Crawford County, Ohio - Chapter 4: Settlement of the County, 1912 (part 1 of 2)

Crawford County Organized - Previous Ownership - Indian Reservations - Formation of Wayne County - Delaware and Known Counties Formed - Richland County Organized - Boundaries of Crawford County in 1820 - The J^yandot Reservation Purchased - Indian Villages in Crawford County - Army Routes - Early Roads - The Sandusky Plains - Passage of Crooks' Army - Ludlow's Survey - Bad Lands - Abandoned Cabins - Crawford County in its Crude State - The "Old Purchase" - The Westward Movement - Inhabitants of the County Prior to 18 15 - Jedediah Moorehead - John Pettigon, the First Land Owner - William Green, the First Permanent Settler - Other Early Settlers in the Various Townships - A Fatal Accident - Early Distilleries - Indian Treaty of 181I - The Land Secured by it - Supplementary Treaty - Ihe New Land Surveyed and Settled - Where the Pioneers Came From - Their Real and Personal Estate - Log Cabins and How They Were Built - Accidents - Furniture - Provisions - Baking - Water Supply - Log Rolling - Clothing - Crops and Harvesting - Grist Mills - Honey and Bee-Hunting - Cranberries - Scarcity of Money - Price of Various Products - Blazed Trails - Neighbors' Visits - Pioneer Hospitality - Mails - The Traveling Minister - Family Services - Medical Resources and Early Doctors - Pioneer Pastimes - Funerals - Improvements - The County Erected and Named - Population in 1820 - -List of Settlers.

On Feb. 12, 1820, the Legislature of the State of Ohio passed an act erecting the County of Crawford, and on Jan. 31, 1826, another act was passed, authorizing the citizens of the county to elect their officers and Crawford became one of the counties in the great State of Ohio.

Prior to this the territory comprising Crawford county had been under various controls. The first civilized owner was Spain, when it became Spanish territory in 1492, by the discovery of Columbus, and the claims of Ferdinand and Isabella, approved by Pope Alexander VI., which made all newly-discovered territory, west of the Atlantic, Spanish possessions.

In 1497, and subsequent years, the Cabots, John and Sebastian, especially the latter, explored the Atlantic coast from Canada to Florida, and by virtue of 'their discoveries England claimed the entire country north of Florida from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Later England made grants of lands to colonization companies, and what is now Crawford county, under one of these grants, came under the jurisdiction of Virginia. The present northern boundary of Crawford was the north line of Virginia territory. From this line north to the Lake belonged to Connecticut, also supposed to extend through to the Pacific ocean.

try west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio river. France explored it and fortified it, erected trading posts and made settlements,' claimed it by the right of discovery and had control of it. England, however, still claimed it by reason of the Cabots' coast discoveries, and the further claim that in several treaties with the Iroquois Nation, the last in 1744, they had purchased of that Indian nation the entire territory from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi, north of the Ohio river. As a result of these conflicting claims, in 1755 the Seven Years War started between England and France. The French were defeated, and in 1763, by force of arms, the land became English, and Crawford county was Virginia territory.

In 1774 England made all the land, from the Ohio to the Lakes and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, Royal Domain and a part of the Province of Quebec, so Crawford county's headquarters was now Canada.

In 1776 the War of the Revolution started, and again by the force of arms the ownership changed, and by the final treaty signed in Paris, Sept. 3, 1783, Crawford became a part of the new Nation.

By the Indian treaties of Jan. 27, 1785, and Jan. 9, 1789, all of Ohio west of the Cuyahoga river, and about the northern half of the State west of that river, including nearly all of northern Indiana and all of eastern Michigan was reserved to the Indians, and this vast territory was designated as Wayne county, with headquarters at Detroit.

On July 4, 1805, another treaty was made with the Indians extending the eastern boundary of the Indian reservation fifty miles further to the west. This placed the boundary line of the reservation in Crawford county. The eastern line of the reservation being the present eastern line of Liberty and Whetstone townships. The seven eastern miles of the present county were now open to settlement, and of this territory the four eastern miles were a part of Fairfield county, and the balance a part of Franklin county. In 1808 Delaware and Knox counties were created, and the eastern part of the county was Knox and the western part Delaware.

Sept. 20, 1817, a treaty was made with the Wyandots, together with a supplemental treaty on Sept. 17, 1818, by which all of northwestern Ohio was purchased from the Indians, their only reservation being a few tracts, the largest twelve by eighteen miles in size in what is now Crawford and Wyandot counties. This newly opened section for three years remained a part of Delaware county.

By an act of the Legislature of Feb. 12, 1820, Crawford county was formed, consisting of a tract of land, commencing at the present western boundary of Auburn and Vernon townships, and extending west thirty-three miles, including all of the present Wyandot county except an irregular strip of about four miles on its western border. The northern boundary was the same as today. The southern boundary was two miles north of the present southern line of the county. For judicial purposes the new county was placed under the care of Delaware. Dec. 15, 1823, Marion county was organized, and Crawford came under its judicial jurisdiction, and for the convenience of settlers in the northern portion, all land north of the Indian reservation, including one tier of townships east and west, was placed for judicial purposes under the care of Seneca county. The Seneca county portion was practically Texas, Lykins, and the western portion of Chatfield.

In 1835, six miles of the eastern portion of the Wyandot reservation was purchased from the Indians, and a few years later all of the present Crawford county was open to settlement. On March 7, 1842, the balance of the Wyandot reservation was purchased, and the last foot of soil in Ohio owned by the Indians passed from their possession.

The organization of Wyandot county on Feb. 3, 1845, changed Crawford county to its present borders. Crawford lost to Wyandot on the west a strip of land eighteen miles square ; from Richland on the east was added a strip four miles wide and eighteen deep. From Marion on the south a strip was added twenty miles long and two wide, making the

Previous to the war of 18 12 there was no settler in Crawford county. Prior to that time the Indians had villages and camps in various parts of the county. An Indian village had once been located in the northwestern part of Auburn township, just east of what is now North Auburn station. Another village was that of the Delawares, half a mile northeast of the present site of Leesville. Another was a Wyandot village on the bank of the Whetstone in what is now the corporate limits of Gallon. There may have been a village four miles west of Bucyrus on the Grass Run, If it was not a village it was used so frequently as a camp as to leave many of the signs which mark the sites of Indian villages. The same is true of a site on the Sandusky south of the Mt. Zion church, and another point on the Sandusky a mile above the present village of Wyandot. Early settlers found land cleared at these places which had been used for the raising of corn; there were also a few fruit trees, but the clearing being not over an acre they may have been only annual camps. Some writers hold it was on the Sandusky river at one of these points where the Moravian Indians spent the winter of 1 78 1, when they were forced to leave their home on the Tuscarawas, and were brought as prisoners by the British and Wyandots to Crawford county. The Indians had camps all over the county, one which they used during the maple sugar season was on what is now the public square at Bucyrus ; others were along the banks of the rivers and bordering the plains used during their hunts; in Chatfield and Cranberry and northern Auburn and southern Holmes were those used during the cranberry season. Many an early settler on his first arrival made use of these little shelters which had been erected by the Indians.

During the War of 181 2 troops passed through what is now Crawford county; the eastern division of the army had its headquarters at Upper Sandusky; a fort was built there, called Fort Ferree,, and it was here the bulk of the stores for the entire army operating on the Maumee was assembled, most of these stores being brought north from Franklinton (Columbus), and entered the original Crawford county several miles west of the present western boundary of the county, at Little Sandusky. But one or more roads had been cut through the forest from the eastern to the western part of Crawford county for the transportation of troops and supplies from the east to the Upper Sandusky headquarters. In 1805 the seven eastern miles of the present Crawford had been purchased from the Indians, and in 1807 this portion of the county was surveyed. A map published in 181 5 gives a road that goes west along the present boundary line between Vernon and Jackson townships; at the southwest corner of Vernon it bears to the north one mile in three, leaving Sandusky township one mile north of its southern boundary; it is then marked through the unsurveyed Indian reservation as an air-line to Upper Sandusky, which would pass along the present north corporation line of Bucyrus in Holmes township, and leave the present county about a mile south of Oceola. Another of these military roads entered the county at where Crestline now is; bore to the SQUthwest, practically along the line of the present Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati road, passed through Gallon north of the Whetstone,* and followed about the line of the present Gallon road to Bucyrus, keeping to the high ground north of that road; crossing the Sandusky at Bucyrus, and getting to the high ground north of the present Pennsylvania road, going west to Upper Sandusky. This road is not given on the map printed in 181 5, but that a military road existed somewhere along this route can hardly be questioned. H. W. McDonald, in his thorough survey of the county forty years ago, traced it plainly through Jackson and Polk townships. In 1821 James Nail was living two miles north of Gallon, and he wanted to find the place where the Indians gathered their cranberries, so he started on a searching expedition with two of his neighbors. He says : "We took horses and horsefeed and went southwest until we struck the Pennsylvania Army Road, which we could easily distinguish." After following that road several miles, he thought they were not "get- ting far enough north," therefore "we turned further north," and crossed the Sandusky at McMochael's, whose land was then about two miles up the river from Bucyrus. The language of Nail plainly shows that when they struck the Army road they followed it in a northwesterly direction, but not far enough north to suit them so they turned further north. Added to this, Seth Holmes, who came with the Nortons in 1819, was a captain of teamsters in the army in 1812, and always insisted that on the march to Upper Sandusky he camped one night on the banks of the Sandusky, the camping point being near where the Pennsylvania railroad now crosses East Mansfield street.

The celebrated Sandusky Plains in this county extended from the eastern part of Whetstone township west to the Sandusky river, the Pennsylvania railroad being about the northern boundary. Outside of this section the county was practically all forest, where trees would have to be cut to make a road. During the War of 1812 the entire militia of the state, nearly twelve thousand in number, were assembled at Upper Sandusky ; many regular troops were also massed there, and there can be no question many of these passed through Crawford county, probably nearly all them on horseback, marching light without camp equippage, and followed the Indian trails, and their passage gave rise to the traditions handed down of several of Gen. Harrison's Military roads in Crawford county.

The army that passed through Crawford -county was Pennsylvania troops under Gen. Crooks. They arrived at Mansfield a little after the middle of October, where they stopped several weeks for rest and to await their supplies. About Dec. loth Gen. Crooks received orders from Gen. Harrison to proceed to Upper Sandusky. At that time reports from the train showed it would reach Mansfield in a day or two, and on Dec. 12th, Col. Anderson arrived with the stores. He reports : "On the 12th we reached the village of Mansfield, where we found two blockhouses, a tavern and two stores." The army train of which Col. Anderson had charge consisted of 25 cannon, mostly four and six pounders, each of these drawn by six horses; then there were the twenty-five cannon carriages each requiring four horses; fifty covered wagons containing the stores, with six horses to each ; the ammunition was in large covered wagons, each with six horses ; one large covered wagon drawn by six horses contained iron-bound kegs filled with coin for the payment of the troops. After remaining in Mansfield two or three days to rest the teams they started for Upper Sandusky about Dec. 15. Each teamster was armed with a gun in case of an attack by the Indians. The army train had reached but a short distance from Mansfield when a heavy snow fell, and the ground was covered to a depth of two feet. The ground had not yet frozen for the winter, and the heavy wagons and ordnance cut into the soft earth, and frequent stoppages had to be made to extricate some wagon that had become stalled. At night, after a toilsome day's journey, the snow had to be cleared away to secure a camping place; they had no tents, and trees were cut down and large fires burned all night to keep them from freezing. This toilsome journey of about 43 miles from Mansfield to Upper Sandusky, through Crawford county, took them about two weeks and they reached Upper Sandusky on New Year's Day, 1 81 3. But the first road through Crawford county had been made.

What this army road was like is best shown from a letter written by one of the Pennsylvania troopers to a friend at Pittsburg, when he continued his march from Upper Sandusky to the Maumee, in March, 1813: "Early the next morning at two o'clock our tents were struck, and in half an hour we were on our way. I will candidly confess that on that day I regretted being a soldier. We walked thirty miles in an incessant rain. For eight miles of the thirty the water was over our knees and often up to the middle. The Black Swamp, four miles from the Portage river, and four miles in extent, would have been considered impassable by any man not determined to surmount every obstacle. The water on the ice was about six inches deep. The ice was very rotten, often breaking through, where the water was four or five feet deep. That night we encamped on the best ground we could find, but it was very wet. It was next to impossible to kindle fires. We had no tents, no axes ; our clothes were perfectly soaked through, and we had but little to eat. Two logs rolled together to keep me out of the water was my bed." This was Gen. Harrison's military road, over which he had to transport all his troops and supplies from the eastern division of his army. If the Pennsylvania trooper had left Upper Sandusky on his homeward journey, and passed on his way east through the plains of southern Crawford, the description in March, 1 813, would have been exactly the same.

It was in 1807 that Maxwell Ludlow surveyed the eastern seven miles of the present Crawford county. He passed over what is now the rich farming lands of southern Vernon, and in his surveyor's notes says : ' "This mile is low land; the swamp is bad and no water; am very thirsty; had but one drink in 48 hours." Surveying the line between Vernon and Auburn townships he writes : "I have traveled the woods for seven years, but never saw so hedious a place as this." The land was so awful that the surveyor abandoned the proper spelling of the descriptive word in expressing his disgust. In northwest Auburn, between sections 3 and 4, just west of Coykendall's run, he writes: "Second rate lane, except the prairie, 20 inches deep in water." In Polk township, he fared some better. He writes : "Level. Good meadow ground. Some swamps. Many crab apples. Hickory, sugar, beech and swamp oak." Ludlow's territory stopped before the Plains were reached. And it was not until 1817 the western part of the county was opened to settlement, and it was surveyed by Sylvester Bourne in 1819. Here, on the Plains, in southern Holmes, and in the cranberry region of Chatfield and Cranberry he had difficulty in setting his stakes, and in some cases had to use a log or boat.

The Plains were so unhealthy from the disease that lurked in the swampy ground that many an early settler abandoned his claim in disgust, leaving behind an empty cabin and a few unmarked graves of those of his family who died before he could leave the unhealthy spot. When Abraham Monnett reached Crawford in 1835, he states that on the Plains he could count at least 40 abandoned cabins of settlers who had given up the hopeless fight. It was irnpossible to get pure water in this region. Bourne says in his notes : "Nearly all the water I get by digging in the prairie is strongly impregnated with copperas; so much so as to be very disagreeable to the taste." Along the river he writes : "There are many springs along the banks of the Sandusky river, below the high water mark, impregnated with sulphur, some with iron, and some with copperas, and some with all of these." When Nail made his trip in 1821, across northern Whetstone nearly to Bucyrus, and then north to the Cranberry marsh, he summed it up : "As long as we followed the army road the weeds were as high as the horses' heads, and from there the country was heavily timbered. We concluded this country would never be settled."

This was Crawford county in its crude state, just as nature had formed it, and before the hand of civilization had touched it. This was the land to which the early pioneers came, the wilderness which they transformed into the cultivated farms of today, with the rich fields of waving grain on every hand, and hundreds of miles of pikes to take the place of that solitary army road which wound its way through the swamps and forests of the virgin soil.

In 1809 Huron county was organized, which bordered on the seven eastern miles of Crawford's present northern boundary. In 1813 Richland county was organized, and included in that county was all of the present Auburn, Vernon, Jackson, the two eastern miles of Jefferson and the four eastern miles of Polk.

All of Huron and Richland counties had become open for settlement by the treaty of July 4, 1805, and settlers began taking up land in those counties. But settlement was partly stopped by the breaking out of the war of 1812. After peace was declared in 181 5 the westward movement again commenced, and from Huron and from Richland the settlers drifted over into what later became known as the "Old Purchase," of which the seven eastern miles of Crawford were a part.

Prior to 181 5 there had been whites residing in this section. Not bona fide settlers, but hunters and trappers, who with the Indians wandered all over the region, erecting their small cabins, and making their living from the skins and furs they gathered during the season. Many of these were men whose business was hunting and trapping. There were others who for some offense had fled from civiliza- tion to find safety beyond the reach of all law. These were little better than desperadoes, and this class were the men who in the earlier days by their treatment of the Indians, stealing their horses, robbing their traps, and even shooting them without provocation, engendered much of the bitterness which later caused the savages to fall with barbarous cruelties on the innocent and harmless settler. Around the Plains were the bee-hunters, who in the summer season 'traced the bees to their hiding places, marked the trees, and in the Fall gathered the honey. These were the first white residents of Crawford, and as the real pioneer came they went farther into the wilderness.

One of these hunters and trappers who built a home for hiiriself and family in Auburn township, this county, was Jedediah Morehead ; he was what was known as a "squatter," owning no land, but "squatting" wherever it was most convenient for his hunting. He was the first white man to build a real cabin for himself in the county. He came with his wife and a large family of children, and built his primitive cabin on a narrow neck of land in Auburn township on the Honey Creek, convenient to the marshes, where he trapped the beaver and the otter, the most valuable furs in those days, the skins of these animals having a market value of $5 to $8, the otter having the higher value. His cabin was of brush, bark, and small logs, and some of the old settlers of half a century ago were of the opinion he came there during the War of 1812; he was certainly there in 181 5, and probably in 1814, and his cabin, crude though it was, is reported as being the first cabin erected in the county. His business was exclusively hunting and trapping; he was on friendly terms with the Indians, and was sometimes absent for weeks at a time on his hunting expeditions, returning loaded with skins. He is also reported as having a cabin and living a part of the time in northern Vernon. He cleared no land, and when the real pioneer came he moved farther west with his family, but the site of his first cabin in Crawford county is still known as Morehead's Point.

John Pettigon was a soldier in the War of 1812, and during the latter part of the war he purchased a small tract of land in the southern portion of Auburn township ; on this he built a small cabin in 181 4, and moved into it with his wife and family. He was the first land owner in the county, but he devoted his time to hunting and trapping. Like Morehead the support of his family was his rifle, the sale of furs procuring what necessaries of life the forest would not furnish. He carried his furs on his back to Huron on Lake Erie, exchanging them for ammunition, salt and flour. He also had a cabin in northern Vernon, to be more convenient for deer. On what is known as the Cummins farm, in Vernon, was a deer lick, and here it was easy to secrete himself and kill the deer as they came to drink. His principal associates were the Indian hunters, and as the settlers began entering land in his section, he, too, left for the more unsettled western regions.

In 1 81 5 the first real pioneer arrived in what is now Crawford county. It was William Green. He came from Massachusetts, and entered 160 acres of land in the southeastern part of Auburn township, section 27. He built his log cabin in the woods in the fall of 181 5. Then he returned to Licking county, where he had left his wife and children with relatives or friends until he could prepare a home for them. He spent the winter in Licking county, and in the spring of 1816 came with his wife and family to their new home and commenced the work immediately of clearing the land and in the fall of that year gathered his first crop. His descendants are sjill residents of Auburn township.

.A man named Deardorff entered a quarter section in Auburn in 181 5, on which he lived for several years and then sold out and moved away. About this time came Jacob Coykendall, settling in section 1 5 on a small stream in the eastern part of the township, which gave the stream the name of Coykendall Run. He became active in the affairs of the township, and early built a saw and grist mill on the little stream.

William Cole came in 181 7, and remained a resident of the township until his death, leaving a large family of descendants, many still living in that section. Charles Morrow settled in Auburn the same year, but after remaining a few years he left.

the Bodleys - Levi, Lester, Jesse and John. Probably about the same time Henry Reif settled in the township, but no record can be discovered as to the date.

In 1819 Adam Aumend arrived with his wife and daughter, both named Mary. He was a shoemaker by trade, and was the first shoemaker to work at his trade in the county, and after his day's work was done, in the evening and on rainy days he made shoes for his family and the neighbors. His land was 320 acres, which he purchased of Henry Reif at $2.50 per acre. It was in the northwestern part of the township. One of his sons, Adam, who came with him was a young man of age. Samuel Hanna came in 1819, and remained a resident of the township until his death, and the original land is still in the possession of his descendants.

Resolved White and his wife Lucy came in 1819. He was a lineal descendant of Peregrine White, the first Pilgrim child born in America. He was born on the Mayflower while it was lying at anchor off Plymouth Rock. In an old New England Bible is the following record of this first birth: "Sonne born to Susanna Whie (White) Dec. 19, 1620, yt six o'clock morning. Next day we meet for prayer and thanksgiving." The record would seem to indicate that in those days the father was not of sufficient importance to receive mention. His name was William White. Resolved White bought 160 acres of land of William Laugherty in section 29, a mile north of the present village of Tiro. It is still owned by his descendants.

In 1816 Aaron B. Howe came, one of the active men in the affairs of the township. He settled on section 16, and the second election in the township was held at his cabin in 1822.

In 1820 Rodolphus Morse came with his wife Huldah, and son Amos, an infant one year old. He purchased 160 acres of land in section 29 of William Laugherty at $3.75 per acre. Morse immediately took an active hand in township affairs, and in 1824 secured the establishment of a post office, which was called both Tiro and Auburn, and he was appointed Postmaster by President Monroe. The office was in his log cabin two miles north of the present village of Tiro, where it remained for many years.

were settlers prior to 1820. The Hulses were brothers, and probably lived in the eastern part of the township, in what is today Richland county. They were active in the early affairs of the new township, gave it its name and the first election of township officers was held at the cabin of Palmer Hulse, on April 12, 1821.

Other early settlers were the Sniders and Kelloggs, as on Dec. 9, 1822, the first known wedding took place in the township when Sallie Snider was married to Erastiis Kellogg.

In Vernon township the first early settlers were the two hunters, Jedediah Morehead and John Pettigon, both of whom built cabins in the northern part of the township and lived there with their families, but clearing no land ; hunting and trapping their sole occupation, and on the arrival of early settlers they took their departure.

The first real pioneer in Vernon was George Byers, who built his cabin on or near the present site of the village of West Liberty in 181 7 or 1818. He was more of a hunter than pioneer. He trapped bears, wolves and foxes ; in one winter he secured a hundred mink, besides many coons, a number of beaver and a few otter, the swampy regions in Vernon making it a home for these fur bearing animals, although, like bears, they were not very plentiful. He did some farming, as in 1820 he had several acres cleared, and as his occupation was chiefly hunting the size of the clearing indicates he had been there two or three years at that time. Andrew Dixon and David Anderson are both reported as settling in Vernon in 1819. Both of these men became prominent in the affairs of the township, and many of the descendants of the Dixons are still in the township.

In what is. now Jackson township the first settler was Joseph Russell, who entered land about a mile south of the present town of Crestline, and built his cabin there in 1820. His entire tract was a dense forest, and his first work was to clear the land for farming purposes. Soon after he settled there another pioneer arrived in John Doyle, who entered a tract near him. Early pioneers mention two other families of whose names there is no record. Of one of these is handed down by the descendants of Christian Snyder, who settled in Jefferson township in 181 7, the first fatal ac- cident among the pioneers. In the clearing oi the forest the first work of the pioneer was to fell the trees and cut them into logs; then the neighbors came willingly from miles around; the logs were rolled to one or more points in the clearing, piled into great heaps, and set on fire. The pioneer had cleared his ground, the neighbors had responded, and the fire started. The man himself was keeping watch to see that the logs were properly burned, - "mending up" it was called. The clearing was some distance from his cabin, and the wife, finishing her evening work, had gone to bed. In those days, a trail after game, a visit to some neighbor several miles distant, might take a man away from home for several hours, so there was no anxiety on the part of the wife when the husband was absent for a few hours. The next morning her husband not having arrived she started in search of him, and found that in attempting to keep the logs in position on the burning pile, one long heavy log had fallen, pinned him to the earth, and he was burned to death.

The first settler in the present township of JefiFerson was Jacob Fisher, who came in 1816, settling on land he had entered, just south of the gravel bank of the Pennsylvania road. He bought the land for $1.25 per acre, and arrived in a two-horse wagon with his wife and eight children. His cabin was of unhewn logs, the usual crude structure, about 18 or 20 feet in length. He lived there until i86o,^when he sold out and moved to the newer country of Missouri.

Westall Ridgley came to the township in 1816 or 1817. He came in a wagon with his wife and eight children, four sons and four daughters, some grown. He was well-to-do for those days and brought cattle and hogs with him and many useful articles for the household. He built a large cabin and was one of the prominent men in the early affairs of the county. His sons had no love for farming, and spent their time in the woods on hunting expeditions with the Indians, but they brought in the game for the support of the family. The girls were true pioneers, and were of much assistance in the house, and at times in the work of the farm in the busy season. The forr daughters made the Ridgley

Christian Snyder came in 181 7, settling on section 17, purchasing 160 acres of Jacob Fisher at $3 per acre, some of the land Fisher had entered the year previous at $1.25. The family consisted of himself, wife and eleven children. They drove through from Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in a twohorse wagon, and from Mansfield he came ahead on foot to erect a cabin prior to their arrival. The old road from Mansfield started northwest from that place and after a few miles turned southwest, following almost the present Pennsylvania road from Mansfield to Crestline. When the family came to follow they took an old trail directly west from Mansfield, which for a time was passable for their wagon, but later became only a trail through the forest, so they were obliged to make a way for themselves through the woods, cutting down the small trees, and their trip from Mansfield to their new home north of Gabon, took them nearly a month, and about a mile east of their destination they crossed the old army road they should have taken. However, the family were in plenty of time, as Snyder had experienced some delay in getting to his land, and the only part of the cabin built on their arrival was the foundation on which a rude floor had been laid, but on this floor, in the open air, they spent their first night, and awoke in the morning to find that a snow-storm had given them an additional covering of six inches. The arrival of the new settlers was soon known, and the neighbors responded, and the cabin was erected, and even the Indians made friendly calls and left venison and game for the newcomers.

In 1 81 8 John Adrian settled west of the Snyders on section 13, the first Frenchman to make his home in the county. He did very little in the way of clearing his land, but started a distillery instead, the first in the county. He was a man of tremendous strength and it is reported of him that he could pick up a barrel and take his drink from the bunghole. It is probable that the frequency with which he performed this feat for the astonishment of his neighbors, was the reason he became his own best customer, and his distillery became, unprofitable and was discontinued. Besides whisky was then only seven dollars a barrel. Since that first distillery, whisky in this county has gone up very largely in price and gone down very largely in quantity.

About 1818 Lewis Leiberger settled about two miles north of Gallon, and was joined in 181 9 by James Nail, who entered 160 acres of Government land at $1.25 per acre adjoining Leiberger's tract and made his home with the latter until the fall of 1821, when he married a daughter of William Brown, a sister of Mrs. Leiberger, walking to Delaware to get his license.

Other settlers in Jefferson prior to 1820 were Thomas Ferguson, J. S. Griswell, and Peter Beebout, all settling on the high ground near the Sandusky river.

1817, the latter part of their journey cutting their way through the woods. Benjamin Leveridge built his cabin on what is now Atwood street, near the springs ; James built his on the ground which for so many years was the residence of David Mackey; Nathaniel built his on what is now the Public Square. His father and brother had water in abundance from the springs in their neighborhood, but on the high ground Nathaniel, had no water, and dug a well, and traces of this old well were found when the Square was improved in 1880.

1 818, and settled north of the Whetstone, near the military road of 1812. They were brothers-in-law and came from Pennsylvania. Wood was a carpenter and Gill had a much better education than the average pioneer, and later taught school and became the clerical official for the township.

Benjamin Sharrock came in 1818, and built himself a temporary cabin in the western part of the city of Galion near where the Portland road crosses the Bucyrus and Galion road. Here his family lived while he walked every day to his land a few miles south, where on the banks of the Whetstone he built his cabin, to which he removed with his family, later building a saw and grist mill and a distillery.

On Saturday, Dec. 19, 18 19, on foot, with his axe and his rifle over his shoulder, Asa Hosford walked into what is now the city of Galion, of which city, although not the founder, he became the father. He was accompanied by his brother Horace, and they stopped with Benjamin Leveridge. Horace Hosford erected a blacksmith shop at where is now the crossing of the Portland and Galion road. Asa Hosford later built a saw and grist mill on the Whetstone, southwest of Galion, still known as Hosford's mill.

Samuel Brown and his son Michael came in 1819, settling on section 27, now the Beltz farm three miles west of Gralion. One of his daughters married Lewis Leiberger and another James Nail.

In 1818 Nehemiah Story came with his family; his son Nathaniel was of age, and with them was Father Kitteridge. The first winter they occupied a cabin belonging to John Leveridge, southwest of the Public Square, and the next Spring Nathaniel's home was west of Galion on the brow of the hill on the north side of the Galion road, which had been occupied by a man named Sturges. Father Kitteridge made his home with Story, and devoted all his time to hunting. Other arrivals about this time were J. Dickerson, whose cabin stood on what is now the Gill property on West. Main street. David Reid and a man named Fletcher were also there.

In 1819 Disberry Johnson came to Polk township, numerically the "star" pioneer of the county. He came to Ohio after the war of 1812, settling in Harrison county. His wife died leaving him a widower with six children. He married a Mrs Cooper, a widow with six children. By this marriage there was six children, and Johnson decided to move to a new home. One of his daughters was married, so he started with his wife and his five original children, the six Cooper children, and the six Johnson-Cooper children, nineteen in all and' they settled on section 26, just east of William Brown. Johnson was prominent in the township, was Justice of the Peace for many years, and died in 1868 at the advanced age of 104, leaving many descendants all over the county.

In 1819 Samuel Knisely settled in Sandusky township, and since that date the Kniselys have been prominent in the county, a descendant, Richard Knisely, being president of the Crawford County Pioneer Association for years. James Gwell is reported as settling in Sandusky in 1819 and a man named Elder in 1820. Samuel Shull settled in Sandusky township in 1820.

No record is found of any pioneer in Cranberry township prior to 1820; many hunters had been all over this region, notably Morehead and Pettigon, living in huts of bark and brush, but the tide of immigration had ignored it, and it was still a swampy, virgin soil, the home of the rattlesnake and the beaver, and the hiding place for wild game, with its only product an annual harvest of cranberries.

The eastern portion of the present county had been purchased from the Indians in 1805, surveyed in 1807, but owing to the Indians and the War of 1812 the taking up of this land was delayed, but from 181 5 on these lands became settled, and the pioneers in their westward march cast their greedy eyes on the hunting grounds reserved to the Indians just beyond, which included all of Northwestern Ohio, in this county that reservation being two miles in Cranberry, and all of Liberty and Whetstone; Lykins, Holmes and Bucyrus, Texas, Tod and Dallas.

In 1 81 7 Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur, met with the sachems, chiefs and warriors of the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawanese, Pottawatomie, Ottawa and Chippewa tribes, at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee, and on Sept. 20. 181 7, a treaty was signed by which the United States secured all this land, all of northwestern Ohio, barring a few reservations. The sections of the treaty relating to Crawford were as follows :

Article II. - The Wyandot tribe of Indians, in consideration of the stipulations herein made, on the part of the United States, do hereby forever cede to the United States, the lands comprehended within the following lines and boundaries: Beginning at a point on the southern shore of Lake Erie, where the present Indian boundary line intersects the same, between the mouth of Sandusky Bay and the Portage rfver, thence running south* with said line to the

*The line passing through Crawford was the present dividing line between Sandusky, Jefferson and Polk on the east and Liberty and Whetstone on the west. In Cranberry the line ran about one and a half miles east of the present western boundary of that township.

line establishedt in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five by the treaty of Greenville which runs from the crossing place above Ft. Laurenst to Loromie's store; II thence westerly with the last mentioned line to the eastern line of the reserve at Loromie's store; thence with the line of said reserve north and west to the northwest corner thereof; thence to the northwestern corner of the reserve on the river St. Mary's at the navigable head thereof; thence east to the western bank of the St. Marys river aforesaid; thence down the western bank of said river to the reserve at Ft. Wayne; thence with the line of the last mentioned reserve, easterly and northerly, to the river Miami* of Lake Erie; thence down on the north bank of said river to the western line of the land ceded to the United States by the treaty of Detroit, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seven; thence with the said line south to the middle of said Maumee river, and easterly with the line of the tract ceded to the United States by the treaty of Detroit aforesaid, so far that a south line will strike the place of beginning.

Article III. - The Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawanese, Pottawatomie, Ottawa and Chippewa tribes of Indians accede to the cession mentioned.

Article VI. - The United States agree to grant by patent, in fee simple, to Doanquod, Howoner, Rontondee, Tauyau, Rontayau, Dawatont Manocue, Tauyaudautauson, and Haudawaugh, chiefs of the Wyandot tribes, and their successors in office, chiefs of the said tribes, for the use of the persons, and for the purposes mentioned in the annexed schedule, a tract of land twelve miles square, at Upper Sandusky, the center of which shall be the place where Fort Ferree stands; and also a tract of one mile square, to be located where the chiefs direct, on a cranberry swamp on Brokensword creek, and to be held for the use of the tribe.

Article VII. - And the said chiefs, or their successors may, at any time they may think proper, convey to either of the persons mentioned in said schedule, or his heirs, the quantity thereby secured to him, or may refuse to do so. But the use of the said land shall be in the said person; and after the share of any person is conveyed by the chiefs to him, he may convey the same to any person whatever. And any one entitled by the said schedule to a portion of the said land, may, at any time, convey the same to any person, by obtaining the approbation of the president of the United States, or of the person appointed by him to give such approbation. And the agent of the United States shall make an equitable partition of the said shares when conveyed.

Article VIII. - At the special request of the said Indians the United States agree to grant by patent, in fee simple, to the persons hereinafter mentioned, all of whom are connected with the said Indians, by blood or adoption, the tracts of land herein described;

To Elizabeth Whitacre, who was taken prisoner by the Wyandots, and has since lived among them, 1280 acres of land. (This land was near Fremont, Sandusky county.)

To the children of the late William McCollock, who was killed in August, 1812, near Maugaugon, and who are quarter-blood Wyandot Indians, 640 acres. (This land is now a part of Tiffin.)

To John Vanmeter, who was taken prisoner by the Wyandots, and who has since lived among them, and has married a Seneca woman, and to his wife's three brothers, Senecas, 1,000 acres. (This land was on the Honey Creek, Seneca county.)

To Sarah Williams, Joseph Williams and Rachel Nugent, lat^ Rachel Williams, the said Sarah having been taken prisoner by the Indians, and has ever since lived among them, and being the widow, and the said Joseph and Rachel being the children, of the late Isaac Williams, a half-blood Wyandot, 160 acres. (This land was on the Sandusky, below Fremont.)

To Catharine Walker, a Wyandol woman, and to John R. Walker, her son, who was wounded m the service of the United States, at the battle of Maugaugon, in 1812, 640 acres of land each. (This land -jras on the Honey Creek, near Tiffin.)

To William Spicer, who was taken prisoner by the Indians, and has ever since lived among tlem, and has married a Seneca woman, 640 acres or. the east bank of the Sandusky.

Article XV. - The tracts of land being granted to the chiefs, for the use of the Wyandot, Shawanese, Seneca and Delaware Indians, and the reserve for the Ottawa Indians, shall not be liable to taxes of any kind so long as such land contiftues the property of said Indians.

Article XIX. - The United States agree to grant by patent, in fee simple, to Zeeshawan, or John Armstrong, and to Sanondoyourayquaw, or Silas Armstrong, chiefs of the Delaware Indians, living on the Sandusky waters, and their successors in office, chiefs of the said tribe, a tract of land to contain nine square miles, to join the tract granted to the Wyandots of twelve miles square, and to include Capt. Pipe's village.*

The reservation of twelve miles square was all in what was originally Crawford county. Its eastern boundary was about three-quarters of a mile west of the present western boundary of the county.

By this treaty the United States were to pay the Wyandots a perpetual annuity of $4,000; the Senecas, $500; the Shawanese, $2,000 annually for fifteen years; the Chippewas $1,000 annually for fifteen years ; the Delawares, $500, but no annuity. The Government also agreed to pay for property and other losses sustained by the Indians during the war of 1812-15: to the Wyandots, $4,319.39; Senecas, $3,989.24; Delawares, $3,956.50; Shawanese, $420; and to the Senecas an additional sum of $219; to Indians at Lewis' and Scoutash's towns, $1,- 227.50; to the representatives of Hembis, $348.50. The Shawanese were also to receive $2,500 under the treaty of Fort Industry in 1805. The United States were also to erect a saw and grist mill for the Wyandots, and to provide and maintain two blacksmith shops, one for the Wyandots and Senecas, and the other for the Indians at Hog Creek, t The value of improvements abandoned by the tribes when they left their land was to be paid for. *The land bought by the United States of the Indians was a tract as large as about onethird of the State of Ohio. It proved to be an excellent and, profitable bargain - for the United States. They secured something over ten million acres, which they soon placed on the market at $1.25 per acre and upward.

The reservation of twelve miles square was all in what is now Wyandot county. But a supplemental treaty was made to this original treaty on Sept. 17, 1818, between Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur, the Commissioners for the United States, and the sachems, chiefs and warriors of the Wyandot, Seneca, Shawanese and Ottawa tribes.

When the original treaty was made in 181 7, the Wyandots positively refused to sell their land. Most of the other Indian nations were willing to sell, and promptly set up a claim of ownership to much of the land which belonged to the Wyandots, and agreed to sell the land to the Commissioners. The Wyandots denied these ownerships and called attention to the fact that at all previous treaties these same tribes were at the front with their fraudulent claims, when in reality nearly all the land they had they only occupied through the courtesy of the Wyandots, who were the sole and only owners of the land. The Commissioners preferred buying of the Wyandots, but as they absolutely refused to sell, the Commissioners decided to buy it of the other tribes. It was in vain that Between-the- Logs, the orator of the Wyandots, protested on behalf of his tribe, calling attention to the fact that when their American father was at war with their enemies, the English, the great American chief made his home on the land of the Wyandots during that war ; that the Wyandots were the only tribe that remained loyal to their American father, and in the latter part of that war it was Wyandot braves who fought side by side with their American friends, and at the request of the American father delivered all their prisoners to the great general unharmed. The land had to be had, so the eloquence of Between-the-Logs was useless, and finding their land would certainly be taken, the Wyandots made the best of a bad bargain by signing the treaty, and so came in for a share of the payments.

That winter Between-the-Logs and several other chiefs and warriors of the Wyandot, Seneca and Delaware tribes, took "the long trail" east, and one morning presented themselves before the Secretary of war at Washington. The Secretary was very much surprised at their call, and his first words were a mild rebuke that they had come to Washington without his first having received word from the Commissioners of their intended visit. Between-the-Logs tersely replied : "We got up and came of ourselves. We believed the great road was free to us."

They explained why they had felt compelled to sign the treaty as the only way of protecting a part of their rights ; that the Commissioners had not treated them fairly, and without their knowledge they had come to the "Great Father" for justice. The Secretary looked the matter up and took them before the "Great Father," President Monroe, who listened patiently to Between-the-Log's eloquent plea for justice for his people. It was found a wrong had been done the Wyandots, so instructions were sent to the Commissioners to rectify this wrong, and the supplemental treaty was made at St. Mary's, on Sept. 17, 1818. Article two of the supplemental treaty says :

"It is also agreed there shall be reserved for the use of the Wyandots, in addition to the reservation before made, fifty-five thousand six hundred and eighty acres of land to be laid off in two tracts, the first to adjoin the south line of the section of 640 acres of land heretofore reserved for the Wyandot chief, "Cherokee Boy," and to extend south to the north line of the reserve of twelve miles square at Upper Sandusky, and the other to join the east line of the' reserve of twelve miles square at Upper Sandusky, and to extend east for quantity."

present town of Carey and extending into Seneca county, a tract five miles square; also 160 acres in Sandusky county. The Wyandots were also to receive an additional annuity of $500; the Shawanese $1,000; the Senecas $500, and the Ottawas $1,500.

Of the 55,680 acres, 2,240 was in the grant south of that given to Cherokee Boy. The balance was attached to the twelve mile square reservation on the east. This tract entered the present Crawford county just north of the half section line of section 35 in Dallas township, continued east through sections 31 and

32 in Bucyrus township and nearly to the centre of section 33 (the south line was a little over half a mile north of the. southern boundary of Bucyrus township) ; it then went north twelve miles through sections 28, 21, 16, 9 and 4 Bucyrus township, a trifle over two miles west of the present western line of the city of Bucyrus; through sections 33, 28, 21, 16, 9 and 4 Holmes township, three quarters of a mile west of Brokensword ; continued north a trifle over three quarters of a mile in section

33 Lykins ; then west through sections 32 and 31 Lykins and 36 and 35 Texas, about three quarters of a mile south of Benton. This reserved to the Indians about the western two and a half miles of Bucyrus and Holmes, the northern two miles of western Dallas, the southern half mile of Lykins and Texas, and all of Tod, barring it to settlement, except that with the consent of the Government the Indians could sell the land.

The treaty of September, 181 7, with the supplementary treaty of a year later opened to settlement all of northwestern Ohio, except that reserved to the Indians, about 225 square miles. In 18 19 it was surveyed by Sylvester Bourne and Samuel Holmes. The new territory was known as the New Purchase, and although there was still plenty of land unoccupied that had been purchased from the Indians in 1805, yet the fact of new land being thrown on the market gave it to the settlers a sort of superior value and a feeling that it was a choicer article. Even before the surveyors had completed their work sufficient to place the land on the market at the land offices, settlers were in the New Purchase looking up land.

was Samuel Norton. With him were his wife and six children; his brother-in-law Albigence Bucklin, with a wife, six children and an adopted daughter; and Seth Holmes, their driver and guide. These first pioneers drove through from their home in Eastern Pennsylvania, a distance of about 600 miles, in a large schooner wagon, and arrived in October, 1819, the Nortons locating their home on the banks of the Sandusky, west of the present Sandusky avenue bridge at Bucyrus, land now owned by Christian Shonert; Bucklin and family were also on the banks of the Sandusky between the brewery and the T. & O. C. road. (Up to half a century ago the main channel of the river was at the foot of the bluff back of the brewery.) Seth Holmes made his first headquarters in an abandoned cabin that was standing where is now the court house yard. A family by the name of Sears were the next arrivals, locating just west of Oakwood cemetery; they remained only a short time and removed to parts unknown. Daniel McMichael came in 1 819, and stopped for a time in the eastern part of the county (what is now Polk township), near where Norton and Bucklin also left their families until they could find land that suited them. After Norton had selected his land, McMichael came to the same section and entered land just north of the river; also land in the southwest corner of Liberty township, where he built a mill. In the Spring of 1820 David Beadle came with two sons, Michel and David, and a son-in-law John Ensley, who married Ann Beadle. Michel was married, and had 80 acres on West Mansfield street, just west of Norton, and south of this his father had 80 acres, his son David, a young man of 18, making his home with him.

In 1820 Ralph Bacon settled on the east half of the south east quarter of section 25 in Liberty. township. With him and his family came Auer Umberfield as a teamster.

In 1 819 John Kent settled in Whetstone township, and in 1820 he was followed by Joseph S. Young, Noble McKinstry, Martin Shaffner and a man named Willowby.

In 1820 there were about sixty known families in Crawford county, and counting all the members of those families there must have been between five and six hundred people in what is now Crawford. Heading the list was Disberry Johnson of Polk with a wife and 17 children, while on the section adjoining was Samuel Brown with a wife and several children, so that in 1820 the metropolis of Crawford county was in western Polk. Christian Snyder was in Jefferson township with a wife and eleven children, and in the same township was Westall Ridgley and Jacob Fisher each with a wife and eight children. In Bucyrus was Samuel Norton with a wife and six children, and Albigence Bucklin with a wife and seven children, one an adopted daughter. The "metropolis" (the largest population in one section), only remained in western Polk for about a year when the settlement of Bucyrus transferred it to that place, where it remained until the census of 1870 transferred it to Gallon, where it remained for forty years until the census of 19 10 again transferred it to Bucyrus.

The early pioneers came from New England and Pennsylvania and New York with a few from Virginia. They came in wagons drawn by one horse or a yoke of oxen, sometimes a two horse wagon, always weeks on the trip and sometimes months, and with the exception of a very few all took up their claims in the forest where the land had to be first cleared to give them the ground for the raising of their crops.

Having selected his land the first work of the pioneer was the erection of some shelter for the protection of himself and family. Sometimes the pioneer left his family with friends or relatives in one of the eastern counties, and came on foot with his axe and rifle, erected his little cabin, and returned for his family. ^ The cabins were all of logs, the "lean-to" the most primitive, which was simply a three-sided shelter, built of saplings, and very small logs, sloping to the ground at the rear, with only the two sides and the slop- ing roof, the front being hung with skins as a protection from the wind and rain. These cabins were similar to the hunters' "camps," and in only a very few cases did the early pioneers of Crawford start with so crude a shelter.

The early pioneers brought very little with them except large families; some had practically nothing ; others had a few chickens, a few hogs, sometimes a cow, and some no more stock than the horse or the yoke of oxen that had brought them on their long and toilsome journey in the one wagon. Some came on foot, carrying their little all on their backs.

With the first pioneers in the different sections it was impossible to build a cabin of very large logs. The first arrival selected his site, cut down the smaller trees, and from these made the logs which he could handle alone, and with these logs he built his home, chinked up the cracks with mud, covered it with saplings and brush, and had a place to live. As neighbors came within a radius of several miles the pioneer had an easier task. He selected his site on some dry ground, near a stream or spring that would furnish him with water, a site where most of the trees were of the uniform thickness for the logs he desired; these trees he felled himself, cut them into logs of the proper length, beveling the ends so they might fit as closely together as possible. Everything being in readiness the neighbors came, and the cabin was erected by strong and willing hands, the pioneer adding the roof, and also the door and perhaps a window at his leisure. The general size of these earlier cabins was 14 to 16 feet long, with a heighth of six to eight feet. The ground logs were first placed in position, and on these the additional logs were piled, the beveling and notching of the logs holding them in place at the corners. As the cabin increased in height, these logs, a foot in diameter, had to be lifted into position, which was done by the strong arms of the men, some with hand spikes and skid-poles, and when it came to the gable logs at the ends, each shorter than the one below it, they had to be held in place until the ridge pole and cross pieces were in position. In the erection of the cabin the responsible positions were the corner-men, men with a clear head and a quick eye, expert with the axe, who notched the logs as they were lifted into place. The building of these cabins was not without danger, for sometimes, fortunately seldom, a heavy log slipped from the hand-spikes or the skid-poles, while strong arms beneath were shoving it into position, and an accident occurred, a broken arm or leg of some one caught beneath the heavy log. Sometimes a life lost. Leveridge was killed at a cabin raising where the city of Gallon now stands, and a year or two later, in 1822, Heman Rowse was crushed to death by a falling log at a cabin raising a mile south of Bucyrus.

The cabin erected, the pioneer put on his own roof, made of clap-boards, cut as thin as he could make them with an axe or an adze, and over the cracks a second layer. He chinked and daubed the sides, filling in the cracks between the logs with moss and sticks, plastering it with mud, both inside and outside the cabin. This daubing had to be renewed nearly every year, as the rain softened the mud and washed it away. The chimney was built on the outside, at one end of the cabin. The base of the chimney was generally of irregular stones, plastered with mud, while the upper portion was sticks laid railpen or corn-cob fashion and plastered with mud. Sometimes where stone was scarce, the entire chimney was of sticks plastered with mud. The fire-place was sometimes so large that logs six to seven feet in length could be burned in it, the "back log" being so heavy it had to be towefl or snaked into the cabin by a horse, and it took strong arms to roll it into position, where it would burn for a week. There was an advantage to the pioneer to keep a roaring fire, as all the wood he burned meant so much more of his land cleared.

The door was a crude structure, the logs being cut away in the front of the house, and the door made of lumber roughly split from the logs with bars across to hold it together, and hung with wooden or leather hinges. A wooden bolt was inside the cabin, which fitted into a groove, and this bolt could be raised from the outside by means of a latch-string of deer hide, which- ran through a little hole above the bolt, and hung outside, hence the expression, "the latch string is always out." All that was necessary to lock up the house was to draw the string inside, but this was seldom done even at night. After his cabin was erected the pioneer took his time to building his door, and until this was done, the opening was covered with skins to keep out the wind and rain, and a large fire kept burning on the outside at night to keep away the wild animals that were prowling through the forest. If a window was added a small section of the logs was cut away, the same as for the door, and the opening was covered with greased paper or the thin skin of some animal, glass was too expensive, besides there was none to be had in the early days in the wilderness.

In fact nearly every one of the earlier cabins was completed and occupied for years with not a nail or a screw or a piece of metal used in its construction; everything of wood and leather, and that leather the skin of some animal of the forest.

Some cabins had the bare ground for a floor ; others had a puncheon floor, boards split from logs and smoothed as well as the work could be done with an axe. If a small article slipped through the cracks all that was necessary was to raise one of the puncheons and recover the missing article. If the cabin was of sufificient height, it boasted of a loft, puncheon boards being laid across where the slope of the roof commenced. This made a sleeping place for the children, and was reached by climbing up a ladder and through a hole cut in the boards. This was also the guest chamber, the visitor mounting the ladder to his sleeping apartment and crawling on hands and knees to his bed, which consisted of a tick stuffed with dried leaves, with plenty of skins and furs. Here he could listen to the pleasant patter of the rain on the clapboard roof, sleep soundly, and in the morning at the rear of the cabin find a wooden washbowl, get his own water from the spring or well, and prepare himself for the wholesome breakfast.

Some of the early pioneers brought small articles of furniture with them, but in most cases much of it was made by hand after their arrival. The table was a wide board, carved with an axe and supported by legs cut from small saplings; the bed was made the same way, and the primitive cupboard with its few rough shelves was handmade. On these shelves were the dishes ; the one or two cooking utensils of iron or pewter ; the few dishes brought from the old home, and the others of wood, made in the evening from the buckeye; plates and saucers and basins of wood. Occasionally there were knives and forks, but not enough to go around, and wooden ones took their place, the hunting-knife of the pioneer being the carving knife for the meal.

Game was abundant, and without leaving his little clearing the early pioneer could easily secure an abundant supply of meat; deer and turkey were plentiful; so were the smaller game, rabbit and squirrel, but powder and ball were too expensive to waste in killing these, except in case of absolute necessity. Br,ead was the scarce article and at times had to be used sparingly. After his first crop the pioneer diet was game, potatoes and cornbread, with cranberries, honey and dried apples as the luxuries. On important occasions they indulged in wheat bread, and even served tea. There were no stoves, and the cooking was done in the large fire-place, the kettles or pots hung on an iron or wooden crane suspended over the fire. The frying pan had a long wooden handle, and was used for cooking both the meat and the corn cakes, either held over the fire or placed on a bed of burning coals drawn out over the hearth.

Bread was baked in a covered "bake kettle," and under and over it was a bed of burning coals constantly renewed. Later, many pioneers had a bake oven built of stones and mud near the cabin. Sometimes the bread was baked in the hot ashes underneath the fire, or on a board tipped up in front of the fire. It was in this manner the true "hoe cake" was baked, the broad hoe being used for the purpose, which gave it its name; also called "johnny-cake," a corruption of journey cake, bread in convenient shape for taking on a journey. Corn was the staple article of diet, and was cooked in several ways : it was made into hominy or boiled into mush; cooked in a covered oven as corn pone; cooked in front of the fire as johnny-cake, or cooked in round balls as corn dodgers. Like the old New England woman who never baked anything but apple pies, she always responded to inquiries as to what kind of pies she had, that she had three kinds: "open-faced, kivered, and crisscrossed." The pioneers had the same variety in their corn-bread; and it was a variety, as the various ways of cooking gave a different taste to the bread. There were times after the husband had returned from one of his long journeys to the mill that the good house wife became the envy of her neighbors by actually serving them with wheat bread when they called.

Potatoes, both Irish and sweet, were baked in the ashes, and although the ashes had to be brushed off, this manner of cooking was then, as it is today, the most palatable and wholesome way of preparing the food. A haunch of venison, a piece of pork or beef, and turkeys were cooked by suspending in front of the fire, and constantly turning them, while beneath was a pan which caught the drippings.

Before mills were within easy reach, every pioneer was his own miller, and ground his own grain. His mill consisted of a solid stump into which he cut or burned a hole in the shape of a mortar, and in this placed a quaritity of corn, and with a heavy block of wood or stone pulverized the grain by constant pounding. A more advanced way was to have the pounder attached to the end of a pole like a well-sweep, so that heavier pounding could be done and a larger quantity of grain pulverized more rapidly. In this way sometimes half a bushel of corn could be placed in the hollowed out stump at one time. The grain once pulverized it was sifted into three different grades for use, the coarser grade requiring six to eight hours of cooking before it was thoroughly prepared for food. These stump mills were known as Indian mills, and for centuries all the grain used by the Indians had been ground by the squaws in this manner.

If the pioneer had not located beside a stream or spring, his first business was to dig a well ; water was generally to be found in this county at a very few feet. The well was lined with stones of all sizes, plastered with clay, and a well-sweep easily constructed; - a long heavy pole hinged in a fork at the top of a tall pole, and a rope or chain to which the bucket was attached. It was a very simple contrivance and the water could easily be drawn from the bottom of the well. In parts of the county, notably the plains, the wells were made by sinking a hollow sycamore into the ground, but the water was a very poor

Having prepared a place iii which to live, the next business of the pioneer was the clearing of his land, and the trees were felled and cut into logs. He then secured game in abundance from the surrounding forest, went to the nearest settlement, sometimes a two days' journey, where he secured what provisions he must buy, and the whisky, which was regarded as a necessity in those days. Everything being in readiness, the neighbors came from miles around, and willing hands soon rolled the heavy logs into piles, making sport of the work by dividing the party into two sides and separating the logs equally, each side endeavoring to be the first to pile up their logs, the victors being rewarded by the first drink from the jug, while the thirsty vanquished patiently awaited their turn. The immense piles were set on fire, and walnut and wild cherry, oak and maple, and ash and hickory, worth more today many times over than is the land itself, were burned as useless. Inside the cabin the women had not been idle, and the rough hand-made table was covered with good wholesome food to which perfect health and the best of appetites did ample justice, and a dance generally followed, in which old and young alike joined. To these gatherings at the call of some new neighbor, every pioneer was glad to respond. They gave their time willingly, and freely and frequently. One of the pioneers in his notes of these early days says that in one year he put in twentynine days responding to calls for assistance at cabin-raisings and log-rollings.*

The wifely duties did not stop at the cooking. To her also fell the preparation of much of the clothing for the family, she doing the spinning and the weaving. The spinning wheel was to be found in nearly every cabin on which the yarn or the flax was spun. Some early settlers brought sheep, but there was no protecting them from the wolves, and it was years before any sheep could be raised in the county. From Knox county, and what is now Morrow, the pioneers made long journeys through the wilderness, and brought back a few pounds of wool. This was carded and made into rolls by hand cards, and the rolls spun on the wheel. A common article of apparel was the linsey-woolsey, the chain warp being linen and the filling or woof of wool. This made the dresses for the women and girls, and jeans were woven for the men's clothing. The skins of the deer and the coon were made into garments for the men, and even the little girls sometimes had dresses of fawn skins, colored and fringed and prettily picturesque. These homemade fabrics were dyed with walnut, indigo or copperas, and striped or checkered goods were easily made by dying the yarns the different colors before they were placed in the looms.

The pioneer was also his own shoemaker and hatter, tanning his own hides in a vat made of a hollow log sunk in the ground, and in the evening by the fireside making his own shoes, and those for the family.

The costume of the men was a huntingshirt hanging loose, made of skins or of woolen made by his wife. It was a sort of blouse, belted at the waist, and inside this loose blouse was the storehouse for his day's provisions and any small articles he might need; his breeches were of deer skin, comfortable and warm in dry weather, but in wet weather very uncomfortable and disagreeable, and then it was that at night he never threw them on the floor, but when he succeeded in getting them off, leaned them against the wall for use in the morning, when he again put them on with the same ease and comfort that a man might experience in incasing his legs in a couple of stove pipes. His shoes were of his own make, as heavy a sole as possible, with the tops made of skins reaching above the ankles and laced with thongs of deer skin. In summer he used the softer moccasin. His head was covered with a coonskin cap, or a hat made of the skin of some animal, cured and pressed by himself, and made into whatever shape or style that best suited his fancy.

The women were clothed mostly in linsey woolsey garments made by themselves of the raw material ; a linen waist of flax they themselves had spun; heavy shoes and stockings, all home made, and in winter gloves of buckskin made by themselves.

from one of the townships to get the advantage of the better schools the village afforded and he wore his coonskin cap and buckskin breeches, his shoes being home-made by his father or himself, and forty years after this a familiar figure on the streets of Bucyrus was one of the pioneers always wearing his deerskin vest.*

On his first cleared land the pioneer planted wheat, corn and potatoes, a few other vegetables, and a small patch of flax from which to make the clothing. Some had a crude plow they had brought with them ; others made their own, and the harrow was also of their own make, sometimes rough brush drawn over the ground. The grain was harvested with a sickle or scythe, the former being the most convenient on account of the many stumps, and near these stumps the hunting knife was used. The wheat was threshed by spreading it on the barn floor, and having the patient oxen tramp it out, or the pioneer with his heavy shoes doing the work himself by tramping, or with a flail. It was winnowed by taking a heavy sheet and with men at the corners swing it rapidly over the grain, creating a wind to blow away the chaff, if the pioneer had to depend on himself alone, he selected a day with a good wind, and filling a bucket with the grain held it as high above his head as his arras could reach, and slowly poured it out, the wind blowing away the chafif. Two or three pourings soon had the heavier wheat fairly separated from the lighter chafif.

Prior to 1820 there was not a grist mill in Crawford county, so the pioneer pounded his own grain into the best flour he could in his hollow stump, sometimes using a hand mill similar to our old-fashioned coffee mills. In this it took an industrious housewife several hours to grind a very little quantity of meal. Another device for corn in an emergency was the grater - jagged holes punched in a piece of tin or iron, and taking an ear of corn rubbing it over the rough edges. It took about four hours by this process to get enough meal to give each member of the family a very small taste pf corn-bread in the morning. Some of the pioneers state there were times when the cornmeal was so scarce that the family were all put on an allowance.* With the early settlers the nearest mill was miles away, the principal ones being at New Haven in Huron county; Fredericktown and Mt. Vernon in Knox county; one three miles southeast of Mansfield, and another at Lexington in Richland county. There were no roads, only trails through the forest, and the settler loaded his sacks of grain on the horse and started for the mill, leading his horse the entire distance, sometimes compelled to wait his turn at the mill. The trip took two to four days. The return journey he might ride, as the load of the horse was much lighter the miller having taken from a fourth to a half of the grinding as his share. If the pioneer had no horse, he made the long journey on foot, carrying what grain he could on his back. Very soon mills were started nearer home, generally a horse mill, run by horse or ox power, erected by some enterprising settler for his own use ; to this the neighbors came, using their own horses or oxen to furnish the power to run the mill. The mills were very crude in construction, and sometimes four horses had to be attached to move the clumsy machinery. It was also slow work and the meal ground very coarse. Water mills were built along the little streams, but on account of the smallness of the streams in this county when there was enough water to run the mills, the ground was almost impassable, and during the summer season when the trails could be used, there was no water in the streams and the mills were idle, and in the dead of winter the streams were frozen, so the pioneer had difficulty in keeping a supply of meal on hand. It was years before the conditions of the roads improved in many sections, and as late as 1845, E. B. Monnett now living in Bucyrus, started with a four-horse team from his father's farm in Dallas township with half a dozen sacks of wheat to be ground at the mill at Wyandot. Small as the load was the team was stalled, and he had to secure additional help to get the wagon through the marshy ground. As late as 1837 when the farmer took his load of grain to Sandusky it took from six to seven days to make the trip on account of the bad roads; he received his

50 to 60 cents a . bushel for his wheat, and brought back a consignment of goods for some merchant for which he was paid about 50 cents a hundred pounds. Goods for the eastern part of the county and some for Bucyrus were hauled overland from Philadelphia and Baltimore. Generally for Bucyrus they came by water to Sandusky, and were hauled from there by land. The freight charges reached as high at times as four dollars a hundred pounds so nothing but absolute necessaries could be shipped.

With the early pioneers there was an abundance of game, but as the county became more populated game became scarcer, but the pioneer had brought with him cattle and hogs. The hogs ran at large, fattening on the nuts and grass of the forest; on the rattlesnakes and small vermin, and they became wild. While wolves prevented the raising of sheep, experience soon taught them to let the wild hogs severely alone, and even the few bears found discretion the better part of valor and left the hogs to root in peace, and unless very hungry never molested them. Each farmer had a special mark for his hogs, but in their wild state they were very prolific, and many of them were practically common property. As to those marked and half wild, sometimes a pioneer was near-sighted and failed to recognize the mark of his neighbor on the hog he had shot - but in the main they were honest and the wild hogs of the forest and the rapidly increasing stock of cattle made up for the constant lessening of the wild game.

Another plentiful thing was honey, which could be gathered by the pioneer himself or purchased of the Indians or the bee-hunters. The Indians also supplied the pioneers with an abundance of cranberries when in season. Many of the pioneers became experts in beehunting, marked the trees in the summer, and in the autumn gathered the harvest, which was not only a welcome addition to the family provisions, but was an article almost sure to bring cash in the market, 50 cents a gallon.

There was very little money in those days, business being carried on by exchange, the storekeeper being the clearing house. He gave the pioneer credit of about a cent a pound for the hogs he delivered, and two cents for his cattle; 25 cents each for his coon and mink skins, and $i for a deer hide ; 40 cents a bushel for his wheat and three cents a dozen for his eggs and the same price per pound for his butter, and sometimes would not take his butter and eggs at any price, but he was glad to get the honey at fifty cents per gallon. In return he charged his customer with $2 to $3 a pound for tea, and very few charges too as not many could afford the luxury of tea; 75 cents a pound for coffee; $5 for a barrel of salt that weighed 50 pounds; $2 a pound for powder and 25 cents a pound for lead; $1 a yard for calicoes and prints; and the only cheap thing was the whisky at fifty cents a gallon. Everybody used it in those days and it was regarded as more of a necessity in the house than tea or coffee, and few social gatherings were complete without it. Money was not an absolute necessity as even the county officials, with a salary of $50 to $100 a year, were in some other business, and taxes could be, and were, paid in skins or produce, which the treasurer turned into cash. The merchant, too, when he sent his skins and produce to the market, exchanged them for the goods he needed, paying or receiving the balance in cash.

On the arrival of a neighbor a trail was blazed through the woods so the nearest families could visit back and forth without getting lost in the forest, and the women folks made their friendly calls. Then it was the hostess did the honors, proudly displaying all her little cabin possessed. In one case all the newcomer could boast of in the line of a cooking vessel was a solitary pewter pot, but it was bright and glistening from the polishings it received through its constant use. But to her it was enough. She placed it on the fire, and in it the pork was tried into lard, and in the same vessel the cakes were fried in the lard; it was washed and cleaned and in it the short cakes were baked ; then it was used as a bucket, taken to the spring and filled with water, again placed on the fire and the water boiled, and it being her first "state occasion" a little tea was taken from her meagre store and the meal served to her first guest in her new home, all prepared in the one and only cooking vessel she possessed.

Strangers were always welcome and every traveler received a hospitable reception. If he was in search of a location he was doublv welcome, and the pioneer dropped his work to show his visitor all the best sites in the neighborhood that were yet on the market, and if the stranger did enter land in that section he was welcome to bring his wife and family of half a dozen children to make their home with him until he and his sons and the neighbors had erected a cabin for the newcomer. If a settler arrived in the fall the neighbors all kept a careful watch that he suffered for nothing until he could clear his ground and raise a crop of his own. It was not uncommon to make jthe newcomer a present of land to induce him to locate in their neighborhood, and in one case in this county a pioneer induced a man to remain by selling him eighty acres off his own land for $100, taking his pay in a note due in one hundred years without interest.* The note is not yet due, but will be in 1920.

The homes of the early settlers were indeed far in the wilderness for it took from two to four weeks for their mail to reach them from their old homes in the East, and when a letter did arrive it was marked "due 25 cents," -for postage in those days need not be paid in advance and the charge was according to distance. Neither was the letter always sent to where the addressee lived, but to the nearest postoffice. Prior to 1823 the postoffice of residents of Crawford was Mansfield or Delaware, and the pioneer store-keeper going to one of these places brought back whatever letters were there for any one in his neighborhood. When a postoffice was established at Bucyrus in 1823, that little village received the letters for residents for miles around, those of Whetstone, Liberty, Sandusky, Chatfield, Lykins, Holmes, Texas and Tod townships all getting their mail at Bucyrus. When a letter did arrive for some settler the watchful postmaster requested some man who happened in from that section to notify his neighbor that a letter had arrived for him. The pioneers were generous; they shared with those in need; of the stock or game killed many a neighbor received a portion ; but he could not put up the 25 cents for the letter due, because money was something he did not have. But he was still the true neighbor, and after reaching home, when the evening work was done, he went through the woods to the home of his neighbor, several miles away, and notified him that there was a letter in the postoffice for him. Now the scene of anxiety is transferred to the little farm; they have nothing to dispose of, but the postage must be raised to secure the news from home, so the hens are "summoned to duty," and after patient watching and waiting eight dozen eggs are gathered and the pioneer goes to Bucyrus and exchanges his eight dozen eggs for the "24c due" letter, and returns to his clearing to read over and over again the news from the old home anywhere from a month to six months old.

There was no class of people more welcome among the pioneers than the traveling minister. Long before the first white man had ever dreamed of settling in this wilderness, these faithful servants of God had risked their lives, and many lost them, too, in preaching the Gospel of Christ to the savages. And when the settler came, these ministers, on foot or on horseback, wandered through the sparsely settled region, and the largest cabin or barn was the meeting place of the settlers for miles around to hear once more the word of God. It was not denominational preaching; sometimes it was one creed, sometimes another, but a minister of any denomination was welcome, and although a man may not have been a professing Christian, if his cabin were the larger or the more central it was used for the services, and it was an honor and pleasure to him to entertain the minister. Later the different denominations became numerous enough to hold services of their own special creed at irregular intervals. Violent pulpit oratory was regarded as more necessary in those days than at the present time, and the preacher soared to his highest flights in picturing the terrors and horrors of a brimstone hell. The construction of his sentences, as far as grammar was concerned, was a secondary consideration, and frequently was a neglected art. The loudest in their oratory, both in preaching and in prayer, were looked upon as the better Christians, and when one of these became thoroughly warmed up to his work his prayer could be heard for half a mile.

Among the more religiously inclined morning and evening services were held, the head of the house reading a chapter from the well-worn family Bible, giving out a hymn in which all joined in the singing, and closing with one of his far-reaching prayers. If a guest were present, known to be a Christian, by courtesy he was asked to lead in the family services, and if he failed to "loosen the rafters" in his instructions to the throne of grace, the thoroughness of his conversion was doubted, and he was never again invited to lead in prayer in that household. Many others were milder in their forms of worship, but among the more zealous the religion of most of the milder class was looked upon with suspicion, and hopes and prayers were freely offered that the scales might fall from their eyes and they become truly converted. But as sure as "the groves were God's first temples," so the purest and truest of religion existed in the hearts of these pioneers. No destitution was so severe in his own family that he ever failed to share the little that he had with his poorer neighbor; no sickness ever invaded any family in his section when he failed to respond with sympathy and with succor; and when the icy hand of death had robbed some poor struggling family of a loved one, every pioneer's heart beat in sympathy with his sorrowing neighbor, and every pioneer's hand tendered assistance and relief. They were true Christians in the broadest and best sense of the word, and in the books above where the recording angel has written the list of those who loved their fellow men, the names of these early pioneers will be found leading all the rest.

Each settler was his own doctor, and the minor diseases were cured by their own simple remedies. In the loft of each cabin, or in the cabin itself along the wall, hung the wormwood and pennyroyal, sassafras and sage, tansey and catnip, and other herbs and barks gathered and dried for sickness, and the minor cases were cared for with these simple ingredients. In each neighborhood some man was depended upon to set a broken leg or arm, and it was fairly done with no charge, the patient on his recovery as a remembrance of the kindly act sending around a deer he had shot. But there were times when the disease or the accident was beyond the knowledge or the skill of the household or the neighbors. Then it was one of the family or a kindly neighbor started through the woods anywhere from ten to forty miles for medical aid, and a day or two later returned with the doctor on horseback, with his saddle-bags containing his wonderful medicines, who gave what treatment he thought the patient needed, and left advice for future care, for the distance was too great to make a second call possible. He was paid for his trip, if there was anything to pay with - a little cash, or some skins or some provisions; perhaps nothing, and a year or two later receive a wagon-load of potatoes or of corn, some choice skins, or a cash payment from the pioneer who had not forgotten his faithful services. The doctor was satisfied; he had gone the toilsome journey as an errand of mercy and as a professional duty, and the pecuniary reward was a secondary consideration.