TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 175 of the earliest settlers. He was an active and influential citizen ; was the first treasurer of Springfield township ; served on the grand jury ; was appointed road viewer in 1837, and also served as school director. Samuel Divine, who located in the township prior to its organization, was one of the active Whigs of that day. He was the first suryeyor of Lucas county, serving from 1836 to 1838. and as such laid out the town of Vinton in what is now Adams township. From 1841 to 1844 he was township clerk, and in 1843 was a delegate to the county convention of the Whig party. He was also county commissioner from 1850 to 1853, and served several terms as justice of the peace. The widow, Chloe Lees, who was one of the pioneers, purchased a tract of land from Silas Barnes in 1831, established a home and reared to manhood her two boys, who both became useful members of the community. Simeon P. was several times elected to the office of township treasurer. Other early settlers were John and Jacob Gnagy. The former built the first mill in the township. in 1834. It was located on Wolf creek. Two years later John Walter built a sawmill on Swan creek in the southwest part of the township. Jacob Gnagy was a member of the first county grand jury, in April, 1836. In January, 1845, when the county commissioners ordered a road from Springfield to Swanton. Jacob Gnagy, Solomon Salisbury and Thomas Dobbins were appointed viewers of the same, and later in the same year Mr. Gnagy was elected one of the trustees of Springfield township. Shortly after the township was organized, five school districts were laid out. but in the subsequent changes in the boundaries of the township these districts were practically obliterated and replaced by new ones. The first school houses in Springfield were log edifices, similar in eyery respect to those mentioned in connection with other townships. The first mails were carried by stage, and the postoffice was kept by James Dean at his hotel on the Toledo & Indiana plank road, three miles northwest of the present village of Holland. Later the post-office was kept by Thomas Wood at his hotel, where the first seryices of the Methodist denomination were held. The village of Holland, located on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad and the Toledo & Indiana electric line, near the center of the township. was platted by Robert Clark on March 14, .1863. The original plat consisted of that part of the village north of the main street, the south side being added later. At first the village was known as Hardy, but in 1867 the name was changed to Holland. The population of the place in 190o was 198. the population of the entire township being at that time 953, an increase of 234 since the census of 1890. During the Civil war Springfield township sent eighty-six of her gallant sons to do battle for the Union. Three of these died in the cavalry service, viz. : Osgood Cressy and Aaron Haynes of the Third regiment, and Owen Rumsey of the Sixth. Those who died in the infantry service were : Aaron Faught, George Yager, Eli Birchfield, Aaron Birchfield, John Hepp, Joseph Vono and Mason Cressy of the 176 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY Fourteenth Ohio ; Wesley Hill of the Sixty-seventh Ohio; James Munyan, James Abbott, Lucius Abbott and Ira Cummings of the One Hundredth Ohio. OREGON TOWNSHIP. This township was erected about two years after the organization of Lucas county. On June 4, 1837, Isaac Street and others appeared before the board of county commissioners with a petition asking for the establishment of a new township "to include all the territory on the east and south side of the river, to be known by the name of Oregon." The petition was granted and the board ordered an election at the house of Isaac Street on July 4, 1837, for the selection of township officers. The election was accordingly held at the time and place specified in the order, but the township was not fully organized until Sept. 10 following. Several changes have been made in the original boundaries. In June, 1840, seven sections in the northwestern part were taken to assist in the formation of Manhattan township, and on Dec. 2, 1856, it was ordered that that portion of Oregon lying within the Toledo city limits should be annexed to the township of Port Lawrence. An ordinance passed by the Toledo city council on July 2, 1872, provided for the annexation of a considerable portion of Oregon township to the city. This action was concurred in by the county commissioners the following December, and the township thus suffered a further reduction in area. It gained, however, by the action of the board of commissioners on Nov. 2, 1874, when it was ordered "that all that portion of Manhattan township outside of the new city limits of Toledo, and south of the center of the channel of the Maumee river, be annexed to and constitute a part of the township of Oregon." This was the end of Manhattan township. No further change was made in the boundaries until by the Act of the Ohio legislature of March 19, 1893, it was pro- vided that all that portion of Oregon township "east of a north and south line running through the center of the east half of sections 17, 8 and 5, Town io south of Range 9, east, and through the center of the east half of sections 32, 29 and 20, Town 9, south of Range 9, east," should be erected into a new township to be called Jersualem. Prior to the taking effect of this act, Oregon was the largest township in Lucas county. As at present constituted it is bounded on the north by the Maumee bay and the city of Toledo ; on the east by Jerusalem township ; on the south by Wood and Ottawa counties, and on the west by the city of Toledo. Much of the land in Oregon township was not legally opened for settlement until after the treaty of 1833, but white inhabitants came some years before that time, long before a government land office had been established in this section, and while. the land was still owned and occupied by the Indians. About the middle of the Eighteenth century the French had a trading post at the Ottawa village near the mouth of the Maumee, and as early as 1808 there were several French families living in that locality, among them Peter, Antoine, Jacques and Robert TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 177 Navarre, some of whose descendants still reside in Lucas County. A few English settlers came into the township before the treaty above mentioned. Prominent among these, with the year each located on the east side of the river, were Joseph Prentice, 1825 ; Luther Whitmore. 1829 ; Robert Gardner, 1830; Hiram Brown, Gabriel Crane, Mercino and Philander Fox, 1831 ; and Oliver Stevens in 1832. Several of these early settlers wielded considerable influence in local affairs of their day. Joseph Prentice came to Port Lawrence in 1817, bringing his family and a few belongings in a skiff from Buffalo, N. Y. He was interested in the original Port Lawrence Company, which laid the foundations of Toledo. In 1823 he lived in one of the few frame houses in Port Lawrence, but two years later he removed to a farm on the east side of the river, where he lived until his death on March 6, 1845. His name frequently appears in the county records as a member of the grand jury, etc., and he was one of the first justices of the peace in Oregon township. His son Frederick was born at Port Lawrence on Dec. 6, 1822. As there were no schools in the immediate vicinity in that day, he was educated by his mother, Mrs. Eleanor Prentice, and became a prominent business man. After the death of his father the support of the family devolved on him. His nurse was an Indian woman, and it is said that he had a better knowledge of the Indian language than he had of English. This rendered him valuable as an interpreter for the Indian agents and traders, which fact aided him very materially in contributing to the support of his widowed mother and his brothers and sisters. When about eighteen years of age he engaged in supplying firewood to the people of Toledo and the steamboats plying on the Maumee. Later he erected a sawmill on the east side and operated it with profit for a number of years, in the meantime purchasing wild land from which he cut the timber and then sold the land to settlers. About 1857 he suffered financial reverses, shortly after which he went to New York city, where he passed the rest of his life. Luther Whitmore came from Massachusetts in the spring of 1825, bringing with him his wife and six children. He first settled on the Maumee, opposite Turkey Foot rock, and during the next three years removed several times to farms in the vicinity. In 1829 he located on the tract in Oregon township where his son Luther continued to live for many years. He was frequently a delegate to Democratic nominating conventions, served as township trustee for several years, and was one of the members from Oregon township of the committee to solicit donations for soldiers' families, in 1862. His son Leonard was the first clerk of the township after it was organized, in 1837. Luther Whitmore. Jr., spent the greater part of his early life in the employ of John Hollister, the Indian agent at Perrysburg, and was his assistant in making the annual payments to the Indians every year for six years. He married Martha Trask and lived on the old homestead after his father's death. Robert Gardner came from Wayne county, New York. His son Nathan continued to reside for many years on the east side of the river. where the family settled in 1831. He was one of the leading Democrats of Oregon township and in 1876 was a delegate to the Ohio state con- 178 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY vention of that party. Robert Gardner had also two daughters—Amy and Catherine. The former married Charles Coy, one of the early settlers of Wood county, and the latter became the wife of Stephen Green, a farmer of Richfield township, Lucas county. Although Oliver Stevens is mentioned as one of the early settlers of the east side, it appears that his business interests lay on the opposite side of the river. In 1835 he was engaged with Ezra Goodell in operating a sawmill on Swan creek, about three miles from Toledo. At that time the mill was offered for sale and was advertised as having a capacity of "from 300,000 to 400,000 feet a year." Mr. Stevens took an active interest in educational affairs and at the October term in 1839 was appointed by the county commissioners as one of the county school examiners. Later he served as clerk, treasurer and trustee of Oregon township. Gabriel Crane came to what is now Orgon township as a young man, and became somewhat prominent in local matters. He was the second clerk of the township, succeeding Leonard Whitmore in 1841, and held the office for five years. Later he served several terms as trustee, having been first elected to that position in 1846. The records show that in 1847 he was appointed by the board of county commissioners to serve with George D. Treat, John Consaul and D. L. Westcott in viewing certain proposed roads in the township. He married Mary Ann, daughter of Luther Whitmore, and they had three sons— James H., Henry J. and Amos W. By the treaty of Maumee, on Feb. 18, 1833, the Ottawa Indians were authorized to sell the reseryations held by them under former treaties, and soon afterward these lands began to find their way into the hands of the white men. Following is a copy of one of these early Indian deeds : "Know all men by these presents : That I, Au-to-kee, a chief of the Ottawa tribe of Indians, and son of Fish-qua-gun, in consideration of the sum of $1.000, to me in hand paid by James W. Knaggs, of the County of Wood and State of Ohio, do hereby give, grant and convey to said James W. Knaggs, and to his heirs and assigns forever, all that certain tract or parcel of land contained in the west half of my tract, lying in said county of Wood at the mouth of the Maumee river (south side) adjoining Presque Isle, which I lately granted to Robert A. Forsyth and George B. Knaggs, and bounded by said Presque Isle on the west ; on the north by Lake Erie ; on the east by the east half of said tract ; and on the south by land granted to Alexis Navarre by the United States at the treaty with said tribe of Indians in February, 1833, at which treaty this said tract was .granted to me, the west half of which, containing 125 acres, I hereby grant to James W. Knaggs. And I further covenant and promise with and to the said James W. Knaggs, the above granted premises to him, his heirs and assigns forever, to warrant and defend. "In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this 4th day of August, in the year of our Lord, 1835. AU-TO-KEE (L. S.)" This deed was "Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of H. TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 179 Conant and Jaques Navarre," and bore the following acknowledgment : "State of Ohio, Wood County, ss.: On the 4th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1835, personally came Au-to-kee, Indian chief of the Ottawa tribe, the maker of the within deed, and the purport and meaning of the within deed being fully explained to him, he acknowledged that he signed and sealed the same and was content and satisfied with the consideration therefor ; and that he executed said deed and makes the above acknowledgment without any circumvention or undue influence or persuasion of the grantee or of any other person whomsoever. "Before me, Horatio Conant, a Justice of the Peace in and for said county ; and I further certify, that I was present at the execution of the within deed, and counted out and delivered to the said Au-to-kee the consideration mentioned in said deed, $1,00o. Witness my hand and seal, the day and year above written. H. CONANT, "Justice of the Peace." This document shows the great care exercised in dealing with the Indians, who, as wards of the nation, sometimes would try to repudiate a transaction of this character, especially after they had spent the money. The sale of Presque Isle by Au-to-kee to George B. Knaggs and Robert A. Forsyth was made on the same day as the sale to James B. Knaggs, the island containing eighty-one acres and the consideration being $1,000. The deed to Presque Isle bore the following indorsement, which was signed by John E. Hunt, H. Conant and James Jackson, the sub-agent of Indian affairs : "To the President of the United States : We do hereby certify, that the consideration named in said instrument, which was duly paid to the said Au-to-kee in our presence, is a full and fair consideration for said tract, as we verily believe." A majority of the early purchasers of these Indian lands were speculators—men with money to invest and with sufficient sagacity to see that by thus acquiring title they could levy tribute upon those who might subsequently desire the lands for occupation and actual use. In this they were not disappointed, for immediately after the treaty additional settlers began coming into what is now Oregon township. Among those who came in the year 1833 were Elias Fassett, of whom a more extended sketch appears elsewhere, and Hiram Vinal, who located on section 7, town 1o, south of range 8, east. During the next few years came Elijah J. Woodruff, John and William Consaul, Asa W. Maddocks, Lawson Hicks, George D. Treat, Samuel Hayes, Jacob Brown, Joseph Applegate and a number of others. Elijah J. Woodruff continued to reside in the township for many years, and served several terms each as trustee and justice of the peace. Asa W. Maddocks was a pioneer in the nursery business, and was also a printer by trade. He was an apprentice (devil) in the office of the Toledo Gazette in 1835, when that office was raided by the Michigan forces during the "Boundary war." George D. Treat was active and prominent in public affairs, holding the offices of clerk, treasurer, school director, and justice of the peace. He also served on several occasions as road viewer, was elected coroner of the county 180 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY in 1849, and was a delegate from the township to the "War convention" in the spring of 1861. Timothy Griffith entered land in 1836 in sections 23 and 24, town 9, range 8, but it does not appear that he ever resided in the township. He was one of the contractors on the Wabash & Erie canal. At the meeting of the contractors on Aug. 22, 1837, he acted as secretary and introduced the resolution, which was unanimously adopted, pledging the contractors not to furnish intoxicating liquors to their employees unless recommended by a physician. In 1836 Charles V. Jenison built the first steam sawmill in the township. It was located on the bank of the Maumee river, on the old plat of the town of Oregon, and furnished the flooring for the first bridge over the river at Maumee. His father, Victor Jenison, settled at Perrysburg in 1818, and Charles V. was fifth in a family of eleven children. In 1835, the year before embarking in the sawmill business, he was captain of the schooner Maria, which belonged to a man named Williams, of Maumee. In 1837 Mr. Jenison built the schooner Ottawa, which sailed on the Great Lakes for nearly forty years. The tax duplicate of Lucas county for the Year 1838, the first year after Oregon township was organized, showed twenty-eight resident taxpayers, the value of all personal property in the township being $2,696. Of this, the Oregon Steam Mill Company returned $1,000, and the other $1,696 was distributed among the other twenty-seven persons. The largest individual holder of personal property was Alexander Navarre, who returned $240, and the smallest were David Phillips and Peter Navarre, each of whom returned property valued at eight dollars. The first road in the township was what is known as the Woodville road, which was opened in 1833. It started from the Maumee river opposite Toledo and connected with the Maumee and Western Reserve road at Woodville in the northwest corner of Sandusky county. This was merely an opening about twelve or fifteen feet in width through the woods, and during the spring and fall months was almost impassable. At the Toledo end of this road Herman Crane operated a ferry-boat, a flat-bottomed scow capable of carrying an ordinary two-horse team and wagon, though most of the residents of Oregon township owned skiffs or canoes which they used in crossing to and from Toledo. At the same session of the board of county commissioners at which the township was set off, eight roads were ordered, but it was not until after 1840 that much attention was paid to road building. The roads of the township at the present day will compare favorably with those of the surrounding country, both in number and quality. The Wheeling & Lake Erie railroad crosses the township, the principal station being Booth, and Rockwell Junction is at the southwest corner of the township, where the Hocking Valley joins the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern. Two electric lines—the Toledo, Clinton & Lakeside and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern electric road—also pass through the township. The first schoolhouse in the township was a log structure, erected on the Woodyille road by the settlers in 1834, and the first teacher TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 181 was Elizur Stevens, a brother of Oliver Stevens. After the township was organized. in the fall of 1837, four school districts were laid out and the school fund of the township distributed among them as follows : No. 1, $26.24; No. 2, $10.05 ; No. 3, $20.65 No. 4, $13.29. That winter Napoleon Denny taught in District No. 1, at a salary of twelve dollars a month, and in July, 1839, Julia Ann Whitmore was employed as teacher there at a salary of two dollars a week. In the Civil war Oregon township furnished fifty-seven soldiers and marines for the Union army, six of whom -died in service, viz.: Henry Miller and William Brown, of the Third Ohio cavalry ; John Bunce, Montgomery Messer and Capt. Hyatt G. Ford, of the Sixty-seventh Ohio infantry ; and William Sidell, of ,the One Hundredth Ohio infantry. Prior to the war Captain Ford was engaged in the nursery business in East Toledo. He was killed at the head of his -company in the battle of Winchester (or Kernstown), March 23, 1862, and was the first Lucas county soldier to be brought home for burial. Ford Post, No. 14, Grand Army of the Republic. of East Toledo, was named in his honor. In 1879 the trustees of Oregon township set apart a section in Willow cemetery for the burial of veterans of the Civil war, and on Decoration Day, 1882, a soldiers' monument was unveiled there to commemorate the valor of Captain Ford and his associates. In 1900 the population of Oregon township was 3,160, an increase of 458 over that reported in 189o. SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP. Sylvania township, one of the largest and most populous in the county. lies in the northern tier and contains an area of about thirty-one square miles. The territory of which it is comprised was originally included in the townships of Whiteford and Blissfield, which were organized under the jurisdiction of Michigan, and embraced all the present townships of Sylvania and Richfield, and parts of Springfield, Adams and Spencer. The boundaries of Sylyania in 1838. when the first election of which there is record was held. were as follows : On the south by the north line of the Twelve Mile Square Reserve ; east by the line between surveyed Towns 6 and 7 ; north by the Harris line and west by the line between the suryeyed Towns 5 and 6 east. Part of the territory included within these lines was afterward taken and added to the townships of Springfield and Adams, and Sylvania at present is bounded on the north by the state of Michigan : on the east by Washington and Adams townships ; on the south by the townships of Adams, Springfield and Spencer : and on the west by Richfield. The western tier of sections was formerly a part of Richfield township. The surface is generally rolling, well watered by the Ottawa river and its tributaries, and was formerly covered with a fine growth of timber, a fact which led to the adoption of the name "Sylvania." Agriculture and horticulture are the principal occupations, though there are some fine stone quarries in the township. 182 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY The first township election was held on the first Monday in April, 1838, when ninety-one votes were cast, and the following officers were elected : Elijah Rice, Andrew Printup and Pliny Lathrop, trustees ; William M. White, clerk ; Daniel L. Westcott, treasurer ; Oliver Root, Adolphus Majors and Porter Kelsey, constables ; David White and Joel Green, overseers of the poor ; John Harroun, Elkanah Briggs and Benjamin Joy, fence-viewers. The supervisor's of highways were elected by districts, of which there were eight in the township, the supervisors chosen for the respective districts being Samuel D. Wiggins, William M. Nelson, William M. Leonardson, John Harroun, Benjamin Joy, George Gaby, David Hendrickson and Marcus Bennett. At another election, on May 5, 1838, John U. Pease and Pliny Lathrop were elected justices of the peace. The fact that ninety-one votes were cast at the first election shows that quite a number of people had settled within the limits of the township prior to its organization. The first settler was Gen. Dayid White, who, in 1832, built a log house on the north bank of the Ottawa river, in Section 3, where the village of Sylyania now stands. Mr. White came from Palmyra, N. Y., in 1831, and brought his family to Lucas county the following year. He was one of the most useful and influential of the pioneer citizens ; was one of the founders of the villages of Sylvania and Whiteford ; built the first mill on the Ottawa river in that part of the county ; was one of the first directors of the old Erie & Kalamazoo railway ; and was one of the early members of the First Presbyterian Church, an organization which became somewhat noted from the fact that its members were required to take the pledge to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors. Associated with Mr. White in founding the first settlement was Judge William Wilson, who also located in Section 3. He was one of the judges at the "midnight court" of Sept. 7, 1835, the first Court of Common Pleas ever held in Lucas county. Judge Wilson died soon after the county was organized, as the records show that at the November term of the Court of Common Pleas in 1836 Eli Hubbard and Julia Wilson were appointed administrators of his estate. His son William married a daughter of Hezekiah Hubbell, one of the pioneers of Monclova township. During the year 1832 August Prentice, a son of Joseph Prentice, who is mentioned in connection with Oregon township, and James Dean entered land in Section 3, near that entered by White and Wilson ; Silas Smith, Erastus Cone and Peter Lewis entered land in Section 4 ; and Adam Gordinier, John and Fred Leonardson settled on Section 5. Adam Gordinier came from the State of New York, and at the time of his death, in 1881, was nearly one hundred years of age. His son Edward was one of the commissioners appointed by the State to supervise the erection of the Northwestern Ohio Insane Asylum, of which he subsequently became an inmate. From 1832 there was a steady tide of immigration to Sylvania. Among those who came in the year 1833 were Lyman Smith, Philo Stevens, Jacob Harwood, Aaron and Stephen Watkins, Adolphus J. Majors and John Lambert. Adolphus J. Majors was one of the first TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 183 constables of the township after its organization. For some years he was a keeper of a public house, a license for that purpose having been granted to him by the county commissioners in 1842. John Lambert was a yeteran of the Revolutionary war. He entered 16o acres in Section 3, where he lived to a ripe old age. In 1852, notwithstanding that he was then a very old man, he was elected a delegate from Lucas county to the Anti-Slavery convention at Pittsburg that nominated John P. Hale for the presidency. The year 1833 witnessed the arrival of William Brock, James P. Worden, Abner and Russell Rowe, Isaac Doty, Enos Beall and a number of others. Mr. Beall subsequently removed to Lagrange, Ind., where he became a prominent citizen and office-holder. He died in Steuben county, Indiana. In the year 1835 a number of persons who afterward became prominent in political and commercial affairs were added to the population. Among them were Benjamin Joy, Eli Hubbard, Erastus Morse, Haskell D. Warren, John U. Pease and Andrew Printup. Benjamin Joy came from Genesee N. Y., as agent for lands belonging to the Wadsworths of that place, and immediately became identified with the affairs and deyelopment of Lucas county. At the first township election in Sylvania he was chosen one of the fence-viewers ; was frequently called upon to act as grand juror, etc.; was appointed road yiewer in March, 1840, and aided materially in securing the first public highways ; and in 1855 he was elected to the office of county treasurer, which he held for one term. Eli Hubbard first settled on the old military road in Port Lawrence township. where he held the office of supervisor of highways. In 1835 he sold his farm there to John Knagg.s, removed to Sylyania township and built a house on the north side of Ten-Mile creek, where he lived until his death, in 1856, at the age of sixty-seven years. Mr. Hubbard was the first treasurer of Lucas county ; was elected county commissioner on the Whig ticket, in 1837 was a delegate to the State conyention of that party, in 1838, and was one of the moving spirits of he Methodist Episcopal church in Sylvania township. His son Hiram continued to live on the old homestead for many years after his father's death. Erastus Morse and his wife settled where the village of Sylvania now stands. He engaged in farming and lumbering until 1848, when he built a large stone tavern, which he conducted for several years. He was one of the active promoters of the Toledo & Indiana (sometimes called the Toledo & Angola) plank road, in 1848, and in other ways manifested an interest in the welfare of the community. He finally removed to Missouri, and when the war broke out he entered the service of the United States as a captain in the Twenty-second Missouri infantry. Only five companies of the regiment were mustered in and these were organized as a battalion with Mr. Morse as lieutenant-colonel. He was killed on Dec. 20, 1862, while on a scouting expedition along the line of the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad. His widow returned to Sylvania. where she died, in September, 1863. Haskell D. Warren established himself in business as a merchant 184 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY in the village of Sylvania soon after coming to the township, and continued in that line of activity as long as he lived. When he first opened his store money was scarce and many of the settlers were poor. To these he was extremely liberal in the matter of credit, and though he lost something in this way, he prospered on account of the many friends he made by his generous policy. Although he took an active interest in public affairs, he was never a candidate for office. In 1852 he was one of the signers of the bond for $20,000 to secure the removal of the county seat from Maumee to Toledo ; was a delegate to the "Union County Convention" in the spring of 1861 ; and was one of the committee to prepare an address to the people of the county appealing for aid for soldiers' families, in the fall of 1864. He was a Knight Templar Mason and a prominent Odd Fellow. Several of his sons held office in the township. Mr. Haskell died in 1870. John U. Pease, one of the first justices of the peace in Sylyania, was born at Parsonsfield, Me., Aug. z, 1796. In the War of 1812 he enlisted as a drummer boy and was at the battle of Plattsburgh. After the war he engaged in teaching in Western New York, where he married, but his wife soon died. In 1835 he came to Lucas county, formed a partnership with William Bancroft and engaged in merchandising at the village of Sylvania, where he married a daughter of David White. Mr. Pease was a Democrat and took a keen interest in public affairs. He was one of the first justices of the peace of Sylvania township ; held the offices of clerk and trustee ; was elected county treasurer in 1839, and also held the office of associate judge. In early life he was prominent in the Masonic fraternity, but became a non-affiliate toward the close of his days. He died at Sylvania, Feb. 12, 1870. Andrew Printup was born in Montgomery county, New York, Oct. 23, 1802, and was the grandson of a veteran of the Revolution. In September, 1835, he came to Lucas county and located on a farm a short distance west of the village of Sylvania. He was a Democrat in his political views, and soon after coming to the county became identified with public affairs as a member of that party. When Sylvania township was organized he was elected one of the first trustees, afterward serving as justice of the peace and postmaster at Sylvania. In March, 1840, he was appointed with David Harroun and Hiram Parker to view a new road through the township, and in 1842 was one of the Democratic nominees for director of the poor on the county ticket, but was defeated. He was one of the charter members of Sylvania Masonic lodge and in early life was a Methodist, but later became affiliated with the Congregational church at Sylvania. He died at the residence of his daughter, in Adams township, on April 6, 1870. Another early settler was William Bancroft, one of the first merchants of Sylvania, whose wife was the first white woman to cook a meal's victuals at that place, and whose daughter, Libbie, was the first white child born in what is now Sylvania township. The first schoolhouse, a frame building some eighteen by twenty- TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 185 four feet in size, was erected by David White at his own expense, in 1834. on the land owned by r J. H. Parker. Subsequently it was removed to the opposite side of the village, where it served for school and church purposes for several years. The first school was taught in this house in the fall and winter of 1834. The Sylvania High School Company was projected early in 1844 by John U. Pease, William Bancroft, Horace Green and Haskell D. Warren, the object being "the establishment of a high school in the town of Sylvania, and to promote and afford therein instruction in the usual branches of a sound, practical and liberal education in the languages, arts and sciences." A charter was obtained from the Ohio legislature and a meeting of the incorporators was held at Mr. Pease's office on May 6, 1844, at which .time and place the company was fully organized with forty names signed to the constitution. The officers of the company then elected were : Amos Miner. president ; John B. Corey, vice-president : William F. Dewey, secretary ; James White, treasurer ; John U. Pease, Horace Green. David Harroun, Benjamin Joy and Eli Hubbard, trustees. An arrangement was entered into with the authorities by which a two-story building was erected, the high school occupying the second floor and District School No. 2 the lower story. In 185o final settlement was made with the stockholders of the company, and the stock was finally transferred to the township board of education. In the year 1872 the institution became a free graded school. On July 11, 1835, David White. recorded the plat of the town of Whiteford. The line that separated the lands of General White from those of Judge William Wilson was the western boundary of the town and was named Division street. East of this line 138 lots and eight streets were laid out. Three of these streets—Main, South and Erie—ran east and west, and five—Summit, Eagle, Church, Clinton and Saline—ran north and south. The following year Judge Wilson, William F. Dewey, D. D. Harris and L. W. Allen employed Samuel Divine, then surveyor of. Lucas county. to lay out the town of Sylvania on the west side of Division street. Five streets, running north and south, were named Railroad, Michigan, Elm and Poplar streets and Ohio avenue, and seven, running east and west, were called North, Indiana, Mill, High, Spring, Market and South streets, the last four being south of the Ottawa river. The plat of Sylvania was acknowledged before C. D. Wing, justice. of the peace. on July 13, 1836. In the spring of 1867 the two towns were incorporated as the yillage of Sylvania, the first election being held on April 17, when James V. Clark was elected mayor ; William Bryan, clerk ; Jason McGlenn, Foster R. Warren, George W. Crandall and J. J. Ritchie, councilmen. The population of the village in 'goo was 617, an increase of seventy-two since 189o. A fire in April, 1887, destroyed a considerable portion of the village, but the ruined buildings were soon replaced by more modern and substantial: structures. Sylvania Lodge, No. 287, Free and Accepted Masons, was chartered by the Ohio Grand Lodge on Oct. 23, 1856, with the follow-. 186 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY ing officers and members: Lucian B. Lathrop, worshipful master ; William B. Warren, senior warden; Andrew Printup, junior warden ; Benjamin Joy, William McCann, Jenks Morey,' Elias Richardson, Benjamin Sumner, Foster R. Warren, H. D. Warren and William Watson. Sylvania Union, Daughters of Temperance, was organized in January, 1849, and on March 16, 1887, was organized the Sylyania Lodge, No. 49, Independent Order of Good Templars. The hall and furniture of the latter were destroyed in the fire of April, 1887. When volunteers were called for by President Lincoln, in the spring of 1861, the sons of Sylvania were prompt to respond, and before the close of the war 102 citizens of the township had enlisted in the Union army. Twenty-six died in service, two of whom—Horace Bertholf and Samuel Corbin—were in the artillery, and the others were members of various infantry regiments, to wit : William Gilpin, Oscar Hendrickson, John McBride, John Oats, Thomas Porter, John Van Orman and John Woodmansee of the Fourteenth Ohio ; Uriah Cheney, Edwin Lacy, John Lane, James Lowden, James Mills and Daniel Norris of the Eighteenth Ohio ; Matthew Dayis, William Hallett, Harlan Page and Edwin Peck of the Twenty-fifth Ohio ; Leyi Palmer and Elijah Stone of the Forty-seyenth Ohio : Orlando Comstock of the Sixty-seventh Ohio ; Staunton Chappell, Horace Cooper, Zirah Green and John Kimball of the One Hundred and Eleyenth Ohio. Outside of the city of Toledo, Adams, Oregon, Washington and Waterville were the only townships that reported a larger population than Sylvania in 1900, and none showed as large a proportionate increase—evidence of the natural advantages and the enterprising spirit of her people. The population in 1890 was 1,476, and in 1900 it was 1,887, an increase of almost 28 per cent during the decade. The yillage of Sylvania, located on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad and the Toledo & Western Electric line, and situated near the state line, is one of the busiest little business centers in the county, and is surrounded by a fine agricultural region, which adds to its enterprise and prosperity. RICHFIELD TOWNSHIP. Richfield township, the most northwestern of the county, had its beginning on Dec. 2, 1839, when the county commissioners ordered certain territory to be taken from the township of 'Wing (Swanton) for the formation of a new township to be called Richfield, and directed that the first election therein be held at the house of Willard S. Fuller on the first Monday in April, 1840. when the township was fully organized by the election of the following officers : Oliver Root, Benjamin Fairchild and Jacob Wolfinger, trustees ; Willard S. Fuller, clerk ; Aaron H. Cole, treasurer ; Araunah B. Lathrop, Jacob All and David Hendrickson, constables ; Pliny Sanderson and Eli Munson, poor masters ; John All, David Hendrickson and. William Taylor, fence viewers ; Araunah B. Lathrop, Charles Courson and William Tunison, supervisors of highways. TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 187 The township contains an area of about twenty-two and one-half square miles and is bounded as follows: on the north by the State of Michigan ; on the east by the township of Sylvania ; on the south by Spencer township and on the west by Fulton county. .It is located in one of the richest farming sections of the county, consequently agriculture is the principal occupation of the inhabitants, the leading crops being wheat, oats, corn and hay. Some attention is also given to stock raising. The northern part is watered by Ten-Mile creek, one of the principal tributaries of the Ottawa river. The first white settlers in this part of the county were David Henderson, Pliny Lathrop and Jacob Wolfinger, who located there in the year 1834. During the next four years they were joined by James Farley, Isaac Washburn, Joseph Smith, Lucian B. and Araunah Lathrop, and William R. Cole. Mr. Cole went to Texas in 1868, but all the rest of these old pioneers passed the remainder of their lives in the township. David Hendrickson came overland from Broome county, New York, with a one-horse wagon, in 1834, when there were no roads for a great part of the way, so that his progress was rarely more than fiye miles a day. Upon reaching the town of Perrysburg he forded the Maumee near the rapids and pushed on into the wilderness until he found a place that suited him, and there he "pitched his tent" in the central part of Richfield township. He was elected constable and fence-yiewer at the first election in Richfield, and subsequently served as trustee. His wife was one of the sixteen persons who organized the Baptist church in 1861. He lived to a ripe old age and some of his descendants still reside in the township. Pliny Lathrop settled in the northern part of Richfield. During his early residence in the township he was active in behalf of the Whig party. and in 1838 was one of the Lucas county delegates to the Young Men's Whig convention at Mount Vernon. He served as clerk, trustee and justice of the peace ; was one of the organizers of the Richfield Christian Church, in 1855: was one of the vice-presidents of the mass conyention at Toledo, in Noyember, 1863, to prepare an address to the soldiers in the field ; and was on the committee to solicit aid for soldiers' families in the fall of 1864. His nephew and adopted son, Wilson C. Lathrop. enlisted in Company B, Fourteenth Ohio Infantry, and was killed near Atlanta, Ga., Aug. 5, 1864. Pliny Lathrop died in August, 1881. Jacob Wolfinger came from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, to Richfield township in May, 1834, and erected the first log house on section 26, where he established his frontier home. He had a family of four sons and seyen daughters. His son, Jacob M., born on Nov. 6, 1834, was the first white child born in Richfield township, and his daughter Rebecca was the first white person to die and be buried in the town-. ship. Mr. Wolfinger planted the first orchard in Richfield, setting out a number of apple and peach trees in 1837. He lived to enjoy the fruits of this orchard for twenty years, his death occurring on Dec. 13, 1857. Araunah Lathrop came with his family from Chautauqua county, 188 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY New York, in 1835. He was a Democrat and took an active interest in public affairs. When the township was organized he was elected one of the first constables and supervisors of roads, and later served as trustee. In 1849 he was elected on the county central committee of his party and was frequently called upon to act as delegate to nominating conventions. He was one of the organizers of the Richfield Christian Church, in which he retained his membership until his death, in March, 1870. His son, Clark C., was also active in local politics, and in 1856 was elected one of the infirmary directors of Lucas county. Lucian B. Lathrop, one of the first to locate in the township, erected the first frame barn in Richfield in the year 1837. He was always ready and willing to promote the general interests of the community ; served as trustee and treasurer of the township, and was the first postmaster at Berkey's Corners. In 1841 he was a delegate to the Democratic State convention ; was one of the promoters of the Toledo and Indiana plank road, in 1848, and in 1849 was nominated by the Democratic convention for representative in the Ohio legislature,_ but was defeated by Morrison R. Waite, afterward chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Lathrop died in May, 1866. Isaac Washburn was born in the State of Vermont, Aug. 1o. 1811, and received a limited education in his native State. In October, 1834, he landed in Richfield township, where he and Lewis Roberts jointly entered eighty acres of land in section 15, paying therefor $roo. He married Mary, daughter of Jacob Wolfinger. who bore him five children. She died in January, 1869, and the following year Mr. Washburn married Mrs. Miranda, widow of Henry Fuller. Mr. Washburn lived for many years on the farm he established in 1834 ; served several terms as trustee and treasurer of the township, and was one of the first members of the Richfield Baptist Church. James Farley, another of the pioneer settlers, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in the year 18o6. His father died a few years later, and James came with his mother to the United States. She died in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, and in 1837 he came to Lucas county and purchased 16o acres of land in what is now Richfield township. To this he added forty acres and there passed the remainder of his life. He was a Methodist and was one of the organizers of what is known as the "Farley Church." Before coming to Ohio he married Miss Eliza McMillen, of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, whose grandfather served with Washington in the Revolution. Two of Mr. Farley's sons, William and Daniel H., served in the Fourteenth Ohio infantry in the Civil war. In the winter of 1834-35 the old Territorial road, running from Toledo to Angola, Ind., was opened through that part of Richfield township which is now included in Spencer. being the first road through that part of the county. Little was done for several years in the way of building roads, the old Indian trails being used by the settlers, and where no trail existed they made their way through the woods as best they could. In the later '40's several plank roads were projected in Northwestern Ohio. One of these was to run from Toledo to the Indiana State line. The citizens of Richfield township held a TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 189 meeting on Feb. 8, 1848, with Pliny Sanderson as chairman and Oristen Holloway as secretary, to consider the question of taking stock in the road. A resolution was adopted to take stock to the amount of $3,000, provided the road should pass through the township, and Lucian B. Lathrop, Henry H. Fuller and Isaac Washburn were appointed as a committee on the location of the road. The first postoffice in the township was established in 1835 near the settlement known as Berkey's Corners, with Lucian B. Lathrop as postmaster. He held this position for fifteen years, when he was succeeded by his brother Pliny. Mails were delivered at this office once a week. y In 1840 Dr. Mather M. Mason located in .Richfield, being the first resident physician, and three years later Charles C. Welch opened the first blacksmith shop in the township. The first school house, a log structure of primitive pattern. was erected by the settlers in 1837, and the following winter Francis Smith was employed as teacher at a salary of $20 a month, the term lasting for two months. Seventy men from Richfield township answered their country's call in the Civil war, and of these nineteen died in service, viz : Luther Saunders, of the Tenth Ohio cavalry Perry Bennett, John Brint, James Fullerton, Charles Holloway, Charles Kanavel, Thomas Kanavel, Wilson C. Lathrop, Joseph Mangel and W. W. McBride, of the Fourteenth Ohio infantry ; Joseph Bosilgia, of the Thirty-seventh Ohio infantry ; M. V. Tredway, Dallas Gilson and Norman Gilson. of the Forty-seventh Ohio infantry : Eli Saulsbury and Milo Metkiff. of the One Hundredth Ohio infantry Philander Wickham, of the One Hundred and Eleventh Ohio infantry Louis Cutchner, of the One Hundred and Thirteenth Ohio infantry, and Nicholas Stahl, of the One Hundred and Eighty-second Ohio infantry. According to the United States census for 1900 the population of Richfield township was 1,136. an increase of eighty-one since the census of 1890. The principal villages were Berkey, with a population of 100, and Richfield Center, with a population of 111. WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. The territory now included in Washington township was formerly a part of the township of Port Lawrence. On June r, 1840. the board of county commissioners issued an order creating the township of Washington, with the following boundaries : "On the north by the Harris line : on the east by the line between Ranges 7 and 8 east, Town 9 south, to the city limits of Toledo thence by the city line to the southwest corner of said limits : thence south to the Fulton line ; thence along the Fulton line to Springfield township : and on the west by the townships of Springfield and Sylvania." The lines were subsequently modified so that a portion of Range 8 east was added to the township, and portions have been taken to form Adams township and enlarge the city of Toledo. It is at present bounded on the north by the State of Michigan: on the east by the Maumee bay and the city of Toledo on the south by the city of 190 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY Toledo and Adams township ; and on the west by Adams and Sylvania. The area included within these boundaries is about thirty-three square miles. The soil is generally fertile and in a high state of cultivation. Pursuant to the direction of the board of commissioners, the first election in the township was held at the house of Benjamin Mallett on June 27, 1840, at which time and place the following officers were elected : John Lambert, Alvin Evans and Lyman Haughton, trustees ; Sanford L. Collins, clerk ; John Knaggs, treasurer ; Thomas Wilson, constable ; Henry Mersereau and James Brown, overseers of the poor ; Charles Evans, William Wilkinson and Erastus Williams, fence-viewers. The first meeting of the township board was held on July 1, 1840, when the township was divided into eleven road districts and the following supervisors appointed therefor : Adolphus Majors, George Dixon, William Tavernor, John W. Collins, Erastus Williams, Lyman Haughton, Daniel Brown, Alyin Eyans, Noah A. Whitney, Eli Charter and Jasper Goodrich. The first justices of the peace, of which any mention can be found in the records, were Lyman Haugh-ton and Horace Thacher, who were elected in 1845. Part of the original Washington township is now within the limits of the city of Toledo, and the first settlements were made in that section not long after the first settlers located along the Maumee river in the vicinity of the Rapids, before the lands outside of the Twelve-Mile Square Reserve were subject to entry. One of the first white men to locate in what is now Washington township,, was William Sibley, who came from Monroe county, New York, in 1817, and located. in the northern part of the present township of Washington. He resided there until the public lands outside of the reservation were surveyed and a land office opened at Monroe, Mich., when he entered part of sections 14 and 15, town 9, range 7. In 1830 he sold that farm and entered the northeast quarter of section 21, where he passed the remainder of his life. Shortly after coming to Ohio he got into trouble with the Indians and received injuries from which he never fully recovered, and which were largely responsible for his death, in 1836, at the age of sixty years. After the Act of Congress, in April, 1820, authorizing the sale of the public lands at the uniform cash price of $1.25 an acre, the settlement of the country made more rapid progress. During the next five years William Hollister. Benjamin F. Stickney, Eli Hubbard, Thomas Bishop, Thaddeus R. Austin, Moses G. Benjamin, Joseph Martin, Noah A. Whitney, Sherman Page, Ebenezer Burgess and a number of others entered lands in sections 23, 25, 26 and 36, town 9, range 7, most of these lands now lying within the city limits. In 1824 Benjamin Mallett entered land in section 6, same town and range, and, as already stated, the first township election was held at his house on June 2'7, 1840. Mr. Mallett took an active interest in public affairs ; served several terms as township treasurer ; was one of the signers of the call. for the meeting at the Union depot in Toledo on April 15, 1861, to express indignation at the assault on TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 191 Fort Sumter ; was a delegate to the "Union" county conyention later in the same year ; was elected infirmary director on the "Union" ticket in 1862 and again in 1865 and 1868. John Phillips came from Onondaga county, New York, in 1825 and settled on the southwest quarter of section 22, the farm he there opened now being part of the Woodlawn cemetery. In 1830 he removed to the northwest quarter of section 27, but afterward transferred that farm to his elder son, Philip I., and in conjunction with his younger son, Henry, bought the northwest quarter of section 23 from Thaddeus R. Austin and settled there. Henry Phillips was chairman of the first meeting called to consider the Ohio and Michigan boundary question. He died in the fall of 1838, leaving a widow and one child, and his father died in Indiana in 1849 while on a visit to his daughter. Philip I. Phillips became the owner of the farm, which he platted into lots in 1854, and which is now a part of West Toledo. In the fall of 1829 Cyrus Fisher came from Otsego county, New York, and soon after his arriyal in Ohio married Catherine Phillips, daughter of John Phillips, aboye mentioned. He located on the northwest quarter of section 23. where he opened a store and. tavern, the first in Washington township as originally set off from Port Lawrence. Here the postoffice of Port. Lawrence was soon afterward established, with Mr. Fisher as postmaster. In the fall of 1832 he sold out to Calyin Tremaine. who came from Vermont, and in January, 1833, the name of the postoffice was changed to Tremainesville, the office near the mouth of Swan creek taking the name of Port Lawrence. William Tavernor, one of the first road supervisors in the township. came from County Cornwall, England, in 1831, accompanied by his mother. his widowed sister—Mrs. Crabb—and her nine children. During that winter they lived in Toledo, but in the spring of 1832 they removed to a log house on the northeast quarter of section 11, town 9. range 7. where Mr. Tavernor had bought 160 acres of government land. Mr. Tavernor was the second person of foreign birth to be naturalized in Lucas county, receiving his final papers in April, 1838. He was fond of hunting, and as game was plentiful in those days. he kept a pack of trained hunting dogs, after the fashion of the English squire. He died on Feb. 3. 1851. leaving his farm to his nephew, Gershom Crabb, who continued to occupy it for many years. In 1832 Peter C. Lewis entered eighty acres of land in section 14, town 9, range 7, and became a resident of the township, though that was eight years before the township of Washington was organized. The following year he entered eighty acres rn section 9 of the same town and range. In 1851 he was elected county commissioner on the Democratic ticket and served until 1854, when he was defeated for reelection by Joel W. Kelsey. During the years 1833-34 the Haughtons—Lyman, Stephen, Cyrus and Marvin—entered lands in the western part of the township. Lyman Haughton was one of the first trustees of the township, and also one of the first justices of the peace, to 'which office he was 192 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY elected several times. He had four sons and two daughters, viz : Smith, Hiram, Nathaniel, Solon, Ruth and Delia. Smith married the widow of E. Hinkle, of Lyons, Ohio ; Hiram married Sylvania Roop and died in Toledo in 1883 ; Nathaniel married a daughter of Dr. B. H. Bush ; Ruth married George Ferguson and Delia married Michael Best, farmers of Washington township. Stephen Haughton was elected clerk of the township in 1844, and in 1848 was elected county commissioner. After that he removed to Wauseon, Fulton county, where he died on May 28, 1887, at the age of eighty-seven years, the last survivor of the original family that came from Monroe county, New York, in 1833. Other pioneers who were more or less prominent in public affairs during the early history of the township, were Horace Thacher, Lewis Lambert, John Knaggs, Blakesley H. Bush, Josiah Chambers, Julius N. Marsh, Thomas Secor, Sanford L. Collins, L. P. Wing and Amos Trowbridge, each of whom held one or more local offices prior to the Civil war. West Toledo was first laid out in 1854 by Philip I. Phillips, the lots being from eight to ten acres in size. Humboldt addition was laid out in 1873 ; the Morris & Phillips addition, containing 200 lots. and the West Toledo addition, in 1874. A postoffice was established here in 1879, with J. M. Lycan as postmaster. The town is located on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad, and in 1900 reported a population of 1,200. It is an important manufacturing and commercial suburb of the city of Toledo, and more of its history will be found in the chapters relating to the city and the industries of the county. Auburndale was platted in the fall of 1873 by Amasa Bishop. the original plat showing 171 lots, and the place soon became popular as a suburban residence district. It lies south of Woodlawn cemetery and west of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad. In 1874 an addition to Auburndale was laid out west of Auburn avenue and south of Monroe street. The principal thoroughfares in this portion of the suburb are Scott and Milburn avenues, Cone, Bush and Macomber streets. Auburndale is a sub-station of the Toledo post-office. North of Toledo the township is traversed by the Ann Arbor, Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, Michigan Central and Pere Marquette railroads, which form a junction at the little village of Alexis near the state line. The Toledo & Western electric road also passes through the township, thus affording good facilities for travel and transportation to that portion of the county. Washington township's war record compares favorably with the other townships of the county. Sixty-three of her citizens enlisted in the Union army, and of these twelve died in service. David Lewis was in the artillery arm of the service, and Edwin Bishop was a member of the First Connecticut cavalry. The other ten were in Ohio infantry regiments as follows : Edwin Burge, William Giles and Austin Haughton of the Twenty-fifth ; John Ammon of the Thirty-seventh ; Lemuel Crockett of the Forty-seventh ; Miles A. Aldrich and TOWNSHIP HISTOR - 193 Henry Bemor of the One Hundredth ; Solon Lane of the One Hundred and Twenty-third ; William A. Watson, of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth, and Henry Brown of the One Hundred and Thirtieth. SPENCER TOWNSHIP. This township lies in the western tier ; is bounded on the north by Richfield and Sylvania townships, on the east by Springfield, on the south by Springfield, Monclova and Swanton, on the west by Fulton county, and contains an area of twenty-three square miles of arable, fertile land. It was set off from the townships of Swanton and Richfield in March, 1845, by order of the county commissioners, who directed that an election for township officers be held on the first Monday in April at the house of Abraham Johnson. The officers elected at that time were : Trustees, William Brown, Eli Munson and Samuel Coleman ; clerk, Aaron H. Cole ; treasurer, Theron Hamilton ; assessor, Darius Wyatt ; constables, William Taylor and Charles Coarson : overseers of the poor, Aaron Whitacre and John All ; supervisors of highways, William Norris and Benjamin Fairchild. The oath of office was administered to Aaron H. Cole by Benjamin Fairchild, who had previously been elected a justice of the peace in Swanton township, and Mr. Cole in turn swore in the other officers, thus completing the organization of the new township. No justices of the peace were elected at the first election, but on Nov. 11, 1845, Eli Munson, one of the trustees, through his attorneys, Young & Waite, secured an order from the Court of Common Pleas to the effect "that two justices of the peace be elected at the next annual spring election in said township." Notice of election was accordingly promulgated on March 15, 1846, and on April 6, Benjamin Fairchild and William Brown were elected justices of the peace. The former continued to hold office until 1848 and the latter until 1855. On April 15, 1845, the assessor, Darius Wyatt, returned a list of citizens subject to military duty under the laws of Ohio. This list contained nineteen names, as follows : William Brown. Leyi Chapin, Albert Clute, Charles Coarson, Samuel Coleman, Theron Hamilton, Josephus W. Hufftile, David M. Johnson, John Johnson, William Johnson, Levi Munson, Shubal Munson, William Norris, Benjamin Reinhart, John Shull, Thomas Stevenson, William Taylor, Aaron Whitacre and Charles Young.. This roll, however, must not be construed as containing the names of all the settlers, as there were several who had passed the age when they were required to perform military duty. The larger portion of Spencer township is situated in the disputed territory that was claimed by both Ohio and Michigan, and most of the early land entries were made in the land office located at -Monroe, Mich. The first settlers began coming into this section about 1832, and three years later, when the boundary war broke out, there were probably a dozen families living on the disputed strip in what is now Spencer township. Among these early pioneers were 194 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY Bennett Warren, Abraham Johnson, Aaron H. Cole, Benjamin Fairchild, William Taylor, Samuel Coleman, John All, William Brown, Charles Coarson, Gideon Rice and Eli Munson. Aaron H. Cole, who was one of the most active and prominent of the early settlers, was born in Seneca county, New York, Feb. 5, 1813. In March, 1835, he married Lydia Rappleyee and soon afterward came to Lucas county, where the records show that before the close of the year he owned 56o acres of land in Section 33, Range .5, Town 9. He was an itinerant missionary of the Baptist church and was one of the first men to hold religious services in the western part of Lucas county. In 1841 he was regularly ordained to the ministry and during the next twenty years he spent a great deal of his time in helping at his own expense the weak churches in Northwestern Ohio. He was elected clerk of the township when it was organized, in 1845. In 1856 he removed to Grand Blanc, Ohio, where he took charge of a church, and ten years later went to Adrian, Mich., where he died on Oct. 26, 1867. Benjamin Fairchild was born in the State of Connecticut, on May 18, 1794. On May 27, 1827, he married Mercy Pooler, who was born in the State Of New York, Feb. 20, 1810. In the spring of 1834 he came with his wife and two children to Medina county, Ohio, and the following. autumn to what is now Spencer township, entering land in the southwest quarter of Section 6, Town Io, Range 5. Upon the organization of Spencer township he was elected one of the supervisors of highways and later served as justice of the peace for about two years. He died on Dec. 29, 1855. His son Alonzo served as treasurer of the township, school director, and was several times elected trustee. Alonzo Fairchild was one of the original Republicans of Lucas county, having voted for Fremont in 1856. William Taylor, one of the first constables of the township, was also one of the first Republicans in the county. He was president of the "Anti-Nebraska" convention, held at Toledo, on Sept. 2, 1854 was a candidate: for county commissioner on the Republican ticket in 1856, but was defeated by Daniel Segur. He was elected, however, two years later and served until 1864, and was again elected in 1866. From 1852 to 1868 he was treasurer of Spencer township, and prior to that had served one term as trustee. Samuel Coleman settled on the northwest quarter of Section 8, Town To, Range 5, in 1835, and the same year Eli Munson located on the northwest quarter of Section 6, same town and range. Mr. Munson served as school director and was one of the first trustees of Spencer. His son Levi continued to live for many years after his father's death on the old homestead. When these men and their associates first came into the township the nearest point from which supplies could be obtained was Maumee, and as there were no roads; it was no unusual thing for a settler to walk the ten or twelve miles through the woods, carrying home a few necessary articles on his back. Maumee was also the nearest postoffice until an office was established at East Swanton, in Swanton township, though the latter was afterward removed to TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 195 Swanton village. Indians were more numerous than whites and almost daily small parties of them roamed through the settlements, though they were generally friendly, and except for their disposition to beg favors the settlers r were rarely molested. Some idea of the hardships endured by the early settlers may be gained from the following statement of one of them as related in Clark Waggoner's History of Toledo and Lucas County : "The first mill I remember of going to get corn ground was a concern run by oxen. They walked round, hitched to a pole or shaft. It was gotten up by a man by the name of Berry, near what is now Ai, in Fulton county. It was not much of a mill—a sort of coarse corn-cracker, like. Sometimes we went to Blissfield, Mich., to mill, and afterward to Waterville. After the mill was built at the latter place it was the best and the nearest, but it often took from one to three days to get a grist, the settlers coming from all around and waiting their turn. I have slept there all night on the bags. and at one time two nights, waiting for my grist. The usual mode of going to the mill was with oxen, when one was well enough off to have such but most of the settlers were poor and had to put up with great hardships. Sometimes men would go out and work at some odd job for a bushel or two of corn; take it on their backs to mill wait for it to be ground : and return With the proceeds to their lonely cabins and anxiously waiting families, often at night, through the Clark forests. Money was very scarce, prices high and most of the settlers poor. The land was wet, and chills and fever prevailed. The country is now ditched and made healthy compared with what it was. Most of the pioneers, however, were hardy and strong men, and could stand almost anything." The first schoolhouse in Spencer township was built in 1836, on the farm of Eli Munson. There was then no regularly organized school district there, but the settlers, feeling the need of some educational opportunities for their children, got together and erected a log cabin with puncheon floor and clapboard roof, the boards being held in place by poles laid lengthwise, nails being too scarce to be used except in cases of the most dire necessity. The door was made of thin puncheons pinned together and hung on wooden hinges. A few panes of glass served for a window, and on dark, cloudy days it was a lucky pupil who happened to have his seat near this tiny source of light. A huge fire-place at one end completed the equipment. The first school in this house was taught in the winter of 1836-37 by Chester Holloway. During the 'Civil war fifty-eight men went from Spencer township to aid in the preservation of the Union, and of these fifteen never returned to their homes, sacrificing their lives upon the altar of their country. They were all in infantry regiments, to-wit : John Coon and John E. Hadley of the First Michigan ; James Carroll: John M. Houser. Benjamin Hufftile and Eliakim Munson of the Fourteenth Ohio ; Benjamin Sutton of the Twenty-eighth Ohio; Jacob Ruda and John Schneider of the Thirty-seventh Ohio James Brocken, Robert Fairchild and Jacob Wolf of the Sixty-seventh Ohio William Bemis 196 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY of the One Hundredth Ohio; David S. Randolph of the One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Ohio, and Michael Langenderfer of the One Hundred and Eighty-ninth Ohio. In 1900 the population of Spencer township was 769, an increase of 127 during the preceding decade. MONCLOVA TOWNSHIP. On March 7, 1853, a number of citizens living in what is now Monclova township, submitted to the board of county commissioners a petition asking for the formation of a new township to be called Monclova. A remonstrance was also filed with the board. On the 9th the commissioners granted a hearing to both sides and then took the matter under advisement until the 14th, when the petition was granted and territory was taken from Swanton, Waynesfield and Springfield townships to form Monclova. The early records of the township have been lost, but it is known that the first election of officers occurred on the first Monday in April, 1853, and that soon after that date the board of education met at the residence of B. F. Barnes and organized by electing as chairman J. 0. Allen, who was also appointed acting manager of the schools. Warren B. Gunn was the first township clerk. Monclova lies southwest of the city of Toledo, touching the Maumee river at the head of the rapids, and is bounded on the north by Spencer and Springfield townships ; on the east by Springfield township and Maumee City ; on the southeast by the Maumee river ; on the south by the township of Waterville, and on the west by Waterville and Swanton. Swan creek flows in a northeasterly direction through the central part, and on the south bank of this stream, near the center of the township, is located the village of Monclova. The first settlements in the Maumee valley were made in the vicinity of the rapids. and some of the earliest pioneers of Lucas county located in what is now Monclova township. Among these were William and Samuel Ewing, who settled there early in the Nineteenth century. Samuel Ewing built the first mill on Swan creek, where the village of Monclova now stands, prior to the War of 1812, and his son Anthony, born in 1808, is said to have been the first white child born in the township. Knapp's History of the Maumee Valley says that when war was declared, in 1812, Peter Manor brought the news to the settlers at Monclova and the rapids, these places then being the only white settlements between Lower Sandusky and Frenchtown (now Monroe, Mich.). In 1815 the Learning brothers; Ephraim H. and Thomas, carpenters and millwrights, came from Livingston county, New York, to Perrysburg. When the Reserve lands were offered for sale, in 1817, they purchased a tract on Swan creek and removed there early the following year. They rebuilt the old Ewing mill and manufactured much of the lumber for residences at Maumee City, the limber being hauled from the mill by ox teams. When Ephraim H. Learning came from New York he was accompanied by his wife (Mary) and their three children—Maria, Ephraim and Thomas H. Maria became the wife of Anson Reed, in January, TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 197 1834, and passed the remainder of her life in the township, dying. at a ripe old age. Ephraim was drowned in the Maumee river at Perrysburg about two years after the family came from New York. Thomas H., the youngest of the three children, was born in the State of New York, Jan. 27, 1814. He married Huldah, daughter of Charles Merrill, who came from Maine and settled in Amboy township (now Fulton county), and their son, W. G. Learning, was elected clerk of the township in 1887. Thomas H. Leaming died at his home in the village of Monclova, on part of the old family homestead, June 21, 1885, and at the time of his death was the oldest male inhabitant of the township. He was for several years the president of the Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. About a year before the Leamings came to the township, Daniel Murray settled on the bank of Dry creek and continued to live there until 1824. During the decade from 1830 to 1840 a number of families located within the present limits of Monclova township. In 1831 Hezekiah Hubbell bought of the government the east half of the northwest quarter of section 5, Town r, United States reserve, where he built his cabin, and in 1833 he entered the west half of the northwest quarter of section 32, Town 2. He married Anna Steel and they became the parents of five children. One son, C. L. Hubbell, was for many years engaged in merchandizing at Monclova, besides being the proprietor of the hotel there, the village postmaster, and otherwise prominent in local affairs. A daughter, Clarinda, married William Wilson, a son of Judge Wilson, who laid out the town of Sylvania, in 1836. Hezekiah Hubbell died in 1846. Conrad Coder settled near Monclova village in 1834. He had a family of fifteen children, a majority of whom grew to years of maturity and lived in the township. W. W. Coder, a son of Conrad, was clerk of the township for several years and was for over twenty years justice of the peace. Another son, Jeremiah, served as one of the township trustees. Peter P. Bateman entered the east half of the northwest quarter of section 24, but sold it and bought land in the River Tract, where he left his sons, William A. and Frederick, a valuable estate. George Allen, a native of County Tyrone, Ireland. bought land from the government in. 1834 and died in the township in 1870, aged seventy years. Other early settlers were John Strayer, William Weible, Adam Black, Conrad Noble and Henry Heffelbower. John Strayer was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1811, and when about four years old his father, Peter Strayer, removed to Stark county, Ohio. In 1832, when the son attained to his majority, he came to Lucas county and purchased the southeast quarter of section 33, Town 2, of the United States Reserve. In the spring of 1833 he built a cabin on his land and the following August married Susan Schwartz, a native of Harrison county, Ohio, and brought his bride to their frontier home. Indians frequently visited the Strayer cabin, but never committed any depredations against the family, with whom they were always on friendly terms. Mr. and Mrs. Strayer reared a family of ten children. Two sons—John and Daniel—were soldiers in the Union army during the Civil war, enlisting as privates in Company 198 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY I, Fourteenth Ohio infantry. John died at Ringgold, Ga., April i1, 1864. Daniel served until the close of the war and then became a prosperous farmer of Monclova township, where four surviving brothers and sisters also lived. The parents celebrated their golden wedding on Aug. 27, 1883, though both have since then passed to their reward in the life eternal. John Strayer was a Whig until the formation of the Republican party, and cast his first vote for President for Gen. W. H. Harrison. During the Civil war Monclova township furnished 111 soldiers and marines to uphold the cause of the United States government. Of these, twenty-four died in the service and six were wounded or disabled. In 1870 a monument was erected in the cemetery at Monclova to commemorate the deeds of the township's brave sons who answered their country's call when threatened by the hand of secession. One of the most prominent in securing subscriptions to the monument fund was John Weible, whose father was one of the pioneer settlers of the township. John Weible was born in. Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Dec. 21, 1815, and was the oldest of eleven children born to William N. and Hannah (Lose) Weible, both of German descent. William Weible, the father, was born on June 15, 1788, while his parents were on board ship on their way to America. John grew to manhood in his native State of Pennsylvania, where he acquired a good common-school education and learned the trade of carpenter. In 1853, the year Monclova township was organized, he became a resident of that township and engaged in agricultural pursuits, which he continued to follow during the balance of his active years. He was for six years justice of the peace, was active in Sunday school work, served as director of the county infirmary, and was in many ways interested in promoting the welfare of the men who imperiled their lives in defense of the Union during the Civil war. Another former citizen of Monclova township who deserves special mention in connection with the great Civil war is Christopher Ruckel. Waggoner's History of Toledo and Lucas County says (p. 222) : "Christopher Ruckel, of Monclova, had six sons in the Union army during the Rebellion, of whom but two survived in August, 1865, viz : Daniel, who served in the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth, and Henry, in the Fourteenth Ohio regiment. The names of the four who died were as follows : David, in the Fourteenth Ohio ; John, in the One Hundredth Ohio ; Philip, in the Sixtieth Ohio, and George, in the Sixth Michigan cavalry. George was killed on the 11th and Philip on the 17th of June, 1864, both near Petersburg, Va. David was shot while beside his brother Henry. The father was a native of Ireland, and had resided many years in Monclova. Few parents were permitted to make the sacrifice upon their adopted country's altar, that was allowed to him. Such a family is entitled to special recognition and lasting remembrance on the part of those who now: and in the years to come shall enjoy the rich boon of free government, secured to them through such sacrifice." Monclova village is older than the township, having been laid out in May, 1836. by Hezekiah Hubbell and 0. H. Beatty. It is located TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 199 near the center of the township, is one mile from Monclova station on the Wabash railroad, and is a commercial center for a considerable district of the surrounding country. A postoffice was established at Monclova in 1854, with Benjamin F. Barnes as the first postmaster. The population of the village in 1900 was 237, and at the same census the township reported a population of 1,031. ADAMS TOWNSHIP. This township was set off from Port Lawrence, Washington, Waynesfield, Sylvania and Springfield townships on Dec. 3, 1856. when the following resolution was adopted by the board of county commissioners: "Resolved, by the commissioners of Lucas county, that the territory heretofore belonging to the township of Port Lawrence, and which was on the 2d day of December, A. D. 1856, set off from said township of Port Lawrence and annexed to the township of Springfield. together with sections Nos. 4, 5 and 6 in town No. 3, United States Reserye; the south fractional half of sections Nos. 31, 32, 33 and 34 in town No. 9, S. R. 7 E.; the south fractional half of section No. 36, T. 9, S. of R. 6 E.: sections Nos. I, 2 and 12 the east half of sections Nos. 11. 14 and 23. and fractional sections 13 and 24. all in town 2, U. S. R. ; fractional section No. 19, town 3, U. S. R.; all that part of private grants Nos. 575, 578, 579, 580 and 581, which was formerly in Springfield township; also all that territory which was formerly in Waynesfield township, lying northeast of priyate grant No. 581, extending to the center of the Maumee river ; thence down the river to the southwest corner of the city of Toledo. be established as the township of Carey ; and that the first meeting for the election of officers for said new township be held at the house of Henry Driyer on Dec. 22, 1856. At that election the trustees chosen were Peter H. Shaw, J. P. Hill and Darius Mills. George W. Norton was elected clerk and Elisha Mulford, treasurer. The township continued under the name of Carey until 1860, when the name was changed to Adams. It is located in the central part of the county, being bounded on the north by Sylvania and Washington townships ; on the east by the Maumee river, the city of Toledo, which extends into the township for some distance, and Washington. township : on the south by Maumee City, and on the west by Springfield and Sylyania townships. Swan creek flows through the central portion of the township in an easterly direction, and the northern part is drained by tributaries of the Ottawa river. The soil is fertile and quite a number of the inhabitants are engaged in truck. farming, the city of Toledo furnishing a conyenient and ready market for their products. It is generally belieyed that Orlando Bushnell was the first settler in what is now Adams township. In 1833 he located on the east half of the northwest quarter of section 1. township 2, of the United States Reserve, where he built a log cabin, which was the first edifice erected by ciyilized man in that part of Lucas county. It is related of Mr. Bushnell that he refused to provide whisky for his "house.