~pg 401~

ORGANIZATION AND DESCRIPTION

There was need of a township in that part of Hamilton county which lies west of the Great Miami, later than in any other portion of the county similarly large. For more than twelve years after the Miami Purchase and the Virginia Military district were open to settlement, and while they were being filled with a busy population, the fertile tracts beyond this river were still withheld from sale and settlement, and only "squatters" could venture upon it. At length, in 1799 and 1800, the official surveys were made under direction of Government, chiefly by VANTREES--how carelessly, too, in places, has appeared in our history of Crosby township--but still not until April 1, 1801, could a rood of the land for which some of the pioneers were watching and waiting at the eastward, and others already upon its soil, be purchased and improved. The land sales then occurring in Cincinnati, and for many years thereafter, at the Federal land office, gave the desired opportunity, and settlers flocked to the rich bottoms of the Great Miami and the Whitewater.

This was, like most of the early townships, a large one. It comprised the entire tract now occupied by Whitewater, Crosby, and Harrison townships, and covering not less than sixty square miles. Soon, however, in 1804, it was deemed advisable to subdivide the little State, and the township of Crosby was formed, to include the five northernmost tiers of sections, and so something more than half the former territory of Whitewater. This arrangement endured for half a century, when, with the dense settlement of the country, and especially the growth of Harrison village, a further subdivision was called for, and, in 1853, the township of Harrison was formed, to include, as we have seen, a tract of three sections wide by six sections long, or eighteen sections in all. Whitewater was cut into by the amount of the three southernmost sections, and compensation was given in almost the same amount by taking sections twenty-five, twenty-six, and twenty-seven, from the southern part of Crosby, and making them the northern tier of sections in Whitewater, thus keeping the territory of the latter pretty nearly intact, as regards quantity.

Whitewater lies in range one of township one, and range one of township three, with a fractional section (thirty-one) belonging to range two, township two and three other bits of sections along the Great Miami belonging to other ranges or townships. It includes nineteen full and fourteen fractional sections, or fourteen thousand three hundred and twenty square acres. It is bounded on the west by Dearborn county, Indiana, and for the breadth of two miles at the northward by Harrison township, Hamilton county, on the north by Harrison and Crosby townships; on the east and south by the Great Miami, beyond which lie the townships of Colerain and Miami. The township does not touch the Ohio river, although it approaches within a mile of it, at the lower part of GAURD'S island. The Great Miami has an exceedingly tortuous course along the front of this township, requiring about sixteen miles for its course, while the air-line distance between the point where it first touches the township and that where it makes its exit, is but ten and one-half miles. This is the extreme diagonal of the township; its greatest length is six and one-half miles, being on its western line; its greatest width the same, on a line of latitude passing a little below Miamitown, from that deviating to a point at the southwest corner. The Whitewater river comes in from Harrison township, on the western side of section five, and flows in a southerly course four and one-half miles, reaching the Great Miami near the southeast corner of section twenty. Nearly two miles from its entrance it receives the waters of the Dry fork of Whitewater, which enters at the southeast corner of Harrison township, flows southward in a crooked course two miles, then westward two miles to the Whitewater. Another, but smaller tributary, heading in the border of Indiana, intersects sections eighteen, seventeen and twenty, and reaches the Whitewater near the railroad crossing. Two or three very pretty tributaries also enter the Great Miami from the side of this township. From time to time this river has changed its bed in the flow of the ages, and old channels are plainly to be seen, especially in the lower part of its course, as that south of Elizabethtown. The streams are generally well bridged at the desirable points; and the Whitewater, at a point on the road from Elizabethtown northeastward, has the finest suspension bridge, exclusively belonging to this county. A notable pioneer ferry was kept across the Great Miami, a short distance from Cleves. A mile from the mouth of this stream, at the extreme southwestern corner of the township, about half a section of land is isolated by an irregular arc of water connecting at each end with the river, and probably one of its oldest channels--which takes the name GUARD'S island, from the old GUARD family of pioneers. From this northeast and north for several miles the island is low, and part of it much subject to inundations. It is very fertile, however, some of it yielding, after more than two generations of culture, its hundred bushels of corn per acre with tolerable regularity. In the north of the township some of the characteristic hills of Hamilton county appear.

The township is intersected for about four miles, from northeast to southwest, by the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago railroad, which is joined at Valley Junction, midway between the Great Miami and the Whitewater, by the Harrison branch, or the Whitewater Valley railroad, which is run by the former corporation. The Harrison branch has about three and one-half miles in the township, in a general north and south line, following pretty closely the abandoned route of the Whitewater canal. The Cincinnati and Harrison turnpike crookedly crosses the township in its northern part, leaving it on the east at Miamitown; and the people seem otherwise well supplied with wagon roads.
 

WHITEWATER JUSTICES.

1804, Ebenezer HUGHES; 1819, Patrick SMITH; 1825, Luther HOPKINS, Richard ARNOLD, William CLARK; 1829, William CLARK, Henry WILE , Hugh MC'DOUGAL, Henry INGERSOLL; 1865, A. E. WEST, Daniel HONDER, S. W. OSBORN, Uriah STEVENS; 1866-67, HENDER and OSBORN; 1868-69, HENDER and STEVENS; 1870, HENDER, James MARTIN; 1871, HENDER, E. G. BONHAM; 1872-73, HENDER and OSBORN; 1874-79, OSBORN and Charles BAXTER; 1880, OSBORN and Charles S. FULTON.
 

ANCIENT WORKS1

Two miles southwest of Miamitown, in this township, on the Great Miami, is a mound of nearly fifteen feet in height. It occupies a commanding position as a lookout post up and down the valley, and was undoubtedly

On the Whitewater river, near and east of the railway track, about three miles from the junction, and near the north line of the township, is a very regular and symmetrical mound, which still retains a height of twenty to twenty-five feet. It also commands a wide view, and was probably a mound of observation.

From 1790 to 1795 the block-house and garrison at North Bend afforded protection to the adventurous pioneers seeking homes in the Northwestern territory. The land west of the Great Miami river had been ceded to the United States, but not yet conveyed. The Shawnees and Wyandots, reluctant to leave their favorite hunting grounds and the graves of their sires, still remained the occasion of danger and alarm to the squatter population at North Bend. The Indians gradually disappeared, and in 1795 the Nimrods of North Bend, attracted by the abundance of game in the unbroken forests beyond the Miami and Whitewater rivers, built their cabins, and with their families squatted on Government land. Jeremiah CHANDLER from South Carolina, a soldier of the Revolutionary army, a bold, daring man, tired of the pent-up Utica at the North Bend settlement, built the first cabin in what is now Whitewater township. Its location was near the west end of the suspension bridge. A spring of pure water and the "salt lick" a mile away, where his sure rifle could almost any day bring down a fat buck, determined the site of this first civilized habitation in the bounds of the township. During the spring of 1795 the following families squatted south of the cabin Jeremiah CHANDLER had built: John BURHAM, James DUGAN, John WHITE, and Joseph BROWN. In 1796 Alexander GUARD, Thomas MILLER, Joseph ROLF, Joseph HAYES, James BUCKELOW, and John MC"NUTT; in 1798 Isaac MILLS, Hugh DUNN, John PHILLIPS, and Daniel PERRINE. From 1796 to 1800 the following squatters built cabins on the west side of the Miami; The first was built by Stephen GOBLE on land afterwards bought by Ezekiel HUGHES; Hugh KARR, from Ireland, built near the Cleves bridge; Joseph GREY, Joseph RAINGWEATHER, John and Andrew HILL, I. INGERSOL, E. EADES, Benjamin WELCH, and Hugh BUCKNELL. When the land was sold many of these families left, but, after the lapse of eighty-five years, descendants of John BENHAM, A. GUARD, Thomas MILLER, Joseph HAYES, Hugh KARR, Andrew HILL and I. INGERSOL, who purchased land, are to be found, honored and useful citizens of the township
 

SQUATTER LIFE

was marked with great sociability, independence, with many privations and hardships. The furniture of their log-cabin homes was made with an axe, a drawing-knife, and an auger. Nails and glass were unknown in the construction of their humble but happy homes. Their doors were hung with wooden hinges, and oiled paper answered for glass. A mush-pot and a skillet served for kitchen utensils; the knives, forks, and spoons brought from the old settlements, with cups made by hand or gathered from the gourd vines adorned their tables.

Their subsistence was secured from the rivers and the forests, and the truck patch cultivated with a hoe, producing an abundant crop of corn, potatoes, beans and pumpkins. In the spring of the year they luxuriated on wild onions fried in opossum fat and omelets made of wild turkey eggs, accompanied by delicious beverage known as spice-wood tea. The sugar-tree supplied them with sap; but for the want of kettles they manufactured but limited supplies of sugar and molasses. When ket: ties were obtained (brought to the North Bend on fiat-boats from Redstone, Old Fort, and bartered for buckskins, venison and peltries), the sugar and molasses made in the spring supplies them through the year, and the surplus was exchanged for goods at the traders' stores at the Bend, or Fort Washington. In these squatter times when kettles had been obtained, salt, a very scarce and necessary article, was manufactured at the "lick" a mile west of where Elizabethtown now stands. The well was sixteen feet deep and the supply of salt water enabled the boilers to produce a bushel a day, which could be sold at four dollars, hot from the kettles.
 

CLOTHING.

When the stock brought from the old settlements was worn out, necessity compelled the hardy pioneers to depend on their wit, invention and skill in producing the clothing needed. The skins and furs of wild animals, especially the deer and raccoon, supplied the men with caps, pants, and fringed hunting shirts, and both sexes with moccasins. Cotton seed obtained from Kentucky and planted in their truck patches, afforded a valuable fiber manufactured by the use of hand-cards, spinning-wheels and the loom, furnished, with the help of flax, the material to replenish the wardrobe of these noble wives and daughters. In these early times the wild nettle, which grew luxuriantly and abundantly in the river bottoms, whose fiber was almost equal to hemp, was utilized and manufactured into a coarse linen suitable for use. The nettle, five to seven feet high, falling to the earth, would rot the stock during the winter and in the spring would be gathered and prepared for the spinning-wheel and the loom. Mrs. GUARD the wife of Alexander GUARD, during one season manufactured two hundred yards of this nettle cloth, which answered a very good purpose in meeting the wants of her large family. At the pioneer meeting, in HUNT'S Grove in 1869, Dr. Walter CLARK exhibited a well preserved specimen of this nettle cloth.
 

THE FIRST BIRTH

of white parentage was Rebecca, the daughter of Jeremiah CHANDLER and Jane his wife, and the second was Mary, the daughter of John BARHAM. These children were born in the autumn of 1795. The former with her parents removed to Illinois, the latter spent a long and useful life where she was born.
 

DEATH.

During the year 1796 death invaded the settlement and a malignant disease removed in a few days three

This squatter population, appreciating the importance of educating their children before the school laws of Ohio were enacted, or Congress had granted lands for the purpose, built a log cabin school-house and employed a teacher. The school-house, built in a day, with its greased paper window, puncheon floor, clapboard roof, and door hung with wooden hinges, and furnished with split log benches, was located near the present village of Elizabethtown. Billy JONES, at four dollars a month in trade, and boarding around, was the first teacher. The text books were DILSWORTH's spelling book and the New Testament. Billy was not a great scholar, nor an experienced teacher, but the pupils liked him, and for three months, in 1800, his labors were successful, and at the close most of them could read the Testament and spell nearly all the words in the spelling book. These were the beginning of days in educational work, and the men that inaugurated the common school system in pioneer times deserve the gratitude of the present generation.
 

THE FIRST PREACHERS.

To the honor of Christianity, and in accord with its spirit and teaching, its faithful ministers found their way early into the new settlements. In 1798 Rev. Mr. DEWEES a Baptist preacher from Kentucky, visited these smaller homes in the settlement and preached the Word of the Lord. The first service was held in the cabin of John BENHAM. The ten families constituting the settlement west of the Whitewater, parents and children, assembled, and with gladness of heart listened to the first gospel sermon delivered in the township. Mr. DEWEES continued to visit the neighborhood for many years and his labors were blessed. He also preached in the settlements up the Whitewater as far as Brookville, and organized a Baptist church at Cedar Grove, where he died in a good old age and full of years, and his grave is among the people for whose spiritual welfare he labored long and faithfully.

In 1799 Rev. M. LOWER, an itinerent preacher, found his way to these squatter homes, and for several years visited the locality - a welcome servant of God, laboring earnestly for the moral and religious interests of the people. The first regularly appointed circuit rider who preached, and in 1806 organized a class, was Rev. W. OGLESBY. The house of Alexander GUARD was the preaching place, and there the first religious society in the township was formed.

In 1804 Rev. John W. BROWNE of Cincinnati (the founder and first editor of the Cincinnati Gazette), commenced to preach in the house of Ezekiel HUGHES and continued his acceptable labors until in 1812 he lost his life while attempting to cross the Miami river. Two of his granddaughters, Mrs. CURTIS and Mrs. Dr. J. H. HUNT, are now honored residents of the township. These heralds of the cross by their zeal and abundant labors did a blessed work in laying the foundations of good so-society and religious life in the midst of the people when such services were so much needed, and so inadequately compensated.

The religious element prevailed in the character of the early pioneers. The Sabbath was well and religiously observed. The Bible and the hymn-book were found in their cabins, and when no preacher led their services they assembled together generally in the cabin of John BENHAM, and held meetings for prayer, praise, and Christian conference. Thus they lived in peace and harmony. They needed no law to secure good order. Under the

The Government land being surveyed, in 1802 it was offered for sale at public auction held in Cincinnati. The law required it to be sold in sections of six hundred and forty acres at not less than two dollars per acre. The sale was continued for several days, at its close the unsold land could be entered at one dollar and a quarter an acre. The first land sold, sections fifteen and sixteen, was bought by Ezekiel HUGHES for two dollars and some cents per acre. At the sale competition for these choice sections ran high. Mr. HUGHES, an immigrant from Wales, who had carefully noted the location and fertility of the sections, and a Pennsylvania German were the competitors, and eventually the Welshmen became the purchaser. All the rest of the land in the township was entered at Government price, and in a few years all Congress land was taken up either by speculators or by actual settlers. Among these were the EWINGS, MILLS, PIATT, HUNT, OURY, PERINE, CILLEY, and ANDREWS families. Mr. PIATT built the first frame house in the township, a part of which is now the parsonage of the Presbyterian church at Elizabethtown. Thomas MILLER built the first stone house; Peter PERINE built the first mill on the Whitewater, for which he received a bonus of a quarter section of land.
 

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Bailey GUARD, son of Alexander GUARD was born in New Jersey. His child life was spent amid the scattered cabins surrounding the block-house at North Bend, where painted Indians, uniformed soldiers, and adventurous hunters filled his young mind with horror, amazement, and delight. When fifteen years of age, having spent most of these years cultivating the truck patches, fishing and hunting, he went to mill with two bushels of corn. His conveyance was a canoe paddled with his own arms down the Miami to the Ohio, then up the great river to the mouth of Mill creek to where Cuminsville now stands, where a corn cracking mill was found. The trip, and waiting for his grist required two days of toil and exposure. His school days were few and irregular, in which he mastered DILWORTH's spelling book and learned to read his Bible. He was a man of good natural understanding and a true Christian. Under the preaching of Rev. W. ELLINGER, an eminent Methodist pioneer herald of the cross, in 1809 Bailey GUARD professed religion and made a public profession by uniting with the Methodist Episcopal church at Elizabethtown. Mr. GUARD died on the 5th of June, 1869, at the advanced age of eighty-two years, and left a good name as a precious inheritance to his numerous descendants.

Ezekiel HUGHES was born August 22, 1767, on a farm called Cromcarnedd Uchaf, Llanbryormair, North Wales, on which his ancestors had lived for over two hundred years. He emigrated to this country in 1795. He sailed from Bristol on the ship "Maria," and landed in Philadelphia after a perilous and tedious voyage of thirteen weeks. His cousin, Edward BEBB the father of the late William BEBB, Ex-governor of Ohio, accompanied him. They left Philadelphia in 1796, traveled on foot to Red Stone, Old Fort, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela river, thence by flat-boat to Fort Washington, where Cincinnati now stands. In a journal which he kept, several interesting facts are preserved: "After three days and nights floating on the Ohio, we reached Marietta at the mouth of the Muskingum river, and called on General Rufus RUTNAM, the present register, seemingly a worthy character. He gave us plats of the land. We spent three days exploring the purchase, but were not satisfied, so we left on a flat-boat bound for Limestone (Maysville Kentucky). The passage down the Ohio is safe - plenty of hills and narrow bottoms. The heavier the cargo, the faster the boat will float. The Ohio receives many tributaries but does not increase much in width. We reached Cincinnati and applied to Judge SYMMES, who is the register and chief proprietor of this purchase, for plats. We spent three weeks traversing the five lower ranges and saw most of the land unsold. I bought one hundred acres, northeast corner of section thirty-four, second fractional township, and first range for two dollars and a quarter an acre. [this was in Colerain township, nearly opposite New Baltimore]. My object in buying this, was to wait till the land west of the Miami would be surveyed and ready for sale, and that I might examine the land and make a good selection." He writes in 1797 "that boats go by here almost every day with provisions for the army at Greenville. The boatmen say that the Miami is navigable one hundred miles. Their crafts are long sharp keel-boats with a board fixed on each side to walk on, having long poles with iron sockets. They stand at the bow, fix these poles in the bottom of the river and push. By the middle of May, 1798, our corn and potatoes are planted in the clearing, and now we are clearing for a turnip patch. When we first came here, six months ago, we had two neighbors within three miles on one side and six miles on the other. Now a person from New Jersey has built a cabin within a hundred yards of ours. He is a very devout and religious man, and a minister of the gospel has already visited us and held a meeting" [the first public religious service ever held in Colerain township]. Mr. HUGHES, and his cousin, Edward BEBB, lived on this tract of land for four years, when Mr. BEBB bought land in Dry fork, Butler county, where his son William, afterward governor of Ohio, was, in 1802, the first white child born in Morgan township, and Mr. HUGHES commenced life on his well chosen and valuable tract of land, on which a squatter, Stephen GOBLE, had made some improvement, for which Mr. HUGHES paid the adventurous pioneer a fair compensation.

In 1803 Mr. HUGHES returned to Wales and married Miss Margaret BEBB, and in 1804, with his chosen companion, a lady of great worth, every way a helpmate for an adventurous pioneer in the wilds of the new commonwealth of Ohio, returned to make a home on the val-

There lie before me two commissions appointing Mr. HUGHES to discharge important public duties, signed by Governor Edward TIFFIN, the first governor of the State of Ohio - one appointing him a justice of the peace (the first in the township), signed October 7, 1804; the other appoints him as one of the three commissioners to lay out a road from Hamilton, in the county of Butler, to the mouth of the Great Miami river, and this was signed January 28, 1806. In 1808 Mr. HUGHES was appointed, with two others, to select a school section in place of the sixteenth section in this township, which was sold before Congress passed the law appropriating the sixteenth section in each township for school purposes. This commission selected an unoccupied section in the adjoining township of Crosby. Tile choice indicated good judgment and an honest purpose to benefit the generations to follow. Mr. HUGHES, with his foresight and desire to, under the Government, grant a great advantage to the cause of popular education in the township, opposed for many years the sale of it, until in 1846 it was sold for twenty-five thousand dollars and the proceeds invested according to law in Ohio six per cent. bonds, so that now the schools of the township realize an income of fifteen hundred dollars per annum.

In early times Mr. HUGHES leased several portions of his land, and thus promoted the settlement of the township. He was a generous and upright proprietor, and always treated his tenants with kindness and liberality. Descended from a godly ancestry, in mature life he became an avowed disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, and united with the Congregational church at PADDY'S Run, Butler county, in 1803, and with his wife in 1830, when the Presbyterian church of Elizabethtown and Berea was organized, he united with this society and remained a faithful member until his death, in 1849, in the eighty-second year of his age.

Edward HUNT with his wife, Charlotte, and eight children-Jesse, Thomas, Jacob, Edward, Mary, Susan, Charlotte, and Keturah left Sussex county, New Jersey, in the spring of 1806, traveled in his own wagons to Wheeling, Virginia, and thence on two flat-boats to Cincinnati. During the summer of 1806 he selected and bought eight hundred acres of choice land around Elizabethtown, and settled on it at once. Such a family of religious, enterprising, and industrious people was a great acquisition to the neighborhood, and after the lapse of so many years their influence is felt for good, and their memory cherished by the community unto this day.

Jesse HUNT lived in Lawrenceburgh, Indiana, and brought up a family of sons and daughters - useful and respected citizens. The survivors have left the neighborhood, and the aged father and mother are buffed near Lawrenceburgh. Thomas and Jacob HUNT always lived at the old homestead, and accumulated a large estate. They were members and liberal supporters of the Presbyterian church. Thomas HUNT served the church faithfully in the office of a ruling elder for over twenty years. The Presbyterian meeting-house and parsonage in Elizabethtown are monuments of their liberality and Christian lives. Edward HUNT, still surviving at the age of eighty-one years, was educated for mercantile business in the city of Cincinnati, and has been in active business, farming and merchandising, until laid aside by the infirmities of age. He has been actively engaged in the Sabbath-school work, and in laboring for the advancement of religion in the township for over fifty years. In 1830 he married Miss Ann HUGHES, eldest daughter of Ezekiel HUGHES, esq., and their children - Thomas, Jacob, and Mary, who married Joseph CILLEY, esq. - are living in the neighborhood, highly esteemed and useful citizens. George W. HAIRE, esq., of Elizabethtown, is a son of Susan HUNT. He has been in public life, as a magistrate, a county surveyor and engineer, and for many years superintendent of Sunday-schools, and an elder in the Presbyterian church. Another son, Rev. I. P. HAIRE, graduated at Miami university, Oxford, Ohio, and Union Theological seminary, New York, and is now settled in Janesville, Wisconsin. L. H. BONHAM, esq., son of Charlotte HUNT and John BONHAM, also graduated at the Miami university, was principal of a well known and useful female seminary at St. Louis, Missouri, for many years, and now devotes his time to cultivating a model farm near Oxford, raising fine stock, and with his facile pen is giving the agricultural world the benefit of his experience in cultivating the soil.

Another son, Rev. John BONHAM, graduated at Miami university and Lane Theological seminary, is now the faithful pastor of a Baptist church in Kansas. William REES, an estimable citizen Of Elizabethtown, and an elder in the Presbyterian church, is a son of May, the eldest daughter of Edward and Charlotte HUNT. [Some further notice of Mr. HAIRE is given below.]

Of the squatters who became purchasers of land and remained permanent settlers, John BONHAM and his family deserve special remembrance. He was a native of Somerset county, New Jersey, and in early life left in 1792 to seek his fortune in the new country towards the setting sun. He spent two years at Red Stone, Old Fort, Pennsylvania, and thence came down the Monongahela and the Ohio in a fiat-boat to North Bend, in 1794. He and his family were religious and members of the Baptist church. In all the years of their pioneer life they were careful to maintain their Christian life and family religion, as the lives of their children fully testified. Their sons --John and Aaron were men of real worth and standing in society, and, after serving God and their generation, have passed away. A daughter, Mrs. Rhoda NOBLE, now in her eighty-seventh year, is living, closing a long, happy and useful life at the residence of Amelius FRANCIS, esq., her son-in-law, at Harrison, Ohio.

Alexander GUARD of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, with his family, came to North Bend in 1793, and in 1796 to

The families of Hugh KARR, Andrew and I. HILL, I. INGERSOLL, I. HAYES and T. MILLER became permanent settlers, purchasing land and improving it. The other squatter families removed west. Charmed with the frontier log-cabin life, they sought and secured its continuance by a fresh start where game was plenty and their cherished mode of life could be enjoyed.²

Hugh KARR was born in County Donegal, North Ireland, of Scotch-Irish parentage, in the year 1772. In 1784 he, in company with his father, Matthew Dennis KARR, and his brothers Charles and Matthew, emigrated to the United States, landing at Philadelphia. Here he remained until the death of his father, who was fatally injured while engaged as a stone-mason, assisting in the erection of a church building in that city. After that he labored at North Hampton, Pennsylvania, where he remained until manhood, meanwhile having been married to Mary M. SHULL, daughter of Peter SHULL, we believe, a well-to-do German farmer of the vicinity. Meanwhile, having heard of the wonderful fertility of the "Miami country," he, with his brother-in-law, the SHULLS, SHOUPES and others of the vicinity, set out with their families for Wheeling, where they embarked on "Broadhorns" and Pirouges, floating down the Ohio to North Bend, where they arrived late in the autumn of 1793. During the next winter he, together with others, occupied a portion of the old block-house at that place, and while residing there his oldest surviving son, John KARR, was born in January 1794. During the winter and early spring he selected a tract near the "Goose Pond "neighborhood, in Miami township, where he built a cabin and made a clearing, with the intention of purchasing the same. Here he remained with his family for two years. Meanwhile rumors were rife as to the unstable condition of the title to the lands embraced in the celebrated SYMMES Purchase, and becoming discouraged thereat, he decided to remove further westward, and accordingly crossed the Great Miami into the then vast, unpeopled domain west of that river, and again became a squatter upon a tract of land lying near the west end of the present Cleves bridge, in Whitewater township, where he erected a cabin and made a considerable clearing, meanwhile deeming himself secure in his rights as a "Squatter Sovereign." Here he remained until he was ousted by a superior legal title held by a speculator, who had quietly obtained a patent for the lands so occupied from the United States. Soon after this he secured letters patent from the United States Government for the southwestern quarter of section nine, town one, range one, east, in this township, which he entered and occupied as his homestead till the time of his death, August, 1839. His widow, Mary M. KARR, survived him until the year 1860, when she died, aged nearly eighty-eight years. The family of Hugh KARR consisted of five daughters and four sons, who survived him. The former, after marriage, immigrated to different points in the west, one daughter only having deceased in the neighborhood of the old home. All of the daughters were mothers of large families. Of the sons, John and Charles remained in the vicinity of the old homestead, John dying in 1857, aged sixty three, without children, and Charles in 1853, aged forty-six years. James removed to McLean county, Illinois, where he died a few years ago. Joseph at the present writing is residing near Fieldon, Jersey county, Illinois. The three last named brothers were and are fathers of families.

Major Charles KARR, the second surviving son of Hugh and Mary M. KARR, as above stated, was born at the old homestead in Whitewater township in 1806. He inter-married with Jerusha HARVEY, a native of New Hampshire, second daughter of Joseph HARVEY, esq., later one of the pioneers of the Whitewater valley. Major KARR died in April, 1853, aged forty-six years. His widow still survives him. His family, surviving him, consisted of seven sons and one daughter, viz: John, Joseph H., Matthew H., Charles W., William W. N., Caroline, Lewis C., and Thomas H. KARR. Of the sons, John and Charles W. are members of the Cincinnati bar, Joseph H. and William W. are farmers residing in Nodaway county, Missouri, and Charles C. and Thomas H. in Whitewater township. Three of the sons served in various capacities during the war of 1861-5 - John as State military agent, under Governors BROUG, ANDERSON and COX. Charles W., as a captain in the Second regiment, Kentucky volunteer cavalry, and afterwards as Adjutant-general of Ohio, under Governors HAYES and Young in 1876-7; Matthew H., as a sergeant in company B, Fourteenth regiment, Illinois volunteer infantry, and died from injuries and exposure upon the battlefield of Shiloh, Tennessee, April, 1862.

Jacob HERRIDER was born in Pennsylvania, near Somerset, January, 1790, and came to this county in 1795 or 1796. He first stopped at White Oaks for one year; then came to Crosby township and remained seven years; then to Cincinnati for three years, draying; then to Miamitown and bought the first lot sold there after the town was laid out. First he worked at the cooper's trade. He at last bought a mill--flouring-mill built by Major HENRIE and continued in this business ten or fifteen years, at the end of which time he began in agriculture and continues yet, except not in the vigor of full manhood. His wife first wife Nancy VANTRESE, bore him two sons and one daughter, the latter being dead. His second wife was Susan HENRIE, whom he married November 24, 1824, who bore him five children three sons and two daughters. Mrs. HERRIDER's father and mother came from Pennsylvania when she was a child and were called Pennsylvania Dutch. She was born December 24, 1802. Her grandfather Michael HENRIE - the name has been mutilated was a brother of Patrick HENRY, of Revolutionary fame. Her grandmother was sister of John H. PIATT, one of the early and noted citizens of Cincinnati. Mr. and Mrs. HERRIDER are active consistent members of

Samuel McHENRY, a native of Pennsylvania, emigrated from that State in 1806 and settled at Elizabethtown, on the farm now owned by Mr. Ezra GUARD. The same year he was appointed by Governor Tiffin as captain in the Ohio Militia, and, May 23, 1811, was commissioned Major of the First battalion, Third regiment, First brigade, First division, in the militia. His wife was Margaret PIATT, also a native of Pennsylvania, who died at Elizabethtown June 22, 1845. He died in Indiana in 1858, aged eighty-one.

Ephraim COLLINS, born in the Keystone State in 1766, settled in this township in 1810.

Richard SIMMONDS, born March 14, 1800, near Baltimore, Maryland, came to Ohio in 1806, and settled on LEE'S creek, this county, one mile south of the Butler county line. In July, 1825, he married Susanna POTTENGER, daughter of Samuel POTTENGER, founder of New Baltimore, of Crosby township. By this marriage two sons and two daughters were born, one son - James - the only child living. Richard SIMMONDS has two grand-and two great-grandchildren; had four brothers and two sisters. His life has been an active one, engaging in farming, dealing in stock and barter generally, during the twenty-five years which was spent on LEE's creek. During seven years which followed at SATER in Crosby township, and the forty seven years at Miamitown, great industry has rewarded him with handsome gains. The hardy forest lies fallen under his stroke; the Indian, the wolf, the deer, the bear, these, too, have gone, and now, in declining age, a life freighted with philanthropy and good actions for imitation he retires to domestic happiness, waiting for a reaper which will soon gather an abundant harvest.

Silas Van HAYES, was born May 31, 1833, and is the son of Enoch and Sarah E. His mother was Stephens, married in April, 1813. His father came from Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1806, and died October 23, 1857, in Dearborn county, Indiana, being born December 27, 1791. Silas Van is one of a family of five sons and three daughters, the youngest, Silas, the only one living. His father is of Scotch-Irish descent. His mother's father was of Irish origin, and his grandmother came from New Jersey. In education he devoted himself for two terms in earnest effort at Farmer's college, and would have continued longer, but his father's health failing, he was called home and never permitted to return. In August, 1857, he married Rachel P. MILLER, daughter of Enoch H., of Dearborn county, Indiana, who bore him five sons and five daughters - three sons and two daughters being dead. Politically, S. V. HAYES is one of note. For five years he has been a member of the board of control and in minor offices has been prominent. Mr. HAYES is one of the coming men of this county.

Moses B. WAMSLEY was born in Kentucky, in 1814, and two years afterwards was brought to Whitewater township by his parents. He became, in due time, a farmer and grain buyer, and has been, for twenty-five years, one of the most extensive dealers in this part of the country. In 1839 he was married to Miss Eunice HAYES, of the well known pioneer family. They have had nine children - five sons and four daughters, viz.: Anderson B., Anna H., Albin C., James Finley, Abitha B., Mary Frances, Job H., Arabella, and Chalon G. Those deceased are Anna and Albin. Mr. WAMSLEY resides in Miami township, and is one of the prominent and substantial citizens of the county. The only representative residing in Whitewater township, is Anderson, the eldest son, who was born in the year 1840. He resided with his parents until the time of his marriage, in 1867, to Miss Mary H. LEWIS. To Mr. and Mrs. WAMSLEY were born seven children - four sons and three daughters: Joseph L., Benjamin B., Anna, Clara, Edward H., Mary Alice, and George L. Mary Alice died in infancy. Mr. WAMSLEY is one of the enterprising young farmers of Whitewater. He was a soldier in the war of 1861-5 for more than three years. He enlisted as a private, but received three commissions as first and second lieutenant and captain. He was in numerous severe engagements, but fortune favored him and he escaped unhurt, and returned to his home crowned with all the honor to which our gallant sons were justly entitled. He has been assessor of his township various times, thus bespeaking for him the full confidence of the people. Mrs. WAMSLEY is an earnest member of the Presbyterian church and a staunch supporter of the faith. Mr. WAMSLEY is not associated with any church organization, but ever favors the right and is a firm advocate of law and order.

Henry LEMMONS was born May 4, 1838, on the Great Miami river, one mile south of Miamitown, on the old homestead, and married Sallie J. McHENRY, September 28, 1865, daughter of Esquire Joseph McHENRY, of Colerain township By this union one child - a son, Harry - was born March 30, 1867. Mrs. LEMMONS was born August 19, 1840. David LEMMONS, his father, came from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1816; settled in Colerain township for ten years, and then came to Whitewater township, where he resided until his death, in 1871. His mother, Margaret SHRILL, as well as his father, was of German descent, coming from the nobility of Europe Henry LEMMONS has two brothers and two sisters, all of whom are living. Mrs. LEMMONS is one of a family of six sons and seven daughters, five of the family, three sons and two daughters, with her parents, being dead. Her father descended from clear Scotch blood, while her mother, Nancy, daughter of Samuel POTTENGER, founder of New Baltimore, comes from excellent parentage. They are among the first families of the county.

Nicholas REEDER was born in Germany in the year 1819. He came to Hamilton county in the year 1849. In 1855 he married Miss Elizabeth SOWERS. They have no children. The occupation of Mr. REEDER has always been that of a farmer. In 1859 he made the purchase of a beautiful tract of land, which he now owns and occupies. He is one of the substantial farmers of the township.

Aaron SIMONSON, third son of Barnabas and Elizabeth SIMONSON, and subject of the following sketch, was born in Hamilton county, November 17, 1840. He resided with his parents until the time of his marriage, in 1867, to Miss Anna WAIT. To Mr. and Mrs. SIMONSON were born four children, two sons and two daughters. Their names are as follows: Carrie B., Ada, Albert, and one died in infancy unnamed. Mrs. SIMONSON is an earnest member of the Christian church, and a staunch supporter of the faith.

Jacob HAIRE came from Virginia to Whitewater in 1817, became a farmer there, and died in New Orleans in 1852. His wife's maiden name was Susan HUNT. She was born in New Jersey, December 16, 1793, and died April 5, 1871. They had children as follows: Edward, who resides at Chicago; and John P., who lives in Janesville, Wisconsin; Mary and Susan reside with George HAIRE, adjoining the old homestead; Charlotte E. DELEMATER, living at Delhi, Hamilton county; Kirtle, Humboldt, Kansas. Jacob HAIRE and wife are both dead and lie buried side by side in the little burial ground at Elizabethtown. George, the only mate representative residing in the county, was born in Elizabethtown in the year 1821. His vocation through life has been that of surveying and farming. He was married in the year 1850 to Miss Catharine PORTER, daughter of quite an early and distinguished family. Her father being in early life a school-teacher, afterwards a justice of the peace for many years, and later, in the fall of 1835, he represented his people in the legislature. He died January 30, 1857. His widow is still living and resides with her son-in-law. To Mr. and Mrs. HAIRE were born three children, two sons and one daughter - Ada CALLOWAY, resides at Madison, Indiana; Jacob H., M. D., and Charles L., teacher, both reside at home. Mr. HAIRE and wife are earnest members of the Presbyterian church and are staunch supporters of the faith they profess.

Otho HAYES was born May 18, 1810, in Dearborn county, Indiana, and married March 15, 1835, Eliza MILLER, of same county, born May 3, 1818. His father was of English extraction and his mother of Scotch descent. Joseph HAYES, his great-grandfather on his father's side, was one of Washington's captains. Walter CRAIG, his great-grandfather on the side of his father's grandmother, was a colonel of Washington's. Solomon HAYES, his grandfather on his father's side, came to North Bend in 1795, from Chester county, Pennsylvania. Thomas BILLINGSLEY, his grandfather on his mother's side, came to Reading, Ohio, about the close of the eighteenth century. Otho HAYES is the father of sixteen sons and two daughters, eleven of whom are living nine sons and two daughters. In business he farmed, and in commerce made twenty-five round trips to New Orleans. Thomas MILLET, Mrs. HAYES' grandfather, was from Pennsylvania, a German. Enoch HAYES, her grandfather on her mother's side, was of English descent, son of Captain Joseph HAYES. Captain HAYES' mother was Joanna PASSMORE. This family is interwoven closely and handed down to generations a handsome legacy.

John J. DUMONT was born in Vevay, Switzerland county, Indiana, March 26, 1816. On his father's side he is of Hollandish origin. Richard, his father, came from New Jersey to Muskingum, Ohio, and was a volunteer under General HARRISON. Jeremiah PHILLIPS, his mother's father, was a Virginian by birth; emigrated to Kentucky, and settled at the mouth of the Kentucky river; was a spy of great note in the Revolution. PHILLIPS was the first ferryman and tavern-keeper at the mouth of the Kentucky river. He took an active part in Indian warfare and strategy. Matilda PHILLIPS, his mother, was a woman of powerful energy; she aided much in pioneer life. Richard, his father, married October 7, 1814, at Vevay, Indiana. Five daughters and three sons were born, seven of whom are living, J. J. DUMONT being the oldest. August 27, 1837, John J. married Eliza L. SIEBENTHALL, who bore him eight children - five living. April 26, 1871, he married his second wife, a Mrs. HAYES, who was Major C. S. HAYES' widow, but whose maiden name was Josephine A. LUCAS. By this marriage one child has been born. General T. J. LUCAS her brother, enlisted and served through the Mexican war, and at the opening of tile Rebellion enlisted again, was chosen captain, and returned home a brigadier general. In politics he now takes an active part and affiliates himself with the Republican party. In the matter of occupation Mr. DUMONT is an engine builder, and of late years has engaged himself principally in farming. He built boilers at two different periods at Indianapolis for fifteen years, and at Cincinnati belonged to the firm of C. T. DUMONT & Co. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Warren WEST came from Beaver, Pennsylvania, where he was born March 27, 1814, to Lawrenceburgh, Maryland, along with five brothers and two sisters - of whom three brothers and both sisters are dead in 1826. His parents were from Massachusetts, and came from Pennsylvania early in life. Both descended from splendid ancestry. His father died in 1832 with the cholera; his mother died in the year 1863 or 1864. His father was ZEDDRICK, and his mother's maiden name Roxana PARSONS. Two brothers - Stephen and Warren furnish the most extraordinary co-partnership in the annals of Hamilton county. For forty years they carried on business without a written agreement or settlement. Everything was held in common. They began poor boys and ended with almost fifteen hundred acres of splendid bottom land. The division was made at a cost of twenty-five dollars, and only a surveyor assisted. Stephen was married twice, and died August 28, 1879. Warren was married three times; first to Brilla Ann ROSS; second to Mary Jane HAYES, daughter of Walter HAYES; third to Nancy, a widow, daughter of Joseph HAYES. From the three marriages have been born three sons and four daughters and ten grandchildren. Nancy WEST was born May 31, 1819, and married January 4, 1855, to Mr. West. Mrs. WEST has been the mother of two sons and three daughters. Her father was of English and her mother of Scotch descent. As a business man Mr. WEST made forty-five trips to New Orleans; has sold immense quantities of grain, and dealt a great deal in stock. As members of the Methodist church both are respected.

Uriah RICE, who was born in Granville, Vermont, April 19, 1808, and came to Covington, Kentucky, in 1834, is one of the educated characters who belong to this county, who have died and who have gathered a a choice reward. For three years he taught school in Covington, then crossed over to Cincinnati and taught for thirty-seven seasons, acting as principal of the Eighth district school for fifteen years. He then came to Whitewater township, located on a farm three miles and a half north of Cleves, and remained there until his death on April 17, 1878. January 6, 1840, he married Goodale HUNTINGTON, of Rochester, Vermont, who bore him one daughter, who is living and married. His mother was Persis GOODENO, of Vermont; his father, Joel, was one of Vermont's early pioneers. In July, 1851, he married Elizabeth M., daughter of Benjamin CILLEY of Whitewater. By this marriage two sons were born, one being dead, Benjamin C., the other living. By preference Uriah chose an education, while his brothers took their wealth in money and real estate. In Mr. RICE there were qualities which speak volumes for a ripe and generous education. Unselfishly devoted to the Methodist Episcopal church, caring nothing for creed, he died respected and esteemed by all about him.

John REESE, son of Robert, was born July 19, 1854. His lather came from Wales in 1844; by trade a carpenter, but during the latter part of his life farmed on the Big Miami, below Miamitown one mile, and died October 5, 1872. His mother, Jane, daughter of John L. BREESE, came from Montgomeryshire, Wales, in 1819, and married January 15, 1851. By this union one son and two daughters were born, all of whom are living. Sometime during the gold excitement of 1852, Mr. John REESE visited California, remained three years, being engaged in the various occupations of the time. He, along with his venerable wife, belonged to the Methodist Episcopal church. By his death the Sunday-school lost an admirable and uncommonly successful superintendent. His virtues survive him, and cannot be corrupted or forgotten.
 

THE BEREA CHAPEL.

The early settlers, appreciating the importance of religion, always welcomed its ministers with genial hospitality, and gladly granted the use of their log cabins as preaching places. With the increase of population, the laudable desire to secure a house of worship led the set-tiers to petition the Legislature of Ohio, in 1819, to incorporate the "Berea Union Society of Whitewater township." The petition was granted, and the society organized, but no records of its operations are extant until August 22, 1822, when a meeting of the society was held. Then a meeting was held in the house of Ezekiel HUGHES, esq., for the purpose of choosing trustees.

According to notice previously given, and agreeable to an act of the Ohio legislature for the incorporation of religious societies, passed in the said State February 5, 1819, a sufficient number of members being present, as required by said act, Isaac SWARINGEN was chosen chairman, and Jacob Fenton clerk. The following persons were chosen trustees: John EWING Benjamin Cilley, Uz NOBLE, Isaac SWARINGEN and John SPEER.

At the same meeting the following paper, introduced by Ezekiel HUGHES, was unanimously adopted:
WHEREAS, It is thought desirable that a house of worship be erected in this neighborhood for the public worship of God and for the purpose of a school-house. The site proposed is at the burying-ground, on Ezekiel HUGHES' land. The building to be a frame, forty feet by thirty feet, as the liberality of the subscribers appears to warrant it. The denominations to preach there are: Congregationalists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and United Brethren

A subscription paper still extant shows that the people had a heart to build a house for the Lord and their generous liberality.

Ezekiel HUGHES one acre of land, and $100 00
Benjamin CILLEY 15 00
John EWING labor or materials 25 00
Ed. TREADWAY in work 10 00
William LEEPER, in materials 15 00
James OURY, cash 12 00
William Henry HARRISON, lumber 15 00
Stephen WOOD in labor 10 00
John NOBLE, materials 10 00
Allen LEEPER in labor 25 00
Uz NOBLE, work and board hands 25 00
David NOBLE work 10 00
John NOBLE, work and materials 10 00
Joseph NOBLE, in hauling 5 00
William MC'FERRIN, labor 5 00
James ANDERSON, in work 5 00
Jacob FENTON materials 5 00
John SNIDER, two dollars cash and three dollars in work 5 00
C. H WILLISTON, five gallons whiskey (three gallons used at the raising).
Hugh KARR in work 5 00
Thomas WILLIAMS cash 3 00
James GOODRICH in work 4 00
Six other subscribers, in work 10 00

On the basis of this subscription the work of building was commenced at once and prosecuted with great earnestness, for the friends of the enterprise had a heart for the work.

The following subscription paper indicates the pious zeal and liberality of the ladies:
The female part of the society of Whitewater township, jealous of their own rights in contributing towards objects of public benefit and utility, are determined to follow the good example of their worthy lords and masters; and, as an instance, are determined to contribute their mite towards the completion of the Union Berea meeting-house, which has been erected and in part finished by the voluntary subscription of the male part of our society alone. Therefore, the subscribers will pay, or muse to be paid, unto the trustees or treasurer of the said meeting-house, for the sole purpose of completing the inside work thereof, the amount affixed to our respective names this twenty-fifth day of June, 1823.

On this subscription paper are written the names of fifty-nine noble mothers and their daughters, contributing in the aggregate the sum of thirty-six dollars eighty-seven and one-half cents, no mean sum at that time, when money was so scarce and so difficult to obtain. An analysis of this sacred relic of the days of old shows that Mrs. Anna HARRISON of North Bend, the estimable wife of General W. H. HARRISON, subscribed two dollars. Eight other ladies subscribed each one dollar, seventeen gave fifty cents each, thirty-three gave twenty-five cents each, and one Martha HUGHES (who still survives), then a child of five years, gave twelve and a half cents.
 

DEDICATION SERVICES.

In 1823 the house of the Lord, being completed, was publicly dedicated to the service of God. This was

The first was an Episcopal Methodist church, the formation of a class in the log cabin of Alexander GUARD, in 1803, by an itinerant minister, whose name cannot be ascertained. In early days the camp-meeting in SCROGGIN'S grove, near Elizabethtown, was an occasion of great interest and spiritual profit to the multitudes that attended. In due time a meeting-house was built, and, in accordance with the Methodist economy, supplied with the ministry of the Gospel, exciting a wide spread and beneficent influence over the community. The MILLER, GUARD, HAYES, MILL, DUNN, and SCROGGIN families were identified with this church, and many of their posterity are found walking in the ways of their godly ancestors.

The Miamitown Methodist Episcopal church was organized and a frame meeting-house built about fifty years ago, and it continues to this day, where the society is rebuilding the house of the Lord erected by their fathers.

The Disciples' church in Miamitown was organized many years ago under the efficient and successful ministry of Rev. Knowles SHAW. It enjoyed great prosperity, and still maintains an honorable and useful place among the tribes of the Lord.

The Elizabethtown and Berea Presbyterian church was organized in 1830 by the Rev. Sylvester SCOVIL. The following persons constituted the church as its original members: Mrs. Charlotte HUNT Mrs. Mary ELDER, Mr. Joseph MARTIN, and Nancy, his wife; John EWING and Sarah, his wife, dismissed from the Harrison Presbyterian church, and the following persons by examination: Mrs. Nancy LEIPER, Samuel LEIPER, Margaret MORROW, Eliza BARRON, Hannah ELDER, Deborah COVERDALE, and Margaret MOORE. The following were chosen trustees of the congregation: Ezekiel HUGHES, John EWING, Thomas HUNT John S. TORRENCE and William LEIPER Mr. SCOVIL continued to supply the congregation, and at the end of the first year twenty-three new members were added to the church. The first elders of the church were John EWING, Thomas HUNT and Richard HUGHES. In 1843, mainly through the liberality of Thomas and Jacob HUNT, a beautiful brick meeting-house was erected in Elizabethtown, and a parsonage. The following ministers have had charge of the church: Revs. A. MC'FARLAND, Charles STURDEVANT, E. SCOFIELD, H. BUSHNELL, B, W. CHIDLAW, S. WARREN, H. W. COBB, I. DELAMATER, C. A. JEMISON, C. E. BABB, I. BOAL, I. P. HAIRE, John STUART, H. M. WALKER, R. E. HAWLEY. The Rev. James MITCHELL is its present pastor, and George W. HAIRE, Ezekiel HUGHES, John CHIDLAW and William P. REES, are its ruling elders. Among the members of this church, and for many years a ruling elder, was Joseph LEWIS, a man of decided piety, well cultivated mind, and faithful in all Christian duties. He died at his home in Elizabethtown, October 3, 1866, aged fifty-seven years, having served in the eldership with ability and faithfulness for twenty-four years. The following young men, members of this church, were educated and entered the ministry: John NOBLE, William KENDRICK, I. P. and John BONHAM.

Many years ago a chapel, called Mt. Hope, was built by the Methodist Episcopal church on the hills two miles above Miamitown. The town hall has been a place of preaching by the Methodists and Presbyterians for many years. Sunday-schools were early organized in these localities, and well sustained, accomplishing much good in the Christian education of the young people.
 

CEMETERIES.

In early times the subject of permanent and improved burial places secured but little attention. Families buried their dead on their own premises, and many graves on farms scattered over the township are now unmarked and forgotten. On the gravel bank near the railroad viaduct over the Miami river, in a clump of yellow locust trees, are the graves of several of the pioneer settlers. Among them are the graves of Thomas and Mary EWING, who owned a large tract of land on which this now neglected home of the dead was located. Thomas EWING was a soldier of the Revolution in the Pennsylvania line. He participated in several battles and was honorably discharged at the close of the war.

The cemetery at Miamitown occupies a fine location and is well improved and beautiful. Several monuments of marble and granite adorn the grounds, and a vault as a repository for the dead has been built, which will afford security against the ghouls who plunder and desecrate the resting places of the departed. On the "OURY farm" near the town hall is a public burial place in charge of the trustees of the township, and is well preserved.
 

BEREA CEMETERY.

At the old chapel is the oldest burying-ground in the township. The land was donated by Ezekiel HUGHES, esq., in 1805, and deeded to the Berea Union trustees. The lots are all sold, and held by parties in this and adjoining townships. Here is the grave of Daniel G. HOWELL, esq., who was born in the block house at North

In the graveyard attached to the Presbyterian church at Elizabethtown are the honored graves of the HUNT, BONHAMS, HAIRES, REES, LEBOW, HAYES, GUARDS, and other pioneer families, with monuments designating the spot containing their sacred dust.
 

WHITEWATER VILLAGES

Cadberry was a pioneer town, laid out by Henry Cadberry in 1802--one of the very first to be planted in this State west of the Great Miami. It was in Hamilton county, but that still stretched far to the northward. Cadberry may, or may not, have been within the limits of the old Whitewater township, laid out the next year, or of the present Whitewater.

Shrewsbury was another village, now utterly extinct, platted in 1803 by John BUCKNELL, upon the Great Miami river, but on which side we are as yet unable to learn, and so cannot locate it certainly in Whitewater township.

Miamitown is situated upon the north half of section six, in the northeastern part of the township, at the point where the Cincinnati and Harrison turnpike crosses the Great Miami, fifteen miles from its mouth. It is opposite to the southwest corner of Colerain township, upon which stood CAMPBELL'S station during the period of Indian warfare. Miamitown was laid off on the twenty-second of April, 1816, by Arthur HENRY. It is thus noticed in the Ohio Gazetteer of 1819: "This town promises to become a place of considerable business." In the Gazetteer of 1841 it is said to have contained one hundred and eighty-seven inhabitants, thirty-three dwellings, one flouring-and saw-mill, one distillery, two taverns, three stores and several mechanics' shops. The macadamized turnpike to Cincinnati and the bridge across the Miami, "with two arches of one hundred and sixty feet span each," are noticed. It enjoyed a daily mail. It had one hundred and thirteen inhabitants in 1830, one hundred and eighty-seven in 1840, two hundred and twenty-three in 1850, and two hundred and seventy five in 1880. At a celebration of the Fourth of July here, in 1817, General HARRISON read the Declaration of Independence and offered the following toast: "May the fertile banks of the Miami river never be disgraced by the culture of a slave, or the revenue they afford go to enrich the coffers of a despot "- which was quite pronounced antislavery sentiment for those days and for a native Virginian.

Elizabethtown, as we have seen, was settled as early as 1806, but was not platted as a village until April 15, 1817, when the town was ushered into being by the hands of Isaac MILLS³.In later days it has been found necessary, in order to meet the requirements of the post office department, to give the name Riverdale to the post office here. It does not seem to have been noticed in the State Gazetteer of 1819, but in that of 1841 the following is said of it: "The Whitewater canal passes through this place. It contains several stores, two taverns, one meeting-house, and one hundred and twenty inhabitants." Eleven years before, by the census of 1830, it had one hundred and thirty-two inhabitants. It had two hundred in 1880.

Berea was a little place laid out about the site of the Berea meeting-house, in 1817, by Samuel POTTINGER. It was never much more than a "paper town."

Valley Junction is not a surveyed town, but simply the point of union of the two railroads that intersect the township. It has a station-house and two or three dwellings.

Hunt's Grove, on the line of the Whitewater Valley railroad, near the junction of the Whitewater and the Dry fork, is not a village, but a very pleasant locality, famous as a resort for picnics.
 

POPULATION, ETC.

Whitewater had one thousand five hundred and seventy-four inhabitants by the last census, In 1879 the assessed value of its lands, lots, and improvements, was seven hundred and sixty-one thousand four hundred dollars; of its chattel property, one hundred and ninety thousand seven hundred and forty-four dollars; and the amount of the tax duplicate for the year was therefore nine hundred and fifty-five thousand one hundred and forty-four dollars.