USA > Ohio > Wyandot County > Past and present of Wyandot County, Ohio; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievemen, Vol. I > Part 23
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During the old Revolutionary war the Sandusky Indians were very troublesome and frequently sent murderous scalp- ing parties to eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia, they were not alone in this as their towns were the halfway place between Fort Pitt and Detroit, so when the northwestern Indians went on their murderous forays on the border set- tlers in those states they always rested at those Indian towns on their outgoing and also coming back. The site about the Delaware spring toward the close of the Revolutionary war was apparently occupied by the Wyandots. so was Cranetown about four miles northeast from the present Upper Sandusky on the east bank of Crane run, a small tributary of the San- dusky river. About two miles further north on the west bank of the Sandusky river and about a half mile southwest from the Hayman bridge spanning that river, was located the Wyandot halfkings town. It was against those towns that the illfated expedition was directed against by Col. William Crawford in 1782. On the 25th of May of that year, 480 men and officers started from Mingo bottoms, about two miles be- low Steubenville on the Ohio river. The guides selected were Jonathan Zane and John Slover. The latter had been a captive among the Indians and was familiar with the San- dusky river country. The guides conducted the army in a northwestern direction for about 150 miles. On June 5th they arrived at the Delaware spring site and found to their astonishment the Indian town deserted. The troopers drank
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from the refreshing waters of the spring while their horses were pasturing on the luxuriant grass in the vicinity. A coun- cil of war was held and it was decided to march another day towards the other two Wyandot towns and if no Indians could be found to beat a hasty retreat.
In November, 1816, John Stewart, a freeborn mulatto, who had lived at Marietta, Ohio, felt a strange impulse that stirred his very being to go to the Northwest and preach the gospel, Stewart had imbibed too much from the "cup that cheers" and was finally led to a sense of his lost condition, was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal church at Marietta. He was very poor of purse and unlearned but car- ried an exhorters license. One day heeding that "small voice" he packed his grip and started for the Northwest. The first place he stopped was at the Moravian Indian town of Goshen on the Tuscarawas river. Goshen was a Delaware town and Reverend Mortimore was the resident minister. After a few days sojourn he proceeded to Captain Pipestown (the captain's Indian name was Tauhaugecaupouye), and Reverend Stewart found the Delawares at his new charge a little averse to his teachings but his fine musical voice in sing- ing soon attracted the Indians.
The writer wishes to introduce one of the earliest events connected with Ohio history, well knowing there has been some dispute on the subject what route Robert La Salle took in the discovery of the Ohio river. It is a well known fact that the French government which held sway over the Ohio country for ninety-four years had an intense desire to find a waterway crossing this continent westward toward the sea of California. Robert La Salle, a Frenchman, who kept a trading store at La Chine on the St. Lawrence was greatly im- bued with the idea of new discoveries. He was very conversant with nine different Indian dialects. As his Indian customers would drop into his trading store he would inquire about that large river flowing towards the west. One day a Shawnee In- dian prisoner was brought in and said that it could be reached by boat in six weeks. This greatly fired La Salle's imagina- tion and he at once repaired to the seat of government at Quebec to obtain the approval of the governor for an expe- dition in quest of the discovery of the Ohio river. Letters patent were issued but no money could be furnished for the daring undertaking. Nothing daunted the intrepid La Salle.
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He at once sold his trading store to the Order of St. Sulpice for $2,800 and purchased nine canoes and the necessary sup- plies. Two of the canoes carried the Indian guides. The party consisted of twenty-four persons. La Salle's friends gathered about him and implored him not to make the hazardous trip, but to no avail. It is stated that the Indian guides directed them to a tributary of Lake Erie, quite likely entered San- dusky bay, thence up the Sandusky river near the Delaware spring where the portage or carrying place, which is about seven miles, then existed to the Scioto, thence down to the Ohio river. The undertaking was started on July 6, 1669. La Salle was so delighted on his view of the river that he named it La Belle Riviere or "beautiful river." As he stood upon its banks he took possession of the majestic stream, all its tributaries and all the land towards the northwest in the name of the King of France and named the new discovery which now comprises the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, New France, the home at present of over fifteen million people. As the party paddled down the newly discovered river, La Salle at intervals stamped on leaden plates his discovery of the river and buried the plates on the banks, one of which has since been found, and is in an eastern museum. When the French and English began their quarrel previous to the French and Indian war for the right of possession of this inland empire, the French claimed a right to this New France by the right of discovery by their subject La Salle.
At the beginning of the last century the Wyandot nation numbered about two thousand, two hundred souls. It was against their rules in warfare to burn any of their captives. They frequently adopted the white prisoners into their own families and it is said that it was much easier to make an Indian out of a white man than for an Indian to don that higher civilization. The Wyandots were a greatly mixed race. The last fullblooded Wyandot it is said died in Canada in 1823. A part of their blood mixture came about in this way : While the French soldiers were doing military service among the Indians in Canada and the Northwest, there was a strin- gent law against them marrying while in the military service of the government. The French soldiers soon set aside the French antimarrying law and took unto themselves Indian squaws.
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One of the leading events in the history of the Wyandot reservations from 1817 to 1843 was the introduction of a mission, the humble beginning of which was through the efforts of Rev. John Stewart. In 1821 a section of land in the vicinity of the present Old Mission church was set aside for an industrial farm. The Indian boys were taught husbandry and the girls were taught housekeeping, cooking, weaving and baking. As early as 1825 government agents got busy try- ing to buy the respective reservations, which was stoutly opposed by Rev. James B. Finley, the resident missionary, who was threatened with bodily harm and even death by those land hungry agents. It finally fell to the lot of the lamented Col. John Johnston on March 17, 1842, to conclude a treaty of cession and migration of the Wyandots. A number of years ago the writer received the following information from the secretary of Indian affairs, Washington, D. C .: "By the terms of this treaty, it was stipulated that the chiefs should remove their people without other expense to the United States than $10,000, one-half payable when the first detach- ment should start; the remainder when the whole nation should arrive at its place of destination, Further, that the Wyandots should receive for the lands ceded another tract of land west of the Mississippi. It contained 148,000 acres; a permanent cash annuity of $17,500, a permanent fund of $500 per annum for educational purposes, and an appropria- tion of $23,860 to pay the debts of the tribe. They were to be paid the full value of their improvements in the country ceded, and to be provided in their new home with two blacks- smiths and a blacksmith shop with necessary steel, iron and tools, and with an agent and interpreter. However, instead of the 148,000 acres promised, the Wyandots received by pur- chase from the Delaware Indians 24,960 acres, and by a sub- sequent treaty received in lieu of the balance $148,000 in three annual payments."
"THE IMMORTAL J. N."
One of the most peculiar and well known characters of Wyandot county was the "Immortal J. N.," as Jacob New- man Free was known. He was born in Mansfield, attended the public schools and later took a clerkship in a drug store, where he was employed for a number of years. He went to
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California in the early days of the gold excitement and when he returned it was noticed that he was peculiar. It has been claimed by some that "J. N." was a native of Marion county, but we have verified proof that he was born in Richland county. It was a younger brother of "J. N." that was born in Marion county. The accompanying portrait was taken of "J. N." upon one of his visits to Mansfield. After leaving Mans- field, "J. N." settled with his father's family in Mccutchen- ville, and there he is buried.
THE WYANDOT COUNTY BAR
By W. R. Hare
It would not be a complete history of Wyandot county without some mention being made of the Wyandot county bar. No class of people can long live in a community without at some time needing the assistance of those versed in the law, and there is not a class of citizens in any community who knows so much of the inner life of its inhabitants as does the lawyer. He is called in at the time when there seems great danger that the happiness of the family may be shattered, at a time when good counsel is most needed, when the end of life is approaching and the time for transacting worldly business is short; he is entrusted not only with the monetary affairs of his client but with the deepest secrets of the heart and with the knowledge he thus possesses he has the means within his power to render those who trust him happy or to ruin them and their families forever.
The position occupied by the lawyer is one of great trust and one that must necessarily carry with it the full confidence' of the public, were it otherwise, his usefulness is lost and the good he might do is gone forever.
The history of the Bar of Wyandot county begins on the 8th day of April, A. D. 1845, for on that day there was held a special term of the court of common pleas presided over by Abel Renick, William Brown and George W. Leith, associate justices, the regular judge, Ozias Bowen, not being present.
This term of court was held in the home of the late Col. Moses H. Kirby which was situated on the bank of the San- dusky river where now stands the beautiful home of the Elks, and consisted of a double two-story log house standing north
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and south with a frame addition running to the west. The old log house has long since passed away, but the frame part is still in use as the business room and residence of Charles Hinkleman and is situated on North Sandusky avenue.
These same associate justices also held court on the 14th day of that April in the same place, and then, so far as the records show there was no more court held in this county until the 1st day of July of that year when the regular term was presided over by the then Judge Ozias Bowen, and consider- able business was transacted.
On the 14th day of April, 1845, the name of Chester R. Mott appears as that of the first attorney having business before this new court in this new county, and he there appeared in behalf of Daniel Turflinger and in the matter of the probating of the will of Adam Weininger, deceased, and thus it appears that Chester R. Mott was the first attorney and Daniel Turflinger was the first client in the court of common pleas of Wyandot county, Ohio.
On that same day John D. Sears appeared as the attorney for Adam Nigh in the matter of the estate of Tobias Kneasel, deceased, and on the same day said John D. Sears was duly appointed by said court school examiner of this county.
The earlier members of the bar of this county established a very high standard of ability which has been an incentive for all who have since followed in their footsteps, and in going over the list of the members there is not to be found an in- stance in which any active practitioner has ever betrayed the trust and confidence reposed in him by his clients or the public.
The members of the Wyandot County Bar down to the year 1880 are as follows: Moses H. Kirby, Chester R. Mott, Jude Hall, John D. Sears, Robert McKelly, Peter A. Tyler, S. R. McBane, Henry Maddux, Geo. W. Beery, Geo. Crawford, Jon- athan Maffett, Peter B. Beidler, T. E. Grisell, John Berry, Curtis Berry, Jr., D. D. Hare, Adam Kail, Cyrus Sears, G. G. White, W. D. Tyler, Geo. G. Bowman, W. F. Pool, B. F. Ogle, and D. D. Clayton.
Some of these members attained high positions, Chester R. Mott served as a judge of the court of common pleas; John Berry and D. D. Hare were members of Congress from this district; Robert McKelly held a prominent place on the board of directors of the first railroad built through the village of
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Upper Sandusky; T. E. Grisell was an early clerk of the courts, while other members of the profession held other and various offices within the gift of the people.
While some of those mentioned above continued to prac- tice in the courts of said county until a later date than that given above, the membership of the bar since then is as fol- lows: Robert Carey, Elza Carter, James T. Close, D. C. Parker, George Goodrich, Joel W. Gibson, A. E. Walton, Geo. J. Stecher, W. P. Rowland, H. H. Newell, L. M. Bowers, F. J. Stalter, John T. Carey, Benjamin Meck, R. E. Carter, E. B. Carter, A. M. Brown, James G. Miller, T. D. Lanker, W. C. Hare, Chas. F. Close and W. R. Hare while those practicing here and living in other parts of the county are, M. B. Smith and H. G. Chambers of Carey, Ohio, H. L. Goodbread of Ne- vada, Ohio, and R. R. Kurtz, of Sycamore, Ohio.
It has been said by those who are in a position to know and whose experience covers a wide field of observation and prac- tice, that the bar of this county is equal and in many respects superior to the bar in other parts of the state, especially in respect to its promptness in dispatching the business brought before the courts and the fair and gentlemanly manner to- wards all those having business to transact therein.
What has been said relative to the earlier members occu- pying high positions of trust and public office can well be said of those who are now engaged in the practice of law, and it can be said in their favor that the same degree of integrity and de- votion to duty that stimulated the older members still prevails among the present practitioners and that they have always fully and faithfully responded to all calls of duty, and that in no instance has there been a failure of any confidence or trust reposed in them.
COURT ITEMS
Auditor Peter Frank has completed the abstract of the tax duplicate for this county for the year of 1912 and it shows an increase of a million and twenty thousand dollars over the duplicate for 1911.
The duplicate shows that there are 765,350 acres of land and that the value of this is $19,640,790. The value of real estate in cities and villages is $4,580,180. The total value of
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personal property is $14,675,680. This makes a total value of $38,896,650.
The state tax amounts to $17,542.39. The county tax is $98,836.50. The township tax totals $82,067.92. The town- ship special and school tax is $92,025.43.
Special taxes amount to $18,760.56. City and village taxes total $41,271.75. Miscellaneous, totals $3,099.62.
The total taxes levied in 1912 for all purposes except per capita tax on dogs were $353,604.17. Delinquent taxes on real estate and forfeitures amount to $1,459.08, The delinquent taxes of 1911 and of former years on personal property are $13,382.40. The total taxes, except dog tax, amount to $368,- 445.65. The male dog tax at $1 each amounted to $1,709. The female dog tax at $2 each totaled $226.
The sum of $108,555.67 was expended for school purposes in Wyandot county for the year ending September 1, 1912. Every township and corporation has a nice balance on hand, these balances totaling $68,622.65. The board of education of this city spent $17,051.57 last year.
For the same period the 138 teachers received salaries in the sum of $73,020.93. Of this amount the teachers of this city got $11,354.64. Sixty-seven men and seventy-one women are employed as teachers. The total receipts for school pur- poses from taxation were $112,465.81.
WYANDOT COUNTY AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS
The official bulletin of the state department of agriculture shows that for December, twelve reports were received from Wyandot county.
The condition of wheat compared with an average was .93, the amount of wheat crop of 1912 sold as soon as threshed was .63, the damage to the growing wheat crop, by the Hessian fly was .5, the damage to the growing wheat crop by the white grub, .0.
The area of corn planted in 1912 as returned by the town- ship assessors was 41,164 acres, the estimated average yield per acre of shelled corn, 43 bushels. The total estimate prod- uct of corn for 1912 was 1,770,052 bushels. The per cent of corn-crop of 1912 put into silo, .7. The cribbing of corn began sixteen days after October 1.
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The per cent of area of clover sown in 1911 cut for seed, .31. The average yield of clover seed per acre 1.25 bushels.
The probable total yield of apples compared with last year, 85 per cent.
The number of cattle being fed for spring market com- pared with an average, 65 per cent.
The number of sheep being fed for mutton compared with an average, 72 per cent.
The price of wheat per bushel was, $.98; corn, $.42; barley, $.25; oats, $.30; rye, $.73; potatoes, $.45 ; hay, per ton, $11.90.
MEMORIAL DRINKING FOUNTAIN
The Stevens Memorial Drinking Fountain is located at the west edge of the pavement in front of the courthouse. In speaking of this fountain, a local writer says:
"This beautiful fountain has been called a sermon in stone. It is the imperishable embodiment of one of the most beauti- ful sentiments in the world-the undying reverence of a daughter for her father.
"Situated before the portal of the Wyandot county temple of justice, it represents the tribute of Miss Laura Stevens, the last surviving member of her family, to the memory of her father, Samuel Wesley Stevens, a former resident of Carey. It was formally dedicated with appropriate cere- monies, October 11, 1907.
"The memorial is of granite, in the purely classic style of art-a section of a portico of a Greek temple. It is indeed a thing of beauty that bears out the fine sentiment to which it owes its origin. Built of the most enduring materials, it will continue to exist for all time, as a visible evidence of that sentiment."
CHARLES DICKENS AT UPPER SANDUSKY
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Charles Dickens passed through Upper Sandusky in 1842, as he was en route from Columbus to Sandusky City, from which place he took a steamer for Buffalo. He was traveling by stage coach and stopped for the night at a tavern in Upper Sandusky, near the old Indian spring, the present site of the Elks elegant new home, on the bluff overlooking the historic Sandusky river. In his "American Notes," after describing
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the roughness of the traveling by stage coach, the painful experience of jolting over corduroy roads, and through for- ests, bogs and swamps, the team forcing its way cork-screw fashion, he says :
"At length, between ten and eleven o'clock at night, a few feeble lights appeared in the distance, and Upper Sandusky, an Indian village, where we stopped for the night, lay before us. They were gone to bed at the log inn, which was the only house of entertainment in the place, but soon answered our knocking, and got tea for us in some sort of a kitchen or com- mon room, tapestried with old newspapers pasted against the wall. The bed-chamber to which my wife and I were shown was a large, low, ghostly room, with a quantity of with- ered branches on the hearth, and two doors without fasten- ings, opposite to each other, both opening on the black night and wild country, and so contrived that one of them always blew the other open; a novelty in domestic architecture which I do not remember to have seen before, and which I was always disconcerted to have forced upon my attention after getting into bed, as I had a considerable sum in gold for our travel- ing expenses in my dressing case. Some of the luggage, how- ever, piled against the panels, soon settled the difficulty, and my sleep would have not been very much affected that night, I believe, though it had failed to do so.
"My Boston friend climbed up to bed somewhere in the roof, where another guest was already snoring hugely. But being bitten beyond his power of endurance he turned out again, and fled for shelter to the coach, which was airing itself in front of the house. This was not a very politic step as it turned out, for the pigs scenting him, and looking upon the coach as a kind of pie with some manner of meat inside, grunted round it so hideously that he was afraid to come out again, and lay there shivering until morning. Nor was it possible to warm him, when he did come out, by means of a glass of brandy; for in Indian villages the legislature, with a very good and wise intention, forbade the sale of spirits by tavern keepers. The precaution, however, is quite ineffica- cious, for the Indian never fails to procure liquor of a worse kind at a dearer price from travelling peddlers.
"It is a settlement of Wyandot Indians who inhabit this place. Among the company was a mild old gentleman (Col. John Johnston), who had for many years been employed by
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the United States government in conducting negotiations with the Indians, and who had just concluded a treaty with these people by which they bound themselves, in consideration of a certain annual sum, to remove next year to some land pro- vided for them west of the Mississippi, and a little way beyond St. Louis. He gave me a moving account of their strong attachment to the familiar scenes of their infancy, and in particular to the burial places of their kindred, and of their great reluctance to leave them.
"He had witnessed many such removals, and always with pain, though he knew that they departed for their good. The question whether this tribe should go or stay had been dis- cussed among them a day or two before in a hut erected for the purpose, the logs of which still lay upon the ground before the inn. When the speaking was done, the ayes and noes were ranged on opposite sides, and every male adult voted in his turn. The moment the result was known the minority (a large one) cheerfully yielded to the rest, and withdrew all kind of opposition.
"We met some of these poor Indians afterward riding on shaggy ponies. They were so like the meaner sort of gypsies that if I had seen them in England I should have concluded, as a matter of course, that they belonged to that wandering and restless people."
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
The early physicians of Wyandot county shared the hard- ships and privations of the early settlers, joined them in their joys and their sorrows. No class of men have done more to promote the good of mankind and develop the resources of a country than the physicians, and wherever they are found they are uniformly on the side of order, morality, science and religion. It is impossible for us to fully appreciate the prim- itive manner in which the earliest of these men practiced medicine. They had to be in a degree pharmacists and prac- tical botanists. Roots and herbs were an important part of their armamentarium. Infusions and decoctions were the order of the day. The sugar-coated pill was then unknown. In fact the life of the modern physician is sugar coated when compared with that of the pioneers. These men were obliged,
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to be fertile in resources, apt in expedients and ingenious in improvising.
In looking over the lives of these men we find general char- acteristics that are worthy of thought. They were brave and active, energetic and progressive beyond their time. On their lonely travels in the early years they had to face the treachery of the Indians and the hunger of the wolves. The more the lives of these men are held up to view, the more sterling quali- ties we find to admire.
It is the purpose of this chapter to preserve a brief record of the medical practitioners of the county, as far as is practicable.
The early settlers of Wyandot county were subject to fever and ague and sometimes milk-sickness. The former they knew pretty well how to treat but the latter they knew little about. An early settler writes as follows: "One of the greatest obstacles to the early settlement was the ague, 'fever and ague,' or 'chills and fever,' as it was variously termed. In the fall almost everybody was afflicted with it. It was no respecter of persons, but we soon had plenty of doctors traversing the highways and byways, and any one wishing to be doctored could be so treated to his heart's content."
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