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200 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY FIFTEEN SUGGESTIVE NAMES IN HAT One night when a group of congenial spirits lingered at the Daniels cabin, some one suggested that it was time a name were given to the wilderness community. A hat was passed and fifteen suggestive names were dropped into it. By the process of elimination, the last name in the hat was Lima. While the reference volumes all attribute the name to Patrick W. Goode, who came into the commnity advancing Sunday school propaganda—the Sunday school being contemporary with the first community development, Ezekiel Owen recalls a James Daniels, Jr., who attained to the age of ninety years, who always maintained that the slip bearing the name Lima had been cast into the hat by his father-the owner of the house in which the christening occurred, although general credence never attached to the story. It is said the guests at the Daniels cabin were attaches of the court spending the night in the temporary temple of justice, and then the query arises as to where they procured the paper used in casting their ballots. One account says that by the process of elimination only three ballots remained in the hat, and when they were shuffled again Lima was the last word in naming the town. There is no inkling of other names, and today none are inclined to change it, Kaleidoscopic Lima! Watch it grow ! The Allen County capital is an ambitious town with the smoke of industry curling above it, and the footfall of commerce surging through it. Just a thought in retrospect—in 1872, the Lima Wheel Works made all the wood parts in wagon and buggy wheels. There was a hub and spoke works operated by James Irvin, and about that period Frank Gardner, a Lima blacksmith, devised a rubber cushion horse shoe to relieve the jar on the animal's foot when driven on the hard surface streets. That long ago the horse breeding industry characterized Allen County farmsteads. Some on writing of that period said : "I remember when Lima visitors were shown the poor farm, the cemetery and the paper mill," but in a later chapter the Lima of today will be revealed as shown in the survey recently completed under the direction of the Chamber of Commerce. Whether it was James Daniels, Sr., or Patrick G. Goode who dropped the name Lima in the hat that night in the Daniels cabin when the "town HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 201 was a bornin'," it is said that Goode objected to the pronunciation as heard today. He advocated the Spanish accent Leemah. It is popularly understood that whoever christened it, the name was taken from the capital of Peru, a busy metropolis in South America. Peruvian bark and quinine were obtained from there—the latter a' necessity in the early history of Lima. Since custom makes language, and English prevails in Allen County the Americanized word is heard today. While he lived, Mr. Goode did not forget the "contrariness" of Limaites with reference to the Spanish origin of the name Lima. While he was never a resident of Allen County, he was a Sunday school missionary and later a politician known throughout Northwestern Ohio. The Williams County records say that Patrick G. Goode delivered the first political speech at Pulaski—the first settlement in the northwestern most county of Ohio. Why should the historian of today attempt to divest any one of his glory, and it remains an open question—was it Daniels or Goode that suggested the name for Lima ? James Peltier is credited with being the first merchant in Lima, since in 1828 he had a trading post established in his cabin on the site of the town. At the beginning Peltier operated the trading post for Carlin and Company of Findlay. In 1831, he acquired the ownership of the stock and two years later he sold it to Henry Lippincott. When John F. Cole arrived in 1831, he had a contract with the man who brought him into the unbroken wilderness that he was to live in the wagon until such time as he could build a cabin. It was February and a cold winter. His cabir was twelve by fourteen feet in the clear, and thus Lima was rapidly becoming a place of residence. It is a matter of record that Levi Saint who operated a tannery and bought hides and pelts from the Indians built the first brick house in Allen County. He became well-to-do through his immense trade in leather. While Lima was on the map before there was any local record, June 6, 1831, it was not fully organized until March 29, 1842, when Henry DeVilliers Williams became its first mayor. It was the mother of Zeb edee's children who sought the places of honor for her sons, and the pages of history accord first place to different characters. Susanna Russell Marshall has gone down in history as The Daughter of Allen County, and two months later Francis Diltz was born at Fort Amanda Moses McClure was the first white child born after the name had beer given to Allen County. Maria Mitchell Brown, born February 5, 1832 may with equal propriety be called The Daughter of Lima, the father Absalom Brown, having arrived in the spring of 1831, and he brought hi: family to Lima in September before the birth of a daughter in February While there was no cradle roll in the wilderness days of Allen Count] history, the records of today do not show all the details in the increase of population. One account says this daughter of Lima was name( Marion, and that she was given the middle name of Mitchell because o the friendly offices of a neighbor woman at the time of her birth. While James Peltier is mentioned as a merchant, the records say Absalon Brown was the first citizen. While Tolson Ford lived in Auglaize Town ship, he is said to have been connected with the early industrial life o Lima-the seat of government in Allen County. OTTAWA SWALLOWED UP BY LIMA It was in May, 1857, that Ottawa Township came into existence While there had been no juggling with county boundaries since 184E Lima was spreading out into so many townships that Ottawa was create( HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 203 in order to shelter it. Hitherto Lima was in Bath and spreading into other townships. In order to provide space Ottawa was created with 1,600 acres taken from Bath ; 1,040 acres from German, now American ; 560 acres from Perry, and a quarter section from Shawnee. This seemed to be liberal allowance for the future growth of the seat of justice in Allen County. More than three score years have cycled into eternity since the establishment of Ottawa as a township, and today it is not recognized only in the election of a justice of the peace, constables and by the county infirmary board of directors. For many years the sins of Lima have been visited upon Ottawa, the township a nonentity and Lima the unit of the tax duplicates. The average resident does not take Ottawa Township into consideration at all. The City of Lima is coextensive with it. While the 1920 Lima city directory contains many names of recent acquisition, the settlers in Bath transferred to Ottawa were : Rigdon, Bates, Clark, Woodruff, Boose, Saxton, Maulsby, Moore, Grimes, Daniels, Lippincott, Edwards, Mitchell, Van Horn, English, Standiford, Shaw and Crosby. Those transferred from American were : Mitchell, Hatfield, Hursey, Jenkins, Vaughn, James, Kennedy, Perry, Seeman, Evans, Schenck, Keve, McDonel, Cole and Brown. Those from Perry : Lippincott, Hawthorne, Ridenour, Dugan, Swinehart, Daniels, Chenoweth, Dobbins, Bowers, Franklin, Rudy, Hover, Carlile and Adgate. Those in Ottawa from Shawnee : Chaffee, Campbell, Hover and Porter. The 1920 Ottawa Township census report including Lima is 41,306, an increase of more than 10,000 since the 1910 census. Since the bulk of Allen County's population-68,203—is in the city of Lima, further attention will be given it. PERRY TOWNSHIP IN HISTORY While Perry Township was given its identity in 1833, it was not until a year later that organization was effected in it. While its first settlement was in 1830, John Ridenour found nothing but a wilderness there. There were Shawnees along the Ottawa River (Hog Creek) and the warriors often visited him. Ridenour was a hunter and Chief Quilna, known as the pathfinder among the Shawnees, was a frequent guest at his cabin. There were three sons and four daughters in the Ridenour family and when the Shawnees were being deported, John Ridenour obtained a pony from them that was owned by Pht. The consideration was a fence around the grave of the chieftain, but if it was ever placed there the spot is unmarked today. One account says the pony was given to Andrew Russell for fencing the grave, but since he died in 1828 that seems an uncertainty. It is said the pony lived to the age of twenty-eight years. Were the exact location of the grave known today, some patriotic Allen County organization would look after it. It is a matter of record that the spot was leveled so that none would ever be able to locate it. While Ridenour was the first settler, Joseph Crossley, who had been a soldier under Anthony Wayne, and who burned the first brick kiln in Lima in 1833, located in Perry the following year, and in April, 1834, the organization was effected in his house. While Crossley had been a scout in the wilderness he became a valuable citizen in the community. The Perry settlers were : Skilling, Ridenour, Crossley, Chenoweth, Bowman, Hefner, McClain, Budd, Curtis, Crooks, Faze, Funk, Logan, Lippincott, Moore, Moss, McPherson, Miller, Stevenson, Jacobs, Wonnel, Bowdle, Ditzler, Severn, Schooler, Tussing, Martin, Rankin, Baker, HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 205 Voorhis, Daniels, Ice, Hawthorn and Franklin. While there are no towns in Perry, Amherst, Warsaw and South Warsaw are mentioned as community centers. An early writer says that in 1840 Perry Township presented a most primitive appearance, that while the lands were all taken up, the locality was heavily timbered and settlers were slow in making improvements. James C. Hullinger built a cabin in 1840, and it was one and one-half miles to his nearest neighbor's house. The 1920 census report credits 1,333 persons as residing in Perry Township ; the wealth of the community lies in its agriculture. RICHLAND-BLUFFTON AND BEAVER DAM When Richland Township effected its organization in 1835 it was with authority granted in Putnam County. It remained contingent to Putnam County until 1848, when there was another shifting of county boundaries. In that year a tier of sections was taken from Riley Township in Putnam County and attached to Marion, hitherto a congressional township, thereby giving to it forty-two square miles and attaching it to Allen County. This tier of sections from Riley Township makes Allen County nineteen miles wide across its eastern group of townships. It was a Putnam County shoemaker, David Miller, who suggested the name and petitioned for the organization of Richland. He had come from Richland County; after the area was cleared of timber, the name seemed to apply well to the community. While the heavily timbered land was the difficulty, it proved to be excellent country. There is a case of evolution in the name of Bluffton. When the town was organized in 1838 it was called Shannon. While an Ohio governor has been honored in naming it, because of another Shannon the postoffice was called Crogham, and the change was in order to have the same name for the town and the postoffice. Jacob Mosier, who had come from Bluffton, Indiana, suggested the name of Bluffton. The matter HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 207 of changing the name was voted on August 17, 1861, and the town was duly incorporated as Bluffton. In 1833 Joseph DeFord, recognizing the future possibilities of the town located on Riley Creek, built the first cabin there. An imaginative writer says : "Riley Creek, like a silver thread woven into a fabric of green evolved from summer's sun and dews, winds its way among fertile valleys, reflecting in its pellucid bosom the comfortable homes of a happy and contented people," and that is the Bluffton of today. An old account says that when Richard Hathaway built a mill on Riley Creek in 1840 it was a source of joy in the sparsely settled community. It marked the end of hand-grinding—grating, or "niggering" the corn, and it stopped the long journeys to mill at Gilboa in Putnam and to towns in other counties. While Mr. Hathaway only had two large mill stones, the lower one solid and the upper one revolving upon it, an iron rod holding them in position and affording the power, it was of signal advantage to the settlers. Some one has said of it: "The banks are by the mill site, but not a shred of the mill is left by the dam site," and such a mill would prove a curiosity today. In 1840 Daniel L. Goble had a store in Bluffton ; his son, George Goble, hauled the supplies from Piqua, and if he had good luck it required a week for him to make the return journey. When he went away the load was rags, hides and pelts and when he returned it was clothing, dry goods and whisky. Henry Carter also "wagoned" to Piqua at the time, using four horses. Bluffton has been compared to the city of Jerusalem-beautiful for situation, a city set on a hill and the water runs away in all directions. Early day land activities in Richland attracted an excellent class of settlers, and the Mennonite people are genuine community builders. It is said that the animal shows of the past always stopped at Bluffton because they attracted visitors there from both Lima and Findlay. It was not until 1853 that Beaver Dam became an organized community center. There is a legend that the beavers had constructed two dams in the vicinity, holding the water between them, although residents today know nothing more about it. Frederick Shull was the man of the hour in the early history of Beaver Dam. 208 -.HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY Among the settlers in Richland were : Shank, Goble, Carter, Amstutz, Armstott, Augsberger, Bechtel, Berry, Clarke, Bixler, Bixell, Burtley, Brannan, Basinger, Bagley, Bliss, Barnum, Bucher, Cribley, Craig, Combs, Cunningham, Close, Carnahan, Cope, Creighton, Charlton, Campbell, Cox, DeFord, Caskel, Dally, Harn, Donald, Depler, Davis, Devault, Everhard, Elliott, Everett, Freit, Feitner, Forgy, Goble, Gratz, Galloway, Gringer, Godfrey, Greiger, Goil, Hayes, Hauenstein, Hoffman, Huder, Hidge, Hostetter, Hilty, Hughes, Henderson, Hand, Hoffman, Higerly, Hartman, Ives, James, Johnston, Koebler, Karnes, Lyons, Lugibihl, Luke, Lee, Meeks, Mattis, Moser, Machan, Marshall, Musser, Milligan, McHenry, Myers, Murray, Neff, Neiswander, Owens, Overholt, Pengle, Palmer, Pier, Rearman, Reed, Roof, Roberts, Richards, Rothman, Steller, Stefferly, Shank, Shull, Smetz, Sawhill, Shumaker, Shinaberry, Shipley, Strow, Thompson, Templeton, Taylor, Umphrey, Vannansinger, Welty, Watson, Waggoner, Yoder, Young and Zercher. Perhaps there is direct relation between those early community names and the Mennonite community centering about Bluffton today. The 1920 census report of Richland, including Bluffton and Beaver Dam, is 3,992 - liberal thing to say 4,000—and it is a thrifty community. SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP IN HISTORY As has been shown already, Shawnee Township was distinctively the stronghold of the Indians. It took its name from the tribe living there-the Shawnees. The township was formally organized December 1, 1834, being set off from the Hog Creek Reservation. In 1848 Shawnee lost a tier of sections to Auglaize County, and again in 1857 it lost another quarter section to Ottawa. It is the historic section of Allen HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 209 County. It was included in the Hog Creek Indian Reservation and covered by the treaty of September 29, 1817, the area then being ceded to Pe-Aitch-Ta or Fallen Timber, and Onowaskemo, the Resolute Man. While Hume is the only village in Shawnee, there was once a Shawnee- town and a secondary Indian village in the area now called Shawnee. The Allen County Children's Home adjoins the site of Shawneetown. There are few reminders of the Shawnees anywhere today. The oil development in Shawnee and Lima industries within the township placed it ahead on its road improvements. While some townships must practice rigid economy in the matter of their highways, the immense tax levied in Shawnee gives it many advantages. Besides the wealth of its agriculture it has the tax accruing from the property of the Solar Refinery, the Garford Truck and Manufacturing Company, and the Ohio Steel Foundry Company—and thus what Lima loses from its tax duplicate is gained by Shawnee. The community centers in Shawnee are : Hume, Kempton and Snyder. The Harpster House in Shawnee, built in 1839, was made from logs once used in building the Indian houses there. Today it is a matter of regret with many that this old landmark was not preserved in the community. While Ezekiel Hover once lived in the Shawnee Council House, it is said that Joseph Hover built the first frame house in Shawnee. The Hover homestead later became the site of the Solar Refinery, and it is known that the first frame house in Shawnee was the second frame house in Allen County. Among the Shawnee settlers were : Breese, Sharp, Crider, Maltbic, De Long, Brant, Harpster, Yoakam, Zurnahley, Mowery, Coon, Dennison, Darling, Spiker, Hall, Anthony, McGrady, Nye, Shappell, Boyd, Bowsher, Stapleton, Edman, Flynn, Dowling, Hover, Adgate, Reed, Sprague, Decoursey, Edwards, Fritz, Rose, Hale, Daniels, Lowrie, Royer and Rusler. Thus it is shown that the "Sage of Shawnee," who is supervising editor, is descended from a pioneer family in Allen County. The 1920 population is given as 1,635, and a conservative people now occupies the hunting ground of the Shawnees in Allen County. SPENCER TOWNSHIP AND SPENCERVILLE While Spencer is the smallest township in Allen County, having an area of only twenty-three square miles, it has had territory added to it from Amanda Township in Allen, from Salem Township in Mercer, and from Jennings Township in Van Wert. The records are silent as to what formed the nucleus of Spencer. William Spencer of Newark, who was a member of the State Board of Public Works, was active in securing the Erie Canal which passes through the township, and he was honored with the name of it. The Mercer County tract was organized in 1834, while the Van Wert organization was effected in 1836, and it was not until 1848 that Spencer became an organized township, the principal town known as Arcadia. However, there was another Arcadia, and A. C. Harter and other citizens petitioned for the name to be changed to Spencerville. There are many Erie canal stories told by the older residents of Spencerville, and there is a water mill there still turned by a special arrangement—a flood gate lifted and the wheels are in motion. They tell of the deep cut along the Erie Canal south of Spencerville ; while there is a stretch of nine miles between locks in the vicinity, the deep cut is about two miles away, and one time it bid fair to become a town. It is said the banks are fifty feet high, and it was an engineering feat to cut through the elevation there. Because of the depth Vol. I-14 210 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY of the canal at this point, it was the meeting place for the canal workers— the construction gangs—and sometimes there was bad blood among them. There were frequent fights and whisky flowed like water. Had Spencerville sprang up at the deep cut, the matter of drainage would have been a different proposition. However, the Erie Railroad caused the town to spread in the other direction. The water supply in the Erie Canal comes from the reservoir at St. Marys, and with the forebay it is an easy matter to start the mill machinery. An old account says of the beginning of things at Spencerville that the town was platted as Arcadia in 1845 by Conover, McConnell and Tyler of Dayton, who invested in 350 acres of land and located a mill there. It was in 1867 that it became an incorporated town. The settlers were : Peterbaugh, Van Horn, Southworth, Young, Brown, Farver and, a little later : Wykoff, Marquand, Davenport, Perkins, Skillman, Schon, Tyler, Hockenberry, Coleman, Hittell, Smith, Mitgen, Davis, Coil, Kephart, Osborne, Lockhead, Jones, Counts, Webb, DeHart, Smith, Harvey, Reese, Hall, Mercer, Sheeter, Oard, Walters, Barnes, Purdy, May, Sweeney, Carey, Norbeck, Bush, Bice, Place, Santo, McCollister, Keckel, Morehead, Delaney, Post, Bowers, Brecht, Hooker, Yockey, Maxwell, Bayman, Vaughn, Suman, Boyer, Herring, Book, Wool- ford, Hill, Bixby, Keeth, Farmer, Evans, Pritchard, Duffey, Fair, Cook, Dunham, Starr, Field, Conkle, Archer, Rench, Harter, Hummell, McMullen, Bope, Lye, Marshall, Hood, Adams, McKenna, Shaffer, Sheets, Price, Peterson and Clark. It is said that Johnzy Keeth did more to promote the business interests of Spencerville than any other citizen. He one time owned the farm land from the town to the Auglaize River, and when the Chicago and Erie Railroad was in prospect he at once granted the right of way through his land and helped secure the privilege from others. His name appears in different forms : Keeth, Keith and Keath, and abstracts require identification in reconciling the different spellings of the name. It is said the early justices of the peace-C. C. Marshall, John G. Hill, W. H. Hill and William Court—omitted details as to whether a man was married or single, and today such facts have to be established in HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 211 making deeds to property. The recent census shows the population of Spencer, including Spencerville, as 2,464, and the business interests of community are safeguarded by the Spencerville Progressive Association. The business community meets every requirement and the Allen Furniture Manufacturing Company, and the Dress Skirt Company offer employment to both male and female labor in the town. SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP AND GOMER Sugar Creek and the Welsh settlement are inseparable in the history of Allen County. When local organization was effected in 1831, it was part of Putnam County. When the change of boundary occurred in 1848, there remained a Sugar Creek in Putnam and the twenty-four square miles awarded to Allen County retained the same name-Sugar Creek. The locality takes its name from the number of sugar trees and the sugar camps once operated there, the Indians always manufacturing sugar in that locality. Since 1833 the Welsh have predominated there. The Nicholas, Watkins and Roberts families were simultaneous in the community. These three Welsh families came from Butler County. They came from Paddy's Run, and because of the pike fish in the stream they named it Pike Run when they located in Allen County. The Nicholas, Watkins and Roberts families were seven days en route, traveling by wagon from Paddy's Run to Pike Run over the roughest kind of roads, sometimes chopping their way through the forest, and they camped by a large oak log until cabins were built for all of them. Their land had been purchased in advance, and thus was founded the prosperous Welsh community. The howling of the wolves and the hooting of the owls did not deter them as they braved the dangers of the frontier. Each man helped the others in building their cabins, and there always has been co-operation in the Welsh community. Clapboards and weight poles presented no mysteries to them, and with Mother Earth as a floor they were soon at home in Allen County. For a time they -hung bed quilts at the door, the split board doors coming later when they found time to make them. Other Welsh settlers soon located there, coming from different localities in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and later many came direct from Wales to the wilderness of Sugar Creek. Among the Welsh settlers were : Porter, Gray, Turner, Sarber, Clevenger, Martin, Wisely, Ramsey, Jones, Watkins, Nicholas, Roberts, Griffiths, Evans, Morgan, Stephens, Thomas, Chidlaw, Powell, Williams, 212 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY Davies, Perry, Price, Peate, Tudor, Bebb, Whittington, Humphreys, Breese and Arthur. With the love of God and music firmly imbedded in their natures, there was nothing left for the Welsh people but a prosperous future. Gomer is a village of retired farmers and "Sweet Auburn ! Loveliest Village of the Plain" accurately describes it. Sugar Creek is a fine agricultural community and, said a man in Gomer : "This is a thrifty community. There are fine barns on the farm and good cattle in the fields," and that is but an echo from many other localities in Allen County. While seventy-five per cent of the citizenry in Sugar Creek is of Welsh blood, "America First" is the community motto. In the Nicholas story of the Welsh settlement is the statement that Ellis Francis had the first Elias Howe sewing machine, but today the whole community, as the rest of Allen County, enjoys the use of all modern contrivances. Gomer was laid out in 1850 by James Nicholas and Samuel Ramsey, and it has always been known wherever the Welsh had communities. It stretches away into pretty door yards with the houses painted white, and enough shrubbery to beautify the lawns. The Lincoln Highway is the main thoroughfare, and the maples along it are a monument to D. D. Nicholas, whose recollections are found in manuscript in different homes and in the churches of the community. On September 13, 1918, the Welsh held a meeting commemorating seventy-five years of their local history. When the Nicholas, Watkins and Roberts families located there, they may have had a vision that in time their fame would be heralded around the world. The 1920 census gives the population as 1,083, showing a loss of five persons in ten years. While every town has its individuality, Gomer is specially favored from the viewpoint of beauty. The incorporated places in Allen County are: Beaver Dam, with a population numbering 394; Bluffton, 1,950; Delphos (in Allen County), 3,169; Elida, 509; Harrod, 389; Lafayette, 383; Lima, 41,306; Spencerville, 1,543 ; West Cairo, 380, showing that out of a total population of 68,203 in Allen County, only 17,180 persons live in the country. The average population of the twelve townships not including Ottawa is not quite 1,500, and yet the son of the soil must feed the world. "I am the vine and ye are the branches," and in the ensuing pages everything shall be written in terms of Allen County. However, due effort will be made to give proper credit to the different towns and townships constituting Allen County. CHAPTER XVIII THE WHOLE WORLD KIN Some one has said: "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin," and in the pages of this centennial history the purpose is to write about everything in terms of Allen County. It is related that the time came when the slogan "Lima never failed" had to be reconstructed, and it appeared again, "Allen County never failed," and it develops that in its first half century of local history the population was mostly from the older Ohio counties, notwithstanding the Dayton colony at Fort Amanda. While Allen County began its separate existence February 12, 1820, it is little wonder that for eleven years it was attached to Mercer County. In June, 1826, Morgan Lippincott, Joseph Wood and Benjamin Dolph, thinking they were the only settlers in the county, went out hunting in the woods and came across the McClure settlement, Samuel McClure thinking himself alone. The Jacobs and Purdy families were along Sugar Creek about that time and neither knew of the other. An old account says that John P. Mitchell walked nine miles to a mill and brought home a bushel of corn meal on his back and that he divided it among half a dozen families, showing the neighborly spirit had early manifestation. Who said anything about the hospitality of the past? Conditions are different today. It is said there are lone individuals in Allen County who have at least 100 blood kin—always a lot of relatives when there is money—but none are called upon to divide their scanty store. As time has cycled by, the small clearings of the settlers have expanded into splendid farmsteads, and the wilderness has been transformed into the fields of waving grain. There is "plenty in basket and store" for all. Statisticians show that the most favorable portion of the world, all things considered, is a zone extending around the globe only a few degrees in width north and south of the fortieth parallel of north latitude; within this zone the world's greatest events have transpired, here have lived the largest number of the world's greatest men and women. Allen County is within this zone. While the year 1843 is on record as the coldest in history, the temperature in January, 1918, duplicated it. Saturday, January 12, 1918, was an outstanding day in the history of Allen County; those who quit their homes did it from necessity. The year 1919 was prolific of windstorms in Allen and adjoining counties ; in the afternoon, November 29, 1919, a "twister" visited Amanda Township, unroofing buildings, destroying trees and doing much damage ; at the farm of Ira E. Coon it brought disaster. Mr. Coon owns and operates a dairy and about 4 :00 o'clock, accompanied by his wife and two sons, he went to the barn to do the milking; a few minutes later the sky darkened and a hugh black wall of clouds, accompanied by a terrific wind, was headed in their direction. They immediately recognized their danger. Mr. Coon and the twelve-year-old boy rushed to the north side of the barn to secure the doors ; they had not reached them when a titanic rush of the tornado forced down the walls and sides of the building. The dismayed father called to the son with him to run east to the gate opening into the road. Just at this time the entire building collapsed and Mr. Coon was frantic from fear for the safety of his wife and tenyear-old son. As the debris of the wreck had been flung toward the - 213 - 214 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY north he hurried to the south side of the barn in search of his wife and son. In the meantime the woman had noticed the increased force of the wind, and she saw the walls giving way. Realizing that she could not escape toward the house with her son, she clasped him in her arms and threw herself into the concrete trench at the back of the stalls. As it happened, this trench was wide and deep and to it she owed her life and the life of the boy. They found refuge just "in the nick o' time." The mows above them, filled with hay and shredded corn fodder, came down with a crash and they were covered in the trench. Hoping against hope, Mr.. Coon called his wife and from her place of refuge she answered him. She and the boy were uninjured, although pinioned into the trench by the heavy joists that prevented the hay from pressing down upon them. With his help they crawled from under the timbers and by holding to each other while the wind was still blowing with tremendous force, they reached the house in safety. Their first thought was for the welfare of their little ones. Miss Hazel Sunderland, who lived with the family, had hurried to the cellar with the five-year- old daughter and the baby, and they soon joined them. The oldest boy who left the building at the height of the storm had been caught up by the wind and forced through the barnyard gate and another gate across the road into the field. Fortunately both gates were standing open because they had just brought in the cattle. The boy was carried along by the storm until he tumbled into a large open ditch which happened not to have water in it. He had sufficient presence of mind to lie close to the bottom of it until the wind lulled, when he joined the frightened family at the house again and there was rejoicing in the household. The five-year-old daughter summed up the whole situation in 216 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY relating the circumstance to her grandmother, saying: "I was getting washed and had no skirt on when Hazel wrapped a shawl around me and took me down cellar. I did not cry until Mamma came in crying and said, 'I wonder where that poor boy is,' " and it seems that all had been accounted for but the boy who had gone out into the storm before the collapse of the barn. Twelve of the dairy cows were crushed to death and many of the others were badly injured, although the family escaped with their lives. While others suffered from the storm, the Coon farmstead seemed to get the worst visitation of all. Notwithstanding some of the severe temperature and storm visitations, the story goes that local climate is such that when one sees a man again he seems ten years younger. When seen a second time he seemed twenty years younger, and the next heard from him he had died of cholera infantum, and yet there are favorable conditions prevailing in Allen County. The local climate is of the continental type slightly modified by proximity to the Great Lakes characteristics, "fairly cold winters with moderate snowfall ; comfortable summers with sufficient rainfall, the climatic conditions distributed uniformly throughout the year," and the old saying: "March wind and April showers Bring the pretty May flowers" holds good in Allen County. The prevailing winds are from the southwest, and there are about 270 days in the year without rain or snow. The altitude of Lima is 875 feet, with only a few higher points in the county. Distance has been annihilated and the sky seems to come to the ground all around Allen County. Under modern living conditions "Only over night from anywhere" would be a comprehensive watchword for the whole community. While business and social activities naturally have their centers, Allen County is being studied as a whole rather than with undue reference to any one locality. "I am the vine and ye are the branches" is construed to mean Allen County and its multiplicity of interests. While the ouija board has been working and the war of the nations has leveled many differences, there are •problems that remain to be solved, and Allen County as a unit is the plan in correlating the developments of its first 100 years in history. When a full century has cycled into eternity, there are few of the original pioneers left in any community. While the older Ohio counties had part in peopling Allen County, there were settlers from Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Virginia, the New England states, and there were some immigrants from overseas who helped reclaim the wilderness along the Auglaize and the Ottawa of the Auglaize—Hog Creek. For economic reasons settlers always began their activities along the running streams. However, the biographers or genealogists who do the advance work on county histories always find the names of the settlers in counties as old as Allen on the tombstones in the cemeteries rather than in the numerous business and telephone directories. While the historian sometimes visits the cemeteries in quest of legendary data, the advance man is more interested in the names appearing in local directories. Every stage of America's development has produced a special type of pioneer, and some one has said that if they all had their lives to live over again they would make the same mistakes as when they were on the stage of action. Since threescore-and-ten years has been designated as the dead-line, and those who cross it are said to be living on HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 217 borrowed time, one finds spiritual comfort in reading "The hoary head is a crown of glory," but another sacred writer says, "And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow," while in the circle of one's acquaintance there are always those of whom one thinks with the Prophet Joel : "For the harvest is ripe" and yet King Solomon says "For as he thinketh in his heart so is he," but so many of the Allen County pioneers had adopted Paul's formula : "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things," that their lineal descendants are inclined to think of them as having attained to the ageless life through the process of transition, and to exclaim again with Paul, "0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory ?" While the worthy sons of noble sires are not yet all removed from the face of the earth, from the nature of the question there are none of the first and few of the second generation of Allen County settlers on the stage of action today. In this connection it has been suggested that the first generation should apply to those living in Allen County prior to 1850, since in the history of the Daughter of Allen County, Susannah Russell, who was born in 1817, was in the third generation, her mother, Isabel Russell, being a daughter of Peter Sunderland, all of whom lived at Fort Amanda. It would seem that the majority of Allen County citizens standing in the threshold of the second century in local history are in the third and fourth generations, with some families looking forward over the fifth and sixth generations in local citizenship. In some families as many generations lie buried as are privileged to enter this second century in local history. There are men and women who look backward over their parents and grandparents and forward over children and grandchildren in local history ; there are some who look backward and forward over the same number of generations. HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 219 THE '80s WERE EPOCHAL YEARS Some one has written "The transition from the old to the new began in 1880, when many of the former industries were fast passing away, especially those relating to the woods-the native timbers," and since then local civilization has been facing changed conditions. The church, the school, the local government-everything is changed within the recollection of adults of today. "There's a long, long trail a-winding into the land of my dreams," and the old-fashioned folk are not as yet all departed from earth. The caricaturist still finds living examples of everything. While the man who is comfortable in his knowledge of being rightly clothed need beg no favors of the world, and many citizens of Allen County have attained to that—neither underly nor overly dressed—sometimes men are ashamed of the way women clothe them- MR. AND MRS. BOWSHER-THEY HAVE 500 DESCENDANTS selves-undress too aply describing some of them. The question arises, Why should the race deteriorate in the hands of the twentieth century? In Old Memories is the couplet : "I see every vista as lightly I go Down through the valley of Sweet Long Ago." What matter where the Allen County settlers came from since they had mutual desires-were a community of interests and by the silent process of assimilation their past has not been remembered against them. Many of them came into the Allen County wilderness to better their conditions in life, and they soon developed into the permanent citizenship of the country. As time cycled by the small clearings expanded into the splendid farms so much in evidence today, and local enthusiasts say that Allen County now occupies a front line in agriculture and livestock production. With all the world a stage, the descendants from the men and women who listened to the howling of the wolves as an accompani- 220 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY ment to their wilderness activities in reclaiming the wilds of Allen county, have sufficient evidence of the parts as played by the pioneers. While it is said that the pioneers offered the helping hand, and there was old-fashioned hospitality, there is a fellowship of service today, although it manifests itself very differently. The pioneer woman would be called throughout the whole settlement to make the shrouds, and to lay out and dress the dead, and she never turned any one from her door hungry, but the community is more complex today and combined effort takes care of such things. While woman's sphere is the same as the one occupied by man, it seems that human ministrations always have fallen to her hand. While some of the pioneers were live-with-able enough, their dire necessities made some of them alert for the nimble penny, and making a living always has developed human traits. A man was more comfortable who could say "Here it is, friends," when unexpected guests arrived, than when the query would arise "Where is it?" when something must be set before them. Half the poetry is robbed from a childhood that knows no privations. With hot air registers and steam radiators, what do the children of today know of the open fireplace, and of the members of the family burning one side while freezing the other? They do not possess the heritage of corn bread baked before the fire on an open hearth. "There is a wilderness glory in a new land such as the pioneers found in Allen County, and when the ravages of time relegate it to the fog banks of memory, it forms wraiths for the imagination to tumble up like the clouds formed and touched by the afterglow. Those nearest to an epoch or event may not always be its best historians, and so we may still be too near our pioneer life to properly record its trials and triumphs," says an Allen County Historical Society writer ; "but we can file here some plain facts and figures by which future historians may be aided in convincing a doubting world that man, in his long journey from east to west—from darkness to partial light—came into Allen County HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 221 when it was a glory wilderness, stamped it with his civilization and lo, the forests fell and the swamps dried up, and thus order came out of chaos. Glory wilderness it must have been when giant trees stood almost touching each other in the Allen County forest, the streams flowing unhindered to the sea and the wild animals had shelter," and yet because civilization had not claimed him for her own, the American Indian had no conception of the possibilities about him. There are climaxes when the ax of time responds to the stroke of progress, and whether one's circumstances are better or bitter depends upon the one in question. The settlers were men of vision who had the courage of their conviction, and while life has its compensations today, there are those who still crave the privileges vouchsafed to the pioneers, declaring they lived in the romantic period of Allen County history. Fairy stories have their place in family life, and some of the traditions handed down from one generation to another seem like stories told even though every word is fact, and the young people in Allen County homes of today have little conception of primitive conditions ; older people owe it to them, in the man-onward rush of the twentieth century, to anchor them a while in memory's doorway where they may listen to the footfall of the ages. At this centennial period there are a great many yesterdays in the history of Allen County, and today tells its own story. The log-rolling and wool-picking social epoch is so far in the dim past that most men and women have either never heard or have forgotten those stories of the long ago. Since all Virginians are cousins, the complications in Allen County are not unfathomable, and the celebrated fisherman Izaak Walton once wrote in his diary "I love the world." While not all share his optimism, there are some who think enough of posterity to leave their hieroglyphics behind them. Some one writes : "It seems needless to urge the value of history upon mankind, since no tribe, race or nation has ever progressed very far before it began to invent and make use of some means for the preservation of its story. Even the savage tribes left crude record of their prowess in the chase or upon the field of battle. These various records were carved in the barks of trees, written upon scrolls of papyrus, traced upon the faces of sun-dried bricks and tiles, or chiseled in the long enduring granite. History is the torch by which our steps are lighted and its neglect is a long backward stride toward savagery. The wisdom of remote ages recognized this fact ; however, they were not 'as 222 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY wise as the Grecians in the choice of their methods for the preservation of history ; they devoted their poets and prophets to it, while Athens adorned and illustrated it by the splendid creations of her painters and sculptors. All history is wrought from the threads of local thought, deed and adventure that became racial or national when they affect the characters and destinies of races and nations. But with all its want of consideration for the common people, and its imperfect realization of the higher missions of the government, the world would still be savage and sitting in darkness were it not for the survival of history," and while in the light of human progress it seems worth while to begin a second century in local history by erecting milestones more frequently, in order to guide the uncertain footfall of succeeding ages, this is the time to register the prophecy that the next 100 years will produce nothing better than its men and women. Just as the boy of ten is going-on-eleven, Allen County is entering upon its second century, and some are still ambitious about the future —would like to live again. While they were transforming the wilderness conditions, it was a man's measure of strength to boast of the number of cords of wood he could chop in a day, and the womanly boast was of the number of skeins of yarn she could spin; the man who led the harvesters in swinging the cradle had his counterpart in the woman who turned out the most handmade garments ; the wood cutters and the harvesters alike whetted a banter into their blades, and there was always someone ready to accept the challenge ; across the field of time they went again, always exerting themselves to the utmost-those fathers and mothers in the wilderness days of Allen County history. Thus the hewers of wood and stone and the drawers of water along the centennial trail builded this splendid community out of the material at hand—builded better, perhaps, than they knew, and, looking backward over their splendid achievements, the men and women of today gain fresh inspiration. In the dawn of its second century there can be few pioneers in any community. Few of the seeming pioneers in Allen County today are the sons and grandsons of the early settlers. The majority are descended from families who came later than 1850, and the worst hardships had been past before their arrival. Dr. James Baldwin says of the pioneer : "The world may forget what he suffered and what he accom- HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 223 plished, but his monument shall remain as long as our country endures. What is his monument? It is the Old Northwest itself, now the center of the republic and the crowning factor of our country's greatness." There is a bit of healthy sentiment couched in the following words: "The foundation thus laid by our fathers carries with it a privilege and a responsibility that should awaken loyalty in every heart." At the half-way point in this first centennial of Allen County history —to be exact, on September 22, 1871-in a speech made at the Allen County Fair Grounds, T. E. Cunningham said: "Looking backward over a half century, behold what has been accomplished! The immense forests our fathers and mothers found have melted away, and now in their stead are ripened fields of grain. The cabins they built are replaced with comfortable farm mansions. The corduroy roads over which they plodded their way back to the old settlements have been replaced by railroads. We have very much for which to thank our Heavenly Father ; we have much to be proud of in history ; but the proudest of all we should be of our ancestry, who, amidst poverty, sickness and privations, laid broad and deep the foundation of our present history." Mrs. Mary E. Mehaffey recently exclaimed : "Oh, those happy days of the long ago. The people all came together and had such good times without doing any harmful things ; we were people of intelligence and we would meet and discuss the issues of the day. We did not consider the financial circumstances of our friends." And where is the historian of today to find ink of deeper hue—more brilliant color—into which he can dip his goose quill of the twentieth century—the modern typewriter—when describing the developments of the subsequent half century, covering the period from 1870 to 1920 in Allen County history ? CHAPTER XIX AGRICULTURE IN ALLEN COUNTY The fact remains unquestioned that the civilization of any country does not advance more rapidly than does its agriculture. The pioneers found that the chemical analysis of Allen County soil required a mixture of elbow grease and industry-a startling fact, yet nevertheless true, if they were to dig their living from it. The old idea of agriculture was to raise more corn and hogs in order to buy more land in order to raise more corn and hogs—an endless chain theory-that caused some men to become land poor before intensive farming was under consideration at all. Progress and improvement along all lines of human activity are more rapid today than at any time in the history of the world. It is an undeniable fact that agriculture is keeping pace with other industries. It is the fundamental occupation and all others are dependent upon it. Some one says : "The farmer has the privilege of going out in the morning sun and taking off his hat to the beauties of the world. God is the great artist who, with sunshine, rain and soil-shower, can combine colors and produce a burst of glory. The mansions in the skies are not more delectable than the landscape, and some of the habitations of earth." "The earth is the Lord's," and yet the hand of man has rendered some beauty possibilities an offense against the landscape—nothing cheerful, and all shade and shrubbery a minus quantity. Too many farm homes fail to combine the artistic sense with utility. It was Alexander Pope who said : "Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound— Content to breathe his native air In his own hallowed ground." and there are exemplifications in Allen County. While all industries are essential to civilization, in the countries where the methods of agriculture are crude there is not much progress along any line of development. The stranger who rides along some of the well-improved highways of Allen County today in a modern touring car is hardly cognizant of the fact that only a few years ago very different conditions existed in this country. The Irishman with his spade and the woodman with his ax have transformed the "whole face of Allen County, although there is authority for the statement that the Black Swamp once covered it. Since "Egypt is the gift of the Nile," Allen County may be the gift of the Black Swamp. The information in one of the Allen County histories is : "Evidences are found on every hand that the old Black Swamp once extended over the entire surf ace of Allen County," and only through the printed page will succeeding generations know about it. In Slocum's History of the Maumee Basin, which includes Allen County, is the statement : "The difficulty attending the transportation of supplies through the Black Swamp region accounted in most part for the privations and sufferings," and many years ago a frontier poet penned the lines : "The roads are impassable, Not even jackassable- And those who would travel 'em Should turn out and gravel 'em." - 224 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 225 Slocum says, further : "It was impossible to move a wagon through the mud even without a load ; it would mire and be completely blocked; pack horses were brought into use ; many horses and their packs were lost by the thoughtless, careless, and sometimes dishonest, drivers," and the old saying "It's a poor driver who can't hit a stump" has no local significance at all. There is very little waste land in Allen County today. Dr. Edward Orton, geologist of Ohio and professor of geology in Ohio State University, has issued the statement that the highest point- 1,032 feet-is at Westminster. Lima is 263 feet above Lake Erie and Delphos is 188 feet, and it seems that the alluvial deposits in the fertile valleys of Allen County reached their present day state of cultivation after many years of hard labor on the part of Allen County agriculturists. To write the history of Allen County without mentioning the Black Swamp would be like eating an egg without salt, or like Hamlet with the ghost left out of the story. It seems there is some direct relation between this swamp of early history, and the products later taken from Mother Earth in this locality. The natural gas and oil development seem to have been the sequence to the story. In writing about some waste land several centuries ago, the "Shepherd of the Hills" rather accurately describes the territory ceded by the American Indians to the United States Government through the instrumentality of Anthony Wayne. In a dissertation on wilderness conditions, barrenness and standing water, the Psalmist David certainly caught the vision of the Old Northwest when he penned the words : "He turneth the wilderness into standing water * * * And there He maketh the hungry to dwell that they may prepare a city for habitation; and sow the fields and plant vineyards which may yield fruit. * * * He blessed them also that they are multiplied greatly," and since there are landmarks everywhere that only exist in the records of explorers, it is an easy matter to accept the story of the Black Swamp. If there was a time when the Northwest Territory was submerged, as scientists assert, and huge blocks of ice traveled slowly down from the north, nature later shaking off the chill and allowing the heart of the earth to Vol. I-15 226 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY grow warm when the loosened ice ridges broke away and the smitten waters flashed-well, the Black Swamp seems a remote possibility. One theory is that the water stood in the Black Swamp all summer, keeping the water high in the rivers, with heavy frosts equalizing and conserving the moisture. However, an Allen County soil analysis reveals a black loam with clay subsoil adapted to the production of all kinds of grain, grasses, fruits and vegetables. The virgin soil produced corn year after year without crop rotation, and the time was when the people lived on corn—fried mush for breakfast, with pone and pork for dinner, and mush and milk again in the evening. However, the world today knows no better menu-few better dishes-than the concoctions made from corn meal ; the pioneers did not sip bouillon from the side of a round spoon, and while there was little detail of polite style, "swish" meant they were not starving themselves. The man who had plenty of such diet never realized his strength—could "lift a barrel of whisky, lick a bear or beat an old maid in a hugging match." The simple life will always have its appeal—the quiet surroundings where one may listen to the twitter of the birds and the croak of the frogs-pass the fried mush again. "Backward, turn backward, 0 time in your flight; make me a child again," but "stop, look and listen": Would I live my life over again? What? And go through with the mumps, measles, itch, stump-toe, stone-bruises, boils, toothache, worms, milk-sickness and ague ; work for board, clothing and three months at school in winter ; get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and walk out to the barn through oozy mud in order to put in an eight hour day—eight hours in the morning and again in the afternoon; feed the sweet pigs, squeeze the milk out of old boss, split half a cord of wood and pile it in the kitchen before breakfast ; eat a delightfully informal breakfast with an appetite like a roaring lion—flapjacks and fried pig; flee again to the barn and yoke the oxen ready to harrow half a day on the back forty, listen for the dinner horn and gulp down some more pig with half-baked hot biscuits, and do it all over again in the afternoon?" But here is another picture taken from the Burkhardt Genealogy, with the setting in historic Shawnee: "Memories of the old cider mill HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 227 by the roadside, the spring and quaint little milk house at the foot of the hill, the old orchard where apples and pears were of matchless profusion, the broad and stately cedars in the front yard, the pathway bordered with roses and rare flowers, the garden so well kept where grew the many good things that graced the great spreading board! These are the memories that sweetly break in upon us and prompt the word 'In the good old days.' " It would be difficult for the stranger passing through Allen County today to conceive of the log cabin in the clearing, out of which the smoke curled from a stick-and-clay chimney, but there are men and women who remember all about it, and who still talk of "the good old days" in the history of Allen County. Instead of the lowing of many herds today the traveler of yesterday heard the ring of the woodman's ax, or the crack of the huntsman's rifle as he was endeavoring to supply his table with meat from the wild animals in the unbroken forest. The fact that more than 2,000 hunters' licenses were issued A. D. 1920, m Allen County would indicate that there is some game, and November 15th two Lima hunters, R. C. Whitley and Charles McCauley, shot a red fox, and a newspaper clipping says : "Only a short time remains for Brer Rabbit ; the season opens on cottontails on November 15th and lasts until January, the limit being set at ten for one day to be shot between one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset ; hunters and trappers are oiling up their paraphernalia in preparation for a busy season," and there is a further statement: "Raccoon, opossum, skunk and mink may be taken from November 1st to February, the muskrat season extending till March." 228 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY There is a widespread lament that the turtle dove, wild pigeons and the common gray squirrel of the woods have gone the way of the buffalo and the American Indian, in the advance of civilization. Before the forests were cleared away and the lands were drained by artificial methods, the Auglaize and Ottawa were pretty streams ; they were skirted by the forest with shady nooks and shadows on the water ; their water was clear as crystal before the streams were contaminated by the advance of civilization. In the days of the purity of its waters there were fish in Hog Creek, and it is related that E. H. Binkley, who was a Lima merchant in the 30's, went one rainy afternoon to fish in the stream and remained so long that his wife became alarmed and organized a searching party. There were always grappling poles in the houses near the streams. When Binkley and his fishing partner returned to the scattered village the sapling they carried on their shoulders was literally filled with fish, and they supplied every family in the village. In 1866 the Ohio Legislature began enacting drainage laws and through the evolution of the open ditches, wooden ditches and tile drainage, the wet land has been made most productive ; as the land was drained, there were abundant crops and Allen County farmers prospered with the rest of the world. Men of today say that drainage is only in its infancy—that ditches fifty or sixty feet apart are splitting areas, and gardeners are draining even closer and the result is noted in the changed chemical condition of the soil. While tile is imported, there is a factory at Beaver Dam and at Delphos in Van Wert County. While ditching is a back-breaking process, the short-lived wooden ditches demonstrated their practicability. The ditching machine saves the drudgery today. Improvements and inventions always come along as they are needed in any community. While the McCormack reaper appeared in 1831, what would Allen County farmers have done with modern harvesting machinery in the swamps acid among the stumps of that day and generation? While the tiller of the soil with his broad acres surrounding him, and with long distances to the homes of his neighbors has no need of sewers, gas mains and conduits, the water pipe systems and the wires overhead have begun to trouble him, and at last he has been overtaken by the complexity of civilization. However, there are fewer things to vex him, and since there are drainage and bridges he no longer swims the streams endways when he wants to change his environment temporarily. The Auglaize and the Ottawa of the Auglaize, swelled by the waters of Leatherwood Run, Pike Run, Tawn Run, Sugar Creek and Riley Creek, and the ditches drained into them, combine forces in carrying the surplus water toward Lake .Erie, and still the ditching machine is busy on city sewers and rural drains. While the best farm lands in Allen County are remote from Lima, the southeast, perhaps, being thinner than the land in the other three corners, there are possibilities of 100 bushels of corn to the acre, and intense cultivation with conservation of soil fertility is the watchword of the future. While Allen County agriculturists limit their activities to the staple crop productions, sugar beets and onions are specialties in nearby counties ; there is soil in Allen County adapted to the sugar beet industry and there have been splendid results from alfalfa culture. The Allen County community centers are poor hay and grain markets because of the livestock production, and the inclination of local farmers to import stockyard feeders and winter them. Ensilage and alfalfa fit steers for grass and they are sold off the grass on the summer and fall markets. While Allen County farmers are conservative and a little slow about adopting fads, there are many silos in use, the dairy farmers almost all HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 229 having them. While some silos are allowed to remain unfilled because of corn shortage and labor difficulties, the practical livestock man recognizes their usefulness. The story is told that because of the shortage of both food and feed, the settlers used to cut down lynn and other trees in winter time in order that their cattle might feed on the small and tender branches ; there was always a food problem and a feed question, and many subterfuges were resorted to to save man and beast from perishing. The 1920 slump on prices, when reconstruction seemed to hit the farmer first, caused many Allen County farmers to become borrowers of money with their crops in storage. The World war taught people many things. While the original flora of Allen County comprised 400 varieties, and the genera showed 900 species, the pioneers knew many secrets that had been forgotten in the community. The wild lands were heavily timbered, and there were many hardwood varieties. There was oak, ash, hickory, walnut, beech, elm, sycamore, buckeye, locust, hackberry, willow, gum, basswood, pawpaw and maple, and maple sugar and syrup from the sap tided them over many difficulties. Time was when the forest furnished many table delicacies. When the sugar supply was limited the present day citizens were without resource or recourse, the ancient art of sugar-making having departed with the sugar camp and the Allen County forest. When spiles were made by hand, the settlers tapped the trees, dug out the sugar troughs and boiled the sap and supplied their own commodities. Sugar camps and wax pullings ! Some of the fathers and mothers know about them. It was great amusement to "stir off the wax" and have a party. The pioneer housewives also made soap, using ash hoppers to leach the lye after which they boiled cracklings in it. The mothers had many secrets that are unknown to the daughters—not because the daughters could not meet the requirements, but because the circumstances surrounding their lives are different, and economics of the long ago would be extravagances today. Sometimes the ashhopper was a tree gum and sometimes forks were used to hold the clapboards, or a dugout sugar trough supported them. The ashhopper and soap-making have long been consigned to oblivion in Allen County. They used to take ash barrels to 230 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY the school houses, and the teacher would fill them with wood ashes; the housewives did that because there would be no tobacco spit in the ashes ; sometimes the careless teachers would burn the barrels for them. The pioneer Allen County farm woman used to mount a horse and go to Lima or Section Ten with a basket of eggs and she was always the purchasing agent for the family ; there were up-on-blocks in the town, and when a woman in a long riding habit approached, the clerks in the stores would assist her to dismount lest she break the eggs in the basket ; the senseless trail of the riding habit was an incumbrance to her. This farm woman always marketed eggs, butter, beeswax, ginseng and dried fruits—the products of her own industry, carrying home in exchange coffee, sugar and calico. With sassafras and spicewood tea she knew how to defeat the high, cost of living, but advance of civilization robbed the woman of today: of all such resources. Oh, the milk separator, the egg incubator—the dairy and poultry yard industries of today—yield half the living, and still there are women who look after them. There are silos and manure spreaders, and the barnyard equipment is still in its infancy. While wild animals and reptiles were numerous in 1831, when the goddess of justice first assumed her duties in Allen County, the day of the elmpeeler hog that could climb a sapling and drink out of a jug has been lost sight of in the dim distance. The hogs that were fattened on the mast from the oak, beech and hickory trees must have belonged to the herd that was stampeded in 1812, when they were driven through HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 231 the wilderness. When the Indians had scattered the herdsmen the hogs were left running wild. It is said the wild meat was never so nutritious as that cured from the domesticated animals, and livestock specialties through grades and thoroughbreds have changed the order of things in Allen County. There are antlers shown today from deer that once roamed the local hillsides, and some have been killed in the streets of the towns. A hundred species of furbearing animals and as many kinds of beautiful birds could be found in the primeval wilderness, while marsh, creek, river, forest, and even the open spaces were inhabited by venomous reptiles. The departure of the Indian marked the departure of the wild life of the Allen County forest. Some years ago a local nature student wrote : "But why leave a knowledge of birds to poets and naturalists ? Go yourself to the fields and learn that birds do not exist solely in books, but are concrete, sensient beings whose acquaintance may bring you more unalloyed happiness than the wealth of the Indies," but the writer of the period did not take into consideration present-day conditions ; the barbed wire fences do not afford them nesting places, and the feathered tribes find but little shelter. An Audubon Society would find little to do in Allen County today. The marsh the blackbird loved has become the site 'of the factory. The whistle is of steam rather than the thrill of the bird stealing forth on the morning air. Civilization is stalking forward and the Smithsonian Institute seeks in vain to secure some of the extinct species of American birds. The fact is at last coming home to people that pioneer conditions no longer exist in Allen County. A writers says : "The woods of our youth may disappear, but the thrushes will always sing for us. Their voices endeared by cherished associations arouse echoes and awaken memories before which the years will vanish," and John Burroughs once wrote : "One may go blackberrying and make some rare discovery ; while driving his cow to pasture he may hear a new song, or make some new observation ; secrets lurk on all sides and there is some new thing in every bush," but the youngster of today will have difficulty reconciling such statements to any time in the history of Allen County. "And in keeping of them there is great reward" seems to be true under present day condition, since 232 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY the wild life has given way to improved livestock conditions. While the automobile conflicts with the horse-breeding industry, Belgian and Percheron horses are still on the market. In the past the horse-breeding industry claimed much attention from Allen County farmers. While there are more silos in the western part of the county, there are more beef types than dairy cattle. There are Shorthorns, Herefords and Angus herds, and while some stock farms bear names there is no local statute offering protection when a man has capitalized a name— associated it with some particular branch of animal husbandry. While the first man in the world was placed in a garden, there is no record extant that he labored until after having eaten an apple one day at the instigation of the woman God had given him ; immediately Adam and Eve began hustling for a livelihood and no doubt they turned their attention to agriculture. Notwithstanding the adage, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," Dr. William McHenry, who was always interested in farm life, induced many Allen County farmers to start apple orchards, thus supplementing the effort of "Johnny Apple- seed," and horticulture seems to have claimed its share of attention. Daylight saving has never been taken seriously, farmers always having their prescribed three meals and stopping at the sound of the dinner horn—not another lick when dinner is ready. The settler would let the handspike fall at the toot of the dinner horn, and since the bills of fare were never written in French, not much time was lost at the dinner table. God's time has always prevailed in the country, while the industries regulated by the sound of the whistle have had no daylight saving difficulties. The habits and customs of the people, as well as the industries of Allen County, have changed almost completely in the last half century. The mills for grinding corn were once so few and so far between that meal was often made by rubbing the ears of corn over a grater made from a sheet of tin with perforations—holes punched in and mounted on a board with a rounded surface to it. While it was a makeshift, it produced the results. The garments were made from home-made cloth—linen or woolen; the settlers raised the flax and the sheep, and carding, spinning and weaving-they did it all. They manufactured jeans, linsey-woolsey, flannels, blankets, comforts and coverlets. The women would shear sheep or hackle the flax and they were equally dexterous making blankets or sheets. Those so fortunate as to have heirlooms of towels or table linen prize them today. Linen or woolen clothing were equally serviceable, and as the woman said of the boy who was hung by the seat G I his trousers in the apple tree, "He was there till we cut him down." Not so much can be said of some of the hand-me-down garments in the ready-to-wear stocks today. There are still some old-fashioned folk in Allen County. In some of the homes the tables are set and the food is placed before the guests and pot luck is not the worst misfortune. Sometimes there is a turkey- red table cloth with high cake stands, and the napkins are placed in tumblers by the plates. The observing traveler forecasts rather accurately whether the householder is a native, and the earmarks brand him if he is from some other commonwealth. "A Pennsylvanian lives here," said the wise passerby, "and a Virginian lives there," and perhaps the farmer himself would be unable to fathom the distinction. Machinery plays an important part today in off-setting the drift of labor from the farms, and labor-saving devices lure the young man to remain in the country. A hale young fellow employed in a Lima factory said he had only been off of a farm a few months, and his wife had come HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 233 from another. They liked it in town because they had a little time for themselves. They had only known the servitude of farm life, and yet they were a son and a daughter of two wealthy Allen County farmers. They would not go back to the long hours and drudgery of life in the country. The following is an adaptation from the Welsh settlement story of agriculture ; the methods practiced in other communities were similar, the Welsh always considered excellent farmers : The plows used by the settlers had wooden moldboards with cast-iron points ; then came the cast-iron moldboards followed by the steel plows ; today the plows are chariots and the plowman rides, having a spring seat and being shaded by an umbrella. In the old days Allen County farmers sowed their seed broadcast, and the parable of the Sower meant something to them ; today when people are studying soils the parable is adapted to the change, and the men with a grain bag crossing the field is not even a memory to some active agriculturists. Time was when the harrows used to brush in the grain were small trees ; nevertheless they mixed the seed with the loose soil, and today the seed bed has become the problem of agriculture ; when the letter A harrow came along, much had been accomplished in solving it. At first wooden pegs were used, and then came the iron harrow teeth in use today in that style of harrow. The broadcast method of sowing grain was superseded by the drill dropping the seed in rows, and securing greater uniformity. However, "the harvest is great and the reapers are few" had been written long before this change in depositing the grains of wheat. In the evolution of harvesting methods have come the reap hook or sickle, the grain cradles with the best man cutting the widest swath, never failing to whet a banter into his blade, and the test of strength was to cross the field in the shortest space of time ; it was a good man who led the harvesters ; with the sickle he saved about half an acre of grain in a day, but with the cradle a good' man would cover three or four acres—yes, if there were a whisky jug in the field. The hand rake reaping machine—the Ball Harvester-had its day, followed by the McCormick self-binder, and then the horsepower was 234 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY followed by the tractor—just close your eyes and witness the panorama, and admit that there have been many changes in agriculture. When the wheat had passed through the sweating process came the threshing time, and the settler used the flail-a dangerous, treacherous thing, made from two pieces of wood skillfully fastened together with hickory bark or whang leather. With it a strong armed man beat the grain off of the straw, and when the straw was removed from the threshing floor the grain was lifted and cleaned for the market. They would shake it on a quilt or wagon cover, allowing the wind to separate the chaff, or there was a ring for the tramping and the horses were brought into service. The boys would ride them, and the men would stir the straw, allowing the dislodged grains to settle to the bottom ; finally when the horses and the straw were worn out, the process of blowing out the chaff remains unchanged, until the advent of the threshing machine. The horse was not emancipated because the machines were run by four, six and ten horses with the grain in the straw as it came from the field, the stack or the mow being fed into them. The straw was stacked by hand, and where is the man or boy who enjoyed working at the tail of the machine, swallowing all of the dust? Finally came the straw- stacker, and the dusty job was not half so disagreeable—the stacker shifted the straw, and the wind had separated the dust before the men bandied the straw. While the wheat separators had blower attachments, there was sometimes work for the fanning mill and the men of today remember turning it ; they also turned the grindstone in sharpening the blades for harvest. It is said that Michael Leatherman manufactured and David Roberts owned the first threshing machine used in the Welsh settlement ; this was in 1853, and it was perhaps the first threshing machine in Allen County. While the separator today measures its own grain, there was a time when the man who sacked it kept the count by moving a peg in a board, and later they counted the bags to check up him. However, the honesty of a workman was seldom questioned; while the farmer and his wife have all kinds of improved machinery to relieve them of the drudgery, they must remain at home while it is in operation. When each consumer was also a producer, political economy was not :he problem it is today; when the father and mother each operated a HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 235 manufacturing industry at home, the middle man had no rake-off from the fund—each helped the other, and simple life described it. It is the inclination of persons in position to follow the selfish trail that leads to the precipice of destruction, below which lies the graveyard of the nations that works havoc today. Failure always results from selfish motives in community affairs. Some one has said this is an excessive nation-excessive in everything, and there is no such thing as conservation. Profligacy characterizes the nation. "Wilful waste makes woeful want," and in the wake of the waste of timber there is a fuel shortage. When the timber cumbered the ground there was no market for it, and what could the settler do but destroy it? The first principle is life ; the second is its maintenance, and the thing of greatest human interest and importance, therefore, is the production and distribution of food-the manufacture and distribution of life's necessities. Under the changed situation in the whole world today, the once familiar couplet reads : "Home, home, sweet, sweet name, Be it ever so humble— Pay rent just the same," and the question arises—what has become of the old fashioned American home life, when the mothers did Saturday baking and there was always something in the cupboard? CHAPTER XX SOME ADJUNCTS OF AGRICULTURE One Allen County rural enthusiast said there is a progressive spirit among local agriculturists—that they are given to experiment, and will apply the acid test to everything. Another man who has sold implements to farmers for many years declared they were conservative, and inclined to cling to the time-tried methods in agriculture. While some of them f arm like the patriarchs, since live stock and animal husbandry go hand in hand with agriculture, "the cattle on a thousand hills":--rather, in the fields of Allen County, belong to the hustling up-to-the-minute farmers. They seek to maintain land fertility and productiveness, and crop rotation is practiced by all of them. The rural firesides—the furnace heated home, is still the hope of the country, notwithstanding some of the political spellbinders seeking the vote of the factory men. There are many rural homes perched high on natural building sites where drainage is not a problem, and the dooryards and barn lots are dry because of natural conditions. While the pioneers lacked vision in clearing the Allen County farms, and few of them left some of the original forest to shade their future dwellings, there is a civic spirit manifest today and people are inclined to beautify their sursoundings, both in town and country. While Arbor Day is sometimes observed, there is also some inclination to ref orestration ; black locust and catalpa groves are not unusual, and living fence posts are to be seen here and there about the country. While now and then a staked-and-ridered fence may be seen, where, oh, where is the rail-splitter of yesterday? While there are regulation fences : "Hog tight, horse high and bull strong," they are usually built of wire, and what does the youngster of today know about fence worms? What does he know of the requisite skill in building a straight rail fence, the eye of the builder the only plumb bob or spirit level used in doing it? Who said anything about laying the fence worm in the light of the moon, or was it laid in the dark of the moon to keep the timber from decay? At any rate a wire fence does not shelter the cattle in time of a storm, and lightning sometimes strikes them when they are near it. Allen County farmers of today would make slow progress with the implements of yesterday. The reap hook and the cradle had their day in the harvest fields of ,Allen County, as well as the rest of the world. The Armstrong mower—Old Father Time is always caricatured with the mowing scythe, but the Allen County farmer of today has all the advantages of labor-saving machinery. The modern hay loader combines so many of the old-time operations that Maud Muller is left out of the question, and when one has been in different environment for a while, it is like as if he never had lived in the country at all. That old couplet : "Early to bed and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," obviates the daylight-saving question. Some one has written : "The murmuring grass and the waving trees— Their leaf-hares sound unto the breeze- And water-tones and tinkle near, Blend their sweet music to my ear ; And by the changing shades alone, The passage of the hour is known," and that seems an excellent way of marking time in Allen County. - 236 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 237 The year A. D. 1920, was an unusual season in Allen County agriculture. It was a backward spring and a cold summer, but there never was so much fall pasture. There was more hay in the second than in the first crop on Allen County meadows ; it is reported that A. J. Laman of Amanda Township cut fall hay from the spring sowing of grass seed in his oats, and the yield was excellent. It was an unusual thing. The cold spring and‘ late planting exemplified the Bible promise about seed time and harvest, and "When the frost is on the pumpkin and the fodder's in the shock," is an opportune time to note results. With many October is the chosen month in all the changing year, and the orchards and the fields had all been productive ; it was an old-time year in Allen County. On November 11, 1833, was the meteoric shower-the time when the stars fell, and there has never been a repetition of that phenomenon ; in 1859, the great comet was visible to Allen County sky-gazers ; and June 6, 1859, there was a frost that killed the wheat and other grain ; January 1, 1864, is still recounted as the Cold New Year in the annals of Allen County ; the eclipse of the sun, August 7, 1869, was almost total and chickens went to roost in the middle of the afternoon, remaining there only a short time ; there was cold weather in January, 1918, and that summer there was much injury from frost in different localities. The practical minded settler had a formulae for a short winter—borrow money in the fall that comes due in the spring, in harmony with the Benjamin Franklin philosophy : "Whistle and hoe, sing as you go, Shorten your row by the songs you know," and while some one remarked that Allen County frequently gets summer and winter in the same twenty-four hours, and there was a December gale in 1920 traveling sixty miles an hour-the whole range of climatic conditions frequently visited upon the county, the Sunshine Philosophy of James Whitcomb Riley is : "Whatever the weather may be, whatever the weather— It's the song ye sing and the smile ye wear, That's a makin' the sunshine everywhere." While there used to be corn shocks standing in some of the fields until corn planting time again, with the silos and the cribs, that rule does not hold in Allen County. A recent writer declares the novelist is sure of the reader's tears when he describes the farmhand who pitches hay all day long under the hot sun, or the woman who is compelled to mend her children's clothes, wash the dishes and make the beds—nothing to do but work, but the sentiment wanes when one learns the philosophy: "Grin and bear it." The fact remains that the happiest folk in the world are those who work, and the twentieth century dames who breakfast in bed and work only when they feel like it, are designated by "trouble-shooters" as the bane of society. Few of them live in the rural communities. The pioneers were busy folk-busy all day long, and while there may be advantages in poverty and deceitfulness in riches, most Allen County citizens make some effort to corner the coin of the realm, and it is said that whenever a man is born into the world there is a job awaiting him. The Bible says : "My Father worketh hitherto and I work," and nature works all of the time. The sunshine and the showers are all in the interest of Allen County agriculture. 238 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY THE ALLEN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY The Ohio argicultural report of 1852 says : "In pursuance of previous notice, a meeting of the citizens of Allen County was held in Lima on Saturday, January 11, 1851, for the purpose of forming an agricultural society. The first Allen County fair, October 21, 1851, was largely attended, the number of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs far surpassing the most sanguine expectations, and there was better quality." While the balloon used to be an inducement to attract visitors to the Allen County fair, the aeroplane is now "so outrageously common" that it is the fair itself that is the attraction. It has gained for itself an enviable reputation; its stock exhibit, race program, grange display, etc., have all received the highest commendations, and A. D. 1920, the class premiums and purses offered and paid, were the largest in the history of the county. There are thirty-six acres of land in Allen County fair grounds, and since the lease expires March 1, 1923, an effort is being made to have the county commissioners buy it. The fair is spoken of as the one place where all classes of citizens congregate in social intercourse, and the community is inclined to perpetuate it. In 1916, C. A. Graham, who for ten years has been secretary of the Board of Agriculture, prepared a comprehensive history covering its development, grouping the different fairs as to time and location. There were five fairs held in Lima: from 1851 to 1855, and the second group of seven fairs was held on the Terry farm later known as the Faurot farm, southwest of town—the site now near the center of Lima, being bounded by Spring, Metcalf, North Shore Drive and McDonel streets. Beginning with 1867, the third group of fairs has been held at the Roberts farm, the present Allen County fair grounds. Mr. Graham gives the organization of the society from the records, year after year. An item from the second annual report reads : "The cattle exhibited were generally of better blood, and in better condition than those usually presented on such occasions, in new counties; it was an advance of last year ; some fine specimens of swine were exhibited; there were but few sheep on the ground," and from the drift of conversation the foregoing was rather an accurate forecast of the future in local animal husbandry. Perhaps HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 239 the horse received more attention. From the third annual report is gleaned the statement: "The entries far exceed those of last year. * * * Already our farmers are visiting the fairs of other and older counties, and returning with improved stock and enlarged ideas of the dignity of labor." In the 50's Allen County farmers were studying the cost of production, and 1920 methods seem unchanged in the comparison. The first premium of one acre of corn was awarded to A. Standif ord, with the cost of producing ninety-four bushels amounting to $3.40, but that long ago nothing was said about wornout farm land or conservation of soil fertility ; it was virgin soil. The second award went to Aaron Osman who produced 84 1/4 bushels of corn on one acre at an outlay of $7.25 in producing it. George Rankins received the premium on clover seed, securing eleven bushels from two acres ; all competitors for premiums were members of the local society. The ground and the produce were measured by disinterested parties who verified their reports by affidavits. Notwithstanding the foregoing flattering results, the fair was allowed to lapse for a few years. The farmers were reproached by the citizens generally, and an editorial of the day : "Agriculture will never hold anywhere its due place, till those who make it their business learn to know each other.. * * * An Agricultural Society affords opportunity for intercourse, comparison and improvement. It, too, if rightly conducted and comprehended, gives respect for an employment the noblest on earth," and as a result of similar agitation there was a second group in the history of Allen County fairs. There was a meeting in the Allen County courthouse, May 3, 1860, which resulted in reorganization of the agricultural society. The reorganization did not depend alone upon the farmers. I. S. Pillars, chairman of the Committee on Constitution and By-Laws, was an attorney ; Thomas K. Jacobs, its president, was a business man of Lima, and Dr. R. E. Jones was an official in the organization. The place of exhibit was secured, and the fair was held in October. An editorial of the day: "The attention given to the improvement of farm crops and stock is the measure of advancement of Allen County in wealth and intelligence. It is useless to say that poor farmers can become really intelligent men, or that farming does not admit of the exercise of the highest faculties," and thus the agricultural society was a means of education. The first fair under the new regime was held October 4 and 5, 1860, on the Terry or Faurot farm now within the City of Lima. It was reported a success, although most of the live stock was only exhibited the first day. There was a good exhibit of horses, cattle and hogs with but few sheep ; there were but few fowls, but the assortment of fruits was excellent. There was a variety of seeds. There was a fine display of carriages. "The varieties of mechanical and agricultural machines and implements was first rate, abundant and excellent." The fairs were held on the Faurot farm as long as it was available, when the present location was chosen, and since 1867, has been the site of the exhibits. From the beginning in 1867, until 1881, the ground was rented from J. B. Roberts. On September 3, 1881, the society purchased the tract ; on January 21, 1887, the property was conveyed to the Allen County commissioners because of indebtedness incurred on it, and the Board of Commissioners sold it to W. H. Duffield, who immediately transferred the title to the Lima Driving Park Company. Before the advent of the automobile there was more interest in such things. When the Lima Driving Park Company acquired the property it entered into a twenty year lease with the agricultural society, granting the use of the grounds two 240 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY weeks each year at an annual $500 rental ; when the company acquired an additional six-acre adjoining tract, the lease was changed to cover it, and $650 became the annuity for it. The affairs of the society are under the direct control or management of a board of fifteen directors, and again the ownership of the property is under consideration. There is a feeling that Allen County should own the fair grounds. The street fairs have been in popular favor in Lima and some of the other towns. The midwinter fair in Bluffton attracts live stock and fine exhibits in domestic science and household arts. The poultry and grain entries were satisfactory, and the whole thing ended up with an excellent parade of live stock. The Bluffton fair attracts exhibits from other counties. Like the Allen County fair it is open to the world. In the different communities the local banks and business houses frequently devote their window space to agricultural and horticultural exhibits. In a measure, better farming movements and overcoming the influx from the farm to the factory. While the people in all of the towns decry the high cost of living, there is no apparent migration toward the farms; the fact remains, however, that tenant farmers of the past are land owners today. As tenants they earned the money with which they bought the land, and scientific agriculture is increasing soil production instead of reducing it. The line of demarcation between town and country should never be apparent ; the social advantages of the town are now available to all who live in the country. The lazy man has at last come into his own, students of economics agreeing that he instinctively finds the short method of HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 241 doing things, thereby insuring both conservation of time and increased production. It is said the simpler and easier ways come naturally to the constitutionally lazy man or woman. David Harum of "horsetrader" fame in fiction, says'. "There's as much human nature in some folks as in others, if not more," and the historian of today finds all sorts of characters in Allen County. While some are born great and others achieve greatness, still others have it thrust upon them, and the social instinct is part of the human organism. When the pioneers would meet, they would talk about the number of acres of cleared land they had—so much land clear of all stumps, the land still in timber being a detriment to them. As yet they had no community organizations-there were no wornout farms to reclaim, and community problems did not perplex them. Time was in Allen County when men who did not own land were welcome visitors if they would cut and haul away the wood, and thus help to clear the forest; it is difficult to think of those wilderness conditions under the changed environment of today. Under the pioneer conception of things, a man's chances in life depended upon whether or not he was a good chopper—how many cords of wood he could chop and pile in a given lengthl of time, and the man who could ruthlessly destroy the most timber was the hero of the community. The element of waste was not considered at all, in ridding the land of the valuable timber encumbering it. While the pioneers came together and "talked their heads off" about their everyday observations, there came a time when the settler began the study of economic conditions. POMONA GRANGE When the Grange started in Allen County it was a farmers' business organization—a buyers' protective association, and as such it ran along for years, building halls in different localities and finally it became more of a social organization. Under the latter status more people affiliated with it. Such was the sentiment overheard about the time honored farmer organization—Pomona Grange in Allen County. The "Sage of Shawnee" declares : "Nearly all the rural subscribers to the Allen County History are members of the Grange, and they want to see a full history of the order," and William Rusler supplies the following data : "The idea of creating an organization limited to those engaged in agricultural pursuits originated with Oliver Hudson Kelley ; he was born in Boston in 1826, and was educated in the public schools of that city. When a young man, Mr. Kelley worked as a reporter on The Chicago Tribune, and later as a telegraph operator. "In the early 50's, Mr. Kelley took up farming as his life work ; he entered a farm from the United States Government near Itasca, Minnesota; in 1864, he was appointed to a clerkship in the department of agriculture at Washington ; in 1866, he was made an agent of that department to investigate farming conditions in the southern states just beginning to recover from the effects of the Civil war. He f ound conditions very discouraging, both in the south and the middle west, and western states. Mr. Kelley writes : 'I find there is a great lack of interest on the part of the farmers ; a visible want of energy on their part to favor progressive agriculture; where we find one who reads agricultural books and papers, there are ten who consider "book farming" as nonsense. After making a general investigation, I found the circulation of purely agricultural papers was but one to every 230 inhabitants ; their system of farming was the same as that handed down by the generations gone by ; of the science of agriculture, the natural laws that govern the growth Vol. 1-46 242 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY of plants, there were ninety per cent who were totally ignorant ; there is nothing now that binds the farmers together, and I think such an order (the Grange) would act with the most cheerful results.' " The Hon. John W. Stokes, acting commissioner of agriculture, very heartily endorsed this work ; in 1868, Mr. Kelley, backed by fewer than a dozen prominent farmers, commenced the organization in the different states of subordinate lodges of the Patrons of Husbandry, now known and spoken of as the Grange. The work was slow in starting, but at the end of four years—December, 1872—there were more than 11,000 subordinate Granges, and twenty-two state organizations ; in January, 1873, the National Grange was organized in Georgetown, District of Columbia, with Dudley W. Adams of Iowa as master ; Thomas Taylor, South Caroplina, overseer ; F. M. McDowell, New York, treasurer ; O. H. Kelley, Washington, District of Columbia, secretary, and an executive committee: William Saunders, Washington, District of Columbia ; D. Wyatt Aiken, South Carolina, and E. R. Shankland, Iowa. From that time until the present, the Grange has been a factor in all the efforts made to better the condition of the agriculturist. "Father Kelley" died in 1913, after the success of his labors had become a certainty; he saw accomplished by the Grange many things of untold value to the people, among them : the recognition of the equality of women in all walks of life; they were admitted to the Grange in full membership and powers with the men ; the enacting of laws for the creation of farming experiment stations which now dot every state in the Union ; the present rural free delivery of mail service; the building up of the system of farmers' institutes, and the teaching of agriculture in the public schools ; in short, many advances in rural life are due to the Grange. It is the rural community center ; the members meet and discuss issues, formulate petitions and if necessary ask for favors. When farmers band themselves together and ask for a measure, it means more to a community than individual effort ; the grange is non-partisan, nonsectarian and open to all rural families. The first local Grange in Allen County was Allen Grange ; it was organized in 1871, north from Spencerville ; it prospered for several years when finally its building was burned and the lodge disbanded ; its members affiliated with other organizations ; the official roster was destroyed, but among the prominent members were : Rev. George Wolf ord, Rev. William Moorman, Jacob Book and J. N. Bailey. Other Granges organized in quick succession that fall were : Shawnee Grange, J. H. Berryman, master ; German (now American) Grange, Jacob Crites, master ; Amanda Grange, Jacob Frye, master ; Marion Grange, W. E. Watkins, master ; all told there have been twenty-two subordinate lodges organized in the county, distributed as follows : Amanda Township, two ; Auglaize, two ; Bath, two ; American, three ; Jackson, three ; Marion, two ; Monroe, two ; Perry, two ; Richland, one; Spencer, two, and Shawnee, one. Jackson Grange No. 341, organized January 6, 1874, at the residence of David Fisher with thirty-seven charter members is considered the banner Grange of Allen County ; for a time this Grange met in a schoolhouse, but it was interrupted by outsiders until it finally built its own hall which was soon to small to accommodate its members ; the second building is two stories high, the upper rooms used by the Grange, and the lower for business purposes ; the members of this Grange transact much of their own business through the organization, thereby saving to themselves the profits of the middle man. The first officers of Jackson Grange were : John Austin, master ; John W. Helser, overseer ; John B. Grubb, lecturer ; Solomon D. Snyder, HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 243 steward ; David Klinger, assistant steward ; Samuel G. Foucht, chaplain ; Joseph Sevitz, treasurer ; J. G. Heiser, secretary ; Cornelius Fisher, gatekeeper; Mrs. Elizabeth Grubb, Ceres ; Mrs. Anna Binkley, Pomona; Miss Sarah A. Helser, Flora ; Miss Sarah E. Binkley, Lady Assistant Steward. For almost half a century this has been a flourishing Grange. In four more years it will be celebrating its first half century in local history. The Allen County Mutual Fire Insurance Company was organized by the Granges ; John J. Cole of American Township was the leading spirit in its organization ; the Auglaize Mutual Protective Association, organized largely through the efforts of M. A. Baber of Amanda, was also a Grange organization; both companies have been very successful and are still actively engaged in. business. Pioneer Granges not already mentioned were : Amanda, Alonzo Frye, William Richardson, C. Hover and Robert Brooks ; Auglaize, H. D. Creps, John B. Leatherman, Elijah Williams and F. M. Clum ; American, W. D. Poling, Jacob Crites, Albert Kemp, Eli Imler, William Peters and Lewis Kreiling; Bath, John Weaver, C. Parker, William Lutz and Samuel Boose ; Jackson, Amos Binkley, Noah Clum, Adam Leatherman, Jacob Hoffman and M. V. Blair ; Marion, J. W. Ditto, Moses W. Long, Calvin Herring, Isaac Ludwig and James Baxter ; Monroe, A. Brenneman, Aaron States and Reuben Harpster ; Perry, M. L. Baker, Simon Severns, F. Y. Davis, John Tussing, Reverend Bowdle, George C. Schooler and J. A. Jacobs ; Shawnee, William Rusler, who was the first deputy state master and who organized and gave the unwritten work to eighteen subordinate lodges ; James McBeth, G. L. Breese and Beach Graham; Spencer, Hugh Hill, Adam Wolford, Deputy State Master S. Weaver and many others. The Home Protective League was organized within the Grange, July 30, 1919, to fight classification which was overwhelmingly defeated. The league assisted the Ohio State Grange and other organizations in the tax fights which prevented the Legislature from again submitting classification, and it has always worked in the interest of the taxpayer; while classification was defeated a new danger is threatening; single tax is being advocated ; this means the league has a fight ahead ; the grange has always been committed to the welfare of those engaged in agriculture. Here's a toast to the young Allen County farmer : "A nice little farm well tilled, A nice little house well filled, And a nice little wife well willed," and here is another side to the story : "But heart's desire is only this, Dear love within a cottage small, The firelight's home caressing kiss And God's own blessing on us all." ALLEN COUNTY FARM BUREAU The Allen County, Farm Bureau grew out of a war necessity ; the United States Government was asking for increased production from the farmers ; they must make edges cut in the industry of agriculture ; the customs of the first agriculturists are described in Sacred Writ : "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor ; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire," and that describes intensive agriculture. When the United States Government laid its hand on Allen County, 244 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY H. L. Kay of Amanda Township was alert, and wrote out a forecast for such activities ; he was invited to present the matter before the Lima Chamber of Commerce. There were only a few bureaus in Ohio, the plan of organization having been considered in 1917 and matured in the following year ; the Smith-Hughes Vocational Educational Law recognized the county agent plan, and the Chamber of Commerce felt the need of a medium through which it might reach the farm homes ; money for such organization could be obtained from the state-the ultimate taxpayer always behind everything. Mr. Kay and Fred Zeits were active in promoting an organization, Mr. Zeits becoming its first president ; it was up to the farmers to meet the changed conditions ; the United States was at war and increased production was necessary ; the Allen County Council of Defense was active, and its aim was an educated citizenship ; its effort was to enlist the idle boys in the towns to work on the farms ; with the young Allen County farmers overseas, there was a shortage of farm labor ; when Mr. Kay had outlined his plans before the Chamber of Commerce, prominent men of the community set about their development ; getting the boys of the towns onto the farms embodied a task ; they must be assured of credits in their school work, and as a result the Students Army Training Corps came into existence ; the boy who responded to the call of agriculture was thus assured of his grades ; the high schools and colleges all made concessions to them for the duration of the war ; since Armistice Day such students have been designated as the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Many young men responded to this manifestation of patriotism. It was understood that the state would give $1,500 toward the organization of a farm bureau in Allen County ; in 1918, a number of local men, assisted by two Columbus citizens from the farm bureau, interested a sufficient number of Allen County farmers who paid $1 a year toward such an organization; while not all the farmers responded, there were enough progressive ones to effect the organization of the Allen County Farm Bureau ; the membership basis was soon changed to $10, each subscriber binding himself for three years ; it is now on a sound financial basis ; while not all support it, all may have benefits from it. Capt. Raymond W. Carr was the first farm agent ; he was from Fort Sill, being released from duty through the signing of the armistice, and he was a popular official; he had the influenza and was compelled to leave because of failing health. Later farm agents are: C. J. Windau, J. T. Wilcox and C. L. Andrew. Since August, 1919, the incumbent is L. S. Van Natta. The membership canvas in March, 1920, resulted in securing 916 paid members at $10, and signed up for three years ; all farm owners and tenant farmers are eligible to membership in the Allen County Farm Bureau; the farm agent is at the service of all Allen County farmers. The farm agent conducts soil tests, lime demonstrations and poultry tests ; through his ability to enlist the children of the public schools, Prof. C. A. Argenbright has co-operated with the farm bureau in testing seed corn. While co-operative marketing plans have not yet been so fully worked out as in some counties, something is being done in that direction ; all the towns have railroad sidings and stock pens, and local buyers handle grain and live stock ; while every town has its warehouse and its shipping industry, as yet the farm bureau does not control the business. While there are equity shipping arrangements, they are personal enterprises. Clarence Breese of Shawnee is president, and H. L. Kay of Amanda and Lima is secretary-treasurer of the Allen County Farm Bureau, A. D. 1920, and they are rapidly surmounting difficulties in its HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 245 organization. The grange and the farm bureau have the same constituency-those engaged in agriculture. Many active grangers are also members of the farm bureau. A recent newspaper clipping says : "Farmers of Allen County are designating their land with conspicuous signs which tell of their chief enterprise ; these demonstration signs are placed in front of their residences, so that passersby may stop and inquire into the merits of the farm specialty ; in large letters they read: 'Demonstration Farm, Allen County Farm Bureau,' and then the specialty : 'Single Comb Rhode Island Reds,' or 'Limestone Plats,' or whatever may be the special production of the farm; it may be hogs, wheat, poultry, small fruits," and the bulletin serves to advertise them. It keeps the products of the farm before the public—in short, it is business. The thing of greatest human importance is the production and distribution of food-business. Religion, education, art, politics—all are secondary to it. Business is nothing more than providing life's necessities. The grange and the farm bureau have the same relation to the community. The price of farm land is influenced by its location, and by the nature of its improvements ; while an occasional farm may change ownership at $150 an acre, the exchange price is sometimes twice that amount, and there are but few run-down farms to command the lower price under the new order of agriculture. Live stock farming increases soil fertility, and live stock fed on the farm is the salvation of the country. There are few old-time "hardscrabble" farmsteads in Allen County today. With live stock and poultry production there are constant sources of income, and it has always been said that the American hen would pay off the national debt with half a chance, but while she was doomed to roost all winter long in the trees she only laid a few clutches of eggs in the whole year ; the twentieth century hen has made a record for herself, and a number of Allen County farmers are poultry specialtists. It is conceded by all that the inventive genius of man has done as much for the Allen County farmer and his wife, in giving them improved working• conditions as in any other branch of economics. One need only look back to the beginning of the twentieth century to note many changes. The age of electricity dawned in the nineteenth century, and while some men and women will always live in the past as far as drudgery and hard labor are concerned, the farm boy of today knows little about pumping water for a herd of thirsty cattle, the windmill and the gasoline engine having emancipated him. The products of the farm are fed to live stock and marketed in that way, and under the new order of things there are frequent paydays in the country. It isn't many years since Allen County merchants carried many farmers by the year through their book accounts, and diversified farming—more variety in farm products, has changed the story. Corn, oats, wheat, clover and back again to corn brings results in Allen County. Combined with live stock, there is some attention given to pet stock production, and rabbit growing is becoming a recognized farm industry. Back to the farm—back to the farm has been the cry, and the retired farmer who is not too infirm to continue farm activities—the retired farmers living in town are no longer producers ; when they become consumers they help increase the demand on the market, thereby bringing about the higher living expense ; with so many producers transferred to the consumers' class, the law of supply and demand seems to work a hardship to all. Every town has its quota of retired farmers ; some give up the active farm management and remain on the farms, and they can always find profitable employment tinkering about the place ; the retired farmer is profitable when it is time to select corn for seed; some students 246 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY of agriculture say that when the farmer reduces his activities from a quarter section of land to an ordinary town lot, he shortens his days. When he has been used to range he still requires it. It is often said that it is better to wear out than to rust out, and while the towns are over-populated in these World war reconstruction days, there are too many empty farmhouses. Since the automobile has emancipated the driving horse, and the retired farmer can no longer improve his time by an early start with a load of manure for the farm each morning, it seems like town is a hopeless place for him. When he has whittled store boxes all morning, he wonders what to do with himself. If he were on the farm, he could split wood or lay up rails—could find some profitable light employment, and thereby lengthen his days. As long as there are "March winds and April showers" there will be some necessary work on the farmsteads; while "Thirty days hath September, April, June and November," there will be reward for his labor if he busies himself throughout the other changing months in the year. Sometimes it is the labor problem—the man and his wife no longer equal to the long hours-eight hours in the morning and eight again in the afternoon; two sets of farm buildings solve that difficulty. Sometimes one house does not serve two families satisfactorily. On many Allen County farmsteads the horse has been supplanted for heavy draft by the farm tractor, and he has been almost totally annihilated from the public highways by the automobiles ; where would Paul Revere get to on horseback today ? They used to say that if an automobile trip were planned a horseback rider should be sent through the country ahead to warn the countryside ; not so many years ago farmers walked half-way to town leading their horses past automobiles, but today they whiz by in them themselves. There was a time when a galloping horse along a public highway, indicated that some one was in need of the doctor. There are labor-saving devices nowadays that would cause the forefathers to push their fingers through their hair in amazement, and the man who said of the steam engine that it would not start and then that it would not stop, still has relatives in Allen County. The doubting Thomas of the Bible is not alone in the world of doubters; he has brothers and sisters in Allen County as well as in the rest of the world. The gasoline tractor used in turning the sod on Allen County farms, obviates the sore shoulder difficulty encountered a generation ago when horses were the sole motive power in drawing the plow, and the grass-fed horse when feed was scarce did not have the strength of the modern tractor ; there were always some farmers who were out of corn before corn came again;' some farmers still had corn in the field when it was time to plant it again. The thrifty Allen County farmers today have commodious barns—shelter for all their live stock, and they live in modern houses with running water, furnace heat, artificial light plants,. and all as a direct result of business methods applied to agriculture; the educated or book farmer, has had his part in the changed conditions; what is not in the head is in the heels, and the educated farmer takes advantage of many things. While the forefathers worked long hours over humdrum jobs, the labor-saving machinery used today leaves some time for planning better methods of doing things; running a farm is like running a factory ; it requires a high grade of intelligence to make high-priced land profitable for agriculture. Improved farm implements have always appeared on the market as farmers needed them; the labor scarcity has rendered them a necessity. What has become of the Allen County farmhand so necessary only a few years ago? Who remembers about Roosevelt's Country Life Commission and the purpose of it? CHAPTER XXI THE TEMPLE OF JUSTICE-ALLEN COUNTY OFFICIAL ROSTER It may be said that an increased knowledge of the general plan, and of the details of the system under which Ohio is governed, cannot fail to develop in its citizenry a wholesome respect for its government. The history of Allen County is the story of a manhood and a womanhood which from the days of the first log cabins, have had no superiors among the pioneers of any country, and it is a group of very accommodating officials that is found in the Allen County temple of justice today. Patriotic pride is conducive to a better contented, more law-abiding citizenship. While June 6, 1831, was the beginning of the official life of Allen County, there was no public house in which to hold the first session of the Allen County court. The first record was made in the cabin home of James Daniels, said to have been near the Ottawa River east from the site of the Lima public square. Not many sessions were held in the Daniels cabin, but a contract was let there for a log courthouse which was built in 1832, south from the public square at the corner of Main and Spring streets, and it was used eight years. While the Council House of the Shawnees was then in existence, the settlers never recognized it in an official way. The first courthouse was two stories in height and served at once as courtroom, county offices and jail ; it was made of small, hewed logs and the contract was let for it, August 27, 1831, the stipulated cost being $175, Josiah Crawford becoming the builder. All sorts of people under one roof proved unsatisfactory, and in July, 1833, a contract was let to Daniel Tracey to construct a separate jail, the amount of $179 being appropriated for it ; this contract was let at public outcry to the lowest bidder. The first session of court in the new structure was held March 4, 1833, but in 1839 a new courthouse was planned, the location being at Market and Main streets—the site of the Cincinnati block, and in July, 1841, when there was no further need of it the log courthouse and jail and the two lots thus occupied, were sold at auction. There is no record of the money consideration. While the number of offices was optional in each county, Allen organized with James Daniels, John G. Wood and Samuel Stewart as the first board of county commissioners ; William G. Wood was auditor ; Adam White, treasurer ; Henry Lippincott, sheriff, and Loren Kennedy, prosecuting attorney. These are the men who had to do with the first business transactions in the county. They were in position to cope with all of the problems of the day. An era of prosperity was dawning in Allen County, and the log courthouse did not meet the requirements of the community ; the second courthouse built of brick with Doric columns, put to shame all of the unpretentious log structures in the town. It served the purpose, however, of both courthouse and jail—the bastile being in the basement story. John P. Haller was the contractor ; about that time he built the first county infirmary. He also built the first brick sewer from High Street along Main Street to the Ottawa River. He was the most prominent contractor in the community. He had a great deal of pride in the new Allen County courthouse. The finishing stroke on the temple of justice was the stone steps and the Doric columns. It was a marvel in architecture. Many citizens of Lima remember it. There was a house-warming - 247 - 248 - HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY there in 1842, that was a social event in the lives of Allen County men and women of fourscore years ago. When the second temple of justice was ready for service, Lima society dedicated it by tripping the "light fantastic toe," the whole community turning out to a big dance. The women who were interested in the preparations for the grand ball which was given in the basement, went in and scrubbed it and had all things in readiness. They improvised beds in the cells prepared for the future prisoners, and since there would be: "No sleep till morn when youth and pleasure meet, To chase the glowing hours with flying feet," there was a place for the babies to sleep and soundly as if they were in FIRST COURTHOUSE, ERECTED 1832 their own downy beds. What resident of Allen County today has the assurance that he was a sleeping babe while his father and mother were having part in that dedicatory gaiety ? As yet no prisoners had occupied the bunks set aside that night for the sleeping infants carried there. This elegant new courthouse served the purpose forty years, in the most active days of Allen County's business and social development. While there were few prisoners in those days a basement jail was never satisfactory. While there was occasionally a drunken Indian or a horse- thief in durance vile, the basement jail was not sufficiently secluded, and people were inclined to look through the windows at the prisoners. Every town has its lockup difficulties, and isolation is the one essential in handling prisoners. They are soon transferred to the county bastile for greater safety. It is related that Harrod once had a lockup, and HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY - 249 when a man was imprisoned who could not be unloaded on the county sheriff for safe keeping, they left the door unlocked hoping the prisoner would make his escape, but while he was a prisoner, the town had to feed him, and he refused to be turned out into the world again. When the second courthouse was no longer equal to the requirements in Allen County, the location was changed again, and the jail was completed where it stands today in advance of the third temple of justice. The corner stone of the present courthouse was laid July 4, 1882, with a ceremony that attracted many visitors. The cost of building the courthouse and jail was $350,000, and it has served the community now almost as long as did the second temple of justice. SECOND COURTHOUSE The officials in any county represent the voters in it—not those who fail to exercise citizenship prerogatives, and it is said some men must be supported by the public—must be in the hands of their friends, and if they fail in politics they frequently engage in lodge, church or charity work because of the salary connected with it. Those serving Allen County today are recognizing the need of more space in which to transact the business—and yet the courthouse was built well, and condemnation proceedings will not remove it. There are features about it no longer modern, and in time there will be demand for different housing for those privileged to serve Allen County. The first record of charity or oversight of Allen County's unfortunates, shows an expense for repair on the first jail ; on October 1, 1831, the commissioners appointed Henry Lippincott to prepare plans for "fixing some place of confinement for