USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 99
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Ambrose Clapp, the father, died about two and one-half years after he came to Ohio. Mrs. Clapp followed her husband two years later. Both belonged to the Church of England, and were worthy peo- .ple and devoted Christians. Ambrose Clapp followed farming after coming to this country.
The subject of this sketch was brought up a farmer. He received a good com- mon school education. For several years, while residing in New York State, he was engaged in working with a threshing ma- chine. About the year 1835 Mr. Clapp came to Toledo, where he worked two years and a half farming and clearing land, excepting eight months of this time, when he was sick with the fever. After this he was engaged upon the turnpike from Lower Sandusky to Perrysburg, and labored upon this job until it was completed. While working at this, probably none of the la- borers broke more stone than Mr. Clapp.
He next purchased the farm in Green Creek township, which is still his home, and on the 22d day of February, 1844, married Matilda Seaman, of Ottawa county, and began farming and keeping public house. His house was a well-known stop- ping place for travellers upon the turnpike for twenty-five years. The tract he had purchased was a wild lot, upon which few improvements had been made. There was a log house upon the land, and about five acres had been cleared. By unremit- ting industry and labor, assisted and en- couraged by the work of his excellent wife, Mr. Clapp succeeded in making a fine farm and a pleasant and beautiful home.
About the year 1852 Mr. Clapp intro- duced the first successful artesian well in this part of the State. He made the first
wells of this sort for Mr. Park and Mr. Johnson, in Ottawa county. He also did the first work of the kind in Sandusky county for Paul Tew, in Townsend town- ship.
Mr. Clapp has been an industrious farmer, a careful business manager, and has succeeded well in every work which he has undertaken. When he began life in the West it was under most unfavor- able conditions. From New York he pro- ceeded to Detroit, thence to Toledo, having paid his fare to the latter place. While stopping in Detroit he had all of his money stolen. On his arrival at Toledo, he was therefore a stranger in a new place, and, worst of all, without money. But, happening to meet a gentleman whom he had known in England, he borrowed fifty cents from him, and this amount served for his use until he could earn more.
Mr. Clapp is a worthy and respected citizen. In politics he is a Democrat. He has been infirmary director, and has held other local offices.
Mrs. Matilda Clapp was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, February 22, 1824. Her parents were Daniel and Susannah (Knight) Seaman. Her father was born on Long Island, in the State of New York. Her mother was of German parentage, and was born in Pennsylvania. In 1833 Mr. Seaman and wife, with two sons and one daughter, moved from New Jersey to what is now Ottawa county, where they remained about fifteen years, when they came to Woodville, Sandusky county. There Mr. Seaman died, March 25, 1853, at the age of seventy-six. After her husband's death Mrs. Seaman resided with her daughter, Mrs. Clapp, twelve years. She died May 15, 1864, in her eighty-fourth year.
Mrs. Clapp is the youngest of a family of eleven children. Her brothers and sisters who are living at this writing, are- Daniel Seaman, Fremont, now seventy-four;
652
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
Ira K. Seaman, Toledo, in his sixty-fourth year; Isaac N. Seaman, Brown county, Kansas, aged sixty ; Mrs. Jemima Roberts, in Sussex county, New Jersey, in her seventy-second year ; and Mrs. Susannah Edinger, Warren county, New Jersey, aged sixty-five.
Mrs. Clapp has given birth to eight children, five of whom are living-Daniel Ambrose, born January 9, 1845, married Margaret Grover, of Green Creek town- ship, now resides in Brown county, Kan- sas; Ernestine, born April 30, 1847, died
July 28, 1851; Charles Holmes, born No- vember 7, 1849, married Sarah Noble, of Green Creek, resides in Clyde; Seaman J., born December 10, 1851, married Mollie Jackson, of Green Spring, resides in Green Creek township; Horace, born November 25, 1853, married Sudie Keat- ing, of Green Creek, resides in Toledo. The next child, a daughter, born February 28, 1856, died when eleven days old. Arthur, born July 17, 1857, resides at home. Robert Benjamin, born December 8, 1861, died January 16, 1865.
YORK.
T THE most striking feature of the topog- raphy of York is the three parallel ridges or sand bars extending in a north- easterly and southwesterly direction. The township itself embracing an area of six miles square, lies in the southeast corner of the county and is bounded on the north by Townsend township, on the east by Erie and Huron counties, on the south by Seneca county, and on the west by Green Creek township. No streams of sufficient size to furnish water-power for mills flow through this territory. The sand ridges give the surface an undulating appearance, and the porous character of the drift formation overlying a heavy stratum of limestone contributes to the dryness of the fertile soil. It is unnecessary to elab- orate on geological theories concerning the origin of the sand bars. They are merely accumulations of fragments and disintegrated particles of rock, washed together by powerful waves and currents during the last period of geological his- tory when the water of the lake basin covered all this region of country. Such bars of gravel and sand are yet forming near the shores of the great lakes. At the present time events of real and traditional history in York are located by these sand bars, and it will therefore be neces- sary to know their location.
The crest of North ridge trends through Green Creek in a northeasterly direction, and extends across the northwest corner of York and southeast corner of Townsend into Erie county. South ridge takes a par- allel course, and its crest is about two miles
southeast from the crest of North ridge. About the same distance toward the south- east trends Butternut ridge, beginning near the southeast corner of Green Creek and losing its identity near the pike in York. The name Butternut ridge was, very naturally, applied in consequence of the number and size of the white wal- nut, or butternut trees, which shaded its surface before the day of railroads and lumber markets.
Nowhere in the county did the primi- tive forest appear more hospitable than in York. West of the Sandusky River was, seemingly, an endless reach of dismal swamp, steaming with vapors poisoned by decaying vegetation. But here, trees grew to graceful size, and shaded soft grasses. The perfume of wild flowers wakened birds to song, and the fleet-footed deer gave gayety to the scene. Propitious na- ture welcomed with open arms all who came to build homes for themselves and an heritage for their children.
The soil of York is a sandy loam inter- mixed with small particles of limestone, and is unexceptionable for agricultural purposes. The upper rock stratum is lime- stone of superior quality and more than ordinary thickness. An outcrop occurs near Bellevue which supplies large quanti- ties of stone, both for building and for making lime. Land commands a higher price per acre in York than anywhere else in the county. Nowhere in Ohio can be found better improved farms.
THE SETTLEMENT.
The circumstances leading to the settle-
653
654
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
ment of York were somewhat peculiar. The improvement of the Fireland district had commenced before the War of 1812, and was well progressed while Indian camp fires were yet burning on the other side of the line. After the restoration of peace with Great Britain . real estate took .a rise in the Firelands which induced emi- grants to camp over on the Congress lands until they should be surveyed and offered for sale. Many, too, who had cleared farms and built houses in Huron, were induced to sell and begin again the trials of pioneer life. The ridges of York were. favorite places for squatters, who put up temporary buildings, and made small clear- ings with the expectation of buying the land when in market, thus saving the value of their improvements. But men were selfish then as now, and it frequently happened that the most cherished hope of an industrious squatter who had cleared and cultivated, cheered 'on by the anticipa- tion of being the rightful and legal owner, was blasted by one who had risen earlier, and secured a front place at the land office when the book of entries was opened. The scene is said to have been highly exciting when the turnpike lands were placed upon the market. Horses were rode at full speed to the office, where a lively contest for turns ensued. Each man had his lot picked out, but each sus- pected his neighbor of having envious eyes, a suspicion which, in many cases, proved well founded. The feeling of hatred caused by what was considered a transgression of rights was in a few in- stances lasting, and the cause of neighborly feuds in later years. The scramble for land was conducted with as much ardor and self-interested feeling then, as the scramble for office at the present time, although the assertion may appear to a casual observer of affairs extravagant.
We know of no more accurate way of
-
introducing the topic under discussion than by giving a list of the original pro- prietors, taken from the book of land en- tries.
It will be necessary, in order to under- stand the dates here given, to know the method of making entries on the books in the recorder's office. The United States land office gave each purchaser a certificate of entry and receipt of payment. These certificates entitled the holder to a patent from the United States. They were also filed in the auditor's office, and under the law, five years from their date, the property, of which they stood as a receipt of payment, was listed on the tax duplicate, and recorded in the book of entries. It will appear, therefore, that the date of record given in the following table of Congress lands, is five years later than the real purchase at the land office.
But the turnpike lands embracing a strip one mile wide on each side of the pike, were ceded by the United States to the State of Ohio for the purpose of con- structing a pik road from the Western Reserve thro gh the Black Bwamp. These lands were offered for sale at the land office at Perrysburg in 1826, and were taxable from the date of entry. They were at once listed on the duplicate, and the date of record is also the date of pur- chase.
The following entries are recorded in 1826:
SECTION.
ACRES.
James Birdseye.
17, 20 and 25
542
Joseph George, jr.
21
I35
J. C. and Isaac Hinds
21
30
D. Searls and M. McCoy.
21 and 22
222
Jeremiah Smith
22
124
William T. Tuttle.
19
79
Entries are recorded in 1827 as follows :
SECTION.
ACRES.
Augustus Barber
I
85
Winthrop Ballard.
31
160
Abram Marks.
17
160
James Birdseye.
21
211
65.5
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
SECTION.
ACRES.
Perry Easton
20 and 22
230
L. G. Harkness
18 and 21
142
Reuben Pixley.
22 and 27
196
I .. G. Raymond,
22
II6
Samuel Sparrow
24 and 26
268
Jeremiah Smith.
22
124
Samuel Sparrow.
24
70
The following entries are recorded in 1828:
SECTION.
ACRES.
Joseph M. Jenkins.
II
80
Henry Miller.
29
80
John Mugg ..
IO
400
Seth W. Merry
7 and 18
160
Frederick Persing
17
: 80
Norton Russell.
7
I60
Jeremiah Smith
9 and 15
I60
Smith Barber
2
80
Roderick Bishop.
5
80
H. Baker.
2 and II
640
James Birdseye.
5
I60
Lyman Babcock.
7
I60
Oliver Comstock.
7
80
William Christie.
I8
I60
Joseph P. Dean.
3I
80
John Dunse ..
I3
80
John Davenport.
19
80
Elkana Daniels
17
80
Edmond Fuller.
7 and
8
I60
Stillman George ..
33
80
Esther F. Green.
19
80
Martin Hart.
36
80
Joseph Hill.
34
80
Entries were recorded in 1829 as fol- lows:
SECTION.
ACRES.
David Acklar
25
80
William Cookson.
4
I60
Elizabeth Cady
25
80
Thomas W. Canada.
9
80
John Davenport ..
20
80
Joseph T. Doan.
31
80
Edmond Huldeah ..
30
160
Richard Freeman.
I7
80
Stillman George ..
28
80
Truman Gilbert.
30
I60
Elnathan George
33
80
Jared Hadley
34
80
Samuel Hackett.
28
80
Lyman Jones.
15
80
Crowell and McNutt.
20
125
Dyer ('arver.
27
316
Robert Longwell.
8
80
E. T. Gardner.
26
II6
Ransom and Major Purdy.
2
80
John Lemmon.
80
Simeon Root.
29
80
Lemuel Morse.
24
79
James Strong.
25
147
John Riddle.
28
78
Samuel Sparrow
23 and 24
160
Entries are recorded in 1830 as follows :
SECTION.
ACRES.
N. P. Birdseye.
79
Elisha Avery
I2
80
James Chapman.
I5
80
George Colvin.
9
80
John Dunse.
13
80
Eli Knickerbocker.
3
86
S. W. Murray.
7
80
Charles Sherwood.
12
80
Lansford Wood ..
12
80
L. C. Watkins.
IO
80
The entries recorded in 1831 were as follows:
SECTION. 31
80
Nathaniel Chapman.
36
75
Jesse Gilbert .
30
80
Philip Glick.
30
I60
Samuel Grover.
34
80
John Glick .
30
80
James M. Jenkins.
II
80
James Munger
29
80
Return Burlingston
25
2
Nathaniel Chapman
25
40
Chapman and Amsden.
25
27
Zadock Story.
25
78
A. D. Follett
27
78
Stillman George ..
28
79
John Lemmon.
I8
33
Henry McMillen.
I8
14
John West
I7
80
George W. Franklin.
I9
79
R. C. Brayton.
28
76
Roswell George.
I46
R. Burlingson.
24
67
N. P. Birdseye.
20
79
Jacob May
I2I
The only entry in 1832 was:
SECTION. ACRES.
Lyman Amsden .. ..
35 80
In 1833 the following lands were en- tered :
SECTION. II
I60
William P. White ..
+
80
Eli Knickerbocker.
3
80
R. Burlingson
23
80
R. Burlingson ..
24
80
John Knickerbocker ..
4
340
E. W. Rice
22
76
ACRES.
William Drum.
ACRES.
Gideon Brayton.
656
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
SECTION.
ACRES.
Ephraim Simmons.
26
I43
Reuben McWilthey .
26
131
T. Alexander
35
160
M. M. Coe.
1
80
Crowell and McNutt.
24
12.4
R. Burlingson ..
24
79
Lemuel Morse.
24
79
John Lemmon.
19
80
Ephraim Simmons.
26
I43
John Riddle.
28
78
Dyer Carver.
27
313
R. W. Willy
26
130
E. W. Rice ..
22
76
E. T. Gardner.
26
II6
The entries recorded in 1834 were as follows :
SECTION.
ACRES.
Theophilus Alexander.
35
160
Nathaniel Chapman.
36
80
Chapman and Amsden
30
75
Philip Crapo
30
78
Samuel Foster, jr.
24
80
H. and Hiram Palmer
29
80
Phebe Sharp
36
80
Tim Sunderland
26
IOI
R. Burlingson.
23
79
Martha Baker.
23
79
Wesley Anderson
18
160
John W. Hone.
18
78
Entries were made in 1835 as follows :
SECTION.
ACRES.
William Bates.
6
80
John Brush.
5
80
William Brumb.
I 80
Truman Gilbert.
29
240
Kiah Gould
36
80
In 1837 were recorded the entries of :
SECTION.
ACRES.
Gilbert Bohls.
8 80
Joseph Chapman .
3
80
In 1837 entries are recorded as follows:
SECTION. ACRES.
Fred Chapman.
35 and 36
158
Samuel Clark.
33
80
James Armstrong
80
E. Hiland.
31
80
Wooster McMillen.
33
80
M. P. Sprague
29
80
The entries of 1838 were:
SECTION.
ACRES.
Thomas G. Amsden.
34
80
John E. Armstrong.
14
80
James Armstrong.
14
40
3
43
George Pettyome
35
80
Joel Siezer
4
80
Augustus Barker
12 and 13
146
Storey Wills.
15
200
SECTION. 13
40
Daniel Clouse.
35
80
Almon Gray.
3
38
James Haynes.
33
160
Joseph Hoover
I3
126
Robert Irwin
31
120
E. G. Kearney
33
80
David Smith
I
80
Henry Stetler.
34
240
S. L. Simpson
14
160
The entries of the year 1839 are record- ed as follows:
SECTION.
ACRES.
James Armstrong
14 and 15
120
Elisha Avery .
13
40
William Bailey
3
43
H. H. Brown
33
40
William Burcan.
6
240
Edmond Brace
2
42
Smith Barber
3
40
Lester Beach.
9
40
John Colvin.
9
40
George Colvin.
9
40
J. G. Coons
2
85
Matthew M. Coe
12
80
O. F. Clark.
32 and 33
80
H. S. Cooper.
32
40
James S. Connell
6
80
Jacob Decker
21
40
William Degs.
15
80
William Dalzell
9
80
D. Q. Ellsworul
-
8
40
Henry Friligh
I
198
George Stillman.
32
40
Hezekiah Grover.
28
52
W. F. Gormen
8
40
Ephraim Hastings.
3
120
R. Harding.
9
80
Silas Howell.
13
40
William Henrick.
12
113
Robert Irwin
31 and 32
220
Robert Irwin, jr.
32
80
A. C. Jackson.
3
42
John Knuttle.
9
40
James Lemmon, jr.
3
84
U. B. Lemmon
3
42
James Meacham.
14
80
Richard Nickerson
14
40
George Parker.
2
42
Daniel Rife
5 and 8
I22
F. R. Smith
15
40
Dean Squire.
10 and 13
279
William Stevenson
6
328
Asa Stanley.
ACRES.
John Barber.
657
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
1840 closed out the balance of Con- gress lands as follows :
SECTION.
ACRES.
Martin Dart.
5
85
A. D. Follett.
32
40
Ephraim Hastings.
9
40
Dennis Hamlin
8
80
W. J. Whittaker. ..
8 and 9
200
The settlement of York proper began in 1822. The squatters whose shabby cabins for three years had broken the monotony of continuous forest, cannot be called settlers, nor would it be prudent to attempt to chronicle their comings and goings. A squatter community, such as York was from 1819 to 1822, would be a fruitful field for the study of character. Here were the class of people who may be termed the overflow of civilization- families driven from time to time from the public domain by legal owners. They push a little further along, crowding the savage before them. Their improvements are never of much value. A cabin, eight by ten feet in the clear, built of round logs, with a rough puncheon door and two holes over which white paper was pasted, the only windows. A mixture of mud and leaves filled the cracks, and the earth shorn of grass and smoothed down by bare feet, made a floor unnecessary. Squatters of this class farmed very little. In an Indian clearing, if one chanced to be in the neighborhood, or in a field pre- pared by cutting out the underbush and deadening the larger trees, they planted corn. Corn was the complement of game in their table-fare. Hunting and story- telling was the only occupation of this class of semi-civilized vagabonds. The women, rather from necessity than choice, were more industrious than the men. However much the children might be neglected in other particulars, and, indeed, were neglected, they had to be fed, and the mothers had to do it. They hoed the corn, harvested it, and cracked it on a
block, while the men, rather as a pleasure than a duty, shot game and brought what could not be traded for whiskey, or some other luxury, to the cabin, where hands already over-worked, prepared it for the table. It is often asked, "How did these people live?" When life loses every motive except existence, man becomes a very simple sort of animal. Culture and ambition are the creators of wants, to sup- ply which toil, even hardship, is cheerfully endured. These people never aspired to the ownership of property, to the en- joyment of travel nor to the refinement of education. Good clothes would have made them uncomfortable and good houses miserable. The woods was their chosen paradise, and cabins preferable to a " house of many mansions." We cannot, of course, fathom the life of people and understand what circumstances have been their guides along the highway of exist- ence. Crime, laziness, and disease are possible causes of their degradation.
But a respectable class of people also were known as squatters. Brave, indus- trious men and women left pleasant abodes and planted in the forest the germs of that civilization which is already bearing golden fruit. They bore with patience, not only the hardships which nature im- posed, but also the depredations of the vagrants who had gone before. The progress of material development is like the march of an invading army. Re- treating barbarism is followed by a horde of half-breed camp-followers pressed closely by the skirmishers of the pursuing forces.
Legal barriers, for a while, prevented the rank and file of the pioneer army from occupying the fertile country beyond the limit of the Firelands. But when these barriers had been removed, the way was already opened by squatters in name, but settlers in reality.
Jeremiah Smith, one of the earliest set-
83
658
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
tlers of this township, removed from Ful- tonville, New York, in the fall of 1822, arriv- ing at Bellevue, October 15th. He entered land near the central part of the town- ship.
A. D. Follett, a son of Eliphalet Follett, of Huron county, settled in this township soon after the settlement of Mr. Smith. His family is of Norman origin, and came into England with William the Conqueror. One of the descendants was attorney gen- eral to Queen Victoria and member of Parliament for the city of Exeter. His monument in Westminster Abbey bears the inscription, "Sir William Webb Follett, Kt." The grandfather of Abel D. Follett was murdered at Wyoming during the Revolution. That day of dreadful butch- ery is one of the most barbarous episodes of American history. It was more than an Indian massacre. It was inspired, planned, and conducted by Tories, which name has become synonymous with trea- son. Among four hundred brave patriots who marched to the defence of their wives and children was Eliphalet Follett. The murderous horde of allied savages and Tories surrounded this brave company, of whom only twenty succeeded in cutting their way through the lines. One of these was Follett ; but a bullet cut him down be- fore reaching the opposite side of the Sus- quehanna. Mrs. Follett escaped the mas- sacre of the women and children which followed, and with an old horse started toward the east, taking her six children, the oldest of whom was thirteen, and the youngest two. Before she had progressed far her arm was broken by an accident, but by heroic perseverance she succeeded in rescuing the family, which has become well known in the annals of Huron and Sandusky counties. Abel D. Follett, who settled in York, was a grandson of Eliph- alet Follett, and son of Eliphalet Follett, jr., who settled in Huron county about
1820. Abel D. and Laura Follett re- moved to California.
The school section number sixteen was settled mostly by poor people, who may be classed as "good, bad, and indifferent." Some lived by begging, some by stealing, and a few by working. After the lines of ownership began to become marked many of the old squatters took to the school sec- tion, feeling sure that their days would be spent before the uncharitable hand of in- dustrious landlords would defile, with axes and plows, this last haven of wandering humanity.
Sid Perry was a character in his day. He was an industrious visitor, especially about butchering time. Jeremiah Smith used to make a custom of saving the hogs' heads and bony meat, knowing that Sid's complaints of poverty and ingratitude of the world would be forced into his ears soon after the last squeal of the dying swine had ceased. Sid was a zealous Baptist, and always wanted to lead 'the singing. He had a nasal, high-keyed voice, and stretched out his syllables to a distressing length. He seemed to think of his wicked neighbors when he sang:
I long to see the season come
When sinners shall come marching hum.
Speaking of ardent church members calls to mind another early settler whose picty exceeded his education. Adam Brown lived on the ridge, and was in most respects a worthy man. Revivals always conquered his nerves. He had but one speech, which was delivered, seemingly with fear, certainly with trembling. His tearful sincerity drowned laughter even among the sinners, when he began his stereotype speech by saying: “Brethren and sistern, I tell you 'ligion is good, I know it by exknowledge 'perimental."
There never was enough business along the pike to make taverns a necessity. They were to be found every mile or two.
659
HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
Most of them were poor concerns, while others made comfortable stopping-places.
Henry McMillen had a cooper shop west of the Centre. It was an easy mat- ter to get out staves and make barrels from the fine, straight timber in which the forest abounded. Barrels, too, were in considerable demand in Lower Sandusky, · and Portland (now Sandusky), also a great many were used for shipping potash, which was extensively manufactured in the east part of this county.
Rollin Benson sold the first goods in the township. He brought with him from the East a stock of cotton fabrics and no- tions, also a barrel of whiskey, which was a necessary article of merchandise. When the whiskey, calicoes, muslins, etc., had been disposed of, the frontier merchant shut up store and moved away.
John Davenport was one of the first squatter settlers in the county. He lived on what is now known as the Nathan P. Bridseye farm, and then removed further north, where he entered land and died. His family went west. Davenport was the first postmaster in York, which was also the first post office in the east part of the county.
The Tuttles were early settlers of the southwest part of York and southeast part of Green Creek. They were of a sporting disposition, and often at raisings or log rollings demonstrated considerable com- bativeness.
The years 1824 and 1825 were sickly in York. Three of the prominent settlers were among the first to die. Mr. and Mrs. Longwell died in 1824, and Seth M. Murray in 1825.
Dr. L. Harkness was the physician for all this part of the country at that time. He found considerable difficulty in obtain- ing medicine. On one occasion he de- clared that he would give his horse for a bottle of quinine.
Oliver Comstock was an early settler on the North ridge, probably having come there before the land was in market.
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