History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 16

Author: Hopley, John E. (John Edward), 1850-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago,Ill., Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1302

USA > Ohio > Crawford County > History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 16

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After the erection of the court house in 1856 it was deemed advisable to build a new jail. The one built in 1838 was a small structure of soft brick, and as a place of confinement was not a success. It took more care and skill to keep the prisoners after their arrest than it did to capture them. Nothing special had hap- pened to the old jail, except that on Sept. 4, 1850, the building had been struck by light- ning, but no damage was done; a number of prisoners had escaped from the building, and one, preferring death to liberty, had com- mitted suicide. Commissioners, grand juries and sheriffs made frequent complaints as to its condition, and the final blow fell in Feb- ruary, 1858, when a young man named John Mouse made his escape. He had robbed the till at the Oregon House, and was arrested and placed in the jail. Mouse treated his impri- sonment as a joke and assured the sheriff that after he had rested up for a few days at the

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expense of the county he would leave. He heat of the campaign of Grant against Greeley kept his word, and a few nights later made his for the presidency. escape, by the use of a false key he had con- structed, unlocking the door, and quietly walk- ing out.

John Franz was sheriff at the time, and while the till-robbing was only a minor offense, and the escape of the prisoner was good riddance, yet the contempt with which the prisoner had treated his incarceration, made the sheriff justly indignant, and he determined on his recapture. The sheriff finally found him at Sandusky City, and brought him back. He came quietly, but again assured the sheriff that when he got tired of stopping with him he would again leave. Franz locked him up in the strongest cell on the second floor, and a few nights later Mouse made his word good he dug a hole in the brick wall, just large enough for his body to squeeze through, dropped into the yard, climbed the eight foot fence which surrounded the building, and was gone for good.

As in the "Pied Piper of Hamelin," "the mayor looked blue, and so did the corporation too." It was the final blow, and the commis- sioners promptly issued a proclamation for an election to vote on a new jail, to cost $6,000, one-half to be levied in 1858 and the other half in 1859. The Mouse escapes were so fresh in the minds of the people that at the April election the proposition carried easily. A con- tract was entered into with E. Jacobs & Co., of Cincinnati, for the jail part for $5,500, and with George B. Terwilliger, of Bucyrus, for the balance of the structure $3,076.98. It was built on the site of the old jail, and did duty for a quarter of a century, and is still standing and now occupied as a private residence.

ESCAPE OF PRISONERS

While it was building, John Franz was Sheriff, and occupied as his residence the house at the southwest corner of Charles and Lane, now the home of B. F. Lauck. During the erection of the new jail prisoners charged with minor offenses were lodged in the city prison, while the more serious offenders were placed in the Wyandot county jail. The jail proved to be a very safe structure, but there was one notable escape. It was in 1872, in the

James Worden was the sheriff, serving his second term, and he had only two prisoners in the jail, Billy Ring and his partner, charged with theft. On Friday morning, Aug. 30, 1872, the sheriff discovered his two prisoners had made their escape. An examination showed they had drilled about fifty holes through the iron floor of their cell, which was about a third of an inch thick. These holes were bored on three sides of the opening they made, and with a crow bar they pried up the iron floor, breaking off the fourth side, leaving a hole about 712 by 13 inches, through which they escaped; they crawled through several passages, through four different openings in the foundation walls before they reached the cellar, after which their final escape was easy. They left the following letter, written on the back of an engraving torn from the "Ladies' Repository" :

Crawford County Jail, Aug. 20, 1872. Sheriff Worden :

Respected Friend :- Having but a few more moments to stay, we thought we would devote them to writing to you. Deeming it proper to seek some other place of refuge, and as we did not wish to awake you from your slumbers, therefore we thought we would go without in- forming you.

P. S .- We think we will vote for Greeley.

In 1877 John A. Schaber was elected sheriff, and during his term he had occasion to take five prisoners to Columbus-four men and one woman. They were all handcuffed, and the men were connected in pairs by a heavy chain. The sheriff took as assistants, Lewis Strem- mel, George Myers and W. P. Rowland. They drove to Galion, and after all were safely on the train, Rowland returned home. When the train reached Delaware it was neces- sary to transfer from one car to another. Stremmel went first, the four male prisoners following, Myers next, then the woman, the sheriff bringing up the rear. As they reached the platform, the first two men jumped from the steps on the side opposite the station. Stremmel promptly jumped from the car and grabbed them. They raised the heavy chair with which they were manacled and brought it down with such severe force on Stremmel's head as to knock him senseless. Sheriff

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Schaber seeing or hearing the disturbance forced his way past the woman, and drew his revolver, but already a crowd had collected, making it dangerous to shoot. In attempting to lower his revolver it went off, the ball striking the Sheriff himself on the hand, inflicting a slight flesh wound. The Rev. Mr. Byers, an ex-chaplain of the Penitentiary happened to be present, and being used to hardened crim- inals, with the assistance of the sheriff and Myers soon had the prisoners under control. The woman in the car had been left to her- self and might have escaped, but the passen- gers rising in the excitement so blocked the way as to make escape impossible. She was a "high kicker" and contented herself with planting one of her feet under the chin of a six-foot traveling man who barred her way. The injured guard, Stremmel, was carried to the station and restored to consciousness, and although thirty years have passed he still car- ries the scar from the blow. Additional help was obtained at Delaware and the prisoners were safely landed in the penitentiary by the sheriff, but on his return home the wound and the excitement brought on a severe fever which confined him to his house for several days.

In time, the increasing growth and busi- ness of the county made a new jail a necessity, and in 1881, the commissioners had about $10,000 in the building fund, and they sub- mitted the question of a new jail to the peo- ple. It was the most bitter non-political elec- tion that ever occurred in the county with one exception. The sheriff's proclamation called for the vote on the jail on a separate ballot, the votes to be returned to the auditor for can- vassing.

The election took place on Tuesday, Oct. II, 1881, and the returns from every precinct showed that 2,475 votes were for the new jail and 2,789 against; majority against 314. The proposition carried Bucyrus by 981 to 65, and Crestline by 315 to 66. Galion and Polk township gave the phenomenal vote of 12 for the proposition and 1221 against an adverse majority of 1,209. In the country, Auburn, Dallas, Holmes Lykins, Texas Tod and Whet- stone were for the proposition, and Chatfield, Cranberry, Jefferson, Liberty, Sandusky, Ver- non against. The vote was cast at a regular

election, and in those days election returns were forwarded to the clerk of the court. In the printing of the ballots, Auburn, Dallas, Whetstone, and the Second, Third and Fourth wards of Galion had placed the jail proposi- tion on the regular ballot, and the vote in these precincts were returned to the clerk, and not to the auditor. A study of the returns showed these precincts erroneously returned had given 337 for the jail and 1,056 against, and the jail being a necessity the returning board, con- sisting of the auditor and commissioners, met and proceeded to count the jail returns that were before them, which eliminated the six precincts that had been returned to the clerk, and it was found the proposition had carried by a vote of 2,138 to 1,733, or a majority of 405 for the new jail. This official result was de- clared and the returning board adjourned. In 1826, the Ohio Gazeteer spoke of Bucyrus as "a lively post town in the southeastern part of Crawford county," and now after nearly three score years and ten had passed for about four weeks Bucyrus was again the "liveliest" town not only in Crawford county but in the State of Ohio. Indignant citizens swarmed to the county seat, protests and resolutions were sent to the commissioners, an indignant Galion council forwarded to the auditor official re- turns of the three eliminated wards of Galion, demanding their vote be counted, but the time limit had passed under the law by which a re- count could be made, so nothing could be done. Public opinion quieted down, and the matter came to be regarded as a shrewd move, the necessity for the jail was apparent, and the whole affair degenerated into a huge joke on Galion, and when the humor of the situation became the predominant feature, ridicule killed all opposition, as it generally does. Eventually, the action of the commissioners was practically universally approved.

The next step was a change of location, the people and the commissioners being of the opinion the proper place for the jail was at the rear of the court house instead of across the street. A point was raised by the opponents of the jail that Norton had donated the jail lot, and if it was abandoned for jail purposes it would revert to the Norton heirs. In answer to this E. R. Kearsley produced a paper cover- ing this contingency. When he was auditor in

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1854 he had foreseen that this question might arise some day, and had secured a signed agreement from Mr. Norton allowing the county at any time to sell the old jail site, pro- viding the money received from the sale was used for the purchase of a new site. Another difficulty was that the site needed-in lot 126, adjoining the court house on the north-had been occupied by Martin Deal as a residence for many years; it was his homestead, and the associations that clung around it made him object to disposing of it. The property was condemned, and bought by the county for $4,500, and that time probably the highest price paid for a similar lot in Bucyrus. The architect of the new jail was J. C. Johnson of Fremont, his plans estimating the cost at $23,- 000. The lowest bid on the contract was a Ft. Wayne firm, who neglected to give bond, and the contract was awarded to the second low- est bidder, Peter Faeth of New Washington, for $22,293. The old jail was sold to Dr. C. Fulton, in 1883, for $3,900, and the old buildings on the Deal lot were sold for $445.10. The Deal residence was purchased by Peter Faeth, who moved it to the northeast corner of the Court House lot and occupied it during the erection of the new jail. In 1909 the commissioners secured an option on the lot between the jail and the railroad, the build- ing of the new court house making it inadvis- able to purchase at that time. Unfortunately the option was allowed to lapse, as it is prop- erty which should be owned by the county.

In the early history of the county, the poor were cared for by the respective townships, one of the most important offices prior to the con- stitution of 1851 was that of overseer of the poor. To this thankless office the best men in each township took turns in serving, filling the position from a sense of duty alone. If at any time any one came to the county who might eventually become a charge upon the county, the county had the right to demand that the newcomer gave bond that he would never become a public charge. There is one record where this right was used. About 1828, a man died in Roanoke county, Virginia, and on his death liberated his slaves with suf- ficient money to transport them to some point in the north. A number of them came to Crawford county, settling two miles south of

Bucyrus, which gave the name of the "Nigger Woods" to the grove where they located. It was the farm for so many years known as the Gormly farm and later as the Beal farm. The Overseers of the Poor demanded a bond of $500 each that they would not become a pub- lic charge. This they could not give, so they were compelled to leave. One family re- mained, the man being known as "Old Solo- mon." The bulk of the negroes having left, no objection was made to the old man remain- ing, and in a very few years he died, and his widow married again, Zalmon Rowse, as justice of the peace, going down to perform the ceremony. He was accompanied by Josiah Scott and Madison Welsh, three cronies in those days, who got all the rough sport they could out of the first colored wedding in Crawford county. It has been traditionary his- tory that these slaves were a part of the fam- ily of the celebrated statesmen, John Randolph of Roanoke, who released all his slaves by will at the time of his death. Randolph died in 1833, and these negroes were certainly here in 1830, probably as early as 1828, so they were not the Randolph slaves.

While each township cared for its own poor, they were let to the lowest "responsible" bidder. It was probably the only way in those early days that they could be cared for, but it was not the most humane way, as bidders sometimes bid very low for the keeping of the pauper, and as a result he was kept in a way that the bidder could make money on his in- vestment. There were occasions when the pauper was very poorly fed and worse clad, and as for housing, kept in the same shed with the cattle or the dog, the same scraps being fed to him and the dog at the same time, with a division of food in favor of the dog. On the least provocation he was chained, and the chil- dren found amusement in hitting him with sticks and stones to make him frantic. Some- times the inhumanity of keepers brought com- plaints from the neighbors, and the overseers promptly took charge of the unfortunate and relet him to some new bidder.

After the adoption of the new constitution in 1851 Crawford county had at the time a population of nearly 20,000 people (1850 cen- sus, 18,177), and at the October election of 1856 a proposition was submitted for the se-

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curing of a site and the building of an infirm- ary, but it was defeated by a vote of 2,168 to

1,017, more than two to one. It carried Bucyrus by 457 to 26 and Cranberry by 94 to 92, and lost every other township in the county.

Under the new constitution the township trustees had charge of the poor, and they were still let to some party for their keeping. It was very unsatisfactory, as the most care- ful watchfulness could not prevent cruelties occurring, and a county infirmary became an absolute necessity. A compromise was made with the eastern part of the county by which the infirmary would be located between Bucy- rus and Galion, and in 1864 it was again sub- mitted to a vote, and carried by 2,246 to 1,654, a majority of 592. It carried the townships of Bucyrus, Jackson, Polk and Tod, was a tie in Chatfield, and lost the other ten townships. Its heavy favorable vote in Bucyrus, Galion and Crestline, on account of the compromise as to location, enabled it to carry. The site selected was 240 acre of fine farming land in sections 16, 17 and 21 Whetstone township along the Galion road three miles southeast of Bucyrus. On this a large three-story building was erected by David Shanks at a cost of about $30,000, a plain, commodious brick structure, but with no attempt at ornamentation. As time passed the various necessary outbuildings were erected, and also a very modern structure for the care of the insane. The farm of the infirmary not only supplies its own provisions, but a surplus is sold every year. Much of the work of the farm is done by the inmates, who for the past few years average about 70. From the sale of the surplus products, and the funds received annually from the liquor tax the in- stitution is practically self-sustaining

When the county was organized in 1826 the principal difficulty with which the early pio- neers had to contend were the roads. Most came in the summer, when the low, marshy ground was passable, and those who failed to come in the summer or early fall waited until the ground was frozen, and even built their cabins in the depths of the forest with the snow covering the trees and ground. The first settlers followed the old military road, and after reaching the county branched off to the north or south of this road, which accounts for the fact that after the early settlers had drifted 6

over into the northeastern part of the county from the Connecticut lands, nearly all the early settlers are found to have taken up land in what is now Jackson, Jefferson, Polk, northern Whetstone and Bucyrus, and south- ern Liberty and Sandusky, a strip of territory within four miles to the north or south of the present Pennsylvania road, which is the strong- · est of circumstantial evidence that the old army road was somewhere near the centre of this tract, and at no point through the county very far from the Pennsylvania road. Those settling in the eastern part entered their land at Wooster, while those around Bucyrus, com- ing from the east, selected their site, built their cabin, and then made their trip of forty miles on foot or on horseback, across the plains and through the forest to Delaware, where their land was entered. Gen. Harrison, in 1812, had constructed a road through Delaware to Upper Sandusky, passing through where Marion now is. This road the pioneers reached at the nearest point and followed it to Dela- ware, but later they made a trail for them- selves, wandering in and out over the highest and best ground straight south from Bucyrus. As early as 1819 the settlers in the eastern part of the county (then Richland county ) had made a road for themselves from where Ga- lion now is through Jefferson, Auburn and Vernon, and on to Paris (Plymouth), where a road existed through New Haven to Huron on Lake Erie, thus giving them an outlet to points where they could get their supplies. On account of the difficulties of land trans- portation, it was necessary to reach some point where there was water navigation. At Huron, where goods had arrived from the east by water, necessaries could be purchased 25 per cent cheaper than at Mansfield, and prices paid for the products the hunter and settler had to sell were 25 per cent higher. The necessity of taking grain to the mill at Fredericktown, made a trail southeast from Bucyrus through Whetstone township; this later became a traveled road, and when the county was organized developed into the Mt. Vernon road. The settlement at Leveridge's or Hosford's (Galion) was connected with Bucyrus by an Indian trail, later became a pioneer road, and still later a mail route to Mansfield, now the Bucyrus and Galion road.

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The first real road was the Columbus and Portland (Sandusky) road. It was surveyed by Col. Kilbourne about 1820, and a charter granted by the Legislature for a State road. The road was from Columbus to Delaware, then to Mt. Gilead (then in Marion county), then north through the western part of Gal- ion, through the present villages of Middle- town, Leesville and West Liberty, and north- east to Paris (Plymouth) and on to Portland (Sandusky). From Hosford's settlement (Galion) north it was practically following the original road cut through the woods by the early settlers. In the building of roads high ground was looked after more than direct route, and when the road reached Leveridge's Kilbourne proposed to have it pass on the high ground where the Galion public square now is; here it was to cross an east and west road from Mansfield to Bucyrus. Kilbourne proposed to Leveridge to cross at this point, lay out a town and divide the profits, but Leveridge decided he had too fine a farm to spoil it by cutting it up into town lots, so the road was run through the Hosford settlement, on the east side of the Whetstone, half a mile west of Leveridge's, over low ground, which was frequently over- flowed and during the west season often im- passable. A town was not laid out here, but the crossing of the two roads soon brought a few shops and a tavern, and the settlement became known as "The Corners."

The natural outlet to secure the best market for Bucyrus was Portland (Sandusky) on the Lake, and constant trips through the woods to that point soon made a road. Travel to Marion after 1823 soon made a road to that point, another bore southwest to Little San- dusky (the present Wyandot road), where it joined the north and south road from Colum- bus to Upper Sandusky, and from where it continued its route southwest to Marysville and Bellefontaine. The road built by Harri- son in 1812 from Franklinton (Columbus) to Upper Sandusky, as far north as Norton, in the northern part of Delaware county, was a part of the present Columbus and Sandusky Pike. In 1820 Kilbourne had continued this road north bearing east, following the Whet- stone, as his Columbus and Portland road. Settlers continued drifting to the west, and in 1822, Kilbourne laid out his direct road north

to Sandusky, the present Sandusky pike, 106 miles from Columbus to the Lake, and several miles shorter than the shortest of the three roads that then ran from Columbus to San- dusky. On this road he laid out the towns of Claridon in Marion county, Bucyrus in Craw- ford county, and Caroline in Seneca county. Later this road became the most traveled from Columbus to the Lake. John Kilbourne, a nephew of Col. Kilbourne, in his Ohio Gazet- teer of 1826, says: "During the last session of the Legislature (Dec. 1825) the author peti- tioned for the grant of a turnpike incorporation to construct a road from Columbus to Sandusky city, a distance of 104 miles in a direct line. An act was accordingly passed therefor. But whether the requisite funds to make it can be raised is yet (March 1826) somewhat uncer- tain. But its benefits and advantages to above one half the northern and western part of the state are so obvious that the presumption is that it will be made."

When the county was organized in 1826, these were the routes of travel, called high ways, as they went from one point to another over the highest and best ground. The road from the east, from Galion to Bucyrus, was a mail route, with a tri-weekly line of stages in 1826, and yet that road from Galion to Bucy- rus, with its half dozen turns and curves to- day, is an air line in comparison to the way it wandered through the country in its stage coach days, and it was a road in name only. As late as 1834, the father of R. W. Johnston of Galion was a teamster with headquarters at Mansfield. He hauled goods from Philadel- phia or Baltimore to the merchants at Mans- field, the freight charges being from $4 to $5 per hundred pounds. He used one or more six horse teams for the hauling. In February, 1834, he had a consignment of goods for E. B. Merriman at Bucyrus. He had four horses to draw the wagon that delivered the goods. When he started to return the spring thaw had set in and when in the present Beltz neighbor- hood the empty wagon drawn by four horses became so mired that he had to go to the near- est farm house to get teams and men to push, pry and pull the wagon out of the swampy ground in which it was embedded. In 1845, E. B. Monnett, taking four sacks of wheat across one of the Plains roads to the mill at

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Wyandot, found four horses unable to drag the light load over a county road, and additional assistance had to be secured to extricate the wagon. In 1858, on the State Turnpike be- tween Bucyrus and Chatfield, a road built thirty years previous, and built, too, partly by donations from Congress, George Donnenwirth with a light load of beer was mired, com- pelled to shoulder each keg, and carry it across the impassable road, and leave the horses to pull the empty wagon to higher and better ground, reload his beer, and proceed on his way. In 1824, when Aaron Carey was made postmaster at Bucyrus a weekly line of stages was established from Columbus to San- dusky. It gave the passengers exercise during the wet season, as at the worst parts of the road, several miles of which were in Crawford county, the passengers all walked to enable the horses to drag the empty coach over the bad places. One of the necessary articles carried by all coaches was an axe, which was used to cut down saplings, for use as poles with which the driver and passengers would pry the heavy coach out of some chuck-hole in which it was stalled. Frequently, through the plains, the driver left the road, where on the right or left he was able to find better ground. Where the road passed through the swampy ground it was made of corduroy, trunks of trees laid sidewise. Heavy straps were stretched across the in- terior of the stage, to which the unfortunate passenger desperately clung to avoid being thrown from his seat, as the heavy and cum- bersome coach bounced and rocked, and lurched and rolled over this rough roadway. Here is an advertisement of this mail route taken from the Columbus Gazette, of Aug. 28, 1823 :

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History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 16

Author: Hopley, John E. (John Edward), 1850- Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago,Ill., Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1302

Author: Hopley, John E. (John Edward), 1850-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago,Ill., Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1302