USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 59
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General Stickney has a large farm of about seven hundred acres, one mile east of Republic, where he lives in comfort with plenty around him.
He has been one of the leading men of the Democratic party of the county ever since he came here. He was justice of the peace in Re- public, and held the office of postmaster there for sixteen years. He was a member of the convention that formed the present constitution of Ohio. In 1867 he was elected a member of the house of represent- atives of the Ohio legislature, and was re-elected in 1869; was a mem-' ber of the Ohio senate in 1875, and last winter was appointed by Gov- ernor Foster, a member of the board of directors of the Ohio peniten- tiary. The General is still vigorous and active. Mrs. Stickney is a lady of refined mind, and both are highly esteemed.
After the new line of the Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland railroad was made straight through from Sandusky to Tiffin, Bellevue, Lodi and Republic were left out in the cold, and the change played mischief with Republic. Business went all to pieces, houses were deserted and the town soon assumed an air of general dilapidation. It remained in that condition until the making of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which has infused new life into Republic, and much business is done there now.
A little east of Republic is a large three-story brick building that was once the Seneca county academy. It was incorporated by an act passed March 4, 1836, and organized February 8, 1844. The capital stock amounted to $3,000, and was divided into 300 shares of Sto each. There were nine trustees. Timothy P. Roberts was the first president. E. T. Stickney was the treasurer; S. W. Shepard, principal. The insti - tution flourished for many years and the name of Schuyler has given it an almost undying fame. It is to be regretted that the academy was ever permitted to fail. It could and should have been saved. It was a credit to Republic and to Seneca county. .
TIMOTHY P. ROBERTS.
Mrs. E. T. Stickney was so kind as to furnish me with the following sketch of her honored father, and I take pleasure in copying it here:
Timothy P. Roberts was born at Middletown. Connecticut, June 11, 1754. Two years later his parents moved with their family to Massachusetts and located in Lee, Berkshire county. Timothy lived with his parents at Lee until he arrived at the age of eighteen years, when he was apprenticed to Deacon Stone to learn the trade of a wheelwright. He moved with Deacon Stone and his family to the town of Locke, Cayuga county, New York.
On the Isth of January, 1508, he was inter-married with Rhola Chadwick. formerly of Lee, Massachusetts, and settled in Scipio, New York. This
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union was blessed with seven children, three of whom died in infancy. Emma, now the wife of General E. T. Stickney, and Jane, the wife of S. S. Dentler, are all that remain of the family, except grand children.
Mr. Roberts emigrated from Scipio, New York, to Scipio, in Seneca coun- ty, Ohio, with his family, in 1825, and entered 160 acres of land, upon one- half of which he resided the balance of his days. The other eighty acres he gave to his oldest son, Ansel C. Roberts.
Mr. Roberts died at the age of 83 years, 7 months and 17 days, on the 28th of January, 1868. Mrs. Rhoda Roberts died at the residence of her daughter, Emma, March 31, 1872, aged 80 years, 1 month and nineteen days.
Mr. Roberts was about five feet, seven inches high, stout and com- pactly built; he had a large, well balanced head, and a well propor- tioned, manly countenance. He was of fair complexion, slow of speech, of clear judgment and strong in his decision. He was mentally, physi- cally and morally strong.
When Mr. William Anway came to this township, in 1821, he had eleven children; the oldest was twenty-one years old, and the youngest but two years. He built the first cabin here, with the help of his fam- ily and one man-Benjamin Huntley, from Huron county. Mr. Anway and his son cut the first road through the woods to Tiffin, winding along on the highest ground they could find. Anway's cabin stood near the corner of the Marion state road and the South Tiffin road. The spot . , is now covered by a circle of pines planted there in memory of the first home of the Anway family. The children of William Anway were John, Susan, William, George, Fanny, Austin, Erastus, Hannah, Harri- son and Phoebe.
Moses Smith put up a small frame building across the road from Anways, in which he kept a store.
Robert Dutton was the first man that died in this township, and was buried on his farm, which is now owned by Mr. Frank Fox. William Pierce, a colored man, put up and carried on the first blacksmith shop in the township. Mary, the daughter of John Anway, was the first. white child born in the township. She is now the wife of Mr. John Wilcox, living in Republic. Her father's was the first marriage in Scipio township. John is still living at this writing.
ARCHIBALD STEWART
Came here from Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, and settled on sec- tion twenty-nine, in 1824. He had two children when he came, and on the 29th of August, the same year, his son James W. was born at their new home here, where he still lives, having lived no other place all this time. The old cabin stood about eighty rods from their pres- ent dwelling. The Indians used to camp near their cabin, on the east
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bank of Rocky creek. There was a very old Indian among them, who had large silver rings in his nose. He was in the habit of boasting that he had the tongues of ninety-nine white men, and needed just one more to make one hundred. The Indians often stayed over night at Mr. Stewart's.
Archibald Stewart was born on the 9th of June, 1797, in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. He was raised on a farm, and married Martha Johnson, who died here. He is about five feet nine inches high, has a peculiar deep, sonorous voice, is well proportioned and well preserved; has large blue eyes, a fine forehead; his heavy head of hair, which was once a dark brown, has become white by the heavy frosts of Scipio township, but he still walks erect, and is as good and interesting in conversation as ever, bidding fair to become a centennarian.
Mr. Isaac B. Witter tells me that in 1827 Jonathan Witter, Sr., moved from Ontario county, New York, into Reed township, near Captain Hanford's and Dr. Gilbert's. The writer knew Mr. Witter very well. Isaac B. has now lived in Scipio over forty years.
Philip and Adam Steinbaugh, Humphrey Bromley, Michael Hendel, John A. Gale, Chancey Rundell, J. H. Drake, Dr. Maynard, William Parker, Sylvester Watson, the Neikirks, A. H. and R. G. Perry and Michael Chamberlain may also be said to belong to the pioneers here.
N. P. COLWELL,
When about twenty years old, emigrated from Madison county, New York, to Thompson township, in this county, where he arrived at his step-father's, Joseph Philo, on the 9th of October, 1831. In 1832 the election was held at Esquire Knight's cabin, a few rods east of John Royers, where Colwell voted for Jackson for president of the United States. He lived in Thompson two years, and then went to Amsden's Corners (Bellevue), where he built a wagon and carriage shop, and carried on the business for five years, when he returned to New York, where he married his wife, and returned here, located in Republic in August, 1838, where he has lived on the same street ever since. Here he built a shop, and carried on the wagon and carriage business until failing health compelled him to quit. The people elected him township clerk, and he opened the first office in the then new town hall, in the spring of 1850. He continued in office for twenty years, until stricken down by paralysis in 1870 He held the office of township clerk eleven years, and was justice of the peace sixteen years; he was mayor of Re- public and member of the council all the time; a member of the board of education seventeen years in succession. During these long years
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of official life he transacted a great deal of legal business, settling estates of deceased persons and attending to guardianships. During and since the war he attended to soldiers claims free of charge, and until a license of $10 was required. This he paid for eight years, and his work in that line increased until on the 27th day of December, 1870, he was stricken with paralysis, when for several months he could not write. He recovered sufficiently, however, to attend to notarial and other office business in his room, where he is confined most of the time Nervous rheumatism in his feet and legs interfere with his walking very much, and he goes out only on clear, warm days.
Friend Colwell said to me in a letter, describing the beauties of Thompson in its wild state:
All the land about Flat Rock (i. e., where it has been built since) was a wild prairie. In the spring time large crops of herbage sprang up, and in May and June it was the most beautiful flower garden I ever saw-wild flowers of all forms, shapes and colors, equal to any cultivated flowers, gave a delightful fragrance to all that country. Snow's cabin, north of where Flat Rock now stands, was the only human habitation in all that region. There were large herds of deer roaming over these prairies. They could be seen almost any time of day swinging their antlers as they cropped the herbage. The scenery was wild and grand beyond description, a perfect Garden of Eden, except the apples. When frost killed the vegetation and the grass had become dry, fires swept all over the country and left it bare. The Indians set it on fire for hunting purposes.
LANCE TODD
Was born on the 7th day of January, 1806, in Frederick county, Mary- land, the son of Thomas and Mary Todd. They arrived in Fort Ball on the 8th of August, 1828, and the whole family soon thereafter set- tled in the northwestern part of Scipio township. There were, besides the parents, three brothers and two sisters, and each had a piece of land in that neighborhood.
Nathaniel Norris was married to one of the girls in Maryland, and the other married Lott Norris, after the Todd family came out here.
Lance Todd built a cabin in the woods on his own land and after- wards put up a good, two-story log house, in which he still resides. He was married here to Mary Miller in 1834, and has two children. The whole family is still living, but the parents, brothers and sisters of Mr. Todd are dead.
When the family settled here on section eight, William Scoville lived on the south end of the same section. Evan Dorsey had a house raised on his land also, but nobody lived in it. They had to make a road out from their place every direction they wanted to go. Abraham Smith
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came into this neighborhood soon after the Todds settled here; also John Hall.
After the reservation came into market, the country settled up very rapidly, and soon the land was all taken up. Then roads were opened, land cleared, and houses put up, so that it began to look like an old country.
Mr. Todd has about seventy-five acres cleared and about thirty-five acres in woods. He helped to open and start six farms in this neigh - borhood, and still lives on the place where he located, fifty two years ago.
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CHAPTER XLI. SENECA TOWNSHIP.
T. I, N. R. 14 E.
I N some previous chapter mention was made of the township of Sen- eca, when first organized, embracing all that part of Seneca county lying west of the Sandusky river. Every township that was organized in this territory afterwards reduced it in size until finally it was confined to its proper geographical limits (See chapter x.)
The first election held in this township was on Monday, the 1st day of June, 1820, while Seneca county wa's still a part of Sandusky county. At the next annual election the following officers were chosen, viz: West Barney, John Lay and David Risdon, trustees; John Eaton, clerk, (it is said that he named Eden township after himself); Benjamin Bar- ney, treasurer, (he still lives in Pike county, Illinois,); Joseph Keller and Daniel Rice, overseers of the poor; James Montgomery, Erastus Bowe and Joel Chaffin, supervisors; P. Wilson, lister; Asa Pike, ap- praiser; Thomas Nicholson and Abner Pike, fence viewers; John Boughton and Joel Lee, constables.
At the state election in the fall of the same year the whole number of votes polled in Seneca township, comprising about three-fourths of the whole county, was twenty-six. (See chapter x.)
In 1830 the population had increased to 369; in 1840, to 1,393 (then Seneca proper); in 1870 it numbered 1,580. It did not reach that number in 1880, when it is only 1,537.
The early settlers in the township, as now constituted, were Henry St. John, William McCormick, Alexander Bowland, John Galbreath, Peter Weikert, Joseph Canahan, William Kerr, Caleb Brundage, Daniel Hoffman, John Yambert, David Foght, William Harmon, Jacob Staib, Benjamin Harmon, John Blair, George Heck, Jacob Wolfe, John Wag- goner, James Aiken, James Brinkerhoff, John Crocker, Gustavus Reini- ger, Jacob Kroh, Amos Nichols, John Withelm and others.
There was also an Indian grant in this township to Catharine Walker, 38
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a Wyandot woman, and to John Walker, her son, who was wounded in the service of the United States. It was a section of 640 acres lying mostly within the present limits of Seneca township, and directly west of the Van Meter section. This grant was secured to these Walkers at the treaty of 1817, at the foot of the rapids of the Miami of the Lake. The writer knew the old lady and William Walker, another of her sons, when they kept store at Upper Sandusky. Judge Lugenbeel bought a large part of the section when the Walkers sold it.
On the 15th of April, 1845, Henry F. Kaestner, William Brinkerhoff and John Campbell caused to be surveyed, on section nineteen, a town, to which was given the name of Berwick (Mr. Campbell came from Berwick, in Pennsylvania, and named this new town after that old one. " The Berwick in Pennsylvania is also the birthplace of the wife of the writer.) Berwick is a station on the Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleve- land railroad, eight miles from Tiffin, and is. the only village in the township.
Seneca is one of the wealthy townships in the county. The soil is rich and under a good state of cultivation. Its citizens are intelligent and enterprising. Their homes exhibit taste and comfort.
Mention should also be made of some other old settlers here, Ger- man pioneers that located in Seneca township about the time the writer came to Tiffin: John Dockweiler, Conrad Schmitt, Ignatz Neumeyer, John Houck, George Weisenberger, Michael Wagner, John Feck, Jacob Kappler, Michael Stippich, Conrad Heirholzer and John Wank.
FRANCIS JOSEPH HIRT.
The reader must excuse the space occupied in the mention of this subject. I would rather speak of men-yes, and of good men, than .to describe brutes. The event I am about to describe here took place nearly forty years ago, and has almost been forgotten. A "logging " meant the hauling together and piling up of logs to make a clearing, preparatory to the burning of them. When the logs were cut to the proper length to be handled, and everything was ready for the work, the neighbors were invited for a certain day to come to the " logging." Some brought their ox teams, others their axes, and worked hard all day. The neighboring women came to help the housewife getting dinner and supper for the men, and after supper it was very usual to have a dance and a general good time. It was very customary in those days to have plenty of whisky at these loggings, raisings, sheep-wash- ings, harvests, etc., and sometimes a man would take too much.
A Mr. John Feck lived on a piece of forty acres in the southwest
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quarter of section five, in this township; Francis J. Hirt also lived in the neighborhood. Both were at the logging of somebody else in the neighborhood, whose name has escaped me. This was early in the spring of 1841. The man that had the logging, Hirt, Feck, and perhaps the whole crowd were Germans. After supper a dance was started. Hirt took part in the dance. Feck stood at one side of the room look- ing on. Hirt had a pocket-knife in his hand, and becoming very bois- terous, somebody tried to quiet him, and during the muddle Hirt stabbed Feck in the belly, cutting a terrible gash, letting out his bowels, and from which he died in a short time. Hirt was arrested and placed in the log jail in Tiffin.
He was a man near six feet high, well proportioned, and very mus- cular. His carriage was very straight. His pale face contrasted very violently with his very black, bushy hair, large black eyebrows, and his dark, flashy, large eye. He had a very low forehead, clenched lips, and heavy lower jaw; thick, short neck, and very long, bony arms. His nose was short and fleshy, and his teeth were regular and beautiful; in fact, his teeth were the only thing beautiful about him. His whole make-up presented the desperado.
On the 25th day of May, 1841, the grand jury presented an indict- ment in the court against Hirt, for murder in the first degree, and the prosecuting attorney, Mr. Joel W. Wilson, was busily engaged prepar- ing the case for trial. Cowdery and Wilson were law partners at that time, and the witnesses being nearly all Germans, the writer, then read- ing law in the office, was of some service to the prosecuting attorney in ascertaining what the witnesses could testify.
Immediately after the occurrence, Dr. George W. Sampson, of Mccutchenville, was sent for, who arrived while Mr. Feck was still living. He returned the intestines and sewed up the wound, but Feck had already become delirious. Hirt's knife was found with blood on it, behind a big German chest that stood in the room where the dance took place and the murder was committed. It seems that Hirt threw the knife there after he had cut the fatal wound.
The court commenced on the 24th day of May, 1841, a few days after the fire of the court house. The court was held in the M. P. church, on Monroe street, now fixed up for a dwelling house by Mr. F. Mar- quart, of Tiffin. When the case of the state of Ohio against Francis J. Hirt was called, it was continued for trial to the next term of the court. It will be remembered that at the fire of the court house, the old log jail at the southeast corner of the court house lot, was saved Hirt was in this jail.
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The following named persons were subpoenaed as witnesses for the state and put under their own personal recognizances for their appear- ances at the next term, each in the sum of $100, viz: John Neumeyer, John Wank, William Kabala, Joseph Keppler, Henry Naeth, John Weng, Joseph Meng, Joseph Smith, Francis Lenhart, Anthony Sanders, Joseph Hummell, Clements Marks, John Baptist Ilchert and Alexander Swartz (Schwartz).
Hirt broke jail 'and escaped to Canada, where he lived for many years. His wife instituted proceedings in court, by which she became the owner of all the property of her husband, and it was supposed for a while that she would follow him to Canada. She was a very pious lady, and settled in New Reigel, in this county, near her church. where she lived until about two years ago. She had no child, but her mother lived with her. Hirt himself made his way to Iowa City, Iowa, from whence he kept up a regular correspondence with his wife, and finally prevailed upon her to sell her property in New Reigel and meet him in Iowa City. She complied, and taking her old mother with her, met Hirt at Iowa City. The sight of her husband so horrified her that she could not consent to have him live with her, and finally absolutely re- fused. She had already purchased a house and lot in the suburbs of Iowa City, where she lived with her mother.
One afternoon, when the two ladies were alone in the house, Hirt came, drew a revolver, and shot his wife and then her mother. It is also said that he set the house on fire and hung himself.
Both ladies were killed, however, and the particulars in the closing scene of the horrible life of this monster are not known here. If they can be ascertained before these pages go to the printer, the proper connections will be added.
My old friend John Houck, the merchant, says the murder of John Feck took place after the raising of a log barn, and not after a logging. I write from my own best recollections and those of others that knew of the occurrence at the time.
GUSTAVUS G. REINIGER
Is one of the German pioneers of Seneca county. The history of Sen- eca township would not be complete without a short sketch of him. He was born in Vayingen, in Wurtemberg, Germany, on the 9th day of April, 1801; attended school at Attersteig, in the black woods (Schwartz- wald), and was afterwards placed under the tutorship of Prof. Heller, in Kalb, where he studied the languages. He next spent two years as a student of the Agricultural Academy at Hohheim. After he left the
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academy he became book-keeper (actuary) in the office of the " Comp- troleur of Forests " at Beutelsbach, in Wurtemberg. Here he made the acquaintance of Fraulein Rosalia Durr, and was married to her in 1822. He remained in this office until the spring of 1832, when he moved with his family to America, and settled in the woods of Seneca township, in August of that year, and where he still resides. His oldest son is dead, and two others are in Iowa, one of whom is a distinguished lawyer there.
It is customary in Germany for all officers in the forest departments to wear uniforms of dark green cloth. The early settlers of Tiffin will remember Mr. Reiniger with his green coat buttoned up to his chin with yellow buttons, and his friendly face smoothly shaven, except the familiar goatee, which he wears to this day.
It is no easy task to comprehend and bring up before the mind the full scene in the change, when a man, with his family, leaves the asso- ciation of friends and the scenes of his 'earlier days, and exchanges a life of refinement in the classic hills and valleys of Germany for that of an American frontiersman in the forest. And is it not strange to see so many of that class of men and women quietly embrace and enjoy the free and independent life of an American farmer ? Such, however, is the nature of our free institutions, that any honest livelihood here is preferable to the gilded wrongs of European oppressions, and a life under them. The true man is the American nobleman.
There are three daughters and two sons still living. Mrs. Reiniger died on the 5th of May, 1869.
THE STAIB FAMILY
Were also among the pioneer settlers of Seneca township. My old friend Mr. Jacob Staib prepared a sketch for me in German, from which I abstract the following:
I was born in Grosz-Heppach, in Wurtemberg, Germany. In the year 1833 I came to America, and landed in Tiffin on the 25th of August, in that year. I worked for Mr. Fellnagel awhile, but my first work here was for Mr. Reiniger. I entered the land where we lived so long, and in 1834 I com- menced chopping and clearing on the old Staib farm, and built a house, into which I moved on the 1st day of April, 1835, and where I had no other com- pany than my dog. I bought a yoke of oxen, a cow and some chickens. In May John Ellwanger came and worked with me until my father and the family came on. Father was born on the 6th of August, 1779, in Wurtem- berg, when it was yet a Duchy. He died March 28th, 1867. My mother, who is still living with me, and whose maiden name was Elizabeth C. Kloepfer, was born also in Wurtemberg, October 8th, 1783. The family arrived here July 9th, 1835. Now we all worked together. but had many troubles to con-
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tend with. Provisions became scarce, and we were compelled to grate un- ripe corn to make bread. I was lucky enough to buy a barrel of flour from a team that came from the south for $7.00. The man soll the balance of the load in Tiffin for twice that sum.
The German grape plants father brought with him began to bear in two years from the time they were planted, and produced delightful fruit, but in 1843 the mildew affected them, and finally destroyed them. We raised pines from seed we brought with us, which became the firstever green trees in the county. We also had the first grafted fruit in the county, cherries, plums. apricots, peaches, etc. We partook of the work and hardships incident to frontier life. The climate was very unfavorable ; great storms, heavy frosts. and thawing weather. interchanging rapidly, was very destructive to wheat. and we harvested more cheat than wheat. ( What has become of the cheat anyway ? Why are not farmers pestered with it now ?- WRITER.)
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