USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 52
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Mr. Moler, a very early settler, took up the land where Mr. Manle lived. John Doran, another pioneer, was at the raising of Mr. Hedges' mill on the river, and became crippled for life by the falling of a tree in a storm while raising the mill.
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CLINTON TOWNSHIP.
My mother lived with me, after my father's death, until she died in 1840, at the age of 76 years.
DAVID RICKENBAUGH
Was born in Washington county, Maryland, December 9th, 1799. In October, 1827, he moved to Stark county, Ohio, and in September, 1833, to Seneca county, Ohio, locating three and one-half miles east of Tiffin, on the North Greenfield road, where he bought two hundred and forty acres, all woods, except about ten acres that had been cleared by Uriah Egbert, from whom he purchased the land. By industry and good management he became successful in farming, finding market in Sandusky. It was customary in the early days here with farmers, who lived near Tiffin, Melmore or Republic, that when they took a load of produce to Sandusky to bring back a load of goods for the merchants. There were most always some of their goods piled up there awaiting transportation. Mr. Rickenbaugh's personal integrity won the confi- ยท dence of everybody that knew him, and the merchants gave him orders to bring goods with pleasure.
He was married on the 27th of February, 1822, to Margaret Sprecher, of Washington county, Maryland, who is a sister of the distinguished divine, the Rev. Samuel Sprecher, D. D. and L. L. D, the president of Wittenberg college, at Springfield, Ohio.
This marriage was blessed with two daughters and four sons. Two sons only survive; Samuel living on the old homestead, and Jacob living near Tiffin, Ohio. Mr. Rickenbaugh died April 17th, 1859,, at the age of sixty years, highly esteemed for his many traits of manly virtues, and mourned by those who had learned to love and admire him as a good and true man in life.
Mrs. Rickenbaugh still survives, at the advanced age of eighty, spending the evening of her life with her son Samuel, on the old home- stead.
DANIEL DILDINE, SR.
The subject of this sketch was an early pioneer of this township. He was born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, September 24th, 1780. His father died when Daniel was but ten years old. Some years there- after he commenced the struggle for life single handed and alone by driving a team over the mountains of Pennsylvania, which business he followed for several years. In 1803 he was married, and in 1805 he moved to and located in Fairfield county, Ohio, being among the first settlers of that portion of Ohio, then the frontier. In 1806 he moved to Pickaway, and located upon a tract of land purchased from the gov- 33
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ernment at three dollars per acre. In 1824 he sold this land, moved to this county, and purchased land of the government on Rocky creek, from which the new cemetery is taken, and as already described. It took him seven days to move from Pickaway here. He stopped for a few days with Reuben Williams, on the Coe farm, in the log house still standing there, and until he could build a cabin for himself. He ar- rived here in April, and his cattle were compelled to subsist on brouse until pasture came on. The poor animals were so used to brouse that when they heard a tree fall they would all run and devour the tender branches with avidity. John Searles, Joseph Foncannon and George Stoner, who lived from three to five miles apart, were about all the persons who had corn to sell, and Mr. Dildine had to buy his corn where he could get it, and for the provisions for his family he had to go to Franklin county and to Mansfield, where he obtained them in ex- change for salt and fish, which he took with him. The fish were caught here in great abundance in the creeks, the river and the lake. The salt was shipped from Syracuse; both salt and fish selling in the central counties with a handsome profit.
Mr. Dildine cleared a good portion of his farm, and in 1830 sold it to Thomas Coe. He then bought two hundred and forty acres on the South Greenfield road, about three and a half miles east of Tiffin, where he lived the rest of his days. He retained to his last his mental and very much of his physical powers. He was a man of wonderful endur - ance; quiet in his nature, kind and generous. He lived to a fine old age, and exchanged the scenes of this life for the realities of a higher order of existence at the ripe age of ninety-one years and three days, on the 27th day of September, 1872.
NICHOLAS GOETSCHIUS
Was a soldier in the war of 1812, under General Harrison. He was born in Montgomery county, New York; moved from there to Franklin county, Ohio, and came to Seneca in 1825, in April. He first located on the North Greenfield road, near Egbert's, and located on the Port- land road in 1835, upon the eighty acres he had entered. He was about seventy-eight years old when he died, at one of his son's-in-law in Sandusky county. He had two sons and three daughters.
JAMES GOETSCHIU'S,
His oldest son, who came here with his father, lives on the old home- stead. He was born September 24th, 1807, in Franklin county, Ohio. His wife, Permelia Smith, came here with Joseph Biggs from Maryland.
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CLINTON TOWNSHIP.
When they settled in Clinton there was no house for seven miles east on the North Greenfield road. Samuel Scothorns, in Reed, lived there. There was no road open to town. They had to underbrush a road to Tiffin, and then followed the blazed trees. Hunter's mill was built in 1825.
FREDERICK CRAMER
Was born in Frederick county, Maryland, of German parentage, on the 23d day of September, 1779, and was married about March 25th, 1806, to Catharine Barrack, who died January 17th, 1864, aged eighty-two years, two months and nineteen days.
Mr. Cramer arrived here on the 30th day of September, 1830 (being twenty-one days on the road), and bought the northeast quarter of sec- tion sixteen, here in Clinton, on the 1st day of October in that year, and where he resided all the balance of his days. He died on the 8th .. day of August, 1842, aged sixty-two years, ten months and fifteen days Six of his children died in infancy, and four are still living. Dennis F. Cramer is the oldest son, now living in Tiffin, and the father of a large family. Three of his sons are lawyers, of whom Upton F. held the office of probate judge many years. Father Cramer was not very tall, but corpulent and large. In his dress and general appearance he was the very embodiment of a Quaker, but he was an esteemed member of the: German Reformed Church.
JAMES MYERS
Was born in Martinsburg, Berkley county, Virginia, February 23d, 1800 .. When about two years old, his father emigrated to the state of Ohio, then just admitted into the Union, and settled in the hills of Fairfield county, near where Lancaster now stands. The country around there was almost an unbroken wilderness at that time, there being but a few pioneer settlers, who had to battle with the forest, wild beasts and wild Indians. They were obliged to raise their own living, and raise and make their own homespun garments. James was the oldest of John Myers' family of nine children, and was of necessity compelled to work as soon as he was able to assist in maintaining the family. Their advantages for edu- cation were limited, there being no school houses and few scholars, and in fact their necessities did not allow them much time for education, but whatever they did get was mastered by themselves before a great log fire, of nights and stormy days.
In this condition his youth and boyhood was spent, working with his father at the carpenter trade, building their rude houses and barns, until he was twenty-four years of age, when, on January Ist, 1824, he was
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married to Sarah Gaw, a young woman of Newark, Licking county, Ohio. After marriage he commenced business for himself, and tried his fortune at raising tobacco among the hills of Fairfield county, which business he followed for several years, until his own family began to in- crease. When it consisted of himself, wife and four children, he began to think he must own some land in order to be able to raise his family properly, but by that time all the tillable land of Fairfield county was already occupied, and his scanty means would not allow him to pur. chase second handed, so he began looking over the territories of the far west, as it was then called. .
Himself and a friend, Isaac Lepurd, (who settled near Attica, in Venice), started out in search of government land, and as the tide of emigration had begun to lead to Seneca county, he and his friend di- rected their steps thither; I say steps, for they traveled on foot, it being before the days of steamboats and railroads.
In September, 1831, they arrived at a land office, now called Tiffin, which, at that time, was composed of old Fort Ball, and two or three log cabins on the east side of the river. After looking over the country a couple of weeks, they both suited themselves, and entered as much land as their means would allow, and returned home to Fairfield, to collect money enough again to move him and family to his newly acquired possessions.
It was not until in June, 1833, that he left Fairfield county. with his family, in a two horse wagon, with all his worldly effects. His family then consisted of his wife and four children, Maria Louise, Martha, George and David, then a babe three months old. They were on the road fifteen days, and traveled a distance of less than a hundred miles, the road most of the way being in the woods, only an Indian trail or a blazed route to guide footmen. They arrived on the 23d of June, and began immediately to make for themselves a home by clearing off a piece of land and building a house, with which they took extra pains to have it large and fine for those days, and which is still standing, the same that is occupied by Conrad and George Gillig as a residence on the old homestead, but for several weeks they slept in their wagon and cooked their meals by a stump-fire.
Four more children were born to them in Seneca county, Ann, James C., Jennie and John. Maria, the eldest, died in the 15th year of her age, and John, the youngest, died the same year, and are buried in the old Rockrun cemetery, they being the only deaths that have occurred in the family. All the rest are well, and give prospect of long lives. They lived upon the old farm forty-four years.
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CLINTON TOWNSHIP.
In 1875, being old and almost blind, and Aunt Sally, his wife, being unable to attend to her household duties, and having no children at home, he concluded to sell their homestead and spend the balance of their days in ease and comfort. So they sold off all real and per- sonal estate, retaining nothing but a horse and carriage, and moved to the home of the oldest daughter, Martha, living in Henry county, Ohio, where they still reside in peace and happiness, being both well, with prospects of living a good many years yet. They have lived together fifty-six years January Ist, 1880.
" Uncle Jim," as he was familiarly called, was a whole-souled, kind hearted man, always giving to those in need. The beggar was never turned from his door empty. He had a kind look and a pleasant smile for everybody he met. He was a friend to everyone, and all seemed glad to see him and take a friendly shake whenever they met. For the. last few years he has so nearly lost his eyesight that he cannot read nor scarcely recognize his friends. This is a great loss to him, as he was a great reader, and few men were better posted than he in matters and things in general; but now he depends entirely upon his friends to read for him, and they are very kind to him, doing all that can be done to make him comfortable.
Samuel. Waggoner, Martin Frees, Ezra Baker, William Baker, Jacob Adams, Jacob Souder, old Mr. Olmsted, David Olmsted, Elisha Olm- sted. Thomas Vanatta, Asa Crocket, John Wolf, Peter Schuch, Joseph Herin, Samuel Herin, Jacob Frees, William Williams, James Meyers, Peter Frees and others were also old settlers in Clinton, in addition to those already named.
The first patent issued by the United States for any land sold in this county, by an act of congress passed April 24th, 1820, providing for the_ sale of the public lands (called the new purchase), was for the west half of the southwest quarter of section twenty-three, T. 2, N. R. 15 E., eighty acres, to John Anway. For want of a county here this patent was recorded in the recorder's office at Lower Sandusky.
I found more to say about Clinton township than I first anticipated, but there is history in all of it.
THE SWANDER FAMILY,
Who filled a very conspicuous place in public estimation, one of whom is still living here, and the numerous grandchildren being scattered far and near, deserve particular mention in the history of this township.
Frederick Schwander came from the Canton of Bern, in Switzerland, to the colony of Pennsylvania in 1750, and settled in South Whitehall
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township, Lehigh county, on a farm that has ever since and up to this time been known as the "Schwander place." He was married here and raised a family. After his death the oldest son, Jacob, became the owner of the farm on which he was born.
A Mr. Shriver lived some eight miles away, and had living in his house with him as a sort of quasi slave, a beautiful Swiss girl by the name of Barbara Gerster. He bought her at Philadelphia for her fare across the ocean. The reader should remember here, that it was considered not only right and fair to sell the passengers to America who could not pay for their passage, but the act was legalized by statute. They were sold at auction for the least number of months or years a person would buy them for and pay the fare. Families were thus often separated, many of them abused and ill-treated, and by people, too, that soon after this system of slavery was abolished, raised a terrible hue and cry against black slavery. After the shipowners of Boston had become rich in the African slave trade, they all became Abolitionists. But to return to the wedding.
Near Mr. Shriver's was a place called Egypt, for it produced great quantities of grain. Jacob Schwander and the Swiss beauty were lovers. One day they went to Egypt, and the young couple were married by a preacher. After the wedding ceremony was over, the young bride took a seat on Schwander's horse, behind the groom, and they rode back to the farm. After dinner bride and groom took their sickels and went into the harvest field reaping wheat the balance of the day. This was their bridal tour. There were no railroads leading to the fashionable watering places, and there were no " shoddies" in the country at that time.
Life meant work, and the sentence of Adam was the order of the day. This wedding took place in 1775.
When Frederick Schwander came to this country his father and grandfather were still living. Jacob had eight children, five boys and three girls. John Schwander was his oldest son, and was born on the farm where his father was born, and while his father was serving in the revolutionary army, under Washington, on the 21st day of June, 1776, and thirteen days before the Declaration of Independence. John was raised on the same farm, and in the year 1800 was married to Miss Elizabeth Glick, of Lehigh county. The writer heard the old gentle- man say that he voted for Jefferson in the same year he was married. John Schwander had thirteen children in this union, seven boys and six girls. The sons are all dead but Edward, who is the youngest son, but the daughters are all living at this writing. The sons were John, James,
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Thomas, Joseph, Edward and Stephen (who died when he was fourteen years old on the old farm in Pennsylvania), and another died there also in infancy. The daughters are Hannah, wife of Henry Kunkle, of Lucas county, Ohio; Etelia, widow of Francis Trexler; Sarah, widow of William Burkhalter; Eliza, wife of Edward Knouse; Mary Ann, wife of William Snyder, and Caroline, wife of William Sohn, all living in Seneca county. John died in New Jersey, where he lived, at New- hope. James, Joseph and Thomas died on their farm homes in Clinton township, where they had lived near together on the Mansfield state road.
John Schwander, the father of these children, after his marriage in 1800, rented farms in the neighborhood of the old homestead until 1807, when he moved to Ohio and located in Fairfield county, but becoming dissatisfied with the country, returned to Lehigh county and bought the old homestead. Here his son, Edward, was born, and all of the younger girls; the homestead of their great grandfather, Fred- erick, a circumstance very rare in America, where people are moving from place to place with a wonderful facility and where the love of home is not a cardinal virtue among the people.
These children of John Schwander dropped the "ch " in the name as they grew up, and attended English schools. Edward was married in Lehigh and moved into Clinton in 1840, where he settled on the north- west quarter of section twenty-seven, and where he still lives, the only male survivor of that once large family. After living here about one year, he lost his wife, and in 1844 he was again married to Hannah, the youngest sister of the writer. In this union eight children were born, of whom six are still living. Hannah died December 4, 1865.
About one year after Edward moved to Clinton, the father sold the old Schwander place in Lehigh and came to Seneca also.
When you go eastward on the South Greenfield road, about two miles from Tiffin, you strike the Morrison state road. Looking north you see a neat little brick house, painted red, standing close to Willow creek and a spring. This house John Schwander built. Here he lived until he died on the 17th of June, 1859. His wife also died here on the 7th of February, 1861, less than two years after his death.
The old gentleman was remarkable in his physical and mental make- up. He was about five feet, six inches high, stout and compactly built; had a fair complexion, large, blue eyes, and a fine head, which became bald as he grew old. He was very pleasant in conversation, and in- structive. He spoke very interestingly, relating transactions and affairs in Pennsylvania, his exploits when he drove a big team on the pikes,
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his knowledge of men and events, and his age put no obstacle in his way of relating laughable anecdotes. He was a gentleman by nature and education; always pleasant, always kind to everybody, and being possessed of a cheerful nature, enabling him to look upon the sunny side of life, no doubt prolonged his days. He and the old lady died highly esteemed in the community where they spent the evening of their days. This family of Schwanders is the only one by that name known in the United States.
One historic incident in the life of the aboved named Jacob Schwan- der should not be omitted:
During the administration of the elder Adams. Pennsylvania passed an act taxing the doors and windows of the houses. The law proved exceedingly obnoxious to the people, and on several occasions the col- lectors were abused. The people in the Lehigh valley had stood by the United Colonies during the revolutionary war, and contributed men and means in support of it. When this new form of stamp-tax was inaugurated, some of them met a collector who came amongst them on horseback, made him get off his horse and told him that they would show him how the stamp-tax operated. One of the men raised the horse's tail and the others pushed the collector's nose to where the crupper makes a crook. For this rough treatment the men were arrest- ed and placed in the jail in Bethlehem, which was then the county seat of Northampton county, and before the county of Lehigh was organ- ized. The imprisonment of the men aroused the indignation of the people of Lehigh valley to such an extent that one time, in open day- light, several hundred men assembled near Bethlehem and marched to the jail. Here they formed two lines in open order when a squad of them demanded the release of the men, and this being refused by the sheriff, the doors of the jail were forced open and the men released. The sheriff called out the militia and a regiment of soldiers camped near Bethlehem, assisting the sheriff in making arrests. The whole country was aroused, and many of the rescuing parties fled into the mountains. Those who were arrested were prosecuted and fined, or acquitted. A warrant was issued also against Jacob Schwander, who was, perhaps, as guilty as any of them, but he escaped the vigilance of the sheriff, his posse and the military by secreting himself in a large stone quarry, not far from his farm-the Schwander place. For three months his wife carried his victuals to him in the night, returning be- fore morning, unobserved. If she had attracted the attention of any- one, even, there was nobody to tell tales out of school. The law had no friends in the Lehigh valley. Schwander escaped unpunished.
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JOHN SECRIST
Was born October 27, 1803, in Frederick county, Maryland, and raised as a farmer. He married Margaret Waltman, August 4, 1825, who was born April 23, 1803. They settled in the woods on the farm where Judge Pittenger now lives, on the Melmore road, in October, 1828, and took their share of the frontier joys and hardships with the rest of the settlers.
Mr. Secrist died April 6, 1848. . Mrs. Secrist lives with her daughter in Tiffin, Ohio.
MR. CHARLES KELLEY
Was born on the 6th of March, 1798, in Huntington county, Pennsyl- vania. When he was yet a child, his father moved with his family into Wayne county, Ohio, and settled four miles east of Wooster. In the summer of 1821 he, with seven others, his comrades, started on foot to see the western country. They came to Mansfield and from there they took a road that was called the " McCormack trail," which led through the woods to Tiffin, by way of Caroline. They stayed here one week, and while here they helped to put up a cabin for a man by the name of Armstrong Drennin. Mr. Hedges had made him a present of a lot with the condition that Drennin would build a cabin upon it and move his family into it.
The party wanted to board at Mr. Bowe's, but when Bowe found out that they were going to build a cabin on this side of the river, he got angry and refused to board them. They put up the cabin, however, and boarded themselves. Mr. Kelley was the cook. A man came along with some flour, which they bought, together with some pork. Two Indians took hold and helped them some in getting up the logs, but when dinner was ready they refused to eat with the whites. They stayed apart by themselves, but they would eat all that was brought to them.
The cabin was put up on the lot south of the woolen mill and on the spot where the frame building now stands, on the west side of Wash- ington street, and is occupied by the Yingat family. It was the first cabin erected on the plat of Tiffin. The logs were cut in the woods around one day, and on the next morning the deer were seen browsing on the tops of the trees that were cut down on the lots where the court house now stands.
Mr. Drennin moved into his cabin that fall, and he, his wife and three children died here within a short time of, each other. The men who helped to build the cabin were Christ. Witz, Henry Miller, David
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Fowler, Mr. Drennin, three others and the two Indians. This cabin was put up before the county seat was located here.
Captain Sherwood lived north of town a piece, and John Welsh about four miles south.
Mr. Welsh acted as our pilot through the woods when we started back. There was no house between New Haven and Fort Ball.
Mr. Kelley is the father of Mrs. Dr. Samuel W. Bricker, in Tiffin, now on a visit to his daughter, and the foregoing statement gives his words as nearly as possible.
WILLIAM M'EWEN.
Mr. James McEwen says:
My father, William McEwen, was born in Berwick, Pennsylvania. He went to Northampton county, Pennsylvania, to learn the trade of a black- smith, and was married there to Sarah Johnson. We came here in the fall of 1823 and brought with us one half ton of hay, which we made at New Haven. With this hay we kept four horses and two cows all winter. There was plenty of picking in the woods all winter in 1823. Father entered the southwest quarter of section twenty-seven, in Clinton, and put up a cabin there and a blacksmith shop.
Leverett Bradley settled on the southeast quarter of section twenty-eight. right west of us. Asa Crocket built the first barn on that farm.
Cal. Williams lived north of us, on the place where old father Schwander lived and died, on the Morrison road, in section twenty-two. He was an old bachelor, had a dog and cat, and all three took their mneals together.
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