This is Ohio Idol - McKinley Out

Ohio Idol Bill McKinley
in bobblehead form

Did you know that Ohio's State Flower is the red carnation?
Did you know it had something to do with one of the US Presidents from Ohio who died in office?
If you said "who cares?", then you may stop reading now.
On February 3rd, 1903 the Ohio State Assembly named the red carnation the state flower for recently assassinated US President and former Ohio Governor William McKinley. "The Idol of Ohio" as he was called was known for picking fights with Spain and wearing a red carnation in his lapel.
The origin of his carnation love affair started with a man named Levi Lamborn, who was a horticulturist and brought some of the first carnations to the US from France. Lamborn was McKinley's rival for a US Congressional seat and before a debate, as a friendly gesture presented McKinley with one of his red carnations. McKinley went on to win that election and since that time took a fancy to the flower he considered good luck. Years later after he was elected the 25th President, Levi sent him more red carnations and McKinley always kept a vase of them on his desk. Now that I think about it, it seems odd that a grown man would give another grown man flowers, not once but at least twice. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Just sayin'.
In 1901 while at an expo in Buffalo NY, a 12-year-old girl was admiring the red carnation in the President's lapel. McKinley gave it to the young girl. Moments after that he was shot by an assassin and died eight days later from his wounds.
September 14th, the date of McKinley's death is known statewide as Red Carnation Day and is celebrated with much fanfare and jubilees. Ok, that's a lie, the day goes by pretty much unnoticed.

The Treaty of Fort Finney

1780s Spring House

The 18th century stone spring house in Shawnee Lookout Park is where the 1786 Treaty of Fort Finney was signed on January 31st.

In 1975 the building was moved from its original nearby location where Fort Finney once stood on the Ohio River, the present location of the Duke Energy power plant. It might be one of the oldest buildings in the Cincinnati area. A replica of the treaty is inside the building.

Defense plan of Fort Finney at the mouth of the Miami

The treaty was supposed to cede most of southern Ohio to the US.  In exchange for the land, the Americans also promised to keep white squatters from settling on land reserved exclusively for the Indians. This was the first surrender of territory to Americans by Indians west of the Alleghenies. Like many treaties, only some Indian leaders signed the treaty and many other Indians in the region did not recognize it at all. It was also typical to lure tribal leaders to "negotiations" and then mislead them in the interpretation of the terms knowing that none of the Indians could read or write English. This really made the treaty worthless even among those who signed.

Several Wyandot, Delaware, and Shawnee signed the treaty. It is interesting to note that signing for the Americans was George Rogers Clark, who became a well known "Indian fighter" and also the older brother of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame. Also signing was Richard Butler, not the lead singer of the Psychedelic Furs, but a veteran of the Revolutionary War who later died at the disastrous St. Clair's Defeat. The story goes that Butler was infamous among many Indians and at that battle he was not only scalped but his heart removed and consumed by Shawnee several warriors.

Fort Finney marker near the power plant

Text of the marker: 

A company of soldiers from Fort Pitt landed at the mouth of the Great Miami October 22, 1785, and immediately began the building of a fort near this site. It was named Fort Finney in honor of Major Walter Finney, who was in command of the operation.

The Continental Congress had commissioned generals George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Samuel H. Parsons to make a peace treaty with the Shawnee Indians and to mark off lands to be allotted to that tribe.

This site was chosen as being "most convenient to the principle body of savages and nearly equal distance from the rapids (Louisville) and the interior part of Kentucky and Limestone (Maysville)"

Invitations were sent to the reluctant Indians, who finally met by the council house near the fort during the middle of January, 1786. On January 31, 1786 the treaty with the Shawnee Nation was signed, resulting in the immediate removal of hostile Indians from the area.

Erected by the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company - 1953

Olde Coleraine

A replica of Dunlap's Station mentioned in a book.
I had to e-mail some folks to get find its location next to
this coat rack in a closet.

When people in Cincinnati think of Colerain, I'm sure many think of the sea of cars and signs that clog the main drag of the cluttered and overgrown retail area. It's really hard to imagine now but this older suburb of Cincinnati has a rich past of pioneer settlements and prehistoric Indian villages. This older history is largely forgotten or has vanished completely since no physical reminders remain. At least further to the West of Colerain Avenue, there remains open spaces and a few reminders of this community's interesting origins.

Sometimes referred to as Fort Dunlap, Dunlap's Station, or Fort Coleraine this pioneer settlement was founded at the horseshoe bend of the Great Miami River by an Irish immigrant named John Dunlap in 1790. He named the settlement after his birthplace of Coleraine, Ireland.
Today this is the location of Heritage Park where the Boy Scouts have placed a marker commemorating the settlement.

you may have sped right by this informative sign

There were about 40 of these small forts called "Stations" in the late 1700s around the Cincinnati area. This particular Station was significant because it was attacked by the famous Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket and 500 warriors along with the renegade ally Simon Girty, a white man who sided with the local Indians and British against the Americans.
It was nearly impossible for Indians to overtake a Station since they were not equipped with any sort of artillery. The British who sometimes instigated these attacks and provided intelligence rarely lent direct assistance since there was no formal declaration of war at this time with the US. The Native Americans had to resort to intimidation, surprise attacks or just burning stuff down.

Dunlap's Station Marker in Heritage Park

The Siege of Dunlap's Station lasted from January 8th until January 11th, 1791. Two settlers (Sloan and Cunningham) were killed in this attack including one unfortunate man named Abner Hunt. He was held hostage and tortured in full view of the terrified and barricaded residents in an effort to intimidate a surrender from Lieutenant Kingsbury and the Station's defenders.  This tactic proved unsuccessful and the Indian forces finally withdrew after more US military support arrived from nearby Fort Washington in Cincinnati. However, this really wasn't much of a win. These settlers didn't have clear title to the land they purchased from John Dunlap and likely never would. Red tape existed in the 18th century too. All their hard work might be for nothing if they stayed. Added to this was the ever-increasing hostilities with the Indians after St Clairs Defeat later that year. The settlement was soon abandoned.
Settlers returned in 1794 when the area was made more secure after the American win over the Ohio area Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers and some of the legal hassles were sorted out.

There is a scaled down replica of the station in the Colerain Township Administrative building. I have since learned that there are plans to build a full-sized replica of Dunlap's Station somewhere in the area as a museum but funding is an issue so the plans are on hold for now. I already let them know that I would love to help build it! I also promised not to attack it.

my kids and I made this grossly inaccurate re-enactment
of the Siege of Dunlap's Station

Hedges Pioneer Cemetery a stone's throw from Dunlap

Next to the park and former location of Dunlap's Station is Hedges Cemetery, a combined graveyard of two old cemeteries where several Revolutionary War veterans are buried along with people who were killed in the 1791 attack, including poor old Abner.

When Heritage Park was being planned in the early 2000's, they ran some ground radar over the area looking for any remnants of Dunlap's Station and they claimed to have found none. The Great Miami River has, in fact, changed course in this area several times, so what little remained is likely to have been washed away over the years.
What they did uncover in the radar survey was more evidence of an ancient 95-acre Indian village that little was known about previously. Rumor has it that the information was hushed to keep the park project on target.  Frisbee golf has a higher priority than history.

Adena Mound atop the hill at River & Dunlap Roads

This 100 BCE Indian village was a prehistoric Hopewell settlement referred to by archaeologists as Colerain Earthworks. There is an 1836 mapped survey of it here. It was located partially on the property of Heritage Park and partially on the private property of Southwestern Ohio Water Works to the north.  An archaeological survey was done recently and the earthen walls appeared as slightly darker lines as compared to the surrounding soil. This confirmed the earlier radar survey and the late 1800s description of  "8 foot walls and 10 foot observation mounds" prior to it being turned into farmland. One of the walls even went right through Hedges Cemetery but just like nearby Northgate Mall no useful features remain.

Adena mound with a house on top

There are also several older 800 BCE Adena Mounds in this area, one is on private property at the top of a hill on private property across from Heritage Park at Dunlap and East Miami River Road.
The other Adena mound is 4 miles away near the Colerain Township Administration building and visible from the road. What is especially odd about this mound is that some time in the 1920's a Tudor style home was built right on top of it. You can still make out the shape of the mound. This home is now used as a garage for the newer home next to it.

Oh, and what happened to the "E" in ColerainE? No one is really sure. Sometimes things just fade away over time and I think they just liked extra E's in words in ye olde days.

sources:
Findagrave.com for Hedges cemetery - specifically, entries for Cunningham, Sloan, and Hunt who died at the Siege of Dunlap's Station

Happy 210th Birthday Governor Bebb!

Bebb's Cabin birthplace built in 1799
near Okeana OH, restored here in 1959.

Never heard of Governor Bebb? Yeah me neither until I went geocaching in the park named after him.To be honest the official Ohio Historical Marker Marker #25-9 there is pretty boring. For some reason, they didn't include two very interesting tidbits about him that I found from other sources. One, he was an early proponent of Civil Rights and racial equality in mid 19th century Ohio. Two, he was once tried for manslaughter.

First the boring historical marker stuff. 
After the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, a flood of settlers came to the area to build homes. It was here in Butler County that future Ohio Governor William Bebb was born to Welsh immigrants December 8, 1802, the first white child born in Butler County OH west of the Great Miami River. I'm, not sure if that's true or not. It is likely something that was invented when he became involved in politics. Even back then people padded their résumés and it was probably a charming thing to include in order to capture the hearts of voters.
As an adult, Bebb was a teacher and a lawyer before he became active in politics. During the 1840 Presidential campaign, he stumped for fellow Whig William Henry Harrison. He narrowly became Ohio's 19th Governor in 1846 with the catchy slogan "Wm. Bebb and a Home Currency against David Tod and Pot Metal". I'd like to see that on a t-shirt.


Emily gets some frontier justice in front of Berridge Cabin,
built in the early 1800's near Hamilton and restored here in 1992

Now for the more interesting info not on the sign.

Slavery was not allowed in Ohio but Bebb was in favor of repealing the so-called and discriminatory Black Laws that specifically forbid African-Americans from among other things, owning property, legal recourse, the right to vote and access to public schooling. The Governor said this of slavery in his inaugural address, "I cannot forget that the Black Laws still disgrace our statute books. All I can do is earnestly to reiterate recommendation for their unqualified repeal". The Black Laws were finally repealed in 1849 and after serving one term Bebb retired from politics and moved to a farm in Rockford, Illinois.



In 1857, he was tried and ultimately acquitted of manslaughter for shooting and killing a rowdy man named Lemuel Clemens who had been part of a group celebrating Bebb's son's marriage with a "charivari".  Here is a link with some more details of this odd event in the life of Governor Bebb. I guess I can see why they didn't include this unfortunate event on the historical marker but the Civil Rights support was a pretty big deal.

William Bebb died on October 23, 1873, at his farm in Rockford IL at the age of 70. No source seems to say what he died of but age 70 was a pretty long life back then.
 

1850 - Covered Bridge, built in 1850 near Oxford OH,
restored here in 1969. One of two originals left in Butler County.

The site of his birthplace and cabin is now a Butler County Metro Park and Nature Preserve where a pioneer village has been re-created from several other period buildings around the area including an 1850 covered bridge. It is a pretty neat little historical site to see so many structures from that time period in one place and it's worth a visit if you are ever in the area. I'll be back for some new geocaches.

Seven Chimneys

Emily visits Grandpa's old house

Here is some local history that isn't on a sign or easily found in a book or even on a single web page. If you drove by this house you might say "look at that old house" and notice how it looks out of place surrounded by more modern homes and strip malls. Then you might never give it a second thought.

I first learned of the home I'd always known as Seven Chimneys from my Dad who lived in this area when he was a boy. In fact, he lived in this house from 1951-1956 when he was about my daughter Emily's age in the photo. I've stopped by here years ago and even went inside once but I had no idea of the history otherwise. I did a little bit of research and found some interesting information that even my Dad did not know.

Located on Cincinnati-Columbus Road in West Chester Township OH, Seven Chimney had other names throughout the years, such as Shenstone Eagle Tavern, James D. Conrey House, and the Colonial Farm Restaurant. It was originally built in 1839 in a U-shape and had 14 rooms each with its own fireplace. It once had a courtyard which is now enclosed. You can see the U shape and the enclosure in the aerial photo along with all "seven chimneys" for the 14 fireplaces. If you would like more information on the home's design, this website has a very detailed description of the interior and exterior of "Spread Eagle Tavern", the original name. (The link no longer works here is the Wikipedia entry for the home)

All seven chimneys, courtesy of Bing "birds eye" maps

The now private 4000 sq ft residence is believed to be the oldest standing building in West Chester Township and one of the only examples of Jeffersonian architecture in the area.
James D. Conrey, a Methodist minister who owned the house in the 1840s used the building as a stopover on the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves fleeing the South. It also happens to be the stagecoach stop mentioned in Chapter 9 of the 1852 anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

The structure was placed on the National Historical Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Mad Anthony Stew

Recipe for Mad Anthony Stew:

You will need:
several gallons of fresh well water
1 large cauldron or kettle
1 butcher knife
1 boning knife
1 saw
1 shovel
1 13-year-old oak casket-aged, well-preserved corpse of General Mad Anthony Wayne
2 quarts of bourbon
serves one

Fill the cauldron with water and place over a fire. You want a nice rolling boil.

Drink all of the bourbon, you will need it to complete the next steps.

While the water is coming to a boil, dig up the corpse of Mad Anthony Wayne with your shovel.

Remove the uniform. You will want this later!

Next, remove the head using a saw to sever the spinal cord.

Divide the body into equal quarters with the butcher knife. 

Using the boning knife, separate and remove as much meat from the bone as possible and set aside.

Boil the bones in the cauldron until the clingy bits of tendon and meat fall off easily.

Cook down until it is a thick broth. About 30 minutes.The bones should be nearly clean by then.

Remove the boiled bones and pat dry. Place them into a large box and give to Issac Wayne.

Return the remaining broth, raw fillets of organ meat, uniform and utensils to the original grave. Pour the broth over this and reseal.

Enjoy!

Perhaps you would like a little background...

General Mad Anthony Wayne, after Gen. Harmar and Gen. St. Clair failed, was the heroic frontier General who finally defeated the Indians in the Old Northwest Territory at the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers. The resulting 1795 Treaty of Greenville he negotiated ceded most of Ohio to the Americans and ended major hostilities in the region until Tecumseh came along and stirred things up again in the early 1800s.

Fallen Timbers monument in Maumee OH

Born January 1st, 1745 in Pennsylvania to Irish immigrant parents, Wayne served in the American Revolution and became a good friend of President Washington as a result. However, his legacy will always be his service in the Old Northwest Territory. Countless, cities, counties, townships, businesses, parks, roads and schools are named after him all across the US but predominantly in PA, OH, and IN. He essentially saved the US Army and the country from ruin at a pivotal time for our young country. Remember, most of the standing US Army had been wiped out at St Clair's Defeat just a few years earlier. Despite all this, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone that really knows anything about him these days. I suppose over time his status diminished giving way to new heroes.

Mad Anthony was a nickname given to him for his strict disciplinary military methods. One time Wayne sentenced five Army deserters to death. He carried this out by having the hair and eyebrows shaved off of one of the deserters, had him lashed 100 times and a "D" branded on his forehead. Then he had this man execute the other four. Tough love. The Shawnee referred to him as "the chief who never sleeps" and nicknamed him Black Snake. Up until then, the Native Americans could usually predict the methods and patterns of their foes but this General even marched at night. It was these things that earned him fear and respect of friend and foe. A man of his stature would surely be given proper respect even in death. You would think.

do NOT park in Wayne's spot. He will mess you up.

Wayne died at the age of 51 in PA on December 15, 1796, unexpectedly after a painful gout attack which was a fairly common ailment in those days. This was just over a year after the events that made him a legend. He was buried in Erie PA near where he died. In 1809, his son Isaac claimed that his Father's wish was to be interred in the family plot in Radnor PA. He rode up on his horse and buggy, had the body exhumed and expected to only find bones. Everyone was surprised to find a fairly well-preserved body. No one at the time was really sure why the body was in good shape after 13 years in an oak casket but Issac wasn't prepared to take a whole body back. So they did what made sense. They got a bigger buggy, right? Not quite.

They dismembered Wayne's body and boiled the flesh off in a big cauldron. Yes, you read that correctly. They cooked Mad Anthony's corpse, took the bones out, put them in a box and reburied in the original grave, the remaining flesh, his uniform and the instruments used to dismember the body.

Issac then took the bones on a 400-mile journey back home. But the horror doesn't end there. Along the way, the box fell off the cart several times spilling the bones everywhere. In the process, many of the bones were lost along the way and were never recovered. What remained of the bones were reburied in Old Saint David Church Cemetery in Delaware County PA on July 4th, 1809. There is a legend that Wayne's ghost haunts Route 322 in search of his bones.

The blockhouse that was constructed at the original grave in Erie PA burned down in the mid 19th century. The grave site was pretty much lost until 1878 when it was rediscovered. The blockhouse was then rebuilt and the items that were buried in 1809, his uniform and the dissection tools were buried once again. Maybe there is a little Mad Anthony Stew left there too.

sources:
- USHistory.org
- Weird US
- Roadside America

The Eruv Has Been Approved

I think it's the 3rd one from the bottom.
...I think.

You may be surprised to know that there is a continuous unbroken wire that surrounds roughly a three square mile area around most of the Cincinnati community of Amberley Village and portions of Roselawn and Golf Manor. This wire is attached to utility poles but it does not carry electricity, voice or data of any kind. If at any time you were wondering if the wire has become severed, you can call a telephone hotline to check the status. This type of thing is not unique to Cincinnati. Most major cities have one. In fact, some cities have several. I just found out I drive by one, or through one really, nearly every day on my work commute.

This cable enclosed section of town is called the Eruv District. It's pronounced Air-oov and it is part of the Jewish religion. Now I am not Jewish and I have never heard of such a thing. I first learned of this in a book called "Amberley Village, Its History And Its People" by Richard S. Kerstine.

Orthodox Jews have strict laws they must follow including what they can and cannot do on the Sabbath Holy Day. One thing an Orthodox Jew can't do is carry things from one domain to another. Or in other terms, a private property to a public property. So, if you were living in Roselawn for example, it would be against Mosaic Law to drive to Kroger and pick up some kosher groceries and bring them home unless you did it within the territory of the established and approved eruv.

In the very very long ago past, cities and neighborhoods had walls that grouped a community together and this constituted a private domain so this wasn't a problem as long as you stayed within the walls. As Orthodox Jewish communities settled in newer predominantly non-Jewish urban and suburban areas this made it hard for them to do pretty much anything on the Sabbath. The eruv concept came along to define the boundaries of a designated area within which Orthodox Jews can treat public spaces, shared by all the community, in the same way as private space at home. And it can just be a wire on utility poles. Apparently, the rules and exceptions as well the acceptance of the idea of the eruv itself is a bit complicated and not even accepted by all people of the Jewish faith. I won't go into all that here. If you want more details I would suggest this site it or perhaps read the Wikipedia article. Or call up a rabbi if you'd like. Your choice.

since 1987, the Cincinnati Eruv District

The concept of an eruv dates back 2000 years but in the late 1890s Orthodox Jews in St. Louis, Missouri, constructed the first documented Eruv in the United States. The Cincinnati Eruv District has been in effect since 1987 and cost private donors $5000. Natural barriers can form part of the border, such as a river or a lake. In the case of Cincinnati eruv, I-75 was considered acceptable as a natural barrier and is used as one part of the boundaries  It is important that the eruv stay intact so every Friday it is someone's job to check on the continuity of the wire. According to the Cincinnati Shuls website, it is "always to be presumed that the eruv is not up". To check, you can call their eruv hotline at 513-351-ERUV. I called and the eruv is up at the time of this writing. I've also learned that another eruv is under construction just north of the recently closed Blue Ash Airport property. Cincinnati will soon be a two eruv town!

Daniel Boone was a man...with two graves




Grave #1 in Missouri

Daniel Boone died on this day September 26th, 1820 at the age of 85 in Missouri.

Everyone knows who Daniel Boone was right? He was that big buckskin-clad, coonskin cap-wearing Indian killer, right?

Not quite. Boone dressed like a regular 18th-century gentleman, he never wore a coonskin cap and was of an average build for his day. He also told his son he only knowingly killed three Indians and he felt bad about it too. Boone was an actual complicated human being, not some frontier superhero it turns out. So thank you very much TV and movies and bad biographers. While the TV series that ran from 1964-1970 reinforced many of the folktales, this wasn't solely a modern fable, it started when he was alive in hugely popular 1787 biography by John Filson. Boone once humbly stated later: "Many heroic actions and chivalrous adventures are related of me which exist only in the regions of fancy. With me the world has taken great liberties, and yet I have been but a common man." 

Boone was, of course, a longtime resident of Kentucky. They named a lot of stuff after him in the state he left when it got "too crowded" as the legends say. In reality, while he was skilled frontiersman and hunter he was a very bad land surveyor and businessman. He was also nearly convicted of treason at one point. Most of his KY property was sold off to settle lawsuits and he left for MO on bad terms. He said he would never return to Kentucky. It turned out he did. Maybe. I can't go into his whole story here. If you want that I highly recommend the 2007 book, "Boone: A Biography" by Robert Morgan. This post is really about what happened to his body after he died. It turns out to be just as interesting and unique as his real-life story.

Grave #2 in Kentucky

Daniel Boone has two graves, not two monuments but two actual grave sites that claim to contain his body. Or parts of his body at least. There is one in MO and another in KY.
It seems that 25 years after he died, the people of KY wanted their hero back so they had Boone exhumed from Marthasville MO and reburied in Frankfort KY. The problem is they didn't, at least not all of him...or maybe none of him. The whole issue was in great dispute for years. MO even claimed that KY dug up the wrong body because the grave was improperly marked (a common issue in those days). Meanwhile, KY said they had the right bones the whole time. This went on and on with different variances until 2010 when the Friends of Daniel Boone's Burial Site in Missouri conceded that only some of Boone's bones were removed. Now that wasn't very scientific and didn't really settle the issue. If you want to pay your respects, to be safe, just visit them both, it's only a 6.5-hour drive between the two.

Congressman White Eyes from the State of Ohio has the floor...

1950s Bonded Oil tumbler
featuring Ohio Indian White Eyes

The title of this blog post are words that could have been heard had history turned a different corner. Unlikely, but possible.

On  September 17th, 1778, the first formal treaty with Native Americans was signed between the newly formed United States and the Delaware (Lenape) Indians in the Treaty of Fort Pitt in present-day Pittsburgh PA.

Representing the Delaware was Chief White Eyes or Koquethagechton in Lenape. Thomas Lewis signed for the Americans.
Instead of claiming land like most treaties we've come to know, the intention of this treaty was to secure safe passage and have the Delaware provide assistance if needed to American troops through the Ohio Country against the British in Detroit, thus becoming somewhat neutral allies with the US. This was supposed to also guarantee that they would not ally themselves with the British.

Interestingly, there was a section in the treaty regarding the sovereignty of the Delaware and their territory in which they were encouraged to have other Indian tribes join. It stated, "...to form a state whereof the Delaware nation shall be the head, and have a representation in Congress" (Article VI). This meant an Indian led territory in most of present-day Ohio could have become the 14th US State after the original 13 colonies had ratified the new US Constitution. I'm sure they all had a good chuckle when they wrote that one. Of course this likely never would have happened for many reasons. Alliances and treaties were never observed long. Historians speculate that the US really had no intention of ever fulfilling this portion of the treaty since it was subject to such vague conditions just as the land grab treaties were. It didn't really matter anyway. Less than a year later in 1788, this new alliance fell apart after Chief White Eyes was murdered by American militia. Meanwhile, it was clear that the new American forts and settlers in the Ohio Valley were being used offensively and not defensively per the terms of the treaty. The Delaware and other tribes finally turned their allegiance to the British for the remainder of the war as their best hope for survival.

Also noteworthy was the fact that the first US State was Delaware, however "Delaware" was just the English designated name for the Lenape people who once lived along the Delaware River. The name Delaware actually comes from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor. The 14th US State ended up being Vermont and most of the Ohio Valley became Ohio, the 17th US State in 1803.

Soy un perdedor, I'm a Leuser baby...

The Miller-Leuser Log House is dated at being built in 1796 by Ichabod Benton Miller, one of the first settlers to what is now the Anderson Township area East of Cincinnati.  The way the deed is worded, the house may actually pre-date 1796 by a few years.
The Miller's lived here for nearly 40 years. Ichabod also happened to be the son-in-law of Captain Aaron Mercer who founded the nearby town Mercerburgh OH, the first settlement in Anderson Township which is now called Newtown OH.

The only log house remaining in its original location in Hamilton County OH is also the area's oldest continually occupied house at 170 years. Lawrence and Emma Leuser were the last residents who lived there for nearly 60 of those years until 1968. It's been added onto and modified to suit the needs of the various occupants and now has two additional rooms on the main floor so it's much more spacious than the original.


Log homes back then generally had just a front door and a one window that could be barricaded to keep the owners safe from hostilities. This house was built shortly after the Treaty of Greenville ceded most of Ohio to the US so this was at a time when there were only about 5000 white settlers in Ohio. Even though some Indian tribes signed the treaty, not all bands of these tribes recognized their validity. The settlers were trespassers as far as they were concerned.

In 1971 the Miller-Leuser Log House and the land surrounding it was purchased by the Anderson Township Historical Society (ATHS) who had it restored and furnished with period pieces. In 1974 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2 seater outhouse on the right

In June 2011 I was happy to see an Ohio Historical Marker was placed here which can be seen in the first photo along with my daughter on our visit one Sunday last October on one of the last tours for the year given by the ATHS.

I learned a few new things on the tour. For one, I had been pronouncing "Leuser" as "Loser". The actual pronunciation is LOY-ser. Also, the difference between a log cabin and a log house is that a log cabin has one floor and a log home has two.
The tour guides were very nice and made a special effort to engage the children that were on the tour. Besides the period furniture, there were also some nice pictures that showed what the house looked like over the years as well as some photos of its residents.

What really makes this structure more unique is that not very many buildings from the 18th century are still standing in the Cincinnati area. In fact, I can only think of one other standing cabin that predates this one. The 1795 Dunn Cabin in Shawnee Lookout Park which has near it, a stone Spring House where the 1786 Treaty of Fort Finney was supposedly signed. However, both of these structures have been moved from their original nearby locations.

Cincinnati is very lucky to have this well preserved and well-maintained exhibit of local history thanks to the efforts the Anderson Township Historical Society.

The  Miller-Leuser log house is open for tours on the 1st and 3rd Sunday, June through October 1-4PM.

For more information about the log house and the ATHS, please visit their website.