Colerain Township
History of Hamilton County Ohio
pages 255-262
transcribed by Karen Klaene


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COLERAIN TOWNSHIP


GEOGRAPHY.

Colerain is bounded on the west by the Great Miami river; on the north by that stream and Butler county; on the east by Springfield township; and on the south by Green and Miami townships. Its eastern boundary is the range line; the range line next to the westward cuts across about four and a half miles of the township until it intersects the Great Miami near New Baltimore, between sections four and thirty-four. The north line of this township between the river and the northwest corner of Springfield township, is much more regular and more nearly on a right line east and west than the devious boundary of Springfield on the north. It is about two-fifths of a mile north of the dividing line between Crosby and Harrison townships and Butler county, the "jag" occurring at the Great Miami.

The lands of Colerain lie in three entire ranges--those numbered one and two in township one, and range number one in township two. It hence results that there are in its territory three sections numbered one, being one in each corner of the township except the northwest; and two each numbered two, three, four, seven, thirteen, and nineteen; besides fractional sections numbered eight, nine, ten, and twenty-five, duplicates of entire sections similarly numbered. There are thirty-five whole and eleven fractional sections in the township. The section lines are much more nearly straight in this township than in Springfield and Sycamore, but they more remarkably diverge in many cases from the true direction. The vicious system, or careless want of system of Judge SYMMES' surveys, is nowhere in the Purchase more glaringly exhibited than here. Some of the sections, as those numbered from twenty to the north line of the county, are by the divergence of their lines on the east and west approached closely to thrice the dimensions of those next them on the west. The township is seven sections, or about as many miles, in length from north to south, and nearly eight miles in its greatest breadth, from the westernmost point of the fractional section nine, nearly opposite the terminus at the river of the south line of Crosby township, across to a point in the eastern line of Colerain opposite the north part of Mount Pleasant village, in Springfield township. Its breadth at the northern boundary is four miles, at the southern seven; its average width about six.

The surface of the township, near the Great Miami, which washes its western and northern fronts for about twelve miles, partakes in part of the general character of the Miami valleys near the rivers. It is broad, flat, and fertile, except where the hills impinge closely upon the river bank, as they do for some miles. Back of this belt of lower country is the highland, or the ancient plateau, which extends upon a general level, to the eastern and southern boundaries, near which it overlooks the valleys of Mill creek and the West fork. It is deeply cut through, in the southernmost part of the township, by the course of TAYLOR' creek, whose headwaters take their rise toward the southwest corner, in sections thirteen and fourteen, and, after uniting their streams in section nineteen, dip down over a mile to the southward in Green township, near the northwest corner of which the stream emerges again in Colerain, and flows in an exceedingly tortuous course toward every point of the compass for about two miles, until it reaches the Great Miami exactly at the southwest corner of Colerain. Another stream of modest size, the Blue Rock creek, cuts nearly across the township on a general east and west line about three miles north of the southern line; another, with numerous branches, flows through the northern part of the township until it makes its exit into Butler county, a little over a miles east of the Great Miami; and several other and more petty brooks, tributaries of the Great Miami on the west or the West fork of Mill creek on the east, aid to diversify the topography and water the fertile lands of Colerain.

The township is pretty well provided with wagon-roads; but the great highway through it is the famous Colerain pike, which intersects it almost in a diagonal from Mount Airy, first beyond the southeast corner of the township to a point upon the river-road in the direction of Venice, Butler county, very near the northwest corner. It is described in KING' Pocket-book of Cincinnati, as "a continuation of Central avenue. At the junction of Central avenue with DENMAN street, the site of the old BRIGHTON house, it takes a northerly direction, passing through Camp WASHINGTON by the workhouse and the house of refuge, through Cumminsville (by the Wesleyan cemetery) and Mount Airy, on to Colerain township, from which it received its name Continuing, it passes through Venice and Oxford, in Butler county, which his known as the Cincinnati pike. The road is well macadamized." After leaving Mount Airy at a mile's distance,. it passes the village of GROSBECK, in Colerain township; a little more than two miles further it passes through BEVIS, and at about three miles' distance the old village site of Georgetown. All the villages of the township, except Pleasant Run, a hamlet in the northwest corner, are situated upon this fine road.

Although Colerain is one of the largest townships in the county, the peculiarity of its topography and of its



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situation, with reference to Cincinnati, the inevitable and only railway centre in the county, have hitherto prevented the laying of iron road on its soil. Two railway lines have been projected to intersect it, however, one, the Cincinnati & Venice railroad, to enter the township at the wagon-bridge near Venice, thence southeastward and southward with a general parallelism to the

Colerain pike, until it leaves the township, near St. Jacobs, in Green township, and passes nearly due South by Weisenburgh, to a junction with the Cincinnati & Westwood narrow-gauge, a little south of Cheviot. Its entire course through Colerain, if built upon this line, will be a little more than seven miles. Another route, known as the Liberty, Connersville & Richmond railroad, is planned to enter the county in Crosby township, three miles west of the Great Miami, which it will cross at New Baltimore and run southward and eastward about three and one-half miles in Colerain to a junction with the Cincinnati & Venice road, near BEVIS. The prospects of these schemes are not just now very hopeful. Other lines have at tithes been in discussion, and not many years are likely to pass before the township is supplied with railway facilities.
 
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-



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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



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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.
 
SETTLEMENTS.

Among the early settlers in Colerain township, besides DUNLAP, CAMPBELL and others already named, were the BROWN, HALSTEAD, HUSTON, and other old families, some of which will be found noticed in the brief narratives below.

In 1796 the HUGHES family, the head of which was then Ezekiel HUGHES, and which was afterwards prominent among the pioneers of Whitewater township, settled upon a tract in the valley of the Blue Rock creek, nearly opposite New Baltimore, awaiting the time when the Congress lands west of the river should be open to settlement With them was Edward BEBB, father of Governor William BEBB. Some interesting notes of their residence here will be found in the history of Whitewater township.

Hon. Nehemiah WADE was born in Cincinnati, August 18, 1793, and died near Venice, Butler county, July 24, 1879. He was the son of David E. WADE, an old pioneer of Hamilton county, and was married to Miss WALLACE of Cincinnati. Four sons and a daughter were the fruit of this union. His second wife was Mrs.: Jane DICK, daughter of Isaac ANDERSON, and widow of George DICK. To them was born one daughter, Sarah,-.who was the wife of Rev. MCMILLAN. Mr. WADE was a teller in one of the Cincinnati banks when only seventeen years of age. In 1818 he was elected justice of the peace of ROSS township, and continued in office for six years; in 1841 was elected by the State legislature an associate judge of the court of common pleas for Butler county, and was reelected in 1847, serving in that office for twelve years.

The Oxford Female college received a donation from him of ten thousand dollars. He united with the Presbyterian church of Bethel in 1818, and in 1828, with a few others. joined in organizing the Presbyterian church of Venice, and was a ruling elder of this church until his death.

John HUSTON was born in Ulster, Ireland, and is the great-great-grandfather of the HUSTONS whose sketches are annexed below. He came to America in an early day, and served in the battle of Brandywine, under Washington, as a captain of a company. He was long lived, and possessed a sturdy character, which traits seem to have been transmitted to his numerous descendants, as an inheritance. He was buried in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Three of his sons, Paul, Samuel and David, emigrated to Colerain township in 1795, David settling finally in Greene county, where he was for twenty-one years an associate judge and sent twice to the State legislature. His numerous descendants are in Butler county and around Dayton, Ohio.

Paul HUSTON was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, September 18, 1767; Jean (CHARTERS) HUSTON, his wife, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, December 14, 1771. Her parents emigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania in 1774. Their offspring were William, Mary, John, Paul, John, Jennet, Samuel, Martha, Nancy, James and Elizabeth, the last named being the mother of Paul H. WILLIAMSON. Paul was the grandfather of Paul S. and his cousin Paul A. J. HUSTON. Samuel was the grandfather of Andrew and James HUSTON.

James HUSTON, son of Paul and father of Paul A. J. HUSTON, was born in 1811 and died in 1878; was a farmer in Colerain township, and, like the HUSTONS in general, was remarkable for his thrift and good worth. Paul's mother was Martha CONE, daughter of an old pioneer of Crosby township. His father was married twice; the second time to Miss Mary MORRIS, and was the father of six children in all, of which Paul A. J. was the oldest. P. A. J. HUSTON owns part of the extensive tract of land possessed originally by his father, being in the vicinity of Pleasant run. He is a farmer and a prominent man in his county, having filled many township offices and been a member of the State legislature. He was married to Miss Mary BEVIS in 1859, and is the father of six children. He is public spirited, and lives an honored citizen of his community.

Andrew and James HUSTON are the grandsons of Samuel HUSTON. Their father, James STEWARD, was a distiller, and owned an extensive tract of about fifteen hundred acres of land besides; a part of which Andrew and James received as patrimony. They also possess large interests in the Hamilton and Cincinnati turnpike, and are also large shareholders in the Springdale pike. The Hamilton and Cincinnati turnpike is probably one of the best managed pikes in the State. In addition to all this these brothers have considerable property in the city of Cincinnati.

Paul S. HUSTON, also of Colerain township, grandson of Paul HUSTON and son of William, was born in 1823. William died in 1848, since which time, until her death, Paul's mother lived with him on the old place near Pleasant run; his sister Ann Elizabeth also lived with him several years. Paul S. HUSTON was never married.

Thomas HUNTER, of Pleasant run, Colerain township, is the only son, and Mrs. ARNOLD, of Louisville, Kentucky, is the only daughter of Paul HUNTER, who is still living. William HUNTER, his grandfather, came from Pennsylvania to Colerain township in 1800. Thomas HUNTER was married in 1858 to Miss GASTON, of Mount Pleasant, from which union they had two children. He is a farmer.

Charles STOUT was born in Hopewell township, New Jersey, in 1783. From this State he came directly to Ohio, and settled in Colerain township in 180l. His



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death occurred in the same region January 14, 1866. His business was that of a farmer, and he was a member of the Baptist church for about twenty-five years. His wife, Mary DUVALL, was born March 3, 1790, and died January 10, 1859. Of their twelve children, Ann Elizabeth STRUBLE died in 1834, Stephen in 1821, and Mary R. in 1828. Jane STOUT resides in Groesbeck, Joseph R. in Illinois, Oliver in Indiana, Charlotte HILL in Hamilton county; and Eleanor BEVIS , Axsher BEVIS, Benajah, Andrew J., and William remain in Colerain.

Thomas HUBBARD, Sr., was born in North Carolina in 1780. He came from that State to Ohio, and settled in Colerain in 1807. His death took place May 25, 1852, at the same place. His wife, Elizabeth HUBBARD died also at their home in Colerain, June 27, 1868. She was born in 1790 The twenty-one children are: William and Charles, now in Missouri; Laura BOLTON, Aurelia CARNAHAN, Maria KELLOGG and Margaret WILKINSON of Indiana, Susan TATERSALL, Sarah HAT and Matilda KELLY of Illinois, and Ann HUBBARD and Thomas HUBBARD, Jr., of Colerain. Those who have died, are Thomas dying August, 1815; Samuel, July, 1822; Cynthia, July, 1834; Wesley, June, 1837; Hannah, April, 1847; Mary, August, 1852; Elizabeth, 1869; Eleanor, 1865, and Dalson, July, 1868.

The children are scattered, but ten only are living. Thomas HUBBARD owns part of section seven of his township; was married in 1828, but has no children. His sister Ann lives with him.

David K. JOHNSON, the only son of twelve children of Abner JOHNSON, of New Jersey, came here in 1809. Abner JOHNSON was born in the year 1759, hauled government supplies for Washington's army during the war, and with the script made in that way purchased part of Judge SYMMES' tract, near Ross, in Butler county, on which farm David K. JOHNSTON still lives. Mr. JOHNSON is now in the eightieth year of his age; has been blind eleven years, but otherwise is hale and hearty. He has been successful in shipping much produce in his line to New Orleans, out of which he has made money. He was married in 1831 to Miss Elizabeth HEDGES.

The JOHNSON family, with but few exceptions, lived to the good old age of eighty, and upwards.

Elias JOHNSON, nephew of David K. JOHNSON, and grandson of ABNER, lives on part of the same purchase (Judge SYMMES), in the vicinity of Ross, Butler county. Squire JOHNSON is known among his neighbors as a man of good judgment, of possessing more than ordinary abilities, and withal is noted for general thrift and good worth. He is a Republican, was a delegate to the general assembly in 1873 for revising the constitution; has always taken an active part in the public questions of the day. Has been a director of the Colerain turnpike, and secretary for the company since 1857. He was born December 30, 1816, and was married in August, 1871.

George POUDER made his first settlement in Ohio, at Cincinnati, in 1817. He came to this State from Baltimore, Maryland, where he was born October, 17, 1804. In 1870, December 23, he died, at Colerain township. The wife, Hannah G., was born in this township in 1805, and died in 1871. The surviving members of the family are George and Harriet WEST, both residing in Colerain township, and Mary J. COLLIER of Baltimore, Maryland. Five have died: Samuel died in August, 1834; Elizabeth COLLIER, September, 1859; John, May, 1864; Margaret, May, 1848, and Mary, March, 1844.

George POUDER, of Barnesburgh, Colerain township, is a native of the county, but has only lived in the village during the past three years, in which he owns eighteen acres of good land and twenty-seven and a half acres of the old homestead near. He had a brother killed in the late war, near Dallas, Georgia, and was himself a member of the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Ohio national guard. One company of this regiment was composed solely of teachers, of which John HANCOCK, superintendent of the Cincinnati schools, was a private.

John POUDER was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1764, and came to Ohio and settled in Cincinnati in 1817. He died in Colerain in 1836. His wife, Elizabeth POUDER, born in 1784, died four years before her husband. The surviving children are Joseph and Harriet, now residents of Indianapolis, Indiana; Mary, of Crawfordsville, Indiana, and Lemuel, of Colerain.

Leonard POUDER owns forty acres two miles west of Taylor's, Colerain township, and came here in 1840. Andrew, his son, enlisted in the Fiftieth Ohio regiment, and was taken prisoner at Franklin, Tennessee, and sent to prison at Chahaba, Georgia, where he was closely guarded for three months. After being exchanged, in company with two thousand one hundred others, he was put on the ill-fated Sultana, and when above Memphis, about two o'clock in the morning, the boiler burst and the boat was blown up. He secured a life-buoy, and after remaining on deck as long as possible, cast himself into the water, and swam to a sycamore log. He was picked up about four hours afterwards and taken to the hospital in Memphis, at which place he remained three weeks before going home. Only about three hundred of his comrades were saved.

A. H. Cone, of Ross township, Butler county, was born in Hamilton county, but now lives on a part of the Yankee purchase of two and a half sections near Venice, owned by his father and grandfather. Charles CONE was major of militia during the Hull engagement. His grandson, A. H. CONE, is at present justice of the peace of Ross township.

Giles RICHARDS, the father of George RICHARDS, was one of the old pioneers of Colerain township, a man of considerable ability, foresight, and sagacity, and one who did much towards public improvements, for both State and county. He was the projector of the Colerain turnpike, of the river bridge on that road, and also of other undertakings. During the war he contributed about sixteen thousand dollars of his own funds in various ways for the furtherance of its cause. He was born January 6, 1792, in Boston, Massachusetts, was a mechanic, merchant and farmer, and made his money during the War of 1812. He then had a button factory and made buttons for the army, and saddlery ornaments of various kinds. He came to Cincin-



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nati in 1820, where he soon had a saw-mill, grist-mill and woollen factory. In 1830 he purchased a large tract of land, of several hundred acres, surrounding what was then the thriving town of Colerain. Mr. RICHARDS was successful in accumulating a large amount of property, and also in securing an enviable reputation among his fellows. He died in 1876, having lived during the last two years with his son George, who was born in 1843, and in 1869 married to Miss Josie JOHNSON.

In 1818 Isaac ERVEN made his first settlement in Ohio in Cincinnati. He was born in 1807, March 15th, in the State of Pennsylvania, and came from that State to Ohio. For fifteen years he was school director, and also served as ministerial director. His wife, Elizabeth GOSSAGE, was born in Maryland in 1816, and died in Colerain township in the year 1879. The children are: Isaac ERVEN, of Illinois; Henry and Giles, of this township; Ezra, and Ellen WOLVERTON, of Oregon; Francis M., also of Colerain; and Charlotte WILSON, living near Dayton, Ohio.

William MARTIN is a descendant of Virginia stock, who were early settlers in Colerain township. William's grandfather, Samuel S., was a farmer and an undertaker. Samuel MARTIN, his father, lived on the farm William now owns. Mr. MARTIN, although born in 1822, has always preferred single blessedness to a married state.

Williamson PAUL, (sic) of Colerain township, was born May 25, 1837. His paternal grandfather was William WILLIAMSON, whose wife was Anna VORHEES; they were of Teutonic and English origin. His great-grandfather, on his father's side, was John WILLIAMSON, whose wife was Lucretia TICE. John was born fourth of May, 1749; Lucretia TICE the twenty-sixth of April, 1749. They raised a family of ten children: John, William, Jacob, Garret, Mary, Henry, Ann, Sarah, David, and Luretia. John was married to Hannah SMITH, August 29, 1771. They raised a family of ten children, Jacob, Cornelius, John, Lucretia, Simeon, Amos, Catharine, David, Ann, and Henry. David WILLIAMSON, Paul's father, was born June 6, 1808; his mother Elizabeth HUSTON, was born April 24, 1814. They were married May 22, 1833. Their children were Hannah, Jean, Paul H, Mary E., and Albert. David WILLIAMSON came of Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, John, having served under Generals GREENE and WASHINGTON, and fought and was taken prisoner during the war. David was an edge tool maker and an early pioneer and settler of Colerain township, having emigrated to this place in 1811, and when twenty-five years of age married Elizabeth HUSTON. Paul WILLIAMSON, their eldest son, was liberally educated and perfected his studies at Farmer's college; for nine months following he was a successful teacher, for which he seems to have been adapted in manner and method. In May, 1857, he went to Iowa and found employment in agricultural pursuits, and in the fall of that year, with three friends, travelled by wagon through the greater portion of this State, Missouri; and Kansas, and during the following winter taught a flourishing school at Aviston, Illinois. In April, 1858, in company with a friend, he started overland to California, meeting at Leavenworth an emigrant train, which he accompanied to the same destination. Their route was via Santa Fe and the thirty-fifth parallel, Lieutenant BEALE' route across New Mexico. While on this wearisome journey the party was attacked on the Colorado river by Indians, and eight of their number slain. They lost their wagons and stock, and, passing through a gauntlet of hostile Indians, suffered the most terrible privations, and were compelled to return east a distance of seven hundred miles to Albuquerque, at which place Mr. WILLIAMSON left the party, taking his way to El Paso, Mexico, remaining there two weeks, then joining a Mexican wagon train went to San Antonio, Texas. In a short time he left this place for Seguin, Texas, where, for nine months, he again taught school. In the fall of 1859 he made a journey to Columbia, Arkansas, on horseback, where he again became teacher, and filled this position with great success, until the breaking out of the civil war; thence he proceeded to New Orleans, again north to St. Louis and to Cincinnati, in which vicinity he has since resided. From February, 1870, until 1874 he acted as deputy clerk of the probate court of Hamilton county. In October, 1873, he was elected county auditor, which position he filled with credit to himself and to his county for one term; was renominated, but deflated by a very small majority. He was married November 1, 1870, to Miss Ada JAYNE, daughter of a pioneer of Clermont county, and of Adeline LEONARD, whose ancestry were of Scotch Irish descent, and who came over in the Mayflower. Paul H. is a Democrat. His life is one of startling incidents and romantic adventure.

Baxter VANSICLE, father of Eliza, came from Maryland with his father and settled on the present site--about one mile west of Sater--in the year 1812. Mr. VANSICLE farmed in the summer and fished in the winter, the river at that time furnishing plenty of that kind of meat, and the market being as good then as now. Mr. VANSICLE died March 12, 1872.

Thomas MCHENRY came with his father to Colerain township in the year 1812, where he has resided since. The farm was purchased of a Mr. RICHARDSON and was then about the only settlement made in that vicinity. Mr. MCHENRY' is a member of the Presbyterian church.

Mrs. Eliza SCOTT resides at the mouth of DUNLAP creek, where James Henderson SCOTT, her husband, lived many years before his death. He was the proprietor of a sawmill on the Miami river, and engaged chiefly in that business. Mrs. SCOTT was born in Hamilton county, but when six years of age her parents moved to Illinois, where she remained until twenty-one years of age. She was married in 1856, and in 1876 her husband died.

Peter POOL, deceased husband of Mary Jane POOL, was born March 2, 1822--died August 10, 1864; purchased about forty acres near the school-house, district No. 7, Colerain township, where he remained many years before his death.

James POOLE resides on the Locus farm, the beautiful site near GROSBECK' Colerain township. He was born March 29, 1824, in Hamilton county, and has been iden-



~pg 261~
tifed in the interests of that portion of the State during his life: He was a soldier in the late war, and is an active member of the church. His father, William POOLE, came from Vermont in 1816, and died in Springfield, Ohio, in 1868. James POOLE was married January 3, 1857, to Emily CILLEY, daughter of Bradbury CILLEY.

John GAISER was born in Germany in 1829. In 1850 he came to Ohio and first settled in Green township. His wife, Wilhelmina GAISER, was born in 1835, and died in Cincinnati in May, 1871. The children living in that city are Katie, Eliza, and Lottie. John C., Caroline, George W., and William H. are now living in Colerain. Mr. GAISER has been in township office and was a farrier at Camp Monroe during the war.

John BARNES was born in 1812, in Kentucky, from which State he came into Ohio and made settlement. His wife, Aremento BARNES, died in Colerain township in 1874. The surviving children are Abraham and Mary Jane, now of Colerain; Hugh of Harrison; Daniel, of Indianapolis, Indiana; Alfred W:, of Mill Creek; and Catharine, of Miami. Peter POOLE, the husband of Mary Jane BARNES, died of typhoid fever in the army of Virginia in 1864.

Charles WILLEY was a native of Massachusetts, and settled in Colerain township. In 1864 he died in Indiana. Tullitha WILLEY, his wife, born in 1802, is still living in Colerain as also are his two daughters, Sarah and Mary. His son Joseph is now a resident of Indiana.

W. G. ARNOLD, of TAYLOR' a farmer, was born in 1836. He bought land here in 1872, since which time he has resided in the village.

Louis R. STRONG of TAYLOR' was born and raised near the village, and owns fifty-three acres at that place. He was born on the sixth of August, 1827.

A. B. LUSE, M.D., an experienced physician (old school) of over forty years standing, was born in Butler county in 1809; came to Mt. Pleasant in 1830, where he has practiced his profession ever since with an exception of but three years, during which time he pursued his profession in Hamilton, and was there during the cholera epidemic of 1833-4-5. In 1835 he returned to Mt. Pleasant, where he still resides.

Mrs. Agnes CILLEY is the wife of Columbus CILLEY, eldest son of Bradbury Hedges CILLEY. Columbus CILLEY was born November 4, 1839, in Colerain Station, Hamilton county, Ohio. After perfecting his studies at College Hill he enlisted as wheel-driver First regiment Ohio light artillery, December 2, 1861, and served until December, 1864. He was in the battles of Gettysburgh, Fredericksburgh, Chancellorsville, Manassas Gap, and other hotly contested engagements. Mr. CILLEY was a good soldier, was a much respected man, and lived on the old homestead after the war and until his death, at which time he was a trustee of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. CILLEY now lives in Venice.

Henry GULICK a farmer near BEVIS, is one of the most prominent fruit growers in the country, and is a prominent man in other respects. He began life empty handed, and has made his fortunes since by his own exertions. When two years of age he came with his parents from New Jersey to Hamilton county. He was captain of a company in the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Ohio volunteers, during the hundred day service; and has filled other positions of prominence. In 1856 he purchased the beautiful site near BEVIS, his present homestead. His son Edward is a natural sculptor, studied the art without the assistance of a tutor, and has produced some remarkable results, of which may be mentioned "The Bachelor's Trial," "The Goddess of War," etc.

J.P. WATERHOUSE, M.D., of BEVIS, came to Hamilton county in 1853--born in 1825. His father, Joseph, came to Indiana in 1844. He was a member of the Maine legislature and captain of the militia. Dr. WATERHOUSE graduated in the Miami Medical college in 1854. Practiced his profession in Charleston, Illinois, three years, then in Venice, Ohio, two years, and was for six years a member of the Methodist Episcopal conference. He was a private in the one hundred day service, in the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth regiment Ohio national guard.

Mary Jane DAVIS, granddaughter of Paul HUSTON, and daughter of Thomas BURNS and Jennie HUSTON, was born and raised near Carthage, Ohio. Her great-grandfather, Archibald BOURNS, came from Scotland in 1751, and settled in Pennsylvania. Her father and grandfather were sickle makers; both raised large families, who were devoted Christians of the Presbyterian faith. Mrs. DAVIS was; for the space of four years, in the missionary work at Wapanauca, Indian Territory, teaching the mission school of that place The school was composed of the Chickasaw Indians, out of which, during her stay, she wrought considerable success. Mrs. DAVIS is a devoted Christian, and took great interest in her work, for which she deserves great praise. One year previous to leaving this field of labor she was married to Leander DAVIS, March 16, 1855, and for a while lived in Illinois, where he died July, 1865, since which time Mrs. DAVIS has lived in Colerain township, on what is known as the second homestead.

John GASSER, of Barnesburgh, came from Germany in 1849, and has lived in the county for thirty years; is a blacksmith--also a farmer--of that place. He raises fruit and vegetables, and markets in Cincinnati. He has been married three times.

A. L. COMPTON, of Mount Pleasant, lives on the old homestead farm, a part of-which he owns; he also owns an extensive tract of land in Tennessee. Mr. COMPTON is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity of this place, and is also secretary of the Jersey John HYDE association, of Cincinnati, for the recovery of the estate of John HYDE, of New Jersey, believed to be in the Bank of England, and amounting, it is said, to sixty or seventy millions of dollars.

J. R. THOMPSON of Taylor' principal of the public schools of that place, perfected his studies in the One Study university, of Harrison county, Ohio, came to Taylor' in 1875, since which time-he has been engaged in teaching and dealing in real estate. He owns several lots and houses in the village

M. T. JONES, of Colerain township, lives one mile



~pg 262~
south of Pleasant run, on the Hamilton pike. He is a native of Butler county, where he lived until 1817, at which time he moved to the above-named place.
 
COLERAIN VILLAGE.

The beginnings of this settlement, and the adventures of Dunlap' Station thereat, have been narrated. John DUNLAP was one of Judge SYMMES' confidential surveyors; and, like most of his class, he easily inclined to land-speculation and the founding of towns, and, herein resembling his distinguished chief, the Miami purchaser, he did not hesitate to discount the future liberally, when it would serve his purposes. Hence he set his stakes down in the bend of the Great Miami, surveyed off a town-site, and offered lots for sale, before he had any valid title whatever to the land upon which they were located. He made some sales; cabins were erected; a fortified station built, and other improvements made. This, be it noted to the enduring honor of the now desolated site in the great bend of the Miami, was the first settlement of any size in the country back of the skirt of villages along the Ohio. But it presently appeared that DUNLAP would be unable to perfect titles to his colonists; the fear of recurring Indian attack probably united with this to discourage the little band; DUNLAP himself soon left, for a time at least; the settlers gradually abandoned the once promising village, and its site returned in due time to its primitive wildness and desolation. The purchasers lost all they had paid DUNLAP, and the value their improvements. The chief memorial of the settlement is in the beautiful name given by the founder to it, and transferred, probably perpetually, to the township itself.

The Colerain pioneer, according to the list of first officers of the township, given above, was here still in 1794. He gave the name to the post office of
 
DUNLAP.

This place, more commonly known as "Georgetown," is situated only about two miles from the original Colerain, or DUNLAP's Station, and due east of it, at the junction of the Colerain pike with two minor roads, on the west side of section eighteen, one and a half miles south of the county line. A place of this name is mistakenly set down on the map prefixed to the later editions (as that of 1793) of FILSON' Account of the State of Kentucky, as a village on the other side of the county, on the Little Miami, about eight miles above Columbia.

It was somewhere in the northeast part of this township, it will be remembered, and probably not far from the subsequent site of DUNLAP, that one of these authors, John FILSON, of the original trio of projectors of Losantiville or Cincinnati, was probably massacred by the Indians. No word or trace of him was ever obtained, after his separation from SYMMES' exploring party in the early fall of 1788, This place was laid off as Georgetown September 2, 1829.
 
BEVIS
is also on the Colerain turnpike, something less than midway of its course across the township from the southeast, on the south side of section ten, and half-way across it. A post office and a few houses are here, and a cemetery carefully laid out, with a regularly recorded plat. The village was named from Jesse BEVIS. a native of Pennsylvania and an early settler of the township, first upon the farm now owned by Martin BEVIS. He built the first hotel upon the village site some time in the 20's, and kept it for more than forty years, dying in it finally in 1868, at the age of eighty-six. It is remarked that, although many hundreds of people had been sheltered under the roof of this inn during his time, his was the first death that had ever occurred there. He held for many years the office of township treasurer, and furnished nearly all the means for building the Bevis (United Brethren) church.

The St. John's Catholic church, which supplies the wants of Catholicism here and at Dry Ridge, is ministered to by the Reverend Father J. VOIT.

Near this place, upon the farm of Martin BEVIS, is the camp-meeting ground formerly leased by a Cincinnati association of Methodists, but since abandoned in favor of the site now used near Loveland, in Clermont county. "Camp Colerain," which occupies a little space in the war history of Hamilton county during the late rebellion, was upon the former ground, where the buildings erected for camp-meeting purposes gave shelter to the soldiers. It was, however, used but a short time, and was never a regular camp of rendezvous or instruction.
 
GROESBECK

One mile north of the south line of the township, and nearly the same distance from the east line, at the northwest corner of section one, also on the Colerain pike, is the hamlet of Groesbeck, which bears the name of one of the most famous Cincinnati families.
 
PLEASANT RUN
is situated upon the little stream whose name it bears, and immediately upon the east line of the township, half a mile south of the Butler county line. One of the early. Baptist churches was located in this region, which had twenty-five members in 1836. The Reverend Wilson THOMPSON was pastor in 1816, and for some time after.

At this place the rebel General John MORGAN' force occupied the Colerain pike, moving eastward, during the famous raid of 1863. Two or three of his men were captured by citizens here, and one resident, who was mistaken in the dusk of the evening for a rebel, was killed by the Federal cavalry who were in the rear of MORGAN.
 
TAYLOR'S CREEK
is a post-office and hamlet in the southwestern part of the township on the Harrison pike, at the sharp bend westward of the stream from which it takes its name, one and a half miles due east of Miamitown and the Great Miami river.
 
BARNESBURGH
is a recent and small village in this township, on the Blue Rock turnpike, about four miles from New Baltimore. It is a straggling village along the road for a mile or more, with a stream running on the east side of it.
 
POPULATION.

By the tenth census, that of 1880, Colerain township had three thousand seven hundred and twenty-six inhabitants.


1 * One of these cabins is said to be that still standing on the river road near the Colerain end of the bridge over which runs the highway to Venice, removed thither from the old site; and bullets are said to have been cut from its logs. If so, this is probably the only remaining relic of the fortified stations of Hamilton county.

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