Butler County, Ohio - Chapter 7: Necrological, 1905 (part 2 of 5)

Thomas Irwin

was bom in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1768. His father was a farmer in humble circumstances, and desiring to possess land in his own right concluded to remove to the western country where land could be had for building a cabin and making a small improvement. In 1782, accompanied by young Thomas, then in his fourteenth year, Mr. Irwin removed to the western frontier of Pennsylvania, then called the "Backwoods, " where he pre-empted a tract of land near the present site of the town of Washington, in Washington county, and built a cabin for his family. Thomas remained at home with his parents until his majority, when, stimulated by the spirit of adventure, he left his father's house and friends to seek his fortune in the far West. He went to Pittsburg and purchased a small flatboat for the purpose of descending the Ohio river, and in the last week of March, 17^9* accompanied by a few friends, set out on the voyage. At Wheeling they met with a party having a larger boat destined for the falls of the Ohio, and, in company with it, proceeded on the voyage down the river until they arrived at the settlement of Columbia, near the mouth of the little Miami river. Here Irwin and his companions landed, while the boat destined for the falls proceeded on her voyage. Not being favorably impressed with the location of the settlement at Columbia and having been informed of another small settlement eight miles further down the river, opposite the mouth of the Licking river, Irwin and a companion named James Bums, continued on to that point, where they came to a double shanty occupied by seven men. These men, all but two of them, had been employed with the surveyors in surveying Symmes' purchase, during the preceding winter, and had assisted Israel Ludlow when he surveyed and laid out the town in February previous. This shanty had been built by these persons for their accommodation, immediately after they laid out the town. It was the first improvement made in the town of Cincinnati. Irwin and Bums being pleased with the situation, they concluded to settle there, and obtaining town lots they put up a temporary shanty which they occupied during their stay that summer. In the late summer Irwin and Burns accompanied a Mr. Kitchell, who had built a keel-boat, on a voyage to Wheeling, from which point Mr. Irwin returned home to his father's in Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he remained until the succeeding year. The Indian hostilities and depredations on the settlements of ihe West, determined the general government to make, an effort to terminate the war by marching an army into the Indian country and attacking the enemy on their own ground. The completion of Fort Washington at the settlement opposite the mouth of the Licking, in December, 1789, made it practicable for the government to organize an expedition against the Indians. Gen. Josiah Harmar, with three hundred men, was placed in command of the fort and a call for volunteers and a requisition or draft of militia from the states of Pennsylvania and Kentucky were made for the contemplated expedition.

Thomas Irwin was among the first to volunteer his services. He joined a company organized at Catfish, Pennsylvania, now known as Washington, under the command of Captain Faulkner, who had been an officer in the Revolutionary war. In the organization of the company Mr. Irwin was elected ensign. The Pennsylvania troops were under the command of Colonel Truby. They descended the Ohio river in boats in September, 1790, and landed at Fort Washington on the 19th of that month. General Harmar, having made every practicable preparation for the campaign, on September 30th set the expedition in motion, the principal object of which was to destroy the Indian villages at the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary rivers, near where Fort Wayne was afterward built. During the campaign the company to which Ensign Irwin belonged rendered valuable and efficient service. It is related of him, that, at an engagement in which the enemy was commanded by the celebrated Indian chief, Little Turtle, whilst his company was covering the retreat of the troops, and slowly retiring before the fire of the enemy, the strap which held his powder-horn was cut from his shoulder by a ball. As soon as he missed it, he faced about, ran back several paces in the full face of a considerable body of the enemy, secured his powder-horn, and then again joined his companions in their retreat. He was soon again observed to halt and commence picking the flint of his gum When warned by a companion to "Come along, the Indians are upon us," Irwin coolly replied : "I want to get one more shot before I leave them." Upon the arrival of the army at Fort Washington the militia was disbanded and dismissed, and Mr. Irwin re-

In September, 1791, Thomas Irwin volunteered and joined the troops then being raised under the command of General St. Clair, to be employed against the hostile Indians of the West. He was engaged as one of the wagoners who had charge of the guncarriages for transporting the cannon. The army moved from Ludlow's station, near Cincinnati, September 17th, and marched under the command of Colonel William Darke to the Great Miami river, where Fort Hamilton was built. During the period of erecting the fort the two companies that had charge of the artillery wagons, to one of which Mr. Irwin belonged, was encamped about half a mile below the site of the fort. They lay at this camp until the fort was ready for occupancy, and then Mr. Irwin accompanied the army on its march to the , wilderness, and was present at and actively participated in the terrible battle that ended so disastrously for St. Clair's forces. On the day of the battle Thomas Irwin was employed with the artillery and was consequently exposed in the thickest of the fight, where he remained at his post during the whole of the action, and though that arm of the force lost nearly every man, he escaped without a wound. In the month of December following Mr. Irwin, having received his discharge, left Cincinnati and returned to his fathers residence in Washington county, Pennsylvania. In the ensuing April Mr. Irwin again descended the Ohio river to Cincinnati, and remained a resident of the Miami valley from that time until his death.

and settled upon a tract of land in what is now Lemon township, Butler county, about four miles east of Middletown, where he resided until his death.

In the war of 1812 Thomas Irwin served as a major in the Ohio militia, under the command of General John S. Gano. After the expiration of his term of six months of service Major Irwin returned to his home, in March, 1814. This closed his military career of active service. However, on his return he was elected a colonel and commanded a regiment of militia, which gave him the title of Colonel, by which he was uniformly called.

In October, 1808, Mr. Irwin was elected a member of the Ohio state senate, to which office he was successively re-elected until the year 1820, making his term of service in the senate twelve years. In 1824 he was elected representative to the lower house of legislature from Butler county, and served one term. He afterward declined a re-election. In 1823 he was elected a justice of the peace for Lemon township, Butler county, and was re-elected successively at the close of his term of office until 1842, thus filling that office for nineteen years. Thomas Irwin was a devoted member of the Associate Reformed church, and filled the office of elder from 1805 until his death. He died on Sun day evening, October 3, 1847, aged eightyone years. On the succeeding Tuesday his remains were interred with military honors in the burying ground just north of e village of Monroe.

Pollock Wilson

first saw the light of day in Wayne township, Butler county, Ohio, February 9, 1 0 - His parents were natives of England, an emigrated to America about the year 7

In his father's family, consisting of seven children, the subject was the youngest. Their names were Thomas, Elizabeth, Ann, John, Joseph, Matthew and Pollock. The youthful days of Mr. Wilson were spent upon the farm, which proved the stepping stone to his future extensive business acquirements. About this time (1818) his father left him in Rossville, now West Hamilton, to learn the dry goods business. The father of Mr. Wilson, in 1820, was obliged to proceed to Kingston, in the Island of Jamaica, to settle an estate belonging to two deceased brothers. When he bade his son farewell, it was for the last time. He never returned. This old gentleman, Mr. Wilson, Sr., settled in Wavne township under rather peculiar circumstances. An Indian trader, by the name of BanReld, who made pack-saddles and traded them with the Indians for furs, induced Mr. Wilson, the elder, to make him, Banfield, a visit. He did so, was pleased with his trip, and favorably impressed with the appearance and character of the country and the result was he, to use a pioneer term, "squatted" there.

Pollock Wilson remained in Rossville until 1822, when he went to Cincinnati and apprenticed himself to a saddler for a period of four years. At the termination of his apprenticeship period he commenced business for himself. On the 14th of May, 1831, Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss Miria Morton, of Cincinnati. The union was an exceedingly happy one. Each one toiled to build up their mutual prosperity. Mr. Wilson changed his manner of business from that of manufacturing to vending goods, and about the year 1835 he entered into co-partnership with P. Hayden, of Columbus, >0hk^'/ini(th©It'8^dltfl|3r??hkrdware" business. frThe}ricpolmued/tttitii> Jand uary 1, 1874, when/ owing^lo advanced? agdv each well pleased^awiUkatisfiedirwithMth^if) business career, sfeparaibedl amicably; arid 1 without one unpleasant/ \Yoddn!to'irriaTofchoift1 former friendship ajfcd Jpediprbcal Yes()ject:I During the Rebellion MrCWilstoni Io3t & for-, tune in business; and ttfcfe rcarfe (arid anxlietyr attending this difficulty sotaewh&trinlpairedi his health. By the adviceiof his - physici&rr he gave up city life, and (plirch hard ia mag*i nificent "country seat" to the southwest qfi the city of Hamilton, overlooking the; and from whence he obtained feur splendid) view of the beautiful Miami i v&lley. Hefe Mr. Wilson resided for many ^ars, and -err-] joyed the uncontaminated air !of rural life.v The closing years of his life h&ispfcnt with/ his children at Cincinnati, where die died' £1 few years ago loved and revered byrialLwho/ knew him. 4 ,|fc ^ was born at Crossland, county Derry; Ire* r land, May 17. 1807. He was the son of; William and Nancy (Jamieson) Henderson 0 his paternal grandparents were William; and Nancy (Wells) Henderson: maternal) grandparents, John and Jane (Browne) Ja-1 mieson. The families were Scotch, having sought refuge in Ulster during the persectW tion of the Covenanters. One of Joseph r Henderson's ancestors in Scotland was Rev. Alexander Henderson, one of the greatest men in the history of Scotland, the man who wrote the "Covenant" which was signed in blood, on a tomb in Grey-Friars Churchyard, Edinboro, Scotland, where his remains now lie. Miss N. Henderson, daughter of the subject, saw this Covenant in 1888.

Joseph Henderson was the second child in a family of nine, most of whom lived to old age. Only one survives, Elizabeth Henderson Jamieson, whose son, A. W. H. Jamieson, is a resident of Cincinnati. Joseph Henderson's father was a farmer, who gave his children the best educational advantages afforded in that day. As a boy he heard much of Napoleon Bonaparte, and distinctly remembered his downfall at Waterloo. The subject was given the name Joseph for a paternal uncle who came to this country in 1798, and located on what is now the Henderson place, near Middletown, Butler county, and built the brick house thereon, which has sheltered the fourth generation. It is one of the few farms which has never gone out of the same family in one hundred years. This uncle was quite prominent in Butler county affairs. Being childless, he wrote his nephew (the subject of this sketch) to come to this country, offering to make him his heir. He accepted the terms and arrived in this country in 1829. He remained in Pennsylvania, on the way, a few months, and when he arrived in Butler county found that his uncle had died a short time before his arrival. He made his home on the farm, and in 1835 he visited Ireland, bringing with him on his return his brother Archibald. His brother resided with him till 1852, when, returning to Ireland, he was lost on the ocean voyage.

Joseph Henderson was married March 23, 1839, to Sarepta Campbell Denham, daughter of Benyew and Elizabeth (Campbell) Denham. Benyew Denham was a son of Lewis and Randall (Bloomfield) Denham, of Loudoun county, Virginia. The Denham family came from London, England. to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1634. Later, the father and one of the sons were proprietors in Connecticut. Elizabeth Campbell was a daughter of Archibald and Mercy Ann (Dunn) Campbell, who were prominent citizens of Hampshire county, Virginia, but removed to Ohio in 1812 and located in Butler county.

Joseph Henderson and wife had eight children, five sons who died in infancy, and three daughters, Elizabeth,, wife of N. W. Evans, of Portsmouth, Ohio, Nancy, who resides in Washington, D. C., and Jane, who was the wife of S. Y. Wasson, Hamilton, Ohio, and who died July 1, 1899. Surviving her are her husband, a daughter, Jennie L., wife of Joseph L. Blair, secretary of the Niles Tool Works, at Hamilton, and Clarence Clancy Wasson, a physician in Hamilton, whose wife was Elizabeth Ward. Joseph Henderson's wife died August 20, 1851 ; he never remarried, but devoted himself to his daughters, whom he educated at Oxford College, Oxford, Ohio.

In 1863 Mr. Henderson became a stockholder in the First National Bank of Hamilton and was a director of it for a number of years. He was a man of the most strict integrity. He believed in this motto, "Owe no man anything," and lived up to it. In his political views he was a Democrat, but was always for a sound currency based on gold. In his religious views he was a Presbyterian, firm in the faith of his ancestors. He was a model American citizen, and believed in and practiced obedience to law. He had the fullest confidence of all who knew him and his character was a tower of strength. His life was one of devotion to his children and they maintain the same sturdy Scotch character which was his own. He died November 3, 1889, and is interred on the family lot in Greenwood cemetery, Hamilton, Ohio.

Henry Weaver

was born in the city of New York, in April, 1761. His father, William Weaver, was respectably connected, though not in affluent circumstances. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His son, Henry, when quite a youth, not more than eighteen years of age, fired by ardent patriotism and love of adventure, joined a crew of privateersmen, and was among the first that ventured upon the ocean under the American flag. When cruising in the West India seas they fell in with a British vessel, and after a desperate fight captured her. In the act of boarding the vessel, Mr. Weaver had three of the fingers of his left hand cut off by the stroke of a cutlass, aimed at his head, which he was fortunate enough to parry. After the capture of the ship, they continued cruising in the same seas for a considerable time, when they met with a British man-of-war, of a very superior force, and were themselves captured in turn. Henry Weaver and the survivors of the crew were made prisoners and carried to England, where he was confined in prison for upward of eighteen months, until the ratification of the treaty between the United States and England, bv which the independence of the United States was acknowledged. When Mr. Weaver was released from prison he returned to his home in New York. His family hailed him as one arisen from the dead, as they had long since considered him lost forever. His father died during his absence. Some years after his return he married Miss Meeker, of New Jersey, by whom he had one child, a daughter. He afterward, for his second wife, married Susan Crane, daughter of Joseph Crane, of

Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and a sister of the late Major John Crane, of Hamilton, Ohio. About this time the settlement of the Miami country had commenced, and Mr. Weaver, stimulated by the spirit of enterprise and the glowing accounts received of the beauty and fertility of the western country, determined to seek his fortune in the West. Accordingly, in 1790, he left his home, accompanied by his wife, and came to Columbia, a settlement six miles above Cincinnati, in the then Northwest Territory, where he lived until 1792. In that year Henry Tucker, of the state of New Jersey, came to Columbia, where he was joined by Henry Weaver and a few other enterprising spirits, who determined to push further into the wilderness. They established and built a station, which received the name of Tucker's Station. It was situated on the then trace leading from Cincinnati to Fort Hamilton, about midway between these two places, in the valley below Glendale. Here Mr. Weaver located a tract of land on the west branch of Mill creek, where he cleared away the forest and built him a cabin.

In 1794 Governor Arthur St. Clair appointed Henry Weaver a justice of the peace, under the territorial government for the county of Hamilton, which, at that time, embraced a large portion of the western section of what now forms the state of Ohio. Some time after General Wayne's treaty with the Indians, at Greenville, in the year 1795, and the cessation of hostilities, Mr. Weaver was among the first to leave the protection of the station, and pursue his fortune still farther in the forests of the frontier, settling on a tract of land near Middletown, in what is now Butler county, where he cleared a farm. The public lands belong- ing to the United States came into market in the year 1801. Mr. Weaver became the purchaser of a tract of land on Elk creek, in what is now Madison township. Here he commenced another farm, on which he resided until his death.

The state of Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1802, and Butler county was established and organized in 1803, and subdivided into townships. Lemon township, as originally organized, comprehended, in addition to its present boundaries, all of what now forms the township of Madison, which was laid off and organized in the year 1810.

On the organization of Lemon township, in 1803, Henry Weaver was elected justice of the peace, which office he held until 1805, when the state legislature elected him associate judge of the court of common pleas for Butler county, in which office he served under successive reappointments until July 20, 1829, when he resigned. Judge Weaver also filled many minor offices, and appointments of trust and responsibility, in the neighborhood where he lived. He was a land surveyor, and executed nearly all the surveys in his neighborhood during his time. He drew deeds, contracts, and agreements for his neighbors. He was, in fact, what may be called a useful man. Mr. Weaver was much attached to agriculture and horticulture, and took great pains to introduce the choicest varieties of fruits. He was a man of unbounded hospitality, and was generous to the poor. His virtues and name are worthy of respect and preservation among the pioneers and defenders of the Miami valley.

the sixty-eighth year of his age, leaving a Hamilton, in the ninety-first year of his age. widow and a numerous family of children surviving him. His remains were interred in the burying ground at Trenton, adjoining the Baptist church, of which congregation he was a member. His widow, Susan, died on January 22, 1851, aged seventy-five years, and was buried beside her husband at Trenton.

Pierson Sayre

was born September 12, 1761, in the state of New Jersey, in a small village then called Turkey, now known as Providence. When seventeen years of age he entered the Continental army, as a private soldier in the New Jersey division, then under the command of General Lord Sterling. He remained in the army two years and a half, during which time he participated in most of the battles fought in the state of New Jersey during that period, among several others, the battle of Springfield, fought June 23, 1780, under the command of Major General Nathaniel Greene. During his service in the army he consequently suffered all the privations and hardships to which the Revolutionary soldiers were subjected.

After Mr. Sayre left the army he went to the city of New York, where he learned the carpenter's trade. On June 29, 1786, he was married to Miss Catherine Lewis, of that city, with whom he lived happily for upward of fifty-two years, until December 25, 1838, when she died at Hamilton, Ohio, aged seventy-five years. Mr. Sayre resided in New York city, and worked at his trade until 1790, when he removed to Uniontown. Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he resided until 1809, when he removed to the state of Ohio, and purchased a farm and tavern-stand in Butler county, seven miles from Hamilton, on the road leading to Middletown. It was then known by the sign of the "Cross Keys." It had formerly been a celebrated tavern-stand and place of public meetings during the early settlement of the Miami valley, and had previously been kept by Andrew Christy. It was subsequently known as the Cummins' stand. Here Mr. Sayre resided and kept a house of entertainment for a few years, when he sold out to Abraham Miley, and removed to Cincinnati, where he kept a tavern near the corner of Front and Walnut streets, at a sign of the "Green Tree." The property then belonged to Isaac Anderson, a pioneer resident of Butler county. Afterward Mr. Sayre purchased a tract of land from Colonel James Clark, in Lemon township, Butler county, where he resided until 1814, when he sold out to John H. Piatt, of Cincinnati, who subsequently laid out the town of Monroe on the same premises.

In 1814 Mr. Sayre purchased of John Sutherland lot No. 120 on Front street, between Dayton and Stable streets, in the town of Hamilton, with the house thereon, and in the same year settled in Hamilton. He, however, resided but a few months in this house, when he removed to the old Torrence tavern-stand, situateci on the comer of Dayton and Water streets. This house is still standing, and until recently was occupied as a residence by Henry S. Earhart. Here Mr. Sayre lived and kept a tavern for several years. In October, 1817, he was elected sheriff of Butler county for two years, and was re-elected two years later for a second term. He was succeeded in office by Samuel Millikin, who served four years, after which, in October, 1825, Mr. Sayre was again a candidate for sheriff and was elected by a large majority. He served the further term of two years, making his whole term of office six years. Mr. Sayre was appointed first collecter of tolls on the Miami canal. The office was then kept at the east end of the Hamilton basin. He held the office from March 1, 1828, until April 1, 1830. In 1835 he was appointed tollgatherer for the bridge across the Miami river at Hamilton. He attended faithfully to the duties of that office from April 1, 1835, until April 1, 1839. In 1820 Mr. Sayre contracted with the county commissioners to furnish the materials and build two public offices on the public square, one on the east and the other on the west side of the court house, which he completed the ensuing year, according to contract. They were at first built only one story high. An additional story was added some years afterward, and the buildings continued to fulfill the requirements of the county for many years, or until the completion of the present court house in 1890. when they were tom away. Mr. Sayre was also the contractor for building the Female Academy situated on Water street, erected in 1834, and which is now employed by the city of Hamilton as the city building. The father of Pierson Sayre was Ezekiel Sayre. In the year 1788 he lived at Stony Hill, New Jersey. In October, 1790. Ezekiel Sayre removed to Cincinnati. He afterward lived near Reading, Hamilton county, Ohio. His family consisted of himself and wife, with four sons and two daughters, viz. : Levi, John, Hulda, Pierson (the subject of this sketch), Benjamin (who was afterward a sheriff of Warren county, Ohio), and Rachel. Pierson Sayre died April 4, 1852, at his home in Hamilton, in the ninety-first year of his age.

Jeremiah Butterfield

was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, March 4, 1776. When he was twelve years old his father removed to the state of New York. In 1797, , young Butterfield, then twenty-one, left his home to seek his fortune in the Far West. He traveled to Pittsburgh, where he embarked on a flatboat and descended the Ohio river to Marietta. Here he remained during the winter in the family of Doctor Spencer. The next spring he started on board a flatboat down the Ohio river to Cincinnati, which was then but an inconsiderable village. He then proceeded on his voyage to Louisville and thence to Fort Massac, on the north bank of the Ohio river thirty-six miles above its mouth, in what is now the state of Illinois. Mr. Butterfield remained at Fort Massac only a short time; he purchased a piroque and, in company with a Kentuckian, set out for St. Louis. They descended the Ohio to its mouth, and thence paddled their way up the Mississippi to the place of their destination. From St. Louis Mr. Butterfield went to St. Charles, a small village on the north side of the Missouri river, eighteen miles above its mouth, where he remained one year. Mr. Butterfield returned to St. Louis and from thence crossed the country, which is now the state of Illinois, to Vincennes, on the Wabash river. In passing the extensive prairies he encountered vast herds of buffaloes. From Vincennes he went into the interior of Kentucky, where he remained three months, and there set out for the East. He went by the way of Philadelphia and arrived at his father's house in New York in the winter of 1799, having traveled nearly the whole of the several routes mentioned on foot, through a country then nearly destitute of roads, and inhabited principally by wild beasts and savages. Mr. Butterfield was now twenty-three years of age, old enough, as he thought, to take to himself a wife as a "helpmeet/' or, at least, a sharer in his privations. He returned to the place of his nativity, in Massachusetts, and married Miss Polly Campbell, in the year 1800. Intending now to select' a place as a permanent residence for life, the following winter he and his brother-in-law started on an exploring expedition into the Genesee country, in the western part of New York. After exploring the country he was not pleased with it, but told his companion that he would show them a "much superior country, a little further over the hills," meaning the Alleghany mountains; consequently they left their sleighs and proceeded to Pittsburg, where they embarked on board of a flatboat and descended the Ohio river. They landed at Columbia, whence they went to Cincinnati, and went into the country to Colonel John Riddle's, two miles north of town, on the Hamilton road, where they engaged with him in harvesting. Later Mr. Butterfield engaged with Israel Ludlow, as a chain carrier. Mr. Ludlow had acccepted a contract to survey the boundary line between the United States and the Indian nations, as established by the treaty of Greenville, and he employed young Butterfield among others to assist him. They concluded the survey on August 3, T795. The ensuing spring he visited and explored the valley of the Great Miami river, the bottom lands of which pleased him better than any he had before seen in the West. He, with five others, old Esquire Shaw, Knoles Shaw and Albin Shaw, his sons, Asa Harvey and Noah Willy, formed a company for the purpose of purchasing lands. The first sales of public lands west of the Great Miami river was at public vendue in the town of Cincinnati, commencing on the first Monday in April, 1801. At this sale Mr. Butterfield and his company purchased two entire sections and two large fractional sections of land, containing nearly two thousand acres, on the west bank of the Great Miami river, beginning in Butler county, a short distance below the mouth of Indian creek, and extending about three miles down the river into Hamilton county. Nearly the whole of this tract of land is perfectly level, and all very rich and mellow, capable of producing fine crops. It is situated near where the town of Venice has since been laid out in Butler county, and about eighteen miles from Cincinnati. This tract of land was divided among the six proprietors, according to the amount they had respectively paid, by lines extending back from the Miami river, so that each tract had a front on the river. The survey of the division of the land was made by Emanuel Vantrees. The portion which was assigned to Mr. Butterfield, and of which he became the owner, comprised about eight hundred acres, which constituted his farm. This tract of land, which he purchased of the government in 1801 at two dollars and ten cents per acre, would probably now sell for more than eighty thousand dollars. It is yet in part in the possession of his descendants.

About the year 1805 or 1806 the neighborhood where Mr. Butterfield resided became infested with a band of outlaws, marauders and horsethieves, by whose depredations Mr. Butterfield suffered as well as his neighbors. There was then no law that could easily reach them but lynch law. Mr. Butterfield associated himself with several others and formed a company for putting that law in force, and after considerable exertion succeeded in exterminating them, or driving them from the country. Several of them were shot.

In the winter of 1819 Mr. Butterfield drove a large number of hogs through the woods from the neighborhood where he resided to Detroit, a distance of two hundred and eighty miles. After days of toil and hardship he arrived safely at Detroit, sold his hogs to an advantage and returned home with his saddle-bags full of money. Three times he shipped live hogs from his own door, on board of flatboats, down the Miami, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and from there shipped them to the island of Cuba. He always went with them himself. In the year 1828 he was shipwrecked on the coast of Cuba. Before he would leave the sinking vessel Mr. Butterfield cut open the pens containing the hogs, which were on deck, and let them into the sea. They nearly all swam to the shore, so that he lost but few. He sold his hogs at twelve dollars per hundred weight, weighing them alive, so that notwithstanding he was shipwrecked and had to pay three dollars and a half duty on each hog he made a profitable voyage.

Such is a brief outline of the history and character of this early settler of the Miami - country. He was every way fitted for pioneer life and the toil and hardships which he had to encounter. What would have been the situation of our country had it not been for such men as Mr. Butterfield, who prepared it for the rising generations!

Jeremiah Butterfield died at his residence near Venice on June 27, 1853, aged seventy-seven years. He raised a family of eight children, who all arrived at maturity and all of them but one, who was previously deceased, were present at the funeral of their father. A large circle of neighbors and friends were also in attendance to testify by their presence their respect for the aged man. He was buried on his own land, on the left-hand side of the road leading from Venice to New Haven, about half a mile below Venice, where a plain, upright marble slab marks the resting place of the remains of the aged pioneer.

Isaac Paxton

was born in Essex county, New Jersey, February 21, 1770. His parents were poor, but respectable people. At an early age he went to learn the trade of a silversmith, at which he continued till he was twenty-one years of age. Hearing reports of the fine country of Kentucky and the far West, he set out in 1791, by way of Pennsylvania, intending to go west, but the accounts of the Indian hostilities caused him to change his course, and he went to Staunton, Virginia, where he worked at his trade for about a year.

In the summer of 1792 Isaac Paxton took the bounty, and enlisted as a private soldier in the rifle company of Captain Alexander Gibson, of General Anthony Wayne s command, organized to operate against the Indians, and to retrieve the disastrous defeat suffered by St. Clair's army in 179T. The troops composing the new organization of the army were denominated "The Legion of the United States." The winter of 1792-3 was passed in camp at a point on the north side of the Ohio river, nineteen miles below Pittsburg, and was strongly fortified and named Legionville. On April 30, 1793, General Wayne broke up his garrison at Legionville, embarked on board their boats, with the troops in good order, and set off for Fort Washington. The voyage was mad^e without any accident, and the army arrived at Cincinnati on the 5th of May, and an encampment was made 011 the north bank of the Ohio river, below the then village of Cincinnati, between that and the mouth of Mill creek. Fort Washington stood on the bank of the river immediately above the village. Both situations are now included within the bounds of the city of Cincinnati. To that encampment Wayne gave the name of "Hobson's Choice," it being the only place in that vicinity suited for the object intended.

On October 7, 1793, General Wayne broke up his encampment at "Hobson's Choice," and took up his line of march for the Indian country. The first day they marched about ten miles and encamped. The second day. October 8th, they reached Fort Hamilton, and encamped in the upper part of a prairie, about half a mile below where High street in Hamilton is now located. All the level bottom between the pond and the Miami river was then a beautiful natural prairie covered with a luxuriant growth of grass. Here they threw up an embankment of earth to protect the encampment from surprise, the remains of which could be traced a few years ago, at the point where the road from Front street, in Hamilton, leading down the Miami river, approaches the river. The army remained but one night at Hamilton, and the next day,

October 9th, moved forward into the heart of the Indian country. General Wayne, it seems, was determined not to tread in the footsteps of General St. Clair, but opened a new road for the march of his army. They crossed the Miami river above where the city of Hamilton now is, and some distance above the mouth of Four-Mile creek, which was then at the junction of Old and New rivers. (The channel of New river had not then been formed.) They pursued their march up the bottom, on the north side of the creek, to the Five-Mile spring, five miles in advance of Fort Hamilton. The spring is on the east side of the Hamilton and Seven-Mile turnpike, and the place was afterward known as the spring and residence of Captain John Hamilton. In recent years the place has been owned by the Walker heirs and until lately was occupied by the late 'Squire Janies W. Walker. The army fortified their camp every night, and were very vigilant. The 10th of October (their fourth day) the march continued ; they crossed Nine-Mile creek near where the late Samuel Davis, Esq., formerly lived, and passed where the north line of Butler county now is, about three miles east of the present site of Somerville, and encamped at what they called the Seventeen-Mile tree - seventeen miles in advance of Fort Hamilton. Here Captain Alexander Gibson's company, to which Isaac Paxton belonged, was detailed as part of a guard, under the command of Colonel Strong, to proceed in advance and protect the road cutters. On October nth the army moved forward, and each day made tolerable quick progress until on the 14th they came to a beautiful situation on the bank of Greenville creek. Here they strongly fortified their encampment.

On this spot the town of Greenville was afterward built. On October 15th the wagons were sent back to Fort St. Clair with an escort of between eighty and ninety men, commanded by Lieutenant Lowery and Ensign Boyd, to bring stores and provisions for the army. On October 17th, when the wagon train and escort had proceeded about seven miles from Fort St. Clair, they were attacked by a party of Indians who rushed on with savage fury and yells. Lieutenant Lowry, of the second sublegion, and Ensign Boyd, of the first sublegion, together with thirteen non-commissioned officers and privates, were killed. The Indians plundered the wagons, and carried off with them sixty four of the best wagon horses in the army, having killed six horses at the wagons in the engagement. They left the wagons standing in the road, which were afterward taken to Greenville. Colonel Adair, from Fort St. Clair, pursued the Indians, but could not overtake them. The slain in the engagement were buried at Fort St. Clair: but afterward, on the 4th of July, 1846, their bones were taken up and reinterred' w ith the honors of war and other imposing ceremonies, in the village graveyard between the site of the fort and the town of Eaton, where a marble monument, twelve feet high, marks the resting place of these brave men.

On November 24, 1793, General Wayne, having completed Fort Greenville, on the present site of the city of Greenville, set out, with a party of about one thousand men, for the place where the army under General St. Clair had been defeated on November 4, 1791. Isaac Paxton, a part of the detachment. They arrived at the place on the evening of December 25th and pitched their tents on the battle ground. When the men went to lie down in their tents at night, they had to scrape the bones together and carry them out of the tent. The next day holes were dug without the camp, and the bones which remained above ground were collected and buried. The flesh was entirely off the bones, but in many cases the sinews held them together.

After this melancholy duty was performed, General Wayne laid out the plan of a fort, and the men proceeded to build it, which, after a few days, was completed, and named "Fort Recovery," in commemoration of its being recovered from the Indians, who had possession of the ground in 1791. The fort was placed under the command of Captain Gibson with his company of riflemen and one company of artillery, which were left to defend the fort. The rest of the detachment returned to Greenville. Isaac Paxton remained in Fort Recovery during the winter, and until the main army marched on their expedition in July following.

On the 28th day of July, 1794, at eight o'clock A. M., the main army, under the command of General Wayne, left Fort Greenville, and took up their line of march into the Indian country. On July 30th Captain Gibson, who commanded at Fort Recovery, joined the main army. Isaac Paxton, who belonged to this command, accompanied the army on their long march through the Indian country, along which line at special vantage points were erected Forts Adams, Defiance, and Wayne, and participated in many Indian battles, the most memorable of which was that of

Fallen Timbers. On the evening of November 2d, after an absence of three months and six days, the army arrived at Greenville, where they were saluted with twenty-four rounds from a six-pounder.

Isaac Paxton remained with the army during the winter and until the following July, when he applied for a discharge. He received a certificate that "he has served as a private in the fourth sublegion and in Captain Alexander Gibson's company of riflemen! He has delivered up his arms and accoutrements without deficiency, and is permitted to apply to headquarters for an honorable discharge." On presenting this certificate at headquarters he received an honorable discharge- under the hand and seal of the commander-in-chief, General Anthony Wayne. His discharge is dated at Greenville, July 7, 1795. In it he is described as a man twenty-four years of age, five feet eight inches high, fair complexion, dark hair and blue eves. Mr. Paxton served upward of three years in the army, all the time under the command of Captain Gibson. When Mr. Paxton received his discharge there was no money with which to pay him off. He walked to Cincinnati. When he arrived there, he had not enough money to pay his expenses across the Ohio river and he engaged to work with a silversmith for his support. In October he walked back to Greenville, collected his three dollars per month for services as a soldier and returned on foot to Cincinnati, where he continued to work at his trade until 1801, when he went to live in what is now. the southeast part of Butler county (Pisgah, Union township), then a part of Hamilton county.

Mrs. Madeline Williams, a widow whose maiden name was Vanhise, and, in 1807, removed to the west side of the Great Miami river, on a farm about five miles from Hamilton, on the turnpike from Hamilton to Trenton, where he lived until 1813. Having sold his farm he then removed to Hamilton, where he purchased a lot, built a house and opened a silversmith shop, in which he continued to work until the infirmities of age compelled him to decline business. His wife died June 23, 1826. In 1831 Mr. Paxton married a second time. His wife's name was Mrs. Phares, a widow lady, a daughter of Paul Saunders, and sister of Isaac T. Saunders, of Hamilton. Mr. Paxton died October 7, 1861, in the ninetysecond year of his age.

Brigadier General John Wingate

died at the residence of John Burke, Jr., near Symmes' Comers, Butler county, Ohio, on the morning of April 14, 1851, at the advanced age of about seventy-seven years. The deceased was a native of New York, and in his youth learned the trade of stonemason. Soon after the disastrous defeat of General St. Clair, in 1791, when the frontier settlers were in the most imminent peril, Mr. Wingate came to the western country with the army commanded by General Wayne. He was a sergeant in Captain Van Rensselaer's troop of cavalry and was in the evermemorable battle of the Fallen Timbers, on the Maumee river, fought with the Indians August 20, 1794, in which our troops gained a complete victory over the savages and terminated the Indian war which had been carried on for a number of years. His deeds of bravery on that trying occasion were favorably spoken of, and were often after- ward the theme of his associates in arms. He had also a brother who was in the same engagement, and was at the time orderlysergeant in the same company to which John Wingate belonged. His brother was slain by his side in that action. In the year 1795 the treaty of Greenville was held with the Indians, which secured the blessings of peace, and brought joy and gladness to the stricken hearts of those who had made their homes in the wild wilderness of the West. With the mustering out of service of General Wayne's army, Mr. Wingate returned to Fort Hamilton, where he settled. The town had then been but recently laid out. He married Miss Mary Dillon, who was a daughter of one of the early settlers of the place. She died in a few years, leaving him with two children.

On May 24, 1809, John Wingate married Mrs. Emma Torrence, widow of John Torrence, then lately deceased, a lady of great worth and highly esteemed for her many amiable and excellent traits of character. She was a daughter of Captain Robert Benham, the distinguished pioneer, some of whose daring deeds, sufferings and hazardous adventures are recorded in the histories of the West. She was also the sister of Joseph S. Benham, Esq., now deceased, who practiced law in Hamilton for several years, and is remembered as one of the most able lawyers and eloquent orators of his day.

John Wingate was one of the early merchants of Hamilton. He kept a store on Front street in a log building, situated on the lot now occupied in part by the St. Mary's Roman Catholic church. In 1806 Mr. Wingate abandoned his mercantile business, and, in October, 1807, was elected sheriff of Butler county, in which office he served for the term of two years. He was subsequently elected a brigadier general of the Ohio militia, and in the year 1813 he again marched to the tented field and served a term of six months in the capacity of brigadier general in the second war with Great Britain.

After Mr. Wingate's marriage with the widow Torrence, in 1809, he kept a tavern for several years in the house on the corner of Dayton and Water streets, in Hamilton - the same stand that had previously been occupied as a tavern by John Torrence, deceased. The house is yet standing, and until within recent years was owned and occupied by Henry S. Earhart as a residence. In 1816 Mr. Wingate removed to Cincinnati, where for some time he kept the old Cincinnati Hotel, situated on Front street, between Sycamore and Broadway. After some time Mr. Wingate removed to the Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, where he kept a house of entertainment for several years, and finally removed farther west.

After an absence of more than thirty years from the scenes of his early adventures, General Wingate returned to Hamilton a few weeks previous to his death, an old man enfeebled by age and the various vicissitudes and misfortunes of the eventful life through which he had passed. Although General Wingate had no relatives, so far as known, he did not die without friends. During his last illness he was well attended and cared for in the family of John Burke, near Symmes' Corners, whose father, when an unprotected boy, found a friend and benefactor in John Wingate. On Tuesday, April 15, 185T, the remains of the deceased were brought from the residence of Mr. Burke to Hamilton, and at three o'clock the funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Arthur W. Elliott, at the Methodist Episcopal church, in the presence of a large concourse of people. The interment was at Greenwood cemetery, and was held under military honors.

William B. Oglesby

was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1815, he being one of nine children - six sons and three daughters - bom to Joseph and Mary A. Oglesby, natives of Pennsylvania, of English and German extraction. His grandfather and father were sickle-makers, which in those days were made by hand. In the fall of 1818 the family emigrated to Indiana, and settled in Wayne county, near Richmond. Two years later they removed to Preble county, Ohio, where, until he was thirteen years old, the subject enjoyed the advantages of a good schooling in the branches usually taught in the backwoods school. William had at this time arrived at an age when it became necessary to earn his own living, and thus lighten the expense of a large family. He accepted a situation in a store with. Captain Hiram Potter, at Jacksonburg. whom he served acceptably for two years. From there he went to Middletown and entered the store of Jonathan Martin as clerk. He continued there two or three years, until the death of Mr. Martin; afterwards the business was carried on by Tytus & Wrenn, with whom he remained, except for a few months, until they dissolved. F. J. Tytus continued the business in the same room, with whom young Oglesby remained as clerk about two years; he then became a partner with Mr. Tytus, and so continued

In the fall of 1840 he and his brother Jacob bought a stock of goods in Philadelphia, which, at Pittsburg, were shipped on the steamer "Troy" for Cincinnati ; near Portsmouth, on the Ohio river, the steamer, with its goods and freight, was sunk, and no insurance. The goods were "fished out," opened and dried, reshipped to Cincinnati, thence to Dayton, and again opened. From Dayton they removed their goods to Sydney, Ohio, and after doing business about six months, sold out. From this place Mr. Oglesby went to Urbana, Ohio, and remained two years. He then went to Philadelphia, and engaged as clerk in a wholesale dry-goods house for six months, at the expiration of which time he was married to Miss Rebecca S. Barnitz, of Hanover, Pennsylvania, the sister of George C. Barnitz, now deceased, and Charles S. Barnitz, of Middletown. The union terminated on January 21, 1850, by the death of his wife. By this marriage he had three children, Marv J., William B. and Charles B.

In the spring of 1844 he entered into a co-partnership with his brother-in-law, George C. Barnitz, in the dry-goods business, with whom he continued to do business without interruption for nearly fifty years. A greater portion of the time, from 1844 to 1857, the firm was engaged in buying produce, pork packing, and various other branches, including a banking business.

In the fall of 1854 Mr. Oglesby was married to Miss Catharine Gingrick, a native of Germany. Bv this last marriage four children were born, viz: Edwin G.. John by the first marriage, Mary J., was married to Frank Foster, of Middletown. His son, Charles, married Miss Alice Kate Dickey, of Dayton, Ohio, and is president of Oglesby & Barnitz's Bank, at Middletown.

Mr. Oglesby was treasurer of Butler county, Ohio, from 1880 to 1882. He was a man of marked ability, and had a wide range of business knowledge and experience. He died about ten years ago.

John Woods

father, Alexander Woods, was a native of Ireland, born in the county of Tyrone, in 1768. In 1790 he left his native land and came to the United States and resided for some years in eastern Pennsylvania. He afterwards came west, first to Kentucky and later to Warren county, Ohio, where he purchased a farm a few miles east of Franklin, which he improved and on which he resided until his death, on January 9, 1848. He was married, in 1793, in Pennsylvania, to Mary Robinson, who was born in 1762, and who died on August 16, 1828, having become the mother of eight children. John Woods, the subject of this sketch, was the eldest son and was reared in a log cabin, and, as soon as his strength would admit, had to participate in the lalx>rs of the farm. He received such an education as the common schools of the country at that time afforded, which, by hard study at such times as he could spare from the duties of the farm, he improved, much to his advantage in after life. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812. He was included in the last draft of the Ohio militia, which was made in 1814, and was in the garrison at Fort

Meigs when peace with Great Britain was proclaimed. Oh his return from the army he opened an English school in the neighborhood of Springborough, which he continued for one or two years. From boyhood Mr. Woods had formed the resolution of acquiring an education and finally becoming a lawyer, and for the purpose of enabling him to carry out his desire he contracted, for a certain compensation, to clear a piece of ground adjacent to where his father lived, as a means of support. He built a hut or camp on his clearing, and after chopping and mauling the heavy timber all day, at night he often read and studied law in his rude cabin while others slept. He pursued his course of reading under the direction of Hon. John McLean, who had been a member of congress and one of the judges of the supreme court of the United States. Mr. Woods prosecuted his studies in this manner for some time, and went regularly once a week to Lebanon, where Judge Mc- Lean then resided, to recite to him and receive instructions. He afterwards devoted his time more exclusively to the study of law, and, in August, 1819, he established himself in Hamilton, and, opening an office on the 19th of that month, commenced the practice of his profession. In 1820 he was appointed prosecuting attorney for the county of Butler, in which office he served till 1825, at which time his services as a member of congress commenced, when he resigned.

June 20, 1820, John Woods was married to Miss Sarah Ann Lynch, of Springborough, Warren county. She was a native of South Carolina, bom December 29, 1801. They forthwith commenced housekeeping in Hamilton. At the general election in October, 1824, he was elected a representative in congress from the second congressional district, composed of the counties of Butler and Warren, over Thomas R. Ross, of Lebanon, who had been the former representative. His term of service commenced on the 4th of March, 1825, but he was not required to take his seat until the first Monday of December following. On October 18, 1824, Mr. Woods formed a partnership with Michael B. Sargent in the practice of the law, which terminated with the death of Mr. Sargent on May 19, 1830. When Mr. Wood's first term in congress expired he was again elected for a second term, so that he served four years, from the 4th of March, 1825, until the 4th of March, 1829. While there he was distinguished for his industry and attention to business. On the 18th of January, 1828, Mr. Woods, from the committee on roads and canals, made a report accompanied by a bill "to aid the state of Ohio in extending the Miami canal from Dayton to Lake Erie. This bill, which subsequently became a law, aided the state in the payment of debts contracted in the construction of her canals. At the session just referred to the subjects of the tariff, internal improvements, Indian appropriations and Indian affairs were largely debated, in all of which he took a prominent part. He was decided and ardent in politics as he was in everything else. He warmly opposed the election of General Jackson to the presidency. This threw him in the minority in Butler county, which was overwhelmingly in favor of Jackson. In consequence of his opposition, at the end of his second term, he was defeated by the election of James Shields. After his retirement from congress Mr. Woods became the proprietor, publisher and editor of the Hamilton Intelligencer, which he conducted with great ability for three years, a portion of the latter part of the time in connection with Lewis D. Campbell, who assumed the business management of the concern. Although Mr. Woods was engaged in editing a newspaper he did not relinquish the practice of his profession as a lawyer, but prosecuted it vigorously until 1845. In January of that year the Ohio legislature elected him auditor of the state for a term of three years, and so efficiently did he perform his official duties that he was honored by a re-election and served until March, 1851. As auditor he left indelible marks on the policy and history of the state.

Mr. Woods now devoted himself particularly to the development of various enterprises and became the president of the Eaton & Hamilton Railroad Company, and brought his strong powers to bear on the prosecution and completion of the work. Immediately after retiring from the presidency of the Eaton & Hamilton Railroad Company Mr. Woods was appointed to and accepted the office of president of the Junction Railroad, now known as the Cincinnati. Hamilton & Indianapolis division of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton system, leading from Hamilton to Oxford, Connersville, and thence to Indianapolis, to the prosecution of which work he brought his energy to bear and faithfully attended to the business of the office, with honor to himself and to the advantage of the company. Until the time of his death the strong mind and energy of Mr. Woods wrought an impression on almost every improvement in and about Hamilton. He was a liberal contributor to everything which had for its object the promotion of the happiness of man. Many years ago he took a leading part in founding and establishing the Hamilton and Rossville Female Academy. He was active in the construction of the Cincinnati & Hamilton Turnpike Road, of which he was director. He was president of the Darrtown & Fairhaven Pike. He was one of the leading spirits in projecting and constructing the Hamilton and Rossville Hydraulic Works. He spent considerable time in procuring subscriptions for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, in which he was largely interested, and of which he was a director during his life. Indeed, far more of the energy displayed in carrying forward that great work came from Mr. Woods than from any other man. In his temperament he was decidedly amiable, of a most kind and forgiving disposition. His walk through life was without any deviation from the paths of honor and rectitude. In his dealings and business relations he was prompt, honorable and expert, and a patron of integrity. Law and order had in him an undeviating advocate. He was always found on the moral side of every public question. He was a regular attendant at the house of worship of the Associate Reformed church, of which he was a consistent member. In the early part of July, 1855, Mr. Woods was attacked with inflamation of the lungs, so severe as to cause strong apprehensions of its fatal termination. However, he became better, and hopes were entertained that his system would rally, but the disease finally terminated in typhoid fever, which ended his earthly life on Monday, July 30, 1855, in the sixtyfirst year of his age. His remains were consigned to the tomb in Greenwood ceme- was one of the sturdy first settlers of Butler county. He was the son of Peter and Catherine Shafor, natives of New Jersey and of German and Dutch descent. The family name was originally spelled Sheafor. The subject was born in Somerset county, New Jersey, September 7, 1783, and when six years of age his parents removed to the wilds of Kentucky. Sojourning in the vicinity of Lexington until 1803, they removed to Ohio, and settled on a farm near Amanda, in Lemon township, Butler county. William Shafor was then a stalwart, rugged youth of twenty years, capable of doing much pioneer work and aiding in the development of a new country. His father cleared and cultivated a farm, upon which he continued to reside until his death, at the age of seventy years.

During the war of 1812 the subject was lieutenant in Captain Hamilton's company, and his credentials and other relics are in the hands of his son Peter, of Fairfield township. At the age of twenty-eight he married Miss Jane, daughter of John and Anna Ryerson, all natives of New Jersey, who, coming to Ohio, settled on a farm in Lemon township, Butler county, not far distant from that owned by the Shafor family. Later Mr. Ryerson moved to Darke county, making his home near Greenville, and subsequently went to Kosciusko county, Indiana, where he and his wife died advanced in years. Their son Michael married Elanor Boylan, and died on a farm in Lemon township, his wife surviving him for several years.

Airs. Jane Shafor died in 1859, at the age of sixty-six years. Five sons and six daughters had been born of her marriage, viz : Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Catherine, John R., Henry, Sarah, Peter, Adeline, William B., Irene and Wilson. Elizabeth married Thomas Long and died at Crawfordsville, Indiana, aged eighty years. Mary Ann (Airs. Daniel Jewell) settled in Cassopolis, Michigan, where she died. Catherine first married Samuel B. Holmes, and later became the wife of Joshua Kemp, of Lemon township, where she died at the age of seventy years. John R. is a wealthy and influential citizen of Aliddletown. Henry died when twenty-three years old. Sarah married John Parker, a wagonmaker of Amanda, where she died. Peter is a prominent farmer and stockman, and resides in Liberty township. Adeline was married to Jacob Simpson, and died in Connersville, Indiana. William B. died at the age of twenty-three years, and Wilson when an infant. Irene (Mrs. John Van Sandt) died at Crawfordsville, Indiana.

T11 1859 Lieutenant Shafor removed to Middletown. The following year he was united in marriage with Elizabeth, widow of George Hilt, and mother of Captain Joseph Hilt, the well-known commercial traveler of Aliddletown, and John Hilt. She died about 1877, and some three years later, October 19, 1880, at the age of ninety-seven years, the subject was called to his final rest. His last years were spent in Middletown. though he retained until death the ownership of the old home farm, four miles from Aliddletown. This property he had purchased about 1813 with money earned in the war of 1812. Since his demise a portion of the tract has been sold, and a small part of the estate has passed into the possession of his son, John R., being incorporated in his fine farm.

William N. Hunter

William Noble Hunter was born in Butler county, Ohio, December 21, 1804. His father, Thomas Hunter, emigrated from Rockingham county, Ireland, and settled in New York in 1787. In 1796 he came to. Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, and that year joined General Wayne's army in its movement against the Indians, leaving three motherless children in the care of friends. Returning after the treaty of Greenville to Fort Washington, he married Jane Noble, daughter of one of the early settlers, and a soldier in General St. Clair's army. They settled on land purchased of Judge Symmes, in Butler county. William Noble Hunter was the youngest child of this union and the subject of this sketch. He was reared upon his fathers farm and on August 16, 1827, was married to Esther Wooflrough Symmes near the very farm where, fifty years after, he died. Esther Woodrough Symmes was a daughter of Judge Celadon Symmes, associate judge of Butler county from 1806 to 1820 and prior to that time assistant to Israel Ludlow in the survey of the Symmes purchase in the Miami country, and nephew of Judge John Cleves Symmes, the proprietor, and Phebe Randolph Symmes. his wife, cousin to John Randolph of Roanoke.

William N. Hunter was a good man, whose aims and motives were high. His aspirations were holy and afford a striking example of what may be accomplished when governed by noble impulses. The treasure of knowledge that he acquired in the log school house, with clapboard roof and puncheon floor, a log left out for the admission of light, with greased paper instead of glass, was the foundation upon which he built a life and a character that shown out resplendent and drew men unto him for advice and counsel. He was wellinformed on all subjects, being a close reader and observer of men and things. Stern in his convictions of right and duty, both in' religion and politics, active and industrious, all qualified him to be a leader among men. which he was in the community where he lived for forty years. In politics he was a Whig and early allied himself with the anti-slavery movement. He once said, "If the Almighty intended that one set of men should do all the eating and no work, and another set to do all the work and have little to eat. He would have provided one set with all mouth and the other with all hands.'' He became one of the first adherents of the Republican party, and remained so to the end. The Bible was his daily text book; consequently at his first opportunity, that being at a camp meeting held at Springdale. Hamilton county, in the summer of 1827, he, together with his wife, made an open confession of his faith, and erected a family altar where for fifty years thereafter they daily sought the divine blessing. In 1828 Mr. and Mrs. Hunter identified themselves with the Presbyterian church of Hamilton, Ohio, and in 1837 Mr. Hunter was elected elder of this congregation. He was one of the founders and builders of the Pleasant Run church and served as elder in that and the Hamilton church for forty years, or until his death. He was identified with the

Sabbath school work and the Bible society of both state and county, serving as delegate at their conventions year after year. He established the mission school at Symmes Corner and Fairfield and was for many years the superintendent. Apt at teaching and being well versed in the scriptures, he often surprised his listeners by his clear and pointed remarks on the sacred word. One of his most exemplary characteristics was his ambition to excel in all his undertakings. He was a farmer and stockraiser, and how well he succeeded was attested by the state and county fairs, where he carried off the first premium for his cattle, hogs, sheep and grain. When a young man he worked for fifty cents a day upon the farm where he died - in possession of which place he named it Shady Side. There, surrounded by his devoted wife, five sons and five daughters, the youngest the wife of Dr. William C. Miller, on his golden wedding day, August 1 6, 1877, he received the call - the summons to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and to mansions eternal in the heavens prepared for those who seek and find, who knock and it shall be opened unto them that love Him. It was said of him by one of his most intimate friends, "I do not doubt but what the Lord could have made a better man than William N. Hunter, but He did not do it." It is men of such character and pure, upright lives that honor and dignify the community in which they live. William N. Hunter's life was remarkable for his unswerving devotion to principle and hi£ firm faith in providence. Fully believing that in the full exercise of his trust and the discharge of his whole duty, all other things needed would be added. All of this was most beautifully illustrated in his life, for he lacked no good thing. Blessed be his memorv.

Hon. Jesse Corwin

Jesse Corwin was bom June 30, 1797, in Bourbon county, Kentucky, the fifth child and next to Hon. Thomas Corwin, of national fame. His father, Mathias Corwin, removed from Morristown, New Jersey, in 1785, to Bourbon county, Kentucky, but owing to defective land titles, in 1798 removed to the Miami country, where the town of Lebanon now stands. Mathias Corwin had been justice of the peace in Bourbon county, Kentucky, and in Ohio eleven times a member of the general assembly, and twice speaker of the house, and later associate judge of the court of common pleas of Ohio. Jesse Corwin was reared on his father's farm, studied law under Judge Dunlavy, was admitted to the bar in 1820 and in 1822 took up his residence in Hamilton, Ohio, to practice his profession. In 1825 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county and served as such for ten years. In 1826 he was chosen as orator of the day at the Fourth of July celebration that year, and his prophetic utterances on that day, even unto this day, were republished in one of our local papers at the request of Joseph R. Symmes, an old friend and admirer of his, fifty years later. 1876. In 1829 he married Jane McMechan, a daughter of Rev. James McMechan and Marjory Hudson, his wife, a lineal descendant of Sir Henric Hudson, the explorer. They came to Hamilton, Ohio, in 1817, from County Down, Ireland, but Rev. Mc- Mechan died two years later. The well-todo citizens of Hamilton at once established a school for the benefit of this family, where the daughters, Ellen and Jane, taught. In t 83 t Mr. Corwin was elected to the Ohio legislature, serving two terms. In 1836 he was nominated by the Whig party for congress, in this the then second district, composed of Butler, Preble and Darke counties, with a normal Democratic majority of one thousand two hundred. He was defeated by one hundred and sixty-two votes. Fifty years later, a politician of that day, but then a man eighty years of age, told his son-inlaw how Mr. Corwin was defeated. There was a settlement of Mennonites (Germans) in the upper part of the county; like the Quakers they were opposed to war, or anything appertaining thereto. Texas was then in revolt against Mexico. Its union with the United States would mean war. This German politician and another, person went to these people and told them that if Mr. Corwin was elected there would be war. They all came out and voted, thus consummating Mr. Corwin's defeat. "I must acknowledge to you, his nearest male relative, before I die, the injury I have done to that just and upright man." Three brothers were candidates for congress in Ohio. Thomas, Moses and Jesse; the first two were elected, and the other should have been. In 1838 Mr. Corwin was prevailed upon to make the race again, but without success. "They do not want me; I will not run," was his reply. In 1840 he became a director, with John M. Millikin, Charles K. Smith and others, in the Hamilton Bank. The bank failed in 1842. Politics run high at that day, and the directors of the Hamilton Bank were indicted by a grand jury of Butler county. Elijah Vance, a most intense political partisan, was prosecuting attorney. B. Hickson, another rank politician, was judge, - all bitter opponents of the bank officials. John M. Millikin, as president of the defunct bank, was first put on trial, as a test case, but he was honorably acquitted by the jury without leaving their seats, and thus ended a bitter political quarrel. In 1849 Mr. Corwin removed to a farm for the benefit of his family of six children, but did not abandon the practice of law. In 1856 he was nominated by the Republican party for judge of the court of common pleas, and in 1859 removed to Hamilton, purchasing the property his descendants now occupy. He died October 23, 1867, the oldest member of the Butler county bar. Of him it has been said by those who best knew him that he was the widows' lawyer. No greater honor could be conferred upon any man in his profession. He was from early youth an assiduous student of the law, and early made himself familiar with the principles and the rules that underlie its practice. A man of good solid judgment, of generous impulse and frank disposition, firm in the right as God gave him to see the right, upright and honest and a most estimable citizen.

Joel Collins

Joel Colliqs was born in Halifax county, Virginia,. on the 16th of September, 1772. His father, Stephen Collins, with his wife and four children (Joel being the eldest), removed from Virginia in 1779, to seek a home in the wild regions of Kentucky. In this undertaking a journey of some five hundred miles had to be made, chiefly through an uninhabited country, along a way called the Wilderness Trace, on which ' there was neither the habitation of man nor a military' post, from Powell's valley in Virginia to English's station in Kentucky. This station was on Dick's river, a branch of the Kentucky river, and afterward became

In October, 1779, Stephen Collins, with four of his brothers and a brother-in-law, each with their families, and also one brother without a family, constituted the emigrating party. During the journey, while unmolested by the Indians, the party came near losing their lives bv cold and starvation. When they had arrived near the middle of the wilderness, the weather became very rainy and unusually cold. In the meantime the provisions they had brought from the settlements became exhausted. After undergoing the severest hardships the party arrived at English's station, about the middle of February, 1780, where they obtained some relief, and then proceeded to Logan's station whence they procured some dried buffalo beef, the first of the kind they had seen. They then passed on to a place near Dick's river, located by Colonel Bowman as a suitable site for a station. This gentleman had traveled with them some days in Powell's valley, when they first set out. It was then agreed that they would settle together when they arrived in Kentucky. Here several cabins were speedily put up, and thus Bowman's station was commenced.

In the summer of 1780 General George Rogers Clark, who had his headquarters at Fort Nelson, now the site of Louisville, issued an order commanding every man in Kentucky on the militia roll, capable of bearing arms, to march forthwith to the mouth of the Licking on the Ohio river, where he would meet them on a certain day named. Stephen Collins was among the number who obeyed the order and joined Clark's army on its expedition against the Indians north of the Ohio river, whose incursions had lately been so disastrous to the settlements of the whites in Kentucky. The army crossed the Ohio river on the 2d of August, 1780, and took up the line of march for the Indian towns. On the 6th of August they reached Chill icothe, an Indian town on the waters of the Little Miami river, about three miles north of the present city of Xenia. Finding the town abandoned by the Indians and still burning, - they having set fire to it that morning, - the army marched to Piqua, another Indian town on the north side of Mad river, about six miles west of the present city of Springfield, where they arrived on August 8th, and where a battle was fought with the Indians, whom they defeated, burned their town, and destroyed their growing corn. General Clark and this army remained on the ground two days, and then returned to the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of the Licking, by a different route from that which they had taken on making the expedition. Mr. Collins then removed his family to Lexington, where he lived the accustomed life of the pioneer settler. In 1791 Joel Collins, then in his nineteenth year, had his first experience as a soldier under the command of General Charles Scott. He was attached to a troop of horse commanded by Captain Kenneth McCoy. The expedition consisted of about nine hundred mounted men, who rendezvoused at the mouth of Kentucky river. They started on the 23d of May, 1791. and by the 31st had marched one hundred and thirty-five miles. They proceeded with all possible expedition for the Indian towns on the Wabash river, where they took and destroyed the Wea and Kickapoo towns, killed thirty-two warriors and took fifty- eight prisoners, some of them women and children. The party reached the falls of the Ohio on the 14th of June, when the prisoners were left, and Joel Collins received his discharge and returned home.

We next find him serving as one of an escort of a brigade of pack-horses and engaged in a skirmish with the Indians at Fort St. Clair, which stood near where the town of Eaton, in Preble county, Ohio, is located. This occurrence took place on November 6, 1792. The parties engaged were two hundred and fifty Wyandott and Mingoe warriors, led by the celebrated Indian chief Little Turtle, and an escort of one hundred Kentucky militia, under the command of Captain John Adair, subsequently governor of Kentucky. In the fall of 1793 General Charles Scott marched with one thousand mounted Kentucky militia to aid General Wayne in his expedition against the Indians. They joined the main army near Fort Jefferson on the 15th of October. In this expedition Mr. Collins served as sergeant - the first office he ever held - in Captain Henry Bartlett's company of mounted riflemen. General Wayne, owing to the lateness of the season, and being unprepared for a winter campaign, deemed it most prudent to suspend his march and build Fort Greenville, which being accomplished, the regular troops went into winter quarters and the Kentucky militia were discharged and returned home.

The following year Mr. Collins, then residing at Frankfort, Kentucky, was elected captain of a militia company. Shortly afterwards he received and accepted the appointment of first lieutenant in the standing army of the United States. He was ordered to enlist men and establish three military posts on the wilderness road, being the trail which led from the old settlements in Virginia and the Carolinas to the new settlements in Kentucky. These stations were intended for the protection of the emigrants and others while traveling that road. Here, in the best hunting grounds in the western country, Mr. Collins spent three years, which period he considered the most pleasant part of his life.

On February 25, 1797, the governor of Kentucky appointed Mr. Collins a judge of the court of Lincoln county. In the following month he was married in Fayette county, Kentucky, to Miss Elizabeth Beeler, daughter of Samuel Beeler, and sister of Colonel Samuel Beeler, who was one of the first settlers on the Miami college lands, Oxford, Ohio. He then purchased a farm which he cultivated for several years, though during that time he made one trading voyage, in a flatboat. to New Orleans. In 1806 he removed to Ohio, and settled on a small tract of land which he purchased on Four- Mile creek, in what is now Oxford township, Butler county. His land being altogether in the woods, and few persons settled near him, at that time, the first business which required his attention was to build a cabin and clear a piece of ground to plant corn. He spent several years in extending his improvements and attending to the duties of his farm. His dwelling was situated near the mouth of a small stream" that empties into Four-Mile creek, which stream bears the name of Collins' run to this day. Near this stream he constructed a powder mill, about twenty feet square, of rough logs, in which he devoted a portion of his time to the manufacture of gunpowder. When the township of Oxford was first organized, in the year 1811, Joel Collins and Levi Lee were the first justices of the peace who were elected and served. He resigned this office in 1813, when he was appointed a captain in the army of the United States. Prior to the war of 1812, when the Butler county militia was organized, Mr. Collins enrolled himself as a private soldier, under Captain William Robeson, who had been elected to command the company formed on the west side of the Great Miami river. Captain Robeson was, however, shortly afterward promoted to the office of brigade major, and the company chose his lieutenant, John Taylor, to be their commander. Taylor died shortly afterward, at Oxford, and Joel Collins was elected to succeed him. His commission bore date of May 16, 1812, giving him the rank of captain of a rifle company; he was attached to the First Battalion, Second Regiment, Third Brigade, and First Division of Ohio Militia.

In August, 1812, war with England having been declared, Captain Collins received orders to march with his company to the town of Lebanon, where, on August 10th, they joined three other companies of riflemen, a company of artillery and a company of light infantry. The next day they took up the line of march for Urbana. Hull's surrender in the meantime had led to the appointment of William Henry Harrison as commander-in-chief of all the troops in the Northwestern Territory. Collins' company was soon detailed to open up a wagon road way along Wayne's old trace from Fort Loramies to St. Mary's. They performed that duty in about eight days and were directed to remain in their last encampment (which was within two miles of

St. Mary's) until further orders. They remained at this camp two weeks, and were then stationed at St. Mary's, from which place they were sent on a forced march to ascertain the whereabouts of General Winchester. Upon their return to St. Mary's they went into winter quarters and remained until their term of service expired, in March, 1813, when they were discharged and returned to their homes. While Captain Collins' company was not ordered into battle, and consequently returned unincumbered with those laurels and high honors which some imagine can be obtained on the battlefield, still it is justly claimed for them that they did good service in opening roads, making water-craft and pushing on provisions and other needful supplies for use of the army.

In 1813 Mr. Collins returned home, and shortly thereafter he received the appointment of captain in the standing army of the United States, and was ordered to Cincinnati to enlist men for the service. He soon had twenty-three men enlisted, when he was ordered to rendezvous at Franklinton. He left Hamilton, in company with Lieutenant Alexander Delorac, in October and proceeded to Franklinton, where they remained a month, and was ordered to Sandusky, and from thence to Detroit, where he was stationed for some time. On March 4, 1814. he was appointed to the command of the force at Sandwich, in Canada, and proceeded to build a fort at that place. He was also, for a short time, commander of Fort Malden, in Canada. He was afterward ordered back to Detroit, where he took command of the place, and continued in the service until the close of the war in T815, when he retired from the army with credit and honor to himself. He then returned to his farm in Oxford township. During the time Captain Collins was in the army he disbursed considerable sums of money on account of the government, and when he retired from the service his accounts were promptly closed, and a small balance found due to him from the government.

In October, 1817, Joel Collins was elected a representative in the general assembly of Ohio from Butler county, and was * re-elected every successive term until 1823, when he was elected to the senate. Thus he served in the legislature of Ohio ten years in succession, during which time he discharged his duties as a legislator with honor to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents. On July 20, 1829, Allen Trimble, governor of Ohio, appointed Mr. Collins associate judge of the court of common pleas for Butler county, to succeed Henry Weaver, Esq., who had resigned. Subsequently at the next session of the general assembly he was elected to the same office, and commissioned to hold the office for the term of seven years, from the 24th of February, 1830. In June, 1822, he was appointed by the board of trustees secretary of Miami University, in which capacity he served until June, 1855. Mrs. Collins died August 1, 1855, age(* seventy-seven years. April 25, 1858, he married Mrs. Mary Woodruff, of Oxford. Our subject died at his home in Oxford, November 16, i860, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, universally esteemed as an honest man.

Daniel Doty was bom in Essex county, New Jersey, on the 23d of March, 1765. When he arrived at manhood he formed the resolution of exploring the western country, the fame of whose fertility and beauty he had heard. Accordingly, on September 10, 1790, he left his home and proceeded to Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg), whence he descended the Ohio river in a flatboat to the then infant settlement of Columbia, at the mouth of the Little Miami river, where he arrived on October 23d. Here he concluded to remain. Almost his first experience was his enlistment as a member of the militia company of the place, of which Gano was captain and Ephraim Kirby was lieutenant. At that time General Harmar wac commander of the military forces of the country, and John Cleves Symmes, the proprietor of the Miami country, was the chief magistrate and at the head of the civil department.

General Harmar was then out on his expedition against the Indians. He returned to Fort Washington about ten days after Mr. Doty landed at Columbia. During the years 179 1-2 the country was almost continually in a state of alarm, on account of of the depredations of the Indians. Mr. Doty turned out with the company which went to the relief of Dunlap's station, in January, 1791.

On April 24, 1792, Mr. Doty left Columbia in a flatboat and descended the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, from whence he went by sea to New York and returned to his native home in New Jersey. He remained there until the fall of 1795, when he returned to the Miami country. Wayne's treaty with the Indians had previously been concluded at Greenville, and peace restored to the country. In the spring of 1796 Mr. Doty, with his wife, Betsy, and their children, removed to near where Middletown now is, where he commenced an improvement on a tract of land which he had previously purchased. Here he spent

He built his first cabin on the bank of the Great Miami, about one mile below the present site of Middletown. There were few settlers in the neighborhood. There was a block-house inclosed by pickets, and a few cabins on the south side of the prairie, near Dick's creek. His neighbors were Mr. Brady, Mr. Carson, John Reed and Joseph Henry. No crops had been raised to supply those coming to the country, consequently Mr. Doty had to go to Cincinnati for provisions for his family. He had to pay one dollar per bushel for corn meal, and then pack it home on horseback, where it was baked into "johnny cakes" on a clapboard before the fire. As for meat, wild game was abundant and Mr. Doty took great delight in hunting.

Mr. Doty was the first collector of taxes in the part of the county where he settled. His district was twelve miles wide, from north to south, comprising two ranges of townships, extending from the Great Miami to the Little Miami rivers. The whole amount of duplicate committed to him for collection was two hundred and forty- four dollars, of which he collected every dollar, and paid it over to Jacob Burnet at Cincinnati, who was then treasurer for the county of Hamilton. Mr. Doty's own tax, for some years previous to his death, was upward of one hundred and thirty-four dollars - more than half the amount he had collected from the whole district when he was collector. In the discharge of the duties of his office as collector he must have ridden more than one thousand miles. For these services, including his time and expenses, he received one per cent, on the amount of

Mr. Doty lived to witness the Miami county transformed from a wilderness covered with dense forests, inhabited by wild beasts of prey, and Indians, to a high state of cultivation and improvement. From a poor adventurer in a strange land, he became a man of wealth and influence in society.

On Monday, May 8, 1848, Daniel Doty passed away, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. His wi fe survived him many years. To them were born twelve children, ten of whom survived and were brought up in the habits of industry. All grew to maturity, married and lived respectably in the world.

Griffin Halstead

Griffin Halstead was born near Guilford Court-House, North Carolina, June 11, 1802. His parents, John and Ruth (Richardson) Halstead, natives of Currituck, North Carolina, early in their married life removed from the shore of Albemarle Sound to the northern central part of the state, where their son was born. When' Griffin was two years old his parents removed to the blue grass regions of Kentucky, but owing to the uncertainty of land titles in that state they continued their journey to the valley of the Great Miami, near the town of New Haven. In the spring of 1805, a great flood dislodged them. The Miami was higher than it has ever since been known, and the Halsteads escaped from their cabin on horseback. This incident caused them another movement, and a settlement upon a tract of land near Paddy's run, where our subject continued to reside until his death in 1 884 - a period of nearly eighty years. The recommendation of the location was that the tract contained both hill and bottom land, was well timbered and watered, and was out of the way of the floods. In the opening of this farm Griffin Halstead devoted the best energies of his early years. In 1822 he was captain of the militia, and in the winter of 1824-25 he visited New Orleans. In 1826 he was elected colonel of the militia of the county, mustering at Millville. At various times he held the offices of clerk and trustee of his township and he was repeatedly elected to the office of justice of the peace.

On November 1, 1827, he was united in marriage with Miss Clarissa Willits, eldest daughter of James Willits, who resided in Hamilton county near New Haven. To them were born four children, two sons and two daughters. The eldest child, Murat, showed an early disposition to literary culture and after being educated at the Farmers' College, at College Hill, he entered the journalistic profession, in which field he has achieved world-wide distinction, and is one of the ablest journalists in America.

With the breaking out of the Mexican war, Griffin Halstead enlisted in the Butler Guards, but owing to inflammatory rheumatism which he contracted in Camp Washington, he was prevented any participation m active service. For nearly sixty years he was a regular attendant at the polls in Ross township, and usually voted the Democratic ticket.

No historical sketch of Middletown or of Butler county would be complete without some word about Paul J. Sorg, who was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, September 23. 1840, and died in Middletown, Ohio,

Houp Hesse, Germany, and soon settled in Wheeling, from which city the family moved to Cincinnati in 185 r. They were poor and } oung aul began at an early age to assist m the support of the family. As a boy of uelve he sold flowers in the market places ° Cincinnati. He attended night schools "here he gained considerable education and received the rudimentary training in bookkeeping that enabled him, as a controlling partner, to develop a business which linked h.s name with the commercial history of the time in which he lived.

Mr. Sorg served an apprenticeship as a moulder and came to be foreman of the shop. In the sixties he became interested at Cincinnati in the manufacture of plug tobacco and in 1870 he and his associates moved this business to Middletown, where t ie plant of which he became the controlling spirit, the P. J. Sorg Tobacco Company became one of the largest concerns of its kind m the world, paying to the government millions of dollars as a revenue tax and distributing pay rolls of such size that they entered directly or indirectly into almost every home in Middletown.

Mr. Sorg was at the head of and financed various other large and prosperous industries in Middletown, which are still in active operation under the control of his estate; he added materially to the city by the erection of one of the handsomest homes in Ohio, and a tasteful and attractive opera house and many other buildings. Shortly before his death, Mr. Sorg donated the large bronze figure which surmounts the soldiers' monument.

offices in his home town and was elected to congress at a special election held in May, 1892, and again at the regular election held in the fall of the same year. In 1897 was pressed by the Democratic party to run for governor of Ohio, and without any avowed candidacy received over two hundred votes at the state convention. He was married July 20, 1876, to I. Jennie Gruver, who, with the children, Paul Arthur Sorg and Ada Gruver Sorg, survive him.

Everywhere in Middletown are found evidences of the energy, forsight and scope of Mr. Sorg's mind and spirit. When he died the people realized that the municipality had lost its first and ablest citizen. On the day of his burial all business was suspended ; the public funeral services were held in the opera house, which was filled to its utmost capacity. Fitting resolutions and expressions were adopted by the city boards, lodges, business concerns and corporations and by the citizens in public meeting assembled for that purpose.

James C. Beckett

Butler county is remarkable for its many distinguished pioneers. Prominent among the names of such is that of James C. Beckett, of Union township, a brief sketch of whose life we present here. Mr. Beckett was born December 24, 1799, on Mill creek, Hamilton county, Ohio. The father of James C. was John Beckett, who was an American officer in the Revolutionary war, and after the close of the war was engaged in the transporting of goods, etc., between Cincinnati and old Fort Hamilton. In 1810 John Beckett settled in what is now known as Union township, and from which time dates the residence of James C. Beckett in this county.