Liberty Township (part 2 of 5)

That evening my brothers, Lewis and John, W. R. Carothers and myself were chatting around a mosquito smoke at my father's, when, about !> o'clock we heard some one hallooing in the distance. I told the boys of the incident of the morning - that two girls had rode over to Badger's, which was about two miles from our place. Carothers at once said, "that is surely a woman's voice'*; we started at once for ihe prairie, taking with us our two well trained dogs.

The Pioneeb

indistinctly, away to the east of us; we shouted so lustily that we made ourselves heard plainly by the lost wanderer, who at once turned back toward us.

Soon the dogs were barking, away out in the gloomy waste in a somewhat different direction. When Lewis and Carothers got to them, they found the intelligent brutes had done their part well and faithfully. As if guided by some instinct, almost providential, in this case, the dogs in some unexplained, or I should say unexplainable way, had understood what we wanted them to do and had done it, thereby saving a human life.

There, in a grassless spot, in the oozy mire and water, her head barely above the slimy surface, speechless and exhausted, was one of the girls - the one from New York. She probably could not have survived an hour longer. I need not relate our difficulties in getting the poor girl out for she was perfectly helpless to walk for sometime, even if she had been on good ground.

Soon after, Stella, whose shouts had first warned us of their danger, was found, and not long after, brother John and I and the dogs found the horses, grazing in a place where the water was shallow, and got them out to the woods.

Stella then told us how it all happened: They had prolonged their stay at Badger's until quite late and then to gain time had attempted to make a short cut by the Indian trail to our house. The trail crossed a neck of prairie about half a mile wide; it was here they lost their course and went too far east. The prairie, at that time of the year, was wet in those days; no one who has not seen the Wadsworth, or Liberty prairie as we sometimes called it, in its natural state, before our drainage system went into effect, can form any true conception of its condition, nor picture to himself the magnitude of the change since. The water was from one to three feet deep, the grass from three to eight feet high ; a great part of the prairie was swampy. It was infested with all sorts of beasts, birds and reptiles common to this country at that time. Wolves, snakes, turtles, frogs, cranes, pumpers, deer flies and last, but worst in early summer, were the endless swarms of ravenous mosquitoes. Then the heavy fogs which curtained this gloomy wilderness made the aspect so dismal and forbidding that the strongest man might well recoil from its treacherous borders.

Xot long after the horses left the trail, they began to swamp down and the riders were unseated from their saddles with no possibility of mounting, even if it had been desirable to do so. In attempting to lead the horses the girls had their skirts trod on and torn off at the waist and were in danger themselves of being tramped into the mire by the floundering animals.

By this time they had worked so far east as to be in about the worst part of the swamp, probably not far west of the notorious "Stoga Hole." Here the New- York girl gave up to die. Stella left her friend and the horses and started as she supposed in the direction of her brothers cabin; but how could a woman, wading in water to her knees, in coarse rank grass higher than her head, blinded by mosquitoes and fog, take a course without a single landmark to guide her ? She could not even see the woods that bordered the swamp. Fortunately she steered to the woods on the north side, but in a direction almost opposite from what she had intended, and came out about threefourths of a mile from our house, where she was wandering about when her screams attracted our attention as previously mentioned. After we all got together on dry ground, the girls, whose deplorable plight was mercifully shielded by the darkness, pleaded with us to be taken to the Badger cabin, but we persuaded them to go to our house nearer by, where they were taken in hand by

One of those girls of nearly half a century ago, Stella, married Dr. Stephen Olney, brother of Professor Edward Olney, of Michigan university, and at tins time, 181)4, is living in widowhood in one of the thriving cities of New Jersey. Her rosy checks of yore are faded; her dark hair long since has turned gray; the voice that was strong enough to carry its pitiful appeal through the Cimmerian darkness for help nearly a mile away, is feeble now; memory too fails, but not the remembrance of that dreadful night experience in the "Black Swamp'" of Wood county.

In thus imperfectly giving the details of this and other incidents, I have sought to also convey to the younger generation a dim, outline picture of the country as the pioneers first found it; also some of the inconveniences and hardships met with. Each passing day and year in our lives lias its sore trials, mingled with its sunshine and joy. Each country has its drawbacks, but I think now, in looking back over my three score years' experience, and that of my old neighbors here, that Wood county's early settlers had more than their full share of trials. The county was too, from causes only slightly alluded to in this narration, in very bad repute. This bad name followed it hurtfully for. years after, and kept improvements back until many fell, weary and discouraged in the conflict. But all honor to the old pioneers, and the new ones too; it is different now. Wood county is, at last, the first; and the miry swamp, where we found the lost girls, groans each recurring autumn under its load of golden grain; and the successors of those first pioneers would hesitate to swap situations with the most favored husbandmen in the land.

The Old Exchange Bell

ACOPPESPONDENT of the Elmore Independent says that in the year 1832 or 1833, Mr. Jarvis Spafford built a hotel in Perrysburg, and it was a very fine hotel - even a model one in those davs. In order to make it complete he had to have a bell on top of the house. There happened to be a man by the name of S. Davis who had a bell foundry in Detroit, Mich., then Michigan Territory. Mr. Spafford went to Detroit, saw Mr. Davis and made a contract to cast him a tavern bell. For want of material to make a bell the desired size, Mr. Spafford put in .'!<i Spanish dollars, which were milted and run into the bell. In the year 1834 the bell wis cast; the name of

S. Davis, Detroit. Michigan Territory, and the year, in large, bold letters, appear on the bell. After due time Mr. Spafford got the bell home, and it was a great curiosity there in the wilderness, the whole country abounding with Indians and wild animals. However, Mr. Spafford had the bell hung up in a tree in front of his house, to ring when it was time for meals.

The Indians used to gather around the tree to see and hear the bell ring; they would even climb up on the tree to get bold of it to ring it themselves, to the greal annoyance of Mr. Spafford and his customers, as they supposed meals Avere ready when the bell rang. This annoyed Mr. Spafford so much that he was compelled to drive the Indians away by force, but they, not being easily scared, came one night and stole the bell and carried it off to Upper Sandusky, which was the headquarters for all the Indians in this section of the country in those days. When Mr. Spafford missed the bell he was much worried, and offered a big reward for the thief and return of his property.

As the bell cost him $75, he felt the loss of his investment, as well as the enjovnit'itt and convenience of it, but he was not long in finding the trail of the bell from friendly Indians. He secured the services of a half-breed, by the name of Sam Brady, an old scout, who had killed as many Indians and some white men, as any other man in those days. Mr. Frank Hollister, the first white man who settled at Perrysburg, and bought furs from the Indians, knew about all of them, and had slept in almost every Indian wigwam on the Maumee river. The three started in search of the bell, and were three days making the trip from Perrysburg to the plains of Upper Sandusky, camping out every night, with Sam Brady to pilot them through. On the morning of the fourth day. to their great surprise, they heard the sound of the bell, and leaving their camp with their scanty breakfast half cooked, they struck out fully determined to get the bell. After half an hour's traveling through the deep grass and thick underbrush, with rifle in hand to shoot the first Indian they met, they came to the missing bell. To their great amazement they found it tied around an Indian pony's neck, which was considered the leading pony of the plains. Mr. Spafford says that it did not take Mr. Brady long to bring down the pony with his rifle, cut the sinew that the bell was fastened to, and soon shouldered it and started back to camp, to finish their breakfast of jerked venison and whisky.

After finishing the meal, they started back for home, a happy trio. In the meantime they kept a sharp lookout on their retreat, but met with no interruption, and arrived home safe and whole, but worn out by fatigue and hunger, still full of glee and "good whisky."

Mr. Spafford, in order to keep the Indians from stealing the bell again, went to Detroit to a blacksmith, and got a heavy iron bar, one inch square, made in a half circle, with a cross-bar, and hung the bell in the circle, spiked it on top of his tavern, and the bell hung there until the death of Jarvis Spafford, and for several years after. The property then fell into the hands of Willis Norton, sheriff of Wood county, and for a number of years he kept the house and bell. Finally the hotel business died out and Mr. Norton had a good deal of sickness and reverses and left Perrysburg, went west of Ft. Wayne, on a small farm, taking the bell with him, with the full intention of keeping it as long as he lived, but his health failed him, necessaries of life were hard to get, and getting an offer for the old bell from the oldest landlord in northern Ohio, who knew the bell ever since it was hung upon the old Exchange, he concluded to sell it to his old friend, D. M. Day, of Elmore, Ottawa county, 0., where it can be seen and heard three times a day, on top of the Elmore House.

George Hopper

country from England, and reached Perrysburg in the year 1836, engaging in the service of the firm of Smith & Hollister in their large warehouse. He remained Avith them three years, at the end of which time he took 160 acres of land in Troy township for his pay, on which he made his home until his death.

Scraf-Book

the people of that date in Wood county, had to put up with hardships and inconveniences, which to this generation of people would seem unbearable. Mr. and Mrs. Hopper related as a fact that during their first settlement in the woods and for years after, they seldom passed a night without being disturbed by the unwelcome and dismal howl of wolves. Sometimes these ravenous brutes would come into their door yard and make the night a hideous pandemonium. On one occasion Mr. Hopper had been to Perrysburg to get some provisions and was belated and came home unconscious that he was pursued until he entered his cabin door, wneri lie heard the hrut.es jumping the fence, and no sooner had he closed the door behind him than they opened in an unearthly chorus, startling enough to make a dead man's hair stand on end. This sort of solitary life was continued until 1847, when Samuel Shreiner moved in, he being their first neighbor nearer than the Gorrills. In all his obligations of citizenship Mr. Hopper was a model man, upright and honest, and commanded the respect and esteem of his neighbors and all who knew him. - Wood County Sentinel.

A Shaking Scourge

NOT the least of the ills encountered by the early settlers in the Black Swamp, was the scourge of sickness, chiefly fever and ague, which widely prevailed. These ills were caused by the malaria of that day.

It took from three to five years to get acclimated; every year from about the first of July until frost and cold made its appearance, the people had the ague, and they looked for it just as much, and it came with the same regularity, as summer and fall came. An old pioneer says : It took hold of a person and literally shook him up. I have seen fellows go to bed with the ague, and when the shake came on the very bed and floor would rattle. So violent was the disease that at times their teeth would rattle.

Many times whole families would be down at one time, so that one could not give another a drink of water. The ague usually came on every other day, and when there were not people enough they had to have it every day, for sometimes there appeared to be about two agues for one man; and oftentimes they had to have it twice in one day. The well day as we used to call the day we missed it, men would be able to do some light work, and it may seem strange, but the day the chill wras to come on you could look out from 10 a. m. until 2 p. m., and you could see the boys come in to take their shake, as much so as to take their dinners. We were not troubled much in those days from any disease of a malignant form. Aside from the ague, we had some bilious, intermittent and remittent fevers. We had no need of a doctor to bleed the patient, for the pesky mosquitoes did all the bleeding that was necessary.

Dr. H. Burritt was the physician ; he then lived at Gilead (now Grand Rapids), and he also kept the postoffice. Oh, how he used to swear when he had to make his way through the woods and water, ten, twelve or fifteen miles to see his patients.

The Maumee Valley Historical Association was organized in 1885 for the purpose of perpetuating the memory and preserving the historical places in the Maumee Valley. Hon. Morrison R. Waite was its first president.

What Might Have Been

hi 1835 was fought thf great ''Toledo War." Gen. Bell, Gen. Brown, Col. Van Fleet and many others in and out of command of the forces of the state of Ohio, and the territory of Michigan, marched and counter marched their respective commands, and performed feats of valor ami si rangy which entitle them to a more extended notice than in the limits of this history can be accorded them. The net purport and upshot of the matter was. that the Harris, or present line, between the state of Ohio and the territory of Michigan, was adopted. This left Toledo in the state of Ohio, and

With Toledo in Michigan, Ohio would have been interested in building up Perrysburg, and it is probable at least, that some effort would have been made to remove the obstructions to navigation, known to exist, between Toledo and Perrysburg, and that the fostering care of the state of Ohio would have accomplished for Perrysburg what the state of Michigan afterward accomplished for Detroit, under similar difficulties. It is probably vain to theorize over tins matter now. hut it certainly does not seem improbable that if the Fulton or southern line, between Ohio and Michigan had been finally adopted, that Perrysburg would have been now a compactly built city, from East Toledo to West Boundary street, with miles of wharves and docks, acres of elevators and depots, and tens of millions instead of tens of thousands of dollars of personal property.

Bloody Wolf Fight

AN issue of the Wood County Sentinel in August, 1877, relates an incident of a black wolf killed a few days prior to that by three dogs near Mr. Willison's house in daekson Prairie. A steer bad died not far from Willison's place a day or so previous, and late in the evenin- mentioned, Mr. \V. heard dogs fighting as he supposed, until finally he became satisfied from the continued barkin- and fierce growls that the dogs, his own among the Dumber, had some animal ;it hay. He did not go out however, that night. Next morning Jake Wall's dog was found to be so badly chewed up that he died that day. The other dogs were found to be pretty badly used up also. Not far from the carcass of the steer, the dead body of a wolf was found, a murderous looking brute, and near him were plenty of evidences of a terrible light between the black monster and the dogs. It is supposed that Wall's dog, which was a gamy, powerful creature, after getting terribly punished by the wolf, had finally gol hold of its throat and never let go till he had choked it to death. This is the first wolf killed in this county for several years, and the second instance of the destruction of a black wolf, and the only instance we ever heard of dogs in open battle attacking and killing a full grown wolf. It is supposed there were two wolves, but that the other got away. They usually travel in pairs.

taring i lie year L813 or '14 a period when the Black Swamp was yd a 'how- Ling wilderness,' well covered by water and occupied by Indians, wolves, boars, raccoon.- and wildcats, there was a low, wet swampy bog, extending from a portion of Wood county where the Fenton P. 0.. now is, to ;i point in Middleton, lately known as the Devil's Hole Prairie - il being a portion of country exceedingly difficuH to penetrate owing to the deplh of water and massive growth of timber, through which were numerous windfalls that served to render the progress of the pedestrian \cvy difficult and quite uncertain.

"At the i inie mentioned Gen. Harrison - ami' plunging through the wilds of Sandusky and Wood counties on Ids march to Fori Meigs, and while passing through the portion of Wood county near where tins swamp was located, a. scout, whose name the writer is not in possession of, while on the alerl for the terror of the forest - the noble rr(\ man - became entangled in this man-trap, and only after a day's persisteni effort did lie succeed in fi in liny the trail of his brave commander, a ft r whieb h oort niprhl up with the command. Upon being interrogated as to where he had been, he replied that he had gol losl in the "Devil's Hole." asserting that, he had truly disco ered the home of Satan, and in this trifling manner (although undoubtedly appreciated at the time) originated the name so long attached to what is now one of the most prosperous and prolific portions of tin- county: a locality that has

Buried in the heart of the dense wood-, some miles to the northeasl of this place, known as tin; "Devil's Hole," two men recently discovered a small, low built shanty, covered with bark and entirely obscure from the vision of man or beast by the dense undergrowth, at no greatei distance than ten paces. It is off from any road and there is a single path leading to and from it. Just behind it a hole has been dug for water, and near it are troughs cm in a log as if for the purpose of feeding horses. Some hay inside indicates that men have slept there, and there has also been a. fire kept in it. Everything about it denotes that the utmost precaution- of secrecy have been taken. From its location and other circumstances, persons living nearest the locality are suspicious that it is a rendezvous or stopping place U)\- horse-thieves. Certainly there seems some coloring for such a supposition.

1 1 has I" en well -aid i hat Thomas Jefferson was more than the author of our Declaration of Independence in L77.6; he. more than any American, laid down the basis of popular liberty.

Tom Long

Among the names of those mentioned by telegraph in Thursday evening's Blade, as having died of cholera in the penitentiary at Columbus, was that of Thomas Lung, sent from Wood county. Long was a noted horsethief, and was serving out his fourth term in the penitent iaiy. although but just in the prime of life. Perhaps no man in the country was more familiar with the "runways" of horsethieves than he. His range was very extensive, reaching Prom Central Ohio through Indiana. Illinois and Iowa. It is said that he would start from his home in Wyandot county, and make a through trip to Council Bluffs, stealing horses and selling them as fast as possible. The last horse which he stole was taken from a man by the name of Wilson, living near Portage, Wood county, when he also stole a buggy from a Mr. Roller, living in Portage. This occurred in L865. He was accompanied on this trip by his brother. The latter was first captured and taken to jail. Tom, who had escaped arrest, although hotly pursued by Sheriff Evers, learning that his brother was in jail, wrote him a letter from some point out west, stating that he would visit the imprisoned brother. This letter fell into the hands of the sheriff, and he was on the alert.

Finally, after the sheriff had about abandoned all hope of securing Tom, two men, one of them a well known citizen of Wood county, called at the jail and expressed a desire to see a prisoner. The present sheriff, Mr. C. C. Baird, was then jailor, and he at once sent for the sheriff. On the arrival of Sheriff Evers, he readily identified the stranger as Tom Long, arrested him and locked him up with his brother. Loth were convicted and Tom was sentenced to the penitentiary for twelve years, while his brother got off with ten years, lie had, therefore, served out but two-thirds of his time when he died.

Tom Long was a cool, sharp and cunning horsethief. He was quiet, inoffensive to all appearances, and was highly esteemed by those acquaintances who knew nothing of his secret history. With criminal law lie was quite familiar and studied it even after his conviction, evidently not for a moment thinking of changing his habits on emerging from the penitentiary. With his arrest and conviction, a large gang of horsethieves was broken up, some of them escaping to Canada, and now believed to be engaged in running stolen horses across the upper end of the lake.

Porter-Richardson Murder

THE death of so notorious a man as Richardson, and the sudden and violent manner of his taking off while sitting in the midst, of bis family, startled and shocked the dwellers by the Maumee.

Porter, who made no concealment of what be had done, from the first announcement of the murder, seems to have been connected with the deed in the minds of the settlers in the immediate neighborhood who knew of the previous unfortunate state of business with Richardson. But as the effect of the whisky died out and reflection and reason re- turned, he began to realize what he had done; the instinct of fear took possession of him and he lied, he hardly knew whither nor from whom nor what. He wandered about in the forests like a restless wild beast.

Great search was made for him but without success until the third day when he came out and delivered himself up to Sheriff Webb not far from the river ford below MiltonvUle. He told Mr. Webb that it seemed the happiest moment of his life when he had delivered himself up and no longer felt that he was pursued. He made no denial of the murder. He said it was the only thing left for him to do to redress his grievances, and admitted that he ought To pay the penalty with his life.

He was confined in the old log jail at Perrysburg for trial. The supreme court was in session with Peter Hitchcock and Judge Brash on the bench.

The prisoner had a right to trial in the common pleas court if he preferred, which would have deferred his trial some months, but he seemed indifferent whether any defense was made at all. He became penitent and zealously religious.

The following are the names of the grand jurors impanelled, there being 16 in all instead of 15 as now, and not one of whom to our knowledge is living today, the late Eber Wilson, who was foreman, being the last survivor:

Thomas W. Powell, now of Delaware, Ohio, was the prosecuting attorney, and Orish Parish and David Higgins (afterward Judge Higgins) were assigned to the defense of the prisoner. The counsel for the state had of course no difficulty in proving the murder and that George Porter was the murderer, but the counsel for the prisoner set up the plea of insanity and urged it with much vigor, adducing as the strongest evidence the conduct of the prisoner to and after the murder and his behavior in jail and indifference as to his fate. In rebuttal of this position of the defense, the state adopted the theory - (We give IN well's own language) :

"'That every person is responsible for his acts, whenever he nets upon actual facts and real circumstances. That all that Porter claimed as motives for his acts - the injuries and insults received from Richardson - were all founded upon actual facts and real circumstances. There was no delusion or unreal facts about this case. Whatever motives actuated him, they were like all the rational acts of mankind, founded upon real facts and actual circumstances."

The sentence of the court was that he be hung on Friday, the 5th day of the following November. There was a great deal of public sympathy shown for Porter. He had to he sure, taken the life of a fellow man, but that man was a notoriously bad man and the dv<'d had been done under the most provoking circumstances. Porter was crushed and broken in spirit and had no influential friends to intercede for him, a thing he was too dispirited to do for himself, even if he hail his liberty. The means of communicating with the executive were long and tedious, beside there were no good grounds, assuming the court's charge to the jury to be correct, upon which to base a petition asking the clemency of the governor. Mr. Webb, a man of kind and humane disposition, formed quite a strong attachment and kindly feeling toward the prisoner on account of his reconciled and submissive conduct, and it taxed his utmost resolution of mind to reconcile sympathy and duty.

Meigs in the presence of a great number of people who had assembled to witness the sad spectacle. His body was buried in the little burying ground just west of the Perrysburg jail.

Whatever may have been the sympathy for Porter, or however much his claim to executive clemency, the execution no doubt had a salutary effect. Nothing is so much calculated to restrain crime as the certainty that punishment and the inexorable execution of the law will follow. - 67. W. E.

Simon Girty

There are few localities in the State of Ohio more fertile in historic reminiscences than Henry county. About five miles up the river from Napoleon is what is known as Girty's island, so called from the fact of its having been the abiding place of that notorious white renegade, Simon Girty, whose treatment of white captives was more inhuman and fiendish than even that of the red savages by whom he had been reared from early childhood. The history of Simon Girty is familiar, no doubt, to thousands. but there are features in the family record of the Girty family that always afford fresh food for conjecture. The family in general was shiftless and ne'er do well. There were four brothers, Thomas. Simon, George and James. Each was adopted by an Indian tribe, Simon by the Senecas, the most warlike of all the ureal Iroquois confederacy.

Simon Girty and Simon Kenton were at one time scouts together, and perhaps the only humane or kindly act in Girty's life was his intercession for Kenton's life in one instance where he had been captured, tortured and sentenced to death by the Indians. Girty, however, after having in every conceivable manner antagonized both Indians and whites by his multiplicity of inhuman and treacherous acts, was compelled to seek refuge and concealment in the territory now embraced in what is known as Henry county. He had wantonly and indiscriminately murdered and pillaged right and left until he became a hunted fugitive, a veritable wanderer on the face of the earth. He eventually sought safety in the famous ''Black Swamp" of the northwest, and here opposite the island, on the bank of the Maumce, he erected his cabin, and whenever danger would menace him, would retire into the densely wooded swamp, where it was absolutely impossible to dislodge him. How long he remained here, is not definitely known. or whether his death was the result of the infirmities incident to old age, or more tragic in its character. He was unquestionably one of the boldest and at the same time most treacherous and inhuman outlaws of which American history has any record.

Wayne'S Two Graves

(ifi). Wayne is one of the few famous men who have two graves, each equally entitled to commemoration. He died of gout at Eric. Pa., then Fort Presque Isle, in 1796, when lie was on his return from his successful Indian campaigns in the northwest. He was buried at the fooi of the flagstaff in the fort, and there lay undisturbed for nearly twenty years. Then there came through the woods from the other end of the State, in a sulky, his son in search of his father's bones. He engaged Dr. John C. Wallace, who had been through the Indian wars with Gen. Wayne, to exhume his bones, and pack them in a box, that, they might be strapped to the sulky and taken through the woods and over the mountains to the family residence in Chester county. When Dr. Wallace opened the grave he found, to his great surprise, the body in an alniosi perfect state of preservation. The flesh had not decayed. But it was impossible \'^v young Wayne to carry the coffin and contents in his sulky. So Dr. Wallace, who seems to have been devoid of feeling as one of the Indians whom he fought, decided, on his own motion, and without consulting Mr. Wayne, to separate the General's hones from their enveloping flesh and thus enable them to lie removed.

To accomplish tins, boiling had to he resorted to. and I he hones were then denuded of flesh by the use of knives, and were packed and carried away by young Wayne, and buried near I he homestead in which Gen. Wayne was born and in which his di sc mdants still live. 'Phis account of the ghoul-like proceedings of

Dr. Wallace has an incredible sound, but it is literally and strictly true, and will he corroborated by any old citizen of Erie. Young Mr. Wayne knew nothing of Dr. Wallace's operations until many years after. He was then greatly shocked and declared that he would never have permitted such treatment of his father's remains, hut would have returned them io the grave and pbstponed their removal to a more convenient season. Yet there is no reason to doubt that Dr. Wallace, who was a useful and prominent man in his day, thought he was doing everything for the best, and meant no disrespect- to the mortal pari of his old friend and patient and army comrade. Genera] Wayne.

Over the General's hones, in Chester county, a monument was raised. But his fiesh was returned to its grave at the foot of the flag-staff, in Fort Presque Isle, by Dr. Wallace, and forgotten. The fort - a mere stockade - crumbled away, the flag-staff decayed, and the precise location of the grave was lost.

Some four years ago. however, a digger lor relics on the site of the old fort, unearthed a coffin-cover, into which brassheaded nails had been so driven' as to form the initials '"A. W.** with the figures of Wayne's age. date of his death, etc. This determined the location of the grave, and there has since been in Erie a feeling that it should be marked by a monument of some sort. It has, in fact been surrounded by chains, supported by four pieces of superannuated artillery, and also marked by a flag-staff, but something more permanent is desired, and will doubtless he built - if not by legislative aid. then }>y local subscription.

rldie last tribe of Indians to remove from Ohio was the Wyandot of Fpper- Sandusky, who ceded their lands in is Pi, and the following year left for ihe west.

Burning Off A Prairie

James Eobertson came from Scotland and located in the eastern part of Middleton township in 1836. One morning after he had selected the land for his future home, Mr. Eobertson and two of his sons started from Perrysburg for their land for the purpose of selecting a building site, with a horse and wagon, hauling a tenl and some other material. They came by a blazed wagon track and pitched their tent in the edge of -Hull's Prairie, arriving just at sundown. About 15 minutes after they had arrived at their destination they were startled by the sudden appearance of five Indians on horseback, who had followed up their trail, and 'the Indians seemed as much surprised as they. After surveying the situation a moment the Indians gave the Robertsons to understand their mission was to "scotto," that is to burn off the prairie. They then proceeded about three miles to the southwest, touched fire to the grass which had not been burned for two years. The flames spread like the wind and Mr. Amelius Eobertson states that it did not seem over ten minutes before it had traveled the intervening distance between where it was set and the edge of the woods where they were encamped, and that the smoke almost suffocated them in their tent. He also says that the flames went nearly as high as the trees, and that the streets of Perrysburg 5 1-2 miles distant were so lighted by the fire that they could see to pick up a pin, and that all the grass on Hull Prairie covering hundreds of acres, was licked up by the flames in twenty minutes. Mr. Robertson built a cabin on his land the next spring, 1837, and moved in with his family.

A Hunter'S Paradise

I A' a communication to the Tribune, Mr. J. F. Dubbs says: Wild hogs were very plentiful in the forests, hut while they afforded the settlers a temporary resource at times, to replenish the pork barrel, they were at other times not only troublesome, but dangerous neighbors. They would mingle with tame hogs in the woods and toll them away often, where the tame ones would soon be as wild as their forest kin. Then too, if man or beast should suddenly come upon a band and disturb them in their bed or disturb the young, every hog would instantly become a savage, bristling, furious assailant and the intruder was lucky if he happened to be near a tree which he could climb quickly. Among the bands that roamed the woods was one enormous

With murderous tusks, which was alike a terror to hunters and dogs. This dangerous brute - a veritable king of the forests - was as wily and cunning as a hear, hut like all kings and rulers, all his ways were not the paths of wisdom. He got a notion of slipping in nights and lodging with the Dubbs herd till the chickens crowed in the morning, when he would rise, shake himself and join his wild brethren in the forest.

on, and at the time there was quite a strife in the settlement as to who should be the lucky captor of the big boar. One morning the Dubbs, father and sons, with their two dogs, stole a march on the old woods patriarch, and as he passed out the dogs were turned loose, and after a sharp race his hogship came to bay and faced the dogs. When the men came up the brute again fled, but the dogs at once fastened on him; one dog laid hold at the elbow of the fore shoulder; the other at the ear; the latter was instantly hurled into the air with a ghastly slash across its throat from which the blood poured in a stream. The other dog, a powerful fellow, was able to stop the boar, and the brute could not reach him with its deadly tusks.

By this time, Henry Dubbs, James' father, a stout resolute man, came up, furious at the fate of his faithful dog, and seized the boar by its long tail and at once look a turn around a small sapling where ho could easily hold the hog. The plan was to capture, confine and feed the boar until he was fat; at that tiniL' Mr. Dubbs' son, John, came up, the hog was tied and thrown, his nose Lashed, liis tusks cut oil', after which he was hauled in on a stone boat, and imprisoned in a high, strong log pen.

When he Found he could not escape, his gnashing of teeth and hideous aspect was startling to witness, but in all the scrap from first to last not a cry or squeal did he make, except enraged grunts. For days the old fellow would not eat; then he would eat in the night. At last he began to gain, and though when butchered and sold at Perrysburg he was not fat, yet he was a monstrous big porker.

These wild hogs are supposed to have sprung from strays from some of the army quartermasters' droves brought here in the war of 1812. They were quite numerous here from 1830 to 1842.

Removing The Indians

AN old pioneer, writing to the Sentinel, says: Between the years 1835-40, the Government began to move the Indians to their reservations in the West and the tribes becoming broken up, were scattered over a large portion of Northwestern Ohio and Northeastern Indiana, and part of Michigan, reaching from Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to Sandusky, Ohio, and including Crawford county, which was named after Colonel Crawford who was so brutally butchered and murdered at the stake by Simon Girty (a white man), after having

The tribes and parts of tribes that used to inhabit this part of the country, were the Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Kiekapoos, Shawnees, Wyandots and Miamis. After General Harrison's victory at Fort Meigs, and the treaty was effected and peace was declared again, many of them remained and they were considered friendly, and indeed were so as the old settlers well know. A mission station was made on the Maumee river; Rev. [saac Van Tassel was sent as a missionary to preach to them, and I believe he taught school among them for a while. The largest settlement as I remember, was in Sandusky county, and the largest in Wood county was at the station and at Tontogany, which is ;in Indian name and I think named after one of their chirrs. They had one small settlement on Beaver creek in Henry county, and a few stragglers were camped for a while in Milton township, this county. In the fall they would go from their camps in Sandusky. Seneca and Wyandot counties, to Wood and Henry counties to camp out for the winter and hunt, and when the spring would open they would return again with their pelts and furs taken during the winter season. In the summer they would resort to the rivers and lakes where they could fish, that being their favorite and principal diet during lh' summer months.

The remnant of the Maumee Ottawas were at this time assembled at Buttonwood island, a mile above Perrysburg, preparatory to removal to the country assigned them west of the Mississippi. Robert A. Forsyth was entrusted by the Government with the undertaking. The Indians made a pleasant camp on the island for a month or more, and were visited daily by the citizens of the towns below. They had been sadly demoralized by intercourse with the whites; but a few of their chiefs and leaders retained enough of the old ancestral spirit to inspire them with considerable energy and enterprise after they were settled in their new home. Ottoca, the head chief, was a fat, good-natured fellow, a favorite with his tribe and very social with the whites. His half-brother, Noteno, was greatly his superior in executive ability, and at this time probably the most intelligent man among them. Petonguet, a tall, slender graceful man, with features of a Roman east had been the hero of a tragedy some years before in the neighborhood of Roche de Boeuf. He was much esteemed for hravery and very popular with his tribe. But a hundred in all remained of this once powerful people, and they were "like strangers in a desert home." A day or two after the tornado, Ottoca, while passing the ruins of the hotel, remarked, with significant Livsticulation:

After their removal these Indians abandoned their habits of savage life, engaged in agriculture, adopted civilized customs, and became a substantial, orderly community. They accumulated property, erected schools and churches, and to-day I believe they are regarded by the people of Kansas as among their most quiet, law-abiding citizens. Rev. Peter Jones was their leading clergyman, and he was a lineal descendant of Pontiac, who little more than a century before was King of all the country from the Maumee to .Mackinaw, and disputed inch by inch its s 'tt lenient by the whites.

Navigation

AT a Pioneers' meeting held at Fort Meigs, in 1880, Charles E. Bliven gave an address, from which we glean the following facts regarding ship building on the Maumee river. He says : A small steamer, called the Phenomenon, remodeled from a canal boat, was built at Rochester, N. Y., in 1834, and brought, to the Maumee river, being towed through Lake Erie in 1836. She was then called the Sun and was commanded by Capt. C. K. Bennett.

Burial Ground Of Col. Dudley And His Men

The Griffith, built at Perrysburg, it will be remembered by our older citizens, wiis destroyed by fire on the lake, and a number of her passengers perished in the disaster.

Source changes here: from Many Incidents and Reminiscences of the Early History of Wood County, Together with Some of the Historic Events of the Maumee Valley Contained in This Pioneer Scrap-book, Have Been Collected from the Papers and Material of the Late C.W. Evers As Gathered, by Evers, C. W. (Charles W.), published 1910; 23,398 words in this source stream.

Liberty Township

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.

The Pioneer

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-

The Pioneer

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.

The year following the cotirt house was destroyed by fire, but after considerable litigation an enabling act was secured to give the people another opportunity to vote on the removal question, this time to take the county offices back to Perrysburg-. The Perrvsbur"- intert'st had rebuilt their court house more substantial and in better condition than ever, and the vote on removal was again taken on the 12th of October, 1875.

It resulted in a large vote throughout the county - it may be said an extraordinarily large vote - but the vote in Perrysburg capped the climax. Out of a vote that would be a large one at 1,000, the l)allot box, when opened, revealed the number of ballots cast in favor of removal - 3,016 !

The vote on governor at that election was very close, and when Ezra S. Dodd, of Toledo, heard of Perrysburg's vote, he at once sent a telegram to John G.

Scrap-Book

Thompson, chairman of the Democratic state executive committee asking, "Wouki 1,000 from Wood be of any good ?" That has now passed into quite a familiar phrase. Mr. Dodd left Toledo as soon as he sent the telegram, and it was surmised by the chairman of the Eepublican executive committee in Toledo, Eev. Eobert McCune, that Dodd had struck out for Bowling Green. Accordingl}' the writer with George S. Canfield, was dispatched to Bowling Green, leavino- Toledo at 11

The vote of Perrysburg was thrown out without much ceremony, and the vote against removal proved to be a large, un]nistaka[)le majority. Thus on. led that memorable struggle, and the present prosperity of Wood county strongly affirms the wisdom of that decision hy the people.

Capt. David Wilkinson

The relatives and a very large circle of friends were called upon to mourn the loss of another pioneer of the Maumee valley. A few days before ]\Ir. Wilkinson was visited with a stroke of paralysis which affected his left side and rendered him helpless and almost insensible, in which condition he remained until death had relieved him from his suffering. His wife and five children were all present during his last moments.

The funeral services took place from his late residence on Front street, and were conducted by the members of Phoenix Lodge No. 123, Free and Accepted Masons, of which lodge he was a charter member. The Rev. G. A. Adams officiated as chaplain. The remains were followed to the cemetery by a very large concourse of relatives and friends, and were deposited in the gnnc with the accustomed Masonic honors.

From the Blade. - One by one the pioneers of the Maumee valley are passing away, and today there are few left to relate the incidents and struggk'S through which the early settlers of this now fertile and prosperous SL'ction of tlie state, were called to pass. Yesterday (Monday) closed the life of another one of those who lived to see their hopes respecting the Maumee valley more than realized. Captain David Wilkinson of Perrysburg, is no more. The captain was born in Februarv, 1800, at or near Buffalo, and the writer of this has often heard him speak of th^' ir \- n s in the village of Buffalo ditring the war of 1812. At an early age he went upon the lake as a sailor, and in 1815 he sailed lip the Maumee river on the schooner Black Snake, commanded by his uncle, Jacob Wilkinson. This was a small craft to venture upon the lake, being of but twentj'-five tons burden. At that time, where Perrysburg now stands, nothing but a wild forest was to be seen. This little schooner as we learn from a memorandum furnished by Capt. Wilkinson to H. S. Knapp, Esq., for his history of the Maumee valley, brought up as passengers the family of Mulhollen, who kept the noted tavern at Vienna some years later, also a Mr. Hunter and family, Scott Robb, and a Mr. Hopkins, who settled on land above the present village of Perrysburg. At that time, Fort Meigs contained about forty soldiers, who were taken to Detroit by the schooner on her return trip.

From the Commercial. - The deceased was in his 74th year, having been born in the year 1800. His first advent to the Maumee valley was in 1815, as a hand on board the schooner Black Snake, a craft of about 25 tons, commanded by Jacob Wilkinson, an uncle, which brought several passengers, who landed at Perrysburg, and most of them became settlers of the town and vicinity. This was during the year in which the war with England closed, and Fort Meigs, above Perrysburg, was still garrisoned by United States troops. The chief industrial interest at that time was fishing. In 1817 the young navigator, though but 17 years old, was promoted to the command of the Black Snake. In 1818 he took command of the schooner Pilot, which plied between the river and Buffalo, and continued to sail different vessels until 1835. Among these crafts was the Eagle, a schooner built in 1828 at Port Lawrence (now Toledo). In 1835 he became the commander of the steamer Commodore Perry, which he sailed for ten years, when he took charge of the Superior, in which he remained until 1852, when he left the lakes. Since that

Deceased was a man of great kindness of heart and geniality in disposition, whereby he won his way to the esteem of all acquaintances; while by his integrity and honorable dealing he commanded the confidence of his fellow men in an eminent degree. His independence of character ever prompted him to self-reliance and unremitting effort. After a residence in the Valley of 58 years, he passed away amid a state of things in extraordinary contrast with the scene which presented itself to his youthful eyes. He leaves five children - two sons and three daughters - to mourn the departure of one who never failed in his duty to them, and whose advantages in life have been mainly due to his unceasing care. Few, indeed, of his earliest contemporaries now remain, and the last of them will soon follow him. Be it the care of those who have or shall come after them not to forget the debt due to their early enterprise and sacrifices.

Capt. Wilkinson is said to have made the first chart of the Maumee river and ba}^, which was adopted by the government, and was in general use until a more accurate one was made many years later.

Mail Carrying

'"Black Hawk war" - in the first week of that year, Hiram Wade made his first trip as a mail carrier under Guy bearing who had the mail contract. The route was from Perrysburg to Lima. His first trip was a pleasant one. On his second trip he got through to Lima all right, but on his return to Perrysburg he encamped on a sand ridge near the center of Wood county, and during the night the wolves in large numbers flocked so closely about him that he was compelled to build a tire between a large stump and the butt of a whitewood log that was hollow as a shell. lie was somewhat frightened, and for greater security he crawled into the log to keep clear of the wolves. Finally the log itself caught tire and he was obliged to desert his quarters. However, Wade did not get out of that log unscathed. His face and hands were badly burned, the mail bag scorched, and two large holes were burned through his blanket. That was his last trip.

jSText my brother, L. W. Eeed carried the mail two trips, which resulted in a lameness of his horse. He met with a mishap in which he nearly drowned both himself and horse, and lost the mail bag, which was recovered a few days later full of water. On his second trip there was no mail to collect on his way to Lima and on his return he had but two letters ^one for Gilead and one for Perrysburg. That was his last trip.

Ijut he had no bad luck. Following him was a man, whose name I have forgotten. He came very near being drowned and his horse crippled in the Blanchard river. He left the horse and hung the saddle on a tree. This man simply undertook the job of carrying the mail out of curiosity, to see whether it was as difficult as had been reported by Wade and Reed. He found out, and his curiosity was fully satisfied.

ISTow, I undertook the work of carrying the mail. I made my first trip during the last week in February of 1833, and carried the mail until the last of November of that year without any injury to my horse. However, quite frequently I was compelled to break the ice for myself and horse, and had great difficulty in crossing the Blanchard. On one occasion I was utterly unable to cross that stream on account of the extraordinary high water, and could not make the trip. For this the government kept back $50 of my hard earnings in lliat perilous trip.

Rev. Joseph Badger

THIS gentleman, so well known and identified with the early history of Wood county, had his home in Gustavus, Trumbull county, where he began his unselfish labors as early as 1804. A highly educated man, a graduate of one of the great Eastern colleges, he yet chose to tread the thorny path of a pioneer missionary, enduring the hardships and facing the dangers of the western forest that he might do good unto his fellowmen. In 1835 lie removed to Wood

"I had started to come through from Ashtabula, but there being no path I got ahead but slowly, and I can not say how far I had come when darkness came upon me. As I could make no headway through a pathless wood I tied my horse so that it could feed about some, and then lay down on the grass to rest. Ere long I was aroused by the cry of a wolf. This cry was answered, and soon it seemed that a hundred ravenous wolves wore howling for their prey. I quickly arose, tied nij horse more firmly, and, feeling about in the darkness, found a stout limb, which I cut for a cudgel and prepared for an encounter with the enemy.

^'The wolves formed a circle about me. I drew near to my horse and walked around him constantly. The wolves came so near that I could hear the snapping of their jaws. All night long I kept up this walk, beating the trees with my stick and shouting to keep the hungry animals at bay. My horse trembled, but trusting to my protection did not try to get away.

"In the first gray light of morning the wolves began to creep slowly away. Their cries grew fainter and fainter in the distance and I found that they had left me. Blessing God for the countless manifestations of his goodness in preserving me through this and similar perils I was again proceeding on my way when once more the barking of wolves resounded througli the forest. There was little opportunity for me to hasten, as fallen trees, brush and bushes were in the way. The pursuers were coming quite near and their howling rent the air, when suddenly there was a crashing near me and like a flash of light a fine, full grown deer leaped out, bubbles of white foam falling from his mouth, and panting for breath. He thrust his head alongside my faithful horse and so came beside me until we reached a clearing probably four miles from the place where I had spent the night. The hungry wolves were again baffled and retired to await the coming of another night in which to continue their search for food."

Strange Incident

ON" the right hand, or cast side of the .Haskins road, about two and a fourth miles from Bowling Green, the passerby may have noticed on the crown of the sand ridge, just inside the field, a little old dilapidated, deserted log cabin. It has stood there for years and years, like a faithful sentry noting the progress of surrounding events, and the days oi its existence exceed that of any other cabin in Plain toAvnship. It was for man}' years previous to the drainage of the country adjacent, a sort of Mt. Ararat to the unfortunate travelers on the "old"' Miltonville road. Many a weary man has sought rest in that little homely cabin. It was long known as the Wilson place, and was built by a man named Wilson, and was for a time made to do extensive hotel duty. All classes per force patronized it - emigrants from afar as well as local dignitaries, sought friendly shelter in its narrow limits.

The Spinks, Hollisters, Eobys, Spaffords, Drs. Dustin, Peck Burritt and Conant, CoUister Haskins, W. Y. Way, Count Coffinberry, Ealph Keelcr, all the leading men of that day, had sought slu'lter under the roof of that diminutive cabin on the sand ridge. True it was but one story high and nearly all of one end was taken up by a great fire place, but for all that it was the only dry ])lace the benighted traveler, with his weary horse, could find. Stay he mtist, and some nights there were almost as many sleepers snoring away as there were split puncheons in the rude floor, on which the gatests had to lay, for bedsteads were scarce in those days.

Gen. Harrison was elected President, that the two Harris brothers, Seth and James, moved into the cabin, which had been abandoned by its former occupants. James Harris was a bachelor and lived in his brother's family, and the brothers worked together. They had a short time previous lived in Liberty township, either on the premises or not far from where the late James Bloom lived. Bloom and the Harris' had become involved in a law suit, which suit had been taken up and was pending trial in the county court at Perrysburg. Court was in session, and both parties, plaintiff and defendants were there ready for trial.

Before the case was called up, however, the parties to the suit had effected a settlement, though considerable bad feeling had been worked up in the mean time. It was the current talk at the time, that all the parties met at the tavern and took a drink, after which tfee Harris' started home. On the road home, Seth Harris was

And as soon as they reached the cabin James Harris went for a doctor Rice, who lived where Portageville now is. Before he arrived at the cabin with the doctor, James Harris also was taken very sick with similar symptoms to those of his brother Seth. All the efforts and skill of the doctor could, nor did not relieve them, and Seth died in great agony, and twelve hours after, his brother James was laid on the bed beside him a corpse.

Mr. Ralston, who was about the nearest neighbor, except Eli Martindale, on the present Clinton Fay farm, was alone in the cabin, washing the body of James Harris and was in the act of putting a clean shirt on him, when Dr. Rice arrived, bringing with him another physician named Thomas and a half gallon jug of whisky. Rice told Ralston not to dress the bodv as he desired to cut the man

Rice, it seems, had suspicions that the two men's lives had been cut short by something tlioy had drank or eaten. He got a butcher knife and sharpened it, but before he was ready to operate. Dr. Thomas was taken with a shake of the ague and had to lay down. Rice ripped open the stomach of the dead man and could discover nothing wrong as he said, though his frequent drafts on the half gallon jug, did not improve his sense of vision any.

He then turned and cut open the breast and tliroat clear to the chin, Ralston holding the chest open while the heart, liver and lungs were examined. During the savage operation with the butcher knife, Rice scratched one of his fingers on the jagged breast bone of the dead man, but paid no further attention to it than to clap his finger to his mouth and suck the oozing blood from the skin al)rasion.

The lungs of the man were discolored and showed an unnatural condition, but Rice pronounced that he could find no trace of poison, and soon after he and Thomas left. Mr. Ralston took the carved body of Harris and washed, arranged and wrapped it as well as he could, and the bodies of the two men were taken from tlie cabin and buried.

Three days after their burial, Mr. Ralston was in Portage, and learned that Dr. Rice was lying in a critical condition. He called in to see him and the doctors were just in the act of amputating the frantic man"s arm, which, from the small finger wound received while oporating on Harris's liody, had become intensely inflamed, mortification followed, and the flesh came from the arm in chunks and flakes while the doctors were performing the amputation, which was effected near the shoulder, to arrest if possible the further progress of the poison; but it was too late. The poison had taken possession of his whole system, blood, brain and muscle. Rice was a doomed man and survived the cutting ofE of his arm only a short time, when he too, died in great agony, helped and hurried off, no doubt, by the hard usage

Thus three strong, healthy men were suddenly snatched from the sparsely settled neighborhood - from life to death, and the living, neither then nor since were able to satisfactorily answer the question, what caused their sudden death ? - C. W. E.

Cygnet'S Calamity

ON the morning of the 30th of January, 1891, Cygnet was visited by a most disastrous conflagration. The Wood County Democrat chronicled the fact that three lives had been snuffed out and $50,000 worth of property destroyed. Here follows The Democrat's account:

All the buildings in the town were hastily and poorly constructed affairs, and many of them were more or less saturated with the oil that not only permeates the earth, but also the very atmosphere, and deadens and discolors the genial current waters.

Buildings of that variety are easy prey to the fire-fiend, and most woefully did he perform his deplorable mission today. The business portion of the town comprises only one street which is intersected about middle by the T., C. & C. railroad. West of the railroad on the north side of the street, a disastrous fire occurred this morning, destroying $50,000 worth of properly and ushering three human beings into eternity.

The fire originated in the millinery store of Mrs. Malonev and was not discovered until it had gained an impetus that was irresistible. It was 5 :30 when the flames asserted their presence in the bed room of Mrs. Maloney, who was occupying a bed on the first floor with her domestic, Mattie Stackhouse. The fire caused an explosion of gas which awakened her to the danger of her situation. She immediately awakened Miss Stackhouse and her five-year-old son and the two hastily donned their dresses and fled tc the rear of the building, taking the boy with them. When they got out of doors tlie two women looked back into the burning building, and saw Francis Slattery, a brother of Mrs. Maloney, crawling about on the second floor covered with flames. They called to him to come out of a certain door, but he was probably unconscious. Slattery was sleeping on the second floor with Mr. Maloney and Mr. Maloney's 15-monthsold child, and the three were burned to a crisp.

Mr. Maloney was 30 years old and was a boiler maker by trade. Mrs. Maloney kept a millinery store on the first floor of Hie ill-fated building.

The flames spread before the influence of a western wind towards the east, and in an hour had destroyed several of the principal buildings of the town. In less than an hour, the whole block was a i-inoldering ruin.

The baby was burned up completely, nothing but its skull being found in the debris. The town is full of people come to see the great conflagration.

Sceap-Book A False Alarm

THE "Blackhawk War"' in 1832, was no war at all. All it amounted to was a senseless rumor that thoroughly alarmed the settlers for a short time. In his pioneer recollections, Noah Keed gives the following version of the incident:

"In the summer of 1832, as some of the Pottawatomies were out hunting they ran across some of our young Ottawa Indians. They conveyed to them the alarming intelligence that the bloodthirsty Blackhawk of Illinois, was on his way to this point, and his purpose was to kill every Indian woman and child. This intelligence so frightened the Ottawa Indians that they scattered in every direction in their canoes or by other methods of escape. Many of them slept in their canoes. The Ottawas spread the rumor far and near, and were so positive of the truth of the report that the white settlers were thrown into a state of anxiety and dread. Some of them were so alarmed that they buried and hid their property, and then went to hearing's Mill as a place of safety. Some fled to Beaver Creek for greater safety, and placed guards on duty so that they might be duly warned of the approach of the savage chief and his warriors.

"Uncle Guy Nearing learning of the consternation that prevailed among the settlers, and regarding the rumor as nothing more than an idle report, without even the semblance of truth, determined to have some sport with those who had barricaded themselves within the mill at Damascus. One night at 10 o'clock he came riding like Jehu of old, splashing the water and singing in the Indian style until he came up to the guard. 'Who comes there?' was the prompt query of the guard. 'Nowash,' answered Uncle Guy, giving his Indian name. This act on the part of Uncle Guy convinced the guard that the rumor of Blackhawk coming was a silly hoax, and those who were huddled in the mill began to regard the matter in a different light, and in some embarrassment they concluded to return to their homes, confident that all their fright was needless. And this was the sum and substance of the so-called 'Blackhawk War' on Beaver Creek."

Jonathan Salsbury

JONATHAN SALSBUEY and the Salsbury farm in Liberty township, will long be remembered by the old settlers. Old man Salsbury, as he was familiarly called many years ago, was rather a remarkable man and had endured hard work and man-killing hardships enough to have killed four or five ordinary men.

In the spring of 1831 he bought 880 acres of timber land in Liberty township, then a wilderness, the patents for which were signed by Andrew Jackson. He immediately set to work to clear and improve the tract and after staying on it about 30 years had improved over 300 acres. Aside from the work on his farm, wherever there were extensive contracts for work such as teams could be used on with advantage, Jonathan Salsbury was a competitor. When the people began to open artificial water courses in Wood county, and the prairie or swamp lands were to be brought under cultiva- lion, Salsbui'}- Jouiid a field in wliicli lie was peculiarly a success. He fitted up an enormous plow that was gauged and guided by wheels and capable of cutting and turning a furrow 33 inches wide, and so constructed as to require nobody to "hold the plow,'* in fact the plow had no handles. To this breaking machine six pairs of oxen and one span of horses were hitched, and MJien under full headway no ordinary root, sapling or grub would disturb its i)rogress. The cutter and shear were kept filed sharp and it was not necessary to grul) land for this ."ort of a plow.

When Salsbury started on a job it mattered not to him about the weather. Eain, snow, mud or water never deterred him from pushing the work from break of day in the morning until after dark at night.