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 43
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"The first lines were placed in position by the Northwestern Tele- phone Company, of Wauseon, Ohio, in the summer of 1897. The line was run north from Wauseon to Ottokec, thence east to Winameg, following the principal highways. This was called a "toll" line. These lines were carried all over the county and state. The following year, the 'party' line, as it is called, was established. Today, all the principal homes in Pike Township are connected with Wauscon, Delta, and other towns by telephone.
"Thus the years brought to the early settlers the twenty-five cent
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postage, letters once or twice a year. The writers of those letters have been long years in dust, but their children, and children's children, can step across the room to a neat little 'phone, and in a twinkling of an eye can talk to his neighbor a mile away, or converse with a friend in New York, or Chicago, as easily as if in the same room.
"Early Marriages, Births and Deaths. The first marriage oc- curring in the township was that of a nephew of Lyman Parcher to a daughter of Aretus Knight, Daniel Knowles, justice of the peace, officiating.
"Joseph Salsbury and Magdalena Schlappi were married in 1836, Winfield Tappan and Amanda Woodford were married in Royalton Township in 1835.
"The first male child born in Pike Township was Will D., son of John Sindel, October, 1834. The first female was to John Hobert, September, 1835.
"The first death occurring in the township was that of a child of Joseph Salsbury's, November 16, 1837, and buried in the Salsbury cemetery. The first burial in the Aetna cemetery was Catherine, a sister of Martin and Emery Wilson, 1837.
"The Pioneer Physician. Dr. William Holland was the first physician in Pike Township, a Christian gentleman of refinement and education. He studied medicine at Oakham, Mass., and at the age. of twenty-six years began the practice of medicine. He came to Pike Township in 1837 or 1838, and for years rode from one part of the country, to another, a ministering angel to suffering humanity. He died in 1857, at the advanced age of ninety-one years.
"The 'Prairie Schooner' Befits its Name. Sewell Gunn was the first white man to traverse the mysterious bottomless windings of the Black Swamp. He came with his family, in a heavy-moving wag- on, travelling for days with scarcely a sight of dry land.
"Thus they came:
'Men and boys and white-covered wagon train
Women moving in sunshine and rain,
'Men and boys and white-covered wagon train
Women, fair as Maumee's rippling wave;
Through primeval forests these pioneers camo,
Seeking for freedom, homes, and not for fame;
The pioneer train rests beneath hillsides green.'
"And we, the descendants are enjoying in luxury and comfort the fruits of their toil and self-sacrifice."
Shortly after the publication in the Wauseon newspaper of the above-quoted article by Mrs. McLaren, it prompted Judge Wm. H. Handy, a worthy former resident of Pike Township, to set down for publication his recollections of early days in Pike Township. He wrote :
"The names in McClarren's article carry me back, and I can see very many of these persons as plainly as if they were before me now. D. W. H. Howard, Whit Tappan, Dan Knowles, David Salsbury, Dave Fairchild, Jennie Viers, Robt. A. Howard, Chet Herrick, Val Wins- low, Wm. Mullen, the Sindels, Fewless, Alwoods, McQuillens, Pel- tons, Dunbars, Dennis's. What a flood of recollections they bring to
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
one! Hearty pioneers, good citizens all of them, men-the memory of them is a delight. They were the making of old Pike, and they builded well ..
"The old schoolhouse, just two miles east of Ottokee. How many remember it now? It was on the corner of the road running north, from the east line of what is known as the Harvey Aldrich place. It was of logs, and the benches were made of logs split in two, and stakes for legs, in auger holes bored in the logs. It was a long way for us little fellows to walk-a full mile from any home-but I rather think we enjoyed it, after all.
"This was in the days before even the tallow candle was known to us, for I well remember the light at home was made by lard in a saucer, with a wick immersed in the lard, one end exposed just enough to burn.
"AND SNAKES? GRACIOUS! WHAT A COUNTRY FOR SNAKES."
"Deer were plentiful then, as was all game ...... And snakes? Gracious! What a country for snakes, rattle-snakes, racers, and copper- heads. They were so plentiful that we eared very little for them ; and I remember of but one man ever having been bitten by a rattlesnake in Pike. He was our next door neighbor, Aaron Ayers, who, while stand- ing on a log ehopping in front of his house, was bitten; but it did not seem to do him much harm.
"And the roads. They ran in every direction then, very few of them on section lines ; but now those old highways are forgotten."
William H. Handy, of Ottawa, Ohio, had a noteworthy record, as a member of the legal fraternity of Fulton county. He "was a
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good counselor, and a good trial lawyer, and he eventually was ad- vanced to the judiciary of the court of common pleas; and, as a judge, he "presided with becoming dignity." His brother, Charles F., who died in Ottokee, January 15, 1917, was resident in Fulton county for more than seventy years, and was a justice of the peace for nearly a generation. Both William H. and Charles F. had meritorious service records during the Civil War, being veterans. Their father, the Hon. Michael Handy was a conspicuous figure in early Pike, and in Ot- tokee, when that was the county seat. Michael Handy was undoubted- ly a man of strong character. He was well educated, and capable as an educator; was a teacher for twenty-one winters; yet, did not hesitate to work industriously as a cobbler, or shoemaker and mender, recorded Verity, during the decade 1840-50. He had an increasing family, and the small stipend he received for teaching covered the needs of only three months. He was also justice of the peace, but his services as such were rare in that law-abiding community. He eked out some- thing toward the family need by hotel-keeping, on his farm, but the revenue from that cannot have been very much, for he charged a man only six cents for a bed, and only 12 cents (one shilling) for a meal, while whisky retailed" at three cents a portion. Yet, Michael Handy reared his family well, and while engaged in the diversified occupations of teacher, hotel-keeper, farmer, justice of the peace, he found time to study law, and eventually became a member of the legal bar of Fulton county. He typified the capable pioneer, a man of initiative and capability, one who was able to go into the profitless places, and "carry on" until he had turned it into a place of plentiful yield. As he himself stated, in a letter, headed "Pioneer Reminis- cences," to the editor of the Wauseon "Republican" in 1884, most of the pioneers of Pike Township "came here young, strong, and am- bitious, able and willing to face the hardships of a new country, to make homes for ourselves and children." Continuing, he explained that they "must go about 20 miles or more to mill, and as the con- ditions of the roads and prairies were thin, it would take two or three days to go, and must stop in the wagon or mill all night, and carry our provisions." Nowadays, a farmer would begrudge the spending of a day, in taking a load of hay to market.
Michael Handy was the first clerk of Pike Township. He narrates an interesting incident of his first year, as such, stating:
"In 1841 Pike Township was made, and township officers had to be elected; and as I was willing to serve the dear people I was taken up and elected township clerk for the new township. As such clerk it became my duty to take the enumeration of all the scholars of the township, of school age. Hence, I went at it as a township officer should. When completed, I must return the same to the county seat, which was Toledo, about thirty miles distant with good roads. The only way I could make the trip was on foot. Now, the question of vast importance to me was: where can I stay overnight? No money, and township clerk at that. But good luck seemed to be on my side, for I remembered that the young lady who was then teaching our school resided on the prairie a little this side of Toledo. Hence, I called on her, informing her I was going into the neighborhood of her folks. She was quite anxious that I should call on them that night, and I, being township clerk and school examiner for this part of the county
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of Lucas, seemed to her all right. So I went to Toledo, made my report ; came back, and stayed overnight; next day returning home all right. It had not cost me a cent, for the reason that I had not one; but I made up my mind that on the first Monday in March, when I settled with the trustees, I should be allowed for my time and all ex- penses out; and I looked forward to that time with great interest. The first Monday in March came around, and I, with my township record under my arm, went to the place of holding elections, to meet the trustces, and settle with all township officers. After we had completed all, we concluded we had a new township now out of debt. and that we would keep it so; we passed a resolution that no township officer should charge, or receive, anything for the year's work. I said: Amen ! but I thought how vain are all things here below; how false, and yet how fair."
Michael Handy was also reminiscent regarding his first term as a school teacher. in Pike Township:
"In the fall of 1841, I was employed to teach school in the distriet in which Mr. Cheadle resided. The schoolhouse was near his house. I finished my school; they paid me the publie money, which amount was small; the balance they collected promptly on a Rate Bill made, and paid me; and old Father Wright made me a present of a nice set of chairs of his own make."
While upon Pike Township school history, reference must be made to the notable service of William P. Cowan. He began to teach school in Pike Township in 1854. He died in 1913, but his school record embraced fifty-four winter terms, a record only exceeded by James F. Burroughs, of Royalton, who taught for fifty-nine terms. "Bill" Cowan, however, probably did more to improve the standard of educa- tion in Fulton county than did any other man. For many years he conducted, in Pike Township, a private training school for teachers, and for those studying to enter that profession. One hundred and eighty-seven teachers passed through his normal school, and some of them beeame conspicuously capable as teachers. A further review of Mr. Cowan's school activities is embodied in the schools chapter of this work. He also took some part in public administration, being a director of the County Infirmary for some years.
It seems well-nigh incredible that. of the men who were in Pike Township during the first years of its existence, there should still be one living representative. Lucius P. Taylor settled in Pike Township seventy-seven years ago, and he was then twenty-five years old. He is now one hundred and three years old, and although of course not now vigorous, he is at times remarkably alert in remembrance of pioneer days and incidents. As befits the record of the man who has lived longest in the township, and also in the county, his life story is fully reviewed in the biographical section of this current historical work; but some matter not embodied in that sketch may be written here. Lucins P. Taylor came in 1843, and settled on 240 acres of wild timber land. He erected his log cabin, and made provision for the coming of his parents and brothers and sisters, who settled just east of him. He and his family for some years were twenty miles away from the nearest doctor, and thus depended almost wholly upon home- brewed herb medicines, except in cases of grave sickness. The mill
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where they took their grain and corn for grinding was at Maumee, twenty miles away; and generally, the roads were in such a state of muddiness, being practically a morass, that the journeys to the mill had, in most years, to be deferred until the winter season, when the ground was frozen. Lucius P. Taylor raised a large family, and gave two sons to the nation during the Civil war.
J. H. Tappan, of the pioneer Pike family of that name, wrote in the "Toledo Times," of October 9, 1905, regarding "Winameg and the Council Tree," and of a visit he paid to the Howard family. He wrote: "Fulton County, like the Maumee Valley, is full of historical interest. Perhaps one of the most interesting is the farm and house of the late D. W. H. Howard, who was the first white man to come into that part of Fulton county. His name, for over half a century, has been a household word in the homes of the great Maumee Valley. No one of the pioneers of northwestern Ohio had a larger personal experience with the different Indian tribes than he. Being appointed Indian interpreter by President Jackson, he often held councils with the Indians under the famous Council tree that stands near his house in Winameg.
"The writer. . . . had the pleasure of visiting the Howard house a few days ago. It stands on high ...... ground, surrounded by many shade trees, planted by Mr. Howard's own hand many years ago. On entering the room, the visitor faces the old-time brick fireplace, and the andirons so common in those early days for holding the wood fires. In this room, the visitor will notice a picture of Peter Navarre, General Harrison's Indian scout, mounted on horseback, dressed in Indian garb. Navarre was a personal friend of Mr. Howard.
.. We were invited to descend the hill, and see the Council tree. This hill is of an angle of forty-five degrees, and ...... arriving at the base we stood in front of the tomb of the late D. W. H. Howard. erected in solid stone and concrete masonry, as per order by himself, prior to his death.
"Near the same place is the large oak Council tree, a monarch of the forest, and one hundred feet high. It was under this tree that Mr. Howard held a council with the Indians in 1832, the time of the Black Hawk war, and he did more in that council to prevent the Indian war than any other man in northwestern Ohio. Under this tree the noted Indian chief, Winameg, is buried.
"Mr. Howard's daughter informed me one of the Indians would lean against this tree while the others would shoot, to determine who could come the nearest to his head without hitting him. She pointed to bullet holes that were yet visible .. . .
That giant oak becomes historic, if only for the fact that at some time during each day its shadow would probably rest upon the burial place, or the sacrificial altars, of the ancient people, called the Mound Builders, of Fulton county ; and it surely each day casts its shade over the last resting place of two worthy men, of like thought; both true lovers of nature; both of like nobility of character; and both men of commanding influence in their respective circles. These two men, Winameg and Howard, noble chiefs, both of them, one of red skin, the other with white (while still seeking to secure fair treatment for the red), lie almost side by side. A visit to the spot prompted Frank
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
S. Ham, who had a profound respect for the late Col. D. W. H. Howard, to write the following verses, which are entitled: "At the Tomb of Winameg's Friend":
"O brave and noble old pioneer- Civilization's herald, who knew no fear- Whose bones are resting here! I come but to drop a tear.
Friend of a bygone race, Whom the white man did efface! Thy life did'st span the space, 'Twixt then and now, both interlace.
And when you sickened and died 'Twas by an old warrior's side You chose in death to reside- With old Chief Winameg to abide.
Thy dust and his mingle-bone to bone- And, when the legions gather at the throne, The old chief will not stand alone Thy voice his defense will make known."
The Council Oak is historic also as the scene of an important council between white men and red; between the representative of the Federal Government, through young Dresden W. H. Howard, as inter- preter, and Chief Winameg. That, according to Colonel Howard's own version, took place "in the spring of 1827, or 1828." That being so, it is probably erroneous to connect the council with the Black Hawk war, for it was at another camp, that of Kin-jo-i-no, on the south bank of the Maumee, at the Rapids, and in the year 1832, that young How- ard, then only fifteen years old, was so useful to the United States Government, in circumventing the machinations of the Sac chief, Black Hawk, who sought to disaffect, and stir to warlike action, the Ottawa and other tribes of northwestern Ohio. The council at Wina- meg presumably had as its purpose the honest purchase from the Indians of their priority rights to Fulton county territory ; and Indian Agent Jackson, a near relative of President Jackson, in a letter written in 1832 to Edward Howard, father of D. W. H., referred to the boy, Dresden, who "speaks the dialects of the Indians, as I was pleased to learn on a former occasion," which presumably was that occasion in 1827 or 1828 when the boy interpreted the treaty between Chief Wina- meg and the Government. Colonel Howard, in the last year of his life waited calmly for the end, and deliberately planned the order his obsequies should follow. Regarding the place of burial, he wrote:
"I was an interpreter for the Government at a council held under the Council Oak, by the aged Sachem (Chief) Winameg, who lies buried in the hill.
"At the foot of the Great Council Oak the Indian council fire burned out, and he sleeps his last sleep in the hill by the spring.
.
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"And may we, too, when the drum beats the last roll call, be per- mitted to pitch Eternity's Bivouac on the hillside, in the shade of the beautiful trees planted by our own hands, and so bountifully watered by his loving kindness. So may it be."
His wife, Mary B. Copeland Howard, who survived him for many years, stated, soon after his death :
"When I first saw this spot, the old Council Oak was pointed out to me. Upon its trunk were places cut where a prisoner had been tied by the Indians. Thousands of bullets were to be seen embedded about
THE HISTORIC COUNCIL OAK AT WINAMEG.
the spot where the unfortunate victim had come to his death. They had stood on the hill above, and, evidently from what we could learn, shot not to kill, but to see how near they could strike his body without inflicting death. The marks were plainly discernible for many years."
"The oak tree will always be historic, perhaps, indeed, chiefly his- toric to Fulton county, because it was under its shade that the Fourth of July celebration was held by the pioneers of the township in 1848, or 1849, as has been described in the narrative by Mrs. McClarren.
"Winameg, and that vicinity, also will be full of historic interest to the people of the county, because of its Indian history. Its Indian name was Neshe-naw-ba, although it had another French-Indian name, and "at a still earlier day" was called De-Mutre, meaning "the beaver,"
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that name having been applied to it beeause "the many ponds in the immediate vicinity were numerously inhabited by this sagaeious little animal."
J. H. Tappan, in the article before-quoted, refers to a visit to the Indian eamp, Yoxey (Wyoxie), stating that:
"Leaving the Council tree, we proceeded to the large woods, and followed the old Indian trail that still exists. At the east end of the woods, and north of the trail, the Indian camp Yoxey (Wyoxie) was located. In the winter of 1841, here Chief Yoxey (Wyoxie) died. The writer, and three others, including my father, made a rude box in which to lay the dead ehief; also his gun and tomahawk, and some powder. When the lid was being nailed fast, that part of the program was stopped by the Indians. They claimed the chief would get out at a better hunting ground some day."
This evidently was not the Indian death and burial of which Mrs. Mary B. Howard wrote, and to which reference has been made in an
Hand
THE MANY PONDS IN THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY (OF WINAMEG, ONCE CALLED DE MUTRE, SIGNIFYING "THE BEAVER") WERE NUMEROUSLY INHABITED BY THIS SAGACIOUS LITTLE ANIMAL.
earlier chapter of this work; but it is clear that in 1841 there were many Indians still in the neighborhood.
Mrs. McClarren's article has covered most of the essential history of Pike Township. Verity reeords that the Poplar Grove ehureh was built about 1848, by United Brethren members, and the Bueler Church, in 1881, by the same church sect; that the St. Paul's Church, of the Evangelieal faith, was built in 1881, in which year also a church of the Diseiples was "rigged up for worship," in the Trowbridge school district; and that a church of the Seventh Day Adventists was built in 1881, in the Whiteomb school district, under the labors of A. Bigelow. The two present churches are moderately strong in membership, there being about one hundred members of the Disciples Church, and about seventy-five of the United Brethren.
The present schools of Pike Township are about equal to those of similar townships. There are no high sehools, but the excellent school of Delta is within easy access to those elder scholars of Pike Township people who seek high school education. There are seven one-room sehoolhouses, of rural class, in the township. These are valued at
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$8,700, and are adequate for the elementary education of the children of the township. The enrollment in 1919 totaled to 170.
The following are the present members of the Pike Township Board of Education : Frank Waldeck, president; W. B. Denius, clerk ; O. S. Geer, W. L. Campbell, D. B. Cook, Harry Double, directors.
POPULATION
All the statistics for Pike Township are not available, but such particulars of population as have been verified are given. They are: 1870, 878; 1880, 1147; 1890, 1142; 1900, 1147; 1910, 1099; 1920, 1001.
It is obvious, therefore, that, as a purely agricultural community, Pike Township was fully settled in the '70s: and as a railroad does not touch any part of the township it has had little opportunity of develop- ing in other industrial lines. It is, in places, however, beautiful coun- try in which to live.
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CHAPTER XVIII
HISTORY OF YORK TOWNSHIP
York is the oldest of all the townships of Fulton county; in fact, the greater part of the land embraced in all the other townships of the county was at one time within the bounds of York. Prior to the establishment of Lucas county, the land was within the jurisdiction of Wood and Henry counties. Lucas county was created in 1835, and the whole of the present area of Fulton county, with the exception of a strip taken from Williams eounty on the west and from Henry county on the south when Fulton county was ereeted in 1850, was organized into one large township, called York. Subdivisions, however, came quickly. York Township was formed on June 6, 1836, but in the same year the organization of Swan Creek Township took a big slice off the eastern side of York. Chesterfield, Royalton, and Amboy were all formed in 1837, and possibly very few of the settlers within that northern strip (for the possession of which there was such a serious contention in 1835 between Ohio and Michigan), took the trouble to vote in the first York Township election, held in 1836. The organiza- tion of Clinton Township, in 1838, restricted York on the west. Pike Township was organized in 1841, and Dover in 1843, and York Town- ship boundaries have been the same ever since, save that in 1850, a strip two miles wide was added to York, and other southern townships of Fulton county, that strip being ceded by Henry county.
York Township is generally level; its soil is inclined to be heavy, the greater part of York being in the Black Swamp area, and the soil is very near to clay. Yet, there is a dearth of water in dry summers, the watereourses being apt to dry completely. In the northern part of the township the soil is sandy, and there is mueh gravel. Bad Creek runs through the township in a southerly direction.
There is some doubt as to who was the pioneer settler of York Town. ship. William Jones is said, and is generally supposed, to have beer. the first settler, coming in May, 1834; yet, it is recorded that William, John, and James King came into the township also in May, of that year, and, by their testimony, William Jones was not then, to their knowledge, "in the woods."
John S. Trowbridge, the pioneer of Delta, was also in York in 1834, as were Cornelius and Alanson Trowbridge, and the Hampton family. The King reeord also refers to Elisha Trowbridge and a Swiss family, named Schlappi, as being "in the woods" in 1834, early. Of course, most of the pioneers of York Township, may strictly be considered to be pioneers of York Township, as that township, when organized in 1836, embraeed almost all of present Fulton county; but the endeavor of the compiler of this work is to place the records in the history of the township of which the land entered by the respective settlers ultimately became a part.
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