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 67
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Josiah Kyle was born March 15, 1841, in Stark County, Ohio, removing from there to Hancock County, where he grew up, having only the advan- tages of a common school education. In 1860, he came to Defiance County, Ohio, and in 1861, August 27, enlisted in the cause of his country in the Twenty - first Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in Company E. On account of disability, he was discharged Novem- ber 22, 1863. About a year thereafter, he enlisted again in the One Hundred and Eighty-second Regi- ment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in Company B, and served till the close of the war, receiving an honora- ble discharge July 5, 1865. On July 19, 1866, Mr. Kyle married Martha Ellen Knight, who was born in Wayne County, Ohio. December 25, 1843. Their chil- dren are as follows: Dollie, Jennie M., born February 9, 1873; and Howard, born February 1, 1881. The parents of Mr. Kyle were Peter and Elizabeth (Metz) Kyle, the former born in Pennsylvania, November 30, 1810, the latter in Stark County, Ohio, April 25. 1817. They were married in Stark County. Ohio, May 15, 1836. Their children were as follows: Anna, Cornelius W., Josiah, Reuben (deceased), Hiram (deceased), George W., an infant not named. Milton and Emma. They (the parents) came to De- fiance County in 1860, settling in Milford Township. They are both living there at the present time. Jo- siah, subject of this sketch, was elected Justice of the Peace of Mark Township, April 10, 1875, and
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was re-elected in 1878, and resigned at the close of the second term, as he could not be troubled with it. He was Township Treasurer from the spring of 1873 to the present time. He is also the leading merchant of the place, keeping a general assortment of every- thing found in a country store, engaging in this busi- ness at the Center about the year 1875. Mr. Kyle claims no notoriety for war record, but wishes space given to his friend and comrade in arms, William J. Knight, who enlisted in this county at same time in same company and regiment. As to the capture of engine at Big Shanty, he was the man who ran it on its perilous expedition.
Lyman R. Critchfield, fourth child of Isaac and Nancy (Keifer) Critchfield, was born in Knox County, Obio, April 16, 1838, his father being a native of Cumberland, Penn., the latter of Clarksille, Va. Their children were Subra, Wyman and Oscar (both died in infancy) Lyman R., David K. and John P., who died in the service of his country at Bridgeport, Ala , August 2, 1864, having enlisted in Company F, Thirty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1863. Lyman R., our subject, enlisted April 18, 1861, on the first call for three-months' men, iu Company K, Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and on the 26th of July, 1862, re-enlisted for three years and served till the close of the war, being discharged from Andersonville Prison June 9, 1865. He passed through many trying scenes, but none more so than parting with his dying father when his three-days' furlough had expired, and he had either to leave his father on the brink of death or be marked as a de- serter. Stern duty determined his action, and receiv- ing a parting kiss and benediction, he left the death- bed scene, his father's eye anxiously following him to the door, and with a sad heart turned his footsteps in the direction of his country's foes. Enlisting on the 8th of September at Toledo, he proceeded with his regimeut to Kentucky against Gen. Bragg. Was at Knoxville, Tenn., when besieged by Longstreet. In the spring of 1864, he passed through the Atlan- ta campaign, but was captured on November 30, 1864, by Hood's forces below Jonesboro, Ga., and being stripped nearly naked, was thrown into that indescri- bable prison pen, Andersonville.
Mr. Critchfield was married December 6, 1868, to Mary C. Cole, who has borne him three children- Alonzo L., born August 28, 1868, died September 16, 1874; Delaphene M.', born June 28, 1872, and Homer J., born April 8, 1879. Mr. Critchfield's parents moved to Henry County in 1849, and next spring moved to Mark Township, taking forty acres at $25, which re- cently changed hands at $1,100. They had to cut a road from the river road and another to Hicksville, six miles long. For a number of years there were no
roads fit for teams; goods had to be transported by men. A man by the name of Ashton put up a saw mill and a corn-cracker in it, where they used to take corn on a hand sled and pull through the woods, distant about five miles. As Lyman R. grew up, he took after his father somewhat for hunting. His father settled in Knox County among the Indians when about ten years old and became a great hunter. Lyman R. used to hunt bear, deer, coons and turkeys. One day he ran a big bear all day with six dogs; night com- ing on, he camped on his- track. Next morning routed him easily and treed him. Afterward he dropped to the ground, the dogs all pounced upon him and killed him nearly; one of the men ran up and, striking him on the head, finished him. At another time, late in the evening in September, he heard a rout among the hogs in the marsh on a little island. His brother, D. K. Critchfield, and himself started out. Taking the path to where they slept, discovered a bear lugging off a hog. On seeing them, he was attracted by Lyman's white shirt, dropped the hog, came at him and was within a few jumps of him when his brother shot him, after a pretty narrow escape of a bear's hug.
William J. Knight, a merchant, now of Minne- sota, deserves a place in the history of the brave boys of Defiance who enlisted in the late war. He is about forty-five years of age, a native of Wayne County. His mother died when he was an infant, and his father also died when he was but three years old, so that, his grandparents raised him. His father was a farmer who came to this county in 1853. Mr. Knight married at Bryan, about 1868, Miss Emma Oldfield. He was one of the Mitchell railroad raiders, whose adventures form one of the most thrilling epi- sodes of the rebellion. Was a resident of Defiance County at the time of his enlistment in Company E, Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, August 27, 1861. The raiders consisted of twenty-four men from Gen. Mitchell's division, encamped about Shelbyville, Tenn. Their scheme, a most daring one, was to penetrate the rebel lines as far as Marietta, Ga., there secure a train of cars by fair means or force, and then run northward to the Union lines, burning all the bridges and otherwise destroying the road so effectually as to break all rebel rail communications over it. Four days were given them to reach Marietta. They left Shelbyville April 7, 1862, in small squads, all dressed in citizens' clothes, but did not reach their destina- tion until the 12th, and the one day's delay frustrat- ed the success of the well-laid plan. Only twenty of the men boarded the express northward the next morning, and at Big Shanty, a small station a few miles north of Marietta, the train was captured by the daring spies while the train men and passengers
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were taking refreshments. Then began one of the wildest and most intensely exciting races imaginable. Mr. Knight, the subject, took charge of the engine, and away it went, thundering toward the Union lines. Passing each station, tho rails wero torn up and tel- egraph wire cut. But great delay was caused by wait- ing at stations for an unusual number of trains going south. The chase commenced in a hand car, but the first engine met was turned in pursuit, a gang of track-layers were secured, and at last the pursuer succeeded in getting a message ahead of the flying train, and its doom was sealed. The raiders took to the woods, but they were near a rebel encampment, and a large force of cavalry was organized to capture them. One by one the fleeing men were run down, though some eluded their pursuers for days. Twen- ty-two in all, they were incarcerated in a loathsome den at Chattanooga, thirteen feet square and thirteen feet deep, where they suffered untold torments. They were afterward transferred to the jail at Atlanta. The brave leader, Andrews, was condemned as a spy and executed. Seven more of the unfortunate pris- oners were soon after hanged. A last desperate effort for freedom was planned and carried into execution. The guards were overpowered, and then each prisoner took flight as best he could. Mr. Knight gave the following account of his escape: " We broke jail October 16, 1862, and scattered and scampered for the woods. W. W. Brown, E. H. Mason and myself, all of the Twenty-first Ohio Infantry, were together. The first night out Mason took sick, and we did not get far, but kept well hidden. We were three days within nine miles of Atlanta. On the third night Mason was so bad that we were compelled to go to a house with him, and began to despair of making good our es- cape, but he told us to leave him and save ourselves. Just as we had finished a hearty meal in the kitchen, three men came in at the front door to arrest us. They asked if we were not some of the prisoners whe broke jail at Atlanta. We told them we were. They said they had come to take us back, and that there was no use trying to escape, as all the roads and bridges were guarded.
" Brown was mad in an instant, and ripped out a very blunt reply. We sprang out of the back door and ran around the end of the house and down a fence in the direction of some woods. They ran out of the front door with their shotguns aud bawled out, ' Halt! halt!' as we were leaving them at a 2:40 run. They straddled their horses and galloped out on a by road from the house to the main road, while the man where we had stayed unloosed his hounds, and they were soon on our trail in full cry. We had changed our course to baffle the horsemen. for there was a hill to go down and another to ascend before we got
across the plantation and to the woods beyond. The men could not see us, but the dogs told our course, and before we had reached the woods the whole pack were closing on us. The field was full of loose stones, and we hastily chose the best place we could and en- gaged in a savage combat with the dogs, in which we were victorious, crippling and driving away the whole pack in short order, after which we started again on full run.
" We could by this time see the horsemen coming round to head us off. We changed our course and threw them off again. The hounds followed at a long distance and by their howling indicated our course, but did not come near enough to molest us. We kept see-sawing and tacking in order to avoid the horsemen, who were doing their best to head us off, until at last we came to a little creek in which we waded for a couple of hours, and in this way caused the dogs to lose us. That day we reached Stone Mountain, eighteen miles east of Atlanta. After that, we traveled nights, going due northward, with the north star for our guide. From our hiding places in the day time we frequently saw scouting parties, patrolling the country, no doubt, for the jail fugi- tives. We crossed the Chattahoochee, October 26, on rails tied together with bark. From the house where we left Mason we were six days without food, except nuts and brush. On the seventh day we caught a goose and ate it raw, and on the same day found a few ears of corn left in the field by the husk- ers. A day or so later we found a tree of apples and filled up on them and carried away all we could.
Fortunately the same day we discovered a drove of young hogs in the woods. I hid behind a tree and Brown coaxed a confiding pig up near me by biting off bits of apple aud tossing them to it, back- ing up meanwhile, until the young porker came within reach of my stick, when I murdered it. That night we found where some men had been clearing and burning, and we had a feast of cooked pork without seasoning, but we enjoyed it without complaint, for, except the goose and corn, we had eaten only five meals in twenty-one days. The pig lasted till we reached the Hiawasse River, near the corner of North Carolina.
" We traveled hard for four days over an intolera- bly rough country, and only gained eight miles. We were crossing a little old clearing which had a de- serted appearance, when we came unexpectedly and suddenly out in front of a log house, where two men stood on the porch. They saw us and it was too late to dodge, so we tried to appear indifferent and asked if we could get dinner. We told them we were rebel soldiers who had been on the sick list and were try - ing to get back to our regiments. They said we
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could have dinner, and as we sat down to eat the woman of the house eyed us closely and soon accused us of being "Yanks." We soon found out each other, and they were loyal, true pecple, who sent us to friends and they to other friends, until we reached
Somerset, Ky., about November 25, from which place we reached Louisville, and from there by railroad to Nashville, near which place our old comrades and regiment lay, and where our boys received us with three times three and a tiger."
CHAPTER XXVII.
MILFORD TOWNSHIP CHURCHES-ARROWSMITH MILL-PERSONAL REMINISCENCES
M ILFORD TOWNSHIP was organized in 1837. The first settlers were William G. Pierce, George Chapman, Linus Clark, Ezra Crary, Thomas Slater, Thomas Green, Jacob Welden, Harrison Conkey, Elias Crary, Spencer Hopkins, John Henry and George Green and their families. These twelve were present at the first election. The officers elected at that election were Linus Clark, Justice of the Peace; Ezra Crary, George Chapman and Thomas Slater, Trustees; Linus Clark, Treasurer; Ezra Crary, Clerk, and W. G. Pierce, Constable.
The following were the Milford Township voters in October, 1845:
Ezra Crary, John Mochman, James Marshall, Abram Merser, Dennis Boyles, Ira W. Ladd, J. G. Thompson, A. W. Wilcox, Oliver Farnsworth, John H. Hopkins, Jesse Snow, Benjamin Furlow, Armen- ius Crary, Elisha Clark, Joseph Long. Henry Hul- bert, Lucius Gale, William G, Pierce, James Pierce, Peter Beerbower, Charles W. Barney, Samuel Slater, Michael Upp, Ezra Grandey, Harry Hasting, William Brattone, Jefferson Wartenbee, G. C. Noble, B. F. Squire, John Henry. Clement Hulbert, Adam Case- beer, Chancy P. Lowrey, Peter Helwig, Daniel Coy, Hezekiah Arrants, John Halley, William Lewis, Har- rison Conkey, Elias Crary, Andrew Wickerham, Joseph Wickerham. William G. Pierce, Daniel Coy, and William Lewis, Judges; Lucius Gale and Har- rison Conkey, Clerks.
The first child born in Milford Township that lived to manhood was Luther Slater, November, 1835, and the first marriage was Jeremiah A. Ball to Malinda Slater, in August, 1836.
Milford has taken a due interest in the Ohio school system, as her schoolhouses fully attest, and has freely spent many thousand dollars to preserve a system that tends to perpetuate free thought and lib- erty of opinion.
Milford is a fine township, and very productive. Her lands will compare favorably, for productive- ness, with other parts of the county. They do not need so much ditching and tiling as the wetter ones
to prepare them for culture. They are very product- ive, and raise fine wheat, corn and grass.
By the census of 1880, the population was 1,460.
CHURCHES.
The Universalist Church of Logan, in Mil- ford Township, was built in 1868, at a cost of $1,800. The services there have been maintained regularly by N. Crary, W. J. Chaplin, E. Moore- field, J. Merrifield and others. The removals and deaths, and other causes, have weakened the church, but the few believers. are firmly attached to the church and its doctrines. The liberality of other churches has done much to soften old asperities against the doctrines of Universalism.
The Lutherans have a small frame church in Section 10, and a membership of some thirty. The second preacher was Ernest Stubnace. The church cost about $800. The former preacher was Adam Detzer, in 1845, still living in Indianapolis, Ind.
The Methodists have also a small church, in the northeast part of the township. The membership is small. It was built in 1872, and is a frame. The preacher is Adam Kruemling.
ARROWSMITH MILL.
The Arrowsmith Mill was not only one of the useful institutions of its day, but an institution of prime necessity to the neighborhood and country around. It served the purpose of supplying the sim- ple needs of its patrons, when habits of living were plainer than now. But this mill, conditioned like all things else, was forced to yield to time and circum- stances, and has finally passed away, its ponderous wheels ceasing to turn about 1846. It was located just north and a little west of the crossing of Lost Creek. A portion of the building was of logs, and for some years has been used for storing a lot of black- smith tools.
In 1844, Mr. John F. Haller, though not a mill- wright, helped Mr. Arrowsmith, the proprietor, on the repairs of this mill. Mr. Arrowsmith, however,
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was a regular millwright, and also understood the business of grinding, and dressing buhrs, etc., etc. The repairs proper were chiefly confined to the water-wheel, and the tools employed in this under- taking were an inch augur, a hand-saw and an ax. The wheel to this mill was one of Mr. Arrowsmith's own invention, and was thought, by him at least, to be a very good one. When the repairs on the mill had about reached completion, and the dressing of the buhrs being the next thing in order, an old ax was added to the former stock of millwright tools, and with this instrument, whether it was called picking or chopping, the buhrs were dressed and the mills set to running.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.
William G. Pierce was born in New Hampshire June 20, 1808. He was married, in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., October 29, 1832, to Miss Ada, daughter of Oney and Amelia Rice.
Mr. Pierce is of English and Irish descent. While a boy, he attended school in Wentworth, N. H., where he resided with his parents until six years of age. His father then located in Chittenden County, Vt., in the town of Colchester, afterward removing to St. Lawrence County, N. Y. After his marriage, he came to near Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained about fifteen months, and then removed to what was afterward Farmer Township, Defiance County, in 1836. He helped organize that township in 1836. Mr. Pierce settled in what is now Milford Township in 1837, and was present at the organization of that township. The country was then very new and wild. The Ottawas, some Wyandots and many Miamis were yet in the township. They were a harmless people, but somewhat troublesome to the new settlers in conse- quence of their visits. They traded their pelts to agents at Defiance and other points, and used a good deal of whisky, and when under its influence were quite noisy and somewhat dangerous. They often camped near the settlers and ranged the forests in search of game. The Ottawas left some time prior to the emigration of the Wyandots in 1843. Mr. Pierce states that schools were taught in cabins built for the settlers at that time. The first school in the township was taught in his cabin by Margaret Brace, now District 3, in 1844. The next teacher was Harriet Ellis. Then followed Jerusha Andrews in 1846, then Uretta Hopkins and Sabrina Hopkins in 1847. There were but few scholars and a small fund. The schools were largely by subscrip- tion. At a later day, schoolhouses sprang up in every district in the township. The houses are very com- fortable, and frame or brick.
Mr. Pierce states that the township was heavily
timbered, and much hard work was required to clear up a farm. By the time a pioneer passed through such toil he began to show age and grow old. The diseases of the early settlers were fever and ague, bilious fevers and the like. The early doctors were distant, and the settlers had to travel through the forest many miles to get a physician. Preaching was generally in the cabins of the settlers, and each denomination had its teachers, who occasionally ad- dressed the people.
Mr. Pierce was a noted hunter. Many very amus- ing anecdotes are told concerning his adventures with deer, bear and wild cats. He generally killed from twenty to thirty deer a year. Of wild cats, abont forty or fifty. They were brindle, gray and spotted. They were very numerous and large, weighing from forty to fifty pounds. He shot many wolves and deer from the door of his cabin. Wolves were very de- structive to sheep, and quite bold. Of bear he killed many. He states that on one occasion, after dark, he took his ax and went into the forest to hunt coons, which were very numerous. After passing into the forest, not far from his house, he heard the crushing tramp, as he supposed, of a cow or horse in the for- est. His dog soon raised the usual howl. Mr. P., with ax in hand, sought the place, and to his surprise the dog had a bear, which was brought to a stand. Mr. P. rushed for the bear, ax in hand. The bear fled a few rods and seated himself, and commenced to cuff the dog. Mr. P. halloaed lustily for a neighbor to bring his gun, which attracted the attention of Mrs. Pierce, who hastened to his relief with a torch. Mr. P. told her to hold the light, so he could attack the bear with his ax. Mrs. P., finding it to be a bear, was much alarmed, and covered her retreat by getting behind Mr. P., which rendered the torch useless. Mr. P. urged his dog forward, when the bear retreated a few rods and began to fight the dog. Mr. P. felt confident if he could get a lick at him with his ax that he could kill the bear; but every attempt failed, and finally bruin made his escape.
Mr. Pierce had a fine lot of young shoats that fed on mast iu the forest. One afternoon these pigs came up the path very much frightened -- bristles up. He observed that something had happened the pigs. He took his ax and went down the path with his dog, who was a good hunter. It was not a great, while till his dog raised a fierce yell. Mr. P. hastened to the spot, and found that his dog had brought a large bear to a halt, the dog seizing him in the rear when- ever he moved. By urging his dog, the bear was made to climb a large tree, having two branches, or a fork. Bruin took a seat in the fork, and looked de- fiantly about. Mr. P. looked about to see if he could find a tree that would dislodge the bear, but no tree
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would reach his position. He made a careful ex- amination, and found that the bear tree would reach a large sycamore, across which he proposed to cut the bear tree, so that the fork would strike the bear and dislodge it. This was done, and when the tree fell, unfortunately it did not impale the bear, but broke the fork and tore down a large number of trees, and during the fall bruin made his escape. Mr. P. found, on futher examination, that bruin had dined on his missing pig.
About that time, he had cleared a field near the forest, and sowed it in wheat. There was a bog in one corner, which was the receptacle of brush and other rubbish. The deer often came in to eat the growing wheat in the evening. Mr. P. adopted a plan to catch them while thus feeding on his wheat. He possessed an old hat with a wide rim, in the crown of which he cut large holes and securely placed a can- dle, which he lighted, and carefully, gun in hand, approached the deer. The deer stared at the burning candle, while the body of Mr. P. was shaded by the broad rim. He carefully raised his gun and suc. ceeded in getting the game. On one occasion, a misty evening, he approached the bog, when a buck with a large pair of horns saw the light and approached it. Just as he got within a short distance of Mr. P., a drop of rain struck the lighted candle, when it commenced to hiss, at which the buck took the alarm, and hurried away at a hop, skip and jump, and en- tering the bog it commenced to flounder and struggle till it got loose and fled, which so amused Mr. P. that he could not shoot for laughing at the capers of the buck. The children of William G. and Ada Pierce are eight in number-William N., Hiram W., Fanday H., John B., Mary A. and Charles G., living, and Zelina D. and Malinda M., deceased. William N. and Hiram were in the late war of the rebellion. Mr. Pierce has held most of the township offices, and is now the posesssor of 210 acres of well-improved land. He is a member of the Universalist Church.
Jacob Green, Jr., was born August 21, 1825, in Licking County, Ohio, and resided near Johnstown, and removed with his father, Thomas Green, a Vir- ginian, and family to what is now Milford Township in 1835, where his father died in 1845, June 7, aged forty six years. His mother, Mary (Willison) Green, died June 8, 1853, aged about fifty-two. She was born at Hagerstown, Md. Mr. Green married Lovina Green January 17, 1847. She died October 31, 1870, aged forty-two years. She was daughter of George Green, of Milford Township. The father of Mr. Green settled on Section 5, near the St. Joseph River, the present homestead of Mr. Green, which contains 160 acres. When his parents landed in Milford Township, the forests were quite dense, and very
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