Jeremiah Stansell was four months old in 1802 when his parents, Henry and Elizabeth Allen Stansell, moved from Kentucky to present day Washington Township in Montgomery County.
Their new residence was a log house, constructed the year before by Henry. The floor joists were four inches thick and floorboards fourteen inches wide. All were hand hewn. The cellar had a brick floor and a spring which ran through the basement. A channel around the edge of the brick floor directed the water flow out through a hole in the basement wall to a springhouse. The stone springhouse was south of the house. These structures, located on what is now Sheehan Road, were recently demolished to make way for a housing plat.
Jeremiah married Nancy Gregg in 1823. They had twelve children, six reached adulthood.
Nancy’s brother, Samuel H. Gregg, Jr., was Jeremiah’s business partner. They operated a large business in Springboro called Stansell and Gregg, established about 1833. The Stansel’s house was located on the north east corner of Main and Factory Streets. The general store was north of the residence. Their major competitor was Mahlon and Josiah Wright’s firm, M & J Wright.
Stansell and Gregg also exported products produced in the area. They owned large warehouses in both Springboro and Cincinnati. The company hauled man made merchandise; leather, tanned hides, and homespun material as well as natural produce; grain, maple syrup, feathers, beeswax, dried apples, jars of butter, barrels of pork and beef, by wagon to Cincinnati. At busy times of the year the wagon trains south were a quarter of a mile long. From Cincinnati the products were shipped by steam boat to far away markets, among them New Orleans and the West Indies.
Dr. Aron Wright has been quoted as saying Samuel Gregg Jr. was the greatest financier ever born in the Springboro country. Unfortunately, many of the Gregg family died in a typhoid fever epidemic in 1844. Samuel was among them.
Stansell’s son, Hiram Gregg then joined his father in the business.
Besides being a business man, Jeremiah served the community as a Postmaster, a Justice of the Peace, and Treasurer of the school-land funds.
He also owned Washington Hall, a hotel built about 1837 at forty South Main Street. When he sold it, in 1852, it was renamed “The Morton House”. It was a stage coach stop for travelers from Cincinnati to Dayton. Alcohol could be served there because it was just north of the Springboro village limits. Jonathan Wright had forbidden alcoholic beverages within the village.
Jeremiah died in 1868 and Nancy in 1875. They are buried in the Springboro Cemetery.
Note: I discovered an alternate spelling for Jeremiah, Jerimiah, on a large stained glass window pane in the “Old Stone Church”, the former Universalist church building at 300 South Main in Springboro. His business competitor, Mahlon Wright, has his name on another window of the same size.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Bullskin Trace
The Bullskin Trace was one of the most significant roads in the Northwest Territory and most of it is still in use today.
The trail was first created by migrating buffalo and other animals on their way to the salt licks in Kentucky. The Trace then followed a progression of development through the years. It became an Indian trail, and then a pioneer route, was an Underground Railroad conduit, and finally became a part of modern highway systems. The path provided access from the Ohio River north to Detroit Michigan.
As an Indian trail The Bullskin Trace was used by such famous people as Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, and Tecumseh. From a British Fort in Detroit the British and Indians followed it south to attack the Kentucky settlements.
Later it became a pioneer route. Roads were important to the settlers because rivers in the area were difficult to maneuver with anything larger than a canoe. Going upstream against the current was almost impossible for flatboats.
However, flatboats coming down the Ohio River could pull off at a wide valley where Bullskin Creek emptied into the Ohio River. There pioneers would unload in a protected, easily accessible area, and continue traveling overland on the Bullskin Trace.
On February 4, 1807 part of The Trace became one of the first Ohio public highways. It was then named Xenia State Road. It was widened to 20 feet and had a right-of-way of about 60 feet. Marshy spots were covered with halved logs laid side by side producing a corduroy road. The state paid $700.00 for these improvements with money obtained by the sale of public lands.
During the War of 1812 the road was used to get supplies and troops from the Ohio River to the Great Lakes. On one occasion a group of fifteen supply wagons bumped up its rough surface.
The trail was used by run away slaves on the Underground Railroad. Some Xenia and other Greene County residents ran stations on this clandestine route.
Looking at a modern day road atlas one can see the route the Bullskin Trace followed. It began in Clermont County at the Ohio River near Chilo and headed north, following what is now Ohio 133. It passed through Warren County, where near Clarksville it jogged on to old Ohio 380 and followed it into Xenia. The Bullskin Trace continued on through Old Chillicothe, a former Shawnee village which is now called Oldtown. From Xenia to Detroit it followed the path of US 68, then Ohio 25, and finally US 24.
How the Trace got its name has various explanations. M. A. Broadstone in his History of Greene County Ohio says, “It was given its name because of the fact that it started from an Indian village of this name on the Ohio River.” While the book, Greene County 1803-1908 says, “It. extended from a village and ferry on the Ohio River called Bullskin, from which the road took its name…”
The trail was first created by migrating buffalo and other animals on their way to the salt licks in Kentucky. The Trace then followed a progression of development through the years. It became an Indian trail, and then a pioneer route, was an Underground Railroad conduit, and finally became a part of modern highway systems. The path provided access from the Ohio River north to Detroit Michigan.
As an Indian trail The Bullskin Trace was used by such famous people as Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, and Tecumseh. From a British Fort in Detroit the British and Indians followed it south to attack the Kentucky settlements.
Later it became a pioneer route. Roads were important to the settlers because rivers in the area were difficult to maneuver with anything larger than a canoe. Going upstream against the current was almost impossible for flatboats.
However, flatboats coming down the Ohio River could pull off at a wide valley where Bullskin Creek emptied into the Ohio River. There pioneers would unload in a protected, easily accessible area, and continue traveling overland on the Bullskin Trace.
On February 4, 1807 part of The Trace became one of the first Ohio public highways. It was then named Xenia State Road. It was widened to 20 feet and had a right-of-way of about 60 feet. Marshy spots were covered with halved logs laid side by side producing a corduroy road. The state paid $700.00 for these improvements with money obtained by the sale of public lands.
During the War of 1812 the road was used to get supplies and troops from the Ohio River to the Great Lakes. On one occasion a group of fifteen supply wagons bumped up its rough surface.
The trail was used by run away slaves on the Underground Railroad. Some Xenia and other Greene County residents ran stations on this clandestine route.
Looking at a modern day road atlas one can see the route the Bullskin Trace followed. It began in Clermont County at the Ohio River near Chilo and headed north, following what is now Ohio 133. It passed through Warren County, where near Clarksville it jogged on to old Ohio 380 and followed it into Xenia. The Bullskin Trace continued on through Old Chillicothe, a former Shawnee village which is now called Oldtown. From Xenia to Detroit it followed the path of US 68, then Ohio 25, and finally US 24.
How the Trace got its name has various explanations. M. A. Broadstone in his History of Greene County Ohio says, “It was given its name because of the fact that it started from an Indian village of this name on the Ohio River.” While the book, Greene County 1803-1908 says, “It. extended from a village and ferry on the Ohio River called Bullskin, from which the road took its name…”
Saturday, September 3, 2011
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.
Friday, August 19, 2011
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.”
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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
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 Miami Cemetery
Friday, June 10, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
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.
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.
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