Pusheta Township

Pusheta Township

From the journal record of the Allen County Commissioners of December, 1836, we learn "that there was a petition presented: by sundry inhabitants residing in the original surveyed township number six south, in range six east, praying to be set off as a township, under the name of Pusheta, which petition was considered and granted. Boundaries were given, and advertisements written for an election to be held at the dwelling house of Joseph- Mayer on the 20th inst."

This township is bounded on the north by Duchouquet township, on the east by Clay township, on the south by Shelby county; and on the west by Washington township. It is five miles in width from north to south, and six miles in length from east: to west.

The township and principal stream flowing through it are named after a chief of a tribe of Shawnee Indians who formerly resided in the central and eastern portion of the township. The name of the chief has been variously spelled. In the treaty at the Foot of the Rapids of the Maumee it is written Pasheto ; in Henry Harvey's History of the Shawnee Indians it is written Pesheto. It is not known who took upon himself the responsibility of writing it Pusheta.

The St. John's ridge extends through this township from east to west, forming an elevated table land. Pusheta creek cuts through the ridge at Freyburg and flows in a northwesterly course and empties into the Auglaize River. The elevated portion of the township was formerly covered with a heavy growth of timber, principally walnut, ash, oak, elm, hickory, beech, and; hard maple. For fifty years the ridge was an ideal Indian camping ground. In the months of February and March the Pusheta Indians and other tribes devoted their attention to the manufacture of maple sugar from the extensive sugar maplegroves that covered the uplands.

Land entries were made in the south tier of sections of the township as early as 1821. The following list of land entrier,- exhibits the development of the township :

History Of Western Ohio

The towship records from 1836 to 1845 have been lost. The following is a record of the election of officers commencing with the latter date:

Excellent gravel pikes extend to all parts of the township. Since their construction the cost of repairing them has been paid from the dividends received on the stock held by the township in the C., H. & D. Railroad. Unlike the other townships, they still hold the forty thousand dollars of stock subscribed for in 1854.

In 1834 the first school house was built on the farm now owned by J. Taylor in section 19. It was a typical log cabin of that date, and was used for many years afterward. There are now nine commodious brick school houses in the township, each of which is supplied with all the modern appliances necessary tc meet the requirements of rural schools.

Methodist Protestant. Each of these churches has a flourishing Sabbath School attached, under the charge of an efficient and zealous superintendent.

Freyburg Village

This beautiful village is situated in the east half of the southeast quarter of section 15, and occupies the site of a former Indian village. Joseph Flick and G. Seiter laid out the town in 1848, and immediately a church was commenced, eighty bv fortythree feet, which was completed in 1850. In 1877 a fine parochial school buildinsr was erected at a cost of two thousand dollars. St.

John's Catholic Church has a membership of one hundred and five families. The parochial school has an enrollment of sixtyfive at the present time.

Freyburg has not yet arisen above the dignity of a hamlet. The business of the village is entirely of a local character, being confined to the trade of the immediate neighborhood. Its location is in the midst of a rich agricultural district, but remote from railroads.

Biographical

John Lenox, one of the early pioneer of Pusheta township, was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, October 18, 1809. When he was two years old his father moved to Shelby county, Ohio, and settled near Sidney. The family suffered all the privations and dangers peculiar to that turbulent time. Six thousand Indians were encamped around the Indian agency at Piqua from 1812 to 1814. It was not until after the battle of the Thames that any pioneer north of Dayton could consider himself safe from marauding Indians.

February 14, 1833, Mr. Lenox, having accumulated one hundred dollars, attended the public land sale at Wapakoneta. Having made a memorandum of a number of desirable tracts of land, he bid on each one in succession, as it was presented by Van Horn, the auctioneer, and was over-bid in each instance, until the last tract on his list was reached. He bid one hundred dollars for the east half of the southeast quarter of section twenty-three, and was again over-bid ; at that moment his father-in-law, Ebenezer Stevens, tapped him on the shoulder and told him to bid higher, that he would be responsible for the additional cost. After a few more bids Mr. Lenox was declared the purchaser. It would be difficult to convince any person of the present day that the purchase was not the best one that he could have made. He afterward became the owner of two hundred acres of land. Immediately after the purchase of his land he moved into an Indian cabin, that was so small that it became necessary when he had company to move the chairs and table out of the building to> make room for rbeds on the floor.

Mr. Lenox was three times married. His first wife, Miss Hettie Stevens, was a daughter of Ebenezer Stevens, of Shelby county; of this marriage ten children were born. Two years after her death he married Miss Jane Bailey, who died in 1847. For his third wife he married Miss Catherine Noble, a sister of Henry Noble, one of the pioneers of Noble township of this county. No children were born of the second and third marriages.

Mr. Lenox was a man of influence in his township during his time, and could always be depended upon as a promoter of measures for the public welfare. He was always a staunch supporter of public schools, and a liberal contributor to the support of the ministry, and the erection of churches. He lived to see a beautiful and productive country develop from the dense forest into which he had moved, and in his old age was permitted to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

Lawrence Sammetinger was born in Bavaria, Germany, July 5, 1815, and received a liberal education in the schools of his native country. In 1835 came to America with his father's family and purchased a farm in Pusheta township, on which he resided during the remainder of his life. In 1863 he was elected county commissioner, which office he held during the ensuing nine years. In 1863 he was elected justice of the peace, in which capacity he served twelve years. In 1861 he was elected township clerk, in which office he served five years. In 1864 he was elected township treasurer, in which capacity he served twelve years.

He was married December 23, 1839, to Miss Rosanna Schurr. Of this marriage ten children were born, as follows : Barbara M., Christian R., Mary R., Catharine E., John, George M., William L., John W., Christian F., and Lawrence C., six of whom are still living.

Adam Ingelhaupt, one of the pioneers of Pusheta township, was born July 25, 1818, in Echhardt, Germany, and emigrated to this country in 1836. After the purcbfa.se of his farm in Pusheta township he spent four years as a laborer in the construction of the Miami and Erie Canal. The money accumulated during his four years of labor was expended in the erection of a house and the development of his farm. August 6, 1844. he married Miss Maria Kleinhens, who was born in Schwarzenfels, Germany, and came with her parents to this country in 1843. Ten children were born of this union, only one of whom is living, Minnie E., wife of Mr. George H. Stroh, at the present time a resident of Wapakoneta.

After erecting his cabin, he followed shoemaking for a time. Like the other pioneers of the time, he had a hard struggle to get a start in life, but by hard labor he succeeded in clearing the forest away, and in acquiring a comfortable competence for old age. His cabin was located near the Hardin road, the only public highway at that time in the township. He assisted in erecting the first school house in the township. It was a round log building, of the usual style of that time, having a large fireplace at one end of the building. Slab seats, and boards resting on pins set in the wall served for writing desks. This school house was the only one in that section of the township for many years.

The old gentleman, as was his custom, went to Wapakoneta,. May 29th, 1904, on business, and on his return homeward, as he was crossing the Ohio Western Railroad, his carriage was struck by an electric car, from which he received internal injuries, from which he died June 7th, 1904.

Conrad Schemmel was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1792, and was educated in a section of the country at that time renowned for its schools. His father was the owner of a large landed estate in that country, and in time became a wealthy landlord. On these estates his son Conrad grew to manhood, and acquired the art of managing them. In 1832 Conrad Schemmel sold his interest in the estates, and emigrated to America, landing at Baltimore late in the fall of the same year.

Before leaving Bavaria he contracted to pay the transportation of fifty emigrants, for which each one was to pay the cost of his transportation in labor on such lands as he contemplated buying in the new country. He also purchased such a stock of tools, agricultural implements, etc., as he thought might be of use to him in the new Eldorado, but after landing at Baltimore he was chagrined to learn that his stock of implements was not adapted to the requirements in the development of a farm in a new country. A new outfit of tools, wagons, horses and oxen were purchased in Baltimore, and the emigrants left for Ohio about the middle of May, and encamped near Wapakoneta about the first of July, 1833. Within the six weeks following, Mr. Schemmel entered six hundred and sixteen acres of land in sections 20 and 21 in Pusheta township. A log cabin was erected for himself and family, and temporary cabins for the emigrants who accompanied him. Then commenced the clearing of land,, and the construction of a more comfortable residence for himself, The new building was constructed of logs hewn on four sides. As each round of logs was placed in position, it was pinned to the round upon which it rested. Ninety-nine days were spent by the laborers in laying up timbers, and yet it lacked three feet of reaching the height contemplated. At this stage of the work Mr. Schemmel became disgusted with his laborers and discharged them. His grandson states that "he employed a few Yankees, who completed the building in three days." he married Miss Gertrude Full, a sister of his former wife. Of this marriage two children were born: Nancy, wife of John Bothe, and George Schemmel.

John Nicholas Zanglein was born October nth, 1813, in Schweinfurt, Germany, and came with his father to America in 1833, landing at Baltimore. After a short residence in that city they came directly to Pusheta township, this county, in which the father entered one hundred and twenty acres of land in section 17. In 1840 the father died, leaving his estate to his two sons, John Nicholas and Andrew.

Mr. Zanglein was married in 1837 to Miss Susanna Waltz Of this marriage nine children were born, as follows : John Henry, Anna R., Elizabeth, Franklin, Rebecca A., Wilhelmina. J. N. Zanglein, Franklin B., and an infant not named. After the death of the father in 1840 the two sons completed the clearing away of the forest and the further development of the farm. Mr. Nicholas Zanglein, as he was commonly called, was one of the most influential and respected citizens of the township. He served for many years as township treasurer and land appraiser, and in other minor offices of trust during his life. He died March 17, 1867.

Sister Mary Green, a missionary, came to Wapakoneta with some itinerant Jesuits in 1828, and remained among the Indians until about 1831, when she died of pulmonary consumption at the house of Rev. Henry Harvey, the Quaker missionary. She was buried in the cemetery near Rev. Harvey's residence, of later years known as the Shanahan cemetery. There is a tradition that she was a native of Canada, and was sent from a convent at Toronto to the Shawnee reservation in Ohio to Christianize the Indians, and to teach them the arts of civilization. The same tradition states that she gave instruction to Indian children at the house of Francis Duchouquet. Far from her native home, in a land of strangers, the devoted sister was laid to rest by Rev. Henry Flarvey, his wife, and Shadrack Montgomery.

The cemetery was formerly an Indian burial place, and since that time has become a public cemetery of that portion of the county. Many of the early pioneers, and two of Rev. Harvey's children repose in that quiet repository of the dead.

Supplementary' to the preceding notice of Sister Mary Green, Mr. Lyman N. Means, of Wapakoneta contributes the following reminiscence : About thirty-five years ago, whilst engaged in buying live stock, Mr. Means was accosted by a man seated by the roadside near the Scott farm, making inquiry for a cemetery, supposed to* be located in that vicinity. He at the same time unfolded a plat and description of the subject of his inquiry. Mr. Means alighted from his buggy, and after a careful examination of the plat was able to locate the long-sought cemetery. He and the stranger entered the buggy and drove to the locality. On their way to the cemetery the stranger informed Mr. Means that his name was Matthias Green, a ^brother of the dear sister who had been buried there more than forty years before. After alighting from the buggy, and with the plat in hand, Mr. Means decided upon what he believed to be the locality marked upon the plat. The stranger decided upon a locality a few feet to the north. The ground was covered with a dense growth of blue grass at the time, making it difficult to discern depressions. Mr. Means cut through the sod with a pen-knife, and removed a circular piece of sod about eighteen inches in diameter. After removing the dirt from beneath it, a stone was found bearing the initials M. G. The brother was overcome by the discovery and fell upon the grave and gave vent to his sorrow for his dear sister in moans and tears. After a period of prostration and sorrow he arose and accompanied Mr. Means tg Wapakoneta, where he remained over night, and left the next morning on his return to his home in Wisconsin. His further history is wrapped in obscurity."