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- HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY, OHIO -
A History of the County; Its Townships, Towns, Churches,
Schools, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of
Early Settlers and Prominent Men; History of the
Northwest Territory; History of Ohio; Map of
Brown County; Constitution of the
United States, Miscellaneous
Matters, Etc., Etc.
ILLUSTRATED
Published: Chicago: W. H. Beers & Co.
1883
CHAPTER IV
CLARK TOWNSHIP
By O. P. Ralston
Pg. 519 THE
township of Clark was one of the original townships of the county, and
before the organization of Brown County was a township of Clermont County.
It was created by the Commissioners of Clermont County Oct. 18, 1808, and
the boundaries established as follows: Beginning where the State road from
Denhamstown to West Union crosses White Oak; thence running with the State
road to the Adams County line; thence north with said line to Highland
County; thence west with said county line to the corner of Highland County,
and continuing west so far as to include Aaron Leonard and
Moses Moss; thence south to the Lewis Township line; thence with
the same to the place of beginning. The township originally included
nearly one hundred square miles of territory, but it was reduced Dec. 2,
1822, by the formation of Washington and Franklin Townships; Mar. 23, 1823,
by the formation of Pike Township, and Dec. 1, 1828, by the formation of
Scott Township. This left it in its present dimensions, containing
18,223 acres.
There are no streams of any magnitude in the township;
the head-waters of Cloverlick drain the western part, Bullskin the southern,
and several small tributaries of White Oak the eastern part. These streams
are all too small to afford good water power for machinery.
The township lies on an elevated ridge, dividing the
waters of White Oak Creek from the waters of the East Fork of the Little
Miami River. It consists mostly of level table-lands, somewhat broken
in the eastern and western part, but all susceptible of easy drainage.
The soil consists of a heavy limestone clay, which was formerly very heavily
timbered with oak, beech and sugar in the dry part, soft maple in the wet
parts, poplar, walnut, hickory, some white and red elm, hackberry, buckeye,
linn, blue and white ash, mulberry, black and red locust, sycamore, willow
and dogwood, There are now 5,116 acres of woodland, 6,515 acres of plowed
land and 6,592 acres of pasturage. The total value of real estate in
the township is $367,870, which includes $8,409 of village lots. The
population at the census of 1880 was 780 white males and 799 white females.
The chief products of the township are corn, tobacco, wheat and oats.
Grasses do not grow as well here as in the country farther north, and the
land is not well adapted to stock-raising, though a goodly number of cattle
and sheep are raised in small herds. The fruit crops become more
uncertain and the yield poorer as the forests disappear; in the early
settlement of the township, peaches were abundant, and the crop rarely
failed, but now they are scarce, and of a poor and small character, and a
crop is rarely yielded. Apples do not grow as large and fine or in as
great abundance as they did in the virgin soil. Pears, plums and the
smaller fruits are not extensively grown, but blackberries grow
spontaneously in great abundance. POLITICAL
The first regular election held in
the township was on the 8th day of November, 1808, when Jonathan
Liming, James Liming and Christian Smith
were Judges, and Jacob Bradberry, Clerk, and the following
township officers
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were elected: Robert Wardlow, Christian Smith and Samuel Leming,
Trustees, William Still and John Pitzer, Constables;
Christian Smith, Clerk; Henry Zumalt, Treasurer; Thomas Liming
and George Washburn, Supervisors; John Hill, and Benjamin
Smith, Overseers of the Poor; Thomas Liming, John Fiscus and
Francis Myers, Sr., Fence Viewers; number of votes cast, eight.
The first mention of a Justice of the Peace,
administered the oath to the Judges and Clerks of the second election.
At this election, only twenty-seven votes were cast, and the following
officers were elected: Alexander McBeth, James Thompson and
Phillip Lindsey, Trustees; William Morecraft and William Hill,
Listers and Constables; Christian Smith, Clerk; Henery Zumalt,
Treasurer.
The first order drawn on the treasury of the township
was on Mar. 15, 1809, in favor of William Still for $1 for township
services. On Jan. 11, 1809, James McKinny took the oath of
office as Justice of the Peace for Clermont County. On Jan. 12, 1809,
Alexander McBeth was sworn as a Justice. In March, 1810, the
township was divided into four road districts instead of two, as before.
The first jurors, returned Mar. 4, 1811, were as follows: John
Allen, James McCall, Samuel Liming, John Lindsey, Samuel Wardlow and
George Little. By the year 1812, the wealth of the township must
have materially increased, as the records show the following large sums to
have been paid to the Supervisors - probably the first money paid from the
treasury to those officers: William Still, $1.50; Abram Liming,
$1.50; Robert Davidson, $1.50; Nicholas Devore, $1.50.
Oct. 11, 1811, James McKinny and William White were
commissioned as Justices of the Peace. In 1812, the number of road
districts was increased to six by the board, which then consisted of
Joseph Foor, Christian Smith and Robert Allen, Trustees, and
Francis Myers, Clerk. From the records it appears that up to the
close of the year 1816 only thirty orders were drawn on the treasury, the
total amount of which was $41.08. In 1820, although the township was
reduced in size, the number of voters had increased to 132, and the
following officers were elected: Robert Kennedy, John Lindsey
and Christian Smith, Trustees; Francis Myers, Clerk;
William White, Treasurer; A. Gibson, Constable and Lister.
In the year 1819, soon after the organization of the county, Nathaniel
Gist, by his trustees, purchased about one thousand two hundred acres of
land on the east side of White Oak Creek, on which he settled thirty-four
families (200 persons) of COLORED People, who were all legally warned
to depart from the township, lest they should become a township charge.
An amusing incident is related by one of the old
citizens of the township, explaining why Henry Clay received no votes
in the township at the election in 1824. The election was held in a
log schoolhouse on the farm of John Wilks, and Robert Kennedy,
Lot Stratton and William Gould were Judges, and Joseph
Ralston, Clerk. One of the Judges, who was also one of the four
Whigs in the township, brought with him to the polls a roll of Clay's
tickets, and laid them on the writing bench; they rolled back into a crack
between the logs, and another of the Judges, who was not one of Clay's
supporters, pushed the ballot-box back against them in such a way as to
effectually hide them till the polls were closed; as these were the only
tickets to be had, and as the voters were unable to remember the names on
the tickets, they were not able to vote for their candidate.
In 1840, the number of electors in the township had
increased to 232; of these, William Shannon had 175 for Governor, and
Thomas Corwin had fifty-seven. In 1880, Hancock received
297 votes for President, and Garfield received 106, showing a
Democratic majority of 191. The township has been
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strongly Democratic since the days of Jefferson; this may be because it is
settled principally by people from Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
The following is a list of the
Justices of the Peace of the township with the dates of their election, the
two previously mentioned being excepted: William white, 1812;
William Chapman, Jan. 3, 1815; John Lindsey, 1817; Francis
Myers, January, 1818; Robert Allen, Jan. 17, 1818; William
White, 1821; Robert Kennedy, 1824; James Rounds, 1826;
William Gould, Apr. 7, 1828; Robert Kennedy, Dec. 1, 1828;
William Neal Apr. 4, 1831, served twelve years; William H. Kennedy,
Apr. 6, 1840; James Lindsey, Apr. 3, 1843; James Ross, Oct.
10, 1845; S. M. Blair, Oct. 14, 1834; James Ross, October,
1846; George C. Moore April, 1849; Jonas Murphy, October,
1849; William H. Kennedy, October, 1855; William Neal, Jr.,
October, 1858; R. M. Wilson, October, 1859; O. P. Ralston,
April, 1864; James Redmon April, 1865; J. P. McBeth, April,
1867; J. W. Lucas, April, 1870; Asher Brooks, April, 1876;
T. B. McChesney, October, 1879; James O. Liming, April, 1882.
SETTLEMENT.
The first settlement was made in the northwestern corner of the township in
1802 by John Colthar and his sons, Mathey, Isaac,
James and John, and John Frazee and family.
In the latter part of the same year, or in the year following, Thomas
Liming, James Liming and Samuel Liming
settled on the creek in the eastern part of the township on R. Gamble’s
Survey, No. 3,024. In March, 1804, Christian Smith
settled on Survey No. 3,062. From 1805 until 1808, the settlement
seems to have been rapid. James and Lemuel Rounds,
two soldiers of the Revolutionary war, settled on Survey No. 2, 937;
Aaron Leonard and Joseph, on the same survey; Henry
Vandament, on Survey No. 3,859; Rasonna Roney and
Thomas Allen, on Survey No. 3,862; George Wresler
and John Pitzer, on Survey No. 3,862; Elijah Hall
and John Springer, on Survey No. 2,937.
The central or more level portion of the township was
not settled until 1810 or 1812, when William Kennedy came down
the river in a “broad-horn” with two married sons, John and Robert,
and a son-in-law, George Flick, and settled on Survey No.
3,779; a little later, James and Joseph Liming settled
on Survey No. 2,936; James Thompson purchased Survey No.
2,737, on which he settled with his sons, William, John and
Jesse P., and his son-in-law, Henry Whiteman. Jacob
Kylander settled in the southern part on Survey No. 3,627.
William Neal settled in the year 1820 on No. 573; Asa
Dutton settled on the west end of Survey No. 573, about 1820, and
erected the first saw-mill within the present boundaries of the township; it
was built in 1822, and continued to cut lumber until 1836 or 1838, when it
fell into disuse, and now no trace of where it stood is visible.
John Brooks settled on Survey No. 2,939 as early as 1807 or 1808.
William Gould and Daniel Gould, sons of
Joseph Gould, and William C. Goff settled on No.
3,869.
The northeastern corner was not settled until after
1820; John Derry settled on Survey No. 10,658; Levi
Wilson settled on Survey No. 12,012; Lewis Perry, on the
east end of No. 573. John Wilks, James Kennedy
and Hugh Kennedy settled on Survey No. 3,781; David
Ogden and Samuel Price settled on No. 2,940; Michael
Holman, on No. 4,857; William Jacobs, on No. 3,628;
Lewis Shick, on No. 3,606; Moses Moss, on the
northern corner of No. 3,627.
PIONEER BIOGRAPHIES.
JOHN COLTHAR, SR., was the
first white settler in the present limits of the township. He and his
sons, Matthew, Isaac, James and John, were natives Page 522 -
of New Jersey, and settled in the northwestern part of the township on
William Lytle’s Survey, No 2,939, in the fall of 1801 or spring
of 1802. The father was a good type of the hardy pioneer farmer,
straightforward, honest and industrious; many of his descendants are still
citizens of the township. Matthew Colthar, son of the
above, was born in Essex County N. J., in 1777 he married Mary
Church in 1816, and by her had the following children: Harrison,
Rebecca, Jonathan, Harriet, Eliza, Sarah
John P. and Sophia. Mr. Colthar
mysteriously disappeared Nov. 9, 1831. He was serving on the jury at
Georgetown, and, on being dismissed Saturday, was seen to leave the court
house just at dusk as if going home, but he was never heard of afterward.
The country was scoured in every direction, but not a trace of him could be
found.
JOHN FRAZEE was one of the
first settlers of the township. He located on Survey No. 2,939 in 1803 or
1804, and raised a large family. He was killed by the falling of a
tree in 1822. As all of his decendants have left the county, no
further account of him can now be learned.
JOHN BROOKS
came to the township in 1805, and located on Survey No.
2,939, where he remained until his death in 1833. He raised a family
of twelve children - three boys and nine girls: Jane, the eldest, was
born in 1801, and is now the widow of William Neal, Sr.; John
and Elizabeth, twins, were born in April, 1803; John is still
a resident of the township, a member of the Methodist Protestant Church, and
a highly respected citizen; William, born in 1805, resides on the old
homestead; he was for many years a minister in the Baptist Church, and is
characterized by his honesty and piety.
WILLIAM NEAL, SR.
was born in 1800, and came to the township when ten years of age, and when
twenty years of age married Jane Brooks. He bought his
first piece of land of William Duncanson in 1818, and by
industry and strict economy he amassed nearly one thousand acres during his
lifetime. He raised a family of eight children, five boys and three
girls, most of whom still live in the township. His eldest child,
Elizabeth, married Jonas Murphy; Julia Ann
married John Colthar, and resides in Pike Township; Lewis,
the oldest son, married and lives on Survey No. 10,717; John married
Sarah J. Kennedy, and lives in Pike Township; William married
Miss Dean, and is a farmer and store keeper; Sarah
married Stephen Kennedy; Sanford lives in the old
homestead, and Randolph lives just south of the old homestead.
CHRISTIAN
SMITH, who settled in the eastern part of the township
on Survey No. 3,962, on Miranda’s Fork of White Oak, was born in Holland in
1748; his parents died while he was small, and he was placed in a Catholic
school to be educated for a priest, but on reaching his majority and finding
the church had absorbed all his property, a comfortable patrimony left him
by his father, he concluded to embark for the New World. He spent a
few years in the coast trade from New York, and in 1790 married Elizabeth
McDuffv, of New Jersey, with whom he emigrated to the backwoods of
Kentucky, settling at Washington, where he remained a few years. In
1797 or 1798, he located on Robert Lawson’s Entry, No. 2,523,
near Georgetown, but a few years later, being dis turbed by a still-house
that was built near him, he traded his land for a farm in this township, on
which he moved in 1804, and where he remained until his death in 1832.
Joseph Ralston, the veteran school-teacher, who married Mr.
Smith’s only daughter, Eleanor, in 1813, got most of his
education from his father-in-law, who in education was far in advance of his
neighbors. Mr. Smith brought the first sheep to this
section of the country, and for some years was obliged to keep them in a pen
winter and summer to protect them from wolves.
JOSEPH RALSTON
was born at Pittburgh Dec. 6, 1793, and in 1794 came
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with his father (who was a blacksmith in Wayne’s army) to Manchester, where
he remained until 1807, when he removed to White Oak, and settled at the
mouth of Miranda’s Fork, on the northwest corner of Entry No. 901.
There he resided until his marriage with Eleanor Smith, Sept.
5, 1813, after which he resided on the Smith farm until his
death, Feb. 18, 1869. When twenty-eight or thirty years of age, his
back was injured at a log rolling, and he was afterward unable to do hard
work; he taught school with eminent success for forty years. He had
three sons and seven daughters, but three of the latter died while small.
The sons were Christian Smith, Andrew Jackson
and Oliver Perry, and the girls were Orphia, Zorilda,
Almira and Matilda Jane. Christian was
born Nov. 4, 1814, married Sarah Martin in 1836, removed to
Ripley County, Ind., in January, 1842, and died Sept. 27, 1869.
Andrew was born Sept. 8, 1818, married Nancy J. Perry in 1839,
moved to Fulton County, Ill., in 1848 and died in February, 1875.
SAMUEL M. BLAIR
was born near Knoxville, Tenn., Oct. 24, 1798, and at the age of eleven
years removed to Brown County, Ohio, with his father, who settled on the
farm now owned by W. P. Macklem, two miles north of Georgetown.
In 1821, when twenty-three years old, Mr. Blair settled on
J. Watts’ Entry. No. 3,781, one mile northeast of Hamersville.
He was twice married, first to Matilda Tweed, by whom he had
three children - Amanda, Jane and Matilda.
Amanda is the widow of Samuel Wilkes, and still lives in
Hamersville, the “good Samaritan” of the village. Mr. Blair’s
second wife was Mary Ann Davis, by whom he had ten children - four
boys and six girls, viz., Marcus, Lafayette and Leander,
who live in Illinois; C. Columbus, the Clerk of the Court of Brown
County; Samuel Warren, the ticket agent at Hamersville;
America, Martha, Almira, Minerva, Eliza and
Sarah, the three eldest girls being dead. Mr. Blair,
after filling most of the township offices, including six years as Justice
of the Peace, was in 1857 elected County Commissioner, which position he
creditably filled six years. He was a consistent Christian, and for
many years was an Elder of the church. He died in 1871, and was buried
in the cemetery at Unity Church; his wife survived him ten years, dying July
24, 1881.
HENRY VAN DEMAN
settled on Survey No. 3,024 about the year 1806. He had a large
family; Jacob settled on Survey No. 3,862, and when Scott Township
was formed his house was in that township, although the larger part of his
farm was in Clark. He was a farmer, but also preached for a number of
years, first as a New Light, then as a Methodist, and lastly as a
Campbellite. Benjamin married Susan Shick in
1842, and settled on Survey No. 3,781, where he raised four children -
Daniel, who now occupies the old homestead; John, Mary and
Barton S. George settled south of Benjamin, on the same
survey. He was a preacher of the Campbellite Church, and raised a large
family, who, after his death, emigrated to Illinois.
ROBERT KENNEDY
was born in Butler County, Penn., and settled just north of Hamersville in
Brown County, Ohio, in 1811, where he remained until his death. He was
a man of strict integrity and more than ordinary ability. He took an
active interest in the early politics of the township, and for many years
was a Justice of the Peace. He raised five children, viz., Thomas,
who was three times married, and died of cholera at the old homestead at the
age of forty years. He and his wife were found dead in the morning,
having died alone during the night; James, a retired physician of Clermont
County; John C., a retired physician, now residing at Felicity;
Ella, the wife of S. B. Smith, and William H., who raised
a large family, all of whom are dead.
GEORGE FLICK was born in Butler
County, Penn., June 11, 1785, and in 1806 married Jane Kennedy.
They came to Ohio in 1811, and settled where
Page 524 -
Hamersville now stands, where he
remained until his death, Oct. 7, 1861, his wife having died October 11,
1848. Their children were William K., born June 28, 1807;
Catharine, born Feb. 29, 1809; Jacob, born Aug. 17, 1810;
Margaret Jane, born in 1812, and George Wayland,
born in 1815. William K. was a painter and chairmaker, and for
eight years was Postmaster at Hamersville. He married Nancy A. Ford,
Aug. 9, 1832, and by her had seven children - Pauline J.,
Fernandes W., Martin V. B., William Benton, John
K., Joseph S. and Martha M.; most of them are still
residents of the township.
NATHANIEL MOORE was born
in Pennsylvania in 1770, and spent his boyhood days in the Susquehanna
Valley. When quite young, he made his way across the mountains to
Pittsburgh, and engaged in boating and rafting on the Ohio River. From
Pittsburgh he went to Limestone (now Maysville), and in 1799 he married
Nancy Welch; in the following year, he moved to Ohio, and located
on Eagle Creek. On his farm the first church in that region was built;
it stood on the site of Moore’s Chapel of to-day. In 1821, he
moved to Brown County, where Hamersville now stands, his son Henry
having cleared some land and built a cabin during the year previous.
The house was the first one in this settlement that had stairs, hewed plank
floor and doors. It was the meeting house for years, and in it such
pioneers of the pulpit as Quinn, Findley, Collins,
Westlake and others were entertained. As soon as he had his farm
in shape, Mr. Moore commenced sawing lumber with which to
supply the country for miles around. In 1828, he, with several others,
contracted to carry the mails from Cincinnati to Portsmouth, and in this he
was engaged twelve years. In 1844, he lost his wife, and went to live
with his youngest son in Indiana, where he died in 1861.
JOSEPH LIMING was born and
raised near Philadelphia, Penn. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary
war, and served in several severe battles. In 1799, he moved to the
West, and settled near Lexington, Ky., where he remained four years; he then
moved to Ohio, and after a three years' residence there he moved to Clark
Township, and settled on White Oak in 1806. At the same time, his
father, Henry, and two other sons came from Pennsylvania, and settled on
White Oak. Joseph raised a large family of children, viz.,
Jonathan, Abraham, Samuel, Sarah, Joseph, William, James and Ahira
Dellaplane. Samuel fought the Indians under Wayne,
and Abraham, Joseph and James served in the war of 1812 until
James was taken sick in the swamps near Detroit, and his two brothers
were left to nurse him. James Liming was born in Pennsylvania,
and in 1815 he married Christian Wrestler, and located on Survey No.
2,936. She died in 1829, leaving seven children, and married Eunice
Leonard, by whom he had seven children. He kept a nursery, and
supplied many orchards of Ohio and Indiana. He died in 1847. The
number of the descendants of this name in the township is very large, and
the family have figured very extensively in the religious, political and
agricultural growth of the township.
The practices of the first settlers were nearly uniform. They would
build a rude log cabin, clear a few acres of ground for corn to supply their
families with bread, potatoes and garden vegetables, trusting to their
rifles to supply the table with meat other than pork, which was afforded by
the few hogs they owned and allowed to run wild in the woods. For
several years, little if any wheat was raised, as there were no mills at
that day to make flour. The only sugar and molasses they had were no
mills at that day to make flour. The only sugar and molasses they had
was that procured from the sugar trees of the forest. Their few wants
were at all times supplied out of the abundance of the forest, which also
furnished them with fuel, timber for building, and the tender shoots of the
trees formed good pasturage for their cattle. They were
Page 525 -
a sturdy, honest, hardy race, on whose memory too much honor cannot be
bestowed. SCHOOLS.
Clark Township has always been
characterized for the interest taken in the cause of education by its
citizens, and by the great number of teachers that received their primary
education in its schools. The early history of the schools of the
township is almost lost; the first schoolhouse was the little round log pen
that has been so often described elsewhere as to make it unnecessary to
mention it here. The first schools were taught in private houses, and
sometimes in huts that had been built and vacated by squatters who had been
in the neighborhood some years prior to the first settlement. The
first schoohouse built in the present limits of the township was
located near the east tine of the township on the land of Jacob
Vandeman; it was built about the year 1812. Near the same time,
another was built near the northwest corner of the township on the land now
owned by Thornton. The first teachers were William I. Bowler,
the poet, known in the early newspapers as the “Back woodsman,” John
Duly, John Morgan and John Derry.
The first regular division of the townships into school districts was made
by the Trustees June 6, 1826, when it was divided into nine districts,
including the territory from Clermont County to White Oak Creek. The
first district contained twenty seven house holders; the second twenty-two;
the whole township contained 145 families. After the reduction of the
township to its present size, it was divided into seven districts, each
about two miles square, and each district was supplied with a good
schoolhouse. After Hamersville became a village, it was made a special
district, designated as No. 8, being in the northwestern corner of District
No. 4. Each district is supplied with a neat and substantial school
house of frame or brick, seated with the most improved desks, and in each,
school is taught eight months in the year. The prominent teachers
after the organization of Brown County were Joseph Ralston,
William Fite, ____ ____ Lawson, William H. Stephenson,
Frederick Morgan, Mary A. Moore, Morgan
Victoria Moore, D. W. Fite and C. C. Blair.
The township has furnished and sent out into the world more well-qualified
teachers according to its population, perhaps, than any other township in
this part of the State. They are found in all grades here and in the
Western States nobly teaching “the young idea how to shoot.” The
school fund of the township is as follows: Teachers’ fund, State, $1,821.49;
Virginia military, $53.50; township, $802.20; total, $2,177.19.
CHURCHES.
The first church society was a small class of New Lights or Christians that
was organized in the southeastern corner of the township. the
Protestant Methodists formed a class in the northern part, and a Methodist
Episcopal class was formed in the west and central part of the township.
The first church built was a log structure on the State
road on the lands of Lemuel Rounds that was built by the Methodists
about 1835.
Mt. Nebo Methodist Church, a log building, near the
Newhope and Bethel road, on the lands of John Brooks, was erected in
1838. In 1866, it was replaced by a good and substantial frame
building that was burned down in the winter of 1881. The society is
now building a new and still better house of worship.
The Disciples or Campbellites built a frame building in
the west side of Scott Township about 1835; most of the members were from
Clark Township. They worshiped at Unity, as the church was called,
about ten years , when they organized at Hamersville, and, in 1860, built a
brick church. They are the strongest society in the township, and
still meet at Hamersville.
Page 526 -
The
Methodist society built a log church in Hamersville in 1848, which they used
for fifteen or twenty years, but the class was always rather weak, and the
lot and house were abandoned and finally sold.
A class of the Christian Union Church was organized
soon after the war, in Brownsville, and in 1876 they built a nice frame
building.
The early preachers of the township were George
Vandeman (Disciples), Peter Shiek, Sr.
(Disciples), Rev. Lawson and Sanford Ewing.
The church denominations are Campbellite, New Light, Methodist Protestant,
Methodist Episcopal, Christian Union and a few people of almost every other
belief. The present ministers are Rev. S. B. Smith, Methodist;
residence, Hamersville. He has been in the ministry nearly forty
years, and has occupied all the offices of honor in the church, including
Presiding Eldership. Rev. Bagby, New Light; residence,
Hamersville; he has been in the ministry but a few years. James E.
West, Disciples, has been six or eight years in the ministry, and now
has a charge in Kentucky; William Brooks, Baptist, residence
in the northern part of the township, superannuated and nearly eighty years
old. P. S. Honaker, Christian, residence east end of the
township; he has only been licensed a few years. MILLS
During the first few years of the
early settlement, corn was reduced to meal in hand mills, consisting of two
large stones about two feet in diameter dressed as millstones, between which
the corn was crushed. In 1806, James Roney built a mill,
a corn-cracker, where the old Thompson Mill, now owned by
Mrs. Armstrong, stands. This was in Lewis Township, but
served the people of Clark Township for a long time. Henry
Zumalt built the mill in what is now Scott Township, on the site now
occupied by Henry Young’s mill, in 1808. A water saw-mill was
built by Asa Dutton on Clover Creek in 1822, and Dilaplane
Liming built one on Indian Run about 1830; both were on small streams, and
were only operated while the creeks were very high, and when steam began to
be generally used they were abandoned.
The first steam saw-mill was built in Hamersville by
Eliakim and Nathaniel Moore and W. H. Kennedy in 1838; after
being run by them a few years, it was sold to J. W. Prather, in whose
hands it was twice burned down and rebuilt. It was afterward sold to
C. P. Fite and Peter Kellum, who still operate it.
Thornton Bros. are operating a steam saw-mill that was built originally
by Thornton & Crooks, but burned down and was rebuilt by the present
firm. A great deal of lumber is cut by portable mills. There is
no grist-mill in the township, nor has there been one since the days of
corn-crackers.
ROADS AND RAILROADS.
The first public road laid out in
the township was known as the “ Waters road,” from Levanna to Williamsburg,
then the county seat of Clermont County; it was laid out by Josephus
Waters, and crosses the township diagonally, entering it on the
eastern side near the middle, and leaving it near the north west corner.
The next road laid out was the Georgetown & Cincinnati State road, which
crosses the township in nearly the same direction, entering on the southern
line about one and a half miles from the southeast corner, and, passing
through Hamersville, leaves near the middle of the western line. The
next road is the Augusta & New Market road, which crosses the southeast
corner of the township in a southwesterly direction. These and the New
Hope & Bethel road are the leading throughfares. The Georgetown &
Bethel and the New Hope & Bethel roads are piked across the township; the
Hamersville & Higginsport is piked from the State road to Higginsport.
The Cincinnati & Portsmouth Railroad was graded across
the township in
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A. B. Martin
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the fall of 1868, and the first train of cars was run into Hamersville in
December, 1881, which place seems likely to be the terminus for some time.
A trip from Hamersville to Cincinnati and return, that used to occupy three
or four days by wagon, can now easily be accomplished in a few hours.
HAMERSVILLE
The village of Hamersville was laid out by Nathaniel Moore,
Sr., and George Flick in the year 1838. It was named
in honor of Thomas L. Hamer, then a Member of Congress from this
district, who was instrumental in having a post office located at that
place. William C. Doudney, who kept the first store, was also
the first Postmaster. A few years afterward, the post office passed
into the hands of William H. Flick, a chair-maker and painter, who
held the position during his life; at his death, his wife took charge of the
office, and retained the position until her death, when her oldest daughter,
Pauline J. Perkins took the office, and continued it until 1880, when
it was placed in the hands of Dr. J. C. Stires. The village now
contains two dry goods stores, three groceries, one drug store, one tobacco
warehouse, one steam saw-mill, three blacksmith shops, two shoe shops, two
physicians, two lawyers, and about two hundred inhabitants.
DeSoto Lodge, No. 374, I. O. O. F., was instituted in
the hall of Hamersville June 14, 1866. The charter members were O.
P. Ralston, I. N. Ellsbery, C. Oursler, S. H. Ellis, T. J. Lindsey, W. F.
Landon, D. S. Dean, W. O. Perkins, A. R. Gillet, Harvey Snider, R. F.
Bryant, W. P. Landon, W. J. Thompson, Peter Dean and Dr. W. H.
Langstaff. Only three of these not remain, viz, Messrs.
Ralston, Perkins and Snider; the rest have taken cards and
gone elsewhere. The first officers were: I. N. Ellsberry, N.
G.; Charles Oursler, V. g.; S. H. Ellis, Secretary; T. J.
Lindsey, Treasurer. Sixty-four have been initiated, sixteen
admitted don card and four have died, making the present membership
forty-two. the present officers are: J. H. LOVE, N. G.; C.
W. Jordan, V. G.; M. V. Flick, Secretary; Cyrus Fite,
Treasurer.
Clark Grange No. 382, was instituted Jan. 13, 1874,
with O. P. Ralston, W. M., and J. S. Salsbury, Secretary.
In 1876, they built a good hall, in which they now meet. The present
officers are: Frank Devore, W. M., and O. M. Swope, Secretary.
They kept a supply store in the first floor room of their building for three
or four years, but discontinued it in 1880, and since then the room has been
rented to William West for a store room.
An organization of the Good Templars was effected in
1874, but it has only maintained a fitful existence, and the meetings are
held very irregularly.
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CHAPTER VII. - FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP
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