Century history of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio, and representative citizens 20th, Part 74

Author: Rockel, William M. (William Mahlon), 1855-1930, ed
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1086

USA > Ohio > Clark County > Springfield > Century history of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio, and representative citizens 20th > Part 74

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JAMES M. COLLINS, who resides on his well-improved farm of eleven acres or more, which is situated one-half mile north of Tremont, on the Valley Turn- pike Road, Clark County, owns another farm of thirty-six and one-half acres in Mad River Township, Champaign County. Mr. Collins was born in Orange County, Virginia, July 26, 1838, and is a son of Jerome B. and Jane (Burruss) Collins.

James M. Collins was reared in Vir- ginia, and in his boyhood attended the country schools and worked on his father's farm. In August, 1860, he ac- companied his father to Ohio. They set-

REV. AND MRS HARVEY H. TUTTLE

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tled first in Champaign County, where the eldest son, Tandy Collins, had already made his home. For a few years James M. Collins resided with his brother, the father dying there soon after coming to Ohio. The mother survived to the age of eighty-eight years. In 1866, James M. Collins came to Clark County and in 1870, he was married, at Delaware, to Rosanna Frey. Her father, John Jacob Frey, was lost on the Isthmus of Panama, when OL his return trip to Ohio, having been a suc- cessful miner in California.

Mr. and Mrs. Collins have seven chil- dren, namely: Clement V., an attorney at law, with offices in the Bushnell Build- ing, Springfield, who married Nora Wood- ard and has one child, George C .; Carrie Anna, who married Joseph N. Pence, and has two children, Ethel Irene and Jose- phine; Isabel, who is a school teacher in the Northern School building at Spring- field; Mary, who teaches in the public schools at Columbus; Martin S., who is a student in the Baltimore Medical College, at Baltimore, Maryland; Maude, who mar- ried Dr. Nevin Sandow, of Columbus ; and Jennie T., who is a student at Witten- berg College. The present pleasant fam- ily home was erected in 1888. Mr. Collins and family belong to the Baptist Church.

REV. HARVEY H. TUTTLE, pastor of Sinking Creek Baptist Church, Springfield Township, also one of the leading farmers of Clark County, is a scion of one of the most prominent families of this section of the state. He was born September 20, 1842, his parents being John and Mar- garet (Prickett) Tuttle, and he is a grand-

son of Sylvanus Tuttle, one of the notable pioneers of the county.

The history of this pioneer ancestor of the Tuttles is so typically representa- tive of that of the best class of early settlers in this section that a sketch of it may be here given, condensed slightly from an historical article written by the subject of this notice, Mr. Harvey H. Tuttle.

"Soon after the glad ending of the long struggle for liberty in America, a stalwart young man decided to try his fortune in the new west. He had seen service as a New Jersey 'minute man' at the battle of Monmouth, and no doubt at other places. It was his duty as a 'minute man' to be ready to respond to any call the cause of liberty might make on him within the limits of New Jersey colony. He had three older brothers, two of whom, at least, were with the patriot army under General Washington. One lost his life while crossing the Hudson River above the city of New York while in the service. The other served in the army seven years and received a pension of $60 per annum during life.

"But the subject of our sketch, a rugged young man, six feet in height, thought of the western country. He loved a comely maiden named Mary Brown. She was of medium height, with dark eyes and hair, and rosy cheeks, the very picture of en- durance and hardihood. She too was in- clined to tempt fortune in the wilds of the west. So Sylvanus Tuttle and Mary Brown were united in marriage about the year 1784.

"They soon started for the west, hav- ing as their objective point southwestern Pennsylvania. Starting from Morris-

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town, New Jersey, they would cross the upper Delaware River, and most likely go to Harrisburg, at which point they would intersect the great wagon road from Phil- adelphia to Pittsburg. This route was a veritable thoroughfare for the multitude of emigrants to the West. Probably the young wife rode the single horse they owned, the same horse carrying a few articles of clothing and some cooking utensils. They may possible have had a second animal which served to carry the young husband. However this may be, we may be quite sure that only the veriest necessities would be carried with them, since neither of these young people had much of worldly goods. We can be sure of but one article, viz: the rifle which young Sylvanus carried at the battle of Monmouth. This heirloom has been kept in the family, and is now in the posses- sion of James T. Tuttle, a great grandson. At what point in western Pennsylvania the first home was built we do not know now, nor do we know the exact period of time spent here. But while here Thomas Tuttle, the father, visited them, and re- mained with them until they decided to go down into Virginia, when he returned to Morristown, New Jersey.

"The new location was in the vicinity of Clarksburg, Virginia, now West Vir- ginia. Here they remained for fifteen or sixteen years. Here most of their chil- dren were born. Here the older children received their education, for all of them could read and write, and the boys, at least, were very apt and skillful in arithmetic. But here also they were trained in industry and frugality, in hardihood and self-reliance, acquirements that became exceedingly useful in after

life. Here also in some quiet fertile val- ley, the family gradually accumulated something of this world's goods. In those times the clothing and food were all pre- pared in the home, the clothing from the wool of a little flock of sheep and from flax which they grew. The men would shear the sheep, then the mother and girls would manufacture the wool into clothing, often displaying much skill and ingenuity in the colors and patterns of the flannel cloth. In like manner, after the flax was pulled and broken and skutched to re- move the outer bark, it would be turned over to the women for manufacture. Thus we can easily understand how the oldest, a girl named Eunice, became ex- ceedingly skilful at the spinning-wheel and loom, not only in duplicating a pat- tern of cloth she might chance to see, but even in inventing new ones.

"But here in their quiet home in Vir- ginia, the rumors of the rich valleys and fertile lands of the Ohio country reached them. Perhaps some adventurer who had been there would tell of its beauty and fertility in such glowing terms as to awaken a desire to find a home there. Most probably they were renters of a farm from some large land-holder in Vir- ginia. Then in the ordinance of Congress, passed in 1787, by which all the country northwest of the Ohio was admitted to the Union, ample provision was made for free public schools in setting apart sec- tion 16 in every township for school pur- poses. These advantages, with the grow- ing needs of their now large family, in- duced Sylvanus Tuttle and his wife to again try the fortunes of the Ohio coun- try where the government was selling such beautiful and fertile lands at a merely .

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nominal price and on most advantageous terms.

"December 22, 1803, the eldest daugh- ter, Eunice, was married to a man named Morris Reece. When grandfather and grandmother decided to emigrate to Ohio, Mr. Reece and his young wife decided to he of the company. So the preparations *

for the journey went forward. *

Grandmother did not forget that they were going to a new wild country, so she took with her all kinds of garden seeds, apple seeds, and peach seeds to plant at the new home, The trees in the old orchard, now quite gone, were grown from the apple seeds brought from Vir- ginia. There were, besides the Tuttle and Reece families, two other families, by name Robey, who made the journey to- gether.

"There were in the Tuttle families the father and mother, six boys, two girls, be- sides Mr. and Mrs. Reece. They brought a flock of eighteen or twenty sheep and two or three cows. The sheep were in the charge of the seven year-old boy Caleb. * * Their course would bring them through Marietta, Ohio, a distance from Clarksburg of eighty or ninety miles. The road would be over rough mountain trails called roads. The roads were so steep that often it would be nec- essary to chain saplings or small trees to the rear axle of the wagons to hold them back so the teams could guide the wagons down the steep inclines. All the way they camped out along the roadside. At Mari- etta one of the older boys, Thomas, took sick with a malignant fever,, and the jour- ney was delayed two weeks, the families encamping and the sick boy and his nurse finding accommodation with some hospit-

able settler. It was necessary for the lit- tle seven-year-old Caleb to go a few miles in advance to find accommodation for his flock. Here he stayed with the sheep until. the journey was resumed. After a sick- ness of two weeks Thomas died and was buried among strangers in some lonely spot not far from Marietta. Then with sad hearts the parents, brothers and sis- ters resumed their journey. The next town of any importance would be Athens, the seat of Ohio University, and the next place would be Chillicothe, then the cap- ital of the new state. Then from Chilli- cothe to the vicinity of Springfield, over the old Chillicothe road, now the South Charleston pike. When they reached the vicinity of Springfield, they encamped the first night on the spring branch in front of the old Reid homestead, not far from Reid's schoolhouse.

"The arrival in what is now Clark County was probably about the last of October, 1806. They finally located along Buck Creek, about six miles east of New Moorefield, and near Catawba Station on the Delaware branch of the C. C. C. & St. Louis Railway. The Tuttle and Reece families located near each other on lands belonging to Mr. Van Meter, a large land owner in this region. Here they spent about a year and a half. The first winter would be the hardest. They had no wheat and only what corn and other provisions they could buy, and we may be sure that money was a scarce article with these new settlers and must be carefully husbanded to secure land from the government on which to build up the new home. But they would not lack for meat. Morris Reece was a marksman of wide repute in his old Virginia home, and as game was

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quite plentiful, he was able easily to pro- vide both families with abundance of meat. It was an understanding between the two families that whenever Morris Reece's rifle was heard to crack there would be meat to be had, generally bear meat or venison. Grandfather and the two older boys would possibly find some employment with the rich Van Meter, in flailing out his crop of wheat getting their wages, it may be, in corn or sometimes wheat.

"To get the meal or flour they would probably have to go to the little grist mill of Simon Kenton, at what is now the La- gonda suburb of Springfield. This mill probably passed into the hands of Nichol- as Prickett a year or two later.

"Mrs Van Meter was a kindly disposed woman, and would bring her coffee- grounds to grandmother that she might get a mild sort of coffee from them for her family. Grandmother would quietly take them, but her pride of independence would not suffer her to use them when there was not special need or benefit to be derived. So when Mrs. Van Meter was gone she would throw out the grounds. They contented themselves with mush and milk, corn pone, bear meat, and venison, and towards spring they could have a re- freshing drink from the tea of the fragrant spice bush, and the sassafras root. As the spring drew on they would be busy making a little sugar from the sugar tree, for they lost no opportunity to provide the necessaries and as many of the luxuries of life as their own labor could secure.

"The spring would find all busy. Grandfather and the boys getting in a crop of corn and flax from which to manu- facture tow and linen garments. The

potato crop, too, would not be forgotten. We can readily imagine that as soon as possible a garden would be planted under the care of the women and younger boys. Then as soon as the sheep were shorn would come a busy time for grandmother and the girls. The wool must be scoured, carded into rolls, spun into yarn, dyed and woven into cloth to make garments for the family. The previous winter may have been long and tedious, but the sum- mer was busy and fleeting.

"However busy they were, grand- father did not forget the one object they had in view in coming to the wilds of Ohio, viz., to secure a home. He selected a quarter section of land on the Sinking Creek, about one and a half miles above its mouth. Here was water for the home and for cattle, and yet only a small part of the land was crossed by the stream. Here, too, was a fine sugar bush, so fine as to attract the attention of some wander- ing tribes, who came every spring in Feb- ruary and March to make sugar, encamp- ing along the creek.

"Others, however, looked with longing eye on this fertile quarter section, and grandfather and grandmother soon de- cided that if they secured the land they would have to use strategy. Grandfather and the older boys were busy at home. Who then should make the journey to Cincinnati, where the nearest government land office was located, and enter the land ? The lot fell upon Caleb, the eight-year-old boy who had shown himself so efficient and self-reliant the previous year in car- ing for the sheep throughout the long journey from Clarksburg. Secretly he was equipped for the journey. Plain and explicit instructions were given him as

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to the number of range, section, etc. Fifty pleted, was a palace compared with the dollars in gold were securely fastened to cabins in which they had found shelter hitherto. Here were celebrated weddings and infairs-as receptions were then called-and here the young people gathered for merry-making, such as husk- ing-bees, etc. his sturdy little body. Thus equipped he set out on one of the old horses for Cin- cinnati. In a few weeks he returned, hav- ing correctly entered the land, and bring- ing a receipt for the first payment, which also described the land. It is not difficult "In 1812, October 30, the eldest son was married to a Miss Ellsworth; one of a family in the settlement; and on Decem- ber 31st of the same year the second daughter married Aquilla Ellsworth of the same family. October 7th, 1813, the remaining daughter married Charles Bot- kin, and settled a few miles east of the homestead. In the meanwhile the eldest daughter, Eunice Reece, had buried her husband, and with her two children, found a home with her parents. During the War of 1812 with England, the two oldest boys were in the service for a short time, guard- ing a supply train which brought provi- sions for the army under General Hull." to imagine that our grandparents were ex- ceedingly relieved of anxiety and much gratified at the result of their scheming. Another winter was passed in the Van Meter cabin. Then, when the winter be- gan to wane, the two older boys were sent to the future home to cut the timber for the log cabin, and to clear some land for the next season's crops. They built a sort of tent or hut for a temporary shelter, and for weeks spent their entire time at the work of chopping, burning brush, etc., returning home Saturday evening to spend Sabbath with the family. Soon the Indians came for their usual spring sugar-making. Sometimes the boys would go down to the Indian camp in the sugar bottom to while away an evening with the Indians and engaging in their pastimes.

"When the early spring came, the logs for the cabin were all ready and at an ap- pointed day the neighbors came from far and near, and by sun-down the cabin was up and under roof and chinked, ready for a mud plaster on the cracks between the logs. Then a capacious but rude chimney was built, the lower part of nigger-heads or boulders laid in clay mortar, the upper part of clay and sticks.

"In a year or two a new house was built. This one is hewn of logs, and two stories high, with two large rooms on the ground floor. This house, when com-

February 23, 1815, John Tuttle mar- ried Margaret Prickett, a daughter of Nicholas Prickett, who some years be- fore had brought his family from Cler- mont County and settled at Lagonda. He purchased the grist-mill of Simon Kenton, which he improved and ran as long as he lived.

In the year 1822, March 21st, Caleb Tuttle married another daughter of this miller's family, Mary Prickett.

In the spring of 1816 a Baptist Church was organized in the community, one mile south of the Tuttle homestead. Nicholas Prickett was one of the founders. From the records we learn that Sylvanus Tuttle was received into membership in this church in October, 1816, and in November Mary Tuttle hecame a member. They

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could have preaching service but once each month, and at these services, which were held both Saturday and Sunday, one or more were received into the little church. A few years later Sylvanus Tut- tle was elected to the office of deacon in this church, in which capacity he served until his death.

In the year 1821 the present brick dwell- ing-house was built. The bricks were made and all the material for the house was gotten from the farm, except the hardware and lime for the mortar. As the years went on, one by one the chil- dren, as children will, formed homes else- where. Then came grandchildren to live with and help the grandparents in their old age. In these early years all the wheat or rather the flour must be hauled all the way to Cincinnati for market. To get a little money was very difficult and money was very scarce. The people lived in a plain, simple manner. Salt was one of the most difficult articles to obtain, and had to be hauled from Cincinnati or San- dusky. There were no roads at that time worthy of the name, and bands of hostile Indians were ready to shoot any white man who might unwarily fall in their way.

Sylvanus Tuttle died on January 1, 1843, at the good old age of eighty-one years, seven months, and nineteen days; and Mary Tuttle, his wife, died May 26, 1848, aged eighty years, eleven months, and nine days.

John Tuttle, son of Sylvanus and Mary Tuttle, was born in Virginia, and accom- panied his parents in their journey to Ohio, as above recorded. He shared in the pioneer hardships experienced by the rest of the family, and on one occasion, in company with some neighbors, made

the long and dangerous journey to Cin- cinnati, for salt. His marriage to Mar- garet Prickett, on February 23d, 1815, has been already recorded, as likewise the birth of their son Harvey H., whose name begins this article.

The latter was reared in Springfield Township, attending the school known as Congress Hall. Afterwards he was graduated from Wittenberg College, Springfield, in the class of 1867, and three years later was graduated, in the class of 1870, from the Theological Seminary at Upland, Pennsylvania. Previous to that, on September 2, 1861, at the age of nine- teen, he had enlisted in Company F, Forty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as a corporal, and served with that com- pany seventeen months. When a baby, about twenty months old, he had met with an accident by which he had lost two fingers; and in the war he had another finger on the same hand shot off, while on picket duty near Georgetown, Kentucky. He was discharged for that reason Decem- ber 27, 1862. He then re-enlisted in the 100-day service as second lieutenant in Company D, One hundred and forty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until September 7, 1864, when he received an honorable discharge. He then returned to Wittenberg College, which he had left to enter the army. His mental equipment was completed at Crozer Semi- nary, on leaving which, he was married June 14, 1870, to Laura J. Luse, daughter of John Luse. He then took the pastorate of two churches -- one at Bradford Junc- tion and one at Covington, both in Miami County, Ohio. He remained thus oc- cupied for about two years, when his health failed and he quit pastoral work,

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and took up his residence on his present farm, which was then owned by his father- in-law, his advent here being in January, 1874. In the spring of 1888 Mr. Tuttle went to Granville, Ohio, where he lived for sixteen years, returning to his farm in Clark County in 1904. For a number of years he was librarian for the Dennison University at Granville. On the reorgani- zation of the Sinking Creek Church in 1883 he became the pastor, which position he still holds. While a resident of Gran- ville he frequently returned to officiate as pastor of this church.

The family of Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle num- bers nine children, all of whom are mar- ried but two. They have twelve grand- children. Their children are as follows: Laura May, wife of Professor Price, prin- cipal of the Pillsbury Academy, Owanton- na, Minnesota; John Luse, who married Lotta Gower; Martha Byrd, wife of Pro- fessor E. J. Owen, also of Pillsbury Acad- emy; A. J. Tuttle, who married Frances Davidson, a missionary in Assam, India ; Margaret Ann, wife of Edward H. Jes- son, Y. M. C. A. secretary at Berwick, Pennsylvania; Harvey Wallace, single, who is now preparing for evangelistic work; George Clyde, who married Cathar- ine Evans, and is a reporter on the Colum- bus "Citizen;" Mary Catharine, a music teacher in an academy at Toulon, Illinois ; Alice, wife of Oscar Laybourne, who re- sides at home with her parents.

of the most valuable in Clark County, and is kept by him in fine condition. As a grandson of one of the most conspicuous among the pioneers of this section, he is especially well-informed in regard to local history in which he takes an intelligent and patriotic interest. He and his fam- ily are as highly esteemed as they are well known in every part of the county.

CHARLES BAUER, a member of the city council of Springfield, has been suc- cessfully engaged in business here for many years. He was born at Springfield, Ohio, in 1869, and is a son of Jacob Bauer.

Jacob Bauer, father of Charles, was born in Germany and was an early settler at Springfield. He worked in the Ross Mitchell flour mill, which then stood on the site of the International Harvester plant. Later he conducted a dairy and operated `a milk wagon through Spring- field, although his patrons were few be- cause the population was limited at that day. He died in 1899.

Charles Bauer was educated in the schools of Springfield, and while still a boy went to work for the Warder, Bush- nell & Glessner Company, with whom he remained for fifteen years. He then em- barked in a feed, flour and grain business, to which commodities he later added coal and cement, and has been so engaged ever since.

Mr. Tuttle is a member of the Grand On December 23, 1905, Mr. Bauer was married to Vinnie Peden. He has taken a very active part in city politics. For five years he served as a member of the school board from the First Ward, during two of which he was its president. His present Army of the Republic. He is a man of much force of character, an able and faith- ful minister of the Gospel, having much persuasive force in the pulpit, and is also a ready and capable writer. His two hundred and forty-five acre farm is one standing in the council is that of a mem-

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ber at large. . His business judgment is valued on the board and his integrity and efficiency as a citizen is very generally conceded. He is a popular member of a number of fraternal orders, including the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Red Men, and the Knights of Pythias.

ERNEST BURKHARDT, a leading farmer and dairyman of Springfield Township, residing on his farm in Section 17, on the old Columbus road, two and a half miles from Springfield, was born in Wittenberg, Germany, November 27, 1847.

He is a son of Ludwick and Caroline Burkhardt.

Ernest Burkhardt was reared in Ger- many, where he learned the cabinet-mak- er's trade and after coming to America, in 1867, he worked at this trade at Cincin- nati for a year. His elder brother, Lud- wick Burkhardt, was engaged in a butcher- ing business in that city and Ernest learned that trade with him, after which he carried on a butchering business of his own and owned two markets in Cincin- nati. In 1884 he moved to his present home, purchasing at that time seventeen acres of land on which stood a fine brick house and a barn. He built on his land a frame slaughter-house, which subse- quently burned down. He then replaced it with a brick one and continued in the meat business until 1898. To his original purchase he added more land, and his farm in Springfield Township now con- tains thirty-eight acres. He owns also a farm of eighty-five acres in Moorefield Township.

In Cincinnati, Mr. Burkhardt was mar- ried to Emma Oehler, who is a daughter

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Century history of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio, and representative citizens 20th, Part 74

Author: Rockel, William M. (William Mahlon), 1855-1930, ed Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago, Biographical publishing co. Number of Pages: 1086

Author: Rockel, William M. (William Mahlon), 1855-1930, ed
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1086