Turn left onto LaGrange Road and then right onto Knollwood Drive.  The home at 3912 Knollwood Drive is the Engle-Wagley House, built around an 1803 log cabin originally constructed by Jacob Karch on land owned previously by Isaac Spinning.  In 1852 it was acquired by Peter Engle and in 1880 by David Engle, owner of a nearby sawmill.  David performed the initial renovations including adding a second story.  

It was purchased from the Engle family in 1950 by local developer Charles Beaver.  The home has had numerous renovations and additions honoring the heritage of the property, uncovering walls to expose the well preserved logs.

Drive south (left) on Grange Hall Road. At the southwest corner of Grange Hall Road and Pentagon Boulevard is where the Nicodemus cabin was discovered in 1976 and subsequently moved to Wartinger Park. Insect infestation ultimately caused its removal from the park, but a replica was built using the original fireplace. The original structure was likely built by a member of the Hotopp (Hoetopp) family.

Continuing south, we bisect the 158 acres of the Solomon Snypp property and turn west onto Kemp Road, named for Jacob Kemp. On the north side of the road near the site of 3962 Kemp Road sat the second Aley School #3. Across the street near 2237 LaGrange Road was the Ealy (Aley) blacksmith shop. Further west is Aley Church, founded in 1838 by Jacob Aley. The smaller building at the west end of the parking lot was second church, built after a fire consumed the first. Just west of the church at 2100 Wagner Trace Drive lies the former Abraham Hawker Estate which encompasses the current Wagner Trace and Summerfield Village neighborhoods.

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• Aley Cemetery Aley Cemetery
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Our tour begins at 2800 New Germany-Trebein Road – formerly the 112 acre farm of J.L. Lantz and currently The Beavercreek Golf Club.  The 1855 farms of Sam Brown, Edward Tobias, George Harner and Henry Ankeney were cut from the rolling, densely wooded hills of this area known as ‘The Big Woods’.

Born in 1919, lifelong Beavercreek resident Ruth Booher-Stafford recalled young ladies from around her home near Alpha sneaking away from home to attend parties in 'The Big Woods' area.  Often, to the embarassment of their parents, they'd be stranded overnight due to the treacherous route and extreme darkness of the journey back home again.

As you exit Golf Club Boulevard, the green to your left was the approximate location of the Rudisell blacksmith shop, one of over a dozen throughout the township.  We’ll soon turn west toward N. Fairfield, but at the crest of the hill to your left was the location of the Harshman-Walters Cabin.  This was the oldest structure in Beavercreek until destroyed by fire during restoration on November 23, 2004.  Thought to have been originally owned by a member of the Harshman family, it was a 19’x17’ log building with a loft containing a porthole to lookout for Indians.  It is believed that it had also been a toll gate house, which is how funding was raised to clear timber and construct roads.

Much of history is documented in obituaries and on headstones.  Beavercreek has numerous cemeteries, large and small.  One of the smaller, quaint ones is located just to the north of here off of Pascal Drive.  A few images of the Reese-Petro cemetery follow...

A Collection Of Small Towns...

1961 Description of Alpha - Mr. John Harbine and Mr. Needles laid out the town of Alpha in 1854. When what is now the Pennsylvania railroad was built, Mr. Harbine gave land required and the station was named Harbine. It was a lively manufacturing center with its distillery, flour, cotton, woolen, grist, saw and oil mills, and did a large tobacco, grain, and shipping business to all parts of the country. From the first mill and the first barrel of flour which was marked "Alpha" the name has clung to the place. There are in the town a nice brick church, a school, a post office, coal office, two stores and at upper Alpha a K of P Hall, a blacksmith shop and Beavercreek Township High School built in 1888. The waters of Beaver Creek have turned the wheels of grist mills for more than a century and the old dam and old covered bridge torn down recently is an attractive place for picnics, fishing and swimming parties, but the block houses, mills, and store houses are no longer to be seen and the valley is peaceful, productive and beautiful.

Present Day - Alpha really became the hub of activity in Beavercreek Township. With its numerous mills and famous “panhandle” railroad lines running through town, industry was thriving for over 100 years! John Harbine (pictured, sometimes spelled Harbein) wasn’t the first businessman to prosper in Alpha, but he was the first to genuinely industrialize the town and literally had his hand in most aspects of business in the town including the original surveying and parceling. Mr. Harbine’s businesses included a saw mill, grist mill, flouring mill, an oil mill, and even a distillery! More on this later…

Throughout this work you’ll learn of Alpha’s memorable residents: Dr. Anderson, the town blacksmith - Charley Johannes, the General Store keeper – Mr. Needles, and even a notable villain named Justice! Alpha retains a great sense of pride with its own museum, grain elevator and the best post office in the county!

• 1874 Map of Alpha 1874 Map of Alpha
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• John Harbine John Harbine
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