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CHAPTER III
GREENE TOWNSHIP
p. 421
In the latter
part of the eighteenth century, in the days of
Territorial government in Ohio, what is now Greene
Township was known as Iron Ridge Township. it was
not until December, 1806, that the Commissioners of
Adams County gave the township its present name, in
honor of General Greene, of Revolutionary fame.
The township is bounded as follows: Beginning on
the left bank at the mouth of Ohio Brush Creek, where it
empties into the Ohio River; thence up the creek to the
mouth of Beasley's Fork; thence on a straight line to
the headwaters of Black's Run; thence on the highlands
of Ohio and Scioto Brush Creek to the east line of Adams
County; thence south along said county line to the Ohio
River; thence down said river to the beginning.
Greene Township has fourteen miles of river frontage.
Surface.
After leaving
the river bottom lands a very large proportion of the
surface is high, hilly and rough. The highest
point of land in the State of Ohio is said to be within
the limits of Greene Township just above Rome on the
Ohio River. These high, rocky cliffs are composed
largely of what is known as Waverly sandstone, and,
consequently, are very valuable. Immense
quantities have been gotten out, and shipped to all
parts of the sate and the United States for building
purposes. Many of the very finest buildings in the
country were built from material shipped from Greene
Township.
Streams.
Stouts Run is
the principal stream within the limits of the township.
It empties its waters into the Ohio River one-half miles
from the village of Rome. About one mile above its
mouth, Stouts Run is divided into two forks, one known
as the East, and the other as the West Fork. They
are supplied with water from smaller tributaries, such
as small streams, and springs coming down from the hills
and mountain sides. The only other stream of any
importance is Long Lick, which empties its waters into
the Ohio River a few miles above Rome.
Soil.
The soil of
Green Township is, in the main, very fertile; especially
is this true of the soil of the river bottoms, and of
the smaller bottoms lying along the streams above
mentioned, and Ohio Brush Creek bottoms. In
addition to this, the tillable land on the hills, for
the most part, produces most excellent crops of corn and
tobacco. The principal crops produced in the
township are wheat, oats, corn, and tobacco; also
potatoes are grown in considerable quantities.
Perhaps no township in the county grows more, or better
quality of tobacco than Greene. Fruit and
especially apples are produced in large quantities on
the fertile hills. A little more than a score of
years ago Greene Township was the greatest peach
producing locality in the state. Hundreds of
thousands of bushels of this fruit were grown and
shipped to foreign markets; but of late yeas
comparatively little of this fruit has been grown; most
of the old peach orchards having died out, being much
shorter lived than the apple trees. The celebrated
Rome Beauty apple originated at Rome in this township.
First Settlers of Greene Township.
The following
are a few of the first settlers of Greene Township as
obtained from the meager source to which we have had
access. The first white settler was:
Obadiah Stout, who was a native of New
Jersey, and served through the Revolutionary War.
Mr. Stout had ten children, the youngest two,
named Obadiah and John, were scalped by
the Indians while he lived at Graham's Station,
Kentucky. He moved to Greene Township in the year
1796, and settled on the east, or Puntenney's Fork of
Stout's Run. In 1796 Obadiah Stout, Jr.,
grandson of Obadiah Stout, Sen., was born, being
the first white child born in Greene Township.
Soon after this settlement, several other families came
into the neighborhood, among whom were the Colvins,
Pettits, Montgomerys, Samuels, Russells, and Geo.
H. Puntenney and his father-in-law, William
Hamilton, who taught the first school in the
township.
After this, in 1804, there were four distilleries, one
school house, and no church. Now there are six
church buildings, three others having recently been
destroyed by fire and fourteen school houses, and no
distillery
George Hollingsworth Puntenney moved to Greene
Township, March, 1800, and settled on the East Fork of
Stouts Run on the farm now owned by A. C. Smith.
His son, James Puntenney, was born Sept. 1, 1800,
being the second white child born in the township.
Geo. H. Puntenney and wife, Margaret, were
among the most prominent citizens of the township.
They are interred in the Puntenney cemetery on
the home farm.
James Puntenney, whose birth is referred to
above, was married in the year 1823 to Miss Martha
Waite, of Blue Creek. His whole life was spent
on Stouts Run. His death occurred May 7, 1890,
when he was nearly ninety years of age. His wife
was five years younger than he, and her death was five
years prior to his. Mr. Putenney was a man
of most excellent character. He was honored and
respected by everybody who knew him, but especially by
the poor in his community, to whose needs he always
stood ready to contribute. Away back in the dark
days of human bondage, before the Civil War, the home of
Mr. Putenney was known as a resting place for
those who were fleeing from the cruel slavery of our
neighbor state, Kentucky. Very many, no doubt have
thus partaken of his generous bounty, and have been
spirited on towards the farther North, where they hoped
to breathe the pure air of freedom, without the fear of
being recaptured and carried back into bondage at the
cruel hand of the master.
Mounds.
White there are
several mounds within the limits of Greene Township,
very few are of sufficient importance to find a place in
this history.
In Volume V, Ohio Archaeological Reports, we find the
following in reference to Greene Township mounds: "Just
below Rome, on the high bank of the river, two hundred
yards from the water, is a mound two feet high and fifty
feet in diameter. In this small structure were
found no less than twenty-two skeletons, some of which
appeared to have been buried in part only. There
were many fragments of pottery in the mound, but we
think the presence of these is due to the fact that the
earth immediately around the village was scooped up to
form the mound, consequently much of the village was
scooped up to form the mound, consequently much of the
village site debris was gathered into baskets,
and dumped upon the structure. Perforated mussel
shells were with many of the bodies, a bone awl, and a
slate celt polished at both ends. There were three
arrow heads, three war points, and three worked pieces
of shell. Some twenty perforated humeri
were secured, but no whole skulls, as every one was
broken, as were most of the long bonds. The
vertebral columns of some of the skeletons were only
half present, which led us to believe that some of the
bodies had been gathered when the flesh was denuded from
the bones. Possibly from a battle field, possibly
from a charnel house - who can tell?
The most important find was the bones of an exceedingly
large individual. These bones were very badly
decayed, but the tibia was removed in fair shape.
The width of this bone was nearly two inches, being very
massive, and somewhat bent. The femora were very
large and more curved than is usual. Many pipes
and ornaments have been found around this mound."
Villages and Postoffices.
ROME, on
the Ohio River near the site of the old town of
Adamsville is the largest village in the township.
It was laid out by William Stout in 1835.
The postoffice here is named Stout.
COMMERCIALTOWN,
on the Ohio about six miles above Rome, was laid out in
1832 by S. B. McCall.
ROCKVILLE, adjoining Commercialtown, was laid out
in 1830. Both these villages are shipping points
for the stone quarries in the vicinity.
WAGGONER RIPPLE is a postoffice established in
1842 at the crossing of Ohio Brush Creek on the western
border of the township.
Mills and Manufactories.
There are at present the
following mills in the township. A flouring mill
and a planing mill at Rome, operated by W. D.
Pennywitt; a flouring mill owned and operated by
Abraham Wamsley; a flouring mill owned by Richard
Moore and a grist mill owned and operated by
James Harper.
Churches.
Stouts Run U.P.,
organized in 1862.
Stouts Run Christian, organized by Mathew Gardner
in 1830.
Rome Presbyterian, organized, November 25, 1844.
Rome M. E., organized about 1838.
Sandy Springs, M. E.
Sandy Springs, Baptist.
Sandy Spring Presbyterian.
Schools.
There are two
special school districts in the township, one at the
village of Rome and the other at Sandy Springs.
The enumeration in the Rome Special District is:
Males, 69; females, 90. Sandy Springs: Males, 38;
females 24.
There are also
eleven sub-district schools with the following
enumeration:
| No. |
Males. |
Females. |
No. |
Males. |
Females |
| 1 |
33 |
14 |
7 |
32 |
39 |
| 2 |
33 |
29 |
8 |
22 |
17 |
| 3 |
22 |
29 |
9 |
25 |
19 |
| 4 |
9 |
7 |
10 |
36 |
24 |
| 5 |
6 |
3 |
11 |
35 |
25 |
| 6 |
31 |
29 |
|
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REMINISCENCES.
Rescue of John and Katy Davis from
the Indians.
In the year
1809, a young woman named Elizabeth Catt was
charged with infanticide, having, as charged, strangled
her day-old infant to death. She was arrested and
given a preliminary hearing before a jury of twelve
women, residents of Greene Township, whose names were as
follows:
Elizabeth Eakins, Elizabeth Stout, Margaret Puntenney,
Margaret Montgomery, Hannah Eakins, Charity Hubbard,
Frances Russell, Nancy Wood, Margaret Stout, Sen.,
Margaret Stout, Jun., Sarah Cole, and
Mary
Colvin.
The Haunted Cave.
Among the lofty
crags near the headwaters of Black's run on the
northwestern border of Greene Township, is a remarkable
cavern known as "The Haunted Cave." In pioneer
days it was the dwelling place of desperadoes who preyed
on the fleets of emigrant boats as they floated down the
Ohio to the gateway of the Virginia Reservation and the
Northwest Territory. It is a tradition that the
notorious James Girty, a brother of Simon
Girty, made this cavern the place of rendezvous of
this band of savages and desperadoes prior to the
settlement of the whites in that region. The
murder of Greathouse who was captured with his
companions on a pirogue near the mouth of Ohio Brush
Creek in 1790, and tied to a tree and whipped to death,
is attributed to Girty and his followers.
Mysterious murders at the mouth of Long Lick, and the
vicinity of Brush Creek Island are said to have been
committed by dwellers in the "Haunted Cave." The
cavern, which consists of numerous large rooms in one of
which is a sparkling stream of water, is entered by
means of a ladder down to the outer chamber, and was
accidentally discovered by old Jonathan Waite
while exploring the crags and crevices of the region for
a traditional lead mine in the early part of the last
century.
Murder of James H. Rice.
The
widowed mother of Frank Hardy, a young man of
about eighteen years of age, had married James H.
Rice and the three were living two miles above Rome
in 1869. On the twenty-third day of February of
that year, while assisting Rice with some work
about the stable, Hardy killed him with an ax,
and placing the body on a sled covered it with
cornstalks and stable manure and hauled it down to the
river bank where he had already dug a pit, and threw the
body of Rice into it. He then filled up the
pit, covering the surface with cornstalks and stable
refuse, hastened to his home, changed his clothing and
fled the country. He was finally arrested at
Cairo, Ill., and at the September term of the Court of
Common Pleas was found guilty of murder in the first
degree and sentenced to be hanged on the second Friday
in February, 1870. The Supreme Court suspended the
execution until the case could be reviewed, and then
sustained the court below and fixed the day of execution
for May 6, 1870. On April 27, Governor Hayes
commuted the sentence to imprisonment for life, and in
1874. Governor Bishop pardoned hardy.
Frank Hardy was the second and last person to
receive the death sentence in the courts of the county.
The Loughry Lands.
They lie in
Greene Township, Adams County, and in Nile Township,
largest tract in Adams County under the one ownership.
The tract is made up of twelve surveys and parts of
surveys. The entire tract fronts on the Ohio River
one mile from the western boundary at Buena Vista in
Scioto County to the town plat of Commercial in Adams
County. The steamboat landings at Buena Vista and
at Rockville are in this tract. There is deep
water along the entire front. Fifty-five acres are
in the river bottoms, which varies from six to twenty
rods wide. Three small streams flow into the river
from this tract, Flat Run, Gregg Run and Rock Run.
The latter is a canyon and the scenery along it is
picturesque.
The main residence on these lands is in the village of
Rockville, where Mrs. Sallie B. Loughry resides,
and where she keeps summer boarders. It is located
on the river bank with a delightful lawn and
surroundings. It has fine old trees and commands
pleasant views up and down the valley of the Ohio
opposite, and the Kentucky hills in the background.
The home is an old fashioned one with many outbuildings
for stock. There are five dwelling houses on the
property outside of the main residence. There is
one in the yard with the main dwelling house, two up
Rock Run and in the bottom midway between Buena Vista
and Rockville is a stone house built by Jacob Moore
in 1814 of the Waverly sandstone taken from the hills
adjacent. At the foot of the hills near Buena
Vista are two other farm houses in good repair and
occupied by tenants. Good barns are at different
points on the tract.
The bottom lands produce excellent crops of corn, wheat
and grass. The soil in the hills is adapted to
tobacco and to pasturage. In years gone by,
extensive peach orchards grew and yielded luscious corps
successive seasons. No finer peaches were ever
produced in the United States than were grown on these
lands.
General Nathaniel Massie, who located the surveys
bordering the river as early as 1791. The late
Judge Joseph Moore, who in early life was a stone
cutter, purchased two of the tracts from Massie
prior to 1814, and in the latter year built the stone
house already mentioned. He resided there until
1830. Between 1814 and 1830, he made rafts of
deadened poplar trees, loaded them with blocks of
sandstone from the foot of the hills and shipped them to
Cincinnati for building stone, where there was then a
good market for this stone and has been ever since.
From 1814 to the present time, building stone ahs been
shipped from these lands, or those in the vicinity, to
Cincinnati. In 1830, Judge Moore retired to
his farm above Buena Vista, and the late John Loughry
took the tract. He had a contract to furnish stone
for the Miami Canal. Judge Moore got all of
his stone from the foot of the hills, but Loughry
began his work at the top. The canal locks in and
about Cincinnati, built with this stone, have stood over
sixty years and today are as good as when furnished.
The foundation of the main residence on the tract was
put in from this stone sixty-seven years ago and is as
good as at first. The marks of the hammer are as
fresh as if made but yesterday. Cincinnati is full
of business houses and dwelling fronts made from these
quarries. It is also constantly used in brick
houses for window caps and sills.
John Loughry at first dragged the stone to the
river with ox teams, but afterwards built chutes in the
hillsides and slid the stone down, and lastly he made
good roads and hauled the stone down on wagons. In
more recent years an inclined railroad was used for the
purpose, and locomotives hauled the stone to the top of
the hill and from there it was lowered by endless cables
to the wharfs. The stone was first loaded on
decked scows by means of rollers and crowbars, but later
hoisting machinery was used, capable of lifting the
largest blocks. The decked barge was a great
stride from the log raft of Jude Moore, every one
of which went ultimately to the New Orleans market.
When tow boats came into use, the barges were no longer
sold but returned and kept in the business.
"The City Lodge," so named by John Loughry,
proved to be the most popular stone in Cincinnati.
It is a light drab or gray in color. For special
orders, blocks containing three hundred cubic feet and
weighing twenty four tons have been quarried and
shipped. The stone above and below the "City
Ledge" was quarried. The Trust Company Bank
at the southwest corner of Third and Main Streets in
Cincinnati was built with stone from a particular ledge
named the "Trust Company Ledge." The Canal locks
were built of Yellow ledge near the top of the hill, but
all ledges have stood the test of time.
John Loughry retired from the business of
quarrying stone on the lands in 1856, but his son,
John C. Loughry, conducted it from that date until
1861, when the quarrying ceased. He resumed it
from 1863 to 1865, when he got out the stone used for
the piers of the suspension bridge at Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1865, he sold out to the Caden Brothers, who
conducted the business on an extensive scale till 1873,
when Mr. John C. Loughry bought the tract back.
For a long time he sold the stone to John M. Mueller,
at a royalty of three or four cents per cubit foot in
the quarry.
The stone business is an extensive one at Buena Vista,
and in Lewis County, Kentucky, nearly opposite.
The village of Buena Vista is devoted wholly to the stone
trade, and Garrison and Quincy on the opposite side are
also devoted to it.
The City Ledge" is still unquarried for more than a
mile and a half. In the city of Portsmouth,
sixteen miles from Buena vista, the saw mills are
running constantly, sawing the same quality of stone,
but the stone near Portsmouth is not so excellent as
that at Buena vista for many purposes. In
Portsmouth is not so excellent as that at Buena Vista
for many purposes. In Portsmouth and Buena Vista
many pavements are laid with this sawed Waverly
sandstone. Front steps are made form it, but it is
most extensively used for trimmings and for window caps
and sills. This same stone has been largely used
in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D. C. The
beauty of the stone, the ease with which it works under
the chisel or the saw, makes it very popular in a wide
range of territory, and for house steps, window caps and
sills, cornices, etc., it has no equal. Bridges,
piers, arch culverts and heavy foundations are made of
it constantly.
The piers of the suspension bridge and of the L. & N.
R. R. bridge at Cincinnati, of the N. & W. Bridge, at
Kenova, West Virginia, and the culvert and bridge piers
on the N. & W. R. R. between Columbus and Ironton, and
on the C. & O. R. R. between Huntington and Cincinnati,
are made of it. Many business blocks in Cincinnati
and faced with it, and it is now largely quarried on the
C. P. & V. R. R. and on the C. & O. opposite the same
place. There are sixty ledges of this stone on the
tract. Twenty-two of them are below the "City
Ledge" and the lowest of them is two hundred feet above
the level of the bottom land. None of these ledges
can be worked about Portsmouth for there they are below
the level of the river. On this tract they can be
worked for a mile on the Ohio River front and on both
sides of Rock Run for two or three miles up that stream
the canyon of that stream affording good dumping ground.
But stone is not the only mineral wealth on this tract.
The clays are most valuable. The two hundred feet
of shale extending from the level of the bottom land to
the first ledge contains much oil. Before the
discovery of petroleum, it was distilled for lubricating
and illuminating oils. Lying in the "City Ledge"
is a blue clay which burns to the color of the famous
Milwaukee brick, and just below it, is a stratum which
will make the best of sewer pipe. Sixteen feet
above the "City Ledge" is a red clay, which has been
used by the Rockwood Pottery at Cincinnati.
Beautiful building brick has been made from it.
This clay is well adapted to art pottery, and for bricks
for house fronts. Several articles of pottery made
from this clay were decorated by Mrs. Bellamy Storer,
and took distinguished prizes at the latest Paris
Exposition.
As a summer resort, this place has many attractions.
All the passenger boats land directly in front of the
main residence. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad is
directly across the river and persons can get off at
either Garland or Buena Vista Stations. There are
chalybeate springs on the property like the Adams County
Mineral Springs, or Esculapia in Kentucky. The
canyon of Rock Run is always cool. The
scenery around and below the tract is as fine as any in
the Ohio Valley. There is good driving up and down
the river valley,, fine fishing in the river and it is
an excellent locality for those fond of rowing.
The property is owned by H. D. Mirick, of No.
1302 N. St., N. W., Washington, D. C., and controlled by
N. W. Evans, of Portsmouth, Ohio.
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