Springdale City

Springdale City

This, the northernmost village in the township, is also the oldest, having been platted August 23, 1806, by John Baldwin. It was then and for many years known as Springfield, but for postal reasons was compelled to take its present name. It is at the northwest corner of section twelve, a little northwest of Glendale, on one of the Hamilton turnpikes, and a little over a mile vs^est of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad. It was incorporated as a village March 16, 1839, and had three hundred and eighty-two inhabitants in 1870 and two hundred and eighty-four in 1880. The Ohio State Gazetteer of 1821 notices it as "a wealthy post-town of Hamilton county, fifteen miles north of Cincinnati, on the road to Hamilton, containing two hundred and twenty inhabitants." This is a fuller notice than any other village was able to command in the book. The Gazetteer of 1831 also mentioned it as a "wealthy" place, and credits it with .a population of two hundred and eighty. The issue of 1841 gives it the same number, with fifty-five dwellings, four stores, two taverns, one school-house, one church, and "a large number" of mechanics' shops.

Some of the earliest tradesmen and mechanics of the village are thus recalled by Mr. Anthony Hilts, one of the very oldest survivors of the early day in Springdale: John Baldwood, proprietor of the town, blacksmith; John McGilliard, postmaster; Captain John Brownson, hotelkeeper; Garret Lefferson, and Isaac Larrne, blacksmiths; Colonel William Chamberlain, dry goods merchant; John Swallow, dealer in dry goods and groceries ; N. S. Schorey, tanner and currier; the father of Governor O. P. Morton, of Indiana (who was brought up in Springdale), hotel-keeper; William Creager, cabinetmaker and undertaker; John Rogers, manufacturer of Windsor chairs; Hatfield Williams, wheelwright; James Cogg, hatter; Joseph Hagerman, physician. It is also remembered by old citizens that one Birder made hats in Springdale about sixty years - of rabbit and other fur, great bellcrowned affairs, that would hold a peck apiece, the fur sticking out of them half an inch or more. It is thought that James Cogy preceded Creager as cabinetmaker, and was the first in the village; and that Creager was followed by Garrett Williamson.

The old brick store in Springdale was erected in 1833, and the old pork-house on the other side of the street in 1838. Among the oldest dwellings in town, some of which go a long way back, are the Hunt, Prigg, and Creager houses.

Mr. Hilts came to Springdale (then Springfield) in 1818, a boy of eleven years. But one other person of that day and neighborhood survives with hi.n. He contributes the following recollections of the school of his first winter here:

"Schools were got up in those days by subscription, the employers paying usually three dollars per scholar a quarter. Three months in the winter season tl ey had school, and none in the summer. The teacher boarded from house to house. At the close of the term he was entitled to the subscription, and made his own collection. The schoolhouse was a hewed-log house, in which was a school taught by Calkins Corkins, an Eastern man. "

Mr. Huffman, a very aged resident of the village, remembers two of the pioneer.schools at Springdale - one kept by Caleb Kemper in a meeting-house originally built by the "New Light" religionists, and afterwards used for a school-house; the other, taught by a lady named Andrews, in a frame building erected in the Presbyterian churchyard. In this school needlework was among the branches taught. Alpheus Mclntyre was another of the early local pedagogues; John Wood was another. The present graded school building was put up in 1870.

The Presbyterian church at Springdale is the oldest religious society in the north of the county. Its history has been admirably detailed by Rev. William H. Jaraes, pastor (still in charge), in an historical discourse preached upon its seventy-ninth anniversary, June 4, 1876. Since the publication of this address Mr. James has obtained a more ancient document relating to its subject matter than any then accessible to him, which by his courtesy, we are enabled to present herewith :

Names. Labour. Labour With Cash

We, whose names are hereunto atifixed, do promise to pay or cause to be paid unto Mr. John Schooley, Mr. William Preston, or Luke Foster, the several sums annexed to our names in cash or labour, for the use of procuring a piece of land for a Graveyard and to defray the expense of a temporary Meeting house for the Presbyterian Society in this township of Springfield on demand - this fourth day of April, 1796. NAMES. LABOUR. LABOUR WITH CASH.

This church, after its people had met for worship for some time at Foster's grove, two miles south of Springdale, under the ministrations of Rev. Messrs James Kemper, Peter Wilson, and Archibald Steele, was regularly constituted by the presbytery of Transylvania, probably in 1796. It first appears upon the presbyterial records October 2, 1798, when "a written supplication was presented from Springfield for supplies." Among the early preachers to the society, besides those before named, were John E. Finley, Mr. Dunlavy, John Thomson, who had gone into the "New Light" movement, but returned from it, Matthew G. Wallace, Benjamin Graves, Sayrs Gazlay, and William Graham. The later settled pastors have been Adrian Aten, 1833-41; J. M. Stone, 1841-9; George P. Bergen, 1849-57; T. E. Huglies, 1858-66; William H. James, 1866 to this time. Mr. Thomson, who served the church over twenty years, was the father of four distinguished sons, of whom the Syrian missionary and author of The Land and the Book, Rev. William M. Thomson, D. D., is one. The first meeting-house - "a large frame building, nearly square, with galleries on the three sides, and the pulpit at the north end" was put up in 1801-2; the building now occupied, a spacious brick church, was erected in 1834. A notable revival occurred in 1802, and the next year the church numbered one hundred and three members, and was one of the strongest societies in Hamilton county, Cincinnati included. Among the early elders were John Watson, William Preston, Moses Miller, Thomas Mclntire, Abraham Lindley, James Andrews, Benjamin Perlee, Caleb Crane, and others.

In the winter of 1801-2 a remarkable religious movement, which took the name of the New Light, or Kentucky revival, spread into southwestern Ohio. It began in the Presbyterian churches of southern Kentucky, in 1800, and soon spread northward through that State, and finally into this, affecting chiefly the Presbyterians, but to some extent other denominations. , In the winter named two clergymen from Kentucky, John Thomson and Richard McNemar, before mentioned, preached often and very effectively at many points in the Miami country. Their work was specially active at Springfield village, where Thomson uhimately settled as pastor, and at the Turtle Creek Presbyterian church, near the present Union village, or Shakertown, in Warren county, where McNemar settled.

The history of the Miami Baptist association, by the Hon. A. H. Dunlevy, to which we owe these facts, thus relates, and apparently without prejudice, the singular characteristics of this revival:

The effects of this revival can only be glanced at here. Indeed, the reality would hardly be credited now. New as the country was, congregations of one, two, and three thousand often collected at different points, and even evening meetings at private houses not unfrequently had such crowds that they were compelled to remain out of doors during the services. In cold weather it was not uncommon to build large fires around the house of logs, then very easily had, in order to the comfort of those outside of the house.

At first the excitement was distinguished by the falling exerci.se. This was marked by loud breathing at first, growing more and more rapid until the subject of it seemed to swoon, then fall, and be apparently without breathing for some hours. Hundreds would thus be seen prostrated in a few moments, and sometimes nearly every adult in the meeting, preacher and all, would be down at once - some silent, with scarcely the appearance of life, others apparently recovering, and either crying for mercy or praising God, with loud voices. Even wicked men who went to scoff, I have known to fall like others, wholly unable to control themselves, for a longer or a shorter time. On the recovery of these they would be unable to account for the effect on them, and in some cases such persons thus fell without producing even seriousness, more than for a few minutes, or hours^ at the furthest. In most instances, however, this falling was attended with strong convictions of sin, which resulted in permanent conversion.

The falling exercise was succeeded by the rolling exercise, which consisted in being cast down in a violent manner, and rolling over and over like a hog.

The next in time was the jerks. These were attended by violent twitchings of the muscles of the neck, arms, and sometimes of the whole body. The head would frequently be thrown from one side to another, backwards and forwards, so forcibly as to appear to threaten dislocation of the neck.

The parents of the subject of this sketch were John and Elizabeth (Campbell) McGilliard. The father was born in Pennsylvania in 1788, and at the age of eight years, in 1796, was brought to Springfield township by his parents, and spent theremainder of his days there, dying in 1878, at .the advanced age of ninety yeafs. He was a prominent tean in local affairs in his day, filling at different times nearly every township office - as trustee, treasurer, justice of the peace, constable, etc. Elizabeth Campbell, his wife, was born in 1784, and died in 1861, aged seventy-seven years. Among their children was one daughter, Mary, now widow of John Moore, and residing at Mt. Pleasant. There were three sons, Andrew, William, and Reeves, all of whom are still living in Springfield township. William is the subject of vious sketches.

notice in our prein 1833 to Miss Sarah Gardiner, of this township. Their children were two, Esther and Eliza Ann, both of whom died in 1864 - the mother having preceded her chidren to the grave by four years. About two years thereafter Mr. McGilliard was married to Miss Sarah Brown. He has followed the business of farming during all his active life. For more than twenty consecutive years he was entrusted by his fellow-citizens with the responsible dutifes of justice of the peace, which he discharged to the general satisfaction. He has also, from time to time, served as township trustee and school director. Himself and wife are both members of the Christian church, and have long been among its staunchest supporters. Mr. McGilliard has passed the Psalmist's limit of human life by almost two years, but retains considerable vigor of mind and body, and is regarded by his friends as a remarkably well-preserved old gentleman.

John Ross Field

The progenitors of Mr. Field in this country were of Scotch-Irish extraction. John, his great-great-grandfather, was the first of the name and family in America. He came from Bradford, Hertfordshire, England, and was in the fifth generation, in*direct line, from John Field, the celebrated astronomer of the sixteenth century, who was born in 1525. The later John was born in England, May 15, 1659, and settled in Piscataway township, Middlesex county, New Jersey, in 1685, where his descendants reside so numerously that their residence district (now in Somerset county) along the Raritan river, has received the popular name of Fieldville. A paper read some years ago, before the Historical Society of New Brunswick, concerning this family, says : "The ruling characteristics of this branch of the family, and perhaps their greatest usefulness to the world, has been their example of earnestness in the common pursuits of life."

Jeremiah, son of John Field, born May 17, 1689, was father of Benjamin, whose natal day was February 19, 1725. He in turn was father of Jacob, born February 7, 1768, married Hester Ross, also of Middlesex county, December 25, 1790, and died on the farm now occupied by his son, the subject of this notice. One of his brothers, Michael, uncle of John R. Field, was killed in action at the battle of Monmouth, June 27, 1778. The latter was the sixth son of Jacob and Hester (Ross) Field, and was born at New Brunswick, Middlesex county. New Jersey, March 13, iSio. At the age of two years he was brought with his father "s family to Ohio, coming in wagons all the way with the Ross, Schooley, and Coddington families, all of whom were related. The Fields tarried for a while where St. Bernard now is, in Mill Creek township, and then, in 1813, came to the vicinity of the present residence of John R. Field, settling upon a farm just beyond the creek, between his home and Glendale. His father taught school for a short time, but devoted his attention mainly to the improvement of his place. About 1816 the family removed to the farm, now in possesssion of his son, one mile west of Glendale. Here died Jacob Field, April I, 1842, aged seventy-four years, and Hester his wife, October 7, 1854, aged eighty-four years.

John's advantages of early education were but limited, being confined to the poor and widely scattered schools of that time. He remained with his father, engaged in the pursuits of the farm, until his twentyfourth year, when he was united in marriage to Miss Harriet P. Ferine, also of Springfield township, January 7, 1834, by the Rev. Adrian Aten, pastor of the Presbyterian church at Springdale. After the age of twenty-one, by reason of the increasing age and infirmities of his father, the cares of the farm devolved upon Mr. Field, who at majority came into possession of the place. He took his young wife to the paternal home, where they have since resided. Their children have been: Jacob, born January 27, 1835, died in infancy at the age of but ten days ; Martha Anderson, born April 2, 1836, died August 7, 1858 ; Jane, born January 2, 1838, died June 27, 1841 ; Hester Ann, born July 27, 1839, died May 23, 1864 ; Elizabeth, born April 20, 1841, married October 29, 1862, to James W. Moore, a farmer residing near Mt. Pleasanc ; Charles Milton, born February 4, 1843, married Lydia A. Hough November 18, 1863, and resides as a farmer upon a place immediately adjoining his father's; Sarah Isabella, born April 9, 1846, and still resides with lier parents ; Catharine Rowen, born February 6, 1848, died February 17, 1861; Lydia Ross, born November 7, 1851, died November 21, 1877.

Mr. Field has been a quiet farmer, but little in official life, and not connected with any religious or secret society organization. He was formerly a Whig in pohtics, but for many years has cast his vote with the Democratic party. At the age of seventy-one years, he is n2turally beginning to feel the weight of age, and for six or seven years has suffered the partial loss of his speech.

Harriet Porter Ferine, now Mrs. John R. Field, was the second daughter of John I. and Jane (Van Tuyl) Ferine. Her father was a native of White Creek, New York, and her mother of the adjoining town, Cambridge, Washington county. She was born at White Creek, November 13, 1813, and at the age of eight years came with her family to Ohio, her father dying soon after in Ashtabula county, where he meant to settle. The widow and her young family then came on to Springfield township, where her brother, Thomas B. Van Tuyl, was settled, his lands adjoining Mr. Field's on the west. In the family of this uncle Harriet was brought up. When ten years old she experienced her first great grief in the loss of an older sister, Mary Ann, residing in Hamilton as an attendant at school, who was killed with three others by one fell stroke of lightning, April 5, 1825. Her mother died in Cincinnati April i, 1858, at the age of seventy-one, after a long struggle with feebleness and dehcate health. When her daughter was twenty-one years old she was married to Mr. Field, as related in the previous sketch, and their histories have been since united through the long period of nearly half a century. She has been a faithful member of the Presbyterian church at Springdale since the age of sixteen, for now more than fifty-one years.

and feet as if imitating that animal in its motions as well as in sounds- Another was the whirling exercise, spinning around like a top. These all had their day, and passed off in a few years, except the jer'.vs, which continued with some for many years. These exercises were considered by the New Lights as supernatural and intended to humble their natural pride of heart and debase, in iheir ownestimation, the subjects of them. Though 1 give no opinion, they were sometimes difficult to account for on any known principles of psychology. There were instances, and many of them, where persons would lie as if dead, with scarcely the slightest appearance of life, for days together, without motion or any other signs of life, unless an almost imperceptible pulsation and breathing.

These people were called New Lights, because they taught "that the will of God was made manifest to each individual who honestly sought after it, by an inward light which shown into his heart; and hence they received the name of New Lights."

This revival carried off the great body of the Presbyterian church in the Miami valley, with a number of their preachers; as it did in Kentucky and Tennessee, southwest Virginia and northwest North Carolina. In 1803 they separated from all connection with the regular Presbyterial organizations, formed new presbyteries, and protested against the doctrines and government of the old ecclesiastical organization.

The Cumberland Presbyterian denomination took its rise in this remarkable episode of religious history, and its name from that presbytery of southern Kentucky, in which the revival began. The Christians, or Disciples, had the way prepared for them in many places by it; and the Shakers received many accessions, in Kentucky and the Miami country, by reason of its strange experiences. The church at Springdale was greatly affected by it for years, but finally recovered almost entirely from its influence.

Mount Pleasant

This village - which, like Springfield, has been forced by the post office department to take another name (Mount Healthy) for its postal arrangements - is situated in the southwestern quarter of the township, about two miles north of College Hill, at the corners of sections twenty-six and twenty-seven, thirty-two and thirty-three. It is also an old town, having been laid out in 181 7 by John Laboyteaux and Samuel Hill. A Mount Pleasant Savings andBuilding association was incorporated January 18, 187 1. It had two hundred and nineteen inhabitants in 1830; eight hundred and seventy-one in 1880. On the Fourth of July, 1837, there was a rather notable celebration at the Presbyterian church in this village, with Mr. Daniel Vanmatre for orator.

The neighborhood south of this place is on the Hamilton turnpike, principally celebrated as the early home of the Cary sisters, who receive due notice in our chapter on literature in Cincinnati. A highly poetic description of the old homestead here will also be found in that chapter; and we add here another poem by Alice Cary, in which there is much local coloring and some of the domestic history of the Carys:

Mount Pleasant (or Mount Healthy) was a great place, many years ago, for holding political conventions, especially of the Anti-Slavery or Liberty party. At one convention held here, in May, 1841, the nominees of the Liberty party, at the National convention in New York the same month, for the canvass of 1844 - Mr. James G. Birney for President, and Thomas Morris for Vice-President, both then or formerly of Hamilton county - were cordially sustained. This was before the organization of the Liberty party in Ohio. On the Fourth of July, 1842, another convention of Liberty men was held at Mount Pleasant, and the Hon. Samuel Lewis, formerly State superintendent of common schools, was nominated for the State senate. This was the first regular convention of the party in this county. It was crowded, and a very great interest was excited. The biographer of Mr. Lewis says: "One curious feature of the day was a discussion on the merits of the Liberty party and its claims to public favor, during which the gentleman who took the negative of the question labored hard to prove that slavery was an institution of the Bible, and that God had sanctioned it. Such arguments were, of course, properly treated, by Messrs. Morris and Chase, who opposed his views."

St. Mary's Catholic Church is located there, with a parochial school of seventy pupils, and the St. Mary's and St. Stephen's confratenities - all in charge of the Rev. Herman Johanning, pastor.

A writer in a recent number of the College Hill Moon, a paper prepared at one of the literary institutions in College Hill, contributes a long article descriptive of a visit to the home of the Cary sisters, from which we extract the following:

A gray -painted, two-story, brick house, looking as if it had modestly stepped back from the road and drawn its leafy veil over its face as gently as a Quakeress of olden time, while its wide roof, sloping toward the road, made it look not unlike one who shades the eyes with the hand when wishing to look far off. In fact, all the air and bearing of the house gives you the impression of a person growing old, so busy with past memories that it seems never to realize or be a part of the present. On every side tall trees overshadow it; their long branches stretch over the roof; lovingly their shadows kiss it; house and trees lived, and growing old, and talking over their .secrets together, and though we heard the whisper of the leaves when they touched the gable, what they said I cannot tell, for poets only dare breathe such confidences. We open the gate, now held in place by a loop of rope, and pass inside the faded paled fence, and walk with reverent feet up the fi.igged walk, where moss and grass have grown all unrebuked between the stones. The front door at the end of this walk is in the centre of the house, and has a window on either side. We sit a while on the well worn door-step, and recall the time when many children clustered on and round it, to see the sun set, for the front faces the west, and Rhoda the child of promise, who died so young, told fairy tales, and from distant hill and gathermg cloud made the children see turreted castle and lordly hall, and peopled them with great folk that came to life in her wonderful imagination. But we must follow a path that leads round the house. We find our.'elves in the lane that passes the side of the house, at the end of which we see the barn, brown gabled, where the swallows still love to build. We note in passing that the rose bushes still grow lu.Kuriantly over the fence that bounds this lane, making it look in June, when they are in bloom, like a spinster of fifty decked out for a queen of May. Tall trees line each side of this lane, so that at no time of day is there wanting cool, pleasant shade. No wonder the sisters look back lovingly to it. Here they built their play houses, and kept their pets, and romped and played in childhood, and, in later days, put out the milk pans to dry in shining rows.

The dining room and kitchen, with chambers over them, are in an addition running back, and have a veranda their whole length, the roof of which is supported by round brick pillars - a curious piece of architecture we never saw before. At the end of this, close to the kitchen door, is the well. The sisters say they used to think that it went through to the other side of the world, and Alice says she loved it with the well sweep tall by her father's own hand reared, but that, alas ! has long since passed away, and the water, still as pure and cool, is brought up with pulley and bucket and chain.

a little northeast of Carthage, on the opposite side of Mill creek, and on section one, in the southeast corner of the township, and on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton and Short Line railroads, was laid out in 1868 by the Hamilton County Building association, and named from Mr. John W. Hartwell, who was vice-president of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad when its station was located there. It had a population of but sixty-seven in 1870, which ten years later had mounted to eight hundred and ninety-two, largely of persons doing business in Cincinnati and having suburban residences here. A Methodist church and a good graded school are located here. It was incorporated September 9, 1876.

Source changes here: from 1789 History of Hamilton County Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, by Henry A. Ford and Kate B. Ford, published 1881; 4,245 words in this source stream.

Springdale City

This, the northernmost village in the township, is also the oldest, having been platted August 23, 1806, by John Baldwin. It was then and for many years known as Springfield, but for postal reasons was compelled to take its present name. It is at the northwest corner of section twelve, a little northwest of Glendale, on one of the Hamilton turnpikes, and a little over a mile west of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad. It was incorporated as a village March 16, 1839, and had three hundred and eighty-two inhabitants in 1870 and two hundred and eighty-four in 1880. The Ohio State Gazetteer of 1821 notices it as ''a wealthy post-town of Hamilton county, fifteen miles north of Cincinnati, on the road to Hamilton, containing two hundred and twenty inhabifants." This is a fuller notice than any other village was able to command in the book. The Gazetteer of 1831 also mentioned it as a "wealthy" place, and credits it with a population of two hundred and eighty. The issue of 1841 gives it the same number, with fifty-five dwellings, four stores, two taverns, one school-house, one church, and '"'a large number" of mechanics' shops.

Some of the earliest tradesmen and mechanics of the village are thus recalled by Mr. Anthony Hilts, one of the very oldest survivors of the early day in Springdale: John Baldwood, proprietor of the town, blacksmith; John McGilliard, postmaster; Captain John Brownson, hotelkeeper ; Garret Lefferson, and Isaac Larrne, blacksmiths ; Colonel William Chamberlain, dry goods merchant; John Swallow, dealer in dry goods and groceries; N. S. Schorey, tanner and currier; the father of Governor O. P. Morton, of Indiana (who was brought up in Springdale), hotel-keeper; William Creager, cabinetmaker and undertaker; John Rogers, manufacturer of Windsor chairs; Hatfield Williams, wheelwright; James Cogg, hatter; Joseph Hagerman, physician. It is also remembered by old citizens that one Birder made hats in Springdale about sixty years - of rabbit and other fur, great bellcrowned affairs, that would hold a peck apiece, the fur sticking out of them halfan inch or more. It is thought that James Cogy preceded Creager as cabinetmaker, and was the first in the village; and that Creager was followed by Garrett Williamson.

The old brick store in Springdale was erected in 1833, and the old pork-house on the other side of the street in 1838. Among the oldest dwellings in town, some of which go a long way back, are the Hunt, Prigg, and Creager houses.

Mr. Hilts came to Springdale (then Springfield) in 1818, a boy of eleven years. But one other person of that day and neighborhood survives with him. He contributes the following recollections of the school of his first winter here:

'Schools were got up in those days by subscription, the employers paying usually three dollars per scholara quarter. Three months in the winter season they had school, and none in the summer. The teacher boarded from house to house. At the close of the term he was entitled to the subscription, and made his own collection. The schoolhouse was a hewed-log house, in which was a school taught by Calkins Corkins, an Eastern man."

Mr. Huffman, a very aged resident of the village, remembers two of the pioneer schools at Springdale - one kept by Caleb Kemper in a meeting-house originally built by the "New Light" religionists, and afterwards used for a school-house; the other, taught by a lady named Andrews, in a frame building erected in the Presbyterian churchyard. In this school needlework was among the branches taught. Alpheus McIntyre was another of the early local pedagogues; John Wood was another. The present graded school building was put up in 1870.

Tlie Presbyterian church at Springdale is the oldest religious society in the north of the county. Its history has been admirably detailed by Rev. William H. James, pastor (still in charge), in an historical discourse preached upon its seventy-ninth anniversary, June 4, 1876. Since the publication of this address Mr. James has obtained a more ancient document relating to its subject matter than any then accessible to him, which by his courtesy, we are enabled to present herewith:

We, whose names are hereunto affixed, do promise to pay or cause to be paid unto Mr. John Schooley, Mr. William Preston, or Luke Foster, the several sums annexed to our names in cash or labour, for the use of procuring a piece of land for a Graveyard and to defray the expense of a temporary Meeting house for the Presbyterian Society in this township of Springfield on demand - this fourth day of April, 1796.

Names. Labour. Labour With Cash

This church, after its people had met for worship for some time at Foster's grove, two miles south of Springdale, under the ministrations of Rev. Messrs James Kemper, Peter Wilson, and Archibald Steele, was regularly constituted by the presbytery of Transylvania, probably in 1796. It first appears upon the presbyterial records October 2, 1798, when "'a written supplication was presented from Springfield for supplies." Among the early preachers to the society, besides those before named, were John E.-Finley, Mr. Dunlavy, John Thomson, who had gone into the "New Light" movement, but returned from and William Graham. The later settled pastors have been Adrian Aten, 1833-41; J. M. Stone, 1841-9; George P. Bergen, 1849-57; T. E. Hughes, 1858-66; William H. James, 1866 to thistime. Mr. Thomson, who served the church over twenty years, was the father of four distinguished sons, of whom the Syrian missionary and author of The Land and the Book, Rev. William M. Thomson, D. D., is one. The first meeting-house - "a large frame building, nearly square, with galleries on the three sides, and the pulpit at the north end" was put up in 1801-2; the building now occupied, a spacious brick church, was erected in 1834. <A notable revival occurredin 1802, and the next year the church numbered one hundred and three members, and was one of the strongest societies in Hamilton county, Cincinnati included. Among the early elders were John Watson, William Preston, Moses Miller, Thomas McIntire, Abraham Lindley, James Andrews, Benjamin Perlee, Caleb Crane, and « ' others.

In the winter of 1801-2 a remarkable religious movement, which took the name of the New Light, or Kentucky revival, spread into southwestern Ohio. It began in the Presbyterian churches of southern Kentucky, in 1800, and soon spread northward through that State, and finally into this, affecting chiefly the Presbyterians, but to some extent other denominations. In the winter named two clergymen from Kentucky, John Thomson and Richard McNemar, before mentioned, preached often and very effectively at many points in the Miami country. Their work was specially active at Springfield village, where Thomson ultimately settled as pastor, and at the Turtle Creek Presbyterian church, near the present Union village, or Shakertown, in Warren county, where McNemar settled. ;

The history of the Miami Baptist association, by the Hon. A. H. Dunlevy, to which we owe these facts, thus rélates, and apparently without prejudice, the singular characteristics of this revival:

The effects of this revival can only be glanced at here. Indeed, the reality would hardly be credited now. New as the country was, congregations of one, two, and three thousand often collected at different points, and even evening meetings at private houses not unfrequently had such crowds that they were compelled to remain out of doors during the services. In cold weather it was not uncommon to build large fires around the house of logs, then very easily had, in order to the comfort of those outside of the house.

At first the excitement was distinguished by the falling exercise. This was marked by loud breathing at first, growing more and more rapid until the subject of it seemed to swoon, then fall, and be apparently without breathing for some hours. Hundreds would thus be seen prostrated in a few moments, and sometimes nearly every adult in the meeting,- preacher and all, would be down at once - some silent, with scarcely the appearance of life, others apparently recovering, and either crying for mercy or praising God, with loud voices. Even wicked men who went to scoff, I have known to fall like others, wholly unable to control themselves, for a longer or a shorter time. On the recovery of these they would be unable to account for the effect on them, and in some cases such persons thus fell without producing even seriousness, more than for a few minutes, or hours at the furthest. In most instances, however, this faliing was attended with strong convictions of sin, which resulted in permanent conversion.

The next in time was the jerks. These were attended by violent twitchings of the muscles of the neck, arms, and sometimes of the whole body. The head would frequently be thrown from one side to another, backwards and forwards, so forcibly as to appear to threaten dislocation of the neck,

The parents of the subject of this sketch were John and Elizabeth (Campbell) McGilliard. The father was born in Pennsylvania in 1788, and at the age of eight years, in 1796, was brought to Springfield township by his parents, and spenttheremainder of his days there, dying in 1878, at the advanced age of ninety years, He was a prominent man in local affairs in his day, filling at different times nearly every township office - as trustee, treasurer, justice of the peace, constable, etc. Elizabeth Campbell, his wife, was born in 1784, and died in 1861, aged seventy-seven years. Among their children was one daughter, Mary, now widow of John Moore, and residing at Mt. Pleasant. There were three sons, Andrew, William, and Reeves, all of whom are still living in Springfield two years thereafter Mr. McGilliard was married to Miss Sarah Brown. He has followed the business of farming during all his active life. For more than twenty consecutive years he was entrusted by his fellow-citizens with the responsible duties of justice of the peace, which he discharged to the general satisfaction. He has also, as township trustee and school director. Himself and wife are both members of the Christian church, and have long been among its staunchest supporters. Mr. McGilliard has passed the Psalmist's limit of human life by almost two years, but retains

John Ross Field

The progenitors of Mr. Field in this country were of Scotch-Irish extraction. John, his great-great-grandfather, was the first of the name and family in America. He came from Bradford, Hertfordshire, England, and was in the fifth generation, in direct line, from John Field, the celebrated astronomer of the sixteenth century, who was born in 1525. The later John was born in England, May 15, 1659, and settled in Piscataway township, Middlesex county, New Jersey, in 1685, where his descendants reside so numerously that their residence district (now in Somerset county) along the Raritan river, has received the popular name of Fieldville. A paper read some years ago, before the Historical Society of New Brunswick, concerning this family, says: ''The ruling characteristics of this branch of the family, and perhaps their greatest usefulness to the world, has been their example of earnestness in the common pursuits of life."

Jeremiah, son of John Field, born May 17, 1689, was father of Benjamin, whose natal day was February 19, 1725. He in turn was father of Jacob, born February 7, 1768, married Hester Ross, also of -Middlesex county, December 25, 1790, and died on the farm now occupied by his son, the subject of this notice. One of his brothers, Michael, uncle of John R. Field, was killed in action at the battle of Monmouth, June 27, 1778. The latter was the sixth'son of Jacob and Hester (Ross) Field, and was born at New Brunswick, Middlesex county, New Jersey, March 13, 1810. At the age of two years he was brought with his father's family to Ohio, coming in wagons all the way with the Ross, Schooley, and Coddington families, all of whom were related. The Fields Yarried for a while where St. Bernard now is, in Mill Creek township, and then, in 1813, came to the vicinity of the present residence of John R. Field, settling upon a farm just beyond the creek, between his home and Glendale. His father taught school for a short time, but devoted his attention mainly to the improvement of his place. About 1816 the family removed to the farm now in possesssion of his son, one mile west of Glendale. Here died Jacob Field, April 1, 1842, aged seventy-four years, and Hester his wife, October 7, 1854, aged eighty-four years.

John's advantages of early education were but limited, being confined to the poor and widely scattered schools of that time. He remained with his father, engaged in the pursuits of the farm, until his twentyfourth year, when he was united in marriage to Miss Harriet P. Perine, also of Springfield township, January 7, 1834, by the Rev. Adrian Aten, pastor of the Presbyterian church at Springdale. After the age of twenty-one, by reason of the increasing age and infirmities of his father, the cares of the farm devolved upon Mr. Field, who at majority came into possession of the place. He took his young wife to the paternal home, where they have since resided. Their children have been: Jacob, born January 27, 1835, died in infancy at the age of but ten days; Martha Anderson, born April 2, 1836, died August 7, 1858;

_ Jane, born January 2, 1838, died June 27, 1841; Hester Ann, born "July 27, 1839, died May 23, 1864; Elizabeth, born April 20, 1841, married October 29, 1862, to James W. Moore, a farmer residing near Mt. Pleasant; Charles Milton, born February 4, 1843, married Lydia A. Hough November 18, 1863, and resides as a farmer upon a place immediately adjoining his father's; Sarah Isabella, born April 9, 1846, and still resides with her parents; Catharine Rowen, born February 6, 1848, died February 17, 1861; Lydia Ross, born November 7, 1851, died November 21, 1877.

Mr. Field has been a quiet farmer, but little in official life, and not connected with any religious or secret society organization. He was formerly a Whig in politics, but for many years has cast his vote with the Democratic party. At the age of seventy-one years, he is nzturally beginning to feel the weight of age, and for six or seven years has suffered the partial loss of his speech. :

Harriet Porter Perine, now Mrs. John R. Field, was the second daughter of Jghn I. and Jane (Van Tuyl) Perine. Her father was a native of White Creek, New York, and her mother of the adjoining town, Cambridge, Washington county. She was born at White Creek, November 13, 1813, and at the age of eight years came with her family to Ohio, her father dying soon after in Ashtabula county, where he meant to settle. The widow and her young family then came on to Springfield township, where her brother, Thomas B. Van Tuyl, was settled, his lands adjoining Mr. Field's on the west. In the family of this uncle Harriet was brought up. When ten years old she experienced her first great grief in the loss of an older sister, Mary Ann, residing in Hamilton as an attendant at school, who was killed with three others by one fell stroke of lightning, April 5, 1825. Her mother died in Cincinnati April 1, 1858, at the age of seventy-one, after a long struggle with feebleness and delicate health. When her daughter was twenty-one years old she was married to Mr. Field, as related in the previous sketch, and their histories have been since united through the long period of nearly half a century. She has been a faithful member of the Presbyterian church at Springdale since the age of sixteen, for now more than fifty-one years.

Sic Toms Ol

These all had their day, and passed off ina few years, except the jerss, which continued with some for many years, These exercises were considered by the New Lights as supernatural and intended to humble their natural pride of heart and debase, in their own estimation, the subjects of them. Though I give no opinion, they were sometimes diffi cult to account for on any known principles of psychology. There were instances, and many of them, where persons would lie as if dead, with scarcely the slightest appearance of life, for days together, without motion or any other signs of life, unless an almost imperceptible pulsation and breathing.

These people were called New Lights, because they taught ''that the will of God was made manifest to each individual who honestly sought after it, by an inward light which shown into his heart; and hence they received the name of New Lights."

This revival carried off the great body of the Presbyterian church in the Miami valley, with anumber of their preachers; as it did in Kentucky and Tennessee, southwest Virginia and northwest North Carolina. In 1803 they separated from all connection with the regular Presbyterial organizations, formed new presbyteries, and protested against the doctrines and government of the old ecclesiastical organization.

The Cumberland Presbyterian denomination took its rise in this remarkable episode of religious history, and its name from that presbytery of southern Kentucky, in which the revival began. The Christians, or Disciples, had the way prepared for them in many places by it; and the Shakers received many accessions, in Kentucky and the Miami country, by reason of its strange experiences. The church at Springdale was greatly affected by it for years, but finally recovered almost entirely from its influence.

Mount Pleasant

by the post office department to take another name (Mount Healthy) for its postal arrangements - is situated in the southwestern quarter of the township, about two miles north of College Hill, at the corners of sections twenty-six and twenty-seven, thirty-two and _ thirty-three. It is also an old town, having been laid out in 1817 by John Laboyteaux and Samuel Hill. A Mount Pleasant Savings and Building association wasincorporated January 18, 1871. It had two hundred and nineteen inhabitants in 1830; eight hundred and seventy-one in 1880. On the Fourth of July, 1837, there was a rather notable celebration at the Presbyterian church in this village, with Mr. Daniel Vanmatre for orator. * The neighborhood south of this place is on the Hamilton turnpike, principally celebrated as the early home of the Cary sisters, who receive due notice in our chapter on literature in Cincinnati. <A highly poetic description of the old homestead here will also be found in that chapter; and we add here another poem by Alice Cary, in which there is much local coloring and some of the domestic history of the Carys:

Memory'S Pictures

Among the beautiful pictures That hang on Memory's wall Is one ofa aim old forest, That seemeth best of all; Not for its gnarled oaks olden, Dark with the mistletoe; Not for the violets golden That sprinkle the vale below; Nor for the milk-white lilies That lean from the fragrant hedge, Coquetting all day with the sunbeams, And stealing their golden edge;

I once had a little brother, With eyes that were dark and deep - In the lap of that dim old forest He lieth in peace asleep; Light as the down of the thistle, Free as the winds that blow, We roved there the beautiful summers, The summers of long ago; But his feet on the hills grew weary, And one of the autumn eves I made for my little brother A bed of the yellow leaves.

Sweetly his pale arms folded My neck in a meek embrace, As the light of immortal beauty Silently covered his face; And when the arrows of sunset Lodged in the tree-tops bright, He fell, in his saint-like beauty, Asleep by the gates of light. Therefore, of all the pictures That hang on Memory's wall The one of the dim old forest Seemeth the best of all

Mount Pleasant (or Mount Healthy) was a great place, many years ago, for holding political conventions, especially of the Anti-Slavery or Liberty party. At one convention held here, in May, 1841, the nominees of the Liberty party, at the National convention in New York the same month, for the canvass of 1844 - Mr. James G. Birney for President, and Thomas Morris for Vice-President, both then or formerly of Hamilton county - were cordially sustained. This was before the organization of the Liberty partyin Ohio. On the Fourth of July, 1842, another convention of Liberty men was held at Mount Pleasant, and the Hon. Samuel Lewis, formerly State superintendent of common schools, was nominated for the State senate. This was the first regular convention of the party in this county. It was crowded, and a very great interest was excited. The biographer of Mr. Lewis says: "Qne curious feature of the day was a discussion on the merits of the Liberty party and its claims to public favor, during which the gentleman who took the negative of the question labored hard to prove that slavery was an institution of the Bible, and that God had sanctioned it. Such arguments were, of course, properly treated, by Messrs. Morris and Chase, who opposed his views."

St. Mary's Catholic Church is located there, with a parochial school of seventy pupils, and the St. Mary's and St. Stephen's confratenities - all in charge of the Rev. Herman Johanning, pastor.

A writer in a recent number of the College Hill Moon, a paper prepared at one of the literary institutions in College Hill, contributes a long article descriptive of a visit to the home of the Cary sisters, from which we extract the following:

A gray-painted, two-story, brick house, looking as if it had modestly stepped back from the road and drawn its leafy veil over its face as gently as a Quakeress of olden time, while its wide roof, sloping toward the road, made it look not unlike one who shades the eyes with the hand when wishing to look far off. In fact, all the air and bearing of the house gives you the impression of a person growing old, so busy with past memories that it seems never to realize or be a part of the present. On every side tall trees overshadow it; their long branches stretch over the roof; lovingly their shadows kiss it; house and trees lived, and growing old, and talking over their secrets together, and what they said I cannot tell, for poets only dare breathe such confidences. We open the gate, now held in place by a loop of rope, and pass inside the faded paled fence, and walk with reverent feet up the flagged walk, where moss and grass have grown all unrebuked between the stones. The front door at the end of this walk is in the centre of the house, and has a window on either side. We sit a while on the well worn door-step, and recall the time when many children clustered on and round it, to.see the sun set, for the front faces the west, and Rhoda the child of promise, who died so young, told fairy tales, and from distant hill and gathering cloud made the children see turreted castle and lordly hall, and peopled them with great folk that came to life in her wonderful imagination. But we must follow a path that leads round the house. We find ourselves in the lane that passes the side of the house, at the end of which we see the barn, brown gabled, where the swallows still love to build. We note in passing that the rose bushes still grow luxuriantly over the fence that bounds this lane, making it look in June, when they are in bloom, like a spinster of fifty decked out for a queen of May. Tall trees line each side of this lane, so that at no time of day is there wanting cool, pleasant shade. No wonder the sisters look back lovingly to it. Here they built their play houses, and kept their pets, and romped and played in childhood, and, in later days, put out the milk pans to dry in shining rows.

The dining room and kitchen, with chambers over them, are in an addition running back, and have a veranda their whole length, the roof of which is supported by round brick pillars - a curious piece of architecture we never saw before. At the end of this, close to the kitchen door, is the well. The sisters say they used to think that it went through to the other side of the world, and Alice says she loved it with the well sweep tall by her father's own hand reared, but that, alas! has long since passed away, and the water, still as pure and cool, is brought up with pulley and bucket and chain.

alittle northeast of Carthage, on the opposite side of Mill creek, and on section one, in the southeast corner of the township, and on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton and Short Line railroads, was laid out in 1868 by the Hamilton County Building association, and named from Mr. John W. Hartwell, who was vice-president of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad when its station was located there. It had a population of but sixty-seven in 1870, which ten years later had mounted to eight hundred and ninety-two, largely of persons doing business in Cincinnati and having suburban residences here. A Methodist church and a good graded school are located here. It was incorporated September 9, 1876.