299 South Third Street
Williamsburg, Ohio, 45176
(513) 724 7824
Williamsburg, Ohio, 45176
(513) 724 7824
Did you know that the oldest structure in Clermont County Ohio is located at 299 South Third Street in Williamsburg? It is the Dairy House at Harmony Hill, the homestead site of Major General William Lytle, founder of our town.
In 1795 Lytle came with his older brother John and a group of men, several of whom were Revolutionary War veterans, to survey acreage that was then known as the DeBenneville Survey. He established a surveying camp along the East Fork of the Little Miami River. As he surveyed he realized the potential of the area for an ideal town because of the rolling land and the nearby water source. In the Fall of 1795 he and his company began surveying the 1500 acres; an extremely cold winter of ’95-’96 halted progress as surveying stakes could not be forced into the frozen ground. Work was finally continued in 1796, and lots in the village began to be sold. A public square of 12 lots, and 5-1/4 acres “on a beautiful elevation” was set aside for county buildings; this was the future site of the first courthouse and jail built in 1805.
It was 1800 when he acquired the 600 acres of land for his homestead which he named Harmony Hill. He employed John Charles to build his home, the first home of its kind in the area. The home was constructed with lathe and plaster lined with brick for protection from Indian raids. This was the first structure in the survey area to have glass windows. Lytle brought the square nails used in construction all the way from Philadelphia; at the time, nails were so valuable that if a home was destroyed, the nails were salvaged to be used again. When the home was completed, a Dairy House and Land Office were also constructed nearby. The Dairy House was used to keep perishable foods cool. In the winter, blocks of ice were cut from the nearby East Fork of the Little Miami River, placed in the recessed floor of the Diary House and packed with straw to aid in the length of preservation of the foods. Next to the Dairy House is a 15 foot dug well which was rare at that time, and it holds water yet today. Hundreds of thousands of acres of land were bought and sold in the Land Office: over 200,000 were said to have been sold in a single year. In 1803 his Land Office became the Clermont County Post Office, the only one between Maysville, Kentucky and Newtown, Ohio. In 1801, he moved his family here, where they resided until 1808 when he purchased property and built a home in Cincinnati in the are now known as Lytle Park.
William Lytle was the considered the first landed millionaire in the West. The list of his accomplishments include his skills as a frontiersman, surveyor, First Postmaster of Clermont County, First Clerk of Clermont County Courts, Director of the Miami Trading Company, First President of the Cincinnati Humane Society, founder and first President of the University of Cincinnati, Major General of the Southern Ohio District of the War of 1812, appointed Surveyor General of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan by his close personal friend, President Andrew Jackson. Members of the Lytle family served in the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. Major General William Lytle passed from this life in 1831 and is interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.
In 1795 Lytle came with his older brother John and a group of men, several of whom were Revolutionary War veterans, to survey acreage that was then known as the DeBenneville Survey. He established a surveying camp along the East Fork of the Little Miami River. As he surveyed he realized the potential of the area for an ideal town because of the rolling land and the nearby water source. In the Fall of 1795 he and his company began surveying the 1500 acres; an extremely cold winter of ’95-’96 halted progress as surveying stakes could not be forced into the frozen ground. Work was finally continued in 1796, and lots in the village began to be sold. A public square of 12 lots, and 5-1/4 acres “on a beautiful elevation” was set aside for county buildings; this was the future site of the first courthouse and jail built in 1805.
It was 1800 when he acquired the 600 acres of land for his homestead which he named Harmony Hill. He employed John Charles to build his home, the first home of its kind in the area. The home was constructed with lathe and plaster lined with brick for protection from Indian raids. This was the first structure in the survey area to have glass windows. Lytle brought the square nails used in construction all the way from Philadelphia; at the time, nails were so valuable that if a home was destroyed, the nails were salvaged to be used again. When the home was completed, a Dairy House and Land Office were also constructed nearby. The Dairy House was used to keep perishable foods cool. In the winter, blocks of ice were cut from the nearby East Fork of the Little Miami River, placed in the recessed floor of the Diary House and packed with straw to aid in the length of preservation of the foods. Next to the Dairy House is a 15 foot dug well which was rare at that time, and it holds water yet today. Hundreds of thousands of acres of land were bought and sold in the Land Office: over 200,000 were said to have been sold in a single year. In 1803 his Land Office became the Clermont County Post Office, the only one between Maysville, Kentucky and Newtown, Ohio. In 1801, he moved his family here, where they resided until 1808 when he purchased property and built a home in Cincinnati in the are now known as Lytle Park.
William Lytle was the considered the first landed millionaire in the West. The list of his accomplishments include his skills as a frontiersman, surveyor, First Postmaster of Clermont County, First Clerk of Clermont County Courts, Director of the Miami Trading Company, First President of the Cincinnati Humane Society, founder and first President of the University of Cincinnati, Major General of the Southern Ohio District of the War of 1812, appointed Surveyor General of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan by his close personal friend, President Andrew Jackson. Members of the Lytle family served in the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. Major General William Lytle passed from this life in 1831 and is interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.
299 South Third Street
Williamsburg, Ohio, 45176
(513) 724 7824
Williamsburg, Ohio, 45176
(513) 724 7824
