OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

A Part of Genealogy Express

 

Welcome to
BROWN COUNTY, OHIO
History & Genealogy

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

HISTORY OF CLERMONT & BROWN COUNTIES, OHIO
From the Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present
=========
IN TWO VOLUMES
=========

By Byron Williams
1913
 

VOLUME ONE

PAGE
PREFACE
CHAPTER I. - GEOLOGIC 17
  - The Purpose of this Work
- The Teaching of the Rocks
 - A Local Application of the Nebular Hypothesis
 - Chaotic Confusion
 - The Laurentian Land
 - World Making
 - The First Oceanic Floor
 - The Silurian Sea
 - The First Promenade of Life and March of Death
 - Geologic Upheavals
 - Heat, the Compelling Agent of Change
 - The Silurian Island
 - The Kingdom of Siluria
 - The Devonian System
 - The Creation of Process of Purification
 - When Coal was Made
 - The Age of Monsters
 - The Galacial Age in Old Clermont
 - The Land Finished for Man
 - The destruction of a Hundred Years
 
CHAPTER II. - ARCHAIC

29

   - The Land of the Blue Limestone and the Home of the Blue Grass
 - The Antiquity of Man in America
 - The Mound Builders in the Ohio Valley
 - Recently Gained Knowledge of Their Habits
 - Their Stupendous Sacrifice of Human Energy
 - The Motives
 - Post Holes
 - The Palisade
 - The Tepees
 - Grain Pits
 - The Rubbish in the Pits
 - The Home of the Mound Builder.  Tokens that Make all Time Arken
 - The Philosophy of Their Works
 - The Toltecan and Appalachian Indians
 - The Corn Plant
 - War between the Flesh Eaters and Grain Raisers
 - The Ancient Passes of Niagara and Detroit
 - The Hilltop Forts
 - The Masterpieces Arching Northward Around Old Clermont
 - Fort Ancient, the Key of the Cordon
 - The Mound Builders' Main Line of Defence
 - The Strife between Roving Hunters and Plodding Grainmen Centered in Southwestern Ohio
 - The Northern War for Southern Plunder
 - The Trails Through the Straits from the Fur Lands to the Corn Lands
 - The Ceremonial Works
 - The Milford Works
 - The Stonelick Works
 - Ancient Works Surveyed by General William Lytle
 - Indian Graves
 - Marathon Mounds
 - The Perry Township Mound
 - The Ripley Mounds
 - The Regrettable Effacement of Mounds in Brown and Clermont
 - "The Valley Which Was Full of Bones"
 - The Grave Does Not Cover all
 - The Author's Conclusion about the Mound Builders' Mission
 - The Sad Fated Planters and Fort Makers Served a Fine Purpose
 - The Kingly Corn, their Noble Gift to Humanity
 - The Grave Pleasure in a Study of a Perished Race of People
 
CHAPTER III - DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 53
   - A Tale of Trial and Triumph
 - The Wrongs of the Indians
 - They Did Not Inhabit Ohio
 - The Right of Discovery
 - Our Right to the Land Founded on War
 - The Missionaries
 - English Enterprise
 - Algonquin and Iroquois Rivalry
 - The Sparse Indian Population
 - The Ohio Valley the Most Vacant of All
 - The French Incur Iroquois Hatred
 - The Strategic Importance of the Iroquois
 - The Shawnees
 - Virginians Find Waters Flowing to the South Sea
 - LaSalle Claims the Mississippi Valley for the French
 - The Shawnees Migrate to Ohio
 - The Peaceful Delawares Grow Brave in Eastern Ohio
 - The Miamis and Wyandots Enter Lakes and down the Mississippi
 - The Fur Trade
 - The French and English prepare to Fight for No Man's Land Along the Ohio
 - The First Ohio Land Company
 - Enter, George Washington
 - Celoron's Expedition Passes Old Clermont, August 29, 1749
 - Pickawillany
 - Christopher Gist Searches for Good Land
 - Nothing Finer Found than the Miami Region
 - The French Destroy Pickawillany and War Begins
 - The End of Peaceful Exploration
 
CHAPTER IV. - UNDER TWO FLAGS 71
 - The Destruction of Pickawillany an Example of Extensive Indian Strategy
 - The Strategy of the Indian Defense of Ohio
 - The Loneliness of the Land
 - A Blundering War with Dazzling Results
 - The Showy French
 - The Miserly King George II
 - The Iroquois Consent to a Fort at the Fork of the Ohio
 - The French Begin to Fortify the Ohio
 - Major George Washington Sent to Protest
 - Jumonville's Party Killed or Captured
 - The Seven Years' War Begun
 - The French Seize the Ohio
 - The Big Trail
 - Braddock's Defeat
 - Washington Commander-in-Chief for Virginia
 - New England Resolves to Capture Canada
 - Virginia Resolves to Hold All to the Lakes and Mississippi
 - Forbes' Expedition
 - Major Grant's Defeat
 - The Fork of the Ohio Retaken
 - The French Flag Goes West by and Beyond Old Clermont
 - The Naming of Pittsburgh
 - Rogers' Mounted Rangers
 - A Continental Empire Changes Masters
 - The Indian Is Promised Protection Against Greed for Game Land
 - Washington's Leadership in Gaining Ohio
 
CHAPTER V. - UNDER BRITISH COLORS 81
 - Political Results of the French and Indian War
 - The Spectre of Independence Haunts the British Mind
 - Repressive Policy
 - The English Crown Takes the Place of the French
 - Settlers Forbidden to Go West of the Mountain Crest
 - Pontiac's Conspiracy
 - The Battle of Bushy Run
 - Bouquet's Expedition
 - The Treaty of Fort Stanwix Made the Ohio a Boundary Between the Races
 - The Odious Act of Quebec
 - The Ohio Valley a Hunting Ground for Savage Pleasure
 - Rebellion Rampant along the mountains before it was Whispered on the Coast
 - Washington again Goes West on the Big Trail
 - Dunmore's War
 - The Battle of Point Pleasant, the First Battle of the Revolution
 - The Shawnees
 - Cornstalk
 - Daniel Boone
 - First Surveying on the Ohio
 - Colonel Bowman's Expedition
 - George Rogers Clark
 - Clark's Conquest
 - The American Revolution as Told Is Mainly an Eastern Tale
 - The Western Side of the Revolution
 - Clark's Expedition in 1780
 - The Strife Along the Eastern Ohio
 - Fort Laurens
 - Official Report of British Governor De Peyster
 - The Avowed British Policy Was War on the Inhabitants of the West and South
 - The Massacre of Wyoming
 - The Massacre of Colonel Lochry's Command
 - The Massacre of Gnadenhutten
 - Crawford's Defeat
 - The Siege of Bryant's Station and the Battle of Blue Licks
 - The Last British Battle Flag Seen from Clermont
 - The Last Siege of Fort Henry, the Last Battle of the American Revolution
 - General Clark's Retaliating Expedition in 1782
 - What Might Have Been With Modern Inventions
 - The Motives of France and Spain in Making Peace
 - Franklin's Success in Treaty Making
 - Thirty-two Years Between Gist's Exploration and Independence.
 
CHAPTER VI. - THE INDIAN COUNTRY 109
 - British Hope for the Failure of Independence
 - Indians Not Consulted in the Treaty for Peace
 - The Malign Influence of the British Fur Traders
 - Old Clermont a Midway Hiding Place for Plundering Bands
 - War Debts and Public Lands
 - State Claims
 - Indian Titles
 - Treaty Councils at Fort Stanwix, Fort McIntosh and Fort Finney
 - Brant and Red Jacket Form an Indian Confederacy at Detroit
 - Moluntha Pleads for Peace
 - Congress Forbids Invasion of Indian Border
 - Clark's Expedition in 1786
 - Logan's Expedition against Mac-o-chee
 - The Murder of Moluntha
 - Civil Government Instituted
 - The Fertility
 - Spanish Hostility
 - Squatter Claims Rejected
 - The First Government Survey in Ohio, August, 1786
 - Surveying in the Virginia Military District begun in 1787
 - The Ordinance of 1787
 - The Second Ohio Land Company
 - Marietta
 - John Cleves Symmes
 - The Danger in 1787
 - Enter Arthur St. Clair, President of Congress
 - The Territory Northwest
 - Columbia
 - Losantiville
 - North Bend
 - Colonel Robert Todd's Expedition Against Paint Creek
 - Grant's Defeat near Vevay
 - "The Banditti Must be Intercepted"
 - Spanish Intrigue to Dissolve the Union
 - Cincinnati
 - Governor St. Clair Reports a Series of Disasters
 - Colonel Charles Scott's Expedition
 - War Resumed
 - Harmar's Expedition Against Omee
 - The Massacre at Big Bottom
 - Scott and Wilkinson's Expedition
 - Wilkinson's Second Expedition
 - St. Clair Planned a Chain of Forts
 - St. Clair's Defeat
 - Anthony Wayne
 - Two Years of Preparation and Two Hours of Victory
 - The Indian Country Passed into History After Forty Years of Conflict for the Ohio
 - Gallipolis, Massie's Station, or Manchester 
 
CHAPTER VII. - WILLIAM LYTLE 141
 - Homes as a Reward for Dangerous Duty
 - The Noble Idea and the Difficult Practice
 - The Difficulty Undertaken by Authorized Surveyors
 - General Massie and His Pupils
 - General Lytle
 - Lytle's Personal Narrative
 - Moving West
 - Life in a Palisade
 - The Boy of Fourteen Kills a Buffalo and a Bear
 - Watching for Indians
 - A Volunteer When Sixteen
 - Fighting at Mac-o-chee
 - The Capture and Murder of Moluntha
 - Chasing Indians
 - Grant's Defeat
 
CHAPTER VIII. - MAPPING THE WINDERNESS 173
 - The Innterrupted Surveying Resumed
 - Massie and Lytle Make a Narrow Escape
 - Belteshazzar Dragoo
 - A Battle with Tecumseh on the East Fork
 - Massie's Work in 1792
 - Linton's Survey, No. 681
 - Lytle's Work in 1793
 - The Profit on the Work
 - Lytle's Surveyor's Camp
 - James Taylor, Sr.
 - The Land Market in 1795
 - The Indian Peril of that Time
 - Two Traces from Lexington
 - Covalt's Station
 - Major Riggs Killed at Milford
 - The Winter of 1791-92
 - Adam Snider
 - The Tiller and the Man Who Would Not Work
 - The Shawnees Had Only Nominal Possession
 
CHAPTER IX. - COMING OF THE PIONEERS 191
 - The Effacement of a Hundred Years
 - The Settlements After Wayne's Treaty
 - Massie's Repulse from Paint Creek in 1795
 - The Origin of Williamsburg
 - James Kain
 - Massie and Lytle in the East in the Winter of 1795-96
 - Platting of Williamsburg Stopped by a Blizzard
 - Thomas Paxton
 - The Buchanan, Wood and Manning Settlement
 - The Ferguson Family
 - John Logston
 - Hamilton and Clark
 - Beltashazzar Dragoo
 - The Pioneers in a Forest Land
 - Adam Bricker
 - The People of 1796
 - The Pietists
 - The Five Ellis Brothers
 - The Dunlap-Kinkead Connection
 - James Edwards
 - Mills Stephenson
 - The Beaseleys
 - The Longs
 - Amos Ellis
 - Ezekiel Dimmitt and the Gest Brothers
 - The Light Family
 - The Christmas Fires of 1797
 - The Origin of Bethel
 - Obed Denham
 - The Baptist Church
 - The First Emancipation Society
 - Taylor and Lytle Build a Grain and Saw Mill
 - The Earliest Breadstuff
 - The First Mill East of the Little Miami and West of Chillicothe
 - Lytle in Philadelphia in 1797-98
 - Early Births
 - Rumors of a New County
 - Earliest Roads
 - First Marriage
 - Kain's Dug Wan and Morgan's Raid
 
CHAPTER X. - COMING OF THE PIONEERS - CONTINUED - STARTED 5/8/2019 225
 - Settlement Eastward from the Miami
 - A Methodist class Formed at McCormick's
 - The Immigration of 1798 More Than Doubled the Homes
 - Another Methodist Class Formed
 - An Official List of Settlers on Eagle and Straight Creeks
 - Jacob Ulrey and Captain W. H. Ulrey
 - Philip Gatch
 - The First Methodist Church North of the Ohio
 - Francis McCormick
 - Daniel Feagins
 - Round Bottom
 - More Roads
 - Warren Malott
 - John Metcalf
 - James Poage
 - John Boude
 - Benjamin Gardner
 - Joseph Dugan
 - Major Shaylor
 - Robert Christie
 - Leonard Raper
 - John Naylor
 - Joshua Lambert
 - The Lost Child
 
CHAPTER XI. - THE EARLIEST HOMES 249
 - The Traits and Trials of the First to Come
 - The Pioneer's House
 - The Roof
 - The Frow
 - The Floor
 - The Beds
 - The Fireplace
 - Their Cooking
 - Their Farming Tools
 - The Age of Wood
 - The Forest Seclusion
 - The Galmour of Tradition
 - The Positive Proof of Journals and Ledgers
 - Scarcity of Money
 - Fur Currency
 - What They Bought
 - The Drug and Book Trade
 - Bartering
 - Whiskey
 - A Complete Pioneer Outfit
 - The Awful Stress of Life
 - Maple Sugar Making
 - Woman's Work
 - The Philosophy of the Desire for Remembrance
 
CHAPTER XII. - THE FORMATION OF THE ANCIENT COUNTY OF CLERMONT 267
 - Governor St. Clair's Proclaations of Counties
 - Speculation in Land
 - Major General Arthur St. Clair
 - The Conditions of 1798
 - The First Territorial Legislature
 - Origin of Massie's Opposition
 - St Clair's Ideal of Duty
 - Bills for New Counties Vetoed and Consequenet Censure
 - The Second Session of the Legislature
 - Clermont County Proclaimed with 680 Males Above 16
 - The Political Tumult of the Time
 - The Name, Clermont - The County Officers
 - Thomas Morris
 - William Lytle
 - Harmony Hill
 - John Charles
 - The Old Stone Land Office
 - The Lost Child Found
 - The Settlement of the New County
 - The First Wagon Through by Chillicothe
 - St. Clairsville or Decatur
 - General Beaseley
 - Oscar Snell
 - Governor John M. Pattison
 
CHAPTER XIII. - EARLY DAYS OF THE COUNTY 295
 - Nearest Settlement to the North Line
 - Bugler William Sloane
 - The King of the Hay Haulers
 - The Price Paid for the Union by the Sloanes
 - Other Settlers in Territorial Times
 - Report on Population
 - Elections
 - Exit St. Clair
 - Early Courts
 - Log Court House
 - Thomas Morris' Taverns
 - Formation of Townships
 - Roads
 - Thomas Morris
 - Log Jail
 - The End of Territorial and the Beginning of Statehood
 
CHAPTER XIV. - THE COUNTY UNDER STATE LAW 321
 - State Courts Organized
 - Judge Francis Dunlavy
 - The First State Court in Old Clermont
 - The First Grand Jury for the State
 - Early County Officials
 - The Presiding Judges of Clermont and Brown
 - The Associate Judges
 - The County Commissioners
 - The Extirpation of Wild Animals
 - Adventures of Phoebe Dimmit and Mary Robinson
 - Benjamin Morris Rescued by Jesse Glancy
 - Jesse Glancy's Fight with a Bear
 - Adam Bricker and a Panther
 - The Last Bear
 - Buffalo
 - Game
 - The Turkey Trap
 - The Squirrel Scalp Currency
 - The Need of Roads and Bridges
 - Amos Ellis, Amos Smith and Other Early Commissioners
 - Roads with Names Now Strange
 - Public Buildings
 - John Charles
 - The Old Stone Court House
 - Stone Jail
 - Stone Clerk's Office
 - Bishop R. S. Foster
 - The Whipping Post
 - Traditions of the Second Log Jail
 - First of Many Bridges
 - The Second Bridge Where the Glancys Met Wolves
 - State Roads
 - The Anderson State Road
 - The Xenia State Road
 - The Formation of New Townships
 - Population in 1818
 
CHAPTER XV. - THE TONE OF THE TIME 347
 - The Jersey Settlement
 - John Collins
 - Charles H. Collins
 - Collins Chapel
 - Old Bethel
 - The Congregation Replete with Notable Names
 - White
 - Swing
 - Jenkins
 - Johnson
 - Simpson
 - Ulrey
 - A Student Group of Four
 - Influence of the Pulpit on Settlement
 - The Baptists at Bethel
 - At Ten Mile
 - At Twelve Mile
 - The Robbs
 - Charles Robb, the Teacher Poet
 - The Poets' Union
 - Dr. T. W. Gordon
 - "Eulalie"
 - Eliza Archard Conner
 - Robert Todd Lytle
 - William Haines Lytle, the Soldier Poet
 - Charles J. Harrison
 - Churchly Affairs
 - Hopewell Church
 - The Congregation of Gilboa
 - John Dunlavy
 - Muscular Christianity
 - Camp Meetings
 - Effects on Presbyterianism
 - James Gilliland
 - Robert B. Dobbins
 - The First Schools
 - The Best School House from 1804 to 1819
 - Dr. Alexander Campbell
 - Dr. Levi Rogers and His Son John G.
 - Surgeon General Richard Allison
 - The Early Healers
 - Peddlers First, Then Merchants
 - James Burleigh
 - Isaac Lines
 - William Waters and Benjamin Ellis
 - Postal Affairs
 - Newspapers
 
CHAPTER XVI. - THE ERA OF THE WAR OF 1812 369
 - The Conditions of That Era
 - Roads
 - Population
 - Cities
 - Effect of Napoleonic Wars
 - No Leisure Class Then
 - Renewal of the Long Conflict for Ohio
 - The Declaration Before the Preparation for War
 - Clermont's Answer to the First Call
 - Jacob Huber
 - Hull's Surrender
 - Colonel Mills Stephenson
 - Fort Stephenson
 - Perry's Victory and Captain Stephen Smith
 - Officers from Old Clermont
 - Deplorable Loss of the Muster Rolls
 - List of Revolutionary Soldiers in Clermont and Brown
 - Captain Jacob Boerstler's Company
 - Captain Robert Haines Company
 - General William Lytle in the War of '12
 - His Service in Promoting Old Clermont Reviewed and Censure Refuted
 - Ohio in the War of '12
 - The Migration from the Sea Board to Old Clermont after the War of '12
 - Captain Matthew Pease at the Execution of Louis XVI
 
CHAPTER XVII. - AFTER THE DIVISION OF OLD CLERMONT 385
 - The Agitation for New Counties
 - Comparative Population of New Counties
 - Relative Importance of Old Clermont
 - Township Histories
 - New Enterprise
 - Bridges
 - New County Seat for Clermont
 - New Richmond
 - Batavia
 - County Seat for Brown
 - Ripley
 - Bridgewater
 - Georgetown
 - The Woods Family
 - The Court House for Brown County
 - Coincidence in the Growth of Brown and Clermont
 - Better Roads
 - The Coming of Pikes from the Markets
 - A Tram Way
 - The Plank Road Delusion
 - The Canal Era
 - Thomas Morris
 - The Ohio Canal System a Victory for the Union
 - The Effect of the Canals
 - Brown and Clermont Classed as Anti-Canal Counties
 - The Use of Steam for Transportation
 - 'The First Railroads
 - The Prosperity of the Flat Boat Times
 - Flour, Pork and Whisky
 - The Temperance Movement
 - The River Trade and Slavery
 - The Underground Railroad
 
CHAPTER XVIII. - OTHER FORMS OF SOCIAL EXPANSION 403
 - The Early Days of Masonry in Old Clermont
 - Clermont Social Lodge No. 29, Free and Accepted Masons
 - Fraternal Organization between the Little Miami and the Scioto
 - The Lodge now Ranks as No. 9 in all Fraternity North and West of the Ohio -
 - "Refreshments" -
 - The First Two-Story Hall and the First Brick School House Between Cincinnati and Chillicothe
 - Other Lodges
 - Early Schools Depended Upon Individual Effort
 - Subscription Schools
 - Select Schools
 - Academies
 - Seminaries
 - Presbyterian Schools
 - The Quail Trap Academy
 - Union Schools
 - Teachers' Institutes
 - Clermont's Share in the Institution of Graduation from the Common Schools
 - General Lytle's Donation of the Origin of St. Martin's
 - The Catholic Church
 - Organization of New Townships
 - The Founding of Towns
 - Steam Boats
 - Stage Lines
 - Wagon Trains on the Pikes
 - Droves
 - Practical Emancipation now Popular
 - The Early Case
 
CHAPTER XIX. - THE MEXICAN WAR AND THE GOLD FEVER 415
 - The Mexican War a Preliminary Campaign in a Greater Struggle
 - The Volunteers from Brown
 - 'The Company from Clermont and Brown
 - General Thomas L. Hamer, His Youth, Political Success, Oratory and Death in Mexico
 - Discovery of Gold in California
 - The Light Family
 - Dr. William Wayland Light, One of the Argonauts
 - A Deadly Fight
 
CHAPTER XX. - IN THE CIVIL WAR 421
 - Change in Fashion and Custom
 - The Note of Preparation
 - The Roster of Ohio in the War
 - Those Who Heard the Call
 - The Terror of the First Tidings
 - The Fall of Sumter
 - A General Statement of the Organizations from Brown and Clermont
 - The Nearest Battle
 - The Morgan Raid
 - The Course of the Longest Single March on Record
 - The Conduct of the Raiders
 - 'A Fight for a Horse
 - The Story of Captain George Harris of Morgan's Artillery
 - The Reception of the Union Army in Pursuit of Morgan
 - The Difference Between the Armies
 - The General Service of the Troops from Brown and Clermont
 - When the Boys Came Marching Home.
 
CHAPTER XXI. - THE WONDERFUL STORY OF GRANT 435
 - The John Simpson Home
 - The House at Point Pleasant
 - Jesse Grant Clears Eleven Hundred Dollars in Twenty-two Months
 - The Home in Georgetown
 - Jesse Grant
 - The First Brick School House in Georgetown
 - Boyhood
 - Fondness for Horses
 - A Daring Rider
 - A Fine Example of a Well Raised American Boy
 - Attracts the Attention of Teacher John D. White, General Hamer and Senator Morris
 - At West Point
 - Excels all in Horsemanship
 - Hazed at Home
 - His Remarkable Reserve
 - The Teaching of Solitude
 - His Vision of War
 - His Patient Courtesy
 - The Simplicity of His Sincerity
 - The Gentle Quality of the Man
 - His Kindness in Victory
 - His World-wide Triumph
 - How He Rendered Good for Evil
 - His Tomb in the Center of the World
 - Lieut. Gen. Henry C. Corbin.
 
CHAPTER XXII. - AFTER THE GREAT WAR 449
 - The Care of the Unfortunate
 - The World is Growing Kinder
 - The Progress of Charity
 - The Old Poor Houses
 - The Modern Infirmaries
 - The Children's Home
 - Free Pikes
 - The Toll Gates a fading Memory
 - Agitation for a Central Railroad
 - The Gore Route
 - The Stimulating Effect of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad
 - The Narrow Gauge Era
 - Samuel Woodward
 - Two roads or none
 - The Cincinnati and Eastern
 - The Cincinnati, Georgetown - and Portsmith
 

VOLUME TWO

PREFACE  
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX  
   

...

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