200 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY his wife Catherine (Hay) came from Holmes county, Ohio. Henry died in 1874, aged seventy-four years; his wife dying four years after they settled in Clinton Township. Their son, Emanuel, eventually served the nation during the Civil War, and another son, Jacob, was a prosperous farmer near Pettisville. John O. Ensign settled on section 37, in 1839. .Ultimately he disposed of his land to Naaman Merrill, and went "onto the river, below Waterville" to live. Another temporary settler was John Dowell, who is believed not to have been even distantly related to Isaac Dowell. John Dowell settled on the south-west corner of section 3,2, in 1839. After living there for a year or so, he was taken to Columbus, to answer a criminal indictment, and did not again return to Fulton county. Cyrus Coy had a blacksmith shop, on what was later known as the Judge Brown Farm, as early as 1839. And in about the same year, or earlier, Thomas Mikesell, Sr., had a smithy on the farm where later Daniel Clingaman lived. James Cornell eventually bought the Coy land, after which Cyrus moved a little to the Southwest. William Jones was later familiarly known as "Long Bill" Jones. He was one of the pioneer school teachers. Horace Pease was supposed to have settled prior to the first election, in I838, but one record states that he did not come until 1842. Elias Willey, son of S. B., was born in Clinton Township on February 23, 1840, and became a veteran of the famous Sixty-Seventh Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the war. He died in 1914, having for almost forty years been a teamster in Wauseon. Thee G. A. R. post attended his funeral in a body. John and Sarah Lillich raised a family of nine children, seven of whom were daughters. One, Mrs. Ellen Lillich Crew, who died in 1916, lived many years in Wauseon, and was an active member of Losure Woman’s Relief Corps. James and Margaret (Bayes) Cornell came to Clinton Township in 1837, from Wayne county, Ohio. They were formerly, from New Jersey, where James was born in 1804. He died in 1880, twenty years after the demise of his wife, who was born in Pennsylvania. They had seven children, most of whom had prominent part in the development of Fulton county. Of their children, Charles W., is still alive and remarkably alert, mentally, notwithstanding that he is eighty-six years old. He was a veteran of the Civil War, and is the oldest resident of Clinton Township, and, in length of residence, of the county, also, probably. Relating his experiences, when they first came into the territory he said: "What a journey it was from Tuscarawas county, through dense forests, fording streams, dodging swamps, meeting Indians, and at all times fighting malaria and fever.. The entire distance was made by wagon, and took days of travel ....... Where Wauseon now stands was one dense woods, with giant trees towering toward the sky, broken here and there by some pond.' On the hill just south of the H. H. Williams mill was an Indian village and many a time have I played with the young Indians. It was in 1843 that the Indians left this part of the county, and a sad day it was for them to say good-bye to their old hunting ground. "When we came to what is now Fulton county (in 1837) but three HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 201 white families lived in Clinton Township. They were : Elisha Williams, who owned a part of the section where my father located; Isaac Tedrow, who owned what is now the George Drennan Farm, northwest of Wauseon ; and John Losure, who owned the Isaac Bayes Farm. In York Township lived Avery Lamb, one mile east of Wauseon, William Jones, at Emmerlings Corners; while William Fowler, Gilman Cheadle and Moses Wright were other settlers. In the fall of 1837 there was an influx of people. The Mikesell, Bayes, and Huntington families came and settled near what is now Wauseon, while John Knapp and John Markley located near West Barre." Another worthy son of James Cornell was Jonathan C., four years the senior of Charles W. He served two terms as commissioner of Fulton county. He built the first grist mill in Wauseon, the flowing mill having a capacity of one hundred barrels a day. The other son, Thomas J., became a very enterprising and successful farmer in the county, well-known as a breeder of Clydesdale and Norman horses. In 1848, Elisha Williams built the first brick house constructed in the township. He made the brick himself from suitable clay deposits on his own land. And although George Mikesell, Sr., in 1838 erected a small kiln, large enough to meet the requirements of brick for his log-house chimney, and Shipman Losure, who came into the township in 1839, also began to make brick in 1840 or 1841, the industry was not carried on extensively until Elisha Williams made a large kiln, for his own purposes, in 1848. It seems rather singular that the pioneer of the township should, many years after it had become well settled, move on to other unsettled country, in another state, and leave all his friends of pioneer days, and almost all his children. That is what Elisha Williams did. He and his wife went further west, to unsettled parts, much after middle age had come to them. Elisha Williams died in October of 1864, aged sixty-six years, and his wife also died at about that time. Five of their sons and one daughter remained in Clinton Township. The daughter, Lucinda, was married to Thomas Lingle, by her father, who was a justice of the peace on January 7 , 1838. That 202 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY was the first marriage ceremony performed in the township; as a matter of fact, it took place before the formal organization of the township, and Elisha Williams must have held his office under the former administration. It has been stated by two historians that Thomas Bayes was the first justice of the peace of Clinton Township ; maybe he succeeded Elisha Williams, as justice, after the township had been organized: Unfortunately it is not possible to verify, as the township records have been destroyed. The lot of the pioneer settler was not altogether an unpleasant one. If they were able to "tide over" the first year or two they were generally able to work along happily to ever-increasing comfort. One of the settlers in Clinton Township stated: "After the first two or three years of hardship for the advance guard in this wilderness there commenced a rapid influx of settlers, to whom vantage ground was given by. the assistance of the first dwellers, who were always exceedingly hospitable and generous. The latch string of the pioneer,s cabin was always out; and always a out of venison, or a drum stick of wild turkey, and for dessert a nice Johnny cake, and possibly honey, was found in the larder of the good housewife for the weary and tired hunter. The more recent pioneers soon became used to the life of the frontiersman. They soon developed the push and energy which made up the intellectual fabric of the township. They were such men as Jacob, Mathias, and John Miley, John Gerringer, John Scott, Sr. Ebenezer Clark, John McBayes, Isaac Dowd, Alonzo Pike, William Harrison, Meek Bayes, Jesse and Israel Pocock, and many others." And there is not one instance recorded of a hardworking settler failing to make for himself, eventually, a comfortable home out of the wilderness and swamp, which once constituted all that there was of Fulton county. They had little money, but they needed little. So much could be obtained from the bounties of wild life—from the bounties of God. Among those who settled in Clinton Township from 1838 to 1850 were: Joseph Wells, Jacob First, John Newcomer, Ebenezer Clark, Jacob Funk, James Pease, John Conrad Hartman Jacob and Mathias Miley, L. T. Morris, James Dunbar, Shipman Losure, John Linfoot, William Harrison, David Gorsuch, Nathaniel Gorsuch, William Hill, David Cantlebury, Eli Pocock and Jonas Batdorf. There were doubtless many others and just as worthy pioneers, but their records are not available at this writing. William Fraker, who eventually took up land on section 18 of Clinton Township, came to Fulton county in 1835, but lived at first in York Township. Joseph Wells came in 1838; Jacob First came in 1841, or 1842, probably in the latter year, for "soon after he came" he married Lucinda, daughter of Smith and Orlinda Geer, who settled in 1840. They were married in 1842. In the early forties, John Conrad Hartman came in from Richmond, Virginia, via Maumee. He bought a tract of land almost on the line of Dover Township, but in Clinton. In 1852 he traded that farm to Jefferson Case, for eighty acres, situated about two miles west of Wauseon. Charles Hartman now lives on the property. More regarding the family will be found in the second volume of this work. HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 203 Another Hartman family came and settled in Clinton Township in the forties. The family was headed by John Hartman, Sr., a worthy pioneer. He was born in 1800 and died in 1850. His wife, Catherine Winters, died in 1865. Both came from Wurtemburg, Germany, to America in 1831, settling in Fairfield county, Ohio. With their children, they came to Clinton Township, and took land near where Wauseon eventually was platted. They had eleven. children: Of the latter, Jacob became a Civil War soldier, and John, Jr., in 1853 bought the farm of ninety-five acres, near Wauseon, upon which he lived until his death in 1905. He paid $250 for the ninety-five acres, worth probably almost that much for one acre in this day. Such has been the value carved, or more literally hewn, out of the wilderness by the axe of the pioneer. Ebenezer Clark, and his wife, Mary Dye, settled in Clinton Township in 1841, coming from Holmes county, Ohio. They settled on an eighty-acre tract, for which Ebenezer paid $200. They also had eleven children, most of whom were born in Fulton county. Their son, John A. was born in 1829. He married Elizabeth Krontz in 1.854, and became a very progressive and successful farmer in Clinton Township. He died in 1890. Jacob Funk and his wife, Rachel, came in 1843. They were both pioneer members of the Church of Christ denomination in Clinton Township, and both were charter members of the Wauseon First Christian Church, founded in 1862. Rachel Funk died in 1898. Festus Funk, born in 1854, died in Wauseon in 1917, honored as a veteran of the Civil War, and a worthy member of the Wauseon church. One of the daughters of Jacob Funk married Elder L. L. Carpenter, one of the pioneer preachers of that church in Fulton county, and also prominent in county affairs. John Newcomer and family came in 1844, and settled upon land which later, as Newcomer’s Addition, came within the boundaries of the village of Wauseon. The Newcomers were typical pioneers. John, son of Jacob, and grandson of Ulrich, was born in 180't, states the family genealogy. He married Naomi Debolt in 1831; moved to Holmes county, Ohio, in 1837; and in 1844 moved "to the unsettled regions of Western Ohio, and settled in what was then Lucas, but now is Fulton county, and carved out a home from the forests where afterwards was located the town of Wauseon." He died in Wauseon fifty-six years later, and an obituary gives the following information: "In the early spring of 1844 he came west, purchased 160 acres of wild land where now (1890) is embraced Newcomer’s Addition to Wauseon, and the Northwestern Fair Grounds, and before returning to his eastern home let a contract to clear off three acres of ground across the street and in front of his late residence. In May, 1844, he loaded up a wagon with household effects, and left Holmes county for the new home in the west. The cavalcade consisted of : a covered wagon, drawn by two horses ; one extra saddle horse ; two cows; two or three head of young heifers ; eight or ten head of sheep ; father, mother, four children (one a babe of four weeks) and three other people. The trip was made in nine days." George D. Newcomer, who is still living in Wauseon, was the babe of four weeks of that trip. He says that his mother rode their saddle horse, and presumably carried him also. The eldest of the four children was Solomon, then 204 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY twelve years old. The two elder boys and their sister made the journey on foot driving the cattle and sheep. The obituary of John Newcomer continues: "The day after that on which they landed at the William Bayes homestead, Father Newcomer and his two boys, armed with axes, grubbing hoes, and strong will, blazed a way through the wood.... and in two days a quarter of an acre was cleared off. In less than three weeks a cabin, with puncheon floor,, was ready for occupancy." John Newcomers first log cabin was of round logs, but later he built a large hewn-log house, of two floors. That house was a stopping place for travellers. George D. Newcomer says that when the railroad was being built in 1853-54, they often had forty or fifty boarders, all of whom would sleep in the one large upstairs room, sleeping on the floor, and arranging themselves as well as they could around the room, "feet to the center." The small log house was then used as a dining room. The cooking was all done on a spit, before an old-fashioned fireplace. John Newcomer had good part in the development of Clinton Township and of Wauseon. He held several local offices, and for nine years was a justice of the peace. "He took a leading part in the erection of the church (Methodist Episcopal) at Wauseon" and was "the first Mason made by Wauseon Lodge, on its organization, 1864." The golden anniversary of the wedding of John and Naomi Newcomer was held in 1881, and on that day 175 friends, most of whom were prominent residents of Fulton county, called to pay "their respects to Uncle John and his bride of fifty years ago." Mrs. Newcomer died five years later, aged seventy-two years, having lived long enough to see a remarkable change take place HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 205 in the locality to which they had come in 1844. Of their children, Solomon went into Nebraska in 1856, and in the next fifty years only visited Wauseon twice, once to attend his parents, golden wedding celebration in 1881, and the last time in 1912. He died in Wauseon on this second visit. His life had been an adventurous one, "gold prospecting, and fighting Indians, carrying United States mails, on snowshoes over mountains and barren wastes. In his last years he lived in Idaho. Anna, or Hester Ann, was born in Clinton Township on February 28, 1846, and was, it seems the first white child born in what now is within the corporate limits of Wauseon. She married Wesley A. Blake, and in the marital state lived almost fifty years, her death occurring in 1913, just three weeks short of what would have been the time of their golden wedding celebration. She was a stanch Methodist, like her mother, and was an ardent church worker. George D., the only surviving child of John and. Naomi Newcomer still lives in Wauseon, much respected. His life-record has been good. He enlisted in the spring of 1862, and was discharged at the end of the war, his service including a brief term as a Confederate prisoner. During his life, George D. Newcomer has taken useful part in Wauseon and county affairs; he was trustee of the township for six years, and for three terms was a commissioner of Fulton county.   James Dunbar, born in Connecticut in 1817, came from Erie county, Ohio. where he was married in 1841 to Mary Ann Gleason, and settled in Clinton Township in 1844. He became one of the substantial residents of the township, and lived in it for fifty-six years, death coming in 1900. His wife died in 1892.   David and Nathaniel Gorsuch came in 1848, from Wayne county, Ohio. Nathaniel, probably David also, settled on section 17. Nathan Gorsuch settled on section 15, in 1854, coming with his wife, Elizabeth Ayers, and their children, in that year from Wayne county, Ohio. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, and he died on section 16 of Clinton Township, March 3, 1886. His wife died in 1872. They were the parents of fourteen children. One of their sons, Mordecai, died in a Confederate prison during the Civil War. Another son, Ephraim, developed a fine property near the village of Wauseon. He died in 1918, aged eighty-three years. In the early days of their settlement, they were wont to utilize their team of oxen behind which to drive to church. He and his wife, Maria Cantleberry, were prominent members of the Christian Church.   Eli Pocock and his wife, Catherine Kennestrick came with their children, from Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1842, and settled on the northeast quarter of section 26, paying therefor $3.00 an acre. Mrs. Pocock died in 1849, and Eli in 1865, being then sixty-nine years old. They had twelve children, three of whom served in the Civil War. Jesse, born in 1829, bought eighty acres of forest land in the township in 1850, paying $3.00 an acre. He developed a fine homestead.   Anthony B. Robinson did not come into Fulton county until 1862, but he soon became prominent among the early residents. He was born in Wayne county, Ohio, and well educated, for academic, .or engineering professions. He taught school for twenty-eight terms. and "took rank with the best teachers in the country." He farmed as well as taught, and after coming to Fulton county seems to have devoted most of his time to farming, and to county affairs. He owned nearly   206 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.   300 acres of land, and served as county surveyor from 1872 until 1884; and for eighteen years was a justice of the peace. He died in 1898, at his residence, one mile west of Wauseon, aged 73 years.   John Miley with his wife, Elizabeth Peterson, came from Holmes county, in 1847 ; he died in 1892, and his wife in 1903. Others of the Miley family, were : Rachel, who married James Wells ; Jacob , Matthias, who died in 1905 ; George, of reference in Dover Township chanter ; Jesse, who died in Illinois. Of John Miley's children, Henry went into Swan Creek Township ; Thomas developed a good farm in Clinton Township, after the Civil War service; William C. had a farm west of Wauseon ; Jacob M. moved into Wauseon. Much will be told elsewhere about the Miley family, a name much encountered in historical records of Fulton county.   Henry Scott, settled in Clinton Township, in 1847, paying $245 for eighty acres. He came with his wife, Hannah Graham from Holmes county. She died in 1850.   Many of the Clinton Township pioneers will be referred to in the second volume of this work, and this chapter must now deal more with the general narrative. The first birth in the township was that of a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Elisha Williams, on October 12, 1836. The boy, Charles G., died in 1837, his death being the first that occurred in the township. He was buried in York Township. The first burial in Clinton Township was in 1838, when the body of Ebenezer Keiser was interred, "on the south line of section 24, on the bank of Turkey Foot Creek, on the Avery Lamb Farm, about a half-mile east of Wauseon." No monument marks the spot.   The first resident physician was Dr. D. W. Hollister. Rufus Briggs said, regarding Dr. Hollister:   "The early history of the township would be incomplete without naming the first resident physician. In 1851, or about two and one-half years before the first railroad, which is now known as the Lake Shore was built through the township, Dr. D. W. Hollister located in Wauseon. Doctor Hollister was a most welcomed settler, for up to that time we had to diagnose our own disease, and prescribe our own •medicine, or be to the great expense of getting a physician who lived miles away. None can appreciate the hardships that Doctor Hollister endured, as he rode, night after night, on horseback, over the cow- paths through the dense forest, to render relief to a settler who was suffering from disease contracted from exposure, or the unhealthiness of the climate. I say none but the early pioneer can appreciate the hardships that Doctor Hollister endured to relieve the sufferings of his fellow men."   More regarding the labors of Doctor Hollister will be written into the Medical chapter of this historical work.   The first church 'built in Clinton Township was erected by the Campbellites, or Disciples of Christ, on the east side of the public highway, in section 17, near the present residence of A. R. Loveland, states Charles W. Cornell. It was of frame construction, and built in, about, 1852. The first frame house erected in the township was, he adds, that built by James Cornell, in 1843. The northern 240 acres of what eventually became the site of Wauseon (the land "lying south of Linfoot Street, and west of Shoop Avenue, to Brunel Street") were purchased by James Cornell and Campbell Bayes, his brother-in-law, they paying the Hickville Land Company $3.50 an acre therefor.   208 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   This narrative is gradually coming to the all-important era which began with the announcement that the railroad would pass through the county. First, however, let something be recorded regarding the earlier roads. In the words of Charles W. Cornell:   "The roads of the pioneer were blazed trails, angling through the woods, following the high ground. They were compelled to go to the high ground, for their roads, as water covered the low lands a large part of the year, and as most of the land was common, it made very little difference where the road went, or what trees were cut to make the road. When a low piece of ground had to be crossed. and there was likely to be much travel over it, trees were cut, and the logs were hauled in by oxen and placed side by side across it, and then earth was hauled over them, forming a corduroy road. Oft times this made a pretty rough road, but it was better than getting stuck in the mud.   "The first road laid out in Clinton Township began at the Island House corners; or near there, north of the Fulton County Fair Grounds, then angling across the town, striking Leggett Street, east of the Dr. Charles A. Cole residence. This was in 1844. John Schmall was the surveyor and S. E. Young and John Newcomer were the chain carriers."   From 1840 to 1850 the development of Clinton Township flagged somewhat, by comparison with the promise of the first few years of its settlement, but from 1850 it went forward with renewed energy. Undoubtedly, the organization of Fulton as a separate 'county unit of Ohio, in 1850, gave impetus to the development of the territory, but probably greater impetus was contained in the prospects of the early linking of the county with one or more railway systems. It was thought that Ottokee would be on the line of the projected Junction railway, and the survey for that purpose caused Ottokee to grow rapidly. But the movement to bond the county for $50,000 having been defeated, the Junction railway project was abandoned, and with its abandonment passed Ottokee's early opportunity of growth.   The Junction, enterprise is referred to in an earlier chapter, and is touched upon here only because of its indirect bearing on the establishment of the village of Wauseon. Regarding Ottokee's prospect of securing railroad connection "Charley" Cornell says:   "It seems to me but yesterday when the announcement was made that Fulton county was to have a railroad. Surveyors had been at work, running lines east and west across the county, most of the surveys passing just south of Ottokee. Fulton county was organized in 1860, and Ottokee was made the county seat. With the prospect of securing .a railroad Ottokee became a boom town, and there was great activity in real estate along the proposed line. The next year it was announced that the road would be built on the line of the last survey, or about three and one-half miles south of Ottokee."   As a matter of fact, the last survey was made by an opposition company, the Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana Railroad Company (later known as the Lake Shore and Michigan 'Southern and now designated the Air Line Division, of the New York Central. Railroad), which company feared that the success of the Junction railway project would in time encroach upon what it considered its   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 209   own sphere, as a public carrier, and therefore decided to hasten the construction of a railway westward from Toledo, to connect with its main-line at Elkhart, Indiana. That was in 1852, and may be considered the seed from which Wauseon, which ultimately became, and is now, the county seat of Fulton county, grew.   WAUSEON, THE COUNTY SEAT   Wauseon, in 1852, was not much more than "a road through .the woods." But it had possibilities, seen clearly by one young engineer among those who came into the field, quietly, in 1852 to survey the territory for the Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana Railroad Company. The survey completed, and the construction of the road decided upon, this young engineer, Epaphras Lord Barber, and a fellow-engineer, John H. Sargent, a resident of Cleveland, seem to have arranged with Nathaniel Leggett and William Hall, the former of Swan Creek Township. and at that time county treasurer, and the latter an attorney of Maumee City, to purchase land for them along the line of the railway. The four were to all intents partners in the transaction, but Barber and Sargent were to hold two-thirds, in common, Of the land secured, and Nathaniel Leggett and William Hall the other one-third, in common. Eventually, "they bought of Thomas Bayes '160 acres of land, which comprised what is known, in the records of the county, as the original plat of Wauseon." The transaction must have been consummated in 1853, or before, for in that year William Hall, partner of Nathaniel Leggett, died of cholera in Maumee City, Leggett thus becoming equal, in land holdings, with the other two original proprietors of the new town, which at that time however had not been platted; had not even been named. The purchase price was $16 an acre, Thomas Bayes apparently making a satisfactory profit on land for which he had not, probably, paid more than $3.00 an acre, and possibly not more than $1.25, and to which he appears to have done very little development work, for it seems "the entire parcel was in nearly a wild state." As a matter of fact, it then showed no indication of habitation, save in the one log but erected by Mr. Bayes, probably that at which John Newcomer "landed," in 1844. The Bayes log house stood within a few rods south and west of where eventually the court house was built.   However, the grading of the railway was proceeding rapidly, and either in the fall of 1853, or the early spring of 1854, Mr. Barber "laid out" the town, assisted in that work by Thomas F. Wright, as chain man. The plat was recorded in the Fulton County Recorder's office on April 11, 1854.   The Bayes family was of course the first to take up residence on the land which ultimately became the original plat of Wauseon, but of outside people, it may be considered that the first merchant to take up actual residence within the bounds of the projected town, and with a genuine intent to remain, was E. L. Hayes, who later gained distinction, and a brevet as brigadier general, by valiant and capable military service during the war. How he happened to come to Fulton county, and to the town-to-be, is best told in his own words, contained in his letter from Bloomfield, New Jersey, dated July 1, 1908, to the "Pioneer   210 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   Historical Society of Fulton County, Ohio." The communication, in part, reads :   "In October, 1852, I left Litchfield, Ohio, to look for a new town, in which to locate and engage in merchandising. I travelled in my own conveyance over a portion of southeastern Michigan and northwestern Ohio. While stopping one night at Adrian, Michigan, I heard of a new line of railroad, running west from Toledo, through Fulton and Williams counties, into Indiana, and west to Chicago, and to be called Michigan Southern Air Line.   "I went from Adrian to Delta, and stopped at a tavern kept by Thomas Gleason. During the evening I met Nathaniel Leggett. He called my attention to a new station on the new railroad about six miles west of Delta, which he with others had located. and invited me to go with him the next day to look and see if it would interest me. I spent the day with him in looking round the neighborhood, and feeling pretty well pleased with what I had seen, but still concluded to spend a day or two more. I stopped with Samuel Biddle, when I finally decided to locate here. The town site had been purchased by Nathaniel Leggett, E. L. Barber, and J. H. Sargent, of Thomas Bayes the timber on the line of the road was thin, being cut through the tract. The proprietors gave me a lot on what was afterwards known as the corner of Fulton and Beech streets. I removed in November from Litchfield to Fulton county, and occupied a log house owned by Mr. E. Huntington, and I immediately commenced building a two-story house. In April, 1853, my building finished, I opened the store in the lower story, my family occupying the upper story . . . . In the fall of that year the road was finished to what was called Lamb's Crossing; in the spring of. 1854, the road was finished to Wauseon, and through to Stryker and Bryan the same year."   This letter conflicts somewhat with one General Hayes wrote five years earlier to his "Esteemed Friend, Joel Brigham," in which letter he stated that he came to Wauseon in 1853, not 1852, and his other dates are all one year later than those given in the letter above quoted. The letter to Joel Brigham, said:   "How well I recall many incidents connected with my first settling in Wauseon, in the fall of 1853. The timber in the line of the railroad was being cleared off at the time. The station had not been located, but the Lamb's Crossing and Bayes' Crossing were being considered. I met Mr. N. Leggett in Delta early in September, and went with him to visit the two places talked of for the station, etc. The Bayes land was finally selected. I returned to Litchfield, and soon afterwards moved to Tilton county, and rented a house of Mr. E. Huntington, where we lived during the time I was erecting my house and store, in the winter of 1853-54. The lot upon which the building was erected was covered with timber, and a considerable portion of the timber used in building the storehouse was cut from the lot. The building was completed in April, and we moved into it. During the same spring, George Beals built a house further south on the same street. (Fulton). John Williams commenced building the hotel, across the railroad, the same year."   General Hayes was eighty-three years old when he wrote this letter, and another five years may have befogged his memory somewhat. And there is much other evidence to substantiate the figures given in General   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 211   Hayes' 1903 letter. William Lee, of Oak Shade, who came to Wauseon in 1854, stated in 1917: "John Williams was building a new hotel on the corner now known as Fulton and Beech Streets... . At that time, E. L. Hayes was erecting a store building on the corner south of the hotel property." All authorities agree that the Estelle Hotel was built by John Williams in 1854.   It is generally supposed, and has been accepted by previous com- pilers of Fulton county history that the Air Line Railroad readied Wauseon station in 1854, 'but there is reason to 'believe that it did not get nearer to Wauseon than Lamb's Crossing, a mile distant, in that year. It may be taken as certain that trains did not run to Lamb's Crossing "in the fall of 1853," as stated in General Hayes' 1908 letter. The "Delta Independent Press," vol. 1, No. 10, the date of which issue was June 7, 1854, had an editorial, regarding the "new era" that had begun for Delta that week :   "A connection is now formed by railway between this place and Toledo. A daily train leaves Delta at 12 noon, and returns at 7:30 p. m. It is a new era in our history . . . . The station buildings are in process of construction, and will be ready for the reception of goods by the 15th inst.. . . The rails are being rapidly laid, and soon Wauseon, the next station, will be reached."   "Charley" Cornell, who had part in the construction of the railroad stated:   "In 1853 they commenced grading for the railroad, and in 1854 passenger cars were run to Lamb's Crossing, a mile east of Wauseon. You could not say a passenger train, for about all there was to the train was a wood-burning engine, a car for hauling the wood and water, and one passenger coach. This constituted the first passenger train to run in Fulton county. The next year the road was built on west of Wauseon, and the first passenger train coming into Wauseon was in the early spring of 1855. As these trains came into the county excitement ran high. The speed they made, about fifteen miles an hour, was wonderful.   212 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   Many pioneers declared it was impossible to travel that fast. With the coming of the railroad settlers came rapidly."    Which was so. General Hayes stated that, by the time the railroad had -reached Bryan, Wauseon had thirty-six dwellings, a school-house, a hotel, three stores, a drug store, a saw mill, and, he thought, a Methodist church. As a matter of fact, it was not until 1856 that James Hogeboom built the "Little White Schoolhouse," and it seems that it was not until 1857 that through trains were run from Toledo to Elkhart. "Time Table No. 1" took effect "on Monday, June 8, 1857." There was one train daily, each way, and to cover the about 133 miles between the terminal points meant a journey of about nine hours. The first conductor on the road, after passenger trains commenced running was James Moore. James Hogeboom, in reminiscences published about twelve years ago, stated : . "It was in the spring of 1855 when father moved his family to Wauseon, and what a wilderness it was then—earth, acres of water, forests and blue sky was about all there was to be seen here then. The Lake Shore Railroad was extended to Bryan that year, and in the fall one train a day was run between here and that place. It was a work train, but it carried passengers, and well do I remember its conductor, James Moore."   A copy of the Wauseon newspaper the "Sentinel," of September 18, 1857, carried some interesting advertisements; which at least illumine the business section of General Hayes' above-referred to tabulation. One advertisement read : "A. T. Shanks. Fashionable barber and hairdresser. Shop opposite the Estelle House." Among the business advertisements were:   "H. Stern, dealer in dry goods, groceries, ready-made clothing,   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 213   jewelry and fancy goods ;" "J. Antibus, saddle and harness maker; shop on the corner of Fulton and Chestnut Streets ;" "D. W. Hollister, dealer in drugs, .paints, oils and groceries ;" "E. L. Hayes, dealer in staple and fancy dry goods, boots and shoes, hardware, etc. Pioneer Block, No. 1, Fulton Street, Wauseon."   WAUSEON'S FIRST HOTEL   The "Sentinel" also carried a descriptive advertisement regarding the Estelle, built in 1854. The notice read:   "This house has lately been refitted and furnished in the most fashionable and improved style. The proprietors will leave nothing undone to make their guests happy and comfortable. This house is pleasantly situated on Fulton Street, near the railroad depot. Stages between this place and Adrian stop at this house."   The Estelle stood where now is the First National Bank building. Its first landlords were W. E., D. O., and A. Livermore, who came from Utica, New York. The opposite corner lot which intersecting street properly might have been called Beech Street, but which, because it led to the railway station, was named Depot Street, was offered to Charles W. Cornell, by Samuel Biddle, in 1857, for $650, at which price the small frame building then on the lot would be "thrown in." And the owner was so anxious to sell that he offered to allow the principal to remain unpaid indefinitely, Cornell merely being required to pay the interest year by year. Had Cornell bought, he would have made a profit of several thousand dollars on the real estate in a decade, or so. Today the corner is probably worth $25,000. The old frame building built by Biddle in 1854, was used for business purposes. Biddle occupied one-half as a drug store ; the other half was used by Hunt and Company. In the fall of 1857, M. H. Dudley occupied the building with dry goods and a light line of groceries. In 1860 A. J. Knapp nut in a stock of drugs, which he finally sold, in about 1867, to Masters and Company, who in turn sold to F. L. S. Darby. The next   214 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   tenants were Auxter and Nachtrieb, and in 1887 the firm of Nachtrieb and Guilford. They purchased the corner in the late 'eighties, or early 'nineties, "and also one-half of the building occupied by Lorenzo-Lyon, paying $8,000." The old frame building was sold for $75, and in its place was erected a substantial two-story brick building. So, the pioneers, as is usually the case, found "Father Time" working for them.   HOW WAUSEON WAS SO NAMED   Wauseon might have gone into permanent record as Litchfield, Hayesville, or some such ordinary appellation ; and how it happened by its distinctive, unique, and poetic name is worthy of space in this record. In the before-referred-to letter of General Hayes, he wrote:   "The proprietors of the town proposed to name the town Litchfield. I protested, as there was already a town of that name in the state. Several names were presented, when Mr. Leggett said to my eldest daughter, Hortensia: 'Can't you suggest a name?' She replied: 'A Mr. Howard, while dining with us a few days since, said: "On that hill (pointing to the hill in the west part of the town) was where the Maumee Indians held their last treaty (council) with the United States, by which (treaty) they conveyed all their lands in the ‘Northwest Territory to the United States. The name of the chief was Wauseon," ' and she asked, 'why not adopt that name?' They talked the matter over for a few minutes. When they came again into the store, and said they had decided to give the town the name she had suggested, and thanked her for it."   It might not be inappropriate here to give some information regarding the Indian chief whose name is perpetuated in that of the county seat of Fulton county. And the most authentic data would be that given by Colonel D. W. H. Howard, who lived so much of his early life among the Ottawas and Pottawattamies. Writing to the Wauseon "Republican," on March 4, 1874, he stated: "As I have been requested many times by friends to give to the public my recollections of the history and character of the two men whose names have been given to our former and present county seats—Ottokee and Wauseon—I will endeavor to give a slight sketch of the men.   "Both were noble red men, for finer and more perfect specimens of the human physique, or of natural mental ability, are seldom found anywhere. Ottokee, the older of the two brothers (or half brothers, as they were) was a man six feet high, weighing about two hundred, with as fine a form as could be met with in a day's travel, and, when speaking upon the floor of the Council Lodge, was as dignified and as noble in demeanor as a Clay or a Webster, speaking with as much force and eloquence as their limited language would permit.         "Wa-se-on, which signified 'far off', was somewhat larger, not so fleshy, abut had a heavy frame, and was quite as large a man as his brother, Ottokee, yet not so great an orator, but a very intelligent man, and a good speaker, and in 1838 (I think) when the last of the tribe were removed from this country, was about forty years of age.. .. I was always an attentive listener to the words that fell from the lips of these men, while portraying in eloquent language the misfortunes of their race, while being driven step by step from the great salt lake, at the rising Sun' to the 'setting sun', beyond the Mississippi. I have sat unwearied, hour after hour, listening to a speech delivered by Wa-   HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 215   se-on, in the most energetic and persuasive language, urging his people to go to their new homes west of the Mississippi, and begging the young men to go with him beyond the reach of the pale-face, and the accursed whisky-seller, or 'bad spirit', Mi-ji-min-a-to. The very last speech made by an Indian in the county was made by Ottokee, at a treaty, or council, with the U. S. Government agents and commissioners, for the purpose of their removal west. Their lands had all been sold, and the time had expired that they were allowed to remain on them. Ottokee told the Commissioner that his people did not want to go; they could not leave the graves of their fathers and of their children, and their council fires, although the fires had nearly gone out, they could not leave the ashes, and it was with a great effort that they were induced to go. They were shown the necessity of removal and the advantages of a home on their own lands in the west, over a wandering life among white men, who had no sympathy or feeling for them. The Che-mo-ke-man, `long-knife', had got all their lands here, and were ploughing up the graves of their dead, and to stay here and witness it was worse than death on the plains (in their new homes) from the bloody hands of the Comanches, Kaws, or Apaches assisted in collecting them together for removal west Many did not come into the council and consent to be removed, but remained in the deep forests of the Maumee and Auglaize valley for a few years Ottokee and Wa-se-on were among the last to remove from this country, having gone west in 1838 (spring), when the last remnant of this tribe took their final departure from this once cherished home. These chiefs lived but a few years in their new homes, and died when yet comparatively young, Wa-se-on •being not over forty-five years old."   Another glimpse of the personality of Wa-se-on is seen in the reminiscences of Mr. Y. Rakestraw, a pioneer of Lucas county. He settled in Toledo in 1832, and:   He knew the famous Indian chief, Wa-se-on, and Chief Ottokee. ....He had a clear recollection of the time when the Indians were corraled on Buttonwood Island, near Maumee, preparatory to being sent to Missouri on the reservation. Wa-se-on Ottokee, and Dresden Howard went to Missouri on horseback, to look after the interests of the Indians. . . . Before the Indians left for their new home in the spring they had a hilarious time. Two oxen were prepared for the feast, and whisky was drunk in great quantity. . . . At Wauseon village, four miles above Waterville, the squaws raised potatoes, corn, beans, and other vegetables, while the Indians hunted for game. On section 11, on which J. L. Pray owns a farm, the squaws cultivated one patch of eleven acres and another of three acres. . . Mr. Rakestraw says that Wa-se-on was a tall well-built man, intelligent, dignified, and a gentleman in every way. He was one of the most honorable men Mr. Rakestraw ever met. . . . The Indians lived in harmony, but they had their love affairs, like the whites. Two young Indians fell in love with a comely Indian maiden. The rivalry became so keen that one killed the other. . . . The slayer . . ran into the woods, but returned in a few days, and was tried for murder by an Indian court. He was adjudged guilty, and, as chief, Wa-se-on was executioner. Wa-se-on took a keen-edged hunting knife and plunged it into the Indian's heart, killing him instantly.   216 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY   The "History of Henry and Fulton Counties" (Aldrich, 1888), makes the following statement regarding the naming of the new town:   "The first plat of the village of Wauseon was called Litchfield, it being the intention to name all the stations along the line of the new railroad each for some one of its directors. There were two Litchfields, residing in New York City, who were directors . . . and this name was given for them . . . H. L. Hosmer of Toledo was applied to when the projectors of the new town came to reconsider the name by which it should be known, and among other names, he suggested that of Wauseon . . . Its spelling is said to be incorrect, and the pronunciation is slightly different from what it was in its aboriginal purity."   THE INCORPORATION OF WAUSEON   It has been supposed—but why, is not clear—by , the authors of previous historical works of Fulton county that the official records of the incorporated village of Wauseon were consumed in the fire which destroyed the county records with the court house, at Ottokee, in 1864. Fortunately such a supposition was not well based, and the official records of the village have been available for the purposes of the present compilation. The first entry in the council records is a copy of the petition for incorporation. It reads:   To the Commissioners of Fulton County, Ohio:   The undersigned citizens of Wauseon, in said county, not embraced within the limits of any city, or incorporated village, hereby petition your Honorable body, and pray that they may be organized into an incorporated village, by the name of Wauseon, by virtue of the provisions of statutes in such cases made and provided passed May 3, 1852. Section 2. Your Petitioners pray that the following territory be embraced in said village, to wit: the east or south west of section 23, in town 7 north, of range 6 east, together with so much of the east south east of said section 23 as would lie on the west side of a line drawn parallel with Fulton street, in said town of Wauseon 1081 feet east of the east edge of said Fulton street, according to the plat thereof, herewith submitted, and marked (A) and we further hereby authorize N. W. Jewell and Nathaniel Leggett to, act in our behalf, in prosecuting this petition before your Honorable Body:   NAMES OF PETITIONERS.