OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 47 *********************************************************************** 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 03 : Issue 47 Today's Topics: #1 [OH-FOOT] Ch 13, pt 2 [Tina Hursh Subject: [OH-FOOT] Ch 13, pt 2 To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <1.5.4.32.20030326201213.0166a018@clubnet.isl.net> Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT X-Message: #1 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. Chapter 13 pages 200-203 There had been received to that time for State Central district patients (1869 to 1874, inclusive), $105,221.34; for colored patients from the State at large (1869 to 1877), $44,737.70; and for pay patients (after 1861) under a system introduced by a resolution of the directors March 5, 1860, authorizing their reception and fixing the rates for their accommodation, $138,687.36; and from sales of produce, etc., at Longview, $9,640.28. Taxes for the support of the asylum had been collected by the county to the amount of $608,729.43, ranging from $1,000 in 1877 to $81,439.98 in 1868. The amount of taxation for this purpose in some other years was very light, and during the years 1874, 1875, and 1876, none seems to have been collected. The State appropriation during the eighteen years amounted to $1,109,925.94. The total receipts of those years from all sources were $2,016,642.05; the disbursements, as before given, $1,882,065.54. Two years thereafter the total sum expended had amounted to $2,063,026.26 - $90,127.64 for 1878, and $100,836.68 for the next year. Before the act of April 28, 1873, the State paid as much for the support of Longview as was raised annually in the county by taxation for general appropriations to lunatic asylums in the State. After that act an apportionment of expenditures was made upon a basis of population. ~pg203~ The first board of directors of Longview asylum was appointed jointly by the governor of the State and the commissioners of the county, and consisted of MESSRS. JOHN I. VATTIER, JOHN BURGOYNE, AND T. F. ECKERT. They were appointed in pursuance of an act of the legislature of April 5, 1859, and took the oath of office on the thirteenth of July following, when the board was organized by the election of DR. VATTIER, president, and MR. W. I. DEBECK, secretary. November 10, 1859, the board appointed DR. O. M. LANGDON, of Cincinnati, superintendent; B. C. LUDLOW, M.D. assistant physician; Mr. R. T. THORBURN, steward, and Mrs. Mary A SHARP, matron. The present officers of the asylum are: C. A. MILLER, M. D. superintendent, succeeding Dr. W. H. BUNKER in 1878; Drs. J. M. RATLIFF and F. F. HELLMAN, assistant physicians, A. V. STEWART, steward. The directors are: H. D. PECK, president; James F. CHALFANT, secretary; A. J. MULLANE, B. ROTH, Dr. C. S. MUSCROFT. Liberal appropriations have been made by the State, as just indicated, for the support of Longview asylum. The smallest appropriation was made the first year—seven thousand dollars; the largest in 1874—one hundred and eighty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty-four dollars and fifty-eight cents—these granted in pursuance of an act passed March 10, 1857, entitled " act to constitute the county of Hamilton a separate district for lunatic asylum purposes, and to provide for the erection and government of an asylum therein," and of amendatory and supplementary acts subsequently passed. A joint resolution of the general assembly, November 25, 1868, provided for the support and care of patients sent to Longview from the central district of the State. The jurisdiction of the State and county authorities is thus concurrent, and during some part of its history has been harmoniously exercised, and for the best interests of the institution. The Secretary of the Board of State Charities, Dr. A. G. BYERS, in his last published report, after some notice of the troubles brought upon the asylum through political "" says: " present status of the institution is, so far as known, one of quiet and any harmony. Recently, after a season of suspension, the trustees, who had so often and so openly denounced the superintendent as incapable, inefficient, and every way unfitted for such position, and who had been chiefly instrumental in bringing about the various and multitudinous investigations, seem to have found out that after all they were mistaken, and so voted to reinstate and retain the superintendent in charge of the asylum." At the session of 1878 a joint committee of the senate and house of representatives was appointed by the general assembly, to confer with the authorities of Hamilton county, with reference to ascertaining " and upon what terms the Longview asylum for lunatics can be acquired by or transferred to the State." This movement was prompted by the State board of charities, the members of which believed that all the insane of the State should be under the care of the State, by a uniform system applicable to all the asylums. A careful statement of the cost of Longview to the county was made by MR. W. S. CAPPELLER, county auditor, and some negotiation was had looking toward the total transfer of the institution; but the desired result has not yet been accomplished. As we write these lines (Thanksgiving day, 1880), another and similar negotiation is in progress between the county authorities and a committee of the State legislature. The new asylum building began to be occupied by patients from the Lick Run asylum March 26, 1860, and the removals continue until May 3d, when two hundred and ninety-six had been transferred. The first patient consigned to the asylum by order of the probate court was received March 31st. May 9th of the same year, all patients in the State insane asylum at Dayton belonging to Hamilton county, were also transferred to Longview. At the close of the twentieth year of its history, in November, 1879, four thousand one hundred and thirty-one cases had been received and treated, of whom three thousand four hundred and forty-eight had been discharged—one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine males and one thousand six hundred and fifty-nine females—one thousand eight hundred and seventy recovered, five hundred and ten improved, one hundred and eighty-two unimproved, twenty-three escaped, eight hundred and forty-one deceased, and twenty-two as not insane. Six hundred and sixty inmates were remaining—about two hundred more than the institution can properly accommodate; one hundred and seventy-eight were admitted during the last preceding year. Of the total number, all but fifteen—fourteen State colored patients and one pay patient—were dependent on Hamilton county. The number of inmates of the asylum pretty steadily increased from three hundred and thirty-three in 1860, when it was opened, to a daily average of six hundred and seventy-three in 1879. The average cost of maintenance of each patient has varied from one hundred and thirty-two dollars and six cents in 1862 to three hundred and twenty-five dollars and twenty-nine cents in 1867. In 1878, it was one hundred and thirty-six dollars and fifty-six cents; in 1879, one hundred and forty-nine dollars and eighty-three cents. In 1866 the " House," a portion of the purchase before mentioned as made south of Centre street, and west of the canal, was fitted up, as allowed by a State law, passed April 5, 1860, as an asylum for the reception of colored insane persons from the county. It has since been occupied for this purpose, with additional use, since the passage of an act of assembly April 30, 1869, as an asylum for the colored insane of the State at large. The building is old and dilapidated, however, and the State board of charities urgently recommend some better provision for the care of this class of the insane. They say: " are no apparent grounds of complaint as to the management of this department of Longview or the general treatment of colored patients; but the building precludes the idea of general comfort, while it suggests many fears for the safety of the inmates." The number of patients in this branch of the institution has always been limited; it was only sixteen November 1, ~pg204~ 1877, and two years afterwards the State colored patients therein numbered but fourteen, equally divided as to the sexes. There are about ninety officers and employes (sic) connected with the institution, which, with the patients, make about seven hundred and fifty to be accommodated in the present buildings. THE COUNTY INFIRMARY The history of this institution, so far as the original purchase of grounds for it near Carthage is concerned, has already been given in the preceding account of the Longview asylum. In 1870 the county commissioners, under the advice of the directors of the infirmary, purchased the property known as the " farm," in Mill Creek township, east of Carthage and north of the asylum. It occupies an elevation commanding a wide and pleasing view, taking in the fine scenery of the Mill Creek valley as far south as Spring Grove and Clifton, and extending northward to Hartwell, Wyoming, Lockland, Reading, and Glendale. The tract consists of one hundred and nineteen and thirty-eight-hundredths acres, and was obtained for four hundred dollars per acre. The present infirmary building was completed and opened for the reception of inmates, on the twentieth of February 1873. It is three stories high, with a north wing for the male department, a couth wing for the female and nursery departments, and a central or main building for offices, living rooms for the officers, the kitchen and baker, dining rooms, etc. It is accounted a model building for the purpose in all its departments. The superstructure is of brick, faced with sandstone trimmings, roofed with slate, and well arranged on the pavilion and corridor system. The cost of the edifice was about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The farm is partly devoted to ornamental and play-grounds for children and inmates, that part of it being well shaded with forest trees. Another part is utilized to advantage as a garden, and the remainder is kept in a high state of cultivation, and yields a considerable quantity of farm products. In 1879, twenty-four acres were planted with corn, twelve with rye, seven with potatoes, seven with oats, two with sweet potatoes, two with turnips, three with garden vegetables, and twenty acres were given to hay. Farm products, etc., were sold during the six months ending August 31st of that year, to the amount of two hundred and fourteen dollars and ninety-four cents. The number of inmates of the infirmary averages about two hundred, which is only two-thirds of the capacity of the institution. About sixty are received and discharged each half year. During the financial year 1879-9, the average cost of maintenance of each inmate was ninety-five dollars, or twenty-six cents per day, a very favorable exhibit for the economy exercised in the management of the infirmary. The total cost of the year was nineteen thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars and fifty-five cents. Inmates are received from all parts of the county except the city of Cincinnati, which has its own infirmary, located at Hartwell. One inmate, September 1, 1879 had been in the institution since 1855, two since 1857, and two since 1858. A school is maintained at the public expense, for instruction in elementary branches, and has a daily average attendance of about forty. The infirmary is managed by a board of three directors, one of whom is chosen each year by the electors of the townships of Hamilton county. They not only have full charge of the proper relief of paupers admitted to the infirmary, but also of the necessary out-door relief to be granted on the application of the township trustees. The principal officers of the institution at present are: Colonel Thomas H. HUNT, superintendent; Mrs. T. H. HUNT, matron; T. S. POTTER, M. D., physician; Miss Mary A. HARRIS, teacher. Its administration is quite warmly commended by the secretary of the State board of charities. In the third annual report of the board, published 1879, he says: " infirmary buildings are quite commodious and well arranged, and, as observed during the year, as in former years, seemed under careful management." ______________________________ --Boundary_(ID_CILsVkZvNNNwCAZ/QrR+PA) Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 14:05:40 -0600 From: Tina Hursh Subject: [OH-FOOT] Colerain Twp - Hamilton co. pt 2 To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <1.5.4.32.20030326200540.0162a1bc@clubnet.isl.net> Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-Message: #2 Trancribed by Karen Klaene *********************************************************************** Colerain Township - pgs 255-262 *********************************************************************** 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. ANCIENT WORKS Some of the finest remains of the Mound Builders, although not very numerous, are to be found in this township. Upon the height known as Bowling Green, near the Great Miami river, about a mile above New Baltimore, is a well-defined mound, of somewhat extensive base, and several fret in height. It was probably used as a mound of observation. In the forest one mile west of BEVIS and about the same distance south of Dry Ridge Catholic church, is an interesting ancient enclosure. It is an exact circle, of about fifty feet in diameter, and its parapets at present with an average height of two feet. The site k occupies is elevated, overlooking a wide tract of country. Its symmetry has been considerably marred by the running of fences and other modern improvements across it, but its form is still clearly outlined. The principal ancient remain in Colerain township, and one of the most interesting in Hamilton county, is situated near the singular and abrupt bend of the Great Miami, which begins about two miles southwest of the county line, on the Colerain side. This bend, which was until recently the main channel of the river, is now being gradually deserted by it, the waters having made their way by a shorter cut across a part of the bend, thus forming an island containing sixty to seventy acres, belonging to this township. About ninety-five acres are enclosed by the famous " work"--a fortification or sacred enclosure, the parapet of which is still pretty well preserved, and in places is eight to ten feet high. It is at the angle of the river, below a hill some two hundred and eighty feet in height, upon which is a mound of observation ten feet high, commanding a broad and far-reaching view of the valley and surrounding country. It is now fitly occupied in part by a cemetery. In the same remarkable neighborhood, not far from this old work, stood the not less famous modern fortification known in the history of the Miami country as DUNLAP'S STATION The first settler in the tract now covered by Colerain township was undoubtedly John DUNLAP, an Irishman from Colerain, in the north of Ireland. In 1790 he made his way up the valley of the Great Miami to this notable bend, about seventeen miles from the Cincinnati of that day, where he determined to found a colony, and laid out a village, which be named from his native place in the old country, and which, though it presently became extinct, perpetuated its musical name in the designation of the township. A few settlers joined him here; and they promptly built a fort or station at the spot selected. It consisted simply of their little cabins clustered together upon a space of about an acre, built to face each other and, with a singular want of forethought, their roofs so placed as to slope outward, and the caves so low that it is said the dogs were accustomed to jump from the stumps without to the top of them, and so get into the enclosure.1 This was constructed of a stockade of rather weak pickets, made of small timber or logs split in half and thrust into the ground, above which they stood only about eight feet high. Small block-houses were built at the corners of the square formed by the stockade. Within this dwelt about thirty persons -- men, women, and children -- including only eight or ten capable of bearing arms. Upon the erection of the station, however, and application duly made at Fort Washington for a garrison, Lieutenant KINGSBURY was sent with thirteen soldiers to strengthen the defenders. When the terrible occasion came, too, as we shall presently see, the heroic women of the little fort proved capable of rendering invaluable aid toward its salvation from capture by the merciless savage foe. Dunlap' station is principally memorable as the scene of the fiercest and longest sustained Indian attack recorded in the annals of Hamilton county. For several days in early January, 1791, the savages had been lurking in the vicinity in considerable force. On the eighth they made the fatal attack upon WALLACE, SLOAN, HUNT and CUNNINGHAM, as is related in our chapter upon "The Miamese and the Indians." SLOAN who escaped wounded, and WALLACE who escaped unhurt, took refuge in the station, and the next day (Sunday) the latter guided a party to the scene of the disaster, where they found the body of the unfortunate CUNNINGHAM tommy hawked and scalped. They buried it on the spot, and returned without molestation. HUNT made his appearance before the station the succeeding day, but as a hapless prisoner in the hands of his torturers and murderers. The story of the siege is admirably narrated in Volume I. of MC-BRIDE' Pioneer Biography, receiving many of its touches and details, we suspect, from the hand of the accomplished editor of that work, Mr. Robert CLARKE, of Cin- ~pg 257~ cinnati. At the risk of some repetition--the facts having been given in brief in the first division of this work --we quote the main portions of the narrative here: Before sunrise on the morning of the tenth of January, just as the women were milking the cows in the fort, the Indians made their appearance before it, and fired a volley, wounding a soldier named MCVICKER. Every man in the fort was immediately posted to the best advantage by the commander, and the fire returned. A parley was then held at the request of the Indians, and Abner HUNT, whom they had taken prisoner as before mentioned, was brought forward securely bound, with his arms pinioned behind him, by an Indian, or, as some say, the notorious Simon GIRTY, the leader of the party, holding him by the rope. Mounting him on a stump within speaking distance of the garrison, he was compelled to demand and urge the surrender of the place, which, in the hope of saving his own life, he did in the most pressing terms, promising. that if it were done, life and property would be held sacred. Not a single individual in the fort, however, would agree to a surrender. Lieutenant KINGSBURY took an elevated position where he could overlook the pickets. and promptly rejected all their propositions, telling them that he had dispatched a messenger to Judge SYMMES, who would soon be up to their relief, with the whole settlement on the Ohio. He failed, however, to impose on them. They replied that it was a lie, as they knew Judge SYMMES was then in New Jersey, and informed him that they had five hundred warriors, and would soon be joined by three hundred more, and that, if an immediate surrender was not made, they would all be massacred, and the station burned. Lieutenant KINGSBURY replied that he would not surrender if he were surrounded by ten thousand devils, and immediately leaped from his position into the fort. The Indians fired at him, and a ball struck off the white plume he wore in his hat. The prisoner HUNT was cruelly tortured and killed within sight of the garrison. The station was completely invested by the Indians and the attack was most violent. They commenced like men certain of victory and for some time the garrison was in great danger. The Indians fired, as usual, from behind stumps, trees and logs, and set fire to a quantity of brushwood that had been collected by the settlers, and then, rushing in with burning brands, attempted to fire the cabins and pickets. The vigilance and close firing of the besieged, however, prevented the accomplishment of this object. One Indian was killed just as he reached the buildings. In the night they threw blazing arrows from their bows against the stockade and upon the roofs of the buildings, with the intention of firing them; but in this they were also unsuccessful. The garrison, well knowing that their lives depended upon it, met them at every point. The attack was continued without intermission during the whole of the day and the succeeding night, and until nine o'clock in the morning of the 11th, when the Indians, despairing of success, and, perhaps, apprehensive of the arrival of reinforcements from Cincinnati, raised the siege and retreated in two parties, one to the right and the other to the left, as was afterward discovered by their tracks. The whole strength of the garrison was eighteen soldiers and eight or ten of the settlers capable of bearing arms. The entire number in the fort, including women and children, not counting the soldiers, did not exceed thirty souls. The Indians were estimated by those in the fort at from three to five hundred, led by the infamous renegade, Simon GIRTY, as was ascertained seven years after, on the return of a white man, who had been taken prisoner near the station a few days before the attack. The little garrison, although but a handful compared with the host by which they were assailed, displayed great bravery., in some instances amounting to rashness. During the incessant fire from both sides they frequently, for a moment, exposed their persons above the tops of the pickets, mocking the savages and daring them to come on. Women, as well as men, used every expedient in their power to provoke and invite the enemy. They exhibited the caps of the soldiers above the pickets as marks to be shot at. According to their own accounts they conducted themselves with great folly as well as bravery, though their apparent confidence may have induced the Indians to raise the siege the sooner. When the garrison was in danger of falling short of bullets, the women melted down all their pewter plates and spoons to keep up the supply. The garrison, though in imminent danger, sustained but little injury. On the first fire the Indians shot into a building called the mill, where the hand-mill was kept for grinding the corn of the neighboring settlers and the garrisen. It stood on a line with and near the block-house, and, being neither chinked nor daubed, the Indians shot between the logs, by which means they killed one man and wounded another. The body of Abner HUNT, who had been taken prisoner by the Indians few days previous, was found near the fort, shockingly mangled and stripped naked, his head scalped, his brains beaten out, and two war clubs laid across his breast. ANOTHER STATION, founded by John CAMPBELL, probably during the summer or fall of 1793, is said by Mr. OLDEN, in his Historical Sketches and Early Reminiscences, to have been established seven or eight miles southeast of DUNLAP' on the east bank of the Great Miami, opposite the present village of Miamitown. Little seems to be known concerning it. Mr. OLDEN says: The settlers around the station were few in number; no preparations for defense were made; and, having been established late in the period of Indian hostilities, no depredations were committed in the neighborhood, consequently no important historical events are attached to it. ORGANIZATION. Colerain is one of the oldest townships. It is the creation of the court of general quarter sessions of the peace of 1794, when its boundaries were defined as follows: Beginning at the southwest corner of the fractional township on the Big Miami, in the second entire range, thence up the Miami to the north line of said fractional township, according to SYMMES' plat; thence east to the meridian on the west side of the college township; thence south to the southern boundary of said fractional township thence west to the place of beginning. This extensive boundary brought in a tract of five sections breadth in what is now Butler county, additional to the present limits of the township in that direction, The cattle brand of the township was ordered to be the letter G. In 1803 the boundaries of Colerain were so defined as to include townships one and two, in the first entire range, and the western tier in township three, same range, and sections eighteen, twelve and six, in township two, and section thirty-six in township three, second fractional range, and so much of the second entire range as lies north of and adjoining the said township of Colerain. This definition of boundaries gave the township all its present territory, together with the western tier of sections in the present Springfield, the three easternmost sections in the north tier of Green, and the northwestern-most section in Mill Creek. The provision for taking in a part of the second entire range gave the township only its present short line of sections on the north, as Butler county had just been erected, and the remainder of the range lies within its borders. The total area of Colerain is now twenty-six thousand seven hundred and forty-eight acres. By the order of 1803 the voters of Colerain were directed to meet at the dwelling of John HARYMAN and choose two justices of the peace. The following named were the first officers of the township(1794): John DUNLAP, clerk; Samuel CAMPBELL, constable; John SHAW, overseer of the poor; Isaac GIBSON, Samuel CRESSWELL, John DAVIS, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages. In 1809 Judah WILLEY was appointed by the governor of the State a justice of the peace for Colerain township, "to continue in office for three years from the third day ~pg 258~ of April, instant." The following named citizens of Colerain are also known to have served the township as justices: 1819, Isaac SPARKS, John RUNYAN, James CARNAHAN, Joseph CILLEY; 1825, William H. MOORE, Jonathan CILLEY, Stewart MCGILL; 1829, Stewart MCGILL, Noah RUNYAN; 1865, John L. HAUKINS, George T. MARSH, George W. HAISCH; 1866, the same, with Martin BARNS, Jr.; 1867-8, same as 1866, except HAUKINS; 1869-70, BARNS, MARSH, J. H. WYCKOFF; 1871, BARNS, WYCKOFF, Thomas P. MCHENRY; 1872-3, MCHENRY., WYCKOFF, John LEIBROOK; 1874, LEIBROOK, WYCKOFF, Joseph JONES; 1875-6, Wyck-off, Jones, Barns; 1877, Wyckoff, Barns, William Arnold; 1878-9, Arnold, Wyckoff, John HAMKER; 1880, Arnold, WYCKOFF. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V03 Issue #47 ******************************************