FORMATION AN D GEOGRAPHY

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE

     In the creative act of the county authorities in 1803, the elector of the new township were directed to meet at the house or John Ayres, in the village of Montgomery, and choose three justices of the peace.

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     The following memoranda of Sycamore justices in later years have been preserved:
     1819 - Peter Bell, Benajah Ayres, Hezekiah Price, Jonathan Pittman.
     1825 - James J. Whalon, Nicholas Schoonmaker, James Rosebrough.
     1829 - Schoonmaker, Ayres, Matthew Terwilliger, Henry Morse.
     1863-9 - James Aydelotte, Daniel B. Myers, Michael Williams.
      1870 - Myers, Azdelotte, L. Melendy.
     1872 - Same,, with William A. Aydelotte.
     1873-4 - Melendy, the Aydelottes, John Todd.
     1875 - Melendy, Todd, W. A. Aydelotte, Okey Van Hise.
     1876 - Aydelotte, Van Hise, Todd, Jacob Voorhees.
     1877 - Voorhees, Todd, Van Hise, F. Mosteller.
     1878-9 - Mosteller, Voorhees, Todd.
     1880 - Todd, Voorhees, Thomas W. Myers.

THE FIRST IMMIGRANT.

to the territory now covered by Sycamore township was JAMES CUNNINGHAM.  He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and emigrated to Kentucky while still a comparative youth, about 1785, there engaging, with four others, in building cabins for settlers, about four miles back of the present site of Covington.  They were presently assailed by the Indians and one killed, when Cunningham and the remaining three decided to abandon their business in that quarter and settle upon the Beargrass creek, near where Louisville was afterwards founded.  He was there married to Miss Janette Park, of another Pennsylvania family, in 1787, and in the second year thereafter, the first year of Cincinnati or Losantiville, and on the twenty-sixth of May, 1789, he entered a land-warrant which entitled him to locate on a half-section of land, which he chose on the west half of section twenty-eight in what is now this township, in the valley of the East fork.  He soon began improvements upon his place, assisted by Arthur, Andrew, and Culbertson, his brothers-in-law and three of the first settlers of Reading village.  They were the first to make a clearing in Sycamore township.  It is supposed, as there was then comparative peace between the white settlers and the Indians, that Cunningham moved his family to the place and resided there until the Indian troubles of the next winter, when he removed to Cincinnati, where he is known to have bought a lot and built a cabin near the corner of Walnut and Second streets.   He afterwards entered the Government service for a year or so as a teamster, and in the fall of 1793 removed finally to his farm, where the rest of his life was passed.  He built and ran the first saw-and grist-mills in this part of the county, and about 1808 had a distillery in connection with the grist-mill.  Among his surviving descendants are: a son, Francis Cunningham, lately living north of Sharon, on the old place, near the county line; two grandsons, Elmore W. Cunningham, of Cincinnati, and James F. Cunningham, of Glendale; and a granddaughter, the wife of Mr. Andrew Erkenbrecker, of Cincinnati.

     JAMES CARPENTER

     JOHN CAMPBELL

     Some other early settlers of Sycamore were John Goldtrap, on section twenty-two, where now is the Jacob Shuff place; James and John Wallace, on section twenty-one, now the Cooper farm; the Park brothers, with or near Cunningham, on section twenty-eight; and near Montgomery Ely Dusky, Moses and Joseph Crist, Joseph Tallman, and Andrew Lacky.

     WILLIAM R. MORRIS was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 12, 1836.  His father is of Scotch extraction, and his mother of Irish descent.  William R. Morris, sr., married Sarah Lydia Powers, sister of Hiram Powers, the sculptor.  William R. Morris, jr., was one out of a family of nine, three sons only surviving to maturity.  In May, 1865, he married Hattie, daughter of Captain Charles Ross, of Cincinnati, one of the old pioneers.  Mr. Morris is the father of three sons and four daughters.  Educationally, he attended St. Xavier college, Cincinnati, and Oxford college, for three years each, preparing himself for the bar.  For several years Morris engaged in the whole sale grocery business at Toledo, though he is now a gentleman of rest, enjoying the fruits of his industry, residing at Carthage, Ohio.

FORTIFIED STATIONS.

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EARLY RELIGION

     Two miles west of Montgomery, on Carpenter's run, is the site of the church building erected by the first

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MONTGOMERY

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READING.

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SHARONVILLE

THE CENSUS

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

COLONEL W. H. HILL with portrait.

NOTE:    More biographies

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