OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 212 *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 212 Today's Topics: #1 History, Hamilton County ; Delhi T ["Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0cd801bfe3ab$5cd774c0$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: History, Hamilton County ; Delhi Township - pgs 294-301 (1) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Tina Hursh frog158@juno.com April 15, 2000 Transcribed by Karen Klaene *********************************************************************** Delhi Township - pgs 294-301 *********************************************************************** 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 294-301 ~pg 294~ DELHI. SOUTH BEND TOWNSHIP. The original organization, including the territory now covered by Delhi township, was the now long extinct South Bend township, planted by the court of general quarter sessions of the peace between Cincinnati and Miami townships. It was erected in 1795, among the earliest in the county, and was named from the settlement already made under the auspices of Judge Symmes, at the southernmost point on the river in the Miami Purchase, which in turn took its name from the great bend in the Ohio; within which it had been settled. The boundaries of the new township were defined about as follows: Beginning at the second meridian west of Mill creek; thence down the Ohio six miles and over; thence north on a meridian to the Big Miami; thence up that stream to the southwest corner of Colerain township; thence east to the meridian first named; thence south to the place of beginning. These boundaries included nearly or quite the whole of the present territory of Delhi, and so much of the tract covered by Green township as did not belong to Colerain, as defined in a previous chapter; The first township officers for South Bend were nominated by the court as follows: Clerk William POWELL, Constable, James THATCHER Overseers of the Poor - William POWELL, Robert GOWDY. Supervisor of Highways - Usual Bates. Viewers of Enclosures and Appraisers of Damages - David EDGAR, James GOWDY, Edward COWAN. The letter C was assigned to the cattle brand for South Bend township. DELHI TOWNSHIP. This township, as now constituted (erected between 1810 and 1815), is the smallest in the county, except Spencer on the opposite side, of Cincinnati. It has but eight thousand seven hundred and eighty-six acres, or less than fourteen square miles, is bounded on the east by the city; on the south and west by the Ohio river, which divides it from Kentucky; and on the north by the entire breadth of Green township, nearly one mile of Miami, and about as much of the city on the other side. Its lines begin at the mouth of Bold Face creek, on the Ohio, almost a mile above the "second meridian line" mentioned among the boundaries of South Bend township; and run thence down the river to a point about a mile below the mouth of Muddy creek, where the old south line of Mill Creek and north line of Cincinnati townships (in part now Liberty street, Cincinnati) and present south line of Green township, extended westward, intersects the Ohio, thence eastward to the second meridian line aforesaid; thence south to the second parallel, the south line of sections five and thirty-five; and eastward again to the place of beginning. The breadth of the township on its north line is seven miles, very nearly; on its first section line next south, six miles; upon the next, which extends east of the general line of the township, four miles and two-thirds; with a very short southernmost parallel deeper in the bend. The greatest breadth of the township is a little more than three miles; whence it dwindles, by the flow of the river to both sides of the township to a point at each end. The average width is only about two miles. It has eleven full sections and eight fractional sections, lying in fractional range one, township two; and the duplicate section six, at the northwest corner of the township, in fractional range one, of township one. The surface of Delhi presents as great a variety of topography as any other part of the county, of equal extent. A comparatively level strip, of uniform width for but short distances, but nowhere extending far inland, except up the valleys, borders the river, and in places, as near Sedamsville, being quite narrow, with lofty, steep hills almost abutting upon the river. West from the city the general character of the country is highland, until the river is approached some miles further to the west; but intersected, cut down and variegated by an uncommon number of small streams for so small a tract. Among the valleys thus created are those of Bold Face creek, the Rapid run, Muddy creek, and at least a dozen minor brooks, all of which find their way to the Ohio, either directly or through creeks to which they are tributary. The Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago railway follows the river through the entire south and west parts of this township; and, on lines generally parallel with it the whole way, are the tracks of the' older Ohio & Mississippi railroad. Along these are scattered ~pg 295~ numerous suburban villages, for some of which both railroads have stations, making fifteen or twenty in all. Back on the highlands is Warsaw, a village which gives the name to the Warsaw turnpike, connecting it with the city. There are also the Industry and Delhi, the Rapid run, and other turnpike roads intersecting the township. TOWNSHIP OFFICERS. The following named gentlemen are among those who have served Delhi as justices of the peace: 1819, Peter WILLIAMS; 1825-9, Ichabod PALMERTON 1829, George D. CULLUM; 1865, H. E. HOPKINS William L. WILIAMS; 1866, William L. WILLIAMS, Cornelius MYERS; I867-74, Cornelius MYERS, Richard PAUL 1875-80, Richard PAUL, Henry RAUCK, jr. THE FIRST SETTLEMENT within the limits of what is now Delhi township, was made in 1789, very soon after Columbia, Losantiville, and North Bend were colonized. Judge SYMMES took his party to the place last named, now in Miami township, in February of that year; and early seems to have meditated the founding of another colony on the river within his Purchase, which should take the name of South Bend, as a companion to his own home place, North Bend. The new town, or city to be, was laid off some time in the spring succeeding SYMMES' arrival, as appears by the following letter of his to his associate DAYTON, bearing date that month, and giving a good account of the genesis of South Bend: North Bend being so well improved by the buildings already erected and making, and fresh applications every few days being made to me for house lots, I was induced to lay off another village, about seven miles up the Ohio from North Bend, being one mile in front on the river. The ground was very eligible for the purpose, and I would have continued farther up and down the river, but was confined between the two reserved sections. This village I call South Bend, from its being contiguous to the most southerly point of land in the Purchase. The place had already, when SYMMES wrote, several cabins almost finished, and others begun; "and I make no doubt," adds the judge, "that the whole of the donation lots will soon be occupied, if we remain in safety." The pioneer settler at the site of South Bend was Timothy SYMMES, the only full brother of Judge SYMMES. He was also a prominent citizen in New Jersey, a judge in one of the courts of Sussex county, and followed his brother to the western country soon after the Purchase was settled. He did not live, however, to see more than the beginnings of the mighty development of the Miami tract, but died February 20, 1797, aged fifty-three. He was the father of Captain John Cleves SYMMES, the famous author of the theory of a hollow and inhabitable earth, open for several degrees about the poles, who was residing at South Bend when his uncle, the judge, obtained his first appointment in the army; also of Daniel SYMMES, who became a distinguished citzen of Cincinnati, serving in many public capacities, as is elsewhere detailed in this work; of Celadon SYMMES, who spent nearly all his adult life on a farm three miles south of Hamilton, where he gave the name to SYMMES' Corners, a hamlet and post office on the Cincinnati turnpike; and of Peyton Short SYMMES, the youngest of his Sons, save one, and in some respects the most distinguished of all. He is noticed at some length in our chapter on the Bar of Cincinnati. Mary, the eldest daughter of Mr. SYMMES, became wife of Hugh MOORE, a prominent Cincinnatian, and died in 1834, the same year her only sister, Julianna, wife of Jeremiah REEDER, departed this life. It was an extensive town which Judge SYMMES had laid out, for a beginning; and the judge appears to have entertained extensive expectations for it. He thought it might become the metropolis of the Miami Purchase, or at least the seat of justice for the county about to be organized. In another letter to DAYTON, written June 14, 1789, he says: It is expected that on the arrival of Governor ST. CLAIR, this purchase will be organized into a county; it is therefore of some moment which town shall be made the county town. Losantiville, at present, bids the fairest; it is a most excellent site for a large town, and is at present the most central of any of the inhabited towns; but if South Bend might be finished and occupied, that would be exactly in the centre, and probably would take the lead of the present villages until the city can be made somewhat considerable. This is really a matter of importance to the proprietors, but can only be achieved by their exertions and encouragement. The lands back of South Bend are not very much broken after you ascend the first hill, and will afford rich supplies for a county town. A few troops stationed at South Bend will effect the settlement of the new village in a very short time. According to a paragraph in a letter of Judge William GOFORTH, of Columbia, this place had eighteen or twenty families in September, 1791. A garrison of twenty soldiers was then stationed there. Among the settlers here was a brother of the Miami purchaser, Judge Timothy SYMMES, who spent his latter years and died here. lie is best known as the father of Captain John Cleves SYMMES, author of the famous theory of concentric spheres and a hollow globe opening near the poles. Young SYMMES was residing here when an appointment was obtained for him in the army through the influence of "a friend at court," his distinguished uncle at North Bend. South Bend, as is well known, did not hold its own in the contest for supremacy, or even rise to the dignity of an incorporated village. Its population fell off, its cluster of dwellings was gradually abandoned, and they destroyed or floated away in times of high water; and its very site has become almost traditional. The traveller, however, going to the boats of ANDERSON'S Ferry, which has been established at nearly the southernmost point of the bend for many years, passes directly over a part of the site of South Bend. The last stroke was given but very recently to the ancient town, for which such high hopes were cherished, in the final changing of the name of the' post office kept at the adjacent railway station from South Bend to "TRAUTMAN'S." But for a sign or two in the neighborhood still bearing the old designation, it would speedily pass into utter oblivion. Thus passes away the glory of human hopes, plans, and purposes. ADDITIONAL SETTLEMENTS. Richard PAUL, justice of the peace of Delhi township, is of English descent; his grandfather, Henry PAUL, being from London, England, an architect and an early settler in this county; he died in 1820. His father, Richard D. PAUL, born in London, 1807, was married to Ann ~pg 296~ P. MULFORD of Cincinnati. She resided at 519 East Fifth street. The couple moved to the Delhi Hills, where Richard Paul was born in 1833, and where he has lived ever since. Richard PAUL was a machinist for two years - at Holbord's, Cincinnati. In 1854 came to his farm; in 1858 was married to Sarah TIMBENERMAN formerly of New Jersey. He built the new house in 1865, and at that time was elected justice of the peace, which office he has held ever since (1881). He was also township trustee during the war, and probably did as much as any man in his precinct to clear it from drafts. He is an active, but peaceable, citizen of society. In his official position he dockets but few cases, and generally succeeds in effecting a compromise with the parties concerned. W. L. WILLIAMS, of Delhi township, lives on section ten; owns a nice residence and a good farm; was born here June 1, 1810, his father being the old pioneer mail route agent for the Government from 1807 until 1820, and purchasing large tracts of lands here a few years after his coming to the county. Mr. Williams carried on the dairy business for a number of years quite extensively and very successfully. He was married to Miss Apple-gate, of Colorado. Of his family two children are dead. He is known as a prominent citizen in his township. Sebastian RENTZ, jr., of Delhi township, born in Cincinnati (1840), but from 1841 up to the present time has been a farmer. His father came from Germany in 1825; kept a bakery in Cincinnati until the family removed to the farm near Warsaw in Delhi township. He married Miss ZOLLER, of Cincinnati, in 1828. She was from Baden, coming here in 1817. Mr. RENTZ obtained a common school education in the city of Cincinnati; married in 1867, to Miss Louisa BARMANN of ANDERSON Ferry. He is nicely situated on a good farm of over one hundred acres. Mrs. L. WITTENSTATTER nee KUPERFERLE, came with her husband, now dead, from Germany about the year 1832. Her husband was for a period of thirty years a printer, being employed mostly during that time on one of the German papers of Cincinnati. He died about the year 1874. Mrs. L. WITTENSTATTER owns the Green House in Delhi township, 'near the Warsaw pike. She has eight children, five of whom are married. George McINTYRE, deceased, was born in Dumbartonshire, Scotland, in 1815. When thirteen years of age his father died, and in the year 1828 he sailed for America, and after remaining five years in New York came to Cincinnati, where he travelled for the house of Robert McGREGOR. In 1834 he purchased one hundred and forty acres, comprising what is now the greater part of Home City. He was married twice, his first wife being Emily C. MOORE, by whom he had nine children; his second wife was Miss Elizabeth McINTYRE and the fruits of this marriage were six children, all of whom are now dead. Three children by his first wife are dead, and of the six remaining four are living on the homestead place in Home City, i.e., three sons - George M., Peter E., and Edwin D. McINTYRE, and one daughter, Mrs. Martha A. COOK. The maternal grandmother of these children was Adelia MOORE who had seven children: Sarah Ann SILVERS, Louisie HICKS, Ophelia SHANNON, John MOORE, Emily C. McINTYRE, Henrietta O'NEIL, and Finley MOORE. Of these three only are living: Sarah Ann SILVERS, Louisie HICKS, and Ophelia SHANNON. George T. McINTYRE was married February 26, 1845, and died June 9, 1880. His wife, Emily C. MOORE, died April 22, 1865. Of their children, Mrs. Martha A. COOK, the eldest child, was born April 28, 1848, and married in January, 1866, to Milton H. COOK, who was born October 14, 1845. They have two children: Jesse E. and George T. McINTYRE COOK. Mr. COOK, the father, has been train despatcher on the Cincinnati & Indianapolis, and St. Louis & Chicago railroads, for seventeen years. George M. McINTYRE was married April 6, 1874, and is the father of three children, all girls. He is a farmer. Mrs. Anna B. HICKS was married August 19, 1873; she has had two children now dead. Her husband is a carpenter, living at the present time in Cincinnati, but purposes moving to Home City shortly. Jacob STORY of Riverside, was born in Germany, October 21, 1818. His father, with a family of seven children, came over, arriving in Cincinnati December, 1831, and in 1838 moved to Delhi, where he died in the seventy-seventh year of his age, tenth of August, 1869. The mother died in Fatherland. Jacob STORY was married in 1841 to Miss Saloma HATMAKER, whose parents came from Baden and settled in Indiana in 1817, but removed to Cincinnati in 1826, where they followed the business of vegetable gardening (twenty-first ward.) The father died in the year 1846, and the mother in 1857. Mr. STORY bought the land he now owns in Cullom Station, the bottom in 1854 and the hillside in 1859, on which he has his vegetable garden, and out of which he has made a good living. He is the father of eight children and ten grandchildren. The oldest son is dead. The family are members of the Presbyterian church. Thomas WYATT, of Fern Bank, moved to this place in 1843, then owned by Judge MATTESON, now by Mr. SHORT. His father, William WYATT came from England in 1832, but died in 1833. The family came west, settling in Indiana in 1839, where they lived until their removal to Fern Bank. In 1855, Mr. WYATT married Miss Jane VANBLARIEUM of Delhi. His mother, Hannah DREW, the year died in 1860. She was then living with her son Thomas. John KAHNY, vegetable gardener of TRAUTMAN Station, came here in 1845. His father, Anthony KAHNY, born in 1785, came to Cincinnati in 1817, where he lived for twenty-eight years, working for a season at Harkhess' foundry, but gardening most of that time. His first garden extended from Sycamore to Broadway, and from Seventh to Ninth streets. In 1833 he moved to the corner of Wood and Fifth streets, and put up buildings on lots owned. He not only had a garden there, but also at Sixth and Seventh streets, west of Stone street. In 1844 he moved to Delhi, where he continued his former business until 1866, when he died. The mother died in 1875. John KAHNY was married in one year after coming here, his wife, Anna DAHNER, being a Prussian. He ~pg 297~ has been for twenty-three years ministerial treasurer of the township. George THOMPSON, of West Seventh street, Cincinnati, was born in England in the year 1827, and when eleven years of age, of his own accord, came to America, where, with only half a crown, he began perambulating among the cities of Boston, Providence, New York, Albany, and other places, hunting work, enduring hardships, privations, and in all leading a life full of romantic incidents and adventures. When nineteen years of age he came to Cincinnati (1846); in 1862 went to Europe, and soon after his visit to that country went to the army, remaining until 1866, where he supplied the troops with meats. From 1846 until 1862 he was a butcher in Cincinnati. In 1866 he went into the fertilizing manufacturing business, and took the first contract let by the city for removing the animal and vegetable decays from its precincts. The office of the Cincinnati Fertilizing Manufacturing company, is now located at 847 and 849 West Sixth street. His son, E. A. THOMPSON, is one of this firm, and W. R., another son, is of the firm of George E. CURRIE & Co., Delhi. The Cincinnati company are properly scavengers of the dead refuse of the city, which is taken to the company in Delhi, who manufacture from the hog product, from bone and meat super. phosphate of lime, from the hard bone, bone meal, and from the soft bone, bone flour. The factory grounds are extensive, covering fifteen acres. The father was married in 1849 to Miss Jane FOSTER. William R. was born in 1850; in 1874 began business, and in 1875 was married to Miss Florence L. MEHNER. E. A. THOMPSON was born in 1854. He was married to Miss McRANE, of Cincinnati. E. A.. THOMPSON and his brother live in Riverside. Henry TRAUTMAN, of TRAUTMAN, Delhi township, came from Germany with his father, George Henry TRAUTMAN, when only ten years of age. His father left the Fatherland in 1845, came to Cincinnati in 1846, and died the fourteenth of July, 1878. The mother died in 1874. They lived near TRAUTMAN station and were vegetable gardeners. Henry TRAUTMAN was married May 7, 1861. His parents lived with him during their latter days, leaving the garden and vineyard in his charge. He now owns a valuable piece of ground, twenty-two acres in all, which is under a high state of cultivation and yields an abundance of produce, which he markets off in Cincinnati. -----Continued in Part 2----- -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V00 Issue #212 *******************************************