USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I > Part 75
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Albert Wood was a settler of 1833, who married Miss Nancy Dunten, the daughter of Ephraim Dunten, sr., the year of his arrival,
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this being the first wedding in this group of colonists. Their daughter, Mary Jane, was the first white child born in the settle- ment. Nathaniel Fitch, who came first to Allen county in 1832, entered Perry in 1836. His marriage to Miss Sarah DeLong was the first celebrated after the organization of the township, and within the township borders. Mr. Fitch was a self-made black- smith, and a man of all-around ability, whose forge was the first to be set up in Perry, the date being 1837. At very nearly the same time James Vandergrift engaged in the manufacture of plow points and steel traps, both useful implements in a pioneer com- munity. Benjamin and Amaziah Parker followed the Duntens from Jefferson County, New York, in 1834, and soon became prominent `in the affairs of the settlement. Mr. and Mrs. Jason Hatch, from Pennsylvania, came with their son, Newman Hatch, in 1834. New- man Hatch was married in 1839 to Miss Abigail, daughter of the Benjamin Parkers. Philemon Rundels, who came the same year, George Simon, and James Vandolah and family, credited to 1836, were valuable additions to the colony. A notable year was 1837, during which arrived William Hunter, who purchased a large tract of land, including that part which subsequently was platted as Huntertown. Mr. Hunter at once became an active citizen. The years immediately following this witnessed a sudden increase in im- migration, and names can scarcely be mentioned in detail. Most of them are still familiar, however, to Allen county citizens, the Bowsers, the Tuckers, the Gloyds, James Thompson, Isaac Benward, Rapin Andrews, Jacob Hillegass, Vachel Metcalf, Dr. E. G. Wheelock, August Martin and Samuel Shryock are among them. Dr. Wheelock was, of course, the first physician of the colony.
The first election was held in 1835, in pursuance of the order of the commissioners, at William Caswell's house, and Mr. Caswell was appointed Inspector by the board. Mr. Caswell and Jason Hatch were elected Justices of the Peace. The first postoffice, estab- lished 1836, was located in the home of Charles Weeks, where it remained until 1840 when it was removed to the residence of William Hunter, who at that time became postmaster. The first school taught, in 1835, though housed in a log cabin like many other pioneer schools, was far superior to the common run of such schools. It is said that the first term was taught by Ebenezer Ayres, but this is probably incorrect, and the honor should be given to Miss Eliza Parker, the daughter of Benjamin.
The first mill, that prime necessity of new settlements, was built for Perry township by "Blair and Hines"-probably out- side capital, and was merely a sawmill at first. A "corn-cracker" was added afterward, which made a product too coarse to be called meal, and while a little better than nothing, was felt to be a dubious blessing, even at that early day. Samuel Shryock bought the mill in 1836, and sent to Dayton for a "run of burs," which he put in, making it a merchant mill and establishing a profitable custom. Fifteen or sixteen years later the mill was sold to John Stoner and thereafter was known as "Stoner's Mills."
In 1834 and 1835 respectively, Thomas and his nephew, Horace F. Dunten, set out orchards, the first to be planted in the township, which after fifty years had passed, were still in fine fruit-bearing condition. The first road to be surveyed through the township ex-
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tended from Fort Wayne to the Union Mill. It was opened in 1835, and in 1849 was planked, and became a source of large profit to its projectors, as it was traversed by a line of stage coaches, and the extensive timber industry of the district reached a market by its means. Its importance as a thoroughfare of this latter sort waned, however, after the advent of the railroads, and the planks being allowed to decay, the road was gradually abandoned for better routes. In later years, of course, these once neglected roads are being renewed, for the more legitimate rural traffic, and the Lima road is once more a factor in the highway system, the county having assumed its improvement.
Mr. Nickerson, a Methodist exhorter, was the first to hold religious services in Perry township, the place of worship being the house of Horace Dunten, in the year 1834. Several weeks later an- other service was held in a log cabin near the site of Huntertown, conducted by Rev. Mr. Rankin, the Presbyterian minister from Fort Wayne. Everybody went to these meetings, regardless of their denominational leanings. The Methodists were the first to organize, in 1836, and also the first to build a church, in 1846, at Huntertown. Robinson Chapel was a second building of the same denomination, in 1851, the land for the chapel and also for a cemetery, being donated by Andrew Byers. The same year a Universalist church was organized and built, and shortly after a Sunday-school was opened, which being non-sectarian, accom- modated all the children of the district. Several years later the Methodists opened a large Sunday-school of their own, but also non-sectarian, so that the children of Perry township who were not instructed in the way wherein they ought to walk, must have . been a rarity. Secular education received early and careful atten- tion. The second school to be opened was taught (1837) in a log cabin on section 8, by Matthew Montgomery, a man of fine talent and training, who gave great impetus to education in general in the district, and was a person of inspiration to his pupils. He won early prominence in the community, and in 1846 was a candidate on the Whig ticket for State Representative, but was defeated by Peter Kiser, on purely partisan grounds. Mr. Montgomery's work for Perry township terminated by his death while yet in early prime.
James Vandolah first visited Perry township vicinity in 1832, while searching for a desirable mill-site with convenient water power. He located one on Cedar creek, and having secured the land he returned to Ohio for three years, coming back in 1835 to dig the race for his mill. He then returned for his family, and in 1836 they settled on the farms where his sons afterward spent most of their lives. Mr. Vandolah's land holdings were extensive, in- cluding not only the 520 acres in Perry, but 400 acres in Eel River township, and a quarter section in DeKalb county. He was an expert mill-wright, and spent a great part of his time at his trade, having worked at many mills in the middle west. The Shryock mill, at Leo; the Dawson Mill at Spencerville; the grist mill near Clarksville; his own mill and a number of others were built by him. Mr. Vandolah was township trustee several terms. The Vandolahs reared a family of eight children, five of whom survived the parents, and achieved honor and prosperity in their own right,
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as well as worthily inheriting that of their parents. Benjamin Vandolah, who was but three years of age when brought to Indiana, has spent his whole after life upon the same farm, one of the best in the township. The family preserve some curious Indian relics which have been unearthed on its soil. Thomas Vandolah, the second son, was also prominent as a farmer and in the social life about him, but has always avoided office holding.
Solomon Simon, who came to Perry township when only twelve, there to live and die, was a pioneer by heredity. Three genera- tions of pioneering must so have imbued his blood with the pioneer spirit that one thinks this pioneer lad must have come to the new country alone, had his parents not brought him. His grandfather was a pioneer of Washington county, Pennsylvania, to which place he carried his infant son George, across the mountains in a pack- saddle, a journey which the baby survived, growing to vigorous manhood on the new soil. But he, too, would go a-pioneering, and Columbiana County, Ohio, was his next home, settling there in 1809, and from there enlisting in the war of 1812. After a service of six months he returned and farmed for more than twenty years, during which time, in 1825, his son Solomon was born. The year 1836 saw the family settled in Perry township. George Simon died in 1872. Solomon married, in 1852, Mary A. Rhoads, the daughter of DeKalb county settlers. The charm which held the Simons for life in Perry township, was, perhaps, the elusive thing Prosperity, at last captured and domesticated here, the beginning of fortune being a trade in 'coon skins and other furs, of which the forests were full. Mr. and Mrs. Simon were members of the old Lutheran church, in which Mr. Simon was an elder. Seven sons and daugh- ters honor their memory.
The story of John Surfus should receive more detailed narra- tion than can be accorded here, but however briefly, it must be given, for in counting over the old pioneers it might be easy to over- look some who did not come with a flourish of-axes, let us say, or at least with a fair assortment of worldly implements,-educa- tion, money, and similar plenishings, with which to subdue the wilds and make themselves fairly comfortable while they did this. John Surfus did not come with any of these. Hard circumstances landed him in Perry township, unlettered, penniless, with the care of what was left of his family upon his hands, at the age of twenty- one. The sum of the Surfus' worldly goods when they arrived at the wilderness home, may be briefly stated: A yoke of cattle, a table, chest, set of wooden chairs, and an oven. Their first bed was made by boring holes in the log walls of the cabin, and setting hewn poles, which were then wrapped with elm bark for mattress. Yet energy and perseverance will work wonders even if the tools be few and crude. After nine years of struggle, Mr. Surfus was married to Ellen DeLong, a brave and faithful woman, who assisted her husband without flagging, and added twelve children, ten of whom survived them, to the population of Perry. To the careless ear the recital of these struggles may sound dull and sordid, but to the man who began life with such empty hands, what romance there must be in the review of sixty years of toil, as he sits at ease and comfort by his prosperous hearthstone, basking in the warmth of achievement! What a picture he must see, as he looks back,
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across a thousand smiling acres of farmlands, to the rude little cabin with its bed of hickory poles while in the foreground the smoke of his children's hearthfires feathers the landscape like incense! Let posterity doff its hat to the John Surfuses of pioneer history.
Nathaniel Fitch was another who came empty-handed to the wilderness. Shrewd and intelligent, he had learned for himself numerous trades, being blacksmith, gunsmith, locksmith, with which he speedily made himself indispensable. Starting from Pennsylvania with but fifteen cents in his pocket he was obliged to walk, and earn his board en route. His life had already been full of adventure. Before he came to Indiana he had been shot in the leg during a wolf hunt; and again, while crossing Lake Erie on a side-wheel steamer, their ship was caught in a gale, and one shaft disabled. In this predicament, in which ruin seemed inevitable, they were saved by the stratagem of breaking the other shaft. Not only the wild beast inhabited the forests at the time when Nathaniel set up his forge, but Indians were still very numerous, and though subdued were by no means fully civilized. On one oc- casion he was obliged to ask an Indian, who had a gun to mend, to wait, whereat the Indian became enraged and sprang at him with knife drawn. Mr. Fitch was sharpening a shovel at the moment, and an old story quaintly states that the Indian would probably have been hurt with the shovel had not the chief, Chopine, intervened. Among other notable things recorded to Mr. Fitch's credit is his work for the canal, for which he made all the iron used in the locks from Fort Wayne to the Wabash river. He was married, 1840, to Sarah, the daughter of George and Elizabeth DeLong. Fifteen children came to them, thirteen of whom outlived their parents, who reared them in comfort while amassing a large property. Twenty-three hundred acres, all told, belonged to the Fitches by the time they reached the evening of life. Perry Fitch, the eldest son, married Sarah E., daughter of George and Magdalena Gloyd, and reared to maturity eight of their twelve children. Mr. Fitch was twelve years a justice of the peace. Matthias Fitch, Nathan- iel's second son, married Frances, daughter of James and Rebecca Vandolah. They also have been very prominent, and their six children who survived to adult age have proved worthy sons and daughters. Another son of Nathaniel Fitch, Amos, married the daughter of William T. and Jane Hunter, Miss Nancy E., their family consisting of one son and one daughter, while David, the youngest of the sons, married Miss Emma B. Stirlen and lived on the homestead farm with his aged mother.
George B. Gloyd became a conspicuous figure very soon after his arrival in 1832, being a man of much executive ability and con- sequently in demand in the construction of the public works of his time. His first engagement was as superintendent of part of the construction work on the Wabash and Erie canal. He was married in 1835 to Miss Madeline Mittler, of Ohio. Subsequently he under- took various contracts in railroad building, and at the time of his death was engaged in this work on the Saginaw railroad (now the L. S. & M. S.). Mr. Gloyd was successful from every viewpoint, and his family of eight are now worthy representatives of the name in their native township. Jerome D. Gloyd, married in 1875 to Fidelia, daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah Fitch, has four chil-
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dren, and after serving the township for years as trustee, was elected County Commissioner in 1882, re-elected in 1884, and served six years in all. William S. Gloyd, the third son, married Miss Mary Gunder. Edwin G. Gloyd by natural adaptation became an expert miller, and the proprietor of the Gloyd water mill. Schuyler Wheeler was born in Massachusetts but reared in Oswego County, New York, where at the age of nine years he was apprenticed to the tanner's trade, and at the age of twenty-one formed a partner- ship with his father and Luther Briggs, in a combination tannery and boot and shoe store. Mr. Wheeler was a strong character, which commended him to the respect of his new neighbors in Allen county, when he brought his family there in 1836. He succeeded financially, and left a large property. In public life he served as representative of Allen county in the State legislature of 1859. Mrs. Lydia Smith Wheeler was also a native of Massachusetts
David M. Shoaff, who came to Allen county in 1839, with his brave young wife, Mary Mendenhall, and their two little babes, had their share of hardships, and triumphed also. Young, money- less and with very little else than pluck, they made their way, Mr. Shoaff working in the winters for better situated neighbors at the princely stipend of fifty cents a day, and spending the sum- mer at his own clearing, in which work Mary helped him, gathering and burning brush while her babies played at safe distance on the ground. Safe distance, do we say? As if any distance were safe in a country which harbored wild animals and teemed with snakes not all of which were harmless. Who can tell what fears assailed the young pioneer mother's heart at the slightest call of distress from her little ones while she worked to help make them a home ? Among other incidents attending the pioneer life of David Shoaff is related a memorable trip he made to Maumee City, Ohio. Salt, it seems, was selling in Fort Wayne for nine dollars per barrel in the spring of 1840. This was deemed too high a price to pay with wages at fifty cents per day. Still, salt was a necessity. A brother, James P. Shoaff, furnished the money, and David Shoaff and F. C. Freeman undertook the trip. It was early in March and the snow was so deep and heavy that it took twelve days to reach Maumee City. The return trip was made by way of the still frozen Maumee river, a route quite common in winter, but fraught with some danger in March. They had some narrow escapes from drowning, though they reached home safely at last-but it was a rather expensive" barrel of salt after all, even reckoning their wages at fifty cents a day. The arrow that flieth by day had been driven from the woods, but arrows were not all the risks that beset the settler's path to fortune. When in the fall of 1843, David Shoaff helped to build the houses of his brother, J. P. Shoaff, and 'Squire Jones, they were the first houses between his own home and Heller's Corners, on that road which Adam Hull and his neighbors helped to cut. David Shoaff and Rapin Andrews, though coming to Perry at nearly the same date, but in quite different circumstances, were both there in time to be two of the eleven voters in the township to cast a vote at the first presidential election held there. David was a Whig. Rapin Andrews, who came with his wife, Mary Brimmer, and their two sons, from New York, had already attained worldly success before they became pioneers in Perry township. Mr.
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Andrews brought ripe experience to the affairs of the new district, and was from the outset a valuable and appreciated citizen. He died in 1849 at the age of sixty-seven. Theron M. Andrews, the oldest son, born in New York state March, 1822, was married in 1849 to Helen L., daughter of Oliver and Clarissa Potter, born October, 1830. Theron Andrews during a long life in Perry was one of its foremost men, having served successively as township assessor, township trustee, member of the board of County Commissioners, County Board of Drainage Commissioners, and a member of the Board of Equalization. His family occupy a social position of high regard. Dexter B. Andrews, the second son of Rapin and Mary Andrews, married in 1849 Miss Celeste A. Sauers, born at Water- town, New York, October, 1832. The year before he had entered the shops at Fort Wayne, never completing this course, but gifted with unusual cleverness in many directions of a mechanical nature, he was successful in whatever he undertook. For several years Mr. Andrews devoted a part of his energies to daguerreotyping, in which, although entirely self taught, he made an enviable local reputation. During his various experiences and changes of occu- pation, he saw a great deal of the United States, a broadening pro- cess which made him always one of the township's most valued citizens. He left three daughters, Amelia (Mrs. J. N. Bassett), Cora M. (Mrs. L. C. Hunter), and Clara G.
Phanuel Jackson, who came to Perry township with his sister and her husband, Eleazer Cummings, from Maine, to a farm which afterward became his, had an unusual career, if being a successful farmer, and a practical one, and for more than twenty years a successful (self-taught) practitioner as an oculist, becoming also a licensed physician of Allen county may be called unusual. Mr. Jackson was elected Justice of the Peace in 1886. Three daughters, Mercy M., Margaret D., and Melia N., survived him, a fourth, Cordelia M., dying some years before. After the Cummings, in 1842, came Joseph Warner, who earned his first forty acres by clear- ing another twenty acres during his first winter in Perry,-a good bargain well fulfilled; and his son Samuel, "a born carpenter," who never lacked a job, because of the good quality of his work. He married Julia A. Spencer, and they reared seven children to be a credit to their training. Samuel Warner was a member of the "Regulators,"-an organization formed to rid the country of out- law's,-as were also David and Mathias Fitch, and Jacob Kell, whose sister was the wife of Phanuel Jackson. The Kells were of Franco- German descent. Jacob Kell came to Perry in 1843, and entered, in all, one hundred and twenty acres of land. He earned the money with which to furnish his own house by splitting rails at sev- enty-five cents per hundred, furnishing the timber and boarding him- self while doing the work. Jacob Kell was a "Regulator," and served as township trustee for four years. Industry, not speculation, was ever the method of Mr. Kell, who amassed thereby a thousand acres of Allen county's best farming land, eight hundred of which was incorporated in his homestead farm. Solomon Kell, his son, received a good education at the Perry Centre Seminary, after which he taught for five years, a part of that time as a resident of Iowa, where he was honored with public office, returning to his native township in Indiana, and took a position similar to that of his
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father in the estimation of the community. He was a constable, and a "Regulator," in both of which capacities he did his full duty.
The family of Jacob Hillegass has been one of extreme promin- ence since its first arrival in 1843, and is so well known all over the county that it seems odd that its personal history was nearly all made in Perry township. As a boy, Jacob Hillegass was a pioneer's son in Montgomery county, Ohio, receiving only the meagre advantages afforded by the log school houses in the woods. Married in 1841 to Miss Lucy A. Powell, like himself of Penn- sylvania origin, the young people came to Perry in 1843, and took up the half section where they passed the remainder of their lives. It is impossible to go into detail, but Mr. Hillegass's career was characterized by every quality of good citizenship, and he was in constant requirement as an official of the township, and also of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Hillegass were both Presbyterians, and reared their fine family of girls and boys in that creed. Mr. Hille- gass was always a supporter of churches in general, also of schools and all worthy enterprises. Determined that his children should not, like himself, lack opportunity, he encouraged each one in his bent, and gave them the most liberal advantages. Three of his sons graduated from Michigan University, Josiah and Isaiah be- coming lawyers, while Jeremiah (or "Jerry") was called from his post-graduate course at college to become County Superintendent of Schools. Hezekiah chose a farmer's life and the daughters, Sarah, Mary and Lucy, received their education in the Fort Wayne high school. Miss Sarah became the wife of her brother's law partner, John Stahl (who died in 1878), and Miss Mary married the late Silas B. MacManus, the well-famed dialect poet, whose quaint and sincere verses touch many a Hoosier heart.
Perry Centre Seminary, already referred to, was an institution founded in 1856 by Nathaniel Fitch, Jacob Kell and George B. Gloyd, and, notwithstanding its short existence, bore strong witness to the quality of Perry township people. It was a flourishing in- stitution for five years, during which time it gave a start to men and women who have since made a name for themselves and the township. Among the names of its pupils are the Hillegass boys ; Dr. S. C. Metcalf; Dr. E. G. Wheelock, jr .; the three Gloyds, Jerome, William and Albert; the McQuistons; Dr. Dills, of Fort Wayne; Hiram Myers, and Miss Jennie Fitch, afterward professor of Greek and Latin at Logansport. At the breaking out of the Civil War, the seminary faculty and all of its adult students enlisted, which was praiseworthy and has happened to other schools with like result, namely, it was deserted, and at the close of the war its scattered pupils were grown up or had found other openings. It was too late to resuscitate the once promising educational centre. The building went to decay, and is only remembered by what it has done.
William T. Hunter, whose name is perpetuated in the one village of Perry township, was a native of Cumberland, England, who first came to America in 1828, and in 1837 settled in Perry, on the Lima road. He began clearing a farm at the same time but con- ducted a tavern at his home. The site of Huntertown was a natural gathering place for settlers' homes, as it was the only spot not covered with forest. "The opening," as it was called, was not
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made by the settlers, nor for them. However, they gladly availed themselves of it, setting up their temporary cabins and camps there, while they cleared more permanent sites for home building. Mrs. Mary Jane Beardsley, nee Wood, the first white child born in 'Perry, still resides in Huntertown, her faculties, at the age of . eighty-three, unimpaired, and active in mind and body-"the young- est old lady in town." The "opening" at Huntertown site is thus explained by Mrs. Beardsley, who learned it from the Indians, in her childhood. Lying north and south of the slight eminence of Huntertown, which once was forest, also, were two muck prairies both of which took fire in some very dry season, and burned until they reached the edges of the forest, destroying the timber before it burned itself out. The opening, as has been stated was included in the land purchased by Mr. Hunter, whether in a mood of prophecy or no, we cannot tell. When the town was finally platted, in 1869, a village already existed, in effect, so close was the set- tlement in that spot. Many of the homes in Huntertown are pre- served from settlement days, remodeled or rebuilt upon the same site as those of their forefathers. The building of the Grand Rapids and Indiana railroad was the opportunity which crystallized the rural community into an organized town. Forty-five town lots were sold in a day, after the plat was opened, an auspicious begin- ning for the new shipping point.
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