Diamond Hill  

Diamond Hill

Recollections of An Old Homestead




On the hill top, over the river and across the valley, there stands an old historic house; it is not a ruin, it is not in decay, its walls are not weather stained nor moss grown, but it is an ideal home; not merely a habitation, but a home in every thing which the name implies; a center around which the affections cling and to which memory goes back with fond recollections.

For nearly a hundred years those old walls have stood there; their open portals have been the objective point of many a belated and weary traveler, where he was at least sure of welcome and rest.

Of this old house you ask me to write a history. I think it was Macauly who said that to write the history of a nation you must write the history of the people who made the nation; and to write the history of a house I must necessarily write of the people who made the house, the home.

Migration from Bush River, South Carolina, to Waynesville, Ohio

In October of 1798 Abijah O'Neall and Samuel Kelly bought of Dr. Jacob Roberts Brown his military claim of 3310 2/3 acres of land situated in the Virginia Military Reservation north of the Ohio river. A part of that purchase lay on the east side of the Little Miami river opposite the town of Waynesville and was known as Brown's Survey No 791, containing 660 acres, the patent for which was issued to Abijah O'Neall, as signee of Jacob Brown and bears date at Washington Jan. 17, 1800. The consideration was 66½ cents per acre. Mr. O'Neall moved his family to Waynesville in the autumn of 1799, and the following winter made some improvement on the present Diamond Hill farm. In the spring of 1800 he moved his family into a rude log house which had been constructed and began to make a home. The beginning was rude and many privations were to be borne. The family was a large one, and the number of retainers was larger. Those who could not find sleeping room in the house could almost always find room on the ground outside; so the accommodations, though primitive, were ample. At that time I am not aware that there was a square rod of cleared ground on the east side of the Little Miami river north of where Morrow now is, yet wherever a tree was cut down so the sunlight could strike the ground, anything that was planted would grow. Corn was the great staple; it furnished not only bread for the family and food for the stock but the fodder was the rough food for the winter, hay not being attainable; sometimes hay was cut and cured on the prairie lands north east of Xenia, and afterwards hauled eighteen miles over emigrant trails; but this made very expensive provender. Time and labor bring many things. Slowly the forest receded, acre by acre the fields were enlarged, houses were built and men had come to stay. With the influx of immigration there came many wants. The first school that was taught in the settlement was taught by Joel Wright in 1802 at Mr. O'Neall's house. He also taught in 1804, 1805, and in 1807, and in 1808 Elizabeth Wright, sister of Joel, taught in the same place.

In the mean time many changes had taken place around the rude home; gardens had been made, orchards planted, wells sunk and substantial out-buildings erected. In 1803 a church had been organized (the Friends) and so rapid had been the influx of Friends from the older states, that in 1805 it is said there were more than one thousand names on its church books.

The current house, built and inhabited by Abijah O'Neall

In 1808 the present substantial brick house was built. There have been changes made in the interior construction; windows have been enlarged, doors closed up or new ones made, porches built, with a gable placed here or a balcony hung there, until it is modernized into a handsome suburban residence, but the old walls of 1808 are still intact, and it is the same old house.

Mr. O'Neall was a surveyor and a large dealer in land, was a prominent member in the Society of Friends, and probably no man in the whole countryside had a larger acquaintance than he. It was to him that the emigrant came when he was hunting a place to locate his home; to him the settlers went to have their disputed boundary lines adjusted; to him every scheme for the betterment of the country was brought, his house was alike open to rich and poor; his door was never closed to an applicant for shelter, nor his charity withheld from a worthy solicitor. Such men as Gov. Morrow, Col. Richard C. Anderson, of Louisville, Kentucky, and Judge Barnett, of Cincinnati, were his close personal friends, but perhaps the most distinguished guest ever entertained at the Diamond Hill home was the great Indian Chief, Little Turtle, Chief of the Miamis, than whom there was no finer specimen of Indian character. It was he who commanded the Indians at Harmer's defeat in 1791, at St. Clair's defeat in November of the same year. Of him E. D. Mansfield says, "The most acute and sagacious Indian statesman; he had wit, humor and intelligence; an extensive traveler and a polished gentleman." It was his last visit to Southern Ohio, and he looked for the last time upon the beautiful valley of the Miami, and bade farewell to each hill, and wood and stream forever.

During the War of 1812, many of the friendly Shawnee Indians were sent from Northern Ohio, into the settlements to get them out of danger of being massacred by the hostiles, and at least two of these, a mother and daughter, the wife and child of General Harrison's interpreter (Charles Ash) were for many months inmates of Mr. O'Neall's household.

In all those days of early pioneer life it would be safe to say that there was never a key turned nor a bolt thrown in a door, but that all were free to come and go without a question, sure of a welcome.

Death of Abijah O'Neall and subsequent history of Diamond Hill

In 1823, Mr. O’Neall died and the homestead passed to his youngest son, Abijah Jr. The mantle of the father descended naturally to the son. The scepter passed from the hand of one in the strength of full age to one in the prime and vigor of young manhood. What the father had been to the passing generation the son was to be to the one which was coming to the front. A clear active mind, a quick perception that saw the motives of men, firm yet diplomatic, a retentive memory which was seldom at fault; his mind was well stored with facts that could always be brought forward when he wished to sustain a point in an argument or quotations from the English poets when he wished to adorn a conversation, made him an excellent talker and a most agreeable and instructive companion. Of him the late Mrs. Catharine Newton in a private letter written after the attainment of her four score years, says, "A gentleman well qualified to grace any modern drawing room"

In 1828 Mr. O’Neall married and for six years the old home was again a social and intellectual center. In 1834 he sold the premises to Mr. John Johnson, and moved his family to Western Indiana.

[The rest of this article recounts the fortunes of Diamond Hill under its later owners, John Johnson, Edward Lynch ("a son of the original Judge Lynch, he who had presided over so many criminal tribunals, and whose decisions have been so seldom reversed."), Jonas Janney, John B. Graham, John Hathaway and William T. Frame. The final lines concern Mr. Frame.]

Once while standing with a friend looking up at the gray walls of his own old partental [sic] homestead he said "That old house has sheltered more old line Whig politicians and more Methodist preachers than any other house in Southern Ohio." And of Diamond Hill it would be safe to say that it had welcomed more unbidden guests and had dispensed more open hearted hospitality than any house in Southern Ohio.

This article was undoubtedly written about 1898 by George T. O'Neall for a paper of the Waynesville region.  The subtitles in italics have been added by the editor of these pages.  Back to top.

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