Proceed straight through the intersection onto Hilltop Road.  F.C. Trebein’s home, previously occupied by the Frost family, had been an inn and the stage coaches used to stop there.  It was formerly addressed as 1438 Dayton-Xenia Road and is now located on Hilltop Road.  In the 1950’s his home was converted to a restaurant and bar known as the Trebein Manor.

Babe's Trebein Tavern at the northwest corner of the train tracks was a popular destination before a fire caused its closure.  

Here you can see where the old one-lane bridge from Trebein was removed.  From Trebein you cross large tracts of land owned by the Andrews, Fogle, and Burrows families throughout the years and currently by the Nutter family.  The Burrow’s home still stand at 1351 Hilltop Road and pre-dates 1874 and possibly 1855!

• Trebein Manor Fire Trebein Manor Fire
• Trebein Tavern Fire #1 Trebein Tavern Fire #1
• Trebein Tavern Fire #2 Trebein Tavern Fire #2
• Trebein Tavern Fire #3 Trebein Tavern Fire #3
• Trebein Tavern Fire #4 Trebein Tavern Fire #4
• Trebein Tavern Fire Article Trebein Tavern Fire Article
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Head left (east) on Dayton-Xenia Road.  On your right is the combination of Jacob Coy Middle School and Trebein Elementary, completed for the 2013-14 school year.  Continue east on Dayton-Xenia Road.  Having just past Beavercreek’s newest schools, let’s reflect on some of the past.  

As previously mentioned, the first school was on Jacob Coy’s land near the present intersection of Homeway and Towncrest Drives.  The second log schoolhouse was southwest of the intersection of Beaver Valley and Lantz Roads.  The third, built in 1817 and a fourth log school was built within two years near Beaver Church, in 1822 it was replaced with a brick building.  Between 1850 and 1880, the Union School, sometimes called Old Beaver, was the outstanding school in the county.

The curriculum was designed for those aspiring to college including algebra, trigonometry, geometry, analysis of the English language, Latin, Greek and physics.  The head teacher, John W. Miller, was so thorough that students who completed the coursework entered Miami University as sophomores!  Union School closed in 1882, there is a granite marker behind Beaver Church marking its location.

Several years prior to the Civil War, thirteen school districts were established in the township offering instruction for grades one through eight.  Under the direction of Professor W.W. Donham, Beavercreek became the first graded rural district in the state.

• Class of 1922 Class of 1922
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As you approach the next intersection, note that the beautifully restored ‘Centre at Stonehill Village’ is a converted bank barn from the A.M. Suman and later Ankeney farm on Trebein Road.  It has found new life as the community center for this wonderful neighborhood.

Turn left onto Ankeney Road.

• Ankeney Trebein Road Farm Ankeney Trebein Road Farm
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Return west on Dayton-Xenia Road, turn north Trebein Road, across the Little Miami River.  Proceed straight through the intersection at Dayton-Xenia Road.  On your right, the residence at 942 Trebein Road was the former Trebein School.

• Trebein School #6 Class Picture Trebein School #6 Class Picture
• Trebein School #6 Trebein School #6
• Trebein School as a residence Trebein School as a residence
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Having acquired the distillery built by Jonathan Snyder in 1841, F.C. found the production of whiskey quite profitable.  In the 1870’s it had a capacity of 226 barrels and a daily output of 800 gallons!  Once, Mr. Trebein persuaded an inspector to let him continue to operate a boiler longer than he should.  Two employees, Mr. Gordon and Mr. Potter went to the furnace room for a drink of the libation, when through the door the boiler exploded and shot through the roof.  Both men were fatally scalded.

Years later, the Colonial Distillery Company tore down the old distillery and built a larger one with a dry house to dry the mash into livestock feed.  After only a few years, this caught fire and burned the distillery completely down.  It was never rebuilt.

Note the newspaper clipping below describing the intoxicated fish following the distillery fire!

A covered bridge spanned the river to the north.  It was eventually replaced with a steel one-lane bridge that survived until the 1990’s.

• Colonial Distillery Fire Colonial Distillery Fire
• Drunk Fish Drunk Fish
• Former Bridge Location Former Bridge Location
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Trebein was a bustling town founded by Adam Emory; a working community featuring a Trebein School #6, a three-story hotel, a distillery, train station, multiple mills, a grocery store, and a fertilizer factory.  Fredrick C. Trebein (1833-1900) married Joan Ankeney in 1869.  His five stone mill, powered by both steam and water could mill 95 barrels of flour per day, most of which was shipped to Philadelphia and New York.

Per Albert Ankeney: "A memorable moment in Beavercreek's railroad history came July 24, 1902, the disastrous wreck at Trebein.  Number 2, a fast passenger train, was coming in from the west on the Pennsylvania line.  It seems that in switchin in the Xenia railyard they were accustomed to putting a pole between the yard engine and a car to give it a shove to put it off on a side track.  But somehow or other, the man who was left on the car couldn't stop it with the hand brake.  He jumped off the car, instead of going on to a siding, it went up the main track toward Alpha.

It's down hill a good bit of the way until you get just west of the Hawkins crossing and then it's just slightly up grade.  They sent a yard engine out and thought that by putting a man on the pilot they could connect with it and pull it back to Xenia.  But when they got far enough they the light of No. 2 coming from the west; they hightailed it back to Xenia.  They didn't want to get it, and they didn't know if the car was still on the track.  No. 2 met this car between the present elevator and the water tank.  It was a loaded coal car and it was a terrible wreck.

A good many of the coaches took fire.  The cars in those days were lighted with manufactured gas that they had in tanks under the passenger cars.  They called it pintch gas.  It ruptured a tank and threw the gas over the car and then it took fire.  The people were fastened under the seats that had been pulled loose, and nobody ever knew how many people perished.  The motorman on the D&X saw that there had been a wreck and he stopped his car and went over and pulled a man out of the wreck and the man hugged and kissed him because he'd saved his life.  A second cousin of mine, James Miller, had been to a dance at Lucas Grove (now KilKare).  They heard the wreck and hurried down.  He helped a lady.  She wanted his name, but he didn't want to be called into court, so he didn't tell her.  Big I think she wanted to reward him.  There were possibly two coaches at the rear that didn't catch fire, but most of the train burned up.

There were many inquiries that came in.  They wanted to know about their relatives.  Nobody could give them any information."

The attached image is a pre-1906 artist's rendering from a newspaper clipping of the 'Dam at Trebeins'.

• Trebein Headstone Trebein Headstone
• Flooded Tracks Flooded Tracks
• Train Wrecks On The Panhandle Train Wrecks On The Panhandle
• The Dam at Trebeins The Dam at Trebeins
• 1902 Train Wreck at Trebein 1902 Train Wreck at Trebein
• Stinky Mule Stinky Mule
• Troops Loading In Xenia Troops Loading In Xenia
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1961 Description of Trebein - Trebein formerly known as Pinkneyville, Frost Station and Beaver Station is two miles nearer Xenia. Pinkney Road running from Cincinnati through Bellbrook, through Trebein, through Oldtown and into Xenia was a very busy thoroughfare in the 1800’s, bringing supplies to and from Cincinnati.  William Maxwell, first printer and publisher in the Northwest Territory lived near Trebein and is believed to be buried about a mile southwest of Trebein on a knoll just back of his cabin.

Present Day - Trebein was another cross-road town on the rail line between Alpha and Xenia. A series of mills were built, the first by Adam Emory. Jonathan Snyder built a distillery in 1841 and found the production of whiskey to be quite profitable. Corn grown during the time was intended to feed livestock and truly wasn’t eaten in kernel form. Excess was distilled into whiskey and used to supplement income.

Later named for another businessman, F.C. Trebein, the small town offered a mill, a larger distillery and a fertilizer factory. A few homes and the remnants of some industrial sites still remain. Until the mid-1990’s the area was still known for its one-lane bridge over the Little Miami River.