HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 425 of record in the state in the early '50s, and both living the lives of pioneers. Henry Pelton, son of John and father of Henry R., was born in New York state, but lived a part of his life in Ohio. He married at Port Clinton, Ottawa county, Sarah Van Pelt, who when their son Henry R. was about nine months old took the boy to New York state, where until 1863 they lived with relatives of her husband. In 1863 they returned to Ohio, going to Manhattan, near Toledo, where they lived for about one year with her brother, eventually coming into Fulton county, Ohio, and settling in Swan Creek Township, where until 1903 the Peltons lived on a farm Mrs. Pelton had purchased when they first came into the county. Mrs. Sarah (Van Pelt) Pelton died in 1902, and in March of the following year her son Henry R., having sold the farm, came into Delta, built a home in the town, and for the next five years took general employment in the vicinity. In January, 1908, he purchased an !established business in Delta, and since that time has successfully conducted that business, which deals somewhat extensively in coal and lumber, and maintains in operation a saw and feed mill. Since Mr. Pelton has directed the business its trading has been appreciably expanded, and he is placed among the consequential business men of that section of Fulton county. He is widely known throughout that district, having lived in York and Swan Creek Townships for almost the whole of his life. As a boy he attended the old log school in Swan Creek Township, and since he has been a man, of responsible affairs he has taken much interest in local administrative responsibilities, having undertaken the duties of many of the township offices. Politically he is a republican, although his interest has been closer in local public movements than in national politics. Henry R. Pelton has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married on April 6, 1878, was Nancy Lester, who was born in Bellevue, Ohio, daughter of Roberti and Paulina (Catlin) Lester, the former. a Union soldier who died during, the Civil war. Three children were born to his first marriage. Ethel May, who married Blair Pierrepont, of Napoleon, Henry county, Ohio; Margaret, who married William Gerst, of Toledo, Ohio; and Henry Alfred, of Delta, Ohio. He married Blanche, daughter of E. J. Deck of Delta, Ohio, and they have three children, Clive, Pearl, and Bernard. They live in Toledo, Ohio. Mrs. Nancy (Lester) Pelton died in December, 1891, and on March 29, 1893, Mr. Pelton married again, his second wife being Phoebe Ann Fint, who comes of a West Virginia family. To Henry R. and Phoebe Ann (Fint) Pelton have been born eight children: Mabel, who married Charles Russell, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, John, Vera, Elmer, Elbert, Ruth, Walter Ind Phoebe, the six last named being at home with their parents. SAMUEL B. FINNEY is one of the oldest residents of Delta, Fulton county; Ohio, and he has maintained his home in Fulton county, Ohio, since the close of the Civil war, during which he was in responsible charge in the Union cause, being one of the personal bodyguards of President Lincoln. Mr. Finney has given some time to agriculture during his life, having owned various farms in Ful- ton county, but he has chiefly followed professional work, being an expert herbalist, and since 1890 established as such in Delta. He is well-known throughout the county, and his dispensing of natural 426 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY medicines has brought health to many thousands of people during the course of his practice as an herbalist. He was born in Holmes county, Ohio, August 22, 1832, the son of Washington and Martha B. (Bell) Finney. The Finney family is of Irish origin, and the grandparents of Samuel B. Finney were both born in Ireland. They, David and Mary Finney, were among the pioneer residents in Holmes. county, Ohio, David Finney acquiring a ranch. of 800 acres near Millersburg of that county in 1811. There Washington Finney, father of Samuel B., was born; there he married Martha B. Bell; and there Samuel B., their son, was born and grew to manhood. Anterior to the Civil war Samuel. B. Finney studied roots and herbs, and developed quite a satisfactory connection and sold medicines of his own preparation and formula throughout a wide district. During the Civil war he offered his services to the Union, prepared to take any capacity in the cause of the North. He was a man of good repute, responsible and resolute, and was attached to the guard of President Lincoln, and as such was stationed at Washington Barracks, District of Columbia, for the majority of his war service. At the conclusion of hostilities he came to Fulton county, Ohio, and acquired a farm of forty acres, which he tilled, although his interest was really in his medical work. He gave much time to his profession, and in course of time became known throughout the county as an herbalist. With his medicines he has effected many creditable cures, some of them cases that had reached almost the chronic state. He has owned various farms in the county, but his life-work must be stated to have been medicine. Since 1890 he has been established as an herbalist in Delta, Fulton county, Ohio, and has undertaken the treatment of most human liseases, with success both professional and material. Of necessity, because of octogenarian age, he has of late years lived a somewhat retired life, but he is ,an esteemed resident of Delta, and during his active years was one of the helpful, worth-while citizens of Fulton county. His wife was Rachel Lee, who was born in Holmes county, Ohio, but their long married life ended in 1912, when she died in Delta. Mr. and Mrs. Finney were the parents of five children: Estella, who died at the age .of thirteen years; William, who died when nine years old ; Eddie, who was seven in the year of his death; Jennie, who is the wife of Thomas Kirkham, of West Winameg, Fulton county, Ohio ; Elmer Grant, of Delta, Ohio. As a Civil war veteran, Mr. Finney has an honored place in national records, and honor is accorded him locally because of his patriotic service. He followed the progress of the recent war with great interest, and would have liked to have been more active in it himself. In earlier years he was somewhat prominent in the functioning of fraternal bodies, being a member of the Masonic and Knights of Pythias Orders. Personally helms lived a good life of helpful and useful endeavor for his fellow residents. ASA BORTON. Seventy years of continuous residence, his time of service in the Civil war counted out, is the citizenship record of Asa Borton of Pine Grove Farm in Dover, Fulton. county. Mr. Borton was born in Columbiana county March 24, 1845, and when he was but four years old his father, Asa Borton, Sr., moved to Fulton, one year before it was an organized county. Mr. Borton was a HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 427 boy in Franklin Township when. Fulton set up its own county government—one of the few remaining men who are living in Fulton when it was part of Lucas county. Mr. Borton lived a short time in Michigan, but he has always considered his home in Fulton county. Mr. Borton was the youngest in a family of ten children born to Asa and Elizabeth (Hazen) Borton. They are : Deborah, Ahimaaz, Lucinda, Mary Ann, Sarah, Ruth, Mercy, Roland, Arthur and Asa. All except Deborah Ruth and Arthur were living, A. D. 1919, when this family history was being tabulated. When Asa Borton was seventy-five years old he still had six brothers and sisters who were older than himself, a very unusual record for longevity.. On the day of this interview, October 13, 1919, he was in the field husking corn and his older brothers and sisters were all active men and women. (The biographer one time wrote the story of a, man who at sixty had ten brothers and sisters older than himself.) Mr. Barton had cultivated nine acres of corn alone. All of his life has been spent in action, and that accounts for his physical condition. There are many different branches in the Borton family history, the branch from which Asa Borton is descended having come from England. There were three Hazen brothers who came in an early day from Brazil, and Elizabeth Hazen came from that ancestry. While it is known that the Hazens were a long lived family, only Mrs. Borton ever lived in Fulton county. Asa Borton, Jr., married Sarah Hagerman March 26, 1868, and their children are: Ellis H., who married Sarah Riger, their children are Dessie, Nettie, Paul and Hazen: Arthur D. Borton married Addie Fausey. Their children are: Asa and Thelma Aline. Elizabeth Borton is the wife of Clarence W. Belknap. They have one daughter, Marjey Amelia. Mrs. Borton died February 19, 1905, and since that time a niece, Miss Elizabeth Mason, has been housekeeper for Mr. Borton. While all the Borton children were given educational advantages ,all have continued in .the pursuit of agriculture. Ellis has invested in land in the "cut-over" district in Michigan, and while he hires men to operate it he divides his own time between Michigan and Ohio, his land in Franklin and Dover. Although he owns a farm in Dover, A. D. Borton lives in Warren, Ohio. (See sketch, Belknaps.) When Asa Borton located at Pine Grove there was a nucleus of twenty acres, but he has added to it until he now has 105 acres, . with no waste land except the banks of an open ditch, and that is well' set in blue grass. never was a democrat," said Mr. Borton when asked about his political faith. In a moment he exclaimed: "Well, I have known some good men who only had that one failing." He served Dover Township as a trustee at one time, .although he did not seek the honor. While he is not identified with any church, Mrs. Borton was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Spring Hill, and of course that is the church nearest the heart of the Borton family. Mr. Borton was not yet a, voter when he enlisted, in the. Civil war, March 31, 1864, and served until the end of the war. His brother, Arthur Borton, was also a soldier. A. number of younger relatives were enlisted in the World wax, and George Oldfield lost his life "somewhere. in France." He was a nephew to Miss Mason, and a grand-nephew to Mr. Borton. A brother's son, Abram Mason, had 428 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY the necessary military training but did not get "over there," before the signing of the Armistice. Mr. Borton keeps in close touch with the news of the day through the Wauseon Republican and the Literary Digest. He attributes his activity to the fact that he has always worked, has always been busy, his two years in Michigan being in a sawmill, and the rest. of the time in the great out-of-doors on the farm. There are two stock water ponds on the farm that mark the site of a brick yard that Mr. Borton operated for many years. His father before him was a Fulton county brickmaker, and the pioneer families all knew about the Borton brick kilns. Mr. Borton made brick by hand, and he began off-bearing on his father's brick yard when he was such a small boy that he only carried two bricks at a time. The brick in the house in which Mr. Borton lives, built in 1882, were made in his own faisy. That was the last of hfais output from the factory. Since that time Mr. Borton has done general farming, with special attention. to livestock. He has always bred and fed a great many hogs, but recently he plans only enough labor to keep him in good physical condition. They say "Uncle Asa Borton" in the community. CLARENCE W. BELKNAP. It was in 1851 that the Belknap family history had its beginning in Fulton county, and Clarence W. Belknap of Sycamore Stock Farm in Dover is in the third generation. He is one of seven children born to Zera and Mary Jane (Kesler) Belknap. He has one brother, Frederick G. Belknap, and there were five who died in infancy. Only the twins, had been given names. They were George and William, and because they were born February 14, each was given the name Valentine. Zera Belknap was the oldest in a family of seven children born to Thomas and Polly Ann (Farr) Belknap, and he was the only one born in Lorain county. He was not yet two years old when his parents came by wagon from Lorain to Fulton county. They encountered many difficulties crossing the black swamp enroute to the new country. They located at Delta, and there six children were born to them. They were: Myron, Lucile, Lucretia, Thomas, Lucina and Arthur. While Thomas Belknap attained to the age of eighty-five years, his wife died while she was yet a young woman. They lie buried in the Spring Hll Cemetery. Thomas Belknap , was married three times, and Zera Belknap Was a son from his third marriage. There was a half brother, Francis Marion Belknap, who was from the second marriage, and he came along with the family to Fulton county. There were three children by the first marriage, but their mother died in Vermont and the father went to Wisconsin .before he finally located in Lorain county. These children neknownme west and nothing is known. of them today. In all there were eleven children born to Thomas Belknap--three different mothers. Zera Belknap married Mary Jane Kesler June 3, 1875, and except four years in a Michigan lumber camp they have always lived at Spring Hill. She was a daughter of Peter and Catharine (Gier) Kesle. There were ten children : . Catharine, Mary Jane, Ida Ellen, Leah Adeline, Elizabeth Etta, Frances Adelia, Franklin, Alice Dell, Emma and John. In the Belknap family, October, 1919, there HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 429 were four brothers and one sister living and in the Kesler family three sisters. While the Peter Kesler family were originally from Pennsylvania, they came from Ashland to Fulton county. It was soon after the coming of the Belknap family, and Mr. and Mrs. Belknap grew up in the community, and all realized the hardships of the pioneers, and the year of "sick wheat," everybody who had wheat . flour was glad to change it for corn meal—an unexplained incident in the community. When Thomas Belknap removed from Delta he located at "Hornetsville," and he helped cut the timber from the site of Wauseon and work it into barrel staves. While there was white oak timber in abundance, his occupation was stave-making, the staves sent to Buffalo and the barrels made there. All that is changed today. It is as a story that is told when there is no more white oak timber in Fulton county. The United States mail aeroplanes crossing Fulton county today are a stride in advance from the time of the coming of the Lake Shore, now the New York Central Railway System. Clarence and Fred Belknap are the only men bearing the name in their generation in Fulton county today. It illustrates the truth that "the places that know us now shall soon know us no more forever." On July 3, 1907, C. W. Belknap married Elizabeth Borton (see sketch Asa Borton), and when she left her father's house she went across the road with her husband to Sycamore Stock Farm, and here was born one child, Marjey Amelia. Pine Grove and Sycamore Stock Farm are across the road from each other. In the wood lot at Sycamore Stock Farm is a tulip poplar that furnishes an abundance of flowers each Decoration Day, and many friends of the family come there for them. While Thomas Belknap was a Baptist, the Zera Belknap family belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church in Spring Hill, although C. W. Belknap and his wife̊ sometimes attend the Fountain Valley Baptist Church. The Belknap family vote is cast with the republican party, and there has always been a military note in its history. It is known that Thomas Belknap was born on a family homestead in Vermont that had come to his father, name unknown to Zera Belknap, in consideration of his service in the War of the Revolution. Francis Marion Belknap did the honors of the family as a soldier in the Civil war, and in the present generation Frederick G. Belknap, who lives with his parents in Spring Hill, spent fourteen months in the service in the war of the nations. For eleven months in the World war he was "somewhere in France," and like other young soldiers he says very little about his war time experiences. As soldiers grow older the campfire spirit takes deeper hold on them. While there is a Belknap genealogy in existence, C, W. Belknap does not possess it. Zera Belknap, father of.C. W. and F. G., died March 3d, 1920, and was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery. LEVI MCCONKEY. While the name McConkey is of Scotch origin, the coming of Levi McConkey of Dover to Fulton county, July 1, 1859, was the beginning of the local family history. Mr. McConkey was born April 22, 1839, in Wayne county, and when he was twenty he came to Fulton county. He is one of four children 430 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY born to William and Rachel (Miley) McConkey. They were: Margaret, Levi, Isaiah and Adeline. When he was thirty-eight years old William McConkey died, and later the widow married James Welles. They had two daughters, Rachel and Sophronia, half sisters to Levi McConkey, who enrolls the family in the Fulton County History. It was with the family of his step-father, James Welles, that Levi McConkey came from Wayne to Fulton county. In the ancestral line William McConkey was one of ten children born to Thomas. and Elizabeth (Hague) McConkey. He was the oldest and the others : Mahaleth, Mary, Rachel, Orpha, Ruth, Elizabeth, Namona, ,Hannah, and Reason. Thomas McConkey, "with what family he had," migrated from Pennsylvania to Wayne county, Ohio, when there was nothing but a blockhouse at Wooster to protect the settlers from the Indians. He moved in an ox-cart and forded many streams. He entered a section of land in the Wayne county wilderness when the forest was full of Indians and wild animals—Indians their only visitors. Here part of the children mentioned were born, and Levi McConkey is the son of William. There is a place in Pennsylvania called McConkey's Ferry commemorating this pioneer McConkey family. While the definite time of the removal of the family to Ohio is unknown, the father of Thomas McConkey, who had come from Scotland to Pennsylvania, came with him to Wayne county. While there is no definite in- formation the story is told that he met his wife aboard a sailing vessel• when both were coming to America. Levi McConkey does not know the name of this ancestor, but he is certain that she lies buried at Shreve in Wayne county. There is an old cemetery there on the McConkey farm, but in that time the graves were not marked as they are today. However, there is a small marker at the grave of William McConkey. Isaiah McConkey, of Wauseon, is a brother of Levi, and there is a half-sister, Mrs. Sophronia Welles, of Chesterfield, all of the family who are living today. James Welles and his wife, Rachel Miley McConkey Welles, lie buried in the Ayres Cemetery. January 7, 1869, Levi McConkey married Emily C. Minnich, who was one of four children born to Peter and Catharine (Downs) Minnich. The brother and sisters are: Louisa, John and Lodema. The Minnich family is of German descent, the ancestry coming to America about 1600, and the direct line had lived in Pennsylvania before coming to Ohio. The Downs family settled in Seneca, county in 1824, and while Peter Minnich came from Pennsylvania the time is unknown, but he was married in Seneca county. They settled on a farm in the part of Lucas now known as Fulton county. It was here the Minnich children were born, and Mr. and Mrs. Levi McConkey were married, and their two children, Catharine A. and Clarence L., are citizens. Mrs. McConkey died November 14, 1913, at the family homestead in Dover, and the daughter remains as home-maker for her father. Clarence L. McConkey married Elizabeth Wilford, January 27, 1906, and their children are: Ida May and Emily Jane. The McConkey family have been identified with Fulton county community affairs for three score years, and its record will bear investigation. Their politics are republican, although years ago Levi McConkey was a democrat. One day at a political meeting in HISTORY OF' FULTON COUNTY - 431 Wooster he saw a street pageant representing Lincoln as the railsplitter. He was in sympathy with the cause of labor and other issues before the country, and from that time he has voted with the republican party. As a family the MoConkeys have communed with the Church of Christ both at Shreve and at Spring Hill, and for fifty years Levi McConkey was teacher in the Bible School connected with the local church. The industry of the family has been the world's oldest occupation, agriculture, and since 1871 Mr. McConkey has lived on the farm in Dover. The barn was built in 1898, and the house in the Century year—and here they all live in comfort. While Mr. McConkey is four score years old he has not abated his interest in the news of the day. While he is no longer active in public affairs he is still interested in them. He has read the National Tribune from its first publication: He enlisted as a Civil war soldier in Company I of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry in August, 1862, one of the fighting regiments of the war, and while he was in the thickest of the fire in a number of battles he came through without personal injury. It was a trained regiment he joined and there was no delay. He was on the firing, line from the beginning, and he has the honor of being among those who fired the last shot at Appomattox. Mr. McConkey participated in the capture of the last piece of artillery taken from the Confederate Army, and his entire regiment had the same feeling of pride about it. Now that he looks from life's hill slope over a life well spent, Levi McConkey has pride in his military record as well as in his career as a private citizen. When one 'has lived for sixty years in one community he becomes a part of it, and pride is pardonable in such things. Aye, pride in achievement is a commendable thing., DEALTON ADELBERT BOYERS. There is little definite information as to the exact time of the beginning of the Boyers' family history in Fulton county. There is evolution in the spelling of many family names, and Dealton Adelbert Boyers of Dover is convinced that in Pennsylvania the ancestry had been known by the name of Boyer. There is a Boyertown where his ancestry had lived, but somewhere along the way another letter has been added in spelling the name—Boyer in Pennsylvania, and Boyers in Ohio. In Fulton county the name has always been written Boyers. The local Boyers' family history began with the coming of Jacob Boyers from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He came with the family of an uncle, William Jones. There was an influx of Pennsylvania families to northern Ohio along about 1840, and it is estimated that Jacob Boyers came about that time. He was young, and none of his relatives ever visited him and while the name Boyer is often heard in Ohio, no relationship has ever been established with people of that name. The immediate descendants of Jacob Boyers know absolutely nothing of his early history. When Jacob Boyers came as a boy to Ohio he looked out for himself. Finally he worked by the year for a settler named Thomas Walters, receiving in payment an eighty acre tract of land at a consideration of $125, the land now rated at $200 an acre, and here on March 31, 1844, the Boyers family history properly had its beginning in Ohio. On that day Jacob Boyers married Lydia Jewell. 432 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY She was a daughter of the Rev. Joseph Jewell, a pioneer minister of the Disciples of Christ, known today as Christians. The same church exists today in Spring Hill. While the Jewells were a Connecticut family, Lydia Jewell was born September 12, 1824, in Newburg, Ohio, it being on the itinerary of the frontier minister. As a young girl of sixteen years she later came with the family to the territory since developed into Fulton county, and here she met Jacob Boyers. It is known that Lydia Jewell had three brothers in the Civil war, Enos, Simon and Joseph, and two of them, Simon and Joseph, died in the Southland. Her sisters were : Julia, Margaret, Nancy and Sarah, but none of that generation is living today, and little is known of their personal history. In 1849 Jacob Boyers joined a prospecting company being organized in Wayne county, Ohio, and he went overland to California. He remained long enough to secure sufficient gold nuggets from the proceeds of which improvements were later made on this farm he owned in Fulton county. D. A. Boyers treasures a finger ring today that was made from gold ore dug from the mines by his father. A letter bearing date of January 20, 1853, written by Jacob Boyers to his family, tells of his life in the mining camps in Yuba county, California. It is written in legible hand and is a relic carefully .guarded by the son and his wife, a connecting link in the chain of family history. Thus ends the story of that generation, their names having all been inscribed on tombstones in the Ayers Cemetery not far from Spring Hill in the west edge of Dover. The children born to Jacob and Lydia (Jewell) Boyers are: Simeon J., deceased; Jane, Ella, Belinda—the latter deceased, and always called Duck; next was D. A. Boyers, who relates the family story; William, Levi, deceased, and Addie. Louis died in infancy. The Boyers-Jewell families have been engaged in agriculture with here and there a digression, there having been ministers and teachers in the different generations. Politics—unanimously re- publican, with decided "water wagon" convictions. The family has always been allied with the Christian Church, and identified with all movements for the better community conditions. On August 18, 1878, Dealton Adelbert Boyers married Laura Rebekah Miley at the Miley homestead near Spring Hill, and since that time it has been the home of the Boyers family, although March 1, 1920, they left it. The Miley family name has been in the annals of Fulton county since 1845, when George Miley located in Wauseon. In 1872 he removed to Dover—the Miley-Boyers family homestead near Spring Hill. George Miley was born December 12, 1816, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and he married Lettisha Welles, March. 31, 1839, in Holmes county, Ohio. They located in Hancock county, where their first child, Jesse W. Miley, was born, and they returned to Holmes county, where two sans, Benjamin F. and William B., were born before they came to Fulton county. The children born in Fulton county on the farmstead near Wauseon are Levi E., Enos S., George H., and Laura R., and two who died in infancy were Rufus and Mary Ellen. The four living, 1919, are Benjamin F., Levi E., and Enos S. beside one sister, Mrs. Laura R. Boyers. Through the oldest brother, Jesse W. Miley, there are children in the fifth generation and through Mrs. Boyers there are twenty-six in the fourth generation of the Mileys in Fulton county. HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 433 The children in the Boyers family are : Loren W., who married Lottie Ives. Their children are : Ralph, Ray, Otto, Elbert, Laura, Lucile and Kenneth. George M. married Eunice Clark. Their children are : Glen, Bertha, Leo, Clark, Howard and Edith. Elma is the wife of George Campbell. Their children are: Paul, Helen, Louis and Wayne. Florence is the wife of B. F: Shaffer. Their children are : Wave, Bruce, Donald, Byron and Fern. Helen is the wife of Prof. E. L. Hoskin. Their children are : Eldon Elbert and Helen Elizabeth. Levi married Joy Krontz. Their children are : Gerald, Grace, Beatrice and Bertram. Bernard, the youngest child, is a student in Spring Hill special school, where all the older Boyers' children were enrolled, and as they graduated there they went to Wauseon High School, and Helen went to Hiram College. Elma was a teacher in common school, and except L. W., who is a painter in Wauseon, and Levi, who has a garage in West Unity, and Helen, who lives in Portland, Oregon, the Boyers family are located on farms in Fulton county. Now that the family homestead has been sold, Mr. and Mrs. Boyers have planned a western trip, after which they will live in retirement somewhere in Fulton county. While the name Miley was one time known to all in the Spring Hill community, today it is only known in Delta and on the gravestones in the Ayres Cemetery, where sleep the grandparents on both sides—Boyers-Miley. These pioneers had all been associated with the community development, and all of them exerted an influence for good, the obituary notice of George Miley reading: "He was one of that old stock of Christians who carried his Testament in his pocket, and met everybody with the 'Thus sayeth the Lord.' " While Jacob Boyers died comparatively a young man, George Miley attained to more than ninety-two years, and an account of his Golden Wedding anniversary reads: "About eighty guests assembled at the family residence near Spring Hill on Thursday, March 21, 1889, to do them honor. Fifty years ago they had joined hands and lives, and have been mutual in toil and interests for the best half of the most progressive century in the world's history." Mr. and Mrs. Boyers remember many of the stories of pioneer life, and said Mrs. Boyers: "If young people today had to live as did the pioneers they would think it a terrible thing ;" and, again, they remember hearing them say: "The happiest days in our lives," and believe they meant it. When William Welles first came into Fulton county prospecting for land on which to locate his children, one of them, Mrs. Lettisha Miley says he left his saddle bags in the care of the tavern keeper for the night, saying it was "nails," when in reality it was the purchase money for the farm land he finally left to them. While they had sugar camps and plenty of home made maple sugar in the frontier community, they did not have furniture and George Miley used to put logs in the fireplace and in lieu of chairs roll out the sugar kegs on which to seat his guests while spending an evening in the cabin. Time was when the dense forest was the problem, but under war time economics today the question is where the next cord of stove wood is to be found, or what the sugar limitation will be at the grocery store. There are very different economic conditions confronting the citizenry of today from the civilization known to the Fulton county pioneers. The Boyers- 434 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY Miley family story reflects conditions in scares of other pioneer families in Fulton county. JOHN J. SPIESS is a son of one of the early Swiss settlers of Fulton county, and has exemplified the sturdy characteristics of his race during an active career of over thirty years, has developed a fine farm and distinguished himself by his public-spirited relationship to all the community interests of German Township, where he has spent all his life. He was born in that township in 1868, son of Jacob J. and Caroline (Knapp) Spiess. His father was born in one of the Cantons of Switzerland and came to this country at the age of fifteen. He made settlement in German Township, acquired and developed a tract of land there, was prospered by his thrift and enterprise, and reared a family of eleven children, John J. being the oldest of the sons. The latter attended the country school in District No. 13 until he was fourteen years of age. His education was acquired with a term of a few months each year and the rest of the season was given to the labors and responsibilities of the home farm. He was taught the art of successful farming by his father; and remained at home and worked for his father to the age of twenty-six. He then rented 611/9 acres a half mile south of Archbold, and later bought that property and has since acquired adjoining land until he now has a well proportioned farm of 110 acres, well adapted to general farming purposes. Mr. Spiess married Elizabeth Nofziger, the youngest daughter of Christian and Barbara (Rupp) Nofziger, on December 27, 1900. Seven daughters were born into their home: Virgie Walila, Alta Carolena, Nellie May, Charlotte Celesta., Wilma Belle, Violet Eliza- beth and Lodema Jane. All are still living, constituting a bright and happy family, the daughters all being taught the lessons and principles which are at the foundation of our national. life. Mr. Spiess and family are members of the Reformed Church and politically he is a republican. WALTER PERRY CLARK. While the family story connected with the early life of Walter Perry Clark of Spring Hill (Tedrow) belongs properly to the City of Detroit, since April 27, 1915, his permanent residence has been in Fulton county. Mr. Clark is the youngest in a family of three children born to Alvin S. and Helen (Hawley) Clark. He has a sister, Mrs. Maie (Clark) Bennett,, of Detroit, and he had a brother, Frank Clark, who died in young manhood. Mr. Clark's father, A. S. Clark, deceased, was the third in a family of seven children born to John P. Clark. They are: Avis, Alice, Alvin, Florence, Norman, Arthur and Walter. The history of John P. Clark and his family is closely interwoven with the history of the City of Detroit. The name Clark has been perpetuated there by the name of Clark avenue and the John P. Clark Park, Clark avenue bordering the farm once owned by him, and the park being named by the, citizens of Detroit in recognition of the donor. Clark Park was the forest reservation on the Clark homestead, now in the heart of the city. The Alice Clark Clipper ship, built at the foot of Clark avenue, was the first Great Lakes vessel designed as an ocean going craft. HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 435 and it was later sold in Glasgow, Scotland. None of the children of John P. Clark survive, and in the next generation, the grandchildren, there -are six, and one of them is Walter P. Clark. His sister, Mrs. Bennett, and a cousin, Norman Atcheson,are all who live in Detroit today. The only grandson bearing the time honored name of Clark now lives in Spring Hill, W. P. Clark. Mr. Clark married Ida May Oden, May 10, 1900, in Toledo, and together they have visited many places of interest. He has been a traveling salesman and they have lived on the road together. They have traveled by land and by water, Mr. Clark serving as passenger clerk on many of the largest lake steamers. He has benefited, however, from the family investments in Detroit, and while he now lives in retirement, his income is from steamboat investments in Detroit and real estate both in Detroit and Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have visited the principal cities together from Duluth to New Orleans, and from New York to San Francisco. After all Mr. and Mrs. Clark find more pleasure and real comfort in their quiet home and garden plot in Spring Hill than anywhere else in the whole country. The lure of the world is as nothing to them after living for a time in quiet enjoyment—home the most restful spot of all. "'Mid pleasures and palaces," well, their "Home, Sweet Home," holds them as permanent citizens of Fulton county. They are content with the little world in which they live, and when absent they are always glad to return to their own "vine and fig tree." JEREMIAH (JERRY) JONES. When the immediate family history of Jeremiah, always called "Jerry" Jones, began in this "neck o' the woods," what is now Fulton was then part of Lucas county. A government deed in possession of Mr. Jones, signed by President James K. Polk June 1, 1845, shows that William Jones, Jr., father of Jeremiah Jones, came into the ownership of the family homestead, section No. 1 in Dover Township, on that date, and since then it has been in the one family name. This was five years before the organization of Fulton county. The family tradition is that William Jones, Sr., lived in York Township, but there is no record extant of the time when he located there. It is known, however, that Jeremiah Jones, born July 17, 1846, is in the third generation of this pioneer family in Fulton county. While he does not remember his grandfather, Wil liam Jones, Sr., the grandmother lived many years the family of his father, William Jones, Jr., and he remembers her distinctly. She lived. many years after the death of his own father, which occurred February 25, 1857. Jeremiah Jones well remembers that his mother, Rachel (Tedrow) Jones, reared the family, alone. She died November 23, 1876, and like Dorcas of old, she had done her part in the world. She was a daughter of Isaac Tedrow, who was a farmer and the first postmaster at Tedrow, the postoffice later. being removed from the Tedrow farm to Spring Hill, and since then Spring Hill is frequently called Tedrow. The Jones and Tedrow families of that generation are all gone the way of the world. However, their family story is properly part of the History of Fulton County. In the Jones family there were Uncles: John and Daniel, and there were aunts: Katy, Polly, Elizabeth, Sallie and Melinda, and in the Tedrow family were Jeremiah and Isaiah, who were twins, 436 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY and William, and the aunts were : Elizabeth, Mary, Katy Ann, Rachel, Delilah and Jane. So much for the preceding generation in both families, Jones and Tedrow.. The children born to William Jones, Jr. and Rachel Tedrow were : Newton, Isaiah, Elizabeth, Jeremiah, Louisa, William, Emery and Cornelius. Only two, Jeremiah and Elizabeth, are living today, and the day of the interview she was his guest. On April 14, 1878. Jeremiah Jones married Emma Herreman. She is a daughter of Dr. Henry and Salvino, (Loomis) Herreman. They came from Ashtabula county in 1844 to western Ohio. Her father, Doctor Herreman, was an active man in community affairs, and he practiced medicine for many years in the frontier community. Mrs. Jones had two brothers: Warren S., who now occupies the old family homestead in Dover, and Charles, who died in boyhood. Her sisters are Elsie M. and Anastasia. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones are : Elton W., born June 20, 1879, who married Ruby Dunbar; Bayard F., born December 2, 1880, who married Edna Hunt; Merton C., born August 18, 1882, who married Bessie Guilford, has one son, Claire; Bessie R., born November 5, 1884, is the wife of Charles F. Gype, and their children are Donald and Doris; Vida G. born July 26, 1886, is the wife of Clarence Van Dyke Worley; Maysel A., born August 31, 1889, is the wife of Clarence Hollister, and their children are Hilon and Rollin.; Ernest A., born August 22, 1891, married Maud Smith, and they have one son, Alva Bay ; Herma A., born May 23, 1896, is the wife of Rollo Frazier, and their children are Arlene and, Leon; Ploy E., born March 27, 1898, is the wife of Orville Markley, and they have two children, Evelyn and Russell Dean. There has never been a vacant chair, and all the family circle lives within the bounds of Fulton county. Mr. and Mrs. Jones gave all of their children common school educations, and they taught them industry along with Mental acquirements. The vote of the family has always been cast with the republican party. While they have always. attended the Ottokee Methodist Church, they have never joined it. Mr. Jones is a member of Wauseon 'Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Lodge No. 362, and the sons and daughters all sustain about the same relation to their respective communities. The family homestead bears evidence of careful. husbandry, and while Mr. Jones is no longer in the active management there is a double set of farm buildings, and they continue their residence there living even, to the fourth generation— grandchildren living on the same farmstead with them. There are few farms in Fulton county which in the course of three score and ten years have never been transferred from the original family name, the deed to this one having been signed by a United States president. The farm buildings are substantial and modern, the house having a basement story with furnace heat and sanitary plumbing, the water system being extended to both houses and all of the' farm buildings. From the standpoint of modern comforts there is no reason why the family Should quit the farm where they have lived so many years. Isolation is no longer a hardship with the rural community. ARTHUR. LORENZO BADGLEY AND MRS. ADELIA A. BADGLEY. In October, 1919, there were four generations sheltered under one roof- HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 437 tree in the Badgley-Beecher homestead near Ottokee. It is the home of. Arthur L. Badgley, his mother, Mrs. Adelia A. Badgley, his grandfather, Myron Augustus Beecher, and his four children, Robert Augustus, Mary Adelia, Myron Mills and Dale Lorenzo Badgley. Since April 4, 1872, this family has lived in Fulton county, locating first in Clinton, lived for a time in York and finally settled in Dover, where they have had ,continuous residence. Mr. Beecher, born June 21, 1823, is among the oldest citizens of the county. At the age of ninety-seven years he reads the daily newspapers without the use of spectacles. He has had his second sight for many years, and when his general health is unimpaired his hearing is excellent. Very little in ordinary conversation escapes his notice. Since he was a voter Mr. Beecher has never missed an election except in 1812, when he lost his vote through moving from Michigan to Ohio. His first presidential vote was for James K. Polk, and that is the only time he ever voted with the democratic party. Arthur L. Badgley and his brother Myron Ransom Badgley of Los Angeles are the two sons born to Theodore Mills and Adelia A. (Beecher) Badgley. Mrs. Badgley is the only daughter of her father, M. A. Beecher. Mr. and Mrs. Badgley were married October 7, 1866, in Dover Township, Lenawee county, Michigan. The Badgleys were a New Jersey family, who in 1847 had located in Lenawee county. The father was George W. and ,the mother, Elizabeth (Earl) Badgley. They had four children born in New Jersey and five after they lived in Michigan. They were: Joseph H., Theodore M., George W., William A., Elijah H., Samantha, Eliza, Frank and Laura. There is little known of the history of the Earls except that they lived in New Jersey. The mother was a woman who never said anything about her relatives. Some of the Badgley relatives still live in Michigan. Theodore M. Badgley died at the family home in Dover, May 25, 1918, and that leaves Arthur L. Badgley at the head of the family in Fulton county.. His mother, the only child of Myron Augustus and Martha Louisa (Ludlum) Beecher, is the homemaker for all of them. Mr. Beecher and his wife each belonged to a family of nine children, and each was the fifth child and each survived all of the others. The wife died July 13, 1909, leaving him in the home where they had lived so long, and which was destroyed by fire May 10, 1916, and since then Mr. Beecher has lived in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Badgley. In the old Beecher home were many old time household articles that would now be 'highly valued by the younger relatives. There were old land grants from England signed by King George conveying wild lands in America to Abraham Beecher, the grandfather of Myron A. Beecher, now nearing the century mark in human history. It is known that four Beecher brothers were immigrants from England—one of them 'Abraham Beecher. His son, Robert Beecher, was the father of Myron A. Beecher. Robert Beecher married Adelia Denning, and thus Mrs. Adelia A. Badgley carries the name of her grandmother. Mr. Beecher remained in Connecticut until after the death of his father and mother, when, accompanied by one sister, Frances Adelia Beecher, he removed to Michigan. An older brother, Robert R. Beecher, had already located there, where he was an attorney-at-law. They reached Adrian August 26, 1846, 438 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY remaining there until 1872, when Mr. Beecher came to Fulton county. The Ludlums were a New York family, but all records were burned and little is known today about them. It is known that Dr. Lyman Beecher was a cousin. to Robert Beecher, and thus the descent of M. A. Beecher is related to Henry Ward Beecher and his sister, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Outside the immediate household there are no Badgley-Beecher relatives in the community. Arthur L. Badgley married Mary Stutzman, June 25, 1898, and to them were born four children, already mentioned—the fourth generation. She was a daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Wyse) Stutzman, of German Township. She was one of thirteen children: Sarah, Elizabeth, Louise, Lavina, Fanny, Sarah, Eva and Mary, and Daniel, Samuel, Albert, John and Stephen. She was the fifth child and she died December 27, 1916, just when Mr. Badgley was building a splendid new house for her. Since that time the four generations in the family have lived under one roof in the home of Mrs. Adelia A. Badgley. Myron R. Badgley married Sadie Oden, who died in a short time. He later married Amelia Hasert, and their five children are: Clarence, Howard (deceased), Catharine, Elsie and Rose. Amelia. The mother died, and he married Iva Hunt. Since 1904 he has lived in Los Angeles. The Badgley brothers had common school education at Ottokee, and with the father and grandfather they have always voted the republican ticket. While the family is not enrolled as members of church they believe in Sabbath observance and high standards of living. Mrs. Badgley works with the local church societies, and they all attend church services at times. A. L. Badgley belongs to the Ancient Order of Gleaners, Ottokee Arbor, and today his children are in the district school at Ottokee. The family burial plot, the Ottokee Cemetery, adjoins the farm where the Badgley-Beecher family has lived for many years. They plan to complete the new house begun before the death of Mrs. A. L. Badgley, and all will move into it. Because of his years Mr. Beecher is shown great deference in the Ottokee community. BAYARD FLOYD JONES. Since February 1, 1916, Bayard F. Jones—they call him "Bay" in the community, has been superintendent and his wife has been matron of the Fulton County Farm and Home for Indigents, those unfortunates who know no other enchanted spot by the sacred name of home, sweet home. Will Carlton's poem : "Over The Hills To The Poor House," loses its significance, however, when Mr. and Mrs. Jones have to do with the institutional life of Fulton county. While discipline in an institution is absolutely necessary, they are humane in their dealings with the community's unforunates. While Mr. Jones serves Fulton county, and his business relation to the community is with the county commissioners, he simply applies the business methods of any other good farmer and husbandman and makes the county farm sustain itself. He is the second son of Jeremiah Jones, and having been reared on a nearby farmstead, he is familiar with the land production and the market conditions. He is thereby able to manage the business of Fulton county on a paying basis—business methods in county agriculture and institutional affairs. While there is a shifting, uncertain population at the Fulton County Home adjoining the ancient town of Ottokee, HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 439 once the county seat of Fulton, and in winter there are always more dependents than in summer, in September, 1919, there were twenty men and eight women sheltered there. As superintendent and matron Mr. and Mrs. Jones are able to secure valuable assistance in the farm and household duties from some of the wards of Fulton county. They realize their own moral responsibility, and if the wards were competent helpers they would not be sheltered in an institution. Under the management of a former superintendent and matron Mr. and Mrs. Jones both had employment there, and thus they gained valuable knowledge of the work of the Associated Charities in Fulton county and Ohio in general. In that way they were peculiarly fitted for their present requirements as superintendent and matron of the institution. Mr. Jones always .attends the meetings of the State Board of Charities. Mr. Jones married Edna Hunt, September 22, 1908. She is a daughter of Aubigne A. and Alice (Page) Hunt. While her birth place was Braintree, Massachusetts, the family later removed to Michigan and now live in Hudson .in which place her father died February 7, 1920. Her sister, Lillian, is the wife of Dwight Heacock, and she has one child, Pauline A. Heacock. A brother, Vinton A., died in young manhood. Another brother, Carroll P. married Florence Huff. Another brother, James, was in the United States Navy in the war of the nations. Mrs. Jones graduated from high school in Morenci, Michigan. Later she studied in the Tri-State College, Angola, Indiana, and. she was a teacher in rural schools in both Lenawee county, Michigan, and Fulton county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Jones affiliate with the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ottokee, and while he is republican in politics his position as farm superintendent is not a political plum, but it is under the Civil Service branch of the state. Through their relation to the Fulton County Home, Mr. and Mrs. Jones enjoy a wide acquaintance in the community. In the course of a year many people visit the institution. The environment is splendid, and it is a pleasant retreat for those who need its shelter. WILLIAM HENRY PIKE. Because he has always lived in one community William Henry Pike, of "Pike's Peak" in Dover, is interested in, the historical development of Fulton county, and his wife, at' one time a pupil of F. H. Reighard, encouraged him in placing an order for the History of Fulton County. Their young son, Willis Henry Pike, is in the fourth generation of the family on one farmstead, and the elevation on which the house stands is most appropriately known as Pike's Peak—the home for so many years of the Pike family. W. H. Pike .is one of five children born at this homestead in the family of Judson and Sarah Adelia (Wise) Pike, and in time he was more than an elder brother—he was father to the younger ones. They are: Charles Edward, Myra May, Jennie Alice and Glen Romain. When the youngest was three the father died, and the mother died when he was seven, and the oldest son, William H.; .became at once father and mother to the younger •brothers and sisters. All remained with him until they established homes for themselves. However, only one brother, Charles E., lives in Fulton 440 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY county today. All the others live in Michigan, but they pay frequent visits at the old family homestead—Pike's Peak. Judson Pike and his wife were married February 25, 1872, and both were always residents of Fulton county. They lie buried in Spring Hill Cemetery. He was one of twelve children born to Alanson and Hannah (Link) Pike, who soon after their marriage in New York had located in Gorham Township, but they later lived in Wauseon. In their family were nine sons and three daughters, but because of the early deaths among them and the death of his father, W. H. Pike has no list of their names. Some of them died in infancy, and he never heard their names at all. Those who reached adult years are : Judson, Chester, Albert, Hiram, James, Homer, Angeline, Myra and Oliver. Alanson Pike who lies buried in the Wauseon Cemetery, was the founder of the house of Pike in Fulton county. A brother to Hannah Pike, Elmer Link, was one time a temporary resident of Fulton county. Sarah Adelia (Wise) Pike was one of nine children born to Daniel and Catharine (Lingle) Wise. ,They were: Sarah Adelia, William Henry, Charles, James, Oscar, Alice, Clara, Ella and Agnes. All but the two older ones are living today (October, 1919). All but Alice live in Fulton county. The Wise family came from Seneca to Fulton. William H. Pike, who enrolls his ancestry, married Olga Keszler, March 25, 1908; and to them has been born one son, Willis Henry. Mrs. Pike is the youngest of four children: Elizabeth, Emma, William and Olga, born to Nicklous and Catharine (Miller) Keszler. There is German and French in the family blood, Nicklous having been born in Huron county, Ohio, while Catharine Miller was born in Germany. When the mother was a girl of nine she came with her parents, Henry and Susannah (Bush) Miller, to Sandusky, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Keszler each belonged to a family of nine children, and each was the oldest child. The children in the Keszler family are: Nicklous, Waiter, Martin, Henry, Rachel, Barbara, Rosa, Lena and one that died in infancy. The children in the Miller family are: Catharine, Andrew, William, Henry, Jacob, Barbara, Christina, Elizabeth and Caroline. Three are living today in the Keszler family, while in the Miller family there is but one. Although she was born in Sandusky, Mrs. Pike's parents had lived for twenty years in Fulton county. In 1887 they located in Swan Creek, and they lie buried in ,Centerville Cemetery. Willis Henry, the young son in the Pike family, never saw any of his grandparents. The Keszlers all live in Fulton county except one sister, who lives in Sandusky. Both Mr. and Mrs. Pike had common school advantages, and they are identified with Ottokee Grange and Ottokee Arbor of the Ancient Order. of Gleaners. The family vote has always been republican, and the ancestral family belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Alanson Pike endowed the church in Wauseon —one of the conditions being the perpetual care of the family graves in the Wauseon Cemetery. Mrs. Olga Pike was confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Swan Creek, and the son, Willis Henry, has been baptized in Trinity Lutheran Church, Wauseon. Oliver and Hiram. Pike were Civil war soldiers, Oliver dying in the service at Bowling Green, Kentucky. William Nicklous Bix HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 441 ler, a nephew to Mrs. Pike, died of influenza at Camp Custer. He was buried in the uniform he would have worn in overseas service had he been spared to go across with his regiment in the war of the nations. In all its history the Pike family has been identified with the world's oldest occupation—agriculture, and on "Farmers' Pension Day" Mr. and Mrs. Pike are in Wauseon for their dairy money, the sale of milk supplementing the income from the. farmstead. When W. H. Pike came to his place of residence he was a "baby in long clothes," and he has no thought of any other habitation in the world. MORTIMER M. TAYLOR. While there is no early day family story in connection with the ancestry of Mortimer M. Taylor of Echo Farm in Chesterfield, through his marriage to Fannie Mariah Butler, June 4, 1890, he became identified with the history of the first family to locate in the wilderness—later developed into Chesterfield Township and named in honor of an ancestor. M. M. Taylor is the third child born to. Aralza J. and Louisa (Mapes) Taylor, Ella, the first born, having died in childhood, and Alfred is a resident of Michigan. While Mr. Taylor was born near Echo Farm, his early life was spent in 'Michigan. Five years after his marriage he returned to Fulton county, and the reverberations produced by natural conditions suggested the name Echo Farm, where he devotes his attention to agriculture, although he does some contract work and for several years has had much to do with township affairs in Chesterfield. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are: Virgie L., wife of Henry E. Hill. Their children are Marion, Leston and Audrey. Clifford J. married Leota Shaffer. Their children are: Hal A., and Betty Jane. Ruth is the wife of Roy Marks. Their son is David Taylor. The younger children are: Roy A. Jay, Josephine, Evelyn and Chesterfield Clemmons. Jay and Evelyn died in childhood. The youngest son, Chesterfield. Clemmons, bears the ancestral name of the man who was the first settler, and for whom the township was named—the first white man in the territory now known as Chesterfield. Chesterfield Clemmons arrived October 8, 1834, and that long ago Dover and Gorham had not been set off from Chesterfield. It was in territorial days, sixteen years before the organization of Fulton county. This Butler-Clemmons family history is given to posterity by Mrs. Taylor, the youngest daughter of John S. and Lovina (Clemmons) Butler. Their children are: Richard, Sarah, Wilford, Mary, Eunice, Edward, Ulysses and Fannie—Mrs. Taylor. Only four: Eunice, Edward,. Ulysses and Fannie, survive. John S. Butler, founder of the House of Butler in Fulton county, was born May 18, 1824, at Lyons, Wayne county, New York, a son of Asa H. and Sarah (Daggett) Butler. There were four brothers: Samuel, Charles, Elijah and James, and there was one sister, Mary. When John S. Butler was nine years old the family removed to Cleveland, showing that in 1833 the. Butler family history began in Ohio. This nine-year-old boy, John S. Butler, was "bound out" in Cleveland to Col. Alanson Briggs, who was an Indian trader. In 442 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY the fall of 1834 he secured possession of a large tract of wild land in western Ohio, now Fulton county, and on the Michigan strip, and in the spring Of 1835 Colonel Briggs and his family removed to it, bringing "John, the chore boy," along, and. this boy was destined to be at the head of a frontier family of his own in time. In the meantime he was reared by Colonel Briggs, whose two daughters, Eliza and Angeline, regarded him as their brother. It was Lord Byron who said : "Truth is stranger than fiction," and there is much in the life story of John S. Butler that seems. like the stories that begin : "Once upon a time." In reminiscent vein Mr. Butler once wrote : "The trip from Cleveland was made overland, and it was my first experience of pioneer life. Colonel Briggs was wealthy, and he came here to establish an Indian trading post," and he. relates that a stock of merchandise was carried along from Cleveland, and that the teams were frequently "stalled," while crossing the Black Swamp enroute to the wild land to be made the abiding place of the family. They brought livestock along and they soon had a farm dairy about their cabin home in the new country. The settlers along the way helped the Briggs family out of many difficulties enroute, and in time the trading post was a landmark along the trails leading farther into the frontier country. Colonel Briggs was a busy man. He had been brevetted colonel in the second war with England, and the Indian warfare did not have much terror for him. Oftentimes "John, the chore boy," was left in charge of the trading post, and by personal encounter he soon learned to talk with the Indians. For more than one year his only playmates were the young Indians, and when he saw the first white boy, Edwin Patterson, both were speechless as they looked at each other. In time John S. Butler became one of the best known Indian interpreters, and when the United States government finally transferred the Indians to the fl reservations west of the Mississippi he rendered valuable aid both to the Indians and the government officials in getting them ready for transportation. One October day in 1835 some Indians came to the trading post and informed Colonel Briggs of another "pale face," another white man already located in the wilderness. Among them was Chief Winameg, and from him the "chore boy," learned that "white man build wigwam," the first knowledge they had of Chesterfield Clemmons, who had preceded them into the community. In directing them to the Clemmons domicile Chief Winameg led them to a stone that had been located by government surveyors, and in the Indian tongue and with signs he indicated the turns in the way at other stones—so many stones and so many turns, and next day Colonel Briggs and the boy set out to locate their frontier neighbors. Mr. Butler writes: "We received a warm welcome into this home; we were the first white people they had seen in over .a year," and it was in this household that the "chore bay" first saw Lovina Clemmons, who was later to become part of his own life history. He married her on June 14, 1846—something like ten years later. It was June 22, 1821, that this frontiersman and his wife, Chesterfield Clemmons and Fannie Downing, had been married at Auburn, New York, a good many years before they located in the wilderness of Chesterfield—the township named for Chesterfield HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 443 Clemmons at the suggestion of Colonel Briggs at the time of the first election a short time later held in the Indian trading post store. There were eight children : Sally Ann, Lucretia, Rosetta, Lovina (later the bride of John S. Butler) , Eunice, Lucinda and two boys: William and Samuel. When Chesterfield Clemmons and his family arrived at the spot in the unbroken forest—not a. stick amiss in all that vast wilderness that was henceforth to be their home, October 8, 1834, there was no kind of a roof to offer themshelter. They camped in their wagon until they could build their first log cabin home in this land of so little promise to them ; which was yet to commemorate them; this their introduction to Chesterfield. The Chesterfield Grange Hall marks the site today, the Clemmons, Gillis, Onweller, Harger farmstead is the original Clemmons family homestead. The commodious house is unoccupied, and one thinks of the visit there when the "chore boy" first saw the charming daughter—changed conditions with the passing years. The Indian trading post, the home of John S. Butler was only three miles from, there in the unbroken forest. There were only Indian trails through northern Ohio then, and that explains why one pioneer family did not know of the other's existence. Chesterfield Clemmons had come over the Rice trail while Colonel Briggs had come over the territorial road from Toledo. The Butler-Clemmons family had its part in shaping the future of the primitive country, and both Mr. Clemmons and the young boy in question were both in attendance at the first township election, July 19, 1837, when Colonel Briggs proposed that the name Chesterfield be given the township in honor of its first citizen. In his boyhood Mr. Butler carried the United States mail from Sylvania westward to La Grange county, Indiana, and he used to recount his many adventures with wild animals in the perilous journey. Some times he was a guide for travelers who were badly frightened at many narrow escapes enroute, and Mrs. Taylor's scrap book is filled with such adventures. When he reached manhood's estate Mr. Butler had his choice between an Indian pony and forty acres of Fulton county farm land as his bounty from Colonel Briggs. There was land, land, land everywhere and the young man chose the pony, thinking he could later acquire the land, and he was right about it. Mr. Butler was a great newspaper reader, and he was posted on all lines of business, the school of experience being his only teacher. It is related of Mrs. Butler that she was a marks woman, and one day a neighbor who heard the gun shots went around the house to where eight birds were lying on the ground under the cherry. trees. Mr. and Mrs. Butler lived more than three score years together. She belonged to the Disciples Church, and for more than twenty years he served as justice of the peace in Chesterfield. They were community builders--a man and woman adapted to the times in which they lived, and the History of Fulton County would be incomplete if it did not contain their life history. They lived when history was being enacted in the community. WILLIAM HENRY COCHRAN. The Cochran family history in Fulton county begins with the coming of Uriah Cochran and his family October 9, 1865, from Columbiana county. Back of that there is little known of the Cochran family story. Uriah Cochran 444 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY was a posthumous child, and at an early age he went among strangers.. He lived for a number of years with the family of William Smith in Columbiana county. While there is no record of the Christian names of Mr. Cochran's parents, it is understood that the mother had three sets of children, and that Uriah was a son from her second marriage. Their contemporaries are gone the way of the world; and today no one knows this bit of family history. The grandmother of W. H. Cochran married three times. and the children of her first marriage had the name Creighton. Uriah was her only child named Cochran, and the third set of children had the name of Walker: For a time there were letters from a. half brother named Wilson Walker, and there was a half sister, Jane, but W. H. Cochran does not know whether her name was Creighton or Walker. Uriah Cochran lived away from his relatives and he never said very much about them. In fact, he had little opportunity of knowing about them. His children today would be glad of more information about them. It was in Columbiana county that Uriah. Cochran met and married Anna Faulk, October 14, 1858, and there two children, Cramer G. and William H., who repeats this bit of family information were born, and two sisters, Laura F., who died in childhood, and Orla B., were born after the family had located in Chesterfield Township, Fulton county. Anna Faulk was a daughter of Jonathan and Rebekah (Stout) Faulk. While she was born in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, when she was a small child her parents removed to Columbiana county, Ohio. She had two brothers, William and Daniel, and four sisters, Elizabeth, Rebekah, Catharine and Mary. None but Anna ever lived in Fulton county. Uriah Cochran died February 14, 1911, and his wife followed him to the grave April 7, 1917, and both lie buried in Oak Grove Cemetery. Cramer G. Cochran was born April 12, 1860, and he married Gertrude Butler. They have one daughter, Mabel Gertrude: They live in Wauseon. Orla B. Cochran, born April 20, 1870, is the wife of U. G. Butler. They have one daughter, Lula B. Another daughter, Florence A., deceased, was the wife of Thomas Soule. The Butlers live in Chesterfield. William H. Cochran is the second son, born December 17, 1862, in Columbiana county; He was three years old when his parents located on "Hillside Farm" in Chesterfield—since that time the Cochran family homestead in Fulton county. Only for a short absence he has always lived on this farm, around which the family memories cluster. On December 27, 1894, Mr. Cochran married Alice. Greeley, and he brought her as the home maker to Hillside Farm. Their children are: Howard A.; Ruth L. and Gladys M. Mrs. Cochran is the second in a family of five children, and she was born May 2, 1874, a native of Fulton county. She is a daughter of Lewis A. and Mary E. (Wicket) Greeley, who were married October 12, 1871. The Greeley family home is in Franklin Township, their children all being born there, although in later years they lived in Chesterfield. Their oldest 'child, Alvin, died in infancy, leaving Mrs. Cochran the oldest living, and the others tare: Leonora V., wife of L. O. Farley, and their children are: Lewis. A. and Arthur G., Lois M. is the wife of E. C. Lane, and they have one son, E. Earl, and they buried a son, Vaughn G. ; Ida M. is the wife HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 445 of J. C. Lane, their children ,being Roscoe B. and Marjorie B. Lewis A. Greeley is a son of Orrin G. and Letitia (Prettyman) Greeley. His sisters were : Jane and Emily, both deceased. The father married a second time, his wife being Matilda Thomas, and there is a half-brother, T. Parker Greeley. There is a tradition that Andrew Greeley came from England in the seventeenth century, .and that he was the founder of this branch of the family in America. Horace Greeley, who said : "Go west, young man, and grow up with the country," and caused such an exodus to the frontier, is of the same parent stock although not very closely related to the Fulton county Greeleys. The Wickey family lived in Wayne county, but as a babe in her mother's arms Mrs. Greeley was brought to Fulton county. They located in German Township, and the mother, aged ninety-four years, still lives there. Mrs. Greeley is one of seven children : Cassie, Mary E., Francis H., Emma, Amanda, Victor E. and S. Ellen. Mr. and Mrs. Greeley live within one mile of Hillside Farm in Chesterfield. The three children, Howard, Ruth and Gladys, of Hillside Farm, are in the third generation of Cochrans and the fourth generation of Greeleys in Fulton county. Howard A. Cochran is a graduate of the Fayette High School, and for four years he was a public school teacher. On August 15, 1918, he entered military training in the department of auto-mechanics in the University of Cincinnati, and on October 28 he sailed from Hoboken, New Jersey, and remained "Somewhere in France" until January, when he was transferred to the River Rhine in the Army of Occupation in Germany. He was thirteen months in the service. He married Lela Eldridge of Morenci, November 27, 1919. Ruth L. Cochran is a graduate of the International Business College of Fort Wayne, and she is a stenographer there. Gladys M. is a student in the Chesterfield Centralized School, it having been the ambition of Mr. and Mrs. Cochran to give to all their children the advantages of a good education. "Well, sir," said Mr. Cochran, "my politics—why, I vote for the man," but the early vote of the family was with the democratic party. The church relationship is both Methodist and United Breth¬ren. William Faulk, of Columbiana county, who died in the Civil war. and lies buried at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Howard A. Cochran are the two members of the family having military records. General farming—not military officers,' is the order of the day at Hillside Farm, where always awaits a welcome for the children who are outside its shelter—a son employed in Toledo and a daughter in Fort Wayne, and one daughter who always returns at eventide—the school girl at Chesterfield. AMAZIAH CLARK. In discussing family history: "Yes, we all know that Clark is an Irish name," said Amaziah Clark of Dover. However, Mr. Clark was born, April 4, 1842, in Livingston county, New York. The story handed down is that three brothers came over from Ireland, although Mr. Clark knows little in detail about them. He has met others by the name of Clark who came direct from Ireland, and yet they were not related to him. In expressing his pride in Irish ancestry, Mr. Clark exclaimed: "Just about as apt people as we have in the world are Irish," and why should the genealogist argue with him about it? There was a time when Mr. Clark knew everybody in Dover 446 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY and many others, but today he inquires who used to own the farm when trying to get a line on new people in the community. There were four sons born to Philander and Mary (Rulison) Clark while they lived in Livingston county, New York, as follows : Edgar H., Amaziah, Leander and Lemar. After the family had removed to Lake county, Ohio, there were two daughters born : Martha and Mary. In 1857 they all came with their parents to Fulton county. Mr. Clark, who was the second child, was a young lad at the time, and for sixty years he has lived within one mile of his present 'habitation. It was here that he volunteered as a soldier, in September, 1862, and from that time on he was in blue uniform until the end of the struggle, returning in 1865 to Fulton county. His brothers Edgar and Leander were also volunteers. Leander was wounded while in pursuit of Geri. Robert E. Lee, and he died at Fortress Monroe. In recent years Mr. Clark stood at his grave in a government cemetery there. "The nicest place you ever saw," is the way he describes it. Mr. Clark and his brother Edgar lived neighbors for more than seventy years, seeing each other frequently. He still has one sister, Mrs. Mary Shaffer, of Decatur, Illinois. All the family married except the brother who died in the government service. Mr. Clark never saw his father's people except one brother, Amaziah, for whom he was named, and one sister, Mrs. Eunice (Clark) Carter, who later lived in the community. "So far as I know the Rulisons were all born in York State," said Mr. Clark. "My mother had two sisters, Margaret and Betsey, and she had three brothers, William, Robert—and the other name, well, I never saw him. Grandfather Rulison died early and I never knew anything of him, but grandmother Rulison lived with us when we were children at home. I do not know their names at all." On March 4, 1866, Amaziah Clark married Lydia Ann Markley, and they began housekeeping on the farm he still owns, and here six children, Edwin Elmer, Frederick Eugene, Myrtle May, Minnie Viola, Mabel Blanche, and Lula Pearl, were born to them. Edwin E. married Ella Borton. Their children are Clarence, Alta and Ida. Frederick E. married Hattie A. McLain. Their children are: Roscoe A., Howard 0., Dale W., Virgie L., Wilbur B., and Opal I. Hazel May died in infancy, and another died at birth, no name having been given to it. Myrtle May is the wife of James P. Long. Their children are: Effie, Wayne, Leora and Myrtle. Two died, Kenneth, and one that had not been named. Minnie Viola married Charles Gillespie. She died within one year from her marriage. Mabel Blanche is the wife of John H. Miller. Their children are: Clark, Vernie and Lydia. Lula P. married Ray Pennington. Their children are Alice, Wilma and Inez. "My wife and I belonged to, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Spring Hill," said Mr. Clark, "but some of the family are United Brethren and--well, we are scattered," and then as to politics—there is free soil, whig and republican history in the Clark family, and he cast his first vote for Lincoln. While the Clarks lived in Lake county there was an Under Ground Railroad in the commu- HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 447 nity, and there was a station. He often saw fugitives in hiding there. None of the family has ever sought or held office, but all exercise their rights of citizenship, and they always have part in the election. The occupation of the Clark family has been agriculture, and although retired from active business Mr. Clark continues his residence at the farmstead, the son Frederick Eugene and his family living there and relieving him of all responsibility. His wife died April 4, 1900, and this son has always lived there. While Mr. Clark frequently goes for short visits among his other children, no place suits him quite as well as the old homestead in Dover. While there has always been an Angola road by the .farm, Mr. Clark helped "blaze" the way for all the other roads in the community. He never lived in the log, cabin—the primitive American dwelling so common among Fulton county settlers, but he bought the lumber and built a frame house that still stands on the farm, although not kept in habitable condition. In 1897 Mr. Clark built the commodious home in which he lives today. "When I located here," said Mr. Clark, "I could no more drive a team across the country without a chopping ax along than I could drive through Lake Erie today," but all that is changed and hard surface roads enable him to reach the surrounding towns in any kind of weather. The story of Mr. Clark's life is certainly part of the history of Fulton county. MRS. MARY ELLEN BUTLER. The history of the Chesterfield family of Butlers represented by Mrs. Mary Ellen (Valentine) Butler and her immediate household began in the community with the purchase of the land for more than four score years known as the Butler homestead, March 20, 1839, by Harlow Butler of Ontario county, New York. It was in territorial days when; what is now known as Fulton was part of Lucas county, and since it was in the Michigan strip the purchase money was deposited in the land office at Monroe, Michigan. Harlow and Mary (Hickok) Butler, of Ontario county, New York, felt the need of more land, and they came early to northern Ohio. They had six children born in New York : Derwin Elwell, Elvira Caroline. Corintha Sebra, .Arretas Nathaniel, Harriet Jerusha and Arthur Dwight. Two of them, Elvira C. and Arthur D., died in Ontario county. After the family located in Ohio two others, Lewis Harlow and Marshall Wirt Butler. were added to the family, and 'Mrs. Butler, was the wife of Lewis Harlow, born June 19, 1837, on the farmstead now occupied by the family, although his father did not own it until two years later. Mr. Butler died here March 24, 1915, when he was almost seventy-eight years old, and his entire life had been spent on one spot only as he worked as a cabinet maker in Wauseon—always maintaining his home in Chesterfield. While he was in the Civil war his home continued at the old homestead, now the home of Mrs. Butler. Nathaniel Butler, of York state, later joined the family of his oldest son, Harlow Butler, and the names of Nathaniel and Sebra Butler ere now chiseled on gravestones in the Butler Cemetery, given by their son Harlow to the Chesterfield community as a burial plot, and in this God's Acre are stones marking the graves of Nathaniel, Harlow and Lewis Harlow—the first three generations of the Butler family in Chesterfield. However, there are graves in 448 - HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY the fourth and fifth generations—the gravestones in plain view from Mrs. Butler's window at the old family homestead. From the beginning this farmstead has remained in the name of Butler, and the cemetery will always perpetuate it. It was Harlow Butler who planted the first fruit trees in the community—apples and peaches, and there has always been fruit, the parent stock of the peaches still perpetuated there. When his first cabin was erected in the clearing, Harlow Butler hung up some quilts to the doors until after he had planted his orchard, and in 1919 there are three trees still standing that he planted there.. It was always fruit and venison on the Butler family dinner table, while most pioneer families only had the wild meats of the forest. Lewis Harlow Butler married Mary Ellen Valentine, March 31, 1867, and he brought her as a bride to this family homestead, where she relates the family history more than half a century later. She is a daughter of the Rev. George W. and Mary Ann (Leist) Valentine. Their children are : Mary Ellen, Samantha, Elmira, Melinda, Rosetta, Susan and Solomon. Elmira. Melinda and Rosetta. all died of diphtheria, Melinda and Rosetta being buried in the same grave. At the time the Valentine family had never heard the words diphtheria or quarantine, and the disease was called putrid sore throat. Beside Mrs. Butler there is one sister, Mrs. Susan Clark of Wauseon, and the brother, Rev. Solomon L. Valentine of the Liberal United Brethren Church, living today. The childhood home of the' Valentine family was on Turkey Foot Creek in Henry county, and the burial plot is at Liberty Chapel there. The grandparents, David and Elizabeth Leist, were early settlers, locating their children around them in the Leist family community, but none of the older ones are living there today—illustrating the truth that the "places that know us now shall soon know us no more forever," a condition that has come true in so many communities. The immediate posterity of Lewis H. and Mary E. Butler is as follows: Rosella Gertrude, wife of Cramer G. Cochran of Wauseon, has one daughter, Mabel Gertrude. Herbert, deceased, married Matie Terry. Their children are: Ellis Bryan, who died at three months; Ruth Belle, who died in young womanhood: and Marshall Herbert. He was a volunteer soldier in the war of the nations, and because of his musical ability he was a bugler in different training camps, and he was "Over There" several months. He is a violinist and frequently plays hi orchestras. Clement Lewis Butler married Harriet Snow, and they live in Denver. Their children are: Helen Alta, Theodore Roosevelt and Constance. Mr. Butler graduated in music and is teaching in Denver. He is a member of the Denver Rifle Team and was fitting himself for a military instructor when the Armistice ended the World war. He has won a number of medals in marksmanship contests, the use of firearms being second-nature with him. While his father always went to the woods with a gun, he goes to the gun club 'shoots, and is frequently winner of first honors. His inclination to sports keeps him in excellent physical condition, health the best investment. Mary Blanche, wife of James P. Punches, has always lived at the Butler family homestead with her mother. Their children are: HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY - 449 Clement Alexander, Edson Lewis, Mary Ethel Viola, Velma Golda, Ruby and James Pirl, Jr. Clement and Ruby died in infancy. Ethel Elvira died in young womanhood. She graduated from the Wauseon High School and was a teacher. The Butler children were all given common school advantages, and all had musical ability, their father having been a gifted musician for his opportunity. The vote of the Butler household was with the republican party until the advent of the prohibition party, when L. H. Butler mounted the "water wagon," and from the founding of the National Women's Christian Temperance Union in Cleveland in 1874 Mrs. Butler has been identified with the Fulton county branch of the organization. She has served as president of the Fulton County Union, and still maintains her membership at Oak Shade. For twenty-five years she has been president of the Oak Shade Union, and it has had its part in making Ohio dry, and in creating sentiment for Sabbath observance in the community. Mrs. Butler was active in promoting the organization of Oak Shade Methodist Episcopal Church, and there are few sessions when she is not in her place, at Sunday school. She has been both superintendent and teacher, and her home has always been open to the itinerant minister. The family church membership had been at Spring Hill until the organization of the Oak Shade class. The meetings migrated from the town hall to the school house, and in 1916, the Oak Shade Church edifice was open to the community. While there is Revolutionary ancestry in the history of the Valentine family, there is no record extant of 'the Butler family that long ago. Lewis Harlow Butler and an older brother, A. N., and a younger brother, M. W., all served as privates in the Civil war. A. L. Butler was a drummer and gave an impetus to the "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," of the northern soldiers and a similar service was rendered later by Marshall H. Butler in the war of the nations. G. W. Valentine and other relatives were Civil. war soldiers. Few pioneer families have given more to the community than has been given by the Butlers. They knew the hardships of the pioneer and the later generations have enjoyed the blessings of civilization. There. are few families who round out four score years on the same "four corners," but such has been the Butler family history. DANIEL BROWN. It is a rare thing for a man to live sixty years in one community and never appear as a witness in court, but such is the record of Daniel Brown of Dover. While he never brought suit in court, he did one time confess judgment on a security debt and he paid it. While in that time he has suffered other losses, he has been clear of litigation and the expense of court proceedings. Arbitration has served his purpose in everything. While Mr. Brown has served as juror, he has studiously avoided complications that entail lawsuit difficulties. Mr. Brown, was born September 4: 1843, in Chemung county, New York. His father, Abram Westbrook Brown, and his grandfather, Isaac Brown, three generations in the family, were residents of that community. Back of that the family is English—the age old story of three brothers who came to America and were separated from each other. Isaac Brown married Hannah Clark. Their children were: Abraham W., Daniel, Nathaniel, Harris, Aaron,