USA > Ohio > Crawford County > A centennial biographical history of Crawford County, Ohio > Part 2
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A large proportion of the early settlers of Crawford county were from New England, New York, Pennsylvania and other eastern states, while a few came from the south. But later in the settlement of the county the German elements assumed the ascendancy. About the year 1832 there was a large accession of German population, coming direct from Germany, by way of the Erie canal to Buffalo and thence to Cleveland or Sandusky. The political troubles of Germany, in 1848, brought many Germans to the county, and, to-day, many a German "agitator" is represented among the county's most
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reliable citizens. The Pennsylvania Dutch, also, are numerously represented in the county.
COLONEL WILLIAM CRAWFORD, in whose honor Crawford county was named, was a Virginian, of Scotch-Irish lineage, born in the year 1732. His childhood home was that of a pioneer farmer of the Old Dominion. His edu- cation was limited. In early life he learned the art of surveying in com- panionship with Washington, and followed the vocation, together with farm work, until about twenty-three years of age.
In the year 1755 he forsook the plow and compass and began a most brilliant military career. Commissioned an ensign by the governor of Vir- ginia, and joining a company of riflemen, he accompanied the army of the ill-fated General Braddock in the march against Fort du Quesne. For gal- lantry displayed upon that disastrous occasion, Ensign Crawford was pro- moted the following year to a lieutenancy. Later he received a cap- tain's commission, recruited a company and participated in the second march against Fort du Quesne, reaching which the army found it vacated. For three years thereafter Captain Crawford remained in the army service of Virginia, and then returned to his home in the valley of the Shenandoah. Until 1767 he was again engaged in farming and sur- veying. After examining the valley of the Youghiogheny, he located there in what is now Fayette county, Pennsylvania, thither removing his family in the year 1769.
When the war of independence came on he recruited a regiment for continental service. January 12, 1776, he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Virginia Regiment, and October IIth, the same year, he was appointed colonel of the Seventh Regiment of Virginia battalions, by congress, com- mission to be dated the 14th of August. Colonel Crawford served under Washington upon the seaboard, repaired to Fort Pitt, built Fort Crawford, engaged under McIntosh in the Detroit expedition, aided Clark's expedition, then retired from active military service by returning to his home, hoping to discontinue in warfare. But, induced to join in the Sandusky expedition, we find him again in warfare, and it was in this last named expedition that he lost his life. While on this expedition he was captured by the Delaware Indians, and at their hands met an awful death by torture,-burning at the stake, June 11, 1782!
It is fitting that some mention, in this connection, be made of the gallant officers who served under Colonel Crawford in the Sandusky expedition.
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COLONEL DAVID WILLIAMSON, one of them, participated in the Sandusky expedition as field major. He was a patriot, who loved his country. Worthy of especial note in his valor displayed at the battle of Olentangy, fought in what is now Whetstone township, Crawford county, June 6, 1782. He did much to encourage his heroic little band of soldiers, and was ably seconded by the indefatigable "John Rose," whose cheerfulness, suavity and coolness were only equalled by his wonderful skill and intrepidity.
"JOHN ROSE," the hero of the retreat of Crawford's army from the plains of Sandusky, it afterward developed, was really a young Russian nobleman- the Baron Gustavus H. Rosenthal, of Livonia-who, because of killing an- other in a duel, had been obliged to fly from his own country and seek safety, first in England and then in America. In the Revolutionary war he served the colonists with fidelity until its close, without having revealed his true name or rank, and then, by permission, returned to Europe, subsequent to the Sandusky expedition. He was regarded with favor by Emperor Alexander and became grand marshal of the province of Livonia. The first link in that bright chain of friendship, which has ever existed between the Russian em- pire and the United States, was forged by "John Rose."
Other officers who served under Colonel Crawford in the expedition were : Thomas Gaddis, John McClelland, - Britton, who were field majors ; Daniel Leet, brigade major ; John Knight, surgeon; and John Slover and Jonathan Zane, pilots.
On the site of the battle of Olentangy there stands a monument erected to the memory of the brave army of the Sandusky expedition.
SAMUEL NORTON, the first settler of Bucyrus township, was born within one mile of Congress Spring, near Saratoga, New York, March 3, 1870. His father was of Scotch descent, and many years previous to the birth of Samuel had emigrated from Scotland and settled in Connecticut. Samuel Norton was married, January 1, 1804, to Miss Mary Bucklin, who was born in Coventry, Kent county, Rhode Island, October 31, 1785. The Bucklins were of English descent, and Mary Bucklin's parents removed from Rhode Island to Little Falls, New York, when she was about six years of age, and some twelve years afterwards to what is now Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, where she was married to Samuel Norton. The young couple settled near Elk Hill, then in Luzerne but now in Susquehanna county. The
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district is situated in the mountain regions of that state ; the land is poor, and even at that time the country was very wild. It is said that at one time, while Norton was still a resident of Elk Hill, he shot a panther which meas- ured eleven feet and three inches in length! These wild beasts have never been seen in Crawford county since it was first settled by white men; and, although the first settlers of Bucyrus township emigrated to a newer country, they did not, in some respects, find a wilder one.
Norton was dissatisfied with this wild, rocky Pennsylvania land, and, after residing there with his wife for fifteen years, determined to seek a more pleasing country. He caught the western fever and finally decided that his destination should be the land obtained by the "New Purchase." His wife was opposed to this movement of the Norton family and refused to go unless her brother Albijence Bucklin would go along. Norton finally succeeded in inducing Bucklin to accompany him with his family, by promising him fifty acres of land. Norton had previously visited the new country, selected a quar- ter section on the present site of Bucyrus, and had returned to his native state for his family. Very late in the spring of 1819 the pioneers left their home in Pennsylvania, and, after journeying about six hundred miles in a big "schooner" wagon, reached the quarter section of land which Norton had se- lected, in October, 1819. The party consisted of the following eighteen persons : Samuel Norton and his wife, Mary Norton ; their three daughters, Louisa, Catherine and Elizabeth (the late Mrs. A. M. Jones) ; their three sons,-Rensellear, Warren and Waldo Norton; Albijence Bucklin and his wife; their six children,-Esther, Cynthia, Austris, Elizabeth, Almeda and Pitt ; also, Polly, an adopted daughter of the Bucklins, and Seth Holmes.
After reaching their destination the two families lived for three days in an Indian wigwam, which stood near the present site of the court house, and during this brief period the three men constructed a more durable residence. This first rude home was built of small round logs and erected upon the bluff of the Sandusky river. The two families moved into this log cabin, and shortly afterward another was built for the Bucklin family. When these early settlers constructed their first cabin the nearest white neighbors were eight miles off, on the banks of the Olentangy, and that settlement consisted of only a few squatters, who were generally as nomadic in habit as they were transient in location. The Norton family occupied their first log cabin home during one winter and until July, 1820. In this cabin was born, on the IIth of February, 1820, Sophronia Norton, who was the first white child born on the site of the present city of Bucyrus, and probably was the first born in the present limits of
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Crawford county. Samuel Norton operated a tannery on a small scale for several years, farmed and in 1835 built and opened a hotel. He was an old- school Baptist and a man of many sterling qualities. He died April 18, 1856. in the seventy-seventh year of his age. His wife, Mary Norton, lived three years after her husband's death, and finally passed away, April 29, 1859. Other children born unto them, not already mentioned, were Harris P .. Charles, Jefferson and William B. Being the first settler and original pro- prietor of the land on which Bucyrus was laid out, Samuel Norton was justly entitled to the name of the "Father of Bucyrus."
COLONEL JAMES KILBOURNE Was a native of New Britain, Connecticut. born October 9, 1770, was highly educated, and in early life became a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and about the year 1800 was ordained. When scarcely more than nineteen years of age he married Lucy Fitch, daughter of the celebrated John Fitch, the inventor and builder of the first steamboat in the world. He became a pioneer settler of Ohio, in 1802, and the following year established a colony from his native state in the Scioto valley. A church was built and he became the rector. He visited neighboring set- tlements in other parts of the state, preaching and organizing church societies, many of which became permanent Episcopal churches. He retired from the ministry in 1804.
Upon the organization of the state government of Ohio, he was appointed a civil magistrate, and also an officer of the militia for the northwestern frontier. In the spring of 1805 he explored the southern shore of Lake Erie, and selected the site of the city of Sandusky. About this time he was made state's surveyor of a large portion of public lands. In 1806 he was appointed one of the first trustees of the Ohio College at Athens, and in 1808 one of three commissioners to locate the seat of Miami University.
During this year he married for a second wife Miss Cynthia Goodale. his first wife having died soon after he came to Ohio.
About this time he was made major of the "Frontier Regiment." later was promoted to the colonelcy, but this position he resigned, as he also did the former position. On the organization of the Worthington College, in 1812, he was elected its president. The same year he was appointed by Presi- dent Madison as a commissioner to settle the boundary between the public lands and the Great Virginia Reservation. Immediately after the comple- tion of this service he was elected a member of congress. Later he became a colonel, hence his military title. In 1814 he was again elected to congress.
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In 1823 he was elected to the state legislature, and again in 1838-39 he was a member of that body. After a long, useful and active career he died, at Worthington, Ohio, April 9, 1850. Why is he mentioned in a biographical history of Crawford county ? It was while surveying public lands that Colonel Kilbourne first appeared in what is now Crawford county. It was he who then persuaded Samuel Norton to have a town survey made upon his farm. Norton owned the land on which Bucyrus is now located. The location the Colonel regarded as a beautiful site for a town. It was within a few miles of a direct line of travel from Sandusky, the nearest point on Lake Erie, to Co- lumbus, the state capital; a tide of emigration had set in ; many were settling in the vicinity, and consequently the prospects for a thriving village at this point were flattering. AAfter some hesitation Mr. Norton consented to the survey, and Colonel Kilbourne made the original town plat in February, 1822. The new town was named Bucyrus by the Colonel. One of his favorite his- toric characters was Cyrus, the Persian general who conquered the city of Babylon, and there is reason for believing that Colonel Kilbourne named the town in honor of this distinguished character, prefixing to the name "Cyrus" the syllable "bu," the sound of the first part of the word "beautiful," declar- ing that the name Bucyrus should always mean "beautiful Cyrus."
DANIEL McMICHAEL was born in Ireland about 1778, and when about sixteen years old his parents emigrated to America and settled in Westmore- land county, Pennsylvania. When he attained his majority he married Mary McDowell, who was a native of Scotland and came to the United States with her parents at an early date. The following children were the issue of their marriage: David. Mathew, William, Martha, Mary, Daniel, Allen and Hat- tie. In 1820 McMichael removed with his wife and family to Crawford county, and settled for a few weeks on what is now the northern part of Bucyrus corporation. Being a miller by trade and a mechanical genius, he de- sired to engage in the milling business, and, finding a more suitable location about four miles up the Sandusky river, removed his family to the land he first entered in Liberty township, which township he was the first settler to invade. In a few months he commenced work on this new enterprise, which was the first mill erected in what was then Crawford county. He soon found he could not depend upon the Sandusky river for water to keep the machinery running twelve months each year, and, the outlook not being promising, he rented the mill in 1823 to Nehemiah Squire and removed to Bucyrus, where he died some two years later.
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COLONEL ZALMON ROWSE was among the earliest pioneers of Crawford county. He was a native of the Bay state, born in the year 1789. His par- ents were poor and unable to give him the advantages of a classical educa- tion. He was endowed with a quick and comprehensive mind and by his own efforts he succeeded in getting a good education, which he turned to the best advantage by engaging in school teaching. When sixteen years old he went to Wayne county, Pennsylvania, and while there, when he had arrived at the age of nineteen, he was married to Miss Mehetabel Kent, who was then six- teen years old. In the spring of 1821 he walked from Wayne county, Penn- sylvania-five hundred miles-to Crawford county, Ohio, where he entered three tracts of land of eighty acres each, after which he again walked to his home. In the fall of the same year he came to this county with his family. which consisted of his wife and six children, coming by means of a team of oxen, arriving in December. He first located in Whetstone township, but later in Bucyrus township. He taught one term of school after he came to the county.
Mr. Rowse was a man well fitted for public trusts, and the citizens ap- preciated his natural abilities by electing him to many important positions. He was one of the first justices of the peace in Bucyrus township, and served in this capacity for nearly twenty years. In 1825 he was commissioned lieu- tenant-colonel of the Fourth Regiment of Ohio Militia. During the latter part of 1825 and until Crawford county was organized, in 1826, Colonel Rowse served as one of the commissioners of Marion county, to which Crawford county was then attached "for judicial purposes." Upon the organization of Crawford county Mr. Beardsley was appointed clerk, but shortly afterward resigned, and Colonel Rowse became his successor. He served the people faithfully in this position for many years. At this time the recording of deeds and mortgages was a part of the duties of Colonel Rowse, and he left an excellent file of records.
In 1826 he was one of the charter members of the Columbus & San- dusky Turnpike Company, and in 1846 a charter member of the Bucyrus Lodge of Freemasons. In 1831 he erected the American Hotel of Bucyrus. His death occurred August 15, 1854, after a residence in the county of over thirty years. He was a member of the Whig party and was a man of gen- eral respect. Of his children, Horace and William Rowse became prominent merchants of Bucyrus.
LEWIS CARY, born in New Jersey, in 1783, first resided in Jefferson
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county, Ohio, but came to Crawford county in the spring of 1822; erected the first hewed-log cabin, with a shingle roof and grooved floor, in Bucyrus, all other cabins until then having been made of round logs and puncheon floors ; built and operated the first tannery in Crawford county, and was the first postmaster of the village of Bucyrus, being appointed by President Monroe, about 1823. He died in Defiance, Ohio, in 1866.
JOSIAH SCOTT .- Perhaps the most distinguished lawyer and jurist of Crawford county was Josiah Scott, of whom the following eulogy was de- livered in 1886 before the Ohio State Bar Association, by the Hon. Stephen R. Harris, of Bucyrus :
"Josiah Scott was born on the Ist day of December, 1803, in Washing- ton county, Pennsylvania, on his father's farm, three miles from Cannons- burg, the seat of Jefferson College, where he was educated under Dr. Matthew Brown, and received his religious impressions under the celebrated Dr. Me- Millen. He lived at home, walked daily to and from the college, and grad- uated in the year 1823, with the highest honors of a class of thirty-two young men, many of whom afterwards rose to distinction, mostly in the church and as college presidents, among whom may be mentioned the names of David H. Riddle, LL. D., president of Washington and Jefferson College, and David L. Carroll, D. D., president of Hampden Sidney College, Virginia.
"After his graduation he was thrown entirely on his own resources and set out at once to enter courageously upon the life work before him. He first went to eastern Pennsylvania and for a period of two years taught in a classical academy at Newton, Bucks county, and in this time prepared several students for the freshman class at college, some of whom graduated at his own alma mater and came to preferment in after life. He went south and taught a classical school for two years in Richmond, Virginia, employing his leisure time in the study of law. He then returned to the home of his youth and was soon after chosen by the authorities as a tutor in Jefferson, where four years before he had taken his degree with distinguished honor. He taught in this institution for one year, during which he employed his leisure intervals in pursuing his legal studies. At the end of that time he decided to visit Ohio, with a view of selecting a location for the practice of law. He traveled west on horseback, as was the custom of the day, and arrived at Mansfield in the spring of 1829, where he visited Hon. Thomas W. Bartley, who had been his pupil at college and afterward became his associate on the bench. He was admitted to the bar and permanently located himself at Bucyrus, the
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county seat of Crawford county, Ohio, in the month of June, 1829, when that village was but a hamlet in the wilderness, and nearly half of the county was, and for some fifteen years afterward remained an Indian reservation, oc- cupied by the Wyandots.
"His abilities were very soon appreciated and he rapidly rose in his profession, so that he was regarded as a lawyer of great influence with court and jury, both in Bucyrus and in the surrounding counties, where he had a growing practice. In 1840 he was elected as a representative to the general assembly for the counties of Crawford, Marion and Delaware. In 1855 he removed to Hamilton, Butler county, and continued the practice of his profession with great distinction and success, in competition with such lawyers as John Woods, Lewis D. Campbell, Thomas Milliken and William Bebb. In October. 1857, he was elected judge of the supreme court of Ohio, for the term commencing on the 9th day of February, 1857. Shortly after his election he was appointed by the governor. Chase, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Ranney, and held under the appointment until the 9th day of February, the commencement of the regular term. He was twice re-elected and continued on the bench until the 9th day of February. 1872. hav- ing declined to be a candidate for another term.
"Some years before he left the bench he returned again to Bucyrus, and at the expiration of his term he resumed practice and continued until January, 1876, when he was appointed by Governor Hayes a member of the supreme court commission. On the expiration of the commission, in February, 1879, he again resumed the practice of his profession, but was soon stricken with a malignant disease, which terminated his life on the 15th day of June. 1879. in the seventy-sixth year of his age, but still in his intellectual prime.
"Such, gentlemen of the Ohio State Bar Association, is a brief sketch of the eventful life of one of the most gifted men who ever adorned our pro- fession. It is with a willing heart and grateful mind that I embrace the present opportunity to commemorate his virtues, only regretting my inability to set forth in a deserving manner the tribute which I shall endeavor to bring to his memory.
"Over thirty-seven years ago I came to Bucyrus a stranger, and com- menced the practice of my chosen profession. I was young and diffident, and the first member of the bar to give me a friendly greeting and extend the hand of encouragement was the Hon. Josiah Scott. After a few months' acquaintance and professional intercourse he invited me into his office as a partner. We continued our partnership until he removed to Hamilton. After
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he returned from Hamilton to reside in Bucyrus, while still on the bench, he made my office his headquarters, and at the expiration of his term we re- sumed our partnership, after an interval of over twenty years. We continued together until his death, and by the terms of his last will and testament he made me one of his executors. Do I need. therefore, to apologize for my veneration of the man, and when I say I will revere his memory as a friend and benefactor until the last pulsation of my heart ?
"In the professional and judicial career of Judge Scott he did not neglect the pursuits of learning, but habitually indulged in mathematics, the reading of English classical authors and the study of Latin and Greek literature. Of the ancient classics, Horace and Demosthenes were his favorite authors. He would turn at random to any portion of Horace or Virgil and translate them fluently into elegant English. Sometimes, in his arguments at the bar, in the midst of a flight of eloquqence. he would quote and adapt passages from Pollock's Course of Time or Milton's Paradise Lost with such ease and grace, and so appropriate to his theme as to make his hearers lose sight of the quotation.
"He was always diffident and retiring until called out by some genial friends or professional associates, in whose company he might be cast. On such occasions he was always found to possess conversational powers of a high order, enlivening his conversation by a warm glow of delicate humor and brightening it often by lively flashes of wit. His knowledge and skill in mathematics were astonishing. No mathematical problem capable of solution baffled him. It may be safely asserted that he was absolute master of algebra and geometry. He would solve difficult algebraic problems mentally in an incredibly short space of time, announcing his methods as he progressed. By way of light reading he would peruse by the hour that wonderful pro- duction, Euler's Elements of Algebra, with as much delight as if it were a romance, instead of a work so deep that few but professional mathematicians could comprehend it.
"Whilst he was a profound scholar and linguist, yet his greatest tri- umphs were at the bar. He had leading practice in all the counties in his part of the state, and rarely was an important jury case tried but he con- ducted one side of it. It was there he displayed his great power as a nisi- prius lawyer. His skill was displayed in the cross examination of witnesses. He seldom rebuked or intimidated a witness so as to excite his stubbornness or aggravate his hostility, but rather led him along first in the line of undis- puted facts in a pleasant manner until he would get the truth out of him,
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when it was unintentional on the part of the witness, who had gone on the stand with the full determination to perjure himself in behalf of the opposite party. On such occasions a grim shade of disappointment might be ob- served to steal over the countenances of the opposing counsel. In his argu- ments he was ordinarily mild, eloquent and persuasive before a jury, but when occasion required he would pour out a torrent of invective that was overwhelming, like that of Curran's celebrated denunciation of Flood in the Irish parliament. In his argument to the court, Judge Scott was logical and convincing. He belonged to that older class of lawyers who began the prac- tice when books were few, but read, studied and thoroughly mastered all the elementary principles of the law. I have seen him in combats with other law- yers of the same class, a race that has nearly all disappeared, such as Judge Stewart, Bartley, Kirkwood, Brinkerhoff and Cooper K. Watson, and deep were the impressions they made on my mind in the outset of my practice. What models for the emulation of the young practitioner! In their legal con- flicts it was a battle of giants. What ponderous arguments, mostly on prin- ciples rather than an array of authorities, with Judge Bowen on the bench to appreciate them, without requiring the production of books! Such thrusts and such parries! Such logical reasoning, so pregnant with legal principles that they would seem unanswerable, and then see an antagonist meet and combat them like Hercules with his club! I sometimes pause and ask, Will ever cases be tried like those again ?
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