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 41
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front rooms, free of charge, the use of which they accepted. Later Milton Spring bought lots in Morenci, and planned to build there, but sold his lots and bought in Spring Hill, where he built the home in which he died," in 1888, at the age of eighty-two years. Milton Spring "was a man of unusual strength, and indomitable energy"; he was also a man of strong moral character. For fifty years he was prominent in church work, being one of the leading members of the Spring Hill M. E. Church. His wife, a worthy woman, reached the age of nincty-four years. All of their male children (3) served in the Union army during the Civil war, an enviable family record. Of the three sons, Cornelius M. was probably the most prominent in public affairs. He died in 1916, sixty-three of his seventy-three years having been lived in Fulton county. He lived a busy public-spirited and high-minded life; was treasurer of Dover Township for twelve years; and for many years was on the School Board. But most note- worthy of his public service was that in connection with the Methodist church at Spring Hill. He was superintendent of the Sunday school for forty years, and even after he took up residence in Wauseon, he would drive to Spring Hill Sunday after Sunday for that purpose. In early manhood, he was a school teacher, but he became a successful farmer and a cheese manufacturer on a large scale. His younger brother, N. C., died in 1917, at Tedrow, aged sixty-five years.
SCHOOLS
Mrs. Hibbard's diaries record much of pioneer school history. Entries made in June, 1839, refer to the sending of her two older children to school "for the first time"; and one would infer that there were no school facilities in the western part of Dover (then Clinton) Township earlier than that. It appears that Caroline Sea- mans was the teacher, and that the school was held in a room in the Ferguson house just north of the site of the present village. Miss Hibbard is of the opinion that "it was the first school in the township of Dover, not then formed, and was probably a subscription school." Under date of December 19, 1840, a diary entry reads: "There is a new schoolhouse built half a mile south of here. Mortimer ( Hibbard) commenced teaching today." Describing that schoolhouse, Miss Hib- bard writes: "This log schoolhouse ...... was probably the first in what is now Dover Township. It stood on a hill, now much worn down, on what is now Lot No. 1, in Spring Hill, owned by Mr. Everett Spring. It is described as having low windows, a slab floor, a wide fireplace on the west side, opposite the door, benches made of slabs, with pegs for legs, and desks made by driving boards across pegs driven into the wall. The pens were fashioned by the master's pen knife, from goose quills brought by the children. The lead pencils for ruling the writing paper were made by hammering a piece of lead into the required shape. These were usually attached to a string worn about the neck for convenience. The books were a varied assortment, the blue-covered 'Elementary Speller' figuring predominantly."
"The teachers who taught in that schoolhouse, as far as men- tioned in the journal, were Michael Handy, William Jewell, Henry
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Tiffany, Andros Canfield, Huldah Howe, Sophronia Deming, Amelia, Randolph and Mortimer Hibbard." Verity, stated, also, that the Hibbards, Canfield, and Handy, "and many others, taught as good common schools as was generally found at that day." Male teachers received a salary of from $10 to $13 a month, and women teachers from $6 to $8 a week. In addition they received free board and lodging, being "boarded around," as was termed the practice of the residents to receive into their homes, for a week or two of free enter- tainment, the teacher of the district school, who would pass similar periods, as non-paying guest, in other houses until the school term ended. The school term was customarily only for three winter months, the greater number of the male teachers pursuing agriculture during the growing season, when also the older pupils spent part of their time in the fields, assisting in the work of the home farm.
Soon after the organization of Dover Township, in 1843, two school districts were formed, one in the western part, which would be Spring Hill, and the other in the eastern settlement, which was at the Center, or near to where Ottokee eventually developed. In April, 1846, the township trustees divided the township into four school districts: No. 1, at what became Ottokee; No. 2, at Chatfield's Cor- ners, where the "Emery" postoffice was established "at a very early date, with Lucius N. Chatfield, postmaster"; No. 3, in the north- western corner of the township, later known as Union School District ; and No. 4, at Spring Hill. No. 2 District became the Waid District. It was not long before No. 5 District became necessary, and this being central, was used for township elections for one or two decades. No. 6 District, in the northeastern part of the township was organized in 1864. In 1876, the Spring Hill District, No. 4, by a special act of the State Legislature was set apart as a separate district, and a brick schoolhouse was built. The log schoolhouse at Spring Hill was re- placed in 1851 by a frame schoolhouse, which was located at the southwest corner of the village. that house being still occupied, as a residence. The site was donated by Mortimer D. Hibbard, who also gave the four lots upon which the briek schoolhouse was eventually built. At one time a "large square frame building, originally erected on the farm of William Culbertson, a mile or so south of the village," and used by the Christian Church society for many years, was eventually adapted to the requirements of a high school.
Dover Township has not since increased the number of school districts, but it has of course progressed, in the same ratio as has been the advancement in education, in length of session and extent of curri- cula, in other like schools of Fulton county. As at present constituted, the school facilities of Dover Township consist of five one-room ele- mentary schools. Tedrow (or Spring Hill) is a separate rural district, serving about fifty pupils, and having a two-room schoolhouse. The other five schoolhouses, with furnishings and equipment, are valued at $8,950, and have an enrollment of about 160 scholars.
The 1920 Board of Education of Dover Township is: William Windisch, president : J. H. Bailey, clerk; Fred Clark, Frank Bowers, V. S. Spring, and C. F. Bell, directors. The Board of Education of the Tedrow Special District is: H. J. Grimes, president; Dr. Evers, clerk ; O. M. Eldredge and M. L. Ernst, directors.
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CEMETERIES
The cemeteries of Dover are administered by the township trustees. The oldest cemetery probably is the Ayers Cemetery, which is supposed to have been "laid off for burial purposes ...... at the very beginning of its settlement, or as soon as 1838." Ottokee Cemetery comes next, having been laid out in 1846. Betsy Knapp, wife of Archie W. Knapp, was buried in it in June, 1846, and in 1853 it was organized as the Ottokee Cemetery. Spring Hill Cemetery was organized in, about, 1860; and it is believed that Oscar A. Hibbard, son of Mortimer D. Hibbard, was the first person interred in it.
CHURCHES
The early settlers of Dover Township, and for that matter of Fulton county, were fundamentally religious; and undoubtedly as settlements grew, religious gatherings formed in the log cabin of one of the settlers who were of the same sect. Because William Jones was the first settler in that part of York, later Clinton Township, which came within the bounds of Dover eventually, and because it is on record that lie sometimes preached "for the Disciples, there then being a few of that faith in Clinton Township on the south," we may perhaps give the Disciples of Christ society the distinction of having been the first to form an organization in Dover Township, although the United Brethren, under Alonzo H. Butler and John Bowser, formed an organization "at a very early date"; and the Methodist Episcopal society at Spring Hill dates back to 1842, in which year also services conducted by members of the New Church, or Swedenborgian society, were held in Dover.
The Disciples, or the Church of Christ society, in Dover, beginning with the activities of William Jones, were brought to a concrete state of definite church organization in 1841, through the efforts of Moses Ayers, as has been stated earlier in this chapter. The Rev. Benjamin Alton, of DeKalb county, Indiana, came at his invitation, and preached to settlers gathered in the home of Moses Ayers. It resulted in the formation of the Disciples at "Brush Creek, Lucas county, now Spring Hill, Fulton county," on March 1, 1841, that society having at organi- zation seventeen members. Miss Hibbard writes: "Services were held regularly, though they had no settled pastor for some years. In the spring of 1853, they erected a frame building on the farm of William Culbertson, in Clinton Township. In the spring of 1855, that building was removed to a lot given them by M. D. Hibbard, in the northern part of Spring Hill, being the first church building in that village, and, as I believe, the first in Dover Township. The wooden building removed to Spring Hill in 1855 had, as its first settled incum- bent, Reverend Topliffe, who was followed later by Rev. L. L. Carpenter, Zephaniah W. Shepherd, L. B. Smith, and others. In the winter of 1881-82, the old church gave place to a new one of brick, Rev. E. T. Hayes being pastor at that time. In both Christian and Methodist churches of Spring Hill, regular services and Sunday schools are now held." Miss Hibbard, wrote in 1916, of Spring Hill churches and Sunday schools, stating that "Spring Hill was favored with many fine teachers in its early days. Tradition will keep alive the names of Thomas Williams, Gavari Burtch, David Ayers, Sarah Guilford, John
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R. Deming, Joseph D. Aldrich, and many others." Of them, Miss Hibbard wrote: "Did they realize the influence they were exerting on the lives of some of their pupils? Faithful, competent, conseientious teachers! May the sod rest lightly over their true hearts."
Verity records that, in 1847, Elder Hosea Day organized a Christian church at Ottokee, "with a fair membership, which in later years, for want of pastoral service, lost their identity, and finally consolidated with the Disciples, who were quite prominent over the whole township." Verity adds that "in 1858, the Disciples, under the labors of Elder L. L. Carpenter, formed an organization at Ottokee, which in after years, like the Christian denomination, beeame disintegrated and was merged into the Wauseon and Spring Hill societies." The Disciples churches at Wauseon and Spring Hill are now known as Churches of Christ, or Christian churches. What difference there was between the original Christian society of Ottokee and the Disciples organization headed by L. L. Carpenter has not been defined. L. L. Carpenter was, perhaps, one of the most powerful and effective pioneer ministers of the Disciple, or Christian, church in Fulton county. Miss Olive Roos, formerly of Chesterfield Township, and now of Wauseon, wrote a review of the Christian churches some years ago, and regarding L. L. Carpenter she stated :
"Perhaps no other one person who had to do with the establishment. of the Churches of Christ in this section was more widely known, or more highly esteemed, than L. L. Carpenter. . .In 1857 he commeneed preaching in Fulton and Williams counties ...... baptized a great many and organized many churches ...... and in 1862 he was county treasurer ...... During all the time he lived in Ottokee, he preached nearly every Sunday, and as he kept no horse, he was obliged to walk to all his appointments. The country was very new and the roads afforded better walking than driving over the logs and swales, although he sometimes went on horseback. On one Lord's Day he had three appointments (morning, afternoon, and night, in far distant meeting houses). As the roads were very rough, he started on foot at 6 o'clock, in the morning, and walked to the first place, a distance of twelve miles; after preaching there, he walked to his second appointment, a distance of two miles, and after preaching there he walked a distance of six miles, preaching at 7 o'clock in the evening (in Chesterfield), and walking home the next morning, reaching his office at Ottokee by 9 o'clock."
The lot of the pioneer preacher was perhaps even more arduous than that of the pioneer teacher; but they both lived in a time, and district, when and where life in general was arduous, mode of living simple, and money scaree.
Zephaniah W. Shepherd, came with his parents to Spring Hill in 1852, being then fourteen years old. In 1858, when twenty years old, he was preaching the gospel, and had mastered the German language so that he was able to teach and preaeh in German in German Township. He eventually went into Chesterfield Township, and from there to Michigan, organizing many churches.
At one time, there was a prospeet of a new church, or Swedenborgian, society being organized in Dover. Rev. Elisha Hibbard, and his son, John Randolph Hibbard, D. D., were of that seet. Mrs. Hibbard, in hier diary, records having attended one such meeting on August 22,
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1841. The meeting place was in the home of her father-in-law, Rev. Elisha Hibbard, one mile east of Spring Hill. The sermon was preached by her brother-in-law, J. R. Hibbard. Mrs. Hibbard wrote: "Heard a sermon by brother Randolph, the first New Chuch sermon I ever heard." Dr. Hibbard later removed to Chicago, where for many years he was pastor of the. Swedenborgian Church Society. Miss Hibbard writes: "I do not know that any New Church society was organized in Fulton county, though there were a number of that faith, and both John Randolph Hibbard and his father, Rev. Elisha Hibbard, officiated at marriages, christenings, and funerals, and frequently held services in the homes of different families."
The activities of the United Brethren Church seems to have begun, so far as Dover Township territory is concerned, in the endeavors of John Bowser and Alonzo H. Butler. Miss Hibbard, by research in her mother's diaries, has been enabled to state that "The members of the United Brethren Church, of Dover, first held their services in schoolhouses, as did also the Methodists and Baptists. In the spring of 1861, the Brethren had a frame building erected on a lot given them for that purpose, in the northeastern part of the village of Spring Hill. M. D. Hibbard gave this lot. The church was used by the Methodists, as well as by the Brethren, after its dedication by Rev. C. Briggs, June 30, 1861." She adds: "That old frame church long since was destroyed, and there is now one Brethren church in the township, that of North Dover, some miles northeast of the village. Among the residents who had charge of the old Spring Hill church were Rev. John Fiske and Rev. T. Osmun." The United Brethren Society at North Dover was organized in, about, 1882, by the Reverend Bartlett, and during his period in charge a small church building was erected, which presumably is the one still used for worship.
The Methodist Episcopal Society, at Spring Hill had its inception, probably, in 1842, and for a while held meetings in the log school- house just east of Spring Hill. Prominent early members were James Gay, Mr. and Mrs. Newell Warren, Mr. and Mrs. Ebenezer Fuller, Mr. and Mrs. Newell Newton, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Tedrow, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Lott. In the '60s, the Methodists used the U. B. church for most of their services. In 1887, a frame church building was erected at Spring Hill, the dedicatory services being held on August 7th, by Reverends Belt, Fitzwater, and Gordon.
The Methodist Episcopal Society in the Ottokee neighborhood was organized in 1857. In 1863, it had only eight members. In 1868, the membership was twenty-seven; yet, soon afterwards the members con- sidered the erection of a church building. On April 24, 1875, the following trustees were elected "to hold the church property at Ottokee": John Hoffman, T. Todd, Joseph Shadle, J. M. Gillett, Joseph Shaffer, S. Eldridge, A. Lathrop, and C. F. Handy. It is understood that the church was opened in 1876, and that at the dedicatory services the presiding elder made the announcement that, although at all times the Methodist Episcopal society would reserve for itself priority of title to use the church building, when it was needed for their own services, the church might be used at other times by other church societies and denominations of Ottokee, it being recognized that all residents of Ottokee, irrespective of church affiliations, had subscribed to the building fund with that object in view. There should have been
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good public need of such a building, yet, in May, 1882, it was decided to give the trustecs of the Ottokee church authority to enter into negotiations to sell the church building "as they might deem advisable, just and right"; and three months later, the church records show that the trustees had filed report stating that they wished the amounts assumed by them to be refunded "provided the church prop- erty at Ottokee shall ever be sold"; all of which pointed to an under- current of religious differences in Ottokcc. This was more evident two years later when the trustees were instructed "to take such action as they deemed necessary to prevent the use of the M. E. church at Ottokee by the Spiritualists, or anything that is detrimental to Christi- anity.". There were quite a few Spiritualists living in and near Ottokee at that time, and bearing in mind the circumstances attending the building of the M. E. church, to which they had subscribed, they had claimed the right to hold services in it. The church building has never been sold, and, as a matter of fact, it has since been used by most of the denominations of the Ottokee district, although it is recognized in this day as the Methodist Episcopal Church, the present pastor of which is L. D. Burgoon.
The most prominent church workers of the Methodist society in Dover Township during the latter half of the nineteenth century were probably Milton Spring, and his son, Cornelius M. Spring. Their noteworthy connection with the church has elsewhere in this chapter been referred to. Others prominent during the same period, as stewards, class-leaders, local preachers, trustees, superintendents, and the like, in the district covered by the Ottokee circuit of the M. E. Church, which circuit included societies at Ottokee, Spring Hill, Pettisville, McCas- key's, Chesterfield, Etna, Ai, Archbold, Pike's Center, and Burlington, were: Michael Handy, Amos Hill, R. C. Ely, Stephen Eldridge, M. Caskey, Moses Jay, Orville Disbrow, J. N. Marsh, I. Jones, Wesley Denison, Joshua Shaffer, Wm. H. Stevens, J. Murphy, James Birch, John Van Arsdale, Stillman Colman, A. Lathrop, J. Hoffman, J. Shadle, T. Todd, O. B. Verity, J. M. Gillett, C. F. Handy, Griffin Cole. Curtis Stoddard, C. Norton, Hiram Clark, J. Johnson, Robert Fowler, Wm. Conklin, Benjamin Skeeles, Jacob Bartlett, Lyman Cook, H. L. Aldrich, Philander Crane, James Howard, Jeff Cole, Wm. Skeels, Geo. Kesler, James Bayes, S. C. Brainard, John Wise, and J. M. Morrison. Preachers in charge were: Revs. W. H. Taylor, V. Pond. Charles Haag, H. Vangurdy, A. M. Cory, M. E. Blizzard, E. A. Berry, D. Bowers, A. D. Newell, A. S. Van Buskirk, H. C. Gavitt, T. H. Hines, W. G. Waters, W. F. Maltbie, E. H Snow, A. Barker, B. T. Gordon. Presiding elders: Elnathan C. Gavitt, Samuel Lynch, T. H. Wilson, T. N. Barkdull, L. A. Belt, P. S. Donaldson, W. G. Waters, and S. L. Roberts. These names are extracted from the official circuit records of the period, 1863-87. Rev. Elnathan Gavitt agreed, at the first conference, in 1863, "to accept the public collection for his support on this circuit," after the meeting of delegates from Spring Hill, Chesterfield, North Chesterfield, Ottokee, McCaskey's, Etna, and Ai, had resolved "that the brethren will try and support preaching among us." Mr. Gavitt was presiding elder, and the preacher-in-charge was to be Wm. H. Taylor, who for serving those small and scattered societies was to receive $230 a year. On September 10, 1864, it was reported that "There is no Sabbath school within the limits of the Ottokee
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Circuit, but such as are in a union connection with other denomina- tions." In 1867 there were four union schools. In 1867, a Methodist Sunday school was formed at Ottokee, and a report shortly afterwards noted that there were seven teachers and forty scholars, and that "the school is in a prosperous condition, with a good degree of punctuality of teachers and scholars. The latter do well in reciting Scripture committed to memory." In 1868, the strength of the societies of the circuit were: Spring Hill, 43 members; Chesterfield, 20 members ; Morey's Corners, 8 members; Ai, 8 members; Ottokee, 27 members; Etna, 6 members. In 1869 the preacher-in-charge received $375 salary ; and the presiding elder, $60. In 1872, the pastor's report to the conference read :
"We found the charge in a very discouraging state; everywhere on the work the conversation was of a discouraging nature. The heart becomes sick. We have been exhorting the friends to trust in God, and expect better times; that the Great Head of the Church would hear and answer the cries of the people."
Despite discouragements, the Methodist Church went forward, built churches at Spring Hill, Ottokee, and other places after that. C. M. Spring was recording secretary of the Ottokee Circuit for many years.
SOCIETIES
There appears to be only one fraternal organization at present in Dover Township, namely, the Ottokee Lodge, No. 851, of the Ancient Order of Gleaners of the World. It was organized on August 22, 1904, with barely enough members to fill the chairs, the first chief gleaner being Alfred Savage. Its present strength is about 180, and Roland Frazier is chief gleaner. The Gleaners own their own substantial concrete building at Ottokee. The charter members were Alfred Savage, Frank Shadle, Wm. A. Wentz, William C. Tew, Royal Sturde- vant, Elizabeth Savage, Francis A. Mock, Ervin F. Pennington.
MISCELLANEOUS
The first Justice of the Peace elected after the organization of Dover Township, in 1843 (a special election being held for that pur- pose on August 16th) was Alonzo Knapp, who "entered upon the duties of his office at this place, which was afterwards called Ottokee."
Pottery was made by Eben French, at Chatfield's Corners, in the '40s. He peddled his pottery through the county, and is claimed to have made the first tile manufactured in Fulton county. Joseph Shadle later burned brick, supplying all the brick for the last Ottokee Court House.
The first brick made in Dover Township was supposed to have been by "Long Bill" Jones, in 1839.
POPULATION
The statistics for the first decades of Dover Township, are not available, but from 1870, the figures are: 1870, 930; 1880, 1055; 1890, 1049; 1900, 1171; 1910, 1145: 1920, 990. The last figures are subject to correction, as they are those of the "Preliminary Announcement of Population," as taken in the 1920 census.
CHAPTER XVII HISTORY OF PIKE TOWNSHIP
Pike Township was one of the first to be settled, notwithstanding that it was not organized under the present township name until 1841. As a matter of fact it was the first township in which white men settled, if one can consider the residence within it, from 1824 to 1833, of John Grey, the Indian trader, legitimate settlement. Still, long before white men came to other parts of the land now within the present bounds of Fulton county, members of the Howard family, which be- came one of the most prominent in the county, were in the territory trading with the Indians. And in Indian associations, Pike is prob- ably the most historic of the townships of Fulton county.
"Pioneer days in Pike Township" was the subject of an authentic historical review written some years ago by Mrs. Agnes Howard Mc- Clarren, of Winameg, daughter of the late Colonel Dresden W. H. Howard. Her sources were so original and the research so carefully undertaken that the review should have place in this chapter, in full. It begins :
"The present limits of Pike Township were, until 1833, north of the Fulton line, under the jurisdiction of the Territory of Michigan. The surveys were made by the authority of Michigan, as carly as 1819 or 1820. The county seat was established at Adrian, Lenawee county, Michigan, in December, 1826.
"By a compromise, brought about by the Ohio and Michigan war, which at one time looked serious, but was accompanied by so much of the ludicrous as to lose its seriousness.
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