USA > Ohio > Huron County > History of Huron County, Ohio, Its Progress and Development, Volume I > Part 1
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HISTORY OF
HURON COUNTY,
OHIO: ITS
PROGRESS AND
DEVELOPMENT, ...
Abraham J. Baughman
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HISTORY
OF
HURON COUNTY OHIO
ITS PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT
By A. J. BAUGHMAN
With Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens of the County
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME I
CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING CO. 1909
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PREFACE
It has been well and truthfully said that fortunately the present occupants of the Firelands are not like those of some other countries, compelled to plunge into the chaos of antiquity for the origin of their settlements or to trace the founders of their prosperity to the caverns of the barbarian or to the sucklings of a wolf. The inhabitants of the pioneer period of the Firelands were for the most part, a noble-minded, generous people, bold and brave in the defense of right and upright in their dealings.
Like their ancestors of Plymouth Rock, the Firelanders when they arrived on the Western Reserve felt that they had reached the theater upon which duty, as well as interest, commanded them to devote their labors and their lives.
Having entered the threshold of the second century in the history of Huron county, a retrospective glance at the progress made during those hundred years reveals achievements of which the first settlers of the Firelands never dreamed. Being blessed with natural resources, with a healthful climate and a fertile soil. these with the industry and activity of an enterprising people made the success that has since been achieved.
The hand of improvement has certainly here been employed, and in that hundred years, which is only a short time, as nations reckon time, all these ad- vancements have taken place. The land once covered by the forest is now cul- tivated fields. District schools have sprung up on all sides and churches are to be seen in all parts of the country.
Markets for the purchase of all kinds of products have been opened upon every hand, whereas then they had none. The manners of the people and the fashions of dress have undergone a revolution. Corn-huskings, flax-pullings and the old festive games have been put aside for the supposed more accom- plished amusements of modern times. The still-houses have vanished. And those who first broke the silence that reigned here in the wilderness in 1811 have disappeared-some to make new settlements farther west, and others have gone the way of all things earthly. Some were cut off in the midst of their toil and were buried amid the scenes of their labors. Some lived to see what was once a wilderness changed to a land smiling with peace and plenty, peopled with intelligent beings and went down to the tomb full of years.
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PREFACE.
The author acknowledges himself indebted to the members of the Advisory Board for their encouragement and assistance, and to the press for its friendly notices. Also, to other friends for their assistance in the gathering and in the compilation of the matter contained in this work. To the Firelands publications and to Williams' History of Huron County we are indebted for information which doubtless might have been unattainable otherwise.
And my thanks are especially due to the Hon. C. H. Gallup, president of the Firelands Historical Society, for courtesies and valuable information.
Many biographical sketches are given in this work, for biography is the meat and marrow of history. The aim has been to discriminate carefully in the selection of subjects, although names worthy of perpetuation have in a number of instances been omitted, either on the account of the apathy of those con- cerned or the inability of the compilers to secure the necessary information for the same.
November, 1909.
A. J. BAUGHMAN, Mansfield, Ohio.
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HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
HISTORY OF THE FIRELANDS.
The history of the Firelands and of Huron county are, to a great extent the same. The Firelands embrace the whole of Erie and Huron counties, exclu- sive of Kelley's island, and include the township of Ruggles, now a part of Ashland county and the township of Dunbury, now included in the county of Ottawa. The history of this region, as well as of the entire continent prior to the period of modern discovery, is a matter of conjecture and will not be con- sidered here.
What was the "Great West," but what has long since lost that appellation, was a vast track lying south of the great lakes and between the Allegheny moun- tains and the Mississippi river, and was for a long time a disputed territory, claimed alike by the French and English governments. The English based their title on the discoveries by the Cabots in 1497 and 1498, and therefore claimed to own the Atlantic coast from New Foundland to Florida, and between those points westward across the continent from ocean to ocean. The French, how- ever, disputed the English title and asserted in their own behalf the ownership of what are now the British possession on the Atlantic coast as far north as Labrador and their claim extended inland so as to embrace the entire valley of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi rivers, thus encircling the English ter- ritory from the Atlantic westward and south to the Gulf of Mexico.
The rival claims of France and England to this vast territory were long the source of dissension between those nations until the treaty of Paris in 1763, by which France ceded to England all her claims to the Canadas and the ad- jacent provinces. Up to this time the French had, as against the English, held exclusive possession of the entire valleys of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi. and the English government had, notwithstanding the contested character of its title, proceeded as though its ownership was unquestioned, and the King of England had by various patents, granted from time to time to divers persons and companies tracts of land of great extent.
In 1606, James I., to encourage settlement granted the territory, twelve de- grees in extent from Cape Fear to Halifax, all then called Virginia to two
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HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
associations, known as the Plymouth Company and the London Company. The northern portion, then called North Virginia, was assigned to the Plymouth Company, but the name was soon changed to New England.
In 1628, that portion of the territory covered by the Plymouth patent and known as Massachusetts extended from the Atlantic ocean to the South sea. Under a conformatory charter the Connecticut colony was invested with a title to "all that part of our dominions in New England in America bounded on the east by Narragansett river, where the river falleth into the sea, and on the north by the line of Massachusetts plantation and in longitude as the line of Massachusetts colony running cast to west."
This grant embraced a territory of the width of the state of Connecticut and extending westward from Rhode Island to the Pacific ocean, an area five times as large as the state of Ohio.
The Firelands now include only the counties of Erie and Huron, and Ruggles township in Ashland county, which was formerly a part of Huron, and the township of Danbury in Ottawa county.
HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY.
Huron county was formed February 7, 1809, and organized in 1815. It originally constituted the whole of "the Firelands." The name, Huron, was given by the French to the Wyandot tribe : its signification is probably unknown. The surface is mostly level, some parts slightly undulating ; soil mostly sandy mixed with clay, forming a loam. In the northwest part are some prairies, and in the northern part are the sand ridges which run on the southern side of Lake Erie and vary in width from a few rods to more than a mile. Huron was much reduced in 1838, in population and area, by the formation of Erie county. Area about 450 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 139.956; in pasture, 79,944; woodland, 36,032; lying waste, 2,697; produced in wheat, 459,057 bushels; rye, 5,123; buckwheat, 929; oats, 1,035,918; barley, 5,167 ; corn, 698,536; broom corn, 200 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 34,880 tons; clover hay, 6,837 ; flax, 20,300 lbs. fibre ; potatoes, 108,166 bushels; butter, 982.978 lbs. ; cheese, 347,037; sorghum, 2,218 gallons; maple sugar 23,087 lbs .; honey, 11,672; eggs, 493.179 dozen; grapes, 3.579 lbs .: sweet potatoes, 89 bushels ; apples, 35.552 ; peaches, 4.052 ; pears, 923 ; wool, 539,534 lbs. ; milch cows owned, 7,756. School census, 1888, 9,929; teachers, 353. Miles of railroad track 138. TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS. 1840. 1880. TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS. 1840. 1880.
Bronson
1,291
1,092 Norwich
676
1.157
Clarksfield
1,473
1,042
Norwalk
2,613
7.078
Fairfield 1,067
1.359
Peru 1,998
1,194
Fitchville
1,294
822
Richmond
306
1,014
Greenfield
1,460
()00
Ridgefield
1,599
2,359
Greenwich
1,067
1,376
Ripley
804
1,038
Hartland
925
954
Ruggles
1,244
Lyme
1,318
2.575
Sherman
692
1,223
New Haven
1,270
1,807
Townsend 868
1.405
New London
1,218
1.764
Wakeman 702
1.450
.
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THE OLD PIONEERS
Meeting of the Firelands Historical Society, held at the home of Martin Kellogg in Bronson, to celebrate his one hundredth birthday, September 21, 1886.
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HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
Population of Huron in 1820 was 6,677; in 1830, 13,340; in 1840, 23,934; 1860, 29,616: 1880, 31,608, of whom 21,728 were born in Ohio; 3,142 New York ; 963 Pennsylvania ; 124 Indiana; 76 Virginia; 54 Kentucky ; 1,783 Ger- man Empire ; 800 England and Wales ; 684 Ireland; 201 British America; 103 France : (x) Scotland, and 3 Sweden and Norway. Census of 1890 was 31,949.
Huron county lies in the southwest portion of the Connecticut Western Re- serve, and originally and for many years after its settlement it comprised all of the Firelands, or five hundred thousand acres. Its southern boundary is the forty-first parallel of latitude, and until 1838, when Erie county was formed out of its territory, it extended northwest to the shores of Lake Erie, including the peninsula and islands north of Sandusky bay.
The townships in the county were as nearly as possible laid out five miles square, but owing to the fact that the breadth of the Firelands' tract, from east to west, is twenty-five miles, fifty-one chains and thirty-two links, each town- ship, from east to west, is a fraction more than five miles in extent.
The county is, then, generally speaking, a rectangle, twenty-five miles long by twenty miles in width-its greater length being from east to west. By the original survey, each township was to contain about sixteen thousand acres of land. This would give the area of the county as four hundred and seventy- five square miles, or three hundred and six thousand acres. The auditor's duplicate for 1877 has three hundred and six thousand and ninety-seven acres, which, however, does not include lands regularly laid out into town lots. Land occupied by roads is sometimes, but not generally omitted, as are public grounds, cemeteries, etc. ; so that probably two or three thousand acres are thus left out.
The county is bounded on the north by Erie county, on the east by Lorain and Ashland, on the south by Ashland and Richland, and on the west by Seneca and Sandusky counties. It has nineteen townships, as follows: Wakeman, Clarksfield, New London, Townsend, Hartland, Fitchville, Greenwich, Norwalk, Bronson, Fairfield, Ripley, Ridgefield, Peru, Greenfield, New Haven, Lyme, Sherman, Norwich and Richmond. Its principal towns and villages are Nor- walk. Bellevue, Monroeville, Plymouth, Wakeman, New London and Collins.
The county originally comprised twenty townships, but Ruggles was set off at the formation of Ashland county in 1846, and became a part of that county.
The village of Bellevue lies partly in Sandusky county, and that of Plymouth partly in Richland county.
Huron county has no lakes or considerable ponds ; no large or navigable streams; no high hills, rocky ledges, nor ravines or gorges of considerable depth or extent, and yet the surface is far from an unbroken monotonous plain ; on the contrary, it is pleasantly diversified with hills and dales of often pictur- esque beauty and attractiveness. The slope of the county is to the northward, the numerous streams that are found within its limits all bearing tribute to Lake Erie. On its southern boundary these streams are well nigh insignificant in size : in fact. within five miles, the divide is reached, south of which the streams are tributary to the great Mississippi basin. Huron county is drained by two principal water courses-Huron and Vermillion rivers-at the mouth of each, especially at the former, there are good harbors; but the streams themselves are too small to be navigable to any distance. However, by the aid of a canal
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HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
the former stream was at one time ascended by lake craft as far as the village of Milan.
Vermillion river has its source in Savannah lake, Ashland county, where it connects with streams which are tributary to the Ohio, the valleys uniting at the divide in a continuous channel, now deeply filled with drift, indicating that the drainage of both valleys was formerly southward. The connection of the head waters of Huron river. with the streams running south is not so dis- tinctly marked, yet it can be easily traced between them and the two valleys, one to the east and one to the west of Mansfield, in Richland county, where the drainage is also to the south.
October 19, 1809, the directors ordered that a road be laid out and cut through Huron county, from north to south, passing from, or near the shore of Lake Erie, on the cast side of Huron river, running thence on the most suitable route until it strikes near the center of the north line of the township of Nor- walk, and thence southward on a line as near the center of the other township as the ground will admit ; that William Eldridge be appointed agent to cause the road to be laid out and cut, causewayed, logged and bridged in the best and most prudent way regarding the interest of the Firelands Company ; to be cut and cleared off at least sixteen feet in width, and the stumps to be cut down smooth with the surface of the ground at least twelve feet in width. The sum of eight hundred dollars was appropriated for the work, the agent to receive no compensation for his services.
A second and similar road was ordered laid out north and south through the county, on or near the line between the twentieth and twenty-fist ranges. Six hundred dollars was appropriated for the work, and Ebenezer Jesup, Jr .. appointed agent to carry it into effect, and to serve without compensation.
A third, leading east and west in the county, to commence on the east side thereof, at the termination of the road already laid, marked or cut through the lands of the Connecticut Land Company, leading from the Portage in the southerly part thereof, butting on said east line, and extend to, or near the middle or center of the south line of the town of Norwalk until it intersects the road already voted to be laid out, or as near as the nature of the ground will admit.
That a fourth road be laid out to commence at or near the south line of Norwalk, where the north and south road crosses it, then running west on town- ship lines, or as near the same as practicable, to the west line of the county.
Another similar road to begin on the south line of Fairfield at the north and south road and running west, following town lines as near as practicable to the county line.
Five hundred dollars were appropriated for the construction of the first road and six hundred dollars for the other two roads, and Isaac Mills appointed agent to construct them, to serve without compensation. On January 31, 1811, an act was passed further organizing lluron county, but the war with England prevented it from being carried out, until January 31. 1815. The first court of common pleas was held at the county seat, in Avery township, (now Milan,) George Tod, presiding judge, and Jabez Wright. Stephen Mecker and Joseph Strong, associates. Complaint having been made that the location of the county
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HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
seat was unsuitable, the legislature was induced, on the 26th day of January. 1818, to appoint Abraham Tappan, of Geauga, William Wetmore, of Portage, and Elias Lee, of Cuyahoga county as commissioners to view the present seat of justice of Huron county, and to investigate the claims of other localities, and if they should consider that the interests of the county require it, were au- thorized to remove it to such a place as in their judgment might be more suitable.
The proprietors of Norwalk were much interested in securing a report in favor of their infant village, and were not, it is to be presumed, backward in presenting its claims, which they did with so much success that the commis- sioners decided in their favor and removed the county seat thither.
The first meeting of the commissioners of Huron county was held at the county seat, in Avery, on August 1, 1815, at the house of David Abbott. The commissioners were Caleb Palmer, Charles Parker and Eli S. Barnum ; Ichabod Marshall was appointed clerk, pro tem. Abijah Comstock was appointed county treasurer.
Among the townships set off were the following :
Vermillion, to comprise the whole of the twentieth range, together with all that tract of country belonging to Huron county, east of the twentieth range.
Greenfield, to comprise townships numbers two and three in the twenty- first, twenty-second twenty-third and twenty-fourth ranges.
New Haven, to comprise township number one, in the twenty-first, twenty- second, twenty-third and twenty-fourth ranges.
The commissioners decided at this meeting that the bounty for killing wolves in the county of Huron to be paid by said county shall be: For each wolf scalp more than six months old, two dollars; for each wolf scalp less than six months old, one dollar. They also ordered that the building at the county seat which hitherto has been occupied as a school-house, should, for the future, be used for a courthouse and gaol until other arrangements could be made.
The second board of commissioners consisted of Nathan Cummins, for one year ; Frederick Falley, for two years ; and Bildad Adams, for three years; the length of service being determined by lot, and appointed Frederick Falley as their clerk. The meeting was held at the house of David Abbott, Esq., at the county seat, on the first Monday of December, 1815.
The following townships were ordered set off : Ridgefield, comprising the townships of Ridgefield, and Lyme, together with the township of Sherman.
June, 1822, the wolf bounty was fixed at one dollar and fifty cents for each wolf over six months old, and seventy-five cents for those under that age.
August 12, 1818, it was ordered by the commissioners that notice be given that the commissioners will, on the first Monday of December following, re- ceive proposals for a court house, forty by thirty feet, and a jail; and on the 7th of December following, the commissioners purchased a building of David Underhill & Company for a court house, for the sum of eight hundred and forty-eight dollars.
March 2, 1819, the commissioners contracted with Platt Benedict to build a jail, twenty-four by forty-six feet, two stories high, for the sum of one thousand two hundred and seventy-five dollars.
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HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
The first term of court was held at the old county seat, in October, 1815.
In Vermillion there were two extensive fortifications on the banks of the river of the same name, and another in the southern part of the township. There were, in the same township, a number of mounds in which human skele- tons and scattered bones were found.
In Berlin, in the western part of the township, there was a mound covering a quarter of an acre, with large trees growing upon it. Near the center of the township, on the farm formerly owned by the late Lewis Osborn, was another mound, and in the northern part of the township, a fortification.
In Huron township, mounds were found on the highlands on both sides of the river. Two of these mounds on the west side of the river and about two miles from its mouth, were quite large and nearly round. Human bones and "beads of different colors" were found in them.
In Ridgefield township, Huron county, circular fortifications were found in lot two and lot three of the first section, and a small mound containing human bones, in lot eighteen of the second section. The fortifications are on high banks of branches of the Huron river.
In Norwalk there were three fortifications near the Ridgefield line, and crossing it, on the farm now owned by Isaac Underhill. That gentleman has preserved reminiscences of his plowing, when a boy, through the dry and brittle bones of the men of whom these works are the monuments.
In the western part of New Haven township was a circular fortification with large trees growing on its embankments when first discovered.
Except a few "conical mounds" said to have been found in Norwich, in the southeast part of the township.
ROSTER OF COUNTY OFFICIALS OF HURON COUNTY FOR 1909.
Circuit Court-Sixth District: Hon S. A. Wildman, Hon. R. R. Kinkaid, Hon. R. S. Parker.
Common Pleas Court-Hon. C. S. Reed, Hon. S. S. Richards, Hon. S. P. Alexander.
Member of Congress-Fourteenth District : Hon. William G. Sharp, Elyria.
State Senator-Hon. T. A. Dean, Fremont.
Representative-Hon. S. E. Crawford, Norwalk.
Probate Court-Hon. A. E. Rowley, Judge; Mrs. Edith Orr and Marguerite Schock, Deputies.
Auditor-J. E. Smith; Deputy, Adelbert S. Vail.
Clerk-C. E. Tucker; Deputy, Clark Blackman.
Treasurer-John McMann; Deputy, Jennie D. Griffin.
Sheriff-W. H. Sattig ; Deputy, Clifford Powers.
Recorder-Carl C. Thompson; Deputy, Arlie A. Holiday.
Prosecuting Attorney-Don J. Young.
Surveyor-Kieth Van Horn; Deputy, L. C. Herrick.
Commissioners-H. G. Trimner, W. H. Grant, H. A. McDonald.
Infirmary Directors-W. G. Blackmore, J. E. Seeley, C. H. Willoughby ; Super- intendent, A. G. Bedford.
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HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
Coroner-Dr. E. W. Crecelius.
Court Stenographer and Law Librarian-W. R. Bathrick.
Court Bailiff-George H. Gates.
Jury Commission-Frederick Burk, W. S. Weston, Jay Wheeler, H. C. Barnard. Deputy State Supervisors of Election-J. M. Bechtol, Clerk; William H. Kiefer,
Chief Deputy ; W. D. Johnson, Leroy Hoyt, J. F. Henninger.
Blind Commission-Hon. C. P. Venus, Dr. R. H. Reynolds, W. W. Whiton, Esq.
Board of County Visitors-Hon. H. S. Mitchell, Mrs. E. K. Fisher, S. Gray, Miss Lottie Gibbs, Hon. C. P. Venus, Mrs. John Rexford.
Janitor-A. J. Curren ; Assistant, Julius Davis.
THE FIRST SETTLERS OF THE TOWNSHIPS.
After the organization of Erie county, March 15, 1838, Huron county was left with only twenty townships, whose settlements occurred as follows :
Norwalk, in 1809 by Nathan S. Comstock of New Canaan, Connecticut. Greenfield, in 1810 by William McKelvey, Jr., of Trumbull county, Ohio. Lyme, in 1811 by Asa Sherwood of Homer, New York.
New Haven, in 1811 by Caleb Palmer of Trumbull county, Ohio.
Townsend, in 1811 by George Miller of Pennsylvania.
Ridgefield, in 1811 by William Frink.
Sherman, in 1812 by Samuel Seymour, Burrell Fitch and Daniel Sherman of Norwalk, Connecticut.
Bronson, in 1815 by John Welch of Pennsylvania.
New London, in 1815 by Abner Green of Vermont.
Peru, in 1815 by Henry Adams, of Marlborough, Vermont, Elihu Clary and William Smith of Deerfield, Massachusetts.
Fairfield, in 1816 by Widow Sample of Newark, Ohio.
Norwich, in 1816 by Chauncey Woodruff and Wilder Lawrence of Saratoga county, New York.
Wakeman, in 1816 by Augustin Canfield of New Milford, Connecticut.
Clarksfield, in 1817 by Samuel Hustead and Ezra Wood of Danbury, Con- necticut.
Hartland, in 1817 by William and Alva Munsell.
Fitchville, in 1817 by Peter and Abraham Mead of Connecticut, and Amos Reynolds.
Greenwich, in 1817 by Henry Carpenter of Ulster county, New York.
Ruggles, in 1823 by Daniel Beach.
Richmond, in 1825 by William Tindall.
Ripley, in 1825 by Moses Inscho, D. Broomback and James Dickson.
In 1846 the county of Ashland was organized. At that time the old con- stitution of Ohio provided that no new counties should be created with less than four hundred square miles of territory, nor should any old county be reduced to less than that amount. In order to give the new county of Ashland the constitutional amount of territory, it was found that Huron, among other coun- ties, would have to be encroached upon, and Ruggles, our southeast corner town, was taken away from us and became part of the new county.
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HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
INTERESTING HISTORICAL. DATA FROM THE FOUNDING OF PLYMOUTH COLONY TO
THE SETTLEMENT OF NORWALK IN 1809.
BY HON. C. II. GALLUP.
The Pilgrims were English "Separatists" who sailed from Delfshaven (in the Netherlands) in the Mayflower and founded Plymouth Colony, New Eng- land, November 11, 1620. In 1630 they were followed by others of like faith and hopes, among whom was John Winthrop, bearing a royal commission as governor of Massachusetts Colony. April 23, 1662, John Winthrop and eight- een associates received from Charles II., of England, the munificent grant of "All that part of our dominions in New England in America," * * * from "Narragansett Bay on the east to the South Sea on the west, with the islands thereto adjoining." The same year "The Solemn League and Covenant" for religious reforms and liberties in England, Scotland and Ireland was renounced and by order of King Charles declared illegal.
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