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 57
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" My father, Robert Shirley, and two other farmers of Ross County, Messrs. Moreland and Beaver, when viewing the country in 1820, had se- lected Fort Findlay as the place of their settlement, and in the spring of
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1821 they each sent out a four-horse wagon, with plows, etc., seed-corn and potatoes, also a stock of provisions and a few hogs. Two men were sent with each wagon, making a party of six. My brothers, James and Elias, took father's team. They cleared and fenced land, and put in corn and po- tatoes. When the summer's work was done, one man returned with each wagon to Ross County, leaving a horse apiece for the three men remaining. Brother James remained and Elias returned. To fatten the hogs, slaugh- ter and pack them down, and to gather and store the corn and potatoes for the winter was the work of those remaining; then they left all in the care of Mr. Cox's family-the only residents there-and returned to their homes. The horse left for brother James had previously got away and went back to Ross County. The alarm at home was very great when the horse arrived without its rider; all were sure he had been killed until a letter was received from him explaining the circumstance. Having heard much of the Fort Defiance region, brother James went there before coming home, and was so captivated with it that, on his return, he persuaded father to change the location of his future home from Fort Findlay to Fort Defiance."
In the spring of 1822 the Shirley family removed from Ross County to the vicinity of Fort Defiance, and in her account of the trip Mrs. Austin, then a girl of eleven years of age, says: " After accompanying us to our destination, brother James returned to Fort Findlay for the purpose of con- veying the provisions stored there, for the subsistence of the family, to Fort Defiance. He made the journey through the unbroken wilderness alone, on foot, provided with his compass, gun, ammunition, flints, punk and blanket. Our parents had great fears that James would fall a prey to wild animals or Indians, but he got safely through, and purchasing a pirogue at Fort Find- lay, took the provisions down Blanchard's Fork to the Auglaize, and thence down that stream to Fort Defiance. These provisions had been raised the previous year in Hancock County, with the expectation that the future home of the family would be at Fort Findlay."
The Morelands were the next family to settle in Findlay Township, the two sons, William and Jacob, having come out with the Shirleys from Ross County in the spring of 1821. They cleared a small patch of ground, put in a crop, and erected a cabin on the southwest quarter of Section 17. In the fall the whole family, consisting of the parents and two sons and four daughters, removed to this county. The father, William, Sr., built a cabin on the north bank of the river, a little northeast of the dam which crosses the stream at Findlay, and all of the children lived with him except Jacob, who kept "bachelor's hall" in the cabin up the river, on what is now the Aaron Baker farm. This tract was soon afterward entered by John P. Hamilton, and when the latter came out in the spring of 1822, Moreland was compelled to remove from the land which he had improved with the intention of enter- ing it when able to do so. William Moreland, Sr., was one of the judges at the elections held in Findlay Township in 1823 and 1824, being elected overseer of the poor in the latter year. In 1824 he was assessed for one horse and three head of cattle, but he never owned any land, and after residing in the county about eight years he removed to Michigan. In Octo- ber, 1823, Jacob Moreland entered the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 7, Township 1 north, Range 11, and settled upon it. He is found assessed in 1824 with four head of cattle. On May 4, 1826, he was married to Sarah Poe (a niece of Jacob Poe) by Robert McKinnis, justice of
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
the peace, this being the second marriage in Hancock County. He was elected township treasurer in April, 1828, and removed to Michigan about the same time as his father. William Moreland, Jr., entered the north half of the northwest quarter of Section 18, Township 1 north, Range 11, December 21, 1826, and on March 12, 1827, he was married to Julia, daughter of Job Chamberlin, Sr., by Joshua Hedges, justice of the peace of Findlay Township. He afterward sold his land to William Taylor and removed to a small farm on the west bank of Eagle Creek, in what is now Madison Township. In the spring of 1831, the territory now embraced in Eagle, Van Buren, and the west half of Madison Township was cut off Lib- erty and Findlay and erected as Van Buren; and at the first election held in the new subdivision in June, 1831, William Moreland, Jr., was chosen as justice of the peace. In May, 1833, he purchased the improvement of John Diller, but soon afterward sold out and settled on Section 36, Findlay Township. His wife died in March, 1836, and he subsequently followed his father and brother to Michigan. Two of his sisters, Susan and Eliza- beth, were married, respectively, to John and Joseph Gardner, pioneers of Hancock County, who also moved away at an early day. Another sister married John Simpson, Jr., and removed to Michigan, while the remaining one married a Mr. Locke, who lived on the Tymochtee.
John Simpson, of Ross County, Ohio, entered the east half of the north- east quarter, and the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 25, Township 1 north, Range 10, October 25, 1821, and with his son John set- tled upon it the same fall. About two years afterward the father was killed by a falling limb. While hoeing corn in a field which they had partly cleared up, a storm came on, and in running to the house for shelter he was struck on the head by the falling limb and killed instantly. A few years after the father's death another son, Thomas, came out from Ross County, and they subsequently sold their land to Job Chamberlin, Sr., and John Boyd. John Simpson, Jr., married a daughter of William Moreland, Sr. After selling the old homestead the Simpsons purchased of John Gardner, Sr., the west part of the southeast quarter of Section 13, whereon a portion of Findlay now stands. On the 14th of March, 1828, they sold this tract to Wilson Vance, who subsequently laid it out in town lots. George W. Simp- son is also found among the electors of 1828, and it is presumed he was a member of this family. Soon after selling out to Vance they went to Mich- igan, toward which a considerable immigration was moving about that pe- riod. During their residence in this county the Simpsons did very little farming, but kept a pack of hounds and followed the chase like true back- woods Nimrods. It is said that one of their principal inducements in going to Michigan was a report brought back by a visiting wag that all sorts of crops produced abundantly in that region without cultivation, and wild game was very plentiful. Such a land of paradise for the hunter was what the Simpsons were looking for, and they went only to find it similar to the country they had deserted.
Job Chamberlin, Sr., comes next in the order of settlement outside the town of Findlay, having located with his family on the hill which bears his name, February 15, 1822. Mr. Chamberlin and his wife, Deborah, were born, reared and married in Colchester, Connecticut. Soon after marriage they removed to Cayuga County, N. Y., where eight children were born to them, viz. : Deborah, Sally, Nancy, Lucy, Vesta, Julia, Norman and Job. The
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eldest there married Benjamin O. Whitman, who afterward removed to this county. In 1819 the parents, with the seven remaining children, boated down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers to Lawrenceburg, Ind., and settled at Georgetown, a village about six miles from Lawrenceburg. Here Nancy died, and in the spring of 1821 Mr. Chamberlin removed to Urbana, Ohio. On the 4th of October, 1821, he entered the southwest quarter of Section 30, Township 1 north, Range 11, and the following February arrived with his family at the site of his future home, leaving two daughters, Sally and Lucy, in Urbana, where they were soon afterward married, respectively, to Levi and Thomas Taylor, pioneers of Champaign County. Messrs. Vance, Cox, Moreland, Smith and Simpson, the only families then living in the township, assisted Mr. Chamberlin to build a log cabin, into which he moved with his family the third day after their arrival. He soon made a clearing which he planted in corn, and from this crop raised sufficient to winter his stock through the winter of 1822-23. Mr. Chamberlin took an active interest in all the early elections. In those held in 1823 and 1824 he was one of the judges of election, and in the latter year was chosen treasurer, and also one of the trustees of Findlay Township, which then embraced the whole county. He was a candidate for com- missioner at the first county election in April, 1828, and was defeated, but he was elected township trustee at that election. In the first tax levy, made in 1824, Mr. Chamberlin is assessed for five head of cattle, viz. : three cows and a yoke of oxen. But in a few years he was able to furnish the pioneers, who came into the county, with hogs, cattle, sheep, wheat, corn, wool and other necessaries then very scarce in this part of the State. In 1827 he bought out John Simpson, paying for the eighty acres in hogs, and thus became the owner of 240 acres, covering a large portion of "Chamberlin's Hill." His wife died January 8, 1829, and the next year he married Miss Sarah Criner. In 1831 he divided the old homestead on the hill equally between his two sons, Norman and Job, and removed to a farm on Section 7, Liberty Township, where he died September 4, 1847, his widow surviving him till December 28, 1854. In early life Mr. Cham- berlin was a Baptist, but his second wife being a Presbyterian he united with that church after his marriage to Miss Criner. Of the four children who came with him to this county in 1822, all are dead except Job. Vesta married Joseph C. Shannon, who then lived on the Tymochtee, and died in about a year afterward. Julia became the wife of William Moreland, Jr., in 1827, and died in 1836. Norman married Elizabeth Baker in 1832. She died the following year, and in 1834 he was married to Eliza Watson, sis- ter of Richard Watson, Sr., and died at his home on the hill in 1845, while serving as coroner of the county, leaving one son, John, who, in after years, removed to Illinois. Job, with his wife and family, lived on the hill till 1874, when he moved into the village, where he is now residing-the oldest living pioneer of Hancock County.
John P. Hamilton entered the west part of the southwest quarter of Sec- tion 17, Township 1 North, Range 11, October 8, 1821; and the east part of the south west quarter of the same section, June 10, 1822. In the spring of the latter year Mr. Hamilton brought out Matthew Reighly and wife, and settled on his land, taking possession of a cabin previously erected by Jacob Moreland, who intended entering the tract, but put it off until too late, and thus lost the land and improvements thereon. With the assistance of Mr.
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
Reighly a crop was put in, and in the fall Mr. Hamilton brought his family to their new home on the Blanchard. He and wife, Martha, were natives of Virginia, who had settled in Gallia County, Ohio, whence with three children, Eliza, Robert and Mary B., they came to Hancock, where Lu- cinda, Julia, Emily, Parmelia and John were born. Of these Mrs. Job Chamberlin and Mrs. Emily Vandenburg, of Findlay, and John and Par- melia, of Kansas, are the only survivors. In 1824 Mr. Hamilton was as- sessed for two horses and two head of cattle. At the first county election in April, 1828, he was elected one of the three commissioners of Hancock Coun- ty, and re-elected the following October, serving until December, 1831. Mr. Hamilton was one of the progressive men of that day and took an active interest in all the early public business of the county. He died in Findlay, November 8, 1857.
Bleuford Hamilton came out with his brother, John P., in 1822, and re- sided with the latter till his marriage with Zibella Beard, about 1829. He was one of the voters at the first county election; but as he died in the spring of 1833, he is not very well remembered.
Thomas Slight settled in Findlay Township early in the summer of 1822. He entered the south part of the southeast quarter of Section 17, Township 1 north, Range 11, October 29, 1821, his land adjoining John P. Hamil- ton's on the east. Mr. Slight was assessed in 1824 with one horse and four head of cattle. In April, 1828, he was elected coroner of Hancock County, and re-elected in October following, serving till November, 1830. He was again elected to the same office in October, 1832, and once more in 1835. Mr. Slight was a native of Maryland. He reared quite a large family and some of his descendants still reside in the county. He had a brother named Joseph, who came with him to Hancock, whence most of the family removed to Indiana.
John and Elizabeth Gardner and family settled on the site of Maple Grove Cemetery late in the fall of 1822. The parents were Pennsylvania- Irish and had a family of four sons and three daughters when they came to this county. The Gardner boys, Jonathan, John, William and Joseph, are remembered as well-developed specimens of physical manhood, who had few superiors in the backwoods sports of pioneer days. The father entered over 200 acres of land in Findlay and Liberty Townships in 1821 and 1822. John and Joseph Gardner married, respectively, Susan and Elizabeth More- land. In 1828 John Gardner, Sr., sold his land near Findlay and soon after removed to Lagrange County, Ind. The whole Gardner family left the county soon after this time, some of them settling in Indiana and others in Michigan. At the second election, held in Findlay Township in April, 1824, John Gardner was elected one of the two fence viewers; and the same spring was assessed for two horses and four head of cattle. He was also a voter at the first county election in April, 1828, and the family were residents of the county about seven years.
Joshua Hedges came from Fairfield County, Ohio, to this township in September, 1824, and settled north of the river on Section 11, where he had entered about 160 acres of land March 28, 1822. Mr. Hedges was born in Virginia May 24, 1793, and removed to Fairfield County, Ohio, with his par- ents when quite small, where he grew to manhood and, April 13, 1815, was married to Miss Hannah Reese, also a native of Virginia, born in Septem- ber, 1796. They had a family of one son and five daughters when they came
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to Hancock County, and three children were born here. Of the nine only one survives, though several of their grandchildren reside in the county. In April, 1826, Mr. Hedges was elected justice of the peace, and re-elected to the same office. He was the first treasurer of Hancock County, serv- ing from April to October, 1828. In 1840 he was elected coroner and served one term. Mr. Hedges died on the old homestead northwest of Findlay, in 1845, his widow surviving him ten years, dying in 1855. He was a tall, muscular, energetic man, very hospitable and strictly honest, a stanch Democrat and for many years a member of the Method- ist Church.
David Gitchel, of Logan County, Ohio, settled on the southeast corner of John Simpson's land, on "Chamberlin's Hill," about 1825. He built a cabin and cleared a few acres of ground, but when Simpson sold out to Job Chamberlin, Sr., in 1827, Gitchel moved to a piece of land about a mile south of the Simpson place, and finally went back to Logan County.
In the spring of 1827 Isaac Johnson and wife, and sons, Joseph, Isaac, Miller and Eli, and daughters, Betsy and Lydia (the former of whom sub- sequently married Matthew Reighly, and the latter Peter Deamer), came to this township. The Johnsons removed from Virginia to Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1811, and thence to this county sixteen years afterward. The father leased a piece of land of Joshua Hedges, in Section 11; was elected overseer of the poor in April,1828, and after several years' residence in the county he re- moved to Indiana. His son, Joseph, though bending under the weight of old age, is yet a resident of the county, A sketch of him will be found in the history of Marion Township.
John Boyd purchased the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 25, now the property of Ross Bennett, of Thomas Simpson, in 1827, and at once settled upon it. He built a comfortable cabin, cleared up a good-sized farm for those days, and put out an orchard. We find his name among the voters at the first county election. Boyd was an ardent Methodist, and con- ducted prayer and class-meetings at his house. He could play the violin fairly well, and some of the lively, "catching" tunes he had learned on that instrument he adapted to a few of the hymns, which he sang at these meetings. It is said that one of his friends, who did not admire such music in worship, asked Boyd why he introduced these fast tunes, when the latter replied, "I do not believe the Devil should have all the good music." His wife was a very good woman, and upon her death, about 1831, Boyd fell away from the church, became rather dissipated, soon had to sell his farm to John Bishop, and finally left the county.
John Jones located northwest of Findlay in the fall of 1827, whence he removed to a piece of land on Eagle Creek, south of the town. He was elected constable of Findlay Township in April, 1828. After a few years' residence in this county he went West, and is little remembered even by the oldest settlers.
Jacob Foster was a native of Virginia who settled in Ohio, and in the fall of 1828, with his wife, Mary, and six children, located a short distance north of Findlay, where he resided till his death. His eldest son, Jacob, is a resident of Findlay Township, and one of the oldest living pioneers of the township.
Judge Robert L. Strother was born in Virginia in 1801, and about 1819 removed with his parents to Licking County, Ohio. In the summer of 1828
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
he visited Hancock County, and, August 18, entered the northeast quarter of Section 21, Township 1 north, Range 10, which he afterward sold to Isaac Comer. In May, 1829, he again came to the county, and, June 1st, entered the east half of the southwest quarter of Section 12, in the same township and range, upon which he at once built a cabin and began an im- provement. He soon afterward brought out his mother and sister, Malinda V., the latter subsequently the wife of Joseph C. Shannon. His mother resided in the county till her death in 1851. In October, 1831, Mr. Strother was elected county commissioner; and in March, 1835, the General Assembly elected him an associate judge of Hancock County. He served one term in each office. In 1847 Judge Strother was married to Miss Eliza- beth Todd, who bore him one daughter, ere her death, now a resident of Columbus, Ohio. In 1851 he married Mrs. Sarah A. Merriam, nee Baldwin, to whom were born three children by this union, two of whom, with their mother, survive. Early in the fall of 1875 Judge Strother removed from his farm into Findlay, where he died October 8, of that year.
William Dulin located immediately east of the old cemetery in January, 1830, and died in 1832. He was an Englishman who had immigrated to Maryland, there married, and subsequently removed to Virginia. In 1816 he settled in Pickaway County, Ohio, whence the family came to this town- ship. His widow survived him until 1866, and died at the home of her son, Sanfred F., in Portage Township. The latter is the only survivor of a family of ten children, and is one of the most intelligent pioneers now liv- ing in the county.
Leonard Tritch, of Crawford County, Ohio, entered 160 acres of land east of Findlay, and now partly within the corporate limits, in October, 1829, upon which he settled the following spring. He was born and reared in Maryland, whence he removed to Pickaway County, Ohio, where he mar- ried Miss Mary Hofheins, also a native of Maryland, subsequently settling in Crawford County. In the spring of 1830 he came to Hancock, accom- panied by his wife and three children. He was a carpenter, and followed that trade after locating here. His wife died in 1838, he surviving her till 1842. They reared a family of six children, five of whom survive, and all residents of the township. The wife of Dr. Charles Osterlen, of Findlay, is one of the daughters, and it was at her home that Mr: Tritch died.
Abraham and Margaret Schoonover, he a native of Pennsylvania, and she of Virginia, located on the southeast quarter of Section 1, directly north of Findlay, in the spring of 1830. Mr. Schoonover entered the land in November, 1829, and January, 1830, coming here from Franklin County, Ohio, where they had previously been living. They reared a family of four children, three of whom are now living, viz .: John, Alfred and Mrs. Samuel Bergeman, all residents of Liberty Township. Mr. Schoonover died on the old homestead, in Liberty Township, February 11, 1863; his widow surviving him till March 13, 1878.
John Baker, Richard Wade and Henry Folk all came into the township in 1830. Mr. Baker and his wife, Mary, were natives of Virginia, and located in Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1812, removing to Franklin County in 1814. Early in 1830 he visited Hancock and entered land in Sections 6 and 7, Findlay Township, settling with his family on the southwest quarter of the former section in June of that year. His sons, Isaac and Jacob, were mar- ried before coming to this county, the latter locating in Marion Township,
Flavius
DEwere
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FINDLAY TOWNSHIP.
and the former on a part of his father's land in Section 6, Findlay Town- ship. The parents reared a family of nine children, of whom only two, Aaron and Reuben, survive. Mr. Baker died on the home farm in 1841, and his widow ten years afterward. Their son, Aaron, resides upon the old John P. Hamilton farm, immediately east of Findlay, and is one of the few living pioneers of the township. Richard Wade was a brother of William and Wenman Wade, two pioneers of Liberty and Union Townships, respect- ively. He came in the spring of 1830, and settled on the southwest quar- ter of Section 26. In a few years Wade removed to a farm east of Eagle Creek, Section 6, Jackson Township, where he struck gas while digging a well in October, 1836, the first gas discovered in Hancock County. He subsequently sold out and went to Wood County, Ohio. Henry Folk came here from Pickaway County, Ohio, in the fall of 1830, and settled on the northeast quarter of Section 26, not far from Wade. He had entered eighty acres in that section September 16, 1829. Mr. Folk was a cooper and continued to work at his trade for a few years after settling in this township. He was a large, muscular man, good-natured and affable, and resided in the county until his death, which occurred in East Findlay. Some of his children are yet residents of the county.
Robert Bonham, Sr., was born in Pennsylvania, April 5, 1793, and when two years old his parents removed to Hampshire County, Va., where Robert spent his early years. In 1817 the family removed to Muskingum County, Ohio, and Mr. Bonham there married a Miss Fleming, who after a few years died, leaving two children, viz .: John, a resident of Findlay Township, and Sophia, who is living in Minnesota. In 1829 Mr. Bonham visited Hancock County, and on the 5th of September entered the northeast quarter of Section 11, Findlay Township, upon which he settled in the summer of 1831. He built a cabin and lived alone about four years, doing his own household work and opening up his farm. He then married a Mrs. Douglas, who bore him three children: Robert, Johnson and Ellen; of whom Johnson, a resident of Kansas, survives. Ellen married Dr. J. A. Kiminell, of Findlay, and died a few years ago. Several years after the death of his second wife Mr. Bonham was married to Miss Anna McCormick (the marriage occurring December 1, 1853), who still survives him. Mr Bonham was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Findlay, for over forty years. He was a consistent Christian-a man who attended strictly to his own business-and died on May 11, 1875, in the eighty-third year of his age.
Daniel Andreck, John Bishop, John Harritt, Benoni Culp and Jacob Feller all settled in the township in the summer and fall of 1831. Andreck located in the north part of the township, in the summer of that year, and resided here several years, finally removing to Indiana. John Bishop bought John Boyd's farm on Section 25, in the summer of 1831, but did not remain long in the county, selling out to Thomas G. Whitlock the fol- lowing year. John Harritt settled on the southeast quarter of Section 23 in October, 1831, where he resided till his death, in the spring of 1875. The parents came here from Pickaway County, Ohio, and of their six children born in this township. John, who lives in Findlay, is the only survivor. The aged mother lives with her son in Findlay. Benoni Culp and family came from Fairfield County, Ohio, in September, 1831, and settled in the north- west part of the township. About five years afterward he removed into
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