USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 34
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
your high schools now-a-days, heated by hot-air furnaces, and supplied. with beautiful and convenient patent desks, were not to be thought of then.
When Harrison grew up to be large enough to work, he helped his father clear land, and in a few years seventy acres were cleared on the homestead farm. The boys had their sports also in those days. It was not always hard work and no play.
He was a very good coon hunter, and kept a couple of blooded coon dogs with which he would scour the country around for coon; the Crossley boys, the young Bostons, and Hollopeters, often joining him. One night Harrison got out his Indian pony, took his dogs with him and went to Mud creek, where he caught seven coons. Boys often got their " spending money " in that way.
The wolves were still very troublesome then, and people that kept sheep or pigs had to stable them for protection.
The squirrels, chip-monks and crows were so numerous and trouble. some that the people were compelled to make war upon them. Harri- son often collected a lot of boys with guns and ammunition for a squirrel hunt. They appointed two captains, who picked their men one at a tine, " turn about;" then they started in all directions. They were to meet at a certain place, and the party that had the least number of squirrel-tails, lost the price, which was two bushels of corn which the losing party had to furnish. The plumes of the left wings of crows. hawks or buzzards were also counted for so many squirrel-tails.
The boys also organized debating societies and spelling schools, which were held often at private houses, and which were a source of pleasure and mutual improvement.
The winters of 1844-5 young Noble spent at the college in Oberlin. and in 1846 he attended the Seneca county academy in Republic. In the winter of 1846-7 he taught a school in Tiffin, occupying one of the a pper rooms in the two-story brick school house, still standing, on the north side of Market street, near the corner of Monroe and Market. Mrs. Gibbs, a Mr. Collins, and the writer were all the other teachers then employed in Tiffin. Collins was a tall, slender man, had a wife and child, was a preacher, and made terrible war on the Masons and Odd Fellows. He was going to break down their lodges and build the church of God upon their ruins. He returned to Wooster, where he formerly lived. and did not behave very well after his return. He left no ruins but his own.
In the following year Noble entered the office of his brother, Warren P., to read law. During his studies he taught a school in Liberty
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HARRISON NOBLE.
township four months, and boarded at the house of Mr. Eden Lease, who was then sheriff of Seneca county. Mr. Lease very often had more writs to serve than he could" well attend to alone, and employed Mr. Noble to assist him. By these services and taking his wages as school teacher, he succeeded in paying his boarding until 1849, when he was admitted to practice law. He then immediately became a partner of his brother, Warren P., in the practice, under the firm name of W. P. and H. Noble.
This firm continued in business until the ist of May, 1874, when Harrison Noble formed a new firm with Mr. Nelson B. Lutes, in the practice of law. This association continued until the Ist of May, 1880, six years, when it was dissolved by mutual consent.
In 1853 Mr. Noble was elected city solicitor of Tiffin, and served two terms, receiving $50 per year as his salary. In 1859 he was elected a member of the city council, and served twelve years, his term expiring about the time of the great fire, April 13th, 1872.
In 1863, while the militia of Ohio was being re-organized and regi- ments formed, Seneca county had two regiments. Mr. Noble was elected colonel of the Second Regiment.
In 1864, Mr. George S. Christlip was nominated by the Democratic county convention as their candidate for director of the Seneca county infirmary, and a few days before the election, his health failing him very rapidly, Mr. Christlip informed the Democratic central com- mittee that he would not live to serve, and declined to have his name put upon the ticket. The committee, without the knowledge of Mr. Noble, had his name printed upon the tickets, in place of Mr. Christlip's. He was thereupon elected to that office, and served until 1870. It was customary with the directors of the infirmary to keep their own treasury, receive and pay out money, keeping their own accounts. Upon the urgent request of Mr. Noble, it was made a rule of the board to pay all the moneys received by the board into the treasury of the county, to be drawn out upon the order of the county auditor, after having been passed upon by the board. The rule is in vogue still, and works very well.
Mr. Noble is the present mayor of Tiffin, to which office he was elected in 1879. On the 3d day of June, 1858, he was married to Mrs. Minerva, the sixth daughter of Josiah Hedges, and two sons are all the children of this union. Harry H., the oldest, is now a student at Notre Dame University, at South Bend, Indiana, and Birdie M. is attending the union schools of Tiffin. Mr. Noble has an extensive practice, and takes a lively interest in the growth, the progress and the development of the material resources of the city and county.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
Soon after their marriage the young couple commenced housekeep- ing in their pleasant home on the corner of Jefferson and Market, where they still reside.
PLANK ROADS.
In this year (1849), on the 22d day of March, the general assembly of Ohio also passed an act incorporating the Lower Sandusky, Tiffin and Fort Ball plank road company. Ralph P. Buckland, John R. Peas, John L. Green, James Justice, and John Bell, of Sandusky county; Lorenzo Abbott, Calvin Clark, Benjamin Tomb, Cyrus Pool, Vincent Bell, John W. Patterson, Warren P. Noble, and Rezin W. Shawhan, of Seneca county; Chester R. Mott, Joseph Mccutchen, Robert McKelley, and Andrew McElvain, of Wyandot county, and all others associated with them, by subscribing stock, were made a body corporate and politic.
Another company, called the Tiffin and Osceola plank road company, was also chartered, and both roads put in operation A branch road from Fostoria to intersect the former, north of the mouth of Wolf creek, was also laid. Toll-gates were erected and tolls collected. These answered the purpose for awhile, and were very popular until they began to give way by the rotting of the plank. The tolls collected proved insufficient to keep up the necessary repairs and other expenses. Subscribers were assessed to pay a second time, a work that always has a tendency to injure the popularity of any joint stock company. Mean- while the roads became worthless and were abandoned; toll-gates broke down, and the supervisors of common highways removed the plank by putting them on piles and burning them up. The stockholders lost every dollar they invested; never realized anything, and thus ended another wild, impracticable, foolish experiment.
For many years past, some of our citizens agitated the propriety of building pikes in Seneca county. The great inexhaustible quantity of stone in the county suitable for that purpose, the bad condition of the roads every winter and spring, together with the landed wealth and general enterprise of our citizens, seemed to warrant such a measure as wise and necessary. During the past winter (1879-80), meetings were held in several townships, and in Tiffin, in which the subject was dis- cussed, and finally the county commissioners were prevailed upon to publish a notice in the Tiffin papers, calling upon the voters at the election on the first Monday in April, 18So, to vote on the subject, yes or no. If a majority of the votes cast had been in favor of pikes, the commissioners would have commenced the work under the law. The subject is still very fresh in the minds of all, and no attempt will be
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THE TELEGRAPH.
made to give the various reasons assigned by those opposed, why the measure should be defeated, and so large a portion of our people voted against pikes. Suffice it to say, that when the votes were counted, it was found that only 1.578 voted for pikes, while 5,156 votes were cast against the proposition. It is to be regretted, that an improvement so highly needed in our county, should find so few friends. Tiffin alone gave a majority in favor, some 500. All other election precincts in the county gave large majorities against the measure. In Big Spring, a township that needs good roads as badly as any other locality in the county, in a vote of 521, there was only one vote in favor of pikes.
The far or the near future must solve this question. The present .generation prefers to stick in the mud.
THE TELEGRAPH.
About 1849, the first line of telegraph was constructed through Tif- fin, along the Mad River and Lake Erie (now C. S. & C.) Railroad. A joke in connection with this enterprise is almost too good to be lost. Mr. Christopher Snyder, the merchant, was a good deal of a wag, and whenever he had a chance to get a "rig" on anyone, would spare neither friend nor foe.
Mr. Balthasar Ries was a German barber, and lived on East Market street. For many years he was in the habit of calling upon his cus- tomers at their houses, stores or shops, to shave them or cut their hair. He had a frame with two hooks to hang over the back of a chair, with a perpendicular piece that slid up and down and having a cushion on top to lay the head upon. He would carry this frame with him on his left arm, on which were also suspended a few clean towels. He was also supplied with a large tin cup, full of hot water, some soap, a brush, a few razors and a pair of scissors. Thus fitted out, he started on his beat-a traveling barber shop.
Mr. Ries was a small man, very active and nervous, with black hair and black eyes, pale face, polite and cleanly in his habits, but very credulous. Anything Mr. Snyder said was as good as gospel to him. One time, while he had Snyder down in a chair in his store, with lather all over his face, Reis wanted Snyder to tell him what those high poles along the railroad on the other side of the river were for. He said he had seen men climb up on them and fasten a wire from one to another, etc. Snyder was in a hurry to get done, and was not inclined to talk much; but Reis insisted on knowing all about it, and kept on quizzing and asking questions. Finally Snyder told Reis that that was a new way to go to California. (The gold fever was then at high tide). This
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
remark made bad worse with Mr. Ries, and he was bound to have a full description of the thing. Finally Snyder told him that travel by steamer around Cape Horn was very expensive and dangerous, and to avoid both, this plan had been adopted; that when the work was com- pleted clear to San Francisco an iron saddle would be placed across the wires to hold the traveler and his baggage, and when all was ready the thing would be touched off behind him, and that would send him across the country to San Francisco, where he would be received on a pile of straw, and from whence he could go to the mines when he was ready.
All this seemed very reasonable to Ries, but he said we lived in a most wonderful age, when improvements were made in all departments of life; and finishing dressing Snyder's hair, he went away. He was gone about an hour, when he returned very much excited, and setting his tin cup on the counter with such violence that the water flew in all directions, and shaking his fist at Snyder, threatened that he would never again believe anything he said: that people down street had laughed at him when he told them of the new way of going to Califor- nia, etc. Snyder said that Joe Rauker had told him the same story, and he did not know any better himself, etc .; but Ries went away in a very nervous, angry mood.
Among the early pioneers in Fort Ball was also Andrew Love, who lived on the bluff on the Mccutchenville road, where the river comes up close to the road.
Another pioneer, on the Tiffin side, was Alexander Mason. He built and opened the "Eagle Hotel," on the corner of Washington and Perry streets. It was a two story brick building, and received a third story when Mr. R. W. Shawhan became the owner, who fitted up and enlarged the hotel, when it was christened the "Shawhan House," J. W. Patterson, proprietor. Mason kept there in 1834 and 1835; Patterson opened the Shawhan House in 1850. The hotel has retained its name ever since, under several proprietors, among whom P. P. Myers, who really built up the reputation of the house and kept it the longest, was the most popular.
THE TIFFIN SCHOOLS.
There were but few children among the early settlers in Tiftin, and yet to secure a site and build a school house was one of the first public cares and enlisted the support of everybody. Application was made to Mr. Hedges for a lot to build a school house upon, and on the first day of February, 1828, Mr. Hedges executed a deed to George Don-
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THE SCHOOLS OF TIFFIN.
aldson, Jacob Plane, and Richard Sneath, school directors of school district number four, Clinton township, for in-lot numbered forty-two (42). It is situate on the north side of Market street, next west of the northwest corner of Market and Monroe. The deed has a whereas to it and commences in these words: "Whereas, heretofore Josiah Hedges has laid out and established a town by the name of the town of Tiffin, situate upon fractional section 19. T. 2 R. 15, and whereas a patent has been issued to said Hedges, etc. Now, therefore," etc.
A little one-story brick school house was built by these directors upon this lot close by the pavement, lengthwise with the street. It had room for about 60 scholars. The door was near its south east corner. There was one window at the east end, back of the teacher's desk, and two windows in each of the other sides. Here the various denomina- tions held their meetings until they had churches of their own. The Protestant Methodists especially occupied the school house very often on Sunday and held their quarterly meetings there when the little school house was crowded to overflowing.
After the school house was finished and a new set of directors had been elected a notice was published in the Seneca Patriot for a teacher in the following form:
A TEACHER WANTED.
A gentleman who is well versed in arithmetic, English grammar and geography, and can give satisfactory reference for good moral conduct and steady habits, is wanted to teach the district school in Tiffin. It is desirable that application should be made before the first of November next. as the school will be vacant. HENRY CRONISE, MILTON JJENNINGS. School Directors.
September 28, 1832.
Under this notice Mr. Benjamin Crockett made application and was employed, and he continued to teach here for several years thereafter. The writer made his acquaintance in the winter following the fall of 1833. By my contract to learn the trade of a cabinet maker with Boss Phillips, I was entitled to four months' night school at the boss' expense. Apprentices were compelled to work every night at the bench until 9 o'clock, except on Saturday night, so that the loss of time and the payment of the teacher were to be taken in consideration. For want of a teacher of a night school, I traded my four months' night school for 30 days' day school in the fore part of the summer of 1834 and to go to Mr. Crockett. His school this summer was attended by a few flaxen-headed children and the writer was one of a few larger boys that attended. All the time Mr. Crockett and the writer could spend together was equally divided between us. While Mr. C. would
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
take much pains to instruct me in English grammar and pronouncing words correctly in reading the history of the United States, he took the other half of my time to receive instructions in mathematics and in the geography of Europe. Thus my thirty days passed away and I became a graduate of Mr. Crockett's first school in Tiffin. This constituted the sum total of my schooling in America, and it was not long after, that the school examiners of Tiffin, Joshua Seney, Oliver Cowdry and Frederick Singer, gave me a certificate of qualification to teach school, when I became one of the first teachers in the two-story brick. still standing on the same lot, now occupied for a shop.
The little old, one-story school house was torn away in about 1844 and the two-story brick put up a little further from the street, with four rooms.
Here all the schools in Tiffin were accommodated until the young city organized under the union school system and preparations were made to build the beautiful school house on South Monroe street, now known as the high school building.
Simultaneously with the organization of the city of Tiffin, the ques- tion of inaugurating the union school system under the law, agitated the minds of some of our people also. Opinions as to its propriety dif- fered very widely. The proud position that Ohio occupies in her educational department, when she taxes her wealth to educate her youth-in other words-when she makes the owners of property pay taxes to educate the children of those who do not pay taxes for want of property-was not appreciated by all our citizens. The friends of the measure were the taxpayers, the wealthy men of the city, one of the most active of whom was Mr. R. W. Shawan, who had no child to edu- cate and paid the largest amount of taxes of any man in the county. To his honor be it said-the success of the measure depended largely on the part he took in its favor. Remarkable as it may seem, the enemies of the proposition were the poorer classes, who generally have the most children to educate. Nineteen of these, who worked hard, electioneering for votes against the measure all day, were the heads of families averaging five children to each, and whose taxes on the dupli- cate added together for all purposes did not reach the sum of thirty dollars.
The vote was taken in September, 1850, and a handsome majority secured in its favor. In October following, at the election for mem- bers of the school board, the following were elected, viz .:
William Lang, William D. Searles, George Knupp, A. C. Baldwin, W. H. Keilholts, W. H. Gibson.
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THE SCHOOLS OF TIFFIN.
At the first meeting of the board, held on the first day of November, 1850, William Lang was elected president, W. H. Gibson, secretary, and A. C. Baldwin treasurer. The board then also appointed Messrs. J. H. Pittenger, R. G. Pennington and R. R. Bement as a board of examiners. Thus the new system was set on foot, and thousands of children have enjoyed the benefit of these union schools during these thirty years last past.
The following is a list of the first corps of teachers employed by the board, víz .:
Miss E. Augspurger-German school-she furnishing her own room, $20 per month; Mrs. Sarah Sands, also furnishing her own room, 820 per month; Miss Elizabeth Cronise and Miss C. Coffin, each $15 per month; William Fitzgeralds, $24 per month; Samuel Nolan, 822 per month; Miss Maria Andrew, $15 per month; Thomas J. Cronise, $24 per month.
The small amount of the school fund was equally divided among the three terms, and for want of sufficient means to pay the teachers, a tax of from one cent to one and one-half cents a day (according to class) was assessed on each scholar in attendance for that term. This mode of taxation lasted only one year and was dropped.
Rev. R. R. Bement was employed to superintend the schools during this winter only, for which the board paid him $12, on the ist of May, 1851. On the same day the board offered Mr. S. S. Rickley, of Colum- bus, $400 salary as superintendent of the union schools, with the privilege of allowing him time also to teach a class in Heidelberg Col- lege. The offer was accepted, and Mr. Rickley was the first superin- tendent of the Tiffin union schools.
In 1852 the board purchased in-lots numbers 279 and 280, in the (then) second ward, where they erected the first union school house in the city, the same year, at an expense (including $900 paid for the lots) of $6,000. This is the school house immediately west of St. Mary's church.
In 1854 the board bought of Mr. Hedges the large lot upon which the present high school building now stands, and on the 28th of March, 1855, they resolved that when they should build a school house there, it should be put away from the street 125 feet.
On the 11th of April, 1855, a meeting of the voters in the city was held, in compliance with notice, and a resolution was unanimously adopted to build another school house in the city, and the board were authorized to levy a tax of two mills on the dollar of all the taxable property in the city for the year 1855, and three mills for 1856, 1857, 1858, and 1859, for that purpose.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
On the 22d day of November, 1855, at a public meeting, the board was authorized to borrow a sum of money not to exceed the sum of $6,000, to be used in the building of the new school house, and interest not to exceed ten per cent.
On the 10th of June, 1856, the board passed a resolution to lay the corner-stone of the new school house with appropriate ceremonies, and to invite the Rev. L. Andrew to deliver the address.
On the 20th of January, 1857, another public meeting, held at the mayor's office, resolved to instruct the school board to proceed and finish the new school building, and to levy additional taxes on all the taxable property in Tiffin, for that purpose, as follows :
For the year 1857, one and one-half mills additional; for the year 1858, one and one-half mills additional; for the year 1859, one and one-half mills additional; for the year 1860, three and seven-tenths mills on the dollar; for the year 1861, three and seven-tenths mills on the dollar; for the year 1862, three and six-tenths mills on the dollar; for the year 1863, three and seven-tenths mills on the dollar, and to borrow another sum of money for that purpose, not exceeding $8,ooo; to issue bonds, etc.
In 1859 the third story was finished inside, and the first high school organized that fall.
The building, with the site, cost at least $45,000.
By a special vote of the citizens, January 30, 1871, the board was authorized to build two additional school houses; one in the first ward (college hill), and one in the second ward (as now). On the 17th of February, 1871, the board contracted for both of these structures, and had them put up at an expense of $7,500 each, sites included.
In 1878 the board built the large school house in the (now) third ward, in Fishbaugh's addition, at a cost, including site, of $5,Soo, mak- ing a total of about $72,000 invested in school houses and lots
There are at this time about 2,700 youths in Tiffin entitled to public instruction. The school fund for the year 1879 was $19.315-34.
The board employs one superintendent and twenty-nine teachers, of whom the following is a list, including their respective salaries :
J. W. Knott, sup't .. $1,200 Hallie Leavitt. $375
B. F. Myers, principal 2d dis .. Susie R. Platt. prin. high school 700
800 Celesta Stoner
Amelia Sauer. 350
Lissette Herbig, prin. Ger. . 600 Venie Metz. 350
Mrs. Mary Zartman
475 Lenora Mitchell. 375
Mattie Melain.
475 Jessie Poorman 350
Samuel Me Kitrick 450 Emma Merkelbach 300
Celia Williams
400 Laura Freyman. 300
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THE SCHOOLS OF TIFFIN.
Minnie Holt
$400
Mary Hartman $300
Kate Sughro.
375
Warren E. Brinkerhoof.
300
Frankie Van Pelt.
375
Romanus R. Bour 300
Cora Pew.
375 Martha Gwynn
250
Victoria Sawyer
375
Belle Byrne.
250
Rosa Myers.
375
Flora Barnes
250
Flora Poorman
375
There are three German schools.
The following named gentlemen constitute the present board of edu- cation of Tiffin, viz:
President-Dr. E. B. Hubbard.
Secretary-Henry Brohl.
Treasurer-Warren P. Noble.
Prof. C. O. Knepper, Jacob F. Bunn, William Lang.
DR. E. B. HUBBARD
Was born December 28, 1840, at Chester, Hamden county, Massachu- setts, where his father was a prominent business man. He graduated at Hinsdale academy, Massachusetts, and prepared to enter Williams college, but his father failing in heavy western land speculations, pre- vented it. In 1857 he came west with his brother, Dwight, and stopped at Bellevue, Ohio, where both engaged in teaching, Dwight being appointed superintendent of the schools there. Dr. Hubbard remained here three years, and is mentioned in the history of Huron and Erie counties as having been a very successful teacher. In 1860 he was called east to become supervisor of the state primary schools at Mon- son, Massachusetts, where he remained two years and pursued his medical studies in the large hospital connected with that institution; being, however, more interested in the preparation of drugs and medi- cines than in the medical practice, he chose that branch of the pro- fession. On severing his connection with this, one of Massachusetts' noblest state institutions, he entered the pharmacy of Dr. Hutchins, in Springfield, Massachusetts, and applied himself to the thorough mastery of every detail of the drug business. He began business life as a junior partner in the drug store of Barrows and Hubbard, at Amherst, Massachusetts. His partner was a physician widely known, a disciple of the old school, devoting his time to his extensive practice, leaving Dr. Hubbard in the entire control of the store. With an intention of locating in Chicago, he sold out his business at Amherst, and came as far west as Bellevue, Ohio, where he stopped to visit old friends, and was persuaded to buy an interest in a drug store there. The firm was known by the name of Goodson and Hubbard. In January, 1874, he
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