Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 34

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916

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The remains of Major McMahon and his companions, who fell at the time of the attack on the fort, were buried within its walls. Some years since their bones were disinterred and reburied with the honors of war, in one coffin, in the village graveyard. McMahon was known from the size of his bones. He was about 6 feet 6 inches in height. A bullet hole was in his skull, the ball having entered his temple and come out at the back of his head. He was originally from near the Mingo bottom, just below Steubenville. He was a famous Indian fighter and captain, and classed by the borderers on the upper Ohio with Brady and the Wetzels .- Old Edition.

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

THE MERCER COUNTY RESERVOIR. Said to be the largest artificial lake on the globe.

ILPIFER ,C,LIVEE

Ford Lewis, Photo., Celina, 1890.

STREET VIEW IN CELINA.

A church in course of construction is shown on the left, the Court-Honse on the right, the Reservoir in the distance.

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MERCER COUNTY.

CELINA, county-seat of Mercer, on the Wabash river, 100 miles southwest of Toledo, about 100 miles north of Cincinnati, and about ninety miles northwest of Columbus, is on the L. E. & W., C. J. & M., and T., St. L. & K. C. Rail- roads ; is also on the Grand Reservoir, ten miles long-the largest artificial lake in the United States, covering 17,000 acres with an average depth of ten feet. County officers, 1888: Auditor, Theophilus G. Touvelle; Clerk, Henry Len- bartz; Commissioners, John H. Siebert, Peter Haubert, Christian Fanger ; Cor- oner, Theodore G. McDonald ; Infirmary Directors, Charles F. Lutz, Philip Heiby, David Overly ; Probate Judge, Stafford S. Scranton ; Prosecuting Attor- ney, Byron M. Clendening ; Recorder, William C. Snyder ; Sheriff, James F. Timmonds ; Surveyor, Justin M. DeFord ; Treasurer, Samuel A. Nickerson. City officers, 1888 : Joseph May, Mayor ; Charles Gable, Clerk ; H. F. Juneman, Treasurer ; George H. Houser, Marshal. Newspapers : Der Mercer County Bote, German, Democratic, William Stelzer, editor and publisher ; Mercer County Ob- server, Republican, Jameson & Ross, editors and publishers ; Mercer County Stand- ard, Democratic, A. P. Snyder, editor and publisher. Churches : one Catholic, one Lutheran, one Presbyterian, one United Brethren, one Methodist. Banks : Citizens', Chr. Schunck, president, J. W. DeFord, cashier ; Godfrey & Milligan.

Manufactures and Employees .- Krenning Woollen Mills, blankets, etc., 10 hands ; Celina Machine Works, machine shop, 7; W. B. Nimmons, barrel heads, 45; W. H. Beery, flour and feed, 4; Timmonds & Estry, doors, sash, etc., 6 ; A. Wykoff & Son, carriages, etc., 10; Celina City Mills, flour, etc., 3 .- Ohio State Report, 1888. Population, 1880, 1,346. School census, 1888, 752; George S. Harter, school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $79,525. Value of annual product, $132,500 .- Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888. Census, 1890, 2,684.

Celina is steadily prospering ; its manufactures are chiefly wood, as are those of northwestern Ohio generally. The centre and south part of the county is a rich gas field, while north of Celina extends the oil territory. Celina is a Democratic stronghold. It has furnished the Ohio Legislature with two Democratic speakers of the House in the persons of ex-Congressman F. C. Le Blond and Hon. A. D. Marsh, while Hon. Thomas Jefferson Godfrey in 1868 was president of the Sen- ate, and in 1869 was on the Democratic ticket for lieutenant-governor, with George H. Pendleton as candidate for governor ; he was a member of the Consti- tutional Convention of 1873-1874, and on the judiciary committee. He takes much interest in education, and has for years been a trustee of the State Univer- sity. The German Catholic element is strong in Celina, and, indeed, in the new northwest of Ohio generally, and it makes a thrifty, upright, industrious body of pioneers, intensely patriotic and well adapted to cope with a wilderness con- dition.

The old county-seat was St. Mary's, described on page 302, where stood the old fort St. Mary's, built by Wayne. Col. John Johnston gave us this account of the last commander of that fort, Capt. John Whistler, who appears to have been a remarkable man.

Ile was a soldier from his youth, came to America in Burgoyne's army, and was taken prisoner at Saratoga. He remained after- wards in the United States, entered the Western army under St. Clair, and survived the disastrous defeat of November, 1791, at which he acted as sergeant. In 1793 an order came from the war office, purporting that any non-commissioned officer who should raise twenty-five recruits would receive the com- mission of an ensign. He succeeded in this way in obtaining the office, from which he rose to a captaincy, and commanded in suc .

cession Forts St. Mary's, Wayne and Dear- born, at Chicago. He built the latter without the aid of a horse or ox ; the timber and ma- terials were all hauled by the labor of the soldiers, their commander always at their head assisting. He could recruit more men and perform more labor than any other officer in the army. Age and hard service at length broke him down. He retired from the line of the army and received the appointment of military storekeeper at St. Louis, where he died about 1826.

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MERCER COUNTY.

By the formation of Anglaise connty in 1848, St. Mary's was embodied in it, although Celina, then as now, was the county-scat. It had but few inhabitants. Celina was surveyed and laid out by James Watson Riley, for himself, Rufus W. Stcarnes, Robert Linzer, 2d, and Peter Aughenbaugh, joint proprietors of the land, and the plat recorded September 8, 1834. The name Celina was given after that of Salina, N. Y., because, like that place, it stood at the head of a lake. . The name was changed in spelling from "Sa " to "Ce," to prevent confusion of post-offices. The town slowly got a start, and when the Harrison campaign ensued in 1840, the county officers had removed here from St. Mary's, and got domiciled in log huts, and the court-house had received its roof.

After the excitement of the Harrison campaign was over, a chopping frolic or " bee" was held to cut down the timber on the town site, and give the sun a chance to dry up the mud. So, on a beautiful Indian summer day about seventy experienced choppers from all the country round came to Celina with their sharp, glistening axes; women, too, came with them to do their cooking; and, after a great day of work, they partook of a generous supper of substantials, and then ensued a grand dance, kept up by many until daylight did appear. When they cleared the woods they adopted the method described on page 468.

TRAVELLING NOTES.

This is Thursday evening, December 9, and I am in Celina, county-seat of Mercer, and the southernmost of the wild counties of Ohio on the Indiana line. I got here by rail from Paulding near sunset, in a freight train with a caboose attached, and through the woods nearly all the way. This entire wild region of woods and swamps of Northwestern Ohio fill one with an indescribable emotion of coming greatness from its great fertility when cleared and drained. In the meanwhile its wood crop yields full reward for manly toil.

Celina, with its effeminate, soft-sounding name, is small and has the aspect of newness as though the place itself was but newly arrived. From its name we should look for a refined and gentle population. Its main street is very broad, and I walked in the beautiful crisp air and in the bright moon to its foot where lies the great artificial lake. Boys and girls were there skating-their glad voices rang on the air.

Lines of fish-houses are on the banks. The old picture which I took in 1846 of the lake was at the St. Mary's end, ten miles east. In it are shown dead forests standing in the water. These now have disappeared every- where and in their places stand decayed and decaying stumps, projecting a few inches above the water, their many miles of black heads showing where the forests had been a singular appearance for the surface of the lake. Under the water the wood is pre- served from decay by its continuous immer- sion. By the rise and fall of the water the exposed part of the stumps decay. The de- cayed vegetable matter when the water is low fills the afr with a horrible odor, which I am told is some summers so sickening as to almost drive the people away. In time this will be remedied by a systematic clearing away of the stumps, or sawing them off below the lowest water-line.

Several small islands are in the lake, one of which-Eagle's Island-is the abode of a professional fisherman ; another is a pleasure

resort for pic-nic parties, hunting and fish- ing, which is reached by a small steamer and various other boats. The fish are largely caught by nets, as black and rock bass, cat- fish, roach, bull heads, ring perch, etc. Dur- ing the spring and autumn of each year wild fowl gather here in large and incredible num- bers, and as a fishing and hunting resort it is very attractive, and large parties come here for that purpose from all parts of the State.

It is now nine o'clock and I am in the depot at Celina, and make this note : "In a few minutes shall start South." It has been a clear, glorious, sunny winter day ; no over- coat wanted. Mere existence has been joy- ous. The sun has set bright over a dead level forest country and the full moon risen "huge in the East. But the train is approach- ing ; its big head-light looms up in the dis- tance, seeming to say. " I'm coming to bear you on your way." Slow, stumbling " Old Pomp " has had his day.

The father of Celina was JAMES WATSON RILEY. He was the son of Captain

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MERCER COUNTY.

James Riley, the once Arab captive, whose history is given in Van Wert county. The son was born in 1804, in Middletown, Connecticut, and came with his family to Ohio when quite young. The inscription on his monument in Celina is annexed :

In Heaven Rest.

Sacred to the Memory of our Father,

JAMES WATSON RILEY.

DIED

January, 1870.

AGED

65 years, 10 months and 11 days.

There never lived a better husband, a kinder father,

a truer friend.

He was a somewhat tall, wiry man of great energy and push, whom I grate- fully remember, he having supplied me with valuable material for my original edition. The inscription on his monument is a model. One feels it is true ; an emanation from a loving heart. Better than all titles, and all honors, and all material possessions, is it, to deserve such an epitaph.

His life, was, however, great, because given to developing the swamp region of the State, and he was the proprietor of the towns of Van Wert, Paulding and Celina, all county-seats, which he surveyed and founded. His ambition was to enter the wilderness, carve out villages which should serve as centres for young prospering communities. To have been the creator of three county-seats is an extraordinary honor, not, we think, paralleled anywhere.

Public office sought him ; at one time he was Register of the United States Land Office. He was an ardent Whig in the old Tippecanoe times and made a strong contest for Congress in opposition to Hon. Wm. Sawyer. The district was hopelessly Democratic, but by stumping it he reduced Mr. Sawyer's majority from 2,500 to 1,000.

Sawyer represented this Congressional district from 1845 to 1849, and he got fastened upon him the epithet of "Sausage." And this was the way of it : Wm. E. Robinson, the waggish reporter "Richelieu," of the New York Tribune, had given a comic description of the Hon. Wm. Sawyer's bring- ing on to the floor of Congress a cold lunch, and spreading it on his desk and partaking of

it with a gusto in the presence of his fellow- members while in session.

Cold sausage, as described, was the prin- ciple article of the menu. The Democratic majority expelled Mr. Robinson, but he came back some years later and took his seat, not this time in the reporter's gallery, but on the floor of the House, right among the Demo- crats, as the Democratic member from the

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MERCER COUNTY.

Brooklyn, New York, district. Mr. Sawyer was ever after known as "Sausage Sawyer." It was a cruel epithet to apply to a worthy man.

Robinson was a red-headed North of Ireland man, educated in this country ; his college mates called him "Jack." He oozed with fun ; couldn't help it; was born that way. This made him, in his youthful days, a favorite on the Whig platform, to which he was always called with vociferous yells and stampings. We once saw him mount the orating stage, throw his hat, an old soft, white hat which he had under his arm, at his feet and make a comic apostrophe to it as an opening to more fun. Jack we believe and hope is yet living, and if living must have opened this very day with a good joke, possibly may have lunched on cold sausage. The last we saw of Jack was fourteen years ago ; he was on a public platform as a com- panion to Dr. John G. Holland, the poet. His red hair had bleached to a dull white and stood out huge and bushy in all directions, which gave to him a sage and venerable aspect.

Slang epithets and fancy names, we believe, are universal. Public men are especially favored. Napoleon the First was dubbed by his soldiers "Little Corporal," and Welling- ton travelled as the "Iron Duke." Coming to our own country, Andrew Jackson was "Old Hickory ;" Martin Van Buren, the "Little Magician ; " Thomas Benton, "Old Bullion ; " John Quincy Adams, the "Old Man Eloquent;" Daniel Webster, the "God- like Webster " and "Black Dan ; " General Winfield Scott, "Fuss and Feathers;" Henry Clay, "Mill Boy of the Slashes" and "Cooney ; Mr. Blaine, the "Plumed Knight; " and General Butler, "Spoons."

Coming to Ohio we find General W. H. Harrison was a "Granny ; " Thomas Cor- win, a " Wagon Boy ; " Gov. Wood, "Tall Chief of the Cuyahogas ;" Hon. Samuel Me- dary, " War Horse of the Democracy ; " Gov. Allen, "Chinese Gong" and " Fog Horn," from his tremendous voice, and then having used in a speech the sentence, " Earthquake of indignation," became "Earthquake Al- Jen ; " Mr. Ewing was "Solitude Ewing," from a speech in the Senate when, speaking of the disastrous effects of the removal of the deposits from the United States Bank by General Jackson, he had said : "Our canals

have become a solitude, and the lake a desert waste of waters." This term solitude is poetical, having in it the element of pleasing melancholy. Possibly, in using it Mr. Ewing may have been reading "Zimmerman on Solitude." If he had lived to our time it might have been Algers' "Genius of Soli- tude," which last we can commend to all thoughtful souls who have aspirations for in- dulgence in " pleasing melancholy."

Coming to the war period and later, "Old Stars " stood for the astronomer, General Ormsby Knight Mitchell. He had pointed his telescope so much aloft to see what Jupi- ter and its travelling moons were doing, his soldiers thought "Old Stars " was a good fit. " Uncle Billy " is a term of endearment for Sherman. As they use it the old veterans feel drawn closer to the General, their hearts beating in unison. They realize in the time of trouble he had a brother's love, was ready to share his last cracker with them as he is now to welcome them and their wives and daughters, greeting the latter sometimes with the fraternal kiss; "for of such is," etc. "Little Breeches " for a while was Mr. For- aker's designation, growing out of his youth- ful experience ; like the breeches it had no permanence, soon was worn out and cast away ; but Judge Thurman remains "Hon- est," while "King Bob" yet wears the crown.

In private life nicknames are endless. Our Indians appear to have none other. "Fool Dog " designated a Sioux chief. Said a de- partment commander of the army to us : " Fool Dog was as good a man as I ever knew ; he was exceedingly fond of me. Yes, I think Fool Dog would have died for me." Every reader must remember some of his schoolmates that had eccentric appellations. One I had was known as "Scoopendiver Bill." How he got it I never knew ; but I did of another, "Boots." His father had sent him with his boots for the mending ; the lad drew them over his own boots, and shuffling past the school-house when his mates were out at play, they filled the air with the cry of "Boots ! boots ! boots !" The epithet ** Boots " became a permanent fixture. His real name passed into oblivion, his school- mates never using any other than "Boots." He is yet living, but being aged it must be as "Old Boots."

THE MERCER COUNTY RESERVOIR.

The largest artificial lake, it is said, on the globe, is formed by the reservoir supplying the St. Mary's feeder of the Miami extension canal, from which it is situated three miles west. The reservoir is about niue miles long and from two to four broad. It is on the summit, between the Ohio and the lakes. About one- half in its natural state was a prairie, and the remainder a forest. It was formed by raising two walls of earth, from ten to twenty-five feet high, called respectively the East and West embankment, the first of which is about two miles and the last near four in length. These walls, with the elevation of the ground to the north and south, form a huge basin to retain the water.

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MERCER COUNTY.

The reservoir was commenced in 1837 and completed in 1845, at an expense of several hundred thousand dollars. The west embank- ment was completed in 1843. The water filled in at the upper end to the depth of several feet, but as the ground rose gradually to the east it overflowed for several miles to the depth of a few inches only. This vast body of water thus exposed to the powerful rays of the sun, would, if allowed to bave re- mained, have bred pestilence through the adjacent country. Moreover, whole farms that belonged to individuals, yet unpaid for by the State, were completely submerged. Under these circumstances, about one hun- dred and fifty residents of the county turned out with spades and shovels and by two days of industry tore a passage for the water through the embankment. It cost several thousand dollars to repair the damage. Among those concerned in this affair were persons high in official station and respect- ability, some of whom here for the first time blistered their hands at manual labor. They were all liable to the State law making the despoiling of public works a penitentiary of- fence, but a grand jury could not be found in Mercer to find a bill of indictment.

The Legislature, by a joint resolution, passed in 1837, resolved that no reservoir

should be made for public canals without the timber being first cleared ; it was unheeded by officers in charge of this work. The trees were only girdled and thus thousands of acres of most valuable timber that would have been of great value to the Commonwealth in building of bridges and other constructions on the public works wantonly wasted.

The view of the reservoir was taken from the east embankment, and presents a singular scene. In front are dead trees and stumps scattered about, and roofs of deserted cabins rising from the water. Beyond a cluster of green prairie grass waves in the rippling waters, while to the right and left thousands of acres of dead forest trees, with no sign of life but a few scattered willows bending in the water, combine to give an air of wintry desolation to the scene. The reservoir abounds in fish and wild fowl, while innumerable frogs make the air vocal with their bellow- ings. The water is only a few feet deep, and in storms the waves dash up six or eight feet and foam like an ocean in miniature. A few years since a steamer twenty-five feet in length, called the "Seventy-six," with a boiler of seventy gallons capacity, a pipe four feet in height, and commanded by Captain Gustavus Darnold, plied on its waters.

The foregoing account of the reservoir is from our original edition. The Mercer County Standard of April, 1871, has a fuller description, from which we take some items :

Justin Hamilton, of Mercer county, intro- duced a resolution into the Legislature, which was unanimously adopted : "That no water should be let into the reservoir before the same should be cleared of timber and the parties paid for this land." The Legislature appro- priated $20,000 for this purpose, but it was squandered by the officers and land specu- lators.

When the water was let in, growing crops of wheat belonging to various owners and other farm property were submerged. The people, indignant, held a public meeting at Celina, May 3, 1843; chose Samuel Ruckman, County Commissioner, President, and sent Benjamin Linzee to Piqua to lay their griev- ances, with an address, before the head of the Board of Public Works, Messrs. Spencer and Ramsey, etc., who returned the sneering answer, "Help yourselves if you can."

On the 12th the meeting returned Mr. Linzee to Piqua with the answer, that if they did not pay for the land and let off the water, they would cut the bank on the 15th. The reply came back, "The Piqua Guards will be with you and rout you on that day."

At seven o'clock on the morning of the 15th more than one hundred citizens, with shovels, spades and wheel-barrows, were on the spot. The place selected was the strongest on the bank in the old Beaver channel, and, careful not to damage the State, the dirt was wheeled back on the bank on each side. Next day at noon the cutting was complete, and was dug six feet below the level of the lake with a flimsy breastwork to hold back the water.

When the tools were taken out and all ready, Samuel Ruckman said, "Who will start the water?" "I," said John Sun- day ; " "I," said Henry Linzee, and in a moment the meandering waters were hurling down fifty yards below the bank. It was six weeks before the water subsided.

Warrants were issued for all engaged in the work, and this included all the county officers, judges, sheriffs, clerks, auditor, etc. As stated the grand jury refused to find a bill and it cost the State $17,000 to repair the damage.

John W. Erwin, the old canal engineer, in a recent newspaper publication, states : This reservoir often feeds sixty miles or more of canal and discharges into the Maumee, at Defiance, 3,000 cubic feet of water per minute, after having been used over a fall of thirty-five feet for hydraulic purpose. The water which escapes at the west bank of the Grand Reservoir (by the Wabash river) finds :its

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MERCER COUNTY.

way into the Gulf of Mexico, and that which escapes at the east end finds its way into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

In our original edition we made the following statement in regard to a colony of colored people which amounted to several hundred persons : They live prin- cipally by agriculture, and own extensive tracts of land in the townships of Granville, Franklin and Mercer. They bear a good reputation for morality, and manifest a laudable desire for mental improvement. This settlement was founded by the exertions of Mr. Augustus Wattles, a native of Connecticut, who, instead

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846. EMLEN INSTITUTE.

of merely theorizing upon the evils which prevent the moral and mental advance- ment of the colored race, has acted in their behalf with a philanthropic, Christian- like zeal that evinces he has their real good at heart. The history of this settle- ment is given in the annexed extract of a letter from him.

My early education, as you well know, would naturally lead me to look upon learn- ing and good morals as of infinite importance in a land of liberty. In the winter of 1833-4 I providentially became acquainted with the colored population of Cincinnati, and found about 4,000 totally ignorant of everything calculated to make good citizens. Most of them had been slaves, shut out from every avenue of moral and mental improvement. I started a school for them and kept it up with two hundred pupils for two years. I then proposed to the colored people to move into the country and purchase land, and remove from these contaminating influences which had so long crushed them in our cities and villages. They promised to do so, provided I would accompany them and teach school. I travelled through Canada, Michigan and Indiana looking for a suitable location, and finally settled here, thinking this place con- tained more natural advantages than any other unoccupied country within my knowledge. In 1835 I made the first purchase for colored people in this county. In about three years they owned not far from 30,000 acres. I had travelled into almost every neighborhood of colored people in the State and laid before

them the benefits of a permanent home for themselves and of education for their chil- dren. In my first journey through the State I established, by the assistance and co- operation of abolitionists, twenty-five schools for colored children. I collected of the col- ored people such money as they had to spare and entered land for them. Many, who had no money, afterwards succeeded in raising some and brought it to me. With this I bought land for them.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 34

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 916

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916