History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 22

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 22

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*Circleville.

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veyor, in 1819, did not find a continuous trail, as parts of them were obliterated even then, but he found sufficient markings so that the old Indian trails can be traced with a fair de- gree of accuracy.

The location of these trails are not of spe- cial importance, but it was along them that the first pioneers came to the county; it was also along them that the first roads were laid out, for every Indian trail follows from one place to another over the highest and best ground. These children of nature, with no education, had a trail from the east to the west, and this same trail through Richland, Craw- ford and Wyandot counties, a hundred years later was selected by the engineers as the road bed for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The first made road in the county was the one crudely cut through the woods by the sol- diers in 1812. A map of Ohio, published in 1815, gives this road as leaving Richland county to enter the Indian reservation, which Crawford county then was, north of the pres- ent town of Leesville going a trifle north of west for three miles, then straight west to Up- per Sandusky. When this map was made the entire country west of the Richland county line had never been surveyed, and the map shows that when the designer reached the un- surveyed Indian reservation, he must have taken a ruler and drawn an air line from the western boundary of Richland county to Upper Sandusky. This line would pass along the present northern line of the city of Bucyrus. The map, however, is conclusive proof that the military road did exist through this county, al- though west of Bucyrus, neither to the north nor to the south can any trace be found of a road ever having been cut through the woods wide enough for teams to pass.

On the other hand, Seth Holmes, who piloted Norton here in 1819, was a teamster in the War of 1812, and was with the supply train which went through Crawford county from Mansfield to Harrison's headquarters at Upper Sandusky, and he stated that when he was on his way through this county with that supply train they camped one night near what is now the crossing of the Pennsylvania road and East Mansfield street. The probable camping site was about where the brewery now stands, as at that time the river was then at the base of

the bluff. In 1819 James Nail entered his land about two miles north of Galion and two miles south of Leesville. In his letter in "The Craw- ford County Forum" in 1868, he writes of tak- ing a trip with two neighbors to find where the Indians got their cranberries. He says: "We took our horses and started in a southwesterly direction until we struck the Pennsylvania army road, then followed the route, which we could clearly distinguish. After passing along said route for several miles we thought we were not getting far enough to the north, and, there- fore, turning further north, struck the San- dusky river east of Bucyrus." *

At the river they found Daniel McMichael clearing his land; this land was on the south bank of the Sandusky river, one mile northeast of the eastern boundary of Bucyrus township. H. W. McDonald, who made a thorough sur- vey of the county in the sixties, found several markings of this road in the northern part of Polk township, which is a confirmation of the recollections of Nail. It should also be re- membered that when Norton first arrived in this section he stopped near Galion, and would have entered land there, but Holmes assured him he knew of a much better site a little far- ther on, and it was through the statements of Holmes that Norton and Bucklin left their families and followed Holmes until he piloted them to the site he remembered, which was where Bucyrus now is. The pioneer recollec- tions are that this road must have been through the northern part of Polk township, and to Bucyrus over the high ground between the present Galion road and the Pennsylvania track, crossing the Sandusky near the West Mansfield street bridge, crossing the Pennsyl- vania road near the Oceola road crossing, then northwest, south of the Oceola road, and crossing the Brokensword southwest of Oceola, and then to Upper Sandusky.

Polk township pioneers also report a military road through the southern part of that town- ship, markings of which still remain. This is also probably correct. When Harrison made Upper Sandusky his headquarters in 1812, and built Fort Ferree, many troops assembled there. At one time the entire militia of the State were hurriedly ordered to report at that

* This trip of Nail was in 1820.

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point, and many of the troops from eastern and southeastern Ohio passed through Craw- ford county, some striking the Pennsylvania army road, and others following the Indian trail along the Whetstone, and to Little San- dusky. Many of these so-called military roads were routes taken by these troops responding in a hurry, and traveling on horseback, car- rying their arms and provisions and supplies, and no army train with them. Practically all supplies that were gathered at Upper Sandusky came up the river from the Lake, or by the road Harrison had cut through the woods from Franklinton (Columbus) to Upper San- dusky. General Harrison makes frequent complaints of the difficulties and expense of getting his supplies over this road from Co- lumbus.

After the eastern part of the county was surveyed, in 1807, a number of years passed before bonafide settlers began occupying the land, but by 1818 there was a fair sprinkling of pioneers in the eastern part of the county. They had blazed trails through the woods to their nearest neighbors, but about 1818 the pi- oneers themselves cut down trees, laid the trunks over the worst of the swampy ground, and had a road running from the settlements around Galion through what is now Middle- town, Leesville and West Liberty, and north to the Huron river, by which they could secure an outlet to Huron on Lake Erie. This was the first road in the county. A year or two later the pioneers of Bucyrus, Liberty and Sandusky, to get an outlet to the same market, made a road northeast from Bucyrus, following what is now the Sulphur Springs road, and when near that village, turning east, south of the present road, passing half a mile north of the present village of Tiro, and connecting with that first road built by the early pioneers. An- other early road made by the pioneers was one from Galion to Bucyrus.

The first road in Crawford county of which there is official record was established by the county commissioners at Delaware in 1822, "from the southeast corner of Section 13, now a part of Sandusky township, to Bucyrus; total length nine miles and 276 rods. John Marshall surveyor and Michael Beadle, Joseph Young and David Palmer viewers." This road gave Bucyrus better connection with the road in the

eastern part of the county, and indicates that the important markets at that time were New Haven, Milan and Huron. The same year a state road was authorized from Norton in Delaware county, north through Bucyrus and on to Sandusky, on the Lake. James Kil- bourne was the surveyor. Solomon Smith and Luther Coe the commissioners. Nothing was done with this road until later, when it became the Sandusky Pike.

In 1824 Crawford was transferred from the jurisdiction of Delaware to that of Marion county, and Crawford was given a commis- sioner in the person of E. B. Merriman. On June 8, 1824, a road was established "begin- ning at the east line of Crawford county, at crossing of road leading from Wooster to Upper Sandusky, thence on nearest and best ground to Bucyrus, making Daniel McMi- chael's mill a point on said road." This passed through southern Liberty township north of the river, crossing the Sandusky at the present water works reservoir, McMi- chael's mill being on the south bank of the river, west of the present road. "Nearest and best ground" has given way to straight roads and right angles, so much of this road has been straightened. The viewers to establish this road were Joseph Young and Abel Carey. Another road in 1824 was the present Little Sandusky road with Lewis Carey, Daniel Fickle and Samuel Norton as the viewers. The road from Norton to Portland (San- dusky) was taken up in 1824, and Heman Rowse, Nathaniel Plummer, Benjamin Parcher and John McClure were appointed viewers. The road from Bucyrus to Mansfield was laid out, James Cassaday being the surveyor and Amos Utley, and James Perfect the viewers. The first alteration of a road is recorded in 1824. It was of "a road leading from Friends- borough to Benjamin Sharrock's." They were instructed to "lay it out on old boundary line from Friendsborough until it intersects the State road leading from Mt. Vernon to Upper Sandusky."

In 1825 Zalmon Rowse was Crawford county's commissioner. The first road he intro- duced was what is now the road from Cale- donia to Bucyrus. Another was what later be- came the Mt. Vernon road through Whet- stone township, and near New Winchester it

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was to go through "the long swamp." An- other road was the present Marion road from Marion to Bucyrus.

In 1826 Crawford county was organized, and the early sessions of the commissioners were mainly given to the laying out of new roads and the straightening of old ones. All the records of the commissioners prior to 1831 were destroyed by fire, but the first meeting of which there is any report relates to roads :

"Proceedings of the Commissioners of Crawford County, begun and held in the town of Bucyrus, on the 17th and 18th day of October, 1831.

"Be it resolved, that James McCracken, Esq., is hereby appointed a commissioner (in the room of R. W. Cahill, Esq., resigned), to lay out a certain state road, commencing at the town of Perrysburg in Wood county, thence to Mccutchenville, thence to Bucyrus, in Craw- ford county."

This was the present Oceola road.

As early as 1808 a road had been constructed from Franklinton (Columbus) through Dela- ware to Norton, a town on the border line of Delaware and Marion counties, within two miles of the Greenville treaty line, all north of this line being Indian reservation. In 1820 the two miles to the Greenville treaty line were laid out. On February 4, 1822, the General As- sembly passed an act establishing a State road, "commencing at Norton, in Delaware county, thence to the city of Sandusky" by the nearest and best route, and Hector Kilbourne and Ly- man Farwell were appointed commissioners with instructions to report to the county com- missioners of Delaware county. Previous to this, on June 7, 1821, the Delaware commis- sioners had established a county road from Norton "as far north as the Indian camps on the road leading from Mt. Vernon to Upper Sandusky."

In 1826 an act was passed by the Legislature incorporating the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike Company. The capital stock was $100,000, divided into one thousand shares of $100 each, two of the incorporators being Judge E. B. Merriman and Col. Zalmon Rowse of Bucyrus. The road was to be a "good, se- cure and substantial road of stone, gravel, tim- ber or other material." They were authorized to collect as toll for each ten miles, 25 cents for every four-wheeled carriage or wagon; 183/4 cents for every two-wheeled vehicle; and 61/4 cents for each horse or ox. Each four-

wheeled pleasure carriage drawn by two horses was required to pay 371/2 cents, and 121/2 cents for each horse additional. Every person going to and from religious services on Sabbath, and militiamen going to and from muster grounds, were allowed the use of the road free.

John Kilbourne, in his Ohio Gazetteer of 1826 says of this road: "During the last ses- sion of the Legislature (December, 1825) the author petitioned for the grant of a turnpike incorporation to construct a road from Colum- bus 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 uncertain. But its benefits and ad- vantages to above one-half of the northern and western part of the State, are so obvious that the presumption is that it will be made."

This road was so important, and its pro- moters were so influential, that on March 3, 1827, Congress passed an act granting to the State of Ohio 49 sections of land, amounting to 31,360 acres, "situated along the western side of the Columbus and Sandusky turnpike, in the eastern part of Seneca, Crawford and Marion counties." The considerations for which these lands were granted were that the mail stages and all troops and property of the United States which should ever be moved and transported along this road should pass free from toll. On February 12, 1828, the Ohio Legislature transferred these lands to the turnpike company, which sold them to obtain funds to build the road.

A meeting was held at the schoolhouse in Bucyrus, and stock sold and subscriptions taken to secure funds to build the road. Money was scarce, and the raising of the funds was a dif- ficult task. It was Bucyrus's first attempt to secure a public improvement. Merriman, Rowse and others all spoke strongly of the ad- vantages which would accure to Bucyrus if this road could be built, and Abel Carey, who strongly favored the project, in his remarks lifted the veil which hid the future, when he hopefully predicted, "Why, gentlemen, if we succeed in getting this road, we may yet see a daily line of stages through Bucyrus!" The meeting for the organization of the company was held at Bucyrus and Col. Kilbourne was

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appointed surveyor of the road. The cost was assessed to the different counties, and nearly all the additional meetings were held at Bucyrus, the lively post town being the headquarters of the enthusiastic supporters of the road. If there were any "knockers," pioneer history fails to record their names, but it does record the fact that some of the citizens subscribed and paid for more stock than all their real es- tate would have sold for in cash. The diffi- culty of raising the funds made the road long in building, and it was 1834 before it was finally completed. It will be remembered the charter called for the building of the road of "stone, gravel, timber, or other material." It was built of the latter. The "other material" being the throwing up of earth in the centre of the roadway, and through the low and marshy ground laying trees crosswise, side by side, forming a corduroy foundation. In some places, so deep and swampy was the land that trees were felled and laid across the swamps, and on these were placed the smaller trees crosswise. The cost of the road was about $700 per mile. It was probably the most direct road in Ohio, the distance from Columbus to Sandusky by the road being 106 miles, while an air line is 104. Although the road was not completed until 1834, stages had been running over the old county and state road, along prac- tically the same route, since 1823. In 1827 the first line of stages began running on the new pike.

What this road was is best told by the Rev. Mr. Reid, a Congregational minister who came over from England to visit the American churches. He went from Sandusky to Cincin- nati in 1834. He spent Sunday in Sandusky City, and writes of "the stumps still standing in the main street and over the spots that have been cleared for settlement."

Mr. Reid published his experiences in a little volume entitled "Visit to American Churches," and it is so complete and vivid a description of the Columbus Pike, and what first-class travel- ing was in those early days, the condition of the country and the customs, that his entire trip is given from the Lake to the Ohio :

"Having rested over Sabbath I arranged to leave by coach early in the morning for Colum- bus. I rose, therefore, at two. Soon after I had risen the bar agent came to say that the

coach was ready and would start in ten min- utes. As the rain had made the road bad this was rather an ominous as well as untimely in- timation, so I went down to my place. I had no sooner began to enter the coach than splash went my foot into mud and water. I ex- claimed with surprise. 'Soon be dry, Sir,' was the reply, while he withdrew the light, that I might not explore the cause of complaint. The fact was that the vehicle, like the hotel and the steamboat, was not water-tight, and the rain had found an entrance. There was, indeed, in this coach, as in most others, a provision in the bottom-of holes-to let off both water and dirt, but here the dirt had become mud and thickened about the orifices so as to prevent es- cape. I found I was the only passenger; the morning was damp and chilly; the state of the coach added to the sensation, and I eagerly looked for some means of protection. I drew up the wooden windows-out of five small panes of glass in the sashes three were broken. I endeavored to secure the curtains; two of them had most of the ties broken and flapped in one's face. I could see nothing ; everywhere I could feel the wind drawn in upon me; and as for sounds, I had the call of the driver, the screeching of the wheels, and the song of the bull-frog for my entertainment.

"But the worst of my solitary entertainment was to come. All that had been intimated about bad roads now came upon me. They were not only bad, they were intolerable; they were rather like a stony ditch than a road. The horses, on the first stages could only walk most of the way; we were frequently in up to the axle-tree; and I had no sooner recovered from a terrible plunge on one side, than there came another in the opposite direction. I was liter- ally thrown about like a ball. Let me dismiss the subject of bad roads for this journey by stating, in illustration, that with an empty coach and four horses, we were seven hours in going twenty-three miles; and that we were twenty-eight hours in getting to Columbus, a distance of one hundred and ten miles. Yet this line of conveyance was advertised as a 'splendid line, equal to any in the States.'"

"At six o'clock we arrived at Russell's tav- ern,* where we were to take breakfast. This

*Cook's Corners, Huron county, three miles east of Bellevue ..

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is a nice inn; in good order, very clean, and the best provision. There was an abundant supply, but most of it was prepared with butter and the frying-pan ; still there were good coffee and eggs, and delightful bread. Most of the family and driver sat down at the table, and the daughters of our host waited on us. Mr. Russell, as is commonly the case in such dis- tricts, made the occupation of innkeeper sub- sidiary to that of farming. You commanded the whole of his farm from the door, and it was really a fine picture, the young crops blooming and promising in the midst of the desert.

"From the good manners of the family, and from the good husbandry and respectable car- riage of the father, I hoped to find a regard for religion here. I turned to the rack of the bar and found there three books; they were the Gazetteer of Ohio, Popular Geography and the Bible ; they all denoted intelligence ; the last one the most used.

"Things now began to mend with me; day- light had come; the atmosphere was getting warm and bland. I had the benefit of a good breakfast; the road was in some measure im- proved; it was possible to look abroad, and everything was inviting attention. We were now passing over what is called the Grand Prairie, and the prairies of the western coun- try are conspicuous among its phenomena. The first impression did not please me so much as I expected. It rather interests by its singu- larity than otherwise. If there be any other source of interest it may be found in its ex- pansion over a wide region.

"Land here is worth about two dollars and a half per acre; and you may get a piece of five acres, cleared, and a good eight-railed fence around it for fifty dollars.

"Most of the recent settlers along this road seem to be Germans. We passed a little settle- ment of eight families who had arrived this season. The log-house is the only description of house in these new and scattered settlements. I passed one occupied by a doctor of medicine, and another tenanted by two bachelors, one of them being a judge.

"The most interesting sight to mne was the forest. It now appeared in all its pristine state and grandeur, tall, magnificent, boundless. ] had been somewhat disappointed in not finding vegetation develop itself in larger form in New

England than with us; but there was no place for disappointment here. I shall fail, however, to give you the impression it makes on one. Did it arise from height, from figure, or grouping, it might readily be conveyed to you; but it arises chiefly from combination. You must see it in all the stages of growth, decay, dissolution and regeneration; you must see it pressing on you and overshadowing you by its silent forms, and at other times spreading it- self before you like a natural park; you must see that all the clearances made by the human hand bear no higher relations to it than does a mountain to the globe; you must travel in it in solitariness, hour after hour, and day after day, frequently gazing on it with solemn de- light, and occasionally casting the eye round in search of some pause, some end, without find- ing any, before you can fully understand the impression. Men say there is nothing in America to give you the sense of antiquity, and they mean that, as there are no works of art to produce this effect, there can be noth- ing else. You cannot think that I would de- preciate what they mean to extol; but I hope you will sympathize with me when I say that I have met with nothing among the most ven- erable forms of art which impresses you so thoroughly with the idea of infinite distance and countless continuity of antiquity shrouded in all its mystery of solitude, illimitable and eternal.

"The clearances, too, which appeared on this road were on so small a scale as to strengthen this impression, and to convey a distinct im- pression of their own. On them the vast trees of the forest had been girdled to prevent the foliage from appearing to overshadow the ground; and the land at their feet was grubbed and sown with corn; which was expanding on the surface in all its luxuriance. The stems of the Indian corn were strangely contrasted with the large trunks of the pine and oak, and the verdant surface below was as strangely op- posed to the skeleton trees towering above, spreading out their leafless arms to the warm sun and the refreshing rains, and doing it in vain. Life and desolation were never brought closer together.

"About noon we arrived at a little town* and stopped at an inn, which was announced as *Bucyrus.

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the dining-place. My very early breakfast, and my violent exercise, had not indisposed me for dinner. The dinner was a very poor affair. The chief dish was ham fried in butter-orig- inally lard, and the harder for frying. I tried to get my teeth through it, and failed. There remained bread, cheese, and cranberries, and of these I made my repast. While here, a Ger- man woman, one of the recent settlers, passed by on her way home. Her husband had taken the fever and died. She had come to buy a coffin for him, and other articles of domestic use at the same time. She was now walking home beside the man who bore the coffin, and with her other purchases under her arm. This was a sad specimen either of German phlegm or of the hardening effect of poverty.

"Here, also, was a set of Mormonites pass- ing through to the 'Far West.' They are among the most deluded fanatics.

"We now took in three passengers, who were going on to Marion. One was a colonel, though in mind, manners and appearance among the plainest of men; another was a lawyer and magistrate; the third was a con- siderable farmer.

"All of them, by their station and avocation, ought to have been gentlemen; but if just terms are to be applied to them, they must be the opposite of this. To me they were always civil; but among themselves they were evi- dently accustomed to blasphemous and corrupt conversation. The colonel, who had admitted himself to be a Methodist, was the best, and sought to impose restraints on himself and companions ; but he gained very little credit for them. I was grieved and disappointed, for I had met with nothing so bad. What I had witnessed at Sandusky was from a different and lower class of persons; but here were the first three men in respectable life with whom I had met in this State; and these put promiscu- ously before me-and all bad. It was neces- sary to guard against a hasty and prejudiced conclusion.

"On reaching Marion I was released from my unpleasant companions. I had to travel through most of the night; but no refresh- ments were provided. I joined in a meal that was nearly closed by another party, and pre- pared to go forward at the call of the driver. I soon found I was to be in different circum-

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History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 22

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