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 liens on the east  and west approached closely to thrice twice 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 southern most part of the township, by the course of Taylor's 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 the 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 mile 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 just 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's 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 the Colerain township, from which it received its name.   Continuing, it passes through Venice and Oxford, in Butler county, where it is known as the Cincinnati pike.  The road is well macadamized."  After leaving Mount Airy at a mile's distance, it passes the village of Groesbeck, 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

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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-guage, 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 times been in discussion, and not many years are likely to pass before the township is supplied with railway facilities.

ANCIENT WORKS.

DUNLAP'S STATION.

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     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 garrison.  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 a 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 southwest of Dunlap's 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.

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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

     JOHN HUSTON

     PAUL HUSTON

     JAMES HUSTON

     ANDREW AND JAMES  HUSTON

     PAUL S. HUSTON

     THOMAS HUNTER

     CHARLES STOUT

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     THOMAS HUBBARD, SR.

     DAVID K. JOHNSON

     THE JOHNSON FAMILY

     ELIAS JOHNSON

     GEORGE POUDER

     JOHN POUDER

     LEONARD POUDER

     A. H. CONE

     GILES RICHARDS

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     ISAAC ERVEN

     WILLIAM MARTIN

     WILLIAMSON PAUL PAUL WILLIAMSON

     BAXTER VANSICLE

     THOMAS McHENRY

     MRS. ELIZA SCOTT

     PETER POOL,

     JAMES POOLE resides on the Locus farm, the beautiful site near Groesbeck's, Colerain township.  He was born Mar. 29, 1824, in Hamilton county, and has been iden-

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tified 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 Jan. 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's, 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's 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.

     MRS. AGNES CILLEY is the wife of Columbus Cilley, eldest son of Bradbury Hedges Cilley  Columbus Cilley was born Nov. 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, Dec. 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 reesults, of which may be mentioned "The Bachelor's Trial,"  "The Goddess of War," etc.

     J. P. WATERHOUSE, M. D.,

     MARY JANE DAVIS,

     JOHN GASSER, 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.

     J. R. THOMPSON, of Taylor's, principal of the public schools of that place, perfected his studies in the One Study university, of Harrison county, Ohio, came to Taylor's 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

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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.

DUNLAP.

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, 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.
     At this place the rebel General John Morgan's force occupied crossed 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.

GROESBECK.

     One mile north of the south line of the township, and nearly the same distance from the east line, at the north west corner of section one, also on the Colerain pike, is the hamlet of Groesbeck, 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's 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 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.

BARNESBURG

 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.

PHOTO of BRADBURY CILLEY

PHOTO of MRS. HARRIET CILLEY

PHOTO of ______

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

JARED CLOUD

BRADBURY CILLEY

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