Deerwood Farm

Situated on the left bank of the Great Miami River, on a beautiful and fertile plane, free from inundation by the river, and through which the State road from Dayton to Ginj cinuati, and the county road from Centerville to Germantown pass, completely situated for its future inhabitants.

Passage source: The History of Montgomery County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County;, published 1882.

At about the beginning of the century, Martin Davenport and David Hooe Sr., came from North Carolina to the Stillwater region, prospecting for ii , and, on examining that in the vicinity of the present village of Union, i andolph Township, were suited. Davenport died before reaching his home. Line summer of 1801, several families from the same vicinity of North Caroincluding David Hoover and family and David Mast and family, with fcl L-s, left their native State for this region, and stopped south of Dayton, and k 3 spent the winter, moving in the early spring to the land selected. While ii settlement was made in what has since become Randolph Township, the lament just over the river was made about the same time, and so closely >i ected with it that it is necessary to mention it in order to properly introu the pioneers of Butler Township. Hoover was so delighted with the ap- : nice of the country that, on his return, vivid descriptions of it were given e entire neighborhood, which excited them to a desire for a home in the John Quillan, theD a young man. accompanied these first familes to the A water region, driving thither the team of David Mast, and, soon after their r al, was united in marriage to Obedience, a daughter of Mr. Mast, and set- <<on the opposite side of the river (in Butler Township) to those families, lf/ing the northeast quarter of Section 11. Quillan spent his life in this c ity, living to a ripe old age, dying during the late civil war. He became ather of quite a number of children, who assisted in converting the wilder- *sof that period to the cultivated fields of the present. Mi'. Quillan served e war of 1812. His son William is said to have been the first child bom is township. It is held by some that Thomas Newman came with these to whom be was related, having married a Hoover, and, with his n.y, settled along the east side of Stillwater. We failed to verify this, but, -conversation with Aunt Mollie Sheets, who was a Hoover, and came with e advanced families, that Newman came very soon afterward, if not with l. The families of George Sinks and Henry Yount, hailing from the same uborhood in North Carolina, immigrated to the Stillwater settlement that i year (1802), locating, the former in Section 2, Township 5, Range 5, h e he entered 320 acres of land; and the latter in Section 25, same town- : i and range, entering the full section. He also entered one-half of Section 'ownship 3, Range 6, land adjoining the other tract. Mr. Yount had been 11 ed in North Cai'olina, to Mary Waymire, and had grown children on aig. George Yount entered Section 3, Township 5, Range 5, lying partly 1 hler and partly in Randolph Townships; also a quarter of Section 1, r iship 5, Range 5. The sons and daughters of Henry Yount were John, 1(pw, Daniel and Sarah. In November, 1805, the families of Daniel Wayi and Philip Plummer, coming from Guilford County, N. C., moved on the fif Yount land in Section 25. Yount vacating and going down into Warren 1 ty, on Clear Creek, where he remained two years and returned, and dur- Qs absence Waymire farmed his land, there being two fields of about eightacres cleared. Plummer only remained until spring, and then went furhortli, entering the northwest quarter of Section 13. After raising two ') on the Yount land. AVaymire moved on the section to the north (24), and >i there to the Plummer land, which he purchased. These early families "'-'rail related, and were neighbors in the State of North Carolina. The parwitsjif Daniel Waymire were from Germany, and while crossing the ocean. Hij° the year 1735, the mother died, and her remains were given to the mighty deep. Tlie father's sisters were sold for their passage, and never afterwar heard of. The father settled in North Cai'olina, and again married, and lroi the two unions have since descended over three thousand persons. Fatht Waymire died in 1800, and his children all came to Ohio. Daniel marrie Sophia Plummer, and to them were born Davis, Mary, Solomon, Daniel, Join Catharine, Elizabeth, Henry, Sarah, Rebecca, Rosana and Isabelle, several c whom are now residing in the township. Davis, the oldest, was born in tl year 1802, is hale and hearty, and has resided in the township longer than an one in it, and for a period of nearly forty years served the people as a Jusfch of the Peace, and was their Clerk for thirty years. The father, Daniel W;n mire, died July 3, 1825, and was buried in the old Lutheran Graveyard o "Independence Day;'' the mother, too, was buried there. The Plummt family was large, none of whom are now residing in this locality. The chi dren, as nearly as we could learn, were Sophia, John, Catharine, Sarah, Bets Susan, Delilah and Philemon. Turning your attention to the eastern pari, c the township, where, in Sections 13 and 14, Township 3, Range 6, in the ye? 1806, Richard Sunderland and William Compton settled, having together ei tered 707 acres of land. Sunderland, in company with two brothers, had, pric to the year 1804, entered 160 acres each in Section 20, Washington Townshij where he had been twice burned out. Thence he went to the land above d< scribed. The Sunderlands were from Pennsylvania. The wife of Richard w t Nancy Martin, a native of the Keystone State; their children were William an Elizabeth, twins; the latter married Isaac Miller, the father of the Millers no residing in the eastern part of the subdivision; William Sunderland married daughter of James Miller, and to them were born six children. The parent! Richard and Nancy Sunderland, died, and were buried on the farm, in the yea! 1863 and 1846 respectively. Their remains have since been removed to th cemetery in Miami County. William Compton was from North Carolina. Hi family was quite lai'ge, wife's name was Martha. They belonged to the societj of Friends, or Quakers. Both were interred on the homestead. Mr. Compton! share of the above described entry was 303 acres, lying in the southern part d the sections named. Abijah Jones and family, from North Carolina, settled i] the southern part of the township in 1805. He was a minister of the Friend? society, and his name is the first recorded as such on the books of the old uRai dolph meeting," an account of which will be given under the topic of chuichei Mr. Jones died in 1852, in his eighty-hfth year. Sylvanus Swallow and wife Elizabeth (Barnard), and family, emigrated from North Carolina in the sprin of 1807, and settled in the northeast quarter of Section 29, on land entered b him. Mr. Swallow was a native of Delaware, where he was born February 2c 1776, and his wife of North Carolina, born June 4, 1782. On reaching th above tract of land, Mi'. Swallow pitched his tent, in which the family reside for several months. Their children were James O., John A., Sampson B| Cynthia, Belinda, Catharine and Priscilla. This was a family of Friends, an the remains of the parents were interred at the Friends' meeting-house grave yard. Some time prior to this, the father, John Swallow, came to this locahtj and entered 160 acres in Section 19. The Barnards, consisting of mother an] son, accompanied the family of Sylvanus Swallow and settled in Section A The son was a single man, Samuel by name, and late in life married Rebecc. Compton. Benjamin Hutchins, Sr., of English descent, with a numerous fain ily, settled in Section 29, there entering 160 acres of land, he having com from Rockford County, N. C. Isaac Hutchins, a son of Benjamin, marriei Rebecca Jones, eldest daughter of the old patriarch, Abijah. Their son, Dan iel K. Hutchins, was a minister of the Friends' Society, and served thepeopl of this vicinity many years. Joseph Pearson and wife, Margaret Carnmacl; migrated from South Carolina in 1808, and, after stopping for awhile on land ,waed by George Yount, on the west side of Stillwater, crossed that stream and atered one-half of Section 1, Township 5, Range 5. They raised a large iniily of children, two of whom are the wives of Davis and Henry Waymire. r. Pearson, as likewise did other of the above-named families, left the South ainlyon account of slavery. He did not want to raise his children under its ifluences. Father Pearson died January 17, 1840, and the mother July 17, 154. Prior to the year 1809, the following-named had settled between the fo rivers, but at what date they came we cannot establish, but it is evident .at they were here before the beginning of the second decade of the century : >hn Curtis, Joseph Beeson, Daniel and Stephen Jones, John Holderman, the itbles, Henry Crowel, Henry Woodhouse, James Insco, James Reed, William allohan, Joseph Evans, John Mooney, Benjamin Kiser, Jacob Stokes, John ryback, David Fox. William Miller, Jacob Rhodelhamer, John Sloan and ichael Engle. Mr. Curtis was from North Carolina, and entered one-quarter

Passage source: The History of Montgomery County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County;, 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 Butler Township - 15,552 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.