History of Logan County and Ohio, Part 54

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin
Number of Pages: 798

USA > Ohio > Logan County > History of Logan County and Ohio > Part 54

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about the future head of slack-water naviga- tion. In September, 1831, John Bell with his wife came to Quiney. He was a native of Berkeley County, Virginia, and an old ac- quaintance of Baldwin's. He had settled at Springfield, Clarke County, Ohio, and had carried on the tanning business, renting the property he used. Unable to renew his lease, he began to look about for another opening, when he heard of the prospect at Quincy, and moved immediately. He had learned the tanner's trade in the same yard where Baldwin served his apprenticeship, and soon rented the yard in Quincy, which he conducted for a number of years. He put up a log cabin in the newly laid-out town, which was the only one beside Baldwin's at this point. Enoch Smith and Thomas Stanage, an unmarried man, were here when he came. and Benjamin Cox farther west. In the December following, Jesse Dodson came and put up the first store in the north part of the old town. His first start was in a small room in the end of his dwell- ing. Ilis business grew, however, and later, in partnership with Manlove Chambers, did a brisk business. He afterwards met with finan- cial disaster, the first victim of a considerable number among the early business men of the town.

In 1830 Mr. Baldwin laid ont a tier of lots on either side of Main street, aggregating thirty-four lots, and called it the village of Quincy, to express his admiration of John tQuincy Adams. Three years later he added thirty-two lots adjoining the former on the south, through which passes South street. In this same year, Manlove Chambers, who owned land west of the town, platted a triangular addition of twenty-three lots, about which Darlington, Liberty and Carlisle streets de- seribe the outlines. In 1536, twenty-one lots were laid out on Walnut street, and two years later Thomas J. Harriman added all that part lying directly on the river, and in 1839, the

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

Chambers addition was extended to take in nine more lots. The business growth of the village at first was rapid, and bade fair to be the only business center of the township. The failure of the canal to come to the aid of the ambitious little village was the first damper upon its prospects. Later, Mr. Bildwin en- gaged in merchandising, but failed to make a success of it. In his failure, he unfortunately seriously compromised the interests of the town. He had mortgaged the unsold portion of his land, lying between Carlisle and Can- by streets, and all south of the two Baldwin al- lotments. This property was sold on a mort- gage of $83,000, and bought in by the mort- gagees. These parties lived in the East, and being persons of wealth, and believing the property to be valuable, kept it out of the market for some years, to the great detri- ment of the town. When the railroad came through, the land had come into the posses- sion of heirs, and they, cherishing the same notion, gave a liberal grant for depot pur- poses, engaging the railroad company to put up various buildings, besides a water tank, but still held the lots. Whatever impulse that the railroad might have given, the growth of the village was thus materially modified. Within the last few years this property has been put in market, and is rapidly being built up.

About 1845 W. and D. Josephs brought to Quincy a small stock of goods, and opened a store. They soon established an ashery, which proved to be a valuable investment. They were stirring, shrewd business men, and soon infused a vigor in the business life of the town that made it seem like a new place. As their trade increased they expanded their busi- ness, renting the mills, continuing their ashery, adding a tailoring department and increasing their facilities for handling dry-goods, gro- ceries, boots and shoes and hardware. It is said that in a two days' trip to Cincinnati they

would purchase $10,000 worth of goods, buy- ing as high as ten hogsheads of sugar and fifteen to twenty sacks of coffee at a time. Six and eight clerks were kept busy waiting on the trade that came from all parts of the country, from Bellefontaine, Sidney, West Liberty and other points. Their main build- ing was sixty-six feet long, with an L fifty- seven feet long, and the whole eighteen feet wide. In addition to this they purchased everything a fariner had to sell. Corn, wheat, hogs and cattle were bought in large quanti- ties, and it is said every empty building near their place of business was at times filled to bursting with grain. But there was another feature of their business that failed to receive its due weight with the farmers. They were the heaviest borrowers of money in the county, and almost every farmer in this section held their paper, with the most extravagant in- torest. After continuing business for some fifteen years, there came a time when they found it difficult to meet the payment of a large bill in Cincinnati, and a hurried assign- ment was made with liabilities at $10,000. It was a terrible blow to the whole country around the village. Many farmers had bor- rowd money at a low rate to loan to the Josephs at a higher rate of interest. Others had accepted notes for produce soll, and were doing business on this paper, and, when the bubble burst, it is said that the town clerk was kept busy recording sales of chattol property which changed ostensible owners to save being levied on in consequence of this failure. This was the hardest blow at the prosperity of the town that had yet been given, and it seemed for a time as if the fatal symbol Ichabod had been written upon its history to remain forever. The town is now recovering. The Blatchlay lands are being built up, local business, warranted by the steady growth of the community, is showing a thrifty increase, and Quincy will yet justify

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

the sanguine hopes of its friends and citizens. The village was incorporated in 1853, and V. E. Bunker was the first Mayor; A. J. Daniels, Recorder. Good stone walks are laid down on Miami street, and the streets are piked in a way that answers every purpose of paving. There are the usual number of stores, a hub an I spoke factory, a grist-mill, with another to be built the coming year, and two steam elevators that handle upwards of 50.000 bushels of grain per year. The present offi- cors are-Thomas Bell, Mayor, and B. N. Lordom, Recorder.

The site of De Graff, with the whole of fractional section 12 (some 303 acres), was entered as early as 1505. by John Boggs, a resident of Pickaway County, Ohio, and laid for years uncultivated and out of the market. In 1826, however, his son, William, desiring to make a start in the world for himself, he gave him this property, which he at once pu - cooled to occupy. In the year named, he cune in a wagon with his wife and child, ac- companied by a man who had worked for his father, and had taken land in this vicinity in payment. He selected a fine site on a high hill west of the site of the village, overlook- ing the river and a fine stretch of country to the south, and camped in his wagon until his cabin was completed, which is still standing, in good condition. In 1833, Mr. Boggs built a saw-will just below his cabin, going to Col- umbus for his machinery. In 1810, be built a rist-will, which is still standing. now owned by Mathias Wolf. In 1850, he lailoit the vil- Size of De Graff. The Bellefontan . and Tu- The first business was introduced in the town by J. M. Askrin, in April, 1851. In the following May, A. J. Lippincott, from Lip- pincott Station, in an adjoining county, put up a store, and commenced business. It wasex- proted by the proprietors that Boggs street would prove the principal street for business, but to this Mr. Lippincott dissented, and dan road, now " Bee Line," had been pro- jeel, and even stake out at this time, and John Kole, who had purchased the land of Mr. Bures. in corgeny with Samuel Gilfillin. plant od mene sixty lots, one third of which Were on the oatheast side of the track. It appor the Mr. Koke found it difficult to carry out hiscertas, and the land, or a per- & created the first building on the east side of

tion of it, reverted to the original owner. It appears that David Lewis, a noted land spec- ulator of that day, and a resident of Cincin- nati, tried to secure this section, but was dis- appointed by John Boggs buying it before him. It was his intention of laying out a town. at once, or as soon as possible, on the very spot where De Graff now stands.

The location of the railroad insured the suc- cess of the town, and it was appropriately named after the railroad magnate that pushed the railroad enterprise to completion. The site chosen was on high, rolling ground, in the path of the great torna'o of 1825. The great oak trees had not been cleared away, and, to add to the unpleasant features of the place, a dense growth of underbrush had sprung up, presenting anything but a desira- ble building spot. But railroads were a com- paratively new and important thing at that time, and no one hesitated because of the un- favorableness of the prospect. In three years after the original platting of the towa, thirty- three lots were added between Miami and Hayes streets, and in 1856 nineteen lots be- tween Miami and Race streets were platted. Two years later, fifty-one lots were added north of Miami street, extending into Pleas- ant Township. Several considerable addi- tions have since been made, until it now ranks second only to Bellefontaine in the county, and some ambitious citizen has studied the census of the present year (1880) until he has arrived at the conclusion that it ranks the thirty-sixth in the State.

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

Main street. The event has justified his judg- ment, and Main street is now the principal business street. The "Miami House " is the oldest frame building on Main street. The frame was put up at an early date, but for several years it stood uninclosed, a rather de- pressing object to would-be settler's.

The platting of a village so close to Quincy naturally excited not a little jealousy and aların among the citizens of that borough, and it is safe to say that nothing was done by them to help the new venture along. De Graff grew but slowly, yet did not cease its progress, and each year found it a little nearer success. The projected Louisville and Sandusky Rail- road which promised to go through the vil- lage, but was not built. served to attract at- tention to it, and helped its growth. It was for several years undecided, the business men of De Graff investing liberally in its stock, and so long as it stood in this shape it was a benefit to the town. Later the pike which opened up the Muchinippi Valley brought an increased amount of trade. This, with the depressing influences at work at Quincy, gave the new town a start which it has not since lost. Mr. Boggs has from the first proved a public-spirited citizen, and has freely invested his money when the prospect promised more benefit to the growth of his village than finan- cial returns to himself. One of his earliest enterprises was the erection of a warehouse for Aaron Mitchel,-"old Uncle Ben," as the citizens loved to call him-who, without capital, began to purchase wheat with the aid of Mr. Boggs, and soon made De Graff one of the best markets for grain in the county, with profit both to himself and the town. Of late years the growth of De Graff has been more rapid, during the last decade wresting the second place from West Liberty. In 1864, the depot, freight-office, and the bulk of the business was done in the old warehouse; now, in 1880, it has a large depot with two im-

mense water-tanks, and the best freight record of any town, save the county seat, on this line of road. In 1864 there was one drug-store; now there are two. There were two dry-goods stores, and now four; beside the addition of two tin shops, a hardware store, two barber shops, two meat shops, a bank, and a fine union school building. There are two warehouses that han- dle upwards of 200,000 bushels of wheat in a year; a grist-mill that does a large commercial business, and a saw-mill that turned out 250, 000 feet of lumber, on railroad contracts, last year.

The village was incorporated in 1864, with the first officers as follows: A. J. Lippincott, May- or; Mathias Wolf, Recorder, and Frank Kat- ing, Dr. R. S. Gilchrist, G. Shoemaker, Samuel Prince and James Ilays, Councilmen. The first council passed, at their first regular session, an ordinance directing that a Marshal, Treas- urer and Street Commissioner be elected an- nually. On the following April, Owen Conck- lin was made Marshal, and John Shoemaker, Sr., Treasurer. In the following year, grades for the streets were established and sidewalks ordered, and in 1814 improved sidewalks were required on Main, Miami, Boggs, Koke, Hays, Moore and Church streets, some of them being of bereastone and others of gravel and brick. In 1874 the one half lot No. 20, fronting on Main street, was bought, at a cost of $500, on which to erect a town hall. A fine, two-story brick was at once erected at a cost of $3,300. In this building, on the ground floor, are the engine and hook and ladder truck, the Mayor's office and the "lockup." The latter consists of two roomy cells in the rear part of the building, lined with boiler-iron on a fifteen- inch brick wall, and floored, stone on concrete. Until 1813. no provision had been made for defence against fire. In that year a hook and ladder truck was purchased, at a cost of $225, and a volunteer company formed to man it. August 20, 1880, a No. 5 nickel-plated Silsby

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

steam fire engine was received, with two hose reels and 1,000 feet of good rubber hose, at & total cost, for the whole apparatus, of $3,150. Two large cisterns, holding about 350 barrels of water each, furnish the sup- ply for a portion of the town. while the mill- race, which encircles the town on the south, furnishes an inexhaustible supply for the larger part of the village. The engine is propelled by hand, which is an easy matter where the roads never get muddy. The present officials of the village are: H. II. Barr, Mayor; W. IL. Hinkle, Recorder; James Long- fellow, Marshal; A. Weller, Treasurer; M. Wolf, Dr. D. W. Richardson, S. K. Neer, James lays, Milton Richards and H. Thacher, Councilmen.

The history of these villages would hardly be complete without some notice of the terri- ble tornado of July 2, 1822, which visited them with terrible effect, and we copy an account which appeared in the Cincinnati Gazette, and quoted in Antrim's history of Champaign and Logan counties. " Indications of a storm were apparent to the close ob- server during the day, but as twilight came on the clearness of the atmosphere and the strange quiet that seemed to affect all things, gave everbody the cue to what was to follow. The whirlwind came from the west, and at about half-past six o'clock it struck in the vicinity of Quincy, tearing the forest to pieces, and then, after leaving their broken remnants behind it, coming upon the town itself. It looked like a massive balloon as it sped on its mission of destruction, and little clouds appeared to be pursuing each other with lightning rapidity through the upper se tion of it, while the lower part, correspond- ing to, ch lower part of an wronaut's vessel, seemed like the chimney of a locomotive, Is it struck the town, houses, barns, stables, oithouses, buildings of every description. went to pieces with a continuous crashing

that sounded like the shock of armies in battle, and the terror-stricken citizens, such as were unhurt, rushed wildly to and fro with irreso- lite mind, but feet of courier swiftness. Shouts of joy from mothers, finding their lost offspring; from husbands, at seeing their wives again, and from children, being assured of their parents' safety, mingled with lamenta- tions of grief from those whose search was unrewarded.

" The scenes were such as would have en- sued had the end of the world arrived, and there is, perhaps, no resident of the town who did not, for the moment, think that such was the case. The terror was universal, and every thought was of self, until the wind had ex- pended its force. When the nature of the shock was understood, however, many persons recovered a portion of their lost courage, and their thoughts reverted to their relatives and friends. They then endeavored to ascertain their whereabouts-and many who left their houses under such circumstances, fell in the streets, struck by flying timbers and debris. After the shock had lasted about a moment, its destroying force was carried onward to De Graff, which is situated three miles from Quincy, and there the same scenes were ro- enacted among the populace. The destrue- tion was principally wrought in the best sec- tion of the town, but was not as extensivo as in Quincy. The whirlwind seemed to be traveling in a straight line, at the rate of six- ty miles an hour, as it reached De Graff, and it covered territory from fifty to a hundred rods wide. After the hurricane had passed over De Graff, it progressed about three miles far- ther in its course, and then died away with its force expended. The citizens of the devas- tated villages were then able to proceed about the mournful task of hunting out the victims of the disaster, and the work was one to which all hands were turned, and which was soon completed. In De Graff about

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

fifteen persons were hurt. The house of Jona - than Roll, a large two- story frame, fronting on the main street of the hamlet, was badly riddled and the roof torn off, and, during the alarming crisis, the occupants became over- whelmed with terror, and rushed into the street. Mr. Roll, in person, carried his little daughter Lulie, a girl seven years of age, in his arms, and had scarcely left the building before a mass of flying wreck struck and knocked him to the earth, and covered his body and that of his daughter out of sight in the ruins. When the rescuers reached him, after the accident, the little girl, the pride of his heart, was still clasped in his arms; but her eyes could never more twinkle the delight she felt while in his company, and her tiny band could never more pat his cheek-she was dead; and the form, five minutes before all grace and beauty, was now distorted into a shape that wrung floods of tears from those who witnessed the sight. IIer injuries were so terrible that death could not have been de- layed long enough for her to know that she had received them. Mr. Roll suffered a broken shoulder blade and numerous severe bruises. His wife and Levanda Moses (her daughter by a former husband) met with an equally terrible misfortune in their effort to seek safe- ty. The girl's brains were dashed out, and she was mutilated as badly as her half-sister, and Mrs. Roll had her left forearm crushed, be- sides severe internal injuries.

" The ravages of the wind in De Graff are made plainly apparent to the occupants of passing railroad trains, and they still look confused and widespread, although every effort is being put forth to restore the town to its former shape. The chief thoroughfare abuts on the railway, and a view of it in the present condition is not gratifying. The last building on the east side of the street was a barn, which belonged to Newton Richardson, and adjoining it was the barn of Dr. Hance.

Next to the last named came the frame house and stable of T. J. Smith, and then the Meth- odist Church, a large frame structure. These buildings were all some distance back from the street, and were leveled flat. In front of the church was the dwelling house, store and barn of Mrs. Christine, and not an erect tim- ber in either building was left standing. Mr. Roll's house and stable were situated next to Mrs. Christine's property, and the stable was wrecked completely. Adjoining the Roll homestead on the west were Mrs. Lippincott's house and barn. The house was bereft of its roof and otherwise damaged, while the stable was resolved into lumber on the spot. The last buildings on this side of Main street were a small brick building, occupied as a tin and stove store by Samuel Pratt, and the frame cabinet shop of J. 11. Rexer, both of which wore ruined.

"On the west side of the street the destrue- tion was not so great as on the east, but the number of buildings partially destroyed was about even. The list opens with Newton Richardson's frame business house, which lost its roof, as did the adjoining store of Conrad Mohr. The dwelling of John Van Kirk came next, and was similarly treated, and the owner's saddle and harness shop next door also suffered scalping. The next house was Schriver, Wolf & Co.'s dry-goods estab- lishment, which, in addition to unroofing, was battered and broken in many places. 1 good-sized frame next to this last named, oc- cupied as a dry-goods store, and owned by Benjamin Crutcher, was unroofed and other- wise damaged, and the hardware store of Grafford, Crutcher & Co., adjoining, met with bad luck, being nearly destroyed. On Boggs street, in rear of Main, Mrs. Russell's dwelling house, Lippincott & Hersche's cooper shop and barn, and Lippincott's stable, were all very badly damaged, and on the west side of this street the dwellings of John

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

('Ilhra and David Gainey suffered severely. "C. II. Custenborder, a farmer living half a mile distant, lost his house and two barns, all of which were blown to atoms. The grist and saw-mills of Schriver, Wolf & Co., near De Graff, were injured to a considerable ex- tent. In Quincy, about seventy buildings are believed to have been all or partially destroyed, and an estimating committee, who reckoned up the matter, calculated that the loss would reach $60,000. Among the chief losses were the following: Baptist and Methodist churches, frame buildings, both down; Wil- liam Cloninger's blacksmith, cooper and wagon shops leveled with the ground, and dwelling house rendered uninhabitable for several days; the dwelling was moved twelve feet from its foundation; large frame house occupied by Daniel Clark and Edward Fitz- gerald, was rendered alnost valueless by the damage inflicted: Henry Keyser's frame house demolished; Elias Walburn's carriage shop partially destroyed; D. S. Wolf's hotel and pump factory, roof off the former, and the latter destroyed.

.. These were but few of the heaviest losses. Very few buildings in the entire town scom to have escaped the visitation. Several peo- ple were caught and imprisoned in the ruins of their own houses as they fell, and had to wait some time before succor came to them. The foree of the hurricane was felt very plainly in Quiney, and, as instances of its might, timbers of a thickness of eight or ton inches were blown from the Metho dist Church edifice a distance of ten yards, and in one plac , after the storm, a shingle was found driven into some weather-boarding, just as if it halb en steel and as sharp pointed as a The Ministerial Association of the Belle- fontaine District was to have mot in the Methodist Church on the 12th, but the situa- tion did not promise a comfortable accommo- dation. In De Graff, the houseless ones were razor. In De Graff it drew a pump from the well of Alexander Corry, and threw it ton In tover his house. A large piece of tin roofing was carrie I away from the town hall in the latter village, and was thought by im- , all provided with shelter by their neighbors,

aginative countrymen in its progress to be a winged gray horse. Masses of rubbish were carried several miles and deposited in fields, on the top of forest trees and elsewhere.

" The first reliable intimation of the coming destruction was given to the inhabitants of De Graff by a countryman, who drove through town with his wagon as fast as his antiquated steed could go, shouting to the people to vacate their premises. Nobody understood the cause of his alarm, however, and many thought the volume of dust sweeping on to- ward them was caused by a runaway team. When the storm broke, a citizen named John- son, whose chief physical peculiarity was a capacious abdomen, laid himself down beside a stone wall. He had not been there thirty seconds before Mr. Graffort, the hardware man, came sailing along and anchored on top of Johnson. In another instant a Kentucky doctor of about Johnson's size capped the climax and buried the latter victim three deep with the lightness and case of a three-story brick house.

" The most miraculous event that occurred in De Graff is believed to have been the escape of a French stallion, a splendid animal, that was lodged in a stable on Main street. The stable was leveled flat with the ground, and a surface of perhaps 100 feet square was cov- ered with corn-cobs and rubbish, and the ani- mal was found afterwards standing where his stall ought to be, and cahuly feeding on the loose hay strewn about him. A simular inci- dent was the escape of a brood of pigeons. On Hays street a small frame dwelling-house was turned half way around, with the gable- end to the street, withont displacing a board.

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History of Logan County and Ohio, Part 54

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; O.L. Baskin & Co Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin Number of Pages: 798

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin
Number of Pages: 798