Springfield Township (part 38 of 69)

Elmer C. Hartman was ten years of age when his parents moved to Pike Township, and there he grew to maturity. He engaged in farming until he moved to Sugar Grove and engaged in business. In 1905, he erected the Hartman Block, opposite the Ohio Masonic Home, a large two-story brick building with three store rooms on the first floor. Here he embarked in the general mercantile business, carrying a comprehensive line of dry goods, groceries, queensware, hardware and farm_ implements. In 1906, he disposed of all but the hardware and implements department of his store, which he moved in an addition he had built on to the block. On February 1, 1908, he formed a partnership with Mr. John E. Morgan, and the business has since been carried on under the firm name of Hartman <& Morgan. They carry a large stock of general hardware, and in farm implements make a specialty of McCormiek binders, corn planters, and International Manure Spreaders. The second floor of the Hartman Block is used to display their line of carriages and buggies. They enjoy the patronage of this vicinity almost exclusively, and during the summer months are kept busy day and night.

In 1897 ]\Ir. Hartman was joined in marriage with Christina Busch. a daughter of Ludwig Busch, and they became i)aronts of four children, three of whom are living, namely: Ludwig C, Lucille M., and Louise. A daughter, Christina, died at the age of two years. Fraternally Mr. Hartman is a member of the Knights of Pvthias.

COLONEL MILTON CHENEY,* one of South Charleston's highly respected and influential citizens, who is living in retirement after years of unceasing activity in agricultural work, is a native of Madison Township, Clark County, Ohio. He was born in 1850 on the old home place three miles south of South Charleston, is a son of Jonathan and Matilda (Harpole) Cheney, and a grandson of William Cheney.

William Cheney was a native of Virginia, where he was reared and followed farming for a number of years. After his marriage to Rebecca Orr, also a native of Virginia, he settled in Mechanicsburg, Champaign County, Ohio, and engaged in farming the remainder of his life. Nine children were born to the grandparents of our subject, all of whom are now deceased. Jonathan Cheney, the father, was born near Mechanicsburg and spent his early boyhood days on his father's farm. At the age of sixteen he went west and engaged in the cattle business, and drove cattle from Illinois to Harrisburg for a period of five years, after which he came to Clark County, and purchased the present farm of his son, Milton, consisting of three hundred and twenty-live acres, three hundred acres of which are located in Madison Township, Clark Countv. and the remaining twenty-five acres in Madison Coimty, nnst across the coimty line. Here he followed agriculture until his death, which occurred March 18, 1865. Jonathan married Matilda Harpole of Greene County and to them were born three children, of whom two are living, Milton, the subject of this notice; and Rebecca (Young) of Los Angeles, California.

Milton Cheney was reared on hig father's farm and attended the district schools of the township for a short time. He was but eleven years old at the outbreak of the Civil War, and is practically self educated, as his services were early required on the farm. Mr. Cheney has been engaged in agricultural pursuits on the home farm since 1867. He married Ada Sprague, a daughter of L. B. Sprague of Harmony Township, and to them have been born five children : Molly (Mrs. Hicks); Harriet; Pearl (Mrs. Sprague) of Clark County; Howard, who married Anna Hostetter of Dayton; and Scott.

Col. Cheney has always been an ardent supporter of the Republican party. He has served twelve years as township trustee, was for six years county commissioner, thirty-two years a member of the Madison Township School Board and also served as a memlier of the Agriculture Board. Col. Cheney is also prominent in fraternal circles, being a member of the Masonic order and the Odd Fellows, including the Mad River Encampment, at Springfield, of which he is Past Grand and Past Chief Pater.

GEORGE F. JOHNSON,* a representative citizen of German Township, residing on his farm in Section 19, is a veteran of the Civil War. He was bom in York- shire, England, October 14, 1841, and is a son of Mark and Esther (Firth) Johnson. Mr. Johnson was five years old when his parents came to America. The father had previously been a school teacher, but after locating in New York, he followed farming until 1852, when he started with his family for Clark County, Ohio, landing at Springfield on New Year's Day, 1853. He soon rented a farm in Green Township and there the family lived for some years.

George F. Johnson attended school in the neighborhood of his home, as he was afforded opportunity through his boyhood. The family was living in Green Township when he enlisted for service in the Civil War September 4, 1861, entering Company F, Forty-fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for three years. His regiment was connected with the Twentythird Army Corps, Army of West Virginia. After about one year in the Virginia mountains, during which period Mr. Johnson participated in the battles of Lewisburg, Charleston and Cotton Mountain, in October, 1862, the regiment was sent to Kentucky and during the year spent there he participated in the battle of Duncan's Hill. At that battle, the infantry being mounted, he had a fall from his horse, which caused him some suffering. During the greater part of the time in Kentucky the regiment was given frontier duty - some of the most dangerous work in the service - and after leaving Kentucky the regiment went to Knoxville, Tennessee, where it had three weeks of steady fighting. From August, 1863, until January, 1864, Mr. Johnson was in Tennessee, taking part during that time in the battle at Cumberland Gap. At the close of his first enlistment he re-enlisted.

at Strawberry Plains, entering the Eighth Regiment Ohio Cavalry, in which he continued until the close of the war. He was taken prisoner at Beverly, West Virginia, but was immediately paroled. This was his second capture, the first one having occurred also in this vicinity, but before he and his companions could be marched away, the Union forces recaptured them. Thus Mr. Johnson most fortunately escaped the horrors of a Southern prison and after his honoi'able discharge, at Clarksburg, West Virginia, July 30, 1865, returned to Ohio, practically unharmed. During his absence in the army, Mr. Johnson's people had moved to Springfield and when he returned home he went to work in the Springfield flax mill. In 1867 he moved to German Township and has resided here ever since. He has a good farm and he has erected all the farm buildings since locating here.

On April 15, 1866, Mr. Johnson was married to Leanah Overholser, who is a daughter of Moses Overholser, and they have five children, namely: Ida C, who married Harmon C. Fisher, and has eight children; Grant C, marriea, who has three children ; Ella, who married Ora Stafford and they have one child: Elmer; and Esther, who married David McAllister, has one child. Mr. Johnson has always taken an active interest in township affairs and for fifteen years served as a member of the Board of Education. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Repul)llc.

STEWART Al.BERT MUFF,* a well known dealer in grains, vehicles and implements, who is established in business in both New Carlisle and Springfield, has been a resident of Clark County, since 1897. He was born June 7, 1871, on his father's farm in Milford Township, Butler County, Ohio, and is a son of John and Rachel (Antrim) Muff.

John Muff" was a native of Germany and when a lad of ten years came to this ctountry with his mother, and after reaching manhood went to California where he worked in the gold mines until 1865. He then came to Butler County, Ohio where he was married and there followed farming and operated a grist mill for many years. He died in Butler County in 1904 aged about seventy years, his wife's death having occurred ten months previous when in her sixty-first year. John Muff and wife were the parents of three children: Edward C, of Butler County, Ohio; Stewart Albert, subject of this sketch; and Sarah Antrim, who is the wife of Edward L. Tracy of Butler County, Ohio.

Stewart A. Muff was about six years old when his parents moved to Somerville, Ohio, where he was educated in the public schools and he is a graduate of the high school of that village. His leisure time was spent in his father's grist mill. At the age of twenty-one he began dealing in stock at Soraerville, and later established a grain business in connection with stock buying, continuing at this until 1897. He then sold out and came to Clark County, locating at New Carlisle, where he operates a grain elevator and deals in farming implements. Ten months later he removed to his present location on the Big Four Railroad. In 1903 he bought a grain elevator at Mechanicsburg, Ohio, from W. H. Hodge, and operated this in connection with his other business for four years, when he sold to 11. M. Conger. In 1904 he purchased the Wigwam building in Springfield, where he has since been dealing in farming implements with much success. He also contemplates establishing a business of that nature at Enoii, Ohio. Mr. Muff owns a fine farm of three hundred and ten acres in Butler County.

Mr. Muff was united in marriage December 25, 1905, to Minerva Clark, a daughter of W. Scott Clark of Ross County, Ohio, and they reside at No. 705 N. Fountain Avenue, Spring-field. Politically Mr. Muff gives his support to the Democratic party and when a resident of Butler County took a very active interest in the affairs of that party. His fraternal connection is with the Masonic Order.

Source changes here: from A Standard History of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio; an Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Educational, Civic and Social Development, by Prince, Benjamin F, published 1922; 263,566 words in this source stream.

Springfield City

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Foreword

In the prospectus announcing the proposed publication: A Standard History of Springfield and Clark County, Dr. Benjamin F. Prince, "The Grand Old Man of Wittenberg," and for many years president of the Clark County Historical Society, says: "As editor, my task will be to direct the collection of all historical material that should have a permanent place in the records of the city and country," and in order that the local editorship may be of the most representative character, Gen. J. Warren Keifer, Judge Francis M. Hagan, and W. H. Rayner of Springfield; Edward W. Williams, New Carlisle; Edward P. Flynn, South Charleston, and T. A. Busby of South Vienna, were invited to act as advisory editors.

When the publisher's representative, Rolland Lewis Whitson, came into the community, he found excellent response from them all, and Doctor Prince alert to every inquiry. When in the course of human events, it becomes the privilege of a community to tabulate its record, the matter of co-operation is a prime necessity. At the beginning a caddy en route to the country club said : "Springfield is the best town of 60,000 population in the United States of America," and that spirit characterized all from whom inquiry was made while tarrying in the community. In the bibliography of the county is much stored-up information, _ and something has been absorbed from all of it. Where data has been -^- taken bodily, credit is given for it, and clippings preserved at* the rooms V- of the Clark County Historical Society have been available, as well as the ~" files of local newspapers. A Some excellent reminiscent articles have been found in newspapers, written by men and women who have passed from earth, and it is due them that credit should be given them for their contributions to the j future of their community; such names appear in connection with the *T information gleaned from the articles. Some one says: "It is through <\1 art, music and literature that the past lives' again ; the artist, the musician and the writer make the great tapestry in the loom of history," and the scheme has been to draw something from all of them.

It has been fittingly said : "The state that is not proud of its history <ZV ^^ soon ^ave no history t0 be proud of," but Clark County has an unused ual background in local history. "For ye have not passed this way heretofore," says Joshua, in sacred history and it is true of the settlers who came into the Mad River wilderness 120 years ago. Those Kentuckians cast their nets on the other side of the ship, and their "catch" is a goodly heritage; the fascination of exploration fastened its grip on them, and because of their activities Clark County is now able to review its past history.

Springfield and Clark County have registered progress at almost every turn of the wheel of fortune, and after the lapse of 120 years - 1801 to 1921, the community is taking stock again ; it has been as long in preparation for this summary as Noah was in building the Ark, which weathered the worst storm ever recorded on the pages of history. While the gleaner has had access to all publications assembled by the Clark County Historical Society and the Warder Free Library, he has found the waysides flanked with much first hand information, and feels indebted to Miss Alice Burrowes of the library; W. E. Lucas of the City Hall; E. W. Hawkins of the Farm Bureau, and Howard Johnson of the Sunday School Association for special assistance rendered, beside many who are mentioned in connection with data secured from them.

While the Bible injunction: "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow," looks into the future one who links today with yesterday must live in retrospect, and facts have been obtained from so many sources that to credit every whit of tabulated information would be an utter impossibility. Mr. Lucas, Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Johnson offered favors in the way of personally conducted excursions, and since "Seeing is believing," they rendered most helpful service.

Like the statistician, an historian does not need to possess an imagination; while a great deal of fiction may be written around one single fact, he must deal with the facts as he finds them. While folklore may not be accepted as history, those who know local conditions unconsciously reflect local history. While some who have aided are not yet old, they have had a comprehensive understanding of things, and in most instances facts have been verified with little difficulty.

A forecast of the future depends upon a knowledge of the past, and it is said that when an aged man with an unimpaired memory dies, it is like burning a book from the library : and while many unwritten chapters in Clark County history are already consigned to oblivion - buried with the pioneers who developed the country, one is often surprised by the fund of stored-up information possessed by succeeding generations ; folklore - word of mouth from father to son, mother to daughter; traditions of the family are a reliable source of information.

There is always some one who knows or who has laid aside a newspaper, and the gleaner in quest of information seems unerringly guided. "In the multitude of counsellors there is safety," and one need not dwell in the long ago in order to write about the past in any community. While stopping in Springfield, the publisher's representative mailed local post cards inscribed : "Bryan, Lima and Springfield, these three abide, but the greatest of these is Springfield," and this zigzag journey across Ohio has been pleasant pastime ; it has meant personal contact with some wideawake citizens.

and that is true of aged persons interviewed in Springfield and Clark County ; the difficulty is to marshal one's mental battalions in such preci- sion that they may bear at once on all quarters of the field, but since "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread/' there are venturesome spirits who undertake such tasks.

While fiction may be a rivulet of text leading from the noisy haunts of the world, winding along through pleasant old literary gardens redolent with the choicest of intellectual blossoms, history may at least be the log across the stream that catches some of the drift of the ages; it has been the province of all concerned to dislodge some of the accumulated debris, and send it adrift again down the river - the River of Time. -

Index

Education; recognized by Ordinance of 1787, I, 2; Catholic high and grade schools of Springfield, 149; public, in Clark County, 165-188; typical pioneer school, 166 ; public supervision of rural schools (1914), 167; centralized and rural schools, 168-173; remedy for illiteracy, 172; Springfield public schools, 175-188

Goodrich Rubber Company, I, 224 Goodwin, J. P., I, 363 Gordon, William, II, 224 Gotwald, Luther A., II, 358 Gotwald, Robert C, II, 359 Gowdy, John H., II, 65 Gram, Ed, II, 346 Grand Army of the Republic Art Loan

Post, I, 460 Grand Opera House, Springfield, I, 433 Grant, A. W., I, 247 Grant, George D., II, 364 Great Miami, ancient river bed of, I, 67 Great Miami Valley, first crop of corn

Men's Literary Club, Springfield, I, 515 Merritt, Alice, II, 228 Metal industries, I, 243 Meteoric shower, I, 72 Methodism in Springfield, I, 137 Methodists, organize in Springfield, I,

Springfield News, I, 206 -Springfield Orpheum, I, 454 -Springfield Osteopathic Society, I, 361 -Springfield Planing Mill and Lumber Company, The, II, 253

Chapter

Swift as a weaver's shuttle time hastens into eternity. Father Time turns the hourglass once again, and the world looks backward over the pages of history.

In the procession of events marking the history of the world, it is apparent that some know the story of the Garden of Eden better than they know the beginning of local history. To those who follow the developments of human affairs, what happened to Christopher Columbus at the court of Spain is a well known story, and every school boy is familiar with Capt. John Smith of the Jamestown Colony and how he was rescued by the dusky Pocahontas.

In 1920, the whole world followed the unfolding of the Tercentenary ; the landing of the Pilgrims had paved the way for the future in the New World. The thirteen little republics by the sea encountered the difficulties of the Revolutionary period, and President Grover Cleveland's epigram: "It is a condition and not a theory we are facing," has applied to many situations in community development before Clark County was on the map of the world.

It was Confucius who said: "Every day cannot be a festival of lights," and this great Chinese philosopher carefully planned the future. He took time to save time, and his autobiography reads : "At fifteen I entered on a life of study; at thirty I took my stand as a scholar; at forty my opinions were fixed; at fifty I could judge and select; at sixty I never relapsed into a known fault ; at seventy I could follow my heart's desires without going wrong," and thirteen centuries later another Chinese writer said : "The Universe is but a tenement of all things visible : darkness and day, the passing guests of Time." and what more is history?

"There was a tumult in the city, in the quaint old Quaker town," and the Declaration of American Independence, July 4, 1776, presaged local possibilities that had not entered into the thoughts of the American Revolutionary soldiers. The Ordinance of 1787 opened up hitherto undreamed of opportunities ; the Northwest Territory was an acquisition presenting unlimited advantages. It excited comment from contemporary statesmen, Daniel Webster saying: "We are accustomed to praise the lawgivers of antiquity ; we hope to perpetuate the fame of Solon and Lycurgus, but I doubt whether one single law of any law-giver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of more distinctly marked and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787. We see its consequences at this moment, and shall never cease to see them perhaps while the Ohio shall flow."

It was the Rev. Menassah Cutler, a Congregational minister of Connecticut who went to Philadelphia on horseback from his home when it seemed that the passage of the ordinance would fail, and urged upon Congress the wisdom of the measure. In the British Parliament Lord Chatham said: "For solidity of reason, force; of sagacity and wisdom of conclusion under a complication of difficulties, no nation or body of men stand in preference to the General Congress," and since that time the ordinance has been likened to a second Constitution of the United States, guaranteeing many things to the Old Northwest. It was in reality the first new territory added to the Union, the people of the thirteen original states being emigrants themselves, and the areas hitherto added being contiguous territory already dominated by them.

Under the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, the territory north of the Ohio was to be formed into three or five states, and while the older states had English names, American names were given to them. The area in question extended from the Ohio and Mississippi rivers northward, and embraced 265,878 square miles which was subsequently divided into five states : Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and a small tract lying east of the Mississippi in Minnesota. The area of Ohio is 39,964 square miles with only Indiana being smaller, and in the Old Northwest are some of the most important cities : Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Dayton and Springfield.

The Old Northwest has furnished both the opportunities and the men ; the seven presidents from the area are: William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley and Warren G. Harding. While the area is foremost in its agriculture, it is varied in its industries; and manufacturing has claimed much attention. Some of the greatest manufacturing and commercial interests in the whole country are within this area of the United States, and for many years it has had the center of population. Several times it was in Ohio, and it has been as long crossing Indiana as the Children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness; it may never cross the Mississippi, and thus the consumers in the United States markets are easily reached from Springfield.

The Ordinance of 1787 recognized the necessity of schools, and of education and with human slavery excluded, the better class of emigrants was immediately attracted to the territory. Bancroft credits Thomas Jefferson with great activity against slavery, while a later writer asserts that if the slaveholder had realized the full consequences of this prohibition of slavery clause in the ordinance, his opposition would have been more strenuously directed against it. He did not realize what great power was being given the Northwest - this guarantee of property and personal rights. Hitherto the advance in civilization had been along the Atlantic Coast southward, and now the institution of slavery was an obstacle encountered in that direction. While only a few Quakers ever penetrated into the wilds of Clark County, they led in the exodus from the Carolinas to the Northwest Territory. They settled in numbers a tittle farther south, and the stronghold of the Quakers within the United States is in the Old Northwest.

By way of resume, the Ordiance of 1787 opened up the frozen Northwest; what was^then spoken of as the Northwest Territory, has since been designated as the Old Northwest in contradistinction of the newer states and the Canadian Northwest, and this area occupies an unique place in American history. While the Jesuit and French explorers were active in parts of it, Ohio was peopled by emigrants from the older states, the cosmopolitan population thus explained : The spirit of adventure, and a stern determination to make the most of the broad and fertile lands lying west and north of the Ohio stimulating alike the sturdy Virginian, the liberty-lovjng Jerseyman, the tolerant Pennsylvanian, the thrifty New Englander, and the aggressive Englishman to quit their old homes and seek others in the wide expanse of wilderness west of the Allegheny Mountains.

The historian, E. O. Randall, says: "The Northwest Territory was the great back ground of the Revolution, and the soil of Ohio was the scene of the struggle for existence," and it is understood that local history had its inception August 8, 1780, when Gen. George Rogers Clark invaded the hunting grounds of the Shawnees adjacent to Mad River and destroyed their villages, driving them out of their strongholds now within the bounds of Clark County. While he was busy on the frontier, there was as yet no designated Northwest Territory, and while Governor Arthur St. Clair played a losing game with the Indians in the wilderness days of Ohio history, there was a second Washington in the West who regained much of the lost territory.

Great Britain and France both wanted a foothold in the new country, and both incited the savages of the West, while Gen. George Washington was in command of the Revolution along the Atlantic Coast. As a precautionary measure, General Washington detailed General Clark to look after the frontier, and at Piqua Village along Mad River he regained much valuable territory. No man in American history gave greater promise than Clark, but after investing his own fortune he became desperate and listened to the importunities of the enemies overseas. As far as local history is concerned, he was the right man in the right place, since with his "rough riders" he was able to break the backbone of the British intrenchments, and thus the Northwest was secured and preserved to the United States, and in due process of time Clark County was placed on the map of the world.

Through the efforts of General Clark the area now known as the Old Northwest was recognized in the treaty of 1783, closing the War Of the Revolution, although there was continual friction between the United States, and the mother country, until after the War of 1812 - the second war with England. While Patrick Henry as governor of Virginia, acted as an advisory friend to both, he counselled General Washington not to relinquish any soldiers from the Colonial Army, and thus General Clark was reduced to the necessity of raising his own volunteer troops, beginning his western expedition with 200 Virginia and Pennsylvania backwoodsmen. His conduct encouraged General Washington who was combatting British forces along the seaboard, and needed all of his men.

It is said that few citizens of Clark County today realize the full importance of the battle against the Shawnees, as fought by General Clark, although it had more to do with giving to the United States its territorial character than any other military engagement ; had it not been for this battle, it is suggested that the Northwest Territory would have been British. A treaty was under consideration fixing Ohio as the boundary of the British possessions, but the overthrow of the Shawnees enabled the United States to claim the territory. Through its patriotic governor,

Virginia claimed much of the territory secured by General Clark, and thus the Virginia military land grants enter into local history. The Ohio Gazetteer describes them as a body of land lying between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers, and much of it has become valuable in the course of time.

continent west of the Ohio, but finally among several other compromises and conflicting claims which were made subsequent to the attainment of American Independence, she agreed to relinquish all her claims to lands northwest of the Ohio in favor of the general Government, upon condition that the land now described as guaranteed to her. Virginia then appropriated the above described lands from which the state undertook to satisfy the claims of her troops employed during the Revolutionary war. The Ludlow line across the map of Clark County defines the western

The life of Gen. George Rogers Clark is bounded by the year 1752 and 1818, his birthplace being Virginia. In 1775 he became a Kentucky backwoodsman, being associated with the scouts Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone, and while in 1780 he effected the overthrow of the Shawnee Confederacy on Mad River his various activities spread over Indiana and Illinois as well as western Ohio. In 1905 a monument was unveiled for him at Vincennes, Indiana, just 100 years after the first settlement by the French. While he lingered a year after the formal organization of Clark County in 1817, he may not have known that it was named in his honor.

In 1783 the Virginia Legislature granted to General Clark a tract of 8,049 acres, and to his officers and men 140,000 acres in Indiana, and later when Virginia conferred upon him a sword, he replied: "When Virginia needed a sword I gave her one! she now sends me this toy. I want bread/' It is reported that he spent his last days in poverty at Clarksville, Indiana, on part of the land granted him by the Virginia Legislature. Although once engaged to a young Spanish woman, General Clark never married; when he knew more of her father, he declined, saying: "I will never be the father of a race of cowards."

Chapter Ii

The best an historian can do is to approach accuracy ; while there are sins of commission, they cannot be worse than the sins of omission in writing history.

History is well defined as the record of transactions between different peoples at different periods of time, and some one has said that not to know what happened before one was born is to remain always a child. It is the mission of the true historian in Springfield and Clark County as well as in the rest of the world, to delve into the great past in an effort to unravel the tangled threads in the history of all the yesterdays.

It is said : "The roots of the present lie deep in the past, and the past is not dead to him who would know how the present comes to be what it is," and most people of today are interested in the firelight stories of other days; they enjoyed the stories heard at mother's knee - the traditions handed down from father to son. and time was when word of mouth had greater significance - Clark County and elsewhere, than it has today. It is well understood that Gen. George Rogers Clark and his army of Pennsylvanians and Virginians, with recruits from Kentucky were the first white men on the banks of Mad Riven and it is little wonder that a few years later the settlers should locate in that vicinity.

"When a community finds that it has an historic background, it has taken a long step on the pathway of progress. To those who have realized this, and have called upon art, music and poetry to make the past live again, much gratitude is due; the artist, the musician and the poet make the great tapestry of history loom large and colorful behind us - our lives are enriched, and we strive to play our parts more worthily. When not only great national achievements, but all the varied and characteristic life that has been lived on the shores and mountainsides, in the river valleys, and on the frontiers of this broad land shall become the favorite themes of our artists and poets, then there will be established in the heart of the American youth a love of home and country that has a sure foundation."

The Mad River Valley west from Springfield is rich in historical interest, and there is no spot in Clark or surrounding counties with better background in military history. Mad River has the honor of being first is many things, and great human interest attaches to the use of that numeral; who is not thrilled at the first cry of the new-born babe; the first tottering steps of the child ; the first short trousers on the boy ; the first long skirts on the girl (the present day length of the skirt is not the standard); the first day at school; the first consciousness of strength; the first blush of beauty; the dawn of love; the first earnings of labor; the accumulation of capital ; the first sermon, client or patient ; the first battle; the first sorrow - in short, the opening incidents in every life produce thrills distinctively their own, and it is the story of human interest, the battle for recognition in the world, although possibly out of proportion to that belonging to a thousand greater things.

Paul was among the Kentucky squirrel hunters who accompanied General Clark into the area now known as Clark County, and while in the vicinity he visited the forks of Honey Creek, and was greatly impressed with its fertility. The Ordinance of 1787 seemed to open up possibilities before him, and within a few years he began the long wagon journey in search of the beautiful valley that had been rescued from the Shawnees by General Clark. From Fort Washington, which later became known as Cincinnati, the family began its journey to the north with much uncertainty.

The journey was fraught with hardships, but this doughty Kentuckian had formed a liking for the place where under the leadership of General Clark, he had skirmished with the Indians in company with squirrel hunters, which group of wilderness fighters corresponded to the famous Rainbow Division in the World war. This wilderness adventurer followed the course of the Miami from Cincinnati to Dayton, when unerring instinct led him to go up the stream that had been the scene of battle - he was ascending Mad River. It was a hazardous journey, and at night the Indians prowled around his wagon. While John Paul was sleeping others of the party were on guard to prevent ambush ; they did not wish to lose their lives by a night attack from the treacherous redskins, and alertness was their only hope.

After many harrowing experiences en route, the Paul family arrived at the spot with which paterfamilia had been impressed while a soldier in the army of conquest under General Clark ; while Honey Creek is not tributary to Mad River, it was along this stream that John Paul built his cabin - the first domicile occupied by a white family in what is now Clark County. While it is a little bit hazy, the story goes that this immigrant family located on Honey Creek in 1790 - ten years after General Clark had visited Mad River, with John Paul among his soldiers. Feeling the need of protection for his family, the cabin was hastily constructed on a slight knoll, and a stockade was built around it.

Mr. Williams who rescued the story from oblivion, heard it from the lips of Benjamin Suddoth whose death occurred in 1906, and who had lived for thirty years with the Paul family in Clark County. It seems that the Pauls left Kentucky in 1787, and that in 1790, when they were living peacefully on Honey Creek suddenly a war whoop was heard, and while the entire family was outside the stockade clearing and planting some ground, the Indians surprised them. They hurried toward the stockade for defense, but were intercepted and in quick succession the father and mother and three of their children fell to the ground mortally wounded, while a son and daughter made their escape and reached the cabin in safety. The story goes that the son, John Paul, Jr., undertook to assist his father who had fallen, but the dying man gasped: "Save yourself, I am dying; you cannot do anything for me," and strange as it seems, he escaped without injury from the Indians.

Under the excitement of the moment, and in their anxiety to secure the scalps and get back to cover,* the Indians did not notice the son and daughter who made their escape to the cabin. From a port hole in the cabin, the redoubtable son John with his trusty musket began firing, and an Indian engaged in scalping his relatives fell writhing by their bodies ; another flash, a whiff of smoke and the second Indian was dying with their victims. This so terrified the attacking party that they gathered up their dead and retreated to the cover of the timber, leaving the five mem- bers of the Paul family minus their scalps and dying outside the stockade, where the son and daughter were afraid to try to rescue them. For two days the brother and sister stood guard, watching from the port holes inside the cabin.

When the Indians did not appear again, they ventured forth and buried their dead on the spot where they had fallen - a family God's Acre on Honey Creek, before there were other white settlers within the area now known as Clark County. John Paul, the Revolutionary soldier, who had invaded the wilderness with General Clark died in the defense of his family and his cabin; while it required heroic courage, the brother and sister continued to live there, and while Indians were often seen skulking along the creek, they were never again molested although Suddoth relates that the young man often approached the door of his cabin with an Indian thrown crosswise on his saddle, and pierced by a ball from the same trusty musket with which he had defended himself when the rest of the family met death outside the stockade surrounding the cabin, the first primitive American dwelling within the area now known as Clark County.

It is related that John Paul, Jr., continued to live at the family homestead until 1851, when he died at the age of ninety-one years, and Benjamin Suddoth who lived there with him died in 1906 in New Carlisle. Mr. Paul lies buried in the New Carlisle Cemetery where a marble slab marks' his last resting place. In verifying his story as related to Mr. Williams, Suddoth accompanied him to the site of the original Paul cabin, and the place of the first massacre by the Indians, Mr. Williams designates the place as one mile northwest from New Carlisle, and later owned by Fissel Brothers and operated as a nursery. A brick house marks the site, and there is spring water near it - something that always influenced settlers in locating their homes when coming into new country.

It is said that many Indian arrows were found in the locality, showing that the spot was not unknown to the Shawnees who skulked along the stream hunting and fishing, and here John Paul, Jr., became an active man in the community. His father had cleared and planted a small plot, and he increased it and with his labor and his gun he provided for his needs - thus keeping the wolf from the door, and identifying himself with forward movements. He was one of the founders of the first church on Honey Creek - Honey Creek Prairie, and while his domicile was in Greene County and later in Champaign, there is no question but that he was the first bonafide settler who survived the ravages of the frontier in Clark County. Mr. Williams relates that Suddoth was a responsible character, and the story thus perpetuated is a connecting link between the present and the past in Clark County.

While General Clark had destroyed the Shawnee Village known as Piqua, August 8, 1780, and John Paul who was with him seems to have become the first settler ten years later, it was not until after the Greenville treaty between Gen. Anthony Wayne and the Indians that many settlers ventured into the new country. The Greenville treaty was effected in 1795, and in 1796 there is record that Kreb and Brown were on Mad River. They planted corn and cultivated it for other settlers who seem to be simultaneous, David Lowry coming from Pennsylvania while the others were Kentuckians. Lowry joined a surveying company of which Israel Ludlow was the chief engineer, and when he met Jonathan Donnel they looked over the country together. They reached Mad River together on a Saturday evening, and spent Sunday wandering along the stream. The country was wild, and camping in it caused them to think of settling there. They met Patten Short of Cincinnati who had acquired the land, and who was in need of help in surveying it.

Cincinnati was then headquarters for everything, and when the survey was completed the young engineers selected their land, and when Short followed the Miami back to Cincinnati, they remained on Mad River. An ax and an auger constituted their tools, but they remained to end their days in Clark County. They were many years ahead of Horace Greeley, who exclaimed: "Go west, young man, and grow up with the country." Within four years after the Greenville treaty, there were fourteen Kentucky families along Mad River; they built a blockhouse as a refuge from the Indians, and among them were John Humphreys and Simon Kenton. It seems that Humphreys and Kenton advanced a little farther up the stream, and simultaneously with them came James Demint who settled on the site of Springfield. While the settlements were not separated by distance, Demint knew nothing about the settlers on Mad River. He was the first settler on Lagonda or Buck Creek, and because Springfield was developed on his land, he was the first man to go on record in the community.

There are conflicting stories about Capt. James Smith being conducted as a captive through the Mad River Valley as early as 1760, another account saying 1772, when he was being taken to Fort Duquesne by the Indians. Thomas Williams was another prisoner taken as captive through the locality, and when in 1796 he related the story on his return from Fort' Duquesne, not much credence was attached to it. He was regarded as a western Arab who owned no land and spent his time in the forest. He visited the different settlements to dispose of furs, and to obtain a supply of ammunition. The historian finds so little data on which to base conclusions, that he is reminded of the ancient story of when the nations of the earth were given their religions; they inscribed their sacred creeds on metal, parchment or stone save the Gypsy who is reputed to have written his upon cabbage leaves when the donkeys were browsing in that direction, so meager is the record left behind them. Thomas A. Edison had not yet perfected his method of perpetuating the human voice, and the world will never hear the conversation carried on between Adam and Eve in the Garden, when they were learning to distinguish between right and wrong - the dawn of conscience in human existence.

It was in his inaugural address, March 4, 1801, that President Thomas Jefferson first used the phrase, "Entangling alliances," that has since become so hackneyed, and it was at that time that civilization began its encroachments upon James Demint. In 1799, he had built a cabin on the site of the Northern school in the City of Springfield, and for two years he was unmolested save by chance visitors. To all intents and purposes, he was an Adam in the Garden of Eden, since he had no knowledge of the settlers on Mad River. There was little "squatter" sentiment among the pioneers, as they seem to have come into the community as permanent

The community spirit was awakened when Griffith Foos happened along at the Demint cabin while prospecting for a location. He, too, was a Kentuckian and as a guest of the Demints, he found "Col." John Daugherty temporarily lodging there. It was by accident that he discovered the lonely habitation, on his return journey from a visit among the settlers on Mad River. Mr. Foos in coming from Kentucky had followed the Scioto River to the vicinity of Franklinton, now Columbus, but had not been suited with conditions; there was malaria, and leaving his family he explored the Mad River locality. He had passed within a short distance of the Demint cabin without discovering it, and on his return journey he spent some time there. When he learned that Demint was thinking about laying out a town, he became interested in it. There was cheap land in prospect, and he wanted to aid in developing a community.

While living in Kentucky, James Demint was employed as a teamster with a surveying party, and he had some knowledge of the requirements. He is described as a rough, fearless, warm-hearted frontiersman, an essential characteristic among settlers. In entertaining strangers, he entertained a community builder unawares, and on St. Patrick's day the three Kentuckians, Demint, Daugherty and Foos began the survey of Springfield. In writing this review, it is well to quote, "In the beginning," because of contemporary settlements, and yet nothing had become a matter of record until Springfield was on the map of the world.

Since James Demint began developing Springfield in 1801, to A. D. 1921, many "boosting" programs have followed each other in quick succession; in the time that Noah spent in building the Ark, Springfield is ready for a comprehensive history. On a fly leaf in the first Springfield directory issued in 1852, Henry L. Schaeffer penciled the following definite information: "At a meeting of the Clark County Historical Society December 2, 1913, John W. Parsons, who claimed to be the second oldest native of Springfield then living, related that he distinctly remembered the James Demint log cabin, and that it stood on the hill where the female seminary later stood, and where the Northern school now stands, and not at the foot of the hill as is generally supposed; he further stated that it was a double log cabin, or rather two cabins connected by a roof extending from one to the other." The whole situation is summed up in the lines:

"Cling to thy home! If there the meanest shed Yield thee a hearth and shelter for thy head, And some poor plot, with vegetables stored, Be all that heaven allots thee for thy board, Unsavory bread, and herbs that scattered grow Wild on the river brink or mountain brow, Yet e'en this cheerful mansion shall provide More heart's repose than all the world beside!"

None will gainsay the statement that in the development of civilization, the home has been a strong factor. While none would detract from the glory of James Demint as the founder of Springfield, the names of some of his contemporaries have been perpetuated, while he has no descendants in the community. While for a time he knew the full meaning of personal liberty, it was not long until the community of interests changed conditions about him. When groups are thrown together, community problems arise; when others arrived on the scene of action, it became necessary to establish "metes and bounds," and the original plot of Springfield was the solution of the difficulty entailed by the advance of civilization. William Cowper says, "God made the country," while it develops that three men were concerned in making Springfield.

It is said that all history had its beginning in the country, and local investigation bears out the assertion. Demint was isolated with a chance guest in his cabin when Foos arrived, and then it was a community. "Rights and privileges" are settled by law, and Demint was no longer "monarch of all he surveyed," although he maintained his residence north of the stream - Lagonda or Buck Creek, while Foos located on the opposite bank, where in June he opened the first tavern and continued to maintain an open door in the community until May 10, 1814, when he abandoned it for other occupation. He recognized the necessity of affording shelter for others, if the community was to increase its population. This log cabin hostelry was on Main at Spring Street, and two years later Archibald Lowry was offering public entertainment in Springfield.

The Bible says : "The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon their children," and the question arises as to what generation now holds forth in Clark County. According to Bible usage, there are about three generations in a century, and the names Lowry, Donnel, Humphreys and Foos are still heard in the community. The pioneers were given to early marriages, and perhaps there are five generations to the century in local history. It is known that Mary Heckawelder, born April 16, 1781, was the first white child born in Ohio, and that Jesse Chapman was the first white child born in Clark County. There is a Chapman Creek in commemoration of the Chapmans, and some have connected the story of "Johnny Appleseed" with this Chapman family. His name was Chapman.

There were many settlers round about when, in 1801, James Demint conceived the idea of locating a town, planning to have the business center along Lagonda Creek, but he anticipated wrong since the town went south from the stream. In commenting on the situation, Gen. J. Warren Keif er remarked : "It was not much of a survey - just a few streets on either side of Buck Creek." In making this survey, it is understood that Demint was advised and assisted by Daugherty and Foos, and "My Old Kentucky Home" is apropos, although they never heard the melody. They all became identified with the community. Daugherty is described as tall and slender; he had a large head, thickly covered with black, bristly hair ; he had black eyes with long lashes, and heavy eyebrows. He chewed tobacco to excess, and there was a copious flow of saliva, but nothing is said about poor Mrs. Demint who entertained him in her cabin ; it does not require vivid imagination to see the sputter on the green fire logs, as he sat about the hearthstone.

It is said that Colonel Daugherty could make a good off-hand speech, that his style was easy and his words appropriate, and there is frequent mention of him in later community development. In 1820, he moved from Springfield to a farm south of town, and in 1832 he died; he was a kaleidoscopic character - a typical Kentucky gentleman. He died full of honors, having served as Springfield postmaster, and having built the first really pretentious house in the town. He achieved political honors, having represented the district in the State Legislature, defeating some of the most prominent citizens - Maddox Fisher and Gen. Samson Mason, both losing the race against him. While some are inclined to credit Mrs. James Demint with the honor of naming Springfield, another woman lays claim to that distinction, and nothing is known of her more than that she died within a few years, and that she was buried in the Demint Cemetery on Columbia Street.

While the original plat of Springfield became a matter of record in Greene County, local abstracters of titles have copies of all conveyances made while the area was in Greene and Champaign counties, as well as in Clark County, and the name of Mrs. Demint does not appear in the transfers. The plat was withheld from the records for a time, and she may have died without leaving her signature. The advent of Griffith Foos was clothed in adventure ; it is said that he came from Franklinton on horseback, and that while prospecting along Mad River toward Urbana had discovered Pretty Prairie which is now divided by the line separting Clark and Champaign counties, and here he changed his course and came across the Demint cabin on his return. It was three months before he resumed his journey. Meantime he had prepared a shelter, and established his home in Springfield.

When Mr. Foos returned to Franklinton, it was to bring his family to Springfield, and thus he made the first wagon tracks into the new town from that direction. He had troubles en route as the Big Darby was swollen, and in crossing it the party rode the horses, and a rope was attached to the wagon while a man swam beside it to keep it from turning bottom-side upward in mid stream. There was not a vestige of a road or the suggestion of a bridge, and it required four and one-half days for the party to cover the distance of forty miles, but Mr. Foos was a man of emergencies, and Springfield benefited from his activities. On November 25, 1921, E. P. Thornton, who knew him, said: "My father lived on East High Street where the Episcopal stone church now stands (Christ Episcopal Church), and Griffith Foos lived in the next house east from us. I saw him often; he sawed his own wood, and I tried to help him. He said he and I were the only industrious boys in town; he was tall, and very old ; he had long, gray hair, and he told me about buffaloes and deer roaming along Buck Creek."

The original plat of Springfield was bounded by North, East, West and South streets, and there were eighty-two lots. Mr. Foos who was a patron in advance secured twenty of the lots, and he was always a booster for Springfield. In the beginning Columbia was Main Street, and Main was South Street, but when the national road was built Columbia was low, and Main Street was shifted one square south in order to conform to it - this great artery of travel going through the town. There were the good old names of intersecting streets, Main and Market, and time has worked other changes in the map of Springfield. Spring and High streets were given suggestive names, and Limestone was not named because of the underlying building stone, but because it was part of the trail along which many settlers came from Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky. The casual observer attribues the name to local natural formation.

Chapter Iii Simon Kenton A Citizen

While the cyclopedias in the Warder public library credit Simon Kenton to Kentucky, it is known that he ended his days in Ohio, and that he was once a resident of the area now known as Clark County. Because he was a frontiersman and a recognized scout, like his contemporary, Daniel Boone, he is regarded in the light of a world character. He was born April 3, 1755, in Fauquier .County, Virginia, of Scotch-Irish parentage. A monument of light gray sand stone standing eleven feet high in Oakdale cemetery at Urbana, is sacred to the memory of Gen. Simon Kenton.

In life, Simon Kenton was a roving character, and in death his body was not allowed to rest in one grave. It was in 1820 that he removed from Clark County to an eighty-acre farm in Logan County, and at the time of his death in 1836, he was drawing a pension of $20 a month, perhaps because of his service in the Second war with England. Simon Kenton was buried in a lonely spot near his cabin, and on a stone were carved these words : "This is the cornerstone of Simon Kenton ; do not remove it." A Bellefontaine editor of the period, William Hubbard, paid him the following tribute:

"Tread lightly! This is hallowed ground! Tread reverently here! Beneath this sod in silence sleeps the brave old pioneer Who never quailed in darkest hour, whose heart ne'er felt a fear. Tread lightly then, and here bestow the tribute of a tear!"

In 1865, almost three decades from the time of his death, the body of Simon Kenton, or what remained of it, was exhumed at the instigation of friends, and that explains the presence of the Kenton monument in the Urbana cemetery. The isolation of the grave in Logan County is given as the reason for the removal of the body to Urbana, the Kenton home in Clark County having been in Moorefield Township when it was part of Champaign County. While Simon Kenton died in Logan County, his home was still along Mad River. He was buried on a grassy knoll and around the grave was placed a rude picket fence. A rough stone slab at the grave bore the following inscription: "In memory of Gen. Simon Kenton, who was born April 13, 1755, in Culpeper County, Virginia, and died April 29, 1836, aged eighty-one years and sixteen days. His fellow citizens will long remember him as the skillful pioneer of early times, the brave soldier and the honest man."

It was nineteen years after the removal of the body of Simon Kenton from Logan to Champaign County until, in 1884, the State of Ohio erected the monument at his grave. It bears the dates 1775 and 1836, the boundary years of his life, and the decorations on the four sides - the heads of an Indian, wolf, bear and panther - suggest the aggressive character of the man thus tardily honored by the Commonwealth of Ohio. While the slab at his grave said Simon Kenton was born in Culpeper

County, the account in Howe's History gives it Fauquier County, Virginia, but the two accounts are agreed as to the date of his birthsjust another instance about which there is conflicting information.

On April 24, 1910, the Springfield Sunday News carried an interesting communication from Mrs. Emancipation Proclamation Busbey of South Vienna, who quoted from The Cincinnati Mirror of 1836, dealing with the death of Simon Kenton, and she had clippings from The Cincinnati Commercial and Cincinnati Gazette, and from The Ohio State Journal in reference to the removal of the body in 1865, establishing the date as December 1, when the body was reinterred at Urbana. When the body was exhumed, the skeleton was in a good state of preservation ; the different parts were carefully collected and placed in a small box which was later placed in a walnut coffin. There was a silver plate bearing the inscription, Gen. Simon Kenton. Except a fragment which was preserved as a memento, the old coffin was left in the grave in Logan County.

As part of the removal ceremony a public service was held in the First Presbyterian Church of Bellefontaine, and after the religious feature conducted by Reverends Wood, Fee and Varlo, there was a memorial service in which the speakers were: Judge M. C. Matthews of Piqua, chairman of the commission appointed by the General Assembly ; J. B. Turtle and Governor Charles Anderson. In a reminiscent way, Governor Anderson said that in 1819 Simon Kenton had visited his father's home, and that as a small boy he had placed his hand into the lottery urn and had drawn for Kenton his share in the public lands. Col. James Godman was another speaker, followed by W. T. Coggeshall, the father of Mrs. Busbey, and editor of The Ohio State Journal, in which he sketched the life history of the man thus honored so many years after his demise. In brief manner she reviewed the whole story of the life of Simon Kenton as written by her father.

Because of an untoward incident in his early life, Simon Kenton became Simon Butler. He had a rival in an affair of the heart, and challenged the young man to fight - to settle the matter according to frontier custom, and he lost in the conflict ; two years later he repeated the challenge with similar results and again he suffered the taunts of his rival who, because of superior strength, remained the favored suitor. While it all happened in Virginia, this detail is repeated because it throws light on the character of Simon Kenton. Love was his ruling passion and a third time the rivals met in mortal combat, Kenton resorting to strategy in subduing his hated rival. After entangling his long hair in some nearby bushes, he was able to punish him severely, and fearing that he might die, young Kenton become a refugee - a wanderer on the face of the earth - and that explains his removal from Virginia, his sojourn in Kentucky and later residence in Ohio. In his extremity, he joined an expedition on the Monongahela and descended the Ohio, and away from the scenes of his troubles he became Simon Kenton again.

While Simon Kenton "loved and lost" in Virginia, that is said to be better than not to have loved at all, but he loved again. It is related that he came into the Mad River country in 1799 with John Humphreys, and that when Griffith Foos visited the Kentucky colony while prospecting in the vicinity, he was directed to their habitation further up the stream and missed it, thereby locating the Demint cabin, and a year later the Jarboe family in which there was a young woman named

While some writers have credited Mrs. James Demint as being the woman who suggested the name of Springfield - a field surrounded by springs, Mrs. Elizabeth Jarboe Kenton claimed the honor while engaged in conversation with R. C. Woodward, who in 1832, was a fellow passenger by stage with the Kentons from Springfield to Urbana, when they were returning from a visit in Kentucky to their home in Logan County. Judge G. W. Tehan had filed away a magazine article in the Delineator for August, 1904, by Landon Knight, entitled : "Elizabeth Kenton/' in a series: "Great Women of Pioneer Times," which throws light on the identity of the woman thus claiming the honor of naming the settlement now the City of Springfield. The Jarboes lived on Mad River about four miles from the town, and there is not much evidence in support of the theory that Elizabeth suggested the name of Springfield. It was in existence seventeen years before her marriage to Simon Kenton, who was then a man of forty-six, and sixty-three years old when she married him. Not many young girls of that period were sufficiently romantic to officiate in christening a community.

It is known that Simon Kenton lived on Mad River, and that he lived for a time in Lagonda where he operated a rude mill, but he was not suited to the crowd and as the settlers gathered about him, he went to the frontier again. While he wandered about and attained to the ripe age of four-score and one years, John Humphreys, who accompanied him from Kentucky, attained ninety-four years in the vicinity of Springfield. Because he was an Indian fighter, Kenton was a picturesque character, and the revised cyclopedias should connect him with the history of Ohio, although part of his life was spent in Kentucky. When there was no warfare to engage him, he would try farming again, but nature had not designed him for that occupation. When he came into the Mad River country he had the reputation of b«ing the greatest Indian hunter and fighter of the period, which secured for him due recognition. While in Kentucky he was overshadowed as a frontiersman, by Daniel Boone, but in Ohio he soon became the most popular hero of the country.

While Kenton had known the Jarboe family in Kentucky, when he knew them again it was on Mad River, and the Virginia experience was repeated - Elizabeth had another suitor. While Kenton was growing old, Elizabeth was a much younger woman, and his calls were under the guise of inquiry about her father who had returned from Kentucky to Maryland before Elizabeth and her mother had joined a brother on Mad River. In the meantime Reuben Clark had established a friendship with the fair Elizabeth. While he had never scalped an Indian, smiles and blushes welcomed him. While the hero of Indian wars swore that he cared nothing about the girl, he said : "She is lots too good for Rube Clark/' With him, anything was fair in war, and in love he applied the same tactics. He realized that he must win the girl or move again.

Kenton was in command of the local militia, and -Reuben Clark was subject to his orders. Therefore, that ambitious youth found himself promoted, and assigned for duty in a distant part of the country. If he did not lose his scalp, it was among the probabilities that he would never return to Mad River. Having thus tactfully disposed of his rival, the experienced warrior began a siege of a different nature. The absence of Clark weakened the resistance on the part of the girl, who did not fully understand the situation with the aspiring young officer who had thus been removed from her. In time there was a wedding in the Jarboe home, and when the fiddlers began the music the hale old warrior with the blushing Elizabeth led the dance - an early festivity in the history of Clark County.

While the future seemed to hold for the Kentons only the promise of happiness and prosperity, the honeymoon had not ended when clouds appeared that darkened the rest of their lives. In his younger days General Kenton had located rich lands in Kentucky, and while that country remained a wilderness there was no question about the validity of his title. However, when the tide of emigration set in and thousands of settlers arrived, those human gadflies whom Sergeant Prentice designated as "peripatetic lawyers," began an examination of records, thus scenting profit for themselves and ruin for others. Kenton was ignorant concerning legal formalities, it was his intention to claim the property, but the title to one tract after another was declared void until he found that he had nothing. Believing himself rich he had sold some of the land for a trifle, and now judgments in excess of what he had received were piled up against him.

The claims against Kenton were the basis of much persecution, and like a common criminal he was pursued from pillar to post, being compelled to do time in prison because of his generosity toward others. In those years of sorrow and disaster, Elizabeth was faithful to her obligation. While the squalid poverty she was compelled to endure was enough to have crushed this sensitive, high-spirited woman, it was as nothing compared to the mortification of seeing her husband branded as a criminal, and to make ends meet she became a teacher by day and late at night she sat at the spinning wheel; she did weaving and sewing for the pittance allowed her by others, and many were the delicacies she carried to the incarcerated warrior. The old hero said that only for her consolation and sympathy, he never would have survived the long agony of humiliation.

While it is difficult to visualize the foregoing as belonging to Clark County history, the magazine referred to says: "At last, when human malice could no longer prevent it, General Kenton's prison doors were opened and he was restored to his family a free man, and we may imagine the joy that reigned in that bare little log cabin on the outskirts of Springfield." While they were poor, the Kentons divided the little they had with a horde of old hunters, nondescript wanderers and even with Indians who did not hesitate to seek their hospitality, notwithstanding the fact that the general had made war against them. Indeed, he deeply resented some of his treament at the hands of the Indians. Finally, Elizabeth prevailed upon the General to go to Kentucky and ask the state to restore to them some land that had been forfeited for taxes, hoping thereby to replenish the family exchequer. Whether or not she suggested the name of Springfield, she was an heroic frontier woman.

Simon Kenton went on foot to Kentucky, and when he reached Frankfort the old man who had made that capital a possibility wandered unknown, and an object of idle curiosity. When General Fletcher finally recognized him, the news spread that Simon Kenton was in town. Arrayed in a new suit of clothes, the next day he occupied the speaker's chair in the General Assembly, and listened to much oratory about himself. While there were eulogies and high-sounding resolutions, the Legislature did nothing but restore to him the worthless land, and yet it was a proud day when he came riding back to Springfield on the fine horse presented to him by General Fletcher. The pension he received was later secured for him by friends, from the general government. While it was small, in the hands of the prudent Elizabeth it served to keep the wolf from the door, and the story has already been told of the residence of the family in Logan County.

History is .replete with stories in the life of Simon Kenton, but because his career neither began nor ended in Clark County, only those of local significance have been chosen in this narrative of his adventures. It is known that Elizabeth Jarboe lived on Mad River from 1800 until the time of her marriage eighteen years later, and since they left Clark County in 1820, sufficient tribute has been paid them. When Simon Kenton was growing old, she nursed him with a tenderness that a mother bestows upon a child; she was holding his hands and whispering words of comfort when the shadows descended, and the soul of Simon Kenton passed - but the future is conjecture. That long ago, Clark County had few native sons and daughters who distinguished themselves, and the story of Elizabeth Jarboe Kenton is an inspiration; she never recovered from the effects of the Wow - the loss of her distinguished husband.

Chapter Iv

As long ago as 1790, all of Southwestern Ohio was in Hamilton County, and Fort Washington was the logical center of the community. Cincinnati sustained that relation many years later, until internal improvements changed conditions in the country.

By proclamation of Governor Arthur St. Clair, August 20, 1798, Ross County was organized with Chillicothe as its administrative center, and the area now in Clark County was transferred with it. On April 30, 1803, Franklin County was set off from Ross, and May 1 or one day later, Greene County was placed on the map drawing territory from both Hamilton and Ross, and until March 1 two years later this area was in Greene County. It remains for the student of local geography to locate Springfield, when its outline was established March 17, two years before the organization of Greene County. It is readily understood why Demint's plat of Springfield was withheld from the records for a time. Since Mrs. James Demint died within a year, her signature was unnecessary in establishing the purchaser's right to property.

While the first Constitution of Ohio remained on the statutes, there were many changes in county boundaries, and since any area comprising 400 square miles of territory could effect county organization, there were as many changes on the map of Ohio as the World war rendered possible on the map of Europe. On March 1, 1805, Champaign County came into existence, embracing the territory lying north from Greene County, and since the area extended north forty-two miles over a scope of territory twenty-five miles wide, it provided for trouble in the future, the area embracing 1,050 square miles of territory, while 400 square miles was the requirement.

When Champaign County came into existence, Springfield became the seat of government, and the first court was held in the home of George Fithian. However, county buildings were not erected because Urbana laid claim to the court privileges, and the citizens of that town were active in the removal of the seat of government. The Ohio Gazetteer of 1816, which contains the mention of Champaign County, says the name is descriptive - that it was applied because of the generally level and "champaign" face of the country, and since at that time Clark was included, some of the "champaign" faces may still be in the community. That was before the wet and dry issue in the country.

The Gazetteer says of original Champaign County, that part of the land is rather elevated and rolling, and later it lost ten townships to Clark, the new county coming into existence December 25, 1817, after twelve years as part of Champaign County. While the Ohio Assembly granted the request on Christmas day, the government of the new county was established January 1, 1818, with 2,097 voters concerned in Settling the question. Champaign County had numbered 10,485 inhabitants - too many people for one county, but since then there is a changed conception of density. The tax duplicate of the whole county had reached $2,445,557, and as yet no transcript is available of the amount of taxable property transferred to Clark County. In the office of the county auditor is a bundle of papers yellow with age, but no one has busied himself to determine the original Clark County tax duplicate ; it would involve some computation, and the papers are fragile already.

New counties were continually being placed on the map of Ohio until a second constitution was written, doing away with the custom, and Clark finally obtained its "place in the sun/' with twelve square miles surplus territory after securing territory from Champaign, Madison and Greene counties. While the final e was dropped in the name, it is understood that the new county was named in honor of General George Rogers Clark, who wrested the area from the Shawnees. The Ohio Assembly was inclined to honor Revolutionary patriots, recognizing the fifteen counties to the northwest which constitute the military group on the same day a few years later, and giving to them names of soldiers: Williams, Paulding and Van Wert, commemorating the captors of Major Andre, and a dozen other counties named for well-known soldiers. The fifteen counties were named, February 12, 1820, three years after the Ohio Assembly had honored the Revolutionary patriot with the name of Clark County.

Much credit is due Senator Daniel McKinnon of Champaign County who was instrumental in securing recognition of Clark County, and he became one of the first associate judges; as a reward for his effort, Joseph Tatman, who was then a representative in the Ohio Legislature, also became an associate judge, the system prevailing early of awarding honors to those who perform service. While the Clark County ship of state has weathered many gales, some of the most prominent men in the Commonwealth of Ohio were interested in launching it. Moses and Ichabod Corwin, who were members of the local bar, were active in promoting the organization, and it is said that Governors Kirker, Looker, Worthington, Morrow, McArthur, Lucas and Vance were all friendly to the enterprise. The discussion had been before the Assembly before, and when the new county was recognized the members disbanded to enjoy their Christmas dinners. Christmas has a double significance in Clark County.

Broadly speaking, Clark County is in the Miami Valley since the Big Miami is to the west, and the Little Miami crosses one corner of the county, and with their tributary streams drainage does not present any complications at all. It is an irregular oblong with its greatest length along the Clark-Champaign border, and there is not a straight line on its boundary; it has four varying widths, and the jogs are explained by some because land owners were allowed their choice of remaining in other counties. While it is surrounded by five counties, owing to the irregularities of outline, Clark is bounded north by Champaign, east by Madison, south by Madison and Greene, and west by Greene, Montgomery and Miami counties. A study of the Symmes and Ludlow surveys explains some of the boundary irregularities, and the Ludlow line across Clark County occasions many survey difficulties. "Some one walked crooked while carrying a chain," was the off-hand statement of a Clark County civil engineer, and then he told of John Cleves Symmes and Israel Ludlow; the Ludlow brothers were Israel and Mansfield, and both had to do with local surveys in early history. The Virginia Military Land Grants lie east from the Ludlow line and extend to the Scioto River, including part of Clark, Madison and Franklin counties, while the Symmes survey extends to the Big Miami, and Clark Countv engineers have two standards of measurements in the same county. There is much irregularity connected with the military survey, soldiers locating where the land suited them and the surveyors working around them. When General Clark asked for some of this land, the State of Virginia offered him a sword. When the Government census was taken in 1820, there were but ninety-four houses in Clark County, and the towns were Springfield, South Charleston, Monroe (New Carlisle), Lisbon and New Boston. There had been twenty townships in Champaign County, but Clark was organized with ten: Pleasant, Harmony, Madison, Greene, Springfield, Moorefield, German, Mad River, Bethel and Pike, and owing to the Virginia land grants the same irregularities are apparent in the boundaries, as are mentioned on the boundary of the county.

In the United States many of the counties are divided into townships five, six, seven or perhaps ten miles square, and the inhabitants are vested with certain powers of regulating their own affairs, such as the care of the poor or repairing the roads; the township is subordinate to the county. While the townships and towns will receive due attention, in this survey everything is written in terms of Clark County. "I am the vine and ye are the branches," is the relation sustained between the county and its integral parts, the air and the water being the same in the different communities.

The trees, the streams and the wild life of the forest know nothing of boundaries, and yet in a general way everything is given its locality. There is so much repetition in the description of the different townships in detail that space is otherwise used, and community movements are county wide in their significance. In Clark County there is evidence of the Moundbuilders as well as the American Indians, and while Indians once came to the doors of the settlers, there are few who relate such stories today. While the Shawnees and other tribes will always be regarded with some degree of admiration by the student of United States history, their story now belongs wholly to the past in Clark County.

Since the Shawnee Village of Piqua was in the area now designated as Bethel Township, its history begins with August 8, 1780, and it is the oldest bailiwick, John Paul having located there ten years later, and there being a number of settlers along Mad River before the end of the eighteenth century.

When the Greenville treaty was signed in 1795, there was immediate purchase of land, Patten Short of Cincinnati being early to invest, and Israel Ludlow also recognizing the opportunity. While Kreb and Brown were squatters, David Lowry and Jonathan Donnel were among the first permanent citizens; their names are household words in Clark County history. When they had located their claims, Lowry named z

While Donnel and Lowry came into the community together as members of a surveyor's crew, Jonathan Donnel was several years older than David Lowry. While Lowry gave attention to other things, Donnel was a farmer, maintaining his farm in a high state of cultivation by his own labor; he raised grapes and made them into wine long before the Catawba grape was on the market, or others had learned the wealth of the soil along Mad River.

In 1812 Jonathan Donnel committed suicide, and although a marker was procured it was never placed at his grave. Ill health and partial insanity explain his act, and the circumstances surrounding his death cast a gloom over the whole community. He hung himself in the spring house, and for eighty years the marker for his grave lay in the spring house loft, finally being transferred to the rooms of the Clark County Historical Society in Springfield.

After an unsuccessful venture shipping pork by water to Cincinnati and Southern markets, Mr. Lowry spent the remainder of his life on the farm, where he lived in ease and comfort, his habits and manners free from the vices so prevalent, such as drunkenness and profanity. The Lowry home was known for its hospitality, and friends of the family made frequent visits there. Mr. Lowry used the by-word, "By Grimany," so often that it became his nick-name, and at the age of ninety-two he died a much loved man by the community.

In the chapter on transportation is a detailed description of Mr. Lowry's attempt to market a boat load of venison hams, soon after he located on Mad River, and of John Jackson leaving the country by boat in 1825 with his wife Nellie Lowry. While the Lowry farm carried the identity of its original owner through many years, the Donnel farm soon became known as the Keifer homestead, and a contemporary was William Taylor who came from Pennsylvania. While Kentuckians predominated in early history, Lowry and Taylor were from the Keystone state, and both left their mark on the community. The Taylors had eleven children - five sons and six daughters, and Mr. Taylor secured enough land to give a farm to each of them.

Other residents of Bethel who came early were: Hughel, Husted, Minnick, Croft, Brandenburg, McKinney, Confer, Lamme, Leffel, Smith, Funderburg, Miller, Moorehouse, Wood, Steele, Hersey, Rayburn, Cram, Phillips, Muzzy, Robbins, Ramsey, Littlejohn, Layton and Keifer. While the late directory would not show all these names, within a few years there were many others who are still represented in the community. '

The community centers in Bethel are : New Carlisle, Medway, Donnelsville, Anlo and Forgy or Olive Branch. In the beginning New Carlisle had the name of Monroe, but when in 1810 William Rayburn of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, acquired the unplatted property, he changed the name of the town. It is an old town, having within its borders three centenary churches and a Masonic lodge organized in 1831, which ninety years later was building its future home.

New Carlisle is a good residence community, its citizens being close to Springfield, Troy and Dayton, but its industrial possibilities have not been developed; the town does not afford labor opportunities, although the Shellabarger tannery one time received raw hides in exchange for leather, and buggies were once manufactured in New Carlisle. It goes without saying that the community need is taken care of in a business and professional, as well as religious and educational way, and it is the home of many who are retired from business activities.

Medway and Donnelsville have their business and social activities like the "cities of the plains." New Boston was once a thriving center at the head of navigation on Mad River; it rivaled Springfield, and for a time was touted as a possible seat of government in Clark County. The story goes that it came within one vote, but Springfield had the advantage of geographical location; it was nearer the center. Today a cemetery enclosed with an iron fence and with two or three good gravestones in it, remind the passerby of the town.

The 1920 census report for "Bethel Township including Donnelsville and New Carlisle villages" indicates a population numbering 3,171, which shows a decrease of ninety-four persons in ten years. In 1840 the popu- lation was 2,033, and in forty years covering the period of the Civil war and the reconstruction, it increased by 1,198, showing a population of 3,131 in 1880, which was within forty persons of the number shown by the last census. Since Bethel Township has no manufacturing center, there is not much change in its numerical development.

Since Mad River borders Moorefield Township, and some of the early settlers located there in 1799, half a dozen Kentucky familes were in that locality, and among those who came early were. Humphreys, Ward, Kenton, Richards, Jarboe, Moore, Robinson, Bishop, Cornell, Crabill, Baner, Foley, McBeth, McDaniels, Shultz, Lemon, Smith, Wood, Craig, Miller, Cantrel, Reese and Fall.

While in Champaign County, Moorefield was regarded as an aggressive community; there are Congress lands in the west part. The community centers are : New Moorefield, Eagle City, Bowlusville and Villa.

In 1840 Moorefield had 1,073 people, and in forty years its gain was 272, showing a population of 1,345 in 1880, while the 1920 census shows a population numbering 1,296, and indicating a loss of forty-nine in forty years against the gain as shown in the last century. In 1920 there were two more persons in the township than at the last count. Moorefield is wholly dependent upon its agriculture, and it is not a fluctuating community.

The township takes its name from the river separating it from Bethel, and because of water power advantages Mad River had mills and distilleries early ; as early as 1800, James Galloway, who was the first blacksmith, brought his anvil on a "lizard," and he soon acquired 1,000 acres of land. Most of the settlers claimed an entire section, and why not? - there were none to gainsay their claims.

Among the early arrivals were: Galloway, Layton, Williams, McKinney, Woods, Blieu and Campbell, and a little later came Shreve, Miller, Crawford, Palmer, Baker, Bracken, Cory, Rose, Hoyt, Huff, Haines, Ludley, Rogers, Broadis, Gillen, Monfort, Daily, Kile, Level, Shank, and since the river industries are abandoned, Mad River is devoted to agriculture.

The community centers are: Enon, Husted, Limestone City, Cold Springs, Snyderville and Hennessey. No town in the county has more substantial, old-fashioned houses and they stand flush with the street, than Enon. While it has railroad communication with the outside world, the station is removed some distance from the town. The unusual attraction at Enon is the mound which is the largest in Clark County. The other towns are more accessible than Enon.

In 1840 Mad River had 1,339 residents within its borders, and forty years later it had gained 473, making a population in 1880 of 1,812, while the last census shows a population of 2,370, the increase amounting to ninety-three in ten years. There is no decline indicated in the population of Mad River.

Mad River also had part of the early development of German Township, settlers locating there in 1802, when the Congress lands were on the market. It was cheap land, and by paying down 50 cents an acre, the settler was unlimited in acreage. While the name would indicate German lineage, it is said the settlers were from Kentucky and lafer from Virginia.

In the stress of wdr time patriotism when the word German was eliminated from so many communities, there was talk of changing the name, but wiser judgment prevailed and the traditions remain. Among the pioneers were: Rector, McKinley, Storms, Adams, Cowshick, Thompson, Ross, Chapman, Weaver, Oliver, Nicholson, Simms, Peck, Pence, Over, Bechtel, Munsey, Haller, Keplinger, Knisely, Kirer, Richards, and Neff. It is said that Mrs. Sarah Rector who was a widow with ten children was among the early arrivals.

The community centers are: Lawrenceville and Tremont City, the latter originally called Clarksville from the inclination to use the name of the county in the name of the town.

In 1840 there were 1,667 people in German, and 433 additional persons gave it a population numbering 2,100 in 1880, while in 1920 it had dropped back to 1,827, which was a loss of seventy-eight persons in ten years. Agriculture is the occupation.

While Pleasant Township is removed from Mad River and from the earliest settlement in the county, in 1803, there was a nucleus of a community. When Joseph Coffey and sons, Tatom and Joseph, Jr., arrived from Pennsylvania, they camped out for three months finally buildjng a cabin ; a short time later a cousin, Isaac Egmond and family joined them, and then came McConkey,. Neer, Hedrick, Lafferty, Dawson, Runyan, Baugmardner, Abrogast, Gilmore, Hunter, Cartmell, Saylor and Bimyard.

The greatest elevation of Clark County is found in Pleasant Township, and with the knolls and the military land grants, there are many irregularities in local surveys, and yet good farms are found there.

The one business center is Catawba, and because of its distance from other towns, it has its quota of business and professional citizens. It is said the main street in Catawba is an Indian trail, and while isolated all business and social advantages are found there.

In 1840, there were 1,092 people in Pleasant and in forty years the gain was 489, giving it a total of 1,581 persons in 1880, while in 1920 the number had dropped to 1,268 which showed an increase of fifteen in the last ten years. The twentieth century does not show much growth in Pleasant, and the source of income is agriculture.

When this township was part of Greene County it was called Bath, but when Clark became an organized county the name was changed in order to perpetuate its past history. Its first settler, Jacob Garlaugh, came in 1807, buying Congress land and finding a squatter, Cady Toll, living on it. While he had cleared an acre of ground and planted it in turnips, there was no house between the site and Springfield. It was a wilderness of prairie and forest. Garlaugh was a year in advance of his family, although he became a permanent citizen.

Other settlers were: Patten, Steele, Cowan and Smith, the latter coming from Tennessee when he was seventy-seven, and finding two squatters on the land he had purchased ; they were Fullom and Runyan, and they had cleared five acres- and built a cabin. In dispossessing them, it is said that Smith paid them for their improvements. Since he came in 1811 he was never a citizen of Greene County. Other settlers contemporary were: Elder, Hempleman, Steepleton, Galloway, Stewart, James, Samuels, John, Luse, Forbus, Brooks, Bates, Lewis, Davis, Stowbridge, Wilson and Hansbraugh.

In 1840 there were 1,059 people in Greene Township, and the gain was 465 when in 1880 the population was 1,524, and including part of Clifton the count in 1920 reached 1,347, showing a decline of 177 between 1880 and 1920, with a gain of six persons in ten years.

While there were squatters prior to 1807, Henry Storms was the first settler in Harmony Township, and there is a saying that many of the early settlers there were from New England. Three big investors in the military lands were McCarthy, Galloway and Wallace, and while McCarthy did his own surveying, Matthew Bonner did the work for Wallace ; where there were squatters, it is said the lines were run around them, and that explains some of the irregularities.

Community centers: South Vienna, Harmony, Brighton, Plattsburg, Lisbon, Thorpe and Royal. Since the township is crossed by the national road, there are tavern landmarks outside the towns as Buena Vista. While John Reeder was carrying the chain for Surveyor John Stewart in establishing Lisbon, he overheard the remark : "Springfield would probably become a large town if it were not so close to Lisbon/'

When John Nicholson came to Harmony, he brought along a yoke of oxen, some cows and thirty head of sheep with sufficient grain to tide him over until he produced a crop ; he planted fifteen acres the first year, and Harmony has always been a foremost township in agriculture. The flock of sheep attracted wolves, and Nicholson had his difficulties in guarding them.

In 1840 the population had attained to 1,645, and in the forty years elapsing till the census in 1880, when 1,846 were reported, it had gained 201, but forty years later when the census was taken in 1920, showing a population of 1,802, there was a loss of forty-four although in the previous decade the township had gained six persons.

While Madison was once known as Stokes Township, and in Madison County, its first development was the plat of Charleston, November 1, 1815, it becoming a matter of record February 5, 1816, in London. September 19, 1818, was the time of the first election in Clark County. It was held in the home of George Searlott, the hamlet having been in existence three years. It was named for Charles Paist who was its first merchant. Because of mail difficulties it was later designated as South Charleston.