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 7
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As early as 1832, Enoch and Mary Fry with their family located in Washington township. This was before Kenton was laid out or many inhabitants in any part of the county. Sickness carried off many mem- bers of the family, but some of their descendants still reside in the northern part of the county. The township was named for the first president of the United States, as almost every county in the new state of Ohio delighted to honor the illustrious Washington, and later when the little town on the Pennsylvania railroad was laid out it also received the name of Washington, though with the prefix "North" to it. The pioneers of this township had much the same difficulties to contend with that all Hardin county settlers of that date knew-milk siekness, scarcity of provisions, except game, bad roads, few sehools, villages and churches and isolation from mills and stores. However, they seem to have bravely met and conquered these difficulties, for many of them lived to a good old age, and left large families to keep their names alive until the present day. They were sturdy, honest, industrious men and women, many of them having left Germany to found new homes in the much-talked-of new country beyond the sea, and they prospered in spite of sickness and hardships. Washington township has ever been proud of its large German population, and some of the most prominent
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
families now living within its borders are the children and grandchildren of those German pioneers.
Statements about the earliest school in the township differ, some of the pioneers holding that school was held before 1838, while others think about that year or 1840 saw the first attempt at education. They agree, however, that it was a subscription school, and very poorly attended, since the pioneers were too busy building cabins about that time and clearing land to think much of education. William Simpson and Wilmost Munson are mentioned as early teachers, but the names of others are lost. At present the township is well supplied with sub- stantial schoolhouses, and a high estimate is placed upon education. From the best authorities it seems that no church was organized prior to 1840, though soon after that the Disciples, Lutherans, Methodists and other denominations established churches which still exist. It was possible for the pioneers to go to Huntersville and many of the older neighborhoods to services, and that accounts for the lack of churches until after 1840. Then, too, most of the pioneers came about that year, so it does not argue that the citizens were less progressive or cared noth- ing for religion and education, because they were without schools and churches when older settlements had them. As the old records are all destroyed there might possibly have been early attempts to found schools and churches that the few remaining old settlers have forgotten about.
As early as 1838 Benjamin Eulin had a horse-mill for grinding corn, and this was a great convenience to the settlers. Among the German citizens who came to the township were many skilled workmen of various trades, and by exchanging work the various duties about house and farms were carried on without trouble. It might be supposed that these pioneers would be helpless in the green woods, so entirely different from their native land, but they soon learned the new ways, and became sub- stantial and intelligent farmers. The small cleared patches here and there through the forests soon became enlarged. the game was driven back into the Marsh or killed, the roads opened to the older settlements and the township entered upon a period of sure and steady growth that has never been interrupted.
Washington township pioneers: 1832, Enoch and Mary Fry and children ; 1836. Robert and Susannah McMillen; 1838, William and Lorena Wilcox and family; 1836, Leonard and Mary Morrison and family ; 1835, Adam and Mary Orth and family; 1838, John Gum and family, and Renatus Gum ; 1836, Andrew and Mary Kridler and family ; 1834, Isaac and Nancy Mathews and family and Elihu and Jonathan Mathews; 1833, Andrew Petty; 1834, Richard Hamilton; 1835, George and Hannah Lynch ; 1838, Frederick Markley; 1839, John and Mary Rifenstein ; 1837. Jacob Shroll and family ; 1834, Benjamin Eulin; 1839, Harrison and Catharine Darst; 1836, John and Mary Kahler; 1837, Harmon Obenour; 1838, Ephraim and Susan Crawford; 1839, John
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
Kraft; 1836. William Hartoon; 1837, Samuel Hively and family ; 1835, Conrad Wejout; 1834, Barnhart Wagoner; 1836, William and Mary Thorne ; 1838, William and Rachel Baird and Jacob Griner; 1834, John Young and John McBride; 1838, John G. Smith; 1835, Jacob Crow; and 1839, William Simpson.
Marion was one of the later townships formed, being organized in 1856 and named for the general of that name who made such a brilliant record in the Revolutionary War, but long before that date of organiza- tion it had its pioneers and was an important part of the county. For many years it was held back by the great body of Marsh land that it contains, but since the dredging of the Seioto and the opening up for farming of the rich soil that was onee thought worthless, Marion is one of the foremost parts of the county. Like all the rest of Hardin county it was once densely covered with fine timber, except that part that was marshy, and most of this timber has been cleared away so the land could be farmed. Lying on the edge of the great boggy traet of land where grass grew to the height of fifteen feet. Marion township was famed for its wolves, deer, and bear, while hundreds of thousands of wild pigeons once had their roosting places in the trees that were on the "Islands" or little knobs of high land in the Marsh. It contains about 20,343 acres of land, all of which is fertile, but the Marsh is one of the most productive spots in the state and year after year produces magnificent crops of corn and onions that find ready sale in market.
The first school, as far as is known, was taught in a eabin on the Shadley farm by Samuel Kirtland, though other statements credit Jesse Garwood with teaching the first school. Perhaps there were two schools about the year 1836 taught by these men, or one may have suc- ceeded the other. By some the date is given as 1836 and by others, two years later. The first election of which there is any record was in 1836 when there were only twelve voters in the township. There was preaeh- ing at the cabins by circuit riders and local ministers from time to time, and later on permanent churches were established.
The pioneers are named below: Matthew Dolson and family, 1833; Samson Shadley, Isaac and Margaret MeElheny and family. John and Mary McClure, and James and Sarah MeAdams, 1834; James and Michey Thompson and Samuel and Elizabeth Kirtland (or Kirkland), 1835; John F. and Nancy Sudor, 1839; Jesse and Cindey Garwood, 1836; Thomas Irwin, Isaae McCoy and David Kirkpatrick, 1835; Patriek Conner, Alexander and Julia Lantz and family, and Joshua Ford, 1836; Joseph Ryan, 1838; Hamilton Scott and family, and Asaph Shadley and family, 1837; Samuel and Jane Patterson and Meshack Ryan, 1836; William Harriott, 1837; Hamilton Scott and James M. and Susannah Nelson, 1838.
The history of Lynn township is intermixed with that of Buck, Taylor Creek and McDonald, from which three it was taken in 1857.
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
No one seems to know why this part of the county settled slowly, unless because it was rather broken in surface and appeared less attractive to the pioneers than other portions. Certain it is, that the soil is exceed- ingly fertile, and as a grazing country it is not surpassed anywhere. It lies in the Virginia Military Survey just west of Buck township and comprises 14,880 acres of land. The old ITull trail passes through the northern part of the township. and an old Indian camp was for many years located along the river where there was a fording place, but the bringing of the lands under cultivation is rapidly destroying all traces of old time occupancy.
It is said the township was named for the tree of that name which grew in that section abundantly, but at present most of the timber has been taken from the land. Although there were a few families in Lynn township at an early day. the majority of its settlers came after the real pioneer period of the county. Therefore there are no records of mills, stores and other evidences of growth much before 1840, or even later. The Wilkin, Gunn, Albert, Stewart, Piper, and Norman families all came some years after Hardin county had begun to have mills and stores and mail facilities of a primitive sort, and these, with the first settlers and many who came later, cleared the forests and made the land what it is today with their hard labor. The timber was very thick here, and it required much work to grub out the roots and till the soil, so it seems the pioneers went to the older portions of the county for lumber and groceries and needed supplies, rather than going into such business for themselves. The history of Lynn township, except a very few of the early events, may all be said to have occurred within the past sixty years.
The date when the first school was established cannot be ascertained, but the log cabin stood on the Norman farm, and Miss Jeffers was the first teacher. No doubt the present Norman school is situated somewhere near where the pioneer structure was erected. There is no record of an early church organization, and it is evident that the religiously inclined people of that day went to church in other townships, or else had occa- sional services in the cabins. The churches now in this township are of comparatively recent date.
Lynn township pioneers: 1828, John Canaan and family; 1832, Clement and Eliza Rice ; 1834, Daniel S. and Priscilla Vermillion ; 1839, Jonathan and Roxaline Wilcox ; 1837. Joseph Brown; 1836, Edward and Jane Wilcox; 1829. William and Nancy Haines; 1836, William and Martha Koons; 1834, Philip H. Hisey and sister; 1842, Mrs. Isabella Gunn and John R. Robert and Walter Gunn.
CHAPTER IV.
PIONEERS AND THEIR TROUBLES
MILK SICKNESS-WOLVES-INDIANS-BAD ROADS-POOR MILLS- ABSENCE OF DOCTORS-FEW SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-LACK OF MONEY- LAND TITLES.
While many of the pioneers of Hardin county were doubtless in- flueneed to come here by exaggerated stories of the advantages of a new country, there were others who really loved the wild life of the woods and to whom breaking away from civilization was a real delight. Of course the latter class went on westward as soon as the country began to be too thickly settled for game to be plentiful, leaving those who wanted permanent homes in possession of the land. While all honor should be paid to the men and women who cleared the forests and drained the swamps and built the roads of our county, it must be remembered that much of the moving from the Eastern states that took place about 1830 was due to what was termed the Western Fever, and in many cases it was downright foolishness that led the men of the older states to settle in the woods of Hardin county. The grandfather of the writer eaught the fever in his comfortable home in Maryland, where he had a good stone mill and house and was doing a good business, and with his unwill- ing wife and little children he eame here in wagons to settle in the woods where he was absolutely helpless. Then he had to leave his family alone in their rude cabin and walk to town on Monday morning to work in a mill, going baek on Saturday night to his farm. True, he had the farm, but that was small compensation for the things the family missed as they struggled to fit themselves to new surroundings. Case after ease might be mentioned of men who felt an irresistible desire to move to the new country, expecting to find a fortune in a few years, but instead were unable to cope with the difficulties that confronted them. It was the same disease that led many thousands of families to inseribe "Pike's Peak or Bust" on their wagons some years ago as they set out for the West, and often they were bitterly disappointed, as they realized the difference between the country of their dreams and the real thing. The
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
farmers who eame to the new county did well, because they eould adjust themselves to their surroundings, and so did the traders and men with enough means to set up mills or stores, but the mechanies found them- selves sadly handieapped in their new homes.
Aside from milk siekness, that terrible scourge of the pioneer, the fever and ague were the greatest enemies of the settlers. There never was danger of starvation, and with all the wood to be disposed of no one froze to death, but these two diseases laid many a pioneer low in those early days. The low, marshy plaees were hot beds of malaria and the lack of feneed pastures made every eow liable to contraet the "Trembles," as some people called milk siekness. In some eases almost the whole family eame down with the disease, and many of the graves in the private burying grounds are filled with vietims of the plague. With the eultivation of the soil and the draining of the swamps both disappeared, and at present they are only memories that are fast fading.
Wolves were so numerous, when the first inhabitants turned their little floeks and herds into the forests, that it was nothing uncommon to have a dozen or more howling about the place at night trying to devour pigs and calves. The mother of the venerable W. A. Kelly saved the pigs her husband had brought with him from their old home by taking them into her cabin and standing guard all night, as there was no door to the hut. Coons devoured the eorn, and bears oceasional- ly feasted on roasting ears, while smaller animals were too numerous to pay mueh attention to. Crows and hawks and often eagles made life interesting for the women who tried to raise a few chiekens each year, and sueh animals as muskrats, minks and wild cats also helped them- selves liberally to poultry. There never were many snakes to annoy the pioneers, though the ugly spotted milk snakes were common. One lady was combing her hair in front of the little mirror in her eabin when a big snake stuek its head out at her. She neither sereamed nor fainted, but took the poker and killed the reptile, and then put it in the fireplace under the forestick. A Pleasant township woman was boiling milk in a kettle one day when a huge snake crept down the chimney attraeted by the smell. She sat quietly knitting until it dropped into the milk, when she elapped on the cover and built up a rousing fire to dispose of it.
The Indians who still roamed the forests were not blood-thirsty, but they must have been very annoying to some of the old time housekeepers. They were always hungry and when they came to visit never knew when to go home. Often for weeks at a time a dozen or more braves would stay with a settler, sleeping on the puneheon floor wrapped in their blankets at night and hunting or loafing in the day time, eating every- thing set before them and looking about for more. In their way they were kind to the people who were driving them farther and farther from their hunting grounds, but it was annoying to work hard for a little corn crop and then have to share it with the lazy Indians. However,
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IIISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
the pioneers seem to have encouraged them in many instances beeause of their lonely lives. An Indian was better than nobody, and visitors were eagerly welcomed, whether white or red, in the cabins.
The miserable roads held the eonnty baek for some years, as the soil was so rieh and moist, as to be impassable in many places during the winter and spring. Often the passengers in the stage coaches had to get ont in the mnd and with pieces of timber help pry the wheels out of the mire. The Scioto was worth nothing as a water way. because clogged with brush and drift wood, though some families owned eanoes, and often it was a week's journey to carry a little erop to market at Sandusky. One early settler took his entire wheat crop to Sandusky to sell, and found the market so overstocked that he eonld not sell at any price, so rather than drag it back over the miserable eordnroy road to his home he dumped it into Lake Erie and then went baek thoroughly disheartened. There were no bridges except logs dropped aeross the streams, and few fords passable at all times in the year, so getting about was a serions matter.
The absence of sufficient water power for good mills was another drawback. There was a mill east of Kenton at the old Gary Dam at an early day, but very often there was not water enough to run it. Mrs. Fayette Schooner of Pleasant township tells of going to Gary's mill for flour with her sack of wheat on her horse when a girl of thirteen, and having to stay all night, so they could save up enough water to grind the bushel of wheat. Her grandfather who lived with them at their home on the Dunkirk Pike of the present was slowly dying of consumption and with the fickle appetite of an invalid eraved something different from ordinary fare, so the little girl was sent alone through the woods. Her parents did not know why she remained over night, but were not worried. The next afternoon she made her way baek and the aged man had his wheat pancakes that he craved. Often the long journey into Logan county could not be taken on account of the roads, and the corn was cracked-literally cracked-in a rude hand mill and eaten that way, after it was too hard to be pounded in the hominy mills with which every home was supplied.
The absence of doctors eansed mueh suffering and many deaths, for the few noble men stationed here and there in the villages could not be in all places at once, and often the roads were so bad that patients nearly died before the doetor could get there. It was no small task to set out through an almost trackless forest at night to visit the siek with the wolves howling around, but they did their best and their memories are still cherished. Doetor Leighton, a much loved pioneer doetor, started out one night to see a patient and rode all night without getting to the place. In the morning he discovered that his old horse had kept in a beaten path around a farmer's barn lot, and the doetor was too be- wildered to know where he was. A kind neighbor piloted him to the
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
right place at dawn, after a hearty laugh at his predicament. The trouble about getting doctors when needed led to every family being supplied with fearful and wonderful compounds made of roots and herbs, while a supply of whiskey, camphor and quinine was as necessary as food. Quinine had to be taken as regularly as meals to ward off the ague, or cure it after it got hold of the body, and all sorts of "bitters" were regularly dealt out to each member of the family at certain seasons. Tansy, wormwood, boneset. elecampane, sage, rue, thyme and other herbs grew in every garden, while barks and wild roots of every descrip- tion were thrown together and covered with whiskey. These compounds are still used by the descendants of many pioneers who swear by them, and will have nothing to do with the modern school of medicine.
There were few books and fewer newspapers in the cabins, for when all one's earthly possessions had to be packed into one wagon, the lux- uries had to be left behind, and the uncertain mails made news from the civilized parts of the country doubtful. The Bible, "Pilgrim's Pro- gress," "Paradise Lost" and some school books were usually treasured in every home, and if by chance anything else in the way of literature was owned, it went the rounds of the settlers for their edification, with the backs of the book carefully covered to prevent wear. Many of the old leather-bound school books are still in existence, and those with pasteboard backs protected by gingham or calico covers. Often chil- dren hield a little serap of cloth under the thumb in standing up to read for fear of soiling the page. Little subscription schools were main- tained here and there in the cabins, and church services were held in the homes of devout people, but still the settlers felt keenly the privations caused by intellectual poverty. It is hardly to be wondered at that they went miles and miles through the forests to listen to the "Presiding Elder" or some noted minister preach the Gospel, and literally flocked to all political meetings when the great men of the day made the rounds of even the backwoods counties. They were hungry for learning and for social life, and these were their only chances to gratify their desires.
So little money circulated in Hardin county when it was first organized, that sometimes there was consternation in the hearts of the men who had a few dollars tax to pay, for there were so few ways to make money. Salt had to be purchased at the enormous price of six to eight dollars per barrel and there were other expenses to be met, but the taxes came regularly and could not be put aside. Those who talk about the good old days and lament the degeneracy of modern times should have lived when skins sold for a few cents apiece and the little supplies of grain that could be spared went for a song, if indeed they could be sold at all. Dollars were often chopped into pieces to make change, and even smaller pieces cut up, while every penny was hoarded against the day when the taxes would be due. The women made the clothing worn by the entire family, and often the men made the shoes
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
and hats out of hides, but there was some things that had to be bought with money. Of course the money collected for taxes had to be sent in just as received and never found its way back again, so more furs had to be collected and more wolves destroyed to raise more funds for neeessi- ties as soon as tax-paying time was over.
The lack of proper land marks and the ignorance of the pioneers in describing their lands led to much trouble. The maps were kept at the land offices which were located in Chillicothe, Tiffin and Bucyrus, but often the settlers made mistakes in describing the location, and much confusion resulted. In the Virginia Military Survey there was no accuracy of survey, while in the Congress Lands the stakes had all been properly set about 1820 by surveyors sent out by the government. Oe- casionally these stakes had been removed or rotted away, and pioneers gnessed off their claims, paying for a certain number of aeres at the particular land-office their farms had to be purchased, and then pro- ceeded to build, according to the best of their knowledge and belief, their humble homes. When surveyors were employed it was easy to run off the lands north of the river, but south there was much confusion and the titles were under a cloud for many years. Every few years the story would go the rounds that descendants of Revolutionary patriots would be on hand to claim their inheritance long after the farms were cleared and good houses built, but the titles are all perfect now and the land as secure as any in the county. Of course it is impossible to ascertain the exact location of many tracts as the deeds read "more or less" than a certain amount, but on the whole everything has been made as satisfactory as possible.
CHAPTER V.
DAWN OF PROSPERITY-PRIMITIVE COMMERCE.
MORE SETTLERS-BETTER ROADS-FUR TRADERS-DR. CUTLER-IM- PROVED SCHOOLS-TRIALS OF SCHOOL TEACHERS-COMMERCE-PERMA- NENT CHURCHES.
Shortly after the year 1840 Hardin county entered upon a steady period of growth that has never been checked till the present day. From Virginia, from Europe, mainly from England and Germany, from Maine, from Maryland and all the Eastern states men, women and children literally poured in, taking up the fertile lands at prices ranging from five to twenty-five dollars per acre according to location, and, in the very necessity of the case, life began to take on a more civilized aspect. There had to be taverns and better roads, and schools and churches and stores, and rude manufactories and mechanics to supply the demands of the settlers ; and the woods rang from morning till night with the steady blows of axes swung by strong arms, as the trees were laid low to make room for crops and homes. Little stores, blacksmith shops, taverns, schools, churches and new homes rose as if by magic and the utter loneliness endured by the first settlers passed away forever.
At first the settlers went after their own supplies to the older com- munities twenty to fifty miles away, but with the influx of settlers every community had to have its store. In Kenton there were three or four general stores soon after the town was organized, kept by such pioneers as David Goodin, Samuel Mentzer and others; and Huntersville, Patter- son and even the purely country settlements had their general stores quite early, Captain Boslow keeping both store and tavern at Patterson, Alexander Templeton at Roundhead, a Mr. Wilson in Liberty township, and there were little stores situated in McDonald, Hale and Jackson townships. Grist mills began to be fairly numerous, both horse and water power, and many saw mills to dispose of timber were erected right out in the woods. These little mills, though rude and slow, helped the pioneers wonderfully, and made it possible for them to live with much more comfort. Andrew Barnes and Hugh Letson made men's clothes in Kenton, for those who could afford something better
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