A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

of Park Commissioners for many years. His interest in baseball led him to be the director of the St. LouisAmerican Baseball Company and secretary and treasurer of the National Commission which overseesbaseball. Bruce was the last mayor of College Hill, serving continuously from 1892. He was born inCleveland, Oct. 1, 1856, a son of Eli and Caroline Eldridge Bruce. He established a law practice with hisson who also was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives.For many years, Bruce was in a law partnership with Congressman Jacob H. Bromwell.Colonel Thomas C. Campbell was a lawyer that lived between College Hill and Winton Place. The 1884map of Mill Creek Township shows a road coming up from Winton Place that has been incorporated inthe Spring Grove Cemetery property. Originally, Gray Road had the same configuration as now butLinden Avenue extended from Spring Grove Avenue, through the other side of Gray Road hill,intersecting Gray Road south of the curves. William S. Groesbeck owned property here. Linden Avenueextended to Hamilton Avenue, the same as Groesbeck Road today. Linden Avenue was the access tomany homes and the College Hill Rail Road ran up that valley, parallel to Linden. The intersection ofLinden and Gray is still marked by an iron gate, closing off access onto Spring Grove Cemetery property.Lawyer Campbell lived off of this old Linden Avenues.Col. Campbell represented William Berner, whose manslaughter conviction in 1884 sparked the riotsand burning of the Hamilton County Courthouse. Berner received 20 years in jail instead of the popularsentence, hanging. Amid rumors of jury tampering a mob gathered and broke into the Court House,hoping to seize Berner and hang him. The troops were called into action, the Court House burned, 100people killed and 300 wounded. Campbell was not a popular person for saving Berner’s life. Campbellwas burned in effigy and his house was guarded by a regiment of militia on March 30, 1884, who stayeduntil the riots subsided. On April 1 the Evening Post printed; “At Tom Campbell’s house a continuousfusillade was kept up all day yesterday by the guards shooting at marks, probably to intimate that rioterswould meet a warm reception.”In the aftermath of the riots, a grand jury was convened to prosecute the former Berner jury andCampbell was charged with bribery and subordination. The selection process for jurors was changed andthe political machine that Campbell was a part of was defeated in the November 1884 election, and wasreplaced with the new order - ‘Boss’ Cox.Campbell’s house was burned, along with his law library, under suspicious circumstances. He movedto New York.Mrs. Ruth J. Wells once asked Major Seebohm (born 1880), a noted College Hill resident who was aformer Cincinnati policeman, and at that time in his 90’s, what his earliest recollection was. The Majorsaid it was of a neighbor calling to his mother to hitch up the horse and buggy and go to the top of the hillto watch the mob burn the lawyer’s house. This could have been seen from Hillcrest Avenue whichoverlooked the Linden valley area. The Major also remembered that the carriage house wasn’t burned atthat time and years later it was used by bootleggers during the Prohibition. He was there with the policewhen the gang was arrested.It was on the strength of the Major’s recollections that Ruth Wells and Jack O’Neil decided in theearly 1970’s to look for the Campbell house site, since Spring Grove Cemetery had acquired the propertyand they knew anything left of the house site would probably be destroyed. They went to the general areaand though no charred wood remained, they located two areas that contained the remains of the house,some broken crockery and glass and a stone coping of a well.Chatfield is a name long associated with paper. Chatfield, and later Chatfield & Woods, was a pioneer inthe paper trade west of the Alleghenies. It became the largest paper dealer and manufacturer in the OhioValley. Chatfield & Woods was founded in 1832. Their papers spanned from stationary to manilaenvelopes, lithographer paper, newspaper, books, paper bags, flour bags etc.For many years William Woods was the president and A. H. Chatfield was vice-president. TheChatfield Manufacturing Company was formed and expanded into paper used in construction - roofing,178