History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 91

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 91

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A river consists of water bed and banks. At what point does the right of the owner of adjoining lands terminate, on the top or at the bottom of the bank? At high or low water mark? Does his boundary recede and advance with the water, or is it stationary at some point? And where is that point? Who gains by alluvion? Who loses by direptions of the streams? No satisfactory rules can be laid down in answer to these questions, if the common law doctrine be departed from. And if it be as- sumed that the United States retain the fee simple in the beds of our rivers, who is to preserve them from individual trespassers, or determine matters of wrong between the trespassers themselves. It can not be reasonably doubted that if all the beds of our rivers supposed to be navigable, and treated as such by the United States in selling lands, are to be regarded as unappropriated territory, a door is open for incalculable inischiefs. Intruders upon the com- mon waste would fall into endless broils among them- selves and involve the owners of lands adjoining in controversies innumerable. Stones, soil, gravel, the right to fish, would all be subjects of individual scramble necessarily leading to violence and outrage. The United States would be little interested in pre- serving either the peace or the property, and indeed would be powerless to do it without an interference with the policy of the State.

We do not believe that it was the intention of the United States to reserve an interest in the bed, banks or water of the rivers in the State, other than the use for navigation to the public, which is distinctly in the nature of an easement, and all grants of land upon such waters we hold to have been made subject to the common law, which in this case is the plain rule of common sense, and it is this : He who owns the lands upon both banks owns the entire river, subject only to the easement of navigation, and he who owns the land on one bank only owns to the middle of the river subject to the same easement. This is the rule recognized not only in England but in our sister States.

Before this decision was reached by the supreme court Mr. Gavit died, but his administrator gained a verdict. Messrs.

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

Chambers and Moore settled their diffi- culties by Moore buying Chambers out, thus giving him full and exclusive right and privilege to the water power along the Bellville rapids.

EARLY EVENTS.

It is difficult to tell who was the first white child born in this township, but our best information is that it was Margaret Frary, who was born some time in the year 1821.

A squatter named Coburg was the first citizen, so far as is known, "to end the earth chapter of life." He died about 1819. During his sickness Harriet Coch- ran (Mrs. Seager), was the only person in the neighborhood to wait on and care for him.

The first cemetery in the township was the one at Salem church, in the south part. This lot was set apart at the death of Mrs. Frary, who was the first person buried there. Her husband, Phin- eas Frary, was the second. The inhabit- ants of the north part of the township were accustomed to bury their dead at Fremont, then Lower Sandusky.

The early families of the north part of the township sent their children to school in Fremont; those in the south part first attended school in Seneca county, where a man named Dicely taught. The first school-house in the south part of the township was built on the Seager farm, on the east side of the river, about 1833. Moses Coleby is remembered as the first master.

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.

The following petition appears on the commissioners' records, which sets forth the reason for setting apart a new town from Sandusky, and the signatures also show who were the leading men at that date in favor of a division of the town- ships.

To the honorable Commissioners of Sandusky County:

SANDUSKY TOWNSHIP, STATE OF OHIO.

This petition of the undersigned, residents of San- dusky county, Sandusky township, prays, that they with the other residents of said township labor under many serious difficulties and disadvantages in conse- quence of the distance they have to go to the place of holding general elections. In fact, the great bounds of said township and the distance public officers reside from each other tends greatly to retard public business, particularly as it relates to the busi- ness of the township. Under these circumstances your petitioners therefore pray, that you would. direct a new township to be laid out embracing township four, range fifteen, your petitioners will ever pray.

Ist of March, 1822. N. B. And your petitioners also pray that the township be called Ball's township.

[Signers]

DAVID CHAMBERS.

ASA B. GAVIT.

DAVID CHARD. GILES THOMPSON. MOSES NICHOLS.

JOHN WOOLCOT. JEREMIAH EVERETT. JOHN PRIOR. ISAAC PRIOR. HENRY PRIOR. JOHN CUSTARD. BENJAMIN CLARK. T. A. REAFORD. WILLIAM CHARD.

The petition was granted and the first election ordered to be held at the house of David Chambers on the Ist Monday of April, 1822. The early records of the township are lost, so that we are unable to give the first officers elected or the civil list.

MANUFACTURING.

The water power furnished by the sec- ond rapids of the Sandusky River has been the natural means of building up a little settlement in the north part of the town- ship, which deserves to be called a village. It takes the name of the township. About 1821 three mills were built in this locality -two grist-mills, one by David Chambers, the other by David Moore; and, further up, a saw-mill, by Mr. Tindall. The re-

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

mains of the saw-mill are yet standing. Messrs. Moore and Chambers became in- volved in an expensive litigation, which is spoken of at length in this chapter. Moore settled the difficulty, and at the same time obtained exclusive control of the available water power by buying Chambers' farm and mill.

In 1831 Charles Choate came to Ball- ville and leased the shed and water power at Moore's mill, where he began the card- ing and fulling business. (Mr. Choate's father was one of the first settlers of Ohio, and was taken prisoner at Big Bottom dur- ing the Indian war of 1791-95.) James Moore, a son of David Moore, began the erection of a new mill in 1835, which was completed and placed in operation in 1837. Mr. Choate removed his carding machinery to this mill, where he continued the business three years longer, making a period of nine years since the beginning of wool carding. The last year he worked forty thousand pounds of wool. Mr. Choate sold his factory to Asa Otis and P. C. Dean.

The stone mill, which is yet in opera- tion, was built in 1858 by James Moore. Mr. Moore had also built a cotton factory in 1845, but was in a short time burned out.

In 1839 James Valletti purchased an in- terest in the mills and real estate. The village of Ballville was surveyed and laid out in lots by Messrs. Moore and Valletti the following year.

P. C. Dean and John Moore built what is now known as the Croghan mill in 1867. Mr. Dean sold his interest to his partner, who conducted the business until his death, when it became the property of his sons. The building and machinery were de- stroyed by fire in 1878, but rebuilt the same year. It is now owned by J. D., George N., and C. B. Moore.

During most of the time since the sur-

vey of the village a small mercantile busi- ness has been carried on at Ballville. C. B. Moore has been in the grocery business since 1876.

THE UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH .*

The name United Brethren has been adopted successively by four distinct and separate religious organizations. Early in the fifteenth century a church was formed in Bohemia, Germany, similar to that of the Waldenses, which took the name United Brethren. In the sixteenth century a part of the German ' Reformed church united with the Waldenses, and formed what was called the Church of the United Brethren. In the eighteenth century was organized the Church of the Moravians or The Renewed United Brethren. These churches, though similar in name, faith, and practice, had no ecclesiastical connec- tion.

The Church of the United Brethren in Christ was organized in the city of Balti- more, Maryland, in 1775. Its principal founder was Rev. William Otterbein, a minister of the German Reformed church. He had been sent as a missionary to America from Dillenberg, Germany, and after preaching in southeastern Pennsyl- vania and northern Maryland several years with great success as a revivalist, he or- ganized an independent church which at first was called the Evangelical Reformed church, then the United Brethren church, and finally, to avoida mixing of titles with the Moravians or United Brethren, it was called the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.

The colaborers of Otterbein in this work were Rev. Martin Boehm, Rev. Christian Newcomer, and Rev. John Neiding, each of the Mennonite church, and Rev. George 'A. Guething and John G. Pfrimmer, of the German Reformed church.

* By Jacob Burgner.

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

The first great meeting (grosze versamm- Their preaching places were mostly at private houses or barns, or in log school- houses, often in widely separated neighbor- hoods, reached only by winding roads or lung), and the one which suggested the name United Brethren, was held at Mr. Isaac Long's in Lancaster county, Penn- 1 sylvania, and was attended largely by members of the Lutheran, German Re- formed, Mennonite, Tunker and Amish“ persuasions. paths cut through the woods. These routes were often almost impassable on account of high water and an almost in- · terminable black, sticky mud. They The labors of these ministers and others who joined them, were for half a century confined almost exclusively to the Germans in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. travelled usually on foot or on horseback, and preached every day in the week and two or three times on Sunday. Their meetings were as well attended on week- Since the year 1825, the German lan- guage in many places has entirely given place to the English, and the church has also spread in English communities, where it was formerly unknown. days as on Sunday. Farmers in those days cheerfully left their work to attend religious services. In times of big meet- ings they came from several adjoining neighborhoods, even in bad weather and Among the earliest religious workers in Sandusky county, Ohio, were the local and travelling preachers of the church of the United Brethren in Christ. over bad roads, on foot, on horseback, and not unfrequently in large wagons or sleds, drawn by ox-teams. Thirteen per- sons constituted a Methodist load, but a United Brethren load was as many as you could pile on. At these meeting the early pioneers manifested a large-hearted hospi- tality, unaffected sociability, and much re- ligious enthusiasm.

Previous to the year 1833 a strong tide of emigration set in towards the north- west, and among the emigrants to the Sandusky Valley were quite a number of United Brethren families, including some local preachers. These held religious meetings in their respective neighborhoods and prepared the way for the missionaries or travelling preachers which were sent into this region by the Muskingum con- ference, as early as the year 1829. They had a string of appointments extending from Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, to Lower Sandusky, Ohio. In common with other pioneers these preachers endured many trials and privations and performed much toilsome and difficult work for very meagre salaries. They often met with abundant success in revival meetings and in the organization of religious societies, but, owing in part to the constant shifting of population, they did not succeed in es- tablishing permanent societies, and build- ing churches as well as those who came later and labored in towns and villages.

In the year 1822 Rev. Jacob Bowlus came from Frederick county, Maryland, and settled near Lower Sandusky (now Fremont, Ohio). He was the first Evan- gelical preacher in the Black Swamp. He preached faithfully to the new settlers as he had opportunity, and opened his doors to the Methodists and to ministers of other denominations. A few preaching places were thus established, a few classes formed, and in 1829 the general confer- ence of the United Brethren church recognized a circuit called the Sandusky circuit. At the next session of the Mus- kingum conference Jacob Bowlus was elected presiding elder of the Sandusky district, and John Zahn was appointed to travel Sandusky circuit. In the year 1830 Mr. Bowlus was re-elected presiding elder, and Israel Harrington and J. Harrison as-

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

signed to Sandusky circuit. These four, Zahn, Bowlus, Harrington, and Harrison are said to have been the first pioneer itinerant preachers of this church in Northwestern Ohio. During the next four years Sandusky circuit was supplied with travelling preachers by the Musking- um conference.

· In the year 1833 the general conference of the United Brethren church made ar- rangements for the organization of the Sandusky conference.

The new conference held its first session on the 12th day of May, 1834, at the house of Philip Bretz, on Honey Creek, in Seneca county, Ohio. Bishop Samuel Hiestand presided. Preachers present -- John Russel, Jacob Bowlus, George His- key, Jeremiah Brown, C. Zook, John Crum, W. T .. Tracy, Jacob Bair, O. Strong, H. Erret, John Smith, L. Easterly, Philip Cramer, B. Moore, Daniel Strayer, Israel Harrington, Jacob Crum, H. Kimberlin, J. Fry, J. Alsop, Jacob Garber, Stephen Lillibridge, and John Davis [familiarly known in Northwestern Ohio as "Pap" Davis, the hatter]. Mr. Davis labored with great faithfulness as a travelling preacher for many years, much of the time as a presiding elder. On a salary of from seventy-five dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars, he · travelled on horseback - from Crawford county, Ohio, to Allen county, Indiana, four times a year, year after year. The roads were extremely bad, but he seldom missed an appointment, never complained, and always wore a smile as he entered the cabins of the West.

Stephen Lillibridge, during the eight short years of his itineracy, travelled the Black Swamp at a salary of less than one hundred dollars a year, and preached nineteen hundred and thirty sermons, as shown by his diary. He died at the early age of twenty-eight.

Among other successful evangelists who travelled the Black Swamp may be men- tioned Rev. Joseph Bever, Rev. Samuel Long, Rev. Michael Long, and Rev. J. C. Bright.

The second session of the Sandusky conference was held at the house of A. Beck, in Crawford county, Ohio, April 15, 1835. The following were received : Jacob Newman, Joseph Bever, Jeremiah Brown, George Newman, H. G. Spayth,* J. C. Rice, and Joseph Logan.

In the first assignment to the fields of labor, Benjamin Moore and Joseph Bever were sent to travel the Sandusky circuit, which then extended across San- dusky county, and into the present coun- ties of Ottawa, Huron, and Seneca. Rev. M. Long also travelled the circuit during the latter half of the year.

The other circuits of the conference were Maumee, Scioto, Richland, and Owl Creek, in Knox county, travelled respect- ively by S. Lillibridge, J. Alsop, J. Davis, and B. Kaufman.

The third session of Sandusky confer- ence was held at the house of J. Crum, in Wood county, Ohio, April 26, 1836. Preachers received-John Dorcas, T. Has- tings, Francis Clymer, Michael Long, Al- fred Spracklin, and William Williams.

Jacob Bowlus was chosen presiding elder, and the assignments to fields of la- bor were: Sandusky circuit, J. Davis ; Swan Creek, S. Lillibridge ; Richland, J. Dorcas and B. Kaufman ; Mt. Vernon, Jacob Newman ; Maumee, John Long ; Findlay Mission, Michael Long.

The first delegates to the general con- ference of the United Brethren church from the Black Swamp were John Dorcas and George Hiskey, in 1837.

The salaries paid during the year 1835- 36 were: J. Brown, presiding elder, $16; B. Moore, $76; B. Kaufman, $49; Joseph

*Author of History of United Brethren Church.

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

Bever, $40; M. Long, $41; S. Lillibridge, $80; Jonas Fraunfelder, $2.50; and Sam- uel Hiestand, bishop, $20.50.

The circuits comprised from a dozen to twenty or more preaching places, and the preacher was obliged to travei about two hundred miles in making one round, which he usually completed in from two to four weeks. The following is an outline from memory of the appointments of Sandusky circuit in 1835, as given by Rev. Joseph Bever:

Commencing at Peter Bever's, north ot Melmore, Seneca county, I went successively to Philip Bretz's, east of Melmore; Solomon Seary's, southeast of Melmore; Fred Rhodes', north of Republic; Mr. Payne's, in Huron county ; the Snow school-house, near Amsden s corners, now Bellevue; Jacob Bowlus', west of Fremont; Port Clinton, Ottawa county; Mc- Namor's or Zink's, south of Fremont; Mr. Gaines', southwest of Fremont; James Mathews', near Bas- com; Mr. Bodine's, near Fostoria; school-house near Gilboa; Dr. Hastings', on Tawas Creek; Philip Cra- mer's, on same; Mr. Bixler's, east of Findlay; Father Brayton's, Springville (father of the Brayton captured by the Indians); Mr. Wyant's, Tyamochtee, and at other places occasionally. It took me three weeks, travelling every day, to make the round in good weather, and I received for my salary twenty-five dollars !

The following is a list of the preachers who travelled the old Sandusky and the Green Creek circuits from the year 1834 to 1881: Benjamin Moore, Joseph Bever, M. Long, John Davis, John Dorcas, S. Lillibridge, J. C. Bright, S. Hadley, John Lawrence*, P. J. Thornton, D. Glancy, B. J. Needles, William Bevington, Wesley Harrington, R. Wicks, Jacob Newman, John French, William Jones, James Long, H. Curtis, S. T. Lane, B. G. Ogden, A. M. Stemen, Silas Foster, William Miller, Peter Fleck, R. K. Wyant, J. Mathews, D. F. Cender, S. H. Raudabaugh, D. D. Hart, B. M. Long, E. B. Maurer, A. Powell, D. S. Caldwell, and T. D. Ingle.

Sandusky county is now (1881) divided among five circuits: Green Creek, Bay Shore, Clyde, Sandusky, and Eden, com-

prising eighteen societies in this county. Green Creek was detached from the old Sandusky in 1834, and lies mostly in Ball- ville township. It has five societies, three churches, and one parsonage. The United Brethren church and parsonage, at Green Spring, were built in 1871-72-73, under the direction of Rev. S. H. Raudabaugh. The Mt. Lebanon United Brethren church. two miles southeast of Fremont, was built in 1864. The first trustees were: Rev. M. Long, Rev. M. Bulger, Rev. N. Young, Anson Eldridge, and John Batzole. The society was formed by the union of the classes at the Batzole and Dawley school- houses. The superintendents of Mt. Leb- anon Sabbath-school from 1864 to 1881 were: Rev. N. Young, Sidney Young, Charles Young, Rev. N. S. Long, Rev. B. M. Long, Jacob Burgner, J. W. Worst, and Hugh C. Smith.

The church at Hoover's Corners, or Hard Scrabble, which is used jointly by the United Brethren church and the Evangelical Association, was built by the latter about the year 1854.

A class of the United Brethren in Christ was formed of citizens living in the neigh- borhood of the mouth of Wolf Creek. It was organized as the "Clinger Class," April 20, 1860, Samuel Jacoby at that time being circuit preacher. The first members were: John and Catharine Sib- berrel, Samuel and Anna Clinger, Rachel Turner, Jacob and John Ridgley, Lucinda, John, and Lucinda B. Hite, Mary Clinger, Jane Hudson, and Mary Mills. A meet- ing-house was built that year and the class became known as Wolf Creek congrega- tion. It has a membership of about seventy, and has preaching service each alternate Sabbath. A summer Sunday- school has been maintained from the first, but in 1880-81 it was kept up with profit and interest throughout the year, winter as well as summer.

* Author of History of United Brethren Church.

Rev. Michael Longo

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

UNION CHURCH.

The citizens along the river about four miles south of Ballville felt the need of a more convenient place for holding re- ligious services, and in 1868 contributed and built what is known as Union Chapel, for the use of all denominations. Rev. E. Bushnell, of Fremont, supplied the pulpit for a short time.

Rev. Mr. Willard, of Tiffin, organized a class according to the discipline of the German Reformed church in 1870, and held services in this house. Messrs. Kes- selman and Smith have served since. Preaching is not regularly maintained.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

REV. MICHAEL LONG.

The subject of this sketch is the son of Daniel and Margaret (Brill) Long, who were born in the State of Pennsylvania. Their son, Michael Long, was born May 3, 1814, in Guernsey county, Ohio. He was educated in attending the common schools of the neighborhood, and worked on a farm until he entered the ministry of the United Brethren church, in Sandusky, in the year 1835. He afterwards, on the 20th of April, 1837, married Sarah Gear, of the same county. Mr. Long had emi- grated from Guernsey to Sandusky in the year 1834. Rev. Michael Long is still living with this wife, Sarah, by whom he has had five children yet living, namely: De- sire Angeline, who is married to Martin Mowrer, of Ballville township; Newton S., who married Carry C. Stahl, daughter of Jacob Stahl. (This son is laboring in the ministry at Osceola, Wyandot county, Ohio); Barzillai M., not married, a minis- ter, now stationed at Galion, Ohio; Sarah Calista, now wife of Professor John Worst, superintendent of the schools at Elmore,

Ohio; M. DeWitt, who married Pauline C. McCahan, and is now principal of Roanoke Academy, Roanoke county, Indi- ana, and who is also an ordained minister of the United Brethren church.

Mr. Long has continually, since the commencement of his labors as a preacher, been in the service of the church, some- times as an itinerant preacher, sometimes on a station, and for a number of years as presiding elder.

Mr. Long's services in the United Brethren church are set forth in an address delivered at a ministerial association, held in Attica, Seneca county, Ohio, in 1879. We here give the address in full, which re- lates many hairbreadth escapes, and also most palpably illustrates his zeal in the work he was engaged in. He is endowed with remarkable physical powers, weighs near two hundred pounds, and his voice is re- markable for its strength and power to reach the outermost limits of the largest gathering at any camp meeting. The fol- lowing anecdote is told by a friend who happened to live about three miles from where a camp-meeting was in progress several years ago. A stranger enquired of the man where the camp-meeting was, and what road to take to get there. The farmer told him to listen, and on being silent a moment, the voice of Michael Long in full exercise came through the woods. The stranger was told to follow the sound, and he would find the camp- meeting about three miles distant in that direction. If there ever was a harder worker for the church than Michael Long, he has not been found in this vicinity. And he is still at the same work, and, no doubt, will be while life and strength are given him to work. He lives. on a farm about three miles southeast of Fremont, and is still a hearty, vigorous and courage- ous man. Read the address, and you may gather a faint idea from it of Mr.

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

Long's labors in preaching the gospel. The address is as follows:

I recollect a little over forty years ago I joined the Sandusky annual conference, and I have not forgot- ten the way preachers were then taken into confer- ence. There was not half the trouble getting into conference then that there is now. Those days are gone by, and I do not wish to speak of or recall them now. I well recollect when I started on my first cir- cuit, which was four hundred miles around, number- ing twenty-eight appointments. It took me four weeks to get around the circuit; there was not to my recollection one meeting-house in the entire confer- ence; we preached, as a general thing, in private houses. The outline of my work was something after the following: Northeast three miles below Port Clinton, on the lake; southeast, near Bucyrus; southwest, on the Auglaize, twelve miles below Find- lay. The points alluded to were the outposts of my field of labor. My salary the first year was forty dollars, although it was not quite a full year. My second year I was appointed to Findlay mission; I had given to me two appointments to start with; I increased my appointments to about one dozen; it was a year of great success. During that year I received into church fellowship about one hundred and sixty members; a revival spirit continued the whole year. I held one camp-meeting that year at which there were between forty and fifty conver- sions. There were wonderful demonstrations of God's power manifested during the meeting; many fell to the earth and lay for hours as dead, and when raised from that state they generally shouted "glory." This manner of demonstration was very general dur- ing that mecting. Surely God was there to kill and make alive. There was one circumstance transpired during that camp meeting very much like the one we read of in Mark, the ninth chapter. The conver- sion of Brother Galbreath was almost like that of St. Paul. Through the persuasion of his daughter he went with her to my meeting and then and there he became so powerfully convicted that on his way home he fell from his horse to the ground, where he lay for some time. When he came to, his daughter was on her knees by his side praying for him, and holding both their horses. Surely his conversion all the way through was marvellous. I remember of forming what we then called Huron mission; it was an entire new field. The conference got up a subscription for me to the amount of thirty dollars, although I never got it all. With that encouragement I started, having no assurance of any other support, but still I had a good time; the grace of God sustained me, and I had plenty to eat, such as it was.

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 91

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040