Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 1, Part 16

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) cn; J.H. Beers & Co. cn
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1060

USA > Ohio > Wood County > Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 1 > Part 16

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These details are given to bring out the names of the heroic band of pioneers who were grouped about the parent settlement of the county at that early day, struggling amidst most disheartening trials and exposure, to gain a foothold and make a beginning. The court at this session supple- mented the work just done by the commissioners in forming new townships, by ordering that each township should be allowed two justices of the peace, and that the number of justices in the hitherto colossal township of Waynesfield be reduced to two. The elections for such justices which were the first in each of the three counties were ordered as fol- lows: Perrysburg, June 19, at the house of Samuel Spafford; Findlay, July 1, at the house of Wilson Vance; Damascus, June 19, at the house of Neil Thompson. At the same term, Doctor H. Conant, at Maumee, and Daniel Hubbell, at Miami, were each licensed to operate a ferry one year: tax $5 each. The charges for foot passengers were 6 44 cents each; teams, 31% cents. Robert Forsyth and John E. Hunt got a permit to sell merchandise at Maumee, and John Hollister at Orleans, for $15 each, and Anthony La Point at Presque Isle Hill, the same privilege for $10, and Samuel Vance at Prairie Damasque ( Damascus, Henry county), to keep tavern, paid $6. This ended the proceedings of the first regular term of Common Pleas Court in what is now Wood county. The business of the session was doubtless curtailed by the incon- venience experienced in being compelled to hold court at a private house, a thing which has never occurred since.

"With a full complement of county officers and courts, we may consider that Wood county was fully started on her career. To use a figure of speech, the ship was launched safely and her destiny now rested with the crew. The charac- ter and make-up of the population centered about the seat of the new county, at that time, was fully up to the average in enterprise and intelli- gence. They were from New England, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, with a fair sprinkling of French and English traders and half- breeds from the Detroit country, who left as the county increased its settlements."

At the October term of 1823. Barbara Ewing, a widow, appeared in court to offer herself as bondswoman for Matthias Disman, in the sum of $500. In May, 1824, Robert A. Forsyth succeeded William Pratt as associate judge, and, with his fellow judges, held a Probate Court in the clerk's office at Perrysburg. In May follow- ing, the court house was ready, but, as Judge Tod did not appear, the probate and common- debt cases were only considered. In October the associate judges expected to deal with a criminal case without the aid of their president ; but Peter Dalson, who was indicted for assaulting

David Emick, pleaded not guilty, and the case against him was continued. In October, 1824, they did, however, dispose of the case by dis- charging Dalson, the prisoner's counsel showing that one of the grand jurors, who voted for his indictment, was not a resident of the county. Judge Ebenezer Lane was here in May, 1825, being the first president judge who took part in legal transactions here from 1823 to the latter date. Numerous indictments were returned for infractions of the license laws, and a new one against Peter Dalson, who was charged with "maiming." In October, 1825, Judge Lane, with Walter Colton, Robert A. Forsyth and John Hollister, presided. John B. Pennet-shaw was tried for taking 500 muskrat skins, value for $225, and 200 raccoon skins, value for $75, from William and John Hollister. He was found guilty of burglary, and sentenced to a five-years' term in the penitentiary. The same judges were present in 1826, 1827 and 1828.

Among the court incidents of that day, told by Thomas W. Powell, and preserved by Mr. Evers, is that known as "The Huntington Rob- bery," which is given verbatim et literatim, as follows:

In the spring of 1826, there transpired at Perrysburg a case of more than ordinary interest and excitement. Elijah Huntington, of Perrysburg, had about that time been col- lecting his money with a view to be prepared to purchase some lands on the river that were soon to be resold by the United States, and which had become forfeited for non-pay- ment by the former purchasers. Huntington had in his house some four hundred dollars, which he kept by him, waiting the sale of these lands. Early one morning Mr. H. came to my house greatly excited. with a club in his hands, saying that, in the night previous, some persons had entered his house, broken open his drawers, taken his money, and left in the room that club. Mr. H. thought himself ruined; for at that time four hundred dollars, with a view to the ap- proaching sales, was an important sum of money. But who had committed the crime could not even be guessed at. It for a while baffled all conjecture, and became quite a mys- tery. A week or two previous a pocket-book and a small amount of money had been missed from the house of Charles O'Neil, of Perrysburg, and suspicions after a while began to be placed upon one Stockwell and his wife, who had not long before settled there. The citizens of Perrysburg be- came greatly excited upon the subject of this robbery; and for a time it seemed to elude all endeavors to detect the per- petrators. Suspicions having been placed upon Stockwell and his wife in regard to the O'Neil affair ithough as yet there was no evidence against them), public attention was directed immediately to Stockwell as a person who might be in some way connected with the robbery of Mr. Huntington. The club that was found in Huntington's house, after the burglary, was for awhile handed around as a curiosity. When tired of its exhibition, Mrs. H. threw it upon the fire for the purpose of making a final disposition of it. Just then, as luck would have it, Judge Ambrose Rice, an old citizen of Maumee, a remarkably shrewd man, and close observer. came into the house and immediately snatched the club from the fire, with the observation that it should be preserved, Is it might yet be evidence against the perpetrators of the act. The club was a hickory stick, considerably reduced at one end by long chips taken from it with a knife. Judge Rice thought that possibly the chips might be somewhere tound

WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.

and identified with the club, so as to implicate some one with the burglary. Strenuous investigations were made for some days without result. At length a number of the citi- zens of Perrysburg determined to make a search of Stock- well's house, and take him and his wife, for awhile at least, into custody. For this purpose they went in the night time, when they would be sure to find them at home, took posses- sion of the house, and them into custody, and made diligent search of the house without finding any evidence against them. Stockwell and wife asserted entire ignorance of the whole matter in question. The next morning Judge Rice went to the house with the club, and examined to see if some of the chips taken from the club could not be found there. After some diligent search he found some fresh chips scat- tered under the floor of the house. These chips upon exam- ination would correspond exactly with the marks of the club so completely that there could be no question of their identity.

This was a crushing answer to Stockwell's assertion of his innocence in the matter. But as yet no further evidence was discovered against them. But becoming alarmed in consequence of the identity of the chips found at his house with the club, and finding that his associates had played a trick upon him in keeping him ignorant of the amount of money that had been taken, and applying the whole of it to their own use, he became indignant toward them, and deter- mined to disclose the whole. For this purpose he sent for me as the prosecuting attorney, and disclosed to me the whole transaction as far as he knew it. He told me that he and his wife had the O'Neil money, and informed me where I could find it; but as to the Huntington money, he knew nothing beyond eight or ten dollars of it. He said that a night or two before Huntington's house was robbed, two men by the name of Keiser, old cronies of his in crime, came to his house and inquired of them if there were not some plunder to be had in Perrysburg. Stockwell informed them that his wife had discovered that Mr. Huntington had a quantity of money on hand in his house. This they soon formed a resolution to take. They kept secreted at his house a day or two making observations and planning how to take the money. On the night that the money was taken, they all three sallied forth and went to Huntington's house, found them all asleep, and one of the Keisers made his way into the house and soon returned, saying he had got Huntington's pocket-book, but he feared it was a "water-haul." The club he had taken into the house with him, he had accidentally left there, which gave them some concern, and some time debated upon the subject of returning for it. They did not, how- ever, and proceeded to Stockwell's house to examine the pock- etbook and divide the spoils. Keiser presented the pocket- book as all that he had taken. Upon examination it was found that it contained only fifteen or twenty dollars, and the Keisers gave Stockwell eight or ten dollars as his share of it. Stockwell was dissatisfied, and suspected fraud; and so questioned Keiser about it. Keiser declared upon his "honor " that that was all he had taken-it was, he said, only a water-haul; and proposed to Stockwell that he might search him. Stockwell was silenced by the brass and impu- dence of the Keisers, who immediately left Perrysburg; and no one except Stockwell and wife knew anything of their having been there, or within a hundred miles.

Now, if the club had not been saved by Judge Rice, and identified with the chips found in Stockwell's house, and was likely to throw upon him the guilt of the whole transac- tion, and the conviction on his part that the Keisers had per- petrated upon him what he considered to be a dishonorable and knavish trick. in secreting from him almost the whole of the spoils they had taken, it is not probable that this most wicked transaction could have been ferreted out. But the ways of Providence are mysterious, and the ways of the wicked are hard, and in the best-laid schemes of the criminal is found the train of circumstances that leads to his inevitable detec- tion. Stockwell, smarting under the conviction that an infamous trick had been played off on him, finding by sad experience that there was no "honor among thieves," and finding that the evidence against him was likely to make him a victim of the knaves who had appropriated, by means

of a dishonorable trick, the whole spoils to their own use, was now ready to make a frank and open disclosure of the whole transactions as far as he knew them. He informed us that the Keisers were to be found in a strip of woods on the north cape of Maumee Bay. A committee of the citizens was immediately dispatched for them, and within a few days the Keisers were in custody of the committee in Perrysburg. They held out for some time before they could be induced to disclose where the money was. But after being put through a pretty severe course of discipline, they, in the course of about a week, revealed where the money was to be found. It was buried at the foot of a tree on the north cape of the bay. Two women, the mother of the Keisers, and the wife of one of them, who were then at Perrysburg, were to show where the money was to be found. These women, Mr. Huntington, myself, and a few men to man a boat, went down there to receive the money. When we arrived at the cape, we found a most desolate place -- a mere sand-bar with a few trees and shrubbery, where we found a miserable log-house-the home of the Keisers. The women took us to the tree where the money was buried. After a little search, it was found; and, being principally in paper money, which had lain there some ten days, it had become so very damp that it was very near being worthless. Through the means of these various pro- ceedings, Mr. Huntington recovered nearly all of his lost money. Stockwell and the Keisers remained in jail several months after that, waiting their trial. But just before court, they broke jail and made their escape to Canada.

In 1828 Ambrose Rice took Colton's place, and in 1829 James Colton qualified. In Novem- ber, 1829, Ambrose Rice was appointedc ounty surveyor. On January 19, 1830, James W. Robinson was appointed clerk vice Thomas R. McKnight, deceased, by Aurora Spafford, James Wolcott and Robert A. Forsyth, the associate judges. In May, 1831, William Bigger took the place of Judge Forsyth, and, with his two associates and Judge David Higgns, was present during the term. John Webb resigned the office of sheriff and was appointed clerk. In 1835, the same judges were on the Bench, while Jonas Pratt was sheriff and John Webb, clerk; but, in October of that year, William Fowler, William Bigger and Aurora Spafford, were the associate judges-Judge Bigger holding office since April, 1831-and all being'associate judges when Journal No. 3 closed, April 6, 1837. In 1835, a num- ber of indictments for assault, etc., growing out of the Toledo war, were presented. In 1834, Jonathan Wood was appointed an auctioneer; in April, 1835, Daniel H. Wheeler; in October. 1835, Joshua Chappel, and in April. 1837, W. W. Irwin, all having been professional auction

men. At this last term, the court appointed James Matthew, inspector of pork, flour and liquors. Thomas W. Powell resigned the office of prosecuting attorney in May, 1831, when J. C. Spink was appointed. Jesstip W. Scott was the prosecutor in 1834, with Sidney Smith assist- ant, in the case against Joseph I. Applegate. In April, Hiram K. Steele was appointed surveyor. Willard V. Way succeeded Scott as prosecutor, in October, 1834; while Isaac Stetson was ap-

WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.

pointed in July, 1835. In 1837, Andrew Coffin- berry was his assistant. In April, 1835, Addison Smith resigned the office of county surveyor. In July, 1837, Prosecutor Henry Reed resigned and James Purdy was appointed. From November, 1828, to April, 1837, there were sixty-three dis- tinct estates settled by the court, and 179 cases, in which the Commonwealth was plaintiff, were tried. From October, 1825, to the close of the May term of 1831, there were 131 cases tried.

In April, 1838, Ozias Bowen, with William Fowler, Aurora Spafford and David Ladd, asso. ciate judges, presided. Isaac Stetson was granted $135, salary as prosecuting attorney for the en- suing year. After his death, in September, 1839. J. C. Spink succeeded Stetson. In March of that year, Emery D. Potter, with the associates named as serving in 1838, was present.

Hezekiah L. Hosmer, in his reminiscences, speaks of a notorious case tried at that time, as follows:

John Knowles, an old citizen of Perrysburg, died from poison in 1839, under circumstances creating strong sus- picions that he had been murdered by his wife. Knowles was considerably advanced in years, and the possessor of a comfortable estate-the fruit of hard labor and economical habits. A year or two prior to his death he married a young, buxom-looking girl, who had been for some time a house- maid in several families in the town. Very soon after their union, his life was rendered miserable by her violent temper and extravagant habits. Anxious to sever the tie which caused his misery, he, on several occasions, came to our office for legal advice; but divorces were not so easily ob- tained then as now, and we could offer him no better conso- lation than to advise kindness and indulgence. His health was failing, and he was frequently attacked with severe spasms. On one occasion he intimated that he believed he had been poisoned. In one of these attacks he died, and a post mortem examination confirmed his suspicions. Arsenic, in considerable quantity, was found in the stomach. The wife was arrested, indicted and tried for murder, upon evi- dence which would have been ample to convict a man. Her sex saved her. The trial was very interesting-the Count and Spink conducting the prosecution, against Willis Silli- man and Stowell. I thought, at the time, that the argument of the Count to the jury was irresistible, and fastened the guilt so strongly upon the defendant that escape would be impossible. Silliman, who enjoyed a good reputation as an advocate, was adroit and eloquent, and received credit for a successful defense; but, really, nothing but the fact that Mrs. Knowles was a young and rather good-looking woman saved her. 1

[ When the new Constitution was adopted in 1851, the judicial system was changed to its present form, in which the Probate is a separate court .- Ed. ]

Myron H. Tilden presided over the court in the spring term of 1844. John Webb was then sheriff, and Joseph Utley, clerk. The work of the court was characterized by a number of naturalization papers issued to natives of Ireland and Germany. In March, Hiram Davis was appointed county surveyor to succeed Morris Brown. In 1845, Benjamin Olney took the place of Judge Ladd-the only change made in the court officers. In 1847, Ebenezer B. Sadler

appeared as president judge, with Judges Spaf- ford and Olney, Nathaniel D. Blinn ( chosen as the successor of Francis Carothers, deceased ) not being present. In April, 1850, Aurora Spaf- ford was succeeded by Jairus Curtis, who, with N. D. Blinn and Benjamin Olney, was present during the session with Judge Sadler. In March, 1851, Gilbert Beach succeeded Curtis, and, in November, Peleg G. Thomas qualified as sheriff.

In March, 1852, Lawrence W. Hall presided in Common Pleas. On April 23, that year, Asher Cook, judge of probate, established his court at Perrysburg, inaugurating the business by ordering the release of the old surveyor, Sylvanus Jefferson, who was arrested under "a warrant to keep the peace." L. O. Simmons was clerk. and Coroner Thomas L. Webb was acting sheriff, with Jairus F. Curtis, deputy, in September, 1852. A large number of Irish and German set- tlers and two Englishmen were naturalized. In October, 1854, Coroner John Elder was acting sheriff, and in 1855 John Webb was clerk. On October 5 of the latter year, no less than 444 men asked the court to be admitted as citizens of the United States. In February, 1856, William L. Cook was sheriff. In February, 1857, Judge M. C. Whiteley presided. From September 20, 1852, to March 5, 1857, there were 502 settlers admitted to citizenship, the great majority regis- tering before the fall elections. In June, 1857, C. W. Norton was present as sheriff. The judges of the Tenth District in December, 1858, were M. C. Whiteley, George E. Seney and Josiah S. Plants; while in February, 1859, M. C. Whiteley, William Lawrence, A. Sankey Latty and George E. Seney signed the rules then adopted for the Third Judicial District. In Feb- ruary, 1861, Judge Whiteley, with Gabriel E. Guyer, sheriff, and William H. Jones, clerk, were present, and again during the summer and fall terms-the records, like the Commissioners' Jour- nal, containing not one reference to the Civil war. The conviction of Walters for murder in the sec- ond degree, in February, 1862, and of Rachel Ann Nicely for manslaughter, in March, 1862, were part of the excitements and troubles of war times. On September 1, 1862, Mrs. Moore, of Tontogany, was killed, and a Mrs. Thomas wounded, by the irritated husband of the first named and the father of Mrs. Thomas. He was sentenced to the penitentiary, and died there. In October of that year, John McGowan was prosecuting attorney. In March, 1863. Judge A. S. Latty presided. One year later, James W. Knaggs appeared as clerk, who appointed Thomas J. Webb and W. S. Eberly his deputies.

WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.

In 1865 Charles W. Evers succeeded C. C. Baird, who was acting sheriff, vice Guyer, resigned. In 1866, George Weddell signed the record as clerk. One of the features of the March terin of 1867, was the memorial resolution, presented by Asher Cook, on the death of Lieut. George N. Parsons (formerly auditor of this county ). It was signed by the members of the Bar, then present, namely: Henry H. Dodge, J. F. Price, Asher Cook, James R. Tyler, J. M. Hord, John A. Shannon, S. B. Price, John H. Reid, George Strain, P. S. Slevin, E. Tuller, D. K. Hollenbeck, F. Hollenbeck and Willard V. Way. About this time, the returns of the election of 1866, for and against the removal of the county seat, were presented to the court and spread on the record. In 1868, Judge James Pillars took his seat, and, in June following, Judge Mott was called upon to give judgment in the matter of the removal of the county seat.

In 1870, Judge Pillars was here with George Weddell, clerk, and John W. Brownsberger, sheriff. In 1872, Andrew D. Stewart was clerk, and in 1874 Charles C. Baird was sheriff. In December, 1875, the contested election of Will- iam A. Benschoter, asprosecutor, was tried. The election returns of October, 1875, showed 5,217 votes for Jasher Pillars, the contestor, and 4,068 for Benschoter, and on these figures Pillars was adjudged the legal holder of the office. Judges Pillars, Latty and Beer were present in March, 1876, in District Court. Orrin Henry appeared as sheriff in January, 1877; in March, 1878, Sel- wyn N. Owen, and Pillars and Latty were here as District Court judges, and W. S. Eberly as clerk. On May 6, 1878, Judge Henry H. Dodge succeeded Judge Pillars, and the procedure and usages, which now obtain, were fully intro- duced.

The cases presented to Common Pleas, since 1878, compass many important civil ones, and not a few heavy criminal ones, such as those which led Bach and Grove to execution. The trials growing out of the death of Mrs. Peany, 1894, brought forth the best efforts of prosecution and defense. The opening of the gas and oil fields of Wood county, the extraordinary stam- pedes, town-building and general activities of the last ten years, introduced new men, new man- ners, new criminal and civil causes, and changed, in a measure, the local notions of former times. Of course, invincible ignorance still exists in very vicious forins; but its influence is bounded by the ever-growing intelligence of the people who nat- urally incline toward justice. The Common Pleas journals, numbering from i to 36 (the last being

opened in February, 1895), contain the minutiæ of transactions for seventy-five years. The first thirteen volumes cover the business of the Com- mon Pleas for almost fifty-five years, while twenty-three books and many supplementary records have been required for the last twenty years, exclusive of the voluminous records of the Probate Court since 1852.

Judicial Districts .- The old district. under the Constitution of 1802, embraced all north- western Ohio down to 1830, when this Judicial Circuit included Wood, Huron, Richland, Del- aware, Sandusky, Seneca, Crawford, Marion, Hancock, . Henry, Williams, Putnam, Pauld- ing and Van Wert counties. The Assem- bly of 1838-39 established the Thirteenth Judic- ial Circuit, embracing the counties of Wood, Seneca, Henry, Williams, Paulding. Putnam, Allen, Hardin, Hancock and Van Wert. On February 19, 1845. the Judicial Circuits were re- constructed. The Constitution of IS; 1 abolished the office of president judge, and created five great circuits, or one for each of the Supreme Court justices, who were excused from attending in 1863 or 1864.

That Constitution of IS51 abolished the office of associate judge, and provided for the estab- lishment of a Probate Court: Under the Consti- tution of 1802, the Court of Common Pleas, rep- resented by the president or any one of the asso- ciate judges, considered all probate cases; but the New Constitution blotted out the associate judges, and removed such cases to the newly established Probate Court. District Courts were held here from 1852 to 1884, one of the Supreme Court judges, with two district judges, being generally present. It was really the successor of the county sessions of the Supreme Court.

In 1853, Wood, Seneca, Wyandot. Hancock and Crawford were placed in the Third Sub- District of the Third Judicial District. In April, 1857, the Legislature authorized the election of an additional judge for this Sub-District. In April, 1858. this territory was made a Sub-Divis- ion of the Tenth Judicial District, but on May 1. 1 862, the Tenth was disestablished and the Third reorganized. The Act of 1868 provided for an additional judge, and. though that Act was re- pealed in 1879, the office exists under the Act of 1879. In 1879 the First Sub-Division of the Tenth District was recreated to embrace Wood. Seneca, Hancock and Hardin, and Judge John McCauley was elected in April of that year as additional judge for this First Sub-Division. The judges of the circuit, at the close of 1894. wore elected, one under the Act of 18;g, and two un-

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Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 1, Part 16

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) cn; J.H. Beers & Co. cn Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1060

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) cn; J.H. Beers & Co. cn
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1060