USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vo. I > Part 17
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"The only place where we could get fruit at that time was at Whitecker's, below Fremont about two miles. Mrs. Whitecker was a widow and a captive of the Senecas. and she received this place by the treaty. One time her son James, stalled with his wagon near our house. and he had to abandon it. When he left he told me to tell the Senecas that the wagon belonged to him, and then they would not touch it.
"Sometime after we arrived here, I went up the river with
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Hiram Pike, who wanted to get a pair of shoes he had up there to get mended. We came to a little clearing of about two acres, in the midst of which was a cabin. £ Here the shoemaker lived. His name was Johnson, and his cabin the only one on the right bank of the river from the reservation far up towards the town of Mc- Cutchenville. It was situated where Jefferson and Perry streets cross. The first log heap that was burnt on the Tiffin side, was where the Commercial Bank now is, next lot north of the court house.
"Erastus Bowe lived near the old fort, on the west bank, and David Smith lived in a cabin, somewhere near or at the place where the Ohio stove works now are. Up the hill, near where McNeal's store now stands, there was an old Indian cabin, into which Mr. Agreen Ingraham soon after moved. Close by this cabin Mr. Milton McNeal soon after built his store, and he was the first mer- chant on that side of the river.
"William D. Sherwood entered six hundred and forty acres of land, including the farm afterwards owned by the Rev. John Souder and the Stoners. Sherwood built a cabin at the Souder place. There was no other house on the army road between the Sherwood cabin and Fort Seneca. Sherwood's wife died in this cabin, and was buried in the graveyard that was situated between the depot of the B. & O. Railroad in Tiffin.
"A man by the name of Keeler lived near the river bank. He had a family of six children ; he came from the state of New York and bought forty acres of land. The family suffered greatly with sickness. I don't remember what became of them.
"Alexander McNutt and his brother, Daniel MeNutt, were also here in 1819. Daniel had a family, and Alexander married a sister of Isaac I. Dumond.
"William Montgomery started a store in 1833, in a log cabin, in the village that is now called Fort Seneca.
"Eliphalet Rogers bought a farm near Wolf creek. He mar- ried Hannah Jackson, who had lived at Mr. Bowe's a long time. Rogers was an honest home-spun sort of a man. His farm became afterwards known as the Snook farm.
"Almon Rollins married Mary Sherwood. and Lorenzo Abbott married her sister Jeanette. The two couple were married at the same time. Jeanette was then only fourteen years old."
There is no other region of equal area within Ohio which pre- sents such a monotonous surface as the eighteen counties in the Maumee valley, commonly called the Black Swamp.
There is no portion of the entire valley which can be termed "hilly," yet there are portions in the northern part of Williams, which are undulating, yet not sufficiently so to merit the term
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"rolling." No where are hills to be found, but there are distinct outlines of ancient beaches.
La Salle in the report of his expedition of the year 1669, refers to this swamp as having once been a glacial lake, which has since been drained by the Aboite and Little River into the Wabash.
The west bank of the Sandusky river is said to be the eastern boundary of the Black Swamp.
In 1856, when a boy, the writer first passed through this region and made inquiries as to the location of the swamp, but it, like the "milk sickness," was usually located twenty miles back or thirty miles ahead. But he saw a number of theni, especially the kind they call "Cat Swamps" also low, marshy ground and muddy, slow- flowing streams. The Black Swamp, however, and the localities where the milk sickness was said to exist, the people always located elsewhere, as has been said.
But the Black Swamp of the long ago has largely disappeared, and its erstwhile bosom is now covered with fertile farms.
Hunting occupied a large portion of the time of the pioneers. Nearly all were good hunters, and not a few lived almost entirely for many years on the results of the chase. The woods supplied them with the greater amount of their subsistence and often the whole of it; it was no uncommon thing for families to live several months without a mouthful of bread of any kind. It frequently happened that the family went without breakfast until it could be obtained from the woods.
The fall and early part of the winter was the season for hunt- ing deer, and the whole of the winter, including part of the spring, for bears and fur bearing animals. It was a customary saying that fur was good during every month, in the name of which the letter "R" occurred.
As soon as the leaves were pretty well down, and the weather became rainy, accompanied with light snow, the pioneer hunter, who had probably worked pretty faithfully on his clearing during the summer, began to feel uneasy about his cabin home; he longed to be off hunting in the great woods. His cabin was too warm; his feather bed too soft; his mind was wholly occupied with the camp and the chase. Hunting was not a mere ramble in pursuit of game, in which there was nothing of skill and calculation; on the contrary, the hunter before setting out in the morning was in- formed by the state of weather in what situation he might reason- ably expect to find his game; whether on the bottoms or on the hillsides, or hilltops. In stormy weather the deer always seek the most sheltered places, and the leeward sides of the hills; in rainy weather when there was not much wind, they kept in the open woods, on high ground. In the early morning if pleasant, they were
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abroad, feeding in the hedges or swamp; at noon they were hiding in the thickets. In every situation, it was requisite for the hunter to ascertain the course of the wind, so as to get to leeward of the game. This he often ascertained by placing his finger in his mouth, holding it there until it became warm, then holding it above his head, and the side that first cooled off indicated the direction of the wind.
These hunters needed no compass; the trees, the sun, and stars took its place. The bark of an aged tree is much thicker and rougher on the north side than on the south; and the same may be said of the moss; it is much thieker and stronger on the north side than on the south side of the tree; hence he could walk freely and carelessly through the woods and always strike the exact point in- tended, while any but a woodsman would have become bewildered and lost.
Wolves were very troublesome to the pioneers of Seneca coun- ty. They made frequent visits to the early settlers, and some parts of the county were unenviable settlements on this account On the east side of the river these animals were particularly vicious, and for years after the organization of the county, hunters and trappers earned quite snug sums of money as bounty for wolf scalps.
On the 19th day of March, 1827. the commissioners passed a resolution authorizing the auditor to draw an order on the treasurer for the sum of two dollars extra, and in addition to the sum of four dollars paid by the state, for the scalp of every wolf killed in Seneca county. These beasts were very numerous here at that time, and a very great annoyance to the pioneers. It was almost impossible to keep any poultry, hogs or sheep. They would even attack and kill young calves.
One would naturally suppose that the wolves would flee from the approach of the settlers. but wild and shy as they naturally are, and however hard as it may be to get a shot at one in day time, yet they made themselves sociable about the cabins at night. Their howling at night, hideous as it sounds by itself, seemed to echo through the forest in long vibrations, especially in a dark, cold night of winter.
When the cold lasted any length of time, it was dangerous to be out after night without a torch, and domestic animals, unpro- tected, were sure to be killed. Wolves are afraid of fire.
They seemed to be more numerous in Seneca than in any ad- joining county, and were found most plenty along the Sandusky river, and along the several branches of Wolf creek, which was very appropriately named after them.
By the law of the state, four dollars were paid for wolf-scalps, and every county was authorized to add such additional sum to
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the four dollars as the commissioners would order. The counties adjoining Seneca refused to add any further sum to the state premium on scalps. and the two dollars added in Seneca became a great inducement to kill wolves in Seneca county. Money was exceedingly scarce in those days, and hard to get. The idea of raising six dollars in money for one wolf's-scalp, excited the skill and avarice of many a pioneer. Men would work on farms, at trades, at anything, a whole month for that much money and board -yes, and then very often take their pay in store goods, or other barter, at that.
The greater number of wolves that were killed were caught in traps made expressly for wolves. Those that were shot were comparatively few. The ingenious trapper was the most success- ful man to get the premiums on scalps.
These beasts were not only very numerous in Seneca county in the early settlement, but they were a great annoyance to the pioneers, for it was almost impossible to keep any poultry, hogs or sheep. They would even attack and kill young calves.
The wolves passed away gradually, and no longer did their wretched howling long drawn out make the nights hideous about the lonely cabin. Sheep could now be raised with greater safety, and wool and mutton were both highly valued.
The time to prepare for sugar making was in the early spring whenever the weather was favorable. For want of buckets, or other vessels to catch the sugar-water, troughs were made of various lengths and widths, from poplar, ash, sugar, elm, or other wood, by chopping the blocks of the required length and splitting them once in two. A dish was then chopped into the flat side. Some of the largest of these troughs would hold from one to two gallons. A hole was bored into the sugar tree some three feet above the ground, and a "spile," made of a one-year's growth from an elder bush, and with the pith taken out, was driven into the hole, in the tree, to conduct the sap into the trough. The sap was boiled down in big iron kettles suspended on a pole, held up by two forks fixed in the ground at a convenient place in the sugar camp. The time for this work generally commenced in February, when the frost began to come out of the ground and the sap to ascend. It often lasted away towards the latter part of March, when the ground froze hard during the night and thawed out the following day. This freezing and thawing time was considered good sugar weather. As the sap was boiling down, the impurities were nicely skimmed off. and when the sirup became so thick as to commence granulating, it was stirred with a paddle while the fire was allowed to go down. Those that preferred the sugar in Vol. I-10
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cake form poured the thick sirup into tin pans, when it became hard in a short time.
The first few weeks of the sugar season made the best sugar. Towards the last of the run the sirup refused to granulate, and was preserved in that form and answered the purpose of molasses.
If the weather was suitable, the Indians commenced their sugar making in February. As some of the elm bark will strip at this season, the squaws, after finding a tree that will do, cut it down and with a crooked stick, broad and sharp at the end, took the bark off the tree, and of this bark made vessels in a curious manner, that would hold about two gallons each; they made about one hundred of this kind of vessels. In the sugar tree they cut a notch, sloping down, and at the end where they stuck a toma- hawk, they drove a long chip, in order to carry the water out from the tree, and under this they set their vessel to receive it. As the sugar trees were plenty and large here, they seldom or never notched a tree that was not two or three feet over. They also made bark vessels for carrying the water that would hold about four gallons each. They had two brass kettles that held fifteen gallons each, and other smaller kettles in which they boiled the water. But as they could not at times boil away the water as fast as collected, they made vessels of bark that would hold about one hundred gallons each for retaining the water, and though the sugar trees did not run every day, they had always a sufficient quantity of water to keep them boiling during the whole sugar season.
The great meteoric shower, which is generally known as "the falling of the stars." occurred in the very early morning of Novem- ber 13, 1833, and is vet vividly recalled by the older citizens of Seneca county. In the historical sketch the late Jesse Bokart of Tiffin gave the writer of this work, a few weeks before his death, he describes the starry hailstorm as the grandest sight he ever be- held. Mr. Bokart's sketch appears in another chapter of this book. Upon the occasion of this phenomenon lights resembling stars were seen falling from about two o'clock until daylight, a period of three of four hours. The appearance was like a shower of stars, falling very rapidly. It is related that it was the most . charming and grandest sight ever presented to the vision of man.
One writer said that awakening from sleep, he sprang to the window, thinking the house was on fire, but that when he looked out he beheld stars like fiery bodies descending like torrents. The shed "in the adjoining yard to my own," he wrote, "was covered with stars, as I supposed, during the whole time." Professor Olmstead, of Yale College, thought that the exhibition was the finest display of celestial fireworks that had been witnessed since the creation of the world, although he, too, while knowing its
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character, was sufficiently imbued with the theological spirit of the time to believe that it was a solemn portent that carried a divine warning.
One writer whose comment upon this phenomenon was largely quoted said : "We pronounce the raining of fire which we saw on Wednesday morning an awful type, a forerunner, a merciful sign of that great and dreadful day which the inhabitants of the earth will witness when the sixth seal will be opened. Many things occurring in the earth tend to convince us that we are now in the latter days."
In 1834 news reached Tiffin that the Asiatic cholera was pre- vailing in Sandusky and that most of the cases had proved fatal. People in Tiffin became alarmed and expressed much concern on the subject. The wife of Constable John Hubble, who lived on Monroe street, died on the 19th of August. of that year. `The doctors did not give out much about the case, but it was rumored that cholera had caused her death. The next day the child of a German family died. The next night a Mr. Hoffman died of the disease. Now consternation and alarm spread over Tiffin and throughout the county. Business almost stopped and people stood around in groups discussing the matter. Some prepared to leave. Several other cases occurred within the next twenty-four hours. At the end of a week from the death of Mr. Hoffman, only seven families remained in Tiffin, the others had all left to try to escape the disease. Stores and other public houses were closed except Sneath's hotel. Coffins in those days were made by hand. and as only two persons remained who did work of the kind. they could not make coffins fast enough, and often rough boxes had to be used in their stead. One Sunday they made seven. Scarcely a man could be seen on the street. except the doctors, who were running hither and thither. Boards were nailed across the doors of many of the houses. The nights were made hideous by the bawl- ing of the cows and the howling of the dogs who had lost their masters and owners. A pioneer cabinet maker relates that they made eighty-six coffins in their shop in five weeks from the death of Mr. Hoffman. £ He further said that one Sunday morning an ox team came along Market street from the west, with a water . trough made out of a log. on a wagon, and a slab nailed over the top, going to the cemetery. Two men with a pick and shovel followed. They buried a man who had died of the disease west of Fort Ball.
In a log house at the southeast corner of Perry and Jefferson streets lived a family by the name of Dalrymple. They had a boy named Johnny, aged about thirteen, who had it twice. Dr. Dres- bach got him through one attack and he was on the streets again.
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As the weather became cooler with frosts the disease abated, and people began to return home with the hope that the cholera had left. Then the word came that the boy was dead. This was the last case in Tiffin that year. By the last of October all had returned.
The cholera returned to Tiffin in 1849, in 1852 and again in 1854, with less severity, however, except for a short time in 1854, when on one Sunday, sixteen corpses were counted on the Fort Ball side, where it raged with the greatest fury. On that day eleven dead were laid out at the hospital alone. All the doctors seemed to do their best, going day and night trying to relieve their patients. The Rev. Father Sullivan of St. Mary's church, was among the fearless. The greatest mortality was on the west side of the river.
The number of Seneca county settlers who became members of the Latter Day Saints church is uncertain. . Oliver Cowdery, a lawyer of Tiffin in an early day, was one of the better minds in the church.
Mr. Cowdery was born in the state of Vermont, on October 3, 1804. After he had acquired a common school education, he ap- plied himself with great industry to the study of the dead lan- guages, and became very proficent in several of them. He came to Ohio when a young man and read law at Painesville, Lake county, and was admitted to practice.
His unfortunate association with the Mormons blasted the high hopes and bright prospects of an otherwise promising career. Cowdery had much to do with the production of the Mormon bible. He was the best scholar among the leaders. Near the end of the Mormon bible is added the testimony of Oliver Cowdery as to the history of the "Golden Plates."
While others advocated the doctrine of polygamy, Cowdery opposed it, not only on moral grounds, but also, and principally because it was contrary to the great principles of Christianity, and above all, because it was opposed not only to the great demands of civilization but to the spirit of the free institutions of our coun- try. This opposition to polygamy brought Cowdery into conflict with the other leaders, and especially with Joe Smith; and while Cowdery gathered around himself the better and most intellectual element among the Mormons, Joe Smith became the leader of the coarser forces, with whom his great force of character soon made him very popular. The conflict came and Cowdery had to flee for his life, leaving his wife and two children behind him. Mrs. Cowdery's maiden name was Whitmer, and a sister of one of the Whitmers who figured as a leader. She was a beautiful woman. whose quiet nature, sweet temper and kind disposition won her friends wherever she was known.
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Mr. Cowdery was one of the brightest men among the Mor- mon leaders, and it would have been better for the church had his counsel and advice prevailed. He died in Missouri in 1848.
Mr. Cowdery came back to Kirtland. In the spring of 1840, on the 12th day of May, he addressed a large Democratie gathering in the street, between the German Reformed church of Tiffin and the residence of Mr. Graff. He was then on a tour of exploration for a location to pursue his profession as a lawyer, having entirely abandoned and broken away from his connections with the Mor- mons. In the fall of the same year he moved with his family to Tiffin and opened a law office on Market street.
Mr. Cowdery was an able lawyer and a great advocate. His manners were easy and gentlemanly ; he was polite, dignified, and yet courteous. He had an open countenance, high forehead, dark brown eyes, Roman nose, clenched lips and prominent lower jaw. He shaved smooth and was neat and cleanly in his person. He was of light stature about five feet, five inches high, and had a loose easy walk. With all his kind and friendly disposition, there was a certain degree of sadness that seemed to pervade his whole being. His association with others was marked by the great amount of in- formation his conversation conveyed and the beauty of his musical voice. His addresses to the court and jury were characterized by a high order of oratory, with brilliant and forensic force. He was modest and reserved, never spoke ill of any one, never complained. He left Tiffin with his family for Elkhorn, in Wisconsin, in 1847 where he remained but a short time and then moved to Missouri where he died in 1848.
TRI-COUNTY PIONEER ASSOCIATION.
A called meeting of the pioneers of Seneca county was held in the City Hall, Tiffin, on February 22, 1869, for the purpose of organizing a pioneer association, and a constitution was adopted and the following officers elected : President, Dr. Henry Kuhn; vice president, Philip Seewald ; secretary, William Lang; treasurer, Lyman White.
Regular meetings were held thereafter for several years, which were hightly interesting, for many of the old settlers related in- cidents of pioneer life in Seneca county that were both pleasing and interesting.
The following is a list of the members, showing the time and place of birth, and time of location of each in this county :
Mrs. Ann E. Seney ; born in Pennsylvania September 13, 1803, (dead) ; located at Tiffin November 26, 1831.
Mrs. Nancy Ellis; born in Fairfield county, Ohio, October 14, 1805; located at Eden, October, 1820.
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Mrs. Margaret Campbell; born in Frederick county, Maryland, July 12, 1798, (dead) ; located at Tiffin September 30, 1830.
Mrs. Sally Frary ; born in Champaign county, Ohio, February 4, 1811; located at Fort Seneca, November 19. 1819.
Mrs. Elizabeth Snook; born in Champaign county, Ohio, March 1, 1813; located at Fort Seneca, November 19, 1819.
Mrs. Sarah Huss; borr in Berkley county Virginia, February 27, 1796, (dead) ; located at Tiffin, September, 1825.
Mrs. Elizabeth Kridler; born in Allegheny county, Pennsyl- vania January 18, 1798; located at Tiffin. February, 1831.
William Toll; born in Augusta county, Va., October 11, 1801, (dead) ; located at Tiffin, October 3, 1824.
Benjamin Pittenger ; born in Frederick county, Md., January 29, 1798; located at Tiffin, December 5, 1825.
John Souder; born in Lancaster county, Pa., November 26, 1799; located at Clinton, June 17, 1826.
L. A. Hall; born August 30, 1813; located at Tiffin, May 5, 1833.
Morris P. Skinner ; born in Franklin county, Pa., July 1, 1811; located at London, June, 1833.
James M. Stevens; born in Erie county, N. Y., December 31, 1816; located at Eden, November 13, 1827.
Daniel Cunningham; born in Baltimore, Md., March 5, 1804; located at Tiffin, July 19, 1834.
Samuel Kridler ; born in Bedford county, Pa., March 28, 1800; located at Tiffin, November 3, 1823.
Jacob Boner; born in Frederick county, Md., May 2, 1809; located at Tiffin September 19, 1826.
Lance L. Todd; born in Frederick county, Md., January 7, 1806; located at Scipio, August, 1828.
Christ. C. Park; born in Northumberland county, Pa., October 4, 1829; located at Tiffin, 1830.
Mrs. Jane Dewalt; born in Northumberland county, Pa., April 5, 1815; located at Tiffin, April, 1824.
Mrs. S. B. Baker; born in Center county, Pa., July 11, 1806; located at Bloom, October 11, 1821.
David B. King; born in Butler county, Pa., January 2, 1809 ; located at Tiffin, May, 1830.
Mrs. Ann Elizabeth Clark; born in Northumberland county, Pa., January 11, 1797 ; located at Tiffin, October 12, 1830.
Mrs. Polly Stewart; born in Cayuga county, N. Y., April 6, 1806; located at Eden, 1821.
George L. Keating; born in Muskingum county, Ohio, Septem- ber 8, 1824; located at Pleasant, January 13, 1825.
James Boyd; born in Center county Pa., January 27, 1805, (dead) ; located at Bloom, April 11, 1822.
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Lewis Baltzell; born in Frederick county, Md., November 29, 1800; located at Tiffin, July, 1829.
Abel Rawson; born in Warwick county, Mass., May 11, 1798; located at Tiffin, February 15, 1826.
William Lang; born in Palatinate, Bavaria, December 14, 1815; located at Tiffin, August 18, 1833.
Lorenzo Abbott; born in Worcester county, Mass., January 18, 1802; located at Pleasant, March, 1822. .
James Dornan ; born in Washington county, Pa., July 4, 1796; located at Tiffin, May 21, 1828.
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