One branch of the Leslie family migrated to Ireland, then across the Atlantic to Pennsylvania, into Virginia and finally westward to the Ohio country. In the meantime, another Leslie, Patrick, served in the Revolutionary War. Patrick married Mary Dyer and son John Leslie, born in 1774 in Loudon County, Va., is the subject of this column.
John Leslie married Hannah Davis in what some say was the first marriage of a white couple in Cincinnati. In 1798, they traveled northward to what became Gratis Twp. in neighboring Preble County. John Leslie and John Long were the township’s first settlers, each claiming one half of the township. In 1802, they recorded their claims.
According to family legend, a great sycamore tree, about 10 feet in diameter stood near the banks of Elk creek. Its core was decaying and at the base a mere shell was left, leaving an opening into the tree, a chamber of perhaps 5 or 6 feet at ground level and tapering upwards into the tree. Within this chamber John and his bride lived for a few months as they cleared the land and built a cabin. They had 10 children — Mary, Joseph, Davis, Stephen, Reazon, John, Hannah, Rachel, Susan and Tabitha.
In all John was to own 1,250 acres, some of which was in neighboring Wayne Twp. in Butler County, while the rest was in Gratis Twp. of Preble County. Leslie’s actual cash investment for the land was around $500.
The Leslies’ first child, Mary, was born in 1801. Undoubtedly they kept their eyes glued on her, for one of their neighbor’s children, Elizabeth Harper, was kidnapped the year before by the Indians. The 3-year old girl had followed an older child, who had gone to bring in the cows. Her call for help was ignored, but when the cows and the herder came home, baby sister was missing. Despite a search, which revealed little footprints in the mud along a stream together with big moccasin tracks, the child was never seen again by her parents.
Leslie built a sawmill at the corner of Cotton Run and Mill Roads that continued in active operation until the close of the Civil War. Later, he built a gristmill for cornmeal and flour. The flour from this mill was taken to Cincinnati by team and then by flatboat to New Orleans to help supply General Jackson’s army during our second conflict with the mother country in 1812.
During the War of 1812, John Leslie became a teamster hauling flour from Vail’s Mill at Middletown by way of the new Manchester Road and Great Miami Turnpike, northward to Dayton then up to Forts Meigs, Defiance and Recovery.
John and his wife were buried in the old Kelly Cemetery, later known as Shiloh, a small community on Route 122 five miles north off Jacksonburg Road. Later the bodies were moved to Miltonville Cemetery, where they still rest.
John Leslie often spoke of the noted Indian Chief Tom Killbuck, who with the remnants of his tribe lived at the mouth of a stream, a branch of Elk Creek which was given the Chief’s name — Killbuck Run. He refused to leave his ancient land and died along the run and was buried at the old Mount Pleasant Cemetery at Poasttown. Killbuck was half civilized. It is known that in the winter time, he would often visit Shiloh schoolhouse and stay inside to keep warm.
One story about Killbuck’s tribe of Indians involved their scalping two men at a burying at the Shiloh Cemetery. Soon after this incident, a lady lost her child and being afraid to bury her at the cemetery, she buried her under the porch of her house. Maybe this shows the other half of being civilized.
The estate of John Leslie, a 60-page document at the Eaton Courthouse, left his fortune to his children, one of whom was Reazin. Reazin’s daughter, Elmira married Alphonse Marts. She later inherited a Leslie farm in Wayne Twp., where the original log house built by her pioneer grandfather stood. Elmira became the mother of three girls, Mildred, LaVerne and Marguerite. Marguerite married Homer Getz and recorded much of her family’s history.
There are many local families who have hung their family surnames onto the Leslie family tree. They include: Dempseys, Ellingtons, Falls, Flickingers, Pughs, Swishers, Triicks, Tuttles, Vanderpools, Wells and Wendts.
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