Camden was laid out in the year 1818, the town plat being acknowledged before Squire Isaac Stephens on July 4th, of that year, under the name of Dover.    William Moore, one of the early pioneers of Somers Township, may be regarded as the founder of the town.    He laid out the greater part of the plat, the lots west of Main Street, while Isaac Sutton laid out those on the east side, and James Black the northern portion.    Additions have been made by Felix Marsh, Esq., Samuel Pottenger, and others.

The name of Dover proving unsatisfactory to the people of the village, it was changed to Newcomb, in honor ^of George Newcomb, of Montgomery county, who was a state senator from the district which is composed in part of Preble county. His name is uniformly spelled in the records without a final "b," but the name of the village has always been spelled with one. In 1835 the name of Newcomb was exchanged for that of Camden, which was bestowed as a sort of memorial of Camden, South Caro­lina, where the Revolutionary battle was fought.

CAMDEN  STATION.

The agents of the Hamilton, Eaton & Richmond railroad at Camden, have been William Pottenger, N. W. Carroll, V. D- Rees, Abram B. King, and the present incumbent, Henry H. Payne. These five men have together served about twenty-eight years. The telegraph office was established in 1862, and during the eighteen years that have elapsed since then, four different opera­tors have had charge of it, viz: E. C. Phillips, J. C. Winters, E. C. King, and the present operator, W. J. King, who has been there since 1873.

PERSONAL  MENTION.

Stephen Payne became a resident of Camden about the time that the village was laid out, and his family is still represented in the town and township. He was from New Jersey and a very early settler in Butler County, where he married Sarah Potter. On coming to Camden he went into the business of tavern keeping, which he followed for many years. He removed from Camden about 1840, and died in Piqua in 1844. Three sons of Stephen Payne became residents of Camden and vicinity, viz: Moses P., Daniel, and Jonathan. The first named was born in Butler county, and moved to Camden from Miami county, and after a number of years (about 1858) moved to Illinois, where he died in 1863. He married Mary Ann Robinson. Henry H. Payne, the station agent at Camden, is a son of theirs. Daniel Payne, born in Butler County, in 1817, came to Camden in 1839, and died there in 1878. During the long term of years that he resided in the village he was one of the most valuable citizens it had. His liberality and public spiritedness secured for the town a great many improvements, and it is very commonly remarked that Daniel Payne did more for Camden than any man who ever resided there. He was a very active, energetic man, and was engaged in many industries, being a tailor, a clock merchant, a teamster (in the ante-railroad days), a hotel keeper, contractor, etc. He was at one time ex­tensively engaged in buying horses, and driving across the country to the seaboard cities, and was one of the first who engaged in the business. Daniel Payne was married in 1841, to Mrs. Elizabeth Young, daughter of John and Dorothy Cummings, who is still living in Cam­den.

Mrs. Allie Button is the third child and eldest daugh­ter of John and Elizabeth Zimmerman, who emigrated to Ohio from Georgia, in 1805, and settled below Cam­den, in Somers township. Mrs. Button's parents had eight children: John B. (deceased); Jacob, residing near Sugar valley; Allie, Eli A., residing in Clermont county, Ohio; Maria, wife of John Patterson, of Indiana; William (deceased); Simon Peter, and Elizabeth, wife of Sylvanus Hulse. Allie Zimmerman, born in 1803, was married in 1822, to George Button, who was born in Kentucky in 1792, and died in 1863. To Mr. and Mrs. Button were born nine children, five of whom are living. They are: John Z. (deceased); Nancy (deceased); Eliz­abeth, wife of Harmonious Rhea, living in California; Sarah, wife of Isaac Doty, of Nebraska; George L., in Nebraska; William (deceased); Thomas (deceased.); Helena, wife of Oscar Silver, of Dixon township; and Mary Esther, wife of Dunham Hart, of Dixon township. Mrs. Button resides on the home place of one hundred and twelve acres.

Jonathan H. Payne, now living near Camden, was born in Middletown, Butler County, Ohio, in 1826. He is the son of Stephen and Sarah B. Payne, who came to Butler County from New Jersey. His father died in Mi­ami County in 1844, after which time Mrs. Payne and her family removed to Camden. Jonathan Payne was married in 1848 to Hannah, daughter of David Barnett. She was born in 1832. To them have been born five children, all living in Preble County. Anna L. and Dan­iel C. are living at home. Mr. Payne owns seventy acres of land in Somers Township, section twenty-three, where he has resided for twenty-six years. In his younger days he was a teamster between Camden and Cincinnati.

Howard Young, county commissioner, has been a res­ident of this county since 1866. He was born in Butler County, Ohio, in 1824. His father, Robert Young, was one of the earliest pioneers of Milford Township, having come out from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1801. Shortly after his arrival he married Jane Ogle, who emi­grated from the same county the same year. Howard Young resided in Butler County until his removal to this county in 1866, with the exception of two years, during which he lived in Illinois. On removing to this county he located in Camden, where he has since resided. Mr. Young has been trustee of Somers Township, and was elected to the office of county commissioner in October, 1879. He was married in 1846 to Jane Steel, of Aurora, Indiana, by whom he had one child—John H., living in Somerville, Butler county. His wife died in 1850, and he was again married in 1852 to Hester Smyers, of But­ler County.

Arka Place, his wife and several children, came from New England prior to 1825, and located in the village, where the old gentleman followed the trade of shoemaking. Among the family was Ira K. Place, a grown up son who became quite a prominent man locally. He was the first postmaster, and served several terms as mayor. He died in Camden recently, and there is now no representative of the family there.

In 1829 Eleanor, widow of Robert Jones, came to Camden, with her family, from Maryland. She lived un­til 1866, and died at the age of ninety. Her children were: Mary A. (Reed), now in Jefferson Township; Susan (widow of the late Dr. Dunham) and George W., both in Camden. Mr. George W. Jones, on arriving at proper age, learned the hatter's trade, which was then one of the most remunerative that a man could follow. He was engaged in it until the business was seriously interfered with by the big manufactories in the cities, and then abandoned it, taking up farming.

Isaac Mitchell, who settled, originally, in Jefferson Township, was one of the early residents of Camden. A son, James A., died in the village in 1879, and Malinda, widow of Amos W. Yoast, is the only one of the family left.

Robert H. Brown, now a resident of Camden, came to the village in 1828, with his parents, who were from Ireland. His brother James died recently, and another brother, David, is in Oregon. Robert H. married Mar­garet Wright, whose parents were early settlers in Butler County, and who came to Camden with her brother-in-law, Bradbury.

John Brennan, a cooper by trade, came from Balti­more to Camden in 1830, and is still living there, as is , also his wife, who was originally a Thornbury, but when he married her, Mrs. Maria Solomon.

There is in Camden a descendant of Job Hall, one of St. Clair's soldiers who was killed at the old garrison in 1792 in an engagement with the Indians (which is fully described in Chapter IV of this work). The person al­luded to is Hannah, wife of James F. Morlatt. Han­nah, widow of Job Hale, came from Kentucky to Butler county about 1808 or 1810, and settled on Four Mile creek, where she died in 1853, at the great age of one hundred and eight years. Her daughter, Elizabeth, married Peter Titsworth, and about 1832 settled in Som­ers Township, on the farm now owned by Buford Davis. They had several children, of whom Hannah, the wife of Mr. Morlatt, is the only one now in the county. Mr. Morlatt is the son of James and Helena (Francis) Mor­latt, who came from New Jersey to Warren County in 1800, and to Gratis Township in 1819.

The Fornshells are among the oldest families in the village. Benjamin Fornshell and his wife Sucellia (Frye) came from Franklin County, Pennsylvania, in 1833, and brought with them a family of seven children, viz: John, now deceased; William, who is a resident of Somers Township; Margaret, deceased; Thomas; Matilda (Mikesell); Joseph P. and Arabella (Will), the last four of whom reside in Camden. Benjamin M., also living in Camden, was the only one .of the family born in the place. Benjamin Fornshell, the father, was born in 1792, and died February 24, 1878, and was married in 1814. His wife was born in 1793, and died June 28, 1863. Mr. Fornshell was the first tinner in Camden and the only one, until his son, B. M., went into the business, and the only coppersmith in the county. It is a remarkable fact that he followed his trade actively, until he was eighty-two years of age. Joseph P. Forn­shell married Jennette, daughter of Calvin and Sarah Seymour, who came from Chautauqua County, New York, to Butler County, Ohio. When the family was coming-down the Ohio River, from Pittsburgh, with lumber rafts, they had a very narrow escape from drowning, by the dashing to pieces of the rafts upon sand-bars.

Clinton Chadwick, son of Samuel R., and Jerusha (Hopping) Chadwick, has been a resident of Camden since 1834, and one of its most active, and influential citizens. He came, originally, from Morris County, New Jersey, where he was born, to Hamilton County, in 1818, and from there, in 1826, with his parents, to New Jeffer­son Township. His mother died in 1834, and his father married, for his second wife, Ann Roberts (nee Kinzie), and, in 1838, moved to Winchester, where he died in 1844. He followed merchandizing in both of the vil­lages, which have been mentioned as the places of his residence. Beside Clinton, who was the oldest, Samuel R. Chadwick was the father of Ann Eliza (Erwin), Reuben, (deceased); Marcus, in Indiana; Caius C. (de­ceased); Samuel, in Dayton; and R. R., in Chicago.

Nathaniel Wilbur Carroll came to Camden in 1838. He was born in Dudley, Worcester County, Massachusetts, April 13, 1813; married Olivia, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Rees, of Butler County, who emigrated from Delaware in 1827, Mr. Carroll died, November 18, 1862. He was one of the leading citizens of the village, and prominent in many important works. He was a member of the State board of education in 1859, and later of the State board of public works, and also one of the directors of the Hamilton & Eaton rail­road.

William J. Lounsbury was in Eaton as early as 1838, in Camden in 1840, and is still a resident of the place. He was born in Connecticut in 1818, and emigrated to Ohio from Morris county, New Jersey. He has been engaged in various business enterprises in the village, connected with the railroad as paymaster, etc. Is at present a bookkeeper at the Cincinnati stockyards? Mr. Lounsbury, who is one of the oldest residents of the vil­lage, was married in New Jersey to Minerva Ulery, who is still living.

John H. Johnson came to Camden during the early years of the village, and died there in 1849 of cholera. He was a shoemaker, and one of the first in the village. He married Eliza Burnett, of Camden, and reared quite a large family, all of whom are living except the eldest, Curran. Their names are Theodore, Maria (Thompson), in Cincinnati; Rebecca, Missouri (Brisbin), and Mary, all in Cincinnati; and Frances (Bennett), in Camden. Theodore Johnson, who is one of the leading business men of Camden, has been engaged in the boot and shoe trade for twenty-six years, and for the past fifteen has been in business for himself. He married Eliza Brower, daughter of John and Elizabeth Brower, of Camden.

J. H. Bohn, born in Adams County, Pennsylvania, in 1803, emigrated from Lancaster County of the same State to Ohio in 1842, locating at Camden. The follow­ing year he entered the drug business, which he carried on as long as he lived, his son, J. H. L. Bohn, being as­sociated with him during the latter part of his business career. Mr. Bohn died November 21, 1875. His wife, Henrietta (George), who was born in 1809, is still living, and makes her home with her son.

Joshua Howard came to Camden in 1844, and has ever since been a resident, engaged in the livery busi­ness. He is the son of David and Mary (Gower) How­ard, who came from Virginia to Ohio as early as 1810 or 1812, locating in Butler County. Joshua Howard has been twice married, his first wife being Mary Powles and his second Susan Berkhalter.

Jacob Collett, a native of Germany, but since his four­teenth year resident in the United States, has been in Camden since 1854. He has been in his present busi­ness—tailoring—for the past sixteen years, for himself, and built the store which he now occupies.

 David Morris, a native of Butler County, born in 1827, has been a citizen of Camden since 1856, and one of its leading merchants (shoe dealer). He is descended from an English family who emigrated to America during the war of the Revolution. His grandfather, Robert Morris, was one of the first settlers in the town of Hamilton. Mr. Morris was married in 1849 to Rachel Ann Lamar.

Joseph D. Danner, born in Pennsylvania, in 1808, set­tled in Montgomery County in 1825. He there married Catharine McClellan, and in 1850 came to Camden, where he died in 1860. His wife is still living, though in advanced years. They have a family of eight children, viz.: Elizabeth and N. J,, both deceased; Mary (Paulus), in Indiana; Phebe (Mace), deceased; W. A., a resi­dent of Camden; Margaret and Sarah Wilson, deceased.

W. A. Danner is a butcher, and is following his father's occupation. He was born in Montgomery County in 1840. He married N. J. McLain, daughter of David and Mary-McLain, who were early settlers in the south part of the township.

Stephen Bertsch is a newcomer, but one who has identified himself prominently in the business interests of the town, having opened a wagon shop, from which is turned out a large amount of work. He is a German of twenty years residence in America, and came to Camden in 1876 from Hamilton.

RESIDENTS IN 1834.

The following names are given by Mr. Clinton Chad-wick as those of the heads of families in Camden in 1834, when he came to the village to live, viz: Samuel Mitchel, James B. Hackett, Daniel Huffman, Ward Richards, Stephen Ingersoll, Robert Harris, Jacob Webb, Robert White, Clinton Chadwick, ————— Hughey, Susan Jones, Alexander Johnson, Robert H. Brown, Joseph Woodward, Howell Potter, Ezekiel Barnett, Robert Mitchell, Eli Zimmerman, Harrison More, Benjamin Fornshell, ————— Brown, Jared V. Hopkins, David Brown, George Button, Eli Davis, Moses Nelson, William McMechem, C. C. Walker, Jacob Ridenour, John Brennan, Isaac Mitchell, John Runkel, Ira K. Place, Damarius Terrill, David Barnett, John Robinson, C. C. Bruce, Nathaniel Elliott, Thornton Bennett, Robert Irwin, M. C. Williams, Owen Ingersoll, John H. Johnson, —————— Mitchell, Alfred Lee, George Jones, Lurdum Dunham.