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 42
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No great stretch of imagination was necessary to portray in one's mind of fancy a picture of the vanished forest people who once trod the sleeping trail. If only that virgin forest had been preserved as a public park that present and future generations might have glimpsed upon the trail of Quilna. But the ax and the plow have now completely erased all trace of the inter-village road of a perished civilization. May the time speed when a monument will preserve and embellish the name Quilna. When Christopher Wood came to Allen County in 1824 he toiled some six days in clearing the way from Bellefontaine to Wapa- koneta, thus effecting a connecting link between the Hull and Wayne roads. It is most likely the Indians at Lewiston had in use a slender trail to Wapakoneta that was followed and cut out sufficiently for the passage of the ox team of Mr. Woods. From Wapakoneta to the Shaw- nee Village on Hog Creek this pioneer traversed the trail of Quilna and after a friendly sojourn he chopped three days further into the wilds and in so doing opened the first way through the present site of Lima. He located on what is known as the Miller farm on Sugar Creek.
The following year Samuel McClure headed a party who chopped their way into Bath Township from the southeast-most likely the iden- tical route of the present Bellefontaine road over the "Devil's Back- bone." Wood came under the tutelage of the Shawnees while McClure was directed by friendly Wyandottes. This clearly explains the prox- imity of the two settlements for many months without the knowledge of the presence of the other. Those early families in their coming left footprints which after years have become permanent landmarks in the form of highways that are now well established. So crude and unre- corded were those early traces that the state road maps of 1828 do
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not mark them at all. About this time an order was issued by the State, placing certain restrictions upon road construction. All timbers shall be cut off and cleared at least twenty feet wide, leaving no stumps over one foot high; all wet and miry places shall be made passable by cause- ways 16 feet wide, made of timbers.
One can accept the height limitation on stumps thus fixed, as the original "Safety First" movement in Ohio, and the same unmistakable order also made legitimate the impressionable and never forgettable "corduroy road" of pioneer times; in fact corduroy roads survived in these parts until the tender years of the writer, for vivid recollection of attacks of "liver grown" pains that were attendant upon "shock absorber- less" rides over belated stretches, are still a lingering memory. In 1842, Charles Dickens came to America to secure first-hand information, and impressions of the pioneers who
"Hewed the dark old woods away And gave the virgin fields today,"
and one of his journeys was over the road from Columbus to Toledo. In his passage which was not far from this county, Mr. Dickens encountered the prevailing conditions that beset the early settlers of these parts; he feelingly noted the following: "There was the swamp, the bush, the per- petual chorus of frogs, the rank, unseemly growth, the unwholesome, steaming earth; here and there, and frequently, too, a solitary broken down wagon full of new settler's goods; it was a pitiful sight to see one of these wagons deep in the mire; axletree broken, the wheel laying idly at its side; the man gone miles away to look for assistance.
"The woman seated among the wandering household goods with a baby at her breast, a picture of forlorn and dejected patience; the ox team crunching down mournfully in the mud, and breathing forth clouds of vapor from their mouths and nostrils ; a great portion of the way was over what was called corduroy roads, which are made of trees thrown into a marsh and left to settle there; the very slightest jolts with which the carriage fell from log to log, was enough, it seemed to me, to have dislocated every bone in the human body." On March 7, 1842, a traveler left Columbus for Lima, and reached his destination four days later. He wrote, saying: "The road had been surveyed, some underbrush cut out, but not sufficient to find the road in the dark; the entire country was afloat ; the ravines and depressions would swim a horse; corduroy was made of rails laid down in a dry time; there was danger of breaking the legs of the horses and the necks of the riders."
To the people of today, the corduroy road has gone to be commemo- rated only in the printed sketch about it; along with it to oblivion has gone the once familiar expression : "It's a poor driver that can't hit a stump." There was no tax duplicate in Allen County until June 6, 1831, hence no publicly improved roads prior to that time; all roads in use were trails and traces cut out as necessity demanded them ; the Allentown road is said to have been the first improved road in the county. It has recently, in part, been marked as a section of the H. M. C. Indian Trail route from Lima to Chicago. In 1831, the Elida road was chopped out to Lima, William Knittle being one of the choppers; the same year, John F. Cole is said to have brought the first stock of merchandise to Lima ; the cargo was brought in from Dayton towed by a trio of brawny oxen; the route was by way of Wapakoneta and the Quilna trail, and the trip consumed a period of some sixteen days of toilsome travel.
In 1833, the Harpsters, in coming from Wyandotte County chopped the way in part to the banks of Sugar Creek. In 1834, William Brady
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and William Scott opened a road from the Auglaize River through the "ten mile woods" to Van Wert; the course was no doubt identical with the Ridge road through Delphos and beyond, now known as the Lincoln Highway. In the early '30s the Amanda road was surveyed by Ezekiel Hover; in 1835, the pioneers in the vicinity of Bluffton cut out a road thirty feet wide where now is the main street of Bluffton ; in these days a cut road was a luxury-other roads were mere paths; the wagon trail from Findlay to Lima by way of Bluffton, is today a part of the famous Dixie Highway. That portion of the original trail that avoided "syca- more swale" and Beaver Dam, was in later years given the present course, after drainage facilities were worked out; a glimpse at a county road
TRAVEL IN THE SIXTIES
map today will readily disclose where the early trails existed, due to the variable and devious courses ; they were made to follow the ridge lands, usually along the various creeks and streams. Some of the most beau- tiful drives today are afforded by these same unique routes.
A trip over the Amanda trail from Lima to the Children's Home is one of delightful reward; a drive over the Devil's Backbone on the old stage-coach route is one of marked interest ; one should not miss a jour- ney through "Kissing Hollow" along the beautiful, wealth-laden Sugar Creek. Perhaps the most wonderful of all drives, at least from the point of imbibing the spirit of the original trail atmosphere, is to follow the course of the famous Wayne Trace from Wapakoneta across Allen County to Fort Jennings and beyond; to spend a day in communion with nature, one cannot be better rewarded than to hie away with a picnic party to one of the many inviting nooks along the Auglaize; the early
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river crossings were all at shallow places prior to the early bridges; the first bridge authorized by the county was in 1839; it was built across Little Hog Creek at Shawnee Township at a cost of $50; this was at a point where the present Dixie Highway crosses the creek on the Wapa- koneta road. (It is a unique thing in Allen County history that two such famous roads as the Lincoln and Dixie highways should intersect within its borders. No other Ohio county can boast that distinction.) The early trails, traces and tracks of Allen County were once a scrambled network, void of a general plan; however, the modern and complete system of highways today is based most excellently on these trails.
Many of Allen County's most prominent roads today are identical with the original trails, in the greater part of their course through the county ; among these might be mentioned the Findlay road, the Allen- town road, the Bellefontaine road, the St. John's road, the Amanda road, the Spencerville road, the Elida-Delphos road, the Gomer-Vaughnsville road, the Ash Grove road, the Columbus Grove road, the Marion road. the Napoleon road, the West Prairie road, the Scott's Crossing road ; these are household words to residents in all parts of the county, and they will forever preserve in Allen County some of the earliest footprints of civilization. In 1816, Major Long of the United States Army headed an expedition that made a survey for prospective national roads throughout the central states. This expedition traversed this section of the country, and Major Long is known to have traveled from St. Marys to Fort Wayne on the Wayne Trace. The expedition covered a distance of sev- eral thousand miles in a period of three years.
In 1819-20, John C. Calhoun, as secretary of war, sent an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains in the interest of the national and military roads, and as a result the greatest highway ever projected was proposed to run from Wheeling through Fort Wayne to the Missis- sippi ; this road as planned would have cost $7,000,000, and would not only have passed through Allen County, but it would have touched the present site of Lima; there were no cities or towns in this section to press local claims, and persistent pressure on Congress from St. Louis and other cities to the south, caused the abandonment of a gigantic enter- prise that would have meant much to Allen County in pioneer times; today the Lincoln Highway has in part taken up the course planned a century ago.
In the City of Lima the course of the roads and trails has been greatly marred; the Wapakoneta, the St. John's and the West Prairie roads formed a junction at Blue Bird Hill, a point identical with Circular and Main streets; these roads came into this point at bold angles, all leading to a common ford across the Ottawa River at the site of the present Main Street bridge; the Amanda and Spencerville roads formed a junction near the foot of Baxter Street, and following the course of the river to West Street, thence curving about the tannery and brewery site, it took the present course of Water Street to Main Street ; here the course of the river road led to that of East Elm Street, and led on to the ford at the site of the present Elm Street bridge; in after years this road passed under the railroad as now, and a log bridge was erected at the river crossing; along Elm Street and the river road was all of the factory and mill business for many years.
The Elida road led in boldly from the northwest; its course near the present congested district of Lima has long since been abandoned, leading in on platted streets; the same is true of the Findlay road from where it enters Jackson Street ; the Bellefontaine road alone retains its original course; there is a tradition well supported that Circular Street is a part
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of an Indian trail that crept along the south bank of the Ottawa River; it is most likely a last vestige of the trail that joined the Shawnee village to that of the Wyandottes. Dr. George Hall relates that some fifty years ago, the residents on Circular Street opposed correcting its present course for historic reasons. It was at the point where Circular Street led into the main road at Blue Bird Hill, that the veteran historian, Henry Howe, who was in Lima in 1846, made his pencil sketches.
Out in the townships, too, have many trails been abandoned; the Quilna trail is completely effaced; the West Prairie road once led in from the Lewiston district; it has long been blotted out from beyond South Warsaw, and turned into section line channels; early residents recall how its former course could be traced by the avenued void in the deep woods many years after. In Shawnee Township there was a crooked trail leading from the Shawnee church up stream, to where the first general store in the township was located at Hall's Crossing; a part of this road is still open; from the Indian village site to the Benjamin Bowsher homestead farm, there was a trail leading up stream to where the Lutheran Church now stands, and it doubtless made a junction with the old Quilna trail near this point; here was one of the early mills; along this trail was lined the homes of the first residents of this part of Allen County ; the Meffley tailor shop was half a mile further up the stream, and it was one of the first custom shops in the county ; for many years the entire settlement was known as Stringtown; this trail, like many others has been swallowed up by oblivion, having given way to the changed con- ditions incident to the coming of the Miami and Erie Canal, and the railroad systems that now serve the community.
When the first settlers arrived in Allen County, horseback travel was the fastest known transit service; within the present generation a steam locomotive established a record of more than 120 miles per hour ; more recently an electric car developed a speed of more than 130 miles per hour; still more recently a racing automobile took the speed record from the electric motor; but the automobile very soon surrendered the speed title to an aeroplane, that in a burst of space annihilation exceeded a rate of 180 miles an hour-a most wonderful contrast to the plodding ways and retarding courses along the early trails, traces and tracks in Allen County. (While Mayor Burkhardt also wrote of the tracks, that feature is reserved for the chapter on transportation.)
Allen County has today over 900 miles of public highway, and it can be safely asserted that at least 95 per cent of it is improved-paved, piked or macadamed; two great transcontinental highways, the Lincoln and the Dixie, cross within the county. (Is that true in any other county?) Other state and county roads completely ramify the county, so that today the 8,000 automobiles and motor trucks owned by Allen County citizens, are speedily moving over artly stretches of magnificent highways where once was prevalent the squash and chuck and uncertain splashes, emanat- ing from belated hoofs that punctured the softened turf, and doughed the softened clay, as the settlers with hope and patience urged them on, the sturdy steeds that plodded the weary distance to and from mill. and market and church.
The people of Allen County are living in a day of wonderful con- trasts ; it is not long since logs floated mid-road, and pedestrians had to coon along zigzag on a rail fence, by fingers and toes at many points; today a program of road construction and rebuilding is being worked out in the county that will entail the expenditure of one and a half million dollars within the next five years; it seems an assured thing that the trails, traces and tracks of the pioneer, the Indian and the buffalo are
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now eternally interwoven into the foundation bulwarks of a new civiliza- tion ; the world is today awed by tremendous things. Verily hath it been said : "Man's extremity is God's opportunity," and the thing to do is to turn from the dim maze of the trails of the past, and face the mighty highways that lead on and on; may the noble spirits of the God-fearing pioneers ever lend to their prosterity greater and truer visions.
Addenda : There has been evolution in the road building system, and the men who used to use one-horse scrapers and draw the dirt from the gutters to the middle of the road served one good purpose-the ditch at the side of the road drained it. The tile drain is one of the considera- tions in modern road building, and it benefits both the highway and the fields along it. When the roadbed is drained it will stand a great deal more travel, than when the horse must pull its feet out of the mud, and use all of its strength without drawing a wagon. Shawnee Township it fortunate in its highways because of the great amount of wealth assessed there, and its tax rate need not be high in order to have its roads in excellent condition. While "the little house says stay and the little road says go," there will be a difference of opinion in the community. The road is the answer to the riddle: "What is it that goes to mill and stands still ?"
CHAPTER XXXI
TRANSPORTATION-ITS RELATION TO COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURING
The annals of Allen County deal at length with the long, wearisome journeys of the pioneers to distant trading points; sometimes they must have supplies other than what they could secure with their trusty rifles in the forests that infested the county. It is still handed down that the settlers were two, three and four days going to Piqua or Fort Defiance, and then the canal across the western part of Allen County brought the outside world closer to the community.
Transportation is one of the greatest contributors to civilization, and the Erie and Miami Canal was a welcome enterprise. In 1828, the United States Government offered a liberal inducement to any enter- prising person or company who would build a canal connecting Dayton and Fort Defiance; the route was to parallel the Auglaize through the territory drained by it; the State of Ohio, or any builder. was to have the revenue from the sale of all the even number sections of land crossed by the canal, and in the chapter dealing with Delphos and Spencerville, the activities of Father John Otto Bredeich are described-had emissaries on the ground in advance, watching developments. Under the direction of Samuel H. Farrar, three different routes were surveyed and finally when a route was determined there was a rush for investment, there being four townsites established in what is now Delphos.
It is a matter of record that as early as January, 1817, there were resolutions passed the Ohio Assembly relating to a canal connecting the Ohio River with Lake Erie, and in 1819, the subject was again up for consideration ; interest revived and waned repeatedly, when finally a competent engineer was employed-James Geddes of New York. There were three routes under consideration, and it seems that a different engi- neer made each survey, as another account mentions Samnel Forer- Samuel Forer and Samuel Farrar were one and the same, and their identity confused in the spelling, by different writers. Mr. Geddes was from the region of canals in New York. Finally, an act was passed by the Ohio Assembly in February, 1825: "To provide for the internal improvement of the state by navigable canals," and it is attested in the vicinity of Delphos and Spencerville that the construction of the canal when Allen County was still in its swaddling clothes, gave renewed progress and vigor to the community.
While the canal surveys were begun as early as 1830, it was several years before there was a canal carrying packets across Allen County. The first canalboat of any description-most likely laden with freight -* to pass through Delphos, July 4, 1845, was the Marshall, and the town was full of people: "It was a most significant event, and the occasion of a day of triumph and gala festive acclaim; the new canal early became the chief artery of transportation for a mighty trade zone. Delphos and Spencerville soon sprang into commercial prominence; at Delphos, sev- eral taverns and hotels did a flourishing business, and the crude highways teamed with heavy traffic; not only freight, but passenger traffic as well were carried in most elegantly appointed fashion; there were the cabins and parlors and attendant cafe service, and the relays of horses were pushed for speed. But scarcely had the towpaths been securely beaten
331,
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down by the plodding hoofs, when the locomotive arrived and changed economic conditions."
However, the canal served its purpose-had its day, and Governor- elect William Bebb was a passenger on the first passenger packet to arrive in 1846, and the public-spirited business men of Delphos met the boat at a lock a mile away and supplied fresh horses to bring the distinguished passenger into town. It was the "triumphant entrance," the prospective governor of Ohio arriving by water; other Delphos visitors came over corduroy and unimproved roadways. President-elect Warren G. Harding has had no more courtesies showered upon him in Cuban waters and off the Florida coast, than were accorded this prospective Ohio governor who arrived by water in Delphos. It is urged by some that joining the Great Lakes with the sea by an international waterway would affect the industries of Allen County by functioning the canal again. It would both reduce the cost and increase the facilities for shipping, and that is now an economic problem; time was when coal could be bought at 90 cents a ton in Cincinnati, and delivered in Spencerville and Delphos with the added charge of $1 for the freight; such carriage prices would be welcomed again.
BEFORE THE DAYS OF RAPID TRANSIT-CANAL PACKET
In Civil war days canalboats could be seen at any time coming or going from Cincinnati and other points, and when D. H. Tolan opened his printing office in Delphos in 1869, he would hear the bell and look out and see canalboats frequently. However, Delphos and Spencerville folk do not watch the packets any more-have railroad trains, and some- times see the air transportation service. Finally, under railroad competi- tion the canal was leased, and after a few years it went out of commercial use entirely ; while the canal once meant much to western Allen County it is now a thing of the past in community history. While Congressman B. F. Welty had ambitions relative to it, and is still urging the matter, people may never go on canal excursions again. Delphos and Spencer- ville citizens would hear the bell and watch for the arrival of the canal packet, and sometimes there would be passengers leave the boats; some- times they would go to Dayton by water; they all knew Captain Ellis-at first he carried only freight, but later he owned a packet and carried pas- sengers. Some who told about the packets also told about coming into the community with oxen over corduroy roads, and "them days there were deer in the woods. When the 'iron horse' came into 'this neck o' the woods,' the wild life all left it," and some regretted the passing of the time when they supplied meat for the dinner table by carrying the trusty old rifle into the Allen County forest.
Time was when the Erie and Miami Canal was a great asset to west-
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ern Allen County. Delphos and Spencerville were canal towns, and other towns hauled freight from there. In 1848, Lima business men "wagoned" all their merchandise from those towns. That was when they sold goods on a year's credit; and they needed cheap transportation. They turn their money oftener today, and still they advocate cheaper freight rates; in its day, the canal was a great "feeder" for Allen County. Because of the excessive costs of moving freight, this talk of the improvement of the natural waterways through the system of the Great Lakes has been revived, and it is of interest to know that there is a clause in the famous Ordinance of 1787, under which provision Ohio was admitted as a state, relative to it. Article III reads: "The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said Northwest Territory, as to the cities of the United States, and those of any other states that may be admitted into the confederacy, and
10
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E.& K.R.R.
BEGINNING OF STEAM RAILWAY SERVICE IN AMERICA
without the tax, impost or duty," and since the Auglaize was once used for navigation in the Fort Amanda shipyard days, this special clause had local application. The drainage of Allen County is through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic. While the railroad inter- ests now dominate the canal towns in Allen County, the canal itself remains as a reminder of early history. The industries draw their water supplies from it, the water coming from the reservoir connecting St. Marys and Celina, and with all the waterways agitation now going on in the whole country, western Allen County people have their ears to the ground awaiting developments.
It has been demonstrated that the shipping facilities of the railroads are inadequate, and while Delphos and Spencerville may never expect to see passenger packets again-time always an element in travel-freight barges may again pass up and down this waterway as they did half a century ago. History repeats itself in many communities. "In less than a generation the innovation of the waterway was supplanted by the first railroad in the county in 1856, with the opening of the Fort Wayne steam line; the Dayton and Michigan was opened the following year, Lima becoming the traffic center of the county ; the coming of the mighty
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