Maineville

MAINEVILLE, OHIO

In 1815, a natural calamity occurred in Sumbawa (now Indonesia) on the other side of the world from the state of Maine. That calamity had a disastrous affect on the weather in the United States. In a volcanic eruption, the top of Mount Tambora exploded. Considered one of the greatest volcanic eruptions of our world, the blast was many times stronger than our Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980. A great cloud of volcanic ash worked its way around the world and was suspended over the Northern Hemisphere. In northern Europe and the eastern United States, temperatures during the daytime rarely rose as high as 50 degrees F. At night, the temperature often fell below freezing. In Savannah, Georgia, the temperature on July 4 was below 50 degrees. In 1816, it was said there was no summer in Maine. In June, a blizzard
brought ten inches of snow to New England. Farm crops could not be raised. In the three year period following the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, perhaps half the population of the state of Maine migrated to other locations. (Paraphrased from various sources, including Parade section of The Oregonian Newspaper, 4/12/1982).

It appears that usually one or two members of a family owning land in Maine stayed on the property when the others went West. The weather in Maine returned to normal in about three years.

Ohio was open for settlement, and the Tufts, Greelys and Whitneys migrated from western Maine to southwestern Ohio. They settled northeast of Cincinnati in Yankeetown; it was so called because all the settlers there were from Maine.

Josiah Tufts (1780-1841), married his wife Jane (Greely) Tufts (1779-1862) on January 22, 1803 in Maine. They moved their family to Maineville in 1817; their daughter Lydia Tufts was 11 years old at that time.

Seth Greely (1737-1825), father of Jane Greely (1779-1862), came to Maineville in 1818.

Seth B. Greely (1821-1888) of Foster, Ohio is not to be confused with the previous Seth Greely. Seth B. Greely was the son of Seth (1786-1850) and Jane (Boardman) Greely (1793-1867). Seth and Jane were married on March 23, 1814 in Maine. They too emigrated to Ohio in 1817 where they lived and died near the village of Maineville.

Daniel Greely, brother of Jane (Greely) Tufts, was married in Warren County in 1818. His marriage record is on file in the County Court.

The Reverend Francis Tufts, Sr., (1744-1833), was father of Josiah Tufts (1780-1841). It is known that the Reverend Francis Tufts fought in the Revolutionary War with General George Washington at Dorchester Heights. He was also well known as a preacher. On going northward from Massachusetts, he lived in two different towns in Maine: Noblesboro and Damariscotta. Later, going farther northwest in Maine, he became one of the founders of the town of Farmington, on the Sandy River. The first U.S. Census, taken in 1790, showed him at Sandy River, 1st township, Lincoln County, Maine. The story of his life and involvement in government was told in a book written by Jay Franklin Tufts of Cleveland, Ohio: “Tufts Family History; A True Account and History of our Tufts Families, from and before 1638-1963.”

The Virginia military survey in which Maineville is situated did not attract many settlers in the early history of the county. Early in the last century, a man named Wilson (one writer says his name was John Wilson and the date was about 1802), began an improvement in this survey and made an extensive clearing where the house of B.F. Tufts now stands. For some reason he abandoned his improvement and his cleared land was left to grow up with grass, bushes and young trees. When the first permanent settlers came after the war of 1812 they found this clearing a dreary place with an undergrowth of bushes and young trees so dense as to be an almost impenetrable thicket.

A man named Carr was an early settler and built a log house at the place. He was a blacksmith and gave his attention to the making of axes, and Carr’s axes became well known in the neighborhood.

At the close of the war of 1812 emigrants from Maine began to settle at the place. Moses Dudley with his family came from that state in 1815 and made his home on the south side of the road, where Captain David Whitten afterward lived. Dudley owned some two hundred acres of land on the south side of the road and built the first frame house in the village.

Dr. John Cottle came from Maine and settled at the south side in 1818. He was a well educated physician and in 1830 his practice was believed to be the largest of any physician in Warren county.

In 1822 Benjamin Tufts came from Phillips, Maine, and settled on the north side of the road in the eastern part of the town. He was the father of Benjamin, Moses, and Seth G., all prominent citizens of Maineville. Other families came from the same state, and soon there was a considerable colony of way-down-east people and the place began to be called Yankeetown. Among the early industries was a wagon-maker’s shop, of which Josiah Greeley and Robert Blackstone were the proprietors.

The first church at the settlement was that of the Free Will Baptists organized about 1823 with Elder Moses Dudley as the first pastor. It was first called Salt Spring Church and held meetings at a school house near where the cemetery now is. Its brick meeting house in the town was built about 1840. The Methodist church was organized about 1842 and built its house of worship about 1844.

For a number of years Hopkinsville, situated on the Montgomery pike, was the place of holding elections in Hamilton township and the only post town in that township, but in the 40’s Yankeetown became a larger and more important place, though without a turnpike or a post-office. The first edition of Howe’s Historical Collections of Ohio, published in 1847, in describing the villages of Warren county, gives most space to Lebanon, Franklin and Waynesville; less space to Harveysburg, Springboro and Palmyra (Mason), and names as villages Deerfield, Roachester, Butlerville, Morrow, Ridgeville & Yankeetown.

Some years before the town was incorporated its leading citizens determined to change its name. In 1847 a joint stock company was formed to establish Maineville Academy and the academy building was ready for occupancy the next year. The institution was opened with John W.F. Foster, a young graduate of Kenyon College, as principal on Monday, September 25, 1848. It speaks well for the enterprise and progressive spirit of the inhabitants that such an institution could be established before the little village had a corporate name, a graveled road or post-office. They had, however, the assistance of farmers for miles around the town. Governor Morrow, who resided on the west side of the Little Miami was the most liberal contributor in the erection of the academy and the first president of its board of trustees.

The academy was patronized by students from all parts of Hamilton township and from every adjoining town- ship. At one time a considerable number of students from the west side of the river walked to it every morning. It maintained a useful existence for a longer period than any other academy ever established in Warren county and several of its pupils became distinguished. The names of its principals were John W.F. Foster, Charles W. Kimball, N.F. Cotton, Robert Milliken, Frank Tufts, Rev. I.J. Wilson and Dean Babbitt. The improvement in the public school system and the free public high schools made the continued existence of the academy inadvisable, and in 1874 its building became the property of the Maineville school district. John Morrow was the last president of the academy trustees.

The academy building was of brick, two stories high, with two school rooms below and a hall on the second floor. The hall served the purpose of a town hall and in it some of the early county teachers’ institutes were held, and many public entertainments given. The building stood fifty-three years and was demolished in the spring of 1901 to make way for a new public school house.

MAINEVILLE INCOPORATED

It having been determined to incorporate the town, a plat containing seventy town lots was surveyed by H.C. Dwinell. The plat was acknowledged by Silas Dudley and Seth G. Tufts on February 26, 1850, and was received for record March 27. An act “To incorporate the town of Maineville in Warren County” was passed by the legislature March 23, 1850. By this act all the territory included within or that might thereafter become part of the recorded town plat was declared to be a town corporate by the name of Maineville.

WILLIAM BUTTERWORTH

“He was somewhat eccentric, but his peculiarities of thought and action generally attracted attention and sometimes ridicule simply because he was in advance of his generation, and it learned in time that he was right.”

The above statement is how a late journalist described Henry Thomas Butterworth. The description is in direct relationship regarding Mr. Butterworth’s work in the abolition movement. Hundreds of runaway slaves were sheltered and assisted by him in their flight to Canada and free soil territory.

Mr. Butterworth was born on the Fincastle Road, six miles south of Lynchburg, Virginia, on the 4th day of June 1809. He was the son of Benjamin and Rachel Butterworth, and the youngest of five sisters and eight brothers.

In the year 1812 his father exchanged his Virginia farm for a tract of wild land of one thousand acres, lying between what is now Foster and Loveland on the Little Miami River.

At this time his father moved his family in wagons to the new country, which was at the time called the “far west.”

Benjamin’s newly acquired land was a wild and unsettled tract. Seeing no immediate future improvements, he established a home near Waynesville. Gradually, his attention turned toward his acreage along the Little Miami, and in due time all the family settled there. The only improvements on the land, previous to Benjamin Butterworth’s acquisition, was a log cabin structured by a squatter named Cook, who for 20 years prior had cleared and cultivated about five acres.

Henry Thomas Butterworth’s life was one of toil. The densely packed forest, the habitation of bears, panthers, wildcats and wolves, the constant deadening, grubbing and clearing of the forest, all took its toll on his physical being.

His opportunities to excel were centered around a log cabin schoolhouse. The puncheon floor, greased paper for window glass, fireplace for heating, children studying aloud, the teacher hardly unable to control the students, was an almost negative environment in which to advance.

At the age of twenty-one, Henry married Nancy Wales, six months his junior, at the Grove Meeting House of Friends near Harveysburg, Ohio. The wedding was a double one with Nancy’s sister, Jane, uniting in marriage to Valentine Nicholson. Henry and Nancy, after the wedding, resided at the old homestead caring for his parents until the day of their death.

Henry Thomas and Nancy were the parents of eleven children, seven of whom survived him. They are: Jane W.B. Foster, Mary, Ann B. Thatcher, Isaac W., Emma B. Danforth, Rachel M.B. Bayless, and Caroline B. Lawrence.

Mr. Butterworth was a mechanic by trade, but his circumstances caused him to be a farmer. Nevertheless, he was a success in all his undertakings.

He had some peculiarities, which tended to make his mannerisms of a somewhat skeptical nature. This trait often handicapped him, thus giving a wrong impression of his real character. His deeds toward the public were one of the improvements of the country or community. One such accomplishment was his interest in the Montgomery Pike in which he gave his undivided support. Another undertaking was his interest in the building of the Little Miami Railroad. His offer of giving the right-of-way through his farm, and the use of his water tank was another public minded effort which became known as Butterworth Station.

The new railroad had its difficulties in the beginning, but Mr. Butterworth stood by the company and watched it flourish. For his part in the venture, he and his wife received lifetime passes over the road and all its branches.

He was instrumental in building the Foster’s Loveland pike. His school promotions and his interest in higher education led to his founding of the Maineville Academy.

The Butterworth’s continued in the abolition movement until the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. His upholding of the anti-slavery movement was, in his opinion, a right that without question was a proper moral judgment.