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 55
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ica. Mr. Blair died ou his farm, December 27, 1870, aged sixty-two years. Nathaniel L. thinks the first schoolhouse built in the township was built on this farm about the year 1850, and the first teacher was one Mr. Fay, now residing at Bryan, Williams County, Ohio. Preaching was held at private resi- dences and schoolhouses until quite recently.
James M. Smith. The subject of this sketch was born in Crawford County, Ohio, December 24, 1850, and the next year, A. D. 1851, his parents, James and Mahala (Tucker) Smith, moved to this county and to Delaware Township, Section 30, and took up this farm on which James M. now resides, and to ac- complish which Mr. Smith was obliged to cut the road for several miles, this section being at that time a dense forest, and for a number of years they were obliged to go to Defiance for their milling and to do their trading. Mr. S. was born A. D. 1811, in Virginia, and died February 17, 1875, aged sixty- four years. His wife died February 21, 1861, aged forty-three years nine months and eleven days. James M. Smith was married April 13, 1876, to Miss Lucy C. Wilson, daughter of Hezekiah and Sarah (Markel) Wilson, who was born in Defiance County, May 5, 1853. They have one child living-Ellen Adella, who was born March 25, A. D. 1879.
Moses M. Haver was born in Harrison County, Ohio, September 5, 1842, and came to this county, November 8, 1853, with his parents, Robert Haver and Mary (Cree) Haver. He was married in Pauld- ing County, January 11, 1872, to Miss Mary Mus- selman, daughter of John and Eliza (Clemens) Mus- selman, who was born in Defiance October 28, 1840. They have a family of five children, as follows: Em- ily, born April 18, 1870; Iona, born November 12, 1872; Albert, born November 26, 1874; John, born December 28, 1875; Curtis, born November 24, 1879. Mr. Haver was a soldier in the late war, 1861-65, being among the first to enlist at the breaking-out of the rebellion, enlisting April 27, 1861, in the three months' service as a private in Company I, Twenty- first Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Afterward enlisted in the One Hundredth Regiment as Sergeant and served to the close of the war, 1865, and was hon - orably discharged.
E. T. Smith -was born in Clark County, Ohio, April 12, 1837. His father came from Maryland to Clark County in 1806, and from there to Paalding County in 1850, at which place he died February 22, 1870. His mother's maiden name was Catharine Brendle. Mr. Smith was married to Sarah S. Wheaton, in Paulding County, December 23, 1860. Her parents were William Wheaton and Sarah ( Hall) Wheaton. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have uo family of their own, but they have an adopted son, Freddie A.
Richard Knight.
Harriet Knight
Mrs.
E Gatametrong
e
Corte wurde
S. C. Armstrong,
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
Smith, horn October 27, 1870. Mr. Smith was in the war of the rebellion for a short time, having en- listed in Company I, Forty-seventh Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, September 8, 1864, and served till June 13, 1865. His paternal grandfather was in the war of 1812. Mr. S. is now engaged in the milling business at Sherwood, Delaware Township, the firm being Boor & Smith.
Simon P. Shook was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, July 12, 1822 settled in this county in 1854; was married in Crawford County, July 6, 1854, to Catharine Miller, who was born in Harrison County, Ohio, March 9, 1830. They have had a family of seven children, as follows: Mary Ophelia, born November 7, 1854; John V., bern October 4, 1856; Francis Marion, born October 1, 1858; Ada Adelia, born April 14, 1861; and died June 1, 1862; Ulysses Grant, born March 27, 1863; Oscar Howard, born February 25, 1867; and Emerson Wilbur, born September 3, 1871. Mr. Shook enlisted as a private in the late war of 1861-65, but failed to pass the necessary examination and was discharged at Cleveland, Ohio, November, 1863. Mr. Shook's parents, John and Mary (Grogg) Shook, were early pioneers of Ohio, immigrating from Pennsyl- vania to Columbiana County in 1804, afterward re- moving to Richland County, and from there to Craw- ford County, then to Williams County, in 1845 or 1846. Both died in Williams County. Mrs. Shook's parents, David Miller and Mary (Slinss) Miller, set- tled in this county in 1865, and here her mother died September 17, 1866.
David Benton Brown was born in Morrow County, Ohio, April 17, 1852, is the second son of Thomas and Rachel Brown, who were born, the former in Knox County, Ohio, in 1812, the latter was born in the State of Maryland, 1822. They had a family of seven children, three sons and four danghters. One of the girls is dead, the remaining three, and the eldest son, reside near Bradner, Wood County, Ohio. The youngest son is principal of the Northern Indi- ana Normal School, located at Valparaiso, Ind. The early days of David, the subject of this sketch, were spent on a farm and attending district school, until he was eighteen years of age, when he attended the Normal School at Republic, in Seneca County, pass- ing through a preparatory course of studies, after which he followed teaching for two years. In 1871, he took up the study of medicine at Freeport, in Wood County, Ohio, under N. W. Goodrich, M. D., and read with him until the winter of 1873, when he took his first course of lectures at the Physio-Medical Institute of Cincinnati for the term of five months, after which time he again returned to Freeport and formed a partnership with his early preceptor, Dr. Goodrich, and practiced with him and tended drug
store until the winter of 1875, when he took his sec- ond course of lectures at Cincinnati, graduating on the 23d day of February, 1876, when he returned home considerably broken down in health from too much confinement, and was not able to go immediately into practice and face the storms and hardships of the physician's life. During the summer of 1876, he took a tour through the West; then returned and lo- cated at Bradner, Wood County, remaining there un- til July, 1879, when he removed to Sherwood, Defi ance County, his present location, where he is doing a very fair practice.
Henry Funk was born in Zanesville. Ohio, June 17, 1816; was married in 1845 to Miss Elsa Nolan, of Allen County: Ohio, to whom were born ten children -- George, Margaret, Sarah, Dosson, Andrew, Adam, Alfred, Lavina, Lucinda and Maretta; two of this number are dead, George and Dosson. Mr. Funk settled in Delaware Township, Section 3, in February, 1845, and had to cut the road some dis- tance through the woods to get to the place he had chosen for his future home. Mr. F. cleared off a small patch upon which to erect his cabin, and he and his wife put up the first five rounds. His wife's father (Samuel Nolan) and two sons, John and Jacob, and another young man, came up from Allen Coun- ty, and with the assistance of neighbors within travel- ing distance and the help of his wife, he succeeded in getting up his cabin. Mr. F. says had it not been for the help from Allen County they could not have got it up, so few and far between were his neighbors at that time. He then underbrushed and partly cleared up about two acres in time for corn-planting. by leaving a portion of the standing timber, and raised a very good crop, which was his main support for the first year. The forest abounded with all kinds of wild game, and there was no lack for meat. Mr. F. was quite a hunter in his younger days, and visited this section of country on a hunting expedi- tion when about eighteen years of age, and fell in with Conrad Slough and others at or near Defiance. Mr. F .. on ono occasion shot a bear near his house that was dragging a hog of the weight of about 200 pounds through the woods, and thinks he must have captured it in the neighborhood of Bean Creek, dis- tant four or five miles.
Mr. Funk's parents, Jacob and Nancy (Bush) Funk, came from Virginia to Ohio and settled in Fairfield County. Mrs. Funk was born in Pennsyl- vania, and died on this farm, February 5, 1874, aged forty -eight years. Her parents were Samuel and Rebecca (Burnfield) Nolan.
Orlando Coffin was born in Defiance County, March 12, 1848. He is the only surviving member of a family of four children-George Coffin, born March
17
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
16, 1850. died January 29, 1875; John M., born April 14, 1852, died January 24, 1875; Emily, born March 12. 1846, died July 24, 1873. The parents of this family, Gilbert and Elizabeth Coffin, were na- tives of Now York, and died, the former in 1875, the latter in 1874. They settled in Defiance County in 1846. The subject of this sketch was married, No- vember 2, 1875, to Minerva Musselman, who was born in Paulding County, Ohio, April 14, 1851. Her par- ents, John and Eliza (Wilson) Musselman, were born, the former in Virginia, the latter in Ohio, both residents of Panlding County, Section 31, where Mrs. Musselman died. Mr. Musselman still survives.
Jacob Platter, with Nancy, his wife, and chil- dren, came to Defiance County, from the sonthern part, of Ohio, about the year 1824. They had four sons --- Jacob, Jr., Louis, George and John, and four daugh- ters --- Betsy, Anna, Hannah and Mary. Jacob Plat- ter, Sr., was killed by an accident while building a flat boat on the Maumee River. Lonis was the only one of the family of children that settled in Dela- ware Township, in then Williams, now Defiance County. He was married February 24, 1831, to Elizabeth Gordon, of the same township. They bad two sons. Oliver and William, and three daughters, Caroline, Harriet and Mary. William enlisted in the Fourteenth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and died July 21, 1862, at Corinth, Miss. Lonis Platter was born March 1, 1799, and died July 21 1842. Of the children, but two are now living- Oliver is now in Washington Territory, and Harriet Dysinger is still living in the county.
George C. Armstrong was born February 18, 1826, in Connecticut. His mother died when he was a small boy. His father, Lee Armstrong, mar- ried again, and when George was about eight years of age, 1834, they took their departure for the West, and settled in Noble Township, Ohio, on what is now known as the Charles Krotz farm, on the Tiffin River, near Brunersburg, where Mrs. Armstrong died in February, 1835. Soon after the death of his step- mother, the children were bound out. George C. was bound to Peter Blair, of Delaware Township. with whom he lived till he was seventeen, when he compromised with Mr. Blair for his time, and, pen- niless, started out in the world to shift for himself, his father having moved to Indiana, where he died in 1856, aged about sixty-one years. Mr. Armstrong the subject of this sketch, by his industry and econ- omy, soon saved enough to purchase a team of horses and a thresbing machine. This was his first invest-
ment, and in a short time he made a purchase of sixty acres of choice land from Christopher Platter, in Section 31, Delaware Township, of fine bottom land on the Maumee River, on which he now lives and to which he has continued to add acre by acre, until he has now about 600 acres in a body, in Delaware and Mark Townships, with a fine farmhouse and large, commodious bank barn, and now, at the age of about fifty-seven years, is surrounded with all the comforts of life, the result of industry and economy, Mr. Armstrong was married to Miss Mary Platter in Octo- ber, 1851, who died in 1853. He was married again, November 26, 1854, to Miss Caroline Platter, a rela- tive of his first wife. The fruits of this marriage were Harriet, William, Eda, Elizabeth, John and Edward. The two latter died when about four or five years of age. Harriet married Stewart Miller, of Sherwood; William, the oldest and only son living, remained at home helping carry on the farm. Hev was married to Miss Bell Simpson, of Delaware Township, and has one child-George Armstrong, born January 1, 1882. Mrs. Caroline Armstrong died Angust 26, 1871. Married for his third wife Parmelia Simpson, November 24, 1876, with whom he is still living. She is the eldest daughter now living of William Travis, deceased, and was born in what is now Delaware Township, January 10, 1830, and is probably the oldest woman now living that was born in the township. Mr. Armstrong thinks there is no doubt as the to old Indian orchard in Dela- ware " Bend " being the result of seeds planted by old Johnny Appleseed, and was set ont or replanted by Montgomery Evans and a Frenchman by the name of Lumbard. Evans and Lumbard owned the farm. Lumbard was d owned and Evans became its pos . sessor. Mr. Armstrong says the early settlers along the Maumee River in Delaware Township were William Travis, George W., John, Daniel and Thomas Hill, Mr. Mulligan, Thomas Warren, George Snook and brothers, James Shirley, Montgomery Evans, Samuel Hughes, Joseph Miller, Lewis Platter, George Platter and Guy Hamilton. Mr. Armstrong says the first school was on the west end of his farm, taught by one Smith, in 1828, as he was informed by Peter Blair, to whom he was bound as heretofore spoken of. His farm is watered by Manmee River on the south, Gor- don Creek and Platter Creek, these creeks deriving their names from William Gordon and Jacob Platter, who were the first persons to settle at or near the mouth of each.
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXIII.
FARMER TOWNSHIP-THE VILLAGE OF FARMER CENTER-FIRST VOTERS- PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.
Farmer Township was organized in the fall of 1836. At first it was called "Lost Creek" Township, but afterward received the name of "Farmer," in honor of Nathan Farmer, who came into the township as early as 1833. The township was heavily tim- harad and somewhat wet: but after the farms were
The Indian name of the creek running through the township is Buck-que-o-ke-uh. Interpretation, Marsh Creek. This name was appropriate. The head branches were marshes, made by beaver dams, at every tangible point, and their selections for dams could not have been surpassed by modern engineers.
FARMER TOWNSHIP. RECEIVED TOO LATE FOR INSERTION IN PROPER PLACE.
MILLER ARROWSMITH, of Farmer Township, was born in Champaign County, Ohio, March 14, 1808, and was married in the same county, July 1, 1832, to Miss Celinda Caraway, also a native of the same county. Mrs. A. died at Defiance, August 10, 1847. The first visit of Mr. Arrowsmith to the Mau- mee Valley was in June, 1833. He then bought land near Defiance, on which he settled in October follow- ing. Judge John Perkins was then County Surveyor, and, from age, and being engaged in other pursuits, he did not wish to perform the work of the office, and appointed Mr. Arrowsmith Deputy County Surveyor, the duties of which he discharged with accuracy and fidelity during a period of fifteen years. He is one of the oldest Surveyors in Northwestern Ohio. The General Assembly of Ohio, at its session of 1845-46,
elected Mr. Arrowsmith a member of the State Board of Equalization, and he proved one of the most ef- ficient members of that, body. From 1848 to 1852, he was Auditor of Defiance County and Postmaster at Arrowsmith's, during a period of about fifteen years. Excepting minor offices, those enumerated fill the measure of his public life. Mr. Arrowsmith might have continued in office, and filled a larger space in the public eye, but his tastes and inclina- tions led him, in 1852, to engage in agriculture, and in this favorite pursuit. on his well-cultivated acres, and among books and friends, in Farmer Township, he is spending the evening of his days. He is now in his seventy-sixth year, and quite vigorous and active. The pioneers of the valley are ever specially welcome under his hospitable roof.
Eager, Oney Luce, Oney Kuce, Jr., Jonn IVICA, WIII- ianı Powell, Levinus Bronson, Edward Lacost, James W. Fisher, Isaac Wartenbe, Daniel Comstock, James Crain, Laura Hopkins (widow) and William War- tenbe.
James W. Fisher was elected the first Justice of the Peace, but failed to qualify, and Onoy Rice, Jr., was elected at special election; William G. Pierce, Constable; Levinus Bronson, Clerk.
The present Justices of the Peace for Farmer Town- ship are A. Stone and William Lane; the Trustees are Charles Case, Oney Allen and Wilson Nichols; the Treasurer, John Murray; the Clerk, E. O. Stone.
Norway, by act of the Legislature, and authorized by Auditor John M. Sewell. The lots had been sold to various persons prior to that time. The town has 120 inhabitants, one hotel, one wagon shop, two black- smith shops, two groceries, two dry goods stores, one good school, eiglity scholars, a brick schoolhouse and a number of private dwellings. The town is growing moderately, and is handsomely located. It is in cen . ter of township.
There are two cheese factories in this township. One company was organized in 1875 It has a capi- tal of forty shares of $50 each. The Secretary is L.
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
C. Conkey; Treasurer, John Norway. The Directors for 1880 were (. F. Goler, B. H. Conkey and G. D. Ensign. The other company is a private one, and organized in 1873 at Williams Center. It has a capital of about $1,500. Mr. Giles H. Tomlinson operates the factory It is an individual affair, and not joint-stock.
FIRST VOTERS.
The following is a list of the voters at the first fall election after Defiance County was organized:
Ira Brown, Jesse Haller, Joseph Bradley, Martin Johnson, Levi Nichols, Miller Arrowsmith, James W. Fisher, Adam Mortimer, C. C. Sawyer, Daniel Hilbert, A. C. Biglow, Ira Freeman, William Mann, Il. F. Teavitt, Spencer Hopkins, J. F. Mortimer, W. P. Franks, Jacob Conkey, Oney Rice, Sr., O. N. Foot, Henry Mavis, R. M. Kells, J. C. Rice, William Mann, Jr., Edward Lacost, Thomas A. Sawyer, Will- iam Earlston, James J. Lloyd, Philip Selders, Orin Ensign, Anthony Huber, Charles Samlin, Elijah Lloyd, William C. Callender, Levinns Brunson, Will- iam O. Ensign, Joseph Oxenrider, Ebenezer Lloyd, Alexander Tharp, James K. Eager, Edward Eager, C. F. Manard, J. D. Sliter, Ryer Reynolds, Thomas Carey, John Chancy, Randall Soul, Elias Lentz, Samuel W. Chapman, P. C. Fisher, Stephen Sisco, Andrew Mavis, John R. Husten, John Marshall, T. E. Lloyd, James Callender, Josiah Reynolds, James C. Reynolds, Joseph Barney, John Fisher, Colin Tharp, Elisha Tharp, Elisha Tharp, James Freeman, Joshua Gardner, William Gardner, James Gardner, Thomas Blair. Captil Callender, Andrus Rice, Keelin Leonard, Renbin Sisco, Jared Halbert, John Hech- man, J. C. Callender, Oney Rice, Jr., Z. H. Conkey, Stuart Wartenbee, S. R. Wartenbee, Isaac Earlston, S. A. Sanford, Nathan Farmer, Darius Allen, J. L. Tharp, John Denmer, O. V. Sawyer, S. T. Dalrymple, McDaniel Campbell, Frederick Deetrish, David Gard- ner, John Earlston, Sylvester Sisco, Sanford Hulbert, R. C. Hyde. W. P. Franks, Anthony Huber and Jared Haller. Judges. S. H. Sanford and Joseph Barney, Clerks.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.
Enoch Farmer was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, April 29, 1828, and came to Farmer Township, Defiance County, in May, 1839, with his parents, who purchased the farm now owned by James Gardner, in Section 1, in October, 1833. His father helped or ganize the township in 1835 and was elected Trustee, and repeatedly re elected to the same office. His father was from North Carolina, Surrey County, born in 1796, and died in Wisconsin December 10, 1871, aged seventy-five years. He lived near Daniel Boone, on the Yadkin River, in North Carolina. He followed
Boone's trace to Kentucky when but seventeen years old, and led his parents to Montgomery County, Ohio, five miles from Dayton. He went from there to In- diana in 1829, and stayed there two years. Mrs. Farmer died January 12, 1830. He then returned to Montgomery County, Ohio. He then came to Farmer Township, in 1833, and remained there until 1835, and then removed to Howard County, Iowa, and re- mained there five years, and then removed to Min- nesota in 1860, and remained there a short time and returned to North Carolina, where he remained a short time, and again removed to Brown County, Minn., where he died in 1871. He seemed to have been very restless, and not contented until he changed his abode. In his meanderings he passed through many hardships. He had a good farm in Farmer Township, and sold it for $25 per acre. Still he de- sired to go West.
Mr. Enoch Farmer married Miss Mary Deardorff, May 11, 1851; she died February 16, 1874. His family are Edom (dead), Hattie I., Nora E., Howard W., Mary B. (dead). Ho married for his second wife, Miss Mary A. Wannamaker.
Mrs. Cassandra Haller was born in Champaign County, Ohio, July 12, 1810, and came to Bruners- burg, Defiance Co., Ohio, with her husband, Jesse Haller, in 1831, and remained there until 1837. Jesse Haller, her husband, was a tanner, and carried on the business in Brunersburg about seven years, and then removed to Farmer Township in 1837, and settled. on Section 32, where Mrs. Haller now resides. Jesse Haller die.1 September 30, 1876, aged about seventy-one years. He was born March 21, 1805, in Mason County, Ky. His father, John Haller, emi- grated from Kentucky to Urbana, Ohio, in 1802. He came to Brunersburg October 22, 1833, aged sixty-five years. He had been married twice. His first wife was Mary Allen, who died in Mason County, Ky., Jannary 28, 1811. His second wife, Mary Weaver, died in Champaign County, Ohio, January 3, 1815. Jesse Haller was married, December 22, 1830, in Champaign County, Ohio, to Miss Cassandra Arrow- smith, sister of Miller Arrowsmith, of Farmer Town- ship. In November, 1831, he, with his family, re- moved to Williams County, Ohio, then including the present county of Defiance. Their household goods were hauled in a wagon to the Auglaize River, and then shipped to Defiance in a pirogue. The family traveled on horseback. fording the brooks, then flush from recent rains, one of which was too deep to ford, and the only ferry-boat untried horses, but they car- ried their riders across in safety. In their new home they were again upon the frontier. The Indians were more numerous there than the whites. He located on the right bank of Bean Creek, below the present town of
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HISTORY OF DEFIANCE COUNTY.
Brunersburg, where he established a tan-yard, and remained there until September 30, 1837. He then moved upon the land he occupied at the time of his decease. His family are William M., Amanda L. (dead), May Elizabeth, who married F. N. Horton, Commissioner of Defiance County. Mrs. Haller says the trip, when she and her husband moved from Brunersburg in 1837, consumed four or five days. A road had to be cut through swamps and marshes that required four days. The underbrush had to be all cut and removed, requiring much labor and caus- ing considerable delay. Mrs. Haller relates that when she first came to the township a stranger was found dead in a cabin --- a hunter, who had died alone. Mr. Arrowsmith sent a statement to the Defiance Democrat that his first visit was in the fall of 1834. At that time, Nathan Farmer and John Hickman lived on Section 1. Keelin Leonard had raised a cabin on Section 2, on lands afterward owned and occupied by Colin Tharp. A hunter had lived on the east side of Section 9, and --- Findlay had lived in a hut on Lost Creek, in Section 32. But four entries of land had been made in the township. This stranger was found dead in the hut on Section 9. The coffin was made by Obadiah Webb, who lived on the east bank of Bean Creek, opposite to the farm now owned by Lyman Langdon. The coffin was lashed on a pole, and carried by Abraham Webb and William Sibble, on their shoulders, to the hunter's camp, a distance of nearly thirteen miles in a direct line and their route was through the woods, without a path to guide them. They crossed Bean Creek at dusk, and, with a pocket compass to guide them, and a hickory torch to light their way, they set ou with their burden on their lonely route, and reached the hut at 3 o'clock in the morning. He was buried on the northwest quarter of Section 10. This was the first death in Farmer Township.
William M. Haller was born September 30, 1831, iu Champaign County, Ohio, and when about six weeks old his parents, Jesse Haller and Cassandra, his mother, came to Noble Township, then Bruners- burg, where his father established a tan-yard, where he worked. His father removed to Farmer Township about 1837, and located on Section 32. His father, Jesse Haller, died on said section in 1876, aged about seventy- one years old. His wife is still living, and is seventy-one years old. His family were Will- iam M., Amanda L. (died), Mary E., married Mr. F. N. Horton, now one of the Commissioners of Defiance County. William M. Haller married Miss Amanda Price, July 4, 1858, the daughter of John Price, who settled in this county in 1830. Her family is Clara A. and Vernon S., both living. In an early day, Mr. H. saw the eccentric and strange old adventurer,
" Johnny Appleseed," who frequently visited Far- mer Township, and died near Fort Wayne about 1847. He knew many of the eccentric peculiarities of that strange man. He was often in this neighbor- hood, intent on planting apple trees, but always harm- less and lonely. Johnny Appleseed attended a camp meeting at the farm now owned by Arrowsmith & Ridenour, in 1843, but was an attentive hearer. He frequently rebuked the young men for their levity, and appeared much displeased if they were not atten- tive hearers. Appleseed's appearance was peculiar. He wore a coffee sack for a coat, drawn on over his head, and his dress in other respects was equally curious. The Ottawa Indians were removed by Dr. Colby about the year 1843, so that he knew but little of them. They had for a long time gathered in Farmer Township and also along the St. Joseph River, and annoyed the early settlers a good deal. They were quite unruly when they could obtain whisky from the traders, but always refrained from murder.
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