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 53
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The Fenton brothers, James and John, were among the leaders of early Fulton. They settled in 1847, and both developed good properties. John was justice of the peace for many years, and held many township offices. In the '70s, he served two terms as State Representative.
And so on. Much more could be written of Fulton Township early settlers, but there is not available space. However, many of the promi- nent families of later Fulton will have notice in the biographical vol- ume of this work.
EARLY INDUSTRIES
John W. Harter was the first to establish a grist milling business in Fulton Township. In 1835, he caused to be erected a grist-mill, for horse power, on the north part of his land, near where Winfield Cline's house later stood. The mill was known as the "Horse Mill," and had a capacity of from two to five bushels an hour. It might
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have been appropriately termed the "Ox Mill," for oxen furnished the propelling power oftener than horses. The bolt of the mill was turned by hand, as one would turn a grindstone. Altogether, the mill was a primitive one, yet the flour made was probably more wholesome and nourishing than the highly bolted, or denatured, produet of pres- ent-day mills. The mill was moved in 1840 one mile south to Swan Creek, and made a water mill, Harter and Stair being in partnership. Where the Horse Mill originally stood, Michael Cline, in 1853, erected a sawmill, which however was burned three years later.
A grist-mill was erected at Ai, in 1866, by Miles Hayes. It ran for very many years, eventually passing into the ownership of C. Pack- ham. And Pilliod Brothers, in 1887, went into the milling business.
Nicholas Q. Berry built the first sawmill, establishing it on their own farm, through which ran Swan Creck. It could only be used, however, when there was plenty of water. Iram Strong built a steam sawmill in 1852, about a mile north of Luke's Corners; in 1856 Michael Kreiger built a mill; and in about 1860 Miles Hayes put one up a short distance north of Swanton. Later, J. D. Hall built a saw and planing mill in Swanton.
THE VILLAGE OF AI
Ai may be supposed to have had its origin in the establishment of a postoffice, under that name, in the log-house of David Springer, at that place, in 1843. Luther Dodge had quite a large store on his land, seetion 11, town 10 south, range 4 east, from 1839 to 1844, but the first store in Ai was built in 1849, by Thomas C. Berry, who sold in 1851 to Henry Haughton. In 1853 Isaac Springer bought a half- interest, and in the following year Samuel Smout became his partner. In 1854 Ozias Merrill purchased Springer's interest. In connection with the store was an ashcry, which brought trade. However, Ai's chances of rapid development passed when the railway was built in 1853-55.
The little hamlet of Lytton, situated northwest of Ai consists mainly of a large country store, which is eredited with doing a larger hard- ware business than that of the whole of Swanton.
Regarding Ai, James Dowling, hereinbefore referred to, stated: "This being a part of Lucas county, all the business was trans- acted at Maumee, which was then the county seat. Here was where we went to mill, and did all our trading ...... Ai, being located on the Toledo and Angola road, soon grew to be quite a trading center. The late Isaac Springer and O. Merrill, conducted a store there for several years. At one time, Ai was the trading eentre of the eastern part of this county, and the western part of Lucas. The Angola road was one of the principal roads of the county, and a settler eoming from the east took this road, or the Plank Road, some six or eight miles north of it. With the coming of the steam and electrie roads and the stoning and gravelling of the publie highway, Ai, like the old Roman empire lost her prestige as a commercial eentre."
Today, Ai is of importance only as the place in which is the ex- eellent centralized school of Fulton Township.
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THE VILLAGE OF SWANTON
The promising Village of Swanton is situated partly in Fulton Township, and partly in Swan Creek. In point of population, Swanton of Swan Creek is of slightly greater importance, and the history of the village, as a whole, will be found in the chapter regarding Swan Creek Township. The pioneer settler was Joseph Miller, who owned the greater part of the land where Swanton now stands.
Swanton, in 1866, was thus described by the compiler of Brown's "Gazetteer of the Michigan Southern Railroad": "Swanton, late Cen- treville, Fulton County. There are only three business places there. Dr. A. L. Bassett keeps a general assortment of drugs and merchandise, and a tavern; Paul Beard, grocer; Joseph Miller, dry goods and merchandise, also station agent. There is a saw-mill half a mile north, and the town is located one-half mile south, com- prising two stores, hotel, and blacksmith's shop. Swanton, from which more recently the station was named, is one and a half miles south- east; has a hotel, store, wagon, and blacksmith's shop."
The population of that part of Swanton which is in Fulton Town- ship can be separately given, for the decadal census of 1890, when it was 310 persons; in 1900 the population had increased to 465; and in 1910 to 493. During the three periods, the figures for Swanton in Swan Creek Township were: 1890, 198; 1900, 422; 1910, 565. The separate figures for 1920 cannot yet be given, but the preliminary announcement of population issued by the Bureau of the Census in June, 1920, shows Swanton to have a combined population of 1,248.
SCHOOLS OF FULTON TOWNSHIP
The first schoolhouse built in Fulton Township, or rather in that part of Swan Creek Township, as it then was, was erected on the southeast corner of the eastern half of the northeast quarter of section ten, town ten south, range four east, in 1836, or 1837. It was on land upon which the Rev. John Shaw had settled in 1834, but had vacated in 1835, and it was built to serve the needs of most of the families who came in 1834 and 1835, probably drawing its first pupils from the Teachworth, Lake, Boyd, Berry, Welch, Wilcox and Babcock fam- ilies. It may have been the schoolhouse at which Gideon W. Raymond was the pioneer teacher, although early teachers in that house were Joseph Babcock, and Luther Dodge. It was of course built of logs, and its furnishings were of the primitive kind generally associated with such times and houses.
The second schoolhouse was established in 1837, and was probably the little log house at Ai, at which Julia Chamberlain, sister of Samuel Durgin, taught the first session, in 1837.
The third schoolhouse was that designated the Clark District, or District No. 3, as it officially was. That was built in 1838, and Gideon W. Raymond may have taught school there in the winter of 1838, although there is no record of a school term before that of August, 1839, when it was decided to ' employ a "female." Who she was is not recorded, although a statement, in an earlier historical work on Fulton county, that Harriet O'Brien "taught the first sum-
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mer term in the Clark district, but was taken sick, Miss Huldah Merrill finished the term" is not quite correct, for the school records show that emergency arrangement was made in the winter session of 1841-42. Harriet O'Brien receiving $1.50 a weck from November 15, 1841, to January, 1842, the entry reading "Directors agree with Hul- dah Merrill to continue the school commenced by Miss O'Brien (and left in consequence of sickness) and to continue it twelve weeks from the time it commenced."
The Clark District was organized on July 28, 1838. On August 7, 1838, the directors met to view ground for a site, "and stuck a stake for said site on a piece of ground near the quarter post on the north line of section five, township seven." There, on November 24th, of that year, they met "according to appointment" and "commenced chopping the logs;" and five days later, on November 29, 1838, "the district met and raised a schoolhouse in said district." That schoolhouse is described in the article before-referred to by James Nobbs, whose parents settle in the neighborhood in 1835. He said: "The school- house where I attended school was a log building, with desks fastened to the walls of the building. Our desks were boards fastened on wooden pins driven into the wall, while the seats were slabs split from logs put on wooden legs."
School discipline was somewhat different than now. Mr. Nobbs said :
"Talk about school government! That was when we had it. The teacher who could not thrash the biggest boy in school, or at least was not afraid to try it, didn't last very long. Every teacher had his water beech, and the first fellow who broke a rule was sure to receive a flogging. The first thing the teacher did was to secure order, and then came instruction ; and the question has sometimes come to me whether we had not gone to the other extreme now, and was giving too much instruction these days, without paying enough attention to discipline and order."
The first frame schoolhouse in the township was probably that built in 1842, or earlier, in District No. 1, "near the house of L. Dodge," as an entry in the school records of District No. 3, reads. In 1843, the directors of the Clark district arranged with Bradley Wood for a frame house, he having undertaken to build one "the size of the one in District No. 1, in this town, near the house of L. Dodge" for two hundred dollars. The frame schoolhouse built in the Ai District has been stated to have been the first built in the township, but that is not borne out by other records. James Dowling, who came into the township in 1842, in the autumn, and was then a boy of seven years, stated that :
"The first schoolhouse that I know of in what is now Fulton Town- ship was an old log building standing a short distance east of the present residence of Richard Pinkstock. It was some three or four miles from our home, and here was where I first attended school. A little later a schoolhouse was built at Ai. Like the children of all pioncers, our education was very limited. You must remember there were no free schools in those days, like we have now. Then, a school `was supported by each family agreeing to give so much to pay the teacher. and to board her or him a portion of the time there was school."
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A schoolhouse was opened at East Swanton in 1839, but that record will be included in the Swanton section of Swan Creek Town- ship chapter.
Samuel Durgin taught for some years in the Ai school, and Gideon W. Raymond was the teacher for at least four of its early years. Other pioneer teachers were Luther Dodge, Almeda Doughty, A. Sawyer, Lucy Clough, Margaret Emery, Jonathan Woods, Ezra Tunison, John Clendening, Elenor Johnson, Persis Scott, Ruthett Deblin, Caro- line Wood, Moses Curtis, D. Allen, Lemuel Johnson, M. McCoy, Wil- liam Lewis, Hartley Clute, N. S. Merrill, Eli J. Reed, Mary M. Barrett, Charles Thompson, Jane Templeton, Fanny Wood, Bethulia Day, Eliza E. McCaskey, Warren A. Harrington, Hannah Morel, (or Mer- rill) J. W. Taft, Esther Merrill, Charles B. Hayes, O. W. Parrish, Alvina Griffin, C. A. Harmer, Hester Trowbridge, Amelia Quiggle, D. C. Baxter, Moses D. Grandy, Elizabeth Mack, E. Van Fleet, (or Van Vleet) David Swank, Ruth Fewless, Lisa (or Elizabeth) Lucas, Mary Fraker, E. Fassett, Clarry A. Tappan, Agnes Mecologue, Louisa Cam- eron, John Raker and Frank Beard.
Early school directors include James Egnew, George Curtis, Thomas S. Sabin, Charles Fairchilds, Reuben Hastings, W. D. Her- rick, Chester Scott, George Black, Hiram Clark, Charles Gunn, Cyrus Clark, Daniel Hollinshead, J. Thrasher, F. Chamberlain, John Viers, Gideon W. Raymond, John Nobbs, Isaac Day, Eli J. Reed, Samuel Cable, L. Dodge, Daniel H. Petteys, Thomas Watkins, Epaphrus Thompson, Stephen Watkins, William Critzer, James Watkins, Wes- ley Watkins, Isaac Fauble, E. S. Munger, and Thomas Martin.
As to salaries paid to teachers; Gideon W. Raymond in 1840 con- tracted to teach a winter term of school for a stipend of fifteen dollars a month; in 1879, "Jim" (James F.) Burroughs was "hired to teach school," in District No. 4, of Fulton Township, for thirty-five dollars a month, with the possibility of dismissal at any time, the minute book of the school directors stating that "he is to quitt any time we think he don't do justice for the school. .
. and he has the same right on his part to stop any time he can't get along with the school." Today, the salary expected by teachers is very near to $100 a month, or should be.
As to cost of maintaining a school district, there is probably not a school district of today (certainly there is not in Fulton Township, where all have been centralized) that would not require many times the amount yearly that was needed to keep District No. 3 of Fulton Township in operation for the school year of 1841, when the cost was $44.00, $10.86 of which was borne by the county.
The original log houses cost practically nothing but labor; and the first frame buildings erected in Fulton Township for school pur- poses cost not more than two hundred dollars; but the present fine centralized school at Ai is valued at $26,750, with fittings.
The centralization of schools is a very creditable page in the his- tory of Fulton Township. Mr. Reighard's newspaper in issue of December 18, 1908, explained briefly its development and consum- mation, stating, in part:
"The schoolhouse of sub-district No. 2, known as Ai school, was situated almost exactly at the geographical centre of the township, This was a two-story, two-room building, and in it was maintained a
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graded school with two teachers in charge. With the gradual decline of the Village of Ai, the school enumeration became gradually smaller, consequently the attendancec was not as large as could be conveniently accommodated. When, in the spring of 1903, the teacher of the ad- joining district to the west, No. 3, resigned about two months before the school term was completed, the board of education made arrange- ments for the transportation of the pupils to the Ai school."
Thus centralization began in Northwest Ohio, Fulton Township being the first throughout all that arca to bring the theory into prac- tice; and while their pioncer effort arose because of the exigency of the moment, the school directors who guided the change through to complete success (and there were many perplexing problems to solve before success could come) deserve to be placed on the county his- torical record. They were, states the "Fulton County Tribune" of December 18, 1908: Ed Smith, Henry Dowling, H. E. Wilson, John Hable, F. C. Merrill, with I. L. Richards, clerk. Of course, it was long after centralization began in Fulton Township before a much larger schoolhouse became necessary. The directors went steadily forward with their plans until in 1912 the present finc schoolhouse at Ai was in course of erection. In 1919, it was attended by 230 pupils, of high and elementary grades. Its teaching staff numbers seven, and the school is well adapted to the needs of the township, its curriculum including courses in agriculture and domestic science. In addition, Fulton Township scholars also have the Swanton school within reach. That is a special school district, and serves Swan Creek as well as Fulton Township; and it is one of the fine schoolhouses of Fulton county, having cost $35,000, when built in 1904. Then, Fulton Township has a special fractional school district, Amboy-Fulton, in which district is a one-room schoolhouse, of rural class.
FULTON CENTRALIZED SCHOOL DISTRICT
The present boards of education are as follows: A. B. Putman, president; John M. Estell, clerk; John Fauble, Geo. R. McQuillan, A. A. Kline, and Vern Robasser, directors.
AMBOY-FULTON SPECIAL DISTRICT
Ed. Luke, president; Burton Wilson, clerk; Vern Luke, John Fike, E. T. Penny, and Peter Libeler, directors.
SWANTON DISTRICT
F. A. Carpenter, president; Mrs. Laura Reed, clerk; Dr. H. E. Brailey, Dr. L. C. Cosgrove and A. K. Keener, directors.
EARLY CHURCH HISTORY
It may be presumed that the Rev. John Shaw, who came to Fulton Township in 1834, conducted religious services in his, or other log cabins. But he did not remain long. Verity says that J. W. Harter's cabin was used in the summer and autumn of 1834 and 1835, Mr. Shaw conducting the services. There was a Presbyterian Society in the
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township very early in its settlement, Jonathan Wood being one of the most active pioneer members. In 1842, the Rev. Gideon Johnson came from the state of New Hampshire, and formed a circuit, holding serv- ices in the schoolhouse of Ai, and district No. 1, known as the Dodge, and later as the Witt, district. Amboy and Pike Townships were also in his circuit. It is stated that Jonathan Wood organized the first Sab- bath School-probably the first Presbyterian Sunday School; for it has been claimed that David Born and Wells Watkins organized the first Sunday School in the township.
Charles V. Merrill, who came from Maine in 1837, and settled on section four, town ten south, range four east, was a minister of the Christian Church, and the first to take up permanent residence in Fulton Township. He was active in pioneer church work in many townships of Lucas, and later Fulton, County, and he remained in church work until he died.
POPULATION
The statistics for 1840, 1850, and 1860 cannot be given, but the population of Fulton Township in 1870 was 1,328, and it then stood third in point of population, among the twelve townships of Fulton County ; in 1880 it was fifth, with 1,555 persons; in 1890, the popula- tion was 1,580; in 1900, 1,693; in 1910, 1,637; and in 1920, the "Pre- liminary Announcement of Population" issued by the federal authori- ties after the first count, records Fulton Township population as 1,677 persons. In only three townships of Fulton County was there an increase in population during the last decadal period, Fulton Town- ship being the third. The figures given above include the figures for that part of the Village of Swanton which is in Fulton Township.
CHAPTER XXII
HISTORY OF SWAN CREEK TOWNSHIP
The Township of Swan Creck was the second to be organized after Lucas County was erected, in 1835, as has elsewhere in this volume been explained. York Township was the first, it embracing originally all the territory with the county, excepting that portion ceded by Williams and Henry Counties in 1850, when Fulton County was formed. York Township was organized on June 6, 1836, and Swan Creek sometime later in the same year, its western boundary having never since been changed. Its southern boundary was extended two miles south into Henry County, and for the whole six miles of its latitudinal extent, when Fulton County was erected in 1850, and it lost territory from the Fulton line (e. g., from the boundary line sur- veyed by Mr. Fulton, and designated Fulton's line, to distinguish it from the other state and county boundary line surveyed by Mr. Har- ris, and called Harris' line), to its present boundary, when Fulton Township, Lucas County, was organized in 1841. Apart from these changes, the area of Swan Creek Township has remained as it now is, and its present boundaries are clearly marked on map reproduced on one of the earlier pages of this work.
The township takes its name, as will be surmised, from Swan Creek, which runs almost duc cast through the township, and eventually passes into the Maumee River. Other streams are Blue Creek and Bad Creek, both coursing in a southeasterly direction, and both being somewhat sluggish. The soil is in places heavy, and in other parts sandy. Much of the land was actually under water in the early decades of settlement, and had, literally, to be reclaimed; and much of it was almost bare of vegetation, i. e., of large standing timber, being designated "openings." These parts were sandy, and considered unfer- tile. Undoubtedly, without treatment and patient and skilful cultiva- tion, these sandy stretches would not be as productive as the heavier soil; and in the early years of settlement, those families that settled upon the open land had to exist as best they could on poor yields. Those that settled upon the wet lands also had a trying time, and had to reclaim their land tract by tract, and also clear the standing timber. Much ditching, or draining, must have been done, in the early years of settlement, upon the initiative of individual landowners, but the first reference made to such work in township records was in 1855, when, on March 12th, the Township Trustees met and "sold out" a contract for building of a portion of a ditch. The record reads: "John King bid off 115 rods ...... at 44 cents a rod." The work of draining continued through the sixties, seventies, and eighties, and much under-draining by tiling was done by farmers, so that the township today compares, in agricultural yield, with most of the other similar areas of the county.
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
EARLY SETTLERS
The first settler was William Meeker, it is universally acknowleged. He probably is deserving of place with Eli Phillips and Joseph Bates, as the pioneer settlers of Fulton County. He is believe to have been in the township, also in 1833, the year in which Phillips and Bates are recorded as having settled. William King, who settled in York Township in May, 1834, referred to Meeker in his reminiscences, stating that upon the entreaty of Peter Manor, a- hotelkeeper at Providence, he (King) "was induced to go some twelve miles north, to what was then called the Six Mile Woods" and there he found William Meeker, "who had settled in the edge of this woods in 1833, or the year before, now in Swan Creek." Eli Phillips settled in 1833, but Joseph Bates was stated by his daughter to have been in Franklin Township earlier.
However, William Meeker was undoubtedly the pioneer settler of Swan Creek Township. Peter Manor, who probably was the most reliable authority, testified that Meeker settled in the Six Mile Woods in 1833. And the early settlers within Swan Creek Township seemed to have recognized the priority of Meeker. He was the first, or at least one of the first clerks of the township (the early records are not avail- able, but there is a document on file showing that he was clerk In 1839) ; and he was the first postmaster, that office being established on the farm of S. H. Cately (or rather, where he eventually located) in 1838. That office also served the people of York Township, and, singularly enough, was named Delta.
In 1834, incoming settlers included John Witmer, John Fassett, Thomas Gleason, David Williams, Looman Hall, Nathaniel Leggett, Eccles Nay, Sidney Hawley, and William Fewless; in 1836, Jesse Browning, George Curtis, Ormand Pray came in; in 1838, Wells Wat- kins; in 1839, Jacob Reighard; in 1844, S. H. Cately ; in 1848, Palmer Lewis; in 1852, Ora Blake; in 1853, John Templeton and Wesley Knight; and in 1857, Moses R. Brailey. These were prominent settlers. Township records of the first years of Fulton County show that in the early fifties there were the Stall, Cullen, Johnson, Mead, Coss, Roos, Waldron, Wyman, Chamberlin, Allman, Carpenter, Earl and Teach- man families resident in Swan Creek; and a Swanton list of early settlers compiled and published some years ago gives the year of settlement of some of the more prominent residents as follows: Joseph H. Miller, 1840; B. W. Bayes, 1847; A. C. Tremain, 1848; S. S. Carter, 1847; William Lewis, 1850; J. H. Brigham, 1852; John Mclaughlin, 1852; George H. Haynes, 1852; G. W. Hoffman, 1857; Thomas Elton, 1861; Jeff. Lutz, Wm. Geyser, R. C. Brattin, and O. N. Detwiler, in 1865; H. B. Smith, in 1867; A. J. Hart, in 1868; William Perkins, in 1870; C. J. Brindley, in 1873; A. Q. Price, in 1877, and the Pilliod brothers in 1883. Other records show that residents during the sixties included: John de la Mare, John West- brook, Thomas Waffle, the Sheffield, Geere, Brice, Harrison, Hoyt, Horton, Houge, Whitmore, Warren, Immel, Fox, Farren, Ransom, Keith, Barr, Raker, Bixler, Moyer, Swartz, Jay, Montgomery and Brewster families; and there were many other families probably of the same praiseworthy usefulness as pioneers and home builders.
John Witmer settled on section 17. He was a worthy man of
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Swiss birth, born in Berne. Their first cabin was of bark, and there the wife and children lived until a small piece of ground had been cleared and planted. Then a more substantial log house was erected. The family is of good Civil War record, one of the sons giving his life to the nation.
Nathaniel Leggett was one of the strong men of the settlement. He came in, about 1834, and his personality soon became evident. He was a man of athletic inclinations, and of pronounced adminis- trative ability. His life has been reviewed elsewhere in this work, mention being made of him in many connections, as was of course proper for his activities were evident in many phases of the history of Fulton County. He was a clerk of Swan Creek Township in 1840, and will always be referred to with pride by the people of Swan Creek Township, in which was his first home in Fulton County, and in which he found his first opportunity to participate in public work. He was one of the most active workers for the separation of Fulton County from Lucas, or rather, for the erection of Fulton County from part of Lucas.
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