Dwyer Station was one of many small settlement names that lived and died by the Miami & Erie Canal. A section of the canal ran through Moraine and West Carrollton. On the banks of Holes Creek, it was named after the Dwyer Family, one of the area’s early settlers. Holes Creek is named for the county’s first surgeon Dr. John Hole, a member of the continental Army who moved here in 1797.
Dwyer Station was the site of a grist mill located on the creek and beside the canal. In fact, Dwyer Mill, Alexandersville, and the boat making Danville were all small communities that appear on old 1800’s maps that eventually become the cities of Moraine and West Carrollton.
Dwyer Mill, erected around 1826, was located on the southern border of Moraine and northern West Carrollton where the Interstate 75 northbound exit 47 now is. Farmers made week-long trips to the mill to have their grain turned into flour, sometimes waiting days for a turn. Farmers carried their grist to the mill on horseback carrying axes, food, gun, and ammo. By 1875 the mill flourished as it combined mill and distillery operations. In the 1930’s farmers brought their corn cobs to have them ground into hominy, wheat to make rye or white bread. Locals enjoyed rye, apple bounces and cherry bounces drinks for 12 cents a glass.
The mill at Dwyer Station continued to serve the area farmers until it was demolished to make way for the interstate in July 1960. This southern Moraine area has always been a transportation hub – an aqueduct for the canal, a wharf for boats on the Great Miami River, nearby railroad tracks for locomotives, traction lines for interurban rail cars and lastly, horse, stagecoach and then auto traffic on Dixie Highway.
