Excerpts from an address by Dr. Phillip R. Shriver
delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Oxford Museum Association
January 29, 2002

Who were the DeWitts? Zachariah DeWitt was born in 1768 in New Jersey of a Dutch family, prominent in the history of early Dutch settlement, when New York City was called New Amsterdam and New York State was New Netherland. The Dutch had a tremendous impact in the shaping of this nation. Zachariah DeWitt was a distant relative of the famed New York Governor DeWitt Clinton (builder of the Erie Canal). Zachariah DeWitt, his brothers Peter and Jacob moved from New Jersey to Kentucky in the late 1780s. In 1790 Zachariah DeWitt met and married another recent arrival in Kentucky, Elizabeth Teetes. She was Pennsylvania-born in 1774 and fifteen years old at the time of her marriage to Zachariah. She, Zachariah and the brothers, Jacob and Peter and their wives and families, came to Ohio. The men participated in the Indian wars of the 1790s and then, ultimately, settled in southwestern Ohio in the Valley of the Four Mile Creek.

By 1805, the DeWitts were making their presence known in the valley. Zachariah purchased land from Colonel Matthew Hueston (Indian Wars), whose name is still linked to the Beech Woods to the north.

Legend has it that he [Zachariah] helped determine the site of Miami University. We know that he and his wife Elizabeth, in their homestead, raised a family of nine children - six daughters, and three sons. The house had just four rooms and an attic, and dimensions of 28 x 20 and 27 feet in height. A lean-to kitchen measuring 10 x 15 feet was added on the back about 1825. That helped, as did the smoke house and the corn crib and, yes, the necessary privy, a barn for the horses, and pens for the hogs. Zachariah and Elizabeth raised hogs and corn, and, eventually, nine children on the site.

The home was built largely of walnut, with some tulip poplar and ash; all native trees. We are told that the logs that rested on the foundation were 18 inches in width, the side walls were 12 inches in width and had been hewn. The house had a stairway on one wall that led to the second floor, and an attic. There is also a belief that some of the kids slept in the attic. We’re told that it had brass fixtures on the door. Donald Huxler, Assistant Curator of the Ohio Historical Society, and a leading authority on log architecture in the State of Ohio, maintains that the structure was unusually well built. The house is the oldest house in Oxford Township and as Huxler pointed out, it is one of a handful of very old log structures remaining in the State of Ohio.

We come to the legend of the sunbonnet. Virtually every article you read about the DeWitts mentions Elizabeth and her constant worrying about the black sunbonnet. Why? Because she had been scalped by an Indian. He could have been a Shawnee, not a Miami. She was scalped, but not killed. And, to her dying day, she wore the black sunbonnet to hide the disfigurement. It was a source of embarrassment to her. When work was going on in the early 70s to stabilize this log building before it deteriorated any further, remnants of the black sunbonnet were found between the logs. That has to be Elizabeth’s, one of many she wore throughout her adult years here in the Valley of the Four Mile.The DeWitt Homestead would be the DeWitt home throughout the entire life of Elizabeth who passed away in 1848 and Zachariah who died in 1851. Their son, Israel, continued to live in the house until he died in 1889 at the age of 84. It was the DeWitt home for practically all of the 19th century. The home would be inhabited by families until 1938 when the building was converted to a corn crib. It eventually became the property of Miami University when Joe Bachelor, an English Professor at Miami deeded the property over to Miami University as part of what we call the Bachelor Estate.

Joe Bachelor taught a class at Miami entitled, “Words.” He had been editor of the Century Dictionary before he came back to Miami to be an English professor and he published a book based on the subject of his class. the royalties from his publication were used to buy properties to the east of Four Mile Creek, including the Bachelor Woods, as we now know them, and the DeWitt property, all the way to the Oxford-Milford Road. He died in 1946. His bequest called for his estate to become the property of the University and to be maintained as a nature preserve.

After a fire on the DeWitt site during the campus riots in the Spring of ‘70, it was determined that the Oxford Museum Association that should take the custodian ship and care of the DeWitt Homestead as its responsibility. In 1973, that agreement was consummated and the OMA has it to this day.

Zachariah DeWitt was an important individual in the history of early Oxford. He was a farmer and he operated a saw mill. Beginning in the 1830s, the DeWitt Saw Mill provided lumber for the people of Oxford. He accepted a position of trust in the community and became Treasurer of the Village of Oxford, the overseer of the poor, supervisor of roads, secretary of the Masonic Lodge, a pillar of the Baptist Church and he became committed to the life of the community in which he lived. And he did much to advance that community.

The DeWitt Log Homestead is a quiet remembrance of our heritage. this log house is one of the very oldest in the entire state. And, as such, it is certainly worth saving. Additionally, because of various offices that Zachariah DeWitt held, that he was an important individual and his importance worthy of recognition. Remember him as one who served in the Indian wars of the 1790s. We know he served in the War of 1812 as Captain of a Rifle Company from Butler County in the fight against the British in the area around Detroit, going up to the assistance of General Duncan Mac Arthur. He was a patriot as well as a civic minded leader in this area.

It is also important to bow to legend and to recognize Zachariah DeWitt as quite likely the man who recommended the site of Miami University.

The restoration of the DeWitt Log Homestead, set as an enduring legacy, is the challenge that confronts us here in the year 2002. The preservation of this remnant from the past, is an important reminder of the links, generation to generation to generation that bind us to the past and to the future and the importance of keeping those links with us for all time to come.

Philip R. Shriver, President Emeritus Professor of History Emeritus