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 59
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Lot. Purchaser.
Price paid.
2 Squire Carlin
$ 43 00
8 William Taylor 101 00
9 Josiah Hedges 200 00
13 Frederick Frutchey
68 00
17
George Bishop.
12 00
29
Wilson Vance
50 00
32
Squire Carlin
35 25
43
Enoch Thompson
13 00
46
Don Alonzo Hamlin
11 50
51
Joseph A. Sargent.
6 50
61
Squire Carlin
5 00
79
Abel Rawson.
70 00
86
Squire Carlin
82 02
89
Bass Rawson
78 50
92
Joshua Hedges
51 50
95
James Coats. .
20.00
104
Don Alonzo Hamlin.
16 00
105
John McIntire .
38 25
108
John C. Wickham
20 00
111
William Moreland.
20 00
116
Wilson Vance
10 00
142
Thomas Slight
10 00 4
146
Thomas Slight, Jr.
8 25
148 John McIntire
5 00
156 William Taylor
6 00
98 Philip Strohl.
10 00
26 Joseph Johnson
35 18
Total amount of sales. $1,025 40
At this time (1829-30), Findlay was a straggling hamlet, made up mainly of log cabins, and a large portion of the original town plat was
536
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
covered with forest. Wilson Vance was county recorder and clerk of the court of common pleas, and kept a tavern in a hewed-log building which stood on the east side of Main Street near the river. This house was built by a man named Thorp, an army sutler in the war of 1812, and afterward occupied by Benjamin J. Cox till the coming of Mr. Vance. The latter also had charge of the grist and saw-mills across the Blanchard, which were completed in 1824. Squire and Parlee Carlin carried on one of the two stores of the village in a story and a half frame building, on the southwest corner of Main and Front Streets. William Taylor was county surveyor, and kept the other store, and also a tavern, in a small log and frame struct- ure still farther south on the west side of Main Street, where Rothchild's liquor store now is. His brother, James, lived with him at that time. John C. Wickham, the second school teacher in Findlay, was then postmaster and also sheriff of the county. His cabin was on east Main Cross Street, and his son, Minor T., lived with him. Edwin S. Jones was county treas- urer, and operated a tanyard on Front Street, east of Main. The cabin and blacksmith shop of Joseph DeWitt stood on the west side of Broadway (now the Park), north of the site of the old brick jail. Dr. Bass Rawson was the only physician then living here, and his cabin was on the alley near East Street, directly east of where he yet lives. It was built by Joshua Powell, who rented it to the doctor and removed to Marion Township. William Hackney was county auditor, and lived in the southeast part of the village. William L. Henderson was deputy surveyor under William Tay- lor, and lived in a cabin north of the site of the Patterson Block. Thomas F. Johnston lived on the south bank of the river, west of the old fort, and followed farming. John Bashore was keeping tavern in a two-story hewed- log building where the Carnahan Block now stands. His brother-in-law, Philip Strohl, lived with him. Matthew Reighly was the carpenter of the village; James B. Moore, the brick-mason ; Reuben Hale, the miller of Vance & Cory's grist-mill, and John George Flenner the village tailor. All of these were then single and boarded at the taverns. James Peltier worked for the Carlins, and Thomas Chester had been in the employ of Wilson Vance since 1827. Henry and Peter Shaw came in the fall of 1829, and lived for a time in the old log schoolhouse on the northwest corner of Craw- forn and East Streets, but soon moved across the river to the farm of Rob- ert L. Strother, whence, in 1830, Henry returned to the village and fol- lowed carpentering. The foregoing are believed to have constituted the business interests and population of Findlay during the years 1829 and 1830, though several other families came soon afterward.
The town was not then, nor for years afterward, very inviting as a place of residence, and some families who lived here would have gladly returned to their previous homes but could not raise the means to do so. At a meet- ing of the Pioneer Association held in May, 1876, Jonathan Parker, in detailing the circumstances of his removal to Findlay in October, 1831, says: " When I came here I found the first swale at Main Cross Street and I think it extended to Chamberlin's Hill without a break. When we landed we wanted to get to the house of William L. Henderson, who then lived on the lot, now occupied by Kunz & Morrison. We could not get along the street, but had to 'coon it' on logs across the public square. Old logs were plenty then all over the town plat. I think the water was at least one foot deep between Main Cross Street and Crawford Street."
537
VILLAGE OF FINDLAY.
The first addition to the original town was made by William Byal, Feb- ruary 19, 1834, on the southeast corner of Main and Sandusky Streets. Since that time the following additions (together with the dates of survey) have been made: Vance & Cory, June 13, 1837; Gist & Morrison, August 19, 1837; John C. Howard, May 4, 1843; James H. Wilson (East Findlay), August 11, 1847; Vance & Cory, September 24, 1847; William H. Bald- win, April 15, 1848; Vance & Cory, in May, 1848; Jesse George, April 5, 1849; Squire and Parlee Carlin, April and June, 1849, September 10, 1852 and May 5, 1854; Nathan Miller, June 20, 1854; Wilson Vance, July 3, 1854; James M. Coffinberry, July 12, 1854; William Taylor (North Find- lay), in July, 1854; western addition by William H. Baldwin, Simon Yer ger. Jonathan Parker, David Patton, Samuel A. Spear, Simon Wilhelm and Jesse Wolf, August 11, 1854; Amos Nye, August 11, 1854; George Biggs, August 21, 1854; Robert B. Hurd, July 2, 1855; William Detwiler, October 6, 1855; David W. Naill, October 31, 1855; extension of town limits, Sep- tember 2, 1856; D. M. & A. F. Vance (North Findlay), in February, 1857, and in September, 1858; William Vance (North Findlay), September 14, 1859; Byal's Second Addition, in September, 1859; D. J. Cory (North Findlay), March 21, 1860; Wilson Vance, May 29, 1860; Edson Goit (North Findlay), October 16, 1860; James H. Wilson (East Findlay), November 2, 1860; D. J. Cory, October 15, 1863; D. J. Cory (East Findlay), October 16, 1863; Edson Goit (North Findlay), June 10. 1864; Taylor & Hall (North Findlay), May 28, 1866; D. J. Cory (East Findlay), June 20, 1866; D. J. Cory, June 20, 1866; Elijah Barnd, April 16 and November 24, 1868; extension of town limits, September 9, 1869; Jones & Adams, June 6, 1873; D. J. Cory (East Findlay), November 15, 1873: Alexander Wither- ill (North Findlay), in January, 1874; Absalom P. Byal, May 25 and July 20, 1874; D. J. Cory, November 4, 1874; D. J. Cory (North Findlay), November 4, 1874; Daniel George, November 11, 1874; Louis Adams, November 16, 1874; Parlee Carlin, April 21, 1875; Samuel Howard (North Findlay), July 26, 1877; P. & M. Taylor (North Findlay), in February, 1878; Gage & Carlin, in May, 1878; Parlee Carlin, in May, 1878; Peter Hosler (Barnd's Addition), May 29, 1879; Davis & Bope, in January, 1881; Gray & Patterson (North Findlay), September 1, 1881; William L. Carlin (Rawson's Addition), April 15, 1882: Gray & Patterson (North Findlay), in June, 1883; extension of corporation limits in December, 1884; D. J. Cory (North Findlay), June 15, 1885. Findlay is now two miles and a quarter from its northern to its southern boundary, and two miles from east to west, and thus covers an area of about 2,880 acres.
Main is the principal business street of Findlay, and the only continuous one from the north to the south limits of the town. Commencing at the bridge spanning the Blanchard and going south, the streets running east and west are named Front, Main Cross, Crawford, Sandusky, Hardin, Lincoln and Lima. South of Lima the east and west streets are not continuous. On the east side of Main are Hancock, First, Second, Third. Fourth, Fifth and Sixth; and on the west side are two short streets, Elm and Locust. Wash- ington and Findlay are two short streets in the bend of the river west of Main, and north of and parellel with Front Street; and the continuation of Crawford Street from Liberty westward is called Putnam. Between Main Street and Eagle Creek the parallel streets are Mechanic's Alley and East, with Rawson Street, Washington Avenue and Park Street running south
538
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
from Lima Street, also a couple of short, unnamed streets parallel with them. West of Main we find Farmer's Alley, West, Liberty, Western and several streets south of Sandusky in Carlin's addition of out-lots with no names given on the maps. Main Cross, Crawford, Sandusky and Lincoln Streets continue eastward through East Findlay, which lies east of Eagle Creek. In that part of the city the east and west streets beginning at the river are Main Cross, Crawford, Sandusky, South, Lincoln and Walnut; while Blanchard, High and East run north and south. On the Lima road, in the southwest suburbs of the city, are Hurd Avenue and Summit Street. North Findlay lies on each side of Main Street north of the Blanchard. East of Main the parallel streets are Clinton, Taylor and North, and Cory on the west. From the river northward the east and west streets east of Main are Center, Cherry, Walnut and two or three unnamed; and on the west side Fair, High, Donleson, Corwin, Fillmore and Howard, none of which extend across Main.
The pioneers of Findlay deserve more than a passing notice, for to them, in a large measure, the town owes its present prosperity. The first white settler on the site of Findlay was Benjamin J. Cox, but it has been thought more appropriate to give a brief sketch of him in the history of the town- ship. He left the county in 1823, and was never in any way connected with the founding or growth of the town, the history of which properly begins with the coming of Wilson Vance in 1821, whose subsequent life was mainly spent within its limits.
Mr. Vance was born in Mason County, Ky., January 19, 1796, his parents, Joseph C. and Sarah (Wilson) Vance being natives of Loudoun County, Va., of Irish ancestry. The family removed from Virginia to Ken- tucky in 1788, and thence to Greene County, Ohio, in 1800. Four years later they left Greene County, and took up their abode in Urbana, Cham- paign County, and here Wilson grew to maturity. In 1816 he went to Fort Meigs, where his brother Joseph was carrying on a store, and he re- mained there till his removal to Fort Findlay. On the 14th of March, 1820, he was married in Champaign County, to Miss Sarah Wilson, by the Rev. John Thomas. She was a native of Pennyslvania, born June 28, 1801. Mr. Vance returned with his young wife to the Maumee, where a son, Joseph C., was born December 14, 1820. In November, 1821, with his wife and child he started from Fort Meigs for Fort Findlay to look after the large landed interests of his brother Joseph at this point and lay out a town at the fort. He walked the whole distance, his wife riding on an Indian pony and carrying her babe in her arms. Upon reaching Fort Findlay Mr. Vance took possession of a story and a half hewed-log house, then occupied by Benjamin J. Cox, the latter moving into a smaller cabin which stood a little farther southeast. In the spring of 1822 Mr. Vance opened a tavern, his license being issued by the court of common pleas of Wood County May 20 of that year, for which he was charged $5. This old log tavern stood on the site of the present two-story brick (which he erected in after years), on the east side of Main Street, near the bridge. His second child, Mary L., was born in Urbana, September 11, 1822, and the third, Miles W., at Findlay, September 27, 1824, the latter being the first white male child born on the site of Findlay as well as in the county. The first grist and saw-mill was built under the supervision of Mr. Vance, in 1824. It stood on the site of Carlin's mill and was a small log structure
539
VILLAGE OF FINDLAY.
of primitive construction and the machinery operated by water-power, but it was a great boon to the first settlers. In 1832 he put up a one-story frame south of the log structure, and in the south room of this building, now the residence of G. C. Barnd, on Front Street, Vance & Baldwin opened a gen- eral dry goods store that year. Mr. Baldwin removed to New York in 1837, and Mr. Vance continued in the mercantile trade in Findlay till 1852, when he sold out and retired from business, though still retaining an interest in his son's store at Bluffton, Allen County. Besides merchandising he was engaged quite extensively in farming for many years. Mr. Vance and his wife were the parents of eight sons and four daughters, all of whom were born in Findlay, except the two eldest previously mentioned, and Horace M., of Findlay, is the sole survivor of the family. The official life of Mr. Vance began May 4, 1820, when he was appointed surveyor of Wood County, and he filled that office until his removal to Findlay. He was appointed the first postmaster of Findlay February 8, 1823, and held that position until July, 1829. At the first election held in Findlay Township, July 1, 1823, he was chosen one of the two justices of the peace; and at the second elec- tion, April 5, 1824, he was elected township trustee and lister. In dis- charging the duties of the latter office he made the first assessment of tax- able property in Hancock County, and has himself assessed for one horse - and four head of cattle. Mr. Vance was clerk of the court of common pleas from March, 1828, to March, 1835; county recorder from the spring of 1828 to June, 1835, and from October, 1835, to October, 1838; and county treasurer from June, 1845, to June, 1847. He was generally recognized as an upright man and a kind, good neighbor, but like all other men of strong individuality, sometimes awoke hostility in the hearts of his fellowmen by his unswerving determination, bluff manner and stubborn ad- hesion to his own opinions. He was dignified in character, and possessed a fine personal appearance. Both he and his wife were life-long adherents of the Presbyterian faith, and the Findlay Church was organized at their house. Mr. Vance died at the home of his son in Orange Township September 30, 1862, and his widow survived him till March 10, 1866, leaving behind them an example in many things highly worthy of imitation.
The same fall in which Mr. Vance located at Fort Findlay a Kentuckian named Smith took possession of an old Indian cabin which stood immediately west of the fort. He cultivated a small patch of ground in the neighbor- hood, and spent considerable time in hunting, while his wife looked after the household duties. Smith claimed to understand the use of drugs, and kept a small stock of medicines on hand. When Mrs. Matthew Reighly, who lived on the John P. Hamilton farm, was taken sick with malarial fever in 1822, Smith was called on to attend her, but she died so suddenly soon afterward that suspicion fell upon the medicine Smith had administered as the direct cause of her death. In defense Smith claimed that he positively forbade the patient the use of cold water, but she disobeyed his instructions and drank copiously, from the effects of which she died. As he was the only doctor(?) in the settlement his statement had to be accepted, as none could dispute its correctness. After a residence in Findlay of two or three years Smith and his wife left the county, and are supposed to have returned to Kentucky.
Matthew Reighly was the next to cast his fortunes with the embryo vil- lage. In the spring of 1822 he and his wife accompanied John P. Hamilton
540
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
to this county, and occupied a cabin built the previous year by Jacob More- land on the southwest quarter of Section 17, up the river from the fort. Mrs. Reighly died the same year (being the first white person who died in Hancock County) and was buried in the old cemetery east of town. After his wife's death Mr. Reighly, who was a carpenter and possessed a fair ed- ucation for that day, removed to Findlay and boarded at Wilson Vance's tavern. He assisted in building the first grist and saw mill, also most of the first log and frame houses erected in Findlay. He was one of the clerks at the first two elections held in the township in 1823 and 1824, and was chosen township clerk at the latter. At the first county election in April, 1828, Mr. Reighly was elected county auditor, and served until the follow- ing October, when his successor was chosen. He subsequently married Betsy, daughter of Isaac Johnson, and sister of the venerable Joseph John- son, of Portage Township, and finally removed to the West.
Squire Carlin is the oldest continuous resident now living in either the village or county who had reached the age of manhood before locating within its limits. He was born near Auburn, N. Y., December 25, 1801, and is a son of James and Susan (Davis) Carlin, the former a native of New Jersey and his wife of New York State. They were married near Auburn, and were the parents of four children ere leaving New York, viz .: Nancy, Squire, Zada and Parlee. In the winter of 1806-07 they left New York in a sled, and traveled westward to Erie, Penn., and there spent the latter part of the winter. In the spring of 1807 the family left Erie in a sail-boat, and came up the lake to the mouth of Huron River, settling on the shore of Lake Erie, a short distance west of that point. The Carlins were the second white family to locate in what is now Huron County, but they remained there only one year, removing to the River Raisin in the spring of 1808. They settled on the opposite side of that stream from Frenchtown, about two miles and a half east of the site of Monroe, Mich. Here they lived until the summer of 1809, during which time another child, Caroline, was born. They next located on the site of Maumee City, on the north bank of the Maumee, in what is now Lucas County, Ohio, and continued peacefully tilling the soil until after Hull's surrender in August, 1812, when the re- ported coming of hostile Indians caused the family to flee southward over Hull's Trace. The mother, with her children, mounted on two horses and, carrying provisions for the journey and a few household articles, accompa- nied a band of refugees to Urbana, her husband remaining behind with the hope of saving his stock, etc., but his efforts proved futile, as they fell a prey to the Indians and their English allies. The family passed by Fort Findlay on the route, and our subject, who was then in his eleventh year, says the soldiers were still working on the fort, which was commenced the previous June. After stopping in Urbana a couple of months the Carlins located on Buck Creek, east of the village, where a son, James, was soon afterward born. Here they lived till 1814, when the father and son, Squire, returned to the Maumee, built a cabin near Fort Meigs, and raised a crop on the island below the fort. In 1815 the balance of the family joined them, and they reoccupied the old homestead north of the river, though the buildings had been burned by the enemy, and new ones had to be erected. The parents spent the remainder of their lives on the Maumee, and there Squire grew to manhood, receiving no education whatever, what he now possesses having been acquired after locating in Findlay. He mar-
541
VILLAGE OF FINDLAY.
ried Miss Sarah Wolcott. April 17. 1821, and settled in a cabin on the old homestead. She was born in Toronto, Canada, and her parents set- tled on the Maumee after the close of the war of 1812. Mrs. Carlin was the mother of ten children, only three of whom lived to maturity, viz. : William D., Elliott and Sarah, the last mentioned being Mrs. George W. Myers, of Findlay. William D. was for many years one of the county's leading physicians, and died December 26, 1862, while serving as surgeon of the Fifty-Seventh Regiment. Mr. Carlin had been to Fort Findlay sev- eral times before and after the settlement of Wilson Vance, and in Novem- ber, 1826, purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Main and Front Streets, built a small log house, and opened the first store in the village. He boarded through the winter of 1826-27 at the tavern of Wilson Vance, but in the latter year his wife and son, William D., joined him. In 1828 his brother, Parlee, came from the Maumee, and the firm became S. & P. Carlin, and in 1831 their brother James obtained an interest, but remained only about a year. During this period a large part of Mr. Carlin's time was spent in traveling through the forest buying furs from the Indians, white hunters and small traders, and in this way he laid the foundation of his subsequent fortune. While engaged in the fur trade he suffered many privations and hardships, which he loves to relate. In the winter of 1827- 28, while out on a trip and very hungry, he came to an Indian camp in the forest where several dressed animals were roasting along a log fire, and jumping from his horse cut off a large slice of the roasting meat. One of the Indians present, seeing the avidity with which he ate, said: "You like um fox?" "Yes," said Mr. Carlin, "don't you?" The Indian shook his head. "Then why do you roast them?" asked his guest. "For my dogs," replied the Indian, who seemed much amused over the incident. The meat, however, tasted good to the hungry trader, who first supposed the animals were coons, a much prized dish among the pioneers. The Carlin Bros. carried on a mercantile business on the old corner until 1852, when they sold their stock, but still continued to operate the grist and saw mills on the river, which they had owned since 1837. They were also largely engaged in the real estate and banking business from 1854 until their failure in 1878. Mr. Carlin was the third postmaster of Findlay, which position he held from June, 1831, to March, 1849, a period of nearly eighteen years. He was also treasurer of the county from June, 1831, to June, 1839. His wife died in October, 1850, and June 16, 1853, he was married to Mrs. Delia B. Gardner, nee Briggs, a daughter of James Briggs, Esq., of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Three children have been born to this union, only one, Frederick P., now living. Few men in this part of the State have led such an active business life as the now venerable Squire Carlin, the brothers be- ing at one time among the wealthiest firms in northwestern Ohio, and the second largest land owners of Hancock County. The building of the Lake Erie & Western Railroad was the direct cause of Mr. Carlin's financial mis- fortune, for, though it has proven a blessing to the county, it was an unfor- tunate enterprise for him; yet he takes his reverses philosophically, and seems as happy as if they had never occurred.
Joseph White located in Findlay, in 1826, and taught the first school in the village in the winter of 1826-27. This school was held in a small log- cabin east of the Sherman House site. White first settled in Liberty Town- ship, in 1823, whence he removed to Findlay. He left the county in 1827,
542
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
and Squire Carlin is doubtless the only man now living in the county who remembers him, as he attended the school taught by White in Findlay.
Joseph DeWitt came to Findlay early in the spring of 1827, with his wife and nine children, and opened a blacksmith shop north of the site of the old brick jail facing the park. This was the first blacksmith shop opened in the village. Mr. De Witt was a native of New Jersey, thence removed to Pennsylvania, where he married Catherine Hunt, a native of that State. About 1809, with his wife and two children, Elizabeth and William, he re- moved to Hamilton County, Ohio, settling near Cincinnati, where Sarah, the widow of Parlee Carlin, Esq., was born. He subsequently lived in Fairfield and Pike Counties, whence he came to Hancock, some of his children being then full grown. Mr. DeWitt carried on blacksmithing in Findlay till his removal to Wood County, in 1832. In the fall of 1830 he was elected cor- oner of the county, being the second incumbent of that office. From Wood County he went to Indiana, and there died.
John C. Wickham, his wife, Barbara, son Minor T. and daughter, Lucy, came from Ross County, Ohio, in the spring of 1827, his son, William, coming out a few years afterward. Wickham built a cabin on east Main Cross Street, and in the winter of 1827-28, taught school in the old hewed-log schoolhouse, erected the former year on the northwest corner of East and Crawford Streets. In October, 1828, he was elected sheriff, and served two years; and he was also postmaster of Findlay, from July, 1829 to June, 1831, being the sec- ond postmaster of the village. In 1832 his son William located in Blanchard Township, and the next year the parents and Minor T. also removed to that subdivision. The daughter, Lucy, married James McKinnis. Mr. Wick- ham taught school there, and in 1835 was elected justice of the peace, but died soon after, while on a business trip to Wayne County, Ohio.
Reuben Hale was a pioneer of 1827, in which year he was hired by Wil- son Vance, to attend to the Vance & Cory grist-mill. He was a brother of Alfred Hale, who settled at Ft. McArthur, on the Scioto River, about 1818, where Reuben also lived till coming to Findlay, nine years afterward. At the first county election in April, 1828, he ran for sheriff, against Don Alonzo Hamlin, but was defeated. He married Emeline, daughter of Asher Wickham, and subsequently removed into Marion Township, thence to Union County, Ohio, where the declining years of his life were passed.
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