Shelby County

Historical Collections of Ohio: Pages 593-597 | Shelby County Ohio | Historical Collections of Ohio index page | ~ pg. 593 ~ Shelby.

Shelby County was formed from Miami in 1819, and named from Gen. Isaac Shelby, an officer of the Revolution, who, in 1792, when in Kentucky was admitted into the Union, was almost unanimously elected its first governor. The southern half is undulating, rising in places along the Miami into hills. The northern portion is flat table land, forming part of Loramie's summit, 378 feet above Lake Erie-being the highest elevation in this part of the State. The soil is based on clay, with some fine bottom land along the streams. The southern part is best for grain and the northern for grass. Area about 420 square miles. in 1887 the acres cultivated were 176,014; in pasture, 35, 334; woodlands, 37,949; lying waste 4, 192; produced in wheat, 550,866 bushels; rye 1,548; buckwheat, 1,134; oats, 512,138; barley, 27, 355; corn, 1,356,795; broom corn, 17,000 lbs. fibre; potatoes, 36,845 bushels; tobacco 11,730 lbs.; butter, 419, 199; sorghum, 11, 364 gallons; maple syrup, 2,816; honey, 8,594 lbs; eggs, 523,658 dozen; grapes, 18,590 lbs; sweet potatoes, 95 bushels; apples, 2,286; peaches, 21; pears, 283; wool, 28,125lbs; milch cows, 6,506. School census, 1888, 8,025; teachers, 189. Miles of railroad track, 51.

Townships and Census	1840	1880	Townships and Census	1840	1880
Clinton	1,496	4,618	McLean	513	1,545
Cynthian	1,022	1,835	Orange	783	984
Dinsmore	500	2,257	Perry	861	1,242
Franklin	647	999	Salem	1,158	1,576
Greene	762	1,447	Turtle Creek	746	1,359
Jackson	478	1,852	Van Buren	596	1,647
Loramie	904	1,730	Washington	1,688	1,046

        Population of Shelby in 1820 was 2,142; 1830, 3,671; 1840, 12,153; 1860, 17,493; 1880, 24,137: of whom 19,988 were born in Ohio; 573, in Pennsylvania; 331, Virginia; 234, Indiana; 134, New York; 123, Kentucky; 1,272, German Empire; 353, Ireland; 262, France; 53, England and Wales; 30, British America, and 14 Scotland. Census, 1890, 24,707.
        The first white man whose name is lastingly identified with the geography of this county was Peter LORAMIE, or LARAMIE, inasmuch as his name is permanently affixed to an important stream. He was Canadian French trader who in 1769, seventeen years after the destruction of Pickawillany, at the mouth of the loramie, established a trading post upon it. The site of Loramie's store, or station, as it was called, was up that stream about fifteen miles, within a mile of the village of Berlin and near the west end of the Loramie reservoir. Col. John Johnston wrote to me thus of him:
        At the time of the first settlement of Kentucky a Canadian Frenchman, named Loramie, established there a store or trading station among the Indians. This man was a bitter enemy of the Americans, and it was for a long time the headquarters of mischief towards the settlers.
        The French had the faculty of endearing themselves to the Indians, and no doubt Loramie was, in this respect, fully equal to any of his countrymen, and gained great influence over them. They formed with the natives attachments of the most tender and abiding kind. "I have," says Col. Johnston, "seen the indians burst into tears when speaking of the time when their French father had dominion over them, and their attachment to this day remains unabated."
        So much influence had Loramie with the indians, that when General Clarke, from kentucky, invaded the Miami valley in the autumn of 1782, his attention was {pg. 594} attracted to the spot. He came on and burned the Indian settlement here [at upper Piqua], and plundered and burned the store of the Frenchman [about sixteen miles further north].

The store contained a large quantity of goods and peltry, which were sold by auction afterwards among the men by the general's orders. Among the soldiers was an Irishman named Burke, considered a half-witted fellow, and the general butt of the whole army. While searching the store he found, done up in a rag, twenty-five half-joes, worth about $200, which he secreted in a hole he cut in

an old saddle. At the auction no one bid for the saddle, it being judged worthless, except Burke, to whome it was struck off for a trifling sum, amid roars of laughter for his folly. But a moment elapsed before Burke commenced a search, and found and drew forth the money, as if by accident; then shaking it in the eyes of the men, exclaimed, "An' it's not so bad a bargain after all!"

Soon after this loramie, with a colony of the Shawanese, emigrated to the Spanish territories, west of the Mississippi, and settled in a spot assigned them at the junction of the Kansas and Missouri, where the remaining part of the nation from Ohio have it different times joined them.
In 1794 a fort was built at the place occupied by Loramie's store by Wayne, and named Fort Loramie. The last officer who had command here was Col. Butler, a nephew of Gen. Richard Butler, who fell at St. Clair's defeat. Says Col. John Johnston

His wife and children were with him during his command. A very interesting son of his, about 8 years old, died at the post. The agonized father and mother were inconsolable. The grave was inclosed with a very handsome and painted railing, at the foot of which honeysuckles were planted, grew luxuriantly, entwined the paling, and finally enveloped the whole grave. Nothing could appear more beautiful than this arbor when in full bloom.

The peace withdrew Capt. Butler and his troops to other scenes on the Mississippi. I never passed the fort without a melancholy thought about the lovely boy who rested there, and his parents far away never to behold that cherished spot again. long after the posts had decayed in the ground, the vines sustained the palings, and the whole remained perfect until the war of 1812, when all was destroyed, and now a barn stands over the spot.

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        The site of Loramie's store was a prominent point in the Greenville Treaty boundary line. The farm of the heirs of the late James Furrows now [1846] covers the spot. Col. John Hardin was murdered in this county in 1792, while on a mission of peace to the Indians. The town of Hardin has since been laid out on the spot.
        Sidney in 1846.-Sidney, the county-seat, is sixty-eight miles north of west from Columbia, eighty-eight from Cincinnati, and named from Sir Philip Sidney, "the great light of chivalry." It was laid out as the county-seat in the fall of 1819, on the farm of Charles Starrett, under the direction of the court.
        The site is beautiful, being on an elevated table-ground on the west bank of the Miami. The only part of the plot then cleared was a cornfield, the first crop having been raised there in 1809 by William Stewart. The court removed to Sidney in April, 1820, and held its meetings in the log cabin of Abraham Cannon, on the south side of the field, on the site of Matthew Gillespie's store. During the same year the first court-house, a frame building, now Judge Walker's store, was built, and also the log jail. The first frame house was built in 1820, by John Blake, now forming the front of the National Hotel. The first post-office in the county was established at Hardin in 1819, Col. James Wells post-master; but was removed the next year to Sidney, where the colonel has continued since to hold the office, except during Tyler's administration. The first brick house was erected on the site of J.F. Frazer's drug store by Dr. William Fielding. The Methodists erected the first church on tthe ground now occupied by them. Mr. T. Truder had a little store when the town was laid out, on the east side of the river, near the lower crossing. The Herald, the first paper in the county, was {pg 565} established in 1836, and published by Thomas Smith. A block house at one time stood near the spring.
        In the centre of Sidney is a beautiful public square on which stands the courthouse. A short distance in a westerly direction passes the Sidney feeder, a navigable branch of the Miami canal. The town and suburbs contain 1 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Associate Reformed, 1 Christian and 1 Catholic church; 1 drug, 2 iron, 5 hardware and 10 dry goods stores; 2 printing offices, 1 oil, 2 carding and fulling, 3 flouring and 4 saw mills, and in 1840 Sidney had 713 inhabitants, since which it has increased.-Old Edition.
        Van Buren township is a settlement of colored people, numbering about 400. They constitute half the population of the settlement, and are as prosperous as their white neighbors. Neither are they behind them in religion, morals and intelligence, haaving churches and schools of their oown. Their location, however, is not a good one, the land being too flat and wet. An attempt was made in July, 1846, to colonize with them 385 of the emancipated slaves of the celebrated John Randolph, of Virginia, after they were driven from Mercer county; but a considerable party of whites would not willingly permit it, and they were scattered by families among the people of Shelby and Miami, who were willing to take them.-Old Edition.
        The first white family who settled in this couny was that of James Thatcher, in 1804, who settled in the west part on Painter's run; Samuel Marshall, John Wilson and John Kennard-the last now living-came soon after. The first court was held in a cabin at Hardin, May 13 and 14, 1819. Hon. Joseph H. Crane, of Dayton, was the presiding judge; Samuel Marshall, Robert Houston and Willim Cecil, associates; Harvey B. Foot, clerk; Daniel V. Dingman, sheriff, and Harvey Brown, of Dayton, prosecutor. The first mill was a saw mill, erected in 1808 by Daniel McMullen and Bilderbach, on the site of Walker's mill.-Old Edition.
        SIDNEY, county-seat of Shelby, is on the Miami river, about sixty-five miles northwest of Columbus, forty miles north of Dayton, at the crossing of the C.C.C. & I. and D & M. Railroads. County officers, 1888: Auditor, J.K. Cummins; Clerk, John C. Hussey; Commissioners, Jacob Paul, Thomas Hickey, Jeremiah Miller; Coroner, Park Beeman; Infirmary Directors, James Caldwell, C. Ed. Bush, Samuel M. Wagoner; Probate Judge, Adolphus J. Rebstock; Prosecuting Attorney, James E. Way; Recorder, Lewis Pfaadt; Sheriff, G.E. Allinger; Surveyor, Charles Counts; Treasurer, William M. Kingseed. City officers, 1888: Mayor, M.C. Hale; Clerk, John W. Knox; Treasurer, Samuel McCullough; Solicitor, James E. Way; Surveyor, W.A. Ginn; Marshal, W.H. Fristo. Newspapers: Journal, Republican, Trego & Binkley, editors and publishers; Shelby County Democrat, James O. Amos (adjutant-general of Ohio 1874-6), editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Baptist, 1 Colored Baptist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 German Lutheran, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Colored Methodist Episcopal, 1 Catholic, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Christian, 1 German Methodist. Banks: Citizens', J.A. Lamb, president, W.A. Graham, cashier; German-American, Hugh Thompson, president, John H. Wagner, cashier.
        Manufactures and Employees.-J. Dann, wheels, spokes, etc., 3 hands; John Loughlin, school furniture, 147; Slusser & McLean Scraper Co., road scrapers, 18; Sidney Manufacturing Co., stoves, etc., 36; Philip Smith, corn shellers, etc., 31; Wyman Spoke Co., spokes and bent wood, 20; J.M. Blue & Nutt, lumber, 6; R. Given & Son, leather, 10; B.W. Maxwell & Son, flour, etc., 4; Anderson, Frazier & Co., carriage wheels, 80; James O. Amos, weekly paper, 10; Valley City Milling Co., corn meal, 6; J.S. Crozier & Son, carriages, 7; J.M. Seitter & W.H.C. Monroe, builders' wood work, 32; Goode & Kilborn, road scrapers, 23; Sidney Steel Scraper Co., road scrapers, 22; J.F. Black, builders' wood work, 10; McKinnie & Richardson, brooms, 10.-State Report, 1887.
        Population, 1880, 3,823. School census, 1888, 1,497; P.W. Search, school {pg 596}

{pg 597} superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $616,150. Value of annual product, $1,216,100.-Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887.
        Census, 1890, 4,850.
        The engraving given shows on the right the court-house, and in the distance the MONUMENTAL BUILDING, a very beautiful memorial to the fallen soldiers of the civil war. The corner-stone was laid June 24, 1875. On the second floor is the Library Hall, containing the public library, and where are preserved military relics, and on marble tablets inscribed the names of the departed heroes. On the third floor is the opera hall and town hall. The entire building is dedicated to public uses, and is a credit to the public spirit of the citizens, who, in the very starting of their pleasant little city, began to mark time in the name of hero.
        The early Indian History of this region makes it an especially interesting point. About a mile south of the Shelby county line as early as 1749 was a trading house, called by the English PICKAWILLANY, which was attacked and destroyed by the French and Indians in June of 1752. This trading post has been regarded as the first point of English occupation in what is now Ohio, inasmuch as it was a great place of gathering of English traders. Its exact location was "on the northwest side of the Great Miami, just below the mouth of what is now Loramie creek, in Johnston prairie," or as at present named, in Washington township, Miami county, and about nine miles southwest of Sidney.
        "There was," writes Butterfield, "a tribe of Miamis known to the French as 'Picqualinees,' which word was changed by the English to Pickawillanies, and as these (many of them) had settled here, it was called as above 'Pickawillany,' or simply 'Picks-town,' sometimes 'Pictstown;' the inhabitants as well as thetribe being known as 'Picts.' These 'Pickqualines' were the Miami proper."