From History of Madison County, Ohio, Chester E. Bryan, Supervising Editor, B.F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis (1915)
In 1817 a large family of brothers and sisters came to Madison county, following Uri Beach, who came in 1814. The brothers of the family were Uri, Ambrose, Amos, Lorenzo, Roswell, Obil and Oren Beach, the last two named being twins. They were natives of the state of Vermont. At first they all settled in Darby township, but subsequently most, if not all, of them became settlers of Canaan township.
Uri Beach, when he first came to the state of Ohio in 1812, worked for a short time near Marietta; thence he went to Worthington, Ohio, where he married; thence he came to Madison county and settled on land in Darby township, later owned by Solomon Cary, residing there until 1819, when he removed to Big Darby and settled where Amity is now situated. He was among the first to turn attention to the satisfaction of the wants of others. His first enterprise was the erection of a saw-mill. At that time there was but one mill in this part of the county of that kind, the Saeger mill, farther up the Darby, near the border of Union county. He selected a site for the mill on what was called Finch run, and here built a mill that proved a real blessing to the community. Mr. Beach soon recognized another great want, namely, means by which to facilitate the domestic operations in clothing the families and rendering them comfortable during the winter months. Among the early settlers, the manufacture of woolen goods for the family was a tedious operation, especially in preparing the wool for spinning. Before this latter operation could be performed, the wool must be carded into rolls, which then had to be all performed by hand, with a pair of what was called "hand cards." This operation was exceedingly slow and laborious. Something to facilitate the labor of carding was the great want of the people. The operation of spinning and weaving was only a secondary consideration, for a woman who did not know how to spin and weave was not considered at all qualified for the holy state of matrimony. To supply these wants, Uri Beach undertook to build a carding-mill. The chief obstacle that crossed his path was the great distance and the question of the transportation of machinery. The site was selected for his carding machine Just below his saw-mill, not for the purpose of using the water of Finch run for power, but because it was near his other mills. The building was erected, the machinery obtained. and all put in running order. For a few years the machinery in operation was a picking, carding and fulling machine, to which he afterwards added two small spinning jacks. This factory was in operation for fifteen years or more. It is thought that the first frame house in the township was the one standing on the hill, at the foot of which stood the carding-mill.
Uri Beach, in company with his brother, Lorenzo, purchased of Doctor Comstock a tract of land from which they laid out the town of Amity, and here Mr. Beach died.
Ambrose Beach, the next son in age to Uri, purchased a farm on the Plains, just east of his brother, in the same year they came to Ohio. This place was his home for several years. He, having had some experience as a clothier, finally consented to connect himself with his brother in the factory, where, for several years, he was engaged in the manufacture of woolen cloth. The weaving in this factory was all done by hand, with what was called a spring-shuttle loom. He later sold his farm on the Plains and purchased land in Brown township, Franklin county, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his days.
Dr. Lorenzo Beach, the fourth son of the family, was born in Vermont in 1797, and came to Ohio as early as 1813, settling at Worthington, with practically no worldly effects. His education was only such as could be obtained on a country farm in the Green Mountain state, where the entire time of the farmer is taken up with an endless fight for a living from the sterile soil. He studied medicine with Doctor Carter, of Urbana, and commenced his practice at Amity, about 1820, being, it is believed, the first practicing physician ever located in that place. During the sickly seasons of 1822-23 he and Dr. James Comstock, who was associated with him, attended nearly all the sick of the district, which extended for many miles around, but the center of the virulence was between the two Darbys. His field of practice must have been large, for his fame is still considerable among the old residents of this portion of the county. However. It is believed that he lacked faith in himself and his remedies, to a degree that prevented any enthusiasm in his profession, and that the responsibilities attached to the life of a physician became exceedingly irksome to him. Therefore, he abandoned his profession for the more lucrative, and to him more agreeable, life of a merchant. For several years subsequent to 1833, he was actively engaged in merchandising and, later, in real estate operations. Seeing an opportunity for the better employment of capital and his abilities, he removed, in 1853, to Livingston county, Illinois, where he continued to reside until his death, in August, 1878, at the age of eighty-one years.
Roswell Beach, who purchased land in Darby township, where Solomon Cary afterward lived, observing the prosperity of his brothers in the woolen-mill, and the population about Amity rapidly increasing, and that there was a growing demand for greater and more extended facilities to meet the demands and wants of the people, he, with his two younger twin brothers, Obil and Oren, in order to meet these requirements, selected and purchased a site on Big Darby creek below Amity, on what was known as the Stone farm. Here they built a dam and erected a building for a factory, Purchasing the machinery of the elder one of their brothers, also a new set of cards and other machinery necessary for extensive operations in a new country as this then was. In connection with this plant, Mr. Fulton, a son-in-law of Roswell Beach, put in operation a pair of buhrs for grinding corn. It was expected by the proprietors of this enterprise that large profits would be realized as a reward for their outlay and labor. However, this factory was in operation for only a few years.
The village of Amity had greatly increased in population, but with each returning fall the inhabitants of the little town suffered severely from malarious diseases. It was suggested that the stagnant water produced by the erection of the factory dam across the Darby was the existing cause of the suffering of the inhabitants; consequently, a petition was circulated and signed by many citizens of the place, asking the court to declare this property a public nuisance. Effort was made by the petitioners to substantiate the claims set forth in the petition. This was the first case of the kind ever put before our courts of justice. After hearing all the testimony in the case, the court declared the property to be a public nuisance; therefore, this dam across the Darby was torn out in the early part of the summer.
The facts are, that during the autumn of that year there was more suffering from sickness than any previous year. The effect upon the owners and proprietors of the factory can be easily imagined. But there were a few citizens interested in the financial welfare of these men, who gave them something to relieve their embarrassments. They, however, became disheartened and discouraged, sold their effects and removed to the West, where, by industry and frugality, they recovered from this financial shock. Roswell settled in Iowa; Obil and Oren settled in Kansas. The latter died in 1863.
Dr. Charles McCloud. a native of the Green Mountain state, emigrated with his father, Charles McCloud, to Delaware county, Ohio, and soon afterward to Madison county, where his father, in 1814, purchased a farm one mile east of Chuckery, and here they settled, and here young McCloud, then only six years old, was reared. He was born February 2, 1808. He studied medicine with Dr. Alpheus Bigelow, of Galena, Delaware county, Ohio, and on the completion of his studies located in Amity, Madison county, Ohio. The first year or so his practice must have been light, for he engaged to teach school for a term or so; but in an few years his practice became very extensive, his patrons being scattered all through the Darby Plains, up Big Darby and on Sugar run in Union county, and in the neighborhood of Dublin, Franklin county. In 1844 he was the Whig member of the lower house of the Legislature of Ohio and in 1850 a member of the convention to revise the Constitution of Ohio. In figure he was slight, never weighing over one hundred and fifty pounds, with a slight stoop in his shoulders. His complexion was dark. In manner he was grave almost to severity. This gravity was not assumed, but natural, rarely leaving, even in family circles. He was an inveterate reader, and in his younger days must have been a great and keen student of his profession, as he had a well-worn library. Later in life he gave up his profession and entered merchandising, but still kept up his habits of study. He took up the study of astronomy at one time in his life and later became an enthusiastic student of geology, so much so that he delivered several lectures on it, illustrated by maps of his own drawing. A few years before his death he took to reading fiction and poetry. He read the works of Charles Dickens with great interest, and was not only a great reader of Shakespeare, but became a critical student of that great poet as well. He was a debater and writer of more than ordinary force. He was in no sense a politician, and what positions of honor he occupied were unsought. As a physician, he was cautious and conscientious, and in his diagnosis and prognosis of disease remarkably accurate, which secured to him the great confidence of his patients. Although commanding a large practice, it appears that he accumulated but little from his profession, as he was a poor collector and his charges astonishingly low. Doctor McCloud, in all the relations of life, was honest and upright, his character being absolutely above reproach. He married Mary Jane Carpenter, by whom he had four children. He died in Plain City, April 1, 1861, at the age of fifty-three years.
William D. Wilson, the son of Valentine and Eleanor Wilson, was born on February 27, 1807, and was only nine years old when his parents settled in Somerford township, on Deer creek. Here he spent the years of his youth and, arriving at maturity, married Nancy Moore. He purchased two hundred acres of land on the Darby Plains, in Canaan township, at eighty cents per acre. This purchase amounted to one hundred and sixty dollars, to meet which, he borrowed the money, with his uncle Daniel as his security. He located in Canaan township about 1829-30, so can hardly be called one of the township's pioneers, but rather one of its settlers. He at once built a cabin, and very soon entered quite largely into the stock business, as his land was better adapted to grazing at that day than tillage. As a financier and trader he was a remarkable success. Shrewd and careful in all his transactions, economical and industrious. and carefully investing his gains in more land, he soon became the owner of a vast amount of the best land on the Darby Plains, counting his acres by the thousands. He died at his homestead place, March 25, 1873, at the age of sixty-three years. He was the father of eight children: Alexander, who married Martha Jane Milliken; Ellen married Benjamin Morris, but died, childless, December 3, 1857; James Monroe married Achsa Burham; Lafayette married Sarah Temple; William M. married Mary M. Slyh; Sarah married John Price; Washington married a Miss Wilson, of Kentucky; and Taylor, who married Eliza Daily, died on February 17, 1875.
A Mr. Martin, probably a native of Pennsylvania. settled in the township about 1812. The following were his children: George, Rachel, William, Benjamin, Susan and John. They lived here for several years and then removed to Champaign county, Ohio. A Mr. Richey, of Irish descent, settled on land later owned by the Wilsons, about 1816-18. Joseph and Isaac Bidwell settled about the same date. Among other early settlers of whom it is impossible to learn any important history, were David Harris, Paul Alder, a brother of Jonathan, Christian Adams, Joseph Loyd, John Johnson, David Ellis, J. Phelps and Patrick Johnson.