USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82
On the road from Bellefontaine to Logansville, a mile directly west from the courthouse, the Children's home spreads hospitable wings, as if calling homeless children to its shelter. About forty years ago, in the old brick house on Main street, Bellefontaine, which now does duty as a depot for the Ohio Electric railroad, lived Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Chambers. Mr. Chambers was a merchant, his business occupying the same situation as the Wissler drygoods store of the present. Mr. and Mrs. Chambers had children of their own (Julius Chambers of New York being a son), and the house was not large; yet they found room in it for children who were bereft of their natural homes by poverty, unkindness or disaster, and at one time there were no less than sixteen children being cared for under that roof. Mr. Chambers endeavored upon occasions to interest the county at large in the project of a children's home, as Mrs. Chambers' strength was being overtaxed with the self-imposed burden. At length the movement took hold of the public mind, and the farm west of the city was purchased, the house already upon it answering a temporary purpose as residence during the building of a substan- tial one of brick, which was completed about 1885. The old house is
286
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
still retained in good condition and can be used for semi-occasional overflow, or as a hospital in the event of an epidemic-which to date, happily, has never visited the home. The building of 1885, though much more pretentious than the present one, as well as larger, ac- commodating one hundred children, was not as well planned, nor as homelike. It was destroyed by fire, May 14, 1907, and replaced the following year, during the administration of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Curl, of Bellefontaine, who entered the work in 1903 and retained the position until the winter of 1912-13, being then succeeded by Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Harshfield. After five years, in the spring of 1918, the Harshfields resigned, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Hill took charge in June, as superintendent and matron. The home now accommodates fifty boys and girls at most, but is scarcely ever filled to capacity. Few children remain beyond the age of fifteen, when they become old enough to win a home by their own efforts. Very young babies make but extremely short stays here, as homes are nearly always waiting for them. During the last year the youngest babe in the institution was eight months old, but at the date No- vember, 1918, there were no babies in the house, and but thirty-four children, boys and girls all told. The average age is from eight to twelve years. This is, incidentally, a very good answer to the sometimes heard question, "Why is not the farm self-sustaining, like the infirmary?" The building is excellent, and the situation all that could be desired, but there are crying needs at the institution which it is to be hoped will receive early attention. Superintendents and matrons for the last five years have worked under distinct dis- advantages in the matters of insufficient help and inadequate pro- vision for upkeep of the house and furnishings, and antiquated light and water systems. The farm is too small to produce revenues suf- ficient for the support of so large a family. Two governesses teach, manage the dormitories, mend, and have general oversight of the recreation rooms, for children of both sexes from infancy to eighteen. Miss Ovy Foster has charge of the boys and their dormitory in the east wing, and Miss Helen Dickeson of the girls and the littlest boys in the west. With run-down equipment these estimable ladies are overworked. A cook is the remainder of the inadequate retinue with which Mr. and Mrs. Hill are making "home" for the children. There is, however, an atmosphere of genuine kindness in the place, and under a liberal system of discipline the boys and girls alike accord a smiling obedience to every direction, and help with the work to the best of their limited ability. With such willing minds, the necessary financial help should make this home ideal, and certainly these little ones, dependent through no fault of their own, should not be grudged the same advantages as those of city schools. And of course Logan county will see to that.
Southwest of the Children's home, in the basin of Blue Jacket creek, lies a beautiful little sheet of water known as Silver lake, which was for many years a pleasure resort for picnics, boating, fishing, and, though very cold, for bathing. The lake is fed by springs, and in the center a plummet line has never found bottom. The tiny beach on the south shore is of white marl, and the marshy ground at the north end is marl, also. The lake and surroundings
-----
287
THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
are now the property of the Y. M. C. A. of Columbus, Ohio, and a summer camp for boys is to be established there.
Fully a dozen clear lakes of varying size lie within this southern territory, draining, for the greater number, into McKee's creek, or into Stony creek, farther west. The most interesting, however, are the "Twin lakes," belonging to the Blue Jacket channel, lying one on either side of the Carlyle pike, which passes through the property of the brothers Anson and Andrew Carter-who, although twins, are not the origin of the name borne by these pretty morainic pools, concerning which there is a mournful legend of the old Indian days. The highway, which leads southwest from Bellefontaine, was once an Indian trail, and at this pleasant locality an Indian chieftain dwelt with his motherless daughters, two maidens of great beauty. As was the custom, the chieftain went away on the annual hunt, leaving his daughters safe in their tepees. Two or three weeks later, re- turning from the expedition laden with the spoils of the forest, he watched for the joyous greetings of the maidens as he came down the trail. But they did not come. And when he came to the place he found only the ashes of his camp, while on either side of the trail lay the slain bodies of his children. Broken with grief, the old chieftain buried each where she lay, and spent the brief remainder of his life weeping over their graves. When at last his tribal fol- lowers sought him, nothing was found of their chief except the two crystal pools where he had wept his life away.
Seriously, these great springs are believed to be links in a chain connecting the vanished lake of "Round prairie" with the creek to the northwest. Round prairie, the small but obstinate swamp which refused to respond to drainage, and which had to be filled with the timber from twenty or more acres of heavy woodland, in order to build the railroad in a straight line across it, lies a little more than a mile east of Twin lakes, but, contrary to "auld wives' tales," there is no subterranean channel leading thither from it, through which little fishes swim. If there are fish in the stagnant water of the low spots, the best advices, ascribe their presence there to water birds as carriers. Dokes' and Black lakes are not as large as Silver lake, nor have they the same attraction, but they are good fishing grounds, and are interesting and pleasant features of the landscape. Among the other pretty lakes, bearing the orig- inal names of the estates on which they lie, are McCracken's and Newell's, and others.
As if to make up for the sparsity of towns in the territory just discussed, the southwest quarter of Logan county boasts two thriv- ing towns scarcely three miles apart, DeGraff, on the east side of the Miami river, a half mile above the bend, and Quincy, on the southern side of the same river, about two miles below the bend, while about two miles north of DeGraff is Logansville, projected before either of the preceding towns, and located in the center of an excellent wheat and corn growing country, watered in the eastern part by Buckongehalas creek, which also afforded power for mills in early days.
Robert Dickson and James Moore, who arrived from the south in 1809, were the earliest settlers to locate in this vicinity. Mr.
288
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
Moore afterward built the first mill, about 1819-20, on the west bank of the Miami, supplementing it soon after by a sawmill, both of which were of great assistance to the settlement, and were in prac- tical use for a long period. The Mathews, Means, Pipers, Ellis and McMullen families are said to have been all who arrived before the year 1820. Only the Dicksons, Moores, Mathews and Meanses came before 1812, but being large families, they made a noticeable group. One of the government blockhouses of 1812 was erected about a mile east of the site of Logansville for their protection. In 1825 Moore built a distillery which for fifteen years put the corn of the settlement to the poorest use ever made of that grain. Thomas Dickson built a tannery in 1826, and every cabin was a tavern for the entertainment of the traveler, until John Dickson and Joseph Davidson opened public taverns at Logansville in 1835 and 1837, the town having been platted in 1827. The first real road in the district was cut in 1830 from the site of DeGraff through Logans- ville and north to Bloom Centre, crossing the Miami river near Logansville at what is now known as the Moore bridge. A road of later construction is the pike leading west through Logansville from Bellefontaine, the Miami bridge at this point being one of the first modern bridges to be built across the stream in this county. A live little community gathered at the new village, and it might have become the leading town of the Miami district, had not the rail- roads chosen the more southerly route, which inevitably drew the center of population away from Logansville and gave rise to the lower towns. Religious history in the Logansville district dates from 1815, with a series of meetings conducted from cabin to cabin by the "New Light" or Christian denomination until about 1824, when the families of the first four settlers united and built a log chapel in what soon after became the site of Logansville. A few years later the Presbyterians organized, and, with the Christians, erected a neat frame church which served them both until 1876, at which time a substantial and churchly edifice was built, and the old frame was converted into a grange hall. The Methodist Episcopal denomination also organized and built a log church in Logansville previous to the Presbyterians, but through deaths and removals the congregation dwindled and the old chapel was allowed to fall into decay. The United Brethren were a later growth.
Of the settlement of the southwest, Jeremiah Stansbury and his two sons were the pioneers, arriving in 1805. In 1808 the Makem- son brothers, John, Thomas and Andrew (who brought his wife, while the two first were unmarried), and Benjamin Schooler fol- lowed. Like most of the Miami settlers they were from Kentucky. William Lee came later in the same year, and Samuel Black also settled on the east shore of the lake which bears his name. The Blacks were of Irish descent. Philip Mathews came in 1809 with a family of four sons, who was a valuable asset ; and one of the most noted of the several Moore families settled in the district about the same time. James Shaw came in 1810. Settlement in the south- west, though it began as early as elsewhere, was slow, many reasons uniting to account for the fact. There were no roads, and few trails; much of the land was swamp prairie, which, apparently ad-
289
THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
vantageous for immediate farming (there being no timber to cut), did not bear out the hopes it raised. Even though the settlers per- sisted in planting, clouds of blackbirds descended on the fields and ate up the seed before it could be covered. Nearly all the settlers were men of small means, who came to carve their fortunes, and had little to bring with them. Malarial and miasmatic conditions prevailed. Dogs were more numerous than stock, and were needed for protection from wild beasts and pests. A great deal of the land had been bought up by speculators who kept it from the market. "Every man for himself" appears to have been the rule of the trail for some time. The family of Samuel Black endured terrible hard- ships in their first years of pioneering, escaping starvation during the "lean winters" by catching fish from the little lake. Wild pigeon roosts were a feature of all the southern border lands, and these, with wild turkeys, which could be trapped by pioneer devices learned in part from the Indians, aided in keeping the gaunt gray wolf of hunger from many a cabin door, until after the last real wolf was banished or slain.
The Indians had for the greater part removed from this vicinity before the time of Tecumseh's threat in 1811, when Simon Kenton averted battle by his bold diplomacy. At Oldtown, the village of the friendly Indians, situated about a mile or so above the mouth of Stony creek where the warlike braves had gathered, a blockhouse was erected for the settlers' safety, notwithstanding the noisy "peace celebration" which followed the departure of Tecumseh's band. Nevertheless this very locality was a gathering point for pioneers, and in spite of all drawbacks, hardy enterprise conquered the land. Jeremiah Stansbury built a mill on Stony creek, the work occupying nearly four years, owing to natural difficulties, and the lack of help. When finished, it was leased to John Provolt, who had operated it but a few months, when it was destroyed by fire, a dire calamity to the settlers, who had no means of grinding their corn nearer than Springhill, across the southern county line. Be- tween 1820 and 1828 the Newmans, Nicholses, Cannons, Kresses and Spellmans settled at various points, and probably within these dates came John Leach, from Kentucky; James R. Baldwin, from Virginia, who located at the site of Quincy ; John Saylor, who set up a store near the Champaign county line; Thomas Turner, who bought a high bluff on the Miami river and waited for a canal to be built; and Dr. Canby, who came from Lebanon, Ohio, in 1825, and settled near the site of DeGraff.
Dr. Canby was not only the first physician here, but a shrewd and enterprising business man who gave an impetus to progress which meant much for the upbuilding of the community. He erected a grist mill in 1828, which was large enough to attract im- migration, being assisted in the work by the settlers, who built the dam, an unusually strong and permanent one of brush construction. The mill boasted "two run of stone," though one was but a corn- cracker. A sawmill was added to the plant, a community began to gather, and buildings to improve.
Mr. Baldwin laid out the town of Quincy in 1830, naming it in honor of John Quincy Adams. Mr. and Mrs. John Bell, from
290
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
Virginia, were the first to purchase and build in the new village. Like Baldwin, of whom he was an old acquaintance, Mr. Bell was a tanner, and like him he built a tannery as well as a home, these tanneries being the foundation of industry in the village. The plat of Quincy was enriched in 1833-36-39 by Mr. Baldwin, Manlove Chambers and Thomas Harriman, each of whom contributed addi- tions which far outstripped the arrival of population. The village began to thrive. But the expected canal failed to arrive. Business failures ensued and land which was mortgaged was lost to wealthy mortgagees in the east, being released for sale only when the rail- road arrived after many years, giving the waiting village a chance for latent growth. The land grants to the railroad, were, however, the gift of the mortgagees (the Blatchley heirs), and from falling to the rank of a deserted village, Quincy was rescued by the rail- road. Its situation is exceptionally advantageous as well as beau- tiful, lying high on the bluffs above the river and cleft by picturesque ravines which afford perfect drainage.
"W. and D. Josephs," two plausible and enterprising men who set up a small general store business about 1845, were the tem- porary salvation of the town. Their business grew rapidly and attracted traders from as far as West Liberty and Bellefontaine. They sold everything a farmer needed, and they bought everything a farmer had to sell. They also borrowed the farmers' money at extravagant interest. Then the bubble burst, as bubbles will, and Quincy's progress received a serious check. The coming of the railroad restored hope. From time to time a sawmill, a gristmill, several wood-working factories and similar industries supplanting the older pioneer tanneries have flourished there, all, with the ex- ception of the mill, giving way in turn to more modern enterprises as conditions changed. The population, which has grown slowly, is now about seven hundred. The streets have been sidewalked with cement, and present a neat and well-kept aspect, though only piked, not paved. Rounding the picturesque hill which leads up from the bridge to the level of the town, a little frame "corner- store" building, dark and weather-beaten, shows where one mer- chant weathered the financial gale of the forties. The ancient canopy over the sidewalk supports a wild grape vine, branching from a stem as heavy as a tree, which was planted seventy years ago-a slip from a vine at the river's edge-by Mrs. William John- son, whose husband kept the store. Mrs. Johnson's daughter, Miss Minnie Fidler, still lives in the old-fashioned cottage next door, and is, with Mrs. D. C. Arthur, now among the oldest living residents of old Quincy. Dr. Nicholas V. Speece, who died in the autumn of 1918 at the age of eighty years, was for more than fifty years the leading physician of the town and vicinity, and no more devoted member of the profession may be instanced in the county. His library was the largest in western Logan. Drs. A. M. Curl and F. E. Detrick are left in the local medical field.
The Canby mill, which was located not at the site of DeGraff but nearer Quincy, passed through various ownerships, and by 1860 was the property of Joseph Eicher, a German emigrant of 1848, and a fervent Unionist during the Civil War. The mill then stood on
-
291
THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
the original site, on the north side of the river, but after it passed into the hands of the Allingers in 1871, it was abandoned, and the old sawmill on the south side was destroyed about 1882 to make room for the present substantial flour mill, which is widely known. The race for the mill allows a fall of only six feet, but, with turbine wheels, power is furnished sufficient to grind about three barrels per hour, of "Golden Rule" flour. The modern character of the mill in no way detracts from the original beauty of the situation, which is being carefully maintained by the citizens. At the door- step of the mill an interesting relic arrests the eye. It is the buhr stone from a pioneer mill, which is averred to have ground the meal and flour which fed Anthony Wayne's soldiers on the famous march to Detroit. The stone is a light red granite, of extreme hardness, and with the rude grooving still clearly defined after more than a century of grinding. The cyclone of 1825, in the track of which both Quincy and DeGraff were located, was repeated in 1872, de- vastating property and causing loss of human life, and piling up the list of misfortunes already borne by the little town. Materially, Quincy has long since recovered from this blow, but scars are left that can never be forgotten.
The D. T. & I. railroad, completed in 1892-3, gave to Quincy a north and south shipping route in addition to the east and west line of the Big Four railway, which is of great advantage. One of the beauty points of the vicinity is the D. T. and I. bridge which spans the gorge of the river from the rolling heights on the north to the bluff on the south. Built of steel, its airy perfection was attained at a cost of a million dollars, and was completed without delaying the passage across the river of but one train.
The Quincy Grain company's elevator is placed conveniently to both railroads, and is one of the most important institutions of the town. The company incorporated in 1909 with a capital, all local, of $15,000, and exports not less than 100,000 bushels of grain an- nually, besides handling the local trade in all grain products, seeds, salt, coal, etc. The manager is W. A. Nisonger.
The Peter Kunz company has a large plant at Quincy, in which local stockholders are interested, and which is well managed by Mr. Maurice Albaugh, a prominent citizen.
Electric light is supplied from Sidney, Ohio, but the telephone service is independent. Fire protection is furnished by very good general equipment, with gasoline engines, the water being drawn from fire cisterns, or, in emergency, may be drawn from the river. However, no large fires have ever visited the town.
The Miami Valley bank, unincorporated, was first organized in 1903 with a capital stock of $5,000, with J. E. Wells, J. W. Wilkin- son, E. T. Lowe, J. F. Speece and W. H. Persinger as officers. It was reorganized in June, 1918, with $10,000 capital stock, and the following board: J. W. Wilkinson, president; E. T. Lowe, vice- president; J. S. Kneisley, cashier; F. M. Sayre, assistant cashier ; stockholders, J. F. Speece, J. E. Wells and W. H. Persinger. It is installed in remodeled headquarters on the principal business street.
The Methodist Episcopal body was the first to organize in
292
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
Quincy, being followed by the Baptist, and later by the Universalist, each of which had its neat church edifice. All three were destroyed in the cyclone of 1872, and only the Methodists were strong enough to rebuild. This congregation is now housed in a beautiful temple erected in 1908, in which the Methodists of a large district gather to worship.
DeGraff, which, like Quincy, was built in the track laid waste by the tornado of 1825, was not so located merely on that account, for John Boggs of Pickaway county, Ohio, entered this land in 1805 as an investment for his infant son, William. It lay unde- veloped until 1826, when William Boggs, now grown up and become a husband and father, decided to carve a fortune from it for his wife and child. Bringing a man to help, the family camped in the moving wagon in which they made the journey thither, while the two men built a substantial cabin, on a well-chosen hill site. In 1833 Mr. Boggs built a sawmill below his cabin, bringing the machinery from Columbus. In 1840 he built a gristmill, on Buck- ongehalas creek, founding a permanent industry. In 1850 Mr. Boggs laid out a town on his land, the railroad (then the Bellefontaine and Indiana, but now the Big Four) having been staked out through it. The name of DeGraff was bestowed in honor of the president of the new steel highway. John Koke and Samuel Gilfillin, who had purchased a portion of the land, platted a tract southeast of the rail- road line, but being unable to fulfill the purchase contract, this addi- tion reverted to Mr. Boggs. The first business house in DeGraff was opened by J. M. Askrin. A. J. Lippincott put up a second store a month later, choosing Main street rather than Boggs street for a business site, a judgment which set the pace for followers. The prospect of a second railroad at one time helped to attract invest- ment, but the route was secured by Quincy. Mr. Boggs stood by his town with fine public spirit, assisting wherever he found need. He built a warehouse for Aaron Mitchell, an honest man who, with- out capital, began to purchase wheat, and by persistence built up a wheat market at DeGraff which competed with the best, and benefited the whole district as well as himself. The old warehouse did duty during the sixties as railroad depot and freight house, but a neat depot and improved equipment long since replaced it. Larger warehouses have been built, and DeGraff is now a shipping center of great importance, despite the nearness of Quincy with its double railroad facilities. William Boggs in 1852 gave to the Presbyterians, who were the first religious body to organize in DeGraff, a site for church property, to be used for that purpose only, and to revert to his heirs if ever abandoned by the church. Here, in the woods, reached only by a mere wagon track through the trees which still covered most of the village plat, the neat chapel was built. It was at first used by all denominations, Rev. William Galbreath preach- ing for the Presbyterian contingent. The Methodists, however, soon separated and built for themselves, and in 1860 the Baptist group erected a substantial church which is still in use, having escaped the cyclone which wiped out nearly half the town in 1872. Rev. A. W. Denlinger is the present pastor. The Presbyterian chapel, still neat and intact, stands in its old place, though the forest
293
THE STORY OF LOGAN COUNTY
is departed, but the congregation built a new church home, in 1910, at the corner of Main and Miami streets, W. E. Harris, grandson of William Boggs, and heir to the estate, waiving his claim, and permitting the old property to be sold for the benefit of the building fund. The new edifice is artistic and very modern, with a porte- cochere at the rear entrance as an unusual feature. Rev. J. A. Kumler, who was pastor at the time of rebuilding, resigned in 1916 and was succeeded by Rev. William Haldstab. The "New Light" Christians once organized and built a church, but languished soon after, and the chapel was converted into a G. A. R. hall. The orig- inal Methodist church was destroyed by the cyclone in 1872, and rebuilt on a larger scale in 1873, where it still stands, having been lately enlarged by the addition of a parish house and lecture room. Rev. Clark L. Gowdy is pastor at this date (1918). The "Primitive Baptist" and the Christian Brethren hold meetings in a hall on alternate Sundays. The first school house of DeGraff was subse- quently used in various ways, but at one time was devoted to a mission of St. Patrick's church of Bellefontaine under Father Bourion. It was abandoned, and the old building having been re- moved to the outskirts, where it serves some utilitarian purpose, the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Weller now occupies the site.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.