History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 95

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 95

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One of the most melancholy events falling upon the historian to record occurred in Sep- tember, 1879, making a deep impression upon the minds of the citizens of the township. David Kalb had, living at his house, a niece, Miss Mary Long, about seventeen years of age, quite pretty and attractive. She had several admirers, among whom was a young man named George Swab, who worked for her uncle upon the farm, and who professed for her the most ardent love and devotion. It is not posi- tively known whether the young lady recipro- cated his affection, although the evidence seems to imply that their love was mutual. But the

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

relatives of the young lady, who were quite wealthy, objected to the match, and discouraged the devotion of the lovers in every possible way. The uncle dismissed the young man from his service ; but love was not to be thwarted, and the lovers continued to meet at the residences of the neighbors. The young

man spent one Sunday evening in her company at Henry Klink's, and what transpired at this interview will never be known. The following Monday evening, he went to the residence of the uncle, when all the family, except the young lady and hired man were absent, and, having gained admittance to her room, delib- erately shot her through the heart with a re- volver, killing her instantly. He then coolly went to the barn, and, having detached the reins from the harness, took them and hung himself on a cherry tree in the yard. The hired man was so frightened that he made no efforts to ascertain the cause of the report. Re- ports of the murder and suicide were soon in swift circulation, and hundreds of the neigh- bors arrived on the scene of the tragedy to learn more fully of the affair, and to view for the last time the pale faces of the dead lovers. Some think that the young man was rejected by her he loved on the previous Sunday night, and that, all hope having died out of his heart,

he determined to take his own life and that of his loved one. Others think it was a precon- certed plan of the lovers, who had resolved to die together rather than live separately. The truth will probably never be known, until the light of God's mercy shall smile upon the world with a kiss of heavenly forgiveness.

The first school in the township was taught during the summer of 1834, by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, in her own dwelling, in the village of North Liberty. She taught a term of three months, and had enrolled some twelve or fifteen scholars, who paid $1 each for the term. A mystery, which the gossips of the village vainly endeavored to unravel, was connected with this

lady's life. She stated that she was the wife of Hon. John Thompson, a Representative in the Ohio Legislature, from Hamilton County, but nothing of her former life, or how she came to be in the village, was revealed, any attempt at discovery being kindly and politely avoided. She was lady-like in all her manners, and was well educated, giving excellent satisfaction to the patrons of the school. She taught several terms, and finally left the neighborhood. In 1836, a frame school-building was erected on the turnpike, near Richville. This building is yet standing, although, since the erection of the new brick schoolhouse, it has stood unoccupied. John Fissell was one of the first teachers in the old honse. He taught many terms outside of the village after the school buildings had been erected in surrounding districts. Within two or three years after the Richville schoolhouse had been erected, two more were built, one about a mile northwest of the village, and the other about a mile and a half south on the turnpike. The one in the northern part was located in the " wind-fall," on Section 7. When the settlers first came to the township, a strip of timber about half a mile wide. extending across the northwest corner, was quite small. none of it being more than a foot in diameter. and the ground was thickly strewed with de- caying timber lying in all conceivable positions. showing that a tornado had swept down the trees some twenty-five or thirty years before. The schoolhouse was built in this fallen timber. The names of the first teachers are forgotten, but, after a number of years, Mrs. Sarah Bres- ton taught several terms. It was not long before the township was divided into school dis- triets, and soon afterward each had a frame schoolhouse. Chatfield had perhaps fewer log schoolhouses than any other township in the county, obviously from the fact that they were built comparatively late, and at a time when sawed lumber could be easily obtained. thus avoiding the necessity of using logs. The

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

township schools are taught largely in the Ger- man language, several of them ruling out the English language entirely. The schools of the township are more thorough than might be ex- pected. John H. Davidson has taken an active interest in educational affairs, and has done much to better school advantages. He has taught frequently, and was the first teacher in the new brick schoolhouse. Riebville has edu- cated and furnished to this and adjacent town- ships, some twenty teachers, some of whom have acquired a wide reputation as skillful and efficient instructors.

As early as 1832. the Methodists began holding meetings in those homely and incon- venient, though pleasant places-the cabins of the settlers. Ministers of all the commonest re- ligions denominations. came from Bucyrus and surrounding townships to organize societies for the benefit of the settlers' morals. The German Lutherans and German Reformers organized societies immediately after the arrival of the German emigration from the old country. The meetings were held in cabins untit 1837, when the two last mentioned societies obtained a large log cabin intended for a dwelling, and, having sided it with black walnut lumber, dedi- cated it to the service of God. It was used for many years, but was finally abandoned by the religious denominations and is at present de- voted to German school purposes. In 1844, a Baptist Church was built on the turnpike in the southern part. This building is yet standing, and near it is a quiet little cemetery where beautiful marble shafts mark the last resting- place of Chatfield's earliest and most beloved citizens.

Across the road, on the opposite corner, is a fine new schoolhouse-one of the best in Chatfield. The two German Church so- cieties referred to above erected at an early day a building in which to worship, locating it in the northwestern corner in the windfall. The build- ing was a large, almost square structure with

one door and four windows, and was constructed largely from black walnut lumber obtained at one of the saw-mills in Seneca County. This became one of the best churches in the town- ship. An early revival increased the member- ship to such an extent that the building was scarcely capable of containing the congregation that gathered there on almost every Sabbath. A Sunday school was organized and the chil- dren were instructed regarding Biblical truths, as seen from the standpoint of German Reform- ers and Lutherans. These two denominations continued to worship together until a few years ago, when it was decided to divide the con- gregation, one faction to keep the old church, and the other to erect a new one in the northern part of the turnpike. This division was made for two reasons : one being that the house was too small and homely for the congregation, and the other that the two denominations thought it better for each to own a church of its own. The division was therefore made, the Lutherans retaining the old building, and the Reformers erecting a new one of more imposing appearance a short distance east on the turn- pike. The Dunkards erected a church just across the line in Seneca County, near the northwestern corner, which obtained many mem- bers from Chatfield Township. It was built about 1846, and, after remaining there for many years, was moved across the line in Chatfield. A number of years ago the old building was succeeded by a new one erected near the resi- dence of John Burgbacher. The Methodists have a large, fine church in Richville, which has a larger membership than any other in the township. Chatfield boasts of having five churches, two of them being brick. The Co- lumbus and Sandusky Turnpike has ever been the great aortic artery of the township. It has been of the greatest value, especially in early years, affording an easy outlet either north or south, and for many years it was the only road in Chatfield. It divides the township into two

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

unequal segments, passing north and south a short distance west of the center, the course of the road lying a few degrees east of north. It

is extensively traveled by the citizens of the county, and by those in the center of the State on their way north by wagon.

CHAPTER XXVI.

TEXAS TOWNSHIP-EARLY CONDITION-FIRST SETTLERS-PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT-BENTON -CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.

F OR many years, both before and after Crawford County was created, much of the land adjoining the Wyandot Reservation was wild and uninhabited, and was unfre- quented, except by professional hunters, who were accustomed to wander there in pur- suit of the more dangerous varieties of wild animals. Frontier life is peculiar, and, to men of splendid physique, whose health never suf- fers from hardships or privations, nor from the almost countless ills and annoyances besetting the path of the unconcerned frontierman, it possesses a singular fascination, impossible to be resisted by the sturdy natures that delight in the inclemencies incident to so obscure and wild an existence. The hardy natures of some men delight in ceaseless activity, and only find a happy and suitable field in which to labor, in the combined triumphs and trials, self-denials and self-imposed perils, that the wilderness pre- sents, as an obstruction to the encroachments of civilization. Men do not voluntarily exile themselves from social contact with their fel- lows, unless, in some new field of activity, greater enjoyments are found and realized. Man is a social being, happy in social inter- course with others, but despondent and filled with sorrow, when act or accident consigns him to loneliness and solitude. Alexander Selkirk, cast by the mad waters of the ocean upon the bleak and uninhabited shores of the remote island of Juan Fernandez, is supposed to have cried out, in sorrow :

" Oh! Solitude, where are thy charms, That sages have seen in thy face ? Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place.

" I am out of humanity's reach ; I shall finish my journey alone; Never hear the sweet music of speech ; I start at the sound of my own."

Yet, notwithstanding the social chain that binds mankind together, the restless natures of some men impel an advance to the frontier, where social contact with wild animals and with the strange and innumerable forms of nature usurps, in an incomprehensible manner, the de- lights of communion with civilized man. It is here that his rugged nature finds companion- ship and agreeable society. It is here that sol- itude is unknown to the strange genius of the pioneer, who communes with Nature and her countless laws, and enjoys protracted interviews with inanimate creation. Byron, whose Orphic utterances charm the heart and understanding, and whose almost divine genius correctly in- terprets the language of solitude, sings :

" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar : I love not man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal."

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

The pioneer, gifted with a like insight into nature's mysteries, also " steals " ont into the wilderness to "mingle with the universe," and to seek those pleasures which are in unison with his peculiar characteristics.

Texas Township was early the home of those wandering hunters who kept moving westward as the tide of settlement advanced, and whose practical training in woodcraft and in the chase could furnish pleasure only in the depths of the dark, wild forest. They remained longer in the vicinity of the Wyandot Reser- vation, which was not subject to settlement by the whites until 1845, for the reason that they could invade the forbidden ground without danger of detection or prosecution, and find game that had wholly disappeared from newly settled localities. Small cabins were erected, in which were domiciled their wives, who. to all appearances, were capable of living with- out any visible means of support, and who were frequently left alone in the cabin for weeks together, while the husband and father was off on a long hunting excursion. The whole family were inured to privation, and, if the cabin did not contain the needful supply of food, it was no unusual occurrence for the mother to go out into the surrounding woods and bring down a deer or a squirrel or some other animal that would appease the vigorous appetites of the famishing children. This was true not only of the families of the profession- al hunters who came to the most remote front- ier, but also of families living in localities where considerable advancement had been made in settlement and civilization. A skillful hunter often made by the sale of flesh and furs upward of a thousand dollars during the hunting and trapping season, a large share of which, instead of being used in purchasing land or in providing much-needed comforts for the family, was squandered at neighboring grog-shops and distilleries. Many of these hunters were rough characters, who possessed

no apparent knowledge of the rights of prop- erty, and who were in the habit of appropriat- ing swine and other domestic animals that came in their way, regardless of the wishes of protesting owners, and careless of any result- ing consequences for so doing. A family of this kind lived in Texas Township very early, and after their depredations had gone on until "forbearance had ceased to be a virtue," the neighbors assembled, and informed them that it was time for them to migrate farther out into the wilderness. The husband and father protested, saying that his children were almost naked, and that all his time would be needed to clothe them before cold weather set in ; whereupon the neighbors returned to their homes, and soon afterward again presented themselves with suitable wearing apparel for the children, who were soon comfortably clothed. But the father, no doubt overwhelmed by so charitable an act, declared his unwilling- ness to leave a locality where neighbors were so kind to the poor and unfortunate, and an- nounced his intention of remaining where he was. But he was given to understand by un- mistakable signs and language that it was best for him to depart, and he departed. As a rule, the hunters were notoriously lazy, and it was almost always the case that their families eked out a miserable existence, undergoing priva- tion and starvation which, if dominant to-day, would soon depopulate the township. Another early family in the township lived in a cabin having no door nor floor, in one end of which was a pen for a family of swine, while the other was devoted to the use of a family of eleven persons. The most degrading squalor and discomfort were everywhere apparent. It is said that the children's bodies were so thick- ly covered with scurf and dirt as to render them as swarthy and dark as those of the negro, and that the mother, when asked why the children were not washed, complacently replied, " The water is so skase hereabouts."

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

These were exceptional cases, however, as many of the earliest families-those of the more enterprising frontiermen-were intelli- gent, and were surrounded with many pleas- ures and comforts unknown to-day in long- settled localities.

Texas is the smallest township but one in the county. It is located in the northwestern cor- ner, and comprises twelve square miles of ex- cellent farming land. It originally belonged to Sycamore Township, of which it formed a part, until Wyandot County was created in 1845, when the township, as it now stands, came into existence, and received its name from the fol- lowing curious circumstance : In 1844, Polk and Dallas had been nominated at the Balti- more Convention of the Democratic party, for President and Vice President of the United States, and, about the same time, David Tod was running for Governor of Ohio. The most important question before the country during the Presidential and Gubernatorial canvass at this time, was that of the admission of Texas into the Union. There was also another ques- tion before the people of Crawford County during this period, which was the change made in its boundaries and territory, and the creation of four new townships. It occurred to the county authorities to name these townships after the questions then agitating the minds of the citizens, and the significant titles-Polk, Dallas, Todd and Texas-were bestowed upon them. Texas is six miles long and two miles wide. Buckeye Creek, a small tributary of Sandusky River, flows westward and across the northern tier of sections, and its small affluents drain the second tier of sections from the north. Syca- more Creek, one of the most important streams in the county, flows westwardly across the sec- ond tier of sections from the south, and it and its branches drain the southern two-thirds of the township. One of its branches, called Big Run, flows across the lower tier of sections. These streams furnish ample drainage to the

township. The land in the northern and in the southern parts is quite rolling, especially so along Sycamore Creek, where the hills rise in some places 100 feet above the bed of the stream. The central portion is quite level, yet it is sufficiently well drained to make it the most fertile territory in the township.

The first settler, so far as known, was George Bender, who entered a tract of land in the southern part in 1824, and erected a round-log cabin thereon. A few years afterward, proba- bly about 1827, he built a rude dam on Syca- more Creek southwest of the present village of Benton, and employed a man named McGrew to construct a saw-mill from poplar boards, sawed while the machinery was operated in the open air. John Hazlett, who became a resident of the township in 1829, discovered that Bender's mill had been erected on the land of the former ; whereupon notice was given to Bender that all claims to the mill property must be relin- quished. One year after such notice, Hazlett took charge of the mill, which was continued in operation until 1834, when a sudden freshet washed away the dam, thus rendering the mill inoperative. No repairs were attempted, and the Bender Mill soon became a thing of the past. A short time after Bender had been de- prived of his property, he built another mill farther down the creek on his own land, which after being operated a few years was discon- tinned. Bender also followed the occupation of farming, his team consisting of a large bay horse and an ox. In driving this strange team, the like of which was often seen in early years, he bestrode the horse, as by so doing he was in a much more satisfactory position to admin- ister a flogging to the ox, which had the now well-known habit of holding back. He had one of the old-fashioned wide-track wagons, and was often seen in Bucyrus with his oddly consorted team. He became well known to the subsequent settlers, who engaged his assist- ance in looking up their farms. An addition

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

was made to Bender's cabin, a long shed built of rough boards, which was used as a combined swine, cow and horse stable. His cabin had two doors, hung on wooden hinges, one on each side of the building, and the large fire-place filled one entire end. The horse was often used in drawing huge logs into the cabin, which were afterward rolled into the fire-place. The following year after Bender entered his land, there came in Anthony Detray, Robert Roberts, Charles Morrow, Adam Miller and Robert Mays, who located in the southern part, and Dodridge Paul, Eli Adams, Joseph Nedray. David Palmer, Alva Trask and Laban Perdew, who selected farms in the northern part. There also came in, prior to 1830, William Gregg, James Griffith, Lewis Lemert, Washington Duncan, John Hazlett, Arthur Andrews, Charles Dickens, John Henry, A. L. Westover, John and Finley McGrew, Martin Holman, William Pennington and others, who established themselves in different parts of the township. Those settlers who located in the northern half, with scarcely an exception, came from Seneca County, where large emigrations of New En- glanders have settled, many of them before the war of 1812. After most of the land in Seneca County had been entered and improved, the settlers, who continued to come in large num- bers, were compelled to journey on farther west or south, where farms as fertile and beautiful as any in Ohio could be purchased for $1.25 per acre. It thus came to pass that, between 1820 and 1830, pioneers by the thousands lo- cated in surrounding regions, and the wave of colonization rolled down from the north into Crawford County to meet the one of even greater strength that swept westward from Mansfield and vicinity. The two waves of settlement met in Crawford County, and it thus occurred, that the first settlers in the northern part of Texas Township came from Seneca County, where they had arrived in search of homes, while the southern part of said township was

settled and improved by those who came from Mansfield through Bucyrus. The land in the central part was not entered at first, for the reason that it was flat and wet, and the settlers preferred the well-drained hills along the streams. Many. when they arrived in the township, had nothing with which to begin their forest life except good health and bound- less resolution. A man or woman with feeble health had no business in the backwoods, where robust health was an invaluable auxiliary to success. Many, however, with feeble con- stitutions came out, hoping to prolong their existence, but most of these were soon con- signed to the nearest churchyard. Cases are often found where, when the question is asked some gray-haired old man or woman, "How did you manage to live during the early years ?" the only answer, like the one received from Martin Holman, is an exhibition of wrinkled and calloused hands. And that answer is suf- ficient and true ; for many an old man and woman now living in the township and in other portions of Ohio, who are surrounded with com- forts purchased by a bountiful expenditure of wealth and with loving children, grandchildren and friends, came into the wilderness more than half a century ago with nothing to meet the adversities of pioneer life except strong, honest hearts and hands. When Adam Miller reached Texas Township, his money and credit amounted to the sum total of 123 cents. He owned an ox and a rifle, and his wife had a few cooking utensils, and with these they began to clear and improve their farm and supply them- selves often with barely sufficient food to sus- tain life.

The Wyandot Reservation afforded abundant opportunity for observing the "noble red man," who was in the habit of visiting the cabins of the settlers for divers purposes, the chief being that of begging. They solicited alms from the settlers, who often, if they gave anything in charity, were obliged to give the last they had.

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

Several one day presented themselves at the cabin of Holman, and, pointing to their abdo- mens with downcast look, pitifully said, "Me sick, me sick," intimating that they were al- most famished with hunger. They were fed, but their appetites were so vigorous and their capacity for food so prodigious, that the stores of the pantry, though large at first, were soon reduced to a minimum. But a radical cure was effected by this treatment, and the Indians left the cabin with happy hearts. One day, when John Hazlett and Nicholas Ulary were hunting in the woods, they overtook a wounded deer, which they shot, and, just as they had dressed it, several Indians presented themselves and claimed the animal. The white hunters at first refused to give it up ; but, when the Indians pointed to the wound on its shoulder and then to them- selves, shaking their heads in the meantime, and making threatening demonstrations to the effect that trouble would ensue if the animal was retained, it was relinquished without a murmur. John Hazlett was one of the most successful resident hunters ever in the township. The largest part of his time was spent in hunt- ing in the deep woods, and he remembers of par- ticipating in many an exciting adventure. The Hazlett brothers thought it strange unless they succeeded in killing a hundred deer during the winter months, for a number of years after coming to the township. John one day wounded a deer, which fell, apparently dead, upon the ground. He kneeled over its body, intending to cut its throat, but, with a sudden movement, it leaped to its feet, at the same instant kicking him sprawling on the ground. It came at him with head down, but he seized a large club and began beating it across the neck and head with all his strength. By dodging around trees, he succeeded in avoiding the antlers of the angry animal until at lengthi, by a lucky blow, he dis- located its neck, whereupon it fell to the ground and was quickly dispatched. At an- other time, when out late one bitterly cold night

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History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 95

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