USA > Ohio > Van Wert County > History of Van Wert County, Ohio and Representative Citizens > Part 16
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In 1850 Dr. J. W. Pearce built the second tavern in the place, at that time the best house in Van Wert County.
The first frame schoolhouse was built on the Public Square in 1848.
The first temperance organization was the Sons of Temperance, organized in 1848. It was kept up for many years and exerted a great influence.
THE BAPTIST CHURCH
Of Willshire is one of the oldest in the Auglaize Association, having been first organized in 1837 and admitted to the Mad River Associa-
tion. Nothing is known of the church until 1843, when the history of the Mad River As- sociation states that the church dissolved, and that it was later reorganized and admitted again. The minutes of the church state that on September 2, 1843, the church was or- ganized in the Willshire schoolhouse. Elder Fuson was moderator and Elder Sleeper. clerk. The constituent members were: R. D. Tis- clale and wife, of Bethel Church, Iowa; Isaac Rose and wife, of Sunbury, Ohio; Griffin John- son, Susannah Fuller and William Case and wife. The visiting brethren constituted a coun- cil of recognition and gave the hand of fellow- ship. The first meeting house was erected on Decatur street in 1849. The second house was purchased from the Methodists just before the war. In 1845 the church was dismissed from the Mad River Association along with others to organize the Auglaize Association. In 1865 the church was dismissed from the Auglaize Association and joined the Salamonie River Association (Indiana), but came back to the Auglaize Association in 1884. The present house of worship was built in 1893 and dedi- cated free of debt in 1894 in the pastorate of Rev. W. H. Gallant. On account of difficulties that seemed insurmountable, the church was re- organized in August, 1897. Since then there has been steady work in solidifying and strengthening the things that remain. During the church's connection with the Auglaize Asso- ciation, the pastors have been : Revs. D. D. Johnson, J. Larue, W. F. Woods, J. C. Skinner, W. W. Robertson, V. D. Willard, S. A. Sher- man, W. H. Gallant, J. F. Smith, D. B. Reck- ard and J. C. F. Scherich.
A Sunday-school has been maintained since 1882. The Baptist Church has a good brick meeting house, well furnished with baptistry and robing rooms and is well equipped for carrying on the work. The present pastor lines
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at Willshire and serves the Mercer (Ohio) and Pleasant Mills (Indiana) churches. The out- look for the church has never been better, and it is confidently expected that the church will meet its opportunity.
WILLIAM WHITE.
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Among the early settlers, a young colored man came to Willshire, William White. He had been a slave and on account of his wonder- ful development physically his master decided to have him trained as a prize fighter so as to make money by exhibiting him in the prize ring. For that purpose he was trained and he entered upon it with his usual energy and soon became a scientific boxer, so quick of eye and motion that ere long his best trainer could not stand up before him. His master then sought an antagonist and found one that was con- sidered the champion in the South.
They entered the ring with the betting largely in favor of White's antagonist, but the contest was of short duration. White with his wonderful strength and quickness forced his right past his adversary's guard and taking him on the shoulder broke it so completely that he had to be carried from the ring.
White then told his master that he would never fight another prize fight, that he might send him South to the cotton fields, or do any- thing else with him but match him for the prize ring. His master shortly after gave him his liberty and he came to Willshire. 'The author well recollects him as a young man, when he used to come to Van Wert to see Nancy Young, who afterward became his wife. She was working for the writer's uncle, Robert Gilli- land. He was over six feet tall and weighed about 250 pounds, and not a pound of surplus flesh either. He was as black as any of the Southern darkies, but had such a pleasant coun-
tenance that none could help liking him. You recognized him as a powerful man on the in- stant.
He was industrious and applied his power- iul strength to good advantage. He would not use a common axe but had one made to order, weighing six pounds, and would swing it the whole day with apparent ease. He would put up his six cords of wood with as much ease as other choppers would two or three. One in- stance of the tremendous strength he could put forth is very well remembered by the writer. It was shortly after the railroad was built through Van Wert and goods and groceries for Willshire were hauled from the former place to Willshire by wagon. One day three teamsters were loading their wagons from the car. In rolling out a barrel of coal oil, it got the advantage of them and slipped off into the mud. The three of them had been working for some time trying to get it up on the wagon, only to have it slip from the wet plank back into the mud, when White happened along and accosted them with, "What are you trying to do, boys." "Oh! Mr. White, won't you help us," they cried with one voice. "Certainly," he said and walked over to the wagon. "Take away the plank," he said. "But we want to roll it up on that," they replied. "Take it away; we don't need it," he said, and taking hold of the chime at each end and drawing it up slowly on his knees he gave it a toss into the wagon with apparently as much ease as an ordi- nary man would a keg of nails.
J. S. Eyler tells that at one time White had hauled five barrels of coal oil from Van Wert to them (Casto & Eyler) and drove into the alley back of the ware-room, there were posts set so that he could not drive nearer than 10 or 12 feet of the ware-room. Eyler was get- ting a plank to roll them, when White said, "You do not need that;" taking out the end
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gate, he took the first barrel, walked with it to the ware-room, set it down and turning around said, "Roll out the next." This con- tinued until the five were safely deposited in the ware-room apparently without an effort.
At one time he and some of his neigtfors had gone to the Grand Reservoir in Mercer County to enjoy some fishing. A party from Auglaize County were there. Hearing White's name called, one of them said, "Are you the White they say is the best man in Van Wert County?" "Oh, no," said White, "there are plenty of better men in the county." "Well," said the man. "I have whipped the best man in Allen County and the best man in Auglaize County and the best man in Mercer County and now I am going to whip you and then I will be the champion of four counties." White told him that he would not fight him. The man said, "Take off your coat; you will have to fight." White only laughed and replied that he guessed not. The man said, "Prepare your- self," and struck at White, who dodged and
caught the man's arm and threw him about 15 feet into the reservoir. His friends had to jump in and help him out and the man carried his head on one side for several weeks, the jar had so nearly dislocated it.
At one time during the War of the Rebel- lion, White came to town and two toughs that were the terror of the community determined that they were going to fight him. White could have picked them up and cracked their heads together but instead staid in Swineford's groc- ery until they were tired watching for him. Some of the citizens urged him to go on the street and if attacked to give them a good thrashing, but he said it would not be right as that would be inviting the trouble and while they deserved a thrashing, yet it he could avoid it, it was better.
He lived to a good age and was never known to do an act that could not be endorsed by his neighbors. He was a good neighbor and respected by every one.
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CHAPTER VII
RIDGE TOWNSHIP
Settlement of the Township-Incidents of LifeAmong the Pioneers-Two Large Trees-An Irishman Scares Away a Wolf-A Wild Cat Hunt-Early Elections-An Indian Trag- edy-Indian Method of Writing-Experiences With Indians-Indian Remains- "Johnny Appleseed"-Some Recollections of the Gilliland Family and Early Day Anecdotes-The Gilliland and McCoy Families-Smith Hill -- The Ridge and Gilliland Methodist Episcopal Churches-The First Sunday-School.
Ridge Township was settled in 1835-by Smith Hill and John Mark in May; by James Gordan Gilliland in July; and by Thomas Adam, Robert and Hugh Gilliland and Peter Mills in October. William Priddy and his sons -Foster, Archelaus, Thomas D., John and William-settled here in the spring of 1836; also Williani and John Hill.
The general government had given the State a strip of land five miles wide along the proposed line of the canal for canal purposes, which could not be sold for less than $2.50 per acre, or twice what government land could be had for. Then there were some other land out- side of this strip that had been selected in lieu of lands that had been previously entered in that strip along the canal before the grant was made, some of the land being located on the ridge west of the canal strip, thus making the land, that was held out of the market by rea- son of the aciditional price, a strip between six or seven miles wide lying between the settle- ment in Allen County and the available land for
entry in Van Wert County. This was a bar- rier almost impassable the greater part of the year.
In 1837 Alexander and David W. McCoy and Daniel Beard settled in the south part of Ridge township. In 1839 Samuel S. Brown moved to the township.
INCIDENTS OF LIFE AMONG THE PIONEERS.
Shortly after settling in Ridge township, Smith Hill and John Mark, Methodists, and James G. Gilliland formed what they called a class and had prayer and class meetings on Sundays. On one Sunday, James G. Gilliland and his wife started to go to Hill's; after they had gone a short distance, Mrs. Gilliland said, "Hadn't you better go back and hide your money (several hundred dollars)-some one might steal it." He went back, took the money. out of the chest where he had kept it and, lift- ing a puncheon in the floor, threw the money under. When they returned in the evening
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they found that the chest had been broken open. Not finding the money, the would-be thief had searched the house pretty thoroughly, even looking up the chimney to see if it had been placed on the back wall of the chimney; in do- ing this he had set his foot in the ashes, leav- ing a plain print of his shoe there. As the shoe had a home-made half-sole of peculiar shape, it was no trouble for Mr. Gilliland to remember it. A short time afterward he helped to raise a house in the neighborhood and when the men were lying on the ground at noon resting he found that the shoe with the peculiar half-sole belonged to one of his neighbors. While he never told any one but his brothers, it was noticeable that he never had any dealings with this man after the occurrence, although for 20 years or more they lived within two miles of each other and were considered near neighbors.
James G. Gilliland spent a considerable time showing land to parties wishing to enter. The land office issued plats showing what lands were vacant-these Mr. Gilliland would show to prospective buyers. At one time he started out with four men, all strangers to each other. Before they started, Mrs. Gilliland noticed one of the men crawl under a bed and put his sad- dle-bags back in the farthest corner. The men were gone three days in the western part of the county. On their return this man, as soon as he came into the house (there was only one room in the house), crawled under the bed, got out his saddle-bags and explained that there was $2,000 in gold in them. Mr. Gilliland gave the man a good talking to for endanger- ing the lives of his family, and said that he would not have gone away from home had he known that the money was in the house. At another time, five or six men who had been out several days, concluded they wanted to go out on Sunday. After some objections they started. Night overtook them before they re-
turned and the dog that was with the party treed a coon, which they endeavored to shoot. as it was a moonlight night. After shooting four or five times each, they noticed that one man's gun would not go off, and they accord- ingly accused him of not having it loaded. which he denied. After they had killed the coon, they examined his gun and found it was not loaded. Some of the men told Mr. Gilli- land that the man was a class leader in the church at home.
Smith Hill was a great bee hunter, and while he was a large man, weighing nearly 200 pounds, he would climb the tallest tree and cut out the honey. He climbed a tree on the Jacob Balyeat farm in Ridge township 104 feet high. At another time he climbed an ash tree, where the bees were in a limb that ran straight out from the tree; he was standing up on the limb to chop, and had only struck one or two strokes, when the limb broke off and fell, leaving only a strip of wood about six inches wide that ex- tended past his feet a foot or two. At one time he had found a bee tree north of the ridge and with one or two of his nephews went to get the honey. For some reason they did not take a gun. The dogs began barking and when Hill and his nephews came up they found a bear backed up against a tree fighting the dogs. Mr. Hill approached the bear with his axe, and the dogs, being encouraged by his presence, made a more furious attack; the bear's attention be- ing thus attracted by the onslaught of its canine foes, Hill hit it, burying the bit of the axe nearly to the handle in the side of its head. At another time, when he and some of his nephews were starting out coon hunting in the snow, the dogs began barking at something in a treetop and Mr. Hill went up close, supposing it was a porcupine, as that was about the only thing the dogs would not tackle. When he got up pretty close, a very large bear made at him. In at-
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tempting to back out, his foot caught in a limb and he fell. When he regained his feet, the beir was almost upon him and he split its head open with an axe.
It was customary for Smith Hill, James G. Gilliland and Elihu Ireland to go hunting every fall in the north wods, either in the northern part of this county or in Paulding county. One fall they camped on Prairie Creek. While the others were fixing camp, Mr. Gilliland started out to get some meat for supper. He had gone some distance when he shot a very large buck, which fell in its tracks. He set down his gun, took hold of the deer's horns, and drew its head back to cut its throat, when the deer came to and with its hair all turned forward, as is customary with deer when angry, began to struggle. Mr. Gilliland knew it was a death struggle for one or the other. After going around in a circle for some time, he succeeded in getting the deer's neck against a small sap- uling. The deer would go around about as fast as Mr. Gilliland could, but at last when it ceased to struggle for an instant Mr. Gilliland let go the horn with one hand and drawing his hunting knife plunged it into the deer's throat, There was no time until then when Mr. Gilli- land would not have been glad to have let the deer go if he could only have escaped. After examining the deer, it was found that when he shot it he only creased it scarcely the thickness of the ball.
During the same trip there was a heavy fall of snow, while the leaves were still on, and many trees were broken and bent; when the snow was going off the next day there was a great crackling of timber, resembling the re- port of a discharge of a gun. When Mr. Gilli- land was about a mile from camp, eight deer came close to him; he shot the leader and when it fell the others commenced to play around it; he continued to load and discharge his gun as
fast as he could and shot five, when the dog that they made stay at the eamp, hearing the shots, ran in and scared the other three away. Hill and Ireland soon came running, thinking there had some accident happened. The five deer that he had killed lay in a space less than 30 feet square. Smith Hill found 13 bee trees, Mr. Gilliland had killed eight deer, while Mr. Ireland had not had a shot at a deer, although he was as good a hunter in general as either of the others.
Shortly after the canal was built, two of the Gilliland brothers went to Delphos to mill. A man coming in with a sled-load of hogs for sale with their heads cut off (hogs were marked by cutting pieces out of their ears), they hollered "hog thief" at him. The next day an officer came with a warrant for them, but unfortu- nately for his case he had the names of two of the other brothers in the war- rant. £ These two brothers secured their witnesses, made up a big sled-load from the neighborhood and town, went to Del- phos and stood trial, and of course proved an alibi. As it was necessary to stay all night, they were gathered in Hollister, & Bliss' store for the evening and a party of them were play- ing cards, the most of the games being won by a Mr. Evans. James G. Gilliland, who had been looking on, remarked that he did not think that Mr. Evans won the games as much by his good playing as by the others' bad playing. Mr. Evans then said he would play Mr. Gilliland three games of "old sledge," his warehouse against Mr. Gilliland's farm. Mr. Gilliland won all three games. The word spread all over the county in a short time and people would "holler" at Mr. Gilliland and ask him if he bought grain at his warehouse.
A man named Levi Rowland living on the edge of what was called the "Long Prairie" had a dream one night of having a fight with
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a wolf. The next morning when hunting his cows he heard their. bells across the prairie; when he came to the edge of the tall grass, he he recalled his dream and went back to the woods and cut him a heavy club. He ha ! gone only a short distance when he ran onto a wolf ; the wolf showed fight and Mr. Rowland killed it with his club.
At that early day there were no mills nearer than Piqua or Fort Wayne, but there was a horse-mill in the southeast part of Ridge town- ship owned by one Pool, where people could get their corn ground by furnishing a horse and driving. The burrs were upstairs and the horse went around down below, the meal came down a spout from above to the ground floor. They could grind two bushels of corn in a little less than a day. Jack Ireland tells that he went there once with a bag of corn and along in the afternoon he noticed that there was no meal coming down the spout, although he was hurry- ing the horse all he could. He went upstairs and there stood two half-starved hounds that were eating the meal as fast as it came from the burrs.
In nearly every neighborhood there would be a family that possessed a hand-mill, where meal could be ground a little faster than the family could eat it. The Gillilands had one. One of the burrs was lost in a peculiar manner : Clarissa Gleason was teaching school in an old house that had belonged to Robert and Hugh Gilliland, where one of the burrs of the hand- mill was utilized as a dunce block. For some infraction of the rules, one of the pupils, Nancy Scott, had been seated on it, but the young lady's beau, a lad named James Mewhirter, in loyalty to his sweetweart climbed in the win- down, took the burr and threw it in the well.
Samuel S. Brown moved to Ridge town- ship in 1839, and carried the mail between Van
Wert and Greenville. His wife could use an axe or gun equal to any of the men of the day and did a large part of the first clearing. It was not an uncommon thing to see her come in with half a dozen squirrels or a turkey.
James M. Young moved into the township at an early day and settled on the farm now owned by Mr. Baxter, Marion List and Mr. Steman. His wife, who was a good singer, had a strong, clear voice and could be heard dis- tinctly a mile on a still evening.
At a time when there was no physician nearer than Lima, Charles Gilliland in felling a small tree broke his leg. His father sent for James G. Gilliland, his older brother, who set the limb, whittled splints out of hickory to keep the bones in place and made a box to keep the leg in place. It proved to be a good job and never gave Charles the least of trouble.
When coming to Van Wert County, James G. Gilliland brought with him his family, con- sisting of his wife and three children-Mrs. M. H. McCoy, the late Mrs. James Montgom- ery and Thaddeus S. He stopped at Bucyrus and left his family, while he selected and en- tered land in Ridge township. He traded one of his horses for a yoke of oxen at Bucyrus and reached Van Wert County in July. 1835. One of the oxen that he secured by this trade had the "trembles" (milk sickness ) and whenever heated would fall down and tremble so that he was of little value. It took three days to come from the Big Auglaize to Smith Hill's camp. west of where the County Infirmary is now located. With the assistance of Smith Hill and Adam Gilliland, he built a log house, into which he moved and commenced clearing a farm. It was frequently necessary to take the dog into the house at night to protect the ani- mal from the wolves, that often prowled around the house after dark. Bears were very destruc-
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tive on the hogs and cornfields, at one time taking a good-sized shoat out of the pen in the yard.
When the writer was a boy, he had to walk around the corn field all day with the dog and a rattle-trap, by some termed a horse-fiddle, to scare the squirrels away and at night the coons and bears would destroy nearly as much as the squirrels did in daylight. At one time his father told some men in Van Wert that he would fur- nish the ammunition if they would come out and shoot squirrels. Four of them came out and killed 240 squirrels. The writer and two of the neighbor's boys carried home what they desired and left the rest. This was all done around one field and in a short time the squir- rels seemed to be as plentiful as ever. The family had a dog that would only go to the field when Mr. Gilliland was at home. The writer recollects that one night his father came home and had scarcely got in the house, when he heard a coon squall. He went out and killed it and threw it in the smoke house, but had scarcely got in the house until he heard another and this was repeated until he had killed nine. He went to bed while another was squalling, for he was tired out. The next morning when he went out he found that the dog had killed his coon, had laid it against the front door and lay there watching it. That year Mr. Gilli- land sold over $100 worth of pelts, consisting of coon, bear and deer skins. Three buyers came from Fort Wayne and bid on them; each one took a chip and made his figures and the highest bidder, Mr. Ewing, got the pelts. Mr. Gilliland and Smith Hill bought fur for Ewing that year and took two wagon-loads to Fort Wayne in the spring, two yoke of oxen draw- ing each wagon. The pelts were loaded on hay- racks and each load was as large as a ton of hay.
At one time M. H. McCoy caught a she
wolf in a trap and dragged it home. That night three of her pups followed the trail to the house. It is said that wolves can't howl unless they sit down on their hind parts. That night these three young wolves sat down in the dust in the road and set up a most dismal howl. The dog tried to jump through the win- dow into the house, he was so badly scared. At another time McCoy heard a turkey gobble. Taking his gun, he went out into the woods and, secreting himself in a treetop that had fallen in such a manner that he would be screened from whichever way the turkey would come, commenced calling. He could hear the turkey coming, but just as it came in sight he heard a twig break behind him and turning around saw a wolf within 10 feet of him. He shot at it as it ran and wounded it, but was too badly scared to make as good a shot as he otherwise would have made.
M. H. McCoy bought the west half of the northwest quarter of section 16 in Ridge town- ship about 1855 for $9 an acre, and about two or three years afterward sold over $200 worth of walnut and ash timber off of two acres of the land.
TWO LARGE TREES.
A large white ash tree stood on the M. H. McCoy farm. When McCoy started out one morning, he told his wife that about noon she would feel the earth tremble but it was just sundown when the tree fell. It was seven feet across the stump; the first log, 12 feet long, made 1,266 feet of lumber and the tree 6,666 feet. A man by the name of C. Hotchkiss sawed the lumber and Dr. William Smith fur- nished the oxen and mud-boat to haul the logs on the snow.
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