Miami Powder Company

Near the village of Goes Station in Greene County, along the banks of the Little Miami River there once was a thriving gun powder plant. It provided good paying but dangerous jobs.

A dam and millrace on the Little Miami were constructed for a scythe factory about 1825 by the Chapman brothers. It supplied water power to the industry.

A few years later the Little Miami Railroad was built. This provided the site with convenient transportation.

The scythe factory was purchased about 1846 by Alvin and Lorenzo Austin and Benjamin Carlton. They founded the Austin & Carlton Powder Company.

Joseph W. King bought an interest in the company in1852. Then, in 1855, he purchased full rights. King renamed it the Miami Powder Company. He bought new machinery and built more buildings

During Miami Powder Company’s first year 4364 kegs of rifle powder and 1303 kegs of blasting powder were produced. In 1864, during the Civil War, the factory supplied black powder to the Union Army. The total production was 10,000 kegs of rifle powder a year, and 3,800 kegs of blasting powder.

After the war, the demand for rifle powder remained about the same and the output of blasting powder increased.

In 1871 steam power was installed in the factory.

About 1877 J. W. King left the company and founded King’s Mills in Warren County.

Through the years the powder company was safety conscious. They constructed separate structures for different phases of the production process. Only a few employees worked in each building. Horse drawn trams were used to move product from one building to the next.

Workers were paid high wages but knew it involved great risk. They were instructed to wear shoes without metal nails and not to carry pocket knives. Wooden tools were used in the production process.

In spite of the precautions, several fatal explosions did occur at the plant. One of the largest explosions happened on March 1, 1886 about 10 in the morning. A dry house containing around 50,000 pounds of black powder blew up. Three men were killed in the blast which was heard over 100 miles away. In Xenia buildings shuddered and there were many broken windows. People ran outside and saw a huge white cloud of smoke north of the city.

At the explosion site there was a fifteen foot deep hole in the ground where the dry house had stood, debris in the river, and a damaged bridge.

The building was rebuilt and work continued at the site. The factory went through several different name changes through the years as it was bought and sold. Two men were killed in a 1920 blast. Then, following a major explosion in 1925, which destroyed most of the structures, the business was closed.

Today two buildings near the bike path are all that remain of the once thriving business.

Maple Sugar Production

One hundred years ago Josiah Morrow, a history columnist for the Western Star, a Cox newspaper, wrote, in April 7, 1910, about the importance of sugar maple trees. The trees provided a ready and cheap source of sweetener.

According to Morrow, the Indians made maple sugar long before white settlers came to the area. There were many such trees in Wayne Township on both sides of the Little Miami River. Morrow says an old Indian sugar camp was found in the area in 1787. He quotes George T. O’Neall as saying the Indians were still making yearly trips there as late as 1804 or 1805.

In 1922 Elmer Keever wrote memories from his youth, included were details of making sugar on his family farm near the village of Lytle in Warren County. The farm had 175 sugar maples. They had a sugar house where maple sap was boiled down into syrup or cooked until it became thick and granulated and made a light yellow colored sugar.

He explained the process started “after the old frost of winter was mostly out of the ground” and that this could be any time from January to early April. His family prepared throughout the fall by collecting and storing fire wood in a shed near the sugar house.

Foot long spikes called spiles were made from the stalk of the elderberry tree. A 5/8 inch auger hole was drilled into the south side of a maple tree, about 1 ½ ft. above the ground. A hatchet or mallet was used to drive the spiles into the holes. Earthenware crocks were placed under the spiles to catch the sap.

The sap was gathered, placed in barrels, and transported on sleds to the sugar house. The fresh sap was first placed in a large cistern or reservoir near the sugar furnace, a long covered limestone lined trench. Large logs were shoved in the mouth of the furnace and then it was closed by a sheet iron door.

A sheet iron pan was over the top of the furnace and went back to a chimney. Near the chimney were two large iron kettles.

Sap was poured from the cistern to the pan of the furnace where it was heated. After some evaporation occurred, the fluid was dipped into the forward kettle. Following more evaporation the liquid was moved into the rear kettle and cooked until it became syrup or sugar.

The labor involved was intensive but the settlers knew how to make it enjoyable. Irvina Dearth wrote in her “History of Red Lion Warren County, Ohio” that there were large groves of sugar maples in the area of Red Lion and she remarks “The young folks delighted in the sugar parties which took place during this season. A cup of syrup right from the kettle to the snow to cool and harden was a real treat and taffy pullings were a favorite pastime.”

Captain William Hoel, Part 2

            Captain William Hoel led an exciting life.  He also died a violent death.

            Hoel married Elizabeth Hunt on February 11, 1869.  She was beautiful and eighteen years his junior.  They had two children: Sarah born in December of 1869 and Rion born two years later. 

            The family lived at “Kildere”, a 100 acre farm located on

Clarksville Road

near the village of Corwin in Warren County.

            The couple was active in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Waynesville. A stained glass memorial window in the sanctuary has an anchor inside a circle with the inscription “In Memory of a noble Man, William Rion Hoel, one of the founders of this Church, Died May 23, 1879.”

            His death was recounted in many newspapers.  One article, in the May 29, 1879 issue of the “Western Star” was titled “Tragic Death of Captain W.R. Hoel”.  It told the following story:

            Captain Hoel was jealous of his wife and suspected she was having an affair with Dr. Hough, a Waynesville physician.  The Captain told everyone, including the doctor, he was taking an early morning train to Cincinnati.  Instead, he hid somewhere on his property.  Dr. Hough came to the house and he and Elizabeth Hoel went into the parlor.  Captain Hoel rushed into the room with a pistol.            

            Dr. Hough afterward said he and Mrs. Hoel were seated on chairs when the Captain burst into the room with a pistol, fired a shot which missed, and then holding the long muzzle of the navy Colt began to club him about the head.  The doctor said the gun discharged and the ball entered the Captain’s chest.  Captain Hoel fell saying, “I am shot.” Death quickly followed.

            The reporter stated that the doctor’s face was swollen and cut.  His left cheek had a gash and two teeth were knocked out. 

            An inquest was held by Squire Mannington. 

            Dr. Hough explained there was no cause for jealousy.  Mrs. Hoel suffered a chronic ailment, thus his visits.  He said she “is a woman of spotless character”.

            Eleanor Allen, a girl working for the Hoel’s said, she looked into the parlor before Captain Hoel entered and she saw Dr. Hough sitting in a chair with Mrs. Hoel on his lap.  She said Captain Hoel shot at the doctor and then began to beat him three or four times about the head.  The pistol went off again and shot the Captain.

            Mrs. Hoel said she had left the room after the first shot and did not know what happened.  

            No legal action was taken for months.  Dr. Hough finally printed a letter in several newspapers explaining what happened and proclaiming his innocence.  He was eventually exonerated.

            Hoel is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.   Elizabeth Hoel continued to live at Kildere with her children.  At her death she was buried in Miami Cemetery in Corwin. It is unclear what happened to Dr. Hough.

           

William Hoel

William Hoel had an adventurous life with multiple exciting episodes.

He was born on March 7, 1824 in Sharon (Sharonville), Ohio to Edmund and Emiline Hoel. His father was a steamboat pilot on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

At age sixteen Hoel left school to train with his father. Over the next three years he worked on several different side wheelers and eventually also became a pilot.

Hoel married Mary Riley of Cincinnati on August 1, 1849.

When riverboat pilot examinations were required in 1853, Hoel easily passed the test. In March of 1853, while he was on a river trip, Mary died shortly after giving birth to a son. Their son died in August of the same year. Both were buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

An adventure was advertised in the “Cincinnati Gazette” on October 1, 1855. Monsieur Godard was offering a balloon voyage. It cost $50 for a ticket to fly on the America, described as an “immense balloon,” and an “elegant and gigantic craft”. It said, “This aerial ship contains 95,000 cubic feet of city gas! which is more than the consumption of the city for three days and will carry with it, for the first time in America, having just been received from Paris, an elegant three story frame house known as Godard’s Hotel and eight ladies and gentlemen…will take their seats in the reception room on the second story.” A table was also on the second floor and a dinner was to be served to the passengers at “12,000 feet high at 6 o’clock precisely”.

Hoel bought a ticket. There were four other male passengers, not the “eight ladies and gentlemen” mentioned in the ad.

The trip did not proceed as planned. Instead, at 6:00, while over Lebanon, Ohio, the balloon was hit by a severe thunderstorm. The house and ballast were dropped in an attempt to escape the downpour.

In spite of these efforts, the America crashed in Warren County near the village of Corwin. All five of the balloon occupants were injured. Hoel had broken ribs and bruises. He spent several days in a nearby farm house recovering.

In 1858 his father, Edmund Hoel bought a 100 acre farm near where the balloon accident had happened. The farm was named Kildere.

Hoel’s next adventure was serving in The Civil War. He worked on gunboats on the Mississippi River and was active in the Memphis and Vicksburg campaigns.

Following the war, Hoel took another adventurous but more peaceful trip. He sailed on The Quaker City on June 8, 1867. It visited several Europe ports and Palestine; included in the trip was attendance at the Great Paris Exposition.

Hoel’s father died in 1868 and he inherited the farm, Kildere.

On February 11, 1869 Hoel married Elizabeth Hunt. She was 18 years his junior. The newly married couple moved to Kildere.

More about Hoel’s life will be included in my next blog.

Reverend Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth

On October 6, 1895 eighty-four year old Reverend Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, widely known as the Father of American Beekeeping, died in the pulpit of the Wayne Avenue Presbyterian Church in Dayton. He was retired from the ministry but was assisting with a communion service. He had just started to speak about the love of God when he was stricken with a stroke.

Langstroth was born on Dec. 25, 1810 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child he enjoyed studying insects. Once he was punished because of holes in his pants’ knees from kneeling and observing ants.

He attended Yale University and graduated with high honors in 1831. From 1834 to1835 Langstroth was a tutor at Yale and studied the ministry.

Next Langstroth was a pastor at several Massachusetts Congregational churches.

He married Anne Tucker and they had three children: James, Anna, and Harriet.

Langstroth became the principal of a young ladies’ school in Philadelphia in 1848. During this time he suffered with depression and took up beekeeping as a hobby to distract himself.

He used his knowledge about “bee space”, crawl space needed by a bee to go from one area to another, to develop a top opened hive. It made the frames of a hive easily removable without upsetting the bees.

Langstroth was given a patent for the movable frame beehive in 1852. He gained no royalties over the years though because his patent was widely violated.

His discoveries led to modern beekeeping and helped it become more cost effective.

Langstroth wrote “The Hive and the Honey-Bee” in 1853. It is the definitive text on beekeeping, there having been more than 40 editions printed. The memorial epitaph at his grave says, “in memory of …his…literary ability shown in the first scientific and popular book on the subject of beekeeping in the United States.”

In 1858 he and his family moved to Oxford, Ohio to a ten acre farm which Langstroth devoted to beekeeping.

He planted Linden trees, apple trees, buckwheat and clover for the bees to use.

Langstroth imported Italian bees in 1863, then researched, bred, raised and sold them.

His wife, Anne Langstroth, died in 1873.

Their former house is called Langstroth Cottage, and has been declared a National Historic Landmark. It is now Miami University’s Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching and is located on Patterson Avenue on Miami’s Western campus.

Langstroth moved to Dayton in 1887 and lived with his daughter Mrs. Anna Cowan at 120 South Ford Street. His death occurred eight years later.

He is buried at Woodland Cemetery in Dayton.

Hallie Quinn Brown

Hallie Quinn Brown was a noted educator, lecturer, and elocutionist. She also was an author and social and political activist.


Besides the five year lecture tour mentioned in my earlier post Brown made two other trips to Europe. Frederick Douglass sent a letter with Brown to introduce her to his “British friends”. She was a very successful fundraiser. In addition to other support she obtained a one time gift of $15,000 from Julia Emery, a British philanthropist. This money was used to build Emery Hall at Wilberforce University. The building still stands today and is scheduled for restoration and renovation.

Brown was an organizer and crusader for several civil rights movements. She was active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. When she saw a need for a national organization to support black women in America she helped establish the Colored Woman’s League of Washington, D.C. in 1894. This later became the National Association of Colored Women for which she served as president from 1920 to 1924. During her presidency the organization worked to preserve the Frederick Douglas Home in Washington, D.C. and set up a scholarship fund for women. She was also president of the Ohio Federation of Colored Women.

Her interest in clubs for women carried over to Europe. She was a member of the British Women’s Temperance Association, was given membership to the Royal Geographical Society of Scotland, and was elected a member of the International Council of Women. She helped establish, in 1895, the first British Chautauqua in North Wales.

In addition to being active in clubs Brown was very involved at Wilberforce University. She was a professor of elocution there and on the board of trustees. A member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Brown taught Sunday School classes on the Wilberforce campus.

Brown was a passionate Republican and envisioned elocution as a way to participate in politics. She spoke at the 1920 Republican convention in support of Warren Harding for the United States presidency. Harding ran a “front porch campaign’ from his Victorian house in Marion, Ohio. People came from all over to hear him. Brown was the first woman to speak from his famous front porch. In 1932 she actively campaigned for Herbert Hoover’s presidential campaign.

Brown authored eight books among them were: Bits and Odds: A choice Selection of Recitations, First Lessons in Public Speaking, Tales My Father Told, and Other Stories, and Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction.

She lived to be almost 100 years old but died on September 16, 1949 and is buried in the family plot in Massie’s Creek Cemetery.

The Hallie Q. Brown Memorial Library at Central State University was named in her honor.

LaVerne C. Kenon Sci, Historic Site Manager of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar House State Memorial, frequently does a re-enactment of Hallie Q. Brown. “I decided to interpret her because she was an ordinary person who achieved extraordinary heights during her lifetime of 99 years, six months, and six days,” said Sci. “She became an advocate for the disenfranchised in our society.”



WHAT: Paul Lawrence Dunbar House State Memorial

WHERE: 219 North P.L. Dunbar St., Dayton, OH

WHEN: weekly Wed.-Sun.

TIME: Wed.-Sat. 9am-5pm, Sun. noon-5pm

COST: adults $6, Seniors $5, students $3, children 5 and under free

Crocketts

Davy Crockett, the famous frontiersman, never lived in Warren County, but it's believed his relatives did. Andrew Crockett moved to Warren County in 1810. When Davy Crockett became famous with a young generation of baby-boomers through the Walt Disney movies, the Middletown Journal interviewed Clearcreek Township resident and Andrew's great-grandson, Chester Crockett (1889-1969) who assured readers his family was related to the famous frontiersman. However, descendants still living in the Springboro area have not found the source information confirming this relationship. Still, Chester lived closer in time to the legend of Davy Crockett. Chester's grandfather would have been Davy's first cousin. Certainly, Chester's parents and grandparents would have known of the relationship, and such a fact would make a strong impression on a young boy. No matter what their heritage or famous relatives, the local Crocketts played a large role in Warren County’s settlement. Before Andrew came to Warren County he had lived an eventful life. He was a bound boy, obligated to work for a period of time to pay for training or for a debt. In 1810, at about age 44, Andrew moved to Warren County. Andrew’s first wife had died in New Jersey. In November of 1812 he married Sarah Mullen of Warren County. Andrew and Sarah had three children. Sarah died in 1817. Two years later he married Margaret Freeman. They had one child, Susannah Sarah Ann. A few years of successful farming allowed Andrew to purchase some military lands in Clark County, perhaps as an investment. He ran into controversy over land titles and had to pay a second claimant for the land. When a third claimant came forward, he gave up the land. “The balance of his life was lived in limited circumstances” according to The History of Warren County, Ohio by Beers. In 1849, Andrew died. Marmaduke Crockett was the middle son of Andrew and Sarah’s children. He was a talented industrious young man. At the age of sixteen Marmaduke built a sturdy wagon. It was used to carry a heavy load of produce to Cincinnati and to bring back a load of merchandise. He worked as a farmer and freight hauler until he was 25 years old. As a freight hauler he may have noticed the opportunity for milling. For eight years Marmaduke worked in the milling trade in Springboro, Waynesville, and Mount Holly. He then returned to farming and was able to purchase a good farm on Lytle-Five Points Rd. Marmaduke married Jane S. Mullin in 1837. They had eleven children. Two died in infancy...., some married locally and some moved on. The eldest, Mary, married David Hare who was Postmaster of Springboro for a time. With Marmaduke's help, Mordecai set about raising cotton in Texas. The youngest, Elmer, practiced law in Cincinnati. Marmaduke was a leader in the community, a very caring man, and respected for his character and integrity. When he died in 1867 at the age of fifty-two, the book Memoirs of the Miami Valley reported his was “the largest attended funeral in the history of Springboro”.