USA > Ohio > Hancock County > History of Hancock County, Ohio : containing a history of the county, its townships, towns portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of the Northwest Territory, history of Ohio, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc > Part 34
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
of Main Cross street, and runs northwest about a mile and a half to the Sand Ridge; thence, turning abruptly southwestward, follows the ridge to the village of Benton, and thence in the same general direction to the Put- nam County line. Immediately west of Findlay was a low, wet piece of ground, and instead of running due west on a line with Main Cross Street, the viewers concluded to avoid this swale by deviating toward the north and following the higher ground. Throughout pioneer days the Benton Ridge road was one of the best public highways in the county, especially during wet seasons when many other roads became almost impassable.
In February, 1832, William L. Henderson laid out a road, beginning at the house of Aquilla Gilbert, in Section 24, Amanda Township, thence run- ning northeast, till it intersected the State road from Upper Sandusky to Findlay, at the farm of Judge Jacob Smith, near the Crawford County line, but now in Wyandot County. Joseph Johnson, John Rose and Joshua Powell were the viewers; Henry Treese and Andrew Beck, chainmen, and Henry George and Aquilla Gilbert, markers. The petitioners for this road were Adam Allspach, John Fenstemaker, Andrew Beck, Thomas Cole, Samuel Gordon, Thomas Thompson, Samuel Sargent, Elijah and James Beard, Joseph Egbert, Michael Misamore, Joseph Craig, Aquilla Gilbert, Isaac Litzenberger, John Condron, John Longwith, Asa M. Lake, William J. Greer, Henry Treese, William Ebright, William Taylor, Godfrey Wolford and Elisha Brown. The road was established in March, 1832, and is one of the principal highways traversing Amanda Township.
A county road was laid out in March, 1832, on the ridge from Risdon (now Fostoria) to the site of Van Buren, and established by the commis- sioners as a public highway the following June. Christian Barnd, Jacob Foster and Thomas Slight were the viewers, and William L. Henderson, sur- veyor. The petition for this road was signed by John and Micajah Gor- such, David Heaston, Thomas Kelly, Michael Thomas, John Norris, James G. Wiseman, Elijah and John McRill, John Hiestand, John Burman, John Trout and Abraham Schoonover. In the spring of 1833 the Tiffin & De- fiance State road was established over the same route, and continued on westward into Putnam County.
Another early county road was established in Union Township in the spring of 1833. The petition was presented to the commissioners March 4 of that year, with the following names appended thereto: Wenman Wade, William Fox, Jacob Burket, Henry Smaltz, Philip, John. Simon and Philip Cramer, Jr., William M. Colclo, Alexander Hardin, Solomon Foglesong, Jacob Fox, Sr., Jacob Fox, Jr., Isaac Comer, John and Thomas Mullen and Solomon and Stephen Lee. This road commences at the Findlay & Lima State Road, near the southwest corner of Section 27, Union Township, thence runs north nearly two miles to the southwest corner of Section 15; thence northeast down the northwest side of Ottawa Creek, crossing that stream below the mouth of Tiderishi Creek; thence up the northwest side of Tider- ishi about. a mile; thence due north to the Benton Ridge road. It was sur- veyed by William L. Henderson; John Byal and Asher Wickham, viewers; Philip Cramer and Peter Folk, chainmen, and Simon Cramer, marker. From this time forward roads were rapidly established in every part of the county. Whenever a few cabins made their appearance in any portion of the county, or a new township was organized, a petition was presented for a road, and always granted. For many years after the organization of the
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
county one of the principal businesses of the commissioners was granting road petitions and establishing public highways. But even the best roads were at times almost impassable, and outside of Findlay Township very little stone piking has yet been done in this county, and mud roads are the rule instead of the exception.
The lack of means with which to build bridges, was one of the great drawbacks in this county, and during high water the Blanchard, and doubt- less some of the smaller streams, had to be crossed in canoes or rude boats improvised for the purpose. A few cheap bridges were built in some of the townships before the first one across the Blanchard at Findlay was con- structed, but they were usually temporary structures in danger of being swept away by the first freshet. In March, 1842, the commissioners resolved to receive proposals for building two bridges over the Blanchard; one at Findlay, and another on the Findlay & New Haven State road, in Marion Township. Aquilla Gilbert, one of the board, filed a protest against the proposed improvements, claiming that Findlay was getting more than her share of the public moneys, and naming bridges that had been built in other parts of the county by the townships wherein they were located, without any assistance from the county. The contract for constructing a bridge at Find- lay was let in April, 1842, to Squire Carlin and Horace Eaton for the sum of $1,600, and the bridge was completed and opened for traffic in the fall of 1843. It was an open, wooden bridge, supported by wooden abutments and trestles, and was used nearly seven years before being replaced by a better one.
On the 19th of April, 1850, a contract for a new, wooden, covered "lat- tice bridge " over the Blanchard at Findlay, was let to Jesse Wheeler, Will- iam Klamroth and Edwin B. Vail, to be completed on or before November 15, 1850. This bridge was 180 feet long, and eighteen feet above low water mark, with stone abutments and one stone pier in the center of the river. It. was a very substantial structure, and cost about $3,000. Besides the wagon track there was a foot path on each side, and when the bridge was finished it was regarded with much pride by the citizens of Findlay. It did good service for nearly twenty-three years, but the day of its usefulness finally passed away, and it was succeeded in 1873-74 by the handsome iron bridge now spanning the stream. The old bridge was sold to Dr. D. W. Cass, for $105, while the stone in the abutments and pier brought about $900. Some of the timbers of this bridge were utilized in the erection of the grand stand on the fair grounds.
The sum of $940 was expended in the erection of bridges in Hancock County in 1845; and about the time the second bridge over the Blanchard at Findlay was built, many good bridges were constructed in different parts of the county. The time had come when the people could no longer afford to plod along in the old way. The previous temporary structures were replaced by substantial ones, and new bridges made their appearance in many places. With the growth in population and wealth, good bridges became a necessity, but years elapsed before all this was accomplished, and the work still goes on from year to year. Nineteen wagon bridges now span the Blanchard within the limits of Hancock County, two of which are iron, while two more iron bridges cross the stream on the boundary lines between Hancock and Hardin, and Hancock and Putnam Counties, half the expense of which was borne by this county. Bridges have also been built wherever any of the
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
main traveled roads cross the smaller streams; and within the last fifteen years many substantial iron bridges have replaced the old wooden ones over Eagle, Ottawa, Portage and perhaps other streams in different parts of the county.
As the present handsome iron bridge spanning the Blanchard at Find- lay is recognized as the finest in the county, it will not be inappropriate to mention it briefly in this connection. August 1, 1873, the commissioners entered into a contract with the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio, to erect a one span iron bridge over the river at Findlay, 164 feet long, with a roadway twenty feet wide in the clear, and a footway on each side six feet wide in the clear, for the sum of $10,889.60. On the same day the contract for the stone abutments was awarded to Louis Bruner at the rate of $7 per perch of twenty-five solid feet, which, when completed, to- gether with the east wing, came to $4.008.90. The bridge was finished and accepted by the commissioners March 27, 1874, and warranted by the com- pany for thirty years from that date. It is a substantial structure and a credit to the builders, as well as a lasting monument to the wisdom and pub- lic spirit of the board under whom it was built, and to the people whose generous liberality rendered such a fine public improvement possible.
Before the era of roads and bridges in this portion of the State, much of the goods brought to Findlay came in pirogues from Perrysburg via the Maumee, Auglaize and Blanchard Rivers, while furs and other products of the then sparsely settled country were often shipped to the lake over the same route by the traders and merchants of the village. A Government survey made in 1816 pronounced the Blanchard navigable from Fort Find- lay to the Auglaize, and many of the pioneers who located along its banks once regarded it as a navigable stream. The only boats, however, that have ever been used in the transportation of goods upon the Blanchard, were the clumsy, old-fashioned pirogues, made from the bodies of large trees, and much resembling a huge trough. A little later goods and products were wagoned to and from Sandusky City, and goods shipped at New York came via Buffalo and the lake to Sandusky, usually arriving at Findlay from two to four weeks afterward.
The first mail route through Hancock County was established about sixty-six years ago, from Bellefontaine via Fort McArthur and Findlay to Perrysburg, with Joseph Gordon as mail agent. Gordon was born in Alle- gheny County, Penn., January 29, 1784, and in 1801, ere reaching man- hood, began his career as a horseback mail carrier in Kentucky. In 1804 he carried his first mail into Ohio from Wheeling, W. Va., some fifty miles, and his route was soon afterward extended to Chillicothe, via St. Clairsville, Zanesville and New Lancaster. He subsequently located in Bellefontaine, Ohio, and in 1820 commenced his horseback weekly mail service from that town to Perrysburg. The Findlay office was established in February, 1823, and was then, and for years afterward, the only postoffice between Bellefon- taine and the Maumee-a distance of over eighty miles through a dense, unbroken forest, where the hum of civilization was yet unheard. Gordon was the only carrier over this route till the close of 1839, when a change occurred and his route ended at Findlay. He continued in the service from Bellefontaine to Findlay-some eight or ten years longer or until the route was abandoned. Gordon is remembered as a kind-hearted, generous, trust- worthy man, and was of incalculable benefit to the early settlers of Hancock
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
County in doing errands for them at Perrysburg and Bellefontaine. It is a sad criticism on our nineteenth century civilization that this veteran of the mails was compelled by force of circumstances to spend the evening of his eventful life as a pauper in the infirmary of Logan County.
The railroads are the next in order of time, and perhaps the most im- portant feature of the county's internal improvements. In March, 1839, the General Assembly passed an act "to authorize the commissioners of Wood and Hancock Counties to subscribe to the capital stock of the Belle- fontaine & Perrysburg Railroad Company and to borrow money." Under the provisions of this act the commissioners of Hancock, at a special meet- ing held April 26, 1839, decided to subscribe 1,000 shares, amounting to $100,000, to the capital stock of said company, and delegated Parlee Carlin a special agent to negotiate a loan for said amount in the city of New York or elsewhere, at a rate of interest not to exceed 6 per cent per annum, the bonds to be redeemed in not less than twenty nor more than thirty years. The loan was never negotiated, as the project vanished into air, and few of the present generation are aware that such an enterprise was ever contemplated.
The Findlay Branch of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Rail- road was the first railroad built through Hancock County. On the 19th of February, 1845, the Legislature passed "an act to authorize the commis- sioners of Hancock County to subscribe to the capital stock of the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad Company the sum of $60,000, or such sum as shall be sufficient to construct a railway or branch from the main track of said railroad to the town of Findlay." The following month, in compli- ance with a provision of said act, the commissioners ordered the proposed measure be submitted to a vote of the citizens of Hancock at the suc- ceeding April election. The people voted in favor of said subscription by 1,055 to 764, a majority of 291. On the 11th of April, 1845, the board subscribed $60,000 to the capital stock of said railroad, and on the 22d the first installment of $30,000 in county bonds was issued. The same month Wilson Vance, William Taylor, John Patterson and William L. Hen- derson were appointed by the commissioners as their special agents to look after the interests of the county in its dealings with the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad Company. In June, 1845, John Ewing and Jacob Barnd were added to the list, but the latter dying soon afterward, Squire Carlin was appointed, September 11, 1845, to fill the vacancy. On the same date the commissioners added $15,000 to the former subscription, making a total of $75,000 subscribed by Hancock County toward the enterprise.
On the 19th of August, 1846, the railroad company, at a meeting held in Kenton, agreed to accept said subscription, the county to retain and negotiate the bonds, and construct a branch railroad from Carey to Find- lay; "Provided that said commissioners will within four years from this date, construct said branch railway as aforesaid, free of expense to this company, and will also pledge therefor to this company the stock by them subscribed as aforesaid, there to remain until said branch railway be completed; and Provided, further, that said branch railway shall be constructed as aforesaid, under and pursuant to the directions of this company, at a cost not exceed- ing the estimate of the engineer of the same, to-wit: $86,429.29, and when completed to be the property of this company; and Provided, further, that said commissioners furnish and convey to this company, ground, free of ex-
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
pense (not less than two acres in quantity), at said Findlay for a depot, and of such shape as may be surveyed by said engineer therefor, and also, free of expense to this company, secure the permanent right of way for said branch railway." It will no doubt surprise many of our readers that such a one- sided proposition was acceptable to the county, which was actually building a railroad and giving it to the company; but the people were so anxious for the road to be built that the proposition was gladly accepted by the com- missioners. On the 22d of September, 1846, the board appointed John Patterson, John Ewing and Hiram Smith, railroad agents, to transact all business in the building and completion of said branch from Findlay to Carey. They were authorized to borrow money, obtain the right-of-way, put the work under contract, and carry out all other business necessary and expedient for the furtherance of the project. In March, 1847, Hiram Smith resigned, and Charles W. O'Neal and William L. Henderson were appointed additional railroad agents, and, with Messrs. Patterson and Ewing, served till March, 1851, when the office was terminated by order of the commis- sioners.
The road was completed in November, 1849, and trains began running ere the close of that month. It was one of those old-fashioned strap-iron roads, similar to those first built through this State. Upon the bed, sleepers were laid lengthwise, placed apart the width of the track, the ties being laid crosswise on top of said sleepers. Two strips of timber were then laid on top of the ties, also lengthwise, and let into the same immediately over the sleepers, and upon these strips the rails, made of five-eighths strap-iron, were fastened. When all was finished the county had expended only $45,500 of the amount subscribed, leaving a balance of $29,500 of the subscription yet unissued. In 1852-53, an effort was made to furnish the road with T rails, the company making a proposition to the county for the latter to issue bonds to carry out the improvement, and the former to issue railroad stock to the county for said amount, and guarantee that the dividends on said stock would be sufficient to pay the interest on the bonds during their term of existence. The railway company further agreed to considerably reduce the rates of transportation. The board agreed to the proposition, but the project finally collapsed, and nothing was done at that time.
Though the subject of T railing the branch was afterward often talked of, it was not till twenty years after the road was built that the work was accomplished. In the summer of 1868, the railway company made a prop- osition to the county that if the latter would contribute $12,000 toward the enterprise the company would T rail, ballast and put the branch in good condition. Upon examining the records it was discovered that $29,500 of the original subscription remained unissued, and that the county was still liable for this amount, whenever the company complied with the original condi- tions, and constructed the road on a permanent basis. This was brought to the attention of the commissioners in October, 1868, who, after taking coun- sel, were satisfied the county was liable for said amount, and gladly issued the $12,000 in bonds to assist in carrying through the much needed im- provement, the company releasing the county from all further obligation in connection with the original subscription. The work of T railing com- menced in the spring of 1869, and October 21 of that year a dinner was given at the Crook House to the president of the road and board of directors on their visit to Findlay in honor of its completion.
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
The large frame warehouse at the depot was built before the road was finished, and as soon as completed the latter was leased by E. P. Jones, who operated the road and warehouse for about nine years. The company then took charge of the road, and engaged J. S. Patterson as their agent in Findlay. During these years this branch line was of incalculable benefit to Findlay, far more indeed than the average citizen is willing to admit. It supplied the town with shipping facilities, and thus built up its trade and population, thereby greatly enhancing the value of real estate. The road originally extended west on Crawford Street nearly to Main. From Findlay it runs in a southeast direction across the townships of Findlay, Marion and Amanda to Carey in Wyandot County, also crossing the southwest corner of Big Lick Township in its route, Vanlue being the only town on the line in this county. Originally operated by the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad Company, the name was changed by decree of the common pleas court of Erie County, February 23, 1858, to the Sandusky, Dayton & Cincinnati Railroad Company, and the branch went by that name. In January, 1866, the road was sold, and in July following reorganized as the Sandusky & Cincinnati Railroad Company. On the 11th of January, 1868, a decree of the common pleas court of Erie County again changed the name of the company to the Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland. This company operated the road over thirteen years, and March 8, 1881, leased its lines to the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad Company for the term of ninety-nine years to go into effect on the 1st of May following. The branch from Carey to Findlay is about fifteen miles in length, and is now known as the Findlay Branch of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad, which has become one of the great trunk lines of the West.
The Lake Erie & Western was the second railway built through this county, and it is yet the most important road that enters Findlay. It had its inception early in 1853, and was first conceived and advocated by Henry Brown, of Findlay, then a young lawyer, and one of the editors of the Han- cock Courier. He published an editorial in the Courier advocating the con- struction of a railroad from Green Springs via Rome (now Fostoria), Find- lay, Lima and St. Mary's to the Indiana State line, and sent a number of the papers containing the article to leading men along the proposed route. Charles W. Foster received one of the papers, and at once seeing the feasi- bility of the project drove over to Findlay, and, after talking the matter over with some of the monied men of the town, took Mr. Brown in his buggy and talked up a railroad feeling along the line as far southwest as St. Mary's. On their return a delegation from Fremont met Mr. Foster at Rome, and he told them what had been done. Fremont did not want the road to go to Green Springs, and induced Mr. Foster to favor their town instead. On the 25th of April, 1853, the Fremont & Indiana Railroad Company was incorporated, with a capital of $200,000, by Charles W. Foster, L. Q. Rawson, Sardis Birchard, James Justice and John R. Pease. The charter called for "the construction of a railroad from the town of Fremont, in the county of Sandusky, through the counties of Sandusky and Seneca to the town of Rome, in said county of Seneca; thence through the counties of Seneca and Hancock to the town of Findlay, in said county of Hancock; thence through the counties of Hancock, Allen, Auglaize, Mercer and Darke, to the west line of the State of Ohio, in said county of Darke."
The people of Hancock County, at an election held in the spring of 1853,
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
voted to subscribe $100,000 to the capital stock of the Dayton & Michigan Railroad Company, if said road was built through this county. The Day- ton & Michigan and the Fremont & Indiana Companies entered into an arrangement for the latter company to take advantage of this vote, and get possession of the bonds voted for the purpose of building the Dayton & Michigan road, which was never really intended to be located through this county. In August, 1853, 100 bonds of $1,000 each were signed and de- livered by the commissioners to L. Q. Rawson, president of the Fremont & Indiana Railroad Company, though the transfer was bitterly opposed by some leading citizens of Findlay. The commissioners also turned over to the same company $51,150 of stock and bonds held by the county in the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad. The opponents of this transfer at once notified all the money centers that the $100,000 in Hancock County bonds issued to the Fremont & Indiana Railroad Company were fradulent, and would not be paid by the county. The company were therefore unable to sell them and in 1856 returned to the county $91,000 of the amount, also the stock and bonds which they held in the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad. The remaining $9,000 of county bonds had been negotiated, and the party into whose hands they fell afterward brought suit against the county and collected the full amount of their face. The loss of these bonds was a severe stroke to the Fremont & Indiana Railroad Company, but the principal cap- italists of the enterprise, L. Q. Rawson, James Moore, Charles W. Foster, D. J. Cory and Squire Carlin, were experiened business men, and deter- mined to go forward with the project.
The enterprise, however, progressed slowly because of the financial de- pression of 1856-57, and the lack of proper encouragement from the people of the country through which the line was located. In the spring of 1857 the company began an effort to raise money along the route by personal subscrip- tion to purchase iron for the road. The iron and rolling stock was finally con- tracted for in the summer of 1857, but financial difficulties soon afterward stopped all further progress. In 1858 work went forward slowly along the eastern portion of the road, and by January, 1859, the track was completed from Fremont to Fostoria, and ere the close of that month a daily train began running between those towns. The following June a daily hack line was established from Findlay to Fostoria, connecting with the trains to and from Fremont. In the summer of 1859 the railroad bridge spanning the Blanchard was commenced, and track laying between Findlay and Fostoria went forward during the summer and fall, reaching to within one mile of Findlay, and early in the winter of 1859-60, trains began running to that point. The track was completed to the Findlay depot, on Main Cross Street, in March, 1860, and a train arrived and departed daily from Findlay. In No- vember, 1859, the large elevator near the depot was completed and put in operation by George W. Myers, and when the road was finished to the de- pot it found the elevator ready for business. Here the enterprise collapsed and the road was finished no further for more than twelve years.
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