USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 37
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Thomas, James and Henry Fulton, Robert Scott and John Young and their wives as members. They met first in the schoolhouse, then in a log chapel which they built on the east bank of the Miami river (Middle Fork), near the cemetery. In 1840 this was discarded for a little brick church which they erected near by. In later years a large frame church was built in the village of Northwood, and this is still in good repair (1918). In 1847 Rev. J. B. Johnston originated the project which resulted in the establishment at North- wood of a classical and scientific school, under the auspices of the Reformed Presbyterian church. It became an accomplished fact, under the name of Geneva college, the college building still stand- ing in good condition just off the township line road, with the dormitory building at its left. The latter has become a dwelling, and the Hall is vacant except for a small repair shop for buggies and wagons in the rear. A female seminary was added to the in- stitution, Rev. Johnston discreetly placing this building, also of good brick construction, nearly half a mile away from the Hall, so that the lads and lassies should not distract one another from the pursuit of classical learning. By 1852 the institution was in full swing, and a perusal of the old catalogue not only brings to light nearly every prominent name in the county, but includes names from several far corners of the earth. The isolation of the college from transportational facilities at last became a drawback, and about 1878 or 1879, it was decided by the Synod to remove it to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where it has continued a useful career as col- lege and theological seminary. The "Female Seminary" at the fork of the road to the east has been a ruin for a long time, being partly torn down to provide brick for other buildings, and since then carried away brick by brick for souvenirs, and, it is said, to repair the neighborhood chimneys. A United Presbyterian church was organized at Northwood, also, and during its first struggling days was given the use of the Reformed chapel and of Geneva Hall for its meetings until 1866, when they built a chapel of their own. The pastorates of Rev. W. H. Jeffers, J. W. Taylor and Rev. Alexander Smith, which ended in 1879 covered the period of greatest growth. The rural churches are not so well attended now as formerly, the automobile having so altered rural family life that church attend- ance centralizes in the larger town rather than clings to small and feeble country organizations. Time will tell whether this is better than the old way. Northwood itself is like a house put in order for the Sabbath, and the brooding quiet which is its distinguishing characteristic today is very like to that of slumber.
Immediately after the "Mad River and Lake Erie" railroad was surveyed, and its route determined, the village of Huntsville was platted by Alexander Harbison (county surveyor in 1846), upon lands owned by George M. Hover and Thomas Wishart, and when, in 1847, the first train drew into the station, the town was there to meet it. Thomas Wishart had built a brick house in the plat as early as 1844, and the development of the village was rapid. Buell & Dodson put up a brick store building in 1848, the first store in the town. During the year 1847 Samuel Harrod had erected a frame hotel near the depot. It was destroyed by fire in 1850, but at once
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THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
rebuilt. John Bimel next built the second brick dwelling, and in 1852 the "Grand Central," successor to the first Harrod hotel, was opened. This was afterward owned and operated by H. P. Ingalls for many years. The old taverns of stage coach days at Cherokee being deserted, their contingent of idlers flocked to Huntsville and the cellar of the Grand Central gained a wide reputation. The post- office established at Cherokee in 1830 was removed to Huntsville in 1850. H. Shafer, once a merchant of the deserted village, erected a commodious frame building at Huntsville and transferred his busi- ness thither. He also built a house which John Bimel afterward purchased, enlarging and fitting it up as a hotel. It is still doing duty in this line, but the bar and the "cellar" have long ago van- ished, with the saloons. General retail business in all lines sprang up and succeeded, and in 1865 Huntsville became an incorporated town, electing its first mayor, Sidney B. Foster, the next spring. William Beatty, William T. Herron, J. H. Harrod, A. Bartholomew and Josiah Carr composed the "city" council and David and Joseph Carr were recorder and treasurer respectively. The regular village industries of harness making, blacksmithing and carpentry, as well as shoemaking shops, multiplied. The population in 1880 had grown to five hundred, around which figure it hovered for some time, falling in 1910 to 338, but it is now once more on the high tide of prosperity, and may fairly claim five hundred inhabitants. Those who should know best call it "the best town of its size in the state." The quality of its citizenship is not surpassed, and its public spirit and patriotism is one hundred per cent. It has three churches, the Presbyterian, Charles Marston, pastor; Methodist Episcopal, Rev. William Reves, pastor; and the United Presbyterian, Rev. J. H. T. Gordon (newly elected representative to the state legisla- ture), pastor. All are in prime working condition. The physicians are Drs. J. S. Montgomery, G. W. Jones and F. A. Richardson. Huntsville, which has come to the front in giving everything else to the work of the war, did not have to send her doctors, who are all outside the age limit of service, and consequently spared to the service of home people. G. W. Carder is present mayor of the town. Huntsville has no public water system, but the water which is furnished by wells is of the same excellence as elsewhere in the county. Natural gas is still comparatively abundant, and the Trac- tion company furnish electricity at a reasonable rate, so that the town is brilliantly lighted and many make use of electricity for domestic motor service, and for hot plates for cooking. There is an independent telephone exchange, housed in a neat building next to the artistic little headquarters of the Huntsville Banking company. The latter institution is an unincorporated bank, but organized in 1907 under the state laws, and subject to state examination. Its capital stock is $20,000, its surplus, $8,000, while deposits and loans run about $80,000 and $62,000 respectively. The organizing chairman was G. M. Hover, at that time mayor of the village. The first presi- dent was S. L. Horn; vice-president, C. C. Cook; and the cashier for the first ten years was F. F. Myers. Dr. J. S. Montgomery was the secretary. The present officials are: S. L. Horn, president ; T. A. McLees, vice-president ; Harry E. Clapper, cashier. The bank
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MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
is doing great service to the community in localizing capital and advancing the commercial interests of the town.
The I. C. Miller elevator at Huntsville is connected with the Keller & Gebby plant of Bellefontaine. It has a capacity of thirty thousand bushels storage, and shipped, during last year, about one hundred thousand bushels of grain, oats, wheat, corn, rye, and barley. Wool is also shipped, some feed milling is done, and coal, tile, salt, cement and similar materials are handled. Hay is another important export. The Sandusky division of the Big Four R. R. ships out of Huntsville yearly about sixty carloads of live- stock, and the Ohio Electric carries large quantities of milk both north and south, from this point. There is up to date garage service, locally, and every branch of retail trade is in prosperous condition. Harvey Monteith operates a feed mill and coal depot. There is no manufacturing done in the town, which is important chiefly as a market for a large and productive farm district.
The history of Huntsville newspapers is not long, but that is because the Huntsville News has had an uninterrupted career. It was preceded only by the Gazette (started long ago, by a Mr. Rupert), which was too short-lived to remember. Omar L. Wilson established the News, coming from Washington, D. C., to which city he returned, selling out to Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Day, who came to Huntsville about 1894, Mr. Day as superintendent of schools. The editors and proprietors are active at both type case and editorial desk, and the result is a lively little sheet which does credit to everybody concerned, and advances the material interests of the town. Huntsville has no better friends than its editors.
Huntsville still retains a number of the old names familiar to local history, numbering among its citizens of today Mrs. Wallace Templeton, Emrick Miller, Mrs. Flora Ingalls, who was a Miss Bimel, Mrs. Henrietta Carr, who was Miss Dewey, Mrs. Ada Wil- liamson, daughter of J. H. Harrod, Evanses, Dulaneys, Bimels, Coulters, and others.
The handsome new township school stands at the eastern edge of the village, and has the distinction of being the first of the new centralized schools to open its doors to the children of the entire district, rural and urban. It requires eleven vans to transport the pupils to and from the sessions.
Lewistown, three or four miles south of the Lewistown reser- voir (by statutory enactment now renamed Indian Lake Park), is the central point of historic interest in the upper Miami region, lying a half mile west of the McPherson section, given Col. McPher- son by the Indians, with the "Nancy Stewart section" about one and a half miles to the southwest, all three points being north of the Treaty line, and within the later reservation boundary on the east. The removal of the Indians by the new treaty of 1832 removed also these imaginary lines and opened the Miami country to white settle- ment.
With the exception of old Polly Keyser, James McPherson and John McIlvain, the last Indian agent, a white squatter or two were the only white persons ever known to have lived in this territory. Immediately upon the opening of these lands for sale, Major Henry
ZANESFIELD HOME COMING
LAKEVIEW, SEPT. 21, 1884
HOUSE BUILT BY THE INDIANS, LEWISTOWN,O.
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THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
Hanford, a native of New Canaan, Connecticut, and an officer of the War of 1812, purchased from the government (under the admin- istration of Andrew Jackson) a tract of six hundred and forty acres, the land including the Indian village and the headquarters of Chief John Lewis, which stands on the elevation south of the present village, beyond "Bad Axe" creek. The Hanford family were the first permanent settlers of this locality, but they were followed very soon by others who came with increasing rapidity, hailing, for the greater part, from the older Ohio settlements, with a few from Vir- ginia, among the latter being Mrs. Plum and her five sons and daughters, and Michael Kearns.
Isaac Cooper moved hither in 1832 from the Huntsville settle- ment, and Abram Cherry came from Clark county in 1833. William Lowry and John Renick purchased large tracts of forest land north of Lewistown, and John Hogge, Alexander Trout, Samuel Brown, Daniel Wagoner, George Berry, the Dearduff brothers and the Staf- ford and McCauley families were early arrivals whose names still survive in the community of today.
Major Hanford took possession of the old log house which had been the headquarters of Chief Lewis, and tore away all but that part of the structure which had been built of hewn logs under the direction of the British allies of the Indians in pre-Revolutionary times. This part, two stories in height, had been lathed and plas- tered in imitation of white men's dwellings, and the primitive car- pentry is still to be noted where the later mortar put on by Major Hanford has fallen from the crude lathing. It is told that, at their first attempt to plaster the building, the Indians applied the mortar to the outside. Major Hanford added an extension of more than equal size and enclosed the whole in a sheathing of clapboards, an enormous chimney and fireplace in the central wall giving strength to the structure, which was refinished inside and made a commo- dious farmhouse which is standing today, though in somewhat un- stable condition. The original log part is believed to be the oldest building in Ohio. More recently a cottage was attached to the original building, where the residents of latter years make their home. This took the place of the ancient "lean to" where poor Polly Keyser drudged for the lazy though friendly Lewis, and where the animals used to be housed at night to keep them safe from wolves. In the upper story of the council house the floor still shows the stains where the blood of animals dripped when hung up for skinning. Many interesting relics were found in and around the old house, which are preserved by the family.
In 1835 Major Hanford had the village of Lewistown (named in honor of the old chief) surveyed and platted, on a twenty-five acre tract. Three streets, William, Main and Elbridge, were pro- jected at right angles to another three, Council, Centre and Hanford, and the unusual feature (at that date) was a system of alleys which bore the names of various Indian chiefs.
The first store in Lewistown was built and conducted by Major Hanford, who also kept the first tavern, and upon the establishment of a postoffice at his store in 1839, he became the first postmaster. His son-in-law, Elijah Brunk, built the first dwelling-a log cabin
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-in the village. The land for the first schoolhouse was donated by the founder of the town in 1833, to be used for educational purposes only, and to revert to his heirs when abandoned by the school trus- tees as a school ground. It has been in continuous use until the recent building of the now consolidated high school at the farther side of the town. A Connecticut man named Conley was Lewis- town's first shoemaker.
The Miami river is too slow a stream at this part to have fur- nished much encouragement for the old-fashioned pioneer water mill. "Inky" creek is the largest stream above the elbow bend on the east side, while "Bad Axe" is scarcely more than a brook, which rises in a pair of springs about two miles easterly from the village and winds prettily through a narrow valley. On this stream, in 1835, E. G. Hanford built a small mill which served the pioneer needs for a few years, Hanford, Stamats and McCauley's steam sawmill at the edge of the village soon supplanting it with a grist milling attachment. A more modern steam sawmill was built by Rood and Clay in 1873, and at present E. B. Miller operates a large sawmill, shipping many carloads of oak bridge planking and walnut logs each year, as well as other varieties of lumber in the rough. There are living in the upper Miami valley in Logan county today about one hundred descendants of Col. Crawford, who was so cruelly mur- dered at the upper Sandusky council in the troublous times before the savages were subdued. Col. Crawford was a contemporary of Gen. Washington, and his daughter Sally married Major William Harrison. Nancy, the daughter of the Harrisons, married Daniel McKinnon, and their son, Judge William Harrison Mckinnon, mar- ried Kitty Foley of Clarke county. Dr. B. F. Mckinnon, the son of Judge and Mrs. McKinnon, married Charlotte, the daughter of Major Hanford, and their home was a gift from the bride's father, being the same house that has for a long time been known as the Price hotel. There their daughter, Harriet, was born, and from it Dr. Mckinnon went into the United States Medical corps, the first volunteer of the Civil war from Lewistown. Harriet Mckinnon married D. A. Hamer, and their son, Gale B. Hamer, was a captain in the Signal corps in France, serving the United States in the war with Germany, while their daughter, Helen Hanford, is Mrs. Harry Price. James B. McKinnon, a son of Daniel and Nancy Harrison Mckinnon, settled two miles south of Lewistown, and has three descendants of the name, Milton Mckinnon, who lives in Bellefon- taine; J. T. McKinnon, who still runs the farm, and Miss Irene Mckinnon, who for the last fourteen years has resided in Lewis- town. Members of the Plum family are also Crawford descendants, and numerous genealogical chains might be given connecting the people of the Miami district with the brave old scout and soldier, but these must suffice.
The church history of Lewistown is confined to that of the Prot- estant Methodist denomination, which was organized, in a log house on the farm of Gabriel Banes, by Rev. John B. Lucas (of Springfield circuit), with Mr. Banes and his wife, Sarah Banes; Mrs. Mary Harrison, Josiah and Catherine Mckinnon, Mrs. Catherine Smith and her daughter Mary, Mrs. Shade and Mrs. Sally Ann Plum, whose
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THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
1
husband, Jonathan Plum, afterward became a member. James B. McKinnon and his wife, Elizabeth, of Pleasant Hill, united in 1837, and also Miss Susan Plum, afterward Mrs. McLaughlin. Mr. and Mrs. William Black came the same year, Mr. Black being the first "class leader." The first minister was Rev. John Bell. The meet- ings were removed in 1847 to the old schoolhouse, afterward occu- pied as a dwelling by Jacob Kraus. In 1852, Rev. Reuben M. Dalby and Rev. John J. Geer, ardent temperance workers, were instru- mental in breaking up a vile drinking den in Logansville. In 1853 a church was built, Major Hanford donating ground for the purpose. In 1868 Isaac and Jonathan Plum purchased a parsonage and gave it to the church. A great revival in 1875 caused remarkable church growth. A fine bell was purchased and hung in 1879, which has been transferred to the tower of the handsome new church which now stands on the old site. The original chapel was moved to another site, and is now the shop of the village blacksmith. Noah Miller, Harmon Trout and William Plum are some of the older members of the congregation. Miss Irene Mckinnon is the class leader, and the present pastor, Rev. D. L. Custis, is now in the fourth year of local service. The earlier facts of this sketch are gleaned from the hand-written history of James B. Mckinnon, set down by him from memory, in 1881, the last year of his life.
When the railroad (T. & O. C.) was built through Lewistown it opened a new era of prosperity, and something like a boom oc- curred. An elevator was flung up in haste by an outside speculator, and numerous improvements, some permanent and some quite the reverse, were made. But the prosperity was real, and the inadequate elevator has been replaced by a new one, owned by C. E. Dalrymple, which has a capacity of fifty thousand bushels storage, and handles all sorts of feed, flour, lime, salt, cement, tile and coal. About sixty carloads of grain-wheat, oats, corn, barley and rye-are shipped out annually. Corn is the heaviest crop in this locality, but most of it is kept at home for feeding stock. Sixty carloads of hay is a modest statement of that export, and about thirty carloads of hogs, sheep and cattle. Dairy farming is an important industry here, and great quantities of milk are transported by motor truck service and by railroad both east to Bellefontaine and west to St. Marys. D. A. Hamer has a fine herd of blooded Jerseys on the old Hanford farm.
There is a spot near Bad Axe creek at the edge of the village, where in 1862 a German, Jacob Westenhaver, established a distil- lery, which was an unwelcome addition to the few industries, and was given good riddance some years later when the government confiscated the property because of failure to comply with the law.
The first doctors of Lewistown were James Morehead, Lewis (a suicide), Dr. Pollock and Dr. B. F. Mckinnon, a physician of more than ordinary ability. Dr. J. L. Forsythe, who died in the summer of 1918, Drs. Makemson and Heffner, who have removed to Bellefontaine, have been later members of the profession.
Col. McPherson, after the death of his first wife, married Dolly, a daughter of John Tullis, sr. They had one daughter, who at the time of her death, December 9, 1918, was the oldest resident of Lew- istown-Mrs. Robert ("Aunt Martha") Miller, who was a member
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of the Bellefontaine chapter of the D. A. R. and the only actual daughter of a Revolutionary soldier in the county. After Col. Mc- Pherson's death, Dolly Tullis McPherson married James Bennett, an early local settler, and reared a second family of children.
Lewistown has never incorporated, and has a population of only two hundred and eighty, although it appears larger. Business is flourishing, with two large general stores, the Price and the Zol- man stores, built in 1909; two good hardware stores, a garage and machine shop; an independent telephone exchange, a fire depart- ment, and a bank as solid as can be found.
The Farmers' bank, established in 1910, is not an incorporated institution, but was organized under the same plans drafted for the Huntsville bank. The capital stock is $20,000 and the deposits are $75,000 or more. The committee of organization were: W. H. Plum, I. M. Plum, B. F. Howard, J. T. Mckinnon, Charles Black, Frank Howard, Noah Brunner, Noah Miller, T. M. Cooper, Mrs. Elnora Price, Anna Huber, D. A. Huber, John Dunson, Lytle Plum, and A. Clarence Mckinnon. President, W. H. Plum; first vice- president, J. T. Mckinnon; second vice-president, Charles Black; first cashier, F. S. Kiser ; cashier for the past seven years and present, T. M. Cooper.
On thse west side of the Miami in this region, the settlement was later and slower, the land there being very flat and, until drained artificially, too wet for farming except on the low "ridges" between the winding streams, which form the routes for nearly all of the roads. The land is black loam and clay, productive and now easily farmed, but less interesting to the eye than the eastern and central parts of the county. Bloom Centre is the location of the steam mill built in 1878 by A. Connolly ; a drain tile factory of the same date ; of two churches, a store and the usual civic developments that can be expected of a village remote from any railroad. As the centre of a large farming district, it has its place in the world of produce and trade.
The early days, when the land was still thickly covered with forest, were fraught with difficulty and danger until a much later date than the older parts of Logan county, but the struggle was a much shorter one, for the improved methods of the middle of the century were within reach, and good roads soon connected these late settlers with their neighbors. There does not seem, at present, any prospect of urban growth on that side of the Miami.
The Muchinippi (or Wolf) creek, about which the Seneca In- dians congregated in the Reservation days, rises in Auglaize county. Brandywine and Rum creeks have names suggestive of things which are not written down, although the first store "over there" was stocked chiefly with "whiskey, tobacco and tea." To do the pro- prietor justice, however, the character of his stock was soon changed, and the store became a prosperous and proper one.
The state dam, built in 1850, has made a beautiful lake of the miasmatic swamp lands surrounding the original Indian lake, where, among the pleasure resort settlements, Lakeview is developing into a real town, which has a bank of its own, good stores, and a small newspaper and other evidences of community life.
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THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
That large tract of the county comprising Harrison and Union townships and extending into Miami township, while it is quite without towns, contains some of the most prominent points of in- terest to be seen, all of them being easily reached by excellent roads and pikes. Leaving the expanse of beautiful farms and grazing grounds which lie in the valleys of the northwestern creeks, the observer enters an equally fine district, that where the McPherson farm was a central point in the blockhouse days, and which was afterward a trading centre for many years. The McPherson farm was purchased long ago by Logan county for an infirmary, and the present building, which is one of the most perfect institutions of its nature in Ohio, was erected under the administration of E. D. Campbell, R. S. Kerr, and C. C. Harshfield, the board of directors. Mr. and Mrs. George Kennedy are and have been superintendent and matron, respectively, for fifteen years, and under the excellent management of Mr. Kennedy the farm is self-sustaining. Fifty inmates are housed there at this date (1918) and a more comfortable home for the aged and friendless is certainly not provided anywhere at public expense. On the front lawn, at the west side of the en- trance, is pointed out the spot where stood the famous blockhouse, which assured protection to settlers and Indians from the foe of 1812. The old family burial plot remains undisturbed on the in- firmary farm, and in it, Col. McPherson's grave may be seen, marked with a simple headstone. The Buckongehalas creek flows in a curve around the grounds before turning southward toward DeGraff and the Miami. East of the creek lies the farm of Louisa Sullivan Mc- Pherson, widow of Aaron Hartley McPherson, the colonel's grand- son. A mile or more west, on the road to Lewistown, is situated the beautiful farm on which George Wood Anderson is developing an enormous poultry plant. House and barns are attractively built and situated, and beyond them looms a hennery large enough for a township house, which promises to be a veritable palace for the breeding and care of fine poultry.
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