HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY
XENIA TOWNSHIP

   Having given, in so far as possible, the early settlers of this township, and their place of location up to a date when their great numbers rendered it impossible to enumerate, we now shall endeavor to note the various improvements developed in the township, as it approached its present state of perfection. In the first place, for the conservation of moral and social equilibrium, it was necessary to organize courts of justice. We shall deal only with the courts that were held within this township, and leave for the county history the first court.

   The first court held in Xenia, convened November 15, 1804, at the house of William A Beatty, a structure previously described as the second house erected in Xenia. It was a double-hewed log house, peculiar to those times. In the west room, up stairs, was held the court. Its owner paid a license of eight dollars, and kept tavern, with a bar room, the first institution of the kind in Xenia. It seemed that justice and whisky did not flow harmoniously from the same faucet, and during court many cases were manufactured on the spot through the agency of rot-gut and tangle-foot. For ten or more years it was the grand hotel, until it was superseded by a brick structure, erected by a Mr. James Collier, on Detroit Street. It is said that in, the corner of one room a counter or bar was put up, enclosed by upright slats, between which the whisky was passed out in small drinks. In the center was a. little wicket for the general delivery. During the war of 1812, this was the headquarters for the recruiting officers, who first inspired their audience to a frenzied pitch of enthusiastic patriotism by liberal infusions of grog, then with the more tangible inducement of silver dollars, closing up with a fiery speech delivered from the head of a whisky barrel., Court was held in this house until the erection of the new house.

   The first punishment for crime was in 1806. The person was convicted for stealing leather to half-sole a pair of shoes. . There was a sugar tree in the public square, which was utilized as a whipping-post. To this he was tied while he underwent the. sentence of the court, which was one stripe on his bare back, administered by James Collier. This tree served as a public whipping-post until 1808. On the 8th of October, this year, a man was convicted for stealing a shovel-plow and clevis. Sentence was passed that he should receive eight stripes on his bare back, "and stand committed until performance." Swallowing a pint of corn juice, he embraced the tree, and despite the anesthetic vociferated. loudly in response to the descending lash. With this, the barbarous custom was abolished, and more humane, if less potent modes of punishment devised.

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