Essential to the pioneer of the early American frontier was a dependable rifle to provide food and protection for his family. This “Kentucky Rifle,” a muzzle loader which used percussion caps, was fashioned about 1830 by a Pennsylvania gunsmith for Jacob Deeds, great-grandfather of Colonel E. A. Deeds whose grandfather, Andrew Deeds, brought it to Ohio in 1850. This rifle is a later version of the flintlock rifle which made possible settlement of the dark, lonely and often dangerous forests that once covered most of Ohio. It now is mounted on the wall of the Pioneer Home.
It was in February, 1796, that the first surveying party came to what is now Washington Township—the township in which the old stone house was located. That was less than a year after Daniel Cooper came from Cincinnati and laid out the town of Dayton.
The surveying group was made up of Aaron Nutt, Benjamin Robbins, and Benjamin Archer. They pitched camp near what is now Centerville, but were quick to move a couple of miles northeast when they discovered signs of recent occupation of the site by Indians.
Although there were a few Indian raids in Montgomery County during its earliest years, most of the Indians were peaceful except when drunk. The major losses caused by them were through thievery of horses and other livestock.
The three surveyors drew cuts for choice of lands and then returned to Kentucky. The next spring Robbins returned with his wife and children. They built a log cabin on a half-section of land west of the site of Centerville. Nutt and Archer returned two years later.
One of the best-known early settlers was Dr. John Hole, who moved to the area from New Jersey in 1797. He located three and a half miles northwest of the site of Centerville on a stream which he named Silver Creek. Because of his prominence in the community, the stream became known as Hole’s Creek, and so it is named today. Dr. Hole erected a log cabin with a clapboard roof and a “cat and clay chimney,” made of sticks and clay. He later put up two sawmills. Being the only doctor in that part of the Valley, Dr. Hole served patients ten and twelve miles away.
Washington Township was organized in 1803, the same year Ohio became a state and two years before Dayton was incorporated. It was named in honor of General George Washington, for many of the early settlers were formerly Revolutionary War soldiers. In the first election in that year the township—then considerably larger than it is now—cast 95 votes for governor.
The first church meeting in the area was held in 1799, but the first church building was not occupied until four years later. It was called the Sugar Creek Baptist Church. One of its early members and workers was Abner Garrard, owner of the land on which the stone house later was built. The first minister of the church was the Rev. Charles McDaniel, who sometimes rode 30 miles to preach at some remote settlement. He was paid only what his congregations desired to give him.