History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 52

Author: Hopley, John E. (John Edward), 1850-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago,Ill., Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1302

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give way to farming land. Levi Arnold, was a carpenter, and the first to work at his trade in the township, erecting many of the build- ings for the late settlers. The first orchard was planted by James Richards in 1825. Jon- athan Dickson had a large family of children, and after they were grown and had homes for themselves, there were thirteen settled around the family homestead, so close that when his dinner bell rang it could be heard by the entire thirteen, but this tradition handed down fails to state whether they responded to this "call for refreshments" at the family home. But on Thanksgiving Days they did repair to the old homestead year after year, until finally, in August, 1881, the children and the grandchildren and the great grandchildren paid their last tribute of respect to their an- cestral pioneer, and he was laid to rest in the Hanna graveyard.

The first known birth in the township is disputed. There are two claimants, and it has always been given to Arthur Cleland, a son of William and Rachel Cleland, who was born on Feb. 6, 1826. The other claimant is An- drew Dickson, and his tombstone in the Hanna graveyard shows he was born Feb. 6, 1826, and died Dec. 9, 1893. As both birth-dates are the same there is abundant reason for the double claim.

After 1830, among the settlers arriving were George Amspaugh, Jacob Klahn, and Andrew Dickson, Sr., in 1831; Henry Bilsing, Richard Cahill, Dr. Peter Carlton, Conrad Ebner, Jacob Kemp and George Tempy in 1832; Philip Ackerman, John Baumgartner, J. J. Bauer, Leanderline Gosser, John Heim- gartner, Samuel Hagarman, Christian Maker- ley, Andrew Miller, John J. Rubly, Jacob Reichlin, John B. Yetzer, Jacob Scheibly, Gottleib Schneider and John Weaver in 1833; Adam Bach, Adam Feik and Reiter in 1834; John Fulton, John Farrell, Thomas Mahan, Samuel Reed and Jefferson Walters in 1835; Dr. A. N. Bee, Charles Gowan and Samuel Wiggins in 1836.

A few of the above settled in the northern part of the township, but most of them were Germans who came with their families and erected cabins among the swamps and marshes in the southern part of the township. A worse place for settlement could hardly be imagined,

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as the marshes were filled with venomous snakes and other reptiles, some of large size, the rattlesnakes being especially numerous and deadly, while the atmosphere was thickly charged with the germs of fever and ague. The Germans had selected this land, or rather had been obliged to take it, because of its cheapness, as their finances had been nearly exhausted by the long journey from their na- tive land. They wasted no time in regrets, but set to work with courage and energy to improve the surrounding conditions. They drained the marshes, made clearings and erected cabins, and as the land became drier the air became better and the neighborhood more healthy. They also killed off the snakes and other noxious animals, so that in the course of a few years a great improvement was visible in the locality and the land be- came more valuable. The soil was naturally rich and when the water was drained off, yielded bountiful crops. The first of these set- tlers to arrive was Mr. Tempy, who came in 1831. Leanderline Gosser was a shoemaker and cobbler and had a small shop in one end of his cabin, and he also tanned the leather he needed for his work. In 1832 he planted the first apple trees in the German settlement. Yetzer also planted a small orchard two years later. The latter was a man of excellent education and soon became a leader among the Germans, being active in all public enterprises and es- pecially in promoting the cause of education. Beach was a carpenter and erected the first frame houses in the southern part of the town- ship, beginning in 1835. Bauer worked at cabinet-making, and although he had never learned the trade, he contrived to manufacture rough articles of furniture, such as stands, chairs, tables, and also made coffins for the set- tlers. As these Germans could not speak Eng- lish, they had for some time but little commui- cation with the English-speaking settlements, and were thus an almost independent colony. Most of the settlers obtained their supplies of flour, powder and shot, and other necessary articles at Mansfield, whisky being usually procured at Monroeville, where there were some extensive distilleries. This latter article was an absolute necessity in southern Vernon, as it was the only medicinal remedy for the poison of the rattlesnakes, and also a safe-

guard from the chills and ague which infected this miasmatic region. No record has been handed down of any deaths from the venomous rattlesnakes, and it is probable that none oc- curred. Neither is there any record handed down of the deaths of the little children, brought to this malarious region, with its im- pure water, and swampy marshy ground, where only the strongest constitutions could survive the unhealthy surroundings, yet these deaths of the little ones did occur, and it is probable that in southern Vernon, the same as in the southern part of Bucyrus township, there are very few square miles where there are not one or more unknown graves, where the sorrowing parents laid to rest the little one whose death was due solely to a want of pure air and water. It is also safe to say that in the pioneer days these early graves were marked by some rudely carved stone, or wooden slab, but as time passed and the farms passed to other hands these markings decayed, and today no trace remains. Of fifty early graveyards in this county that are still cared for and every one established prior to 1850, the records of the ancient stones that are yet legible show that the first burial in twenty of them was a child, in twelve a woman, and in eighteen a man, showing again the survival of the strongest.

Charles and Catherine Warner came to Ver- non township in 1829, settling near West Lib- erty. His son John helped his father to clear the land and later learned the carpenter's trade, and went into business for himself. He built a little shop, but soon after it was completed it took fire and was totally destroyed. He im- mediately rebuilt and was in the business a number of years.

David Anderson came to Vernon about 1830 and followed farming for awhile. He then became a merchant at DeKalb and was thus occupied for about fifteen years. Later he went to Mansfield and became a prominent banker. Henry and Christina Bilsing, with their son Adam, came to the township in 1832. He built the first house in that vicinity-the old Bilsing home, in the southern part of the township.

J. G. Stough came to Crawford county in November, 1826, settling in Liberty township, where his father joined him in 1829. The

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latter was a Lutheran minister, who, entering the ministry in 1793, preached for 56 years. J. G. Stough's maternal grandfather, Traut- man, was born in Maryland and while very young, Indians killed his father and carried his three sisters into captivity. When Mr. Trautman grew older he came to Ohio and finding his sisters in an Indian camp on the Kilbuck, near the present city of Wooster, he rescued them and took them home. Mr. Stough after farming in Liberty for forty years, moved to northeastern Vernon.

Peter Linker came to Ohio in 1832. He settled on a farm in Vernon township and resided there until his death on Oct. 4, 1870. In the spring of 1827, George M. Keitch came to Crawford county, and built a cabin on land now owned by William and Albert Bilsing in Vernon. He died Dec. 21, 1827, one of the earliest deaths in the southern part of the township, and was the first known burial in the Biddle graveyard, a mile east of his home.

The first known death in northern Vernon was that of David Holstein, which occurred in 1833. Mrs. Akerman died in the southern part of the township in the same year.

Like all the early settlers, at the start, the pioneers were compelled to go long distances to have their grain ground or do the work by hand. In 1833 Conrad Walters erected a frame grist-mill near West Liberty, and did a good business, but later in 1836 Samuel Reed built a better mill two miles east, and in this placed two sets of stones, one of roughly cut "nigger heads" for the corn, the other a pair of first-class French buhrs for grinding the wheat. After this mill started the Walters mill was discontinued. The Reed mill continued for about ten years and was then discontinued, for lack of custom. These were the only two grist-mills ever in the town- ship. Samuel Reed also ran a small saw-mill in connection with his grist-mill. In 1837 Isaac Vanhorn had a large saw-mill on the bank of the Loss Creek, located at a very favorable point, for he had water sufficient to run it for nine months in the year. The mill later was run by a Mr. Kilgore who in turn sold it to Conrad Walters, and then it passed into the possession of Charles Warner, and was abandoned. In 1862 Nicholas Fetter built a steam saw-mill in the eastern part of

the township. As early as 1834 Conrad Wal- ters started an ashery, which he continued for several years, and in 1844 Dimmick & Gibbs began the manufacture of potash on a more extensive scale, reaching an output of seven to eight tons per annum. Jacob Kemp started a brick yard in 1838, and a few brick buildings were erected instead of frame.

In 1825 Levi Arnold entered 80 acres of government land in section No. 17 of what is now Vernon township. He was a carpenter and house-builder and erected his shop near his cabin in the woods on the site of where is now the village of West Liberty. Just south of him lived Conrad Walters, who had moved there two years previously, and opened a cooper shop following that occupation in connection with his farming and also started a tavern. Charles Warner, a cabinet-maker, located north of Arnold in 1829, and he also did business at his trade as well as farming.

By 1831 the section had become so thickly settled that a schoolhouse was erected near Conrad Walter's tavern, and in 1833 a log church was erected one half mile south of Arnold. That same year Walters started a grist-mill, run by horse power, and in 1834 an ashery. About that time Thomas Dean bought Arnold's farm, and he saw that with- out doubt there was an opening for a town on his land. It was at the crossing of the Portland road and the road between Bucyrus and Shelby. The nearest town to the south was Galion, about nine miles away, and to the northeast was Shelby, nearly the same distance. His scheme was to have all the dif- ferent industries centralized at the one point, and it would form the nucleus of a town and be more convenient for the settlers and better for the mechanics themselves. So early in the spring of 1835 he had John Stewart, the county surveyor of Richland county, lay out a town on the site where the two roads crossed. The plat was filed in the office of the county recorder in Richland county on May 28, 1835, and gave the location as on "the north cen- tral part of the south half of section No. 17, Vernon township, Richland county." There were only two streets on the plat, the Port- land road was named Columbus street, and the other road was called Bucyrus street. After the settlement of West Liberty, the road

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from Bucyrus to Shelby became generally known as the Bucyrus and West Liberty road.

There were 28 lots in the plat of which 20 were on Columbus street, ten on each side, and eight on Bucyrus street. Some of the lots in the new town sold as high as $25. There were several buildings in the town, as early as 1830, Levi Arnold having erected a double log-cabin for James Gillespie. Jacob Kemp and Andrew Miller both built log cab- ins, but they were very small, as they had but one window each. After the town was laid out, Kemp built a larger building and ran a hotel; this was a two-story affair and was a frame structure, the first frame in the village. Charles Warner had started his little cabinet maker's shop in 1830, and continued in the business for 18 years when he sold out to Henry Balsor. Thomas Gill had a cooper shop, Jefferson Wallace a blacksmith shop, of goods, but the town had grown; it was John Kaler a shoe shop and Hiram D. Cross a tailor shop.

In 1838, the town boasted of a few little shops, five or six houses, but it had no store. And the first store started at West Liberty was the first introduction into the county of the shrewd business man "gold bricking" the unsophisticated citizen. A young peddler who drove through the country with a horse and wagon, furnishing dry goods and other necessaries to the farmers in the small vil- lages, happened to drop into Kemp's tavern. He spoke in glowing terms of the thrift and enterprise of the place, expanded the possibili- ties of the dinky little cooper shop, carpenter shop and shoe shop, and let his brilliant and vivid imagination wander into the future of what the town would be, situated as it was at the junction of the two most important roads in the state; regretted business would not al- low him to remain or he would certainly start a store in the little village. All it needed was a store, and the man who started one was bound to make a fortune, and he wiped the tears from his eyes when he described the opportunity of which he was unable to take advantage. He only expected to unload his stock, about $600 worth, on one man, but he had three offers. It never phased the smooth young man. He dealt with the entire three in secret, and unloaded a third of his goods on each, and with his empty wagon quietly

left the town, and Jacob Kemp, Andrew Mil- ler and Samuel Dean learned with astonish- ment that each one of the three had purchased goods and intended to make a fortune in the dry goods business. Neither one would give way, so three stores were started, and to crowd out the others, each sent to Pittsburg and added largely to the stock. There was not sufficient business for one store, and all three discontinued, and just about that time young Bailey got in his "double cross" by returning to the village, buying all three stores at his own price, and he left the town a second time but this time with a loaded wagon in- stead of an empty one. The transaction broke up Samuel Dean.

The storekeepers were only a few years ahead of their time. In 1845 I. N. Frye and John Kaler started a store with $5,000 worth now the centre of a well settled region, and was the second most important business centre of the county, doing then more business than Galion. In 1850 the goods of Frye & Kaler invoiced $8,000, but then as now the invoice was not a perfect criterion, as later, Frye sold to C. G. Malic; and the business of Kaler & Malic demanded all the time of the proprietors and Dr. George Keller was employed to keep the books of the firm, and he stated their busi- ness reached, one year at least, $100,000. Besides a general store, they dealt in grain and stock. John Kaler came to Bucyrus as county treasurer, and C. G. Malic ran the business alone; after a few years he sold out to Brown & Guiss and came to Bucyrus, and went into the dry goods business with his old partner under the old name of Kaler & Malic. Their bookkeeper also came, but no longer to keep books, as his practice as a physician in Bucyrus required all his time. Guiss sold to James Gloyd, and they were compelled to make an assignment, J. J. Bauer securing the stock. William Brown went to Tiro and be- came one of the prominent men of that rising young town. The advent of railroads had made it impossible to pay the high charges for the handling of freight, and the interior towns could not compete with those more favorably located. Galion in 1850, which was of less importance than West Liberty as a commercial centre, from the time of its rail-

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road had expanded by leaps and bounds until it became the largest place in the county; Crestline in 1850 was a wilderness, and in 1860 an important town, and from the time of railroads West Liberty was on the down- ward grade, its industries quit business and finally in 1902 its post office was discontinued and with it the little notion store gave up the ghost, while the last saloon made a feeble struggle to survive, gave up the hopeless fight and finally closed for lack of patronage, and what was once the most thriving village of Northeastern Crawford is today a short street with a few old frame houses fast crumbling to decay.

In its palmiest days several physicians lo- cated in the village, the first was Dr. J. C. Wood in 1842, but he died in 1847. Later Drs. H. B. Hutchinson, James Aikens, and George Keller and Joseph Bevier located there. At one time it also boasted of a dis- tillery, Gibbs & Main starting a small one in 1844, with a capacity of about fifteen gallons a day. This output was consumed by the local trade in that section, but notwithstand- ing this the firm only continued in business about a year. About 1838 a temperance cru- sade was started in the northern part of the township and a Mr. Kile tried the experiment of having a barn raising without the necessary lubricant for the men, but the affair was a failure as there were not enough men present to do the work. The temperance movement was an equal failure, the time was not yet ripe to change the habits of the early pioneers.

The mail is now supplied by rural route. Commencing March 24, 1868, for over thirty years Peter Weller was the postmaster, and he lived in Bucyrus all that time his father running the office as deputy, with the last little store in the village. The postmasters of the village were as follows

David Anderson, Aug. 12, 1841; Isaac N. Frye, Dec. 30, 1845; A. N. Miller, May 23, 1850; Thomas C. Eakin, July 15, 1851; Sam- uel Gloyd, Jan. 26, 1852; George Parsons, May 26, 1852; George C. Brown, March 3, 1865; Peter Weller, March 24, 1868; Isaiah Mowen, June 13, 1900. The office was dis- continued May 31, 1902, and is now supplied by rural route.

In 1827 John Nimmon came to Bucyrus;

he was accompanied by his nephew, Richard W. Cahill, a young man 24 years of age. Mr. Nimmon started a store and his nephew was his assistant. One might think that in a little country store in those early days the principal job would be to "kill time." But in those days nearly all business was on credit, little cash passed, and what the farmer bought he paid for in the products he raised. Exten- sive credit was given. And one of the duties of Mr. Cahill was the collecting. Starting on his rounds he made his trip through the surrounding country, being gone for days, and returning with very little cash, but with what- ever farm products he could collect, driving in the hogs and even cattle. This stock was assembled at Bucyrus, and when a drove had been secured Cahill started on his long tramp to Pittsburg, where he sold the cattle and hogs, and in exchange brought back the goods needed in the store, the trip taking over a month. For three years Cahill was clerk, bookkeeper, collector, and driver for the store, and in 1831, his uncle was elected to the Leg- islature, became the Hon. John Nimmon, and disposed of his store. Young Cahill was tired of the store business so he purchased 160 acres of land in Vernon township, to which he removed. His father was Abram Cahill, who had been an officer in the militia in Westmore- land county, Pa., and at one time had com- mand of all the forces in western Pennsyl- vania. He came with his family to Wayne county in 1817. Mr. R. W. Cahill after set- tling in Vernon in 1832, devoted his attention to farming, his land being south of the pres- ent village of Tiro. The region was becom- ing rapidly developed, and Mr. Cahill was easily the most influential man in Vernon township, and was the recognized leader of his party in western Richland county. Through his influence a post office was established in that section, and he was appointed postmaster by Andrew Jackson, the post office being in his house. It was named DeKalb, after Baron DeKalb, a general in the Revolutionary War. He continued to hold this office until the elec- tion of Gen. William Henry Harrison, when he forwarded his resignation, but received a letter from the postmaster general suggesting that there would be no change in the postmas- tership at DeKalb. Cahill was an old school

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Democrat; he believed with his patron saint, Andrew Jackson, that "to the victor belongs the spoils," so he wrote a polite letter stating that he was a Democrat, and he declined to hold office under a Whig administration, and the office passed to David Anderson, the lead- ing Whig, and when he left DeKalb it was con- solidated with the post office at West Liberty. In the October election of 1841, Mr. Cahill was elected as a member of the Legislature for Richland county, serving two years, and in 1850 he was the member of the Constitutional Convention from Crawford county, which gave the state its present constitution, without the amendments adopted in 1912. He died Oct. 4, 1886, and was buried in the Hanna graveyard.

The immediate neighborhood of the DeKalb post office was thickly settled, and about three quarters of a mile north of the Cahill farm Samuel Hagarman had a blacksmith shop and there was a carpenter and cabinetmaker shop near it. David Anderson, who owned the land adjoining these two shops, concluded that it would be a profitable undertaking to lay out a town, with the two shops and the post office as a good starter. It was near the junction of a north and south road with the road from Bucyrus to Plymouth. He accordingly had Christian Wise, the Richland county surveyor, lay out and plat the town around the two shops. The plat was filed in the recorder's office in Richland county, on Nov. 20, 1835, and the location was given as "the southwest part of the northeast quarter of section No. 5, Vernon township, Richland county." The only street in the town was the old Bucyrus and Plymouth road, and it was given the name of Bucyrus street. There were sixteen lots in the town, eight on each side of the street. The town grew, and on Oct. 15, 1838, Ander- son filed a plat for an addition to the original town. The new plat consisted of 12 more lots and two large outlots. This new addi- tion was west of the original town, and brought the village to the road running north from West Liberty into Auburn township, the new street on the west was called Colum- bus, as just north of West Liberty the north and south road joined the old Portland road running to Columbus.

DeKalb in its palmiest days between 1835

and 1860, attained a high state of commercial and industrial standing and was one of the successful of the many towns projected dur- ing the era of town building which had such a rage in the county from 1833 to 1840. Dur- ing that period there were sixteen towns* laid out and platted and placed on the market in four hundred square miles of what is now the county of Crawford.

Immediately after DeKalb was started Dr. Peter Carlton opened a general store, with a stock of about $2,000, carrying a line of drugs. In 1840 David Anderson started a store, which he ran for five years and then sold to Gabriel and Cornelius Fox, who disposed of the goods and retired from business. George Cummins started a store in 1840, and in 1842, Elias Cramer started with a supply of groceries. with a bar attached, the only saloon ever in the village. A shoemaker's shop located in the village, and a wagon-maker's shop fol- lowed. In 1835 John Felton started a tannery with five vats and Charles Gowan also had a small tannery. In 1837 Thomas Mahan and Samuel Wiggins erected a large two story frame, and here they started a wool-carding and cloth-dressing mill, employing several hands, and for several years did a good busi- ness, but eventually it was discontinued. The DeKalb Seminary was started, a Presbyterian Institution of which the Rev. Mr. Thompson was president. It was locally known as the "Boys and Girls Seminary," as it was open to both sexes. At its height it reached an en- rollment of over sixty pupils, but it gradually declined; in 1858 it had an enrollment of 48 pupils when the September term started. Mr. Thompson was then principal; Miss Emma Irwin, preceptress, and Dr. George Keller, secretary. When the war broke out, the mem- bership was still less, and for lack of patron- age it was discontinued.

The importance of Tiro was such that in 1847 the postoffice was re-established there in 1847, with the appointment of Charles Webb as postmaster on Feb. 23, 1847 he was suc- ceeded by George Cummins on Jan. 28, 1848, the postoffice being in his store, and when he

* These sixteen towns were Annapolis, Chatfield, Deckertown, DeKalb, East Liberty, Galion, Jacksonville, Leesville, Middletown, New Washington, New Win- chester, North Liberty, Olentangy, Waynesburg, Win- gert's Corners and West Liberty.

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History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 52

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