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BEAVER CREEK TOWNSHIP
Beaver Creek Township is
one of the original four, and formerly extended as far north
as Lake Erie. It is a beautiful valley, fertile, well
timbered, rolling and picturesque, noted for its fine farms.
The high ridge separating the waters of Beaver Creek and Mad
River is a particularly fine fruit belt, where good
[Pg. 94]
ZIMMERMAN
SHOUP'S.
UNION SCHOOL BUILDING (XENIA TP.)
K. OF P. HALL, ALPHA
STREET SCENE, ALPHA. [Pg. 95]
peaches do
well. The Pennsylvania and C, H. and D. Railroads and the
Dayton and Xenia Traction road cross the valley. The pikes are
well kept and the scenery is fine.
Beaver Creek Township, is the cradle of Greene County.
In its little log court house in 1803 the county was
organized. There was the first administration of justice, the
first exercise of suffrage through the ballot box, and the
first legal punishment of crime. There was the first mill
north of Cincinnati where corn was ground for the settlers. It
was built by Owen Davis in 1798 and called the Alpha Mill from
the first letter of the Greek alphabet. The court house, mill
and two blockhouses, erected for defense, were near enough
together to be inclosed in a stockade should the Indians
become troublesome. The old log court house was the first
licensed tavern in the county. It was purchased with the
surrounding acreage in 1827 by Mr. John Harbine. He and
Mr.
Needles laid out the town of Alpha in 1854. When what is now
the Pennsylvania railroad was built Mr. Harbine gave the land
required and the station was named Harbine. It was a lively
manufacturing center with its distillery, flour, cotton,
woolen, grist, saw and oil mills and did a large tobacco,
grain and shipping business.
From the first mill and the first barrel of flour which
was marked "Alpha," the name has clung to the place. There
are, in the town, a nice brick church, a school, a
post-office, coal office and two stores and at upper Alpha a
large K. of P. Hall, blacksmith shop, and Beaver Creek
Township High School built in 1888. The population of Alpha is
about 200. The waters of Beaver Creek have turned the wheels
of the grist mills for more than a century and the old dam is
an attractive place for picnics and fishing parties, but the
site of the blockhouses is no longer indicated and the valley
is peaceful, productive and beautiful. TREBEINS, formerly known as
PINCKNEYVILLE, FROST STATION
and
BEAVER STATION, is two miles nearer to Xenia. For.
many years a large distillery and milling business was done
there. The distillery has now given place to a tobacco
warehouse. German Reformed church and a school house are
midway between Alpha and Trebeins.
[Pg. 96]
CAESAR'S CREEK CHURCH.
STREET SCENE, NEW JASPER
M. P. CHURCH AND SCHOOL HOUSE, PAINTERSVILLE.
STREET SCENE, PAINTERSVILLE
[Pg. 97]
ZIMMERMAN is about two miles west
of Alpha on the Dayton pike. It has a blacksmith shop
and grocery, a school and two Dunker churches. The
population is about 100. The railroad station is a
quarter of a mile distant and is called SHOUP's; there is
one store there and about fifteen people.
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