CLERMONT COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: CLERMONT COUNTY [Part 2] (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO, By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

        BATAVIA, the county-seat, is on the east fork of the Little Miami
and on the C.& N.R.R., 24 miles easterly from Cincinnati and 103 southwest
of Columbus. It is laid out in 1814 by Geo. Ely and David C. Bryan, and in
1824 became the county-seat. County officers in 1888: Probate Judge, James
B. Swing; Clerk of Court, A.B. Shaw; Sheriff, J.C.F. Tatman; Prosecuting
Attorney, Louis Hicks; Auditor, Wm. A. Page; Treasurer, Nathan Anderson;
Recorder, Geo. W. Goodwin; Surveyor, Geo. H. Hill; Coroner, Elijah V.
Downs; Commissioners, O.H. Hardin, Alfred Haywood and Francis M. Lindsey.
Batavia has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 German United Brethren
Church. One bank, First National, president, M. Jameson; cashier, J.F.
Dial. Newspapers: Clermont Advance, Prohibitionist, J.S. Robinson,
proprietor and editor; Clermont Sun, Democratic, E.A. Lockwood, S. Cramer,
editors; Clermont Courier, Republican, R.W.C. Gregg, J.S. Hulick, editors.
        Manufactures. -Stirling & Moore, carriage and buggy works; J.F.
Smith & Co., shoe factory. In 1840 Batavia had 537, and, in 1880, 1,015
inhabitants.
        The First Cabin. -Ezekiel Dimmit, a Virginian by birth, in the fall
of 1797 erected the first cabin in the township. The following spring he
made a little maple sugar and planted a few acres of corn on leased land at
Columbia, fifteen miles away, where he went by following blazed paths
through the dense woods. A little corn, flax and potatoes were also planted
around the cabin on partly cleared ground. His nearest neighbor lived in a
cabin seven miles distant.
        Soon other settlers came in, and Ezekiel Dimmit's cabin afforded a
friendly shelter to many a pioneer on the lookout for a new home. Among
those was the family of Charles Robinson, from Maryland, who having heard
of the wonderful fertility of the Ohio Country came to Clermont in 1806 and
lived near the Dimmits with his family until the next spring in a cabin put
up for them near by, when he moved on a farm of his own on Lucy's run.

        A Thrilling Adventure befell May Robinson in the succeeding winter:
the oldest daughter, a robust young lady. Mounting a spirited horse one
afternoon, she started on an errand for Mrs. Mitchell's some twelve miles
distant. A deep snow covered the ground, which delayed her, when night
overtook her in the woods and the snow beginning to fall, it grew so dark
that she could with difficulty see the blazed trees which indicated the
bridlepath which she expected to follow.
        Losing the trace, she alighted and tied her horse to a tree until
she could investigate. While thus engaged she heard the howling of a pack
of wolves, when she hastened back to her horse, but he was so frightened
that he would not allow her to approach him. A few moments later the wolves
were around her and she began to suffer from the intense cold. To ward them
off and keep from freezing, she decided to keep moving in a path far enough
from the horse to avoid being kicked and yet near enough to keep the wolves
from approaching her; so she walked to and fro the entire night, the wolves
continuing their fiendish howls and the horse his stamping and kicking. At
dawn the wolves disappeared, when with difficulty she mounted her horse and
reached the home of John Mitchell. On seeing her, he exclaimed: "Why Mary,
have you been in the wilderness all night?" She said "Yes," and had hardly
been assisted from her horse when she fell into a swoon. Her family
becoming alarmed at her absence sent a messenger on her tracks. He found
the place where she had passed the terrible night, and then proceeding on
the Mr. Mitchell's saw Mary, who for several days was too weak to be moved.


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