stone

Dayton Stone Stone quarries were the leading industry in Montgomery County Ohio in the mid to late 1800's. Soon after Dayton was settled, it was obvious there was a great deal of limestone in the area. Farmers were not happy about this fact but later it was determined this stone was valuable. In 1914 state geologist J. A. Bownocker published a book titled Building Stones of Ohio. He quoted Dr. Orton, who did a Geological Survey of Ohio in 1869, as having written "In Montgomery, Miami and Greene counties the shale contains, in places a very valuable building stone which is widely known as the Dayton stone." He also wrote it was "in every way adapted to the highest architectural uses." Dayton stone or Dayton Marble as it is sometimes called, is light gray, very compact and strong. It does contain some small iron pyrite crystals which can leave dark spots which look like rusty nail heads, after weathering. When "Dayton Marble" Brought in Millions was an article in the February 7, 1937 issue of the Dayton Daily News written by Howard Burba. In the article Burba states that in 1827 a Mr. Gallaher advertised he was hiring "able-bodied men to work in the quarries southeast of Dayton". This was the earliest reference Burba found to local quarries. The Bownocker book says the largest quarry in the Dayton area was in Beavertown, around the present day Dorothy Lane and Wilmington Pike intersection. Burba lists many quarry owners. Among them he mentions John and Allen Fauver who ran the Wade quarries. He says they began to cut the stone. In earlier times Burba explains fire was built under the rock and thus cracked with the heat. Stone from the local quarries was used to build many local buildings: several church buildings, the old Library Building in Cooper Park, the old Court House built in 1850 and the newer one erected in 1884. The stone was also sold to far away markets. Canal building increased the demand for stone since it was needed for the building of the locks. New quarries were then opened in Belmont near Wayne Avenue and Watervliet. Only one road led to the quarries and transportation was a problem. To solve this dilemma a type of "railroad" was built from the quarries to the new canal. The rails of this railroad were made of tough hickory and the flat-bed cars that ran on it had grooved wheels to fit the rails. Gravity pulled the cars down the slopes and teams of horses were used to tow them across the flat areas. A stone yard was created between Patterson Boulevard and Wayne Avenue to receive the transported stone. According to Burba, in order to give a smooth or polished surface to the rough stone, stone cutting and dressing was introduced in 1836 by James L. Wuichet from Switzerland.

Stokes, Amanda

Amanda Stokes, born in 1820 and raised on a farm near Waynesville, overcame personal tragedy and grief by serving those in need.

Stokes' fiancée was killed during the Civil War. She responded to this loss by selling her wedding trousseau and other personal items and raising about a thousand dollars. After serving in local hospitals, she volunteered to be a nurse for the Northern Army. Her parents, Ellis and Hannah Morgan Stokes, other relatives, and friends discouraged her choice. She persisted.

Accepted by the army, she served at Stone River, Chattanooga, Chicamaugua, Murfreesboro, and Nashville. The thousand dollars was spent to buy delicacies and relief items for the soldiers in her care whom she called "her boys".

Hazel Spencer Phillips, an employee of the Warren County Historical Museum wrote a column called "Our Museum" in the 1940's for the Western Star, a Cox newspaper. In 1942 Phillips gave a speech in which she described Stokes' appearance. She wrote, "Amanda Stokes had dark brown naturally curly hair which she wore in curls about her head, parted in the middle. She had rather heavy dark brows and brown glowing eyes."

While working at the Chattanooga Hospital, Stokes was asked to take a wounded Lieutenant to another facility. The horses drawing the ambulance became frightened when crossing the Chattahoochee River. They ran off the bridge and into the water. Stokes managed to escape from the ambulance by breaking the wooden top with her head. Both Stokes and the patient were rescued by four soldiers who had seen the accident. The Lieutenant died a few days later and Stokes' health suffered ever after. The ambulance and all of her records were lost in the river.

By the end of the war Stokes had spent most of her funds and had difficulty obtaining a pension. The loss of her papers contributed to the problem. In 1878, due in part to the efforts of "her boys", Stokes was appointed a matron at the Ohio Sailors' and Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Xenia. She later became their librarian.

Finally, Stokes received a small pension, thanks to the persistent efforts of several citizens of Warren County.

Stokes died on March 25^th, 1885. Her services were conducted at the East Baptist Church in Lebanon by Reverend Sumrall, pastor of the church. He was assisted by ministers from the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Christian Churches. Members of the Grand Army of the Republic attended and served as pall-bearers. The casket was draped with the American flag and topped with a beautiful floral wreath from the Home in Xenia. The Lebanon Gazette of April 1, 1885 reported the following, "The services were not protracted, but were peculiarly impressive, and many tearful eyes in the crowded audience attested to the deep affection and esteem in which the deceased was held in this community, where she has been so long and favorably known."

Thomas Mitchell or Ben

The Fugitive Slave Law, a federal law, required all states to allow a slave owner to seize an escaped slave, take them before a judge, present evidence of ownership, and then reclaim the slave. In 1832 the enforcement of this law, in Dayton, led to dire consequences. According to "The Historical Collections of Ohio" written by Henry Howe in 1888 the following story was reported in the "Dayton Journal", a local newspaper. It was told by an eye witness to the events, a person who was not an Abolitionist but one with sympathy for the sufferer.
The witness said a black man, going by the name of Thomas Mitchell, had lived in Dayton for two or three years. He was a hard working and stable man; married and the father of a child.
Some men from Kentucky arrested Mitchell, took him before a magistrate, and said he was an escaped slave. The judge ruled they did not have sufficient proof and released Mitchell.
A few weeks later, armed men, hired by the slave owner, grabbed Mitchell on Main Street and attempted to put him in a sleigh and carry him off. Mitchell was rescued when his cries for help were heard. Legal proof of ownership was demanded by several people.
The case again went to a magistrate. This time new evidence was provided and it was ruled that Mitchell was indeed the slave of the person claiming him.
Several citizens took up Mitchell's cause and proposed that money be collected to buy his freedom. The owner's agent thought this could be arranged. A large sum was collected. Mitchell himself gave fifty dollars from his own savings.
But, the owner refused the deal and came to Dayton himself to take Mitchell back to Kentucky. When Mitchell met the man in the second story of a house and realized he was going to be taken, he tried to jump out of the window. He was restrained from doing so and forced to go south with the man.
On their way back to Kentucky the group stopped to spend the night in Cincinnati.
Later, a letter was received by a man in Dayton which told the rest of the story:
"Poor Tom Is Free Cincinnati, Jan. 24, 1832 Dear Sir:-In compliance with a request of Mr. J. Deinkard, of Kentucky, I take my pen to inform you of the death of his black man Ben, whom he took in your place a few days ago….Mr. D. and company, with Ben, arrived in this city on their way to Kentucky, and put up at the Main Street Hotel, where a room on the uppermost story (fourth) of the building was provided for Ben and his guard. …about one o'clock when they were in a sound sleep, poor Ben…threw himself from the window…He was… severely injured and the poor fellow died this morning about four o'clock. … Please tell Ben's wife of these circumstances…. R. P. Simmons"

Dearth

In 1950 Irvina Dearth wrote History of Red Lion Warren County, Ohio. In the book she has much information about early settlers of the area. One such man was Edward Dearth. She says Edward Dearth and his brothers were born in Maryland and served in the militia of Maryland during the American Revolutionary War. They later moved to Pennsylvania. In 1797 Edward came to the Northwest Territory looking for land. He bought 1400 acres from General Schenck. This land was a part of the Symmes purchase and Dearth later had to buy it again from the U.S. government. The property was northwest of the village of Red Lion. After buying the land, Edward returned to Pennsylvania and prepared his family to move. His family consisted of his wife Elizabeth and five sons: Basil, James E., Asael, Isaac, and Samuel and one daughter, Priscilla. The couple had eleven children but five had died at a young age. In a file, at the Warren County History Center in Lebanon, I found a single sheet of paper on which Minnie M. Booz had documented some stories told to her by her Grandmother, Elizabeth Greene Ritter. Ritter was the daughter of Priscilla Dearth Greene. Booz told how Edward and Elizabeth met. One morning the Dearth family in western Pennsylvania found their horses were missing and saw a trail of hoof prints. A search party was gathered and Edward Dearth joined the group. It took all day and the party was in Maryland by the time they found the horses at the cabin of a Mr. Roberts. The Dearth party spent the night and then started back home with their horses. But, Edward had developed an interest in Mr. Roberts' daughter, Elizabeth. A courtship and marriage followed. In the spring of 1798 Edward built a flat boat and the family floated on it down the Ohio River. They landed in Cincinnati on April 16, came through the wilderness on the Wayne's Military Road to Clear Creek, and then up Gander Run in present day Warren County. They built a log cabin which was replaced in about 1833 by a brick house. In the Red Lion book Dearth recorded a story told by Newton Dearth, a grandson of Samuel, about the dogs on this early farm. A lane led from the house to the road. There were bars across the lane at the road and also near the house. At night the dogs put their paws on the bars by the house and waited for the wolves to come out of the woods. The dogs then chased the wolves to the set of bars at the road. The wolves then turned and chased the dogs back to the house. Dearth said they played like this for hours. As to personality, Booz describes Edward as "pious and of quiet temperament" and of Elizabeth she writes "Some other accounts of a stormy temper, and a red head were told".

Colonel John Bigger
By Rosalie Yoakam

Colonel John Bigger, an early pioneer of Warren County, Ohio, had a distinguished political career. He was first elected, in 1802, to the territorial legislature but it never met because the Ohio State Government was organized in its place.
He was then selected to be a Representative in the first Ohio State Legislature. This was followed by twenty terms in the state government. Bigger served a total of eight terms in the House and thirteen in the Senate. His service was from 1803-1833, from the first Legislature through the 32nd. He was Speaker of the House in 1821-22 and in 1825 was appointed to the first State Board of Equalization. He later became its President.
Bigger ran for governor of Ohio in 1826 but was defeated by Allan Trimble. He also served as a Presidential elector on the Clay ticket.
The book, The History of Warren County, Ohio, produced by the W. H. Beers Company of Chicago in 1882, says, “He was more frequently elected to represent Warren County in the Legislature than any other citizen of the county in its whole history.”
The Beers book says of his character, “Col. Bigger possessed powers of mind which enabled him to discharge the duties of the offices to which he was chosen with credit to himself and the entire satisfaction of the community.”
He also served as a nonpolitical executive. Bigger was on the first board of trustees of Miami University and a charter member of the directorate of the first bank of Cincinnati. Its charter was issued in 1803.
Bigger was born in Pennsylvanian on December 5, 1770. He married Hannah Bigger, his cousin in 1801. She was born in Pennsylvania on February 17, 1779 and was the sister of John Bigger who settled in Montgomery County, Ohio. Bigger Road in Montgomery County is named for the family.
Colonel Bigger bought land in the northern part of Warren County, near the Shaker’s Union Village, (now Otterbein Lebanon Retirement Community) from Judge John Cleves Symmes in about 1799. But, he was not able to get a deed to his land until an act of Congress was passed to relieve persons with written contracts to lands not actually in Symmes’ patent.
The Bigger family was members of the Dick’s Creek Presbyterian Church near the village of Blue Ball. He was a Ruling Elder there for almost forty years.
Hannah died on December 31, 1830. Her grave was found in 1949 in a small family cemetery on land north west of Lebanon on Green Tree Road. The property had once been owned by the family.
Colonel John’s second wife was Ann Robinson daughter of Captain John Robinson.
Bigger died on June 18, 1840. It is unclear where he is buried.
Hannah and Colonel John had two sons who achieved political fame. Samuel Bigger became the seventh governor of Indiana and Finley Bigger was the registrar of the United States Treasury under several Presidents.

Jesse Sanders
By Rosalie Yoakam

Jesse Sanders must have been excited and anxious when he pulled his invention out of the village of Bellbrook on a sunny July morning in 1844. He had been working on the grain reaper for four years, having started in 1840. Now, he was going to give it a trial run.
Two strong horses pulled the machine from his workshop and up a hill to a wheat field owned by Jacob Haynes. The grain there was ripe and ready for harvest.
Farmers in the area, at that time, usually gathered wheat by hand. In the early days of our country it was cut with a sickle or scythe. The grain fell into disorderly clumps scattered across the field. Then some stalks were gathered into a bunch called a sheaf and tied with string. Several sheaves were leaned against each other and left in the field. This allowed the grain to dry.
In 1794 a Scottish farmer invented a long handled scythe with an attached cradle. The cut grain fell into the cradle and then was dropped into an orderly pile on the ground. Even with this invention, though, harvesting grain was labor intensive. A mechanical reaper would be a welcome tool.
So, a group of local farmers had gathered to watch Sanders’ invention. As the horses pulled the machine around the field, the grain was drawn into the reaper, and a strip of cut wheat was left behind, ready to be bound into sheaves. Everyone was very excited.
Among the group of bystanders was a stranger, a peddler who had come to the village tavern the night before. He was very interested in the machine, asked questions about its operation, and offered suggestions for improvement.
After the demonstration Sanders decided to refine his design before applying for a patent. He was delayed in doing so because of a lack of funds.
When Cyrus McCormick began, in 1847 in a factory in Chicago, to mass produce a reaper, similar to Sanders’ design, Greene County friends suspected the stranger had stolen Sanders’ idea.
The story is recorded in Robinson’s History of Greene County and is also mentioned in Broadstone’s History of Greene County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions. Robinson’s says, “...thus robbing Bellbrook and Jesse Sanders of fame and fortune.” While Broadstone’s says, “Sanders never realized anything for his labors and died a poor man after giving to the world one of the greatest inventions of the age.”
But, Sanders’ friends and the books were wrong. In fact, McCormick of Walnut Grove, Virginia had invented a mechanical reaper in 1831 and his son, Cyrus had patented it in 1834, six years before Sanders began his work.

Smith

Reverend James Smith By Rosalie Yoakam The importance of the preservation of letters, journals, and diaries from the past are illustrated by three journals created by Reverend James Smith of Powhatan County, Virginia. Smith made three trips into Kentucky and the Northwest Territory, one in each of the following years; 1783, 1795, and 1797. He kept detailed journals, written not for publication but to document his journey and to record observations. These documents provide first person testimony to the appearance and conditions of the Ohio Valley during his time. In 1797, on the third of his journeys, Smith rode from Columbia (Cincinnati area) up the valley of the Little Miami River. On this trip he visited with Francis Dunlevy, passed through the town of Deerfield, and stopped at the residences of Richard Kirby and Martin Keever before arriving at Waynesville. He wrote of Waynesville, "We lodged here with a Mr. Heighway, an emigrant from England, who with a number of his country people suffered inconceivable hardships in getting to this country. It was curious to see their elegant furniture and silver plate glittering in a small smoky cabin." About a half day's ride up the river from Waynesville he described the following sight. "We were saluted with a view of one of those enchanting plains which are known in this country by the name of pararas. Here we could see many miles in a straight direction and not a tree or brush to obstruct the sight. The grass in the parara we found higher than our heads on horseback as we rode thru it." After traveling extensively through the Northwest Territory, Smith purchased a tract of land on the Little Miami River at the mouth of Caesar's creek. It was a part of the Virginia Military District and was located in what is now Warren County. He received a bargain because, although he paid for 1,666 acres, when the property was surveyed it actually contained 2,000. Smith brought his family to the Northwest Territory in 1798 planning to live on his property. They stayed in Columbia while the heavily forested land was cleared. But Smith was unable to realize his dream. In 1800 he contracted a fever and died at the age of 43. Soon after his death, Smith's widow and children completed his aim by moving onto the property near Caesar's creek. They recognized the value of his journals and carefully saved them Smith's descendants became involved in the legal profession in Warren, Clinton, and Clark Counties. The youngest son, George J. Smith was a judge in Lebanon while two grandsons, J.M. and J. E. Smith, had a law office in Lebanon in the late 1800's. Some copies of Smith's journals were made in the grandsons' law office. One copy found its way into a historical library at Louisville. Theodore Roosevelt discovered that copy while doing historical research and made references to it in his book, "The Winning of the West". From the preacher's hand came a gift to the future, a glimpse into the past.