Butler County, Ohio - The whole text, 1882 (part 16 of 39)

There are upwards of twenty miles of rail on this road proper, within the county, and eleven stations. is the first one on entering from the south;

The Eaton road followed next. It was laid out by John W. Erwin in the Winter of 1849. Henry S. Earhart was an assistant. It follows the line of Seven-Mile Creek, and goes through Seven-Mile, Collinsville, and Somerville.

John Woods took an active part in the building of the Eaton and Hamilton Railroad Company, of which he became president, on retiring from the office of auditor of state. Previous to the second election, after Mr. Woods became president, many of the stockholders had wished a branch road to be constructed from Eaton to Piqua, which was opposed by Mr. Woods. This lost him his election.

The Cincinnati, Richmond and Chicago Railroad Company is the successor to the Eaton and Hamilton Railroad Company, which was chartered February 8, 1847, with authority to construct a railroad from Eaton, Preble County, by such route as the directors might select, to Hamilton, Butler County.

November 1, 1864, the Eaton and Hamilton Company leased that part of the Richmond and Miami Railway extending from the point of connection on the State line to the junction or switch about two miles east of Richmond. Becoming financially embarrassed, suit was brought against it in the Butler County Common Pleas Court, by Joseph B. Varnum, for foreclosure of mortgage. Pending the proceedings, the company was reorganized, and on the 3d of May, 1866, the new arrangement was perfected by filing certificates with the secreretary of state, the new company assuming the name of the Cincinnati, Richmond, and Chicago Railroad Company. On February 19, 1869, the company leased its road in perpetuity to the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company.

The Junction Railroad Company was incorporated by the Legislature of Indiana February 15, 1848, for the construction of a road from Rushville, through Connersville and Oxford, to Hamilton, with the permission of the State of Ohio. March 8, 1849, the Ohio Legislature passed an act granting the right of way. Other companies were merged and leased, until the road is now known as the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Indianapolis Railroad.

John Woods became president of this road after retiring from the Eaton road, to the prosecution of which he bent all his energies to bear, and much of its early success was owing to him. He held his office until the period of his death, half a dozen years.

warrant a commencement of the undertaking bar He tained, and, an arrangement having been made with the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company which secured the completion of the whole road from Rushville to Hamilton, the division from College Corner to Connersville was put under contract : January for the grading, masonry, and_ bridging. The work was taken in sections and subdivisions by efficient, responsible contractors, at prices much below the rates at which other Western roads had been obliged to pay.

In June a contract was made with Messrs. Bates and Neal, experienced and energetic railroad builders, for the grading and masonry of the division extending from Connersville to Rushville. This was comparatively the most expensive division of the road. On the 2d of August the remaining divisions, from Hamilton to College Corner and from Rushville to Indianapolis, were put under contract for the construction of the grade and masonry. The division from Hamilton to College Corner was awarded to William Higdon, and from Rushville to Indianapolis to Messrs. Craycraft, Williams, and Ryan.

The superstructure of the bridges on the second division was awarded to Messrs. Tymon and Rindge, who executed a contract for building the bridges on the plan known as Thayer's Patent Truss Bridge. Bids were also received for building the bridges upon the other divisions. Contracts were made to furnish the cross-ties upon the whole road from College Corner to Indianapolis, and bids received for delivering the cross-ties upon the division from Hamilton to College Corner.

The first division from Hamilton to College Corner was awarded to William Higdon on the 2d of August. The work was not begun until September, and then was vigorously prosecuted. The foundations of the piers and abutments for the bridge over the Miami at Hamilton were excavated, and the timber and masonry put down during the period of extreme low water, and the masonry raised as high as it was safe to be during the Winter. The whole amount of work done on this division was more than thirty thousand dollars. still at work on this part of the road.

The second division, from Connersville to the State line, was put under contract in January. Nearly threefourths of the work on this part of the road had been done, amounting to one hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars.

The work on the third division, which extended from Connersville to Rushville, had been commenced. The clearing and gradin& of the fourth division, extending ae ele to Indianapolis, was begun by Messrs.

, amount of the work performed up to that time was two hundred and forty thousand dollars. The estimates were regularly paid to the contractors, and a considerable sum advanced to them on account of the

On Saturday, the 4th of June, 1859, the road was opened to Oxford, and two trains of eighteen or twenty cars started at half-past ten o'clock from Hamilton, with about one thousand passengers, to visit the terminus of the road. Upon arriving at the Oxford depot, they were met by a delegation of citizens of that town, headed by Marshal Matson and the Oxford band, when a procession was formed, which marched down to the college campus, where a collation was served. The immense gathering was addressed by Dr. Hall, president of the Miami University, in an appropriate and pleasant manner. The doctor was followed by William H. Miller, the energetic president of the Junction Railroad Company, with whose remarks all appeared to be well pleased.

The Junction road was completed as far as College Corner, twenty miles from Hamilton, and the first passenger train passed through at the end of November, 1859. <A pleasant company of excursionists had been hastily collected for the ''opening." They made the trip without any marked incident, but with much jollity and merriment. As far as completed, the work was of the best and most substantial kind.

The Junction Railroad crosses the river at Hamilton over a handsome bridge. It is, including its culverts and embankments, two thousand and sixty-five feet long, although the main bridge, where it crosses the Miami, is but seven hundred feet long, and is supported by four arches of one hundred and seventy feet each. It is covered with Mosely's corrugated iron, and is fifty feet above low-water mark. The viaduct at the west end is six hundred and sixty-five feet long, crosses three streets at the tops of the houses, and has seventeen arches built of ~ Dayton stone. The grade from the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton depot for four miles west, to the summit level, is sixty-five feet to the mile. The engineering of this magnificent superstructure was done by John 8. Earhart. j

The Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway Company runs through the eastern portion of the county, going nearly north and south. - Its original name here was the Cincinnati and Springfield Railway Company, and it was incorporated by filing a certificate of organization in the office of the secretary of state on the 9th of September, 1870. The road was to extend through the counties of Clarke, Montgomery, Greene, Warren, Butler, and Hamilton. It was projected to form, in connection with other roads already constructed, a trunk-line between the Eastern cities and Cincinnati, starting at Cincinnati. The road was constructed from Ludlow Grove to Dayton, a distance of 48.80 miles, and the remainder of the original route had been already built.

_A STRANGE race of people, known to the archzeologist as '' the Mound-builders," who once inhabited the central portion of the United States, has left the evidences of its habitation throughout every part of Butler County. With the exception of Ross County, no other place within the State of Ohio contains so many remains of antiquity.

In order to further the study of this lost race, the scientists have divided the earth-works into two general classes, namely, inclosures and mounds; and these again embrace a variety of works diverse in form and designed for different purposes. The first is characterized by circumvallations, embankments, or walls, and include fortifications or places of defense, sacred inclosures, and numerous miscellaneous works, mostly symmetrical in structure. 'They vary in size, ranging from one to four hundred acres. The walls are composed of surface material, clay, or stone, and vary in height from one to thirty feet. :

Under the second head we have the true moundbuildings, which constitute a wonderful system, embracing what has been specifically designated temple, sacrificial, sepulchral, symbolical, and mounds of observation, varying in height from three to ninety feet. The temple mounds are regular in form, of large dimensions, are chiefly truncated, having graded avenues or spiral pathways leading to their summits. Those called sacrificial invariably occur either within, or else in the immediate vicinity of, inclosures, and are regularly constructed in uniform layers of earth, sand, and gravel, disposed alternately in strata conformable to the shape of the mound, thus covering an altar composed of burnt clay or stone, upon which are the remains of the sacrifices. The sepulchral mound is a simple cone heaped over the remains of some chief personage. The symbolical mounds are gigantic bass-reliefs formed on the surface of the ground, and representing both animate and inanimate objects. The mounds of observation are so called on account of their location on high hills, which give a commanding view either of the river valleys, or else the surrounding country.

Taking the system of earth-works for which this people is noted, no spot could be better adapted for their various wants than that embraced within the limits of Butler County. If, as it has been supposed, these people were tillers of the soil, then we have here the broad valley of the Miami, notably that portion which stretches out and embraces the rich arable lands adjoining the creeks known as Seven-Mile and Nine-Mile, which would furnish them a soil scarcely surpassed in its fertility. Should danger encounter them in the shape of a formi- dable enemy, the bold headlands, here and there jutting out into the valleys, present great natural advantages for defense ; and upon the many hills signal stations could be erected in order to warn the quiet cultivators of the soil when a predatory band was at hand.

The evidence is accumulative that this county must have long been one of the permanent seats of the Moundbuilders. This is especially shown in the great number of earth-works and the abundance of implements which have been found. It may be safely stated that nearly every foot of ground has yielded up some relic belonging to a past race of people. That all these belong to the mound-building epoch, no one would affirm ; but, taken in connection with works known to belong to that age, or time, it may be claimed that a large proportion of the relics should be assigned to that distinctive race. The same kind and variety of implements found in various parts of the State and in the immediate vicinity of earth structures also occur here. Archeological cabinets have been, and are still being, rapidly formed, almost wholly composed of relics picked up within the county. Nearly all the' large collections have been sold, many of them passing out of the State.

The mounds number not less than two hundred and fifty, varying in height from two feet to forty-three. Only two kinds or varieties of mounds are. definitely known to be in this county; namely, mounds of observation and sepulture. Some have been obliterated by the plow, others remain undisturbed, and a few have the forest-trees still growing upon them. The mounds of observation range upon the west bank of the Miami, and the most conspicuous hills are crowned with these works. The hills on the eastern side are not dotted with them, for the reason that the sides are more sloping; besides, they do not command as fine a view of the valley as those on the western side.

The largest of all the mounds within the county is that in Madison Township, located on the land of Joseph Henry, section 19. tains nearly twenty-five thousand feet of clay. From its position and height it must have been the principal watchtower for the people of the surrounding country, and the one which received the signals from the great Mound near Miamisburg. Ross Township presents an interesting group situated on section 21. Here we have a group of four mounds, the largest about twenty-six feet high. Removed from them a distance of a few rods are two more. The largest might have been used as a signal station; but the smaller mounds would apparently discredit this supposition.

The works of inclosure are sixteen in number, located on section 36, Oxford; section 3, Milford; sections 14, 30, Wayne; section 4, St. Clair; section 22, Reily ; sections 34, 13, 12, Ross; sections 8, 15, 10, 16, Fairfield ; sections 14, 8, 9, Union Townships. These works have been more or less disturbed by the white man, while two have been entirely obliterated. Fortunately these two received a careful survey while yet covered with forest-trees, so that their dimensions are still known. An interesting inclosure, belonging to the class called sacred, occurred partly in section 9, Union, and section 15, Fairfield Townships. It was carefully surveyed May 7, 1842, by John W. Erwin and James McBride. This group of works was composed of four circles and an oval. The main work was situated just east of and touching the township line. "It was an exact circle, two hundred and thirty-one feet in diameter. When first discovered the embankment was fully three feet above the natural surface of the ground. As the accompanying ditch within the embankment was two feet deep, consequently the perpendicular height of the wall was five feet from the bottom of the excavation. ast of this inclosure, and removed a distance of one hundred and ninety-eight feet, was another, eighty-six feet in diameter. In a direction 8. 15° W. from the last-named work, a distance of one hundred and ninety-eight feet was another work of the same dimensions; namely, eighty-six feet in diameter, and exactly the same distance from the main work as the former. North-west of the center or main work, a distance of sixty-six feet, was another circle, thirty-three feet in diameter. The township line passed directly through it, dividing it into halves. Adjoining and touching this was another inclosure of an oval form, one hundred and fifty feet by one hundred and eighty in diameter. All of the smaller works were also accompanied with the interior ditch, eighteen inches in depth, with the surrounding embankment two feet above the natural surface of the ground. The material composing the embankment was a bright yellow clay, different from that appearing on the surface of the surrounding ground. It is more than probable that communications once existed throughout from one work to the other, possibly composed of timber. As only the main work was accompanied by a gateway, it might also be inferred that the works were never completed according to the original design.

One of the most interesting and the most noted of all the earth-works of Butler County is that known as "Fortified Hill," located on section 12, Ross Township, on the farms of Clarke Lane and David Descompas, three miles south of the town of Hamilton. The work occurs on the summit of the most elevated hill in that vicinity. The hill is a short distance from the river, surrounded on all sides, save a narrow space at the north, by deep ravines, and rising to a height of two hundred and fifty feet above the stream. It juts out into the valley, thus constituting a spur, which, with its steep sides, makes it an inviting place for a stronghold to a primitive people. From the line of fortification the hill is sloping, but becomes gradually steeper as the bottom of the ravines is reached. The embankment, composed of a stiff clay mingled with stone, and having a height of five feet by thirty-five feet base, skirting along the brow of the hill, and generally conforming to its outline, incloses an area of a little over sixteen acres, the interior of which gradually rises to the height of twenty-six feet above the base of the wall. The wall has no accompanying ditch, the material composing it having probably been taken up from the surface, or else from the '" dugholes" which occur at various points within the walls. The line of wall has four gateways - as may be seen from the accompanying engraving - each twenty feet wide, one at the northern division, and the others at the south, but respectively facing the four points of the compass. These gateways are all faced or protected on the interior by dug-holes or excavations, some of which are sixty feet over, and now filled up with mud to a depth of ten or eleven feet. Three of the gateways are completely covered with inner lines of embankment, the most intricate one being the one at the north, and marked N in the engraying. This part of the fort has long been under cultivation, while the southern portion is still covered with forest-trees. Notwithstanding the fact that the plow has been doing its work, all the lines at the north are distinctly visible. The wall - beyond the north gateway, yet covering it, is now leyeled, although not a weed or blade of grass will grow upon it, thus apparently: shaming man for this unnecessary act of vandalism.

Within the main lines, and covering the gateway, are four other walls, thus not only protecting the gateway, but also rendering this point in the fortification almost impregnable against the assault of an enemy. The gateways E and S belong to that method of fortification known as Tlascan. The former opens upon a parapet, and the other was partly protected by a stone mound. Within the gateway, at W, was formerly a stone mound eight feet in height, which was removed by the farmers in that vicinity for building purposes. Thirty rods north of gateway N is a mound seven feet high, composed of mingled earth and stone. In 1836 this mound was ten feet in height. Since then it has been several times partially excavated, and a quantity of stone taken out, all of which showed the action of fire. The mound was probably used as a signal station; and indications prove it had been frequently used. A mound also occurs at the south, in close proximity to the wall. It has never been disturbed, is finely rounded, and hidden by the underbrush.

The outlines, as well as the position, declare the distinctive character of this work. That it was constructed as a place of defense needs no elaborate argument; for every detail of its structure fully shows it. The method of fortifying shows wonderful military skill; for every avenue is thoroughly protected, and the principal approach is guarded by four walls, with the addition of two supplementary walls. Should the exterior crescent wall be successfully assaulted, and even the gateway carried by an enemy, still the fortress is yet protected by a system of defense which would more or less confuse an enemy, thus giving advantage to the defenders. Add to this the fact that the walls are so arranged that but very few could pass between the lines abreast, which in a hand-to-hand encounter would be of disadvantage to the assaulting party. If these walls were additionally strengthened by means of palisades, then the formidable character of the work would readily appear. To be appreciated, the fort should be seen. From the summit of the hill near the southern part of the inclosure the chieftain could take his stand and behold every movement of the enemy without. Thus he could guard and direct his forces according to the movement of the foe. He could also cast his eye, and, by means of certain signals, communicate with the people belonging to six other inclosures, all in full view.

Traces of the Indian are numerous, but there is no positive knowledge of his villages, although two encampments in Ross Township are known. Indian graves are frequently met with in excavating for gravel.

An Archeological Society was formed in Hamilton in 1879, but is not now in active existence. Its cabinet is in the rooms of the Lane Library.

Topography

Wrrury its extreme limits Butler County embraces a territory twenty-five miles east and west, by nineteen miles north and south, its average limits being not far from twenty-four and one-half miles by eighteen. The secretary of state's report for 1878 gives the acreage of the county at 291,990, which is 5,500 acres more than the average of the other eighty-seven counties of the State. This land lies in the valley formed by the divergence of the Great and Little Miami Rivers. It presents many interesting topographical features. There was at some time in the unrecorded past a terrific struggle of natural forces in this valley. During the period of glacial action, the ice mountains wound their slow course, and cut a path on their way to the sea.

The evidences of this are abundant, and are to be seen in the outcroppings on the banks of the numerous streams which find their outlet in the Great Miami River.

The average breadth of this valley is twelve miles. The eastern divide skirts the borders of Warren and Hamilton Counties; the western divide runs nearly parallel with the eastern, beginning with the high lands of Montgomery County, and attaining its greatest elevation towards the north. The boundaries of this valley are sharply defined, and can be easily traced by the unassisted eye. This fact will recur to any one, who, from the crest along which the Dayton Short Line Railroad passes, has cast a glance westwardly, or who, from the height between Millville and Darrtown, has looked eastward to the ridge which separates the Ohio and Little Miami Rivers from the Great Miami Valley. A view from either of these vantage points is one of surpassing loveliness. In Spring the verdure is refreshing in its tints, the slopes have enough of forest to relieve the monotony of a dead landscape, while the fields of starting grain, to use a rounded period of Edward Everett, 'appear as if nature had spread a carpet fit to be pressed by the footsteps of her descending God." If one seeks natural beauties he has not far to go, and yet it is probably true that most people have given scarcely a thought to the riches of beauty so lavishly spread around them. If one will take his stand on a Summer evening on the hills southeast of Hamilton, looking over the valley toward Port Union, and survey its fields of ripening grain, he will see a picture such as no artist could transfer to canvas. On the road between Hamilton and Middletown, on the east side of the Miami River, there are several - points of observation from which the prospect is equally beautiful. Among these may be mentioned the views near the residences of Philip Hughes and Peter Shafor, looking westward, or from Kennedy's farm, about two miles from Hamilton, on the west side of the river. The traveler by the Junction Railroad to Oxford, if observant,

From the heights around Oxford the forest and the cleared upland rise and swell or fall away in graceful undulations that fill the eye and the heart with a sense of graceful beauty and perpetual delight. If the ald saying be true, that ''an undevout astronomer 18 mad, then it will be equally true to assert that he who has lived among such beauties and has been unobservant, is unworthy the gifts so freely spread before him. If the reader will consult the map of Butler County printed in this volume, he will see that the Miami River begins its course in the extreme northeastern border, and thence cuts diagonally through, leaving the county at its southwestern border. As the crow flies this distance is thirty miles, but in the meanderings of the river it is probably forty-five to fifty miles. A glance at the general lay of the land within this valley shows it to be in harmony with the general pitch of the surface south of the great divide which separates the waters that flow into the lakes, and thence to the north Atlantic Ocean, from those waters which seek the warmer clime of the south, and thence flow northward through that greatest of all rivers, the Gulf Stream, to again meet after a long separation. The observer will also note that the courses of all streams flowing into the Great Miami is from north-west to southeast on the westward side of the river. This direction is likewise in conformity with the slope of the country, but on the east side of the river we find an anomalous hydrographic condition. While on the westward side Cotton Run, Seven-Mile, Four-Mile, Indian Creek, and other tributaries of the Miami flow in a natural course, the largest tributary on the eastward side within Butler County, in defiance of all natural law, appears to run up hill. Gregory's Creek has its sources in the lands of Union Township, and thence flows northwestwardly and empties into the Miami near Lesourdsville. So also Pleasant Run, which has its source beyond the borders of Hamilton County, makes what is appareatly an up hill detour, and finds its way into the Miami at a point nearly abreast at Symmes Corner. One who never followed the course of these two streams, save on the map, would be at a loss to account for this strange contrayention of physical laws, but a following of the streams themselves affords an explanation of the seeming contradiction. Gregory's Creek and Pleasant Run both pass through gorges and ruts scooped out for them by glaciers that must have separated from the main ice mountain as it moved down the valley. These smaller glaciers being less powerful than the parent glacier were compelled to yield obedience to the character of the land over which they passed, while the larger glacier, by its great weight, was able to carve its way in the general direction which is shown on the westward side of the river. On the eastward side the adventurers cast adrift

The reasonableness of this theory could be abundantly demonstrated did space permit, but it is merely alluded to here for the purpose of drawing the attention to a physical curiosity which has few parallels.

Within the memory of people living, there have been great changes in both the climatology and the physical features of the county. In the course of the river there have been changes within the recollection of people who belong to the present generation. The Miami and Erie Canal was begun in 1825, and so late as 1845 Hamilton shippers to Cincinnati by canal relate that it was no uncommon thing for the horses to flounder from the towpath breast deep into a lake which covered most of the ground which lies east of the old Chase farm, now owned by Amor Smith, near Jones's Station. Drainage, both natural and artificial, has reclaimed all this waste land and made it as valuable a tract as there is in the county. With regard to the river, the number of its tributaries, and the immense rain-fall at its sources, make it a stream remarkable for the suddenness of its floods, its volume of water, and the uncertainty of its changes in course. The cut off above Hamilton is within the memory of people now living, and the flood of 1866, which swept away the old Hamilton bridge, and of which a description is elsewhere given, is still in vivid recollection. That flood carried several thousand acres of valuable land from its owners, and in some instances worked almost financial ruin. This was notably the case at the bend of the river, where the farm of M. P. Alston is situated. It is doubtful, however, from the testimony of old_residents, whether the floods of the present generation equal in volume or in destructiveness those which were com-

Hamilton between the years 1810 and 1825 did a large trade with New Orleans and with the Indian Territory. 'That trade was carried on by flat-boats, some of which were built on the banks of Four-Mile Creek, near Oxford, and were there loaded with provisions suitable for the Southern markets, and the flood never failed to come and bear them along their way.

There is not such certainty in the returns of these freshets now, and it would be impossible to establish a trade on the chance of such conditions as made those ventures at that time perfectly sound from a business point of view. It would appear as if rain-falls and snow-falls were greater in those earlier days than now. Whether this change is due to the denudation of the valley by cutting off the timber, it would, perhaps, not be profitable to take time in inquiry. It is probable, however, that as the land became clearer and broken up in settlement that the rain and snow falls are now absorbed, where formerly they ran to the river, and that thus, in- stead of the annual average of rain being less than it once was, we are misled by its effect, being less apparent in great floods. It is the opinion of at least two engineers, who have had great experience in the measure- - ment of water volumes, that the flood of 1866 was probably not exceeded in quantity of water by any that preceded it within the written history of the valley.

this class but 9,410 acres are returned to the secretary of state, leaving 282,580 acres as either wood or pasture land, or as susceptible of tillage. This is the report as given by the Ohio Agricultural Board in 1879. There is wide diversity in the fruitfulness of different portions of the county. It embraces as rich land as there is in the State, and some exceedingly poor. It has been found by experiment, however, that the lands which are considered poor possess hidden elements of strength, and some as good farms as there are in the county were originally purchased at cheap figures, in view of their poyerty of production. Intelligent tillage has shown that this seeming poverty was easy of remedy, that there was inherent virtue in the soil, which needed only waking to activity by simple artificial means. The average composition of the upland soil is a sandy loam. In the highest uplands this changes toa clay. In the bottom where the Miami River has made its deposits the character of the soil changes to a deep black - what are termed the bottom lands of the Miami Valley.

It may be questioned, however, whether the term bottom land is rightly applied, since the fertility of the uplands for certain crops fully equals that of the low land. Bottom lands are peculiarly adapted to corn, the upland to wheat and barley. No county in the State is traversed by more small streams. The bridges under county supervision number more than one thousand, and the loss on bridges by flood three years ago was more than $40,000. This is mentioned in connection with what has already been said about the Miami River and its tributaries, to impress upon the reader the significance of a natural system of irrigation and drainage. The uplands abound in springs, and in seasons of drought give out the hoard of water they store during seasons of plenitude. In seasons of extreme rain-fall the inclination of the land toward the river readily conveys away the hurtful surplus. It has been found necessary in but few portions of the county to resort to artificial draining - nature has so well provided for the wants of the husbandman. There is no doubt that if artificial means were used the productiveness of the county could be largely increased, for wherever drainage experiments have been tried the results have been exceedingly satisfactory. A good illustration of this natural drainage can be seen along the bank of the canal, just north of Hamilton, or on the rocky road between Madison City to Miltonville. Where the rock crops up from the cuttings it will be found that there is a sufficient depth of soil from deposits of verdure to insure richness and - stability, while the underlying rock prevents too great evaporation in drought, and at the same time acts as an underground roof to turn excessive water into the Miami River. We have tried in this way to briefly explain the most striking feature that pertains to the general outlet of the county.

A wrong impression is abroad with respect to the fertility of the Miami Valley. We have. endeavored to show that the uplands are good for wheat and for barley, where the low lands are good for corn. The exceeding richness of production is, therefore, not due to natural fertility of soil so much as it is due to a plan which in nature appears to have been provided for the continual renewal of the land. In the bottoms this renewal of land comes from the annual overflows of the river. In the uplands it comes from the absorption by the soil of nitrogenous elements from the atmosphere. From these two sources, widely apart as they are, spring the sources of Butler County's wealth.

It would be hard between the Lakes and the Gulf, or between Portland, Maine, and the Rocky Mountains, to find the same number of acres better adapted to general purposes of cultivation. It would appear as if all the elements, both in soil and in climate, had combined in the Miami Valley to make the labor of the farmer successful. On every side come fructifying rills, the snows of Winter cover the sleeping grain, the warm breath of Spring breathes nowhere more gently, and above are no more benignant Summer skies.

Geology

As we have noted in our article on the topography of the county, the main stream runs south-west, while all its tributaries have south-east valleys. Even the Great Miami at some former period diverged from its present route and bent to the east. The larger and more plainly marked of these channels is that which divides just below Hamilton, and follows the line of the present Mill Creek through Fairfield and Union Townships.. This valley is in the neighborhood of a mile wide, and the gravel and bowlders show plainly where its waters once flowed. The other channel of the Miami began in Lemon Township, and followed Dick's Creek through this and Warren County until it finally debouched in the Little Miami. The canal follows the valley first mentioned, while the Lebanon Canal once followed the other. It is probable that these depressions, as well as those of the various creeks, owe much to glacial action.

liest map of this region the Miami is indicated as Rocky River. Its bed in many places shows the rock foundation, and s0 do those of Seven-Mile Creek and its affluents. But Twin Creek and Indian Creek have the evidences of greater antiquity, as their beds are entirely alluvial, so far as is visible to the eye, and the rock is buried beneath. In each valley there is a little extent of level ground, varying from a few yards to upwards of three miles wide in the Miami at Hickory Bottom, in the south part of Madison Township and north part of St. Clair. These bottoms are known as prairies, and were partly without wood at the beginning of the settlements, and where free were covered each year with an excellent growth of grass. These low-lying alluvial districts cover an area of not less than eighty square miles, or between one-fifth and one-sixth of the total surface.

This county is one of blue limestone. Most of this is not of a high character for the quarry ; but there are several beds that make excellent building-stone. Orton's geological survey, which we shall follow in this description, says one of the best sections in the county can be found at or near Hamilton. In the quarries just west of the river, the section can be begun at a horizon about two hundred and seventy-five feet above low water at Cincinnati, and it can be followed in frequent outcrops to the summit of Heilsman's Hill, on the Millville pike, where many of the characteristic fossils of the Lebanon division are found.

The bedded rocks of Butler County belong, with the exception of the very limited area of one or two square miles, to the Lower Silurian or Cincinnati group of Ohio. The exception named is found in the northeastern corner of Oxford Township, where a spur of the cliff limestone crosses the county line, and covers a section or two of the county. Both the Clinton and Niagara formations are shown here, but the area is so small, and is known to so few residents of the county, comparatively, that it may be dismissed from further consideration.

The Butler County scale begins at about two hundred feet above the base of the system, and extends to the summit of. the series. In Cincinnati this system is about eight hundred feet in thickness, making the Lebanon beds about three hundred, the Cincinnati division proper four hundred and twenty-five, and the Point Pleasant beds fifty feet. Thus in this county it gives about six hundred feet of bedded rocks. There are few points of interest in the formation at large that are not found in Butler County, and on the other hand there are few peculiarities of stratification or fossil contents that deele: special mention as differing from other portions of the Cincinnati group.

Carleyi, Hall. This shell is found on the banks of Four- Mile very near to the water's edge, directly east of the village of Oxford. The vertical range of this fossil is very limited, while its horizontal range is wide, so that it serves an excellent purpose as a landmark on the system. Its latitude is a horizon about four hundred and seventy-five feet above low water at Cincinnati, or about three hundred and forty-five above low water in Hamilton.

The Oxford sections are of interest from the fact that they yielded thirty-five years ago many of the type fossils of the formation. The early geological work of David Christy, Esq., was done in this field, and through him collections of the fossils found here were distributed among eastern and foreign geologists. The name of Oxford is, accordingly, very widely known as one of the typical localities of the blue limestone or Cincinnati group of Southern Ohio. The original cabinet of Mr. Christy is now in possession of the Miami University. It contains a number of interesting fossils.

Wayne and Madison Townships, and especially the latter, furnish unsurpassed exposures of the Lebanon beds on the banks of the smaller streams that drain their highlands. Kemp's Run, near Middletown Station, furnishes excellent ground for the collector, as do several branches that flow from Loy's Hill to Twin Creek, on the north line of the county.

The lowest ground in the county is to be found on its southern boundary in the Miami Valley. Its approximate elevation above the level of low water in Cincinnati is fifty feet. The alluvial division represents the valleys both ancient and modern - the eroded regions from which the rocks have been carried away to a depth at least below existing drainage courses. These areas could be appropriately described as the portions of the county that have an elevation of not more than two hundred and fifty feet above the Ohio River. The up- _ lands embrace the lands above this level. A large proportion of them, however, lie at an elevation between four and six hundred feet above the Ohio. This division of the surface of the county is much less definite on the east side of the river than it is on the west, for the reason that the drift deposits are heavier in the first named district. In other words, the lines of the valleys are here harder to be traced. There are areas of unmistakable uplands, but they are connected with the valleys by slopes of considerable extent, which completely obscure the true outlines of the rocky floor.

The uplands proper are remnants of the blue limestone plateau which once occupied all of southwestern Ohio, but so much of which has already been removed by aqueous and glacial denudation. They. are almost universally covered with shallow deposits of drift, but over very large areas the character of the underlying rock shows through, giving its peculiar features to the topography, to the agricultural capacity, and to the water supply of the districts occupied. These upland drift deposits are in considerable part derived from the waste of blue limestone land to the northward, so that a closer bond of connection exists between the soil and the underlying rock than is usually found in drift-covered regions.

The lowest of the drift deposits, or that which rests directly upon the bedded rocks, is the bowlder clay. This formation is shown with great distinctness and in very numerous exposures in Butler County. Almost every stream in some portion of its course discloses it. A particular feature of the bowlder clay in Butler County is that of ancient vegetable growths, branches, trunks, and roots of trees in large quantities. Examples can be seen in following almost any stream to its source, but one or two points may be named which are specially noteworthy in this respect. Collins's Run, near Oxford, a small tributary of Four-Mile Creek, shows in its banks very numerous exposures of these pre-glacial and interglacial forest growths. The vegetation is imbedded in the clay very often, and part of it shows that it has been subjected to rough mechanical agencies. The frequent presence of leaves and roots in or upon the deposit serves to show, however, that the source of the vegetation was not very far removed. The north bank of Elk Creek, opposite the mill at Miltonville, also gives a fine exposure of the clay. At this point a peculiar modification of the bowlder clay is found that deserves particular mention. It is a clay distinctly green in color, and as shown by a single analysis or a specimen obtained at this point, is very rich in potash and soda. The analysis made by Professor Wormley is here subjoined:

It will be seen that the elements above named, potash and soda, are abundant enough here to make the clay a fertilizer of considerable value. Vivianite, or phosphate of iron, is of frequent, perhaps constant occurrence in it. Vegetable matter is also always present. This green clay has been more frequently met with in Warren and Butler Counties than elsewhere.

The vegetable matter that is intermingled with the bowlder clay is to be distinguished from that which is borne upon its surface. The presence of a buried soil of inter-glacial age has been noticed frequently in other counties. An interesting example is recorded by David Christy in his Letters on Geology, published in 1848. In the last letter of the series, page 5, he says:

'Beneath our diluvium are occasional beds of ' hard pan or very tough blue clay, with imbedded pebbles.' I had my attention called to this new and interesting feature of our geology last Summer by Robert Beckett, Esq., eight miles east of Oxford. He called upon me to examine the stump of a tree standing erect in this deposit at a point where a small stream is encroaching upon a bluff. The roots penetrated the hard pan in all directions. Twenty feet of diluvium overlies it, We dug out the stump and a part of the roots. Some years since Mr. Beckett, in digging a well twenty or thirty rods distant from this point, at a depth of ten feet in the diluvium, struck upon another small tree, standing erect, with the trunk and some of the branches almost entire. This tree continued down to a depth of thirty feet, where he found its roots, in the natural position of growth, penetrating the hard pan."

Mr. J. P. MacLean has found, in the neighborhood of McGonigle's and from there northward to Darrtown, trees buried at a depth of from thirty to fifty feet, and is of opinion that a forest is there covered by later deposits.

The yellow gravelly clay that makes the main element of the drift in all of this region is very abundant in this county. It is not formed from the weathering of the upper portions of the bowlder clay in place. The action of the atmosphere upon an exposed bed of blue clay changes its color and also its texture, it is true, but much more than this is required to account for the surface clays of Southern Ohio. They have been worn away from their old places of deposit by water, and have been redeposited. The bowlder clay is always unstratified ; the yellow clays are generally distinctly stratified. The uplands of the county, especially of its northern and central portions, are almost universally covered with deposits of this kind. There are no elevations in the county that escape the deposits of the modified drift.

The sand and gravel that make a third element in the drift of this region do not deserve a place by themselves. They form a phase only of the second order of deposits, and must be referred not only to the same general line of agencies, but also approximately to the same time. As has just been stated, the highest elevations in the county give \clear proof of having been involved in the submergence, by which alone these facts can be explained. Bowlders are found at all elevations, and some of the largest size are found at the greatest altitude. One lying on the highest land of the west side of Ross Township measured one hundred and thirty feet above ground.

It is to be noticed that the bedded rock has been cut out to a greater depth than existing agencies can account for throughout most of the area of the Miami Valley. The rocky floor is very seldom laid bare by the river, and is as seldom struck in any excavations or borings that are made in the valley.

The valley is filled with immense accumulations of gravel and bowlders. These gravel beds undoubtedly overlie deposits of bowlder clay in many parts of the

Indeed, these deposits are occasionally, though rarely, struck in wells and similar excavations, and go times they even approach very near the surface. he eravel is of various sorts and sizes, and indicates various degrees of strength in the currents that have transported it. Large quantities of sand are scattered through it. In composition it is principally limestone, thus agreeing with the pebbles and bowlders that fill the drift clays of the country; but unlike the true drift pebbles, it has lost the marks of the previous stage in its history, the shaping which it received under the glacial sheet. Its pebvalley.

The gravel beds are in all cases covered with considerable deposits of loam and sand, which form the present sources of the valley. These depésits are arranged in three natural and well marked divisions, the first bottoms, the second bottoms, and the gravel terraces, sometimes called the third bottoms. Of this series, contrary to the general order in geology, the lowest member, the first bottoms, is the newest, and the highest member, - the gravel terraces, is the oldest. In other words, the first and second bottoms do not extend beneath the gravel terraces, and consequently do not result from the denudation of portions of the valley. The gravel terraces are at least one hundred feet above low water of the river now. 'They are generally left in small and isolated fragments on the margins of the valleys, but sometimes they are found to hold considerable areas. In the vicinity of the village of Trenton they can be seen and studied to considerable advantage, as also in the vicinity of Poast-town, on the Banker and Lucas farms.

To follow their history we must go back to the Champlain epoch of geology - to the period of submergence that followed the glacial period. The level of this portion of the country was at that time four hundred feet lower than at present. Stratified deposits, on a large scale, of sand, gravel, and clay are found four hundred feet above the present drainage of the country. At the period of greatest submergence there could have been little or no current throughout the valley, but during the slow advancing movement of depression the valley was filled with immense accumulations of rearranged drift. We may suppose, then, that the gravel terraces are a part of the old floor of the valley and that they once extended with a degree of uniformity throughout the wide basins in which we find the remnants of them to-day. As the continent emerged once more and slowly regained its present elevation, the river channels would be cut deeper and deeper into these deposits, the former surfaces of which would be left one hundred feet or more above the present river beds.

Little needs to be said in regard to their composition, as the name by which these deposits are known, the gravel terraces, indicates the main element in their mak- ing up. Grayel, sand, and loam, variously intermingled, constitute the whole series. The sorting and arranging of materials could only have been accomplished in long extended portions of time. There are no indications of tumultuous deposition in any portion of the series. The soils formed from the weathering and decomposition of the surfaces of these beds are kind and productive.

The second bottoms, like the terraces, must be referred to causes and conditions not now existing in the valley. They lie above the reach of the highest floods, being thirty feet or more above low water in the main valley. They occupy broad areas, and constitute, by way of excellence, the farming lands of the main valley. They consist of loams from two to six feet in thickness, overlying gravel. They seem to owe their origin to an arrest of the upward movement of the continent, which con- ' tinued for a considerable period.

The first bottoms are the most recent of the series. They are, indeed, very closely connected with the present state of things. They occupy the deeper part of the valley, and are covered by all of the higher floods. To these floods they owe their origin in part, being made up of the sediments deposited from high water. An arenaceous deposit filled with land shells is a common and characteristic member of the formation. The shells must have mainly grown upon the regions where we now find them, and were buried by the deposits of annual floods. The clearing of the valleys and their drainage basin has introduced many elements of change, and the formation of these bottom lands may almost be said to have been interrupted. This sandy bed, to which reference: has been made, is akin in composition and character to the loess of European geologists. An excellent example of the formation may be seen on the river banks within the limits of the village of Middletown. It is burned here into a cream-colored brick that answers well for a paving brick, and which is extensively used for this service.

As can readily be judged from such a composition, soils of great fertility can not be formed from this deposit, but there can be no doubt that it would serve an excellent purpose as a top dressing for uplands. It is, in reality, a shell marl, and would reward intelligent use very liberally. The thickness of this bed has not been found to exceed four feet in any exposures noted.

There is often associated with the above named formation a sort of clay from two to four feet in thickness that agrees in physical characters very closely with the

Butler County, says Professor Orton, stands scarcely second in productive power to any equal area in the State. No qualification certainly would be required if the valley of the Great Miami and that portion of the county lying east of the river were alone to be taken into account. This region might put in an unquestioned claim to be styled the garden of Ohio. It is made up of the broad and fertile intervales of the streams that now traverse the valleys or of the still more desirable areas that were the valleys of an earlier epoch, but which are now deserted by streams, and which are evenly filled with the beds of the later drift, together with uplands rising by gentle slopes to an altitude of four to five hundred feet above the river, and whose surfaces are hardly less productive than the areas first named.

The-soil of all this district consists, in great measure, of decomposed limestone gravel, and exhibits every excellence of limestone land. <A single area may be noted here as furnishing a unique line of facts in the native vegetation of the county. A chestnut grove is to be found in the southeast corner of Union Township, in section fourteen. It is well known that the chestnut confines itself generally to, the slate and sandstone soils of the county. Indeed, the boundary between the slates and the limestones in southwestern Ohio could be defined with satisfactory precision by noting the line where the chestnuts begin as one passes eastward. Isolated trees are known in the gravels and sands of limestone districts, it is true, but they are very rare. Dr. John A. Warder has called attention to one growing near Milford, in the Little Miami Valley, and another is known in Greene County, but in the area to which attention is now invited a forest growth in which the chestnut is a large element is found. The trees have attained a diameter of four feet in some instances, and in others stumps, long dead, are seen with large trees growing from them. The trees fruit well here and reproduce themselves abundantly. Chestnuts (the fruit) were sold to the amount of forty dollars from a single farm a few years ago.

The soil does not betray any peculiarities upon a superficial view, but the wells in the vicinity all show a great deposit of yellow sand beneath the surface. Many fruitless attempts to secure wells in this neighborhood are on record, the sand proving to be a quicksand, and caving in so rapidly as to prevent the sinking of the shaft to water. It has been thought that the sand would prove to be a molding sand, but no trials of it have been made. The bed of sand is anomalous, and it is interesting to note that the native forest growth which covers it is also exceptional. There are no peculiarities in the remaining drift soils of the county that require mention.

The poorest of them, like those covering the uplands of the northern and western townships, if handled with skill and subjected to a rational system of agriculture, would take high rank when compared with even the strongest lands of the Atlantic border. Measured against the fruitful valleys and slopes just mentioned, and tilled under a system which even these noble tracts can not much longer endure, they seem somewhat stubborn and sterile.

There are no native soils on the uplands of the county, but the beds of drift grow thinner as we pass to the southward, and occasionally they disappear for limited areas from the slopes of: the hills. The soil that is there formed from the waste of the shales and limestones of the Cincinnati series is of unusual excellence. The famous blue grass land of Kentucky, it will be remembered, is derived from this same system.

The fact that the boundary of the drift is being rapidly neared as we approach the southern line of the county explains certain points in the topography of the four southwestern townships. They are much rougher and more broken than the remaining areas. This arises from the failure of the drift to cover the irregularities here as it has done elsewhere. There is certainly no reason to suppose that the contour of the rocky floor is more irregular in one district than in another. What Butler County owes to the drift can be seen by comparing Liberty and Union Townships of the southeastern corner with Reily and Morgan Townships of the south-west.

The views furnished by the uplands, especially as we approach the Great Miami Valley from either side, are many of them very wide and attractive. Several can be named that are not to be surpassed in quiet pastoral beauty by any thing within the limits of the State.

From Snively's Hill, near Jacksonburg, a wide and beautiful expanse of country is shown of the main valley on the east and south, and of the valley of Seven- Mile Creek on the west.

to be good. The geological formation from which the county is built is universally and necessarily poor in this respect. The rain-fall can not penetrate the fine grained clays of the Cincinnati series, and is consequently turned outwards in surface drainage. Wherever the rock is heavily covered with drift beds the supply is improved, both in quality and quantity ; but in the thinly covered uplands reliance can not be safely placed on wells. There is no excuse, however, for a defective supply for either man or beast in a district which has so generous a rainfall as Southern Ohio enjoys. It is only necessary to save the roof water in properly constructed and properly guarded cisterns.

The highest land in the county is not more than six hundred and fifty or six hundred and seventy feet above the Ohio River at Cincinnati. The highest land measured is in the western portion of Madison Township, the ground now owned by Hampton H. Long. Another very high spot is two miles west of Jacksonburg, Wayne Township, on the farm of Colonel Phares. Its elevation by barometer is six hundred and forty-two feet above the base above named. Locke gives the elevation of a point of cliff limestone that barely enters the county on the 'north line of Milford Township as six hundred and one feet. Two miles due west of Oxford, on the Fairfield Turnpike, an elevation, determined by the level, occurs of six hundred and ten feet above the Ohio River at Cincinnati. The elevations of a few of the prominent points in the county are appended:

Somerville. (9s 30:0: 6 a oe ae 334 Jacksonburg, <>. <i "h 4. ee 543, Phares's farm, two miles west of Jacksonburg, 642 Snively's Hill, one mile south of Jacksonburg, 563 Turnpike, two miles west of Ostords9 estes ~ 610 North-east corner of Oxford Township, on Darrtown Pike (formerly Riley's tavern), . . . 601 Miami' River'at' Veniee, : 2. 2) Senne 50

Hamiron, the seat of justice for the county of Butler, is situated on both banks of the Great Miami River, about thirty miles, by land, from its junction with the Ohio River, and about fifty miles pursuing the meanders of the river.

The original Indian name of the Miami River was Te-wighte-wa. It is so named on an old map of the country engraved in the year 1762, dedicated to General Amherst, then commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America. Te-wighte-wa was also the original name of the Miami tribe of Indians. On the first intercourse of the whites with them the old Indians of the Miami tribe called themselves by that name. According to some old books we find that the Miami River was sometimes known as Rocky River, or Stony River.

Hamilton is situated in 39° 26' north latitude, and 84° 31' west longitude from London, or 7° 29' west from the City of Washington. The upper plain, where the court house and principal improvements of the town are located, is about thirty-four feet above the surface of the water in the Miami River at its common stage. The soil is alluvial, resting on a strata of gravel at least forty feet thick, that being the greatest depth to which the earth has been penetrated. Pure water is everywhere to be obtained in abundance by digging to a level with the water in the river. The water in the wells rises and falls: with the Miami, hence it is presumed that -they are supplied by water filtering through the gravel from the river. The water obtained is clear and cool, but strongly impregnated with lime, so much so that tea-kettles and other culinary vessels in which it is boiled soon acquire a coating of lime on the inside, which requires to be frequently removed. It is not known to contain any other foreign substance in any considerable quantity.

The alluvial plain on which the city of Hamilton is situated extends back about a mile and a half from the river to the base of the hills, which ultimately rise to about the height of two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty feet above the plain. The hills run in a southwardly direction, then gradually incline to the southeast, presenting a level plain or valley between them and the river at and below Hamilton.

The site where Hamilton now stands, previous to, being occupied by General St. Clair's army, was mostly covered with a dense forest of timber, with thick underbrush. About a mile to the south was a pond covering about one hundred acres of land, evidently the bed of the Miami River at no very remote period.

The tract of land lying between this pond and the river comprehended about six hundred acres, and was at that time a beautiful meadow covered with high grass. Above the fort, in what is now the upper part of the town, was also a beautiful prairie of forty or fifty acres.

In digging cellars in the northern part of the town of Hamilton, in the year 1855, two teeth of the mastodon were found near each other embedded in the gravel, about five feet below the surface of the ground, bearing. testimony that this huge animal at some former time dwelt in the forests in the vicinity. At the time of the first settlement of the country vast herds of deer and elk roamed through the woods, and numbers of other kinds of game were very abundant, and remained so for some time afterwards.

In the south part of the town, near the old burying ground on the corner of lot number forty-four, or on the west side of Third Street, and just north of the Junction Railway, was a mound of earth four feet high and thirty feet diameter. On removing it for the erection of a building, the bones of two human skeletons were found, with some flint arrow points and other stone implements. The hills in the neighborhood of Hamilton are composed of first a rich fertile mould, then loam, intermixed with loose stones, and underneath interstratifications of blue limestone and marl in places.

The Last Commander Of The Fort

The latest commander of the fort was Major Jonathan Cass, who was born in the year 1753, about fifteen miles from Newburyport, New Hampshire. His ancestors were from Devonshire, England. His remote ancestors were of Norman birth. He was living in Exeter, New Hampshire, when the news reached there of the battle of Lexington. With some half dozen comrades he set off at once, musket in hand, to join the army, marching from his home to Cambridge. He was where the balls flew thickest at the battle of Bunker Hill, and participated in the great battles of Trenton, Princeton, Germantown, Monmouth, and Saratoga, remaining in the army until the close of our great Revolutionary struggle. His accounts as brigade quartermaster were closed June 26, 1785, and a certificate was issued to him for the balance due of £65. 10s. 4d. Whether the government ever paid this certificate or not, is not now known. It is stated in Appleton's Cyclopedia, under article '" Lewis Cass," that Major Cass retired to a four thousand acre tract of land in Muskingum County, Ohio, given to him by the government for services in the Revolutionary of land for lis services nor a dollar of pension money, although he died from injuries received while in the discharge of his duties in the public service. After the close of the war he resigned his commission and engaged successfully in the West India trade, living with his family at Exeter, New Hampshire. About the close of the year 1781 he married Miss Mary Gilman, daughter of Nicholas Gilman. Of this union, three sons and two daughters were born, all at Exeter. The oldest son was General Lewis Cass, and the youngest, Captain Charles Lee Cass, a brave officer of the 'War of 1812," distinguishing himself at the battle (sortie) of Fort Erie. All of the children became citizens of Ohio, the last survivor (George W.) reaching the green old age of eighty- 'seven, in 1873.

When the regular army was increased, after the defeat of General St. Clair, General Knox, then Secretary of War, sent to Mr. Jonathan Cass, then a private citizen, a commission as major in the army. This commission was wholly unexpected and unsolicited, but was given by General Knox in recognition of long and faithful military service and soldierly character and bearing of one whom he knew personally. The personal presence of Major Cass was most striking and commanding ; he had the look of one born to command. In height he was nearly or quite six feet, of perfect form, without superfluous flesh, black hair and piercing black eyes, and commanding brow. He joined his command at Winchester, Virginia, taking his family with him, excepting his oldest son, Lewis, who was left at Exeter, that he might continue his studies at '' Phillips Academy." From Winchester he was ordered to take command at Fort Franklin, on the Alleghany River, in Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburg. His route to his new command was via Fort Cumberland, and across the Alleghany Mountains, and along '' Braddock's road" to Pittsburg, and thence up the Alleghany River in barges. From Fort Franklin | he was ordered to Fort Washington (Cincinnati), to which point he went about the Fall of 1793, taking his family with him, excepting his son Lewis, who still remained at 'Phillips Exeter Academy." He remained in command at Fort Washington nearly all the time that he was with the army of General Wayne. In 1794 and 1795 he was at Fort Hamilton. While in charge of a reconnoitering party, his horse, in jumping over the trunk of a prostrate tree, fell, and in coming down fell upon and broke one of Major Cass's legs below the knee. In consequence of bad surgery, the wounded leg never healed, and required daily dressing for about thirty-five years, and was painful all that period. It finally caused premature death, at the age of seventy-seven. His widow followed about five years later. In consequence of this injury, he was for a time so disabled from military duty that he was granted a leave of absence, and went with his family to Exeter, New Hampshire, trayeling by a northern route. He went from Cincinnati to ne, Indiana (then '« Block' House No. 10"), descending the river from aap to a Erie, and coasting thence to Detroit. From e went by boat to Oswego, and thence to Albany ; : ss Albany to Boston. This was Im the year 1795 ee 96. In the year 1799 he was so far relieved from suffering that he applied for "orders," and was sent to Wilmington, Delaware, but was soon after ordered to the command at Winchester, Virginia, at that time a principal recruiting station. ;

In the year 1800 he tendered his resignation as an officer of the army. -The Secretary of War accepted it, to take effect at the end of one year. In the meantime he was granted a ''leave of absence" to the date his the United States military district in Ohio (west of the Ohio River, east of the Scioto, north of latitude 40°, and south of the Greenville treaty line), was decided by a lottery, drawn in Philadelphia in 1799 while Major Cass was stationed at Wilmington, Delaware. He drew No. 1. He commissioned Bazaleel Wells, surveyor, of Steubenville, Ohio, to make a selection for him, and the latter chose the section at the mouth of Walkatomaka Creek, on the Muskingum River, fifteen miles due north of Zanesville, Ohio, and for his services received four hundred acres off of the north-west corner of the section selected. No. 2 was drawn by Thomas Backus, who "located" the section at the mouth of Whetstone Creek, above Columbus, on the Scioto.

As soon as Major Cass received his '' leave of absence" he proceeded with his family (excepting his oldest son, Lewis, who was left in Wilmington, Delaware, in charge of a Latin grammar school) to take possession of his purchase of lands in Ohio. The warrants which were given in payment of those lands were purchased in the open market in Philadelphia. He came West by way of Cumberland and Pittsburg, stopping long enough at the last named place to make purchases of furniture, farm implements, supplies, ete., for his new home. He descended the Ohio River to Marietta in a ' broad-horn" boat. At Marietta he transferred his family and effects into large canoes, called pirogues, and thus ascended the Muskingum River about one hundred miles, disembarking on his own lands. On arriving there he found seyeral families from Maryland and Western Virginia living on the ground, each having a few acres in cultivation. On this farm Major Cass lived the remainder of his days, which terminated in September, 1830, in the 76th year of his age. As before stated, his death was premature, having been caused by thirty-five years of suffering, occasioned by an injury in the military service of his country.

Laying Out Of The Town Hamilton

and returned to Hamilton. There were then no persons living in the country anywhere near Hamilton, except Charles Bruce, who had settled in the year 1798 on the Miami River, a mile and a half below the fort, at the outlet of the pond, and David Beaty, who, some time afterwards, built a cabin and.settled on the bank of the pond, one mile south of the fort, near the junction of the two turnpike roads now leading to Cincinnati.

Fort Hamilton remained occupied as a garrison until some time in the Summer of the year 1796, when the public stores, and property belonging to the garrison, were sold at public auction, and the fort abandoned. The line, however, where the pickets stood could be distinctly traced, and some of the buildings of the garrison remained standing as late as the year 1812. They have been seen by persons still living.

On the 27th of July, 1795, Jonathan Dayton conveyed to Israel Ludlow the fractional section, number two, in township one, range three, and on the 17th of December, 1794, Israel Ludlow laid out a town on this ground, in the immediate vicinity of Fort Hamilton, and gave it the name of Fairfield. The name was, however, shortly afterwards changed to that of Hamilton, in remembrance of the fort, which name' it bears at present. The whole number of lots in the present plan of the town were not laid out at that time, but additional ones were laid off afterwards, from time to time, as persons proposed to purchase, or circumstances seemed to require.

Darius C. Orcutt, who then resided at Hamilton, was agent for Mr. Ludlow, to lay out lots and contract with persons wishing to purchase. He was one of the early pioneers of the country. He was a pack-horse master with St. Clair's army, and was on the ground on the day married in the Miami country. He was united at Cincinnati to Miss Sally McHenry, in 1790. (The first couple married were .Daniel Shoemaker to Miss Elsie Ross, a few days before.) Mr. Orcutt owned lot No. 145 in Hamilton, on which he built a,hewed log house, which was afterward weatherboarded. It is the same house where Major William Murray lived, but was removed fifty years after, in consequence of the works of the Hydraulic Canal Company encroaching on the site. Mr. Orcutt afterwards lived a long time in Rossville, was constable of St. Clair Township many years, and finally died in the vicinity of Hamilton in indigent circumstances.

Shortly after the town was laid out, a few persons purchased lots and settled in the place. The first settlers were Darius C. Orcutt, John Greer, William MeClellan, John Sutherland, John Torrence, Benjamin F. Randolph, Benjamin Davis, Isaac Wiles, Andrew Christy, and William Hubbert. The first part of the town of Hamilton being originally laid out under the territorial government, there was then no law requiring town plats to be placed on record, consequently it was not recorded at the time. Afterwards, on the twenty-eighth day of April, 1802, Israel Ludlow placed the plat of the town on the records of Hamilton County at Cincinnati, where it may be found, in book E, No. 2, page 57. This recorded plat only comprehended entire inlots from No. 1 to No. 221, 12 fractional lots, and outlots from No. 1. to No. 30. The most northerly blocks of lots in the town numbered from No. 222 to No. 242, inclusive, and outlots Nos. 31, 32, and 33 are not laid down on that plat, nor are they recorded; hence the presumption is, that they were laid out after the first town plat was placed on record. According to the original plan of the town of Hamilton, placed on record by Israel Ludlow, ''the streets are sixty-six feet wide, except High Street, which is ninety-nine feet wide; alleys sixteen feet wide. The entire town lots are six poles by twelve, containing seventy-two square poles each. Entire outlots contain each four acres." However, the original survey, by which the town was laid out, was made with a two-pole chain, three inches and a half or more too long. Hence, it has ever since been the practice of surveyors, in measuring lots in Hamilton, to add three and a half inches to each two poles of measure, in order to correspond with the lots as originally laid out, and leave the improvements of individuals upon the ground which they believed they had originally purchased.

This circumstance was early known to the proprietor, but, having sold a number of lots in different parts of the town, to individuals who had made improvements upon them, he instructed his agents to survey and lay out the lots in such a manner that each person should have the ground on which he had made his improvements.

Additions To The Town Of Hamilton

Israel Ludlow, in consideration of the sum of five shillings, on the twelfth day of July, 1798, conveyed to Brigadier-general James Wilkinson; who had then succeeded General Wayne in the command of the northwestern army, the equal undivided half of the ground occupied by Fort Hamilton, comprehending all the land within the exterior line of pickets, and extending to low water mark of the Miami River, estimated to contain three acres and a half.

Some time afterwards, when General Wilkinson had gone to the south with the army, Peyton Short sued out from the Court of Common Pleas of Butler County a writ of attachment against Wilkinson for debt, and attached his interest in this ground, which was afterwards sold on the attachment on the 16th of April, 1806, and William Corry and -John Reily became the purchasers for one hundred and twenty-five dollars. The deed made to them by the auditors appointed by the court bears date the fourth day of May, 1806.

being the one equal undivided half of the garrison tract, to Lawrence Cavenaugh for five hundred dollars, and Lawrence Cayvenaugh afterwards conveyed the interest which he had thus acquired to this ground to the guardians of the minor heirs of Israel Ludlow, deceased, for the use and benefit of the heirs.

On the fifteenth day of September, 1817, Samuel W. Davies, Griffin Yeatman, and Stephen McFarland, guardians of the heirs of Israel Ludlow, laid out this ground, together with all that comprehended between High Street and Basin Street, and between Front Street and the Miami River, into town lots as an addition to the town of Hamilton. They are numbered from 243 to 262, inclusive, with four fractional lots on the river. They were offered at public sale on the ground in 1817, and brought high prices. Lot No. 251, on the corner of High and Front Streets, sold for $1,700.

On the 13th of November, 1826, William Murray laid out an addition to the town of Hamilton, on the Miami Canal, then in the course of construction, on a part of his farm situated in the south-west part of section No. 32, in township No. 2, of range 3, M. R. These lots were laid out on both sides of the canal, and extending westwardly along High Street, from where the Basin was, to near the outlots on the original plan of Hamilton. They were numbered from No. 1 to No. 62, inclusive, and called East Hamilton. The place soon afterwards acquired the sobriquet of Debbysville, after Mrs. Murray, by which name it was occasionally called for many years. Mr. Murray at first held his lots at so high a price that but few would purchase.

Notwithstanding, he sold-a few, and when the canal was completed to Middletown, and navigation commenced, business appeared to increase for a time. Some houses were built. The office of the collector of tolls on the canal was established at that place. Pierson Sayre, the first collector, built a house and lived there, and after him William Blair. Two taverns were begun, one by Benjamin Enyeart. William Blair opened a commission warehouse, and Alexander Delorac kept a coffee-house and nine-pin alley; a blacksmith shop was soon added, and then, in the estimate of its projectors, it was a fullfledged town. The distance from Hamilton proper was a pleasant walk on the basin bank when it was constructed; the coffee-house and nine-pin alley of Mr. Delorac were frequently visited by citizens of the place, but, unfortunately, they were consumed by fire, with all the refreshments and attractions which they contained, which put an end to that species of amusement. The basin was constructed in 1830. The collector's office removed to the west end of the basin in 1830, and the business of the place declined and dwindled away so as to be of little or no consequence. At the September term of the Court of Common Pleas for Butler ( in 1857, on the application of William Murr (the late William Murray), who had then inhe

In March, 1838, James C. Ludlow subdivided four acres on outlot No. 12, and that portion of outlot 15 lying south of the basin, including a portion of ihe lying on the east, into building lots, as a further addition to the town. 'They are numbered from No. 1 to No. 37, inclusive, and three lots of a larger size, called outlots. But few of them were sold by the original proprietor.

The Hamilton and Rossville Hydraulic Company, haying it in contemplation to construct their canal, to bring the water to their manufactories, through that ground on the river in front of the town, which had been designated on the original plan of the town as commons, doubts were entertained that, should that measure be carried into effect, whether it would not vitiate the original grant, by appropriating the premises to other purposes than that intended by the grant, and consequently that the surviving heirs of the original proprietor would claim and appropriate the property to their individual use. Under these considerations, by mutual agreement between the heirs of Israel Ludlow, the Hamilton and Rossville Hydraulic Company, and the corporation of Hamilton, the premises were laid out into town lots on the second day of March, 1843, and by an order made by the Court of Common Pleas at their March term, 1845, it was decreed that the heirs of Israel Ludlow should have one half of the lots lying south of the north side of Buckeye Street, and: one-third part of that portion of the lots lying north of Buckeye Street. To the Hamilton and Rossville Hydraulic Company was decreed the one-half of the lots lying south of the north side of Buckeye Street, and the one-third part of the lots lying north of Buckeye Street. The town of Hamilton was to have the remaining one-third of the lots lying north of Buckeye Street, and acccordingly partition was made of the property amongst the parties in this manner.

The lots laid out are on the river bank in front of the inlots, heretofore laid out, extending from the north to the south line of the town, and are numbered from No. 263 to No. 311. Many of these lots in the lower part lie wholly on the river beach, and those in the upper part are so narrow, extending into the river, as to be of little or no value.

The lots lying between the bridge and Buckeye Street are the only ones of sufficient dimensions to be occupied advantageously for manufacturing purposes.

On the fifteenth day of August, 1843, Doctor Jacob Hittell laid out a few-lots in original outlots, No. 1, on the west side of Front Street, and adjoining on the south of the inlots heretofore laid out. They are numbered from No, 1 to No. 11, inclusive.

On the third day of November, 1843, the original eae Pee 22, 25, and 28, through which the aus anch of the hydraulic eanal passes, were sub- divided into building lots by William H. Bartlett, John Woods, John W. Erwin, Cyrus Falconer, William Bebb, and Evan R. Bebb. The lots are numbered from No. 1 to No. 79, inclusive, and denominated '''The hydraulic addition to the town of Hamilton."

Rossville Laid Out

Previous to the year 1801, all the land on the west side of the Great Miami River was owned by the United States, consequently no improvements were made on that side of the river, except by a few squatters who had settled on the public lands. There was one log house built, at an early period, on the west side of the river opposite to the fort, near where the west end of the bridge It is on the corner, and is the same house A tavern was

On the first Monday of April, 1801, the first sales of the public lands, lying west of the Great Miami River, were held at Cincinnati, under the authority of the United States, at which sale a company, composed of Jacob Burnet, James Smith, William Ruffin, John Sutherland, and Henry Brown, purchased section No. 36, town 4, range 2, and fractional sections Nos. 31 and 32, town 2, range 3, lying on the west side of the Miami River, opposite to the town of Hamilton, on part of which tract they afterwards laid out the town of Rossville, the plat of which bears date on the fourteenth day of March, 1804. It was named after James Ross, of Pittsburg. The town then laid out consisted of one hundred inlots, five poles wide by ten poles deep; twelve fractional lots, next the river, five poles square, and twenty outlots, most of them containing four acres each. The inlots 53 and 58 were given by the proprietors to the county of Butler for public uses, and the ground lying between Water Street and the river was given for a public common, to be kept open for ever. The fractional outlot No. 20 was given for a burying-ground.

On the fourteenth day of March, 1804, the proprietor had a public sale on the ground, at which the lots were offered at auction, and a considerable number of them sold at fair prices.

Encouraged by the success of the first sale of lots, the proprietors proceeded to lay out an additional number of outlots, adjoining on the south-west of the former ones, beginning at outlot No. 21 and extending to outlot No. 38, inclusive. The plans of these additional outlots were not placed on record at the time, nor have they since been recorded anywhere, but appear on an old map of the town which has the plan of those additional outlots, laid out at that time, upon it, made by John Reily, of Hamilton, and formerly in his possession. Mr, Reily was the general agent for the proprietors, who laid out the town and superintended the sale of lots for them.

lots in the town of Rossville, including the additional outlots laid out since the first sale, was held, at which a considerable number were sold. The additional outlots were all sold at prices from twenty-five to twenty-eight dollars each. Several buildings were soon afterwards erected, and the town began to grow.

On the eleventh day of November, 1818, John Sutherland and Samuel Dick, who had then become the proprietors of the unappropriated ground adjoining Rossville on the north, laid out an additional number of inlots in the upper part of the town, which are numbered from No. 101 to No. 112, inclusive, and also three outlots on the north of the burying-ground (now the park), Nos. 39, 40, 41, and 42.

The original outlots numbered 9 and 10, in the northwest part of the town, were subdivided and laid out into building lots by Robert B. Millikin and William Taylor, on the twenty-eighth day of April, 1831. They are numbered from No. 118 to No. 140, inclusive.

John Sutherland

John Sutherland, the earliest merchant of Hamilton, was a native of Caithnesshire, Scotland, where he was born in 1771. His father was a farmer, and Mr. Sutherland was brought up to the same calling. In 1788 he determined to come to the United States, and, on his arrival here, settled in the western part of Virginia. In 1793 he came to Ohio, and acted as a captain of packhorse, engaged in transmitting stores from Cincinnati to the military posts in the interior. Robert Benham was in charge of the pack-horses, and was assisted by several others, among them Mr. Sutherland. Each had the care Afterwards he held a position in the commissariat department. When peace was concluded, he settled in Hamilton, opening a store on Front Street. Here he did a large business with the Indians, who came in from the surrounding country to exchange furs for the articles of the white men. The business was very profitable, and he soon became easy in his circumstances. As they moved away from this neighborhood, he employed persons whom he supplied with goods to go to their towns and trade with them. Some years afterwards Mr. Sutherland also dealt largely in beef cattle, which he purchased in the lower end of this valley, and drove north to Detroit. Soon after comting here he formed a partnership with Henry Brown, under the firm name of Sutherland & Brown; after a time also establishing a store in Dayton, which was continued until they dissolved partnership in 1810. About 1813, Mr. Sutherland entered into partnership with James P. Ramsey, and did business under the firm name of Sutherland & Ramsey until 1820. His store was at first in a double log building across the alley which runs east and west behind the United Presbyterian Church, and then it was removed to Front Street, between Stable and Dayton, where he built a house on Lot 120; and he subsequently built.

The result of his economy, care, and sedulous attention to his good name soon gave Mr. Sutherland unlimited credit, and his profits accumulated until he became the wealthiest man in the county, and one of the wealthiest in the State. He was liberal in his dealings and trusted much, but in course of time lost a great deal of money by bad debts. In 1818, and in some succeeding years, he was largely in the pork and flour trade, and made heavy shipments to New Orleans. The times were unpropitious, and he lost heavily. He had also become an indorser to large amounts for his friends, and, these coming back to him, embarrassed him. He finally suspended business, and in the end he found it required the greater portion of his acquired wealth to pay off the indebtedness thus forced upon him. However, a sufficient amount to make his family comfortable was saved from the wreck.

He was a man of unbounded charity and benevolence. He gave away much, and he assisted those who were weaker than himself to help themselves. He was a friend to every one who deserved it. He was a regular attendant of the Associate Reformed Church, although not a member, and gave of his means liberally to it, being a trustee at one time. He was a very hospitable man, and was never more pleased than when entertaining company. At his house ministers, and especially those of the Scotch Churches, were always sure of a hearty welcome.

He died on the 9th of September, 1834. He had been three times married. His first wife was Miss Mary Scott, of Fayette County, Kentucky, and his second Miss Mary Steele, of Kentucky. To the latter was born Alexander, who died soon after reaching maturity. In May, 1810, he married Nancy Ramsey, daughter of James Ramsey, of Ligonier, Pennsylvania, who was born on the 6th of November, 1787. She was one of the original members of the Associate Reformed congregation on_ its being formed in 1817, and remained a worthy and respected member of it all her life. Her temper was most cheerful and even, and she appeared to advantage everywhere. No gossip or scandal was encouraged by her, and she loved the company of pious people. She died March 21, 1855. She had borne eight children, two sons and six daughters. Elizabeth St. Clair Sutherland died unmarried. James R. died in June, 1834, at the age of twentytwo. Mary A. married Carter B. Harrison, a son of President William Henry Harrison. Carter B. Harrison died in Hamilton, the 12th of August, 1839, leaving his wife a widow with one daughter, Anna C., who married David W. McClung, now surveyor of the port of Cincinnati. Sarah married Nathaniel Reeder, dying in 1863. Three of her children, Nathaniel, John, and J ames, are now liying, and two died in infancy. John Sutherland, another brother, is still living. Jane, Isabella, and Nancy, the

Sales Of Land

The original lots laid off in. Hamilton measured 6 by 12 poles, 100 by 200 feet ; eight such lots generally forming a block 400 feet square. A comparison between the prices paid Mr. Ludlow or his immediate purchasers for these lots and their present value may not prove uninteresting reading.

Take the meee embracing Lots 99, 100, 101, and 102, bounded by High, Third, Basin, and Second Streets, now one of the most valuable blocks in town. The records show the following first sales:

Colonel Campbell still resides on part of Lot 99. The half block, bounded by Reily, Basin, Second and High Streets, is held by Mrs. Campbell, who inherited it from her father, John Reily, and her title deeds are probably the oldest of any resident of the city.

In the square bounded by Dayton, Second, Heaton, and Third, the only lots in this block that have not been subdivided are those now owned by St. Stephen's Church, Ezra Potter, and Calvin Skinner. Mr. Potter's lots (153 and 154), fronting 200 feet on Dayton and Third, were bought by John S. Gordon from David Gano, July 28, 1835, for $225.

Lot 151, corner of High and Second, was sold by Ludlow to Michael McNamee, together with Lot 18, June 22, 1795, for $28. On September 14, 1805, Michael Lafferty became the purchaser of Lots 151 and 152 (fronting 200 feet on Dayton by 200 on Second) from Samuel Enyart for $55. On February 22, 1830, James McBride sold these two lots to the St. Stephen's society for $400. These four lots make the south half of the block.

Lot 165, extending from James Neal's corner south on Second 200 feet to St. Stephen's property, and east on Heaton 100 feet, was sold by Ludlow to Rebecca F. Randolph, October 2, 1795, for $2.

Lots 167 and 168, fronting 200 feet on Heaton and 200 on Third to Potter's Alley, were sold with fifteen other lots to Daniel Gano by Ludlow, July 18, 1827, for $700, and Gano 'sold the lots, 167 and 168, July 25, #850, to John M. Millikin and William Bebb for $550.

Fenton Lawson and others sold Lots 167 and 168 to W. H. Bartlett, December 11, 1841, for $700, and on February 18, 1844, Calvin Skinner bought the south

Hamilton

Lot 103 comprises the entire strip of ground on the east side of Third Street from High to Basin, extending back to Smith Street, - 72 square poles. This property was sold by John Brown to John Sutherland, June 18, 1800, for $30.

Lots 111 and 112, with Beckett's block and Dr. Falconer's residence on their front, extend back to the Hydraulic, and together have a front of 200 feet on High Street. Ludlow sold both these lots to Eleanor Moore, May, 1804, for $62 - $42 for 111, and $20 for Lot 112. Ludlow obtained possession of the lots again, and his heirs sold to John Woods, March, 1832, all of Lot 112, Falconer's and Beckett's Hall in part, and 54 feet of the south, High Street end, of Lot 111 for $500. April 17, 1835, Woods bought of James S. Green 66 feet more of the south half of Lot 111 for $675; he thus had the entire front from the corner of Second to Falconer's Alley for $1,175.

Starting from the Hamilton House corner, Lot 110, and going west, we find that Ludlow sold 50 feet of the east end of the lot (Hamilton House) to James McBride July 24, 1812, for $157, and at the same time the west 50 feet to Thomas C. Kelsey for $126. The next lot on High (109), was sold by Ludlow's administrators; the east half to Kelsey, March 1, 1813, for $150, and the west half to Samuel Morrison for $159.50. Subsequently, April 1, 1835, Dr. Hittel bought the west half of James Young for $2,000.