History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 37

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 37

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formed, about six miles apart, one near the present site of Brokensword, and the other in the southeastern corner, near Bucyrus. The one in the northern part was almost wholly German and included, with a few others, some eight or ten German families that had come in 1828 from Dauphin county, Pa. Among these settlers were Michael Shupp, Henry and Daniel Fralick, Isaac and Abraham Ditty, Jacob Lintner, Jacob Moore and Daniel Porter.

For a number of years the southern part of the township bore an enviable reputation due to the fact that no liquor was used at the house-raising or log-rollings, the settlers being a rarely temperate lot who used nothing stronger than coffee.

As new settlers came in, however, they brought with them the inevitable whiskey and the community in consequence lost a portion of its fair fame. The northern settlers were from the first a bibulous lot, whose evenings were largely spent in passing round the flowing bowl and in drinking each other's health to the usual detriment of same. It is said that even women were often seen lying by the roadside com- pletely overcome by liquor. Fortunately this state of things has long since passed away. Abraham Didie, born in Dauphin county, Pa., removed to Holmes township in 1828. He died March 14, 1870.

Fisher Quaintance, previously mentioned as one of the arrivals in 1828 or 1829, was a member of the Society of Friends. He died in Holmes township March 27, 1866, at the age of 73 years. His wife Sarah came to this township with him.

Years ago a murder was committed on the Joe Quaintance farm, known as the old Flake farm. An old peddler was killed, and in order to cover all traces of the crime, his body, to- gether with his wagon and all his belongings, were thrown into an old well and covered up. Whom the peddler was and who were the per- petrators of the deed have never been discov- ered to this day.

William Mateer, an early settler of Holmes township, was a great grandson of an immi- grant who started for America in the year 1700 with four sons. All died on the voyage and were buried at sea. The immigrant reached America and subsequently had four

more sons, whom he named respectively after the first four, and their descendants became prominent in the affairs of the township.

John and Barbara Peterman came to this county in October, 1827, and entered 320 acres in Liberty township on the Sandusky river. Clearing his land he erected thereon a hewed log cabin. Their son, Samuel, came to Bucy- rus in 1832. He engaged in a sort of express business, hauling goods from Pittsburg, Balti- more, Cincinnati, Columbus and Sandusky with a six-horse team and also carried consid- erable money for others. He later took up farming in Holmes township.

Joseph Newell came to Crawford county in 1825, and entered 160 acres of government land in section No. 9, of what is now Holmes township. He was above the average in edu- cation and business ability. He early saw that with the settling up and developing of the county, especially in the north and west parts, his land would be much nearer the center of the county than the little town of Bucyrus, and there was a possibility that the county seat might be located at some point nearer the center of the county, and he selected his land for that purpose. Bucyrus then had a popu- lation of something over two hundred people ; it had a post office, stores, taverns, and several shops; notwithstanding this Newell laid out a town on a part of his land, on the banks of the Brokensword, below where the Brandywine empties into it. He named the new town Crawford, and set apart several lots as dona- tions for public buildings, and also laid out a graveyard. The first election in Crawford county after its organization was in April, 1826, at which election commissioners were to be chosen, who would meet in the town of Bucyrus, and there select the temporary county seat of the county. The greatest interest in the election was over the commissioners, the voters in the west and north supporting the com- missioners who would favor Crawford for the county seat, while those in the south and east were for the commissioners who favored Bucyrus. The election resulted in favor of John Magers of Bucyrus, Thomas McClure of Liberty, and George Poe of Whetstone, who met at Bucyrus the third Monday in May and selected Bucyrus as the temporary county seat of the new county. Newell, while temporarily

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defeated, did not give up the fight, but con- tinued it up to 1830, when the legislature ap- pointed three commissioners to settle definitely the county seat question, and they came to Bucyrus, looked over the field, and decided in favor of Bucyrus. Then Newell gave up the fight and the town of Crawford became farm- ing land. Newell himself had erected a house on the land, had sold one lot to a man named Swigart, and perhaps one or two others had located there, but today nothing remains of the town whose proprietor had hopes of making it the county seat. When Holmes township was organized Mr. Newell was one of the first of- ficers elected and on his death was buried in the graveyard he had laid out.

About 1834 William Wingert was ap- pointed postmaster of a country post office that was opened under the name of Lykens. The post office was in his house, on the Tiffin road just north of the Holmes town- ship line. Several other families located in that section and in a few years it assumed the aspect of a thriving village. Here he built a shop and manufactured furniture, and in 1851 started a store. In August, 1852, fifteen years after the post office had been established, David Porter laid out a town just south of the settlement of Wingert, and called it Portersville, in honor of himself. The two settlements were really one, as they. bordered on each other, Wingert's being in Lykens town- ship and Porter's in Holmes township. But there was the bitterest rivalry between the two for the name of the village. Wingert's claim that it be called Wingert's Corners was on the ground that his settlement ante-dated the mushroom town of Porter's by nearly twenty years. Porter's claim was that his was a town, laid out, and had a name legally, and therefore that name was the correct and only one for the new town. The post office department decided in favor of Portersville. But Wingert and his friends were so persistent, having their goods and their mail all addressed to Wingert's Cor- ners, Crawford county, that everybody else recognized that as the name, and only the government and Porter knew there was such a place as Portersville. During the war of the rebellion the people of the county, the state, and the nation with one accord gave it a new name. Party spirit ran high, and there

were some at Wingert's Corners so bitter that they were very pronounced against the Union. At this stage Petroleum V. Nasby commenced a series of burlesque, political letters, taking his characters and views from the situation as it existed at Wingert's Corners. Later these letters were dated "Confederit X Roads", and although the date line of the letter always con- tained the additional description, "which is in the Stait of Kentucky," the description was useless; the people still recognized it as Win- gert's Corners, and through the war, and for years after, the place was best known as "Con- fedrit X Roads." It had a national notoriety by this name; its county and local name was Wingert's Corners, and the government car- ried it as Portersville. As the bitterness of the war passed away, there was a general desire to get away from the bitterness that still rankled on account of the action of lawless men and the name of the office was changed to Broken- sword, after the stream that passes to the south of that village. Today no one would rec- ognize the name of Portersville; some few al- lude to it as Wingert's Corners; Confederit X Roads is but an historical allusion, and as Brokensword it is one of the villages of the county which still retain an existence.

The following are the postmasters at Brokensword, with dates of appointment :

William Wingert, April 6, 1837 ; George Mc- Donald, Jan. 30, 1850; Daniel Fralick, July 5, 1861; William Seele, Oct. 23, 1895; Matilda E. Chapman, June 24, 1898; and Frank Sprow, June 18, 1904.

On Feb. 14, 1906, the office was discon- tinued, the mail being supplied by rural route from Bucyrus. Daniel Fralick was postmaster for 34 years, the longest service of any man in the county.

Jacob Lintner, who came at an early day to this settlement, was a blacksmith and built a shop just across the line in Lykens township. As he could not find enough work at his trade to keep him busy, he also did carpenter work, becoming self-taught through frequent prac- tice. Jacob Moore kept a small shoe shop in one end of his cabin, and traveled from house to house plying his trade, as was an early cus- tom in the frontier settlements generally. Al- though the price of shoes was small in those days as compared with the present, many peo-

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ple were unable to buy them and wore instead a sort of rough moccasin made from the skin of the deer or some other animal. Buckskin clothes were also largely worn.

Among other artizans of those days may be mentioned William Fralick, a carpenter, who built many of the early frame houses; and William Spitzer, a mason residing in the southeastern part of the township, who, when the construction of a better class of buildings began, built many of the foundations and chimneys. He also made bricks which he sold to the settlers, commencing this business about 1830

Samuel Burnison, before he turned his at- tention to farming, tried one or two business ventures which proved unsuccessful. He owned a small copper still and in 1841 built a small distillery in the northern part of the township, operating in connection with it a small horse-mill from which he obtained his supply of ground grain. When the enterprise failed-perhaps because the whiskey was not of very good quality-he bought some cows and made arrangements to begin the man- ufacture of cheese, turning his distillery into a cheese factory, but for some reason he changed his mind before he had the enterprise started, and went to farming.

David Porter started an ashery about 1837, manufacturing black and scorched salts, and continued the business for some ten years, when, the supply of ashes failing, he gave it up.

About 1857 William Wingert was employed by George Quinby of Bucyrus to sell goods on commission, and was given about $300 worth to commence with. These were the first goods sold in Portersville and were quickly disposed of. After thus working for Mr. Quinby for several years, Mr. Wingert started in business for himself with an $800 stock of goods pur- chased personally in New York city. He con- tinued as a merchant for about ten years be- fore retiring to his farm, and was fairly suc- cessful. About two years before he retired an- other store was opened in the village, which was a branch store owned by Brinkerhoff and Wilson, of Sycamore. They put in about $3,000 worth of goods. The stock was pur- chased in 1854 by Daniel Fralick, who added to it considerably and carried on a successful

business for many years. At a later date Shook and Ditty were also engaged in mer- cantile pursuits here.

Liquor has been sold in Brokensword ( Por- tersville) since 1846, at which time Seale & Hollingshead opened a saloon in the village, also occasionally entertaining travellers. The first genuine tavern keeper in the village was John Stinerock, a tailor by trade, who con- ducted a very orderly place and kept no bar. In 1868 Elias Shirk built another tavern in the town, which subsequently passed into the hands of his widow.

Martin and Rosannah Holman came to Crawford county, Holmes township, in the twenties for John Holman was born in the township Nov. 7, 1828.

Mary Martin Hemminger, born January I, 1812, was a daughter of James and Sarah Martin, who took passage for America from England in the fall of 1822, Mary being then ten years old. On the voyage the ship's rud- der became detached and the vessel was for a while in great danger, several lives being lost in the attempt to readjust it under water. It was finally secured, after a long delay, and the voyage took nearly three months to accomplish. They must have reached Crawford county from about 1824 to 1828. From the perils of the ocean wave they changed at once to the hardships of pioneer life on the frontier, which, if a trifle less dangerous, were no less hard to endure. The daughter Mary became cowboy for the family, taking care of the stock and often passing days and nights in the woods. At one time when no less than. 26 miles from home, she was overtaken by dark- ness and was compelled to wait for the moon to rise before she could direct her weary march homewards. In stormy weather their cabin was often resorted to for shelter by Indians, who came by the dozen or score, almost crowd- ing the family out of doors. Mary Martin was married May 13, 1830 to a Mr. Hem- minger. She died Sept. 6, 1877, at the age of 80 years.

Samuel McClure, a weaver by trade, came to Holmes township, May 5, 1830.

Rebecca Sells, a lady of forceful character, at one time well known in Holmes township, was a daughter of John and Anne McBride, who came to Crawford in 1830. On Oct. 4th,

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she became the wife of Jacob Sells, whose par- ents, Peter and Barbara Sells, had come to Crawford in 1831. The young couple imme- diately began housekeeping in their own home on the Tiffin road. Jacob was an architect and builder and was away much of the time, not only on account of the demands of his pro- fession, but also on account of military ser- vice during the Civil war and because of his attendance at land sales in the Osage country, Mo. During his absence she had to suffer many trials on account of her fearless advo- cacy of abolition, the people around her being generally in favor of secession. During the war, not having received any communication from her husband for a long time, she feared he might be dead, but had not lost all hope until one day she received word that his corpse was awaiting her at Bucyrus. She went there at once almost broken hearted. The body was identified by the family and friends, but be- fore removing the corpse, her sorrow was changed to surprise, joy and gladness on being handed a communication from her husband, stating that he would be with her in a few hours. Thus suddenly was a scene of the deep- est sadness turned into one of rejoicing.

Michael and Margaret Shupp and their son Henry came to Crawford in May, 1828, set- tling on 80 acres on Brokensword Creek in Holmes township.

John and Ann Shupp and son Samuel came to Crawford county and Holmes township in the spring of 1831.

Jacob Brinkman came to Bucyrus when it was a small hamlet and after a residence there of several years removed to Holmes township.

Jacob and Mary Bash came to Bucyrus in 1829. Both died and their son Peter Bash went to the grandfather at Annapolis, who was a Dunkard preacher. Grandmother Bash was the first person buried in Annapolis cemetery. Peter later purchased a farm in Holmes town- ship.

William and Mary Fralick and son Daniel came to Bucyrus in 1830 and settled on the Rowse farm, later known as the Monnett farm. In the fall they removed to the northern part of Holmes township, where they entered 80 acres and erected a log cabin. In 1834 Daniel came to Bucyrus and worked in the flour and saw-mill of Elias Slagel during high

water, when the mill was running. During low water he worked on his father's farm. In 1853 he commenced keeping store at Wingert's Corners, and in 1855 built a new house, which he occupied until his death.

Samuel Flickinger, born in Lancaster county, Pa., May 29, 1792, moved to McConnellstown, Pa., in 1796; went from there to Stark county, Ohio, in 1811, coming from there to Crawford county in the spring of 1833 and resided here until his death June 20, 1871 at the age of 79 years. In 1820 he married Miss Phylinda Healy, who was born in Jamaica, Wingham county, Vt., and they resided on a farm in Holmes township. Their sons, Samuel and William ran the principal saw mill in the town- ship for many years.

John Eaton, born in Washington county, Pa., 1778, removed to Columbiana county, Ohio, in 1808 and to Crawford in 1830 or 1831. He had been a soldier in the War of 1812. He died July 23, 1850, aged 72 years. Soon after Eaton came to the township, he was joined by Edmund Ferrall, who had mar- ried his daughter Mary in 1827.

About 1834 the first saw mill was built on the Brandywine by Frederick Williams. He ran it about ten years and then disposed of it to other parties. When gold was discovered in California, in 1849 Williams joined a party and crossed the country to the gold fields. About the time Williams built his mill in 1834 Jesse Quaintance built a mill on the Broken- sword; it was of hewn logs, two stories, and 25 by 28 feet in size. It was originally a grist mill, but- after a few years a frame addition was added and a saw mill started, and for twenty years both departments of the mill did a large business. Both these mills were run by water power, little dams being erected across the streams. After Williams sold out his mill, the little dam was washed away, and was never rebuilt, so the mill was abandoned.

The third saw-mill was built in 1845 by Rodney Poole, at the falls on Brokensword creek. This was the best site in Holmes town- ship for either a grist or saw-mill, as at this point there is a fall of about a foot and a half in the bed of the stream, which, together with a good dam and race, furnished abundant water power. The mill was a frame building, having a long shed at right angles to the main

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building, in which the sawed lumber was stored. The charge made for sawing, when not done on shares, was at the rate of 50 cents per hundred feet. The mill dams of those days were far from being as substantially built as they are at the present day, when stone can be had at a small cost. A pile of dirt, stones, brush, logs or anything that came handy, was heaped together in a line extending across the stream, and the whole held in place by logs driven into the bed of the stream in a slanting position. These loosely constructed dams often gave way, resulting in a total s11s- pension of milling operations for some time until they could be repaired or rebuilt. The muskrats often caused such breaks by burrowing into the dams. During heavy rains, when the dams held, they often caused the surrounding country to become flooded to a considerable depth.

A steam saw-mill was built in 1853 on Grass Run in the southern part of the township, by Joseph Lones, and was furnished with a muley saw. After being operated by Mr. Lones for three years, it was sold to other parties. Two years after Lones built his mill, Fralick and Flickinger erected a large steam saw-mill on Brokensword creek, which continued in opera- tion until after the war. It was a large frame building and had a muley saw. Other mills were subsequently built in various parts of the township and while the timber lasted a lively business was done in this line of industry. With the gradual disappearance of the timber nearly all of these mills went out of existence.

Although previous to the Civil war a strong sentiment existed in Crawford county against assisting negroe slaves to escape to Canada, many were thus aided by that mysterious, but effective organization, or system, known as "The Underground Railroad." A family named Jackson, living in the southern part of the township, kept one of the stations on this "road," and Isaac Jackson and his son, Stephen, were seen on more than one occasion driving rapidly northward by night with a sled or wagon load of these black fugitives, conveying them into Seneca county, where doubtless there was another station from which they were assisted farther north. In this man- ner-as the plan was operated all over the state of Ohio and to some extent in other states-

thousands of slaves were helped to freedom. In engaging in this work the Jacksons, of course, sacrificed some of their popularity, but doubtless had their reward in the approval of their own consciences.

The first school was opened in Holmes town- ship in the northern part during the winter of 1829-30, although the southern part had been earlier settled by almost a decade. The school was started in the cabin of David Moore, an old bachelor who had come to Holmes a year or two previous and who had left his cabin vacant to go on a visit to his old home in Pennsylvania, to bring his widowed mother to his new home. John Bretz, a Penn- sylvanian of German antecedents, was the first schoolmaster and the school was well attended. Although Mr. Bretz's scholarly attainments were not above question, he was excellent in enforcing discipline-a very desirable quality for a schoolmaster in those days-for he was a man of great strength and fine physique and, it is said, "could handle any other man in the neighborhood with ease." He taught for a number of years in the German settlement and its vicinity and always had good orderly schools. The first regular schoolhouse in the township, was built on section 3, during the summer of 1833. It was first taught by Ed- ward Porter, who during the previous winter had taught school in a log cabin in Lykins township. About nine years later it was super- ceded by a larger and better schoolhouse erected a short distance to the southward. This latter building was a frame made almost entirely of lumber sawed at the mills on Brokensword creek. One of the early teach- ers in the northern part of Holmes was Miss Margaret Cannon, who gave general satisfac- tion both as to maintaining discipline and im- parting instruction. The first school building in the southern part of the township was erected in 1835 on or near the farm of Mr. Black, and was constructed of hewed logs. Some years later a frame building was put up on the Lones farm and school was kept in it for nearly 20 years, after which it was re- moved to make way for a more modern struc- ture. About 1836 the township was divided into school districts and a schoolhouse built in each district, according to the present plan. The gospel was first preached in Holmes

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township by itinerant ministers from the neigh- boring villages, who made occasional visits, and were ordinarily designated as "circuit riders." For some time previous to 1834, meetings were held regularly in the cabins of Michael Shupp, Daniel Seale and others. In that year an Evangelical church was built in the extreme southern part of Lykens township, which was attended by a number of citizens from Holmes. A little later the Lutherans and members of the German Reformed church united in erecting a log church in the northern part of Holmes. A lack of harmony prevailed, however, in this combined society; which re- sulted in litigation. In 1852 the Protestant Methodists built a log meeting-house about a mile west of Portersville, which became known as the Concord Meeting-house. The pastor of this church during or at the beginning of the Civil war period was the Rev. William Brown, a strong abolitionist, who persisted against the wishes of a large part of his congregation, in preaching anti-slavery sermons. This led to such bitterness of feeling that finally, one night, a party of men assembled and leveled the church to the ground. We read also that upon another occasion a minister, of similar views and similarly outspoken, who was con- ducting a revival meeting near Portersville, was pelted with eggs, which had been bought for the purpose at the store of Daniel Fralick. Another outrage took place soon after when a church on the line between Holmes and Lib- erty townships, was burned down for the same cause.

In the southern part of the township the Quakers erected a church in 1840, which is still standing. It was built originally of logs and afterward weather-boarded with poplar lumber. It has not been used as a church for many years.

In connection with the different churches or otherwise, a number of Sunday schools have been established in Holmes township from time to time. Mission Chapel was established in 1848, the first summer had an attendance of sixty scholars and was conducted for sixteen years. James Moore was the first superin- tendent, he being followed by Samuel Shaff- ner, John Lichtenwalter and others.

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History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 37

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