CLERMONT COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: CLERMONT COUNTY [Part 7] (published 1898) *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Gina M. Reasoner AUPQ38A@prodigy.com March 5, 1999 *********************************************************************** HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO, By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 UTOPIA. - The little village of Utopia was established at this era by Henry Jernagan, one of the Fourierites, and on Utopian principles. May of the old members of the Phalanx moved thither, and carried on various avocations. For a time Utopia was a happy, beautiful place; the people had few wants, and these were supplied at home. They eventually became restless, and some of the better class moving away and others moving in harmony with its trustees, its Utopian features dissolved. POINT PLEASANT, a little village or hamlet on the Ohio, about twenty-five miles above Cincinnati, will ever be memorable as the birthplace of Gen. U.S. Grant. This event took place April 27, 1822. The next year the family removed to Georgetown, Brown county, which became his boyhood home. His father the year before had married Miss Hannah Simpson, of Tate township. At the time of his birth Jesse R. Grant was employed in the tannery of Thomas Page. The house in which the young and poor couple resided belonged to Lee Thompson. It remains as well preserved as originally built; a lean-to kitchen has since been added. It is a one-story frame, 16 x 19 feet, with a steep roof, the pitch being five feet, and on the right or north end is a huge chimney, affording a spacious fireplace. The window-panes are very small, and it was quite a humble domicile, having but two rooms; that on the right being the living-room, and that on the left the bedroom in which the general first saw the light. CHRONOLOGY OF GEN. GRANT'S LIFE 1822 April 27, Born at Point Pleasant, Ohio. 1839 July 1. Entered West Point Military Academy. 1843 Graduated from West Point 1843 Commissioned as second lieutenant, and served in the Mexican war, under Gens. Taylor and Scott. 1848 Married Miss Julia Dent, of St. Louis, Mo., while stationed at Sackett's Harbor, N.Y. 1852 Ordered to Oregon. 1853 Commissioned as captain in August. 1854 Resigned from the army in July. 1854-59 Lived in St. Louis. 1859 Removed to Galena, Ill., engaged in the tanning business with his father and brothers. 1861 Commissioned as colonel. Made brigadier-general in July, in command at Cairo; saved Kentucky to the Union. In November fought the battle of Belmont. 1862 Conducted a reconnaissance to the rear of Columbus in January; Fort Henry surrendered, February 6, and Fort Donelson, February 16. Made commander of West Tennessee; his army fought the successful battle of Shiloh, April 6 and 7. Second to Gen. Halleck at the siege of Corinth, he was given charge of the Department of Tennessee on the latter's call to the East. 1863 July 4. Forces the surrender of Vicksburg with 30,000 Confederates, after a siege beginning the previous October. In November defeated Gen. Bragg at Chattanooga, the fighting extending over four days, beginning November 23. 1864 Commissioned lieutenant-general by President Lincoln, March 3, and called to Washington. Assumed command of the armies of United States, March 8. Forced a passage across the James river between June 12 and 15, after the severe battles of the Wilderness, and laid siege to Richmond and Petersburg. 1865 April 2. The Confederate lines broken, Lee abandoned Richmond. The flying Confederates overtaken at Appomattox Court-House. April 9, Lee surrendered his entire army as prisoners of war, which was followed by the surrender of all the remaining forces of the Confederacy, and the close of the civil war. 1866 July 25. Congress created the grade of general, and he received the commission the same day. 1867 Served as Secretary of War from August to February, 1868. 1868 Elected President, receiving 214 of 294 electoral votes. 1872 Re-elected President by 268 electoral votes to 80. 1877 Started upon a tour around the world, which ended in the spring of 1880. 1880 Was a candidate for a third Presidential term, but was defeated for the nomination by Gen. James A. Garfield. 1881 Took up his residence in New York city. 1882 Became a member of the firm of Grant & Ward, whose disastrous failure, involving some $14,00,00, occurred in May, 1884. 1884 In June physicians were summoned to prescribe for an affection of the mouth, which was pronounced a cancer. 1885 March 3. The House passed the bill putting Gen. Grant on the retired list. June 16, he was removed from New York to Mount MacGregor, Saratoga county, where he died Thursday, July 23. LOVELAND is on the Little Miami river, twenty-three miles from Cincinnati, on the line of the P.C. & St. L., the C.W. & B., and C. & C.M. railroads. It contains 1 Methodist, 1 Colored Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, and 1 Catholic church. Planing-mill, A.B. Brock, 10 hands; lumber and coal yards, carriage-factory, machine-shop, agricultural depot, etc. Newspaper: Loveland Enterprise, Con. W. Gatch, editor and proprietor. Population in 1880, 595. Sixty trains pass daily through it, and it is fast building up. FELICITY is on an elevated plateau, in a rich, densely populated agricultural country, and is a good business centre, five miles from the Ohio. Furniture and chair-making is the chief industry. It has 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Wesleyan Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Church of Christ, 1 Colored Methodist, and 1 Colored Baptist church, and in 1880 a population of 1,047. The following are the names of other villages in the county, with their population in 1880; Moscow, 516; Neville, 445; Boston, 307. Clermont has produced quite a number of authors. Mary E. Fee was a poetess, born in the county, who wrote for the public prints over the signature of "Eulalie." Her poems were published in one volume of 194 pages, in Cincinnati, in 1854. She at that time married John Shannon, and with her devoted husband sought a home in California, where as "Eulalie" she lectured and recited her poems, drawing the largest and best-paying houses the Golden State ever accorded to any person. She did not live long to enjoy her brilliant triumphs, and after her lamented husband fell in a duel. Another lady, Mrs. Dr. George Conner, of Cincinnati, formerly Miss Eliza Archard, and the well-known "E.A.," of the Cincinnati Commercial, is also a native. George M.D. Bloss, editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, resided at Branch Hill, on the line of the L.N.R.R.; he was run over by the cars and killed there in 1876. He was regarded as one of the most able of political writers; but his handwriting, worse than Horace Greeley's was so illegible that only one compositor in the office could decipher it, and he was retained for that purpose. His memory for election statistics was as extraordinary as his chirography was detestable. His "Historic and Literary Miscellany," a book of 460 pages, was highly popular. Milton Jameison, of Batavia, who was lieutenant of Ohio volunteers in the Mexican war, wrote a work valuable as descriptive of army life there, and especially vivid in its descriptions of Mexican agricultural life and the shiftless character of the Mexican people. Abbie C. McKeever, the acknowledged successor of the Phoebe Cary, was born near Withamsville in 1852, and is still living there. She has written largely for the serials. Two of her poems which have been much admired are annexed: DRIFT AWAY Drift away, oh, clouds of amber, Crimson lines in billowy mass; Drift away in silent footsteps; I shall watch you as you pass I shall watch you-yes, and love you- For the beauty that you gave: Beauty dying in the twilight, Like the lilies on his grave. Drift away to unknown heavens, Crimson clouds along the west; But remember that you are bearing In your downy amber breast, Hopes that whisper softly to him Of a love that never dies- Love that tires of waiting lonely Ere the call to other skies. Drift away, oh, clouds of sunset, Purple with the later light: See! the stars are all about you- Diamond eyes of early night. Drift away; but while you are passing Bear this message up to him. That the earthly skies that fold me Soon shall part and let me in. ONLY Only a golden token, Tied with ribbon blue; Only a promise broken, Darling, by you. Only a life made dark All the weary way; Only an aching heart Throbbing to-day. Only a happy dream In the early light; Only a bitter stream Flowing by light. Only a touching prayer For the strength that lies. Far from the world are care, Far beyond the skies. ==== Maggie_Ohio Mailing List ====