ORGANIZATION

GEOGRAPHY.

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     A part from the Little Miami, Columbia has no stream of size within it or upon its borders.  Duck creek, and perhaps a dozen other brooks and rivulets, traverse some part of the township, most of them toward the Little Miami, but two or three, in the northwestern part, making their way to the valley of Mill creek.  The Marietta & Cincinnati railroad enters the township near Norwood, about a mile and three-quarters from the southwest corner, traverses about half its breadth on a general east and west line to Madisonville, whence the route makes rapidly northward and northeastward to its emergence from the township beyond Madeira station, near the southeast corner of Sycamore township.  About seven miles of the course of this railroad lie in Columbia.  The Little Miami railroad has about the same length along or near the river in this township, entering at the southeast corner, at Red Bank station, and proceeding by the Batavia junction, Plainville, and several other points, to its exit from the county township at the northeastern corner, opposite East Milford, and a mile and a half further crossing the river and leaving the county altogether.  The Cincinnati & Eastern narrow-gauge railroad tracts also intersect the southern tier of sections; but its arrangements for entering Cincinnati from the north and west are not yet consummated, and the road is not much used west of Batavia junction, where it connects with the Little Miami railroad.  The Cincinnati Northern narrow-gauge, now in course of construction, crosses the township from south to north, entering from the direction of Walnut Hills, and passing through Norwood.  Several fine turnpikes, as the Cincinnati & Wooster, once the main line of communication eastward; the Madison, the Montgomery, and others, with many well-kept, ordinary wagon-roads, add to the facilities of communication with the city and surrounding country.  Upon some of them, as over the Montgomery pike to Pleasant Ridge liens of omnibuses are regularly run to and from Cincinnati.

ANCIENT REMAINS.

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THE EARLY DAY.

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ter of recording and perpetuating local history, that are every way creditable to his intelligence and foresight.
     1801.  This book bought from Mr. Nathaniel Reeder, in Cincinnati, the second day of September, 1801, for the use of the overseers of the Poor, Columbia Township, Hamilton County, North West of the River Ohio.  The

A STATION

NOTES OF SETTLEMENT

     The McFarland settlement was made in sections twenty-four and thirty, near the northwest corner of the township, in the spring of 1705 1795, by Colonel John McFarland, an emigrant from Fayette county, Pennsylvania.  He took here a tract of nearly one thousand acres, comprising the whole of the first-designated section and the east half of the second, upon which the village of Pleasant Ridge now stands in part.  Near this site McFarland made his first clearing and put up his cabin, which he seems to have fortified somewhat, as it is sometimes remarked as being the last station established in Hamilton county.  Life there was comparatively uneventful until some twelve years after the beginnings, when an incident

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occurred which is well told in the language of John G. Olden in his Historical Sketches and Early Reminiscences:

     In the year 1807,    .........................

     One of the neighbors, named RALPH AUTEN, had proposed in the outset to put his dog, a fine, noble-looking bloodhound and said to have been a very sagacious animal, on the track of the children, but this was objected to upon the supposition that should the dog find the children, he might attack, or at least frighten them seriously, so the project was abandoned.  Notwithstanding the protest of his neighbors, Mr. Auten, on resuming the search in the evening, took with him his dog. 
     A second night .........................

     HEZEKIAH STITES was born at Scotch Plains, New Jersey.  ................................

     SAMPSON McCULLOUGH was born in Chambersburgh, Virginia, but emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1795, where he first settled in Sycamore township.  He came to this State as a surveyor, but in later years turned his attention to farming.  He died in the township where he first settled, in 1819.  His wife (Miss Rachel Saye)

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was born in 1780 and died in 1864.  James M. McCullough, son of the preceding, was born in 1811.  In 1838 he established the business of seeds merchant, with the present firm name of J. M. McCullough's Sons.

     ABNER MILLS

     SAMUEL MUCHMORE

     JOSEPH FERRIS

     ZADOCK WILLIAMS

     SAMUEL JOHNSON

     ALBERT CORTELYOU

     W. H. MOORE

     JOSEPH MUCHMORE,

     HIRAM SMITH

     DANIEL McGREW

     A. S. BUTTERFIELD'S father ...

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     JOSEPH SUTTLE

     GEORGE J. SUTTLE, son of the preceding, married Caroline Nash, daughter of Samuel Nash, of Hamilton county,  She died in 1858, and Mr. Suttle has never married again.  He has secured a fine property, and is well known and respected by a large circle of friends.

     MARK LANGDON came to Hamilton county in 1819.  He was born in England, and died in Hamilton county in 1846.  The surviving members of the family are Joseph, Samuel L., Elizabeth Mills and William C.  Samuel Langdon, son of the above was born in Mill Creek township in 1823.  He married Martha J. Lyon, daughter of James Lyon.  They have four children.

     3 first settled in Mill Creek township in 1820.  He was born in Bangor, Mile, in 1804, and emigrated from that State to Ohio.  He is still living at the age of seventy-seven.  His business has been farming and teaming.  His wife's name was Ann Phillips.  She was born in 1805, and died in 1876.  There are four children living.  H. C. Durrell was born in 1826, and in 1852 he married Harriet Wood.  For a number of years he was in the lumber business in Cincinnati, now he has a fine farm, and gives his attention mostly to farming.

     ANTHONY BROWN

     JOHN H. McGOWAN

     THOMAS FRENCH

     OTIS HIDDEN

     THOMAS SWIFT

     THOMAS WHITE

     LEONARD FOWLER

CAMDEN CITY.

GRAVELOTTE.

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INDIAN HILL.

MADEIRA.

MADISONVILLE.

     Madisonville, or rather Madison, as it was originally called, was laid out upon the north part of school section No. 16, in fractional range two, township four, as soon as the lands under the old system of leases, were made available.  A considerable settlement had already gathered upon and about the spot; and when, Jan. 27, 1809, the legislature passed an act providing for the disposition of the school sections, the people of this locality lost little time in proceeding to act thereon.  The record of the survey of the town is dated March 30, 1809.  John Jones, esq., William Armstrong, and Felix Christman, were chosen trustees for the purpose of platting the village and disposing of the lots; and Moses Morrison was their clerk.  Joseph Reeder, Joseph Clark and Ezekiel Lamard, were appointed to fix the valuation of the ground.  William Darling was surveyor; Jeremiah Brand and Joseph Ward, senior chain carriers; and Nathaniel Ross, senior marker.  After the survey the following announcement was made:

NOTICE:

     The conditions on which lots will be let or leased are as follows, viz:  Lot No. 1 on the first block of lots will be first offered, and so on in rotation, at the appraisement, and the highest bidder shall be the lessee.  Six per cent on what they bid will be the sum they pay annually, paying the first payment on the first day of April next.  There will be required of the lessee bond and security for the building of a house at least eighteen by twenty feet, of good hewed logs, frame, stone, or brick, at least one and a half stories high, with a stone or brick chimney and a good shingle roof, within two years from the date of his lease.  Any person bidding off two lots will be excused by building one house of the above description, the four corner lots excepted.  Any person not complying with the terms of the articles of sale shall forfeit and pay to the trustees the sum of five dollars.  The lessee will pay in proportion the expense of laying out and blazing, etc.
     By order, etc., 24th April, 1809.
                                                      MOSES MORRISON, clerk.
N. B.  The trustees will meet at the houes house of Willis Pierson, on the first day of May next, in order to execute leases.
     The same day of the date of this notice - April 24, 1809, entries of first sales were made in the minute book of the trustees, which has been preserved, as follows:

Block 1.  Lot 1.  William Cooper bought - forfeited.................. $10
               Lot 2.  William and John Armstrong bought.............  21
               Lot 3.                 Ditto                           ........................ 31
               Lot 4.  Thomas Skinner .............................................  20
               Lot 5.                 Ditto                           .........................18        

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MADISONVILLE.

     Madisonville, or rather Madison, as it was originally called, was laid out upon the north part of school section No. 16, in fractional range two, township four, as soon as the lands under the old system of leases, were made available.  A considerable settlement had already gathered upon and about the spot; and when, Jan. 27, 1809, the legislature passed an act providing for the disposition of the school sections, the people of this locality lost little time in proceeding to act thereon.  The record of the survey of the town is dated March 30, 1809.  John Jones, esq., William Armstrong, and Felix Christman, were chosen trustees for the purpose of platting the village and disposing of the lots; and Moses Morrison was their clerk.  Joseph Reeder, Joseph Clark and Ezekiel Lamard, were appointed to fix the valuation of the ground.  William Darling was surveyor; Jeremiah Brand and Joseph Ward, senior chain carriers; and Nathaniel Ross, senior marker.
     The plat of Madisonville was not recorded until May 27, 1829.  The village was incorporated under the old law, about ten years afterwards - Mar. 16, 1839; and under the present State constitution, a certificate of incorporation was filed with the secretary of State, Feb. 11, 1876.
     The growth of the town was naturally slow, in its early day, under the circumstances of inland position and the absence of means of rapid transit to the city; and it had but two hundred and eighty-five inhabitants, or a little more than one-tenth the population of the entire township in 1830.  In 1841 it received notice in the State Gazette Gazetteer as containing four hundred inhabitants, with one hundred dwellings, five stores, one brick meeting house, a two story school-house, a brick seminary or academy, and a daily mail.  Its largest growth has been received sicne the completion of the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad in 1866, which induced a considerable emigration from the city to a place possessing so many superior advantages for suburban residence.  It is fifteen miles from the Madisonville station to the depot of this road in Cincinnati.
     The first church organized here was of the Methodist Episcopal faith, and the Madison circuit was organized at least as long ago as 1820.  In that year Elder Henry Baker and Rev. William H. Raper were appointed to it; in 1821 Elder A. Wiley and William P. Quinn; the next year, James Jones and James Murray; the next, J. Stewart and Nehemiah B. Griffith; and the next, Elder John F. Wright and Thomas Hewson.  Those were days of rapid rotation in the Methodist ministry.  A new church was built by the Madisonville society in 1857, forty by sixty feet, with four hundred sittings, and costing ten thousand dollars.  It was long the only Protestant church building in town.  A parsonage has since been added, worth about five thousand dollars.
     The Catholic church is built upon the addition made to the town by its former pastor, the Rev. Father A. Walburg, who reserved a lot for it and a parochial school, and also bore the major part of the expense of its construction - about fourteen thousand dollars.  It is known as St. Anthony's church, and the congregation is now ministered to by the Rev. H. Stoppelman.
     Other and generally prosperous societies in Madisonville are the Literary and Musical association, the Young Folks' Benevolent society, for literary and social culture, and to provide for the poor; the Free and Accepted Masons, and the Odd Fellows, who are strong here, and own a property of an estimated value of fifteen to twenty thousand dollars.  The most notable institution, how

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MONTAUK.

     The village is eligibly situated at the bridge connecting the station on the Little Miami railroad nearest to Milford, Clermont county, with Milford.  It is in the northeast corner of fractional section twenty-three, on the Little Miami river and railroad, and within half a mile of Camden City.  It was laid out in 1840, while the railroad was in progress, by Missrs. Joseph Longworth, Larz Anderson, R. M. Shoemaker, and L. E. Brewster.

MOUNT LOOKOUT.

NORWOOD.

OAKLEY.

PLAINVILLE

is a popular country village and suburb of Cincinnati, on fractional section three, almost due north of Newton Newtown, in Anderson township, with which it is connected by a substantial wagon and foot bridge, an excellent road, and a plank sidewalk about a mile long.  It is also on the Little Miami river, the railroad along the same, and the Cincinnati and Wooster turnpike.  It was laid out in 1853, by Edward P. Cranch, Nelson Cross, and A. R. Spofford.  By the tenth census it had two hundred people.

PLEASANT RIDGE.

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vicinity, where he encamped in the primeval forest until he could build a cabin and block house.  He paid two dollars an acre for the land he bought here.  Among other early settlers was James C. Wood, of New Jersey, who planted his stakes at the homestead afterward occupied by his son.  John C., W. R., and W. W. Wood, after the death of James C. Wood, made a subdivision of the estate.
     Pleasant Ridge was made a place of rendezvous during the Mexican war for the troops enlisted from that place, Montgomery, Newton Newtown, and other places.  Some even from Cincinnati joined in the assemblies, parades and drills there.

SHARPSBURGH.

     was formerly the name of a pretty large locality, now covered in good part by the village of Norwood.  A town site, bearing the name, was laid out in 1868, on the Cincinnati and Marietta railroad, by J. W. Baker.

WEST MILFORD.

is, as its name implies, a part of Milford, but is in Hamilton county.  St. Thomas' Episcopal church is located here - Rev. T. I. Melish, rector - with a small chapel on the Clermont county side.  The Baptist meeting-house is also in West Milford, although its members reside mostly on the other side.

MORE ANTIQUES.

     Since the matter at the outset of this chapter was arranged and printed, we have the following curious old documents and memoranda to add, by the favor of Mr. Clason, who has contributed so handsomely to the history of this township.  The following relates to the pauperism of the old township:

     At a meeting of the trustees and overseers of the poor at my house May 13, 1802, in order to settle and adjust the accounts of the overseers of the poor, ordered to be recorded as follows:  We, the trustees, having examined the accounts and settled them up to this date, and we find due to them twenty-one dollars and fifty cents.
                        - JOHN JONES, clerk.

     March 7, 1803. - A meeting of the trustees and town clerk and overseers of the poor and supervisors of the highways.  The trustees having met as the law directs, and we proceeded as follows:  The trustees having examined the accounts of hte overseers of the poor from a settlement made May the thirteenth, A. D. 1802, and we have due to them twelve dollars.
     Settled this seventh day of March, Anno Domini 1803.
                       - JOHN JONES, clerk.

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     The following is a verbatim copy of the first election held in Columbia township:

     1803.
     April 4th.  At a meeting of citizens of the township held at the [house omitted in record] Thomas Frazier's, in Columbia, on April 4th, 1803, the following officers were elected, viz.:

     1803
June 6th.   Grand jurors for the township of Columbia, viz:

THE TOWNSHIP OFFICERS.

     By the kindness and patient research of Mr. Clason, we are enabled here to present a fuller list of the justices of the peace for Columbia than appears upon a former page, and to add most of the remainder of the civil list of the township:

     Justices from 1804 to 1881 - James Mason, John Armstrong, John Jones, David McGaughey, William Perry, William Armstrong, E. Meeks, Enos Hurin, Rice Prichard, Zacheas Biggs, Abner Applegate, James Armstrong, John Ferris, Smith Clason, William Baxter, William H. Moore, Thomas B. McCullough, Eliazer Baldwin, John T. Jones, Ratio Evans, E. Noble, William Tingley, George W. Homes, Hiram Bodine, John Sumners, Oliver Jones, John Jones (not the same as above), John B. Price, James Sampson, Isaac N. Davis, Robert McMullins, Samuel Hill, Isaac Griffin, Ben. C. Conklin, Henry Lockwood, Amos Hill, George W. Martin, James Griffin, Jeremiah Clark, J. C. Ferris, William Highlands, J. M. Tingley, F. A. Hill, James Julien, Leo Bailey, L. A. Hendricks, Louis W. Clason, C. S. Burns, Claton W. McGill, E. W. Bowman, George Reiter, and James B. Drake.

     Township trustees from 1803 to 1881 - Joseph McNight, N. Sheperd Armstrong, John Seaman, John Eliot, Cheniah Cavalt, John Jones, Peter Smith, John Mann, John Beazly, Samuel Hilditch, Usual Ward, John McKee, Joseph Reeder, Calvin Ward, David McGaughey, John Clark, Joseph Ferris, John Ferris, Lewis Drake, Enos Huron, William McIntire,,,, Abram Smith, William Armstrong, Andrew Ferris, Richard Morgan, William Perry, James Ward, John Armstrong, William H. Moore, Smith Clason, Andrew Baxter, Andrew McMahan, Lindley Broadwell, John Warren, William Highlands, Oliver Jones, Thomas Crosly, Ira Broadwell, Eb. Ward, Elijah Reese, Isaac Giffin, James D. Langdon, James Sampson, Percy Hosbrook, Eri F. Jewett, Joseph B. Mann, John S. Wilson, Tyle Chamberlain, Zadoc Williams, Ralph Reeder, Thomas B. McCullough, John L. Hosbrook, C. S. Ebersole, J. S. Leaning, D. S. Nash, H. F. Armstrong, H. Bonham, C. G. Armstrong, J. G. Flinn, Louis W. Clason, Thomas

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Longworth, James Roosa, Thomas Drake, George Hermann, jr., C. S. Boon, D. A. Black, Warren Mills, Thomas Clegg, Caleb Dial, Michael Leaf, Michael Buckel, Anthony Brown, G. W. Eliott, Andrew Carman, B. M. Stewart, H. C. Durrell, C. A. Howe, H. J. Pierret, Fred. Berings, A. J. Nelson, C. H. Scholtman.

TOWNSHIP CLERKS FROM 1801 TO 1880.

John Jones, 1801 & 1802
James Mason, 1803.
David McGaughey, 1804-5-6-7 & 8
William Armstrong, 1809
William Schillinger, 1810 & 11
Samuel Johnson, 1812 & 13
Moses Morrison 1814-15-16-17-18-19-20 & 21
William H. Moore, 1822, 1823, 1824, 1825 & 1826.
John T. Jones, 1827
Oliver Jones, 1828 & 1829
Hiram Bodine, 1830
William H. Moore 1831
John Jones, 1832, 1833 & 1834
Jeremiah Everett, 1835
Jacob Flinn, 1836
Jeremiah Everett, 1837, 1838 & 1839 & 1840
John Jones, 1841, 1842 & 1843
Jeffreys A. Black, 1844.
Francis Hill, 1845
Henry Lockwood, 1846 to 1874.
Louis W. Clason, 1875 to 1880.

TREASURERS FROM 1804 TO 1881.

N. Shephar Armstrong, 1804.
John Armstrong, 1805 to 1811
James Baxter, 1811 to 1818
Major John Ferris 1819 & 1820
Lewis Drake, 1821
William Armstrong 1822 to 1853, & without loss of one cent.
B. D. Ashcraft, 1854.
William Ammerman 1855 & 1856
Milo Black, 1857 to 1861
J. Dan Jones, 1862 to 1873
Leo Fowler, 1874.
James Julien, 1875 to 1881.

POPULATION

     Columbia is now a populous township, the last census, that of 1880, giving it five thousand three hundred and fifty-eight inhabitants against three thousand one hundred and eighty-four in 1872.  The increase is largely due to its suburban character, although it has a considerable farming population.

ADDITIONAL SETTLEMENT NOTES:

     ELIAS HEDGES, a native of Morris county, New Jersey, purchased five hundred acres of land in Colerain township, of Dr. William Burnet and Daniel Thew, probably during the winter of 1804-5; and soon afterward she he, with his wife, who, previous to their marriage was Elizabeth Gaston, a native of the same place, and four small children, set out for the west.  They travelled in a wagon  - and after a journey of some seven weeks arrived at Dunlap's Station July 4, 1805.  This post was located on the tract purchased by Mr. Hedges.  At the time of his purchase, Mr. Hedges was not able to pay for so large a tract, its cost being three thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars.  So he accepted the offer of two neighbors as partners, with whom he divided his tract in proportion to the money furnished by each, retaining about two hundred and thirty acres in the middle of the tract for himself.  Here, he immediately began to clear the forest and improve his land.  Mr. Hedges continued his occupation with great energy and perseverance until December, 1813, when he became a victim of the "Cold Plague," which scourged a large portion of the west during the summer and fall of that year.  Elias Hedges was highly respected as a good neighbor and man of clear and discriminating judgment; being frequently selected as arbitrator in settling, by amicable means, disputes and contentions which at times sprang up between his neighbors.  His early death, at about forty years of age was lamented by all who knew him.

     ELIZABETH HEDGES, wife of the preceding, survived her husband about eighteen years.  They had eight children, ...................MORE TO COME

     LOUIS W. CLASON

     WILLIAM L. PERKINS,

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     A. B. LUNBECK

     A. B. WARD

     C. S. EBERSOLE

     JOHN BEISWARNNGER,

     J. S. HOFFMAN,

      MESSRS, D. S. and J. A. HOSBROOK,

     D. S. HOSBROOK

     J. A. HOSBROOK

     JOHN WEIR of Madeira was born in the parish of Arbooth in the year 1822, and was a carpenter.  He longed for the wilds of America, and, after marrying Miss Eliza-

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beth Stephen of his native town, set sail for America in 1847.  On arriving at his destination he wandered around for awhile and finally settled on a good farm near Madeira, and is doing well.  Mrs. Weir was born in 1826, and is the daughter of a manufacturer in Scotland.  Mr. Weir is erecting a dwelling-house in Madisonville, in which place one of his daughters resides; she is married to a merchant of that place.

     JOHN D. MOORE

     J. H. LOCKE

     LEWIS KENNEDY

     JOHN SWIFT,

     SAMUEL SWIFT

     WILLIAM FERRIS

     JOHN M. FERRIS, brother of S. M. and William Ferris, is also a member of the Ferris Manufacturing company, of Linwood, although he has been beautiful residence in Mt. Lookout.  He has was born Jan. 13, 1832; was married to Miss Thompson, sister to his brother's wife, and is, as all the Ferrises are, a member of the Baptist church.

     COLONEL ZADOC WILLIAMS late of Mt. Lookout, was a native of Lafayette county, Pennsylvania.  He came to this State with his father when quite young, in 1800.  They landed first in Columbia; he afterwards bought the farm upon which the Cincinnati observatory now stands, which farm was kept in the family for seventy years before it was sold.  Mr. Williams was married Dec. 20, 1821, to Ann Giffins, of Red Bank.  She was born in 1802, and is still living.  Mr. Williams first saw the light of day in 1798, and died Feb. 16, 1881.  He was a

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farmer - sometimes performing the business of a merchant and shipping on flatboats to New Orleans the produce of his own farm and that of others.  The days in which he lived were noted for its magnificent wants - as we view the past at the present time - for we hear of his going to Wickersham's Wickerham's floating mill on the river to get his corn ground; of taking his hogs, hay, etc., to New Orleans to find a market; and of doing other things only incident to pioneer times.  He finally bought the heirs out and owned the homestead himself.  He reared a family of nine children, six of whom are now living.  His eldest daughter is now in Indiana.  One son is a physician practising in Indiana.  John is a farmer, and Thomas J. Williams is a lumber merchant in Cincinnati.  He was with Sherman through the war; held the position of first lieutenant; was differed a colonelcy of the negro regiment but refused it.

     B. C. ARMSTRONG of Plainville, was born in the village of which he lives in the year 1821.  He has resided in the township with the exception of a few years spent in Butler county farming.  His father, John A. Armstrong came here in 1800 with five of his brothers from Virginia, and bought a large tract of land at this place.  These brothers, John the father of N. S. and B. C.; Nathaniel father of Mrs. Thomas; William, Thomas, and Leonard were the builders of the three well known mills on the Little Miami river.  Of these water powers  William and John owned the lower one, at Plainville, now in  possession of Mr. Turpin, who lives in Newtown and who married Amanda Armstrong daughter of John.  Thomas and Leonard owned the middle mill and Nathaniel the upper one.
     B. C. Armstrong married Miss Sarah Norris of Maryland, and by her had six children, four of whom are now living - Amanda Turpin of Newtown; Elizabeth Ebersole, of Madisonville; B. C.  and N. S., of Plainville.
 

     MR. EBERSOLE, deceased, owned a farm at the mouth of the Little Miami, but in late years, being sorely afflicted with catarrh, retired from business.

     N. S. ARMSTRONG lives in Plainville.  He was agent for the Little Miami railroad company for seventeen eyars, and also owned a store, but has lately sold out.  He married a Miss Morton, of Clermont county.  B. C. Armstrong married Miss Martha Lyons, of Pennsylvania.

     JACOB THOMAS, deceased, was born in 1802 in Chester county, Pennsylvania; came to Columbia township in 1832, and purchased a tract of land near Plainville, which he farmed until he departed this life, which occurred in 1879.  He married Miss Naomi Armstrong in the year 1833.  She was a daughter of Nathaniel Armstrong who owned the upper mill on the Little Miami river.  The mill was afterwards run by Jacob Thomas, and was one of the three old-fashioned water-wheel powers of that kind built by the Armstrong brothers in a very early day.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

JARED CLOUD.

JOSEPH CILLEY

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