a good
soldier, was a much respected man, and lived on the old homestead after the war and until his death, at which time he was a
trustee of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. CILLEY now lives in Venice.
Henry GULICK a farmer near BEVIS, is one of the most prominent fruit growers in the country, and is a prominent man in other
respects. He began life empty handed, and has made his fortunes since by his own exertions. When two years of age he came
with his parents from New Jersey to Hamilton county. He was captain of a company in the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Ohio
volunteers, during the hundred day service; and has filled other positions of prominence. In 1856 he purchased the beautiful site
near BEVIS, his present homestead. His son Edward is a natural sculptor, studied the art without the assistance of a tutor, and
has produced some remarkable results, of which may be mentioned "The Bachelor's Trial," "The Goddess of War," etc.
J.P. WATERHOUSE, M.D., of BEVIS, came to Hamilton county in 1853--born in 1825. His father, Joseph, came to Indiana in
1844. He was a member of the Maine legislature and captain of the militia. Dr. WATERHOUSE graduated in the Miami Medical
college in 1854. Practiced his profession in Charleston, Illinois, three years, then in Venice, Ohio, two years, and was for six years
a member of the Methodist Episcopal conference. He was a private in the one hundred day service, in the One Hundred and
Thirty-eighth regiment Ohio national guard.
Mary Jane DAVIS, granddaughter of Paul HUSTON, and daughter of Thomas BURNS and Jennie HUSTON, was born and
raised near Carthage, Ohio. Her great-grandfather, Archibald BOURNS, came from Scotland in 1751, and settled in
Pennsylvania. Her father and grandfather were sickle makers; both raised large families, who were devoted Christians of the
Presbyterian faith. Mrs. DAVIS was; for the space of four years, in the missionary work at Wapanauca, Indian Territory,
teaching the mission school of that place The school was composed of the Chickasaw Indians, out of which, during her stay, she
wrought considerable success. Mrs. DAVIS is a devoted Christian, and took great interest in her work, for which she deserves
great praise. One year previous to leaving this field of labor she was married to Leander DAVIS, March 16, 1855, and for a while
lived in Illinois, where he died July, 1865, since which time Mrs. DAVIS has lived in Colerain township, on what is known as the
second homestead.
John GASSER, of Barnesburgh, came from Germany in 1849, and has lived in the county for thirty years; is a blacksmith--also a
farmer--of that place. He raises fruit and vegetables, and markets in Cincinnati. He has been married three times.
A. L. COMPTON, of Mount Pleasant, lives on the old homestead farm, a part of-which he owns; he also owns an extensive tract
of land in Tennessee. Mr. COMPTON is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity of this place, and is also secretary of the
Jersey John HYDE association, of Cincinnati, for the recovery of the estate of John HYDE, of New Jersey, believed to be in the
Bank of England, and amounting, it is said, to sixty or seventy millions of dollars.
J. R. THOMPSON of Taylor' principal of the public schools of that place, perfected his studies in the One Study university, of
Harrison county, Ohio, came to Taylor' in 1875, since which time-he has been engaged in teaching and dealing in real estate. He
owns several lots and houses in the village
M. T. JONES, of Colerain township, lives one mile
~pg 262~
south of Pleasant run, on the Hamilton pike. He is a native of Butler county, where he lived until 1817, at which time he moved to
the above-named place.
COLERAIN VILLAGE.
The beginnings of this settlement, and the adventures of Dunlap' Station thereat, have been narrated. John DUNLAP was one of
Judge SYMMES' confidential surveyors; and, like most of his class, he easily inclined to land-speculation and the founding of
towns, and, herein resembling his distinguished chief, the Miami purchaser, he did not hesitate to discount the future liberally,
when it would serve his purposes. Hence he set his stakes down in the bend of the Great Miami, surveyed off a town-site, and
offered lots for sale, before he had any valid title whatever to the land upon which they were located. He made some sales;
cabins were erected; a fortified station built, and other improvements made. This, be it noted to the enduring honor of the now
desolated site in the great bend of the Miami, was the first settlement of any size in the country back of the skirt of villages along
the Ohio. But it presently appeared that DUNLAP would be unable to perfect titles to his colonists; the fear of recurring Indian
attack probably united with this to discourage the little band; DUNLAP himself soon left, for a time at least; the settlers gradually
abandoned the once promising village, and its site returned in due time to its primitive wildness and desolation. The purchasers lost
all they had paid DUNLAP, and the value their improvements. The chief memorial of the settlement is in the beautiful name given
by the founder to it, and transferred, probably perpetually, to the township itself.
The Colerain pioneer, according to the list of first officers of the township, given above, was here still in 1794. He gave the name
to the post office of
DUNLAP.
This place, more commonly known as "Georgetown," is situated only about two miles from the original Colerain, or DUNLAP'
Station, and due east of it, at the junction of the Colerain pike with two minor roads, on the west side of section eighteen, one and
a half miles south of the county line. A place of this name is mistakenly set down on the map prefixed to the later editions (as that
of 1793) of FILSON' Account of the State of Kentucky, as a village on the other side of the county, on the Little Miami, about
eight miles above Columbia.
It was somewhere in the northeast part of this township, it will be remembered, and probably not far from the subsequent site of
DUNLAP, that one of these authors, John FILSON, of the original trio of projectors of Losantiville or Cincinnati, was probably
massacred by the Indians. No word or trace of him was ever obtained, after his separation from SYMMES' exploring party in the
early fall of 1788, This place was laid off as Georgetown September 2, 1829.
BEVIS
is also on the Colerain turnpike, something less than midway of its course across the township from the southeast, on the south
side of section ten, and half-way across it. A post office and a few houses are here, and a cemetery carefully laid out, with a
regularly recorded plat. The village was named from Jesse BEVIS. a native of Pennsylvania and an early settler of the township,
first upon the farm now owned by Martin BEVIS. He built the first hotel upon the village site some time in the 20's, and kept it for
more than forty years, dying in it finally in 1868, at the age of eighty-six. It is remarked that, although many hundreds of people
had been sheltered under the roof of this inn during his time, his was the first death that had ever occurred there. He held for
many years the office of township treasurer, and furnished nearly all the means for building the Bevis (United Brethren) church.
The St. John's Catholic church, which supplies the wants of Catholicism here and at Dry Ridge, is ministered to by the Reverend
Father J. VOIT.
Near this place, upon the farm of Martin BEVIS, is the camp-meeting ground formerly leased by a Cincinnati association of
Methodists, but since abandoned in favor of the site now used near Loveland, in Clermont county. "Camp Colerain," which
occupies a little space in the war history of Hamilton county during the late rebellion, was upon the former ground, where the
buildings erected for camp-meeting purposes gave shelter to the soldiers. It was, however, used but a short time, and was never a
regular camp of rendezvous or instruction.
GROESBECK
One mile north of the south line of the township, and nearly the same distance from the east line, at the northwest corner of
section one, also on the Colerain pike, is the hamlet of GROSBECK, which bears the name of one of the most famous Cincinnati
families.
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
Reverend Wilson THOMPSON was pastor in 1816, and for some time after.
At this place the rebel General John MORGAN' 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.
TAYLOR'S CREEK
is a post-office and hamlet in the southwestern part of the township on the Harrison pike, at the sharp bend westward of the
stream from which it takes its name, one and a half miles due east of Miamitown and the Great Miami river.
BARNESBURGH
is a recent and small village in this township, on the Blue Rock turnpike, about four miles from New Baltimore. It is a straggling
village along the road for a mile or more, with a stream running on the east side of it.
POPULATION.
By the tenth census, that of 1880, Colerain township had three thousand seven
hundred and twenty-six inhabitants.
1 * One of these cabins is said to be that still standing on the river road near
the Colerain end of the bridge over which runs the
highway to Venice, removed thither from the old site; and bullets are said to
have been cut from its logs. If so, this is probably the
only remaining relic of the fortified stations of Hamilton county."
