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.

Hallie Quinn Brown

Hallie Quinn Brown
By Rosalie Yoakam

Hallie Q. Brown, a child of former slaves, became a professor of elocution and a world renowned lecturer who gave voice to scores of disenfranchised people.
Born on March 10, 1850 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Brown was the fifth of six children of Thomas and Frances Brown. Thomas had purchased his freedom from his Scottish mother and Frances was freed by her maternal grandfather.
During Hallie’s childhood Thomas worked as a steward and express agent for riverboats. The family owned much real estate and was active in social causes. Their house was a station on the Underground Railroad and they provided space for visiting ministers of the African Methodist Episcopal church. These early experiences instilled in Hallie a respect for education and human rights.
Shortly before the Civil War ended the Brown family moved to a farm near Chatham, Ontario, Canada. There, teenaged Hallie practiced giving speeches by standing on a tree stump and addressing the farm animals.
When Hallie was twenty, the Brown family moved to Wilberforce, Ohio. There she and her brother attended Wilberforce University. She received a Bachelors degree from the university in 1873.
Upon graduation she taught, during the Reconstruction era, in plantation schools in Mississippi and South Carolina. She then worked as dean of Allen University in Columbia before returning to Dayton where she taught public school from 1887-1891. At this time she also taught night school for adult migrants.
After her Dayton career, Brown was a principal at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama for a year where she worked with Booker T. Washington. Next, she was offered the post of professor of elocution at Wilberforce University. But, before she assumed the position, she decided to travel and lecture.
Chautauqua schools were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The schools combined education with entertainment using lectures, concerts, and plays and were often given outdoors or in tents. Brown had attended a Chautauqua Lecture School.
Following this training Brown began to travel widely as a lecturer and elocutionist. She traveled to every state in the United States except two; Vermont and Maine. In 1894 she went to Europe and stayed for five years performing in numerous European countries. In England she appeared before Queen Victoria on two occasions.
Her program was diverse consisting of 90 memorized pieces and varied in content from Shakespeare to Mark Twain. She was especially skillful in presenting the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church Review said of her: “Miss Brown possesses a voice of wonderful magnetism and great compass. At times, she thrills by its intensity; at times, it is mellow and soothing. She seems to have perfect control of the muscles of her throat, and can vary her voice as successfully as a mocking-bird.”
My next column will recount the political and social activism of this dynamic woman.

Esther Doster

ON A SNOWY SATURDAY in January, I talked with Esther Doster, 96, and her son, Howard, a Purdue University professor. They recounted a rich family history. Esther was born and raised on the family farm on Brimstone Road near Harveysburg. Her parents, Daniel and Wilhelmina Underwood, were known throughout the area for their acres of fine apples. The farm land is on the north side of Ohio 73 and surrounds Jonah's Run Church. The boundary separating Warren and Clinton counties runs through the farm. "Most of Mom's life and her parents' life has been spent on the Clinton/Warren County line," Howard said. Education has played a major part in the family history. About 1900, Wilhelmina Hahn was hired to teach at a one-room school east of Jonah's Run Church. She met Daniel Underwood at church and they soon married. Esther was the oldest of their four daughters. As a child, Esther attended Haines School, a one-room school located about one-half mile north of her home. She attended Haines from the first grade through the sixth grade. The schools were then centralized and Esther attended Kingman School in Clinton County from the seventh grade through her senior year. She was transported to school each day in a horse-drawn school wagon. During high school, she played basketball and was on the debate team. She graduated from Kingman as valedictorian in 1921. "I won a scholarship of $25 to Wilmington College and thought I'd go to college for a long time," Esther said. "I planned to take science courses. Papa talked to the president of Wilmington College. I saw Papa's hand shake and I realized he didn't have as much money as I thought. I decided to make the best of it and not take the higher-cost science courses. I went one year to Normal School (teacher training at Wilmington)." After Normal School, Esther taught for one year at White Chapel, a one-room school north of Wilmington near Xenia. "I walked to school every day. Well, actually, I ran," she said. "There were three country schools within hearing distance of the bell and it was a matter of pride that your bell wasn't the last one to ring." She lived with a family in the "nice community." "I think I was paid $90 a month," she said. She hired a boy to make the fire in the classroom stove, sweep the floor, and wash the chalkboard. He was paid $3 a month. "When they trained us to teach in the country, they said you don't want to use anything to hit the students that will leave marks. Some teachers had used boards. We were told to use a rubber hose," Esther said. "I think they meant like a garden hose size but I got one about the size of your little finger. I only used it once. "I had a sore foot with a corn on it. I'd hung the hose up on the wall. We were getting ready to go on a field trip. I always felt the children should be marched out in some order - not fly out like geese. One student sitting close to the hose got out of line and stepped on my sore toe. I grabbed that hose and gave him a lick. We were all shocked." As a student in a one-room school, Esther said she had a wonderful teacher, Inez Ridgeway Wilson, who taught her health practices that she used when she taught at White Chapel. One was to have the students make their own paper cups to drink water from the bucket. It was common practice at that time for everyone to drink out of the same tin cup from the well or the same dipper from the bucket. She also had the children brush their teeth each day. Once a man from the county office came to observe her teaching. "He told me that he could see I understood the problems," Esther said. She also adopted from Wilson the practice of hanging the temperance motto, "Not too much of anything and some things none at all," on her classroom wall. She had 25 or 30 students. "I had all eight grades," she said. "Some came that were 4 years old. The oldest was 16. It was a busy time." After teaching a year at White Chapel, Esther returned to Wilmington College. While at Wilmington she played basketball, helped found a sorority and a dramatics honorary. She graduated with honors in 1926. Next followed three years of teaching high school English at Highland. She also coached the basketball team and the class plays. In 1929 Esther received a high school life certificate for teaching English, history and home economics. Although she had dated William Doster off and on since 1922, she postponed marriage because at the time most school boards didn't hire married women. Teaching jobs were scarce and boards chose to hire men or single women. In 1930 Esther quit her teaching job and married William. They set up housekeeping in the house on Brimstone Road. They had four children: three boys and one girl. William was elected to the Harveysburg school board and served for "perhaps 26 years," Howard said. He was president of the school board for many of those years. When her children were in grade school, Esther and a friend, Helen Wall, taught monthly temperance classes in fifth through eighth grades. Her son, Howard, remembers learning the same temperance motto that used to hang on her classroom wall at White Chapel. In 1960 Esther returned to teaching. She taught high school English at Harveysburg and then at Clinton-Massie when Harveysburg, Kingman, Adams Township and Clarksville schools consolidated. Esther has retired from teaching and now lives in Wilmington. She has often returned to her birthplace on Brimstone Road where she has been heard to say, "This is the one place in the world where everything is in its right place."

Glaze Family

April 9,1989 Easter Sunday plays a special role in the lives of the Glaze family. The day represents both a holy day in their religious faith and the time when their homestead in rural Wayne Twp. returned to the family. Travis and Anne Glaze's home radiates a family's love and strong religious faith that has kept them strong through bad times. The house was built by Anne's great-great-great-great-grandfather, Moses McKay, in 1818. McKay was a Quaker from Virginia and a strong abolitionist. Just before McKay left Virginia, he freed the slaves he had purchased. Twenty-two of the freedmen followed him to Ohio to help build a brick transitional Greek Revival farmhouse. An 1836 addition included a two-story porch and a fireplace with a false hearth, which concealed a room large enough to hide eight people. The house became a station on the Underground Railroad. In 1900, the McKay family lost control of the house when the Gons family bought it. It was later purchased by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and slated for demolition to make way for Caesar Creek Park. Through the efforts of several people, including McKay relatives, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The corps was persuaded to spare the house, which was sold via sealed bids. After several more owners, the house was bought back in 1996 by Howard Doster, the great-great-great-grandson of Moses McKay and the father of Anne Glaze. "I first heard about the house about 20 years ago when it was owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I visited the house and entered through a hole in the basement wall," Doster said. "Four years ago I revisited the house and found that the owner was the manager of a Cincinnati auto factory.' Knowing that plant managers were frequently transferred, Doster kept an eye on the house for two years "watching for the inevitable `For Sale' sign to appear," he said. "I saw it on Easter Sunday afternoon, April 7, 1996. The next day I made an offer and bought the Moses McKay house without even getting inside to see it again." The Glaze family moved in in mid-May 1996, and celebrated the wonder of two triumphs: the return of the McKay house to family ownership and the survival of their first-born son, Nathaniel. Nathaniel had been born on Jan. 28, 1996, just 5 1/2 months into the pregnancy. He weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces. "When his weight dropped to a mere 1 pound and 6 ounces during his first week, we prayed hard," Anne Glaze said. "It took him 31 days to get back to his birth weight." They turned to others for help. "We were used to helping other people. This time we had to ask for help. It was hard to do," Travis Glaze said. "Our (South Dayton Church of Christ) family was extremely helpful." During the health struggle, the family obtained a large wooden stick that they notched for each day that Anne and then Nathaniel were in the hospital. The heavily-notched stick is proudly displayed in their home "to remind us to trust in God," Travis Glaze said. "It is so easy to forget when you get back into a normal routine." Nathaniel went home from Miami Valley Hospital on May 9, just 2 1/2 weeks before the family moved into the ancestral home and 101 days after he was born. On Jan. 10, the family was blessed with a second son, Eric Joshua. But this pregnancy also developed complications. Anne Glaze went into preterm labor midway through the pregnancy. A premature birth was averted through the use of bed rest, prayer, and anti-contraction drugs. Eric Joshua arrived months later weighing 8 pounds. The family realizes the magnitude of their blessings. "We've seen God work miracles," Travis Glaze said.