The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1957-07-11
GHOST TOWN

AAOA1A - ~ "
1t is Ohio's oldest ghost town
that acre of tall corn II miles out
of Cincinnati on Colerain pike, in a
Miami River bend, Colerain Town
ship, Hamilton County. Occasionally
the corn field of which it is part
is rotated with other crops just for
conservation. On the acre more than
$50 years ago stood Colerain, from
which the township and pike got
their names.
The legend of Colerain is tragic
and its life was a hectic one, even
though short. The town lasted but a
single generation.
Colerain was founded in 1870 by
John Dunlap, an Irish surveyor, who
named it after his native home in
Ireland. Braving the Indian menace
and with no title at all to the ground
he built small block-house inside
a weak and low stockade with a
few log cabins clustered around it.
The town faced the Great Miami
River. Because it was fortified, many
of the day called the town "Dunlap's
station"
About 80 persons lived at Colerain
and it had been garrisoned with IL
soldiers and a lieutenant from Ft.
Washington for better protection.
Among those living there were the
families of Thomas Larson, Martin
Burkhardt; Michael and Nicholas
Lutz; John, David and William
Crum; David and Isaac Gibson; John
Young, Samuel Carswell, James Bar
rett and Michael Hahn.
John Crum, then 13, was captured
by the Indians when out hunting
grapes. He climbed tree but the
savages made him come down. In
1871 David Gibson was taken by the
Indians and during the five years he
lived with them had a wife-a white
woman they also had captured. Glib
son brought her back with him.
Samuel Hahn, Michaeps son, was
killed by Indians when on the way
back home with a cow he had
bought in Cincinnati.
John S. Wallace, Abner Hunt,
John Sloane and James Cunningham
were hunting near present Venice,
January 8, 1871, when the Indians
killed Cunningham, wounded Sloane
and captured Hunt. Wallace and
Sloane escaped.
The women at Colerain were milk
ing the cows before sunrise, Mon
day, January 10, 1871, when the
Indians appeared and fired a volley,
killing man by the name of Nc
Vickers. They had Abner Hunt,
bound, with them. The men in the
block house took firing positions but
the savages asked a parley and
stood Hunt on stump to beg the
white people to surrender and thus
save his own life. The whites refused
and Hunt was horribly tortured and
burned at the stake in sight and
hearing of all in the town.
Firing from behind trees, stumps
and logs the Indians attacked and
those in the block-house returned
the fire incessantly. Only Is soldiers
and eight or 10 settlers in the sta
ton were able to fight. There were
about 500 Indians, led by the white
renegade, Simon Girty.
The women in the fort loaded and
often fired the mems guns and when
bullets ran short melted up their
pewter spoons and plate to keep up
the supply of ammunition. The Indians
tried to fire the cabins and one was
killed when crawling towards them
with flaming torch. At night blaz-
ing arrows were shot against the
roof and the pickets of the stockade.
The fighting continued all day and
all night without let up until about
nine o'clock Tuesday morning when
satisfied they could not take the
place, the Indians left in two groups
One to the right and one to the
left as was their custom on such
occasions.
The body of Abner Hunt was