USA > Ohio > Picturesque northwestern Ohio and battle grounds of the Maumee Valley, an art and historical work of the worthwest section of the Buckeye State > Part 7
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PIONEER DAYS IN PUTNAM COUNTY .- The first settler in the county was David Murphy. He came down the Blanchard from Fort Findlay in a canoe, in 1824, with his family; went up the Auglaize three miles and settled on the bayou. Erected a cabin of poles; ran out of provisions: none nearer than Fort Findlay; out also of rifle balls; recollected where he had shot a ball into a tree; hunted the tree, cut out the ball, recast it, and seeing a bear on the limb of a tree, took aim at the bear-a trying moment- killed the bear.
H. S. Knapp became at an early day editor of the Kalida
PUTNAM COUNTY COURT HOUSE, OTTAWA.
Venture. Went one Sunday to a camp meeting at Columbus Grove, in a wagon, with his wife. They were newly married. Started to re- turn together on horseback and got dumped into a mud hole. Knapp tried to pull his wife out, but failed. Backed his horse, wife caught horse's tail and was pulled out. The Venture appeared next morning with editorials short and crabbed. The opposition papers denounced his newspaper as the "Kalida Vulture." Knapp lived to write the history of the Maumee Valley, and dedicated it to "Rutherford B. Hayes, late Governor of Ohio and President of the United States." The Venture was established in 1841 by James Mackenzie; in the course of years lost its unique, enterprising name, and is now the Putnam County Sentinel.
East from the barn of William Turner, in Pleasant Township, is a low piece of bottom land some twenty rods wide. In 1845 there was an upheaval of the earth; a ridge formed across from bank to bank, some four feet high and about thirty wide, which dammed up a creek there; so that Mr. Tur- ner was obliged to cut a channel through it to let off the accumu- lated waters. The cause of this no one knows. For many years after the organization of the county a session of the court was deemed a fit time for a spree, a general good time; so it was common to hold court all day, and have a jolly good time during the entire term of the court. Wheat, corn, pota- toes and pork were raised with very little trouble, and, when prop- erly taken care of, want was never known. Game was plenty. Coon and deer skins, with the money brought by emigrants, formed all the currency. Hand mills for grinding corn were almost a house- hold necessity, and the meal from
STREET SCENE AT OTTAWA, PUTNAM COUNTY.
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one ear, made into bread, was deemed ample for one meal for one person. On calling for a dinner, persons sometimes had to wait until the eorn was shelled, ground and baked.
Hiram Sarber, born in Franklin County in 1817, settled one mile below Ka- lida in 1833. When eorn began to ear, along eame the eoons and squirrels, and it seemed as though they would get it all. Father said to me: "Hiram, there is the little gun and dog. I want you to wateh the coons and squirrels out in the eorn field." I thought this would be fun, but I found out better in a few days. I shot squirrels by day and hunted coons by night. The dog would lay by daytime; when night came he was ready for a hunt, when I would open the door and say. "Go! hunt them," and wait until he barked. He would not kill them until I eame. At last I got so tired of this that I tied him up to get some sleep. If I let him loose, he would soon find one, and then bark until father would eall out, "Hiram! do you hear the dog?" and then I would have to get up and go: for I knew better than to disobey him. The In- dians were plenty here, and we had considerable sport with them shooting at a mark. hopping and running foot raees. The first winter and spring, if we boys wanted young company we had to go twelve miles to a settlement. where there were about a dozen boys and girls that attended meeting, and a singing at a log school house.
The first road in the county was the one eut through from Fort Recovery to Defiance by Anthony Wayne, in 1794. This passed along the west side of the river, and has ever sinee, with few variations, been used as a publie road. At the intersection of Jennings Creek with the Auglaize, on this road, Colonel Jennings erected, in 1812, a stockade for the protection of supplies between Fort Recovery and Fort Defiance: and on this road the first mail was established, and the mail earried between Piqua and Defianee onee a week, on horseback, supplying between the termini the offiees of Hardin. Wapakoneta and Sugar Grove (this was at the house of Sebastian Sronfe, near Hlover's Mills), the only post-
PAULDING COUNTY COURT HOUSE, PAULDING.
office in the county The mail was earried by a boy, C. C. Mar- shall, from September, 1829, to December 31, 1831. This boy was afterward mayor of Delphos, superintendent of the Miami and Erie Canal, and a member of both houses of the Legislature.
John Wileox, born in Madison County in 1825; his parents settled in Perry Township in 1827. One night when the father was absent and the pioneer wife alone with her two babes in the rude eabin, "the rains deseended and the floods eame;" the mother took her babes, her axe, and pot of fire (matehes then being un- known), and started for higher ground, which she reached after wading through water for a quarter of a mile, and built a fire where the first orehard was planted in the subsequent year, the trees being purchased from John Chapman-"Johnny Appleseed" -who was peddling in a boat from his nursery near Fort Findlay. The rise of the waters again compelled her to seek higher ground ; and here she was found later in the day by Demit Maekeral, who had come to her relief in a eanoe.
William Galbraith. -- Ottawa Indians were his only neighbors when he settled in Put- nam County in 1834. Sycamore and his squaw, who had a papoose, got into a quarrel, when he pulled out his knife and eut the ehild in two. Each one had half, and they settled the quarrel. Indian Tom would steal, so the tribe concluded to put him out of the way. One evening, when the river was rising very fast, they took him down into a low bottom, and tied him to stakes driven in the ground, expecting the river to rise before morning and drown him. But there was a young squaw, who went down in the night and ent him loose. Tom finally went with the Ottawa tribe west.
A BYRGE
HARNESSSBUCCIES
STREET VIEW AT PAULDING, PAULDING COUNTY.
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DEFIANCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, DEFIANCE.
Stansbury Sutton settled on Ottawa Green in 1833. Indian Tom was a bad Indian. In the spring of 1834 he stole a pony from some of his tribe. They tried him for stealing, found him guilty, took him from eamp, divested him of his elothing, laid him on his baek, tied him to a stake, and left him to remain all night, subjeet to the torture of the innumerable hosts of mos- quitos and gnats. I saw Tom the next morning; he was a fearful looking objeet. He looked as though every pore of his skin had been penetrated by the insects. I sympathized with him, notwithstanding I knew he was a thief. After Tom was released they procured whiskey, and the whole tribe (ex- eept PeDonquet, the chief), got drunk and had a general spree, lasting two days.
Brockman Brower settled in Greensburg Township in 1833. We ob- tained our fruit trees from John Chapman - "Johnny Apple- seed." When I first saw him he was floating down the Blan- chard River in
a canoe, loaded with apple trees, distributing them among the early settlers along the Blanchard, Auglaize and Maumee Rivers. He would supply trees to all, regardless of their ability to pay for them. His nursery was near the head waters of the Blanchard. Loading a canoe, he would deseend the river, supplying all who were in need of fruit trees. He thus devoted his time and means for the benefit of his fellow- men. The year 1834 was noted for the July flood. It rained a large portion of the time, from the 20th of June until the 4th of July, at which time the river was at its highest. It was rising nearly two weeks, and nearly as long going down. It will now rise to its highest point in three or four days, and recede in the same length of time.
HANCOCK COUNTY .-- Hancock, named in honor of John Hancock, the first president of the Revolutionary Con- gress, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was organized under the act of January 21, 1828. The area is about 540 square miles. The surface is level: soil is blaek loam, mixed with sand, based on limestone and very fertile. Its early settlers were mainly from Pennsylvania. The een- tral and southern parts of the county are watered by Blan- chard's Fork of the Auglaize River. In the war of 1812 a road was eut through this county for the use of the troops going to the northwest. Findlay, the county seat, is located where Old Fort Findlay stood. The town was laid out in 1821 by ex-Governor Joseph Vanee and Elnathan Corry, and in 1829 again surveyed and a settlement systematically eom- menced. As early as 1846, just south of the then village of Findlay, were two gas wells. No one then thought that prob- ably the greatest depository of natural gas in the world was stored in the earth beneath the town, and that the town was the center of an immense territory rich in the same wealth. For years Dr. Charles Oesterlen, a German physician, insisted that an enormous quantity of gas was within reach. He was laughed at and called the "gas fool." In 1884 a company
was formed, a well drilled, and gas found. Not until January 20, 1886, when the Karg well, with a daily eapaeity of 15,000,000 feet, was discovered, did the people of the town and county at large begin to realize the magnitude of the affair. A "boom" of gigantic proportions struek the place, and, like most "booms," went to the extreme. The discovery of oil has more than compensated for the collapse of the gas business, and Han- coek has become a solid, substantial, wealthy eounty, and Findlay a eity of wonderful vigor, based on real wealth. As an oil eenter,
STREET SCENE DEFIANCE, DEFIANCE COUNTY.
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WILLIAMS COUNTY COURT HOUSE, BRYAN
and also having a number of manufacturing establishments which are prospering, the city has a bright future before it. The popu- lation of Hancock County in 1900 was 41,993; Findlay, 17,613; Arlington, 738; McComb, 1,195; part of Fostoria, 1,342.
HARDIN COUNTY .- Hardin, named in honor of General John Hardin of Kentucky, was organized under the act of Janu- ary 19, 1833. In 1820 it was first formed from old Indian terri- tory, but until the date of its organization was attached to Logan County, and later to Champaign, for judicial purposes. About
half of the county is level and the rest undulating, while all is capable of drainage. The soil is partly a gravelly loam and partly clay, based on limestone. Its original for- ests were very heavy in timber of the usual varieties. The county is on the great watershed of the State. The Blan- chord and north branch of the Miami head in Hardin, while the Scioto, rising in Auglaize, flows northeast and then southeast through the great Scioto marsh in Hardin County. Near Kenton, the county seat, is the site of Fort McArthur, built in 1812. The first court in the county was held in a block-house, the residence of Hon. Wm. Mc- Cloud, at McArthur. In 1833 the present county seat was laid out, named in honor of Simon Kenton, the great In- dian fighter. In 1846 the Mad River and Lake Erie Rail- road reached the town. The marsh lands of this county cover over 25,000 acres, or 39 square miles, the largest one being the Scioto marsh of 16,000 acres inside the timber line. Hog Creek marsh has about 8,000 acres, and about 1,000 acres of the Cranberry marsh of Wyandot County lies in Hardin. As late as 1883 the work of draining these tracks began in earnest, and a large part of these waste places have been redeemed and made productive. This work has made Kenton the center of a rich agricultural region, with a large trade in grain, cattle and pork, as well ps lumber and staves. At Ada is located the Ohio Normal University, now owned by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and which is attended annually by from two to three thou- sand students. The population of Hardin County in 1900 was 31,187; Kenton, 6,852; Ada, 2,576; Dunkirk, 1,222; Forest, 1,155: Mt. Victory, 734.
CRAWFORD COUNTY .- Crawford County was or- ganized under the act of January 31, 1826. It was named in honor of Colonel William Crawford, who served his country with great honor in the Revolutionary War. In 1782, while leading an expedition against the Ohio Indians, he was captured, and with awful tortures burned to death on the Tyemochtee River, now in Wyandot County. Crawford was formed from Indian land known as the "New Purchase," or the last part of the State which was ceded to the government by a treaty made at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, September 29, 1817. The surface of the county is generally level, and in parts slightly rolling. The southern and western parts are beautiful prairie land, comprising a part of the great Sandusky plains. This is covered with a rich vegetable loam from six to fifteen inches deep. The original settlers of Crawford came largely from
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NORTH SIDE OF PUBLIC SQUARE BRYAN, WILLIAMS COUNTY.
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New England. In 1832 a heavy immigration set in direct from Germany, and in 1848 the political trouble in the Fatherland sent still more of the same nationality. Buey- rus, the county seat, was laid ont in February, 1822, by Samuel Norton and James Kilbourne, who owned the land, and the first settler was Samuel Norton, who had come from Pennsylvania in 1819. The name of the town is said to have been derived from "Busiris," in ancient Egypt. For the first ten years or so after the county was first settled, the people were very poor, having very little to sell, and no market for that little. Since then the ad- vent of railways, the toil of thrifty farmers and the progress of the age has made Crawford a peer of the rural counties and superior to many. Its growth in popula- tion and resources from one decade to another has been steady but certain, showing a constant advanee. In 1900 Crawford had 33,915 inhabitants: Bneyrus, 6,560; Gal- ion, 7,282: Crestline, 3,282; New Washington, 824.
FULTON COUNTY .- Fulton, named in honor of Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat, was ereeted from territory detached from Ineas, Henry and Williams counties, and organized by the act of February 28, 1850. Its surface is pleasantly undulating, and it is drained by the tributaries of the Maumee. Its soil is very fertile. On aeconnt of being so heavily wooded, its early settlement was slow, and the county has had only the steady, gradual development of an agricultural region. The region was, in early days, a favorite resort of the Indians. Ottokee and Wase-on were famous chieftains, and were about the last Indians to leave the territory now embraced in Ful- ton County, going West in the spring of 1838. The United States government indueed the Indians to give up their elaims to that section and take instead certain lands in a region now near Kansas City, Kansas. The county seat of Fulton, Wauseon, was named in honor of the old Indian. The town was platted in 1854, and the first building was ereeted as a store and dwelling by E. L. Hayes in the same year. In 1870 the town became the seat of justice. In 1900 the population of
FULTON COUNTY COURT HOUSE, WAUSEON
the county was 22,801: Wauseon, 2,148; Delta, 1,230; Fayette, 886: Archbald, 958; Swanton, 887.
HENRY COUNTY .- Henry County, named in honor of Patrick Henry, the renowned Virginian, orator and patriot, was organized under the act of February 2, 1824. This county is another of the now wealthy seetions of the old Black Swamps, of which it was said some fifty years ago, "in less than a eentury, when it shall be eleared and drained, it will be the gar- den spot of Ohio, and sup- port half a million people." The traet was 120 miles in length, and had an average width of 40 miles. The sur- face of Henry County throughout is level, the soil being of a black, decayed vegetable substance, a foot thick, and of a remarkable 1 fertility. Underneath this top soil, in this eounty, lies a rich yellow clay, containing large quantities of lime and silex. The land is well adapt- ed to the production of grain. fruit and vegetables of all NEW REST classes, and has been culti- vated to a high degree by the thrifty German farmers who have settled in Henry County within the past 30 years. The region settled very
CHOSE
LOOK OUT
CIGA
FULTON STREET LOOKING NORTH, WAUSEON , FULTON COUNTY.
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GEO HAHN & SONS. ONE PRICE
TO ALL
HENRY COUNTY COURT HOUSE, NAPOLEON.
slowly. In 1830 the eounty had barely 262 inhabitants. In 1832 Napoleon was platted, and the same year the first cabin was erected there. This cabin was 12x14 fect in size, and opened to the public by Amos Andrews as a tavern. When the canal reached the town it became a place of considerable importance. The vicin- ity of Napoleon in pioneer days was one of the haunts of Simon Girty, the white renegade, who was associated with the Indians in so many atrocities. In 1900 Henry County had 27,282 pop- ulation; Napoleon, 3,639; Desh- ler, 1,628; McClure, 660; Lib- erty Center, 606; Holgate, 1,237.
WILLIAMS COUNTY .- Wil- liams, named in honor of Pri- vate John Williams, one of the trio who captured Major Andre, was organized under the act of February 2, 1824. The surface of the county is slightly rolling, but generally level. In the west- ern part the soil is sandy. The soil is generally of a clayey na- ture, partly a sandy loam. This county was much reduced in 1845 by the formation of Defi- ance County, to which it con- tributed the Townships of Defi- ance, Delaware, Farmer, Hicks- ville, Millford, Tiffin and Wash- ington. The original population came from Ohio, New England, New York, Pennsylvania and Germany. Two aneient lake beaches cross the county. The first artesian well in Northwest- ern Ohio was sunk at Bryan in
1842. The Indians found by the early settlers in this sec- tion were of the Ottawa, Miami, Pottawatamic and Wyandot tribes. At first Defiance was the seat of justice for Williams, until 1845, when it was moved to Bryan. This town was laid out in 1840 by William Arrowsmith, in which year the town plat was first recorded. It was named in honor of Hon. John A. Bryan, who had served as Auditor of State. The site of Bryan, and, in short, a large part of Williams County, was covered by immense forests of gigantie trees. The first set- tlers, however, had very little idea of preserving the native timber, and so large areas of woodland were ruthlessly de- stroyed to make room for the plow. These forests were of great value, only being realized in late years. The growth of Williams County, like that of most Northwestern Ohio counties, was very slow for many years, but in more recent times it has made splendid advancement. The population in 1900 was 24,953: Bryan, 3,131; West Unity, 897; Edon, 720; Pioneer, 603; Alvordton, 482; Edgerton, 1,043; Stryker, 1,206; Montpelier, 1,869.
LUCAS COUNTY .- Lueas, named in honor of Governor Robert Lucas of Ohio, was erected and organized under the act of January, 1835. The boundaries fixed were: Beginning at the front on Lake Erie where Fulton's line intersects it, thence west with said line to the Maumee River, thence south- westerly with said river to a point where a line drawn be- tween Townships 6 and 7 if drawn across the 12-mile square reservation would intersect it, thence due west with the said township line between Henry and Williams, thence north with said county line to the northern boundary of the State, called Harris' line, thence easterly with said line to Lake Erie, and thence with the lake to the place of beginning. This line was more clearly established by the aet of March 14, 1836. The surface of the county is level, a portion of it was originally swamp, and the northern part is sandy soil. The section of Lucas in the vicinity of Maumee is rich in historieal in- terest. Near Maumee, on August 20, 1794, was fought the battle of Fallen Timbers, in which General Anthony Wayne adminis- tered terrible punishment upon the Indians. Below Maumee is the site of Fort Miami, first a French and then a British strong- hold. Maumee was the first county seat, the court house standing where Colonel Dudley and over 300 brave Kentuckians were
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NAPOL CON FAART STORE
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SHOES
AL LOWRY
STREET VIEW AT NAPOLEON, HENRY COUNTY.
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BATTLE GROUNDS OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY
massacred in the war of 1812. Toledo at first was located at the site of Fort Industry, a stockade built in 1800 close to the Mau- mee River. Port Law- rence and Vistula were later settlements, but lost their identity. For many years the place was a struggling town, scattered along the river several miles from the bay, but through a checkered ca- reer it has finally emerged into a wonderful city, situ- ated on both sides of the river and extending its suburbs up the Maumee for ten miles, and reach- ing eastward, westward and southward by means of electric car lines until it bids fair to be one of the first cities that range the circle of the great lakes like diadems upon a royal crown. It is now the third city of the State in population. It is a great grain market, and as a lake port has un- equaled harbor facilities. Over 150 passenger trains daily arrive and depart from its depots. In 1900 the population of Lucas County was 153,559; Toledo, 131,822; Maumee, 1,856; Water- ville, 703; Whitehouse, 621; Sylvania, 617.
DEFIANCE COUNTY .- Defiance, after Fort Defiance, erected and named by General Anthony Wayne, was formed from territory taken from Williams, Henry and Paulding, and organ- ized by the act of March 4, 1845. The county is watered by the Auglaize, the Tiffin and the Maumee Rivers. Much of the county is Black Swamp land, as fertile as the valley of the Nile. It was covered at first by great forests of oak, hickory, ash, elm, and other trees, many of such gigantic size as to require great labor in clear-
LUCAS COUNTY COURT HOUSE, TOLEDO
ing them away. The lands now embraced within Defiance County were ceded by the Indians to the United States by the treaty of September 29, 1817, at the rapids of the Maumee. Surveys were made from the Indiana line east to the line of the Western Re- serve and east to the Greenville Treaty line. The base line of this survey is the forty-first degree of north latitude, and is also the southern line of the Connecticut Western Reserve. On the 12th of February, 1820, the Legislature of Ohio passed an act erect- ing these ceded lands, "into fourteen separate and distinct coun- ties." The nucleus of the early settlement of these counties was at Defiance, in what is now Defiance County. Defiance was at first the county seat of Williams County. Then Bryan was made the seat of justice for Williams, and a new county, Defiance, was set off. Defiance was laid out in 1822 by Benjamin Level and Horatio G. Phillips. It is on the site of a large Indian settlement which extended for miles up and down the Maumee River. It is in the center of the region drained by the Maumee, which consists of twelve counties in Ohio and parts of Michigan and Indiana. The name given to the place by the French in early times was Ang- laize. In the War of 1812 Fort Defiance was an im- portant point for the con- centration of troops under General William Henry Harrison, against the Brit- ish troops and the Indians on the frontier. In 1900 the population of Defiance County was 26,387; Defi- ance, 7.579: Hicksville, 2,520; Sherwood, 455.
ROBINWOOD AVENUE, TOLEDO.
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OLD FORT DEFIANCE BLOCK HOUSE.
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WOOD COUNTY .- Wood, named in honor of Colorel Wood, distinguished officer of the war of 1812, was organ- ized under the act of February 12, 1820. The surface is level, and was a part of the once terrible "Blaek Swamp," now rich, fertile and highly productive. The area is about 620 square miles, and its exports include all the agricultural pro- duets, oil and limestone. There are few counties in Ohio that ean show as great changes in the last 40, or even 25 years, as Wood. In its early history it was an almost un- broken forest, covering the Black Swamp, and with but few inhabitants. Now it is thickly settled by prosperous agri- eulturists, three-fourths of whom are within two and one- half miles of some line of railway, and the county has beeome one of the garden spots of Ohio. As in other counties, drain- age has been the great faetor in the progress made. One single diteh, the "Jaekson Cut-Off," drains 30,000 acres, and eost $110,000. It is stated that, counting the railway and public and private ditehes, there are in Wood County 16,000 miles of dítehes, consisting in the aggregate, millions of dollars. These formed the basis of the agrieultural pros- perity of the eounty in eonneetion with the natural riehness of the soil. In addition to this eame the discovery of gas and oil, the latter becoming a permanent souree of wealth- produeing power, which has plaeed the county ahead of many older communities in finaneial strength. Bowling Green, the county seat, is the eenter of the North Lima oil field, and as such, is a remarkably thriving business center. The
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