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 34
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German Township is unique in one respect; no other township in the county has preserved its trustee records intact. The destruction of records has been due to various causes, chief among them being probably, fire, although many records have undoubtedly been lost by the indifference of some township clerks to records other than those of the present. The distinctive position of German Township in this respect, thanks to the timely recognition by the present mayor of Archbold of the historical value of the cheaply-bound but all- important original volume, is worthy of being perpetuated, by here naming all the trustees elected since the first board was constituted in 1839. The succession of trustees is as follows:
Jonathan Barnes, 1839, 1840, 1844, 1847 and 1848; Samuel Gibbeny, 1839 to 1842; Amos Garrett, 1839; Nathan Borton, 1840 and 1841; Dorsey Barnes, 1841; Peter Andre, 1841; Joel Smith, 1842 to 1844; John Mason, 1842; John Lutes, 1843, 1846, 1847, 1849, 1850; Nathan Borton, 1843; Henry Lutes, 1844-45; Peter Wyse,
292
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
1845-48; James F. Rogers, 1845-46, 1848; 1853-55, 1857-58, and 1860; George Ditto, 1849-50, 1855; Jacob Nofzinger 1849; Jonathan Rogers, 1850 and 1851; John Wyse, 1851-54, 1856; Jacob Feather, 1851-52; Warren Mccutcheon, 1852; Anthony Moine, 1853-54, 1857-59, 1866-69; John Wolverton, 1855-56; Lewis Theobald, 1856; Christian Aeschliman, 1857-58; George R. Betts, 1859-62, 1866-67, 1870, 1872-81, 1884, and from 1886 to 1892; S. D. Dailey, 1859; Peter Short, 1860-62; Jacob Gaiman, 1861-62; A. Markley, 1863-64, 1877; Jacob Gasche, 1863-64; F. J. Beauclaire, 1863; Peter Bourquin, 1864; A. N. Cart, 1865; William Dickerson, 1865; Peter Grimm, 1865; John Baker, 1866; Wm. Sloan, 1867; C. Druhot, Jr., 1868-69; John Leininger, 1868-70, 1872-73, 1875-76; Jacob Vernier, 1870-71, 1872-75; Geo. Vernier, 1871; Jacob Bourquin, 1871; D. E. Clark, 1874; J. F. Beucler, 1875; John Haumesser, 1876; Martin Palmer, 1878-1887; Christian Gaiman, 1877; George Leininger, 1878; John Yaeger, 1879-80; Geo. Leininger, 1881; Hy Leininger, 1882 to 1884; Sylvanus Walters, 1882-83; Gco. Deihlman, 1885; Charles Bour- quin, 1885; Martin Buehrer, 1886; John U. Funkhauser, 1887-95; Henry Grim, 1888-97; H. G. Britsch, 1893-1900; Henry Stamm, 1896-1905; F. Funkhouser, 1898-1902; Wm. Harsch, 1901-1907; Gideon D. Wyse, 1903; Jacob C. Leu, 1904-07, 1910-14; Christian Yoder, 1906-09; J. F. Steensen, 1908; Leonard Stine 1908-10; G. R. Shafer, 1908-10; Wm. A. Leininger, 1910-17; Lewis G. Moine, 1910-14; Ed. Crossgrove, 1915-20; F. A. Graf, 1915-17; Geo. S. Leininger, 1918-20; Jacob Maudley, 1918-20.
Samuel B. Darby and Jonathan Barnes were elected justices of the peace in May, 1840. Henry Bredt was township clerk for many years, and August Ruihley was for about fifteen years. The last-named has been justice of the peace from 1895 until the present (1920).
The frugal manner of life of the early inhabitants of German Township is seen in the publie expenditures by township officers during the first year of its existence, the "Treasurer's Report," for the year ending March 1, 1841, recording a total expenditure during the period of $13.23. Another indication of the careful conservation of publie funds is seen in the following notice, which was spread in full upon the minutes of the township trustees :
Lucas County, German Township.
To Joseph Borton, Constable of said Township; Greeting.
Whereas we, the undersigned Overseers of the Poor of the Town- ship aforesaid, have received information that there has lately come into said township a certain poor and dissipated man named Horace Crandall, who is not a legal resident thereof, and will be likely to become a township charge, you are therefore commanded forthwith to warn said Horace Crandall to depart out of said township.
Served by reading January 29, 1849.
DORSEY BARNES, DILLON CAMPBELL, Overseers of the Poor.
JOSEPH BORTON, Const.
293
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
That the township properly cared for those who were legitimate residents of the township, and had become destitute, is proved by the following, which was copied from the trustees' minutes:
Article of Agreement entered into this 10th day of March, A. D., 1852, between Jacob Fisher, of the first part; and John Wyse, Jacob Feather, and Warren Mccutcheon as trustees of German Township, Fulton county, and their successors in office, of the second part, witnesseth: That the said Jacob Fisher agrees to support for the ensuing year, commencing on the 16th day of March, 1853, Mariah Hatt and Coonrad Hatt, paupers of the Township aforesaid, for the sum of Eighty Eight dollars ($88.00) and the said trustees agree to pay the sum aforesaid as follows: ten bushells of wheat, at 571/2 cents per bushell, on demand; ten dollars in cash, on the 15th day of May, 1852, and seventy-two dollars and twenty-five cents at the expiration of the year, in cash; and said trustees agree to clothe said paupers, and pay bills of physician, also to find material to repair Clothes belonging to said paupers, if needed.
JACOB FISHER.
WARREN M'CUTCHEON,
JOHN WYSE,
Trustees.
Upon the township trustees' minutes also were spread the particu- lars of another instrument by which the trustees recorded dispositions made by them in the interest of the same poor family. The entry was entitled "An Endenture of Apprentisship," which
"Indenture of Apprenticeship, under date of March 18, 1850, bound the township trustees, of the first part; Franz Hatt, of the second part; and Henry Roth of the third part, as follows: "That the said Franz Hatt, aged twelve years. hath and doth hereby bind himself, as an apprentis, unto the said Henry Roth, until the eighteenth day of February, 1859, to Labour in occupation of a farmer, and the said Franz Hatt, who is a child of Ann Maria Hatt, doth hereby consent with the said Henry Roth to faithfully serve him and correctly Demean himself during the term of his apprentisship; and the said Henry Roth doth hereby covenant with said John Lutes and George Ditto, Trustees of said township, and Franz Hatt, and each of them, that he will teach him the said occupation, and will provide him during said apprentisship with Meat, Loging, Medicine, Washing, Clothing, and all other necessarys suitable for an apprentis ; and will teach him, or cause him to be taught to Read and Write, and so Much of Arithmetic as Will enable the Single Rule of three; and at the expiration of said term of service Will furnish the said Franz Hatt With a New bible, and Least two suits of Wearing Appearel, and one Hundred Dollars in cash."
The settlers were, mostly, of humble origin, and of very little means when they came into the township. They lived simple lives, had few wants, and for the most part were happy and contented in the hard work of clearing and cultivating their farms. They were, mostly, of kindly hospitable nature, and were ever ready to rally around one of their number who might, through the death of the. bread-winner, or from other unavoidable cause, have become destitute.
294
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
But they were mostly people of upright life, commendable thrift, and a consistent endeavor to become useful citizens, and therefore could not countenance poverty that came by dissoluteness of habits, by laziness, or improvidence. The average settler was not very much richer, when he first came, than was James F. Rogers, who, in 1842, came to his log cabin, 16x18 feet, possessed, it is true of eighty acres of wild land, but of only $1.50 in cash. His life-story has been duplicated in that of more than one of the successful pioneers of German Township. He lived more than fifty years of his life in German Township, and at his death, in 1893, his biography was written by one who knew him for the greater part of his life. It appears that :
"James F., son of Jonathan and Martha (Haviland) Rogers, was born in 1814 .... In 1838, he purchased of one Nathan Dix, for the sinn of $175, eighty acres of land, then in Lucas county but now in German Township, Fulton county, Ohio. In the fall of 1839, Mr. Rogers, A. S. Fleet, John Baker, one Gehring, and a McEaton, founder of Eatonburgh, better known as Edinburgh, all residents of Seneca county, came together in a wagon to German Township, where and when Mr. Rogers first saw the land he had purchased the previous year. After remaining a few weeks and doing some under- brushing on his land, he returned to Seneca county. In the autumn of 1840 he came again to German, and there erected on his new farm a neat little cabin of 16x18 feet, into which Mr. Albert S. Fleet, with his wife, moved soon after its erection. After the completion of the cabin, Mr. Rogers again returned to Seneca county." In early 1842, James F. Rogers married Eliza Crosson, of New York state, and both for the spring and summer of that year were in the service of Sylvanus Arnold, a wealthy farmer and merchant of Melmore, Seneca county, Ohio. "In the fall of that year (1842) they moved to German Township, and began housekeeping in the little cabin he had built in 1840. One George Blackman moved them to their little home. Their personal effects, all told, consisted of one cow; one chest, containing his clothing; a small trunk with his wife's apparel; a box with a meagre supply of household goods; and another with a part of a set of cooper's tools. These, with $1.50 in his pocket, and an indebtedness of $25.00, constituted the total invoice of his goods and chattels. Thus, without money or friends, with no improved land, in the deep unbroken wilderness, with wolves howling hideously about their lone cabin at night, without roads, churches, schoolhouses, mills, stores, or postoffices, did this plucky couple begin pioneer life in this township ...... In the spring of 1843, Mr. Rogers was chosen overseer of the poor, a township trustee the next spring, and from that time up to almost the time of his death, he was almost constantly a public officer of some kind." He was a member of the Methodist Church at Elmira for more than forty years, and was an active church and Sunday-school worker until his death. He had twelve children, and was a man of very strong character. Smoked and chewed tobacco for thirty years, and at 45 years of age "was an abject slave to the habit." Then, "thoroughly convinced of the sinfulness of the habit, he was by God's help enabled to abandon its use instantaneously" and never again used it, "for which I am thankful for sustaining grace." he testified more than thirty years later.
295
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
Many incidents of Mr. Rogers' life were common to pioneer life in German Township. "When he came into the township, there were but about a dozen votes in the entire township ...... Maumee was then the county seat, and many a weary trip thither did Mr. R. perform, in order to do jury service, or pay taxes ...... One of the difficulties (of pioneer life) arose from distance of mills, and markets, and the absence or badness of roads. It was very often, he said, worth more than the market price of grain to get it to the mill and back again, or to deliver it at the market, owing to the distance and to the condition of the roads. At one time, he said, he carried a bushel of corn five miles to Bird's mill, and brought the meal home on his back, through the dense forest, and over innumerable logs. Pork used to be hauled by ox-teams to Maumee, and there sold for 11/4 cents per pound. Wheat, he said ...... there ...... sold for fifty cents a bushel, and this not infrequently the farmer had to take in trade. To reach
AT THE END OF THE SEASON.
Maumee from German, they had to go by way of Ottokee, Weir's tavern, Watkins, and Swanton, three full days being required to make the round trip. Ten cents was more difficult to get then than is a dollar now (1893), and yet, to purchase goods a dollar then had vastly less purchasing power than it has now.
One wonders how some of the pioneers managed to exist. They did so, presumably, only by the exercise of almost inconceivable thrift, and simpleness of life. The "Bird's Mill" referred to was probably the first erected in the township. It was situated in the northwestern corner, in territory which later formed part of Franklin Township. Fleet wrote :
"Mills were far away, with the exception of Mr. Bird's, in the northwest corner of German, and was taken with the territory from German to make Franklin ; but the mill was the same, and never have we had a better one for good work than when Mr. Bird was miller himself. But the water failed in dry weather. Mr. Bird built his mill some time before the organization of the township."
296
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
Regarding pioneer conditions, in general, Fleet wrote: "Taking it all in all, there was about as much sunshine as shade in the pioneer life of German Township."
Burlington was the second town to be established, and until the coming of the railroad and the founding of Archbold, it was a pros- perous and busy trading centre.
THE INCOPORATED VILLAGE OF ARCHBOLD
Archbold came into being with the coming of the "Air-Line" Railway, in 1855. Fleet asserts that it was originally named Arch- bald, "a compound word, composed of Arch and Bald, names of two engineers of the R. R." That spelling seems to be corroborated by the municipal records. The first volume of council records contains, upon one of its first pages, a copy of the petition, which eventually brought corporate powers to the community. The handwriting is not very regular, but the name as there written seems to be Archbald,
FARMERS & MERCHANTS BANK, ARCHBOLD.
not Archbold. Early printed references also, almost invariably follow the first spelling.
One of the principal founders of the town, and for many years one of its most active and responsible residents, was George Ditto. Fleet records the laying out of the first division by Heywood and Ditto, and the second addition by Wentzler, Schnetzler and Deppler.
The first ten years of the existence of Archbald (or bold), were so encouraging, that the responsible residents sought to obtain cor- porate powers for it in 1865. A petition, bearing date of December 23, 1865, was circulated, said petition reading as follows:
To the Commissioners of Fulton County, Ohio:
The undersigned citizens and inhabitants of the county of Fulton aforesaid, hereby respectfully ask your honorable body for an order authorizing the incorporation and organization of the following described territory, situate in the County of Fulton, and State of Ohio, to-wit: The northwest quarter and the southwest quarter of section thirty-three, and the northeast quarter, and the southeast quarter of
-
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
section thirty-two, all of said quarter-sections being in the Township of German, county and state aforesaid. Your petitioners ask
That said territory may be incorporated and organized as a village, to be called Archbald. A further description of said territory will be found in the plat hereto (annexed) attached. Your petitioners further represent that there are more than fifty qualified voters actually residing within the (limits) territory above described; and that the undersigned are a majority of the qualified voters, and actual residents thereof. We further respectfully inform you that Capt. Charles P. Schafer, Dr. S. Hubbard, and John B. Schnetzler are our authorized agents, and J. W. Roseborough our authorized attorney, to attend to and prosecute this our petition before your Honorable Board.
Very respectfully,
ยท December 23, 1865.
George Ditto
John Pehkbone
Frederick Brandt
C. E. Adams
Conrad Wenzler
Valentine Theobald
David Myers
Abijail Hubbard Julius Heupel
D. Burkholder
Julius Whitehorne
J. Vernier
John B. Schnetzler
H. C. Dye
Philip Thomas
Myron Whitehorne
Jean Thomas
Nick Weber
T. F. Lorimer
Stuart Hubbard
Levi Deitrich
Charles P. Schafer
D. S. Vier
S. H. Schaberg Henry J. Williams
M. Wentzer
Adam Gratt
Terrence Quinn
Jacob Gilbert
H. J. Griesier
Jacob Berthoud
William Camp
F. Stotzer
P Seigle
Claude Druhot, Jr.
George Vernier, Jr.
Adam Imthurn
T. Huit
Philip Broadbeck
The petition was granted on May 23, 1866, and
THE FIRST ELECTION
was held on August 8, 1868. Fifty votes were cast, and Peter Bour- quin, judge of election, declared that Frederick Stotzer received fifty votes for election to office of mayor; Julius Whitehorne thirty-one, for recorder; and that the following had a majority of votes for election to trusteeship: Jacob Vernier, John B. Schnetzler, John Broadbeck, John Sloan, and Philip Thomas. With the exception of John Sloan, all accepted office, and the first council meeting of the incorporated village of Archbald was held ten days later. Members present were: F. Stotzer, mayor; Jacob Vernier, J. C. Whitehorne, Philip Thomas and John Broadbeck, trustees. Myron Whitehorne was appointed trustee, in place of John Sloan. Peter Siegle was appointed marshal on August 29, 1866.
In the following year, 1867, John Sloan was elected mayor, receiv- ing thirty-two of thirty-seven votes cast. He, however, was unable to complete his term his resignation on November 12 1867 making neces- sary another election. It was held on December 12, 1867, and John B. Schnetzler was elected to the office. Fortunately, the council records of Archbold are complete, and the
Bredt Bros.
J. Broadbeck George Leininger Peter Bourquin Jacob Schneider
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
MAYORAL SUCCESSION
can be given, from the year of incorporation. The tabulation is as follows :
1866. Frederick Stotzer; 1867, from April 5th to November 12, John Sloan; 1867, from December 12th to April 5, 1868, John B. Schnetzler; 1868 to 1873, John B. Schnetzler; April 7, 1873, John Ilaumesser ; April, 1874 to April, 1876, John B. Schnetzler; April 1876 to April, 1879, Jacob Vernier; April, 1879 to April, 1880, John B. Schnetzler; April, 1880 to April, 1886, John R. Hoffmire; April, 1886, to September, 1892, George R. Betts; September, 1892 to April, 1894, John B. Schnetzler; April, 1894 to April, 1898, John F. Yeager; April, 1898 to January 2, 1906, John Theobald; January, 1906 to January, 1908. John U. Fauster; January, 1908 to January, 1910, Reuben E. Chase: January to June, 1910, Ed. L. Downer, who resigned, the re- mainder of his term being undertaken by H. G. Britsch, by authority of his office of president pro tem., of council; January, 1911 to Janu- ary, 1912, John Monroe; January, 1912 to January, 1916, August Ruihley; January, 1916 to January, 1920, and from January, 1920, for two years.
The Archbold official list at present is constituted as follows: August Ruihley, mayor; Andrew Shibler, treasurer: Hy Nofzinger, marshal; O. E. Lauber, clerk; G. J. Vernier, N. J. Rychener, G. Q. Morgan, Howard T. Schaff, Henry Fraas,, Dr. C. F. Murbach.
In the first year of its corporate existence, Archbold was stated to have had a population of about 350; and the business interests of the village were as follows
Five general merchandise stores, those of Jacob Berthoud, Peter Bourquin (who was also a dealer in staves), and Bredt Brothers, Chas. B. and Henry C., Henry Grisier and Schumacher (who also were insurance agents), and George Vernier; there were three shoe- makers, or shoe dealers, Bredt Brothers, Brandt and Frederick, John Brodbeck, and N. Welfel; one hardware store, Jacob Vernier's; two jewelry stores, John R. Hoffmire and Herman Kersten; and many saloons, those of Clod Druhot Frank Druhot, Philip Druhot, Julius Houpel, Philip Thomas, George Vernier, Frederick Vernier. The physicians were S. Hubbard and Andrew Murbach, the former also con- ducting a drug store ; John B. Schnetzler was postmaster, and was also a dealer in staves; Frederick Stotzer had a harness shop; Peter Grim and Peter Roth, in partnership, were brewers; Adam Imthurn was a tailor; Jacob Huit a furniture dealer; Washington G. Wilt was a painter; Coonrad Winsler had a sawmill on the south side of the railroad, and the brothers Whitehorne (Myron and Julius) on the north side; and there were two wagon-making establishments, Michael Weber's, and that of the Siegel brothers, Peter and John.
Archbold has always been an enterprising progressive town, and for it are claimed pioneer efforts in several phases of town planning and government. It is stated to have been the first incorporated place in the county to install an electric lighting system for public places; that it was the first to lay paved sidewalks. And German Township also claims the distinction of being the first township to lay a gravel road. The gravel road was laid south of Archbold in 1894, but as a matter of fact, almost simultaneously Swan Creek Township under- took similar road improvements.
PEOPLES BANK, ARCHBOLD.
L
300
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
The first public works project of corporate Arehbold was that authorized by one of the first ordinances of the first couneil, said ordinance authorizing the construction of a sewer, on the east side of Defiance Street, and stipulating that "said sewers shall be made of good white, or Burr oak planks, two inches thick, and twenty inches wide ... and made one foot under the common level of the ground, even with the outer edge of the sidewalk." Apparently this sewer was an open one, and construction, seemingly was not at once begun, for it appears that the first sewer was not completed until March 31, 1873. That wooden sewer was dug up in 1896, when the sidewalks were prepared for paving.
BUILDING OF THE JAIL
It was ordained, on April 20, 1867, "that a building shall be built for the safe keeping of unruly characters." The specifications called for a building "two floors, 12x12 ft., 7 ft. high between floors, the lower to be made of 2 inch oak planks, the walls of 1 1-2x4 inch planks, spiked together, the foundation to be of oak timbers, 8 inches square, the building to have two window holes, firmly barred with iron, erossways, 10 inches square. Door 3x6 ft., made of 1 1-2 inch planks, double, hung with good strap hinges and good dead lock." A tax of $100 to build the jail was levied on June 7, 1867, and it was ordained, on June 8th that the jail "shall be built on Lot No. 28, in Hayward's Division, and be completed before July 3, 1867." Whether the jail was constructed in time for use in a possible Fourth of July require- ment is not on record, but obviously it was built in that year, for on December 24, 1867, an order on the village treasury was given to Messrs. Shrenk and Richtor, for $150, 'in payment for building and the materials for jail," and the mayor was authorized to take $50 out of the Well fund, and apply it to the Jail fund.
THE WATER SYSTEM
On June 1, 1867, the councilmen, in session resolved to levy a tax of $100 "to build a jail ...... and a tax of $200, to build a public well for the use of the village," which evidently had grown sufficiently to need the supplementing of private water provisions by a municipal supply. At a council meeting of July 25, 1868, it was decided to get . the public well dug by August 10th of that year, the well to be "six feet in diameter, inside to be bricked up, depth twenty feet." The contract for the digging of the town well was let to Felix Druhot but on August 4th he was released from his contract, and the digging of the well was apparently completed by the corporation.
By various provisions, the civie authorities have been able to always meet Archbold's demands for water, and it now has a fine system, the present municipal water plant consisting of two eight inch wells, 160 feet deep and a tower 110 feet to base of tank, which has capacity for 60,000 gallons, giving a pressure of 50 to 57 lbs. Two motor-driven pumps each throw fifty gallons a minute; there are 156 eustomers, and the Hersey meter system meets the recording needs. The plant was completed in 1915, at a cost of $22,000, George Britsch, president of the water board, putting in the first tap on May 21st of that year.
301
HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
The plant is economically run, the power bill averaging $40 to $45, monthly.
CEMETERY
Unfortunately the cemetery records have not been kept, and it is not possible therefore to review its history. It has been stated that the cemetery now in the guardianship of Archbold civic authorities was established in 1872. There is only one record in the early minutes of the council of Archbold, said record, of May 12, 1875, referring to the completion of "a contract with Joseph Smith, for land for a burial ground," the notation stating that the clerk had given "an order on twp. funds for $37.60 for said land." The cemetery situated about three-quarters of a mile south of Archbold is controlled by that munic- ipal corporation, and the cemetery situated about one mile west of Burlington and known as the Johnson Cemetery is the property of German Township.
TOWN HALL, ARCHBOLD.
Archbold has some thriving industries, including the level factory, and the glove factory, which are both growing industries. Mainly, however, its prosperity and trading is due to its central position in a rich agricultural district. The farmers of German Township are characteristically loyal to one another, and do most of their buying in their own township.
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