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This
township was organized December 2, 18095, and originally
formed a part of St. Clair. It is one of the
northern tier of townships and is bounded on the north
by Preble county, on the east by the township of Wayne,
on the south by Hanover and on the west by Oxford.
Milford township, in 1820, had a pop0ulation of ,501;
in 1830, 1,808; in 1840, 1,868; in 1890, 1,649, and in
1900, 1,476.
Some of the early settlers of the township were the
Grimes, Glimes, Gard, Hancock, Hayne, Hinsey, "Jones,
Irwin, Kreamer, Kennedy, Lytle Lippencott, Marshall,
Markle, Ogle, McCleary, McMechan, Brown, McNeal,
Broadberry, Pottenger, Pughe, Robinson, Reed,
Richardson, Sutten, Stout, Rynearson, Simmons, Scott,
Steel, Simpson, Taylor, Teegarden, Walden, Darr and
Young.
The principal streams in Milford township are the Four
Mile and Seven Mile creeks. The former cuts the
township in the southwest, while in the northeast a
similar cut is made by the Seven Mile creek. The
valleys along these streams are very productive.
Darr's run drains a considerable portion of the western
part of Milford township, and is the principal tributary
of Four Mile creek.
St. Clair's route, in his expedition against the
Indians of the northwest, passes through Milford
township.
From 1803 to 1806 the settlers suffered from the
pinches of poverty. The most of them had to travel
through the wilderness from twelve to fifteen miles to
mill and this was a great inconvenience and hardship.
The Indians at this time were very annoying to the
settlers by their constant begging of "ochpon" (bread),
"monako" (milk), and "quish-quish" (meat). Some of
them often appeared in full war dress, painted, and with
the scalping-knife by their side. Others wore the
uniform of an officer whom they had previously killed
and robbed. Two of them were known by the names of
"Killbuck" and "Mishawa," the latter a Shawnee chief,
who is believed to have been killed at the battle of the
Thames by Colonel Johnson's men.
In the fall of 1804 a Baptist preacher by the name of
Patterson, from South Carolina, a traveling
minister, preached at the house of L. R. Cooch,
the first sermon ever delivered in that part of the
township. During the summer of 1806 a traveling
Baptist preacher visited and preached in the western
half of the township five or six times.
Milford township has three villages, as follows:
Collinsville, Darrtown and Somerville. The
beginning of what is now
COLLINSVILLE
was the entering of the land upon
which it is located by Matthew Richardson in
1802. The first lot sold was bought by Charles
Collins, a wagonmaker by trade, from who9m the town
received its name. He continued to work at his
trade here until 1839, when he sold out to W. H.
Crume and removed to Preble county.
The first store keeper was Colonel A. P. Young.
He was succeeded by James Steel. Eli Murphy
and James Crozier opened a blacksmith shop in
1837. Johns Davis built the residence and
store room later occupied by John Slonneker.
James Young conducted a saw mill as early as
1811. A few years later a grist mill was added.
The mills were operated until about 1860. The
first school teacher in Collinsville was an Irishman by
the name of William Hewitt, who taught here from
1818 to 1838. The first school house was
constructed of logs, with a fire place in the center of
the room, while a brick chimney carried out the smoke
through the rafters. In 1838 a frame building was
constructed and in 1876 a two-story brick. Joel
Harris taught here after the Civil war and also took
an active part in local affairs.
The Collinsville Methodist Episcopal church was
organized in 1843 and was conducted with varying success
until about 1870. The Presbyterian church was
organized in 1810. The society is in a flourishing
condition, and has a handsome frame church structure
near the main part of the town. Collinsville is a
station on the Cincinnati and Richmond division of the
Pennsylvania Railroad. |
