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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Proceed to the stop sign at Dayton-Xenia Road.

Ahead of you are a couple of homes in a wooded grove at 1835 Dayton-Xenia Road, the Ankeney-Westbeld House built in the Vernacular style by Samuel Ankeney in 1853 on 12 acres of the 212 acre David Ankeney Farm.  An earlier log cabin was razed to make way for the large three-layer thick brick home.  The limestone for the foundation is believed to have come from Mr. Herring’s quarry on Beaver Valley Road.

The single most expensive item in construction was a cherry newel post at a cost of $40.  Son Horace Ankeney, a State Legislator and Congressman, and grandson Herman Ankeney, a State House Representative, also resided in the home.

Thanks to the Westbeld family for allowing the photographs!

• The Famous Cherry Newel Post The Famous Cherry Newel Post
• Horace Ankeney Horace Ankeney
• Ankeney-Westbeld House Ankeney-Westbeld House
• Ankeney-Westbeld House 2 Ankeney-Westbeld House 2
• Ankeney-Westbeld House Barn Ankeney-Westbeld House Barn
• Ankeney-Westbeld House Barn 2 Ankeney-Westbeld House Barn 2
• Samuel Ankeney Samuel Ankeney
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At 1035 Ankeney Road you’ll find the Albert Ankeney House.  Built in 1872 by Albert Ankeney Sr., grandson of pioneer David Ankeney, it is of the Italianate style designed by renowned Dayton architect M. Borrow.  The limestone came from the Archer quarry and all 66,000 bricks were fired onsite.

This is the grandest and best preserved of all the Beavercreek historic homes and retains its original charm and glory.

• Albert Ankeney Albert Ankeney
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Just ahead is the Filer Cabin at 1228 Ankeney Road.  At first glance, it appears a traditional frame farmhouse of the early 20th century.  In fact, it is a well preserved log cabin circa 1820 that was covered with wooden lap siding, possible built by the Heddleson family.

Of historical significance, the first recipe for making artificial color for butter in the world was perfected in a shed that stood next to the cabin.  This occurred shortly after August 2, 1866 when the USDA announced that the coloring of butter was now permitted by law.

Also alleged, but unsubstantiated, is that there was a blacksmith shop on the property that led to the making of the first leather mailbags.

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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Very near here at about 8:00pm on October 22, 1872, John Fogwell, husband of Rebecca Harner-Fogwell, was returning to his home from Dayton via the train, when he was fired upon by William Richison, who was hiding in the corner of a fence row.  The weapon was a shotgun loaded with balls.  The flash of the gun revealed the face of the assassin, and he was recognized by the murdered man, who lived long enough to tell the name of the shooter.

Richison was arrested, and at his trial, evidence was brought which fastened the guilt of the crime upon him: besides the testimony of the victim, the paper used for the wadding of the shotgun was found to correspond with pieces of torn newspaper found in the assassin’s own house.  He was found guilty on his first trial, but for some reason, was granted a second trial and was again declared guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.  Before the day fixed for his execution arrived, he committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell in the Xenia jail.  He was buried in his own front yard in a lone, unmarked grave near the scene of the tragedy.  John Fogwell was laid to rest at Beaver Cemetery.

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Have been doing some more research with the GREAT people over at the Greene County Archives... it turns out that in the good 'ol days before prevalent photography, a surveyor would be sent following a crime to document the scene.

In this case the surveyor was Washington Galloway, descendent of early Greene County Settler James Galloway.  DOWNLOAD his survey below as it's too wide for our image generator.

This survey gives us some great information as to the layout of the buildings, mill, millrace and road configuration around Trebein at the time.

Also, take a look at the news clipping in the image gallery - it reads:

Richison, the murderer of Fogwell, in Greene County, was found guilty, by the jury, of murder in the first degree.  He is a very hardened villain, and recently expressed the wish that when he is buried his grave may be filled with stones so that he may stone Fogwell out of hell!

Nice guy.  It does make you wonder what let up to the murder... and that we're still working on at the Archives!

• William B. Richison Arraignment William B. Richison Arraignment
• Crime Scene Survey Crime Scene Survey
• Galloway Plotting Galloway Plotting
• News clipping News clipping
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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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Cross U.S. Route 35, noting that Valley Road becomes Trebein Road, land to the north side of the highway was owned by the Blessing and Lucas Families. The Glen Thompson State Reserve follows the Little Miami River on your left.  'Lucas Grove', at the current Kil-Kare Speedway location, was a popular park where people would have picnics, fish and host dances - or shivarees as they were known.  

For those who haven’t been around in awhile, these roads have been reconfigured; please turn right onto Dayton-Xenia Road. Ahead are the remnants of the town of Trebein, also called Pinkneyville, Frost Station and Beaver Station at differing times. Turn left onto Shaw Lane. Where the bikeway passes through, the railroad did in years past. Note “William Maxwell Rest Area” on your right.