Clermont County Genealogical Society
BATAVIA
As Seen Sixty Years Ago Through the Eyes of a Boy -
ExtractsFrom
Interesting Letter Received by Home Coming Committee From Will C.
Thornton, Who Spent The First Nine Years of His Life Here
Jefferson City, Mo.,
September 12, 1907.
Home Coming Committee, Batavia, Ohio:
Dear Sirs: Many thanks to you for a pressing invitation to visit the town of my birth, after an absence of sixty years. I was born in Batavia, Clermont county, Ohio, April 21, 1838. My father, Dr. SR. Thornton, moved from Batavia to Bethel in September, 1847. In December, 1856, we moved to Missouri. It would be the greatest pleasure of my life to attend and take part in your program, which I shall do, if possible.As I see Batavia, after looking back sixty years, it was a town of about 400. There is only one name on your committee I remember. W.E. Thompson was a schoolmate at Bethel. Now, the rest of the names I shall name lived in and around Batavia sixty years ago: Judges Fishback, Shields, Lee and Norris; lawyers R. W. Clarke (my uncle), Tom Lewis, Julius Penn, Henry Talley, Thomas O. Ashburn, Lowe, Jolliffe, Griffith, Jonathan Morris and Thomas Morris; Doctors Wayland and his son, Wm.
Wayland, and my father, S.R. Thornton; Los Sharpe read medicine with my father, and Sidney Moore, also. Merchants Dr. Dart, Col. Dustin and John M. Brown; Adam Kline had a confectionery store and bakery. Milton Jamieson's father ran one hotel and Duckwall the other. Andy Gest edited the Clermont Courier; Chas. Smith edited the Clermont Sun. School-mates, Will Shields, Lydia Shields, Tom Lowe, Frank White, John Wayland, Will Dart and sister, Eugene Lee, Dave Morris, John Leonard and his brother, George Dustin, Lib and Anna Fishback, Tip, Pink and George Fishback, John, Will and Hannah Mary Medary (my cousins), Geo. W. Hulick, Tom Brown and his sister, Bill Ulrey, Tom Cade, Loid Wayland and Zue Clarke (my cousin). School teachers, Tom Lewis, Chas. Smith, Mr. Shaw, Dodge and Roudebush. Mr. Leonard and Spence Danbury were blacksmiths. John Fishback had a tanyard and fish pond. Judge Fishback was a lame man and always had his yard full of bees. Charley and Lindsey Moore had a water-power saw and grist mill about a mile above the bridge, and always raised fine watermelons. Col. Dustin had a tinshop on the creek bank, just above the bridge. Asher Medaiy had a nursery on the hill, below the old stone church and the bend in the creek. Mr. Croshaw hauled wood to us with oxen; he lived out the other side of Lot Hulick's. There was another Hulick family lived north of the 'Burg road, not far from town.
I remember when the bridge burned, it was weather-boarded and had a shingle roof. I remember when lightning struck the lightning rod on the Court House and at the same time fired Jamieson's stable, south of the hotel. Henry Bonnel was a harness-maker; John Grant worked for him. There were two butchers, John White and Old Uncle Billy Crane and his son, Charley. Bill Sanders (colored) was a barber. Old Uncle Larkin (colored) sawed wood for us. Mr. Hay was a weaver; he lived just above the bridge. About the middle of this block, in a one-room frame house, is where I first went to school, Tom Lewis was my teacher. The stove used to smoke when the wind was in the east. So Tom would have to dismiss school. I remember several times when the wind did not come to suit us, some of larger boys would climb on the roof at noon and put boards over the top of the chimney which made is smoke so Tom had to dismiss school. This did not work but a few times until Tom caught on to it and punished several of the boys. After the new brick school house was built upon the hill above Leonard's blacksmith shop I went to Shaw and Roudebush. I used to climb the lightning rods on the court house up to the roof.
Tom Lewis, Andy Gest and Henry Tally were particular friends of mine. I think they gave me more Christmas presents than any others that I remember. Henry Tally was a lame man. I think he was from Highland Co. Tom Morris was a young lawyer. One morning he came out on the street with a new suit of clothes, with straps at the bottom of the pants legs. We didn't know whether they were to hold his pants down or his boots up. All the same we called him straps, which made him mad. He would take after us and we would run over to Bill Sander's barber shop for protection.
I remember when Charlie Smith pulled off his coat, throwed it on the pavement, roiled up his sleeves, (across the street from Andy Gest's office) he walked up and down the pavement from Jamieson's hotel and Jonathan Morris's, making all kinds of gestures, daring Andy to come out on the street. They frequently had spats through the papers.
Looking north from the court house, two blocks away, old Dr. Wayland's brick house seemed to be in the middle of the Street. R.W. Clark's first wife, Aunt Peggy, died in that house in 1840.
When we moved from Batavia R.W. Clark lived on the first street south of the Presbyterian church. If I knew the names of the streets I could tell you where many of the people I have named lived in 1847.
Respectfully,
Will C. Thornton, 213 E. Main St., Jefferson City, Missouri
From the Clemiont Sun: Oct. 2, 1907
BIRTHS
Birth
Records
*
Early
Clermont
Co. Births 1856-1857
*
First Presbyterian Churches of Monroe
At Nicholsville & Bantam
*
Baptisms of Children
*
Anderson
Township Births 1906-1907
*
Old
Bethel
Church Baptisms
*
Old Bethel Church Baptisms 1894-1908
*
Early Births 1856
*
MARRIAGES
Early
Marriages 1800 - 1808
*
Marriage
Book 13
1874-1876
*
Goshen M. E. Church
Marriage
*
DEATHS
Funerals
Conducted
by Rev. Hezekiah Hill 1862-1908
*
The
Old
Village Graveyard
*
Deaths
of Residents
Over 75 in 1875
*
Infirmary
Discharges That Mention a Burial Place
*
Death
Dates from
I.O.O.F. Lodge #313
*
Early
Clermont
Deaths from The Ohio Sun
*
Obituaries
From
the Clermont Sun 1890-1891
*
Early
Deaths
from Clermont Sun 1855
*
More
Deaths
1857-1859
*
Stirling
& Moore Funeral Records 1888
*
1880 Mortality Census
*
Census
Goshen
1875
Quadrennial Census
*
Quadrennial
Census,
Batavia, 1847
*
Quadrennial
Census,
Batavia, 1855
*
History
Incidents
in The
Early History of Clermont County
*
Stonelick
Historical Notes
*
Vacation
of a
Road in
Union Township
*
Brown and Clermont County Families Mentioned
in the 1880 Clinton County History
*
Day
Book For Clarke
& Frambes Mills 1838
*
Immigration
Early
Naturalizations from Common Pleas Minutes
*
Citizenship
Papers
1844-1900
*
Names
of
New Found Naturalization Applicants
*
Military
Veterans
in
Various Cemeterys
*
Revolutionary
War Soldiers
*
Clermont
Courier
Ads November 18, 1863
*
Mexican War Veterans
*
Revolutionary War Veterans
*
Post Office
Post
Marks of
Clermont County
*
Clermont
Postmasters 1800 - 1930
*
Early
Unclaimed
Letters
*
More
Unclaimed
Letters
Unclaimed
Letters 1855
*
Bible Records
Manning
Bible
*
Banister
Bible
*
Bible
Records of
James McKinnie 1830
*
Bible
Records
Index Volume Two
*
Bible
Records Index
Volume Three
*
Churches
Old
Bethel Church
and Cemetery
*
History
of Old
Bethel Church 1868
*
Calvary
Church
and Cemetery Washington Twp
*.
Edenton
Church
1861
*
Places
Perin
Mills in 1863
*
Goshen-
Land Of Milk
and Honey
*
First
Settlers of
Jackson Township
*
Legal
Voters of
Goshen Township 1855
*
Batavia
in1847
*
Poll
Book Goshen
Township 1853
*
1840
Account
Book, Laurel Ohio
*
Edenton
School # 4
Pupils
*
Pensions
Pensions
1890
*
More Pensions
1890
*
Other
Indentures
1825
- 1831
*
Index
To General
Store Account Book 1816-1819
*
Vital
Statistics
From An Old Record Book
*
Items
from Clermont
Courier 1836
*
Clermont
Pensioners 1883
*
Ohio
Pioneers That
Moved to Texas
*
Persons
on the Petit
Jury 1880
*
Jails
and Sheriffs
*
Items
From
Early Clermont Courier 1852
*
Meeting
of
Patriarchs 1882
*
Surrender
Records From Childrens Home
*
Gazetteer
1882
*
Potpourri
*
Articles
From The
Clermont Sun 1889
*
River Boatmen
*
Sale of Delinquent Lands
*