HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY - 425
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD.
BY OSCAR T. MARTIN.
TO dignify with the sonorous name of history the unpretentious narrative of events which here follows may be an unwarranted assurance. It is simply an attempt to. gather in a connected chain links which have been loosely scattered around us. They have been found in disconnected sketches, historical collections, jottings in the press, and in the memories of the elder citizens. It has been well said that an outline scrawled with a pen which seizes the marked features of a countenance will give a much stronger idea of it than a bad painting in oils. If these pages will, therefore, by a strict adherence to facts, and a partiality to dates and prominent circumstances connected with the origin and growth of the city, outline its progress and present to the reader a comprehensive glance of the subject, more will be accomplished, in the opinion of the writer, than if an attempt had been made at literary display, or accuracy sacrificed for the graces of rhetoric. Much has been written here which, perhaps, had better been omitted, and it is equally true that much has been omitted which should have been written; and, while the censor may be just in his most caustic criticisms, yet the great historian whose words we have placed upon the lintel has given us the consolation that this will not be the first failure in historical ventures.
When James Demint, from his lonely cabin on the hillside north of Buck. Creek, looked out of his rude doorway, he saw before him a gentle slope, falling gradually toward the south, with a natural drainage in all directions; in the center of a rich, undeveloped country, directly within the path of travel between the settlements of the East and the West, and with a healthy, vigorous stream running busily along the foot of the declivity. He saw also, here and there,, clumps of trees, royal in foliage, shadowing generous spring, which gushed unbidden from a thousand nooks and corners in the hillsides, enticing the rich herbage into rank extravagance, and suggesting one of nature's hostelries,. where peace and plenty were spread with no niggard's hand. Demint saw that here was a favorable location for a settlement, which would in the future become a city of wealth; that nature had laid the ground-work of the plan which the energy and enterprise of man would develop; and it needed but the suggestion of a lady, Mrs. Gen. Simon Kenton, who was attracted by the superabundance of local springs, to dub the future town Springfield. Thus the cabin of the hardy pioneer, who, with prophetic vision, seemed to have cast the horoscope of the then embryotic city, became the nucleus of the frontier settlement, which soon grew into the thrifty hamlet, then the ambitious town, the restless, enterprising, manufacturing city, where the throbbing engines of industry beat ceaselessly, and the hum of busy wheels grows stronger year by year.
426 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
The spot so selected and christened in chivalric style was in the midst of a fertile country, surrounded by deep forests, with a soil of unsurpassed richness, and a water-power which was of inestimable value in early times. It was located on the banks of Buck Creek, or Lagonda, near the confluence of the latter with Mad River. The old Surveyor, William Brown, at one time fixed the exact latitude and longitude of Springfield. Its latitude, according to Brown, is 39 degrees 54 minutes 22 seconds north; longitude, 5 hours 35 minutes and 34 seconds west of Greenwich in time, or 3 degrees 53 minutes and 30 seconds in parts of the circle. Tradition says that the Indians were wont to tarry here temporarily on their hunting expeditions, but had not made it a habitation, and hence there was no name for it in the Indian tongue.
"LA OHONDA."
The stream popularly known as Buck Creek was by the Indians called Lagonda. Those who were best acquainted with the Indian dialect did not hesitate to say that it is a derivative from " Ough Ohonda" (Buck's Horn, Little Deer's Horn, or Little Horn), from the Wyandots, and afterward abbreviated by the French traders to "La Ohonda," which early dropped by usage to Lagonda. This term was no doubt applied to the stream by the Indians because of its forked and crooked course, which the reader who will trace its sinuosities upon the map will see has not a very distant resemblance to a pair of buck's horns.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT.
As the history of the city is but an aggregation of the acts of the individuals who from time to time were its inhabitants, the first settler occupies a prominent position in the foreground. Adventurous frontiersmen had, during the closing years of the last century, been exploring the virgin forests which bordered the banks of the two Miamis. It was evident that all that fertile country was soon to be redeemed from the savage hordes who were steadily retreating from advancing civilization.
Although not directly connected with' the first settlement of Springfield, yet, as indicative of the growth of the vicinity, it is worthy of note that, in the summer of 1795, David Lowry, a native of Pennsylvania, with Jonathan Don nels, members of a surveying party, whose object was to obtain an accurate Survey of the public lands in this portion of the Miami purchaso, in the prosecution of their work came to what is now Clark County, and encamped one Saturday evening near what is now the village of Enon, and nearly opposite the mouth of Donnels Creek, where Lowry afterward built his residence. The fertile Mad River bottoms were so rich with promise of future harvests that Lowry determined to return and locate permanently in that vicinity. In the fall of the same year, having purchased a tract of land from Patten Shorts, then a large land owner in this section, he removed to the place where he afterward made his home. Following Lowry the next year came two men named Kreb and Brown, who, encamping near Lowry on Mad River, broke up the ground and engaged in tilling the soil. The first attempt at establishing a village in this neighborhood was made in August, 1799, when John Humphreys and Gen. Simon Kenton, with six families from the adjoining State of Kentucky, settled near the bridge on Mad River, west of Springfield, and erected -a fort and fourteen cabins as a blockhouse station for protection against the Indians.
JAMES DEMINT, THE FOUNDER OF SPRINGFIELD.
James Demint, with his family, came from Kentucky the same year. The bluff overlooking the beautiful Lagonda appeared to him a more favorable lo-
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cation than the Mad River bottoms, where the Humphreys settlement had been formed. He built the first log house within the present limits of the city. It was a large, double log cabin, and stood for many years on the brow of the hill on the north bank of the Lagonda, on the west site, and near the State road, now Limestone street, leading to Urbana. The present Northern School building, formerly the Seminary, is near the site of this cabin. Mr. Demint entered and held by certificate from the Government a large tract of land south and west of his new home. This he afterward laid out into town lots, which are embraced in the first plat of Springfield, and is here given:
ORIGINAL PLAT OF THE TOWN OF SPRINGFIELD
(NOT SHOWN)
430 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
The surveyor who laid out this plat was a young man named John Daugherty, who was then temporarily stopping at Demint's cabin. He commenced the work March 14. 1801. The intention had been formed by Demint to lay out a town on the slope facing the bluff, on which the proprietor had located his cabin. The plat as shown here indicates his purpose to have the center of his town midway of the slope, which he has designated on the plat as the public square. The principal streets ran parallel with the Lagonda Creek. Columbia street was at that time the principal thoroughfare, or Main street, and what is now Main street was then known as South street. Subsequent developments, however, pushed the center of trade south, and the adoption of South street as the line of the road from Springfield to Dayton established that street as the Main or business street of the place.
When Daugherty began this survey, there was some trouble about finding a starting-point. as the Government survey had not yet been completed. He finally determined to go down to the range line running between Ranges 8 and 9 and measure due north a distance of four miles, which would fix the position of the Government section line when it should be run by the Government- sur vey. This brought him to about where the line of High street now is, and from there the new plat was laid off, and is dated March 14, 1801.
Sometime after this. probably in the fall of the same year, Israel Ludlow, as Government Surveyor, established the present section line between Sections 34 and 35. This line passes through the open alley which runs between the First National Bank and the new commercial building on Limestone street, and is two hundred feet. more or less, farther north than the south line of the town plat as located by James Demint. In short, two surveyors, each measuring four miles in the same direction, made a difference of about two hundred feet in the result of their work. It is needless to add that the last line was the true one, because it was one of the great system of lines by which this county was divided. though the experience of every surveyor from then until now is that the first measurement was very nearly correct, while the Ludlow surveys generally overrun, both in distance and quantity. There has been, therefore, a dispute as to the exact locality of these lines, but the statement here given may be regarded as authentic.
The public square as designated in the plat, and now occupied by the court house, county buildings and Soldiers' Monument, was intended as an open space, the center of the future city, but the wishes of the founder in this respect have not been observed, and the lots have always been occupied to the street. The recorded plat is dated and signed by James Demint September 5, 1803, and was recorded in Greene County September 13, 1804, it being then included in the limits of that county:
BEAUTY OF LOCATION.
A more favorable location for a prosperous city could not have been selected. The extensive area of table-land that lay thirty feet or more above the level of Buck Creek, with an undulating surface, or rising into abrupt bluffs,. opened from this chosen site not only a varietv of scenery, but a broad range for an extended growth. We take the following description of the landscape from a faithful narrator-Dr. John Ludlow:
"The scenery had all the irregularity and variety of a New England landscape. without its hardness and abruptness. For several miles east and south of the new village of Springfield, the country was an undulating plain, which in the summer was covered with tall grass, mixed with a great variety of flowers. among which a species of wild pea, very fragrant but now extinct, was abundant. The country north for miles was an unbroken forest of large trees in
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great variety. The beautiful and never-failing stream called Buck Creek, or Lagonda, fringed its northern border with clear, running water. Mad River, with its rapid current. was within a couple of miles of its northwestern boundary. The `Rocks.' or perpendicular bluffs, filled with deep strata of solid limestone on either side of Buck Creek as it advanced toward its junction with Mad River, were covered with cedars, hanging vines, ferns, mosses and flowers; the wild grape-vine hung from the statelytrees and dipped its tendrils into the placid stream below: the sycamore bent its projecting boughs over its banks, while the sugar maple and mulberry. towering above, with the dogwood, redbud, spicewood, butternut, buckeye and other trees, with their variegated leaves, formed a beautiful and attractive picture. Near the mouth of Mill Run, a little rivulet which flowed near the south and west lines of the village, the scenery was unusually attractive and romantic. The little stream went tumbling over the rocks in order to reach the brief valley below and empty its waters into Buck Creek. On each side of this cascade, there were high, projecting rocks, covered with honeysuckles and wild vines and beautiful ferns, which hung down in festoons as a curtain to the chasm below., which was taller than a man's head. On the east side of this chasm, there was a large spring of water flowing from a round hole in the rock. with a strong current. remarkably cold, and depositing a yellow sediment. On the west side, there was another spring of delicious water, which, in after years, slaked the thirst of little fishing and picnic parties, who found delight on the banks of Buck Creek in the wild and picturesque. valley."
FIRST COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE.
The first commercial enterprise was inaugurated by Demint, who some time after his location erected a small still at the foot of the hill below his cabin, and near the present spring-house on the Northern School grounds. and began making "fire-water" for the Indians end settlers. Demint was a rough, reckless man. a type of the class who are always found upon the frontier. In his wife he had a suitable companion, a hard working affectionate woman, who was a help-meet for her husband in the hardships of a pioneer life. Among the denizens of the rocks along Buck Creek, were multitudes of rattlesnakes which were driven from their dens by Demint. his good wife assisting in smoking them out and killing them as they attempted to escape. It is said in one spring they killed ninety of these reptiles in this manner. Jesse Demint, son of James, shot and killed near the rocks an immense panther, which measured nine feet in length. and was supposed to be the last of its race in this vicinity.
CHARACTER OF DEMINT.
James Demint. although recognized for his many good qualities, had a passionate fondness for whisky and gambling. He frequently would mount his fine bay horse. for a visit to the neighboring towns where he usually indulged in a prolonged spree. On these visits he would supply himself with a new deck of cards, and eagerly engage with any one for small wagers. At one time, he was playing with a man who owned a very fine deck of cards. He took such a fancy to it that he determined to purchase it, but the owner refused to sell, and it was only when Mr. Demint offered him a deed in fee for any lot on the plat of Springfield which he might select, for the cards, that he was induced to part with the treasure. The exchange was made and the consideration for one of the finest and most valuable blocks in the city. was at one time a gambler's deck of cards. The founder of Springfield died about the year 1817, at the tavern of the Widow Fitch in Urbana. His widow, who was his second wife,
432 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
afterward married a man named John Rust. He followed teaming between Springfield and Cincinnati, and lived for several years about four miles from Springfield, on the old Dayton road. The venerable William Patrick, of Urbana, in a letter read at the Clark-Shawnee Centennial, says (Patrick) was an employe about the house of the Widow Fitch at that time, and remember on a summer evening that Mr. Demint rode up and ordered his horse put up, and took a room and would receive such persons as would minister to his chosen pastime, and other amusements. I have said already that he was addicted to drink; I do not mean, however, that he would stagger or wallow in the gutter he was of the kind that could drink deeply and not show intoxication. His great mania being for the enjoyment of his cherished game for small stakes, he followed his accustomed amusements at any points in the village that would screen him from the lynx-eyed officers of the law. He would frequently, during his stay, take a nap on a Iong bench that stood against a partition in the bar room, where, one evening, a little before sun down, the old landlady came to me and told me to wake up Mr. Demint and prepare for supper; and obeying the request, I went to him on the bench and shook him, and called him by name; but he stirred not, and to my horror I found him dead. He had gone to sleep to wake no more. And after the bustle and excitement of preparing the body for the cooling board was over, it being nearly 9 or 10 o'clock. John Fitch, the son of the old landlady, approached and asked me who would go to Boston (Springfield) and inform his wife. I immediately answered "I will go," so he immediately ordered the hostler to saddle and bridle the dead man's valuable gelding, and when all was ready he said to me "give me your foot," and immediately vaulted me into the saddle, slapping the horse or. the buttock, and addressing me waggishly, said: "Bill be careful that old Demint does not get on behind you." And although I was never subject to superstition, yet for the life of me I could not avoid looking askance occasionally during my lonely and melancholy ride that night, reaching my destination about daybreak, and breaking the sad news as well as I could to his wife. After taking some refreshment she immediately had a horse saddled and returned with me to Urbana, receiving the coffined remains of her husband and returning to Springfield for sepulture immediately."
GRIFFITH FOOS' ARRIVAL.
In 1801, Griffith Foos brought several families to Ohio from Kentucky. The Scioto Valley- at first attracted them, but, finding it malarious, they determined to seek a more congenial locality. In March, 1801. they came to Springfield on horseback from Franklinton, near Columbus, following Indian trails as their guides.
They had heard from hunters that the Mad River Valley was a healthy and beautiful region. and, when near what is now the county seat, they entered upon an Indian trail which they followed until they reached Mad River. They passed up the valley without observing the Humphrey's settlement, going in the direction of Urbana, until they reached "Pretty Prairie," then changing their course southwestward they followed Buck Creel: until they came to James Demint's cabin. The party enjoyed his hospitality For several days, and, after an inspection of the country, expressed themselves well pleased, and as Mr. Demint offered them valuable land at very low prices and stated his intention to lay out a town as soon as competent surveyors could be procured, Mr. Foos and party concluded to return to Franklinton, where they had left their families and household goods and bring them to Springfield. Four days and a half were required to move from Franklinton. a distance of forty miles. They made the first wagon track into Springfield from that direction. They were com-
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pelled to cut down trees to make a roadway and ford streams. They trans ported their goods over the Big Darby upon horses, and then drew their wagons over with ropes while some of the party waded and swam by the sides to prevent them from upsetting.
THE FIRST TAVERN.
We now enter more directly into the history of the development of Springfield, as a distinct feature of the county. Prior to June, 1801, the town plat as laid out by Demint was without an occupant. The log cabin on the bluff north of the creek was the only tenement visible. but as Mr. Foos had expressed a desire to locate here for the purpose of going into business soon after his return from the Scioto Valley, he began the erection of a house to be used as a tavern. It was a double log house, and was located on the south side of what is now Main street, a little west of Spring street. In June, 1801, he opened it to the public, and continued it until the 10th of May, 1814. These were the days of magnificent distances, and the patrons of Mr. Foos lived within a radius of forty miles. On the day announced for the raising of Mr. Foos' cabin, the set tlers came from all directions to participate in the festivities of the occasion. A "log cabin raising" was an event of the season. Plenty to eat and to drink, especially the latter, was furnished by the proprietor to all who chose to attend, with or without an invitation, the climax being attained by a dance in the evening which continued until the dawn began to glimmer through the trees. Mr. Foos died in 1858, having lived in Springfield over half a century. He saw it develop from a single house to a rapidly growing and flourishing inland town, and peopled by a class of men who were remarkable for their industry, enterprise and culture.
PICNIC TO YELLOW SPRINGS.
Mr. Demint did not receive much encouragement immediately after the laving-out of his village plat. His lots were not considered valuable investments, and but few improvements were made thereon for several years. The attractions in the vicinity were appreciated by the residents, but the fame thereof had not as yet spread abroad. The natural scenery at Yellow Springs had been highly extolled by passing hunters. Griffith Foos and Archibald Lowry determined to visit that locality. In the "leafy month of June" with their wives and on horseback they went, " picnicking" to the now popular resort. They were prepared to camp out. and, directing their course toward Dayton until they reached Knob Prairie near Enon and turning southeast following an Indian trail which ran in the direction of Mud Run. they came to the Springs, where they remained two days. unmolested by beast or savage, enjoying the beautiful scenery which was then worthy of tedious journey. Its wild luxuriance, unmarred by the encroachments of civilization, made it a subject for the cunning hand of the limner, and to this day. such has been the marvelous beauty Of some of its scenery, that it has been transferred to canvas by skillful artists. The excursionists discovered near the river. while rambling through the beautiful evergreens and shrubbery, the deep ravines and rumbling cascades what appeared to be two artificial wells cut in the solid rock about three feet in diameter, and several feet in depth. They were until recently visible a short distance from the Springs.
IMPROVEMENTS. MILLS, ETC.
Following the erection of the double lo cabin of Mr. Foos, a number of other buildings rose on different parts of the town plat. All were roughly built and did not add to the attractions of the place. The first "mansion" of any pre-
434 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
tensions after that of Mr. Foos was built in 18113 by Archibald Lowry, a brother of David Lowry. He owned a tract of land which was afterward laid out in town lots by his son, James Lowry. James was at one time a prominent business man of the city, but his latter days were spent with dissolute companions, and he was murdered some years ago in a wretched hole called "Rat Row," on Market street, in a midnight brawl. The new house built by Archibald Lowry was a large two-story hewed-log house on the alley first west of Limestone street, about half way to High street. It was the second public house in the place.
Necessity at the time suggested that the rapid waters of the stream which flowed along the southern limits of the village (night be utilized by furnishing power for grinding the corn and wheat raised in the fertile valleys. There were no mills nearer than Lebanon, Ohio, to which the settlers were obliged to convey their grain and purchase their flour. To make a market hearer home, Demint built a small grist-mill near the mouth of the stream on the spot afterward occupied by Fisher's old mill. The stream became known it, Mill Run, which name it holds to this day. This mill was the first in the vicinity. It had the capacity to grind about twenty-five bushels of corn every twenty-four hours.
DAYTON AND SPRINGFIELD ROAD.
In 1803, Congress passed a law donating 3 per cent of all money- received from sale of lands, for use on roads. In order to obtain the benefits of this law, a movement was inaugurated among those interested to establish communication between Dayton, Springfield and Columbus. A wagon road was surveyed in 1803, between Dayton and Springfield, which was afterward extended east toward Columbus. This road did not follow the principal or Main street of the then village, on account of the low swampy land which was on the east end of that street, but was located on South street. It soon became a thoroughfare, and had much to do in establishing the business center south of the original Main street. In after years, business houses were built along the principal lines of ingress and egress. Two years after the road had been located between Springfield and Dayton, one Capt. Moore and his brother Thomas, took the contract to open the road from Franklinton to Springfield. The advent of the. construction corps employed on this road was hailed with as much enthusiasm by the citizens of Springfield as in after years they welcomed the railroad and the locomotive. When within a few miles, the contractors made a frolic of the job and invited all the people to come and help them, so that they might go into Springfield in one day. Never was invitation responded to with greater alacrity. The road was finished in a day an event which was celebrated in the evening by an immense supper and a ball at Foos' Tavern.
THE CITY IN 1804.
The boast of the embryonic city in 1804 was about one dozen houses, all built of logs. Some of the most pretentious. such as Col. Daugherty's, Lowry's tavern and Charles Stowe's business building, had large stone chimneys, which were esteemed quite aristocratic. The houses of which the village was then composed were situated as follows: Near the southeast corner of Main and Market streets, a man named Fields kept a small repair shop: west and almost opposite, was a cooper-shop owned by John Reed; on the northeast corner of the same streets stood a log house, while a short distance west on the south side of what is now Main street, near Primrose alley, was a larger log structure occupied by Charles Stowe, of Cincinnati, as a general store. He was the first merchant in this place, and had a profitable trade with the Indians and hunt-
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ers. Another log house was on the southeast corner of Limestone and Main streets, and Col. Daugherty's large log house with its imposing stone chimneys was nearly opposite. A large two-story log house, which, in time of the Indian incursions incident to border life, was used as a block-house, stood near the southeast corner of High and Limestone streets. Not far from what was long known as "the old Buckeye corner," nearer the public square, was another cabin, in which two Frenchmen named Duboy and Lucroy sold goods suitable mostly to the Indian trade. The two taverns conducted by Foos and Lowry, with two or three cabins on Columbia street, composed the village of Springfield.
The health of the neighborhood is indicated in the fact that there were at that time only four graves in what is now known as the old graveyard. One of these was the grave of Mrs. Demint, who cued in the fall of 1803.
THE EARLY SETTLERS OF SPRINGFIELD.
Those who have been identified with the early settlement of a community leave their impress upon it. An insight into their habits, characters and modes of thought is essential to a thorough understanding of the growth and develop ment which was made possible by their early struggles. A study of New England without a knowledge of the Puritan character of the Plymouth fathers would be as valueless as a history of Old England without a thorough description of the Saxons and the Normans. Let us, therefore. take a glimpse at some of those hardy men whose names are linked with early life in Springfield.
John Daugherty first comes under our notice as engaged in laying out the town plat of the village, having been called to this work by Mr. Demint. He was a native of Virginia, who had come to Demint's from Kentucky. He was a man of considerable natural ability, uncouth in person, but endowed with the faculty of making friends among all classes. His persuasive manners made him popular among the pioneers. He held various offices of trust; was elected. Auditor of the county of Clark in 1818, Representative in the State Legislature daring the winters of 1820, 1821, 1822. and again in 1824. As he had proven an efficient Representative, he had little difficulty in being chosen to the State Senate from the district then composed of Clark. Champaign and Logan Counties. in 1825. The primitive method of electioneering, as used by this pioneer politician, was to make a personal canvass of the district on horseback, having a jug of whisky in each end of his saddle-bags. An intuitive insight into character suggested to him when to use a direct appeal for support, and when the more indirect, but equally as potent, influence of the jug should prevail. A ready wit, fluent speech and courteous bearing gained him a large following. At the close of his political life, he moved to a farm in Springfield Township, about two miles south of Springfield, where he died in 1832.
ROBERT RENNICK.
That portion of the city now known as the West End was originally owned by Robert Rennick, jointly with James Demint. Mr. Rennick at first settled in Springfield Township, but, soon after Demint's location of the town, he became a resident there. His land. which was in Section 5, Township 4, Range 9, was set apart to him upon a mutual division of the tract, which, as stated before, he owned in common with Demint. The east half, by this partition, came into the possession of the latter, while the former held the west half, the eastern boundary of which ran along the line called Yellow Springs street. He was a man of indomitable will and enterprise. The small mill at the mouth of Mill Run could not meet the demand made upon it from the surrounding country,
436 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
which fact induced Mr. Rennick, during the years 1806 and 1807, to build a larger mill on Buck Creek, on the opposite bank, and a little below what is now Fern Cliff Cemetery. It became a valuable acquisition to the new settlement, and long continued in successful operation. About fifteen or twenty years later, this mill, together with the farm on the north side of the creek, came into the possession of a Mr. Henry Bechtle, who continued the business successfully as late as 1835. After the death of Mr. Bechtle, the mill was abandoned, and finally torn down.
Mr. Rennick, in 1820, held the office of Justice of the Peace. His rulings were marked by a profound contempt for the decisions of the higher courts, but were tempered by a sturdy common sense, which guided him aright. He was frequently a law unto himself, and served his own writs if a Constable was not convenient or suitable to his mind. At one time, a man charged with horse stealing was arrested and brought before him. As the modern features of jail or station-house had not been provided, and it became necessary to retain the prisoner overnight to secure the attendance of an important witness, Squire Rennick proceeded to improvise a pair of stocks. He split a log in halves, and hewed them so that, when joined again, two holes sufficiently large to insert the prisoner's legs were made. In these holes his legs were placed, the log pinioned first, and the offender secured. He then laid the man thus fastened in a convenient place on the ground, confident that he would not forfeit his recognizance for his appearance, the next day.
JONAH BALDWIN.
One of the Commissioners in the council with Tecumseh held in the village in 1801 was Jonah Baldwin, who was selected because of his sound judgment and excellent character. He came to Springfield in 1804, a young and then unmarried man. He built a large two-story frame house some years after his arrival, on a lot a little east of Limestone street, on Main street. Here he opened a tavern, which also served him as an office as a Justice of the Peace. He had a remarkable memory for dates and circumstances connected with the history of the nation. Mr. Baldwin died near Springfield in 1865, having attained the age of eighty-eight years.
WALTER SMALLWOOD.
In the spring of 1804. Walter Smallwood, with his young wife, came from Virginia, purchased a lot on the south side of Main street and erected a residence near where the Western House now stands. He was a valuable acquisition, as he was the. first, and, for a number of years, the only, blacksmith in the place. Mrs. Smallwood was a woman of superior intellect, cultivated manners, and very active in all matters pertaining to the social improvement of the community. She became one of the original members of the first Methodist societies organized here. She was remarkably gifted in prayer. Her choice words and sweet voice, melting in its tenderness, were frequently heard in supplication in the religious worship of that church. Mrs. Smallwood became the mother of six children-three boys and three girls-all of whom reached mature years, and, under the early teachings of a pious mother, identified themselves with religious organizations. The oldest son, Louis, went farther west in 1832, and settled in Lexington, Mo., where he engaged in the practice of his profession, the law. He served several terms as Clerk of the Court at Lexington, with credit. In 1852. Mr. and Mrs. Smallwood followed their children to Missouri. Their youngest son. Walter, who had learned the trade of a painter, and also studied law while in Springfield. became a Judge in one of the inferior courts
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in Missouri. He entered the Union army during the rebellion, serving a portion of the time as staff , officer. At the close of the war, he went to Mississippi, where he assisted in framing the new constitution of that State, and wrote a very able address to the Senate of the United States in advocacy of its approval by that body. The Smallwoods were all loyal during the rebellion, and none more so than their aged father. The following anecdote of Mr. Smallwood is related by a writer in Harper's Magazine, and is characteristic of his intrepid character: "When the rebel Gen. Price, with his army, was making a raid in the vicinity of Lexington, Mo., Mr. Smallwood was standing one morning at the gate in front of his house in that city, when a rebel officer rode rapidly up to him and inquired if he could inform him where Gen. Price and his army was. The old gentleman gazed indignantly at the officer, a moment, and then replied, `I don't know, sir, where they are, but can tell you where they ought to be at this moment.' The officer innocently asked, 'Where?' Mr. Smallwood, raising his cane and shaking it with great violence at the rebel officer, exclaimed, in a loud voice, `In hell, sir, in hell?' The officer pursued his inquiry no farther, but rode rapidly away."
Mr. Smallwood buried his wife in Missouri before the war, following in "1869, at the age of eighty-seven years.
REV. SAUL HENKLE.
The first settled minister of the Methodist Church in Springfield was Rev. Saul Henkle, who came from Hardy County, Virginia in the spring of 1809, on horseback, with his young wife and child, two months old. He moved in the log house built by Archibald Cowry, then occupied as a tavern, and continued to live there until he built his one-story brick house on High street in 1825. where he lived the remainder of his life.
Mr. Henkle was a regularly ordained preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but joined the Protestant Methodists soon after their organization. He was a devout Christian and an exemplary citizen, living to promote the moral and religious welfare of the people in the village and neighboring country. His ministerial life covered a period of twenty-eight years. At every marriage feast and every funeral ceremony, he officiated, and neither would have been complete without him. A funeral in those days was attended with a solemnity unobserved at the present time. The coffin rested upon a simple bier, and was carried on the shoulders of four or six men, walking to the grave. The officiating minister preceded the coffin, and the pall-bearers, the mourners and friends, with,"solemn step and slow, " walked behind in twos. When the procession began to move, the minister would commence the singing of a familiar hymn, in which the rest ,would join, and which they continued until they reached the grave. The usual hymn sung on these occasions was the one beginning
"Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound."
In the year 1827, Mr. Henkle edited and published a religious paper called The Gospel Trumpet. He performed all the labor at his residence on High street. He also wrote some editorials for the Western Pioneer. In 1830, he was elected to the office of Clerk of the Court, in which position he proved an efficient and popular officer.
He was a man a little below the ordinary height, of rather slender form, inclined to stoop in the shoulders, with a remarkably pleasant face, and manner indicating his ministerial office. In the pulpit, his speaking was extemporaneous. He was slow in delivery, but his words were appropriately chosen, and his thoughts were entertaining and instructive. His first wife died in Septem-
440 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
ber, 1825, and he married again in 1829. He died in Springfield in 1837 in the fifty-fifth year of his age. His second wife, a most excellent woman, Survived him about thirty-seven years. She was a very active and consistent member of the High Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Saul Henkle, Esq., now of Washington City, and Mrs. J. S. Halsey, were their children.
JOHN AMBLER.
John Ambler came from New Jersey to Springfield in 1808. remaining but a short time, when he purchased and removed to a farm on Mud Run. The occupation of farming not being congenial to his tastes, he soon sold his farm, and removed, with his wife and children, to Springfield. Among the residents when he first came to the village were Griffith Foos and Archibald Lowry, tavern-keepers; Mr. Hodge and Samuel Simonton, merchants; Walter Smallwood, blacksmith; James Shipman, tailor; Mr. Doyle, saddler; Mr. Fields, who kept a repair-shop for articles in wood and iron; Dr. Richard Hunt, the first physician; and Col. Daugherty, the surveyor. In 1812, Mr. Ambler was both merchant and tavern-keeper, occupying a small log house nearly opposite the Mad River National Bank. He was a very public-spirited, worthy gentleman, and among the foremost to advocate the prosperity of the place. When Springfield became the county seat,'he was elected Treasurer, and used his private residence as the office. This building was a two-story brick house, on Main street. on the northwest corner of the alley west of Factory street. Mr. Ambler and Maddox Fisher were the contractors for building the first court house; also, to inclose the old graveyard on Columbia street with a stone wall. He also donated one-half of the lot now used by the First Presbyterian Church, of which he was one of the original members, and contributed largely to the first church building thereon, paying for and doing a portion of its painting.
Mr. Ambler died shortly after, turning over the books and papers of the Treasurer's office to James S. Halsey, who had been elected his successor. Mrs. Ruth Shipman, mother of John Shipman, present Postmaster, was the daughter of Mr. Ambler.
COOPER LUDLOW.
Cooper Ludlow, who came to Clark County in 1805 and settled in Springfield Township, near the first Mad River bridge west of the city, was a tanner by trade, and worked a tannery in connection with his farm. In 1812, he moved into Springfield, and kept a public inn on the corner of Main and Factory streets. He was an industrious citizen. and invaluable in laying the foundations of Springfield's prosperity. Mr. Ludlow was twice married. Dr. John Ludlow, President of the First National Bank, was his son by his first wife. His second wife was the mother of Abraham Ludlow, member of the City Council, and of the extensive manufacturing firm of Thomas, Ludlow & Rodgers, George Ludlow, ex-member of the police force, and three other sons. and one daughter, Mrs. Ferrill. His descendants have been valuable citizens, and have aided much in promoting the prosperity of the place of which their ancestor had been one of the founders. The house of Mr. Ludlow for many years was on the southwest corner of High and Factory streets. and but recently gave place to the new High-School building.
PEARSON SPINNING.
Among the first merchants. who contributed largely by his wealth and enemy toward the prosperity of the village, was Pearson Spinning, who came to Springfield from Dayton in the fall of 1812. He at once entered upon the
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sale of dry goods. and continued in that business until 1834, when, having accumulated a large property, he was considered the wealthiest man in the place. For many years, it was Mr. Spinning's custom to make a trip to New York City and Philadelphia once a year. on horseback, to purchase goods, and, owing to a lameness with which he was afflicted, always rode on a side-saddle. It required about six weeks, then. to make the trip. The goods he bought-were brought over the Allegheny Mountains in wagons to Pittsburgh, and in keel-boats floated clown the Ohio River to Cincinnati, and from there to Springfield in wagons. Freight then averaged about $6 per hundred weight, while wheat only brought 37 cents per bushel. In 1827, he built his fine residence on the east side of Limestone street. which now forms a part of the King building, and. in 1830, lie commenced the block of buildings on the northwest corner of Main and Limestone streets, known as the "Buckeye" building, and at one time occupied as a hotel. In 1837, Mr. Spinning took large contracts in the public works of the State then in progress, in which he lost a large portion of his property. After this, lie continued the business of his hotel, called the "Buckeye House," for several years, and later in life he acted in the capacity of Justice of the Peace. Mr. Spinning was born in Elizabethtown, N. J., in and died in Springfield in 1857, in the seventy-first year of his age.
GRANNY ICENBARGER.
We are indebted to Dr. John Ludlow for the following description of two original characters. for many years familiar to the residents of Springfield: 'Granny' Icenbarger. as every one called her, was no ordinary person in the early history of the town. She came here with her family during the war of l 1812. They were Germans. and the family consisted of four children, the aforesaid Granny. and a wild and drunken husband. The family were supported by the old lady in the manufacture and sale of cakes and beer, in which capacity she gained a wide popularity among the people of both town and country. She was a woman of unblemished character, and diligent in her calling. She was admitted within the bounds of all camp-meetings, and was a regular attendant of all military musters and other public gatherings, where her cakes and beer were made part of the programme, and many a hungry and thirsty soul was replenished at her board. Her kindness of disposition to all, especially to the children. gained for her the respect of every individual. Slip ever had a cake as a reward for kind acts from boys, and all stood ready to befriend her. She was a portly, good-natured and motherly looking person, and lived in town for more than a quarter of a century of its early history.
"For several years after she came, she lived and conducted her business in a log house on the west side of Market street, not far from the southwest corner of Main street. It was while she lived in this cabin that her husband died. He was a small. thin man, with very slender and crooked legs, which seemed to stand very far apart when he walked, and when lie was under the influence of liquor, which was nearly always the case, he was extremely noisy, and danced and hopped about in the wildest manner, and was a source of much trouble to his wife. At the time of his death. I remember going to their house, in company with some other boys, to show our sympathy and gratify our curiosity on the occasion.
"It was in the evening, and the old lady met us at the door and said to us: Law me! pot's, to olt man is tet: what a pity!' After telling her son to hold the candle that we might see the remains, she told us, in her simplicity, how much it would cost her to bury him. Nevertheless, we thought she was deeply afflicted at her loss, though we boys expected to see her rejoice at his departure. Granny Icenbarger died in Springfield in 1839."
442 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
JOEL WALKER.
In the two-story log house in which the first court was held (near the present location of the First Baptist Church), there lived for many years a very eccentric and notable pioneer named Joel Walker. He came to Springfield among its first settlers, and one of his brothers lived among the Wyandot Indians. Mr. Walker, unlike his brother, was a man of plausible manners and smooth words, whose chief occupation consisted in a careful attention to everybody's business but his own. He was "headquarters" for all the gossip and news of the village, and a standing witness in court. While regularly imbibing his "morning dram." he carefully kept himself from drunkenness and profanity. His greatest vice was the excessive laziness, loafing much of the time, leaving the support of his family to the labors of his wife and daughters. He made a seeming care of the morals and welfare of the community. He wore a stout leather belt, fastened ;around his body by a large buckle, as a substitute for suspenders, with which he often strapped his boys for being trifling and lazy. By shrewdness or politeness to a stranger, or the proffer of a bunch of tanzy. he procured his "morning dram" at the bar of some tavern, or perhaps by the recital of some funny anecdote, cracking a joke, or giving one of his long and peculiarly load laughs, he satisfied his love of the ardent for the day. If he had nothing to eat at home, he managed to drop into the house of a neighbor at meal time and accept the invitation to "set up" at the table. He was a very singular mail. and, by, his eccentricities, he afforded much amusement and flan in the town. So noted were his lazy habits that it became a common expression by any citizen then out of employment, if asked what he was doing, to reply, "Helping Joe Walker."
Another peculiar character was a son of Granny Icenbarger, who was familiarly and widely known as "Gabe." Gabe had inherited some of his father's weak elements, and had several times been arrested for violation of the law. Upon one occasion, he was brought before His Honor, Judge Swan, then Presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, on an indictment for unlawfully selling liquor. Upon his plea of guilty, the Judge announced a fine of $25. Gabe very impudently responded by telling the Judge to charge it, as he had an open account with the county. The indignant Judge added thirty days' imprisonment to the fine. Gabe was hustled off to the jail, but insisted that his kit of tools----being a shoemaker--should be sent him. Having procured some leather, he worked assiduously at his trade, and when his time expired he refused to leave. when ordered out. He said that he had an understanding with the Judge by which he was to occupy the jail permanently. It was finally necessary to eject him by legal process.
LITTLE DADDY VICORY.
Merryfield Vicory an odd but genial character, located in Springfield in the year 1814. and soon afterward received and held the sobriquet of "Little Daddy Vicory." He was a short, round man, with a jolly face. He had been a drummer in the Revolutionarv war. and had his drum shot from his side by a cannon ball at the siege of Yorktown. Mr. Vicory in one instance displayed skill and bravery in catching a thief while stealing some bacon, from his smoke house. He seized the thief and tied him fast with a rope, and it being Sunday morning. kept him in confinement until the horn for church. when he drove the thief down Main street under threatenings of a large club, with two sides of bacon swinging over his shoulders. He went so far in his efforts to humiliate that thief as to take him to the door of the Presbyterian Church and ask the people there assembled if they claimed him as one of their members. The
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thief was never after seen in the town. Mr. Vicory received a pension from the Government, and, soon after his settlement here., he bought ten acres of land on the old Columbus road, on what afterward became the east end of High street. He was father of Mr. Freeman Vicory, another esteemed citizen, who inherited the property, and spent his days also in Springfield. Mr. Merryfield Vicory was buried with military honors, in March, 1840, aged seventy-seven years.
JAMES WALLACE.
James Wallace was a native of Kentucky, and came to Ohio when he was a boy of fourteen years old. During the war of 1812, he brought the mail once a week to Springfield on horseback, returning with the same to Cincinnati. He settled in Springfield about the year 1814; apprenticed himself to William Moody, a harness and saddle manufacturer, but, before finishing his trade, he bought the remainder of his time, and, by the assistance of Pearson Spinning, he opened a store in the village of Lisbon. He soon returned, however, and entered Mr. Spinning's store as partner,* where lie, and Mr. Fisher, on opposite corners, kept up a lively competition. In 1823, Mr. Wallace had a store in his own name, in the brick building immediately east of the present Mad River National Bank building, where for several years he continued as a leading merchant. Mr. Wallace was a very affable man, a good talker, somewhat excitable, and an excellent salesman. He was opposed to any one leaving his store without purchasing goods, and often he was seen enticing customers in from the streets or pavement as they were passing along. He kept a great variety of goods, so it became proverbial, if an article could not be found elsewhere, it could be had at "Jimmy Wallace's." Becoming unfortunately embarrassed in his business in later years, he sold put and left Springfield. He maintained, however, during these and subsequent days, his standing in the Presbyterian Church, and reached a good age ere the day of his death.
DR. NEEDHAM.
One of the pioneers in the profession of medicine in Springfield, Dr. William A. Needham, came from Vermont in 1814. He first .lived in a small log house in the vicinity of Lagonda, but, in 1817, moved into his new frame house on the southwest corner of Main street and the alley east of Limestone street, opposite the building now owned by William Burns. The Doctor became a popular physician and leading citizen. He was a jovial man, full of quips and pert sayings, and his social qualities and kindness of heart gained for him a large circle of friends. He was the father of the wives of Samson Mason and Jonah Baldwin. and died in Springfield in 1832. aged sixty-five years.
ELIJAH BEARDSLEY.
Elijah Beardsley, originally from Connecticut, came to Springfield in 1815. bringing with him a wife, two sons and six daughters. He first occupied a log house that stood near the southeast corner of Plum and Main streets, and, with all its inconveniences, he made it pleasant to many a weary traveler who wished to tarry for the night. One of Mr. Beardslev's daughters in later years married Ira Paige, and another, Laura, married James S. Christie, who, with her husband, is still living, and among the oldest of the present inhabitants of this city. Except a temporary residence of nearly three years in Cincinnati, Mr. Beardsley lived in Springfield until his death, October 2, 1826, aged sixty-six years.
* Mr. Wallace returned from Lisbon and was partner with Mr. Spinning on the northwest corner of Limestone and Main streets. In 1823, Mr. Wallace had a store of his own on the northeast corner of Limestone and Main street.. Subsequently Mr. Wallace's store was moved to the brick house named, where the Republic Printing Company is now located.
444 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
MADDOX FISHER.
Maddox Fisher, who came from Kentucky with his family in 1831, became one of the most enterprising and public-spirited of the early settlers of Springfield. He possessed considerable wealth, and, soon after his arrival, purchased twenty-five lots, at $25 per lot, of Mr. Demint. most of them being located in the vicinity of the public square. He opened a dry-goods store on Main street. a little west of Limestone street. While prosecuting with energy his own trade, he was ever ready, by his influence and wealth to aid in the improvement of the place he had chosen as his home, and which he believed would eventually become a large city. In 1814. lie built a cotton-factory on the Rocks, near where Mill Run empties into Buck Creek. taking the place of Dernint's old mill. It continued operations a few years, when it was changed into a flouring-mill. In this mill he did a profitable business until November. 1834. where the mill was destroyed by• fire, at a loss of $6,000. The building of this factory. and afterward mill, seemed to have marked a turning-point in the history of Springfield. Prior to this, little business was doing; the inhabitants appeared discouraged. real estate had depreciated. and hard tinges were depressing. But this improvement of Mr. Fisher's gave a new impulse to trade and further growth. In 1815, he built a two-story brick house on the east side of Limestone street. just north of the public square. designing the same for a store and dwelling. In 1825, he built a handsome residence on the corner of North and Limestone streets, which afterward was partially incorporated in the fine dwelling of the late Dr. Robert Rodgers. In 1824. he served. with general acceptance as Postmaster, and, in 1830, lie erected the store and residence (since enlarged and built into a handsome block of four stories) now owned by his son. M. W. Fisher, on the southwest corner of Main and Limestone streets.
Mr. Fisher was a native of Delaware. where lie was married at the age of twenty, after which he moved to Kentucky, and thence to Springfield. He was a man of medium height, somewhat fleshy, a true gentleman of the old school, a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. quite entertaining in conversation, and very hospitable and kind to strangers, as well as to his numerous friends. He generally wore a straight-breasted, dark broadcloth coat. and his polished. silver-headed cane. and his well-filled silver snuff-box in one of his spacious vest pockets, were his constant companions. He died in this city October 22, 1830, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
IRA PAIGE.
Ira Paige was another prominent person who settled in Springfield in 1814. He was a native of Massachusetts, and, soon after his arrival, he established a woolen-factory, with Mr. James Taylor as partner. near by or in the basement of Fisher's flouring-mill, where jeans and flannels and woolen rolls were manufactured for customers. This business -was continued by Mr. Paige for more than fifteen years, and was considered then an extensive factory. In 1832 and 1833. he represented the county in the lower branch of the State Legislature, and subsequently he became an Associate Judge of the Common Pleas Court, and sat upon the bench with Judges Service and McKinnon. During the latter part of his life. Judge Paige was engaged in farming. He was a man of excellent judgment and good, sound sense, coupled with intelligence, strict integrity and fine social qualities. By his influence and force of character, he added much to the moral and social condition of the village and town. He died in Springfield in July. 1847. in the fifty-eighth year of his age.
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JAMES JOHNSON.
James Johnson, a native of England, came to Springfield at an early date, and, in 1816, he built a large two story stone house on the south side of Main street, between Factory street and the alley east. He built also a small, one story addition on the east end of this house, where, in 1817. he manufactured cut nails by hand. The nails used in building Dr. Needham's house were made here, and for several months the citizens were supplied with the article from Mr. Johnson's factory. He afterward removed to Pike Township, on Donnel's Creek, where he had purchased a farm, and erected a small mill. He here spent the remainder of his days. The two-story stone house was taken down in 1871. by Edwin L. Houck, who erected in its stead a fine three-story block, with a spacious hall in the third story.
MAJOR CHRISTIE.
The last of the early settlers to whom we shall here call attention is Robert Christie, or Maj. Christie, as he was more familiarly known. He came from Washington County, Vermont, in the fall of 1817. with his second wife and eight children. and his aged father. Deacon Jesse Christie, then in his eighty-first year. A small frame house on Main street. below Yellow Springs street, was his first residence, but the year following his arrival he located on what is known as the Bechtle farm. a part of which now constitutes the largest portion of Fern Cliff Cemetery. There was an unbroken forest from his residence east as far as Demint's cabin, extending north several miles. The land occupied by Wittenberg College and Fern Cilff was heavily timbered. the maple predominating over other trees. The wild grape festooned the trees in wild luxuriance. The species known as the fox grape was a very desirable fruit, and gathered in large quantities. Small game, with occasionally specimens of larger and more dangerous animals, furnished sport for the expert hunter. A species of panther and several deer were shot while the Major resided on this farm. The Major was a wide-awake man, nervous, and quick in all his movements. and had a very intelligent and social family. His humble but hospitable dwelling was often the scene of merriment and good cheer, and the frequent resort of the neighbors and friends. On the 8th of April, 1819, his daughter Mary was married to Louis Bancroft. Their wedding tour was simply a horseback ride, both riding the same horse, from the farm to their new abode in the village. On the 8th day of April, 1869, Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft celebrated their golden wedding-in all probability the first event of the kind that occurred in the annals of this city.
A singular circumstance occurred in Maj. Christie's family while residing on the Bechtle farm. Their youngest daughter, Sarah, who was then in her teens. was very ill with the tphoid fever. and preparations were made for her shroud and funeral. But a' young physician who called to express his sympathy for the afflicted family, on seeing the supposed corpse, thought he discovered that the vital spark was still lingering. After labored efforts, her resusci tation was effected. She fully recovered from the illness, and lived to be twice married and rear a family of four sons and two daughters.
Of Maj. Christie's sons, two of them, James S. and Jesse Christie, Jr., became residents of Springfield, where they were influential men, taking an active part in the promotion of all that pertained to the welfare of the people. They were both for many years Elders m the First Presbyterian Church. The elder, James S. Christie, was particularly active in all the religious movements of the churches. He had the entire confidence of the people, and was several times recipient of the unsolicited office of Justice of the Peace.
446 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
The youngest son of Maj. Christie, Robert, was an early settler of Scott County, Iowa, and at one time an influential citizen of Davenport, Iowa. In August, 1822, Maj. Christie died, in the forty-seventh year of his age. He was buried with Masonic honors, in which fraternity he held an exalted rank. In January of the succeeding year, his father, Jesse, followed him, in his eighty-seventh year.
STEADY GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE.
Having briefly sketched the lives of some of the principal characters who were identified with the foundation of the future city, whose names are inseparably connected with its infant growth and development, and whose patient endurance, enterprise and sagacity gave it an impulse which has been repeated by their descendants in later years, we may return to a more detailed narration of the progress which was steadily made. All the difficulties which were com mon to the settlements on the frontier were the lot of the young village. The facilities for intercourse with the world beyond were limited, markets were few and inaccessible, material for the erection of buildings and machinery for the manufacture of articles of necessity were not to be had. The danger of incursion from the savage tribes kept the whites in a constant state of alarm, and prevented the immigration which would have been gladly welcomed. But, notwithstanding these difficulties, the little cluster of log cabins on the east fork of Mad River began to stretch along the slopes.
A post office, with its weekly mail carried on horseback from Cincinnati, was, according to the official records at Washington, established in 1804, with Richard McBride as the first Postmaster. There seems to be a discrepancy between this statement and the recollections of some of those whose memories run far back into the early years, who assert that no postoffice was established until 1814, and that Robert Rennick was the first Postmaster. He kept the office in his mill on Buck Creek, and subsequently in a little cabin that stood a short distance west of the Republic Printing Company's building, on Main street.
The architectural demand for improvement upon the unsightly log cabins was first met by Samuel Simonton who began in May, 1804, to erect a two-story frame house on the northeast corner of Main and Factory streets. When this building was in the progress of erection, a tornado, but thirty yards wide, came sweeping over the place from the southwest, taking a northeasterly direction until it struck this house, when it changed to an easterly course. So violent was the storm that the upper story was badly injured, which induced the owner to reduce its height to one story, and postpone its completion until the following spring. Several log cabins in the course of the storm were thrown down, others unroofed, and considerable damage done to fences. Mr. Simonton kept tavern in this building, and, in later years, had a store on the corner of Main and Limestone streets, long known as the "Buckeye Corner." He finally sold this establishment to Pearson Spinning and removed to New Carlisle, in this county, where he built a mill on Honey Creek.
Demint found that the demand for lots was growing. and that a preference existed for those which abutted on South, now Drain, street, because that was now the thoroughfare, the road running between Dayton and Springfield as before stated having followed this street. Demint, therefore, in the early part of the year 1804, laid out a second addition to the village. This was an extension of the first plat west as far as Race street. In this plat the name of South street was changed to Main street, and the original street by the latter name was obliged to be content with a more modest title.
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CITY OF SPRINGFIELD. - 449
THE FIRST SCHOOL.
Prior to the year 1806, no attention had been paid to the education of the children of the settlement. The rugged life of the pioneer found no great advantage to be derived from learning. They had "books in the running brooks and sermons in stones." A knowledge of woodcraft and unerring skill with the rifle were deemed sufficient for the time. The loose, unrestrained habits which always vanish as civilization advances, bringing with it culture and respect for order and sobriety, still lingered here. Drunkenness and lawlessness prevailed. The voice of the minister in rebuke was not heard, nor had the influence of religious associations been suggested. But, in 1806, the necessity of establishing a school became apparent, and Nathaniel Pinkered became the founder of the educational system in Springfield. He opened a school in a log house on the northeast corner of Main and Market streets. All the branches embraced in the common school system of that day were taught.
The same year which began the educational history of Springfield found also an awakening interest in religious matters. The Miami Methodist Episcopal Circuit, which was established in 1800, extended northward from Cincin nati and included Clark County within its bounds. There had been but little organization among the church people. Mrs. Smallwood had called several of the sisters in the Methodist Church together and formed a temporary society, but even the itinerant minister had not penetrated before this time into the forests along Mad River. This year, 1806, however, the Miami Circuit was in charge of Rev. John Thompson who extended his labors to Springfield, visiting it at stated periods. Two Methodist preachers named Saile and Goble also preached alternately here every three or four weeks. They held services in the log house on the northeast corner of Main and Market streets, where Pinkered kept his school. Rev. Mr. McGuire rode the circuit in 1807, and Rev. Milligan in 1808. The pulpit was supplied irregularly by ministers of the Miami Circuit until Rev. Saul Henkle, who moved into the place in 1809, began to hold stated religious services. There was also preaching occasionally by ministers of other denominations, who held their services in Foos' tavern or out-doors if the weather permitted. But to the Methodist Church belongs the credit of first establishing public worship.
FIRST CHURCH BUILDING.
The interest which had been created in religious worship by the Methodist Church led members of other sects to similar efforts. During the winter of 1810-11, the "New Lights" as they were then called) or Christian denomination, were successful in a revival of religion. This led to an organization of a New Lights or Christian Society. The members felt strong enough to begin the erection of a church. A general call was made upon the citizens of the place, which met with a hearty response. Mr. Griffith Foos gave toward this building a fine young horse valued at $10, which seems to have been a fair price for a horse at that time. As all the citizens, irrespective of their tendency or affiliation with other sects, contributed to a common fund for the erection of a church edifice, it was determined to make it a free church for all denominations. This catholic spirit was in accord with the general character of the pioneers, who opposed exclusivenes or caste in religion as in society. The site selected was on the south side of the lot west of Mill Run, and south of Main street, just in the rear of Funk's building. It was built of hewed logs about twenty by thirty feet in size. The pulpit opposite the door was made of rough, unpainted boards, and stood high up from the floor. The ground around the building for several yards south was dry and slightly elevated and neatly sodded. In the midst of this lawn stood three or four large spreading burr oaks,
450 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
which gave. the tempting shade in summer. Near the church door lay a large gray bowlder upon which many a saint and sinner sat. In 1818, this church was used as a schoolhouse. but, in 1825, it had been converted into a mere shelter for hogs and cattle.
The same sect, the New Lights, also had a camp meeting here about this time which attracted to it. with those who attended for devout purposes, a large number of depraved men, who were riotous in their conduct and disgraceful in their behavior. One person in particular attracted attention. His name was Jack Eels, said to have been the wickedest man in the neighborhood. He visited the camp meeting one day somewhat intoxicated. and began to make fun of the worshipers. especially of the peculiar "jerks" which characterized many who were converted. Jack said it was all a sham. But the jerks (whether from the influence of liquor or not, the veracious historian does not state), prostrated him so completely that his friends were obliged to carry him home in an exhausted condition.
A SEAT OF JUSTICE.
Before the Legislature organized the county of Clark. the temporary seat of justice for the county of which it was then a part was Springfield, and the place for holding court was the house of George Fithian. The Presiding Judge of the first Court of Common Pleas was Francis Dunlevy. John Reynolds, Samuel McCullough and John Runyan were the first Associate Judges. Arthur St. Clair was Prosecuting Attorney, John Daugherty, Sheriff, and Joseph C. Vance, Clerk. The first grand jury was composed of the following citizens of the county: Joseph Layton. Adam McPherson. Jonathan Daniels. John Humphreys, John Reed, Daniel McKinnon, Thomas Davis, William Powell, Justis Jones, Christopher Wood. Caleb Carter, William Chapman, John Clark, John Lafferty. Robert Rennick. Among the first Petit Jurors were Paul Huston. Charles Rector, Jacob Minturn, James Reed, James Bishop and Abel Crainford.
In September, 1805, the court was organized for the transaction of business. The first case tried was "The State of Ohio vs. Taylor," who had been indicted for threatening to burn the barn of Griffith Foos. At the first session of the Supreme Court held in 1805, the Judges were Samuel Huntington, Chief Justice, with William Sprigg and Daniel Symmes, Associate Justices. This court was held in a two-story log house which then stood in an open common near the southeast corner of High and Limestone streets. The only criminal case tried before this court was "The State against Isaac Bracken, Archibald Dawden and Robert Rennick." upon an indictment for an assault upon an Indian named Kanawa Tuckow. The defendants pleaded not guilty, and taking issue "for plea put themselves upon God and their country." The jury was composed of William McDonald. Sampson Talbott, Justis Jones, George Croft and others. The attorney for the defendants was Joshua Collett, who afterward was one of the Judges of the Supreme Court. The defendants were found not guilty, having proven that the Indian was a very bad and dangerous character and had persisted in occupying Rennick's land in opposition to his wishes. As an illustration of the bitter prejudice which existed at this time among the settlers against the Indians, one of the jurors of the case, before the trial openly declared that he would never bring in a verdict against a white man for assaulting an Indian.
TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.
The bloodthirsty Indian wars which had raged along the borders had scarcely ceased, when the settlement of Springfield was made. Its effect upon both sides was yet plainly visible. It had been a warfare full of malignant
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD. - 451
spirit. So outrageous had been the acts committed by the Indians on helpless women and children. that the settlers were bound in a common cause against them. During the summer of 1807, the inhabitants were frequently alarmed at reported incursions of the Indians against them. When these rumors seemed to have foundation, all the families were collected in a two-story log house which then stood on the southeast corner of High and Limestone streets, and remained there until the alarm subsided. While the community was in this agitated condition in the autumn of 1801, a white man by the name of Myers was killed by a band of strolling Indians a few miles west of Urbana, and a family by the name of Elliott. living on Mad River not far from the present residence of Peter Sintz. had been frightened by a rifle shot piercing the sunbonnet of Mrs. Elliott, while gathering wood in their door-yard, supposed to have been sent by an Indian. who a few days before had been refused the use of a butcher knife.
These outrages taken in connection with the assemblage of the Indians under Tecumseh and the Prophet, created a great alarm among the people of Springfield and surrounding country. Many families moved back to Kentucky, whence they came : others were formed into companies of militia, and Foos' tavern was converted into a garrison. A demand was made by the whites upon the Indians for the persons who had committed these unlawful acts. The Indians denied that these things were done with their knowledge or consent. The alarm. however, continued, and it was finally agreed that a council should be held on the subject in Springfield for the purpose of settlement. Gen. Whiteman, Maj. Moore. Capt. Ward and two others acted as Commissioners on the part of the whites.
The council assembled in Sugar Grove. that then stood on or near Main street, opposite the Foos tavern. Two bands of Indians attended the council, one from the north in charge of McPherson; the other, consisting of sixty or seventy braves, came from the neighborhood of Fort Wayne under the charge of Tecumseh. Roundhead. Blackfish and other chiefs were also present. There was no friendly feeling between these two parties; and each was willing that the blame of the outrages should be fixed upon the other. The party under McPherson, in compliance with the request of the Commissioners, left their weapons a few miles from Springfield. But Tecumseh and his party refused to attend the council unless permitted to retain their arms. The reason Tecumseh gave was that his tomahawk contained his pipe and he might have occasion to smoke. After the conference was opened. the Commissioners, fearing some violence still, made another effort to have Tecumseh lay aside his weapon. This he positively refused to do. At this moment, Dr. Richard Hunt, a tall, slim young man recently from Pennsylvania, and a boarder at Foos' tavern, thinking to reconcile matters with Tecumseh. cautiously approached and handed the chief an old long-stemmed earthen pipe intimating that if he would give up his tomahawk, he might smoke the aforesaid pipe. Tecumseh took the pipe between his thumb and finger, held it up, looked at it for a moment, then at the owner, who was gradually receding from the point of danger, and with an indignant sneer immediately threw it over his head into the bushes. The Commissioners then yielded the point and proceeded to business.
After a full and patient inquiry into the facts of the case, it appeared that the murder of Myers was the act of a single Indian, and not chargeable to either band of the Indians. Several speeches were made by the chiefs, the most prominent of which were those by Tecumseh. He gave a satisfactory explanation of the action of himself and the Prophet in calling around them a band of Indians; disavowed all hostile intentions toward the United States, and denied that either he or those under his control had committed any depre-
452 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
dations upon the whites. His manner of speaking was animated, fluent and rapid, and, when understood, very forcible.
The council then terminated. During its session, the two tribes of Indians became reconciled to each other, and peace and quiet was gradually restored to the settlement. The Indians remained in Springfield for three days, amusing themselves in various feats of activity and strength such as jumping, running and wrestling, in which Tecumseh generally excelled. At this time, Tecumseh was in the thirty-eighth year of his age, five feet ten inches high, with erect body, well developed and of remarkable muscular strength. His weight was about one hundred and seventy pounds. There was something noble and commanding in all his actions. Tecumseh was a Shawnese; the native. pronunciation of the name was Tecumtha, signifying "The Shooting Star." He was brave, generous and humane in all his actions.
Among others who were present at this council were Jonah Baldwin, John Humphreys, Simon Kenton, Walter Smallwood, John Daugherty and Griffith Foos.
The council had a salutary effect upon the village. It set at rest the startling rumors which discouraged immigration, impeded progress, and paralyzed the ambitious efforts of the inhabitants. The town began rapidly to improve. The valuable water-power attracted men of enterprise, who began to utilize it in various branches of industry. There were no streams of water of consequence nearer than Chillicothe, sixty miles distant, so that mills of various kinds began to spring up in favorable localities.
In the year 1809, John Lingle erected a powder-mill near the mouth of Mill Run. He also built a log magazine for the storage of the powder, a little west of the present city hall, on the north bank of the stream. The machinery of this mill was primitive, but the untiring energy of the proprietor enabled him to supply the demand for that indispensable article in frontier life for some years. The residence of Mr. Lingle was on top of the rocks near his powder mill, but after the loss of a little child by drowning in the mill dam, he moved to a small frame house on Market street, opposite his magazine, where he died in 1818.
The streams in this vicinity, being fed by thousands of springs which poured into them at frequent intervals, were wont, upon the slightest provocation, to assume dangerous proportions, but no serious difficulties were apprehended from inundation until the spring of 1809. Lagonda Creek had then a current which in depth, width and rapidity was not to be compared to the sluggish waters which now crawl over the bed of that once beautiful stream. In the beginning of the season just mentioned, there had been many heavy and long continued rains, which caused the creek to overflow its banks, inundating all that part of the country northeast of the town, which was then an open prairie, and encroaching dangerously near the settled portion of the town. After giving this evidence of its destructive power, it soon subsided, but many began to fear for the safety of the place from a repetition of the overflow, and some who had settled there with the intention of making it their permanent abode soon took their departure.
The founder of the village was not discouraged at the doubts and fears of the timid, for about this time he made a third addition to the original plat, extending his line of lots to Pleasant street. The precise date of this addition is not known, as it was not recorded during Demint's lifetime and not until 1853, but it is thought to have been about the year 1810.
THE FIRST BRICK HOUSE.
As the rude log cabins gave way to the more substantial frame dwelling, so the latter in time was compelled to give place under the advancing steps
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD. - 453
of improvement to the enduring brick structure. It is a mooted question who is entitled to the credit of building the first brick house in the limits of the town. Respectable authority gives it to John Ambler. and equally authentic sources say that William Ross, who assisted David Lowry in making pork barrels in Dayton, should have the honor. It is stated that Ross erected a two-story brick house on the southeast corner of Main and Market streets, that it was first occupied by him as a dwelling and store, and then as a tavern which was widely known as "Ross' Tavern." This building was standing as late as 1869, when it was removed to give place to the more modern edifice erected in that year by Ridenour & Coblentz. On the other side of this not vitally important question is the statement that John Ambler made and burnt the brick that went into Ross' house as well as his own, which he built on the north side of Main street, about half way between Factory and Mechanic streets, in 1815, about six months, it is asserted, before the Ross house was erected. Mr. Ambler's dwelling is standing at this date and is now occupied by Mr. C. A. Davis. Freeman Vicory hauled the bricks for this house. About this time, Maddox Fisher built the two-story brick house adjoining the public square as marked in Demint's plat, which remained standing until torn down by James D. Stewart, who erected thereon his present residence. Mr. Fisher intended this building for a store as well as a dwelling, but subsequently used it for the latter alone.
ADDITIONAL CHURCH EDIFICES.
As we have seen, the Methodist Episcopal Church organized the first religious society, so that this pioneer denomination was the first to erect, in 1814, a church edifice for their exclusive use. It was a large frame building and stood on the northwest corner of Market and North streets, and was used as a place of worship for twenty years, when it was converted into a dwelling. At the time. this building was erected and for fifteen years thereafter, the lots in that part of the town were not inclosed, but were covered with scrub oak, hazel bushes and plum trees. The foot paths which led to the church followed irregular lines, that were the most convenient for the villagers. The Second Methodist Church was not built until 1834.
Open air meetings were held in a grove near the first Methodist Church, at which some of the noted preachers of the day were present. Lorenzo Dow, an an eccentric itinerant, delivered a sermon here. While he was earnestly pointing out the way of salvation to an interested audience, some graceless boys climbed a tree. overlooking the audience. Dow had his attention attracted by the noise. and, stopping short, he turned to the boys and said:
" Zaccheus he climbed a tree
His end to see.
If those lads would repent and believe
They too should their salvation receive."
VOLUNTEERS FOR HARRISON.
The war spirit strongly animated the loyal people of the country, and when Gov. Meigs issued his call for volunteers to hasten to the relief of Gen. Harrison, who, in the month of December, 1813, with his army, was besieged at Fort Meigs by the British army and a band of Indians under Tecumseh, the response was met by the enlistment of many volunteers. James Shipman undertook to raise a company of citizen soldiers. He obtained a number of names of volunteers who agreed to meet him at Urbana. When the day for marching came, Mr. Shipman's recruits failed to come to time. Nothing daunted. however, he went to Urbane alone. and. with one Thomas McCartney, whom he met on the way, joined Capt. McCord's cavalry company at Urbana.
454 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
A number of other volunteers also hastened to the relief of Fort Meigs, going by the way of Troy and Piqua, among whom was Cooper Ludlow, father of John Ludlow.
SMITH'S ACADEMY.
One of the characters of the village, who established at this time a seat of learning which became famous for miles as " Smith's School "was a stout, sturdy Englishman named Samuel Smith. He kept a pay school in a frame building on the north side of Drain street, on the west bank of Mill Run. He was a man of stern discipline, who (lid not "share the rod" to "spoil the child," and neither the age or sex of his pupils was respected in administering punishment. He designated two or three "monitors" over his forty or fifty scholars, to whom he gave the audible instruction, "if they disobey the rules. knock them down, kill 'em or drag 'em to me." To catch a disobedient boy by the hair of the head, and drag him to the middle of the room and lay on the blows thick and fast, was no uncommon node of punishment. His classical learning allowed him to indulge in the humor of diguifying some of his, scholars with such appellations as "Mark Antony," " Pompey, y." "Julius Caesar," etc. His assistant was his wife. a tall, angular, sharp featured Yankee woman. who taught the smaller children at their residence near the school. Smith was wont to amuse his scholars by marvelous tales of Yankee laud, which he narrated with a serenity that led his younger hearers to believe in their absolute verity. He gave instances of the rough land and hard soil of Vermont so hard that a farmer there was obliged to use a team of fifty yoke of oxen in breaking up a new piece of land with a plow, and the land so hilly that one-half of the oxen hung by their necks between the hills while plowing That the climate was so variable that a big ox went into a lake to drink, one mild day in winter, and was frozen fast while drinking by a sudden cold change in the weather, that the ox walked up the mountain carrying with it the whole frozen lake, and the next day, when a thaw came, the ice melted. causing a great flood, with immense destruction of life and property.
The bottle was a favorite companion, and when warmed by a liberal use of it. Smith's stories grew Munchausen like in their exaggerations. It became a habit of the people to call any story of doubtful veracity one of Smith's lies.
It was a custom in those days for the boys to " lock out " the schoolmaster abort the holidays from the schoolhouse, until he paid the usual penalty of a treat with apples, cakes, etc. The larger boys of Smith's school attempted an affair of this kind, but were matched by the master. who mounted the roof, and throwing a handful of brimstone down the chimney into the tinge fire of logs burning there. placed a board over the top, to the great discomfiture of the boys, who soon opened the windows and beat a hasty retreat. In later years. Smith gave up his bottle and died at an advanced age, respected as a useful citizen.
SPRINGFIELD AS A COUNTY SEAT.
The village had now grown of sufficient importance, and its relations to the adjacent territory were such as to justify the State Legislature in constructing from the adjoining counties of Champaign. Madison and Green :a separate county. By an act of that body passed March 1, 1818, the county of Clark was thus formed, and so named in honor of Gen. Rogers Clark, who defeated the Shawanese and Mingo Indians in the battle at their town on Mad River, called Piqua or New Boston. The particulars attending the organization of the county more properly belongs to the history of the county, to which the reader is referred. It will be sufficient to state here that the accomplishment of this advanced movement was due largely to the efforts of Maddox Fisher, who, as a
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD. - 455
successful lobbyist, visited Chillicothe where the Legislature was in session, and by persevering effort finally succeeded in having the bill passed, which also provided that Springfield should be the county seat. An attempt was made to have the county seat located at New Boston, the reputed birthplace of Tecumseh, but the measure failed through the active opposition of Maddox Fisher. When he returned from Chillicothe with the news of the success of his measure, he was received with shouts of gratification. As a reward for the active efforts of Maddox Fisher, he was awarded the position of Postmaster, which at that date was a post of honor more than of profit.
"OLD VIRGINIA" AND "SLEEPS HOLLOW."
The then beautiful rivulet "Mill Run " glided smoothly through the village, following a small valley a few rods west of where the First Presbyterian Church is now located. and dividing the place into two sections. The section west of the Run had two brick houses. one stone house, a few of frame and several cabins. There were two taverns in the west section, one in a small one-story brick house kept by James Norton on the lot now occupied by the Teegarden residence. and the other in a two-story frame house building kept by Cooper Ludlow. This part of the village was called " Old Virginia," by those of the east side, because several families from the Old Dominion had settled there. Those living on the west: end returned the compliment by calling the east end and particularly that portion around the public square " Sleepy Hollow." on account of the lack of enterprise there. It has retained the name until this day. The west bank of the Run was low and muddy. To reach the foot-log which crossed the Run, it was necessary to wade through deep mud and mire. The east bank of the Run was quite steep. The land along the south side of the Run from Center street east to Spring street. and as far south as the railroad passenger depot, was ;, continuous quagmire. in which cattle often swamped. Limestone street was only extended through the quagmire by throwing in brush, and placing logs upon them in the form of a corduroy bridge, which was then covered with dirt and gravel.
Shortly after this, two Irishmen. Andrew and Frederick Johnson, took the contract from the owners of the swampy land along the south bank of Mill Run, to ditch and drain the wine, which soon made this portion of the town passable.
The number of houses in the east end, or "Sleepy Hollow," was greater than in the west end. There was a public house kept by Mr. Ross, another by John Hunt, a boarding house by James McElroy in a weather-boarded log house, on the northeast corner of Main and Market streets. Maddox Fisher kept a store in a frame house on Fisher's corner. Pearson Spinning's store was in another frame building across Main street, opposite Mr. Fisher's store. There were two or three stores of less importance at this end, besides several mechanics' shops and a printing office. The town had no pavement except one in front of Mr. Fisher's store. It was no unusual sight to see citizens cutting firewood with an ax t wood-saws not being then iii. use), in front of their shops or dwellings on Main street. Wagons were driven close up to the front doors of houses, and the streets were remarkable for the depth of the mud.
A RELIC OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.
A few rods east of the intersection of Spring and Washington streets, there was a mound of earth about fifty yards in size across its base and of conical shape. About this period (1818), several white oak trees and clusters of bushes stood upon its side, and a number of large stumps indicated that other trees had grown nearer its apex. During the work upon the Dayton & Sandusky Rail-
456 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
road in 1847, this mound was entirely removed for the earth it contained. As the delvers in it penetrated its interior, they fotmd it had been the burial place for a former generation of people. It was a huge sepulcher full of human bones. As the bones had by this period of time to a great extent become intermingled with the earth, the entire mass was carted to the railroad and formed part of the road bed. While the work was in progress, there was picked up what seemed to have been a section of the lower jaw bone of a wild animal containing a stout, crooked tusk or tooth. The bone had been ground away so as to be firmly grasped by a human hand. It had no doubt been used as an instrument of warfare. A few days after it had been taken from the ground, it crumbled into dust by action of the air upon it.
A TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATION.
The good people interested in the welfare of the community began to be alarmed at the condition of society. There was danger that the new county seat would become the center of vice and wickedness for the surrounding country. Rough, lawless men, desperadoes, who haunt the new settlements where the restraints of society and religion are unknown, continued to hang arotmd the public houses, drinking, swearing and quarreling. Horse-racing was the common amusement, while gambling was open and unrestrained. The influence of this condition of society was found to be degrading. But the customs of those days were such as tended to corrupt instead of improve the morals of the people. The bottle of whisky was a necessary adjunct to the water pitcher upon the counters of the stores for the free use of all the customers. In the family the decanters stood openly upon the sideboard. The professor of religion, as well as the man of the world, indulged with the same freedom. In the field no work could be performed without whisky freely supplied. The farmer who would fail to furnish it would speedily find himself without harvesters.
To stem the tide of evil which seemed to gather such strength in the community, it was determined to organize a temperance society. In the summer of 1818, therefore. that active minister. Rev. Saul Henkle, gathered a few of the good men and women of the place together and formed an association, the declared object of which was to abandon the use of intoxicating liquors themselves, and induce others to do the same. By such influences as these, the rapid progress of iniquity in time was checked, and good order began to reign as the better class of citizens gained the ascendancy.
WERDEN'S TAVERN.
"I will take mine ease in mine inn," consolingly said the traveler, as he approached Springfield, weary with the day's jolting over the primitive roads before McAdam had suggested a way of making the rough ways smooth. He knew that ease and comfort awaited him at "Billy Werden's" tavern. It was a famous hostelry. William Werden located in Springfield in 1819. He came from Delaware to Ohio. The first tavern he opened was at McElroy's old stand, on the northeast corner of Main and Market streets; but soon after, he rented the Ross tavern, on the opposite corner. which he fitted up as a first-class public house. It was in this place that Mr. Werden built up a State reputation as a landlord, which made him famous among travelers everywhere. He did much to quell the rowdyism and bar-room brawling which had become such a nuisance at other resorts. As this tavern was the stopping-place for a line of stages running from Cincinnati to Colmnbus, the sign was that of a stage-coach and horses under full speed, suspended on a tall post at the outer edge of the sidewalk. The room used for his office and bar was not more than twenty feet.
PAGE 457 - PICTURE OF THOMAS V. CRABILL - SPRINGFIELD TP.
PAGE 458 - BLANK
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD. - 459
square, and his whole house, with all its rooms, was not larger than one now required for a large family. The genial host was the first to meet the tired stranger with an outstretched hand and a generous welcome. To conduct him into the house, have a servant remove his muddy leggings and boots, provide him with clean slippers and a warm fire, were the kindly offices which won the heart of the traveler, while the polite attention of the hostess, a bountiful meal, skillfully prepared under her own direction, a clean bed and a good night's rest, sent him on his way refreshed and satisfied in the morning. Mr. Werden bought the property on the northwest corner of Main and Spring streets in 1820, but he did not occupy it until 1829, and then built his large hotel, known as the Werden House. He continued in business here until he had gained a competency, when he retired from active business. During the last term of Jackson's administration. his zealous support of "Old Hickory" gained hint the office of Postmaster, which he held for four years.
THE FIRST CENSUS.
The first enumeration taken here under the laws of the United States was in 1820. It showed that Springfield contained 510 inhabitants, of whom 285 were males and 225 were females. There were eight general stores, a flouring-mill, woolen and carding mill, a cotton mill, several schools, a printing office and a post office at which the mails were received in elegant four-horse coaches; an adequate supply of lawyers and physicians was also to be found. The court house then in process of erection was the only public building worthy of notice.
John Bacon and Charles Anthony, Esq.. two of the prominent citizens of Springfield. who were always thoroughly identified with the business interests of the city and its later growth, with Ira Paige, a prominent merchant, whose name was connected with its mercantile progress, were married about the same time, in the early spring of 1820. They were young men of vigor, ability and industry, and jointly entered into a career of prominence.
The first-named of these young men, John Bacon, came to Springfield in 1818. For many years. he was successfully engaged in the manufacture and sale of harness and saddles, investing his surplus means in real estate and dis counting notes, which paid him a good return. Mr. Bacon accumulated considerable means. which, with the increased value of his real estate, made him quite wealthy. Retiring from his regular trade. he became a prominent Railroad and Bank Director. At one time, he held the office of Member of the State Board of Control, connected with the State Bank system that preceded the establish ment of the National Banks. He was for several years a Director in the Little Miami Railroad Company, and served in 1860 as a member of the State Board of Equalization. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1870, he was the President of the Mad River National Bank.
(A sketch of Gen. Anthony appears in the history of the Clark County bar, where it properly belongs.)
BIBLE SOCIETIES.
The interest taken in the advancement of the morals of the community is shown in the organization of those valuable auxiliaries to church work, such as Bible and missionary societies. The temporary organization of the Clark County Bible Society was effected at the Methodist Church, on the 6th day of August. 1822. by the election of Rev. Archibald Steele as Chairman, Rev. Saul Henkle Secretary. and Isaac T. Zeller as Assistant Secretary. The Board of Managers for the town was composed of the following citizens: Pearson Spin ning. Maddox Fisher, John Ambler. John Bacon and Robert Rennick. Board
460 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
of Managers for the county: Rev. Joseph Morris, Griffith Foos, Moses Henkle, Robert Humphrey, John Humphrey, Thomas Patten, Joel Van Meter, John Layton. Rev. Malyne Baker, John Forgy, Joseph Keifer, Thomas Fisher, Jeremiah Sims. Christian Frantz, Jacob Ebersole, John R. Demon, Andrew Hodge and Thomas Curl. The regular organization was affected on Monday, September 2, 1822. George M. J Jewett was chosen Chairman pro tern., with Rev. Saul Henkle as Secretary. The constitution adopted shows the following names among the first signers: Rev. John S. Galloway, Rev. AI. M. Henkle, Rev. Saul Henkle, Archibald McConkev, W. Al. 'Spencer and James S. Christie. An election for officers resulted as follows: President. Rev. Archibald Steele; George W. Jewett and Morris Henkle, Sr.. Vice Presidents; Pearson Spinning. Treasurer; Rev. Saul Henkle. Corresponding Secretary; and Isaac T. Zeller, Recording Secretary. The following gentlemen were elected Directors: John Ambler, Joel Van Meter, Jeremiah Sims, Robert Humphrey, Griffith Foos. Archibald McConkey, Thomas Patten, Joseph Heifer. Maddox Fisher. Daniel McKinnon. Daniel Moore and Andrew Hodge. Under an organization like this. composed of citizens of means and high standing, the society prospered. and was an instrument. of great good. This society was recognized as an auxiliary by the parent society in November, 1842. On September 5, 1872. an entertaining meeting of this society was held, in commemoration of its fiftieth anniversary. On this occasion it was stated in a paper read by Rev. S. Cochran. that $6,796 had been presented as a donation to the parent society in New York, and $6,572 worth of Bibles and Testaments had been received from that society in fifty years.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
In the early history of Springfield as in its later years, there was a manifest tardiness in the erection of public buildings. Although the place was designated as the seat of justice in 1818, vet, for four years following, the court held its regular sessions at the tavern of John Hunt. on Main street. The delay in the erection of the court house and the jail vas no doubt. owing in part to the generous rivalry which existed between "Old Virginia " and " Sleepy Hollow," the west and east ends of the town. each of which made strong efforts for the selection of their respective localities. Although the Commissioners of the county met on the 2d day of March. 1819, and commenced the consideration of the erection of a court house on the public square, yet it was not until the summer of 1828 that the building was completed. A brick jail was also built in the public square. and fully completed December 6, 1824 A temporary jail was erected on the east side of Fisher street, about half way between Main and Columbia streets, which was simply a log house. and not very secure. A detailed narration of the building of the court house and jail appears in the bistorv of the county.
After grim-visaged war had smoothed his wrinkled front," the military spirit was kept alive by the organization of companies under efficient commanders. who had obtained their knowledge of the art of war in the struggle of 1812. These companies met at stated periods and drilled in the manual of arms until they became remarkably proficient. In 1825, the first, and perhaps the best drilled and neatest equipped company as compared with others which followed, was organized under Capt. B. W. Peck, Capt. Charles Anthony. First Lieutenant. This company was followed by others, which were the "Clark County Guards." Capt. Shipman; Osceola Plaids," Springfield Cadets," and one or two cavalry companies. "commanded by Capts. John Cook and Putnam.
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD. - 461
LIGHTING THE STREETS.
The question of lighting the streets soon became a topic of interest, and a correspondent in the columns of the Western Pioneer, of date September 25, 1825, suggests a method which indicates the position of the community in this matter and which method was deemed a great improvement over the existing con dition of the streets. The correspondent suggests large glass lamps with double reflectors, at a cost of about $25 each. and to be placed on posts at suitable points; a contingent fund of 121 cents to be raised from each house to pay for the oil and wick; the lamps to be lighted and taken care of free of charge by the persons before whose doors the posts should be placed.
SPRINGFIELD A TOWN.
The Legislature. on the 23d day of January, 1827, passed an act which incorporated Springfield as a town. It became evident that, in the future, the place was destined to occupy a position of prominence. There were elements of prosperity in its material advantages in its favorable site, and in the busy, bustling character of its citizens, which indicated steady growth. Although there was a scarcity of currency. trade was not impeded because of a lack of metal or paper medium. Wheat was received in exchange for many articles, was deposited in the mill, converted.into flour, and sent by the merchant to Cincinnati. where it was taken. re-exchanged for merchandise, which was brought back in the returning wagons. The lack of railroad facilities made the merchant and traveler rely upon horses, which were very cheap, and became a frequent subject of barter. Every other man was a horse-trader. Dr. John Ludlow in his historical reminiscences. states he remembers of going to Cincinnati with a teamster when he was a boy fourteen years old, that the teamster "wapped" horses three times on the way. and the last horse died the same day he obtained it: but. soon he had another from a farmer in exchange for his sil ver watch. The horses used in the large. broad-tread wagons were generally stout animals. They were sometimes gaily caparisoned, and, with broad harness, jingling bells and six or eight to a wagon. were an attractive sight.
THE PAPER-MILL.
In August, 1827, an important branch of industry was established, which furnished employment to a number of people. Dr. Ambrose Blount, James Lowry and Jacob Kills, as partners, built a large paper-mill at the foot of Center street, on Mill Run. not far from North street. The mill did not commence operations until the following June, 1828. The mill was very successful in the manufacture and sale of large quantities of paper. ;mostly printing paper of excellent quality. The same firm also. the same year, opened a store near the northwest corner of Main and Market streets, where rags were received in exchange for goods, and where the employes were paid for their work. Four years later, Jacob Kills & Sons succeeded the original proprietors. They added extensive improvements in its machinery, increased its facilities and extended its trade. They afterward added to the mill a first-class bindery. They worked up a fair custom by sending forth one of the sons, with a fine, two-horse peddlers wagon, which enabled him to exchange paper and stationery for rags. books to be bound, and blank books to be manufactured to order. The business was successfully prosecuted for twenty years, rendering a good profit on the capital invested.
462 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
THE FIRST MAYOR.
After the elevation of the village to the dignity of a town, an election was had to fill the offices of Mayor, or President of the Board of Trustees. James L. Torbert was elected to this office. He had come to Springfield in 1824, and was an active young attorney, but as there was not sufficient legal business to occupy all his attention, he also taught school. It was at his schoolhouse, on the northeast, corner of Market and North streets, on the 25th day of June, A. D. 1827, that he, with several other members of the First Presbyterian Church, organized the first Sabbath school. He was afterward elected Prosecuting Attorney, to which office he brought a clear head and an earnest desire to faith fully administer its duties. In 1848, he was editor of the Republic, and wrote many pungent arguments against the "Free-Soilers." whom he charged as recreant to their principles in not indorsing the Whig nominees for President. As an ardent Whig. he entered vigorously into the campaign, during which he gained the reputation of being one of the most effective stump speakers in the Congressional district of which his county was then a part. As Judge of the Common Pleas. successor to Judge Swan. his able and impartial decisions were the subject of favorable comment.
A record of a census taken by a citizen appears appears in the Western Pioneer of September 28. 1828. It gives an accurate statement of the popula tion. the number of stores and manufacturing establishments. It shows that the people were industrious. and that the manufactories were diversified. We find from this enumeration that there were in the limits of the town at that time 935 souls. Of these, there were of male adults 285; of female adults, 225; males under eighteen. 218; females under sixteen. 207. There were fifty-four blacksmith-shops. four coach and wagon shops, two common and fancy chair shops, four boot and shoe maker shops. three tanneries. and a currier-shop, twenty-seven house carpenters and joiners. There were six tailor-shops, three saddle and harness shops three bakeries. three cabinet-shops, one clock and watch maker. two hatters. one coppersmith-shop, one tin-shop, two millwrights, two extensive distilleries. fourteen general mercantile stores, four groceries, a new paper-mill. an extensive flour-mill, three good houses of entertainment, four public schools. two for females and two for males in one of which the higher branches of literature and the Greek and Latin languages were taught; four attorneys at law. five physicians. three slaughter houses. three brick-yards, two house and sign painters. one gun-shop. one portrait, miniature and fancy painter, engraver and gilder. two wheelwrights. one pottery. This enumerator also states that at that time they had a court house. which, in point of neatness and convenience would not suffer in comparison with any court house in Ohio; a brick jail. two churches. and a Third in building. a printing office, a post office, at which twenty-four mails are received weekly, in elegant four-horse coaches." In 1830. the population reached 1,080.
One of the prominent citizens. who, about. this time, became identified with Springfield's fortunes. was Reuben Miller. who was the son of Rev. Robert Miller. a local minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was born on the 19th day of January, 1797. in an old schoolhouse at the mouth of Pike Run, on the Monongahela River. near Brownsville, Penn.. where his father had stopped to spend the winter of 1796-97 while emigrating from Virginia to Kentucky. From this point the family journeyed by flat-boat to Limestone (now Maysville). Ky.. and settled in Mason County. and afterward removed to Fleming County in that State.
In March. 1812. in order to escape the evils of slavery, his father removed his family to Champaign County. Ohio. where he located upon a farm within
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the bounds of the present Moorefield Township, in Clark County. At this time, Reuben was but fifteen years of age. He worked upon the farm until he was twenty-two years of age, when he turned his attention to study, and, by close application, without a teacher, for three or four years (in the meantime occasionally teaching school), he acquired a pretty fair English education; as he, in his own biography, relates, "became a very good arithmetician, learned to write a good hand, became a 'pretty good grammarian, studied geometry, trigonometry, surveying, navigation, and acquired some knowledge of astronomy; also commenced the study of the Latin language, but failed for want of an instructor."
On the 27th of March, 1823, he married Mary Hedges, who was born in Berkeley County, Virginia, and was living at that time with a brother in Champaign County, Ohio, and in the month of December following, removed to a cabin which he had built on a farm given to him by his father, in Moorefield Township. where he resided, farming a little, teaching school, and occasionally making land surveys, until the 10th of April, 1828, when he removed to Springfield; the occasion of the removal was his appointment, by the Court of Common Pleas, in the fall of 1827, as County Surveyor of Clark County. Springfield had then grown from a village of a few houses, as he first saw it in 1812, to be a town of about 800 to 900 inhabitants. At that time, there was little surveying to be done, and his first employment was in the County Clerk's office. Afterward, he taught a school for three or four years in Springfield. He was County Surveyor for nine years, during a part of which time he was also a Justice of the Peace and Mayor, or rather, as it then was named; President of the Town Council of Springfield. During this time, he acquired some means, went into the dry-goods business with a man by the name of Carrick, who in two years succeeded in loading the concern down with debt, and then died, leaving his partner many thousand dollars minus, notwithstanding which his energies were not impaired, but he went diligently to work, and, after fourteen years of hard struggle, paid off all his indebtedness.
In the fall of 1838, he was elected County Auditor of Clark County, and was re-elected to eight successive terms, serving in that position eighteen years, from March, 1839, to March, 1857. In the fall of 1856, during his last term as Auditor, he was elected Justice of the Peace of Springfield Township, and was re-elected five successive terms, serving in that position eighteen years, until the fall of 1874. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in September, 1812, and, in the year 1835, was ordained a Local Deacon, and afterward a Local Elder in the same church, and held that relation to the church until he died. On the 2d of January, 1875, his wife died, and then, at the earnest solicitation of his only living daughter, he went to reside with her at Keokuk, Iowa, where he died on the 3d day of October, 1880, from a gradual failing of the bodily powers, at the ripe old age of nearly eighty-three years, and was subsequently buried in Fern Cliff Cemetery, in this city. He left five living children-Dr. D. B. Miller, of Covington, Ky. ; John C. Miller, of Springfield, Ohio, present Probate Judge; Commander Joseph N. Miller, United States Navy; and Henry R. Miller and Mrs. R. B. Ogden of Keokuk, Iowa.
He was a man of correct character and habits, peculiar and almost eccentric in some of his ways; he had a keen sense of the humorous, and was almost invariably sunny and jocular in his moods. He had a more than ordinary share of natural ability, but was hampered by his imperfect chances for education and his business misfortunes, so that he himself felt, notwithstanding that he was a prominent and honored citizen, that he never attained to the full measure of his strength. He was much given to humorous versification, and as a specimen of his peculiar modes of thought, we append in conclusion of this sketch his epitaph, written by himself many years before his death:
464 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
"Here lies a man - a curious one,
No one can tell what good he's done.
Nor yet how much of evil;
Where now his soul is. who can tell!
In heaven above, or low in hell?
With God or with the devil?
"While living here he oft would say
That he must shortly turn to clay,
And quickly rot-
This thought would sometimes cross his brain.
That he perhaps might live again,
And maybe not.
"As sure as he in dust doth lie,
He died because lie had to die,
But much against his will;
Had he got all that he desired.
This roan would never have expired,
He had been living still."
A DAILY MAIL.
The diffusion of intelligence from the seat of Government and the East had hitherto depended upon a weekly mail, which was carried on horseback. The arrival of this mail was the. day of the week, and was called "mail-day." An innovation was made in 1828 in this arrangement, which was gladly welcomed. It provided for a daily mail, carried by a four-horse coach. The current news was thus brought here from Washington and the Eastern cities within five days after its publication in those places.
SOCIETIES.
The benevolent and literary societies which had been formed from time to time lacked elements of stability. Feeble attempts to resuscitate and reorganize repeated failures were made, but, judging from an article from the caustic pen of Rev. Saul Henkle, then editor of the Western Pioneer, dated February 14, 1829, all these efforts had been unsuccessful. This article, here given, details, in very sarcastic language, the birth and death of the different literary. musical, religious and colonization societies:
"A sort of fatality seems to attend the benevolent and literary societies which have been gotten up in this good town of Springfield. We leave it with our readers to determine the cause of their failure; or, if thought more appro priate, we would refer the subject to a council of physicians, to report the nature and causes of the distemper to which this general mortality is attributed.
"1. A Literary Society, formed in December, 1815, of about thirty-five respectable members, died, say May, 1816, from want of attention on the part of its parents, aged about six months.
"2. A Library Society, formed in 1816, was soon threatened with death by starvation, and, by the overseers of the poor. was sold out, but soon after died, in a state of feeble childhood.
"3. A Library Society, brother and successor to the above, formed. say 1820 or 1821. It has been nearly frozen to death in an empty case, but of late has got into trousers, but is still very delicate.
"4. A Bible Society, formed September, 1822, for awhile promised to be strong and healthy, but, having been dieted for several years chiefly on 'Annual Reports,' grew very sickly; of late, however, it has gained a little strength, and may possibly live to years of maturity, though efforts are now making to effect its death by poison.
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"5. A Missionary Society. formed in November 1826, has disappeared in a mysterious way, and has not since been heard of. Some suppose it has been Morganized.
"6. `A Tyro's Club,' formed in July. 1856, was very sprightly and active for a few months, but, in the absence of its parents, was taken suddenly ill, and died for want of suitable attendance, at the age of about five months.
"7. A Colonization Society, formed November 1, 1826, is still living. but, from neglect and abuse, has been kept so feeble that it has not been seen abroad more than two or three times.
"8. In the same year, a Society for the Encouragement of Instrumental Music was formed, but, from the miserable condition of the instruments, the exertion of blowing brought on a decay of the lungs, by which it was carried off in a few months.
"9. In 1827, a Vocal Music Society was formed, but, soon taking the influenza. lingered awhile and died.
"10. A Literary Society. formed in November, 1828, gave hopeful promise of a better fate, but was found dead a few evenings since, in the Brick Academy. Some attributed its death to strangulation, but the Coroner's inquest seemed to think it occasioned by dropsy on the brain.
"11. A Reading Room Society. formed a few evenings since, is only kept from freezing by having some eight or ten newspapers wrapped about it. If it can be gotten through this winter. we hope to see it in a more growing and prosperous state. .
"12. A Temperance Society. just formed. will hardly live through the winter without the application of active stimulants.
"13. To these may be added a society proposed to be formed for the promotion of Christian charity. This cannot be organized at all, in our opinion, as it requires a commodity (charity) very rarely to be met with in this market, and, besides this, no man here has any idea that he stands in need of the article in question. each supposing himself abundantly supplied."
THE MARKET HOUSE.
A long, wooden structure. with two rows of stalls, side tables, and a pave ment walk between, for the building of which proposals had been received by the Town Council July 1, 1829, was finished in 1830, and dignified with the title of Market House. The Council by ordinance, provided that the Market House, now erected on West street and South street, be and the same is declared a public market. The same ordinance also provided that Wednesday and Saturday of each week should be market days, from the 20th of March to the 20th of September.
A VISIT FROM HENRY CLAY.
The eloquent "Harry " Clay. the pet and pride of the West, honored the town with a visit on the 24th day of July. 1830. He was en route for Columbus, and, due notice of his approach from Yellow Springs having been given, a large concourse of citizens, on horseback and in carriages, met him about six miles from town, and, with enthusiastic hurrahs, escorted him to Col. Hunt's tavern, where he took dinner and made a short speech in reply to a flattering toast.
THE FIRST BOOK STORE-NICHOLS.
The culture of the intellectual faculty was but of little moment among the hardy pioneers, but, as the forests began to dwindle and the comforts of civilized life to appear, men began to read and study. The multiplication of books by the improvements in the printing-press brought them to the fireside of every
466 - HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
family. A taste for intellectual pursuits, began to be developed. A copy of "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," or that cheerful work, "Fox's Book of Martyrs," a volume of sermons, or of the "Spectator," no longer supplied the increasing want. The demand must be supplied. To John D. Nichols, a native of the Bay State, is due the credit of inaugurating the book trade. In the winter of 1830-31, Mr. Nichols brought a stock of books and stationery from Cincinnati, shipping by canal to Dayton, thence by wagon here. His store became the center of news, and a great attraction. It proved a successful venture, and an indication that the people were keeping up to the age. Mr. Nichols had, in the fall of 1825, been a book agent, soliciting subscriptions to the "History of All Religions" and "Butler's Universal History," making a tour on foot from Columbus to Worthington, thence to Urbana, Bellefontaine, Sidney. Dayton, returning by Springfield and London; and, in the spring of 1826, making the same trip in a one-horse wagon, delivering the books and receiving pay for the same. He was thus probably the first book agent in this part of the State. Mr. Nichols, in 1827 and 1828, was engaged in publishing several books at Cincinnati, Ohio, among them a "Life of Gen. Jackson" and the "Western Medical Journal," both of which, in mechanical execution and ability of its contents, would compare favorably with similar publications of a much later date. In 1828 and 1829, Mr. Nichols published the Saturday Evening Chronicle, in Cincinnati, a literary journal, of which E. D. Mansfield, Esq., was editor.
THE CHOLERA.
The vigilance of the early authorities of the town might be a lesson to those iii power at this later day. It was by the adoption of effective sanitary measures Springfield escaped the visitation of that terrible scourge which, during the year 1832, and also the year following, desolated so many homes in the cities and towns of the West. The approach of the dreaded visitor induced the citizens to take prompt action at once. So a meeting of citizens was called for the 13th of July, 1832, for the purpose of adopting measures to cleanse the town of all filth and nuisances. They passed resolutions requesting the Council of the town to enforce all ordinances and regulations which would purify the streets and alleys. They divided the town into four districts, and appointed a committee of three for each district, whose duty it was to aid the municipal authorities in thus enforcing all resolutions and ordinances of the Council. A committee of three persons was also appointed to solicit funds to pay the necessary expenses. The danger was, by these precautionary efforts, happily averted from the town. But the county was not as fortunate, as the village of New Carlisle lost thirty-three of its inhabitants by the scourge.
The organization of a lyceum, or literary society, for the intellectual improvement of its members, was accomplished in November, 1832. On the 22d of that month, at a meeting of citizens called for the purpose, E. H. Cumming presided, with John A. Warder as Secretary. Messrs. Charles Anthony, E. H. Cumming and M. M. Henkle were appointed a committee to prepare and report a constitution and a code of by-laws; on the 29th of the same month, at an adjourned meeting, the report of this committee was presented, and, after full consideration and amendment, it was adopted.
The first regular meeting of the Springfield Lyceum was held on the 11th day of December, in the Presbyterian Church. An introductory lecture was delivered by Samuel Ells, a young man of fine talent, who was a graduate of Hamilton College, New York. He was then teaching what was called the Springfield Classical School, and was much interested in forwarding and sustaining the lyceum. At the same meeting, there was a debate upon the question, "Is the reading of novels beneficial?" John M. Gallagher was Secretary of this
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meeting. This society was well sustained, its meetings being held principally during the winter season. In 1849, it was re-organized. A large and convenient reading room was added, at which access could be had to the library, and to the current newspapers, received from different parts o