As part of a Government plan to open new roads, General Anthony Wayne and his men left Camp Hobson’s Choice at Cincinnati October 7, 1793, and followed an old trace through Millcreek Valley on their way to Lockland and the hinterlands beyond. His was a military expedition fitted out to explore the wilderness and unite Ft. Washington and Ft. Hamilton by highway. Wayne camped for the night near the present village of Elmwood Place, on a spot known later as the Buckeye Trotting Grounds, and stopped the next morning at
White’s Station, or what is now Carthage, before following the Wayne avenue route to Lockland. This is the first event of historical importance in which Elmwood Place played a part, but it was only a wilderness.

In the spring of 1794, John Ludlow, half brother of Israel Ludlow, built some cabins on the east side of
Millcreek just south of the Buckeye Trotting Grounds. (The Ludlow mansion later stood on this site, which was approximately where the research buildings of the Procter and Gamble Company are located.) Riders stopped here for hospitality on their long journey through the Valley. One morning, a Captain Jacob White and his
party of three others proceeded not more than half a mile beyond Ludlow’s cabins when they heard shots in the distance and turned back in confusion. A short time later, two pack-horse-men in the Government service
came galloping down the road to report what happened. There had been four of them, but when they stopped to let the horses drink at a creek, they were attacked by Indians. Captain White and the two pack-horsemen sought help from John Ludlow, and returning to the creek, rescued a badly wounded soldier and buried the one who had died. This, the stream was called “Bloody Run,” and it now peacefully pursues its course beneath a bridge
on the east side of Vine Street, not far from Murray Road.

In 1857, Solomon Burkhalter, while building a new bridge over Bloody Run, dug up the poor horseman who
had been killed there. He buried the bones deeper beneath the earth, and the grave still marks an historic spot.

In the years that followed, there grew not far from Ludlow’s cabins (on the west side of Vine Street, before it reaches Spring Grove Avenue), a flourishing little village called Ludlow Grove, the older sister of Elmwood Place.

The little wilderness beyond Ludlow Grove began to take form in 1875, when A.G. Bofinger and Lewis C. Hopkins,

Esq., purchased a large tract of ground, originally the Anthony Cook Farm, from Franklin C. Whetstone. L.C. Hopkins was a dry-goods merchant who owned a store on the southwest corner of Fourth and Race Street,
but it is likely that more real estate was sold over his counters than the traditional ladies’ and gents’ furnishings. Land development was his hobby, and in partnership with his nephew Lewis, and A.G. Bofinger, he became part of a venture to establish both Elmwood and Norwood. They purchased all the truck farms and dairy property surrounding the Cook Farm in Elmwood and hired R.C. Phillips, surveyor, to mark the street lines through the fields with a plow. They capitalized on inexpensive lots and easy terms. The lots sold at a down payment of $12.50 in the beginning, and for $300 cash, they built a house, which with its lot cost $1,750. Often they paid taxes for struggling householders, met building and loan payments, or sent a doctor free of charge when the stork arrived. That there was considerable philanthropy mixed with their thriving business is evidenced by the number of times they offered a free lot to a worthy cause, or gave the churches a helping hand.

As late as 1888, Bofinger and Hopkins were still enticing prospective home owners with this advertisement:

Lots for Sale

25 and 30 x 125 feet, ONLY $350 WITHOUT INTEREST
TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS CASH, balance #1.50 per week
Full warranty deed and immediate possession given upon
Payment of $25.
Purchasers of lots, building during the present year, will be
furnished with a FREE RAILROAD TICKET, GOOD FOR
,.ONE YEAR via C.H.& D. or Bee Line Railroads
BOFINGER & HOPKINS
N.W. Cor. Fourth and Elm Streets Cincinnati, Ohio

The number of people who came hurrying to see increased Elmwood from the nine settlers of 1876 to 1,981 in 1890.

The first home owner in Elmwood was Isaac Cook, Esq., who built a two-story frame , on the corner of Township and Elmwood Aves, opposite the Stacey Manufacturing Company building. Other builders were: A.S Black,Leonard Zisser, John Crowther, R.P. Best, C. Bart Chapman, James Long, William Loesche, and John Bay. There were the roots of the village, the first nine pioneers to shape its course—hard working, and frugal people, all of them