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 49
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Abner Hill and his wife and step-daughter were the next family who came to Madison Township. They located on Section 23, close to the west line of the township, in the winter of 1826-27, and there resided until the spring of 1835, when Hill broke into Carlin's store at Findlay, for which deed he was arrested, tried, and, on April 14, 1835, sentenced to the penitentiary for three years. It is claimed that he was the first person sent to the pen- itentiary from Hancock County. His family removed from the county and never returned.
John Tullis, a brother-in-law of Simeon Ransbottom, came from Belle- fontaine, Logan Co., Ohio, in 1827, and for some time lived with Mr. Rans- bottom. Bellefontaine was laid out on a part of his father's land in 1820. In April, 1828, he took part in the first county election. He began a clearing on the south half of the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 11, and upon his marriage with Miss Emeline, daughter of Abel Tanner, settled per- manently upon his land. In the spring of 1835 he sold this forty-acre property to John Smith and removed to Van Buren Township. Mr. Tullis and family finally went to Missouri, where he died in 1871. His family returned to Ohio and settled in Dunkirk, and his widow is now living in Forest. One of his daughters, Mrs. Harriet Holmes, is a resident of Arlington. His brother, Griffin Tullis, came to the township two or three years after him, but remained only a brief period.
Thomas Ransbottom and John Diller located on Eagle Creek in 1828. The former settled near his brother Simeon, and after some four or five years' residence he removed to Allen County, Ohio. Diller and his wife, Cath- erine. were natives of Pennsylvania, but came here from New York, and purchased the improvement of Simeon Ransbottom on the west bank of
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
Eagle Creek in Section 11. He opened the first tavern in this part of the county, the buildings being two small log-cabins bearing the title of "The Cross Keys." This point afterward became locally known as "Waterloo," on account of the moral slaughter caused by a low grog-shop which stood here for many years. In May, 1833, Mr. Diller entered the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 10, Van Buren Township, adjoining his previous purchase on the west. About this time his wife died, leaving three small boys, who, with their father, went to live with Simeon Rans- bottom. On the 29th of May, 1833, he sold out to William Moreland, and removed from the county a few years afterward.
In 1829 Aaron Kinion, Nathaniel Hill and James West all settled on Section 23. Kinion was a brother of Mrs. Abel Tanner, and with his fam- ily came from Rhode Island to Eagle Creek, afterward removing to Cham- paign County, Ohio. Hill, who was a widower, preceded his father-in-law, James West, to this township. Both died on the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 23, entered by West in 1831.
The years 1830 and 1831 brought in John Longwith, Jacob Helms, Jacob Bolenbaugh, William Moreland, Jr., and Nathan Lewis. Mr. Long- with entered the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 5, May 5, 1830, and the following August settled upon it. He was born in Virginia, whence he removed to Pickaway County, Ohio, there married Sarah Cherry, and at the time mentioned took up his abode in the northeast corner of what is now Madison Township. Here his wife died several years ago, and in October, 1884, he, too, passed away. Their daughter, Harriet, now lives upon the home farm.
Jacob and Elizabeth Helms, natives of Pennsylvania, located on the northeast quarter. of Section 2, in the fall of 1830. Their sons were John, Samuel, Jacob, Joseph, Henry and David, all of whom are well remem- bered in this locality. Mr. Helms accumulated sufficient property to give each son a nice farm. Both he and his wife died and were buried on the old homestead, where Levi, the son of Henry, now resides.
Jacob Bolenbaugh came in the spring of 1830, and in 1833 was elected justice of Van Buren Township, which then embraced the west half of Mad- ison. He settled on Eagle Creek, on the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 14, but June 30, 1836, he sold his farm to Simeon Ransbottom. He had, however, removed to Union County the previous year. It is re- lated that Bolenbaugh's reason for leaving was because of his dislike for the large number of Germans who were then entering land around him. If this story is correct, it was very fortunate for the township to get rid of such a man so easily.
William Moreland, Jr., removed from Findlay to this township in the spring of 1831, and in June of that year was elected the first justice of Van Buren township. In 1833 he purchased the improvement of John Diller, but in 1834 or 1835 moved back into Findlay Township, in the chapter on which township a more extended notice of the family will be found.
Nathan Lewis was one of those pioneers who lived by hunting. He squatted on Section 23, and is not believed to have ever owned any land in this locality.
Daniel and Elizabeth Rodabaugh, with their sons John, Abraham, Simon, Daniel, Jacob and Jonas, and three daughters, came from Colum- biana County, Ohio, in April, 1832, and settled on Section 25, where Simon
John choose
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MADISON TOWNSHIP.
now lives. The parents and all of the children, except the two youngest, were born in Pennsylvania. Daniel and his wife died on the old homestead, and Abraham, Simon and Jonas, of this township, are the only survivors of the family.
Abraham Myers, wife and three step-sons, John, Jacob and Isaac Bush- ong, also John Musser, came with the Rodabaughs. Myers settled on the southwest quarter of Section 30, and Jacob and Isaac Bushong lived with him. John Bushong and his wife, Anna, settled and died on Section 36, where their son, Simon, now lives. Isaac, who resides on Section 32, is the only one of the old stock living. The Bushongs were born in Virginia. Musser, a native of Pennsylvania, settled on the northwest quarter of Section 25, now owned by Simon Rodabaugh. His son, Jacob, resides southwest of the old farm.
Christian and Catherine Welty came from Perry County, Ohio, in 1833 or 1834, and for three weeks the family camped in the woods, while the rude log-cabin was being prepared for their occupancy. Mr. Welty's land was in Section 36, adjoining Williamstown on the west and south. In 1836 he was elected justice of the peace of Van Buren Township, to which subdivis- ion he then belonged, and re-elected to the same office. Upon the establish- ment of a postoffice at Williamstown in 1835, Mr. Welty was appointed postmaster, and afterward opened a store in the village. He was a preacher in the Disciples Church, and both he and his wife died on the home place, where one of his sons yet resides.
In 1834 Robert Hurd entered several tracts of land in the north part of the township on Sections 1, 6 and 7. He was a native of East Haddam, Conn., born March 16, 1785. In 1820 he came out to Portage County, Ohio, as agent for Aaron and Moses Wilcox, original proprietors of Twins- burg Township, taken from Portage in the erection of Summit County in 1840. The Wilcox brothers were twins, from which circumstance Twins- burg derived its name. Mr. Hurd was married in Killingsworth, Middlesex Co., Conn., in 1807, to Miss Mary Brainerd, a native of that State, who bore him fourteen children, twelve of whom grew to maturity, and ten are now living. In the fall of 1834 two of the sons, William B. and Lorenzo, and a son-in-law, Joseph Fitch, located in this township, and built a cabin on the site of Arlington. Here they remained clearing up their land till April, 1839, when their brothers, Anson and Jared Hurd, joined the settle- ment, built a cabin close to the first one erected, and the following Septem- ber the father and balance of the family came out, and took possession of the second residence, where his wife died in September, 1842. In 1844 Robert laid out the village of Arlington. In 1859 he was elected justice of the peace, and died in February, 1861. Of their children, two sons reside in Findlay, and one daughter in Arlington. Dr. Anson Hurd, a leading physi- cian of Findlay, is the best known of the family.
Adam Essinger, Martin Funk and Napoleon B. Martz all came to the township in 1834. Mr. Essinger and his wife. Catherine, emigrated from Ger- many to Pennsylvania in 1832, thence removed to Hancock County, with the families of his brother, Nicholas, Adam Gossman and Peter Pifer in the fall of 1834, locating on Section 14, Madison Township, where he soon after- ward died. His widow and three children are residents of the township. Martin Funk and family were from Pennsylvania. He settled on Section 11, on the east bank of Eagle Creek, where he erected a grist-mill in 1838. He
21
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
ran this mill for a number of years, and it was subsequently operated by his son, John. Mr. Funk and wife and some of the children finally went to Michi- gan, but he came back on a visit and died at the house of Richard Sims. Mr. Martz was born in Virginia, and came here a single man, subsequently marrying Mrs. Hannah Nichols, nee Woodruff. He served one term as jus- tice of the peace, and resided here until 1874, when he and his wife removed to Illinois, where both are still living. Their son, Dorillas, resides upon the old homestead in Section 14.
John W. Williams was born in Maryland, April 20, 1800, and came of Revolutionary stock. The family removed to Tuscarawas County, Ohio, at an early day, where Mr. Williams remained till the fall of 1833, when, tak- ing his wife and family in a wagon, he started West, arriving at Kenton, the newly laid out county seat of Hardin County, in the early part of October. At the first public sale Mr. Williams purchased several choice lots facing the square, then covered with the original forest, upon one of which he erected a large, two-storied, hewed-log building, and immediately opened a tavern " for the convenience of man and beast." He also kept a small store in one corner of the bar-room, his trade being principally powder, lead and flints. The sessions of the court of common pleas were held in this tavern until the completion of the Court House. Mr. Williams had the contract for the erection of that building, which he finished in 1835. He dealt ex- tensively in peltry, handling thousands of skins in 1834 and 1835. His son, J. W. F. Williams, of Washington, D. C., writes as follows about his father's removal to Hancock County: "It being reported and believed that the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad would locate its line six miles east of Kenton, and the county seat be moved to a place known as 'Wheeler's,' he sold all of his property, had the town site of Williams- town surveyed, and moved there in the winter of 1835-36." Though the move proved a bad one, Mr. Williams soon became a prominent factor in the southern part of Hancock. He opened a tavern and store, and was the second postmaster of the village, which position he filled many years. In 1846 he was elected justice of the peace, and re-elected nine times in suc- cession, his death occurring September 23, 1873, while filling his last term. A modest headstone marks his grave in the little cemetery near the village which perpetuates his name.
During 1835 Abraham Williams, John Smith, Nicholas Price and An- drew Ricketts, with their families, settled in the township. Williams built his cabin in the northeast quarter of Section 11, in March, 1835. He and his wife, Mary Ann, were from Pennsylvania. She died here and he after- ward went to Nebraska. John Smith, a German, came here from Jeffer- son County, Ohio, in the spring of 1835. He purchased the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 11, of John Tullis, and took up his residence in the Tullis cabin. He died at the home of his son, Peter, in Van Buren Township. Nicholas and Elizabeth Price, natives of Germany, settled on Section 14, near the west line of the township, in the fall of 1835. They were the parents of nine children, and both died upon the old homestead. Four of their sons reside in this county: George in Van Buren Township, Nicholas E. and Philip in Madison, and Peter in Findlay. Andrew and Mary Ricketts came from Fairfield County, Ohio, in November, 1835, and settled west of Eagle Creek, on the east half of the southwest quarter of Section 2. In 1837 he was elected justice of the
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peace of Van Buren Township, in which subdivision his home was then in- cluded, and served one term. In 1841 he was elected county commissioner, which position he also filled one term. Mr. Ricketts accumulated a com- fortable property, and died in October, 1865. The family subsequently re- moved to Findlay, where his widow is now living.
The next few years brought in a large number of settlers, among the first of whom we find Alexander Grant, George Kibler, Richard Sims (now of Arlington), Solomon Watkins, William Hodge, John Spacht and others. But the brunt of the struggle was now past, and these later comers found friends ready to assist them in the work of opening homes in the forest then covering the land.
Justices .- As this township was not erected till 1840, some of its pio- neers served as justices of Van Buren prior to that date, and their names will be found in the list of that township. The justices of Madison have been as follows: Solomon Watkins, Joseph Leslie, Thomas Reese, Napoleon B. Martz, John W. Williams, Joel Markle, L. P. Wing, Robert Hurd, David Wardwell, L. D. Wiseman, Philip P. Wilch, Peter Wilch, Ezra Longworth, J. C. Clingerman, James Huff, Thomas H. Bushong, Dorillas Martz and Ellis Clingerman. The last mentioned and James Huff are the present incum- bents of the office.
Grist-mills .- The first grist-mill was built in 1838 by Martin Funk on the northeast bank of Eagle Creek in Section 11. It was operated by water- power supplied by a race cut across the bend in the creek. This mill, like all those erected at an early day, was of great value to the pioneers. About ten years ago it ceased operations, and in the summer of 1885 was torn down and the frame removed by Peter Traucht to Arlington, where it was used in the construction of the steam grist-mill in that village, which is now in running order and the only flouring-mill in the township.
Schools. - A small log schoolhouse was built about 1833-34 on the farm of Abel Tanner in Section 23. It was taught by Charles Herron, and the few families then living in that locality sent their children to this school. It- was the first attempt at education in this part of the county. The next schoolhouse was put up on the farm of John Diller, in Section 11, as early as 1838. The Ransbottoms, Funks, Watkinses, Prices, Gossmans, Pifers, Heldmans, Smiths and others attended here. In 1840 a school was taught by Miss Harriet Fitch, in a log-cabin on the site of Arlington. Miss Jane Bigelow, was the second teacher of this school. About 1841 a small round- log schoolhouse was built in Williamstown-the first in the south part of the township. Other houses soon made their appearance, until in a few years every portion of the township had a school for the education of its youth. Madison has now eight schoolhouses, that in Arlington containing two rooms, and no child, rich or poor, need grow up without such educational advantages as the public schools afford.
Religious Societies. - A class of the Methodist Episcopal denomination was organized by Rev. Thomas Thompson, about 1830, at the house of Abel Tanner, the Tanners and Kinions being its only members. Services were held at intervals at private houses and schoolhouses, but in 1858 this denomination erected a frame building in Arlington, which is yet in use. The Methodist Protestant Church organized a society about 1833, in what is now Van Buren Township, though some of its members lived in Madison. About 1854-55 they erected Mount Moriah Church on Section 22, Van
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
Buren Township, and also one in Arlington soon after the Methodist Epis- copal denomination built theirs. The Arlington Church is the only build- ing owned by the Methodist Protestants in this township; while the Method- ist Episcopals have another society and church at Williamstown. The Disciples have a church at the latter village, Arlington and Williamstown each containing two churches. Other denominations have held services in the township, yet none but those mentioned have ever had an organized society, except perhaps the German Baptists, who, as early as 1835-36, held meetings in the Rodabaugh settlement, and may have effected an organi- zation, though they never had any house of worship in Madison.
Villages. - Williamstown was laid out by John W. Williams April 23, 1834, on the northeast corner of Section 36 and the northwest corner of Section 31, thirteen miles directly south of Findlay, and originally con- tained forty-eight lots. The Bellefontaine road had been surveyed and partly opened, but there was only a rude wagon track through this town- ship when Williamstown was surveyed. In 1835 Mr. Williams erected a log building, and late that year removed from Kenton and opened a tavern in the forest then covering the site of his village. The same year a post- office named "Eagle " was established here, and Christian Welty appointed postmaster, who also opened a store about 1837. Mr. Welty's successors in the postoffice have been as follows: John W. Williams, Dr. B. D. Evans, John B. De Haven and Dr. B. D. Evans. In 1866 the name of the office was changed to Williamstown. The first resident physician was Dr. Smith, but Dr. John F. Perky, who came afterward, is much better remembered, as he practiced here many years ere his removal to Findlay. The village has never had much prosperity and wears a general appearance of decay. Dunkirk on the south and Arlington on the north are fast sapping whatever business life it now contains. Its population in 1880 was 128, and its pres. ent business interests embrace one general grocery store, one drug store, a steam saw, shingle and lath-mill, a wagon shop, two blacksmith shops, a shoe shop and three physicians. The Methodist Episcopal and Disciples denominations have each a church in the village, and a school is also located here.
West Union was laid out by Andrew Sheller in the southeast corner of Section 36, December 25, 1834, but no buildings were ever erected on the site.
Arlington lies nine miles south of Findlay, on the Bellefontaine State road, and was laid out by Robert Hurd, in November, 1844, in the south- east corner of Section 1 and the southwest corner of Section 6, lying on each side of the State road. Several additions have since been made to the original town. In 1846 Dr. Belizur Beach erected a brick hotel, and the following year the store-room now occupied by Richard Sims. He opened the hotel himself, but rented the other building to Truman Parker and Lorenzo P. Wing, who, under the firm name of Parker & Wing, opened a general store. After about a year Dr. Beach and Joel Markle bought out Parker & Wing, and carried on the business till 1855, and were then suc- ceeded by Thomas Stark, a son-in-law of Robert Hurd. Lovell Parker ยท opened a blacksmith shop in 1846, and Edwin B. Vail was the first brick-mason of the village. Drs. Beach and W. K. Drake were the earliest resident phy- sicians. In 1846 Martins Town postoffice was removed from the house of Hathaway R. Warner, north of the village in Jackson Township, to Arling-
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ton, and Dr. Belizur Beach appointed postmaster of Arlington postoffice, the name being changed at the time of removal. His successors have been Lorenzo P. Wing, Edwin B. Vail, Dr. W. K. Drake, Thomas Stark, Philip Wilch, Dr. L. S. Lafferty, E. P. Lease, Dr. C. F. King and Holmes Wheeler.
The census of 1880 gave Arlington a population of 136, but its citizens now claim between 300 and 400 inhabitants. Its business interests are rep- resented by one general dry goods and grocery store, two general grocery stores, one drug store, a good hardware store, a grist-mill and elevator, a steam saw and planing-mill, two steam saw-mills, a boot and shoe store and harness shop, two wagon shops, two blacksmith shops, a pump factory, a lath-mill, an undertaker's shop, two tileyards, one brickyard, a good hotel and livery stable and three saloons. Drs. L. S. Lafferty, C. F. King and J. L. Asire are the resident physicians of the town. The Methodist Epis- copals and Methodist Protestants have each a church here; while a graded school of two rooms furnishes good educational facilities. On the 12th of October, 1882, Welker Post, No. 266, G. A. R., was organized with thirty charter members, and has now about the same membership. The Cleveland, Delphos & St. Louis Narrow Guage Railroad was completed to Arlington in the fall of 1882, and the first through train came over the road from Delphos to Mt. Blanchard January 1, 1883. Much more was expected of this enterprise than it has been able to accomplish, and it will never be of any great utility to this section until it is changed to a standard guage. This is now talked of, and the citizens of Arlington have strong hopes that it will yet be accomplished.
CHAPTER XX.
MARION TOWNSHIP.
ERECTION, AREA, BOUNDARIES AND POPULATION-TIMBER-STREAMS AND DEER LICKS-SOIL-PIONEERS-EARLY ELECTIONS AND ELECTORS-JUS- TICES OF THE PEACE-SCHOOLS-CHURCHES-CROW POSTOFFICE-MILLS.
P PRIOR to December 6, 1830, the territory now composing Marion Town- ship was included in Findlay and Amanda, but on that date the com- missioners erected Marion, which then embraced, besides its present terri- tory, what is now known as Cass Township, or a total of forty-eight sections. The latter subdivision was cut off and organized into a new township March 4, 1833, leaving Marion as it stands to-day, with twenty-four sections, or an area of 15,360 acres of land, all lying in Township 1 north, Range 11 east. It is claimed that this township was named in honor of Gen. Francis Mar- ion, a dashing cavalry leader of the war of Independence. Marion is bounded on the north by Cass Township, on the east by Big Lick, on the south by Amanda and Jackson, and on the west by Findlay. In 1840 it contained a population of 707; 1850, 904; 1860, 1,064; 1870, 990; 1880, 987. The census of 1860 gives the township 77 inhabitants more than that of 1880, which indi-
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HISTORY OF IIANCOCK COUNTY.
cates that the farms increased in acreage, or that the civilization of the past quarter of a century has been productive of small families.
The timber was originally about the same as in other parts of the county:' oak, walnut, elm, ash, maple, poplar, beech, linn, sycamore, cherry, buck- eye, hackberry and cottonwood predominating. The more valuable woods have become very scarce, as the first settlers thought only of clearing the soil of what they then looked upon as an incumbrance.
The Blanchard River strikes the south line of the township, near the southeast corner of Section 35, flows due north until near the northeast cor- ner of Section 23, where it turns abruptly westward, and leaves the town- ship in the southwest corner of Section 16. Several small runs drain the north part of the township into the Blanchard, while two or three come in from the south and east. The Prairie Outlet is the most important of these, as it principally drains the large body of wet prairie lands extending clear across Big Lick Township to the Seneca County line, discharging its waters into the Blanchard at the sharp turn or elbow on Section 23. Lye Creek crosses the southwest corner of Marion, and flowing northwestward empties into the Blanchard in the eastern suburb of Findlay. The Blanchard and its tribu- taries afford first-class drainage and stock facilities, though good water may be found at a slight depth in any part of the township. Along the river, on the farm of Allen Wiseley, in Section 23, are several deer licks, which were a great resort for both Indian and white hunters throughout the pioneer days. Mr. Wiseley says when he settled there in the fall of 1830, there were seats in several trees near the licks, which he supposes had been constructed by the Indians. Comfortably seated in a tree close by, the hunter easily shot down the unsuspecting deer, and thus secured his game without much exer- tion.
This township possesses some very choice lands. The bottoms along the Blanchard are composed of alluvial and vegetable deposits, and the soil is very fertile. Back from the river, in the south part of the township, a rich loam prevails, while a mixture of clay and sand is found in the northern portion. A narrow strip of the prairie extends along the outlet into this township, and makes very good pasture land.
Pioneers .- The first land entry in this township was made by Elnathan Cory November 28, 1822. He took up the northeast quarter of the north- east quarter of Section 21, probably with an eye to its importance as a mill site. October 24, 1825, the south part of the northeast quarter of Section 23, also on the Blanchard, was entered by Alexander Robertson. These lands, however, were taken up as a speculation and not for settlement. It was not till 1827 that an opening was made in the forest of Marion. In that year Joseph A. Sargent built his cabin on the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 21, the farm now owned by George Burns. Sargent came to the county with his widowed mother early in 1826, and resided for a short time in Findlay. He subsequently married Elizabeth De Witt, daughter of Joseph De Witt, and sister of Mrs. Parlee Carlin. Squire Carlin savs Sargent was living with his mother on the Burns farm in the fall of 1827. He was one of the voters at the first county election April 7, 1828, and also at the organization of the township in April, 1831. In May, 1831. he sold his land to Barnabas De Witt, and soon afterward removed to Wood County, where some of his children still reside.
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