History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 21

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 21


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).


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1871-Charles Myers, James Hufty, J. J. Bauer.


1872-Charles Myers, James Hufty, J. J. Bauer.


1873-Charles Myers, James Hufty, J. J. Bauer.


1874-Charles Myers, James Hufty, J. J. Bauer.


1875-Charles Myers, Charles Keplinger, J. J. Bauer.


1876-Lysander Waller, Charles Keplinger, J. J. Bauer.


1877-Lysander Waller, Charles Keplinger, John Neuman.


1878-Lysander Waller, Charles Keplinger, John Neuman.


1879-Lysander Waller, Charles Keplinger, John Neuman.


1880-Lysander Waller, Charles Keplinger, John Neuman.


1881-Lysander Waller, Jacob Burkley, John Neuman.


1882-John Richardson, Jacob Burkley, Charles Keplinger .*


1883-John Richardson, Jacob Burkley, Peter Bauer. 1884-John Richardson, Jacob Burkley, Peter Bauer.


1885-John


Richardson, Jacob Burkley, Peter Bauer. 1886-John Richardson, Jacob Burkley, Peter Bauer. 1887-John Peter Bauer.


Richardson, Henry Dapper,


1888-John Parcher, Henry Dapper, Peter Bauer.


1889-John Parcher, Henry Dapper, Lewis Gearhart.


* Keplinger appointed to succeed Neuman, de- ceased.


1890-John Parcher, Henry Dapper, Lewis Gearhart.


1891-John Parcher, Henry Dapper, Lewis Gearhart. 1892-John Parcher, Henry Drapper, Lewis Gearhart.


1893-John Parcher, Christian F. Kiess, Lewis Gearhart.


1894-L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Lewis Gearhart.


1895-L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Albe Moe.


1896-L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Albe Moe.


1897-L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Albe Moe.


1898-L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Albe Moe.


1899-L. H. Battefeld, Samuel Easterday, Albe Moe.


1900-Henry N. Oberlander, Samuel


Easterday, Albe Moe.


1901-Henry N. Oberlander, Samuel


Easterday, J. H. Petri.


1902-Henry N. Oberlander, Samuel Easterday, J. H. Petri.


1903-Henry N. Oberlander, Samuel


Easterday, J. H. Petri. 1904-Henry N. Easterday, J. H. Petri.


Oberlander, Samuel


1905-Henry N. Oberlander, Frank P. Dick, J. H. Petri.


1906-Hugh M. Dobbins, Frank P. Dick, J. H. Petri.


1908-Hugh M. Dobbins, Frank P. Dick, Henry E. Bormuth.


1910-Fred Leonhart, A. A. Crawford, Henry E. Bormuth.


INFIRMARY DIRECTORS


1868-Jarvice Jump, John Alloback, John A. Klink.


1869-Jarvice Jump, John Alloback, John A. Klink.


1870-Jarvice Jump, John Alloback, John A. Klink.


1871-Jarvice Jump, John Alloback, John A. Klink.


1872-Jacob Easterday, John Alloback, John A. Klink.


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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


1873-Jacob Easterday, Samuel Rorick, John A. Klink.


1874-Jacob Easterday, Samuel Rorick, Frederick G. Linser .*


1875-John Miller, Samuel Rorick, Joseph Meer.


1876-John Miller, Samuel Rorick, Joseph Meer.


1877-John Miller, Samuel Rorick, Joseph Meer.


1878-John Miller, Samuel Rorick, Joseph Meer.


1879-John Miller, Samuel Dise, Joseph Meer.


1880-John Miller, Samuel Dise, Joseph Meer.


1881-Christopher F. Kiess, Samuel Dise, Joseph Meer.


1882-Christopher F. Kiess, Samuel Dise, Joseph Meer.


1883-Christopher F. Kiess, Samuel Dise, Albert Sheibly.


1884-Christopher F. Kiess, Samuel Dise, Albert Sheibly.


1885-Christopher F. Kiess, William Zim- merman, Albert Sheibly.


1886-Christopher F. Kiess, William Zim- merman, Albert Sheibly.


1887-Benjamin Sherer, William Zimmer- man, Albert Sheibly.


1888-Benjamin Sherer, William Zimmer- man, Albert Sheibly.


1889-Benjamin Sherer, William Zimmer- man, C. F. Meck.


1890-Benjamin Sherer, William Zimmer- man, C. F. Meck.


*Frederick Linser died in office, and Joseph Meer was elected to fill the vacancy.


1891-Benjamin Sherer, David Hurr, C. F. Meck.


1892-Benjamin Sherer, David Hurr, C. F. Meck.


1893-Adam Fike, David Hurr,. C. F. Meck.


1894-Adam Fike, David Hurr, C. F. Meck.


1895-Adam Fike, David Hurr, Philip Fabian.


1896-Adam Fike, David Hurr, Philip Fabian.


1897-Adam Fike, J. K. Zerbe, Philip Fabian.


1898-Adam Fike, J. K. Zerbe, Philip Fabian.


1899 -- John Meyer, J. K. Zerbe, Philip Fabian.


1900-John Meyer, J. K. Zerbe, Philip Fabian.


1901-John Meyer, J. K. Zerbe, Emanuel Heinlen.


1902-S. W. Nungesser, J. K. Zerbe, Emanuel Heinlen.


1903-S. W. Nungesser, Henry Beibig- hauser, Emanuel Heinlen.


1904-S. W. Nungesser, Henry Beibig- hauser, Emanuel Heinlen.


1905-Charles Meyer, Henry Beibighauser, Emanuel Heinlen.


1906-Charles Meyer, Henry Beibighauser, Emanuel Heinlen.


1908-Charles Meyer, Isaac Laughbaum, A. M. Vore.


1910 Charles Meyer, t Isaac Laughbaum, A. M. Vore.


tIn 1912 John Meyer was appointed to succeed his brother Charles, who resigned on account of ill health, and died soon after his resignation.


After this year the Board of Infirmary Directors is abolished, their business being transferred to the County Commissioners.


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CHAPTER VII


TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES


Indian Trails and Water Routes-Swamps-Portages-Indian Village of Seccaium-Route Fol- lowed by Gen. Bradstreet-Capt. James Smith's Travels; His Description of Water Routes and Portages-The First Road in Crawford County-Geographical Notes by Seth Holmes and James Nail-Military Roads-Blazed Trails-"Corduroy" or Log Roads- The State Road or Sandusky Pike-Zalm on Rowse's Work as Commissioner-Proceed- ings of Other Commissioners-Columbus & Sandusky Turnpike Co .- Rate of Toll- Transportation of Mail-Activity of Col. Kilbourne-Cost of the Sandusky Pike-Rev. Mr. Reid's Description of this Road-Its Commercial Use and Value-Difficulties of Spring Travel-Litigation-Stage Lines-Bill of Cost of the Old Portland Road-First Attempt at Improved Roads-Vote by Townships-Railroads; Early Plans and Charters -The Railroads of the County; Their Origin, Construction and Cost-Railroad Excur- sion to Bucyrus in 1853-The "John Bull" Locomotive Passes Through Bucyrus, 1893- Electric Roads-Amount of Trackage in Crawford County, with Values, by Townships.


Singing through the forests, Rattling over ridges ; Shooting under arches, Rumbling over bridges; Whizzing through the mountains, Buzzing o'er the vale,- Bless me! this is pleasant, Riding on the rail! -JOHN G SAXE.


One of the first difficulties with which the pioneer settlers had to contend was the lack of roads. But even before the first white man passed through this region, what is now Craw- ford county had been an important highway for travel; and along its streams, and through its forests, and across its plains, were the well used routes or trails of the Indians. In Craw- ford county are streams that run north to the lake and south to the Ohio. Southwest of Bucyrus, the Sandusky and the Little Scioto rivers, both flowing in a southwesterly direc- tion, are only from two to three miles apart, and when they leave the county the former bends to the north, and proceeds on its way to Lake Erie, its waters passing over Niagara, and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic, while the latter joins the Scioto proper, and continues on its way through the Ohio and Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. In the southeastern part of the county is the Whet- 8


stone, which also joins the Scioto and contin- ues its flow to the Gulf. Between the San- dusky and the Little Scioto and the Whet- stone, in the townships of Dallas, Bucyrus, Whetstone, Jefferson, Polk and Jackson, are houses and barns on this watershed where the waters from one side of the roof find their way to the Atlantic, and on the other to the Gulf of Mexico. Even as today Crawford county is one of the great railroad centres, so in the years long gone this section was one of the great centers of travel. Not alone by land, but by water, for many a stream in this county, now nothing more than a county ditch or a city sewer, was in use by the early sav- ages as a route for transportation and for travel. Along the Sandusky river in Dallas, Bucyrus, Liberty and Sandusky townships, were mills run by water-power over 80 years ago, and along the Whetstone, both above as well as below Galion, that little stream was lined by four mills; along the Honey Creek and Cokyendall run in Auburn were mills; the Brokensword and the Sycamore had suffi- cient water to furnish the power for the run- ning of mills. Where Adrian had his mill on the bank of the Whetstone above Galion, the stream now only needs a small culvert for its


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143


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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


passage under the railroad track. At Crest- line, Judge Daniel Babst, whose father settled there in 1852, remembers, when a boy, Elisha Allen, who lived near Leesville, coming to the village on one of the branches of the San- dusky in a canoe to do his marketing, return- ing home in the evening. At Bucyrus, when Abraham Hahn, in 1838, built his mill-race to run his saw-mill, that mill was located on the lot now occupied by Edwin G. Beal, at the northwest corner of Warren and Poplar streets. At the rear of the lot was the little stream on which the mill was located, and now all that remains of this stream on which a mill once stood, is a covered sewer. In the old Indian days the Little Scioto had suffi- cient water for canoes as far up as Dallas and probably as far as the southern part of Bucyrus township. The Whetstone was a nav- igable stream for small boats, and in the region of Seccaium Park little streams en- tered into it from the north, which had their rise in swamps, and from these same swamps other little streams flowed to the north and emptied into the Sandusky.


Along these creeks the land was all so low and swampy that for years it was not con- sidered by the first settlers in their entries of land. In the map of the county published in 1860, in the eastern half of section 14 in Whetstone township, one of these swamps was so pronounced as to be marked on the map as a small lake. Hon. S. R. Harris stated that when he came here in 1849, and for years afterward, in his hunting expeditions he found enough water in. the spring of the year cover- ing this region to enable one to cross from the Whetstone to the Sandusky by water. In 1777 a pamphlet was published in French by Joel Barlow, describing the Northwest Territory. In that pamphlet he says: "The Scioto river furnishes a navigation much more consider- able than that of the Hocking and the Musk- ingum. For an extent of 200 miles large ves- sels can navigate it. Then there is a passage to be made by land of four miles only to the Sandusky, a river also easily navigable, which empties into Lake Erie. This route is one of the most considerable and most frequented found in any country." John Henry James translated this work into English, and in his notes he says :


"The statement as to the Scioto being nav- igable for large vessels for two hundred miles above its mouth, and its navigable head waters being within four miles of those of the San- dusky, appears so extravagant as to be at- tributable either to gross ignorance of the coun- try or a deliberate purpose to deceive. We are satisfied there was no intention to deceive on the part of the author, though he had very imperfect knowledge of the country. And yet this and other waterways and portages were regarded as of such importance at the time as to warrant the insertion in the Ordinance of 1787 of the provision: "The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and the St. Law- rence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and forever free as well to the inhabitants of the said ter- ritory as to the citizens of the United States and those of any other States that may be ad- mitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor."


These water routes and portages connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi were first discovered (leaving the Indians out of consid- eration) by the early French explorers and were used by their missionaries, soldiers and traders. Marquette's route was up the St. Lawrence, through Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron to Lake Michigan, then up the Fox river, with a portage across to the Wisconsin river and down that to the Mississippi. This was afterward shortened by leaving Lake Michigan at Chicago, then up the Chicago river, portage across to the Illinois and down that river to the Mississippi. The next short- ening was up the Maumee at Toledo, by port- age to the Wabash and down that river to the Ohio.


Who made the first trip between the San- dusky and the Scioto it is impossible to say. In 1670 La Salle went up the St. Lawrence to Lake Erie, went up some stream, portaged across to another, and down this stream, dis- covering the Ohio river. It is almost certain that this first trip of La Salle-when he dis- covered the Ohio-was across to the head- waters of the Alleghany and down that river to the Ohio at Pittsburg, which river he followed to Louisville. For twenty years La Salle de- voted his entire time to explorations of the Northwest territory, as it was the desire of the


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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS


French to discover the best and shortest water route from the Lakes to the Mississippi. There were several portages in Ohio, the principal ones being from the Sandusky to the headwa- ters of the Scioto and from the Cuyahoga to the headwaters of the Muskingum, and it is probable that in one of his trips La Salle came up the Sandusky river, crossed by portage to the Scioto, and down that river to the Ohio, which would mean that the first known white man to set foot on Crawford county soil was Rene Robert Cavalier, the Sieur de la Salle, between 1670 and 1680.


Hon. E. B. Finley, who made considerable research in order to locate an ancient Indian village called Seccaium, gives the following on this subject in an address by him at the ded- ication of the monument that marks the site of the Battle of the Olentangy, five miles south- east of Bucyrus on the Galion road :


"In addition to this beautiful monument marking the battlefield of June 6, 1782, where the retreating army of Crawford battled with the British and Indian forces, it also marks the almost forgotten site of a village renowned in the traditions and legends of a departed race. Within a few rods from this spot once stood the village of Seccaium, celebrated in ancient legends and song as one of the famous places of Indian history. For hundreds and hun- dreds of years, before the white man set foot on this continent, the Sandusky, Olentangy and Scioto rivers formed a great water thor- oughfare, over which Indian commerce was carried to and fro between the north and south. Over this route Indian war parties from the Lake regions swept down upon their enemies in the south, and over this same route ofttimes came the wild Catawbas, Natches, and other southern tribes, in fierce retaliation. From the time when the French first occupied Canada until the opening up and settlement of the United States, this same route continued to be the thoroughfare of traffic and travel, not only by the Indians but by the French traders. Coming anywhere from Canada or the north or northwest, the canoe of the Indian or trader entering the mouth of the Sandusky river was paddled up the waters until arriving at the bend northeast from this point, the canoemen transported their boats and goods from thence across this point to yonder bend of the


Olentangy (or Whetstone as it is now called), and then launching their light craft in the Olentangy, paddled down to the Scioto, enter- ing which they traveled down to the Ohio, and into the Mississippi, being thus enabled to travel by water from the great lake of the north to the Gulf of Mexico, with a land portage across the point near where we now stand of only about four miles. Near the landing place on the Olentangy, within a few rods of this monument, stood the once great village of Seccaium, famous for centuries as the great mart of Indian commerce; it was the common ground where all the tribes of the north and the south met and exchanged their peltries and wares. Here it was that the great treaties, con- claves and powwows of the Indian nations were held. When it first was built no one knows. It was visited by white men as early as 1650, and at that day even Indian tradition could not give the age.


"A Frenchman, who passed over this route in 1750, thus writes of it: 'The Scioto is almost as wide as the Ohio, and runs through fertile bottoms or plains, which commence a few miles above the river Huskinkas, and extend almost to Seccaium. The Olentangy is navigable for boats as far as the famous village of Seccaium. It is at this village that the great portage to the Sandusky river begins, which is but four miles.' The village stood here in 1669 when it was visited by Robert Cavalier, Soeur de la Salle, the famous discoverer of the mouth of the Mississippi, and all the west territory bor- dering upon that river. La Salle, in com- pany with Dollier de Casson and Galinee, and his Indian guides and companions, passed by water from Montreal to the mouth of the Sandusky river, thence up the Sandusky and over the portage to this point, where he visited the famous village of Seccaium, remaining several days; thence passing down the Olen- tangy and the Scioto to the Ohio, where at the mouth of the Scioto he planted copper plates bearing the image of the King of France, and then formally took possession of all the coun- try in the name of his King. From the mouth of the Scioto he traveled down the Ohio to the Falls of the Ohio, where Louisville now stands, there planting other copper plates, and likewise taking possession of the country in the name of the King of France."


146


HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


It is certain the Sandusky-Scioto portage was an important one and much traveled, as the French erected a fort and established a trading-post on the Ohio just below the mouth of the Scioto in 1740. Along the Lakes the Wyandots were the allies of the French, yet in view of the anticipated coming struggle be- tween France and England for the Northwest Territory, the French in 1750 erected a fort on the west bank of the Sandusky to guard its mouth, and in 1754 about six miles up the river erected Fort Junandat on the east bank. This guarding of the mouths of both rivers shows conclusively it was the principal route from the Lake to the Ohio. They built no fort at the mouth of the Cuyahoga or the Mus- kingum. It was the only fort-guarded route in Ohio between the lake and the river.


The location of the old Indian town of Sec- caium is placed by Mr. Finley on the banks of the Whetstone, southwest of what is now Sec- caium Park, believed to be at this point from the fact that besides arrow-heads found there in large numbers, the ground was at one time covered with chipped flint covering over an acre. It was a flint stone found nowhere in this region, and such was the profusion of the chippings of flint that they could only have been caused by the manufacture of arrow- heads there on a very large scale. But the town there must certainly have been abandoned or destroyed more than two centuries ago. There could have been no Indian village there during the Revolutionary war, as when Craw- ford's expedition passed within a mile of this site in 1782 neither Stover nor Zane, Craw- ford's guides, gave any intimation of any such village and both had been through this section many years previous.


In 1764, Gen. Bradstreet, "after raising the siege at Detroit, and dispersing the Indians, sailed across Lake Erie and into Sandusky Bay and up the Sandusky river as far as it was nav- igable for Indian canoes," there established himself and demanded a council with the In- dian chiefs, who had offered but little opposi- tion to his progress. The council was held, and the Wyandots, with their subordinate de- pendents entered into a treaty of peace. This council was probably at the Wyandot village that then existed on the Sandusky, three miles


southeast of the present town of Upper San- dusky.


Col. James Smith, when a young man, was a captive among the Indians from 1755 to 1759, and traversed this region, and from his interesting account of his experiences valuable information is learned as to the location of this portage. With his adopted Indian brother, Tontileaugo, he had been hunting in what is now Ottawa county, and they decided to go up the Sandusky to the prairies on a hunting expedition. In his narrative, Smith says: "When we came to the falls of the Sandusky, we buried our birch bark canoes as usual, at a large burying place for that purpose, a little below the falls. At this place the river falls about eight feet over a rock, but not perpen- dicular. With much difficulty we pushed up our wooden canoes, some of us went up the river, and the rest by land with the horses, un- til we came to the great meadows or prairies that lie between Sandusky and Scioto." Here they had what was known as a ring hunt, setting fire to the grass in a large circle, thus driving the game to a common centre, where it was easily killed. They fired the grass when the sky had every appearance of rain, but the expected rain failed to fall, so the fire spread, and "extended through the whole prairie, which was about fifty miles in length and in some places near twenty in breadth."


He then says: "We then moved from the north end of the glades and encamped at the carrying place. This place is in the plains be- twixt a creek that empties into Sandusky, and one that runs into Scioto; and at the time of high water, or in the spring season, there is but about one-half mile of portage, and that very level, and clear of rocks, timber or stones; so that with a little digging there may be water carriage the whole way from Scioto to Lake Erie."


The general opinion is that this portage or carrying place was at least sixteen miles south- west of Bucyrus in Marion county, and was be- tween the Little Sandusky and the Little Sci- oto, the latter stream having its start near Bucyrus. However, William M. Darlington, of Pittsburg, who edited Smith's narrative, and made the most thorough research possible, has a number of notes and among them the following :


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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS


(1) " 'By the Sandusky, Scioto and Ohio rivers lay the route of the Indians of Detroit and Lake Huron when going to war with the Catawabas and other southern tribes. "They ascend the Sandusquet river two or three days, after which they make a small portage, a fine road of about a quarter of a league. Some make canoes of elm bark and float down a small river (the Scioto) that empties into the Ohio."-Memoir of Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, to the Council of Marine, from Que- bec, Oct. 30, 1718. Paris Documents, New York Col. Hist., vol. ix, page 168; Pownall's Top. Disc. of North America, page 42 and map.' "


(2) " 'Through these rivers lies the most common pass from Canada to the Ohio and Mississippi."-Morse's Am. Gazetteer of 1798, page 497; Kilbourne's Ohio Gazetteer for 1817, page 60; Carey's Atlas for 1812."


(3) " 'This once important portage ex- tended from the site of Garrett's mill, near the village of Wyandot, on the Sandusky river, in Wyandot county, thence south, about four miles, on a ridge, through part of Dallas town- ship in Crawford county, to the north branch of the Little Scioto, near Swinnerton, on the Old Fort Ball and Columbus Road, in Grand Prairie township, Marion county. The length of the portage varied according to the stage of the water. It was known as the Four Mile Cross. In high water the north branch of the Little Scioto could be navigated by canoes to a point about a mile distant from Garrett's mill, on the Sandusky. A cut has been made through the ridge about half a mile east from the village of Wyandot, by which the waters of both streams are united." (Notes to the writer from S. R. Harris, Esq., of Bucyrus, and Wm. Brown, Esq., of Springfield.) Mr. Brown set- tled near Wyandot in 1826, and surveyed the Wyandot Indian Reservation for the U. S. Government.' "


Besides these water routes the Indians had trails crossing the county in many directions. The main trail from the Lake to the Ohio river passed through Crawford county. Hul- bert, in his "Red Men's Roads," calls it the "Scioto trail," also the "Sandusky and Rich- mond Trail." It started on the Sandusky bay, going almost due south to Delaware, then keeping within a few miles of the Scioto until


it reached the Ohio below Portsmouth. Hul- bert refers to this route as "one of the greatest war paths in the west, leading southward into Warrior's Path, to land of the Cherokees and Catawbas." This trail had a branch at Lower Shawnee town,* that crossed the present coun- ties of Hocking, Vinton and Meigs to the Ohio river, and then up the Kanawha to Richmond, Va. Of this trail Hulbert says: "Important fur route between Virginia and the Lake coun- try; also most direct route to Central Ohio from southern seaboard colonies." This trail which passed through Crawford, and the "Great Trail" were the main thoroughfares of the Indians. The "Great Trail" was from Pittsburg to Detroit; it did not pass through Crawford, but through Richland and Huron counties. Just east of Crawford county a branch of this trail bore to the west to the old Indian town of Upper Sandusky, three miles southwest of the present Upper Sandusky, crossing the Sandusky river near Bucyrus; another branch was through Crestline and Galion, across Bucyrus township, and follow- ing east of the river to Little Sandusky. An- other important trail was the route from the Tuscarawas Moravian villages to the Indian village near Upper Sandusky. It entered the county near the southeastern corner of Whet- stone township, bore northwesterly through Whetstone and Bucyrus townships, and crossed the Sandusky south of the Mt. Zion church. This was the route taken by the Mo- ravian Indian in 1781 and 1782. There were important Indian villages near Greentown and what is now Jeromeville in Ashland county. Trails connected both these Indian villages with the various Indian villages on the San- dusky. One of these trails, crossing Jackson, Jefferson, Whetstone, Bucyrus and Dallas was probably the route followed through this county by the army of Col. Crawford in 1782, both going and returning. There were many minor trails in this county, used by the In- dians in going to and from their various camps and hunting grounds; especially is this true of several trails to the cranberry marshes in Chatfield and Cranberry townships. Traces of these trails are shown by the surveyor's notes of nearly a hundred years ago. The sur-




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