Miamitown, Ohio

Whitewater lies in range one of township one,and range one of township three, with a fractional section (thirtyone) belonging to range two, township two and three other bits of sections along the Great Miami belonging to other ranges or townships. It includes nineteen full and fourteen fractional sections, or fourteen thousand three hundred and twenty square acres. It is bounded on the west by Dearborn county, Indiana, and for the breadth of two miles at the northward by Harrison township, Hamilton county, on the north by Harrison and Crosby townships ; on the east and south by the Great Miami, beyond which lie the townships of Colerain and Miami. The township does not touch the Ohio river, although it approaches within a mile of it, at the lower part of Guard's island. The Great Miami has an exceedingly tortuous course along the front of this township, requiring about sixteen miles for its course, while the air-line distance between the point where it first touches the township and that where it makes its exit, is but ten and one-half miles. This is the extreme diagonal of the township ; its greatest length is six and one-half miles, being on its western line; its greatest width the same, on a line of latitude passing a little below Miamitown, from that deviating to a point at the southwest corner. The Whitewater river comes in from Harrison township, on the western side of section five, and flows in a southerly course four and one-half miles, reaching the Great Miami near the southeast corner of section twenty. Nearly two miles from its entrance it receives the waters of the Dry fork of Whitewater, which enters at the southeast corner of Harrison township, flows southward in a crooked course two miles, then westward two miles to the Whitewater. Another, but smaller tributary, heading in the border of Indiana, intersects sections eighteen, seventeen and twenty, and reaches the Whitewater near the railroad crossing. Two or three very pretty tributaries also enter the Great Miami from the side of this township. From time to time this river has changed its bed in the flow of the ages, and old channels are plainly to be seen, especially in the lower part of its course, as that south of Elizabethtown. The streams are generally well bridged at the desirable points ; and the Whitewater, at a point on the road from Elizabethtown northeastward, has the finest suspension bridge, exclusively belonging to this county. A notable pioneer ferry was kept across the Great Miami, a short distance from Cleves. A mile from the mouth of this stream, at the extreme southwestern corner of the township, about half a section of land is isolated by an irregular arc of water connecting at each end with the river, and probably one of its oldest channels - ^which takes the name Guard's island, from the old Guard family of pioneers. From this northeast and north for several miles the island is low, and part of it much subject to inundations. It is very fertile, however, some of it yielding, after more than two generations of culture, its hundred bushels of corn per acre with tolerable regularity. In the north of the township some of the characteristic hills of Hamilton county appear.

Passage source: History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, published 1881.

Samuel McHenry, a native of Pennsylvania, emigrated from that State in 1806 and settled at Elizabethtown, on the farm now owned by Mr. Ezra Guard. The same year he was appointed by Governor Tiffin as captain in the Ohio Militia, and, May 23, 181 1, was commissioned Major of the First battalion. Third regiment. First brigade. First division, in the militia. His wife was Margaret Piatt, also a native of Pennsylvania, who died at Elizabethtown June 22, 1845. He died in Indiana in 1858, aged eighty-one.

Passage source: History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, published 1881.

Richard Simmonds, born March 14, 1800, near Baltimore, Maryland, came to Ohio in 1806, and settled on Lees creek, this county, one mile south of the Butler county line. In July, 1825, he married Susanna Pottenger, daughter of Samuel Pottenger, founder of New Baltimore, of Crosby township. By this marriage two sons and two daughters were born, one son - James - the only child living. Richard Simmonds has two grand- and two great-grandchildren ; had four brothers and two sisters. His life has been an active one, engaging in farming, dealing in stock and barter generally, during the twentyfive years which was spent on Lees creek. During seven years which followed at Sater in Crosby township, and the forty. seven years at Miamitown, great industry has rewarded him with handsome gains. The hardy forest lies fallen under his stroke ; the Indian, the wolf, the deer, the bear, these, too, have gone, and now, in declining age, a life freighted with philanthropy and good actions for imitation he retires to domestic happiness, waiting for a reaper which will soon gather an abundant harvest.

Passage source: History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Whitewater Township - it names this place 18 more 18 times.