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 27
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 27
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draining the township and fitting it for cultivation. Good roads have been constructed on almost every section line, both north and south and east and west, many of which have by the county commissioners been improved under the laws of the Legislature enacted for that purpose, and the township to- day ranks among the best and wealthiest in the county.
The hamlets and villages in the township are Ellery (or, as known on the plat book, Herrtown) Grelleton and Malinta. Of these in order :
HERRTOWN or ELLERY.
On the plat book this hamlet is known as Herrtown, but the postoffice located there having been named Ellery, the latter has become the accepted name. It is situated in the south part of the east half of the southwest quarter of section sixteen on the " Clover Leaf " route. It consists of seventeen lots ; is a railway station, has a postoffice and small store. It was platted by Peter Ritter, January 29, 1881. It may be said to be extensively laid out but thinly settled.
GRELLETON.
This village, or more properly hamlet, is located where the township of Harrison, Damascus, Richfield and Monroe corner. It is also on the " Clover Leaf " route. On the 23d of March, 1881, Eli C. Clay laid out an addition of seventeen lots and erected a saw-mill in the northeast corner of section one in the latter township. On the 10th of May, 1884, Mr. Clay platted another addition in this township, in the southeast corner of the northwest quarter of the same section. It consists of thirteen lots, and was recorded December 27, 1884. The hamlet has a good school-house, two dry goods stores, a meat market, restaurant, a saw-mill, hoop factory, stave factory, a railroad depot, express, telegraph and post-offices, and contains a population of from three hun- dred to three hundred and fifty. Among the first settlers and present resi- dents of the place may be enumerated Thomas B. Emery, Joseph B. Ward, Eli C. Clay, William Mead, C. H. Thompson, Jonathan Scheidler, Leroy Thompson, Randall & Hughes, hoop factory, and the Dewey Stave Company.
MALINTA.
This is the principal village in the township. It is also on the line of the " Clover Leaf," and is located in sections ten and eleven. It contains a popu- lation of from four hundred to four hundred and fifty. It has four dry goods and general stores, two hardware stores, two saloons and restaurants, one saw- mill, stave factory, tile and brick factory, picture gallery, blacksmith shops, shoemaker, etc. It is a railroad station and has an express, telegraph and post- office. Two churches, one Lutheran and one United Brethren, are erected here.
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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
The village was first platted and laid out by John Bensing, September 21, 1880, in the west part of the northwest quarter of section eleven, on the north side of the railroad. Turkey Foot avenue bounded it on the west, Main street on the north, an alley on the east, and an alley between the plat and the railroad on the south. It was constituted of twenty lots, with Center street running east and west, and Henry street and an alley north and south. De- pot grounds were also laid out on the south of the railroad.
Mr. Bensing platted and recorded his first addition to the village, April, 1881. It is in the west part of the northwest quarter of section eleven, south of the railroad, west of the depot grounds and east of Turkey Foot avenue. It consists of twenty-six lots. Washington and Adams streets and one alley run east and west; Henry street continued and two alleys run north and south.
May 28, 1881, L. and L. Horn added an addition to the village, located in part of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section ten. It em- braced four and a half acres west of Turkey Foot avenue. It consists of twelve lots, two alleys running east and west and one north and south, on the south side of the railroad; and seventeen lots, Monroe street and three alleys, east and west and one alley north and south, on the north of the railroad.
The town is thrifty, the population enterprising, and it will doubtless, before many years, rank among the foremost villages in the county.
Before closing this chapter a word should be said in memory of the men who first undertook the task of making delightful homes of the "tangled for- ests."
THE STURDY PIONEER.
"Peace has her victories as well as war;" with equal truth may civil life be said to have its heroes as well as the tented field, and if ever man deserved the title of hero, that man is the pioneer. Language cannot be woven into a fitting uniform for this hero; he was not an adventurer ; he possessed all the elements of the true soldier ; courage, fortitude, determination, endurance, self-reliance, perseverance were his characteristics. He went forth, venturing where no other white foot had ever trod, a colonist, founding new homes and building new States. The race of pioneers was a constructive one, and its conquests were pushed, not only beyond the mountains, but from ocean to ocean, and where its seeds of thought, religion and civilization were once planted, there they grew and flourished.
Time too readily blots from the memory of the rising generation the glori- ous achievements of their ancestors, and the hardships, trials and deprivations suffered by them that they might crown "a youth of labor with an age of ease" and leave behind them homes of comfort as inheritances to their posterity; and the bravest, the best and the noblest are laid away, in a few years to be for- gotten.
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HENRY COUNTY.
There is something grand in the gradual development of human history and human progress. The actors at any period may wholly fail to appreciate the effect of their action on the future, and be ignorant of the links and succes- sion of events which connect past, present and future. The actor knows only to face and to do his duty as day by day it is presented to him, and he too often re- mains unconscious of his relation to predecessor and successor and of the grad- ual unfolding of the great plan of human development and progress. In all human movements we have the temporary and the permanent, the transient form and non-essential incident with the permanent substance and the essen- tial truth. There must be personal actors, as well as potential causes and irre- sistable current. Every age has its heroes, martyrs and victims, and every cause its defenders, advocates and enemies, and to the heroic men who preceded us to the pathless wilderness we owe the heritage we now enjoy, and it is proper that to them honor be paid and their memories cherished. No nation ever did anything worth remembering that failed to honor its heroic dead and count among its national treasures the fame of its illustrious ancestors.
As we gaze over the expansive and fertile fields and see the comfortable and pleasant homes of Henry county, reflect that but a few years ago it was but a "matted woods, where birds forget to sing," and recall the labors, toils, sacrifices and dangers which made up the life of the pioneer heroes whose graves indent our soil, and as we appreciate the triumphs won by them which have given to us the noble heritage we now enjoy, and cast ourselves into the beckoning future which these men and their labors made possible, our hearts cannot fail to fill with pride, and love and gratitude, and in the sight of coun- try and of the world we lift up their honored names, and ask posterity to em- ulate the pioneer.
There seems to be a neglect of duty on the part of the children of the pi- oneer. There should be monuments erected to commemorate the achieve- ments of these brave and great men. Monuments are the links which connect names and events to fame. Let monuments be built in each township and stand as a silent, but eloquent witness, not only to the devotion and daring, but as a constant witness that we, the sons and daughters of these pioneers, hold in greatful recollection those to whom we are so largely indebted for the blessings we to-day enjoy.
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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
CHAPTER XXV.
HISTORY OF NAPOLEON TOWNSHIP.
T HIS township was organized in the spring of 1835, soon after the full organi- zation of Henry county. The population in 1880 was 1,472 not including the town of Napoleon ; this has increased considerably. The township con- tains thirty-six square miles, without deducting the space covered by the Mau- mee River. The larger portion of this area is in an advanced state of cultiva- tion. It lies near the middle of the famous Black Swamp, which was formerly such a terror to emigrants, and which caused it to be passed by by early settlers, who were seeking homes, in what was in the beginning of the century, the " far west." Its surface is remarkably even, except in the immediate vicinity of its water courses, where the surface drift has been washed away, during and since the glacial epoch. The soil, like that of the Black Swamp generally, is remark- able for its great fertility. It is underlaid by what is known as the Erie clay, which was deposited during the long ages when the township formed a portion of the bed of Lake Erie. This clay on account of its great tenacity, furnishes the best possible foundation for a fertile soil. In itself it furnishes a large amount of plant food, and after being exposed to the disintegrating effects of frost and heat, becomes a very productive soil. The great growth of vegeta- tion, previous to its discovery and settlement by the white man, gave it a rich coat of soil, which the retentiveness of the clay preserved for future use.
The beautiful Maumee River furnishes the great center of drainage to the township, as well as to the greater portion of the county. The general trend of the surface is towards the Maumee River, and Lake Erie, i. c., on the north- ern side of the river the slope is toward the southeast, while that of the south- ern side of the river is at right angles, or towards the northeast.
The rate of descent is between four and six feet to the mile, which gives sufficient fall, when skillfully distributed, to secure the benefits of thorough un- derdraining, which in the Black Swamp is the one great necessity in securing the conditions of successful agriculture. There are five small streams with their branches, that empty into the river from the northern side, while there are none of importance in that small portion of the township lying south of the river.
Much time, labor and money have been expended in bringing the township out of its original condition of a dense swampy forest, to its present advanced state of productiveness. Much, however, remains to be done.
It took no small amount of courage to attack the swamps and forests of this locality half a century ago. More hardships were endured, and more lives lost in the work of clearing up and preparing the conditions which now exist in the form of beautiful productive farms, which are to be seen throughout the town-
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ship, than were endured to subdue the hostile and treacherous Indians which once occupied the country.
We have here no early history of Indian or other wars, through which the earlier settlers of this region had to pass. The battle of the Fallen Timbers at Presque Isle, on the Maumee River, three miles above Maumee, so broke the power of the Indians, that no further trouble was had with them. As that men- orable battle occurred in the latter part of the eighteenth century, when there was probably not a single white resident (unless it may have been the renegade Simon Girty), in the whole county, we have therefore no blood-curdling stories of hair-breadth escapes from the Indians, or of ambuscades or battles. All has been peaceful since the organization of the county. Our modest story will therefore lack interest to those who require something of a blood-curdling na- ture. The early settlers here had enough to contend with in the shape of inhos- pitable nature, and were very well satisfied with the fact, that the lives of their wives and little ones, as well as their own scalps were in no danger from the savage Indians.
We see around us now many of the aged pioneers both male and female, who took part in this great contest with savage nature, whose tottering frames show very clearly that they have endured great privations, such as but few of their children would undertake. Fortunately for the children, they have noth- ing to do but enjoy the fruits of their parents indomitable pluck and persever- ance.
These old pioneers are rapidly passing away, and soon will be only known by the works they have done. Yet, before passing away they have had the great satisfaction of knowing that they have left a heritage for their children, where they may enjoy all the comforts of life without enduring the trials, pri- vations and inconveniences they were compelled to endure.
It is to be hoped that the children will continue to develop the resources of the land their parents have done so much to make ready for their occupa- tion. In the very nature of things the future resources of this township will mainly depend upon agriculture. There seems, at present, to be little else upon which the people of Napoleon township can depend except that which may be gained from the cultivation of the soil. This is not a cause for discouragement. We have the city of Toledo, with its phenomenal growth, which may fairly en- title it to the appellation of the "Future Great ;" also the embryo cities of Findlay, Bowling Green and Lima, with their great flow of oil and gas, which cannot help making them great manufacturing centers. All of these are our near neighbors, and they will need everything we can produce, and will there- fore furnish a market at our very doors, and at remunerative prices. The early settlers of the township are rapidly passing over to the majority beyond the river, therefore it is well to place on record their early trials and privations, and their heroic struggles with poverty and disease ; in their efforts to subdue the
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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
unbroken wilderness; in the process of developing its resources to the present condition. This furnishes a reason for the existence of this volume. It is in- tended to be a memorial of inestimable value to the descendants of these worthy pioneers, as well as to all who may hereafter partake of the benefits of their indomitable industry and perseverance.
We had almost neglected to speak of our beautiful Maumee River, the pride of northwestern Ohio. The dam built by the State to feed the Miami and Erie canals, backs the water more than twenty-five miles, extending nearly to the western line of the county, thus giving us a beautiful and placid stream which is a marvel of beauty. It furnishes navigation for pleasure boats of all kinds ; and excursions up and down the river are of almost daily occurrence through the summer season, and in winter gives our young people the best of skating, which they are not slow to utilize. Accomplished skaters are very numerous among those who live along its beautiful banks.
The following is a list of the chattel taxpayers of Napoleon township in 1837, viz. : Amos Andrews, Samuel Bowers, Catharine Delong, Jesse Essex, John Glass, Henry Leonard, George Bowers, Alexander Craig, Frederick Lord, James Magill, Jonathan Kneely, Lorenzo Patrick, Adolphus Patrick, John Patrick, John Powell, Edwin Scribner, George Stout, Hazael Strong, Reuben Straight, Israel Wait and J. P. Whipple,-twenty-five names in all. We believe all of them are dead with the exception of Frederick Lord, who, at last account, was living at Paw Paw, Mich. Among our best citizens many of these names are found, showing that they are well represented.
The value of the real estate in the township at that time was $18,792; 25 horses valued at $1,000 ; 88 head of cattle valued at $700 dollars; money and merchandise to the amount of $425, making a total valuation of $20,941, on which was assessed a tax of $286.97.8. In the present year, 1887, just fifty years, the same items are as follows :
Religion is also not neglected. Besides the numerous church edifices, filled with attentive congregations, in the county seat, there are two Lutheran and one United Brethren churches outside of the town of Napoleon, where neigh- bors can attend worship nearer home.
Okolona is a small village with post-office on the Wabash, St. Louis and Western Railway, in the southwestern part of the township. It has considera- ble local trade, and is a convenience to the people in that locality.
SKETCHES OF PIONEER RESIDENTS OF NAPOLEON TOWNSHIP.
Hazael Strong was born in Vermont, March 23, 1804. He was married to Sabrina Garrey in 1833. Mrs. Strong was also born in 1804. They settled in Henry county and Napoleon township in the same year they were married. Mr. Strong was the first auditor of Henry county, having been appointed to that position by the associate judges at the time the county was organized.
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He held the office until his successor was elected at the first general election. He afterwards held the office of county recorder ; he was clerk of the Com- mon Pleas Court fourteen years ; he also held the office of county surveyor, for which office he was peculiarly well fitted, as he took great pride in doing his work with the greatest possible accuracy ; he also served as deputy treasurer of the county during the term for which Israel Wait was elected, doing the greater portion of the work of the office. They had only one child, a son, who died in 1861. Hazael Strong died in 1877. His widow still survives at the ripe age of eighty-three years.
Hon. John Powell was one of the first settlers in Henry county, having per- manently located here in 1835. He was born in Oneida county, N. Y., Dec. 14, 1806 ; was married in Erie county, O., Jan. 9, 1831, to Esther Magill, who was born in Huron county, O., Dec. 7, 1811. They had a family of twelve children, five of whom are dead ; one of them, Volney Powell, having been murdered in a South Carolina massacre, Oct. 20, 1870. Four of their sons served their country in the War of the Rebellion. Samuel Powell belonged to Co. B, 38th Regiment O. V. I., of which regiment Hazael B. Powell, M.D., then quite a young man, was surgeon. Volney Powell belonged to the 14th Regiment O. V. I., and was afterwards in the one hundred day service. George Powell was also in the one hundred day service. When Mr. Powell settled in this county Napoleon consisted of one log house, owned by a man named An- drews. Several log houses were added to the place during the summer of 1835. In the same year Mr. Powell was elected township clerk, and in 1837 was elected county auditor. After serving two terms, he served as deputy sheriff. He was then elected justice of the peace, and in 1840 was, by the Legislature, appointed associate judge of Henry county, which office he held one term. He also filled the office of county commissioner, three terms. He began business in Napoleon, as a shoemaker ; in 1836 he began merchandising, which vocation he followed until 1851. He then kept a hotel or tavern, as it was then called, but soon again entered the mercantile business which he con- tinued until 1862. After the first court-house burned, in 1847, the question of removing the county seat to the town of Texas, a few miles farther down the river, in Washington township, arose. The people of the county were divided on the question, and upon that issue Mr. Powell was elected county commis- sioner, which fixed the county seat at Napoleon. Mr. Powell died July 27, 1886, and his aged wife followed him in December of the same year.
Edwin Scribner, was born in New York in 1808, and brought to Henry county when a lad of eight years old, in 1816. There was not at that time a wagon road in the county, nothing but Indian trails. Flour and meal could only be obtained by taking wheat to mill at Monroe, Mich. When a lad of thirteen years of age, he rode on horseback and alone, to Greenville, Darke county, O., and brought back with him a bundle of rolls of wool to be spun
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and woven into clothing for the family. Mr. Scribner erected the first saw- mill in Henry county in 1838, on Dry Creek, in what is now Washington town- ship. He died May 16, 1887.
Allen B. Scribner, a son of the above, was born in Henry county May 25, 1825. He was married in Delaware county, O., August 24, 1863, to Mary C. Potter, who was born in that county in 1841. They have had four children. Mr. S. is at present engaged in the sale of hardware and agricultural imple- ments in Napoleon.
George Stout came to Napoleon in the autumn of 1834. Napoleon town- ship was then an almost unbroken wilderness. He purchased a town lot in Napoleon and built the second log cabin in the place. He lived in this cabin while he built a public house or tavern, into which he moved his family in March, 1835. This he opened for the entertainment of guests as soon as it could be made ready. The first two or three terms of the Common Pleas Court, was held in the dining room of this hostelry, and the first grand jury of Henry county slept in the hay-mow in the barn. At this time there were but few settlers in the county. Those nearest were Hazael Strong, John Patrick, and Amos Andrews, who lived four miles down the river, and Elijah Gunn, who lived on Girty's Island, five miles above town. For a distance of fifteen miles from the river, on both sides, the county was a vast unbroken wilderness. As an inducement to settlers, a town lot was offered by the original proprietors of the town, Messrs. Phillips, Cory and Level, to the first permanent settler. Upon this lot a log cabin had been built by a man named Holloway, being the first erected in the place. It was quit-claimed by Mr. Holloway, and also afterwards by several others, none of whom remained long enough to entitle them to a deed, and was finally deeded to Mr. Stout as the first actual settler in the town. This was lot No. 25 on the original plat of Napoleon. The house was somewhat pretentious for those days, as it was built of hewed logs, the greater portion of the buildings of that day being of round logs. It was after- wards weather- boarded and plastered, and is still standing, being the oldest house in town.
Joseph A. Stout, a son of the above, was born in Holmes county, O., July 13, 1819. He was married to Sarah C. Palmer. They raised two children, Albert T. and Ella A. Stout. The latter married Johnson N. High, and re- sides with her husband in Kansas. Mr. Stout came to Henry county with his parents in 1834, and had with all the settlers of that early period an abundant experience of the trials of pioneer life.
John G. Stout, a brother to the above, came to Henry county with his parents in 1834. He was at one time a superintendent of public works in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. He was married to Sarah Ryan January 24, 1841, They had a family of eight children, one of whom, John P. Stout, is an exam- iner of pensions in Washington.
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Adam Stout was born in Richland county, O., September 29, 1819. He was married to Mary J. Barnhart, who was born in Maryland, O., in 1826. They had eight children. He moved with his parents to this county in 1833.
Hon. James G. Haly was born in Holmes county, O., Dec. 6, 1816. Ile was married August 12, 1845, to Harriet Conkling, who was born in Mont- gomery county, O., February 3, 1821. He was admitted to the bar of Ohio in the summer of 1840; was elected prosecuting attorney for the county in the same year. He served four years by election and one year by appoint- ment of the court. He served six years as justice of the peace of Napoleon township, was elected county auditor in 1845, and served four years. In 1851 he was elected to the Legislature from Putnam and Henry counties, and sat during the first session of that body under the present constitution. He was appointed collector on the Miami and Erie Canal, and was stationed at Junc- tion, in Paulding county, where the Wabash and Erie Canal joins the Miami and Erie. He filled the position for a term of three years, during which he collected and paid over to the State of Ohio, more than a quarter of a million dollars. He then entered into partnership at Napoleon with Edward Sheffield (since deceased) in the practice of law. This partnership continued until the beginning of the War of the Rebellion in 1861. He recruited and organized Company D, Sixty-eighth Regiment, O. V. I., and was appointed quarter- master of the regiment, in which capacity he served one year, when he resigned on account of failing health. He then formed a law partnership with J. M. Haag and William Sheffield (since deceased), which continued until he was elected probate judge of Henry county, which office he held twelve years. Since his retirement from the judgeship he has retired from active life and oc- cupies himself superintending his farm near town. Six children were born to them.
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