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From: HERMON B FAGLEY <>
Subject: 2,OOO+acre Lake Harsha in 8000 a. East Fork State Park,sw Ohio.
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 10:45:43 -0500


There are many of us here,on-line, who have memory of the area
that,1970-75
became federal Lake Harsha in East Fork State park. S E Batavia twnsp,
sw
Williamsburg twnsp, nw Tate twnsp [Bethel], and a tiny bit of Monroe
twnsp went into
the lake-park.
This area was mostly settled by people from Atlantic Co,NJ and s e
Princeton,NJ, though
there were exceptions from Washington Co,sw Pa,Fayette Co,Ky etc. .
Mostly Methodist. .
But,by 1970, many of the farms were no longer owned by original families.

No villages, but "neighborhoods" disappeared. If you look at a modern
map, you
see the lake shaped roughly like an hour-glass. The hamlet of Elk Lick
was under
the western bulge. Twin Bridges under the eastern bulge. Anti-Bantam at
the park's edge
south of Twin Bridges. Bantam south of Elk Lick. Concord east of Twin
Bridges.
Afton north of Elk Lick. Green Brier at the north end of the dam. Mt
Holly not far south east.of
the dam . Neighborhoods. Elk Lick once had Rev John Collins and his
bro-in-law,James
Blackman's grist and saw mills. In the narrow place between bulges was
Isaac Higbee's
and Cornelius McCollum's mill. At Macedonia,on the s e corner of the lake
were once 3 mills
owned by John Denham,Walter Burke,Timothy Sprague,-Deel, et al, and on
the n e edge of the
park was tunnel mills. Methodist churchs of Old Bethel,Green Brier,and
Concord,were in,or at the
park's edge[cemetaries,at least,survive. I think a 4th was in the park's
campground.
Salt was made at at least 2 licks-by the Jerseymen at Elk Lick,and
by Waits,n of Concord
church.At least Bantam and Concod had post offices. Bridges would be torn
down at Elk Lick,
Twin Bridges[2], Macedonia, Goggle Eye, and Tunnel Mills 1973-74. The
latter 3 would not have
been under water at normal lake depth.
Many very early buildings were torn down,in both the lake,and the park
area, 1970-75. Pictures
were published in local papers of many of them,and 'Elk Lick"house was
moved,board by board,
to Sharon Woods Parks village,ne Cincinnati.
Hermit John Allen had gold mines in a couple locations.
I read about 1972,of a Batavia boy finding thoUsands of Indian artifacts
in the
Elk Lick bottoms...He must have foiund the lick.
>From the 1870 and 1891 atlases,I can tell who owned which farm then. From
the
1826 tax lists,I can locate maybe 1\2 the owners then. And,I
know,roughly,
the original 1798-1803-1806 owners. And several of us on-line can
remember many
of the 1950-70 owners of lands in the lake-park area. Still know some of
them.
By that time,some of the farms along the creek were owned by Cincinnati
people for
vacation homes.
I started out to write an article about the people,but must tackle that
later. I should mention that on the
north side of the lake,a new highway,and older RR led to the building of
a huge FORD transmission
plant-now with new owners. .

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