HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 345
CHAPTER XI
TOWNSHIPS, CITIES AND VILLAGES-THE COUNTY SEAT.
The fourteen township divisions of Auglaize county, reading down the map from left to right, are Salem, Noble, St. Marys, German, Jackson Logan, Moulton, Washington, Duchouquet, Pusheta, Union, Clay, Wayne and Goshen, these comprising, according to the J. H. Meyer Atlas of Auglaize County (1917), 384 full sections and parts of ten others, together with about 2,410 acres of Virginia Military lands. The county's total acreage is slightly in excess of 252,000, of which about 240,000 are available for use, the remaining 12,000 acres being occupied by Lake St. Marys (the Grand Reservoir), the Loramie reservoir, the various rivers and streams and its many roads and pikes, which occupy alone more than 4,600 acres. For the purposes of this review these townships will be considered in alphabetical order, excepting the townships of Duchouquet and St. Marys, in which are located respectively the two chief cities of the county, Wapakoneta, the county seat, and the city of St. Marys.
DUCHOUQUET TOWNSHIP AND THE CITY OF WAPAKONETA
Duchouquet township, the largest township in the county, covers approximately forty-two square miles lying in townships 4 and 5, range 6 east, section 31 to 36 of the former township and sections 1 to 36 of the latter township making up the civil division; the township being bordered on the north by Allen county, on the east by Union township, on the south by Pusheta township and on the west by Moulton and Logan townships, with the city of Wapakoneta in the southwest corner and the village of Cridersville on the north line in sections 34 and 35 of township 5. The Auglaize river enters the township in section 12 of the upper township and
346 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
flowing southwesterly through Wapakoneta flows out in section 31 of the lower township, and the township is thus thoroughly drained by the natural tributaries, including Blackhoof creek, Quaker run and Two Mile creek and a system of ditches finding outlet in these streams. Four railroads, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Toledo & Ohio Central, the Lake Erie & Western and the Western Ohio electric line traverse the township.
The territory comprised in Duchouquet township was included in the Wapakoneta Indian reservation and lands here were not opened for settlement until after the cession of 1831 by which the Indians gave up their lands and were transported west. In the meantime there had been formed in connection with the trading post and council house at Wapakoneta the nucleus of a white settlement, with a mill, a blacksmith shop, a store and the like, and it was not long after the lands were opened for entry until settlers began to come in and in due time all lands were taken and the work of carving farms out of the forest wilderness well under way. The Government land office prior to that time had been located at Piqua, but upon the removal of the Indians and the opening of the 100-square-mile tract formerly included in their reservation the land office was moved to Wapakoneta, for the convenience of prospective settlers, and the activities centering about that office served as a further stimulus to the settlement of the village. This office was opened on December 26, 1832, and on the first day lands aggregating more than 1,600 acres at and surrounding Wapakoneta were entered, the principal buyers on that day having been James B. Gardner, who was the Government agent acting in the transaction which brought about the cession of the Indian lands; Robert J. Skinner, agent and receiver for the land office; William A. VanHorn, the land office registrar and auctioneer; Jeremiah Ayers, the local inn keeper; Jonathan K. Wilds, Peter Aughenbaugh, Joseph Barnett, Henry Stoddard, Thomas V. Gordon and John Tam.
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 347
WAPAKONETA IN THE DAYS OF THE INDIANS.
Regarding the situation in and about Wapakoneta prior to the settlement period opening with the departure of the Indians, Professor Williamson's comprehensive review has it that "from 1820 to 1833 Wapakoneta contained but few people who had been accustomed to mingle in the circles of white society. The adventurers who came here to barter with the Indians were persons destitute of character and indulged in all the vices of corrupt society. Drinking and gambling were inseparably connected with business and amusements of all kinds. Nearly every trader dealt in whisky. The order from the War Department prohibiting the sale of liquors to the Indians was not observed. The VanBlaricomes and others made money enough by secretly selling whisky to the Indians to enter farms for themselves. During the dry periods of summer and fall, wagon trains destined to points in the Maumee valley were of every day occurrence. Gaston Garde, an enterprising dealer in flour and salt, shipped large consignments to Wapakoneta, where they were loaded on pirogues and scows, manned by Indians, and floated down the Auglaize river to Defiance. If the boats grounded on the sand bars or other obstructions the Indians were ready to jump into the river and buoy them over." Other details of this pre-settlement period are set out in the chapter relating to the days of early settlement of the county.
TRADITIONS CONCERNING PLACE NAME
Regarding the name Wapakoneta, there are several local traditions, one of which is to the effect that the name is a combination of the masculine and the feminine, merging the names of an old Indian chief, whom the adherents to this tradition claim simply to have been Wapaugh, and that of his squaw, who they say was Koneta. Some even will go so far as to point out the stump of a great elm down along the riverside, which they say marks the site of the identical elm
348 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
tree under which the Chief Wapaugh and the "Princess" Koneta were married. Perhaps it fairly may be assumed that no one who has written on the subject was better informed regarding the affairs of the Shawnees than was Henry Harvey, the superintendent of the Quaker mission at Wapakoneta during the later years of the Indian occupancy there. He makes no reference in his book to such a tradition, his story having it that the place was called in honor of "an ancient and distinguished woman of that name." His spelling is Wapaughkonnetta. This spelling also is followed by Col. John Johnston, United States commissioner and Indian agent, in his official reports concerning the Indians at this point. Johnston had it that the village was named for a club-footed chief of that name. Hodge's "Handbook of American Indians" (Bulletin 30 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution) has it that Wapakoneta means "white jacket." The Miami name was Wapakonakunge ("where Wapakoneta lived"). The Western Gazetteer (1817) spelled the name Wappaukenata. In one of General Harrison's official reports (1814). the name is spelled Wapauckanata. There are other variations in old books and official documents relating to the days of Indian occupancy.
In the text of the treaty creating the Wapakoneta Indian reservation the name of the village is spelled Wapaghkonnetta, while in the legislative enabling act creating Auglaize county and providing for the establishment of the county seat it is spelled Wapaukonnetta, which spelling had been adopted by the early newspapers at Lima. In the first records of the commissioners of Mercer county it is spelled Wapaughkonnetta. Apparently by common consent, or at least by usage, the present attractive form of the euphonious name was generally adopted hereabout by the time the town became the county seat, for it is so styled in the first records of the county and when the first newspaper was published there that form was used by the paper and there has been no variation since. Some stylists insist that Wapakoneta be pronounced with the e long, though usage generally renders it
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 349
short, which latter form would seem to have been the original, as the invariable use of the double t in the old documents would indicate. W. C. Davis, former postmaster at Wapakoneta, says that one month he kept a record of the variations of the spelling of the name on letters reaching the office and that these were no fewer than forty. That ever has been the trouble with most of the place names taken over from the Indians by a people whose vocal organs were not adjusted to a proper pronunciation of these names and whose attempts at phonetic spelling of the same have resulted in such variations as here are noted in connection with the old Indian village at the headwaters of the Auglaize. But why bother with Shawnee etymology ? As General Pratt, of Carlisle Indian School fame, once wrote in a communication along this line : "The subject has not specially interested me, for the reason that, in my experience, not one in twenty of the Indian names in use could be recognized by any member of the tribe from which the name was derived. The attempts to perpetuate such names are therefore only sentimental abortions."
RELICS OF THE ABORIGINALS.
Concerning the tradition that Chief Wapakoneta was club-footed and that from this infirmity his name was derived, there is an oddly shaped stone in the Herrmann collection of Indian relics, now preserved in the museum cabinet at the high school building at Wapakoneta, which is claimed to have been the very last over which old Wapakoneta's ungainly moccasins were fashioned. There are many stones of strange shape, to which most any sort of a story might become attached, but there is something about the shape of the "Wapakoneta last" and the fact that it seems rather to have been artificially fashioned into its present form than to have been shaped as ordinary stones are by erosion, that keeps firm the faith of those who adhere to this tradition and adds a certain additional value to the not overly well kept collection of relics which some time ago was turned over to the
350 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
school because it seemed that there no longer was room for it in the court house, where it formerly was kept.
This region is, of course, rich in Indian relics, arrow heads and the like, and thousands of them have been picked up in all the years since the white man has been in possession here. There are quite a number of interesting and in some instances valuable private collections of this sort in the homes of this county, but apparently no effort ever has been made to make a real archaeological survey with a view to bringing together the best of these and making proper provision for their public preservation and exhibition. Unhappily, very many of the best and most valuable of these relics have been taken from Auglaize county forever. Years ago, when the "fad" for collecting such relics of Indian occupancy was at its height, collectors went about over the county calling on the farm boys to see what they had in the way of arrow heads and the like and by the crafty offer of nickles and dimes and quarters gained from these boyish hoards the articles that possessed real value to collectors and archaeologists, with the result that perhaps many a private or public museum elsewhere is now enriched by relics that ought to be on display here.
THE MAN FOR WHOM TOWNSHIP WAS NAMED.
Concerning Francis Duchouquet, the trader, whose post at Wapakoneta was the center of the fur trade hereabouts in Indian days and in whose honor this township bears its name, it is narrated in the older chronicles that he was the son of a half-breed French trader who was engaged in trade with the Indians of what is now northwestern Ohio and lower Michigan during the time of the occupancy of this region by the French. Francis Duchouquet is said to have been born in the vicinity of Presque Isle in 1751 and grew up to the fur trade, in which trade he visited all the tribes throughout this section of the then Northwest Territory. On one of his trips among the Shawnees then occupying the Mad river country he married a Shawnee girl and was living with the Indians
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 351
on the Mad river in the region now comprised in Clark and Greene counties when the aboriginals there were dispersed by Gen. George Rogers Clark's expedition, coming thence with the scattered tribe up here and finding refuge with the friendly tribe which long before had established its headquarters or chillicothe at the head of navigation on the Auglaize at Wapakoneta.
Duchouquet established his home and trading house on the right bank of the river at a point just about where the west bridge now crosses the river at what for many years has been known as the Neff place and where by agreement he eventually came into possession of a considerable tract of land in what now is section 29 of the township which bears his name and a part of which tract is now included within the city limits of Wapakoneta, the title to portions of this tract still being held by his descendants. It is significant that in the treaty of 1831 by which the Indians here ceded their lands to the Government, Duchouquet's right and title to this land was perpetuated under the terms of Art. 11 of that convention, which set out that "it is understood by the present contracting parties that any claims which Francis Duchouquet may have under former treaties to a section or any quantity of the lands herein ceded to the United States are not to be prejudiced by the present compact, but to remain as valid as before."
It is stated that Duchouquet's time "was so engrossed with business that he did not participate in the wars of western Ohio, further than to act as interpreter on important occasions." It further is narrated that in early life he became addicted to the drink habit, "which grew upon him to such an extent that in his later days he drank to excess," and that "at such times he frequently amused himself by shooting at a mark. The few citizens of the village generally gave him a wide berth on such occasions." It seems a bit ironical to observe that at the final treaty here, when the last reservation of the Shawnees was ceded to the Government, Duchouquet "became intoxicated at the opening of the negotia-
352 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
casion." When in December, 1831, the delegation of Indians tions and did not serve as interpreter on that important oc in the death of the latter. According to one of the writers left Wapakoneta for Washington seeking better terms than had been granted in the convention, Duchouquet went along as an interpreter, but at Cumberland was taken ill and there died and was buried before his companions again reached the place on their return from Washington, as is set out elsewhere.
A TALE OF DITCHOUQUET'S BRAVERY.
It is narrated that while on a trading expedition with the Indians up in the Sandusky country in
1782 Duchouquet was present at and witnessed the horrid torture and death at the stake of Colonel Crawford and that he joined in an ineffectual intercession to save the life of the colonel. At any rate, it is pointed out, Duchouquet's description of that horrible scene agreed in every respect with the one given to the Government as an official report by Doctor Knight, who was Crawford's companion on the expedition which resulted of the earlier days who assembled a good deal of matter relating to the Indians of this region, Duchouquet "was never known, on any occasion, to participate in any of the savage cruelties practiced by the Indians on their captives. Although so closely related by blood to the Indians, his sympathies were always with the captive and wherever possible he rendered assistance. As an example of his many noble acts we cite the case of Charles Johnston, who was captured on the Ohio river in 1790 and taken to the upper Sandusky. At Sandusky, Johnston became acquainted with Duchouquet, who was engaged in the purchase of furs. To him he recounted his adventures and earnestly solicited his good offices in delivering him from the Indians. Duchouquet promptly assured him that every exertion should be used for that purpose and lost no time in redeeming his pledge. That evening he spoke to Chickatommo and offered a liberal ransom for the prisoner, but his efforts were fruitless. The Shawnee chief did not object to
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 353
the price, but declared that no sum would induce him to give up the prisoner until they first had taken him to their towns. Soon afterward the Shawnee party engaged in a drinking bout. When their hearts were somewhat mellowed by rum Duchouquet repeated his offer and was again peremptorily refused.
"Duchouquet then inquired the name of the town to which he was to be taken and the fate which was in reserve for him upon his arrival there. To the first question Chickatommo promptly replied that the prisoner was to be carried to the Miami villages, but to the second he gave no satisfactory answer. The mention of the Miami villages extinguished every spark of hope which still existed in Johnston's breast, as those towns had heretofore been the grave of every white prisoner who had been taken into them. At this juncture fortune favored him. A Wyandot trader appeared with several horses laden with kegs of rum and in the course of two days completely stripped the Indians of every skin, blanket and article of merchandise possessed by them. On the morning of the third day Chickatommo and his party awoke as from a dream and found themselves destitute, ragged and poor. Ashamed of their condition, they appeared before Duchouquet and declared that the scalp of the prisoner could be transported more easily than his person, but, if he still wished to purchase him, they would forego the expected entertainment of burning and scalping the prisoner and would let him have the captive upon good terms. Duchouquet eagerly accepted the offer and instantly counted down 600 silver brooches, the ordinary price of a prisoner. The Indians lost no time in delivering Johnston into the trader's hands and the two lost no time in setting out for the Ohio river. After exposure to numerous dangers Johnston and Duchouquet succeeded in reaching the lower Sandusky, from which point by the aid of traders Johnston was able to make his way safely south."
When the Indian tribes of Ohio and Indiana began to assemble at Greenville in the fall of 1795 Duchouquet was
(22)
354 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
summoned to act as one of the interpreters during the negotiations. He was again called in 1817 to serve as interpreter in the treaty made at the rapids of the Maumee. In the year following (1818) he for the third time served as interpreter, at the treaties made at St. Marys, and thereafter was similarly employed when occasion arose, it being apparent from the frequency and character of such employment that he must have possessed superior ability as a translator of the Indian tongue. Duchouquet 's residence on the north bank of the river at the Indian village at Wapakoneta became a house of entertainment at which it is said traveling traders and explorers always were sure of accommodations. His store and warehouse were located at the wharf in front of his house, At the close of the fur season his peltries were stored on pirogues and floated down to the mouth of the Auglaize, where they either were sold to traders at that point or reshipped to Detroit, where they were sold for cash or traded for goods. The goods, if bought at Detroit, were carried on vessels to the mouth of the Auglaize whence they were transported on pack horses to Wapakoneta.
OLD QUAKER MISSION HOUSE AND MILL.
The operations of the Quaker mission at Wapakoneta Indian village from 1819 on to the time of the departure of the Indians has been referred to elsewhere. This mission maintained a grist mill, a saw mill, a blacksmith shop and other accommodations for the benefit of the redmen, the mills occupying a site alongside the left bank of the river at a point just at the rear of the present Masonic hall building on Auglaize street, a race extending from a dam at a point across the river at the bend in the vicinity of the present electric light and pump house supplying the power for the mills. Portions of the frames of these old mills still were in evidence as late as ten years ago.
As early as 1816 George C. Johnston, the trader, of whom a considerable account has been given elsewhere in this work.
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 355
established a trading post at Wapakoneta, under a Government license, and operated there for some years, his post having been situated on the site now occupied by the wheel works in the vicinity of the B. & 0. railway station. Before Johnston's time, along about 1815, Peter Hammel, a French trader, had come down here from Canada and put up a log building along the river trail at a point about what now is the middle of the block on the south side of Auglaize street between Perry and Blackhoof streets, Lot 12 of the original plat. Hammel carried a pretty general stock of goods and long remained on the scene, his store becoming the center of trading activities among the early settlers of this region. In 1816, the year following his arrival here, Hammel married Francis Duchouquet's daughter. To this union, it is narrated, four children were born, Pamelia, who in 1839 married Joseph Neff ; Theresa, who in 1842 married William Craft, and a son and daughter who died in youth. Hammel made his home with Duchouquet until the latter's death and came into a considerable piece of property following that event, the farm afterwards and still known as the Neff place just northwest of the city, now owned by Michael Hauss.
THE PLATTING OF THE TOWNSITE.
Following the departure of the Indians in 1832 the old Indian village came under the complete control of the whites and during the succeeding winter it became apparent that there would be a sufficient number of incoming settlers at that point to make a town out of it. Taking time by the forelock, three forehanded landowners on the spot got together and decided to have a town site platted. These men were Peter Aughenbaugh, Jonathan K. Wilds and Joseph Barnett, who have been mentioned above as among the first land buyers on the site, who secured the services of John Jackson, then surveyor of Allen county (it being remembered that this region then was comprised within Allen county), who on January 22 and 23 surveyed and platted the Wapakoneta town
356 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
site, the original plat of which was acknowledged before a notary at Dayton on January 25, 1833. This plat, on file in the county recorder's office, reveals a platted tract of thirty- one blocks, the lot numbers running from No. 1 in the northeast corner of the tract to No. 90 in the southwest corner, the north line of the same being named Auglaize street and the south line Pearl street, with alleys sixteen and one-half feet between the blocks. Main street was laid out south of Auglaize street and between this and Pearl is Mechanic street. The east line of the original plat is Park street; west of that, Willipie street, between which and the next street, Perry, is an unplatted square, lying between Main and Mechanic streets, reserved for public uses (present city hall site), and west of Perry is Blackhoof street, beyond which is Logan street, the west line of the original plat. And it was thus that Wapakoneta got its formal, civil start. As the population grew and as the needs for expansion became apparent additions were made to this original plat until now (1922) the town plat covers all of section 29, three-fourths of section 32, the northeast quarter of section 31 and a fraction of sections 28 and 33 of Duchouquet township.
In order to preserve a proper perspective of the situation there along the river at the site of the old Indian village when the above plat was drawn, it must be remembered that the only cleared ground in Wapakoneta at that time was a strip perhaps three hundred feet in width extending from about where Court street now intersects Auglaize up to a point about where the Baltimore & Ohio railway tracks cross the latter street. The old Quaker mission building at that time was occupied by Capt. John Elliott, who had been serving as the Government blacksmith for the Indians, and was later occupied by his son, James Elliott, who for many years was one of the forceful figures in the formative period of the town.
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 357
THE COMING OF THE FIRST WAYSIDE INN.
In 1831, the year in which the Indians ceded their lands away, Jeremiah Ayers, an enterprising individual, settled here and put up a cabin on the trail (now Auglaize street) at the point now occupied by the Central hotel (lot 8 of the original plat) and began to take an active part in development work. In the spring of 1832 he moved this cabin back to the rear of his little tract and facing the trail erected a two- story frame building after the style of the old wayside inns with an overhanging porch facing the street and ample space for the stage coaches to discharge their passengers, in the rear being a yard and shed for the accommodation of the stage horses and the horses of travelers coming this way. With additions and improvements made from time to time this old hotel, the Wapakoneta House, served as the principal public house in the village until its destruction by fire in 1866, and there are still quite a number of persons living here who retain agreeable childish memories of the stirring scenes about the old inn's courtyard following the arrival of the stage or the post riders. The old Wapakoneta House was the local terminus of the St. Marys-Wapakoneta stage line, the old Piker House at St. Marys serving as a similar terminal at the latter point, while from Lima on the north and Sidney on the south the stages were also discharging their traffic at the hospitable doors of Mine Host Ayers.
This was on the line of travel from the East on to Ft. Wayne and beyond and many a person high in the councils of the nation was a guest of the old Wapakoneta House in those days. The stage drivers were a hardy and adventuresome lot and bad weather and worse roads were all a part of the day's job for them, the stage having to go on schedule whether or no, and their plunging four-in-hand teams, or eight if roads were worse than usual, would be brought to a stop with a fine flourish, preceded by the awaited loud winding of the stage horn heard far down the road upon the approach of the stage. When the plank road was built in the
358 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
'50s the clatter of the hoofs of the galloping horses and the deep rumble of the heavy wheels of the stage along this causeway could be heard for miles on a clear, frosty morning. While in rural districts local interest still centers in the arrival and departure of railway trains, it is believed that no such intensity of interest is displayed as that which probably attended the coming of the old stage in the days which preceded the coming of the railways.
Jeremiah Ayers was also active in other lines. He became one of the chief owners of town lots at Wapakoneta, bought the old mission mill, which he restored to activity, and in 1834 erected a distillery at a point along the river about where the city electric light and power house now stands. It is narrated that this distillery produced the greater part of the whisky that was consumed in this section up to about 1860, and from all accounts of the times this was no small quantity. It is recorded that "for nearly thirty years Ayers was the most enterprising citizen of the village." He died in 1868. A son, Herman Ayers, and a daughter, Mrs, Irene Wilson, survive, and are now residents of Sidney.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SETTLEMENT.
When Robert J. Skinner, receiver for the land office, located at Wapakoneta in 1832 he occupied the house that formerly had been occupied by Captain Elliott, the Government blacksmith, who had taken over for household occupancy the old Quaker mission house, and William A. Van- Horn, the registrar of the land office, occupied the old Indian council house, which stood at about where now is the northeast corner of the original plat, Park and Auglaize streets. This building is said to have been made of logs and was about thirty feet in width and forty in length. The Indians had given it a bark roof, but when VanHorn took it over he had it covered with clapboards and otherwise rendered it more comfortably habitable, presently adding to it a small addition built of brick when the brick kiln in good time was started
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 359
going. It is narrated that adjacent to this VanHorn place was a log stable standing in a corner of a field inclosed with a rail and brush fence, in which field VanHorn fed the ponies when they came in from the woods range. This narrative goes on to say that "there was quite a rivalry between James Elliott and VanHorn in appropriating the ponies left ranging in the forest by the Indians when they moved to Kansas. As soon as a pony was captured it was branded with V or E, the initial letter representing the party who had captured it. The ponies had to be trained before they were of much value to their owners. When 'broken to work' they performed good service in the country where beasts of burden were scarce."
It was in that same vicinity, adjacent to the old council house and extending south to about what is now Main street, that the Indians had their chief burial ground. After the manner of Indians, before leaving for the west, they carefully leveled all the mounds marking the graves of those buried there, as they did in all the other cemeteries throughout their reservation. When the town began to be built up hardly a cellar was constructed in that section of the city that did not uncover skeletons of the aboriginals, while during the laying of water, sewer and gas mains numerous other skeletons have been turned up in that section of the city. Some of these were found in coffins made of walnut puncheons, nailed with wrought iron handmade nails, indicating interment after the Quakers had established their mission here, for Mr. Harvey, it is narrated, insisted on the Indians adopting Christian methods of burial after he took charge of the Wapakoneta station.
There were other burial grounds hereabout, one in what is now the western part of the city having been regarded as the probable burial place of the Indian scout Logan, formerly referred to, as this good friend of the whites had his habitation there. On the hill west of the Pusheta on the north side of the St. Marys-Wapakoneta road was another, while in various parts of the county, particularly in the St. Johns neighborhood where old Chief Blackhoof lived, skeletons have
360 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
been turned up from time to time in excavation and gravel- pit workings, occasionally with these aboriginal relics being found beads and other articles of adornment affected by the Indians. At what is now the northeast corner of Auglaize and Blackhoof streets, Lot 16 0. P., there was an Indian cabin which was said to have been the abode of the good chief Wayweleapy (Willipie), who at the age of eighty years accompanied his people to Kansas and died there four years later. Concerning old Chief Willipie, an older review has it that "for depth of reasoning and sublime diction, no chief ranked higher in the councils of the Shawnees than did Wayweleapy," as has been set out in an earlier chapter.
REMAINS OF OLD FORT AUGLAIZE.
At this time of the beginning of orderly white settlement at Wapakoneta there still were remaining some of the timbers of old Ft. Auglaize, the stockade erected by, the French traders in 1784, on the right bank of the river on the bluff overlooking what then was regarded as the head of navigation on the Auglaize around the bend of the river about where the old cemetery is. This fort, which was abandoned after the battle of Fallen Timbers, was a stockade inclosing about an acre of ground and served as a protection to the storehouses erected within the enclosure by the traders, and from this point there was long carried on extensive trade with the Indians throughout this section, goods being brought up the river from the French posts to the north. During the War of 1812 the site of the Indian village at Wapakoneta was the scene of considerable activity, this having been a sort of a cross roads of the military trails from Cincinnati up through Piqua to Defiance and from Franklinton through Ft. McArthur and on to Ft. St. Marys, and what is now beautiful Greenlawn cemetery just on the western edge of the city was a common camping ground for marching and countermarching troops, a good spring located between the camping ground and the present site of the county fair grounds furnishing the troops with an
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 361
abundance of fresh water. It is recorded that in the spring of 1813 a log house was erected at this camping ground to be used as a storage house and officers' quarters and that General Harrison was a not infrequent visitor at that point during the progress of his campaign throughout northwestern Ohio. On the hill just west of the mouth of Pusheta creek barracks were erected for the use of the troops stationed there, it being the duty of this company "to watch the movements of the Shawnees and to intercept British emissaries and renegade Indians from the savage tribes of the north and west." It also was used as a depository of goods and provisions for the armies on the Maumee. Thus it will be seen that there had been a good deal going on in and around the site of the present city during the pre-settlement period.
THE INCORPORATION OF THE VILLAGE.
Gradually settlers were attracted to the scene by the promise of a growing settlement here at the stage cross roads and it was not long until quite a village had sprung up in the clearing which slowly was extended to make way for this expansion. Isaac Nichols, a veteran of the War of 1812, built a frame store building on the lot just east of the Wapakoneta House and in 1834 another inn was put up, this being operated by H. B. Thorn. In this latter year the villagers recognized the necessity of a jail and a small frame structure eighteen feet square was put up for this purpose. It has been written that "criminals confined in it were handcuffed and chained as a precaution to prevent escape." This apparently served as a calaboose until the county erected a jail, as set out in the chapter on county government.
Village growth continued until when Auglaize county was set off as a separate civic entity in 1848 Wapakoneta very properly regarded itself as having attained county seat dimensions and secured the establishment of the county seat, a story which has been told elsewhere.
362 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
In the spring following this elevation to the position of county town the village sought from the Legislature a right to incorporate as "a town corporate" and this right was accorded by an act of March 2, 1849, by which it was enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio "that the territory included within the original town plat of the town of Wapakoneta, in the county of Auglaize, and the additions that have been made or may hereafter be made thereto, and as much of the territory as is embraced within the south half of section 29 and the north half of section 32, of township No. 5 south of range No. 6 east, shall be and the same is hereby declared a town corporate with perpetual succession, and as such shall be entitled to all the privileges and subject to all limitations of an act for the regulation of incorporated towns passed February 16, 1839, and the acts amendatory thereto." Section 3 of this act provided that "the town council of the
town of Wapakoneta be and is hereby fully authorized to assume payment of the remaining installments due the commissioners of Auglaize county for public building purposes, as provided for in the act organizing said county passed on the 14th of February, 1848." And thus the town assumed an obligation which certain of its citizens had assumed under bond when the county seat was established, the story of which has been told elsewhere in connection with the acts of the first board of county commissioners.
LITTLE NEED OF COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES.
From contemporary evidence on the subject it is apparent that though its citizens were ambitious, Wapakoneta still was not far out of its forest hamlet state when it became the county seat. A review carried in Robert Sutton's atlas of Auglaize county published in 1880 and based on the testimony of persons then living who were living here in 1849, sets out that "at the period of incorporation the town was still without any material improvement worth the name of enterprise, save in the erection of residences and opening of small retail stores and shops. The trade for five years was of a purely local
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 363
character, as the town had no commercial facilities and even had little need of commercial advantages as far as exportation was concerned. The town, like the country by which it was surrounded, was almost a swamp, for even years after the construction of the railroad gravel was as unknown to the streets as brick to the sidewalks and crossings. The streets consisted more in open public ways than in convenient thoroughfares. Walks and crossings consisted largely of cordwood thrown closely enough to afford a stepping across the mud, except when the blocks were submerged, which was not infrequent.
"The whole vicinity of the public square [the court house formerly stood at the southwest corner of Blackhoof and Mechanic streets], extending about the court house and out to Auglaize street, afforded a swimming pond during the summer and a skating and coasting park for the boys during the winter. Slowly the village grew until the erection of the county in 1848, when it became the county seat, and perhaps the only enterprise springing directly from this step was the establishment of The Auglaize Republican, a Democratic paper, by W. P. Andrews in 1849. It was nearly ten years later that trade received an impetus and enterprise, received a stimulus by the construction of the Dayton & Michigan railroad (present B. & O.), which marked the dawn of a new era for the town. Immediately followed the erection of a large grain warehouse by the railroad company, which was supplemented by another built in 1860 by J. C. Bothe. Here was the real dawn of business growth and activity, for enterprise followed rapidly in the wake of enterprise, until within a few years the town had attained its present [1880] stand-
ing."
THE SUCCESSION IN THE MAYOR'S CHAIR.
The first mayor of the new town at the site of the old Indian village, following the incorporation of Wapakoneta in 1849, was George W. Andrews, a lawyer, who also was editor of the newspaper that was started there by his brother,
364 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
William P. Andrews, in that year. Andrews was succeeded by C. W. Cowan and he in 1853 by J. S. Williams, who was followed by I. F. Coples, who resigned before the expiration of his term of office, Sabirt Scott being appointed to take his place. Mr Andrews again was elected and in 1857 was succeeded by A. H. Trimble and he by W. V. M. Layton, who was succeeded by Henry B. Kelly, who had bought the local newspaper and had changed the name of the same to the Democrat and who was serving as mayor when the Civil war broke out. In 1862 B. G. Devore was elected mayor and in the next year was succeeded by S. B. Ayers, who was followed by Edward Meyer, who was serving when the war came to a close. Devore was again elected in 1865 and was followed by Kelly, elected for another term, who was succeeded by J. D. Marshall and he by W. V. M. Layton for another term, after which Kelly was again elected and was serving his third term when he sold his newspaper in 1874 and resigned his office, leaving town for another field. Kelly was succeeded as mayor by William Miles, who was succeeded by Capt. Robert McMurray, a lawyer and editor of the Democrat, who died in office in 1876 and was succeeded by H. Moser, the latter being followed in turn by Levi Hamaker, Samuel Bitler, A. M. Kuhn, John Hassenier, C. A. Stueve, T. J. Cartmell, J. G. Wisener, J. J. Connaughton, J. G. Heinrich, F. W. Freyman, H. C. Wentz and George W. Hassenier, the latter of whom in 1910 was succeeded by T. J. Cartmell, elected for another term. J. J. Hay then served from 1912 to 1916 and was followed by Fred A. Klipfel, who served one term and was succeeded by Elmer E. Newcomer. In 1921 Fred A. Klipfel was re-elected mayor and is thus the present (1922) incumbent in that executive office, his administration beginning on January 1, 1922, for a period of two years.
The other members of the city administration are as follows: President of council, Newman McK. Metz; councilmen at large, Henry Knost, William Hastings and Arnold Yaggi ; First ward, A. F. Schneider; Second ward, Otto Buchanan; Third ward, Joseph B. Miller; Fourth ward, Frank
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 365
Budde ; city auditor; Fred Nester; treasurer, Ditmore Spees ; clerk of council, Rue P. Melching ; chief of fire department, Oscar R. Vorhees ; chief of police, James C. Ague ; safety director, William Zint ; service director, Howard B. Benner; street commissioner, Wilson Howard; superintendent light and water plant, Harry Nagle ; clerk water and light department, Gilbert Kiefer; city solicitor, Frank P. Connaughton ; health commissioner, Dr. Carl L. Mueller; board of health, Mayor Klipfel presiding and J. F. Moser, Carl D. Fischer, Dr. J. L. Goetz, Henry Woehler and Jacob Luginbuhl ; board of education, Edward Trau (president), Jacob T. Koenig, Carl D. Fischer, Theo H. Tangeman, Emil H. Moser and Superintendent C. C. Nardin (clerk of board).
TRIBUTE TO CAPT. ROBERT M'MURRAY.
It was along in the middle '70s under the efficient executive direction of Robert McMurray, then mayor of the city, that Wapakoneta began to grope its way "out of the woods." Captain McMurray, a lawyer who had been an officer in the Union army during the Civil war, was also editor of the Democrat and a man of admirable administrative and executive capacity. When he entered the office of the Democrat not long after his return from the army, he found Wapakoneta little more than a typical "backwoods" town, the streets grown over with dog fennel and smartweed, cattle and hogs running freely at large through the streets and a condition generally indicative of a civic lassitude that was far from promising. That was in the days of the "big timber" and the town was full of timbermen from the neighboring saw mills and lumber camps, a pretty rough set—as all who recall the days of the lumber camps will agree. There were of course the concomitants of gambling and worse, and the saloon seemed the dominant influence in the town. The state of apparent lawlessness thus engendered naturally was retarding the development of the county seat along all lines. Captain McMurray's attitude toward these things—for he was fighting
366 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
them with both voice and pen—presently pointed to him as the apparently logical corrective and the self-respecting elements of the town persuaded him to become a candidate for the office of mayor, promising to help him to "clean up." In a bitterly contested campaign in which he was opposed with all the cunning and guile of the forces that were retarding the development of the town he was elected.
Upon entering the office of mayor, Captain McMurray announced his program in terms that could be understood by all. He reorganized the police department and started in to clean up, with the result that his very life not infrequently was threatened. His friends stood manfully behind him, however, and it was not long until results became apparent. The saloons and gambling houses were forced to pay some regard to the tenets of decency, the dog fennel was eradicated from the streets, pig stys were banished from the corporate limits, roaming cattle were coralled, streets and sidewalks were given more attention than they ever before had received and a program of general civic betterment was inaugurated. After a year or two of this sort of municipal housecleaning even many of the former offenders began to recognize the benefits of the Captain's program and joined in the spirit of the campaign for a better and brighter town. The county seat was emerging from the back woods.
Unhappily, Captain McMurray's program was interrupted by his death in the very prime of his useful and unselfish life, but the good work that he had instituted was bearing fruits apparent to all and his successors in office maintained something of the same spirit, so that the curb placed by him upon the elements that had been retarding the town never thereafter was wholly relaxed. In any review of the development of the county seat of Auglaize county, the memory of Capt. Robert McMurray should be kept in mind. He awakened the civic consciousness of the people of the county seat as no one before him had done and the beneficient influence thus exerted is a continuing one not only in that immediate community but throughout the county.
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 367
COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.
With the coming of the railroad in 1858 commercial affairs at Wapakoneta, took on new impetus and this was reflected throughout the county and particularly throughout Duchouquet township. Prior to that time the local saw mills, grist mills, tannery, distillery, blacksmith shops and wagon shops were about all that were required to keep pace with the industrial demands of the people and there was little opportunity for expansion. Not long after the railroad came the Civil war broke out and this served as a setback to industrial expansion. After the war and the resumption of activities along all lines, the woodworking industries here began to develop, the great wealth of hardwood timber hereabout making this a particularly profitable field.
In the meantime, following the close of the war, James H Skinner had started a private bank at Wapakoneta, the first bank in the town, and this served as a great convenience to the community, offering exchange facilities that had been lacking. James H. Skinner, the pioneer banker, was born at Dayton and was ten years of age when his father, Robert J. Skinner, receiver of the land office, was transferred from Piqua to Wapakoneta in 1832. He thus "grew up" at Wapakoneta and early became an active figure in the general life of the community, serving for some time when little more than a boy as postmaster of the town, at the same time being engaged in the grocery business. Following the gold rush after 1849 he went to California, but returned in 1854 and became engaged as a buyer and shipper of cattle. He later served a deputyship in the county auditor's office and in 1860 was elected recorder of Auglaize county and by re-election served in this official capacity during the Civil war period. In 1866 Mr. Skinner started his bank at Wapakoneta and continued thus engaged until his death in the fall of 1878.
The second bank started in the town was the Farmers Bank, established in 1870 by Samuel Bitler, and in 1876, at about what may be regarded as the close of the pioneer period
368 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
for this county, Francis Fritsche started the Peoples Bank. In the meantime the pioneer woodworking industries were beginning to expand and in 1872 the present extensive spoke and wheel works (re-organized in 1910) was incorporated and started out on the career which has made its products known all over the country. In the next year (1873) the bent wood works, another industry that has carried the name of Wapakoneta far, was established. Other woodworking industries that began to develop about that time were the handle factory, two furniture factories, two establishments for the manufacture of wagons and carriages, besides which there was a flourishing broom factory, two flour mills, two breweries and two tanneries, which with certain lesser industries about included the industrial activities of the town when it entered upon it, period of reconstruction along in the early '80s.
During the '80s the business section of the town was practically rebuilt, the old frame buildings giving way to buildings of brick or stone, and such building as has been done since then has been of an up-to-date character. As the people prospered and as conditions of living became somewhat easier, there also was a general reconstruction in the residence section and the fine modern homes which now distinguish the city began to appear. Happily, the "fathers" of the community had been thoughtful in planting shade trees along the streets and these now grown to noble proportions give a wonderful summer setting to the picturesquely situated county seat town, this shade with the miles of paved streets flanked by ample and well kept lawns, attracting the attention of tourists passing through on the two intersecting trunk highways which make Wapakoneta a sort of a center for travel north and south and east and west.
Among the industries whose manufactured products now add to the fame of Wapakoneta, besides the wheel works and the bent wood works mentioned above, there is a machine shop for the manufacture of heavy shear knives, a hollow ware factory, a chain factory, a churn factory, a plant for the manufacture of "iceless" refrigerators, a carriage factory, a
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 369
lumber and finishing mill, a canning plant, an extensive branch of a nationally known cigar factory, a cement block plant, a lightning-rod assembling plant, a creamery, a buggy shop and the varied industries that have sprung up attendant on the development of the automobile industry. The old brewery that was put out of business under the operation of the prohibition law is now manufacturing ice and "soft" drinks.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
The various commercial activities of the city are well represented and well established and the spirit of continuing enterprise is promoted by an active Chamber of Commerce of which Carl D. Fischer is president, Rue P. Melching secretary, and Frank Swonguer treasurer, these with William Hamilton, George Newcomb, Roy Haman, Howard Benner, G. A. Wintzer, W. B. Morey, W. G. Holley and J. S. Groll constituting the directorate of the chamber. The first commercial association organized in the town was in 1889 during the height of the natural gas excitement throughout this part of the state and this early association, which was known as the Wapakoneta Board of Trade, did much toward promoting a spirit of co-operation in industrial and commercial activities. The directors of that historic association or board of trade were H. W. Taeusch, Henry Moser, L. N. Blume, Theo Dickman, F. J. McFarland, J. H. Timmermeister, William Kreitzer C. A. Stueve, M. Brown, C. A. Layton, J. L. Carson, J. H. Doering and S. W. McFarland.
Co-operating with and actively supplementing the work of the Chamber of Commerce, there is at Wapakoneta a well organized Kiwanis Club, which is carrying on the general promotive operations for which Kiwanians stand throughout the country under their banner "We Build." This club was organized at a banquet meeting held at Wapakoneta on the evening of May 13, 1921, and the charter presentation was made on the following May 24. Following is a roster of the membership of the Wapakoneta Kiwanis Club, a list that will be of
(23)
370 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
much value in succeeding generations as typically representative of the men who were regarded as leaders in the various phases of commercial and industrial activity in the county seat at the time of this compilation : J. P. Anderson, drugs: Walter Arnold, insurance ; George G. Bice, lumber; H, B. Benner, haberdashery; Gus Bowsher, hardware; Richard Boesel, probate judge ; A. J. Brown, banking; Harve Brokaw, undertaking; Doctor Bobo, dentist ; Asa Crawford, harness: W. T. Copeland, law; William Doorley, dry cleaning; M, C, Doty, dry goods; Bob Ewing, sheriff ; Dr. G. B. Faulder, specialist; Frank Fisher, cigars; Charles E. Fisher, county auditor; Carl D. Fischer, manager; Fred Garretson, office man; Julius Groll, furniture ; Harry Hanold, jewelry; William Hamilton, books; H. W. Hauss, automobiles; Dr. E. F, Heffner, physician; Louis Helpling, photography; W. G, Holly, chains; Homer Holmes, groceries; R. C. Haman, automobiles ; Harry Kahn, shoes; A. A. Klipfel, banking; Fred A, Klipfel, mayor; Jacob F. Koenig, loans; Roy E. Layton, law: Andrew Lampert, county treasurer; Dwight Matchette, newspaper editor; R. D. Macdonald, jewelry; Rue Melching, newspaper reporter; J. H. Meyer, architect; Charles Miller, notions; John Mason, traveling salesman; George Newcomb, shoes; Herman Piel, clothing; John Purvis, decorating; Otto Rhine, drugs ; Roland Rogers, dry goods ; Laurence Reed, retail meats ; 0. S. Shaw, automobiles; Gilbert Smith, electrical; Ditmore Spees, barber; D. E. Stark, hotel; Lewis Stout, law; H. V. Swinehart, electrical engineer ; F. M. Swonguer, furniture; George A. Shuster, surveying; Harry Shannon, actor; William Schuler, hay and feed; John Taeusch, groceries; William Timmermeister, Red Cross; C. J. Vossler, bottling; R. B. Wahrer, garage ; J. H. Weghorst, seeds; Herb Wentz, coal; Carl Werner, retail meats, and Frank Zofkie, gents furnishing.
Conspicuously displayed opposite the B. & O. railway station, where travelers easily may read it while trains are standing at the station, is a great "sign," whereon is found the following: "Welcome—This is Wapakoneta, Ohio; popu-
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 371
lation, 5,500 ; elevation, highest in state. Why locate here: A city of homes, good climate, pure spring water, cheap electrical power, natural gas, good transportation, fine drainage, modern schools, fine churches and lodges, many paved streets, best lighted city in state, strong financial institutions. Our factories make—welded chains, machine knives, wheels, spokes and rims, acetylene generators, hollow ware, churns, furniture, lumber, refrigerating machines, cigars and candy, canned goods and ice, tile and dairy products. Write Chamber of Commerce."
THE BANKS OF WAPAKONETA.
In further relation to the banks of Wapakoneta, it is found that the Farmers Bank started in 1870 by Samuel Bitler and referred to above, suspended after about ten years of operation, leaving the Peoples Bank, which was started by Francis Fritsche in 1876, occupying the field until the organization of the First National Bank in 1884. Two years later, in 1886, the Peoples Bank was reorganized as the Peoples National Bank, with Francis Fritsche as president and F. J. McFarland as cashier. The present officiary of this bank is as follows : President, S. W. McFarland; vice president, A. J. Brown; cashier, A. L. McMurray, who, together with F. J. Zofkie, C. A. Stueve, F. M. Swonguer, F. J. Rinehart, F. E. Bailey, C. C. Berlin and William Bibler constitute the directorate. The Peoples National Bank is capitalized at $100,000 and its current report as of May 5, 1922, reveals resources of $1,234,609.22, with a surplus fund of $75,000, undivided profits aggregating $26,588.93 and deposits amounting to $884,752.17.
The First National Bank of Wapakoneta was organized in 1884, with L. N. Blume as president and Charles F. Herbst, Sr., as cashier, the latter of whom died in 1910. Following the death of Mr. Blume in 1912 Charles F. Herbst, son of the former cashier of the bank, was elected president and is still serving in that capacity, the other members of the officiary
372 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
of this bank being as follows: Vice presidents, E. A. Hauss and Harry G. Fisher ; cashier, J. F. Moser, these with C. W. Timmermeister, Henry Moser, William Kreitzer, J. F. Goeke
and F. C. Layton constituting the directorate of the bank. The First National Bank is capitalized at $200,000 and its report as of May 5, 1922, reveals resources of $2,097,237.60, with undivided profits amounting to $48,617.07, a surplus fund of $50,000 and deposits aggregating $1,528,570.43.
The above banks supplied the banking needs of the community until in 1911, when the Auglaize National Bank was organized with F. H. Haman as president. Following the death of Mr. Haman in 1915, William J. McMurray, then editor of The Auglaize Republican, was elected president of the bank. Mr. McMurray retired from the newspaper business at that time and has since been serving as president of the bank, the other members of the officiary of this bank being as follows: Vice president, William Bitler ; cashier, A. A. Klipfel, these officers, together with R. C. Haman, Louis (late deceased), S. A. Hoskins, A. G. Boogher, J. F. Seitz, J. M. Copeland and Edwin Abe, constituting the directorate of the bank. The Auglaize National Bank is capitalized at $100,000 and its report as of May 5, 1922, reveals resources of $1,075,425.89, with a surplus fund of $50,000, undivided profits amounting to $19,183.03, and deposits aggregating $666,322.95.
Further details regarding the commercial and industrial life of the county seat town as well as of the county in general will be found in references to the other towns and villages of the county and in the biographical section of this work, wherein is carried the life stories of many of the men who were leaders in the business life of the community in days gone by and of many who now are equally active and influential in their generation. Concerning these biographies and the wealth of information they carry, it may be well to bear in mind, as one thoughtful writer has put it, that "biography is the foundation of all history, for the processes of achievement grow out of what men do as men. These real things, the story
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 373
of these individual achievements, must be recorded that they may bring back to the generations that are passing and those that are coming the memories of what they and their fathers did. The successors of these founders must know what were the foundations of our community history, that they may have in them and their builders that pride without which we cannot become and remain a united force. If our people cannot learn how their heritage has been created they will not have either the interest or the intelligence to know and understand the larger things in the world about them."
WATERWORKS AND ELECTRIC LIGHTS.
It was along in the early '90s that the people of Wapakoneta became aroused to the necessity of providing a proper waterworks system for the city and also to the need of installing an electric light plant. The matter was talked up and was made an issue in the fall election of 1894, a vote of approval being called for on both a waterworks and an electric light project, the proposed plants to be erected and maintained under municipal direction. The vote was against the projects, but the agitation was continued and in the following April election the proponents of the enterprise won out and the council issued bonds to cover the proposed improvements and set about the construction of the two plants. During the progress of the waterworks construction the men employed on the trenches went on a strike just at a time when flood waters filled the open trenches and in some instances caused the flooding of adjacent residence property. One citizen who volunteered to fill in the trenches along the block in which he lived, to avert the flood there, was attacked by a number of the strikers. In resisting the assault he shot and fatally wounded the two leaders of the strikers and this virtually ended the strike. That was in 1895 and the city has since successfully operated both its waterworks and electric light plants on the municipal plan.
As previously noted, Wapakoneta is singularly well favored in having artesian water in its mains, this being
374 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
pumped into a standpipe, the pump house and the electric light plant being operated in conjunction. The city manufactured its own electric current until in 1920, when a contract was entered into with the Western Ohio Electric Railway Company for current supplied from that company's extensive plant at St. Marys. The old electric light plant was dismantled, the building reconstructed and a modern plant for the transformation of the high-energy current from the
traction company's huge plant substituted for the old machinery. It also was in the middle '90s that the demand for better and uniform sidewalks resulted in improvements along that line. In good time street paving followed. The call of progress has ever found Wapakoneta alert and responsive.
ORGANIZATION OF DUCHOUQUET TOWNSHIP.
Duchouquet township was not set off as a separate civil unit of what then constituted Allen county until in the spring of 1833, a year following the departure of the Indians from this vicinity In February, 1833, at a called meeting of the citizens of the town of Wapakoneta and the neighboring settlements held at the inn of Jeremiah Ayers in Wapakoneta a petition was formulated and was signed by all present praying the commissioners of Allen county to delimit the territory comprised within the present township and set it off as a township to be called Duchouquet. This petition was presented to the commissioners sitting at Lima on the following March 4 and was favorably acted upon, the commissioners then ordering an election to be held in the territory thus bounded (as set out in the introduction to this chapter) on the second Monday of April following to elect officers for the new township. At this election officers were elected as follows: Trustees, Peter Hammell, William Patton and Shadrach Montgomery, the last named of whom became a member of the first board of county commissioners upon the erection of Auglaize county fifteen years later; township clerk, James Elliott; treasurer, John Tam; supervisors, Beal Spurrier,
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 375
Samuel Howell and William Spray; overseers of the poor, Alonzo Neal and Samuel Howell ; fence viewers, Bryant McNamore and Jacob Thatcher; justices of the peace, Charles L. Levering and James Elliott, and constables, Henry VanBlaricome and John Campbell.
These officials took their respective offices in due time and Duchouquet township got down to business, by the time Auglaize county was set off in 1848 having become a pretty well settled and rapidly improving farming community of great potential wealth. The promise of improvement which buoyed up the settlers upon whom fell the hard task of clearing the land has been fulfilled in a manner that their most vivid dreams could not have pictured. Present conditions have been brought about in less than one hundred years. What will the next century bring forth in the way of continued progress ?
THE ROLL CALL OF THE PIONEERS.
The tax duplicate for the year 1848 shows the following landowners in Duchouquet township when Auglaize county was erected: Jeremiah Ayers, George Ayers, Aughenbaugh & Barnett, George Albine, Larew Allen, Daniel M. Arthur, Malcomb Anderson, John Anderson, William Armstrong, John Armstrong, Benjamin M. Baker, Elias Burk, Isaac Borton, Sr., Isaac Borton, Jr., Job Borton, Aim Borton, Rebecca Borden, Jacob Borden, James Burden, Joshua Burden, G. W. Burke, William Burke, ____ Baltzell, William Butler, Nathaniel Brown, Andrew Baliner, Therebaugh Butterfield, John Boreman, George Berewint, Mathias Bumgardner, Erhart Burk, John Brower, David Bobp, John C. Bothe, Melyun D. Baker, John Bidleman, William Butterworth, George Bear, Philip Blank, Anton Bowdentesser, George Brown, Philip Brocket, William Beckdolt, F. H. Binkley, James Buchannon, Abijah Bedd, M. D. Brook, George S. Binkley, John Bumfield, Jonas H. Buncutter, Jonas Belknap, Benjamin M. Baker, Nathan Cretcher, Miles Cowan,
376 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
Cyrus Clark, Christian Cook, George Coon, Peter Catrow, Julia J. Chamberlain, Joseph Conread, George Conread. Thomas Crawford, Joseph Craft, Nicholas Clen, Jacob Cook, Zephaniah Catrow, James Crozier, Erastue Deigh, Peter Delashment, John Decklar, Hamilton Davison, William Deval, Anthony Davis, G. H. Dapper, William Dohn, Jacob Delong, George Delong, Abraham Ebright, Thomas C. Edmond, John Elliott, James Elliott, David Edimston, Henry Eckhart, George Emerick, George Espy, L. D. Ford, Archibald Fisher, Rebecca Fox, Adam Focht, Edward Fitzpatrick, J. M. Freiman, David Fronfield, Thomas Foster, Lorentz Fry, Valentine Flegel, John Frazier, Henry Freyer, Jacob Fleming, Joseph Fulton, Fredrick Greider, George Grisso, John Griebel, Elisha Griffith, M. R. Guthridge, Abraham Gardner, Adam Guise, Hiram Garver, Conrad Heile, Bernard Heidecker, P. V. Herzing, Henry Heidecker, Joseph Hangstler, John Hutching, J. H. Housmeyer, John Heile, Jacob Hittle, Joseph Hoover, C. & J. Harbine, Ambrose Harvey, Ayers & Howell Hammel, Joseph Haywood, Francis Houk, Peter Hammel, G. W. Holbrook, Manuel Hoover, John A. Holtzerman, John B. Hoops, Richard Jones, Jacob Jenkins, F. & Thomas Johnston & Co., Ephraim Jenkins, T. K. Jacobs, Anna Kritza, Jacob Kritzer, Martin Kentner, Lewis Koch, Joseph Kenninger, Lorentz Kahlor, Anthony Kuntz, John, Isaac and Robert Kemper, Joseph Lowery, Samuel Larew, Michael Leatherman, F. H. Lancomer, Israel Lucas, George Liblin, Esther Levering, B. H. Lanning, Mathias Lancomer, John Lowery, the Widow Monroe, Michael Miller, Antone Miller, Sr., Antone Miller. Jr., John Miller, Frederick Matzgar, James Miller, William McCartney, Thornton E. Marks, James Marks, Martin Miller, John Mason, Robert McMurray, John Morningstar, Richard Matheany, Archelaus Martin, E. Master, Andrew McClure. Andrew Moffitt, Joseph Markle, Enoch Moore, George Morrill, Joseph Miller, Joseph Marks, Samuel Mayer, Jacob Mowrer, Charles McClintick, John Norris, Adam and Jacob Overholser, H. H. Oswald, Amos Parlette, Philip Plaff, Joshua Parlette, Samuel Ross, Eli and William Reicheldarfer, Peter
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 377
Rohrabaker, Philip Range, Justus Romshe, Thomas, Charles and Silas Roney, Adam Richey, Jacob Snider, Andrew Scott Robert Serrels, R. J. Skinner, Skinner & VanHorn,. Samuel Serrels, Mathias Spees, B. Spurrier, Neal Shaw, J. P. Shack elton, Frederick Sallard, George Spangler, Casper, Catherine, Oliver, Arnie and Daniel Smith, Henry Stoddart, Christopher Strickler, William B. Spaulding, John Saum, David D. Schafer, William F. Schroader, Larkin Smith, John Schooler, George F. and James M. Shaw, Samuel Sprague, William Shaw. Jacob Schafer, Leonard Sellers, George Sop- man, John Shawber, B. A. Satterthwaite, Moses Trayer, John Tam, Thomas Throckmorton, B. H. Thorne, Joel P. Ullery, VanHorn & Skinner, William A. VanHorn, Thomas VanHorn, Jacob Whiteman, George Winemiller, Terban Walter, J. K. Wilds, J. G. Wolf, Joseph Weymert, John Weaver, Jr., Ebenezer Wheeler, G. W. Williams, Moses Wheeler, Reuben Winget, John Williams, Stephen M. Wheeler, J. G. Wolf, John Xander, Joseph Young, Michael Yarzell, Joseph Zink, Jacob Zinn and Samuel Zurmely.
In the town of Wapakoneta there were listed at that time the following lot owners : Jeremiah and Grover Ayers, Peter Bon, John Bonner, John C. Bothe, Jacob Burden, Anthony Buckley, G. W. Bearinger, Daniel Bitler, S. M. Brower, Conrad Bimel, John Bimel, Casper Bonfig, John and Charles Bobp, William Craft, William Craft, Jr., John C. Clawson, John Clawson, F. Drake, Antony Dieker, Michael Dumbroff, Simon Dresher, John and James Elliott, J. G. Freeman, John H., Benjamin and Thomas Fisher, C. G. Galezior, Charles Herbst, Job Haines, Jacob Hartman, Francis Holtzhauzer, P. V. Herzing, George Hay, Henry and Bernard Heideker, Joseph Hamilton, George W. Holbrook, R. S. Joslyn, Elisha Jolly, Daniel Jacobs, Christian Kearnes, Joseph Keller, S. B. King, George Kohn, Henry Leckey, Mary Littlefield, James Morrow, , J. V. McLelland, Henry Miller, John Neppzin, J. H. Nichols, B. & C. Rossing, Anthony Roth, Michael Seifert, S. Smith, R. J. Skinner, Beverly Shaw, John Shawn, John Shannon, Thomas B. VanHorn, Benjamin Winwood,
378 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY
Thomas Williams, Jonathan K. Wilds and James Westley, There were five physicians, George W. Holbrook, John H. Nichols, George W. Trumbull, Paul Abits and Adolphus Steinhoff, and one attorney, Michael Dumbroff, listed for special license taxation in that year.
THE VILLAGE OF CRIDERSVILLE.
Cridersville, the only other town in Duchouquet township besides the county seat, is a development since the coming of the old Dayton & Michigan (present B. & O.) railway in 1858. When the survey of that road was being made and it became assured that the line was going through the lands of Ephraim and Isaac Crider on the north line of the county in the northwest corner of section 35 of Duchouquet township these two enterprising members of that community platted a townsite of twenty-four lots with the line of the survey of the railway forming a diagonal boundary on the east, and named it Cridersville. This plat was filed for record on April 17,1856, the proprietors thus taking time by the forelock, for the railroad was not completed until two years later. After the railway came the town proved such an advantageous shipping point about midway between Wapakoneta and Lima that its progress was steady and substantial. When the natural gas and oil "boom" came in the late '80s and the great oil pool in the Cridersville neighborhood was developed, the town took on a new growth and the population tripled in a short time. With the development came substantial improvements and the town is widely known as a well built and attractive village. When the line of the Western Ohio electric railway reached Cridersville about twenty years ago the town was given another impetus. During the time of the greatest activity in the old field thereabout Cridersville had a newspaper, The Bi-County Review, but the paper's field was too restricted and it did not last long. The first store in the village was that established by John Murdock upon the arrival of the railroad in 1858. The town now has a bank and the usual
HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 379
complement of business houses to supply the local trading demand and bears an air of substantial prosperity. The town's handsome high school building is pictured in the chapter on schools in this work, this modern building having been a development from the old village school house which supplanted the pioneer school there in 1875. The Home Bank of Cridersville was organized in 1903 and has proved a great convenience to the community in that part of the county. The officers of this bank are E. F. Reichelderfer, president; A. E. Brentlinger, vice president; E. E. Arthur, cashier ; assistant cashiers, R. D. Arthur and G. C. Reichelderfer. The bank is capitalized at $10,000 and a recent statement of its condition reveals that its resources are in excess of $158,000, with deposits of $170,000 and a surplus of $8,000.
In a brief review of Cridersville attached to the plat of that village published in his atlas of this county in 1917, J. H. Meyer observed in referring to the town that "its business institutions generally give outside evidence of the prosperity of the community and the public spirit of its officials. Beautiful residences and well kept streets, such as are found in few towns its size, has given it a reputation as an ideal place in which to reside." Considering the source, this is praise indeed. The 1920 census gave Cridersville a population of 493.