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 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101
The Wood County Tribune was issued Octo- ber 3, 1889, by C. S. Van Tassel, Rufus B. Moore and Alanson L. Muir, with the first named as editor. A good deal of the printing material was purchased from A. B. Smith, who had ceased to publish the News, and, with this modest equip- ment, the foundations on which the present weekly paper was built up were placed. In December, 1889, Muir and Moore sold half of their interests to Grant Baird, who was, previously, in charge of the composing room. In May, 1890. Van- Tassel and Baird became owners, and in 1892 they established the Evening Tribune as an ad- junct to their weekly journal.
The Evening Tribune was established Au- gust 22, 1892, by C. S. Van Tassel and Grant Baird as a Republican daily journal. At that time Edwin C. Lossing was appointed reporter. and with Mr. Van Tassel attended to editorial and local work. In October, 1892, Mr. Baird disposed of his interest to Mr. Van Tassel, who became sole owner. A company was organized in May, 1893, and incorporated on May 8, that
100
WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.
year, under the name "Wood County Tribune Co.," with George W. Helfrich, president; Ed- ward Beverstock, vice president; C. S. Van Tas- sel, secretary and general manager, and John R. Hankey, treasurer. A. L. Muir, Joseph G. Starn 'and A. Grahamn, with the officers named, formed the directory. On January 1, 1894, Mr. Hel- frich was elected secretary and manager, vice Van Tassel elected president, while E. C. Lossing was appointed associate editor. A. L. Muir purchased C. S. Van Tassel's interest on August 27, 1894, and took his place as president and editor, with Mr. Lossing, associate editor, and George W. Helfrich, secretary and general man- ager. At a meeting of the company, held Janu- ary 7, 1895, W. H. Milliken was elected a di- rector, vice Starn, and B. J. Froney, vice Muir, who was elected president. On the organization of this corporation, the office was re-equipped and, the same year, the Tribune building was erected at a cost of $6,000. The increase in the circu- lation and influence of this young journal has been highly gratifying to its proprietors and friends.
The Weston News was issued May 1, 1874. In the salutatory it is written: "We are the first living editor that ever penned an editorial for a paper published in Weston (if there is any dead one, who ever did, and our prayers can be of any avail to him where he is, he is wel- come to them). Henceforth it shall be our aim to keep everybody in the path of rectitude, and no fear of slander suits or pistols shall deter us from our aim." It was a four-page journal, each page 12} x 73 inches, and very primitive in appear- ance. The proposition to tax the Weston school district for building a school house, and other local affairs, were discussed on its pages. Within a month it made way for The Weston Avalanche.
The Weston Avalanche was issued June 3. 1874. In October of that year. when T. B. Oblinger retired from the partnership, the Per- rysburg Journal said: " He mounts a siege gun on the barbet principle in his valedictory, and slaughters his e: emies by the thousands. One shot was aimed at this office, but the force was spent before it reached its destination." In Oc- tober. 1874. Dr. G. B. Spencer became editor, and Tom Harper publisher. In 1876 The Aval- anche came down. Dr. Spencer retired from the editor's chair January 5. 1876. Shortly after The Sentinel, of Bowling Green, purchased the office, and a way was cleared for the Free Press. In the carriers' address, written by Dr. Spencer, December 29, 1875, the following quartette occurs:
Hope on brave men, who gave your riches To build these railroads, dig these ditches, The town you reared up from the water
Shall be Wood county's fairest daughter.
The Free Press was issued March 22. IS76, by S. J. Harper & Son, with Dr. G. B. Spencer editor, as an independent weekly journal. The salutatory is a long one. A paragraph speaks of a former journal, and gives the relation of the new to the old newspaper: " We this week mail the Free Press to all the old Avalanche subscrib- ers, whom we deem worthy-that is whom we think would pay for the paper if they took it." L. B. Keller caine as proprietor in the fall of 1876, Dr. Spencer continuing in the position of editor for a year or so after, or almost to the time when Mr. Keller sold the office.
The Centennial bee-hunt was reported in the Free Press of November, 1876. The editor stated that it was so named "because it will be a hundred years before any of us have as much fun again, and also because there were well on toward a hundred of us Stark Bee Hunters."
The Weston Reporter was issued November 12, 1877, by G. A. Darke, who promised to make it an independent local newspaper, devoted to Weston's interests. " Weston," he says, " has starved out two newspapers within two years;" but this did not deter him, and his courage, for a time, was well rewarded. In 1878. or early in 1879. he moved the office to pastures new.
The Weston Herald was first issued April 12, 1879. The salutatory of W. H. Mitchell, pub- lisher, and L. S. Smith, editor, was issued on that day. It simply stated that " The Weston Herald is now in existence, and it comes before the public of this vicinity in modest appearance, and with no large pretensions." On May 17. 1879, E D. Moffett became publisher, continuing as such until May 17. 1884, when he sold the office to S E. Burson. On July 31, 1891, Charles B. Saxby and J. D. Conklin purchased Mr. Burson's interest. On December 4. that year, A. S. Cow- ard bought Conklin's interest, and the present firm of Saxby & Coward was formed. The Her- ald is well managed, has a large circulation in its territory, and champions Weston against onter darkness.
The Pemberville Independent was a production of the Centennial year, when J. P. Jones issued a journal under that name.
The Pemberville Brick Block was issued by Froney & Bruning and Hobart & Bowlus in 1878. They were the proprietors of the only brick busi- ness building in the village of that day. A. H. Davidson, who afterward published the Independ- i ent, was the editor.
101
WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.
The Pemberville Reporter was established in 1885 by A. H. Davidson, who was a printer and at one time publisher of the Independent.
The Wood County Index, the successor of the .Reporter, was issued by C. R. F. Berry, who purchased the office from A. H. Davidson, and carried it on until April 22, 1889, just before it had reached No. 27 of Vol. IV. A Mr. Pugh was a partner of Berry down to February 8, 1889, when he sold his interest to the senior partner, who in turn sold to Speck.
The Pemberville Leader may be said to have been established by George H. Speck, who pur- chased the Fedex on April 22, 1889, and, on May 3, that year, changed the name to Pemberville Leader. He introduced modern methods in the news and business departments, and made it a good local newspaper, worthy of the patronage extended to it.
The Pemberville Presbyterian was issued in 1890 by Rev. G. C. Gerlach in the interest of his society.
The Farm and Fireside was issued by G. Ouderkirk, at Grand Rapids, in the spring of 1882, was published here for less than a year, when the owner moved to Toledo and thence to Detroit, -Mich., where he continued publication under the same name.
The Grand Rapids Triumph, which was issued in 1883, for some years was known as Thompson's Triumph, and was published by C. K. Thompson, assisted by William Sheffield, from the summer of 1883 to September 2, 1887, when he sold the office and moved to Toledo, where he died in 1890 or 1891. On September 2, 1887, Frank Dodge and John Doyle purchased the office of Thompson's Triumph and changed the name to Grand Rapids Triumph. They issued No. I, Vol. V., on the date given. On February 10, 1888, F. A. Crosby and A. J. Fries became owners and published the Triumph, regularly, until August 16, 1889, when F. A. Crosby be- came sole owner. E. H. Eckert, of Toledo, purchased the office in December, 1889, and car- ried on the Triumph for one year, when he sold to Floyd Huffman, who issued his salutatory, De- cember 26, 1890, saying: "With this issue of the Triumph we assume charge, and will continue to grind out the news as our former predecessors have done. We will do the best we can, and expect your help; will take no part in politics, but will encourage any new enterprise that comes under our notice." The Triumph is still tight- ing the battles of the old village at the Head of the Rapids.
The Cygnet Globe was published in 1891 by
Arthur Campbell, who claimed Soo inhabitants for his village. This claim aroused the editor of the Triumph to claim for Grand Rapids a popu- lation of 5,000 and twenty-six miles of sidewalk. The Globe is gone the way of all things earthly.
The Cygnet Gusher was another weekly pa- per of the same class, about which less may be written. Its course was short and tortuous.
The Christian Review, a semi-montlily jour- nal, was issued in the interest of the Disciples or Christian Church, from the office of The Observer, of Prairie Depot - Rev. A. McMillan being the publisher. When he left Freeport, in Septem- ber, 1895. the Review ceased to be issued.
- The Tontogany Weekly Herald was issued August 16, 1890, by George W. Grames and Willie L. Munson. Its life was short (six weeks) and uneventful, but the Herald won sufficient attention to have its requiem sung by village wits on the day of the editor's departure.
The Weekly Graphie was established at Brad- ner December 26, 1890, by George W. Grames, who had previously founded the Herald at Ton- togany. It was a little journal of a few days, neatly printed, and full of local items and adver- tisements.
The Bradner News was issued by A. C. Gor- such, after the Graphic ceased publication, but its lease of life was as short as that of its prede- cessor.
Prairie Depot Observer. No. 1, Vol. I, was issued September 19, 1894, by Geo. C. Will- iams. He speaks of the Observer as the first and only newspaper ever published in the village, and trusts to make his venture successful. The issue of October 4, 1895, was a very creditable one, containing, as it did, illustrations and descriptions of Freeport, with the ordinary local items of the week,
The Bradner Advocate was founded October 26, 1894, by D. H. Runneals, as an independent weekly journal. He bought the material new. introduced a new era in local journalism, and made the Advocate worthy of the prosperity it had won, even before Volume II was commenced in October, 1895. The owner is a progressive busi- ness man who carved a road to success among strangers within a year.
The newspapers of to-day in Wood county appear to offer fair compensation for the labor expended, fair interest on the capital invested, and a fair prospect of being permanent institutions. All the files obtainable from 1833 to 1895, were searched, and from this search result many of the thousands of incidents described in this volunie.
CHAPTER XVII.
PIONEER PHYSICIANS-SANITARY CONDITIONS OF THE COUNTY BETWEEN 1816 AND 1845-REMINIS- CENCES OF OLD PRACTITIONERS-APPEARANCE IN THE COUNTY OF LATER PHYSICIANS-THE CHOLERA-ROLL OF PHYSICIANS WHO SETTLED IN THE COUNTY IN RECENT YEARS, TOGETHER WITH SOME BRIEF PERSONAL SKETCHES-MAUMEE VALLEY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION-WOOD COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY -- WOOD COUNTY PHYSICIANS' ASSOCIATION.
T HE family physician's very calling brings him into closer intimacy with his fellow men, than does that of any other profes- sion. The pioneer physician was in a great number of instances less refined than the medical doctor and surgeon of to-day, but his un- selfish, self-sacrificing and fearless devotion to duty has not been and never will be excelled. The modern physician knows more than the pio- neer doctor did. His field of influence is wider, his opportunities are unbounded. As morals, manners and customs changed, the physician changed; so that to-day, in the small villages of the land, we find men equipped by medical education, and with mechanical means, to cope with all the peculiar demands of modern practice.
When the first physician located opposite Fort Meigs, in 1814 or 1815, the Indians were afflicted with the same diseases as the pioneers. Fevers and ague were part and parcel of existence then. Dr. Manville, in speaking of his early days in Wood county, draws an accurate picture of sanitary conditions, between 1816 and 1845. "The early settlers, " he says, " of what is called the . black swamp,' had a great deal of sickness, mostly fever and ague, which was very prevalent in an early day. So much water on the surface of the land caused so much malaria, that bilious- ness, chills, fever and ague were the results. Whenever a new family made their appearance and settled down, we all would say. . there is another family with whom we can divide the shakes.' It took from three to five years to get. acchmated; every year, from about the first of July, until frost and cold made its appearance, the people had the ague, and they looked for it just as much, and it came with the same regular- ity that the summer and fall came. It was not of the same kind that we have in this country latterly. It took hold of a person and literally shook him up. I have seen fellows go to bed with the ague, and when the shake came on the
very bed and floor would rattle. So violent was the disease that at times their teeth would rattle. Many times, whole families would be down at one time, so that one could not give another a drink of water. The ague usually came on every other day, and when there was not people enough they had to have it every day, for some- times there appeared to be about two agues for one man; and oftentimes they had to have it twice in one day. The well day, as we used to call the day we missed it, men would be able to do some light work, and it may seem strange, but the day the chill was to come on you could look out from IO A. M. until 2 P. M., and you could see the boys come in to take their shake, as much so as to take their dinners. We were not troubled much in those days from any disease of a malig- nant form. Aside from the ague, we had some bilious, intermittent and remittent fevers. We had no need of a doctor to bleed the patient, for the pesky mosquitoes did all the bleeding that was necessary.
If we except the military surgeons who ac- companied Hull, in his march through this coun- ty in 1812, or those who were in Harrison's army in 1813, the honors of the pioneer physician must be accorded to Dr. Barton. He located near the Foot of the Rapids after the war of 1812, and, for four or five years, attended reds and whites alike, with little regard to financial com- pensation. He was at Manmee in 1816, when Dr. Conant arrived, and was still inhabiting a cabin there, when Dr. J. Thurstin arrived in 1817. Neither Conant nor Thurstin refer to his going, but it is known that he had left the vil- lage prior to the removal of the county seat to Perrysburg, for. in 1823, when Dr. Walter Col- ton settled there. Dr. Barton's cabin was vacant. Dr. Conant exercised jurisdiction as justice of the peace for Michigan Territory, on the Maumee, even down to the organization of this county. and for many years was the county's most in-
103
WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.
fluential citizen. Little is known of Dr. Thurs- tin, but it is known that Dr. Colton moved to Monroe, Mich, in 1827, where he died of cholera a few years after. William Wood, the first resi- dent physician within the present county, located at Perrysburg in 1828; Oscar White settled across the river in IS29, but practiced on both sides of the river. He died in 1883.
Hundreds of reminiscences of the old physi- cians might be given, stories of heroic practice and startling adventures related; but such items belong to romance rather than to sober, matter- of-fact history. One incident, however, may be told. It is based on the authority of one of the witnesses, and substantiated by Dr. Conant him- self. While the Ewings resided at Wolf Rapids, the oldest son, Anthony, was bitten by a rattle- snake, and by the time Dr. Conant got there the boy was horribly swollen, as spotted as a leop- ard, and in great agony. Conant could do noth- ing for him. About this time, an old Indian came over from the village opposite Ewing's, and, after sullenly looking at the boy for a time, proposed to cure him for a gallon of whisky. Ewing, now hopeless of saving the boy's life, told the Indian he would do it. The Indian soon got some herbs and administered to the boy, reliev- ing him immediately, but he carefully concealed all his operations from the white medicine man. Conant afterward gave the Indian three gallons of whisky for a receipt for the cure, but there is no evidence that the old doctor ever instructed his contemporaries in the Indian method of treat- ment.
Dr. Daniel Brainard, of Fremont, began practice there in 1819, and when the first settle- ments were made on the Portage, he it was who was called to aid the fever-stricken pioneers.
Dr. Cossage, called by the first settlers "a frontiersman," located at Risdon, in 1829, and for three or four years acted as guide, wagoner, dentist, doctor and man of all work. Dr. Fletcher settled in Perry township as early as 1833; Dr. Kinnaman, of whom mention is made in the history of Montgomery, came into the southeast quarter of the county a year or so later, performed the surgical operation credited to him in the chapter on Montgomery, and built up a fine reputation in a short period. Harvey Burritt, who located at Grand Rapids, in 1833, was a redoubtable pioneer physician, whose treat- ment of disease and wounds was always heroic. He moved to Maumee in 1852. William Durbin located at Rollersville in 1834. Nathaniel Dus- tin and Daniel Cook, of Manmee, and E. D. Peck, of Perrysburg, began practice as early as
1836, and became well-known physicians and merchants. Dr. Peck came in 1834: while Eli Manville, who located northwest of Bowling Green, in 1834, was recognized as a physician of ability. Dr. Thomas resided at Portage until (842, when he left the country; his contem- porary, Manson Rice, was a surgeon, and died from blood-poisoning at a later date. B. S. Woodworth, of Providence, settled there in 183 ;: Dr. Patterson, at West Millgrove, the same year. Dr. Lathrop was in Washington township, John Wolverton and Drs. Fuller and Ballard at Bow- ling Green, with a few others scattered here and there along the county boundaries.
During the decade ending in December, 1849. a number of disciples of Esculapius made their appearance in the wilderness, for be it known that in the "forties" the territory known as Wood county was in a most primitive condition. The population had almost doubled since 1839, and yet no attempt was made to improve san- itary conditions. It is not to be wondered at. then, that everyone suffered from malarial dis- eases, or that physicians multiplied. Bradford Hutchins, T. S. Carman and E. Ranger located at Freeport, the latter in 1842 where he resided until he moved to Weston in 1864 or 1865); M. Parks located on the site of North Baltimore; Dr. Owens practiced at Otsego from 1840 to 1852: Welcome Pray in the Miltonville and Waterville district; William R. Peck, or " The Little Doc- tor Peck," taught school and practiced medicine: Chauncey Matthews died at Maumee, in 1847. Dr. Eli Manville preceded G. J. Rogers at Bowling Green: Dr. Wiley. of Henry township and Henry Buck, of Perrysburg, were here prior to the close of 1846. Justus Wright, David Scott and Alexander Anderson, of Maumee; Van- der Haden, Russell and Hiram Burr, of Bowl- ing Green, Dr. Nieblung, the soi disant planter. near Tontogany, William Bailey, of Weston, Breese, of Grand Rapids, and Osborne, of the cen- tral townships, came in before the close of 1848. Walter and Thomas Hutchins are said to have re- sided at Freeport for short periods in the " forties," while Dr. Robertson was a partner of Dr. Peck. at Perrysburg. Dr. Howell came in 1858. Qui- nine and whisky were the great medicines of the period. Every physician believed in their etfi- cacy for the ills of the patient and the doctor. The instruction of Vander Haden to his patient- was to eat everything, save a blacksmith's bei- lows or an iron wedge. He prohibited the first as an article of food, because it was too windy. and the second, because it was too heavy for the stomach. His pleasantries were so numerous.
104
WOOD COUNTY, OHIO.
that the people appreciated him and patronized him very liberally.
The decade ending in 1860 witnessed the in- crease of population from 9, 157 to 17,886 in 1860. Among the new-comers were many phy- sicians-some good, some indifferent, some bad. There was a harvest awaiting them. The people had undertaken the great work of draining the county, for it was evident that, with this popula- tion, sanitary laws must be observed. The phy- sicians were the strongest friends of drainage. Many of them served throughout the Black- Erysipelas epidemic of September, 1846, which carried away at least fifty persons in the Bowling Green neighborhood, among the number being Ruth Tracy, Mrs. Chloe Pike, the wives of James and Frank Maginnis, and Mrs. Brown. In other neighborhoods the terrible disease played havoc. Now, the repetition of such a plague had to be prevented. Drainage appeared to be the great preventative. Work was entered upon, but dur- ing its progress malaria assumed stronger hold upon the people. This is proved by con- temporary newspaper accounts and by the rec- ords of the old Agricultural Association ; so that when the sanitary and social conditions of the time are compared, one is not surprised to learn that disease rushed over and through the barri- cades built or suggested by the physicians.
The Cholera .- The epidemic of 1854 was in- comparably the most severe scourge which ever fell on any Ohio town. Judge Dodge, speaking of it before the board of health in February, 1893, said that the extent of the mortality will never be accurately known. A few months be- fore, the Journal published a list of 141 known victims, but the Judge believes that it might easily be increased to more than 200. Dr. E. D. Peck, one of the heroes of the epidemic, assured the Judge more than once that all would fall vic- tims to the terrible disease. Of the 1, 300 inhab- itants, credited to the town on July 1, 1854, only 600 remained, and, of that number, one-third are said to have fallen victims to the disease. N. H. Callard, who, like Judge Dodge, remained with the people, gives a graphic description of the advent and progress of the disease, telling how the mayor delegated his authority to Judge Dodge and fled, and how his example was followed by councilmen and their constituents in a wholesale manner. From his history of the epidemic, the following paragraph is taken :
On July 4, 1854, a pic-nic was held in a small grove a little south of the old court house. The citizens, both from town and country, had provided ample provision for having a good time. The tables were laden with provisions. The atmosphere was intensely hot, and exhibited a blueish, hazy
condition. Early in the day it became noised abroad that a child had died from cholera on the evening previous. This cast a gloom over the people, and the country people soon returned to their homes, leaving considerable provisions to be distributed among the needy citizens. The Lucas family re- ceived a good supply. On the 6th of July the first death in that family occurred. The mother of the child had then no assistance. She sent for me to go over and help them to bury their dead. On passing into the house, I observed in an open cupboard, exposed to the contaminated atmosphere of this cholera-infected house, remains of food that had been taken from the tables on the Fourth of July. The children were under no restraint and had no doubt ate of this food whenever they saw fit. In the William's house adjoining, the cholera prevailed, and the frequent vomits of the so- called rice water was, as a matter of convenience, thrown on the ground between the two houses, and it was speedily ab- sorbed by the dust and dried up by the heat. In this condi- tion the poison-germ of cholera was readily floated by the current in the atmosphere, and through the open window of the Lucas house, brought in contact with the food therein exposed. That was the condition of matters when I entered that house on the 6th of July. There is no doubt but the water drank by this family was polluted in like manner. By this process of contamination seven out of eight members of this family were swept from existence. In most cases there were no proper facilities existing either for handling the sick or in providing suitable food for them. Had there been qualified auxiliaries to the physicians in attendance on the sick in their second stage of the disease, there is but lit- tle doubt that many lives would have been saved.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.