FIRST SETTLEMENT IN GREENE CO

   We are now brought down to the limits of our own county. The little settlements have been pushed forward, until our venturesome frontiersman has cleared his patch for corn, and built his lonely cabin, actually within the bounds of Greene County.
   By common consent, it is admitted that John Wilson was the first white man to make a permanent home in what is now Sugar Creek Township, this county. On the 7th day of April, 1796, he erected a log cabin, moved into it, and began clearing out the forest around him. Tender associations cluster around this little cabin in the woods, as being the nucleus around which has gathered, in the course of four-score years, the stupendous growth and wealth that the county, in its present state of perfection, now presents.
   In addition to the above, it is stated by John Mills, of Jamestown, that in April, 1796, his father, Jacob Mills, John Wilson, and his sons, Amos, Daniel, and George, came from Kentucky, and settled in the Northwest Territory. In its subsequent division into states and counties, the purchase of John Wilson was found to be in the southwest corner of Greene; his sons, Amos and George, each purchased a quarter section adjoining him, in the same county, while the purchase of Daniel fell into Montgomery, and Mills' into Warren. Mr. Mills having been allowed the overplus in his survey, made his purchase two hundred acres, and also making the combined purchase of all one thousand acres in one body, at the junction of three counties.
   Each one cleared a spot in the dense timber large enough to plant a little corn, a few beans, potatoes, etc., in the meantime erecting a small cabin on the lands of John Wilson, for the temporary accommodation of all. This cabin, it is believed was the first permanent structure put up by a white man in what is now Greene County.
   Not having been accompanied by their families, these hardy pioneers left their little patches of corn and beans, and their lonely cabin to stand guard in the wilds of nature, and returned to Kentucky for their wives and children, their furniture, and the appliances of civilization; while in their absence the tender blade of corn sprang up, and the vine threw out its tendrils, expanding, nursed by the genial rays of the sun, and guarded by the sturdy oak, fit emblem of the little settlement that in time was destined to expand into gigantic proportions of wealth and strength.
   Procuring an ox team and wagon, all five families, with the house-goods of each, were placed in it, and the journey to the wilderness, through the wilderness, was begun. The men, with their guns, usually walked, and, when necessary, put the shoulder to the wheel, to help the tired oxen, when the axle would disappear. At night afire was built, the meal was prepared, and in the fragrant air "nature's sweet restorer" came unbidden. Crossing the Ohio at Fort Washington (now Cincinnati), they followed the military road cut by General Wayne in 1793. On their arrival at the little cabin, their goods were put into it, and all five families was put in it until, by their joint efforts, other houses were erected on the purchase of each. This was called the Wilson settlement. Mr. Mills, having erected a cabin this side of Lebanon, was the first pioneer in that part of Warren. Ichabod Corwin, father of the illustrious statesman, Tom Corwin, was one of their nearest neighbors.
   The Wilsons and Millses, acting in conjunction, and being contemporaneous in settlement, we shall consider them as one family, or colony.
   John Wilson was one of the framers of Ohio's first constitution, and as such, deserves special mention. Advantageously located, they utilized the bounteous gifts with which nature had surrounded them, and the liberal reward which flowed from labor, still prompted their efforts to push forward. Not alone dependent upon the slow return of their planting, the forests afforded deer, bear, turkeys, pheasants, squirrels, and other game necessary to the pioneer table, and the oak and beech trees also afforded mash for the pioneer hog, so that with these natural auxiliaries, the table was not scantily supplied, but, with the corn-dodger, venison or bacon, beans; and milk, they had a repast as Isaac Walton would say, " too good for anybody but honest men."
   In the spring following, the little settlement received valuable accessions, by the addition of John Vance, father of Joseph C. Vance, who settled on the present site of Bellbrook, shortly after followed by General Benjamin Whiteman, Colonel Maxfield, John Paul, and Owen Davis, who all located on Beaver Creek, the latter of whom built the first mill, in this county. It is said that this mill drew custom from a radius of thirty miles, and we know that the members of the "Dutch Station," in Miami County, brought their corn here, through the woods, camping out at night. Mr. Davis is spoken of by them as having been a genial, accommodating man, often remaining up all night to oblige them. It is given to us on pretty good authority, that this mill was not finished until 1798. Two block houses were built a little east of the mill, with the intention, should danger necessitate, to connect by a line of pickets, so as to include the mill. The way once opened, other settlers flocked in, and soon the sound of the ax was heard on the creek above the mill, and John Thomas, John Webb, and John Kizer might be seen, chopping, splitting, hewing, and erecting their cabin homes.
   Mr. Davis often started his mill on the Sabbath, and ground corn for customers who had come a long distance. To this some of his extremely religious neighbors protested, even threatening him with prosecution. Mr. Davis replied, that as soon as steps were taken in this direction, they would go without their meal and flour. This proved to be a too persuasive argument for them to stomach, at least their stomachs protested, and the subject was dropped.

LETTER FROM SAMUEL FREEMAN

   I will give a small account of what I know of the first settling of Ohio, as a pioneer.
My grandfather, Samuel Freeman, came from New Jersey to Cincinnati, in 1795, when my father, John Freeman, was about fourteen years old. There were then but three houses in the town, covered with shingles. It was then called Fort Washington, I believe grandfather lived there about six years, during which General Wayne's army was stationed there. Samuel Freeman gave the first piece of ground in the town for burying the dead. I have heard my father say he could have bought the best lot in town, and paid for it in one week's catching fish with a hook and line, and selling them to the soldiers.
   In 1801, grandfather sold out in Cincinnati, and moved to Greene

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