Marseilles Township (part 2 of 2)

WILLIAM E. WEBBER was born in Windham County, Vt., October 9, 1842. son of Lyman J. and Mary A. (Goodnow) Webber (see A. R. Webber). He was educated in the high school in Delaware County, Ohio, taking a commercial course in the Columbus Business College, graduating in 1865. His marriage to Miss Mary E. Terry, daughter of Ethan and Barbara Terry, occurred October 25, 1870. Two children have been born to them - Winferd P., August 7, 1872; Walter Owen, August 17, 1877. Mr. Webber was engaged in teaching school ten years; enlisted in three months' service, Company C, Eighty-fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry; reenlisted at end of three months in Eighty-eighth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, doing camp and guard duty one year, when he was promoted to Corporal, and subsequently to Sergeant; served on the recruiting commission, raising thirty men for Company H, One Hundred and Seventy- fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and became Second Lieutenant of same company, and was mustered out as First Lieutenant. He was engaged in the iDattle of the Cedars, Nashville, Franklin, Newbern, and in many skirmishes, receiving his discharge July 5, 1865. In 1866, he purchased an interest in a woolen mill, which he successfully operated six years. He and family are living at present on their farm of 200 acres, which is well imf)roved and valued at $60 per acre, stocked with good grades of Durham cattle, merino sheep and horses. He built this year one of the finest frame residences in the township, costing about $3,000; also owns 150 acres of good grazing land in Tennessee. He and Mrs. Webber are both members of the Presbyterian Church, he being a Trustee of the same. In politics, Mr. Webber is a Republican, of the temperance persuasion. Mrs. W^ebber was born and principally educated in Wyandot County, Ohio, receiving in addition to a good common school education a thorough course in the Young Ladies' Seminary, Springfield, Ohio. She inherited from her parents the farm on which the family now reside.

DAVID WILKIN is a native of Hardin County, Va., born March 31, 1822. He is the son of David and Mary (Wilson) Wilkin, natives of the same county, of German parentage. They emigrated to Ohio in 1827, settling in Licking County, where they resided twenty- five years. They then moved to Van Wert County, and shortly after to Michigan, where they resided about four years, and thence to Indiana for about the same length of time. The father died at the home of his son David, March 28, 1882, aged eighty-five years. He was the father of fourteen children, seven by his first wife - Benjamin, David, John A., Joseph, Jonathan, Isaac and Mary A. By his second wife - Hayden, George, William, Cora, Lucinda and Amanda. The mother of the first family died in 1849, aged fifty-three years. Our subject obtained a common school education in Licking County, and worked at home and elsewhere until his marriage, December 23, 1847, to Barbara E. Losh, daughter of Jacob and Eve (Shular) Losh, natives of Pennsylvania, of German lineage. They were early settlers of Perry and Licking Counties and were the parents of nine children, five living - CzarH. , born March 28, 1852; Lucinda D., November 20, 1854; Lydia S., July 20, 1858; Lucy, December 7. 1861; Flora B., June 14, 1864. The deceased are John A., Mary A. and two infants. Mr. Wilkin came to Marseilles Township in 1851, renting the old Wilkin farm twenty-two years; he bought eighty acres of his present farm in 1855, and has since added forty acres more; fifty acres of this was forest land cleared by himself. In his lifetime, Mr. Wilkin claims to have put 100 acres of forest land under cultivation. He began life with nothing, and now lias a farm well improved, valued at $8,000; has ever been a hard worker, himself and another young man (Drum) having cradled 240 dozen of wheat and shocked sixty dozen of the same in one day; reaped with a sickle thirty-five dozen in one day. In politics, Mr. Wilkin is a Democrat, voting first for James K. Polk. He is a member of the A., F. & A. M. at Marseilles; his wife of the Methodist Episcopal Church,

PHILIP WINSLOW was born in New Castle, Knox Co., Ohio, October 4, 1834. He is the son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Eli) W^inslow, natives of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania respectively, and of English and German ancestry. His father's great-grandfather came from England, and his grandfather W^inslow was a soldier in the Eevolutionary war. His father came to Ohio when eighteen, walking from Massachusetts. Ho was married, and moved to Marion County in 1835, purchasing 160 acres in Grand Township, clearing much of it, and rearing a family of eight children, five still living - Patience, Philip, Emaline. David and Orrin. The deceased are Mary A., William and John. The father is still living, aged eighty-six. The mother died May 9, 1875, aged seventy-three. The subject of this sketch was given a common education, and worked by day and month till he enlisted in the service. Company G, Eighty-second Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, November 18, 1861. He participated in the battles at McDowell, Cedar Mountain, Bull Eun second, Kelly's Ford, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg; was here transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, and subsequently engaged at Lookout Mountain, Knoxvilie (here veteranized), Resaea, New Hope Church, Buzzard's Roost, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, with " Sherman to the sea," at Bentonville, and Raleigh, making a forced march to Washington, from W^ashington to Louisville, Ky., and here discharged August, 1865. He was captured at Gettysburg, taken to Belle Isle and kept three months and eight days, where he would have died only for the assistance of Patrick Cayten, of Marion, Ohio. He was at length exchanged, after having marched 2,500 miles, and fought twenty-five to thirty battles. Mr. Winslow was married, December 9, 1860, to Miss Januett Coflfman, daughter of Martin and Lucy (Dickson) Cofifman, the former deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Winslow have had eleven children, eight living - John, Elnora, Curtis, Mary A., Alice, Louis, Elvira and Early. The deceased are Lucy B., Montgomery and an infant. Mr. Winslow purchased his present farm of eighty acres in 1872. In politics, he is a sound Democrat.

JOSEPH C. WORTHINGTON. The subject of this sketch was born in Ross County, Ohio, October 2, 1827. He is the son of John and Nancy (McDill) Worthington, natives of Virginia and Pennsylvania, of English ancestry. His grandfather Worthington was a soldier in the Revolution, and his father in the war of 1812. His uncle, Thomas Worthington, of Chillicothe, was at one time Governor of Ohio. They removed to Chillicothe, or near that place, about 1815, rearing a family of nine children, six living - Isabel, Robert, Elizabeth, James, Joseph C. and Nancy. The deceased ai-e Jane, Mary and John, the latter dying from disease contracted in the late war, in which he served three years. The father died in 1873, aged seventy-eight years; the mother in 1848, aged forty-five years. Our subject attended the common school, beginning monthly labor on the farm at sixteen, and continuing in this pursuit two years, since which time he has engaged in farming. He married, December 29, 1849, Miss Mary J. Piimphry

(born February 8, 1833), daughter of John W. and Jane (Wright) Pumphry, natives of Virginia and Ohio, of Welsh and Irish ancestry. Her father was a soldier in the war of 1812, and her grandfather Pumphry in the Revolutionary war. She is descendant of the English Cromwell - her father's mother, Rachel Cromwell, coming from England. Her parents settled in Ohio in an early day. Her mother had seven children, she being the second by the second marriage, her only full brother being J. B. Pumphry. Mr. and Mrs. Worthington have two children - John A., born June 26, 1852; James R., July 19, 1862. They rented land during the lirst four years of married life, and purchased his present farm of eighty acres in 1854, paying for the same $765; has cleared fifty acres of his farm, and 100 acres in all. In 1864, enlisted in Company G, Eighteenth Regiment Ohio National Guards; engaged at Monocacy River, and discharged at the expiration of 100 days. Mrs. Worthington is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and both Mr. and Mrs. Worthington are industrious and well respected.

Source changes here: from Past and Present of Wyandot County Ohio, by A.j. Baughman, published 1913; 1,750 words in this source stream.

Marseilles Township

There is no better soil in the county than that found in this township, and is especially adapted to wheat and other grains. The forest and prairie lands required sometime to clear and drain, but it now shows evidence of the fruitfulness of the land under the care of the agriculturist, as is attested by its very many prosperous farms. |

This township, which comprises township 4 south, ranges 12 and 18 east, is what is termed a fractional township, being longer, by an average of five miles from east to west, than it is in breadth from north to south. It was organized in 1824. Part of it was formerly Grand township, Marion county, and part was separated from Goshen township, Hardin county, by the erection of Wyandot county in 1845, when it derived its name from its chief village, Marseilles. It is bounded on the north by Jackson and Mifflin townships; on thé east by Pitt township; on the south by Marion and Hardin counties, and on the west by Hardin county and Jackson township.

The principal stream that pursues its meandering course through Marseilles township is known as 'l'ymochtee creek. Entering from Marion county, on the farm of Frederick Fehl. in the southeast corner of section 17, the creek takes an almost due northerly course, and, after skirting the western limits of Marseilles village, it passes through sections 8 and 5 in a somewhat serpentine manner, and makes its exit into Mifflin township on the farm of Isaac Johnson, in section 5. Most of the tributaries which give birth to the Tymochtee have their sources in the northwest quarter of Marion county; some of them rise in Hardin county, and the Little Tymochtee, which pours its water into its more pretentious namesake in Marion county, has its genesis partly in Hardin county and partly in Jackson township. The main artery of this tributary peragrates the western portion of Marseilles township from northwest to southeast, entering at the southwest corner of section 2 west, and in passing through the northeast quarter of section 11 west, it picks up a streamlet (which has its rise in Hardin county, flowing northeast), and, after coursing through sections 12 west, 13 west and 18, it forsakes this township on the farm of Adam M. Hartle, at a point where the old Bellefontaine road crosses it on the southern edge of section 18. A small bend of one of the feeders of the Little Tymochtee dodges across the northwest corner of section 10 west, on the farm of James B. Pool, and other than a rill that rises in the west of section 7, on the farm of Michael Bower, and trills eastward into Tymochtee creek at Marseilles village. There is no other stream of any moment in the township.

The first highway to be regularly laid out, in this township, was the State or Bellefontaine road in 1822, which enters from Mifflin township in section 4, and, after traversing the township in a southwesterly direction and passing through Marseilles village, it enters Marion county at the southern edge of section 18. Two roads enter from Pitt township in the east at sections 1 and 13 respectively, the more northerly of which runs about due-west, and strikes Jackson township at section 2 west; the other road leads due west till it reaches the western edge of section 16, when it proceeds due north a short distance; then due west again for a quarter of a mile; then northwest till it terminates in Marseilles village. From the -old Bellefontaine road two other diverge, one leading northwest into Jackson township, and the other taking a somewhat irregular route northwest, west and southwest, into Hardin county.

One of the first settlers in the township was Samuel Simpson, who was born in 1815 and located here in 1821. In his association with the Indians, he learned to speak their language, and still possesses that acquirement. Garrett Fitzgerald; a native of Virginia and a married man with a family of seven children, settled in the southeast quarter section in 1822. In the same year came David and Jerry Terry. In 1823, William Renick, a native of Virginia, and Charles Crosberry; in 1824, Thomas Wallace; in 1825, A. Renick, James Brown, Robert Ward, Richard Lee, Harvey Buckmeister, Colonel Hunt, William Bowsher, Anthony Bowsher, David Harpster, David Miller. In 1826, Daniel and Samuel Straw and Joseph Parish; John Heckathorn came in 1828, and Maj. Hugh Long, a tanner, located in the village of Marseilles in 1832. He was born in West Liberty, Virginia, April 12, 1794, and served in the War of 1812 as a member of a Light Horse

Company, commanded by Capt. Ichabod Nye, of Knox county. They camped on what is now known as ''Armstrong's Bottom,'' about two miles south of Upper Sandusky. When Major Long came to engage in the business of tanning in Marseilles in 1832, Charles Merriman owned the only frame house in the village, which then consisted of some six or eight cabins. The Major filled, in his lifetime, nearly every township office, and he did much toward building up the village to what it now is. During the latter years of his life, he drew a pension from the government for his services.

John Fehl, a native of Pennsylvania, was born September 1, 1792; came to this township in 1834, and entered eighty acres of land. He was the father of nine children. His death occurred July 8, 1871. Mrs. Fehl, his widow, was born April 16, 1794.

Alexander Pool, born in Pennsylvania in July, 1799, came to Marseilles township in the spring of 1834, and entered eighty acres of land. He died December 24, 1880. John W. Kennedy settled in Marseilles in 1835.

In 1823 the first schoolhouse was built in the township. It was of hewed logs with puncheon floors and greased paper windows. The first teacher was Jerry Terry, and the second one was Silas Unten. The first election held in this township, then known as Grand township, was held in the village of Marseilles in 1829. The first white child was born in this township in 1832. The first wedding was in 1844, the contracting parties being Samuel Simpson and Ann H. Kennedy. The first death was that of John Crosberry, in 1826. Dr. Westbrook is said to have been the first physician in the township. Before any stores were opened here, settlers had to go to Upper Sandusky, West Liberty or Bellefontaine for their supplies. Charles Merriman opened the first store in the township. The first sawmill and grist mill stood on section 17, and were driven by Tymochtee creek water power. The remains of some Indian camps were found in sections 8 and IG

Marseilles

About the year 1827, Garrett Fitzgerald, a native of Virginia, who emigrated to this county in 1825, and entered eighty acres of land in section 8, this township, laid out a small town on said section, which he called Burlington, situated on the north of and adjoining the south line of section 8. In 1828, Josiah Robinson, also a Virginian, who emigrated to this county and settled in Antrim township in 1822, and who a few years later became owner of 160 acres of land in Marseilles township, section 17, also laid out a small town in his section, which he named Marseilles. In 1845, C. Merriman, owning a small strip of land lying between and adjoining ''Burlington'"' and ''Marseilles,'' a little later laid out another addition, and the entire village soon became the Marseilles village of to day.

About 1837, William Welsh opened out a small grocery store, which he carried on a short time and then sold out to Joseph Shilling, who occupied the store mainly as a saloon. In 1847, Charles Merriman built on lot 10, Robinson's addition, a two-story brick block, 22 x 40, where he conducted a general merchandise business for a few years, when his son, Calvin Davis, succeeded him and continued several years. until Shaver Bros. came into possession. The latter firm built, in 1857, on lot 10, a two-story frame business room, where they carried on mercantile trade for about two years, and then closed out their stock, sold their property to John Fehl, and removed to Delaware. Fehl sold this property to Dr. Gates, who disposed of same soon after to J. O. Studebaker, who resold about 1881 to Dr. Gates.

The first house in the village was erected by Garrett Fitzgerald on lot No. 12, Fitzgerald's addition. It was a roundlog, single story building, 16 x 18 feet, used as a dwelling house for many years, and of which nothing now remains, a frame house having been built on the same lot in 1836, by Solomon Adams. The first store was built in 1828, on lot 11, Robinson's addition, by Merriman & Terry, a 20 x 32-feet structure of hewed logs, in which the firm carried on a general merchandising business with a stock representing $1,000 capital. This partnership continued but a short time, Mr. Terry retiring from the firm and devoting his attention to real estate business and general agriculture, Later on, Wilham Carey formed a partnership with C. H. Merriman in mercantile business, and, in 1834, built a new business room, the first frame building in the village, 22 x 44 feet, on lot 24, Robinson's addition. This partnership continued until 1844, when they sold out to Jacob Shaffer, who again sold out to

Long & Kennedy, who carried on the business until 1850, and were then bought out by 8. Potter who also disposed of his interest two years later to Knibloe & Norton, who sold out to Lewis Merriman and who, in a few years, took into partnership B. F'. Kennedy. After another few years, Merriman retired and Kennedy continued alone until 1883, when he sold out to Robert Linsey.

In 1852 a fine, frame, five-story flour-mill, 40x50 feet, was built at a cost of $12,000, by a joint-stock company of whom Charles Merriman, Long & Kennedy, Dr. William Chesney and Dr. Irvin were the principal stockholders, which mill did a good business for many years.

About 1860, a large frame carding mill, 30 x 50 feet, was | erected by William Weber, of Delaware, and conducted successfully for several years.

The Marseilles of today is an enterprising village of about two hundred and fifty inhabitants, and it has splendid schools with an enrollment of over seventy pupils.