OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 216 *********************************************************************** 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 216 Today's Topics: #1 History, Hamilton County ; Green T ["Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0f1d01bfe3ab$df803f60$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: History, Hamilton County ; Green Township - pgs 302-310 (3) 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 Patti Graman *********************************************************************** Green Township - pgs 302-310 *********************************************************************** 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 307-310 William TAYLOR was born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, in 1797, from which State he emigrated to Ohio, and settled in Delhi. In 1875 he died, in Green township. His wife, Nancy J. TAYLOR, is still living, as are also his four children, William E., David J., Robert, and Joshua P. George FRONDORF was born in Germany, came from that country to Ohio, and made settlement in Green township in the year 1840. Here he died at the age of seventy-three. F. FRONDORF came with his father, and has lived in this township since 1840. He is the owner of the largest single tract of land lying in the township two hundred and forty-three acres. In 1847 he was married to Mary FRONDORF, who is still living. His daughter, Mary, and son, George, both reside here, and Caroline is at St. Mary's convent, Cincinnati. Charles RIES was born in Germany in 1826, and emigrated to Ohio and settled in Cincinnati in the year 1853. In 1877 he removed to Green township. While in his native land he belonged to the army. His wife, Eva Ries, was born in 1830, and is still alive. His children, Charles RIES, Jr., William, and Lizzie, remain also in the same township. William MULLER came to Cincinnati in 1844. He was born in Germany, and on emigrating to America came to Ohio at once. In 1874 he died in Green township, where his last home was located. His wife was Catharine MULLER. The children are William, Frank, Louis, Rosina, Mary, and Adam. William is still living in Green township; Frank and Lewis near Taylor's creek; Rosina at the Four Mile house; Mary, near the New Baltimore pike; and Adam, near Lick run. Isaac TOWNSEND, formerly the well known dairyman near Cheviot, came from Springborough, Warren county, where he was born in the year 1829; lived for a while in Clinton county, Ohio, where he kept a grocery. In 1860 he started his dairy, and at first began the business on a small scale, but afterwards increased it to larger dimensions. In 1880 he sold out his interest in the business to his brother, since which time he has been a farmer. He lives near Cheviot, and is nicely situated on what is known as the Rose Hill farm. Mr. TOWNSEND began life a poor boy, and was bound out until sixteen years of age, but by industry and perseverance has been successful in securing for himself finally a good homestead. He is a Quaker. Thomas J. BRADFORD, of Dent, Green township, lives on the homestead owned by his father, John BRADFORD, who came from Ireland. M. T. J. BRADFORD, in the year 1876, married Miss Lydia HART. George W. DAVIS, is of the firm of TOWNSEND & DAVIS, proprietors of an extensive dairy one mile south of Cheviot. Thomas MORGAN was born in North Wales in 1814; came to the United States in 1839, and since the year 1840 has been proprietor of a large lumber-yard on the corner of Twelfth and Plum streets, Cincinnati. The business has been to him a very profitable one, out of which he has made a fortune. Soon after coming to Cincinnati he was married to Miss Lucinda P. TERRY, a native of Virginia, and is the father of two children - a son and a daughter. The son, John W. MORGAN, was in the service, first as a lieutenant and finally as quartermaster. Mr. MORGAN owns a beautiful property in Westwood. Joseph M. REARDEN, of Cheviot, formerly county commissioner of Hamilton county, is of Irish descent, his father, Thomas R., having come from Ireland in 1812, leaving Limerick and coming by the way of England, where he stayed a while; landed in Philadelphia, where Joseph was born, in 1837, on the nineteenth of March. In 1852, Thomas removed to Green township, one mile west of Dent. Mr. REARDEN completed his studies about the year 1851, in St. Xavier's college, Cincinnati, and then went south, making application to General WALKER to enter the fillibuster service, but was not received on account of his age. >From 1852 until 1875 he followed the business of farming, since which time his county has called him to various offices of trust. After the war, beginning in 1865, he served three terms as trustee of the township, was also deputy treasurer, member of the board of education, and in October, 1875, was elected county commissioner, serving until 1877, and receiving a county majority of 1,713, and a township majority of 146. He was married to Mary E. MILLER in 1857. Charley B. LEWIS, proprietor of a bakery and lunch room at 194, West Sixth street, came from Portsmouth, Ohio, to Cincinnati in the year 1861. His father, Thomas C. LEWIS, now living, owned the rolling-mills of that place, the only one west of Pittsburgh, in which mills Charley learned the business of machinest. The property is now owned by his brother-in-law, George Baylis, who is probably one of the wealthiest men in the State. Mr. LEWIS was for three years after coming to Cincinnati a driver of a bakery wagon, for which he received one dollar per day. >From this he was promoted to a clerkship, and in 1866 he bought out the entire business, since which time he has run it himself. He also owns the building at 206. Rev. Gottleib BRANDSTETTER, pastor of the First German Evangelical. Protestant church of Green township, was born in Rhein Baiern, Bavaria, in 1830. He belongs to a family of ministers. Gottlieb came alone to America and took a course in theology, completing his studies in 1856, after which he engaged in the ministerial work at Peppertown, near Evansville, Indiana, and other places. He came here May 1, 1876, and has since had charge of the congregation and Sabbath-school, acting as its superintendent. He also gives instruction three days in each week to the children of his congregation, who are taking a course ~pg 308~ preparatory o confirmation. The church building, a fine brick structure, was erected in the year 1871, in which, service and Sabbath-school have been held ever since. A graveyard of some four acres lies just back of the building. He was married July 24, 1857, to Miss Catharine WITTKAMPER, of Cincinnati. This union has been blessed with five children four sons and one daughter. One son, Henry, born in 1859, died in 1880, and was a most promising young man. He possessed a natural genius for drawing, taking up the art and completing the course almost without the aid of instruction. He, however, spent one year in Cooper Institute, New York. He was engraver for Stillman & Co., Front and Vine streets, Cincinnati, Ohio. He has left some beautiful sketchings, of which a "Scene on the Ohio," "Church Yard Scene," "Lick Run Church," show a master hand in the work. He was also of great assistance to his father in his church work being a musician and of great use in Sabbath-school service. As the pride of the Bransdtetter home, he was much missed in that circle. Rev. BRANDSTETTER is exercising a great influence for good among his people of Cheviot, of which his people are proud. Elizabeth BATES, wife of Joshua BATES, railroad contractor, resides in Mount Airy, Green township. Mr. BATES removed to his present elegant homestead in 1859. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. John BATES (son) was a soldier in the cavalry service under Kilpatrick, during the late war. Enoch JACOBS was born in the town of Marlborough, State of Vermont, June 30, 1809, and was married to Electa WHITNEY, of said town, June 22, 1831. His father, Nathan JACOBS, was born in Connecticut in 1762, and emigrated to Vermont in 1799. He was a soldier in the War of the Revolution. He married Sarah, the daughter of Captain John CLARK, of revolutionary fame, about the year 1784. She was a native of Old Hadley, Massachusetts. The subject of this sketch emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, in 1827, where he engaged in mechanical pursuits till 1843, when he removed with his family to Cincinnati. Between that time and the breaking out of the civil war in 1861, he was engaged in the manufacture of iron work, being junior partner in the firm of Vallean & Jacobs. The people of the south being their largest customers, financial ruin followed. His oldest son, Enoch George, enlisted in the Second Ohio volunteer infantry, three months' service, and was in the battle of Bull Run. He afterwards enlisted in the Twelfth Kentucky volunteer infantry, Federal regiment, where he was commissioned first lieutenant, and was in the battle at Mill Spring and the siege of Knoxville. He re-enlisted as a veteran and served till the army reached Jonesborough, when his health failed, and he resigned his commission. His second son, Henry C., enlisted in the Fifth Ohio volunteer infantry, and served till his death. His third son, Nathan, enlisted in the Twelfth Kentucky volunteer infantry, and was commissioned first lieutenant in company I Of Third regiment. He was a brave and gallant young officer, While temporarily absent from his regiment he was waylaid and murdered by a bushwhacker, near Somerset, Kentucky, about the twentieth of February, 1863. The elder JACOBS was for a time with the First and Second Ohio infantry regiments, comprising SCHENCK's brigade, and took part in the battle at Vienna, where occurred the first bloodshed in the war south of the Potomac. He afterwards identified himself with the Twelfth Kentucky, commanded by Colonel W. A. HOSKINS, and recruited men for it, in which two of his sons hold commissions. He took part in the battle of Mill Spring, and wrote the first published account of that battle. It appeared in the Cincinnati Commercial, and was copied by papers all over the country, and in Europe. A month later he took part in the battle at Fort Donelson, having obtained a position on the staff of Colonel BAUSENWEIN, commanding the brigade on the left of the right wing under General MCCLERNAND, and with a detail of twelve men Mr. JACOBS accepted the surrender of two rebel batteries. About a month later while on his way to join the Twelfth Kentucky en route from Nashville to Pittsburgh Landing, a railroad accident occurred at Green river bridge, Kentucky, in which he permanently lost the use of his right arm. In 1863 he was elected justice of the peace in Mill Creek township, and served till he removed with what was left of his family to Waynesville, Warren county, in 1865. He resided at Walnut Hills from 1847 till 1865, and took a leading part in organizing in that place the first free school in the State under the school law of 1849 and its amendment in 1850. He served nine years as trustee and secretary of the board with the late Dr. ALIEN of Lane seminary as president. In the winter of 1870-71 he accompanied the Government commission, on the United States steamer Tennessee, to Santo Domingo as the special correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial. He traveled extensively over the island, and no correspondent went where he did not. The following winter, 1871-72, he returned to Santo Domingo, in the interests of the Cincinnati Commercial and New York Tribune. During that winter he gathered much testimony as to the alleged complicity of high officials in a scheme of speculation in connection with a proposition of our Government to purchase the island. This has been hitherto withheld from the public. In January, 1873, he was appointed United States Consul to Montevideo, in the republic of Uruguay, South America. The United States Minister, Mr. STEVENS, being absent, the work of the legislation devolved upon him in addition to the duties of the consulate. As the country was cursed with constant revolutions, it required all his energies in extending protection to American citizens; but the work was faithfully done. In 1874 he came home for his family (wife and daughter) by way of Europe, and with them returned by the same route to his post of duty. His health failing he resigned his commission and came home by way of Europe in June, 1876. In October or that year he removed to Mount Airy, and finished his official life with six months' service as mayor of that village. ~pg 309~ BRIDGETOWN This is a village a little over a mile west of Cheviot, just half Way across the township from east to west, and two miles and a half from the south line. It is on the Cleves turnpike, half a mile west of the junction of the Harrison pike, and the Cincinnati & Westwood narrow-gauge railroad comes up to the Cleves road about midway between the village and the junction of the turnpikes. St. Aloysius' (Catholic) church is located here, with its parochial school of about fifty pupils, and a confraternity of the same name, all under the pastoral care of the Rev. Father Bernard MUTTING. CEDAR GROVE is a locality in the extreme southwest part of the township, about the headwaters of Lick run, and extending into the city upon the Warsaw turnpike. The Young Ladies' academy of St. Vincent de Paul, conducted by the Sisters of Charity, is in this grove, but within the city, at a place called "The Cedars," where a sister of Mary HEWITT, the famous English authoress formerly resided and wrote the charming letter, afterwards embodied in a little work entitled, Our Cousins in Ohio. CHEVIOT. This is an old place, founded by an early settler named John CRAIG in 1818, and was incorporated March 21st, of that year. It is pleasantly situated upon the hills west of the Mill Creek valley, on the Harrison turnpike, a mile and a half west of the township line. It had seventy-one inhabitants in 1830, and three hundred and twenty-five fifty years afterwards. In his later years the Hon. Samuel LEWIS, the famous philanthropist and educator, long of Cincinnati, resided near Cheviot, upon a farm he owned there. He continued his labors for humanity almost to the end of life, often preaching in the neighboring churches. He died upon his place here, after a long career of usefulness, July 28, 1854. At Cheviot, on the Fourth of July, 1832, there was a noteworthy celebration. FENTON's Cheviot infantry and PALMERTON's Delhi infantry made a brave parade, escorting the orator of the day, General William Henry HARRISON, to the Presbyterian church, where the exercises took place. Mr. Enoch CARSON was reader of the declaration, and the Rev. Messrs. WILLIAMSON and BIDDLE were the chaplains of the day. Messrs. PRICE and CARPENTER served as committeemen. The dinner was at Rush's hotel, where the popular old time song, "The Death of Warren," was given amid much applause. At the celebration of 1841, at the same place, Judge MOORE was president, Rev. George COTT, chaplain, W. J. CARSON, reader, and Dr. J. D. TALBOTT, orator. The day seems to have gone off gallantly and pleasantly enough. COVEDALE is a small place on the township line, one mile west of the southeast corner, half a mile northwest of Warsaw, and on the road connecting that place with the Five Corners DENT is a village on the south fork of Taylor's creek and the Harrison turnpike, two miles and a half northwest of Cheviot, and two miles from the northern and western township lines, respectively. It has about two hundred inhabitants. Here lives the Hon. Charles Reemelin, formerly member of Congress, who is noticed at considerable length in the chapter on the German element in Cincinnati, in the second division of this work. DRY RIDGE is a hamlet of probably fifty inhabitants, on the Cleves turnpike, a mile west of Bridgetown, at the junction of that highway with the road down the south fork of Taylor's creek. The Ebenezer church and a school-house are situated at this point. FIVE CORNERS. This locality, with a little scatter of houses, is at the junction of three country roads, on the dividing line of sections eight and fourteen, a mile and a half south of Cheviot, and the same distance northwest of Covedale. MOUNT AIRY includes a tract of more than three square miles, lying mostly in Mill Creek township, in the chapter devoted to whose history it will be more particularly noticed. Five hundred and seventy-nine of its acres are in this township. ST. JACOB'S in the extreme north of the township, a mile and two-thirds west of the northeast comer, and a mile from the Colerain pike, on the projected Cincinnati & Venice railroad, has a population of about one hundred, and a flourishing Catholic church and school. SHEARTOWN This is a village near the extreme northwest corner of the township, with fifty to seventy-five inhabitants, a church, and a school. It is on the Harrison turnpike and the main stream of Taylor's creek. WEISENBURGH Weisenburgh is a small place inhabited chiefly by Germans, one mile south of St. Jacob's and two miles and a half north of Cheviot, on the surveyed route of the Cincinnati & Venice railroad. WESTWOOD This considerable suburb covers, with residences and grounds, more or less thickly, nearly four sections, being the whole of sections two, three and eight, the eastern half of section nine, and part of section fourteen, being in all two thousand three hundred and twenty-five acres. Along the east line of section two, it immediately adjoins the city in its northwest part. The Cincinnati & Westwood narrow gauge railway runs for about two miles through the southern part of the suburb. The village was incorporated in 1868. Among its earlier mayors were John GAINES, 1869-70; F. H. OEHLMANN, 1871; Thomas WILLS, 1872-4. It had seven hundred and fifty-two inhabitants in 1880. THE HARVEST HOME A few enterprising residents of Green township started the first Harvest Home organization in the county, which still maintains its annual meetings with great interest and success. On the Fourth of July, 1860, a little group of ~pg 310~ citizens, comprising Messrs. R. H. FENTON, W. L. CARSON and N. GREGORY, happening to meet in one of the central groves of the township, the suggestion of a regular Harvest Home was started by Mr. FENTON, and cordially acceded to by the others. Several townships had previously made spasmodic experiments in this direction, but had all proved failures after a short run. The foundations of the new Harvest Home were more strongly laid. Judge Robert MOORE was secured as president, and drafted the original constitution of the Home. Mr. Samuel W. CARSON, now vice-president, was also the first to fill this office. Mr. Joseph B. BOYD was secretary; Nehemiah GREGORY, treasurer; S. W. CARSON, R. H. FENTON, James WISE, Samuel BENN and James VEASEY were directors. A very hopeful organization was thus effected. The next thing was to obtain memberships, at fifty cents apiece, and to this the principal officers of the Home addressed themselves. It was uphill business for a time, but finally good results were reached, especially by Mr. FENTON, who had obtained a large number of memberships in the city. The first gathering to celebrate the "Harvest Home" was held the next year, August 16, 1861, in Carson's grove, half a mile north of Cheviot, where most or all of the annual reunions have been held. The Home has since never failed of its annual celebration, and has never experienced a wet or unfavorable day at the appointed time. The last meeting was in Carson's grove, August 25, 1880, when at least ten thousand people were present (it is said that there are never less than ten thousand at the meetings), and a number of excellent and interesting speeches were made. An exhibition of grain, vegetables, fruit, flowers, garden products, bread, butter and other articles grown or made in the township, is nowadays held in connection with the Home, with premiums as at the annual fairs, and the managers think of adding a series of prizes for stock, poultry, improvement in farming implements and other exhibits. The reunions are always accompanied with a bountiful banquet, dancing upon a platform erected for that purpose and owned by the society, and other amusements. Liquor is never sold at the celebrations, so far as is known. Mr. E. C. REEMELIN is now president of the home. No political or sectarian matters are allowed in any way to enter into its operations. HISTORICAL NOTES Green township has just twice and a half the number of inhabitants it had a half century ago. The census of 1830 developed a population of one thousand nine hundred and eighty-five in the township; that of 1870 showed four thousand three hundred and fifty-six; of 1880, six thousand six hundred and eighty-nine. At one time, in the early day, nearly the whole tract now covered by Green township was sold at sheriffs sale for seventy-five dollars. After the original proprietorship of BENDINOT & SIMS, it was owned mainly by Generals HARRISON and FINDLEY, and Judge BURNET, of Cincinnati, for whom it was sold out in parcels by the father of Colonel E. T. CARSON, now chief of police in that city. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V00 Issue #216 *******************************************