USA > Ohio > Henry County > History of Henry and Fulton counties, Ohio : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 26
USA > Ohio > Fulton County > History of Henry and Fulton counties, Ohio : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 26
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In 1826, on the 17th of November, John Patrick, the father of George, who still resides on the old place, settled on the river three miles east of Napoleon. He purchased the land of one Cornelius Thompson, who obtained it from the government on land scrip issued to him for services under Wayne in his Indian campaigns. Mr. Patrick erected a large house at this place, and also opened a house of public entertainment, and which subsequently became the main " tavern," as they were called in those days, between Defiance and Toledo during the days of canal navigation and packet travel, which began in 1843 and remained brisk until the construction of the Wabash Railroad.
Long before work on the canal had commenced Edwin Scribner, already referred to, erected a "thunder gust " saw-mill on Dry Creek, and this was the first saw-mill in the county. After the completion of the canal, Burlin & Taylor started a mill at Damascus, and the mill has ever since been retained and is still one of the principle stationary ones in the county. Burlin & Tay- lor also opened a general store, the first in the county, and managed the tavern which had been established by Vance. A town was laid out at this point, but if ever platted the plat was destroyed in the fire of 1847. In 1859, however, under direction of the auditor, the assessor made a plat of the lots in section twelve (Damascus), which was recorded on the 5th of December of that year. By this it is learned that there were in all seventeen lots-fifteen of which are on the north of the canal and two on the south. In early days this was the most promising business point on the canal within the county of Henry, and was ambitious enough to rival Napoleon for the county seat. The inability of the canal to compete with the railroads and retain the carrying trade, has ruined Damascus as a town and converted it into a magnificent farm.
In those early days, to use pioneer language, "it was pretty rough sledding." When John Patrick came to the river in 1866, the nearest mill was at Waterville, a distance of twenty-five miles, and the settlers were often compelled to go to Brunersburg, on Beam Creek, in what is now Defiance county, and not unfre- quently to Monroe, in Michigan, taking along an ax and log chain to clear out the Indian trail, the only road to travel.
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HENRY COUNTY.
After the completion of the canal, and the commencement of navigation on its muddy waters, the settlers along its banks began to multiply with geomet- rical progression, and in 1847, the earliest preserved duplicate discloses the fact that there were residing on the territory which at present is embraced within the limits of Liberty township, sixty-six persons who paid tax on personal property. Among these contributors to the public revenues who resided on the sections detached from Harrison, were General Ezra S. Dodd, whose ashes repose in the Damascus grave-yard; Joseph Cowdrick, already referred to ; Samuel Bowers, dead and buried on the farm he cut and cultivated from the wilderness; and George Bowers, who is still living and rejoicing in great- grandchildren ; Judge Meekison, a banker at Napoleon, being the father of the latest addition. Prominent among those who resided in the other part of, or rather the orignal township, may be named: Alonzo, Lorenzo, Solomon, James H., and a large family of Babcocks, most of whom are still living ; George Chroninger, one of the jolliest old men, surrounded by a happy family, who still lives in the township, having by his industry, frugal habits and honest dealings, acquired a competency which will certainly protect him from the char- ity of the infirmary director; Hosea Harrison, Rensselaer, and several others of the Hudson family, whose names have become interwoven into the official his- tory and progress of Henry county ; John and several others of the Knapp family, still prominent in the township; John M. Meek, a brother-in-law of Judge Cory, who came to the county at a very early period, was prominent in local government, and whose only remaining descendant by his first marriage, is the wife of Judge J. M. Haag, of Napoleon ; the Redfield family: Samuel H. Steedman, who was the first colonel of the Sixty-eighth O. V. Infantry; James B. Steedman, subsequently the hero of Chickamauga, and whose monument is now the chief ornament of the city of Toledo ; John Wright, sr., John Wright, jr., and Nathan Wright; Ward Woodward, now of Liberty Center, Samuel Winters, and George Crawford, at one time county commissioner and promi- nent in local politics, whose children still reside in the vicinity.
The duplicate of 1847 shows the township charged with eighteen thousand four hundred and forty-two acres of land, valued at $38,764.95, and chattels valued at $4,988. The total tax paid was $1,316.66, with an additional for school-house of $49.22.
A comparison and a calculation of the growth and prosperity of the town- ship may be made from the following figures :
The duplicate of 1887 shows seventeen thousand five hundred and ninety- one acres of land, exclusive of town sites, and railroad right-of- ways, valued at $330,725 ; chattels listed at $136,487, paying a total tax including the vil- lage of Liberty Center, of $10,139. The township had a population of 1, 1 19 in 1860; 1,766 in 1870; in 1880 the population amounted to 1,946. It may be safely estimated at present at 2,400.
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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
Outside of the town of Liberty Center, there are eight school-houses, most of them brick, and all well appointed, with school maintained for at least half the year. The Christian Union has a church edifice in section thirty-two and also in section fifteen, and the United Brethren have a chapel in section fifteen.
The main and several branches of Turkey Foot Creek (north of the Mau- mee) and Dry Creek, afford the township very good natural drainage, and ar- tificial surface and underground ditches have contributed to make this perhaps the best farming township in the county ; and which, together with good roads, commodious, comfortable and well-constructed residences and farm buildings give to it, as a body, an average value greater than that possessed by any other farming land in northwestern Ohio.
The construction of the Wabash Railway did much to develop the town- ship and hasten its improvement. While it destroyed the plant of the towns along the canal, it converted the wilderness along its track into many flourish- ing villages. Among them is
LIBERTY CENTER,
at present a flourishing village with a population between five and six hun- dred. It was the second village in the county to become incorporated, and has taken advantage of its corporate franchise to secure good sidewalks, streets and drainage. It is located in sections twenty-five and thirty-six of the original surveyed township, is a railroad and telegraph station on the Wabash, has the third best post-office in the county, and a printing office from which the Liberty Press is issued weekly. The village has a good hotel, a livery stable, a hard- ware store, a drug store, three dry goods stores, several saloons and restau- rants, several fine brick blocks, and the mechanical artists usual to all villages. A handsome roller process grist-mill is a considerable attraction to the trade of the village, and a saw-mill furnishes a market for the few trees which re- main to be converted into timber. It has four churches,-one Methodist Episcopal, one German Reformed, one United Brethren and one Seventh Day Adventist. Its greatest ornament, however, and its chief pride is its new graded school building, erected during the year 1886. It is a two-story, finely finished building, in which is maintained one of the best educational schools in the county.
On the 4th of June, 1863, Alpheas Buchanan first conceived the idea of establishing a trading-point in Liberty township, and on that day recorded a plat of twelve lots in the northeast quarter of section twenty-five, on the south side of the Wabash Railway. To this was added his first, second and third additions.
January 7, 1867, Calvin C. Young added an addition of twelve lots; and June 7, 1868, E. T. Coon contributed an addition of ten lots more, with requi- site streets and alleys ; January 2, 1869, G. P. Parrish stimulated the growth
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HENRY COUNTY.
of the village by adding eighteen more lots to the town plat, being in the northeast corner of section thirty-six. Ward Woodward, one of the early set- tlers of the township already mentioned, not wishing to be outdone by those to the manor born subsequent to himself, on the 19th of July, 1869, contributed to the village a triangular addition of ten lots and an alley, on the south side of the Wabash Railway. Orle Buchanan, awakening from a sort of Rip Van Winkle sleep, determined not to be outdone by those whom he termed the "boys," and, on the 24th of July, added an addition of eight irregular lots, and a street of thirty feet on the north of the railway, and caused the erection of a handle and excelsior factory in his addition. This enterprise served to again arouse old "Uncle George " Parrish, who, getting on his muscle, added a sec- ond addition of four irregular lots on the west of his former addition and sepa- rated from it by Parrish street. On the 22d day of September, 1882, Daniel Ehrgood gave to the village its last contribution, which consisted of sixteen lots, continuing East street and adding Garfield, Lincoln, Cherry and Plum and an alley, which gives to the village one hundred and forty-one platted lots upon most of which are neat and handsome residences or business buildings, and is the site of one of the pleasantest, most prosperous and enterprising towns along the line of the Wabash Railway.
This township is divided into two voting precincts. The elections for the eastern is held at Liberty Center, and that for the western at Chroninger's school-house.
CHAPTER XXIII.
HISTORY OF MARION TOWNSHIP.
M ARION is the extreme southern township in the county of range seven, being bounded on the south by township two of that range, the line be- tween the two forming the line between Putnam and Henry counties.
There is little to distinguish this township from the balance of the county except the south or (as named by the geologists of the State) Belmore Ridge, which runs through it, entering the township near the half section line of sec- tion thirty, and running in a winding track eastward through sections twenty- nine, twenty-eight and twenty-seven, when it turns southeasterly through sections twenty-six, thirty-five and thirty-six, crossing the township line near the southeast corner of the latter section. The lands along this ridge are high and dry. The remainder of the township is, or rather was, very wet, but ex- ceedingly well timbered with burr and white oak, walnut, maple, poplar, ash and the softer woods.
240
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
The settlement of the township has been slow, and even comparatively modern. Located in a dense forest, no roads, not even " cow paths," and no way to reach market except on foot, it was absolutely inaccessible, except from the ridge, which made a good natural road to Defiance. The wetness of the soil, the density of the forest and the isolation of the territory from market and civilization, were, however, not the only causes which retarded the settle- ment and improvement of the township. In the years 1850-51, before the adoption of the new constitution, Samuel Medary, then editor of the Ohio Statesman, and other Columbus gentlemen and capitalists, conceived the idea of founding a settlement in the " Black Swamp," and laid out a village, which they named Medary, in township two of this range of land, in Putnam county. About the same time a scheme was formulated by John M. Palmer, who sub- sequently became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, to construct a plank road from the above village, northward, to intersect the Kalida pike in section thirty, Monroe township. The road is still known as the Medary road. Pal- mer, by some process of manipulation in which rascality is ever fruitful, suc- ceeded in getting a board of stupid trustees to issue the bonds of Marion . township, which at that time had scarcely any population, in the sum of five thousand dollars for the ostensible purpose of building this plank road. Hav- ing secured the bonds Palmer negotiated them at once, put the proceeds in his pocket, and the road was never built. The debt, however, was entailed on the township, and to that extent was a mortgage on all the land. The lands were valued very low, and the duplicate being small, the tax was correspond- ingly high, and the debt was not finally paid until 1864. This aided materi- ally in preserving Marion as the camping and squatting ground of the hunter, and gave to it the name of "Big Woods."
The township was organized in the spring of 1847, at which time there were but ten voters living in it. The duplicate of that year shows but seven chattel tax payers: John Hamler, Samuel H. Harshberger, Daniel Harshberger, William Bales, William Rayle, S. K. Warnick and W. M. Warner. The value of the personal property was $680; that of the land, there being but 9,266 acres listed for taxation, was $13,031.15, and the total tax paid was $480.45. Most of the persons named are either dead or removed. The descendants of Samuel H. Harshberger and of William Rayle still reside in the township and are the owners of some of the best farms in Marion, well improved, good, and large buildings erected, and the land under a high state of cultivation. W. M. Warner soon tired of wood life and sold out to Casper Zeirolf, now dead, but the old farm, perhaps in all respects, being situated on the ridge, the best in the township, is owned and occupied by his son William, at present one of the commissioners of the county. Samuel Harshberger, son of Samuel H., was the first white child born in the township, and inherited from his ancestors one of the best farms in the township, upon which he now resides.
Kolm Hamlin
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HENRY COUNTY.
Of these pioneers John Hamler deserves more than a passing notice, al- though he is elsewhere spoken of in this book. He was the first settler in the township, having entered land and located in section twenty-one, September 16, 1846. The forest was dense, and wild beasts and mosquitoes the only inhabitants. The Indians, a remnant of the Ottowas, were only twenty-six miles east ; the nearest house was fourteen miles, twenty miles to the nearest trading point, and thirty miles to mill, may give some idea of the incon- veniences and hardships of frontier life. Yet Mr. Hamler says that his life was not devoid of enjoyment, and that he took almost as much pleasure in the rude and wild life of the woods as he does now surrounded by all the com- forts and luxuries of civilization.
The real improvement and settlement of the township did not commence until 1869, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was constructed. This road enters the township at the southeast corner of section twelve and runs north- westerly to the northwest corner of section six. The construction of this road assisted largely in draining the lands, lead to the erection of saw-mills and stave factories ; the cleaning out and deepening of the creeks, the main ones of which are Turkey Foot, Beaver, Brush and Lost creeks, and to the location, construction and improvements of roads. These improvements caused heavy taxation and assessments, and this obliged the non-resident land speculator to dispose of his holdings, which, passing into the hands of those who became permanent settlers, improvements seemed to spring up like Jack's bean pole, in a single night, and makes Marion to-day as good a township as there is in the county.
The growth of the township may be indicated by the tax duplicate and the census returns. We have already shown the duplicate of 1847. That for 1887 shows 22,962 acres of land for taxation valued at $203,035, and personal property to the amount of $130,613, and the amount of taxes paid to be $7,541.17. The population in 1860 was only 195 souls; in 1870 it amounted to 513 ; in 1880, to 1,202, and at present may be safely estimated at 1, 500.
The educational interests of the township have been carefully provided for and there are at present, in addition to the graded school at Hamler, nine good and substantial schools- houses erected. In each of the villages and at one or two points in the country, church buildings have also been erected.
The growth of this township has certainly been phenomenal and is owing largely to foreign immigration, the population outside of the descendants of the pioneers and the few Yankees who have been attracted by the wealth to be made of the great forests of timber, being composed mostly of industrious, so- ber, quiet and religious classes of Irish and German. These people mixing and inter-marrying, including the native born, make the progressive and ener- getic homogeneous American, and indicates that our national motto, e pluribus unum, means not only one State for many States, but one nation from all the 31
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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
nations of the earth, and that the motto has not yet degenerated into a trade mark for the standard dollar, but still deserves a place on the broad standard of human rights and human hopes. It also indicates a population of healthy sentiment. No agrarian or communism here. An honest, industrious people came here into the wild forest, when cheap lands could be obtained, and lands inexhaustible in fertility, which by hard work could be converted into homes. where old age might rest in comfort and its descendants live in luxury. Men like these, who settled and peopled Marion, were present in the mind of the poet when he asked: "What constitutes a State?" and answered:
" Not raised battlement and labored mound, Thick wall or moated gate; Not cities proud, . Men, high-minded men,
Men who their duties know, But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain - Prevent the long aimed blow, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain- THESE CONSTITUTE THE STATE !"
EDWARDSVILLE
Is a triangular tract of land in the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of section twenty-eight, formed by the crossing of the Medary road and the Ridge road. It consists of seven lots and two out lots, and was laid out by George W. Edwards and John Rayle on the 6th of September, 1863, and recorded on the 7th of the same month. A post-office was established here as early as 1861 and named Ridgeland. The post-office still remains, but the hamlet has not grown beyond two or three dwellings. William P. Young has, however, erected a saw-mill, stave factory and tile manufactory within a stone throw, and is doing a thriving business.
HAMLER.
This flourishing village, named in honor of John Hamler, is situated in sec- tion eleven, where the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad crosses the Turkey Foot road. It has a population of about five hundred, a post-office, and is a tele- graph and express station. A large and extensive stave factory is located here, affording a good and profitable market for the large quantity of soft wood still growing in the township. A fine two-story brick building affords excellent accommodation for the graded school held in it. A new commodious Catho- lic church, and a Methodist Episcopal furnish places of worship, and indicates the religious leaning of those with enterprise sufficient to erect a building. The various mechanical trades are represented ; three dry goods stores, doing a general business ; one hardware store, an agricultural implement warehouse indicate a thrifty business ; and a good hotel, two saloons and restaurants fur- nish accommodations for the stranger. The Odd Fellows have a lodge here and the Grand Army a post.
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HENRY COUNTY.
The village was originally platted by Hon. William D. Hill, of Defiance, and his wife, Augusta B., on the 10th of July, 1874, and recorded December 23, 1875. Five and one-third acres were appropriated to depot grounds ; seventy-five lots were platted on the south side of the railroad, and ninety six on the north ; there were ten alleys, and the streets running east and west were named respectively, Green, English, Edgerton, Baltimore, Randolph, Benton and Cowan ; and those running north and south were christened White, Main, Lee and Pendleton. Turkey Foot road, known as Marion street, runs diagonally southwesterly through the village. The lots are four by eight rods, except those lying west of Marion street, which are eighteen links in width.
On the 6th of January, 1875, J. W. Sargent laid out an addition of seven- teen lots, which was recorded on the Sth of the same month. It comprises four acres of land, including streets and alleys, and is the east part of the north- east corner of the north half of the southeast quarter of section ten.
Mr. Hill and wife added their first addition of three out lots November 28, 1881. It is triangular, west of Marion street, south of the railroad and east of the west section line of section eleven.
On the 7th of April, 1887, recorded on the 21st of the same month, Mr. Hill and wife added a second addition of ninety-six regular lots, six irregular, and blocks A and B. Chestnut, Cleveland, Blaine and Hubbard streets run east and west, and First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth north and south ; there are seven alleys. This addition is in the southwest corner of section eleven and southwest of the original plat.
CHAPTER XXIV.
HISTORY OF MONROE TOWNSHIP.
T HIS is another township which has recently been cut out of the "Big Woods," and thus destroyed a large part of the happy hunting ground of the sportsman. It was organized as a geographical township in 1850, being detached from Harrison to which it had previously belonged. In the govern- ment survey it is known as township four, north of range seven, east. The duplicate of 1851 shows only seven chattel taxpayers resident in the township. We give the names with the amount of tax paid by each : Samuel E. Ed- wards (author of the " Ohio Hunter," who then resided on the farm now owned and occupied by Philip Heckler), $2.40; William Hill, $1.89; Michael Hill, $2.02 ; Waite Hill, jr., $1.09; Christopher Kemm, $3.38 ; Matthias Knops- ley, $.97; Amonah Parkison, $1.05 ; Paulus Quitman, $1.01. The number of
244
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
acres of land entered and subject to taxation was 14,463, valued at $22,268.21 ; while the value of the chattel property was only $476, and the total tax paid, including specials, was $1,698.35. In this connection the duplicate of 1887 may as well be given. It shows 22,960 acres of land, valued at $233,210, subject to taxation ; the chattel property is valued at $80,376, and the total tax paid $7,244.62. The population of the township was, in 1860, three hun- dred and fifty-two souls ; in 1870 six hundred and fifty-eight; in 1880 it had grown to one thousand one hundred and forty-eight, and is at present not less than fifteen hundred. The township is divided into nine school districts and has as many good and commodious school buildings ; and five churches, all Protestant,-one a United Brethren, near Levi Dresbeck's; two Lutheran churches,"one on section 18, and one on section 33. The others will be spoken of when we write of the villages.
Among the early settlers of the township, in addition to those already named, we may add : David Latta, Matthew Hill, Daniel and W. H. Bigford, Rev. Williamson Barnhill, Charles Huber, John Bensing, John Frankforther, Peter Reimond, John B. Meyers, Rev. Frederick Witzgall, and Jacob Snyder, who made the early improvements on the valuable farm now owned and occu- pied by John Rentz. All of these persons or their immediate descendants or families are still living in the township.
For many years this township was a stunted child, and its healthy growth commenced with the construction of the Toledo, Delphos and Burlington Rail- road, a narrow guage, but which has in the present year been extended to a standard guage, and is now known as the "Clover Leaf" route. The road enters the township at the northeast corner of section one, on the east line, runs in a southwest direction, leaving the township in the northwest quarter of sec- tion thirty-one, on the west line. .
The lands in this township, as in the whole county with the exception of the ridge, are low, flat, level, and were wet, requiring considerable drainage. This has been accomplished and three-fourths of the township is now under a good state of cultivation. The drainage is accomplished by the cleaning out, widening and deepening of the natural water courses, the main one of which is Turkey Foot. This creek enters the township in the south at the line between section thirty-five and thirty-six, running north in a winding direction through sections thirty-five, twenty-six, twenty-three, twenty-two, fourteen, fifteen, ten, three, four and five, entering Harrison township near the center of the latter section on the south township line. School Creek enters the township in the west near the southwest quarter of section nineteen, and runs northerly, wind- ing through sections eighteen and eight, emptying into Turkey Foot in section four. Lost Creek and Ash Creek also run from the south to the north, both adding their waters to Turkey Foot. Into these several streams artificial drainage, both surface and sub-soil, have been constructed, pretty thoroughly
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