USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 54
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The above reservation is upon Honey creek. within twoand a half or three miles of this place, and is as good land as there is in the state. There are some very fine springs upon it. Van Meter creek empties into Honey creek in this reserve. Mr. Norris has a fine grist mill upon the former creek, a short distance from its confluence with the latter. (The mill is burnt down.)
I forgot to state how the Indians caught Johnny at Greenbrier. Virginia.
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which was as follows : His two elder brothers easily cleared the fence, and ran, but Johnny undertook to crawl through a crack of the fence, but got fast. In this situation the Indians canght him.
What tribe of Indians was this ? Please correct any and all errors in the foregoing as far as you are able. Truly,
JAMES PILLARS.
The old settlers knew all these old Mohawks, and spoke of their kindness and benevolence with feelings of pleasure.
Esquire Heaton furnished the writer with a statement concerning his father's family, from which the following is extracted:
MICAGAH HEATON
Emigrated from Pennsylvania to Coshocton county in 1817, and entered land in Bedford township. He camped in the woods until he had built a cabin. Hle had then a wife and two children. Here he laid out the town of New Bedford, which is now about the size of Melmore. He there kept the first hotel and postoffice. In 1829 he moved to Seneca county, and bought a quarter section from Mr. Searles, in Eden township, about three-quarters of a mile south of Mehnore, on the Kilbourn road. He traveled from Coshoc- ton to Seneca, about one hundred miles, in a big old-fashioned Pennsylvania four horse wagon, riding the saddle horse. He built two cabins, and com- menced clearing land and finding subsistence for his large family of eleven persons. He was a bricklayer by trade, and often compelled to work at jobs to earn money. The sugar-trough was used as a cradle in our honse, and mother used to do her baking in a " Dutch-oven." Flax was raised for sum- mer clothing. and manufactured by the family. The spinning was done by hand. Mother carded the wool while my sisters spun it into yarn for cloth .. We boys were allowed one pair of shoes per year, which would be worn ont during winter. and in the summer we had to combat with the thistles and nettles, which grew very thick. They used to have " log rollings" in the neighborhood. The men would work hard all day and then
" Dance all night.
"Till broad daylight,
And go home with the girls in the morning."
My father was a justice of the peace. General Sea and Mr. Cowdry, the Mormon lawyer, attended court at our house one time.
In the first few years after we settled here. the Indians often stopped at our house with cranberries to sell, and to beg. One day a younger brother and I were playing " horse " in our cabin, when a big Indian came in. armed to his teeth. He set his gun behind the door and walked up to the fire. The "horses," who were down on all fours, took fright at the Indian and ran away to the other cabin. The Indian wanted to stay all night, and father took care of him.
Father lived to see nearly all the old settlers pass to their long homes. He died in the year 1866, at the advanced age of eighty years.
The wilderness, inhabited by prowling savages, had been changed into
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fruitful fields. The Indians had departed for the far west, and good markets were established at home, for want of which, in former times, the settlers had to go to other towns far away.
There were so many distinguished men among the pioneers of Eden that but a few of them can be noticed here, and of these only those that were best known to the writer, and of whose life information was furnished.
Some of the readers of this book will scarcely realize how discour- aging it is to a man when he undertakes to produce a faithful history, and meets with people in his search for information who take no inter- est in his mission and furnish no information.
There lived in Eden also an old German by the name of Philip Von Blon. He came here with a large family in 1834, and located near Samuel Martin's, on the Negrotown road. He was from Waldmohr, in the Palatinate, and rather a marked character. He was a great reader and a vigorous thinker; a man of good moral character and highly esteemed. He lived to about eighty years of age and died in Tiffin. Mrs. John Fiege, already mentioned, was his oldest daughter. His children have taken no interest in this enterprise, and it is to be regretted that no better sketch can be produced.
SAMUEL S. MARTIN.
Of this distinguished old friend of mine I here insert an obituary notice I found in one of the Tiffin papers, and which is short but a very faithful picture of him:
DEATH OF AN OLD CITIZEN OF SENECA COUNTY. .
Samuel S. Martin was born in the town of Mifflin, Mifflin county, Pennsyl- vania, October 24th, 1795, and died April 10th, 1864, and was therefore sixty- eight years, six months and seventeen days old. His father died when he was quite young, and he was obliged to depend upon his own energies to carry him through the vicissitudes of life. He removed to Ohio in 1812, and in 1821 bought land in Eden township, to which he emigrated in 1829. In common with the early settlers of the county he was subjected to the hard- ships and privations of a pioneer life. He was a man of good natural en- dowments, which soon made him prominent in the community ; he was twice elected assessor of the county, under the then existing laws, and held the office of justice of the peace for many years in Eden township. He scrutinized every measure propounded to the public with great care, and when his conclusions were reached, he never departed from them. Politi- cally, he was a Democrat, and felt great interest in the success of the great conservative measures of his party. Few men can boast the coolness and serenity of temper which Mr. Martin always exhibited. Affable in his inter- course with men, scrupulously honest in business, moral and high-minded in character, he challenged the esteem of all who knew him, and left this bitter world without an enemy.
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
Mr. Martin quietly entertained his own views of religion, but upon his dying bed professed a hope in the saving pardon of God, and frequently said that he was going to the realms of endless glory. He has left behind him a record of virtue worthy of our imitation. His disease was chronic asthma.
Is it not singular that in writing up a short history of a township, obituary notices of father and son, both distinguished and good inen, and both especial dear friends of the writer, should follow each other so closely in succession ? But we all follow each other in close suc- cession, and one has scarcely time to tell the tale of his friend before he is himself called away to realize the scenes of another mission.
ROBERT M'CANDISH MARTIN
Was born in Perry county, Ohio, September 18, 1822, and died April 4, 1879, and was therefore aged fifty-six years, six months and sixteen days. In the spring of 1829 he came here with his father's family, Samuel S. Martin, noticed above, and has resided in Eden township to the time of his death, except only a few years, as hereafter noticed. In his youth he taught school in the winter and labored on his father's farm during the summer and fall until 1846, when he was appointed to the office of county recorder by the county commissioners, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William H. Kessler, who had accepted a clerkship in some department at Washington. In 1847 Mr. Martin was elected to this office and re-elected in 1850, making his aggregate term of service about seven years. His official administra- tion was characterized by a high degree of capacity and singular punc- tuality at his post of duty. On October 12, 1848, Mr. Martin was married to Barbara Kagy, daughter of Abraham Kagy, Esq., who still resides in Bloom township. Thirteen children resulted from this union, ten of whom, together with their bereaved mother, survive to lament their loss. The funeral cortege which followed the corpse to the burial was the largest ever known in the township, being nearly a mile in length. During his prostrated illness of more than two years, Mr. Martin manifested an almost heroic fortitude, and at the trying end of his earthly race he met the remorseless "King of Terrors" with such calm resignation that seemed to mock his power. The family of of the deceased realized the fact that he must leave them, only a few minutes before the end, and the wildest manifestation of grief prevail- ing, Mr. Martin essayed to calm their sorrow and counsel them for the future He retained his reason and spoke up to within a minute or two of his death, and thus peacefully and calmly he closed his timely career. To Robert Martin, all who ever knew him record the highest
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and noblest tribute to his memory. He was an honest and upright man and an exemplary citizen.
The foregoing is taken from an obituary notice, slightly changed; and if there is anything to be added to describe Robert as he looked and walked, let me say that he was about five feet, seven inches in ' height, well proportioned, had a high and noble forehead, dark eyes, fair complexion, regular, delicate but manly features, and always met you with a smile. His friendship was warm and firm and his notions of honor high and sound. While he was decided in everything he had put through the crucible of his own thoughts, he had great respect for the opinions of others no matter how widely they differed. A man of nobler impulses and warmer friendship than Robert Martin the writer never knew.
Among the enterprising farmers of forty years ago may be remem- bered also: Richard Baker, George Denison, Thomas Baker, Selden Graves, Sylvanus Arnold, John Baker, James Watson, Jesse Koler, William Watson, David Olmsted, Benjamin Brundage, Daniel W. East- man, Philip Bretz, John Kagy, Adam Pennington, Hezekiah Searles, John Bretz, Jonah Brown, John Gibson, John Crum, Jacob Price, John Downs, Philip Springer, Jacob Andre, Samuel Kennedy, James Gray, William Ireland, Dr. Bates and John Lamberson. James Stevens, Jacob Buskirk, the Arnolds and others, were among the early settlers of Melmore, also.
JOHN SEARLES
Was born in Anne Arundel county, Maryland, February 20, 1775, on a farm where he was raised. He was drafted to the army in 1812, after he was married and had settled near the town of New Lancaster, Ohio He moved from there in the fall of 1820, with his wife and seven chil- dren, to this county and occupied for a while one of the block houses of the old Fort Ball, where he lived in one room with his whole family. Paul Butler, the man who built Spencer's saw mill, occupied another room. Mr. David Risdon boarded with him. Another room was oc- cupied by Mr. Henry Creesy and his family. Creesy was a blacksmith by trade. The pickets were all standing then and the roofs of the block houses were covered with clap-boards. The army road ran along the river bank between the fort and the river. There was just room enough for the road.
The fort had three block houses, one on each corner and one in the middle, all facing the river. Back of the block houses was an open yard, inside the pickets, of about half an acre. There was room enough
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in the block houses for about two hundred men. Mr. Bowe's tavern was a double cabin and stood in the street north of the iron bridge, and the army road ran along in front of it also. David Smith occupied, for a while, the same room with Mr. Creesy. Rollins lived on the Souder farm, (so-called afterwards).
In the spring of 1821, Mr. Searles helped to open a road from Tiffin to Rocky creek, where the church now stands, and where he had bought 167 acres of land. Here he built a cabin in the woods, and in 1825 he built a frame barn which was probably the first one in the county. Reuben Williams was the boss carpenter. Mr. Searles attached him - self to the M. E. church when he was a young man, and up to his death remained a faithful and honored member. After he located here on Rocky creek, his house became a stopping place for all the preachers, and headquarters at nearly all the camp and quarterly meetings. For several years the elections were held at his house. Except Tiffin, Eden township contained the most decided politicians, strong Whigs and strong Democrats, but in their township elections they picked their officers from both parties. Here they voted for men only.
Mrs. Searles' maiden name was Duncan. They were the parents of nine children, five boys and four girls, of whom four sons and two daughters are still living.
The foregoing was gathered from what Mr. Hezekiah Searles related, and he goes on to say: " Our neighbors were the Welches, who had located on the Olmsted farm. Charles Bretz, Mr. Sponable, Cal. Jacqua, the Boyds, father Shelden, Thomas Vannatta, the Sneaths and and others came on soon after.
"One time in the winter we lost a colt We built a fence around it with a trap lid and caught five wolves. This was before Seneca county was organized, and we took the scalps to Lower Sandusky, where we got $5 a piece for them. The rivers and creeks abounded in good fish and the woods in game. We suffered the deprivations and enjoyed the pleasures peculiar to that sort of life.
"Father died May 14, 1844, and mother October 30, 1871."
There is here in Eden township a sort of counterpart to the old stone fortifications described by Mr. Swigart in Bloom, near Honey creek. This one is near the same creek in the Vannatta section. After you leave the Mohawk road, turning to the right at the corner of the old Wolf farm, crossing the bridge going west, you come across the bottom and approach a hill, where you see a high bluff a little to the left, forming a rounded corner at the northeast point. Upon this bluff there is a cir- cular embankment embracing nearly two acres of land. The embank-
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ment is now nearly flat on the top and looks as if at one time it must have been a very substantial parapet. Mr. Randall says he saw oak trees growing upon it two feet in diameter. The Mohawks lived all around over this part of the country and knew no more about it than the present generation of white people.
In a direction of a little east of north from this rampart, and within the range of a rifle, are found very many leaden bullets of various sizes, from grape shot down to 130 to the pound. Some of these have the mark of the twist of a rifle barrel still clearly marked upon them.
Was this parapet once a part of an old fort ? Has history ever traced the march of an army along this creek ? Was there ever a battle fought in this valley, and if so, by whom ? What people built round fortifica- tions ? Will somebody explain all this some day ?
HUGH WELCH.
For a while, it was a question in the mind of the writer as.to which township in the county a sketch of this distinguished pioneer should be attached, because he has now lived in Green Springs some time, but he first located here in Eden, where he drove his stake in the woods near Rocky creek. He has lived longer in Seneca county now than any other man in it. His father was in Washington's army, and so was also his father's neighbor in Huron county, Mr. Seifert. These old revolutionary veterans often talked over their scenes of strife for inde- pendence. Both were great admirers of General Washington.
In the month of February, 1819, Thomas and Hugh Welch, sons of the above-named veteran, started from Huron county to find homes in the wilds of Seneca. They camped out the first night and in the morn- ing found themselves near Honey creek. Vegetation had already started to grow, for in the dense forest a certain degree of warmth was retained, and the ground never froze very hard in the winter. They followed down the stream, and somewhere near the late residence of Mr. William Fleet, they came upon a band of Seneca Indians, who were making sugar, and with them they encamped for the night. On their journey down the creek on the next day, they arrived at the Mohawk village, on the Van Meter section, already spoken of. Van Meter made the Welchs welcome at his cabin and directed them to some very eligible land in the neighborhood, which they bought, and turned into homes Here they opened up the first settlement in Eden township. In June following, two other brothers, Martin and John, also came. Thomas died soon after. John became a member of the Ohio legislature from Seneca county. Hugh and Martin moved to
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
Wyandot county. Martin and John are now also dead, and the Judge is the only survivor of that once large family.
Hugh Welch was the first postmaster in Eden township, and he held the office at his opening, which was afterwards known as the Olmsted and Richardson place. This was the first postoffice in Seneca county east of the river. Mr. Welch was appointed by President Jackson. John McLean was postmaster-general at that time and signed the com- mission as such. It is dated August 4, 1825. Mr. Welch sold the Olmsted farm and the Richardson place and moved into Wyandot county, where he was appointed one of the associate judges of Craw- ford county. Wyandot was then a part of Crawford. This commis- sion is dated September 22, 1834, and is signed by Robert Lucas, governor, and M. H. Kirby, secretary of state. He was re-elected associate judge, and his second commission bears date of February 4, 1842, and is signed by Thomas Corwin, governor, and Samuel Gallo- way, secretary of state. The Judge sold his Wyandot farm and again moved into Seneca county.
He laid out the town of Mexico soon after he moved into Wyandot; helped to build the M. E. church there; donated the lot upon which it was built, and for a long time and until he sold his property near Mexico, was one of its most influential members.
Judge Welch was born in Little Beaver township. Beaver county, Penn- sylvania, on the 18th day of February, 1801. His father's name was Felix, and his mother's name was Margaret Barnes, who came from England. His father was a native of the county of Derry, in Ireland. The parents had six sons and four daughters. Hugh was the fifth son.
In 1816 the parents moved with their children to Huron county, Ohio, where they lived until the sons found better homes, in Seneca county. Hugh was married on the 18th day of September, 1823, to Polly, second daughter of John Gibson. They had three children: Eliza, married to William A. Watson; a little son who died at the age of about four years, and Maria, who married Frank McBride, and who has two interesting daughters, nearly young women grown. Judge Welch's brother, Martin, was the first stationed minister at Toledo in the M. E. church. The Judge was well acquainted with all the Mohawk Indians on the Van Meter section, and knew Charline, who was a nephew of the Brandt's, and the bitter, unforgiving foe of the Ameri- cans. He carried his hatred to the grave with him. He had the skin of the leg and foot of a child tanned, in which he carried his trinkets. He would not talk to a white man, and died from eating warm bread beyond the Mississippi.
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Judge Welch says that there were three brothers of these Brandt's, Thomas, Paulus and Isaac. Isaac was his favorite. They were both of about the same height and age; both full of fun and great wrestlers Van Meter was a generous and noble man, and a great horse fancier.
Charline was about eighty years old when he left with the Mohawks for the west.
Mrs. Welch died June 6th, 1869, at Green Springs She was the first patient at the water cure. From the 8th of October. 1825, hitherto Judge Welch has been a faithful member of the M. E. church.
CHAPTER XXXIV. HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP.
T. 2, N. R. 14 E.
T HIS township was organized on the 7th day of December, 1824, as already stated. The first election was held on Christmas day, the same year, at the house of Joseph Pool. Joseph Rosenberger, John Stover and Nathan Cadwallader were elected as trustees; James Gor- don, clerk; John Stoner, treasurer. Robert and John Shippy and John Chaney were also early settlers.
In 1830 the population was 549; in 1840 it had increased to 918, in 1870 it was 1,477, and in 1880 it is 1,635.
Hopewell is also a wealthy township. The soil is very fertile and the drainage is yearly improving it.
On the first of February, 1837, Mr. John Miller laid out the town of Bascom. George W. Gist was the surveyor. It is located on section. seventeen. Bascom is a station on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad.
Agreen Ingraham, Jacob S. Jennings, John Sleeper, David Cover, James Mathews, John Baughman, Peter Lonsway, Peter Young, Aaron Ruse, C. Weikert, Thomas Elder, Philip King, Joseph Ogle, Thomas Rickets and others were also among the early settlers here.
The Coldwater railroad had also been constructed through this town- ship, and the iron laid. The project was abandoned and the iron taken up, never to be laid down again (?).
On the 6th day of August, 1836, Samuel Waggoner laid out a town by James Durbin, surveyor, on section sixteen, which he called Hope- well, but no trace of it can be found. It never flourished.
Among the distinguished men who died in Hopewell was Joseph McClelland, one of the old Seneca county pioneers. He was born in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, August 25, 1787, and was married in Ross county, Ohio, in or near Chillicothe, in the early part of 1815. He moved to Shelby county, Kentucky, in the same year. His wife was Jane Boyd, sister of Thomas Boyd, one of the old county com- missioners.
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Mr. McClelland moved to Bloom township in 1822 and settled on section three. In 1838 he moved to Silver creek, settling on section nineteen. In 1854 he moved to Hopewell, where he settled on section thirty-five, and there died at the age of seventy-two years, four months and thirteen days.
Mr. McClelland was a stout, active and industrious man, faithful to his promises and prompt in the payment of his debts. He took a deep interest in all public affairs and held the office of county commissioner six years, having been elected in 1842 and in 1845. He lived and died in the enjoyment of the love and respect of all his neighbors and a host of friends.
SAMUEL SMITH
Was born November 8, 1806, in Kent county, Delaware. Soon there- after his father moved with his family to Ohio and settled near Rush- ville, in Fairfield county.
When Samuel was about twenty-three years old, he came to Seneca county and entered the west half of the northwest quarter of section twenty-two, in Hopewell. Here he built a cabin and helped to open the road towards Bascom. He worked out among farmers, drove team for Mr. Hedges, and in 1833 he married Elizabeth Zeis, a daughter of a German family that lived in Liberty township After he was mar- ried he moved upon his land, where he still resides. His wife died . September 11, 1870, the mother of ten children, who are all still living and doing well. Mr. Smith, himself, is still in the enjoyment of good health, physically and mentally.
When he settled here in Hopewell, Mr. Henry Creeger was already living on his farm near Wolf creek.
Samuel Todd, David Betts, David Cover, John Kune, George Shaull, Joseph Ogle and a few others were in the neighborhood.
There were about twenty-five acres cleared on the school section, and Mr. Covel moved onto them in 1834, under a lease of the trustees. There was also a small clearing on the James Mathews farm, now owned by Mr. Neligh. The balance of this neighborhood was all woods.
JOHN MAULE.
One of the old settlers of this township was John Maule, who was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, October 21, 1793. When but seven years of age his father died in Baltimore of yellow fever. He learned the trade of a blacksmith, and in 1827 he married Elizabeth Derr, sister of our old pioneer friend, Ezra Derr, of Clinton township.
In June, 1830, he arrived here with a party consisting of his wife and
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two children, his father-in-law, Thomas Derr, his wife's sister, Mar- garet (who afterwards became the wife of William Baker), and Joseph Heltebrake.
Mr. Maule bought a farm one-half mile north of Tiffin, on the state road, where he also worked at his trade for seven years and then moved one-half mile west onto the farm where the family now live.
While at his trade he did much work for the Indians, shoeing their ponies, etc., and they esteemed him very much. He was well acquaint- ed with Red Jacket, Hard Hickory, George Harriman, the Walkers and Dennis's
His neighbors were Erastus Bowe, John Souder, George Stoner, Henry Rosenberger, David Risdon, Bartholomew Shaull, David Smith, John Rosenberger, Henry and William Brish.
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