Indulge us with a quick step to, and just over the edge of the township line.  We've shared many stories describing the settlement and development of our township, at the far eastern edge and just into Xenia Township are a couple tales of national interest.  The full version of the story is availble for download below...

If you're driving the Beavercreek Heritage Trail an want to skip this 'aside', turn left on Fairgrounds Road and skip ahead a page.

Upon crossing Fairgrounds Road, you're near location of the Hearthstone House, an 1820 log cabin constructed by Robert Roe. Also nearby is the Purdom Mound, one of five to seven small Hopewell Indian mounds. It is the only one officially excavated and documented with the first occurrence by Elmer Purdom of Antioch College in 1931. In 1973, Doug Bailey used the site for an archaeology course for Wright State. Artifacts found included a male mandible, a duck effigy vessel, sheets of mica, and skeletons of the interred. The Virginia Kettering Foundation provided funding for carbon dating and confirmed the dates from 50 BC to 50 AD. Most of the surviving artifacts are at the Dayton Museum of Natural History. This is located on private property, please do not enter.

As you continue east on Hilltop Road, we’ll briefly enter Xenia Township. In 1779, a skirmish on the river turned into a mission to drive the Shawnee from the Miami Valley. General George Rogers Clark, elder brother of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, ordered Col. Logan and Col. Bowman to destroy the Shawnee capital at Old Chillicothe (Oldtown), a mile south of here, just north of Xenia. Loss of surprise followed my miscommunication led to a hasty retreat by the Colonels and numerous losses.

The Shawnee, aided by their British allies and Colonel Henry Bird, formed an army at Old Chillicothe and retaliated against several forts in Kentucky. Colonel Bird proved unable to contain his Shawnee allies and their savage attacks precipitated further response from General Clark.

Returning from Kentucky, General Clark personally led over 1,000 soldiers, among them Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, crossed the Ohio River near Cincinnati and burned five Shawnee villages, including Old Chillicothe, along the Little Miami River.

John Bradford wrote of Old Chillicothe in his famous work, Notes On Kentucky:

"About 2 o'clock oil the afternoon of the 6th of August, they arrived at the village. They found the town not only abandoned, but most of the houses burned down, and burning, having been set on fire that morning.”

Carefully turn north on State Route 235 and then make an immediate left on Ludlow Road.

The hilltop which now holds an abandoned orchard and conference center is almost exactly where the Shawnee watched their town, that they themselves had set ablaze, burn as General Clark’s army approached.

“The army encamped on the ground that night, and on the following day cut down several hundred (probably two hundred) acres of corn (and every tree which bore any kind of fruit was destroyed), and about 4 o'clock in the evening took up their line of march for the Piqua towns, which were about twelve, miles from Chillicothe”.

The Shawnee gradually withdrew due north during the first few days before finally engaging American forces seven miles west of Springfield, Ohio on August 8, 1780, this was the only major engagement fought in Ohio during the American Revolutionary War. The Battle of Piqua (also known as the Battle of Pekowee or Pekowi) took place along Route 4 southwest of Springfield at the current location of the George Rogers Clark Memorial and Tecumseh State Park.

There are many great stories about this area during the revolutionary times involving Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton and Simon Girty as well as Shawnee Chiefs Blue Jacket, Tecumseh and Blackfish.

For further detail, please download the attachments below.

Make a left on Trebein Road, followed by a right onto Fairgrounds Road and we're back on the trail!

• Battle Of Piqua Memorial Battle Of Piqua Memorial
• Simon Girty Simon Girty
• Tecumseh Tecumseh
• Daniel Boone Daniel Boone
• Simon Kenton Simon Kenton
•