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It was donated by Max Zink to the Flower Trail Garden Club in 1979 and moved to Wartinger Park. Originally located on the southeast corner of New Germany and Grange Hall Roads on property which was owned by the Zink family. The Zink family had moved there in 1932. For many years, the home was rental property , then it stood empty. Finally, the Board of Health issued a close order. In the process of tearing off the weather stripping, the old log cabin was discovered. Research showed that the cabin was built by John Nicodemus in 1811.

The Nicodemus Cabin became the second cabin at Wartinger Park, the first being the Jarusiewic Cabin, both are used by The Flower Trail Garden Club. Stone removed from the cabin’s original foundation was used around the cabin base.

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A few blocks west on the north side of the road is the John Ferguson House at 2806 Dayton-Xenia Road, built in 1866. The home is of Italianate design, featuring a custom Ionic porch with custom millwork prevalent inside and out.

At the bottom of the hill, you’ll cross a stream know as Bull Skin Run which is spring fed from as far north as the Mall at Fairfield Commons. It ties into the Little Beaver Creek at the Creekside Trail Bikeway. Every pond, creek, stream and spring was integral to life and business during the settling of our community. On their banks you’ll find the concentrations of homes, mills, dairies, and farms.

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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!

As you approach U.S. Route 35, prepare to head east on Heller Drive.  Ahead of you was a lane that once traversed an orchard of over 300 fruit trees!  The majestic Georgian Colonial home on the cul-de-sac across the highway, appropriately named Orchard Lane, was constructed by John Harbine for he and wife Hettie in 1832. Historical accounts conflict as to whether John and Hettie lived in the log cabin at its original location during the construction of the Harbine House.  It might have been moved a short distance in 1825 to what eventually became the front yard of the new Harbine residence.

The home was in the Harbine family for 117 years.  A self-contained establishment, they raised grain, livestock, fruit and vegetables; they milled the grain, dried, stored and canned fruits and vegetables, butchered beef and made soap.  Their cattle provided milk and butter for the family.  Linen was woven from flax fiber, all onsite!

In 1944, the Heller family purchased the home and remaining 75 acres with plans to extensively improve the homestead.  A few years later, the State planned a new expressway; the design would cause the razing of the Heller home.  A five-year legal battle ensued with the State finally agreeing to a curve in the U.S. Route 35 to save the home.  The orchard and seclusion were destroyed.  Several small tracts are still owned by the Heller family.

The home was purchased by the Children’s Services Board in 1988 as a group home.  It was sold in 2015 at auction to the adjacent car dealer, sealing its fate.  Another, higher bid had been received at the 11th hour that would have ensured survival of the Harbine-Heller home, but was rejected by the county commissioners.  The home was bulldozed in 2017.  We don't know if any of the artifacts were salvaged prior to razing.

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In 1868, Harbine retired from his remaining business pursuits turning all the family business operations over to his sons Jacob, Daniel, and Frank. With John’s death in 1873 ownership of his large land holdings and businesses passed to his sons. Jacob Harbine eventually gained control of the Harbine Industrial Complex and lived with his widowed sister and her children in the Harbine House.

We'll be learning much more about John Harbine, his family, home and business ventures in the pages to come.  He was truly the 'Founding Father of Alpha' and had a hand in most of the businesses in town... and even laying out the plat map for the town as well!

In 1888, a fire consumed a large portion of the complex including the grist mill, two of the worker cottages, the corn cribs and part of the distillery.  The timber construction allowed the fire to spread quickly and fiercely.  Locals were running a bucket brigade as well dipping their carpeting into the mill race and placing them on the roofs to prevent embers from catching more buildings on fire. This was not only their town, but their livelihood.

Ironically (or not), there was a HUGE rally of the Prohibition Party that very day in Columbus... and then the distillery caught fire.  Since we love a 120+ year old conspiracy, we're looking into it!

Thelma Barth-Tindall wrote: "Mother always stopped when we took a walk to see Aunty Page, a dear old colored woman, who lived in the little cabin with the big willow tree in front of it.  One time she had some pies coolin in the window and Gus was driving cattle.  One cow got nosey and knocked a pie down and Aunty chased Gus up the road."

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When you reach the stop sign at Factory Road, you are facing the location of The Harbine Industrial Complex.  Please turn north and pull into the RV and boat storage parking lot.  In 1828 John Harbine (also spelled Harbein) and his new bride, Hettie Herr, traveled by wagon from Maryland to Beavercreek Township with what money they had nailed under the axle for safe keeping from highway robbery.  He purchased the 180 acre farm of Owen Davis, the first settler of Greene County.  As a business entrepreneur, John began constructing his mill complex during the same period as he built his residence. The grist mill, saw mill and distillery [the core of the Harbine Industrial Complex] were operating on Beaver Creek by 1832.

On the image above, you can see where the Beaver Creek was split to utilize a mill race, a regulated channel of water to power the water wheels of the mills.  The square under the P in Alpha represents the Harbine home, surrounded by a fruit orchard.  Between the mill race and Factory Road are 9 dots representing worker housing for the laborers to live in.

The worker housing has become of particular interest due to proposed highway modifications.  An archeaological firm was retained to do ground penetrating radar to locate the remnants of the homes as well as any evidence of the lifestyle the occupants led.

Recollections have been passed down referring to John Harbine Jr. walking the worker housing with a hand basket containing a pistol to collect rent.

In researching our tour, we learned a couple names that were attached to the Harbine worker housing including 'Shorty' Brown.  In May of 2015 we met with Mr. Bill Brown, a longtime resident of the Alpha area and son of Marvin 'Shorty' Brown.

Bill's parents lived in the worker housing when he was born.  He explained that there were three of the homes remaining at his earliest recollection, with one burning to the ground while he was young.  Bill described the worker housing as follows:

  • Four rooms - Kitchen, Living Room and two bedrooms
  • Wood plank flooring over a crawl space
  • Heat provided by a coal stove in the Living Room
  • Meals were prepared on a wood-fired stove in the Kitchen
  • Exterior was lap-board siding with tin roofs
  • Interior walls were plaster-on-lath
  • No interior plumbing

Bill recalled that the only water came from an outside well with a hand pump.  There was one 'privy', or outhouse, for  every two homes.  They were located east of the buildings toward the creek.  Bill's mother would heat stones on the kitchen stove, wrap them in towels and place in their beds to warm them in the winter.

In looking at the map, the Brown's lived in the second home from the north.  Kiff Karns, he said, lived in the home next door.

This is the location of an infamous Greene County murder by the previously mentioned Charles Justice.

On September 16, 1910, John Shoup heard a commotion in the chicken house and sent William Shoup into the far end to flush out what he thought was a fox. They encountered a man whose description resembled Justice trying to steal their livestock. The thief fired three shots, one which killed John Shoup. According to testimony at the trial, Justice calmly picked up the bag of chickens and walked away. After many hours they finally caught up with him. Everybody was out looking. He was convicted of first degree murder on November 3, 1910 in the Greene County Court of Common Pleas.

Several hours before his scheduled execution, a long knife was found in Justice’s cell. He stated that he intended to use it on the guard who strapped him into the electric chair. Two other prisoners who were housed with him asked to be moved because they feared that he would kill them as well. His last words were “I am not guilty of the crime for which you are killing me.” Charles Justice was executed at 12:05 AM on October 27, 1911, the 38th person executed by the State of Ohio. No friends or relatives claimed his body and it was given to a medical school in Columbus.

An urban legend exists that the man who invented the electric chair was executed in it. This was attributed to Charles Justice. He was, in fact, incarcerated at the Ohio Penitentiary when “Old Sparky” was built to serve as a more humane form of execution than the gallows. A scrapbook entitled, “The Electrocution Book” was donated to the Ohio Historical Society in 1983 that was compiled by employees of the state’s prison system. In an undated article within called “The Electric Chair”, Richard J. Jemison states that a prisoner named Charles Justice helped build the chair and was later executed in it. Historical accounts state that Charles did not build the electric chair, but he was executed in it. Additional research suggests that while working in the prison’s tin shop, he fabricated metal clamps that replaced the leather straps for better performance. Charles is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.

The approaching curve was the location of the Shoemake Dairy Farm. Concrete remnants of the feed house can be seen on the north side of the curve and in the autumn/winter, you can find a silo hidden in the trees.

In the late 1800’s, John Schantz, who along with wife Mary bought the property in 1868, became frustrated when the mill dam, built of oak planks, broke one too many times.  He abandoned the water wheel and converted the mill to steam power, channeling the excess into clumsy radiators in the house – they weren’t much to look at, but it became the first home in the area to have steam heat and shortly after, an indoor bathroom.

Near the house was a large barn; west of it stood the mill on the slope of the creek.  Further west from the mill was a sawmill, and east of it was a frame building that was a smokehouse above and a springhouse below.  The water is a cool 50°F and was used in the cooling of warm milk prior to use or shipment to the diaries.  This building is known as the Solomon Shoup Springhouse and is the only springhouse known still to be standing in Beavercreek.  Also nearby were a blacksmith shop and a carriage house.

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