Hartford Township

Snow'S History Of

Simison, who is yet living, attended this sale and tells us that some of the best locations sold for as much as twenty dollars apiece. This was considered as an enormous price when good land could be bought for from five dollars to six dollars an acre in some other parts of the township. Some of the purchasers proceeded to improve their lots and built cabin houses. All went well until the spring freshets of the Wabash river. Then the town was covered with water two or three feet deep and the residents of James Beauchamp's town moved out in canoes. The head of one of these families is said to ha\"C been a Mr. Runyon, who got out of bed to find the water a foot deep in his house with his dog perched upon a pile of wood near the fireplace. Further efforts to populate "Jim Town" were abandoned. Some of the earliest residents of this township were: Robert Simison, who came first to the county in 1833; Daniel Miller, John Deffenbaugh, Josephus Martin, Salem Clendening, Daniel Morrow, John Pontius and James Glendening. The mills and stores were an important item in the days of settlement. There was a water mill built at the present site of Buena Vista along about 1845 by James McDowel, who subsequently moved to Jay county. This was a saw mill, with buhrs for grinding grain. Ephraim Parker bought this mill and sold it to Emanuel Neaderhouser, who, in 1S57, built the first grist mill in southern Adams county. This year the town of Buena Vista was laid out by Robert Sim-son on the west ban!: of the Wabash river, in section 3. This town is situated on the Fort Recovery & Huntington road, the original plat contained sixteen lots and nine outlots and the plat was recorded on ihc 25th day of March, 1857. An addition of twenty-six lots was made to this town on the nth day of December, 1S69. The lands of Robert Simison lie principally south of Buena Vista. His log cabin was one of the earliest residence buildings, if not'the first, in the township. The first residence built in Buena Vista stood at the street corner of Meridian and Taylor streets, where the Crabbs brick store building is located. It was built by David Beamer. Christian Sowers was the first storekeeper, and he was succeeded by the Crabbs store in a frame building on Taylor street and Fort Recover}' road. The Joseph and Perry Crabbs brick store building was erected in 1865. The brick for this building were made on the Elihu Sheldon farm, north of town, by Robert Niblick. The first tavern stand in this town was built by Jacob Johntry at the crossing of the river road and the Fort Recovery road at the northeast of the village. Before the railroads were built through Adams and Wells counties Buena Vista was quite a trading point. The grist mill was a great benefit to the merchants of the town. In this village several boys, as the Allisons, the Morrows and the Huffmaiis, as storekeepers, became wealthy men. This town and Vera Cruz were commonly selected as the points at which joint political conventions were held to nominate candidates for prosecutors and representatives for Adams and Jay or Wells and Adams counties.

At the present time this village has one tile block house, one brick residence, two brick store buildings and a large four-room brick graded school building, erected by Trustee Fred Hoffman in l8e>i ; two frame church houses; one boarding house, one res- taurant, one drug store, owned and operated 1 v Peter Huffman for the last forty years; two general stores, one hardware and agricultural implement store, one blacksmith shop, one doctor, Dr. J. T. McKean ; one shoe store, one grist mill, one telephone station, and three saloons. In 1876 the tworoom graded school building was built. This was the only two-room school building in thesouth end of the county at that time. The Odd Fellows' block, a two-story brick building, was built in 1S93. The Evangelical Association built the first church house in this village in 1869. Some of its earliest leaders were : Emanuel Neaderhouser, John Baumgartner, Andrew Schlagenhauff and Frederick Wechter. The Baptist church organization first had its church building north of town, but disposed of that property to the Christian church organization and in 1879 built a frame church building in Buena Vista. A.mong some of the aggressive members of this congregation were: Timothy Fouts, Peter Huffman, Wilson H. Shepherd, Marti;: Kizer and George Simison. There were several church buildings in this township much earlier than these. The Green Wood Methodist church, erected in section 10, southwest of Buena Vista in 1S57, and the Hartford Methodist church, about the center of section 26, on the old angling road through the John Pontius farm, was built in 1859. These were both frame churches and were in constant use for about thirty years. I he Union chapel is a Methodist church, situated in section 21, and is also a frame building. The first school house in Hartford township, was a log building that was lueaeed in section 15 and known as the Out- I eh school house, and was built in 1S46. ^eartj all of the first school houses in this township were log. The Watson school house, in section 34, was built in 1S4S. The Scott school house and the Bolds were among the first built. The first frame school house in the township was erected by Trustee Daniel Miller and his two associate trustees in 1854. This was located north of Buena Vista, in section 3, and was known as the Miller school house. The first brick residence in this township was built in section 26 by ex-County Commissioner George Pontius in 1871. The oil field has covered the southern part of this township and brick houses have sprung up like magic. In 1893 the "barker" attached to the pumping machinery made melody to the ears of those who were drawing large oil royalties. The George W. Shoemaker well was drilled in about 1892. This was a good producer and the tide flowed in for about ten years and made some men wealthy in a short time.

The estimated population of Hartford township in 1907 is 1,790: the school enumeration 448 ; and the number of voters is 358. Those who have been election inspectors and township trustees are : John Pine, 1S46; John Brown, 1847 ; Peter Kizer, 184.8: John Stauffer, 1849; Daniel Morrow, 1850; James Clendening, 1851; John Brown, 1852; John Watson, 1853; Daniel Miller, 1854; Josephus Martin, 1855; Daniel Miller, 1S58; E. W. Reed, 1859; Daniel Miller, i860; E. W. Reed, 1861 ; Martin Kizer, 1865; John Chrisman, 1S66; Daniel Morrow, 1867; Peter Huffman, 1S6S; Lewis C. Miller, 1876: Eugene Morrow. 1878; Emanuel Neaderhouser, Jr.. 1S8-?; L. O. Bears, 1886; Frederick Hoffman, 1S88; William Hall, 1892; Samuel Opliger, 1898; Moses Augspurger, 1904.