200 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY raising," being conscientiously opposed to the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and that his neighbors in turn refused to assist him in the erection of his cabin. Finally, some of his friends at Vienna, sixteen miles away, hearing of his predicament, came over and raised his cabin for him. In that day, house raisings, log rollings, etc., were usually accompanied by a liberal use of whisky, and the pioneers could not sympathize with Mr. Bushnell's temperance views. Bernard Cass, a half-brother of Gen. Lewis Cass' father, and his three sons—Samuel, Charles M. and Joseph G.—also located on the Reserve in 1833, soon after Mr. Bushnell, and more than fifty years later Joseph G. Cass, the last survivor of the family, was still living on the old homestead. John Patten. in the same year, entered the west half of the northeast quarter of section 12, town 2, where he continued to reside until his death, in 1883, aged seventy-three years. Soon after these families settled in the township the era of land speculation set in, and quite a number of persons bought land there from the government, but did not become actual settlers. Among these purchasers were Augustus Whitney, William M. Hudson. William W. Wadsworth and Amos Atkins. Whitney entered the east half of the northeast quarter of section 2, town 2 of the United States Reserve, in 1834, but sold it to Valentine Bargy, who improved the land and became one of the prosperous farmers of the township. Hudson's land was in section 2, town 3. He sold it, unimproved, to Michael Carney and Charles McTague, who divided the land and lived on it for many years. Amos Atkins entered a part of fractional section 13, town 2, which he sold to E. C. Hubbell in 1841. Other early settlers were Harvey Kellogg, Samuel Nason, David Byrnes, John W. Clark, David Kaley, John Halpin, Alonzo Lane, James P. Robinson, Cyrus Davis, Peter Y. Mersereau and N. R. Locke. Harvey Kellogg was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, Jan. 19, 1813, the youngest of five children born to Joseph and Martha ( Beebe) Kellogg. He was reared in the faith of the Congregational church, of which his parents were members ; attended an academy in Columbia county, New York, and at the age of seventeen years began teaching in his native town of Canaan. A few years later he was elected a member of the school board. In 1835 he married Miss Betsy A. Kellogg, and in the spring of 1837 came to Lucas county. For a short time he lived with Mr. Bushnell, until he could build a cabin of his own. After coming to Lucas county he taught school for several terms ; was justice of the peace for fifteen years ; was postmaster at Hickory, Adams township, for seven years ; and in 1877 was elected to the legislature on the National or Greenback party ticket. While a member of the general assembly he served on the committees on temperance and unfinished business. For several years prior to his death he was president of the Lucas County Sunday School Union. David Kaley was born in Ireland in 1822. At the age of ten years he came with his parents to America, and the same year his father fell a victim to cholera, dying while the family was on the way from Quebec, Canada, to Buffalo, N. Y. In 1837 the widow and children removed to Waterville, Lucas county, where a brother-in-law TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 201 of David had a contract on the Miami & Erie canal. After working on the canal for about six years, Mr. Kaley removed to Troy township, Wood county, where the family bought a farm. In 1849 David and his brother Bartholomew went overland to California and remained there until 1853, accumulating over $10,000, in mining, etc. In 1853 he returned to Lucas county and bought a farm in Adams township, where he passed the remainder of his life. In 1854 he married Ellen Carey, also a natiye of Ireland, and of this union were barn ten children. Mr. Kaley held several local offices and was otherwise active in promoting the interests of the community in which he lived. Jeremiah Reynolds, another pioneer of Adams township, was horn in the state of Pennsylvania on March 25, 1823, and came to the Maumee valley with his parents while still a small boy. After the death of his father he lived for some time with Harvey Kellogg, of whom lie purchased forty acres of land in 1844, and the following year married Miss Rhoda A. Cothrell, whose father, Daniel Cothrell, was one of the early settlers of Springfield township. Mr. Reynolds introduced the first power threshing machine into his neighborhood, and for several years followed the occrpation of thresherman with unvarying success. He served as trustee of the township, and in 1863 was elected justice of the peace, holding that office until his death on Dec. 6, 1868. While the speculative fever was at its height, when many were expecting to realize fortunes in a few years by the increasing value of lands, several towns were laid out along the Maume river. Three of these towns were in Adams township. one of them being Marengo City, which is mentioned more fully in Chapter V. On June 11, 1836, Amos Atkins and Daniel Hubbell filed a plat of the town of Vinton, showing fifty-four lots and ten streets. Vinton was located on the south. side of Swan creek, in section 13, town 3, adjoining the French Grant. but it never came to anything as a town. On June 14. 1836, Rev. James Gilruth, a Methodist minister of Ann Arbor, and his wife, for a consideration of $36,250, conveyed 3627, acres of land in sections 7 and 20 to Nathan Jenkins, William P. Reznor, David Higgins, H. O. Sheldon, John Patterson, Charles Borland and Ezra M. Stone. who organized themselves into the "East Marengo Company," of which Jenkins, Reznor and Higgins were made trustees, and on the land purchased of Mr. Gilruth the town of East Marengo was laid out, but. like other "paper towns" of that period, it disappointed the hopes of its projectors. During the Civil war the citizens of Adams township were active. in raising volunteers and taking care of soldiers' families. The population in 1860 was 750, and out of this number eighty-nine men volunteered their services to uphold the integrity of the Union. In January, 1865. a branch of the United States Christian Commission was organized in the township, with Capt. G. W. Norton as president ; Harvey Kellogg, secretary, and S. D. Wilcox, treasurer, and before the close of the war over $120 was raised in cash, besides various supplies, for the benefit of the men in the field. The township has good roads, good schools, etc., and the person 202 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY who happens to pass through it can not fail to be impressed by the evidences of prosperity, which are manifest on every hand. The population in 1900 was 2,090. JERUSALEM TOWNSHIP. Jerusalem township is the youngest township in the county. On March. 19, 1893, the Ohio legislature passed the following act, "To erect the township of Jerusalem, in the county of Lucas :" "Section I. Be it enacted by the general assembly of the State of Ohio, that the township of Oregon, in the county of Lucas, and State of Ohio, be divided as follows : "Section 2. All that part of said township lying west of a line running north and south, and commencing on the county line between the counties of Ottawa and Lucas, eighty rods west of the southeast corner of section seventeen (17), town ten (1o), south of range nine (9), east ; and running thence north through the center of the east half of sections seventeen (17), eight (8) and five (5), town and range as before described ; and through the center of the east half of sections thirty-two (32), twenty-nine (29) and twenty (2o), town nine (9), south of range nine (9), east, shall be known as Oregon. All that part of said township lying east of said line shall be known as Jerusalem. Provided, that so much of the election precincts as remain in Oregon shall be and remain the same as they now are and all in said township of Jerusalem shall be one precinct. "Section 3. The trustees of the said township of Oregon shall cause the necessary notices for an election for township officers in said township of Jerusalem to be held on the first Monday in April, 1893, to be published according to law, also to provide a suitable place for the holding of an election. "Section 4. When the officers of the said township of Jerusalem have been elected and qualified, and the township officers and the board of education become fully organized, the trustees and board of education of said township of Oregon shall pay over to the treasurer of the township and board of education of said township of Jerusalem their pro rata share, according to valuation, of all moneys then or that may thereafter come into the treasury of said township of Oregon, that the property in said township of Jerusalem has paid a share of ; provided, that the officers and board of education of said township of Oregon shall continue to discharge their duty as such officers, until said township of Jerusalem has been fully organized. "Section 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage." The township is bounded on the north by the Maumee Bay ; on the east by Lake Erie ; on the south by Ottawa county, and on the west by the township of Oregon, from which it was taken. It lies in what is known as the "Black Swamp" district, has a surface that slopes gradually toward the lake, and a soil that is exceedingly fertile, with the exception of the marshes on the lake and bay. Originally it was heavily timbered and the manufacture of lumber and TOWNSHIP HISTORY - 203 staves was there extensively carried on. The late Capt. Eber Ward, of Detroit, and others held large tracts of land in the township. Captain Ward carried on shipbuilding and had a canal connecting his yard with Lake Erie. The Lucas county records reveal the following names of persons who entered government lands in what is now Jerusalem township, together with the locations, dates and acreage purchased by each: Margaret Baily entered the whole of Sections I, 2, 3 and 4; in Range 9, Town 10, in 1839, the entire tract comprising an acreage of 2,563.06, and the whole of Sections 10, 11 and 12, and the whole of fractional 13, 14 and 15, with an acreage of 2,258.31, making a grand total of 4,821.37 acres purchased from the government by this lady. Sections 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 were soon thereafter divided and different parcels were sold to the following: Philo B. Scott, Adolph Letz, John Yohn, Joseph Hildebrand, John B. Arnold, Jacob Keiser, Andrew Metzker, Victor Plumey, Enoch Kent, Coonrod Dusernois, Milton Huntley, Edward Woodruff, William Van Orden, Sylvester Brown and James Cahoo, the different purchases varying as to dates from 1841 to 1851. CHAPTER X. CITY OF TOLEDO. PIONEER ANNALS-THE SETTLEMENT-VISTULA-RIVAL VILLAGES-ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF TOLEDO-EXTRACT FROM THE MEMOIRS OF JESSUP W. SCOTT-EARLY CONDITIONS-REMINISCENCES OF RICHARD MOTT- COMPARISON OF REAL ESTATE VALUES-PERSONAL MENTION OF EARLY SETTLERS-LAND SPECULATION-FIRST BRIDGE IN TOLEDO-TOLEDO AS A CITY-BOUNDARIES IN 1837-PROVISIONS OF THE CITY CHARTER-PRESENT MUNICIPAL CODE-COMPLETE LIST OF MAYORS-PRESENT LIMITS OF THE CITY-LABOR TROUBLES -PUBLIC WORKS, BUILD1NGS, ETC.-LIST OF POSTMASTERS-PUBLIC PARKS-CHARITIES, HOSPITALS, ETC.-FRATERNAL AND OTHER SOCIETIES-BURIAL PLACES FOR THE DEAD. The history of the city of Toledo properly begins with its incorporation and organization under the charter by Act of the State legislature at the session of 1836-37, but a portion of the pioneer annals has been reserved for this chapter, in order that the record of the metropolis might not be disassociated from the earlier and important events. It was at a very early period that the site of Toledo first attracted attention, and in recounting the different stages of deyelopment leading up to the incorporation of the city it will be necessary to indulge in repetition to a slight extent. It will be remembered by the reader that under the Treaty of Greenville, concluded Aug. 3, 1795, sixteen reservations of lands were made to the United States from the vast domain up to that time held by the Indians. and then confirmed to them. Of these reservations was one of twelve miles square "at the British fort on the Miami of the Lake at the Foot of the Rapids." The tract included the mouth of Swan Creek and a portion of the present limits of Toledo. Under an Act of Congress these lands were surveyed and sold at public auction, in February, 1817, the sale taking place at Wooster, Ohio. T wo companies of capitalists were organized for the purpose of buying lands at that sale. One of them, known as the "Baum Company," was composed of Martin Baum, Jesse Hunt, Jacob Burnet, William C. Schenck. William Barr, William Oliver and Andrew Mack ; and the other. the "Piatt Company," consisted of John H. Piatt, Robert Piatt, William M. Worthington and Gorham A. North. Both of these _associations were represented at the Wooster sale. and it was found that both companies were seeking to purchase the lands about - 205 - 206 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY the mouth of Swan Creek. In order to avoid competition in bidding the two interests agreed to purchase in common tracts 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the United States Reserve at the foot of the Rapids of the Miami, and also Nos. 86 and 87, on the other side of the river, opposite' the mouth of Swan Creek,-each company to have one-half interest in the same, paying equally therefor. Nos. 86 and 87 were bid off by William Oliver and the certificate was issued in his name, the other tracts going to the Piatts and their associates. The purchase amounted to 974 acres, the average price per acre being $48.12,1/2, and by the terms of the sale a credit of forty days was given on the first payment of twenty-five per cent, the remainder being payable in three equal annual installments. The "Piatt .Company" also purchased the northwest and southwest sections of Township 3, and the northwest, southwest and southeast quarters of Section 3, in the same township. Returning to Cincinnati, the companies were united under the name of the Port Lawrence Company; which at once took steps for laying out a town to be called Port Lawrence, appointing Martin Baum as agent for that purpose, for the sale of lots and for the general management of the property. On Aug. 14, 1817, Mr. Baum appointed William Oliver as his attorney to attend to the sale of the lots, and the latter, with William C. Schenck, was authorized to lay out the town. The agents proceeded to perform this task, and then a sale of lots was advertised, to take place Sept. 20, 1817. At that sale seventy-nine lots were sold, of which two (Nos. 223 and 224) were purchased by William Oliver, and upon which, :n connection with Mr. Baum, he subsequently erected a warehouse and made other improvements. The house was of logs, and was located near the mouth and on the north side of Swan creek. Among the purchasers of lots at this sale were Samuel H. Ewing, Aurora Spafford, Seneca Allen, John E. Hunt, Robert A. Forsyth, Almon Reed and Truman Reed, all of "Maumee Rapids" ; Benjamin F. Stickney, of Fort Wayne, Ind. ; Henry I. Hunt and Mary L. Hunt, of Detroit ; Moses Wilson, of Huron county, Ohio ; and Austin E. Wing, of Monroe, Mich. It is said that Seneca Allen stuck the first stake for the embryo city of Toledo at the mouth of Swan creek. Another purchaser of real estate at this sale was Benjamin Rathbun, at one time the most prominent business man of Buffalo. N. Y., and later tile proprietor of the Broadway Hotel in New York City. In a. letter written to David E. Merrill, of Toledo, in 1870, Mr. Rathbun thus made reference to his knowledge of the site of Toledo in those early days : "I was once where Toledo now is. It was in the spring of 187, while a portion of it was being surveyed for village lots. I then took up the first lot ever sold in Toledo as a village lot. The title of the company failing for non-payment of their purchase, of course I lost my lot. I have never been at Toledo since I left, in August, 1818. At that time there was not a dwelling house there. A man by the name of Henderson built a log and stone house on the bank and partly over the water, just below the mouth of what was then known as Swan CITY OF TOLEDO - 207 Creek, and there was a French cabin on the 'flats,' near Swan Creek, for the Indians to get rum in. These were all the buildings Toledo could boast of in 1818. My own family (consisting of Mrs. Rathbun and one son) and Major Keeler's family occupied Henderson's log and stone warehouse while we were there." From this it would appear that Mr. Rathbun made Port Lawrence his home from the spring of 1817 until August, 1818, and it is possible that he might have become a permanent resident of the place had it not been for the failure of the project of building a town at that time. But when the second payment became due to the Government, in 1818, the Port Lawrence company defaulted and practically surrendered the . entire property, with improvements made. In 1821—the Government meantime having reduced the price of its lands from two dollars per acre on time payments to $t.25 cash—the company, unable or indisposed to pay a balance of some $20,000 for tracts 1 and 2, asked Congress to take the same back and apply the payments already made to the full payment of the other tracts purchased by them and the Baum and Piatt companies, respectively. Congress accepted this proposition, and on Sept. I, 1828, William Oliver purchased at a sale of the property under mortgage all of tracts 3, 4, 86 and 87, and three quarter-sections of the lands. On May 20, 1826, Congress had authorized the selection of a certain amount of lands for the benefit of the University of Michigan, and sections 1 and 2, which had been relinquished by the Port Lawrence Company, were selected. Mr. Oliver then proposed that these tracts be exchanged by the University for a portion of the lands to which he had obtained title at the sale mentioned, and such arrangement being made Congress authorized the exchange and Oliver took the title to tracts 1 and 2 in his own name. Later, he purchased of the University the tracts he had conveyed to that institution in exchange for tracts 1 and 2, and these arrangements being consummated, steps were taken toward the resurrection of the town of Port Lawrence. A new plat was prepared, of which record was made in Monroe county, Mich., in December, 1832. THE SETTLEMENT. It is from 1832, therefore, that the history of Toledo, as a hamlet or village, may be said to begin. The village was a small and mean one, apparently, for a time given up to Indian trading, and then it may be said that its history was nearly devoid of interest. Like the knife-grinder, it had no story to tell, and the narrator of what little gossip there is about it may be told, as Macauley was about his "History of England," that it is his story, and not history. Still, within the succeeding months and years the foundations were laid for the city as it exists today, and it does not do for cities, any more than individuals, to despise the day of small beginnings. It has always kept pace with the growth of the great West, and has always had reason to congratulate itself that its founders had some conception, even if an inadequate one, of the great prospect before it. The plat as then recorded shows that the initial of Toledo was 208 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY made about the mouth of Swan creek, and in extent covered the territory east and west from Jefferson to Washington street, and north and south from what is now Superior street to the river, Erie then occupying the place of what is Summit, Ontario that of St. Clair, and Huron that of Superior. Water street was subsequently made by filling along the river. The first sale was made July 13, 1833, the purchase being lot No. 11, with a forty-foot front, on the north side of Summit street, near Monroe, and next to the corner. The price paid was twenty-five dollars and the purchaser was John Baldwin, who afterward became a leading merchant and one of the first commissioners of the county. In 1833, in company with Cyrus Fisher, he brought a small stock of drygoods to Port Lawrence, the same being the first store opened within the present limits of Toledo. During that year Mr. Baldwin owned the schooner Vermilion and sailed her between Port Lawrence and Buffalo. He was elected justice of the peace of Port Lawrence township under the Michigan jurisdiction, and upon the organization of Lucas county was chosen a member of the first board of county commissioners. He died in the spring of 1837. Marquis Baldwin, a brother of John, furnished for a former publication, in 1888, the following statement of what was found at Port Lawrence when the Baldwin family arrived there, in 1823 : "At the foot of Monroe street, north side, the log warehouse belonging to the Cincinnati company, with a frame addition thereto. The back part of this building became the residence of the Baldwin family for some ten years. On the south side and at the foot of the same street stood the warehouse of D. C. Henderson, also built in 1817, a frame structure, much dilapidated, and in 1823 unoccupied. A small frame house stood on Perry street, just back of the alley, between Summit and St. Clair, and owned and occupied by Joseph Prentice, the father of Frederick Prentice. A log house stood near the present site of the police station—owned and occupied by Joseph Trombley. A hewed log house on the north side of Summit street, near Jefferson, owned and occupied by William Wilson. Remains of Fort Industry were yet on Summit street. from near Jefferson, two-thirds the distance to Monroe street, and to the bluff in the direction of the river. Pickets of the fortification were yet standing. Down the river, Sand on what is now Stickney avenue, stood the brick dwelling of Maj. B. F. Stickney, the only residence then on what became the Vistula plat. Back from the river, and now on Collingwood avenue, was Noah A. Whitney's house. Next, the log house of Maj. Coleman I. Keeler, Sr.. near the rear end of the lot now owned by J. W. May's heirs. Eli Hubbard's house stood out Lagrange street, on the north side of Ten-Mile creek ; Thomas Bishop lived nearly opposite Mr. Hubbard. William Sibley lived near the present residence of Peter C. Lewis, now Washington township, and next west was Andrew Jacobs, on the Prairie road. Then John Walworth, where J. C. Harris lived ; and one other house, occupied by a Mr. Owens, on the Smith farm on Half-way creek. A little below the Manhattan mill, Francis Loveway, and near the mouth of the Maumee river, Leo Guire. About where Ironville now CITY OF TOLEDO - 209 stands lived the five brothers—Jacob, Peter, Fancis, Alexis and Antoine Navarre." Marquis Baldwin, from whose reminiscences the above extract is taken, was born in Palmyra, Portage county, Ohio. Jan. 22, 1809, being the fourth son of John T. Baldwin, whose relations, and those of his family, to Toledo and the Maumee valley are frequently mentioned in this volume. Coming to Toledo in 1823, at the age of fourteen, he entered upon his business life in connection with his brother John, in 1828, and thus he was engaged for three years. In 1845 he remoyed to a farm in Washington township, where he remained for sixteen years, and then returned to Toledo, where he resided the remainder of his life. For a few years after his return to the city he carried on the grocery and provision trade, but in later years he lived retired from business and deyoted his time to the care and management of his property. The first bridge constructed within the present limits of Toledo was built by Joseph Prentice, previous to 1823, and crossed Swan creek at or near where Superior street now runs. It was made of logs placed on piles driven into the ground. This bridge was carried away by ice in 1836, and was succeeded by a ferry. Subsequently a bridge was constructed across Swan creek at or near St. Clair street, where one has continued to be maintained. Joseph Prentice, with his family, came from Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1814, and first settled in Ashtabula county, Ohio, whence he soon came, by sledges on the ice. to the Maumee. Upon the commencement of operations by the Cincinnati parties for starting a town here, in 1817. he was employed by them and erected the building already referred to as a warehouse. It is said that the name Port Lawrence was given the embryo town at the suggestion of Air. Prentice. About 1825 the family removed to the east side of the riyer, where Joseph Prentice died. May 6. 1845, aged sixty-four years. Frederick Prentice, son of Joseph, was born in Port Lawrence, Dec. 22. 1822, in the first frame house erected in the present Toledo, on what is now Summit street. and he is believed to have been the first white child born on the site of the metropolis of the Maumee yalley. When he was fifteen years old his father became helpless. throwing the care of the family largely on Frederick, with very limited means for such serious responsibility. Through intimate relations with the Indians lie acquired a knowledge of their tongue, and became interpreter for Indian agents and traders, by which means, and attention to .hunting and fishing. lie was enabled to maintain the family in comparative comfort—meantime greatly aided by an industrious, intelligent and prudent mother. His best hunting ground was within what later became the Fifth ward of Toledo, the deer being most abundant where now stands the old Oliver House, southeast corner of Broadway and Ottawa streets. At the age of eighteen he engaged in furnishing the town and steamboats with wood, and also in the supply of ship-timber for New York. At length he began to deal in wild lands, buying in large quantities and selling to settlers, in which business lie was successful. In 1847 a portion of his lands on 210 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY the east side of the river were devoted to a nursery, in which Asa Maddocks and Charles E. Perigo were associated with him, and he continued in that business for several years. About 1857 he became interested in Lake Superior property, at what is now Ashland, Wis., and later he took an active part in the oil (petroleum) industry, finally establishing his headquarters in New York City, where he passed the remainder of his life. About 1838 he built a steam sawmill on the east side of the river, below what is now Bridge street, and this, with his other enterprises, he operated for several years. Among those who were attracted here by the notoriety given to the place by the Cincinnati company was Maj. Coleman I. Keeler, who came in 1817 from Onondaga county, New York, and with a large family of sons and daughters afterward settled on the northwest quarter of Section 26, Town 9, Range 7, now within the city limits of Toledo. The family became very prominent in after years, the Major surviving until 1863, when he passed away, at the advanced age of eighty-six. Among the incidents of local interest, pertinent here, is one which occurred in September, 1822. At that time Major Keeler and his daughter Grace, a girl of sixteen years, took passage from Sandusky on the schooner Eclipse, Captain Jones, which was bound for Detroit. By request they were put ashore on Middle Bass Island, to take a small boat for home. Haying engaged Capt. Anderson Martin and his son, with a small craft, for such purpose, they started for the Maumee river. When some twenty miles out they were overtaken by one of the most furious storms then known on the lake, but fortunately they made West Sister Island, where they succeeded in landing. Although thus securing safety themselves, their little vessel soon went to pieces, leaying them upon an uninhabited island, without food. the means of obtaining any, or the means for getting away. Day after day of fasting brought them to the dire necessity of seeking continued life by eating snails and snakes. Providentially, they had an old axe, with which the men dug out the trunk of a bass-wood tree, barely large enough to carry Captain Martin and his son, who set out therein for Middle Bass Island, which they fortunately reached in safety. At once they started with a sail-boat for the relief of Major Keeler and daughter. who were found alive but greatly emaciated from hunger, having for six days subsisted wholly on snakes and snails, which they were fortunate enough to gather on the island. A safe passage was giyen them to their home, where they soon recovered from the terrible effects of their extraordinary experience. The daughter, Miss Grace, who thus shared in the trials of shipwreck and impending starvation, was subsequently married to William Hollister, who, with his brother John, came to the Maumee valley in 1816, settling at Perrysburg at the very beginning of that town. Subsequently they removed to Buffalo, N. Y., where Mr. Hollister was for some years in active business, and he died of apoplexy, May 25, 1848. After his death Mrs. Hollister became the wife of a Mr. Greene, a lawyer in New York, and she died about 1873. John T. Baldwin and family, heretofore mentioned, were among CITY OF TOLEDO - 211 the earliest of the Indian traders who came to this region as soon after the close of the War of 1812 as the condition of things justified such venture, and he and the most of his family spent the remainder of their days in useful and honorable activity here. After two unsatisfactory visits to this locality, on. Feb. 10, 1823, Mr. Baldwin, with his family, for the third time essayed to make a home on the Maumee, with Port Lawrence as a destination. For conveyance for himself, family and goods he had two ox-sleds and a one-horse sleigh. his son Marquis, then a lad of fourteen years, driving two cows. At Black River (now Lorain county) the snow failed them and they were compelled to take to the lake, then covered with solid ice, which they followed throughout to the Maumee river and up to Port Lawrence, where they arrived after a passage of nine days from Palmyra. Portage county, their starting point, and to which place they had removed from Litchfield county, Connecticut, in 1805. At Port Lawrence Mr. Baldwin settled in the old log warehouse at the foot of Monroe street, and which had been built in 1817, at the inception of the embryo village. There the family remained until 1833, when John Baldwin purchased Lot I1, on the north side of Summit street. and built thereon a two-story brick building, the lower part of which lie occupied until 1836 as a provision store, the family living on the second floor. In 1836 John built another building, on Superior street. between Washington and Lafayette, his brother Marquis remaining in business with him, and the father and another son, Tibbals. going on a farm, a part of which afterward became the site of the Manhattan Flouring Mills. Later they removed to Grassy Point, on the river. between the Wabash roundhouse and the Lake Shore railroad bridge. Subsequently the family returned to the village. where the father died in 1838, his son John having preceded him in death, in 1837. Tibbals then returned to Palmyra,* where he died. Marquis, as stated on another page, lived a long and useful life in Toledo. For about two years the Port Lawrence property was managed as a whole for the proprietors by an agent, Stephen. B. Comstock and Andrew Palmer, successively, acting in that capacity, and all sales of lots prior to July 1, 1835, were made in that way. Andrew Palmer was born at Binghamton, N. Y., March 28, 18o8. At an early age he became sensible of the fact that upon his own exertions must depend his success in life, and he spent his time in working at home or among neighboring farmers in summers, and in winters attending the common schools of the country, until at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to the printing business. Soon after he arrived at the age of nineteen, on a change in the affairs of his employer, he became at liberty to engage in business on his own account, and in connection with an elder brother established a paper at Rensselaerville, Albany county, New York. The brothers took an active part in fostering, through the medium of their paper, the interest that then began to develop on the subject of railroads in this country, and upon the organization of the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad Company, removed their press to the city of Schenectady, the point designated as 212 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY the western terminus of that road. On the completion of this work, Andrew sold his interest in the business to his brother, and in May, 1833, started for the West, having previously come to the conclusion, from a careful study of its geographical position, that somewhere at or near the mouth of the Maumee an important commercial town must grow up. Arriving at Detroit, and finding the steamer was not expected to depart for the Maumee under two or three days, he set out next morning on foot and reached Monroe (forty-two miles) in the evening. Stopping there over night, he completed his journey (sixty-two miles in all) by noon of the next day. On arriving at the mouth of Swan creek he learned that steps had already been taken to found a town there, and that a small strip of land had been platted and a few straggling tenements erected along the river, accommodating in all a population of perhaps twenty families. Having satisfied himself by careful examination, and sounding the river from its mouth to the towns above, that it combined in its location superior advantages for the growth of a town, he purchased from the Port Lawrence Company one-sixteenth of the town plat and of the remainder of the lands owned by that company, and soon afterward he became its agent for the sale el lots and the transaction of its business. Having formed a co-partnership with James Myers, of Schenectady. N. Y., he put in a stock of general merchandise at the land end of the old warehouse building, and used the river end for forwarding and commission business until the entire building was required for the latter purpose, when he erected a building on Summit, between Perry and Monroe streets, for general merchandising. At the expiration of his co-partnership with Mr. Myers, in 1836, he having sold the stock in the store on Summit street and closed up that branch of his business, he built a larger warehouse below Monroe street and entered into co-partnership with his brother, Peter, in the storage, forwarding and commission business. Having also closed out his interest in the Port Lawrence Company and become largely interested in farming lands in the surrounding country, he opened for the accommodation of his real estate transactions an office on Summit, near its intersection with Adams street. The same year he erected a dwelling on the southwest corner of Superior and Jefferson streets, where he resided with his family until a short time before his removal to Wisconsin, in the spring of 1845. In the fall of 1834 he purchased material and established a paper, the first numbers of which were called the Port Lawrence Herald, and printed by James Irvine Browne. When the name Toledo was adopted for the embryo city the title of the paper was changed to that of Toledo Gazette, Mr. Browne continuing to act as publisher and Mr. Palmer as. editor and manager, as before the change. During the winter of 1834-35, Mr. Palmer entered into negotiations for the purchase of the Western Hemisphere, the then acknowledged organ at Columbus of the Democratic party (then dominant in both State and Nation), and the negotiations resulted in placing the control of the paper in his hands ; and thereafter its columns were largely devoted to vindicating the claims of Ohio in her boundary controversy. On the organization of the Toledo city government, in 1837, Mr. Palmer was nominated and supported by the CITY OF TOLEDO - 213 Democratic party for mayor, but was defeated by Judge John Berdan, his Whig competitor, by a single vote. In 1840, greatly chagrined at the attitude of the National administration in the contest over Ohio's northern boundary, Mr. Palmer took charge of the editorial department of the Toledo Blade and conducted it through the Presidential campaign of that year ; and on the inauguration of the President-elect his name, among others, was presented for appointment to the office of postmaster, to which office he was appointed soon after President Harrison's death. He served in that position until 1845, when he resigned the office and remoyed with his family to Wisconsin, where he became a leading citizen. In 1835, the proprietors became satisfied that it would be better for them and for the town if the property should be divided among them, that each might haye his distinct interest to look after. To this end a meeting of the owners was held, and it was yoted that William Oliver, who then held the legal title to the land, be authorized, as soon as the village of Toledo should be incorporated, to conyey to the same yillage lots 319 and 198 for public school purposes. Lots 366 and 175 were set apart for the two religious societies which should first complete houses of worship thereon. Land to the extent of fiye acres was yoted for cemetery purposes, not to be nearer than three-fourths of a mile to the mouth of Swan creek. Lot 335 was yoted to Mrs. Harriet W. Daniels, wife of Munson H. Daniels. "as a complimentary present on the occasion of hers being the first marriage at Toledo. Lot 215 was voted as a present to Mrs. General Vance. Lots 163. 162, 119, 120, 121, 109, 110 and 111 were set apart for a hotel, to be built by the joint proportionate contribution of the proprietors, the grading for the hotel to be done by the proprietors of the same, who were to have a deed of the lots when they had expended S i o.000. and to own the dock in front of the lots deeded. These lots are on the east side of Adams street. 402-412 Summit, and extending the same width to the river, Water street having since been made. The property was neyer used for the purpose named. Lots equiyalent to two-sixteenths of the whole were assigned to Stephen B. Comstock. and then the entire remaining property was diyided into sixteen parts of about equal value, and sixteen tickets, corresponding to such numbers, were placed in a hat, from which Two Stickney drew them out, one at a time, and delivered them to the parties in the following order : To William Oliver, the first five tickets, lie owning fiye-sixteenths of the plat Micajah T. Williams, four tickets ; Isaac S. Smith, John B. Macy, Hiram Pratt and W. F. P. Taylor. each one ticket : then Edward Bissell, Andrew Palmer and the firm of Raymond & Lynde, each one ticket. Edward Bissell and Andrew Palmer were appointed a committee to prepare a plan for a hotel, and the latter was constituted the agent of the proprietors. At this same session ( July 4) it was resolyed, "that, to promote the general prosperity of the town, it is deemed expedient to subscribe to the stock of the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company, and it is hereby agreed that every proprietor shall take and pay for $1,000 of said stock for each sixteenth of the interest which he holds in the 214 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY original plat of Port Lawrence, and that the stock so taken shall be receiyed at par from Stephen B.. Comstock, being part of the stock which he has already subscribed." Early in the year 1836 it was deemed best to close out the affairs of the Port Lawrence Company by a division of its property then held in common, and for this purpose a meeting was held on May 17. Edward Bissell and Isaac S. Smith reported a plan for a hotel on lots 119, 120 and 121, which was approved, and they were authorized to proceed to the erection of the building at the northeast corner of Adams and Summit streets. They were also authorized to "grade the eastern- half of Adams street, from the river to St. Clair street in front of the hotel lots, so that the surface of Summit street at the intersection of Adams shall be twenty-three feet above the level of the river ; and that they construct a pier in front of the east half of Adams and of the hotel. lots." William P. Daniels, Richard Mott and Stephen B. Comstock were appointed a committee to grade Summit street from the level of the hay scales in front of W. J. Daniels & Company's store, so that at its intersection with Jefferson street it should be twenty-two feet above the level of the riyer, the street ''from the hay scales to Jefferson to be horizontal," for which purpose subscriptions were to be obtained from indiyiduals, the Port Lawrence proprietors to make good any deficiency in the cost. The same committee was authorized to "open and grade Monroe street at both ends, and to construct culverts or sewers in the same." The hay scales and store referred to were located on the north side of Summit street, between Perry and Monroe, adjoining the Indiana House, which cornered with Perry. The contract for the grading was let to a man named Hall, an Irishman, who, with his employes, constituted the vanguard of the large number of the same nationality afterward so intimately identified with like improyements in Toledo. At another meeting of the proprietors of Port Lawrence, held in September, 1837, lots 484 and 484 ½ were given to the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company for "the purposes of a car house, etc., etc., conditioned that the same be not used for any other than the legitimate business of said company, and that said company shall have the necessary fixtures and a track from the main track to said lots, through Depot street, completed within eighteen months." On these lots were constructed the machine shops and engine house used by the railroad for several years and until the removal of the headquarters of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana railroad to Adrian. At this time a second division was made by lot of the property of the company. Provision was then for the first time made for improving the channel of the river opposite the town, and also for dredging the bar at the mouth of Swan creek, to secure a channel of the depth of ten feet. Benjamin S. Brown was appointed as agent of the proprietors. A complete list of owners of lots in Port Lawrence, prepared in 1836, contained the names of the following persons. John Baldwin, S. S. Humphrey, Daniel McBain. William P. Daniels, W. J. Daniels & Company, Charles Noble, Platt Card, Philo Bennett, W. J. Dan- CITY OF TOLEDO - 215 iels, George Bennett, Platt & Miller, Coleman I. Keeler, David B. Mooney. G. W. Rhodes, Austin E. Wing, Abram Ritter, A. Noyes, J. Brandet. A. Bourdenois, G. Simpson, Calvin Comstock, J. Rawles, Philander Raymond, J. Clark, Mrs. General Vance, Mrs. Harriet W. Daniels, T. & S. Darlington, W. Ritter, R. Foster, William Oliver, Micajah T. Williams, Stephen B. Comstock, Isaac S. Smith, John B. Macy, Edward Bissell, Raymond & Lynde; Andrew Palmer, Hezekiah D. Mason, Hicks & Company, Dart & Mott, James Myers, Charles Butler, Joshua R. Giddings, Lot Clark and C. W. Lynde. VISTULA. In 1832, becoming satisfied that the Port Lawrence enterprise would not soon be prosecuted with energy, Major Stickney withdrew from that interest and turned his attention toward a new movement, on the riyer below the Port Lawrence plat, and on lands owned by him. In October of that year he made a contract with Samuel Allen, of Lockport. N. Y., under which improvements were to be made, Allen to haye one-half of the land in consideration of specified expenditures to he made by him. Allen failing in his agreements, in January. 1833. Stickney made an arrangement with Otis Hathaway, also from Lockport, and a town plat was laid out and named Vistula. Two years earlier, in 1831, Lewis Godard, of Detroit, and formerly of Lockport. had made a contract with Major Stickney for certain lots, agreeing to establish a store at the place. This he did, occupying for such purpose an old block-house which was built about 1817 by William Wilson, and which had become unfit for use without material repairs. The necessary repairs were made by Philo Bennett, also from Lockport. who settled here and purchased the tract on the east side of the riyer, adjoining what became the Yondota plat, afterward within the Sixth ward of Toledo. The store was in charge of Sanford L. Collins. who had been in Godard's employ at Detroit. These. with other demonstrations of progress on the part of Vistula, were recognized by the few residents as calling for suitable expression of their appreciation. Accordingly, a grand ball was given in the old log warehouse of the original Port Lawrence Company at the mouth of Swan creek. that building furnishing the best accommodations for the purpose in the vicinity. It was occupied as a residence by John Baldwin and family, the upper- portion being the ballroom of the neighborhood. attracting. by its accommodations, participants from Maumee, Perrysburg. the Bay settlement and Monroe. The contracts of Stickney with Hathaway and Allen did not secure much in the way of improvement, and Allen returned to Lockport. Not long thereafter he came back with Edward Bissell, of that place. who entered into an arrangement with Major Stickney similar to the one that had been made with Allen. Mr. Bissell went energetically to work clearing the plat of timber and brush, and put in docking along the river from Lagrange to Elm streets. This docking was constructed on the ice of the stream, with the idea of awaiting the weakening of the ice, when the dock would settle to its place; and 216 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY this was realized, but not as successfully as the projectors of the experiment had hoped. Mr. Bissell at once gave life to Vistula by the expenditure of large sums of money for new buildings, roads and other improvements necessary to the proper start of an ambitious town. The sale of lots began Dec. 19, 1833, when Lot 958 was sold to Erie Long for seventy-five dollars. But few sales were made until April, 1834, when the demand became more active, and continued so until the fall of 1835, at which time the proprietors deemed it best to close up the affairs of the Vistula Company and divide the remaining lots between them. For such purpose they met at Buffalo, Oct. 2, 1835, when full and satisfactory allotments were made to the seyeral parties, according to interest. It was then agreed that as soon as the town of Toledo should be incorporated lot 509, on the south side of Huron. between Cherry and Walnut streets, and 789, on the south side of Ontario, between Lagrange and Elm streets, should be donated to the town for school purposes. But they never were used in that manner. At a subsequent meeting of the proprietors, held in 1837, it was decided to offer to the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad Company "a strip of land under water, on the south side of Water street, fifty feet wide, extending on a line parallel with Water street, from Lynn to Cherry street, for the purpose of erecting thereon a passenger car-house," the same to be erected by Jan. 1, 1839. RIVAL VILLAGES The record of Port Lawrence for the first ten years of its questionable existence (1817 to 1827) would hardly be considered one to provoke the special jealousy of anybody. But there seems to have been, in the eyes of at least one neighboring village, enough in Port Lawrence to justify some degree of watchfulness as to its competition. This fact was shown during the winter of 1821-22, when the matters of the post route and the location of the road between the Maumee river and Lower Sandusky (Fremont), as provided for by the Brownstown treaty, were under discussion. In a letter to United States Senator Ethan A. Brown, of Ohio, under date of Feb. 9. 1822, Dr. Horatio Conant, writing from Fort Meigs, showed plainly the feeling then existing between the rival sites for the "future great" city of the Maumee valley. "I understand," he wrote, "it is in contemplation to so alter the route of the great Eastern mail to Detroit that it shall not pass this place, but go by Port Lawrence, nine miles below, on the Maumee river. . . . . Also to remove the port of entry to Port Lawrence. And, also, I presume, from a motion of Mr. Sibley, to open a road under the provisions of the Brownstown treaty, not from Sandusky to Fort Meigs, according to the terms of said treaty, but from Sandusky to Port Lawrence. "Port Lawrence has no claims to notice by Congress, much less to be honored by the proposed sacrifices  CITY OF TOLEDO - 217 "Respecting Port Lawrence, there is not, nor has there been for years, nor is there likely to be, more than three English families, including all within three miles of the place, and whatever public business is done there must be done by one man (Maj. B. F. Stickney), who is already Indian agent and justice of the peace for Michigan. The distance proposed to be sayed by altering the route of the mail ought not to come in competition with the increased risk in crossing the Maumee river, which in that place is very wide, and open to the unbroken surges of Lake Erie. The same objection will be with increased weight against opening a military road to cross the river there. It might as well cross the mouth of the bay or any other part of Lake Erie. "If there was any business done at the place, or was likely to he, I should not so much object to the Customs Collector's office being remoyed there, but at present I should deem it ridiculous to entertain the idea." The conditions indicated by the foregoing extracts from Dr. Conant's letter, so far from becoming less in antagonism, only became more intensified in bitterness as time advanced. Appreciating the natural advantages of Port Lawrence and Vistula, when their site finally assumed definite position as a rival, their neighbors—Manhattan on the one side and Maumee and Perrysburg on the other—seemed to make common cause against them, though to do so required an abeyance of mutual jealousies by no means moderate in degree. Thus it was that Manhattan largely sympathized with the "Foot of the Rapids," as the two towns up the river were called, while they in turn made Manhattan the object of their special attention. Perrysburg and Maumee steamboat captains neyer saw Port Lawrence and Vistula in passing, except under the optical pressure of traffic. It was this strenuous opposition from the outside that caused Port Lawrence and Vistula, though inwardly consumed with the jealousy of bitter rivalry between themselves, to bury their differences and become united as one village, which consummation was effected in 1833. Had this step not been taken doubtless both villages would have suffered indefinitely, if not disastrously. from obstacles placed in their way by other aspiring towns on the river. At the meeting which resulted in the consolidation of the rival yillages into one municipality it is said that dozens of names were suggested for the new town. Clark Waggoner, in his History of Toledo, published in 1888, gives the credit of the origin of the name to Tames Irvine Browne, who had traveled in Europe and thought the name of Spain's oldest city, Toledo, would be appropriate. The credit was claimed, howeyer, by a number of other pioneers. Among other claims is the one that Two Stickney, second son of the eccentric Major, was at that time studying geography, and that on the map of Spain he found the name Toledo, the sound of which pleased him to the extent that he importuned his father to use his influence in having the new village given the same cognomen. S. S. Knabenshue, who for years was connected in an editorial capacity with the Toledo Blade, in an article published in that paper Dec. 12, 1903, writes as 218 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY follows concerning the consolidation of the villages of Port Lawrence and Vistula: "A public meeting of the citizens of both places was held in 1833, and it was agreed to unite. The question of a name for the united towns was somewhat of a poser, but it was solved by Willard J. Daniels, a merchant of Vistula, who had also just purchased several lots in Port Lawrence. He had been reading Spanish history and suggested the name of Toledo, the ancient capital of Spain. His argument was that the word is easily pronounced, is pleasant in sound, and that there was no place of that name on the western continent. His argument prevailed, and Toledo it has been since." Whichever version is the correct one, there is no doubt that the name was suggested by that of the ancient Spanish city, and it therefore has no local significance. The history of Toledo for the next few years can best be told in the following extract from the memoirs of one of the most eminent of the early pioneers—Jessup W. Scott : "In 1835, commenced that memorable speculation in wild lands, and wild cities, which culminated in 1836. The whole Maumee valley was filled with eastern fortune hunters. Congress and State lands were raced for entry, .and the shores of the river from Fort Wayne to the Maumee bay were alive with city builders. From the foot of the rapids to the bay, land was all considered necessary for three-story brick blocks, and, after the canal was located on the north side, all the shore from Waterville to Manhattan was held as city property. Jackson's specie circular soon brought their airy fabric to ruin, which was completed by the failure of the United States Bank of Pennsylvania, in 1839. "Under the auspices of Bissell.and his associates, Toledo had been pushed forward to be a considerable place—numbering, at one time, probably over 1,500 inhabitants. Most of the buildings of any note had been erected by the speculative owners, and when money ceased to flow west for investment, and men, from deyoting themselves to speculation, turned their attention to earning their daily bread, Toledo was a young city in the wilderness, with high expectations, but with nothing, or next to nothing, to live upon. The great body of lands which surrounded it had been entered for speculation ; so that, up to the time of the canal being completed to Toledo, in 1843, there were not over 200 families out of the city which resorted to it as their principal place of trade. These families, too, were but little advanced in farming operations, and many of them too deeply in debt to have much means to buy even necessaries "In 1844, Toledo was little more than the dead carcass of speculation. Its previous existence had been abnormal, but its condition was worse than negative. It had acquired a widespread and almost universally believed character for insalubrity. It would, in its first settlement, have been noted, to some extent, for the severity of its malarial fevers, if it had been settled by industrious and moral people, having the means to provide comfortable habitations and healthy food. A large portion of its first inhabitants, though intelligent enough, were not possessed of the means or habits to preserye health in a new CITY OF TOLEDO - 219 and rich soil. Much sickness and distress, therefore, were suffered." Thus it will be seen that two evils—malaria and land sharks—exercised a baneful influence and retarded the growth of the "future great city" on the Maumee. While it may have suffered to an extreme degree as a result of malaria, owing to local conditions, its experience with that class of grafters who purchase land with no intention of improving it, or of eyen becoming citizens of the community, was the same as that endured by every promising locality in the Middle West. Chicago and Milwaukee, places that came into existence at about the same time, were both veritable Meccas for the scheming speculators, and in this connection, though perhaps a digression, the writer desires to cite one instance wherein the land sharks were decisively defeated. In the early struggle at Milwaukee between actual settlers and those who desired only to get a title to the land and then await the development of the community by others, when they would come into possession of the unearned increment, the legislature of the Territory of Wisconsin, in 1839, passed a law providing that all improvements should be exempt from taxation and that all taxes should be assessed against the unimproved yalue of the land. This protected the actual settlers against non-resident landholders who had monopolized large tracts for speculative purposes during the land excitement of 1836, and preserved, while the law remained in force (until the Territory of Wisconsin became a State), the right of free access to the soil to those who desired to till or otherwise improve it. This Wisconsin law was probably the first enactment of its kind passed by any legislative body in the world, but during the last thirty years the idea has grown rapidly in favor among students of political economy, the theory being commonly denominated the "Single-tax Philosophy." Forty years after the passage of this law, Henry George wrote his "Progress and Poverty," in which he maintained that the unearned increment—i. e.. the increase in land values that comes .by reason of the greater demand caused by a growing population—is. sufficient to sustain all the institutions of any country ; that this value should be taken by the State, and that all other forms of taxation should be abolished. "This truth," said he, "has always existed, if economists could only see it." And the pioneer legislators of Wisconsin saw the truth long before Mr. George expounded it. EARLY CONDITIONS. We will now return and take up persons and events that were important in their way in laying the foundation of the splendid city near the mouth of the Maumee. The condition of things and personnel of the leading citizens, as herein given. is taken from the reminiscences written in 1872 of Richard Mott, who first set foot in Toledo March 1, 1836. In substance, his observations were as follows : The Toledo House was a double, two-story, brick building, standing on the corner Of Perry and Summit streets. It was afterward added to and re-named the Indiana House. The forest extended to the south bank of Swan creek, no improyement being on that side 220 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY nearer than George Knaggs. farm, after leaving Port Miami. At Swan creek a road had been cut, commencing where Henry Brand's brewery now is and descending along the side of the bank to about opposite Superior street, where was a bridge, carried off by a freshet a few weeks later. For some years afterward the creek was crossed by a scow ferry boat, large enough to carry a single team. This ferry was kept by Joseph Harmon Crane, father of the late Charles A. Crane, of East Toledo. Adjoining the Toledo House was the store of W. J. Daniels & Company, in which, at the time, Roswell Cheney, Jr., and Daniel McBain were clerks. Cheney remained in Toledo and died in 1845. Over the store, reached by outside stairs, was a large room occupied by Emery D. Potter as a lawyer's office. This office was much resorted to by the Judge's friends, who wished to write or transact business, all of whom were heartily welcomed by him—pens, ink and paper, and a seat at his long table, thrown in. It was, in fact, the most attractive loafing place in town. Occasionally, in the evenings, a debating society met there. Besides Judge Potter, Peter Palmer, Daniel McBain, Caleb F. Abbott and Josiah G. Murfee were prominent in this organization. Joshua R. Giddings and Benjamin F. Wade came in the spring and took part in some real estate purchases. Wade did not stay long, but Giddings remained a long time and took an active part con amore in the debating society. Later in the spring, Edward Wade also came and opened a law office in company with Richard Cooke. The early settlers will recollect Cooke as a lawyer of much promise, cut short by his untimely death, Nov. 13, 1839. Nearly opposite W. J. Daniels & Company, on part of the lot where the Bostwick-Braun Company building now is, was another frame store building standing alone, over the door of which was the sign of A. Palmer & Company. This old building remained until 1859, when it was pulled down to make room for the block belonging to V. H. Ketcham, which. in turn, was displaced by the Bostwick-Braun building. Daniels & Goettel (Munson H. Daniels and Henry W. Goettel) were doing a large business in a wooden building, on the corner of Perry and Swan streets. During the year they put up two three-story brick store buildings on the corner of Monroe and Summit streets, and, in the fall of 1836, moved into the corner one. These store buildings were burned, Oct. 16, 186o, and were replaced by the Lenk's Block, erected in the spring of 1861. A row of buildings stood on the northwest -side of St. Clair street, Guilt by Coleman I. Keeler, Jr., where is now the Merchants' Hotel, but extending further south and across the alley that runs between the police station and Relyea's commission house. The usually traveled road into the Port Lawrence end of the town was through this alley and under the wooden arch-way of Keeler's row. This road continued nearly to the present site of the African church, then more toward the north, passed over the rear of what is now the Scott Block, corner of Monroe and Michigan streets ; thence crossing Monroe street, it passed near the corner of Monroe and Eleventh streets, the corner of Jefferson and Fourteenth streets, and in the same direction to the corner of Madison and Sixteenth CITY OF TOLEDO - 221 streets, and then continued in a direct line to the junction of Adams street and Woodruff avenue—Park Place. On the river, in rear of the store of A. Palmer & Co., was a log warehouse, an old looking building, said to have been standing when Coleman I. Keeler landed there, in 1817. Keeler settled in that year on the farm so long occupied by his widow, on the road above mentioned, at what is now the northwest corner of Collingwood and Delaware avenues. This log building was taken down in 1836, by Judge John Baldwin, who put on its site the warehouse occupied, after his death in 1837, by Carpenter & Myers, and then by Valentine H. Ketcham, the building having been taken down to make room for Ketcham's Block. The Oliver warehouse, built by Joseph Prentice, was then standing on the west side and at the foot of Monroe street, and was occupied by A. Palmer & Co. Further down, under the bank of the river, on the site of Minot I. Wilcox's brick store building, 214 Water street, was another warehouse, belonging to William P. and Willard J. Daniels. The bank, which was there upwards of thirty feet high, had been dug away to fill in for the dock foundation for this warehouse, which was only reachable from the land side by a road commencing at Jefferson street, and cut sideways down the bank. An attempt had been made towards street making on Monroe street, but it was not used, the travel continuing the old track out Perry street and through the alley, under the arch of Keeler's row. A brick store building of two stories. belonging to John Baldwin. fronted Summit street adjoining Willard J. Daniels. This stood till within a few years since. The ground in front of the Toledo House was about at the present grade of Summit street. at that corner. It was some four or fiye feet at the lower intersection of Monroe street. Here was a run-way for the water from the low ground, along Mud creek. This run-way was crossed on Summit street by a little log bridge—the logs well covered with earth. Beyond this, at the east, was a bluff, some twenty feet above the present grade. and a road-way had been cut, partly sidewalks. to reach the top of the bluff. Here was a frame building, then occupied, but afterward fitted up and known as the National Hotel, and where (in 1845) Lyman T. Thayer began his successful career at hotel-keeping. The present Milner Company building covers the same spot. It was then a commanding position, having a full view of the river, there being nothing to obstruct in either direction, up or down. From this the road wound along near the edge of the bank, among stumps and bushes, and without regard to map lines of streets, to the postoffice, a two-story brick building, about 150 feet east of Adams street. This had been put up by Edward Bissell, for the purpose for which it was then used, to be about midway between the settled portions of the previously rival villages of Port Lawrence and Vistula, when they concluded to bury the hatchet of strife and unite under the name of Toledo. This postoffice building was an isolated and somewhat desolate-looking affair, standing entirely alone. The nearest dwelling was a log house, directly in the present line of Summit street, at the corner of Jackson, surrounded by a worm rail fence, enclosing about half an acre for a garden spot. This log house was occupied by William 222 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY Andrews and family, consisting of his wife and several sons and daughters. Among the former was the late Samuel Andrews, of the Blade, then a boy perhaps a dozen years old. The road passed between the enclosure and the river, over the lot where the Lynn Street Mill stands, toward the corner of Cherry and Summit streets. From this to Elm street the line of Summit street was clearly defined. The stumps had been mostly grubbed out and several buildings were erected on both sides. A frame building, occupied as two dwellings, stood on the west corner of Cherry street. A dwelling house adjoining was nearly finished. The frame on the corner was afterward moved on the lot where Finsterwald's clothing store stands, and was long occupied by the Toledo Blade, till it was removed to 306 Summit street. Cherry street was then the southwesterly border of the Vistula division. The entire space to the tayern building, above Jefferson street, was open and wild, except the postoffice building and Mr. Andrews' log house. On the south side of Summit street, on the corner of Vine street, was a frame building, occupied by William Tillman as a paint shop below and dwelling above. This was the next year fitted up by Edward Bissell for a dwelling, and there he resided for several years. Nearly opposite, Richard Greenwood had a small frame dwelling. The three old store buildings on the northwest side of Summit street, fronting the head of Vine street, were in course of erection. A brick outside was put on them in 1852, in which they still stand. When Toledo was made a city, in 1837, one of the offices in the second story of this block was used for the city council room. Scott & Richardson (Samuel E. Scott and Worden N. Richardson, both deceased) had a store a little below, toward Walnut street. A row of store buildings belonging to Edward Bissell stood on the southwest corner of Locust street, where George Weber's block is. In the second story of this row Hezekiah D. Mason had his office. Judge Mason was regarded as an old resident, having come in 1834. This row was burned in the fall of 1838, the most sickly season ever known in Toledo. The city had two fire engines, built at Waterford, N. Y., and, as the weather had been very dry, one of the engines (No. I) had to be run down the bank of the river for a supply of water, forcing it up to the other (No. 2), that was thus enabled to throw one little stream. The few men who worked the machine at the river were soon tired out and the stream stopped. They sent for fresh hands to help work at the brakes, but it was next to impossible to find any men who were well enough, the almost invariable excuse of every bystander applied to being that he was just out from a fit of the ague and was not able to work. The well men being fagged out, the stores were destroyed. All that could be done was to save the near buildings. About half way between Locust and Lagrange streets was the Mansion -House, 923 Summit. It was a story and a half frame, having a long front, and in the rear a barn-like addition, used for a dining-room below, with a double row of lodging rooms above. It was then kept by James Browne, but soon afterward was taken by Daniel Segur, who continued in it till the following autumn, when CITY OF TOLEDO - 223 the American Hotel, on the corner of Elm street, built by Joseph R. Williams, being completed, Segur moved into the latter, which was then considered as something notable in the tavern line—and so it was, and kept well, too. On the southeast corner of Summit and Lagrange streets was a two-story frame store building, belonging to and occupied by Dr. Jacob Clark. the sign over the door being "Clark & Bennett." This corner was then regarded as about the center of business, and perhaps the best stand in the place till 1843, when, by the opening of the canal, business was mainly drawn toward the Port Lawrence end of the town. This old store building was afterward occupied by Ketcham & Snell, and it was here that Joseph K. Secor commenced business life as a store boy. It was subsequently taken by Elijah S. Hanks, who remained till it was burned, in 1844 or 1845. Lagrange street was graded from Summit street (pretty steeply) so that teams could pass to the dock. Here. on the west side of the street, was the warehouse of Peckham & Co., still standing, now a part of the Vulcan Iron Works establishment. Peckham & Co. did the largest forwarding business of the place, most of the steamboats coming in the river stopping at their wharf. The members of the firm were Bunnell P. Peckham and John Berdan ( Judge). Mr. Berdan was the first mayor of Toledo, elected in the spring of 1837, by one yote over Andrew Palmer. and re-elected in 1838, without organized opposition. He died in 1841. His sons. Peter V. and John. of the well-known firm of Secor. Berdan & Co.. were then round-jacketed boys. Peckham died in 1868, at Milwaukee, where he had lived for seyeral years. In the spring of 1836 two other warehouses were put up near the foot of Lagrange street. on the east side. The lower one was occupied by Bissell & Gardner (Frederick Bissell and Joseph B. Gardner). Mr. Bissell continued in business in Toledo till his death, in June, 187o. Gardner was afterward postmaster, succeeding Judge Potter, in 1839. He removed to Buffalo and died many years ago. The other warehouse was kept first by Poag & Morse, then Poag & Titus. and afterward by Robert W. Titus. John Poag went to Yew York about 1840, and after a few years became one of the firm of Kent, Poag & Co.. grew wealthy, and invested largely in Toledo real estate, which has turned out very advantageously. He returned to Toledo. and died in 1867. The same warehouse (the second story) was taken by Titus & Company ( Avery and Walter Titus), from New York, in the spring of 1838, for a dry goods and groceries jobbing establishment. They did a good business, but, trying to carry a load of debt, growing out of their New York business in 1837, proved too great a burden and, after the death of Avery Titus, in 1841, the firm was obliged to suspend. The site of these warehouses is now occupied by the Toledo Carriage Wood Works Company, southeast corner of Lagrange and Water. Among the permanent boarders at the Toledo House, in the spring of 1836, were Willard J. Daniels and William P. Daniels, with his wife and two little children—son and daughter—the former, Charles, 224 - MEMOIRS OF LUCAS COUNTY later of Lloyd, Daniels & Dennison, and Helen, who became Mrs. C. J. Lloyd. Lyman Wheeler was also there, then unmarried. He had recently bought the lot on the corner of Monroe and St. Clair streets. where the Wheeler Block now stands, at that time a very uninviting spot, the swale from Mud creek crossing this lot as well as the opposite corner, where the Collins Block is, and continuing thence along through the whole of the block to the Myers' corner, where it crossed Monroe street. Wheeler had great faith in the advancement of Toledo, especially of the Port Lawrence end of the town. Caleb F. Abbott was also there, a graduate just from Cambridge college, seeking his fortune in the West, as Ohio was then considered to be. Ralph P. Buckland (later General Buckland of Fremont) came soon afterward, on the same errand, and remained till in the summer. James M. Comstock came about the latter part of March, 1836. His brother. Stephen B. Comstock, had been here since 1832 and was a very old settler by that time. Stephen was. in fact, one of the pioneers and-became interested, with Oliver & Williams, in tracts 1 and 2, which comprised what was known as Port Lawrence, and he was for some years the agent for the Port Lawrence Company, in selling lots and inducing settlements. He was also postmaster. The latter position he resigned in 1837, being a Whip,-, to make way for Judge Potter. Stephen died in 1853,. Until the spring of 1837, there were no sidewalks anywhere in the place, not even one of a single plank. Men wore heayy boots and, in muddy weather, tucked their pantaloons inside and waded boldly through the soft soil. It was quite an undertaking to get from either end of the town to the postoffice, then called "Middletown." It was useless to attempt wearing Indian rubber shoes ; the adhesive character of the mud made a power of suction that would draw off rubbers almost at the first step. It was regarded as a grand improvement when, by private subscription, a sidewalk of two planks in width was laid on the northwest line of Summit street, from the Toledo House, corner of Perry street. to the American at the corner of Elm street. In 1842, the Toledo House was enlarged by the addition of another story, with great, awkward, wooden columns put up in front ; but it was considered yery grand. Its name was changed to that of the "Indiana House," and it was for some years, under its new name, kept by Robert N. Lawton, who had previously had charge of the American. The completion of the Erie & Wabash and the Miami canals had drawn much of the trayel and business toward the mouth of Swan creek, making the Indiana House the better location. The "packet dock," which was located in front of the old St. Charles Hotel (now in ruins), was then a very lively business spot. Packet lines started from this dock on both canals, generally crowded with passengers, there being no competing lines of railroad on either side. The packets had for agent at Toledo. William T. Finlay, who there began his business career. The opposite bank of Swan creek terminated in a high bluff, along what is now Ottawa street. No improvement had then been made on that side, the trees extending to the edge of the bank. Pos-