GEOGRAPHY AND BEGINNINGS

     The present township of Mill Creek is bounded on the south by the city of Cincinnati, on the east by Columbia township, on the north by Springfield township, and on the west by Green township.  It is named from the stream which flows through it from northeast to southwest, almost bisecting the township.  The Indian name of this creek was Mah-pet-e-wa.  The shape of the township would be a regular parallelogram, six sections long by four broad, but for a little more than a quarter section, still belonging to Mill Creek township, projected by the Avondale corporation south of the north line of the city, between Corryville and Woodburn, and for the projection of the city into the township, in its turn, about two miles and a half, by the annexation of Cumminsville.  The present acreage of Mill Creek, originally very nearly an entire surveyed township, is but eleven thousand, seven hundred and ninety-nine, of which almost one-third is covered by village sites, leaving but eight thousand and ninety-seven acres in strictly rural districts.
     Previous to 1810 in inhabitants of this territory were partly under the jurisdiction of Cincinnati and Springfield townships; but in 1809, upon the petition of the commissioners of Hamilton county, Mill Creek township was set off upon that part of the Symmes purchase known as fractional range two, township three.  A glance at the Symmes plat shows that this township then contained nearly thirty-six sections (square miles), the fractional sections being numbers one and seven on the Ohio river.  Its southern line was on the parallel along which now runs Liberty street, Cincinnati.
     The first election for township officers was ordered by the county commissioners for February, 1810, at the house of Peter Mays.  Since then Cincinnati has encroached up on the southern part of the township, taking into the city two rows of sections (twelve square miles).  Cumminsville has also been taken into the corporation of Cincinnati, so that Mill Creek township proper now contains something less than twenty-two square miles.
     The surface of Mill Creek township is hilly in the western part, the level lands lying along the creek and to the east upon low hills.  Of the grand old forests, beneath whose shade the Indians roamed in freedom, not more than a thousand acres remain, the rest having been long since cleared away to give place to the farms, gardens, and busy corporations which cover the land.
     Soon after the organization of Hamilton county, in January, 1790, so great was the influx of pioneers and adventurers from abroad, that Cincinnati, cramped in by the towering hills, as the village was, could give neither employment nor subsistence to the people, and it became a practical question with many, whether to remain and starve in sight of Fort Washington or fight their way to the north, through woods, wolves, and Indians.  Many chose the latter alternative, and the rapidity with which the pioneers extended themselves north from Cincinnati to the Great Miami is easily accounted for.
     The campaigns of Harmar in 1790, of St. Clair in 1791, and of Wayne in 1794, were all planned in Cincinnati, and the expeditions were composed, to some extent, of men from Columbia, Cincinnati, and North Bend, together with many from Kentucky.  The soldiers went on foot and on horseback.   The right wing of the armies extended as far east as the present Lebanon pike, while the centre and left wings moved north on the present Hamilton pike, reaching towards the west to Mill creek and to the foot of the hills beyond.  Upon these expeditions those who were fortunate enough to return had ample opportunity to acquaint themselves with the lay of farm lands, the supply of water for mill purposes, the location of springs and stone quarries, the best sites for buildings, natural means of defence; and also the shortest and safest communication with the parent settlements.  So strongly did the beauty and advantages of the Mill Creek valley impress the early surveyors, the hunters, and the soldiers, that within three years from the first landing at Columbia in 1788, Ludlow's station and mill, at the second crossing of Mill creek, with White's and Caldwell's block-houses and mills at Carthage, offered both protection and subsistence to all who were pushing towards the present sites of Hamilton and Dayton.
     A good notion, as to the rapid settlement of the townships north of those on the Ohio, may be gained from a few statements.  In June, 1790, a force of one hundred and forty men landed at Cincinnati and commenced the erection of Fort Washington on the spot afterwards made classic by the bazaar of Mistress Trollope.  In December of the same year General Harmar came with more troops, increasing the garrison to four hundred and forty, and these, with the "eleven families and twenty four batchelors," made up the population of the village.  In 1798 (October 29th) Governor St. Clair gave notice to James Smith, sheriff of the county, requiring the free male inhabitants of the townships to meet and elect representatives to serve in the territorial assembly.  This
---------------
     *The material for this chapter has been supplied very largely through the intelligent industry of Thomas M. Dill, esq., of Carthage, and much of it is given in his own words.

Page 334 -
election was held on the third Monday in December of the same year, when four hundred and fifty-six voters were enrolled.
     In the governor's proclamation he slates that "sufficient proof has been given me that there is a much greater number than five thousand free male inhabitants" in the district.  In the following year the population had increased so much as to entitle the people to two more representatives, and an election was held Sept. 12, 1799, at which five hundred and thirty-six votes were cast.   From 1800 to 1805 Cincinnati's population increased two hundred, while near twenty-five thousand immigrants passed on into the upper counties.
     In 1840 the population of Mill Creek township was six thousand two hundred and forty-nine, and forty years later, at present date, it is but one thousand two hundred and thirty-five.
     Previous to 1810 the history of the people who inhabited Mill Creek township in inseparable from that of Cincinnati.  Before the sales of lands by Jude Symmes, in what is now Mill Creek township, adventurers would slip out from Cincinnati, put up rude cabins, clear little patches of ground, make war on wolves and wildcats and maintain a precarious existence until driven back to shelter under Fort Washington.  These hunters and squatters frequently entered parts of sections as "actual volunteer settlers," and sometimes laid claim to the Forfeit Corners by right of occupancy.  As early as 1795 purchasers from Symmes would find their deeds scoffed at by prior claimants, who had manufactured titles by starvation, peril, and perhaps blood-letting, which titles were assigned from one to another, until claim and possession were determined and given by the courts of law.  Abstracts of title in the Miami purchased date back to the first sales by John Cleves Symmes, but from 1788 until final purchasers received their deeds, perfected in full possession.  Beyond the purchasers of the original Symmes sections in range two, township three, were many men and women who labored, suffered, and died in obscurity.  Their lives were unwritten, and now, when the laborer's spade or ploughman's share turns out their skeletons, our inquiries start, but no answer will ever come to tell us who they were.

INCIDENTS OF EARLY HISTORY.

     Among the names which appear frequently in the history of the Miami purchase, and upon the land records of Hamilton county in that of Ludlow.  The brothers, Israel and John Ludlow, were prominent men in their day.  Israel Ludlow became surveyor, and a joint proprietor, in place of the unfortunate Filson, with Denman and Patterson, in laying out the village of Losantiville.  He was captain of the Cincinnati militia in 1790-1, and his descendants are widely and reputably known.  John Ludlow and family came from Buffalo to Cincinnati in November, 1789, occupying first a double-roomed log cabin on the northwest corner of Front and Main streets.  The following year he became the sheriff of the county, and in 1798 was elected to the first territorial legistature legislature.  The first execution was done by Sheriff Ludlow, James Mays being the condemned man, and costs were allowed him by the commissioners, for "gallows, coffin, and grave-digging, fifteen pounds, eight shillings and nine pence."  William D. Ludlow, son of Sheriff John Ludlow, communicated to the writer of this, two or three incidents of early life, which are here given:

     I came to Cincinnati in 1789, when a boy five years old, and soon became used to the hardships, the frights, the incursions of savages, and the tramp of soldiers, who were either drilling, going to, or returning from war.  All persons were obliged in those days to be industrious, and I learned to work when quite a little boy.  Sometimes I went to school, and the first master I knew was an Irishman by the name of Lloyd.  His school-house was on the river bank, now the Public landing, near Main street.  We children were sent to school on the safest side of the village.  One day in the spring of 1791 the Indians came over the hill-tops right down in sight of the fort, and fired away, killing Henry Hahn, a Pennsylvanian, who was clearing a lot.  My uncle Israel  gave chase with his militia company but did not overtake them.  Harmar's expedition did not intimidate the Indians, but made them worse; and while I was a boy in Cincinnati I saw armed men and soldiers every day, and heard Indian stories every night.
     When there was service in the village church I went with my parents, and every man was obliged to have his gun by his side.  I remember once my father's colored man was sent up over the hills to look for our black mare, which had strayed away.  The Indians had taken her from the outlot, and got away with her as far as where Ludlow grove now is.  The thieving fellows had taken the bell from her neck to decoy those who should be sent after the mare.   The darkey was led on and on by the tinkling bell, for he was one whom they would rather capture than kill.  Feeling sure of him, they put the bell on the mare's neck, tethered her and secreted themselves.  Just as he walked up the Indians jumped out after him, and the race began.  The darkey was a good runner,  and kept ahead of them to the top of Vine street hill, where the Indians gave up the pursuit.  The darkey, however, improved his chances until he reached our house, where, pale with fright and gasping for breath, he shouted, "De black mare gone, gone!  Massa John, ho neber see dat black mare any more, suah!  De Injuns got her!"
     I do not remember St. Clair's start on his campaign in 1791, but remember the return, the arrival of the wounded, and the funeral of Captain Darke, who died of his wounds in Isaac Martin's house, next to my father's.  The turnout of the soldiers, the black pall, the coffin, the slow pace of those who carried his body, and the dead march sadly and solemnly affected me.
     The Indians were continually hanging around, watching along the Miamis, stealing from cabins and horse-lots, from Columbia to North Bend, and back in the country from the river, whenever any one had ventured to fix a stopping place.  Once our horses were missing from the wood-lot.  Pursuit was given at once by four men, John and James Spencer, John Adams, and Peter Cox.  These were known as the "northwester spies."  Cox had a new rifle, and as they started Cox  called out to my father:  "Squire John, the Indians shall never get this rifle unless they kill me at the first fire."  These men found the horses and Indians just north of Spring Grove cemetery, near Platt Evans' house, and fired into them, killing two.  The Indians returned the fire, disabling Cox.  Knowing he could not escape from the twenty or more who came after him with a yell, Cox told his companions to go and save themselves.  The last seen of Cox was with the nuzzle of that new rifle in hand smashing it to flinders against a tree, as the savages closed upon him.  In my school-boy days I used to pass that sugar tree and look upon the mutilated bark, where poor Cox had smashed the stock and lock of his gun the moment before the tomahawk fell upon him.  While General Wayne was drilling his troops at "Hobson's Choice," preparatory to his campaign against the Indians, I was a frequent witness of camp and field proceedings under the iron-countenanced old general, and on Sundays I used to perch myself in the top of a beech tree and look down upon the sham battles below.
     General Wilkinson usually commanded the riflemen, who, as whooping Indians, filled the woods, while Wayne directed our soldiers.  These sham battles were often exciting, and I shall never forget old Wayne's appearance, his warlike manner, and his stentorian profanity, which could be heard above the noise whenever anything displeased him.  This year (1794) Wayne's army left the town, going up Main street, over the hill and up the Mill Creek valley, the footmen and horsemen crossing the central parts of Mill Creek and Springfield townships, the left wing passing over the present sites of Cumminsville, Spring Grove, Carthage, and Springdale.

Page 335 -
     Soon after the army left, my father moved his family out to the country, at what is now known as Ludlow Grove, where my brother John..................................................................

     Among the earliest to break the forest in Mill Creek township were the Columbia schoolmaster, John Reily, and his companions.  He bought his tract of land, comprising part of the present site of Carthage, in 1791, but did not associate himself with Pryor and others for improvements in this region until 1793.  The short story of their attempt in the winderness is thus told in the sketch of the life of Mr. Reily, in McBride's Pioneer Biography*:

     Their land being entirely in timber, they spent the first week in making a small clearing and building a rough shanty, and the second in digging a well.  They then continued clearing their land.  Their horses were stolen by the Indians, but, not discouraged, they procured others and continued their improvements.  After some time Mr. Pryor, in company with two other men, engaged to make a trip from Fort Washington to Fort Hamilton, with provisions, on pack-horses, the usual mode of transportation in those days.  On their way they encamped on a branch of Pleasant run, four miles south of Hamilton .  .  .  .  In the morning they were attacked by the Indians, and Mr. Prior was killed.

     Mr. Reily was so discouraged by the death of his associate that he stopped his improvements and returned to teaching in Columbia, removing afterwards to Cincinnati, and finally to Hamilton, where he died.  We shall hear more of the Pryor family when the history of  Springfield township comes to be related.
     A belief in witchcraft, singularly strong and persistent, prevailed in parts of the Mill creek to a comparatively recent day.  About the year 1814 a wealthy and respectable family resided on the creek and owned a number of fine horses, some of which died of a strange and unaccountable distemper.  No remedy for it could be found, and the conclusion was arrived at that they were killed by witchcraft.  A sharp lookout was consequently kept for sorcerers or fortune-tellers, and means were take to punish them, if any there were, by boiling certain herbs and other ingredients over a hot fire in a cauldron, with pins and needles, which were believed to prick the witch or wizard, at however great a distance.  While a mess of this disinfection was boiling furiously at the residence aforesaid, the head of the household happened to take a view from a door which overlooked a large part of the farm, and saw his daughter-in-law at the moment hastening from her cabin, about a quarter of a mile from the house, to a spring, for a bucket of water.  His excited imagination at once connected her movements with his calamities and incantations, and he ordered his son to remove his family from the farm.  He suspected an old and feeble woman named Garrison, residing eight or ten miles from his place, to be the author of all his troubles and, having been advised to shoot a silver bullet into the next distempered horse he had, which would kill the witch and cure the animal, he prepared one and shot it presently into a very fine brood mare which was affected with the disease.  Contrary to his expectations, the shot
---------------
     * Vol. 1.

Page 336 -
killed the beast; but, as Mrs. Garrison also died soon after, it was finally believed by some that his silver bullet had brought her to her death.

EARLY INDUSTRIES.

     Thomas Goudy, esq., the Cincinnati lawyer mentioned in the Indian story, had a flouring mill on the creek, whose capabilities and facilities for work he set forth in a long advertisement in the Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette for May 15, 1799, closing as follows:

     As to disposition of business, I need say no more than that Mr. Jessup had three and one-half bushels ground on her [sic] in precisely eight minutes.  I hope to gain a general custom, but she is absolutely idle for want of work at present.

     From the same region, forty years afterwards, as Mr. Cist notes, a surplus of three hundred thousand barrels of flour was sent annually to New Orleans.
     Some time before 1826, Duvall's paper mills, owned in Cincinnati, were in operation at Mill Grove, presumably in the Mill Creek territory.

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

     James Sisson, Robert Menie, Abraham Wilson, James Lyon, Joseph McDowell, 1819; Robert Menie, John Ludlow, Bela Morgan, Jacob Stewart, 1825; Jacob Stewart, John Ludlow, John Burgoyne, Nathaniel Williams, 1829; Enoch Jacobs, William Bowman, E. P. Joseph, 1865; Bowman, Joseph, John A. Rudel, 1866; Joseph, Rudel, Henry Erchel, 1867-8; Joseph, Erchel, J. C. Cross, 1869-70; Joseph, 1871-2; Samuel Kemper, 1873-5; A. C. Kaylor, Elon Strong, 1876-8; Kaylor, J. N. Skellman, 1879; Kaylor, Solomon Tice, 1880.

RELIGIOUS HISTORY

     After the erection of the First Presbyterian church in Cincinnati (1792), religious services at or near the out-posts were only such as fathers or mothers conducted in their families, or when, upon appointment, a few would meet at the rude home of a neighbor to listen to a wandering preacher, who, with Bible, hymn-book, and rifle, was going through the forest wilds to gather together the Lord's people.  Previous to the year 1800 very many had never listened to a sermon by a regular preacher, except at a funeral.  When peace was practically acknowledged after Wayne's treaty, the preachers rode or walked from post to post, from cabin to cabin; and meetings began to be held once a month, or once in three months with something of regularity.  The early preachers made themselves known at the country weddings, at the bedsides of the sick and dying, at teh solemnities of the grae, and a the "big meetings" which were held for days at a time, and in the woods, when the weather permitted.  Some of these preachers are remembered by the children of those who first attended the services in Hamilton county, and a few of the names here given have deservedly found their places in the ecclesiastical annals of the country.  Among these were the Rev. Messrs. Rice, Kemper, Smith, Burke, Wilson, Robinson, Root, Simonton, Stone, Lyon, Graves, Cavender, Wetherby, Challen, O'Kane, Scott, Dudley, Worley, and Runseler.
     In connection with Mill Creek township, which was a part of Cincinnati township until 1810, it may be said that the membership of the different denominations in that year was less than one hundred.  Fifteen years later - that is, in 1825 - the following representation was made by the several agents at the distribution of the ministerial fund:

in all one hundred and seventy-one members, to whom was allowed from the fund fifty-one dollars and thirty cents, or thirty cents a member.
     In 1835 distribution of the fund was made as follows to the church agents.

in all three hundred and three members, to whom was allowed one hundred and fifty dollars and fifty cents.
     In 1850-1 the church lists showed the following:

in all seven hundred and seventy-five members.  This number shows very nearly the total of professed religionists in the township, being less than the real number, inasmuch as there were some others who, not having organized churches, did not apply for the ministerial aid.
     As before stated, the first services were conducted in private dwellings, in barns, in school houses, and often in the woods.  The beautiful groves at Carthage, its easy approaches by the old beaten roads, its accommodations and hospitalities, made it the great rallying place for the Millerites, and some others; and, from the earliest tiems to late years, Carthage was known for its religious gatherings, as well as for its political meetings, horse races, fairs, and militia musters.
     Soon after Alexander Campbell became known as a leader, some of his adherents found their way to Mill Creek township, and about 1830 the Rev. Messrs. Campbell, Stone, Challen, and others began to visit and preach throughout the neighborhood.  Meetings were held in the Carthage school-house, in Solomon Roges' barn, in Smalley's woods (now Schmucker's), and in 1832 a band of fourteen enrolled themselves under the leadership of Walter Scott, a colaborer with Campbell in the work of tearing down human creeds and building up churches on

Page 337 -
the New Testament.  Walter Scott was a scholar, editor, and impassioned speaker; he was industrious and courageous, and proclaiming a new order of things, and haling men and women from the centre to the four quarters of Mill Creek township, he threw the denominational camps into consternation.  Without requiring anything of candidates beyond confession of faith in Jesus and a promise of good behavior, he proceeded by day and night to baptize his converts in Mill creek or the Miami canal.  Mr. Scott preached incessantly, printed the Evangelist, and in 1832 had a comfortable brick meeting-house built, a corps of capable church officers, and a large congregation.  Among the first who joined hands with Walter Scott, may be mentioned a few names which appear elsewhere in the county's history: Solomon Rogers, the first bishop, and Mrs. Rogers; William Myers and Richard Dillino, first deacons, with their wives; Adaline Hubbell, and Emeline Ross; Thomas Wright and wife; Elijah Brady and wife; Mr. Stephens and wife.  After these came, as officers, bishops, deacons, and teachers, Robert Richardson, Harvey Fairchild, James and Samuel Dill, William Thomas, James McCash, Solomon Niles John McCammon, Benjamin Watkins,Isaac Bruin, Daniel Riggs, John Sheehan, William and Louis Pinerton; also, to assist in church work, sisters Abigail Bonnell, E. Swift, Mary McCammon, Sarah Rodgers, Sarah Scott, and Hettie Ludlow.
     In the words of the church scribe (Robert Richardson, afterwards a professor at Bethany college, Virginia), "as the word of the Lord prevailed, many were added to the church."  The words of the historian were true; the congregation prospered, and remains to this day, in faith and practice, with the children of the pioneers.  In this old church the Millerites proclaimed the end of the world, and in 1842 pitched their tents in the adjacent grounds and, posting their proclamations and pictures on the trees and rocks, awaited the fulfilment of their vain expectations.
     This place lies in two townships, having the larger part, one hundred and fifty-five acres in Mill Creek and Carthage, but fifty-eight (two hundred and thirteen in all) in Springfield township.  It had one thousand and seven inhabitants by the census of 1880.  In 1818 Edward White, sometimes called Edward III, laid out the village of Carthage, on the "forfeit corner" of section twelve, in the northeast part of Mill Creek township.  The recorded plat is dated Dec. 23, 1815.  In the previous year Levi Frazee had sold the east forty-six acres of the forfeit corner to Captain Jacob White for six hundred and fifty dollars, who immediately disposed of it to Edward for the same sum, six hundred and fifty dollars.  The next year the town was laid out and the lots advertised for sale.  It was then bounded east by Dayton street, south by Deerfield and west by the Hamilton road, which then bore a little east of north, on the beaten track of St. Clair's and Wayne's armies, which passed north from Fort Washington in the years 1791 and 1793.  The north boundary of the town plat was the east and west line between the townships of Mill Creek and Springfield, established in 1809-10. Previous to 1815 White's mill, on Mill creek, just above the town, and Griffin's Station, on the west near by, were as well known in the early days as Columbia or North Bend.  These mills and stations were the principal places for safety and supplies between the Miamis north of Cincinnati.  A wagon road connected Whites Station with Columbia, crossing Harmar's trace one mile south east of the present village; another led east to Covalt's Station, on the Little Miami; and another road, on the old Indian trail, passed near Griffin's (Caldwell's Mill), westward to the Great Miami, and on to North Bend.  This road connected almost directly with Dunlap's or Colerain Station on the Great Miami.  Between White's and Griffin's Stations (in upper Carthage), passed the great road from Fort Hamilton, southward to Ludlow's Station (North Cumminsville), and thence to Cincinnati.
     Limited space prevents, in this place, a digression up on the natural advantages of the Mill Creek valley around White's and Griffin's; and the names of those who first fought the red men here, who first cleared the forest away, must also be passed reluctantly over.  The names of the greater landholders will, however, lead to important dates.  The present corporate limits of the town enclose the corners of four sections, six and twelve in Mill Creek township, and one and seven in Springfield.  Section seven, the northwest corner of the present corporation, was entered by warrant in 1792, by David Griffin, and in the same year Griffin also entered section one, in behalf of Jacob White.  Section six, (Mill Creek), was entered in 1789 by Samuel Bonnell, Moses Pryor locating on the "forfeit corner" of said section.  The same year David Tuttle recorded his warrant for section twelve (Mill Creek); and soon after we find Richard S. Clark vacating the "forfeit corner" of said section twelve because of a debt which he owed to John Vance, who established his claim thereupon.
     In close relation to the four mentioned, Daniel Griffin, Jacob White, Samuel Bonnell and David Tuttle, appear the names of James Henry, Joseph John Henry, Israel Shreve, Moses and Luther Kitchel, Henry Runyan, James Mott, Silas Condit, Robert Harper, Darius C. Orcutt, John Brazier, Daniel Cooper, Samuel Martin, Moses Pryor, Samuel Dunn, Stephen Flinn, Caleb Camp, James Flinn, Richard Hawkins, Zebulon Foster, Jacob Dungan, Edward and Amos White, James Caldwell, William Ludlow, Benjamin Ludlow, Robert and Richard Dill, Samuel Williams, Silas Halsey, John Wallace, Andrew Goble James winans, James Cunningham, and some others, who, though not crowded uncomfortably close, were neighbors and frequenters of White's and Caldwell's Mills.  These men were mostly land owners, holding entire sections, halves, or quarters, on "forfeit corners."  The Whites were a numerous family, as were also the Flinns, while the Ludlows had located claims throughout the Symmes purchase.  Many of the names above are no longer continued on the county records, and have vanished from the memory of the living.
     There were one hundred and fifty-two lots sold to fifty eight different purchasers.  Many of these purchasers

Page 338 -
never resided in the village, and, as some disappeared before the town was much improved, only a few names are given of those who bought lots, remained, and built up the place.

     Archibald Burns took thirty-eight lots, put up a fine residence, and built a factory and machine shop.
     John Brecount bought four lots, and built and kept the first public house, known as the Mansion house.
     John Evans took several lots, and was known as the first resident bricklayer in Carthage.
     Sidney and Ephraim Knowlton were early pork merchants and storekeepers, and were afterwards in the canal business.  Their boat, the first one here, was "The Hannibal, of Carthage."
     Benjamin Irwin, property holder and first storekeeper, at the corner of Fourth and Main streets.
     Leicester Nichols and James Hefferman, were the first carpenters.
     John Shanklin was the first wagonmaker.  He died in a few years, and was followed in the same business, in 1820, by Richard Rancevaw, who still resides in the village.
     The Millers - Isaac, Thomas and Adam - were early residents, owned property, and had a saddler-shop on Hamilton street.
     Rev. Isaac Ferris was the preacher from Duck creek; and Solomon Rogers, a retired, wealthy steamboat captain, was also ever engaged in good works.  Mr. Rogers established a silk cocoonery, and endeavored to develop the silk business, but failed in the enterprise.  He improved his property, however, and did much for the village.
     Andrew Smalley owned thirty-five lots, kept the Clifton house (afterwards Belser's tavern), was the first postmaster, encouraged the county fairs, and delighted in horse racing.
     Joel Tucker and Nathaniel Williams were blacksmiths on Main street.  Their successors in iron working were Messrs. Burns, Castner and Tucker.
      The Townsends - James, John, and Pernal - were coopers and carpenters.
     The Williams family - Nathaniel, Miles and Martha - were lot owners.
     In 1821 Thomas McCammon & Sons, from Cincinnati, came to the neighborhood, and are remembered as the first cabinetmakers.
     At this time (18210, there were only a dozen houses in White's Carthage, and but five or six in sight west of the village.  These were the houses of Major James Caldwell, Richard Dill, Abram Wilson, and Thomas McCammon, and the Bull's Head tavern, south of Wilson's on the Hamilton road.
     In 1826 Samuel Caldwell made an addition of seventy lots, on the west side of Hamilton road, opposite old Carthage, the same year that the Miami canal was cut through the east side of the village.  Many strangers came to the place, some bought lots, many new houses were put up, and the town began to present an appearance of thrift and prosperity.  The children, who had been attending an old time school far below the village, in what is now South Elmwood, were better accommodated in a comfortable brick school-house, east of the canal, at the corner of Second and Mill streets.  This was one of the first three brick buildings at that time in the neighborhood, and remained standing until recently, when modern demands put it away for the more pretentious school edifices which are now conspicuous in Carthage.
     For a while church services were occasionally held at private residences, or in the school-houses, - or groves; but in 1832 the Christian church, organized by Walter Scott, built a brick meeting-house on the corner of Jackson and Fourth streets, whereon the new edifice, erected in 1878, now stands.  The first officers of this church, co-workers with Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott, were Solomon Rogers, William Myers, Richard Dillino, Hezekiah Wood, Elijah Brady, and John Ludlow.  Dr. Richardson, later a professor at Bethany college, was clerk of the church.  In connection with this church a Lord's Day school was established ; and the names of the first verse reciters - children then, old men and women now - who memorized and recited twelve thousand three hundred and ten verses, are here given, as worthy a place in the history of Carthage and its neighborhood:
     Noah Wright, Stephen Dillino, Boyd Thomas, William Evans, James Harvey, Boyd Dillino, John Scott, Isaac Chase, William Hefferman, Thomas Wright, David Pigg, Nelson Derby, Ephraim Knowlton, Jonathan, John, and Benjamin Bonnell, William Scott, Isabella McCammon, Ansinith Harvey, Mary Thomas, Elizabeth and Emeline dill, Emily Scott, Charlotte Myers, Elizabeth Wright, Lucinda Chase, Joanna Bonnell, Isabella Felter, Louisa Mayhew, Sarah Flinn, Elizabeth Pigg, Caroline Riggs, and  Emily Baldrick. 
     Many of them are still alive, though widely separated.  Their parents and grandparents were among those who landed at Columbia, Cincinnati, or North Bend, in the earlier days.  One of those named, Jonathan Bonnell, is now leader of the choir in the village church, a place he has filled almost continuously for forty-five years.
     The instruction of the common school was supplemented in private schools by that of the academic, wherein mathematics, philosophy, Latin, Greek, painting and music, were taught, and good students made.  
     Walter Scott edited and published a paper in the village, and, being a notable orator in things divine, classes were formed in theology, under his direction, and at least a respectable number of professional writers and speakers of to-day date the beginnings of scholarship and goodness to the classical and religious instruction received in Carthage fifty years ago.
     Among the early teachers were Messrs. Armitage, Matthews, Wheelock, Wood, Wiley, Jehial Woodworth, Isaac Goodwin, William Pinkerton, Providence White, Mrs. Sophia Wright, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Eliza McFarland, Elizabeth J. Dill, and Flavius Josephus Hough - all previous to 1850.  Of all these the longest and best known of the village teachers was Mrs. Eliza McFarland, who, in a long experience of thirty-five years, taught two generations - the children's children - and, in 1877, at the

Page 339 -
age of seventy-five, closed life's labors beloved by all who knew her.
     Going back to the days ............................

     The more tragic history of Carthage begins with the killing of Moses Pryor and his two children, by the Indians, in 1792-3, and the murder of the pack-horsemen at Bloody run, just south of the present village, in 1793.

Page 340 -

     Edward White, the founder of the place, was killed at Galena, Illinois, while acting as an arbitrator, about 1840.  His decision was adverse to one Dr. Stoddard, who drew a pistol and shot him dead.
     Lewis Bonnell was killed by the fall of a tree in 1831.
     Two boys, named Swift and Robinson, skating on the canal, were drowned in 1831, below Second street.
     An unknown man, taking shelter in a hollow tree was killed by lightning in 1845.
     In 1846 the state was overturned in Mill creek, and one child was drowned.
     Charles Hughes, was swimming in the creek, west of Third street, was drowned in 1847.
     In 1853 a stranger stopped over night at Mr. Fowler's, upper Main street, and was found sitting on the front stove plate in the morning, dead.
     James _____, also an unknown man, drowned his sister and horse accidently at the ford above the village in 1854. 
     A fast woman and fast horse were drowned by a careless driver at the Hamilton Street bridge, in 1854.
     Mr. Huber was drowned in the creek near by, in 1855.
     In the same year two men, a fireman and section hand, were killed by the cars on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, one at the depot the other below.
     Mr. Chumley, an old man tired of life, put himself on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton track, and was killed, in 1858.
     A brakeman on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad was killed at the bridge above the depot, in 1861.
     About 1853-58 four men, all unknown, were drowned, on as many different Sundays, in the same place where the woman and horse lost their lives in 1854.
     William D. Ludlow, the pioneer, dropped dead near Jackson and Third streets in 1862.  Mr. Ludlow was at this time the second husband of Abigail Ludlow, whose first husband, Lewis Bonnell, was killed by a falling three in 1831.
     A driver of a mule team, from the camp in upper Carthage, was killed by being run over by a wagon in front of Southwell's blacksmith shop in 1863.
     In the same year Mrs. Susan Ramsdale fell dead near Third and Lebanon streets.
     In 1863, when Mrs. Dugan (mother of Susan Ramsdale, just mentioned) saw the young man killed in front of Southwell's shop, she said: "Let my death be just as sudden."  A few days afterwards she was thrown from her wagon and instantly killed.
     An unknown man, hit with a stone, was killed near the corner of Third and Lebanon streets.  It was done by a man now in the penitentiary, whose name is not remembered.
     In 1864, Mrs. Mary Eliza Ewing, but recently married then, was thrown from her carriage at the corner of Fifth and Jackson streets, and instantly killed.
     Oscar Musser, engaged in the camp here in 1864, was kicked by a horse and died immediately after.
     Mrs. Mary Dill, widow of Richard Dill, an early settler, was found dead in her bed in 1863.  Aged ninety years.
     Miles Riggs, while engaged in pleasant conversation, died instantly, in 1868.
     Caleb Thayer was found dead in his own cistern in 1868, a supposed suicide.
     Hiram Sloop was tired of life and hanged himself in his own room, at the corner of Jackson and Anthony streets, in 1869.
     Mrs. Ann Vankirk was found in the canal, near Centre street, in 1870; also a supposed suicide.
     Mrs. Philip Foltz, standing at her front gate with her baby in her arms, engaged in conversation with a neighbor, fell instantly dead, in 1873.
     A boy named Norton was drowned in Mill creek, near Centre street, in 1876.
     Rachel Carrico dropped dead at the depot, on West Second street, in 1876.
     A child, parents unknown, was found dead on the  towpath side of the Miami aqueduct, in 1878.
     John Nutts was found dead in a sandbank, at the corner of Fifth street and the canal,, in 1879.
     Adolphus Dill was killed by the cars on the Dayton Short Line railroad, in 1879.
     James Fitzpatrick, a school boy, was drowned near Sixth street and the canal, in an ice-pound, in 1879.
     Benjamin Tegeder, in trying to recover his brother from under the ice, was himself drowned, near the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton bridge, on Sunday, Dec. 12, 1880.
     The soldiers from Carthage who volunteered in the late war were:
     Alcorn, Fielding, in the cavalry, a prisoner four months.
     Bonnell, Warren, cavalry
     Bowen, Putnam, cavalry.
     Calden, Jerry, infantry, wounded at Rich Mountain.
     Castner, Peter, gunboat service.
     Castner, Jonathan, gunboat service.
     Curtis, James cavalry.
     Curtis, Morton, gunboat service.
     Dooley, William, infantry, wounded at Perryville, Kentucky.
     Dillano, Samuel, infantry, taken prisoner at Stone River.
     Dorman, John, wounded at Vicksburgh on the gunboat Carondelet.
     Flinn, Jesse, infantry, wounded.
     Flinn, Edward, infantry, killed at Atlanta.
     Ferris, Henry, cavalry.
     Fowler, William, cavalry, prisoner in Salisbury.
     Folz, Philip cavalry, wounded in action.
     Hauck, Harry, infantry, died in hospital.
     Kellerman, Henry gunboat service.
     Kroeger, Fred, gunboat service.
     Musser, Jerry, cavalry.
     Musser, Albert, cavalry.
     Morris, Clarence artillery.
     McLean, Jesse infantry, wounded at Mission Ridge.
     McLean, Edwin, infantry and musician.
     McClellin, James, infantry.
     Phillips, George infantry.
     Riggs, Philip D., infantry and cavalry.
     Robinson, Frank infantry, starved to death at Salisbury.
     Rictner, William gunboat service.
     Southwell, George, cavalry.
     Smedley, Daniel surgeon.
     Snyder, John, infantry, killed at Fort Blakely.
     Schmucker, Jacob, infantry.
     Wilson, William, cavalry.

Page 341 -
     Winder, John, infantry.
     Kaylon, George, infantry.
     Shackles, Noah, cavalry.

     Since the platting of Carthage in 1815 there have been several additions: By Samuel Caldwell, in 1826; James N. Caldwell, in 1848; Lee, Wilson & Bullock, in 1850; Caldwell & Paddack, in 1850; Samuel Greenham, in 1858; Theophilus French, in 1868; Jacob Schmucker, in 1869; Eggers & Sprung, in 1875; and by T. Colling, the same year.
     The village was incorporated Sept. 22, 1868.  Its first mayor was Jonathan R. Bonnell; the second, Richard A. Morton, who served from 1869 to 1874, inclusive; third, Richard Phillips; fourth, Smith Stimmell, the present incumbent.

AVONDALE

     This is a large tract (seven hundred and fifty-five acres) adjoining the city north of Walnut Hills, platted in part as a suburban village in 1854, to which considerable annexations have since been made.  Its area is not far from one thousand acres, comprising the whole of section nine, the northwest part of section eight, between Woodburn and Corryville, in the city, and a part of section fifteen, in the south of which, just outside the city, are situated the zoological gardens: The section nine was conveyed by Judge Symmes in 1795 to Samuel Robinson.  The next year Robinson conveyed three hun-

Page 342 -

Page 343 -

BOND HILL

is a little over a mile east of north of Avondale, with a station on the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad.  It was founded by the Cooperative Land and Building association, No. 1, of Hamilton county - a company formed in 1870, but not fully organized until Feb. 3, 1871.  It purchased thirty acres, on the Reading or Lebanon turnpike, at five hundred dolalrs per acre, situated at what was known as Colonel Bond's hill, from which the suburb takes its title.  It is about two-fifths of a mile from the the station, on a slightly inclined plat, offering many eligible building sites.  This was subdivided into spacious lots for suburban residence.  The by-laws of the association required dwellings to be erected in the centre front of each lot, and fifteen front from the sidewalk, and also prohibited the sale of intoxicants in the village.  A fine public hall was early erected.  The suburb has had a good growth, with the usual institutions of such a place, including the Bond Hill circle, a dramatic reading society, which gave weekly readings in the private houses during the cool season.  The village had eight hundred and ninety-six inhabitants in June, 1880.
     The St. Aloysius's German Catholic orphan asylum is situated near Bond Hill, on the Reading road, north of the Marietta & Cincinnati railway.  It owns and occupies here a noble tract of fifty acres, has a three-story brick building with basement and extensive two-story wings on each side - the lower story in each used for school rooms, the upper for dormitories.  The property was valued at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 1874, and has accommodations for about three hundred orphans.  This asylum is supported by the regular contributions of more than two thousand subscribers, at three dollars and twenty-five cents a year, and three celebrations or picnics per year - on Washington's Birthday, the Fourth of July, and on anniversary day, the third Sunday in September - from which about seven thousand dollars are annually realized.  Orphan boys may be kept here until twenty-one years old; girls until they are eighteen.  The Sisters of Notre Dame, under the direction of a reverend father, conduct the asylum, with a board of trustees to manage the finances.  It is regarded as a beneficent charity.  Bond Hill had three hundred and ninety-two inhabitants by the tenth census.

CLIFTON.

     In 1843 Mr. Flamer Ball, a prominent attorney in Cincinnati, deemed it best for the health of his family to remove from the city and take a small farm in what is now Clifton.  The region was then without schools or churches, police, or anything else that savored of city or village life; and there were not even good roads.  After Mr. Ball had been there a few years, he thought the time had come to reap the advantages of a village government, and in 1849 he presented a petition to the legislature, accompanied by the draft of a law for incorporation of the village, to his neighbors and other property owners in the proposed municipality.  Among those who signed the petition were the distinguished or well known names of Philip McIlvaine, Justice McLean, Chief Justice Chase, Hon. William Johnston, R. B. Bowler, Robert Buchanan, William Resor, Winthrop B. Smith, W. G. W. Gano, and B. R. Whiteman.  In March of the next year, accordingly, a beginning was made of Clifton (for so the village was called), as a separate government.  The writer of Cincinnati Past and Present adds.:

     Mr. Ball consented to serve as its mayor, and for nearly twenty years held that office; and as mayor and ex officio president of its council he drafted and enforced all the ordinances of the corporation.  He originated the law for impounding stray animals - a law which he enforced through much opposition, but lived to see it meet the general approbation, and a similar law prevail throughout the State.  Under his administration a church, a good school, and good roads, together with good order, were secured, and Clifton became the most beautiful suburban village to be found in the United States.  It is hardly too much to say that he was the founder of Clifton.
     Mr. Ball was mayor from 1850 to 1869, when Mr. Robert Hosea took the office and held it some years, when he was succeeded by James Bergher, who was in the mayor's chair from 1872 to 1874, inclusive.
     Clifton comprises one thousand, two hundred and eight acres.  It took its name from the Clifton farm, which was within its present territory.  It is situated just north of those parts of the city known as Clifton heights

Page 344 -
and Camp Washington, and between Avondale and the Twenty-fifth ward, or Cumminsville.  King's Pocketbook of Cincinnati says it "comprises about twele hundred acres of land beautifully diversified with hill and dale, and has a population somewhat exceeding one thousand persons (one thousand and forty-six in 1880).  In its precincts the ....................

COLLEGE HILL.

[PHOTO of RESIDENCE OF F. G. CARY, founder of FARMER'S COLLEGE, Hamilton County, Ohio]

 




Page 345 -

ELMWOOD. 

A small subdivision laid out in 1875, along the Dayton Short Line railroad, near the lunatic asylum and just southwest of Carthage, by Messrs. Frank L. Whetstone and L. C. Hopkins.  It had one hundred and thirty-six people by the tenth census.

LUDLOW GROVE.

     This place occupies the site of the grounds and graveyard of the heroic old pioneer of 1793-4, John Ludlow, esq., near the junction of the Dayton Short Line and Marietta & Cincinnati railroads, about nine miles from the Plum Street depot.  The original Ludlow homestead is still standing.  In 1854 the tract was mostly covered with trees, where the city people delighted to keep holiday.  With the completion of the Marietta & Cincinnati, however, the prospects of this region for a suburban village began to brighten, and in 1869 the site was subdivided by Benjamin Barton, H. S. Brewster and Charles Folz.  It is now included in the corporation of St. Bernard, for which it furnishes the sole postal facilities, under its old name.

MOUNT AIRY

is an incorporated village of large size in point of territory, immediately west and southwest of College Hill and covering a little more than two square miles (one thousand three hundred and twenty-six acres) in Mill Creek and Green townships, of which seven hundred and forty-seven acres are in the former.  Its certificate of incorporation is a village was filed Nov. 20, 1865.  Some of the mayors were:  Anthony Shouter, 1897-8; Oliver Brown, 1869; R. Creighton 1870; B. H. Kroeger, 1874.  The St. James Catholic church, under care of Father F. Schonfelt, with its parochial school of two departments and one hundred and fifty pupils, and its confraternities of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary, are located at Mount Airy.  The village, considering its large tract, is still rather sparsely settled.  It had one hundred and sixty-two inhabitants in 1880.

ROLLING RIDGE

is a small settlement on the Winton turnpike, about half a mile north of Winton Place, and a mile from the north line of the township.

ST. BERNARD.

This extensive suburb lies south of the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, and immediately north of Avondale, partly on the Carthage turnpike.  It was laid out in 1850 by Joseph Kleine and J. B. Schroder, and has been so extended as to include the suburb of Ludlow Grove.  It was incorporated as a village Mar. 8, 1878.  It is largely inhabited by the Germans, who have here the St. Clements Catholic church and parochial school (with about one hundred and ten pupils), and the attached Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, all under the pastoral care of the Rev. Father Gregory Faugman.  The building for this church was erected in 1873.  It has six hundred sittings, and a spire one hundred and seventy feet high.  The St. Bernard Catholic cemetery is in the southwest part of the corporation, near the canal.  The extensive starch factory of Mr. Andrew Erkenbecker of Cincinnati, are also in this place.  The village has a well organized fire department, with full apparatus for extinguishing fires.  In June, 1880, its population was one thousand and seventy-three.

SPRING GROVE CEMETERY,

with the County infirmary, Longview lunatic asylum, and Zoological gardens, all either county or city institutions, are wholly in Mill Creek township.  They receive full notice in their appropriate places elsewhere in this work.

WINTON PLACE.

      This delightful suburb adjoins the Spring Grove cemetery on the east, due north of Clifton.  It was formerly called Spring Grove, and gave the name to the great cemetery and to Spring Grove avenue, which runs far into the city.  It was platted in 1865 by Sylvester Ha_d

Page 346 -
and Samuel Troome.  Chester Park, a famous place for speeding horses, is located here.  The village had three hundred and eighty people, by the tenth census.

POPULATION. 

     Mill Creek township had ten thousand five hundred and fifty-two inhabitants in 1880.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

FREEMAN GRANT CARY.

END OF MILL CREEK TOWNSHIP -