History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 35

Author: Perrin, William Henry, [from old catalog] comp; Battle, J. H., [from old catalog] comp; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852- [from old catalog] comp; Baskin & Battey, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Ohio > Crawford County > History of Crawford County and Ohio > Part 35

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The delay in permanently locating the coun- ty scat, caused a delay in erecting public build- ings. The Commissioners provided for the first sessions of the courts in private houses, but feeling the need of a jail, contracted with Z. Rowse, in 1827, to build one of squared tim- ber. This served to accommodate the county as a place for the archives of the county as well

as the rogues, but was destroyed by fire about 1831, destroying all the records of the Com- missioners up to October 31, 1831. When, in 1830, the question of the location of the seat of justice was settled, the proprietors of Bucy- rus donated Lots 89, 90 and 92, and the citi- zens made liberal contributions to erect the public buildings. In this year the first court house was built and finished, in 1832, though not finally accepted by the Commissioners un- til June 4, 1833. Col. Kilbourne was archi- tect, and Nicholas Cronebaugh, Abraham Holm, Sr., and William Early, contractors. There is no clew to the specifications, but from later records it is ascertained that it was built with a cupola, and the whole was painted white on the outside. The inside was painted a light blue. In 1837, a bell was added, at a cost of about $100. In this year, a proposition to build a new jail was submitted to the people, which was indorsed, and, on February 4, 1839, Z. Rowse received a contract for the building. The records give no inkling of specifications, but it was built of brick, on the court-house yard, and was finally accepted by the county in July, 1840, and fenced around at a cost of $58, in 1844. In 1854, the building of a new brick court house was agitated, and, in 1856, was completed at a cost of about $18,000. O. S. Kinney, of Cleveland, was the architect, and Auld & Miller, of Mount Gilead, Ohio, the contractors. In the fall of this year, a proposition to spend $12,000, in buying a farm and build- ing an Infirmary building, was submitted to the people and lost, but in the following spring, April, 1857, the people voted for a new jail. Accordingly, on August 3, 1858, a contract was entered into with E. Jacobs & Co., of Cincin- nati, to build the whole of the prison part, at a cost of $5,500, and with George B. Terwilleger, of Bucyrus, for all the work, save the prison part, for $3,076.98. This was placed on Lot 88, which was donated to the county for this pur- pose by Samuel Norton. Finally, in 1867, the

217

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

building of an Infirmary was undertaken, at a cost of $33,000, David Shank being the con- tractor. This building is a large two-story rectangular brick building, with basement, with an addition in the rear, and is finely situated on the farm in Whetstone Township. The style of construction is plain, verging on unsightli- ness. A recently erected building for the in- sane is much more presentable, though showing off the main building at a disadvantage. The farm is composed of 300 acres of good farming land, and is provided with good barns and out- buildings.

" At the time the town of Bucyrus was laid out, the only outlet to the lake with teams was by way of New Haven, and the time required to make the trip with an ox team was usually from ten days to two weeks. Directly north was an almost unbroken wilderness to the Hu- ron Plains, and very few settlers between this and Sandusky City. The citizens here raised, by subscription, funds to open a wagon track through to Honey Creek. Any person that ever passed over it found it a hard road to travel. At this time, we had a weekly mail from Marion and Sandusky City. At times in the winter, when the ground was not sufficiently frozen in the woods to bear a horse, the carrier would leave his horse here, take the mail on his shoulders, and carry it afoot to Sandusky and back. One of the first, and probably the most important public improvement, and one that did more for the interest of the town and the opening-up and settlement of the county, was the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike road.

" In 1826, an act was passed by the General Assembly incorporating seven gentlemen of Franklin County, Judge Merriman and Col. Rowse, of Bucyrus, and seventeen others named in the act, and residing along the line of road, and their associates, by the name of the Colum- bus and Sandusky Turnpike Company, with a capital of $100,000, the stock divided into shares of $100 each, and the company to be governed

by a board of nine directors. The charter was accepted by the company, and, by an act of Congress, passed in 1827, there were about 32,000 acres of land given to the State of Ohio in trust for the use of said company, to aid them in the construction of the road. Soon after, the incorporators met in the brick school- house in Bucyrus, and completed the organiza- tion of the company. Col. Kilbourne was sur- veyor, and Orange Johnson was one of the locating Commissioners and the principal agent as long as the road was under the control of the company. It was some seven years in building, and was finished in 1834, and was 106 miles in length from Columbus to Sandusky. The aver- age cost was a little more than $700 per mile. It was a splendid road when dry, but being only a clay or mud pike, in the spring or wet season of the year, it was in places almost impassable. This finally wore out the patience of those who were obliged to pay toll for the use of the road, and an attack was made upon the toll gates by an armed mob, which started out from Colum- bus and leveled every gate to the northern part of Delaware County. This brought the question before the Legislature of 1843, which repealed the act incorporating the company. The case was brought before the Legislature again for a re-hearing, but was passed over from time to time, until the session of 1856, when the Senate passed a bill authorizing the company to bring suit against the State, but this was lost in the House, which seems to have ended the matter.

"The citizens, from the time the building of this turnpike was determined upon, took a lively interest in having it pass through Bucy- rus. For some years, it was the great thorough- fare of the State from the river to the lakes, and was the principal road to market for the eoun- ties of Delaware, Union and Marion. Seventy- five wagons loaded with wheat were counted passing through Bucyrus in one day, all of which would return loaded with goods, and the constant traffic incident to so much transporta-

218

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

tion, created business, and was an active stimu- lus in developing the town and county.

" For the first ten years after the settlement of the county, it may be truly said of the in- habitants that they were poor, having but little to sell, and no market for that little, except what supplied the wants of new-comers, and some cattle and hogs which had to be driven mostly to the East on foot, and there sold at barely living prices. One steer or cow would bring about as much now as four did at that time, and other products were equally low. After the New York Canal was completed, there was quite a change for the better ; prices of store goods came down, and many articles of produce, particularly wheat, found a ready market at the lake.

" About 1828-29, there was a very marked improvement in times. Emigrants, in large numbers, were arriving, many of them substan- tial men with considerable means, who bought out many of the first settlers, enabling such as were in debt to pay up with cash, thus gradu- ally substituting a money currency for our old system of barter. About this time, the Ger- mans commenced settling rapidly in the county, some of them locating on low, wet land, which they have since brought into a fine state of cultivation.

" At this time a better class of houses was being put up than heretofore. In 1831, Mr. Ilalın got into his new brick hotel in Bucyrus, now the Sims House. The following summer, Mr. Norton built his brick house at the north end of the town. In this year, 1832, the United States Land Office was removed to Bucyrus, from Tiffin. Thomas Gillipsie was Register, and Joseph H. Larwill, Receiver. Lands were now rapidly entered ; frequently, on Monday morning (or if the office had been closed for a day or two), from twenty to forty persons have been seen gathered around the office of the Register, waiting for the door to open, each fearful some other person was after the same

land he wished to obtain. This was the com- mencement of the days of wild speculation that apparently pervaded the whole country. Crawford County, being comparatively new and less wealthy, did not partake of this spirit so fully as the older sections. The removal of the Government deposits from the United States Bank to local banks gave an impetus in this direction, which resulted in the opening of a large number of banks and the flooding of the country with paper money. Produce and real estate, both in town and country, ran up to fabulous prices. A kind of mania for land appeared to possess the people. This continued until 1837, when the bubble burst, and Craw- ford County suffered keenly with the rest of the nation for its folly. The recovery was slow, and it was not before 1845 that the effects of the panic of '37 could be said to have lost their power. The establishment of the State Bank in this year had a salutary effect upon the business of the county. The Irish famine, occurring directly after this, creating a demand for our produce, which brought coin principally in return, added to the improved feeling here. The Mexican war, closely following this event, resulting in large expenditure by the Govern- ment, was of great benefit to a new country like Crawford, that needed nothing so much as a good market. Then followed the discovery of gold in California. These causes together furnished the county, with the rest of the coun- try, an abundance of money and an excellent currency. The county now improved rapidly ; towns were flourishing, and the farming inter- ests were never more flourishing."

The growth of the county in point of popula- tion has been regular and healthful, as will appear from the accompanying table. In the census of 1830, it has been found impossible to ascertain the proper division of the total among all the townships. So far as given, the information has been derived from reliable sources.

219

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

TOWNS.

1830

1840

1850

1860

1870

1880

Auburn ...

951

1072

910

1176

Antrim.

139

261

2315

1551

1718

1238

Bucyrus Village.

2180

3066

3848

Center ...

Chatfield

878

1351

1430

1247

126;

Cranberry

680

1042

1339

1281

1821

Crawford.

812

4016

407

370

500

lloImes.

744

1238

1639

1570

1660

Jackson

636

1711

1813

1742

3.86

Crestline Village

1487

2279

2787

*Jefferson ...

1218

Liberty.

t55

1469

1782

1788

1597

1685

Lykens

742

1185

1265

1140

1247

Pitt.

423

......

Polk

1318

944

836

883

Galion Village ..

579

679

822

792

665

658

Sycamore

334

958

545

566

583

Todd

575

1093

1156

1100

Tymochtee

1659

1276

1224

988

1038

Whetstone

750

1124

1657

1524

1490

1840

Totals

4778 13167 18177

23881 25556 30575

In bringing this chapter to a close, the name of Johnny Appleseed, whose kindly charity and generous philanthropy wrought so much for every frontier community in Central Ohio, should not be forgotten. The scene of his early ac- tivity in this State was in Richland County, and Crawford, which profited so largely by its close neighborhood to this section, certainly owes him the tribute of a good word. He was fre- quently seen here by the earliest settlers, and nine out of ten of the early orchards here are said to have originated from his nurseries. " He was born in the State of Massachusetts. As early as 1780, he was seen in the autumn, for two or three successive years, along the banks of the Potomac River in Eastern Virginia. He attended the cider-mills when the farmers made their cider, and picked the seeds from the pom- ace after the juice had been expressed. This occupation procured for him the sobriquet of Johnny Appleseed. After he had procured a sufficient quantity of seeds for his purpose, amounting to about a half bushel at one visit, he started westward with his sack of seeds upon his back, on foot and alone, to cross the Alle- ghanies, and to penetrate the wilderness west

of the mountains, embracing what was then known as the ' New Purchase,' and which is now a part of the State of Ohio.

" Years afterward, when the hardy pioneers from Western Virginia and Pennsylvania, scaled the Alleghany Mountains and sought homes in the valleys of the Ohio, they found the little nurseries of seedling apple trees on Braddock's Field, at Wheeling Creek, the Flats of Grave Greek, Holiday's Cove, and at other places along the Ohio Valley.

" The eccentric, but ever amiable Chapman,* was also found here, ready to sell his seedlings to the settlers at a 'fippennybit' apiece. His habits of life were then as they remained until his decease. He would spend a week or ten days among the white settlers, or borderers, then penetrate to his nurseries on the banks of the Tuscarawas, or, as that river was then called in the language of the aborgines, Ne-tusta-raws. At length the fertile soil of Richland County in- vited this enterprise and industry farther west. Here were traced the foot-prints of Johnny Applesced. On the banks of the Mohican Creek, at Mansfield, near the present site of the depot of the Pittsburgh & Chicago Railroad, was found one of his seedling nurseries. For years he remained in the vicinity of Mansfield, as his home or headquarters, whence he would make trips of two or three months length, farther west into the wilderness, to attend to his nur- series.

"Near his plantations, which were remote from any habitation, he provided comfortable shelters from the inclemency of the weather. Hollow trees and hollow logs, provided with a deep nest of dry leaves served this purpose in some cases. At his nursery in Sandusky Township, near the present location of Leesville in Crawford County, he erected a shelter by rearing large sections of the bark of an elm tree against a log. Under this he had a home. From this nursery was obtained many of the

*llis real name was John Chapman.

* Erected in 1873.

1967

3523

5638

Sandusky

...

Texas.

......

Vernon.

Mifflin

316

......

Dallas.

......

Bucyrus.

1654

132

220

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

orchards of Springfield Township, Richland County. The father of the writer, Mordecai Bartley, Joseph Welch, Richard Congdon, Matthew Curran and Jonathan Beach, went to this nursery in company, spent the night with Johnny and packed their trees home the next day on horses. They supped and broke their fast in the morning with the recluse, both meals consisting of mush made of Indian meal. The culinary utensils of the household consisted of a camp kettle, a plate, and a spoon.

"The residence of Chapman at Mansfield covered the period of the war of 1812 and sev- eral years following it. During the dangers and alarms of this period, Johnny Appleseed was regarded in the light of a protecting angel. On the night of the massacre of Seymour's family on the Black Fork, within a few miles of Mansfield, he left the house of Seymour on foot and entered Clinton, one mile north of Mount Vernon, by sunrise, pausing everywhere on his way to give the alarm. Although I was then but a mere child, I can remember, as if it were yesterday, the warning cry of Johnny Apple- seed, as he stood before my father's log cabin door on that night. I remember the precise language, the clear, loud voice, the deliberate exclamation, and the fearful thrill it awakened in my bosom. 'Fly ! fly for your lives ! the Indians are murdering and scalping Seymours and Copuses.' My father sprang to the door, but the messenger was gone, and midnight, silence reigned without. Many other circum- stances incident to the exposed frontier settle- ments in days of danger which tried men's souls, manifested the cool courage, the discreet fore- sight, and the mature and deliberate judgment, as well as the fidelity, patience and abnega- tion of this frontier philanthropist.

"John Chapman was a small man, wiry and thin in habit. His cheeks were hollow, and his face and neck dark and skinny from exposure to the weather. His mouth was small ; his nose small, and turned up so much as apparently

to raise his upper lip. His eye was dark and deeply set in his head, but searching and penetrating. His hair, black and straight, was parted in the middle and permitted to fall about his neck. His hair withal, was thin, fine and glossy. He never wore a full beard, but shaved all clean, except a thin roach at the bottom of his throat. His beard was lightly set, and very black. This was his appearance in 1840, when the writer last saw him in Mansfield, and at that time he had changed but little, if any, in general appearance during the twenty-five years preceding. The dress of the man was unique. The writer assumes to say that he never wore a coffee sack as a part of his ap- parel. He may have worn the off-cast clothing of others ; he probably did so. Although often in rags and tatters, and at best in the most plain and simple wardrobe, he was always clean, and, in his most desolate rags, comfort- able, and never repulsive. He generally, when the weather would permit, wore no clothing on his feet, which were consequently dark, hard and horny. He was frequently seen with shirt, pantaloons, and a long-tailed coat of the tow- linen then much worn by the farmers. This coat was a device of his own ingenuity, and in itself was a curiosity. It consisted of one width of the coarse fabric, which descended from his neck to his heels. It was without collar. In this robe were cut two arm-holes, into which were placed two straight sleeves. The mother of the writer made it up for him under his im- mediate direction and supervision.

" John Chapman was a regularly constituted minister of the Church of the New Jerusalem, according to the revelations of Emanuel Swe- denborg. He was also a constitued missionary of that faith, under the authority of the regu- lar association of that faith in the city of Bos- ton, Mass. The writer has seen and examined his credentials as to the latter of these. This strange man was a beautiful reader, and never traveled without several of the Swedenborgian

221

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

pamphlets with him, which he generally carried in his bosom, and which he was ever ready to produce and read upon request. He never at- tempted to preach or to address public audiences. In private consultations, he often became en- thusiastic, when he would frequently arise to expound the philosophy of his faith. On such occasions, his eyes would flash, his wiry little form would swell, his voice expand, and his clear thought would burst into a startling in- spiration of eloquence, complete and consum- mate, exalted, beautiful, forcible and replete with chaste figures and argumentative deduc- tions. His diction was pure and chaste, and his language simple but grammatical.

"The year of the erection of the old court house in Mansfield, while the blocks of founda- tion stone and the timber lay scattered upon the public square, a wandering street preacher, of the name of Paine, a man with a long, white beard, who called himself ' The Pilgrim,' entered the town. After blowing a long tin horn which he carried with him, he assembled an audience on the stone and timbers of the court house. In the course of his sermon, he pointed to where Johnny Appleseed lay upon the ground, with his feet resting upon the top of one of the stones, and exclaimed : 'See yon ragged, old, barefooted sinner, and be warned of the paths of sin by his example.' Johnny arose to his feet, folded his hands behind him, under his tow-linen coat, and slowly approached the speaker. As the speaker paused a space, John- ny commenced in this wise : 'I presume you thank God that you are not as other men ?' 'I thank God that I am not as you are,' returned Paine. 'I am not a hypocrite, nor am I of the generation of vipers. I am a regularly ap- pointed minister, whether you are or not. ' ' Lord be merciful unto me a sinner,' said Chapman, and walked away.

"In the character of John Chapman there was nothing light or frivolous. He was free from all affectation. He never affected the style

or language of the saered Scriptures. His lan- guage was plain, simple and graphic-his man- ner carnest and impressive. His utterances always commanded respect, and awakened deep and thoughtful consideration from those who heard him. His deportment was uniformly chaste and respectable, and marked by a pas- sive dignity. In his method of thought, he was analytical, and in his line of argument, varying between the inductive and logical. He spoke apparently without effort, in a natural and sim- ple, yet elegant flow of language, to express a deep current of metaphysical reasoning and ethical thought. He penetrated his auditors, apparently without intending to do so, and moved them without knowing it.

" Physically, he was indolent and fond of ease. The writer once watched him, undiscovered, as he was working in his nursery, near the Big Bend in the creek near Mansfield. He lay in the shade of a spreading thorn tree in the cen- ter of his nursery, and there, lying on his side, he reached out with his hoe and extirpated only such weeds as were within his reach. He preferred sleeping upon the floors of the farmers, as, he said that the indulgence in the luxury of soft beds would soon beget a bad habit which he could not hope to indulge in his varied method of living.

"This man cherished the kindest feelings toward all living things. His every act and step in life manifested this attribute as the per- vading trait of his nature. He was as tender and innocent as a child, and as easily moved to tears by the sorrows of others, or even the suf- ferings of animals. He has been known to pay the full value of horses, take them from the harness, and, with a blessing, turn them loose to the luxurious pastures of the wilderness, to become their own masters. He was never without money, and frequently furnished the housewives with a pound or two of tea, a great expense at that time, although he held that the indulgence in that aromatic luxury was a dissi-

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223

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

pation. At one time he bought six breakfast plates at a Mansfield store, and, npon being asked what nse he had for them, he replied that he would save dishwashing by having so many ; that by eating his meats upon a fresh plate each day he need not wash dishes more than once a week. The truth was, he carried the plates to a poor family near Spring Mills, Richland County, who had a few days before had the misfortune of losing the most of their table furniture by an accident.

"In 1838-thirty-seven years after his ap- pearance on Licking Creek-Johnny noticed that civilization, wealth and population were pressing into the wilderness of Ohio. Hither- to he had easily kept just in advance of the wave of settlement; but now towns and churches were making their appearance, and, at long intervals, the stage-driver's horn broke the silence of the grand old forest, and he felt that his work was done in the region in which he had labored so long. In 1840, he resided near Fort Wayne, in the State of Indi- ana, where he had a sister living, and probably made that his headquarters during the nine years that he pursued his eccentric avocation on the western border of Ohio and in Indiana. In the summer of 1847, when his labors had literally borne fruit over a hundred thousand miles of territory, at the close of a warm day after traveling twenty miles, he entered the house of a settler in Allen County, Ind., and was warmly welcomed. He declined to eat

with the family, but accepted some bread and milk, which he partook of sitting on the door- step and gazing on the setting sun. Later, he delivered his 'news right fresh from heaven' by reading the Beatitudes. Declining other accommodations, he slept as usual on the floor, and in the early morning he was found with his features all aglow with a supernal light and his body so near death that his tongue refused its office. The physician, who was hastily sum- moned, pronounced him dying, but added that he had never seen a man in so placid a state at the approach of death. At seventy-two years of age, forty-six of which had been devoted to his self-imposed mission, he ripened into death as naturally and beautifully as the seeds of his own planting had grown into fiber and bud and blossom and the matured fruit."*

" He had full many a story to tell, And goodly hymns that he sung right well ; He tossed up the babies, and joined the boys In many a game full of fun and noise.

" And he seemed so hearty, in work or play, Men, women and boys all urged him to stay."

Thus passed from earth one of the memo- rable characters of pioneer days, but his memory will linger in the hearts of succeeding genera- tions for years to come, and their children will learn to revere the decaying monuments of his industry and benevolence, as the memorials of one whose character, though unbalanced, swayed to the brighter side of human nature.

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History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 35

Author: Perrin, William Henry, [from old catalog] comp; Battle, J. H., [from old catalog] comp; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852- [from old catalog] comp; Baskin & Battey, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Perrin, William Henry, [from old catalog] comp; Battle, J. H., [from old catalog] comp; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852- [from old catalog] comp; Baskin & Battey, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1034