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The Spring

Father built the red brick house in 1860, just west of the old house in which I was born. I often heard father tell about how when they dug out for the foundation (made the excavation), they dug down to the solid rock beside the old spring which had served them when they lived in the old house. The excavation filled up with water, and when the men came to work on the building of the foundation, they refused to work till the boss came. Then the water had to be bailed out and when the men ate their lunch or dinner, father would keep on bailing, so the men could keep on working. The spring was on the outside at the porch. Water was taken through the wall, called the springhouse, then it came across the wall into the kitchen. From there it was tiled down to the wash house.

The spring was the important factor about that site, and has never yet been known to be dry. It has been flowing for 80 years within my knowledge and probably for years and years before that. It was the important thing in choosing a site in those days. The limestone deposits in that section are full of water flowing through the crevices.

There were springs at Dan Rinehart's, Uncle Dave Becker's, (Folkerths, ) ours, Uncle Henry's, Wheelocks, old Jake Minnishs, (next to the graveyard), Old Henry Folkerths, Dave Shaws, Jim Ewings, Ortmans, Stoltzens; in fact, there were springs all along the side of the Stillwater. (The Stillwater River runs south from Union through Dayton, Ohio, and on to the Ohio River)It is a great spring region. There were a few east of the river, also, one where the Younts lived.

The people ran their grist mills with spring water. They built waterways. Uncle Henry built a mill race with headwaters at the Old Sycamore Tree, near the cider mill, connecting three streams, or, rather, making them all come together at that point, the Tree. These streams were the one coming down from Brumbugh's farm, the one from Rinehart's, and the one from Ortman's. An overflow "branch" started at the Tree, which had a small dam or spillway, and the overflow would come down past our house. Sometimes in dry weather Uncle Henry would come to our place and shut off all the small tributaries and divert the water to his race, so our stock would not have enough water to drink.

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