OHHAMILT-L Archives

From: "Linda Boorom" <>
Subject: [OHHAMILT] Sycamore Twp.
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 12:44:42 -0500

SYCAMORE TWP. HAMILTON CO., OH.
from "History of Hamilton County Ohio" compiled by Henry A. Ford, A. M. and Mrs.
Kate B. Ford, L. A. Williams & Co., Publishers, 1881

FORMATION AND GEOGRAPHY pg. 388:
The original Sycamore township was a new creation of the general reorganization
of the townships of Hamilton county, after the erection of Ohio as a State and
the setting
off of Butler and other counties from the territory of Hamilton county. It was
defined as
comprising "all that fractional township No. 5, in the first entire range, and
four tiers of
sections on the eastern side of town four, same range; also, so much of the
second entire
range as lies north of the same." These tracts include the whole of what is now
Symmes
township, and all of the present sycamore township, except the two westernmost
tiers of
sections. The township was but little larger then than it is now, having
thirty-nine full and
twelve fractional sections, the latter lying altogether on the west bank of the
Little Miami
river.
Sycamore township is now bounded on the east by Symmes, on the south by
Columbia, and on the west by Springfield townships. Butler county bounds it for
about
two and a half miles on the north, and Warren county for three and a half miles.
It is an
approximately exact parallelogram of seven sections long by six broad, thus
containing
forty-two sections. Some unevenness is manifest in the original running of the
section
lines, and the section corners on the east line of the township are considerable
north of the
northwest corners of the same sections in Sycamore. This breaks up the north
line of the
township badly at the northeast corner; it otherwise is pretty nearly a right
line. The
present township comprises the whole of town four, in the first entire range,
and the
southernmost tier of sections in town three, of the second entire range.
Sections numbered
only seven, thirteen, nineteen, twenty-five, and thirty-one, are thus, as in
Springfield,
duplicated in the township. It is the largest township in the county, having a
total of
twenty-nine thousand two hundred and ninety-one acres, or nearly a square mile
more
than forty-tow exact sections contain. Springfield, which is the next township
in size, and
contains just as many sections, has but twenty-five thousand eight hundred and
ninety-six
acres - one thousand five hundred and fifty-five less than Sycamore, and nine
hundred and
eighty-for, or more than one and a half square miles, less than it would have
were all its
sections full and intact. The irregularity of surveys in the purchase could
hardly be better
illustrated...

MONTGOMERY pg. 391:
It is thought by some that inroads were made upon the forest and improvements
begun by white men upon the present site of Montgomery as early as the fall of
1794; but
the earliest trustworthy date is fixed one year from that time, when a colony of
six families
came in from Ulster county, New York. They were headed, respectively, by three
brothers
Felter - Jacob, Irominius, and David - Cornelius Snyder, Nathaniel Terwilliger,
and Jacob
Rosa. All were Felter families, indeed, in this, that the three brothers sired
one-half of
them, and their three sisters - Mesdames Snyder, Terwilliger, and Rosa -were
mothers to
the other three. It is seldom that a pioneer colony is thus uniquely made up.
Snyder bought
of Thomas Espy, June 27, 1796, the whole of section four, for one thousand four
hundred
and forty dollars. Here the first improvements were made by the party. August
1st of the
same year Terwilliger bought of Judge Symmes the southwest quarter of section
three,
upon which section Montgomery is situated, and began the clearing of that tract
shortly
after. Nearly five years afterwards May 5, 1801 - he also bought the north half
of the
section, an upon it laid out the town of Montgomery. It was surveyed in 1802;
but the
recorded plat of this bears the date of the ninth of August, 1805. It is
situated on the
Montgomery pike, two and one-half miles from the south line of the township, and
one
and a half miles from Montgomery station, in Symmes township, on the Marietta &
Cincinnati railroad. The old State road from Columbia to Chillicothe formerly
passed
through it. When the Montgomery turnpike was established the State road was
straightened, leaving Main street, upon which are the oldest houses in the
village, out of
its line, and creating State street upon its new line....

READING pg. 393:
This, by far the largest village in Sycamore, containing nearly one-third of
its entire
population, is situated just east of Lockland, on the east side of the East fork
of Mill
creek, and upon the Dayton Short Line railroad and the Lebanon turnpike, about
one and
a half miles from the south. it is one of the oldest villages in the county,
having been laid
out February 2, 1804, by Abram Voorhees, one of the very earliest settlers in
this part of
the township. It is said, indeed, that lots or small tracts of ground for
residence, was
offered for sale here as early as 1798 and '99. The village has been more
fortunate that
other old villages in the Mill Creek valley, having risen to be the most
populous village in
the county. In 1830 it had a population of but two hundred, but in 1860 had one
thousand
two hundred and thirty-five, in 1870, one thousand five hundred and seventy
five, and in
1880, one thousand nine hundred and eighty-three. No other village in the county
exhibits
such growth....

SHARONVILLE is situated on the Short Line railway, at the point when it crossed
the
east fork of Mill creek, two miles distant from the north and west lines of the
township,
respectively, a the southeast corner of section thirty. it is also an ancient
village, having
been laid out May 30, 1818, by Messrs. Josephus Myers, Simon Hagerman, Philemon
Mills and Abijah Johns. It had ninety-five inhabitants in 1830, and by the last
census, taken
half a century, had a population of four hundred and sixty-nine. The post
office, anciently
Sharonville, was discontinued some time before 1840, but has since been restored
under
the same name....

submitted by Linda Boorom

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