USA > Ohio > Allen County > A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 2 > Part 19
USA > Ohio > Van Wert County > A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 2 > Part 19
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OF VAN WERT COUNTY.
cer county), Josephine (Mrs. D. S. Patterson, of Crestline, Ohio), Oscar Lawson (died in 1866, aged twenty), Phebe Oplielia (Mrs. J. M. Ocheltree, of Homer, Ill.), and Amanda (wife of D. P. Dunathan).
In 1833 James Gordon Gilliland, in company with a man named Wise, with whom he had worked at the millwright trade, came west to look up a location for homes for themselves, walking from Gettysburg, Pa., to Fort Wayne, Ind., and back again, averaging over thirty miles per day for the entire trip, and one day walking forty-five miles. They thought for a time they would locate at Findlay, Ohio, but they found that the settlers' great dread, milk: sickness, was there, so they pushed on to Fort Wayne. There they selected a location, and returned home to make arrangements for the removal of their families. Mr. Wise concluded to remain east, and Mr. Gilliland was two years in making his arrangements. All his goods and his family he brought with him as far as Bucyrus, Ohio, in a one-horse wagon. There he traded his horse for a yoke of oxen, but soon found that he had made a poor bargain, as one of them had the trembles (milk sick- ness). He therefore left his family at Bucyrus and started on to Fort Wayne, but on account of high water in the streams was unable to reach Fort Wayne, and he concluded to enter land in Ridge township, and returned to Bucyrus for his family. The land he selected was the cast half of section No. 9. It was covered with black walnut, white ash and hard maple, and as the Indians burned the woods over every year, there was no underbrush, and on the whole it was calculated to captivate a home- seeker. He also entered 160 acres east of the infirmary, now owned by William Johnson. Of this he gave eighty acres to Robert and Hugh, his brothers, for keeping their mother and sisters, and sold the other eighty acres to Adam Gilli- land on time. The next spring they sold the
160 acres for $1,000, and bought the half- section now known as the Adam and Hugh Gilliland farms.
After reaching his new home, on the last day of July, 1835, he still found trials and hardships to encounter. His stock of provisions running short, he went to Allen county and bought roasting ears, took them home and grated them on a grater made out of a tin bucket. Later in the season he went to Piqua to miill, that being the nearest point, and bought corn at a dollar a bushel, being a week in making the round trip with his ox-team. On one occasion he went on horseback to Findlay to buy some crocks and dishes. On his return he lost his way in the woods; lay down to rest and sleep until the moon should rise, and was awakened by some animal smelling of his face. Springing to his feet, a wolf ran away, and set up a howl that made his hair stand on end. When the moon rose he found his way home. After this a mill was built at Fort Wayne. He and his brothers then cut a road through to that place, and for several years all the milling was done there, only four days be- ing required to make the round trip, if the milling were properly done; but some times, on account of the great number of persons col- lecting at the mill at the sanie time, a man had to wait two weeks. On an occasion of this kind at Fort Wayne, when the ground around the mill for acres was covered with teams waiting for their turn, Mr. Gilliland, by going down town and buying a gallon of brandy, which he quietly hid in the bran, in- forming the miller of the fact. succeeded in getting his own grist ground during the night, notwithstanding the pretended opposition of the miller, and was on his way home by day- light next morning.
Mr. Gilliland was afterward elected treas- urer of the county, and when he made his settlement with the state, traveled to Column-
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bus and back on horseback. Money being then very scarce, he adopted a system of cur- rency of his own, viz. : taking all kinds of furs at their market value in place of money. Sometimes three-fourths of the week's receipts for taxes were in furs. The money that was collected for taxes he carried about his person, or secreted it where no one but himself knew the place.
Not long after coming to the county, Mr. Gilliland, Smith Hill and John Marks, together with their wives, organized a church, and had services each Sunday, the meeting being held in their respective houses. On one occasion Mr. Gilliland and his wife, having started to Hill's to attend class, it occurred to him that he had better return and conceal what money he had on hand-several hundred dollars in gold. The money was secreted by being placed under the puncheon floor of his house. Upon returning from class meeting he discovered that the chest, in which he had been in the habit of keeping the money, had been broken open and emptied of its contents, but of course the money had not been found. Upon looking round he saw the imprint of a peculiarly shaped hand-made shoe, and not long afterward found out who wore the shoe, in this way discovering the would-be robber; but he never informed the public who the thief was, he and his broth- ers being the only ones that knew. However, he never had anything to do with the man who wore the peculiarly shaped shoe, though neigh- bors for twenty years.
Notwithstanding that the county was demo- cratic and he was a whig, he was elected sev- eral terms county commissioner, without oppo- sition. Oliver Stacey, one of the early settlers, having some business to transact with the commissioners, on one occasion, when he came out of the court house, remarked: . Well, we've got 100 commissioners in our county !" On being asked to explain, he said that he had
" found Gordon Gilliland doing all the business, and the other two sitting round doing nothing. and that if one and two naughts did not make 100, he could not count !"
Mr. Gilliland was very fond of hunting, but would never take his fall hunt until the last load of corn was in the crib. He always brought home with him, from a hunting trip, a goodly stock of honey and venison. One day, when appraising land, he shot four wolves, and at another time he killed a bear within 100 yards of his house. He had many warm friends among the Wyandot Indians, and they seldom returned to Van Wert county without making him a visit. He was also equally popular among his white neighbors, and it may be truthfully said that few inen pass through life with as many warm friends, and as few ene- mies, as he. He was a member of the Presby- terian church, and a most earnest worker for the cause of religion. His death occurred October 2, 1862, when he was sixty-two years of age.
HADDEUS STEVENS GILLI- LAND, a highly respected citizen of Van Wert, Ohio, a son of James Gor- don and Margaret Gilliland, was born October 27, 1834, in Adams county, Pa., and came to Ohio with his parents in 1835; they settled in Ridge township, Van Wert county, where his boyhood days were spent on the farm. He attended the district school three months every two years-part of the time walking three miles night and morning during the winter. In 1853 he entered Farmers col- lege at College Hill, near Cincinnati. The college was conducted by the Carys-Freeman and Samuel F. During that year Freeman Cary resigned the presidency of the college proper to accept the presidency of the farm department, and Isaac J. Allen was elected
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OF VAN WERT COUNTY.
president. After leaving college he taught school two winters in Van Wert and Allen counties, and spent two years in the dry-goods trade in Elida, and in 1857 returned to Van Wert county and engaged in clearing up a farm in Ridge township. November 12, 1857, he was married to Ruhannah Baker, daughter of Jacob S. Baker, of Allen county. During 1858, 1859, 1860, he taught school in Van Wert town and left the school-room to enter the army on the first call of the president for volunteers in April, 1861, enlisting for three months. He was chosen orderly sergeant of company E, Fifteenth Ohio volunteer infantry, and served under Gen. McClellan in West Vir- ginia until the expiration of the term of enlist- ment. He was engaged in the battles of Phil- ippi, Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford, and at the latter battle he was in command of the company. After being mustered out of service he returned home, and with W. C. Scott re- cruited company H, of the Fifteenth regiment Ohio volunteer infantry, of which company he was made captain and served under Gen. Buell in Kentucky and Tennessee. He was in command of his company in the battle. of Pittsburg Landing, in the second day's fight, and was in the last charge that drove the enemy off the field, charging past the old Shiloh church.
At the close of the war he engaged in the grain and produce trade in Van Wert, in which he has been engaged ever since. He has paid out more money to the farmers and given em- ployment to more people than any inan in the county. His business for several years amounted to over $300,000 a year, and his pay-roll frequently reached over $150 a week. He always made it a rule to pay his hands ev- ery Saturday. He united with the Presbyte- rian church in Van Wert in 1854, and was chosen an elder in 1863; was made a Mason in 1855, in Lima lodge, No. 205, F. & A. M.
He has seen the red men driven from their hunting grounds in the county; the bear, wolves and deer disappear, and fine farms come into existence where once was an almost impenetrable forest. He well recollects when it was forty miles north without a house, and when their nearest neighbors were fifteen miles away; when the nearest mill was at Piqua, and they had to go to Sandusky city for salt; when coonskins passed as currency; saw the first canal boat, the first stage-coach, and the first railroad train that came into the county; can recollect when a school-teacher could get a certificate if he could read, write, and had been through the first four rules in arithmetic and could bound the state of Ohio; recollects when Morse invented the telegraph and how the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper made fun of the idea that men could talk to each other over a wire forty miles long. He was captain of company H, Fifteenth regiment Ohio vol- unteer. infantry, during the Rebellion, and a colonel of the Ohio militia, and served two terms as mayor of Van Wert.
Ruhannah (Baker) Gilliland, wife of T. S. Gilliland, is the daughter of Jacob S. and Mary Baker and was born in Allen county, Ohio, July 27, 1839. Her parents came to Allen county from Fairfield county, Ohio, about 1835 or 1836, and were formerly from Pennsylvania. Her girlhood was spent on the farm and teaching school until her marriage, in 1857, when she moved with her husband to Van Wert county.
..
OHN JOHANTGEN has been a success- ful farmer of Ridge township, Van Wert county, Ohio, since 1872, and a resi- dent of the Buckeye state since 1837. He was born in Prussia, in 1834, a son of Francis and Mary Jane (Dietz) Johantgen, who came to America with their three sons -- Nich-
.
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
olas, Peter and John-in the year last named. and for two years, the father followed his trade of saddler in Dayton, Ohio, whence he moved to Shanesville, where he lived two years, and then returned to Dayton and followed his trade five years longer. He now bought a farm ten miles north of Dayton, on which he lived eight years, and then returned to Dayton, where he died Jan- uary 2, 1874, having lost his wife in the same week in 1873. After arriving in America these parents had born to them one son, Francis, who now resides in California. Nicholas the eldest brother, was a blacksmith and died January 30, 1895, and Peter, the second in the family, is a shoemaker and makes his home in Dayton.
John Johantgen, the subject of this sketch, early learned blacksmithing, which trade he followed a few years only, and then turned his attention to brickmaking and contracting. In 1864 he first married, in Dayton, Miss Mary Jane Swaningle, and in 1872 came to Van Wert county and purchased his present farin, which then was comprised of eighty acres, but to which he has since added twenty acres. To John and Mary Jane Johantgen were born six sons and three daughters; viz: Edward John, who grew to manhood and died in 1888: Car- rie Augusta. wife of George Duprey: Walter Charles, in the stave business at Mill Shoals, White county, Ill .; Horace, at home; Flora Alvy, wife of Homer Gilliland; Hayes Wheeler; Nannie; Francis and Robert Grant. The mother of this family was called to rest Octo- ber 28, 1888, and on the 16th of March, 1893. Mr. Johantgen took for his second wife Ma- linda, widow of James H. Bennington and daughter of William and Lydia (Harp) Hooks.
William Hooks was a native of Ohio, al- ways followed farming, and died December 19, 1881, on his seventy-first birthday; his widow is now in her eighty-third year. Be- sides Mrs. Johantgen, Mr. and Mrs. Hooks were the parents of four sons and one daughter,
viz: Reuben, a resident of Liberty township, Van Wert county; Inman, who lives neor Ohio City; Mary Ann, wife of Philip Miller, of Liberty township; Abraham, residing near Rockford, Mercer county, Ohio, and Frank, who died in February, 1894. Mrs. Johantgen is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church; in politics, Mr. Johantgen is a republican and has filled the office of township trustee two terms. Mr. Johantgen has been very success- ful as a farmer, is also interested in the stave business in Mill Shoals, Ill., and has won the respect of the entire community. Within the past year he has drilled for oil on his farm and has struck a well that is producing in paying quantities, thus proving that his farm is in the Ohio oil belt.
0 AVID J. HALE. dealer in agricul- tural implements in the city of Van Wert, Ohio, was born in Cumber- land county, Pa., February 28, 1838. At the age of eighteen years he came to Ohio and bought a farm of eighty acres in Wyandot county, on which he lived until April. 1881. pursuing the peaceful vocation of the agricul- turist. He married in Wyandot county, Feb- ruary 2, 1858, Miss Sarah A. Snyder. a daughter of Jesse Snyder, a pioneer of the county, the union resulting in the birth of four children, viz: Mary E., deceased; Jesse S .; and Cinderella G. and Stephen L., both de- ceased. May 2, 1864, he enlisted in company A, One Hundred and Forty-fourth Ohio vol- unteer infantry, and was assigned to guard duty at Baltimore, Md., and faithfully served until the expiration of his period of enlistment. On leaving his farm in Wyandot county he located in Monterey township, Putnam county, pul- chasing a farin on the line dividing Putnam and Van Wert counties, and there resided un- til 1891, when he came to the city of Van
D. V. Hale
367.368
.
MRS. DAVID J. HALE.
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OF VAN WERT COUNTY.
Wert and here became local agent for The Van Wert Hedge Fence company, and also engaged in the sale of agricultural implements, handling the Plano binder, the Jones chain mower, the Birch hand plow, the Brown wagon, the Hocking Valley loader and tedder and the Brown wagon Manufacturing com- pany's products in general. Mr. Hale owns a beautiful home at the corner of Wall and. George streets in the Third ward, and is also owner of 240 acres on the county line of Put- nam, as mentioned above.
In politics Mr. Hale is a republican, and in November, 1894, was appointed city coun- cilman, to fill out the unexpired term of O. A. Balyeat. He is a member of William T. Scott post, No. 100, G. A. R., at Van Wert, a member of the A. P. A., and is a class leader in the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Hale stands high socially, and is respected for his quiet, unassuming deportment, and his general usefulness as a citizen who understands his duties and never fails to perform them.
ILLIAM JOHNSON, JR., one of the most thriving and skillful farmers of Ridge township, Van Wert county, Ohio, is the sixth child born to William, Sr., and Ellen ( Burcaw ) Johnson, was born in Butler county, Ohio, October I, 1854, and was consequently but a mere infant when brought to Van Wert county by his par- ents, who settled in Ridge township March 8, 1856. In the biography of John A. Johnson, which immediately precedes this sketch, will be found fuller details of the life of William Johnson, Sr., to which the attention of the reader is respectively invited, these sketches being arranged according to seniority. In this brief memoir are given only the salient events in the life of William Johnson, Jr., which may be summed up as follows:
William Johnson, Jr., was reared on the home farm and early inured to the toughiening ordeal of that laborious but health-giving vo- cation, and thoroughly instructed in all the minutiæ and arcana of agriculture, so that he later became one of the most skillful and suc- cessful husbandmen of Ridge township and of the county-being both practical and intelli- gent. He enjoyed, in youth, the usual school advantages, and being apt and quick to learn, soon absorbed all the knowledge which his teachers were competent to impart-the school being, of course, what is usually denominated a "country school." He devoted his working hours as an able assistant to his father until 1877, when, on September 22, of that year, he married Miss Mary Weaver, a daughter of Samuel and Lydia ( Price ) Weaver, then highly respected and influential residents of Butler county, Ohio, but now deceased. To the congenial union of William and Mary John- son have been born the following children, in the order here named: Allie May, Effie, Flora, Sadie, Lendel, William Franklin and Martin. It may be here mentioned that the name of Lendell was selected from a half- hundred suggested by the students of Middle- point Normal school, which Mr. Johnson's elder children were then attending, and thus it was that the fifth child was so christened.
When Mr. Johnson began housekeeping he located on an eighty-acre tract a short distance west from his present beautiful home, in the southeast quarter of section No. 12, Ridge township, but resided there three months only, where he moved to a 100-acre farm two miles north, on which he applied his agricultural skill during his residence there of nine years; he then moved to his present site, which he has improved with an elegant dwelling and first- class barns and other substantial out-buildings, and so tilled the land that the farin easily com- pares with, if it does not out-rival, the best in
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the county. His possesions now comprise 244 acres of very fine land -- not all in one body, but all within easy access of his home- stead. Mr. Johnson has handled Jersey stock to some extent, and also some blooded horses, from which he has derived considerable reve- nue, but husbandry is his chief employment. He is a " broad-gauge " and progressive citizen in all respects, and is giving his children the best school advantages-a fact in itself indic- ative of a high order of interest on the part of the parent. His daughter, Allie May, became proficient in music under the tutorship of Prof. Owen. This gentleman, it will be remembered, was awarded the first prize-a medal-at the Columbian exposition, or " World's" fair, for his class in vocal music, it being the best trained of any that contested for superiority on that historical occasion. Mr. Johnson is a Knight of Pythias, and is a charter inember of Normal lodge, No. 680, at the organization of which there were sixty members. In politics Mr. Johnson is a republican, but has never been an office seeker. He is content to act the part of a goon citizen, and, indeed, no person is more readily recognized as such than William Johnson, Jr.
AN S. JOHNSON, superintendent of Woodlawn cemetery, and an ex- soldier of the Union army, was born in Orleans county, N. Y., December 13, 1836. He is a son of Amos C. Johnson, who was born in Vermont in 1801, was reared a fariner, and was a farmer all his life. He married Miss Elizabeth Hix, of New York, and in IS41 left Orleans county, N. Y., and removed to Williams county, Ohio, where he followed farming until his death, which oc- curred in 1844. He was a democrat in poli- tics, and a member of the Free Will Baptist church. He was in every way a good man,
was very liberal with his means, and donated much to public enterprises, but, through mis- fortunes of different kinds, he lost a great deal of money, and at his death left his family in rather poor circumstances. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, as follows: Jane B., Stephen V., William C., Dan S., Harriet M., Matilda M., Carlos B., Sarah M. and Amos C. Sarah died in 1842; the rest are living and are all married. The mother of these children died in. 1873, aged sixty-three years.
Dan S. Johnson remained at home with his mother eleven years, and then worked for different individuals until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in company G, Forty-fourth Indiana volunteer infantry, Sep- tember 2, 1861. He was in the battle of Shiloh, and that of Stone river, and in that of Chichamauga, and in the latter battle being wounded twice-first by a piece of shell and second by a musket ball, which struck him in the face. This was on September 19, 1863. He served in the war four years and twelve days. Mr. Johnson was raised from ranks in a series of promotions and was mustered out as captain. Four of his brothers also served in the war for the Union, and all came out safely, and are now alive and well.
After being discharged from the army Mr. Johnson went to Steuben county. Ind., where his mother was then living. After- ward we went to Kansas, in which state he bought a farm, and, returning to Steuben county, was married to Miss Hena Hubbell. He then returned to his Kansas farm and there remained two and a half years, following farming on his land. Selling this farm he re- turned to Indiana, where he lived until June 3. 1873, when he came to Ohio, locating in Van Wert county, where he has since remained. In politics Mr. Johnson is a strong republican. and he is a member of the Methodist Episco-
OF VAN WERT COUNTY.
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cal church. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, William C. Scott post, No. 100; and of Ben Hur Gasper Court No. 10, K. of P. He is receiving a moderate pen- sion from the government, which he appre- ciates, yet it is poor pay for the sacrifice and hardships endured from a monetary standpoint; yet Mr. Johnson is one of the many that are proud of the title of a soldier, feeling that he did nothing but his duty in defending the flag. In 1878 Mr. Johnson was appointed street commissioner and filled that office five years, and in 1891 was elected to the same position for two years, but at the end of one year he resigned to accept the position of superintend- ent of Woodland cemetery at Van Wert, a po- sition which he still retains.
By his marriage to Miss Hubbell he is the father of the following children: Caroline L., born in Kansas; Mary V., born in Indiana; Earl R., who graduated with the class of 1896 from the Van Wert high school; Hugh C., whe is a member of the Epworth league, and Flor- ence M., all three born in Van Wert county, Ohio. Florence M. died in Monroeville, Ind., in 1886; Caroline L. is the wife of Philip Krick, formerly of Monroeville, Ind., Miss Hena Hubbell, wife of the subject of this sketch, was born in Knox county, Ohio, No- vember 24, 1847. She is a daughter of George B. Hubbell, who was born August 21, 1819, also in Knox county. He was reared on a farm and received his education in the common schools, and afterward studied medicine with an uncle in Cincinnati. After becoming thor- oughly qualified to practice medicine he estab- lished himself in Knox county, and practiced there for some time, and removed thence to Delaware county, and later to Steuben county, Ind., and still later returned to Knox county, Ohio, and all through his professional career he was unusually successful. He was married to Miss Nancy Fox, of New Jersey, by whom
he was the father of the following children: Burton, Charles, Hena, Ordemas, and Lo- dema. Ordemas died in 1850. George B. Hubbell was a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a very liberal man in every way, freely giving of his means to the support of his church and to all worthy enterprises. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are among the best people of Van Wert county, honest and upright, true to all their duties in the vari- ous relations in life, and are highly respected by all who know them. The family are all members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Johnson owns a residence property on South Walnut street. Mrs. Johnson and daughter Mary are members of the Relief corps, No. 18, Van Wert, Ohio.
J BROUGH JOHNSON, son of Davis and Susan A. Johnson, was born August 17, 1863, in Van Wert county (see sketch of Davis Johnson). He was educated in the schools of Van Wert, reared a farmer, and on the 17th day of August, 1886, was united in marriage to Laura F. Ferguson. daughter of James K. and Henrietta Ferguson. Shortly after his marriage Mr. Johnson built his present home in Van Wert, where he has since resided. He is engaged in farming and stock-raising, in both of which his success has been most encouraging. He is a public-spirit- ed man, quiet, but progressive, one of the prominent citizens of Van Wert, and his home, on North Washington street, is the abode of plenty and true-hearted hospitality. While a republican in politics, he has never been an aspirant for official position; contributes to his party's success, state and national, but in local elections votes for the man best fitted for the office, irrespective of party affilitiation.
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