The
nearly 20 square miles, now known as Indian Hill, was
first eyed by the Indian tribes of the Shawnee, Miami,
and Delaware. From their villages at Pickaway and Chillicothe,
they came to hunt the wooded slopes and fish the clear
streams. Some of the main thoroughfares of the Village
follow, in general, the early Indian trails.
In 1787, Major Benjamin Stites, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, was
with a surveying party coming down the Ohio River, when he was impressed
by the strategic value as well as the beauty of the area between the
two Miami Rivers. He returned east and interested Judge John Symmes in
its purchase. When Symmes bought close to a million acres from the United
States Government, he sold 10,000 acres adjacent to the Ohio and Little
Miami Rivers to Stites for $.66 an acre. This parcel of land encompassed
Indian Hill. Newtown was among the first settlements and it was not long
before some of the families moved from that settlement up the hillside
to make their homes. In the early pioneer days there were many encounters
with the Indians. Click here to read one of the legends.
The Village has always had a green thumb, and affinity
for open space. This is manifest in the green areas
program, which, through purchase and gifts, has created
an almost unbroken arc of greenery around and through
the village.
Life in Indian Hill is still full of the blessing
of nature and the large and small kindness that make
a community human.
For more historical information, please visit the
Indian Hill Historical Society at: www.indianhill.org
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