Wood County, Ohio - The whole text, 1910 (part 4 of 8)

"On that hotly contested ground many met in hand to liajid encounter, at short intervals tliroughout the entire afternoon. Amid the sharp crack of rifles came the battle shout of the whites, the warhoop of the savage, and the death yell ! J^o one can realize the horrible and bloodcurdling sensation produced by the death yell of an Indian, except, one who has seen and heard for himself. The groans oi wounded and dying, and that green bottom land grove, all this, comes up before me to-day. as vividly as the}^ were produced in that l^ittle on the lonely banks of the .ALaumee over forty-five years ago, and I say again it was a battle well worthy of the name. I had l)een in a dozen l)attles and skirmishes before that, and several after, but none \\ere as acti\e and tierce, in contest; so tenacious and stubborn in holding every advantage, considering the number of combatants engaged and length of time fought incessantly. The soldiers numbered about one hundred and twenty-five and of the Indians, no doubt, they were double that many. The closing act in this forest tragedy occurred, as dusk was coming on, by our force driving the Indians to the bluffs before mentioned. We then retired to our ravine to watch the night through. The Indians did not follow us, and during night for some reason, withdrew from the vicinity entirely, leaving us to bury our dead and go on our way unmolested."

In the coui'se of narrating this bloody eJicounter, Gen. Lida became quite absorbed with the memories of the past. Evidently this incident of all others in his life impressed him the most. He had been a soldier \inder Wayne and seen nnich of liulian warfare.

Mercer Settlement

CALEB MERCEK was the second of the Mercer family to come to Wood count}', and arrived here at the age of 19, in March 1834. He started out as ai mere boy from his home in Columbiana county, to seek his fortune in the wilderness of western Ohio. All he brought with him was his "knapsack" and gun, and money enougb to enter a small piece of land. He was nine days on his journey of 300 miles, and spent his first night in Wood county at the house of Ashael I'owers, the first settler at the "^'forks'" in Freedom township, and from there went to his brother, Greorge Mercer, in Liberty, who had at this time been here about a year. It is needless to say it required pluck for a mere boy to start out alone, on foot, to make a long journey into an unknown and almost uninhabited wilderness, through mud and water, and leave behind friends and relatives, to seek a home in the forest familiar only to the red man and the ol:)jects of his prey.

Young Mercer immediately on his arrival located land in Section 14, of Libert}', and set out in a day or two, again on foot, for Bucyrus, a distance of 60 miles, to enter the land at the land office. He left the house of Collister Haskins about 10 o'clock one cloudy March day, intending to reach Fostoria, then called Eome, that night. After he had proceeded on his journey about five miles, by the way of an Indian trail leading in a southeasterly direction, he heard a queer noise in the woods off to one side of the trail, and being curious as to its cause, he proceeded to investigate and

That were fighting a terrible battle. He said he had never seen such a sigh I in his life, and it is probable that two strange flocks had come together, and the matter of chief gobbler was being decided.

After dispersing the battle of turkeys he turned to find the trail he had left, Imt much to his dismay he was unable to find it. He wandered about for some time and soon became confused and lost. After a time he struck a creek, the meandering of which he aimlessly followed until about dark, when the welcome sound of a cow bell struck his ear. Following the sound he soon came upon a cow, and near by perceived the bhie smoke curling up from a cabin, whii-h lie thinks must have stood near the Hancock county line. Upon going to the little luit he found a man and woman just preparing to abandon their home in the wilderness the next morning. fiercer asked for something to eat and lodgment for the night, and was informed they hadn't ''a h\te in the house to eat," but that he might remain over night, whieh he did. The next morning he got his l)earings, and struck for Eome which he reached that afternoon, when he got something to eat, the first nourishment he had had since his departnre from Haskins' about thirty hours before. From Eome he proceeded to Bucyrus, entered his land and returned to his brother's again on foot. It might be stated here, that Mr. ]\Iercer traveled the road l)etween Columbiana county and Wood county, a distance of 300 miles, on foot five times, and between Bucyrus and here, 00 miles, on foot six times.

The same spring, "34, he cleared five acres of land on his new farm and built a cabin. The five acres he planted to corn and a small patch of potatoes. The com crop was devoured by the squirrels

The following fall he went back to Columbiana county for his father (Wm. Mercer) and mother, who returned with him, accompanied by his sister Lucretia, and brothers Abram and Charles. They all took up their abode in the cabin he had built the previous spring. They drove througli with them a herd of 40 cattle, probably the largest number ever brought to the county up to that time. They, however, had much difficulty in keeping the cattle througli that winter, a number of which strayed away and never were found. Thus began the Mercer settlement in Liberty. - C. W. E.

MANY of the residents of this portion of Ohio well remember the intense excitement twenty-five years ago in the eighties upon the discovery of oil in Wood county. Pen cannot describe the wild, feverish unrest and anxiety that prevailed among all citizens. Investors and speculators were attracted to the county by hundreds. It was the day of the gusher. While oil was struck in different counties in Northwestern Ohio, Wood county, in the heart of the Black Swamp proved to be the "King Bee" - the greatest oil producing county in the history of crude oil probably on the continent at that time. No county equaled it then even in Pennsylvania. Oil was found in no less than sixteen townships, indicating that hundreds of feet beneath us was a vast lake of oil.

In those days Bloom, Henry, Liberty, Portage and Jackson townships were regarded as gusher territory, while remarkable producers were also found in Plain, Middleton, Montgomery, Freedom and Perry townships. Prices for land, went skyward. Farms that previously could have been purchased for $10 to $25 and $50 an acre, could not be touched for less than hundreds of dollars per acre. One incident may suffice to show this. One farmer who had a tract of 50 acres, who would have gladly disposed of his farm at $50 an acre, declared he would not sell under $30,000 and he didn't care for that. This is not an isolated instance, but there were many of the same kind. Such was the excitement at that time that it was difficult to secure land at any jirice. Values went to a high level throughout the county, although in the passage of years, there has been a decline from the high standard of that period, yet they are maintained today at a high level, when compared with prices before the oil period, and that high level is normal and will so continue. More than half of the oil producers in the Wood county field came from Pennsylvania, experts in the business. They not only came themselves, but brought their household goods, their families, and all the property they had; they have settled in the towns; they have become permanent residents and tax payers; they are helping build up the towns and are increasing the duplicates with refineri'^s, their pipe lines and all of their property, which would not be there a moment if it were not for the oil development. They have added to the wealth of the state - it is difficult to say how much, but an ex-auditor of Wood claims that in this county alone these producers increase the value on the tax duplicate of more

There were in those early days many gushers. One developed at Hammansburg in December of 1886 will suffice as a sample of those spouters. William Carothers, an experienced driller, had the contract for sinking the well and the work was in charge of C. Ash, They drilled 430 feet through lime stone and MO feet through slate. At^ this point they struck the Trenton rock, and said Mr. Ash, "we drilled in this awhile and had about given up getting anything. We were losing hope every minute and Monday afternoon, the 6th, at r> o'clock, we were just 30 feet in the Trenton when we heard a noise in the well which began to fill. We stopped the drill and were hardly out of the way when the oil spouted u]! over the derrick and 85 feet in the air. We quickly put the fire out under the boiler and withdrew from the field. The flow was so continuous that we were not able to get our tools out until Thursday.

A representative of the Sentinel visited the gusher when it had been flowing for four days at intervals averaging about 18 minutes, and he says it seemed surely that if there was one there were 4,000 barrels of oil running on the ground. A wagon path in the woods was nearly a foot deep in oil, which run each way for many rods from the well. A half acre of land was covered with it, and a man walking a log made a misstep onto the ground and went over his boot top. The derrick and surrounding trees were dripping with the crude material and the men at work were covered with it.

This was the first well of any importance drilled in the county, and in 1887 four gushers were completed, yielding 1,200, 4,800, 1,500 and 800 barrels respectively. Two gushers in 1888 gave .3,000 and 1,250 barrels. Eight gushers in 1889 vielded 27,100 barrels. In 1890 one gusher gave 6U0 barrels. Nearly a score of wells drilled in 1891 yielded 7,300 barrels. In 1892 twenty gushers yielded 36,600 barrels. In 1893 there were recorded 22 gushers yielding 16,000 barrels. In 1894 four gushers yielded 3,300 barrels. Several gushers were recorded in 1895 yielding 4,000 barrels. Other gushers were recorded in the years 1896, 1897 and 1898, yielding an average of 500 barrels each. In 1901 a 1,200 barrel producer was drilled in Liberty township. These figures are taken from the oil reports as given in the newspapers at that time. Hundreds of other gushers too numerous to mention were completed throughout Wood county, making it one of the wealthiest counties in the state.

Since then the oil industry has continued to be a paying one. Here is what an old oil expert says with regard to the future of Wood county: "With the richest land, with inexhaustible soil, with a county agriculturally standing at the head, and add to it the natural gas advantages which is bound to bring manufacturing, and oil with the attendant business outgrowing therefrom - I say, with all these things taken into consideration, I know of no spot in America with a brighter future. Eeal estate in any event is bound to boom and good results follow from what has already taken place."

The earliest tradition has it that at one time there was a continuous water route from the Lakes to the Mississippi, navigable for canoes with the exception of a "portage" about nine miles across at the head of the Mauraee, and that this "portage" was owned or controlled by an Indian woman who exacted tribute for all goods tlial were transferred across it.

The Pioxeee Early School Days

ANY there are who may yet re- sj member something of the educational facilities sixty or seventy years ago. Then they knew nothing of the grades in schools. The settlers were few in number, their wants were few and these were bountifully supplied. The benches were crude, seats had no backs, and yet there was little or no complaint, as they knew of nothing better in the way of conveniences. Pu^jils were compelled to trudge through brush and mud and cold from one to three miles or more.

The average wage paid to the teacher then was $10 a month of 26 days, and three months was about the limit of the contract. Included probably in the contract was that of- "boarding "round," as was the custom in those days.

One of the customs of that time was to bar the scliool master out of the house, and keep him out until he yielded to the demands of the scholars to treat them to apples, candies, raisins, or such hixuries as could then be had.

Gov. Foster in speaking of those early days, himself a teacher in that early day, says that James Pillars, who after- \\ards graced the bench for ten years, as the Common Pleas Judge of this judicial district, when a young num contracted to teach a school for ten dollars per month, of twenty-six days; one-half to be paid in cash, and the other half in provisions.

In those days the great feature of our schools was the attention given to spelling. It is seriously doubted whether the schools of the present day can produce so much excellence in spelling as did those of that day. One-fourth of the time, probal»ly, was ilcvoa'd to spelling exercises, and in addition, at least oneniglit of eacli week was devoted to what was known as spelling matelies. These were attench'd by the b;'s1 s[)ellers from the neighboring schools. Tlie highest ambition of tlic pupil was to be the best sjicller in school.

In an address on those early days, I he late Gov. Foster says that he is perfectly safe in saying that he attended spelling school three nights out of a week, during the three months of school for several years - visiting alternately three different school houses. He believed that his sister, Emily, was the best speller of all, and she w^as under twelve years of age. The larger scholars used 1(1 carry her on their backs as they went to the different schools on foot, the only way of going to thesL' meetings. The (lovernor relates this incident in his boyhood school days. "1 remember of going one nigiit, to the Kiser school house, through the woods the most of the way, and alone, to attend a spelling match. 1 broke through the ice, and was wet up to my knees when I reached the place; yet I do not think I ever felt better rel)aid for a day's work than I did over my success on that occasion, for I spelled down the entire school.'^

Those good old days are only reminiscences now in the dim and distant past, old days*" may be said deliberately and seriously without exaggeration, for it is very doubtful if any of the pupils of the present day experience more delight and genuine pleasure in any equal number of days at the present time.

At the meeting of the C'ommissioners, May 5, 1820, Attorney McCurdy presented an order of Court for $20, his compensation as prosecuting attorney of Wood county, for the May term of 1820.

Henry Dubbs

HENRY DUBBS was the first settler in the west part of Liberty township. He came from Ashland county and entered the land upon which he biiilt his home. He had one son Lewis, now deceased, and two daughters, i\.nn, who married Ebenezer Donaldson of Grand

Mr. Dubbs and his son Lewis, were tanners by trade and soon after their arrival, built a tannery on their lands, probably the first in the county, and did a large and successful business.

Lewis Dubbs was Justice of the Peace in Liberty for 37 years. He was prominent in advancing the best interests of the early settlement and a leader in public improvements; educated, kind and generous, and his name is remembered with respect by those who know him. - -

Mail Route

AS this uurtliwestern part of Ohio began to be opened up a mail route was established on March 12, 1829, between Perrysburg and Bellefontaine, and the first post office in the interior of Wood county was located where Portage now is, with Collister Haskins for postmaster. Soon after this Haskins built a log store on the south bank of the Portage river and stocked it with goods best adapted to his customers, a majority of

Thus it will be seen that Haskins was uot only the first resident of Liberty township, but also established the first store in Portage and might be called the founder of the only village in Liberty township. This store was probably the third regular trading point started in Wood county, others being at Perrysburg ;ind Grand Eapids.

The first mail carrier on the route above mentioned was James Gordon who carried the mail on horseback, made one trip a week each way and usually an'ivcd at Haskins at noon where he took his dinner. - C. W. E.

Indian Skeleton

IN the spring of 1879, a skeleton was exhumed five miles west of Bowling Green, by brick yard men, who were engaged in excavating sand for their yard on the top of a somewhat noted sand

In the Sentinel Mr. Evers says this skeleton is supposed to be the remains of an Indian, or some other human of giant stature. He had been buried with his head to the west. Between his legs sat a two gallon brass kettle in a good state of preservation excepting the bottom, which is partially gone. Inside this kettle set a small iron kettle which is nearly consumed by rust, except the bail.

Near the side of the skeleton lay a rusteaten tomahawk, scalping knife and a flint steel for lighting fire, also a stone smoke pipe. The bones, of which but few if any are missing, even to the toe and finger bones, are in an excellent state of preservation and indicate by their size that they were once the mechanism of a powerful man. The skull on which still clings some frizzy substance like hair, is one which phrenologists would say indicated the Indian to have been no common fellow in his tribe. It is a well-shaped, large skull for an Indian, though the prominent cheek bones and low forehead are distinctly recognizable. The fellow had, in his day, an excellent set of teeth - small, sound and evenly set, though well worn and only two missiug out of the two and thirty."^ One arm had, in his lifetime, been broken and the bone had knit together very clumsily, deforming the aim by a great bulge and crook. In the back of his skull is a small hole, but whether this hole had anything to do with Jiis taking off, is an uncertainty.

Mr. Avery says from the best information he can get from the old settlers, the grave has been there not less than 45 years, that is, no burial has taken place there since the neighborhood was settled. He also thinks that the grave was not less than four feet deep originally, something not usual in Indian burials.

Shut-nok, on which this grave was found, is, or was before its surface was disturbed by the plow, the highest sand mound in Wood county. How it came to bear this name, none of the old settlers seem to know, though the belief has been current and has been handed down from generation to generation tliat it bore the name of a chief of one of the fragmentary tribes inhabiting the Maumee country after Anthony Wayne broke their power in 1794. There are others who have been led to believe this spot M^as the burial place of a chief whose name it bore. But why a chief or any other influential man in his tribe should be buried in this then lonely place when the burial ground was only a few miles away on the j\Iaumee, we cannot understand.

There is another story that comes to us more directly from an early chronicler, who was once connected with the Indian mission at the Station Island. He states that the Indians avoided the place under the superstitious belief that the Great Spirit had set its seal of displeasure - a curse upon the place for some sin committed by his children, the secret of which was hidden beneath the grassy suri'ace of the mound.

In this connection a story is circulated that the chief Tondoganie had a daughter either his own or an adopted daughter - a beautiful girl who was loved by a young Indian of the Shawanee tribe, and of noble birth, but whose tribe had dwindled down to only a fragment, so that he had lost his greatness in the eyes of the chief Tondoganie, who looked upon him with disfavor. The young Indian's love was reciprocated by the girl, and was a secret between them. Her lover's home was at Sandusky plains along with the great chief Black Hoof or Tarhe, but he often made visits to the Maumee ostensibly to fish, but for no other purpose than to see the dark eyed maiden. This secret love was detected by the quick perceptions of the chief, and with flashing eye and angry voice, he pointed the young man to the plains and told him to GO and never return. Both the lovers knew the penalty of disobeying.

The girl secretly stole away and followed her lover in the direction of his home until they reached a high mound, the highest perhaps in the county, on the north side of what is now known as the Keeler Prairie, when she bade him farewell, and watched his receding form until he passed from her sight forever. The heart broken girl returned to her father's wigwam, but fell into a despondent state of mind and could not be roused. She would be missed at times for days and nights together, and some of Tondoganie's runners reported to him that she was wont to stand on the high mound looking to the south chanting a mournful song. Finally she was missed and came back no more and a superstition prevailed that in the darkness of night the figure of an Indian girl with her blanket about her shoulders, could be seen on the mound and that strange sounds as of some one singing a funeral dirge could be heard echoing in the grove below. The mound has ever since gone

The same authority for the above account, stated that Tondoganie's anger was such because of the love of the girl against his wish, that he called upon some of the young men of his band to rid him of the cause. These young men stealthily dogged the movements of the girl until they discovered the place where she met her lover, whom they waylaid, murdered and buried in the mound, and on the final disappearance of the girl the chief forbid his tribe from visiting the place which only brought him memories of remorse and sorrow.

Such is one of the stories handed down from mouth to ear and which may have lost many details of what was a tragic romance, or it may, as is often the case, have gained much by repetition.

A Fierce Battle

IT may not be generally known that the site of the present town of Perrysburg was once the scene of a tierce battle between the Indians and Americans, but such is the fact. The news of the cowardly surrender of Gen. Hull at Detroit in August, 1813, spread like the wind throughout Ohio, and struck the frontier settlers with dismay. It aroused the people from their lethargy, and showed the government the necessity of greater activity and skill in the conduct of the war. In the fall of 1812, General Tupper, of Gallia county, raised 1,000 men, mainly from the counties of Gallia,

Lawrence, Jackson, and marched to the foot of the rapids of the Maumee river. From TJrbana they followed Hull's trail. As they approached the river the Indians appeared on the opposite bank. Tupper endeavored to cross the river in the night, but owing to the rapid current and the inexperience of his men, he failed and went into camp on the ground where Perrysburg now stands. The enemy soon after collected a superior force, and attacked him in his camp but after a short, sharp engagement, they were defeated with considerable loss and returned to Detroit. The Americans fell back on Fort McArthur.

The Imoneer The Dread Cholera

IiSi October, 1835, says a correspoudent of the Sentinel in 1877, 0. Diver entered 8U acres one-lialf mile south of Mill Grove, this being undoubtedly the last entry near Mill Grove.

About this time the cholera made its appearance at Eon)e (now Fostoria) and Kisdon in Seneca county, but few died. However, its advent sent terror to the hearts of the settlers in Perry, who with or without - for they were often without - (juinine, could battle the "shakes'^ from July to late in September, and without a physician would successfully cope with the malarial fevers that followed.

Cholera, however, the very word itself made the boldest quake. Dr. John Kinnaman a graduate of Philadelphia College was the first practicing physician. He was a young man highly educated and a lover of his profession. His coming was hailed with delight by the settlers. He located about two miles south of Mill Grove. A very large walnut stiimp served him for a laboratory, drug repository and general reception room. He laid out a town at this point and named it Royalton, but it died in its infancy shortly aft^r the demise of its founder.

Dr. Kinnaman's patients were scattered over the entire southern part of the county, and his inde fatigability in riding was wonderful and denoted a man of iron nerve. Many times in riding he would cut down a tree, hitch his horse to oiu' of its branches and let him browse until his patient was out of danger, often from eight to ten hours.

The following is an instance of this iiKuTs ni'rve and ability in his profession. Swane a settler of Perry was hurt by tlie falling of a tree. In a few days it was found necessary to amputate the leg. Dr. Kinnaman was sent for and arrived. Without any assistance and with no surgical implements but a razor and old saw, the Doctor amputated the limb neatly and speedily, and the man got well.

Passed Away

THE first settlers of Washington township, found here the remnants of a once powerful tribe of Indians. Their old men and warriors liad listened to the counsels and obeyed the commands of their great Chief Tondoganie. Tlieir wigwams were in the belt of timl)er which skirted the river; and the l)road prairie which has become so fertih' uii(l<'r skillful cultivation, afforded ihcni huntino: grounds and space for the young warrior to practice himself in imaginary battles to improve his skill in an art which fortunately, he has never since had an opportunity to practice.

The river and creek furnished them with hsli, and on the flowery banks they passed a happy, indolent life. They were the remnants of a race which according to the laws of nature, had had its time on earth, and in obedience to that inexorable law, they were fast yielding to those who were to succeed them and hero they lived to meet and see the mighty race of men who were to take their places. For ages they have lived

The}' were a race governed by instinct; they made no advance in agriculture, commerce or the arts. Tlie son made his canoe and armed himself with the bow and arrow as his father had done, as mechanically and with as little imjDrovement as the young robin builds its nest in imitation of the parent bird. Their time had come; their race was doomed; and here on the banks of this beautiful stream, where the dark eyed Indian maiden had taught the young chief to love her, a fairer maiden was to take her place and by the graces of a purer virtue, teach a noble heart to love her.

A Summer Of Gloom

OLDER citizens will undoubtedly remember the fatal summer of 18o !-. It was indeed a summer of sorrow and gloom. This was not only true of Xorthern Ohio, but of Northern Indiana as well. 'Not a village between Buffalo and Chicago that did not furnish its quota of suffering and death from the malarial poison that impregnated the very atmosphere, spreading intermittent and typhoid fevers, as well as that dreaded scourge, cholera. These afflictions became epidemic, and in some localities there were not enough persons well to take care of the sick.

Take Goshen, Indiana, population 1,500 then. For two months there was a funeral daily, sometimes two or three. Xot a family escaped affliction. Two cabinet shops were busy night and day making coffins, and physicians had mighty little rest from their strenuous labors.

Probably no town suffered like Perrysburg. The scourge started, it seems from a ball that was held on the night of the -ith of July, when the first case of cholera made its appearance, and from that time until the 19th of August following there were 117 deaths - at least that is the number buried in Fort Meigs cemetery, and there may have been many more. x\mong that number are included Albert D. Wright, editor of the Northwestern Democrat, Dr. James Robertson, Dr. Frederick, Jarvis Spafford, John J. Spink, and many others. The deaths were startling in their suddenness and sadness. The epidemic was one of great virulence. So great were the ravages of this terrible visitation at that place, that it put a check upon business of every kind, no paper was issued and no other business transacted for seven weeks or longer, excepting that of caring for the sick and the burial of the dead. Included among those who passed away were some of the most active business men of the place. Dr. E. D. Peck and Dr. James Robertson were on duty night and da}^, the latter falling a victim to the scourge in the very midst of his strenuous labors. Two-thirds of the residents fled from the town, leaving a comparative few to fight the dread epidemic. Among those noble men and women, aside from the physicians may l)e mentioned Joshua Chappel, Seth Bruce, N. H. Callard, Mrs. A. E. Frederick and Mrs. Amelia Perrin, who were volunteer nurses during the terrible calamity. There may have been a few others, but we have not their names. All these have passed away, but they nol)ly performed their duty during their life's span. Pernshiirg was indeed "a deserted village.'" Grand Kapids fared but little better, with a score or more of cases and a number of deaths, the disease beginning like Perrysburg at a 4th of July ball. A^ever perhaps in the history of the cholera were its ravages so fatal as in Perrysburg, and never did the few who remained meet death with more resolution or endure suffering with greater fortitude.

Seth Bruce made coffins in the hall of the log court house and no victim was buried without a colSn being furnished. Only one person of all that number

(lied alone, a young man who had a room jji a tenement house. He breathed his last before the return of his attendant, who bad gone for medicine. The women were patient and heroic in their care for the sick, and there were brave, noble men who remained and stood beside them in the terrible conflict.

The physical condition of the inhabitants, reduced by fever and ague, and their systems poisoned by well water rather than by miasmatic exhalations, left them an easy prey to the ravages of I his sweeping epidemic.

THEEE is no question of the fact that much of the superiority of the agricultural products of Wood county has been due to the stimulating influences exerted by the Agricultural Society. It has lifted the science of agriculture to a higher plane. It has brought forth observation, comparison, thought and efforts on the part of the farmer as well as those interested in mechanics and arts. Each one learns something of value from a competitor, while it is apparent that there has been much of benefit from the results of combined effort.

Middleton township, at an early period in the history of the county, contained a number of intelligent and enterprising citizens. In these respects, it surpassed any other township in the county, and it was natural that the movement for the organization of a County Agricultural Society should originate there. On the 26th day of April, 1851, a meeting of the farmers and mechanics of the township was held, at which David Creps presided and H. H. Pain acted as Sec^ retary. The object of the movement was stated to be the promotion of the interests of farmers and mechanics, and it was decided to call a mass meeting of the i^eople of the county at Bowling Green, on the second ]\Ionday of June, 1851.

In addition to the President and Secretary, the following citizens of Middkton township signed the call for the mass meeting, viz; David Whitney, Henry Sarvis, Henry Hood, James Mc- Ginness, Francis E. Meagle}^, Patrick Mclsaac, Robert Clark, W^m. Ewing, John Hood and Martin Byers. The call was subsequently signed by the following persons: E. Huntington, John Bates, John Brownsberger, David Ladd, J. Spafford, James Hood, Asher Cook, James Hall, Jolni Groves, Joseph A. Creps, Gabriel Yount, Henry Crook, L. F. Robertson, Amelius Robertson, James W. Frazer, and John Taylor.

iii Bowling Green, when Emelius Wood was chosen chairman and Asher Cook Secretary. J. K, Tracy, Henry Hood, Patrick Mclsaac, James Bhiom and Geo. Powers, were appointed a committee to draft a constitution for the Wood County Agricultural Society. David Whitney, John Bates, N. D. Blinn and S. W. St. John were appointed a committee, to nominate officers for the following year. Thomas Jolly, L. C. Lock, and Henry Groves, were appointed a committee to "procure suitable persons to address the meeting and explain the objects of the contemplated organization." In the afternoon, in response to the request of the last named committee, the meeting was addi-essed by Messrs. Elliott, Cook and Bloom. The committee for that purpose reported a constitution, made up of 13 articles, which was adopted and signed by 56 persons, who became members of the society.

Then a series of by-laws were adopted. The following persons were appointed a committee in each township to collect statistical information to be reported to the Secretary of the Society:

This was an important work, but there is no evidence that any of the committees were ever heard from in an official capacity. The following officers were chosen for the ensuing year: President,

Aside from the fact that a meeting was held on the 36th of July, 1851, to arrange for holding the first Fair, and also the fact that the Fair for 1852 is designated as the "second Fair," there is no recorded evidence that a Fair was held in 1851, nor is there any record of the place where it was held, tho\igh probably the first County Fair was held at Bowling Green.

The foregoing facts respecting the organization of the Society are quite complete, except the almost total omission of reference to the first Fair, in which the people of to-day would feel a lively interest. Subsequent Fairs were ignored by the Society's secretaries with equal care, and the points of real interest are thus largely omitted. The second Fair was lield at Perrysburg, the third was held at Bowling Green, the fourth and fifth at Portageville, and the sixth and seventh at Bowling Green. At the seventh annual meeting of the Society, the board elected for the ensuing year was authorized to "procure suitable grounds for the xA.nnual Fair and permanently locate the same."

At a meeting held in July, 1858, a vote was taken upon the permanent location of the Fair, when Bowling Green received five votes and Portageville two votes. The next Fair was held at Bowling Green, but the permanent location of the Fair was not satisfactory to rival villages. Portageville inaugurated an independent Fair, and in 1860 the County Society held their Fair at Perrysburg.

Subsequently, perhaps in 1865 or 1866, the Society purchased grounds at Tontogany and permanently located the Fair at that point. This result grew out of the countv seat contest and is understood to have been brought about bj' Perrysburg in the hope that it might result to the disadvantage of Bowling Green. The latter village naturally felt resentful and organized an Independent Society, but it proved a losing operation and was soon abandoned.

Space will not permit further record of the Society's history here, but it may not be improper to mention the fact that the fairs of Wood county have compared favorably with any exhibitions of a similar character in the state. With the richest of soil in the hands of intelligent and enterprising farmers, the products of Wood county have excited the pride of citizens of the county and commanded the admiration of strangers. At state fairs, Wood county has carried oif her full share of i^remiums, and seldom fails in a competition with other localities where she has a fair chance.

In addition to this piece of ancient history it may be said that this Society has grown and expanded with the years and its exhibitions hold their own in popularity and are visited by hundreds throughout the State. It stands in the van of all similar exhibitions in Northwestern Ohio.

Within a few years past the needle work, art and educational exhibits have proven to be a strong feature and have attracted the interests of thousands of visitors. The erection of buildings and other equipment are added from year to year, and this expansion can not fail to give added interest to all classes of our people, and thus keep pace with the progress and prosperity of all. Under the stimulus of the great and instructive exhibitions, such as have been given, new ideas are brought out, new sciences developed and better and more profitable methods learned, and we will go on in the march of progi-ess until we of to-day will be as far behind in comparison as

An Historical Crisis

As a pivotal point in the war of 1812, no battle was of greater importance than the battle of Ft. Meigs. Had Gen. Harrison been compelled to surrender, the battle of the Thames would never have been won. Perry's conflict on Lake Erie would never have been fought, the whole Northwest would have been in the hands of the British and Indians, and the frontiers along the whole continent would not have been safe for an hour against the attacks of the wily savages. Gen. Jackson might have been_ defeated at New Orleans, the British under Prevost and Ross might have won at Ogdensburg, or captured Baltimore. Gen. Brown and Gen. Scott might have lost Lundy's Lane, and still the defeats would have left the nation safe.~ But the capture of Ft. Meigs by Gen. Proctor would have lighted the torch all over the Northwest. It would have made the British masters of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. It would have enabled the allies to push on to the foot of the Alleghanies and even the Eastern states would not have been proof against the attacks of Proctor and his savages. Fort Meigs is indeed historic ground.

Hull's trace through Wood county was designated many years ago by the discovery of a large pile of gun barrels, locks, flints and bayonets near Portage. The discovery was made by a little girl in search of cows. At anotlior time the entire iron work of an army wagon was found near the same place.

The Maumee Pioneers

Written by Mrs. Kate B. Sherwood for the Reunion of the Maumee Valley Pioneers, Held in Toledo, February 22, 1880, and Recited by Mrs. Elizabeth Mansfield Irving

But The Shot Missed

On a clear, bright morning in the early spring of 1813, writes a pioneer chronicler. Gen. Harrison was standing on the earth works of Ft. Meigs. As he stood there his eye rested on scenes which have since become famous in the history of the state and nation. In the clear sunlight every foot of ground for miles around was visible. At his feet flowed the rapids and to the southward the river was lost behind the hills. Forests stretched away in every direction. Through an opening among the trees an Indian chief and a companion were seen. A sentry fired and the parties disappeared. Had the aim l)een more true and the arm of the sentry been more steady a vast amount of bloodshed and cruelty might have been averted, for that Indian chief was the notorious Tecumseh, his companion - the hated Proctor.

At one time during the siege of Fort Meigs the ammunition was nearly all gone, and Gen. Harrison offered a gill of whisky to any man who would bring in a cannon ball from outside the fort. The soldiers kept a score to see who would bring in the most, and in this manner cannon balls were obtained only to throw them over at the British batteries.

COLONEL SELDEN ALLEN DAY and his talented wife, Helen H. Gardener, will be remembered by many cf the citizens of Bowling Green, as they visited Wood county several years since, when the accomplished lady gave a lecture. As writer, author and speaker, she is widely known on account of the many books she has published of a semi-medical nature along the line of heredity. They are written in such form and language as to make them understood and appreciated by the general reader. Her success is demonstrated by the fact that the products of her pen, put out partly as fiction, occupy the reference shelves of Cornell university and other scientific libraries of natiojial reputation. All this has required much earnest study on the part of this earnest writer, to whose work is attached more than a literary value.

No less interest attaches to Colonel Day than to his talented wife and he is known from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaboard, where he commanded Fort Mason, San Francisco, for four years. His military career began in 1861, when he raised a volunteer company at the first call for troops, serving continuously in the field until the close of the war and was finally made captain for "gallant and meritorious service during the war.'' Colonel Day's record in the war with Spain was also notably brilliant. He commanded the first troops that entered Porto Eico and on July 28, 1898, ran up the American flag on the custom house, the first American flag raised over the island possessions. In addition to his career as a soldier, Colonel Day is the

Mr. Day chanced to be the first ofiicer of the prison guard at Fort Monroe, when Jefferson Davis was brought there a prisoner after the close of the war. Notwithstanding the account of Ben Perley Poore of the distinguished prisoner being put in irons, the experience of Col. Day, while he was in charge of Mr. Davis, shows that the prisoner was of a most tractable and gentlemanly disposition. Here are extracts from a letter written by Colonel Day in February, 1890, from Fort Schuyler, New York:

An article in a New York paper headed "Grateful to his Guard," alludes to kindness on my part to the distinguislicd prisoner, the late Jefferson Davis, while he was confined at Fort Monroe. While I did my duty as best I could I disclaim now, as I did then, the idea of kindness in doing what any man ought to have done for another whom the fortunes of war had placed in his keeping. The kindness in the case was rather the other way. Although I had seen four yt-ars of solid war, I was still a youugstor in the service, while his experience included the entire range of promotion from West Point cadet to Secretary of War, and extended from the fall of Eichmond back to and through the war with Mexico.

It so happened that I was the first officer of the prison guard, detailed from the regulars when we came to Fort Monroe after the close of the war, and of course I took charge of the State prisoners, Messrs. Davis and Clay. This was after their removal from the casemates to Can-oil Hall. Mr. Davis' room, or cell, was on the second floor, and adjoining it was a room occupied by the officer of the guard.

volunteer, trudging along on the march under the weight of knapsack and gun, joined in the chorus: "We'll hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree/' yet, when brought face to face and introduced to him by the officer, whom I relieved as his custodian, I need hardly say I recognized a gentleman and treated him accordingly. This was the sum total of my kindness to him. No one could have been more particular or careful that the orders governing the prison should be carried out than was the prisoner himself.

One little incident may serve to show how delicately the prisoner had to be dealt with. His cell was scantily furnished with only an iron single bedstead, a hospital mattress, a small table or stand, bucket, bowl and pitcher, and two straight-backed, hard wooden kitchen chairs - one for the prisoner and the other for any visitor he might have; and the visitors were few and far between. We, officers of the guard, used to have our easy rocking chairs brought from our quarters (nine were in the same building) to sit in during our hours of duty, sending them back when relieved. One day I offered to exchange my easy chair for one of his for the time being. "Xo !" said he, "these are the ones furnished l)y the authorities for my use, and it might not l)e right to exchange them." '"Oh,"' said I, "if need be I will speak to the General about it, and 1 have no doubt it will ])v all right." "No," he said, "don't do it on any. account," and T knew he meant it. Still. I did not feel quite easy in my rocking chair, seeing him sitting bolt upright reading day after day on his hard seat. One evening as I was about leaving, my colored servant had not come up, as was usual, to take away my things, so gathering up luy l)ooks and papers, and with hotli hands full. I naid, "Mr. Davis, John has i.ot conu' I'oi' my things, won't you be kind enough to take charge of my chair until I send for it." "Certainly," said he, and emptying one of my hands into the other, I dragged it ijito his room, came out, closed the door and bade him "good evening," just as my relief entered the outer room. The next night when I came on guard again, the prisoner was standing at the grating looking out, pipe in hand, and said after greeting, "I have your chair here." "Oh, yes !" said I, looking over my shoulder into my room, "but I see Jolin has brought up another, just keep it, won't you, until I want it." y

After Mr. Davis was given the parole of the fort, all was changed for him, as well as for us of the garrison. We officers then got more tlian "one night in bed," as the soldiers say, and the duty vv'as not so hard.

Mrs. Davis joined lier husband and they were assigned a set of officers' (juarters, which by the way, included his old "prison cell," and they lived like "white folk." With Mrs. Davis came their little daughter ("Pi"' we called her then), now "Miss Winnie," or the "Daughter of the Confederacy," as she is sometimes spoken of. With them also for a time was Mrs. Davis' sister. Miss Maggie Howell, all of Avliom made a sunny addition to the social life of the garrison in a quiet and becoming way, and they changed the atmosphere for Mr. Davis in many respects.

I could fill a volume of reminiscences and incidents connected with our involuntary intimacy during Mr. Davis' imprisonment, at Fort Monroe, but I will mention only one more in closing this letter. Mr. Davis had a grim sense of the humorous under all circumstances. On one occasion Doctor Craven, who had been the post surgeon and attended Mr.

Davis during his severe illness in the casemates, came back to Fort Monroe on a visit, and called upon the prisoner in his cell. In the course of conversation tlie doctor said, '"Do you know, Mr.

I^^' the Sentinel of December 20, 1883, Mr, Evers gave an extended account of "Uncle" Guy Xearing, as he was called by the early settlers, and "Nawash" by the Indians, from which we clip the following :

Guy Xearing in his early manhood came to the Maumee country from Cayuga county, X. Y. The date was about the year 181*, and he first located on what is now the Forest Pratt place, Perrysburg. Xearing was a remarkable man in many respects, and is better remembered and oftencr and more kindly spoken of by the early settlers than any one wlio lived on the Maumee.

In ])bysic!il make up he was a num of almost gigantic stature and strength; broad shouldered and l)()ny : be scarcely knew his own strength, and his power of endurance was something wonderful. He was a sort of local Hercules of that day, and a terror to the Indians, great and small. His qualities of head and heart were no less marked than his physical powers. He inherently loved and trusted his fellow men. He had great big bumps of generosity, and benevolence. He always had a cheering word for tbc despondent and friendless, and would divide his last piece of corn bread witb tbe needy.

that he possessed a ''rough side," and was given sometimes to fearful ebullitions of temper, and startling profanity, nor tluit he was averse occasionally to having a good time, when, more than at any other time he prided himself on his athletic powers, and feats of great strength.

One day he was in Pcrryslnirg after it had become quite a village, attending a circus, an event he never missed if he heard of it in time. He was leaning against the cage in which was a large zebra and the keeper cautioned the spectators lest the animal which was vicious, should kick some of them. In an instant Uncle Guy thrust his hand into the cage and seized the zebra's hind leg which he } lulled out between the bars and held with one hand in spite of the animal's wild struggles. Guy would have done the same with a young lion only that the keeper prevented him.

Though rather slow to anger he was like most of that kind of persons very wrathy when he did get warmed up. It is told'of him that the little toe on one of his feet had a habit of getting on top of the next toe and the friction of the boot kept it constantly sore. In a fit of anger one day he jerked off his boot, seized a chisel and mallet and off went the offending tor. to 1i-oubb^ him no more.

kind-hearted sympathetic man. If a stranger moving in, needed help to get his wagon out of the mud, Guy would take his team and assist him without pay or thanks. If a newcomer wanted to find land for a home, Guy would leave his own afEairs and go with him, board him besides, accepting no compensation, especially from the poor. If the pioneer needed help to raise his log cabin, Guy would take his men and go and help him. Anything he had or could do was always at the command of a needy neighbor or stranger. Such a man was "Uncle" Guy ISTearing. He was fitted by all his physical and mental qualities for a leading and useful man amid the rugged vicissitudes incident to pioneer life, and well he filled the bill.

Two years after ISTearing came, his family followed, wife and three children. There were two sons and a daughter. Minerva afterward married Wm. Ewing. Neptune Nearing, one of the sons, father of G. C. Nearing, now of Bowling Green, settled at an early day on the ridge and prairie three miles west of Bowling Green, or where the town now is.

Another son, Henry, who is well known and respected in the north part of the county, and who in stature and appearance, much resembles his father, lives now near White House, Lucas county.

Nearing's cabin was on the route followed by the Indians in passing up and down the river. The red men, while unusually quite peaceful, got fire water down at Hollister's trading post sometimes and some of the bucks were a trifle ugly. A big buck of some prowess and athletic pretensions who frequently, when tipsy, would boast of blood-thirsty deeds he had perpetrated on white men at the massacre at Eiver Raisin, one day entered

Nearing's cabin where he saw no one in the room but a couple of women, and drew his hunting knife and began to talk Indian and make murderous flourishes. The women were terrified, as the old buck had a satanic gleam in his eye which was threatening to behold. They concealed their terror as well as they could until one of them on some pretext slipped out and told "Uncle" Guy, who was making an ax handle in a shed near by. Guy was angry in a minute, and seizing a big Mack whip, he went round to the door and pulled the buck out, and between the sounds of the terrific blows of the whip on old Nawash's breech clout and his hideous screams, there was a small bedlam there for a little while. An account of the incident soon went up and down the river and reached the other Indians. This buck was a sort of revengeful fellow and some of Guy's neighbors did not know but he might try to retaliate, but he was too much humilated, and in a day or so came back and shook hands with Uncle Guy and said, "Me bad Injun ! me good now." Pointing to Nearing he said "You big Nawash." After that Nearing was nicknamed "Big Nawash," and quarrelsome Indian Inicks never troubled his family again.

In the latter part of 1825 Nearing took a contract to build five miles of the Maumee and Western Reserve pike, which he did not complete till 1827, and at about the same time he took five miles of the Maumee and Monroe pike.

In 1823 when the county seat was moved from Maumee to Perrysburg, there was not much to move except the little log calaboose. This, Nearing haided over for which, and the rebuilding, he received $45.

In 1824 he helped to build for Wood county its first court house, a little log structure located on Front street, Perrysburg, but torn down some years ago. In

On Christmas day 1829, Uncle Guy with his men and teams, went to Bear Eapids, since called Otsego, and built a cabin on the hill, to board and lodge his help in. He had previously bought GO acres of land there, of the Mason estate. Stickney had also built a cabin near there, to prospect for free stone, and expected to open a grind stone quarry.

By New Near's day, 1830, all was in readiness, and next day all hands began work on timber for a dam. The winter was mild and dry, and the river low. By May Xearing had a dam in, and a saw mill in operation, and by the middle of June a grist mill with one run of stone, and by September a second run of stone with bolting facilities. This was a great help and convenience to the pioneers, and people patronized the mill from a distance of 20 to 30 miles. I^earing owned the mill until the spring of 1833, when he sold it to a New Yorker named Asa Gilbert, and the mill went by the name of Gilbert's mill. Later Gilbert sold to a man named Flanders, who lost the mill by a gi'eat freshet. Flanders rebuilt it and a little later the mill passed into the hands of Samuel Clymer, who owned it until the freshets finally destroyed both mill and dam and it was never rebuilt. The old mill, the builders, and owners have all passed away and the town of Otsego, a name once familiar to all the early settlers, is a thing of the past and exists like many of the noble race of hardy men and women of that early day only in memory.

AGEEEABLE to the treaty of Brownstown in 1808, the Indian tribes ceded a tract of land for a road 120 feet wide from the foot of the Maumee Rapids to the western line of the Connecticut Eeserve, and all the land within one mile of said road on each side thereof for the purpose of establishing settlements along the same. By an act of Congress December 11, 1811, the President was authorized to appoint three commissioners to survey and mark the road. It seems this work was not satisfactory. Hence Congress passed an act

Nothing, however, seemed to have been done, for February 28, 1823, Congress passed an act granting to the State of Ohio all the land for this purpose obtained by the treaty of Brownstown. By an act of the Legislature, the State of Ohio accepted the grant made to her by the last recited act of Congress, and at once set about building the road.

In locating this road it was so laid out as to pass through Perrysburg and Lower Sandusky. The contracts were let and work commenced in the year 1824, but the road was not completed until the year 1826, if, indeed, such a road could be called completed, but such as it was, it was accepted and for years served as the thoroughfare over which the

It would be difficult to describe this "worst of all roads, and the agony bordering on despair to which the emigrant was reduced in his etfort to pass over to the land flowing with milk and honey beyond. It is said, nature is equal to all emergencies, and it proved so here. On the desert the caravan may stop at any point and pitch their tents, but travelers wading all day in mud and water, require a place of rest for the night, where they can dry as well as rest their weary limbs. On the route of this road, their wants in this respect were Avell supplied, for there was a tavern to each mile of the distance between Perrysburg and Lower Sandusky, and travelers were sometimes compelled to stay two nights at the same tavern, notwithstanding the most vigorous efforts to proceed. Things remained in this situation until the year 1838 when the state commenced to macadamize the road, which was completed in the year 1841, and from that time to the present has been one of the best roads in Ohio. From this period the real prosperity of Wood county began, and was materially aided by the completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal a few years later.

Lake Commerce

BETWEEN the years 1838 and 1810 there was transacted at Perrysburg as large a commercial business as any port on Lake Erie, excepting Buffalo and Cleveland. This business was transacted chiefly through the forwarding and commission houses of Hollister & Smith, and Bingham & Co. Through these houses nearly all the goods consigned to Northern Indiana, and a large portion of Northwestern Ohio, and Southern Michigan were forwarded by teams from Perrysburg, to the head of the rapids of the Maumee river, where they M^ere taken on keel boats, pirogues and flat boats, and transported to Fort Wayne, and thence distributed to their several destinations. These boats returning brought back furs, skins and dried meats, Avhich were brought to Perrysburg by the teams which had carried goods to the head of the rapids. From 1835 to 1840, tliis Inisiness, together with the emigration

There were between the above dates steam boats enough running from Perrys- Ijurg to Buffalo, to form a daily line had they been so arranged, besides many schooners, as the steamers could not carry all the freight offering for this port. In addition to the above, there was a daily line of steam boats running between Perrysburg and Detroit. It may be asked, what has become of this commerce ? The answer is, it still exists, but the headquarters have been removed, and other modes of transit have driven the steam boats and vessels from the river.

The last siege of Ft. Meigs lasted about eight days and was most obstinately resisted by Gen. Clay. The siege was finally abandoned liy Gen. Proctor after 300 men and officers had been killed and wounded. No less than six wagon loads of balls and iinexploded shells were picked up and utilized by the Americans.

An Amusing Incident

Among the earliest lawyers residing in Wood county may be named John C. Spink and Willard V. Way. The latter mentions in his notes a ludicrous incident that occurred to Spink when on his way from Wooster to Perrysburg to commence the practice of law. As showing the condition of travel through the Black Swamp, and its inconveniences of transit it is worthy of note. It was on this occasion that he made liis first or maiden speech as a lawyer.

Spink was on his way in company with a young preacher, who like himself, had left his home for the first time. He stated that the roads were simply terrible, being like a sea of mud and water. At that time many immigrants were moving from the eastern parts of Ohio to places further west. It was frequently the case that they could not advance with their wagons more than two or three miles a day, and they would return at night to the same tavern they had left in the morning. Spink and the preacher had left what is now Fremont in the morning and reached a small log tavern at Sugar Creek a few miles west late in the evening. They found the house crowded with moving families, with apparently no room for them to find a bed. At that time there were only two beds in the house. They could not well return neither could they advance with the chance of getting better accommodation, as they would have to flounder in the mud. The landlord, however, was equal to the emergency. He did not want to lose two guests so prominent as the lawyer and the preacher and assured them that he would give them a good bed. They took their supper and on getting into the sitting room found that the movers had all disappeared. How this had been done they could not tell. That, however, was soon revealed. They were shown to the only spare bed in the house which was located on the off side from the door, and ihey discovered there were ten females and four males extended on the floor covered by tlieir own bed cbithes, he and the preacher making tlie number sixteen in what was but a small room. They picked their way through the sleepers as best they could, when getting to the bed side they found just light enough from the burning wood in the fire place opjwsite them as to show everything in the room. It appeared to them as if all eyes were upon them, and they were at a loss to know how they could get into bed. The preacher suggested to Spink that he would take off his coat and that he Spink should hold it as a screen between them and the floor occupants. That was speedily done, the preacher jumped into bed on the off side and covered himself up, and left Spink in the lurch. This took him by surprise - he was at a loss what to do. He could not go to bed with his clothes on him as they were wet and covered with mud. He concluded that as a lawyer he should have to make his living by his wits, and he might as well begin then and there as at any time, and make a speech, yes, a maiden speech, supposing that they were as wide awake as himself. His speech was brief and to the point, he said:

"Ladies, this is my bed, and there is nothing to screen me from your observation while I get into it. This is my first introduction to a new country life, and probably it is yours, as you appear to be moving, I will therefore take it as a great favor if you will kindly duck your heads under the clothes while I get into bed." All heads were instantly covered, he got into bed and concluded that he had made a great fool of himself, for they were all of them asleep, and he had waked them up by his speech. This he over after det-lared to bo his maiden speech as a lawyer.

criminal lawyer, his reputation extending throughout the northwest. The late James Murray of Sidney, Ex-Attorney General of Ohio, was a student at law with him. Spink died in 1853, in the zenith of his fame.

Recovering A Stolen Horse

In July, 1812, my brother bought a very fine horse, which had been driven with the army from Dayton. It was a large, elegant dapple grey, and he rode it acting as the aid of Gen. Hull at the surrender. Soon after the British took the town the Indians stole the horse, saddle and bridle from my brother's stable. He weait to the store next morning looking very much down at the loss of his fine horse. There he met Jack Brandy. Jake says, "Harry Hunt, what's the matter with you? You have a very long face this morning." Says my brother: "Jack, the Indians have stolen my big horse!" Jack savs: "Dam rascal! Maybe me find liim. Give me some money, some meat and some bread." My brother gave him $5 in silver and what else he wanted. Jack mounted his pony and started up the Eiver Eouge.

trail, and discovered that one of their horses had large iron shoes. He followed the track and that evening camped with the party. After eating, they wanted to know where he was going. He said he was directed to go to Chicago to call the Indians in to fight the Long Knives. They told him they had a very fine American horse. Jack says, "My horse is tired. If he is a good horse maybe in the morning me swap with you," and added, shaking his silver in his pouch, "and give some boot." In the morning, after an early breakfast. Jack told them to put the saddle and bridle on the horse. "Well me try him, see if he is a good horse." He mounted, and it was the last they saw of Jack or the horse. We were standing in front of my brother's store about sundown the next day, when we saw an Indian coming up the road on horseback. It proved to be Jack on my brother's grey horse. When he jumped off and delivered him to my brother, he said, "Harry Hunt, you see now, Jack Brandy can't lie."

THE first white settler in what is now Liberty township was Collister Haskins, in the spring of 1824. In the following September, with the help of kind Indians and friends from Waterville, he built a log cabin on the west side of the established route of the Findlay pike and on the south bank of the Portage river, and moved in with his family, who had resided in Waterville.

Let the mind of the reader imagine Wood county one vast unbroken forest of virgin timber, without a white inhabitant ( except as their cabins now and then dotted tlie bank of the Maumee river), the stillness of which was only marred by the presence of the red man who built his canij) lire unmolested, and where the wolf, deer, bear and other animals roamed in their natural state; a wilderness impenetrated by a single well defined road; a wilderness containing 390,000 acres, in the center of which is one solitary cabin, with none other nearer on the north than Waterville, thirteen miles distant, and none on the south nearer than Fort Findlay, "twenty miles away," and they have the home of CoUister Haskins in 1834. And oft* was the time of an evening, when this solitary white man of the interior, with his little family, would be gathered about his cal)in lire that the Indians would congregate about him and curiously survey his surroundings and as they became more familiar, converse as best they could upon topics of mutual interest. In Mr. Haskins' family besides himself and wii'e, were thi-e;' daughters, Sarah, Wealthy and Cynthia, and one son, Henry. Sarah was the first white cliild born in Liberty township.

Jacques only remained about three years, for in the spring of 1833 John Sargent moved in from Eoss county and entered the land upon which Jacques had located, paid him for his improvements and moved into the cabin he (Jacques) had built. In Mr. Sargent's family were three sons and two daughters.

The next settler in Liberty was Geo. Mercer, the first of the large Mercer settlement in that township, to locate there, who came from New Lisbon, also in the spring of 1833, and entered the land upon which he made his home. He came with two yoke of oxen and a wagon by the way of Woodville, making the trip of 200 miles from New Lisbon in 11 days. From Woodville he came up the Portage river on a road cut through a few days previous by Adam Phillips, who settled in Portage township, and the next day cut a road from there to Mr. Haskins', making the trip from Woodville in two days. His family stayed at Mr. Haskins' and he immediately set to work with the assistance of Peter Johnson and Adam Phillips of Portage township, and Mr. Haskins, and soon had a pole cabin built on his own land and moved in with his family. The same spring he "'broke up" 15 acres of prairie land belonging to Mr. Haskins and planted it to corn; using five stout yoke of oxen and a big old-fashioned wooden plow to break up the prairie and says he raised about half a crop. He raised a family of nine children.

The advent of new settlers into this community was now not so infrequent and on the first day of April, 1834, there were eight families in Liberty, as follows : CoUister Haskins, John Sargent, Thos. Cox, Geo. Mercer, Caleb Mercer, Horace Cady, Henry Groves, John Groves and James Birdsell, and late in the same year came Henry Dubbs, John McMahan, Joseph Mitchell, Wm. Mercer and John Mercer. Wm. Mercer was the head and father of the Mercer family, which settlenient in Liberty numbers nearly 200.

A sufficient number of settlers having moved in, a petition was presented to the commissioners on March 20. IS:)."), lor the organization of a township, to be called Liberty. The petition was granted and the first township election held on the first Monday in April, 1835, which resulted in the election of the following officers : Trustees, James Birdsc4l Henry Groves and Geo. Ellsworth ; clerk, Eeuben Strait; treasurer, Hugh Arbuckle; Justices of the peace, James Birdsell and John Groves. The poll books of this election contains the names of 22 electors.

gentleman. He was in the stock business in company with a Messrs Eeed & Bishop of Urbana. During the year he was serving the township as treasurer, he sold a quantity of the partnership stock, pocketed the money and "migrated." At the time he left he also took $28.00 of the township funds, fortunately all there was in the treasury at that time. Mr. John McMahan and Henry Dubbs were his l)ondsmon and jointly made up the same to the townsliip, but not without some pointed remarks about the defaulter. John Sargent was elected his successor the spring following and held the office I'or twenty rears. - C. W. E.

Organization Of Ohio

PUESUANT to a proclamation of the Territorial Governor, members of a constitutional convention assembled at Chillicothe, November 1, 1802, and during this session of 29 days formed the first constitution of the state of Ohio as the state was named.

The Bill of Rights, which is a part of the constitution, includes, among other things, substantially the provisions of the ordinance of 1787; but to two provisions of this Bill of Rights particular attention is called, viz, to sections 25 and 26.

The first, section 25 provides, "That no law shall be passed to prevent the poor, in the several counties and townships within the state, from an equal participation in the schools, academies, colleges and universities within this state, which are endowed, in whole or in part from the revenue arising from donations made by the United States, for the support of schools and colleges; and the doors of the said schools, academies and universities shall be open for the reception of scholars, students and teachers of every grade, without any distinction or preference whatever, contrary to the intent for which said donations were made."

The second, section 2G, provides, "That laws shall be passed by the legislature which shall secure to each and every denomination of religious societies, in each surveyed townsliip, which is now or may hereafter be formed in the state, an equal participation, according to their number of adherents, of the profits arising from the land granted by congress for the support of religion, agreeable to the ordinance or act of congress making the appropriation."

As To Hull'S Trace

Hull's trace in Portage after crossing the stream, turned its course west of north, passing through the village of Portage near the old ashery, M. E. church and Quaintances' lime kiln, passing north on tlio limestone ridge, crossing the east

]iart of the farm owned by Noah Foltz, also the premises of Jas. Taborn (deceased), whieli was the original Parshall lot. Parshall had a large family, all girls. These young women and their parents had been living in their log cabin near tlie northwest corner of Portage township. One day, while Sarah was taking a stroll east of their cabin, she walked out on a fallen tree in the top of which she found a load of muskets. The news soon spread that "Sail" Parshall had found 40 muskets. (Quite a prize, over $200 worth if they had not been damaged.) Hull's trail here crossed through the point of timber between the Little Prairie and another that lay in the southwest corner of Center township, passing close to the west of the original John Taborn cabin across the original Thomas Rigly lot, and so on towards the Pernot farm. The loss of the army trail near the Haskins saw mill, and the mistake made by S. B. Aljbott and others, was the mistaking our pioneer trail down stream past the "Aborginal Grave Yard" for Hull's trace. The same is true of the pioneer trail or road made by John Gallatin and others across the east end of the Sizer farm, a branch pioneer road into that of Hull's army road.

The Lost Child

AN old pioneer gives, in the Weston Avalanche, the following somewhat sensational account of the search for a lost child in the wilds of Wood county, seventy-five years ago:

The child was that of Frederick Frankfauder, who lived in Bloom township, in this county. In the year 1835, some time in the month of November of that year, on Sunday (as was their custom), Mr. Frankfauder and wife went to their place of worship, and did not return home until late in the evening. During their absence the children were gathering hickory nuts, under a tree standing in the fence corner close by the woods. There were a number of children on both sides of the fence, and the little girl, five years and six months old, was with them gathering nuts, and probably on the side of the fence next to the woods. The children did not miss her until the parents came home at night. You can imagine the feelings of that family when they found that little Margaret was truly lost, night on hand and very dark. They sent to the nearest neighbors for help in

Then they sent word to Ft. Ball, Tiilin, Findlay and Perry sburg, to the search. They came with their teams, feed and provisions, to assist. The company so engaged, numbered about two hundred and fifty persons. About the third day they found tracks north of Woodbury, crossing Hull's trail, that they knew to be her tracks certainly, as a little dog was with her, and they saw his tracks also.

Then the excitement grew intense; they continued the search west and north of the windfall, and bordering on the prairie, but found no sign of her, till the seventh day, when they found tracks in the windfall south of John McMahan's. There she lost her little dog, she afterwards said, "as I lay by a fire I saw a big dog come and they took Penny and killed him." They were wolves. Then all began to despair but the parents. Some left for home while others continued the search.

Reader, pause and think ! How must the parents have felt, when all began to despair; when a fruitless search was kept up for eight or ten days, when all gave up in despair, but a praying father, who said that his trust was in the Lord; that He would restore the child to his arms in answer to his unceasing prayers. What hope was there? The chikl gone ten days, in a wilderness like the Black Swamp forty years ago, plenty of Indians, bears, and wolves; and the worst of all, the wild hog.

On the eleventh day they sent a man around by Portage, up the Ellsworth ridge, then to Hutchinson's in Milton, and to Major McMillen's. Just before he arrived, Orlando McMillen and Samuel Clark got home from hunting cattle, and McMillen asked his mother if Indian children had blue eyes; she said, "jSTo, why do you ask?'' He said that he and Mr. Clark had seen one that had blue eyes, and they gave it a biscuit, and it ate it greedily. They thought it an Indian child, as they could not understand her language. I will just say she was German, and did not understand English.

This report of the lost child explained the whole matter to them. Mr. G. Alberty and Mr. McMillen started at once in pursuit of the child, over to John Dubbs'. There they saw a man by the name of Henderson Carrothers, who was chopping in a clearing for Dubbs; he said that he saw a child playing on a log, on the north side of the clearing, an hour or so ago, Ijut thought that it was an Indian chikl. So they all went to look after the child and in a few minutes they found her in the woods on the north side of the clearing, and they soon saw that she was the long lost child, as she had deep blue eyes.

You can imagine the joy and rejoicing when they found her; they took her to Mr. Dubbs' and sent word at once to her bereaved parents, who got word in the fore part of the night. You can't imagine how the parents and friends passed that night, as there was joy mixed with doubt. Before daylight Mr. Mahlon Whitaker and Mr. Frankfauder were plunging through the woods to Mr. Dubbs'. They made the distance in double quick time, and found the child all right, but quite wild and strange.

The little one had wandered 14 miles for 11 days amid the terrors of the Black Swamp. That child lived to be a woman, was married and passed away some years ago.

Jim Slater'S Curse

THE following weird, uncanny incident came in the experience of Mr. C. W. Evers, during his term of sheriff in the later sixties, when the county seat was at Perrysburg. The raving agony of Slater, crazed with his losses, his bitterness in being ruined by a crime of which he was undoubtedly innocent, together with the curse he pronounced upon the place and all connected with his downfall - these are the facts. The retribution that followed those connected with Slater's persecution and the calamitous incidents that have attached to the vicinity of Bairdstown, so strikingly described by the facile pen of Mr. Evers, strongly reminds one of Hamlet, when he says :

"Say, my boy," said an ex-sheriff to a reporter some years ago, "do you believe in retribution through Providential agency here on this earth, for sins done by the sons of Adam? If you do, pos-

"Well, these late calamities to the town and the mystery of their origin has set me to thinking of the place when there was no town there; and if one was inclined to be superstitious it would not be very difficult to believe that evil spirits come back from the dominions of the dead and curse the haunts of living men Avith deeds of vengeance."

Old .lim was not considered very bright, or rather, some of his neighbors doubted at times if his mind - reason - was rightly balanced. He was rough and uncouth in manner, inclined to be irritable and violent, when ho imagined he was being imposed upon ; but with his family, worked hard, and lived poorly. In this uphill struggle, his wife, who was an estimable woman, far above Slater, sickened and died. Soon after this Slater's misfortunes began. William McMurray, a neighbor, put in a piece of wheat on Slater's land on shares. At harvesting. Slater objected to the grain being hauled off the farm for threshing. A sharp war of words and much feeling grew out of this trivial affair. Slater in his ungovernable anger, swore that the wheat would never do his neighbor any good. Possibly he took the case into justice court. I believe he did, and got non-suited or beaten.

Slater, who Avas not a favorite among his neighbors, was of course set upon at once among the gossips, as the instigator, if not the direct agent in burning the stacks; all because of the constructive threat made. No other evidences coukl be found against him except that assi'rtion, made in anger; and on this slender tliread and a good deal of prejudice, he was arrested, and tried before a justice, and I believe bound over to court. David Hays of Fostoria, who made some pretensions to a slight acquaintance with Blackstone, pettifoggetl Slater's case.

At the next term of common ])leas court, Slater was indicted; the late George Strain being the prosecuting attorney. After heavy expense in lawyer fees and other ways, Slater was acquitted. J^avid Hays and Dodge & Tyler defended his case.

Public sentiment was divided as to Slater's guilt, and strangely too, McMurray, who with Slater was the loser by the iire, did not believe Slater guilty, though at a loss to explain the origin of the fire, which was clearly the work of an incendiary. This prosecution, or persecution as Slater termed it, was the cause of his ruin. The lawyers got notes, secured by mortgages on his farm, and an old creditor in Tiffin, with a mortgage of four or iive hundred dollars, got uneasy and Ijegan proceedings of foreclosure. This scared small creditors and they began a crusade in justice court against the unfortunate man, probably on the old rule, -'kick a man when he's down.'' Slater tried to fight them off. He was combative and Hays, his lawyer, was a ready servant to help him, but alas! in deeper, in nearly every instance. At last and not long either, the evil day came and the sheriff with an order of sale in which were marshaled all the liens, came with appraisers to value the property. I can see Slater yet as he sat on a log near his cabin, sullen and dispirited while the appraisers near by were trying to fix upon a value. He scarcely spoke during the time we were there. He asked if he could take off the gi'owing crops. He said he had not slept nights because of this trouble and the only liope he had was that none of the neighbors would bid on the farm when it was offered.

A day or so after the sale, as I sat at the office table writing (this was while the court house was in Perrysburg) I heard a shuffling step at the door, at my back. I turned my head and said "Good morning, Mr. Slater!" for it was he. He said nothing, but silently took a chair near the table. After a little he said, "Sheriff, did my place sell?" "Yes." "Who bought it?" I told him. He said, "I heard so, and came clear here to see if it was true." He dropped his head on his arm on the table and trembled as ,.tJiough suffering agonizing bodily pain. did not speak for many minutes. I felt so much moved by his distress that 1 could scarcely go on with my work. I had from the first believed him innocent of the crime which l^rought this trouble on him. I had had little experience in detecting criminals, but from the first I felt that Slater was the unfortunate victim of circumstances which almost completely screened the real perpetrator of the crime, whoever it might be.

After his agitation had subsided a little, I told him there was yet time to save his place - that he should not give it up so - that he could probably borrow money to cancel the judgment liens and secure the lender by a mortgage on the land as soon as the liens were off.- That if these liens were paid before the first day of court, the judge would not confirm the sale.

I have no friends. All are down on me. No one has a good word for me; even my lawyer is against me; I am robbed of my place and driven from my home. There is no law, divine or human, that will justify this robbery. If there is a just God, he will curse the place to the last end of eternity as a warning. That farm will never do John Baird any good. Me has been against me. He wanted my place; he has got it, and the curse of a wronged man goes with the place and all who have had a hand in robbing me."

I do not pretend to give Slater's exact words, nor could I possibly give even a faint expression of his intense agitation, bitterness and despair. Words of encouragement or kindness were alike useless. The fires of hope and ambition were quenched - drowned forever in his breast.

On his old farm is Bairdstown. When the B. & 0. railroad located its line through there, John Baird with the enterprise .characteristic of himself, laid out a town and beside giving it his name, promoted the growth with all his energy. He built a fine flouring mill, hotel, etc., and the town grew rapidly.

About this time misfortunes, one after another began to stop at Baird's door. His downward career, as did Slater's and as do most men's, commenced in litigation. Law suit after law suit harrassed him. Creditors pressed him from every side. Judgments and executions disturbed his sleep until he did not know which way to turn. One or two of his sons became imsteady in habits, being a hindrance instead of a help to the father in his troubles. Next in the line of bad luck his fine mill burned, attributed at the time to incendiarism, the first I believe in that line of calamities which later on have so frequently been visited upon the ill-fated town. Finally as if in sheer desperation at the bootless fight he was making against fate, Baird gathered up what little he could from the wreck, and taking his estimable wife and daughter, went to Arkansas and engaged in hotel keeping. But fate still had misfortunes in store for him. His daughter sickened and died and later on the final blow, the loss of his beloved but heartbroken wife. Stripped of family and property, broken in spirit and bowed with age, Baird returned to Oliio, where with relatives, in the southern part of the state, if living, he makes his home.

David Hays, Slater's lawyer, fell, too, into hard lines. He was at one time the owner of much property, but fortune, ever tickle in her ways, turned against him and, like Baird, for a time he felt like "ealling upon the rocks to cover him"" from the clutch of remorseless creditors.

But at tlio last, by a lucky turn in the tide - a sudden advance in some city property he owned - he reached shore with something saved from the wreck, though, in the meantime, he had the sad misfortune to lose his wife - a most worthy woman - who died bereft of her reason, her death having been preceded only a short time by that of their only daughter.

died, afterwards in an insane asylum. What has been the fate of the jurors who indicted the unfortunate man, I have not inquired. In fact, I have not cared to pursue the unpleasant subject further, lest the truth might reveal a like sad state of affairs clear through.

It is a little singular, too, that, with rare exceptions, nearly every enterprise, nearly every business man, no matt<'r how worthy, starting in Bairdstown, has met with disaster or ill-success, sooner or later.

The recent fires, from whatever mysivrious cause, are, to all appearances, but the greater culmination of misfortunes, of which previous ones have been as but muttering warning of the slumbering volcano beneath.

It is but proper to state here upon the authority of Frank W. Dunn, who relatvil the fact to me only a day or so sfnce, that a woman now living in Kansas, but who lived near Slater at the time of the stack burning, wrote a full account of the burning and the_ft, to William McMurlay before his death. Her statement corroborated as it was by circumstances, was doubtless true and was the first positive testimony as to Slater's innocence of the crime. But it came too late. The woman as is well shown in her letter, liad good reasons for not daring to reveal her storv at the time.

A Ten Years' Struggle

IT has ever been the experience that in every instance involving the removal of a county seat from one locality to another, strife and opposition have been engendered, and the removal of the county seat from Perrysburg to Bowling Green was no exception to this fact. Probably no removal was ever productive of more intense feeling or more bitter denunciation on both sides in that memorable contest. Ananias held full sway, and to such an extent that enmities were provoked and friendships estranged. For the time the prosperity of the county was measurably checked, and the turmoil tended to weaken the popu-

Fifty years have passed away since that time and many of our older citizens still rememljer that prolonged struggle. It began in iSlir). and was r.ot d'.'fiMitcly and pennanently settled until in the fall of 18 T5. The first election was held in 1866, and resulted in favor of the removal from Perrysburg to Bowling Green. The citizens of Bowling Green entered into a 1)ond to build as good a court house and jail at Bowling Green as those at Perrysburg were at the time they were built, on condition that the material of the old buildings at Perrysburg and the lots on which they stood be given to the removal interest. If the conditions were fulfilled the county was not to be taxed for court house and jail.

But the people were taxed, and under the following circumstances: The commissioners stepped in and demanded to be heard as the guardians of the county's interests. They changed the location from the one chosen where the foundation could be laid on the solid rock; the size of the court house, under their direction, was also enlarged. They demanded that the cotmty required better and more commodious buildings than those at Perrysburg. The removal interest adopted the suggestions and demands of the county commissioners and built accordingly. The commissioners also demanded manv d !i t improvements and proposed to pay for the same out of the county treasury. They took into account the increasing business of a large, rich and rapidly developing county, and their action was taken after a confer;'nco with a number of the best and most judicious men of the county. None of these improvements were contemplated by the signers of the bond. For these improvements the people were taxed $3,006, complete arrangements to carry the old material from Perrysburg to Bowling Green, but were then prevented by the court, invoked by the anti-removal interest, and they never received one cent from the sale of the property of the county at Perrysburg. Thus this condition on which the bond hinged was not available.

The auditor was then directed to advertise for bids under the authority of the commissioners, and an entire new jail was built for the contract price of $14,506, which was $494 less than the Bowling Green bond, and much less than the estimate made of the county buildings at Perrysburg. Thus there was no bad faith whatever on the part of the removal interest as was charged in the heat of that contest.

Judge Phelps, probate judge, .removed his office from Perrysburg as soon as the court house at Bowling Green was ready, transacting business there a year or more before the other offices were removed in 1870.