History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 97

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 97

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The Eastern Branch of the Scioto, taking its rise three miles south of Bucyrus, flowing in a southeasterly direction, enters Dallas one- fourth of a mile east from the Marion road, passing into Marion County one and one-half miles from the Wyandot County line. Nothing of particular interest is connected with this

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part of the Scioto, except that it adds greatly to the value of the stock farms that lie along its banks, by furnishing a constant supply of water.

The only other stream of any note, is a trib- utary to the Olentangy, called " Mud Run," which passes near the Whetstone Township line. It is partly natural and partly artificial. During the spring freshets, owing to its slug- gish current, it is swollen into a very wide stream. Another small stream, now a tributary to the Sandusky, passing through the Hoover farm and called the "Outlet of the Plains," was at first a dug ditch ; but, in recent years, on account of its swift current, a gully has been eroded fifteen to eighteen feet deep, reaching, at that depth, veins of perennial flow.

Extending, as do the two divisions of Dallas Township, from the west bank of the Olentangy to the limestone and clay soil of Todd on the north, most all varieties of timber that are in- digenous to this portion of the State are found within its limits. That which first catches the eye of the stranger, in driving through the southern part of Dallas, are the exceedingly picturesque clumps of jack-oak trees of a com- paratively recent growth. Many of these groves have sprung up within the memory of our oldest citizens. There is nothing in the geological formation of the soil that prevented this growth of timber at an carlier date. Per- haps the system of drainage of more recent years may have been advantageous. A sim- pler and more satisfactory reason is suggested in an account of a " ring hunt," as given by Col. James Smith, who was a captive of the Wyan- dot Indians as early as 1760. Col. Smith says : " With much difficulty, we pushed up our wooden canoes over the Sandusky falls. Some of the men went up the river, and the rest of us by land with our horses, until we came to the great meadows or prairies that lie between the Scioto and Sandusky. When we came to this place, we met with some Ottawa hunters, and

agreed with them to take what they called a 'ring hunt,' in partnership. We waited until we expected rainfall, to extinguish the fire ; then we kindled a large circle in the prairie. At this time, or before the bucks began to run, a great number of deer lay concealed in the grass in the day-time and moved about in the night, but, as the fire burned toward the center of the circle, the deer fled before the fire. The Indians were scattered at some distance, and shot them down at every opportunity, which was very frequent, especially as the circle be- came small. When we divided the deer, there were about ten to each hunter. All this num- ber was killed in a few hours. The rain did not come on that night, to put out the outside fire, and, as the wind arose, the fire extended through the whole prairie, which was about fifty miles in length, and, in some places, about twenty miles in breadth. This put an end to our hunting for this season, and was, in other respects, an injury to us in the hunting busi- ness ; so that, upon the whole, we received more harm than benefit by our rapid-hunting policy." This little account explains sufficiently the cause of the annual destruction of the young growth of timber.

Upon the islands, however, as they were termed, the growth of sedge-grass was not so rank, and trees here and there escaped the rav- ages of the Indian fires. Upon these ridges the celebrated " shellbark," the prolific nut- bearing hickory, may be found scattered in the sonthern and western portions of the township. The productiveness of the hickory in this por- tion of the county, became, to the possessor, a burdensome annoyance. Previous to the strict trespass laws that were enacted within the last decade, the farmer possessing a hickory grove, was tacitly considered by his urbane neighbors as keeping a public park for their especial ac- commodation. One of the present owners, re- ferring to this annoyance, said : " My groves, on the Sabbath Day in the hickory-nutting sea-

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

son resembled a camp-meeting ground, in point of teams and number of persons, and, when they had finished their nut-gathering, it was not an uncommon occurrence to have our fences so dilapidated that the stock could go from one section cross-road to another. Many of my trees are now dead, the result of the nut-gath- erers using a battering-ram to jar the nuts from the trees." This Sabbath desecration and gen- eral trespassing upon the farmer has been almost entirely broken up by the recent revis- ion of the law.

Among the other timber and shrubbery that might be mentioned are the buckeye, dogwood. ironwood, sassafras and hazel in abundance. Along the Sandusky and Scioto, some fine growths of walnut timber may be found. In the northern part there is considerable maple, which is annually turned to account in the fam- ily sugar camps. Ash and other varieties are extensively used for building purposes.

The soil of Dallas in the southern part con- sists of deep black earth, that is excellent for corn, and what was once too rich for wheat, is now, since it has been drained and tamed by cultivation, rendered highly suitable for that cereal. It can be safely said its productiveness is not to be excelled in the State for wheat, corn, oats and rye. In the northern portion of the township, the soil changes to that of a clay loam, with an occasional "white oak ridge," as it is termed in common parlance, which is not unfrequently found to be a thin and sterile soil ; but, when cleared and artificially enriched, these ridges also make fine wheat farms, as well as pasturage. The character and pro- ductiveness of the soil have made this town- ship peculiarly favorable for grazing and the feeding of stock. Hence, the south part is held in large tracts by a few heavy dealers in live stock, two or three farms including several thousand acres each. The cattle trade is still pursued by the larger land-owners, but, as the extensive tracts of pasture lands open up in

our Western Territories, and railroad transporta- tion is becoming so general, the competition in cattle-raising has reduced the profit to a very small margin, so that many of the lesser farms are being tilled and turned into wheat and sheep farms.

Some considerable attention has been given to the breeding of short-horn cattle by the stock dealers of Dallas. The principal dealer for many years in this department. was John Monnett. In later years, Ephraim Monnett dealt considerably in the Durham thorough- breds. Mr. John Monnett was an annual at- tendant upon the Kentucky stock sales, from which State he imported many choice animals into Crawford County, and for many years was the heaviest exhibitor at the county fair in thoroughbred and grade cattle. To him should mnch credit be given for the fine quality of beef cattle that Marion and southern Crawford can now so proudly boast of. Mr. Monnett re- moved in 1873 to Iroquois County, Ill .. where he is at present engaged in the same business.

Of the early officers of Dallas, little can be learned definitely, as there was no village or any special building in which the Clerk's books were filed ; but they were passed around from one private residence to another. An inade- quate file of official proceedings is all that has been preserved. The returns at the Recorder's office in Marion give the Justices of the Peace of the township that Dallas was formed from. The first recorded is Alsan Packard, sworn in as Justice of the Peace of Scott Township, January 27, 1825. Little is remembered of Mr. Packard, only that he was a man of more than the average education and refinement of those days, and, as a reward for the faithful discharge of his official duties, he was re-elected for the two succeeding terms in the years 1826-27. The second Justice of the Peace of Scott was Jacob Shaffer, one of the first real estate owners of the present territory of Dallas ; having moved from Pennsylvania in 1824, to

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

the present farm of Isaiah Monnett, and en- tered twenty acres, to which he afterward added several quarter-sections. The third Justice of the Peace was William Van Buskirk. The first commissioned Justice of the Peace of Grand Prairie Township, that included the present western half of Dallas, was Zach Welsh, July 5. 1824, the grandsire of the numerous Welsh progeny now so prominent in Wyandot and Crawford Counties. The second Justice of the Peace was John Page, 1825, who lived to be a centenarian. Mr. Page was succeeded after a second term by Daniel Swigart. Whether the duties were too arduous, or Mr. Swigart's business demanded his exclusive attention, is not known, but he resigned his office, and William Howe was chosen his successor in the same year, 1827. Under the re-organization, Andrew Kerr was the first installed Esquire, April 7, 1845. The second was William Hoover, April 7, 1847. To the Dictators in Dallas already mentioned, we may add the following line : Daniel Swigart, April 3. 1848; Ezra Huntly, January 12, 1850; William Hoover, April 1, 1850; Isaac N. Munson, October 14, 1851; Samuel P. Shaw, April 5, 1852.

It is not definitely known who can claim the honor of being the first settler in this present flourishing township. The first land taxes that were paid upon the land in Dallas, is recorded in the Marion County records in 1828, and the land at that time, and for five years succeed- ing, was only valued at $1.25 per acre. So that we conjecture that the permanent owners did not enter the land previous to 1823, and several sections as late as 1828 were not reported as yet entered. As early as the year 1818 there was an occasional squatter, whose whole suste- nance was nearly allied to that of his red-skinned neighbor. These squatters usually settled along the Whetstone or Scioto, clearing a patch of ground large enough to raise a very limited supply of the coarser vegetables. The number of these early and transient settlers may be

judged by the statement made by Abraham Monnett a few months ago. Said he : "In that strip of land from the turnpike west to the Wyandot County line, up to the Bucyrus Town- ship line, I have in my memory more than fifty cabins that are now wholly destroyed, or at least but a few decayed timbers left to mark the former residence of some do-less squatter."

The good morals of this class of settlers were conspicuous for their absence. While we cannot obtain any sufficiently authenticated case, yet very many stories are still told among the old people concerning the daring robberies, and in one case strong evidence is still related by old settlers of a stranger, purporting to be a man of means, who was made the chief char- acter of an unrecorded tragedy in a log cabin that stood upon the east side of the turnpike, at the northern edge of the township. The in- trinsic value of this territory, however, could not long leave it in the hands of a class of people, who, at best, would be honored in being called " the connecting link between the Indian and the white man."

As the men and women of intelligence moved in from older counties of the South and East, our squatter friends found the rays of the rising civilization too glaring for their squalor and filth, and they pandered to their nomadic tastes by keeping pace with the twilight belt as it gradually moved onward over the unbridged streams and fenceless prairies of the West. As would be expected, the plain land of Dallas was entered by a class of permanent dwellers, coming from a country similar in soil and re- sources, and of like general features. Among the first of these was George Walton, a middle- aged man, of large family, who moved into Dallas from the " Pike-Whole-Prairie," in Pick- away County, in the fall of 1820. Mr. Walton moved into a squatter cabin that was located near the present residence of Maj. Matthew Car- mean. To this cabin he built an addition, and in two years had his place sufficiently improved

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

to appear like living. He was of the Meth- odist belief, and the first Methodist meetings held in the township were at his residence. To the hospitable board and hearth of this enter- prising settler, all the early itinerant ministers of the early times were welcomed. Through Mr. Walton's fostering care and devotion to his faith, an interest in religious matters was awakened at a very early day, and the Meth- odist organization, now known as the "Sixteen Chapel," had its rise in these " cottage prayer meetings." Mr. Walton, having reared an enter -. prising family, and seen them all comfortably established upon farms and in other avocations, finally removed to Iowa, and died there in 1857.

A neighbor of Mr. Walton was a Mr. Van Horne, well known to the early settlers. He also came from Pickaway County in 1821. Mr. Van Horne had a family of three sons. He never extended his farm to more than two eighty-acre lots. The family remained here until the old gentleman died.

The Mason family were among the early set- tlers of the southeastern part of the township. The father and three boys, Thomas, Joseph and John, came from England to America in 1825, and followed ditching for an avocation. Mr. Mason, being a widower, with his three sons, kept bachelor's hall in a cabin erected on a forty-acre lot which he purchased, and which is now a part of the present farm of the widow of John Mason. It is told of the old gentleman that his skill in the culinary art enabled him to give some valuable lessons to his neighbors of the opposite sex, who made household duties their exclusive business. His bread, especially, on account of its whiteness and fleeciness was the envy of the worthy dames who presided in the neighboring establishments. Mr. Mason was never remarried and died at a ripe age in our centennial year.

One of the most prominent of the early set- tlers, that still blesses this territory with his inspiring presence, is Charles Wesley White,

who was raised in Ross County by fervent Methodist parents. He came by way of Waldo, and, after remaining for a short period, traveled northward until he reached Upper Sandusky, in 1822, where he engaged himself to the In- dian Mill, receiving $15 per month, boarding himself. Mr. White was an important partici- pant in one of the first weddings of Dallas, the notice of which reads as follows : " Married- Mr. C. W. White to Miss Hannah Hoover, daughter of Christian Hoover, by Zalmon Rowse, November 25, 1830." He commenced housekeeping in a small log house on the south side of the Wyandot road, opposite his present residence-just a half-century ago. He en- tered 200 acres of land, which lie to the west and join the present Ephraim Monnett farm. Mrs. White died in 1851, and Mr. White has never married again. He has, for many years, been one of the principal land-owners and stock dealers of the central part of Dallas Township, and is still pushing his business with the same ardor that has characterized his whole life. He spends his winters with his son-in-law, J. J. Fisher, of Bucyrus.

Matthew Mitchell was another of the early land-owners of this township. He came from Richland County in 1820, entered the old Welsh farm. afterward moved to Wyandot County. and died there, in 1878. at the advanced age of eighty-four years.

G. H. Busby came from Fairfield County, in 1820 ; was a house joiner by trade ; purchased land in Section 7; followed his trade and farmed. In 1830, he was elected Clerk of Mar- ion County, which office he filled for many years.

Alex Scott was the first owner of the present Ephraim Monnett farm. He entered it about 1822. His wife and children all died on this farm. Mr. Scott returned to his native State, Pennsylvania.

Christian Hoover was one of the first per- manent settlers of central Dallas. He bought

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

out the heirs of William Johnson, in 1830. years, with a remarkably well preserved memo- This land is now the property of Christian , ry, and who has been a resident of Dallas near- Hloover, Jr. Mr. Hoover had a family of two children, Hannah and William ; the former of whom, as already mentioned, married Mr. C. W. White. The latter is at present a resident of Bucyrus. Mr. Hoover was one of the prin- cipal wheat growers in this township. He pur- chased a thresher as early as 1835, which in some particulars is excelled by the threshing machinery of the present day. This thresher brought the straw, chaff and wheat, all com- bined. from the cylinder to the ground, but, as compared with the slow process of flailing, was a grand improvement. Mr. Hoover died in 1849, at the age of sixty years. His wife died the following year.

ly all her life. Thomas F. Johnston, better known among his cotemporaries as "Squire Johnston," was born in the year 1800, in Lycoming County, Penn. After having learned his trade, that of cabinet-maker. and acquired some means, he determined to emigrate with his young wife to the capital of the new and prosperous State of Ohio. All necessary prep- arations were made and in the fall of 1825, a four-horse team attached to a covered wagon containing Mr. and Mrs. Johnston with an infant child, Mr. Benjamin Warner and wife and an infant son. started for the untamed West. Their brother-in-law's, George Walton already mentioned, who settled in Dallas two years previous, was the location first aimed for, from thence to the capital. After a three weeks' drive, the snow became so deep and the roads almost impassable, which obliged them

David Bibler, another early settler, was a citizen of considerable celebrity in this and the adjoining township. In 1826, he moved to a residence adjacent to a spring, which has ever since been known as the " Bibler Spring." This to winter in the eastern part of the State. land, which had been entered by Christian Stahley a few years previous to Mr. Bibler's advent, is now the property of Mr. James Ilufty. At the old cabin which is still stand- ing upon the Wyandot and Bucyrus road, on the county line, Mr. Bibler kept tavern for many years, and was one of the " stops twenty minutes for dinner," along the old stage line. Hle ran a still-house upon the south bank of the Sandusky ; also a saw-mill ; dealt some in live- stock, cultivated a farm, etc. lle was twice married. His first wife died December 9, 1856, and his second died a few years later, after which he removed to Hardin County. In the year in which his first wife died he lost a son, who committed suicide. His daughter Susan died within the same year. They resumed their Westward march in the early spring, having made their journey with the usual privations incident to such trips, they reached the eastern borders of the present county line, when again they were obliged to halt-the wagon mired to its bed. With Spartan endurance, the women mounted the bare-back horses and carried the children, while the men, guided by the blazed trees, pre- ceded them with their rifles. When they ar- rived at the present Archy Clark farm, it had grown intensely dark. Not wishing to stay all night. a Mr. King, who lived near there, with pioneer courtesy, prepared hickory-bark torches and conducted them to Mr. Walton's. It was now 2 o'clock in the morning. For the conso- lation of the modern young blood who is An authentic and accurate sketch of some of the real experiences of these carly settlers is not inappropriate here, and we give an extend- ed account of early life as related by Mrs. Martha Johnston, a lady of seventy-eight searching for precedents, we will record that even this hour did not find them all retired. Providence had favored Miss "Tishy," the eldest Walton daughter, with a blushing beau, neighbor Van Horne's son. It may likewise be

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

recorded, we regret to say, that Miss Tishy never married her late caller. It was not the smiles of love nor Cupid's cunning capers that so much interested the subjects of this sketch then, as the warm reception that the spacious fire-place with its glowing coals and blazing logs gave to them. Mrs. Johnston, having ex- changed her child for her husband's rifle, was taking the lead. On her near approach to the house, she ran past the outer sentry, the baying watch-dog and rushed into the cabin very un- ceremoniously. It can be better imagined than described, with what consternation the lovers, as well as the sleeping inmates, were aroused. Their muddy appearance and strange entry, on account of the blunted perceptions of the sleep- ers so suddenly aroused from sound slumber, caused their claim to kinship to be challenged. The ominous forebodings of the half-sleep- ing moments, on awaking suddenly changed into a happy recognition of a loved sister and brother. The wooer went, and his blush- ing inamorata suddenly changed the romance into reality by preparing viands for the unex- pected intruders. The " corn-pone " and the savor of the melting butter, coming from the open fire on that occasion, was more of a cause for faire venir l'eau a la bouche than a dozen Georgia melons to men of Tannerie appetites. Upon the following day, a team of oxen was taken to the mired wagon. Everything was left unmolested, as travelers at that time of the year were not numerous and what few there were were honest. In a few days the Claridon blazed road was followed, and the new comers went prospecting toward the coun- ty seat. As they neared the Sandusky, they saw a few log cabins surrounded with water up to the very steps. Wild ducks were allowed to run at large within the corporation limits. They approached a cabin, looking, with its sur- roundings, very like a river boat, which proved to be "Bish" Merriman's store. His limited stock of goods was the occasion of some face-

tious remarks from his new customers. The merchant replied : " If you had to wheel all this stock of goods in a wheelbarrow a distance of forty miles, and sleep on them by night, you would think it was not limited." Among the strange sights to our Eastern visitors were to see from the cabin door the sportive fawns with their dams, the skulking wolves and prairie chickens that had yet to learn the pro- prieties of civilized life, and keep at respectable distance from their new neighbors.

Mr. Johnston soon found a deserted cabin, built by a Mr. Clark. It had all the conven- iences usually attached to those primitive domiciles-the stick chimney, clapboard doors, puncheon floors, windows made of brown paper oiled and pasted across open spaces left between the logs, and all other domestic arrangements of that ilk. This manner of living was not fully in accord with the Eastern-bred tastes of its occupants, so Mr. Johnston fully deter- mined to remove to Columbus. When it was spread abroad that "Tommy " was going to leave, and on the very morning which he had arranged to start to take a prospective view of the capital, he was aroused very early by some loud banging upon the clapboard door, which he supposed was caused by an unwelcome call from a company of Indians. On opening the door, he was surprised to be greeted by a num- ber of his neighbors, among whom were Archy Clark, George Clark, Col. Poe, George Walton and others, each bearing a gun. They began by demanding that Tommy go that day with them on a hunt, and trying, with all the powers of oratory, to discourage his intention of leav. ing-by rehearsing exciting hunting incidents, collecting honey, etc., etc. Having agreed to postpone hiis intended trip, they offered him land that they had entered, and other induce- ments. He accepted a gift from Benjamin Warner, which was a choice of the two forty- acre lots now composing a part of the Jacob Herr farm. Mr. Johnston accepted the gift upon the

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the condition that if wheat could be raised upon land he would stay. Providence performed this part of the covenant, and the Squire was blessed with a bountiful crop. He soon learned from experience that the raising of wheat in this new country was but a secondary matter in comparison with its preparation for consump- tion. The daily fighting off the clouds of birds that robbed them when the grain was filling ; the gathering with the sickles ; the long and tedious process of cleaning ; a two-days-and-a- night trip to mill, with a single sack, were in no way encouraging to a man with a craving for the capital. The flour from the wheat thus cleaned was so colored and bitter that it was almost unpalatable. A building spot was the next question to be settled. After some search- ing, Mrs. Johnston suggested that it be at the foot of a large oak-tree then standing near the present Jacob Herr homestead. On felling this tree, they were not a little surprised to find it the chosen home of an adventurous colony. These " heralds of civilization " had sipped the nectar from the lips of many a forest flower, and made this moldering trunk the large re- ceptacle of ambrosial sweetness. Another in- commodity was to obtain a healthful quality of water for domestic uses. Materials for walling a dug well were not to be had at any price. The nearest substitute was the gum of the sye- amore tree. This, at best, only served for shal- low wells, which would fill up with wild water, impregnated with a malarial solution, generat- ing fevers not infrequently of a fatal type. The farm was rapidly improved. Mr. Johnston put up his own cabin, finishing it in true workman- ship style. Squarely hewed logs, well jointed and well fitted ; windows, sash filled with glass panes, were among the improvements that Tommy introduced, which gained for him the title of being a "proud man." This new house was situated near one of the main Indian trails, so that they had semi-annual visits from their copper-colored neighbors as they came in from

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History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 97

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