The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1959-01-01
Before the LdlU

Back in 1889 before township,
county or state yet existed and
no law at all was in the land
other than the Territorial ones
passed locally applying to Mari
eta, the first settlement, small
crime, license and misdemeanor
ran rampant elsewhere in the
wilderness, now Ohio. Nothing
and nobody at all appeared to
hold jurisdiction there.
At Losantiville, now Cincinnati,
Ft. Washington was being built
and the soldiers putting it up
there were a rough, hard drink
ing, fighting and gambling lot.
With nothing to do in the settle
ment and kept out of the woods
by Indian menace, the popula-
ton of the place began to en-
ulate the rowdy garrison.
In autumn, 1889, the more de-
cent element in the town held a
mass meeting beneath a big,
leaning elm tree and organiZd
a court - the Citizens Court,
without standing or status of any
kind but much determination.
Laws were drafted, officers chos-
en-, the bylaws were signed by
all and all agreed to observe and
uphold them and the kangaroo
court began doing business.
William Mcmillan was ap-
pointed judge and John Ludlow
was made sheriff.
The first offender tried was
Patrick Grimes, charged with
stealing cucumbers from a neigh
boris truck patch. He pleaded
guilty and was sentenced by Nc
MILAN to % 1ashes on his naked
back, duly administered that
same day by Sheriff Ludlow.
The next offender fled to the
garrison for protection and got
it there. There always had been
rivalry and mutual dislike be-
tween the soldiers building the
fort and the citizens of the town
both wanted to run the place.
The morning after the court
session and escape of the prison
er to the fort a sergeant and
three privates came to McMil-
lan's cabin to arrest him for set
ting himself up as a Judge. They
stormed the cabin and got in.
side but instead of taking Nc
MILAN were given such a licking
by him alone that they were glat
to flee back to the fort withou
a prisoner. The fight lasted q
minutes before the rout, old ac
counts relate.
Mcmillan was a big man ant
strong one, but in the fight HI
received chest injuries from
which he never completely re
covered. Shortly after it he re
tired to his farm in the country
present Corryville, almost in thu
thick of the city. There he dieC
in 1904 at forty-four.
He had been one of the frs
group to reach Cincinnati by fla
boat on December rs, 1888, ant
like most of those first on tn,
frontier he lacked much of be
ing the ignorant, backwoods fel
low most people today imagine
He was a Virginia born Irishmal
who was graduated from OLE
William and Mary college, thel
educated for the Presbyterian
ministry but was never ordained
He farmed for a while then came
to Cincinnati in 1888 when he wa!
%. There he married a widow
Mrs. Constance Zenes, who hat
been one of the first three wo
men in the settlement.
In 1890 when the county wa!
formed he was commissioned ;
justice of the peace, then &;
Judge; later a member of tn,
Territorial House of Representa-
tiVes; then he succeeded William
Henry Harrison as representa-
tive of the Northwest Territor,
in Congress; and after the state
was formed became the frs
United States attorney for Ohio
William Mcmillan was a Mas
on. He willed his city lot, No
l35 on the town plat, northwes
asSla M Ma Ma ssa Sn A@ @SSAsz@ Asas
d = q