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After much reflection through
the winter of 1797-8, for he was that kind of a man,
Jacob Moyer saw a larger life in the woods
where Goshen was to be, than was apparent in
Waldschmidt's mill that was contemporary with
Taylor and Lytle's enterprise on the
Middle East Fork. So he went eight miles
eastward on the Upper O'Bannon and started the
oldest home in Goshen township, which was also the
first clearing between the Big Field at Williamsburg
and Deerfield on the Miami, where a cabin or two
dated from 1796. As the German accent wore
smoother, the younger Moyers first dropped
the rounding sound, and then the letter “o” from
their name, which is now written, Myers,
whose number is many and worthy. Philip
Smyzor came out from the river into Miami
township, where he left not less than eight sons and
four daughters whose progeny may be found in many
states. Abraham Miller became a
neighbor of the Simontons, where Loveland was
to flourish. Andrew Apple
settled in what was to be known for many years as
Olive Branch, and made a much nearer neighbor for
Ezekiel Dimmitt on that side.
Joseph Avey and Jacob Teal
made the first settlement on the lower East Fork.
This was the “Mr. Teal” mentioned by
the Rev. James Smith in his
journal as having shared his trip in
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The first cabin in Stonelick township was raised
in 1798 by Henry Allison, a brother of Surgeon
General Allison, who held his high rank
in the armies of Harmar, St. Clair and
Wayne. After a year or so, General
Allison used the place as a country home
until his death on Mar. 22, 1816.
Three brothers,
Robert, Hughey, and Andrew
Dicky, and their brother-in-law, William
Hunter, spent the winter of 1798-9 in
Williamsburg, after which they made the first
settlement in Jackson township of Clermont County.
Robert did duty in the Revolution for which
he drew a pension. Daniel Kidd also
lived a part of the year in Williamsburg before
settling in Batavia township.
Hugh McLain,
a Scotch Irishman, married Mary Allison
in Pennsylvania, and came to Columbia early in 1796,
and from there to Williamsburg in 1798, to live with
his only child, Archibald McLain,
Jr., married to Mary, a daughter of
William Shaw. The children of Archibald,
Jr., intermarried with others in Brown and
Clermont until the relationship is puzzling.
The complications are obscured by a variation in
spelling as shown by the name of the late well known
Homer McLean, who followed the spelling of
the Clermont branch. — The families of
Foote and Tweed came in 1798 to the
future Ripley, whence several came to Williamsburg
to figure as early editors and lawyers who enlarged
the local history.
In 1798 Jacob
Waterfield, then eighteen years old, came with
his widowed mother to the neighborhood that was to
be known as Felicity, and there founded one of the
substantial families of that vicinity. About
the same time, Franklin township in Clermont gained
three more notable names—Utter, Prather
and Sargent. Joseph Utter
came west by Braddock’s Road to Fort Redstone,
where, on Oct. 3, 1791, his noted son, Colonel
Douty Utter, was born. In their family
was an orphan child, Adam Reed, who
founded a large family.
The number is large who
are or should be proud to trace their lineage to
John G., and Erasmus Prather, who
came from Maryland, where James and
Philena Pigman Sargent lived, and
proved their sense of right by emancipating their
slaves, for whom they made all possible provision,
and then, with his brothers, James and
Elijah, sought a free land in which to rear
their children. Those sons and daughters
inter-
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