Butler County, Ohio

I spent a marathon day in Butler County, Ohio Tuesday, after a three hundred mile drive Monday from Morgantown to West Chester Township, at the southeast end of the county, just north of Hamilton County, where Cincinnati is located. Butler County lies between Cincinnati and Dayton, mostly on the Miami River, just east of Indiana.

Richard Butler, for whom the county was named, was a Pennsylvanian charged with "negotiating" the Natives out of their land in what was, just after the American Revolution, the Northwest Territories. He was killed in a battle, won by the native tribes, where the Americans were commanded by Arthur St. Clair, for whom St. Clairsville, the seat of Belmont County, Ohio, just across the Ohio River from Wheeling West Virginia, is named. The largest city in Butler County is Hamilton, named for the one-time US Treasurer, and now Broadway star, Alexander Hamilton. It was Hamilton's idea to sell off the Northwest Territories to settlers to pay off the new country's debts from the war. In a park in Hamilton, there is a sculpture of a pioneer family next to a restored log cabin. Brave settlers! There is not a whiff of apology to the displaced Natives. Only at Miami University, in Oxford, at the northwestern edge of the county, is there a Department of Mayamee Tribe Relations.

There was lots of news about Butler County this week. An election took place Tuesday to replace John Boehner, who was the congressperson from this part of Ohio. The woman whose kid fell into the gorilla exhibit at Cincinnati Zoo was from Butler County; the courts decided not to charge her. And a fifteen-year old who shot several of his classmates with a gun he pulled out of a lunchbox, was sentenced to detention until age twenty-one. In a classic made-for-TV moment, his mother cried out at the trial "He has a good heart."

There are eighty-six sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Butler County. I picked ten to go see on Tuesday, randomly, every tenth one on the list. I added two - one in West Chester Township where I was staying, and one in Oxford on the campus of Miami University, because that's where it was. There's a small Conservative synagogue in Hamilton, and a mall outside of Middletown, the second largest city in the county.

West Chester Township is what Joe's demography teacher at Hebrew Union College called a "Boom Berg," i.e. a brand new city just far enough away from a major center, that seems to spring up overnight. In this case, it is just outside of the county that contains Cincinnati. Most of the township is new office parks, lots of new hotels (I stayed at a fine example of the chain I typically stay with, at a very good price). Nearby  is a planned development of pretty houses, townhomes and apartments, with trails and open space provided. And lots of shopping- not fancy, but big box names and chain restaurants. After a nap and a check of Facebook, I found a trendy supermarket chain, and thought I would go there for dinner. Instead, I had dinner at an Ohio-based chain restaurant.

Sunset in Hamilton on June 6 was at 9:11 P.M. Technically, western Ohio should be on Central Time, but I was happy to have late daylight to explore. I found a 1944 Voice of America station, moved inland for fear of attack on the coasts. I drove north to Hamilton and found the synagogue. I realized I enjoy cities more than rural areas, and decided to look for more than the two places I had planned to see in Hamilton.

The weather ranged from 53-73 F Tuesday, with alternate sun and clouds. Average weather in Hamilton at this time of year is two degrees warmer than Morgantown in the morning, and five degrees warmer in the afternoon. Tuesday was cooler than average.

I started my exploration with the Conrey House also called the "Spread-Eagle Tavern," although Wikipedia says there is little evidence that it was ever anything but a house. It sits back from Cincinnati-Columbus Road, which says it all. I parked on a suburban side street across the road, and walked up to take a photo. When I came back, a pleasant woman asked me what I knew about the house. Although she has lived near it for many years, no one seems to know much about it. The house is now a private residence. I told her where to look on Wikipedia for more information

Places I was to look for that were Native mounds (typical of the area) were unmarked and hard to find. One old farm didn't photograph well. Although I had carefully written out directions to each of the twelve places I was to visit, I found myself turned around more than once. Rather than a GPS system, I think my next purchase will be a compass for the car. I did find the Samuel Auspurger Farm, now called Chrisholm Historic Farmstead, near the town of Trenton, between Hamilton and Middletown, now operated as a park by Butler County. The house dates from 1874 and replaces an earlier house that burned.

My original plan was to find Butler County's Courthouse in Hamilton, and one other old house, called Edgeton, located in a 1950s suburban part of town. Instead, I spent an hour or so in Hamilton, and explored much of the central part of town. Hamilton flanks the Miami River. There are active railways through town, and at one time there was a canal to connect Lake Erie to the Miami River and thus the Ohio as well. Much of the town seemed derelict to me. Many of the old houses are now  halfway houses. There were lots of tattoos, smokers, and people who looked like they had seen better days. I did see some office workers, better dressed and coiffed, out to a handful of lunch places along High Street, the main downtown drag. I lunched at a chain sub shop in a strip mall in what had been the nice part of town (near the synagogue). Directly across the street was a pawn and gun shop. Throughout the county, there were more prosperous looking suburban neighborhoods.

Middletown, north of Hamilton, and separated from it by farmland, is smaller, and looks worse. Main Street, south of downtown, is lined with beautiful old homes, mostly well maintained. The center of town looked almost empty. There is a mall ten miles east, which I visited. It is almost empty, with Sears and Elder-Beerman still open. On the way back, I noticed that  the mall was in the next county.

It was getting late, I was far from my hotel, and needed a nap. Heading back south, I found OH-73, which I knew went to Oxford. I decided to go. It should have been ten miles. Instead, it was twenty-one because of an outrageous detour that took me back south to Hamilton before I could go north again.

Eventually, I got to Oxford, home of Miami University, a public college. Two buildings date from 1825 and 1839. In another building, I found murals about multiculturalism and a Department of Confucian Studies, where students learn Chinese language and meditation techniques. Until this time, I had thought of Butler County as a place of no intellectual life at all. The buildings on the wooded campus are all marked with names and dates. I found the McGuffy House, where the author of early twentieth century reading texts lived and worked.

North of Oxford is a restored covered bridge, and at the north end of the county, extending into the next county, is Hueston Woods State Park, mostly forest, but with a lake and a swimming beach. Some were in the water at the beach, but the weather wasn't that warm.

US 27 runs from the northwest part of the county into Cincinnati, I figured I would take it  to I-275, the loop around CIncinnati (I dare not call it "the beltway"), then find Tri-County Mall in Hamilton County, and eat dinner at the food court. There was also a ten mile detour on US 27. I found the mall by seven. It has a Macy's and a Sear's, but most of the other stores are closed. Nearby, there are "Town Center" type developments, featuring cheaper big box stores, all laid out in a seemingly random pattern off the highways. I had a plate of chicken teriyaki served up by a Mexican cook, and headed back to my hotel, napless, by 8:15.

Here are the pics:

Voice of America Bethany Relay Station, 1944, West Chester Township

James D. Conrey House, 1840?, West Chester Township

Butler County Courthouse, Hamilton, 1885, remodeled 1912

Dixon-Globe Opera House, Robinson-Schwenn Building, Hamilton

Lane-Hooven House, German Village, Hamilton

Public Library, Hamilton, 1885

Library interior

YMCA, Hamilton

Beth Israel Synagogue, 1931, Hamilton

Second National Bank, Hamilton

Civil War Monument to Union Soldiers, 1905, Hamilton

Pioneer cabin, with statues of a pioneer family, Hamilton

Miami River Bridge, Hamilton

Railroad bridge over the Miami River, Hamilton

House in Dayton-Campbell Historic District, Hamilton

Edgeton, historic house in Hamilton

Rossville Historic District, across the Miami River from downtown Hamilton

Samuel Augspurger Farm, now Chrisholm Historic Farmstead, a public park, near Trenton (named for Trenton, NJ)

House in South Main Street Historic District, Middletown

House in South Main Street Historic District, Middletown

John B. Tytus House, a National Historic Landmark, South Main Street, Middletwon

downtown Middletown

a mural in downtown Middletown

vacant movie theater, Middletown

Diversity mural, Miami University

Elliott Hall, 1839, Miami University, Oxford

Stoddard Hall, 1825,Miami University, Oxford,

A quad, Miami University

McGuffey House, Oxford, now part of Miami University

Pugh's Mill Covered Bridge, north of Oxford

Pugh's Mill Covered Bridge

Lake and Beach at Hueston Woods State Park

 Most of my info is from plaques around Butler County, what I see on my own, and Wikipedia. Factual errors are my own.

This was an epic trip, where I had no one to say "Stop, Barry, this is too much." I am now in Cabell County, West Virginia, where I arrived today. Maybe another post tomorrow about that.