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 About the seventh of June in the year 1804, I first put my foot down on the soil of Bethel in Clermont County, Ohio.  At that time and for more than a dozen years thereafter, the place was known by the name of Dinkamstown.  The good old patriarch Obed Denham did not in 1804 live within the limits of the laid out town plat.  He lived at the Big spring West of this.  In lots Reader if at any future time you wish to know the whereabouts of this Big spring, walk Westward on plane street until you reach the western limits of the  In lots.  Then walk further westward down the turnpike, ten or twelve rods; then turn square and walk directly North thirty or forty rods until you pass the highest ground in that direction; looking North from that point you will see the Big spring, and the ground on which Obed Denham erected cabins in the fall of the year 1796 when there was not a family within twelve miles of his cabins there the first trees were felled, and the first corn and potatoes were raised that grew in the vicinity of Bethel.  Obed denham was a thorough regular Baptist, and a thorough anti slavery man.  In the record of the town plat he made an anti-slavery record, the oldest that is known in the limits of Ohio; it is about four years older than the constitution of 1802 which prohibited slavery; he took a very active part in the ringing forward Philip Gatch and James Sargent (both methodists) as members of the consention of 1802 which made the first anti-slavery constitution of Ohio.  I heard him say often that me made exertions to bring out and elect these men because they had emancipated their slaves and moved into a territory in which slavery was prohibited by the general government.  Mr. Denham therefore wisely concluded that men were reliable who had thus proved their principles by their deeds.  Mr. Denham was not alone in making this declaration .  I have heard the same from many others, and in the most strong and decisive language.  In the winter 1811-12.  I lived in the vicinity of what has since been called Penn's Mill (it was then Brown's Mill)  We had a debating club, which was well attended by men of all ages.  We selected the old men, who were to decide which side used the best arguments.  After the decision of our Judges we generally took a sentimental vote of the whole club; sometimes on the merits of the arguments, but generally on the real merits of hte question.  In these votes it was required that each individual should express his real opinion.  We labored long and hard at one question namely, would the State of Ohio have increased faster in population and wealth had the constitution of 1802 admitted slavery.  We had no statistics at that time showing the growth of the free and the slave states; so after exhausting all our wits and our arguments for two or three evenings our judges decided that those who argued for the admission of slavery had the best of the argument, and in this opinion nine tenths of our club concurred.  We then changed the question to this form "would it have been good policy to have admitted slavery into the state of Ohio".  This brought up the morality of the system; and the natural and moral right to hold slaves.  In arguing this question, those who argued for the admission of slaves into Ohio that an overwhelming defeat.  I believe that every man and boy in our club, were in sentiment opposed to slavery; while they at the same time believe that excluding slavery from Ohio would greatly retard the growth and settlement of the State.  This vote of forty five or fifty years ago was almost universal.  They were willing at that time to be a poor people and feeble in numbers rather than witness the wrongs of the system and permit a few ___lings to system at them as they estimated their own slaves.  Between 1810 and 1815 I become acquainted with upwards of twenty Kentucky families; some from the immediate neighborhood of Lexington and some that had seen Henry Clay when he was only a large green looking boy; most of them were estimable families, persons for whom I have ever had feelings of friendship and respect.  They told me very truthfully of the amount of tobacco, hemp, pork and the like, exported from that noble State; and if you had told any of these that Cincinnati at some future day would be the equal of Lexington in population, wealth and business, they would have considered you a proper subject for the madhouse.  For many years after I took my abode in Ohio.  I believed that as a state it would ever or long remain inferior to __ Kentucky in point of wealth and population.  I believe d_ it, because everybody else believed it For it deemed a conceded ma__ty about __ __ __ __ was to be no dispute.  The people of Ohio had ___s in___ in ref___ of slavery.  They rejected it ___ principle of doing right not because they were convinced it was improper _able.  The dollar and cent view of ___ ____t is mainly the growth of the last ___ thirty years.  Thomas Morris during the last years of his life often said with great earnestness, that something must be done to perpetrate the fact that Obed Denham was the first man in Ohio, who by a permanent record ////// made a protest against slavery; he talked of a monument for that purpose; and if he had lived a few years longer I think he would have accomplished it, for he seemed very intent in the matter.  The __ slavery sentiments that we prevalent

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in Clermont County many years ago are noticed in this place for the purpose of showing that Obed Denham was not alone in his anti slavery principles.  He ought rather to be considered __ representative of a more large class, that lived in his day.  His untiring energy and zeal in ___ the cause of human freedom made him prominent, he had been equally zealous in the cause of the American Revolution, and often appealed to the opinion of the founders of our government a well as to the Bible to sustain his own views on the slavery question We had five sons and xxxx two daughters; none of his children were married when he settled at Bethel; the names of his sons were Timothy, John, James, Obed E. and William.  His daughters were, Charity and Sarah; the latter was the youngest child and about seven years old when her father settled at Bethel; she is the only one of the family now living, and resides on a farm adjoining Bethel.  Obed Dunham was a native of New Jersey; he migrated to Kentucky at an early day, bought land there and made a farm, which he exchanged for the Survey on which Bethel stands.  He built the first mills on Poplar, a little above the mouth of sugartree, and made substantial improvements on his farm; the land which his farm included was mainly North and West of the Big Spring; he lived ten or twelve years in the Cabins he first erected, and then built and moved into the brick house, which stands on the West side of the town branch.  To the best of my recollection he died in 1818.  His tombstone gives the date, and states that he was proprietor of the town of Bethel.  This tombstone may be seen in the old burying ground in the North part of the town plat - that ground which he donated to the regular Baptist church not being slave holders, or holding in fellowship there who exercise tyranny over their fellow creatures.  This is the meaning, if it is not the precise words of the record.  In June in the year 1804.  The following persons lived within the limits of the Bethel town plat namely Doctor Loofborough, John Hewitt, Jacob Mahan, Houton Clarke, Thomas Morris, Philip Murphy, Aaron Osborn, Jeremiah Beck, senr and William Goble.  The Dunham family and Kelly Burk lived very near the town plat.  John Morris and Jeremiah Beck, Junr lived on the North side of Poplar Creek, half a mile from the town plat.  Rev. Moses Frazer, Levi Tingley, James South, John Boggess Esqr and William Test, all lived within two miles of Bethel.  Two brothers of the name of Hunt; William Crouch, Benjamin Frazer lived and Stephen Frazee lived a little further from Bethel, say about three miles.  I have no recollection of any others that were actual residents with in three miles of Bethel in 1804, without including residents North of Clover; and subject to describe the Clover settlement hereafter.  John Hewitt above named was the son in law of Doctor Loofborough; he lived nearly opposite the present residence of Randolph Sins and kept a sort of tavern in some log buildings on the corner.  Jacob Mahan was the father of John Mahan of Sardenian memory, who was sent by Vance Governor of Ohio, to be tried for a felony charged in the indictment to have been committed in Mason County, Kentucky; when in fact Mahan had not been in any part of Kentucky for upwards of Nineteen years.  A Kentucky Judge become ashamed of such scandalous proceedings, and sent Mahan home.  Mahan offered ten dollars for the irons he had been loaded with; but the Kentuckians wisely refused to let the irons go.  I had this statement concerning the irons from John Mahans own mouth.  He had been a school boy of mine in 1807 and 8, and I felt anxious to know the whole truth.  But a truth that would include the whole matter would amount to this.  There was at that time a death struggle between the leaders of the whigs and the leaders of the democrats, to ascertain which could be most servile to the President making power, the slae holders; when one went on its knees, the other went on its belly; when one eat dirt to please this power; the other eat dung; the depth of degradation to which each in turn submitted has no parallel in history; and if it had not been for the wish to please this power, with the ulterior view of holding office under it, John Mahan would never have seen the inside of a Kentucky jail; such is my own opinion, and if this was the proper place I could sustain that opinion by a strong array of facts.  It was the corrupt servile course of leading Northern politicians that did this scandalous deed more than the particular action of the governor.  For the first few years after I come into Ohio, politics, and the new state government seemed to be the great subject of thought and conversation.  The first settlers had for thirteen years been under ______ pupilage; and had an intense hatred to executive authority.  This feeling led them in framing their power; so far as it was practicable to take that power out of his hands; in after years, some considered this an error; and as an excuse for this error, I have heard some say, that when they went into the convention; they went with backs smarting under executive usurpations.
Nearly all the men at Bethel, and with in two or three miles of the place _ook active part in getting up the convention of 1802.  They formed a corresponding political society; and s__t societies were formed throughout the territory.

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The design of such organizations was to learn each others views on the

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     In giving an outline of early settlers I shall confine myself to those on the ground before 1808.  Previous to 1815, and probably later, there were few squatters or leasers; it was a very rare occurrence to find a family living on ground they did not own.  I think it was after 1815 that some squatted on rich surveys that had not been in Market.  In early times many bought land, and long years passed away before they were clear of debt.  If the first owners could not wait, they continued to borrow money; and some borrowed two or three times before they were clear of the debt contracted for their land.  Some after paying about half and making some improvement; sold their land at more than double first cost; paid the old debt and had plenty left to purchase woodland for a good farm.  Some that had land urged on them the seller promising to wait till they could pay, really (within 25 years) become rich by this purchase.  I will commence Wet of Bethel and notice the first settlers, in the old state road.  That road was run on the line where the turnpike now runs;  the first settlers changed the road at some places to suit their convenience; but when the pike was made, it was straitened to the old track.  Early in 1806, Samuel Beck settled about three fourths of a mile West of Bethel.  His cabins were a little east of the turnpike bridge that crosses the Town branch; he bought one hundred acres of land at two dollars per acre; he paid down, a horse, saddle and bridle at one hundred dollars; for the remaining hundred he had two or three years credit.  He went ahead to clear his land, plant fruit threes and make other improvements, and did not pay the debt for his land under seven or eight years; he twice borrowed money, making each time a new debt to pay off the old, and finally paid the whole by making shingles and roofing barns.  Some years after the first purchase, he added twenty acres of wood land to his farm; for this last twenty, he paid four dollars per acre.  Three sons, and three daughters of Samuel Beck are yet living; two daughters live in Illinois, and one in Iowa; his oldest son was licensed to practice medicine before he was twenty years old, and has been practicing upwards of thirty years; his second son is a farmer in Illinois, and his third son isa leading lawyer in Southern Iowa.  The history of this family shows the importance of female energy and industry; Samuel Beck's daughters could do every sort of work then know to be done by _____ or years one daughter was employed in the _______  _________   _________________ ___ars; they had abundance of good clothing; equal to any work by Vill_____ males at that period.; they more than sustained themselves, ___  furnished clothing for their brother while he was studying medicine, and furnished him with a fashionable suit when he obtained license to practice; the oldest was not then eighteen years old.  We would have __w physicians now, if the young student had to depend for clothing ___ the labor of his younger sisters.  One of the daughters of Samuel Beck ____ a letter written to me two or three years ago, in giving me some account of her family, states that her own daughter twelve years old can  ___t and make all her own dresses.  Samuel Beck died in Iowa, in June 1858, his wife died near Madison, Indiana in July 1844.  She was a sister of Thomas Morris, who was well known as a lawyer in the early history of Clermont County.
      In 1805, George Swing, a middle aged man, erected cabins about forty or fifty rods West of the turnpike bridge that crosses poplar, about a mile and a half West of Bethel.  He was a shoe and boo__g maker, from New Jersey and had begun the world pennyless; but was then able to pay down one Thousand dollars for five hundred acres of land.  He had four sons Michael, Samuel, Laurence and Wesley; and one daughter Polley his youngest child.  About the year 1807, Michael married the daughter of Judge Gatch and lived thereafter in the vicinity of Milford.  Judge Gatch was one of the worthies of the day in which he lived; he was in Ohio under the territorial government, and contributed largely, in making Ohio, what she now is.  All the children of George Swing are now dead except Polley and Laurence.  A number of his grandchildren are now among the most talented and useful men of Clermont, though several have gone West.  Taken altogether George Swing was a man of more than usual talent, and weight of of character.  After living on his old homestead about forty years; he died and was buried near his residence.  The family burying ground is on the North side of the turnpike, on a high bank of poplar creek.     In 1805, JEsse Justice erected cabins fifty or sixty rods West of the turnpike bridge over sugart__es creek; he purchased five hundred acres of land at two dollars per acres, and paid down for it.  His children were Catharine, Jesse, John, Saville, Samuel and Robert.  They are now all dead except Saville, who lives ___ and owns, a considerable part of the land that his father pur (this line missing at bottom of page)....

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State of New Jersey.  He had served during most of the revolutionary war; was on the ground during  the whole siege, and at the taking of Cornwallis.  In his preaching, which in general was really interesting, he often alluded to facts that transpired during the war and his recollection of facts was remarkably clear and definite.  Wagi___ gish boys on their way to hear him preach, would often wonder if Mr. Justice would say anything that day about the war, and the taking of Cornwallis.  If they heard nothing on the subject, they felt sore and disappointed.  Although Mr. Justice was an eccentric man; he was not only strictly honest, but charitable and benevolent; two or three days before he died; he sent for the Doctor that had been attending him, and paid his bill; stating that it had always been his wish to die out of debt.  He died in August 1826.  To the best of my recollection in 1806. Edweard Barton built cabins on the south side of the old state road about a mile West of the cabins of Jesse Justice.  He was a poor man from the state of New Jersey and bought one hundred acres of land from Jesse Justice and was to clear ground for Mr. Justice to pay for the land he had bought.  I am not informed whether he completed the payment to Mr. Justice; he lived on the land 10 or 12 years and then sold it to Saville Wilson.  He evidently bettered his circumstances by buying and selling this land; for after selling to Wilson he bought and paid for more, and better land though not as well improved.  He raised a very large family and to the best of my recollection died in or about the year 1832.  Early in 1805, passing the state road track, and being a little West of the spot where the Bantam toll gate now stands, I looked North through thick beech woods, and saw the cabins of Robert Leeds 30 or 40 rods distant from the road; he was pretty well surrounded by trees; having little land cleared; this was Bantam in its __cipient state.  Mr. Leeds settled on this ground in 1804, and in 1806 turned the road to go by his house, and it remained so until the turnpike was made; he was from New Jersey and owned about one hundred acres of land; he had three sons and two daughters; only two of the family are now living.  About half a mile West of the Bantam toll gate on the south side of the turnpike and near the bank of Ulrey's run Benjamin Clarke settled at a very early day; his land extended to the road, though ____ cabins were not in view of the road.  I was not acquainted with ____ until 1808.  We lived on this land probably twenty years and