22 Springfield Pike - I learned a lot, but still have unanswered questions

Researching house histories, I find that old records are often unreliable, or just not available, and sometimes I have to make educated guesses about the past. For example, I have had a difficult time determining exactly when 22 Springfield Pike was built. The Hamilton County Auditor's database says 1865, but that seems too early for the style of home. Most houses built that early in Wyoming are what architectural historians call "vernacular farmhouses," simple buildings without much ornamentation. But this home, with its Italianate features--the brackets at the roofline, the bay window, the low-pitched hipped roof--seems to be of a later period.

22 Springfield Pike

There are two other nearby homes that were built of identical plan and design to 22 Springfield Pike, though over the years some changes have been made to them, so they are no longer exactly the same. I hoped that looking at their date of construction would help solve this mystery...

34 Walnut Ave. in the 1980s (a third floor was added in the 2000s)
Source: Wyoming Historical Society

19 Allen Ave.

...but no clear answer here either: the County Auditor's site reports 19 Allen Ave. built in 1885 and 34 Walnut Ave. built in 1900. But three nearly identical homes would not have been built over a span of 35 years.  There are inaccuracies in the Auditor's data.

22 Springfield Pike was built on what was historically known as Archibald Burns's farm, though he, a Carthage resident, died in 1844. The property was subsequently held by his heirs, who in the late 1860s hired J. T. Wilson to subdivide the farm into lots and sell them. Unfortunately, Wilson died soon after that agreement, in 1870, with only a small number of the lots sold. In 1874 a group of Wyoming residents, including many owners/residents of land from that first subdivision, bought the remainder of the farm from Burns's heirs, establishing the Wyoming Land and Building Company (WLBCo) to continue to sell lots. 

WLBCo reconfigured the lot lines in the yet unsold southwestern portion of the former farm, and in 1874 published a book, Hints on Building, which included a map of the lots available. Also shown on the map were the footprints of existing buildings in and near the subdivision, with owners' names printed beside them. On this map there are no buildings shown where 22 Springfield Pike, 19 Allen Ave., and 34 Walnut Ave. are today. [This book and map can be found in the Ohio History Library Archives, Columbus, Ohio; I don't have permission to publish it here]

Then in 1875 the WLBCo published an advertising pamphlet for the subdivision.  This map does show the homes at 22 Springfield Pike and 19 Allen. However, there is no owner's name listed next to them, because they were still owned by the WLBCo (as is also true for two homes on East Mills/Wiley Ave. which I know from other research were renter-occupied for the first decade or so after they were built). The houses are sited perfectly within these newly platted lots. Given this evidence, I believe that these homes were built in between the time that the WLBCo purchased the land from the Burns heirs and published their first advertising book, about 1874, and when the second advertising brochure was published in 1875. The third triplet, on Walnut, was built on a lot owned by Grant H. Burrows, on the lot adjacent his own home (two more homes have been built in between since). Burrows was the "Superintendent" of the WLBCo.; he easily could have been the one to have contracted to have all three of these homes built.

1875 Pamphlet, annotated
Source: Wyoming Historical Society

I was not able to determine who lived at 22 Springfield Pike for its first ten years. The 1880 Census does not list house numbers, and there were too many homes on Springfield Pike to make a guess as to who lived where, without  additional evidence. And no published directory of county residents is available prior to 1897.

Marchant / Huston Family 1886-1936
In April 1886, the WLBCo. sold the houses at both 22 Springfield Pike and 19 Allen (Grant H. Burrows sold 34 Walnut in 1883). 22 Springfield Pike, on Lot 24, was bought by Nathan Marchant (1817-1893), along with the vacant lots to the south and north, Lots 23 and 25. He paid $3,220 for the properties.

Nathan Marchant was born in Warren County, Ohio in 1817, and in March 1839, in Hamilton County, he married Maria Holmes. They made their home in Cincinnati, and Nathan served the city first as a constable; by 1860 he was a justice of the peace,;and by 1880 he was a magistrate. He and Maria had a son, Franics "Frank," in 1852. Maria died in 1864, and sometime before 1870 Nathan married Mary Hille. Over the years the value of real estate Nathan owned rose, as reported on the Censuses. From 1860 on, there was a domestic servant listed living with the family. The 1880 Census shows Frank, his wife Della (or Delphine), and their daughter Myrtle living with Nathan and Mary, at 123 Linn Street, Cincinnati. Mary Hille Marchant died in 1883, and in August 1887 Nathan married Belle Kerr in Warren County, Ohio.

I have no definitive evidence as to whether or not Nathan and Belle Kerr Marchant ever lived in the home at 22 Springfield Pike. I have evidence that they lived in Wyoming, and it was likely here, but they could have lived in another home in the village. After 1886 Nathan is no longer listed in the Cincinnati directory at the home at 123 Linn Street. In the 1890 and 1892 Cincinnati city directories N. Marchant is listed as one of the three justices of the peace for Springfield Township, though he is not listed in the alphabetical section of the directory. His Cincinnati Post obituary states that he lived in Wyoming until a few months prior to his death, when he moved to East Walnut Hills. None of this absolutely confirms that he lived at 22 Springfield Pike, but it is highly likely he did. Nathan Marchant died in December, 1893. He was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery. After his death, Belle Marchant transferred the Springfield Pike properties to Nathan's son, Frank Marchant.

Cincinnati Post, December 30, 1893

Frank Marchant (1852-1932) attended St. Xavier Colllege when it was located on Sycamore Street followed by the Chickering Classical and Scientific Institute, also in Cincinnati. He began his working career as a bank clerk for the First National Bank, and later listed his occupation as bookkeeper. He married Della Van Doren (1854-1932) in 1874; she was born and raised in Wilmington, Clinton County, Ohio. As noted above, they lived with Frank's father in Cincinnati until the 1880s. They had a daughter, Maude, who died at birth in 1874 and then a second daughter, Myrtle Marchant (1876-1938). The year after his father purchased 22 Springfield Pike in 1886, the 1887 Cincinnati City directory lists Frank Marchant working in the city with residence in Wyoming; the first Hamilton County Directory (1897) indicates his address as 22 Springfield Pike and that he was clerk for Springfield Township, with an office on Crescent Avenue (maybe in one of the buildings mentioned in this blog post) He later held the position of deputy auditor for Hamilton County. Frank was also an active volunteer in Wyoming's Fire Company.

Interesting note: Wyoming Marshal Fred Bracker (see this post) and his wife Mary Ann named their son, born in 1892, Frank Marchant Bracker.

Myrtle Marchant was about ten years old when she moved with her parents into the house at 22 Springfield Pike. She married Clifford Bogen Huston (1873-1951) in 1901; they made their home with her parents. Clifford's maternal grandfather, Peter Bogen, had a large Cincinnati slaughter house, and was a leading sausage manufacturer. He moved out to Hartwell, at the time an independent village, where he established a farm and vineyard, part of which was later annexed to Wyoming (future blog post in the works) and part of which is now the Evergreen retirement community. Clifford's father, Simeon A. Huston, was a bookkeeper and later a partner in his father-in-law's business. His mother, Matilda Bogen Huston became postmaster of Hartwell after Simeon's death.

One of Clifford's first jobs was as clerk for the Cincinnati Hamilton and Dayton Railroad. Over the years he held a variety of white-collar jobs, as bookkeeper, in sales, and in management. Clifford and Myrtle Marchant Huston had one son, Frank Marchant Huston who died at birth in 1915.

In 1922 Frank Marchant sold the land to the north of his home, Lot 25 of the WLBCo subdivision, to George H. Leugers. Ten years later, in 1932, both Frank and Della Van Doren Marchant died; they are buried in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Cincinnati Inquirer, September 20, 1932

Cincinnati Inquirer, September 30, 1932.
Note that there are inaccuracies here -
some confusion between his father, Nathan Marchant, who was the squire and judge, and his grandfather (named either Nathan or Isaac) who might be considered a pioneer settler, but of Cincinnati, not Wyoming.

Myrtle Marchant Huston inherited 22 Springfield Pike on Lot 24, and the as-yet vacant lot to the south, Lot 23 of the WLBCo subdivision. In 1936 Myrtle sold the house and the north portion of Lot 24, which is the current lot area of 22 Springfield Pike, to Elsie L. Sides. In 1937 she sold a a second piece of land to the south, that is now 20 Springfield Pike, parts of Lots 23 and 24, to Elsie and her husband Virgil Sides. In May of 1938 Myrtle sold the last of the land the Marchant family owned. The southern portion of Lot 23 was transferred to John F. and B. E. Jackson; 18 Springfield Pike is now on this parcel.

Just one year later Myrtle Marchant Huston died in Lakeview, Logan County, Ohio; she was buried alongside her parents in Spring Grove Cemetery. Clifford Huston next moved to Seattle, Washington, where in the 1940 Census he is listed staying with his brother S. Arthur Huston, an Episcopal Bishop. He remained in that area until his death in 1951 in nearby Port Madison, Washington; his body was then returned to Spring Grove Cemetery for burial.

Sides Family 1936-1950
In 1936 Virgil Shinn Sides (1894-1989) and Elsie Fleitz Sides (1894-1961) purchased and likely moved into the home at 22 Springfield Pike. Virgil was born in Springfield, Ohio and attended Wittenberg College. He served in World War I from April 1917 to June 1919, rose to Corporal in the 324 Field Artillery Company, and participated in the Meuse-Argonne campaign. After the war, he became a dentist, obtaining his license in 1929. For part of his career he was a public health dentist working in the Cincinnati Public Schools. Virgil and Elsie were married in 1934, when they were both about 40.

Elsie Fleitz Sides was born in Cincinnati to parents who immigrated from Germany and Switzerland in the mid-1880s. Her father Henry Fleitz was a brewer. She grew up in the West End of Cincinnati; the family moved to Fairview Ave. in the late 1910s, and then to Probasco Ave. in the 1920s. Elsie lived with her parents and worked as a clerk during her 20s and 30s.

In about 1948 the Sides had a barn on the property moved to the south of 22 Springfield Pike. They converted the structure to have a dental office on the first floor and living space above, creating what is now 20 Springfield Pike. They moved into its second floor apartment, and sold 22 Springfield Pike to Gayle William Shearer in June of 1950. Elsie passed away in 1961. Virgil continued to live at 20 Springfield Pike until he sold the property in the early 1970s, and moved away. At the time of his death in 1989 he was living in Huron County, Ohio.

The former barn being moved into place at 20 Springfield Pike.
The pile of dirt in front of the building is from excavating the basement.
Source: Wyoming Historical Society / Maria Knight.

Shearer Family 1950-1954
Gayle William Shearer (1920-2000) grew up in Lockland, Ohio; his father was a bookkeeper. He earned a degree in business administration from the University of Cincinnati in 1942. He was an ROTC cadet and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Gayle bought 22 Springfield Pike a few months in advance of his marriage to Norma Schrichte (b. 1935) in November of 1950. Norma grew up in northern Kentucky and had a career in advertising, both working in local agencies and for a radio station. Other than owning the home, I do not have other evidence that the Shearers lived in it, though it is likely they did. They sold the home to Emily Knight Gedge in 1954. A city directory lists them living in Amberley Village in 1955; they subsequently moved to Peoria, Illinois.

Cincinnati Enquirer August 28, 1950.

Knight-Gedge Family 1954-1974 (with tenants including Lohmans & Ackerson)
The next owner of the home did not live in it, but her brother and sister-in-law did. Emily Knight Gedge (1892-1962)  was born and raised in Wyoming; her childhood home was 142 Burns Avenue. Her father John Knight came from England and had a printing and engraving business. She married Royal Porter Smith in 1915; he died two years later. She married her second husband Edwin Lee Nielson in the 1920; he died in 1950. Her third husband was Fred Gedge (see this blog post) whom she married in 1952. They lived at 357 Beech Avenue in Wyoming. Emily was very active in the Cincinnati Women's Club.

While Emily owned 22 Springfield Pike her brother and sister-in-law, John Dodd Knight (1887-1958) and Maria Winters Knight (1893-1988) lived in the home. John was involved in the printing business, like his father. He had served in World War I, in the 147th Infantry, served in the Machine Gun Company, and rose to the rank of Captain. Maria, John's second wife, was born in Germany.

There was also a second listing in the county directories for this home, indicating a second, rental unit's presence. During the late 1950s Fred H. (1927-1996) and Jacqueline A. Schultz Lohman (b. 1931) were tenants; he was a chemist for Proctor & Gamble and a WWII veteran of the Air Force. They likely moved to the area and into the rental soon after he graduated from college, the two were married, and he began work for P&G.

Wedding Announcement, Jacqueline A. Schulz and Fred H. Lohman
Carroll Daily Times (Carroll, Iowa),  February 2, 1955

In 1960, Emily Knight Gedge transferred ownership of the house at 22 Springfield Pike to her widowed sister-in-law, Maria Winters Knight. For most of the 1960s, Isabelle Kelley Ackerson (1890-1974) was listed in city directories as a tenant in the home. Isabelle grew up in Wyoming; the 1900 Census lists her family living on Worthington Ave., and then 1910-1940 they were at 307 Grove Ave. Her father was a mail clerk for the railroad. Isabelle is listed as a librarian in the 1930 Census, and for much, if not all, of her career, into the 1960s, she worked at Cincinnati's Mercantile Library. Maria W. Knight owned 22 Springfield Pike until April 1974 when she sold it to Abagail D. Wise.

Isabelle K. Ackerson at the Mercantile Library with William F. Dohrman
Cincinnati Enquirer, April 21, 1968

One remaining unanswered question about this house is when it became a two-unit residence (it has since reverted back to one). It was clear that there were two separate units by the 1950s, when two unrelated families were living in the building. Many older single-family homes in Wyoming were made into multiple units during the 1930s depression through the post-WWII housing shortage. But from the very beginning, with the Marchants, there were two generations of a family in the home. Maybe it was two units from the beginning? Maybe someday someone will find evidence to solve this unanswered question.

1917 - Debate Over Springfield Pike Pavement

Trying to determine the best way to pave or configure Springfield Pike is not a new problem (learn more about its history in a previous blog post). While we currently debate the wisdom of putting Springfield Pike on a "road diet" in order to fund its reconstruction and repaving with asphalt, 100 years ago Wyoming residents were weighing the merits of brick vs. wood pavers.

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer January 10, 1917.

Today the idea of wooden roads seems very unusual. However, Springfield Pike was first built by Hamilton County pioneers as a "corduroy road" -- constructed by laying rough-hewn logs perpendicular to the direction of travel, to minimize the muddiness of dirt roads.

Corduroy Road
Source: Wikimedia/U.S. Forest Service

Wood block pavers were used in cities across the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century. There were a variety of approaches, varying by time and place, to constructing them, using different types of wood, different size blocks, and sometimes coating the blocks with tar or creosote. The grain end of the wood was placed facing up, as it was the best at resisting chipping and wear. Wood blocks were preferred as being quieter than brick or stone for residential neighborhoods.

Here is a link to a really good article about the history of wood pavers and of Hessler Court in Cleveland, near Case-Western Reserve University, which still is paved with wood. And another article about the use of wood pavers in Chicago.

Wood Pavers on South Camac Street, Philadelphia
Source: Wikimedia

There were trade-offs between using wood or stone/brick for paving. Wood was quieter. Stone and brick lasted longer. And there seems to be some debate as to which gave better traction for horses' hooves. Stone and brick started out rough, but wore down to a smooth, slippery surface. Wood had more give, but when it became wet from either rain or animal excrement, it became slippery; wood's ability to absorb liquids also resulted in it holding odors, and distorting its shape.

Relative cost varied depending upon time and place, and in 1917 in Hamilton County, it was wood pavers that were more expensive. Therefore, the county commissioners wanted the village taxpayers to cover the extra cost of using wood, if that is what they wanted the pavement to be on the Pike through Wyoming.

According to Village Council Minutes, on January 29th they were leaning toward using wood pavers for Springfield Pike. However, on February 19th, residents who lived along Springfield Pike came to the council objecting to the use of wood pavers. Ultimately, after discussion by the Village Council, it was decided to not spend the extra money on wood pavers, and just allow the county to pave Springfield Pike with brick through Wyoming.

When I went to the Wyoming Historical Society to consult the Wyoming Village Council Meeting Minute Book for 1917,  to learn what the final decision was on paving materials, I was also shown this stone block, and told that it came out of  Springfield Pike. It is really interesting to hold and touch, as five sides are really rough and the sixth side is worn quite smooth, from years of traffic.

Springfield Pike Paver

Jewett Drive -- How the Streets Got Their Names

Jewett Drive is named after the family that for almost sixty years owned and lived on the property that was divided into the lots that line the street. Four generations of Joseph Franklin Jewetts lived in Wyoming, along with their wives, brothers, sisters, and cousins.

Joseph Franklin Jewett (1835-1922), the family patriarch, was born in Granby, Connecticut. He moved to Cleveland, where in 1858 he got into the sack manufacturing business as a partner in the Jewett & Adams Company. Just a few years later the company opened a branch in Cincinnati, and Joseph moved to the city to manage it, brining his wife, Cecelia Child (1842-1914), and family to the Queen City with him.

Source: The Railway Agent and Station Agent, vol. 17, 1897.

In the nineteenth century, grain, coffee, sugar, and many other goods were put in cloth sacks and, later, paper sacks, as part of the bulk shipping process. Manufacturing sacks in Cincinnati made a lot of sense—Cincinnati was a busy port on the Ohio River. Farmers brought their goods to the city and needed to bag them before they were loaded onto riverboats or railroad cars and shipped to distant markets.  In the mid-1880s Adams, Jewett & Co.'s place of business, which included manufacturing of the bags, was located on the southwest corner of Water and Vine streets, right on Cincinnati’s waterfront. Back in the nineteenth century railroad sidings also were located on Water Street. This land is now part of Smale Riverfront Park--the Digging Cincinnati History blog includes a great post about the area. 

Source: Cincinnati Illustrated Business Directory, 1883.

In August 1865, Joseph and Cecelia Jewett purchased slightly more than eight acres of land fronting on the west side of Springfield Pike, in the area that was to become Wyoming (it was Lot 1 of the Isaac B. Riddle Subdivision, which I hope to blog about in the future). 

Joseph and Cecelia had eight children, six girls and two boys. The oldest daughter, Laura (1861-1938) did not marry and lived in Wyoming and nearby Hartwell for most of her life. Second daughter Jennie (1862-1865) died just after her third birthday. Three of the Jewett girls married and moved away from the Cincinnati area. Helen (1865-1935) married Frank B. DeCamp and moved with him to St. Louis, Missouri; Carrie (1866-1955) married Albert Pfau and moved to Terra Haute, Indiana; and Grace (1870-1956) married Brandon Millikin and moved to Hamilton, Ohio. Youngest daughter, Cecelia (1874-1967) lived at home until she was in her 40s when she married Agustus T. Welsh and moved to Burns Ave. in Hartwell, returning to Wyoming to live on Stout Ave. near the end of her life.

Jewett Family, about 1895, on porch of family homestead built before 1870 and demolished in 1923.
Front Row: Joseph F. Jewett, Sr., Cecelia Child Jewett, Laura Jewett, Grace Jewett Millikin;
Second Row: Cecelia Jewett Welsh, Max Jewett, Carrie Jewett Pfau, Joseph F. Jewett, Jr., Helen Jewett DeCamp.
Source: Wyoming Historical Society/Gene Ann Cordes.

Joseph F. Jewett, Sr. was involved in the Wyoming community. He served as a founding representative on the Wyoming Board of Education in the early 1880s. He was also one of the investors that owned the Wyoming Land and Building Company Subdivision (Burns Farm).

The Jewett sons stayed close to home and became involved with family businesses. Both Jewett sons began their careers with the bag company. In the 1890s, Joseph Jewett, Sr. started a new venture—the Cincinnati Carriage Goods Company. Many “carriage” companies at the turn of the century were straddling the change from horse-drawn to horse-less carriages. I don’t know the full details of what the Cincinnati Carriage Goods Company sold, but I did find documentation that they were dealers of rubber tires.  Additionally, Joseph Jewett was also reported to be a “cotton dealer” in some publications in the 1910s.

Joseph and Cecelia’s son, Maxwell Jewett (1872-1960) worked with the Cincinanti Carriage Goods Company, and then in the 1920s managed The Jewett Company, which bought and sold cotton goods. Max lived with his parents until he married Jennie Kane (1882-1951); they had one daughter, Jane E. Jewett (1908-2002). After Max and Jennie's marriage, Joseph Sr. and Cecelia sold or gave them a 100 foot by 590 foot lot cut out of the southeast corner of the Jewett homestead property. In 1919 they deeded this land back to Joseph, Sr. and moved into Cincinnati. Census records show Max and Jennie were living in San Diego, California in 1940, but city directories place them back in Cincinnati by 1951.

After initially working in the family sack business, sometime before 1905 Joseph F. Jewett, Jr. (1868-1947) established a pulley manufacturing company, The Standard Pulley Company. In 1893 he married Elizabeth “Betty” Haven (1868-1939). For a time they lived in Covington, Kentucky, where son Joseph F. Jewett, III (1893-1976) was born. But they were back in Wyoming, Ohio for the birth of daughter Eleanor “Haven” Jewett (1898-1928). At the time of the 1900 Census they were living on Walnut Ave. in Wyoming, and in 1907 they purchased and moved their family to the house at 507 Springfield Pike, where they lived until 1924. They stayed in Wyoming the rest of their lives; the 1930 Census records them living on Wentworth Ave., along with son Joseph, III.

507 Springfield Pike, Home of Joseph F. Jewett Jr. from 1907 to 1924.

Joseph F. Jewett, III studied engineering at the University of Cincinnati and then served in WWI, from 1917 to 1919. He began service as a Second Lieutenant and by the end of the war had been promoted to Captain. For part of his enlistment he was stationed in Maine, but then spent most of 1918 in France. Upon returning to the United States, he married Helen Gardner in Portland, Maine in 1919. They came to Wyoming, and in the 1920 Census are listed as living at 701 Springfield Pike--on the Jewett homestead property, possibly in a home on the southeast portion of the lot, recently vacated by his uncle Max. Joseph III and Helen had two children, Dorothy Jewett (b. 1921) and Joseph F. Jewett, IV (1924-2011). However, the couple divorced and Helen moved to Los Angeles with the children. Joseph IV was a military pilot in both WWII and the Korean War.

In 1919 Haven Jewett, daughter of Joseph Jr. and Betty, married Stanley Duttenohfer, of the family that owned Cincinnati’s Duttenhofer shoes, and they had one son, Stanley, Jr. Unfortunately Haven died in 1928 of tuberculosis. 

In the 1920s, the Jewett homestead land was sold to Marion and C. Dean Poage. Joseph, Sr. sold the bulk of the land to them in 1921. The lot at the southeast corner was sold to the Poages by Joseph, Sr.'s children in 1924; they had inherited it at his death in 1922. C. Dean Poage was a builder-developer-real estate agent who built many Cincinnati area subdivisions. He sold the first lot from the Jewett land in April, 1928 - the home at the northwest corner of Jewett Drive and Springfield Pike, the current 701 Springfield Pike.

701 Springfield Pike, first home sold from subdivision of Jewett homestead.

The 1928 deed for this property reveals one of the ugly realities of the early twentieth century housing market - racism. Covenants on the deed for this and the other lots Poage sold on Jewett Drive  limited development to single family homes, prohibited fences in the front yards, prescribed minimum house setbacks from the street, but also specified that:

"(5) Said premises or any part thereof or any buildings hereinafter constructed thereon shall not be sold, rented, leased, occupied or used by any person or persons other than of the white or Caucasian Race, except for servants living with families occupying said premises."

Racial covenants like these were commonly used in communities across the United States from the 1920s into the 1940s, but they were deemed judicially unenforceable by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948, as violating the Fourteenth Amendment, and were subsequently removed from deeds as homes were resold. As communities adopted zoning ordinances (which Wyoming did in 1925), specifications about yard setbacks and permitted uses were also removed from most deeds.

In the 1940s Joseph Jewett III remarried, and he and his wife Emma moved to the house at 40 Jewett Drive. Joseph III lived out the rest of his life on part of the land where his grandfather had established his home in Wyoming a hundred years earlier. 

How the streets got their names: Springfield Pike

Roads have histories too!

If you are headed north on Springfield Pike, and look to your left, while you are waiting at the Wyoming Avenue stoplight, you will notice this little monument, in Centennial Park. It is a plaque attached to a mile marker from the Hamilton, Springfield and Carthage Turnpike.

Native Americans had trails extending from the Ohio River up the Mill Creek valley long before Europeans settled the area. With American settlement, one path was widened, first called the “Great Road” or “Old Wayne Road” after General Anthony Wayne. Later, a straight “shortcut” road was established from Carthage to what is now Glendale; in 1817 logs were laid side by side along this way to form a corduroy road http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corduroy_road .

To enable further road improvements, the General Assembly of the State of Ohio incorporated the “Hamilton, Springfield and Carthage Turnpike Company,” per the request of Thomas Smith, Henry Morse, Anthony Huts, John Gaston, John McGilliard, Hatfield Williams, Jacob A. Riddle, Alexander Pendery, Andrew Smalley, Archibald Burns, Jonathan Foreman and Thomas Wright, of Hamilton County, and Obadiah Schenck and Wilkinson Beaty of Butler County. They were to issue stock shares for the company. As you can guess from its name, the road extended from Carthage, north to what was then called Springfield, but is now named Springdale, and then on to Hamilton, Ohio.

The state also gave the company the right to lay out the road and improve the road bed, compensating the adjacent landowners for any damages. The road was to be no more than 80 feet wide, with at least 25 feet of width improved with stone, gravel, wood, or other materials to create a firm and even road, with grade of no more than 4.5 degrees. Every five miles along the road was to be a gate where toll fees were collected at the following rates, as enumerated in the state act:

Source: Files of the Wyoming Historical Society.

As you can see from the toll schedule, the turnpike was used for farmers to bring produce, and cattle, sheep, and hogs, to market in Cincinnati.

At the turn of the century there were two new kinds of traffic on Springfield Pike. In 1901 a streetcar line, the Cincinnati, Glendale, and Hamilton Electric Railway, laid its tracks on the Pike through Wyoming. It provided service until 1932.

But it was the automobile that quickly became the vehicle most used on Springfield Pike. As early as 1905, there were efforts to keep traffic going through Wyoming on the Pike at a reasonable speed – 12 miles per hour.

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer September 14, 1905.

In 1915 Springfield Pike was designated as part of the Dixie Highway , a route to get motorists from Michigan to Florida, established by the Dixie Highway Association, a group of individuals, businessmen, and local government with the goal of facilitating automobile travel. Here is a link to a great webpage about the Dixie Highway in Ohio.