History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 29

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 29

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In April, 1887, J. D. Michener, while dig- ging a ditch for Herbert Duboise on the old Green farm in the southeastern part of the township found a number of bones of some pre-historic animal, one part of a tooth 63/4 by 4 inches in length and 20 inches in circum- ference. It weighed 2 pounds 10 ounces. Several smaller teeth were found weighing about a pound. All other bones except these teeth had long since mouldered to decay.

About two miles northeast of Tiro is the Hanna grave yard, and as far as pioneer lore is concerned this little country grave yard goes back to the earliest days, and contains more pioneers than any other burial site in the county. The oldest stone here is that of John Snyder, who died Dec. I, 1821. He was born in 1764. Daniel Daugherty is buried here; born April 23. 1776. the year and the month "the shot was fired heard round the world." He died Nov. 26. 1876, over a hundred years old. Here lies Seth Hawks. the pious Pres- byterian, who forgot the Sabbath day. He was born July 2. 1793, fought in the War of 1812, and died July 20, 1824. Another vet- eran of the War of 1812 was Rudolphus Morse, born April 26, 1791, and died Oct. II, 1872. Here lies also Andrew Varnica, the hermit, born in Prussia, Jan. 24, 1768, lead-

ing his lonely life until March 23, 1847, when he passed into the presence of his maker carry- ing his secret with him. Here are other graves of those in this one burial spot who belong to the days of over a century ago:

Jonathan Ashley, born Aug. 9, 1775; died Nov. 3, 1852.

Jonas Ashley, born Nov. 26, 1797; died Sept. 26, 1862.

P. J. Archer, born Feb. 2, 1790; died April 24, 1845.

Adam Aumend, born Nov. 12, 1799; died June 30, 1882.

John Blair, born 1777; died Sept. 19, 1847.

George Bloom, born March 30, 1791; died July 9, 1865.

John Burchard, born March 1790; died June 5, 1881.

Joseph Champion, born Aug. 9, 1781 ; died June 8, 1845.

David Cummings, born Feb. 27, 1772; died Dec. 27, 1855.

David Cummings, born May 4, 1781 ; died Aug. 17, 1841.

Joshua Chilcott, born April 3, 1761 ; died. July 3, 1837.

Benjamin Chilcott, born April 5, 1799; died Aug. 30, 1824.

Tiwecke Dewitt, born 1790; died Sept. 22,. 1823.

John Frazee, born Jan. 27, 1770; died Dec. I, 1859.

John Frazee, born July 25, 1799; died Dec. 4, 1862.

William Green, born Nov. 8, 1778; died' April 21, 1862.

Benjamin Griffith, born Aug. 16, 1782; died Feb. 9, 1849.

George Hammond, born May 20, 1789; died Dec. 30, 1868.

Aaron B. Howe, born Feb. 3, 1782; died April 20, 1853.

Samuel Harley, born Sept. 24, 1776; died Aug. 6, 1841.

Samuel Hanna, born Sept. 2, 1795; died June 2, 1862.

Harvey Hoadley, born Feb. 9, 1798; died June 17, 1897.

William Jameson, born Aug. 21, 1779; died® Aug. 26. 1846.

Isaac Hilborn, born July 20, 1799; died April 30, 1864.

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Frederick Myers, born 1768; died June 20, 1843.

James McCrea, born Feb. 14, 1773; died Dec. 31, 1850.

John L. Metcalf, born March 7, 1775; died June 19, 1871.

Charles Morrow, born Jan. 1, 1777; died Dec. 4, 1845.

Thomas Pope, born June 1, 1782 ; died Feb. 22, 1849.

Abel C. Ross, born May 8, 1800; died July 12, 1870.

Robert Ralston, born April 26, 1768; died Oct. 26, 1854.

James Ralston, born Jan. 1, 1799; died Sept. 1, 1888.

Robert Robinson, born 1783; died May 14, 1853

Erastus Sawyer, born Oct. 10, 1800; died July 12, 1870.

Daniel Trago, born May 5, 1796; died Jan. 3, 1876.

Peter Vanorsdoll, born 1790; died Dec. 14, 1834.

John Wilson, born March 31, 1799; died May 10, 1861.

Joseph William, born July 17, 1765; died Dec. 27, 1836.

The Handley grave yard is one mile north- west of Tiro; here the first interment was William Handley who was born in 1791, and died Aug. 24, 1848. Another pioneer is An- drew McCaskey, born March 17, 1791; died Sept. 17, 1867.

Other cemeteries are at the Good Will church; another on the farm now owned by August Herzer, one mile east of Waynesburg, and the Baptist cemetery near the Howe farm.

CHAPTER IX

BUCYRUS TOWNSHIP

Creation of the Township-Location and Topography-Drainage-First Settlers-In- dian Sugar Camp-Early Mills-The Nortons-Zalmon Rowse-Colored Pioneers-Or- ganization and Election in 1824-Josiah Scott-A Township Treasurer's Responsibili- ties-Some Early Officials-Churches and Schools-A Traveling Schoolhouse-Miss Monnett's Donation-Early Taverns-Farming Operations-Indian Trails-Roads-An Ancient Sword-Cemeteries.

First Norton and the Beadles came, With friends (an enterprising band), Young and McMichael, men of fame, Soon joined the others, hand in hand ; By various plans t' improve the lands, They early rise with every morn, Near where the town Bucyrus stands, All on Sandusky's rural bourn. -COL. KILBOURNE'S SONG OF BUCYRUS.

Bucyrus township was named after the town of Bucyrus, the town being named between Oct. Ist and Dec. 15, 1821. It was created by the commissioners at Delaware in 1822, and consisted of territory 12 miles wide ex- tending from the southern boundary of the present Bucyrus township to the present northern boundary of the county, the present Bucyrus, Holmes, Lykens, Chatfield, Liberty and part of Cranberry and Whetstone town- ships by surveyor's maps, township 1, 2 and 3, range 16, east, and township 1, 2 and 3, range 17 east. Later the commissioners of Delaware county created the township of Bucyrus as it at present exists, and on Dec. 7, 1824, the journal of the Marion county commissioners contains the following entry : "On application of citizens of surveyed fractional township three of range 16 an order was issued to or- ganize the original fractional township 3 of range 16." While six miles square the town- ship was called fractional as the western two and a third miles of the township was Indian reservation. Bucyrus township was then in the southeastern part of the county and when

the charter was granted for the Columbus and Sandusky turnpike, the Legislature gave the company 31,360 acres of land, 49 sections, "along the western side of the Columbus and Sandusky turnpike, in the eastern part of Crawford, Marion and Seneca counties."

Before Bucyrus township was formed it was a part of Sandusky township, perhaps all of the present Crawford being that township, as on April 15, 1821, the Delaware commission- ers appointed Joseph Young and Westell Ridgely as justices of the peace for Sandusky township. Young then lived near Bucyrus and Ridgely near Leesville, neither place being then in existence. These were the officials in Craw- ford county.

South of Bucyrus and east of the present Little Sandusky road the country was the San- dusky Plains, named by the Indians after the river. From the river north, the entire north- western part of the township was forest. The township was well watered. The Sandusky river entering in the northeast quarter section of the township, and running southwesterly leaves the township two miles from the south- west corner. Small streams on both sides empty into this river. A mile and a half south of the Sandusky, the Little Scioto starts south- westerly through the township, entering Dal- las township a mile and a half east of the western boundary of the township. This little stream has half a dozen smaller tributaries on both sides. In the northwestern part, Grass

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Run with several branches covers that section, while in the southwest little streams go south- ward to the Whetstone. The extensive plains in the southern part of the county were nearly all swamp, and most of the year in the early day under water. In the summer season in the ages past, the land was covered with a tall coarse grass, as high as five and six feet; each fall this decayed and in years following pro- duced a rich, soft soil, so that the snows of winter and the rains of summer kept the sec- tion covered with marshes. While the land was almost level, there was occasionally some slightly rising ground, on which trees grew, small groves which were called "islands." The formation of the soil from its decaying vegetation made it some of the richest farm- ing land in the county, yet its swampy condi- tion, and the absence of trees for building cab- ins and for fuel in winter made it a section which few of the early settlers desired to oc- cupy, and as a result they preferred the wood- land, with the labor of clearing the forest, and making their farms by the slow process of cutting down the trees, rather than the swampy land nature had already cleared. Also, the marshy land was unhealthy, and ague was frequent with the few early settlers who risked a location in this spot. Some who came braved it through; others, after a short trial, abandoned their land, and took up claims elsewhere; still others, too poor to move, had to remain, stand their siege of fever and ague yearly, and start graveyards for their unfor- tunate little ones. This was the Sandusky Plains, today spoken of and written of all over the state as the finest and most fertile section in Ohio.

The locations of the Sandusky and Scioto rivers as they traverse the township in the same southwesterly direction two miles apart, produce the interesting fact that between these streams are many buildings from which the water falling from the roofs, flow on the one side into the Sandusky and Lake Erie and to the Atlantic, and on the other into the Scioto, and through the Ohio and Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. The most noted of these buildings was the large barn built by Col. Wm. Monnett in the southeastern part of the pres- ent city of Bucyrus. It was on a knoll, sev- eral hundred feet southwest of the house, in

his pasture field. An Indian trail once passed over this knoll, following along the higher ground through Bucyrus, and to Upper San- dusky, and near the barn a generation ago was to be seen an old Indian well, a hollow syca- more several feet in the earth where lizards made their home in the stagnant water; and men who are grandfathers now, remember their speculations as to the old well and as to who planted the wild cherry tree that shared with the barn and the well a position on the knoll.

The first settlers in Bucyrus township were Samuel Norton, with a party of eighteen. They were the first arrivals in what became Crawford county in 1820. Crawford county had not yet been created, the land known as the New Purchase, being the land purchased of the Indians by the treaty of 1817. Later in the spring of 1819 they left their home in Luzerne (now Susquehanna) county, the ex- treme northeastern county of Pennsylvania, and in a big "schooner" wagon, with its curved canvas top, traveled through the en- tire length of Northern Pennsylvania, then half through Ohio, to near Galion, on the border of the New Purchase, where Norton had determined to locate. Here he left his family, and with his brother-in-law Albigence Bucklin, and Seth Holmes, the driver and guide of the expedition, who in the War of 1812 had passed through this section, they started on a prospecting expedition, visiting the settlers along the Whetstone; but having come so far, the pioneer fever was on them, and Holmes told of a better location on a big- ger river farther to the west, so they wandered through the tall wild grass of the Sandusky plains, and finally reached the Sandusky river where Bucyrus now is. The clear stream run- ning through the woods, the freshness of the air, after the dry heat of the plains, and the level country to the south of the river, all sat- isfied Norton that on the banks of the San- dusky was the land he wanted. The three re- turned to their families and again the march was taken up of a dozen miles, and in October, 1819, they reached the land selected, and for three days they lived in an Indian wigwam, which was standing on the ground now occu- pied by the courthouse. The men went to work and erected a small log house; there were

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but three of them so the logs were small, and it was erected on the banks of the San- dusky, on the west side of the present San- dusky avenue bridge, on what is now the land owned and occupied by C. H. Shonert. Down the slight bluff Norton had his pretty river, with its clear pure water; around him were the forest trees, and he could shoot game from his door, and find fish in the stream. The "homestead" being built, a similar log struc- ture was erected for his brother-in-law, on the land north of East Mansfield street, and west of the T. & O. C. road. Here Albigence Bucklin with his wife and six children and an adopted daughter Polly moved, the "home- stead" being occupied by Norton and his wife and six children, Seth Holmes being sole pro- prietor and owner by right of discovery of the Indian wigwam. Here the pioneers passed their first winter, the woods furnishing them with an abundance of game, and the meal brought with them furnishing the bread; the game was the staple food, and the corn bread was the luxury. In the Norton cabin on the banks of the Sandusky, on Feb. 16, 1820, was born a daughter, who was named Sophronia, the first white child born in Bucyrus, and the first white child born in that part of Crawford west of Richland county.

Fortunately for these early settlers the win- ter of 1819-20 was very mild; the winter was put in clearing away the trees, and in Febru- ary Mr. Norton planted his first crop, showing how mild the winter had been, and the virgin soil responded with gladness, for he stated in after years his first crop was the finest he ever raised. The nearest settlement was a dozen miles away on the banks of the Whetstone, where a few settlers had erected cabins; the nearest store double that distance, with no roads, only Indian trails through the forest : so, as with all early settlers, these pioneers had to depend on the resources at hand and their own ingenuity. The children must be clothed and fed: the latter was easy owing to nature's prodigalitv, but the clothing was another mat- ter. In the house the mother and daughters spun the flax and wove the cloth into the coarse garments, and made up the deer skin into breeches and jackets. Norton made a trip of about 20 miles to "Friendsborough," a Quaker settlement in what is now Morrow

county, where he secured ten pounds of wool. They had brought with them spinning wheels and a loom and the wool was made into cloth, and the cloth into clothing. Norton started a little tannery adjoining his house, the first business industry in Bucyrus. He tanned the hides and then manufactured shoes for the family. He planted an orchard with seeds he had brought with him from Pennsylvania, and while waiting for the trees to grow gathered apples from an orchard across the river planted by Johnny Appleseed, on the lot now owned by Hon. E. B. Finley, where even to this date, a century after, some of the trees still exist, while of the orchard of Norton not a tree remains.

While the Nortons and the Bucklins were the only white people for miles around, they were not the only inhabitants of the region, and it was only a few days until the Norton home was visited by a band of Indians from the Wyandot reservation. These savages were always peaceful and had been for years, but the pioneers had frequently heard in their eastern home of the cruelties and barbarities of the savages, and naturally at first they re- garded these visits with anxiety. When the men folks were at home, the Indians lay on the floor of the cabin, with their blankets wrapped around them, thankful for any food given them. Occasionally they came when the men folks were absent, and the children in their fear would run to their mother, as scared as themselves. It was a great delight to the Indians to see the fear their presence created, and they would whoop, yell and dance, bran- dishing their knives, and adding to the terrors of the mother and children. Later, these vis- its were regarded as a matter of course, the custom of an Indian always being to drop into any cabin whenever he pleased and consider the house as his own. Not infrequently he en- tered a cabin at night, and without a word. perhaps with a guttural grunt, wrapped his blanket around him, and lay down in front of the fire, and promptly fell asleep, leaving in the morning without a word. It was soon found that the Indians were harmless; they were treated kindly and sometimes brought game to the family. They greatly enjoyed seeing people exhibit fear, age or sex being no bar, hence their wild yells and frantic ac-

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tions to frighten the women and children. The Norton girls state that once they were playing near the Bucklin home, about where the old Bucyrus Machine company building now stands; their game was hide-and-seek, concealing themselves behind the fallen logs. An Indian trail ran past this site, and while they were in hiding behind the logs, a band of Indians appeared along the trail. One of the Indians, Charley Elliott, caught a glimpse of one of the children and he raised a blood curd- ling yell, which very promptly raised three girls from behind as many different logs, who made up their minds home was the best place for them, and they started at top speed, the Indians accelerating their flight by all joining in a series of war cries. The Indians did not care to follow but evidenced their delight by wild whooping and howling.

In the spring of 1820, the cool nights and the warm days made the best of maple sugar weather. Where the public square now is west of it was a grove of maple trees, and here the Indians established a camp, tapped the trees and gathered the sap, and boiled it down into sugar, and the Norton homestead was swarmed with visiting Indians while the season lasted. The squaws brought the kettles, some on horseback, and others traveling the sixteen miles from their Upper Sandusky village, carrying the heavy brass kettle and a pappoose or two besides. Mrs. Norton visited the camp and was kindly re- ceived by the Indians, especially by the women, who showed great friendship for the "pale- faced squaw."

Norton had settled on his land, built his cabin, and in 1820, when the land was open to purchase he went to Delaware and entered 400 acres on the banks of the Sandusky, on 240 of which the central portion of Bucyrus now stands. The Norton daughters reported that their father told them that when he reached Delaware to secure the certificate from the government for his land, some Quakers endeavored to persuade him that the lands he intended entering did not correspond with the tract he wanted, but their father insisted he knew the land he wanted. The Quakers were partly right, as the final survey showed the Norton land did not extend to the river, but

only to Perry street, and Norton found he had built his cabin just north of his land. The cabin was of no value, but Norton hated to leave his home on the bluff overlooking the pretty river. He built another cabin, how- ever, on his own land on the lot that is now the southeast corner of Spring and Galen streets. It was a double cabin, had two large rooms on the lower floor, and was built of large logs, a cabin raising being held when the neighbors came to place the heavy logs into position. The chimney was of stone for the first story, and above that it was made of sticks and mud. It had a large garret for the children to sleep in, and was for those days a commodious structure.

After the arrival of the Nortons and the Bucklins, the next settler to arrive was a "squatter," a man who does not enter land; he "squats" down wherever he pleases, builds a little cabin, stays as long as he pleases, and then leaves. Mr. Norton's daughters state that "One Sunday morning we were awakened by the crowing of several roosters in the southwest, and our ears were saluted with the welcome ring of another pioneer's ax, which sounds seemed to us, who had so often listened to the barking and howling of the wolves, the sweetest music." After a hurried breakfast, Norton and his wife started out in search of the newcomers. It was a man named Sears, who with his wife and family had located on land just west of where Oakwood cemetery now is. They had arrived the evening before with a horse and wagon, and were glad to meet neighbors in the wilderness. The whole family returned to the Norton home for a meal, and the next day Norton, Bucklin and Holmes put in the day raising a small log cabin for the new arrivals, and after it was erected Sears plastered the cracks with mud, put on the roof, and moved in, the wagon hav- ing been their sleeping apartment until the family home was done. While Sears was at work on his cabin, Seth Holmes took over a deer and other small game; the Nortons and the Bucklins sent over honey and other pro- visions they could spare. and at odd hours as- sisted in making the new home habitable. The Sears family did not stay long; the restless moving spirit of the "squatter" soon came on

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them again, and they left for parts unknown. drifting still farther to the west, leaving an empty cabin behind.

But during the year 1820 other settlers, real settlers, did arrive. The Beadles were the first in the spring of that year, David Beadle, with two sons, Mishael and David, and a son-in- law, John Ensley. Next came Daniel Mc- Michael and Joseph Young, and during the year several others. In his song of Bucyrus Col. Kilbourne thus gives them:

"First Norton and the Beadles came · With friends an enterprising band; Young and McMichael, men of fame, Soon joined the others heart and hand."

Poetry is not the best method of writing his- tory, as to preserve the rhythm and meter much of the detail must be omitted, so two of the first pioneers, Bucklin and Holmes, get notice as "friends," the same with son-in-law Ensley. As to Sears, he was not a pioneer and Col. Kilbourne did well to omit him. Young and McMichael, although classed as men of fame, were not more distinguished than Nor- ton and Beadle, but the necessity of a rhyme to "came," occurring in the line with their names, gave them the distinguished honor of being famous.

The Beadles came across the Plains from the Quaker settlement of Friendsborough in Morrow county, and Mishael Beadle had his cabin on West Mansfield street, where the late Silas Bowers' residence now is; this was on the north 40 acres of an 80-acre tract; on the south 40 acres David Beadle had his cabin, and with him was his son, David, a young man of 17; their cabin was near the corner of Charles and Spring streets. The Norton daughters and Mrs. Ichabod Rogers state the Beadles were very migratory, Mishael at one time living across the river at the northwest corner of the Tiffin road and North River street, the old man and young David moving into Mishael's former cabin on West Mans- field. John Ensley, with his wife, Ann Bea- dle, also lived over the river, near Mishael's second residence. Mishael was married, and in the summer of 1822, the first death oc- curred, a little son of Mishael Beadle, and Norton gave the ground for a burial site, at the junction of Walnut, Galion and Middle- town streets, and here the little boy was

buried, the early pioneers all tendering what aid and sympathy they could to the afflicted family. That winter another daughter of David Beadle, named Clarinda, was married and later young David took himself a wife. Mishael Beadle tired of his residence over the river and entered a tract of land south of the present Oakwood cemetery, now the Magee farm, and here he was contented to remain several years, his brother-in-law entering the land just east of him, extending to what is now. the Marion road. The Beadles were as fond of hunting as they were opposed to work, and when about 1826, Samuel Myers bought the original 80-acre tract they had entered only eight or ten acres had been cleared. The price paid to the Beadles by Myers for the land was $6 an acre. About 1827 they moved west. Bucklin also left the county, but the Nortons, the McMichaels and the Youngs are still here in the third and fourth generations. Joseph Young entered his first land in section 5, Whetstone township, nearly two miles east of Bucyrus; he built a small flouring mill run by horse power, on the river a mile west of Bucyrus, where Sinn's dam was later built with a regular water-power mill; afterward known as Couts dam. The mill run by horse power meant with him that a man brings his grain, hitches his own horse to the mill, and grinds the grain. He kept no horses himself at the mill. Later he gave the mill to his son- in-law, George Black, and a dam was built, and the mill run by water power and it became an important mill for years to come. Young also gave each of his sons 160 acres, as the tax duplicate of 1830 shows that George, Jacob and John Young each had 160 acres along the river near the mill.

Daniel McMichael came to this section in the fall of 1819, and spent his first winter on the banks of the Whetstone, eight miles from Bucyrus. He was there with his family when Norton was making his trip looking up a loca- tion. He was in what is now Crawford county, but then it was a part of Richland county, in the neighborhood of the Sharrocks. Daniel McMichael then moved into Liberty township in the spring of 1820, the first set- tler in that township, built a grist mill on his land on the river one mile northeast of Bucy- rus. the first mill in the county. Then he came

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History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 29

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