Kunkle Log House

The first settler of the township was Cyrus Barrett, who located with his family of ten members in the southeastern part, in 1838, and established his home near the present site of Kunkle. The Barretts came from Seneca county, New York, and built a rude log cabin in the Madison township wilds, chinking the same with mortar of mud and covering it with a roof of bark. The cabin was not larger than 18x20 feet; was built in such a hurry and with such a lack of assistance that the logs wrere but little better than poles ; and it was graced with a very large chimney, made of sticks and clay, that was peculiarly ornamental as well as useful. The architectural design is thus mentioned in detail, as the building was the finest in the township; and it is reasonable to conclude, judging fiom ordinary human emotion and character, that Mr. Barrett was the proudest, as well as the wealthiest resident. A well-populated temporary encampment of native North Americans was standing on the Little St. Joseph, near the forks, at this time ; and these nomadic people were, perhaps, Mr. Barrett's nearest neighbors - nearest in that they visited his humble abode more than occasionally and remained with him longer than necessary, as the wants of these humble denizens of the woods led their natures to covet almost everything of value in the white man's possession. They were mild, but importunate, and took evasion or negation to their demands with all the admirable imperturbability that is usually ascribed as a mental endowment of that product of modern civilization - the tramp. But, withal, they were interesting if not pleasant neighbors, as the family of Mr. Barrett had ample proof.

Passage source: The County of Williams : a History of Williams County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships ; Also a Biographical Department, published 1905.

Kunkle is -a small village on the Detroit and Montpelier branch of the Wabash Railroad, the only town on a steam railway in Madison township. The old place known as Kunkle's Corners was never properly laid out and recorded, but its later pretentions have been as great as those of many villages which were first placed on the map by that method. As it grew in importance it was given the name of Kunkle in honor of an early merchant in the place. It is a pleasant little town of about three hundred and fifty inhabitants, in the center of a rich agricultural district. There are several mercantile houses, a grist-mill, mechanical shops, produce houses and a fine school. Philip Weidner was the first postmaster and Augustus Moore was the first merchant. The village does a thriving business.

Passage source: The County of Williams : a History of Williams County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships ; Also a Biographical Department, published 1905.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Madison Township - 24,412 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.