History of Villages

History of Lewisburg

Henry Horn from Lewisburg, Virginia, now West Virginia, was an early and successful land speculator and business promoter in our area. He made several business trips here at an early date and on one of them established a distillery where Hoops’ apartments now stand, placing his son, George, in charge. Mrs. Horn refused to accompany Henry on his trips because of ill health and fear of Indians. After her death, he immigrated here with five of his children; three older ones with their families already having preceded him. His first real estate deal on record was the purchase of 118+ acres in the S. E. 1/4 of Section 28 from Zachariah Hole, July 4, 1816, for approximately $15.255 per acre. Hole had acquired the land from Nicholas Buck, who had purchased it from the Land office September 9, 1805.

Other ventures followed and in 1818, Horn took an option on Martin Rice’s S. W. 1/4 of Section 27 for $10 per acre, closing the deal on March 18, 1819. With Alexander McNutt as his surveyor, he platted a village of twenty-eight lots named it Lewisburg for his former Virginia home and had the plat recorded September 7, 1818 six months before he owned the ground.and recorded the following statement:

To all who shall see these presents, greeting: Know ye, that I , Henry Horn, of Preble county, in the State of Ohio, having laid out a town in the county and State aforesaid, on sections number twenty-seven and twenty-eight, in range three (East), on the southeast and southwest quarters of said sections which the town contains, twenty-eight in-lots, with one street running north, five degrees east, namely: Greenville Street; with three streets running parallel with each other and crossing Greenville Street at right angles, namely: Dayton Street, Twin Street, and Water Street. Greenville Street and Dayton Street are each four rods wide; Water Street and Twin Street are each two rods wide. There are two alleys crossing Greenville Street at right angles, running parallel with Dayton Street, and one alley crossing Dayton Street at right angles and running parallel with Greenville Street, with alleys extending around the town. The alleys are each eight (8) and one-fourth feet wide. The town shall be called Lewisburg.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord 1818. Henry Horn, [seal] Jacob Werts, Alexander Airman.

Lewisburg was the eighth village to be platted in Preble County. Greenville Street was the sole north-south street and Water, Dayton and Twin were the three east-west streets. Greenville and Dayton streets were each four rods wide and Twin and Water streets were two rods in width. Alleys were one-half rod wide and each lot was four rods wide and eight rods long. Errors in establishing lot lines and later additions of unsurveyed and unrecorded lots have been the cause of much controversy through the years.

Hard times followed the inflation of the war years and it was September 15, 1821 before’ Horn sold his first lot. That one was Lot 13 which John Galbreath bought for $6.00. It may appear to have been a rather low price, but the U. S. Land Office was selling land for $1.25 per acre at that time.

Sales continued slow and it was on October 15, 1839 when Philip Hinkle paid $12.00 for Lot 20, that the last of the original twenty-eight lots were sold. Meanwhile though, Horn had added and sold a few other outlets on the fringes of the village.

When Henry Horn took his option on Martin Rice’s S. W. 1/4 of Section 27, there were about a dozen squatters located along the Greenville road near the “Big Spring”. Where possible, surveyor McNutt placed each location in one of the town lots. Four of those squatters had established stores and/or shops and Horn, by some now unknown arrangement, turned the ownership of the ground over to them, but the others had to pay rent or leave. Either way they probably were recompensed for the improvements they had made on the properties for that was a common procedure of the time.

The four mentioned businesses and the lots which were assigned to them were: Peter F. Verhoff & George Jasperson, merchants on Lot 3; Francis Revel, Eaton trader Cornelius VanAusdal’s manager and partner on Lot 5; John Mills, blacksmith on Lot 10 and James cook, cooper and carpenter on Lot 12. Mr. Horn dedicated Lot 25, the location of the “Big Spring”, for perpetual use of the public. (It is now our town hall lot).

The buyers of the remainder of the original village lots and the amounts paid for them were, in order of purchase, Philip Hess No. 7, $50, Camel Agniel & James Bolens No. 4, $35, Samuel Kesler No. 28, $25, Henry Nealeigh No. 9, $25, Simpson Albright No. 8, $23, Samuel Kesler No. 27, $25, Daniel Rex No. 19, $20, Eben, Jacob & Benjamin Homan, Nos. 1 8t 2, $400, Henry Beane No. 23, $140, Francis H. Revel No. 6, $700, William Hapner Nos. 17 & 18, $60, Daniel Rouse No. 15, $25, William Burke No. 11, $25, John, Mary & Andrew Watt No. 14, $105, Samuel Aikman No. 24, $300, David Evans, 1“. D. Nos. 21 & 22, $175, Lauson Laughlin No. 16, $100 and Abney & Garland Harris N o. 26, $450. The great difference in costs was due to the squatters’ homes standing on some of the lots and it could be that some of those squatters bought back their own homes.

Going ahead of our story, we find there have been nineteen additions and/or annexations to Lewisburg though some of them were just developments within the village limits. Those additions and annexations in order are three by Henry Horn none of which were officially surveyed nor recorded, two by Michael Horn in 1839, Andrew Kizer’s 1840 addition, Alloway & Michael Horn in 1841, Michael Horn in 1849, John Singer 1854, Daniel Hapner 1893, Michael Horn 1896, Horn 8: Trimble 1900, Gay, Horn & Aikman 1901, E. C. Crider 1902, Waldo Moore 1906, annexation of Euphemia 1916, Ward Hypes 1947, Frank Mattis 1965 and Twin Creek Heights annexation 1965.

Lewisburg was the first village in Preble County to secure self-government by incorporation, that not taking place on February 9, 1830. The population at the time of incorporation was 144. There were 48 inlote in the village and on them were 44 homes, stores, and shops. Village officials were the mayor, five trustees, recorder, treasurer, and marshal. Who first occupied those offices may never be known because all village records went up in flames in the “Big Fire”.

New Ordnances were adopted and new minutes were begun immediately following the fire. Several interesting items from those minutes are: “To John Kizer, 18¢ for candles, Homan & Crane, 21¢ for candles and paper”. Another item running continuously through about a year’s minutes was about the village “coolers”. Said “coolers” were several large stone spring houses which the village had built along the “Big Spring” on Lot 25. Space for dairy products, etc. in the spring houses was rented to villagers at an annual auction.

When auction time came one year, it was discovered that several “chislers” had been using space in the spring houses gratis. A ten month’s hassle followed that was finally settled by the marshal locking the doors and then an annual auction of keys by the council with each successful bidder paying cash down and in return receiving not only a key but also an official receipt bearing the village seal and mayor’s signature.

In 1840, Andrew Kizer, one of Henry Horn’s grandsons, acquired 7.95 acres from his grandfather’s estate and made the first large addition to the village plat. It contained 27 lots and extended the southwest part of the town west to Hapnet Street. It was bounded south and north by Clay Street and Dayton Street. North Floyd Street had already been established and Kizer’s plat added a third north-south street which he named Main.

Market Street was laid out as a west extension of South Water Street and where it crowed Main Street, Kizer provided for a large market square with a dimension of one hundred and six feet each way.

William Schleiger soon built an open-sided market house in the center of the square and sold farm produce there for many years. Schleiger’s home was on Lot 87 at the N. W. corner of the square.

In the next year, 184l, William Alloway made an addition to the village containing twenty-one lots. It became known as the Alloway & Horn addition and was bounded north and south by No. Water and Dayton Streets and extended west to Horn Street.

There was cause for this sudden expansion for a rival Village, Euphemia, was mushrooming up immediately north of Lewisburg.

History of Euphemia

(No longer exist.)

Construction of the great National Road was approaching our area in the late 1830's though the line had been surveyed and established many years previously. It veered slightly north at Twin Creek to avoid crossing Philip Hinltle’s mill pond. The route led through the Frederick Black farm and Black’s heirs hired county surveyor, John Mumma, to protect their interests. Realizing the possibilities, Mumma bought the Black farm which was the entire N. W. 1/4 of Section 24, for $7,900 or $50 per acre. One of Black's heirs was Sarah Black, widow of Frederick’s son, Joseph, and daughter of Henry Horn.

Here again was a case of platting a town before the land had been bought. Mumma laid out a village plat of 190 lots along the proposed route of the national Road. Had the plat recorded May 2 1839 and got the deed for the land, September 28 1839. Ligend says Mumma named the village Euphemia after Mrs. Mumma's first name, but all records give her name as Mary Ann.

Mumma challenged Lewisburg for supremacy and the rivalry became somewhat heated when he succeeded in forcing a new road through Michael Horn'a farm from Horn's house to Main Street, now Commerce Street, in Euphemia. This road then rejoined the Greenville road north of Euphemia and soon became a part of the West Alexandria, Euphemia. Hagerstown, Castine and Greenville Turnpike. Horn really profited by the transaction for he soon sold the large outlot that was thus bounded by Front Street, Greenville Road and the new road to the Lutherans for a church lot. (Euphemia’s big mistake was in never uniting its people and resources by incorporation.)

John Momma sold ten village lots on his first day's sale, the first one being No. 27 to Thompson Leas. This was October 1, 1839. He sold three more on the 2nd. In a moderate way it became a boom town. Abraham S. Dye from Butler County, soon started up a successful store and real estate business and romoted the town greatly. He was the builder of the "Hoerner House”. M. I. McGrew built himself a home and wagon and carriage shop on Lots 3 and 4. Ex-school teacher, Franklin Payne, began the manufacture of his famous “Pain Killer" liniment and other patent medicines. Doctors Pretzinger, Matchett and Bailey began their practices in the village. Samuel Sweeny added his cabinet and carpenter shop to the town's business. At one period there were three taverns, three dry goods stores, a clothing store, a church, saddlery shop, millinery store, post office, cabinet shop and three blacksmith and carriage shops in Euphemia. House building was quite different from the log houses of early Lewisburg. Native forests had either vanished or were exhausted of prime building lumber and it now was cheaper to burn bricks on location and build with them. Brick masons were in their hey dey.

Then a cloud appeared on the horizon. The Dayton Turnpike was constructed, 1838-1840, and it diverted traffic thereon from the National Road at Brandt, Ohio and Richmond, Indiana. When the National Road did reach Euphemia, in 1840, construction stopped for lack of state and federal support. In exasperation, the villagers petitioned for the county commissioners to complete the road to the state line and this was done by the close of 1842. Alexander McNutt and son Hiram worked on this job.

It was not until 1870 that Price Creek was bridged and 1873 before a bridge was built over Twin Creek for the National Road. Officials for the turn-pike through Dayton appear to have protected their interests very well.

Mumma built a big brick ell-shaped tavern containing ten guest rooms on the S. E. corner of the Commerce and Cumberland Streets intersection, and named it the Euphemia House. (It became known in later years as the Old Hotel, and in 1934 was razed to make way for the present Mattis Sinclair Service Center.) Before the Dayton & Western Railway was built in 1853, six-horse stage coaches operated on this section of the National Road. One started east from Richmond and one west from Vandalia each morning, stopping at the Euphemia House at noon for lunch and to change horses. Tradition says a famous guest at the tavern was Abraham Lincoln when he traveled through Ohio on his way to Washington while a member of the Congress. When the Friends held their national conference at Richmond one year, overnight guests and their horses filled the tavern’s accommodations to capacity and spilled over into the town.

The proposed Louisville & Sandusky Railway roused high hoped in Euphemia. Much work was done on it including a big triple-arch overpass over the National Road in the village. The valley was to be crossed by trestlework. It was an ill-fated venture for the railway company failed in the early 1850's. The only remaining sign of the railway construction today is the large fill or mound standing northeast across Cumberland Street from the Lewisburg greenhouse or just east of Iris’s Gift Shop. Mumma’s venture also proved to be unsuccessful and he was forced to make assignment May 27, 1853.

To complete the story of Euphemia, we find that in 1853 the Dayton & Western Railway built a depot two miles north of the rival villages, Euphemia and Lewisburg, and named it Sonora. The railway route as originally planned was to run through either Lewisburg or Euphemia but the rivalry of those two villages was so intense that it hindered the obtaining of enough ground for a right of way through much of the area and so the alternate route, two miles farther north was chosen. Mail, passengers and freight now reached either village equally well, but when the “Mackinaw” Railway was built through Lewisburg thirty years later, the advantage was entirely with that town. After several postponements, the Euphemia Post Oflice was closed in 1911. Public utilities were being installed in Lewisburg, the high schools were combined into one in the Lewisburg building, and after several petitions for annexation to Lewisburg, lost out because of lack of sufficient signers, one finally was successful but even then the matter remained unsettled. The Lewisburg village council split 50-50 on whether or not to accept the petition and it remained for the mayor to cast the deciding vote. Fortunately he was none other than our broadminded “Leader” editor, G. M. Kumler, and his vote was for unification. Annexation became official on April 6, 1916.

The subsequent history of this now politically united village will be told in more detail under topics such as public utilities, streets, industries, etc.

It is doubtful if the physical division as is well shown by the hourglass shape of the village, will ever be erased; a division created by the choice of location for the Union Church which eventually became Roselawn Cemetery and by Michael Horn's reluctance to include his “Horn Mansion Sduare” within the village limits and the subsequent use of much of it for public school grounds.

In this, our sesquicentennial year, we have our village official family of Francis Deisher, mayor; Margaret Nash, clerk-treasurer; William Rice, John Purnhagen, Harold Steiner, Roosevelt Thornsberry, Frank Shaeffer and John Hoop, council and Virgil Cullers, A. F. Wair and C. D. Bunger, Board of Public Affairs.

History of Verona

(West Baltimore)

Verona was the third village to be platted in Harrison Township. Its actual beginning was somewhat similar to that of Lewisburg in that it seems as though there already was some sort of settlement there. (That may have been the somewhat legendary settlement of Schencksville.) The settlers who were already living there were, R. Benz, a Fritchey & Co. establishment of some sort, Wm. Reed, Isaac Schnorf, P. Snyder and D. K. Boyer.

A post office named West Baltimore was established here on August 8, 1849 with Aaron Robbins as postmaster but actual location of the office is unknown.

Almost three years later, June 22, 1852, Jacob Trees had the location made into a village plot bearing the same name as the post office, West Baltimore.

The Greenville & Miami Railway was being constructed at that time and West Baltimore hoped to have a depot for it, but due to the swampy nature of the area where the railway crossed the county line, the depot was located farther to the northwest on higher ground and this placed it in Preble County. The first owners of the ground there had been Joseph Myers and Henry Bierly.

Taking advantage of the opportunity thus offered, Preble countians J. Karr, R. Calhoun, __ Reed and __ Leisure laid out a village of fifty-three lots surrounding the depot and named it Verona. This was on June 21, 1853, almost exactly a year after the platting of the rival village across the county line and it immediately caused a lot of confusion because the railway company had already named their depot West Baltimore and refused to change it to Verona. The confusion became more pronounced when the Railway Express Company established an office at the depot and allowed the use of both names. The rivalry was not ended but some of the confusion was on December 5, 1899 when the post office was moved to the Verona side and the name for it also was changed to Verona. William Vaughan was postmaster at the time of these changes.

As early as 1905, Edward Shilt, editor of the Verona Weekly News was citing advantages of village incorporation, but standpatters prevailed until August 27, 1910, when the “settlement" was thus organized. Earl Leiter was voted in as the first village mayor along with a full slate of village officials and as of the date this history is being written, ninety-four-year-old Clayton Morris of Verona is the only surviving member of that first “Village Family"; Morris having been one of the first councilmen.

Incorporation did not settle the confusion of names and on July 4, 1912, The Dayton Chamber of Commerce called a conference of interested parties and there it was agreed to drop all names except Verona.

Kenneth Walters is currently serving as Verona's mayor; Phyllis Borts, clerk-treasurer; C. E. Acton, Sr., T. D. Adkins, Paul Myers, R. G. Brown, H. Albright and Jack King, council; C. F. Sodders, E. Schlosser and G. Gunder, B. P. A. and Charles (Pete) Heeter, marshal. Roger Goerte miller has been postmaster for the last ten years.

The Greenville & Miami Railway Company failed in 1863 and a new company known as the Dayton & Union City or D. & U. Ry. Co. took over ownership and operation. It was at about this same time that the Federal government, because of war induced shortages, requisitioned the company’s tracks from Dayton to Dodson and ordered the Dayton & Western Ry. Company to allow the D. & U. Company free use of their tracks between those two points, an arrangement which has generally been followed ever since.

A D. & U. electric interurban railway was constructed parallel to the steam railroad in 1901 and remained in operation just a quarter of a century, the tracks being removed in 1926. Electric power and light lines were built into Verona in 1915 and natural gas was piped into Verona in 1942. The village water works system was installed in 1964.

At the time of the village’s best business era, there were a Farmer’s Bank, Verona Weekly News: lumber yard, flouring and feed mill, tobacco warehouses, several general stores, hotel, barber shop, hardware store, etc. Today the chief industries are a general store or market, service stations, farm implement shop, grain elevator and the F. & F. Mold & Die Works, Inc. The latter company deals in plastics and has an average yearly employment list of forty people.

There are four civic organizations in Verona, the Knights of Pithius, Grange, Lions and the Volunteer Fire Department. Veteran fire chief, James Kenworthy, heads the V. F. D. of twenty-five members. It is a progressive department and has grown from a man pulled chemical tank-cart to two modern fire trucks with a total capacity of 1,150 gallons per minute water delivery and a 1,200-gallon tanker with a 250 gallons per minute pump.

Four of Verona largest commercial fire losses within the last forty years were the Williams Tobacco Warehouse, Etzler Mill and Floyd Brothers' Mill

Verona has a Well-equipped and lighted community and athletic park lying within the north central part of the village.

A considerable handicap is the limited natural drainage due to the area being the flat headwater portion of Swamp Creek.

West Sonora

Construction of the Dayton & Western Railway reached Harrison Township in 1853. It crossed the old “State” Road (3. R. 503) two miles north of Lewisburg and Euphemia and there it established a depot for those villages and named it Sonora. Three years later, Hiram McNutt, the “baby” of the Tilman emigration to Ohio in 1805, laid out a small town plat by the same name, Sonora, on his farm near the depot. A post office was established here about 1860 and the name was changed to West Sonora.

West Sonora became a thriving village and at the height of its prosperity had stock yards, a grain elevator, carriage works, hotel, blacksmith shop, farm implement store, drug store, two general stores, two dry goods stores, coal yard, barber shop, two churches, a two-room schoolhouse, foundry and machine Shop, saw mill and tile works. The village’s business prosperity began to dim with the arrival of the first “Machinaw” Railway train at Lewisburg in 1885. Electric power and light lines were installed l here in 1915. The West Sonora community has been plagued with many disastrous fires, the largest of which was that of the Loren Brown Implement store in 1956. Verlin Sweet was postmaster when the West Sonora post office was closed on January 31, 1941. A legend is that Sonora was some girl’s name, but just who she was, was never told.

Little Brown

(No longer exist.)

No history of our area would be complete without some mention of Scufiletown and the Little Brown School communities. Both were very much alike in nature, a completely rural social community. The Little Brown area was the Oldest such community in these parts. Here was the center of the Large Tilman settlement in 1805. A log church and several log schools were the religious, educational and social centers. The name, Little Brown became firmly attached to the area when the new frame schoolhouse was painted a rich brown color as soon as it was finished. In later years it was painted gleaming white. Well attended reunions kept a nostalgic spirit alive for many years after the school was discontinued, but today the name Little Brown has faded well into our past.

When the Dayton & Western Railway was being constructed through Preble County, a large construction worker’s camp was set up south of the little log schoolhouse. It was populated with immigrant German and Irish laborers who were looked upon with askance by the people of the neighborhood because they always were quarreling and fighting, one nationality against the other. Railway foremen and their families roomed and boarded at the Euphemia House in the nearby village.

Brennersville

(No longer exist.)

Americans have long had a tendency toward nicknames and thus Brennersville is better known as “Scufflletown”. John Brenner was probably our first sub-division developer and began his Operation circa 1825. Mr. Brenner owned the S. W. I4 of Section 8, Twin Township and at about the date mentioned, began measuring and selling one acre lots along the Eaton-Lewislburg Road at the S'. E. Corner of his farm. It soon became known as Brennersville and there were hopes of some importance when the ill-fated Louisville & Sanduslry Railroad surveyed a route through the locality and went so far as to build high stone abutments for a bridge over Price Creek (near Imes’ Park) and made a deep cut and high fill for the south approach. The depot at Brennersville was to be named Mammoth Spring from the nearby big spring on the Royer farm in the N. W. I4 of Section 17, Twin Township. This was the same railroad that built the overpass for the National Road in Euphemia, then failed in the early 1850’s

Scullletown became more than a mere hamlet. It grew into a community of interests. The Scufllletown schoolhouse was built on the Shields road on the west edge of Brenner’s farm (It was replaced later by the Swank schoolhouse). Three large stone quarries operated Within a mile radius of the hamlet. They were the Deem, Negley and Whipple quarries. Borlace Whipple was from Vermont where he had learned the process of cutting stone with saws and now he intoduced it in his quarry here. Expert stone cutters gravitated to his quarry and soon handsomely carved gravestones were being produced from imported marble. In circa 1835, Whipple bought the grist and saw mill which Samuel Enoch had built in 1825 and installed a steam boiler and engine to run it - the first steam grist mill in Preble County.

The ‘Whipple mill was near the location of one of the first two schools in Twm Township, the Thomas Coldscott school in 1812. A general store and a blacksmith shop were operating in the hamlet itself. Sunday School, church services, singing schools, debating societies and like functions were held regularly in the Brenner schoolhouse. But Scufiietown now belongs to history.

Georgetown

Georgetown is the well known name for a place that barely exists. It lies at the intersection of S. R. 503 and the Georgetown-Verona Roads, one mile north of West Sonora. How the place ever received its name is unknown. At one time there was a schoolhwse there, a tile works, blacksmith shop and two or three homes. Its chief attraction today is the recently installed flasher lights for the dangerous road intersection.