Corwin Council House and Jail

Before 1819, the channel of the river on the road to Corwin was not as now, but where the bridge now is was in the bend of a horseshoe, the channel above and below the bridge having been made since. The crossing of the river was between High and Main streets, in Waynesville. When the water was high, there was a ferry used, and when low, a ford. About 1812, an effort was made to build a bridge at the ford. The abutments were raised and a superstructure was placed on trestles. A freshet in the river swept out the work and no further effort was made to build a bridge at that place. In 1817, a bridge was built on a contract, where the bridge now is, by John Satterthwaite, for $700, including the abutments. It was built of oak timber, principally hewed, never covered or weather-boarded, and only lasted about ten years. At that time, the road crossed the West Branch of the Miami, known as the race at the mouth and followed the north bank of the Miami to the bridge. The race wsa then a small stream, no bridge over it; the ford was a very bad crossing.

Passage source: The History of Warren County, Ohio, published 1882.

In 1840 or 1841, some Virginians were moving through to Missouri with their slaves. It was claimed by slave-owners that they had a right to cross the State with their slaves for the purpose of business, or removal, when their destination was another Slave State. This was denied by the anti -slavery people of Ohio. A warrant was sworn out before Jonathan Clark, a Justice of the Peace here, by Dr. Brooks, and the slave-owners were arrested between this place and Franklin, and brought back and tried here. Judge George J. Smith and Robert G. Corwin were counsel for the prosecution, and Charles Anderson, of Dayton, for the defendants. After hearing the case, Squire Clark discharged the defendants. Some persons about Springboro and vicinity spirited away the slaves, or a part of them; they were afterward indicted by the grand jury, and tried, I believe, before Judge Hinkson in the Warren County Court of Common Pleas, convicted and sentenced to fine and imprisonment in the dungeon. The Supreme Court was in session at Cincinnati, a writ of error obtained therefrom, and the defendants were released from imprisonment. The case finally came before the Supreme Court of the State, when the question was set tied definitely, as claimed by the anti -slavery party.

Passage source: The History of Warren County, Ohio, published 1882.

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 Wayne Township - 18,319 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.