The Green Township Story
by Paul Ruffing, Green Township Historical Association
2009 - Green Township's Bicentennial – Celebrating 200 Years of Community.
Green Township's story is typical of many suburban communities in Ohio. It's the story of the thousands of ordinary, hard-working people who have called it home over the past 200 years. The township was named after Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene.
For thousands of years before European settlement Green Township's heavily wooded hills were a hunting ground for Indian tribes who prized the plentiful game found here. Some older township residents have found "arrowheads" in local fields, indicating there was hunting activity here. The most recent tribe in the township was the Shawnee tribe who occupied much of southern and western Ohio until the late 1790s.
The first European settlers arrived in the early 1800s as hunters and trappers who lived in a few widely scattered log cabins. They were few in number, likely less than a few hundred. Settlement was slow in most of western Hamilton County because access to the west side was made difficult by the swampy Millcreek Valley and the steep hillsides leading to the area.
The pioneer Green Township settlers were part of the initial wave of settlement in Hamilton County. John Cleves Symmes, who contracted to purchase the land, was from New Jersey. He promoted land sales back in New Jersey and surrounding states. Until the mid 1820s, 7 of 10 people who settled in Green Township came from eastern states, mostly New Jersey.
By the 1820s farming quickly replaced hunting and trapping as the primary way of life. For the remainder of the nineteen century, many of the newcomers to the township were farmers of German heritage. The township remained rural into the early 1900s. In fact in 1920 there were still over 500 farms here. Throughout the nineteenth century the population was scattered on hundreds of small farms and in small crossroads communities we know today as Bridgetown, Dent, Mack, Monfort Heights, White Oak and Covedale. Several inns or taverns were built along the main roads, such as Harrison Pike or Cleves Pike (Bridgetown Road), to serve farmers from as far west as Indiana who drove their livestock to market at stockyards in the Millcreek Valley and Cincinnati. Many township farmers would sell some of their farm products at farmers markets in Cincinnati. A trip to downtown Cincinnati from Green Township on a wagon loaded with products grown on the farm would take about three hours one way. The long time to make the trip meant commuting to Cincinnati for a job each day nearly impossible for people living in Green Township.
With the coming of electric streetcars to Cheviot (still in Green Township until the 1960s) in the early 1900s, it became possible to travel to Cincinnati from Green Township in a reasonable time. The construction of the Western Hills Viaduct in 1932 opened the door for more convenient travel to the area by automobile. In 1920 only 8,000 people lived in Green Township, but big changes were underway.
During the 1930s through the 1960s hilltop suburbs, including Green Township, grew at a rapid pace. Improved roads and the growing affordability of automobiles made it possible for people to work in the city and live in their own comfortable new homes in Green Township. Many new subdivisions were built, together with a supporting network of churches, schools, and shopping areas. This mirrored post World War II population patterns throughout America. By 1970 the population had exploded to nearly 50,000.
This growth pattern continued through the remainder of the twentieth century, but at a somewhat slower pace as less open land was available for development. Today few farms remain. By 2000 the township's population was 55,660. Today in 2009 the population is probably closer to 60,000. The old Green Township covered with farms has faded and been replaced by today's residential / suburban Green Township.
Those pioneer Green Township settlers who were here when Green Township was established 200 years ago in 1809 would never have dreamed of the Green Township we know today as we celebrate its Bicentennial.
"Celebrating 200 Years of Community"