A STANDARD HISTORY
OF
ALLEN COUNTY, OHIO
An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention to the
Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Educational
Civic and Social Development
Prepared under the Editorial Supervision of
WM. RUSLER
ASSISTED BY ABOARD OF ADVISORY EDITORS
VOLUME I & II
ILLUSTRATED
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1921
ALLEN COUNTY COURTHOUSE, LIMA, OHIO
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FOREWORD
When in the course of human events it becomes the privilege and duty of a community to tabulate its centennial record, the matter of co-operation is a prime necessity.
Just as Allen County is passing its first centenary the spirit of co-operation and reconstruction is claiming the attention of the whole word. Never before in the history of the world has it been in such unsettled; chaotic condition.
While the Ft. Amanda episode connected with the War of 1812 was in advance of the organization of Allen County, and while some would say there is no local history aside from the traditions clustering about it, their attention is hereby called to some of the phenomenal advances in local civilization.
There have been rapid strides in agriculture, manufacturing and commercial developments within the 100 years since Allen County has had its name and outline ; it passed its centenary February 12, 1920, and the record of the last fifty years is an easier matter than tabulating the events of the first half century. The pioneers were not addicted to the habit of writing down the news of the community.
In his editorial announcement concerning "A Standard History of Allen County," the Hon. William Rusler as supervising editor, says : "As editor, my task will be to direct the collection of all historical material that should find a permanent place in the records of Allen County and to insure as far as possible an impartial and accurate treatment of this material, according to the outline herein proposed," the foregoing statement appearing in the prospectus shown subscribers to the Allen County History.
In order that the local editorship might be of the most representative character, the following named persons were invited to act in the capacity of advisory editors : Senator Stephen D. Crites, Elida ; Mayor Frank A. Burkhardt, Harold Cunningham and Mrs. James Pillars, Lima ; N. W. Cunningham, Bluffton ; Judge John F. Lindemann, Delphos ; Paul W. Cochrun, Spencerville, and B. F. Cotner, Lafayette.
The introductory chapters dealing with general conditions in the early history of Northwestern Ohio are written by Nevin O. Winter, Allen County proper beginning with the chapter : In the Lap of a Century. The preliminary chapters are the foundation for it.
Mr. Rusler is frequently designated as "The Sage of Shawnee" because of his familiarity with Allen, County development ; the board of advisory editors have all responded with information relative to inquiries and the publisher's representative, in assembling historical data, also begs to acknowledge unfailing courtesies shown him by Lehr E. Miller, E. C. Ackerman, D. H. Tolan, Elmer McClain, Ezekiel Owen, H. E. Simonton, John C. Mack, F. E. Harmon and Dr. George Hall. When they have not had definite knowledge about a matter they have all put into operation processes that speedily developed the desired information.
Mr. Rusler has been "instant in season and out of season" in his response to telephone inquiry and, since Suburban 3213 is a party line, other patrons sometimes demanded the wire in the midst of an interview ; when some new question presented itself, Mr. Rusler was always asked for his version and usually he knew the whole story.
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iv - FOREWORD
The gleaner in the fields of Allen County history—the waysides flanked with much firsthand information-had access to all previous publications elsewhere listed ; to the D. D. Nicholas Welsh Settlement manuscript ; to the many papers written for and read before the Allen County Historical and Archaeological Society, and to scrap books, year books and newspapers. They are all reliable sources of information.
For a dozen years the Allen County Historical Society has been taking note of passing events from which the gleaner has profited, the data thus gained having been filed by men and women having a life-long acquaintance, many of the observations coming under their personal knowledge. However, facts have been obtained from so many sources that to pin-tag all of them, to credit every whit of tabulated information would be an utter impossibility.
Like the statistician, an historian does not need to possess an imagination since he must deal with facts as he finds them ; however, papers prepared and read before the Historical Society have furnished most of the information. While folklore may not be accepted as history, one who knows local conditions always has an inner knowledge of things.
The folklorist is able to associate events and deduct further facts, but these words from one of the Historical Society writers : "So let us here in this beautiful memorial hall—so lasting a tribute to soldier and pioneer on the very heart of the old life—set down what we can of the story ; let us pile up our array of facts and relics for reference when that man comes who shall have skill and soul to properly gather it all up ; for one who adds to the lessons of life is like one who plants a tree that will be blooming when he is sleeping," and the suggestion is like a fragrant wayside blossom for the gleaner in the Allen County fields of general information.
While some who have aided materially in assembling historic data are not Methuselahs by a few hundred years, they have been men and women with a comprehensive understanding of things ; in most instances facts have been verified with little difficulty.
The present day event-something that has just happened—is much easier tabulated than hazy facts already shrouded in uncertainty ; where definite conclusions have not been reached—where facts have not been substantiated beyond the shadow of a doubt, corroborated statements have been used ; where two or three have been agreed as to major questions, minor differences have been allowed to adjust themselves.
Some one has remarked that when an aged man with an unimpaired memory dies, it is like burning a book from the library, and while many unwritten chapters in Allen County history already have been consigned to oblivion—buried with the pioneers who developed the country—one is often surprised at the stored-up fund of information possessed by the succeeding generations. Folklore—word of mouth from father to son, mother to daughter—traditions of the family, are a reliable source of information.
While it is not a life of entire self-abnegation—this habit of chronicling the events of the past, sometimes in the waking hours of darkness one asks himself the question "Is it worth the candle ?" One whose whole life has been spent in any given community cannot be cosmopolitan in his conception of things—is always somewhat circumscribed by his "two by twice" experiences, but not every missionary goes abroad to serve his day and generation. "In the multitude of counsellors there is safety" and one need not dwell in the long ago in order to write about the past in any community.
FOREWORD - v
There is always someone who knows, or who has laid away a newspaper, and the gleaner in quest of information seems unerringly guided ; while sometimes middle-aged persons have forgotten half of the things they once knew, they defer to those older than themselves who seemingly have forgotten all—no, many times no, their minds are clear about the things of yesterday, although some of them take little note of the happenings of today ; frequently they have such floods of memories that one hears things about which he had not sought information.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich says :
"My mind lets go a thousand things
Like dates of wars and deaths of kings,
And yet recalls the very hour _____”
and the difficulty in this summary of the affairs of Allen County is to marshal one's mental battalions in such precision that they may bear at once on all quarters of the field, but since "fools rush in where angels fear to tread" there are always venturesome spirits who undertake such tasks. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe says :
"He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat,"
and in these stirring twentieth century days the second century citizen of Allen County understands all about it.
Lord Byron once said : " 'Tis strange but true ; truth is always strange ; stranger than fiction," and while a great deal of fiction may be written about one single fact, where there is a local historical society interested in assembling them, facts are not such elusive characters after all. History is an array of facts—not sentiment ; and the conscientious historian handles conditions as he finds them.
A forecast of the future depends upon a knowledge of the past. The reason aged people talk of the grand characters of the long ago is because good men and women lived in the past ; they were not acquainted with the lures and pitfalls of modern society :
"Yes, it is a trait of Aged Men
To talk about 'Away Back When,' "
and the gleaner in the fields of local information appreciates them.
While fiction may be a rivulet of text leading from the noisy haunts of the world, "far from the madding crowd," winding along through pleasant old literary gardens redolent with the choicest of intellectual blossoms, history may at least be the log across the stream that catches some of the drift of the ages ; it has been the province of all concerned to dislodge some of the accumulated debris, and send it adrift again down the river—the River of Time.
-THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
VOLUMES - i - CONTENTS