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          History of the New Richmond Area

The Life of the Hopewell Indians

The Indian goes into the woods with a spear made and sharpened by others of his tribe.  He sees a rabbit.  He stalks it as silently as a feather floats in the wind.  He shoots just before the rabbit jumps into its hole and hits it.  Now he has food to feed his family.

The Hopewell Indians lived in square houses that could be found in the Scioto River valley; some of them moved to the valleys of the Miami and Muskigum Rivers.  They were made of bark and sticks, similar to the Adena homes except that the Adena homes were round.  The Hopewells grew corn and many other crops.  They hunted rabbit, elk, bear, turkey, grouse and raccoon.  They also hunted duck, squirrel and deer.  They prepared their food by heating up stones over a fire, then putting the stones in a pot of water which boiled the water.  Then they put the food in the boiling water and it cooked until it was ready to eat.

The Hopewell Indians were very decorative.  They bartered materials from many areas around, so they could make very nice works of art.  They used obsidian, sharks' teeth, turtle shells, and flints that came from as far as Dakota and even Montana.  They got obsidian from the Rocky Mountains, copper from the Great Lakes, and a rock called mica from North Carolina.  The hunters carved spear points out of obsidian, and some of the tribe members made bracelets and beads out of copper.  Some of the artists made mica into mirrors and fragile animal and human shapes.

An Adena Mound

Picture from The Ohio Historical Society

One of their most important traditions was burial.  They built a hut, put the dead tribe member inside, then they knocked the hut down.  After everything was knocked down, they covered the remains with dirt which made mounds.  In some of the mounds, scientists found pipes, jewelry, and pearls.

For a couple of hundred years the Hopewell and Adena tribes lived at the same time, but their relationship was unknown.

About 1,400 years ago, the Hopewell Indians died out.  They left behind tiny shells from the Atlantic Ocean and copper from Lake Superior.

The Adena Indians and Their Lives

The Adena Indians had homes made of bark and branches tied with twigs.  First of all they got strong, thick branches and tied them together.  Then they layered it with bark.  They had villages and houses.  Their art was displayed in many ways.  They made smooth pots, bead jewelry, and painted pipes.  They had all different designs.  They left a lot of these items behind.

The foods they ate were fish, beavers, raccoons, deer, elk and black bear.  They gathered berries and nuts.  They farmed crops such as beans, corn and squash.  They trapped fish, snails and small clams.  They used deerskin as warm clothing.  They went hunting and would skin the prey to use the skin as clothing.  And they used meat as food in the winter.

What they did with their tribe members when they passed away was incredible!  They would bury them in mounds or sometimes put them in their houses.  For burial, they had them in their houses with a little mound of dirt.  When the houses were torn down, after a long period of time, they would come back and bury more.  Then they would put more dirt on top of that.  They the mound would pile higher and higher.  With their religious beliefs, they would use their mounds for special religious ceremonies, so it was as if they would worship their God that way.

The land features that caused them to stay were rich soil and plenty of seeds.  The moisture from the river provided rich soil so they could plant seeds and grains, producing plentiful crops.

By Roya A.

Fort Ancient Tribe

Scientists or Archaeologists have been studying the Fort Ancient people for years.  Yet each year they find very little because the only evidence comes from the mounds.

The reason why they lived where they lived was the river.  The attraction to the river was the Hopewell Mounds.  You're probably thinking, "What?"  I think the reason they lived by the river was to get drink, bathe, and eat the fish.

I think their beliefs of burial were the same as the Hopewells, because they copied lots of things form the Hopewells.  The Hopewells put the body in the hut and made a mound over it.  Their arts were making vessels, clay pots, and sculptures.  They sculptures were mostly made of clay shaped into important people.

Fort Ancient houses and villages were thirteen miles from the Fort Ancient Hopewell Mounds, which is how they got their name.  Speaking of their houses, the roofs were made of hay or grass.  The sides of the houses were made of sticks, and then they would cover it with large bark or wood.  The inside of the house was a bit different.  It had bags of food and personal items hanging from the rafters.  In the middle of the house, there was a stone fireplace and all around the house was wood furniture covered with animal skis.

They often wore the skins of what they ate, such as deer, bear, raccoon and other animals.  They would tie weeds around the fur to hold the skins up.  Where the hunters hunted, they would need weapons, of course.  They used spears, hooks and hatchets.  They were the first to use bow and arrows.  Not all of the Fort Ancient Indians were hunters; some were farmers.  They grew food like squash, corn, and beans.

Contacts with other tribes were negative because the other tribes would fight with the Fort Ancients for land, food, and many other reasons.  Contacts with white settlers were very negative because they gave the Iroquois guns to kill the Fort Ancients.

Recent History 19th Century

Town Founder, Jacob Light

Jacob Light was born August 10, 1756 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  He was the fifth of seven children born.  His ancestors, including his mother and father, were from Germany.  They were very religious, being Christians of Mennonite faith.  They did not believe in war.  However, they got involved in Detroit and made gun powder for the Revolutionary War.  Then, shortly after the war, he was married to a woman named Caty (known as Sarah) Harmon.  At the time, he was 26 and she was 16.  Taking a job as an Indian scout, he was forced to take his newborn child back to his mom in Lancaster.  He missed being in Ohio, so he traveled on a flatboat with his two brothers and traveled back around Cincinnati.  There he was hit in the head by an Indian bullet.  So he took some silk and put it through one side of his skill and pulled it out the other.  He would go on to lead a healthy and long life.  He died in 1831, at the age of 74.

Jacob reserved two plots of land for public use when he designed the layout of this village in 1814.  The 212 Market Street building stands on Lots 98 and 99.  Nearly two hundred years later, this land is still used for its original purpose ~ public use.

First School Board

Although Ohio Township began a very primitive but functioning school in 1810, on June 8, 1852, by a vote of 92 to 23, the first school board was established.  At that time, it was determined that a school term of at least 36 weeks was to be put into effect.  Twelve hundred dollars was raised, and in the fall of 1852, the first school opened with Mr. N. Preble as principal.

Initially, classes were held in a building on the corner of George and Washington Streets.  However, in 1859, a land swap was arranged between the village and the school board.  The first building at the Market Street location was erected in 1860 at a cost of $6,000.  Thirty-seven years later, in 1897, safety issues required classes to be moved to a different location for one school year while repairs to the building were made.  By 1898, the renovated school was back in use.

Unfortunately, the flood of 1913 destroyed the original structure making it necessary to erect a new building on the same site.  This building still stands at 212 Market Street.  it was completed in 1915 at a price tag of $45,000.  As the years passed, an auditorium and a field house were added to accommodate additional activities.  Today, the Boys & Girls Club occupies the old auditorium.  The field house was sold in 1981 for $90,000, and is now used by a chemical manufacturer.

Founder of Susanna, Ohio, Thomas Ashburn

Thomas Ashburn, an English descendant, married and they traveled to the Cincinnati area from Lancaster, Great Britain in 1805.  On the trip, his wife died of a disease.  Because of that, he married another woman named Susanne Williams.  Susanne and Thomas raised the four children from his first marriage and one child, Anna, from their marriage.  Thomas Ashburn was founder of Susanna, a little down very close to New Richmond.  Working as a stone mason, he made his living from digging rocks and stuff out of the Ohio River.  He cleaned them and did whatever was necessary, selling them to people locally and around Cincinnati.

In 1813, 875 acres of land were conveyed to him from General William Lytle for a cost of $10,000.  In February, 1816, he laid out the upper part of New Richmond and named it in honor of his wife, Susanne.  The village was called Susanna.  Ashburn believed that Susanna would become the most handsome village in Ohio.  After spending 10 years there, he erected a brick house on Augusta Street that still stands in it's original location.  Thomas Ashburn died in 1826.  He was buried with the rest of his family in Watkins Cemetery.

By Sam Mc.

James Birney and The Philanthropist

In 1834, a man named James Birney constructed the famous newspaper, "The Philanthropist".  For many years the newspaper was published from a tall building on the corner of Walnut and Willow Streets in New Richmond.

It consisted of four well-printed pages of the news of the day.  But it wasn't all great fun.  Mobs of people attacked Birney and many in Kentucky threatened to burn his office.  That forced Birney and other abolitionists to defend "The Philanthropist".  They met in the Market House and guaranteed to insure the newspaper though it meant possibly sacrificing life and property.  At one point the group was horrified to find that a boat had been chartered from Cincinnati whose purpose was to sail to New Richmond and destroy "The Philanthropist".  In the spring of 1836, Mr. Birney decided to move the office to Cincinnati.  But, sadly, on the night of July 30, 1836, the building was sabotaged.

By Sam. Mc.

Abolitionist Activity and The Underground Railroad

The Presbyterian Church of New Richmond was the cradle of the local abolitionist movement.  George Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe) preached there from 1835 until 1836.  During that time, the first meeting of the anti-slavery society was held at the church.  Records show that during the period of 1836 until the Civil War ended, New Richmond was a recognized center of abolitionist activity.

Just down the road in Moscow, Ohio, Fee Villa also helped the runaway slaves by hosting a station on the Underground Railroad.

Standing high upon Liberty Hill in nearby Ripley, Ohio, the home of Reverend John and Jean Rankin was ideally located for helping runaway slaves.  Their home offered an excellent view of the Ohio River and Kentucky.  The Rankin's would place a light in an upstairs window to signal there were no slave catchers about town and that it was safe to approach.  Runaway slaves often took to the water to throw off their scent.

For forty years the Presbyterian minister, Reverend Rankin, passed refugees north, his sons ready to defend them with guns.  Also in Ripley, lived John Parker, a freed black slave who came North to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad.  From 1845 to 1865 he helped free more than 400 slaves.

Also of interest is the story behind the tern Underground Railroad.  A slave went to Ohio over the river.  His owner chased him, but the slave got away.  The owner asked a lumberjack if he had seen the slave.  The guy said, "No.  He must have taken an underground railroad."  That's where they got the name.

Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States

Grant's Birthplace

Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio.  They named Ulysses after the Greek god that helped win the siege of Troy.  When he attended West Point, they mistakenly wrote his name Ulysses Simpson Grant.  His real name is Hiram Ulysses Grant.

When Grant was 26 years old, he married Julia Dent on August 22, 1848.  On May 30, 1850 Grant's first son Frederick was born.  While Grant was serving in the army, he had 3 more children:  Jesse, Ulysses, and Nellie.  On March 4, 1869, Grant became the 18th President of the United States.  Grant was re-elected President.

After Grant was done being President, he took his wife and son Jesse on a world tour.  When they got back Grant went into partnership with Ferdinand Ward.  Soon, the company went bankrupt.  Ward took all the company's money and ran away, leaving Grant penniless.

One day, while eating a peach, he felt a sharp pain on his tongue.  He had cancer.  He didn't want to leave his family penniless, so he wrote a book about his memories of the wars.  The book was finished 9 days before his death.  The book raised over $400,000 for his family.

By Chris H.

Beckjord Power Plant

The Beckjord Power Plant, which is owned by Cinergy, was completed in 1954.  During that time period, many people in the community came to understand that becoming exempt from the county system would allow New Richmond Schools to retain the income from Beckjord.  Thanks to the efforts of Lucian Dawson, in 1954 the school district's status changed from local to exempt.

Two nearby townships wished to be combined with the New Richmond Exempted School District (NREVSD) in the late fifties.  Pierce School became part of the New Richmond Exempted Village School District in 1955, followed by Monroe School in 1959.  Moscow School consolidated with New Richmond District in 1962 and functioned within the New Richmond District until it closed its doors in 1980.

The school at Market Street became overcrowded.  As a result, 73 acres of farmland were purchased from Maud Arnold on Bethel-New Richmond Road to build an elementary school.  New Richmond Elementary (NRE) was dedicated on May 18, 1958.  This left the Market Street School for grades 7-12.  Later, in 1965 the New Richmond High School (NRHS) was erected next door to NRE, leaving the middle school at Market Street.  Nine years later in 1974, a middle school was built on the same grounds as NRE and NRHS.  This is now known as the Main Campus.

Until 1980 the administrative offices were housed in the Market Street building.  They relocated to the Middle School and in 1983, the building was sold for $80,100.  For the next seven years, the building remained vacant and was left to deteriorate.  In 1990, the board repurchased the building at the original sale price of $80,100.  Extensive renovations and repairs were made, and the building was once again used for public purposes.

The Market Street building was rededicated on August 27, 1995.  The total cost of the repairs and remodeling was a whopping $2,500,000!  It now serves as a community resource center.  This building houses the NREVSD administrative offices, the New Richmond High School Graduation Academy, and the Boys and Girls Club of New Richmond.

In 1997, a new elementary school was built to replace the Pierce Elementary building.  This new school, Locust Corner Elementary (LCE), is located behind Pierce Elementary.  The Pierce building has now been demolished.  (Click here to view pictures.)  Monroe and NRE underwent major renovations as well.  The students and staff at Monroe Elementary spent on year, 1994-1995, in mobile classrooms during construction.  Their sacrifice paid off when they moved back into the beautifully renovated and enlarged building.

History sometimes repeats itself.  Just as had happened one hundred years earlier at the Market Street School, NRE was moved into another building, the Pierce elementary building, while renovations were being made.  Luckily, this time it was not due to severe safety issues.  Half of the NRE students and staff spent the 1998-1999 school year in the Pierce building, while the other half - students from the Moscow area - spent the year at Monroe Elementary.

We are proud of our district and how much we have progressed over the years.  However, we believe that the best is yet to come!

A great deal of information was obtained from New Richmond, Ohio:  Historical Collections 1997.  Editor:  Aileen M. Whitt, C.G.R.S.  Publisher:  Historical New Richmond, Inc.

Check out www.co.clermont.oh.us for more history of Clermont County.

We would like to thank Mr. Tom Wildey, Mrs. Judy Wood, Mrs. Lynn Baird, Mr. Jeremy Varner, Ms. Betsy Groen, Mrs. Deen Klotter, Mrs. Lisa Arnold, Mrs. Pam Klein, and all of the Monroe students who worked on the New Richmond history project.