ORGANIZATION

     The original Miami township was one of the creations of the court of general quarter sessions of the peace in 1791, at the same time as Cincinnati and Columbia townships were erected.  Its boundaries were then defined as beginning at a point on the Ohio, at the first meridian east of the mouth of Rapid run, thence due north to the Great Miami, thence down that stream to the Ohio, thence up the Ohio to the place of beginning.  These included not only the entire tract now occupied by the township but also the eastern part of Delhi, a strip of Green two sections wide, and about one-third of Colerain township.  In some of the old documents the limits of Miami are more simply stated as "beginning at the southwest corner of Cincinnati township, thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Miami, thence up the Miami to the west boundary of Cincinnati township, thence south to the beginning."
     In the general-rearrangement of 1803, compelled or suggested by the creation of several new counties from the still extensive Hamilton, the boundaries of Miami were cut down considerably from the northward, while they were extended one range of sections to the eastward.  The were now described as "commencing at the mouth of the Great Miami, thence north on the State line to the Miami, thence up that stream to the north boundary of fractional range two, thence east nearly four miles to the northeast corner of section twenty-four in fractional range two, town two, thence south to the Ohio, thence westward to the place of beginning."  These confines gave the township no further reach to the northward than it now has, but extended the present north line three miles to the eastward, and gave Miami a strip of as many sections' breadth from what is now Green township and about half of the present Delhi, the east line of the township intersecting the Ohio about a mile below Anderson's Ferry, or near Gilead Station.
     By the time the change of 1803 was made it had been discovered, as may be ascertained by a careful reading of the definition of boundaries, that some part of the course of the Great Miami, near its mouth, lay wholly in the State of Indiana; so that a narrow strip of territory lay to the east of it, between its channel and the State line, which did not belong to Miami township or to Hamilton county.  This river is famous for its changes of course; and several of its ancient beds may be plainly traced further up the valley, besides many indications of slighter modifications of channel.  It is probable that across the tract lying within a mile of the stream, between Guard's Island and the mouth of the Great Miami, its waters have advanced and receded many times.  Quite recent maps of the State and county exhibit a belt of territory here that still belongs to Indiana; but, since the surveys upon which these are based were made, the river has upon which these are based were made, the river has again so encroached upon its eastern banks that it is believed all its shore in that direction is in Hamilton county and the State of Ohio, except perhaps a small tract near the Ohio & Mississippi railway bridge.

GEOGRAPHY.

     The extreme western boundary of Miami township at present, therefore, may be stated with almost literal exactness as the Great Miami river, separating the township

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TOWNSHIP OFFICERS, ETC.

ANTIQUITIES.

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FORT FINNEY.

THE INDIAN PERIOD.

     The following narrative was related by the Hon. J. Scott Harrison, son of President Harrison, in an address

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to the Whitewater and Miami Valley Pioneer association, at Cleves, Sept. 8, 1866:

THE PIONEER SETTLEMENT.

in Miami township, and the third in the Miami purchase, was made, as all careful readers of this work well know by this time, by Judge John Cleves Symmes - not at the mouth of the Great Miami, as he intended, and as General Harmar and others expected, but at North Bend.  Who Judge Symmes was, in his family origin and early career, and what were his preliminary movements before reaching the Purchase with his colony, are narrated in Chapter IV of the first part of this book.  Major Denny who had returned to the garrison at Fort Harmar, thus wrote in his journal Aug. 27, 1788, of the appearance of Judge Symmes and party at the post, during the movement westward.  The gallant young officer's attention seems to have been specially and worthily attracted by the principal young lady of the party, the daughter of the proprietor.

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     The story of North Bend and other Miami settlements will be carried on further in this chapter.
     Among the early settlers of the township, were the Silvers, Rittenhouse, Woods, Materns, Howells, and Anthony families.

SETTLEMENT NOTES.

     JOSEPH DIXSON GARRISON, tavern keeper and groceryman, North Bend, is great-grandson of a Swede or German named Garrison, who was among the first settlers of New Jersey.  His grandfather, Abraham Garrison, emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky at a very early day, and settled at or near Scott's station, removing in a few years to the Northwest Territory at Losantiville.  Here his wife, Lydia Garrison, did considerable doctoring among the people of the place, and here he and his son Joseph, father of the subject of this notice, were eye witnesses of the murder of Benjamin Van Cleve by the Indians.  She, in a small way, introduced the manufacture of soap in Cincinnati, and he built and operated the horse-mill on Third street, where the Presbyterian colonists held some of their earliest services.  Joseph Garrison is supposed to have been born at Scott's station, and remained with his father at Cincinnati until he was well grown.  His son gives the following amusing account of the manner in which he became acquainted with General Harrison:
     "He got acquainted with him in rather a comical way.  My father had caught a cub bear by killing the old one.  He raised it as a pet, and had it under good subjection.  After it had grown up to about its full size, he would watch when the army would be on parade or drilling, and would then take his bear and go up on the side-hill above the parade ground, and tie an old camp-kettle to his hind parts and scare him and turn him loose, when the bear would run for home right through the line of soldiers, and break ranks, and make a grand disturbance.  So one day the general followed him home and requested his father to stop him of his sport.  I have often heard the general and father laugh about their first acquaintance."
     Joseph Garrison married Merab Conner, near Lawrenceburgh, in 1805, and, after some service in aid of the Government surveyors, settled at the Goose pond, in Miami township, where Joseph D. was born, in 1816.  The latter in early life tended Garrison's ferry, over the Great Miami, where the Cleves bridge now is, and made several trading trips with boats to New Orleans.  He was married in 1852 to Sarah Ann, only daughter of James Smith Leonard, an early emigrant from Canada to the neighborhood of Rising Sunk, Indiana.  The same day they started for California with a company he had agreed to take through.  He there engaged in gold mining until the middle of February, 1855, when they started on their return to the States.  While residing at Diamond Springs, California, their first son, now a physician in southeastern Kansas was born.  Two more sons and two daughters are now residing with their parents.  After his return Mr. Garrison pursued farming for a time, and then bought his present hotel property in North Bend.

     One of the settlers of 1796, at North Bend, was ANDREW SCOTT, a Scotch immigrant from Redstone, Pennsylvania, who was one of the first blacksmiths to erect a shop and open for business here.  He remained at the Bend about six years, and then went on a farm, dying in Crosby township in 1831.  His son James also worked for a time at blacksmithing here, and then became a teacher - one of the first in point of both time and reputation, in Hamilton county.  He was also a civil engineer.  He removed to Crosby township, where he was justice of the peace for several years, and was one of the founders, in 1803, of the Whitewater Congregational church at New London, Butler county.  He died of cholera in 1834.  His numerous descendants still reside in Crosby township.

     CHRISTOPHER FLINCHPAUGH

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     HENRY FLINCHPAUGH

     CALEB FLINCHPAUGH

     JOHN M. FLINCHPAUGH

     HENRY FLINCHPAUGH

     DAVID FLINCHPAUGH

     JOHN B. MATSON

     CHALON G. GUARD was born in this county on Mar. 15, 1819.  In 1841 he was married to Leah H. Comeges, of Dearborn county, Indiana.  He was township trustee for several years, and, in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was a member, he was steward during many years.  In his political faith he was a Republican.  He died Oct. 21, 1873.  His children are Angeline, Maton B., married to Sophia D. Moore, and now living in Indiana; Simeon G., married to Inez M. Lewis, and now in Kansas; Rachel M., Ezra G., Almira H., the wife of Stephen W. Rittenburg; and Eunice W., now Mrs. Luther Fisher, of Illinois.

     JOHN McGEE was born in New Jersey in 1807.  He came to Ohio in 1829, and settled on the farm on which he now lives in Miami township.  In 1833 he married Nacky Brown, from Clermont county.  He has held the office of trustee in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a member.  He has long been a Republican.  His children are Sarah, Robert, married to Sallie Fazely; John, Jane, now Mrs. Michael Sargent, and Annie.

     ABEL INGERSOLL was born in New Jersey in 1794, and

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     ISAAC INGERSOLL

     WILLIAM MAENSLEY

     MOSES B. MAENSLEY

     JOB HAYES  was born in this county - North Bend - in 1791.  His father, Job Hayes, died on a boat three months before his birth; he was buried on the bank of the Ohio river with such care to conceal the body from the Indians that even his friends were unable to discover the place of his burial.  He always followed the business of farming.  His children were: James, married to Penina Conner; Sarah, the wife of Levi Miller, now living in Indian; and Job, married to Johanna Hayes, and living in Iowa.

     JOB HAYES, jr., owing to the great distance to school, was obliged to study evenings at home, which he did by the firelight as best he could.  He married Johanna Hayes, of Butler county, June 29, 1816, and first settled on the farm now owned by the Miller heirs, in Whitewater township.  In politics he was a Democrat; in religion, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.  He died in Madison, Iowa, Feb. 4, 1868.  His wife died at the same place four years later.  Their family consists of eleven children: Mary, Levi M., Joseph H., married to Sarah Myers; Omer, married to Mary A. McEllhaney; Sarah M., the wife of Isaac Stephens, of Indiana; Isaac D., married and living in Iowa; Martha, Jacob, Samuel F., married to Mary Marsh, and now of Iowa; and Buelah, married first to Corydon Swift and afterward to Barney Mullin.

     JOSEPH H. HAYES was born in this county in 1824.  In 1852 he married Sarah Myers, also of this county.  He has served as township trustee one term, is a member of the Methodist church, and in politics is a Democrat.  His seven children are: Job W., Enos, Alice D., Isaac D., Joseph G., Wilson, and Charles.

     THOMAS MARKLAND was born in Maryland, in 1765.  He was a cooper by trade, which business he carried on with farming all his life.  He married Anna M. Somers, a native of Virginia, and came to this State in 1805.  He reached Green township, of this county, on the second day of April, and settled on the farm now owned by Charles and Washington Markland.  At that time the nearest white settler was two miles distant, and the nearest church had to be reached by going eleven miles.  The. school was two miles from his farm, and the nearest grist-mill twenty-seven miles away.  There was no saw mill within reach.
     He helped Bailey Guard land at Lawrenceburgh, Indiana, about the year 1806; was the first manufacturer of barrels in that part of the county.  In politics he was an Old Line Whig.  He died in 1825, and his wife's death occurred in 1837.  They had a family of eleven children, eight boys and three girls - Elizabeth, the wife of William Rogers; Leah, wife of Henry Towner; Martha, now Mrs. James Anderson; Jonathan, married to Julia Sammons; Benjamin, married to Fanny Rogers and after wards to Emily Edwards; John, whose wife is Mary Miller; William, whose wife is Mary Sammons; Noah, married to Jemima Sammons; Washington, married to Mary Hammond; James, now in Indiana, whose wife was Phoebe Moore and afterward Eliza Creech; and Charles, married to Jane Gardner.

     NOAH MARKLAND

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     MOSES ARGO

      EBENEZER ARGO

     SAMUEL BURR

     WILLIAM P. BURR

     JESSE HEARN

     PURNEL HEARN

NORTH BEND

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SUGAR CAMP SETTLEMENT.

     A little colony bearing this name is remarked in the Ohio Historical Collections as having been founded about the same time as North Bend, three miles down the river from that place and two miles from the Indiana line, upon the farm of W. H. Harrison, jr.  It had at one time about thirty houses but afterwards became extinct.  The block-house built in the early day for the protection of the settlers was still standing in 1847, but was much dilapidated and did not last a great while longer.  A figure of it as it then appeared is given in the collections.

SHARON WICK'S NOTE:  Click Here for drawing of Block House as found in Historical Collections Vol. I publ. 1907

CLEVES

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FERN BANK,

a place of suburban residence, laid out on the north side of the railways, in the southwest part of section one, between Riverdale and Short's station, just outside the limits of North Bend corporation.

GRAVEL PIT,

a station now little used, on the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, about two and a half miles southwest of North Bend, near Fort Hill, named from the extensive deposit of gravel here opened for the ballasting of the railway tracks.  It was the scene of stirring times at one period during the war.  In the early part of September, 1862, during the so-called siege of Cincinnati by Generals Kirby Smith and Heath, a battalion of Squirrel Hunters was ordered here to guard a ford across the Ohio - it being a season of very low water - against the possible crossing of a force of rebel cavalry.  The Squirrel Hunters remained until the sixteenth of September, when they were relieved by the Nineteenth Michigan infantry, a new regiment, which had just been ordered to the field.  It encamped at first between the station and the river, and then on the higher ground above the station for two or three weeks, without special incident, and then returned to Cincinnati and advanced into Kentucky.

POPULATION.

     Miami township had two thousand three hundred and seventeen inhabitants by the census of 1880; one thousand five hundred and forty-nine by that of 1830, just fifty years before.

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