USA > Ohio > Defiance County > History of Defiance County, Ohio. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, etc.; military record; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; farm views, personal reminiscences, etc > Part 22
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HENRY HARDY
was born in Troy, N. Y., June 28, 1831, and im- migrated to Ohio with his parents, William and Mary Hardy, when about eleven years of age. This removal interfered with his course of study and de- prived him of the opportunity of enjoying the advan- tages of the higher branches of an English education. His parents settled in Oxford Township, Tuscarawas County, where he completed his course of study in the common schools of that district. At the age of seventeen years, he became an apprentice to his brother, who was carrying on at the time a tailoring establishment. He completed his trade in eighteen months, and with a new ambition awakened in his breast, he went to Defiance County and settled on a farm in Delaware Township. Here he was married, A. D. 1853, to Miss Mary A. Platter, daughter of George and Elizabeth Platter, of Paulding County, Ohio. To them was born one son, George P., who now is married and resides in the village of Pauld-
ing. Mrs. Hardy died in May, 1855. For his sec- ond wife Mr. Hardy married Miss Elizabeth Hamil- ton, in 1858, a daughter of Gavin W. Hamilton, of Orangeville, De Kalb County, Ind., a lineal descend- ant of Gavin Hamilton, spoken of by the poet Burns in his " Holy Willie's Prayer." Of this union two children have been born to them, John, who is a teleg- rapher, and resides in Idaho Territory; Mary, is a teacher in the Union School of Defiance City, residing with her father, No. 28 Wayne street, the old court house in which Chief Justice M. R. Wait delivered his first legal speech. In October, 1857, Mr. Hardy was elected Recorder of the county and served two terms, six years, and during this time he was made Mayor of this town and studied law, and was admit- ted to the bar in 1860. In October, 1863, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the county and served two terms (four years). In 1873, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the Sixty-first General Assembly, and in 1877 he was re- turned to the same body. He is now, 1882, devoting his whole time to his profession; office in Wolsiffer's Block, Defiance, Ohio.
WILLIAM CARTER
was born at Columbus, Chenango County, N. Y., December 15, 1812. He was one of six children. In the year 1818, the family moved to the township of Florence, in Erie County, Ohio, where they set- tled upon a new farm, two miles from Birmingham. Here he followed the usual life of a farmer's boy, and probably acquired that love of nature which in later years led him to seek relief from the cares and perplexities of professional life in the supervision of his farm near Defiance. He devoted his spare time to books, and obtained much knowledge of history and the classics. Soon after reaching majority, he left the paternal home to seek his fortune. Among his early ventures was that of shipping lumber to Perrys- burg, the head of navigation for sailing vessels on the Maumee. Several loads of lumber were disposed of there; and it was upon one of these trips, in the year 1834, that he was induced to visit Fort Defiance. Being pleased with the place, he determined to locate there, and did so the following year. Soon after his arrival, he invested in a toll bridge across Tiffin River, at Brunersburg. About that time, he engaged in keeping a country store at the same place. The store was not renumerative and the bridge was car- ried away by a freshet. These were severe blows, and Mr. Carter gathered together the remnants of his property, left Brunersburg for Defiance, where he has since resided. Here he was attended by ill-luck, until being elected Constable, in 1839, he determined to study law, and commenced a course of reading by
7
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
himself, and later entered the office of Curtis Bates, then practicing law in Defiance. As a student he was more than ordinarily industrious. It was a res- olution firmly adhered to through his business life, to learn each day some maxim of law, and as a con- sequence, he became well grounded in the principles of law. On July 19, 1841, he was admitted to the bar at Napoleon, Ohio, and at once entered practice at Defiance. On October 17, 1855, he was licensed to practice in the Federal Court at Cincinnati. Among his first cases, was one in behalf of some contractors on the canal, against the late Pierce Evans. It was a case which excited much public interest, and being prosecuted to a successful termination by Mr. Carter, gave him a wide notoriety as a careful and discriminat- ing lawyer -- a reputation which he retained through life. He was much consulted in matters of intri- cacy, and seldom failed to unravel the discouraging and perplexing entanglements, in the interest of jus- tice. He was a man of few words, but many thoughts, and as a consequence, he was, in style, terse and pointed. Everything said was well considered before it was spoken, and he was seldom obliged to recon-
sider a proposition. He had a varied and lucrative business, extending over Northwestern Ohio, until 1868, when he was elected to the Ohio Senate, and withdrew from active practice; though he was occa- sionally consulted and engaged upon important cases until within a few months of his death, which occurred January 29, 1881. With a thorough knowledge of law, he united a strong sense of justice and ster- ling integrity. In politics, Mr. Carter was an unflinch- ing Democrat, and labored in season and out of sea- son for the success of principles he cherished dearly. In 1876, he was a delegate from this district to the National Democratic Convention at St. Louis. the fall of 1839, Mr. Carter married Miss Elizabeth
In A. Dagget, daughter of Gardner Dagget, one of the early pioneers of Defiance County. His wife and four children survive him. Of the latter, the eldest, Emma, resides with her husband, Judge Hooker, at Charlotte, Mich. The others are Florence A. Carter, William Carter, Esq., a lawyer of Defiance, and Elbert E. Carter, connected with the Defiance National Bank, all reside at Defiance.
CHAPTER XV.
CANALS.
THE canal system of Northwestern Ohio has T played a important part in the devolopment of Defiance County. Its two important canals, the Miami & Erie, and the Wabash & Erie, unite a few miles above Defiance and thence proceed by a cominon trunk to Maumee Bay. In the early days, canal projects received the attention which has since been given to railroads, but their greater expense made legislative action necessary to secure their con- struction. As early as 1822, a bill passed the Ohio Legislature, authorizing an examination into the practicability of connecting Lake Erie and the Ohio River by canal, by various routes, among them, by way of the Maumee River. In 1824, a survey was made under the direction of M. T. Williams, of Cin- cinnati, for many years Acting Canal Commissioner. The survey north to Defiance was for a long distance through an unbroken forest. It was not until June, 1845, that this canal was open for business to Defi- ance, where it connected with the Wabash & Erie, already constructed.
The construction of the Wabash & Erie Canal was commenced in Indiana. The survey was com- menced at Fort Wayne in 1826, and completed to
Maumee Bay in 1828. In 1827, Congress granted to the State of Indiana one-half of five miles in width of the public lands on each side of the proposed canal from Lake Erie to the navigable waters of the Wabash River. This was the first grant of any mag- nitude made by Congress for the promotion of pub- lic works. In 1828, by another act of Congress, a similar cession of land was made to Ohio for extend- ing the Miami Canal from Dayton to the Maumee River at the mouth of the Auglaize, on condition that the work of construction be commenced within five and completed within twenty years. By the same act, Indiana was authorized to relinquish to Ohio her right to lands in Ohio ceded to her for canal pur- poses, which was afterward done. The breaking of ground was performed at Fort Wayne, March 1, 1832, and completed to the Ohio line in 1840. The State of Ohio, realizing less than Indiana the need of this channel of navigation through her sparse set- tlement in her northwestern territory was more tardy in providing for its construction. In the spring of 1837, proposals were received at Maumee for con- structing the canal from its eastern terminus, near Manhattan, to the "Head of the Rapids," and Octo-
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
ber 25, 1837, proposals were received at Defiance for the construction of the remaining part of the line to the Indiana line. The remote situation of the line from well-settled portions of the State, the high price of labor, caused partially by the sickness which prevailed along the course, and the poor prospect for payment retarded the work, which was not completed till the summer of 1843. The completion was duly celebrated at Fort Wayne by the citizens of both States, July 4, 1843, to whom Gen. Lewis Cass de- livered an able and classic oration.
Prior to the construction of the canals, the chief mode of travel through the country was afoot or on horseback, and goods and produce were transported on the rivers chiefly by pirogues and flat-boats. The merchants of Defiance obtained their goods thus from the mouth of the Maumee, whence they had been brought by boat from Buffalo. Sumptuous packets and numerous line boats were then placed on the ca- nals, but their benefits to the country had hardly been realized before the pioneer railroads on all sides diminished the canal trade.
CHAPTER XVI.
RAILROADS.
D EFIANCE COUNTY is now supplied with two railroads, the Baltimore & Ohio & Chicago, and the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, intersecting at Defiance, the latter completed in 1856, the former in 1874.
Early projects for roads through Defiance County were numerous. The first was for a road between Hicksville and Brunersburg. In 1836, a bill was in- troduced into the Ohio Senate by Gen. John E. Hunt, Senator, "To incorporate The Brunersburg & Hicksville Railroad Company. " William D. Hay- maker, Gilman C. Mudgett, Rufus Kibber, Samuel Mapes and Ephraim Burwell, were appointed com- missioners to receive stock subscriptions. The capi- tal was $100,000, with liberty to increase as required, the road to run " from Brunersburg to Hicksville, and to the Indiana line, and to be completed in five years." This project, however, was too stupendous for the undeveloped resources of the country and had to be abandoned.
The Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad was intended by its projectors to form a direct and contin- uous route, under one official management, from To- ledo to the Mississippi, through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, but a distinct corporation was organized in each of these States. The Toledo & Illinois Rail- road Company filed a certificate of incorporation with the Secretary of the State of Ohio, April 25, 1853, for the purpose of building a railroad from Toledo to the western boundary line of the State in Harrison Township, Paulding County. The Lake Erie,
Wabash & St. Louis Railroad Company built the road through Indiana, and these two companies con- solidated June 25, 1856, taking the name of the To- ledo, Wabash & Western Railroad Company. The road was subsequently sold by its mortgagees and several times changed possession, It received its present name in November, 1879, by its consolidation with the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Rail- road. The road crosses the southeastern portion of Defiance County obliquely through Adams, Richland, Noble, and Defiance Townships.
The Baltimore, Ohio & Chicago road crosses the southern portion of Defiance County nearly east and west through Richland, Defiance, Delaware, Mark and Hicksville Townships. March 13, 1872, the Bal- timore, Pittsburgh & Chicago Railroad Company filed its certificate of organization at Columbus to construct a railroad from a point on the boundary line between Ohio and Pennsylvania in Mahoning County to a point on the Indiana line either in Hicksville or Milford Townships, Defiance County. The con- struction was commenced at Chicago Junction, west- ward, with means furnished by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. June 10, 1874, the road was com- pleted as far as Defiance, a distance of 878 miles, and by the following December, through trains were run- ning to Chicago. Much credit is due to the citizens of Defiance and other parts of the county for their efforts to secure these roads, for it was largely owing to the labor and exertions put forth by them that the roads were obtained through the county.
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
CHAPTER XVII.
TOWN SITE VAGARIES-JOHNNY APPLESEED-PIONEER HOME-PIONEER WEDDING-NAVI- GATING THE MAUMEE-FIRST COUNTY FAIR-THE HEBREWS-TABLE OF
POPULATION BY TOWNSHIPS, ETC.
TOWN SITE VAGARIES.
T THE town of Defiance itself has never been the theater of wild speculation in real estate. The lots were held high and sold only as wanted by actual settlers. During the time the location of the canals was discussed and an open question in this vicinity, and dependant upon that issue, the town-site specula- tion was somewhat rife and several efforts made to raise the wind from corner lots and wharfage ground. As, for instance, when it was proposed to lock the Miami Canal into the Auglaize River and the Wabash into the Maumee at the head of the slack-water, and use the broad sheet of water made by the slack-water as a commercial basin, John Hollister, who then owned the Lewis bottom, opposite Defiance to the east, platted a city named "East Defiance " on a large scale, designing his town for the business point. The location of the canal the next year on the high level dispelled his fond hopes, and the fine bottom has since been vigorously worked for wheat and corn and few know the glories in design for it. Hollis- ter's agent to make ready for the platting, summarily dispossessed a tenant for years, which resulted in a law suit (Braucher vs. Hollister) which has been dis- posed in the State Supreme Court only within a few years.
During the same unsettled times, speculators im- agined, or had reason to expect, that the junction of the canals would be made on the high grounds, just above Defiance, and an extensive survey of lots was made there, covering a quarter section and extend- ing along the Maumee some distance and back toward where Hudson's lock now is, comprising the property known as " beeswax." The Evanses and Taylor Web- ster were the managers of this job. The town was named " West Defiance," and has in every particular entirely been lost sight of.
The town of " North Defiance" was about the same time laid out, a part of which is yet upon the duplicate. This is on the north side of the Maumee and just above the railroad.
Brunersburg, on the Tiffin River, and two miles above Defiance, about those days-say from 1830 to 1840-was an ambitious rival to Defiance. The only grist mill in Northwestern Ohio was located there,
and being also at the head of the proposed slack-water, great anticipations promised a happy and prosper- ous future to several daring operators in real estate and mill property. A second dam was built and power for grist and other mills offered; a steamboat built, bridges erected, and the lands on either side of Tiffin River for miles platted into prospective De- troits, Lowells and Manchesters. The speculators failed, leaving laborers and farmers much the losers, the steamboat in a freshet and ice-jam went over the rapids and could not be brought back, and scarcely a vestige remains of the grand things then under way.
The toll bridge fell years ago, the Mudgett dam yet remains only as an obstruction to canal boats and pirogue navigation. Lowell, with its thousand lots and streets with high sounding names, has been long since vacated and turned out to incipient hoop-poles. Detroit (save a half dozen lots) likewise; even the town of Brunersburg has been sadly encroached on by the meadows and corn-fields, and the wild vaga- ries of commercial and manufacturing greatness then entertained are only now spoken of as a jest. More money was wasted in the vicinity of Brunersburg about that time in these wild speculations than at any other point on the Maumee above the foot of the Rapids. Brunersburg is now only known as the location of an excellent grist mill and the residence of a few me- chanics.
The air was at one time beaten with a project to found a great city on the Maumee at the mouth of Tiffin River (Bean Creek), about one mile above De- fiance, but as the elder Phillips owned the land at the confluence, and was opposed to the speculation as likely to injure Defiance, of which he was the proprietor, and also to speculation generally, his land could not be bought or he induced to take an interest, and the design failed. This city would have been directly opposite " West Defiance," above noted. And as a part of the wind in its sails was a side-cut into the Maumee from the canal, to enter the river directly opposite the mouth of the Tiffin. That river was then to be slack-watered and improved to Evansport, and possibly to Lockport, for which pur- pose we believe a company was at one time formed and aid sought from the State. This prospective im-
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
provement also gave rise to a dozen or more paper towns along the banks of Bean Creek, all which, even the names, are now clean gone out of mind.
The dam to make the slack-water was located four miles below Dofiance, and imaginative minds sup- posed that this would afford immense water power. The town-site speculators could not let so favorable a chance escape, and an extensive city was platted comprising over a thousand lots. All that now remains is the small village of Independence.
River fractions along the slack-water of a few feet width were in those balmy days held at fabulous prices. Now they have scarcely any value at all, and some of them, on account of the washing of the banks, no existence. That kind of speculative property is now, therefore, entirely out of market.
A Philadelphia company, in the days of specula- tion, bought a large tract of land on the Auglaize about four miles above Defiance, and spent a large amount of money. Their plan comprehended mills and a manufacturing town. A dam was constructed and also a saw mill to furnish lumber for further im- provements. In 1840, the project was abandoned, as thousands of other similar schemes were about those days, for want of money. The mill frame has rotted down and the substantial dam is mostly there yet, though a rift was made in it for the benefit of the pirogue trade between Blanchard and Defiance. The heavy double log cabins, built for boarding houses, for years afforded free tenements to squatters, and the acres of sawed logs rotted on the banks. The prop- erty is now all comprehended in the farms of Nathan Shirley and William H. Dils. Dr. Dewees, the man- ager of the company, was in early days a conspicuous character in this section, and hundreds of our now old men tell of the hard days' work put in thirty or forty years ago under his superintendence in the river and on their adjacent lands.
"JOHNNY APPLESEED."
Jonathan Chapman, better known as Johnny Ap- pleseed, was born in Boston, Mass., A. D. 1773. He had imbibed a remarkable passion for the rearing and cultivation of apple trees from the seed. He first made his appearance in Western Pennsylvania abou the year 1800, and from thence made his way into Ohio, keeping on the outskirts of the settlements, and following his favorite pursuit. He was accus- tomod to clear spots in the loamy lands on the bank of the steams, plant his seeds, inclose the ground, and then leave the place until the trees had in a measure grown.
When the settlers begau to flock in and open their " clearings," Johnny was ready for them with his young trees. From those who were in good circum-
stances he would receive their money, from others he would take their notes or exchange for some article of clothing or any other article of which he could make use, and to the poor and hopeless and helpless he would give without money and without price.
About the year A. D. 1828, he started a nursery in this county, Defiance, at the month of Tiffin River, about one mile above Defiance, on lands now owned by Charles Krotz, by sowing the seed. The young trees to the number of several thousand, in a year or two after, he took up and set out again on a piece of cleared land opposite Snaketown (now Florida) where they remained until sold out by a resident agent.
Thomas Warren, Nathan Shirley, Lewis Platter and Samuel Hughs, of Delaware Township, set out orchards from this nursery. Most of the early or- chards on the Maumee and Auglaize bottoms in De- fiance, Paulding and Henry Counties were started from Johnny Appleseed's nursery. He had another nursery at Mount Blanchard, Hancock County, and others at Fort Wayne, Ind. He gathered most of his seed from cider presses in Western Pennsylvania, and thus he continued his business for many years, until the whole country was in a measure settled and supplied with apple trees, deriving self-satisfaction amounting almost to delight, in the indulgence of his engrossing passion.
His personal appearance was as singular as his character. He was a small " chunked " man, quick and restless in his motions and conversation; his beard and hair were long and dark, and his eye black and sparkling. He lived the roughest life, and often slept in the woods. His clothing was mostly old, being given him in exchange for apple trees. He went bare-footed and often traveled miles through the snow in that way. " In doctrine he was a fol- lower of Swedenborg, leading a moral, blameless life, likening himself to the primitive Christians, literally taking no thought of the morrow. Wherever he went, he circulated Swedenborgian works, and if short of them would tear a book in two and give each part to different persons. He was careful not to in- jure any animal, and thought hunting morally wrong. He was welcome everywhere among the settlers, and treated with great kindness even by the Indians. We give a few anecdotes illustrative of his character and eccentricities. On one cool, autumnal night, while lying by his camp-fire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes flew into the blaze and were burnt. Johnny, who wore on his head a tin utensil which answered both as a cap and a mush pot, filled it with water and quenched the fire, and afterward remarked, "God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures." Another time he made his
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
camp fire at the end of a hollow log in which he in- tended to pass the night, but finding it occupied by a bear and her cubs, he removed his fire to the other end, and slept on the snow in the open air, rather than to disturb the bear. He was one morning in a prairie and was bitten by a rattlesnake. Some time after a friend inquired of him about the matter. He drew a long sigh, and replied, " Poor fellow! he only just touched me, when I in an ungodly passion put the heel of my scythe on him and went home. Some time after I went there for my scythe, and there lay the poor fellow dead." He bought a coffee-bag, made a hole in the bottom, through which he thrust his head and wore it as a cloak, saying it was as good as anything. He died at the house of William Worth, in St. Joseph Township, Allen County, Ind., March 11, 1845, and was buried there, aged seventy-two years.
THE PIONEER'S HOME.
The advance of this county was necessarily slow for the forests were gigantic. Almost the whole surface was covered with trees of the largest size. The labor and patience that have been expended in felling these trees and preparing the fields for the plow, the reaper and the mower, will never be ap- preciated except by those who have performed the labor, or seen its slow progress. Years of this toil have been already expended, and the work is yet far from being completed. The first habitations of the people were log cabins; not such a log cabin as was seen on the Centennial grounds, where the roof was of pine shingles nailed on, the gutter of pine boards' and the doors neatly made, and the windows filled with sash full of glass. The cabins of our pioneers" were made of round logs, cut only at the corners, their roofs of clapboards as they were split from the tree, held to their places by poles built into the end logs. The openings for doors and windows were not closed except at night, and then by a quilt or skin. The fire-place was built of logs and the chimney of sticks, all lined with clay, the whole chinked, that is, the cracks between the logs filled in with wood daubed with clay. Such a house was built by the neighbors gathering together, and was often finished in a day. The floors were of puncheon, split from trees. When all was done, a 'puncheon scouring took place. The young people and old gathered at the house for a dance, if a fiddle could be procured, and, with more relish than at a modern ball, they danced all night in this new cabin.
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