History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 50

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 50

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the membership. In connection with the church was the "Pipetown" graveyard, and within its enclosures rest many of the early pioneers, the oldest stone being that of Lydia Cowgill, wife of Elisha Cowgill, who died June 8, 1840.

Prior to 1838 the Presbyterians held serv- ices in the various cabins and in the school- houses, and in 1838 they formed an organiza- tion, under the guidance of Rev. Robert Lee. Robert Clark, William Jackson and William Marquis were appointed as elders. The fol- lowing year Rev. William Hutchinson, who was pastor of the Presbyterian church at Bu- cyrus, was engaged to supply the congrega- tion on Sunday afternoons in the summer months. The little church was built on the Andrews' farm on the angling road from Bu- cyrus to Tiffin, and the little graveyard ad- joining the church is best known as the An- drews graveyard. Here the oldest stone is that of James Andrews, who died April 25, 1840. He was a soldier of the War of 1812; another of the veterans of 1812 buried here is Moses Pugh, who died Sept. 27, 1848.

In the southern part of the township, church societies |were organized as early as 1830, but no church edifice was built for 20 years, services being held in the cabins and later in the schoolhouses. About 1830 a schoolhouse had been built west of where Benton now is, and this was extensively used for church pur- poses. In the thirties Rev. Mr. Oliver had arranged to hold services in this building, but before he or the congregation arrived "Bish- op" Tuttle had entered the building, and writ- ten on the wall with a piece of charcoal:

"Oliver, Bender and Gillim Have caught the devil And are going to kill 'im."

Bender and Gillim were two of the pillars- of the church. The minister took the scrawled words for his text and preached a forceful, extemporaneous sermon.

About 1851 a United Brethren Church was built in Benton, at a cost of about $1,500, and in 1870 the Methodists erected a church in the village that cost $3,000. Both churches prospered, and nearly all the "Pipetown" con- gregation united with this new church or joined the M. E. Church at Sycamore.

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What is known as the Benton graveyard was probably the first burial place in the township, as here is buried Mary Bender, wife of the first settler, who died May 13, 1832. Three veterans of the War of 1812 are buried here, John Coon, who died March 22, 1856; Elijah Jump, who died Dec. 5, 1871; and David Wickham, who died Sept. 15, 1848. George Bender and John Hazlett, the founders of the town of Benton are bur- ied here, Hazlett dying Nov. 8, 1841, and Bender, Feb. 10, 1851. Another grave is that of Amos L. Westover, who died July 17, 1859, and received a Masonic funeral, the first society funeral in that section. He was one of the charter members of the Bucyrus Lodge of Masons, started in 1846, and for over ten years drove 12 miles to attend the meetings of the order, and on his death, his brethren from Bucyrus attended and gave him a Ma- sonic burial.

The first settlers in Texas drifted into the passes through the center of the township, county from Seneca, and in the early days the one in District 4, being about forty rods north of the old Indian Reservation line. the children went long distances for their schooling, sometimes four and five miles. This was too inconvenient, and the pioneers in the northern part of the township built a log structure of fairly good size for those days. They put in a puncheon floor and cov- ered it with a clapboard roof. They intro- duced an innovation in construction by hav- ing the chimney in the centre of the roof, and it was constructed of small stones and mud and hung down to within six feet of the floor, widening out funnel shaped at the bottom to facilitate ventilation. The seats were clap- board benches, and a walnut table, constructed by some settler expert with an axe, furnished the desk for the teacher and served as a pul- pit when religious services were held, which were almost every Sunday in summer by a traveling minister of some denomination. In 1833, this building, which resembled in looks a modern pottery, was abandoned and an- other erected, more modern, nearer the center of the township; this new building was of Westover was one of the early justices of the peace, and was always active in the af- fairs of the township. Prior to 1845 Texas was a part of Sycamore township. The fol- lowing is a list of the justices : frame. The next schoolhouse was the one west of Benton, about 1830, and ten years later it was replaced by a frame structure, which was in the western part of what is now Benton, near the graveyard. In 1858 the first schoolhouse was built in the village. Al- Charles Morrow-1832. John Knapp-1832. though the township contains only 12 square miles, and in the locating of schoolhouses Laban Perdew-1833-36. should have but three, yet when school dis- James Griffith-1836-46. tricts were organized at the same time as the Amos L. Westover-1840-53-54-57. James Milligan-1834-37. township in 1845, there were four districts Robert Weeks-1846. Joseph Pitezel-1848-52. in the township, and are today. The northern Abraham Eyestone-1851. Nelson Close-1852-55-58-61-67-70. four miles in district No. I, and the school- house is in the northeastern corner of sec- Daniel Tuttle-1859-73. Samuel Beistle-1862-65. tion II, the farm now owned by Jacob Zig- Arthur Andrews-1864. ler. District No. 2 is the central four miles Martin Woodside-1868. and the schoolhouse is in the southeastern A. B. Stewart-1870-73. George Wickham-1873-76. part of section 14, the land of Samuel Dun- Nelson Holt-1876-79. lop. The southern four miles has two dis- Harvey Close-1880-83-86-89-92-97-01-07-09. M. W. Wickham-1881-84-87-90. tricts, No. 3 being in the village of Benton, J. H. Beistle-1893-97. and No. 4 northwest quarter of section 36 C. H. Miller-1895. on the farm of Jacob Rank. All these school- H. J. Miller-1904-05. houses are on the north and south road which George W. Wickham-1905-07-09. Melvin C. Huddle-1900-01.

CHAPTER XXI

TOD TOWNSHIP

The Last Land in the County Occupied by the Indians-The Township Named Three Times and Named Wrong Each Time-Osceola Laid Out With County Seat Expectations- Early Settlers-Churches and Schools-Reminiscences-A Horse Monument.

"Dear country home! can I forget The last of thy sweet trifles? The window-vines that clamber yet Whose bloom the bee still rifles? The roadside blackberries, growing ripe, And in the woods the Indian pipe?" -RICHARD HENRY STODDARD.

Tod township was the last township in this county to be opened for settlement. The treaty of the Indians in 1817 reserved to them a tract of land 12 miles square in what is now Wyan- dot county. By a supplementary treaty in 1818 the Wyandots were given an additional five miles adjoining this tract on the east. In this five-mile strip was Tod township.

On the north and the south and the east, the land was being rapidly taken up by the set- tlers, and all along the border the forests were being cleared away and the farms cultivated. Many settlers, besides hunting in the reserva- tion as it suited their pleasure, settled on the land, some honestly leasing from the Indians, but most of them "squatting" on the reserva- tion. As early as 1825 the advancing civiliza- tion demanded this land, but the Indians re- fused to sell, but finally in 1836, they agreed to dispose of the 60 square miles ( 12 miles deep and 5 miles wide) which they had secured at the supplemental treaty and two additional miles. In 1837, these lands were thrown on the market, and what is now Tod township was open to settlement, and the Indians had no longer any land in the present Crawford county.

Tod township is nine miles from north to south and two miles east and west. In March,

1838, the Crawford county commissioners di- vided the territory secured from the Indians into two townships. The northern six miles was called Leith and the southern six miles was attached to Antrim. There was objection to the name of Leith. George W. Leith was one of the prominent men in the new territory, and with William Brown was appointed justice of the peace of the new township. His ances- try goes farther back in this county than any other white settler. His father, Samuel Leith, was the first known white child born in the Sandusky valley, probably in the old Indian town on the river, about three miles southeast of the present town of Upper Sandusky. The original John Leith in 1763, when a boy of 16, was captured by the Indians. Instead of kill- ing him they adopted him into their tribe, in the family of Capt. Pipe, the Delaware chief who burned Crawford at the stake. They brought him to their town on the Sandusky, and when the War of the Revolution broke out the British appointed him in charge of the store at the Wyandot town and here he re- mained during the Revolution, and was also there during the Crawford campaign of 1782. His store was naturally the headquarters of the British, Indians, and the renegades during the Revolution and the Indian wars which fol- lowed. In 1762 the Mingo Indians on one of their raids into Pennsylvania captured a young girl, Sallie Lowry, and adopted her into their tribe.

During one of the hunting expeditions of the Mingoes to the Sandusky region Leith met the

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captive white girl and they were married, and in 1775, Samuel Leith was born. The husband and wife were captives of different tribes, and the wife was taken to the home of the Mingoes on the Muskingum, while Leith remained on the Sandusky. Every argument and induce- ment were offered the Mingoes to let the wife join her husband, but they refused to give her up, and Indian courtesy prevented more drastic measures. Finally the Mingo Indians held a council, and decided to let the wife join her husband but the decision was that they would give to the Wyandots nothing but the wife and child. So every vestige of clothing was re- moved from the mother and child, and she was informed that if she wanted to join her hus- band, she could go. Leith in his narrative thus describes her reunion with her husband: "She shouldered her boy, waded the Walhonding, the Tuscarawas, passed through the wilderness, slept in the leaves by a log, contending with briars, nettles, flies, mosquitos, living on June berries, wild onions, wild peas, elm bark, roots, etc. She came to a squaw who was tending a small piece of corn and taking care of several Indian children, while the warrior was abroad. The squaw said: 'Where you go?' She re- plied: 'Sandusky; my husband.' 'Where clothes?' 'They took them,' (pointing from whence she came. ) 'You hungey?' 'Yes.' 'Me get meat.' The squaw told her to remain until the warrior returned; but she concluded to journey on. The squaw gave her a piece of blanket and some deer meat and she started. I was at the time busily engaged in handling pelts, revolving in my mind what I should do. I was whipping the pelts and throwing them on a pile, and had just stepped in to get another supply, when I saw my wife approaching. She threw the child down on the skins, drop- ping there herself, saying: 'Here, John, I've brought your boy.' The fatigue of the jour- ney and the joy of the meeting overwhelmed her for a time. There have been many happy meetings under far more favorable circum- stances, but at no time or place was there ever a meeting that filled the parties with more tri- umphant joy." John Leith continued with the Indians until about 1792, when with his wife and two children, he made his escape, and was closely pursued by the Indians until he reached Fort Pitt, (Pittsburg.) The son, Samuel, came

to Ohio and was a soldier in the War of 1812 on the side of the Americans. He settled in Fairfield county, and here John Leith was born in 1807 and George W. Leith in 1810, the lat- ter coming to this county in 1824, making his home with his guardian, his father, Samuel Leith, having died.

After this family the township was named Leith on account of the influence of George W. Leith. But the name was not satisfactory to many of the settlers, on account of the original Leith being a British agent and an ally of the Indians during the Revolution and the Craw- ford campaign. Through courtesy toward George W. Leith, and for whom all had the greatest respect, the specious argument was presented that there were many Germans in the township, and the word Leith was as difficult for them to pronounce as was the world Shib- boleth to the Scriptural heathens two thousand years previously. The commissioners took this as their cue, and changed the name of the township to Centre, in June, 1839, it being at that time the exact centre of the county, a name which was certain to get them into no trouble on account of ancestors. This name continued until Wyandot county was formed in 1845, which left only two miles of Centre township in Crawford county, and this two miles was no longer in the centre, but was the extreme western part of the county, so that name was a misnomer, and in 1845 the commissioners named the new township Tod, after David Tod the democratic candidate for Governor in 1844, who was defeated and his supporters on the Board of Commissioners did him what honor they could by naming a township after him. South of Tod the fractional township of An- trim that remained in the county was named Dallas, after George M. Dallas, the Vice Presi- dent of the United States. In the eastern part of the county the land secured from Richland was named at the same time after James K. Polk the Democratic president, and the new townships had the good old democratic names of Polk, Dallas, Tod and Texas, the latter be- ing a rallying cry of the party as the Whigs bit- terly opposed the admission of Texas into the union. Had it been given to our pioneer fa- thers to lift the veil that obscures the future there would have been more protest against the name of Tod than there had been to that of

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY

Leith. For hardly had the machinery of gov- ernment started in the new township than there was a re-alignment of parties, and David Tod joined the new party and as the opponent of the Democrats was elected Governor of the State in 1861, so it is not safe to perpetuate the name of a political idol until after he has quietly died and been honorably buried.

Tod township is traversed by three streams, Brokensword, Indian Run, and Grass Run, the beds of which consist of a shaly limestone rock. The first named is the largest and by far the most important, and the derivation of its name is traditional. It is said that after Col- onel Crawford's historical engagement with the Indians and subsequent escape, he missed his nephew. With others he retraced his steps, only to be taken prisoner by the Delawares. Conducted by them to this stream, he is said to have drawn his sword and broken it over a rock. Another version is, a broken sword had been dropped by one of Crawford's re- treating army.

Col. Crawford, after the battle, in making his escape, did pass through Tod township, en- tering the township about two miles northwest of the present village Oceola, about where the farm of John R. Outhwaite or U. M. Kellogg is now located; he passed through in a south- easterly direction, leaving the township at about the farm of John Fisher or John W. Snavely, a mile and a half northeast of Oceola. After his capture, near the present town of Leesville, the Delawares took him back over the same route as they were desirous of finding the horses which Crawford had been compelled to abandon about the time they entered the town- ship. The stream Brokensword was first known by the Indians as Crookedknife, but there is no authority for connecting the name with anything relating to Col. Crawford. He crossed the stream in Holmes township, near where the Brokensword Stone quarries are now located.

The soil of Tod township is a pale clay loam but exceedingly rich. Well improved farms with substantial and attractive buildings are seen on every hand.

Lumbering and limeburning for many years formed the chief industries, aside from agri- cultural, but a number of grist-mills also flourished here, at one time four being along

the banks of the Brokensword. In early years when there was much waste timber, potash and blacksalts were manufactured, and in more recent years a considerable amount of quarry- ing of stone has been done. The timber of this section was largely black walnut, oak, beech, maple, sycamore, butternut and poplar.

After the Wyandots had relinquished their claim to this territory in the spring of 1837, the United States held a sale at Marion, Ohio, selling off this land to private ownership. Neighboring landowners, capitalists from the East and from Bucyrus and Marion, both in the form of organized companies and as indi- viduals, vied with each other in acquiring this land. A Mr. Howland of Cayuga, New York, purchased fourteen hundred acres, partly lying within Tod township. Zalmon Rowse, Gen- eral Samuel Myers, Abram Holm of Bucyrus, with Messrs. Cox and Young of Marion county, formed a syndicate known as the Oce- ola Company and purchased the choice or cen- tral part of the township, with an expressed view of bringing the county seat to the town which they would there establish. That their plan miscarried was probably no disappoint- ment to the promoters, who disposed of their land to good advantage before the death blow to the hopes of the little village of Oceola fell by the erection of Wyandot county by the Leg- islature. Of the private buyers, Judge G. W. Leith, James Winstead, Daniel Tuttle and Jacob Shaffer were first. It has been a debat- able question as to whether Leith or Winstead made actual settlement first, for with that dis- tinction goes the honor of being the first set- tier of Tod township. Regardless of the ques- tion, there is a full measure of honor and credit accorded the name of each, for both were men of bright minds and active, and with Daniel Tuttle did more than any others in directing the earliest affairs of the township. Besides Leith, Winstead and Tuttle, other settlers in 1837 were Adam Bair, John Foster, James B. Horick, William Hartman, Edward Kellogg, David Kisor, Lucius P. Lea, Mordecai McCau- ley, Isaac Miller, John Turner, and Jacob Yost. Other early settlers were John Cronebaugh, Lewis Longwell, James McCain, James B. Robinson, Jacob Snavely, and Stephen White in 1838; Lyman King in 1839; William Brown, William Gordon, Michael Hough, Jesse Ja-

...

MANSFIELD STREET, NEW WASHINGTON, O.

KIBLER STREET, NEW WASHINGTON, O.

ST. BERNARD'S CHURCH AND SCHOOL, NEW WASHINGTON, O.

RESIDENCE OF S. J. KIBLER, NEW WASHINGTON, O.

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

333

queth, and John Webb in 1840; William An- drews, Frederick G. Hesche, and Samuel Swineford in 1841; Elijah Jaqueth in 1843, Jonathan Outhwaite and Amos Souders in 1845.

Adam Bair had been a carpenter in Bucyrus, and so had John Cronebaugh, the latter as- sisting in building the first court house; F. G. Hesche, had also come there from Bucyrus to run a saw mill, and later returned, built the Hesche corner, and was in business at Bucyrus until his death.

James Winstead lived to a remarkable old age, honored and respected by all. He was born in Shenandoah county, Virginia, in 1801, and was fifteen years old when he moved to Ohio, locating in Fairfield county. In 1826, he moved to Bowsherville, Wyandot county, then Crawford county, where he built a cabin on the edge of the Indian reservation and fol- lowed his trade as a coppersmith. It would seem there could not be much business done at that trade in those days, and in fact his great- est patronage was not from the settlers but from the Indians. The latter had in their pos- session ore obtained from Michigan mines and for converting this into rings, bracelets and anklets they would pay most liberally. So strongly did he become entrenched in the good graces of the redmen, he was in 1829 persuaded by them to move upon their reservation. He was given the use of a double log cabin east of Upper Sandusky, an orchard, all the cleared land he wished to cultivate, was furnished with meats, and was given a liberal patronage. He lived almost as one of them, taking a seat at their camp-fires and joined them on hunting excursions. Probably no white man had a more intimate knowledge of this tribe, their habits, beliefs and mode of life, than did he. He remained with them until after the sale and then moved to section II of Tod town- ship, where in the spring of 1837 he erected a rough log cabin, with puncheon floor, but also equipped with glass windows. There was no semblance to a road leading to the tract he lo- cated, necessitating the cutting away of timber and brush to permit the passage of his oxen and wagon. The road he made became known as the Perrysburg road, and enabled him to strike the Upper Sandusky road. As illus- trative of the customs of the times and neigh-

borly help settlers were glad to give, it may be mentioned that Winstead gave a wood chop- ping bee with a view to having a better road between his farm and Oceola. Neighbors joined in with a will, and the cost to him was two gallons of whiskey and the expectation that he would be called upon to return the favor upon occasion and for the same remuneration. Mr. Winstead was one of the three first trus- tees of the township and one of the most active men of the times.

Upon the organization of the township as Leith, James Winstead, Z. P. Lea and Jacob Yost were installed as trustees, and G. W. Leith and William Brown as justices of the peace. Stephen White was first clerk, but re- signed the same day and was succeeded by Ozro N. Kellogg. Abram Shaffer was con- stable ; Mordecai McCauley and Z. P. Lea, su- pervisors; Adam Bair, G. W. Leith and Lewis Longwell, fence viewers, and David Kisor was treasurer. G. W. Leith and David Kisor also were overseers of the poor. The first election was held at the home of Mordecai McCauley, and James Winstead, John Cronebaugh and John Horrick were elected trustees; David Kisor, treasurer, and James B. Robinson, clerk. The first officers after the name was changed to Tod township were: James Win- stead, Isaac Miller and Daniel Tuttle, trus- tees; John Forster, clerk; Isaac Miller, treas- urer ; F. G. Hesche, assessor; Frank Rapenow, constable; and William Andrews, judge of election.

When the name of the township was changed from Leith to Centre George W. Leith immediately tendered his resignation as justice, and his friend George Garrett also resigned.

The various justices of the peace of Tod township are as follows:

Charles B. Garrett-1836.

George W. Leith-1839. William Brown-1839.

Daniel Tuttle-1842-45.

Thomas L. Lea-1844.

Robert Andrews-1846.

Cyrus F. Jaqueth-1847.

John Gordon-1849. Jacob Steiner-1850.

Horace Martin-1851-57. James Clegard-1852.

Samuel Swisher-1852-55.

O. W. Johnson-1854. Frederick Wise-1857-60.

G. W. J. Willoughby-1860-63.

David Neeley-1862-65-68.

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY

Frank P. Davis-1866-69.

G. P. Lea-1870. Caleb B. Foster-1871-74-77-80. Rufus Aurend-1873-76. David Hosterman-1877-80.

Gust Leonhart-1882-86.

T. F. Coder-1884-88-91-97-1900-03-07-10. Deloss Jump-1887-90-93-96.

S. M. Wilson-1894.

W. E. Coonrod-1899-02-05-07-II.

The first recorded marriages in the town- ship were those of Isaac Miller and Jane Lea and also Stephen White and Mary Lea, in 1838, Zalmon Rowse going out from Bucyrus to perform the ceremony. A trip from Bucy- rus to Oceola was no easy matter in those days. James C. Steen was an early Bucyrus justice, and he was sent for to perform the marriage ceremony of William W. Norton, his bride be- ing Mary Brown of Oceola. Mr. Steen in his recollections gives the following account of his trip, the marriage occurring on the evening of Jan. 8, 1841 : "I was called upon to perform this ceremony at a time of year when the most miserable of all roads were at their worst. There was sufficient frost to make the walking uncertain and the ice on the streams unsup- portable. It was impossible to drive from Bu- cyrus to Oceola in a buggy, could one have been procured. Allowing myself plenty of time, I concluded to make the trip on foot. After a circuitous meandering through the woods, over logs, and through mudholes, I arrived at Grass Run, which was quite swollen and bridgeless. The lateness of the hour forced me to a hasty decision, which was to attempt to cross on rather an insecure limb; but like a friend in need, it failed to furnish its support at the most critical moment, giving me an opportunity to rehearse the oath before the evening ceremony, in water up to my neck, at freezing point. I arrived a little late at the village, and coolly walked to a friend's to brush up a little for the festive occasion. The ceremony was per- formed without referring to the incident !" The first known birth in the township was a son of William Hartman, born in 1838.

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History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 50

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