50 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. CHAPTER XI. FROM THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15 TO THE ORGANIZATION OF WOOD COUNTY-FOR WHOM THE COUNTY WAS NAMED-FIRST ELECTION, FIRST MEETING OF COMMISSIONERS, AND FIRST COURTS-A GENERAL RETROSPECT OF THE CONDITIONS EXISTING AT THAT TIME-POPULATION, ETC. GEN. JACKSON'S great victory over the British at New Orleans, January, 1815, closed the war in a blaze of triumph, quite in contrast with the dismal beginning at Detroit, less than three years before. By the spring of 115, people had gained confidence in the permanence of peace made the previous winter, and the scattered fragments of the Rapids' settlement on the Maumee, began slowly to return. Three years had made a great change. Peace and quiet reigned again, but the scars of desolating war were painfully visible on every side. The waste fields were grown up and choked with weeds and wild sunflowers. Ashes and charred cinders marked the places where their cabins once stood, and by the same signs the sites of the savages' wigwams were noted. The fresh earth mounds told where the dead, who strove and fell there, slept, and the dreary moan of the rippling waters seemed to breathe, in mournful cadence, for the departed heroes. With measured tread the sentry at the fort paced his beat. The grim cannon frowned from the great bastions, suggestive, perhaps, of further strife; but that had ended; the scalp dance was over; the cannibalistic orgies had ceased; Dudley and his intrepid band, who perished beyond the river, were the last martyrs on the altars of a barbarism that had begun its hideous sacrifices beyond the Alleghanies, three-quarters of a century before. The sword and tomahawk were now to be succeeded by the peaceful implements of husbandry. Civilization had laid firm hold on the Maumee Country. Among those who came back that summer to begin life anew, and to resume his official functions for the government, was Amos Spafford. John Carter and John Race, who had preceded him a little, had a cabin on the north side of the river, near Turkey Foot Rock, and Spafford moved in with them for a short time. He did not, however, like the threatening behavior of the Indians at the village above, and moved down between the river and fort, and lived with his family in a tent until he could finish his building.* A number of abandoned scows, or arks, used in shipping army supplies down from Defiance, lay along the bank, and the plank from these the settlers used in their buildings. Spafford's house, constructed of these plank, stood in the flat, not far from the old orchard, northwestwardly from the fort. During the summer the settlers engaged Carter and Race to go up the river, in a pirogue, after some supplies. Some time after they left, their empty pirogue was noticed floating down the river. Surmising that some accident had happened, Spafford took some help and went up to their cabin, where he found their bodies and the evidences of a desperate fight with the Indians. The men had been shot and tomahawked. Later in the season Levi Hull went to drive in the cattle from the woods, on the present plat of Perrysburg. Some time after he left several guns were heard in that direction, and as he did not return at the usual time, search was made. His body was found on the ground where the Methodist church of Perrysburg stands. He had been shot and scalped. These tragic occurrences were calculated to cause much anxiety among the residents as to their safety. No matter whether they were the result of quarrels between whites and Indians, or an intent of the latter to drive the whites away, it served the purpose of keeping back the settlement. Fortunately for all concerned, there were few of such tragedies to record. Two vessels came up-in the summer of 1815, and took a greater part of the ordnance and government property from the fort to Detroit. The schooner " Black Snake, " Capt. Jacob Wilkinson, took off a cargo of guns and stores the same season, and the fort, which had been in * The incidents and history of the settlement covering the period from 1815 to 1820, here given, are largely derived from the manuscript notes of W. V. Way, of Perrysburg, in possession of the writer. Way got his data from the Spaffords, Hollisters, Wilkinsons, Joshua Chappel, Gen. Hunt and others. WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 51 charge of Lieut. Almon Gibbs and about forty men, was abandoned. For the convenience of the fort, and any stray settlers, Gibbs had, the previous year, May 9, 1814, been appointed postmaster, and the office was named Fort Meigs. When Major Spafford left, in 1813, Miami post office was discontinued. After the fort was abandoned, in 1815-16, Gibbs quit the army, crossed to the other side of the river and went into trade, taking the post office with him. All the lower Maumee Country, for some time after, went under the general name of Fort Meigs. The incoming settlers, many of whom located about the fort sometimes found the old block-houses very convenient places to live in until they could build, and the palisade and other timber served for many useful purposes as long as they lasted. At length, however, there arose some strife about who had a right to live in the block-houses, and someone set fire to them and burned them up. It will help the reader to get a better idea of the Maumee settlement prior to the war, if we give the names of those who, afterward, presented claims to the government for loss of property. The list is taken from Knapp's History of the Maumee Valley. A meeting of these claimants was called at the house of Amos Spafford, November 24, 1815, and he was empowered to act as their agent, and authorized to go to Washington and make proper application for indemnification for their losses. Their names were: Daniel Purdy, Oliver Armstrong, James Carlin, William Carter, George Blalock, James Slawson, Amos Spafford, Samuel Ewing, Jesse Skinner, William Skinner, Stacey Stoddard, Jacob Wilkinson, Thomas Dick, Samuel H. Ewing, William Peters, Amos Hicox, Richard Gifford, Samuel Carter, Baptiste Momeny, Thomas Mcllrath, Chloe Hicox, David Hull, John Redoad, and others. The property lost consisted of various articles; for instance, James Carlin had his cabin burned, estimated value, $11 11o; one blacksmith shop, $ 5 5 ; two-year old colt, taken by Wyandot Indians, valued at $30. Oliver Armstrong lost a horse, valued at $6o; another man six acres of wheat in barn, burned; four tons of hay; clothing and bedding, burned or stolen, and various other articles are enumerated, including standing corn used by the U. S. troops, aggregating over four thousand dollars, which, with some other sums, the government, after some delay, allowed. Most of the arrivals now were by way of the lake, from Cleveland and the ports below. The soldiers from the southern part of Ohio, who had made the march across the swamp, or caught the Maumee ague, did not advertise the country very favorably, nor did many immigrants arrive from that section. Still, all who had seen it were charmed with the Maumee and its scenery, and the glowing accounts they gave of the fish and game are refreshing to read. Wayne's men, especially, who were here in the month of August, while the surface was dry, and the corn and truck patches of the Indians were at their best, grew enthusiastic over the beautiful islands, fish, game, timber, rich soil, etc. But when later in the season they were building Forts Wayne and Defiance, and half of them sick with fever and ague, they were glad to get away; many of them, however, returned in after years. Seneca Allen, who a little later became the first resident justice of the peace, in what is now Wood county, came with his family, in 1816, from Detroit. On the same vessel came the families of Jacob Wilkinson, Elijah, Charles and Christopher Gunn. The Gunns and Allen located on the north side of the river. The latter opened a trading place with the Indians at Roche de Boeuf, where a man named Isaac Richardson had located a mill site. The Gunns settled between there and Maumee, and became permanent and useful citizens. Many of their descendants are still living there. [On February 20, 1817, Charles Gunn, as justice of the peace, under jurisdiction of Champaign county, solemnized the first marriage in the present limits of Wood county, under the laws of the State. Aurora Spafford, son of Major Amos Spafford, and Mrs. Mary Jones were the pioneer couple who first stepped under the hymeneal yoke. They had been waiting for some weeks for Gunn's commission. If they had a license, which they doubtless had, they sent to Urbana, the county seat, to get it. The nearest road there was by Hull's Trace. ] Two years later Allen moved down to Fort Meigs, and held the office of justice for several years. Jacob Wilkinson's family, who came with Allen, in 1816, but who had been there before the war, settled on the flat, below the fort, and kept tavern. An incident occurred there, which reminded them that their new home was not above high-water mark. One night the water rose in their cabin, and they had to scramble up the ladder to the loft, from which they were rescued by boatmen. In the confusion the baby, in the cradle, had been forgotten. It was found, fast asleep, floating about on the water. Its "crib ," as they are called nowadays, was, luckily, the half of a hollow log, with boards nailed on each end, and nearly water-tight. In the latter part of 1816 came the Vances, 52 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. Wilson and Samuel, and in the spring of 1817 opened up a trader's store, for their brother, Joseph Vance, afterward Governor of Ohio. This was the pioneer store in what is now Wood county. The Hollisters opened a store soon after. All the traders, previous to this, had been on the other side of the river. Down on the flats, below the fort, David Hull, in 1816, kept the pioneer tavern of the county. Almira Hull, his daughter, had, according to judge Way's memoirs, the proud distinction of being the first white child born in Wood county, so far as known. The date was 1817. Thomas McIlrath settled on the flats in 1815, and Ephraim Learning and his brother Thomas, carpenters and mill-wrights, settled near the river, in what is now the east part of Perrysburg; but in the spring of 1818 moved over to Monclova, and rebuilt the sawmill begun there, before the war, by Samuel Ewing, on Swan creek. Much of the lumber used by some of the early settlers was sawed there. Samuel H. Ewing, father of the late judge Ewing, of Wood, lived then on the tract next east of the fort. H. P. Barlow, who afterward married a daughter of Victor Jennison, further down the river, 'taught school, in the fort settlement, in the winter of 1816-17, and the following summer located on the north side of the river. In 1816, the United States Government sent out an agent, Alexander Bourne, to locate and lay out a town-site at the foot of the Maumee Rapids. After considerable investigation, the agent chose the present site of Perrysburg, and Deputy U. S. Surveyors Joseph Wampler and William Brook field laid out a town there. Major Amos Spafford gave the town its name, upon a suggestion from Hon. Josiah Meigs, United States Land Commissioner, at that time. It was named, of course, in memory of Commodore, Perry. That selection of a town site by the government's agent was one of vast importance in fixing the destiny of later towns on the lower Maumee. Below Perrysburg, about two miles, is a ridge or rock across the river channel, called "Rock bar," where vessels, drawing over six feet of water, cannot pass safely in a summer stage of water.. The light craft on the lake, in 1816, were not obstructed by the "bar, " but the heavy vessels of a later date found it dangerous. "Rock bar " destroyed the hope of any town above it from becoming the commercial emporium of the Maumee Country, and forced the selection of a new site below it. Had the government agent located Perrysburg below the "bar," there was a possibility that it might, with its early start and prestige of government paternity, have been the great city of the valley, instead of Toledo. [In the summer of 1836, J. D. Cummings, David Ladd, D. W. Deshler, Norman C. Baldwin, John C. Spink, William Neil, Elnathan Cory, Joseph H. Larwill, N. M. Stewart and others bought, of Jesse Stone, River Tracts 17 and 18, about 450 acres, just below "Rock bar," on the north side of the river, for $40,000, and employed Hiram Davis, surveyor of Wood county, to plat the front part of the tract into lots, and named it. Marengo. With the strong backing it had, Marengo gave promise of becoming a city; but the money panic of 1837 struck it as with the deadly blight of an October frost, and in 1838 the sheriff closed out all that was tangible of the town of Marengo, and it is but a memory.] Maumee Treaty.-It will now be in chronological order to note the concluding chapter in the series of important events, by which the United States acquired title deed to. the land now within bounds of Wood county, except the part of the United States Reserve which had been previously acquired by Wayne's treaty. In September, 1817, Duncan McArthur and Lewis. Cass, as the authorized agents of the United States, met the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, Pottawatamie, Seneca, Delaware and Shawnee tribes, to the number of about 7,000 Indians, at a treaty council, at the Maumee Rapids, and purchased from them all their remaining lands in Ohio, except some scattered reservations retained as homes by the Indians. Only one of these reserves touched the present limits of Wood county; that of thirty-four square miles on the south side of the Maumee, below where Toledo, is, granted to the chiefs of the Ottawa tribe, and the corner of which projected into Sections 1, 2, 3 and 10 of Lake, and Fr. Sections 25, 26, 27, 28, with Sections 33, 34, 35 and 36 of Ross townships, as will be noticed on some of the Wood county maps. This place was known as Tushquegon, or McCarty's, village. A section of land, by request of the Ottawas, was also given Peter Minor, out of a former reservation to that. tribe, lying about where Providence, Lucas. county, is now. Minor's Indian name was. Sawendebans, or the "yellow hair," and he had, been adopted as the son of the Chief Tondaganie,. or, as it is now written, Tontogany, the Ottawa name for dog. Of all the great treaties, from that made with the Iroquois, at Rome, N. Y., (Fort Stanwix), in 1784, down to 1817, this, at the Maumee Rapids, was, to northwestern Ohio, the most important. Campaigns had been made WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 53 and battles fought, sometimes ending in defeat, sometimes in victory. Treaty had followed treaty, but all had left this land under savage sway. Twenty-nine years, almost three decades, had passed since the Marietta colony was planted on the Ohio river, in 1788, until the Federal Government, by this last act, swept away the cloud that shadowed the civilization of the Maumee Country. Now, for the first time, the land stood on an equality with the rest of Ohio, free of ownership and domain by a race, whose instincts, habits, customs and mode of life were entirely opposed to the improvement of the country. It is possible that this land was, in the early time, thought unfit for white occupation; or rather, that it was better suited to the uses of Indians than whites. It was doubtless true that, in some respects this was not the most desirable part of Ohio. This, and the fact that it was held as Indian territory for thirty years after settlements had commenced in other portions of the state, explains why some of the counties, in northwestern Ohio, were so far behind the rest of the State in improvements. A line drawn from Sandusky Bay, south, along the west end of the Connecticut Reserve, to the Greenville Treaty line, near Mount Gilead, thence westerly, along said line, to the Indiana line, thence north to Michigan, and including all the west part of Ohio, east as far as Defiance, and down the Maumee to its mouth, would about embrace the Ohio land bought at the treaty of 1817, and since cut up into about eighteen counties. Wood county, as she is bounded to- day, lay entirely within this purchase, except half of the twelve-mile-square reserve on the south side of the Maumee, bought at Wayne's treaty, in 1795. The land on the north side of the Maumee, west to Defiance, the reader will remember, was bought at the treaty of Detroit, 1807. This treaty of 1817 was regarded-by the people of the State with great interest. The part of Ohio, north of the Greenville line, was a blank space on the map. It was simply the Indian territory, and the "black swamp." Its name caused a shrug of terror to many people; while others believed that, though it was not an earthly paradise, it was a good place to go to and " grow up with the country. " The Indians did not all agree as to the advisability of selling it. There was a division, and some stout opposition was developed at the treaty. Gen. Hunt, before quoted, in his reminiscences says: "There was an Indian present, whose name was Meshkemau, who was a great warrior, and prided himself on being a British subject. " He had been bribed to oppose the treaty. When he found the Indians giving way to Cass and McArthur, our commissioners, it made him very angry. He said in his speech that the palefaces had cheated the red men, from their first landing on this continent. The first who came said they wanted land enough to put a foot on. They gave the Indians a beef, and were to have so much land as the hide would cover, The palefaces cut that hide into strings, and got land enough for a fort. "The next time they wanted more land they brought a great pile of goods, which they offered for land. The red men took the goods, and the palefaces were to have for them so much land as a horse would travel round in a day. They cheated the red man again by having a relay of horses to travel at their utmost speed. In that way they succeeded. 'Now, you Cass,' pointing his finger and shaking his tomahawk over Cass' head, 'Now, you Cass, come here to cheat us again;' thus closing, he sat down. Cass replied: ' My friends, I am much pleased to find among you so great a man as Mesh-ke-mau. I am glad to see you have an orator, a man who understands how much you have been cheated by the white people, and who is fully able to cope with them-those scoundrels who have cheated you so outrageously. 'Tis true what he has said, every word true. And the first white man was your French father. The second white man was your English father, you seem to think so much of. Now you have a father, the President, who does not want to cheat you, but wants to give you more land west of the Mississippi than you have here, and to build mills for you, and help you till' the soil.' "At which Mesh-ke-mau raved and frothed at the mouth. He came up to Gen. Cass, struck him on the breast with the back of his hand, raising his tomahawk with the other hand, saying, ' Cass, you lie; you lie.' "Cass turned to Knaggs, who was one of the interpreters, and said: ' Take that woman away and put a petticoat on her; no man would talk that way in council.' "Two or three Indians and interpreters took him off out of the council. The treaty resulted in buying from the Indians the northwestern part of Ohio and the southern part of Michigan." Another warrior and his mother, present at the treaty, are thus spoken of: " Ottuso, son of Kan-tuck-e-gun [Hosmer says Kan-tuck-e-gun was the widow of Pontiac], the most eloquent warrior of the tribe, was a very intelligent Indian; quite the equal of Tecumseh in mental qualities, 54 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO though lacking the moral force and vigor which made the latter a leader of his race. Ottuso was a descendant of Pontiac [Parkman says Ottuso was the son of Pontiac], and, at the time of his death, the last of his family, and the last war chief of his nation remaining on the Maumee river. His mother was a sort of Indian queen, and grandniece to Pontiac. She was held in great reverence by the Indians. So much so, that at the treaty of Maumee, in 1817, she then being very old and wrinkled, and bent over with age, her hair perfectly white, no chief would sign the treaty until she had first consented, and made her mark, by touching her fingers to the pen. At that treaty there were 7,000 Indians gathered together. When the treaty was agreed upon, the head chiefs and warriors sat round the inner circle, she had a place among them; the remaining Indians with the women and children forming a crowd outside. The chiefs sat on seats built under the roof of the council house, which was open on all sides. The whole assembly kept silence. The chiefs bowed their heads and cast their eyes to the ground, and waited patiently for the old woman until she rose, went forward, and touched the pen to the treaty, after it had been read to them in her presence. Following close after this treaty another helpful thing to the settlement occurred. The government in the previous year (1816) had not only platted the town of Perrysburg, but had re-surveyed the Twelve-mile Reserve. It was in this survey that a change was made, and the land along the river subdivided into River Tracts instead of following the usual form of survey by sections. The land office was at Wooster, Ohio, and the Maumee lands were thrown on the market, at auction, in February. This sale proved of great advantage to the settlement. It gave a permanence to the improvements started. Hitherto, when all were squatters without fixed tenure, there was but little incentive to go into extensive improvements. Now the settler could own his lands. The sale was on the installment plan. Some paid the price, and took a patent from the government at once. Others did not get their patents until final payments. When purchasers failed to meet the payments the land was resold. Some assigned their claims to second parties; in such cases the name on the sale book and in the patent does not correspond. These changes and the neglect of purchasers to record their patents, when they received them, or perhaps not at all, have been fruitful of trouble in tracing titles. Soon after, Dr. J. B. Stewart, of Albany, N. Y., and J. J. Lovett bought River Tracts 65 and 66, including the old fortifications and the settlement that had sprung up around the fort. A town site was surveyed, below the fort, next the river, and. called Orleans, or sometimes, to better distinguish it, "Orleans of the North." Dr. Stewart was also one of the builders and owners of the pioneer steamboat on the lakes, the "Walk-in-the-water," built at Black Rock, in 1818, and doubtless it was the design of Stewart to make Orleans one of the chief points in the lake trips of his new boat. The prospects of the town, as the leading port at the head of Lake Erie, were bright, and would have been materially aided by steamboat connection with the lower lake ports, but unfortunately "Rock bar" prevented the boat from ever reaching Orleans. She came up as far as Swan creek, and turned back. She drew too much water for Orleans. As a rapid traveler, the "Walk-the-water" was not a success. Noah Reed, who came with Uncle Guy Nearing's family to Detroit in 18i9, says in his memoirs, that he was a passenger on the new steamboat from Black Rock; she left that port on the 18th day of August, and did not reach Detroit until the 11 5th day of September. The boat was carried back until within sight of Buffalo, five or six times, after getting to Dunkirk and beyond. After a career of three years, she was beached, in a storm, near Dunkirk, and went to pieces. Thus both of these ventures of the enterprising Albany men, the pioneer steamboat, and the town of Orleans, proved unfortunate. Not to be outdone, the ambitious dwellers on the north side of the river had staked out a town in 1818, and christened it after the historic river, Maumee. Here were three embryo claimants for city honors. Most that was needed to make them flourish was a thrifty population. Each had ready advocates to proclaim its advantages over the other, but there was little room for argument, as whatever might be said, in praise or derision, applied to all, for the reason that they were so near together. One thing in their favor was that they had no competitors, either above or below, to decry their merits, or to entice away business. The combined efforts of the three claimants, did not cause a great rush of immigrants to either place. There was a vast expanse of country opening in the West then; besides the Maumee did not have a good reputation as a health resort. The increase of population was very gradual. The chief business at that tune was the fishing and fur trade, and the rich islands and bottoms were very productive in WOOD COUNTY, OHIO - 55 grain and vegetables. But nearly all who came were soon discouraged by malarial attacks, in one form or another. The experience of John T. Baldwin, father of Marquis Baldwin, of Toledo, given in the history of Lucas county, from which we quote, was doubtless similar to that of many others who came there: "He and his sons sailed a little schooner, called the ' Leopard.' Mr. Baldwin and family came to Orleans, April 1, 1818, and rented a small house and staid until July, when they left. In November they returned and lived in a part of Seneca Allen's house. In the following spring (1819), Marquis dropped corn for Gen. Vance, on his farm, just above Orleans. The family, as on their previous stay, suffered so much from fever and ague, that at times there were not well persons enough to take care of the sick. In June, 1819, Mr. Baldwin again became discouraged, and left for his old home, at Palmyra, Portage county, but made two or three trips, with the ' Leopard,' between Cleveland, Detroit and Orleans, during the season, on one of which he took a cargo of corn for Jonathan Gibbs from the Maumee to Detroit. In 1823, Mr. Baldwin and family, a third time, came to the Maumee, stopping at what is now Toledo, then Port Lawrence, where they made their home. Among the residents at the Rapids, in 1818, John Baldwin remembers the following at Orleans:- William Ewing, Elisha Martindale, James Wilkinson, Samuel and Aurora Spafford, the Vances, Hollisters, Amos Pratt and others previously mentioned in these pages. At Maumee:- Robert A. Forsyth, John E. Hunt, Almon Gibbs, Dr. Horatio Conant, James Carlin, and a Frenchman, named Peltier; down toward Miami:-Daniel Hubbell and William Herrick; while up the river were John Pray, Gilbert and Artemus Underwood, James Adams and others. In the woods, at Perrysburg, was John and Frank Hollister, John Webb, David M. Hawley and William Wilson. "Marquis Baldwin gives some of the current prices, for labor and goods, taken from the books kept by his father, which are of interest. The price for half-soling a pair of boots was $3; Mrs. Baldwin, making fine shirt, $11; making woolen pantaloons, $11.5o; linen, 50 cents; common laborers got $25 A month and board; sailors the same; cider brought $8.5o per barrel; tobacco, 50 cents a pound; chickens, 25 cents apiece; whiskey, 50 cents a pint; tar, $1.5o per gallon; tin plates, 31 cents; salt, $8 per barrel; nails, 25 cents a pound; flour, $4 per i00 pounds; bacon, 20 cents; beefsteak, 10 cents; pork, 181 cents; butter, 31 cents; castor hats, $7; shoes, $2.5o per pair." The year 1817 was eventful to the settlers on the Maumee, in another thing. Some years before the war of 1812, this territory, we remember, was attached to Champaign county, with the county seat at Urbana, about one hundred miles distant. The Greenville Treaty line, just north of that county, had stood as a wall to stop further settlement in that direction. That barrier was now removed, and March 11, 1817, a new county, north of Champaign, and extending to Michigan, called Logan, with the county seat at Belleville (now Bellefontaine), was organized. This part of the Maumee Country was now a part of Logan, with the county seat still on Hull's Trace, but eighteen miles nearer than before the change. Soon after, the township of Waynesfield, which took in the Maumee settlement, was established, which proved a further convenience to the people in selecting local peace officers, and better regulating their home affairs in various ways. The years 1818 and 1819 were characterized by a steady, but uneventful, growth on the Maumee. The settlers were, as a class, energetic and ambitious. Their hopes were in the building of a city there, and making it the center of a great population, as well as of a great trade. Their hopes were apparently well founded. It was only unforeseen natural, but insurmountable, obstacles that prevented their realization. By the close of the year 1819 the Maumee villages, and adjacent settlements, numbered over six hundred people, exclusive of Indians. The increasing population and business of the settlement made it burdensome to the citizens to have to travel seventy-five or eighty miles, across the swamp, with scarcely any road facilities, to get to the seat of justice, and they petitioned for a new county. On February 12, 1820, the Legislature, by boundaries and names, carved fourteen new counties out of the territory lately purchased of the Indian tribes. Of the fourteen counties thus formed, provision was made in the Act for the organization of only two-Wood and Sandusky. Maumee was named in the law as the temporary county seat of Wood. and the first day of April following was designated as the time when the voters should meet, at their usual place of holding election, to choose county officers. The law also provided that justices and constables, previously elected under the jurisdiction of Logan county, should fill out their unexpired terms of office. It was further provided that the unorganized counties of Hancock, Henry, Putnam, Paulding, and Williams, should be attached to Wood, for civil purposes, until further provision was made by law. 56 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. Thus Wood had jurisdiction over territory which now comprises nine counties. The original six counties have since, at different times, been divided and the counties of Lucas, Fulton and Defiance formed, additional. On April 12, the commissioners, chosen April 1, Daniel Hubbell, of Miami, Samuel H. Ewing, of Orleans, and John Pray, of Waterville, met in the second story of Almon Gibbs' store, in Maumee, and organized by electing Daniel Hubbell clerk of the board. That was the beginning of Wood county's corporate existence. The first act of the commissioners, after electing their clerk, was to appoint William Pratt county treasurer. The next was to buy a record book, which they got on credit, price $4.50, which shows that the grand old county, rich to-day, was poor at the start; she had not so much as a nickel; this suggests the inquiry as to why they needed a treasurer then. Wood county was organized; she had boundary lines and a name; a board of commissioners; a treasurer and a record book. That book, yet in existence at the auditor's office, in a fair state of preservation, is a medium sized, rawhide-covered volume, of about 300 pages. It was the first property owned by Wood county, and should be treasured as a relic. The county was named in honor of Col. Eleazer D. Wood, a gallant young engineer officer, and graduate of West Point, on Gen. Harrison's staff in the war of 1812. Under his commander's orders, he planned and helped to construct and defend Fort Meigs. Afterward, at the battle of the Thames, he had command of the artillery, and was in the front, with the Kentuckians, in the pursuit of the flying Proctor. After that battle, a part of Harrison's army was sent to the Niagara frontier, and Wood went with it. In a desperate sortie of the Americans, from Fort Erie, the following year ( 1814), the intrepid Wood, then holding the rank of brevet lieut.-colonel, lost his life. His commander, Major-Gen. Brown, after the war, and at his own expense, erected a monument in memory of Col. Wood, in the Post cemetery, at West Point, on the Hudson. The county was honored with the name of this gallant officer, as was Perrysburg by the name of the hero of Lake Erie. The county boundary lines were the same as now, except on the north Wood extended to Michigan. In the year 1835. Wood was dismembered, and Lucas county formed, when the Maumee river became the northern line of Wood, except a short space on the northeast corner. Before the commissioners adjourned their first meeting, they contracted with Gibbs for the use of his room, for one year, for a court house, for which they agreed to pay him $4o. When they adjourned, the clerk took the record book under his arm, and carried it home for safe keeping. The county, though now organized and in running !order, was lacking in many of the essentials of the present day. It had no safes, no fire-proof vaults, no tax duplicate, no money, no jail, no county roads, no ditches, no bridges-hardly anything, except the bright anticipations of her projectors. In this humble plight Wood took her place in the sisterhood of counties-not a very promising one, to be sure, but destined to take an honorable place with them, after overcoming more discouragements than any other county in the State. It is difficult, indeed, for people of today to realize the homeliness and poverty of that beginning in the county's history; and yet, the contrast, so much in favor of the present, affords us just cause of pride in those people, our predecessors, and their successors, down to the present, who have worked this wonderful change amid so many disheartening obstacles. But while the hopeful settlers at the seat of justice of the newly-fledged county are waiting for the next event, which completed their county government namely, the, court-it will be interesting to look back, through the mist of years, and catch a glimpse of the landscape surroundings at the Foot of the Rapids. It was not like it is now. Instead of smooth, grassy slopes and cultivated fields, with unobstructed views of the gentle curves and broad sweeps of the river for miles, as seen now, we would see it clothed in rugged forest trees and thick bush. Instead of the fine iron bridge, connecting two pretty towns, with fine business blocks, residences and public buildings, there was a sluggish ferryboat and numerous canoes and skiffs to cross from shore to shore. The battle-scarred ruins of Fort Meigs, on the south side, and of Fort Miami, further down, on the north side of the river, told the stranger that this point had lain in the track of war. Three straggling river settlements, on the river bluffs among the timber, or on the flats, strove for city honors. Maumee, the most pretentious, lay on the north bank, scattered along nearly two miles. Orleans, on the south side, was on the slope and flats below the old fort. There were a few cultivated areas at intervals, mostly of wheat and corn. Perrysburg had a few cabins, along a wood's trail, cut out where Front street is now. Her claims to city honors, other than her name and fine location, were seriously obscured by the heavy growth of timber. There were no streets or roads, except the old army trails. Indians WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 57 were, at times, more numerous than whites, though usually peaceable and quiet, unless under the influence of whiskey. There were not, at that time, to exceed 650 whites, men, women and children, in all three settlements and vicinity. The census of 1820 makes the population 733; but taking the list of names of voters at the elections up to 1825, it is difficult to figure out that many whites, on the usual ratio of five persons to every voter. , But it is not improbable that in their efforts to get a county government, the settlers made the largest showing possible. At any rate, in ten years to 1830, the increase, as shown by the census report, only carried the population up to 1,102. The point, however, is not material, except as a basis from which to note the after-growth of population. Now let us go to Maumee and attend court, in fancy, at least. It is Wood county's first Common Pleas court; May 3, 1820. How different from now. [The writer is indebted for an account of the first court, to the late Collister Haskins, one of the grand jurors on that occasion. ] These is no bell ringing in the lofty tower to call the jurors, attorneys, and witnesses together. The clerk and his deputies are not hurrying to the court room with arms full of heavy court records. There is no clerk, and there are no record books. The attorneys are not edging up quietly to the sheriff's desk to learn if important witnesses have been notified, and are likely to be present. Curious as it may seem to those conversant with later judicial history, lawyers were scarce at that first court. The event had not got noised about very far; but they soon began to come. Before court had been in session long, three arrived, showed their credentials, and asked leave to practice. Where lawyers were found, there are certain to be clients. But if lawyers were a little scarce, the court was "numerous." As courts were then organized, the Common Pleas had four judges-a president judge, and three associates, all appointed by the Legislature. George Tod* was president judge at this first court, and his associates were Samuel Vance, Horatio Conant, and Peter G. Oliver. Four judges are considered, even now, as quite an imposing "bench;" and no doubt the proud dwellers in the new county seat felt, and justly, too, that quite an added dignity and prestige attached to their ambitious little city because of its court honors. David Hull was the name of the first sheriff who rapped on the table and opened the Common Pleas court. The first *Father of Governor David Tod. official act was to appoint Thomas R. McKnight, clerk. While McKnight was hunting up suitable a record book, C. J. McCurdy was appointed prosecutor for the State. This completed the organization of the court, andthey were now ready for business. Many duties attached to the Common Pleas court then that do not belong to it now. All probate work belonged to it; such as the appointment of guardians, granting administration, recording wills, taking bonds, etc. Besides this, the court granted all licenses. Every business paid license then: Taverns, stores, ferries, bridges, ware-houses, all had to pay rates fixed by the court. Thus it will be seen that the Common Pleas court embraced, in its scope of work, some of the most important functions of government in this new settlement-even the vital one of creating revenue, and the records, happily yet in a good state of preservation, afford us an insight into many interesting facts not elsewhere to be found. One thing is particularly striking in the testamentary records of that time-the frequent number of deaths noted. Before the end of the year 1822, the death list, in this sparse population, enrolls the names of several of the leading citizens. The United States collector and his wife; Gibbs, the postmaster and merchant; one of the county commissioners, and one of the justices of the peace, are included, and the names of many other property owners appear on these tell-tale pages. There were doubtless as many more, of these hardy men and women, who fell victims to the prevalent malarial fever, whose names do not appear in the books. These are some of the things shown by the old court records. They tell us, in sorrowful lines, that the pioneers, who laid the corner-stone of this civilization, had a hard struggle. Privations, disease and death met them at every turn. [Subsequent proceedings of Wood county courts are told in the chapter on Bench and Bar.] Now that the Maumee Rapids people had a county of their own, and a seat of justice right in their midst, it might reasonably be presumed that they would, after the great inconvenience they had endured, be happy to a man. No so. Human nature is not shaped thus. It was the same then as it is today; never satisfied. Maumee had the county seat temporarily, but not by general approval. Orleans and Perrysburg were not pleased. The settlers were pretty evenly divided on each side of the river. But in the new counties then forming, the seats of justice were fixed temporarily by the Legislature until the de- 58 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. veloprnents of population should indicate where the proper place for the county seat would be, when three disinterested commissioners were appointed, whose duty it was to carefully investigate the situation and fix upon the location of the county seat. Had the location of the seat of justice been made by a vote of the settlers, no doubt Maumee would have held it at that time. Orleans and Perrysburg,, both on the south side of the river, were envious of each other, and would not act in unity, and, in a triangular battle, Maumee could out vote either of them. The question has often been raised in later years as to how Perrysburg got the county seat away from her stronger neighbor, Maumee, and we believe this is the first time an explanation has appeared in print. At the session of the Legislature, in the winter of 1821-22, Charles R. Sherman (father of Gen. Sherman), Edward Paine, Jr., and Nehemiah King were appointed commissioners to fix the permanent location of the county seat of Wood county. At the May term of court in Maumee, 1822, the report of these commissioners, a copy of which had been placed on file with the clerk, was read in open court, and from which report (following the language of the journal) -it appears that the town of Perrysburg, in said county of Wood, was selected as the most proper place as a seat of justice for said county of Wood, the said town of Perrysburg being as near the center of said county of Wood as, paying a due regard to the situation, extent of population, quality of land and convenience and interest of the inhabitants of said county of Wood, as was possible, the commissioners aforesaid designate In-lot No. 387, as the most proper site for the court house of said county of Wood. " It must not for a moment be supposed that Maumee surrendered up this coveted prize without a protest, or that Orleans looked on with an approving smile. Both opposed it with every possible influence, but Perrysburg had a powerful ally. Just at this critical juncture, the United States gave some friendly aid to her protege. In May, 1822, Congress enacted a law vesting the title to all unsold lots and outlots in Perrysburg, in the Commissioners of Wood county, on condition that the county seat should be permanently located there. The net proceeds of the sale of the lots were to be used in erecting public buildings, etc. There was a considerable number of these lots unsold, and the gift proved of great benefit to the county in its early poverty, in getting a jail and court house without much expense to the tax-payers. Regardless of this help to the county, the decision of the commissioners, who located the seat of justice, was a wise and also a just one, either in the light of the views set forth in their report, or of what subsequently occurred, the dismemberment of Wood county to form Lucas. There was, too, at this time a complicating question of jurisdiction between Ohio and the .Territory of Michigan which well nigh provoked a war fifteen years later. According to the claims of Michigan most of the territory north of the Maumee belonged to her. The final decision of the question rested with Congress, as Michigan was not yet a State. This uncertainty of jurisdiction may also have had its influence with the commission which fixed the permanent county seat at Perrysburg. It was known to the friends of the latter place, and the Hollisters, Spaffords and others, who had at that time invested in property in Perrysburg, were tacticians enough to work the point for all it was worth. Although the decision of the commission in favor of Perrysburg was made in May, 1822, there does not appear to have been any haste in the removal. The first meeting of the county commissioners in Perrysburg, as shown by their Journal, was held on the third of March following, nearly ten months after the decision had been made. The minutes of their proceedings in Maumee, during almost three years, show a light amount of routine work. They had constructed a log jail, and taken some steps looking to the establishment of roads. Their record for the entire time covers only about twenty pages, and the auditor, Ambrose Rice, received $29.75 for his services in the year ending March 4, 1822. Thomas W. Powell, then prosecuting attorney, was appointed auditor for the year 1823, and filled both offices, getting an allowance of thirty dollars for his services as auditor, which was twenty-five cents more than Rice got. RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE