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PHYSICAL FEATURES
[Pg. 315]
BOULDER BELT,
SETTLEMENT.
As in other townships, the majority of the settlers
in this part of the county were southerners, from
Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina,
with some from New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
In the early days of settlement the land, which was
owned by the Government was sold in parcels of not
less than a section, at two dollars per acre.
Of course, many of the early settlers were unable to
take so much
[Pg. 316]
land, and it became necessary for some one man to
buy a section of land, and, after sub-dividing to
suit the purchaser, sell it to settlers; or a number
of men would club together, appoint one of their
number treasurer, and authorize him to buy a section
of land. This was done by many of the early
settlers of Twin township. This plan gave
abundant opportunities for land sharks, but there is
no instance of any fraud of this kind in Twin
township.
Among the first settlers who entered land in the
township, were the Van Winkles, the
Millers, and the Keslings who came in
1804; and the Nisbits, Quinns, Bantas, Whitesells,
Rapes, and Ozias, who came about 1805.
The first permanent settlement in Twin township was
made by Simeon Van Winkle. He was born
in Georgia, June 5, 1768, and his wife, Phebe,
was born in the same State, Oct. 3, 1766. They
emigrated to Kentucky, and in February, 1804, came
to Ohio and entered section twenty-seven, on which
the village of New Lexington now stands. They
afterwards sold a portion of this land, and retained
the northwestern corner, now known as the Ozias
farm. They were parents of ten children,
five boys and five girls. Mr. Van Winkle
gave each of his sons eighty acres of land, upon
which each one finally settled. David,
the eldest, owned what is now the Copp farm.
He lived there for several years, and went to
Anderson, Indiana, where he died in 1872. He
is buried in the Baptist graveyard at New Lexington.
John, who was active among the early members
of the New Light church, used to live on the
Solomon Meekley farm. He afterwards
emigrated to Missouri, where he died.
James, Robert, and Jesse followed
David to Anderson, Indiana, and Robert is
living in that vicinity. Susan, now the
widow Robinson is living in West Alexandria.
Louisa is living, and Phebe, Tirza,
and Hannah are dead. The Van Winkles
were very prominent in the early affairs of the
township, in the community, and in the Baptist
church, of which they were members. Simeon
Van Winkle was one of the first township
trustees. He donated the ground on which the
Baptist Church was built, and he and his wife were
buried in the adjoining burying-ground. He
died in 1831, aged sixty-three years. His wife
nearly completed her centennial year, dying Sept.
12, 1866, aged ninety-nine years, eleven months, and
nine days. There is now none of the name
living in Ohio.
Frederick Miller was the next settler in Twin
township. He was a native of Virginia, born in
1761. His wife, Elizabeth, was born in
1762. Mr. Miller was a soldier of the
Revolution, having served under Washington, and was
present at the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown.
He subsequently removed to what is now Anderson
county, Tennessee. In the fall of 1803 he
emigrated to Ohio with his family, which he left at
Lebanon, Warren county, while he searched for a
suitable location for his new home. In March,
1804, taking with him his daughter, Abbie,
aged thirteen, and his son, Jacob F., aged
eleven, he left Lebanon, and brought a portion of
his goods to the place he had chosen for the
location of his wilderness home. The way was
obstructed by the heavy timber, and the road had to
be cut out as they advanced. After several
days' weary travelling they arrived on the land
whereon their new home was to be built. They
built a pole shanty against a coffee-bean tree,
which is still standing on the farm of the late
James H. Curry about one hundred yards east of
the pike from Lexington to West Alexandria.
After seeing that the children were comfortably
fixed, Mr. Miller left them in charge of the
camp, and returned to Lebanon for the remainder of
his family and goods. The brave little guards
were not molested by anything, although wild beasts
and Indians were plenty at that time.
Frederick and Elizabeth Miller had three sons
and two daughters: Sarah, wife of
Robert Davidson, died in July, 1880; Abbie
lived in Indiana; Jacob F. lived near
Lewisburgh, and was at one time county commissioner;
he died in 1849; John died in West
Alexandria, and Solomon, the only one living,
emigrated to Elkhart county, Indiana, where he
founded Millersburgh, of which he is at present the
postmaster.
It was at the house of Frederick Miller that the
wounded soldier, Sergeant Henry Riddle, died,
in 1813. Frederick Miller and family
were among the original members of the old Lexington
Presbyterian church.
In the spring of 1804 quite a number of other
families settled in Twin township.
Albert Banta settled on the Peters farm,
at the crossing of the Eaton and Lexington road with
the branch of Twin creek, that took his name, and is
now known as Banta's fork.
Henry Kesling located on the land selected
for him by Frederick Miller, where the farms
of John Bare and George Sauer are, and
the part of West Alexandria which is in Twin
township. Mr. Kesling died about 1837,
and is buried in the cemetery at West Alexandria.
In the year 1805
William Nisbit and his three
sons, William, James I., and Thomas,
emigrated from Kentucky to Ohio.
William Nisbit, the father, was born in
Pennsylvania in 1734, and afterwards emigrated to
Kentucky. His three sons were born in
Kentucky. William located on what is
now the Trick farm, and for several years
carried on the tanning business. His tannery
was at the foot of the hill.
Thomas settled on the place now owned by J.
H. Markey, in section thirty-seven.
James I. located on the land on which New
Lexington was afterwards built by him. In 1806
Judge Nisbit laid out the town which he
designed for the county seat. He built the
first house in Lexington, the first frame house on
the turnpike, and the first brick house in the
county, all on the same site. He kept the
first store and was the first postmaster, and one of
the first members of the old Presbyterian church.
When the court of common pleas was established at
Eaton he was made one of the associate judges.
Of him it may be said that he was the soul of all
the enterprise New Lexington ever had. He is
buried at Lexington.
Robert Patterson
[Pg. 317]
About this time
Aaron Torrence
Henry Whitesell
John Rape, sr.
About the year 1748
John Quinn
[Page 318]
John Ozias
John Hart, sr.
John Vance
Philip Wikle settled in Dayton, Ohio, in 1808,
having emigrated from Virginia. In `809 he
removed to Twin township, and settled where his
grandson, Lewis Wikle, now lives, in section
fifteen. He died there seven years afterward.
He was the father of eight children, of whom
Frederick occupied the old homestead, after his
father's death. He and his brother George,
who were both natural mechanics, erected for
Daniel Miller, a flouring mill, on Wolf creek,
in Montgomery county.
Frederick
[Pg. 319]
was born in
Berkeley county, Virginia, in 1788, and was married,
in 1816, to Mary, daughter of Jacob Rape.
She was born 1792, and is now living with her son
Lewis, her husband having died in November,
1866. She has five children now living, viz.:
Lewis now aged sixty, in this township on the
old homestead; William, in Indiana; Alfred
and Elizabeth, wife of Eli Ozias,
also in this township; and Jackson, in
Alabama.
Nicholas Coleman
Lewis Utz
Isaac Enoch
Jacob Bare
Henry Bare
Nathaniel Benjamin
Charles Wysong
Jacob Bowers
[Pg. 320]
Mahlon Karn
Philip
Shafer, now residing in West
Alexandria with his daughter, Mrs. Waymire,
in the eightieth year of his age, removed from
Pennsylvania to Butler county, Ohio, in 1822.
In 1829 he came to Preble county, and settled on
Banta’s fork, in Twin township, on the farm which he
still owns. His wife died in 1874, at the age
of sixty-seven. He has ten children living and
one deceased, viz: Peter, Henry, and
Jacob, on the pike west of West Alexandria;
Margaret (Oyler) deceased; Mary
Jane (Poullus) in Van Wert county;
Julia A., wife of Harvey Waymire, in West
Alexandria; Lucinda, wife of John W.
Sayler, on the Dayton pike, west of West
Alexandria; Elizabeth, wife of Washington
Ozias, in Twin township; Elcina (Bell)
in Montgomery county; Christian, on the old
home place in Twin; and Philip, on the pike,
west of West Alexandria.
Joel Shaw
John T. Shaw
Jacob Stotler
Edward S. Stotler
Henry Snyder
Robert Davidson
Amos Markey
Andrew Copp
[Pg 321]
Johnson McLean, esq., settled in West Alexandria
in 1849. He was born in greencastle,
Pennsylvania, in 1826, and at sixteen years of age
commenced to learn the saddlers' trade in his native
county. After he came to Preble county he
worked jour work until 185 3, since which time he
has been engaged in business for himself. In
1857 he was elected justice of the peace for Twin
township, and is now serving his seventh term, six
of which were continuous terms. In 1855 he was
united in marriage with Lucinda Loxley, of
Twin township.
George Sauer,
born in Germany in 1807, emigrated
with his father to the United States in 1826.
He lived in Montgomery county, Ohio, until 1840,
when he removed to Twin township, near West
Alexandria. He married, in 1833, Ann Mary
Kisling, who died in 1859. He was married
to his present wife, then Mrs. Margaret Eagle,
in 1869. Mr. Sauer has two children,
namely: Elizabeth, wife of John
Fadder, of Lanier township, and Sarah,
wife of Herman Vogue, of Twin township.
Frederick Pontius
emigrated from Pennsylvania to
Ohio in 1822 or 1823. He settled in Gratis
township and died there aged seventy-two or
seventy-three. His oldest son, John,
formerly a well known resident of Twin township, was
born in Pennsylvania in 1817. He married
Nancy Marsh, in Montgomery county, in 1840, and
in 1844 settled north of Pyrmont, in that county.
In the summer of 1850 he moved to Twin township,
Preble county, and settled where his son Levi
now lives. He died in 1875. Mrs.
Pontius is still living with her son and is now
seventy-seven years old. Levi Pontius,
the son, occupies the homestead and was married in
1869 to Miss Mary Westerfield, of Twin
townships.
William Klinger
was born in Cumberland county,
Pennsylvania, in 1792; came to Ohio with his father,
Philip Klinger, in 1810. Philip
Klinger settled in Montgomery county, but
several of his sons subsequently became residents of
Preble county. When about twenty-five years of
age William was married to Catharine Bean,
of Preble county, and settled in Twin, about a mile
and a half northeast of West Alexandria. He
cleared up a farm there and afterwards moved out on
to the pike where Daniel Kritzer now lives.
He kept hotel on the hill there from about 1833 to
1850, when he moved into West Alexandria, where he
died in 1863. His widow, now nearly ninety
years of age, is still living with her son-in-law,
Andrew Copp, in Lanier township. They
had seven children, four of whom are living:
Henry C., in West Alexandria; Matilda,
wife of Andrew Copp, in Lanier, southeast of
West Alexandria; Samuel, in California, and
Mary wife of Jonathan Cesslinger in
Euphemia.
Henry C. Klinger was born in 1820, and in 1844
was married to Elizabeth Hewit.
Michael Klinger, brother of William, was an
old-time resident of West Alexandria, where he kept
hotel for some time.
Philip
Hewit, sr., came from North Carolina as early as
1807, and settled on Banta's fork, south of the road
leading from Lexington to Eaton. He afterwards
moved down on the Miami river, and built a mill near Miamisburgh. Philip, his son, settled
on a part of the homestead, in Twin, but finally
moved to Darke county, where he died. Only two
of the family are now living, viz: Mrs. John L.
Quinn, in Eaton, and the wife of Henry C.
Klinger, of West Alexandria.
John Henry Voge emigrated with his family from
Brunswick, near Bremen, Germany, to this county, in
1847. He settled in this townships, half a
mile north of West Alexandria. He was born in
1813, and died in Montgomery county in 1874.
His wife, Margaret, is still living there,
aged sixty-five. They have seven children now
living, and three live in Preble county.
Herman, born in 1838, married Ann
daughter of George Sauer, and has five
children.
Henry Voge lives in this township, on the
Mrs. Trick farm, and Anna wife of
Henry Waiger, in Gratis.
William Longstreet
came from New Jersey at an early date, and settled
in Montgomery county, near Springsburg. In
1854 he moved to New Lexington and resided there
until his death, in October, 1869. His wife
survived him, her death occurring some nine years
since. Of their five children, Mrs. Mary E.
Trick is the oldest. She was married in
1858 to John C. Trick who, when a child, in
1830, emigrated with his parents from Germany.
His father, Frederick Trick, settled where
Mrs. Trick now lives, and John C.
occupied it after his father's death. John
C. Trick died in January, 1875. There are
five other children of William Longstreet,
namely: Mrs. David Haywood
and Mrs. Michael Wolf, in West
Alexandria; Mrs. John Hart, in
Jackson township; Martha, wife of Daniel
Young, in Lanier township, on the pike west
of West Alexandria, and Christopher, in
Kansas.
ORGANIZATION
[Pg. 322]
INDIANS
THE INDIANS IN
THE WAR OF 1812
[Pg. 323]
EARLY EVENTS.
EARLY SCHOOLS.
[Pg. 324]
MILLS.
WOOLLEN MILL.
CHURCHES.
THE BAPTIST
CHURCH.
[Pg. 325]
PRESBYTERIAN
ST. JOHN'S
CHURCH
THE SHILOH
CHURCH.
situated in the southeast part of
section twelve, was organized about 1840, by Rev.
Thoams H. Wentworth, of the German Reformed
church. He was the pastor when the house was
built, and continued to preach until about 1850,
when he left, and the church went down.
It was about this time that the party known as the New
School Lutherans, branched off from the Lewisburgh
Evangelical Lutheran church.
At the time that the Old School branch built the St.
John's church, the New School brethren decided to
have a church of their own, and hence secured Shiloh
church, where they at present have a very
flourishing congregation.
Rev. Abraham Recks was the first pastor, and it
was he who engaged in discussion with the brethren
of the Old School. He preached there for two
or three years, and was followed by Revs. Barnet,
Geiger, Helwig, and the present pastor, Mr.
Graugh.
There is a burying-ground near the church.
KELLEY'S CHAPEL
was an old Methodist church, and was
named after Rev. George Kelley, who organized
the church, and is now pastor of the Wesley chapel
in Cincinnati. The church was built of logs in
1835, on the farm of Frederick Hartman, in
section fourteen. The church had a small
membership, and soon went down, and there is
scarcely a vestige of the ruins of the building.
GRAVEYARDS.
The
graveyard at the Presbyterian church in New
Lexington is the oldest in Twin township. The
first burial in the township was that of
Grandfather William Nisbit, who died June 7,
1809, aged seventy-five. His grave is just
back of the church. If there was any earlier
burial there is no recollection of it. In this
place are also buried Dr. Robert Patterson Nisbit,
who died in 1862, aged fifty-four; Dr. John
Jackson Nisbit,June 28, 1864, aged forty-nine;
Dr. John Nisbit, their cousin, died in 1839,
aged twenty-five; Frederick Miller 1835, aged
seventy-four; Elizabeth, his wife, 1835, aged
seventy-three; Sarah Davidson, their
daughter, July 1, 1880, aged about eighty;
William Longstreet, 1858, aged fifty-eight;
Thomas Nisbit; Judge James I. Nisbit,
1830; and otehrs of hte earliest settlers.
In the cemetery adjoining the Baptist church are buried
Simeon Van Wrinkle, died in 1831, aged
sixty-three; his mother, Phebe, who died
Sept. 12, 1866, aged ninety-nine years, eleven
months and nine days;
[Pg. 326]
George Ivens, 1868, aged seventy-five; his
wife, Rachel, 1873, aged seventy-nine; and
others.
There is a general burying-ground near the Shiloh
church, which is much used.
The St. John's cemetery is in low marshy ground, and is
not generally used. Here is buried
Christopher Syler, the man on whose ground the
church is built.
There is a cemetery near Brennersville, in section
seventeen, on the farm of J. A. Bantz.
The first grave was dug there in 1812. Here
are buried Isaac Enoch, Peter Warren, Mr. McGriff
and others whose names cannot be ascertained.
A number of graves in both cemeteries are marked with
rough stones, simply bearing are initials of the
deceased, and many old graves have no mark by which
they can be identified.
The Dunkers have an old graveyard in section sixteen on
John Hart's place. It is located away
from the road, and is overgrown with bushes.
Many prominent members of the German Baptist church
are buried here. John Hart and wife,
Jacob Bare and his son Jacob, and others
sleep here.
there is a deserted little burying-ground in the
southeast quarter of section fourteen, in which
Timothy Pierson and members of his family, and
several others are buried. There is no sign of
a graveyard there now.
Henry Hapner came to Twin township in the fall
of 1811, but he could not forget his old home, and
in the spring of 1812 died of home sickness, or
"home sieges," as it was then called. He is
buried on the Hapner place, in section four,
a little north of the house.
QUARRIES.
are found all along Price's
creek and Banta's fork, though many good
localities have not yet been worked. Price's
creek abounds in good limestone, which is used
for building purposes. The most extensive
quarry is known as the Twin Valley Stone Works,
owned by J. O. Deem. This quarries
yield an unusually fine quality of flagging stone,
the stone lying in very even courses of suitable
thickness.
NEW LEXINGTON.
[Pg. 327]
BRENNERSVILLE
was laid out about 1835 by John
Brenner. He never had the plat of the town
recorded, but sold lots of an acre each to any
desirous of forming the little community.
Esom Taylor built the first house, a little
cabin in the west part of the hamlet, where the
little store was kept and travellers were
entertained. There are at present but four
houses and a blacksmith shop. The name has
gradually degenerated, and to-day the name of
Brennersville is Sniffletown. It is on the
line of hte proposed railroad at the southern
extremity of section eight.
*WEST
ALEXANDRIA.
TAVERNS.
Early in
the spring of 1819, Valentine B. Mikesell
commenced the erection of a frame tavern of two
rooms, where the Lange house now stands, and
shortly afterward William Alexander put up a
larger one, where his dwelling had stood, on the
present Coffman & Block corner. The
erection of these buildings was quite an event, and
settlers with their families gathered from many
miles around to assist in the raising, and to take
part in the fun that followed. They had a big
dance, at which a kind of peach brandy ("peachley
cure" Mrs. Alexander says they innocently
called it) flowed pretty freely, and resulted in the
whole crowd becoming intoxicated.
The Mikesell tavern has been owned successively
by Michael Klinger, Samuel Fisher, ____
Miller, Isaac Johnson, Fred. Shafer, Henry
Weber and Henry Lange, the present
proprietor. Mr. Lange bought the
property in March, 1879, and has since made
extensive improvements. Alexander
carried on the hotel business on the other corner
for some seven years. The property afterward
passed into the hands of Dennis Kelley.
It was burned down on the night of July 26, 1863,
being the result of a public jollification over the
capture of the rebel raider Morgan. The
fire was the most disastrous in the history of the
town, the whole adjoining block being laid in ashes.
[Pg. 328]
The Twin Valley house, now conducted by Wolf &
Co., was established by Jacob Winters who
opened the tavern in a frame house, which had
previously been occupied as a dwelling by George
Loy. Since then, business has been
conducted, among others, by widow Hutson, Jacob
Feary, Jacob Good, Hiram Burke, John Wysong, John
Early, Johnson Brothers, E. P. Gailbraith, Wolf
Brothers, Teager & Hefflinger, Wolf & Johnson,
and Wolf & Co. David Wolf, of
the present firm, has been connected with the house,
with the exception of a few months since the spring
of 1876.
POST OFFICES.
In April,
1828, the post office was removed from Lexington to
West Alexandria, and James I. Nisbet who had
been postmaster at Lexington, continued to hold the
office after its removal, although the business then
by no means large, was transacted by a clerk.
A weekly mail was carried from Dayton to Eaton through
Lexington. Among those who has officiated as
postamasters since Judge Nisbet's term, were
Mr. Kepler, Elias Herdman, Esquire Taylorand
John H. Gale. the present incumbent is
Mrs. Julia Holland.
EARLY
MERCHANDISING.
PHYSICIANS.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
OF WEST ALEXANDRIA.
From the total absence of any records of the early
schools of West Alexandria, and the conflicting
statements of those whose memory runs back to that
period, little can be definitely said in regard to
them. The first school was kept in a deserted
log cabin, which stood at the northwest angle of
what is now the village graveyard, and was erected
by Jacob Parker. This building
gave
way to a frame house, which was erected upon the
same spot, and is now doing duty as the kitchen of
Mr. John Galt. This frame
building was erected by William Alexander,
in the fall of 1818, who travelled all the way to
Cincinnati to get the nails and glass used in its
construction, and also a stove. Mr.
Alexander taught the first school in it the
succeeding winter, and was the third teacher in the
town. The first teacher was William
Sherman, and the next David Williamson.
Subsequently Henry Kissling, who then
owned all the land upon which the north half of the
town is built, donated a lot for school purposes,
and upon this a small brick house was built and used
for some time, when a larger house, containing two
rooms, was built. In this house, which is
still standing, most of the middle-aged inhabitants
of the town received their education.
In 1871 the present elegant and commodious school
building was commenced, and finished in 1873.
This is the finest school building in the county,
built of brick, three stories high, and has a
mansard roof, and cost thirteen thousand dollars:
Among the early teachers, if not the very first one,
was a Mr. Williamson, but in what
years he taught, or what
became of him, no one seems to know.
Another of the early teachers following Mr.
Williamson, was Asa Sherman, who
was also justice of the
(building not labled)
[Pg. 329] -
peace. About 1825 the school was taught by
John M. to Winchester, Indiana, at which place
Robert enjoyed U. McNutt, who
afterwards was one of the leading attorneys of the
county, and represented it in the State legislature.
Following Mr. McNutt was John
Graham, the author of Graham’s
arithmetic, which was published for the author by
Mr. Tizzard, of Eaton. The record,
which extends back only to 1865, shows the following
as
to teachers:
1865, W. I. Barnhiser, principal; E. Jane
Earley, assistant.
1866, W. I. Barnhiser, principal; Laura Hume,
assistant.
1867, C. C. Fetherling, principal; Laura
Hume, assistant.
1868, W. I. Barnhiser, principal; Laura
Hume, assistant.
1869, W. I. Barnhiser, principal; Laura
Hume, assistant.
1870, W. I. Barnhiser, principal; Laura
Hume, assistant.
1871, A. J. Surface, principal; Laura
Hume, assistant.
1872, Oscar Shippard, principal; Laura
Hume, assistant.
1873, Oscar Shippard, principal; Laura
Hume, first assistant; Sarah A. Coleman,
second assistant.
1874, Oscar Sheppard, principal; Jennie
Finney, first assistant; Sarah A. Coleman,
second assistant.
1875, Oscar Sheppard, principal; Emma
Coleman. first assistant; Sarah A. Coleman,
second assistant.
1877, Oscar Sheppard, principal; Mary R.
Bloom, first assistant; Sarah A. Coleman,
second assistant.
1878, Oscar Sheppard, principal; Mary
R. Bloom, first assistant; Sarah A Coleman,
second assistant.
1879, M. D. Tyrrell, principal; Mollie
Braun, first assistant; Sarah A. Coleman,
second assistant; Anna Sweeny, third
assistant.
1880, M. D. Tyrrell, principal; W. Halley,
first assistant; Mollie Braun, second
assistant; Sarah Coleman, third
assistant.
The course of study since 1872 embraces the common or
legal branches: Algebra, geometry, physiology,
natural philosophy, history, English literature, and
the constitution of the United States.
BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES:
DR. ROBERT D HUGGINS (w/portrait)
NATHANIEL BENJAMIN
*
Page 330 -
JACOB VANCE
Betw. Pages 330 - 331
CAPTAIN MATTHIAS
DISHER (w/portrait)
Page 331 - 333
DR. OLIVER E.
TILLSON (w/portrait)
Page 333 - 337
DR. A. F. HALDEMAN
(w/portrait)
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