USA > Ohio > Hardin County > A twentieth century history of Hardin County, Ohio : a narrative account of its historical progress its people and principal interests, Vol. I > Part 5
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A little later, cabins began to spring up along the Old Sandusky Road, that celebrated highway that led in a winding way from San- dusky to Cineinnati. A stage route was carly established, and was mueh patronized by settlers and people whose business ealled them to the more eivilized portions of the state. This road was mueh used for many years as the stage route, and along it were located at eon- venient distanees the taverns, several of which still remain. The road was fearfully muddy in spite of the logs laid down in boggy places to keep the wheels from sinking into the mud, and it was no uneommon
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thing for the passengers to be compelled to get out and help pry the vehicle out of the mire. A very shaky tradition has it that Charles Dickens was taken over this route when he visited America the first tine, and that he lodged in at least one of Hardin county's taverns. It would be interesting to see the "registers" of these one-time flour- ishing hotels, and to know something of the prices charged and who were the guests in those early days.
In the real pioneer period of the county's existence, prior to 1840, Buck township seems to have little history except that already noted. There are several churches within its borders at present, but the first record we have of a church being established was in 1852, which belongs mneh later than the early times. Camp meeting used to be held at Ft. MeArthur, and there were services at various cabins, but there is nothing to show that anything in the nature of an organization was effected until much later. The date of the opening of the first school has not been kept, but there was an old building of rough logs with greased paper windows on the Old Sandusky Road where some pioneer taught much earlier than the date of the organization of the township. There were also some cabins in South Kenton at an early date, but as this is noticed with the history of the city of Kenton, it will not be given with Buck township, though located in it.
The pioneers whose names have been saved, together with the dates prior to 1840, are very few. After that year came James Beaver, Henry and Hosea Johnson, Leonard Richards and family, Thomas and John Dodds, Sammel Mentzer, John Espy, William Zimmerman and many others.
Buek township pioneers: Alfred and Mary Hale and family, 1827; William McCloud and family and Joel Thomas, 1828; William Paxton, 1829; Conran Collins, 1830; Isaac Draper, 1832; William HI. Cole, 1833; George M. Bales and family. 1833.
For many years the forming of Goshen township has been said to have taken place in 1834, and though the early records are gone, it is probable that it occurred about this date, as the county seat had been located, and settlers were taking up claims here and there in the woods of what is now Goshen. There is no authentic record of who named the township, though all agree that it was named for the Goshen of Bible days, which flowed with "milk and honey." Tradition says there were many wild bees in Goshen in early days, but it is probable that the whole county abounded in bees, as the old hollow trees made convenient hives for them, and cutting down bee trees was one of the delights of the pioneers. This township contains more than seventeen thousand acres of extremely fertile land, and at present is in the first rank agriculturally, the whole township being noted for its fine farms and substantial buildings.
As Goshen is near Wyandot county, it is natural that settlers
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should be attracted to it, for the old towns of Marseilles and Upper Sandusky, with their stores and mills, made it fairly convenient to get supplies, and as the Wyandot Indians had partially come under the influence of civilization and the Gospel, it was considered safer to locate near them than elsewhere, though there was always a healthy fear of what the red neighbors might do. Mr. W. A. Kelly, who came to Goshen township in the winter of 1832-33, and who is still living, remembers that when a lad every man who went to services in cabins, or on errands through the woods earried a gun, though the Indians were always peaceable and friendly.
This township is generally level, and while watered by a number of little streams has nothing in the way of water power. The town- ship never had a village, and the sole occupation is agriculture. The fine, heavy timber of pioneer days has disappeared, and the blaek walnut and other time resisting timbers that still exist in a few rail fenees and old houses are all that are left to tell of the magnificent forests of oak, ash, syeamore, walnut, elm, hiekory, maple and beech that once covered the entire township. Stories are still told on reliable authority of trees four and five feet in diameter rising to great heights, and until a few years ago it was possible to find the remains of gigantic syeamores, that the pioneers had utilized for smoke houses and eisterns. The early settler who could find a fine hollow tree to serve for smoking meat or use as a watering trough was in luck, as there was little time in those days for anything but make-shifts. With all the wealth of timber about them, many of the pioneers had to go back to the older settlements in Crawford county to get lumber for doors and furniture, in case there was no room in the wagon to bring enough along when the family eame. And making a journey of that distance with an ox team, over the miserable roads, was no light task by any means.
The Hardin County Atlas, published in 1879, mentions Sloan MeCowan as the first teacher in the township in the winter of 1836-37, and locates the log school house on Section 20, but Mr. Kelly says Rachael Kellogg who lived north of Kenton, taught the first school which he attended. It was located quite close to the farm he now owns, and the children came from homes miles distant. The first ehureh was organized about the same time, but was in that part of Hardin eounty that afterward went into Wyandot, when the boundaries were per- manently settled. At the eabins of Samuel Kelly and Thomas Shanks serviees were held as often as a eireuit rider could make his way into the wilderness, and it was some years before a building was ereeted. The little Methodist class that belonged in Hardin eounty was finally merged into the Ashbury Society and continues to the present day, while those in Wyandot county went into other ehurelies.
Thomas Shanks finding himself in Wyandot county, sold out and beeame one of the pioneers of Liberty township later on, so the meet-
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ings were held mostly in Mr. Kelly's cabin until a church could be built. There were also services in the Castor settlement at various times, and in the cabins of various pioneers that later resulted in permanent churches. The first election of which there is any record was held in Jacob Yauger's cabin. The pioneers and the dates of their settling in Goshen township, as far as can be learned, are given below. There is much guess work about some of those who left no descendants, but where representatives of the families still live in the county, it has been possible to get facts. The township is noted for having large family circles like the Pfeiffers, the Spitzers, the Yaugers, the Kellys, the Barretts, the Millars, the Simms family and the Cummins family, not because they have such large families, but because the old names are still represented near the homes of the sturdy pioneers. There seems to have been the general feeling that Goshen township is good enough for anybody, so the children and grandchildren have married and settled here, and the old names are renewed with every succeeding generation.
The list of Goshen township pioneers is as follows: Samuel Kelly and family, 1832; Samuel MeQuowan and family, 1833; Thomas Shanks and family (afterward in Wyandot county) and Samuel Shroll, 1832; Uriah Williams and family, Benson Huey, Alexander and Phoebe Pool and family, George and Jonas Butcher and families, Jonathan Mason and family and Amos Anderson and wife, 1833; John Garrett. 1834; James Garrett, 1833; Morris and Mary Baker and family, 1836; George Cummins and family, 1835; Patrick and Susan Haley and family, 1837; John and Mary Millar and family and Jacob and Charity Yauger and family, 1836; John Adam Pfeiffer and family, 1840; Henry Cole, 1833; Jeremiah Simms and family, 1834; Hugh Pugh, 1835; Joseph Roseberry, 1838; Harrison Barrett and family, 1836; Patrick Hastings and wife, and James Spear and John Hastings, 1833; Rev. Mr. ITisey, 1832; David and Mary McQuowan and family, 1834; Michael Johnson and family, 1835; Jacob Cummins and Daniel Gilmore, 1837; W. C. Ingman, 1835; David Thompson, 1833; Edward and Ellen MeGuigan and family, 1834; and Michael and Mary Toner and family, 1835.
Conflicting statements are made by the oldest inhabitants of Blanchard township as to the date of its organization, but as it orig- inally comprised the whole northern part of the county, it must have been somewhere about the year 1833 that it came into existence. From it have been taken the other northern townships, and even a part of Wyandot county, when it was organized in 1845. At present it is regularly laid off in a rectangle about four by six miles, and contains twenty-four thousand acres of Congress lands, which are fertile and under a high state of cultivation. Like the rest of the county it was well wooded, and abounded in game when the white men came, and also
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quite wet in winter and spring, as it is level and needed much drainage before it could be farmed. At the present town of Dunkirk there is a large stone quarry, but elsewhere in the township the soil is black and free from stone.
The pioneers here suffered all the hardships known to life in the woods, although starvation never stared them in the face. A day's shooting would supply the family with delicious meat, and the skins of the animals could be used for rugs, for bedding, for shoes and even for clothing, but nothing could keep out disease and the privations due to isolation. Scarcely a family but had one or two members to lay away in the little burying grounds from milk sickness, and there were other diseases to thin the population before the low ground was drained and the services of physicians could be procured. The pioneers had to go to Logan, Allen or Wyandot counties for supplies and to get their corn ground, though John McBride at an early day did bring into the settle- ment a hand-mill once used by the Wyandot Indians that turned out two bushels per day, by hard labor.
About the only advantage these sturdy pioneers had in locating in Blanchard township, was that it was on the old Detroit Road, and therefore in communication with older settlements. This old road furnished a highway for the men to go to market for many years, and while in horrible condition much of the time, still answered the purpose and was the one cleared space in the vast forest. Just over the line in Hancock county was the rude little fort erected for the army of General Hull on its way to Detroit, and, though this was dismantled some years before, the Indians and trappers still had their little places near the trail where they mnet the white agents of the fur companies, and it must have been less lonely for the settlers than back farther in the forest. At one time, about 1830. there were but four women in the whole north- ern part of the county known as Blanchard township, and these four were too busy making homespun garments for their families to do much visiting. In cases of sickness and death, the pioneer ladies were ever ready to go horseback eight and ten miles to help their neighbors. or even to make their way on foot to the nearest cabins, but social pleasures were few and far between.
The first school was taught by D. H. Edgar in a cabin on the Hues- ton farm in 1831. and was attended by the children of four pioneer families. As there was no school fund at that date it was a subscription affair, and no money was available to pay the teacher, so such things as coon skins and similar merchandise changed hands for tuition. Other early school teachers were Miss Lillibridge and Wilmost Munson who also taught in cabins. The Methodists organized a church in David Edgar's cabin in 1835, with Mr. and Mrs. Edgar and John R. and Mary Davis as the only members. Afterward this grew to a flourishing congregation and was lodged in a permanent house. Later on Dunkirk
Vol. I-3
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and Blanchard were established in this township, but these will be treated as separate organizations elsewhere in this volume.
Blanchard township pioneers : David HI. Edgar, 1830; James Parker, 1834; Mahlon and Allen MeBride, 1835; C. J. Fry, 1833; John Enoch and Mary Fry and K. Hamblin and family, 1834; Levi and Rebecca Bodley, 1833; William McKelvy and George Mowry, 1835; John McBride, 1835; Robert and Lydia Wiles, John R. Davis and fam- ily, William Wilcox and E. Heuston, 1836; and Robert McMillen and Joseph and Elizabeth Smith, 1838.
Hale township, which lies wholly in the Virginia Military survey was originally a part of Taylor Creek, and became a separate organiza- tion in 1835. This township runs east and west along the southern boundary of the older county of Logan, and is only about four and one- half miles long north and south, while more than nine wide. It con- sists of broken, but fertile land, and from its earliest history has been noted for its advantages as a grazing country. It is well watered by Panther and Wolf creeks, and the smaller streams, North and South Wild Cat run, so that cattle may be turned out to graze in the spring and remain in the fine rolling pastures until cold weather, without the trouble of watering them. Although the early commerce and travel centered about a spot in Hale township known as Grassy Point, the township has only partly kept pace with the rest of the county. The eastern half has been held for years in large tracts undeveloped, and it is only recently that the wild lands from which the timber was taken, have been cut up into farms of ordinary size, and pikes, good houses and barns, schools and all the other evidences of prosperity have been possible.
Lying as it does so near Logan county, it is only natural that a great number of its citizens came from that place. Indeed Hale town- ship had really very few settlers in the pioneer period-the real pioneer times up to 1840-as most of her residents came later. This was probably owing to the fact that Logan county offered greater induce- ments, and it was only when that county became picked over for good lands that the newer one to the north attracted attention. Cyrus Dille bought six hundred acres at fifty cents per acre in Hale, and other citizens secured good lands just as cheap. Of course the timber was not considered worth very much, and much of it went into heaps to be destroyed so the ground might be cultivated, but still the mill of Moses Kennedy, located on Panther creek, was kept busy turning out lumber for buildings as soon as settlers began taking up the land. This mill would probably be called a crude affair at present, with its one set of buhrs for grinding corn and buckwheat, but it was hailed with delight by the pioneers, for it saved the long journey to Cherokee or West Liberty. A daughter of Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. James Baldwin, now living in Kenton-says she remembers when the mill was a very busy place,
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and people came from long distances with their corn in sacks on a horse, and their huge logs to be transformed into products they could use. At a very early day her father had a frame house, and there are other evidences that many of the pioneers moved out of the primitive cabins into the aristocratie houses built of rough sawed timber early in the history of the township. This mill ran for many years, but all traces of it and the dam and pond are now lost.
Milk sickness, that scourge of the pioneers, carried away many of the early settlers, and the little burying ground on the Eddy farm con- tains the remains of men and women who hoped to make homes for themselves and their families in the wilderness, but speedily found the unbroken forest their last resting place instead. One family lost four members in a few months, and it was the dread of all settlers. The hilly country made the roads very hard to travel in winter, and the swift. dashing streams with their high banks retarded travel, because difficult to ford at certain seasons. Near Grassy Point there was much activity. for Indians were passing up and down the trail, the fur traders came and went carrying off the valuable furs and leaving the much needed money behind, and pioneers used that route back to the more civilized country south. so it is not surprising that the early settlers gathered somewhere near this vantage point. Harvey Buckminster, who had previously lived in what is now Dudley township, opened up a tavern at Grassy Point in 1838 in a house that was standing until a few months ago. and did a flourishing business until he later moved farther north on the Old Sandusky Road and built another tavern, also standing at present, and known as the Buckminster tavern. In one year as agent for a fur company Mr. Buckminster paid out five thous- and dollars for pelts to the Indians and settlers.
Many interesting stories are still told about this "backwoods" tavern and its hospitable host and hostess. That Mr. Buckminster was not daunted by hardships is shown by the fact that he worked for twenty- four cents per day before he kept tavern and received his wages in salt pork. Like the typical Yankee that he was, coming from the state of Vermont, he could turn his hand to anything and make a success of it. He drove stage, farmed, bought furs, kept tavern and did many other things in the course of his long and eventful life that ended January 10, 1894. During the exciting Harrison campaign, in 1840, Mr. Buck- minster went to Bellefontaine to hear a Democratic speech by William Allen, afterward governor of Ohio, and was much incensed by the abuse heaped upon the Republican party and Harrison by Mr. Allen. In those days party feeling ran high, and the stump speaker who did not denounce his opponents as liars and thieves and scoundrels was not popular. Mr. Buckminster learned that Mr. Allen and a party of politicians were to take the stage for Marion next day for a meeting, and would probably stop at his tavern for dinner, so he hurried home
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and with his wife profusely decorated the place with coon skins and buckeyes. Stuffed coon skins were placed at the entrance, the tables were rigged up with strings of buckeyes and a good dinner prepared for the expected guests. About noon Richard Malcom Johnson, candidate for vice presdent on the Democratic ticket, William Allen and Wilson Shannon (the latter also elected governor of Ohio at a later date) ap- peared and asked for dinner. Seeing the decorations Mr. Johnson re- marked, "This must be a Whig house," and wanted to know who put up the decorations. Mr. Buckminster modestly gave the credit to his wife, who asked the men if they did not think they were very pretty. William Allen said, "Well done! Well done!" and they all went into the tavern for dinner. Mr. Buckminster charged Mr. Allen fifty cents, because he had been so abusive in his speech the day before, but would take nothing from the other guests, so after shaking hands all around the stage creaked off over the corduroy road for the next meeting place.
The first church was organized at a Methodist class meeting in 1832 and had but four members-James and Mary Andrews and Lewis and Mary Andrews. These two families kept alive the religious life of their little neighborhood until others came, and in time the little band had a permanent church building. Hale township also claims the honor of having the first Temperance Society ever organized in Hardin county, which was effected in 1831 at a log-rolling on the farm of Cyrus Dille. A number of pioneers had gathered to assist in getting the logs in shape to burn, so the ground could be cultivated, and while resting on a log they talked over the evils of intemperance. In those days no log-roll- ing, house raising or any other event was thought complete without passing a whiskey bottle around, and these men had seen the evil effects of such a custom and were ready to take action. They all stood up and solemnly vowed to abstain from intoxicating liquors from that day forth, and it is said this promise or vow was ever kept unbroken by the little company.
The first school was taught in a cabin by Enos Baldwin in the winter of 1839-40, deep in the woods, and the pupils made their way through the forest for miles around. Some of the present substantial school buildings stand near the sites of the cabins that sheltered the children of pioneer times.
Hale township pioneers. Although the list of settlers prior to 1840 in Hale township is rather short, it must be remembered that many of her settlers came just after that date-Hale having a later pioneer period than other townships. In this list are the names of influential and respected citizens who have done much for their communities, such as Moses Kennedy and family, Thomas McCall and family, the Ansley family, Christian Copp and family, Aaron R. Curl and family, John Robinson and family, Simon Schertzer and family, John Wagner and family, and many others. The list follows: Levi D. Tharp, 1828; Cornelius Jennings and family and Isaac Jennings and family, 1829;
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James and Mary Andrews and family, John Wolf, Jonathan Williams, Samuel Dille, Cyrus and Susan Dille and family and John and Rhoda Andrews and family, 1830; Samuel Leonard, Abraham and Deborah Dille and Amos Dille and family, 1834; Daniel and Hannah Baldwin and family, Jonathan and Eleanor Marsh, James and Elizabeth Eddy and family, and Thomas and Beulah Dunson, 1835; Harvey and Abigail Buckminster, 1838; and Abner and Hannah Snoddy, 1839.
As McDonald township was originally a part of Roundhead, the early history of the two divisions is more or less connected. From the best authorities at hand it seems that Roundhead was considered too large in about 1836, and the new organization, which could be nicely separated by the Scioto from the old, came into existence. It contains a little more than 26,000 square miles, and is one of the best townships in the county for agricultural purposes. It is in the Virginia Military Survey, and from the standpoint of the early settlers was considered a good place to locate, because it was comparatively close to the mills at Cherokee and West Liberty. Also the river could be utilized for water power, as we find it was a little later, and saw and grist mills provided a home manufactory for the pioneers. It was named for the pioneer, William McDonald, who came to Hardin county about 1822.
Peter C. McArthur and Daniel Campbell came on from Ross county in 1818 intending to make a few preparations before bringing their families to the wilderness, and they located in McDonald, then Round- head township. They followed the established road, which was little more than a trail, through the woods, and cach selected a site for a cabin. It was just after the War of 1812 closed, and the Indians, maddened by defeat, and the treaties that were ever cutting off their hunting grounds, scoured the woods falling upon the settlers, because they felt sure they would never be brought to justice. They stole and murdered and frightened the few white settlers in Northwestern Ohio, until most of them were forced back into the older counties for safety, and it was not until peace was an established fact that the new counties began to grow. However, the Campbells and McArthurs returned in 1822 and took up their permanent residence on their original claims. The father of Peter McArthur, Donald McArthur, who was then an old man, also accompanied his son to McDonald township and lived there until 1835, when he died at the advanced age of ninety-two. John McArthur, who was a son of Donald's, came at the same time, and his son, Allen F., was the first white child born in the county after it was organized. The whole Mc Arthur family figured largely in the early history of the township, and many of their descendants still live there. Prominent members were, besides those noted, Daniel, Duncan, David, John, Nancy, Joseph and Archibald. Many of these married into other pioneer families, and the old names still eling to that part of the county. Daniel Campbell made several trips for periods of two or three years back to
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Ross county, but in 1829 took up a permanent residence here. All the first settlers in MeDonald township elustered about the village of Roundhead as nearly as possible, because they wanted to be near the stores and it was less lonely than back in an isolated country. Besides the upper portion of the township was in the great Marsh and had un- pleasant neighbors in the form of bears, wolves and wild cats.
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