USA > Ohio > Wyandot County > Past and present of Wyandot County, Ohio; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievemen, Vol. I > Part 8
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The last time we saw Johnny was one summer day when we were quilting upstairs. A door opened out upon the ground and he stood his little bundle on the sill and lay down on the floor, resting his head on the parcel. Then he drew out of his bosom one of his old dingy books and read aloud to us.
In 1838 he resolved to go further on. Civilization was making the wilderness to blossom like the rose. Villages were springing up, stage coaches were laden with travelers, schools were everywhere, mail facilities were very good, frame and. brick houses were taking the place of the log cabin; and so Johnny went around among all his friends and bade them farewell. The little girls he had dandled upon his knees, and presented with beads and gay ribbons, were now mothers and the heads of families. This must have been a sad task for the old man, who was then well stricken in years, and one would have thought he would have preferred to die
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among his friends. He came back two or three times to see us all the intervening years that he lived; the last time was in the year that he died, 1845. In the spring of that year, one day after traveling twenty miles, he entered the house of an acquaintance in Allen county, Indiana, and was, as usual, cordially received. He declined to eat anything except some bread and milk which he ate sitting on the door- step, occasionally looking out toward the setting sun.
Before bedtime he read from his little book "fresh news right from heaven," and at the usual hour for retiring he lay down upon the floor, as was his invariable custom. In the morning the beautiful sight supernal was upon his counte- nance, the death angel had touched him in the darkness and the silence and, though the dear old man essayed to speak, he was so near dead, that his tongue refused its office. The phy- sician came and pronounced him dying, but remarked that he never saw a man so perfectly calm and placid, and he in- quired particularly regarding Johnny's religion. His bruised and bleeding feet now walk the gold paved streets of the New Jerusalem, while we so brokenly and crudely narrate the sketch of his life. A life full of labor and pain and un- selfishness, humble unto self-abnegation, his memory glowing in our hearts, while his deeds live anew every springtime in the fragrance of the apple blossoms he loved so well.
From some intimations dropped by him it is believed, he was regularly ordained by the disciples of Swedenborg, and sent west as a missionary. A repetition of all the anecdotes concerning this strange wanderer would fill a volume. He was just as happy in the solitudes of the forest communing with the Author of all, as he lay gazing at the stars, where he could almost see the angels, as in the midst of nurseries or among the pioneers.
"How and where did he die?" He died at the house of William Worth, in St. Joseph township, Allen county, In- diana, March 11, 1845, was buried in the garb he wore. He was buried in David Archer's graveyard two miles and a half north of Fort Wayne near the foot of a natural mound and a stone set up to mark the place where he sleeps.
There is a monument in Middle Park, Mansfield, to the memory of Johnny Appleseed. At its unveiling in October, 1900, A. J. Baughman, the author of this work, delivered the address of the occasion as follows:
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"John Chapman was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the year 1775. Of his early life but little is known, as he was reticent about himself, but his half-sister who came west at a later period stated that Johnny had, when a boy, shown a fondness for natural scenery and often wandered from home in quest of plants and flowers and that he liked to listen to the birds singing and to gaze at the stars. Chap- man's passion for planting apple seeds and cultivating nurs- eries caused him to be called 'Appleseed Johnny,' which was finally changed to 'Johnny Appleseed,' and by that name he was called and known everywhere."
The year Chapman came to Ohio has been variously stated, but to say it was one hundred years ago would not be far from the mark. One of the early pioneers who re- sided in Jefferson county when Chapman made his first ad- vent in Ohio, one day saw a queer looking craft coming down the Ohio river above Steubenville. It consisted of two canoes lashed together, and its crew was one man-an angular, oddly dressed person-and when he landed he said his name was Chapman, and that his cargo consisted of sacks of appleseeds and that he intended to plant nurseries.
Chapman's first nursery was planted nine miles below Steubenville, up a narrow valley, from the Ohio river, at Bril- liant, formerly called Lagrange, opposite Wellsburg, West Virginia. After planting a number of nurseries along the river front, he extended his work into the interior of the state-into Richland county-where he made his home for many years. He was enterprising in his way and planted nurseries in a number of counties, which required him to travel hundreds of miles to visit and cultivate them yearly, as was his custom. His usual price for a tree was a "flip penny-bit," but if the settler hadn't money, Johnny would either give him credit or take old clothes for pay. He gen- erally located his nurseries along the streams, planted the seeds, surrounded the patch with a brush fence, and when the pioneers came, Johnny had young fruit trees ready for them. He extended his operations to the Maumee country and finally into Indiana, where the last years of his life were spent. He visited Richland county the last time in 1843, and called at my father's, but as I was only five years old at the time I do not remember him.
1
Public School
English Lutheran Church
Methodist Episcopal Church
West Side School
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS OF CAREY
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My parents (in about 1827-35) planted two orchards with trees they bought of Johnny, and he often called at their house, as he was a frequent caller at the homes of the set- tlers. My mother's father, Captain James Cunningham, set- tled in Richland county in 1808, and was acquainted with Johnny for many years, and I often heard him tell, in his Irish-witty way, many amusing anecdotes and incidents of Johnny's life and of his peculiar and eccentric ways.
Chapman was fairly educated, well read and was polite and attentive in manner and chaste in conversation. His face was pleasant in expression, and he was kind and generous in dis- position. His nature was a deeply religious one, and his life was blameless among his fellowmen. He regarded comfort more than style and thought it wrong to spend money for cloth- ing to make a fine appearance. He usually wore a broad- brimmed hat. He went barefooted not only in summer, but often in cold weather; a coffee sack with neck and armholes cut in it, was worn as a coat. He was about 5 feet, 9 inches in height, rather spare in built but was large boned and sinewy. His eyes were blue but darkened with animation.
For a number of years Johnny lived in a little cabin near Perrysville (then in Richland county), but later he made his home in Mansfield with his half-sister, a Mrs. Broome, who lived on the Leesville road (now West Fourth street) near the present residence of R. G. Hancock. The parents of George C. Wise then lived near what is now the corner of West Fourth street and Penn avenue and the Broome and Wise families were friends and neighbors. George C. Wise, Hiram Smith, Mrs. J. H. Cook and others remember "Johnny Appleseed" quite well. Mrs. Cook was perhaps better acquainted with Johnny than any other living person today, for the Wiler House was often his stopping place. The homes of Judge Parker, Mr. Newman and others were ever open to receive "Johnny" as their guest.
But the man who best understood this peculiar character was the late Dr. William Bushnell, the donor of this beautiful commemorative monument, and by whose kindness and liber- ality we are here today. With Dr. Bushnell's scholastic attain- ments and intuitive knowledge of character he was enabled to know and appreciate Chapman's learning and the noble traits of his head and heart.
Vol. 1-6
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When upon his journeys, Chapman usually camped out. He never killed anything, not even for the purpose of obtain- ing food. He carried a kit of cooking utensils with him, among which was a mush-pan, which he sometimes wore as a hat. When he called at a house, his custom was to lie upon the floor with his kit for a pillow and after conversing with the family for a short time, would then read from a Swedenborgian book or tract and proceed to explain and extol the religious views he so zealously believed, and whose teachings he so faithfully carried out in his everyday life and conversation. His mission was one of peace and good-will and he never carried a weapon, not even for self-defense. The Indians regarded him as a great "medicine man," and his life seemed to be a charmed one, as neither savage man nor beast would harm him.
Chapman was not a mendicant. He was never in indigent circumstances, for he sold thousands of nursery trees every year. Had he been avaricious his estate instead of being worth a few thousands might have been tens of thousands at his death.
"Johnny Appleseed's" name was John Chapman-not Jonathan-and this is attested by the muniments of his estate, and also from the fact that he had a half-brother (a deaf mute) whose Christian name was Jonathan.
Chapman never married and rumor said that a love affair in the old Bay state was the cause of his living the life of a celibate and recluse. Johnny himself never explained why he led such a singular life except to remark that he had a mission -which was understood to be to plant nurseries and to make converts to the doctrines taught by Emanuel Swedenborg. He died at the home of William Worth in St. Joseph town- ship, Allen county, Indiana, March 11, 1845, and was buried in David Archer's graveyard, a few miles north of Fort Wayne, near the foot of a natural mound. His name is engraved as a senotaph upon one of the monuments erected in Mifflin town- ship, Ashland county, this state, to the memory of the pioneers. These monuments were unveiled with imposing ceremonies in the presence of over 6,000 people September 15, 1882, the sev- entieth anniversary of the Copus tragedy.
During the war of 1812 Chapman often warned the settlers of approaching danger. The following incident is given: When the news spread that Levi Jones had been killed by the Indians and that Wallace Reed and others had probably met
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the same fate, excitement ran high and the few families that comprised the population of Mansfield sought the protection of the block house, situated on the public square, as it was sup- posed the savages were coming in force from the north to over- run the country and to murder the settlers.
There were no troops at the block house at the time and as an attack was considered imminent, a consultation was held and it was decided to send a messenger to Captain Douglas at Mount Vernon for assistance. But who would undertake the hazardous journey ? It was evening, and the rays of the sunset had faded away and the stars were beginning to shine in the darkening sky, and the trip of thirty miles must be made in the night over a new cut road through a wilderness-through a forest infested with wild beasts and hostile Indians.
A volunteer was asked for and a tall, lank man said de- murely : "I'll go." He was bareheaded, barefooted and un- armed. His manner was meek and you had to look the second time into his clear, blue eyes to fully fathom the courage and determination shown in their depths. There was an expres- sion in his countenance such as limners try to portray in their pictures of saints. It is scarcely necessary to state that the volunteer was "Johnny Appleseed" for many of you have heard your fathers tell how unostentatiously "Johnny" stood as "a watchman on the walls of Jezreel," to guard and pro- tect the settlers from their savage foes.
The journey to Mount Vernon was a sort of a Paul Revere mission. Unlike Paul's, "Johnny's" was made on foot- barefooted-over a rough road, but one that in time led to fame.
"Johnny" would rap on the doors of the few cabins along route, warn the settlers of the impending danger and advise them to flee to the block house. Upon arriving at Mount Vernon, he aroused the garrison and informed the command- ant of his mission. Surely, figuratively speaking,
The dun-deer's hide On fleeter feet was never tried,
for so expeditiously was the trip made that at sunrise the next morning troops from Mount Vernon arrived at. the Mansfield block house, accompanied by "Johnny," who had made the round trip of sixty miles between sunset and sunrise.
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About a week before Chapman's death, while at Fort Wayne he heard that cattle had broken into his nursery in St. Joseph township and were destroying his trees, and he started on foot to look after his property. The distance was about twenty miles and the fatigue and exposure of the journey were too much for his physical condition, then enfeebled by age; and at the even-tide he applied at the home of a Mr. Worth for lodging for the night. Mr. Worth was a native Buckeye and had lived in Richland county when a boy and when he learned that his oddly dressed caller was "Johnny Appleseed" gave him a cordial welcome. "Johnny" declined going to the supper table, but partook of a bowl of bread and milk.
The day had been cold and raw with occasional flurries of snow, but in the evening the clouds cleared away and the sun shown warm and bright as it sank in the western sky. "Johnny" noticed this beautiful sunset, an augury of the Spring and flowers so soon to come, and sat on the doorstep and gazed with wistful eyes toward the west. Perhaps this herald of the springtime, the season in which nature is resur- rected from the death of winter, caused him to look with pro- phetic eyes to the future and contemplate that glorious event of which Christ is the resurrection and the life. Upon reen- tering the house, he declined the bed offered him for the night, preferring a quilt and pillow on the floor, but asked permis- sion to hold family worship and read, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," etc.
After he had finished reading the lesson, he said prayers- prayers long remembered by that family. He prayed for all sorts and conditions of men; that the way of righteousness might be made clear unto them and that saving grace might be freely given to all nations. He asked that the Holy Spirit might guide and govern all who profess and call themselves Christians and that all those who were afflicted in mind, body or estate, might be comforted or relieved, and that all might at last come to the knowledge of the truth and in the world to come have happiness and everlasting life. Not only the words of the prayer, but the pathos of his voice made a deep impression upon those present.
In the morning Chapman was found in a high state of fever, pneumonia having developed during the night, and the physician called said he was beyond medical aid, but inquired
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particularly about his religious belief, and he remarked that he had never seen a dying man so perfectly calm, for upon his wan face there was an expression of happiness and upon his lips there was a smile of joy, as though he was communing with loved ones who had come to meet and comfort him and to soothe his weary spirit in his dying moments. And as his eyes shone with the beautiful light supernal, God touched him with his finger and beckoned him home.
Thus ended the life of the man who was not only a hero, but a benefactor as well; and his spirit is now at rest in the Paradise of the Redeemed, and in the fullness of time, clothed again in the old body, made anew, will enter into the Father's house in which there are many mansions. In the words of his own faith his bruised feet will be healed, and he shall walk on the gold paved streets of the New Jerusalem of which he so eloquently preached. It has been very appropriately said, that, although years have come and gone since his death, the memory of his good deeds lives anew every springtime in the beauty and fragrance of the appletrees he loved so well.
"Johnny Appleseed's" death was in harmony with his un- ostentatious life. It is often remarked "how beautiful is the Christian life;" yea, but far more beautiful is the Christian's death, when "the fashion of his countenance is altered," as he passes from the life here to the life beyond.
What changes have taken place in the years that have in- tervened between the "Johnny Appleseed" period and that of today! It has been said that the lamp of civilization far surpasses that of Aladdin's. Westward the star of the em- pire took its way and changed the forests into fields of grain and the waste places into gardens of flowers, and towns and cities have been built with marvelous handiwork. But in this march of progress, the struggles and hardships of the early settlers must not be forgotten. Let us not only record the history, but the legends of the pioneer period; garner its facts and its fictions; its tales and traditions and collect even the crumbs that fall from the table of the feast.
Today, the events which stirred the souls and tried the courage of the pioneers seem to come out of the dim past and glide as panoramic views before me. A number of the actors in those scenes were of my "kith and kin" who have long since crossed "over the river" in their journey to the land where Enoch and Elijah are pioneers, while I am left to exclaim:
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"Oh, for. the touch of a vanished hand And the sound of a voice that is still."
While the scenes of those pioneer days are familiar to us on history's page, future generations may look upon them as the phantasmagoria of a dream.
At seventy-two years of age-forty-six of which had been devoted to his self-imposed mission-John Chapman ripened into death as naturally and as beautifully as the apple seeds of his planting had grown into trees, had budded into blossoms and ripened into fruit. The monument which is now to be unveiled is a fitting memorial to the man in whom there dwelt a comprehensive love that reached downward to the lowest forms of life and upwards to the throne of the Divine.
WYANDOT COUNTY AT AN EARLY DAY
The "French and Indian War," the struggle for Ameri- can independence, various desolating Indian wars, and the War of 1812-15 had all taken place long before the settlement, by the whites, of any portion of the territory now designated Wyandot county, yet many of the pioneers who located here were descendants of Revolutionary sires, while others among them had been active participants in wars of a later date. This region, too, had already gained prominence in history as the scene of Crawford's disastrous engagement with the In- dians and their British allies in 1782, and as the point of con- centration, during the War of 1812-15, of a considerable body of American riflemen. Crawford's expedition, however, has already been treated at considerable length in another place, hence this chapter begins with a brief account of the opera- tions conducted here during the last war with Great Britain.
In October and November, 1812, several battalions of Pennsylvania militia, mustered into the service of the United States for a term of six months, and under the command of Brig. Gen. Richard Crooks, marched from the southwestern counties of Pennsylvania-the region which had furnished men for Crawford's expedition twenty years before-towards what was then termed the "Northern" or "Canadian Frontier." Cutting out roads through the wilderness for the passage of their wagon trains and artillery, General
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Crook's command moved forward from Pittsburgh via the cities of the present towns of Canton and Mansfield to a point now occupied by the town of Upper Sandusky intending to take part with the Kentucky volunteers in the reduction of British posts along the Great Lakes; but it appears that this body of Pennsylvanians proceeded no farther than this point -Upper Sandusky. Here they erected a work of defense termed Fort Ferree, and here they remained through the following winter, or until their terms of service had expired. The locality chosen had certain advantages in a military point of view, being at the junction of General Harrison's military road leading southward to the Ohio river, and north- ward to Lower Sandusky; besides, it commanded an extended view of the surrounding country, had a fine spring of pure water gushing from the foot of the low bluff nearby, and was a central place in the country of the Wyandots, whose prin- cipal town lay in a northeasterly direction.
Fort Ferree occupied grounds on the east side of the pres- ent town, or near the bluff about fifty rods northeast of the court house. It was a square stockade work, inclosed an area of about two acres, and had very substantially con- structed blockhouses at each of the four corners, one of which was standing as late as 1850. The troops, while stationed at this place, were rather poorly supplied with camp and garri- son equipage, provisions and medical stores; a wilderness, hundreds of miles in extent, separated them from their base of supplies and their homes, and many sickened and died. The bodies of those who died here seem to have been buried where the present public buildings stand, and for some dis- tance to the westward of the same; for street gradings and various excavations made in the vicinity mentioned, have brought to the surface, bones of the human body, buttons bearing the letters U. S. stamped on their face, and rosettes made of leather with the American eagle in brass fixed upon them.
During the same war, General Harrison made this point his headquarters for a brief period. At the same time a number of "light horse" encamped on "Armstrong's Bottom," two miles south of the fort. One mile north of Fort Ferree, near the river, Governor Meigs encamped in August, 1813, with several thousand of the Ohio militia then on their way to the
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relief of Fort Meigs. The place was called "The Grand En- campment," and subsequently was chosen as the Mission Farm. Receiving here the news of the raising of the siege of Fort Meigs, and the repulse of the British at Fort Stephenson, they prosecuted their march no further, and were soon after permitted to return to their homes.
When the Mexican war began, Wyandot, as a county, had been in existence but a few months, yet many more men of- fered their services than could be accepted. Thus, we learn, that during the last days of May, 1846, a body of volunteers, known as. the Sandusky Rangers, and commanded by Capt. John Caldwell, marched from Upper Sandusky to Cincinnati. They were stationed at Camp Washington near that city (where one of their number, W. L. Stearns, died), until the 19th of June, following, when, for some well founded reason, they were mustered out of service.
At a war meeting, held in Upper Sandusky June 1, 1846, another company of volunteers was formed. Its officers were Andrew McElvain, captain; Moses H. Kirby, first lieu- tenant; Christian Huber, second lieutenant; Thomas Officer, ensign; and Purdy McElvain, first sergeant. But this company also failed to be accepted for a term of service, and from that time all organized efforts to recruit volunteers at this point ceased. Subsequently, Capt. John Caldwell was appointed commissary of a regiment of Ohio volunteers, and proceeded to Mexico in August, 1846. In June, 1847, Lieut. H. Miller, Jr., and other Wyandot county volunteers returned home from Mexico.
Originally, the town lots extended from the west bank of the Sandusky river, westward to Warpole street, and from Church street on the north southward to the south line of the fourth tier of outlots lying south from Crawford street, or to the point now termed South street. The inlots, however, be- ing 380 in number were bounded on the north by Bigelow street, on the east by Front street from Bigelow to Walker street, and by Spring street from Walker to Crawford street, on the south by Crawford street, and on the west by Eighth street.
According to the plan, the original streets and their widths were as follows: Streets running east and west -- Church, 100 links; Elliott, 80 links; Guthrie, 100 links; Bige- low, 125 links; Finley, 125 links; Hicks, 125 links; and Craw-
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ford, 125 links. Streets running north and south-Front, 125 links; Second, 125 links; Third, 125 links; Spring, 50 links; Fourth, 125 links; Fifth, 125 links; Sandusky Avenue, 150 links; Seventh, 125 links; Eighth, 125 links; Hazel on the south, and Garret on the north, both being on the same line, 621/2 links, and Warpole on the western border, also 621/2 links wide. Water street extended along the bank of the Sandusky river, from the foot of Walker to the foot of Bige- low street.
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