USA > Ohio > Fulton County > A standard history of Fulton County, Ohio, an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and county, Vol. I > Part 31
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Alanson Briggs was, in the early years of the settlement of Fulton County, one of the leaders among the settlers. The first eleetion in Chesterfield Township was held in his house, and he was colonel of the state militia for many years and was the commanding offieer when the militia mustered for the last time, at Etna, Pike Township, in
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1843. His hotel appears to have been located upon the premises later owned by Eleazer Clark. Alanson Briggs died in 1879, many years after the death of his wife Lucinda.
John S. Butler. son of Asa H. and Sarah (Daggett) Butler, who settled in Gorham Township in 1835, was of course one of the pioneer settlers of Chesterfield, coming as has been before narrated, with Alan- son Briggs, in his boyhood. For several years he carried the mails on the route from Toledo to Lima, Indiana, traveling the route of ninety miles twice weekly, while still in his early teens. Reference has elsewhere herein been made to some of his adventures along the Indian trails through the dense forest during his post-boy days. Eventually, he married Lovina, daughter of Chesterfield Clemons, and was a success- ful farmer, settling on section 32.
Harlow Butler arrived from New York state in 1835, and took . claim to part of section 28. He returned to his family in the fall, and in 1836 brought them to Ohio, and settled on the land he had chosen, in section 28. He became one of the leading citizens of the township; was the first justice of the peace in Chesterfield; and was one of the first school examiners, issuing the first forty-seven certifi- cates granted to teachers. Another of the early school examiners of the territory, while it was still part of Lucas County, was Alfred C. Hough, also of Chesterfield Township. Whether they were county school examiners is not clear. "Uncle John" Butler, who was one of the most reliable authorities on the early history of Chesterfield Town- ship stated: "At that time each township had three school examiners, and at this election (1837) Alfred C. Hough, who in after years be- came prominent in county affairs, was elected one of the school exam- iners." Darwin E. Butler, son of Harlow, lived fifty years in the township, and was a very useful citizen. He married Aurelia Hibbard, and died in 1886.
William Onweller also came in 1835, settling upon section 23. He and his wife came from Maryland, and became wealthy, eventually. They were prominent in the meetings of the church society, for a short while after his death a church was built on part of his land. He died in 1864.
Jacob Boynton came in 1835, settling on section 14, having bought thirty acres from Chesterfield Clemons. He eventually sold to Eleazer Clark, and left the county.
Nehemiah Cone arrived in 1835, settling on section 24. John S. Butler, who early in that year had found only Indian children with whom he could play, was delighted when two other white boys, sons of Nehemiah Cone, came into the neighborhood.
One of the earliest settlers in 1835 was Nathaniel Parsons, who arrived in the township, with his family, in February. Living was precarious for the early settlers. In 1835, the nearest grist mill was at Tecumseh, thirty miles away, and in that year the Parsons stock of flour became so low that while Mr. Parsons was away from home, having gone with corn for grinding to the mill, the family divided what bread was left in the house, and lived on reduced rations until his return. "Uncle John" Butler said in 1907: "I could spend hours in telling you how we lived through winters, the first years we were here, on corn bread and pumpkin butter, and venison, and not grow
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tired of telling about them." At all events, the corn bread seemed to build sturdy constitutions. A story is told of Colonel J. H. Brigham, who was one of the earliest resident of Wauseon, and one of the most famous men of Fulton County. It appears that one day, in Washing- ton, D. C., while he was in office as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture a call was made upon him by a scientist employed by the department to investigate properties of various articles of human food. He stated that corn was not an article of human food, the grain not containing a proper amount of nutriment. Colonel Brigham lis- tened to the argument, and then stalked up and down the room, his towering figure rising about six feet and a half in the air. "That accounts for my stunted growth," he remarked, expanding his chest to about fifty inches. "I knew something was the matter with me, but could never locate it. I was raised on corn bread until I was sixteen. If I had kept off that stuff, I suppose I might have grown to a man's size, instead of being the midget I am, and weighing only about 250 pounds."
Other settlers in 1835 were Samuel Ranger, Thomas Welch, and Amaziah Turner. Others may have come in that year, but the records are not available. Still between 1834 and 1840, the following had settled in Chesterfield Township: Garner Willett, John B. Roos, John P. Roos, Samuel Stutesman, Heman A. Canfield, Alfred C. Hough, James M. Hough, George Patterson, Lyman L. Beebe, Jeremiah Sheffield, James S. Dean, Sr., Gersham Livesay, David Lee, Nathaniel Butler, Hiram Butler, Manley Hawley, Flavel Butler, Daniel Fausey, James Aldrich, Hyson Aldrich, Cicero H. Shaw, James M. Bates, George W. Bates, David L. Beebe, George W. Roos, Isaac Stites, Benja- min Stites, William Stites, William Richards, Lothrop Briggs, James Livesay, Joel Briggs, Warren Beebe, George W. Kellogg, Eleazer Clark, Gideon Clark, Amy, Mariette, and Adaline, daughters of George P. Clark. There were others probably, and in many cases the junior members of the families are not here named. From 1840 to 1850 there was a steady influx of settlers, among whom were: David Marks; William E. Pennington, Ephraim Pennington, who came with his son William; Joseph Lee, who settled on section 22, in 1845; Eustice Leggett, on section 28; Peter Powers. on section 19, in 1849: Henry L. Smith; Charles Bowen; William Lee, from Gorham; William A Williams and his brother: Ezra Mead; William E. Parmalee; Thomas Cuff; Asahel Kennedy; John W. Bradley, James H. Turner, Jesse Thorpe, Washington Thorpe, Chauncey Bulkley, Asahel Scofield, John Moffatt, Fletcher Bishop, Lewis A. Lee, Almon M. Lee, Charles Mckenzie, Clarkson Warne, Lafayette Sherman, Peter Romans, Oliver Todd, Oliver Griffith, John H. Martin, John Smith, Isaac Jones, Peter Jones, Jackson Jones, I. Schoonover, Holloway H. Beatty and his sons Sidney S. and Whitfield, Eustice Leggett, John Stites, and Samuel Gillis.
Garner Willett "drifted" into Chesterfield Township in 1836 or 1837. He had left his home in New York, in 1835, and with thirty- five dollars and a rifle started for the frontier, he being then nineteen years old. The next year or so he passed in hunting in the wilds of Michigan, eventually coming into Chesterfield, and there settling in 1837, having purchased a farm. When he first came into the Town-
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ship, he was given employment by Alanson Briggs. In 1837 he paid $120 for a farm of forty acres, and 20 years later he acquired another of 160 acres. He lived to see the twentieth century come in.
The Roos family has been prominent in Chesterfield development practically throughout its history. John B. Roos settled on section 24, in 1836. He died in 1856. His son John Philip, who came at the same time, lived in the township until his death in 1896, and was one of the first members of the Christian Church, organized in East Chesterfield, in 1858, by Elders Hadsell and Carpenter. His brother George W. lived until 1908, a period of seventy-two years spent wholly in Chesterfield Township. He was five years old when the family settled in Chesterfield in 1836. During his life he filled every office in the township; was an active justice of the peace for twenty-five years; was one of the earliest members of Chesterfield Grange; was a charter member of the Christian Church in East Chester- field; was Sunday school superintendent for twenty-one years in suc- cession; and when he died the county lost "one of its best types of an honest, industrious Christian citizen."
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Herman A. Canfield came in 1838, located a farm on sections 32 and 33, built a log house, and in the autumn returned to his home in West Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York state, where in Octo- ber he married Amanda G. Brown. He passed the winter as a teacher in the academy at West Bloomfield, but early in the spring of 1839 he and his wife left for Ohio. For twenty-two years they lived in Chesterfield Township, later living in Gorham Township. He died in Fayette, May 10, 1901, aged 85 years. Mrs. Cora Spillane, a lifelong friend and neighbor of both Mr. and Mrs. Canfield, con- tributed the following beautiful tribute, to and reminiscence of, the character of her fellow pioneer:
"Blessed be the tie that binds the hearts of the old pioneers. Ties strengthened by years of mutual helpful sympathy and neighborly kindness.
"But they are passing away, one by one. . "There are still some living who remember Herman Canfield's strong young voice, as he led the singing, or read the sermon at our Sunday meetings in the log school house, where we met Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists-all who loved the Lord. Creeds were mostly ignored in those days.
"And there may be some old men living yet who helped to raise the big log barn on the old Canfield farm, and heard him thank his neighbors for the kind help, and express his regret that he had no wife, to get for them a good supper, and say: 'I have nothing to offer you to drink but spring water. I have got no whisky for you, and I never will.' "
Alfred C. Hough, who settled on section 21, in 1836, was prominent in county as well as township affairs. He succeeded Harlow Butler as school examiner, receiving that office by appointment, under Lucas County administration. He served three terms as auditor of Fulton County, after it had been organized. He lived the greater part of his life in Chesterfield. His wife outlived him, reaching the age of ninety-five years before she died in 1905. One of their children was later prominent in Wauseon school administration. For thirty-
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two years Addie Hough, better known by her marital name, Mrs. Addie DeMeritt, taught the second grade pupils of the Wauseon public school beginning in the "Little White School House."
James M. Hough settled on section 21, coming from New York state. He was township treasurer at one time, and an early postmaster at Oak Shade.
George W. Patterson eame in 1838, to seetion 31, but in 1849 sold, and moved into Dover Township, where he died in 1869. Ed. ward Patterson died at his home, near Oak Shade, in March of 1916. having reached the age of ninety-four years.
Jeremiah Sheffield and his wife spent their honeymoon journeying from New York to Ohio in October of 1838. They reached Chester- field Township on November 11th. It appears that Indians helped to raise their log cabin to a height of three logs, when the whisky was passed, immediately after drinking which the Indians stopped working. Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield were not able to move into their log cabin until about the middle of Deeember. In the following August, the Indians of the neighborhood, and many. hundreds more from Illinois, executed a war dance near the Sheffield eabin. Fortunately no fighting followed. Sarah Waite was only fifteen years old when she married Jeremiah Sheffield, and came with him into the wilder- ness. She bore him twelve children, six of whom were sons, among them Frederick B., who served with honor during the Civil War, and was later prominent in township affairs of Chesterfield.
Lyman L. Beebe settled on six acres of wild land on section 27. He built the first steam sawmill in the township, in 1844, and ran it for about twelve years on what was later the Crittenden farm. In 1856 he removed the saw mill to section 13, where he operated it for a number of years. Eventually, he owned more than five hundred acres in Chesterfield Township. He was captain of the Chesterfield company of State Militia, and was present at the final mustering of that body at Etna, in 1843.
James S. Dean, originally from New York, settled in Michigan in 1831, and in 1838 eame into Chesterfield Township settling upon sections 24 and 25. He died in 1901, having lived in Chesterfield for more than sixty years. For forty years he was an active church member. He married Eunice Clemons in 1847.
David Lee settled in Chesterfield in 1837. His son Peleg S., later became the directing head of an important industry of the town- ship. He had a cheese plant, and in the '80s was manufacturing 150,000 to 200,000 pounds of cheese each year.
The Stites family had considerable part in early Chesterfield de- velopment. Jacob Stites, who was only seven years old when his parents brought him to Chesterfield, in 1843, met death by aeeident in his seventy-third year, falling heavily from a high truckload of hay. He lived sixty-five years in the township. 1
The Thorpe family was of good record also in Chesterfield, Joseph Thorpe being among the earliest residents; and his sons, Washington, Lewis and Jesse, having good part in development work. Rebecca, wife of Joseph died in 1912, at the home of her son, Washington, with whom she had lived for eighteen years, since the death of her husband. She was almost eighty-five years old when death came.
The Marks family has been one of the home builders of Chester-
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field Township. David Marks came in the forties from New York state, and the family has been consistently prosperous. Elias Marks who was killed by an enraged bull in March, 1920, was one of the most progressive farmers of the county, and, it has been stated, had one of the finest herds of Holstein cattle in northwestern Ohio.
William Lee came from Gorham Township in 1846. He died in Chesterfield in 1854, but his wife Sarah (Marlatt) lived until 1878. He was one of the early justices of the township, and in his last years was township clerk. His son, Lewis A., was Township Trustee, and later postmaster at Oak Shade. Another son, Almon M., became Recorder of Fulton County, and died while holding that office, the County Commissioners then appointing George W. Lee to succeed his father.
William A. Williams who came with his brother Edward in 1845, was a capable educator. He was appointed county school examiner, by Judge O. B. Verity, in 1876, or 1877, and held that office with distinction for about eleven years.
William E. Parmalee, a settler of 1840, was an associate judge for a brief period, succeeding Alfred C. Hough, and he was chosen as deputy marshal, in 1850, to take the census of part of Fulton County.
The public record of Albert Deyo is one of which the people of Chesterfield Township are proud. He did not come to Chesterfield Township until 1855, but he was nevertheless a pioneer, for he took 160 acres of forest, a short distance west of Denson Station, and "with indomitable will" set himself the task of "carving a home out of the wilderness." All of the clearing of his land he did not do himself, but as a carpenter he contributed to the upbuilding of the neighbor- hood. In the early days of the Civil War he served in the militia, in the grade of captain, and later joined the Union army, as a private, rising to a captaincy, when the company was reorganized. In 1872 he was elected Clerk of Fulton County, serving as such for six years; in 1883 he was elected to represent the county in the state legislature, and was re-elected in 1885. Albert Deyo's name is encountered in the records of very many of the worth-while public movements in Fulton County, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and "when the call came (in 1912) to Albert Deyo. : . . he could answer in an abiding conviction of a life well lived and of duties well done." The substantial brick, mansion-like home he erected on his farm is indicative of the prosperity that came to him by his labor.
The first white child born in Chesterfield was Martha, daughter of Amaziah Turner, who settled in the township in 1835. The date of her birth was July 29, 1835.
The first storekeeper in the township was, as before explained, Alanson Briggs. He also was the first hotel-keeper. Alfred C. Hough to some extent traded in groceries, in the early days of his settlement, selling from his cabin.
The first cheese factory was that conducted by John R. Roberts, and later transferred to Peleg S. Lee, who considerably developed the enterprise.
The first marriage was that of Sallie A. Clemons to Elias Salis- bury, in 1840. The following-named early settlers of Chesterfield Township also married daughters of Chesterfield and Fannie (Down-
.
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ing) Clemons: James S. Dean, Delvan C. Gillis, John S. Butler, and James Hough.
There was no post office in the township for many years; but eventually one, called "Oak Shade" was established near the geo- graphical center, and supplied three times each week from a mail route running from Morenci, Michigan, to Wauseon. The first mail service in the county was that established in the fall of 1836, to run from Toledo, Ohio, to Lima, Indiana, over the old territorial road, sometimes called the Vistula road, a distance of 110 miles, ninety miles of which John S. Butler, a boy passed along twice weekly carrying the mails. He died in Chesterfield, in 1907, aged eighty-three years, his widow, Lovina Chesterfield, soon following him. She was a venerable old lady, and in her old age was honored by election to the dignity of president of the Fulton County Pioneer and Historical Society.
Space is not available unfortunately, otherwise it would be pleas- ing to make reference to other worthy pioncers and prominent citizens of Chesterfield Township, by whose efforts the district has been made a rich part of the county. It is however gratifying to know that some have been given somewhat extensive mention in the biographieal volume of this historical work.
THE FIRST ELECTION
According to John S. Butler, who was present, and in later life had in his possession the book in which the official record was written, the first election in Chesterfield Township was held in Briggs' store on July 19, 1837. Historian Aldrich states that the house of Chester- field Clemons was the place of election. In Butler's own words, the story of the first election runs:
"Although a boy but thirteen years of age, I remember well the first election ever held in Chesterfield. It was held in Briggs' store July 19, 1837. It was at this meeting that the township was organized. Briggs was a very wealthy man for those days, and he had many papers to sign that required an acknowledgment before a justice of the peace, and the nearest justice was at Sylvania, so each time he had to make this long trip. To avoid this inconvenience, and to make it more convenient for the settlers to transaet business, he and Clemons set out to have the township organized. I can seem to hear those pioneers, now, discussing township organization. Finally a day was set, and word was sent to all the settlers to meet at Briggs' store, and this they did on the date given above. Everybody was enthusiastic over the organization, and when it came to proposing a name for the township all agreed that it should be called 'Chesterfield,' in honor of Chesterfield Clemons, the first permanent white settler in the town- ship.
"Dover and Gorham townships were not organized at that time, and under the law the settlers of these townships were allowed to vote at Chesterfield. There were twelve votes cast at this election. Gersham Livesay, Gorham Cottrell, and John B. Roe were judges of the election, and Alanson Briggs, and Jesse Oles were clerks .... Mr. Briggs was elected elerk, and as there was no one in the township qualified to administer the oath of office, Mr. Briggs went to Sylvania and was sworn
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in, and upon his return home administered the oath of office to the other newly elected officials."
CHESTERFIELD SCHOOL HISTORY
Historians Micksell and Aldrich state that the first school house built in Chesterfield was that "hastily constructed .... on section 16, on the north-east corner, just south of the Hawley Cemetery" in 1837; further stating that "Flavel Butler taught the first school in the winter of 1837, and this was the first school ever taught in the town- ship." Butler, however, gives the date of the building of the first schoolhouse as in 1838, and his version is strengthened by the fact, recorded by Aldrich, that "the first attempt of the people to levy a tax for school purposes failed at the first election, but at the next election it was carried by a majority vote of the people." Butler's version reads :
"In the summer of 1838 the first school house in Chesterfield was built. The Government had set apart for school purposes section 16 in every township, and in locating the new schoolhouse, it was decided to build it in this section ... . It was a crude affair. . built of logs and roofed with clapboards, which those early pioneers had split out of logs cut from trees in the adjacent forest. In the end of the building was constructed a large fireplace which was to warm the entire room. Many a log was carried in and rolled into the fireplace by the teacher and big boys. The desks were puncheon, logs split in halves with the flat side turned up, fastened to pins driven into the side of the walls. The seats were made of the same material, into which legs were driven. There were no backs to these seats. Neither were there seats in the center of the room, as there was no place to fasten a desk. The teacher, by his water beech rod, reigned in this room as an absolute monarch .... About all we were taught in those days were included in the three R's-'reading,'riting and 'rithmetic'."
It was not long before the children needing schooling became too many to be accommodated in that central school house so other districts were organized. Records are not available, excepting of School Dis- trict No. 3, of which Miss Olive Roos, now of Wauseon, but formerly of the Chesterfield Township family of that name, preserved much historical data. That school district was more generally known as the Maple Grove School District. It appears that the first school in that district, East Chesterfield, was held in the early forties. Miss Roos' record is as follows:
"The first school in the Roos district was in a log cabin of Mr. Livesay's situated a short distance west of Fred Weatherby's. The first teacher was Mr. Henman.
The second schoolhouse was on the flats north of William On- weller's barn, on his Brookside farm. The first teachers were Conant and Baxter. The third schoolhouse was where the church now stands. The teacher was Flavel Butler. The fourth schoolhouse was situated on the opposite corner, north of the church. The teachers were Laura Ranger and Mary Ann Stevenson.
All of these schoolhouses were of log, filled in with split timber, like rails, covered with clay instead of plaster, as there was no lime. The floors were of split puncheon, hewed upon the face; the seats and
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desks the same, being the length of the room on three sides, one seat on each side with the desk placed next to the wall. There were three small windows made lengthwise, and one door.
The fifth school was situated on the north-west corner of the J. P. Roos farm, a frame building built by Chapin Daniels and Perry Hamlin. It is used at present for a grain house on the Maple Grove Farm."
Regarding the Maple Grove School, much information is contained in an available school register covering the period of 1865-71. Earlier teachers in that school were F. F. Curtis, Milton Cass, Pauline Huit, Lydia Sanford Daniels, three Bennett sisters, Dallas Brown, Mary Jane Sanford Dunn, Minta Parker Hoover, and Julia Root Rich. The school register shows that: during that summer of 1865 Helen Bennett Foote taught for three months at $10 a month ; that Julia Root Rich taught in the winter of that year and the following summer term. She was considered one of the best teachers in the county and received
CHESTERFIELD CENTRALIZED SCHOOL.
twenty dollars a month during the winter term and thirteen dollars a month in summer. In 1868, Milton Cass was the teacher, receiving $30 a month, and board. In the summer of that year, Jennie Agnew Gorsuch, of Wauseon, taught for $9 a month. Anna Fleet Bloomer, also of Wauseon, was the next teacher, and she was followed by Libbie Roos Haley, of Delta. In the winter of 1870 Dallas Brown received $33.50 a month; and in the following winter term Libbie Beatty Gorham, of Morenei, taught in the new brick building. The books used during the period were: reader and speller, McGuffey's; writing, Spencerian ; mental and written arithmetic, Ray's; geography, Colton and Fitche's; grammar. Pinneo's.
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