- Natural Features - Agriculture - Early Settlement - Churches - Education - Distilleries -
Cemeteries - Weather - Pioneer Incidents - Gratis (Winchester) - West Elkton

     Gratis is the southeast township of the county, and may be described as rolling land generally.  Along the southern line, measuring from the west line, is a strip of level land about three miles long by one and a half miles wide.  When the county was first settled this land was wet and much of it swampy, but, by drainage, it has become the most fertile land of the county.
     Twin creek touches section 3 and 2, but neither branch of the stream crosses the north line to exceed one-half mile.  Elk creek touches sections 35 and 36k, but slightly.  Into these streams the whole township is drained by smaller streams flowing northwardly from a ridge of high land that crosses the township east and west near the center line.  It should not be understood that this ridge is a hill, for it is simply the top of the two north and south slopes, and in many places the traveler will cross the divide without observing it unless his attention be called thereto.
     Along the eastern side of the township two streams, each called Pleasant run, have their source near the line between sections 13 and 24, one swinging north into Twin creek, and the other flowing south in Elk creek.  Along each stream is a fine body of gently sloping farm land, exceedingly fertile.
     Beginning near the southern border, a road runs directly north, near and along the high land of the western slope for a distance of five miles, with the valley always in sight.  There is no more agreeable pleasure drive in the county, the road being good, the view always pleasant and the outlook prosperous.
     Along some of the streams is some broken land, but it is of small proportions, the land smoothing out as soon as the hill top is reached, and there are no hills of any great height.  The climb from Pleasant run, east of Greenbush, is the longest hill climb in the township, going up a hundred and thirty feet to the county line in a little less than a mile, but the slope is gradual all the way up.
     There are no railroads touching Gratis township, and it contains no factories except a saw-mill at Gratis and one at West Elkton, and the carriage factory of I. Talbert & Sons, now Talbert & Company, at West Elkton.  This is the only carriage factory in the county that has survived the fierce competition of the great factories.  The only reason that can be given is that they do no cheap work, the buyer soon learning that he has the full quality of work that he paid for; naturally he brags of that fact, and that drives away no customers.
     Gratis township is essentially a farming community, the main crops being those generally raided in this latitude.  The houses and farms took comfortable and well kept, the land is productive and the farmers prosperous.  The origin of the name of the township is given in the chapter on organization, at least that is the story told by Judge Jacob Chambers and George D. Hendrix, who got it from those who were prominent in the affairs of the county at the time it occurred. 

EARLY SETTLEMENTS

     The first settlers of Gratis township were John Leslie and John Long, who, about 1800, some claim as early as 1798, located on section 36.  Leslie took the south half and it has been a tradition in the township that near the banks of Elk creek stood a very large sycamore or cottonwood tree, some eight or ten feet in diameter, that was hollow at the base, with an opening some two or three feet in diameter, and he made it his home for about three or four months until he could find time to build his cabin.  The next year Leslie brought his family of five sons and three daughters from Pennsylvania and there are many of his descendants yet living in this and the adjoining counties.
     Shortly after Leslie, came Alexander Pugh from Georgia, who bought some eight hundred acres in Pleasant Valley, north of Greenbush.  About the same time William Swisher settled on section I, north of Twin creek, and near him, about the same time, Hezekiah Phillips settled; his daughter, Rebecca Phillips, is claimed to be the first white girl born in the county.  In 1804 Abraham Neff settled on Twin creek and later built the first mill.  In the same year Levi Kinman came, and Abraham Wimmer  and Nicholas and Jacob Gift settled at Gratis.  A little later, Daniel Boone settled south of Gratis on a stream that yet bears his name.  It is claimed he was related to the hunter, Daniel Boone, of Kentucky, whence he came.
     At the time the present United States Constitution was adopted, there existed a strong anti-slavery faction, and the Quaker element of the United States, by religion, precept and practice, had always insisted on the principle that Lincoln later expressed so well, that "No man was ever created good enough to own another man."  This agitation forced the compromise on the slavery question into the Constitution, and also forced that principle into the Ordinance of 1787, that involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, should never exist in the Northwest territory.
     The Quakers, on account of their tenets, had for years, in the border and Southern states, been derided and, in some cases, partly ostracized by their slavery neighbors, and looked upon the Northwest territory (for they were ever a reading people) as the land of freedom.  Hence, when the danger of Indian forays had passed, great numbers of them sold out, and, with their families and what they could haul, headed for the Ohio river as a boundary line to be passed.  Also many of the younger men came to hunt for homes in the territory, and, when found, they returned and brought back as wives the waiting sweethearts.  Theses are the real reasons that caused many Quaker settlements in this state.  These are some of the season that made the Quaker settlement in this township, to which must be added the fact that the Great Miami valley was then, as now, reputed to be one of God's garden spots, and the other fact that in those localities from which they came they had to depend much on people of their own faith for consolation in sorrow and for social enjoyment.  Hence, when moved to a new country, they hung together.
     During the years 1803, 1804 and 1805, over fifty families from the Carolinas and Georgia settled in southern Preble and northern Butler counties, the central point being around West Elkton, and of the number nearly all were Quakers and all acquired land.  Some of them later became possessed of hundreds of acres, many farms yet being owned by descendants of the early owners.  We will name a few  and, so far as known, their location; Samuel Stubbs, from Georgia, settled in section 29.  His grandson, S. N. Stubbs, still owns most of the farm.  With Samuel came eleven brothers, it is claimed, who all settled in the township in that neighborhood or on the land nearby in Butler, and nearly all reared large families.  David Chrisman, from North Carolina, settled in section 11.  Richard Brown, from Georgia, settled in section 20.  Jonas Randall, from South Carolina, settled east of West Elkton.  Christian Fall and Benjamin Fall, his son, settled near Greenbush.  John River, from Virginia, settled in the eastern part of the township.  Francis Jones, from Georgia, settled near West Elkton.  Jesse Kenworthy, from South Carolina, settled on section 32.  William Gifford, from North Carolina, settled east of West Elkton.  Nathan Maddock and Samuel Maddock, his father, from Georgia, headed a colony of some fifty people to the land of freedom; they settled generally in southern Preble and northern Butler.  Samuel Maddock settled in section 32.  Thomas Stubbs settled near West Elkton.  Joseph Stubbs and his son, John, settled on section 34.  Jonathan Roberts, from North Carolina, settled just across the line in Butler county, but of the families have since moved into this township.  George Kelley, from Virginia, settled near the middle of the township.  Simeon Loop, from Pennsylvania, settled in the western part of the township.  All the above named are claimed to have come before the close of 1805.
     William Hixon, from Georgia, came in 1806 and settled in section 9.  Thomas Talbert came in 1807 and settled near West Elkton.  Elijah Mendenhall, from Georgia, settled in 1806 in section 34.  Martin Sayler from Maryland, settled on section 3 in 1809.  He was a millwright and helped build most of the mills for a number of years.  William Clevenger, from New Jersey, settled on section 24 in 1806.  Nathan Hornaday, from North Carolina, settled in section 18 in 1806.  Peter Prugh, from Maryland, settled on section 26 in 1813.  A few years later than the above we find the names of Job Smith, John Thomas, Joseph Mullendore, Jacob Furrey, Abraham Flory, David Branson, Elias Mackey and Jonathan Horner, who appear as owning land in the township.  Those early settlers nearly all left large families as their names are still prominent in the community.  Race suicide was unknown in that generation.

CHURCHES

     About 1848 the Congregationalists built a church at Greenbush, but the membership was not strong enough to support it, and some ten years later they sold out to the Methodists and United Brethren, who, for many years previous, had maintained organizations, and they continued to use it together until some twenty years since.  Then the Methodists sold their interest to the United Brethren, which is now the only church in the place, numbering about fifty members.  The pastor, Charles Snyder, serves both the church here and at West Elkton.   It is said that the Sunday school numbers a great many more than the church, which predicts a bright future for the church.
     The German Baptists have the only country church in the township, a fine frame structure, located at the crossing of the Quaker trace and the Gratis and Camden roads.  The first church was a small frame church about a mile east of the present building, on the same road, built in 1858, and locally known as the Brubaker church, but, proving too small and not centrally located, about 1890 the present site was purchased and a new building erected a fine brick church at the northwest corner of section 1, which was called Twin Valley, or Lower Twin, church, but as the years passed the population shifted, and it was found that a church located in Gratis would be more central and better accommodate the brethren.  And as the old Presbyterian, later Reformed, church had died out, the building was for sale; so the church was bought, more ground purchased and the structure improved.  Since about 1912 the old location has been abandoned.  The church no numbers about seventy-five members and Aaron Brubaker is pastor.

EDUCATION

     The first school taught in the township was in 1806, in a log school house about about a half mile southeast of West Elkton, and soon thereafter there were other schools started, all subscription schools, of course.  There are now seven good schools houses in the township outside of their villages.  The township has been agitating the question whether to centralize the schools or join the south half to the West Elkton school and the north half to the Gratis school.
     Since the above was written, just that result has been accomplished, and Gratis has also been given a strip off the south side of Lanier township, while West Elkton is seeking a strip off the north side of Wayne township, Butler county.  The results will make two strong schools, with first class material.

DISTILLERIES.

     The township now has the reputation of being one of the dryest of the dry, but traditions from the early settlers still linger, which indicate that it was not always thus.  From 1811 to 1830 there is said to have been from fifteen to twenty small distilleries in the township, nearly all, if not all, within the northern half of the township, for the Quakers, then as now, would have none of it.  During those years, or a part thereof, Christian Fall, Daniel Chrisman and Peter Riner operated such stills, and there were others, each man using his own grain.  Those who had no still, traded grain for whisky, and it now is averred that the quality was of the best.  The use of whisky was so common at all gatherings, such as harvesting, log rollings and house raisings, that none but the strongest-willed and the bravest men dared refuse to furnish it; but the movement to curtail the trouble breeder spread because it was right, until today it is used only in secret.  But the township was not alone in the distilling business, for there were during that time a hundred stills operated in the county for longer or shorter periods.

CEMETERIES.

     There are, or were (some are now forgotten), a number of small cemeteries, called family cemeteries, scattered about the township.  Some settler lost a wife or child, or a settler himself died, and, the roads being only rails and there being no regular public cemetery, a little plot of ground one was deposited there, and carefully guarded.  As their neighbors lost some member of their families they were granted permission to bury on the family plot, and in this way sometimes quite a number of graves were made.  One such, on the land formerly owned by Jonas Brubaker, who married Rebecca Phillips, the first white girl baby of the county, is now inclosed by an iron fence, and lies on the hill top about a hundred yards west of Fair View cemetery at Gratis.  It is now kept up buy the township trustees, as are several others.
     Fair Mound cemetery, at West Elkton, now called locally the Quaker cemetery, was laid out in 1805, and the first person to consecrate the ground with her dust was Martha Maddock, one of the family that was so prominent in leading the hegira of Quakers from Georgia and the Carolinas to the land of freedom.  She died in 1805, being the first white person to die in the township.  The cemetery continued to be used until the limited space was practically filled a few years since, when it ceased to be generally used.
     In 1870 a new, large and fine cemetery was laid out by the township trustees on the high land north of the village, and it is now occupied by many graves.  The name, Fair Mound cemetery, is still retained for this one.  In 1832 a public cemetery was laid out just west of Gratis, then Winchester, and the first burial was Richard Housel, the same year.  But as time passed, the silent majority became too great, and in 1870 a new cemetery, called Fair View, was laid out, to which additions have since been made, until it now extends from the Eaton to the Camden road, and is one of the finest burial grounds in the county.
     The Greenbush cemetery is located near the south line of section 13, the land really being willed in the first place by John Riner for a public cemetery, but there was an error in the will, which was later cured by a deed from John Chrisman.  The first burial is said to have been that of Mrs. Betsey Ellis, in 1848.
     All the cemeteries since 1875 have been placed by law in the care of the township trustees, and as  we see, in the few short years of life, how rapidly the cemeteries are expanding, and then remember how long time is, we can not but think Bryant was right when he wrote:
"All that tread the earth are but a handful
To the tribes that slumber in her bosom."

WEATHER.

PIONEER INCIDENTS.

GRATIS.

CHURCHES.

PHYSICIANS.

A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

ODD FELLOWS.

WEST ELKTON.

NATHAN HORNADAY

CHURCHES.

PHYSICIANS.

     JACOB S. WEINLAND, was born in 1819 in Pennsylvania, came to Ohio when only seventeen years old, graduated from the Eclectic Medical College, and began practice in West Elkton in 1847, being the first physician to became a permanent resident of the village.  He was not above medium height; but was rather corpulent in build.  He was conscientious and painstaking in his treatment of his patients, looking after them with a fatherly care, and seemed to be unwearied in his efforts to benefit them as much as possible.  Thus he won and held the confidence and respect of the community.  He had a large practice, being regarded by physicians as an expert in handling typhoid and malarial fevers.  He died about 1883.
     DR. WILLIAM C. ROBERTSON started practice in the village about 1877, and succeeded in securing a remunerative practice, but died from heart failure about 1884.  Dr. Elwood Holaday, a homeopath; Dr. A. W. Y Conarroe, an eclectic, and Dr. Clara Robertson, widow of Dr. W. C. Robertson, are the present practitioners living in the village.

SCHOOLS.

     At an early day in the settlement there was a schoolhouse built on the Camden road, just at the west edge of the town, which, as rebuilt, was used until about 1871.  In 1868 the Friends concluded that the children were entitled to better educational facilities than afforded by the sub-district school, and in 1869, after having taken up subscriptions for the purpose, they erected a four-room, two story brick school house, just south of the village, calling it the West Elkton Academy, and employed teachers for the higher branches.  After a year or so the two schools were united, and in 1878 the building was sold to the West Elkton district and continued to be used until 1911, when a vote was taken to bond the district, buy a more suitable location and build a modern, up-to-date public school building.  The majority vote favoring the proposition, five acres were purchased and the present school building erected just north of the village in 1913, at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars.  They now have a six-room school building, second to none in the county.  William T. Phenis is the superintendent.
 

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