The County of Fulton: A History of Fulton County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships; Also a Biographical Department., Part 15

Author: Thomas Mikesell
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 717

USA > Ohio > Fulton County > The County of Fulton: A History of Fulton County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships; Also a Biographical Department. > Part 15

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The first school in German township was taught in the winter of 1839-40, by Samuel B. Darby. The first schoolhouse built in the township was on the State road, one-half mile west of Burling ton, and the pioneer teachers were, besides Mr. Darby, Milton Zouver, Harriet Schnall, Miss Baker, Miss Shipman, Mary Ann Prettyman, Miss Geesey, and Miss Darby. Wages of lady teach- ers at that period were all the way from one to two dollars per week and board; and for male teachers not less than twelve dol- lars per month and board. The township has at present fifteen sub-school districts, and one graded school for the village of Arch- bold.

Samantha Crandall taught the first school in the bounds of Franklin township, in the old cabin of Joseph Bates. She had to cross Bean Creek on a felled tree across the stream, evening and morning, and wade through swales and water to and from school. Her mother taught the next school.' Both of these ladies died about 1850. The time of Samantha Crandall's teaching was in the year 1836, and it was conducted as a private school for the neigh- boring families. This cabin stood on section 2, on what is now known as the Shilling farm, and afterwards, Miss Jane Brund- ridge taught school there. The second schoolhouse was also a log cabin and was erected by Samuel B. Darby, on the east bank of Bean Creek, near Darby's land, and the latter gentleman taught the first school there, in the winter of 1839. In 1842, a new frame schoolhouse was built on the same site. The Asher Ely school district was organized in 1845, and a hewed log cabin was built for the district. The first teacher was Augustus Porter. The Methodists and Presbyterians used this house for a long time as a place of worship. Franklin now has seven school districts and one joint school district, formed from German and Franklin. Sub- district No. 4 has the remarkable record of having produced over forty teachers, five doctors, three lawyers, three merchants, two jewelers, one minister, one professor, one editor, one portrait artist, one railroad conductor, one telegraph operator and one com- mercial traveler. This is a record, the equal of which few country schools can boast.

In November, 1837, the pioneers of Fulton township built a log schoolhouse in what was known as the Clark district. It was barren of desks, but Isaac Day, wishing his daughter to learn to

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write, put in a writing desk for her use. Gideon W. Raymond taught the first school in this house, in 1837, and afterwards taught the Ai school some four years. Joseph Babcock followed Mr. Raymond as a teacher in this district. He was a school teacher of the first class and took great pleasure in his school work. Samuel Durgin taught the Ai school for a number of years, and for a long time was county school examiner. The first schoolhouse built in Fulton township, however, was in 1836, on the southeast corner of the east half of the northeast quarter of section ten. It was built of logs, and was finished and furnished without taxing the land-all contributed. It was "chinked" and plastered with mud from the adjoining soil. It had a fire-place made of clay and sticks built up "cob house style," and cropping out just above the ridge of the roof, and plastered upon the inside with clay mortar. This formed a safe as well as a comfortable heating apparatus. The seats were made of logs about ten inches in diameter, and ten or twelve feet in length, and split into halves and hewed to smooth them upon the split side. They were then mounted, the split side up, on wooden logs of proper height for the pupils. For writing desks they bored holes into the logs about three feet from the floor, into which they drove pins, projecting in the room far enough to support a board or slab placed on the pins. For windows they would cut out one log the whole length of the building, and stop the opening with oiled paper. This would admit some light, and keep out the cold. Some were furnished with glass, 7 by 9, and when this schoolhouse was completed, with a good fire nearly the entire length of one end of the build- ing, it furnished a good and comfortable institution for training the young minds successfully in the elementary branches. Another schoolhouse, of the same character, was built the next winter as stated above, in the Clark neighborhood. Others of like descrip- tion were built as the township was settled. In 1842, the first frame schoolhouse was built by David Springer, at Ai, which was afterward moved across the street and remodeled for a dwelling. Another schoolhouse was soon after built in the Dodge, or Witt district, and they rapidly became numerous. Miss Julia Chamber- lain, with her sister (who became Mrs. Samuel Durgin) came to Fulton township in 1837, and taught the first school in a small, log schoolhouse, which stood where the present school building now stands, in the Ai district. The wages paid teachers from 1837 to 1850, was from twelve to fifteen dollars per month, and from one to two dollars per week allowed for female teachers boarding around among the families in the district. Miss Harriet O'Brien taught the first summer term in the Clark district, but being taken sick, Miss Huldah Merrill finished the term. Among the early teachers were Messrs. Reed, Luther Dodge, Miss Almeda Doughty, A. Sawyer, Samuel Durgin, G. W. Raymond, Miss Lucy Clough, Margaret Emery, Jonathan Woods, Joseph Babcock, Ezra

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EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Tunison, John Clendening, Miss Julia Chamberlain, Harriet O'Brien, Huldah Merrill and Miss Eleanor Johnson.

The first school taught in Pike township was in 1835, in an old log hut standing at a very early day upon the knob where the Salisbury cemetery is now located. It was afterwards removed to Thomas Silsby's corner, and Michael Handy taught there the first winter after he came to the county, in 1840. Caroline Trow- bridge taught the first school. The township now contains six school districts, supported by good buildings, and an advanced step in education has been taken in this township.

Soon after the organization of Dover township, in 1843, it was divided into two school districts, one at Spring Hill and the other at Ottokee. Soon after was organized another, called the Waid district, and next in order was a district in the northwestern part of the township; and still later, district No. 5, where all elections are held. The last district, No. 6, in the northeast part of the town- ship, was organized about 1864. By an act of the legislature of Ohio, in 1876, Spring Hill district was set apart as a special school district, and a fine brick schoolhouse was built, suitable for all needs. The first male teacher who taught in Dover, it is said, had his pupils spell United States, commencing Y-o-u, but the township was soon after fortunate in securing a better grade of teachers. A. J. Canfield, Rev. J. R. Hibbard, Mortimer D. Hibbard, Michael Handy, and Miss Amelia Hibbard (who became Mrs. Derwin Butler) and many others taught as good common schools as were generally found at that day. Wages for males, ten to thirteen dollars per month and board around, and for females, six to eight dollars and board around. This was paid by rate bills.

Fulton county now has in the township districts 108 school- houses for the elementary schools; in the separate districts 10 ele- mentary and three high, making a grand total of 121 school build- ings, with 164 rooms. The value of the school property in the township districts is $96,750; in the separate districts, $107,500; making an aggregate of $204,250. One hundred and sixty-eight teachers are employed, teaching thirty-four weeks in the town- ship schools and from thirty-four to thirty-six in the others, at salaries ranging from $30 to $68 per month. The enumeration of children of school age (between 6 and 21) is 6,490. The actual en- rollment of pupils is 79 per cent of the enumeration in the town- ship districts and 88 per cent in the separate districts. There are no high schools in the township districts, but there are nineteen in the separate districts. The average cost of tuition of the pupils enrolled is $8.32 in the elementary schools of the township dis- tricts, and $7.23 in the elementary and $19.38 in the high schools of the separate districts. The county received from the State, mainly from the common school fund, $13,431.54 for the support of education in 1904; from local taxation, $62,955.25; from the sale of bonds, $34,865.74; from all other sources, $3,162.48; making the total receipts but little less than $114,500, to which should be

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added a balance on hand, September 1, 1903, of $31,963.67, swell- ing the aggregate funds to $146,378.68. Out of this there was paid $38,888.11 to teachers in elementary schools, and $9,122.65 to teachers in high schools; $450 for supervision, $1,127.80 on build- ings and grounds, $7,058.40 on bonds and interest, and $22,540.99 for all other purposes, making an aggregate expenditure of $79,- 187.95. On September 1, 1904, the close of the fiscal year, the bal- ance on hand was $67,190.73.

In the county there are the village and special districts of Arch- bold, C. G. Mueller, superintendent, and school property valued at $20,550, annual expenditures, $5,390.38; Delta, G. R. Anderson, superintendent, property valued at $35,000, annual expenditures, $6,852.44; Fayette, G. J. Tripp, superintendent, property valued at $8,000, annual expenditures, $3,660.82; Lyons, E. F. Watkins, su- perintendent, property valued at $3,500, annual expenditures, $1,- 494-52; Swanton, C. O. Castle, superintendent, property valued at $4,000, annual expenditures, $8,902.90; and Wauseon, C. J. Biery, superintendent, property valued at $25,000, annual expenditures, $10,170.96.

The county examiners of teachers are C. J. Biery, C. O. Castle and W. H. Murphy. The teachers have a county institute annually, and two additional county meetings.

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CHAPTER X

BENCH AND BAR

T HE establishment of courts of justice and the installation of the necessary officials were naturally the first work at- tending the organization of Fulton county. Under the old Constitution of 1802, which was in vogue at the time of the organization, the Supreme Court had jurisdiction, both original and appellate, and, auxiliary to it, was the Court of Com- mon Pleas. On the adoption of the present Constitution, March 10, 1851, the District, Common Pleas and county Probate Courts assumed jurisdiction.

During the period of the old Constitution, the plan of having three citizens act as associate judges-theoretically supporting the legal subtleties of the president judge with their native shrewdness and knowledge of human nature-was continuously in operation. The associate judges in the Fulton county Common Pleas court, in its short existence under the old regime, were John Kendall, Alfred C. Hough, Socrates H. Cately and William E. Parmalee.

Under the Constitution of 1802, the State was divided into three circuits, for each of which the legislature elected a President Judge; and the associate judges, sitting with him, constituted the Court of Common Pleas. The districts were changed from year to year and increased in number, and when Fulton county was or- ganized, in 1850, it became a part of the Thirteenth Circuit, which included several counties in Northwestern Ohio. Having given a list of names of those who served as associate judges for Fulton county under the old Constitution, it may here be mentioned that the first and only circuit judge who presided in Fulton county, prior to the adoption of the new Constitution, was Judge John H. Palmer of Paulding county. In accordance with the provisions of the creative act, to which reference has been made in a former chapter, the first term of the Court of Common Pleas held in Ful- ton county, was held in Pike township at the house of Robert How- ard, who kept an old-fashioned inn or tavern. It being the pur- pose of this chapter, as its heading imports, to sketch the character and career of the respective members of the Fulton bench and bar, no description will be attempted of this first session of court. Be- sides, it would be futile to do so, as all official records were lost in the fire that consumed the court house at Ottokee, in 1864.

The Supreme Court had its origin in the Constitution of 1802, which provided for three members, with permission to the legisla- ture to add another. This court was required to meet once a year in

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each county, a regulation that would be preposterous in 1905; but in 1802, with a few widely scattered counties, that was obviously the most convenient way of serving the people and the ends of justice. Until 1851, this custom of an annual session of the Su- preme Court continued, but it is doubtful if any were ever held in Fulton county. This Supreme Court had both original and ap- pellate jurisdiction and important criminal cases were usually tried before it. Thus, until 1851, the supreme judges were peripatetic. holding court in all the counties.

The Constitution adopted in 1851 provided for a Supreme Court, such as the people are now familiar with, its duties con- fined to hearing appeals from lower courts. The State was di- vided into nine common pleas districts, and associate judges were abolished. Each district was subdivided into three parts, in each of which the people should elect a judge of the court of common pleas. Thus there were at least three common pleas judges to each of the nine districts. One or more of the judges held a com- mon pleas court in each county, and the three judges of the dis- trict together constituted a district court, that succeeded to the functions of the old supreme court in their respective counties, and the new common pleas court succeeded to the old common pleas court, except in probate jurisdiction, for which probate judges were provided, to be elected one in each county. Under this new system Fulton county was a part of the second subdivision of the Third circuit, but only about half of the time has it continued in that classification. But the subdivision, at first composed of Mer- cer, Van Wert, Putnam, Paulding, Defiance, Williams, Henry and Fulton, now includes Defiance, Fulton, Paulding, Van Wert and Williams.

The first three judges of the Third district, beginning in Feb- ruary, 1852, were Lawrence Hall, Benjamin F. Metcalf and John H. Palmer. Judge Palmer was succeeded in 1857 by Alexander S. Latty of Defiance. The latter was re-elected in 1861, and again in 1866 and 1871, the subdivision at this time, under the act of 1868, being composed of the counties of Paulding, Defiance, Williams, Fulton and Henry. Judge Latty retired from the bench in 1877, after a career, which in length of service has no equal in North- western Ohio. He was succeeded by Selwyn N. Owen of Bryan.

The General Assembly of Ohio, in January, 1879, changed the sub- divisions of the Third Judicial District by making the counties of Fulton, Henry and Putnam the Third sub-division. This change necessitated the election of a judge for these counties and John J. Moore of Ottawa, was elevated to that position. He officiated as Common Pleas Judge until the fall of 1884, when he was elected to the bench of the Circuit Court, and William H. Handy suc- ceeded him on the Common Pleas bench.

William Henry Handy was born in Pike township, Fulton county, January 29, 1847. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in Company H, of the Eighty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and

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BENCH AND BAR

served with that regiment until February 10, 1864, when he was discharged. On April 15, following, he re-enlisted in Company H, of the Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served through the remainder of the war, being mustered out of service and dis- charged on September 1, 1865. On returning home he entered the office of his father as a student of law, where he remained some time, and afterward further prosecuted his studies in the office of Judge Lemmon, of Toledo. At that city, in the year 1868, he was admitted to the bar, and immediately commenced practice at Otto- kee, then the county seat of Fulton county, being associated with his father. This relation was maintained until January 1, 1875, when he retired from the firm to assume control, as editor and publisher, of the Democratic Expositor. To Mr. Handy's manage- ment is credited that paper's early success, and to his leaders in its editorial columns was also due the credit of having brought about a more perfect party organization in the county. After two and one-half years in the editor's sanctum Mr. Handy sold the paper and resumed the practice of his profession, which he continued up to the time of his advancement to the common pleas bench in February, 1885. At a meeting of the delegates to the Democratic judicial convention of the Third sub-division of the Third judicial district, on January 27, 1885, he was made the nominee of that body for the office of common pleas judge, and two days later he was appointed by Governor Hoadley to the office for which he had just been nominated, and entered upon the discharge of his duties on the 7th day of February. In October following he was elected for the unexpired term of Judge Moore, there being no candidate nomi- nated to oppose him. He was re-elected in 1888 and served until 1894, when he was succeeded by John M. Sheets of Ottawa.

At the October election, in 1893, John M. Sheets of Ottawa, was clected to succeed Judge Handy. In 1898, he was again a candi- date for the position, but was defeated by Michael Donnelly of Napoleon, who was re-elected in 1903, and is the present incum- bent. The legislature of 1904 changed the sub-divisions of this judicial district, adding the counties of Fulton and Van Wert to Defiance, Paulding and Williams, and also increased the number of judges to three in the new sub-division. At the election of 1904, Edward S. Matthias of Van Wert, and John M. Killits of 'Bryan, were the successful candidates for the newly-created judgeships, and with William H. Hubbard of Defiance, constitute the judi- ciary of this sub-division.

In 1852, an act of the legislature divided the State into five cir- cuits for the district court, and a judge of the Supreme Court was required to preside, and the district court was made a court of ap- peals from the common pleas court. This practice continued until the supreme judges were relieved of this duty, in 1865, after which the common pleas judges of the district, sitting as a district court, were authorized to consider appeals from their own judgments. This undesirable condition of things was removed in 1883, by the.

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adoption of an amendment to the constitution, authorizing the creation of a circuit court, and abolishing the district court, but leaving the common pleas judges and courts undisturbed. Three circuit judges were chosen at the next election in each circuit, and Fulton county was included in the Sixth circuit.

PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS.

Following is a list of those who have held the office of Prosecut- ing Attorney in Fulton county, and which in some cases has been the beginning of a distinguished career in the law: J. H. Read; 1852, Michael Handy; A. Carmichael; N. Merrill; 1858, M. R. Brai- ley; 1862, J. W. Roseborough; 1866, Octavius Waters; 1872, W. W. Touvelle; 1874, Michael Handy ; 1876, H. H. Ham ; 1880, W. H. Gavitt ; 1885, Mazzini Slusser; 1891, John Q. Files; 1897, William H. Fuller ; 1902, Clive C. Handy.

Some of these names are mentioned biographically in other chapters. Michael Handy was one of the most prominent leaders of the Fulton county bar for upwards of thirty years. He was not to the "manor born," however, but came to Lucas county, Ohio, from New York, his native State, in 1840, having previously seen considerable of the world, both in the States and in Canada. He began active life as a school teacher and farmer, having previous to his admission to the bar, in 1850, at the mature age of forty years, taught school in many districts in Fulton county, and redeemed a farm therein from the wilderness. He was a robust, many-sided man, with natural endowments both mental and physical, and of splendid vigor and activity. He was Fulton county's second prose- cuting attorney, succeeding John H. Read in that office, in 1852, two years after his admission to the bar. He died in 1886, full of years and honors honestly won and maintained. For many years he was associated with his son, Hon. William H. Handy, after- wards judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in law practice, and was a foeman well worthy the steel of the ablest lawyers of North- western Ohio. As a jury lawyer he was especially strong; for being a man of the people he knew them, their excellences, their weaknesses, their prejudices. Upon his professional name or his reputation as a citizen, there never was blown the breath of dis- honorable suspicion or accusation.

Moses R. Brailey was a native of the State of New York, and was born in Ontario county, that State, November 2, 1816. In 1837, having just attained his majority, he started .to seek his for- tune in the West, as Ohio was then called, and located in the same year in Huron county. He had been in Ohio but a short time when he began to take an active part in local politics, and his attention was thereby directed to the legal profession as a means, among other objects, of securing prominence and influence. Being en- couraged by his neighbors, who had begun to appreciate his tal- ents and energy, and having received in his boyhood, in New York, the rudiments of a sound English education, which had been sup-

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plemented by considerable reading and close observation of human nature, he concluded to study law. In 1840, he entered the office of Stone & Kellogg, a leading firm at Norwalk, the county seat of Huron county, and after two years of close application, was ad- mitted to the bar in 1842, and at once opened an office in Norwalk. Devoting himself assiduously to his profession, he soon secured a living business, and in 1852 was elected prosecuting attorney of that county, the duties of which he discharged with excellent suc- cess. Having real estate interests of considerable value and prom- ise in the then new county of Fulton, in 1857 he removed to that county, and, opening a law office, in 1858 he was elected prosecut- ing attorney, and was again elevated thereto in 1860, acquiring also a large civil business in the meantime. Immediately on the first call of President Lincoln for troops to defend the government, on April 17, 1861, Mr. Brailey enlisted as a private in a company which was recruited for, and expected to become, a part of the historic Fourteenth Ohio Volunteers, the first colonel of which was the gallant James B. Steedman. For some reason, known best to the military authorities of the State, the company was disbanded in June, 1861, without being sent to the field of active military operations. On August 13, 1861, Mr. Brailey again enlisted in the Union army, and was commissioned captain of Company I, in the Thirty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and on January 1, 1862, was promoted to be major of the regiment. In March of the same year, by reason of ill health, he was compelled to resign; but de- voting all his time and energies to the cause of his country, as soon as his health had been somewhat restored, Major Brailey set about the work of recruiting under the authority of the adjutant-general of the State, and in June, 1862, had raised a company for the Eighty- fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was assigned to the duty of guarding Confederate prisoners at Camp Chase. In this regiment he held the commission of a captain, but was transferred therefrom in August of the same year, to the One Hundred and Eleventh Regiment of Ohio Infantry, with the rank of major, and com- manded that regiment in the field until the winter following. In January, 1863, Major Brailey was promoted to the lieutenant- colonelcy of his regiment, and on the report of the Board of Army Surgeons attached to the military department of the Southwest, in January, 1864, he was discharged for disability, having just pre- viously, for meritorious service, been brevetted brigadier general. Immediately thereafter he was appointed pay agent for the State of Ohio, with headquarters at Columbus, and collected and dis- bursed over four millions of the money of Ohio soldiers, losing · not a cent. In addition to his other duties, while acting as pay agent, General Brailey assisted in the organization and equipment of eleven regiments of Ohio troops, for the field. At the State election, in 1865, the people of Ohio further rewarded the efforts of General Brailey, in behalf of his country, by electing him Comp- troller of the State treasury, to which position he was again elected

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The County of Fulton: A History of Fulton County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships; Also a Biographical Department., Part 15

Author: Thomas Mikesell Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Number of Pages: 717

Author: Thomas Mikesell
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 717