USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 32
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
243
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
steward ; David Klinger, assistant steward; Samuel G. Foucht, chaplain ; Joseph Sevitz, treasurer ; J. G. Helser, secretary ; Cornelius Fisher, gate- keeper ; Mrs. Elizabeth Grubb, Ceres; Mrs. Anna Binkley, Pomona; Miss Sarah A. Helser, Flora ; Miss Sarah E. Binkley, Lady Assistant Steward. For almost half a century this has been a flourishing Grange. In four more years it will be celebrating its first half century in local history. The Allen County Mutual Fire Insurance Company was organized by the Granges ; John J. Cole of American Township was the leading spirit in its organization ; the Auglaize Mutual Protective Association, organized largely through the efforts of M. A. Baber of Amanda, was also a Grange organization ; both companies have been very successful and are still actively engaged in business.
Pioneer Granges not already mentioned were: Amanda, Alonzo Frye, William Richardson, C. Hover and Robert Brooks; Auglaize, H. D. Creps, John B. Leatherman, Elijah Williams and F. M. Clum; Ameri- can, W. D. Poling, Jacob Crites, Albert Kemp, Eli Imler, William Peters and Lewis Kreiling; Bath, John Weaver, C. Parker, William Lutz and Samuel Boose ; Jackson, Amos Binkley, Noah Clum, Adam Leatherman, Jacob Hoffman and M. V. Blair; Marion, J. W. Ditto, Moses W. Long, Calvin Herring, Isaac Ludwig and James Baxter; Monroe, A. Brenne- man, Aaron States and Reuben Harpster; Perry, M. L. Baker, Simon Severns, F. Y. Davis, John Tussing, Reverend Bowdle, George C. Schooler and J. A. Jacobs ; Shawnee, William Rusler, who was the first deputy state master and who organized and gave the unwritten work to eighteen subordinate lodges; James McBeth, G. L. Breese and Beach Graham; Spencer, Hugh Hill, Adam Wolford, Deputy State Master S. Weaver and many others.
The Home Protective League was organized within the Grange, July 30, 1919, to fight classification which was overwhelmingly defeated. The league assisted the Ohio State Grange and other organizations in the tax fights which prevented the Legislature from again submitting classifica- tion, and it has always worked in the interest of the taxpayer; while classification was defeated a new danger is threatening; single tax is being advocated ; this means the league has a fight ahead; the grange has always been committed to the welfare of those engaged in agriculture.
Here's a toast to the young Allen County farmer : "A nice little farm well tilled, A nice little house well filled, And a nice little wife well willed," and here is another side to the story : "But heart's desire is only this, Dear love within a cottage small, The firelight's home caressing kiss And God's own blessing on us all."
ALLEN COUNTY FARM BUREAU
The Allen County Farm Bureau grew out of a war necessity; the United States Government was asking for increased production from the farmers; they must make edges cut in the industry of agriculture; the customs of the first agriculturists are described in Sacred Writ: "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor ; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire," and that describes intensive agriculture. When the United States Government laid its hand on Allen County,
244
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
H. L. Kay of Amanda Township was alert, and wrote out a forecast for such activities; he was invited to present the matter before the Lima Chamber of Commerce. There were only a few bureaus in Ohio, the plan of organization having been considered in 1917 and matured in the following year; the Smith-Hughes Vocational Educational Law recog- nized the county agent plan, and the Chamber of Commerce felt the need of a medium through which it might reach the farm homes; money for such organization could be obtained from the state-the ultimate taxpayer always behind everything.
Mr. Kay and Fred Zeits were active in promoting an organization, Mr. Zeits becoming its first president ; it was up to the farmers to meet the changed conditions; the United States was at war and increased pro- duction was necessary ; the Allen County Council of Defense was active, and its aim was an educated citizenship; its effort was to enlist the idle boys in the towns to work on the farms; with the young Allen County farmers overseas, there was a shortage of farm labor; when Mr. Kay had outlined his plans before the Chamber of Commerce, prominent men of the community set about their development ; getting the boys of the towns onto the farins embodied a task; they must be assured of credits in their school work, and as a result the Students Army Training Corps came into existence ; the boy who responded to the call of agriculture was thus assured of his grades; the high schools and colleges all made conces- sions to them for the duration of the war; since Armistice Day such stu- dents have been designated as the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Many young men responded to this manifestation of patriotism.
It was understood that the state would give $1,500 toward the organ- ization of a farm bureau in Allen County; in 1918, a number of local men, assisted by two Columbus citizens from the farm bureau, inter- ested a sufficient number of Allen County farmers who paid $1 a year toward such an organization ; while not all the farmers responded, there were enough progressive ones to effect the organization of the Allen County Farm Bureau; the membership basis was soon changed to $10, each subscriber binding himself for three years; it is now on a sound financial basis; while not all support it, all may have benefits from it. Capt. Raymond W. Carr was the first farm agent; he was from Fort Sill, being released from duty through the signing of the armistice, and he was a popular official; he had the influenza and was compelled to leave because of failing health. Later farm agents are: C. J. Windau, J. T. Wilcox and C. L. Andrew. Since August, 1919, the incumbent is L. S. Van Natta. The membership canvas in March, 1920, resulted in securing 916 paid members at $10, and signed up for three years; all farm owners and tenant farmers are eligible to membership in the Allen County Farm Bureau; the farm agent is at the service of all Allen County farmers.
The farm agent conducts soil tests, lime demonstrations and poultry tests; through his ability to enlist the children of the public schools, Prof. C. A. Argenbright has co-operated with the farm bureau in testing seed corn. While co-operative marketing plans have not yet been so fully worked out as in some counties, something is being done in that direction ; all the towns have railroad sidings and stock pens, and local buyers han- dle grain and live stock; while every town has its warehouse and its shipping industry, as yet the farm bureau does not control the business. While there are equity shipping arrangements, they are personal enter- prises. Clarence Breese of Shawnee is president, and H. L. Kay of Amanda and Lima is secretary-treasurer of the Allen County Farm Bureau, A. D. 1920, and they are rapidly surmounting difficulties in its
245
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
organization. The grange and the farm bureau have the same con- stituency-those engaged in agriculture. Many active grangers are also members of the farm bureau.
A recent newspaper clipping says: "Farmers of Allen County are designating their land with conspicuous signs which tell of their chief enterprise; these demonstration signs are placed in front of their resi- dences, so that passersby may stop and inquire into the merits of the farm specialty; in large letters they read: ‘Demonstration Farm, Allen County Farm Bureau,' and then the specialty : 'Single Comb Rhode Island Reds,' or 'Limestone Plats,' or whatever may be the special production of the farm; it may be hogs, wheat, poultry, small fruits," and the bulletin serves to advertise them. It keeps the products of the farm before the public-in short, it is business. The thing of greatest human importance is the production and distribution of food-business. Religion, educa- tion, art, politics-all are secondary to it. Business is nothing more than providing life's necessities. The grange and the farm bureau have the same relation to the community.
The price of farm land is influenced by its location, and by the nature of its improvements ; while an occasional farm may change ownership at $150 an acre, the exchange price is sometimes twice that amount, and there are but few run-down farms to command the lower price under the new order of agriculture. Live stock farming increases soil fertility, and live stock fed on the farm is the salvation of the country. There are few old-time "hardscrabble" farmsteads in Allen County today. With live stock and poultry production there are constant sources of income, and it has always been said that the American hen would pay off the national debt with half a chance, but while she was doomed to roost all winter long in the trees she only laid a few clutches of eggs in the whole year ; the twentieth century hen has made a record for herself, and a number of Allen County farmers are poultry specialtists.
It is conceded by all that the inventive genius of man has done as much for the Allen County farmer and his wife, in giving them improved working conditions as in any other branch of economics. One need only look back to the beginning of the twentieth century to note many changes. The age of electricity dawned in the nineteenth century, and while some men and women will always live in the past as far as drudgery and hard labor are concerned, the farm boy of today knows little about pumping water for a herd of thirsty cattle, the windmill and the gasoline engine having emancipated him. The products of the farm are fed to live stock and marketed in that way, and under the new order of things there are frequent paydays in the country. It isn't many years since Allen County merchants carried many farmers by the year through their book accounts, and diversified farming-more variety in farm products, has changed the story. Corn, oats, wheat, clover and back again to corn brings results in Allen County. Combined with live stock, there is some attention given to pet stock production, and rabbit growing is becoming a recognized farm industry.
Back to the farm-back to the farm has been the cry, and the retired farmer who is not too infirm to continue farm activities-the retired farmers living in town are no longer producers; when they become con- sumers they help increase the demand on the market, thereby bringing about the higher living expense; with so many producers transferred to the consumers' class, the law of supply and demand seems to work a hard- ship to all. Every town has its quota of retired farmers ; some give up the active farm management and remain on the farms, and they can always find profitable employment tinkering about the place ; the retired farmer is profitable when it is time to select corn for seed ; some students
246
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
of agriculture say that when the farmer reduces his activities from a quarter section of land to an ordinary town lot, he shortens his days. When he has been used to range he still requires it. It is often said that it is better to wear out than to rust out, and while the towns are over-populated in these World war reconstruction days, there are too many empty farmhouses.
Since the automobile has emancipated the driving horse, and the retired farmer can no longer improve his time by an early start with a load of manure for the farm each morning, it seems like town is a hope- less place for him. When he has whittled store boxes all morning, he wonders what to do with himself. If he were on the farm, he could split wood or lay up rails-could find some profitable light employment, and thereby lengthen his days. As long as there are "March winds and April showers" there will be some necessary work on the farmsteads; while "Thirty days hath September, April, June and November," there will be reward for his labor if he busies himself throughout the other changing months in the year. Sometimes it is the labor problem-the man and his wife no longer equal to the long hours-eight hours in the morning and eight again in the afternoon; two sets of farm buildings solve that difficulty. Sometimes one house does not serve two families satisfactorily.
On many Allen County farmsteads the horse has been supplanted for heavy draft by the farm tractor, and he has been almost totally annihilated from the public highways by the automobiles; where would Paul Revere get to on horseback today? They used to say that if an automobile trip were planned a horseback rider should be sent through the country ahead to warn the countryside; not so many years ago farm- ers walked half-way to town leading their horses past automobiles, but today they whiz by in them themselves. There was a time when a gallop- ing horse along a public highway, indicated that some one was in need of the doctor. There are labor-saving devices nowadays that would cause the forefathers to push their fingers through their hair in amazement, and the man who said of the steam engine that it would not start and then that it would not stop, still has relatives in Allen County.
The doubting Thomas of the Bible is not alone in the world of doubt- ers : he has brothers and sisters in Allen County as well as in the rest of the world. The gasoline tractor used in turning the sod on Allen County farms, obviates the sore shoulder difficulty encountered a genera- tion ago when horses were the sole motive power in drawing the plow, and the grass-fed horse when feed was scarce did not have the strength of the modern tractor; there were always some farmers who were out of corn before corn came again; some farmers still had corn in the field when it was time to plant it again. The thrifty Allen County farmers today have commodious barns-shelter for all their live stock, and they live in modern houses with running water, furnace heat, artificial light plants, and all as a direct result of business methods applied to agricul- ture ; the educated or book farmer, has had his part in the changed con- ditions ; what is not in the head is in the heels, and the educated farmer takes advantage of many things.
While the forefathers worked long hours over humdrum jobs, the labor-saving machinery used today leaves some time for planning better methods of doing things; running a farm is like running a factory; it requires a high grade of intelligence to make high-priced land profitable for agriculture. Improved farm implements have always appeared on the market as farmers needed them; the labor scarcity has rendered them a necessity. What has become of the Allen County farmhand so neces- sary only a few years ago? Who remembers about Roosevelt's Country Life Commission and the purpose of it?
CHAPTER XXI THE TEMPLE OF JUSTICE-ALLEN COUNTY OFFICIAL ROSTER
It may be said that an increased knowledge of the general plan, and of the details of the system under which Ohio is governed, cannot fail to develop in its citizenry a wholesome respect for its government. The history of Allen County is the story of a manhood and a womanhood which from the days of the first log cabins, have had no superiors among the pioneers of' any country, and it is a group of very accommodating officials that is found in the Allen County temple of justice today. Patri- otic pride is conducive to a better contented, more law-abiding citizenship.
While June 6, 1831, was the beginning of the official life of Allen County, there was no public house in which to hold the first session of the Allen County court. The first record was made in the cabin home of James Daniels, said to have been near the Ottawa River east from the site of the Lima public square. Not many sessions were held in the Daniels cabin, but a contract was let there for a log courthouse which was built in 1832, south from the public square at the corner of Main and Spring streets, and it was used eight years. While the Council House of the Shawnees was then in existence, the settlers never recog- nized it in an official way. The first courthouse was two stories in height and served at once as courtroom, county offices and jail; it was made of small, hewed logs and the contract was let for it, August 27, 1831, the stipulated cost being $175, Josiah Crawford becoming the builder. All sorts of people under one roof proved unsatisfactory, and in July, 1833, a contract was let to Daniel Tracey to construct a separate jail, the amount of $179 being appropriated for it; this contract was let at public outcry to the lowest bidder. The first session of court in the new struc- ture was held March 4, 1833, but in 1839 a new courthouse was planned, the location being at Market and Main streets-the site of the Cincinnati block, and in July, 1841, when there was no further need of it the log courthouse and jail and the two lots thus occupied, were sold at auction. There is no record of the money consideration.
While the number of offices was optional in each county, Allen organ- ized with James Daniels, John G. Wood and Samuel Stewart as the first board of county commissioners; William G. Wood was auditor; Adam White, treasurer; Henry Lippincott, sheriff, and Loren Kennedy, prose- cuting attorney. These are the men who had to do with the first busi- ness transactions in the county. They were in position to cope with all of the problems of the day.
An era of prosperity was dawning in Allen County, and the log court- house did not meet the requirements of the community; the second courthouse built of brick with Doric columns, put to shame all of the unpretentious log structures in the town. It served the purpose, how- ever, of both courthouse and jail-the bastile being in the basement story. John P. Haller was the contractor; about that time he built the first county infirmary. He also built the first brick sewer from High Street along Main Street to the Ottawa River. He was the most prominent contractor in the community. He had a great deal of pride in the new Allen County courthouse. The finishing stroke on the temple of justice was the stone steps and the Doric columns. It was a marvel in architec- ture. Many citizens of Lima remember it. There was a house-warming
247
248
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
there in 1842, that was a social event in the lives of Allen County men and women of fourscore years ago.
When the second temple of justice was ready for service, Lima society dedicated it by tripping the "light fantastic toe," the whole community turning out to a big dance. The women who were interested in the preparations for the grand ball which was given in the basement, went in and scrubbed it and had all things in readiness. They improvised beds in the cells prepared for the future prisoners, and since there would be: "No sleep till morn when youth and pleasure meet,
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet,"
there was a place for the babies to sleep and soundly as if they were in
FIRST COURTHOUSE, ERECTED 1832
their own downy beds. What resident of Allen County today has the assurance that he was a sleeping babe while his father and mother were having part in that dedicatory gaiety? As yet no prisoners had occupied the bunks set aside that night for the sleeping infants carried there.
This elegant new courthouse served the purpose forty years, in the most active days of Allen County's business and social development. While there were few prisoners in those days a basement jail was never satisfactory. While there was occasionally a drunken Indian or a horse- thief in durance vile, the basement jail was not sufficiently secluded, and people were inclined to look through the windows at the prisoners. Every town has its lockup difficulties, and isolation is the one essential in handling prisoners. They are soon transferred to the county bastile for greater safety. It is related that Harrod once had a lockup, and
249
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
when a man was imprisoned who could not be unloaded on the county sheriff for safe keeping, they left the door unlocked hoping the prisoner would make his escape, but while he was a prisoner, the town had to feed him, and he refused to be turned out into the world again. When the second courthouse was no longer equal to the requirements in Allen County, the location was changed again, and the jail was completed where it stands today in advance of the third temple of justice. The corner stone of the present courthouse was laid July 4, 1882, with a ceremony that attracted many visitors. The cost of building the court- house and jail was $350,000, and it has served the community now almost as long as did the second temple of justice.
1
SECOND COURTHOUSE
The officials in any county represent the voters in it-not those who fail to exercise citizenship prerogatives, and it is said some men must be supported by the public-must be in the hands of their friends, and if they fail in politics they frequently engage in lodge, church or charity work because of the salary connected with it. Those serving Allen County today are recognizing the need of more space in which to transact the business-and yet the courthouse was built well, and condemnation proceedings will not remove it. There are features about it no longer modern, and in time there will be demand for different housing for those privileged to serve Allen County. The first record of charity or over- sight of Allen County's unfortunates, shows an expense for repair on the first jail; on October 1, 1831, the commissioners appointed Henry Lippincott to prepare plans for "fixing some place of confinement for
250
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
Uri Martin under arrest as an insane person," and the developments in future are awaited with interest.
THE 1920 NATIONAL ELECTION
It is urged by some that government begins in the home, expands to the state and nation and that finally the church is the controlling influence, but in a community where not all the citizens are identified with the church, there is some question about it. The government of the family, school, state and nation must be vested in some recognized head, and here is where politics enters into the consideration. With three presidential candidates headed directly for the White House in Washington City, Ohio was the political storm center, A. D. 1920, and Allen County was one of the high spots touched by all of the electric currents in the presi- dential campaign as well as county affairs-the storm clouds lowering over Lima frequently. Indeed, some of the heavy artillery in the cam- paign was fired in Allen County. The presidency of the United States simply forced itself upon the people of Ohio, and it seemed like the ultimate choice would be a printer. Since the Front Porch and Trailsend are both in Ohio, what could the people of Allen County do about it? It was like the ultimatum in 1840: "Therefore, without a why or where- fore, vote for Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," and prior to 1920, the state had furnished six presidents, one vice president, three presidents of the United States Senate, one speaker of the House, two chief justices, five associate justices, and twenty-two cabinet officers. In 1888, Lima had furnished the national democratic chairman in the person of Senator C. S. Brice, and thus political prominence is not an unknown quantity in Allen County.
Two sides to every question-the name of Vallandingham was once heard in Allen County ; there were Knights of the Golden Circle, and yet law and order have always been in the ascendency. When there were but seven families in Lima, the Browns, Mitchells, Marks, Edwards and Pel- tiers were whigs, while the Bashores and the Cunninghams were demo- crats, but the scale changed and the democrats were in the majority. Next to a good winner is a good loser, and the political landslide, Novem- ber 2, 1920, revolutionized things, and it was said of the democrats that they "also ran," when there was a summary of results. While a political landslide buries everything but the hatchet, Allen County democrats accepted the situation philosophically and came out with colors flying- were cheerful about it. One aged man, William Bressler, did want to see another democratic jubilee in the public square of Lima, then solilo- quized : "We've had the Allen County courthouse a good while, but they've 'slipped one over on us.'"
The Allen County political landslide, A. D. 1920, was not attributed to the glacial period, and the courthouse majority became republican for the first time in its history. For the first time the women aroused them- selves to the duties and privileges of citizenship; they were face to face with ballots, saying nothing of bullets, and they had their political head- quarters with campaign literature adapted to their requirements; the democratic women trained with their husbands, but the republican women were under a different roof and their campaign of education was carried on so extensively that there could be no way of determining who had cast the discarded ballots; the women demonstrated their efficiency at the polls, although in each precinct there was a collection of umbrellas left in the voting booths.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.