Milton Township

Milton Township

Milton Township

About the year 1834-35, began the first white settlement, in what is now known as Milton township, in Wood county, Ohio. Prior to this time it was a howling wilderness; the foot of a white man had scarcely trod on its territory. The wild Indian or red man of the forest, the bear, the wolf, the panther and wild cat, held full sway, unmolested by the approach of civilization. About this time there began to be a movement made in some of the eastern counties of Ohio, to go west. The Maumee Valley had its attractions, and the traveler in search of a home had his attention drawn to Wood county by its rich and inexhaustable soil. Landing at Perrysburg, they would wend their way up the Maumee, and striking the mouth of Beaver Creek, a mile below Grand Rapids (then Gilead), they would ascend the creek to explore the rich country before them. The earlier settlers began to locate along the creek in Henry county and soon they began to spread out over more territory.

To tell the story of pioneer life in the wilds of Milton and adjoining townships it may seem strange to some why I should connect Henry county and Liberty township and associate the names of those at such remote distances.

Id those days we understood and appreciated that word neighbor. It was not used then in that narrow, contracted sense in which it is used now, but it was born of that higher and prouder philanthropy, as taught in Bible lessons, where a man fell among robbers^ so we in the earlier days of our pioneer life in the wilds of Milton and adjoining townships were all neighbors, for miles and miles, and when we met, there was a happy greeting, a cordial and hearty shaking of hands, as though it really meant something.

We had no roads either, we just went zig-zag through me woods, around trees, over and around fallen timber, through the water, fighting the mosquitoes, to a neighbor's with a sack of corn on our backs to grind it on a hand mill, to get corn meal to make johnny cake for the family (it was johnny cake, coon and possum fat), and glad to get that. We had no water mills nearer than Perrysburg, and not much to get ground when we got there. And it took us from four to five days to go and come; the only conveyance was by ox teams and a cart.

Old Billy Hill (as he was familiarly known) had a hand mill, and it was kept going from morning until midnight, people coming from miles and miles around. Dozens of men and women have been there at one time waiting their turn to get their opportunity to turn the mill, and some times, when so thronged, some would leave their corn and go home to their hungry families, and come again to take their places at the mill. Of course this mill was a rude structure; four upright posts framed together and the stones set in them, and the propelling power was applied by an upright shaft, with an iron spout placed in a thimble in the upper burr, and the top held by passing through a hole in a board, and then two men taking hold of this upright shaft and turning the burr. It was a slow process, but it was the only alternative we had. This was afterward changed, so as to make it more convenient; it was arranged, so four men could take hold of cranks like a grind stone and made to grind much faster. Then we all thought that we had found a paradise.

Going To Mill

The nearest grist mills for the settlers along the Maumee were located at the month of the river Raisin in Michigan, where the city of Monroe now is, and at Cold Creek in what was then Huron county - now Erie county, Ohio, near where the village of Castalia now is. The distance in either case being not far from seventy miles, and with the easy going ox teams and the horrible roads, going to mill was a vast undertaking, the journey often taking ten days or two weeks to perform even if the hungry pioneer did not have to camp out, or hunt work in the neighborhood of the mill, and wait for sufficient water to accumulate in the crazy old dams, to enable the miller to turn out their grist.

Alexander Brown, once worked, logging, at Cold Creek, and then had to turn in and help grind his own grist on Sunday, and even then did not finish before the water gave out, and he was forced to leave a portion of his grist at the mill, the miller promising to grind it and send it to Perrysburg by the first chance. Mr. Brown got his grist in a little over two months all right.

When an expedition was fitted out to go to mill either to the mouth of Raisin river or to Cold Creek, it usually became a neighborhood affair, and was considered a bigger undertaking than a trans-continental journey would now. A "team," consisting of two or three yokes of oxen, would be rigged to a wagon, and the grists of the whole neighborhood be loaded on, with feed for the cattle and a sack of potatoes, coffee pot and frying pan, and other needed camp equipage, and amidst much excitement and great shoutings of "good byes," the expedition would gaily flounder away on their trip of a week or two to mill. For the meat supply of such expeditions, the settlers depended upon the chance of game supply along the route, and usually some noted hunter accompanied the caravan as chief forager, whose unerring rifle would easily, every day, from the woods, supply the meager larder with juicy venison steaks, or a young bear roast.

Sometimes, when the country was flooded, and the rude trails through the forests back to the older settlements were impassable even to a man on horseback, the bread material of our hardy pioneers was prepared as was that of the ancient Hebrews, every family doing its own grinding, in their handmills, or as their Indian neighbors did theirs, in a sort of rude mortar attached to a spring pole, always remembering that among the Indians the ladies manipulated the hominy mill.

The old mill is still hale and heartv, and has good teeth yet for a pioneer of 57 years old. Bushels of buckwheat and corn have met the crushing influence of that old mill, and bolted through a fine meal sieve have furnished "Snap Jack" material that fried in "bar" fat, went far toward nourishing the sinewy arm of the old pioneers when by reason of the impassable condition of roads or the inclement weather, they were prevented from going to mill.

Tt is a matter of fact that in the Maumee Valley a greater number of battles have been fought, and with greater results than in any similar extent of territorv in the Union.

The Pioneer Attacked By Wolves

OX E night as Mr. Meeker was going home followed by one of his dogs he suddenly heard the howl of a wolf near the trail he was following. This was instantly answered by another wolf and presently a wolf appeared in front of him. The dog slunk close to him. He had no means of defense and so knew it was just as safe to go ahead as to turn back. So he walked boldly up to the one in the trail until almost within reach of it when it sprang to one side and joined with two others in the rear, when they all broke out in a deafening, startling chorus of howls. After going a mile or so he came to where a tree had been blown down and ran into the top to get a stick. While here, four more wolves joined in the chase, and on taking the trail again they became so fierce and hold and approached so close that several times be succeeded in striking one with his cluh, after which they would howl and snap their teeth in disappointed rage, but continue to follow him until be arrived on the ridge at the cabin of Howard, who had a great fire in his fire place, the light of which shone through the unchinked cracks and which with two savage dogs finally scared the wolves off. Meeker thinks if he had tripped his foot and fallen they would have all attacked him at once. They were of the large brown species and seemed maddened with hunger. - C. IV. E.

Wild Hogs

Tl I K earliest recollections we have from the first settlers all speak of the great numbers of wild bogs that frequented the woods in the Black Swamp. They were more numerous at times than the deer and many years later they were captured in the dense woods north of what is called the "Devil's Hole."

Some of the early settlers claimed that they were not, nor could not be the progeny of the domestic bog, being entirely wild and untamable and fierce of disposition. But we incline to the belief that they were originally strays, or cast offs from the quartermaster's department of Bull's or Harrison's army. Perhaps Mad Anthony Wayne and his legion in 1794, after the victory, felt so well that they turned all their hogs loose, if any they had, to devour the Indian cornfields growing along the Maumee. At all events it is known that large droves of hogs were brought in during the war of 1812, and it is not at all unreasonable to suppose this the origin of the \ast herds of wild bogs which roamed the woods many years ago. We refer to this matter in this place in connection with a couple of incidents related by Mr. Meeker.

While in, search of some horses one day in company with one of the Deckers, they beard a loud commotion some distance away among the wild hogs. It grew louder and louder until their curiosity led them to cautiously approach the place or as near as they dared, when they spied a wolf on a high fallen log barely out of reach of the infuriated animals, which seemed to have gathered there by hundreds - at least the ground was covered with them. But the wolf may have seen the men, for be sprang off his perch and was instantly torn to pieces and devoured. The hunters were only able, after the hogs Left, to find a small string of his hide.

Meeker Treed by Wild Hogs At another time Mr. Meeker was returning home when he heard the cries <>f a young pig, which seemed to have been deserted by the rest of the herd and was too weak to gel alone". Mr. Meeker took it up thinking to take it home with him. when it set up such a Bqueeling as soon brought the whole drove upon him. He heard them coming just in time to drop the pig and hastily climh a small tree as the excited animals gathered beneath him foaming and gnashing their teeth, while several l'< ro: lous old hoars fought with each other for the privilege of gouging the bark off the tree with their tusks. After much noisy demonstrations and watching the prisoner for a time they began to drop off and finally the siege was entirely raised by the departure of the last hog - a surly old boar, a very patriarch whose Large tusks and fierce mien might have well challenged comparison with any dwellers of bis kind in the famous Black Swamp. - G. W. E.

The Maumee Country

Before the year 1820, Wood county was a part of an indefinite, undivided, unexplored wilderness, known as "Northwest Ohio," with its county seat at Bellefont aine, and but few settlements in all the -Black Swamp" of the "Miami of the Lakes." Wavneslield township of Logan county, included within its limits, all of the present counties of Wood and Hancock, and in that year. 1820, the total tax for all purposes collected in the said township was $139.45. In 1823, on the 28th of May. the township of Waynesfield was divided by the organization of Perrysburg township, which included, all of the present county of Wood.

time celebrated from one end of the United States to the other, as the most forsaken, desolate and ague-smitten wilderness of tangled forests and inhospitable swamps, only excelled in dreariness and desolation, perhaps, by the great "Dismal Swam])** of Virginia, or the impenetrated everglades of Florida.

Hull*.- troops had cut and floundered a passage through this country on their way to the disgraceful surrender at Detroit, in LSI 2. Mad Anthony Wayne's victorious army, had 18 years before this, in 17!H, followed down along the swampy "Miamd of the Lakes" from Fort Defiance to Fori Miami, to punish the refiactory Indians, and as the soldiers of Warn Hull and Harrison dispersed to their homes back in the old colonies, they carried with them their soldier stories of the horrible swamps of the "Miami of the Lakes." as the Maumee river was then called.

See how names are changed, and new wonL made. The river was by its earliest French settlers, called the Miami, pronounced by the French "Me-ah-me," and by the corrupted influence of the pronunciation, it became first "Me-awme" and then "Mau-mee" until now as we pronounce the "Mi-ani-i" of southern Ohio and the "Maumee" of northern Ohio you wouldn't suspect any blood relation. And as "Maumee'' it became a famed locality and went heralded in song and wierd story as the place where "Potatoes they grow small on Mau-mee, on Mau-mee."

But in spite of its drawbacks, and unpleasant natural features, and the unfavorable reports circulated far and wide about the country, the speculating spirit of some of Wayne's soldiers and those of the war of 1812, was attracted to the Maumee Valley by its wonderful game supply, and the hopes of a remunerative traffic in furs and peltries with the Indians, and traders; posts were established at several places in the valley immediately after the peace following the war of 1812.

enough settlers were located about Fort Meigs, at the foot of the rapids in the river, to demand a better means of communication with their county seat, Bellefoaitainej than was presented by Hull's old trace, in its serpentine wanderings southward through this county; so what is called yet the Wapakoneta road, was petitioned for, granted, surveyed, and work begun on it in 1821. The road led from Fort Meigs along up the river on the south side, to near the mouth of Beaver Creek, then followed nearly the course, of Beaver Creek, and so en south of Wapakoneta. Then the trade of the Indians at the head of the rapids, attracted settlers along up the river. At that time there were no other white settlers between that point and Fort Defiance, where the town of Defiance now is.

There was quite a good sized Indian village on the Maumee and scattering outlying settlements along up Beaver Creek, and on the sand ridges south from the river, the Indians dwelling in peace and harmony with their white neighbors.

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; 2,557 words in this source stream.

Milton Township

About the year 1834-35, began the first white settlement, in what is now known as Milton township, in Wood county, Ohio, Prior to this time it was a howling wilderness; the foot of a white man had scarcely trod on its territory. The wild Indian o-r red man of the forest, the bear, the wolf, the panther and wild cat, held full sway, unmolested by the approach of civilization. About this time there began to be a movement made in some of the eastern counties of Ohio, to go west. The Maumee Valley had its attractions, and the traveler in search of a home had his attention drawn to Wood county by its rich and inexhaustable soil. Landing at Perrysburg, they would wend their way up the Maumee, and striking the mouth of Beaver Creek, a mile below Grand Eapids (then Gilead), they would ascend the creek to explore the rich country before them. The earlier settlers began to locate along the creek in Henry county and soon they began to spread out over more territory.

To tell the story of pioneer life in the wilds of Milton and adjoining townships it may seem strange to some why I should connect Henry county and Liberty townshi]i and associate the names of those at sueli remote distances.

In those days we understood and appreciated that word neighbor. It was not used then in that narrow, contracted sense in which it is used now, but it was born of that higher and prouder philanthropy, as taught in Bible lessons, where a man fell among robbers; so we in the earlier days of our pioneer life in the wilds of Milton and adjoining townships were all neighbors, for miles and miles, and when we met, there was a happy greeting, a cordial and hearty shaking of hands, as though it really meant something.

We had no roads either, we just went zig-zag through me woods, around trees, over and around fallen timber, through the water, fighting the mosquitoes, to a neighbor's with a sack of corn on our backs to grind it on a hand mill, to get corn meal to make johnny cake for the family (it was johnny cake, coon and possum fat), and glad to get that. We had no water mills nearer than Perrysburg, and not much to get ground when we got there. And it took us from four to five days to go and come; the only conveyance was by ox teams and a cart.

Old Billy Hill (as he was familiarly known) had a hand mill, and it was kept going from morning until midnight, people coming from miles and miles around. Dozens of men and women have licen there at one time waiting their turn to get their opportunity to turn the mill, and some times, when so thronged, some would leave their corn and go home to their hungry families, and come again to take their places at the mill. Of course this mill was a rude structure; four upright posts framed together and the stones set in them, and the propelling power was applied by an upright shaft, with an iron spout placed in a thimble in the upper burr, and the top held by passing through a hole in a board, and then two men taking hold of this upright shaft and turning the burr. It was a slow process, but it was the only alternative we had. This was afterward changed, so as to make it more convenient; it was arranged, so four men could take hold of cranks like a grind stone and made to grind much faster. Then we all thought that we had found a paradise.

Sckap-Book Going To Mill

The nearest grist mills for the settlers along the Manmee were located at the mouth of the river Raisin in Michigan, where the city of Monroe now is, and at Cold Creek in what was then Huron count}^ - now Erie county, Ohio, near where the village of Castalia now is. The distance in either case being not far from seventy miles, and with the easy going ox teams and the horrible roads, going to mill was a vast undertaking, the Journey often taking ten days or two weeks to perform even if the hungry pioneer did not have to camp out, or hunt work in the neighborhood of the mill, and wait for sufficient water to accumulate in the crazy old dams, to enable the miller to turn out their grist.

Alexander Brown, once worked, logging, at Cold Creek, and then had to turn in and help grind his own grist on Sunday, and even then did not finish before the water gave out, and he was forced to leave a portion of his grist at the mill, the miller promising to grind it and send it to Perrysburg by the first chance. Mr. Brown got his grist in a little over two months all right.

When an expedition was fitted out to go to mill either to the mouth of Raisin river or to Cold Creek, it usually became a neighborhood affair, and was considered a bigger undertaking than a trans-continental journey would now. A "team," consisting of two or three yokes of oxen, would be rigged to a wagon, and the grists of the whole neighborhood be loaded on, with feed for the cattle and a sack of potatoes, coffee pot and frying pan, and other needed camp equipage, and amidst much excitement and great shoutings of "good byes," the expedition would gaily flounder away on their trip of a week or two to mill. For the meat supply of such expeditions, the settlers depended upon the chance of game supply along the route, and usually some noted hunter accompanied the caravan as chief forager, whose unerring rifle would easily, every day, from the woods, supply the meager larder with juicy venison steaks, or a young bear roast.

Sometimes, when the country was flooded, and the rude trails through the forests back to the older settlements were impassable even to a man on horseback, the bread material of our hardy pioneers was prepared as was that of the ancient Hebrews, every family doing its own grinding, in their handmills, or as their Indian neighbors did theirs, in a sort of rude mortar attached to a spring pole, always remembering that among the Indians the ladies manipulated the hominy mill.

The old mill is still hale and heartv, ai.d has good teeth yet for a pioneer of 57 years old. Bushels of buckwheat and corn have met the crushing influence of that old mill, and bolted through a fine meal sieve have furnished "Snap Jack" material that fried in "bar" fat, went far toward nourishing the sinewy arm of the old pioneers when by reason of the impassable condition of roads or the inclement weather, they were prevented from going to mill.

It is a matter of fact that in the Maumee Valley a greater number of battles have been fought, and with greater results than in any similar extent of territory in the Union.

The Pioneer Attacked By Wolves

OA'E night as Mr. Meeker was going home followed by one of his dogs he suddenly heard the howl of a wolf near the trail he was following. This was instantly answered by another wolf and presently a wolf appeared in front of him. The dog slunk close to him. He had no means of defense and so Icnew it was just as safe to go ahead as to turn back. So he walked boldly up to the one in the trail until almost within reach of it when it sprang to one side and joined with two others in the rear, when they all broke out in a deafening, startling chorus of howls. After going a mile or so he came to where a tree had been l)lown down and ran into the top to get a stick. While here, four more wolves joined in the chase, and on taking the trail again they became so fierce and bold and approached so close that several times he succeeded in striking one with his club, after which they would howl and snap their teeth in disappointed rage, but continue to follow him until he arrived on the ridge at the cabin of Howard, who had a great fire in his fire place, the light of which shone through the unchinked cracks and which with two savage dogs finally scared the wolves off. Meeker thinks if he had tripped his foot and fallen they would have all attacked him at once. They were of the large brown species and seemed maddened with hunger. - C. W. E.

Wild Hogs

THE earliest recollections we have from the first settlers all speak of the great numbers of wild hogs that frequented the woods in the Black Swamp. They were more numerous at times than the deer and many years later they were captured in the dense woods north of what is called the "Devil's Hole."

Some of the early settlers claimed that they were not, nor could not be the progeny of the domestic hog, being entirely wild and untamable and fierce of disposition. But we incline to the belief that they were originally strays, or cast offs from the quartermaster's ' department of Hull's or Harrison's army. Perhaps Mad Anthony Wayne and his legion in 1794, after tlio victorv, felt so well that they turned all their hogs loose, if any they had, to devour the Indian cornfields growing along the Maumee. At all events it is known that large droves of hogs were brought in during the war of 1812, and it is not at all unreasonable to suppose this the origin of the \ast herds of wild hogs which roamed the woods many years ago. We refer to this matter in this place in connection with a couple of incidents related by Mr. Meeker.

While in search of some horses one day in company with one of the Deckers, they heard a loud commotion some distance away among the wild hogs. It grew louder and louder until their curiosity led them to cautiously approach the place or as near as they dared, when they spied a wolf on a high fallen log barely out of reach of the infuriated animals, which seemed to have gathered tlu>re by hundreds - at least the ground was covered with them. But the wolf may have seen the men, for he sprang off his perch and was instantly torn to pieces and devoured. The hunters were only able, after the hogs left, to find a small string of his hide.

At another time ]\Ir. jMccker was returning home M'hen he heard the cries of a young pig, which seemed to have been deserted by the rest of the herd and was too weak to get along. Mr. Meeker took it up thinking to take it home with him, when it set up such a squeeling as soon l)rought the whole drove upon him. He heard them coming just in time to drop the pig and hastily climb a small tree as the excited animals gathered beneath him foaming and gnashing their teeth, while several ferocious old l)oars fought with each other for the privilege of gouging the bark off the tree with their tusks. After much iictisy demonstrations and watching the l)risoner for a time they began to drop oft' and finally the siege was entirely raised by the departure of the last hog - a surly old boar, a very patriarch whose large tusks and fierce mien might have well challenged comparison with any dwellers of his kind in the famous Black Swamp. - C. W. E.

The Maumee Country

Before the year 1820, Wood county wa« a part of an indefinite, undivided, unexplored wilderness, known as "Xorthwest Ohio," with its county seat at Bellefontaine, and but few settlements in all the "Black Swamp" of the "Miami of the Lakes." Waynesfield township of liOgan county, included within its limits, all of the present counties of Wood and Hancock, and in that year, 1820, the total tax for all purposes collected in the said township was $139.15. In 1823, on the 28th of May, the township of Waynesfield was divided by the organization of Perrysbvirg township, which included all of the present county of Wood.

time celebrated from one end of the United States to the other, as the most forsaken, desolate and ague-smitten wilderness of tangled forests and inhospitable swamps, only excelled in dreariness and desolation, perhaps, by the great "Dismal Swamp"" of Virginia, or the un- ])enetrated everglades of Florida.

Hull's troops had cut and floundered a passage through this country on their way to the disgraceful surrender at Detroit, in 1812. Mad Anthony Wayne's victorious army, liad 18 years before this, iu 1T91, followed down along the swampy "Miamji of the Lakes"' from Fort Defiance to Fort 3Iiami, to punish the re- I'lactory Indians, and as the soldiers of \V;i\ne. Hull and Harrison dispersed to their homes back in the old colonies, they carried with them their soldier stories of the horrible swamps of the "Miami of the Lakes," as the Maumee river was then called.

See how names are changed, and new words made. The river was by its earliest French settlers, called the Miami, ]-)ronounced by the French "Me-ah-me," and by the cornipted influence of the

Indians' and backwoodsmen's attempts at pronunciation, it became first "Me-awme" and then "Mau-mee" until now as we pronounce the "Mi-am-i" of southern Ohio and the "^'Maumee" of northern Ohio 3'ou wouldn't suspect any blood relation. x\nd as "Maumee" it became a famed locality and went heralded in song and wierd story as the place where "Potatoes they grow small on Mau-mee, on Mau-mee."

But in spite of its drawbacks, and unpleasant natural features, and the unfavorable reports circulated far and wide about the country, the speculating spirit of some of Wayne's soldiers and those of the war of 1812, was attracted to the Maumee Valley by its wonderful game suppl}', and the hopes of a remunerative traffic in furs and peltries with the Indians, and traders; posts were established at several places in the valley immediately after the peace following the war of 1812.

enough settlers were located about Fort Meigs, at the foot of the rapids in the river, to demand a better means of communication with their county seat, Bellefontaine, than was presented by HulFs old trace, in its serpentine wanderings southward through this county; so what is called yet the Wapakoneta road, was petitioned for, granted, surveyed, and work begun on it in 1821. The road led from Fort Meigs along up tlie river on the south side, to near the mouth of Beaver Creek, then followed nearly the course of Beaver Creek, and so en south of Wapakoneta. Then the trade of the Indians at the head of the rapids, attracted settlers along up the river. At that time there were no other white settlers between that point and Fort Defiance, where the town of Defiance now is.

There was quite a good sized Indian village on the Maumee and scattering outlying settlements along up Beaver Creek, and on the sand ridges south from the river, the Indians dwelling in peace and harmony with their white neighbors.

Source changes here: from Pioneer Scrap-Book: Many Incidents and Reminiscences of the Early History of Wood County, by C. W. Evers, published 1910; 2,353 words in this source stream.

Milton Township

About the year 1834-35, began the first white settlement, in what is now known as Milton township, in Wood county, Ohio. Prior to this time it was a howling wilderness; the foot of a white man had scarcely trod on its territory. The wild Indian or red man of the forest, the bear, the wolf, the panther and wild cat, held full sway, unmolested by the approach of civilization. About this time there began to be a movement made in some of the eastern counties of Ohio, to go west. The Maumee Valley had its attractions, and the traveler in search of a home had his attention drawn to Wood county by its rich and inexhaustable soil. Landing at Perrysburg, they would wend their way up the Maumee, and striking the mouth of Beaver Creek, a mile below Grand Rapids (then Gilead), they would ascend the creek to explore the rich country before them. The earlier settlers began to locate along the creek in Henry county and soon they began to spread out over more territory.

To tell the story of pioneer life in the wilds of Milton and adjoining townships it may seem strange to some why I should connect Henry county and Liberty township and associate the names of those at such remote distances.

In those days we understood and appreciated that word neighbor. It was not used then in that narrow, contracted sense in which it is used now, but it was born of that higher and prouder philanthropy, as taught in Bible lessons, whera a man fell among robbers; so we in the earlier days of our pioneer life in the wilds of Milton and adjoining townships were all neighbors, for miles and miles, and when we met, there was a happy

We had no roads either, we just went zig-zag through we woods, around trees, over and around fallen timber, through the water, fighting the mosquitoes, to a neighbor's with a sack of corn on our backs to grind it on a hand mill, to get corn meal to make johnny cake for the family (it was johnny cake, coon and possum fat), and glad to get that. We had no water mills nearer than Perrysburg, and not much to get ground when we got there. And it took us from four to five days to go and come; the only conveyance was by ox teams and a cart.

Old Billy Hill (as he was familiarly known) had a hand mill, and it was kept going from morning until midnight, people coming from miles and miles around. Dozens of men and women have been there at one time waiting their turn to get their opportunity to turn the mill, and some times, when so thronged, some would leave their corn and go home to their hungry families, and come again to take their places at the mill. Of course this mill was a rude structure; four upright posts framed together and the stones set in them, and the propelling power was applied by an upright shaft, with an iron spout placed in a thimble in the upper burr, and the top held by passing through a hole in a board, and then two men taking hold of this upright shaft and turning the burr. It was a slow process, but it was the only alternative we had. This was afterward ehanged, so as to make it more convenient; it was arranged, so four men could take hold of cranks like a grind stone and made to grind much faster. Then we all thought that we had found a paradise.

Scrap-Book Going To Mill

The nearest grist mills for the settlers along the Maumee were located at the mouth of the river, Raisin in Michigan, where the city of Monroe now is, and at Cold Creek in what was then Huron county - now county, Ohio, near where the village of Castalia now is. The distance in either case being not far from seventy miles, and with the easy going ox teams and the horrible roads, going to mill was a vast undertaking, the journey often taking ten days or two weeks to perform even if the hungry pioneer did not have to camp out, or hunt work in the neighborhood of the mill, and wait for sufficient water to accumulate in the crazy old dams, to enable the miller to turn out their grist.

turn in and help grind his own grist on Sunday, and even then did not finish before the water gave out, and he was forced to leave a portion of his grist at the mill, the miller promising to grina it and send it to Perrysburg by the first chance. Mr. Brown got his grist in a little over two months all right.

When an expedition was fitted out to go to mill either to the mouth of Raisin river or to Cold Creek, it usually became a neighborhood affair, and was considered a bigger undertaking than a - trans-continental journey would now. A "team," consisting of two or three yokes of oxen, would be rigged to a wagon, and the grists of the whole neighborhood be loaded on, with feed for the cattle and a sack of potatoes, coffee pot and frying pan, and other needed equipage, and amidst much excitement and great shoutings of "good byes," the expedition would gaily flounder away on their trip of a week or two to mill. For the meat supply of such expeditions, the settlers depended upon the chance of game supply along the route, and usually some noted hunter accompanied the caravan as chief forager, whose unerring rifle would easily, every day, from the woods, supply the meager larder with juicy venison steaks, or a young bear roast.

Sometimes, when the country was flooded, and the rude trails through the forests back to the older settlements were impassable even to a man horseback, the bread material of our hardy pioneers was prepared as was that of the ancient Hebrews, every family doing its own grinding, in their handmills, or as their Indian neighbors did theirs, in a sort of rude mortar attached to a spring pole, always remembering that among the Indians the ladies manipulated the hominy mill.

The old mill is still hale and heartv, and has good teeth yet for a pioneer of 57 years old. Bushels of buckwheat and corn have met the crushing influence of that old mill, and bolted. through a fine meal sieve have furnished "Snap Jack" material that fried in "bar" fat, went far toward nourishing the sinewy arm of the old pioneers when by reason of the impassable condition of roads or the inclement weather, they were prevented from going to mill.

It is a matter of fact that in the Maumee Valley a greater number of battles have been fought, and with greater results than in any similar extent of territory in the Union.

Attacked By Wolves

home followed by one of his dogs he suddenly heard. the howl of a wolf near the trail he was following. This was instantly answered by another wolf and presently a wolf appeared in front of him. The dog slunk close to him. He had no means of defense and so knew il was just as safe to go ahead as to turn back. So he walked boldly up to the one in the trail until almost within reach of it when it sprang to one side and joined with two others in the rear, when they all broke out in a deafening,

Wild Hogs

HE earliest recollections we have from the first settlers all speak of the great numbers of wild hogs that frequented the woods in the Black Swamp. They were more numerous at times than the deer and many years later they were captured in the dense woods north of what is called the "Devil's Hole."

Some of the early settlers claimed that they were not, nor could not be the progeny of the domestic hog, being entirely wild and untamable and fierce of disposition. But we incline to the belief that they were originally strays, or cast offs from the quartermaster's department of Hull's or Harrison's army. Perhaps Mad Anthony Wayne and his legion in 1794, after the victory, felt so well startling chorus of howls. After going a mile or so he came to where a tree had been blown down and ran -into the top. to get a stick. While here, four more wolves joined in the chase, and on taking the trail again they became so fierce and times he succeeded in striking one with his club, after which they would howl and snap their teeth in disappointed rage, but continue to follow him until he arrived on the ridge at the cabin of Howard, who had a great fire in his fire place, the light of which shone through | the unchinked cracks and which with two savage dogs finally scared the wolves off, Meeker thinks if he had tripped his foot and fallen they would have all attacked him at once. They were of the large brown species and seemed maddened with hunger. - C. W.

that they turned all their hogs loose, if any they had, to devour the Indian cornfields growing along the Maumee. At all events it is known that large droves of hogs were brought in during the war of 1812, and it is not at all unreasonable to suppose this the origin of the vast herds of wild hogs which roamed the woods many years ago. We refer to this matter in this place in connection with a couple of incidents related by Mr. Meeker.

While in search of some horses one day in company with one of the Deckers, they heard a loud commotion some distance away among the wild hogs. It grew louder and louder until their curiosity led them to cautiously approach the place or as near as they dared, when they spied a wolf on a high fallen log barely out of reach of the infuriated animals, which seemed to have gathered there by hundreds - at least the ground was covered with them. But the wolf may have seen the men, for he sprang off his perch and was instantly torn to pieces and devoured. The hunters were only able, after the hogs left, to find a small string of his hide.

At another time Mr. Meeker was returning home when he heard the cries of a young pig, which seemed to have been deserted by the rest of the herd and was too weak to get along. Mr. Meeker took it up thinking to take it home with him, when it set up such a squeeling as soon brought the whole drove upon him. He heard them com-

The Maumee Country

HE late Dr. Geo. B. Spencer wrote to the Sentinel early in 1884, as follows: Before the year 1820, Wood county was a part of an indefinite, undivided, unexplored wilderness, known as "Northwest Ohio," with its county seat at Bellefontaine, and but few settlements in all the "Black Swamp" of the "Miami of the Lakes." Waynesfield township of Logan county, included within its limits, all of the present counties of Wood and Hancock, and in that year, 1820, the total tax for all purposes collected in the said township was $139.45. In 1823, on the 28th of May, the township of Waynesfield was divided by the organization of Perrysburg township, which included all of the present county of Wood. "The Maumee Country", was by this ing just in time to drop the pig and hastily climb a small tree as the excited animals gathered beneath him foaming and gnashing their teeth, while several fcrocious old boars fought with each other for the privilege of gouging the bark off the tree with their tusks. After much noisy demonstrations and watching the prisoner for a time they began to drop off and finally the siege was entirely raised by the departure of the last hog - a surly old boar, a very patriarch whose large tusks and fierce mien might have well challenged comparison with any dwellers of his kind in the famous Black Swamp. - C. W. E.

time celebrated from one end of the United States to the other, as the most forsaken, desolate and ague-smitten wilderness of tangled forests and inhospitable swamps, only excelled in dreariness and desolation, perhaps, by the great "Dismal Swamp" of Virginia, or the unpenetrated everglades of Florida.

Hull's troops had cut and floundered a passage through this country on their way to the disgraceful surrender at Detroit, in 1812. Mad Anthony Wayne's victorious army, had 18 years before this, in 1794, followed down along the swampy "Miami of the Lakes" from Fort Defiance to Fort Miami, to punish the refiactory Indians, and as the soldiers of Wavne, Hull and Harrison dispersed to their homes back in the old colonies, they carried with them their soldier stories of the horrible swamps of the "Miami of the Lakes," as the Maumee river was then called.

See how names are changed, and new words made. The river was by its earliest French settlers, called the Miami, pronounced by the French "Me-ah-me," and by the corrupted influence of the

Indians' and backwoodsmen's attempts at pronunciation, it became first "Me-awme" and then "Mau-mee" until now as we pronounce the "Mi-am-i" of southern Ohio and the "Maumee" of northern Ohio you wouldn't suspect any blood relation. And as "Maumee" it became a famed locality and went heralded in song and wierd story as the place where "Potatoes they grow small on Mau-mee, on Mau-mee."

But in spite of its drawbacks, and unpleasant natural features, and the unfavorable reports circulated far and wide about the country, the speculating spirit of some of Wayne's soldiers and those of the war of 1812, was attracted to the Maumee Valley by its wonderful game supply, and the hopes of a remunerative trafic in furs and peltries with the Indians, and traders; posts were established at several places in the valley immediately after the peace following the war of 1812.