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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. - 205 CHAPTER III EARLY SETTLEMENT BY THE WHITES-ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF CRAWFORD COUNTY TERRITORIAL CHANGES-COUNTY BUILDINGS-JOHNNY APPLESEED. THE pioneers who made the early white settlements of Ohio, came from the south and east, following close upon the steps of the retreating savages. The hardy sons of toil, who had wrested the fair lands of Western Pennsylvania and Kentucky from the Indian, turned their backs upon this, and pressed forward to the Ohio River, eager to cross and possess the lands beyond. Here, for a time, the savage defense of the natives delayed the fatal tide, until at last, overwhelmed and beaten from the south, they withdrew to the Maumee Valley. By a treaty made at Greenville, August 3, 1795, the Indians ceded the whole of the State, save that portion included within a line drawn from the mouth of the Cuyahoga River to Fort Laurens, the present site of Bolivar, in Tuscarawas County, and thence west, with the line known as the Greenville Treaty Line or Indian Boundary. It was not many years before the vast wilderness, thus thrown open to peaceable settlement, was everywhere clotted with the cabin of the pioneer, and the squatter, the advance guard of the pioneer hosts, was again upon the Indian border. In 1807, a further cession was made by the Indians of that part of their territories, which was included between the line of the Cuyahoga River and a new one, drawn from a point on the southern shore of Lake Erie, between the mouth of Sandusky Bay and Portage River, to a point due south on the Boundary line, a point just a little east of the village of Cardington, in Morrow County. This line passed through what is now Crawford County, on the western boundary of the Three Mile Strip, represented in its width in this county by Sandusky Township. In 1813, the army, under Gen. Crook, starting from Pittsburgh to join the forces of Gen. Harrison at Fort Meigs, traversed this territory from Rooster through Mansfield, Bucyrus and Upper Sandusky, thence northerly to their destination. This was the first road made through the country west of Mansfield, and this event, not only served to open up the territory, but brought it to the observation of many who were not slow to sound the praises of this country through which the army passed. Richland County, which extended to the eastern border of Three Mile Strip, was rapidly settling up, and that restless portion of her population, which is found in every pioneer community, longing for newer scenes and plentier game, began to move over into the newly opened territory. On September 29, 1817, by a treaty made at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, the whole of the remaining portion of the State, under Indian domination, was ceded to the United States, and immigration, greatly stimulated by the news of the "New Purchase," began to pour in. On the 20th of February, 1820, the General Assembly of the State passed an act for the "erection of certain counties " out of the vast tract of wilderness thus acquired, and Crawford was the seventh in order out of fourteen thus created. The country; which thus invited immigration, presented every variety of surface. In the lower part of the county, south and west of the Sandusky River, though seldom touching its banks, stretched out the great Sandusky Plains; north of the river, extended an immense cranberry marsh, that furnished the natives their principal stock in trade with the whites. In the northern and eastern parts of the territory, marshes of greater or less extent were everywhere found. In the northern part of Cran- 206 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. berry and Auburn Townships, the Government Surveyor planted his stakes from a canoe, and describes the country in his notes as the most "abandoned and God-forsaken" of any he had met with in a long surveying experience. But in all parts of the county, save on the plains, the land was covered with a dense growth of heavy timber, " Where the rude ax with heaved stroke Was never heard the nymphs to daunt' The character of this country in 1821 is thus described by an early settler: "The Indians had been accustomed to bring cranberries East, when we first came to Richland County. We could often see ten to twenty horses, loaded with cranberries put in bark boxes, which were tied together and swung over the horses' backs, following each other east, each horse led by an Indian in single file. Our curiosity was, of course, raised to know where these cranberries grew. So in the fall of the year 1821, my father-in-law, John Brown, Michael Brown, myself and a Mr. Jacob Miller, who had moved in our neighborhood from Pennsylvania, started on a trip to see whether we could find out where the cranberries grew. We took our horses, horse feed. etc., 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. As we came to the stream, we heard a man chopping wood a little further up the river. I told the men that there were Indians around or else some white man had got in here. We rode up the river and found Daniel McMichael, a man whom I had seen before. He looked rather scared, but knew me as soon as I came close to him. He had come there in the spring and put up a little cabin, where he and his family resided. He gave us directions and accompanied us a little distance, showing us the old Indian trail, which would lead to the cranberry marsh. We followed it until we reached our destination about sunset. After tying and feeding our horses, we started into the marsh for cranberries, Mr. Miller walking behind. with his head up, expecting to find the fruit on bushes. All incautious step plunged him into a hole up to his waist, while he screamed for help, declaring that the bottom of the marsh had fallen out. We camped out that night. We saw several Indian camp-fires during the night, and heard several screaming but were not molested. The next morning we gathered as many cranberries as our horses could carry, in a short time, the ground being literally covered with them. We left, perhaps, at 9 o'clock in the morning. passing back to Mr McMichael's, and then home, where we arrived late in the night. During this trip we saw no living man, except McMichael and his family, and no sign of any settlement from the time we started until our return. As long as we followed the army road. the weeds were as high as the horses' heads, and from there the country was heavily timbered. We concluded this country would never be settled."* As in the early settlement of almost every new country, there were two classes of pioneers that left a more or less durable impress upon the earlier settlements of Crawford County. Held back from settlement by treaties with the natives until the tide of population beat against the barriers. this section was peculiarly fitted for the occupation of the squatter element, that knew no law but its own convenience, and feared no danger that freed it of the irksome restraint of civilization. " The improvements of a back-woodsman (squatter) were usually confined to building a rude log cabin, clearing and fencing a small piece of ground for raising * Personal Recollections of James Nail, in Bucyrus Forum, January 24, 1874. PAGE 207 - PICTURE OF A. MONNETT PAGE 208 - BLANK HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. - 209 Indian corn; a horse, a cow, a few hogs and some poultry, comprise his live stock ; and his further operations are performed with his rifle. The formation of a settlement in his neighborhood is hurtful to the success of his favorite pursuit, and is the signal for his removing into more remote parts of the wilderness. In case of his owning the land on which he is settled, he is content to sell at a low price, and his establishment, though trifling, adds much to the comfort of his successor. The next class of settlers differs from the former, in having considerably less depenence on the killing of game, in remaining in the midst of a growing population, and in devoting themselves more to agriculture. A man of this class proceeds on small capital; he either enlarges the clearings began in the woods by his back-woodsman predecessor, or establishes himself on a new site. On his arrival in a settlement, the neighbors unite in assisting him to erect a cabin for the reception of his family; some of them cut down the trees, others drag them to the spot with oxen, and the rest build up the logs. In this way a house is commonly reared in a day. For this well-timed assistance, no payment is made and he acquits himself by working for his neighbors. It is not in his power to hire laborers and he must depend, therefore, on his own exertions. If his family is numerous and industrious, his progress is greatly accelerated. He does not clear away the forest by dint of labor, but girdles the trees. By the second summer after this operation is performed, the foliage is completely destroyed, and his crops are not injured by the shade. He plants an orchard, which thrives abundantly under every sort of neglect. His live stock soon becomes much more numerous than that of his backwoods predecessor; but, as his cattle have to shift for themselves in the woods, where grass is scanty, they are small and lean. He does not sow grass seed to succeed his crops, so that his land, which ought to be pasturage, is over-grown with weeds. The neglect of sowing grass seeds deprives him of hay; and he has no fodder laid up, except the blades of Indian corn, which are much withered, and do not appear to be nutritious food. The poor animals are forced to range the forests in winter, where they can scarcely procure anything which is green, except the buds of the underwood, on which they browse. These are sometimes cut down that the cattle may eat the buds. Want of shelter in the winter completes the sum of misery. Hogs suffer famine during the droughts of summer, and the frosts and snows of winter; but they become fat by feeding on the acorns and beech-nuts which strew the ground in autumn. Horses are not exempted from their share in these common sufferings, with the addition of labor, which most of them are not very able to undergo. * * * The settler, of the grade under consideration, is only able to bring a small portion of his land into cultivation; his success, therefore, does not so much depend upon the quantity of produce which he raises, as on the gradual increase in the value of his property. When the neighborhood becomes more populous, he, in general, has it in his power to sell his property at a high price, and to remove to a new settlement, where he can purchase a more extensive tract of land, or commence farming on a larger scale than formerly. The next occupier is a capitalist, who immediately builds a larger barn than the former and then a brick or frame house. He either pulls down the dwelling of his predecessor, or converts it into a stable. He erects better fences, and enlarges the quantity of cultivated land, sows down pasture fields, introduces an improved breed of horses, cattle, sheep, and these probably, of the merino breed; he fattens cattle for the market, and perhaps erects a flour mill, or a saw-mill, or a distillery. Farmers of this description are frequently partners in the banks, members of the State Assembly, or of Congress, or Justices of the Peace. 210 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. The condition of the people has, necessarily, some relation to the age and prosperity of the settlements in which they live. In the earliest settlements of Ohio, the first and second rate farmers are most numerous, and are mixed together. The three conditions of settlers described, are not to be understood as uniformly distinct, for there are intermediate stages, from which individuals of one class pass, as it were, into another. The first invaders of the forest frequently become farmers of the second order; and there are examples of individuals, acting their parts in all the three gradations."* This general picture of the early settlements of Ohio, is borne out by the first twenty-five years of history in every township in Crawford County. The Ohio fever took strong hold of many of the communities in the older States, and no sooner was the "New Purchase" heard of, than hundreds, anxious to secure a home with plenty of land, flocked to the new country. The eastern tier of townships formerly belonging to Richland, Auburn, Vernon, Jackson and Polk, were surveyed by Maxwell Ludlow, in 1807. The remaining territory was surveyed in 1819, by Deputy Surveyor General Sylvanus Bourne. The early pioneers came close after the surveyors, and in many places found the bark still fresh upon the stakes that marked the different sections. The first actual settler, however, was more bold, and, braving the dangers and inconveniences of frontier isolation, penetrated the dense forest, and took up a claim on the border of the Sandusky Plains, eight miles from the nearest cabin, and twice that many miles from what might be called a community. He is represented as a man of large athletic proportions, standing six feet high, of strong determination, keen intelligence, and full of the true spirit of enterprise. This was Samuel Norton, the founder of the village of Bucyrus. He came from Susquehanna County, Penn., and, after selecting his quarter-section *Flint's Letters from America, 1818. on the present site of the county seat, he returned to his native State for his family. The land was not yet surveyed, nor offered for sale; but here he erected his pole cabin, and proceeded to make a clearing, trusting that he would have no difficulty in securing the land by purchase, when put on the market. In this cabin, located near the site of the present railroad bridge, his daughter, Sophronia, was born; the first white child, probably, within the original limits of the county. At this time his only neighbors were David Beadle, and his sons, Mishel and David, Daniel McMichael, and Joseph Young. Col. Kilburn's `Song of Bucyrus' has it "'First Norton and the Beadles came With friends, an enterprising band; Young and McMichael men of fame, Soon joined the others hand in hand,' "Of these. Daniel McMichael settled on a quarter-section, two miles east on the river: Young settled on the farm now owned by John A. Gormly; Mishel Beadle, on the farm now owned by L. Converse, and David Beadle, just southwest of the village of Bucyrus. Of the settlers who came into the various parts of the county about this time, were Resolved White, a descendant of the child born on the Mayflower; Rudolph Morse and David Cummins, in the present limits of Auburn Township; Jacob Snyder, near Leesville; David Anderson and Andrew Dixson and sons, in Vernon Township; John Brown and his son. Michael Brown, on the farm owned by the late Mr. Beltz, of Polk Township; David Reid and two men named Pletcher, a little south of that point; in Sandusky Township, there were Westel, Ridgely and J. S. Griswell, near where the Bucvrus and Leesville road crosses the Sandusky River; a little south was Peter Bebout; Samuel Knisely, at Knisely's Springs, and his brother Joseph, and John B. French, just north of him. Near the Bear Marsh, were Isaac Matthews HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. - 211 William Handley, Nelson Tustason, two families of McIntyres, and John Davis. "* "*The great avenue of travel at this early period was along the route followed by Gen. Crook's army in 1813, and rendered this section of country particularly accessible to immigration from Pennsylvania. Another feature of the early settlement of the county, will be observed in the fact that there was no common center in this territory, from which the increasing population seemed to disperse over the county. This country had filled the eye of many in the older settlements, who were prepared to move forward so soon as the way should be opened, and, when once the treaty barriers were removed, there as a general rush for the various points that had already been canvassed. The settlement in what is now Auburn Township, was largely made up of New Englanders, and received its first white inhabitants in 1815. These facts, somewhat at variance with the history of the greater part of the county, have their explanation in the location of this township adjoining the 'fire lands' of the Western Reserve. These lands, appropraited for the use of certain citizens of Connecticut, who suffered by the devastation of the English during the Revolutionary war, were early settled by these beneficiaries, and naturally attracted others of their friends to the same vicinity. Although much of the land in Auburn at an early date was occupied by marshes, it still presented attractions enough in its nearness to old friends, to induce John Pettigon and William Green to settle here as early as 1815. Two years later, Charles Morrow joined the little settlement; in 1819, the little colony from New York, named above; John Blair, in 1821, and A. T. Ross in 1825. Vernon was principally settled by New Englanders, many of them locating Revolutionary war land warrants. The land was not the most inviting, a large part of it being covered with marshes. *John Moderwell's letters in Bucyrus Journal, 1868. The first settler was George Byers, in 1818. He occupied a squatter's claim, and was notorious in the early times as a trapper. Coming soon after him was James Richards in 1821, and George Dickson from Pennsylvania, in 1822. The settlement in the southeast corner of the county was an early and important one. This whole corner of the county was known as Sandusky Township, in Richland County. Benjman Leveredge and his sons James and Nathaniel, together with George Wood and David, came in 1817, and were the first to settle on the present site of Galion. Benjamin Sharrock came in 1818 and Asa Hosford in 1819. These hardy; stalwart men were followed, in 1820, by Father Ketteridge, a great trapper and hunter, by Rev. James Dunlap, in 1822, and Nathan Merriman in 1824. James Nail, in his printed recollections, says : "In 1819, I left my father's farm and came to what was then called Sandusky Township, Richland County, and bought 160 acres of Congress land, about two miles from Galion, on the road to Leesville. All the settlers then heard of in what is now Crawford County, were three brothers by the name of Leveredge living a little west of where Galion is and my brother-in-law, Lewis Leiberger, who settled on a piece of land adjoining me. Living with Leiberger, I put up a cabin on my land and commenced clearing it. In the fall of 1821, I married and settled on may piece of land. By this time, some other settlers came into the community, such as John Brown, Benjamin Sharrock, Nehemiah Story and others." Whetstone was first settled about 1820, and numbered among its earliest pioneers. Esi Norton, Frederick Garver, Heman Rowse, Christopher Bair, John Kent and others. The community here grew rapidly, and by 1827 numbered some thirty families, principally from Pennsylvania and the New England States. Liberty was first invaded by Daniel McMichael, who was followed by Ralph Bacon in 1821, from Mentor, Ohio. In the same year, the families
212 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. of John Maxfield, a native of Vermont, and John O. Blowers, from Wayne County, Ohio, were added to the population of the township. In 1822, William Blowers, Calvin Squier and Nehemiah Squier, came from New York, and in 1823, some sixteen families were added to this settlement, principally from the far Eastern States. The settlement of Chatfield was not quite so rapid as some of the southern and eastern parts, but had a nucleus about which a settlement gathered as early as 1820. An early character was Jacob Whetstone, who spent his time hunting and trapping. The more important family was represented by Silas and Oliver Chatfield, whose name has been perpetuated in that of the township. Holmes township labored under some disadvantages at this period. The western portion was still reserved to the Indians, and along its southern border an extensive cranberry marsh made it undesirable for settlement. Mr. Hearman was the first resident of the township, who was followed in a short time by William Flake. The growth of the settlement here was slow, and it was probably 1825, before it could aspire to the title of community. "The difficulty and trials of the early settlers of Crawford County, although not so great as those encountered by the first settlers west of the Alleghanies, were yet such as would be considered by their descendants of the present day as almost insurmountable. Nearly all the land within the present limits of the county was covered by heavy timber, which almost entirely prevented the sun's rays from reaching the ground. This, in connection with the formation of the country and the nature of the soil, necessarily made very muddy roads, even with the little travel then passing on them, and mud, and the fever and ague produced by the same causes, were the great drawbacks to the rapid development of this country. The distance from mills and from other settlements was also among the serious difficulties they had to contend with. For several years, nearly all the flour used had to be brought from the mills on Mohican Creek and its tributaries, in Richland County, thirty and forty miles distant. The practice then was to make a trip in an ox wagon to the vicinity of one of these mills, purchase a small quantity of wheat from some of the settlers there, have it ground, and carry the flour back to Bucyrus the voyage consuming from a week to ten days' time. "Most of the pioneers were men of small means. Their stock of cash being generally exhausted upon paying the Government price for eighty, or, at most, one hundred and sixty acres of land, many became discouraged at the hardships they had to encounter and returned to their old homes. Others would have done so could they have raised the wherewith to carry them there. This, however, did not last long, most of them becoming entirely satisfied after a few years' residence, the improvement of the country each year making it more tolerable to live in, and giving increasing promise of its future prosperity. "The total change in the appearance of the country to one who can look back forty-five years (written in 1868) seems almost miraculous. Could one of the residents here in 1825, after an absence of forty years, now return. He would find it difficult to recognize a single familiar landmark or half a dozen familiar faces; and one who has not a correct record of his age is inclined to think he has been here a century instead of less than half of one."* It will be observed that quite a large proportion of those early settlers were of New England origin. This fact of late years has been entirely changed, and the German element in most parts of the county has assumed the ascendency. This change began about 1832. In this year and succeeding ones, there was a * Moderwell's Letters, 1868. HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. - 213 large accession of German population coming direct from Europe. Coming by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and thence to Cleveland or Sandusky, the Maumee Valley presented the most available place for settlement at that time, and this fact undoubtedly determined the destination of scores of persons who have since made this once marshy and unhealthful country to become a strong competitor with localities far more highly favored by nature. In 1848, the political troubles of Germany brought another considerable addition to the Teutonic element of Crawford, and many a German "agitator" is today among the county's most reliable citizens. The origin of Crawford County as a distinct political division of the State dates back to February 20, 1820. At this time, the whole Maumee Valley was opened to settlement, and was divided up into counties for judicial and governmental purposes. Townships 1, 2 and 3 south, in Ranges 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 east, and all the land east of these townships up to what was then the western limits of Richland County, was named Crawford County, in honor of the gallant soldier who ended, in 1782, a brave and praiseworthy career on the plains within these boundaries. This division did not at that time have any political significance or power, but was simply attached to Delaware County, an association that did not even have the merit of an equality in the disadvantages. Fortunately, the matter of law or taxation did not enter very largely into the experiences of the pioneer settlements until a nearer county seat was provided. December 15, 1823, the county of Marion, roughly blocked out at the time Crawford was named, was regularly organized, and became the guardian of her younger sister, as the act reads,"for judicial purposes." Save that some of its townships had received a name and something of a start toward civilization, Crawford was the same insignificant figure in affairs of state as before. On the 17th of February in the following year, the increase of population having become so great as to make it inconvenient for the more remote settlers to go to Marion to transact their business, that part of Crawford which was situated north of the Wyandot reservation, " including one tier of townships lying east and west," was attached to Seneca County for judicial purposes. This continued until January 31, 1826. Crawford County was independently organized and introduced the sisterhood of counties by the following act: SECTION 1. Be it enacted, etc., that the county of Crawford be, and the same is hereby, organized into a separate and distinct county. Sec. 2. That all Justices of the Peace residing within the county of Crawford shall continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices until their commissions shall expire and their successors are chosen and qualified. SEC. 3, That the qualified electors residing in the county of Crawford shall meet in their respective townships on the first Monday of April next, and elect their several county officers, who shall hold their respective offices until the next annual election, and until others are chosen and qualified according to law. Sec. 4. That all suits and actions, whether of a civil or criminal nature, which shall have been commenced, shall be prosecuted to final judgement and execution, and all taxes, fines and penalties which shall have become due shall be collected in the same manner as if this act had not been passed. Sec. 5. That Zalmon Rowse is hereby appointed Assessor for said county of Crawford, who shall, on or before the first dry of April next, give bond, as is provided in the fourth section of the "act establishing an equitable mode of taxation," to the acceptance of Enoch B. Merryman, who is hereby authorized to receive said bond, and deposit the same with the County Auditor of said county forthwith after such Auditor shall have been elected and qualified; and the Assessor herein appointed shall be required to perform the same duties, hold his office for the same time and in the same manner as if he had been appointed by a court of common pleas for said county of Crawford and the Auditor of State is hereby required to transmit to said Assessor a schedule of all lands subject to 214 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. taxation within said county, which schedule said Assessor shall return with his other returns to the County Auditor. Sec. 6. That the Commissioners elected according to the provisions contained in the third section of this act shall meet on the first Monday in May next, at the town of Bucyrus, and then and there determine at what place in sail county of Crawford the judicial courts shall be held till the permanent seat of justice shall be established in said county. Sec. 7. That those townships and fractional townships in Crawford County which have heretofore been attached to and formed a part of any township in Marion or Seneca Counties respectively, are hereby attached to, and declared to be a part of, Crawford Township, in said Crawford County, till the same shall be otherwise provided for by the Commissioners of said county. The county thus organized included a scope of territory three Congressional townships in width. and extending from the eastern boundary of Sandusky and Cranberry Townships to the western boundary of Crawford, Salem and Mifflin Townships. in Wyandot County. The larger part of what is now Wyandot County, and three miles of the western portion of Holmes and Bucyrus townships, was covered by the Wyandot Indian reservation. In 1835, the Indians sold to the government a strip seven miles off the east end of their reservation, which was sold by the government publicly in Marion, Ohio. This tract extended in what is now Wyandot County, some two miles. A considerable part of this land located around the present village of Osceola was bought by a company who laid out this town and sold a good many lots in the belief that the county seat would eventually be removed there, as it was near the center of the county as then constructed. This speculation was defeated on February 3, 1845, by the erection of Wyandot County. In the general re-organization of the counties that then took place, Crawford lost all the territory west of the middle line of townships in Range 15 east and gained from Marion County a strip of territory two miles while extending to the Richland County line, and from the latter county on the east a tract four miles wide, extending the whole length of Crawford from north to south, some twenty miles. In 1848, a tier of fractional sections were taken off in the erection of Morrow County, leaving Crawford in its present outlines. In the matter of township lines the information is not so accurate. The early records of this comity having, unfortunately, been burned, the only clew is to be found by a tedious search in the early records of Delaware and Marion Counties. Bucyrus, Liberty and Whetstone were probably erected by the Commissioners of Delaware County, but with what boundaries is not known. During the three years this county was attached to Marion a number of townships north, east and west of the Indian reserve were erected. Sycamore, Tymochtee, Pitt and Antrim Townships were among these. "Tymochtee Township," says Mr. Moderwell, "lay directly west of Sycamore and probably contained more inhabitants forty [now fifty-two] years ago, than any township in the county, and contributed its full share to the business of our courts." What was done before the latter part of 1831, by the Commissioners of Crawford is open to conjecture only. In 1845, there were the following sixteen township, of which none of those located within the present limits of Craw ford were erected subsequent to 1831: Antrim, Bucyrus, Center, Chatfield, Cranberry, Crawford, Holmes, Jackson, Liberty, Lykens, Mifflin, Pitt, Sandusky, Sycamore, Tymochtee, and Whestone. On the 6th of March 1845, the commissioners of Crawford County took the following action in regard to the fractional townships and territory added: This day, it was resolved by the Commissioners of Crawford County, that the following fractional townships taken from the counties of Richland and Marion, and those lying on the west side of said county of Crawford, according to an act of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, passed February 3, 1845, to erect the HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. - 215 new county of Wyandot, and alter the boundaries of Crawford, be organized into separate townships, to wit: All that part taken from the county of Richland, and being in Township twenty-two (22) north, Range twenty (20) west, be, and the same is hereby, organized into a separate township, and shall be known by the name of Auburn All that part taken from the county of Richland, and being in Township twenty-one (21) north, Range twenty (20) west, be, and the same is hereby, organized into a separate township, and shall be known by the name of Vernon. All that part taken from the county of Richland, and being in Township twenty (20) north, Range twenty (20t) west: and all that part taken from Township nineteen (19) north, Range twenty (20) ; and all that part taken from the county of Marion, and being in Township fifteen (15) north, Range twenty-one (21), be, and the same is hereby, organized into a separate township, and shall be known by the name of Polk. All that part taken from the county of Marion, and being in township four (4) south, Range sixteen (16) east; and all that part taken from the county of Marion, and being in Township four (4) south, Range fifteen (15) east ; and all that part taken from Township three (3) south, Range fifteen east, except six sections off the north end of said fractional township, be, and the same is hereby, organized into a separate township, and shall be known by the name of DALLAS: All that part taken from Township two (2) south, Range fifteen (15) east, and six sections off the north end of fractional Township three (3) south. Range fifteen (l5) east be, and the same is hereby, organized into a separate township, and shall be known by the name of Todd: All that part taken from Township one (1) south, Range fifteen (15) east, be, and the same is hereby, organized into an independent township, and shall be known by the name of Texas All that part taken from the county of Marion, and being in Township four (4) south, Range seventeen (17) east, be, and the same is hereby, attached to Whetstone All that part of fractional Section thirty-one (31), thirty-two (32), in Township three (3) south, Range sixteen east, be, and the same is hereby, attached to Bucyrus. It will be observed that the township of Polk, as thus constructed, occupied the southeast corner of the county as Dallas does the southwest. To this arrangement the citizens objected, and in the following June the line of division between Jackson and Polk Townships was run from the "northeast corner of Section twenty-seven (27), in Polk Township, and thence west on the section line to the southwest corner of Section twenty-two (22), in Jackson Township." On the 10th of March, 1873, Jefferson Township was erected out of the twenty sections in the western part of .Jackson Township. There had been two polling precincts for some time, and, a jealousy springing up in regard to the division of officers, a division was made, cutting Jackson Township off with but eight sections. With these changes, Crawford County stands as at present, divided into sixteen townships. Three of these have thirty-six sections, one has forty full sections besides eight fractional sections, two have thirty sections, and two eighteen sections, and the others have respectively twenty-eight, twenty-six, twenty-four, twenty-two, twenty-one, twenty, twelve and eight sections. The first election provided for by the act erecting the county, was contested with considerable spirit. By a provision of the act, the first Commissioners were empowered to fix the place for holding the courts, until permanently fixed by commissioners appointed by the State. The result of the election, therefore, practically decided this interesting question, and this fact constituted the point on which the factions joined issue. The western part of the population considered the village of Crawford, located on the Broken Sword Creek, the more generally accessible, and the southern part preferred Bucyrus as the site for the county seat. The result was a victory for the partisans of Bucyrus, in the election of Thomas McClure, John Magers and George Poe, who established the county seat, temporarily, at Bucyrus. In 1830, Judge Williams, of Delaware; R. S. Dickenson, of Fremont, and J. S. Glassgo, of Holmes County, Commissioners appointed by the Legislature for the purpose, confirmed this action of the County Commissioners, and es- 218 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. tablished the county seat permanently at Bucyrus. A Mr. Beardsley received the first appointment as Clerk, but shortly afterward resigned, and was succeeded by Col. Rowse, who held the office for a number of years, and at the same time discharged the duties of County Recorder. He was succeeded as Clerk by J. B. Larwill, D. W. Swigart, Alexander P. Widman, J. R. Clymer, Thomas Coughlin, David C. Cahill and A. A. Ruhl ; and as Recorder, by Jacob Howenstine, James Robinson, Frank M. Bowyer, William Stremmel and D. O. Castle. Hugh McCracken was the first Sheriff, and was succeeded by John Miller, John Moderwell, David Holm, John Shull, Samuel Andrews, James L. Harper, John Caldwell, James Clements, Jonathan Kissinger, William C. Beal, John Franz, Joseph Worden, Daniel Keplinger, James Worden, Henry J. Row and John A. Schaber. James Martin was first elected Auditor, and was succeeded in this office by Charles Merriman, Edward Billips, John Caldwell, Jacob Howenstein, George Sinn, Owen Williams, John Pitman, A. M. Jackson, E. R. Kearsley, A. A. Ruhl, Samuel Hoyt, William Scroggs, Frederick M. Swingley, J. H. Robinson. The first County Treasurer, John H. Morrison, was succeeded by Gen. Samuel Myers George Lauck, Charles Hetich, Otto Fieldner, George Donnenwirth, Joseph Roop, John Franz, J. B. Franz John G. Birk, C. H. Shoner and W. Riblet. The first Probate Judge was Harvey Eaton, who was succeeded by George Wiley, P. S. Marshall, J. S. Elliott, Abram Summers, James Clements, Robert Lee and Shannon Clements. The delay in permanently locating the county seat, caused a delay in erecting public buildings. The Commissioners provided for the first sessions of the courts in private houses, but feelirg the need of a jail, contracted with Z. Rowse, in 1827, to build one of squared timber. This served to accommodate the county as a place for the archives of the county as well as the rogues, but was destroyed by fire about 1831, destroying all the records of the Commissioners up to October 31, 1831. When, in 1830, the question of the location of the seat of justice was settled, the proprietors of Bucyrus donated Lots 89, 90 and 92, and the citizens made liberal contributions to erect the public buildings. In this year the first court house was built and finished, in 1832, though not finally accepted by the Commissioners until June 4, 1833. Col. Kilbourne was architect, and Nicholas Cronebaugh, Abraham Holm, Sr., and William Early, contractors. There is no clew to the specifications, but from later records it is ascertained that it was built with a cupola, and the whole was painted white on the outside. The inside was painted a light blue. In 1837, a bell was added, at a cost of about $100. In this year, a proposition to build a new jail was submitted to the people, which was indorsed, and, on February 4, 1839, Z. Rowse received a contract for the building. The records give no inkling of specifications, but it was built of brick, on the court-house yard, and was finally accepted by the county in July, 1840, and fenced around at a cost of $53, in 1844. In 1854, the building of a new brick court house was agitated, and, in 1856, was completed at a cost of about $18,000. O. S. Kinney, of Cleveland, was the architect, and Auld & Miller, of Mount Gilead, Ohio, the contractors. In the fall of this year, a proposition to spend $12,000, in buying a farm and building an Infirmary building, was submitted to the people and lost, but in the following spring, April, 1857, the people voted for a new jail. Accordingly, on August 3, 1858, a contract was entered into with E. Jacobs & Co., of Cincinnati, to build the whole of the prison part, at a cost of $5,500, and with George B. Terwilleger, of Bucyrus, for all the work, save the prison part, for $3,076.98. This was placed on Lot 88, which was donated to the county for this purpose by Samuel Norton. Finally, in 1867, the HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. - 217 building of an Infirmary was undertaken, at a cost of $33,000, David Shank being the contractor. This building is a large two-story rectangular brick building, With basement, with an addition in the rear, and is finely situated on the farm in Whetstone Township. The style of construction is plain, verging on unsightliness. A recently erected building for the insane is much more presentable, though showing off the main building at a disadvantage. The farm is composed of 300 acres of good farming land. and is provided with good barns and outbuildings. "At the time the town of Bucyrus was laid out, the only outlet to the lake with teams was by was of New Haven, and the time required to make the trip with an ox team was usually from ten days to two weeks. Directly north was an almost unbroken wilderness to the Huron Plains, and very few settlers between this and Sandusky City. The citizens here raised, by subscription, funds to open a wagon track through to Honey Creek. Any person that ever passed over it found it a hard road to travel. At this time, we had a weekly mail from Marion and Sandusky City. At times in the winter, when the ground was not sufficiently frozen in the woods to bear a horse, the carrier would leave his horse here, take the mail on his shoulders. and carry it afoot to Sandusky and back. One of the first, and probably the most important public improvement, and one that did more for the interest of the town and the opening up and settlement of the county, was the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike road. "In 1826, an act was passed by the General Assembly incorporating seven gentlemen of Franklin County, Judge Merriman and Col. Rowse, of Bucyrus, and seventeen others named in the act, and residing along the line of road, and their associates, by the name of the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike Company, with a capital of $100,000, the stock divided into shares of $100 each, and the company to be governed by a board of nine directors. The charter was accepted by the company, and, by an act of ' Congress, passed in 1827, there were about 32,000 acres of land given to the State of Ohio in trust for the use of said company, to aid them in the construction of the road. Soon after, the incorporators met in the brick school house in Bucyrus, and completed the organization of the company. Col. Kilbourne was surveyor, and Orange Johnson was one of the locating Commissioners and the principal agent as long as the road was under the control of the company. It was some seven years in building, and was finished in 1834, and was 106 miles in length from Columbus to Sandusky. The average cost was a little more than $700 per mile. It was a splendid road when dry, but being only a clay or mud pike, in the spring or wet season of the year, it was in places almost impassable. This finally wore out the patience of those who were obliged to pay toll for the use of the road, and an attack was made upon the toll gates by an armed mob, which started out from Columbus and leveled every gate to the northern part of Delaware County. This brought the question before the Legislature of 1843, which repealed the act incorporating the company. The case was brought before the Legislature again for a re-hearing, but was passed over from time to time, until the session of 1856, when the Senate passed a bill authorizing the company to bring suit against the State, but this was lost in the House, which seems to have ended the matter. "The citizens, from the time the building of this turnpike was determined upon, took a lively interest in having it pass through Bucyrus. For some years, it was the great thoroughfare of the State from the river to the lakes, and was the principal road to market for the counties of Delaware, Union and Marion. Seventy-five wagons loaded with wheat were counted passing through Bucyrus in one day, all of which would return loaded with goods, and the constant traffic incident to so much transporta- 218 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. tion, created business, and was an active stimulus in developing the town and county. "For the first ten years after the settlement of the county, it may be truly said of the inhabitants that they were poor, having but little to sell, and no market for that little, except what supplied the wants of new-comer and some cattle and hogs which had to be driven mostly to the east on foot, and there sold at barely living prices. One steer or cow would bring about as much now as four did at that time, and other products were equally low. After the New York Canal was completed, there was quite a change for the better; prices of store goods came down, and many articles of produce, particularly wheat, found a ready market at the lake. "About 1828-29, there was a very marked improvement in times. Emigrants, in large numbers, were arriving, many of them substantial men with considerable means who bought out many of the first settlers, enabling such as were in debt to pay up with cash; thus gradually substituting a money currency for our old system of barter. About this time. the Germans commenced settling rapidly in the county, some of them locating on low, wet land, which they have since brought into a fine state of cultivation. "At this time a better class of houses was being put up than heretofore. In 1831, Mr. Hahn got into his new brick hotel in Bucyrus, now the Sims House. The following summer, Mr. Norton built his brick house at the north end of the town. In this year, 1832, the United States Land Office was removed to Bucyrus, from Tiffin. Thomas Gillipsie was Register, and Joseph H. Larwill, Receiver. Lands were now rapidly entered; frequently, on Monday morning (or if the office had been closed for a day or two), from twenty to forty persons have been seen gathered around the office of the Register, waiting for the door to open, each fearful some other person was after the same land he wished to obtain. This was the commencement of the days of wild speculation that apparently pervaded the whole country. Crawford County, being comparatively new and less wealthy, did not partake of this spirit so fully as the older sections. The removal of the Government deposits from the United States Bank to local banks gave an impetus in this direction, which resulted in the opening of a large number of banks and the flooding of the country with paper money. Produce and real estate, both in town and country, ran up to fabulous prices. A kind of mania for land appeared to possess the people. This continued until 1837, when the bubble burst and Crawford County suffered keenly with the rest of the nation for its folly. The recovery was slow, and it was not before 1845 that the effects of the panic of '37 could be said to have lost their power. The establishment of the State Bank in this year had a salutary effect upon the business of the county. The Irish famine, occurring directly after this creating a demand for our produce, which brought coin principally return, added to the improved feeling here. The Mexican war, closely following this event, resulting in large expenditure by the Government, was of great benefit to a new country like Crawford, that needed nothing so much as a good market. Then followed the discovery of gold in California. These causes together furnished the county, with the rest of the country, all abundance of money and an excellent currency. The county now improved rapidly; towns were flourishing, and the farming interests were never more flourishing." The growth of the county in point of population has been regular and healthful, as will appear from the accompanying table. In the census of 1830, it has been found impossible to ascertain the proper division of the total among all the townships. So far as given, the information has been derived from reliable sources. HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. - 219 In bringing this chapter to a close, the name of Johnny Appleseed, whose kindly charity and generous philanthropy wrought so much for every frontier community in Central Ohio, should not be forgotten. The scene of his early activity in this State was in Richland County and Crawford, which profited so largely by its close neighborhood to this section, certainly owes him the tribute of a good word. He was frequently seen here by the earliest settlers, and nine out of ten of the early orchards here are said to leave originated from his nurseries. He was born in the State of Massachusetts. As early as 1780, he was seen in the autumn, for two or three successive years, along tile banks of the Potomac River in Eastern Virginia. He attended the cider-mills when the farmers made their cider, and picked the seeds from the pomace after the juice had been expressed. This occupation procured for him the sobriquet of Johnny Appleseed. After he had procured a sufficient quantity of seeds for his purpose, amounting to about a half bushel at one visit, he started westward with his sack of seeds upon his back, on foot and alone, to cross the Alleghanies, and to penetrate the wilderness west * Erected in 1873. of the mountains, embracing what was then known as the 'New Purchase,' and which is now a part of the State of Ohio. "Years afterward, when the hardy pioneers from Western Virginia and Pennsylvania, scaled the Alleghany Mountains and sought homes in the valleys of the Ohio, they found the little nurseries of seedling apple trees on Braddock's Field, at Wheeling Creek, the Flats of Grave Greek, Holiday's Cove, and at other places along the Ohio Valley. "The eccentric, but ever amiable Chapman,* was also found here, ready to sell his seedlings to the settlers at a 'fippennybit' apiece. His habits of life were then as they remained until his decease. He would spend a week or ten days among the white settlers, or borderers, then penetrate to his nurseries on the banks of the Tuscarawas, or, as that river was then called in the language of the aborigines, Ne-tusta-raws. At length the fertile soil of Richland County invited this enterprise and industry farther west. Here were traced the foot-prints of Johnny Appleseed. On the banks of the Mohican Creek, at Mansfield. near the present site of the depot of the Pittsburgh & Chicago Railroad, was found one of his seedling nurseries. For years he remained in the vicinity of Mansfield, as his home or headquarters, whence he would make trips of two or three months length, farther west into the wilderness, to attend to his nurseries. "Near his plantations, which were remote from any habitation, he provided comfortable shelters from the inclemency of the weather. Hollow trees and hollow logs, provided with a deep nest of dry leaves served this purpose in some cases. At his nursery in Sandusky Township, near the present location of Leesville in Crawford County, he erected a shelter by rearing large sections of the bark of an elm tree against a log. Under this he had a home. From this nursery was obtained many of the * His real name has John Chapman 220 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. orchards of Springfield Township, Richland County. The father of the writer, Mordecai Bartley, Joseph Welch, Richard Congdon, Matthew Curran and Jonathan Beach, went to this nursery in company, spent the night with Johnny and packed their trees home the next day on horses. They supped and broke their fast in the morning with the recluse, both meals consisting of mush made of Indian meal. The culinary utensils of the household consisted of a camp kettle, a plate, and a spoon. "The residence of Chapman at Mansfield covered the period of the war of 1812 and several years following it. During the dangers and alarms of this period, Johnny Appleseed was regarded in the light of a protecting angel. On the night of the massacre of Seymour's family on the Black Fork, within a few miles of Mansfield, he left the house of Seymour on foot and entered Clinton, one mile north of Mount Vernon, by sunrise, pausing everywhere on his way to give the alarm. Although I was then but a mere child, I can remember, as if it were yesterday, the warning cry of Johnny Appleseed, as he stood before my father's log cabin door on that night. I remember the precise language, the clear, loud voice, the deliberate exclamation, and the fearful thrill it awakened in my bosom. 'Fly! fly for your lives! the Indians are murdering and scalping Seymours and Copuses.' My father sprang to the door, but the messenger was gone, and midnight, silence reigned without. Many other circumstances incident to the exposed frontier settlements in days of danger which tried men's souls, manifested the cool courage, the discreet foresight, and the mature and deliberate. judgment, as well as the fidelity, patience and abnegation of this frontier philanthropist. "John Chapman was a small man, wiry and thin in habit. His cheeks were hollow, and his face and neck dark and skinny from exposure to the weather. His mouth was small; his nose small, and turned up so much as apparently to raise his upper lip. His eye was dark and deeply set in his head, but searching and penetrating. His hair, black and straight, was parted in the middle and permitted to fall about his neck. His hair withal, was thin, fine and glossy. He never wore a full beard, but shaved all clean, except a thin roach at the bottom of his throat. His beard was lightly set and very black. This was his appearance in l840, when the writer last saw him in Mansfield, and at that time he had changed but little, if any, in general appearance during the twenty-five years preceding. The dress of the man was unique. The writer assumes to say that he never wore a coffee sack as a part of his apparel. He may have worn the off-cast clothing of others ; he probably did so. Although often in rags and tatters, and at best in the most plain and simple wardrobe, he was always clean, and, in his most desolate rags, comfortable, and never repulsive. He generally, when the weather would permit, wore no clothing on his feet, which were consequently dark, hard and horny. He was frequently seen with shirt, pantaloons, and a long-tailed coat of the tow-linen then much worn by the farmers. This coat was a device of his own ingenuity, and in itself was a curiosity. It consisted of one width of the coarse fabric, which descended from his neck to his heels. It was without collar. In this robe were cut two arm-holes, into which were placed two straight sleeves. The mother of the writer made it up for him under his immediate direction and supervision. "John Chapman was a regularly constituted minister of the Church of the New Jerusalem, according to the revelations of Emanuel Swedenborg. He was also a constitued missionary of that faith, under the authority of the regular association of that faith in the city of Boston, Mass. The writer has seen and examined his credentials as to the latter of these. This strange man was a beautiful reader, and never traveled without several of the Swede nborgian HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. - 221 pamphlets with him, which he generally carried in his bosom, and which he was ever ready to produce and read upon request. He never attempted to preach or to address public audiences. In private consultations, he often became enthusiastic, when he would frequently arise to expound the philosophy of his faith. On such occasions, his eyes would flash, his wiry little form would swell, his voice expand, and his clear thought would burst into a startling inspiration of eloquence, complete and consummate, exalted, beautiful, forcible and replete with chaste figures and argumentative deductions. His diction was pure and chaste, and his language simple but grammatical. "The year of the erection of the old court house in Mansfield, while the blocks of foundation stone and the timber lay scattered upon the public square, a wandering street preacher, of the name of Paine, a man with a long, white beard, who called himself 'The Pilgrim,' entered the town. After blowing a long tin horn which he carried with him, he assembled an audience on the stone and timbers of the court house. In the course of his sermon, he pointed to where Johnny Appleseed lay upon the ground, with his feet resting upon the top of one of the stones, and exclaimed : 'See yon ragged, old, barefooted sinner, and be warned of the paths of sin by his example.' Johnny arose to his feet, folded his hands behind him, under his tow-linen coat, and slowly approached the speaker. As the speaker paused a space, Johnny commenced in this wise: `I presume you thank God that you are not as other men?' 'I thank God that I am not as you are,' returned Paine. `I am not a hypocrite, nor am I of the generation of vipers. I am a regularly appointed minister, whether you are or not.' 'Lord be merciful unto me a sinner,' said Chapman, and walked away. "In the character of John Chapman there was nothing light or frivolous. He was free from all affectation. He never affected the style or language of the sacred Scriptures. His language was plain, simple and graphic - his manner earnest and impressive. His utterances always commanded respect, and awakened deep and thoughtful consideration from those who heard him. His deportment was uniformly chaste and respectable, and marked by a passive dignity. In his method of thought, he was analytical, and in his line of argument, varying between the inductive and logical. . He spoke apparently without effort, in a natural and simple, yet elegant flow of language, to express a deep current of metaphysical reasoning and ethical thought. He penetrated his auditors, apparently without intending to do so, and moved them without knowing it. "Physically, he was indolent and fond of ease. The writer once watched him, undiscovered, as he was working in his nursery, near the Big Bend in the creek near Mansfield. He lay in the shade of a spreading thorn tree in the center of his nursery, and there, lying on his side, he reached out with his hoe and extirpated only such weeds as were within his reach. He preferred sleeping upon the floors of the farmers, as he said that the indulgence in the luxury of soft beds would soon beget a bad habit which he could not hope to indulge in his varied method of living. "This man cherished the kindest feelings toward all living things. His every act and step in life manifested this attribute as the pervading trait of his nature. He was as tender and innocent as a child, and as easily moved to tears by the sorrows of others, or even the sufferings of animals. He has been known to pay the full value of horses, take them from the harness, and, with a blessing, turn them loose to the luxurious pastures of the wilderness, to become their own masters. He was never without money, and frequently furnished the housewives with a pound or two of tea, a great expense at that time, although he held that the indulgence in that aromatic luxury was a dissi- 222 - HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY. pation. At one time he bought six breakfast plates at a Mansfield store, and, upon being asked what use he had for them, he replied that he would save dishwashing by having so many; that by eating his meats upon a fresh plate each day he need not wash dishes more than once a week. The truth was, he carried the plates to a poor family near Spring Mills, Richland County, who had a few days before had the misfortune of losing the most of their table furniture by an accident. "In 1838-thirty-seven years after his appearance on Licking Creek - Johnny noticed that civilization, wealth and population were pressing into the wilderness of Ohio. Hitherto he had easily kept just in advance of the wave of settlement; but now towns and churches were making their appearance, and, at long intervals, the stage-driver's horn broke the silence of the grand old forest, and he felt that his work was done in the region in which he had labored so long. In 1840, he resided near Fort Wayne, in the State of Indiana, where he had a sister living, and probably made that his headquarters during the nine years that he pursued his eccentric avocation on the western border of Ohio and in Indiana. In the summer of 1847, when his labors had literally borne fruit over a Hundred thousand miles of territory, at the close of a warm day after traveling twenty miles, he entered the house of a settler in Allen County, Ind., and was warmly welcomed. He declined to eat with the family, but accepted some bread and milk, which he partook of sitting on the doorstep and gazing on the setting sun. Later, he delivered his ' news right fresh from heaven' by reading the Beatitudes. Declining other accommodations, he slept as usual on the floor, and in the early morning he was found with his features all aglow with a supernal light and his body so near death that his tongue refused its office. The physician, who was hastily summoned pronounced him dying, but added that he had never seen a man in so placid a state at the approach of death. At seventy-two years of age forty-six of which had been devoted to his self-imposed mission, he ripened into death as naturally and beautifully as the seeds of his own planting had grown into fiber and bud and blossom and the matured fruit."* "He had full many a story to tell, And goodly hymns that he sung right well; He tossed up the babies, and joined the boys In many a game full of fun and noise. " And he seemed so hearty, in work or play, Men, women and boys all urged him to stay." Thus passed from earth one of the memorable characters of pioneer days but his memory will linger in the hearts of succeeding generations for years to come, and their children will learn to revere the decaying monuments of his industry and benevolence, as the memorials of one whose character, though unbalanced, swayed to the brighter side of human nature. * Bartley, in the Mansfield Shield and Banner. |