Adams County, Ohio - Chapter 3: Greene Township, 1900

Chapter 3: Greene Township

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, in the days of Territorial government in Ohio, what is now Greene Township was known as Iron Ridge Township. It was not Until December, 1806, that the Commissioners of Adams County gave the township its present name, in honor of General Greene, of Revolutionary fame. The township is bounded as follows: Beginning on the left bank at the mouth of Ohio Brush Creek, where it empties into the Ohio River ; thence up the creek to the mouth of Beasley's Fork ; thence on a straight line to the headwaters of Black's Run ; thence on the highlands of Ohio and Scioto Brush Creek to the east line of Adams County; thence south along said county line to the Ohio River; thence down said river to the beginning. Greene Township has fourteen miles of river frontage.

After leaving the river bottom lands a very large proportion of the surface is high, hilly and rough. The highest point of land in the State of Ohio is said to be within the limits of Greene Township just above Rome on the Ohio River. These high, rocky cliffs are composed largely of what is known as Waverly sandstone, and, consequently, are very valuable. Immense quantities have been gotten out, and shipped to all parts of the state and the United States for building purposes. Many of the very finest buildings in the country were built from material shipped from Greene Township.

Stouts Run is the principal stream within the limits of the township. It empties its waters into the Ohio River one-half mile from the village of Rome. About one mile above its mouth, Stouts Run is divided into two forks, one known as the East, and the other as the West Fork. They are supplied with water from smaller tributaries, such as small streams, and springs coming down from the hills and mountain sides. The only other stream of any importance is Long Lick, which empties its waters into the Ohio River a few miles above Rome.

The soil of Greene Township is, in the main, very fertile ; especially is this true of the soil of the river bottoms, and of the smaller bottoms lying along the streams above mentioned, and Ohio Brush Creek bottoms. In addition to this, the tillable land on the hills, for the most part, produces most excellent crops of com and tobacco. The principal crops produced in the township are wheat, oats, com, and tobacco ; also potatoes are grown in considerable quantities. Perhaps no township in the county grows more, or better quality of tobacco than Greene. Fruit and especially apples are produced in large quantities on the fertile hills. A little more than a score of years ago Greene Township was the greatest peach producing locality in the state. Hundreds of thousands of bushels of this fruit were grown and shipped to foreign markets ; but of late years comparatively little of this fruit has been grov/n; most of the old peach orchards having died out, being much shorter lived than the apple trees. The celebrated Rome Beauty apple originated at Rome in this township.

The following are a few of the first settlers of Greene Township as obtained from the meager source to which we have had access. The first white settler was Ohadiah Stout, who was a native of New Jersey, and served through the Revolutionary War. Mr. Stout had ten children, the youngest two, named Obadiah and John, were scalped by the Indians while he lived at Graham's Station, Kentucky. He moved to Greene Township in the year 1796, and settled on the east, or Puntenney*s Fork of Stouts Run. In 1796 Obadiah Stout, Jr., grandson of Obadiah Stout, Sen., was born, being the first white child born in Greene Township. Soon after this settlement, several other families came into the neighborhood, among whom were the Colvins, Pettits, Montgomerys, Samuels, Russells. and Geo. li. Puntenney and his father-in-law, William Hamilton, who taught the first school in the township.

After this, in 1804, there were four distilleries, one school house, and no church. Now there are six church buildings, three others having recently been destroyed by fire and fourteen school houses, and no distillery.

George Hollinp^s worth Puntenney moved to Greene Township, March, 1800, and settled on the East Fork of Stouts Run on the farm now owned by A. C. Smith. His son, James Puntenney, was born September i, 1800, hein^ the second white child born in the township. Geo. H. Puntenney and wife, Margaret, were among the most prominent citizens of the township. Tliey are interred in the Puntenney cemetery on the home farm.

James Puntenney, whose birth is referred to above, was married in the year 1823 to Miss Martha Waite, of Blue Creek. His whole life was spent on Stouts Run. His death occurred May 7, 1890, when he was nearly ninety years of age. His wife was five years younger than he, and her death was five years prior to his. Mr. Puntenney was a man of most excellent character. He was honored and respected by everybody who knew him, but especially by the poor in his community, to whose needs he always stood ready to contribute. Away back in the dark days of human l)()n(la^e, before the Civil War, the home of Mr. Puntenney was known as a resting place for those who were fleeing from the cruel slavery of our neighbor state, Kentucky. Very many, no doubt have thus partaken of his i^enennis bounty, and have been spirited on towards the farther North, w here they hoped to breathe the pure air of freedom, without the fear of beinj^ recaptured and carried back into bondage at the cruel hand of the master.

In Volume V, Ohio Archaeological Reports, we find the following in reference to Greene Township mounds : "Just below Rome, on the high bank of the river, two hundred yards from the water, is a mound two feet high and fifty feet in diameter. In this small structure were found no less than twenty-two skeletons, some of which appeared to have been buried in part only. There were many fragments of pottery in the mound, but we think the presence of these is due to the fact that the earth immediately around the village was scooped up to form the mound, consequently much of the village site debris was gathered into baskets, and dumped upon the structure. Perforated mussel shells were with many of the bodies, a bone awl, and a slate celt polished at both ends. There were three arrow heads, three war points, and three worked pieces of shell. Some twenty perforated humeri were secured, but no whole skulls, as every one was broken, as were most of the long bones. The vertebral columns of some of the skeletons were only half present, which led us to believe that some of the bodies had been gathered when the flesh was denuded from the bones. Possibly from a battle field, possibly from a charnel house - who can tell ?

The most important find was the bones of an exceedingly large individual. These bones were very badly decayed, but the tibia was removed in fair shape. The width of this bone was nearly two inches, being very massive, and somewhat bent. The femora were very large and more curved than is usual. Many pipes and ornaments have been found around

Rome, on the Ohio River near the site of the old town of Adamsville, is the largest village in the township. It was laid out by William Stout in 1835. The postoffice here is named Stout.

There are at present the following mills in the township. A flouring mill and a planing mill at Rome, operated by W. D. Pennywitt ; a flouring mill owned and operated by Abraham Wamsley ; a flouring mill owned by Richard Moore and a grist mill owned and operated by James Harper.

There are two special school districts in the township, one at the village of Rome and the other at Sandy Springs. The enumeration in the Rome Special District is : Males, 69 ; females, 90. Sandy Springs : Males, 38 ; females, 24.

In the year 1809. a young woman named Elizabeth Catt was charged with infanticide, having, as charged, strangled her day-old infant to death. She was arrested and given a preliminary hearing before a jury of twelve women, residents of Greene Township, whose names were as follows: Elizabeth Eakins, Elizabeth Stout, Margaret Puntenney, Margaret Montgomery, Hannah Eakin^, Charity Hubbard, Frances Russell, Nancy Wood, Margaret Stout, Sen., Margaret Stout, Jun., Sarah Cole, and Mary Colvin.

Among the lofty crags near the headwaters of Black's Run on the not li western border of Greene Township, is a remarkable cavern known as "The Haunted Cave." In pioneer days it was the dwelling place of desperadoes who preyed on the fleets of emigrant boats as they^ floated down the Ohio to the gateway of the Virginia Reservation and the Northwest Territory. It is a tradition that the notorious James Girty, a brother of Simon Girty, made this cavern the place of rendezvous of this band of savages and desperadoes prior to the settlement of the whites in that region. The murder of Greathouse who was captured with his companions on a pirogue near the mouth of Ohio Brush Creek in 1790. and tied to a tree and whipped to death, is attributed to Girty and his followers. Mysterious murders at the mouth of Long Lick, and the vicinity of Brush Creek Island are said to have been committed by dwellers in the "Haunted Cave." The cavern, which consists of numerous large rooms in one of which is a sparkling stream of water, is entered by means of a ladder down to the outer chamber, and was accidentally discovered by old Jonathan Waite while exploring the crags and crevices of the region for a traditional lead mine in tlie early part of the last century.

The widowed mother of Frank Hardy, a young man of about eighteen years of age, had married James H. Rice and the three were living two miles above Rome in 1869. On the twenty-third day of February of that year, while assisting Rice with «ome work about the stable, Hardy killed him with an ax, and placing the body on a sled covered it with cornstalks and stable manure and hauled it down to the river bank where he had already dug a pit, and threw the body of Rice into it. He then filled up the pit, covering the surface with cornstalks and stable refuse, hastened to his home, changed his clothing and fled the country. He was finally arrested at Cairo, 111., and at the September term of the Court of Common Pleas was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to be hanged on the second Friday in February, 1870. The Supreme Court suspended the execution until the case could be reviewed, and then sustained the court below and fixed the day of execution for May 6, 1870. On April 27, Governor Hayes commuted the sentence to imprisonment for life, and in 1874, Governor Bishop pardoned Hardy. Frank Hardy was the second and last person to receive the death sentence in the courts of the county.

They lie in Greene Township, Adams County, and in Nile Township, Scioto County, Ohio. They embrace 745 acres in one body, perhaps the largest tract in Adams County under the one ownership. The tract is made up of twelve surveys and parts of surveys. The entire tract fronts on the Ohio River one mile from the western boundary at Buena Vista in Scioto County to the town plat of Commercial in Adams County. The steamboat landings at Buena Vista and at Rockville are in this tract. There is deep water along the entire front. Fifty-five acres are in the river bottoms, which varies from six to twentv rods wide. Three small streams flow into th eriver from this tract, Flat Run, Gregg Run and Rock Run. The latter is a canyon and the scenery along it is picturesque.

The main residence on these lands is in the village of Rockville, where Mrs. Sallie B. Loughry resides, and where she keeps summer boarders. It is located on the river bank with a delightful lawn and surroundings. It has fine old trees and commands pleasant views up and down the valley of the Ohio opposite, and the Kentucky hills in the background. The home is an old-fashioned one with many outbuildings for stock. There are five dwelling houses on the property outside of the main residence. There is one in the yard with the main dwelling house, two up Rock Run and in the bottom midway between Buena Vista and Rockville is a stone house built by Joseph Moore in 1814 of the Waverly sandstone taken from the hills adjacent. At the foot of the hills near Buena Vista are two other farm houses in good repair and occupied by tenants. Good barns are at different points on the tract.

The bottom lands produce excellent crops of corn, wheat and grass. The soil in the hills is adapted to tobacco and to pasturage. In years gone by, extensive peach orchards grew and yielded luscious crops successive seasons. No finer peaches were ever produced in the United States than were grown on these lands.

General Nathaniel Massie, who located almost all the lands on the Ohio River from Aberdeen to Portsmouth, located the surveys bordering the river as early as 1791. The late Judge Joseph Moore, who in early life was a stone cutter, purchased two of the tracts from Massie prior to 1814, and in the latter year built the stone house already mentioned. He resided there until 1830. Between 181 4 and 1830, he made rafts of deadened poplar trees, loaded them with blocks of sandstone from the foot of the hills and shipped them to Cincinnati for building stone, where there was then a good market for this stone and has been ever since. From 1814 to the present time, building stone has been shipped from these lands, or those in the vicinity, to Cincinnati. In 1830, Judge Moore retired to his farm above Buena Vista, and the late John Loughry took the tract. He had a contract to furnish stone for the Miami Canal. Judge Moore got all of his stone from the foot of the hills, but Loughry began his work at the top. The canal locks in and about Cincinnati, built with this stone, have stood over sixty years and today are as good as when furnished. The foundation of the main residence on the tract was put in from this stone sixty-seven years ago and is as good as at first. The marks of the hammer are as fresh as if made but yesterday. Cincinnati is full of business houses and dwelling fronts made from these quarries. It is also constantly used in brick houses for window caps and sills.

John Loughry at first dragged the stone to the river with ox teams, but afterwards built chutes in the hillsides and slid the stone down, and lastly he made good roads and hauled the stone down on wagons. In more recent years an inclined railroad was used for the purpose, and loccwnotives hauled the stone to the top of the hill and from there it was lowered by endless cables to the wharfs. The stone was first loaded on decked scows by means of rollers and crowbars, but later hoisting machinery was used, capable of lifting the largest blocks. The decked barge was a great stride from the log raft of Jude Moore, every one of which went ultimately to the New Orleans market. When tow boats came into use, the barges were no longer sold but returned and kept in the business.

"The City Ledge," so named by John Loughry, proved to be the most popular stone in Cincinnati. It is a light drab or gray in coler. For special orders, blocks containing three hundred cubic feet and weighing twentyfour tons have l)een quarried and shipped. The stone above and below the "City Ledge" was quarried. The Trust Company Bank at the southwest corner of Third and Main Streets in Cincinnati was built with stone from a particular ledge named the "Trust Company Ledge." The Canal locks were built of Yellow ledge near the top of the hill, but all ledges have stood the test of time.

John Loughry retired from the business of quarrying stone on the lands in 1856, hut his son, John C. Loughry, conducted it from that date until i86t, when the quarrying ceased. He resumed it from 1863 to 1865, when he got out the stone used for the piers of the suspension bridge at Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1865, he sold out to the Caden Brothers, who conducted the business on an extensive scale till 1873, when Mr. John C. Loughry bought the tract back. For a long time he sold the stone to John M. Mueller, at a royalty of three to four cents per cubic foot in the quarry.

County, Kentut:ky, nearly opposite. The village of Buena Vista is devoted wholly to the stone trade, and Garrison and Quincy on the opposite side are also devoted to it.

"The City Ledge" is still unquarried for more than a mile and a half. In the city of Portsmouth, sixteen miles from Buena Vista, the saw mills are running constantly, sawing the same quality of stone, but the stone near Portsmouth is not so excellent as that at Buena Vista for many purposes. In Portsmouth and Buena Vista many pavements are laid with this sawed Waverly sandstone. Front steps are made frcwn it, but it is most extensively used for trimmings and for window caps and sills. This same stone has been largely used in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D. C. The beauty of the stone, the ease with which it works under the chisel or the saw, makes it very popular in a wide range of territory, and for house steps, window caps and sills, cornices, etc., it has no equal. Bridges, piers, arch culverts and heavy foundations are made of it constantly.

The piers of the suspension bridge and of the L. & N. R. R. bridge at Cincinnati, of the N. & W. Bridge, at Kenova, West Virginia, and the culvert and bridge piers on the N. & W. R. R. between Columbus and Ironton, and on the C. & O. R. R. between Huntington and Cincinnati, are made of it, Many business blocks in Cincinnati are faced with it, and it is now largely quarrie J on the C. P. & V. R. R. and on the C. & O. opposite the same place. There are sixty ledges of this stone on the tract. Twentytwo of them are below the "City Ledge" and the lowest of them is two hundred feet above the level of the bottom land. None of these ledges can be worked about Portsmouth for there they are below the level of the river. On this tract they can be worked for a mile on the Ohio River front and on both sides of Rock Run for two or three miles up that stream the canyon of that stream affording good dumping ground. But stone is not the only mineral wealth on this tract. The clays are most valuable. The two hundred feet of shale extending from the level of the bottom land to the first ledge contains much oil. Before the discovery of petroleum, it was distilled for lubricating and illuminating oils. Lying in the "City Ledge'* is a blue clay which bums to the color of the famous Milwaukee brick, and just below it, is a stratum which will make the best of sewer pipe. Sixteen feet above the "City Ledge" is a red clay, which has been used by the Rockwood Pottery at Cincinnati. Beautiful building brick has been made from it. This clay is well adapted to art pottery, and for bricks for house fronts. Several articles of pottery made from this clay were decorated by Mrs. Bellamy Storer, and took distinguished prizes at the latest Paris Exposition.

As a summer resort, this place has many attractions. All the passenger boats land directly in front of the main residence. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad is directly across the river and persons can get off at either Garland or Buena Vista Stations. There are chalybeate springs on the property like the Adams County Mineral Springs, or Esculapia in Kentucky. The canyon of Rock Run is always cool. The scenery around and below the tract is as fine as any in the Ohio Valley. There is good driving up and down the river valley, fine fishing in the river and it is an excellent locality for those fond of rowing.

Chapter Tv

Jefferson Township, named for President Jefferson, was organized in 1806, as will be seen by reference to the chapter on "Organization of the Townships," from territory formerly included in Iron Ridge Township. Its Ix^unrlarics as then defined were: Beginning at the mouth of Beasley^s l«*ork ; thence up Pirush Creek to the mouth of Lick Fork ; thence east to the Scioto County line ; thence south along said line to the northeast comer of (»reene Township; thence west along the north line of said township to the place of beginning.

It is the largest township, both in area and population, in the county. It contains 50,450 acres of land, and has a voting population of over one thfrtisand. It is now divided into four voting precincts: Wamsleyville, Cedar Mills, Lynx, and Churn Creek.

The township lies in the shale and Waverly sandstone region, and is rough and hilly, and in places mountainous. Greenbriar Mountain in the south central part of the township, is one of the high points in the county. A lonely tree on top of this knob can be seen on a clear day from the Odd r\*l]ows' Cemetery at West L-nion, a distance of nearly ten miles. Thv highest i)()int in the township is a slate and sandstone knob in the extreme southeastern part of the township, about two miles east of the Geodetic Station ; it is nearly 1,200 feet above sea level. From its summit Portsmouth, West Llnion and all the elevated points in the county can be seen. PIktc are several other knobs almost as lofty as this in the township. These knobs are cai)pe(l with sandstone and fringed about with pine, cedar and chestnut trees.

The soil in the valleys is very fertile, producing bountiful crops of corn, wheat, oats, clover, timothy and tobacco. This latter has become a staple crop in Jefferson Township, many of the hillsides on which the accunuilation of decaying vegetation has gathered for centuries, where sheltered from winds, producing a fine quality of white hurley leaf. Upon the discovery of this fact, a great influx of population to this region, from the hurley toliacco districts of Brown and Clermont Counties took place in the period from 1875 to 1885. The **coon-hunter, the ginseng digger, and the bark peeler," have given place to intelligent and industrious husbanduHMi. whose neat farms and comfortable homes, rank with those in the more fertile regions of the county. There is not a more picturesque region n(^r a liai)pier, more comfortable class of people, in what constitutes real happiness and comfort, than Blue Creek Valley and its denizens.

It is not possible now to learn who was the first white inhabitant of rhis region. It was the hunter's paradise - ^buffaloes, elks, deer, bears, wild turkeys and other game being found in great abundance. And the streams, whose waters are so soft, so clear and sparkling, teemed with the finest bass and pickerel. It was to this region then that the more daring hunters came and made their abode before the husbandman seeking a farm built his cabm and cleared away the forests Among the first settlers were James and Joseph Williams. They came about 1796, and James Williams erected a cabin on the east side of Ohio Brush Creek near where the Cedar Mills Pike crosses that stream, or about sixteen rods above the crossing of the old Cincinnati and Portsmouth Ro?d.

Then Jonathan Waite settled on the Peter Wycoff farm, and Philip Lewis built a cabin near the mouth of Blue Creek. Among the early settlers may be mentioned Jesse Edwards, John Newman, Lazalel Swim, David Newman, John Prather, John Beckman, George Sample, at the mouth of Soldier's Run and Thomas Lewis.

William Lewis, a son of Philip Lewis, in writing of the early settlers in Jefferson Township in 1879, said: **My father, Philip Le^vis, came to Jefferson Township in 1797 [the land records show that he was here in 1796]. and settled on Blue Creek near where it empties into Scioto Brush Creek. He built a saw and grist mill the same year. James and Joseph Williams were here when father came. They had come the year before. They were squatters, followed hunting and lived in shanties without floors. Old man Foster, also, was a squatter and settled where Wash. McGinn now lives. Jesse Edwards, who killed the big bear, came the same year father did. He was a Revolutionary soldier and lived where David Collings now does. He died at the age of no years.

The bear referred to was killed on our place on an ash tree that stood on the left of the run as you go up it, right opposite where Clark Compton lives. It weighed something over three hundred pounds."

In the old cemetery at Moore's Chapel, are buried many of the pioneers of that portion of the township. Few of them have grave stones, and some of these are so defaced by time as to obscure the names and dates. Hon John B. Young furnished us the following: Jesse Williams, born 1759, died December 2, 1808; Andrew Jones, born 1768, died July 19, 1841 ; James Cain, born 1739, died Febraury i, 1836: John Williams, bom in Maryland, 1776, died February 21, 1854; Mary Williams, his wife, born 1766, died August 12. 1838; Michael Freeman, born 1765, died April 14, 1835; Elizabeth Freeman, born 1766, died April 23, 185 1 ; John Wikoff, born 1774, died December 16. 1849; Katharine Wikoff, born 1779, died October 5, 1852; Hiram Jones, born 1796, died October 26, 1843; Malinda Pendil, born 1765, died 1833; Conrad Cook, born 1774, died June 26, 1833; Elizabeth Cook, born 1781, died January 30, 1840.

Caraway Cemetery - Henry Caraway, bom Greenbriar County, Virginia, 1765, died June 3, 1835; Margaret Caraway, bom 1764, died October, 1819; Samuel Newman, bom at Alexandria, Virginia, 1768, died Febmary 20, 1855; Nancy Newman, bom 1771, died July 21, 1848.

Liberty Chapel, M. P., was organized in 1837. It is in the southwestern portion of township ne^r Lynx postoffice and is known as "Greenbriar."

Union Grove, near residence of Hon. John B. Young, built as a union house for religious and literary purposes, in 1880. Occupied by the Christian Union Church since 1883, ^^^ ^s free to all denominations of "intelligence and piety."

Moore's Chapel, on Breedlove Run, near Blue Creek postoflice, was the first Methodist Episcopal organization in the Northwest Territory and here was erected the

The first Methodist Society organized in the Northwest Territory was at the humble cabin of Joseph Moore on Scioto Brush Creek in Adams County. Writers more enthusiastic than accurate have stated that this was in the year 1793 when Joseph Moore settled on the farm recently owned by Oliver Jones in Jefferson Township near Blue Creek postoffice. But this is too early a date. There were no settlements made outside the stockade at Three Islands, or Manchester, previous to 1795; and this date is probably the year that Moore's cabin was erected on Scioto Brush Creek, although it may have been a year later. But in 1797, there was quite a number of settlers in the vicinity of Moore's cabin, and it was here, and in this year that the Pioneer Methodist Society in Ohio, and the Northwest Territory, was organized. It is stated that Dr. Edward Tiffin, the first Governor of the State of Ohio, visited the class at Moore's in the year 1797, which is altogether probable, as he located in the town of Chillicothe about the time of its founding in 1796; Adamsville near the present site of Rome on the Ohio, was in 1797 made the seat of justice for Adams County which then includevi what is now Ross County. Moore's was conveniently near the line of travel from Chillicothe to the place of meeting of the courts of Adams County. About this time there was a society of Methodists in the vicinity of Simon Field's which met at Wamsley's on Ohio Brush Creek, and it is said that Dr. Tiffin frequently preached there, also.

Rev. Philip Gatch, Rev. Lewis Hunt and Rev. Henry Smith preached to these scx:ieties before the year 1800. Rev. Henry Smith, who organized the Scioto Circuit in 1799, says that "on the sixth of August, 1800, we proposed building a meeting house at Scioto Brush Creek, for a private house would not hold our week-day congregation ; but we met with some who opposed it. We however succeeded in building a small log house, large enough for the neighborhood." It was named Salem Chapel, but afterwards called Moore's Meeting House.

This rude log structure erected by the pioneer settlers for the beautiful Scioto Brush Creek valley was the first Methodist Meeting House in the State of Ohio. It was begun in the winter of 1800 and completed the summer following. The first services held in it by the circuit preachers was the quarterly meetings in August,. 1801. There stands upon the old site today a neat frame building erected through the untiring energy of Rev. A. D. Singer, who vowed that this spot so dear to every true Methodist should be marked by a comfortable church building in which the members might gather to worship Him who had guided their forefathers to this "refuge in the wilderness." The pulpit is a beautiful piece of workmanship constructed by Rev. Singer from sixteen kinds of native woods. The front panel is inlaid with dark colored woods so as to form the figures 1 800- 1 880, the dates respectively of the building of the first church and the dedication of the present structure.

A writer has truthfully said that there should be no more sacred spot to Ohio Methodists than this, and that there should be erected on the site of Moore's Meeting House, a handsome stone chapel adorned with beautiful memorial windows bearing the names of the pioneer ministers who founded Methodism in Ohio there. The building is surrounded by a burying ground where sleep many of the pioneers of Scioto Brush Creek valley.

Wamslkyville, a pretty little village on Scioto Brush Creek in the northeastern part of the township and about one mile from the Scioto County line, was laid out in 1874 by William Wamsley of that place. The postofRce there, named Wamsley, was established in 1869, with William Wamsley as the first postmaster.

Blue Creek, a little hamlet lying along the valley at the junction of Blue Creek with Scioto Brush Creek, including the lower valley of Mill Creek, is a most charming locality. Blue Creek postoffice was established in 1844 with Isaac N. Wamsley first postmaster. There is a good Hotel near this place conducted by John W. Lightbody.

Cedar Mili^ is on Cedar Run where old Brush Creek Furnace was located. The postoffice was established in 1868, John V. Claxton, first postmaster.

Lynx Postoffice, on Greenbriar, was established in 1879 with E. L. Ellis as postmaster. It is named from the wild animals of that name that once infested that region.

Bcmini8Cehces

On the home farm of the late Xewton Moore on Ohio Brush Creek, between the house and the creek, is a field of several acres which has been in meadow continuously for ninety-six years, having never been plow^ed but once, at the time of clearing, and which yields annually from two to three tons of timothy to the acre.

is a peculiar name for a beautiful stream. It is said that a party of pioneer surveyors while in this vicinity resolved to procure some "Old Monongahela" from Graham's Station across the Ohio in Kentucky, and sent one. Armstrong, to fetch it. He made his way to the Station and secured the *'old double distilled," but had no vessel to carry it in. Finally, a cedar churn was procured and in it the refreshment was put and carried back to the camj) in the wilds of Iron Ridge. From this circumstance it is said the stream was immediately named Churn Creek.

In July, 1817, there was a "cloud burst" in the region of Churn Creek, and the waters of that stream, it is said, rose to a height of twenty feet, destroying crops, and otherwise doing great damage along that stream. Scioto Brush Creek suddenly rose from the flood in Churn Creek and vicinity, and soon overflowed its banks. Lazaleer Swim, grandfather of Samuel B. W'amslcy, was then living on the farm recently owned by the latter on Scioto Brush Creek. Seeing an approaching storm, he sent his two little boys to pen the sheep in a building in the bottom below the house. It was in the evening and growing quite dark. Suddenly the waters burst in a swift current between the house and the pen in which the children were securing the sheep, and the horrified father saw they could not be rescued. He called to them to climb on top of the sheep pen, which they did, taking up a favorite dog with them. The flood continued to rise, and soon swept the pen with the boys and dog on its roof down the creek where it lodged in a drift of rails and logs against some large sycamore trees near where Wamsleyville is now situated. Here the children remained until the waters began to subside, when they were rescued, almost dead from fright and exposure, by their parents and the neighbors who had been aroused by the frantic cries for help and the pitiful howling of the dog.

Hosea Moore, whose nan^ is frequently mentioned in the early history of Adams County, had a sister, Ruhama Moore, the wife of James Kendall, of Winchester Township, who was the mother of twenty-four children, eighteen of whom were yet living in 1879.