USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio, containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, school, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 79
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SCHOOLS.
The first school in the township, known as District No. 7, was founded shortly after the arrival of the Bolin family, with Elisha Bolin, first teacher. He is now a resident of Wabash, Ind.
The election to decide the question of selling school lands. Section 16, Thompson Township, was held April 6, 1846. John Bunn, Jr., John Heater and James Bolin were judges. The vote stood 127 for sale, and seven against. The record of sale of Section 16, Range 17, Township 3, which took place February 26, 1847, is as follows: Peter Stetler, east half of the southeast quarter; Henry Engle, west half of the southeast quarter; John Heater, east half of the southwest quarter, and west half of the southwest quarter; Henry Engle, west half of northwest quarter; John Royer, east half of the northwest quarter and west half of the northeast quarter: John Heater, Jr., east half of the northeast quarter. The sum realized from sale was $11,090.
The condition of the schools of Thompson Township on August 31, 1884, is given in the following statistics: Number of male pupils enrolled, 232; of females, 226; total, 458. Schoolhouses, S; value of property, $12,000; num-
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ber of teachers, 16: average salaries, $44 and $23: local tax, $2,584.>3; total revenue, $5,369.51 : expenditures, $2, 910.05.
Conrent of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood was founded here in 1844. when the sisters took charge of the schools that year, and established the orphanage, which institution was transferred to New Riegel in 1859. To Rev. Sales Brunner the credit is given for establishing this convent here. His mother was the founder of this branch of the order, and the sisters, who came from Switz- erland in 1844, left the mother house at Father Brunner's request, to continue their good works of charity in the then wilds of northwestern Ohio. The new buildings. commenced in 1883, were completed in 1885. The Convent of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, in Thompson Township, claimed fifty- nine sisters in 1847. The monastery of the same order in that township con- tained twenty-four members.
St. Michael's School, dating back to 1844. claims a large number of pupils. The building is a brick structure, containing two commodious school rooms.
ORPHANAGES.
St. Michael's Orphan Asylum was founded, in 1844, by Rev. Sales Brunner, with the Sisters of Charity. from Switzerland. Europe. in charge. The orphans were transferred in 1859 to the larger house at New Riegel.
Ebenezer Orphan Asylum, of the Evangelical Association of North America. was incorporated March 19. 1868. with George F. Spring, L. Scheurman, D. Strohman, Abner Niebel and William Negele. trustees. This asylum is de- nominational and well conducted. Its location is just on the southern border of Flat Rock Village.
GENERAL STATISTICS.
The assessment of Thompson Township. in 1841. gives the following figures: 23.049 acres of land. valued at $70.652: town lots. none; 293 horses, valued at $11. 720; 669 cattle, valued at $5,352: total value. 887,724: total tax, $1,337. 79; delinquencies, $76.70.
The valuation and taxation of Thompson Township for 1884-85 present the following statistics: 23,391 acres of land. valued at $928,030, and personal property at $197,980, aggregating $1,126.010. The total taxes in 1885 amount to $11,814.56, with $201 dog tax. The population in 1880 was 1.901.
The predial statistics of Thompson Township for 1884, are 6,610 acres of wheat; 1 acre of rye, 27 bushels; 24 acres of buckwheat, 145 bushels; 1.748 acres of oats, product about 78.624 bushels: 13 acres of barley; 2,366 acres of . corn. product (shelled) about 84.000 bushels; 697 acres of meadow, 855 tons of hay; 1,854 acres of clover, 2.387 tons of hay, 1,SSS bushels of seed and 86 acres plowed under: 192 acres of potatoes. yielding 20,935 bushels; 62,600 pounds home made butter; 5 acres of sorghum produced 518 gallons of syrup; maple syrup, 10 gallons; 155 hives. 953 pounds of honey; 65.460 dozens of eggs; 1 vineyard. 150 pounds of grapes, 96 gallons of wine; 1 acre sweet potatoes. yielding 187 bushels; 454 acres of orchards, 3,080 bushels of apples, 103 of peaches, 122 of pears. 10 of cherries; acres of land owned and cultivated. 13,140: in pasture. 1,706; woodland, 2,539; waste land, 177; total acreage owned, 17,562; wool shorn in 1883. 3,567; milch cows. 595; dogs, 197: sheep killed and injured, 9; animals died of disease. 135 hogs, 95 sheep. 23 cattle and 15 horses.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
VENICE TOWNSHIP.
T THIS township, including the southern part of the "gore," was sur- veyed into quarter sections in 1820, by Price J. Kellogg, and the lands offered for sale in 1821. Venice formed a part of Thompson Township from 1820 to 1829, when it was established a separate township and organized as such. The year of its organization the population was confined to families of the officers elected in 1829, and perhaps a few others named in the pioneer section of this chapter. In 1840 the census places the number of inhabitants at 1,222; in 1850, at 1,830; in 1860, at 2,013; in 1870, at 1,781, increased in 1880 to 2,231, and in 1885 to 2,600 (estimated). In 1880 Attica Village claimed a population of 663, which number has been added to considerably during the last five years. The name Venice was suggested by Johnson Ford to memorialize his home in Cayuga County, N. Y.
Honey Creek enters the county in fractional Section 1'9 and flowing in a tortuous course west by north, through the old settlement of Caroline, leaves the township in Section 6. A few small creeks are found both north and south of Honey Creek.
The Columbus and Sandusky pike road runs diagonally through the town- ship from Attica Station, a mile north of the old village of Attica, through Caroline to Carrothers. The petition of Ezra Gilbert, presented to the county board in November, 1828, prayed for the establishment of a road beginning at the town line, two and one-half miles west of Attica, and running south by east so as to intersect the New Haven road. three and one-half miles east of Attica, near the line of Huron County. The petition was granted, the line was at once surveyed by David Risdon, and cut through or underbrushed by Ezra Gilbert. Johnson Ford and Samuel Halsted, within six days.
The Northwestern Ohio Railroad runs through the southwestern sections, while the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad passes across the extreme northeastern corners of fractional Section 6 and Section 1.
The lands are fertile, and the face of the country just sufficiently rolling to confer on it a beauty and utility which could not belong to a level country.
Organic and Official. - This township was established in 1829 (vide Trans- actions of the Commissioners' Board, Chap. IV.), and the first election held June 13, that year. Thomas West, Ezra Gilbert and Moses Smith were chosen trustees; Philip E. Bronson, clerk; James Halsted, treasurer; Henry Speaker. Elisha Fair, overseers of the poor; Cornelius Gilmore and Ezra Gilbert. fence viewers; and Warren Blakesly, constable.
From this date to 1854 the township shares with many other divisions of the county in the loss of old record books. Those old books alone could tell the story of each annual election, and to the fact of their being lost or de- stroyed, rather than to any carelessness on the part of the present township clerk, who made out the following list, or the historian, must be attributed the quarter century break in the official history. Many of the men referred to in the pioneer section of this chapter will be identified as sharing in the local
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government of the township in early days. The following list contains the names of township officers from 1854 to 1885:
1854. - Franklin Gray, Henry Meyers, James Hanna, trustees; James Mc- Manigal, clerk.
1855 .- J. W. Carson, William Sourwine, James Hanna, trustees; James McManigal, clerk.
1856 .- H. N. Chase, Hiram Royce, Samuel Weaver, trustees; James Mc- Manigal, clerk.
1857 .- James Hanna, Jehu Lozier, M. E. Crow, trustees; James McMan- igal, clerk.
1858-59 .- William Sourwine, Christ Link, Stephen Friedley, trustees; S. A. Ringle, clerk.
1860 .- Charles Guyer, Christ Link, Stephen Friedley, trustees; S. A. Rin- gle, clerk.
1861. Henry Smith, E. W. Tink. Stephen Friedley, trustees; S. A. Rin- gle, clerk.
1862. - Henry Smith, Frederick Steigmeyer, Stephen Friedley, trustees; S. A. Ringle, clerk.
1863 .- Peter Basore, F. Steigmeyer, Stephen Friedley, trustees; S. A. Rin- gle, clerk.
1864. Peter Basore, F. Steigmeyer, Mathias Carrothers, trustees; S. A. Ringle, clerk.
1865-66. Peter Basore. F. Steigmeyer, Samuel Bemenderfer, trustees; S. A. Ringle, clerk.
1867. Peter Basore, Joseph Friedley, Franklin Gray, trustees; F. H. Steigmeyer, clerk.
1868 .- David Ringle, Joseph Friedley, J. D. Sumerlin, trustees; David McManigal, clerk.
1869 .- David Ringle, Jr., Samuel Speaker, J. D. Sumerlin, trustees; S. A. Ringle, clerk.
1870 .- David Ringle, Jr., Wallace Olds, J. W. Carson, trustees; W. M. Miller, clerk.
1871 .- Michael Steinmetz, Joseph Huffman, William Everingim, trustees; W. M. Miller, clerk.
1872 .- Michael Steinmetz, G. W. Lemmon, H. F. Myers, trustees; Ed. Bemenderfer, clerk.
1873 .- Michael Steinmetz, Wallace Olds, Joseph Huffman, trustees; W. M. Miller, clerk.
1874 .- M. Steinmetz, Joseph Friedley, Lewis Bollinger, trustees; W. M. Miller, clerk.
1875. - William King, Joseph Friedley, I. A. Spencer, trustees; F. H. Steigmeyer, clerk.
1876 .- William King, David Ringle, Jr., I. A. Spencer, trustees; F. H. Steigmeyer, clerk.
1877 .- William King. David Ringle, Jr., H. J. Smith, trustees; F. H. Steigmeyer, clerk.
1878 .- George Gangheff, J. W. Steigmeyer, H. J. Smith, trustees; F. H. Steigmeyer, clerk.
1879 .- Michael Steinmetz, Fred. Wolfert, George Heabler, trustees; James L. Couch, clerk.
1880 .- David Holmes, Fred. Wolfert, George Heabler, trustees; James L. Couch, clerk.
37
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
1881 .- David Holmes, J. W. Link, George Heabler, trustees; James L. Couch, clerk.
1882. - David Holmes, J. W. Link, John F. Hoke, trustees; James L.
Couch, clerk.
1883 .- David Holmes, J. W. Link, John F. Hoke, trustees; James L. Couch, clerk.
1884. - David Holmes. J. W. Link, John F. Hoke, trustees; James L. . Couch, clerk.
The officers of Venice for 1885-86 are David Holmes, William King and John B. Wilhelm, trustees; James L. Couch, clerk; A. B. Brant, treasurer: J. T. Meyers, assessor; A. F. Lepper and Otto Blust, constables; James L. Couch and O. J. McPherson, justices of the peace.
Pioneers of Venice .- Half a century and eight years have elapsed since the pioneer of American civilization looked into the wilderness of Venice Town- ship, and called it his home. To Cornelius Gilmore, Johnson Ford, Samuel Halsted. the first road-makers, the first farmers, the first actual workers in the township, the special honors pertaining to pioneers are accorded. Although they first settled on the head waters of Honey Creek a full decade after the adventurous pioneers of Delaware County visited and settled on the Sandusky at Fort Ball, and eight years after the Welchs settled on lower Honey Creek, the honors are still due: for then the beautiful district, now called Venice. was a wilderness, unvisited by the pioneers of other parts of the county and indeed unheard of by them. In the following pages the writer has made an effort to group all the pioneers together, and speak of each so far as authentic accounts permit.
John Armatage settled here in 1829, coming that year from Maryland, where he was born in 1806.
John Barrick settled in Seneca County in 1834 .... Joel Billings settled here in 1829 .... Lewis Bollinger (deceased), born in Germany in 1825, came from Stark County, Ohio. to this county in 1844. settling in this township.
Jeremiah Carpenter and Charles D. and Emeline (Michener) Carpen- ter-former born in 1823, died in 1868, latter born in 1830, died in 1873. parents of William A. Carpenter-were early settlers .... Samuel and Eliza- beth (Wiloughby) Carson, natives of Pennsylvania, father of J. W. Carson. came to this county in 1835, and here died at advanced ages. . .. Robert Car- son, grandfather of J. W. Carson, came to the county at an early date and here died in 1836. His wife died same year .... H. M. Chandler came from Connecticut in 1838. .. . Matthew J. Clark, who died January 4, 1882, in his fifty-sixth year, was an old settler of Venice Township. He moved to Tiffin many years ago .... Jacob Cook settled here in 1829. ... H. B. Courtwright, in 1832. ... James Madison Crabbs, father of Cyrus N. Crabbs, came here at an early date .... Samnel Croxton settled here in 1829.
Stephen and Magdalena Dick came from Alsace, Germany (then France), to this country in 1830; lived twenty-two years in this and seventeen in Bloom Township, finally locating in Thompson Township in 1872. Stephen Dick died in 1876; his widow resides near Frank's Corners.
Jacob Ebersole, born in Pennsylvania in 1807, has resided here since 1834. . Gov. Edwards settled here in 1829.
Elisha Fair settled here in December, 1828 .... Philip and Christina (Kerner) Falter, natives of Germany, came thence to Seneca County, in 1833; former died in 1842. J. B. Falter, their son, also a native of Germany. born in 1826, lives in Venice Township .... Philip Falter. born on mid-ocean in 1823 (his parents being on their way from Germany to the United States, and who
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VENICE TOWNSHIP.
died in Venice Township), married Miss Elizabeth Houck, and they then came to Venice Township, where they both died, in 1872. ... Johnson Ford. born in Rensselaer County, N. Y., June 9, 1796, came to Seneca County in 1828. from Cayuga County, N. Y., and. purchasing 160 acres of land, where Attica Village now stands, entered on pioneer work in the wilderness. His neighbor, Cornelius Gilmore. settled in the township the year before, and a few others came in 1829. Mr. Ford opened the first farm in Venice Township, clearing, plowing. and sowing the seed himself. His wife. Esther, died March 19. 1829. and her remains had to be carried to the Scipio Cemetery. Shortly after he revisited New York State, and there married a second time; returning with his bride to the wilderness. In 1833 or 1834 he was appointed superintendent of the Union Sunday-school, succeeding John Martain, and this position he held until 1858 or 1859; when the Presbyterian Church was organized in October, 1833, he was ordained an elder. He and Ezra Gilbert suggested the name Attica for the present village in 1829, and the same year he gave the name of Venice to the township. For over half a century he has made the township his home and shared in every effort to develop it .... J. J. Friedley and his father, Ludwick Friedley, a Pennsylvanian, settled here in 1838, latter dying in 1871. Barbara (Link), wife of J. J. Friedley, born in Germany, came when two years old with her parents, who were among the first settlers of Seneca County. It is stated on other authority that this family came in 1833.
Cornelius Gilmore was the first settler and first blacksmith in Venice Town- ship, having settled here in June, 1827. where O. J. McPherson's house now stands, on the south bank of Honey Creek. About 1832 Mr. Gilmore removed the Caroline postoffice. when a new office was established at Attica .... The first road in the township, from a point two and a half miles west of Attica to the Huron County line. was cut through in November, 1828, by Ezra Gilbert, Johnson Ford and Samuel Halsted, and a year later Ezra Gilbert erected his cabin where the Ford & Stranler hardware store of Attica's later days stands. Ezra Gilbert settled here in April, 1829, and was the first postmaster. and first settler on the site of Attica.
James Hanna, born in Pennsylvania in 1804, came to Venice Township in 1834 .... Samuel Halsted settled here in August. 1828 .... The Hamiltons were here in 1845. ... Samuel Harper, a soldier of the Revolution, an Irishman. was buried in Sycamore Township in 1821 .... Samuel Hawk was here in 1835 .... George Heabler, Sr., a native of Pennsylvania. located in Venice Township in 1835, bringing his son George, of Attica and Tiffin .... George Herr came from Germany in 1852 .... John Hillis. a native of Ireland, came direct from his native land to Seneca County, settling in Venice Township in 1846, dying in 1875. ... John Holmes. born in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1807. came here in an early day, and now resides with his son, David .... Samuel and Charles Hoyt settled here in 1854. Samuel died in 1872. Charles resides in Wyandot County .... J. W. Huffman, born in Columbiana County. Ohio. in 1837, was brought by his parents, Jacob and Catharine (Weaver) Huffman, to Venice Township in 1839; Jacob Huffman died in 1855. .... Michael Hull, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1807, came to this county in 1834, settling on 560 acres of land on Section 7 of Venice Township, where he still resides. . . . Mi- chael and Barbara (Free) Hull, parents of George F. Hull, were early settlers of this township, where Michael Hull now resides.
Thomas Kemp, born in Pennsylvania in 1813, came with his parents, David and Sarah (Ward) Kemp, to Venice Township in an early day .... David J. Kelly was here in 1849.
John C. and Christianna (Eichenhofer) Lebold, parents of Jacob F.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
Lebold, all natives of Germany, came from Tuscarawas County, Ohio, in 1842, to Section 16, this township, where John C. still resides. . .. Avery Leonard, born in Pennsylvania in 1798, came here with his family in 1834 .... John Lepard was here in 1831 .... Jacob and Maryann (Gerling) Link, natives of Germany, came to this county in 1838, the former dying in 1841. Their son, J. W. Link, born on the ocean, when his parents were on their way to America, resides in Venice Township .... John Lozier came in 1853.
J. McCarty and Daniel McCarty, natives of Ireland, settled here about 1832 or 1834 .... John and Elizabeth (Hannah) McClelland, natives of Penn- sylvania, settled here in 1836 .... James Mckibben came here in June, 1830. .... James B. Mckibben, a Pennsylvanian, was here in 1832 .... William McPherson settled in Venice Township in November, 1828. He was born in Scotland in 1793 .... Henry and Rebecca (Free) Meyers, former a native of Switzerland, born in 1808, were early pioneers of the county. Mr. Meyers came in 1835, a comparatively poor young man, and at his death in 1884 he owned over 2,000 acres of land .... Nathan Merriman settled in Venice in 1829. ... The Metcalf family settled here previous to 1836. . . . John M. Miller, a native of Germany, father of Paul Miller, immigrated to America in 1832; resided about four years in Medina County, Ohio, and then settled per- manently in this county. He died in 1884. ... Maurice and Hannah (Davis) Moore-former a native of New Jersey, born in 1797; latter a native of Wales, born in 1800 - came to the county in 1834, settling in Venice Township. They died in 1883 .... Andrew Moore settled here in 1830; died in 1846. His widow died in 1880. ... Philip Muck settled in Venice in 1829. ... Jacob and Fanny (Werder) Myers (or Meyers), natives of Switzerland, came to Ohio in 1829 and to this county in 1831. Their son. Henry F. Myers, also a native of Switzerland, born in 1822, came with them and is a farmer here .... Henry Meyers, "Tailor Meyers," as he was known to all, was born in village of Ober- endengen, Switzerland, April 26, 1807; died at Attica in July, 1884. In 1835 he brought the first $5 in gold ever seen in Tiffin, and also purchased the first mowing machine and the first grain drill in Venice Township. Five years after he came to Seneca County, on July 11, 1840, he was married. After working six years for one man at his trade in Philadelphia, he left there on the 10th of July, 1835. and came by canal to Sandusky, Ohio, arriving on the 29th of the same month, and walked to Attica on the old turnpike, where he had previously purchased wild land. For six years after his arrival in Seneca County he worked at his trade in Tiffin, after which he worked for five years in the village of Attica, using his money thus earned for the improvement of his land.
Jacob Newkirk settled in Venice in 1831 .... Leonard and Mary (Hachter) Noble, natives of Germany, former born in 1822, latter in 1829, came the year they were married (1852) to Venice Township, and some time after moved to Reed Township, where Mr. Noble died in 1871.
Mrs. Cathrine Olds died at the residence of her son, Wallace Olds, three and one half miles west of Attica, July 18, 1878, aged seventy one years, five months and thirteen days. Mrs. Olds was one of the old pioneers of Seneca County, having resided here forty-two years.
William Pollinger, a Pennsylvanian, came in 1855.
Jeremiah Rex (vide Chapter V) .... S. H. Ringle, an Ohioan, was here in 1832 .... Stephen Rogers, a native of England, came to America in 1818, and to this county in 1837. John Rogers, a pioneer farmer of the county, born in France in 1819. is a son of his .... David Roop settled here in 1829 .... Aaron Rush, an old settler of Venice Township, died in 1837.
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VENICE TOWNSHIP.
Jacob Schaaf. who came from Germany in 1829. is an old settler here .... Sebastian Senn. a native of Switzerland, born in 1828, came in 1838 with his father, who settled on a farm in this county .... Samuel Shade, Sr .. born in 1800, purchased. in 1834. 300 acres of timber land in Venice Township; he came from Columbiana County, Ohio; died at Tiffin in 1872. Samuel Shade, his son, resides in Eden Township .... J. L. Shirey came from Pennsylvania in 1844. ... Christian Shuly, a native of Pennsylvania came in 1856 .... Ludwig Shoup came from Germany in 1854. ... George Sillman, father of Mrs. Michael Kirchner, of Tiffin. came from Germany and settled in Venice Township about 1833. . .. Martin Smeltz. a native of Germany. was among the early settlers of this county. ... John and Mary (Weaver) Smith. natives of Pennsylvania, par- ents of Martin Smith. of Venice Township. came to the county in 1838, and settled in this township. where John Smith died in 1882. ... Jacob and Cath- arine (Myers) Smith. natives of Switzerland, parents of Mrs. Norman Benham, of Scipio Township. came to America in 1827. and in course of time were early settlers of Venice Township .... Jeremiah Smith, born in Bedford County, Penn., February 18, 1818, came to Seneca County in 1834, and died here January 5, 1885. ... Eli Snow, Cold Creek (see story of the Indian "Pumpkin" ). . Henry Speaker, Jr., settled here in 1829, and erected the first saw-mill in 1831 .... Samuel and Hannah (Harper) Speaker, parents of Samuel Speaker, came in 1840: Samuel died in 1868 .... Huckins Spencer, born in Maine. father of I. A. Spencer, of Venice Township, settled in this county in 1834. ... Frederick Steigmeyer. a native of Switzerland, came from Pennsylvania to Seneca County in 1836 .... John Steigmeyer. father of Mrs. John B. Blum. was a native of Switzerland. born in 1811: he settled, in 1835. two miles west of Attica. where he still resides. . . . Martin and Elizabeth (Lang) Steinmetz, parents of Mrs. J. B. Falter, natives of Alsace. came to Seneca County about 1833 .... M. C. Steinmetz, born in France in 1829, came with his parents, Martin and Elizabeth (Baltz) Steinmetz, from France to America about 1831, and to Venice Township about 1837 .... James D. Stevenson, a native of Ver- mont. settled here in 1838, died in Michigan in 1865. ... John A. Stephenson. father of Prof. William H. Stephenson, of Attica, and a native of Pennsylvania. settled in Venice Township in 1831 .... E. P. Sutton, known as "Pomeroy" Sutton. an old resident of Attica. died December 27, 1879, at New Washing- ton .... Lester Sutton came from New York State in 1852.
John Tompkins, a native of New York, came in 1835. ... Peter Trumpler, a native of Bavaria, was among the early settlers of the township. .. . John Trumpler was here in 1841.
Samuel Weaver, father of E. Weaver, of Attica, was born in Maryland in 1822, and came among the early settlers to this county: he died in 1863. .. . . Martin S. Weaver, born in Pennsylvania in 1811. came here in 1833. ... Thomas West settled in Venice in October, 1828 .... James Willoughby, who owned the northwest quarter of Section 34 in 1829, died in 1835. ... Jacob Wise, a Penn- sylvanian. settled here in 1828 .... Samuel Wise, a native, was here in 1837. . John and Samuel Woolet settled here in 1829 .... Christian and Hannah (Lehman) Worm came into the county from Germany in 1833.
Early Industries .- Henry Speaker's saw-mill was erected between Caroline and Attica in 1831. The power was supplied by oxen. The first grist-mill and carding mill was established in 1832. This was simply a conversion of Speaker's old saw-mill. The Metcalf Steam Saw-Mill was erected in 1836 by Ebenezer and George Metcalf. close to the spot on which the Heabler Mill was afterward built. The fire of March, 1840, destroyed this building. The Kin- naman Steam Saw & Grist-Mills were erected at Caroline by Peter Kinnaman,
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