USA > Ohio > Wyandot County > Past and present of Wyandot County, Ohio; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievemen, Vol. I > Part 35
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Peter Baum, Sr., came about fifteen days after Samuel Harper, accompanied by Daniel Walters, who afterward mar- ried Susanna Baum, daughter of Peter Baum, Sr. He entered ten acres of land on section 18, and died there. Ichabod My- ron and Rufus Merriman came about the same period. John Eyestone came from Ross county, entered 160 acres of land in section 7, where he settled.
In 1822 came George Kisor; he entered eighty acres of land, where he died some fifteen or twenty years after, Will- iam Lupton succeeded Kisor, coming in the early part of 1823. He settled on section 17, where he entered 160 acres of land, and there died about 1848. He had three sons and one daugh- ter: John, Samuel, Lewis and Massy, all of whom died in Sycamore township, excepting Lewis, who died in Eden town- ship. About the same period came to this township the fol- lowing: Peter Betzer, William Griffith, Michael Van Gundy, Jeptha Brown, Andrew Clingman, David Ford, the Craw- fords and Starkeys, James Milligan, Jesse Ingerson, William Goodman, James and Lorin Pease, and Conrad Betz.
Between 1823 and 1826, Jacob Hershberger and family, Solomon Pontius and family, William Griffith and family, Samuel and Bribner Hudson and their families, Abram and Samuel Bair and their families, Benjamin Van Gundy and family, William Goodman and family, William and Samuel Caughey and families, Jacob Combs and his family, from Vir- ginia; Gershom Cunningham and family.
From 1826 to 1830, Levi Pennington and family came from Virginia; Hampton Ford and family of three sons and one daughter, Benjamin Knapp and family, William Betzer and family, Adam Coon and family and Abram Brown and family.
The first house in Sycamore township was erected by Sam- uel Harper about the year 1821. It was of hewed logs, dimen- sions 18x18 feet, one and a half stories high, and it stood till 1834-35. The first saw mill was established by William Grif- fith in 1830 on section 18, it was operated until destroyed by fire in 1876-77; and the first grist mill was known as Taylor's mill, erected on Sycamore creek in section 17 by George W. Taylor in 1843-44. It had two run of buhrs, and is still being
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operated. Prior to this mill, settlers had to go to the old Indian mill at Upper Sandusky, to have their grinding done. or to Buck creek in Clark county, Ohio. The first election in the township, which was then a full congressional township, was held at the house of George Kisor near Petersburg, in 1822-23, when a full board of township officers were elected. Prior to 1822, provisions were brought in from the south. At that date a store was established at Old Tymochtee. The first wedding in the township took place in 1826, at the resi -. dence of Peter Baum, the contracting parties being Daniel Walters and Susannah Baum, and the first births were Susan- nah and Barbara Walters (twins), children of Daniel and Susannah Walters. The first death was that of Samuel Har- per, which occurred at his old homestead in 1821. The first store in the township was in Sycamore Village, kept by George Harper previous to which settlers went to Delaware for their supplies.
The first school in this township was held in the village of Sycamore, and the first schoolhouse was a round-log struc- ture, 18x18 feet in dimensions, located on section 17. It was erected in 1825-26 by the citizens of the township. The first teacher was Nancy Parmenter, who received the sum of $1 per week as salary, and this amount was raised by subscrip- tion. There are now six school buildings in the township.
The first religious services in Sycamore township, before any regular house of worship was erected, were held during the summer of 1822 at the house of Mrs. Harper, John Stew- art, a colored missionary, and James B. Finley officiating, and meetings were continued to be held at private houses or cabins, and occasionally on the old camp ground, until the erection of the first church in 1834. This place of worship was a frame structure built on section 18, nominally by the Methodists, actually by the united support of the people, regardless of sect.
Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal church of Pipetown .- This society held its first meeting in this township in the old round- log schoolhouse in about 1834, and in that year their first church building was erected on a piece of ground seventy rods north of the southeast corner of section 10, on the county line of Crawford and Wyandot. It was of frame work, 30x40 feet, and completed at no other cost than the gratuitous labor
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of those interested. Later a larger and better church build- ing was erected.
United Brethren Church in Christ .- The first meeting of this society was held in a schoolhouse by Rev. J. Powell, in the year 1849. Two years later an organization was affected with eleven members. The society continued to worship in this schoolhouse until 1853, when it erected a frame building in Sycamore, at a cost of $800. Later a commodious brick structure was erected.
The only highway that traverses this township from north to south, other than the Crawford county line, is the section line a mile west of Crawford county; three roads cross the township from east to west-one in the center, passing through the town of Sycamore, one a mile further south and a third on the Eden township line. In addition to these there are several others leading either in parallels with or along the section lines, or in an irregular manner, one of which latter inclines in a northwesterly direction from the village of Syca- more to Mexico, in Tymochtee township, and the Morrison state road, which was the first regularly laid out road in the township. The Ohio Central railroad intersects sections 18, 20, 21, 28, 27 and 34, entering this township from Tymochtee.
The small villages in Sycamore township are Deunquat and Petersburg. Deunquat has a Lutheran church under the charge of the pastor of the Lutheran church at Nevada.
SYCAMORE
Wyandot county has quite a number of pretty and grow- ing villages, of which she is so justly proud that sketches of the most important ones are presented in this work separate from the townships, while the smaller villages and settlements are noticed in the chapters on township histories.
The village of Sycamore presents quite a business-like appearance, the main street of the place being well built up and has some large business houses, which denote the enter- prise of its citizens. Other streets are bordered by attractive . cottages and substantial residences, making the general appearance of the place compare favorably with that of much larger towns. The place is fast building up, and ere many years will no doubt double its present size. The churches, the schools, the newspaper, benevolent societies, literary and
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secret societies, and all the advantages of an advanced state in culture and wealth are found here, conferring on this northeastern village of the county an impress of Wyandot's growth in all that contributes to public good.
The village of Sycamore is situated on Sycamore creek and has a population of over a thousand. It was laid out and lots sold in the year 1843, while Sycamore township was yet a part of Crawford county. The village was for the first few years of slow growth, but in time two railroads were built through the town, which added not only to its growth but to its importance. The T. & O. C. railroad runs from Toledo to the southeast through Sycamore, and the Northern Ohio passes through the village from west to east. Additions have been added to the place from time to time till it now has a population of 1,000, and is a prosperous and up to date town.
The first house erected on the site of the village was in 1836. It was for a store and was built of logs, 18x30 feet in dimensions and George Harpster conducted a store there for two years, when he disposed of his stock to William Combs, who continued the business for several years, when he sold to Gustus Saffel.
In 1849-50, A. W. Brinkerhoff and J. B. Wilson opened a store in the village and did business until 1856, when the firm dissolved.
In 1884 a fine five-story brick flouring mill was erected by George Taylor.
As time advanced and the village increased in population other businesses and industries were added, and at present it is not behind any town of its size in the state.
TYMOCHTEE TOWNSHIP
Tymochtee township comprises thirty-six sections, being a square of six miles, or full congressional township. It dates its organization from 1825, and was formerly a part of Craw- ford township. It commenced to fill up at an early date with enterprising settlers, principally from the southern part of the state. Tymochtee township comprises township 1 south, range 14 east, and receives its name from Tymochtee creek. Tymochtee creek in the Wyandot language denotes "the creek or river round the plains." This township lies in the north-
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eastern portion of Wyandot county, and is bounded on the north by Seneca county, on the east by Sycamore township, on the south by Crane township and on the west by Crawford township.
The Wyandot reservation line on its northern boundary included the most of the southern tier of sections of this town- ship, but about half way across the township it took a sudden detour to the north, so as to include as far north as the Che- rokee Boy section, when it turned to the south again. In consideration of stipulations elsewhere treated of in this work, "to Horonu, or the 'Cherokee Boy,' a Wyandot chief, was granted a section of land, to contain 640 acres, on the San- dusky river, to be laid off in a square form, and to include his improvements." This chief's section was situated on both sides of the Sandusky, old Tymochtee being on the center of its western limits. Cherokee Boy lived to be one hundred and ten years old, and died in 1834. When the Wyandots were allotted this reservation in 1817, besides Cherokee Boy, the Whittaker boys, James and John, and other half-breeds, were allotted large tracks of land in their own right in this township. Robert Cherokee, a son of Horonu, went west with the Wyandots.
Tymochtee is one of the choicest townships in the county, and is admirably adapted for the labors of the agriculturist and stock raiser. It is truly a land of plenty, fertile in soil, well watered, with good roads and in near proximity to rail- ways a few miles in every direction. The Sandusky river meanders gently across this township in a generally northern course, when, after traversing nearly the whole township, it turns sharply to the east and waters all the north end of the township. In addition to this river which, like the old Nile in Egypt, is the chief factor in fertilizing the land, there comes from the west across sections 18 and 17, the historic Tymoch- tee creek debouching into the Sandusky about the center of the east side of the latter section. Taylor Run drains all the eastern side of the township with its long and numerous branches. Sycamore creek crosses the northeast corner of Tymochtee from the township of Sycamore, entering the San- dusky near Mexico. Beside this, numerous rivulets babble through the township in every direction, making it a land of streams.
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Good substantial roads traverse the township in every direction, one of the chief of these is on the west side of the Sandusky, crossing the northern county boundary at McCut- chenville ; there it meets with a road from the southeast, cross- ing Belle Vernon. Another leading road enters section 34 from the south, and passing north for about a mile and a half, it meets a road from the west crossing the Sandusky, when they turn abruptly to the northeast, crossing the township toward Mexico.
There are now two railroads passing through this town- ship-the Ohio Central and the Northern Ohio, the latter road having a station at Tymochtee.
The first white settler was Henry Lish, who with his wife and three children settled on the southwest quarter of section 17, about 1816-17, erecting the first dwelling, a log cabin, 18x20 feet. Other early settlers were Cyprion Stevens, Joseph Chaffee, Robert Gibson, Elisha Brayton, William Hodge, Linus Cutting, James Whitehead, Doctor Dunn, Joseph Stig- gerwalt and Thomas Leeper. The last named came in 1821 from Ross county, Ohio, about the same time that Samuel Harper located in Sycamore. Soon after came Peter Baum, William Combs, Levi Bunn, John Taylor and George Bogart, who settled in what is now Belle Vernon; John Morris, Alfred McCauley, and his brother Jehosaphat, Peter Hummon, Jona- than, Peter and Moses Kear, the latter a gunsmith. Henry Lish established in the earliest days of settlement a govern- ment ferry across the Tymochtee. Michael Brackley, who sat in both branches of the legislature, was also a very early settler. Ira Aikens and Joseph Chaffee opened the first tav- erns. Robert Gibson came with his parents to this township in 1821, being then but two years of age. He was a native of Ross county, Ohio; his parents settled one and one-half miles west of Tymochtee village. At that time very few whites were in the township, while Indians were numerous. Mr. Gibson grew up with the reputation of a nimrod, and on one occasion he killed four deer, besides wild cats and turkeys. When twenty-three years of age he began herding cattle among the Indians. In 1844, he married Margaretta, daughter of John Beam, who settled near Mccutchenville in 1829, and was the first white miller at the Indian mill near Upper Sandusky.
John S. Wagner, a very early settler, was a native of Pick- away county, and settled near Mexico. Abraham Corfman
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was born in this township in 1830, and was a son of Joseph and Susanna Corfman, of Pennsylvania. The father died in November, 1855.
Among the first blacksmiths was John Freet. The first to erect a saw and grist mill was Elisha Brayton, which was the property of A. Arnold. The first schoolhouse was on the land of John Berry, and the first teacher was John A. Morrison. The first white child born in the township was a son of Henry Lish, in 1820, named Ralph. The first store was opened by James Whittaker, at Tymochtee. Among other early settlers we might name Col. Joseph McCutchen, who, in 1829, had the village of Mccutchenville laid out by Dr. G. W. Sampson, in which year he erected the first dwelling in that village, Doctor Sampson putting up the second in the following year. Aaron Welsh opened the first store. Still other early names are Ralph Duddleson and his sons, James, William and Chris- tian, Daniel White and James Wright, who had a romantic history, having been captured by the Indians, for whom he worked as a silversmith. Some of his descendants are living in Richland township. The settlers coming in about 1830 were Asa Dunn, Asa, William and Peter Brayton, David Ellis, Gerhart Sheets, Joseph, Henry and Charles Parker, Michael and William Noel, and Samuel Kenan, who kept hotel in Tymochtee village from 1830 to 1851. From 1830 to 1845, set- tlers came in rapidly. In 1845 the township was organized as a part of Wyandot county.
This township from a very early period has been well sup- plied with churches, and there was no lack of religious priv- ileges, and there are now quite a number of churches in the township.
In the early settlement of the township a number of vil- lages were laid out, some never reaching greater size than the number of lots given at the platting. In the early settlement of the counties in the state villages were quite numerous, but later the trend of population was to the cities, and the antici- pations of the farmers of these villages were never realized, many of them now being defunct.
Perhaps the village of the most importance in Tymochtee township at the present is Mexico, a place of about two hun- dred inhabitants, with a church and a general store.
Belle Vernon is nearly the same size. Then there is Tymochtee and North Tymochtee, Warpole, Perue and Pious.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WYANDOT COUNTY
The most that can be said of any of these is that they have a general store and perhaps a church.
MCCUTCHENVILLE
McCutchenville is situated on the northern boundary of Wyandot county and the northern part of the village is in Seneca county, the main street of the place being the divid- ing line. The village was platted in 1829 for Colonel Joseph McCutchen, by Dr. G. W. Sampson, who was a surveyor as well as a physician. In that year Colonel Mccutchen erected the first dwelling house in the place, and Dr. Sampson the second in 1830. It is on the Toledo & Ohio Central railroad, and while it has never become a place of much importance, it is an ideal country village.
Mccutchenville was the home of the late Jacob New- man Free, better known as the "Immortal J. N."
Attached to this sketch is a view of Main street, McCutch- enville.
J. ADAM GOTTFRIED
No work could lay claim to being a veracious history of Wyandot county which would omit from its pages mention of that well-known and original character, J. Adam Gottfried, who, for many years held a prominent position in the busi- ness circles of Upper Sandusky as the head of the celebrated hardware firm of J. A. Gottfried & Bro .- "The Dutch Hard- ware," as J. Adam himself used to love to style his business place. As the publishers wish this work to be just what it should be-an accurate chronicle-one who knew Mr. Gott- fried very well was prevailed upon to furnish his recollec- tions of him, and to recall some of the amusing events and happenings concerning that unique character, whose antics, jovial good humor, hasty flashes of high temper, quaint phil- osophy and spontaneous wit, furnished more laughter to his fellow citizens than did all the serious efforts of the profes- sional humorists which came to us in the form of printed pages.
It is not the purpose of the writer to caricature the sub- ject of this sketch, but to attempt the rather difficult task of
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WYANDOT COUNTY
trying to picture him so truthfully that he may be brought into the minds' eyes of the thousands who knew and loved him, and who would all gladly welcome him back from the bourne where he is no doubt now spreading genuine fun and sunshine. Were it possible for him to return for only a day all business and work-a-day affairs would cease and we would have a real holiday of gaity, and J. Adam would be the real hero of the occasion. Nothing will be said here that he would not approve of himself, for he was a happy part of all the incidents, enjoyed them at the time, or at least afterwards, and the narrator feels in his heart that the truth, which never offended him while living, would arouse no protest now that ' he is gone, were such a thing possible. In fact our imagina- tion pictures him grinning approval over the golden ram- parts as these words are being written.
J. Adam Gottfried was a diamond in the rough-an unpolished and an unset gem. For this reason the writer must forget some of his sayings, things that would be very funny in the telling, but which could not be printed here, and he needs not ascribe the reason to anyone who knew the sub- ject of this series of sketches, for while J. Adam was always Chesterfieldian in his efforts to be polite, his language was often more forceful than printable, so that many of the most amus- ing anecdotes concerning him must be handed down to pos- terity by word of mouth instead of in words to be read, hence, in time, some of these will pass into the oblivion of forgotten things. The writer also extremely regrets his inability to incorporate in these tales the peculiar, yet well remembered emphasis that was characteristic of J. Adam in speaking, for his speech, upon all occasions, was of an explosive char- acter, with a peculiar dialect that made it memorable, but difficult of reproduction in any attempt to narrate it. His personal appearance, even, was unique, and his mannerisms were distinctly his own. He was short in stature and pretty well rounded at the belt line, the result of gastronomic satis- faction, for he was never penurious in providing himself with the good things of life, and he surely lived well while he lived. He was big-hearted, whole-souled and generous to the dis- tressed and needy upon all occasions, hence if benevolence be princely, then J. Adam was one of the most royal of common- ers. He generally wore good clothing, made to fit his figure to the best advantage, even if he made no attempt to dictate
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fashions, being sometimes partial to fancy vests, which were always decorated with a massive gold watch chain, from which dangled a mammoth crystal charm, the many facets of which scintilated all the prismatic colors that flash from a pedigreed diamond.
His face was wonderfully flexible in its ability to express and portray all the imaginable moods of feeling, and many an actor would have felt fortunate in the possession of such a physiognomy. He sported a moustache of healthy growth, in which his vanity seemed to be centered, for when baldness came to screen the tell-tale story of advancing age, he care- fully kept the moustasche dyed in order that it might not reveal the secret. To say that J. Adam looked like the pic- tures of "Jeff," in the modern and now well-known cartoons of "Mutt and Jeff," would be an exaggeration, but some- how the pictures of the little character do recall him to mind and memory. In repose, while seated, he was wont to have his knees wide apart, with a hand on each, and he would often tilt back in his chair with arms folded over his pudgy chest, and with the ankle of one foot comfortably nested upon the knee of his other leg. Standing, and engaged in conversation, he would balance himself upon his heels in a gracefully sway- ยท ing motion with his arms behind his back. In meeting friends upon the street, and particularly in the store, he would often elevate his arms like a Spanish dancing girl, snap his fingers like she would click her castanets, and would end by cutting a comical pigeon wing and a sort of half-circle dance step, like a proud chanticleer, then rush behind the store counter to wait upon their wants, in which he was shrewd, discerning and skillful. He was highly proficient as a salesman and he had a habit of proclaiming every thing that he sold to be "the finest in the world."
When jovial-he was so most of the time-he was as balmy as a spring morning zephyr. Usually when approached by friend or customer he would arch his eyebrows, which would enlarge his eyes most comically, or he would wink most ludi- crously, bring his hands together with a resounding clap, then burst into a loud and hearty guffaw of laughter, and wind up by shrilly whistling or musically yodling in true Tyrolean style favorite bars from his beloved national songs, "Hi Le, Hi Lo," or "Wenn der Geisbock ueber die Huegel springt,"
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and "Ich bin der Doktor Eisenbart, zwilly-willy-winkum- boom." He had a habit, when shaking hands, of giving the grasped hand a sudden jerk which produced an uncomfortable shock to the arm to which it was attached, but it was not done with any malice. This habit was much more ceremonious, however, in former years, for there was a time when he would grab your right wrist with his left hand in a grip of steel, hold your hand out an instant, elevate his right arm like swinging an ax, and come down with his hand in a stinging smash and exclaim, "Why, hello uncle," This often really hurt the hand of the one so greeted, but J. Adam was very effectively cured of this form of greeting, yet, as Kipling says, "that's another story," and will be spoken of in the reminis- censes to follow.
J. Adam had a musical soul, and when this soul would become sad he would attempt to soothe it by playing the violin, but to tell the truth he was no Theodore Martin in point of artistic execution, and it was often noticed and remarked that there were more chairs occupied about the store's big stove when it was known that Adam's fiddle was coffined in its case, than when it was lying on a chair ready to be grasped. Besides, Tom O'Brien and some of the others simply could not endure Adam's tuning-up preliminaries. He would place one foot upon a chair, slap the butt of the instrument under his chin, pick the strings with such vigor that they vibrated to the very marrow of one's bones, then shift position and twist a key until it squeaked, swear a few notes, and then run the bow over two or three strings, at once, producing a chorus of wails like one reads of in certain portions of Dante. This process usually occupied a full half hour, or longer, if necessary to get the instrument just in the proper tune to play.
As before stated, J. Adam was capable of running the entire gamut of human emotions in all their varying shades, and sometimes there were causes provoking enough to make him lose his good nature and arouse his temper, when, for a few moments, the traditional March hare would have to go way back and sit down, and the muskrat pelts and coon skins would turn inside out on their curing boards, where they hung in front of the hinge and spike bins. To the great credit of J. Adam, however, it must be said that these explosions were like those of powder, hence quickly over, and bars of
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