Side A: Lewis-Sample Farmstead. The farmstead shares the name of the Lewis and Sample families, two owners since European-descended settlers began moving into the Ohio County in the late 1700s. Andrew (1762-1847) and Martha Lewis (1774-1852) acquired this land in 1804. Like others, Andrew saw for himself the rich land north of the Ohio River while in the army during the Ohio Indian Wars of the 1790s. By 1834, the Lewis farmstead had expanded to more than 350 acres with a brick house, still house, and sawmill on Indian Creek. The Sample family purchased the farm in 1871 and owned it until 2007.
Side B: American Indians have lived here since around 13,000 BCE. Over time, these Paleoindian cultures (13,000 – 8,000 BCE) gradually changed their ways of life and developed into what archaeologists have named the Archaic cultures (8,000 – 800 BCE) and, thousands of years later, they transformed into the Adena and Hopewell cultures, (800 BCE – 400 CE). Archaeological surveys have recorded more than 250 Adena and Hopewell mounds in Butler County, although many have been destroyed by farming activity. Several earthworks are located in Reily and Hanover Townships, including a six-foot-tall mound on the Lewis-Sample Farm.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.