Warren County Historical Society

WARREN COUNTY, OHIO, AND SOME OF ITS CITIZENS

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN FOR THE WARREN COUNTY  BICENTENNIAL BY MR . JOHN ZIMKUS AND THE HONORABLE PAT SOUTH,  WARREN COUNTY COMMISSIONER.  WE THANK YOU FOR PERMISSION  TO USE IT.

The early pioneers and settlements are the foundation of Warren County’s rich history. So on our county’s Birthday, we celebrate the communities and people of our past and present.

Ohio was the first state created from the Northwest Territory on February 19, 1803 and established on March 1, 1803. Warren County was established by an act of the first General Assembly of the State of Ohio, passed March 24, 1803. It was one of the first twelve counties formed in the new State of Ohio from a portion of what had been Hamilton County. It was named for General Joseph Warren who was a physician and Major General during the American Revolution. He lost his life at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

What is now Warren County, 2,000 years ago was home to the prehistoric Hopewell culture. They settled on the high bluffs overlooking the Little Miami River and along its banks. Later the area became hunting grounds for the historic Miami, Shawnee and Fort Ancient Indian tribes. A portion of that area today has been preserved and is known as the Ft. Ancient State Park.

1750 brought one of the first Europeans to see the county, the frontiersman and the surveyor Christopher Gist. When the American Revolution came to an end, the area became part of the Northwest Territory. The territorial capital was nearby Cincinnati. After the Treaty of Greenville was signed with the Indians in August of 1795, hundreds of settlers flooded into the rich Little Miami and Great Miami valleys of Warren County.

Those who settled east of the Little Miami River were in the Virginia Military Lands. They were mostly veterans of the Revolution from Virginia. They were rewarded for their service to their young nation by being given land in the Ohio County. The pioneers who homesteaded between the Great Miami and the Little Miami rivers from the northern part of Lebanon south to the Ohio River were mostly from New Jersey. They bought land in Judge Cleves’, Symmes Miami Purchase.

Warren County is known for its production of two very important products. It is not only still known today for its fertile, rich soils and ample water supplies that allow agriculture to remain our leading industry 200 years later, but is equally know for its production and cultivation of leadership, serving the local, state, national and international levels of our government. Warren County was well represented in the 1801 Territorial Legislature and the Ohio Constitution Convention. She produced military heroes, U.S. Ambassadors, Governors, State & US Cabinet Members, Supreme Court Justices and candidates for the U.S. Presidency.

Quakers from Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas settled in the northern part of our county and were attracted here largely because Ohio, like the rest of the Northwest Territory, prohibited slavery. The first Shakers arrived to the county in 1804.

In 1803 Ichabod Corwin built the first Warren County courthouse. It was a log structure known as the Black Horse Tavern. It was not only the courthouse and a tavern, but traveling merchants brought their woven materials, sugar, spices and whatever else that could be transported easily and set up shop at the Tavern. At that time it was located between Silver and Mulberry Streets on the east side of Broadway in Lebanon.

December 23, 1803 – Jonas Seaman purchased a license at the Black Horse Tavern for four dollars to open “a house of public entertainment.” Located on Lot No. 58 in Lebanon, it was for a log cabin tavern, which he called the Golden Lamb. Today it is recognized as Ohio’s oldest inn and its oldest business in continual operation.

April 2, 1804 – Matthias Corwin, William James, and Robert Benham are elected the first Warren County Commissioners on this first Monday in April 1804. They met at the Black Horse Tavern and one of the first actions taken by the Board was to erect a county jail. In that same year, Franklin’s first post office was built. It still stands today as a reminder of our past.

January 3, 1806 – The first official Warren County Courthouse was accepted from its builder, Samuel McCray. The cost was $1,450. It is located on the northeast corner of Lebanon’s town square. It was 36 foot square and two stories high. The lower floor was the courtroom. The upper floor had three compartments for the county officials. A cupola was added in 1812. In 1835, the Commissioners dedicated the county’s 3rd courthouse that still stands today on the corner of North East & East Silver Street in Lebanon. Original cost was $25,000. In 1829, the Commissioners purchased 108 acres of land on the outskirts of Lebanon for an Infirmary. That farmland today is home to the Warren County Government Campus.

While Warren County ranked first in the State for new job creation between 1975-1995 and has consistently ranked the second fastest growing county in the State of Ohio for the last decade, realizing a 40% growth rate, we take great pride in the fact that 60% of our county’s land mass remain used as farmland, park, open space and recreation. Tourism, Farming and Manufacturing are our top three industries. Two Hundred years after Warren County was established, she still retains a historically preserved and charming ambience of days gone-by – a feature that has retained generations of families and attracts so many new people who call Warren County – “Home.”

THE HISTORY OF LEBANON, OHIO
by John J. Zimkus
Historian of the Warren County Historical Society

Lebanon, Ohio was first laid out by four pioneer settlers in September 1802. One hundred lots were carved out of a primitive forest of white oak, black walnut, elm and sycamore trees that had a thick undergrowth of spice brush. The town, cradled between Turtle Creek and its North Fork, was four and one half blocks long, a mere three blocks wide.

Broadway and Main streets intersected in the middle of the plot and were the only streets named at the time. Broadway was “6 poles wide,” a pole being 5 1/2 yards. All the other streets were measured at 4 poles. Broadway was always intended to be “a broad way” so that stagecoaches could turn completely around.

The boundaries of the first Lebanon were Silver Street to the north, South Street to the south, Water Street to the west, and the alley between Cherry and East streets to the east. The four lots at the corner of Broadway and Main were reserved as the town square. Today two of the lots are still open areas or parks, and the other two are public buildings – the city hall and the public library.

Settlers first arrived after the Treaty of Greenville was signed in August 1795. General “Mad” Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians, in the summer of 1794, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, near what is now Toledo. The following year at Fort Greenville the Indians signed the treaty opening southern Ohio to settlement. The first settler, in what is now Lebanon, was Ichabod Corwin, one of the city’s four founding fathers. He and his family came in March of 1796. He built a cabin where Berry Intermediate School now stands on North Broadway. Here he cleared twelve acres to plant corn. Today there is a monument to him in front of the school.

Most of Lebanon lies within what was once the Symmes Purchase. Judge John Cleves Symmes, from New Jersey, had purchased 330,000 acres between the Miami and Little Miami rivers. He then sold sections of land to settlers. The Symmes Purchase, or Miami Purchase as it is also known, went from Cincinnati north to what in now Monroe Road in Lebanon.

Francis Dunlavy, the first teacher in the Miami Valley, came to what would be Lebanon in 1798. He opened his subscription school on what is now East Main Street. He taught only boys and held school six days a week. In 1799 he left teaching when he was elected to the Northwest Territory legislature. A few years later he would be one of the principal writers of Ohio’s first constitution. In 1803 he began the first of two seven-year terms as president judge. His circuit covered ten counties in southwest Ohio.

Jonas Seaman, in December 1803, opened a log cabin tavern in Lebanon under the sign of the Golden Lamb. The inn changed names and owners several times during the 1800s and had several additions. Its fourth floor was added in the late 1870s to house the workers bringing the railroad to Lebanon. Over the years thousands have experienced the hospitality of its congenial hosts. Twelve presidents have visited there as well as such literary giants as Charles Dickens, Samuel Clemens and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Today it is honored as Ohio’s oldest inn.

Lebanon was chosen to be the temporary county seat of Warren County in 1803. The county court was first held in the Black Horse Tavern. The cabin was built by Ichabod Corwin in 1800 and was the first one in the original Lebanon plat. It was located on the east side of Broadway between Silver and Mulberry streets. Corwin later sold it to Ephraim Hathaway who operated the tavern.

Later, in 1805, after Lebanon was selected as the permanent county seat, Samuel McCray was commissioned to build a real courthouse. It was on the northeast corner of the town square, where the city building is today. In 1835 a new courthouse was built on Silver Street. The old Broadway courthouse then became Lebanon’s town hall. A fire unfortunately destroyed it in 1874. It was replaced by a magnificent Gothic-style structure known as the Opera House in 1878. The Opera House was not only the town hall, but also served as the town library and theater. It had a 1200 seat auditorium on its second floor and held plays, concerts, lectures, readings, minstrel performances, magic shows, films and even operas. Early Christmas morning in 1932 a mysterious fire destroyed this beautiful building.

In 1807 John McLean began The Western Star newspaper in Lebanon. Still being published today, it is recognized as Ohio’s oldest weekly paper. The same year McLean started The Western Star, he became a lawyer. He would soon enter politics and would eventually serve both his state and country. He was elected to the U.S. Congress and later chosen to sit on Ohio Supreme Court bench. President John Quincy Adams would appoint him the U.S. postmaster general. McLean would end his long governmental career serving 31 years as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

By far Lebanon’s favorite son during the 1800s was Thomas Corwin. He was a nephew of one of Lebanon’s founders, Ichabod Corwin. Thomas came to the area with his family in 1798 at the age of four. He grew to become one of our nation’s greatest “stump speakers.” His eloquence and wit were known throughout the country. His political positions covered local, state, and federal government. He was the prosecuting attorney of Warren County, a member of the Ohio General Assembly, a U.S. congressman, governor of Ohio, a U.S. senator, secretary of the treasury of the United States, and President Lincoln’s minister to Mexico. While serving in most of these positions, his home was on Main Street in Lebanon in what we call today the Corwin House.

In 1855 Alfred Holbrook started the Southwest Normal School in Lebanon. The normal school, a teachers college, began its first session on November 24 that year in the Lebanon Academy building. The academy building still stands today on New Street, near the Lebanon post office. The normal school flourished for 60 years, attracting as many as 3,000 students in a single year. It occupied approximately a dozen buildings in Lebanon. The largest was the Lyceum, which was built in 1881. Torn down in 1977, it was located on the site of the Presbyterian Church’s Kingdom Hall on East Street.

In 1870 the school’s name was changed to the National Normal School and 11 years later to the National Normal University, the name by which it was best known. By this time, it was the largest normal school in Ohio. It attracted such students as Cordell Hull from Tennessee, who would become Franklin D. Roosevelt’s secretary of state and known as the “Father of the United Nations;” Albert B. Graham, founder of the 4-H Club; Myers Y. Cooper, governor of Ohio from 1929 to 1931; and the beloved Lebanon teacher, Lucile Blackburn Berry. In 1907 its designation as a “normal school” was dropped and it was called Lebanon University.

The University finally closed in 1915 when it could no longer compete with church and tax supported colleges. By that time, some 80,000 graduates had passed through its doors.

The N.N.U. was not Lebanon’s first involvement with a university. In 1809 the Ohio Legislature authorized a three-person commission to find a site for an institution of higher learning within the Miami Purchase. It would be known as Miami University. Several places were considered. Two of the commissioners met with Ichabod Corwin of Lebanon. Corwin offered 40 acres of land for the site of the university. The two commissioners accepted his offer. One was so delighted with the selection that he carved on a white oak on the proposed property the initials “M.U.V.” They stood for Miami University. The land he offered is now the Lebanon Cemetery.

Many cities, and villages were upset that they were not chosen. The Ohio Legislature decided to make peace by giving the university to none of them. In 1810 they picked an empty area on the college township in Butler County for the site. They then ordered that the town of Oxford be laid out. Beer’s History of Warren County, Ohio, written in 1882, states that “it has been the opinion of eminent lawyers that Miami University was legally located at Lebanon, . . . No attempt, however has been made to remove the institution from Oxford.”

Today much of Lebanon’s architectural heritage is preserved today in four historic districts recognized by the National Register of Historic Places in Washington D.C. Lebanon is also the home of two excellent museums, both operated by the Warren County Historical Society. The Warren County History Center is famous for its Village Green shops and the Robert and Virginia Jones Shaker Gallery. The Glendower Mansion is a beautiful Greek Revival home that was built around 1840.

The city’s charm and beauty have been showcased twice in major Hollywood motion pictures. In 1977 part of Harper Valley PTA starring Barbara Eden was filmed here. For the movie Lebanon, Ohio changed its name, but only for one week. It became Harper Valley, Ohio. Berry Middle School got into the act by playing the role of Harper Valley High School. Two of the greatest features of the film, as far as our city is concerned, were the opening and closing credits. They were shown over beautiful helicopter shots of Lebanon and the surrounding area.

Milk Money was filmed here it the fall of 1993. Its star was Melanie Griffith. For this movie Lebanon not only changed its name, it changed states! For over a month all the sign in town read “Middleton, Pennsylvania.” This included the large “Welcome to Lebanon, Ohio” sign in our town square. Both films used scenes that were filmed in the Village Ice Cream Parlor on Broadway across from the Golden Lamb.

It has been said that Lebanon has “a Colonial atmosphere unusual in the Midwest.” Its reputation as a quaint and picturesque community, with scores of delightful antique and specialty shops, is known throughout the region. The history of this beautiful city is not only quite vivid but also very evident to all who visit it. The pride the people of Lebanon have in their city’s past is equaled only by their faith in its future.

CLEARCREEK TOWNSHIP

On October 17, 1815, Clearcreek Township was organized from portions of Franklin and Wayne townships. It is named after a stream that flows through it east to west and empties into the Great Miami River. The township lies along the northern boundary of Warren County and abuts Montgomery County. Settlement in the area of the township dates from 1795.

The principal settlement in the township is Springboro, which was surveyed by Jonathan Wright in 1816. It was named Springboro due to the number of springs in the area. Wright established several businesses and as well had a large farm there. Springboro was incorporated as a city in the later part of the 20th century.

Jonathan Wright was born in Pipe Creek, Frederick County, Maryland. His parents, Joel and Elizabeth, were married at the Quaker Meeting House north of Gettysburg in Menallen Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania. They later moved to the Pipe Creek area where Joel taught for some years. In 1806, after his wife’s death, Joel and his son Jonathan moved to Warren County, Ohio. Joel had purchased a large tract of land in the county while on a survey trip there. Joel did the surveying for the towns of Dayton and Columbus in Ohio, as well as for Lexington, Kentucky.

There are a number of smaller unincorporated communities in Clearcreek Township, which include Ridgeville and Red Lion. Ridgeville was laid out by the father of future U.S. Supreme Court Justice, John McLean. William Ballard set up the first match factory west of the Allegheny Mountains in Red Lion in 1840 and operated the factory there until around 1862.

The Miami Valley College was established near Springboro in 1870 and operated there for a number of years. Many of the organizers of the college were
Quakers. Quakers were strong abolitionists and many in the township were active in the Underground Railroad in the first half of the 1800s.

DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP

Deerfield Township’s name is derived from its many former “deer licks” – springs that had a saline content that supported a large deer population in the area. The township lies in the former Symmes or Miami Purchase. Early settlement dates from the late1790s. The township was established on May 10, 1803.

Originally the township included more than half of Turtlecreek Township, all of Union Township, and all of Salem Township north of the Little Miami River. Today, Deerfield Township occupies the southwest portion of Warren County. It is the most heavily developed township in the county.

During the first 40 years of its existence, “Overseers of the Poor” were elected. Their function was to see to the welfare of the township citizens who were unable to make a living. The “Overseers,” in essence, “sold” the care of these citizens to the lowest bidder. The buyers were then responsible for these citizens for a year. The township also had a practice for some years of expelling those it thought would commit crimes and/or become a burden on it. The township would issue warrants on these individuals telling them to leave it.

In the early 1800s,the township was such an important crossroads for travel and commerce that road building, linking it to Cincinnati and points elsewhere, began soon after it was established. Later in the 19th century, an organization was formed called “The Horse Rangers.” Its mission was the maintenance of the laws of the township, the detection of villainy and outlawry and the pursuit of the perpetrators. The group recovered over 20 stolen horses and most of those involved in their thefts. This resulted in similar group’s creation in the Twenty Mile Stand area in the southern part of the township.

Mason is the primary community in the township. William Mason, a Revolutionary War veteran, purchased a square mile of land in 1815 and platted it as Palymra. After his death, the name of the town was changed to Mason. It was incorporated as a village in 1840. Over the years, Mason grew quite substantially, covering more than 11,000 acres. It was incorporated as a city in 1971 and in 1997 it withdrew from the township.

The company that would become the King Powder Company and Peters Cartridge Company began around 1850 by Ahimaaz King. By 1878, it relocated to an area a few miles east of Mason in the sheltered valley of the Little Miami River. Mr. King built a complete village, Kings Mill, for his workers, with homes and schools for their families. During its period of operation, the company experienced several major explosions and large fires. The factories closed in 1958.

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP

Franklin Township, which lies in the northwest corner of Warren County, was formed on May 10, 1803 as one of the county’s four original township. The Great Miami River flows through it and was prominent in the development of the township and its two cities, Franklin and Carlisle. The river supported many mills and transported people and goods south to Cincinnati and north to Dayton.

Early settlement of the township dates back to 1802. In that year it had a Justice of the Peace. The settlement in the Carlisle area dates from about 1804.

Stagecoach transportation connected the township to both Cincinnati and Dayton in 1825. The opening of the Miami Canal in 1829, linking these two cities, also supported growth in Franklin Township.

The town of Franklin was surveyed, founded and laid out by General William Schenck in 1796. He and Daniel C. Cooper were partners that purchased most of the land in the area. Gen. Schenck later bought out his partner and became the sole proprietor of Franklin. A log cabin post office was established in Franklin in 1805. It still stands today as a museum. The village was incorporated in 1814 and became a city in 1951.
The Great Miami River flows through the area and at times had caused severe flooding. One of the worst took place in 1913. The state soon had a series of levees built along the river as a flood control measure. They stand today routing and controlling the river as it passes through the city of Franklin and the township. Beginning in the 1870s, the availability of cheap waterpower from the Great Miami River led to Franklin becoming a major paper production center.

One of Franklin’s prominent citizens, Major General Forrest Harding, served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He returned to Franklin after he retired. Harding was a moving force in the creation of the Franklin Area Historical Society. Upon his death, he donated his home and memorabilia to the society who turned it into its museum. The society also owns and operates the Log Cabin Post Office.

The Carlisle area had so many settlers that hailed from New Jersey that at one time it was called the Jersey Settlement. The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad built a line through the area in 1851. One of its vice presidents, George Carlisle, purchased land there and named the community after himself. Carlisle was incorporated as a village in 1863.

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP

When Warren County was established in 1803 it was divided it up into four townships of Deerfield, Franklin, Hamilton, and Wayne. At that time Hamilton
Township included all of the future Salem Township and most of what would be Washington Township. Salem Township was carved out of Hamilton Township in 1813. In June 1818 the present boundary between the two was created. Hamilton Township was originally part of the Virginia Military District.

The first settlement in the township took place at what came to called Mounts’ Station south of the Little Miami River late in 1795. The first crude school was erected about 1804. The Maineville Academy in Maineville opened in 1849 and served the area for many years. In 1874 it became a part of the area’s public school system.

The principal communities in the township are Maineville and Loveland. Early settlement in the Maineville area dates from 1815. Its’ name is derived from the large number of early settlers from the state of Maine. For years it was called “Yankee Town.” The town is located near the center of the township. Maineville was incorporated as a village in 1850. That same year saw a Cholera epidemic in the U.S. Over 50 people perished from it in the Maineville area.

The village of Loveland was incorporated in 1876 and was charted as a city in 1961. It lies at the southern edge of the township and Warren County. Loveland is also partly in Hamilton and Clermont counties. The city is named in memory of a former postmaster and merchant James Loveland. A Colonel Paxton from Kentucky is believed to be the first to settle in the Loveland area. The Underground Railroad had a route from the Cincinnati area through Loveland on its way northeast to Lebanon and Wayneville.

There are a number of smaller unincorporated communities in Hamilton Township including Zoar, Murdoch, Hopkinsville, and Cozaddale.

HARLAN TOWNSHIP

Harlan Township, occupying the southeast corner of Warren County, was established by an act of the Ohio Legislature in 1860. It was the last township created in the county. It was named after U.S. Representative Aaron Harlan. He represented Warren County in the U.S. Congress from 1853 to 1859. The township was formed from more than half of Salem Township. Both of the townships were originally part of the Virginia Military District. This district, and other similar areas west of the Alleghenies, was created by the U.S. Congress to spur growth and immigration in the Ohio country. It offered land to Virginian Revolutionary War veterans.

Settlements in the township date back to at least 1805. By 1809, county commissioners laid out plans for several roads in the township. One ran from the Little Miami River area, north of Morrow, south to a salt works in Clermont County.

In 1822, Edwardsville, the first community in Harlan Township, that was laid out in the northeast section of the township. The anticipated growth, however, did not occur and it failed.

Butlerville and Pleasant Plain were, and still are, the two primary communities in the township. Aaron Butler, who was originally from New England, laid out the plans for Butlerville in the 1830s. The village was incorporated in 1851. Samuel Craig laid out Pleasant Plain, south of Butlerville, in November 1852. He named it New Columbia, but the state later changed the name to Pleasant Plain. Both villages are located on Ohio Route 132, which runs northeast through the township.

The Methodist Episcopal Church, built Rossburg in 1825, was the first church in the township. Rossburg, however, did not prosper and soon died out as a community.

Harlan Township remains primarily an agricultural township.

MASSIE TOWNSHIP
Massie Township is located in the northeast corner of Warren County. It borders Wayne Township to the north and west, Washington Township to the south and
Clinton County to the east. It was formed from parts of Wayne and Washington townships in 1850.

The township was originally part of the Virginia Military District, which was reserved by the State of Virginia to satisfy the land warrants it issued in lieu of payment to its soldiers for their service during the Revolutionary War. Much of the area of eastern Warren County was included in the Virginia Military District.

Between 1787 and 1792, General Nathanial Massie of Virginia surveyed the township area for subsequent settlements by the former Virginian militiamen and their families. Settlers began moving into the township around 1800.

The Massie Township is well drained by Caesars Creek and its tributaries. In the 1970s, the State of Ohio created the Caesars Creek State Park as a critical flood control measure and watershed area for future population growth. It now encompasses nearly 8,000 acres and makes up more than half of the township.

Many of the settlers of Massie Township were members of The Society of Friends or Quakers. They settled throughout the northern section of the county. They established the first Quaker meetinghouse in the township near what would be the village of Harveysburg in 1820. For many years, the Quakers remained prominent in the area with settlements extending east into the adjoining Clinton County.

The first school in the township was a rough log house, and was established north of Harveysburg in 1817. It was well attended for many years. Harveysburg is the only village in the township. It is located on the eastern shore of the Caesars Creek Lake. Telephone communication with other communities in the county began in the early 1880s.

The Harvey family played an important role in many facets of life in the Massie Township for many years. In 1827 William Harvey bought the land where Harveysburg would be in 1827 and laid out the town in 1828. About 1831, Elizabeth Harvey opened the first free school for black children in Ohio. The Free Black School is now a museum in Harveysburg.

In 1837, Dr. Jesse Harvey, a self-taught scholar, cousin of William and husband of Elizabeth Harvey, built and set up, at his own cost, Harveysburg High School. He ran the school for a number of years and taught classes there as well. He had many interests, one of which was concern for the American Indians in the area. He spent much time helping the Shawnee tribe in the Wapakoneta area. His career and life ended in service to the Shawnee in the Kansas Territory where he died in 1848 while serving as Superintendent of the Friends School and Farm.

Today Harveysburg is the home of the Ohio Renaissance Festival.

SALEM TOWNSHIP

Salem Township is located a two miles southeast of Lebanon. The Little Miami River divides the township as it flows southwest toward the Ohio River.

The township was established in June 1813 from part of Hamilton Township. An addition to the township took place in 1818, with more territory from Hamilton Township. Then in 1860, a portion of Union Township, then north of it, was added, while, at the same time, Harlan Township was created from the southeast part of Salem Township.

The village of Morrow is the principal community in the township. Morrow was named in honor of Jeremiah Morrow. He was a local farmer who, over time, served as a representative and senator in the Ohio Legislature, as Governor of Ohio, as well as a U. S. Congressman and U. S. Senator. The town of Morrow was surveyed and plated in 1844 by the Little Miami River Railroad company, which was constructing a rail line through the area connecting it to Cincinnati. Jeremiah Morrow, at the time, was president of the Little Miami Railroad.

Morrow, and the rest of the township south of The Little Miami River, was surveyed as part of the Virginia Military District in the 1790s. Due to continuing problems with the Indians, immigration and settlements didn’t begin until the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in August 1795. Early settlements in the township date from the fall of 1795.

Roachester, near The Little Miami River, was the first, and once the largest, settlement in the township. It was created on land settled by the four sons of a Mr. Roach of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, who gave them the land. Roachester was platted in 1816. It became a thriving community of hotels, a post office, several dry goods and grocery stores as well as a number of different tradesmen, lawyers, and doctors. The community began to shrink due to the establishment of the village of Morrow southwest of it. Businesses and people in Rochester moved to the larger village. Today Roachester is an unincorporated community.

Edward Deerling Mansfield was a long time resident of Salem Township at his home called “Yamoden”, a mile north of Morrow. Mansfield graduated from West Point but chose to resign his commission and attend Princeton University. During his years there he taught constitutional law. He later became a distinguished editor and writer of newspapers and journals in Cincinnati. He was also well known as a statistician.

TURTLECREEK TOWNSHIP

Turtlecreek Township was named in part for a creek of that name that transits the county and for a former Chief of the local Miami Indian Tribe. The township was organized in August of 1804. At first it contained a part of the later Union Township and all of the future Salem Township, north and west of the Little Miami River. It is located in the center of the county and in area is the biggest township in the county. The county seat, the City of Lebanon, lies within the township.

The first settlement in the township was at Bedle’s Station in 1795, settled by the William Bedle family. The blockhouse they built as protection against Indian raids soon attracted more settlers to their area and the township. A John Shaw built the first cabin in the Lebanon area in 1795. Ichobad Corwin of Kentucky settled in the Lebanon area as well in 1796. In 1799/1800 he built a better and larger home in what would be the center of Lebanon and in a short time it began to serve as the first seat of justice in the county as well. Both Shaw and Corwin owned most of the land that would later be incorporated as the villiage of Lebanon. Late in the 1900s Lebanon was incorporated as a city. John McLean started the Western Star Weekly newspaper in 1807, the oldest such paper in Ohio. In 1805 the first jail and courthouse in the county were built and paid for by public subscription.

Jedediah Tingle, a grandfather of William Harmon, settled near the western edge of Lebanon in 1797. William Harmon was a prominent Lebanon citizen and in later life a well known philanthopist. In the late 1800s, he often used his grandfather’s name when making his gifts to communities to create parks and other public facilities.

The first school in Turtlecreek Township was started in 1798 just west of Lebanon. It was a rough log cabin. Thomas Corwin a future Governor of Ohio and a U. S. Senator was among the early students at the school.

In March of 1805, three strangers arrived in the township by way of Kentucky, from their home in New Lebanon, New York. They were members of the “Believer’s in Christ’s Second Appearance” (more commonly known as Shakers). They were scouting the area to establish a new Shaker community. They were so welcomed by local residents that the Shaker community of Union Village was established a few miles west of Lebanon in May of that year. In time Union village grew to more than 4000 acres and became a large and thriving self-sufficient community. It grew to be the largest Shaker community west of the Alleghanies. The community endured into the early 1900s when its last resident passed on. The Shaker movement as a whole experienced the same fate due in part to a lack of converts but more importantly due to their belief in celibacy. They were inventive, pacifists, generous and highly communal ( they were proud to be called Communists). They proved communism could work, in an agrarian setting, and in peace with the outer world.

In 1801-1803 the Great Revival swept through Warren County and Southwestern Ohio, and in the process it destroyed nearly all the Presbyterian churches in the area. The revival originated in Kentucky and soon blitzed many neighboring states. It featured very highly charged emotional services such that people lost control of their bodies and minds, very often ending up in apparent coma-like conditions from which most recovered without remembering what transpired. The services would cause them to throw their bodies about madly and convulse. They in part came to be called “Jerks” due to this. Many of the converts to the sect were from the Presbyterian church of the day, people who believed in living a simple plain strict life, abhoring personal adornments, etc. In time many later became Shakers. That name is derived from the energetic dancing that they incorporated into their worship services.

The village of Lebanon was laid out in 1802 and became the county seat. It was incorporated in 1810. It became a designated Post Office in 1805, its’ telegraph office opened in 1851, and telephone communications began in the area in 1880/1881.

Following a public lecture by a prominent apostle of Temperance from Boston in Feb. 1874, Lebanon was swept up into its own Temperance Crusade, with pledge signings, many evening meetings, and bands of singing women demonstrating and picketing in front and back of bars and other establishments (including drug stores) that had liquor. The women as well monitored traffic into the liquor dens and took down names of the men using those facilities. In early May, a elderly black woman began appearing daily in front of a saloon and then commenced to write down the patrons using the saloon, using different length marks to identify tall and short men and Negroes. The ploy worked, with the mirth and laughter this created in the city, it brought the Crusade to a quick end on May 15, 1874.

UNION TOWNSHIP

Union Township was created from portions of Turtlecreek and Deerfield Townships in Jan. of 1815. It is bordered by the City of Lebanon and the Townships of Turtlecreek, Salem, Hamilton, and Deerfield. In 1860, nine sections of Union Township were added to Salem Township. Union is the smallest township in the county.

The principal village in the township was and still is, South Lebanon. The village was originally named Deerfield but was later changed. It is probable that the village was laid out in 1795 with population moving into it in the following year.

The only case of capital punishment being carried out in Warren County took place on August 24, 1866, due to a heinous crime that took place in Union Township. Samuel Coovert of Middletown, was hung in the yard of the county jail in Lebanon on the above date. He was tried twice and convicted of the murder of three members of the Roosa family and their hired hand on Dec. 26, 1864.

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP

Washington Township was created in 1818 from part of Salem Township. In later years, portions of this township were carved off and became parts of Massie and Harlan Townships. Washington Township lies along the easter border of Warren County, bordering Turtlecreek Township on the west and Clinton County on the east. The township is named in honor of our first President.

There are no large villages population centers in the township-today population is scattered throughout it. It is very rural, with largely forested and swampy areas with an irregular topography. The township is well known for its’ number of ancient Indian mound-type settlements, with the most famous being the Fort Ancient mound complex in the Fort Ancient State Park on the western side of the township along the Little Miami River.

There were no regular Indian settlements in the township in the 1700s and the 1800s but the Shawnee, Delaware, and Miami tribes routinely hunted this area during this period.

The first settlement here was in 1797 along the Todd’s Fork Stream, close to the eastern boundry of the township. Settlers in the early 1800s yearly organized hunts for bear and deer, using horns and bells to drive the animals into selected areas to be killed. They also organized hog hunts in the fall and winter to gather in and kill them in order to slaughter them for food. Most domesticated animals were allowed to forage in the fields and forests during the year, hence the need for these hunts.

William Smalley was accounted to be one of the first residents of the township. Raised in Western Pennsylvania, he was captured by Delaware Indians as a youth near Fort Pitt (later to become Pittsburgh). He endured five harsh years of captivity and brutality including mutilation to both ears before he could escape. He moved to Ohio and served with the Army during the wars with the Indians there and was again captured by the Indians. Almost two years passed before he could make a successful escape. In 1794 he was hired as a guide and interpreter for Gen. “Mad Anthory” Wayne in his campaign against the Indians of Ohio. Following the Greenville treaty with the Indians ending the war, William Smalley returned to civilian life and moved to live near Morrow in Salem Township.

WAYNE TOWNSHIP

The area of Wayne Township was purchased by a partnership of John Smith, Samuel Highway, and Evan Banes in Feb. 1796 from John C. Symmes. Symmes some years earlier purchased a large portion of land in southwest Ohio, some of which would later become Warren County. The area purchased by the partners covered the northeast portion of the future Warren County and extended east as far as Wilmington in what would later become Clinton County. Wayne Township at the time of the purchase extended west to what would later become Franklin Township in the northwest corner of Warren County. In 1804 Turtlecreek Township in Warren County was formed; in this a southern section of Wayne Township was taken to help form that township. Subsequent to this, Clearcreek and Massie Townships were formed in the county and took additional land from Wayne Township to accomplish this. In 1806, Easton Township of Clinton County was organized by taking the land in Wayne Township east of Caesar’s Creek.

Wayne Township was organized in May of 1803. It is named after the settlement of Waynesville which lies in the center of this township. Waynesville continues today to be the largest community in the township.

Samuel Highway emigrated to Philadelphia from England. He was a wealthy man. In Sept. 1796, he began his ardous trek to the Wayne Township area by horse, wagon, and boat. He traveled to Baltimore to purchase supplies and wagons and then headed to Fort Pitt (later Pittsburgh) and then on to Cincinnati and finally arrived in the township area in March of 1797.

In 1805 The Society of Friends (Quakers) settlers built the first church in the township in the village of Waynesville. The first school in the township was built in 1802. In 1838 a turnpike (toll road) was built that connected Cincinnati, Lebanon, the township, and Springfield.

A smaller community, Corwin, was established in 1844, close to Waynesville. It was named in honor of Thomas Corwin of Lebanon, who among his many elective offices, was a Governor of Ohio and a U. S.Senator.