USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 26
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Up to about his seventy-fifth year his step was permanent and regu-
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lar, and his carriage wonderfully straight for one of his age. From that time onward the increasing years wrought their mark upon his powerful frame. On a pleasant day he would walk with short steps about town, in his double gown, with a stick in his hand, dragging his shoes, tramped down at the heels, often with his smoking cap on and smoking his familiar short pipe-the very picture of a comfortable sunset after a long, summer day.
In stature Mr. Hedges was a little over six feet high, and well proportioned. His carriage was very straight, his movements and gestures, as well as his conversation, very decided. He had nothing of suavity or "blarney" about him. He was very economical with his words in business transactions, and would say no more than was neces- sary to accomplish the work in hand. His intercourse with men, while it was pleasant enough in business, and utterly void of offense, yet bore that peculiar, almost indescribable, natural aristocracy that so much characterizes the true Virginia gentleman of the olden school. His voice was clear, a little metalic, and on a rather high note for so large a person. He had a fine forehead, a sharp, small, black eye, a promi- nent nose, not very large, clenched lips, high cheek bones, heavy lower jaw, and in his tout ensemble was the very image of firmness and decision.
CHANGE.
"O'er us, we scarce know whence or when A change begins to steal, Which teaches that we ne'er again As once we felt, shall feel. A curtain, slowly drawn aside. Reveals a shadowed scene Wherein the future differs wide From what the past has been."
The law of change is stamped and deeply imprinted upon all earthly things. The bud that opens its leaves into a flower, to greet the first rays of the rising sun, gives up its glory to the gentle zephyr at noon, and is gone. The towering oak, that defied the storms and wintry blasts for centuries, finally yields to the demands of nature and crum- bles its substance to the earth from whence it sprung. The rocks and hills submit to the wear and tear of the seasons, and change form, under the law of disintegration. "Seneca county no longer wears the beauty of her pristine grandeur. Its noble forest is broken and gone, and with it the wild aborigines and still wilder beasts. The drift-wood
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CHANGE.
·is removed from the river and the creeks, the streams are gradually becoming more nearly straight, and the great swales are nearly all laid dry by judicious ditching. Rich crops reward the labors of the hus- bandman, and the shouts and songs of happy children have taken the place of the hideous howling of the wolf and the roaring of the ravenous panther. The echo of the woodman's axe has made way for the shrill whistle of the steam-factory and the locomotive, and thou- sands of happy, prosperous and intelligent people worship God in splendid meeting houses, erected where the blue smoke of the council fires of the Indians rose in curling clouds over the tree tops. The trail of the Indian is wiped away by public roads that bring market to every door.
And so has Tiffin yielded to the law of change. There is no trace left of the few cabins that first marked the place called Tiffin. They have passed away like the stakes the surveyor drove into the ground among the trees to show the width of the streets and alleys that were to be.
Many reasons may be assigned for the fact that Seneca county settled up more rapidly than any other county in northwestern Ohio; and among these may be enumerated the rich soil and splendid timber; its water-privileges and water supply; its excellent drainage and accessi- bility to market; its inexhaustible quantity of building stone, its cli- mate, etc., etc.
And shall we not give the pioneers of Seneca county great credit for their sagacity, at least, in selecting this spot for their new homes, when, in the lifetime of many of us who are still here, and before our own eyes, this county threw off its mantle of forest wild, and became the first wheat-growing county of the great state of Ohio, both in acreage and number of bushels produced to the acre? What a change!
In the preceding chapters, the attention of the interested reader was directed to things of a general nature, affecting nearly all parts of the county alike. Hereafter, local affairs will enlist the services of the old goose-quill, and an effort will be made to describe men and things in their individual localities.
Let us commence with Tiffin, and starting with her in the woods, on the banks of the turbid Sandusky, trace her to the spring-time of 1880. Then let us take up the further progress of each township, without any particular attempt at order, locating and naming the old settlers, and describing some of them as their neighbors knew them-thus, if possi- ble, obtaining a bird's-eye view of Seneca county generally, with its happy thousands and its various industries. 16
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
The first plat of Tiffin contained 118 lots-each block of 12 lots. facing four streets, with a cross alley tlfrough the center. It had three streets running east and west, viz: Perry, Market and Madison, starting near Rocky creek and ending near the river; and three streets running north and south, viz: Jefferson, Washington and Monroe, starting near the river, and ending at an alley 180 feet south of Madison street. The east end of this alley is now Tiffin street, and leads from Jefferson to the old cemetery.
This was Tiffin, with a little opening and a cabin where the gas works now are. Another was built soon thereafter, near where the Commer- cial bank now is, and another a little south of Naylor's hardware store.
This survey was made and the town platted before Seneca county was organized, as was before stated, and therefore the plat had to be recorded in the recorder's office of Sandusky county, which was done on the 28th day of November, A. D. 1821.
No change was made in the plat of Tiffin until 1831, on the 27th day of May, when Mr. Hedges had his southern addition to Tiffin surveyed and platted. This contained in-lots from 119 to 146, both inclusive, and out-lots from 1 to 12, both inclusive. The public cemetery was laid just north of out-lot No. ;. This addition was a string of lots. one on each side of Washington street, running south to the first alley now north of the. German Catholic church and the junction of the roads. The lots from both sides run endwise to the street. Not a single cross street intersects them to this day. Jefferson street and Monroe street were also extended south, the same distance through these out-lots.
The wonderful energy of Mr. Hedges, and his untiring industry, produced a saw mill, near Rocky creek, already mentioned. It stood near the mill race, and some thirty rods southeast of the point where Circular street intersects East Market. The dam was close by the saw mill-in fact, the water ran from the dam directly into the mill, without a head-race, and, after passing through the wheel, emptied into the creek again, so that the mill had neither head nor tail-race. A race, however, was constructed from this dam to the City Mill, still standing. This saw mill was built in 1826, and was run night and day to supply the great demand that was made upon it for lumber with which to build frame houses, and for other purposes. It became the center of attrac- tion, and looked like a bee-hive on a large scale while it lasted. Everybody was in need of boards, and had to have them.
Mr. Hedges, having so many irons in the fire, could give the saw mill no personal attention, and rented it to one Joseph Janey, and
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THE FIRST SAW MILL.
afterwards to my dear old friends, U. P. Coonrad and Christopher Y. Pierson. It was then a paying institution, and these two young carpen- ter partners made the saw mill count. They published a notice in the Seneca Patriot, in 1832, that one of the partners could be found at the hotel of Calvin Bradley. Bradley then kept the Center House, which will be noticed hereafter.
The saw mill burned away in the spring of 1833, and this ended the partnership with the mill. Neither was ever rebuilt, but the dam remained to supply the City Mill. The dam set the water back, far up Rocky creek, to the lands of Mrs. Nolan, and in summer time the water was covered with a green scum. The people, suffering so much from malarious diseases, concluded that the dam injured the health of the town, and importuned Mr. Hedges to remove it. He refused, how- ever, and finally suit was brought against him to compel him to move the dam.
At the trial, all the physicians in the town were witnesses, and testi- fied both for and against the dam. They had some trouble to satisfy the defendant's counsel and the court upon the material qualities of the malarious poison. One of the doctors, (who also did a little preaching with his practice, at times,) seemed to be very positive in his testimony. He said that miasma could be noticed in the air when it was quiet, early in the morning, by sunrise, in the form of a fine, blue streak interwoven with the fog. The writer did not know how it was, but heard both Drs. Dresbach and Kuhn say that they did not believe it. Mr. Hedges then put up a saw mill on the left bank of the river, opposite Hunter's mill. This also was kept in constant operation, and frame houses and shops sprang up in every direction, as by magic, for awhile.
Mr. Milton McNeal put up the first frame buildings on the Fort Ball side, which were his store and dwelling house. Mr. Hedges built the Masonic Hall and his frame residence. Mr. Richard Sueath put up his hotel on the ground now covered by the Grumund block. John and Benjamin Pettinger had a small stock of goods in a one and one- half story frame building that stood on the southwest corner of Washington and Market, about "twenty feet from Market, and about sixty feet from Washington, with the gable end eastward. Judge Pettin- ger lived in the west end with his family. Mr. Henry Cronise had a very handsome stock of goods in his two-story frame, hereafter described, on lot 68, now in the fourth ward, and where he lived with his family some time after he retired from public life, and when he moved to his beautiful home on south Washington street, where he died.
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Brick yards were now started; one in Fort Ball, and the other, by John Strong, at the south side of Tiffin street, near the east end, and which was kept in operation for many years thereafter.
In 1831, Patrick Kinney, Philip Hennessey and another Irishman whose name has escaped me, entered into a contract with Mr. Strong for the making of brick sufficient to build the first Catholic church in Tiffin, and became personally responsible for the payment.
The church was erected in the fall of that year, near the south side and east end of Madison street, opposite the old stone jail, and on the present old Catholic cemetery. It stood with the gable end towards the street, with a cupola at the north end of the roof. Its little bell was the first church bell in the county, and while its note was on a high key, it was pleasant to hear its cheerful echo through the woods.
The remainder of the brick from this kiln Mr. Strong sold to Mr. John Goodin, who built with them the first brick hotel in town, on lot No. 86, now owned by Mr. John Losser, in the fifth ward. This hotel was then considered a grand affair. The large fire-place in the bar room is there yet, but closed up. The porch of the second story, which extended clear over the pavement, and had a heavy roof over it, has passed away. The town council had it removed because it obstructed the view of the street; but it was the most conspicuous part of the hotel.
The M. E. Church on Market street; the store buildings of Henry Ebert (who is now lying a corpse at this writing, and will be buried to-day, April 2, 1880); John Park's store; a small, one-story brick immediately south of Sneath's hotel, where Mr. Andrew Glenn kept store, and the one-story, small brick school house, nearly opposite the old M. E. Church, were about all the brick buildings in Tiffin and Fort Ball, excepting the dwelling house of Dr. Kuhn, and the little 12x14 yellow brick on Sandusky street, which was Mr. Rawson's law office, and afterwards became the office of Drs. Dresbach and Carey.
There were no fractional lots in the first platting of Tiffin, and the spaces left between the lots and the river and Rocky creek, were laid off afterwards in numerous additions, named and numbered.
There was no bridge across the river, and none across Rocky creek. The streets were full of stumps and logs, and after the erection of the saw mills, the pavements in front of the houses were designated by slabs laid lengthwise. These answered a good purpose enough in the mud, but when the weather was dry, the slabs curled up and became great nuisances to fast walkers. Then would have been very appropriate 1 .- adoption of a rule that was introduced and put in force at an early
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THE FERRY-BREWERY-TANNERY.
day in the town of Lancaster, in Fairfield county. The town was troubled with much drunkenness, and every effort to arrest the evil seemed to be of no avail. Finally, an ordinance was adopted to make every man who was found drunk in town dig a stump out of the street in lieu of a fine. This plan worked well. It removed both stumps and drunkenness. Why not meet this evil of habitual drunkenness in a similar manner now, and make the vice a crime and punish it as such, instead of sympathizing with the drunkard, and keep firing away all the time at the retail dealer in liquors? Had Tiffin adopted the Lancaster rule, her streets would soon have made a better appearance.
The only way to get across the river at high tide, was to go down to the river bank, where, near the place now occupied by the barn of Dr. McFarland, there was a landing place for the ferry boat of Mr. George Park. The boat was an original dug-out, and the fare was two cents a trip. The Tiffin people had to go to Fort Ball to get their mail matter, and one man would fetch all the letters and papers for a whole neigh- borhood to some store on this side. As late as 1829, a thick woods back of the old fort, and extending up towards McNeil's store, prevented the view of the rival settlements from one to the other.
Mr. Park sold his ferry and the dug-out to Samuel Hoagland, who opened a little quarry on the left bank of the river, near the spring, to burn lime, and while he was thus engaged, he watched his chances for passengers. The sale of the lime, and the ferry, furnished him a comfortable livelihood.
Down by the river bank, on the ground now covered by the foundry buildings of Messrs. Loomis & Nyman, a Mr. Allen started a brewery, the first enterprise of this kind in the county, and produced a very palatable, light beverage. His beautiful wife officiated as clerk at the bar table. By some mishap or other, Mr. Allen and the brewery both vanished.
A Mr. Andrew Fruitchey had a tannery on the lot where the city hall now stands; and Messrs. John and Benjamin Pittinger had another where the gas works now are. Mr. Fruitchey died of cholera in 1834, one among the first cases in town.
Mr. Jacob Stem had a small store of goods in a small frame building near Mr. Ebert's, and soon thereafter formed a co-partnership with Mr. A. Lugenbeel, and the new firm opened up in a one-story frame building on the northwest corner of Washington and Market, where Simon Strycker's clothing store now is. Mr. R. W. Shawhan opened his first store in Tiffin on the south side of Market street, opposite the court house. The Commercial Row was built in the summer of 1835, and
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the Walkers and Masons opened up in it on a large scale. John Staub and Eli Norris were rival hotel keepers with Richard Sneath. George Park had a round-log-cabin hotel on Perry street, the first tavern in Tiffin. He afterwards put a two-story frame hotel on the lot now covered by the National Hall Block. Sometimes it was kept by Staub, and sometimes by Norris. Later on, Dr. James Fisher built the frame house on the northwest corner of Market and Monroe, where Staub kept tavern awhile. The building is now owned and occupied by Mr. Upton Flenner, who is also an old pioneer here.
Mr. Calvin Bradley built the Central House, in which he kept tavern himself, opposite the west part of the court house. Of all the older hotels in Tiffin, this is the only one remaining, and is now, and for a long time passed, has been, known as Remele's butcher shop.
This man Bradley was a wonderful man for energy and enterprise. He engaged in very many speculations, and while he kept hotel he also carried on the butchering business, selling meat twice a week. In 1832 he changed the name of his hotel to that of the Washington House. It had a high post in front, with a swinging sign on which was a golden lamb.
Edar and Bowe had a butcher shop in Fort Ball. They advertised fresh Meat for sale every Tuesday and Saturday. The market opened at the sound of the trumpet.
Where the Commercial House now stands, there was a two-story frame building occupied by Mr. James Mercer with his family, and in which he, in company with Mr. Henry Ebert, carried on the hatting business, manufacturing and selling hats. My brother Henry, the beloved pastor of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Fre- mont, learned the trade of hatter there, as the apprentice of Mr. Mercer.
Mr. Cronise's store contained a large stock of goods for that time, and like all other stores, was composed of all varieties of goods, such as dry goods, hardware, queensware and groceries.
One druggist advertised for sale at his stand, medicines, paints, oils, patent medicines, cross-cut saws, mill irons and tooth-ache drops.
In 1832, Mr. Cronise advertised that he would pay sixty-eight cents for flax-seed, in goods.
It was then, and for some time afterwards, very customary in Tiffin to keep molasses and whisky for sale at the stores. These articles were generally kept in the cellars. When farmers came in to trade, they were taken by the proprietor, or some clerk, into the cellar and treated to a glass of black-strap. This compound consisted of molasses and
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HENRY GROSS. 7
whisky-"'alf'-an'-'alf," as a Yorkshire man would say. Trading then went on as if nothing had happened. Sometimes a glassful was brought up with which to treat the ladies.
When, about 1836, Mr. Bradley put up the Western Exchange in the southern addition to Tiffin, on Washington street, it was considered a very hazardous enterprise. But he finished it, and kept hotel there. It is now occupied by Gray and Stevenson, as a tin-shop. Mr. Bradley kept the stage-office there, also. Standing at the crossing of Wash- ington and Madison, you had to look through the woods to see the hotel. There was great difficulty to get to it from the north by team, when the roads were muddy. 'It was south of the deep hollow, so called, washed out by the ravine that crosses Washington and enters the fourth ward sewer. Many a time the stage driver, with four horses, was compelled to stop two or three times on his way up the hill before he reached the Exchange. Henry Gross put up a two-story hewed log house on the north side of Perry street, where he lived with his family and carried on the gunsmith business, together with the repairing of clocks and watches, the first enterprise of the kind in town. Mr. Gross was the first man the writer saw in Tiffin. Coming along Perry street from the east, on the 18th day of August, 1833, in the afternoon, ahead of the wagon, I saw a man standing in front of a log house, dressed in a long, homespun, brown cloth overcoat, buttoned up to his chin, a cloth cap, with a ring of fur around it, on his head, and both hands in his pockets. His hair was already turning gray. He had a prominent nose, regular, manly features, large, blue eyes, and an expressive, but pale countenance. The afternoon was very hot, and this man, attired in that way, so riveted the attention of the writer that it was hard to turn his eyes from him. Approaching, and saluting him, (he spoke German) the writer enjoyed the first conversation he had in Tiffin. ' This was Mr. Henry Gross, the father of Samuel Gross, of Bloomville, and Bovard and Henry Gross, of Tiffin-the latter one of the most celebrated mechanical geniuses in the United States, and of whom some notice will be taken hereafter. The old gentleman was shaking with the ague while we talked-the first case I ever saw. The following year, however, sad experience taught me more about ague and fever.
Mr. Gross was from Juniata county, Pennsylvania, where he was married to Miss Jane Hunter, on the 7th day of February, 1809. From there he moved to Tiffin, and arrived here in 1831. He was born July 21, 1783, and died here in 1834. Mrs. Gross survived him a long time. She was born in February, 1781, and died here, January 16, 1865, aged eighty-four years and ten months.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
Jacob Plane was justice of the peace and postmaster on the Tiffin side, and lived in a two-story frame house that stood immediately south of where Marquart's drug store now stands.
Mr. Rawson had moved his law office to this side of the river. It was a small frame building that stood close by or about the place where Mr. H. Brohl now lives. Dr. Dresbach's office was a small, low brick building that stood on the alley immediately north of Fiege's cabinet warehouse.
The public square was full of logs and stumps. After Mr. Plane, Mr. Cronise had the post office in his building. Levi Keller had a black- smith shop a little north of Goodin's hotel, where Loomis' stone front now stands. Valentine and Philip Seewald put up a double hewed log house, away out of town, near the southern extremity of the southern addition to Tiffin. There Valentine carried on the gunsmithing and lockmaking business, and Philip the watch repairing and jewelry trade. They lived there for a long time, and until they bought the lot where the Rust block now is, and moved upon that, where they both lived until they died.
Mr. Andrew Lugenbul lived in a small brick house now embraced in the house of Mr. John Remele, on Madison street. Joseph Howard lived in a large frame house on the northwest corner of Washington and Madison. Esq. Keen lived, in 1833, where he does now. David E. Owen, the auditor, lived in a part of the house with Esq. Plane. Mr. Joshua Seney lived near neighbor to, and east of, Mr. Hedges, on the south side of Perry, where Mr. and Mrs. Seney both died. Dr. Kuhn lived on the lot where the new jail now stands. His old office is still in existence, and stands close by, unoccupied.
Immediately north of Mr. Rawson's old law office, in the brick house still'standing, lived widow Creeger, who had one son and quite a num- ber of beautiful, intelligent daughters. They were from Maryland. Theresa, the oldest daughter, was married to Judge Benjamin Pittinger, in Maryland, and they moved to Tiffin for a wedding tour. All the other girls were married here. Eleanor to Frederick Kridler, the chair- maker. They lived on the southwest corner of Jefferson and Market. Anna Margaret married J. W. Miller, the tailor. Uriah was next. The next in age was Louisa, who married Gen. John G. Breslin, the founder of the Seneca Advertiser. Josephine married Mr. B. Pennington, the photograph artist, and Martha, the youngest, is the wife of Gen. Wm. H. Gibson. Mrs. Pennington and Mrs. Gibson are all that are now living of the Creeger family.
William Campbell had a cabinet shop on Madison street, some where
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THE AUTHOR'S APPRENTICESHIP.
near Esq. Bloom's residence. He married a Mrs. Staley, a widowed sister of Dr. Kuhn, who had several children, of whom the late Mrs. McFarland, formerly the wife of my venerable and distinguished friend, Dr. McFarland, was the oldest. She was a beautiful woman, highly accomplished, and much esteemed.
It is a most remarkable fact that Tiffin, in former days-yes, and all along until quite recently-had more beautiful women to the number of population, than any other town in Ohio, and the fact was generally conceded all over the country. The town became famous on that account.
Mrs. Thomas Ourand is also a daughter of Mr. Campbell. The family first lived in a log house on the lot where Mr. Charles Leiner, the hatter, now lives, on Market street. There was only one more cabinet shop in town, and that was built by Daniel H. Phillips, a brother of Mrs. H. Ebert. They were from Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The shop stood at the northwest corner of Jefferson and Market, where the Episcopal church now stands. On the 21st day of August, 1833, three days after my arrival in Tiffin, I entered that shop as an apprentice to Mr. Phillips, and there I found and made the acquaintance of my old friend, Col. J. M. Stevens, of Melmore, a former apprentice. Mr. Phillips lived in a log house east of the shop on the lot now owned by the Adams family. They had a young lady living in the family by the name of Mary Hendel, a daughter of Michael Hendel, who lived on Perry street. The family were Pennsylvania Germans, but Mary talked good English, also. In my great anxiety to learn English, I sometimes troubled people with numerous questions. Hearing the word "fact" used very often, and not being able to comprehend it, I asked Mary once at the dinner table what the word meant. She looked at me for a little while very sternly, thinking for an explanation, and then said: "Why! a fact is a fact, du esel!"
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