Wilmington Township

Wilmington Township

The township of Wilmington lies in the east central portion of the county, and is bounded as follows : On the north by Franklin township, on the east by Stafford, on the south by Concord, and on the west by Grant and Union. S. B. Ward, a pioneer minister, thus described the township: "It is a second rate township in quality of soil, taking it together, yet it has some first rate land in it, especially along 'Big Run,' a considerable stream running across the north side of the township. For fine oak timber, there is no township in the county that surpasses it." The timber, except the second growth, is largely cleared away now, and the land has developed into very fair agricultural ground. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Vandalia of the Pennsylvania system, and the Wabash railroads all cross the township, meeting at Butler, in the northeast corner.

Organization

Wilmington township was organized on September 5, 1837, at the first regular meeting of the board of commissioners. The board then consisted of Peter Fair. Samuel Widney and A. F. Beecher, who "ordered that the congressional township 34 north, range 14 east, be and it is hereby, organized as a civil township, to be known by the name of Wilmington Township." They also directed "that Byron Bunnel be appointed supervisor for the road district No. I, comprising the whole of Wilmington township, and all the lands residing in the said township shall be allotted to the same district." In March. 1838, fractional township 34 north, range 15 east (now Stafford), was added to Wilmington for judicial and civil purposes, and a new election was ordered the first Monday in April following, at the house of Ira Allen, with Milton A. Hull as inspector.

Early Settlement

Wilmington township \\as not settled in the year 1835, no white man yet having seen fit to throw up a cabin there. The year 1836 saw the building of the first log cabin by Byron Bunnel ; Mr. Lonsberry's house was the next, and George Egnew's next. In 1837 these cabins were in the portion allotted to Wilmington when the county was organized and township lines established. Two of these cabins were situated on the Newville and Auburn road, and one was called at an early date the Bunnel place.

The first resident settler of the township was undoubtedly Ira Allen, who came in the very early months of 1837 and pitched a cloth tent on an oak hill on the east side of the township. In that tent he remained several weeks, until he constructed a commodious house, composed of oak logs hewed square and notched down closely. His hardships in clearing his land and building a home for himself made him a broken man. As an instance of these hardships that ruined his health, the following is quoted verbatim from "Pioneer Sketches :"

"Some time in October, 1837, Mr. Allen went out to hunt his cattle, of which he had a number, and after finding them far out in the apparently interminable woods and swamps to the north and west, he started home with them. On the way one of his work oxen mired down. After laboring hard in the mud and water for some time, - the other cattle in the meantime getting scattered in the woods again - he started for his tent, but failed in reaching it, and lay out through the night, cold and frosty as it was, and wet and muddy as he was. The next day John N. Miller, an early settler of the same township, while making his way through the wilderness to the land he had entered, heard someone hail him away out where he was not looking for a human being, and on going where the voice came from, he found Mr. Allen and his boys laboring to get the ox out of the mire, it having lain there all night and until the afternoon of the next day. They had forgotten to bring an ax, and had to cut a pry by bending down a sapling and cutting it off with a pocket knife, while the fibers of the wood were thus strained. Getting this pry under the beast they finally raised him from his sunken condition, but had to roll him several times over before he could find firm footing."

The large block house erected by Mr. Allen was long used as a meetinghouse as well as a dwelling, and here in an early day was held many a prayer meeting or Sunday worship.

Broadway, Butler

Charles Handy, Dr. Sawyer and several more. The pioneers hegan to get within striking distance of each other, as it were, and means of social intercourse were established, thus making the nights something more than dark, gloomy spaces of time, with the mingled howls of the wind and prowling wolves. Charles Handy was the first blacksmith in the township, and settled at what was later called Handy's Corners. Amos Lonsberry was the first white child born in the township. At the close of 1837 twenty-two families were settled within the boundaries of Wilmington township. The first marriage was that of Dan Coats and Mary Allen. Washington Robinson performed the ceremony in January, 1836.

A Hard Winter

From the pen of Rev. S. B. Ward the following is taken: "The winter of 1842-3 will long be remembered by the early settlers of the county, and especially those of Wilmington township. In 1841 and 1842 quite a number of settlers of small means came in, and they had raised but little to live on when the 'hai'd winter' set in. The fall had been fine, but about the first of No\'ember a light snow fell, which mostly went off soon after. On the 17th of the month it set in cold, with high winds and some snow. The snow continued to increase from time to time, until it was nearly two feet deep on the level, with occasional showers and hard freezes, so that it was almost impossible to get about. It snowed a little every day but one through February, and March came in with the severity almost of a polar winter. By this time most of the hay and grain was consumed, and hogs and cattle were daily dying all over the country from stravation. Some settlers lost all their hogs and most of their cattle before feed came in the spring. Very many had to depend on the browse of the tree tops as feed for their cattle for the last two months of cold weather. For the last few days of March, however, even this provison of nature was cut off. When all were anxiously looking for the opening of spring, heart-sick in view of the sufferings of the poor dumb animals, the sleeper in his lone cabin in the midst of the forest was awakened on the night of the 27th of March by the continual crashing of the tree tops, which did not cease until day dawned, when to the dispirited immigrant was revealed the cause of all the commotion of the night. "It had been raining - freezing as it fell - until the tree tops w^ere broken under their load of ice. That day and for several days it seemed that the cattle must all die: for when the trees were cut down for browse, the small twigs, (10) encased in a hard coat of ice, would break off, with the ice adhering, and mingle with the snow. Besides this, the crust on the snow was so thick and hard that the cattle could hardly get about. The wild animals also suffered almost as much, seemingly, as the domestic ones. It was nothing unusual to see squirrels so reduced as to be easily caught by hand. On election day (first Monday in April) snow was one foot deep in the thick woods, and it was good sleighing on most of the roads. That week, however, sent the snow in another form to Lake Erie or the Gulf of Mexico, and in a few weeks herbage began to appear, and hope sprang up again in the settler's heart."

First Officers

The first election was held at Ira Allen's, on the farm afterwards owned by William Crooks. Says a pioneer : "As our township was in limited circumstances as to population, and most of them had the ague, and it took two of them to make a shadow and even then they could not go to the polls, we had to apply to Stafford township to help us fill up the board, and both townships held elections together at the above place and elected the several officers. Among them were William P. Means, for county assessor, and Mr. Lonsberry, for school commissioner. I don't recollect the balance of the officers that were elected in those days; we had not much use for squires nor constables, but I think Ariel Walden was elected associate judge for the court of this county. The first justice of the peace elected was a Mr. Pearsons."

Early justices of the peace were : Charles D. Handy, Moses L. Pierson, Daniel B. Mead, P. B. Nimmons, John Moore, Dr. Madden, Ezra Dickinson, Richard Worth, L. A. Benedict and H. C. Colgrove. Constables were : Daniel Coats, H. N. Mathews, Jesse Wood, William K. Streight, William Mathews, William Campbell, Edsall Cherry, Noble Cherry, Peter Kester, A. F. Packer, Hiram Freeman, N. W. Delano, Isaac Eakright, W. D. Armstrong, Joseph Norris and John Weaver. Trustees prior to i860 were: John Helwig, M. L. Pierson, Collins Roberts, Joseph Nodine, Joseph Totten, Asa Sawyer, S. B. Ward, Thomas Fosdick, E. W. Fosdick, Edgar Treman, William Maxwell, Nelson Smurr, Andrew Smith, William H. Thomas, Dr. Madden, Lot B. Coe, N. G. Sewall, G. i\Taxwell. ^^^ K. Streight, P. B. Nimmons, W. D. Armstrong and A. Cochran.

In 1S80 the population of Wilmington township was one tliousand five hundred and twenty-nine: in 1890. three thousand eight hundred and sixty-

During the war for the Union, Wilmington was very loyal, being one of the first to respond to the call for three months' men, and every call that was made by the government was met by her quota. The draft was never resorted to in this township.

In 1856 the township was "boomed" considerably by the construction of the air line of the Michigan Southern railroad, and the consequent growth of Butler, at first called Norristown. A market was opened for surplus agricultural products, prices went up, and there was a consequent improvement of the lands and equipment of the farmers. The construction of the second railroad in 1872, and the Wabash in 1892, gave a clinch to the prosperity, and this progressive township has continued to grow ever since.

The town of Butler was originally called Morristown, in honor of one of the early settlers of Wimington township, Charles Norris. It is located in the northeast corner of the township, on sections i, 2, 11 and 12. At this town the Wabash, the Vandalia of the Pennsylvania system and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern have a junction, thus adding a great amount of value to the town as a shipping center. Access is also provided thereby to other points of the county in any direction, and to the outside world. In 1880 the population of Butler town was approximately thirteen hundred; in 1890, it had jumped to two thousand five hundred and twenty-one; in 1900, there were two thousand sixty-three inhabitants; but in 1910, the latest census, there were only one thousand eight hundred and eighteen.

As early as the year 1844 the settlers in the vicinity of the present site of Butler had their postoffice at a point two miles south of the incorporation at Oak Hill, the office being conducted by Thomas Fosdick. In 1842 Egnew, Hanes, Cherry, Morris, Tomlinson and others erected a school house on the land of George Egnew, and this proved to be the first house in Butler. There was a dwelling house built in 184.:] by Mr. Brainard. In 1851 a small merchandise stock was sold from a log hut standing on the southwest corner of land owned by Charles Norris, and was sold by "Ladd" Thomas and Osburn Coburn. The first frame structure was raised on the later site of the Haverstock block, in 1855. In 1870 the wooden building was totally destroyed by flames. The second frame structure was constructed by Noble & Madden and used as a general store. At this juncture the postoffice was moved to the village, which was given the name of Norristown, after Charles Norris. a real estate promoter of the place. Later the village was known as Jarvis, and about the time of the Civil war the name of Butler was adopted, and has existed since.

Butler's first railroad, the Air Line, was completed May 26, 1856, and in October, 1873, the Eel River road, later the Wabash, arrived. The first tavern was kept by John Shull, and on July 4, 1857, A. A. Kennedy first opened the Waverly House. The first saw mill was erected by Messrs. Danforth, Carpender and a third party during the winter of 1853-4, and was destroyed by fire in 1884. The first brick building was put up by Henry Linderfer in 1856. The first death occurred in 1848, and was that of A. Robe, who lived on the later site of Dr. Madden's residence. Henry C. Cherry, born December, 1841, was the first person born in Butler, and the first marriage was that of Amasa Smith to Amelia Morris, the ceremony being performed by Elder Cherry.

The town was incorporated as a town in the year 1866, with W. P. Carpender, J. A. Campbell and Elihu Ocker as trustees, A. A. Howard as clerk, and William Thomas as marshal. Butler at present is a city of the fifth class, with a population of two thousand people. The town was incorporated as a city in May, 1903. Sam G. Stone, druggist, was the first mayor, but he resigned before the completion of his term. The remainder of the time until the next election was filled by John Llazlett and Otto Gengnagel. Wallace Webster was the next mayor, and the present incumbent is Walter J. Mondhank. The other officers of the city now are : F. H. Ritter, city attorney; L. C. Buehrer, clerk; C. W. Campbell, treasurer; Frank Creager, Ora Waterman, Charles Noragon, S. M. Ramey, Eugene Oberlin, councilmen, and William Holtzberg, marshal.

Public Utilities

The Butler electric light and water works is a municipal establishment, with three hundred patrons in the city. The plant is worth sixty thousands dollars. They have one hundred and ten street lights, including twentyfour ornamental posts, with three lights each. Fire plugs to the number of forty-two are placed at advantageous points in the city.

There are three miles of sanitary sewerage in Butler, with the outlet in Big Run creek. Two miles of brick paving add greatly to the appearance of the city.

The Butler Company

The Butler Company, manufacturers of wind mills and buggies, is one of the largest concerns of its kind in the county, and in fact, in the state. The company was established in 1888, and has grown rapidly until the present time, and now has prospects of even greater scope of industry and trade. Besides a line of buggies, the factory turns out wind mills of all types, cypress tanks, galvanized tanks, pumps, valves, and other accessories. About three hundred men are supplied emploj-ment by this establishment. Trade is carried on with all parts of the world, quite a brisk business being formed in South Africa. Good railroad connections are afforded by the close proximity to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Wabash and Pennsylvania lines.