USA > Ohio > Logan County > History of Logan County and Ohio > Part 52
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there were certain improvements .that were the work of the municipal authorities. Of these we have noticed the Fire Department and the Public Schools. The street improve- ments, the gas works, and the free turnpikes centering in the town, were the offspring of the corporate authorities. These remain to be described.
The town of Bellefontaine was incorporated by an Act of the Legislature, dated February 19, 1835. The copy of this Act belonging to the town was destroyed, with other papers, in the great fire of 1856. As the Acts of Legis- lature, previously to 1840, were not alphabet- ically indexed, several failures attended our attempts to acquire exact information on this subject. We are indebted to the efforts of llon. James Walker for our final success.
We have spoken of the great and sudden improvement in the town and surrounding country, growing out of the building of the railroads that traverse the county and intersect at Bellefontaine. While these roads improved the country, as a whole, in an emi- nent degree, and while they greatly augmented the importance of Bellefontaine in every ma- terial respect, still they had a certain influence in retarding the advancement of that town. The very facilities afforded by these railroads enabled small villages in the interior of the county, situated upon them, to compete with the county seat in the way of trade of every kind. These little towns had good mercan- tile establishments. They bought goods in the East, and exported directly to the eastern market every kind of produce the country afforded. So far this was a loss to Bellefon- taine. This advantage was maintained by these several stations of trade through the fact that the highways of the county were extreme- ly bad for at least five months in the year. Much of the surface of Logan County is of clay, and the roads are simply impassable in the winter and spring for loaded wagons.
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Hence, an immense amount of trade was con- fined to the local marts in various parts of the county. There was a great amount of timber in remote parts of the county, which was really an incumbrance, and was remorselessly cut down and burned in log heaps. Now comes a record of a great stride forward in the prosperity of Bellefontaine.
It is incontestible that the last ten years of the growth of the town has been out of all proportion to its earlier promise, or even great advancement upon the establishment of rail- roads. This fact is owing to the building of a grand system of free turnpikes, nearly all centering at Bellefontaine. It is true some of them point in other directions, but even then the country tapped by them has also ready access to the county-seat. The author- ities of the town, by some inspiration, per- ceived, the usefulness of these pikes, and acted upon that knowledge. On the 15th of May, 1867, the Town Council appropriated $50,000 to assist in building such pikes as entered directly into the town. Hence, wo see certain appropriations made and paid, as for instance, $800 per mile for the Northwood Pike, $800 per mile for the Huntsville Pike, $500 per mile for the Jerusalem Pike, etc. In fact, every pike entering the town has been liberally aided by it. Now people haul wood, timber, grain and other products a distance of eight, ten or fifteen miles, which, before the pikes were built they could not do. These pikes have also invited trade of every con- ceivable description, from the remotest limits of the county, to an amount that has sur- prised the most sanguine. The consequence is, that the advancement of the town in wealth and prosperity is extremely gratifying. And these advantages have been fully recip- rocated, for the lands of the remote districts are steadily rising in value, and the people are growing in enterprise and enlightenment. The streets of Bellefontaine, until a very
recent period, were in a poor condition; so, also, were the sidewalks. For many years, teams found it difficult oftentimes to pull through. Little by little, the town, in a feeble way, improved in respect to these things. Grades were nowhere established, but a little gravel was thrown here and there in the worst places, and dog-fennel spread over the greatest part of the street area. The side- walks were in a condition that it is hard to describe. True, they received some attention at the hands of the citizens at quite an early period, but the utmost that was attempted was the laying down of a few poor bricks in the business part of the town, reaching a few hundred yards only, in extent. There were now and then a few fect of sidewalk laid down with flags of limestone, drawn from the quarries near at hand. But these flags were treacherous, and as the trusting pedestrian vaulted from stone to stone, keeping in view only a general progressive movement, he he- times would assume an attitude the reverse of dignified. In other words, the flag-stone upon which he based his hopes would ship from under his confiding heel, and he .would lay supine, configuring upon the receptive carth that appearance so dear to the heart of the patriot, namely: the spread eagle.
In June, 1856, the question of street and gutter improvements began to be seriously agitated. July, 1857, grades on Detroit and Chillicothe streets were established. August, 1857, there were several prominent points on Cincinnati, Columbus and Chillicothe streets designated as grades. In 1858, other points of grade were established, and from that period to the present grades have been estab- lished at various points in the public streets, and improvements have followed. There was a good deal of expensive filling and ex- cavating for a number of years.
The bricks manufactured from the clay in this vicinity were not very good, and the
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walks made with them were not durable. After the establishment of the grades, im- provements of the streets began to assume a more valuable and permanent character. Banks of gravel were purchased by the town authorities, and the contents lavishly spread upon the streets. They thus became, at a rather late day, it is true, thoroughfares ered- itable to the place. They were, in fact, bet- ter than the sidewalks. But in the fall of 18;1 Mr. A. G. Wright, an official on one of the railroads, laid down a sidewalk in front of his lot, fifty-five feet in length, with flag- stones from the quarries of Berea, Ohio. These flags were about five feet long, and from three to four feet wide. They were rectangular in shape, and when laid down presented a beautiful, smooth surface, with a depth of four or five inches. This walk at once attracted the attention of property own- ers generally. It was ascertained that such a sidewalk could be laid down about as cheaply as the old, ankle-spraining brick walks. The result was, Mr. Wright was impor- tuned to procure flags for his neighbors. Hle went, at length, into the business, and he laid down over six miles of Berea stone sidewalks. Afterwards, others pursued the same calling, and the result is that the town is now thorough- ly paved with beautiful and durable sidewalks.
In the year 18:33 the corporate authorities contracted with R. T. Coverdale, of t'incin- nati, to build gas works. This was strictly a municipal undertaking, and the works yet be- long to the corporation. The price paid was $35,000. A little more than 100 tons of coal are consumed in the manufacture of gas per annuin. These works are in a healthy con- dition, being more than self-sustaining. Be- ides seventy odd street lamps, there are over 2 private consumers. There are 209 meters set. There are over four miles of mains. The amount of gas manufactured at the pres- ent time is a little more than half a million
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feet per annum. The works are under the control of a superintendent who, with several laborers, are paid by the corporation.
An important enterprise undertaken and completed by the public spirit of private in- dividuals was the purchase of grounds and laying out of a new cemetery. The old lots donated by the proprietors of the town for the burial of the dead had become inadequate to fulfill the purposes for which they were in- tended. On the 14th of March, an associa- tion was formed with the view to the establishment of a new cemetery. The names of the incorporators were: William Fisher, Jared S. Dawson, James W. Fisher, and S. 1 .. Taylor. Under the supervision of this body, twenty acres of land were purchased on a rising ground nearly a mile northeast of the public square.
The property cost $600. The purchase money was raised by sixty citizens contribut- ing $10 each. This contribution conferred the right on these gentlemen to the first selection of lots. The final organization was effected in 1851, at a meeting of the proprio- tors, of which Gen. I. S. Gardner was Presi- dent. The directors then chosen were Benja- min Stanton, William G. Kennedy, James B. Mclaughlin, B. S. Brown, N. Z. McColloch and William Fisher.
N. Z. McColloch was elected President of the Board of Directors; B. S. Brown, Spero- tary, and William G. Kennedy, Treasurer. The ground was surveyed and the Jets laid off and numbered. The Town Council pro- hibited people from burying their dead in the abandoned graveyard. The new cemetery was improved at once with walks and high- ways, and it is now a handsome and secluded spot, abounding in costly monuments and rare shrubs and flowers. The present Direct- ors are: E. Bennett, President; 1. S. Gard- ner, Secretary; G. B. Thrift, Treasurer; Ed- ward Patterson and R. P. Kennedy.
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The history of Bellefontaine would be incomplete without some notice of the secret and benevolent societies-organizations that exert a widespread influence throughout the country. The Masons, Odd-Fellows and Knights of Pythias are the most prominent of the secret societies represented in Belle- fontaine. The Masons, the most ancient of these, trace their origin back to a remote antiquity, and claim for their order an organ- ized existence at the building of King Solo- mon's Temple. But it is not our province to go into the antiquity of the Order, and we shall confine ourselves to its history in this town.
Bellefontaine Lodge, No. 209, A. F. & ... M., was organized October 28, 1851, William Fisher, W. M .; E. M. Shelby, S. W .; G. T. Appleton, J. W. Present officers: William McElree, W. M .; J. D. MeLaughlin, S. W .; Isaac Ivens, J. W .; R. B. Kellar, Treas .; George W. Rife, Sec'y; William J. Law- rence, S. D .; M. Koogle, J. D .; George P. Johnson, Tiler. The Lodge numbers at pres- ent 127 members.
Lafayette Chapter, No. GO, Royal Arch Masons, organized October 4, 1854, G. B. Thrift, High Priest; James Moore, Jr., King; R. T. Cook, Scribe. Present officers: W. H. Martin, H. P .; R. T. Cook, King; Sidney Nichols, Scribe; William MeElrec, Capt. of Host: I. N. Zearing, Treas. ; George II. Allen, Sec'y. Number of members at present, 120.
Logan Council, No. 34, Royal and Select Masters, organized October 20, 1860, Joseph W. Evans, T. I. G. M .; B. S. Brown, Dept. G. M .; Cyrus W. Fisher, Cond. of W. Present officers: R. T. Cook, T. I. G. M .; M. M. MeCracken, Dept. G. M .; William McElree, Prin. Cond. of Work; Sidney Nichols, Capt. of Guard; C. F. Braden, Cond. of Council; William McCoid, Treas .; George H. Allen, Secretary. Number of members at present,
The Odd Fellows lost their records in the fire of 1856. There have been certain changes and reorganizations in that order in Bellefontaine which has caused the surrender of original papers and the substitution of more recent ones. The first Lodge of the I. O. O. F. was organized in the year 1847, and was called Logan Lodge, No. 12. The names of its first officers cannot be now ascertained with entire accuracy. The present organiza- tion of the order is as follows: Bellefontaine Lodge, No. 22-L. B. Barker, N. G .; Al. Starchman. V. G .; George F. Brandon, R. Secy .; R. B. Kellar, P. S .; Andrew Peebles, Treas. Number of members at present, 149.
Bellefontaine Encampment, No. 13, has for its officers: Eslie Powers, C. P .: Al. Starch- man, S. W .; John P. Cost, Seribe; John Dushane, II. P .; A. Peebles, Treas .; David Kerr, G. W. Number of members at present time 53.
Wilfred Lodge, K. of P., was instituted May 5, 1814, by James Swope, Grand Chancellor. The officers were: R. H. Brown, P. C .; (). C. Knapp, C. C .; Isaac lvens, V. C .: W. IT. Cretcher. Prelate; F. O. Batch, M. of II .; W. A. Arnold, M. of E .; S. M. Shurr, M. of F .; George T. Brandon, K. of R. and S.
The present officers are: A. English, P. C .; A. Bodey, C.C .; R. F. Tremain, V. C .: Frank Fox, Prelate; Walter S. Roebuck, M. at A .; John Kennedy, M. of E .; George Brandon, M. of F .; Frank Valentine, K. of R. and S. Number of members, about 80.
We have now concluded the work allotted to us. We are conscious of many defects. Sometimes the dates and coloring of facts may be to some extent erroneous. It has been impossible to verify all things. Satisfactory records were often wanting; but it is hoped and believ .d that errors, if any exist, are only of minor importance, and that the substantial points in our history have been correctly stated.
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It is the work of the historian, usually, to commence his narrative in the infancy of society, and with the advancing centuries un- fold in painful story the moulding influences of civil and religious customs, of wars, of rev- olutions, and of intercourse with foreign na- tions in establishing a civilization pertinent to some particular State or nation.
Our task has been different. We have commenced our story at a time within the memory of men now living. We find our characters at first surrounded by difficulties, dangers and hardships. We have found man with hands and brain alone placed in the midst of an unbroken wilderness, subjected to the peltings of the elements, the dangers of savage foes and wild beasts, and in the short space of seventy or eighty years we find him surrounded by all the refinements and luxuries of the ohlest and most civilized pro- ple. This implies an existence in the midst of a surging and whirling change, in personal and civil life, bowillering to contemplate, and assuredly very trying to the physical,
mental and moral nature of man. Un- doubtedly, such rapidity of change exhibits the protean nature of mind and soul, just as the unfailing abundance of the products of the soil proves its inexhaustible capacity and implies its unfathomable history. For example, place within the earthy soit the germs of the sweet cane, the bitter wormwood, the benefi- cent corn and the deadly night-shade; and, while all the science in the world will fail to detect the elements of either, in the air or in the earth, they will all grow and increase according to their kind, side by side. In a manner analagous, the facts of our history, as we have portrayed them, show the inexhausti- ble and illimitable qualities of the human mind. It is not only sufficient for the exi- gencies and changes of a single generation, but it cannot be palled or even satisfied with the inflowing wealth of many generations of ordinary life, leading it up in so brief a space from poverty and nakedness and ignorance to the affluence of the richest luxury of physi- cal and mental and esthetic enjoyment.
NOTE .- The history of the Churches of Bellefontaine, belonging in this chapter, having been misplaced, will be found in Chapter 11, page 217.
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CHAPTER IX.
MIAMI TOWNSIHP-ORGANIZATION-TERRITORIAL CHANGES -- PIONEER CIVILIZATION-PROMI- NENT CHARACTERS OF THE EARLY COMMUNITY-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
M IAMI TOWNSHIP of the earliest rec- ords was not very much like the town- ship of that name to-day. When the first white settler penetrated its unbroken wilds, and sought a home in the valley of the Miami River, he formed a township extending " from Urbana to the lake," and bearing the name of the river, the valley of which offered the great- est hope of the township's future growth. In 1818 the newly elected Commissioners contin- ued the name of Miami, the most westerly township of the four into which they divided the territory of Logan County. In 1832 the original township was divided into nearly equal parts, the northern half being known as Bloomfield. Of this upper part, Stokes was taken off in 1838, and Bloomfield and Washington became separate townships in 1839. Two years later, Pleasant Township was taken off the northern part of Miami, leaving the latter a rectangular body about seven miles long, from east to west, and about three miles wide. As constructed now, it is the corner township of Logan County in the southwest, is bounded on the north by Pleas- ant, on the east by Union, on the south by the Champaign County line, and on the west by the Shelby County line. Two villages, Quincy and De Graff, located on the Miami River and the Indianapolis branch of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indian- apolis Railway, are the centers of population and business in the township.
The principal stream of the township is the Great Miami River, which reaches some fifty yards in width in this region. It takes its rise in the Lewistown reservoir, in the
northern part of the county, and, flowing in a southerly course, enters Miami a little east of the middle point of its northern boundary. After penetrating the township in a southerly course for a mile or two, it takes a sudden turn to the west, passing along the northern part, leaving out the northwest corner. Its principal tributaries on the south or east are the Stony Creek and Buckongehelas. The latter enters the township from the north, just cast of De Graff, and, passing around the village, joins the Miami just south of it. Stony Creek, with its branches, carries off the drainage of the whole of the eastern part of the township, at the same time affording an outlet for Black Lake, a body of water in the eastern part of the township, covering a few acres of ground. The banks of these minor streams are low, and in the early time allowed the accumulated floods to sweep over the low valleys, converting them into marshes. The timber was thus exterminated, and a rank growth of grass gave this section the ap- pearance of a low, wet prairie, and is often spoken of in this way by the older citizens. This part of the township, though embracing some of the finest land. was for some time avoided by the early pioneers as unfit for cul- tivation, and dangerous on account of the miasma that hung about it. The process of " clearing," however, has wrought great changes, and this is some of the choicest farm- ing lands in Miami, though not entirely free from miasmatie influences. With this excep- tion the whole township was heavily wooded, the prevailing timber being oak in the eastern part, and beech in the western. The soil is a
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substantial clay, mixed and underlaid with extensive beds of limestone gravel. The soil in the western part of the township, as indicated by the beech timber, is rather thin and adapted principally to grazing, though large crops of corn are raised, which are shipped, or fod to the large number of hogs that are raised along the valley of the Miami. In the eastern part, wheat is grown to a con- siderable extent, and yieldls second only to the rich valley of the Mad River. The extent of bottom lands is very small, the banks of the Miami, as well as that of its tributaries, rising abruptly, almost at the brink of the stream, to a considerable elevation. Back from these streams the land is pleasantly roll- ing, but nowhere becoming broken and un- tillable. The eastern part of the township is given principally to the raising of grain, while the western is divided somewhat be- tween corn and the raising of stock, hogs being the principal feature of the latter busi- noss.
In the carly traditions of Miami is found the history of the whole western portion of Logan County. The tide of population com- ing from the southern counties, true to the tra litions of pioneer emigration, sought the valleys of the larger streams. In this section of the county, the Miami River, which give name and its valley lands to the township, at- tracted the early settlers, and following the eastern bank, the early community settled in a narrow tract of country, from what is now the upper part of Washington Township, to the site of Quincy, in this township. The community, thus extending over miles of ter- ritory, were bound together by all the social time of the early times, and the traditions handed down to us are of this community as a whole. In following the necessary scope of this work, it is obviously a difficult matter to mike an equitable division of those traditions that are the common heritage of all. The ( cipitated their movements.
union of Pleasant with Miami is still more closely joined, as it was not until 1841 that their interests were divided.
The first actual settlement in what is now Miami, or closely contiguous to its terri- tory, was made in 1805. Hearing of the Mad River country, as this whole section was popularly called by the members of the various military expeditions, Jeremiah Stans- bury broke up his establishment at t'hilli- cothe and came into the territory of what is now Logan County. Attracted by the open character of the valley of Stony Creek, he entered a quarter section on that stream in the eastern part of the township, Two sons, Jesse and Isaac, accompanied him, the former, it is said, bringing with him the wife of another man. It appears that the woman brought a span of horses belonging to her former lord, probably as pay for her services as housekeeper. The deserted husband in order to get even with Stansbury, sent officers to arrest him, but the woman proved ber loyalty by insisting that she brought the team with her, and that Jesse only followed her, which saved him from the hands of the officers, The father was extremely migratory and felt uneasy in anything but a now character. He was inclined to be vindictive, and did not hesitate to use any means to do- fond what he conceived to be his right. In this same year George McCulloch came here with a negro from Urbana to erect a cab'n for his uncle. The Indians were still in full possession of this territory, and were viewing the steady advance of the settlements with ill-disguised feelings of jealousy. The oper- ations of these two families aroused the savages to the necessity of immediate action if the impending danger was to be averted, Terumsch had long been inciting the Indians to do something to stay the progress of the whites, and this incident seems to have pre- The Indians
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suddenly convened a council to determine upon their action. The great warrior chief- tain, Tecumseh, was present and used his most persuasive eloquence to bring about a collision with the settlers, but under the in- fluence of Kenton and others, their fear of the power of the whites, whose vengeance they had so often felt on many a disastrous field, gained the control and a peaceful course was decided upon. A feast, at which all the delicacies that the Indian could com- mand were served, was set forth in token of their peaceful sentiments. The forest was lighted by hundreds of torch lights, manufac- tured from the fat collected from the game, and the woods rang with the whoop of the Indians during the festivities of this ratifica- tion meeting. After several days the feast closed, but confidence was not so easily re- stored to the whites. They were too well ac- quainted with the character of the Indian, to think that so momentous a question should be so readily settled, and for a year or two the Stansbury's were the only families in the wil- derness of Miami. In 1808 Benjamin Schooler and the three Makenson brothers came to this vicinity. They had been old neighbors near Lexington, Ky., and hearing of the glories of this Northern country, made haste to get the first choice of the lands. They found, however, that others had been before them, and though there was but one or two families on the ground, others had bought the land in the southern part of the township. They went up on the Stony Creek, near the line of Pleas- ant Township, and put up their cabins. The Makenson brothers, John and Thomas, were unmarried men. Andrew had a wife, and made a home for all, while they cleared up their purchase. In the same year came Wil- liam Lee, and settled near where Mr. Hoist lives; Samuel Black settled on the cast side of the lake which bears his name, in the east- ern part of the township. This property had
been entered originally by Turner Davis, but he failed to come on it to live. Black was of Irish parentage, and had but little money. This he put into his purchase, and, destitute of almost everything, he lived in a little cabin on the border of the lake, subsisting his family for some time almost entirely upon fish, which were found in the lake in abundance. In the following year, Phillip Matthews came with his four sons-David, Philip, Jr., Henry and Alfred. The head of the family was a man of extraordinary size, and well advanced in years, and was considered in every way a great acquisition to the new community. About the same time, Robert Moore come from Penn- sylvania and settled where Mr. Huling now lives. He bought a quarter section, and by his stability of character and friendly disposi- tion, won the esteem of the pioneer settle- ment far and near. "The Moore family," in the language of one of that time, "was a noted, number one family." John Moore, a son of this man, was early killed, by a house running away with him and crushing him in the woods. Of the new-comers in 1810, per- haps the most notable was the family of James Shaw. Mr. Shaw was a native of Ireland and had been trained to a rigid observance of the Sabbath and Christian principles. It is said that the children marked the day by the regular weekly luxury of coffee, which was served once on this day alone. But even this reminder failed to keep the days of the week clearly in Mr. Shaw's mind, and he was found by a neiglibor, one Sunday morning, industri- ously plowing out his corn. It was some time before he could be convinced that he was violating his deeply cherished principles, and he related afterwards that he could not sleep well for several nights on account of this serious miscalculation. He came from Berkeley County, Va., in 1807, and settled in Clarke County, Ohio. Three years later, he sold his property here and came to Miami,
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