HAMILTON COUNTY OHIO - History of Hamilton County Ohio (published 1881) Miami Township

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Miami Township - pgs 319-332
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History of Hamilton County Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical
Sketches.

Compiled by Henry A. Ford, A.M. and Mrs. Kate B. Ford, L.A. William & Co.,
Publishers; 1881.

pages: 319- 332

                   Hamilton County History: pages 319-332
                                  ~pg 319~

                               MIAMI TOWNSHIP

                               ORGANIZATION.

The original Miami township was one of the creations of the court of
general quarter sessions of the peace in 1791, at the same time as
Cincinnati and Columbia townships were erected. Its boundaries were then
defined as beginning at a point on the Ohio, at the first meridian east of
the mouth of Rapid run, thence due north to the Great Miami, thence down
that stream to the Ohio, thence up the Ohio to the place of beginning.
These included not only the entire tract now occupied by the township but
also the eastern part of Delhi, a strip of Green two sections wide, and
about one-third of Colerain township. In some of the old documents the
limits of Miami are more simply stated as "beginning at the southwest
corner of Cincinnati township, thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the
Miami, thence up the Miami to the west boundary of Cincinnati township,
thence south to the beginning."

In the general rearrangement of 1803, compelled or suggested by the
creation of several new counties from the still extensive Hamilton, the
boundaries of Miami were cut down considerably from the northward, while
they were extended one range of sections to the eastward. The were now
described as "commencing at the mouth of the Great Miami, thence north on
the State line to the Miami, thence up that stream to the north boundary of
fractional range two, thence east nearly four miles to the northeast corner
of section twenty-four in fractional range two, town two, thence south to
the Ohio, thence westward to the place of beginning." These confines gave
the township no further reach to the northward than it now has, but
extended the present north line three miles to the eastward, and gave Miami
a strip of as many sections' breadth from what is now Green township and
about half of the present Delhi, the east line of the township intersecting
the Ohio about a mile below Anderson's Ferry, or near Gilead Station.

By the time the change of 1803 was made it had been discovered, as maybe
ascertained by a careful reading of the definition of boundaries, that some
part of the course of the Great Miami, near its mouth, lay wholly in the
State of Indiana; so that a narrow strip of territory lay to the east of
it, between its channel and the State line, which did not belong to Miami
township or to Hamilton county. This river is famous for its changes of
course; and several of its ancient beds may be plainly traced further up
the valley, besides many indications of slighter modifications of channel.
It is probable that across the tract lying within a mile of the stream,
between GUARD'S Island and the mouth of the Great Miami, its waters have
advanced and receded many times. Quite recent maps of the State and county
exhibit a belt of territory here that still belongs to Indiana; but, since
the surveys upon which these are based were made, the river has again so
encroached upon its eastern banks that it is believed all its shore in that
direction is in Hamilton county and the State of Ohio, except perhaps a
small tract near the Ohio & Mississippi railway bridge.
                                 GEOGRAPHY.

The extreme western boundary of Miami township at present, therefore, may
be stated with almost literal exactness as the Great Miami river,
separating the township
~pg 320~
from Dearborn county, Indiana. The remaining entire boundary on the west -
and on the north, too, is also the Great Miami river, dividing Miami from
Whitewater township. Next east of the township, along its entire border in
this direction, is Green township; and on the south are the Ohio river,
separating it from Kentucky, and a mile's breadth of the northwest part of
Delhi township.

The township lies in fractional ranges one and two, town one of each. It
has but nine full sections, all of them in range two, and none in the
peninsula below North Bend and Cleves; but has twenty-two fractional
sections, and thus secures a very respectable amount of territory. Its
acres count up fourteen thousand and fifty-seven. Its extreme length is on
the eastern border and for about three-fourths of a mile in the interior -
just six sections, this strip being included between the same parallels
which bound Green township on the north and south. The shortest length is
between the point of the elbow of the Great Miami, at the south end of
Cleves, and the Ohio river about two-thirds of a mile. The greatest breadth
is on a line crossing the township east and west from the northernmost
point in the great bend of the Ohio, from which North Bend is named, not
quite six miles; the shortest is on the extreme north line, between the
Great Miami and the northeast corner of the township--three-quarters of a
mile. From the east line of the township to the meridian drawn from the
southwest comer that is the State line, the distance is over seven miles,
and from the southwest comer - the extreme end of the peninsula - to the
northeast corner is just ten miles. Miami is thus seen to be a very
singularly shaped township, deeply indented on the south side by the Ohio
river, and on the north and west in several places by the windings of the
Great Miami.

Within Miami township the Ohio receives from the northward the waters of
Muddy creek and the west fork of Muddy, the latter of which lies altogether
in the southeastern part of this township; also Indian creek, which enters
the river at North Bend station, and several minor streams. Along the
northwestern borders of the township flows the South fork of Taylor's
creek, leaving the township at the northwest corner, just opposite to
which, at the northwest corner, the main stream of Taylor's creek, flowing
down from Colerain township, discharges its waters. A mile due north of
Cleves, Jordan creek dabouches also into the Great Miami, after flowing
nearly three-fourths of the way across the township. One or two petty and
probably unnamed brooks are also affluents of this river on the Miami side.
Beside this river, above Cleves, the valley is wide and low, yielding great
crops of corn in favorable seasons; below Cleves Rittenhouse Hill, Fort
Hill, and the general ridge between the two rivers close down pretty
closely upon the banks of the streams, until their junction is neared, when
the country again becomes low and flat, and subject in part to frequent
overflow. The highlands continue along the Ohio to the Southeast boundaries
of the township; but have ample room at the foot for the tracks of the
railroads, a fine wagon road, and the sites of several villages and railway
stations. They afford many picturesque views up and down the river, and
across to the Kentucky shore; and some of the finest suburban residences in
the county, as that of Dr. WARDER near North Bend, have consequently been
located upon these heights. The general character of the hill country of
Hamilton county is maintained to the northward and westward until the
valley of the Great Miami is reached - much broken and diversified,
however, by the numerous streams that cut through and down the hills.
Across them, from the direction of Cincinnati, comes in the Cleves
turnpike, having the village of that name on the west for its terminus.
There is a singular scarcity of north and south roads in the township, but
a sufficiency of highways, with a general direction of east and west. The
Ohio & Mississippi, and the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago
railroads run parallel to each other and to the bank of the Ohio in this
township until just past North Bend station, where the track of the latter
diverges rapidly to the northward, passes under the ridge between North
Bend and Cleves by a tunnel, and leaves the township, going westward, by a
bridge over the Great Miami, half a mile northwest of Cleves. The Ohio &
Mississippi continues its course along the Ohio beyond North Bend about
five miles, to a point about half a mile above the mouth of the Great
Miami, when it passes into Indiana.
                          TOWNSHIP OFFICERS, ETC.

The first officers of the Miami township, named by appointment of the court
at the time of its erection, were in part as follows: Lynde ELLIOTT, clerk;
Darius C. ORCUTT overseer of roads; Henry BRAZIER, overseer of the poor.
The cattle brand for the township was fixed by the court as the letter D.

By the order of 1803 the voters of Miami were to meet at the house of
Joseph COLEBY and there vote for two justices of the peace.

On the twenty-fourth of April, 1809, the governor of the State commissioned
Garah MARKLAND and Stephen WOOD as justices of the peace for the township
of Miami, each to serve during a term of three years.

We have also the following memoranda of justices elected by the people in
later years: 1819, John PALMER, Daniel BAILEY; 1825, William HARRELL, James
MARTIN; 1829, John Scott HARRISON, J. L. WATSON, Isaac MORGAN; 1865, John
D. MATSON, A. R. LIND; 1866, A. R. LIND, James CARLIN; 1867-9, James
CARLIN, James HERRON; 1870-2, James CARLIN, William B. WELSH; 1873-4, James
CARLIN, James HERRON, William AYR; 1875, CARLIN and AYR; 1876-8, William
JESSUP, A. R. LIND; 1879-80, CARLIN and LIND
                                ANTIQUITIES.

The famous ancient work which gives the name to Fort Hill, near the Great
Miami river, is an irregular enclosure surrounding about fifteen acres. It
is between the brows of precipitous ascents two hundred and sixty feet high
on the Miami side and two hundred feet high towards the Ohio, which is
about a mile distant; and is in a position well calculated for outlook and
defence. The wall is now about three feet high, is composed of
~pg 321~
stone and earth, and has a narrow gateway at the northeast corner, near a
rocky tract on the hillside. There are prominent salients or bastions at
both the northeast and southeast corners. A ditch upon the inside follows
the wall throughout. A spring within would keep a besieged force well
supplied with water, and a channel of another stream also intersects the
wall, which might be damned in case of rainfall. The tableland within the
fort is ten to twenty feet above the wall, the earth in which was scooped
from the brow of the hill, while the stone was also collected from the
locality. The former farm of General HARRISON approached near the fort by
its west line; and the residence of his son, the Hon. J. Scott HARRISON,
was directly south of the work. The former in his discourse on the
Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio, delivered before the Historical
Society of Ohio in 1838, printed in its transactions and also separately,
thus uses this ancient work by way of illustration in an argument for the
high antiquity of the Mound Builders' remains:
The sites of the ancient works on the Ohio present precisely the same
appearance as the circumjacent forest. You find on them all the beautiful
variety of trees which gives such universal richness to our forests. This
is particularly the case on the fifteen acres included within the walls of
the work at the mouth of the Great Miami, and the relative proportions of
different kinds of timber are about the same. The first growth, on the same
kind of land, once cleared and then abandoned to nature, on the contrary is
more homogeneous after stinted to one or two, or at most three kinds of
timber.

Other remarks of the general concerning this work in the same address are
as follows:
The engineers who directed the executing of the Miami work, appear to have
known the importance of flank defenses. And if their bastions are not as
perfect as to form, as those which are in use in modern engineering, their
position, as well as that of the long lines of curtains, are precisely as
they should be.

I have another conjecture as to this Miami fortress. If the people of whom
we have been speaking were really the Aztecs, the direct course of their
journey to Mexico, and the facilities which that mode of retreat would
afford, seem to point out a descent of the Ohio as the line of that
retreat. This position (the lowest which they appear to have fortified on
the Ohio), strong by nature and improved by the expenditures of great
labor, directed by no inconsiderable degree of skill, would be the last
hold they would occupy and the scene of their last efforts to retain
possession of the country they had so long inhabited. The interest which
every one feels who visits this beautiful and interesting spot, would be
greatly heightened if he could persuade himself of the reasonableness of my
deductions, from the facts I have stated. That this elevated ridge, from
which are now to be seen flourishing little villages and plains of
unrivalled fertility, possessed by a people in the full enjoyment of peace
and liberty, and all that peace and liberty can give - whose nations. like
those of Spata, have never seen the smoke of an enemy's fire once presented
a scene of war, and war in its most horrid form, where blood is the object
and the deficiencies of the field are made up by the slaughter of innocence
and imbecility. That it was here a feeble band was collected. remnant of
mighty battles fought in vain, to make a last effort for the country of
their birth, the ashes of their ancestors and the altars of their gods;
that the crisis was met with fortitude and sustained with valor, need not
to be doubted. The ancestors of Quitlavaca and Gautimozin, and their
devoted followers could not be cowards.
                                FORT FINNEY.

This work, the first erection for human habitation made by white men upon
the territory afterwards covered by the Miami purchase, except only the
transient blockhouses erected by the war parties of Kentuckians upon the
site of Cincinnati, stood upon the soil of Miami township, in the point of
the peninsula. It was upon the west bank of a small creek, about
three-quarters of a mile above the mouth of the Little Miami, and near the
mouth of the creek, not far from what is now the southeast corner of the
former farm of the late John Scott HARRISON. The site is still pointed out
by residents of that neighborhood, and a writer in 1866 said that some
remains of the fort were then still to be seen, though they have now wholly
disappeared.

We have elsewhere, in the chapter Before Losantiville, in the second
division of this work, told the story of Fort FINNEY, down to and including
the settlement and signature of a treaty with the Indians, February 2,
1786. It remains only to give its subsequent brief history. This we are
happily enabled to do by the aid of the journal of Major DENNY, which has
been published in one of the valuable volumes issued by the Pennsylvania
Historical society. It begins October 22, 1785, before the work was built,
and a little before the movement of troops to that quarter began. From this
clear and intelligent account we learn that General BUTLER and his fellow
commissioners left the fort soon after the treaty was concluded, going away
on the eighth of February, 1786, in three large boats, with their
messengers and attendants, all apparently well tired of the place, where
their life and duties had been by no means pleasant. Their voyage was up
the Ohio on their return to civilization. The soldiers remained, however,
with Major FINNEY Captain ZEIGLER (afterwards Major ZEIGLER, commandant at
Fort Washington), Lieutenant DENNY, and other well known officers in
command. St. Patrick's Day was duly celebrated by the bold Irish boys of
the garrison, with all hands taking part in such festivities as included
the disposal of festive liquids, and also in the observance of the Fourth
of July, which followed in due course of time. Lieutenant DENNY does not
say just when the fort was evacuated, but the treaty of the Indians of the
Miami and Maumee valleys was supposed to obviate the necessity for a
military post here, and, all remaining quiet in this region, the commanding
officer was presently directed to evacuate the place, which he did some
time before January, 1789, taking his force to the Indiana side of the Ohio
opposite Louisville, where a small work was also erected, and likewise
called Fort FINNEY. We have no record that the work was occupied again by a
military force, although General HARMAR, in a letter of January 22, 1789,
just before SYMMES reached North Bend, said it was "not improbable that two
companies would be ordered to be stationed at the mouth of the Great Miami,
not only as a better cover for Kentucky, but also to afford protection to
Judge SYMMES in his intended settlement there." But it was doubtless
standing when Judge SYMMES came upon the premises, since the locality about
the mouth of the Great Miami is commonly referred to by him as the Old
Fort, and doubtless took its name from Fort Finney, not from the ancient
work on the hills overlooking the Great Miami.
                             THE INDIAN PERIOD

The following narrative was related by the Hon. J. Scott HARRISON, son of
President HARRISON, in an address
~pg 322~
to the Whitewater and Miami Valley Pioneer association, at Cleves,
September 8, 1866:
A party of men residing at the Point (mouth of Big Miami), were returning
from a small mill near North Bend, and with one exception, stopped at the
old log house lately occupied by Andrew Mc'DONALD, where a tavern was then
kept; and as this was before the days of temperance societies, it is a very
fair inference that they stopped to take a drink. One man (DEMOSS) more
temperate, perhaps, than his fellows, continued on his way up the hill -
the trace to the Point then running over the hill, near the old graveyard,
and on the bluff of the ridge. The revelers had hardly time to accomplish
the object of their stop before the report of a rifle was heard on the
hill. The party at the tavern, supposing it was only an intimation from
their more sober companion to cease their revels and continue their way
home, rushed out of the house with a wild whoop, mounted their horses, and
rode up the hill. But what must have been the horror of the party, on
arriving at the crown of the hill, to find their companion dead and
weltering in his blood! The undischarged rifle of DEMOSS, and the missing
meal-bag, too plainly explained the manner and cause of his death. Pursuit
was immediately given, in a northwesterly direction, and the meal, but not
the Indian, found. The Indian, in order to save his own life, had dropped
that which had evidently incited him to commit the murder.

This tale of Indian murder has always had a peculiar personal interest to
me. My mother, then unmarried and living with her father. Judge SYMMES, at
North Bend, had been on a riding excursion (horseback, of course), to the
Point, the very afternoon of this murder, and has often told me that the
horses of their party were still at the door after their return, when the
fatal shot that killed DEMOSS was plainly heard. My mother was always under
the impression that the Indian saw her party pass, but that bread, rather
than blood, was the object of the murderer.
                           THE PIONEER SETTLEMENT

in Miami township, and the third in the Miami purchase, was made, as all
careful readers of this work well know by this time, by Judge John Cleves
SYMMES - not at the mouth of the Great Miami, as he intended, and as
General HARMAR and others expected, but at North Bend. Who Judge SYMMES
was, in his family origin and early career, and what were his preliminary
movements before reaching the Purchase with his colony, are narrated in
Chapter IV of the first part of this book. Major DENNY who had returned to
the garrison at Fort HARMAR, thus wrote in his journal August 27, 1788, of
the appearance of Judge SYMMES and party at the post, during the movement
westward. The gallant young officer's attention seems to have been
specially and worthily attracted by the principal young lady of the party,
the daughter of the proprietor:
Judge SYMMES, with several boats and families. arrived on their way to his
new purchase at the Miami. Has a daughter (Polly) along. They lodge with
the general and Mrs. HARMAR. Stayed three days, and departed. If not
greatly mistaken, Miss SYMMES will make a fine woman. An amiable
disposition and cultured mind, about to be buried in the wilderness.

This "Polly" is the daughter who afterwards became the wife of Peyton SHORT
the millionaire son-in-law of Judge SYMMES. General HARRISON's wife was
Annie SYMMES, also daughter of the judge.

Arriving at Limestone Point, later Maysville, SYMMES's found himself
detained there during a tedious fall and early winter by the delay of the
authorities in concluding with the Indians the treaty of Muskingum, and so
providing reasonable security for settlers in the wilderness further down
the river. Major STITES, however, got off about the middle of November with
his party for the mouth of the Little Miami, and Colonel PATTERSON, the
twenty-fourth of the next month, for the famed and coveted spot "opposite
the mouth of the Licking," but the chief proprietor of the Purchase was
still detained. December 12th, Captain KEARSEY and forty-five troops came
down the river from Fort Harmar, and reported to him as an escort. They
were for the time being of no service, but rather an annoyance, since they
brought but limited supplies, and the judge had to subsist them. In
November he had ordered a few surveyors down the Ohio, to traverse the two
Miami valleys as high up as they could get. Some of these formed the
advance guard of SYMMES' immigration to the Great Miami country. The judge
intended to remain at Limestone until spring, having taken, as he said, "a
total house of my own," but he doubtless became restless at the success of
STITES and PATTERSON in founding their settlements while he delayed, and
was also assured by repeated messages from STITES of the friendly
disposition of the Indians and their eager desire to see him. There was
some danger that his red brethren would go off in anger and disgust at the
refusal or neglect of SYMMES to meet them; and so, during the latter part
of January, 1789, he collected with difficulty a small commissariat of
flour and salt, placed on boats his family and furniture, with other
members of the colony and such of KEARSEY's soldiers as had not been sent
to STITES, and embarked from Limestone January 29th. The season was
inclement. A few weeks before this time, about the last of December, a
sergeant and twelve men of the command had been dispatched for the Old Fort
with a party of settlers. The weather changed soon after they left
Limestone, becoming very cold, and filling the river with ice, so that
there was danger they would be frozen up in the stream. They reached
Columbia, however, and there paused, expecting soon to go on to their
destination. But while here, the floating ice forced their boats from the
shore, stove in, and carried away the side of one bearing live stock, part
of which was drowned, and the rest saved with difficulty. Most of the
provisions on hand for the settlers and soldiers was also lost. This broke
up the intended emigration to the Old Fort, the party remaining at
Columbia, or returning to Limestone when the weather and river permitted.

When SYMMES started, January 29th, it was at a time of the greatest freshet
in the Ohio that had been known since Kentucky was settled the greatest,
indeed, between 1773 and the tremendous flood of 1832. When his flotilla
reached Columbia he found the little settlement under water except one
house, which was on the higher ground. The soldiers had been driven by the
water to the garret of the block-house, and thence to the boats. Floating
rapidly with the swollen stream to Losantiville, he found it "had suffered
nothing from the freshet," as he afterwards wrote. He doubtless stopped and
spent some hours, very likely a night, at each of these places; although
speeded by the flood and not interrupted by ice, as the Losantiville
voyagers were, he occupied about the same time in the journey that they
did, namely, four days. Leaving the last outpost of civilization on the
Upper Ohio in the morning, he landed,
~pg 323~
on the second of February, 1789, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, as he
minutely records, on the site of North Bend. It was his intention, as
before stated, to take his people and garrison down to the Old Fort; but
the high water determined him not to proceed thither until he had more
definitely ascertained whether or not that was an eligible site for a town
under such circumstances. The flood was an advantage to the North Bend
locality, since from his boat, elevated by it, the judge could see, as he
described it, "that the river hills appeared to fall away in such a manner
that no considerable rise appeared between the Ohio' and the Great Miami,"
so that his project of a city between the streams had here good hope of
realization. The freshet also enabled him to determine the probable
exemption of a colony here from injury to their homes by high water. It is
said, too, that he decided to stop here, six miles short of his purposed
destination, in order to be more conveniently situated with reference to
his surveyors in the purchase.

The first dwelling occupied by Judge SYMMES and family in their new home,
is described by Mr. F. W. MILLER, author of Cincinnati's Beginnings. It is
probably typical of all others that sheltered the party the first few days:

As soon as he had debarked he formed there an encampment, erecting a kind
of shelter then usually adopted in this region for such purpose, consisting
of two forked sapplings set in the ground for uprights, with a crop pole
resting in the forks of these as a support for [boat] boards leaning from
the ground to form the sides, one end of the structure being closed up, and
the other left open for an entrance and fireplace. In that he remained for
about six weeks before being able to provide himself with anything more
like a house.

Judge SYMMES found his fears of the tract about the mouth of the Great
Miami amply justified. On the next day after landing he sent two of the
most intelligent members of his party to the junction of the rivers to
inspect the grounds, and upon their return they reported that so much of
the neck of land there as was above water was considerably broken with
hills and by a small stream of water, so as to forbid the. laying out of a
city between the two large waters. The following day SYMMES himself went
down with Captain KEARSEY, and made a thorough survey of the region about
the old fort. By this time the river had fallen about fifteen feet, leaving
great cakes off ice six inches in thickness clinging to the trees, making
in some cases canopies of eight to ten feet in diameter. The ice also
served him a good purpose in his survey, as showing to what points upon the
banks and bottom lands the water had reached. He found "the fine large
bottom of land down in the point" covered with water to the depth of many
feet, and after making full inspection of the premises he wrote to his
partner that "I am obliged to own that I was exceedingly disappointed in
the plat which we had intended for a city." He prepared and sent them a map
of the peninsula during the flood, which demonstrated the proposed site to
be "altogether ineligible."

He writes further: "This (the founding of a city at the point) I pronounce
very impracticable, unless you raise her, like Venice, out of the water, or
get on the hills west of the township line." He found, indeed, only room
enough for one street between the hill and the overflowed land, and this
scarcely half a mile in length. "A small village," he concludes, "is all
that I can flatter myself with at the point, if we allow more of a lot than
barely enough to set a house on." He thought, however, that they might do
well to lay out a plat of fifty or sixty lots there, which was never done,
we believe. He was enthusiastic in his description of this part of the
peninsula for the excellence of its soil and the imminence of its growth of
wild grass. He estimated the tract at about three thousand acres, of which
one thousand were first-rate meadow-land; another third was capable of
tillage, and level enough for plowing; and the remaining third was heavily
timbered with richer growths. He suggested to the company that the whole
should be reserved as a common manor for the proprietors, under liberal
regulations for others that might settle in the reserved township. "I have
not seen," he says, "fifty acres together, of the most broken of this
township, on which an industrious man could not get a comfortable living."

The result was a determination to lay out a village where the party had
first landed. He accordingly platted the village of North Bend, and South
Bend some time after. He kept looking about, however, for a suitable site
for a city, and seems to have found two, "both eligible," one about two
miles east of North Bend, on the Ohio, a little above the mouth of Muddy
creek; the other the same distance north of the bend, in that sweeping
curve of the Great Miami about ten miles from its mouth, within which are
situated the major part of sections twenty-three and twenty-four, in the
northwestern part of this township. At neither of these points, however,
could a city be laid off upon the desired plan of a regular square. "On
both," said SYMMES, "a town must, if built, be thrown into an oblong of six
blocks or squares by four. It is a question of no little moment and
difficulty to determine which of these spots is preferable in point of
local situation." But in the same letter, of May 18, 1789, to one of the
co-proprietors, the judge argues elaborately and stoutly in favor of the
latter site, as, being on the Great Miami, it would not be necessary for
the inhabitants of that region, going to the proposed city by water, to
double around the point at the old fort to teach it, as they would if the
city were on the Ohio. He was anxious to have the site of the city
determined and get it laid off; as meanwhile he was embarrassed in laying
out the lands in that part of the purchase by the uncertainty as to the
location of the Miami metropolis. He writes: "As it is uncertain where the
city will be built, and whether the point may be reserved for the purpose
of a manor or not, I shall be cautious how I set apart particular lots of
land until these matters are settled by the proprietors." The end was, as
we shall presently see more fully, that the great "city of Miami" to be was
laid out where he first landed, from the Ohio river at North Bend nearly to
the Great Miami at the present village of Cleves.

Captain KEARSEY had received orders, probably from General HARMAR, simply
to accompany the emigrants to their destination, wherever that might prove
to be, and
~pg 324~
then occupy Fort Finney. The great flood prevented him from executing the
latter part of the order at first, but when the stage of water permitted a
landing at that point and occupation there, he was anxious to have SYMMES
and his people accompany his troops to the old Fort, and was much
displeased that the judge did not comply with his desire. He did nothing
toward building block-houses for the protection of the settlement; and
about five weeks after the landing, or the eighth of March, finding the
provisions growing short, he abandoned SYMMES with the greater part of the
detachment, leaving him but the ridiculous force of four men for the
nominal defense of the place. He did not stop at Fort Finney either, but
continued on to the falls of the Ohio, whence he did not return to North
Bend. Major WYLLY's was commanding at the falls, and in response to SYMMES'
repeated and very earnest appeals, he, after some delay, sent Ensign LUCE
with eighteen men to the new place. These addressed themselves to business
at once, and within a week had a tolerable block-house erected at North
Bend, and the infant settlement felt more secure. This Ensign LUCE is the
hero of the romantic, but, alas! unreliable story, concerning the black
eyes of a fair dulcina as the cause of the removal of the garrison and
fixing of the sight of Fort Washington at Losantiville, and the consequent
prosperity of that place and decay of North Bend.

The story of North Bend and other Miami settlements will be carried on
further in this chapter.
Among the early settlers of the township, were the SILVERS, RITTENHOUSE,
WOODS, MATERNS, HOWELLS, and ANTHONY families.
                             SETTLEMENT NOTES.

Joseph Dixson GARRISON, tavern keeper and groceryman, North Bend, is
great-grandson of a Swede or German named GARRISON, who was among the first
settlers of New Jersey. His grandfather, Abraham GARRISON emigrated from
Virginia to Kentucky at a very early day, and settled at or near Scott's
station, removing in a few years to the Northwest Territory at
Losantiville. Here his wife, Lydia GARRISON did considerable doctoring
among the people of the place, and here he and his son Joseph, father of
the subject of this notice, were eye witnesses of the murder of Benjamin
VAN CLEVE by the Indians. She, in a small way, introduced the manufacture
of soap in Cincinnati, and he built and operated the horse-mill on Third
street, where the Presbyterian colonists held some of their earliest
services. Joseph GARRISON is supposed to have been born at SCOTT'S station,
and remained with his father at Cincinnati until he was well grown. His son
gives the following amusing account of the manner in which he became
acquainted with General HARRISON:
"He got acquainted with him in rather a comical way. My father had caught a
cub bear by killing the old one. He raised it as a pet, and had it under
good subjection. After it had grown up to about its full size, he would
watch when the army would be on parade or drilling, and would then take his
bear and go up on the side-hill above the parade ground, and tie an old
camp-kettle to his hind parts and scare him and turn him loose, when the
bear would run for home right through the line of soldiers, and break
ranks, and make a grand disturbance. So one day the general followed him
home and requested his father to stop him of his sport. I have often heard
the general and father laugh about their first acquaintance."

Joseph GARRISON married Merab CONNER, near Lawrenceburgh, in 1805, and,
after some service in aid of the Government surveyors, settled at the Goose
pond, in Miami township, where Joseph D. was born, in 1816. The latter in
early life tended GARRISON'S ferry, over the Great Miami, where the Cleves
bridge now is, and made several trading trips with boats to New Orleans. He
was married in 1852 to Sarah Ann, only daughter of James Smith LEONARD, an
early emigrant from Canada to the neighborhood of Rising Sun, Indiana. The
same day they started for California with a company he had agreed to take
through. He there engaged in gold mining until the middle of February,
1855, when they started on their return to the States. While residing at
Diamond Springs, California, their first son, now a physician in
southeastern Kansas, was born. Two more sons and two daughters are now
residing with their parents. After his return Mr. GARRISON pursued farming
for a time, and then bought his present hotel property in North Bend.

One of the settlers of 1796, at North Bend, was Andrew SCOTT, a Scotch
immigrant from Redstone, Pennsylvania, who was one of the first blacksmiths
to erect a shop and open for business here. He remained at the Bend about
six years, and then went on a farm, dying in Crosby township in 1831. His
son James also worked for a time at blacksmithing here, and then became a
teacher - one of the first in point of both time and reputation, in
Hamilton county. He was also a civil engineer. He removed to Crosby
township, where he was justice of the peace for several years, and was one
of the founders, in 1803, of the Whitewater Congregational church at New
London, Butler county. He died of cholera in 1834. His numerous descendants
still reside in Crosby township.

Christopher FLINCHPAUGH was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1799, and came
to America in 1817, settling in Miami township the same year. He was
married to Elizabeth COLUMBIA in 1821. Three years later he embraced
religion, and the same year commenced preaching the gospel. He was a member
of the United Brethren church. He used to have such men in his congregation
as General HARRISON, Judge SHORT, and numerous other distinguished men of
our country. When he became a Christian he could neither read nor write. A
short time after he began in the ministry he was assigned to a circuit of
four hundred miles. The distance had to be travelled on horseback, and he
was obliged to preach thirty-two times every four weeks. He filled the
pulpit in Cincinnati, in both the English and German churches, and was
presiding elder two years. At present he is retired, but preaches
occasionally. He is highly respected by all who know him, and has indeed
been a public benefactor. His faithful wife died July 30, 1880, at the
advanced age of seventy eight. They have had twelve children: Jacob;
William; Caleb; Christopher; Simon,
~pg 325~
married to Sarah SWAYEN; Mary, the wife of Caleb RENUNGER; Christina, the
wife of Adam SWARTZ, of Indiana; Henrietta, the wife of Jesse HERRON;
Charlotte, now married to Charles BECKER; Hannah, Mrs. John SWAYEN;
Elizabeth, married to Francis MARKLE and Susie.

Henry FLINCHPAUGH was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, March 9, 1792. At the
age of sixteen he enlisted in the French army and took part in the campaign
against Moscow, led by Napoleon BONAPARTE, suffering all the privations of
the terrible retreat. He fought in the battle of Leipsig, also in Waterloo,
and in the latter battle escaped without a wound. In 1817 he came to
America, and, while passing through Pennsylvania, at the town of Lancaster,
married Johanna SCHMIDLAPP. The same year he settled in Butler county,
Ohio, where he remained about a year, when he came to Hamilton county and
settled at first in the town of Miami, but afterward moved to a farm in
Miami township. The place is now owned by Emanuel FAIGLE. He came to
America poor, but succeeded in amassing a large property. He was a member
of the church of United Brethren, and in politics was a Democrat. His death
occurred October 7, 1852. His wife died October 1, 1863. Their family
consisted of twelve children: David, now married to Maria FLEMING; Henry,
married to Cynthia CREECH, Hannah, the wife of William CREECH; Mary,
married to Frederick ULMER; Caleb, married to Rachel INGERSOLL; Jacob;
William, married to Eliza BROWN; Harriet, Mrs. Gottlieb METZZER, John,
married to Fanny YANNY; and three that died in early childhood.

Caleb FLINCHPAUGH was born in Hamilton county, in the house in which he now
lives, in the year 1828, February 14th. He has always followed the business
of farming He was married February 27, 1851, to Miss INGERSOLL, of the same
township. She died August 13, 1879, leaving eight children. He is at
present township trustee, an office held by him during the past six years.
He has also been on the board of education fifteen years and has a deep
interest in everything pertaining to the cause of education. A zealous
member of the United Brethren church, he has had several offices of honor
and trust in the church. Politically he is a Democrat. He has an
interesting family of eight boys, all living, and all at home. Their names
are - William H., David, Wesley R., Isaac Y., Jacob S., Frank, Anderson,
and Eddie.

John M. FLINCHPAUGH was born in this county in 1838, and has always been a
farmer from preference. He was married in 1863 to Miss Fanny YANNY, of
Miami township. A Democrat in politics, he has filled the place of
councilman of the village one year. His five children are - Charles E.,
Nora L., Harry E., Jennie, and James E.

Henry FLINCHPAUGH was born in the town of Miami in 1819, and followed the
business of farming till of age. Then he opened a store on TAYLOR'S creek,
in which he remained five years, when he removed his stock of goods to
Harrison, and remained another five years. He is a natural mechanic, and
has worked considerably at the gunsmith's trade. During the gold excitement
in California he made rifles for a number of men who went over the plains
to that State. He is now engaged at his trade. He was married in 1843. In
politics he is a Democrat. His three children are - Harriet L., now Mrs.
Valentine FAGLEY; William M., married to Julia SIEPEN; and John F., still
living at home.

David FLINCHPAUGH was born in Butler county, Ohio, in 1818, and was moved
with the family to Miami township the same year. He has held the office of
township trustee three years, and has been school director more than thirty
years. In politics he has always been a Democrat. He married Maria FLEMING,
a native of Pennsylvania, in 1842, and settled, the same year, on the farm
which he now occupies.

John B. MATSON was born in this township in 1796, and married Lucretia Y.
BUCK, of the same place, in the year 1826. She died after thirteen years,
leaving six children. Two years later he was married to Milchia VANGORDER.
His first settlement was made on the farm now owned by Mrs. A. W. FLOWERS,
the same on which he was born. He was a Democrat, and has been in the
office of justice of the peace for one term. He died on the same farm in
1875, at the age of eighty years. His nine children are James, married to
Elizabeth HOUTS; Oliver, married to Louisa STEPHENSON; John B., married to
Cynthia A. BROWN; Lucretia, who died when four years old; Job, married to
Catharine DERRICK; Lovina, who died in infancy; Albert, married to Anna
CHAMBERS; Charlotte D., now the wife of Amasa W. FLOWERS; and Narcissa,
Mrs. Richard C. FLOWERS.

John B. MATSON was born in this township in 1831. He attended Farmers'
college, at College Hills, one term. In 1854 he was married to Cynthia A.
BROWN, of the same county. He is a Democrat in his political belief. His
children are James B., married to Mary Mc'SWEETY, Minnie, the wife of Asa
C. BONHAM; Mary. now Mrs. Thomas M. GERARD; Kate, Fannie, who died at the
age of seven years; Frank, who died at three years of age; Hattie, now
living at home, and Bessie, who died an infant.

Chalon G. GUARD was born in this county on March 15, 1819. In 1841 he was
married to Leah H. COMEGES of Dearborn county, Indiana. He was township
trustee for several years, and, in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which
he was a member, he was steward during many years. In his political faith
he was a Republican. He died October 21, 1873. His children are Angeline,
Maton B., married to Sophia D. MOORE, and now living in Indiana; Simeon G.,
married to Inez M. LEWIS, and now in Kansas; Rachel M., Ezra G., Almira H.,
the wife of Stephen W. RITTENBURG and Eunice W., now Mrs. Luther FISHER, of
Illinois.

John Mc'GEE was born in New Jersey in 1807. He came to Ohio in 1829, and
settled on the farm on which he now lives in Miami township In 1833 he
married Nacky BROWN, from Clermont county. He has held the office of
trustee in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a member. He has
long been a Republican. His children are Sarah, Robert, married to Sallie
FAZELY; John, Jane, now Mrs. Michael SARGENT, and Annie.

pages: 325-332

                   Hamilton County History: pages 325-332
                                  ~pg 325~

Abel INGERSOLL was born in New Jersey in 1794, and
~pg 326~
was brought to Ohio in 180l. His first home in this State was in Whitewater
township, on the farm owned at present by Mr. HOPPING. He married Elizabeth
POLK, of Pennsylvania. At one time he served in the place of constable
during a series of years; was a member of the United Brethren church; in
politics was always very liberal, voting for the man that seemed to him
best. He died in this township in 1850 at the age of sixty-six. Seven years
later his wife died. They had eight children: Isaac, married to Mary A.
HERRON; Patience, married first to John HERRON, and afterward to Arthur
HENRY; Rachel, the wife of Caleb FLINCHPAUGH; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Robert
MARTIN, of Indiana; and four that died in early infancy.

Isaac INGERSOLL was born in this county in 1817. October 31, 1844, he
married Mary A. HARRON. Several years he has served as township trustee,
and two years was township treasurer. He has always lived on the farm on
which he was born. He is, in politics, a Democrat. He has five children:
Joseph, now married to Florence MARKLIN; Nancy, Daniel, and Elizabeth, not
living at home, and one that died while an infant.

William MAENSLEY was born in Virginia in 1785, where he married Nancy
BUSSEL. She died, leaving six children, in Miami, in 1822. He came to this
State in 1815, but had lived for a time previously in Boone county,
Kentucky. His first Ohio settlement was made at North Bend, on the farm now
the property of Charles SHORT. In politics he was an Old Line Whig. He died
in Ripley, Indiana, in 1837. He had six children: James, at present in
Texas; Moses B., now married to Eunice HAYES; John B., married to Mary J.
INGRAHAM; Eliza, the wife of David JONES, of Indiana; Samuel, married to
Catharine GRONENDIKE; and Stephen W., married to Mary VANGORDER, and a
resident of Indiana at the present time.

Moses B. MAENSLEY was born in Boone county, Kentucky, in 1814, and was,
while very young, brought by his parents to North Bend, Ohio. He has held
the offices of constable and treasurer for his township, and has also been
steward in the Methodist Episcopal church, where he has a membership. In
politics he is a strong Republican. In 1846 he built a warehouse at Cleves
and began the buying of grain, which he followed twenty years, when he
abandoned it and took up farming. Twelve years previous to the above date
he was in business on the river between Cincinnati and New Orleans. It took
an entire year in those days to make one trip. In 1839 he was married to
Miss Eunice HAYES, of this township. They have had nine children: Anderson
B., married to Mary H. LEWIS; Anna H., and Alvin C.; James F., married to
Anna MARKLAND; Abiatha B., the wife of Otto LOWE of Indiana; Fanny M., Job
H., Arabella, and Chalon G.

Job HAYES was born in this county North Bend in 1791. His father, Job
HAYES, died on a boat three months before his birth; he was buried on the
bank of the Ohio river with such care to conceal the body from the Indians
that even his friends were unable to discover the place of his burial. He
always followed the business of farming. His children were: James, married
to Penina CONNER; Sarah, the wife of Levi MILLER now living in Indiana; and
Job, married to Johanna HAYES, and living in Iowa.

Job HAYES, jr., owing to the great distance to school, was obliged to study
evenings at home, which he did by the firelight as best he could. He
married Johanna HAYES, of Butler county, June 29, 1816, and first settled
on the farm now owned by the MILLER heirs, in Whitewater township. In
politics he was a Democrat; in religion, a member of the Methodist
Episcopal church. He died in Madison, Iowa, February 4, 1868. His wife died
at the same place four years later. Their family consists of eleven
children: Mary, Levi M., Joseph H., married to Sarah MYERS; Omer, married
to Mary A. Mc'ELLHANEY; Sarah M., the wife of Isaac STEPHENS, of Indiana;
Isaac D., married and living in Iowa; Martha, Jacob, Samuel F., married to
Mary MARSH, and now of Iowa; and Buelah married first to Corydon SWIFT and
afterward to Barney MULLIN.

Joseph H. HAYES was born in this county in 1824. In 1852 he married Sarah
MYERS, also of this county. He has served as township trustee one term, is
a member of the Methodist church, and in politics is a Democrat. His seven
children are: Job W., Enos, Alice D., Isaac D., Joseph G., Wilson, and
Charles.

Thomas MARKLAND was born in Maryland, in 1765. He was a cooper by trade,
which business he carried on with farming all his life. He married Anna M.
SOMERS, a native of Virginia, and came to this State in 1805. He reached
Green township, of this county, on the second day of April, and settled on
the farm now owned by Charles and Washington MARKLAND. At that time the
nearest white settler was two miles distant, and the nearest church had to
be reached by going eleven miles. The school was two miles from his farm,
and the nearest grist-mill twenty-seven miles away. There was no sawmill
within reach.

He helped Bailey GUARD land at Lawrenceburgh, Indiana, about the year 1806;
was the first manufacturer of barrels in that part of the county. In
politics he was an Old Line Whig. He died in 1825, and his wife's death
occurred in 1837. They had a family of eleven children, eight boys and
three girls Elizabeth, the wife of William ROGERS; Leah, wife of Henry
TOWNER; Martha, now Mrs. James ANDERSON; Jonathan, married to Julia
SAMMONS; Benjamin, married to Fanny ROGERS and afterwards to Emily EDWARDS;
John, whose wife is Mary MILLER; William, whose wife is Mary SAMMONS; Noah,
married to Jemima SAMMONS; Washington, married to Mary HAMMOND; James, now
in Indiana, whose wife was Phoebe MOORE and afterward Eliza CREECH; and
Charles, married to Jane GARDNER.

Noah MARKLAND was born in Kentucky, April 25, 1803, and came to Ohio with
his parents when about two years of age. He remembers the building of the
first school-house in Green township. It was made of logs, on the farm now
owned by Simeon POUNDER. The first teacher was Moses W. COTTON, who taught
in 1809. He also remembers the building of the first church, on
~pg 327~
the site of the present Methodist Episcopal church, called the Ebenezer
church. He learned the cooper's trade with his father which he followed but
a short time, when he turned his attention to farming in which he is now
engaged. In 1832 he came to this township and settled on the farm now owned
by Charles SHORT. In 1825, April 5th, he married Jemima SAMMONS, of
Hamilton county. She had seven children, and died October 16, 1844, at the
age of forty-one years. He then married Rebecca LAIRD of the same county.
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics is
Republican. He has eleven children Jesse; LEANDER, not now living; James,
married to Sarah GOODEN; William, married to Jane WADE; Charles; Francis,
married to Elizabeth FLINCHPAUGH; Mary J., the wife of William B. WELCH;
Martha, the wife of George T. REDFERN and living in Tennessee; Annie M.,
the wife of James F. MAENSLEY; Samuel, and Elizabeth H.

Moses ARGO was born in the State of Delaware, in 1771. A farmer by choice,
he came to this State and settled near Mount Pleasant, this county, in
October, 1803. He married Sarah BRUIN, of New Jersey, and his marriage
license is the second on record in the probate court of this county. In
politics, he was a Jacksonian Democrat. In 1813 he moved to Miami township,
and began his home on the farm now owned by William BRAWLEY. He died in
1842; his wife bad died nine years previously. They had nine children:
Libbie, now the wife of Lewis FOWLER; Lucinda, wife of Daniel HELTERBRINE,
of Indiana; Alexander, married to Mary A. WALBRINE, and residing in
Illinois; Ebenezer, who had three wives, Amanda TAPEL, Hannah SPINNING, and
Laura M. OLDRUVE; Anna, who was the wife of Thomas KINKAID, and is now
married to Enos GRAY, and living in Indiana; William, Elizabeth, and one
that died in infancy.

Ebenezer ARGO was born in this county in 1810. When fifteen years old he
began the trade of shoemaking. In 1836 he came to Cleves, and opened a shop
in the building now used by him as a wareroom. In 1842 he married Amanda
YAPEL, of Illinois. She had three children, and died in Cleves in 1848. He
then married Hannah SPINNING, of New Jersey, who died in 1867. His third
wife was Louisa M. C. OLDRUVE, a native of England. She died in 1876. In
February, of 1861, he sold out the boot and shoe business to Michael
MILLER, and began dealing in groceries and hardware, in which he is still
employed. He is trustee and elder in the Presbyterian church, of which he
is a member, and is a Republican in politics. He has three children: Sarah
A., married to Edmund KANE; William, whose wife is Melissa HEARN; and James
E.

Samuel BURR was born on Long Island, in 1766. He married Debora FLEET, of
the same place. In 1793 she died, leaving one child. He afterwards was
married to Phoebe DODGE, of the same place, and she died, leaving two
children. He was an excellent mathematician, a self educated man. While in
New York, he was appointed head clerk in the general post office, under
President Washington, and served until the seat of government was moved to
Philadelphia, when he resigned. In 1817 he came to Ohio with his family,
and settled on what is now known as the Oliver SPENCER farm. While in Ohio,
he followed farming and surveying. The first year after he came here, he
was appointed trustee of the Cincinnati college, which office he held for a
number of years. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in
politics he was an Old Line Whig. His children are Edward M., now on Long
Island; William P., married first to Cynthia BROWN and afterward to Lydia
M. MOREHEAD; and Deborah F., the wife of Henry DODGE, of Long Island.

William P. BURR was born on Long Island, August 17, 1808. He came to Ohio
with his parents, and settled on the same place. His business has been
farming and surveying. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church,
and in politics was first a Whig, but more recently has been a Republican.
In 1827 he married Miss Cynthia BROWN, of this township. She died March 18,
1834, leaving five children. He afterward married Lydia M. MOREHEAD. His
family has numbered twelve: Mary, Edward, Martha A., Robert, Samuel,
Deborah, Eliza, Emma F., Phoebe, and three others who died in early
infancy.

Jesse HEARN was born in North Carolina in 1783, came to Ohio when about
twenty-one years of age, and settled in North Bend. He was a farmer, which
business he followed all his life. He was a member of the Methodist
Episcopal church for a great many years, held the position of trustee from
the time the Miami church was built until his death. In politics he was a
Democrat. He died June 28, 1854. His wife was Nancy KYLE, of the same
township. She was born December 26, 1789, and died the same date, 1859.
They had nine children: Elizabeth; Harriet, the wife of John BROWN; Edward,
married to Sarah Palmer; Mary A., the wife of Isaac INGERSOLL; John,
married to Patience INGERSOLL; James, who has had three wives, Hester A.
ROGERS, Jane Mark-land and Kate HAYES; Purnel, married to Ann M. NOBLE;
Anna B., the wife of Joseph SCHERMERHORN; Patience, who died an infant; and
Jesse, now married to Henrietta FLINCHPAUGH.

Purnel HEARN was born in this township November 1, 1823. He was formerly a
butcher, but is now a farmer. In 1850 he married Ann M. NOBLE, of Green
township. One year he has served as township trustee, is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal church, and, in politics, is Democratic. He takes a
deep interest in religious matters, has been class leader, trustee, and
superintendent of the Sabbath-school for a number of years. His children's
names are: Missuria, William, Elizabeth, Phoebe J., Frank T., George M.,
Purnel O., and one that died when very young.
                                NORTH BEND.

When Judge SYMMES found that he was to be disappointed in his hopes of
founding a large city at the mouth of the Great Miami, he was easily
persuaded to plant his colony where it had landed on the second of
February, 1789, at the northernmost point of the great bend in the Ohio.
Here, he writes, "I flatter myself with the prospect of finding a good
tract of ground, extending from
~pg 328~
river to river, on which the city might be built with more propriety than
it would be to crowd it so far down in the point, from the body of the
county round it." Here, accordingly, he made his settlement, calling it
North Bend, he said, "from its being situated in the most northerly bend of
the Ohio that there is between the Muskingum and the Mississippi."
Forty-eight lots of one acre each, and of four rods, or sixty-six feet,
front, were staked off, of which every other one was a donation lot,
granted to actual settlers. upon condition that the donees should build
immediately thereon; and one was also reserved for each of the proprietors.

It should be here observed that these proprietors did not include all the
associates or partners of the East Jersey company, but were those belonging
to a special company of twenty-four, formed March 15, 1788, under the
auspices of Judge SYMMES and Dr. Thomas BONDINOT, to found the expected
city of Miami and sell the property within the townships the judge had
reserved to himself between the Ohio and the Great Miami. The business of
the company was managed by SYMMES and BONDINOT, and the latter had given
the judge power of attorney to sell "shares of propriety" in the said city
and townships until all were disposee of. Each proprietor was entitled to
choose an entire square or block in the city, when founded, which should be
exclusively his own, subject to no future division with other proprietors.
Under this arrangement SYMMES was now proceeding with his settlements in
the Miami peninsula.

On the twelfth of September, 1789, Judge SYMMES' partners wrote him that
their choice for the site of the city was where he had landed and made his
settlement in February - namely, at North Bend - and instructed him to lay
it off there. He set about the survey during the later fall and early
winter, and reported on the ensuing first of January, as follows:
We find the ground rather uneven, but, on the whole I hope it will do
better than I formerly thought it would, especially as it embraces several
valuable springs which never fail. Some of the squares are very good ones,
but others of them are very indifferent, owing partly to Camp creek's
running across the plat, as also to very considerable hills and deep
gutters which are interspersed through the isthmus. The city does not reach
quite over to the banks of the Miami for I have laid it out exactly on the
old plan and on the cardinal points, not receiving any instructions from
you authorizing me to throw it into an oblong, which would have shot it
better across the neck of land from river to river.

The new survey completed, the vacation of the old plat, which was included
within it, and the nullifying of the arrangements made with settlers for
donation and other lots. The judge was naturally apprehensive of resultant
trouble; but he wrote in his January letter:
I believe that I shall have very little difficulty in procuring the
relinquishment of all the lots which are sold and given away in North Bend.
Those which have been paid for I hope will be restored on reimbursing the
purchaser his money, though several of these purchasers are not on the
ground at present, therefore I cannot say what objections they may start.
The most of those who had donation lots in this village are well pleased
with the new arrangement, as they now get five acres, and had but one
before. This seems to pacify them, though they have generally built cabins
on the acre.

Some special interest attaches to the judge's next remark, as showing the
primitive character of the dwellings then upon the site:
Very fortunately for the proprietors, not one man in the village, but
myself and two nephews, have been at the expense of building a stone
chimney in his house; therefore they can the more readily cast away or
remove their former cabins and build new houses on the proper streets of
the city. The expense of clearing and fencing their lots is what they most
lament, as this labor goes directly to the benefit of other people who take
up such cleared lots. I shall, therefore, be obliged to make them some
compensation for this in order to keep up the quiet of the town.

The judge had taken a rose-colored view of the prospects, which was not
answered by the outcome of his destructive and constructive operations. In
about five months (April 30, 1790) he was compelled to write to Dayton:
I must enjoin it upon the proprietors to send out some of their body with
discretionary powers to act for the good of the whole without being subject
to subsequent control by the proprietors, for you cannot conceive the
disorders that have been occasioned by breaking up the old village of North
Bend to make room for the city. Some have left the town offended at the
measure, while others are quarrelling about the use of the cleared land
which was opened last year. Captain John BROWN fenced one of these lots in
order to sow it with hemp, but the same night his fence was all burnt and
laid in ruins. He charges Daniel GARD and Peter KEEN with the fact.

SYMMES himself was obliged to make a plea to the board of proprietors, for
the preservation of his own improvements, which were threatened with the
common fate "in the general wreck of the village," he said. In the course
of this he introduces the interesting description of his houses, which will
be found a few paragraphs hereafter.

The "city of Miami" was, nevertheless, duly laid off in a square of about a
mile, the streets intersecting at right angles, regardless of hill or
valley, height or plain, and running with the cardinal. points of the
compass. On the east (Mr. F. W. MILLER, in Cincinnati's Beginnings, says
also on the north), running from river' to river, a strip of land was
reserved for a common. The judge had no instructions as to the width of
this, but took the responsibility of laying it forty rods, or an eighth of
a mile wide. He wrote:
I would have left a wider common, but at this dangerous time when we have
already had a man murdered within the square of the city, to leave a larger
extent of unoccupied land between the city and small lots, would have
looked rather like trifling with the lives of citizens who are obliged to
go daily to their labor on the donation lots beyond the common.

By "small lots" the judge must have meant the smaller out-lots--those of
ten acres, which lay next beyond the common. "The ten acres," he wrote, "I
shall throw round the hills and city in the nearest manner I can." The lots
within the city - some of them, at least - were of the unwonted size, for
in lots, of five acres. Beyond the ten-acre tracts, in order, were
out-lots, first of thirty acres, then of sixty.

This was SYMMES' plan for any other towns or cities he might lay off; and
this was the main element in the embarrassment and uncertainty caused by
the delay in fixing the site for the city, as mentioned in a previous
section of this chapter. He was also anxious to know whether he might sell
the proprietors' alternate reserved lots at North Bend, for which he had
many offers; and had taken the responsibility of selling one "to a valuable
citizen," rather than lose him, for "half a joe," or three dollars. He
wished to sell more of them, to encourage emigration; and his anxieties to
get the foundations of a
~pg 329~
settlement at the bend well laid form the burden of a number of his letters
to his associates. He notes that his surveyors were having a hard time of
it, at work as they were in midwinter, with snow deep, the cold severe, and
supplies short. One of them, Noah BADGLEY, who lived at Losantiville, but
was formerly of Westfield, New Jersey, had lost his life by drowning during
a freshet in the Licking river, while returning with others in a boat from
a place in Kentucky where they had procured some "bread-corn." The two men
who were with him had a narrow escape with their lives, being rescued from
a treetop in the midst of the raging waters, where they had been for three
days and nights.

Under the new arrangement fifty of the small lots were to be given to the
first fifty applicants, on condition that they should build a house and
agree to reside three years in the city. They were rapidly taken up, and by
April 30th the judge could write:
We have parted with all the donation lots around the city, and I think it
highly incumbent on the proprietors to add one fifty more thereto, as,
people being refused out-lots when they apply, go directly up to the back
stations where they are sure to have them.

He also asked the privilege of giving away about thirty-five acre lots at
South Bend, which was now going rapidly, and he desired to encourage the
settlement there.

The proprietors seem to have acted liberally with the infant settlement,
and to have given the judge ample powers of grant or gift; for, more than
five years afterwards (August 6, 1795), he wrote to DAYTON:
There are yet several hundred donation lots in the plan of the town that
have never been accepted by anybody, and very few indeed will purchase a
lot when they can have such a choice of one gratis.

The inlots given to actual settlers in the city were soon taken up, and, as
applications continued to be made, further surveys were extended up and
down the Ohio, until over one hundred acre lots were laid out, giving the
place a front on the Ohio of about one and a half miles, or nearly half of
the present extensive frontage, according to the nominal boundaries of the
village plat.

Judge SYMMES remained for six weeks in the rude shelter he had built for
his family upon first landing, and then removed into a more comfortable log
cabin, which by that time was enclosed and roofed. He subsequently wrote
the following description of his own group of habitations and other
buildings at this point:
I have gone to considerable expense in erecting comfortable log houses on
the three lots, which I had taken for myself and two nephews, young men who
are with me. The lots in North Bend were four poles wide; we have therefore
occupied twelve poles of ground on the banks of the Ohio. This front is
covered with buildings from one end to the other, and of too valuable a
construction for me to think of losing them in the general wreck of the
village. That the proprietors may be more sensible of the reasonableness of
the request, I will give you a description of them. The first, or most
easterly one, is a good cabin, sixteen feet wide and twenty-two feet long,
with a handsome stone chimney in it; the roof is composed of boat plank set
endwise, obliquely, and answers a triple purpose of rafters, lath, and an
undercourse of shingle, on which lie double rows of clapboards which makes
an exceedingly tight and good roof. The next is a cottage, sixteen feet by
eighteen, and two and a half stories high; the roof is well shingled with
nails. The third is a cabin, fifteen feet wide and sixteen feet long, one
story high, with a good stone chimney in it; the roof shingled with nails.
The fourth is a very handsome log house, eighteen feet by twenty-six, and
two stories high, with two good cellars under the first in order to guard
more effectually against heat and cold. This large cabin is shingled with
nails, has a very large and good stone chimney which extends from side to
side of the house, for the more convenient accommodation of strangers, who
are constantly coming and going, and never fail to make my house their home
while they stay in the village. In this chimney is a large oven built of
stone. Adjoining to this house I have built me a well-finished smoke-house,
fourteen feet square, which brings you to a fortified gate of eight feet,
for communication back. All the buildings, east of this gate, are set as
close to each other as was possible. Adjoining to and west of the gate is a
double cabin of forty-eight feet in length and sixteen feet wide, with a
well built stone chimney of two fire-places, one facing each room. This
roof is covered with boat-plank throughout, and double rows of clapboards
in the same manner with the first described cabin. In these several cabins
I have fourteen sash-windows of glass. My barn or fodder-house comes next,
with a stable on one side for my horses, and on the other one for my cows.
These entirely fill up the space of twelve poles. This string of cabins
stands - poles from the bank of the river, and quite free from and to the
south of the front or Jersey street of the city. . . The buildings have
cost me more than two hundred pounds specie, and I cannot afford to let
them go to strangers for nothing - the mason work alone came to more than
one hundred dollars. There is not another house on the ground that has
either cellar, stone chimney, or glass window in it, nor of any value
compared with mine.

August 10, 1796, the judge writes:
I am building a dwelling house and grist-mill, both on pretty extensive
plans, and obliged personally to superintend the whole without doors by
day, and to arrange my accounts by night, so that, from early dawn to
midnight, I am engaged with my buildings or my farm. I had this season a
wheat and rye harvest of fifty acres, and have one hundred and fourteen
acres of land planted with Indian corn, and a stock of one hundred and
fifty head of cattle.

Most of the settlers who received the original donation lots had fulfilled
their obligations with reasonable promptness, and by the middle of May
following the landing of the colony, about forty of the lots had each a
comfortable cabin erected upon it, covered with shingles or clapboards,
"and other houses still on hand," as the judge wrote. Not three donation
lots, he added, remained at this time unappropriated.

The new city is designated as the City of Miami in Dr. GOFORTH's letters
and in old official documents. Judge BURNER, in his Notes on the Settlement
of the Northwestern Territory, says the place was known as SYMMES, and it
was frequently called SYMMES City. Whatever name or names it may have
borne, however, the settlement continued to be popularly called North Bend,
and it has never wholly lost that cognomen from the hour of its christening
to the present day. The place grew rapidly during its first two or three
years, and in 1791 was deemed worthy of a garrison of eighty soldiers, who,
according to Dr. GOFORTH, were stationed there. The presence of the troops
had a great deal to do with the prosperity of the settlement, and when they
were withdrawn the people rapidly followed them to Cincinnati, or removed
to other points deemed more secure than North Bend, so that the village was
for a time almost deserted. After ST. CLAIR's defeat some years later,
there was a perfect stampede to the back country. August 6, 1795, the judge
wrote:
The village is reduced more than one-half in its number of inhabit. ants
since I left it to go to Jersey in February, 1793. The people have spread
themselves into all parts of the Purchase below the military range since
the Indian defeat on the twentieth of August, and the cabins are of late
deserted by dozens in a street.

He remained steadfastly by his city, however, doing al he could to
reanimate and resuscitate it. He built
~pg 330~
another residence in the northwest part of it, whose site is still plainly
marked by the remains of a cellar and a heap of stones near a large
honey-locust, on the north side of the road, in the southeastern edge of
Cleves, west of the tracks of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, &
Chicago. railroad. Here he was visited in 1808 by the romancing English
traveller, Thomas ASHE, who afterwards published in his book of American
travels the following memoranda of his visit. They afford a very
interesting picture of the judge's household, and their employments in the
later years of his life:
I left Cincinnati with an impression very favorable to its inhabitants, and
with a higher opinion of its back country than I entertain of any other.
Seven miles [!] below my departure, at a place called North Bend, I stopped
to take breakfast with the hospitable Judge SYMMES. the original
proprietor, after the extinction of the Indian title, of the whole of the
country lying between the two Miamis. The situation which the judge has
chosen for his residence cannot be equalled for the variety and elegance of
its prospects. Improved farms, villages, seats, and the remains of ancient
and modern military works, decorate the banks of the finest piece of water
in the world, and present themselves to view from the principal apartments
of the house, which is a noble stone mansion, erected at great expense -
and on a plan which does infinite honor to the artist and to the taste of
the proprietor. Differing from other settlers. Mr. SYMMES has been studious
to give the river-sides a pastoral effect by preserving woods, planting
orchards, and diversifying these with corn fields, sloping pastures. and
every other effect incidental both to an improved and rural life. From this
expression of elevated judgment you may be prepared to know that the
proprietor formerly resided in England, and alter in New York. where he
married his present wife, a lady distinguished by elegance of mind and a
general and correct information. They have no children, but there resides
with them a Miss LIVINGSTON, on whom they fix their affections, and whom
they treat with parental kindness and respectful urbanity, the one being
due to her intrinsic merit, and the other to her family, which is eminent
by birth, property, and talent in the State of New York.

The judge passes his time in directing his various works, and the ladies
read. walk, and attend to numerous birds and animals, which they
domesticate, both for entertainment and use. Miss LIVINGSTON is much of a
botanist - a practical one. She collects seeds from such plants and flowers
as are most conspicuous in the prairies, and cultivates them with care on
the banks and in the vicinity of the house. She is forming a shrubbery
also, which will be entirely composed of magnolia, catalpa, papaw, rose,
and tulip trees, and all others distinguished for blossom and fragrance. In
the middle is erected a small Indian temple, where this young lady
preserves seeds and plants, and classes specimens of wood, which contribute
much to her knowledge and entertainment. When the beauties of the fine
season fade, and the country becomes somewhat inert and insipid, the judge
and the ladies remove to Cincinnati, and revolve in its pleasures till
fatigued, when they again return to their rural economy, and to the
prosecution of happy and inoffensive designs. I could with great difficulty
tear myself from persons so amiable.

This mansion is said to have been then the most spacious and commodious in
the State. It was destroyed, however, in March, 1811, as was believed by
the torch of the incendiary; and with it a large number of papers relating
to his transactions in the Purchase, including the certificates of the
original proprietors of Cincinnati, upon which the judge had executed deeds
to the purchasers of lots, and the loss of which was irreparable. Of some
of the papers duplicates were in existence; but the destruction of his
files gave the judge infinite trouble, and aided to embarrass and embitter
his closing years. Suspicion of the incendiarism rested upon a man named
HART, residing near North Bend, who was known to be a violent enemy of
Judge SYMMES - simply, it is said, because of the judge's refusal or
neglect to vote for him when a candidate for justice of the peace. HART was
arrested, indicted, and tried; but, although the evidence against him
seemed strong, and most of the North Bend people believed in his guilt, he
was acquitted by the jury. The judge died in Cincinnati in 1814. His will
may be found, with other related matter, in our annals of the city for that
year. His remains were brought back to North Bend, in accordance with his
wish, and buried in the cemetery, about a mile southeast of his former
residence. The inscription on the tablet in the brickwork above his grave
is as follows:
Here rest the remains of John Cleves SYMMES, who, at the foot of these
hills, made the first settlement between the Miami rivers. Born on Long
Island, in the State of New York, July 21, A. D., 1742. Died at Cincinnati,
February 26. A. D. 1814.

One of Judge SYMMES' sons-in-law, as before mentioned, was the
distinguished general and afterward President of the United States, William
Henry HARRISON. He also came, after his marriage with Miss Annie SYMMES, to
reside in North Bend, which is now only known to the world at large as the
place of his residence and burial. The famous "log cabin" of the
Presidential campaign of 1840 was located here; but that, as usually
pictured in the newspapers and on banners and transparencies at that time,
was a myth, originating, it is said, in the sneer of a writer for a
Baltimore Democratic paper at the general as a dweller in a log cabin. A
part of the HARRISON mansion was, indeed, originally built of logs; but a
large frame structure was subsequently added, and the whole clapboarded and
painted white, making a comfortable, and for the time a quite superb
mansion. It has tong since disappeared, except the excavation for a cellar;
and some remains of the flower garden and other improvements may still be
traced upon the grounds, which have been abandoned since the fire. The
large farm formerly cultivated by the general in the vicinity has also
passed to other hands, and his descendants have disappeared from the
region, except a granddaughter, Mrs. Betty EATON, daughter of the Hon. John
Scott HARRISON, who resides with her little family half a mile from the
village, on heights commanding, probably, the finest view in Hamilton
county, extending into three river valleys and three States.

HARRISON married Miss SYMMES in November, 1795. The tradition goes that the
father opposed the match, and that the young couple were obliged to slip
away from her home to the residence of Dr. Stephen WOOD one of the justices
of the peace for the county, near the subsequent site of Cleves, where they
were married without the presence of the father. The tomb of the general
and ex-President, as is well known, is on the heights back of North Bend,
west of the tunnel formerly used by the Whitewater canal and now used by
the Indianapolis railroad. It is a plain mausoleum of brick work, suitably
inscribed. For a time it fell into neglect, and became somewhat
dilapidated; but has been restored of late years, and is now in good
repair.

Among other notable early settlers was Brice VIRGIN, who was made a captain
in the militia in 1790, among the first appointments by Governor ST. CLAIR,
upon the erection of Hamilton county. He afterwards removed to Princeton,
Butler county, where he died.
                                  ~pg 331~

Among the early ministers who preached to the people at North Bend, were
the Revs. John TANNER of TURNER'S Station (now Petersburgh), Kentucky, and
Lewis DEWEES, also of Kentucky, who officiated from time to time during the
years 1792 to 1804. Each of these was a Baptist, as was also the celebrated
Rev. and Senator John SMITH, of Columbia and Cincinnati. The Rev. James
KEMPER, Presbyterian, also sometimes came out from Cincinnati and preached.
About 1804 Rev. M. OGLESBY of the Methodist Episcopal church, preached
here, and afterwards Rev. John LANGDON, of the same. In the early day, the
male worshippers here, as at Columbia and Cincinnati, always went to church
armed.

North Bend village proper, has had no large growth, and is now simply a
moderate cluster of houses at the original site. A large town plat,
however, known by the same name, has been laid out for more than three
miles along the river, with a width of about two-thirds of a mile west of
North Bend station, and over two miles east of it that is, three sections
wide, and extending back from the river something more than half a mile at
the station to very nearly two miles on the eastern boundary, which
intersects the river half a mile above the mouth of Muddy creek. The site
thus comprises one thousand four hundred and forty-eight acres. Several
railway stations - as SHUTS, named from the Hon. John Cleves SHUT son of
Payton SHUT, and grandson of Judge SYMMES, whose decendants live here; also
DEVIN's and GRIFFITHS' stations, are within the North Bend corporation. The
certificate of its incorporation, for special purposes was filed with the
secretary of State, August 25, 1874. The village had four hundred and
twelve inhabitants by the last census.
                           SUGAR CAMP SETTLEMENT.

A little colony bearing this name is remarked in the Ohio Historical
Collections as having been founded about the same time as North Bend, three
miles down the river from that place and two miles from the Indiana line,
upon the farm of W. H. HARRISON, jr. It had at one time about thirty
houses, but afterwards became extinct. The block-house built in the early
day for the protection of the settlers was still standing in 1847, but was
much dilapidated and did not last a great while longer. A figure of it as
it then appeared is given in the collections.
                                  CLEVES.

This place standing upon or very near the large tract covered by the "City
of Miami" plat, a mile north of the present North Bend station and on the
Great Miami river, was originally called Clevestown, and bore that, as well
as it bears its present name, in honor of the maternal branch of the SYMMES
family, from whom the judge and many others derived in part their given
names. It was laid out by General HARRISON in 1818, the recorded plat
bearing date November 7th of that year. In 1830 it had one hundred and ten
inhabitants; fifty years later, by the tenth census, it had eight hundred
and thirty-six. Notwithstanding its comparatively light population, it has
a large corporate limit, including nearly an entire section, or five
hundred and ninety-five acres. It was incorporated for general purposes
March 17, 1875.

The post office at this point has done duty at times during the decadence
of North Bend, for both that place and its own. Under the presidency of
General HARRISON, Mr. J. M. RUNYAN was postmaster. His successors were
Thomas ARCHER, James CARLIN, George CASSADY, Mr. CROFOOT, and Charles
RUFFEN, the last named of whom now holds the post.

The most notable event in the history of Cleves was the anti-slavery
agitation of nearly forty years ago, which resulted in serious disturbances
at this place. The following account of them appears in the Life of Senator
Thomas MORRIS, formerly of Hamilton and then of Clermont county, by his son
B. F. MORRIS:
Cleves, in Hamilton county, Ohio. was the scene of violent resistance to
free discussion. In the spring of 1843 the pastor of the Presbyterian
church, Rev. Mr. SCOFIELD. and a majority of his flock called a meeting for
free discussion on slavery. Samuel LEWIS, Jonathan BLANCARD, now president
of the Galesburgh college, Illinois, and Thomas MORRIS, whose manly voice
for freedom, integrity of principles, and firmness of character, have
enrolled his name among the early champions of free speech and free soil,
were the speakers.

A mob was organized and a riot threatened. A number of students from Lane
seminary went down with the speakers. Landing at North Bend they passed the
mansion and tomb of the lamented General HARRISON, on their way to the
church. The doors of the meeting-house were barred against the friends of
freedom. Prominent and influential men were with the rabble that prevented
the convention from occupying the meeting house. The convention, thus
forbid to enter the house, occupied the road in front. Rev. S. LEWIS, an
able and faithful laborer in the cause of freedom, recently gone to an
honored grave, kneeled on the ground and offered a most solemn and
impressive prayer. For a moment the rioters were palsied in their nefarious
operation. One of them often said, "That prayer I shall never forget." An
infidel was converted, and "the wrath of man was thus made to praise God,"
and advance the cause of freedom

At the invitation of Richard HUGHES, a ruling elder in the Presbyterian
church of Berea, a mile distant from Cleves, the convention met at that
church and held its sessions two days. The impression of that convention
abides to this day; fires were kindled that are burning brighter and
brighter.

The Cleves rioters, not satisfied with driving the convention from the
village, smashed the windows of the meeting-house, mobbed the house of the
pastor, threw his buggy into the canal, and shaved the tail of his horse.
The perpetrators of these deeds of darkness chose the covert hour of night
for their mob performances. They were of the baser sort in the community,
but were instigated and backed by quite a number of those of reputation.
These mob scenes created an era in the history of that region and will be
long remembered.

A more detailed and very interesting narative of the same transaction is
given in the life of Samuel LEWIS who was also of the party of visitors and
speakers at the meeting, a biography also written by a son:
Mr. LEWIS was again at work in the spring and summer of 1843 laboring and
speaking in behalf of the liberty party and of the slave. A meeting was
appointed in Cleves, one and a half miles north of North Bend, and care was
taken to ask and receive consent of the elders and trustees of the
Presbyterian church; and notice was accordingly given. Judge SHORT and Dr.
THORNTON, relatives of the family of General HARRISON, as well as J. Scott
HARRISON, son of General HARRISON, and now member of Congress from that
district, took umbrage at the project of an anti-slavery meeting so near
their homes and expressed themselves in the strongest terms against the
sitting of the convention in that place. The consequence was that a violent
excitement soon prevailed in the vicinity, and threats of violence were
made by vicious and irresponsible persons.

As it was understood that these threats would not influence the withdrawal
of the appointment, a public meeting was called at which it was
~pg 332~
resolved that for the purpose of maintaining peace and good order during
the present excited state of the community, a committee of seven be
appointed by the chair, whose duty it shall be to repair to the church on
the seventh instant, and quietly and peacefully remonstrate with those who
may present themselves as Abolitionists against the use of the church for
the dissemination of their doctrines.

The seventh being come, some fifty persons went down from Cincinnati to
meet those who might assemble. Mr. LEWIS was early on the spot from another
direction. When he arrived there, some time before the coming of the city
delegation, he was advised by a personal friend by no means to venture to
show himself at the church, as he could not do so without danger of extreme
personal violence. He replied that "the danger he spoke of was the very
reason why he should be there; that when there was no difficulty and danger
in proclaiming the principles of freedom he would then leave the work to
others and rest in the comforts of the family and home, with which God had
blessed.

As the anti-slavery men presently came up the street toward the door of the
church, Mr. J. Scott HARRISON stood forward in the crowd (and such a crowd
made up of boys and half-grown men, with a few of those who did not
advocate the doctrines of the Washingtonians), that awaited us at the door
of the house, and stated "that he was there in behalf of a committee
appointed by a meeting of the citizens of Miami township, to protest
against that church being occupied by the convention;" giving as a reason
that "the citizens of Miami township were believed to be generally opposed
to the doctrines of the Abolitionists, not one in seven favored their
incendiary doctrines, and they did not wish their peace disturbed by them;
and if they attempted to hold a meeting there for the dissemination of
these doctrines they could not be responsible for the consequences. But
they prayed that the proceedings might not end in violence."

Mr. LEWIS then followed him in a short and earnest address, and with
visible effect. He said "he was there among others to advocate no
principles but those of the gospel of Christ and the American declaration
of rights. He defied him to find in the crowd six men who were opposed to
us who could tell what Abolitionism was; and, as to threats of violence, if
violence was threatened, there were men present who, if they were disposed
to do so, could prevent it; that they, and they alone, would be held
responsible by God, and an enlightened public, for any violence which might
occur. He appealed to them, as one living in their midst, whose person and
habits of life they well knew, and asked them whether it had come to this,
that American citizens could no longer peaceably assemble and present their
views to each other without being met at the threshold and threatened with
violence, and for no other reason than that they were a minority, only one
in seven!" Mr. HARRISON, who withered sensibly under his earnest pathos and
strong good sense, said that, if there were any persons present who had
power to prevent meditated violence, he prayed Almighty God that they might
exercise that power.

Rev. J. BLANCHARD, after a few moments more of conversation, proposed that
the people present should say, by dividing to the fight and left, whether
they would have the discussion or not. This he recommended as a peace
measure, as in no ways declaring the fight to prevent a minority from
discussion. The people divided as requested, and a dear majority appeared
in favor of the discussion, Mr. J. Scott HARRISON not voting at all. The
free discussion party, of course, embraced all the men of good sense, and
all the ladies present, one of whom, a pious old resident of the place,
quietly remarked: "Ah, well, I heard tell of the separation of the sheep
from the goats, but I never expected to live to see it."

The left hand multitude were indeed a most forlorn-looking set. Long, lank
boys, crooked, and sallow, and thin, most of them carrying clubs, with here
and there a rusty musket, their cheeks distended with tobacco and their
mouth resembling the closely drawn pouch of the opossum, enameled brown
with the juice of the same - their rags and their rage together gave them
quite a unique and comical appearance, which fully justified the Scriptural
allusion of the pious old lady.

Mr. LEWIS called to the chairman to stand forward and see how the vote
stood. Mr. J. Scott HARRISON answered from a distance that he had done his
duty and could do nothing more, and made off as rapidly as he was able. His
associates, of whom he was evidently ashamed, remained behind to disturb
the meeting; and the meeting itself, being invited to another place a short
distance off, they repaired thither and held their convention. First,
however, they sang "How firm a foundation," etc., and then Mr. LEWIS led in
prayer in the open street. That prayer, offered as it was in the very face
of men of blood and violence, whose clubs were ready to be drawn over his
head, and whose brows were lowering with the rage that maddened them, that
very prayer led more than half a score to truth and liberty. Even the hymn
rang in the ears of Mr. J. Scott HARRISON for months, according to his own
confession. More than forty persons avowed themselves liberty men, with the
venerable Judge MATSON at their head.
                                 FERN BANK,

a place of suburban residence, laid out on the north side of the railways,
in the southwest. part of section one, between Riverdale and SHORT'S
station, just outside the limits of North Bend corporation.
                                GRAVEL PIT,

a station now little used, on the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, about two
and a half miles southwest of North Bend, near Fort Hill, named from the
extensive deposit of gravel here opened for the hallasting of the railway
tracks. It was the scene of stirring times at one period during the war. In
the early part of September, 1862, during the so-called siege of Cincinnati
by Generals KIRBY SMITH and HEATH, a battalion of Squirrel Hunters was
ordered here to guard a ford across the Ohio it being a season of very low
water against the possible crossing of a force of rebel cavalry. The
Squirrel Hunters remained until the sixteenth of September, when they were
relieved by the Nineteenth Michigan infantry, a new regiment, which had
just been ordered to the field. It encamped at first between the station
and the river, and then on the higher ground above the station for two or
three weeks, without special incident, and then returned to Cincinnati and
advanced into Kentucky.
                                POPULATION.

Miami township had two thousand three hundred and seventeen inhabitants by
the census of 1880; one thousand five hundred and forty-nine by that of
1830, just fifty years before.