100 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY down by weight poles over the rafter poles, and held in position by blocks at the ends, running from one to the other called knees. A puncheon floor vindicates the axmanship of our pioneer forefathers. Many of them were nearly as smooth as plane-dressed floors, yet no other tool was used than an ax. One side was hewn smooth, and the others notched so that the sleepers brought them to exactly the same level. A chimney, a window, and a door completed the structure. The chimney was built of small poles imbedded in mud mortar, on a foundation of stone and was usually placed outside of the house against one end ; a large opening was cut out to form a fire-place, a fire chamber was formed of stone to keep the poles of the chimney from burning,, An opening about five and one-half feet high and four feet wide was cut into the side for a doorway. The door was made of puncheons pinned to cleats at each end, and was hung on wooden hinges. A window was made by cutting out a piece of one or two logs, pinning logs at right angles across the center, and pasting over the opening greased paper. Glass in the west was then a rare luxury, and sold at a price far beyond the reach of the early settlers. Cabin furniture corresponded with the simplicity of the building. A bedstead was made by joining two poles, one into the end, the other into the side of the cabin near one corner. The two other ends were tied together with bark, and supported by a post resting upon the floor. Pins were driven into a log of the side of the cabin, and into the pole opposite, to which was formed strips of bark in such a way as to form a matting. Under the bed was a convenient place for packing articles not in every day use. A white linen curtain concealed from view this useful, though suspicious-looking, corner. Few cabins afforded more than two split bottom chairs. These, however, were generally easy and comfortable, elegance being a secondary consideration. Benches were in common use. They were made by driving into wide puncheons long pins, for legs. The table was generally the product of a cabinet shop, and constituted part of the outfit purchased before leaving home. One or two kettles and a spider constituted the cooking furniture. The table fare consisted of corn bread, pork and wild meats. Articles of dress were largely of home manufacture, and were made either of flax or wool. Every pioneer in the more favored and earlier settled part of the country had a few sheep and a flax patch. The flax was pulled, bleached and dressed. The wool was cleanly carded with a hand card. The spinning-wheel prepared it for the shuttle. Spinning was at one time the national employment for American women. There is real beauty in that picture representing virtue, which figures a devoted wife and mother busily spinning with both hands ; one foot is on the treadle which moves the whirling wheel, while the other is rocking, in a cradle, her tender offspring, quieted by the rhythmic hum to sweet, innocent sleep. The women of the pioneer days had many experiences which ought to be recorded ; but unfortunately not many of these experiences have been preserved in shape for publication. While the husband with stalwart arm felled the trees and reduced 'the wilderness of swamp and forest to productive fields, the faithful wife had no small task. No one felt the hardships and privations of pioneer life more than she, who, in coming to the frontier, had exchanged, in many instances, a comfortable dwelling-house for the rude log cabin. In place of the society which she once enjoyed she was now almost entirely isolated from all intercourse with the world. Ofttimes the husband must be absent from home for days at a time, while the women were left entirely all alone, miles from any neighbors in the heart of the vast wilderness. She is therefore deserving of equal praise and veneration with the husband for the part she bore in the work of making the county what it now is. Very few of the pioneers had more than enough money to bring them here. They depended for a start upon their own labor and the resources of the country, about which so much had been said in the old communities. The first season's planting, owing to the difficulty of preparing the soil, was small, but under favor- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 101 able conditions would have been sufficient to furnish bread had the destroyer remained away. What must have been the hard-working farmer's disappointment and chagrin to see his crop at ripening time become the feast of all the multitude of animals and birds, which filled the woods. Blackbirds, squirrels, raccoons and turkeys literally devoured the drooping ears of an entire field, upon which the hardpressed family placed sole dependence for their winter's food. Another and prevalent cause of poverty and want in pioneer Sandusky County was fever and ague, which visited almost every cabin, Scarcely a spring opened but the old, unwelcome visitor returned in its most malignant form. At places clearing-fires died out for want. of attention, and weeds smothered the growing corn. The spinning-wheel, perchance, ceased its cheerful whirl, and the dismal prospect, amid desolate surroundings, day by day, became more gloomy. All were not thus unhappily afflicted, but all had generous hearts and were willing to lend assistance in a day of need. As the forest gradually became more broken the years grew brighter and crops increased in fullness. Hewed log and frame houses took the place of the first rude cabins ; and when at evening the family gathered around the great brick fire-place, the parents and older children told and retold to the interested little ones, melancholy experiences of sickness, want and hardship. To increase the acreage of tillable land was a main object of the well-to-do pioneer. He first girdled the trees and cut out the underbrush and logs of a small patch, probably ten acres, for the first season's planting. The next season, if health permitted, he more than doubled the "girdle clearing," and began to cut or burn down dead trees standing on the first opening. Those that were hollow or partially decayed burned readily, but solid timber had to be cut. Straight white oak, walnut, and poplar was split into rails for fencing fields under cultivation. Other trees were cut into logs, and when several acres had thus been reduced, a frolic was made, to which all the neighborhood came. Log rollings were the joy of pioneer life. All work was turned into fun, Heavy lifts were made a contest of strength, and the fatigues of the day were drowned by the contents of well-filled jugs. These pleasant gatherings, after the logs had all been piled ready for the torch, often terminated in happy social occasions, in which the wives and sisters figured conspicuously. Dancing was a favorite amusement, encouraged by the mothers, and greatly enjoyed by all. When the men went to roll their neighbors' logs, their dames and lasses dropped in to help do the cooking, and perchance make a quilt between meals. The men concluded their labor by triumphantly carrying the captain on their backs ; the women dedicated a quilt by enfolding it around their hostess, Stock was allowed to pasture in the fenceless woods. Every cow was provided with a bell and every flock of sheep with several. Cattle often ate the poisonous grass, which caused that terrible disease, milk sickness, spoken of at greater length elsewhere in this history. Sheep were penned in a high enclosure every night, to protect them from the wolves, that often came to the cabin door. Hogs were marked and turned out to fatten on nuts and acorns. Hogs bred in the woods became wild, and sometimes dangerous. It was unsafe to go far from the clearing, accompanied by a dog, for the sight of that animal arouses all the savage nature of a hog. An old settler assures us that an infuriated boar was a more dangerous enemy than a bear or wolf. Every farmer had his stock marked, which the law required him to have recorded in a book kept for the purpose by the township clerk. No market was accessible to the pioneers of Sandusky County, where farm products could be exchanged for cash, but furs commanded the ready money. This circumstance made many of the pioneers hunters, particularly those in the north part of the county. Soda-ash found a ready cash market, and several kilns in the east part of the county were constructed for its manufacture. Fish filled the streams emptying into the bay and river. Nature thus afforded the otherwise unfavored early settlers a bountiful supply of nutritious meat. The woods also abounded in deer, squirrels and turkeys. (Condensed from Everett's History, 1882.) 102 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY DAVID GALLAGHER. This very worthy man and early settler in Lower Sandusky was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, November 12, 1790, He came from Chillicothe to Lower Sandusky in the year 181o. He performed picket duty in the army at Fort Meigs at the time of the fight there. He was also commissary at Fort Stephenson in the year 1814. In 1818 he was in business with George G, Olmstead in the dry goods trade, most of which was with the Indians, Their store was located a little below the present gas works and was subsequently moved to the corner now on the east end of Front Street, and opposite to Buckland's old block. This store is said to be the second frame structure in the town. In 1830 he was a very large property owner, chiefly in real estate. For some years he carried on a woolen mill. In 1823, March 10, he married Miss M. Claghorn, by whom he had four children. Mr. David Gallagher died on the 21st day of February, 1860, and as a mark of respect, the Court of Common Pleas, then holding a session in Fremont, adjourned upon the day of his funeral. The Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a member, the order to which he had been attached for nearly half a century, and the citizens, almost unanimously attended and participated in the impressive burial services, thus testifying how much he was respected and beloved as a citizen, a man, a Mason, and a Christian. He was one of the followers and faithful members of the Masonic order in Lower Sandusky, and few there were who better practiced precepts of the order in daily life than did David Gallagher. HON. JEREMIAH EVERETT. Jeremiah Everett was the son of John Everett, and was born in the State of Massachusetts in the year 1783. His father moved from that state to the State of New York, and settled at Schenectady, where he reared his family and died. Jeremiah married Elizabeth Emery, and left home soon after attaining his majority, and worked at an early day at the Onondaga salt works. When the War of 1812 broke out he volunteered, and served at Fort Erie for a time. The musket he carried in that service was preserved in the family, and kept after his death by his eldest son Lorenzo, and all traces of it are now lost, Lorenzo's family being long since dispersed in various parts of the country, but the writer (Homer Everett) remembers well using the old musket in boyhood to shoot blackbirds from. the oats and corn fields in and about Lower Sandusky. In the fall of the year 1812, intending to settle on the Connecticut Western Reserve, which was then attracting pioneers in search of land, he settled on the Huron River, in Huron County, at the old county seat, sometimes called the Abbott Place, where Mr. Abbott, afterwards known as Judge Abbott, then resided. There was a new settlement of several families in the vicinity, and the fear of Indian attacks caused them to construct a block-house of heavy logs, with port-holes, in which the families lodged at night, or fled to in case of alarm in the day time. The settlement planted corn and potatoes, and such vegetables as they could, along the river. But the frequent alarms of Indians, arising from the capture of Mrs. Snow and the Putnam family on Pike Creek, not far away, put them in great fear, and during the summer the settlers tended their crops with loaded guns standing near, to fire in defense of an attack, and give warning of the approach of danger. Here, after the arrival of Jeremiah Everett, and on the 13th of January, 1813, his son Homer was born. Through the summer of 1813 the inhabitants tended their crops and managed to live without any serious demonstrations from the lurking savages. On the second of August, 1813, Croghan's victory at Fort Stephenson rather diminished the danger from the savages, and yet the settlers at the old county seat did not slack their vigilance, On the l0th of September, 1813, he heard the distant roar of the battle on Lake Erie and afterwards visited the fleet and saw the evidence of the fight in the shattered hulls, broken spars and rigging, and bloody decks of the vessels which had been engaged. In the spring of the year 1815, Jeremiah Everett, with the help of one Aden Breed, started for Lower Sandusky. They moved family and goods by team from the old county AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 103 seat to Ogontz Place, afterwards called Portland and now Sandusky City, on the shore of the Sandusky Bay. The household goods and provisions and the family were there transferred to a pirougue or very large canoe, worked by hand with paddles after the aboriginal fashion. When the wind was fair they hoisted a common blanket on a pole for a sail and thus made the voyage up the Sandusky Bay and the river to Lower Sandusky. Arriving about the middle of April, in the year 1815. He found shelter with some hospitable pioneers until he with the help of generous neighbors and settlers erected a log house on the ground where the house of the late Isaac E. Amsden stands, then in Lower Sandusky. While living in his house, he farmed the land near the residence to the mill-race, and there raised fine crops of corn. A little north of and near this house stood a mortar for pounding corn into Indian meal. which was used by him and his neighbors, before any grist mill had been built in the vicinity. While living in this house Jeremiah was, in the year 1818, engaged by the government to carry the mail from Lower Sandusky to Fort Meigs. This mail was carried both ways once a week, when it was possible to get through, but was often omitted on account of the high streams and impassable swamps. In performing this duty Jeremiah Everett often encountered great difficulties and dangers. About the year 1825 Jeremiah Everett re- moved from the log cabin and settled on the farm formerly owned by Timothy H, Bush, within the corporate limits of the present city of Fremont. This tract was then owned by David Harrold, of Philadelphia, a wealthy Quaker. Harrold attended the land sale at Wooster, Ohio, and bought this tract. He was wealthy and invested his money with a view of settling on this land for a home. Harrold, after finishing his house, offered the use of the house and farm for a nominal price, and the judge occupied it for about eight years, and until he moved his family down the river on Tract Number 2 of the original survey of the reservation. Here, on Tract 2, Judge Everett, having purchased it, made a home and kept his family until his wife died in December, 1832. About two years after, he married Mrs, Eunice Wolley, widow of Daniel Wolley, who owned a farm on the Sandusky River about six miles north of Lower Sandusky. He settled there and both husband and wife having minor children, devoted their time and care to the farm and the welfare of the children. He lived on this farm until his death, on the 29th day of December, 1842, The children of Judge Jeremiah Everett were Lorenzo, Joel, Homer, Adelaid, Lodoiska, Zachariah, and Charles by his first wife; by the second, Elizabeth, Helen, Cyrus and two others, who died young and were buried on the Wolley farm. Few men were ever endowed with better intellectual and conversational powers than those possessed by Judge Jeremiah Everett. Few men possessed the faculty of keeping the respect and confidence and even the love of all his acquaintances in so high a degree. He was fond of social converse and philosophic thought, Sardis Birchard used to say that he never met a man whom he took as much pleasure in conversing with and listening to as he did with Judge Everett. Jeremiah Everett was appreciated by the early citizens of the county. He early held the office of justice of the peace, and kept the office so long as he could afford to do so, and until he positively declined to serve longer at the dictates of his own necessities. He was elected representative to the General Assembly in 1825, and was the first resident of Sandusky County chosen for that place, He was again elected in 1835 and served to the satisfaction of the people, but declined to accept the position again, During his first term of service in the Assembly he was largely influential in passing measures favorable to the construction of the Maumee and Western Reserve Turnpike. His remains are buried in the old cemetery in a lot surrounded by a hedge of arbor-vitae, and a plain marble slab marks the resting-place of an honest and honorable man who died a Christian. SAMUEL HOLLINSHEAD. Samuel Hollinshead came to Sandusky County in 1819, in company with Thomas Hol- 104 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY comb, from Newark, Ohio, and settled in Lower Sandusky, Here he found plenty of work as gunsmith, and most of his work was done for the Indians. His shop stood near the present site of Dr. Price's sash factory, in Fremont. In 1824 he moved to the mouth of the Portage River, west of Port Clinton. His farm lies on the south side of the river, and his house and shop stood on the banks of the river near the water. The buildings are now all gone and the foundations on which they stood have been partly washed away by the encroachments of the river. Here Mr. Hollins-head and family lived many years, and many social and historical events occurred. During the first few years the Hollinsheads had Tama or Ottawa Indians for neighbors. These were called "Nitches" by the whites. They had no cabins, but lived in tents, which they moved from place to place. When not under the influence of whiskey, they were friendly, honest and truthful, as a rule. When told of some wrong done by an Indian, they would say, "Bad Indian did that—good Indian all right." Money was not so plentiful then as now, and much of the dealings with the Indians was by barter or exchange. Among the articles sold to the Indians were flour, salt, potatoes, cornmeal, beads, powder and whiskey ; and articles bought from them were venison, willow and splint baskets, nicely colored, moccasins trimmed with bead-work, wampum, or small sea shells used as beads and worn on belts and other articles as ornaments. These beads were also used as money by the Indians. On one occasion Mr, Hollinshead came in from the field and found five drunken Indians at his cabin. His wife was cooking at the fire outside the cabin by a log. The Indians had been threatening to steal her babe which she held in her arms. Mr. Hollinshead ordered them away, whereupon one of them drew a butcher knife and advanced to meet him, flourishing the knife and making threats., Mr. Holinshead quickly seized a pair of fire tongs and struck the Indian a glancing blow on the head, which almost completely scalped him, the scalp hanging down over the left ear. The Indian immediately retired from the engagement, but his comrades pounced upon Mr. Hollinshead, and a rough and tumble fight ensued, in which the Indians came out second best. During the fight Mrs. Hollinshead had come to the rescue of her husband, and the red-skins were driven away with a rifle brought from the cabin. While working at his trade as gunsmith, Mr. Hollinshead found time to clear away the forest for the raising of farm crops and garden vegetables. As there was an abundance of wild grass on the prairie near by, he, by wise foresight bought calves of his neighbors, pastured them, and sold them later at a profit. One night his dwelling house and shop burned down with their contents. This seemed a serious loss for his tools alone were worth about four hundred dollars. He decided not to replace them, but instead to give up gunsmithing and follow farming exclusively, which under the circumstances was the wiser course, as the Indians were about going away and civilization was advancing. During the first few years the blackbirds were a great pest. They came from the swamps in flocks so thick that they darkened the sky and lit on the grain fields. They had to be frightened away with the noise of tin pans and fire arms, or the crops would have been speedily destroyed. Squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons and woodchucks also needed watching. After a good crop of wheat, rye or corn had been raised, the next thing was to have it ground in a mill. The lack of grist mills was a serious inconvenience to the early settlers. Our people and their neighbors about the mouth of the Portage River were obliged to go many miles to Lower Sandusky or to Cold Creek, now Castalia, to the mill. Mr. J. L. Lucky, of Elmore, at one time spent three weeks in going to and returning from the mill at Lower Sandusky, a distance of thirty-two miles. During his absence, his wife Anna, fearing that he was drowned, walked up and clown Portage (then known as the Carrying, River) looking for his body. He at length returned with a cargo of musty corn meal, in lumps, and a half bushel of salt, He had reached Lower Sandusky by way of Port Clinton, hauled his canoe and corn across the peninsula in a wagon to Sandusky Bay, then reloaded his corn into the canoe and paddled his AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 105 way up the Sandusky River, and after waiting his turn for grinding, returned in a similar manner, making two transfers or portages of his precious baggage. Many other pioneers of situ region who lived along the shores of the river and lake went to mill in like manner. They came in canoes to Port Clinton, or to the Hollinshead home, lodged over night, transferred their canoes and grain to a wagon, crossed he peninsula to the bay, transferred grain to canoe and worked their way. up to Lower Sandusky as best they could, and rertuned in like manner. In fair weather this was not so difficult to do but during rain storms it was hard to keep their baggage dry. The Hollinshead team was kept pretty busy at times in making these portages. The canoes used for transporting grain in this manner were mostly dug-outs, or canoes cut out of logs of yellow poplar, three feet or more in diameter, and sometimes twenty feet in length, and capable of carrying twenty bushels of wheat, or three-fourths of a ton. For ordinary use in hunting, fishing, trapping or pleasure seeking, a lighter canoe was dug out of a smaller tree and neatly shaped for beauty and utility. Another drawback to the pioneer settlers was the prevalence of the much dreaded fever and ague and malarial fevers which came during the hot weather and subsided after the frosts in the fall of the year. In the summer of 1834 the cholera broke out in Lower Sandusky, and nearly all the citizens who could do so left the village. Among those who came for refuge to the Hollinshead home at Port Clinton, were: Mrs. Rodolphus Dickinson and family, Miss Julia Beaugrand accompanied by her mother and younger sister, Helen, and brother, James; Mrs. Statira Grant, and others. A Mrs. Mommeny who came with them and went to stay at Port Clinton, died there of cholera, the only case that proved fatal of that company. These ladies were brought down the river in a wagon and remained about three weeks, their mail and groceries and medicines meanwhile being brought to them from Lower Sandusky by Mr. Hollinshead, who made regular trips for that purpose. Dr. L. O. Rawson and his assistant, Dr. P. Beaugrand, then his student, served as family doctors for the company. One time as Mr. Hollinshead was leaving Lower Sandusky with a load of these supplies for his home hospital, he was asked by a man who lived along the road to stop in the yard of the house and take a smoke. He thanked the man, but declined accepting the hospitality, as he was in a hurry to return to Port Clinton. He learned later that this same man died of cholera that same night. Such were some of the perils of the early pioneers. GENERAL W. H. GIBSON. "I was born in Jefferson County, Ohio. I was born in May, and just as quick as I could make arrangements I emigrated to Sandusky County and settled at Honey Creek. Seneca County was made from a part of Sandusky. Your county is not as big as it used to be. I lived in Sandusky County three years, commencing on the 5th of October, 1821, Seneca County was set off from Sandusky in 1824. From that time to this I have been a resident of Seneca County ; two years longer than any other person in that jurisdiction. How many of you were here in 1821? There may be some, but I am one of them, sure. Therefore I have a right to appear here as a pioneer. I was a young pioneer, and I am glad of it, for if I had been old I would have had a worse time of it. I was quite a curiosity among the Indian squaws as a white baby. They presented me with pets of cats and dogs, and I have been fond of them ever since. That is the way I started in life. At that time this whole northwestern Ohio was an unbroken solitude. "Imagine, if you can, this whole region shadowed with deep tangled forests, with only occasional pathways along which the sly Indian crept in pursuit of his game, and pioneers were guided by spots on trees made with an ax. I look out today, and what do I see? A great tumultous nation 63,000,000 strong. I hold my ear to earth and I hear the thunder of 52,000 locomotives, drawing over 175,000 miles of railway, uncounted thousands of cars and millions of people who live on wheels, traveling from sea to sea and hamlet to hamlet. I look out and I see, beyond, the schoolhouses rearing their beautiful forms, and 12,000,000 106 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY children rolicking and playing in the yards ; and I see the churches rising skyward. I look at this country, grander and, vaster than any other in the world; as glorious as Lebanon, beautiful as Carmel and Sharon—and how comes it? You and I have come into a goodly inheritance, but the Samuels and Joshuas that led us through the wilderness and brought into it the wake of Christian civilization and laid broad and deep the foundation of this country had to go through much tribulation. There was not a cloud by day nor a pillar of 'fire by night to guide their footsteps, but they went out like heroes bearing the ark and planted it in their cabins. Talk about heroes ! Who are the heroes of this earth ? Go where you will and you can see monumental shafts to their honor. You have one in your city. It is a beautiful memorial of the soldier in his intrepidity and valor. He hears the bugle notes, the roll of drums, the shriek of fife, the thunder of guns. He touches elbows with his fellows, and they rush forward regardless of life. There is a thrill in him. But what is that compared with a man like my father, with ten children, who cut his way through the woods and came and settled where there was not one acre of cleared land? He was obliged to clear away the trees and brush so that he could raise grain and get vegetables to fill the bodies of his children and inspire them with enthusiasm. I say here today, and I say it with pride, that they were the bravest men, the most heroic characters in American history. And when I want a monument built I am going to have a piece of granite, and I will have represented on it an old pioneer father equipped with an ax, and his spouse sitting on the other side spinning flax and singing "Old Hundred." And that will be a heroic thing to do. "How things have changed within my memory ! Talk about going to school, I walked two and a half miles to school with the late Anson Burlingame of Massachusetts, who later became noted in our history. That was the first school house erected in Seneca County, and soon we built a church, and the logs were hewed. We used to meet in log school houses. but they are gone; then in log churches, and they are gone ; and then we built a 'frame, and that is gone, and now we have a brick church, and it has domes and minarets and is stuck all full of points. We have got through going to heaven from log churches and frame churches, but our new ones are not a bit better than those our fathers had to go to heaven from. "We used to go to meeting in homespun clothes, but now we all wear store clothes. A young fellow would cut a pretty figure now to go to see his girl in homespun. I present myself as a young man who did that very thing—and the girl was mighty glad to see me. at that. Now it was not all graveyard business in the pioneer time. I recollect the raising of the log cabin. I was there, and I seldom failed to be on hand. The fellow that could carry up a corner the quickest and best was considered the bully. Every girl in the neighborhood wanted to kind 'o side up to him. That was a great thing then. My father was a carpenter and built the first frame barn in Seneca County. We went fifteen miles to get hands to raise it, and requested them to bring knife and fork. We had plenty to eat but not enough to eat with. We had Christmas every week in the year. We had it oftener than that, even, because we could get turkey any time, in the woods. The men came their fifteen miles —every fellow had his knife and fork and would haul them out and pitch in, at dinner time, and when he got through would put them in his pocket again. Now those were pretty good times. There was often a great deal of fun. Then when log rollings were had the people were very clever. The whole neighborhood would come to help a man roll logs. If he lost a horse or a cow the neighbors would chip in and get him another. Everything has-changed. There is not a single thing in your house or on your farm like that of the old pioneers. Where is your little spinning wheel on which you spun the flax, or the big wheel six feet in diameter on which the girls spun seventeen knots an hour? I knew one who spun eighteen once, and she was married in less than ninety days from that event. Where are they? I can see them yet, my mother and sister. spinning in the evening as we men sat around and told our stories and talked on politics and religion. O how my good old mother sat and AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 107 worked to get something out for the boys ! It had to be done. And then do you recollect the tow linen which was hatcheled from the best part of the flax. 1 have always been a protectionist from that time. We would sow a patch of flax and when it had grown up the girls would get together and pull it, I suspect that some of these younger ladies who have gray hair have also been in the scrape. And then the boys were invited to come in the evening. We would come after supper in time to beau the girls home, and if there was a fiddler in the neighborhood we would have a shindig! The people were all good-hearted, honest, conscientious people. This is shown by the fact that they live so long. I do not know why I have lived so long except for the same reason, "Well then, the weaving : I can hear the shuttle and the loom yet, out in the little outhouse where my sister was weaving. I never had a single yard of store clothes until I was nineteen years old, and yet I thought I was well dressed, I strutted around like a dude, We thought that we were well off, and so we were. Genius and invention have come in, and we now make everything by steam. We spin and weave and do other work by steam. Steam is the mistress of every sea and the queen of every river, It is the new creation, "Can you recollect how you did the cooking ? How did you bake what you called pone—a corn loaf about eight inches thick, baked in that dutch oven? The dough was fixed up in the evening when we went to bed and the coals were hauled around it, or it was hung in a kettle on a crane. It was done by morning and then we shavers pitched into it, and it stuck well to our ribs. Now do you remember that crane—a piece of iron rod bent and hung on one side of the fire place ? And can you remember how the pots hung on hooks, and were filled with cabbage, pork, mutton and potatoes, which made the whole cabin fragrant ? How is it now? Why you do not bake at all, You buy your bread at five cents a loaf, and you have no corn bread. The cooking stove was unknown when I was a boy. And then look at your silver dishes, knives and forks! You can not say that you are sticking to the old track. The omnipotent and omnipresent movement of progress lifts up everything and you must move with it or get left. You have to get into fashion or be out of the world, "Well, then, go out on the farm. What kind of a plow have you got ? Have you a wooden mold board with strips of iron on the land side of it ? Do you plow with oxen ? I have plowed with oxen and gone to Sunday school at the same time. That takes a pretty heroic fellow, not to violate any of the commandments. Knock and rip goes the plow through the roots, and then they strike back and hit your shins. If you do not violate some of the commandments you are pretty well imbued with the religious element. I recollect the first iron plow, the Peacock plow, made in New York State. We have gone on now until we are not satisfied without a polished steel mold-board and cutters." * * * * * * * * PHILANDER REXFORD, "My parents, with my grandfather, on my mother's side, two sons-in-law of my grandfather, and a family named Martin, left Sackett's Harbor, New York, in a ten-ton boat, in April, 1811, We made our way up Lake Ontario to Lewistown, where our boat was loaded upon a four-wheeled truck and drawn by three yoke of oxen to Black Rock, below Buffalo. Buffalo then was a place of very few inhabitants. We then went on Lake Erie to Detroit, where we arrived the latter part of August, 1811, and remained there through the winter. Upon the breaking out of the War of 1812 we left Detroit and came this way into Licking County, In the spring of 1812 we moved to Huron County, the better to keep away from the Indians, and remained there during the war. "While we were there my grandfather and grandmother moved to Cold Creek, where Castalia is now located. There in May, 1813, while the men were out plowing and the women and children had gathered at a Mr. Snow's house, the Indians made a descent upon the place, They captured and carried off fourteen persons, and all the goods of any value. Mrs. Snow was unable to travel and the Indians killed her and three small children. The Indians wanted to kill Mrs, Snow's son Willard, four and a half years old; but a boy named 108 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY Henry Grass, who was already loaded down with all the goods he could bear, offered to carry the boy and did take him on his back for fifteen miles. At Sandusky the prisoners were put into canoes. These were so heavily loaded that the prisoners had to sit very still, and there Henry Grass took a cold from the effects of which he died. The Indians carried their prisoners to Detroit, where they were turned over to the British and held until after Perry's victory on Lake Erie and his triumphal entry into Detroit, when they were released. I can remember what rejoicing there was when my grandmother returned. I remember seeing my mother shed tears when she was captured, and I remember how she acted when grandmother returned. I heard the firing during the battle on Lake Erie and remember well hearing my father say 'there goes another broadside.' "Father moved to White Creek (near Castalia) in 1814. In the spring of 1815 we went to Sandusky City; then there were only two houses there, one occupied by a family named Perry, who were building a little schooner on the beach, The next day we started in a boat and came up the Sandusky Bay and River, stopping the first night at Mrs. Whitaker's, three miles below here. We located in Lower Sandusky in April, 1815. The soldiers were still in Fort Stephenson, and I remember exactly how it looked, Mr, Everett's brother Joel, and myself took a stroll one day and went into the fort; sentries were passing back and forth and a large black bear was chained in the center of the fort. I have a distinct remembrance of everything of interest that transpired in my life since that period. I can recollect what kind of a year it was and what kind of weather we had every year since 1815, and I think that in 1886 we have had more dreadful cyclones and earthquakes than in all the other seventy-two years I can remember." * * * * * * * * * * * HAYES : When you came to this town was the fort in good condition ? REXFORD : Just as good as when it was built except that cannon balls had damaged some of the pickets. HAYES : Where were the block houses? REXFORD : They were built, the one on the southwest and the other on the northeast corner of the fort, and each projected beyond the pickets so as to command the ditches. The one on the northeast corner stood where the City Hall now stands. The British came up in a deep ravine on the north side. To the northwest, on lower ground, stood a small building owned by Mr, Rummery, the top of which did not rise higher than the banks of the ditch. Away from the fort to the north the ground was much lower. The British came up the west ditch, This is proven from the fact that the slugs, lead and iron, with which the gun was charged were picked out of the ground to the north of the northwest corner, We used to pick many of them out of the bank. HAYES : The gate was up the river near the southeast corner? REXFORD: I think it was on the south side. HAYES : Can you tell us when they commenced to demolish the fort? REXFORD : About a year and a half afterwards. They first cut down the inside pickets for fuel and then the outside ones and lastly the middle row. I often saw the middle ones, some of them were quite large. REV. H, LANG : The old cannon was not here when you came. REXFORD : Yes, sir, it was. LANG : Was it called "Old Betsey ?" REXFORD : I do not know. HAYES : It had not yet been christened. REXFORD : They did not use it in 1815, but in 1816 they took it under the hill to celebrate the 2d of August, The men in the fort would wave their flags and drink rum, and then those below would fire the gun. Then those above would hurrah again, and every little time they would take a drink on it. JONAS SMITH. Among the earliest settlers of the central part of Ballville Township was Jonas Smith. He was born in Seneca County, New York, November 27, 1807, a son of Mr. Stephen Smith. He married February 19, 1829, Miss Mary Gilmore, daughter of James and Elizabeth (Bailey) Gilmore in Pennsylvania. On the 6th day of June, 1833, he came to Lower Sandusky, on his way to Fort Seneca. to locate a home for himself and family. On AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 109 the 22nd of June he entered a tract of government land, since known as the Slope place. On this he built a log cabin and moved into it on the 9th of July. Here the family lived and shared the usual hardships of pioneer life for fifteen years. In the fall of 1847 they moved upon the southeast quarter of Section 10, Ball-vine Township, where they established a permanent home. Among their first neighbors were the families of John Dawson, Peter Strohl, and Henry Robinson. A plank road passed their home a few years later. Mr. Jonas Smith was a public spirited citizen. He helped build the first Duesler schoolhouse. There were only five householders in the district when they met to elect directors, and the majority of them got office. The first religious services held in the townships were conducted by a 'Methodist minister, Rev. Pietzel. Mr. Smith became a member of his little pioneer society, and served several years as class leader. Meetings were held in private houses, schoolhouses, and in the summer time in the woods in the shade of forest trees. A new Lutheran minister, named Livinggood, had his home with the family of Mr. Smith, held meetings, and formed a society which prospered for a few years, but disbanded after he went away, Jonas Smith was county commissioner when they built the first court house at Lower Sandusky, and he helped select the site. Mr. Smith had previously been elected justice of the peace in Ballville Township in 1835, and held the office nineteen years. He served as commissioner six years and as sheriff four years. While justice of the peace he performed marriage services for about one hundred pioneer couples. As most of the settlers were poor, his business consisted chiefly in the settlement of disputes and the collection of debts. The Yankee clock and fanning mill peddlers gave him lots of business. They sold their wares on time and took notes of the farmers. When pay day came and there was a default in payment the peddlers would sue, take judgment, and the farmer would of course take as long a stay of execution as they could, and some- times when the articles would be re-taken and offered for sale there were no bidders. When Mr. Smith first began to serve as justice, it was lawful to put a man to prison for non-payment of a debt. He issued some executions which read, "If no property is found, take the body of defendant." But the defendant usually planned some compromise to keep out of jail, During the first ten or twelve years there were no jury trials held before a justice of the peace. He thinks people were more honest in pioneer days than later. He never had a collection of a forged note. While sheriff he took about twenty persons to the penitentiary, usually in lots of three or four at a time. Among these was a man named Rose, who killed a man -(in Washington Township). Another time he took down some thieves and counterfeiters. He never had serious trouble with them.. One culprit was the man who robbed the jewelry store of L. Leppelman, which some of you remember. He with an accomplice, had unlocked the store and had carried the show-case from the counter, bodily, up towards the court house, where they took what they wanted. They were speedily apprehended, tried, convicted, sentenced and landed in the pen. During the first years of his pioneer life, Mr. Smith said he never rode a horse to mill, for the reason that he hadn't any. He drove oxen, He sometimes went to mill at Venice, taking two or three days to make the trip. The roads were so bad at times that he had to let his oxen stop to rest every ten rods. The dense forests shaded the ground so that water did not run off or evaporate, and there were miry swales where the water stood all the year round, where now, since the country is ditched and undrained, there is solid ground, and one would not suppose a swale ever existed. Sometimes the water of a swale was dammed back by a large log two or three feet thick, the removal of which would almost drain the swale, Mr. Smith sometimes cut down trees in the woods in a line with the path on which the children went to school so that they could walk the logs and keep out of water. A stranger once came near Lower Sandusky, and seeing some men digging a ditch, asked 110 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY them how far it was down to town, They said about four feet. Mr. Smith remembered the building of Stems' and Hedges' mills, near Green Spring, and he sometimes patronized the Parmeter mill two miles north of the Springs. He was here when there was but one brick house in Lower Sandusky. That was the old Beaugrand house, where later Jacob Strohl had a "tinker shop," for the repair of guns; and stood near where the Wheeling & Lake Erie depot now stands. Mr. and Mrs. 'Smith celebrated their golden wedding, February 19, 1879, and during this period of their married life, 52 years, death had never visited their family, Their children all became heads of families. MISS HARRIET A. HULBURD, "I was born in Lower Sandusky, January, 1825. As I left there before I was 10 years old my recollections of people and places is somewhat dim, but have always warmly cherished a remembrance of my old home. "My father, Cyrus Hulburd, had erected a house on the site at present occupied by the old Ralph Buckland Block, with the intention of opening a public house or tavern, as they were then called, which was unfinished at the time of his death, October, 1828. "He also had contracted for the building of the first court house, which was situated on a lot adjoining that of Harvey J. Harmon, fronting on Arch Street. "The same was afterward occupied by the Lutheran congregation as a place of worship. My father did not live to fulfill his contract. "Among my earliest recollections is that of the presence of the Indians, who in the early days were quite friendly. So accustomed was I to their presence that I never entertained any fear of them, "One Indian named Peter Shins, I remember used to come to the house for cold victuals; used to take me on his lap and was very kind to me. His apparent fondness was probably intended to curry favor with the mother, "Do not remember the names of the tribes that were there at that time, probably some of the Neutral tribes. "The squaws used to come on small Indian ponies, selling their wares, such as baskets, maple sugar and berries and fruits in their seasons, having their goods packed in hampers one on each side of the pony. "Also I remember being taken to a show, menagerie and circus combined ; tent pitched on Main Street near the bridge, said to have been the first exhibition of the kind in this country. "A neighbor, Mrs. Hull, had a little girl near my age and size; we were between 4 and 5 years old; we were dressed alike—turkeyred calico dresses, open turcan bonnets and red morocco shoes. Ami Hull took us in charge. On arriving at the tent the doorkeeper asked of him, 'Twins ?"Yes,' he replied. 'Then you can go in for nothing,' said he, and we did. I remember but little of the show, only the elephant and the monkeys. Neither can I recall the look of my twin. "About this time I began to go to school in the old log schoolhouse on the hill. Ami Hull used to take me to school in winter, sometimes on a handsled and as often on his back. "The teacher at that time was Edson Goit, whose home I think was in Findlay. He afterward taught in Tiffin, subsequently removed to Bowling Green, Wood County. where he resided until his decease. "I was too young to judge of his merits as a teacher, but I knew he was a great talker. It was said that he once talked a man to death. "In 1828 or '29 I recollect that one room of our house was occupied as a printing-office. The paper published there had a long high sounding title, which I fail to recall, "At that time there were three physicians in Lower Sandusky, Dr. Daniel Brainard, Dr. Anderson and Dr. L. Q. Rawson. There were several stores in the village; Richard Sears occupied the building opposite us on Main Street. All the stores were general supply stores. Mr. Sears was succeeded by a Mr. Gibbs, who remained but a short time, then removed to Norwalk. "The place was next occupied by Jaques Hulburd, a brother of my father's, who later removed to another location ; later still Mr. Pierce was in partnership with him. Jaques Hulburd died in 1835. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 111 "Sardis Birchard came to Lower Sandusky in 1827; was also in the mercantile business at that time. "If I mistake not his first partner was Rodolphus Dickinson. Later the business was continued under the firm name of Birchard & .Husted, still later, Birchard, Dickinson & Grant. The latter, George Grant, was a member of the firm at the time of his decease in 1841, They dealt quite largely in skins and furs , brought mostly by the Frenchmen from the bay shore. "Mr. Birchard passed from among us in 1874, having spent a long and useful life, beloved and regretted by all. "Jesse Olmstead had a store on State Street, continued in the business in the same location until his death; also as I remember was postmaster. "Somewhat later the Tyler Bros., Captain Morris and John Tyler engaged in the same business ; also F. I. Norton, James Magee and Dr, Augustus Brown were in the ranks. "Morris Tyler was captain of the Steamer Ohio, which made weekly trips between Detroit and Buffalo, stopping at intervening ports. "The Steamer Jack Downing plied between Portland (now Sandusky), making daily trips. "Several schooners were built and owned by the citizens and used as freight boats in the lake traffic, one of which was named Wyandotte. "There were no meat markets in those days, but the woods abounded in game, which was easily procured ; also every family owned a pork barrel and depended upon filling it for their winter supply. "I remember that there was a bakery in the village, kept by a Mr. Bashair ; have forgotten the situation. "There were four taverns, one kep't by Mr. ____ Roberts, father of O. A. Roberts of this city ; one by Mr. Hinton, who was afterwards agent for the Ohio Stage Company; the third by Elisha Smith, my stepfather, who removed from Fort Ball, since included in the city of Tiffin, finished and kept the house afterwards known as the Western House. Later sold out to Mr. Jas. Valette, Died in 1834, "There was no settled minister of the gospel in Lower Sandusky in the early days, Thos. Hawkins, a local preacher, conducted services with good results. "The first ordained minister in the county was Rev. James Montgomery. I remember attending meeting at his home in the country, but where situated I cannot tell. "I do not recollect the first Methodist minister who preached to the people of Lower Sandusky, but the first Presbyterian minister to hold stated services was the Rev. Flavel Conger, who in 1834 and 1835 came once in two weeks from Norwalk, was entertained at the home of my uncle, Jacques Hulburd, As I remember, the services were held in an upper room of a house on the east side of the river. "Mr. Conger had several sons, some of whom are men of note in Ohio. One of his sons, Edwin H. Conger, is our present minister to China." REUBEN RICE. Reuben Rice was born in Otsego County, state of New York, May 4, 1799. Deceased was eleven years old when his father, with his family, removed from the state of New York for the "Far West"—as it was then called—his destination being near Springfield, Clark County, Ohio. His mother, being consumptive, died before they reached Buffalo. The furniture, wagons and family, except the father and three sons, were shipped aboard a vessel at Buffalo for Sandusky. The father and three sons came around the lake in a light wagon and reached Sandusky a week in advance of the vessel. At that time there were but two houses in Sandusky. There were no docks and the vessel anchored near Bull's Island (now Johnson's). An open boat was hired and goods, wagons and all, ascended 'the Sandusky Bay and River and landed two miles below Fremont, at the place where Widow Whittaker lived. After putting the wagons together they took up their line of march for the interior of the state. They passed through Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), where a few whites lived, entered the "wilderness" and for nearly eighty miles they did not see a white settler. They stopped a short time in Delaware County, and then pushed on to their destination in Clark County. 112 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY Not long after the old man Rice died, and Reuben was left an orphan without even a common school education. He then went with his elder brother Ezekiel to live in Columbus, Ohio. At that time Columbus was in its infancy. The state buildings were under construction and stumps were being burnt out of the streets. Being now thrown upon his own resources he began to look around for some occupation. He finally concluded to learn the "printer's trade," and went as an apprentice to one P, H. Olmsted, who printed the "Columbus Gazette," I think, perhaps, the first newspaper printed in Columbus. By close attention he soon became a good printer. He learned the trade thoroughly, as then taught, both press work and composition. He worked one year in the office after his apprenticeship had expired. The sedentary life of a printer not agreeing with him he resolved to change his occupation to that of a .farmer. Hearing of the rich lands in the northwestern part of the state, he with his brother Ezekiel and Bennett Havens, started from Columbus in the summer of 1823 in search of their future homes. They penetrated the wilderness to the banks of the Portage, near where Elmore now stands. At that time there were but two white families on Portage River—Rawson and John Fletcher. The land suited them and each selected a piece and 'then returned to Columbus. In November of the same year Reuben Rice married Roxana Havens, sister of his brother Ezekiel's wife. In February following the three families, Reuben and Ezekiel Rice and Bennett Havens, with their effects stowed away in two wagons, an ox and a horse team, started from Columbus for the "Black Swamp." They reached Lower Sandusky without serious difficulty. At that point they found that the ice on the swales was so slippery that their oxen, which were not shod, could go no further. For some time they remained in Lower Sandusky waiting for snow. At last rain commenced falling and fearing a "break-up," they started for Portage River. The first clay they got as far as Muscallonge. The next day they pushed on as far as Mud Creek. The rains had swollen the creek so much that they could not cross it. They felled trees, making a kind of foot bridge, and carried their goods across ; then making a rope of basswood bark they pulled their wagons over, and after swimming their teams across, loaded up and started on. They arrived on 'the banks of the Portage on the fifth day after leaving Lower Sandusky. They commenced at once to build their cabins, and in short time each family was living in its own home. For a while they saw hard times ; were obliged to go to Lower Sandusky for provisions, which often took them a week to make a trip. Though their privations were great, still they were contented and happy; and "How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke !" But Reuben was soon to experience the severest stroke of his life. His wife, to whom he had been married scarcely two years, died leaving an infant (laughter twelve clays old. There being no sawmill on the river, puncheon were hewn out for the top and bottom of the coffin and Mr. Bogs, who had just moved on the river, took his wagon box for the sides, and a rude, though substantial, coffin was made. The infant child was taken care of as well as possible under the circumstances, though it was with great difficulty it lived, as there was scarcely any milk to be had. The next two succeeding winters after the death of his wife he worked at his trade on the public printing at Columbus. March 28, 1828, he married Lydia Early. In 1829 he worked for a time in Lower Sandusky, for a man by the name of Smith, who had started a newspaper at that place. He had lived on his farm near Elmore till within the last four or five years. Being too old to carry on the farm he sold it and has since lived with his son-in-law, William Moore, who has made for the old folks a good home. Reuben Rice has since his youth been a devoted Christian. He and a few others Started the first church (United Brethren) on Portage River. He was instrumental in starting the first Sunday school in Ottawa County, which was nearly half a century ago. He was a benevolent man and a good pattern for others to imitate. JUDGE WILLIAM CALDWELL. "My advent to Lower Sandusky was in the year 1828. Previous to this, in 1818, my father settled in Marion County. I remember when AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 113 the government surveyors first run the lines for the 'townships. When the land was surveyed we found our cabin was on another man's ground and we had to move it. We lived there about ten years before coming here. We encountered what the people nowadays would call hardships. All the people then lived in log cabins. All the nails we used in building our house were for the doors, which my father made himself, being a blacksmith. There was a loft in our house and the children slept up there. The sweetest music I ever heard was the patter of the rain upon the roof. In the winter the snow drifted in, and in the morning we had to shake it from our bed covers. We all used to turn out to help a new neighbor build his house, and we had many logging, raising and. husking bees. Often when the men had a log-rolling the ladies had a quilting, which usually ended in a dance on the puncheon floor in the evening. At these gatherings I enjoyed some of the happiest moments of my life." ,In response to an inquiry Judge Caldwell stated that 'they had fiddlers and whisky in those days. The whisky, sweetened with maple sugar, was drunk from a tin cup. He related an incident of how at one time a number of families met at his father's house to go to a logging, quilting and dance at a neighbor's. Much against his will his mother made him take on the horse with him a girl named Polly, who worked for them. Polly weighed about 225 pounds and towered a full head above him, then a small boy of fourteen. The party went in single file and would have made a laughable picture could it have been photographed. They danced all night and came home in the morning. When they reached a creek 'that had to be forded, on their return, Polly exchanged places and rode on the horse with the young man that took the judge's sister. When Polly threw her arms around the young man she exclaimed, "This is something like," and said she would never go to another dance if she had to go with Uncle William's little boy. This expression became quite a by-word and he had to take this joke for many a day. Judge Caldwell said, "I remember when railroads were first built and when the first roads in this section were laid out. I remember when the Ohio and Erie canal was built. I have seen many changes in this country; I have seen it rude and wild; I have seen its rise and progress; and have witnessed more changes, perhaps, than the next generation will witness. Lower Sandusky always had a bright place in my memory, and always seemed like home to me. Very few of those who were here when I came are alive today. "It has been my privilege to witness the rise and progress of Sandusky County and the adjacent counties of Seneca, Crawford and Marion, for a period of fifty-nine years. There are doubtless some here today who will remember when Mayor Bush, a faithful servant of Uncle Sam who carried the mails on horseback once a week from Columbus to Lower Sandusky, when the contents of the mail bag could be carried in a half bushel basket and room to spare." And there are others here today that well remember with vivid recollection when fifty years ago he took possession of his new home in the Black Swamp and built his rude log house, the roof of which was covered with elm bark or clapboards. The floor of his house was of the halves of split log, the door of split plank. His scanty windows were of oiled paper, glass was a luxury that had not reached the settlement, his household goods consisted of a bed, 'two chairs, a pot and kettle and a few other indispensable articles for housekeeping—these constitute the bulk of his worldly goods. And when dreary winter comes and no sound disturbs the echoes of the dreary woods save when some tree cracks sharply with the frost, then merrily rings his ax, and tree on tree crashes to the earth. And when the long keen night mantles the wilderness in solemn gloom he sits beside his ruddy hearth and hears the fierce wolf snarling at his cabin door. The task before him is a formidable one, but he has a strong arm and a stout heart ; he has determined to conquer all obstacles. and the rugged spot will vet blossom like the rose. Now let us drop the curtain for forty years. The scene has progressed to a consummation. The pioneer has become an independent farmer, he has added to his primitive possessions. He 114 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY has put up a comfortable house, but has had too much reverence for his primitive dwelling to remove it. He has erected a neat frame barn, a garden surrounded with a picket fence. His stock has increased. The improvements of his neighbors have reached him, and he can now look out without looking up. A school district has been organized, and a comfortable log schoolhouse has been erected. And she, the better part of his household, must not be lost sight of, and she need not be. She is busy with her domestic affairs. There is quiet and even loneliness about her, but depend upon it, there are in yonder schoolhouse, some half dozen that she cares for and hopes for. PAUL TEW. Paul Tew, of Townsend, who died there Sunday night, January 20, was born April 20, 1806, in the township of Hartford, Washington County, New York. Twelve years later, in 1816, his father, William Tew, removed with his family to Ohio, arriving at Pipe Creek on the 13th of August, whence they came to Townsend November 30. The territory of the four townships of Townsend, Riley, York and Green Creek was at that 'time included in Townsend. Paul's eldest sister, Rebecca Tew, was married to A. B. Townsend, who built the first house in the then large township, on the farm now owned by Z. Brush. It is not certainly known whether this elder sister preceded the other members of the family to Ohio, but the presumption is that she did, coming on from the east as the wife of Townsend, whose family name was given to the place. The fourth house built in the region was by Paul's father, for his own occupancy. In 1824 Paul Tew, now eighteen years old, returned to New York, went thence to Massachusetts, and then to sea, sailing before the mast for more than four years. At this time a mate's berth was offered him, and he went ashore to study the science of navigation and fit himself for the place. His Massachusetts friends, however, persuaded him to abandon the sea, and in 1830 he came back to Ohio, purchased the farm now owned by William T. Fuller, and lived on it from 1835 until 1870, when he sold it to the present owner. December, 1832, he married Miss Lois McIntyre, daughter of Judge E. B. McIntyre, of Townsend. She died 1837, leaving one son and daughter. He was married a second time in September, 1837, Miss Anna M. Gaskill becoming his wife. They lived together nearly twenty-one years, or until May, 1858, when his wife died, leaving a son and five daughters. In June, 1871, he was married to Mrs. Emily L. Stone. The children of the first wife were Alpheus M. and Lois A. Tew ; the first died in California in 1867, the latter at home in 1858. Children of the second wife are : Mrs. Elizabeth B. Miller, of West Cairo. Ohio; Mrs. Amelia T. Bush, of Rocky Ridge, Ohio ; Mrs. Mary T. Dalton, of Lemars, Iowa; W. A. Tew. of Freeport, Ohio; Mrs. Luella S. Hamden, of Elliston, Ohio, and Mrs. Effie A. Collins, of Freeport, Ohio. Paul Tew was elected justice of the peace in Townsend in 1834, and served one term of three years, when in 1837 the people of the county chose him for county commissioner. To this office, then as now one of great importance to the people, Mr. Tew \vas twice re-elected, serving nine years in all. In this fact is found evidence of the confidence felt in Mr. Tew's good sense, business capacity. integrity and reliability, by the voters of the county. These two were the only public offices he ever held, neither of them a source of much emolument, but both responsible and honorable to the holder. Up to the date of his death, Paul Tew was the oldest living resident of Townsend Township. He was widely known. and respected by every person who knew him. Politically, Mr. Tew was a strong Democrat, and was tenacious in his allegiance to that party while life lasted. Many anecdotes are told of him as a politician. by old residents who recall his activity in the many close political contests of which Townsend was wont to be the scene, in days when political excitement ran high. Yet some of his warmest friends were among those who differed from him in politics. When the "Fremont Messenger" office was sacked during the Civil War, Mr. Tew was one of the few reliable Democrats who stood by its editor, furnishing funds to replace the AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 115 type which had been thrown into the river. Of course he was censured at the time, but in later years, when the heat and passion of those troubles had passed away, even those who most strongly differed with Mr. Tew joined in honoring him for the conscientious fidelity, which they then saw to have been his motive, that prompted him 'to give of his own hard-earned means for the maintenance of a political principle in which he honestly believed. WEALTHY M. MORRISON. "My stepfather, Judge Everett, arrived in Fremont the third day after the battle of Fort Stephenson and then found the blood ankle deep in the ditch. He said' the cause of it was the peculiar way in which the battle was fought. The British on the opposite brow of the hill, came up in solid file. Those in the garrison saw at once that the number was so great that there seemed no chance for the few Americans. One man suggested the idea of crowding the blockhouse out about four feet on the northeast corner and so allow their one cannon to have full sweep of the ditch. Getting out of ammunition, they used log-chains and whatever else could be obtained, and when the British tried to scale the walls of the fort they were mowed down like grain. "In the winter of 1832 and 1833, my father. being in the legislature, obtained an appropriation of $20,000 to build a macadamized road through the 'Black Swamp.' "My own father, Daniel L. Woolley, moving his family to Sandusky County in 1825, was three weeks getting up Lake Erie from Buffalo and nine days on the river, landing on a farm five miles from Fremont. At that time no steamboat had ever floated upon the waters of Lake Erie. Five years later, having moved into town, he boarded the men who built the Ohio steamboat. The captain was Morris Tyler of Fremont and the master-builder, Hubbel of Maumee. "The first lieutenant of the 'Light Horse Company' was my father, who was later with Birchard & Husted in mercantile business. He died in 1831. "During the summer of 1829 my parents served dinner to eight Indian chiefs, among them Black-Hawk. who were on their way to Washington to see President Jackson upon important business. A few months later, my mother taught school in the log schoolhouse which was built near where Dr. Wilson's house now stands. I well remember borrowing a knife from one of the boys and digging bullets out of the pickets on the old fort, a portion of which was 'then standing. "That same summer mother organized the first Sabbath school in the town, and was instrumental in getting a Presbyterian minister to preach in Fremont. This was accomplished by her going to Lime, Huron County, and talking with the Rev. Dr. Conger about the needs of the little town, and after a year or so he managed to furnish a minister. "I was invited to spend the day with old lady Whittaker (as I was a favorite of hers). During the afternoon she drew from under the bed a box which contained a large number of silver ornaments. She had three or four silver bands, about six inches deep, for men's hats and half a bushel of all sorts of trinkets, but I was sworn to secrecy and did not dare tell of what I saw. "During the fall of 1831 my mother went through to Monroe, in those perilous times of Indians and wolves, and got a span of horses, saddle, and harness that my father, before his death, had loaned to a friend. This friend refused to let them go with anyone except herself. She was obliged to ride one and lead the other back 'through those miles of swamp." MRS. SARAH LANCE. "I was born in Bedford County, Virginia, February 1, 1812. When a mere child my parents moved to Kanawha County, West Virginia where we resided until I was 18. I was married September 1, 1829, and in November started for the west, in company with my husband. We started on horseback and after a tedious ride of several weeks we arrived at the home of father Lance, in Fairfield County, Ohio. We remained with friends until February 1st, when we resumed our journey and arrived at our destination six days later. and settled on the farm where we now reside, six miles northeast of Lower Sandusky, now Fremont. "It was by no means a pleasant task to begin 116 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY housekeeping in the cold dreary winter in a little log cabin, which would scarcely afford us protection from storms to say nothing of the cold, which at times seemed intense compared with the winters in Virginia. Our house was built of logs just as they grew, not even the bark taken off. The floor was laid with boards split from large logs and smoothed by use. One door and two small windows and a fireplace were all the conveniences and comforts it afforded. Our furniture consisted of three stools, a table and two bedsteads, all homemade. My counterpanes were two Indian blankets and a woolen coverlet. My comfortables were made of feathers, as they could be bought for 25 cents per pound, while cotton batting could scarcely be bought at any price. I bought a calico dress once for $1.00 a yard, and often paid 5o and 75 cents a yard for prints. Every thing we had to buy was very dear and farm products were scarcely salable at all. When we had anything for the market we would start off early in the morning with an ox team and an ax, and find the best road we could and blaze the trees so we would be sure to find the same way back. If we had a load the team could rest often as we had to cut fallen trees out of our way. Light marketing we did on horseback, those of us who were not afraid of losing—our way, as it was not very agreeable to be lost in the forest with the wolves howling around and even coming right out in the clearing after their prey. Nor was it very easy to carry a basket or two and care for a small child and watch and guide your horse through miles of unbroken forest as we were forced to do in those early days. "Then when we reached the village we would get from 4 to 6 cents for butter and about the same for eggs, and pay 40 and 50 cents a pound for coffee, and other necessaries accordingly. My husband bought a wagon for $8o and paid for it with pork at $1.76 per cwt. I made all of our heavy clothing myself spinning the wool, weaving it into cloth, and making it into such garments as we needed. We raised flax and prepared it for the wheel and I made all the thread I used. We had few neighbors, and if we wished to see any one we would saddle a horse, take the youngest child in our arms, mount and gallop away. We enjoyed ourselves, I think, fully as well as the ladies of today do riding out in their fine carriages. "There was but one house between our own home and Fremont, that was on the Infirmary farm, and was occupied by a colored family. A Mr. Lathrop lived east of us, and a family by the name of Camp in Rice Township were about all the settlers who lived near enough to make our acquaintance shortly after our arrival. This remoteness however was of short duration, as people were attracted here by the cheapness of land, as there was more government land here at that time than in other parts of the country. Riley Township was perhaps the last, but by no means the least, of the townships to be settled, and today she can boast of as fine farms and as good crop reports as any of her older sisters, and in some respects even exceeds those boasting of greater age and wealth." * * * * * * JAMES SNYDER. Mr. James Snyder was born in Berkely County, Virginia, December 15, 1800, and died at his residence in Washington Township, Sandusky County, Ohio, July 20, 1876. Thus another of the old pioneers of Sandusky County has gone from among us to his final resting place. He was in his early life one of the hardy and exemplary young men who sought early a home in the wilds of the western country which was then principally inhabited by wild animals, savage beasts and venomous reptiles. His father was a millwright and was the owner of a large grist mill, and his vigorous and reliable son James was the miller. This was his principal occupation until he arrived at the age of 23 years. Having never attended school but about two months in all his life he had at that time a very limited knowledge of books, and nearly everything else save what his father as a millwright had taught him. The thrilling stories of western hunters and adventures which he had frequently heard, had inspired within him a desire to emigrate westward, and to obtain for himself a satisfactory knowledge as to these statements. The necessary arrangements were soon made and in the AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 117 spring of 1825 he bid adieu to the home of his childhood with all its endearments and came in company with his brother-in-law, Andrew Miller, in a two horse wagon to the central part of Ohio where he spent about two years in different parts of the state working at times for a shilling a day. He then concluded to return home and visit his father's family and friends. With but a few dollars jingling in his pockets and with no friend to accompany him but his rifle, he set out on foot for his father's home in Virginia. There was a long and dreary road stretching out before him, but his determination supported by his physical strength was more than equal to the task. He accomplished his journey in safety subsisting principally upon what game he killed along the way. He remained at home a few months and again set out on foot and came to Perry County, Ohio, where he soon after married Elizabeth, a daughter of Michael Fought, with whom he lived peaceably and happy from that time until his death during which time he was never known to leave his home for two hours at a time without first informing some member of the family where he was going and when he expected to return. He came to this county in 183o and entered, in Washington Township, eighty acres of Government land upon which he built what he called a snug little log cabin. He was now surrounded on all sides by large forests extending for many miles in every direction. It was not long however until he had cleared away a spot of ground upon which to raise some corn, which was the only grain that he could raise for a number of years. Thus he obtained for himself and family a scant living for a few years, subsisting chiefly upon corn-bread and wild game. His neighbors were few and far away and as poor as he and could therefore give him little or no assistance. He would frequently carry a bushel of corn to mill all the way to Lower Sandusky (now Fremont) through the mud and water and return the same day a distance of about eight miles and then take mush and milk for his supper. He was firm and determined in every thing he undertook. Patience, perseverance and hard labor procured for him and his companion a comfortable and pleasant home which has been their enjoyment for a number of years. He was the father of eleven children, nine of whom are still living, and were all present ready to administer to his wants during his sickness and death. By his death the family have lost a kind and affectionate husband and an indulgent parent, and the community in which he lived have lost an excellent neighbor, one who was noted for his honesty and for his kindness to the poor. HEZEKIAH REMSBURG. "In 1822 my parents, with a party numbering twenty-three in all, left Frederick County, Maryland, for Ohio. The party consisted of my grandfather, Jacob Bowlus, and wife, Margaret; my father, Casper Remsburg, his wife, Mary (Bowlus) Remsburg, and children, Matilda, Hezekiah, William, Mary (now Mrs. James Rosenberger), Susanna and Rebecca; my uncle Jacob Bowlus, his wife; Sarah Ann and son William H.; my uncles and aunts, Margaret, Susanna, David, Elizabeth, Ellen, Sophia, George and Lydia Bowlus ; Ann Holladay and Peter Buzzard. "We started from Maryland in February, 1822, in two covered wagons, drawn by four horse teams, and arrived in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont) on Monday, March 10th or 11th. Our journey of less than four hundred miles occupied some thirty-lye days averaging about ten or eleven miles per day. On our arrival here we stopped at Leason's tavern. There were not many inhabitants here.. Some of them I remember and will give their names; most of them were heads of families : Jeremiah Everett, Daniel Brainard, Thomas L. Hawkins, Israel Harrington, Elisha Howland, Cyrus Hulburd, Samuel Hollinshead, Thomas Holcomb, Isaac Knapp, George Olmsted, Richard Sears, Calvin Leason, Josiah Rumrey, David Gallagher, Joseph Momeny, John W. Tyler, Lysander C. Ball, Moses Wilson, Reuben Patterson, Moses A. Nichols, Joseph Loveland, Morris A. Newman, Nicholas Whitinger, Henry Dollison, Sanford Mayne, William Dew, John Wolcott, and last but not least Squire Archie, a gentleman of mixed blood, who lived in a log cabin on a spot now occupied by a part of Arch Street, just west of Baumann's meat market. His cabin and a 118 - HISTORY OF SAN DUSKY COUNTY peach tree was enclosed by a rail fence, and the peach tree was near the fence. "My father lived from March until some time in May in a house back of this hotel on the spot now covered by the platform of the W. & L. E. Railroad. The first time I met my friend, Homer Everett, I stood at the south end of that house and we approached and gazed at each other for a moment, and then made friends. The other building to which I alluded was the old Dickinson house, now standing at the corner of Arch and State Streets. This house was built by Morris Newman on the hill on the opposite side of the river. In 1825 it was moved over the river by yokes of oxen, on the first bridge, an open one, across the Sandusky River. The house got stuck on the bridge, and a hole had to be cut through it to let passengers cross. "Outside of town I remember a few families : the Cooleys, Bristols, Courtrites, Whitakers and Gibsons, north of town ; on the south, up the river, were David Chambers' family, the Prior family and the family of Elizabeth Tindall, a widow. There were other persons here whose names I do not recollect. "In May of the same year (1822) my father moved to Muskallonge, about two miles northwest of Lower Sandusky. At that time the Western Reserve and Maumee Road was not located. There was no thoroughfare from here to Perrysburg. Travel was on horseback or foot, following the Indian trails. There were two trails in the direction of Perrysburg: one starting north toward the mouth of the Muskallonge, and then running in a northwesterly direction to Perrysburg the other passing to the Stony Ridge, and when about half across the Stony Ridge near where Mr. Deemer now lives, the trail divided, one branch passing along the line of what is now the Napoleon Road, crossing the Muskallonge at the old Naugle farm now owned by A. J. Wolfe. The center trail towards Perrysburg was the one over which the mail was carried from here to Perrysburg. The first year we lived on Muskallonge we cut a road meandering through the hazlebrush, crossing the third hill west of here on the pike, and running somewhat in the direction of the pike as afterwards located, until it struck the Stony Ridge, thence to the Muskallonge. "My grandfather lived in town that season and undertook to farm the bottoms just south of the present Fair Grounds, but to no purpose. That season three of his children died : Margaret, Sophia and George. "During that season we commenced clearing land. I have already intimated that this vast landscape or territory, from here as far as the eye could reach, was a vast wilderness. Perhaps no country would have required as much labor to make it susceptible of good homes. I know of no word in the vocabulary of any language that can convey the truth relative to the settlement of the Black Swamp. In the summer of 1822, after we went to Muskallonge, we found it necessary to fell the forest. My grandfather employed men to clear the land, and among those that were engaged the first season were Consider C. Barney, Thomas Emerson, John Hawk and Thomas Lay. We lived that summer about half a mile below where the turnpike is now located. Sometime in January, 1823, we passed up to where my father afterwards lived, 100 rods above the pike, although the pike was located through the quarter section which he entered. He lived there till his death. which occurred in 1849. My mother remained there till 1857. when she left and went to my brother's home in Illinois. She made her home there and with her children in this county, until her death at Chatsworth, Livingston County, Illinois, at the age of 94 years. Her remains were brought here for burial. "The first school building between this place and the Maumee was erected on the banks of the Muskallonge in the latter part of the year 1827, shortly after Samuel Crowell, a school teacher, came to this country. The schoolhouse was a log structure 15x20 feet, with about seven feet between floor and joists. In that building, after comparatively a few months' schooling, your humble servant graduated to the ax and handspike. "Shortly after we came here David Moore, father of James and John Moore, settled up the river. The next that I remember was David Grant who lived on what was after- AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 119 wards known as the Sherrard place. Grant moved from there to Mud Creek in the spring of 1823, and was the first man to go west of the Muskallonge. The next beyond was Gilbraith Steward, who located ten miles west of here on Mud Creek. The Topping family located on Little Mud Creek, on the place now owned by the Waggoners. The old man Waggoner with his son-in-law, John Macklin, located on Big Mud Creek in 1829, between where Grant and Steward lived. I remember the date from the circumstance that we boys then had a curiosity to see Mud Creek prairie and went to see it one Sunday through the woods, as there was no road, and we sharpened our kniyes well to cut through the mosquitoes. John Macklin afterwards came to this place and built the American House. Among others I might mention were the Overmyers, Rhodes and Wolcotts. The Stults family were about two miles aboye us on Muskallonge. "Israel Harrington went from Lower Sandusky, and was the first to locate on the Portage River, where Elmore now is. He occupied a house built by a man named Harris who had (lied before moving into it. Harris was a former husband of Mrs. Isaac Knapp. The Luckey, Rice and Bogg families settled there soon after. They used to spend the night at our house very frequently. "I should have mentioned some ladies in this sketch. There was a young lady named Claighorn, who was tile belle of the town, and afterwards married Dayid Gallagher. George Olmsted married a Miss Whitinger. Mr. Hollings-head married a Miss Whitinger and moved to Port Clinton, Ottawa County, then in Sandusky County." JOHN LINEBAUGH. "My grandfather on my father's side came from Amsterdam, Holland, where he was born and raised and where he was married. He emigrated to America, and settled in Fairfield County, Ohio, where he bought two farms of 16o acres each. My father was only 6 years old when he landed in New York. His youth and early manhood were spent in Fairfield County, Ohio. After he was married he heard that this country about Lower Sandusky was a great place for fish, so he sold out and came to Sandusky County, and entered the eighty-acre lot, known later as the Huss homestead in Green Creek Township. He sold out later to Mr. Clark, and Clark sold to Huss. My father's family came here about the year 1818. It was then a howling wilderness, for a fact. Soon after coming here the old man said he was going to have a flock of sheep. The neighbors laughed at him. They said he could not keep sheep on account of the wolves. He thought he could, and brought a flock of twenty-five sheep from his former home. He built a large pen of poles, 15 feet high; the poles were notched and nicely fitted together at the corners, log cabin style. The neighbors said the wolves would dig under the logs and get in, but father said he would risk it. The very first night the wolves dug in under the poles and killed all the sheep; and they did it so quietly that the family knew nothing of it until morning. My father did n0t try to keep sheep for a long time after. "We lived in the old-style log cabin; round logs, clapboard roof, chimney built up of sticks and plastered with mortar made of clay. The chimneys were plunked up, and the back wall of the fireplace was made of clay. The first winter our chimney was built up only seven feet, not finished, when wild animals were troublesome. We had wooden pins driven into the logs to hang up. things. We had brought some smoked meat, hams and shoulders of pork from Fairfield County, which we hung in this fireplace. A wildcat came one night and got a ham and tried to get out of the chimney with it. When my father woke up the animal was dragging the ham towards the chimney. He threw a stool at the thief and knocked him over, but he escaped before my father could get his gun. "To catch wolves the pioneers used to build large log pens in the woods. They would place down flat on the ground, close together, a row of poles about six inches thick and about twenty feet long, for a floor; then some good-sized logs across the ends, then build up with logs, slanting inward, like a cabin roof, with gable ends, till it was about 8 feet high, leaving an opening at the top about 4 feet across. Over that opening there was placed a plank 120 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY door, so balanced that whenever any animal got on it, it would turn and let it down and shut up again. In side of the pen two crotched stick for posts held a pole, on which was placed some fresh meat. This worked very well, and the wolves could not dig out. "I have seen as many as 100 deer in a herd. If my father wanted any deer meat he would cut down some bass wood saplings or trees near the house in the evening, and by morning there would sometimes be as many as fifty deer browsing around the tops. He would then take his choice and shoot buck or doe or fawn as occasion required, right from his door or window. He never shot more than one at a time. The deer would come up best in winter when forage was scarce. When they had eaten one tree clean my father would cut down another and then hide and shoot his choice out of the herd. He also fixed a salt lick for them near where they were in the habit of going to drink. In Riley Township it was near a sulphur spring. We would take a small sack of salt near to the water, then wet it and let the salt water soak into the ground. The deer would come, sometimes fifteen or twenty at a time, and dig and paw up the ground for the salt; and they could then be shot with ease from ambush. We sometimes built scaffolds in the woods about 20 feet high, on which we hid ourselves. The deer could not smell us so well up there as on the ground. We put up poles with a crotch at the top, in these we laid poles and cross pieces, and covered the whole with brush and leaves. The deer would come right under us to lick the salt and then we could shoot. "When we first came to this country there were no mills here. We had to go to Castalia, or Cold Creek as it was called, and the neighbors took turns to accommodate each other, each taking a few bushels for a neighbor. To go to the mill and back usually took about a week. Sometimes when the roads were bad we took our grists in canoes down the Sandusky River. Overland we went with carts when the roads were passable. After a few years the old man Rummery built a corn-cracker mill on Green Creek, near where Walter Huber now lives. Then we had a mill of our own and we felt independent. Many new settlers moved in here because we had that mill. As the number of settlers and business increased, the old man sent off and got some mill-stones, or burrs, to grind wheat with, and some bolts to separate the bran from the flour. The corn-cracker mill had no bolts. Then the country began to grow up, and farmers began to raise corn and wheat to sell, and the country began to improve in other respects—better houses and barns and fences. "That Rummery mill was the first good mill in this section to make good wheat flour and separate the bran properly. Other mills came in the following order as I recollect them : Castalia, Stem's, Hedges', and Hawkins' at Lower Sandusky. The Stem's mill at Green Spring used to do an immense business for farmers over a wide extent of country. Long lines of teams awaited their turns to unload at these mills, some having to wait two or three days before they could get their grist. Some left their wheat and went home to return in a week, and then sometimes they had to wait for it after they came the second time. The Cold Creek mill was equally thronged. I drove oxen, when I was a boy, for Mr. Truman Grover, many a time to the Cold Creek mill. I drove those oxen for him when they were making the mill race for the Stem's mill. We had pretty hard times in this country in those days. Men's wages were only 50 cents a day. I being but a boy got 25 cents for driving oxen, and was glad to get that. We worked many days with plow and scraper in making that old mill-race. How things have changed since then." ADAM HENSEL. "I was two and a half years old when my parents moved from Perry County. Ohio, to Lower Sandusky. My life dream was to come to the great Sandusky to fish and shoot deer. "The emigrant train on which we were to come, was too crowded to bring along with us my favorite kitten, which I killed to keep from starving; also my fayorite calf that had to be butchered, and with a broken heart father equipped me for the journey. He made me a wooden gun, which I wore strapped across AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 121 my back, from morning till night killing the imaginary Indians bobbing about in the woods. "We arrived in Lower Sandusky, in November, 1827. In the train were father and mother, Daniel and Christine Hensel, George Overmyer and family, and a traveler by the name of George Stump. "Lower Sandusky then consisted of one frame and six or seven log houses, three stores in all comprised the commercial part of town. One was owned by Mr. Jesse S. Olmsted, situated where Mr. Buchman's grocery now is, and to him belongs so much credit to the prosperity of Lower Sandusky. All first settlers will remember him as a man with fine business tact, a man with great integrity in dealing honestly with men. He was a noble soul and a hero of many a trying situation. His daughter was the wife of Gov. Charles Foster. Another store was owned by John Tyler, situated where Thomas & Grund's drug store now is. Another was known as 'old Gibb's' store. It is needless to say the principal traders were Indians, the number of white people in our train outnumbered the population of Fremont then. "We camped on what is known as the old Samuel Crowell place, west of the Muskallonge and south of the pike, where we stayed two weeks, when our train, drawn by oxen, followed a trail through the dense forest, deep with mud and water, to a spot known now as the 'Dr. Wilson farm,' north of the Four Mile House. "This possession was taken by George Overmyer, where, with the help of all the women folks, a clearing was soon cut down, large enough to put a house on, which was of the old log cabin kind, just 18x20 feet. It was no small feat then to raise a house! There were but four men and the women were mustered `to the logging' and the first 'he-o-hee' that rang through the mighty forest re-echoed the moan of the dying Indian's farewell. The chimney and fireplace was built low and square, now so much affected, and was made of wood and mortar, and served us pioneers for cooking stoves a long time after. "One incident that proves' the tender nature of the now almost extinct savage race occurred one day, when all the big folks had gone to father's reservation, just east of the 'Wilson farm,' to raise a log cabin. We young ones (for there were eleven of us) all played on the trunk of a broken down tree, we saw the leaves move aside and there stood a big Indian chief, 'Itching Chief' grinning at us and touching his scalp knife, all the little imps vanished into the house like mice, and left me hanging to the boughs of the tree, the old chief smiled and caressed me, stroked my legs, looked into my face and tenderly lifted and set me down and disappeared in the woods. "Father's cabin was built much on the same plan, the women being called upon again to help roll up the logs, and it was a mean spirit that did not take new courage from the brave women of our early days. "Six weeks from the time of the 'logging' the house was occupied, there were no window frames nor doors, the nearest saw-mill stood where Ballville now is. Father was the carpenter of the train and did the hewing of the 'puncheon' while the women placed it on the beams for flooring. Quilts and blankets were used for doors and windows, and soon we were lulled to sleep by the loud barking of wild animals. "My early dream of deer hunting Was appeased; on any moonlight night we could lift away the quilts and see the deer stamping and snorting around the house. We lived an ideal Indian life, much poorer in fact. All the worldly possessions father 'had then were a robust young wife, a boy, and girl, now Mrs. Eva Waitman, and myself, a set of carpenter tools, a cow and $2.50 in money. With this gloomy prospect he planted a corn and potato patch and worked on felling the trees until a year later his success was assured. "There were still remnants of the Indian tribes left,- the Wyandots and Shawnees stayed around our cabins for years. On one occasion when mother was 'tending the garden I was left in charge of the baby (Mrs. Waitman). An old squaw came in and took her in her arms and fondled her, and— well, her own papoose had died but a few days before that, and the nickname 'Old Itching,' given her ever after was a stronger 'dubbing' than the wild 'milk and honey' were palatable. 122 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY "After father's success was established Peter Burgoon, Jonathan Kessler, Daniel Engler, old Mr. Coe and many others located in this county, and possibly foretold the prosperity of the Black Swamp. "One feature pleasant to recollect was a distinguished and marked sociability existing throughout the settlement. No work was ever done unless all hands joined, although the difficulty people had to go to and from their neighbors can hardly be imagined by our children now. The woods were not only impenetrable with spice wood and young trees, but were one vast sheet of water, logs and bushes, living full of every species of worms, crabs, lizards and insects, nine months out of the year; and in many places the forest was in this condition for twenty and forty miles through. "When I was 6 years old, the folks had gone to Mr. Coe's to a 'logging,' two of my little sisters and I were left alone. Night came on, father and mother had not returned, we ate our supper of mush and milk on the door step, and heard a barking noise, and blowing of horns, we thought, when all at once a pack of wolves came into the clearing, chasing a deer. . We went in and shut the door, but they pushed and scratched against it, and howled around the house until we built a blazing fire in the fireplace, and this sent them after the deer again. In the same year I. in company with Mrs. Waitman, killed, my first wild turkey. Father had taught me how to use his rifle, and, by resting it on a fence or log, I generally bagged my game. When 8 years old I shot my first deer. I was out with the rifle and saw a large buck come down to the creek to drink. I aimed. fired and killed him. "In later years, when father had cleared about forty acres of land and 'the settlement had become noted, and the Indian tribes had all turned their faces westward, the Shawnees and Wyandottes returned annually. numbering four-and five hundred, to hold a 'war dance' or religious feast on their old cam ground. The spot selected for these festivities was located on the Daniel Hensel farm, opposite Chris Kaiser's. Some of the young fellows around here now, who used to take part in these frolics. may remember the spaced off circle, with a rope around it, and tall cross posts raised in the center, where dead dogs and other animals were hung for sacrificial offerings. Everything in this circle was sacred to them. Their music was made up of war whoops, sticks and tin pans. “The first schoolhouse and church was built in 1835, on the Overmyer farm. In 1842 father died and was the third person buried in the Four Mile House cemetery.. The funeral procession went either on horseback or with ox teams. The roads were intended for plank roads, but the planks swam on top of the mud and water ; so that people on horseback made their horses leap from plank to plank through the slough. This was the original trail General Harrison cut through to Lake Erie in 1812." JACOB BOWLUS. Father Bowlus was born in Frederick County, Maryland, May 23, 1795. He came to Lower Sandusky in March, 1822, with his wife, their first born, Mr. Bowlus' father, mother, two brothers and seven sisters, his brother-in-law, Casper Remsburg; Thomas White, who married one of Mr. B.'s sisters shortly after they arrived here, and Nancy Halloway, a young lady who afterward became the wife of David Bowlus. There were few houses in this place when this company arrived here. They rented a little, one-story brick house, located near A. H. Miller's present residence. During the first year they cleared up some land on the Muskallonge, two and one-half miles northwest of the village, and there erected houses to live in. Those were the first houses built between Lower Sandusky and Perrysburg, with the exception of an inn called the Half Way House, kept by a half-breed Indian, and where the mail carriers stopped over night on their trip between Lower Sandusky and Perrysburg. It took the mail car- riers two days to make the trip between the two places. a distance of thirty-one miles. The only road was the Harrison trail. Father Bowlus lived on or near the same farm on the Muskallonge up to the time of his death, a period of over sixty years. During the first year a brother and two sisters died. He was the father of ten children ; one died in infancy, two after they had become young men ; AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 125 the rest are still living. He had thirty-three grandchildren and twenty-five great-grandchildren. There is an incident in tile life of Father Bowlus worthy of note. His house was the first in this section raised without whisky. The people told him he could not raise his house without it,. but the day came, tile people were there and the house went up. He never had a drop of whisky on his farm in harvest time, or at his log rollings. The fruit of such an example is seen in the fact that none of his children or grandchildren are drinkers. Father Bolus, his wife, four sisters, Thomas White, Nancy Milloway, Joel Strahn, Thomas L. Hawkins and Sarah Strahn were organized into a class in Lower Sandusky in 1822. This was the first Methodist Episcopal Society ever organized in Sandusky County. Ail of that little band have passed over the river. Father Bowlus' connection with the church, for seventy years, was never broken for a day. He was loved and respected by all. November 13, 1884, he received a fracture of the thigh bone which made him a great sufferer. He so far recovered as. to .sit in a chair a part of the time, and it was thought 1w his children that he would fully recover, but some tell days before his death he showed signs of rapid decline, and on the 4th of February he fell asleep. LYSANDER C. BALL. Mr. Ball was born at Rockingham, Vermont, March 26. 1795. At the age of 18 years he went thence to Trenton Falls, New York, where he learned the trade of blacksmithing. When about 23 years of age he went to Boston, Massachusets. Soon after he started from Boston westward. and arrived at Lower Sandusky, Ohio, in April, 1818. This entire journey was made on foot, and proves the powers of will, muscle and endurance of the man. In a memorandum kept by him during this journey, the names of several towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, visited by him, are mentioned. There was, as noted, but one house in Cleveland when he came through. On arriving at Lower Sandusky he found employment in the erection of the first dam across the Sandusky River, at that place.. His compensation for one month's labor was a pair 0f shoes. At the end of this period, the roads westward being impassable, he was prevailed upon to establish a shop here, which he did upon the ground now occupied by State Street, between the Cooper House Block and Buckland's Corner. In 1823, February 23, he was married to Eveline Patterson, and took up his residence in a cabin adjoining the rear portion of the Cooper House lot. In this cabin two children were born to Mr. Ball ; the first died in infancy. He afterward built, and for many years occupied a residence and shop on Front Street, which are now owned by T. H. Bush, Esq., north of the Kessler House. Thence he moved to his late residence on a farm north of the city and adjoining the corporation. This removal was made in 1853, and there he continued to reside until his death. His wife, a most excellent and highly respected woman, who started with him in married life more than fifty years ago, surviyed him, but in feeble health. Six children also survived him, namely : Thaddeus. Oscar. Eyeline, Alvria, Sarah and Lysander C., Jr. Oscar is not now living. Imagine, or rather call to mind the facts that this whole region of country was a wilderness, with three or four small log buildings at Lower Sandusky, when Mr. Ball settled here. See what it is now ! To this wonderful transition Mr. Ball was an eye witness, more than this, his sound, well-balanced mind and industrious hands helped to work the magic change. In the life and character of Lysander C. Ball the virtues of industry, temperance, frugality, truth and integrity, order and peace, were conspicuously displayed. A model husband and father, a good and generous neighbor, carried away by no excitement, misled by no shams or false appearances, loving his home and family so that except on duty he was seldom away from it; he lead that peaceful and complete life which all who imitate will die in honor and be long- remembered. JOSEPH LAMBERT. SR. "1 came into Sandusky County in 1814. I stopped in Fremont over night at what they called the Och's tavern. A man asked me where I was going, and I told him I was going west. He laughed at me and said, 'You can't 126 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY go; this is the Black Swamp; you can't get through.' I had a good notion to go back again. The next morning I was preparing to continue my journey; I had the children in the wagon, my wife and I had to walk, when a man came and told me there was good land below here, near the Sandusky River, that I could enter. He told me to go to Charlie Burgoon, old Peter Burgoon's brother, and he would show me the land. I left my family there, found Charlie Burgoon and he went with me and showed me the land. I located the line at two beech trees. Then I came back after by team and had to go down again at night, but I met an old 'revolutioner' and stayed in his cabin over night. The next morning I staked out the land, and afterwards sent Charlie Burgoon to Bucyrus to enter it for me. I then went to work to clear a patch to plant potatoes and build a house. I built a round-log house 22 feet long and 18 feet wide. I cut a door out and a window. We had no boards, so I had to make 'bunkers’ and used them to make a floor with. By and by I had to go and work out, as my money was almost gone, and so my wife had to stay home alone with the children. She had to make smoke all night so the children could sleep. the mosquitoes were so bad. They were so bad we could hardly live. We lived where there was heavy woods. All the land was taken up around us, we only had forty acres, and I tell you it was a hard time for me. I had to work out in the country around to keep my children alive. A man said to me while I was there that I would starve in those woods. He used to 'trap wolves; there was a great many wolves there. The next year I planted potatoes—a bushel and a half. They grew nicely at first. but all died. The next year I planted potatoes and corn, but it was not much use. It was eight or nine years before I could raise corn, the wild animals destroyed it for me. "One year I gathered a little corn and put it up in the loft of my house. One night when I wasn't at home my wife heard something climbing up the chimney and making a kind of scratching noise. She got a light and took the hoe along. When she got up in 'the loft there was a great big porcupine eating that corn. She pounded him with the hoe but he got away. When I came home she told me, and I says, 'he will not come again tonight because you pounded him ;' but indeed it came again, but I Wowed it up with my gun. "I can tell you I had to work hard to keep my children in provisions and clothing. One morning I came to town. I wanted a pair of pants, but had no money. I went to George Grant, he was a partner of Dickinson and kept a store at the corner. I says, 'George, will you trust me for three yards of this cloth for a pair of pants ?"Of course I'll trust you,' he said. 'I would trust you for a hundred dollars.' I says, 'I never could pay you,' but I was mistaken. I could pay all I ever owed anybody. Afterwards I worked on this pike. I got $20 per month from Patterson, he was the' engineer. I worked for him 'three years. "I will tell one thing more. I have been in Germany. I have been in France. I have been through western states. I have been out in Minnesota, and I can tell you I was never in a better country than this." MRS. ELIZA JENNINGS-INMAN. "I was born January 1o, 1820, in the state of New York, between the Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. Our post-office address was Penn Yan. I came to Fremont, Ohio, with my parents when I was about six years old, in 1826, and have lived in this country nearly seventy-three years. At the time we came here we had never heard tell of a railroad—but there were stages, and we traveled in that way. "When we first came here we lived on. Mr. Everett's place up by the old Mill Race, and then moved down on the Knapp place, which is now the Joe Clark place, seven or eight miles down the river, and afterward we lived on the Glenn Spring farm, which Mr. Tyler then owned. "It was not very much of a town here then. There were some stores. Mr. Rodo1phus Dickinson had a store. It was all woods through the western part of Fremont; there were droves of Indians about, and they would frighten us almost to death. “I can just remember about going to school AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 127 here. I think the name of my first school teacher was Mr. Goyt. The schoolhouse was right near where the library now Stands, and it was made of hewed logs. We used to play at noons around the old fort; there were places in the ground just like rooms, and we would each have a room for a play house. Old Betsey was there, and we saw lots of cannon balls laying arounu and the boys used to roll them together and pile them tip. I remember Dr. Rice's father, but do not know whether he was here when we came or not, but Dr. Brainard was here when we first came. "In about 1832, when I was 12 years old, we moved to Scott Township, where I lived until recently. There were only two families in that neighborhood when we moved there—Scott's and Biggerstaff's, and we had to mark the trees so we could find our way. Dr. Ryder moved to Scott Township the same spring father moved here. There were awful swamps in those days, and it took us two days to come to Fremont, one day to come and one day to go back. They had logs put through the worst kind of roads and made a sort of corduroy road. It was not much like they are now. "There were no mills out there, and after we moved there a man by the name of Ellsworth invented a machine to pound corn for meal, and we used that when the roads were so bad they couldn't be gotten through. "We never heard tell of buying ready-made clothing then. We made our clothing ourselves. We would buy cloth sometimes, but made a great deal of our own cloth. Our folks didn't weave any, but there was always some place we could get it woven. We used to get it woven every year. Mother had two wheels; she had one she spun flax on and one for wool. We spun the yarn and then got it wove. "There were deer in Scott Township and around in that part of the country We used to have two or three pet deer at a time. I never saw any bears there, but have heard folks tell of catching them. It was as common to hear wolves at night as it is now to hear a dog bark." REV. GAHN. "I came in this country in 1837, and right here to the Black Swamp. On my first arrival I got acquainted with our President here. I must confess I liked him; he said so many good things, and so many nice things, and he would give me a good 'amen' once in a while. I have seen great changes in the Black Swamp; I am glad of it. When I came here to this county, especially in Rice Township, it was a howling wilderness; we had a small settlement; we had no roads to our settlements. I helped to cut a road from the place we call Lee's place; there we met in a log house and had our services, and our preachers came from Tiffin—Rev. Coonrod, and another old gentleman, Rev. Mr. Beilhartz, and Rev. Rauhauser. There were no schoolhouses then. We started for Big Mud Creek once and there was no road open, and we opened a road and got through. "In our settlement we had no schoolhouses. I helped build our first schoolhouse, and it was no schoolhouse either. Mr. Druckmiller, who lived on the bank of Big Mud Creek, offered us a chance to put a partition in his log cabin, and we all went together and put a partition of logs through that log cabin, probably it was 12x15; and we put 'the roof on with clapboards, and we made the floor with puncheon, and the seats too with puncheon; we had two-inch augers, we made some legs for these benches. Then we got a teacher. I hired our first teacher, Mr. William Rearick, who is here today. I had no children at that time to send to school. How glad we were when we had our spelling schools, and how proud those big men were when they heard their children spell; and, my dear friends, I tell you those children learned. There was a young man there in that school, who went to a school in Rice Township, who became one of the best professors in the United States; this young man gave out the finest and best Greek grammars. And we have a man come from that township. and right from our school district, who is in China, the president of one of the best colleges in China. And we have lawyers come from that township, and I hope they are honest. And some preachers, and some doc- 128 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY tors from that little school district, and a host of fine young teachers. And when I look over the years of the past I am glad. I rejoice in my soul. "I recollect the first time, the very first time when I came to this country. I was a young man and all I could talk was German. I didn't understand English, and I didn't understand this country; but the old pioneers they encouraged me, they took me by the hand and said the Black Swamp would be the garden of Ohio, and really it is so. And Sandusky County is the rose bed, and we are right here in the center spot of this rose bed. "I was living here about nine years when this church of my choice sent me off as a minister, and most of my time I spent in the southern part of this state, and most of my time I spent in Cincinnati. But I came here every year to pay my taxes, and settle up my affairs, and shake hands with my dear old friend, the General here. What a good time we made together, sometimes in Columbus; and the people, every time I came up here, would say. 'Have you come to cell out?' I said, 'No, I will stick to the Black Swamp, and the Black Swamp will stick to me.' I shall have to my dear people. If you, would come into Rice Township you would see a nice set of people there, a nice, beautiful country, and as nice a little hall as I have seen in my life. I am glad to have this pleasure of meeting .so many good friends here. We heard this morning some of our old pioneer friends had gone over on the other side. and our ranks are thinning out one by one. When on the battle-field they fell out of the ranks they came together again! And. my clear friends. if any fall let the survivors close up the ranks and stand nearer together ! Let no politics, no difference of opinion, let nothing of that kind divide us. And try to be honest, and live like Christians, and when we meet in a better place I hope the Lord will bless us." ARCHIBALD RICE. Among the early settlers in Woodville Township when it was a wilderness was Archibald Rice, well and extensively known and esteemed by the name of Captain Rice of Woodville. His parents were Elisha and Jerusha Rice. The deceased was born in Onondaga County, state of New York, October 4, 1802, and died at Woodville in Sandusky County November 8, 1877, aged seventy-five years, one month and four days. From birth until the age of 21 years he resided with his parents and under their guidance was \yell trained in the virtues of true manhood. Truth, probity and industry were prominent in his character. At the age of 21 he married Miss Atheldred M.. Scoville, who now survives him. Mr. Rice and wife continued to reside in Onondaga County until the year 1837 when he moved with his wife and children (two sons and one daughter) to Woodville Township where, excepting about two years at Fremont, he continued to reside until his death. When he first settled in Woodville, Amos E. Wood, after whom the township was named, had moved there shortly before, and the two became warm friends, and their attachment lasted till the death of Mr. Wood, many years since. Woodville Township was then one dense forest of heavy timber, and embraced the worst part of what was once the famous Black Swamp. The Western Reserve and Maumee Road was then cleared of timber. The lofty crowded trees rose on each side like a wall, and the road was a strip of almost bottomless mud. Captain Rice lived to see that dense forest cut away, the land drained, roads made, and two railroads running through the township. He witnessed the transformation of Woodville Township from a dense we level forest, to its present high state of culture, comfort and productiveness and was an earnest laborer with other early settlers to produce so grand a result. A working worthy, honest and public spirited citizen, a man who also was a good neighbor, and a model in all the domestic relations of life, is taken from us by the death of Archibald Rice. LEODEGAR LEHMANN. Leodegar Lehmann was born in Baden. Germany. in the year 1821 and came to this county with his parents in the year 1832. The AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 129 family, which consisted of father, mother and seven children, landed at New York and from there went direct to Columbus, Ohio, where they lived for about one year, while Leopold Lehmann, the father, went to look for land. He went to the Bucyrus agency and in the year 1833 took up eighty acres of land in Scott Township. this county. While in Columbus, Ohio, the mother died from cholera. They moved to Lower Sandusky in 1833, and in the year 1834 moved to Scott Township. While living in Lower Sandusky Leodegar set up a barber pole and (lid barbering-, and his father, being a physician, did some doctoring. At Lower Sandusky they bought a yoke of oxen and a cow and when they moved out on their land had to wade water knee-deep nearly all the way. When they got out on their land they got a man to help put tin a shanty. It was 12 feet square and only had one room. They all had to cook, eat and sleep in the same room. It had a fireplace. puncheon floors and a mud and wood chimney. The logs were split and hewed on side. They cleared some land and planted some corn the first year, but the blackbirds were so numerous that some one had to watch it all the time until it got well rooted. When the corn began to ripen the squirrels and raccoons were very troublesome. The following extract from a letter prepared by Leodegar Lehmann and read at the Pioneers' Picnic of this county in 1906 gives a more full account of his early life in this county: "We moved from where we first built to about a quarter of a mile further south on the same farm to the edge of what is now known as Mud Creek Prairie, and when I got to be about 25 years old I begun to raise cattle; it was the only thing that I could make any money out of. We could not raise any wheat. it was too wet. It was a great place to pasture cattle on the prairie and then for winter T. could make all the hay that I needed to feed. I sometimes made as high as forty-five stacks of hay for my cattle. I often had several men working for me, mowing with a scythe, and it was a common thing for them to race with each other day after clay for several days. We always had great sport in making this prairie hay. We had a great many prairie fires in those days and we often had to fight fires for several days; the neighbors. always going together. Our fences were burned many a time. "Before I was married I had to cross a prairie about a mile wide and then go through some timber land a couple of miles wide to see my girl, who is now my wife. The grass on that prairie grew as high as a man and there were no roads unless I went far around. I took my oxen and hitched them to a log and dragged it back and forth several times across the prairie until I had a nice path made so that I would not get my clothes wet in going back and forth. 'This path was known as Leodegar Lehmann's path. One time when I was returning from seeing my girl, (and I always had to get home before night, on account of the wolves), it was just about sundown when I got to the edge of the woods and where the prairie begun when I heard a wolf howling near me. I knew that he soon would have a whole pack of wolves with him and to go on was dangerous, so I just made up my mind that I would have to climb a tree and stay all night in it. So I pulled off my coat and threw it down on the ground with great force; this scared the wolf and he turned and ran away. I picked up my coat and hurried on across the prairie and before I got half way across I heard a whole pack of wolves howling at the edge of the woods. "When I was a small boy and up to the time that I became about 18 years old my father's family and I had a hard time of it. I worked out wherever I could to earn money to help support the family.- We lived almost entirely on corn and one time I walked 70 miles to Delphos in my bare feet through the cold water in the spring to work on the canal to earn money to buy corn for father's family. I had to walk through 12 miles of woods and I could not see a road, but I got through all right. I worked on the canal two summers and one summer on the turnpike at Perrysburg. The last summer that I worked on the canal Adam Staub, 130 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY who afterwards became my father-in-law, worked on the canal too. We came home together because we did not live far apart and before we started Staub bought an old horse and a cart; it was the homliest outfit that I ever saw and when we started for home he bought five gallons of whiskey. We got home on that keg of whiskey on the Perrysburg Pike and came right along over here with that horse and cart and nothing else but whiskey, and we got just as happy as we could be, and we wasn't drunk either, but those times we had good whiskey. "In the early days we had a great many logging bees and I do not think that there is a farm within 5 miles from where I live but what I helped to clear up in some way. We also had our raising-bees—raising houses and stables. We people in those days were brought up on corn, pork, and potatoes, and could stand more work and hardships than the people of today. I never had any horses until I had boys old enough to use them. I always used oxen and in my time I broke twelve yoke. "At first when we moved to Scott Township we could not get to any mill to have our corn ground so we just pounded it as fine as we could and then run it through a coffee mill; it made fine corn bread and mush. For spreading we had pumpkin butter. "In a few years after we moved out in Scott Township we could get to mill at Lower Sandusky. At first we had to go in a two-wheel cart drawn by oxen, and it was wade mud and water nearly all the way down and back. We could not haul very much and then sometimes would get stuck and have to unload and pry our cart out and then load up again. "We could not go and come back in the same day so we had to stay all night at the mill or start back and stay at some house on the way back. I think that the hardships that I went through in my young days would kill almost anyone of our day. "We had scanty clothing and I remember that I often went after my oxen in my bare feet when there was a little ice frozen over the water. In those days men and women worked together in the fields; it was the only way ,we could get along. My wife did a man's work in the field for many years. What we raised to sell in those days we had to sell sometimes very cheap. I often took my dressed pork to Fostoria, Jo miles, or to Fremont, 16 miles, and sometimes would get only one and three-fourth cents a pound and then would have to take one-half of the pay in trade. "When we hauled away pork in those clays we had to get up about two or three o'clock in the morning and travel over roads all the way that were frozen and so rough that the oxen could hardly walk on them, and it would be sometimes twelve o'clock in the night before we could get back. This was along about the year 184o, or a little later. "When I first came to Scott Township the Indians were still thee and there were also many wild animals ; especially wolves and deer. I and my wife went through about all the hardships incident to early pioneer life in this country. I was always a strong. healthy man and could work with or wrestle any man that ever lived in my neighborhood ; each man seemed to be proud of his strength. Wrestling was one of our chief sports at logging and raising-bees. I was married in the year 1852 to Barbara Staub, whose parents came to this country also in the year 1832; she having been born on the water on the way over. They moved the same year to where Rising Sun, Wood County, now is, and I think that her father built the first house that was built by white men there. My wife and I have a family of eleven children—six boys and five girls—and they are all living on or near the farms we earned together; the farthest away lives in Fremont. I am now 86 years old and my wife is nearly 76 years old and we still both enjoy quite good health." JOHN MOORE. Mr. Moore was born in Huntington County, Pennsylvania, in 1808. When 6 years old his parents moved to Ross County. In about 1820 they came to this county. It must have been before '26 for on old birch tree opposite his house in Ballville, his name can be, or could have been not long ago seen, cut in 1826. In 1836 he was married to Miss Eliza AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 131 Rutter of Ross County. Mr. Moore had lived on the same spot, for over fifty years. He served the county nine years as a justice of the peace, and for more than forty years had been school director. It is rather a singular fact that both Mr. Moore's father and brother were killed in their mills at Ballville. JAQUES HURLBURD. The bearer of this name deserves a paragraph and headlines to himself. The younger generation know little of him, vet the fact that he owned both Fort Stephenson and Fort Seneca at the same time, having bought them from a true historic zeal, is reason enough for his being remembered. He was born in Pawlet. Vermont, October 26. 1794, and died on Christmas day, 1836. In October, 1820, lie married Sophia Chipman, a descendant of five Mayflower emigrants. Judge and Mrs. Huiburd's names stand at the head of the roll of membership of the Presbyterian church of this city, under date of November 3o, 1833. In January 18, 1836, corporation papers of that church were made out and Jacques Hulburd elected the first trustee. The third frame building in the village was built by Jacques and Cyrus Hulburd, in 1817, on Front Street. and was long used for a store. Jacques Hulburd was county clerk, pro tern. in 1820 ; auditor of the county in 1821 ; clerk of the court 1821-23; associate judge under the old constitution, 1824, and member of the Ohio Legislature in 1834-6, dying while in that office. During the terrible scourge of cholera in 1834. the village population amounted to about three hundred, a large per cent of whom were afflicted with the fatal disease, and the mortality was large. "Four men," writes Homer Everett, "it is a delight to record their names and preserve the memory of their distinguished charity,—Dr. Rawson, Mr. Brown. Mr. Birchard and Judge Hulburd, went from house to house of the afflicted, performing the tender offices of physician and nurse and when sad necessity required, attended the rites of burial." Judge and Mrs. Hulburd had seven children. the five sons being well remembered by many of our older residents. Their daughter, Anna, married I. M. Keeler, dying a few years later, and leaving one daughter, Miss Sarah S. Keeler, of this place, who was born on the site of the old fort. MRS. ELIZA JUSTICE. She was born in Huntington County, Pennsylvania, October 13, A. D. 1800—died at Fremont, Ohio, October 17, 1876, at the ripe old age of 76 years and 4 days. She was a daughter of David Moore, and sister to Mrs. William Fields, and to James Moore and John Moore, so well known and esteemed by the people of this county as men of high merit and success in business. At the age of 14 years she emigrated with her father to Ross County, Ohio. While residing there and in the year 182o she was married to James Justice. In 1822 she emigrated thence with her husband and child to this county and settled in Ballville. Her father had preceded and was then about erecting the first grist-mill on the Sandusky River in this counts', but had not moved his family from Ross County. The journey from New Chilicothe to this county was made by Mrs. Justice on horse- back. r The child, Nancy, she brought with her became the wife of James NV. Wilson, president of the First National Bank of Fremont. The way was through an almost unbroken wilderness—no rail road, no turnpike then—a tortuous, uncleared wagon way, or a mere path through thick forests, and swamps, a path sometimes difficult to find, formed their line of travel. Columbus was not then a respectable village. Sandusky County was scarcely organized; the now great State of Ohio was then only 20 years old. The inhabitants of this northwestern portion of the state were very few, and very poor in the goods of this world, but they were rich in their trust in God, inexpressible cheerfulness, and indomitable courage which distinguished the hardy pioneers of that period in this portion of the state. After arriving here Mrs. Justice passed six months in the performance of domestic duties, with scanty means, before she saw the face of a white woman. 132 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY The children she left to mourn her loss and honor her memory were Mrs. Wilson, above named, Mrs. Minerva E. Everett, wife of Homer Everett, Mrs. S. Eliza Failing, wife of Dr. J. W. Failing, and Milton J. Justice. Mrs. Justice reared a family whose standing in society testify of her good works, and whose tender care of herself, through a protracted helplessness in the decline of life, was a shining tribute of affection and honor to a devoted mother. As a wife, she was so silent, industrious, careful and efficient, that the world will never know how much her incessant labor and economy contributed to advance the welfare of her children, and the prosperity of husband in wealth and his high standing in the community. JEMIMA EMERSON. Mrs. Emerson's life is interesting, especially to the pioneers of Sandusky County. She was the daughter of Judge Joel Strawn and Sarah, his wife; and was born in Perry County, Ohio, February 20, 1806. She came with her parents and three other children to Sandusky County, in the year 1821. They settled at the time in Ballville Township, on an unimproved, heavily timbered piece of land, which is now known as the Hafford farm. In 1824 she was married to Asa B. Gavitt, father of J. S. A. Gavitt, who was their only child. Her husband, Gavitt, died in 1827, owning what is now known as the Emerson farm, in Ballville Township, which he greatly improved. In 1829 she married Jesse Emerson, who occupied the same farm with her until his death in the year 1873. The children of this marriage were : Sarah,. Stephen, Anna, Pauline, James and Emma. Mrs. Emerson resided in Sandusky County continuously from 1821 until Good Friday. 188o, she started west and spent her time with her children in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri. Just four years after on Good Friday her remains left Ottawa, Ill.. for burial here. For industry and devotion to every duty, especially in helping the church in which she worshipped. she was among the first. Mrs. Emerson was highly esteemed for her thor ough and courageous discharge of all her duties. HON. ISRAEL HARRINGTON. (One of the first Associate Judges of the County.) "My father was a soldier in the war preceding the revolution, commonly called the old French war, which ended when the immortal Wolf fell at Quebec. When the Revolutionary War began he was one that fought at Bunker Hill where the lamented patriot Warren fell. He was a soldier throughout the revolution. He died at my house, where I now reside, in 1826 and in the one hundred and eleventh year of his age. But at the present time (184o) I shall go no further back than 1817. In the latter part of that year I removed from the county of Ashtabula, Ohio, into what is now the county Of Erie, where I purchased land. What is now Huron and Erie Counties at that time only formed one township. "Sometime in the winter of 1812 Jacob B. Varnum, agent for Indian affairs at Lower Sandusky, came to my father's house to be sworn in as postmaster at that place ; myself being the nearest justice of the peace. At .this time he informed me that war would certainly be declared the next June, and in confirmation of his statements produced a letter written by his father, who was then a Senator in Congress from Massachusetts ; in which it was stated- that •a fort would be built at Lower Sandusky for the protection of the frontiers. He also advised me to leave my farm and remove to that place where my family would be safe. I did so, and remained in safety until the surrended of Hull, which brought dread and consternation upon the frontiers. The inhabitants of Huron fled. south and east ; we at Sandusky south to Delaware and some farther south. This was about the middle of August, 1812. We received the news of the surrender on the fourth clay at night by some who had made their escape. The volunteer company, under Captain Norton. that had been left at Sandusky for the protection of the place, had all been taken sick and gone home on furlough except eight or ten men, when this distressing news AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 133 came, and in most of the families there was sickness. In my own family my wife and five children were sick and unable to get a drink of water for themselves; the eldest of whom (a daughter) died an our flight beyond Upper Sandusky, and was buried there. Hence you may imagine in some measure, perhaps, our perilous situation—expecting every moment to hear the savage war-whoop and feel the tomahawk. Thus in a moment,. as it were, we placed a bed in the wagons and our wives and children in and drove off, leaving our earthly substance behind to the mercy of a savage foe. Our houses were burned soon after we left them and our property destroyed or carried off. But the pain and anguish of that time can never be described by human language and can only be conceived by those who have experienced like fate. "Late in the fall of 1812 Gen. Simon Perkins moved onto Lower Sandusky with his troops (militia) and opened a road to the Maumee River. \bout the same time General Leftwich arrived at Delaware with his. The Petersburgh Blues, a noble band from Virginia, arrived about the same time. These troops were here (Lower Sandusky) reviewed by General Harrison and ordered to the Maumee by way of Upper Sandusky, from which place a road had to be opened to the Maumee River, to form a junction at that place with General Perkins' and Winchester's divisions of the army, the latter of which I think had marched down the Maumee, and instead of remaining at that point and acting in concert with the troops under the command of Harrison, had marched forward to River Raisin, attacked the British forces at that place and obtained the victory. The enemy fled across the lake on the ice to Maiden. Here they reinforced, returned, and surprised and cut Winchester's army to pieces, Winchester himself being about a mile distant, in a private house, and comfortably resting in bed while his troops were falling by the hand of a savage foe. There fell some of the bravest and best of Kentucky's sons." * * * * * * * * * * "About the last of June, 1813, a body of Indians appeared below Lower Sandusky at the fishing-ground near where Joseph Mominy now (1840) lives and killed seven persons, old Mr. Gear and his wife, son and daughter, with three others. * * * Sometime about the middle or perhaps the loth of July word was brought us by express mail that Fort Meigs was again besieged. "A few days later General Clay informed General Harrison that the British were leaving that place and he believed intended an attack on Lower Sandusky. This post was weak and but few troops to defend it; I think not more than 400 or 500 at this time. A counsel was called by General Harrison and it was thought most advisable to leave a detachment of troops for the defense of the fort and remove with the rest to Seneca. Accordingly about 150 men were left in command of Major Croghan and the remainder marched to Seneca and commenced fortifying. The general ordered all the families at Lower Sandusky to remove to Seneca without delay. I requested and obtained permission to go by water, down the river, and let some of those who were destitute of teams have mine, so that they might get away also. Accordingly I put my effects on board Captain Austin's boat, also receiving in charge all the contractor's papers for the army. A little after sunset we set sail, Colonel Croghan having previously sent a scouting party down the river to see if there were any Indians that we would come in contact with. It was a bold adventure but we went safely through and landed at Vermillion, where my family remained till after the victory of Lake Erie by Perry. So soon as my family were comfortably situated in a log cabin, I returned to Lower Sandusky to take care of my stock which was left behind. A man who was in our company, falling a little behind, was killed near where E. Williams lives (about 3 miles below the rapids). Soon after we arrived the spies came in and informed us that the British were moving up the bay, and we expected an attack before morning, but they got bewildered in Mud Creek Bay and remained there all night. Next morning a guard was wanting to guard some public teams, loaded with artificers tools, to Seneca. 134 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY Colonel Croghan asked me if the citizens that came with me would volunteer for this service; which they did to a man, about twenty in number. The teams were ready and we left the fort with a promise to return and help defend if we could. We arrived at Seneca a little after i2 o'clock. and at 1 p. m. we heard the cannon at Lower Sandusky." * * * [Judge Harrington proceeds to describe in detail the attack and successful defense of the fort, and matters connected with the same, which to here give would be to repeat what elsewhere, in this volume fully appears, and is therefore omitted. Ed.] ALBERT R. CAVALIER. Mr. Cavalier was born on the River Raisin, at a point now the site of Monroe, Michigan, October 8, 1806. Two years later the white settlers there, to escape the ravages of hostile Indians, removed to Presque Isle at the mouth of the Maumee River. In January, 1813, the subject of this sketch, then in his seventh year, with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Cavalier, and about twenty other French families, came to Lower Sandusky, to be under the protection of the troops at Fort Stephenson. The company came in one horse sleighs, the runners of which were made of boards, along the lake to Port Clinton, then named Portage. At this point their horses were nearly exhausted, and Peter Maltosh who had the direction of the train pushed ahead to Fort Stephenson. He returned with fresh teams and meeting the train at Muskallonge Creek, the party was escorted to the fort at this place. During the winter the party was given quarters at the fort barracks, and in the spring occupied cabins near the fort ready to flee to the enclosure when hostile Indians threatened. On the 1st of August, 1813, the French families, by order of the Government, were removed to Upper San-. dsuky. Joseph Cavalier and his wife had both died at the fort before the removal and Albert, the subject of this sketch, was cared for by his uncle, Thomas DeMars. While on their way to Upper Sandusky the next day the fugitives heard the sound of the cannon in the battle of Fort Stephenson. The families remained at Upper Sandusky until the close of the war, as wards of the Government, the able-bodied among them bearing their part bravely in the lines of soldiery. At the close of the war they moved back to Lower Sandusky in Government wagons. DeMars, LePoint and others settled on Mud Creek in Rice Township. In that vicinity Albert Cavalier grew to manhood, living with his uncle until his marriage with Eliza Momeny, November 24, 1828. Ten children were born to them, namely : Edward, Elizabeth (Quisno), Mary (Prevoncha), .Ellen (Grundy), Joseph, Peter, Albert B., Nancy (McNeil), Thomas and James. Mrs. Cavailer died March 26, 1881. December 22, 1886, Mr. Cavalier married Mrs. Mary Alpool of Locust Point, and made his home at that place until 1894, when on account of the infirmities of age he and his wife took up their residence with his daughter, Mrs. Quisno. at Bowling Green. HON. HOMER EVERETT. A son of Jeremiah Everett and Elizabeth (Emery) Everett, was born at the old county seat of Huron County, on the Huron River, below where the village of Milan now stands, now, however, within the bounds of Erie County, on the 3oth of January, 1813. The education of Homer Everett was such as he could acquire by attending the schools in Lower Sandusky two summer and four winter terms, and what he afterwards acquired by his own study out of school. His father, Judge Everett, saw Jesse S. Olmstead of Lower Sandusky and made arrangements for Homer to enter his employ as clerk in his store. When he left home he took with him two plain cotton shirts, made by his mother, two pairs of woolen socks, knit by her hands, one suit, coat, vest and pants, of linsey cloth, made by her, one pair of shoes, and one wool hat which cost fifty cents, and nothing more of wordly goods or apparel, but took what was better than gold, a father's and mother's blessing, with an exhortation to be honest and true under all circumstances. He was boarded in Judge Olmstead's family and his wages for the first year was, cost price for cloth to make a more stylish suit of clothes and thirty dollars. His wages were, however, advanced the next year to a salary AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 135 of fifty dollars and a suit of clothes, and afterwards still further increased until at the close of his engagement, after six years' service, he was boarded and drew a salary of $150. Judge Olmstead held the office of postmaster and Homer performed the duties of that office in addition to those as salesman and bookkeeper in the store. In 1837 Judge Olmstead resigned his office, and kindly recommended his boy Homer, as he called him, to be appointed in his stead, an appointment which seemed to please the people. He Was accordingly appointed and commissioned by President Van Buren in that year. While engaged in this office he was elected sheriff of the county, and then resigned the office of postmaster. He was re-elected sheriff. He commenced reading law in 1834, improving his leisure time in so doing until 1841, when, on the solicitation of Nathanial B. Eddy, he was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio, and resigned the sheriff's office to form a law partnership with him. He practiced several years successfully with Mr. Eddy, when the latter abandoned practice and engaged in mercantile business. Mr. Everett soon after formed a partnership in the practice of his profession with Hon. Lucius B. Otis, late of Chicago. After several years' practice in association with Judge Otis, Mr. Everett retired from practice and removed to his farm on the river, about six miles below Fremont, intending to lead a quiet farmer's life from that time. In 1847, however, he accepted the office of county auditor, to which he was elected by the people. This position he held for nearly four years, when, in 1852, he resigned the remainder of the last term of that office to return to the practice of law with Ralph P. Buckland. This partnership continued until 1866, when General Buckland retired from practice, and Everett continued the business about one year alone, when he formed a partnership with James H. Fowler, who had studied law under his instructions. During his life Mr. Homer Everett has held, at various times, the following official positions ; Deputy postmaster under Jesse S. Olmstead, postmaster under the appointment of Martin Van Buren; township clerk ; mem ber of the board of education many years, in which position he was active in bringing about the adaption of 'the Akron school law. Mr. Everett was sheriff of the county two terms, county auditor two terms, and to finish up his public services, he was elected to represent the Thirteenth Ohio Senatorial District, composed of Huron, Erie, Sandusky and Ottawa, at the fall election of 1867, and reelected in 1869, being nominated by acclamation. During his services in the Ohio Senate he was a member of the judiciary committee, committee on finance, and other committee. But his chief labor was a select committee with Charles Scribner and D. B. Lynn, to certify the laws relating to municipal corporations, which was the first municipal code enacted in the state of Ohio. He was mayor of Fremont and also justice of the peace. Homer Everett was married in 1837 to Hannah Bates, in Sandusky County. His wife died in June, 1840, leaving an infant daughter, named Hannah Bates Everett, who became the wife of Mr. Henry Hatfield. He married Susan Albina Brush, widow of John T. Brush, in December, 1842. By this wife he had two sons and two daughters, George Homer, his first child, was born at Fremont, November 4, 1844. The second child of this marriage was Charles Egbert, born on the 17th day of June, 1846, on his father's farm, about six miles below Fremont. His next and third child of this second marriage was Albina Elizabeth, born at Fremont, April 27, 1850, who went to Kansas as a school teacher and afterwards married at Osborne City, in that state, Frederick Yoxall, a native of England. The fourth child by Homer's second marriage was Lillie Everett, born at Fremont, January Jo, 1853. Susan Albina, his wife, died at Fremont, December 21, 1855, at the age of 34 years. In November, 1873, Mr. Everett having educated and settled his children, was again married and took for his third wife Minerva E. Justice, daughter of James Justice. Mr. Everett, while on a visit to his daughter, Mrs. Henry Hatfield, in Osborne, Kansas, died on June 22, 1888, and was there buried temporarily. The Sandusky County 136 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY Bar Associatian, of which he was an honored and charter member, caused his remains to be brought back to Fremont, for final interment, which took place December 3o, 1888, in the Everett lot in Oakwood cemetery. Homer Everett was a highly esteemed citizen, an able lawyer, lecturer and historian; especially in all matters relating to the early settlement of Sandusky County he was the chief authority as local historian. In a history of Sandusky County published by H. Z. Williams & Co., in 1882, of which Mr. Everett was the editor, he has left a record of facts, largely from his personal knowledge, which are of the very highest value in a local historical point of view. WOLVES. We quote from the writings of Dr. Daniel Brainard, a reliable authority. He says : "In the early days, when all around was a wilderness, the wild beasts were annoying, and often times alarming to the settlers. They having gradually receded as well as the savages. from civilization and improvements in the eastern countries, had taken up their abode in the western wilds, adding greatly to the number already there. The Indians killed only such as they could subsist upon, or whose fur would be valuable in market. Wolves could do them little injury while living, and would be of no value if killed. They would not waste their ammunition on them, consequently wolves became more and more numerous, while the bear was seldom seen except by hunters. Therefore, to the wolves, the most daring and thievish of all the beasts of the woods, our young cattle and swine frequently became a prey. Their hunger and rapacity knew no bounds, and fearing their frocity, and knowing their peculiar and exquisite taste for sheep, for many years we did not attempt to keep this useful animal. Notwithstanding the heavy contribution they laid us under by seizing our cattle and hogs, they were not content, but would often prowl through our villages at night, to secure some more delicious repast. This I will show by recounting merely an incident. "A man living on the first street from the main one, one evening being in a paroxysm of chill and fever, recollecting that his horse, in the stable across the street nearly opposite had not been fed his grain, requested his wife to carry him his accustomed allowance to him. She being an accommodating partner in hard times, readily consented. She had proceeded about half way when a gang of wolves made an assault. Being yet young and active, you may conclude she was not long in retracing her steps; fear lent wings to her speed, the wolves close to her heels when she shut the door against them. They being thus foiled and disappointed, appeared to be in great rage, set up repeated and tremendous howls, and seemed unwilling to depart. in a few minutes, however, as the people had not yet retired to rest, nearly all the male part assembled at the scene of this wild confusion, armed with such weapons as they, in a moment. could most easily grasp. The common enemy, seeing they would be overpowered by numbers, fled, and all again was quiet, except that distant howls, which still sounded upon the ear. 'This is one of many similar attacks that occurred in our village during the hours of night. The band being told by his affectionate wife that. only serious consequence of this was the bus-sick or well, he would thereafter feed his own horse for all her. "There were frequent instances of their attacking single persons in the dense woods, when belated in the evening. I will narrate one instance. "Old Mr. John Lay, one evening, the cows not having made their appearance determined to bring them up himself. When he had proceeded into the woods about half a mile. thought he heard the well known sound of his cow bell. Advancing in the direction with hastened steps. he at length found the sound receded faster than he advanced. It growing Clark lie thought it prudent to make for home, more especially as he heard the howl of distant wolves. He had not retrograded more than a hundred yards, when they were in close pursuit, with hideous yells. He saw at once he had no alternative but to climb, and although stiffened by many years, he succeeded in ascending about twenty feet, and into the wide spreading branches of a smaller tree, AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 137 when the wolves came up to its base, and commenced knawing it while their clamor increased. Being now in safety he looked down upon them with some composure, mingled with contempt and indignation. Finding that among the thick branches he could seat himself comfortably, he concluded to put up for the night, while his visitors made music to while away the time. Under these circumstances he remained quite at his ease, and wakeful, till about an hour before daybreak, when all of a sudden the wolves with their music began to depart. When he could hear them no more, fearing it might be a feint to draw him down from the tree, he dared not venture down, but seated himself as comfortably as possible upon the limbs, with the intention of holding- on firmly to the principal branch, and to wait till fair daylight before coming down. The excitement was over ; he had been much fatigued in body and mina; nature called for 'repose and he fell asleep. His first consciousness was that he was swiftly passing- through the limbs on his way to the bottom. There was no staying his speed, he must go. His collision with the ground proved unfortunate to him in the extreme. One leg was broken, and one hip dislocated. What was to be done? He could not rise, and the wolves might soon be upon him. He could call for help, but there was none to hear. His not returning in the evening caused great alarm to his family, in which there were two sons men grown soon as daylight came, they. with a few neighbors, commenced searching the woods. with loud calls. About midday they found him, in the condition I have mentioned, two miles from any house, the wolves not having returned, which some would suppose might have at that time been welcome guests, to end his misery. A litter was made as soon as possible, in which he was conveyed home, where every attention was paid him. A surgeon was called who reduced the dislocation, set his leg, and attended him till out of danger. He lived for many years after, to an age past 8o years." - SANFORD G. BAKER. A grand old pioneer of Sandusky County who is still living at the venerable age of 92 years, is he whose name begins this sketch. Mr. Baker was born in Georgia, Vermont, July 18, 1817. His parents were Elijah and Lovina (White) Baker, and he is a descendant in direct line of Alexander Baker, who landed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1665, just forty-five years after the coming of the Pilgrim Fathers, the line being Alexander, Joshua, John, Elijah, Elijah (2d), Sanford G. The Bakers were related to Col. Ethan Allan, the hero of Ticonderoga, he being a first cousin of Elijah Baker (2d), father of Sanford G. Mr. Baker's mother, Lovina White Baker, was a descendant of William White, who came to this country in the Mayflower and whose name may be found signed to the compact entered, into by the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock. Elijah Baker (2d) took part in the Battle of Plattsburg in 1814. It will be seen, therefore, that the subject of this sketch comes of patriotic as well as native stock. In 1843 he was personally acquainted with Jeremiah Gilbert, who was one of the soldiers serving as guard at the hanging of Major Andre, October 2, 1780. He was also at one time acquainted with Joseph Kellogg, who was with Colonel Allan when he took Ticonderoga. Elijah Baker, father of Sanford, in his youth was known as Elijah Baker, Junior. He was born near Saratoga, New York, and subsequently resided on a farm at Georgia, Franklin County, Vermont. As already stated he married Lovina White. Their oldest son died when he was 4 years old and their youngest at the age of 18 months, Sanford being the only son whom they succeeded in rearing. He was brought up on a farm and got such elementary education as was obtainable in the district schools of those days. One of his earliest recollections are of a primitive heating stove in use in the country schoolhouse which he first attended. It consisted of a large ash kettle, which had a hole broken out of one side, through which the fire-wood was inserted. This kettle rested on a large flat rock which served as a hearth. Among the school books used were the old English reader and for more advanced pupils a work known 138 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY as Scott's Lessons. Arithmetic, grammar and geography were taught, and there were evening spelling and singing schools. Of himself Mr. Baker says : "I might just as well acknowledge that I was never a very studious boy. I could learn very quickly, but I learned more by hearing recitations than I did by hard study. About the time that we left Vermont —in the spring of 1834—I began to think more about study, but then the opportunity was lost." On leaving Vermont the family went to Ontario, Canada, settling at a point about half way between Montreal and Ottawa City. Thence, in September, 1836, the subject of this sketch, with his mother, came to Ohio. Elijah Baker, the father, having come some three months previously, making a settlement in the forests of Wood County. Their home was about half a mile east of where the town of Lucky now stands. It was rather an unfortunate time for a poor man to make a settlement, as most of the good land had several years before been bought up by speculators, there being then no government tax on it. When, five years later, the government began to tax the land, the speculators were ready to sell and Mr. Baker found a chance to buy eighty acres of unimproved forest land. A part of it was under laid with limestone and was too stony to plow ; the rest was too wet. This was about 1845. Some time after they left that location and settled on the Maumee "Pike," where LeMoyne now is, where they kept a public house known as the "Howard House." A postoffice known as "Stony Ridge" was located here and the subject of this sketch was appointed deputy postmaster, his pay being from $1.50 to $2.00 per quarter. In relation to these times Mr. Baker says : "I might relate an incident showing how poor we were, and I'm not ashamed of it. I once went to Perrysburg afoot (about 9 miles) and called at a store to get a few groceries; I remember getting fifty cents worth of tea for mother. I then went to the post office and found there a letter from one of my sisters in Lower Sandusky and there was twenty-five cents postage due on it. I went back to the store and told the merchant, A. M., Thompson, to take back half the tea so I could get the letter out of the office. He reached in his pocket for change and threw out a quarter. He would not take back the tea but trusted me." Mr. Baker further tells of the physical conditions of the county in early days, much of which information is given elsewhere in this work and need not be dwelt upon. He tells of the early scarcity of horses and how he and his father used an ox to plow with, he guiding the ox by holding on to its near horn, while his father held and guided the plow. The Wyandot Indians, he say, went away in 1843, and while at the Howard House. where LeMoyne now stands, lie saw a party of them go by accompanied by an old chief, whose eyes filled with tears as lie spoke of leaving Ohio. Among their first crops were corn, wheat and potatoes. At first they often had to take their grain to Toledo to get it ground, owing to the inadequate mill facilities in the neighborhood. This trip—made partly with ox-team and. partly by ferry—took three days and two nights and was a work of considerable labor. On the 1st of April. 1845. Mr. Baker settled on a farm in Woodville Township, about a mile from the present village of -Woodville, on which farm he still resides, his son. George C. Baker, now owning and operating a part of said homestead. He had married some years before, in November, 1840, Cynthis Elmina Webster, whose father lived in the southeast part of Troy Township. She was a school teacher for some years prior to her marriage. Of the children of this union. John W., resides in Jackson Township Mary Emily, the youngest daughter, resides in southwestern Iowa, being the wife of J. H. Osborn. Another daughter, Helen, died of consumption at Rollo, Missouri. Mr. Baker's first wife died January 20. 1857, aged 37 years and 6 months, and he subsequently married Phoebe E. Osborn, whose people had settled near Sandusky City. Of this second marriage there were eleven children, among them being George C.„ already mentioned. The homestead on which Mr. Baker has resided for so many years he AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 139 purchased of Mr. Sardis Birchard and it contained about one hundred and twenty eight acres. Mr. Birchard allowed him ten years in which to pay for the land, charging him six per cent interest on the purchase price. During his active period Mr. Baker was many times elected to township, first to that of treasurer, and afterwards serving as justice of the peace and as county commissioner. In politics he was first a Whig and later a Republican. In 1840 he voted for Gen. William Henry Harrison. His first vote was cast at Le Moyne, in old Troy Township, in 1838, he coining of age in July of that year. While lie was county commissioner, his colleague, Joe Clark, who was a Democrat, was once asked. "What kind of a man is that Baker ?" and Clark replied, "Why he's a man that won't steal, or let anyone else steal, if he can help it,'' a pretty good recommendation, it would seem, for these times, as well as for those. Of this period Mr. Baker says : "We had a great time building the Ballville covered bridge. John Elderkin had the contract. It was called a kind of pine lattice-work. The old man Hafford wanted it at the Prior ford, and Mr. Moore wanted it at Ballville village. It was put where it would be most convenient to the mills and stores. The cost of the bridge was a little more than we were allowed to appropriate out of the county funds, but friends of the enterprise helped us out by private contributions." Mr. Baker benefitted by the discovery of oil in the county, the land he bought from Mr. Birchard proving to be good oil territory. Well No. 4. he says, "was the best well ever drilled in Northwestern Ohio." It was opened in August, 1892. Lack of space alone prevents us from giving more of Mr. Baker's reminiscences, but, as already remarked, much in regard to general conditions of life in the early days, is given elsewhere in this volume. Enough has been here said to prove his claim to honorable mention as a worthy survivor of days that are past and as a citizen who has done his duty as he saw it, in both public and private life; who has taken a useful and effective part in the development and improvement of the county and in particular of the community in which it has been his lot to dwell for so many years, honored and respected by all. THE SENECA RESERVATION. Mention has been made of the Seneca reservation, about one fourth of which was within the bounds of what became Sandusky County. Under the treaty of Washington, made on the 28th day of February, A: D., 1831, the Senecas ceded this entire reservation of 40,000 acres to the United States. The eighth article of the agreement provided that the United States should sell all this land, deduct from the proceeds certain expenses and $6,000 advanced to the tribe, and to hold the balance of the purchase money until the same should be demanded by the chiefs and in the meantime pay them five per cent interest on same. The agreement was signed by James B. Gardner in behalf of the. United States, and by Coonstock, one name Small Cloudspicer, Hard Hickory and Good Hunter on behalf of the Senecas, the Indians making their marks. The following from the narrative of the late Judge Hugh Welch who was familiar with the Indians while occupying these lands having his residence at Green Spring within their boundary, will be of interest. Judge Hugh Welch, who lived in the Seneca County part of Green Springs, a brother-in-law of Gen. William H. Gibson of Tiffin. a tall, erect, fine old gentleman, was born in 1801, in Little Beaver, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. In 1815 two brothers came west and selected land in Bronson, four miles west of Norwalk. Hugh returned to Pennsylvania, thence again to Ohio the next year, when he found one hundred Indians encamped on or near the Vermillion River engaged in trapping and making sugar. The following is his narrative : "My brother Thomas had, the first season, shot fifty deer and trapped 130 coons. The Indians were Senecas, with some Oneidas, and encamped just where the trail crossed the river. I came on the trail, starting from the Portage on the Cuyahoga, coming to Norwalk, and they were close to it. I think the trail ran a little south of Berea and the towns along the railroad. I think it ran through Townsend. 140 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY The underbrush and small timber were cut out so that Wagons could pass. It was made by some branch of the army in 1812. A regular Indian trail was beaten by travel in single file. They all travelled the same path. The Indians here were mixed a good deal—senecas, Oneidas, Mohawks and Wyandots. They did not speak alike, but could understand each other. Their languages were very different. I settled in Eden, Seneca County, in 1819; my near neighbors were Indians for 20 miles. The Indians of that county were Senecas and a few Mohawks; they lived in their villages. Quite a number had shanties of twelve-foot poles, they were notched at the corners like a corn crib and covered with bark. Some poles placed standing would be cut on the inside by a wedge-shaped cut as the eaves, so that the top would bend to form a slanting roof, which was completed with bark. They lived in them winter and summer, except when hunting. They went off to make sugar, to trap and to hunt deer. There was abundant game on the Reserve—deer, bears and wolves. Game was more plenty there than further west, where there were more Indians. Most all the Indians had ponies. There were many. I never knew of any buffalo in this vicinity or any beaver or prairie wolves. I think there were beavers, but very scarce. There were many wolves. The Indians lived much on venison. They killed all they could during the winter. They jerked the meat, that is, laid it on poles over the fire as soon as the deer got into condition, say May or June. The deer became poor when the snow was on the ground. The Indians also killed raccoon, turkeys, etc. In May they used to kill deer again., fawns, etc. They used calls for deer ; they used to call turkeys with the bone of the wing; they sucked the wind in hiding behind a log. They imitated the hen, which was just like a tame turkey. You would not know the difference. The deer call was something like a hollow reed. It was about three or four inches long, and sounded like a young fawn Waiting ma-m-a-a-a. A part of the wood was taken out, a little thin pit of silver or other metal fastened over the slit or hole in the one side, and the sound came out through it, shaking the little plate of metal. They blew to sound the deer whistle. "They had no grain save corn, which they raised in little patches. Some would raise corn on a quarter acre to live on all winter. They usually took off the hull with lye; they used to boil it whole when treated with the lye. Sometimes they pounded it and sifted it through a skin with holes punched in it and made bread, and boiled the coarser for hominy. To pound it they would chop a piece of timber off square, say three feet high, burn out the center, and by that and hacking would make a perfect mortar. For a pestle they used a piece of hard or iron wood rounded at the ends—made heavy and egg-shaped at both ends—and the corn was struck with the smaller end of the pestle. I never saw them use stone pestles. Squaws did the work. They generally boiled the corn, especially if they had meat with it. They raised beans and sometimes cooked them with corn. They generally ate one article at a time. Their corn was with eight rows, long-eared and sometimes entirely blue, some also black, some mixed white, blue and black. It was different from any I ever saw elsewhere. It is raised here now sometimes, the seed having come from the Indians. They used for cooking, copper or brass kettles. Some held ten or fifteen gallons. These were used especially for making sugar, also for hominy. They made sugar a good deal and put it with their corn and bread. They frequently parched corn and pounded it up. They used it if going on an excursion, wetting it and putting sugar on it. "They ate sometimes by themselves, but often the whole crowd together, especially relatives. In making sugar they used small hatchets. I did not for a long time see an ax such as we have. They used, when deer went into the river to get rid of mosquitoes, to come at night in their canoes with a candle of wax at the bow, and the deer seemed blinded. The Indian could go very close to and shoot them. They used canoes made of elm bark braced with little poles bent in proper shape. Their sugar troughs were of bark, thinner and tied at the ends. Basswood bark AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 141 would make as strong a string as hemp by soaking in water for two or three months. never saw any cooking or dropping hot stones in bark vessels. If they had no kettle they would cook on a forked stick over the fire, eat what was cooked, and then cook again. They would then only roast corn. They were very fond of roasting ears, and ate a great many. If they were very hungry, they would cook old deer heads, that were anything but savory. They had a few apple trees along down the river, but not many, on the Wyandot reservations, planted perhaps a hundred years ago. I saw little of Wyandots here; never any Shawnees. There were Senecas and when I first came here Mohawks. Some married in other tribes. The boys used bows and arrows to shoot with. So did I. They pointed them. When the Indians wanted to shoot low, they had their arrows with heavy steel points, bought ready-made. They shot squirrels with a blunt wooden point. On the blunt arrows they did not generally use feathers, but did always on the sharp. The feathers were put on to go like a rifle ball, with a twist. Grown Indians used mostly the rifle, but boys bows and arrows until 15 to 18 years of age. "The Indians used to smoke tobacco and the hark of the Wahoo, called by them Kinnakanick. They often mixed it with the tobacco. They also smoked the bark of a species of dogwood. We used to call it in Pennsylvania the arrow wood, from the shape of the sprouts. They used to tan green hides ; if dry they used to soak them in the water of a running stream; they then stretched 'the hide over a smooth log the size of a man's leg, and with a knife blade placed in a curved stick would scrape off all the hair and all the outside skin, which will curl up, 'then scrape off all the flesh and dry the skin perfectly dry. They then soaked them in deer's brains and warm water, mixed and worked into a suds, one or more days, and then dressed them by rubbing with a stone much like those, called axes, plowed up in the fields, often pulling 'the skin. They then made a hole in the ground 18 inches in diameter, and suspended the skin on sticks standing up, and smoked them by burning rotten wood until the color suited them. They were then ready for use. "When I first knew the Indians the men dressed in moccasins, leggins, a calico shirt reaching to the knees or hips, and above a jacket or some garment. The pricipal dress, however, was one of the Canadian blankets fastened with a belt. The arm was protected with deer skin from brush in the woods. They wore bracelets, and ornaments on the breast. The squaws wore broadcloth large enough to fasten with a belt at the waist. Above that they wore a jacket; they had moccasins and leggins. They wore hats got from the whites, when they could get them; otherwise nothing. Leggins were worn much by the whites. Rattlesnakes could not well strike through them. The Indians were fond of paints, using them especially ;.n their war (lances ; for red they used blood root ; for yellow some other root, the name of which I do not remember ; for black they used coal, or some other black substance mixed with grease or oil. They practiced as games, running, wrestling and running horses. I never saw them play ball much. The Wyandots' graves at Upper Sandusky were like the whites. The Mohawks along Honey Creek made holes, laying down poles or slabs, making a kind of box in which the body was placed and then covered. The Sauks, Foxes and Potawatomies buried by setting 'the body on the ground, and building a pen around of sticks or logs. I think the bodies lay heads to the east. I never saw the Senecas bury. "William Walker was a leader among the Wyandots. He was a white captive when a child, and lived at Upper Sandusky. He married a half-blood squaw, named Rankin, who was one of the most intelligent women on the reservation. She told me in 1820 that the Wyandots had a tradition that there was a race, now extinct, of giants. Walker educated his boys and girls well. He was wealthy. His son William was government interpreter. The old gentleman was then eighty or ninety, his wife not so old. "I have heard young William Walker sing 142 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY Indian songs. He translated one written by himself into English. It was called : THE WYANDOT'S FAREWELL. Farewell, ye tall oaks, in whose pleasantgreen shade, I've sported in childhood, in innocence played. My dog and my hatchet, my arrow and bow, Are still in remembrance, alas! I must go. Adieu, ye dear scenes which bound me like chains, As on my gay pony I pranced o'er the plains; The deer and the turkey I tracked in the snow, O'er the great Mississippi, alas ! I must go. Sandusky, Tymochtee, and Broken Sword streams, No more shall I see you except in my dreams, Farewell to the marshes where cranberries grow, O'er the great Mississippi, alas! I must go. Dear scenes of my childhood, in memory blest, I must bid you farewell for the far distant west, My heart swells with sorrow, my eyes overflow, O'er the great Mississippi, alas! I must go. Let me go to the wildwood, my own native home, Where the wild deer and elk and the buffalo roam, Where the tall cedars are and the bright waters flow, Far away from the paleface, oh, there let me go. (Tract 50, W. R. Hist. Society.) FURTHER CONCERNING THE SENECAS. Indian history and tradition cluster along the east bank of the Sanduskv River, for a considerable distance below the Seneca County line. The various treaties with these orig- inal owners of the soil have already been fully detailed, but it is proper that a few of the scenes and incidents with which the early settlers of our soil were familiar should be reproduced for 'the entertainment and instruction of the present and future generations. The Senecas of Sandusky were a mixed tribe, composed of the remnants of the tribes of northern and western New York, the. Wyandots. Tuscarawas, and others. At the time they became known to our early permanent settlers they were, in some instances. indolent and dissolute in their habits. They were rather depraved than otherwise by intercourse and trade with the whites. They had cleared some of the dry land along the river and raised corn, which was mostly traded for whiskey at the backwood distilleries, the art of distilling being unknown to them. In their intercourse with the settlers they were always friendly, but drunken quarrels and fatal jealousies not infrequently disturbed the peace of their own state. .Witchcraft was an unpar donable sin, and punishable by death. Here, as in the more bigoted ages of the world among so-called civilized people, many cold-blooded murders were committed, in the name of punishment for this crime. Both the witch and the bewitched were held guilty. Important trials were held at the council-house, which stood near the bank of the river, on the farm once owned by Mrs. Harriet Seager, and later by Mr. Myers. This was also the place of their tribal meetings and religious ceremonies. There was among them a tall, noble-looking man, whose full head of pure white hair gave him the name of "Whitehead George." He was, in his younger days, a man of good habits and industrious, but his squaw, whose hair was also whitened by age, became excessively intemperate. Old Whitehead for a few years contemplated the ruin of his happiness with sadness. but finally lost spirit and joined his consort in a life of dissipation. To see one of their most worthy and venerable men habitually in the depths of drunkenness grieved the great men of the tribe. A council was called and the squaw declared to be possessed of a witch. A sentence of death was executed with a tomahawk in presence of her husband, who was deeply grieved. The short remaining period of his life was spent in licentiousness and drunkenness. Virtue was at a very low stage among the Senecas. They maintained in name only the marriage relation, and their free practices led to many quarrels and difficulties of a serious character. The burying-ground was nearly opposite the mouth of Wolf Creek. Great numbers were probably buried here. An old citizen of the township related that after the removal of the tribe to their western reservation. he in company with George Moore, was riding over the spot, and the feet of their horses, at places. sank into cavities caused by the decay of bodies. Among the Indians was one named Seneca John, who bore a good reputation in the white settlements. He was the youngest brother of Comstock, a principal chief of the tribe. John maintained his credit at the trading-post. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 143 and often went security for the more improvident members of his tribe. He was a gentle, peace loving man, but was the victim of brotherly jealousy. The cold-blooded, unprovoked murder of this worthy redskin is told by Henry C. Brish, the sub-agent of the Government at this station. The cabin of the chief. Hard Hickory, where the deed was executed. stood north of Green Spring in Green Creek Township. About the year 1825, Coonstick, Steel, and Cracked Hoof left the reservation for the double purpose of a hunting and trapping excursion, and to seek a location for a new home for their tribe in the far west. At the time of their starting Comstock, the brother of the two first, was the principal chief of the tribe. On their return in 1828, richly laden with furs, and having many horses. they found Seneca John, their fourth brother, chief. in place of Comstock, who had died during their absence. Comstock was the favorite brother of the two, and they at once charged Seneca John with causing his death by witchcraft. John denied this charge in a stream of eloquence rarely equalled. Said lie : "I loved my brother Comstock more than I love the green earth I stand upon. I would give up myself limb by limb, piecemeal by piecemeal. would shed my blood drop by drop to restore him to life." But all his protestations of innocence and affection for his brother Comstock were of no avail. His two other brothers pronounced him guilty, and declared their determination to be his executioners. John replied that he was willing to die, and only wished "to see the sun rise once more." This request was granted. and John told them that he would sleep that night on Hard Hickory's porch, which fronted the east, where they would find him at sunrise. He chose that place because he did not wish to be killed in the presence of his wife and children, and because he desired that the chief, Hard Hickory, should witness that he had died like a brave man. Coonstick and Steel returned for the night to an old cabin near by. In the morning, in company with Shane, another Indian, they proceeded to the house of Hard Hickory, who informed Mr. Brish of what there happened. He said a little after sunrise he heard their footsteps upon the porch, and opened the door just enough to peep out. He saw John asleep upon his blanket, and Coonstick, Steel, and Shane, standing around him. At length one of them awoke him. He arose to his feet and took off a large handkerchief which was around his head, letting his unusually long hair fall upon his shoulders. This being done. he looked around upon the landscape, and at the rising sun, to take a farewell look of the familiar scene which he was never again to behold, and then told them he was ready to die. Shane and Coonstick each took him by the arm, and Steel walked behind. In this way they led him about ten steps from the porch, when Steel raised his malicious looking tomahawk, and struck him a heavy blow on the back of the head. John fell to the ground. bleeding freely. Supposing the blow fatal they dragged him under a peach tree nearby. In a short time, however, he recovered, the heavy matting of hair having arrested the tomahawk. Knowing that it was Steel who had struck him, John, as he lay on the ground, turned his face toward Coonstick and said "Now, my brother, take your revenge." Coonstick was already repentant, and the composed face and forgiving remark of John so greatly affected him that he interposed to save his brother. but so enraged was the envious Steel that he drew his knife and cut John's throat from ear to ear. Seneca John was buried with the usual Indian ceremonies on the following day, not more than twenty feet from where he fell. His grave was surrounded by a small picket enclosure. "Three years after," says Mr. Brish, "when I was preparing to move them (the Senecas) to the far west, I saw Coonstick and Steel remove the picket fence and level the ground so that no vestige of the grave remained." There could be no better evidence that both the brothers were ashamed of their crime. Sardis Birchard, in Knapp's History, says : "I remember well the death of Seneca John. He was a tall, noble looking man, and is said to have looked much like Henry Clay. He was always pleasant and cheerful. He was called the most eloquent speaker of his tribe. He could always restore harmony in their 144 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY council when there was any ill feeling. In the evening before the morning of his death he was at my stare. The whole tribe seemed to be in town. Steel and coonstick was jealous of John, on account of his influence and power. John was a great favorite among the squaws. John bade me 'good-bye' and stood by me on the porch as the other Indians rode away. He looked at them with so much sadness in his face that it attracted my attention, and I wondered at John's letting them go away without him. John inquired the amount of indebtedness at my store. We went behind the counter to the desk. The amount was figured up and stated to John, who said something about paying it, and then went away without relating any of the trouble." REMINISCENCES OF PIONEER DAYS. By Nan Wolfe Stull. I. The sad winds stir the fallen leaves With songs of long ago, Oh, the flickering sunbeam visions ;- How they waver to and fro ! How they seem to fondly whisper Of those days, those days gone by, When youth's springtime, when youth's morning, Beamed with hope that can not die. II. And as time with fleeting footsteps The knell of years has rung, Many changes it has brought you Since the days when you were young. Since those days when you fought nobly With the strength of youth defied The vast wilderness before you Looming up on every side. III. Pioneers with heads besprinkled With the winter's gift of snow Can you hear the spinning-wheel As it sang long years ago ? Can you hear that whirring, whirring, As round and round it flew, Or the clicking of the reel As it made its "cut" so true? IV. Recall you husking-bees so merry Where reigned jollity and fun. And the holder of a red ear Was indeed the lucky one? Galaxies of blue-eyed Marys With a Julia or a Jane Mingled with a John or Henry As they laugh and blush again. V. Or how you used to go to church, The girls with the linsey gown, The boys with pretty homespun jeans Golden buttons up and down ? The circuit preacher read aloud His stanza full and clear, And then broke forth in rapturous song That cheered the pioneer. VI. And 'twas excursion day to you When you all went to town Father, Mother, Kate and Sally, Thomas, James and John. In the horseless carriage of that day An ox-team to a cart O'er corduroy roads that went bumpcty bump, And shook you 'most apart. VII. Quilting bees, Oh, happy days, When the women came from far And fingers deft their marks then left Of bird and flower or star, And while the fingers flew so fast The busy tongues did too, And told how this and that to make And this and that to do. VIII. Then the hostess, she'd get up And to the kitchen go And the ladies, they would say, "Now, Mary, don't fuss so." And Mary, she would answer, "Oh, no, I won't, I say," And the flavor from the iron pot Would gently waft that way. IX. And as the evening shades drew nigh. The men would gather in. And mingled with the laugh so gay Were merry strains of violin; Doughnuts many, cider plenty ; Red-checked apples sent their glow On the guests who gather thither, At those parties long ago. X. Why of hardships should we speak ? They're gone, Oh, pioneers. Let the rainbow of the past, Shine over future years. Happy thoughts, all happy dreams. May they the dark clouds line, And rise in tender light that beams From sacred "Auld Lang Sync." XI. The sunset wafts its holiest kiss, Through evening's gathering shade ; May its blessings on you pour, As life's light slowly fades. May He, with ever watchful eye, Who sees each sparrow fall, Guide and bring you safe at last, To his kingdom one and all. CHAPTER VIII. CIVIL GOVERNMENT. ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY. First Township Elections and Names of Voters—Early Inhabitants at Close of War of 1812— First County Election and Names of Electors—Officers Elected—County Commissioners Meet and Organize—Extracts From Record of Their Proceedings—Townships of Thompson, Seneca, Portage, Townsend, Fort Seneca, Ballville, Clinton, Green Creek and Finley Organized— Taxable Property in Years of 1820, 1822, 1823, 1824 and 1825—First Annual Election and Names of Voters—Names of Taxpayers on Duplicate for Year 1822 by Townships. Although the county was erected on the 12th day of February, 1820, the act creating the same did not take effect until April 1st. The act provided that on the first Monday of April, 1820, the legal voters of the county, and county attached thereto (Seneca) should assemble in their respective places of holding township elections, and elect county and township officers; and further provided that the temporary seat of justice should be fixed at Croghansville, until commissioners appointed by the general assembly, for that purpose, should fix the permanent seat of justice for the county. (Chase 2135.) Its entire population was then less 'than one thousand souls including the territory of Seneca County. The first reference to local civil government, affecting Lower Sandusky, was the action of the county commissioners of Delaware County in annexing it to Radnor Township in that county, April 29, 1811, to "enjoy township privileges so far as is agreeable to law," but there was no local election held nor any other proceedings which can be found with reference to the matter. Elections were held under the Lower Sandusky Township organization by Huron County, while this region was within the civil jurisdiction of that county. The first was held August 15, 1815, as before mentioned, and township officers were elected. We have no record of the names of the voters at this elec lion, but at the next election, which was held October Jo, 1815, the list of names of the voters has been preserved. The names are William Andrews, Thoda A. Rexford, Daniel McFarland, Asa Stoddard, William Ford, Israel Harrington, Elisha Harrington, Randall Jerome, Jeremiah Everett, Moses Nichols, Anthony Arndt, Joseph Done, Obediah Morton, Jonathan Jerome, Joel Thomas, Thomas D. Knapp, Peleg Cooley, Antoine Laurent, Isaac Lee, Joseph Mominne, Charles B. Fitch, John M. Clung, Henry Disbrow, James Whitaker (son of the captive), Nathaniel Camp, Samuel Avery, Peter Menare, Lewis de Leonard— twenty-eight in all. APPRAISEMENT OF HOMES IN 1816. This was made by Charles B. Fitch and Daniel Hill and was as follows: There were only eight houses appraised: Morns A. Newman, one, $250; Moses Nichols, one, $100; Israel Harrington, one, $300; Aaron Forger-son, one, $200; Randall Jerome, three, $450; Thomas Brown, one, of $150. At the October election in 1816, thirty-three votes were cast ; most of the voters lived in and about the lower rapids and some had homes there. The place was just beginning to assume something of a village appearance. We give the names of the voters at this election : Joseph Harris, William Andrews, T. A. Rexford, Obediah Norton, William Avery, Moses Nichols, Almeron Sands. Daniel McFarland, Samuel Avery, - 145 - 146 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY David Gallagher, Hugh B.. McKner, Thomas Brown, Aaron Forgerson, Peleg. Cooley, John Robinson, John Cooley, Thomas L. Hawkins, Jonathan Jerome, W. S. Drake, Charles B. Fitch, Jeremiah Everett, Daniel Hill, Thomas D. Knapp; Israel Harrington, William Downs, Joshua Davies, Ruel Loomis, John Payne, Morris A. Newman, Thomas Forgerson, Holsey Forgerson, Aaron Willis and John W. Tyler. There were but few white inhabitants here at 'the time of the defense of Fort Stephenson, as is evidenced by a petition to Governor Meigs, December 2I, 1813, as follows : "May it please your excellency : The undersigned inhabitants and settlers on the plains of Lower Sandusky, on the reservation, beg leave to humbly represent their situation * * * * * Many of us have been severe sufferers since the commencement of the present war. * * * * * We do not, neither can we. attempt to claim any legal right to the ground or spot of earth on which we have each individually settled; but the improvements which we have made and the buildings which we have erected we trust will not be taken from us. * * * * * Permission to build has been granted by General Gano to those who have erected cabins since his arrival. Morris A. Newman, Israel Harrington, George Bean, George Ermatington. R. E. Post, Asa Stoddard, R. Loomis, Jesse S. Skinner, William Leach Walter Brabrook, Louis Moshelle, William Hamilton, Lewis Geaneau, Patrick Cress." It will be remembered that the land had not vet been opened to sale, but was owned by the Government. It was surveyed into four sections in June, 1807, by William Ewing, deputy surveyor. ( See map in this chapter.) In the field notes of this survey there are some interesting notations, one of which we here give : "From the post at the center of the reserve run south between Sections 3 and 4. 5 ch. a small corn field belonging to Mr. Badger. His house stands about 10 west of the line: the river on the east of the line; :to ch. out of the corn field." An old Indian town is also mentioned. This would place Badger's corn field along the west bank of the river. between Croghan Street and Birchard Avenue, and his house in what is now Fort Stephenson Park. The house is noted in 'the map. as is also an Indian castle. Mr. Badger was a minister of the gospel and preached as a missionary to the Indians at Lower Sandusky. He was influential in preventing the Wyandots in this locality from joining Tecumseh, and in con- vincing them that they ought not to go to war against the Americans. Further reference to him may be found in the chapter on Church History. FIRST COUNTY ELECTION. When Sandusky County was erected and when the first county election was held therein its territory comprised only two civil townships, namely : Sandusky and Croghan,. the former embracing all the land west and the latter all east of the Sandusky River, lying within the boundaries shown by the map given in a previous chapter. As we have seen, the township of Lower Sandusky, when organized in 1815, embraced all this territory both east and west of the river. We have also seen that when Croghan was organized in 1819 it embraced all in the east side of the river. Just when or by what official action the township west of the river received the name Sandusky minus the designation "Lower" does not appear ; but in the official proceedings recorded in the Journal of the Common Pleas Court and in that of the county commissioners, from the time of the organization of 'the county, the name is simply Sandusky, when mention is made of the township. on the west side. So it would seem, after the east was cut off from Lower Sandusky Township by forming Croghan, that the term lower was no longer used, with reference to the township, nor the village. until the whole two-mile square reserve was incorporated as the "Town of Lower Sandusky" February 9, 1829 (27 OLL. 83). Poll Book and result of the first election held in the township of Sandusky. in the county of Sandusky on the 3d day of April, 1820. for the purpose of choosing county officers—Israel Harrington, Jesse S. Olmsted and James Gallagher. judges: Jaques Hulburd and Joseph Chaffee, clerks. No. Name of Electors. 1. Joseph Gale. 2. Joseph Russell. 3. Joseph Perry. 4. James Manning. 5. Michael Andrews. 6. Thomas P. Reynolds. 7. William Lewis. 8. Lawrence Lindle. 9. Geo. Shannon. 10. Joshua Davis. 11. Elisha Risden. 12. Asa B. Gavit. 13. Seldin Champion. 14. Stephen Moore. 15. Josiah Rumery. 16. T. A. Rexford. 17. Thomas Ferguson. 18. Samuel Cochran. 19. David Cochran. 20. Israel Harrington. AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 147 No. Name of Electors. 21. Geo. F. Bostwick. 22. Phineas Frary. 23. Robert Reynolds. 24. Francis Sprague. 25. Wilford Norris. 26. Oliver Mitten. 27. John McClung. 28. Stephen Griswold. 29. William Christie. 30. Holsy Forgerson. 31. Almeron Sands. 32. John D. Reynolds. 33. Ezre Sprague. 34. John Holbrook. 35. Elisha E. Reynolds 36. John Wolcott. 37. Charles B. Fitch. 38. James Paxton. 39. William Jones. 40. Henry Thomas. 41. Willard Sprague. 42. John Prior. 43. Preserved Hall. 44. Enos Thomas. 45. Moses Jewett. 46. William Dew. 47. Martin Olds. 48. Peter Holbrook. 49. Elijah Brayton. 50. James Clark. 51. Joseph Chaffee. 52. James Gallagher. 53. Joseph Seaton. 54. William Chard. 55. William Rion. 56. Jesse S. Olmsted. 57. Erastus Bowe. 58. Jaques Hulburd. 59. Daniel McNutt. 60. James Dunlap. 61. James Wilson. 62. Thomas Demast. 63. Charles Druror. 64. Jeremiah Everett. 65. Poskile Bisnette. 66. Thomas Radcliff. 67. Joseph Momena 68. Timothy S. Smith. 69. Alexander McNutt. 70. Gabriel Lapoint. 71. Warner Stripe. 72. Olion Granger. 73. John Weaver. 74. Geo. Avis. 75. Daniel Rice. 76. Thos. Nicholson. 77. Nichloas Whitinger. 78. Consider C. Barney. 79. Joseph Bates. 80. James Chard. 81. Curtis Ball. 82. John W. Tyler. 83. John Drury. 84. Jonathan H. Jerome. 85. Geo. Hallaway. 86. Edward W. Benton. 87. Reuben Robertson. 88. Geo. G. Olmsted. 89. Benjamin Collins 90. West Barney. 91. John H. Jewett. 92. Warren Jewett. 93. Romulus Van Waggoner. 94. Caleb Rice. 95. Benjamin Barney. 96. Eliphalet Rogers 97. Moses Nichols. 98. William Morrison. 99. Sanford Maine. 100. P. Willson. 101. David Gallagher. 102. Reuben Bristol. 103. William Graham. 104. Elbridge Bristol. 105. Aaron Ferguson. 106. Silas Lockhart, 107. Harvey Westfall. 108. Wm. Greenwood. 109. Samuel Croush. 110. E. W. Howland. 111. Joseph Keeler. 112. Henry Bostwick. 113. Robert Harvey. 114. James Kirk. 115. Cyrus Cole. 116. Calvin Leezen. 117. David Harvold 118. Ethan A. Goodwin. It is by us certified, that the number of electors at this election amounted to 118. ISRAEL HARRINGTON, JAMES GALLAGHER, JESSE S. OLMSTETI. Judges. JAQUES HULBURD, JOSEPH CHAFFEE, Clerks. SHERIFF, David Gallagher had thirty votes. Josiah Rumery had forty-two votes. Nicholas Whitinger had thirty-two votes. Willis E. Brown had eight votes. Calvin Leesen had four votes. COMMISSIONERS. Charles B. Fitch had twelve votes. Asa B. Gavit had sixytwo votes. Jeremiah Everett had sixty-three votes. Morris Newman had seventy-five votes. Caleb Rice had forty-one votes. Moses Nichols had sixty-five votes. Oliver Granger had fifteen votes. Samuel Cochran had seven votes. Jesse Olmsted had one vote. Thomas Webb had one vote. A. Gavit had one vote. Timothy S. Smith had one vote. Samuel Croush had one vote. John W. Tyler had one vote. CORONER. Oliver Granger had seventy votes. Timothy S. Smith had thirty-two votes. Nicholas Whitinger had three votes. Daniel Brainard had two votes. Jordan M. Nye had one vote. We certify the above to be correct. ISRAEL H ARRINGTON, JAMES GALLAGHER. JESSE S. OLMSTED. Judges. JAQUES HULBURD JOSEPH CHAFFEE, Clerks Poll Book and result of the first election held in Croghan Township, Sandusky County, on the 3d day of April, 1820. Ruel Loomis. Thomas Emerson and Jordan M. Nye, judges. and Willis E. Brown and Jesse H. Newman. clerks of this election. No. Names of Voters. 1. Thomas Dickey. 2. Thomas M. Donovan. 3. John Hawk. 4. Willard Night. 5. Isaac B. Cooley. 6. John D. Davis. 7. James Maxwell. 8. Patrick Snee. 9. Thomas Brown. 10. Joseph White. 11. Orrison Perry. 12. Thomas Bennett. 13. Hugh Knox. 14. Willis E. Brown. 15. Jordan M. Nye. 16. Thomas Emerson. 17. Ruel Loomis. 18. George Davis. 19. Joseph Barmeter. 20. Ranson Purdy. 21. Jeremiah Webb. 22. Abraham Bennett. 23. Cyrus Wright. 24. Aaron Noble. 25. Abraham Bennett. Jr. 26. Jacob Parish. 27. Major Purdy. 28. John Fidler. 29. Thomas Webb. 30. Isaac Prior. 31. Charles Wilky. 32. John Lay. 33. Martin Hicks. 34. Winson Smith. 35. John L. Reeves. 36. James Hokins. 37. Thomas Black. 38. Abraham Babcock. 39. Peleg Cooley. 40. MosWilliam. 41. Andrew McNutt. 42. Joseph Parrish. 43. Jesse Benton. 44. William Cunningham. 45. Jared H. Miner. 46. Alexander Morrison. 47. John Kuykendall. 48. William Barker. 49. Guy Dudley. 50. Eleazer Davis. 148 - HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY 51. Joseph Jacan 52. Samuel Baker. 53. John Cooley. 54. James Nugent  55. James Rior. 56. Abijah Jacon. 57. Morris A. Newman.   It is by us certified, to fifty-seven. that the number of electors at this election amounted THOMAS EMERSON, J. M. NYE, RUEL LOOMIS, Judges of Election. WILLIS E. BROWN, JESSE H. NEWMAN, Clerk. We do hereby certify that for, SHERIFF. Willis E. Brown had forty-seven votes. Josiah Rumery had five votes. Nicholas Whitinger had four votes. Calvin Leezen had two votes. COMMISSIONERS. Morris A. Newman had fifty-seven votes. Thomas Webb had fifty-two votes. Charles B. Fitch had seventeen votes. Caleb Rice had four votes. Jeremiah Everett had eighteen votes. Asa B. Gavit had two votes. Moses Nichols had five votes. CORONER. Jonathan Jerome had fourteen votes. J. M. Nye had thirty-two votes. Oliver Granger had four votes. Timothy Smith had one vote. THOMAS EMERSON, J. M. NYE, RUEL LOOMIS, Judges of Election. WILLIS E. BROWN, Clerk. It will further appear from the original abstract on file, in the county clerk's office, duly certified, that Willis E. Brown was elected to the office of sheriff ; Morris A. Newman, Jeremiah Everett, on April 4, 1820, were duly elected county commissioners, and that Oliver Granger was elected to the office of coroner. It also appears from the original certificate of Jaques Hulburd, justice of the peace, on file, that Morris A. Newman, Moses Nichols and Jeremiah Everett, on April 4, 182o, were duly sworn according to law as such county commissioners. FIRST SESSION OF THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. Morris A. Newman, Jeremiah Everett and Moses Nichols having been elected and qualified as county commissioners of Sandusky County, Ohio, held their first session at the house of Morris A. Newman in the town of Croghansville, the temporary seat of justice, on Saturday, April 8, A. D., 1820. The following proceedings are taken from Vol. I., County Commissioners' Journal : Ordered that Jesse H. Newman be appointed clerk for the commissioners. Ordered that Nicholas Whitinger be appointed treasurer for Sandusky County. Ordered that there be two blank books purchased for the use of the county. Ordered that Charles B. Fitch be appointed collector for Sandusky County for the year 1820. Ordered that this meeting be and is hereby adjourned until Monday, the l0th instant, at 4 o'clock p. m., on said day at the house of Israel Harrington in Sandusky. On April 10th the following proceedings appear of record: Met in pursuance to the above adjournment at the house of Israel Harrington on Monday the 10th day of April, 1820, when Jesse H. Newman was qualified and took the oath of office required by law as clerk of the commissioners. Be it remembered that this day, personally came Jaques Hulburd, county clerk pro tem, Willis E. Brown, sheriff, Nicholas Whitinger, treasurer for the county of Sandusky, and several gave bonds, conditioned for the faithful discharge of their duties as required by law. Ordered that this meeting be and is hereby adjourned until Tuesday, the 25th day of April, 182o, at I o'clock, p. m., at the house of Morris A. Newman, Esq., in the town of Croghansville. Commissioners met in pursuance to an adjournment at the house of Morris A. Newman, on Tuesday, the 25th day of April. in the year 1820, in the town of Croghansville. Ordered that Joseph Chaffey be paid $11.00 for blank books to be paid out of the county treasury. ORGANIZATION OF THOMPSON TOWNSHIP. Now ordered, that a township be detached from the township of Croghan, by the name of Thompson, bounded as follows : Beginning at the southeast corner of the Seneca reservation. thence north from the Seneca reservation to the present trailed road from Croghansville to Strong's settlement, till it shall intersect the AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 149 Firelands, thence south with said line to the base line, thence west along the said line till a line run due north will strike the place of beginning. The qualified electors of the township of Thompson are ordered to meet on Saturday the 6th day of May next at the house of Joseph Parmenter, for the purpose of electing their township officers, at 10 o'clock, a. m., on said day, and then and there proceed to elect said officers as the law directs. Ordered that Morris A. Newman be allowed 75 cents for two quires of paper for the use of commissioners. SENECA TOWNSHIP. On May 8, 1820, page 10 of this record, will be found the order establishing Seneca Township as follows : Ordered that a township be detached from the township of Sandusky by the name of Seneca, bounded as follows : to include all that of Seneca County not set off in Thompson Township. It will be remembered that when Sandusky County was erected, that Seneca County was also erected at the same time, but its territory was attached to Sandusky County for judicial purposes. PORTAGE TOWNSHIP. On May 8, 1820, page 11 of this record, will be found the following order : Ordered that a township be detached from the township of Sandusky by the name of Portage, bounded as follows : Commencing at the mouth of the Muscallonge Creek. thence running south along the creek till it intersects the road going from Sandusky to Fort Meigs ; thence with the road to the east line of Wood County; thence north with the said line to the lake; thence with the meanders of said lake till it shall intersect the east (west) line of Huron County ; thence south along 'said line to the shores of Sandusky Bay; thence with the meanders of the Bay to the place of beginning, and to include Islands in the Bay belonging to Sandusky County. ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSEND TOWNSHIP. On May 8, 1820, page 12, of this record, the following order appears : Ordered that a township he detached from the township of Cro ghansville to be known by the name of Townsend Township, bounded as follows, to wit : Beginning on the east bank of Green Creek at the division line between Sandusky and Seneca Counties; from thence east with said line to the east line of the Seneca Reserve, thence north along said line until it shall intersect the present road leading from Croghansville to Strong's settlement ; thence along said road to the Huron County line; thence north along said line to the Sandusky Bay ; thence north along the said Bay shore to the mouth of Green Creek, and thence with the east bank of the main creek to the place of beginning. On June 20, 1820, page 13 of this record, appears the following proceedings : Tavern Licenses Granted for the Year 1820 —Morris A. Newman, Croghansville, $15.00; Israel Harrington, Sandusky Township, $15.00 ; William Andrus, Sandusky Township, $15.00; Samuel Cochran, Sandusky Township, $6.00. Permits Granted to Keep Store—J. S. & G. G. Olmsted, till next term, $12.50; Ora Ballard & Co., till next. term, $12.50. Permits Granted to Keep Ferry—Thomas L. Hawkins, across the Sandusky River— price not named. Taxable Property in Sandusky County—In the year 1820 as shown by the returns recorded in this record at pages 31 to 39, inclusive.