USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 60
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In the spring of 1834 we had frosts from the 12th until the 20th of May. The fruit trees froze, vegetables, the wheat, and even the leaves on the trees in the woods, so that on the 1st of June the woods looked like winter time. The springs were very wet; the summers exceedingly hot and dry. In the summer of 1834 we were pestered greatly with squirrels; the woods were literally filled with them. We could raise nothing within a few rods of the fences. They often destroyed whole fields of wheat and corn. The woods were full of ravenous animals also, that made it almost impossible to raise poultry or hogs for a while.
In 1840 a cow belonging to Martin Spitler died, and the wolves devonred her in two nights. In 1858 I found a nest of young wolves on my farm. about forty rods from the river, in a hollow tree, where we burned them up. The old one made the nights hideons with her howling.
We also had our share of malarions fevers, and at times were not able to wait upon each other. Sometimes we could not take care of our crops, but there is nothing like good neighbors. There were no rich people here then. and therefore we had no thieves ; there was nothing to steal. The greater number of the old pioneers have passed away, and there are but a few of us left who can look back upon those early days, which were. after all, among our most happy times, in spite of all hard work and privations.
In December, 1833, we built a school house. Our district embraced nearly all the township. We all met on the same day, chopped down the trees. hauled the logs together, raised the house and put the clap-boards on before we quit work. Even the floor was laid. the benches put up, the house chinked and danbed. A few days after school was kept in it.
In 1838 Market street, in Tiffin, was cut out from the river to Julius Fell- nagel's, on Sandusky street. Mr. Fellnagel had a lease from Mr. Hedges for a piece of land near by, all covered with trees. My brother Louis and I took the job of clearing it. When we ent down a big maple we found at a point three inches from the center a notch that had been out with a sharp instru- ment, about three inches wide. The notch was four inches deep and oblique. We counted more than three hundred rings between this wound and the bark. Some forest ranger more than three centuries before injured the tree. It stood between Mr. Eid's residence and the river.
There was a wedding in Seneca township one night. The clay bake
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oven, near the house of the bride, stood on block. That night it was full of bread, pies, roasted turkey, cakes, and other good things. Boys are boys, they say, but it was a very ugly trick when they carried away the whole bake oven, with its entire contents, and when the ceremony at the house was over, and the supper to be served up, the bake oven was gone.
I don't like to mention any names, but if any one will ask my old friend G. W. Aulger, on the Mccutchenville road, he may know some- thing about it. Who ever heard of stealing a bake oven ?
ELIJAH MUSGRAVE,
Who is still living, was also an early settler in the county. He came to Republic in September, 1824, and worked for Mr. T. Roberts clear- ing land, and soon earned money enough to buy eighty acres, near Melmore, from Thomas West. He also worked for Frank Baker, Judge Cornell and Major Stephens. He and John Burns took the job of building the first M. E. church in Melmore, in 1833. He voted at the first election held in Scipio township. Adam Hance was elected jus- tice of the peace. Mr. Musgrave has lived for many years on his splendid farm, in section twenty-seven. He was deputy sheriff under David Bishop in 1833. Mr. Musgrave says:
In the spring, when I was 23 years old, I made 6,000 rails. They only paid 25 cents per hundred for rails down in Coshocton, but here I got 50 cents. I was born in Allegheny county, Virginia, March 4, 1804. In 1810 my father moved to Coshocton county, Ohio. When I came here there was no house between New Haven and Republic. I was married to Harriet, daughter of Micajah Heaton, 17th of May, 1833. When the Toledo war broke out. I was captain of a militia company. Dr. Gibson was onr surgeon. Ezra Baker , had a company also, and there was a company from Findlay, too. We all went to Toledo, but never got under fire. We had a full battalion. Henry C. Brish was our general. Governor Lucas was there. We all came back safe and sound.
Daniel Reis, Philip and Jacob Scheer, Andrew Burgderfer, Jonathan Kirgis and Peter Miller were also early German settlers, and there were also the Arbogasts, Vannests, John Manges, John Kerr, E. Roley, the Koenigsaamens, Caleb Brundage, George Robb, A. Yambright, Henry Hepp, John Adelsperger, Joseph Lye, Joseph Lonsoway and others; also the Davidsons and Blairs, the Spilters and others.
JOHN DOCKWEILER
Came here from Germany in 1833, and bought the northwest quarter of section five, when it was all woods. Here he built his home and raised a large family. He was a very strong man and very decided in
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his opinion, which often brought him into conflict with others. He was a good neighbor, however, very hospitable, and for many years a sort of a leader in the vicinity He was born in Martinshoehe, now in the Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany, then belonging to France, on the 26th Nivos, year 9 of the French Republic (January 16, 1801).
Mrs. Dockweiler's maiden name was Mary Schirk. She was born January 6, 1805, at Niederset, Alsacea. They were married near Easter, in 1828, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Dockweiler died March 7, 1880. His widow is still living.
Christian Scherer, Philip Bauer, Theobald Wagner, Francis Bartz, Frederick Becker, Franz Masson and John Brandt were also early Ger- man settlers in this township.
WILLIAM ARNOLD.
Close by Seneca township, where the state road crosses Thorn creek, a little south of Mccutchenville, William Arnold and his young wife located in the spring of 1823. They were married in the fall previous, in 1822, in Fredericksburg, Maryland.
William Arnold was born in Fredericksburg, in 1802. Mrs. Arnold, whose maiden name was Noel, and who was a sister of Michael Noel, was also born in Fredericksburg, Maryland.
Michael Noel lived a short distance south of Mccutchenville, also, and was a man of good repute as a farmer and citizen. He raised a family of interesting sons and beautiful daughters, two of whom were married to citizens of this county, one being the wife of my good old friend, the distinguished hardware merchant, Martin Kingseed, of Fos- toria.
Here at Thorn creek, Mr. Arnold entered a piece of land and put up a cabin. The state road was surveyed close to his house, and this being the only road running north and south, west of the Sandusky river, it was the only thoroughfare for emigrants and others traveling north and south. Forty years ago, new as the country then was, there was more travel on that road than there is now. The Wyandots were then still living on the plains and became great friends of Mr. Arnold and his wife, who had opened at their house a small beer and ginger bread stand; they also sold carbonated mead, of all of which the Indians were fond. Sometimes the Indians would get too much fire-water at Mccutchen- ville, and going home, stop in at Mr. Arnold's, acting ugly. One time an Indian named Spotted Tail wanted more beer, and the stock being exhausted, became very boisterous and drew a tomahawk to strike Mrs. Arnold, who was alone in the house. For want of any other pro-
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tection, she set her big dog on the Indian. who drove the savage away.
At another time, "Stokey," another Wyandot, became very insult- ing at the house and Mr. Arnold struck him with the end of his whip handle over the head.
The Indian became very angry, jumped onto his pony and going away, told Mr. Arnold that he would fix him He was gone but a short time when he returned with six other Indians. Meantime Mr. Arnold prepared himself for an attack, and when the Indians rode up to the door, where they were met at the small end of Arnold's old mus- ket and other persuasives, they desisted from all further attempts to do injury. Big Crow, Round the Lake and Black Snake were also cus- tomers at Arnold's beer shop, but were always of good behavior.
Mr. and Mrs. Arnold were very devout Catholics, and being far re- moved from a church of their faith, experienced the want very much.
After their first child was born and the mother was able to travel, Mr. Arnold left his lone cabin in the woods, hitched up his team and took wife and babe to Lancaster, Ohio, to have it christened. It took a whole week to make the trip. Soon, however, other Catholics settled in the neighborhood, and Mr. Arnold was one of the prime movers in the establishment of the first Catholic church at McCutchenville.
Mr. Arnold was as ingenious as he was industrious. He was always at work at something, and while he opened up a farm with great iudus- try, he was ever busy making tools and implements for household and husbandry.
They raised a large family of children, and Mrs. George Strausbaugh. who furnished the writer much valuable information of early life on Thorn creek, and Mr. Anthony H. Arnold, of Tiffin, are two of them.
The parents have both passed away and so have also Mr. and Mrs Noel. The latter survived them all and died only recently in the enjoy- ment of comfort and peace.
GEORGE HECK.
The subject of this sketch is now the oldest settler in the township. The writer has not been able to trace any one who settled here before Mr. Heck and is still living. Mr. Aiken was a very respectable pioneer and he died but a few years ago. He came about the same time that Mr. Heck arrived.
The grandfather of Mr. Heck came from Germany. George Heck was born October 5, 1797, near the mouth of Hocking river, in Athens county, Ohio. He grew up on his father's farm there. He married Sarah Grelle, who was a widow with four children. Samuel Grelle, Esq., late county commissioner, is one of them. With her he had ten
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children, of whom five are still living, the others having died in child- , hood. The oldest one living is his daughter, Catharine, wife of Harry Fiser; next, Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Bowlin, and Maria, wife of John Strebin, all living in the state of Indiana; Daniel G. Heck, the popular superintendent of the Seneca County Infirmary, and John, the youngest son, who is living near his father on the old homestead. The children all have families and are all doing well.
Soon after the land sales, Mr. Heck's father bought, at the Delaware land office, the southwest front quarter of section twenty-five, in this township, and made a deed for it to his son George. Three years after he was married he moved onto the land here. Mrs. Heck died on the 18th of December, 1840. About one year thereafter, he married Sarah, the sister of John Kerr, Esq., now residing in Tiffin. She dropped dead on the floor in 1875 after living on the old homestead with Mr. Heck thirty-five years At breakfast, on the morning of the day she died, she told Mr. Heck her dream of the previous night. She said she dreamed that their canoe got loose (their house stands near the river), and drifted to the other side of the river; that she walked after it on the top of the water, and as she reached the other shore, she stepped onto a log, and looking back saw her steps on the log.
Mr. Heck says:
I am my father's youngest son. I had one brother and four sisters, and am the only one remaining of my father's family. My parents talked Ger- man to each other, but always English to us children, and therefore I never learned the German.
We hired a team and moved up here in the spring of 1523, by the way of Upper Sandusky along the Negrotown road, as it was then called. It was not the present Negrotown road, but a trail by that name that wound through the woods in all directions. Anderson's and Crocker's were all the houses between Mexico and Tiffin. and they were cabins in the woods.
When we arrived here and found our land, we hunted for, and found. a suitable place to locate near the bank of the river in the woods. We un- loaded and the team returned. I paid the man $20 to bring us here, and that left me but $5, all told, and here I was with a wife, five children, five dollars, no house, no team, no neighbor and no friend near. I ent four forks, put them into the ground in a square, laid poles across them. made some clap-boards and covered the shed, and here we camped until my brother-in-law, Peter Baum, who had married my wife's sister, helped me cut some logs, which, for want of a team, we carried together and built a cabin. For want of other material to make a floor, I took the bark of large elm trees and spread it on the ground, which answered very well. There was a spring on the bank of the river, near this cabin, and here we lived two years, when I built a better log house aud moved into it. There was not a stiek cut on this land nor in the woods for miles around. There were neither roads nor bridges. When I was a boy grown up, my father moved
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with his family to Perry county, where I was married. From there I came here. We had a couple of cows, and after struggling along during that sum- mer, fall and winter as best we could, my father brought to me a yoke of oxen the following spring. This was a sort of God-send and I began to take courage. Some time afterwards I went back to Perry county and brought home a young brood mare I had left there. My father brought me flour twice, which kept ns from starving, and some of the other settlers also. When they found out that we had flour, they came for several miles around to borrow some, to be paid back some time in kind. We had good flour, but some who returned flour brought a very inferior article. Foncannons never brought theirs back until two years afterwards, and others never made re- turn at all. Then the clothes I brought with me were worn out, and how to get others I did not know. I killed two large bucks and took the skins to the Mohawk squaws, on the Van Meter section, who tanned them for me. I paid them for it with a few pounds of flour. I ent a pair of pants out of these skins and my wife helped me sew them. For three years I wore these every day, and they were the most serviceable pants I ever had. I got Jacob Price to tan a skin also, out of which we made a pair of pants for Samnel Grelle, but whenever they got wet and dry again, they became as stiff as boards. Price did not understand tanning deer skins as well as the Mohawk squaws.
When James Aiken came here, he was a single man. William Anderson came here also about the time we did, and Aiken married Anderson's daughter. They lived on the Negrotown road. Aiken was a Virginian, but lived at Delaware a short time before he came here. He was here when I came. Anderson's land joined mine on the east.
The first wheat I raised I took to Moore's mill, near Lower Sandusky to get it ground. We all took sick and had a great deal of trouble with the diseases incident to life in the forest.
Soon after my arrival here I became acquainted with Hard Hickory, of the Senecas. He was a very intelligent Indian and spoke English very plainly. He prided himself on his French blood.
They camped near our house, and brought their camp equipage with them in their canoes. One night Hard Hickory and another Indian killed two deers near my house. The Indians fixed a candle over their heads in the canoes, and while the deers were feeding on the tender grass in the river, they would look at the light. while the Indians. sitting in the dark beneath, could row almost np to them and kill them. They put two forks into the ground and a pole across them about four feet up. The meat was cut into pieces, laid on this pole and dried by a fire made beneath. The meat was salted a little before it was dried, and when thus well cured, it was put into a square pack, the skin of the deer wrapped around it and tied with strings of raw hide. A crooked stick was fastened on the back of a pony and a pack of this dried venison, called " jerk," fastened to each end, to be taken home. This drying and packing and cutting np of the meat was all done by a squaw.
One time when Hickory camped here, and before I had a team, I borrowed one of his ponies to go to Tiffin for a half bushel of salt. He was always kind to me. There was also a Taway Indian through here occasionally they
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called Pumpkin. Ile was the biggest Indian I ever saw, and the most sav- age looking. Everybody, even the other Indians were afraid of him. He was fully six feet high, had a glaring look, showed his teeth very much and he must have weighed fully two hundred pounds.
Somewhere down about Cold creek a white man by the name of Snow, had his cabin. One time, in the absence of Snow, Pumpkin came into the house and killed Mrs. Snow. Hle then ent her open and took out of her womb a . full grown babe, stuck it on a stick and roasted it over the fire in the house. The white neighbors gave the alarm and the Senecas caught Pumpkin and brought him to Snow, telling him that he should kill him or do anything else he pleased with him. Mr. Snow, fearing the consequences, let Pump- kin run. Soon after that, Pumpkin stole a corn hoe from my neighbor. Aiken. Aiken told Pumpkin to leave the country and never show his face again. It was not long after that, when Pumpkin got into a fight with a Wyandot and killed him. They made him sit on a log. when some six of them plunged their tomahawks into his brain.
Joseph Foncannon, two of his brothers and his father, settled near the mouth of Honey creek, in Eden. Joseph was married. His wife was a Poorman. Peter Lott, David Foght and Frederick Wagner also came in soon. Peter Baum settled near Mexico. He moved to Missouri afterwards. where he and his wife both died. Baum was never satisfied anywhere.
We raised hempand flax and spun and wove tow-linen. Many a cold day I chopped in the woods all day in tow-linen pants, my bare feet in shoes full of water and ice. Sometimes the ice packed around my feet so tight that when I came into the house I had to hold them to the fire a while before I could get them off; but I never had my feet frozen. I often had to go to Tiffin on cold days in winter with tow-linen pants on. We lived very fine after we could raise sheep and have the whole family dressed in linsey- woolsey.
One time my father paid us a visit, and when he started back my wife gave him a loaf of bread to take along on the road. He met a man on the road near Upper Sandusky, who was nearly starved. He had not eaten a mouthful of bread for three weeks, and had lived on boiled nettles and milk. He had a little hut near the road. .
ANTON KOENIGSAMEN
Was born June 26th, 1796, in Dreyson, in the Palatinate of Bavaria. On the 26th of January, 1816, he was married to Margaret Rauth, of Boerstadt, in the Palatinate also. She was born July 28th, 1796. They settled in this town of Boerstadt, where he followed the trade of a cab- inet maker, until he moved with his family, then embracing six children, to America. He landed in New York in the fore part of October, 1832, after a short voyage of thirty-two days, and soon after located in Ham- burg, Berks county, Pennsylvania, working at his trade
My old friend Martin Kingseed was noticed under the head of Fostoria, in chapter xxxVII. He was the oldest son of the family, and was born November 19th, 1817. The other five were Catharine, Peter,
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Christian, Magdalena and Margaret. From Berks county Mr. Koenigsa- men, in April, 1833, moved to Pine Grove, in Schuylkill county, Penn- sylvania, where he located on a farm and undertook farming. The mountains and the stony fields were not congenial to him, and in 1834 he sold out and came to Ohio by wagons.
After a journey of six weeks he reached Tiffin, on the 18th of June, 1834. Here he stayed a few weeks, and bought ninety-four acres of land six miles south of Tiffin, on the Sandusky river, in section fourteen.
Here he opened up a farm, the land being all in the woods. He had but few neighbors. William Hitt joined on the east of him, Richard Connor on the north, Benjamin Peck on the west, and the Sandusky river on the south. Across the river lived Alex. Bowland and William McCormack.
Starting here in the woods he experienced all the hardships of foreigners who had no practical knowledge of clearing land, for this was a peculiarly American science. Farmers in Europe are not compelled to remove the forest in order to make a farm. The first year is gen- erally the hardest, because while you are not able to raise anything, you are compelled to buy all you need, and live out of pocket. So with Mr. Koenigsamen, but the next year he had cleared ten acres and began to raise provisions. Mr. Koenigsamen speaks very feelingly of the kindness of his old neighbors in assisting him with everything needful until he got a better start in the world. The readiness and willingness with which neighbors would come to a raising or logging has frequently been mentioned. So here. Help was never refused. Now the open- ing grew larger, and grain was being raised in abundance. Everything prospered, and the family were happy until, on the 19th of May, 1842, Mrs. Koenigsamen died, a few days after giving birth to her tenth child. The babe died six weeks thereafter.
Five years later, in 1847, Mr. Koenigsamen was again married, to Catharine Bauer, of this township, with whom he had three children, Joseph, Emelia and Catharine.
On the 26th day of October, 1862, his second wife also died. The elder daughters then took charge of the household, and the youngest, Emelia, is now the matron of the homestead.
For several years past his oldest son, Martin, has been in the habit of arranging surprise parties at the old homestead upon the anniver- sary of the old gentleman's birthday, when all the children would meet there, with their wives, husbands and children, and have a good time all around. They had another big time there again this year, when they celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday, showing him all honor'
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and filial affection possible, and gladdening the evening of his life with renewed assurances of their love and devotion.
Mr. Koenigsamen is still in the enjoyment of good health, and rather robust for his age. He enjoys his old pipe and a good joke as much as ever, and promises fair to so continue for many years yet to come. His son Anthony lives with him, and has charge of the farm.
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CHAPTER XLII. THOMPSON TOWNSHIP.
T. 3, N. R. 17 E.
T' HE name of this good old township is especially dear to the writer, for among its best men and prominent citizens many years ago, he counted many true and devoted friends. Its early settlement and organization, etc .. have already been mentioned, and it remains only to refer to several subjects not previously touched upon.
The first township election was held on the 6th day of May, 1820, at the house of Joseph Parmenter.
Among the first settlers in the township were William and Nathan Whitney, Joseph Parmenter, H. Purdy, David Underhill, James Whit- more, James Underhill, Eli Whitney, Jasper Underhill, Benjamin Clark, Solomon Dimick, Benjamin Murray and A. H. Twiss, most of whom the writer well knew. They are all dead but Jasper Whitney, of whom mention will be made hereafter.
There were several squatters upon the openings in Thompson, who, owing to the scarcity of water at that time, left the country.
In 1830 the population of the township was 362; in 1840 it was 1,404, and has increased to about 1,900 now.
The face of the country is beautifully undulating and the soil remark- ably rich and fertile. The very many improvements all over the town- ship, the large barns, splendid farm houses and excellent stock, indi- cate comfort and wealth, industry, economy and intelligence. The German element predominates very largely, both in the old Pennsyl- vania and the European stock. There is a large settlement of German Catholics in the southeastern portion of the township, where they have a splendid church and a nunnery, under the auspices of the Precious Blood Society, mentioned in the chapter on Big Spring township. These German Catholics were among the first settlers in that part of the township and had organized a society as early as 1832-3. Among those early pioneers I will mention Anthony Krupp, John Host, Michael
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Reinhart, John Glassner, Anthony Zahm, George Zahm, J. M. Zahm, Franz Hen, David Umlor, Peters Schoendorf and John Gerhartstein.
Among the prominent men of later years may be mentioned Jacob and John Bunn, Samuel Stewart, Jacob and Peter Karn, John Royer, John Decker, Daniel Close, M. Good, John Heter, Peter Dewalt, and others; also the Schochs, the Douglas's the Manleys, the Purdys, the Murrays, the Bloomers, John Hobbes, Elder Jackson and others.
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