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and a building on the rear of the lot at the northwest corner of Warren and Poplar streets. At the trial one of the strong points of the prosecution was that there were footprints on the soft ground, and the prisoner's shoes just fitted these marks. He was found guilty, the jury probably believing that he ought to be guilty if he wasn't. Judge Bowen, of Marion, who was presiding, mildly censured the jury for their verdict. The judge, however, sentenced him to six years. The prisoner stoutly declared his innocence, and insisted he would never go to the penitentiary. During his confinement in the jail he was a quiet prisoner, giving no tr0uble, and making friends of the sheriff's children, especially the sheriff's little daughter who used to sit in front of his cell while he interested her with fairy tales.


The sheriff had arranged to take his prisoner to Columbus the following morning, and had selected Jacob Scroggs to accompany him. During the day the prisoner entertained the sheriff's little daughter with more entrancing fairy stories than usual, and succeeded in getting her to give him the keys to his cell. That night, after everything was quiet, he unlocked his cell door, and started down the stairs on his way to freedom. The sheriff was in the room in front of the cell, and hearing the noise, jumped from his bed, and without stopping to dress started after the prisoner. There was no light, but by the sound he followed him to the room below, and although unarmed, he rushed on the prisoner, who, although a much stronger man, he managed to force up stairs, and into his cell. The next morning, when the sheriff came to look after his prisoner, he was dead, having cut his throat from ear to ear. He had found freedom at last. He left a note claiming his innocence, and among other things was the terse statement: "A poor man has no more chance in this world than a flea in a hot boiler."


In 1830 when the court house was built Crawford county had a population of 4,778 people; this had increased in 1830 to 18,177. A new Constitution had been adopted by the State in 2851, and this Constitution had added a new office to the list of county officials, that of probate judge. At the election in October, 1851, Harvey Eaton was elected as the first probate judge, and commenced his first term in February, 1852, but his only duty at the start was to draw his salary, as it was some time before the Legislature had passed the necessary laws relating to probate judges. There were but four rooms in the court house, and these were already occupied, so there was no place for the new official. The commissioners therefore rented a room of Andrew Failor to be used by Judge Eaton as his office. It was the room opposite the court house, now occupied by Mader & Crawford as a saloon. For this room the commissioners paid $36 a year. They started the new judge in business by making an appropriation of $12 to buy the necessary book in which to keep his records, and another appropriation of $i0 to buy a seal. They furnished the office by buying a set of chairs of Abe Yost for $5.25, and this appropriation included a set of rulers; they bought a table for $4, a stove of Daniel Picking for $10.97, and closed with an appropriation of $5 for wood.


In 1850 the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad had been built through the eastern part of the county, and in 1853 the Ohio and Indiana railroad was also in operation through the county. The increase of business and of population made the little court house too small for the transaction of the public business, and a new one became every day more and more of a necessity.


When the county lines were changed in 1845 Auburn, Vernon and Jackson townships, and the eastern part of Polk and Jefferson were transferred from Richland county to Crawford. Isaac Hetrick, the member of the Legislature from Richland county at that time, secured the passage of a resolution exempting the people 0f that part of Richland county which had been transferred to Crawford from being taxed for the erection of public buildings "for all time." The claim was that Richland county had new and modern public buildings, for which the Richland part of Crawford had already been taxed, while the Crawford public buildings were small and insufficient, and while there was much that was just in the resoluti0n, the exemption "for all time" showed that Legislatures were just as careless and as thoughtless in the passage of laws in those days as they are today. Many other


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complications had arisen in the formation of the present Crawford county. An attempt was made to have the Legislature make Galion the county scat of the new county, but this proposition was defeated through the work of Crawford's representative, Samuel S. Caldwell. Another proposition was submitted to the Legislature to exempt that part of Marion county recently attached to Crawford from the payment of any taxes for the erection of public buildings, of course with the beautiful rider, "for all time." Mr. Caldwell promptly killed this by calling attention to the fact that no one from this attached section had asked for the passage of any such act, and until they did present a petition the Legislature had no business to meddle in the matter.


To obviate matters like this subscriptions were made by a number of citizens of the new county to pay off the debt, and start the new county free of all incumbrance. A number subscribed, but it was soon seen that the paying off of the debt would not harmonize the difficulties that had arisen, so George Sweney refused to pay his subscription, and a test case was brought against him by the commissioners. The Common Pleas Court decided he must pay, but when the case reached the Supreme Court the county was beaten. So the commissioners allowed Josiah S. Plants $50 and. Cooper K. Watson $25 for conducting the case for the county, and ordered the Treasurer t0 refund all installments that had been paid by parties subscribing. The money refunded ought to indicate some of the "boosters" in those days, so their names are given: Andrew Brookmiller $r, Joseph S. Morris $2. John Black $2, George Hurr $2, Michael Ruehl $2, George Buehl $2, Dutchman $i, Henry Beck $2, Lewis Heinlen $5, John Boyer $8, John Gibson $2.50. Abraham Shull $2, Abraham Yost $5, John Boeman $2.


The county commissioners also had to balance the finances of the different counties. Wyandot county had no public buildings, but had been taxed for the erection of those in Crawford, and asked a refunding, and on June 24, 1845, the commissioners of Crawford and Wyandot met in joint session and it was found the debt of Crawford county was $2220.97, exclusive of public buildings; there was cash on hand of $1,886.52, so Crawford owed Wyandot nothing. In the road fund Wyandot was found to be entitled to $145,71, and an order was issued to pay Wyandot the money. Wyandot demanded a refund of the money that had been paid by the Wyandot tax payers in the building of the new jail, but it was refused.


When the rearrangement of the new Crawford county was made Richland county was the second most populous county in the State, being exceeded only by Hamilton county. It had fine public buildings, so Crawford made demands on Richland for any balance that might be due Crawford from Richland. On Aug. 28, 1845, the commissioners of the two counties met, the accounts were gone over, and it was found the debt of Richland county exceeded the cash in the treasury, so Crawford received nothing.


In 1854 the proposition was submitted to the voters of Crawford county for a new court house and the proposition carried. O. S. Kinney was the architect, and the contract was let to Ault & Miller of Mt. Gilead, and the building was completed in 1856 at a cost of $18,000. During the erection of the building the county officials occupied rooms in various parts of the village, the court room being the second story of the frame building still standing at the southeast corner of Sandusky and Warren. This court house is easily remembered by many of the present citizens of Bucyrus, as the present structure is the same building with additions. It had two stories and an unused basement. In front were wide steps leading up to the entrance where was a portico supported by large wooden columns. The interior was the same as at present, with a c0rridor running down the centre and the offices on each side. On the right of the entrance was the auditor, and in the northeast corner the recorder, while cramped between this office and the auditor was a small room for the treasurer. On the left of the entrance was the clerk, with the surveyor in the northwest room and the probate judge in the centre. The court room occupied the centre of the second floor, the judge's bench was on the north side of the room, and above and back of it was a balcony; underneath the balcony on each side of the bench were the jury rooms. At the south end was another similar balcony, and


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underneath this on the west was the sheriff's office and the east room was used by the prosecutor, the commissioners, the judge, a waiting room for the witnesses and a consultation room.


The new court house was dedicated on Friday evening, April 24, 1857, and it was a veritable house warming. The town was full of people, every township in the county being represented. The court room and the two galleries were crowded with citizens to listen to the music furnished by Kronenberger's Sax Horn Band and the Bucyrus Quartette club. At 10 o'clock supper was served at all three of the hotels, the McCoy, the Western and the American House, and while the people were doing full justice to the supper, the court room was cleared and dancing commenced which continued until early in the morning. A fence was erected around the entire yard; it was of iron pickets, set in stone, the foundation being nearly two feet high. While there was no attempt at ornamentation the fence was attractive, appropriate and expensive. Many years ago this court house became too small for the increased business of the county and the increased force of officials necessary to handle that business.


For half a century this $18,000 structure had filled its mission, and the officials were cramped, the records scattered, in any inconvenient place temporarily that could be found. It was a known fact that any proposition submitted to the voters of the county would fail to carry, so the commissioners took advantage of that provision of the law which allows them to make improvements on public buildings. "They improved the court house, and when it was completed the improvement had cost about double that of tbe original building, and gave an added floor space as large as the original structure. The improvement consisted of the addition built at the rear as it exists today. When completed the first floor of the addition on the east was used as the recorder's office with private room and vault. The west room was the probate fudge's office with private room and vault. On the second floor the east room was the clerk's office, with private room and vault and a room for the judge or prosecuting attorney. The west end was occupied by the sheriff and surveyor. The third floor had a room for the examination of teachers, and other meetings, and also rooms for the use of any of the various county boards. The offices and rooms were all large and commodious, and fitted with all modern improvements, and the basement was cemented and walled in a modern way so as to make an available room for the Agricultural Society or the Board of Elections, with several large storage rooms. There were severe criticisms of the commissioners over the extensive nature of the improvements at the time they were made, but as the time passed the wisdom of the commissioners in providing the additional room so greatly needed was generally approved. The new addition left the original building occupied by the auditor and commissioners on the east and the treasurer on the west.


The court house now, with its fairly spacious offices and many vaults had ample room for the transaction of the business of the county and the safe storage of all the records. But another element now made its attack on the half century old court house, and this was time, from whose ravages there is no protection. The wooden pillars supporting the portico were showing signs of weakness and decay; the wooden tower containing the heavy bell became unsafe, and notwithstanding an intense public feeling against a new court house the commissioners were compelled to submit the matter to the voters for funds to repair the building, and at the election on Nov. 6, 1906, the expected verdict against was rendered by the people. It carried the city of Bucyrus by a majority of 866, lost Galion by 405 and Crestline by 163. In the country it carried but two townships, Auburn by 5 votes and Lykins 4. lt lost the other 14 townships, Liberty heading the country opposition with 170 majority against. The total vote was Yes-2,979, No-3,494, majority against 515. This settled the matter as far as the commissioners were concerned. but Father Time declined to abide by the vote, and matters ran on until a part of the ceiling fell in the court room, an area of over 100 square feet, of plastering, caused by the weight of the tower on the weakened roof. A thorough examination was made of the tower and it was reported unsafe.




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The heavy bell might at any time make a passing visit through the court room on its vvay to the basement below.


This being the condition, Judge Babst declined to hold court in the building, so quarters were secured at the Memorial Library. The matter was now taken up by the commissioners in conjunction with the citizens, and a committee of four were appointed to act on a suggestion made that the people be consulted directly on the matter and the responsibility thrown upon them. Following this view t committee reported the names of two prominent citizens in each voting precinct, and thcse men were requested by the commissioners to meet at Bucyrus to examine the courthouse and advise as to what should be done. Of the So advisers selected nearly every one responded, and they examined the court house from basement to tower, and then met in the office of the probate Judge to render their decision. The commissioners, preparing for the emergency, for the past two years had made a small levy for building purposes ; this now amounted to about $40,000, with perhaps $10.000 available from other sources. Harlan F. Jones, a Mansfield architect, had submitted plans by which the old part of the court house could be remodeled for $90,000. It was easily seen that the majority of those present recognized the necessity that something should be done. The first suggestion of a new court house met with overwhelming defeat. The first motion was for a one mill levy for four years, a one mill levy bringing in about 20, ono. This was very unfavorably received ; a one mill levy for three years was defeated by a small majority, and the final vote of one for two years, which would raise the building fund to the $90000 estimated for the improvement was carried almost unanimously. The question then came before the voters again at the election on Nov. , 1907, and it was carried by a vote of 3,663 yes and 2,784 no. Bucyrus again led with 1,176 majority for the proposition, while Galion gave 263 majority against and Crestline 134. In the country ten townships favored the proposition, and six returned an adverse majority. leaving the country vote for it by a majority

of 102.


The county commissioners at this time were Louis Gearhart of Holmes, Frank P. Dick of Dallas, and Hugh M. Dobbins of Bucyrus. Judge Babst appointed as a building commission to act in conjunction with the commissioners, frank P. Donnenwirth and John Q. Shank of Bucyrus, W. I. Goshorn of Gallon, and Jacob Babst of Crestline. The only important change made in the plans was the placing of a stone covering over the entire building. A. L. Hancock of Mansfield was the contractor, and the new structure was completed within the estimated cost with enough left over to build and equip the electric light plant of the court house. During the construction 0f the front of the building the offices were continued in the court house, with the exception of that of the treasurer. who for a time had the office at the Farmers and Citizens Bank, the county treasurer, George W. Miller, being president of that institution, and court was held in the Memorial Library. The foundation stone was laid by the Grand Lodge of Masons assisted by Trinity Lodge, No. 556 of Bucyrus, on Aug. 17, 1908. At the completion of the building there was no house. warming or celebration. In the new court room the judge's bench was placed in the east. On the left of the entrance to the building in a niche was placed a life-sized statue of Col. Crawford, while in the basement were placed two waiting rooms.


After the erection of the court house in 1856 it was deemed advisable to build a new jail. The one built in 1838 was a small structure of soft brick, and as a place of confinement was not a success. It took more care and skill to keep the prisoners after their arrest than it did to capture them. ` Nothing special had happened to the old jail, except that on Sept. 4. 1850, the building had been struck by lightning, but no damage was done; a number of prisoners had escaped from the building, and one, preferring death to liberty, had committed suicide. Commissioners, grand juries and sheriffs made frequent complaints as to its condition, and the final blow fell in February; 1858, when a young man named John Mouse made his escape. He had robbed the till at the Oregon House, and was arrested and placed ill the jail. Mouse treated his imprisonment as a joke and assured the sheriff that after he had rested up for a few days at the


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expense of the county he would leave. He kept his word, and a few nights later made his escape, by the use of a false key he had constructed, unlocking the door, and quietly walking out.


John Franz was sheriff at the tine, and while the till-robbing was only a minor offense, and the escape of the prisoner was good riddance, yet the contempt with which the prisoner had treated his incarceration, made the sheriff justly indignant, and he determined on his recapture. The sheriff finally found him at Sandusky City, and brought him back. He came quietly, but again assured the sheriff that when he got tired of stopping with him he would again leave. Franz locked him up in the strongest cell on the second floor, and a few nights later Mouse made his word good he dug a hole in the brick wall, just large enough for his body to squeeze through, dropped into the yard, climbed the eight foot fence which surrounded the building, and was gone for good.


As in the "Pied Piper of Hamelin," "the mayor looked blue, and so did the corporation too." It was the final blow, and the commissioners promptly issued a proclamation for an election to vote on a new jail, to cost .$6,000, one-half to be levied in 1858 and the other half in 1859. The Mouse escapes were so fresh in the minds of the people that at the April election the proposition carried easily. A contract was entered into with E. Jacobs & Co., of Cincinnati, for the jail part for $5,500, and with George B. Terwilliger, of Bucyrus, for the balance of the structure $3,076.98. It was built on the site of the old jail, and did duty for a quarter of a century, and is still standing and now occupied as a private residence.


ESCAPE OF PRISONERS


While it was building, John Franz was Sheriff, and occupied as his residence the house at the southwest corner of Charles and Lane, now the home of P. F. Lauck. During the erection of the new jail prisoners charged with minor offenses were lodged in the city prison, while the more serious offenders were placed in the Wyandot county jail. The jail proved to be a very safe structure, but there was one notable escape. It was in 1872, in the heat of the campaign of Grant against Greeley for the presidency.


James Worden was the sheriff, serving his second term, and he had only two prisoners in the jail, Billy Ring and his partner, charged with theft. On Friday morning, Aug. 30, 1872, the sheriff discovered his two prisoners had made their escape. An examination showed they had drilled about fifty holes through the iron floor of their cell, which was about a third of an inch thick. These holes were bored on three sides of the opening they made, and with a crow bar they pried up the iron floor, breaking off the fourth side, leaving a hole about 7 1/2 by 13 inches, through which they escaped; they crawled through several passages, through four different openings in the foundation walls before they reached the cellar, after which their final escape was easy. They left the following letter, written on the back of an engraving torn from the "Ladies' Repository":


Crawford County Jail, Aug. 20, 1872.


Sheriff Worden:


Respected Friend :—Having but a few more moments to stay, we thought we would devote them to writing to you. Deeming it proper to seek some other place of refuge, and as we did not wish to awake you from your slumbers, therefore we thought we would go without informing You


P. S.—We think we will vote for Greeley.


In 1877 John A. Schaber was elected sheriff, and during his term he had occasion to take five prisoners to Columbus—four men and one woman. They were all handcuffed, and the men were connected in pairs by a heavy chain. The sheriff took as assistants, Lewis Stremmel, George Myers and W. P. Rowland. They drove to Galion, and after all were safely on the train, Rowland returned home. When the train reached Delaware it was necessary to transfer from one car t0 another. Stremmel went first, the four male prisoners following, Myers next, then the woman, the sheriff bringing up the rear. As they reached the platform, the first two men jumped from the steps on the side opp0site the station. Stremmel promptly jumped from the car and grabbed them. They raised the heayy chair with which they were manacled and brought it down with such severe force on Stremmel's head as to knock him senseless. Sheriff


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Schaber seeing or hearing the disturbance forced his way past the woman, and drew his revolver, but already a crowd had collected, making it dangerous to shoot. In attempting to lower his revolver it went off, the ball striking the Sheriff himself on the hand, inflicting a slight flesh wound. The Rev. Mr. Byers, an ex-chaplain of the Penitentiary happened to be present, and being used to hardened criminals, with the assistance of the sheriff and Myers soon had the prisoners under control. The woman in the car had been left to herself and might have escaped, but the passengers rising in the excitement so blocked the way as to make escape impossible. She was a "high kicker" and contented herself with planting one of her feet under the chin of a six-foot traveling man who barred her way. The injured guard, Stremmel, was carried to the station and restored to consciousness, and although thirty years have passed he still carries the scar from the blow. Additional help was obtained at Delaware and the prisoners were safely landed in the penitentiary by the sheriff, but on his return home the wound and the excitement brought on a severe fever which confined him to his house for several days.


In time, the increasing growth and business of the county made a new jail a necessity, and in 1881, the commissioners had about $10,000 in the building fund, and they submitted the question of a new jail to the people. It was the most bitter non-political election that ever occurred in the county with one exception. The sheriff's proclamation called for the vote on the jail on a separate ballot, the votes to be returned to the auditor for canvassing.


The election took place on Tuesday. Oct. 11, 1881, and the returns from every precinct showed that 2,475 votes were for the new jail and 2,789 against; majority against 314. The proposition carried Bucyrus by 981 to 63, and Crestline by 315 to 66. Galion and Polk township gave the phenomenal vote of 12 for the proposition and 1221 against an adverse majority of 1,209. In the country, Auburn, Dallas, Holmes Lykins, Texas Tod and Whetstone were for the proposition, and Chatfield, Cranberry, Jefferson, Liberty, Sandusky, Vernon against. The vote was cast at a regular election, and in those days election returns were forwarded to the clerk of the court. In the printing of the ballots, Auburn, Dallas, Whetstone, and the Second, Third and Fourth wards of Galion had placed the jail proposition on the regular ballot, and the vote in these precincts were returned to the clerk, and not to the auditor. A study of the returns showed these precincts erroneously returned had given 337 for the jail and 1,056 against, and the jail being a necessity the returning board, consisting of the auditor and commissioners, met and proceeded to count the jail returns that were bef0re them, which eliminated the six precincts that had been returned to the clerk, and it was found the proposition had carried by a vote of 2,138 to 1,733, or a majority of 405 for the new jail. This official result was declared and the returning board adjourned. In 1826, the Ohio Gazeteer spoke of Bucyrus. as "a lively post town in the southeastern part of Crawford county," and now after nearly three score years and ten had passed for about four weeks Bucyrus was again the "liveliest" town not only in Crawford county but in the State of Ohio. Indignant citizens swarmed to the county seat, protests and resolutions were sent to the commissioners, an indignant Galion council forwarded to the auditor official returns of the three eliminated wards of Galion, demanding their yote be counted, but the time limit had passed under the law by which a recount could be made, so nothing could be done. Public opinion quieted down, and the matter came to be regarded as a shrewd move, the necessity for the jail was apparent, and the whole affair degenerated into a huge joke on Galion, and when the humor of the situation became the predominant feature, ridicule killed all opposition, as it generally does. Eyentually, the action of the commissioners was practically universally approved.


The next step was a change of location, the people and the commissioners being of the opinion the proper place for the jail was at the rear of the court house instead of across the street. A point was raised by the opponents of the jail that Norton had donated. the jail lot, and if it was abandoned for jail purposes it would revert to the Norton heirs. In answer to this E. R. Kearsley produced a paper covering this contingency. When he was auditor in


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1854 he had foreseen that this question might arise some day, and had secured a signed agreement from Mr. Norton allowing the county at any time to sell the old jail site, providing the money received from the sale was used for the purchase of a new site. Another difficulty was that the site needed—in lot 126, adjoining the court house on the north—had been occupied by Martin Deal as a residence for many years; it was his homestead, and the associations that clung around it made him object to disposing of it. The property was condemned, and bought by the county for $4,500, and that time probably the highest price paid for a similar lot in Bucyrus. The architect of the new jail was J. C. Johnson of Fremont, his plans estimating the cost at $23,000. The lowest bid on the contract was a Ft. Wayne firm, who neglected to give bond, and the contract was awarded to the second lowest bidder, Peter Faeth of New Washington, for $22,293. The old jail was sold to Dr. C. Fulton, in 1883, for S3,900, and the old buildings on the Deal lot were sold for $445.10. The Deal residence was purchased by Peter Faeth, who moved it to the northeast corner of the Court House lot and occupied it during the erection of the new jail. In 1909 the commissioners secured an option on the lot between the jail and the railroad, the building of the new court house making it inadvisable to purchase at that time. Unfortunately the option was allowed to lapse, as it is property which should be owned by the county.


In the early history of the county, the poor were cared for by the respective townships, one of the most important offices prior to the constitution of 1851 was that of overseer of the poor. To this thankless office the best amen in each township took turns in serving, filling the position fr0m a sense of duty alone. If at any time any one came to the county who might eventually become a charge upon the county, the county had the right to demand that the newcomer gave bond that he c0uld never become a public charge. There is one record where this right was used. About 1828, a man died in Roanoke county, Virginia, and on his death liberated his slaves with sufficient money to transport them to somc point in the north. A number of them came to Crawford county, settling two miles south of Bucyrus, which gave the name of the "Nigger Woods" to the grove where they located. It was the farm for so many years known as the Gormly farm and later as the Beal farm. The Overseers of the Poor demanded a bond of 8300 each that they would not become a public charge. This they could not give, so they were compelled to leave. One family remained, the man being known as '`Old Solomon.'' The bulk of the negroes having left, no objection was made to the old man remaining, and in a very few years he died, and his widow married again, Zalmon Rowse, as justice of the peace, going d0wn to perform the ceremony. He was accompanied by Josiah Scott and Madison Welsh, three cronies in those days, who got all the rough sport they could out of the first colored wedding in Crawford county. It has been traditionary history that these slaves were a. part of the family of the celebrated statesmen, John Randolph of Roanoke, who released all his slaves by will at the time of his death. Randolph died in 18J3, and these negroes were certainly here in 1830, probably as early as 1828, so they were not the Randolph slaves.


While each township cared for its own poor, they were let to the lowest "responsible" bidder. It was probably the only way in those early days that they could be cared for, but it was not the most humane way, as bidders sometimes bid very low for the keeping of the pauper, and as a result he was kept in a way that the bidder could make money on his investment. There were occasions when the pauper was very poorly fed and worse clad, and as for housing, kept in the same shed with the cattle or the dog, the same scraps being fed to him and the dog at the same time, with a division of food in favor of the dog. On the least provocation he was chained, and the children found amusement in hitting him with sticks and stones to make him frantic. Sometimes the inhumanity of keepers brought complaints from the neighbors, and the overseers promptly took charge of the unfortunate and relet him to some new bidder.


After the adoption of the new constitution in 1851 Crawford county had at the time a population of nearly 20,000 people (1850 census, 18,177), and at the October election of 1856 a proposition was submitted for the se-


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curing of a site and the building of an infirmary, but it was defeated by a vote of 2,168 to 1,017, more than two to one. It carried Bucyrus by 457 to 26 and Cranberry by 94 to 92, and lost every other township in the county.


Under the new constitution the township trustees had charge of the poor, and they were still let to some party for their keeping. It was very unsatisfactory, as the most careful watchfulness could not prevent cruelties occurring, and a county infirmary became an absolute necessity. A compromise was made with the eastern part of the county by which the infirmary would be located between Bucyrus and Gallon, and in 1864 it was again submitted to a vote, and carried by 2,246 to 1,654, a majority of 592. It carried the townships of Bucyrus, Jackson, Polk and Tod, was a tie in Chatfield, and lost the other ten townships. Its heavy favorable vote in Bucyrus, Galion and Crestline, on account of the compromise as to location, enabled it to carry. The site selected was 240 acre of fine farming land in sections 16, 17 and 21 Whetstone township along the Galion road three miles southeast of Bucyrus. On this a large three-story building was erected by David Shanks at a cost of about $30,000, a plain, commodious brick structure, but with no attempt at ornamentation. As time passed the various necessary outbuildings were erected, and also a very modern structure for the care of the insane. The farm of the infirmary not only supplies its own provisions, but a surplus is sold every year. Much of the work of the farm is done by the inmates, who for the past few years average about g0. From the sale of the surplus products, and the funds received annually from the liquor tax the institution is practically self-sustaining


When the county was, organized in 1826 the princtpal difficulty with which the early pioneers had to contend were the roads. Most cane in the summer, when the low, marshy ,around was passable, and those who failed to conic in the summer or early fall waited until the ground was frozen, and even built their cabins in the depths of the forest with the .,now covering the trees and ground. The first settlers followed the old military road, and after reaching the county branched off to the north or south of this road, which accounts for the fact that after the early settlers had drifted over into the northeastern part of the county from the Connecticut lands, nearly all the early settlers are found to have taken up land in what is now Jackson, Jefferson, Polk, northern Whetstone and Bucyrus, and southern Liberty and Sandusky, a strip of territory within four miles to the n0rth or south of the present Pennsylvania road, which is the Strongest of circumstantial eyidence that the old army road was somewhere near the centre of this tract, and at no point through the county very far from the Pennsylvania road. Those settling in the eastern part entered their land at Wooster, -while those around Bucyrus, coming from the east, selected their site, built their cabin, and then made their trip of forty miles on foot or on horseback, across the plains and through the forest to Delaware, where their land was entered. Gen. Harrison, in 1812, had constructed a road through Delaware to Upper Sandusky, passing through where Marion now is. This road the pioneers reached at the nearest point and followed it to Delaware, but later they made a trail for themselves, wandering in and out over the highest and best ground straight south from Bucyrus. As early as 1819 the settlers in the eastern part of the county (then Richland county) had made a road for themselves from where Galion now is through Jefferson. Auburn and Vernon, and on to Paris (Plymouth), where a road existed through New Haven to Huron on Lake Erie, thus giving them an outlet to points where they could get their supplies. On account of the difficulties of land transportation, it was necessary to reach- sonic point where there was water navigation. At Huron, where goods had arrived from the east by water, necessaries could be purchased 25 per cent cheaper than at Mansfield, and prices paid for the products the hunter and; settler had to sell were 25 per cent higher. The necessity of taking grain to the mill a. Fredericktown, made a trail southeast from Bucyrus through Whetstone township; this later became a traveled road, and when the county was organized developed into the Mt. Vernon road. The settlement at Leveridge's or Hosford's (Galion) was connected with Bucyrus by an Indian trail, later became a pioneer road, and still later a mail route to Mansfield, now the Bucyrus and Galion road.


110 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


The first real road was the Columbus and Portland (Sandusky) road. It was surveyed by Col. Kilbourne about 1820, and a charter granted by the Legislature for a State road. The road was from Columbus to Delaware, then to Mt. Gilead (then in Marion county), then north through the western part of Galion, through the present villages of Middletown, Leesville and West Liberty, and northeast to Paris (Plymouth) and on to Portland (Sandusky). From Hosford's settlement (Galion) north it was practically following the original road cut through the woods by the early settlers. In the building of roads high ground was looked after more than direct route, and when the road reached Leveridge's Kilbourne proposed to have it pass on the high ground where the Galion public square now is; here it was to cross an cast and west road from Mansfield to Bucyrus. Kilbourne proposed to Leveridge to cross at this point, lay out a town and divide the profits, but Leveridge decided he had too fine a farm to spoil it by cutting it up into town lots, so the road was run through the Hosford settlement, on the east side of the Whetstone, half a mile west of Leveridge's, over low ground, which was frequently overflowed and during the west season often impassable. A town was not laid out here, but the crossing of the two roads soon brought a few shops and a tavern, and the settlement became known as "The Corners."


The natural outlet to secure the best market for Bucyrus was Portland (Sandusky) on the Lake, and constant trips through the woods to that point soon made a road. Travel to Marion after 1823 soon made a road to that point, another bore southwest to Little Sandusky (the present Wyandot road), where it joined the north and south road from Columbus to Upper Sandusky, and from where it continued its route southwest to Marysville and Bellefontaine. The road built by Harrison in 1812 from Franklinton (Columbus) to Upper Sandusky, as far north as Norton, in the northern part of Delaware county, was a part of the present Columbus and Sandusky Pike. In 1820 Kilbourne had continued this road north bearing east, following the Whetstone, as his Columbus and Portland road. Settlers continued drifting to the west, and in 1822, Kilbourne laid out his direct road north to Sandusky, the present Sandusky pike, 106 miles from Columbus to the Lake, and several miles shorter than the shortest 0f the three roads that then ran from Columbus to Sandusky. On this road he laid out the towns of Claridon in Marion county, Bucyrus in Crawford county, and Caroline in Seneca county. Later this road became the most traveled from Columbus to the Lake. John Kilbourne, a nephew of Col. Kilbourne, in his Ohio Gazetteer of 1826, says: "During the last session of the Legislature (Dec. 1825) the author petitioned for the grant of a turnpike incorporation to construct a road from Columbus to Sandusky city, a distance of 104 miles in a direct line. An act was accordingly passed therefor. But whether the requisite funds to make it can be raised is yet (March 1826) somewhat uncertain. But its benefits and advantages to above one half the northern and western part of the state are so obvious that the presumption is that it will be made."


When the county was organized in 1826, these were the routes of travel, called high ways, as they went from one point to another over the highest and best ground. The road from the east, from Galion to Bucyrus, was a mail route, with a tri-weekly line of stages in 1826, and yet that road from Galion to Bucyrus, with its half dozen turns and curves today, is an air line in comparison to the way it wandered through the country in its stage coach days, and it was a road in name only. As late as 1834, the father of R. W. Johnston of Galion was a teamster with headquarters at Mansfield. He hauled goods from Philadelphia or Baltimore to the merchants at Mansfield, the freight charges being from $4 to $5 per hundred pounds. He used one or more six horse teams for the hauling. In February, 1834, he had a consignment of goods for E. B. Merriman at Bucyrus. He had four horses to draw the wagon that delivered the goods. When he started to return the spring thaw had set in and when in the present Beltz neighborhood the empty wagon drawn by four horses became so mired that he had to go to the nearest farm house to get teams and men to push, pry and pull the wagon out of the swampy ground in which it was embedded. In 1845, E. B. Monnett, taking four sacks of wheat across one of the Plains roads to the mill at


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 111


Wyandot, found four horses unable to drag the light load over a county road, and additional assistance had to be secured to extricate the wagon. In 188, on the State Turnpike between Bucyrus and Chatfield, a road built thirty years previous, and built, too, partly by donations from Congress, George Donnenwirth with a light load of beer was mired, compelled to shoulder each keg, and carry it across the impassable road, and leave the horses to pull the empty wagon to higher and better ground, reload his beer, and proceed on his way. In 1824, when Aaron Carey was made postmaster at Bucyrus a weekly line of stages was established from Columbus to Sandusky. It gave the passengers exercise during the wet season, as at the worst parts of the road, several miles of which were in Crawford county, the passengers all walked to enable the horses to drag the empty coach over the bad places. One of the necessary articles carried by all coaches was an axe, which was used to cut down saplings, for use as poles with which the driver and passengers would pry the heavy coach out of some chuck-hole in which it was stalled. Frequently, through the plains, the driver left the road, where on the right or left he was able to find better ground. Where the road passed through the swampy ground it was made of corduroy, trunks of trees laid sidewise. Heavy straps were stretched across the interior of the stage, to which the unfortunate passenger desperately clung to avoid being thrown from his scat, as the heavy and cumbersome coach bounced and rocked, and lurched and rolled over this rough roadway. Here is an advertisement of this mail route taken from the Columbus Gazette, of Aug. 28, T823:


"PROPOSALS FOR CARRYING MAILS."


Leave Norton by Claridon, Bucyrus, Sherman, Oxford and Perkins to Sandusky City, once a week 80 miles.


"Leave Norton every Saturday at noon, and arrive at Sandusky City by Monday at 6 p. m.


"Leave Sandusky City every Tuesday at 6 a. m., and arrive at Norton the next Thursday at noon."


Thus, the first regular mail arrived in Bucyrus on a government schedule of 80 miles in 54 hours, and it can be imagined that the entire village turned out to greet the first arrival and hold a jollification over the important event, and Zalmon Rowse and Merriman and Norton were the envy of their neighbors when the driver of the coach accepted drinks at their expense, and condescended to converse with them as equals, and every small boy inwardly resolved that when he became a man the height of his ambition would be reached if he could only become the driver of a stage coach.


This stage route was from Columbus to Norton, to Marion, to Bucyrus; then to Sherman (now Weaver's Corners 15 miles southwest of Norwalk) ; then to Oxford (now Bloomingville nine miles northwest of Norwalk), and to Perkin and Sandusky City.


A year later, in September, 1824. John Kilbourne commenced his advocacy of a turnpike over about this same road from Columbus to the lake, one so constructed that it would be "navigable" at all seasons of the year. In an article in the Columbus Gazette of Sept. 23, 1824, he says that the freight rate from New York to Sandusky City is $1.75 per hundred weight (112 pounds), and that if a pike road were built from Sandusky to Columbus, goods could be shipped from New York to Columbus, at $2.75 per cwt., which is but a fraction over one-half what we now pay from Philadelphia to Columbus. He then adds:


"Besides, this northern route would be the quickest, thus,


"To Sandusky..126 miles, as the road goes 3 days

"Buffalo .........250 miles ..................2 days

"Albany...........300 miles ................. 3 days

"New York......144 miles ................. 1 day

"Philadelphia.... 90 miles ................. 1 day

.........................910 miles ................ 10 days


"And that for only about $40 expense, including carriage and tavern bills. I know this is correct as I went this route myself."


Ten days from Columbus to New York, and this Mr. Kilbourne says was the "quickest" route. Three days from Columbus to Sandusky indicates the stages through Bucyrus did not travel the road after night, but made their journey only during daylight when the driver could pick his way over the road and dodge the tree stumps which might wreck the coach.


Prior to 1826 Bucyrus had a mail coming from Bellefontaine once a week, through Little Sandusky. A man named Snyder was the carrier, and he made the trip on horseback, but sometimes when the road was particularly bad,


112 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


he made the entire journey on foot, with the mail sack swung over his shoulder. Prior to the weekly stage line from Columbus to Sandusky the man who carried the mail when he reached Bucyrus, found the road to the north so impassable that he left his horse at Bucyrus, shouldered his mail sack, and made the trip to Sandusky and back on foot. Mail delivered at Bucyrus at that time included all the settlers within a radius of probably eight or ten miles from that village. In 1826 there was but one post office in that part of the county which is now Crawford county, and that was at Bucyrus ; in what was then the Richland county part of Crawford county there was a post office at Galion and at Tiro (three miles north of the present Tiro). In that part of Crawford which in 1844 became Wyandot county there were post offices at Upper Sandusky and Little Sandusky.


These were the roads and their condition, the post offices and their locations, when the county was organized in 1826. There was but one village in the present Crawford county, Bucyrus ; one settlement in the Richland county part. Galleon, located at the crossing of the two roads, with half a dozen houses, a settlement which thrived and prospered until the present Gallon was laid out in 1832 when the buildings at the Corners gradually became deserted and crumbled to decay, and when 50 years later the territory of the original settlement became a part of Gallon, but one house was standing on what was in early days one of the two business centres of the county.


The only stores in the present county were at Bucyrus, those of F. B. Merriman,Henry St. John and Samuel Bailey, or his successors Powers & French; there were several shops at Bucyrus, and two or three at the Corners at Galleon; there were three distilleries, all in the Richland county part; one ran by John Adrian, near where Leesville now is : another by Nathan Merriman, near Galleon, and the third by James Nail, on the Whetstone, southwest of Galleon. There had been a distillery run by McMichael & Rogers on the banks of the Sandusky, the site of the present electric light works, but it had been discontinued. Carey had a grist mill in Bucyrus, and the McMichael mill was a mile up the river, while a mile south west on the Sandusky was the mill of William Young. The other grist mills were in the Richland county part, Hibner's mill, northwest of Galleon, where the C. C. & C. road now crosses a branch of the Olen Tangy, Hosford, Park, Sharrock and Nail had mills along the Whetstone. There were saw mills in many of the townships along the various streams. There was a Methodist and a Baptist church in Auburn township (then Richland county), but no church yet erected in the Crawford county part; there was a log school house in Bucyrus, one in the Blowers settlement, Liberty township, and one in Auburn township. There were taverns at Bucyrus, one at the northeast corner of Sandusky and Perry, run by Robert More, while across Sandusky avenue on the Carey lot was a tavern kept by Samuel Roth, who was also Justice of the Peace. At the Corners (Galleon) William Hosford had a tavern, and there were several houses along the main roads, not exactly taverns but recognized as places for the entertainment of travelers.


The following is the estimated population of the county in 1826; also the populations in 1830 and 1840. The population of 1826 is estimated at one-half of the official population of 1830, and is probably a very close and fair estimate



 

1826

1830

1840

 

Crawford

Wyandot

Crawford

Wyandot

Crawford

Wyandot

Antrim

Bucyrus

Centre

Chatfield

Cranberry

Crawford

Holmes

Jackson

Liberty

Lykins

Mifflin

Pitt

Sandusky

Sycamore

Tymochtee

Whetstone.

...

463

...

...

...

...

...

...

372

...

...

...

346

22

...

375

70

...

...

...

...

499

...

...

...

...

...

92

...

150

...

...

...

724

...

90

112

...

202

...

655

...

...

...

579

44

...

750

139

...

...

...

...

275

...

...

...

...

...

184

...

300

724

...

61

1654

32

878

680

...

744

636

1469

742

...

...

679

200

...

1124

200

...

100

...

...

812

...

...

...

...

316

423

...

758

1659

...

Totals, old

Crawford

1578

811

3156

1622

8899

4268

Auburn

Richland Co.

Sandusky,

Richland Co.

Vernon,

Richland Co.

Scott,

Marion Co.

Tully

Marion Co.


136


143


139


66


47

 


272


385


278


112


97

 


680


977


693


285


290

 

Totals, pres-

ent Crawford

2109

 

4300

 

11824

 





AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 113


It will be seen by the above that the estimated population of Crawford county when it was authorized to organize as a county, was 2,389, of which 1,578 were in the Crawford county part, and 811 in the Wyandot section. In 1830 the population was 4,77, of these 3,136 being the Crawford part and 1,622 Wyandot. In 1840 the population was 13,167, Crawford having 8,899 and Wyandot 4,268.


The Richland and Marion county figures at the bottom give the population of those sections that are now a part of the present county, so the long columns are the population of the present Crawford county at the three dates given.


Since the present county was formed in 1843, and as constituted, the population at each succeeding census has been as follows:




 

1850

1860

1870

1880

1890

1900

1910

 

Auburn

Bucyrus

Chatfield

Cranberry

Dallas

Holmes

Jackson

Jefferson *

Liberty

Lykins

Polk

Sandusky

Texas

Tod

Vernon

Whetstone

951

2315

1351

1042

406

1238

1711

...

1782

1185

1318

822

545

578

1276

1657

1072

3543

1430

1339

406

1639

3290

...

1788

1265

2910

792

566

1093

1224

1524

910

4184

1247

1281

370

1,570

4021

...

1597

1140

4369

665

566

1156

980

1490

1176

5073

1266

1824

500

1660

3216

1224

1679

1225

6518

658

587

1099

1038

1840

1244

6988

1201

1662

430

1423

3248

1009

1591

1058

7200

615

539

974

952

1793

1174

7587

1304

1819

465

1500

3670

913

1560

930

8433

569

516

882

926

1661

1161

9032

1129

1819

469

1233

4236

802

1342

883

8019

510

476

774

722

1429

 

Total

18177

23881

25556

30583

31927

33915

34036

 

 

 

1850

1860

1870

1880

1890

1900

1910

Cities and villages:

Bucyrus, 1822 †

Galion, ‡ 1831

Crestline, 1852

New Wash'g’n, 1833.

Tiro, 1874

Chatfield, 1840

N. Robinson, 1861

Leesville, 1829

...

1365

589

...

76

...

52

...

197

...

2180

1966

1487

221

...

106

...

235

...

3066

3523

2279

273

...

198

157

320

...

3835

5635

2848

675

65

216

182

213

...

5974

6326

2911

704

177

326

257

203

...

6560

7282

3282

824

293

298

200

178

...

8122

7214

3807

849

321

270

155

115




As nearly as can be gathered from pioneer statements and records, the following is a list of those in Crawford county in 1826, with the dates of their first arrival. Those marked with a (§) had been residents and moved away prior to 1826; those marked with a double


* Jackson township was divided in 1873, the township of Jefferson being created

† Dates are the year town was started.

‡ In the census of 1910, many names were omitted, notably in the first ward. The population in 1910, was several hundred above the United States census figures given in this table.


star (**) had died prior to 1826. Where several names are given of the same family, they are generally sons who are young men.


AUBURN TOWNSHIP—RICHLAND COUNTY UNTIL 1845.


1819—Adam Aumend

1819—Adam Aumend, Jr.

1826—Enrich Baker

1826—Joseph Baker

1822—David Bender

1821—Jacob Bevard

1821—Ira W. Blair

182I—John Blair

1821—Selden Blair

1818--Jesse Bodley

1818—John Bodley

1818—Lester Bodley

1818—Levi Bodley

1821—Daniel Bunker

1817—Martin Clark

1825—William Cleland

18I7—Barnet Cole

1817—William Cole

1816—Jacob Coykendall

1816—David Cummins

1816—John Deardorff

1818—Charles Dewitt

1825—Jonathan Dixon

1820—James Gardner

1820—William Garrison

1820—Michael Gisson

1815—William Green

1815—Samuel S. Green

1815—Walter Green

1820—Benjamin Griffith

1822—George Hammond

1819—Samuel Hanna

1821—Seth Hawks

1820—Harvey Hoadley

1822—Aaron B. Howe

1822—Nelson S. Howe

1818—Daniel Hulse

1818—Palmer Hulse

1826—William Johns

1820—Erastus Kellogg

1822—Jesse Ladow

1818—William Laugherty

1822—Richard Millar

1814—Jedediah Morehead

1818—David C. Morris

1817—David Morrow

1817—Charles Morrow

1817—James Morrow

1820—Rodolphus Morse

1819--Frederick Myers

1814—John Pettigon

1817—Henry Reif

1821—Robert Robinson

1825—Abel C. Ross

1825—Daniel W. Ross

1820—Erastus Sawyer

1828—Jacob Snyder

1820—William Snyder

1821—John Sheckler

1820—John Talford

1822—Richard Tucker

1818—Andrew Varnica

1817—John Wadsworth

1822—John Webber

1819—Resolved White


114 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


BUCYRUS TOWNSHIP.


Those marked (§) lived outside the village.


1822—Thomas Adams §

1826— Isaac H. Allen

1825—Moses Arden

1826—George Aumiller §

1826—Henry Babcock

1824—Samuel Bailey

1823—Adam Bair

1825—Adam Bair

1826—Martin Barr

1820—David Beadle §

1820—David Beadle, Jr. §

1820—Michel Beadle §

1826—Edward Billups

1823—John Billups

1824—George Black §

1824—John Black §

1826—Jacob Bowers

1825—John Bowman

1826—William Bratton

1823—John Brown

1823—David Bryant §

1819—Albigence Bucklin §

1822—Elizabeth Bucklin

1822—Harry Burns

1822—Aaron Cary

1822—Aaron Cary, Jr.

1821—Abel Cary

1822—Lewis Cary

1822—"O1d Peter" Cary **

1826—John Caldwell,

1825—Samuel Carl

1821—Amos Clark §

1825—Elihu Dowd

1825—Ebenezer Dowd

1822—John Deardorff **

1826—David Dinwiddie §

1826—Jacob Drake

1823—William Early

1820---Joseph Ensley §

1825—Andrew Failor

1825—Nicholas Failor

1823—Benjamin Fickle §

1823— Jacob Fickle §

1823—Daniel Fickle §

1823—Isaac H. Fickle §

1826—Michael Flick

1824—John Funk

1822—Harris Garton

1821—John S. George §

1825—George Hawk

1826—George Hesser §

1826—Peter Hesser §

1824—Dr. John T. Hobbs

1821—Henry Holmes

1819—Seth Holmes **

1825—James Houston

1825—Thomas Howey §

1825—John H. Morrison

1823—A. L. Shover

1823—Patrick Height

1826—William Hughey

1826—William Hughey, Jr.

1824—John Huhr

1825—Mary Inman

1826—Thomas Johnson

1825—John Kanzleiter

1822—John Kellogg

1822—David Kent §

1821—Elisha Kent §

1822—John Kent §

1822—Thaddeus Kent §

1825—Joseph Knott §

1822—Darius Landon §

1822—William Langdon §

1826—George Lauck

1825—Joshua Lewis

1826—Hugh Long

1823—John Magers §

1826—William V. Marquis §

1826—William Marsh

1826—James Marshall

1822—John Marshall

1822—Dr. Joseph McComb

1825—Bailey McCracken

1825—Hugh McCracken

1826—James McClure

1826—James McLain

1819— Matthew McMichael §

1823— James Martin

1822—Charles Merriman

1822—E. B. Merriman

1825—Daniel Miller §

1823—Harry Miller

1824--Henry Miller §

1825—John Miller

1826—Henry Minich

1822—Robert Moore

1823—Joseph S. Morris §

1826—Abraham Myers

1826—Samuel Myers §

1826—John Nimmon

1819—Samuel Norton

1819—Rensselaer Norton

1821—David Palmer §

1824—Dr. Joseph Pearce

1822—Russell Peck

1825—Horace Pratt

1823—William Reeves

1822—Conrad Rhodes

1822—Ichahod Rogers

1824—John Rogers

1821—Conrad Roth

1821—Samuel Roth

1823—Heman Rowse § **

1821—Zalmon Rowse §

1825—Jonas Scott

1825—Thomas Scott §

1825—Daniel Seal

1826—Jacob Seigler

1825—Daniel Shroll §

1825—George Shroll §

1825—John Shroll §

1825—William Shroll §

1821—George P. Shultz

1821—Gottleib John Shultz §

1820-- ______ Sears *

1826—George Sinn §

1826—Eli Slagle

1823—Harry Smith

1826—Joy Sperry

1826—Henry St. John

1826—Charles Stanberg

1826—James C. Steen

1826—David Stein §

1821—William M. Stephenson §

1821—Lewis Stephenson

1822—Joseph Umpstead

1825—Benjamin Warner §

1824— Joseph Whitherd


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 115


1825—George Welsh §

1820—Jacob Young §

1820—John Young §

1820—Joseph Young §

1820—William Young §

1820—George Young §


CHATFIELD TOWNSHIP.


1826—William Champion

1824—Oliver Chatfield

1824---Silas Chatfield

1826—David Clute

1824—John Henry

1825—John Robinson

1825—James M. Robinson

1825—William Spanable

1824—George Stuckman

1820—Jacob Whetstone *


CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP.


1823-- _____ Bergin

1824—Joshua Chilcote

1824—Joshtia Chilcote, Jr.

1824—Heathcote Chilcote

1824—James Chilcote

1824—John Chilcote

1824—Nieodemas Chilcote

1826—Aaron Cory

1826—Thomas Cory

1823—Charles Doney

1826—Robert Hilborn

1826—Jacob Lederer

1826—Jacob Lederer, Jr.

1826—Adam G. Lederer

1826—John Lederer

1826—George Myers

1826—Oak Tyndale


DALLAS TOWNSHIP.


(Marion County until 1845.)


1820—George H. Busby

1825—David Bibler

1825—James Bibler

1825—George Clark

1825—Andrew Clark

1822—Christian Hoover

1822—William Hoover

1825—William Howe

1823—Jacob King

1820—Isaac Longwell

1820—Peter Longwell

1820—Samuel Line

1825—John Mason

1825—John Mason, Jr.

1825—Joseph Mason

1820—Matthew Mitchell

1824—John McClary

1824—Thomas McClary

1825—Thomas Mason

1822—John Page

1821—Charles Parrish

1821—William Parrish

1824—William Ramey

1824--Jacob Shaffer

1826—Jacob Snyder

1826—John Snyder

1823—Christian Stahley

1822—Daniel Swigart

1820—George Walton

1821—Benjamin Welsh

1821—Madison Welsh

1821—Zachariah Welsh

1823—Benjamin S. Welsh

1820—Charles White


HOLMES TOWNSHIP.


1824—Thomas Alsoph

1821—William Flake

1826—Joel Glover

1821-- _____ Heaman *

1821—Elisha Holmes

1821—Lyman Holmes

1821—Samuel Holmes

1821—Truman Holmes

1821—Zalmon Holmes

1826—Christian Haish

1826—John Hussey

1824—Samuel Hemminger

1826—Martin Holman

1821—Timothy Kirk **

1823—James Martin

1823—Jonas Martin

1825—Joseph Newell

1825—Daniel Snyder

1826—William Spitzer


JACKSON TOWNSHIP.


(Richland County until 1845.)


1824—Elisha Allen

1818—John Benjamin

1823—David Bryant

1820—John Doyle

1824—John Fate

1818—Benjamin Rush

1820—Joseph Russell

1821—Samuel Rutan


JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.


(Part of Richland County until 1845.)


1818—John Adrian

1817—Peter Beebout

1816—Jacob Fisher

1817—John S. Griswell

1817—Thomas Ferguson

1825—Samuel Freese

1820—Eli Foglesong

1824—David Dorn

1824—John Nice

1819—Henry Hershner

1819—Jacob Hershner

1819—Michael Hershner

1825—John Hershner

1819—Lewis Leiberger

1818—Daniel Miller

1819—James Nail

1817—Westell Ridgely

1817—Andrew Ridgely

1817—Daniel Ridgely

1817—John Ridgely

1817—William Ridgely

1817—Christian Snyder

1817—Jacob Snyder

1817—Peter Snyder

1824—Jacob Weaver

1826—Daniel Wert

1826—Joseph Wert

1826—Peter Wert

1821—Benjamin Worden

1821—Benjamin F. Worden

1821—Nathan Worden


116 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


LIBERTY TOWNSHIP.


1823—John Anderson

1820—Ralph Bacon

1825—John Bair

1821—John O. Blowers

1822—William Blowers

1823—John Chandler

1823—Joseph Chandler

1825—James Clingan

1825—John Clingan

1823—Asa Cobb

1823—Dudley Cobb

1821—Christian Couts

1823—Israel Dorland

1823—Garrett Dorland

1823—James Dorland

1823—Luke Dorland

1822—Robert Foster

1824—John H. Fry

1823—Jacob Gurwell

1825—James S. Gurwell

1825—Edward Hartford

1826—David Hawk

1825—John Helm

1825—Pres Hilliard

1821—William Huff

1824—William Huff

1825—Daniel Ketchum

1825—Daniel Kimble

1824—Richard King

1824—John Kroft

1824—William Little

1823—Benjamin Manwell

1823—Horatio Markley

1823—Matthias Markley

1821—Thomas McClure

1823—James McCurdy

1819—Daniel McMichael **

1821—John Maxfield

1823—William Moderwell

1825—Alex A. McCullough

1826—James McMannes

1822—Simeon Parcher

1826—Samuel Peterman

1826—John Peterman

1826—Isaac Rice

1823—Thomas Scott

1825—Daniel Shellhammer

1826—Abraham L. Shivers

1825—Andrew Shreck

1825—John Slifer

1826—Isaac Slater

1823—Samuel Smalley

1824—Richard Spicer

1823—Ichabod Smith

1823—Thomas Smith

1822—Calvin Squires

1822—Nehemiah Squires

1823—Calvin Stone

1824—John G. Stough

1826—Peter Stockman

1820—Auer Umberfield

1825—Anthony Walker

1825—John Walters

1825—Asa Wetherby

1826—Thomas Williamson

1825—Mary Wood


LYKENS TOWNSHIP.


1825—Christopher Keggy

1826—Jacob Miller

1826—George Rhoad


POLK TOWNSHIP


(Part of Richland County until 1845.)


1826—John Ashcroft

1820—Alpheus Atwood

1820—John Atwood

1824—James Auten

1826—Jonathan Ayres

1819—Samuel Brown

1819—John Brown

1819—Michael Brown

1820—John Bashford

1817—Edward Cooper

1821—John Cracraft

1820—Samuel Dany

1820—John Dickerson

1822—Rev. James Dunlap

1822—John Dunmeier

1822—John Eysman

1820—____Fletcher

1820— ___Fletcher

1818—David Gill

1826—Thomas Harding

1822—John Hauck

1820—John Hibner

1819—Asa Hosford

1819—Horace Hosford

1820—William Hosford

1817—Disberry Johnson

1817—Samuel Johnson

1823—Phares Jackson

1821—John Jeffrey

1818—John Kitteridge

1817—James Leveridge

1817—James Leveridge, Jr.

1817—Nathaniel Leveridge

1823—Nathan Merriman

1822—Alexander McGrew

1820—Daniel Miller

1821—Jacob Miller

1822—William Murray

1825—William Neal

1826—Andrew Poe

1825—James Reeves

1822—Rev. John Reinhart

1820—David Reid

1825—George Row

1825—John Schawber

1826—John Sedous

1818—Benjamin Sharrock

1818—Nehemiah Story

1818—Nathaniel Story

1817—John Sturges

1823—Owen Tuttle

1818—George Wood

1818—George Wood, Jr.

1818—John Williamson


SANDUSKY TOWNSHIP.


1823—Jacob Ambrose

1820—William Beatty

1820—Philip Beatty

1823—Benjamin Bowers

1823—Jacob Bowers

1823—William Bowers

1825—John Cove

1826—Isaac Darling

1826—John Dewey


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 117


1823—Jacob Dull

1820—Matthew Elder

1823—John Clemens

1823—Adam Clemens

1823—Thomas Clemens

1821—John B. French

1819—James Gwell

1819—William Gesell

1822—William Handley

1822—Jesse Handley

1826—Isaac Henry

1823—Isaac Hilburn

1826—George M. Ditch

1819—Samuel Knisely

1820—Joseph Knisely

1823—James Magee

1826—John Magner

1826—Henry Magner

1825—William Matthews

1825--Isaac Matthews

1824--John Mayer

1826—John Ramsey

1826—Joseph Smith

1825—Alex Smith

1820—Samuel Shull

1825—James Tarns

1825—Nelson Tustison

1826—Joseph Wert

1826—John Wert

1826—Adam Wert


TEXAS TOWNSHIP.


1824--Eli Adams

1824—Paul Adams

1824—George Bender

1822—John Henry Coon

1826—Ebenezer Culver

1825—Anthony Detray

1826—Jacob Foy

1826—Samuel Gregg

1826—William Griffiths

1826—Lewis Lemert

1825—Robert Mayes

1825—Adam Miller

1825—Isaac Miller

1825—Charles Morrow

1825—John Nedray

1825—David Palmer

1825—Doddridge Paul

1825—Elting Paul

1825—Laban Perdew

1826—William Pennington

1825—Robert Roberts

1825—Alva Tash


TOD TOWNSHIP.


All Indian Reservation until opened for settlement in 1837.


VERNON TOWNSHIP.


(Richland County until 1845)


1818—George Byers

1823—John Cleland

1823—William Cleland

1816—Andrew Dickson

1823—George Dickson

1825—Jonathan Dickson

1825—James Dickson

1821—James Richards

1824—Conrad Walters

1824—Anthony Walters


WHETSTONE TOWNSHIP


1823—James Armstrong

1822—Peter Anderson

1822—Christian Bair

1822—John Beckwith

1826—John Boyer

1822—Philip Clinger

1822—Adam Clinger

1822—Archibald Clark

1822—George Clark

1822—Benjamin Camp

1823—John Campbell

1817—William Cooper

1824—Charles Chambers

1824—Isaac Eichelberger

1824—Casper Eichelberger

1823—James Falloon

1821—Frederick Garver

1822—Benjamin George

1822—William Hamilton

1821—George Hancock

1822—Henry Harriger

1823—James Henderson

1821—Asa Howard

1821—Daniel Jones

1823—Adam Jacob Kieffer

1819—John Kent

1826—Andrew Kerr

1821—John Icing

1825—John Lininger

1820— Noble McKinstry

1824—J. W. Moderwell

1822—Esi Norton

1821—Philander Odell

1821—Eli Odell

1821—Jacob Odell

1823—George Poe

1821—Samuel Parcher

1822—Lyman Parcher

1822—George Parcher

1822—John Parcher

1822—Benjamin Parcher

1822—George Parcher, Jr.

1821—Nathaniel Plummer

1821—Abner Rowse

1823—Cornwallis Reese

1824—Robert Reid

1824—George Reid

1826—Henry Remson

1822—Daniel Palmer

1820—Martin Shaffner

1826—Henry S. Sheldon

1826—Valentine Shook

1826—Samuel Shook

1826—John Staley

1823—John Stein

1823—Abraham Steen

1822—Hugh Stewart

1822—William Stewart

1822—James Stewart

1822—John Stewart

1822—Joseph Stewart

1822—Hugh Stewart, Jr.

1826—William Stuck

1823—Hugh Trimble

1823—John Trimble

1821—Samuel VanVoorhis

1826—Robert Walker

1820—John Willowby

1826—Samuel Winters


CHAPTER VI


POLITICAL


Early Politics—The Campaign of 1840—Harrison at Bucyrus—First Campaign Song—The Exciting Campaign of 1863—Various Minor Parties—Constitutional Conventions— Vote of the County Since Its Organization—The County in State Politics—Incidents of Early Campaigns— Crawford During the War—Complete List of Officials Since the Organization of the County.


Some are born great, some achieve greatness, And some have greatness thrust upon them.

-SHAKESPEARE.


Here and there some stern, high patriot stood, Who could not get the place for which he sued.

—BYRON.


When Crawford county was first established by the legislature in 1820, there was considerable unanimity in politics not only in Ohio at that time, but in the nation. James Monroe had been elected president without opposition. Crawford county did not vote as a county until £824, and even at that election its vote was cast with Marion, and the first separate vote of the county was in 1826, and at that time a harmonious spirit existed in the county. Prior to 1820 there had been two parties, the Federalists and the followers of Jefferson, the latter using the names of Republican and Democrat indiscriminately. The Jeffersonian theory of government had prevailed to such an extent that in Ohio there was practically no opposition. When the election took place in 1824 there were four candidates John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, who represented what was left of the old Federal party, and was supported by the more conservative voters; William A. Crawford of Georgia, a democrat of the Federal school, who favored the leaders of the party at Washington controlling the nominations. The other two were Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. The bulk of the Jackson and Clay followers were of the Jefferson-Madison-Monroe school, Jackson being for a strict construction of the constitution, against a national bank which then existed, and against any centralizing of power. Clay was more liberal, and favored the government looking after internal improvements, and in connection with that a protective tariff. Not one of them was a Federalist, although Adams was so classed, while the Jackson men took the name of Democratic Republican; the Clay men National Republican. The election in Ohio resulted Clay 19,255, Jackson 18,489, Adams 12,280, while Crawford had no electoral ticket in the field. It will be observed that his vote was 50,024. A month previous at the October election for governor the vote was Jeremiah Morrow, democrat, 39,526; Allen Trimble, national republican, 37,108. Trimble's vote coming from the Clay and Adams men, and Morrow's vote from the Jackson men, and many democrats who were dissatisfied with all the presidential candidates. So mixed up, or so united, were political affairs that two years later Trimble, national republican, had practically no opposition for governor, receiving 71,47 votes, the scattering vote being about 13,000. By 1828 the two parties took definite forms, both either republican or democratic, whichever one might choose to call them, and the only difference being in matters of governmental policy. In 1828 Jackson carried the State for president, although the national republicans elected their governor that year and in 1830, and after Jackson again carried the State in 1832, the democrats of the Jackson school were left in undisputed possession of the name of democrat, and the national republicans united all opposition to the democratic party under the name of Whigs. The latter


- 118 -


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 119


party carried the state for Harrison in 1836 and 1840. Under President Jackson, from 1829 to 1837 party lines began to be closely drawn, but prior to that time there had been no special difference between the two parties.


The first mention of Crawford county in regard to political matters was in the Columbus Gazette of July, 1824, when a meeting was held at Columbus in the interest of Henry Clay. At that meeting Henry Brown of Franklin county was appointed the Clay elector for this district, and Joseph Chaffee of Crawford county was present and was placed in charge of the Clay interests in this county. Chaffee lived in Tymochtee township. That year practically all were Clay or Adams men in this county, as at the election in 1824, Marion county, of which Crawford was a part, gave the following vote: Adams 87; Clay 54; Jackson 13. The formation of parties can be seen by the presidential vote of 1832, when it resulted in this county: Andrew Jackson, dem., 557; Henry Clay, Whig, 259.


The exciting campaign in Ohio and in this county was the presidential election in 1840, when William Henry Harrison ran against Martin Van Buren, the latter being the democratic candidate for re-election. Pages of history have been written about the campaign of 1840. It was the first political "tidal wave" that ever swept the country. From 1829 to 1840 Andrew Jackson had been president, followed by Martin Van Buren, and the democratic party was strongly intrenched in power; the Whigs were demoralized, their principal issue being anti-Jackson. On December 4, 1839, they met at Harrisburg, Pa., and nominated Gen. Harrison for the presidency, with John Tyler of Virginia for vice president. Van Buren's colleague was Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, who in the war of 1812, had won the final battle of the Thames in Canada, when the British were defeated and "Tecumseh was killed. Harrison, as the hero of the war of 1812, was the idol of the then great rising northwestern territory, but in the east the business interests and the newspapers made light of his candidacy; soon after the Harrison nomination, the editor of a Van Buren paper at Baltimore, Md., visited General Harrison at his country home at South Bend, Ind., and was cordially received and hospitably entertained by him. He published an account of his trip, spoke slightingly of Harrison's abilities, and stated that he lived in a log cabin and drank hard cider, and had no desire to be president, and neither had he the ability to fill the position, and concluded by stating that if the people of the country would only furnish him with a liberal supply of crackers and sufficient hard cider he would be contented to live in his little log cabin for the remainder of his days. Every Van Buren paper in the east published the story with great relish, and it was copied in the western organs. Then the storm broke. In all of the great northwest that Harrison had rescued from the Indians the people remembered the log cabins that had been their first homes; they still kept the hard cider for the hospitable entertainment of their guests, and many still lived in the little log cabins. The northwest rallied to their idol, the log cabin and the buckeye became their rallying cry, and the hard cider was free everywhere. A meeting was called at Columbus for February 22, 1840, and although it was the dead of winter, when the day arrived over 15,000 people assembled in that city of 6,000 population, and every house was thrown open to entertain free every guest. Every county within a radius of a hundred miles sent monster delegations, some hauling log cabins for fifty miles over the miserable roads. Nearly a hundred went down from Crawford county. Heavy rains had swollen the streams, and the roads were almost impassable, but there were miles of paraders, with their innumerable log cabins, and heading the procession was a reproduction of Fort Meigs erected by Harrison, and defended by him, in 1813, and on the front flag staff Harrison's reply to General Proctor's demand for its surrender: "Tell General Proctor when he gets possession of the Fort, he will gain more honor, in the estimation of his King and country, than he would acquire by a thousand capitulations." There were speeches; and the hard cider distributed free at every house, with barrels of it at every street corner, kept tip the enthusiasm, and also prevented any ill effect from the intemperate weather.


Of course they passed resolutions, a column of them, glorifying themselves and their candidate, and denouncing, and criticizing the


120 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


opposition, and one resolution, not political, but future events demonstrated it was the shrewdest of politics. It was a resolution recommending that "the young men of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Western New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia celebrate the next anniversary of the raising of the siege of Fort Meigs, in June, 1813, on the ground occupied by that fort."


As early as May they started for the rendezvous; men left their farms and their factories. their stores and their shops, and through the forests and across the swamps they journeyed hundreds of miles on foot and on horseback in wagons and in log cabins, these latter being hung with coon-skins and covered with strings of buckeyes, and used as sleeping places during the night. And when the day arrived fully fifty thousand people were there from every state in the union, and the wagons were camped for miles around. Harrison spent the night at Toledo, a little town of 1,300 people, and on the morning of the day went on a little steamer to the fort he had so bravely defended a generation previous. People were weeks getting back to their homes, but from the west the excitement spread to the east, and the chief export of Ohio that year were the buckeyes, and the national drink was hard cider. It was, too, a cure for all ills ; with a pepper-pod sliced into it it was a sure cure for rheumatism; mixed with willow-bark and iron-wood it cured fever and ague; with wild cherry added it became a tonic. It was the juice of the apple, and many a temperate man in his enthusiasm for the cause partook so liberally that when night came there was little difference between a moderate and a heavy drinker.


It was at Columbus that Otway Curry, of Union county, who represented this district in the legislature in 1837 and 1838, wrote the first campaign song that was used in a campaign. It was to the time of "Highland Laddie," and commenced


"Oh where, tell me where, was your Buckeye Cabin made?

Oh where, tell me where was your Buckeye Cabin made?

'Twas built among the merry boys who wield the plow and spade

Where the Log Cabin stands in the bonnie Buckeye shade."

Another of the songs was to the tune of "Rosin the Bow."


Come ye who, whatever betide her,

To freedom have sworn to be true;

Prime up in a mug of hard cider,

And drink to old Tippecanoe.*


On tap, I've a pipe of as good, sir,

As man from the faucet e'er drew

No poison to thicken your blood, sir,

But liquor as pure as the dew.


No foreign potation I puff, sir,

In freedom the apple-tree grew,

And its juice is exactly the stuff, sir,

To quaff to old Tippecanoe.


Let Van * sport his coach and outriders,

In liveries flaunting and gay,

And sneer at log cabins and cider;

But woe for the reckoning day!


From east to west and from north to south the vv ave spread, and long before November came the one side felt defeat and the other scented victory. A tidal wave swept the land or Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." The magnificent democratic organization which six months previous had deemed defeat impossible was swept away by an uprising of the people, and even the democratic organ in Baltimore that first started the sarcasm on the candidate and his log cabin and hard cider, was caught by the wave, and closed the campaign as a Harrison supporter. During the campaign many passed through Bucyrus on their way to the great demonstration at Fort Meigs, and among them none other than Harrison himself, accompanied by Robert C. Schenck, a rising young lawyer from Dayton and an orator. He came over the Pike from Columbus speaking in Delaware and Marion, and stopped at the Union Hotel, then kept by Samuel Norton on the lot now occupied by Zeigler's mill. He spent the night here. Bucyrus had a Tippecanoe club and John Moderwell was the president and James Marshall the vice president. The club escorted him to the court house. The little building


* Tippecanoe was the popular name in the west for Harrison.

* Van Buren.


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 121


was crowded. The meeting was presided over )y Josiah Scott, then a rising young lawyer if Bucyrus. Robert C. Schenck addressed the fleeting, and made a brilliant speech. General Harrison was then introduced, but the crowd was a trifle unfriendly and frequently nterrupted the speaker, but he bore the annoyance with dignity and calmness, until a letter feeling prevailed and he was allowed to continue.


The next morning he left for Sandusky There he took the little lake steamer for Toledo. This was the first president ever in Bucyrus. Later in the campaign, in September, Richard M. Johnson, the candidate for vice president was in Bucyrus, and addressed a large crowd. He was the guest of Congressman George Swney and was accompanied by senator Allen and John Brough, and when he eft for his next date at Mansfield, Mr. Sweney and a large number of Bucyrus politicians accompanied him.


The wave that swept the country and landed Gen. Harrison in the presidential chair was of little avail to the whigs. Whether he could have built up a party is problematical, but he died shortly after his election, and Tyer became president, and in 1844 the democrats again returned to power. In 1848 the whigs were again successful with a war candidate. They had opposed the Mexican war, Jut after the United States were victorious ;tole the democratic thunder by nominating the hero of that war, General Zachariah Tayor, and obtaining a presidential victory. Old `Rough and Ready" as he was called was just as his nickname indicated. One of his first messages congratulated congress with the expression : "We are now at peace with all the world and the rest of mankind." Taylor also died and Fillmore succeeded him. For years the whigs had been little more than an opposition. But in their later years they had driven the democratic party to a defense of slavery. The democratic party had never recognized slavery as one of their party principles, but they were finally forced to its defense, a defense that almost killed them, and did kill the party that forced them into that position. For several years prior to 1854, a new party had sprung up of "Free Soilers," who were opposed to any further extension of slavery; an American party, who held that Americans must rule America ; and the abolitionists. The Free Soilers at the start drew largely from the democrats and later from the whigs the Americans and abolitionists from the whigs, and in some cases the Whigs became the third party. In 1854 the many discordant elements that opposed the democratic party got together with a firm and pronounced declaration to stop the inroads of slavery. The free soil democrats and the abolitionists practically all malted with the new party, and about two-thirds of the a pigs. At least one-third of the whigs went bodily over to the democratic party declining to follow such advanced ground on the slavery question. In 1853, the democratic vote in Crawford for governor was 1778, the Whig vote 525, and the free soil vote 306. The whigs had gone to pieces. In 1855 under the new alignment the democratic vote was 1710, the republican vote 1,449 and the American vote 24. Many well known democrats in Crawford county, who had held office and been leaders, joined the new party, and democracy in turn recruited its ranks from life-long whigs. Since then it has been a straight fight between the two great parties, with an occasional new party springing into existence to cast a few votes, and then drift back to one or two other of the two great parties. At one time the populists rose to several hundred votes in the county, but they finally found a home in one of the two leading parties. The prohibitionists have been faithful for years, but their vote has been drawn from both parties and has been recently light, many years ago their highest figure being about three hundred. In the past few years the socialists under various names have had tickets in the field, taking their following from both parties but mostly from the dominant one. In a few local elections their vote has been such as to indicate that if the increase continues they are a power to be counted on.


When the war started in 1861, it was heartily supported by both parties, but as time passed the republicans being in power in the national government were receiving accessions of strength, which bid fair, when the war reached a successful conclusion, to wipe out the democratic party. And the democratic


122 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


party soon changed to a severe criticism of the conduct of the war, and later came out in bitter opposition to it. The Republicans, to make the line more marked, headed their ticket in this state with the word Union and the party was known as the Union Republican party. In the winter of 1882 one of democracy's brilliant orators, Clement L. Vallandigham, was so severe in his strictures on the government that he was arrested for treason, and banished from the country, first transported across the line as a present to his friends in the south. From there he went to Canada. The democratic party in this state were up in arms against the administration for the arrest and banishment of their leader and insisted the rights of "freedom of speech" as guaranteed by the constitution were being suppressed. They called their next convention at Columbus to select a candidate for governor, and there was an outpouring of the people; over two hundred went down from this county; other counties turned out in force; there were delegations from everywhere, and in the neighborhood of fifty thousand indignant and protesting democrats assembled at the capital. It was a great outpouring of the people, and there was no building large enough to hold the crowd, but the problem was solved by having the convention outdoors in the state house yard. With the greatest enthusiasm Vallandigham was nominated by acclamation for governor. Crawford was conspicuous at this convention. The headquarters were at the American house, and the evening of the nominations a ratification meeting was held, and ex-Senator George E. Pugh, the candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and many others made speeches, most of them too mild for the anti-war faction of the party and the excited crowd, besides which the speeches were temperate from the fact that dozens of United States marshals were present with instructions to arrest any one guilty of treasonable utterances. The speeches were therefore tamer than the Crawford county men had been accustomed to, and they set up a call for "Jackson." Abner M. Jackson was a natural born orator, pleasant, affable, the friend of everybody, and the idol of the democracy of this county. The crowd caught the name and Jackson came forward to speak. He expressed his opinion on the generals, the war, the government, and the president, with the same freedom and force he had been accustomed to do in Crawford county. He was a brilliant orator and set the crowd on fire, and the cheers and applause he received showed he was the orator of the evening, and if his speech had been made the evening before there is no question he would have received the nomination for lieutenant governor. At the conclusion of his speech, policy called for an adjournment of the meeting.


A severe campaign followed, processions miles long attending every meeting. Pugh took up the fight for his party, his leader being absent in Canada; party bitterness ran high; nearly every meeting created trouble owing to the intense earnestness of both sides, and in the end Brough was elected by 6o,000 exclusive of the soldier vote which was 41,000 more. A law had been passed which allowed the soldiers in the field to vote. The Crawford soldier vote was Brough, union, 268; Vallandigham, democrat, 24. On the county ticket the Union vote was some forty less. In the vote as reported from the field 57 votes were thrown out for informality, of these 49 were for Brough and 8 for Vallandigham. In 1865 the soldier vote was not counted in this county.


The next important contest was in 1867, when the state was called upon to vote on an amendment to the constitution giving to colored people the right to vote, the republicans favoring the proposition the democrats opposing. The amendment was beaten in Ohio by forty thousand, but the republicans carried the state by a small majority.


In 1872, the democrats made no nomination for the presidency, meeting at Baltimore and indorsing Horace Greeley, who had been nominated by the Liberal republicans at Cincinnati. This took over to the democratic ranks less than a hundred in this county, owing to their intense bitterness against the administration of President Grant, but eventually most of them returned to the republican party.


Party lines remained the same in this county until 1887 to 1891, when the Peoples Party sprang into existence, an organization principally of farmers comprising men of


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 123


both parties, but later coming largely from the democrats. It ran for a few years, and its members later drifted back to the old parties, the democrats getting the better of the drift.


So strong had the populistic tendency become, that that party dictated the democratic presidential nomination and platform in 1896, which caused the nomination of a gold democratic ticket made up of those who still believed with Andrew Jackson on the money question. Many joined this party, but when it came to vote, they mostly voted for McKinley. In the last few years the Socialists under various names have had an increasing vote, especially in the cities, and both the great parties have been drifting toward the adoption of many of the milder views of the Socialists.


The first constitution was adopted when Ohio was admitted as a state in 1803, with a proviso that a constitutional convention could be held every twenty years to submit a new constitution to the people. In 1830 there was no desire for any change in the constitution, so no constitutional convention was held.


In 1850 a constitutional convention was held, the delegate from this county being Richard W. Cahill of Vernon township. The new constitution was submitted to the people in June, 1851, and was adopted, the vote in Crawford county being 1,441 for and 399 against, a majority for of 1,042. It carried every township except Auburn and Dallas, losing in Auburn by 22 and in Dallas by 8. When this constitution was submitted a separate proposition was submitted to the people as to whether the sale of liquor should be licensed in the state. License was defeated. On this question Crawford's vote was, for license 1,121, against 592; majority for 529. License carried every township excepting four, Bucyrus giving 17 majority against, Jackson 7, Texas 4, and Tod 5. The next constitutional convention was in 1870, when Thomas Beer was elected the delegate from this county without opposition. The constitution was submitted to the voters on August 18, 1874, and defeated by 147,284. Three other propositions were submitted separately but all were defeated overwhelmingly, excepting the licensing of the liquor traffic, and this was defeated by only 7,286 majority in the state. In 1851 the majority against license was 8,982. In Crawford county in 1874, the vote was 1,107 for the new constitution, 2,283 against. On the propositions submitted separately the vote was: For minority representation 945, against 2,241; for railroad aid 225, against 3,043; for licensing liquor traffic 2,212, against 1,187.


In 1812 the third constitutional convention was held, and at the election in October 1811, George W. Miller was selected as the delegate.


The following is the vote of Crawford county for governor, the years 1828 and 1832 being the presidential vote : *Indicates the candidates who carried the state:


1824—Allen Trimble, nat rep

Jeremiah Morrow, dem.

Trimble plurality.....

1826—* Allen Trimble, nat rep.

John Bigger, dem

Trimble plurality.....

1828—Allen Trimble, nat rep.

John W. Campbell, dem.

Trimble plurality

1830—* Robert Lucas, dem

Duncan McArthur, nat rep

 Lucas plurality

1832—*Andrew Jackson, dem.

Henry Clay, Whig

Jackson plurality

1834—* Robert Lucas, dem

James Findlay, Whig

Lucas plurality

1836—Martin Van Buren, dem

*Wm. H. Harrison, Whig.

Van Buren plurality.

1838—*Wilson Shannon, dem

Joseph Vance, Whig

Shannon plurality

1840— Wilson Shannon, dem

Thomas Corwin, Whig

Shannon plurality

83

32

51

339

3

336

217

165

52

355

109

246

557

259

298

528

325

203

702

677

25

948

626

322

1,204

994

220


115



342



382



464



816



853



1,379



1,574



2,208

124 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY

1842-*Wilson Shannon, dem

Thomas Corwin, whig

Shannon plurality

1844-David Tod, dem

*Mordecai Bartley, whig

Leicester King, free soil

Tod plurality

1846-David Tod, dem

*William Bebb, whig

Samuel Lewis, free soil.

Tod plurality

1848-John B. Weller, dem

*Seabury Ford, Whig

Scattering

Ford plurality

1850--Reuben Wood, dem

William Johnston, whig

Wood plurality

1851- Reuben Wood. den

Samuel F. Vinton, whig.

Wood plurality.

1853-*William Medill. dem

Nelson Barrere, whig

Samuel Lewis, free soil

Medill plurality

1855-William Medill, dem

*Salmon P. Chase, rep.

Allen Trimble. amer

Medill plurality

1857- Henry B. Payne. dem

*Salmon P. Chase, rep.

Philadelphia Van Trump amer.

Payne plurality

1859- Rufus P. Ranney, dem

*William Dennison, rep

Ranney plurality

1861.-Hugh J. Jewett, dem

*David Tod, rep

Jewett plurality

1,308

778

530

1,671

1,123

4

548

1,181

644

22

537

1,558

751

84

807

1,055

538

517

1,551

683

868

1,778

525

306

1,253

1,710

1,449

43

261

2,038

1,457

27

581

2,258

1,550

708

2,501

1,734

767


2,086




2,798




1,847




2,393



1,593



2,234




2,609




3,202




3,522



3,808



4,235

1863-Clement L. Vallandighadem

*John Brough, union rep

Vallandigham plurality

1865- George W. Morgan, dem

*Jacob D. Cox, rep

Morgan plurality

1867- Allen G. Thurman, dem

*Rutherford B. Hayes, rep

Allen G. Thurman plurality

 1869-Geo. H. Pendleton, dem.

* Rutherford B. Haves, rep

Pendleton plurality..

1871-George W. McCook, dem

*Edward Noyes, rep

Gideon T. Stewart, pro

McCook plurality

1873- * William Allen, dem

Edward F. Noyes, rep

Gideon T. Stewart, proh

Isaac Collins, liberal

Allen plurality

1875-William Allen, dem

*Rutherford B. Hayes, rep

Jay Odell, prob.

Allen plurality

1877--*Richard M.. Bishop, dem

William H. West. rep.

Scattering

Bishop plurality

1879-Thomas Ewing, dem

*Charles Foster, rep

Gideon T. Stewart, pro

A. Sanders Piatt, peo

Ewing plurality

1881- John W. Bookwalter, dem

*Charles Foster, rep

Abraham R. Ladow, prob

John Seitz, peo

Bookwalter plurality.

2,948

2,157

791

2,911

1,759

1,152

3,497

1,864

1,633

3,183

1,631

1,552

2,948

1,690

26

1,258

2,879

1,292

180

25

1,587

3,834

2,064

44

1,170

3,498

1,581

177

1,917

4,193

2,213

135

43

1,980

3,608

1,967

256

56

1,641


5,105



4,670



5,361



4,814




4,664





4,376




5,942




5,256





6,584





5.887

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 125

1883—"George Hoadley, dem

Joseph B. Foraker, rep.

Scattering

Hoadley plurality

1885—George Hoadley, dem

*Joseph B. Foraker, rep.

Adna B. Leonard, proh.

John W. Northup, peo

Hoadley plurality

1887—Thomas E. Powell, dem.

*Joseph B. Foraker, rep.

Morris Sharp, prob

John Seitz, peo

Powell plurality

1889—*James E. Campbell, dem

Joseph B. Foraker, rep.

John B. Helwig, prob

Campbell plurality

1891—James E. Campbell, dem

*William McKinley, rep

John J. Ashenhurst, pro

John Seitz, peo

Campbell plurality

1893—Lawrence T. Neal, dem

*William McKinley, rep.

Gideon P. Mackin, proh

Edward J. Bracken, peo

Neal plurality

1895—James E. Campbell, dem

*Ada S. Bushnell, rep

Jacob S. Coxey, peo

Seth H. Ellis, proh

William Watkins, soc. lab

Campbell plurality

1897—Horace L. Chapman, dem

* Asa S. Bushnell, rep

John C. Holliday, prob.

Jacob S. Coxey, peo.

William Watkins, soc. la

Scattering

Chapman plurality

1899—John R. McLean, dem

*George K. Nash, rep

4,457

2,478

49

1,979

4,269

2,364

297

25

1,905

4,258

2,295

227

310

1,963

4,767

2,353

222

2,414

4,400

2,346

122

428

2,054

4,110

2,678

150

224

1,432

4,395

2,557

535

154

5

1,838

4,725

2,416

59

81

10

17

2,309

4,538

2,417



6,982





6,955





7,090




7,342





7,296





7,162






7,646







7,308

Samuel M. Jones, non -partisan

Seth H. Ellis, reform.

Robert Bandlow, soc. la

McLean plurality

1901—James Kilbourne, dem

*George K. Nash, rep

E. Jay Pinney, proh

John Richardson, reform

Harry C. Thompson, soc

John H. G. Juergens, soc. lab

Kilbourne plurality

1903—Tom L. Johnson, dem.

*Myron T. Herrick, rep.

Nelson D. Creamer, pro

Isaac Cowen, soc

John D. Goerke, soc. lab

Johnson plurality

1905— * John M. Pattison, dem

Myron T. Herrick, rep.

Aaron S. Watkins, proh

Isaac Cowen, soc.

John C. Steiger, soc. lab

Patterson plurality

1908—* Judson Harmon, dem

Myron T. Herrick, rep.

Robert Bandlow, soc

John B. Martin, prob

Hanmon plurality

1910—*Judson Harmon, dem

Warren G. Harding, rep

Tom Clifford, soc

J. R. Malley, soc. lab

Henry N. Thompson, pro

Harmon plurality

637

90

39

2,121

4,298

2,396

90

22

77

16

1,902

4,425

2,478

91

124

17

1,947

5,000

5,000

2,489

74

112

8

2,511

5,913

3,188

151

77

2,725

5,450

2,141

315

17

33

3,309



7,721







6,899






7,135







7,683





9,329






7,956




Crawford county has not fared very well as regards state offices. It started in all right, but later devoted more attention to the holding of county offices, leaving other counties to fill the state positions. In 1830, Moses H. Kirby of Crawford was appointed secretary of state, and held the office for three years. Over fifty years passed when the next man


126 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


to hold one of the state offices was E. B. Finley. His office was also an appointive one, he being tendered the position of adjutant general of the state by Governor Hoadley, serving from 1884 to 1886. In 1895 Crawford county, for the first time, elected one of its citizens to a state position, Frank S. Monnett being elected attorney general and reelected in 1897. Another ten years elapsed and in 1910 Sylvanus Strode was elected as dairy and food commissioner, and renominated again this year.


In 1856, Josiah Scott was elected a judge of the supreme court. He came to Crawford in 1829, but removed to Butler county in 1850, and was elected from that county, and reelected for two terms, and at the expiration of his judgeship returned to Crawford county, so this county has a right to claim him. In 1876. the supreme court was so far behind in its business that several additional judges were appointed by Gov. Hayes to serve for three years, and judge Scott was one of the appointees on what was known as the supreme court commission.


Another citizen of Crawford to hold office in the capitol was Charles W. McCracken, who was appointed canal commissioner in 1896 by Governor Bushnell.


In 1867 Cochran Fulton of this county was nominated on the democratic ticket for state treasurer but was defeated. Judge Thomas Beer was nominated for supreme judge in 1892, on the democratic ticket, but was defeated.


In the legislature this county has held several positions. The first was John R. Knapp, who established the Peoples Forum in 184, and in 1847 was appointed one of the clerks of the Ohio senate. The next year he was a candidate for the clerkship. The senate stood democrats 17, Whigs 17, free soil 2, and the first ballot resulted Knapp, dem., 18; Galloway, whig, 13; Tappan, whig, 4; Stanley, free soil, 1. Balloting commenced on December 5, and Knapp was elected on December 8, on the 121st ballot, receiving just the 19 votes necessary to elect, the other 17 votes scattering between six candidates. The next year he was elected on the second ballot. The contest over clerk was due to the fact that prior to 1850 the clerk of the senate had control of the state advertising, which amounted to about $50,000 annually to some Columbus newspaper. In 1898 David O. Castle was elected as clerk of the senate serving one term. In 1910 W. I. Goshorn of the Galion Inquirer, was elected clerk of the senate, and is the present incumbent.


In 1874 Thomas Coughlin was elected clerk of the house, serving one term. He was also an editor of the Forum, owning that office from 1862 to j868, later serving two terms as clerk of the court.


In 1890 Senator Perry M. Adams (Seneca county), representing this district in the state senate, was elected president pro tem of that body holding the office for two years.


Two citizens of Crawford county have received presidential appointments abroad, both newspaper men and both in the consular service. In 1831 William Crosby published the second paper ever issued in Bucyrus, which he called the Bucyrus Journal; he continued it for several years under different names, and in 1845 President Polk appointed him United States Consul at Talcahuano, Chili, and after serving for some time he found the office was not a paying institution and resigned to go into the business of whale fishing which proved more profitable. In 1898 President McKinley appointed John E. Hopley, editor of the Evening Telegraph, as United States Consul to Southampton, England, and in 1903 he was promoted to the Consulate at Montevideo, Uruguay, where he served for two years returning to his editorial work in 1905.


Campaigning in the old days was vastly different from what it is today, and prior to 1850 a speech a day was about all the dates a candidate could fill, but if he were some prominent leader, the people assembled from miles around, and little towns of only a few hundred had crowds that numbered away up into the thousands. Generally the distinguished speaker was attended from one town to the next by a delegation of worshippers. It was about 1849 that John Brough made a democratic speech at Bucyrus. His next date was at Tiffin, and Jacob Scroggs, Tom Orr, and a few other of the faithful young democrats of that day, started with him to Tiffin. The roads were bad, as they generally were, and reaching Melmore they decided to stay over night


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 127


and continue their journey in the morning. After supper they found there was a Whig meeting in progress at the school house addressed by some local celebrity, and to put in the time attended the meeting. Brough was like the old Dutch governors of New York, he was built on the purest of geometrical principles; he was five feet, six inches tall and six feet, five inches in circumference, and as jovial and good natured as men of that build generally are. He was a great lover of a joke. During the young man's speech, he was scathing in his denunciations of the democratic party and defied any man present to contradict his assertions. After several challenges hurled at the audience. Brough quietly arose, and with his mildest look, innocently said, "Young man, if you have no objection I would like to answer some of your assertions." Brough looked anything but a statesman or an orator, and the young man jumped at the chance, smilingly thinking of how he would cover himself with glory by later literally skinning the unsophisticated looking stranger alive. Brough was one of the great orators of his day, and added to this was the happy faculty of being one of the people, and making himself at home with them. With his wit and humor, sarcasm and oratory he soon had the audience wild, and they were spell bound under Ins matchless eloquence, and when he concluded there was no answer from the young man, but instead cheer after cheer for the distinguished speaker.


Another orator of the early days was Cooper K. Watson, not a natural born orator like Brough and Gibson, still an orator. He was a candidate for congress in this district in 1856, and had a date for an evening meeting at New Winchester, and Jacob Scroggs drove him down. Watson was a republican, and Mr. Scroggs was one of the many in the county who had joined the new party. When they reached New Winchester, they found a faithful republican who had built a fire and lighted tip the school house. On their arrival he rang the bell, and the three waited. After half an hour Watson inquired where the rest of the people were, and was informed that there would probably be no one else there. Scroggs was for canceling the meeting, but Watson held the man had come to hear a republican speech, and he would not disappoint him. So Scroggs presided, and introduced the speaker, and Watson addressed his single listener for an hour and a half, and when the speech was over the man turned out the lights, locked the door and went home, the two men driving back to Bucyrus.


John R. Clymer was clerk of the court from about 1862 to 1868, Tom Coughlin at the time being editor of the Forum, and Coughlin concluded to run for clerk, the arrangement being that if he got the nomination Clymer would buy the Forum. Coughlin's principal opponent was A. A. Ruhl. In the course of his canvass Coughlin stated that he visited Galion, and met Dr. D. Shumaker there, one of the prominent democrats, and solicited him for his support. Shumaker promptly replied that he was friendly to Mr. Ruhl, that gentleman having formerly been a Galion than and his people prominent in that town in its early days, therefore he should certainly support Ruhl.

The Doctor then inquired about Mr. Clymer, who was also a Galion mail, and whose ancestors were also pioneers, and asked what he proposed to do when he left the clerkship.


"Why," said Coughlin, "if I'm elected clerk, Clymer is going to buy the Forum."


The Doctor promptly replied : "If that's the case you can count on my support. The Lord knows the Forum needs a change of editors."


Coughlin got the nomination, and Mr. Clymer became editor of the Forum.


After Mr. Clymer retired from the Forum he was a candidate for the nomination for probate judge. He was one of the polished speakers of the county, was more than friendly with everybody, in fact effervesced in his expressions of interest in everyone. He was not good at remembering names and faces, and during the campaign met a young democrat in the postoffice, shook him warmly by the hand and expressed his great delight at meeting him, spoke of his dear old father and mother, and how he always loved to meet them, and finally inquired after the father. The young man solemnly replied : "Why, Mr. Clymer, father died last year."


"Ah," said Mr. Clymer, "so he did. I remember it now, and how sorry I was to hear of it; if ever there was a democratic saint on


128 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


earth, it was your dear old father. I'm a candidate for probate judge and I know I can count on your support."


Half an hour later, Mr. Clymer met the same young man on the street, and his face looking familiar he shook him warmly by the hand and expressed his great delight at meeting him, spoke of his dear old father and mother, and how he had always loved to meet them and then inquired, "How is your dear old father?"


The young man promptly replied: "He's still dead."


In 1861 Joseph Worden was elected sheriff of the county, and when he took charge the following year he had as his assistant his older brother, better known as "Uncle Jimmie" Worden, who was prouder of his office as deputy than his brother was of the Shrievality. He was as faithful and accommodating in his duties as he was averse to fine raiment and soap and water. He was so friendly and good natured and willing that everybody overlooked his lack of cleanliness. When his brother left the office in r866, "Uncle Jimmie" was out of his job, but he pined in secret for the position, and in 1869 he astonished everybody by announcing his name as a candidate for sheriff. It was regarded as a joke, and the only man in the county who took the matter seriously was "Uncle Jimmie" himself. In 1826 the sheriff's office was thrust on a man who had just become a resident of the county, but in 1869 things were different, and half a dozen men were in a terrific struggle to have the "thrust" come their way. It was cut and slash between the candidates, except "Uncle Jimmie," and he was allowed to follow the harmless amusement of running for office unmolested. In fact, the other candidates rather "pitied the sorrows of a poor old man," and while all had a bitter word for their opponents they had a kindly word for "Uncle Jimmie," and when they failed to land a man, generally closed with the remark, "Well, if you can't vote for me don't do me any harm, and if you can vote for Uncle Jimmie; he's a nice old fellow, and it will break his heart when he finds how few votes he got."


The April primaries came. The ballots were cast and counted, and to the astonishment of everybody; except Uncle Jimmie himself, he was the winner. His every act and manner showed that he was astonished that anyone would think they could defeat him for sheriff.


The above is the story handed down of "Uncle Jimmies" election as sheriff of the county. His candidacy had been a huge joke to, it was believed, every one but himself; yet there may be another side to it; as deputy for four years he had been the faithful and willing servant of his brother, the bar and the people; that he took more pride in the office than he did in his own personal appearance his dress gave unquestioned proof, but perhaps there were more people remembered his faithful service than his opponents expected.


For four years he was the happiest and least dressy man that ever held office in the county. But he still had those good qualities of willingness and an accommodating disposition, and he never complained. Notwithstanding his slovenliness he was not disliked by the other officials, and as proof of this a glance at the election returns of 1871 when he was reelected, shows he had the largest majority of any candidate on the county ticket. He was a poor writer and a still poorer reader of writing, although he prided himself on his ability in reading writing. Once, in dead of winter, a witness was wanted in an important case; the subpoena was made out and handed to Jimmie. He spelled it out slowly and carefully and left the court room. The important witness only lived a block away. A half hour passed and no Jimmie ; an hour went by and another hour followed it and still no Jimmie, and court was stopped awaiting his arrival. Inquiries were made but he could not be found. It was 10 o'clock when he left the court room; he promptly went to the livery stable, secured a rig and started north on the Tiffin road. It was bitter cold, and the Tiffin road was the worst in the county in winter, and this year worse than usual, so the horse walked the entire seven miles until he stopped at the store of Daniel Fralic in Wingert's Corners where Jimmie served the subpoena on the squire. The Squire put on his glasses, read the document over carefully, and returning it said: "Why sheriff, this supoena isn't for me; it's for Dr. Cuykendall at Bucyrus." Jimmie never complained, and never said a word or



the pointed remark: "Lawyers always were such d—n poor writers."


Many who have had occasion to puzzle over the chirography of some members of the Crawford county bar will incline to "Uncle Jimmie's" view.


Although the sheriff is the official who deals with criminals it is a singular fact that while no sheriff has lost his life in the discharge of his duties, yet more have met with violent deaths than any other class of officials in the county. Of the twenty-five sheriffs, five have met with violent deaths.


John Caldwell, sheriff from '44 to '46, on the discovery of gold in California, started across the plains and was never heard from afterward, believed to have been killed by the Indians; his body never having been found. Jonathan Kissinger, '50 to '54, after his term of office, removed to Williams county, and was killed by the cars. His successor, William C. Beal, '54 to '58, a few years after leaving the office, was killed by the cars west of Bucyrus. Joseph C. Worden, '62 to '66, was run over by the cars at Galion and killed. Daniel Keplinger, '66 to '70, was just completing his second term, when on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 6, 1869, he was thrown from his buggy while driving, and after lingering for days died on Dec. 9, the only sheriff to die in office. The Bar Association held a meeting with Franklin Adams as chairman and John Hopley as secretary, passed resolutions of respect, and Judge Chester R. Mott adjourned court for six days; the bar attended the funeral in a body, which was conducted by La Salle Lodge I. O. O. F. Ruch of the political bitterness that arose during the war still existed, yet the Journal, the opposition organ to the sheriff politically, paid the following tribute to his memory


"He won the respect and confidence of all with whom he came in contact. In an eminent degree he was "diligent in business." He softened the asperities of his office without relaxing the rigor of his duties; and where many persons would have caused lasting harsh feelings, he made warm friends. Even in temper, calm in character, inflexible in integrity, faithful in duty, and firm in the execution of it, he possessed and justly merited the esteem of all."


To the people of the present day, there may be wonder at this insertion of a deserved tribute to a faithful official. And yet there were many republicans in that day who severely criticized the republican organ for "going out of its way" to praise a democrat. Times indeed have changed


"Through the shadow of the globe we sweep into the younger day;

Better fity years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay."


The present generation little know and can not remember the intensity of the bitterness that was engendered by the Civil war. How it started or why it started it is difficult to determine. For the first thirty years of the republic, party lines were a division between the federalists, who believed in a few controlling and the democrats and republicans, who believed in the people controlling. The people won, and under Jackson took the name of democrat, their opposition being whips, but both believing in the right of the people to rule, that question having been forever settled by the death of the federalist party. From the time of Jackson for thirty years the democratic party formulated the laws and were the up-builders of the nation. All attempts to overthrow their tremendous hold on the people were unavailing. The Whigs, as a party, were shifty, evasive and compromising, and succeeded in but one thing and that was to drive the democratic party unwillingly into a defense of slavery. On this issue the south became dictatorial and the party was disrupted in 1860; it was the north against the south in the democratic party. At the election in 1860, Crawford's vote was Douglas, northern democrat, 2,752; Lincoln, republican 2,064 ; Breckenridge, southern democrat, 117. There was no question where Crawford stood. The wear


132 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


broke out, and democrats and republicans alike responded to their country's call, and for a year there was a united sentiment in the county, for the defense of the union.


Shrewd men in the rising young republican party, saw that in a successful and popular war their lease of power would be perpetuated ; equally shrewd men in the democratic party, feared the disintegration of their once powerful party, and as a result first criticised, then opposed, and finally became openly hostile to the administration and in many cases strong sympathizers with the southern cause. This feeling was mostly confined to the party leaders, for during the entire war, except among the most bitter, enlistments continued regardless of party. But it is true that the r r 7 Breckenridge men eventually molded the opinion of the county, and Crawford became an anti-war county. Many altercations arose between the soldiers returning on furlough and the rougher elements in the democratic party and fights and knock-downs were frequent ; a political meeting was almost invariably followed by assaults on citizens. In many cases shots were fired, the most serious being the result of an altercation in the Fulton drug store when three soldiers were wounded, one very seriously. In many places in the country churches were desecrated, their windows broken, and two were destroyed because the minister was a union sympathizer. In the country also known union sympathizers found their stock poisoned, their barns and outhouses burned, and their families ostracized. It is a singular fact that when a nation is engaged in a prolonged war the baser instincts pervade human nature, and among the more ignorant and brutal the animal instincts prevail, and it was this class that led the outrages in defiance of law and of decency. The seed sown by local leaders started a force which got beyond their control. When the draft came armed resistance was prepared for, but wiser counsels prevailed and the drafts passed off quietly. To add to the intensity of the situation, Judge Hall was arrested for alleged treasonable utterances, and taken a prisoner to the camp at Mansfield. He was released on parole, but his arrest added fuel to the flames among his friends. A warrant was issued for the arrest of A. M. Jackson for alleged treasonable utterances, but when the soldiers searched his house he was not to be found. A republican friend at Crestline had sent word to him that the soldiers were on their way to arrest him, and Mr. Jackson took refuge in the house of a friend. He remained in hiding several weeks, changing his residence every few days, so that his place of refuge could not be traced. The alleged treasonable utterances were very mild criticisms of the war to what occurred later, when no attention was paid to them. The democratic organ carried two flags, which they flew over their office. When there was a rebel victory, the Stars and Stripes were flung to the breeze, and when the Union forces were successful the flag flown was of pure white, containing a picture of a dove, and in its beak the olive branch of peace. All day long on July 4, of 1863, business was almost suspended in Bucyrus, and men frequented the telegraph office to gain what little tidings they could of the fearful conflict on the field of Gettysburg. The early reports were unfavorable, and night settled on an anxious, doubting and discouraged village. In the evening a jollification meeting was held on account of the fourth, and one of the speakers in his denunciation of the war, thundered forth the inquiry: "Where now are your shattered armies? fleeing before the victorious hosts of Lee in Pennsylvania." This was not the feeling of the better element of the democratic party in the county; it was the expression of the views of a class which catered to the vicious element of the community, an element so lawless that men found it the safer policy not to openly denounce their outrages. Naturally war brought its hardships, its deprivations, and its struggles on the families of soldiers in the field, but under the law each county levied a tax, the proceeds of which were distributed monthly by the auditor and commissioners to deserving families in need. Besides this, the citizens of both parties gave freely of their means to see that none should suffer, and many a grocer and store keeper had charges on his books for the necessaries of life which were never presented for collection and of which sometimes no entry was even made. This county had a very strong German population, and nine-tenths of them belonged to


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 133


the democratic party, and yet a very large majority of these same German democrats were for the preservation of the Union. The majority of the people in Crawford were loyal during the war, but the county did gain an unenviable notoriety through a disorderly element in nearly every section being allowed to commit their outrages with very little protest from their neighbors and much less restraint by the authorities. It was a case where the people controlled, not the whole people, but the worst element as in the days of the French Revolution. It not only gave the county a bad name, but it did more than anything else to bring on the intense party bitterness which it took years to overcome. Some churches in the county were so intense in their unionism that the Christianity of a democrat was so doubted that he was compelled to sever his connection with the church, or left it voluntarily to avoid the suspicions with which he was viewed by his democratic neighbors. Other churches were composed exclusively of democrats. There were republican stores and democratic stores, republican and democratic hotels and barber shops, and nine-tenths of the trade of each came from their own partisans. So intense was the feeling that it is doubtful if a democratic store in the town had a republican clerk, and when some of the leading republican stores later had a democratic clerk they were regarded as unfaithful to their party obligations. In many churches it took careful handling by the ministers to avoid friction in their congregations.


Crawford county since the time of Andrew Jackson has been a democratic county, and since the courthouse was built in 1856, with one exception no republican ever held office within its portals, and that one republican was not elected but got there by appointment. In 1857 Patrick S. Marshall was elected probate judge and in August, 1858, he resigned. Under the law the probate judge is the only county office in which the vacancy is filled by the appointment of the governor. Gov. Chase, a republican, was then governor and he appointed S. J. Elliott to serve until his successor was elected and qualified. Abram Summers was elected in October, and as soon as he received his commission he entered on the duties of his office.


As to other offices there has not been in this county a republican or whig official since the day the democratic party took its name under Andrew Jackson, eighty years ago. In 1853 Mr. Beal was elected sheriff as an independent, the Whigs making no nomination and he receiving their support. But he was a democrat from Galion. Kissinger had been elected in 1849 and 185t, and was renominated in 1853. The new constitution had changed the law so that no sheriff could serve for more than four years consecutively. The friends of Kissinger held that the limitation could only commence tinder the new constitution, but the people doubted it, and Beal was elected by less than 200 majority, his township of Polk giving him practically their unanimous vote.


Twice, disputes arose over the Democratic primaries and two candidates ran on that ticket for the same office, but a democrat candidate won over the republican in each case. In 1887, John H. Keller came within 300 votes of being elected representative, and still later, in 1906, Joseph Mollencop was defeated for commissioner by less than a hundred votes.


In 1856 the tidal wave toward the new republican party landed James Lewis of this county in the office of state senator. With the exception of Mr. Lewis the only two persons who defeated the democratic candidate for state senator since the time of Andrew Jackson were James H. Godman in 1840, and Hezekiah Gorton in 1836, both of Marion. In the lower house at Columbus the last man who succeeded in defeating the democratic nominee in this county was John Carey, in 1843.


The first election was in 1820; what is now Crawford county (west of Auburn and Vernon townships) was then all one township, called Sandusky (which also included nearly all of the present Marion county.) This Sandusky township for judicial purposes was a part of Delaware county. At this first election, the polling place was at the house of James Murray, a mile north of where Marion now stands. There were 48 votes cast, and one of the trustees elected was Daniel Fickle, who three years later moved to Bucyrus township. The Delaware records also show that Sandusky township was in existence in 1821,


124 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


as on April 15, of that year commissions were issued to Westell Ridgely and Joseph Young as justices of the peace of Sandusky township, Westell Ridgely then living near the present village of Leesville and Joseph Young near Bucyrus, neither town having yet been started or even dreamed of. Sandusky township then was probably from the western boundary of Auburn and Vernon to the western boundary of Bucyrus, about 15 miles, and from the southern boundary of Bucyrus to the north county line, i8 miles. It was easy to be elected to office in those days as witness the following from the recollections of M. Peters, a pioneer of Marion county. "The first election was held (1821) for one justice of the peace. There being no candidates, I selected W. Crawford and he selected me, and thus there was a tie. The clerk of Delaware county cast lot and drew for Crawford." But generosity has its reward as in the fall Squire Crawford resigned and Peters was elected.


The following is a complete list of the district and county officials since the organization of the county, the years given being the date oftheir election:


PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS


District VIII, 1824, elector Henry Brown, Franklin county, candidate, Henry Clay; party, Whig.


District VIII, 1828, elector, John M. Elvain, Franklin county; candidate *Andrew Jackson; party, dem.


District XIV, 1832, elector, William S. Tracy, Huron county; candidate *Andrew Jackson, party, deM


District XIV, 1836, elector John P. Coulter, Richland county; candidate, William H. Harrison; party whig.


District XIV, 1840, elector, John Carey, Crawford county; candidate, *William H. Harrison; party whig.


District VI, 1844, elector, Josiah Scott, Crawford county; candidate, Henry Clay; party, whig.


District VI, .1848, elector, John Caldwell, Crawford county; candidate, Lewis Cass; party, dem.


District IX, 1852, elector, William Palmer, Hardin county; candidate, *Franklin Pierce; party, dem.


District IX, 1856, elector, R. G. Pennington, Seneca county; candidate, John C. Fremont; party, rep.


District IX, 1860, elector, John F. Hinkle, Wyandot county; candidate, *Abraham Lin-coin; party, rep.


District IX, 1864, elector, Jacob Scroggs, Crawford county; candidate, *Abraham Lincoln; party, rep.


District IX, 1868, elector, L. A. Hall, Seneca county; candidate, *Ulysses S. Grant; party, rep.


District XIV, 1872, elector, Isaac M. Kirby, Wyandot county; candidate, *Ulysses S. Grant; party, rep.


District XIV, 1876, elector, L. B. Matson, Richland county; candidate, *Rutherford B. Hayes; party, rep.


District, XIV, 1880, elector, Jacob Scroggs, Crawford county; candidate, *James A. Garfield; party, rep.


District VII, 1884, elector, Lovell B. Harris, Wyandot county; candidate, James G. Blame; party, rep.


District V, 1888, elector, Jacob Werner, Seneca county; candidate, *Benjamin Harrison; party, rep.


District XIII, 1892, elector, Joseph E. McNeal, Marion county; candidate, Benjamin Harrison; party, rep.


District XIII, 1896, elector, Henry L. Wenner, Seneca county; candidate, *William McKinley; party, rep.


District XIII, 1900, elector, Henry B. Hane, Marion county; candidate, *William McKinley; party, rep.


District XIII, 1904, elector, Ralph D. Sneath, Seneca county; candidate, *Theodore Roosevelt; party, rep.


District XIII, 1908, elector, I. H. Burgoon, Sandusky county; candidate, * William H. Taft; party, rep.


MEMBERS OF CONGRESS


VIII—Crawford, Coshocton, Delaware, Franklin, Knox, Licking, Marion.

1824—William Wilson, Licking, whig.

1826—William Wilson, Licking, whig.

1828—William Stanberry, Licking, Whig.

1830—William Stanberry, Licking, whig.


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 135


XIV—Crawford, Huron, Richland, Sandusky, Seneca.


1832—William Patterson, Richland, dem.

1834—William Patterson, Richland, dem.

1836-William H. Hunter, Huron, dem.

1838—George Sweney, Crawford, dem.

1840—George Sweney, Crawford, dem.


VI—Crawford, Hancock, Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca, Wood.


1842—Henry St. John, Seneca, dem.

1844—Henry St. John, Seneca, dem.

1846—Rudolphus Dickinson, Sandusky, dem.

1848—Rudolphus Dickinson' dem ; Amos E. Wood, dem; John Bell, dem; all of Sandusky.

1850—Frederick W. Green, Seneca, dem.


IX—Crawford, Hardin, Marion, Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca, Wyandot.


1852—Frederick W. Green, Seneca, dem.

1854—Cooper K. Watson, Seneca, rep.

1856—Lawrence W. Hall, Crawford, dem.

1858—John Carey, Wyandot, rep.

1860—Warren P. Noble, Seneca, dem.


IX—Crawford, Erie, Huron, Sandusky, Seneca, Wyandot.


1862—Warren P. Noble, Seneca, dem.

1864—Ralph P. Buckland, Sandusky, rep.

1866—Ralph P. Buckland, Sandusky, rep.

1868—E. F. Dickinson, Sandusky, dem.

1870—Charles Foster, Seneca, rep.


XIV—Ashland, Crawford, Holmes, Richland, Wyandot.


1872—John Berry, Wyandot, dem.

1874—Jacoh P. Cowan, Ashland, dem.

1876—Ebenezer B. Finley, Crawford, dem.


VIII—Crawford, Hardin, Marion, Morrow, Seneca, Wyandot.


1878—Ebenezer B. Finley, Crawford, dem.


XIV—Ashland, Crawford, Holmes, Richland, Wyandot.


1880—George W. Geddes, Richland, dem.


* During his second term Rudolphus Dickinsor died, and Amos E. Wood of Sandusky county was elected to the vacancy. Wood died, and John Bell, of Sandusky county was elected to fill the unexpired term, about two months.


V—Crawford, Hancock, Seneca, Putnam, Wyandot.


1882—George E. Seney, Seneca, dem.


VII—Crawford, Hancock, Seneca, Wood, Wyandot.


1884—George E. Seney, Seneca, dem.


V—Crawford, Hancock, Putnam, Seneca, Wyandot.


1886—George E. Seney, Seneca, dem.

1888—George E. Seney, Seneca, dem.


XV—Ashland, Crawford, Delaware, Knox, Morrow, Richland.


1890—Michael D. Harter, Richland, dem.


XIII—Crawford, Erie, Marion, Sandusky, Seneca, Wyandot.


1892—Darius D. Hare, Wyandot, dem.

1894—Stephen R. Harris, Crawford, rep.

1896—James A. Norton, Seneca, dem.

1898—James A. Norton, Seneca, dem.

1900—Amos H. Jackson, Sandusky, rep.

1900—Grant E. Mouser, Marion, rep.

1906—Grant E. Mouser, Marion, rep.

1908—Carl C. Anderson, Seneca, dem.

1910—Carl C. Anderson, Seneca, dem.


CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES


Thomas Beer, Crawford ......1885 to 1893

John J. Moore, Putnam ....... 1885 to 1895

Henry W. Seney, Hardin ..... 1885 to 1896

James H. Day, Mercer ........ 1893 to 1905

James L. Price, Allen .......... 1895 to 1901

John K, Rohn,* Seneca ...... 1896 to 1896

Ebenezer B. Finley. Crawford .1896 to 1897

Caleb H. Norris, Marion ...... 1897 to 1909

William T. Mooney, Auglaize .. 1901 to 1905

Edward Vollrath, † Crawford ... 1905 to 1906

Silas E. Hurin, Hancock ......1905 to 1911

Michael Donnelly, Henry .....1906 to

W. H. Kinder, Hancock .......1908 to

Philip Crowe, Hardin ....... 1910 to


*Rohn was appointed by Gov. Bushnell to succeed Seney who resigned, and in the fall Finley was elected to fill the vacancy of the unexpired Seney term.


† Vollrath was appointed by Gov. Herrick to succeed Mooney, deceased.


136 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


Crawford was a part of the Third Circuit, and in 1884 the counties composing that circuit were Allen, Augalize, Crawford, Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Logan, Marion, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam, Seneca, Union, Van Wert, Williams, Wood, Wyandot. In 1887 Fulton. Williams and Wood were transferred to the Sixth Circuit, leaving the remaining sixteen counties the present Third Circuit.

COMMON PLEAS JUDGES


Lawrence W. Hall, Crawford .... 1852 to 1856

Machias C. Whitely, Hancock .. 1856 to 1857

George E. Seney, Seneca .......... 1856 to 1857

Josiah S. Plants,* Crawford ..... 1858 to 1863

Chester R. Mott, Wyandot ....... 1866 to 1871

James Pillars, Seneca ............... 1867 to 1877

Abner M. Jackson, Crawford ... 1871 to 1874

Thomas Beer, Crawford ........... 1874 to 1886

Henry H. Dodge, Wood ............ 1877 to 1880

Caleb H. Norris, Marion ........... 1884 to 1897

Allen C. Smalley, Wyandot ...... 1890 to 1900

James C. Tobias, Crawford ...... 1897 to 1907

Boston G. Young, † Marion ..... 1900 to 1910

Daniel Babst, Crawford ............ 1907 to

William P. Scofield, Marion .... 1910 to


In 1851 Crawford was a part of the third division of the Third District, the counties being Crawford, Hancock, Seneca, Wood, Wyandot. In 1879 the districts were arranged as they are at present, the counties of Crawford, Marion and Wyandot being the Second Subdivision of the lentil Judicial District.


STATE SENATORS


Crawford, Delaware, Franklin, Madison, Marion, Union.


1824—David H. Beardsley, Marion, whig.


Crawford, Delaware, Marion, Sandusky, Seneca.


1826—James Kooken, Franklin, dem.


Crawford, Delaware, Marion.


1828—Charles Carpenter, Delaware, whig.


*Josiah S. Plants died in 1863.

† Boston G. Young died in 1910, and Scofield was appointed by Gov. Harmon to fill the vacancy, and in November, 1910, was elected to fill the unexpired term of Young, and also for a full term.


1830—Charles Carpenter, Delaware, whig.

1832—James W. Crawford,* Delaware, dem,

1834—Robert Hopkins, Marion, dem.


Crawford, Delaware, Marion, Union.


1836—Hezekiah Gorton, Marion, whig.

1838—Benjamin F. Allen, Delaware, dem.


Crawford, Delaware, Marion.


1840—James H. Goodman, Marion, whig.

1842—Joseph McCutchen, Crawford, dem.


Crawford, Sandusky, Seneca.


1844—Amos E. Wood, Sandusky, dem.


Crawford, Sandusky, Seneca, Wyandot.


1846—Henry Cronise, Seneca, dem.


Crawford, Richland.


1848—Barnabas Burns, Richland, dem.

1850—Barnabas Burns, Richland, dem.


Crawford, Seneca, Wyandot.


1851—Joel W. Nilson, Seneca, dem.

1853—Robert Lee, Crawford, dem

1855—James Lewis, Crawford, rep.

1857—Robert McKelly, Wyandot, dem

1859—Thomas J. Orr, Crawford, dem.

1861-63—William Lang, Seneca, dem.

1865-67—Curtis Berry, jr., Wyandot, dem.

1869-71—Alexander E. Jenner, Crawford, dem.

1873—John Seitz, Seneca, dem.

1875—Edson T. Stickney, Seneca, dem.

1877—John Seitz, Seneca, dem.

1879-81—Moses H. Kirby, Wyandot, dem.

1883-85 —John H. Williston, Crawford, dem.

1887-89—Perry M. Adams, Seneca, dem

1891-93-William C. Gear, Wyandot, dem.

1895-97—Horace E. Valentine, Crawford, dem.

1899-01—John C. Royer, Seneca, dem.

1903-05—Elzie Carter, Wyandot, dem.

1908—James E. Cory, Crawford, dem.

1910—Frank T. Dore, Seneca, dem.


* In 1833 charges were presented to the Senate affecting the reputation of Senator Crawford, and the matter was referred to a committee. On the unanimous recommendation of the eommittee the Senate unanimously expunged the entire matter from the records.


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 137


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES


Crawford, Marion, Sandusky, Seneca.


1824—Jeremiah Everett, Sandusky, whig.

1825—Josiah Hedges, Seneca, dem.

1826—Eber Baker, Marion, whig.

1827—Samuel Lockwood, Sandusky, dem.


Crawford, Marion.


1828—John Carey, Crawford, whig.

1829—Robert Hopkins, Marion, dem.

1830—John Nimmon, Crawford, dem.

1831—William Brown, Marion, whig.

1832—John Campbell, Crawford, dem.

1833—James McCutchen, Crawford, dem.

1834—John Campbell, Crawford, dem.

1835— James H. Goodman, Marion, whig.


Crawford, Marion and Union.


1836—John Carey, Crawford, whig; Otway Curry, Union, whig.

1837—Otway Curry, Union, whig; Stephen Fowler, Crawford, dem.

1838—John Campbell, Crawford, dem; Stephen Fowler, Crawford, dem.

1839—James H. Goodman, Marion, rep; Guy C. Worth, Crawford, dem.


Crawford, Delaware, Marion.


1840—Emery Moore, Delaware, whig; Josiah Scott, Crawford, whig.

1841—Thomas W. Powell, Delaware, Whig; James Griffith, Crawford, whig;

George W. Sharp, Delaware, dem.

1842—Isaac E. James, Marion; dem; George W. Sharp, Delaware, dem.

1843—John Carey, Crawford, whig; William Smart, Delaware, whig.


Crawford.


1844—Samuel S. Caldwell, Crawford, dem.


Crawford. Wyandot.


1845—Michael Brackley, Wyandot, dem.

1846—George Donnenwirth, Crawford, dem.

1847—Michael Brackley, Wyandot, dem.


Crawford, Richland.


1848—Daniel Brewer, Richland, dem ; Samuel Myers, Crawford, dem.

1849— Miller Moody, Richland, dem; Samuel Myers, Crawford, dem.

1850—William Bushnell, Richland, dem; Clark K. Ward, Crawford, dem.


Crawford.


1851—Clark K. Ward, Bucyrus.

1853—Mordecai P. Bean, Bucyrus.

1855-57John Pitman, Holmes.

1859-61—John S. Reisinger, Polk.

1863-65—Thomas Beer, Bucyrus.

1867-69—James Robinson, Polk.

1871-73—Thomas J. White, Jackson.

1875-77—Jacob G. Meuser, Polk.

1879-81—James E. Cory, Cranberry.

1883-85—George M. Zeigler, Polk.

1887-89—Philip Schuler, Polk.

1891-93—Benjamin F. Taylor, Holmes.

1895-97—Andrew J. Hazlett, Bucyrus.

1899-01—David O. Castle, Polk.

1903-05—Frank Miller, Jackson.

1908-10—Lewis H. Battefeld, Bucyrus.


STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION


1826—Daniel S. Norton, Knox, VIII Congressional.

1834—Pickett Lattimer, Huron, XIV Congressional.

1841—George W. Sharp, Delaware, XIV Senatorial.

1846—Joshua Seney, Seneca, XIV Senatorial.

1853—George T. Trees, Wyandot, XXXI Senatorial.

1860—Rasselas R. Titus, Seneca, XXXI Senatorial.

1870—Andrew Dickson, Crawford, XXXI Senatorial.

1880--J. S. Hare, Wyandot, XXXI Senatorial.

1890—Isaac Kagy, Seneca, XXXI Senatorial.

1900—Stephen Waller, Crawford, XXXI Senatorial.


The State Board of Equalization of 1900 was the last, the legislature passing a law abolishing an elective board.


PROBATE JUDGES


Year elected

James Eaton ....................1851

George Wiley ..................1854

Patterson S. Marshall*......1855-1857


*Wiley died Aug. 15, 1855, and Gov. Medill appointed Marshall. Marshall was elected in October,


138 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY





S. J. Elliott

Abram Summers

James Clements

Robert Lee

Shannon Clements

Frederick Hipp

James C. Tobias

Charles Kinninger

William C. Kiess

Charles F. Schaber

1858

1858-1860

1863-1866

1869-1872

1875-1878

1881-1884

1887-1890

1893-1896

1899-1902

1905-1908

AUDITOR

James Martin

Charles Merriman

Edward Billups

John Caldwell

Jacob Howenstein 1

George Sinn

Owen Williams

John Pitman

Abner M. Jackson

Edmund R. Kearsley

Alexander A. Ruhl

Samuel S. Hoyt

William M. Scroggs

Frederick M. Swingly

James H. Robinson

Adam J. High

Reuben Stable

J. F. Kimmerline

Jefferson I. Smith

G. F. Ackerman

1826

1827

1828

1830-1832-1834

1836

1836-1838

1842-1844

1846-1848

1850-1852

1854-1856-1858 1860-1862

1864-1866

1868-1871

1873-1875

1877- 1880

1883-1886

1889-1899

1895-1898

1901-1904

1908-1910

SHERIFFS

Hugh McCracken

John Miller

John Moderwell

David Holm

John Shull

Samuel Andrews

James L. Harper 2

1826 -1827

1829-1831

1832-1833

1835

1837

1839

1841

1855, for the unexpired term; and elected in October, 1857; He resigned in August, 1858, and Gov. Chase appointed Elliott; Summers was elected to the vacancy in October and immediately took the office.


1 July 16, 1836, Caldwell resigned, and Howenstein was appointed. At the October election Howenstein was a candidate but was defeated, so in December he resigned and Sinn, who had been elected, was appointed to the vacancy.


2 Andrews resigned Sept. 30, 1839, and Harper was appointed.

v

John Caldwell

James Clements

Jonathan Kissinger

William C. Beal

John Franz

Joseph C. Worden

Daniel Keplinger 3

James Worden

Henry J. Row

John A. Schaber

John Keil

Peter Faeth

Christian F. Birk

John Keil

Charles Vollmer

John Gebhardt

August Gerhart

Solomon Crum.

1843

1845-1847

1849-1851

1853-1855

1857-1859

1861-1863

1865-1867

1869-1871

1873-1875

1817-1879

1881-1883

1885-1887

1889-1891

1893-1895

1897-1899

1901-1903

1905-1907

1910-

TREASURERS

John H. Morrison

Samuel Myers

George Lauck

Samuel Myers

George Lauck

Charles Hetich

Otto Fieldner

George Donnenwirth

John Kaler

Joseph Roop

John Franz 4

John G. Birk

Christian H. Shonert

William Riblet

Christian H. Shonert

Frank Blicke

John Blyth

Michael Auck

William L. Alexander

George Miller

Daniel Kreiter

1829-1831

1833-1835

1837-1839

1841

1843-1845

1847-1849

1851-183

1855-1857

1859-1861

1863-1865

1867-1869

1871-1873

1875-1877

1879-1881

1883-1885

1887-1889

1891-1893

1895-1897

1899-1901

1903-1905

1908-1910

CLERKS

David H. Beardsley 5

1826

3 Daniel Keplinger died from injuries received in a runaway in 1869 and Worden was appointed to the vacancy.


4 John Franz died while serving his second term, and the commissioners appointed his son Job Franz, who was his deputy at the time, to fill out the unexpired term.


5 When courts were first organized here David H.

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 139

Zalmon Rowse

Jabez B. Larwill

Daniel W. Swigart

Thomas J. Orr

Alexander P. Widman 1

John R. Clymer

Thomas Coughlin

David C. Cahill

Alexander A. Ruhl

Lewis C. Donnenwirth

Aaron H. Laughbaum

Wallace B. Forrest

L. D. Willford

J. E. Myers

1826-1831

1841

1848

1851-1854

1857-1860

1861-1864

1867-1870

1873-1876

1879-1882

1885-1888

1891-1894

1897-1900

1903-1906

1908-1910

RECORDERS

Zalmon Rowse 2

Jacob Howenstein

James Robinson

Smith Todd

James Robinson

William C. Trimble

Frank M. Bowyer

William Stremmel

David O. Castle

William F. Crowe

Philip Schaefer

H. S. Z. Matthias

Charles F. Matthew

Jay W. Holler

1826-1833

1840-1843

1846-1849

1851-1854

1857

1860-1863

1866-1869

1872-1875

1878-1881

1884-1887

1890-1893

1896-1899

1902-1905

1908-1910

PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS

Isaac H. Allen

George Sweney

Franklin Adams 3

Lawrence W. Hall

George Sweney

Abram Summers

Abner M. Jackson

Burr Morris

1826-1827

1829-1831-1833-1835-1837

1839-1841-1843

1845-1847-1849

1841-

1853-1855

1857-1859

1861-1863

Beardsley, a Marion attorney was appointed, but during the first term the court appointed Zalmon Rowse. It was an appointive office lasting seven years. Under the Constitution of 1850, clerks became an elective office.


1 Willman died March 29, 1860, and Clymer was appointed to the vacancy, and in October elected to the unexpired terns,


2 Recorders were appointed until 1840. The term was seven years.


3 Adams appointed vice Sweney; resigned—elected to Congress

Matthias Buchman 4.

Nathan Jones

James W. Coulter

Seth G. Cummings

George M. Zeigler

Anson Wikham

Isaac Cahill

P. W. Poole

Charles Gallinger

George H. Hink

William J. Scchwenck

1864

1865-1867

1869-1871

1873-1875

1878

1881-1884

1887-1890

1893-1896

1899-1902

1905-1908

1910-

SURVEYORS

John McClure

John Marshall

Thomas C. Sweney

William Fitzsimmons

Peter B. Beidler

William McCoy

Joseph Meer

George M. Wiley

Horace Martin 5

H. W. McDonald 6

James H. Robinson

Frank L. Plants 7

Harry L. Weber.

Horace E. Valentine

Herschel V. Flickinger

Charles P. Bryant

Charles A. Guiss.

S. P. Michaelis

1826

1828

1831-1834

1837-1840

1843

1845

1848

1851-1853

1854-1855-1857-1859-1853

1863-1865-1867-1869

1872-1875

1878

1879-1882-1885

1888-1891

1894-1897

1909-1903

1906-1908

1910

CORONERS

Dr. Dunn

John Forbes

Robert Forbes

William Bair

John Messner

William R. Shaw

Oscar W. Truman

J. M. McEwen 8

James Worden

1826

1836-1840

1844-1848

1848-1851

1851

1853-1855

1857-1859-1861

1864

1866-1868

4 Buchman appointed to succeed Morris, resigned.


5 Wiley resigned to become Probate Judge; Martin appointed.


6 Horace Martin resigned on May 1, 1863, and on May 4, H. W. McDonald was appointed.


7 Frank L. Plants was appointed July 31, 1877; elected in October, 1877: died Feb. 18, 1879, and Harry L. Weber appointed April 19, 1879.


8 Truman resigned in December, 1862, and McEwen was appointed.

140 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY

Philip Moffit

Peter Bauer

Philip Moffit

Jacob C. Housberg 1

Dr. John A. Chesney 2

Dr. Elkanah A. Thoman

Dr. Charles H. Noblet

Dr. Jerome Bland

Dr. C. A. Marquart

Dr. E. D. Helfrich

Dr. Charles A. Ulmer

1870-1872-1874

1876-1878-1880

1881-

1882-1884

1885-1888

1890-1892

1894-1896

1898-1900

1902-1904

1906-1908

1910





COMMISSIONERS


1824—Enoch B. Merriman (Crawford and Marion counties).

1825—Zachariah Welsh (Crawford and Marion counties) .

1826—Zalmon Rowse (Crawford and Marion counties).

1826—Thomas McClure, John Magers George Poe.

1827—Thomas McClure, John Magers, George Poe.

1828—Westell Ridgley, John Magers, George Poe.

1829-Westell Ridgley, John Coleman, James L. Harper.

1830—Westell Ridgley, John Coleman, James L. Harper.

1831—Isaac Sweney, John Coleman, James L. Harper.

1832—Isaac Sweney, William Early, James L. Harper.

1833—Isaac Sweney, Daniel Williams, James L. Harper.

1834—David Ellis, Daniel Williams, James L. Harper.

1835—David Ellis, William Robinson,3 Jacob Mollenkopf.

1836—David Ellis, William Robinson, Jacob Mollenkopf.

1837—David Ellis, William Robinson, Jacob Mollenkopf.

1838—David Ellis, William Robinson, Jacob Mollenkopf.

1839—David Ellis, John Clements, Jacob Mollenkopf.


1 Moffit resigned in April, 1881, and Housberg was appointed.

2 Housberg resigned in 188 and Chesney was appointed.

3 Robinson appointed to succeed Williams, resigned.


1840—Hamilton Kerr, John Clements, Jacob Mollenkopf.

1841—Hamilton Kerr, John Clements, Jacob Mollenkopf.

1842—Hamilton Kerr, John Clements, Jacob Mollenkopf.

1843—Hamilton Kerr, John Clements, Jacob Mollenkopf.

1844—Hamilton Kerr, John Clements, Samuel Lee.

1845—George Dickson 4 Peter Conkle Samuel Lee.

1846—Phares Jackson, Peter Conkle, Samuel Lee.

1847 - Phares Jackson, Peter Conkle, Sidney Holt.

1848—Phares Jackson, Peter Conkle, Sidney Holt.

1849—Phares Jackson, Peter Conkle, Sidney Holt.

1850—Phares Jackson, Peter Conkle, Sidney Holt.

1851—Phares Jackson, J. N. Frye, Sidney Holt.

1852—Samuel Swisher, J. N. Frye, Sidney Holt.

1853—Samuel Swisher, James Clemens, Wilson Stewart.

1854—Samuel Swisher, James Clements, Wilson Stewart.

1855—Samuel Swisher, James Clements, Wilson Stewart.

1856—Samuel Swisher, James Clements, Nilson Stewart.

1857—Andrew Dickson,̊ Isaac Van Voorhis, Wilson Stewart.

1858—Andrew Dickson, Isaac Van Voorhis, Wilson Stewart.

1859—Andrew Dickson, Isaac Van Voorhis, Charles Keplinger.

1860—Andrew Dickson, Isaac Van Voorhis, Charles Keplinger.

1861—Hugh Cory, Isaac Van Voorhis, Charles Keplinger.

1862—Hugh Cory, Isaac Van Voorhis, Charles Keplinger.

1863—Hugh Cory, John Burgbacher, Charles Keplinger.

1864—Hugh Cory, John Purgbacher, Charles Keplinger.


4 Dickson appointed to succeed Kerr, resigned.

5 Clements appointed to suceeed Frye, deceased.

6 Dickson appointed to succeed Swisher, resigned.


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 141


1865—Hugh Cory, John Burgbacher, Lewis Littler.

1866—Hugh Cory, John Burgbacher, Lewis Littler.

1867—Barber Robinson, John Burgbacher, Lewis Littler.

1868—Barber Robinson, John Burgbacher, Lewis Littler.

1869—Barber Robinson, James Hufty, Lewis Littler.

1870—Charles Myers, James Hufty, Lewis Littler.

1871—Charles Myers, James Hufty, J. J. Bauer.

1872—Charles Myers, James Hufty, J. J. Bauer.

1$73—Charles Myers, James Hufty. J. J. Bauer.

1874—Charles Myers, James Hufty, J. J. Batter.

1875—Charles Myers, Charles Keplinger, J. J. Bauer.

1876—Lysander Waller, Charles Keplinger, J. J. Bauer.

1877—Lysander Wailer, Charles Keplinger, John Neuman.

1878—Lysander Waller, Charles Keplinger, John Neuman.

1879—Lysander Wailer, Charles Keplinger, John Neuman.

1880—Lysander Waller, Charles Keplinger, John Neuman.

1881—Lysander Waller, Jacob Burkley, John Neuman.

1882—John Richardson, Jaoob Burkley, Charles Keplinger.*

1883—John Richardson, Jacob Burkley, Peter Bauer.

1884 John Richardson, Jacob Burkley, Peter Bauer.

188~—Jolin Richardson, Jacob Burkley, Peter Bauer.

1886—John Richardson, Jacob Burkley, Peter Bauer,

1887—John Richardson, Henry Dapper, Peter Bauer.

1888—John Parcher, Henry Dapper, Peter Batter.

1889—John Parcher, Henry Dapper, Lewis Gearhart.


* Keplinger appointed to succeed Neuman. deceased.


1890—John Parcher, Henry Dapper, Lewis Gearhart.

1891—John Parcher, Henry Dapper, Lewis Gearhart.

1892—John Parcher, Henry Drapper, Lewis Gearhart.

1893—John Parcher, Christian F. Kiess, Lewis Gearhart.

1894—L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Lewis Gearhart.

1895—L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Albe Moe.

1896—L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Albe Moe.

1897—L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Albe Moe.

1898—L. H. Battefeld, Christian F. Kiess, Elbe Moe.

1899—L. H. Battefeld, Samuel Easterday, Albe Moe.

1900—Henry K. Oberlander, Samuel Easterday, Albe Moe.

1901—Henry N. Oberlander, Samuel Easterday, J. H. Petri.

1902—Henry N. Oberlander, Samuel Easterday, J. H. Petri.

1903-- Henry N. Oberlander, Samuel Easterday, J. H. Petri.

1904—Henry N. Oberlander, Samuel Easterday, J. H. Petri.

1905—Henry N. Oberlander, Frank P. Dick, J. H. Petri.

1906—Hugh M. Dobbins, Frank P. Dick, J. H. Petri.

1908—Hugh M. Dobbins, Frank P. Dick, Henry E. Bormuth.

1910—Fred Leonhart, A. A. Crawford, Henry E. Bormuth.


INFIRMARY DIRECTORS


1868—Jarvice Jump, John Alloback, John A. Klink.

1869—Jarvice Jump, John Alloback, John A. Klink.

1870—Jarvice Jump, John Alloback, John A. Klink.

1871—Jarvice Jump, John Alloback, John A. Klink.

1872—Jacob Easterday, John Alloback, John A. Klink.


142 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


1873—Jacob Easterday, Samuel Rorick, John A. Klink.

1874—Jacob Easterday, Samuel Rorick, Frederick G. Linsey. *

1875—John Miller, Samuel Rorick, Joseph Meer.

1876---John Miller, Samuel Rorick, Joseph Meer.

1877—John Miller, Samuel Rorick, Joseph Meer.

1878—John Miller, Samuel Rorick, Joseph Meer.

1879—John Miller, Samuel Dise, Joseph Meer.

1880—John Miller, Samuel Dise, Joseph Meer.

1881—Christopher F. Kiess, Samuel Dise, Joseph Meer.

1882—Christopher F. Kiess, Samuel Dise, Joseph Meer.

1883—Christopher F. Kiess, Samuel Dise, Albert Sheibly.

1884—Christopher F. Kiess, Samuel Dise, Albert Sheibly.

1885—Christopher F. Kiess, William Zimmerman, Albert Sheibly.

1886—Christopher F. Kiess, William Zimmerman, Albert Sheibly.

1887—Benjamin Sherer, William Zimmerman, Albert Sheibly.

1888— Benjamin Sherer, William Zimmerman, Albert Sheibly.

1889—Benjamin Sherer, William Zimmerman, C. F. Meek.

1890—Benjamin Sherer, William Zimmerman, C. F. Meek.


* Frederick Linser died in office, and Joseph Meer was elected to fill the vaeaney.


1891—Benjamin Sherer, David Hurr, C. F. Meek.

1892—Benjamin Sherer, David Hurr, C. F. Meek.

1893—Adam Fike, David Hurr, C. F. Meek.

1894—Adam Fike, David Hurr, C. F. Meek.

1895—Adam Fike, David Hurr, Philip Fabian.

1896--Adam Fike, David Hurr, Philip Fabian.

1897—Adam Fike, J. K. Zerbe, Philip Fabian.

1898—Adam Fike, J. K. Zerbe, Philip Fabian.

1899—John Meyer, J. K. Zerbe, Philip Fabian.

1900—John Meyer, J. K. Zerbe, Philip Fabian.

1901—John Meyer, J. K. Zerbe, Emanuel Heinlen.

1902—S. W. Nungesser, J.. K. Zerbe, Emanuel Heinlen.

1903—S. W. Nungesser, Henry Beibighauser, Emanuel Heinlen.

1904—S. W. Nungesser, Henry Beibighauser, Emanuel Heinlen.

1905—Charles Meyer, Henry Beibighauser, Emanuel Heinlein.

1906—Charles Meyer, Henry Beibighauser, Emanuel Heinlen.

1908—Charles Meyer, Isaac Laughbaum, A. M. Vore.

1910—Charles Meyer, † Isaac Laughbaum, A. M. Vore.


† In 1912 John Meyer was appointed to sueceed his brother Charles, who resigned on account of ill health, and died soon after his resignation.


After this year the Board of Infirmary Directors is abolished, their business being transferred to the County Commissioners.


CHAPTER VII


TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES


Indian Trails and Water Routes—Swamps—Portages—Indian Village of Seccaium—Route Followed by Gen. Bradstreet—Capt. James Smith's Travels; His Description of Water Routes and Portages—The First Road in Crawford County—Geographical Notes by Seth Holmes and James Nail—Military Roads—Blazed Trails—"Corduroy" or Log Roads—The State Road or Sandusky Pike—Zalmon Rowse's Work as Commissioner—Proceedings of Other Commissioners—Columbus & Sandusky Turnpike Co.—Rate of Toll—Transportation of Mail—Activity of Col. Kilbourne—Cost of the Sandusky Pike—Rev. Mr. Reid's Description of this Road—Its Commercial Use and Value—Difficulties of Spring Travel—Litigation—Stage Lines—Bill of Cost of the Old Portland Road—First Attempt at Improved Roads—Vote by Townships—Railroads; Early Plans and Charters —The Railroads of the County; Their Origin, Construction and Cost—Railroad Excursion to Bucyrus in 1853—The "John Bull" Locomotive Passes Through Bucyrus, 1893—Electric Roads—Amount of Trackage in Crawford County, with Values, by Townships.


Singing through the forests,

Rattling over ridges;

Shooting under arches,

Rumbling over bridges;

Whizzing through the mountains,

Buzzing o'er the vale,—

Bless me! this is pleasant,

Riding on the rail!


JOHN G SAXE.


One of the first difficulties with which the pioneer settlers had to contend was the lack of roads. But even before the first white man passed through this region, what is now Crawford county had been an important highway for travel; and along its streams, and through its forests, and across its plains, were the well used routes or trails of the Indians. In Crawford county are streams that run north to the lake and south to the Ohio. Southwest of Bucyrus, the Sandusky and the Little Scioto rivers, both flowing in a southwesterly direction, are only from two to three miles apart, and when they leave the county the former bends to the north, and proceeds on its way to Lake Erie, its waters passing over Niagara, and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic, while the latter joins the Scioto proper, and continues on its way through the Ohio and Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. In the southeastern part of the county is the Whetstone, which also joins the Scioto and continues its flow to the Gulf. Between the Sandusky and the Little Scioto and the Whetstone, in the townships of Dallas, Bucyrus, Whetstone, Jefferson, Polk and Jackson, are houses and barns on this watershed where the waters from one side of the roof find their way to the Atlantic, and on the other to the Gulf of Mexico. Even as today Crawford county is one of the great railroad centres, so in the years long gone this section was one of the great centers of travel. Not alone by land, but by water, for many a stream in this county, now nothing more than a county ditch or a city sewer, was in use by the early savages as a route for transportation and for travel. Along the Sandusky river in Dallas, Bucyrus, Liberty and Sandusky townships, were mills run by water-power over 80 years ago, and along the Whetstone, both above as well as below Galion, that little stream was lined by four mills; along the Honey Creek and Cokyendall run in Auburn were mills; the Brokensword and the Sycamore had sufficient water to furnish the power for the running of mills. Where Adrian had his mill on the bank of the Whetstone above Galion, the stream now only needs a small culvert for its


- 143 -


144 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


passage under the railroad track. At Crest-line, Judge Daniel Babst, whose father settled there in 1852, remembers, when a boy, Elisha Allen, who lived near Leesville, coming to the village on one of the branches of the Sandusky in a canoe to do his marketing, returning home in the evening. At Bucyrus, when Abraham Hahn, in 1838, built his millrace to run his sawmill, that mill was located on the lot now occupied by Edwin G. Beal, at the northwest corner of Warren and Poplar streets. At the rear of the lot was the little stream on which the mill was located, and now all that remains of this stream on which a mill once stood, is a covered sewer. In the old Indian days the Little Scioto had sufficient water for canoes as far up as Dallas and probably as far as the southern part of Bucyrus township. The Whetstone was a navigable stream for small boats, and in the region of Seccaium Park little streams entered into it from the north, which had their rise in swamps, and from these same swamps other little streams flowed to the north and emptied into the Sandusky.


Along these creeks the land was all so low and swampy that for years it was not considered by the first settlers in their entries of land. In the map of the county published in 1860, in the eastern half of section 14 in \Whetstone township, one of these swamps was so pronounced as to be marked on the map as a small lake. Hon. S. R. Harris stated that when he came here in 1849, and for years afterward, in his hunting expeditions he found enough water in the spring of the year covering this region to enable one to cross from the Whetstone to the Sandusky by water. In 1777 a pamphlet was published in French by Joel Barlow, describing the Northwest Territory. In that pamphlet he says : "The Scioto river furnishes a navigation much more considerable than that of the Hocking and the Muskingum. For an extent of 2o0 miles large vessels can navigate it. Then there is a passage to be made by land of four miles only to the Sandusky, a river also easily navigable, which empties into Lake Erie. This route is one of. the most considerable and most frequented found in any country." John Henry James translated this work into English, and in his notes he says


"The statement as to the Scioto being navigable for large vessels for two hundred miles above its mouth, and its navigable head waters being within four miles of those of the Sandusky, appears so extravagant as to be attributable either to gross ignorance of the country or a deliberate purpose to deceive. We are satisfied there was no intention to deceive on the part of the author, though he had very imperfect knowledge of the country. And yet this and other waterways and portages were regarded as of such importance at the time as to warrant the insertion in the Ordinance of 1787 of the provision: "The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and forever free as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States and those of any other States that may he admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor."


These water routes and portages connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi were first discovered (leaving the Indians out of consideration) by the early French explorers and were used by their missionaries, soldiers and traders. Marquette's route was up the St. Lawrence, through Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron to Lake Michigan, then tip the Fox river, with a portage across to the Wisconsin river and down that to the Mississippi. This was afterward shortened by leaving Lake Michigan at Chicago, then up the Chicago river, portage across to the Illinois and down that river to the Mississippi. The next shortening was up the Maumee at Toledo, by portage to the Wabash and down that river to the Ohio.


Who made the first trip between the Sandusky and the Scioto it is impossible to say. In 1670 La Salle went up the St. Lawrence to Lake Erie, went tip some stream, portaged across to another, and down this stream, discovering the Ohio river. It is almost certain that this first trip of La Salle—when he discovered the Ohio—was across to the headwaters of the Alleghany and down that river to the Ohio at Pittsburg, which river he followed to Louisville. For twenty years La Salle devoted his entire time to explorations of the Northwest territory, as it was the desire of the


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 145


French to discover the best and shortest water route from the Lakes to the Mississippi. There were several portages in Ohio, the principal ones being from the Sandusky to the headwaters of the Scioto and from the Cuyahoga to the headwaters of the Muskingum, and it is probable that in one of his trips La Salle came up the Sandusky river, crossed by portage to the Scioto, and down that river to the Ohio, which would mean that the first known white man to set foot on Crawford county soil was Rene Robert Cavalier, the Sieur de la Salle, between 1670 and 1680.


Hon. E. B. Finley, who made considerable research in order to locate an ancient Indian village called Seccaium, gives the following on this subject in an address by him at the dedication of the monument that marks the site of the Battle of the Olentangy, five miles southeast of Bucyrus on the Galion road


"In addition to this beautiful monument marking the battlefield of June 6, 1782, where the retreating army of Crawford battled with the British and Indian forces, it also marks the almost forgotten site of a village renowned in the traditions and legends of a departed race. Within a few rods from this spot once stood the village of Seccaium, celebrated in ancient legends and song as one of the famous places of Indian history. For hundreds and hundreds of years, before the white man set foot on this continent, the Sandusky; Olentangy and Scioto rivers formed a great water thoroughfare, over which Indian commerce was carried to and fro between the north and south. Over this route Indian war parties from the Lake regions swept down upon their enemies in the south, and over this sane route ofttimes came the wild Catawbas, Natches, and other southern tribes, in fierce retaliation. From the time when the French first occupied Canada until the opening up and settlement of the United States, this same route continued to be the thoroughfare of traffic and travel, not only by the Indians but by the French traders. Coming anywhere from Canada or the north or northwest, the canoe of the Indian or trader entering the mouth of the Sandusky river was paddled up the waters until arriving at the bend northeast from this point, the canoemen transported their boats and goods from thence across this point to yonder bend of the

Olentangy (or Whetstone as it is now called), and then launching their light craft in the Olentangy, paddled down to the Scioto, entering which they traveled down to the Ohio, and into the Mississippi, being thus enabled to travel by water from the great lake of the north to the Gulf of Mexico, with a land portage across the point near where we now stand of only about four miles. Near the landing place on the Olentangy, within a few rods of this monument, stood the once great village of Seccaium, famous for centuries as the great mart of Indian commerce ; it was the common ground where all the tribes of the north and the south met and exchanged their peltries and wares. Here it was that the great treaties, conclaves and powwows of the Indian nations were held. When it first was built no one knows. It was visited by white men as early as 1650, and at that day even Indian tradition could not give the age.


"A Frenchman, who passed over this route in 1750, thus writes of it: `The Scioto is almost as wide as the Ohio, and runs through fertile bottoms or plains, which commence a few miles above the river Huskinkas, and extend almost to Seccaium. The Olentangy is navigable for boats as far as the famous village of Seccaium. It is at this village that the great portage to the Sandusky river begins, which is but four miles.' The village stood here in 1669 when it was visited by Robert Cavalier, Soeur de la Salle, the famous discoverer of the mouth of the Mississippi, and all the west territory bordering upon that river. La Salle, in company with Dollier de Casson and Galinee, and his Indian guides and companions, passed by water from Montreal to the mouth of the Sandusky river, thence tip the Sandusky and over the portage to this point, where he visited the famous village of Seccaium, remaining several days ; thence passing down the Olentangy and the Scioto to the Ohio, where at the mouth of the Scioto he planted copper plates bearing the image of the King of France, and then formally took possession of all the country in the name of his King. From the mouth of the Scioto he traveled down the Ohio to the Falls of the Ohio, where Louisville now stands, there planting other copper plates, and likewise taking possession of the country in the name of the King of France."


146 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY


It is certain the Sandusky-Scioto portage was an important one and much traveled, as the French erected a fort and established a trading-post on the Ohio just below the mouth 0f the Scioto in 1740. Along the Lakes the Wyandots were the allies of the French, yet in view of the anticipated coming struggle between France and England for the Northwest Territory, the French in 1750 erected a fort on the west bank of the Sandusky to guard its mouth, and in 1754 about six miles up the river erected Fort Junandat on the east bank. This guarding of the mouths of both rivers shows conclusively it was the principal route from the Lake to the Ohio. They built no fort at the mouth of the Cuyahoga or the Muskingum. It was the only fort-guarded route in Ohio between the lake and the river.


The location of the old Indian town of Seccaium is placed by Mr. Finley on the banks of the Whetstone, southwest of what is now Seccaium Park, believed to be at this point from the fact that besides arrowheads found there in large numbers, the ground was at one time covered with chipped flint covering over an acre. It was a flint stone found nowhere in this region, and such was the profusion of the chippings of flint that they could only have been caused by the manufacture of arrowheads there on a very large scale. But the town there must certainly have been abandoned or destroyed more than two centuries ago. There could have been no Indian village there during the Revolutionary war, as when Craw-ford's expedition passed within a mile of this site in 1782 neither Stover nor Zane, Craw-ford's guides, gave any intimation of any such village and both had been through this section many years previous.


In 1764, Gen. Bradstreet, "after raising the siege at Detroit, and dispersing the Indians, sailed across Lake Erie and into Sandusky Bay and up the Sandusky river as far as it was navigable for Indian canoes," there established himself and demanded a council with the Indian chiefs, who had offered but little opposition to his progress. The council was held, and the Wyandots, with their subordinate dependents entered into a treaty of peace. This council was probably at the Wyandot village that then existed on the Sandusky, three miles southeast of the present town of Upper Sandusky.


Col. James Smith, when a young man, was a captive among the Indians from 1755 to 1759, and traversed this region, and from his interesting account of his experiences valuable information is learned as to the location of this portage. With his adopted Indian brother, Tontileaugo, he had been hunting in what is now Ottawa county, and they decided to go up the Sandusky to the prairies on a hunting expedition. In his narrative, Smith says: "When we came to the falls of the Sandusky, we buried our birch bark canoes as usual, at a large burying place for that purpose, a little below the falls. At this place the river falls about eight feet over a rock, but not perpendicular. With much difficulty we pushed up our wooden canoes, some of us went up the river, and the rest by land with the horses, until we came to the great meadows or prairies that lie between Sandusky and Scioto." Here they had what was known as a ring hunt, setting fire to the grass in a large circle, thus driving the game to a common centre, where it was easily killed. They fired the grass when the sky had every appearance of rain, but the expected rain failed to fall, so the fire spread, and "extended through the whole prairie, which was about fifty miles in length and in some places near twenty in breadth."


He then says: "We then moved from the north end of the glades and encamped at the carrying place. This place is in the plains betwixt a creek that empties into Sandusky, and one that runs into Scioto; and at the time of high water, or in the spring season, there is but about one-half mile of portage, and that very level, and clear of rocks, timber or stones; so that with a little digging there may be water carriage the whole way from Scioto to Lake Erie."


The general opinion is that this portage or carrying place was at least sixteen miles southwest of Bucyrus in Marion county, and was between the Little Sandusky and the Little Scioto, the latter stream having its start near Bucyrus. However, William M. Darlington, of Pittsburg, who edited Smith's narrative, and made the most thorough research possible, has a number of notes and among them the following:


AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 147


(1) " `By the Sandusky, Scioto and Ohio rivers lay the route of the Indians of Detroit and Lake Huron when going to war with the Catawabas and other southern tribes. "They ascend the Sandusquet river two or three days, after which they make a small portage, a fine road of about a quarter of a league. Some make canoes of elm bark and float down a small river (the Scioto) that empties into the Ohio."—Memoir of Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, to the Council of Marine, from Quebec, Oct. 30, 1718. Paris Documents, New York Col. Hist., vol. ix, page 168; Pownall's Top. Disc. of North America, page 42 and map.' "


(2) "'Through these rivers lies the most common pass from Canada to the Ohio and Mississippi."—Morse's Am. Gazetteer of 1798, page 497; Kilbourne's Ohio Gazetteer for 1817, page 60; Carey's Atlas for 1812."


(3) "'This once important portage extended from the site of Garrett's mill, near the village of Wyandot, on the Sandusky river, in Wyandot county, thence south, about four miles, on a ridge, through part of Dallas township in Crawford county, to the north branch of the Little Scioto, near Swinnerton, on the Old Fort Ball and Columbus Road, in Grand Prairie township, Marion county. The length of the portage varied according to the stage of the water. It was known as the Four Mile Cross. In high water the north branch of the Little Scioto could be navigated by canoes to a point about a mile distant from Garrett's mill, on the Sandusky. A cut has been made through the ridge about half a mile east from the village of Wyandot, by which the waters of loth streams are united." (Notes to the writer from S. R. Harris, Esq., of Bucyrus, and Wm. Brown, Esq., of Springfield.) Mr. Brown settled near Wyandot in 1826, and surveyed the Wyandot Indian Reservation for the U. S. Government.' "


Besides these water routes the Indians had trails crossing the county in many directions. The main trail from the Lake to the Ohio river passed through Crawford county. Hulbert, in his "Red Men's Roads," calls it the "Scioto trail," also the "Sandusky and Richmond Trail." It started on the Sandusky bay, going almost due south to Delaware, then keeping within a few wiles of the Scioto until it reached the Ohio below Portsmouth. Hulbert refers to this route as "one of the greatest war paths in the west, leading southward into Warrior's Path, to land of the Cherokees and Catawbas." This trail had a branch at Lower Shawnee town,* that crossed the present counties of Hocking, Vinton and Meigs to the Ohio river, and then up the Kanawha to Richmond, Va. Of this trail Hulbert says: "Important fur route between Virginia and the Lake country; also most direct route to Central Ohio from southern seaboard colonies." This trail which passed through Crawford, and the "Great Trail" were the main thoroughfares of the Indians. The "Great Trail" was from Pittsburg to Detroit; it did not pass through Crawford, but through Richland and Huron counties. Just east of Crawford county a branch of this trail bore to the west to the old Indian town of Upper Sandusky, three miles southwest of the present Upper Sandusky, crossing the Sandusky river near Bucyrus; another branch was through Crestline and Galion, across Bucyrus township, and following east of the river to Little Sandusky. Another important trail was the route from the Tuscarawas Moravian villages to the Indian village near Upper Sandusky. It entered the county near the southeastern corner of Whetstone township, bore northwesterly through Whetstone and Bucyrus townships, and crossed the Sandusky south of the Mt. Zion church. This was the route taken by the Moravian Indian in 1781 and 1782. There were important Indian villages near Greentown and what is now Jeromeville in Ashland county. Trails connected both these Indian villages with the various Indian villages on the Sandusky. One of these trails, crossing Jackson, Jefferson, Whetstone, Bucyrus and Dallas was probably the route followed through this county by the army of Col. Crawford in 1782, both going and returning. There were many minor trails in this county, used by the Indians in going to and from their various camps and hunting grounds; especially is this true of several trails to the cranberry marshes in Chatfield and Cranberry townships. Traces of these trails are shown by the surveyor's notes of nearly a hundred years ago. The sur-


* Circleville.


veyor, in 1819, did not find a continuous trail, as parts of them were obliterated even then, but he found sufficient markings so that the old Indian trails can be traced with a fair degree of accuracy.


The location of these trails are not of special importance, but it was along them that the first pioneers came to the county; it was also along them that the first roads were laid out, for every Indian trail follows from oneplace to another over the highest and best ground. These children of nature, with no .education, had a trail from the east to the -,vest, and this same trail through Richland, Crawford and Wyandot counties, a hundred years later was selected by the engineers as the road bed for the Pennsylvania Railroad.


The first made road in the county was the one crudely cut through the woods by the soldiers in 1812. A map of Ohio, published in 1815,. gives this road as leaving Richland county to enter the Indian reservation, which Crawford county then was, north of the present town of Leesville going a trifle north of west for three miles, then straight nest to Upper Sandusky. When this map was made the entire country west of the Richland county lime had never been surveyed, and the reap shows that when the designer reached the unsurveyed Indian reservation, he must have taken a ruler and drawn an air line from the western boundary of Richland county to Upper Sandusky. This line would pass along the present northern line of the city of Bucyrus. The map, however, is conclusive proof that the military road did exist through this county, although west of Bucyrus, neither to the north nor to the south can any trace be found of a road ever having been cut through the woods wide enough for teams to pass.


On the other hand, Seth Holmes, who piloted Norton here in 1819, was a teamster in the War of 1812, and was with the supply train which went through Crawford county from Mansfield to Harrison's headquarters at Upper Sandusky, and he stated that when he was on his way through this county with that supply train they camped one night near what is now the crossing of the Pennsylvania road and East Mansfield street. The probable camping site was about where the brewery now stands, as at that time the river was then at the base of the bluff. In 1819 James Nail entered his land about two miles north of Galion and two miles south of Leesville. In his letter in "The Crawford County Forum" in 1868, he writes of taking a trip with two neighbors to find where the Indians got their cranberries. He says : "We took our horses and started in a southwesterly direction until we struck the Pennsylvania army road, then followed the route, which we could clearly distinguish. After passing along said route for several miles we thought we were not getting far enough to the north, and, therefore, turning further north, struck the Sandusky river east of Bucyrus." *


At the river they found Daniel McMichael clearing his land; this land was on the south bank of the Sandusky river, one mile northeast of the eastern boundary of Bucyrus township. H. W. McDonald, who made a thorough survey of the county in the sixties, found several markings of this road in the northern part of Polk township, which is a confirmation of the recollections of Nail. It should also he remembered that when Norton first arrived in this section he stopped near Galion, and would have entered land there, but Holmes assured him he knew of a much better site a little farther on, and it was through the statements of Holmes that Norton and Bucklin left their families and followed Holmes until he piloted them to the site he remembered, which was where Bucyrus now is. The pioneer recollections are that this road must have been through the northern part of Polk township, and to Bucyrus over the high ground between the present Galion road and the Pennsylvania track, crossing the Sandusky near the West Mansfield street bridge, crossing the Pennsylvania road near the Oceola road crossing, then northwest, south of the Oceola road, and crossing the Brokensword southwest of Oceola, and then to Upper Sandusky.

Polk township pioneers also report a military road through the southern part of that township, markings of which still remain. This is also probably correct. When Harrison made Upper Sandusky his headquarters in 1812, and built Fort Ferree, many troops assembled there. At one time the entire militia of the State were hurriedly ordered to report at that


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point, and many of the troops from eastern and southeastern Ohio passed through Crawford county, some striking the Pennsylvania army road, and others following the Indian trail along the Whetstone, and to Little Sandusky. Many of these so-called military roads were routes taken by these troops responding in a hurry, and traveling on horseback, carrying their arms and provisions and supplies, and no army train with them. Practically all supplies that were gathered at Upper Sandusky came up the river from the Lake, or by the road Harrison had cut through the woods from Franklinton (Columbus) to Upper Sandusky. General Harrison makes frequent complaints of the difficulties and expense of getting his supplies over this road from Columbus.


After the eastern part of the county was surveyed, in 1807, a number of years passed before bonafide settlers began occupying the land, but by 1818 there was a fair sprinkling of pioneers in the eastern part of the county. They had blazed trails through the woods to their nearest neighbors, but about 1818 the pioneers themselves cut down trees, laid the trunks over the worst of the swampy ground, and had a road running from the settlements around Galion through what is now Middletown, Leesville and West Liberty, and north to the Huron river, by which they could secure an outlet to Huron on Lake Erie. This was the first road in the county. A year or two later the pioneers of Bucyrus, Liberty and Sandusky, to get an outlet to the same market, made a road northeast from Bucyrus, following what is now the Sulphur Springs road, and when near that village, turning east, south of the present road, passing half a mile north of the present village of Tiro, and connecting with that first road built by the early pioneers. Another early road made by the pioneers was one from Galion to Bucyrus.


The first road in Crawford county of which there is official record was established by the county commissioners at Delaware in 1822, "from the southeast corner of Section 13, now a part of Sandusky township, to Bucyrus; total length nine miles and 276 rods. John Marshall surveyor and Michael Beadle, Joseph Young and David Palmer viewers." This road gave Bucyrus better connection with the road in the eastern part of the county, and indicates that the important markets at that time were New Haven, Milan and Huron. The same year a state road was authorized from Norton in Delaware county, north through Bucyrus and on to Sandusky, on the Lake. James Kilbourne was the surveyor. Solomon Smith and Luther Coe the commissioners. Nothing was done with this road until later, when it became the Sandusky Pike.


In 1824 Crawford was transferred from the jurisdiction of Delaware to that of Marion county, and Crawford was given a commissioner in the person of E. B. Merriman. On June 8, 1824, a road was established "beginning at the east line of Crawford county, at crossing of road leading from Wooster to Upper Sandusky, thence on nearest and best ground to Bucyrus, making Daniel McMichael's mill a point on said road." This passed through southern Liberty township north of the river, crossing the Sandusky at the present water works reservoir, McMichael's mill being on the south bank of the river, west of the present road. "Nearest and best ground" has given way to straight roads and right angles, so much of this road has been straightened. The viewers to establish this road were Joseph Young and Abel Carey. Another road in 1824 was the present Little Sandusky road with Lewis Carey, Daniel Fickle and Samuel Norton as the viewers. The road from Norton to Portland (Sandusky) was taken up in 1824, and Henan Rowse, Nathaniel Plummer, Benjamin Parcher and John McClure were appointed viewers. The road from Bucyrus to Mansfield was laid out, James Cassaday being the surveyor and Amos Utley, and James Perfect the viewers. The first alteration of a road is recorded in 1824. It was of "a road leading from Friends-borough to Benjamin Sharrock's." They were instructed to "lay it out on old boundary line from Friendsborough until it intersects the State road leading from Mt. Vernon to Upper Sandusky."


In 1825 Zalmon Rowse was Crawford county's commissioner. The first road he introduced was what is now the road from Caledonia to Bucyrus. Another was what later became the Mt. Vernon road through Whetstone township, and near New Winchester it