Addresses, Mefflorlals And Sketches PUBLISHED BY Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 1897. VROOMAH, AN0ER8ON & BaTEMAN, PriNTERS, ToLEOO. ADDRESSES, MEMORIALS AND SKETCHES PUBLISHED BY The Maumee Valley Pioneer Association, TO BE DELIVERED AT THE P^EILJI^IOIM -S7 At the Old Court House, Maumee September 10th, 1897. Toledo, Ohio: Vrooman, Anderson & Bateman, Printers, 1897. THE CUTS OF SCENES AT FT. MEIGS WERE FURNISHED THE ASSOCIATION BY THE TOLEDO SUNDAY JOURNAL. Gift Autikior NUIMTLJTrE^S. The regular Annual Reunion of Maumee Valley Pioneer Association was held at P'ort Meigs, August 12th, 1896, as was appointed by the Executive Committee. In the absence of the President, Mr. Paris H. Pray, of White House, the Rev. G. A. Adams called the meet- ing to order, and introduced the Rev. Dr. N. B. C. Love, of Swanton, Ohio, who invoked the divine blessing. The Honorable Justin H. Tyler, of Napoleon, then read memorials of deceased members of the Association, including that of Mrs. Amelia C. Waite, prepared by Honorable Denison B. Smith, also memorials of Mr. Henry Philipps, of Toledo, the Hon. Emery Davis Potter, Mr. Joel Foot, Wood County ; Hon. Judge A. S. Lalla, of Defiance ; the Hon. Abner L. Backus, of Toledo ; Mr. Chester Blinn, of Perrysburg ; Mr. Benjamin Atkinson, of Providence, Lucas County, and Mr. and Mrs. Hoobler, of Wood County, also a communication from Mr. Lewis Eastwood, of Waterville. It was moved and carried that a committee of three be appointed to present the names of suitable candidates for the offices ior the ensuing year, and Y. Rakestraw, of White House, C. C. Young, of Liberty Center, and Frank Powell, of Perrysburg, were made the committee. The meeting then adjourned for a general basket dinner, everyone either providing himself or joining with friends. The Maiimee Valley After dinner the nominating committee reported the following persons to serve as officers of the Association for the ensuing year: FOR PRESIDENT, By virtue of regulation, Paris H. Pray, of White House, Lucas County. VICE-PRESIDENTS. Rev. G. A. Adams, of Wood county. Mr, Yarnel Rakestraw, of Lucas county, Hon Justin H. Tyler, of Henry county. Hon. D. W. H. Howard, of Fulton county. Mr. Phillipps, of Hancock county. FOR SECRETARY, J. L. Pray, White House, Ohio. FOR TREASURER, J. E. Hall, Waterville, Ohio. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, William Corlett, Lucas county. D. R. Holden, Wood county. Dr. William Ramsey. Fulton county. Allen Scribner, Henry county. B. B. Woodcock, Defiance county. MEMORIAL COMMITTEE. Justin H. Tyler, Henry county. Frank Powell, Wood county. Edwin Phelps, Defiance county. Denison B. Smith, Lucas county. HISTORICAL AND PRINTING COMMITTED. Emery Potter, Jr., Lucas county. D. K, Hallenback, Wood county. Justin H. Tyler, Henry county. Following the election of officers, Hon. C. H. Nor- Pioneer Association. ris, of Marion, Ohio, delivered a comprehensive, eloquent and instructive historical address, which was received with much enthusiasm. The Rev, Dr. N. B. C. Love, of Swanton, O., then read his beautiful poem, "The Maumee." The Secretary, Mr. Smith, was called upon for an address, but excused himself, and no further addresses were made. After an hour of very pleasant social intercourse, the meeting" adjourned to the call of the Executive Committee. D. B. Smith, Secretary. RECEIPTS. The Receipts of the meeting was : For new memberships for 7 members at $\ each, Contributed by four members, - - - - Received from sale of pamphlets. Total, - - - - - $1.3 30 EXPENSES. Printing Programs, Postals, Envelopes and Letter Heads, ------- ^10 85 Typewriting, Copying and Postage, - - 2 45 $7 00 4 00 2 30 Total, - - - - - ^13 30 Amount reported on hand by the Treasurer, ^26 27 The Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. DELIVERED BEFORE THE PIONEERS AT THEIR REUNION AT FT. MEIGS AUGUST 12th, 1896, BY JUDGE C. H. NORRIS, OF MARION, OHIO. In submitting that which I have prepared for this occasion, I recognize the fact that I face an audience composed of those who are competent to pass intelligent judgment, not only upon the diction but also upon the subject matter of that which may be offered. I at first hesitated to avail myself of the pleasure of this meet- ing, afforded me by the invitation of your secretary, but feeling that perfections would not be expected of me that might be required of those deservedly better known than myself; and tempted by the conviction that I would learn infinitely more than I could impart, I shut my eyes to well-grounded self-distrust and am here pleading my own apology. The pioneers who beat back from this matchless region savage nature and savage men are buried in the bosom of the earth, and with them perished the data for the most thrilling and interesting history that ever recited the progress of a people. The facts presented upon such an occasion as this are those which are well known, or that with little research might be known ; but in the hurry of this busy age are neglected and overlooked or forgotten ; hence the chief benefit and purpose of societies of this character, aside from renewing and cementing old friendships, is to educate the young, inform them of the kind of metal of which their ancestors were made, interest them in the circumstances and occur- rences that befel the lion-hearted men, who, braving hardship and danger, won an empire, and transformed a wilderness into a garden — that they to whose keeping the heritage must be transmitted may deem it worthy of defense and preservation. The War of 1812. I have been asked to speak particularly of events which con- nect this valley with our second conflict with Great Britain. The last war with England, known to us as the war of 1812, was proclaimed by President Madison on the 19th day of June of that year. Congress having the day before declared war to be existing between the two countries. It had been 29 years since the treaty of Versailles had given independence to the American colonies, and the condition of peace had for that time nominally The Maumee Valley existed between the United States and the British empire. Yet for 13 years of that time the forces of England had retained possession of the Northwestern posts. Eleven years after that treaty had been ratified the British general, Sincoe, built and garrisoned Ft. Miami, yonder across the river, far within our conceded border, and the Northwestern posts, including Miami, Detroit, Michlimackinac and Green Bay, were only surrendered after the battle of Fallen Timber had broken the strength of the Indian tribes. It cannot be controverted that England, through her Canadian Indian department, in the hands of Col. Matthew Elliott and Capt. Alexandria McKee, waged a ceaseless war upon her former colonies, by inciting and assisting the Indian tribes year after year in destroying the scattered settlements, and murdering the defenseless people of the Northwestern border. So that the victory of Wayne at Fallen Timber, which was achieved within view of this spot, may be considered the last battle of the revolutionary war, though fought eleven years after the ratification of peace between the colonies and the mother country — Perfidious Albion. On the 19th of November, 1794, three months after the battle of Fallen Timber, the special commissioners of the two countries agreed upon the terms of what is known as the Jay treaty, which, with other stipulations, fixed June 1, 1796, as the time for surrendering the Northwestern posts. Had Wayne's legions suffered defeat, as did St. Clair, history would have had another story to repeat than the surrender of the Northwestern posts by the English, and seventeen years of peace with the Indian tribes, which followed that victory. The war of 1812, though at the time not so deemed by our people, was in fact, with us, a struggle for national existence. It was a second war for independence. CONDITIONS OF THE COUNTRY. The country was torn with faction and discord. Trade was stagnant. For two successive years crops had been a failure ; the agriculturist was a pauper, and commerce was crushed between edicts, blockades and embargoes, to which we were required to give heed, under the penalty of war with the nations of Europe, who were at this time arrayed either for or against France and the great Napoleon. The northwestern frontier covered a distance of at least a thousand miles. Within the boundaries of Ohio, the outlying settle- ments were included in a line from Cleveland to Wooster, and thence to Urbana. Weak military posts were maintained at Mackinac Pioneer Association. 9 Island, at Detroit, Ft. Wayne, at the head of the Mauraee ; Ft. Dearborn, at the head of the Chicago river, and Ft. Harrison, at the forks of the Wabash, They were hundreds of miles apart and practically inaccessible to each other. The country had a population of seven and a quarter millions ; our domain was divided into eighteen states and four territories. Ohio's congressman. Ohio was entitled to but one member of Congress ; his name was Jeremiah Morrow and he was one of the 79 members who cast his vote for war. Little did he think when he cast that vote, that there were children then born who, within fifty-two years from that date, would take part in a conflict in comparison to which the war for which he then voted, would pale into insignificance ; but the streets of his native village were swept by the hissing ball; the graves of his kindred were plowed by shot and shell ; the brooks in which he had bathed when a boy ran red with the blood of his countrymen, for he was born and spent his early youth in the town of Gettysburg in the state of Pennsylvania. Jeremiah Morrow, his biographer says, was a plain man who feared God and loved his country and his fellow-men. In 1825, the Duke of Saxe- Weimar, while visiting this country on his way from Cincinnati to Columbus, conceived it his duty to pay his respects to the governor of Ohio, who was then on his farm in the neighborhood of Lebanon. Near the road were some men clearing ; one dressed in a red flannel shirt and home-made trowsers was making a wagon pole. "My man," said the Duke, "where is your master?" Looking up the son of toil answered, "I havo no master but Him above." "I desire to pay my respects to the governor of Ohio, where is he?" said the Duke. "I am the governor, I am Jeremiah Morrow," was the answer, and at once he was the courteous gentleman inviting the visitor and friends to make his house their home. Many times after was this interview described by that aristocrat, who had in his veins the blood of half the sovereigns of Europe, as an illustration of simplicity, hospitality and greatness. Anticipating hostilities and knowing by the experience of thirty years of atrocity and murder incited by British influence, that England would turn against the border the merciless hand of the savage, the nucleus of a little army had been gathered at Urbana and Dayton early in the spring. The commander was Wm. Hull, territorial governor of Michigan, who had been an officer of some note in the war of Independence. 10 The Maumee Valley The plans adopted by Mr. Eiistice, secretary of war, was to invade Canada with four different expeditions operating at the same time ; one by Lake Champlain, one by Sackett's Harbor, one by Niagara and one b}^ Detroit. The expedition under Hull was destined for Detroit. War being certain, on the 1st of June Hull commenced his march, and consumed nearly a month toiling across the Black Swamp, building roads and bridges and blockhouses, before he reached this point — the rapids of the Maumee. It was not until the 2nd of July when he had reached the Eiver Raisin, that he received notice from the criminally negligent War department that war had been declared. The town of Amherstburg at the mouth of the Detroit River, and the British Fort Maiden which defended it, had for years been, and was then, the base of operation and supplies for raids against our Western border. The schemes and plots of fire and slaughter, hatched there and hurled thence against our defenseless settlements, would furnish a page of English history, bloodier and more cruel than the massacres of Glencoe and Wyoming. hull's disasters. That war had been declared was known at Maiden on the 30th of June; in time to intercept off that port the vessel carrying Hull's private papers, muster rolls and instructions, which he had foolishly dispatched by water from the Rapids to Detroit. But without following him farther on his way to defeat and disaster, by the 16th of August he had surrendered his army, with Detroit and its fortifications, and every man under his command, whether there or elsewhere. Mackinac had fallen. Fort Dearborn where Chicago now stands, had been abandoned and the garrison massacred, and every post in the Northwest except Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison were in the hands of the enemy. The expedition at Niagara had been beaten back ; Dearborn's invasion by way of Lake Champlain became an idle threat, and the beginning of 1813 saw the country at the end of a year of disgrace, such as God forbid it may ever experience again. Everything in the East was a failure, from the inefficient War department down to the cowardly and mutinous militia that refused to cross the border. In all, it was a series of campaigns of bombast and imbecility. It is said that at Lewistown while thousands of militia stood looking across where a force of their comrades at Queenstown Heights were Pioneer Association. 11 laeset by superior immbers of the enemj'^, and fin-aiiy tsompelled to siirrcndei", when called to the rescue, all refused, except thirteen Irishmen from JSTevv York. Whether or not these Hibernians were members of the Tammany society, history does not recount. On the 7Lii of November, 1811, less than ten months before the declaration of war, the peace with the Indians, that had been con- cluded at Greenville 17 years before, was broken by the battle of Tipjiecanoc. The commander in that engagement was Wm. Henry Harrison, tiie governor of Indian Territory. The disasters of 1812, particularly the surrender of Hull, aroused the people of the Western states to the necessity of defense. ORGANIZED DEFENSE. Foremost in patriotism and war spirit were the people of Kentucky. A race of warriors and orators, in response to the matchless eloquence of such men as Henry Clay, they flew to arms. Their governor was Isaac Shelby. Thirty-two years before, the year 1780, was the darkest year of the American revolution. The Colonial army under Gen. Horatio Gates had been destroyed at Camden, and the colonies of Yirginia,]Srorth and South Carolina and Georgia, were prostrate at the feet of the conquoring Cornwallis, The British general, Ferguson, had posted himself in an almost impregnable position, on a ridge, in what is now Gaston -county. North Carolina, called the King's Mountain, and with none to oppose, he was dealing out British justice to the patriots, with sabre and halter and torch. From over the mountains and through the forests, hundreds of miles away, came a body of frontiersmen ; they were from the Holsten and Clinch river settlements in North Carolina and Tenn- essee, and from Harrodsburg and Boonesborough, Kentucky. They were a people, and from a region of which the British had never heard. They were inferior in number to their adversaries, yet at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of October 7th, 1780, they attacked the British position, and in less than 70 minutes. Gen. Ferguson's army and Gen. Ferguson himself ceased to exist. The right hand of Cornwallis was destroyed, and it was again possible to establish free government on this continent. The leaders of these heroes, who thus broke the British power, were Sevier and Campbell, and this same man, Isaac Shelby. Such confidence had the people of Kentucky in the bravery and sagacity of the hero of Tippecanoe that Governor Shelby made him commander of the militia of that state. 12 The Ma.umee Valley William Henry Harrison was a native of Virginia; at this time he was 39 year old. This region was not new to him. When a youth of 21 he served on the staff of Gen. Wayne, and was con- spicuous at the battle of Fallen Timber. He was one of the finest characters the country ever produced. The history of the North- west for 40 years is his history. He was clerk of the courts of Hamilton county, Ohio, when made the ninth President of the United States. His father, Benjamin Harrison, was chairman of the committee of the whole house when the Declaration of Independence was agreed to. and signed that immortal charter. When John Hancock was chosen to preside over the Continental Congress, it was he who conducted Hancock to the chair, and said, "Great Britain should be convinced that we are in earnest, when we make a man our presi- dent whom she has excluded from pardon by public proclamation." Harrison, prompt to act, gathered the Kentucky levies at Cincinnati. Fort Harrison then commanded by a young man named Zachary Taylor, who afterwards became the twelfth Presi- dent of the United States, and Fort Wayne, were both besieged by the Indians; Vincennes was in danger and men had been murdered and scalped within 30 miles of Louisville. To relieve these beleagured garrisons he at once pushed on. He arrived at Ft. Wayne, September 12, 1812, and while engaged in chastising the savages in that vicinity. Gen. James Winchester, of the regular army, arrived at the fort, and as ranking officer assumed command. THE COMMANDER-IN CHIEF. Under this unfortunate man, aside from the massacre at Chicago, the first real tragedy of the war was enacted. On his way to resume the duties of governor of Indiana terri- tory, Harrison was met at St. Marys by an express bearing his commission as commander-in-chief of the Army of the Northwest. He immediately formulated plans for his campaign. He proposed to make this place — the foot of the rapids — the base of his operations. With his troops once concentrated here he would move immediately on Detroit. The Virginians and Pennsylvanians early in October gathered at Lower Sandusky, now Fremont ; the Ohio levies who were to march here over Hull's road through the Black Swamp were floundering in the mud a hundred miles from the Maumee. Win- chester had come from Fort Wayne to Fort Defiance ; and such was the impassible condition of the country that not a pound of supplies could be transported to the Maumee. Pioneer Association. 13 14 The Maumee Valley In December, 1812, Winchester started from Defiance to this place, and reached here on January 10, 1813, after a two week's march through the snow. While encamped here he was solicited to go to the relief of a French settlement on the Eiver Kaisin, where the city of Monroe now stands, called French Town. The place was then held by about 300 Canadian militia and Indians. Winchester had here 1,300 troops. At Amherstburg, 18 miles from French Town, lay 4,000 British and Indians under Gen. Proctor. With less military judgment than a child, on the 18th of Febru- ary, Winchester dispatched 650 men to the River Raisin, and followed next day with 250 regulars of the Seventeenth infantry. On the 21st his command was overwhelmed by the forces of Proctor, who had hastened from Amherstburg to attack him. The British general, as barbarous and inhuman as his savage allies, suffered the Indians to murder, scalp and burn the wounded and other prisoners who fell into their hands, so that of nearly 900 men, less than 40 escaped death and capture. NAMED FOR GOVERNOR MEIGS. At this time Harrison was at Upper Sandusky, where were bis stores and convoy and artillery and the right wing of his army; and at which place Gen. Crooks with the Pennsylvania militia had built Fort Ferree. The center of the army was at Fort Mc Arthur, about three miles west of the site of the present town of Kenton. Being informed that Winchester intended to move upon French Town, Harrison hastened forward to the Rapids, only to meet the fugitives, and hear the story of the slaughter of the left wing of his army. By the 30th of January reinforcements and artillery arrived, and on the 1st of February he commenced the construction on this spot of a fortified camp, which, in honor of the' man who was then governor of the state, he called Ft. Meigs. Return Jonathan Meigs was his name; he had been a soldier, a Senator in Congress and Postmaster General of the United States. He was a patriot, honored and respected by his people. He was named after his father, a brave soldier of the Revolution, who was with Arnold at Quebec and with Wayne at Stony Point. In the halcyon days when the world was young to the youth and Quaker girl who were destined to become the grandfather and grandmother of our governor ; to the boy's fervid plea for grace and favor at her hand — as many women befoi-e and after have done — her lips said nay when her heart said yea. The paralyzed youth, with shattered hopes, turned from her, to face alone that aching void the vulgar call the world. At the edge of the field she called to him Pioneer Association. 15 in her prim Quaker parlance, "Return Jonathan ;" the sweet voice sounding across the meadow was to him the pardon of a queen ; and that he might always liear the words spoken by the same sweet voice — when she softly called the name of their firstborn; when in pride she spoke of their glorious soldier son — the father called the boy Keturn Jonathan Meigs. STORMING THE PORT. The military operations in the Northwest at the date of the construction of Fort Meigs had resulted in the capture of Mackinac, the surrender of Hull, the massacre at Fort Dearborn, and the destruction of Winchester. On the 28th day of April, 1813, the British, under Proctor, and the Indians, led by Tecumseh, invested this place. Proctor had 1,300 men; Tecumseh led 2,000 warriors. On the 1st of May the enemy completed his batteries. To defend the fort, Harrison at this time could muster fit for duty, about 1,000 men. Proctor's camp was at and directly below old Fort Miami. Fort Miami was too strong for Wayne to assault after the battle of Fallen Timber, and it was while reconnoitering the position within pistol shot of the works, when an ai'tillerist asked permission of Major Campbell, the com- mandant, to ti-ain a gun on the general and his staff, that Wayne heard the wholesome advice of that officer to his subordinate, "Be a gentleman, be a gentleman." The gun batteries for the reduction of these works, were estab- lished immediately across the river, as I understand it, on the present sites of the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, in the village of Maumee, and one between those two points. A mortar battery was planted farther down the river, and on the night of May 3rd, a bat- tery was established by the enemy in the ravine to the northwest of these works. I will not attempt to recount the deeds of heroism performed by this beleagured garrison, who knew that surrender meant torture and death; though their enemy was of their race, laid claim to the highest civilization, and begged mercy through the i^edeeming blood of the same Divine Master. In the history of the world, no country has waged war more cruelly, the annals of no country have more scenes of blood and ruin to describe, no country has so often invoked the willing hands and malignant hearts of savage men, as has Great Britain ; some instan- ces of which I have heard recounted by the trembling lips of aged men, to whose dying day the ghastly scenes were vivid. 16 The Maumee Valley olay's relief party. At 12 o'clock on the night of May 4th, Capt. William Oliver, the same hero who had borne tidings of the approaching succor to the defenders of Fort Wayne, dared almost certain death to bring the message that Gen. Green Clay, with nearly 1,200 Kentuckians ap- proaching down the river in flat boats, was within two hours of the Fort. Under orders from Harrison, 800 of these men, commanded by Col. Dudley, landed on the British side of the river, near the battle field of Fallen Timber, and proceeding down the river attack- ed the British batteries, and took them ; but carried away by im- petuous ardor, and memory of murdered kindred, pursued the enemy into the forest, to such a distance, that Proctor was enabled to throw from his camp, a sufficient force to intercept and capture all but about 150 of these brave and unfortunate men. The surrender was made to Englishmen, not to Indians. The prisoners were taken down to old Fort Miami, and there was enact- ed a tragedy that will never be forgotten by those who claim kinship, either in blood or patriotism, to that devoted band. Approaching the fort, and in the fort, they were stripped and scourged and shot and tomahawked by the Indians, under the eyes of the British officers, whose weak protest against this appalling cruelty bears conviction that they were worse men at heart than the savages them- selves. To a protest made to Col. Matthew Elliott, against this in- human disregard of the rules of civilized warfare, the only response was, " And pray, sir, who are you ? " I have it from English au- thority that the flesh of some of those prisoners was boiled and eaten by the savages, not secretly, but openly, and in the vicinity of Proctor's camp. It was for Tecumseh, who was a better and broader man than his Christian colleague, to put an end to the carnage. He upbraided Proctor for not having prevented the massacre, and told him he was unfit to command. The part of Gen. Clay's forces which did not follow Dudlej^, succeeded after some trouble in entering the fort; and while the battle was in progress on the west side of the river, a sortie was made, and the British battery on this side was carried. On the morning of the 9th of May, the British deeming the cap- ture of the place hopeless, raised the siege and returned to Amherstburg. Such is a synopsis, hastily gathered, of the first siege of Fort Meigs, upon the successful defense of which greater consequences depended than did the heroes who stood behind its walls ever dream. Pioneer Association. 17 Harrison at once repaired to other scenes of action and other duties, leaving the fort in command of Gen. Green Clay. On the 20th of July Geu. Proctor, with a larger force than be- fore, approached this place, but after a few skirmishes and an attempt by strategy to draw the garrison out to attack him, decided the works too strong and well defended to assault, and sailed around into Sandusky bay, leaving Tecumseh and his Indians to follow across by land. THE ATTACK ON PORT STEPHENSON. From thence Gen. Porter at once detached a portion of his forces up the Sandusky river to reduce Fort Stephenson, at Lower San- dusky, where now stands the beautiful city of Fremont. General Harrison, owing to the weakness of the position and the force that might be brought against it, determined upon the abandonment and destruction of the jDOst, and so ordered ; but the suddenness of its investment prevented that precaution. For Stephenson was defended by one gun and 160 men — young men. Pi'octor's force consisted of 3,300 British and Indians, and six guns. In command of the fort was Major George Croghan, a boy not yet 22 years old. He was the nephew of Gen. George Eodger Clark, whose campaign in 1778 against Vincennes and the Kaskaskia towns, conquored and held the Illinois country, comprising, as then under- stood, the present States of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi river. And so completely did he conquor it, and so tenaciously did he hold it, that when Mr. Oswold, one of the British commissioners to negotiate the articles of peace between England and the United Colonies, demanded that the Ohio river be made our western boundary, in which demand he was supported by both the French and Spanish commissioners, he and they had to concede as claimed by our commissioners, particularly by John Adams, that the Illinois country had been conquored and was then held by the military forces of the United Colonies. Thus compelling the cession to us of that vast empire by the treat}^ that ended the Eevolutionary war, signed at Versailles, September 3, 1783. Proctor demanded the surrender of Fort Stephenson, with threats of general massacre in case of refusal. The young com- mander, worthy of the blood that bounded in his veins, answered, "That if the enemy took that foit they would find nobody left to surrender it. That rather than yield it, its garrison would die to the last man." 18 The Maumee Valley The enemy opened fire on the evening of August 1. On the evening of the 2nd, 350 regulars of the British 4l8t regiment, led by- Lieut. Col. Short, made the assault. His orders to his men as he leaped into the ditch followed by his veterans, was to " give the d — d Yankees no quartex's." The withering fire of the gun by which the fort was defended, loaded to the muzzle with slugs, as it was, and raking the ditch at a distance of 30 feet, determined the conflict very suddenly. And the white handkerchief of the mortally wounded leader, was seen through the gloom depending from his sword point, as he feebly asked, that mercy, which a moment before he had directed his men to deny. Proctor beat a hasty retreat. The English veterans had gone up against a new generation ; young America was too many for them. The loss of the garrison was but one man. Major Oroghan died in the city of New Orleans, of cholera, on the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1849. Early in the year 1813 Armstrong had succeeded Eustice as Secretary of War. John Armstrong was a soldier. THE MASTERS OF NORTH AMERICA. The masters of the great lakes are in a military sense, the mas- ters of the Mississippi valley. The masters of the great lakes are in a commercial sense the masters of North America. This fact was self evident as long ago as when the French voyageur brought his furs down to the store houses of Montreal and Quebec. The Dutch knew it, when they reached out toward the fresh water seas, up the Hudson and the Mohawk. The Jesuits who knew everything, were swift to see it, and founded their missions of peace on Lake Huron and at St. Ignace and Green Bay. Henri Tonty — he of the iron hand — and LaSalle saw it. Fron- tenac, the father of New France, acted upon that conviction when he fortified the St. Lawrance, and the head lands of Erie and Ontario ; and Cadillac, when he founded Detroit, and made strong the French posts on the upper lakes. The wiley Iroquois, the statesman, the warrior, the governor, the conqueror; they who for a hundred years successfully held these waters against all comers, and were the power behind which the English colonies grew into manhood, made this fact observient to all their bloodshed and aggression. In recognition of it Montcalm and Wolfe gave up their lives on the Plains of Abraham. Washington saw it, when in the solemn woods of the Monongahela. he fired the vollcv that, set the world Pioneer Association. 19 aflame, and changed the map of two continents. George II and George III, and Lewis XV knew it, when they struggled for posses- sion of this garden of the earth. "Wellington declared it, when asked to take command in America. The British Minister Gastlereagh disclosed that to control these vestibules of this continent, had been the policy of the English government for a century; when his com- missioners negotiated the treaty of Ghent. And we must know it, and we must realize it, and we must act upon it, for sooner or later, but sure and of necessity, the flag that predominate these lakes, will float over North America Irom Mexico to the pole. And whatever be the exigency when self preservation forces us to meet it we must be prepared, for sentiment, nor treasure, nor blood must stand in the way of the safety of this republic. Finally the cabinet of Mr. Madison discovered that a successful conclusion of the war, depended upon the possession of these waters. perry's grand fight. And on the very day of Proctor's unsuccessful attack upon Fort Stephenson, a fleet was ready to cross the bar at Erie, Penn. When Anthony Wayne died there nineteen j^ears before, the place was called Presque Isle. This fleet Was under the command of Oliver Hazzerd Perry, a lieutenant in the U. S. navy. He was a young man, less than a month over 28 years old. He had been in the active service of his country since 1799, when as a boy of 14 years, he served under his father on the frigate Gen. Green, and he was still in the service of his country at the time of his death from yellow fever on the island of Trinidad, in August, 1819, at the age of 34. His fleet consisted of nine vessels, a total of 54 guns and 416 men. Compared to the present magnificent commercial navies of these inland seas, his squadron would scarcely amount to salvage, for its aggregate displacement was barely 1671 tons. The British at this time commanded the great lakes. It was their policy and they were prepared to carry on a war of conquest. The stringent order of Sir John Provost to Gen. Proctor was that " the recourses of the enemy on the great lakes must become ours." The British fleet was commanded by Capt. Eobert Hariot Bar- clay. He was an able officer ; he had served with distinction under Nelson, was a veteran of Trafalgar, and had lost an arm in battle with the French. His fleet consisted of six vessels with an aggre- gate displacement of 1460 tons, a total of 440 men and 63 guns. With such navies was the fate ot this country to be decided. Amherstburg, or Maiden as it was more often called, was the 20 The Maumee Valley headquai'ters of the British fleet, and there the British ships lay on the evening of September 9, 1813, Perry had retired to Put-in-Bay. There at sunrise on the morning of the 10th, the enemy's fleet was discovered from the mast-head of the Lawrence, bearing down the lake. P^rry immediately accepted the gauge of battle thus so gal- lantly thrown down, and at once got under way to meet them. If that engagement were fought to-day, the guests from the win- dows of Hotel Victory, looking to the northwest, would be spectators of every phase of the conflict. Without entering into the details of that famous victory, Barclay opened the fight at 11:45 o'clock, and, after having with true British bravery, fought his ships to a dead standstill, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon Perry was enabled, while the smoke of the battle was still in the air, to write that famous dispatch to Harrison, which commenced with the words, " We have met the enemy, and they are ours." By the failure at Fort Meigs, the defeat at Fort Stephenson, and the capture of Barclay's' fleet, the charm of British invincibility was broken. The consequences of the latter victory wei-e vital. It gave us control of the great lakes, it compelled the evacuation of Maiden, it recovered Detroit and Michigan, and all that Hull had lost, and opened the way to the invasion of Canada. General Harrison speedily embarked the army, landed on the enemy's soil, pui'sued Proctor to the Moravian towns, and practically terminated the war in the Northwest at the battle of the Thames. I might here incidentally remark, to remind us of the depend- ence of one section of our country upon the other, that in the thick- est of the battle of the Thames, driving the butchers back from the weak and scattered settlements of Ohio, rode at the head of his 3,000 Kentuckians, the same old Governor Shelby, who had fought Fergu- son to the death at Kings Mountain, and made Harrison commandei- of the Kentucky militia. In fiact, Harrison's report bears out the statement that except 120 regulars of the 27th infantry, his entire force in that battle were Kentuckians. This war upon the part of England was a war of aggrandizement and conquest. The policy of the British government has not changed; then, as now, she was ready to attack the weak, and ready to negotiate and temporize with the strong. Though the American Congress on that 18th day of June deem- ed war necessary to maintain our commercial independence, yet the demands of the British commissioners, in the negotiations which ter- minated in the treaty of Ghent — Christmas eve, 1814 — discloses be- yond all doubt that the provocation of hostility was studied, and intentional, on the part of the British cabinet, not for the purpose of Pioneer Association. 21 sustaining its paper blockades, and its pretended right to search our ships on the high seas, and impress our sailors into the English ser- vice ; those subjects are not hinted at in the treaty, and were not discussed at the conference. But with the policy and design of des- poiling us of our territory, and disrupting this republic. THE PEACE COMMISSION. Our peace commissioners were John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Albert Gallitan and Jonathan Eussell. All were in Europe at the time of their confirmation by the Senate ex- cept Clay and Russell, who sailed in February, 1814. In contempt of us, and desiring to humiliate us in the eyes of Europe, and for the purpose of prolonging the war, the British commissioners did not leave Jjondon until August. There were three of them. The place of meeting was the city of Ghent. Castlereagh had sent a splendid army to America in May. and expected to hear of some crushing victories, which would compel our commissioners to accept any terms he might dictate. He heard from that army even after the treaty of peace had been signed. The British general, Eoberts, he who fought the war with Afghanistan, in a recent article on the campaign of Waterloo, pub- lished in an English magazine, asserts, as a fact in proof of Welling- ton's superior military genius, that Waterloo was not fought by the best troops in the British army; but that the flower of that army, and the finest military organization in the world, had not at the time of that conflict yet returned from North America. These men were the same who, on that 8th of January, two weeks after the peace of Ghent, went up against Jackson's cotton bales at New Orleans. The very character of the commissioners appointed by the English cabinet has since been deemed an insult, to tis. One of them, Lord Gambler, had charge of the expedition that bombarded and burned the defenseless cit}^ of Copenhagen, and for this outrage upon civilization he was called to the peerage. Goulburn and William Adams, the other two, the chronicler says, were never known before nor heard of after that service. The only consolation I get for the haughty and overbearing de- portment of these fellows, I gather from the diary of John Quincy Adams, of which Gen. Jackson, " Old Hickory," once said: "Damn Adams's diary ; it's always bobbing up when not wanted. He re- quires no other evidence of truth than his diary, and wants every- body to concede that it imparts absolute verity, like the record of a Court." 22 The Maumee Valley Mr. Adams says that Mr. Clay introduced a game amongst those fellows, and also amongst the Hollanders, which must have been akin to poker, and gathered in their money and bric-a-brac and pictures and statuary, until in fact the captain of the ship upon which they were to sail home, for want of room to store it, refused to receive any more on board. John Quincy, in a very still voice, relates that he, himself, came into possession of a very fine picture, which Mr. Clay procured for him at the end of a game of cards. Surely Henry was a true Kentuckian. INFAMOUS BRITISH DEMANDS. On the question of boundary between the United States and the British possessions, the audacious propositions were made by the British commissioners, and made as propositions not to be receded from (they were demands rather than propositions,) that as a barrier between this country and Canada, to be occupied by the Indians or by some third party to whom the Indians might sell, we should cede all that territory north and west of the Grreenville treaty line. That line runs from the mouth of the Great Miami river to the mouth of the Cuyahoga. When Mr. Gallitin asked what would be done with the thousands of citizens who Were living north and west of that line in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan, His Majesty's commissioners haughtily replied that they could shift for themselves. The further demands were made that we should cede that por- tion of Maine lying north of a line from Halifax to Quebec. That we should cede that portion of our territory lying north of a line from the head of the Mississippi river to lake Superior. That we should dismantle our fortifications on the great lakes, and never maintain an armed force upon any of the lakes, or upon any of the rivers emptying into any of those lakes, England, how- ever, to have as many ships and ports on said lakes as she might de- sire. And in addition to this, a confirmation of the free navigation of the Mississippi river, which she claimed under the treaty of Yersailles. For these purposes had England poured her magnificent armies upon our shores and turned loose the murderous savages upon our borders. She rated us then about as she does Venezuela now. With her it was acquisition, subversion and dismemberment. These propositions were those of Lord Castlereagh himself, who was in Ghent, on his way to the Congress of Nations at Vienna, when the propositions were submitted. They were each rejected by our commissioners without discussion. Pioneer Association. 23 The British cabinet then appealed to Wellington, who waH then in Paris, to take command in America. He answered that though he did not expect to succeed, he would go if ordered; but that Eng- land needed neither troops, nor a general in America, but the naval supremac}'- of the great lakes; and added, that in his opinion the success of the British armies so far in the war, did not warrant the demands of the English cabinet. In short, the treaty finall}^ agreed upon was the status before the war, and so it ended, I have detained you at this length with these facts that you may know, and particularly the younger of this audience may realize how momentous were the consequences of these victories to us. And here we meet to-day, the citizens of a great commonwealth, living in peace upon this territory which then trembled in the bal- ance, enjoying to the fall the liberty and sovereignty secured to us by victories purchased with the blood of men whose bones lie mould- ering here. Look about you. Here is where Lieutenants Walker and Mc- CuUough lie buried. The head of the latter, while he was convers- ing with the general, was dashed to pieces by a British solid shot ; the other met death in the line of his duty. There, behind Mr. Hays's house, the Pittsburg Blues sleep their last sleep. Yonder, outside of the southwest escarpment of this fort, are those who fell during the siege, and others who, far from home and kindred, yield- ed their lives to disease and hardship ; and yonder, by the shriveled walnut tree, rest poor Dudley and his Kentuckians, all sleeping away the centuries, unhonored and unsung, in nameless and for- gotten graves. And instead of a grateful country guarding the sacred ashes of her glorious defenders, it remains for two patriotic citizens, the owners of this property, to preserve from vandal hands this hallow- ed spot, this bivouac of the dead. What a disgrace that their last resting place should be so left to silence and desolation; what a stigma upon the people of this State and his nation is it that these men, without whose presence here, and without whose blood this spot would be to-day British soil a hundred miles beyond our northern boundary, should be so totally forgotten. These heroes, who gave their lives to preserve the integrity of this republic, and died that this magnificent part of God's earth, these waters that thrill with the whisperings of a thousand legends, these hills and these valleys big with the memory of mighty events in the history of this people, might still be a part of our country ; and so lay down here in their last sleep that we may enjoy the lib- erty and protection of free government, not subjects but citizens, with no man above the law, each safe in his place of worship, or at his fireside ; each secure to walk the earth in God's sunlight, or wrapped in the mantle of the night, to watch with peace the glories of the sky. 24 The Maumee Valley 4) oa (1> (Si OS Pioneer Association. 25 ON LIFE AND CHARACTER OF CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE, BY JUDGE THOMAS DUNLAP, DELIVERED AT FORT MEIGS, AUGUST 12th, 1896. I am here to say something to you about Chiet Justice Waite. I am fortunate in being before you, the pioneers of Maumee Valley, of whose association he was so long an honored member, for the purpose of saying words which shall echo the pride and affection with which you cherish his memory. To you, old settlers of the valley, who were familiar' with his incoming and his outgoing, and who knew his daily walk and conversation while he dwelt among us for so many years, I need not say, to know him once was to love him always. It I fail to recall to your minds any prominent trait of his character, if I omit to portray any well-marked feature, I know there are scores of gray beards here before me who can fill out any hints or sug- gestions, and supply all my omissions with material enough to furnish his lull length portrait in his very habit as he lived. How friendly he was. Not with show and form and parade, but ever homelike, kindly, constant. His grasp of the hand was not the eager grip of the politician seek- ing to beguile you of a vote. It was not the ambiguous fast and loose clasp of polite society, to be cast off like a slip-knot, or tightened like a clove hitch, according as your fortunes went up or down. With the touch of his hand he drew men near to him, and secured them for life in the bonds of a familiar friendship, sweet and pleas- ant as that which sanctifies the story of David and Jona- than. 26 The Maumee Valley More than any one I ever knew he had the faculty of making and retaining friends. In social life you always found him at ease, neither greater nor less than the de- mand of the hour. Just so in business, he was selt-pos- MORRISON R. WAITE. sessed and easily master of the situation, and did the best practical thing, when and where it ought to be done. Many of you retain in mind the time and occasion when Pioneer Association. 27 you exchanged with him a kindly greeting for the last time, neither knowing it to be the last. It may be, some of you who met him at Fort Meigs one sunny afternoon a couple of years ago, have never seen him since. When I recall in incidents of that gathering how pleasant it seems. How one friend now gone on that journey from whence he shall return no more, was there with us, the center of attraction. How cordial was his greeting. How eyes brightened up and faces lightened up at his approach. How he passed from group to group of old acquain- tances. How their eyes followed him, and his cheery voice warmed them all into a glow of satisfaction at the meeting, "How are you, Tom ?" "Come here, John ! ."Hello, Peter! " "Billings, I am glad to see you !" You saw, indeed, the same Mott Waite, unspoiled by the dignity of office. The same pure, fresh, manly spirit lived within him and looked joyously out at you from his eyes, the windows of his soul. His strong, clear, commonsense enabled him to keep his pois, without being made dizzy by the elevat- ed station to which he had grown by a process of natural development and selection. Does the thought arise in the minds of someone, that the recital of the little emeni- ties of manner which advanced the social life of the late Chief Justice is unsuited to the dignity of the great part he filled in the tribunals of the state and nation. In my judgment no portrait of the man can be made lifelike which has not its backp-round toned and tinted with the color of his genial manners. There is yet another purpose in my allusion to his taking ways with people. The hold he had upon us was such that we thought most of him as our friend. As such we were proud of 28 The Maumee Valley him, and we held a sort of property in him as if he were a family relative. And accordingly we did not realize the space he occupied in the nation outside of the Maumee Valley, outside of Ohio, among the millions that are counted and have their homes under the flag of our nation. Our home lawyers were proud to think of him as their big brother. Our pioneers knew him as their great friend. On the day the dispatch came announcing his death, there came also to many of us a revelation of his importance as a public man that had not been seen so clearly before. His* familiar life among us had made us unconscious spectators of his vigorous growth. His rise had been so natural and easy. His fulfillment of the great trusts committed to him from time to time had been so perfect, and the light of his friendship had always beamed so steadily upon us. Following that dispatch there came to us with a sound as of many waters the voices of the pulpit and of the press, of the bench and of the bar swelling in unison the loud acclaim, "Well done, good and faithful servant ; enter thou into the joy of thy rest." From the North and from the South, from the East and from the West of our national boundaries, and from across the wide Atlantic came the tide of his praises rising to the full measure of the united voice of the English speaking nations of the earth. Such tribute and such acclamation of praise may well cause us to enlarge our estimate his stature among the great historical figures of our day and generation. The story of his life presents no startling contrasts, no dramatic surprises. It is familiar to you all. Yet to me who has known him so long, to you who have seen before )/Our eyes his steady growth and successful progress, a brief review of it, at this time may not be without interest. I invite you to go over it again with me rapidly and lovingly. Passing by without dwelling on his parentage of Pioneer Association. 29 puritan stock and his early training in the land of steady habits, we note a friendship of his youth which later on had its influence in opening for him the path which led to national distinction. Among his classmates at college there were an unusual number who became men of marked reputation. William M. Evarts, whose name is part of the nation's history, was one of these ; he was, perhaps, the most serviceable triends Wait ever had. For after years whose story was all unknown and unforseen to those young college mates, had passed, and after their lots in life had been cast in parts of our broad lands, re- moved from each other as far as the East is from the West, we find the spell of old friendship between these two still unbroken, and we recognize the thought ot one reaching out from the East and beckoning to his old col- lege chum in the West. In 1835 M. R. Waite, the possessor of a diploma, and some business experience in the law office of his father, came to the ferry at the crossing of the Maumee River from the south to the north bank, near Maumee City. He was full of life and anxious to try his fortune. The river was to him the Rubicon of his destiny. He crossed and it began to grow in favor with God and man the moment he stepped on its northern shore. Like Grant he was modest. Like Grant he patiendy abided his time. Like Washington the elevation of character he brought with him to the highest station had its founda- tion in the integrity of a mind always obedient to his consciousness to what was right. The popularity of his manners would have readily opened to him the door to political refinement. But he was first and last and all the time a lawyer. A term in the State legislature heartily disgusted him with politics Later on a canvass for Congress undertaken against his wish, without any desire or request on his part, finished the chapter of baptism in the muddy pool of politics. 30 The Maumee Valley Which chapter a famous poHtician, then a Senator in Congress, made a text of a two hour's speech in the United States senate at the time of his nomination to the office of Chief Justice was under consideration. The speech no doubt displayed a superfluity of zeal and of words ; for right after it was ended, the vote taken for confirmation was unanimous, the Senator from Massachu- setts alone declining to vote. In his chosen profession Mr. Waite was easily first in Lucas County. Thence his reputation spread over the Northwest soon expanding beyond the limits of the State, it became known in the courts of the national government. When he crossed the ferry to Maumee City he found a frontier town largely on paper. The paper indeed showed broad avenues and bewitching corner lots. The boom of 1836 was preparing to be launched. Conant street led up the hill from the landing northerly to the woods skirting the town plat, when the canal was about to be built but as yet appeared best on the map. The highway turning to the west went on through the almost unbroken forest. The same trees were there, under whose shadow the British and Indians, 22 years before his com- ing, had marched to the siege of Fort Meigs. The same forest still shadowed the path of an occasional Indian wandering aimlessly with his face turned toward the west rather by fate than by choice. The thicket of the same forest still harbored the timid doe and the spotted fawn, who found shelter and a home therein. Wolf and bear scalps were still taken in those very woods. The coon and the wild turkey still lived there. On Conant street^ at the left hand as you come up from the river, on the crest of high ground, there stood the unpretentious building in which as a law student young Waite began work. It was a frame house, clap- boarded and shingled. It had glass windows, without blinds and panel doors. It had a thin coat of dingy white Pioneer Association. 31 paint, which gave it a neglected look. Its style of archi- tecture represented the next remove above the two story log cabin. There were not wanting at that time sturdy log cabins on that town plat which were solid and com- fortable. Notably and near by was the log cabin where lived the Nelson family. Horatio Conant, one of the founders of the town, who was a physician and also a justice of the peace, dispensed medicine and justice in the lower part of the building. Its upper rooms were the law office ol Samuel M. Young with whom Waite entered as a law student. The plain, not to say ordinary looking building wherein was began the career which ended on the Supreme bench at Washington, was sufficiently uninter- esting and commonplace in appearance to make a first- class illustration for a page of biography in a popular magazine. You, my friends, have the picture in your minds without the aid of graver's art. You remember well the good doctor, his mild way, his high, broad forehead and intelligent face. Some of you have been patients of his, or suitors in his court may- hap. The doctor was college-bred, of more than average culture, and much reserved for his sterling integrity, his soeratic simplicity of manner, and his calm, steady, Christian philosophy of life. Mr. Young was the leading lawyer and business man of the settlement. After Mr. Waite was admitted to the bar, the firm became known as Young & Waite. For some years the county courts of Lucas County were held at Maumee City, and there in the then new brick court house, Mr. Waite began his regular practice, which, however, was now confined to Lucas County. It was the custom then for the lawyers to ride to neighbor- ing counties, very much in the same way as the early circuit preachers rode their circuits, namely, on horse- back, with saddle-bags, and their legs well protected by 32 The Mautnee Valley spatterdashes of coarse cloth to keep off the briars and the mud. Thus it often happened, the old court room in Maumee City would be the meeting place of the lawyers, young and old, from other counties far and near, among whom, two young men were sometimes seen together there, one from Sandusky County, and one from Lucas County. They were on their way to the two highest offices in the nation. No one then thought that Morrison R. Waite would one day in years to come as Chief Justice, administer the oath of office to Rutherford B. Hayes, as President of the nation. The current of events which were to carry them so far in advance of their several start- ing points had, however, already set in. The future head of judiciary had begun to master the law. His natural aptitude for his profession developed more and more the character and strength of his mind. Like those men who not only get, but keep money, he never lost a point of law once gained, and his accumula- tions of legal lore, like the stores of a rich man's money, were always ready at command, and always drawing in- terest. He was always making the mass of his learning larger and mdre effective, as the banker does with his ever increasing millions. The robust character of his in- tellect is shown by the readiness with which he acquired and used legal knowledge, and the firm grip with which he kept it at his command. He was the most ready and rapid, and also the most accurate man of his time in the conduct of the routine of business. The trial and preparation of cases, the inspection o( books of account, the arrangement of details, the techni- calities of pleadings, the examination of witnesses, the forcible presentation of the points in controversy to a jury or to a Court — all were handled by him as they came with the ease of an athlete handling a weight which seemed much lighter than the full capacity of his strength. It is not strange when you think of it all over, that conscious Pioneer Association. 33 as he was of his strength as a lawyer, he should turn away from the lure of politics, and adhere but more firmly to the law. So it followed, that after the old firm of Young & Waite had given place to the new firm of M. R, & R. Waite, and after he had became established with his brother Richard in Toledo in a large practice reaching in- SAMUEL M. YOUNG. to the highest federal courts ; when he was in the maturity of his powers, equipped with a perfect panoply of legal accomplishments, the vision of his old college friend ap- peared to him in the East, beckoning him to a larger field, asking him to put his shoulder to the wheel in a national cause of the greatest magnitude, before a tribunal which has had no parallel in dignity and importance so 34 The Maumee Valley far in the history of nations. The story of the Geneva arbritation is the opening of a new chapter in the law of nations. The meeting of that tribunal marks the begin- ning of a new era in which steps shall be taken toward that good time coming when nations shall not learn war any more. From the time of entering on the duties of assistant counsel to the American commission at Geneva, our friend who crossed the ferry in 1835 so modestly, be- gan to be national property, and appear as a representa- tive ot the nation, honored with high official trust. The result of the Geneva arbritation shows how ably he ad- vanced the cause ot his country there. I make only this point in taking leave of this part ot the subject. The labors he performed there were not only of great national value, but his experience of those labors inspired in him the thoughts which not long after were put by him into words fitly spoken on a festal occasion, and which proved to be words of power to open to him the way to the permanent honors of the highest office in the nation. Returning from Geneva to his home in the Maumee Valley, he was elected on a non-partisan ticket, a member of the convention to revise the State Constitution. When it convened at Cincinnati, he was made its presiding officer. His advancement now moved rapidly on. You all know the rest ; but I want you to admire with me the grand rhythm of the movement of this man's life on his way to greatness ; this man who was our fam- iliar friend, who grew to greatness at our firesides. When the Army of the Tennessee held tiieir annual reunion at Toledo, Gen. Grant, then President, came to meet his old comrades. At a public reception, where all the notables were present, and Mr. Waite being called on, responded so aptly and forcibly, rising to the culmination of his theme in the words, "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than those of war," then it was that Gen. Pioneer Association. 35 Grant stepped round to the speaker's seat to congratu- late him. Then was the impression made on Grant's mind, which not many months after made him turn to Waite as a fit man for Chief Justice. The appointment came while he was presiding over the convention at Cincinnati, and in due time he entered on the high office he filled so ably for fourteen years of untiring labor. Forty volumes of reported decisions attest his industry and learning. There remains one thing more to mention, which shows most strikingly the grandness of his character, and makes a claim to him for our reverence as a follower of the example of Washington. Unwise friends had suggested to him an effort to reach the presidency of the nation. His letter declining all movements in that direction deserves to be printed in letters of gold. His conduct on this occasion is as valu- able an example of virtue in high places as that of Wash- ington himself, which it resembles in principle, and to which it adds cogency and force. The emphasis by which the close of that letter is marked, leaves no room for ambignity or for doubt of the steadiness of purpose, or of the greatness of soul of the writer. But this rich, fruitful, valuable, noble, friendly life, so full of honor and so marked by the victories of peace, has run its appointed course, and he is at rest from his labors. It seems but yesterday the great men of the nation came to lay his body in the earth on the north bank of the river, crossed by him unheralded and alone in the spring- tide of his early manhood. As we turn back fifty-three years and consider the difference between the stripling, as we once knew him, and the Chief Justice, as the nation and the English- speaking races have learned to know him, we see there was a growth here from that germ. On the page of 36 The Maumee Valley national history, in the front rank of those who have lived noble lives, a place is reserved from henceforth and for all time for the figure of him we seek this day to honor ; for the figure of him who was diligent in business, wise in counsel, persuasive in speech, a sound lawyer, of unblem- ished purity of life, untainted by unworthy ambition; of one who sustained the dignity of his high station by the self-poise of his own rectitude ; of one whose friendly manners made the robes of office fit him most becoming- ly ; of one who was not in the account of the money- changers, but rich in his stores of learning, rich in his labors, rich in his many friends, rich in the arts of peace, rich in the opportunities for greatness, and rich in the abilities of mind and soul, whereby he seemed to meet these opportunities as if he had all along been expecting them, and whereby he seemed to gather strength to enter upon each new domain of honor and trust as each was opened to him in the fullness of time, much in the same way the rightful come to his inheritance. 38 The Maumee Valley Tt^E ]VE.A^XJ]V[E>E>.' POEM BY DR. N. B. C. LOVE. ALL HAIL, historic stream of fame, Men shall long sing of thee. And ne'er, forget thy old time name The lovely " Mee-a-mee." Long, long ago south thou didst flow Meandering to the sea. A force of which we little know Then said, " Thy source thy mouth shall be. Thus changed in the distant past Thou wearest thy bright crown — A queenly stream shall ever last Full of might and renown. Flowing onward swift and free Through tangled forests gloom. Many sought and found on thee Sweet rest midst lillies' bloom. When written history was unknown, Men near thee altars built, And offered there with prayers their own Sons to atone for guilt. On these there came a savage race From o'er the western sea Which lived by war and wildwood chase By thee, O fair Maumee. By many a murmuring hillside spring The wigwams nestling stood. And childhood's laugh made valleys ring, And men were a brotherhood. Pioneer Association. 39 O Maumee, with thy creeks and rills, Thy fields of waving maize, Thy valleys, plains and wooded hills, What wonder men should praise ? What wonder that 'round evening fires Warriors should dance and sing, And feel the joy that home inspires Where each man is a king. When on thy banks from source to bay Thy sons in grossest darkness lay, There came from far beyond the sea LaSalle to bring the light to thee. He reared aloft the Holy Cross And said, " If thou would not be lost, Then worship Christ who on it died — God's only son the crucified." This feeble ray of gospel light Could not drive back the heathen night. A hundred summers came and went, A hundred years in darkness spent. Then came sweet Peace, heaven's strong ally, And with her those who raised the cry, " Repent, believe, and Christ can save ; Have life here, and beyond the grave." Some heard who ne'er before had heard. Some feared who ne'er before had feared, And all together praised the Lord, Abiding in his saving word. O calm, O gentle moving stream, O fair " Miami " of the Lake, Is human kindness all a dream ? Is there no balm for hearts that ache ? 40 The Maumee Valley O deep and wide and rapid river, O rough and dark and icf stream, Who filled with death the redman's quiver? Who bade his deadly arrow gleam ? Thy face has known a crimson blush, Thy spray a bloody rain ; Thy waves have heaved with death's mad rush, Thy depths been gorged with slain. Say not that those who chased the game O'er hillsides and o'er plains For border wars were alone to blame, And white hands free from stains. O River, weird, historic water, What tales of bloody human slaughter. What scenes of hate, and tragic acts, What woeful pictures, solemn facts, Thou couldst before the world portray ! What greed and hate and wrong betray ! O speak not, but thy secrets keep. Wake not the slaughtered ones who sleep Along the sunny, verdant banks In nameless and unnumbered ranks. Thy freshets bathe their resting place ; Thy summer ebb reveals the trace On slippery rocks on which they fell Before the white man's grape and shell. Swift arrows fly and whirring balls. An Indian chieftain loudly calls Unto his braves: "Stand firm, ne'er yield. And once again we'll gain the field." Afire with valor, not love of fame. Mad Anthony in fierce charge came. As comes the deadly hurricane Or cyclone sweeping o'er the plain. Pioneer Association. 41 Thy warriors strong and chieftain fleet Pled, panic struck, with flying feet ; The whoop of war died on thy breast, And friend and foe in thee found rest. From Fort Defiance to the bay. What hosts of dusky patriots lay ; How many fell, both red and white. For home and right, as each saw right ! Were not those right who brave, though red. Were fighting for their homes and dead? And were they not, too, brave and true. Who fought for the red, the white and blue ? Thousands of heroes brave and true. And good men as the world e'er knew. All scorched with fever, racked with pt^in. Fell nevermore to rise again. Around thy Ft. Meigs, strong, reliant, The foe grew ever more defiant ; Louder, faster the cannons roared. The red hot shells above it soared. Each leafy bower, dale and nook The forms of savage warfai^e took ; In soldiers' hearts distrust and fear Soon fled away, for help was near. Kentucky's sons came down thy stream. Naught did they but of victory dream. Men braver ne'er a battle fought, But their very zeal disaster brought : Dudley's men ambuished, and in defeat, A part sought safety in retreat; Alas ! for many of the best Found on thy shores a bloody rest. 42 The Maumee Valley Not seige, nor shot, nor bursting shell, Nor ambuscade, nor savage yell, Could frighten Harrison or his men. More than a lion in his den. So war raged on thy wooded banks, Until with thinned and broken ranks. Our fathers gained the bloody day, And allied foes fled far away. All thy dear sleep in unknown graves, Eequiems are chanted by thy waves ; Masses droned by thy water falls, While high spring tide for justice calls. By artist's brush and poet's pen The patriotic backwoods men Have oft appeared, with honor crowned, On many a smoky battle ground. Orators, with each passing year. Have made the multitudes to hear The glorious valor of thy dead — Patriots who for their hearthstones bled. The historian has told us well What he has heard the veterans tell Of times when men were brave and strong. And pay was small and campaigns long. Tell me where on thy battle-fields There is a single stone that shields The glory of the men who could For freedom shed their own life-blood ? Is it Miami or Presque Isle, Where English red coats had to feel That an injured nation still was brave, And would her highest honor save? Pioneer Association. 43 Why should thy well-loved dead, Maumee, Forgotten lie, by all but thee. When monuments in splendor stand To other heroes of our land ? Why Bunker Hill exalted high, And old Ft. Meigs unhonored lie? Why Chicamauga's parks so fine. And Maumee, not a cent for thine ? Above thy dead the wild flower bloom, To decorate their lowly tomb ; Above thy dead the thrush and wren Sing in each leafy dell and glen. Honor the names, now household words. Whose flint-locks and whose trusty swords Brought to our land a lasting rest From all its foes in the Northwest. All honor and a nation's thanks To the heroes resting on thy banks. Soon may the grandest column rise To commemorate their sacrifice. They triumphed over kingly power And savage hatred. To this hour Fair Liberty, the Goddess, stands And stretches out protecting hands. As Pharaoh and all his host Beneath the rising waves were lost. So each opposing hostile band Was struck down by an unseen hand. Soon ends this century the opening page. The beginning of a progressive age. But the footfalls of the coming crowd. Inspired by love, are sounding loud. 44 The Maumee Valley They come to the city's busy mart And bring for use hands, bead and heart; They work for the improvement of the race And give to duty a favored place. As morning comes, when silver light Swift follows on the heels of niffht; When crimson mists like hosts appear — The signal that the day is near — So dawns the coming century's light, So flees the ending century's night. 'Tis now a better day than when Fierce beasts roamed over moor and fen, And wild men dressed in skins of beasts And danced at horrid midnight feasts. A better day than when our sire Wore primitive and coarse attire, When all that makes this life so prized. Cultured, refined and civilized. Was unknown, and men wrung by toil A frugal living from the soil — Than when the wild deer used to drink Upon thy limpid water's brink. Thy towns' and cities' stately spires With pious, holy thought inspire The old and young from hills and dells To heed the chiming evening bells; Where silence reigned at thy feet, O Maumee, where thy waters meet With broad Lake Erie's raging tide There stands a city in her pride. Her tasteful homes of comfort sweet Crowd many a clean and well-kept street; Great engines drive the wheels of trade, Blessing men of every grade. Pioneer Association. 45 Like clustering grapes upon the vine Along the banks, Maumee, entwine The villas 'neath thy verdant trees, Soft fanned by every passing breeze. O Kiver, tell not all the past, For slaughter shall not always last ; And strife, by pen, and not by sword, Shall be appeased, the gracious Lord. The peaceful son of Mary reign Along thy shores on hill and plain — A peace from Him who gave thee birth Shall bless the nations of the earth. 46 The Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 47 READ BY DENISON B. SMITH, AT GRAND RAPIDS, OHIO. " The god of love, whose constant care With blessings crowns each passing year, Our scanty span doth still prolong And wakes anew our annual song." Ill fares it with any people, whatever their immediate prosperity, who are dead to their past — to the deeds done and the hardships endured by their forefathers. It is nothing that the men and women of 50 or 60 years ago, left pleasant healthy vicinages — Eastern farms and villages — and exchanged them for the wild, unbroken West ; to begin anew all the preparations for living ; to subdue dense forests into smiling farms ; to compact, strengthen and build up straggling settlements into vil- lages ; to encounter inevitable sickness, the destroyer of all energy and industry and life itself ; to choose and adopt a country without schools or churches, and almost without a government ? Is it nothing that these men and women were wise in their generation ? By all the tests I have named, it would be natural to say, No, they were not wise ; but I say they were. It was the begin- ning of the emigrating age, and the broad and fertile West was before them. Newspapers were less numerous then, and information did not cover all the possible hard- ships. What have they wrought ? They laid, strong and deep, the foundations of schools and churches, and a government of liberty without license. I tell you that early men of any city or country leave upon it forever the stamp of their lives. Such unwavering love and devotion deserves our grateful recognition, and may we forever cherish and affectionately remember their services. I hope my interest in the past and in the character, experience and results of our Pioneers will not be gauged 48 The Maumee Valley by the fact that heretofore I have been conspicuous in their annual councils, only by my absence. I have been a busy man, and not always in command of my time. To- day I recall and renew my acquaintance with the old and new Pioneers, with especial pleasure, and heartily adopt the expression of Dickens's Tiny Tim, " God bless you, every one." I am not an early settler compared with many, but if I had fully realized, before I commenced this paper, how much I had forgotten of early life on the Maumee, I should have been in one of the seats before me, instead of on the stand. A weak memory is a great loss of in- tellectual force. If the events of our lives could be care- fully preserved in the archives of a sound memory, to- gether with the precedents and conclusions that have been formed upon them, such a record would advance the in- tellectual standard of all men. The times of 54 or 55 years ago and later, have been ably reviewed in papers read before you. If I can make any additions to what has been said, it may be by repro- ducing some events from business and commercial lite, and of business and professional men, the greatest num- ber of whom have removed to that great city of the dead, which so vastly outnumbers living cities. I came upon the river at the flood tide of the specu- lative boom in 1836, arriving at Perrysburg, April 15. I had left Syracuse in the latter part of March and traveled by stage to Cleveland, where I met the steamer Commo- dore Perry, Captain David Wilkinson. The Perry went first to Detroit, and coming across from the mouth of the Detroit river, we had a gale of wind up the lake, which gave me my first lesson in sea sickness. I am inclined to think the Hon. Henry Wetmore was an officer on the Perry on that trip. We were all greatly elated with the Perry and boats of her class. It was a long stride in the march of improvement, but compared with present models Pioneer Association. 49 and size of marine architecture, the Perry was a veritible tub. The impression stamped upon my mind by the beau- tiful scenery of the river above Toledo on that April morning, will never be effaced, and when the view of the two villages, with their lofty banks, Fort Miami and Fort Meigs, encircling the grand amphitheater, broke upon me on the Perry's deck, I could not withhold an exclamation of surprise and joy. True, nature had not begun her Easter of springing grass and flowers and foliage, but I thought I could imagine that, but later, when all that lovliness came and clothed the scene with its added beauty, I was thoroughly enchanted, and I believe our people to-day do not half appreciate the lovely scenery of their river, so near their homes. I confess it is a wide departure in all respects, but I want to name here another impression of that April day, and that was John Clark's French fishermen at the foot of the big island, with their great row boats and their French songs. It was very new to me, and many a day the resounding oars, in rhythm with the song, could be heard above the rattle of streets and " broke upon the midnight air." It was labor wrought into song. My brothers, John W. and Frank, the former an older and the latter a younger brother, had emigrated here in 1834. John W.'s home was my home for a while, and there also was Mr. J. Austin Scott, now of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Mr. McBride, who was then publishing the newspaper called the Miami of the Lake. Mr. Scott is now 86 and in good health. It is believed Mr. Mc- Bride is not living. I entered the employ for one or two months of Jos. J. Bingham, who had been sent here as the agent of W. W. Mumford, of Rochester, N. Y., and was building docks and warehouses at Miami. The filling of that dock, the lower one, was the first encroachment on the banks of 50 The Maumee Valley old Fort Miami. On those docks, and above, were erect- ed three substantial warehouses. There were 500 feet of dock on that side of the river, and finally nearly all the commercial business at the foot of the rapids came to be transacted there. There is nothing leit to mark the scene of this business. "Decay's effacing fingers," and the sweeping ice in the spring-time, have left no token of it. In May, I was sent to Detroit for money to pay off the laborers, and which money I obtained of the old Bank of Michigan, which was organized out of the assets of the branch of the United States Bank, after General Jackson had put his foot upon it. On my way out to Detroit on the old steamer Niagara, she made a long stop at Man- hattan, below Toledo. I went up town, and found a good hotel of three stories, full of New York, Pennsylvania and New England gentlemen, who were looking for land in- vestments. The hotel was kept by Mr. Cornwell, who was the father of Mrs. R. N. Lawton, and her twin sister, Mrs. Mix. Mr. Cornwell has been dead a long time, but the widow is yet living, an inmate of the "Home for Old Ladies" in Toledo. Mrs. Lawton is living in California, We stopped at La Plaisance bay, Monroe. In the warehouse there was a small quantity of white wheat from the crop of an adjacent farm the previous year. It was the most beautiful wheat I ever saw, and I want to say in this connection that, in my judgment. Western wheat has greatly deteriorated, and will not be restored to what it should be until farmers interest themselves in more fre- quent renewals of seed from more distant vicinages. In nature, as well as in animals and man, if we would im- prove, we must do so by introducing the elements ol a higher and better and stronger life. In Monroe County, Michigan, the third crop of Minnesota No. i hard spring wheat is growing. The two crops already produced equaled 25 bushels to the acre. I have a return from one Pioneer Association. 51 farm this spring of 28 bushels. It outsells winter wheat at the mills. It will do well in Lucas, Wood and Henry- counties. Seed can be procured at Toledo, if early ap- plication is made. Try it on a limited scale next spring. To return to Manhattan. That aggregation of trav- eling real estate seekers at the hotel is a fair illustration of the prevailing rage for investment in this valley at that date. The Maumee valley had attracted the attention of thinkers and investors all over the East. Let us look in- to the reasons for a moment. At that date the only in- strumentality known to commerce was water. Railroads were not thought of as a means of commercial transit, and water, it was believed, would forever be the great com- mercial power. On the basis of water transportation, it was expected that somewhere near the mouth of the Maumee would grow up a great city. The canals from Cincinnati and Lafayette had been projected and were be- ing constructed. The Erie canal had been completed years before, and these canals from the West to Lake Erie were to be a part of a great water highway that was to concentrate the trade of a large extent of productive country and become the pathway of an immense com- merce. Each investor of land on the Maumee expected to locate the great city on his own tract, and the result was a projected city every three or four miles. Manhattan had nearly as good a start as any of the cities. A Buffalo company had commenced building docks and warehouses there to meet the business of the canal. Long docks were built out to the channel of the river, and three good warehouses were erected upon them. Another small city was projected out on the bay, and called Havre. Oppo- site Toledo was Oregon. At Delaware Creek a feeble ef- fort was made. At Rock Bar, Marengo, was the preten- tious name of a city without foundation, and last, but by no means least, Maumee and Perrysburg. Great invest- ments were made from Manhattan to the foot of the 52 The Maumee Valley rapids in land and lots. Prices advanced enormously. In Maumee and Perrysburg lots were sold at prices many times beyond the value to-day. I do not believe there is a foot of property in Toledo, the value of which equals cost, 6 per cent, interest invested, and the taxes. These periodical speculative fevers are most pernicious. They sap the foundations of industry and character. Toil and labor is the heritage of humanity. Labor is the only true basis of wealth. Look around you, and see what labor has wrought, applied to the twin sisters, agriculture and mining. A better writer than I am says, "Both ag- riculture and mining gather the treasures of earth. One by the chemistry of sun-light, the resurrection of dead organism and the sweat of the brow ; the other, with much labor brings desiccated sunbeams to the surface, to light and heat and move the world. One furnishes the food for man ; both give him materials for manufacture, add to his comfort and increase his wealth." Let me say to my agricultural friends, who through good judgment have purchased and retained good farms, do not be fascinated by inducements to sell and locate elsewhere — unless you have gas or oil farms. While purchases of prairie farms at one period presented great attractions, we have overdone the business, and the reflex current has set in, Prairie farms are liable to greater ex- tremes of drouth and tempest, and great wide vicinities are lacking in the elements that compact society and give intelligence and worth of character to your families. As I have said, labor in agriculture and mining is the great product of values. Again, while farming lands in all the counties of Ohio have decHned lo to 12^ per cent, an acre. Northwest- ern Ohio has gained in values. To the young settlers, I want to of^er my admonition and protest against the prevailing desire to leave the farm for city. Every consideration is against it. It is too often Pioneer Association. 53 the inspiration of idleness, or impatience of tardy results. But what is the reverse picture ? Our cities are full of unemployed young men and women. Only a few find employment, and those are selected from the most com- petent, and none of those succeed but the most tireless devotees of toil of head and hand. The remainder are first loungers, and next they rot in saloons. If a young man develops a taste for machinery, with devout interest and determination, and economical and sober habits, the city is the place for him. To seek the attractions of a town or city for its fancied easy life and pleasure, is the road to death. In my judgment, there is no vicinity of its extent that is so promising as Northwest Ohio. Of course it will not do for all to become agriculturists, for while the farmer feeds all, if all are farmers, he only feeds himself. But in this vicinity the agricultural industry can never be over- done. We are in the midst of an area that promises to develop into a very great manufacturing center, and no more advantageous conditions can be imagined than the close proximity of manufacturing with agricultural inter- ests. Forty-five years ago, and more, Horace Greely's paper daily pointed the bright hopes of its author to such a consummation for all America. It insures a ready mar- ket for all the products of the farm, and then the soil of this vicinage, its timber, its climatic conditions, its health- fulness, and its mineral oil and gas furnish an incompar- able basis of wealth. The emigrating spirit has passed by all this wealth, but the time has come for a more reas- onable and just appreciation of the advantages. I again assert that Northwestern Ohio presents the fairest pros- pect for future wealth of any similar section of our country. We seldom realize our brightest and best hopes suddenly. But time and conditions have arrived that justify us in expecting a rapid growth, and fruition of long deferred anticipations. 54 The Maumee Valley It may not be interesting to many of the older per- sons here if I attempt to reproduce the names of as many as I can recollect of the highly worthy men who were business and professional residents of Perrysburg 54 years ago. I can do no more than remember those who were most prominent. I was too young to know, and so I can not now recall all of them ; but it can not be unfair to say that John Hollister was the leading spirit of the village, not perhaps because he was the most worthy or most able citizen, although in both these respects he would have taken high rank in any community, but the accident of early immigration hither, close association with the ele- ment of prosperity, and a large ownership in the village, gave him most naturally the distinction I have named. Besides all this was his leadership in merchant marine construction and the commerce of the river. Before the days of steamboats, before the steamers "Walk in the Water" and "Enterprise," in the days of small schooners, John Hollister received the goods of the Indian traders, sent them forward by team to Providence^ from whence they were taken by keel boats or perogues to Fort Wayne, hauled across the nine mile portage to the head waters of Little river, and from thence down the Wabash. This system of transportation was continued until relieved by the canal. In the aggregate there was a good deal of commercial traffic at Perrysburg in 1836, including lumber, salt and furnishing provisions to the contractors on the canal. I was sent down the Ohio canal for the purchase of corn. I went in a canal boat from Cleveland — laid a week at a brake awfully sick with the ague — but I got there. I bought 4,000 bushels of corn which was brought to Perrysburg from Cleveland by the schooner Caroline. John Hollister was a worthy representative of his race everywhere. He was the moving inspiration in the build- ing of the steamer Com. Perry, and later in association Pioneer Association. 55 with John W. Smith, of a Hst of sail vessels and steamers including the Gen. Wayne, in 1837. B. F. Hollister was also a man of mark in the new country of 1836, in a somewhat different line. The Hol- listers were large dealers in furs and peltries, and Frank was the manager of purchases in a wide scope of the West. When in the spring, the collections of the winter were ready for market, John negotiated the sale, some- times to the American Fur Company, and sometimes to the Hottenguers, of Germany. That firm, by name, is yet in existence. The fur trade at Perrysburg was some times — not always — a profitable one. Associated with John Hollister, in 1836, was John W. Smith. He came here from Syracuse after a short residence at Cleveland, He embarked a small fortune in the shipping and in a long dock below the old warehouse. The dock was built in the common expectation of, and in preparation for, the commerce to come by the canal. Of course it was a dead loss, and the shipping, with excep- tion of the Perry and Wayne, was likewise unprofitable. It was like everything else, begun too early. A first-rate merchant was spoiled when Mr. Smith entered the prem- ature field of a western operator. Subsequently, he opened a large stock farm at lower Miami, but that was premature also. No one could pay for blooded stock. Everything but the land was lost. I believe that is there yet. And now I come to a man who won a reputation around the whole chain of lakes. Capt. David Wilkinson was a man ot much more than average intellectual capa- bility. Stern of manner on deck, — rather from saltwater precedents than from desire, — but with the heart of a woman. Industrious, scrupulously honest in his business relations, dauntless in the performance of his duty. That is the epitaph I write for the brave captain. At his home in the winters no Perrysburg citizens were more hospit- 56 The Maumee Valley able than Capt. Wilkinson and his most estimable wife. I remember those hearty entertainments as the pleasantest of my life. He acquired considerable wealth, but accord- ing to a universal result of those changing times, lost it, and died the keeper of a range-light in Maumee bay. John C. Spink was a bright, capable and successful lawyer. Undoubtedly he was the leader of the bar at the foot of the Rapids in 1836. I say this without desire or intention to belittle the standing of other worthy gentle- men of his profession. There may have been stronger men there, but the opportunity had previously come to Spink, and he had seized it. Besides the elements of a good lawyer, Spink possessed genial, magnetic traits that endeared him to people outside of his profession. He was the life and light of the social, convivial gatherings of that day, and while he was much older than myself, I have a joyful recollection of his sparkling and entertain- ing manner. But elements of popularity are sometimes possessed of a reactionary force. Some times conviviality leads away from the dry and tedious details of law business. While Capt. Wilkinson sailed the schooner Eagle, he landed at Perrysburg a cask of gin. It had no mark of ownership, and remained in store for years. In the winter of 1837 it was tapped, and a pitcher of it was to be found every morning on the table of the office. It be- came the ''smiling" place of a great number of village worthies. Let us go down and get a little "Old Eagle" was the common expression. It was the habit of the times. The captain and Spink always played a good hand at it. They were both lame, but were never so lame as when they went home from that office. But the men who met there were all excellent, capable, high- minded gentlemen, and there was not a headache in a gallon of that curious old gin. Willard V. Way presented a character in strong con- Pioneer Association. 57 trast to that we have just given. Not less strong intel- lectually, and possibly not less fully equipped in the learning of the law.and perhaps a better scholar, his mind brought forth result by a slower process and a deeper study. He was less ready to observe and attack the weak points of his adversary, but in another field of prac- tice, a successful lawyer. Mr, Way maintained a most estimable character, and at the end of his career bequeath- ed to the village, where he had spent a long and useful life, a monument that will long and usefully commemorate his worth. His works follow him. There was a law firm at Perrysburg in 1836 consist- ing of Henry Bennett, Samuel B. B. Campbell and Henry Reed, Jr., under firm name of Bennett, Campbell & Co., but I do not remember that the firm occupied a conspicu- ous position in the business of the law. Hfenry Bennett soon went to Toledo, and later was a partner of C. W. Hill. Mr. Campbell soon left the river. Both are dead. Mr. Reed devoted himself to journalism and has occupied the highest positions. He is living in California. Another law firm I remember, that of Stowell & Brown, but both these gentlemen soon left us. Mr. Stowell afterwards became an Episcopal clergyman, and has died within recent years. I remember also, Mr. Stetson, who married the eldest daughter of Henry Reed, of Waterville. His widow is still living. In 1836 there were the Spaffords. I knew the elder Amos, Jarvis, James and the younger Amos. The first was a thriving, industrious and worthy farmer, as such I had but scanty opportunity of knowing him well except by his high reputation as an esteemed citizen. Everybody knew Jarvis Spafford, the keeper of the Exchange, and excepting a little austerity — possibly natural to some hotel keepers — he kept the best and leading hotel on the river. It was the sensation of the village to witness the arrival of Niel, Moore & Co's stage coaches, traversing the 58 The Maumee Valley Streets on the jump, after miles and miles at a moping gait, and with the driver's horn ringing in the air. The dining room was the ball room, It had a solid puncheon floor, I remember that, but all the same, the heels and toes of men and women kept time on it to jolly music. Amos became a stage proprietor. James lives in South America, I think, and has been here within recent years. All the others have passed away. Shibnah Spink, a brother of John, was a genial whole-souled gentleman. Knew everybody, and was full of interest and sympathy for everybody's troubles. Wherever sickness or death invaded the village, there was Spink. He was a general favorite. John Bates was a worthy treasurer of the county. Besides the business and professional men, elsewhere named, there was Elijah Huntington, a magistrate, and of the highest character in all respects. All the old settlers remember that a Kentuckian came to Perrysburg and captured a fugitive slave. He was taken before Esquire Huntington. His attorney succeeded in finding a flaw in the papers, and new ones must be made out. The friends of the hunted fugitive had a good horse at the door, and as the young man swung himself over the saddle, he exclaimed : "Here's a dead horse or a free nigger." There was John Webb, a pattern of a public officer, patient, accurate, obliging and competent. M. P. Reznor, Judge Rice, Judge Ladd, Geo. Powers. I remember Ladd as a real estate man of great intelligence ; Powers was a successful merchant of long standing; Joseph Creps was the hotel keeper, but I do not remember the man ; Frank Parmelee was a merchant, but soon left, and was afterwards and ever since the proprietor of the omnibus line in Chicago ; Doctors E. D. Peck and Dustin. The latter I knew but little, but Dr. Peck's history is the history of the village and of this portion of Ohio from his Pioneer Association. 59 advent hither to the close of his career. He was as kindly a natured man as I have known. From the com- mencement he was the physician and friend of the poor as of everybody else, and was ready at all times to serve them. Exceedingly skillful and successful as a physician, yet his high attainment in the line of his profession were, if possible, excelled by his enterprise as a citizen. I shall never forget a little occurrence which was of lasting service to me, I was a thin, stoop-shouldered chap of i8 years. I was walking the street one day, with my hands in my pockets, and half doubled up like a jack-knife, as usual, when the doctor approached me, seized me by both shoulders, pulled them back, and said, "Straighten up — take your hands out oi your pockets and walk with them behind you. It you don't, you'll be a consumptive in five years." It was enough, and I never repeated the habit, but for years walked with my hands joined behind me. It is good advice to any man or woman, old or young. Augustus Thompson was an enterprising merchant. Jonathan Perrin was a builder, and a wise, prudent and careful one. Gilbert and Schuyler Beach, I only remember the former as a careful, upright, and successful merchant. He is with us yet at a ripe old age in the enjoyment of his faculties. There was Joseph Utley and a younger brother. Joseph was a good writer on the topics of the times. James A. Hall was another successful merchant, and there was Dan Wheeler, Walt Wheelock. The Wilsons, Eber and Sam; the Ewings, William and Henry; the McKnights. The Wetmores, who are yet distinguish- ed citizens on the river. Mr. Cook and his sons I did not so well know. Peter Cranker, the Doans, the Blinns and Jesup W. Scott and his three sons. I knew but little of Mr. Scott at that date, but he occupied a high position as a writer and a leader in enterprises for the 60 The Maumee Valley development of the growth of the river towns, and main- tained that position at a later period at Toledo until his death. Addison Smith was the most unassuming of men, but he was more than ordinarily intellectual. He was a natural inventor. His performances in this line, at a later period were conspicuous. I have no doubt that he was the inventor of the pneumatic gun. During our last war he informed Secretary Stanton that he could make a gun that would bombard Fort Sumpter at a distance of twelve miles, but want of faith in the Secretary, prevented its adoption. I am very confident he was the inventor of the steam gauge. He originated the little brass fastener now in use for fastening together numerous papers. Sidney C. Sloan was county auditor. Charles Den- nison is yet living at Toledo. Mr. Shepler was the hotel keeper at the end of the Black Swamp road. He has a son in Toledo in a large prosperous business. Mr. Darling J did not much know, but young as I was I escorted his daughter to Toledo in the winter. It was a private sleigh ride, and coming home we lost our way in a snow storm which was not creditable to my knowledge of obscure roads. I think Miss Darling married another Mr. Smith, who was more satisfactory to her. Mr. Kellogg lived in a house yet standing a little above Spaftord's Exchange. Mr. Loomis Brigham was a leading builder and contractor, and after- wards built some brick blocks at Toledo. Deacon Hall kept a hotel near John Hollister's residence. Mr. Lock was afterwards a steamboat man on the route from Perry- burg to Toledo. I knew Mr. Ross very well, the father of the present vice-president of a National bank at Toledo. Joshua Campbell was afterwards sheriff of the county and a jolly, true-hearted citizen. Doubtless there are others whose names I ought to mention, but, as I said at the beginning of my paper, I was too young to know them all. Pioneer Association. 61 and now I am too old to recall some of whom I did know. These notices of the lives of some of our early busi- ness and professional men, are much too brief. I hope some one more capable will more suitably extend them, and include the early dealers at Maumee and Toledo. Some of them have a place in Mr. Waggoner's book, but only those who could afford an engraving of their likeness. The history of all the early pioneers should be printed. Only a few remain who can recall the events of their lives. The years are flying, and very soon, we, the older members will have passed away. Let us strive and hope, that those who have been touched by our influence have been better men and women in consequence of it. "Yes, the new days come, and the old days go, And I the while rejoice: For now 'tis the rose, and now 'tis the snow, And now a sweet bird's voice ; And now 'tis the heart of all that is sweet. And then the shade of care ; And then 'tis a pain like the lightening fleet. And then God's glory there." 62 The Maumee Valley ]vie:]vioi^i.a.l .Ai^ooounsr^r BENJAMIN ATKINSON, OF PROVIDENCE, LUCAS COUNTY. Benjamin Atkinson was born at Lancaster, Penn., in 1792. He came with his parents to Holmes County, Ohio, when a boy, and removed, with his wife and five children, to the Maumee Valley in 1834, settling at Gilead, Wood County. They endured all the hardships of a pioneer life. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was known in his later days as ''Colonel Ben." He was with Gen. Harrison and helped to erect Fort Meigs, and was also one of the gallant and victorious defenders of Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson and at the battle of the Thames in which he was slightly wounded. He was known as a brave man, a pioneer soldier, an early, influential and intelligent citizen of the Valley, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens; was honored by them with positions of prominence and trust. He died August 2nd^ 1858, and was buried at Gilead with military honors. But two of his children survive him, William Atkinson, of White House, Lucas County, and Mrs. Louise Arbagan, of Napoleon, Henry County. A Pioneer. Pioneer Association. 63 IVlE^lMOFeiAT^ -OF- HON. ABNER L. BACKUS, OF TOLEDO, OHIO. Prepared by the Produce Exchange. Mr. Backus was born at Columbus, in this State, in June, 1818, and had arrived at the ripe age of JJ years. His family were descended from the Marietta settlers of the State. He came to Maumee City in 1838 as a civil engineer, and occupied a prominent and responsible position in the construction of the Wabash and the Miami and Erie canals. Upon the completion of the Wabash Canal, Mr. Backus was the first collector of tolls at Toledo. Soon after this, in 1844, he commenced the mercantile business at Mau- mee. During his residence at Maumee he was nominated and elected a member ot the State Board of Public Works in a canvass that resulted generally in favor of the Whigs. Mr. Backus came to Toledo in 1863 in partnership with Samuel M. Young, Esq., and embarked with that gentleman in the grain commission and storage business. Later the firm ot A. L. Backus & Son was formed. Our friend has also been conspicuously connect- ed, as a citizen, with the interests of Toledo. With Mr. Young and the late Horace S. Walbridge, he was promi- nent in the conception and organization of the Columbus & Toledo railway, now one of the large contributors to our commerce. With an easy, tolerant and yet trenchant pen, we are indebted to him as a liberal and instructive contributor to the press upon commercial and engineering topics. Mr. Backus was endowed with intellectual equip- 64 The Maumee Valley merits beyond the average. With clear perceptions, sound judgment and unswerving integrity, he had a cour- age equal to his strong and earnest convictions in origi- nating and completing whatever enterprise commended itself to his judgment. He was a true and loyal friend to those with whom he came in close contact, and no man was more loving and more beloved and respected by his family. His health had been broken for a year, and in the last four months of his life he fought his way down the dark passage inch by inch with great suffering, but finally passed through the gate which must open to all of us. As we recall the manly and kindly traits of our brother, let us be thankful for his example with an abiding trust, that, having finished his course on earth he has entered into rest eternal. Pioneer Association. 65 ]>vlEN10I^I^VI^ .A^oooi^ji^nr MR. CHESTER BLINN, OF PERRYSBURG, 0. Chester Blinn was born at Cleveland, Ohio, May 15th, 181 7, and was borne into the higher life with the birth of the Sabbath morning, April 19th, 1896, aged 78 years, 1 1 months and three days. He was one of a family of seven children, the only survival, a sister resid- ing in Toledo being present at the funeral which was heM from the Universalist church, Tuesday at 2:00 p. m. He was married to Miss Maria Boyden, whose birth- place was at Canton, St. Lawrance county, N. Y., at Me- dina, Mich., August 25th, 1847, ^^^ with her united with the Universalist church under the pastorate of Rev. J. F. Rice. Their only son died in infancy, and of their three sur- viving daughters, Mrs. Ella Beatty was detained at home by serious illness. At the early age of 18 Mr. Blinn was engaged in the fur trade in the employ of HoUister Bros., of Perrysburg. In 1849 in partnership with William Letcher he commenc- ed business at West Unity. Mr. Blinn built the first frame business building in Stryker on the site of the old burned hotel. In 1853, the firm took a contract for grad- ing on the Air Line R. R. now L. S. & M. S. R'y., subsequent to which he became associated with C. C. Douglas as dealers in general merchandise, grain and stock, which continued without interruption during the greater part of his active business career. Though as a business man he has experienced the vicissitudes of trade, his personal integrity has never been sacrificed, his domestic life has made him beloved and cherished in his GG The Maumee Valley home, and from his helpful and sterling integrity, many have received help and comfort. His decline, covering a period of five years, has been lengthened by much suffering, which has been borne with great patience. Ministered unto with the most constant and loving fidelity ot the affectionate and devoted wife and daughters who through every ordeal have consecrat- ed their strength to soothe and ameliorate his suffering. Rev. E. D. Jacobs. Pioneer Association. 07 IVrE^lMOr^I^A.!^ -A.0001LJIN:Tr DEACON SALMON CROSS, OF WATERVILLE, O. Among- the earlier pioneers of our country we think that the tall, mag-nificent and stately form, the upright manly bearing and noble Christian character of Deacon Salmon Cross will be well remembered. Mr. Cross was a grandson of David Cross, Sr., and a son of David, Jr. He was a native of the vicinity of Lake Champlain, near the famous grounds of Fort Ticondarago and Crown Point. He was born August 29th, 1786. His early life was enlisted in the development of the then quiet new country. On the 22nd day of March, 1810, he married Miss Moriah Wilcox at Bridgeport, Vermont. Although his youth seemed to be on the Green Mountain side of the lake, later we find him in his furniture shop in Essex County, just over on the west shore. During our border troubles in 18 14 we find Mr. Cross a lieutenant in the N. Y. State militia and in charg-e of a company striving to repell the invasion of His Ma- jesty's troops at Plattsburg in 18 14. The government record at Washington states that he was a lieutenant in Col. Joiner's regiment, the 9th N. Y. Militia at that time. While endeavoring to enjoy the peace that crowned the American arms, affliction fell upon his family, and on the iTth of March, 181 7, his faithful wife Moriah was taken away by disease, and he was left with four small children, 68 The Maumee Valley David, Salmon, Lucina and Wilson, the younger being only 2 2 days old, David and Wilson followed their mother in childhood, but Salmon and Lucina lived to buffet with life many years. Leaving his children with his relatives he came to Ohio, where better opportunities seemed to present them- selves. On the 28th of April, 1819, by the administration of Esq. Seneca Allen he was married to Mrs. Betsey Sawyer, who was a daughter of James C. and Jane Adams. Mr. Cross devoted himself then to bringing his children to Ohio, and they joined his family at Waterville. He applied his hands diligently to the manufacture of furniture, and many of the families of the community were the constant users of his handiwork. Bureaus, tables, dressers, desks, etc., can yet be found among the early families of the Maumee Valley that were made entirely by hand at Deacon Cross' cabinet shop near Waterville. While Mr. Cross was so well liked for his good samples of skill and industry, he was much loved for his noble Christian character. While his hands were toiling in the construction of so many useful articles, his mind was laboring for a higher and a better condition for his fellow man. And at the time of his death, which took place at his home near Waterville, March 2nd, 1831, a universal feeling of deep grief was felt throughout the vicinity. Even those who did not share in his labor and Christian hope said that "we cannot afford to lose such a good man." He was a Deacon in the Presbyterian church, and his walk in life seemed in beautiful harmony with his profes- sion. He died at the age of forty-five in the midst of a career of great usefulness. As the fruit of his second marriage he was blessed with two children: James, who erew to manhood at Waterville and went South and died during the sickly season. And also a daughter, Jane Rebecca, now Mrs. Wm. Van Fleet of Waterville. His Pioneer Association. 69 son Salmon lived near Waterville and later in Henry County, where he died January 14, 1848, leaving a widow with two sons and a daughter. His daughter Lucina became the wife of John L, Pray in 1832, and later she married Whitcomb Haskins. She died April 14, 1892. 70 The Maumee Valley ]VIE:]V[Or^I.A.T_ MR. JOEL FOOTE, OF TONTOCANY, 0. One of the most faithful, earnest and devoted friends of the Maumee Valley Pioneer Association is not with us to-day. He is now with the silent majority. His absence is the more keenly felt and causes a greater sadness because, hitherto he was always in attendance at every regular and every special meeting of this, as well as the Maumee Valley Monumental Association. He was one of the original members of both societies, an officer in each, and cheerfully and promptly performed the duties thereof. He took a laudable interest in the growth, pros- perity and continuation of both societies, and rendered material aid in that behalf. He was a member of the Memorial Committee at the time of his death. Joel Foote came to this Valley with his parents when a little over thirteen years old, and resided herein near or quite sixty-seven years and is prominently identified with its history. He was a pioneer of the pioneers, and one of our most honored and beloved brothers, always greet- ing us cordially, and ever ready and willing to aid us in our good work. He was with us at our last annual meet- ing, showing somewhat the infirmities of age, otherwise apparently in good health. We shall see him no more, but he will be long remembered. Joel Foote was not permitted to start upon his long and silent journey in the Maumee Valley in which he had Pioneer Association. 71 so long lived and which he so much loved, but while away from home on a visit to a son in the State of Indiana, he was suddenly called by that dread summons which none can resist or evade, to pass through that other valley — the untried valley across the dark river into the great Beyond from which there is no return and upon which we sometimes look with a dread uncertainty. Joel Foote lived to be nearly eighty-one years of age. He was born in Salem in the State of Massachusetts, on the twenty-sixth day of July, 1815. When a small boy his parents moved to Oneida County in the State of New York, residing there but a short time when they went to Genesee County in the same State, and in 1824, they moved to Lockport, New York. Not satisfied with that location, Joel's father came West to look for a place more to his liking, and found one on the Maumee River in Wood County, and in April, 1829, started with his family for his new home, then a dense forest in which wild and dangerous animals roamed at large unmolested and which was inhabited mostly by the savage red man. Of course he like all new comers into a new country, endured the hardships of pioneer life, not the least of which was malarial fevers and the dreadful and provoking periodical shaking ague with which nearly all suffered, and still some now living- have a vivid recollection thereof. In those days calomel and quinine were the only remedies then known to check the daily calls of such and kindred com- plaints. But many a poor pioneer had not got the means to procure the proper specific and had to " shake it out." Joel Foote was twice married, and three of his first wife's children are living, They are Mrs. F. A. Baldwin, wife of the Hon. F. A. Baldwin of Bowling Green, one of the leading attorneys of Wood County, Albert D. Foote of Tontogany, and Mrs. Geo. E. Bliss of Kendallville, Ind., and also three of his second wife's. They are Fred., Frank and Joel W. I read a long obituary notice of the 72 The Maumee Valley decedent, published in the Wood County Democrat, and to which I am indebted for its aid in prepairing this brief sketch. In the death of Joel Foote, Wood County has lost one of its oldest and best citizens, and this Association one of its most honored and valued members. J. H. Tyler, OF MEMORIAL COMMITTEE. Pioneer Association. 73 IVIBIVLOF^I^A.!^ -OF- REV. ELNATHAN CARRINGTON GAVITT, D. D. OF TOLEDO, OHIO, BY N. B. C. LOVE, D. D. Very few of those born during the first decade of the century are living. They have nearly all passed with the century into the historic past. Dr. Gavitt was one of the number passing his nintieth birthday to pass over to the silent majority. It is not our purpose to speak of this venerable pio- neer as a minister and member of a denomination of Christians alone, but of him as a citizen of the great and historic Maumee Valley. Most of his active life was spent in it. His name in the older homes was a familiar one. For forty years a member of Central Ohio Conference, and then tor many years in the same territory a member of the Michigan Conference, which in pioneer days had three presiding Elders' Districts in this part of Ohio, His continuance in this area was more on account of confer- ence lines changing than his moving from one part of the State to another. The Michigan Conference Districts in Ohio territory were the Norwalk, Tiffin and Maumee. 1828 he supplied Oakland circuit, Detroit district. 1829 he supplied Holmes circuit. 1830, received into the Ohio Conference. 1832, ordained Deacon by Bishop Emery at Dayton, Ohio. 74 The Maumee Valley 1834, ordained Elder by Bishop Soule at Cincinnati, Ohio. He took a location in 1836 and went West, with the sanction of Bishop Soule and labored among the Indians and whites near Rock Island on the Mississippi and Davenport, Iowa. He came back in a year and entered upon his life work with great zeal, that of preaching the gospel. To follow him through life as a missionary, pastor, presiding elder and agent of educational, reformatory and benevolent organizations, would, if we only narrated a few things connected with each department of his work, fill a large volume. He was in the pastorate twenty-four years ; thirteen years presiding elder, six years college agent, six years chaplain of the North-western asylum, one year supernumerary, two years located and nine years super- annuated. When he was twenty-three years old he was a missionary at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, among the Wyan- dots, where he labored one year successfully. He was honored in i860 with election to the General Conference, and a few years since received the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1884 he published personal reminiscences, under the title of " Crumbs from my Saddle-bags, a Pioneer Life." The work is lull of incidents and pleasing narra- tions. He that writes the events of a long public life faithfully, is worthy of all praise. The coming generations will be more interested in the heroic days of our Valley than we are who in our childhood knew something of them, but only as children could know. He was born in Granville, Ohio, December 16, 1808, and was the young- est son of twelve children. He was the only one born in Ohio. His parents came from Massachusetts with the Licking Company in 1805. His father and mother were Congregationalists. His father's house, a stopping place for such pioneer preachers' Pioneer Association. 75 as J. B. Finley, Bishops Asbury and McKendre. Dr. Gavitt was first a licentiate in the Congregational church, but afterwards joined the Methodist. He was married to Miss Sophia I. Halsey, of North Amherst, Lorain County, Ohio, June 20, 1833. There were born to them seven children, three of whom are dead. The living are Mrs, Lucy G. Shaffer, William H., at- torney, Rev. Halsey G. and George S. Mrs. Gavitt died in Delaware, Ohio, May 9, 1869. Dr. Gavitt was after- wards married to Miss E. M. Roys, M. D., a graduate of the Female Medical College, Philadelphia, and a suc- cessful practitioner in Toledo, Ohio. Dr. Gavitt died of old age, March 15, 1896, at Toledo, Ohio, and is buried in Delaware, Ohio. Dr. Gavitt was small of stature but of manly appear- ance. In his early days was active in movement and had a fine form and a pleasing countenance. His features were well formed and his dark eyes always were lighted up with good cheer. He was e?:cellent company, a superior conversationalist and charming story teller. None could be sad when in his company in some primitive home or in the pioneer social circle. The writer at the com- mencement of his ministry was often in his company, and remembers many pleasing pioneer stories told by him. He was an entertaining preacher; while not scholarly he was correct in language and consecutive in thought, and there were times when all hearts would be moved with emotion and all eyes suffused tears. In revival and evangelistic work he excelled. Many extensive revivals occurred on his circuits. We are told this by his early co-laborers and by his autobiography. He lived a good life, was a man of strict integrity, and was an old time gentleman, always dressing well and appearing to good advantage. Promptness, neatness and industry were among his leading characteristics. Loyal to his church, true to his 76 The Maumee Valley friends and forgiveness to the erring. When the century ends all of the coadjutors of Dr. Gavitt, men and women born during its first decade shall, in all probability, be no more, but they shall with others already gone over, speak to us words of hope and encouragement from the other shore. The voices of the past ever keep on echoing along the valley of time. Pioneer Association. 77 IS^EIVLOI^I.A.L -OF- HON. LEWIS S. CORDON. Reproduced from the Argus of Nov. 15, 1894. This whole community was inexpressibly shocked and grieved to learn on Tuesday morning of the sudden death of Hon, Lewis S. Gordon, which occured on Mon- day night, Nov, i2th, 1894, at about 10 o'clock; but was known to only a few until the next morning. Mr. Gordon had been down to his office during the evening, and had been in unusual good spirits, and ap- parently in the best of health. He had returned home after chatting awhile, had prepared for his usual bath before going to bed. He had started to the bath room, when Mrs. Gordon, who had but a moment before retired to her room, heard him fall. She at once rushed to his assistance and found him lying on the floor, apparently conscious but unable to speak. She sprinkled some water in his face, placed a pillow under his head, and rushing to the door gave the alarm. When she got back to him lite had fled. People passing heard her agonized cries, and came to her assistance, and messengers were at once dispatched for a physician, and for Mr. Harry Gordon, Mrs, H, B, Furguson, and other relatives. But as above stated death had claimed him before any of them reached his side. When the sad news became generally known Tues- day morning there was universal and sincere mourning throughout the whole community, each individual seeming to feel his death as a personal loss ; and the people stood 78 The Maumee Valley about in saddened groups discussing the event softly as though death had entered their own households. Women wept and strong men bowed their heads in sorrow, for all realized that they had lost a friend who was ever will- ing to listen to their sorrows and troubles, and to aid with wise counsel and ready hand. Truly, we are a community stricken with sorrow, for the world can mourn a good man gone. And the grief at the death of Mr. Gordon is not only local. He was known throughout the county, the district and the State, and beloved and esteemed by all, and his demise is everywhere deplored. In this immediate community his death leaves a void that will be hard to fill. He was ever foremost in all good works, ever ready to lend and aid in every public improve- ment for the betterment of the people, and no public or private charity ever lacked wise counsel or help from his ready heart and open hand. The writer and many other struggling young business men of the town mourn him as a benefactor gfone, a true friend lost. Mr. Gordon was 59 years, 7 months and 5 days old, and of robust physique, and although his health for years had not been of the bast, he apparently had, in the course of nature, many years of usefulness yet before him when the sudden summons came. His death was from heart disease. The funeral will be held from the family residence to-day, Thursday, November i5th_, at 1:30 p. m. and the remains laid to rest in the iamily burial plat in beautiful Riverside cemetery, beside his father and mother. Rev. J. W. McClusky, of Delta, former Presbyterian minister of the church here, of which organization Mr. Gordon was a leading and consistent member, will officiate. He leaves a wife and several brothers and sisters to mourn his loss, and in their sad hour of affliction they have the sincere sympathy of the entire people. Pioneer Association. 79 The following sketch of his life we find in the Pauld- ing County Atlas, published in 1892: "Lewis S. Gordon, of the firm of Gordon Bros. & Co., and also a member of the Antwerp Hub & Spoke Co., is one of the popular and enterprising citizens of Carryall township. He was born in Orange County, New York, April 7, 1835, the second son of Thomas and Sarah J. Gordon, both natives of New York, and of ScotchTrish parentage, members of the family being prominent in Colonial times. L, S. Gordon, the immediate subject of this sketch, was educated in the common schools and at the Never- sink seminary oi New York. He began his business career as a clerk in a hardware store, and here he remain- ed for two years. In 1855 he came West, and for one year acted as clerk in the county offices of Paulding. In the fall oi 1856 he commenced teaching a common school, and he taught successfully for three years, and was then nominated on the Republican ticket for County Recorder. He was elected and took charge of the office January i, i860, being re-elected in 1862, In October, 1865, Mr. Gordon was elected to the office of county treasurer, and re-elected in 1867, resigning the position in 1869 to make the race for county auditor. He was defeated by 13 votes. On April 8th, 1870, he was commissioned probate judge to fill a vacancy of seven months. Subsequently, in February, 1871, Mr. Gordon moved to Antwerp to take charge of a hardware store, which he had previously started in connection with his brother, Harry H. Gordon. Since then these gentlemen have been successfully engag- ed in business lor a period of over 21 years. In July, 1859, Mr. Gordon having read law for two years under tiie supervision of Col. John S. Snook, was admitted to the bar by Judge Sutliff. He practiced but little while engaged in the official duties of Paulding county, and since locating in Antwerp has acted as counselor on 80 The Maumee Valley various occasions, though not being actively engaged in the work of his profession. He has held a notary's com- mission since the year 1861. Mr. Gordon takes a lively interest in all that tends toward the improvement of his town and county, and is liberal with his means. He is an ardent advocate of the public school system whereby the masses may be educated. Mr. Gordon was nominated by the Republican party as the representative of Defiance and Paulding counties, in 1881, and overcame a Demo- cratic majority of 1,350 by 349. He did active service for his constituents and acquitted himself with honor. His first vote for president was cast for John C. Fremont in 1856, and since that date he has always supported the Republican ticket. Mr. Gordon was married February 9th, i860, to Miss Margaret Voreis, a native of Crawford county, born in July, 1842. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon are widely and favorably known, and are now enjoying the fruits of a well spent life. In 1888 Mr. Gordon was elected as presidential elector from the 6th Congressional district, and was for- merly instrumental in forming the new district, being ap- pointed on the re-districting committee in the 65th general assembly of Ohio. He has long been one of the influential and prominent citizens of Paulding county, and enjoys the confidence and esteem of all who know him. TRIBUTE BY AN OLD FRIEND. Antwerp, Nov. 13, 1894. Hon. L. S. Gordon died last night very suddenly with heart trouble, and to-day the people of Paulding county are bereft of one of its most respected citizens, who from an early day has held a prominent place in the county; and as a lawyer and business man has since held Pioneer Association. 81 the respect and esteem of every one. He and Lt. Col. John S. Snook entered into partnership in the practice of law just before the war broke out. Mr. Snook was killed in the army. Mr. Gordon has since been a friend and adviser to me, and to-day I mourn his death as a friend and brother. Mrs. A. D. Snook. 82 The Maumee Valley JVlElS/LOFei.A^T^ MRS. LUCINA HASKINS, OF WATERVILLE, 0. Among the late removals of our pioneer friends is Mrs. Lucina Haskins, formerly of Waterville. She died at the residence of her daughter at 630 Walnut street, Toledo, April 14th, last, and was buried at the family burial lot at the cemetery at Waterville. Mrs. Haskins was a native of Essex county, N. Y. Was born July 26th, 1814. Her mother died when Lucina was three years old. She remained in the family of friends in New York and Vermont until she was ten years of age. In 1826 she was moved to Detroit, Michigan, and in the month of February, 1827, she was brought by her father to Ohio, where she has lived since. Her father was Salmon Cross, known among his neighbors as Deacon Cross — a Christian gentleman ol puritan habits. He died near Waterville. Lucina re- mained in the family with her step-mother, Mrs. Cross, afterwards Mrs. Hutchinson, until her marriage with John L. Pray, first son of John Pray, Esq., one of the first set- tlers of the valley. Her union with Mr. Pray was truly at the pioneer time of the settlement ot the Maumee Valley, when roads were made from Indian trails and farms from unbroken forests. In the bloom of his manhood and in the prime of his usefulness, her husband was stricken with disease, and she was left to continue the severe undertakings of a pioneer life with her little family alone. Passing through ordeals not wholly uncommon to the people of the day. Pioneer Association. 83 she reared her two children, now Mrs. Mary C, Wagner, of Toledo, and J. L. Pray, of White House. In her early life she manifested a deep interest in a Christian faith and practice which remained with her through life. She was a communicant of the Methodist Episcopal church for nearly sixty years. The church and benevolent work was her chief desire. She was the treasurer of the Lucas County W. C. T. U. for two years, and an active member from its earliest days in the county. Her marriage with Whitcomb Haskins took place at Maumee, March 14th, 1872. After an enjoyable term of over eleven years she again became a widow by the death of Mr. Haskins. They were then living at Water- ville. Her later years were spent in the families of her children, where her usefulness and good Christian char- acter were daily exemplified. She greatly enjoyed her pioneer associations. Her reminiscences of early pioneer life were many and interesting ; her memory was replete with cherished events which made it indeed a garland of sweet roses. Her presence was a cheerful center from which radiated a joyous atmosphere until the very time of her decease, which was almost a translation. And so, one by one, the tenements of clay are shuffled off and the soul wings its way to immortal joys and eternal rest. Liberty Center, O., August 18, 1892. 84 The Maumee Valley IVLBlVtOI^I^^L. .A.0001LJ:NTr ^OF- CEORCE W. HOOBLER, HULL PRAIRIE, WOOD COUNTY, O. BY MRS. LOUISE ATKINSON. George W. Hoobler was born at Harrisburg, Penn., June 15th, 1798, and came with his parents to Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, in 18 16. He came to Stark County, O., in 1820 and married Miss Mary Bash, April 5th, 1824, and removed with his wife the same month to Perrysburg, travehng in a one-horse wagon, He purchased a lot in Perrysburg and erected a frame house and a cooper shop, and commenced making barrels for the fishermen, working at his trade during the winter, and farming in the summer. At one time he had a large crop of corn he raised and cribbed on what was known as the Big Island, waiting for navigation to open in the spring, but when the ice broke up in the spring, the water and ice from up river came with such a force that it swept away the entire crop, and the huts of the fishermen along the river were also swept away, causing great destruction and loss to them, and many had to flee for their lives. He was among the first settlers of Perrysburg, and helped to raise some of the first houses there, and when the first houses were built in Bowling Green and Portage, Wood County, he was one of the men who helped to raise them. In 1834 he remov- ed with his wife and three children to Middleton Town- ship, Wood County, and settled on a heavily timbered farm he had purchased, getting it of a man by the name of Joseph Wade, who had got it of the government. A small log cabin and land enough cleared for a small gar- Pioneer Association. 85 den and a potato patch, were all the improvements that had been made on it. He worked at his trade (coopering) in the winter and the remaining part of the year worked on the farm, clearing off the timber and putting out fruit trees. Apples were long coming, but they soon had peaches and small fruit. Previous to that the fruit con- sisted of wild strawberries, gooseberries, blackberries, wild plums and crab apples. He purchased some cows, a yoke of oxen, one horse and some sheep, the latter not proving very profitable, for the wolves would come and kill them. They were numerous and would come near the house. He made a trap a little distance from the house in which he caught several, that frightened others so they were not so bold, but previous to that they would come and scratch on the door at night. At one time the writer remembers that he shot two near the house one morning, killing one and wounding the other ; they were devouring the sheep they had killed the previous night. During the summer the stock would get their living in the woods. The hay for winter was made of wild grass that grew plentiful on Hull's Prairie. He would take his ox team and his dinner, and, with one of his little girls go to the prairie, and with a scythe mow grass all day while the girl would watch the oxen, and in the evening they would ride home on a load of hay. So time wore on and others came, and as soon as there were children enough to form a class, he was the first to agitate the cause of education. Being a school teacher in his younger days, he felt the necessity of others as well as his own having a school nearer their home. They had been attending school at the old Missionary station two miles away. So he, with another man, rented an old log house that had been abandoned by the owner, and hired a man to teach a three months' term in the winter, it being the first school taught in District No. i in Middleton town- ship. After that, he being one of the school directors, 86 The Maumee Valley term after term during winter, were continued, until there came enough to support a school in summer as well as winter. He served as Justice of the Peace and township trustee for several terms, as well as minor offices. He remained on the farm until his death which occured April 30th, 1850. -, A Pioneer. Pioneer Association. 87 NIENIOP^I^^L MRS. MARY BASH HOOBLER, OF HULL PRAIRIE, 0. BY MRS. L. ATKINSON. Mrs. Mary Bash Hoobler was born at Cumberland, State of Maryland, August 4, 1803, and moved with her parents to Stark County, Ohio, in 1812. She was married to George W. Hoobler April 5, 1824, and removed with her husband to the Maumee Valley, settling in Perrys- burg the latter part ot April, 1824. They traveled in a one-horse wagon and were several days coming through the Black Swamp, meeting many Indians on their way, which was a terror to her as she had never seen any be- fore^ but had heard many stories of their hatred to the whites and their murdering so many women and children. But her fears wore off after meeting other white people. An elderly lady known as "Granny Pratt" used to visit her often, sometimes remaining a week at a time. She was acquainted with the habits of the Indians, and could talk their language, and she did much toward abating her fears of them. One evening an Indian came to their house so much under the influence of whiskey he could not walk straight. He was on the point of entering the door when "Granny" (for she was there) told him he could not come in, when he said, "Me get more Injun and come bye and bye and kill you," which frightened Mrs. Hoobler very much, but "Granny" shook her fist at him and told him in his language to go away. She then said, "don't be afraid for he istoo drunk to know where he is." Her husband was a cooper and worked in his shop even- ings. When he came in they related the circumstances to The Maumee Valley him, and they watched for the Indian but he did not return. At another time an Indian brought some whortle- berries to trade for bread and meat which she gave him, and he went away apparently satisfied, but returned in a short time and wanted the berries ; she being alone, was so afraid of him that she gave them all back to him. After that she was told that whatever she bought of the Indians she must put out of their sight, for they frequently came back, and if they saw it they would want it. There were but few houses in Perrysburg at that time, and among the inhabitants may be mentioned the names of Spafford, Crane, Wilkison, Pratt, McKnight and John- athan Perrin. She lived in the latter's house until her husband built one of his own. After spending ten years in Perrysburg she removed with her husband and three little daughters to Middleton Township, Wood County, and settled on a new and heavily timbered farm. Then came hardships and trials ; the farm being nearly all woods with a small log house with two small windows, a board door, a wooden latch, raised with a string, a fire- place, where a chimney was made of clay and sticks, enough land cleared for a garden and a potato patch. No roads, nothing but Indian trails. It was nothing strange to hear wolves howl near the house at night, or to awake in the morning and find several Indians lying on the floor with their feet to the fire fast asleep, who had come in quietly, for Indians step very lightly in their moccasins. They were friendly and would bring berries and maple sugar, and the squaws would bring some very pretty bead work to trade for bread and meat. Here all inconveniences were experienced. No churches, no school houses. The nearest school being the old Missionary station, superintended by Rev. Isaac Van Tassel, two miles from her home. There her two eldest girls went to school, (one nine and the other seven years old), taught by a Miss Wright. Their way Pioneer Association. 89 was through a dense wood with no road, but the trees their father had blazed on two sides for their guide. Many hours were spent in anxiety for the safe return of the Httle girls, and often she would leave the little one to sleep in the cradle and go to meet them. Oftentimes in the evenings after the father came in and the children were all in bed, they sat and listened to the howling of the wolves, the hooting of the owls and hum of the mosquito, with the smoke of the smudge in front of the door (for screens were not known then) and talked of their future prospects. She was well fitted by nature for pioneer life, always looking on the bright side, and was often heard to say, "Well, if we do hear those hideous noises at night, we are blessed with the sweet cooing of the prairie hen and the whistle of ' Bob White ' in the morning." In the winter Hull's Prairie, (only three fourths of a mile away), was a sheet of ice, and in the spring a pond of water. But in the autumn it repaid for all that. It was beautiful to look at, being completely covered with tall yellow flowers, that sent their fragrance in all directions. Here she toiled and strove with patience to assist her husband, doing such work as spinning flax and wool for their clothing, milking cows, making butter, which brought six cents per pound, taking store pay, calico at twenty-five cents per yard, and other things in proportion. One of the hardest trials was the sickly season which came an- nually, and often all the family were down at one time with ague and fever. And then came the greatest sorrow, her husband died leaving her with six children. By energy, perserverance and hard toil she succeeded in raising them to men and women. She was always kind in sickness, and to those less fortunate than herself, willing to bear as far as she could the burdens of others, benevolence being one of the marked features of her character. She experienced religion at the age of sixteen and remained 90 The Maumee Valley strong in faith ; was a member of the M. E. church at the time of her death, which occured February 21, 1874. She was a resident of Wood County fifty years. Three sons and a daughter survive her, Geo. W. Hoobler, of Water- ville; W. H. Hoobler, of Weston; Hon. S. R. Hoobler, of Bay City, Mich., and Mrs. Louise Atkinson, of White House, Lucas County, Ohio. A Pioneer. Pioneer Association. 91 iviBiVEor^i.^1^ -OF- HON. ALEXANDER SANKEY LATTY, BY JUSTIN H. TYLER. A well known landmark of Northwestern Ohio and the Maumee Valley was removed by death in May, 1895, and this memorial should have been prepared and read at our last annual meeting. No man in this part of the State had a wider, if as wide a circle of acquaintances and friends as the Hon. Alexander Sankey Latty, Judge Latty was born in the County Leitrim, Ireland, June 30th, 1 815. At the age of 17 he left his native isle, and settled in Canada where he remained four years, and when 21 years old he came to the Maumee Valley, and helped to survey the Miami and Erie canal, and subse- quently he was a boss over a large gang of men in its construction. In the meantime he was reading law with James G. Haley, in Napoleon. He was admitted to the bar in 1840, Chiet Justice Waite being a member of the committee that examined him. He immediately thereafter located in Paulding county, then an almost unbroken forest, covered with heavy timber. He embarked in the newspaper business and ranked high among the editorial fraternity. He was an able and vigorous writer, and I used to see as many extracts from his paper as any one in this part of the State. He was county auditor of Paulding county for two terms, and in 1856 was elected to the office of Judge ot the Court of Common Pleas, and soon after removed from 92 The Maumee Valley Paulding county to Defiance. He was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for twenty years. He was an able jurist, a brave, fearless, honest and upright judge, and his decisions were characterized as among the ablest, always fortified by an abundance of authorities to which he could refer giving volume and page without looking at the authority, frequently quoting all the material rulings in the cases cited. He had a most wonderful memory, which gave him superior advantages over those less gifted in that respect. He was emphatically a book-worm, and his reading was not confined to law only, but books of general information were also his daily companions. He was industrious and seemed to enjoy prepairing briefs and citing authorities on important law points. He had the largest landed interest, so far as quantity of acres was concerned, of any man in Northwestern Ohio. At one time he was reputed to have owned over 20,000 acres of land in Paulding county alone, which for a long time was of no use to him, but an annoyance. After wait- ing and paying taxes and unjust ditch assessments for a long time, timber became valuable, and then a rich harvest was realized therefrom. He was twice married. When Judge Latty came to Henry county in 1837, he hadn't money enough to buy a cake of shaving soap or a place for himself and wife to lay their heads. Judge Craig took them in and boarded them for quite a while, and for which he received the life-long gratitude of Judge Latty, who was a big-hearted, noble man of the good old Irish type, and he duly and sincerely appreciated the favors shown him in the days of his need and never forgot them. A few years ago Judge Latty went to the State of Washington, and while there made a wise and judicious investment in real estate, the annual rents and profits of which, I am told, afford quite a revenue to his worthy widow and children. Judge Latty most likely was the wealthiest man in this part of the State, and in his death Defiance lost one of her most intelligent and useful citizens, and the wife and children a devoted husband and father. J. H. Tyler. Pioneer Association. 98 iviENioi^i.A.1^ .A.ooox_JiN:Tr HON. EMERY DAVIS POTTER, OF TOLEDO, O, BY LAW ASSOCIATION. Emery Davis Potter was born in Providence county, R. I., on the 7th day of October, 1804, and died Febru- ary 1 2th 1896, in the 92nd year ot his age. He was of Puritan and Quaker stock, the son of Abram Potter and Johanna Davis. The family removed from the Providence plantations to Otsego county, N. Y., in 1806, The father's circumstances were not such as to pro- vide the son with more than very limited educational advantages in childhood. As the result of persistent effort, however, the latter ere long was encouraged to expect a collegiate course, in which he was disappointed, and was compelled, without such advantage, to enter upon preparation for the chosen profession of the law. This he did in the office of John A, Dix and Abner Cook, Jr., two able lawyers of Cooperstown, N. Y., the former having subsequently been governor of New York, United States senator from that State, and secretary of Treasury. Completing his studies, Mr. Potter was admitted to practice in New York, but soon decided to make his home in the West, he left lor Toledo where he arrived in the winter of 1834-5. He here found a field not the most inviting, in some respects, for an ambitious young man, but one which he was not long in turning to the best account. His quali- ties as a lawyer soon became known, while his active participation in public and political affairs gave him special 94 The Maumee Valley prominence and influence. In 1838 he was postmaster at Toledo, and in 1839 was elected by the legislature as president judge of the Common Pleas Court for the 13th Judicial district of Ohio, embracing ten counties and cov- ering Northwestern Ohio entire. Without public means of any sort for conveyance, he was compelled to travel from county to county wholly on horse-back, and largely through a dense wilderness, often EMERY DAVIS POTTER. in the absence of bridges, compelled to swim streams, and resort to methods of travel almost wholly unknown to the present generation in the same sections. In 1843 he was nominated by the Democrats and elected to Congress from the district made up largely of the territory embraced within the judicial circuit. In Congress he at once took prominent position, serving Pioneer Association. 95 with John Ouincy Adams on the select committee on the Smithson will, whose action led to the founding of the Smithsonian Institute. In 1847 Ju^ig^ Potter was elected as representative in the Ohio legislature, where he acted largely as leader of the Democratic side of the house. In October, 1848, he was elected to the 31st Congress, where he took a specially prominent part in the long struggle for Speaker, receiving at different times 78 votes, within three votes of being elected for that office. He was made chairman of the committee on Postoffices and post roads, and as such was the author ot the bill ot 1851 providing for cheap postage, and the coining of a three cent coin. At the close of his term in Congress he resumed the practice of law. In 1857 he was appointed judge of the Federal Court of Utah, but declined the honor. In 1859 he was appointed collector of customs for the Toledo district, serving until 1861. He was elected as senator in the Ohio legislature in 1873, serving until 1875. During that term he was influential in securing the enactment of the law providing, at the expense of the State, for the propogation of fishes in Ohio. To his per- sonal attention and good management, the successful introduction and establishment of that policy by the State are largely due. He was mayor of the city of Toledo for the years 1847-8; at times a member of the common council ot the city of Toledo, and its city solicitor, also a member of the board of education. In stature he was 6 feet, 2 inches, and was of a large and powerful frame. He was of a genial and happy disposition, easy of approach and "with malice towards none and charity for all." His knowledge of affairs and men was most exten- sive. A companion of John Ouincy Adams. He also enjoyed the acquaintance and fellowship of Calhoun, 96 The Maumee Valley Webster and Henry Clay. He sat at the bedside and held the hand of the great Kentuckian when his spirit took its flight. He sat in judgment on the first case our fellow citizen, the late Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite tried and argued in court. He was a friend and companion of Rufus P. Ranney and Allen G. Thurman. During the Rebellion he was a War Democrat, un- flinching in his patriotism and devotion to the Union cause. His mental faculties remained vigorous and unim- paired to the last hours of his life. His last public ap- pearance was the delivery of an address on the laying of the corner stone of the new court house. P'ull of years and with many honors, still "to add greater honors to his age than man could give him, he died fearing God." In Memoriam. 1804, 1896. At a meeting of the Toledo Bar Association, held on the 24th day of February, A. D. 1896, the following reso- lution, commemorating the life and character of the Hon. Emery Davis Potter, were adopted : Resolved: — 1. That the foregoing brief Memorial be presented to the several Courts of Record of this county, and that they be requested to have the same entered upon their records as a just tribute to the life and character of the deceased, and as enduring evidence of what may be accomplished by the young men of this favored land with- out the aid of wealth or prominent family influence, and an incentive to worthy effort, high aim and honorable living. 2. That the clerks of the several courts be request- Pioneer Association. 9;7 ed to forward duly certified copies to his surviving child- ren, Emery D. Potter, Jr., and Miss Claire Potter. Respectfully submitted, Charles Pratt, Louis H, Pike, Geo. R. Haynes, L. W. Morris, J. M. Ritchie. I, L. E. Clark, Clerk of the Common Pleas and Circuit Courts, of Lucas County, Ohio, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the Resolutions and Memorial filed in this Court, on the death of the late Hon. Emery Davis Potter. In testimony whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name and affix the seal of said Court, at Toledo, Ohio, this 24th day of February, A. D. 1896. [seal.] L. E. Clark, Clerk. 98 The Maumee Valley WL^^WLOlE^lJ^l^ -OF- JOHN PRAY, ESQ., REPRODUCED FROM A PUBLISHED ACCOUNT AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH. When we look out upon the landscape of the Maumee Valley and behold its populous cities, fine villages, well cultivated farms, and a land bespangled throughout with comfortable dwellings, churches and school-houses, and traversed by railroads and canals, a land that has within the range of one lifetime, risen from crudest nature to a refined state of cultivation, when in the place of the wig- wam, the war-hoop and the screaming of wild beasts, we now have the advantages of moral and social enlighten- ment and the blessing of Christian prosperity, we realize a sense of gratitude and a sense of obligation to the early fathers who sowed the seeds of our land's prosperity ; and when one of them folds up his tent and goes to his long home, it is becoming in us to hold in high respect that manly fortitude, constant perseverance and sagacious enterprise that characterized the pioneers of the Maumee Valley. As the late John Pray, Esq., whose death took place on the morning of October i8, 1872, was one of the earliest settlers of the vicinity, it has been thought that a few items of his early life would be of interest. Esquire Pray was a descendant of Richard Pray, born in England in 1630, who came over with his three sons and settled in the western part of Rhode Island. His father and grand- father participated in the war of the Revolution, they being Lieutenant and Ensign of the Third Company of the Rhode Island Militia. Pioneer Association. 99 He was the second son of the Rev. John Pray, and was born October 6, 1873, on the western border of Rhode Island. At the age of twelve years, the family moved to Saratoga County, N. Y., and at twenty-one, John went JOHN PRAY. into the manufacture oi potash in company with his elder brother James, who now (1872) lives near Mount Morris, Livingstone County, N. Y. After about three years of success in this enterprise, the brothers dissolved, and John 100 The Maumee Valley purchased a farm in Smithfield, Madison County. Here, in 1809, he was married to Miss Lucy Dunham, who now resides here, but has been an invalid for a number of years. During our troubles with England in 18 12- 14, while the frontier was being invaded by His Majesty's troops, we find Mr. Pray enlisted as a member of Captain Sickle's Company of Colonel Dodge's regiment of New York State Militia, and actively engaged in repelling the invasion at Socket's Harbor. He remained on the farm until the Spring of 18 17, when, in company with his brother James and five others, he set out on a prospecting tour through the West, with a view of making a selection and locating as a colony. In the early part of May, the party set out lor Buffalo by stage, where they embarked on board a sloop for Detroit. Here they provided themselves with a pack-horse and a few articles requisite in pioneer life, and started on their pil- grimage southward, passing around the end of the lake, to the " Miami of the Lake," thence up the valley of this river to Fort Defiance, and were most favorably impress- ed with the nature of the country. Finding but little or no evidence of the existence of the white man between Ft. Meigs and Ft. Defiance, the the only primitive trading posts at Perrysburg or Maumee City and Toledo not yet thought of, traversing through forests unblemished by the white man's axe, and filled with red-skinned aborigines and wild beasts, and hundreds of miles from home in a dense wilderness, the party seemed to cheerfully enter into pioneer life and enjoy it finely. At Defiance they changed their course, and went south to Dayton, where they found something of a set- tlement. From Dayton they went to Cleveland, where it was determined by the party that Mr. John Pray should return, and review a portion of the ground passed over, and select a location for the colony, and six of the party Pioneer Association. 101 returned to their homes in New York. Accordingly Mr. Pray returned to the Maumee Valley, and after a more deliberate inspection of advantages here, the most im- portant of which in his mind, was the great water power on the rapids of the river, consequently the vicinity of the site of the present village of Waterville, was settled upon, and he returned to Smithfield, expecting his friends would all join him for the West, the following Spring. But the reports of the adventurers were associated with too much inconvenience, privation and danger, to be at all acceptable to the people of Madison, and in view of the hazardous feature of the undertaking, and probable suffer- ing, attending such an enterprise, six of the party were induced to abandon moving to the West, and the pros- pects of a colony were, dissolved. But Mr. John Fray's determinations were so firm that he sold his farm in Smithfield, and on the third of May, 1818, he set out with his family consisting of his wife and four children, together with an adopted child, a nephew, at that time about ten years of age. They moved in a wagon to Buffalo, where in company with Capt. Charter, they embarked on board a schooner of fifteen tons bur- den. Their voyage was extremely hazardous, as the ves- sel at best was too frail for such a trip, but was at this time sadly deficient in the requisite equipage for sailing, and the cloth belonging to the passengers was used for canvass. Fortunately, however, on the 24th of June, after a voyage of eight days, the party safely landed near Ft. Meigs, on the Maumee. After resting one night at or near the landing, Mr. Pray moved his family up the river about four miles, and lodged in an unfinished cabin belonging to Mr. Adams. Mr. A. had established himself in the valley but a few months previous, and as all residents were anxious that neighbors should settle about them, every convenience within their reach was extended to the new comer, and 102 The Maumee Valley every cabin was an inn so far as their room would admit. On Mr. Pray's arrival here this time he finds a tew families have located since his visit the previous year, but all about there seems to be broad miles of unbroken forests inhabited with savages and wild beasts. No system ol machinery has yet been used in the waters of the Maumee. The nearest flouring mill was at Monroe, Michigan, where the old French wind mill would grind for the people when the wind was fair. To this incon- venience was added the almost impassable country through which the people had to pass, and the indistinct lines of road between here and Monroe, In 1 82 1 Mr. Pray built the first grist mill in Northern Ohio ; this was a source of great convenience to the people, and men came from Defiance, a distance of forty- five miles, to assist in raising. This mill was built on Granger's Island, Shortly after its completion there was added to the same power a carding machine, a hemp machine and a distillery. In i83i he laid out the village of Waterville, and the following year he built the mills on the main land. In 1837 he built the Columbian House. During the progress of these enterprises much of his time was taken up in visiting the land office, purchasing and locating lands, and at various times the extent of his lands embraced thousands of acres, lying in what is now Fulton, Lucas and Wood counties. The associations of Mr, Pray's household were quite numerous, besides raising eleven children to adults his house was always the home of the traveling public. We have noticed in the Bowling Green Sentinel a communication upon the early record of Wood county, in which it appears that Mr. Pray was one of the Board of County Commissioners from the organization of Wood county in 1820, until the formation of Lucas in 1835. ^^ was Justice of the Peace about nine years. He establish- Pioneer Association. 103 ed the Waterville post office and managed it for several years. Mr. Pray's educational advantages in early life did not enable him to take rank with distinguished legislators nor, did he aspire to eminence or distinction. In his active life he was charitable, lenient and sympathizing — jocular in conversation and honest in deal. As he became advanced in years, he disposed of much ot his landed property, and settled down in quiet retirement. In 1840, during the successful labor of Rev. Mr. Bothman, he abandoned his profession of Universalism and united with his wife and many others with the Metho- dist Churcd. Since that time he has been devoted in Christian faith, and although in his last years he was de- prived of his sight, and to a great extent his reason, his hold upon Christian hope remained with him, and his favorite expression was that he was "almost home." Although he had kept closely to his bed for several months, no disease seemed to be at work other than old age, and on the morning of the i8th, he quietly passed away. He survived all his children but four, and after a lengthy companionship, he leaves a wife that has shared with him all the trials and triumphs and the comforts and sorrows common to the earliest settlers of the Maumee Valley. For over sixty-three years Mr. and Mrs. Pray traveled life's journey together, and have resided in the vicinity of Waterville for over fifty-four years. They have reared a large family, and have lived to enjoy the association of their great-great-grand-children. October 26, 1872. — L. 104 The Maumee Valley IVtENlQI^I^^I^ .A.0001LJISIT -OF- WIR. HENRY PHILIPPS, OF TOLEDO, O. BY CLARK WAGGONER. Few residents have been as prominently and honor- ably identified with trade in Toledo for the past fifty years as was Henry Philipps, who died there February 28th, 1896. He was born in Brunswick, Germany, May 3rd, 1828. At the age of 20 years, he left his native land for the country which so many of his fellow-citizens were then seeking, being one of a party which contributed largely in character and otherwise to the development and growth of the Western States. Toledo had then scarcely entered upon the course of prosperity which has placed it so prominently among the cities of this country. Mr. Philipps began his business career in Toledo as clerk in a general store. In 1852, at the age of 24, he began business on his own account by dealing in farm implements and seeds, to which he subsequently added hardware. After 20 years of special success, he disposed of the business. In 1880 he resumed trade in the same line, in which he continued until his death. So success- ful was his business, that the trade of The Henry Philipps Seed and Implement Company came to hold prominent commercial relations with many parts of the world inter- ested in horticulture, and especially Holland, Germany, France, Japan and China. Few establishments in the country have attained to equal success in that branch of trade. For many years of his later activity, Mr. Philipps The Maumee Valley 105 had associated with him in business two sons — Henry J. and William T. — whose aptitude soon prepared them for successful management of the same upon his death, it now HENRY PHILIPPS. being in their hands, fully maintained in its long-establish- ed prosperity. As a man and citizen, Mr. Philipps held positions 106 The Maumee Valley specially appreciated by his fellow-citizens. A cultured gentleman, he commended himself to the high apprecia- tion of all. His active business enterprise, methodical ways and foresight were largely controlling, while in dif- ferent ways he co-operated effectively for the public wel- fare, being prominent in development of St. Clair street, including the Boody House and the Wheeler opera house, corner Monroe. With two others, he constructed and for five years operated the Adams Street Railway. In 1863 he platted Columbia Heights, consisting of twenty-five acres, now one of the charming localities of the city. He served with special honor for two terms in the Toledo City Council, representing the seventh ward. On the death of Mr. Philipps the Toledo Produce Exchange, of which he was a member, bore testimony of special respect for his business and personal worth. In 1858 Mr. Philipps was married with Miss Emma Seeger, of Baltimore. They had thirteen children — Henry J., Paul A., William T., Louise E,, Caroline, Herman, Charles, Albert, Frederick, Ferdinand, Christian, Edward, Emma — of whom the nine first named, with their mother, are now living at Columbia Heights. Pioneer Association. 107 ]VIE:]V10Fei.A.L^ STEPHEN MERRY. Another pioneer of Wood County has passed away since our last annual meeting, leaving a vacancy in our ranks never to be filled, creating a sadness among his many friends to whom he was well known. Stephen Merry, late of Perrysburg, died in that city on the twenty-first day of February, 1896, in the eighty- eighth year of his age, leaving a vacant chair at home and a seat in church which he had regularly occupied tor so many long years. He is missed by many mourning friends as well as in the community in which he had spent the greater part of his life. Mr. Merry was an intelligent, upright, Christian gentlemen, the elements which so greatly contributed to his popularity which he so worthily deserved and so long retained. Mr. Merry was born on the twenty-first day of September, 1808, in Wheatland, Monroe County, in the State of New York, and was mar- ried on the 1 6th day of October, 1841, to Miss Araminta Earl who survives him. This worthy couple located in this valley in 1843, and in May, 1846, removed from the village ol Miami to Perrysburg, where he died, leaving his beloved wife, who still resides there. Six children were the fruits of this happy marriage, four of whom are living. They are Earl W. Merry, a prominent business man of Bowling Green, Wood County; Charles C, and John W., who reside in Witchita, Kan- sas, and Mrs. Sarah Norton, in Lansing, Michigan . 108 The Maumee Valley Mr. and Mrs. Merry, ior many years were members of the Presbyterian church in Perrysburg, and he was an elder therein for thirty years, always leading a quiet Chris- tian life, whose daily walk and conversation were in accord with his religious professions, ever ready and willing to, and did perform acts of kindness, when and wherever necessity demanded. The example of this exemplary couple through life was a model one, and well worthy ot emulation. M r. Merry was appointed by the commis- sioners of Wood County to fill a vacancy which occurred in the office of County Recorder, and so well and faithfully did he perform its duties, that he was subsequently elect- ed to the same office for three successive terms, the last one of which expired in January, 1874. After this he was elected a Justice of the Peace in Perrysburg township and heltl that office for several terms. He was deservedly a popular man, and in whatever position he was placed, promptness, honesty of purpose and reliability character- ized all his actions, and when he was called by his righteous Master, whom he had so well served, to leave his pilgrimage at the end of life's journey, the relatives and friends of the decedent who have faith and hope in the Divine Assurance, may confidently trust, that when he landed 'tipon the other shore, his meeting with the Good Shepherd was greeted with the glad welcome, "well done good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." J. H. Tyler, Member of Memorial Committee. Pioneer Association. 109 ]V[e:]vioi^i.a.l -OF- MRS. AMELIA C. WAITE, OF TOLEDO, O. The passing away from earth of this distinguished lady has touched the heats of a very wide circle of ac- quaintances throughout this country with a sense of personal loss. It has filled with sorrow a host of closer friends who were fortunate in knowing and appreciating the strenorth of the finer elements of her character, which bound her to them in the bonds of unfaltering faith and love. While our departed friend was equipped with intel- lectual gifts ot a higher order, there never was any at- tempt at display of superiority, but in all the leading traits of womanly, loving kindness to the needy and those she loved. Mrs. Waite was queenly. I am thinking and writing of her long life on this river. A beautiful girl came to Maumee in 1840, the bride of a young attorney- at-law. Both at once seemed to know, or at once find the way to the hearts of all they met. From the com- mencement of his career, he assumed and maintained a leading and advancing position, of which the office of the United States Chief Justice was the glory and crown. The dear lady of whom I am writing, and whom "we have lost a while," was the wife, the mother, and close cornpanion. She was full of the brightness of hope, loved all around her, and aided largely, even in the privations of early life, in making the strong foundations of the future. 110 The Maumee Valley The personal characteristics of Mrs. Waite made a deep impression upon all who knew her well. Devotion to her family and to the church were lead- ing and conspicuous traits in the history of her life. With MRS. AMELIA C. WAITE. settled religious convictions, she knew in whom she be- lieved, and her reliance upon an unchanging faith brought her peace at the last. But her family, close friends and Pioneer Association. Ill the church were by no means the sole objects of her de- votion. An open hospitaHty at home, help and loving sympathy to the poor, made her life a benediction. xA.ll these lines of her character were progressive, and were strengthened by the years. If our dear friend had not removed to a distant city of residence, if the final de- parture had been from the scene of her benefactions here, hundreds of the poor would have thronged her obsequies and call her blessed. But the record of her life in Wash- ington is brightened and sweetened with the same devo- tion to good deeds in the Master's name. Mrs, Amelia Warner W^aite was a native of Lyme, Connecticut. She was a daughter of Samuel Selden Warner, of Lyme, who was a descendant of Colonel SeWen of Revo- lutionary record. Mrs. Waite spent her early life in Con- necticut. In her native city in 1840, she was united in marriage to Morrison R. Waite, the late Chief Justice. Lyme was also the birthplace of Chief Justice Waite, who, after graduating from Yale, studied law in his father's office in that place. Believing there was a wider field for him in the West, Morrison R. Waite, in October, 1838, left for the Maumee Valley and located at Maumee City. Here he continued reading law, and in 1839 was admitted to the bar. Forming a partnership with Samuel M. Young, under the firm name of Young & Waite, in 1840, he returned East to claim his bride. September 21, 1840, was the date of their marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Waite resided in Maumee City from 1840 until 1850. when they moved to Toledo. They re- sided in Toledo until 1874, when they moved to Washing- ton But I must close. It is rare that the close of a life so distinguished has sorrowed so many hearts, but our consolation is that "Blessed are they that die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors," Addresses, Memorials And Sketches PUBLISHED BY. The Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 1898. Vhooman, Anderson & Bateman, Printers, Toledo. THE OHIO SAVINGS BANK Corner Summit and Madison Sfreeis, TOLEDO, OHIO, Most respectfully solicits the business of every Pioneer in Lucas County and Northwestern Ohio, together ivith Family and Friends. We Want Your..amB^^^»^ Commercial Business. iel-i — ;J.'i ielii ;ii!5i 4 Per Cent. . . . Interest Paid Upon Savings Deposits* Deposits from 25c^ to S3,000 Recelvedm OPEN AN ACCOUNT. TRY IT. SEE IT GROW. Come and See Us. If we don't know you, we want to. DAVID ROBISO^f, Jr., President. DFjyjVIS COGHLIM, ] JOS. L. WOLCOTT, \ Yice-P residents. GEO. F. POMFROY, J JAS. J. BOBISOM, Cashier. ADDRESSES, MEMORIALS AND SKETCHES PUBLISHED BY The Maumee Valley Pioneer Association, TO BE DELIVERED AT THE I^BILJ IN^IOIN^= At the Old Court House, Maumee September 10th, 1898. Toledo, Ohio: Vrooman, Anderson & Bateman, Printers, 1898. Gift 23 1> '05 PREFACE. The Memorials herein presented have been wholly contributed by the friends or relatives of those memoraHzed. '1 here are many worthy and well known pioneers, a record of whose lives would be exceedingly interesting and valuable, and the friends of such should see to it that the Memorial Committee are furnished with a concise statement of their life work in the Maumee Valley on or before May ist of each year. Half toned cuts of such add much to the interest of the memorials griven. These can be secured at very slight expense, and it is the only expense that the friends of the deceased pioneers incur in having memorials published in the Annual Pamphlet. It should be remembered that the annual expenses of the Association cannot be met by the one dollar paid on joining the same. If the members will purchase two hundred of these pamphlets at 50 cents each, the current expenses can be met. If more are purchased it will en- able the committee to procure and publish in- teresting views of valley scenery that all would very much like to possess. Each member should help to meet the expense account to the extent of their ability. :Mir^x_iTrE>s. The 33rd Annual Reunion of the Maumee Valley Pioneer Association was held on the grounds of the Lucas County Court House at Maumee, September loth, 1897. At 10 130 A. M., owing to the absence of the Presi- dent, Mr. Paris H. Pray, ol Whitehouse, the meeting was called to order by the Vice-President, Justin H. Tyler, of Napoleon, O. The local singers being absent this ceremony was omitted, and Rev. N. B. C. Love invoked the divine blessing. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Memorials of deceased members and early settlers were then presented and read by the Memorial Commit- tee, D. B. Smith, Chairman. The memorials were of Edward Panorman Basset, of Toledo. Mrs. Pamela Berdan, of Toledo. Deacon Mavor Brigham, of Toledo. Mrs. Christian Darst Dix, of Maumee. Hon. Alfred P. Edgerton, of Hicksville. Col. J'ohn A. Faskins, of Toledo. Capt. Calvin Herrick, of Toledo. Mr. Reuben B. Mitchell, of Maumee, Rev. Mark Richardson, of Maumee. Hon. John R. Osborn, of Toledo. Mr. Joseph Ralston, of Defiance. Mr. Dudley G. Saltonstall, of Toledo. Mr. Alfred Thurston, of Bowling Green. Mr. L uther Whitmore, of East Toledo. Mr. Samuel M. Young, of I oltdo. Mrs. Angeline N. Young, of Toledo. The noon hour having arrived the meeting was ad- journed for one hour for a basket dinner — parties provid- ing themselves and grouping in social festal parties. At I P. M., business was resumed — a nominating committee presented the names for officials for the en- suing year, FOR PRESIDENT, by virtue of seniority, Paris H. Pray, of Whitehouse, O. VICE-PRESIDENTS. From Fulton County, Wm. Ramsey, oi Delta. 6 The Maumee Valley From Hancock County, John Blackford, of Findlay. From Henry County, Allen Scribner, of Napoleon. From Lucas County, Hon. C. Pratt, of Toledo. From Wood County, D. K. Hollenbeck, of Perrysburg. FOR SECRETARY, J. L. Pray, of Whitehouse, Ohio. FOR TREASURER, J. E. Hall, of Waterville, FOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, - From Defiance County, John Greenler, of Defiance. From Fulton County, Wm. Ramsey, of Delta. From Henry County, Allen Scribner, of Napoleon. From Lucas County, Wm. Corlett, of Toledo. From Wood County, L N. VatiTassel, Bowling Green. FOR MEMORIAL COMMITTEE, From Defiance County, J. P. Buffington, of Defiance. From Fulton County, Rev. N. B. C. Love, of Swanton. From Henry County, Hon. J. H. Tyler, of Napoleon.. From Lucas County, Denison B. Smith, of Toledo. From Wood County, Frank Powell, of Perrysburg. FOR HISTORY AND PRINTING, From Henry County, C. C. Young, of Liberty Center. From Lucas County, J. K. Hamilton, of Toledo. From Wood County, Rev. G. A. Adams, of Perrysburg. After the election of officers, Hon. Charles Pratt was introduced to the Pioneer Association, to whom he delivered a most excellent address. Mr. Tyler then called Rev. N. B. C. Love to the chair, Mr. Hollenbeck, of Perrysburg, then made an ex- planatory speech concerning the manner of producing the memorials for the ])amphlet, urging everyone to have an interest in the memorials of their friends. Hon. James H. Southard was then introduced by the President, and made a short and interesting address, re- ferring chiefly to his work in Congress in the interest of the monuments. The audience then sang " America," led by two young ladies of Maumee. Hon. Thomas Harbaugh, of Kalida, Ohio, was then Pioneer As-^ociation called out, and made a patriotic and appropriate address, after which the assembly was addressed by Rev. Shafer, ol Maumoe ; also by Mr. Y. Rakestraw, of VVhitehouse. Mr. J. M. Wolcott, the Mayor of Maumee, presented a cordial invitation from the citizens of Maumee, request- ing the Association to hold the Reunion of 1898 on the same ground. Invitation was accepted for Saturday, September loth, '98. Alter some further social inter- course, the assembly dispersed leeling that they had en- joyed a very profitable Reunion. The receipts of the day were : For 13 new memberships - - - - $13 00 For 1 10 pamphlets of 1897 " " " - 55 00 For 7 '"' " 1806 - - - - I 75 Total - - - - - 69 75 EXPENSE ACCOUNT. To Vrooman, Anderson & Bateman, Toledo, O., • for printing 100 circulars, contents of pam- phlets and envelopes - - - For 400 postal cards For printing same and 100 papers For printing 500 copies ot '97 pamphlets Total, Balance paid by order on the Treasurer - - 18 55 J. L. Pray, Secretary. Pauls H. Pr\y, President. $ 3 25 4 00 I 25 79 80 88 ZO Treasurer's Report for September 10, 1898. Amount on hand Sept. 10, 1897 - - ^26 27 Collected by Secretary for Memberships - - 1 3 00 For sale of pamphlets - - - - - 58 50 Paid for postage For printing 500 Pamphlets For " postal cards and circulars Balance on hand $97 77 - - $ 5 10 - 79 80 irs 3 40 $88 30 - - 9 47 J- E. Hall, Treas The Maumee Valleij jS-^ »;-^V ii^l\&^^^'' w Pio n per A axnejnfinr) . OF CHARLES PRATT, AT MEETING OF MAUMEE VALLEY PIONEER SOCIETY, AT MAUMEE, OHIO, September IOth, 1897. REMINISCENCES OF PIONEEER LIFE. Mr. President, Pioneers, Ladies and Gentlemen : I have been invited by your committee to speak to you to-day by way ot reminiscences of pioneer life. In order to do so and speak of the things which I saw and knew, would require that I speak in the first person — I cannot otherwise give reminiscences irom my own knowl- edge. Further than this it is proper that I should say that although a member of this Society by virtue of my residence in the city of Toledo — which commenced in the year 1850 — my earliest childhood and boyhood recollec- tions are not connected directly with the territory of this Society as prescribed in your constitution — not being within the State of Ohio — but it was within what was commonly known as the Bean Creek country, which is intimately connected with and tributary to the Maumee Valley. THE BEAN CREEK COUNTRY. Bean Creek, as commonly known, — but perhaps more properly called "Tiffin River," by which name it is known upon the maps generally — has its rise in Devil's Lake in the northwest corner ot Lenawee county, Mich- igan, and running southerly near the line between Hills- dale and Lenawee counties, Michigan, and Fulton and Williams counties, Ohio, empties into the Maumee river in Defiance county, just above the city of Defiance. This Bean Creek country was, in the year 1833, an unbroken 10 The Maumee VaUey wilderness inhabited only by the wild beasts and the Indian. It was the home of a remnant of the Potawat- amie tribe of Indians, about one hundred in number, under two chiefs : Metea and Baubeese. In this region my father settled in the fall of 1833. To the east of this place the nearest settlement was at Adrain. To the north was a military road running north of Devil's Lake trom Detroit to Chicago, laid out about tiie years 1825 to 1830 and known as the "Detroit and Chicago Road." This road had been surveyed and opened by the United States government as a turnpike, and along the line of it there was here and there a settler. To the west of it the near- est settlement was at Jonesville in the western part of Hillsdale county, and to the south of it such settlements as t'here were then here upon the Maumee River. In this unbroken wilderness, in the month of November, 1833 — with the nearest white settler twelve miles distant — three log cabins (one of which was my father's) were built ; and in these, twelve white persons in all — men, women and children, (of the latter ot whom I was one), passed the winter of 1833-4. At that time the territorial govern- ment of Michigan held possession and exercised jurisdic- tion down to the Fulton line, so-called. By the Ordinance ol 1787 for the government of the territory of the United States lying northwesterly of the Ohio River, it was pro- vided that Congress should have authority to form one or two states in that part of such territory lying north of an east" and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme point of Lake Michigan ; and in accordance with this provision, the State of Ohio was organized with that line as its northern and the territory of Michigan as its southern boundary, and so remained until June 15th, 1836, when by the act of Congress admitting the State of Mich- igan, it was changed to the present or Harris line. The territory within these two lines embraced the city of Toledo and a large part of what is now Lucas, Fulton Pioneer Association 11 and Williams counties, and it was during the period be- tween 1833 and 1836 the controversy between the Terri- torial g<-overniTient of Michigan and the State government of Ohio was being carried on. Some of you remember, and all of you have heard of the heroic deeds of THE TOLEDO WAR. You have heard of the first session of the Lucas- County Court, in the upper part of the City of Toledo, at the morning's early dawn (earlier than courts are opened in these latter days), of its brief session and of the pre- cipitate retreat of its officials at the first alarm caused by the apprehended approach of the Michigan invaders ! You have heard of the stealing of Major Stickney's apples, of the arrest of his sons, One and Two, and also of the arrest of the Major himself and his valiant and intrepid conduct when he refused to be parolled! 1 myself very well remem- ber the excitement when the Michigan troops, under Gen, J. W. Brown (afterwards for many years a peaceful citizen of Toledo and one of my neighbors) invaded the disputed territory, and how the people of Bean Creek, fifty miles away listened for the sound of the cannonading which was "supposed" to be taking place on the Maumee. I don't remember that any one, there or elsewhere, then or at any other time, ever heard any of this cannonading ! This Bean Creek country had not been involved in the historic scenes of which we shall hear later during this meeting from my friend Gen, Hamilton, but it had re- mained peaceful and quiet — so far as I can learn — amid the warlike commotions at this and other points of the Maumee, and the little band of Potawatamies of which I have spoken sfeem to have been crowded back into this Bean Creek valley and to have lived there undisturbed and peaceful. It was an ideal home for the Indian. The forests were so dense and unbroken as greatly to moder- ate the temperature; of the winter. Violent storms were 12 The Maumee Valley infrequent and far less to be feared than upon the open prairies. Wild game was abundant, and the numerous streams and lakes were filled with fish ; wild cranberries, blackberries and other wild berries abundant, and also wild honey plentiful, so that there was very little need lor that labor so foreign to the habits and instincts of the natives. Prior to that time, in addition to the Detroit and Chicago Military Road of which I have spoken, an act of the Michigan Territorial Council had provided that com- missioners should lay out a road " from Port Lawrence (now Toledo) and running on the most eligible route through Blissfield and Adrian" to intersect this Detroit and Chicago road. This Council had also established a a road to run from Vistula (also Toledo,) in Town nine south to the eastern boundary line of the State of Indiana. This road was afterwards known as the " Indiana Road," and that part of it within the City of Toledo is now Ban- croft street, near which some of us reside. The early ex- plorers, traders and land-lookers however, relied in addition to the compass, mainly upon the Indian trails— as well known to them as are the thoroughfares of to-day to the white man. These trails connected this Bean Creek region with the rapids at Maumee, with Defiance and other points on the Maumee river, running through to Devil's Lake and the Indian villages in the valley of Bean Creek. Of these Indian villages, there were two principal ones : one, Squawfield, was within some two miles of my father's house ; another was a few miles fur- ther away and near Devil's Lake. Metea was the chief of one of these villages, and Baubeese of the other. THE INDIANS. The advance of civilization, as I have already inti- mated, had crowned this remnant of the once powerful Potawatamies into this valley/ It was their home, provid- Pioneer Association. 13 ed for them all that they required for their life as it then was or that was hoped or anticipated by them in the future. It was as dear to them as the homes of civiliza- tion are to the white man. They were, in the main, peac- able and friendly to the settlers, and the early settlers were largely dependent upon them trom the first, other supplies ot food being almost inaccessible, or only obtainable at fabulous prices when they could be obtained at all, I could not venture to give any deliberate judgment of the natural traits of Indian character as shown by this remnent of a tribe from what I saw of them in my boy- hood days, or what I learned ot them Jrom others. The character and traits of the natives, has been the theme of many able writers. There is too great diversity of opinion as to the justice of the treatment of the red man by our government, for me to give any judgment of my own ; but I confess, from what I saw of them during my early life or knew of their intercourse with the early settlers; what I have heard from others older than myself, created a sym- pathy for them in my own mind and a feeling that they were not fairly treated, which has followed me through life, and of which I am willing to speak on proper occas- ions. Washington Irving in his beautiful essay upon "Traits of Indian Character," among other things, says : "It has been the lot of the unfortunate aborigines ot America in the early periods of colonization to be doubly wronged by the white. men. They have been dispossess- ed ot their hereditary possessions by mercenary and frequently wanton warfare and their characters have been traduced by bigoted and interested writers." This is strong language. I would not presume to use it myself, but it comes from a very high source and as the result of a very careful study of the early history of the country. In later years there has been a greater show of fairness in the dealings of our government with the Indians, but so tar as this band was concerned — 14 The Maumee Valley speaking from my own knowledge of it — while it may not be easy to determine what ought to have been their treat- ment, it is difficult to reconcile that which they did receive with justice and fairness, considering them as human beings with the passions, feelings and affections of our common humanity. These Indians were pure bloods, not mixed nor half- breeds ; had not, at the time of these settlements, been corrupted and degraded by contact with the vicious classes of white men. Untaught and unsophisticated as they were, without any of the refinements of civilization, yet they are not to be judged by the degraded specimens that may be seen in later years around the haunts of vic(i and pollution in our towns or cities. The two Chiefs of whom I have spoken were specimens of Indian manhood. I do not know which was the higher in authority — though I think Baubeese was the superior — but both were recog- nized as Chiefs. Baubeese was a large man, of imposing appearance and great dignity, a born leader of men, Metea, a smaller man, was the orator of the tribe and a man oi native natural ability. He was the spokesman of the Indians in their councils with the white man, and his name, I think, is signed to some of the treaties. Both continued in friendly intercourse with the settlers until the removal of these Indians by the government in the year 1840. There have been different statements as to this year, but I am quite certain that I state it correctly. Under the treaties made between the Indians and the United States by which they ceded their lands, it was provided that the Indians should enjoy the right of hunt- ing and fishing upon the grounds ceded so long as they should remain the property of the United States. After the first settlement had been made in this region there was a great ffood of emigration into this part of the country, and the lands were rapidly entered at the land office, so that the hunting grounds of the Indians were soon very Pioneer Association. 15 much restricted, but the Indians would not consent to remove west, the country beyond the Mississippi being unknown to them and they standing in great fear of the warhke Indians, who. they said would kill them as soon as they got within their country. The ground upon which their villages were located was, by reason of apprehended trouble with them, (or some time not entered at the land office, until in the year 1840, an officer of the United States government, with a company of soldiers, was sent to remove them forcibly. He surprised them when they were all assembled, engaged in some of their festivities, surrounded and captured them all and transported them beyond the Mississippi River. Nothing was heard from them, so far as I know, after that time. If any effort was at any time made to locate them upon any reservation, or to induce them to conform to the requirements of civiliza- tion, I never heard of it. Perhaps nothing of the kind would have succeeded if attempted, but it can hardly seem otherwise than cruel that they should have been thus sum- marily and forcibly compelled to leave their homes and the graves of their ancestors, all that was dear to them, and go to regions remote and to them unknown. That this fair land was to be the home of civilization, the place where there should be cultivated farms and populous vil- lages and cities instead of the lair of wild beasts and the hunting ground of the savage, is, of course, true in the providence of God, but that its original possessors were treated by the superior race lor which it was destined in accordance with the precepts of the Divine Master by whose name we are known, is not so evident. EXPERIENCES OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. All this region of country, embracing Southeastern Michigan and Northwestern Ohio, was similar in character and natural surface and presented about the same diffi- culties and hardships to the early settlers. These were 16 The Maum.ee Valley not such as now meet the Klondyke adventurers, nor such as met the Cahfornia gold seekers of '49, but those which were necessarily met in establishing homes in a dense wilderness remote from the conveniences or even the necessities of civilized life, such as many of you here now before me yourselves met and can remember and realize more fully than I can describe. Houses were to be con- structed out of the forest, and they were by the first set- tlers constructed in many instances wholly from materials so furnished, with very little and in some instances no others. The houses of which I have spoken, constructed by my father and those with him, were built in that way, and were very like the picture upon the book which I have in my hand and those which appear upon your badges. And they were constructed not merely for summer holiday pleasure seekers ; not camps for loggers — men only — but homes for permanent residence of delicate women and young children during the storms of winter and all the vicissitudes of the changing seasons. These settlers were there not as mere seekers after sudden wealth, not for "jewels of the mine," but to make for themselves and their children permanent homes. Men of limited means, they received no donation from the government. There were no free homestead laws in those days, but upon entering their lands at the land office and paying in ad- vance and in gold $1.25 per acre for lands for which the government had pretended to pay the Indians two and one-half cents (out of which he had been largely swindled by the Indian traders) they were given a government cer- tificate of purchase, and it was these lands that these great-hearted men and women — many of whom have since gone to their eternal home, and some of whom I see before me here at this time — by their toil converted into cultiva- ted fields and comfortable homes. Roads were construct- ed, streams bridged, swamps drained, school houses and churches built, and all done in the midst of difficulties and Pioneer Association. 17 privations little realized by those who are now enjoying- the benefits who did not participate in these labors. Not only were there dense heavily timbered forests to be cleared, but after being cleared the ground was not then ready for the plow, as were the prairies of the far west. An ax was necessary to make a place for the planting of the corn among the roots, and many a day have I myself followed the man with the ax and dropped the corn when he had made the hole. Wheat and other trains was har- rowed in among the stumps, and at first mainly harvested with the sickle. The first field of wheat that my father raised was wholly harvested in that way; and afterwards, for want of room to swing the cradle among the stumps, it was frequently necessary to use the sickle in great measure in harvesting. Reaping or mowing machinery was then unknown and would have been useless if known. Oxen instead of horses only were used or useful on those rough farms, and generally upon the roads, for several years after the first settlement, and all this work was car- ried forward under such difficulties and with such labor under the shadow of an ever-present malaria that like a cloud over-shadowed and pursued the settler with fever and agues and rheumatism, that would hold the strongest helpless often for days or weeks. In addition to all this was the absence of means of transportation. The roads had to be blazed or cut through forests and were then, in great part, bottomless, except as they were provided with corduroy, so that before pro- duce could be raised in the settlement, the prices of every- thing brought in or attempted to be brought in, were fab- ulous and there was no market for anything that could be raised after the land had been so cleared as to raise any- thing upon it, and it was only by barter among themselves or at the village store, that their products could be dis- posed of. Of money there was substantially none, and the price of everything the farmer had to sell was very 18 The Maumee Valley low, and of that which he had to buy correspondingly high. I have heard my father tell of taking his pork to market and disposing of it at $1.50 per hundred and taking home with him common salt at $4 00 per barrel. Other things that he had to purchase were proportinate to this, sub- stantially, in price. But many and severe as were, the hardships of the early settlers (as many of you well know) their lives were not wholly barren. I believe it was ordered by God in His superior wisdom and mercy, that in no situation or circumstances under which man is engaged in lawfully carrying out His purposes, is he ever wholly left without some gleam of His smile. These men and women were hke ourselves, mortals, with the faults and frailties of our common humanity, but they were God-fearing men and women. They did not forget nor neglect His worship, because they were without elegant churches, costly organs or trained musicians, but in their groves, their log cabins, their barns, or wherever they could meet together, they worshiped the Most High as truly and devoutly as any of their more favored brethren. Their children did not need to wait for comfortable school-houses, or trained teachers, but received such instruction as their fathers and mothers were able to give them by the light of an open fire after the day's work was done, and at the earliest practicable time they were gathered into their log school houses, or into any other shelter that was at hand, and were placed under the instruction of such teachers as could be found, and many a young man and many a young woman went,, into the battle of life with little it any education other than that thus obtained. There was among the settlers a comradship similar to that felt by the soldier, such in fact, as that usually existing between different persons sharing in common any special trial, danger or hardship. The latch-string — (many of the younger here may not know what that Pioneer Association. 10 means, but the older people know very well) — the latch- string, I say, always hung outside the door. Locks, and bolts, and bars, were unknown. A sleeping-place at night upon the floor, was all that was asked, or expected, by the weary traveler, but that was freely given and no ques- tions asked. I remember my father saying that he had frequently got up in the morning from his bed where he slept, in the back of the room, and took observations to ascertain how he was to reach the fire at the other end, without treading upon any of the sleepers. The neighborhood was not bounded by city blocks, but we considered every settler within six miles as a neighbor, and at every raising and every gathering at any time, all the neighbors within that distance were expected to be present, while in time of sickness or special need, or distress, each one received Samaritan aid and comfort. Many a field was planted and many a field was harvested by the settler's neighbors while the owner was held in the grip of the dreaded fever and ague, and many a sick and weary housewife was visited, nursed, cared lor and reliev- ed of household cares by unasked aid of her more fortunate sisters, and the quilting bee was a well known and favorite institution. THE RESULT OF THEIR LABORS. These earnest men and women who have gone, and those of them who are with us here to-day, laid the foun- dations of the state and society which it is our lot to enjoy, in the enduring principles of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood ol man — principles which will endure when the earth shall melt with fervent heat. To them we owe a debt of gratitude which I fear those ol us who did not participate in their labors, toils and trials can but faintly realize. Indeed, standing today in the midst of our present surroundings, it is difficult for any one to realize the changes that have been here wrought in these 20 The Maumee Valley few years oi the white man's dominion in this wilderness. Tennyson says in Locksley Hall : "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Catha3^" Who can tell what cycles time had run while the wild beast and red man held their undisputed sway ? These lertile lands, these magnificent forests and beautiful streams — all this wealth of nature with all its possibilities, was here waiting development by human brain and power, and yet season followed season and year followed year in unvarying order, but the sun in his circuit in the heavens looked down upon the same unchanged field, forest and stream. The red man was nature's child, but had no power to control or shape its forces to do his bidding, or call forth its energies for his advance or uplift. With no power but his to control, "the great world would spin for ever down the ringing grooves of Time," and still remain unchanged. But fifty years of the white man's sway and the wilderness has been redeemed. The waste places that were haunts only of the wild beast, have been converted into happy homes. The sighing of the winds through the forest has given place to the hum of busy industry. In- stead of the Indian village with its few rude tents or huts, we have towns and cities — centres of civilization and refinement. The Indian pony has given way on land to the lio-htninp- express train and the steamer has taken the place of the bark canoe upon the water. But these years have brought changes in the men and women who were laborers in this great work. The greater number of them have ceased their labors here. Those here to-day show the whitening head as evidence of the changing years, but the majority is on the other bank of the stream. Those of us who in our youth were in some measure witnesses of their toils and struggles are fast coming to the brink, and our feet must, in the order of nature, at no distant time, dip into its cold waters. As one of these I am glad ot this opportunity to speak in Pioneer Association. 21 memory of the pioneer passed away and in comforting reminiscence to those who still remain and who are here before me to-day. Very few indeed of those whom I knew in those early days of my boyhood of which I have spoken are now aHve, and of those whom I knew after I came to this county very many have passed away. Your records — which I have here before me — and those which have been read in your hearing here to-day, speak in loving remembrance of many of these who were promi- nent and active men and women — faithful laborers in lay- ing the foundations of civilization in this immediate vicin- ity, and I cannot too heartily commend the purpose of this society in making mention of, preserving and perpet- uating the memory of those early settlers as they have passed and are passing away. Standing here as I do now, under the shadow of this old court house, you will pardon me for a personal reminiscence which comes very vividly to my mind. It is now forty five years since court was held in this old court house in which I was admitted to the practice of the law, and the scenes that I witnessed in this court house during the time that I was in the habit of visiting it — coming to it frequently from Toledo, not as I came to day — on an electric car — but coming on horse- back on the tow-path of the canal— I remember vividly the forms and faces in the courts of that day — -forms and faces no longer seen in the flesh. Judge Saddler, an early resident of Erie county, was then judge of the court ; dignified and courteous, a model presiding judge upon the bench ; and the bar had such leaders as John Fitch, at that time one of the foremost lawyers of this region, usually engaged on one side or the otiier of every import- ant case, and for fifteen years afterwards judge of the court ; Morrison R. Waite, afterwards prominent not only throughout the nation, but known throughout the world, and Chief justice of the United States ; Daniel O. Mor- ton, tall and commanding in figure, an able lawyer, long 22 The Mmimee Valley since dead ; John C. Spink, who Hved just across the river, but who traveled the circuit and practiced in all this Northwest; C. W. Hill, the polished advocate before a jury ; William Baker, who has so recently died, all these were among the leaders of the bar, all now gone, and of that bar, old and young, so far as I know or believe, only Judge Dunlap, who sits down here before me, and Daniel F. Cook, of this place, remain alive. But I desire here and now to pay tribute to these early leaders of this bar, and to say that they left the stamp of their influence in their in- tegrity and honor in the practice of their profession which I trust may long remain the standard of the practice of the profession at this bar. Pleasant however as it is to dwell upon these remin- iscences at this time, pleasant as it is for you to meet to- gether to renew old associations and old friendships of former years, I will not detain you longer by any of my weak words. It is desirable that you who are here pres- ent and have takcm part in these early scenes should often meet together for the purpose of reviving these recollec- tions, and I trust that we all, by reason of them may be benefitted and profited in our lives hereafter. I bid you good day, and may God bless you all. Pioneer Association. 23 4) Of; ■a u "5 Of 24 The Maumee Valley OF R. MARK RICHARDSON, DELIVERED BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION AT FORT MEIGS AUGUST 14, 1890 Venerable, Honored and Esteeyned, Pioneers of the Great Valley of the Maumee : From the time the great God made our great world out of nothing-, and hung it on nothing, and created man out of the earth, and did set him over the works of hands, and made our world a stepping Stone to the upper world of glory, generation has suc- ceeded generation and we have the pleasure and benefit ol mingling with the latest generation yet on record. From this we infer we^ ought to know more than the preceding generations, for we have the history of their triumphs and success, and ol their blunders and failures to admonish and instruct us. We ought, as a generation, to be better than our predecessors, lor we have their history of good and bad, their bad to warn us and their good to invite us to be good. Pionee:rs, we ought to be among the very best of our generation ; we have lived longer, seen more and had a longer space to get good and do good if the average of human life be ^t^tVi years, if i i years of childhood before the line of accountability is crossed, and if i i years is slept away, leaving 1 1 years for active responsible life. But most of us have lived more than twice Z^Yi years, it our responsibility runs parallel with our privileges, how tremendous our responsibihty to Him whose we are. I came to the Maumee in 1843; the houses in Toledo were few and scattering ; great banks of gray earth and Pioneer Association. 25 frog" ponds, where now stands fine business blocks and fine dwellings. It was then the days of tallow candles ; the mothers had just laid aside the rush light for tallow dipped candle light ; next mould candles ; next candle fac- tories ; next pewter lamps and lard oil ; next glass lamps and coal oil; then electric light flashing and dazzling; next] natural gas for light and tuel ; from light to light, from less to oreater. How wonderful fulfillment of scripture. Many shall run too and fro, and knowledge shall increase, and so we have increased. Moral light also. From log school houses, where the gospel was preached, to fine churches in city and country, with pulpits filled with better preachers and better Sabbath schools. Pioneers you have leveled our mighty forests, drained the swamps, cultivated our soil and turned the howling wilderness into beautiful farms and garden lands, waving with rich harvests, and fruit blossoming and blooming as the rose. You have seen banished in you day the rattle- snake, the wolf, the bear, the hostile Indian and the red- coat Briton ; you have killed and buried old shaking ague — may he never have a resurrection — and now all over this beautilul valley we see here and there on a beau- tiful farm by the highway in a fence corner or in the field, an old giant oak, standing, an answer to somebody's prayer, "Woodman spare that tree to shelter man and flocks in storm and from the sun's scorching rays." These represent you, Pioneers; you are the moral oaks here and there, dotting the great valley, towering up as monuments of God's grace and preserving mercy. The tornado that uproots the strong, green trees, leaves standing here and there an old, dry, leafless, sapless tree. Well, the hoary head is a crown of glory if it be tound in the way of right- eousness. Ten thousand human beings start out together on life's journey at the age of twenty-one years, after ten years one-third have dropped out of the ranks ; in ten 26 The Maiimee Valley years more, or middle age, but half the number are on the road ; at three-score years but six hundren are on the journey; at three-score and ten perhaps two hundred remain; at eighty years, from twelve to twenty; at ninety' years, six tottering pilgrims remain; at one hundred years one lingers, a lonely marvel, like the last leaf of a tree in Autumn, shivering, fluttering in the breeze; we look a^ain and all are g-one. Pioneers, fellow pilgrims, where will we be twenty years hence ? Not here, above or below ! O, where, I ask where? We are out on the mighty flowing River of Time; the stream bears us on, we cannot anchor or halt a moment, we may be ship--wrecked but we cannot be de- layed. The river hastens to its home and to-day the roar ot the ocean is in our ears, every beating pulse is a tap of the muffled drum beating our funeral march to our tombs; we ride on the wings of the wind and every swing of the pendulum a soul passes into eternity. It is said at a party of old and young the question was asked which season of life is the most happy. It was referred to the host, a man of eighty years old. He asked if they had observed a grove of trees before the dwelling. He said in Spring's sofc air the buds covered with blossoms ; I think how beautiful is Spring. Summer comes and covers the trees with ioliao^e and sino^incr birds in the branches, and I think how beautilul is Summer ; and when Autumn loads the irees with golden fruit and the tint of frost paint the leaves, I think how beautiful is Autumn ; and when sear, ble.ik winter comes and neither foliage nor fruit, I look up through the leafless branches, as I could never until now, and I see the stars shine through. Yes, Springtime of lite, innocent youth, is beautiful, if they remember their Creator in the days of their youth. Summer of manhood, if you are men of God and your powers are employed to do good, is beautiful. Autumn Pioneer Association. 27 of life, if the fruit of righteousness appear, is beautiful. And when the winter of death comes and the good look up, having brought forth fruit in old age, and not a cloud obscure their moral heavens, and they see the bright and morning star and are ready to soar away to dwell with Him and the good of all worlds, how beautiful is old age when the hoary head is a crown of glory. All along this great valley the earth has been made drunk with the blood of our fallen heroes whose bones have mouldered in the soil or bleached by the rays of the vertical sun whose dust has flowed in the water or floated in the winds that swept over our great valley. We re- joice that they died not in vain, that as the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church, so the blood of our fallen heroes was the seed of liberty and right. We rejoice that in the three great wars within the last eighty years with Great Britain and with Mexico, and with the South that victory has perched on our banners in each and all of those bloody wars, and the old flag shines brighter and brighter in the firmament of our free- dom. You* have seen a colony struggle into national ex- istence and her numbers multiplied into scores of millions, the great eagle of liberty soared above the war cloud and stretched her wings from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the eastern shores to the farthest point beyond the Rocky Mountains. In territory we dwarfing all Europe, and under the shadow of her wines is an asvlum for the poor and oppressed of all nations, and all nations are flowing to it ; a nation of the greatest wealth and most glorious freedom, where labor is dignified and universal, mgle suffrage and education elevates all classes and now we have our government one nation, one union, one flag waving over the land of the free and the home of the brave The union of lakes, the union of lands, The union of states none can sever ; The union of hearts, the union of hands, And the flag of our union forever. — Morris. Mark Richardson. 28 The Maumee Valley ls/LE>WiOT^lJ^I^ OF EDWARD BASSETT, FAMILIAR FICUREMN THE EARLY HISTORY OF TOLEDO. ARDENT ABOLITIONIST AND WARM FRIEND OF THE LATE GOVERNOR ASHLEY. SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. Edward Pangman Bassett, an old time abolitioinst and early settler in Toledo, died at his home in Toledo March 2, 1897, aged 78 years, four ^months and eight days. Two sons and one daughter survive him, (Mrs. Bassett and one son, Edward, having died some years ago). Lewis Bassett and Mrs. Cornelia Bassett-Barr re- side in Toledo, and Charles Bassett, the eminent tenor, who is with the Boston Ideals. While Mr. E. P. Bassett has not been so well known in recent years owing to his retirement, he was one of To- ledo's most prominent citizens a few years ago. Mr. Bassett was an early abolitionist and a close friend of Governor Ashley. At the outbreak of the war Mr. Bassett, then a well-known attorney, was the first to raise his voice for the preservation of the Union. In the memorable rally at the old Union Depot, Monday eve- ning, April 15th, i86[, just after the firing on Fort Sum- ter, Mr. Bassett was one of the speakers ot the occasion. Mr. Bassett was well-known as a business man. He was one of the directors of the Toledo Street Railway company organized in September, 1865. He was also a director in the Toledo Bridge Company, which company, in 1864, built the first bridge across the Maumee. He served from 1861 to 1865 as postmaster ot Toledo. ~He was a practitioner of law for 40 years. The record of his Pioneer Association. 29 life and his services to his fellow men are a creditable heritage and should be cherished as worthy of example. Capt. Dowling, in speaking of Mr. Bassett, said : "He was a man of sterling worth. He had a positive character and had warm iriends and a few enemies, as i all men oi a positive stamp must havc^ He was a law partner of Charles Kent and was prominent in Republican politics." 30 The Maumee Valley OF MRS. PAMELA BERDAN.. Mrs. Pamela Berdan, widow of the late John Berdan, Sr., died October gth, 1896, at the residence of Mrs. Peter Berdan at the advanced age of 94 years. Notwithstand- ing her many years, Mrs. Berdan was vigorous in both mind and body until a little over a year previous to her death. Mrs. Berdan was one of the oldest residents in the city of Toledo. In fact she came to where Toledo is located before the corporation was in existence, having located on its site with her husband in 1836, which was a little over a year before Toledo was incorporated. Mr. John Berdan, Sr., was the first mayor of the new town, and was a prominent citizen up to the time of his death, which occurred in 184 1. Mrs. Pamela Berdan was a native of Massachusetts With her husband she came to Ohio from New York State, making the journey in a carriage, as it was before the days of railroads. After a short residence at Bruns- wick, near Cleveland, Mr. and Mrs. Berdan and tiieir five children came to this part ot the State. The children mentioned were Mr. John Berdan, Mrs. V. 11. Ketcham, Mr. Peter Berdan, Mrs. Buckingham, of Springfield, O., and Mr. George Berdan. Of the children only the two first mentioned survive. Mrs. Berdan has for many years made her home at the Peter Berdan residence, No. 729 Superior St. Mrs. Berdan was one of the charter members ot the First Congregational church. The Rev. Dr. W. W. Williams, a life-long friend of the deceased, conducted the funeral service. Pioneer Asfioeiation. 31 ^ OF DEACON MAVOR BRICHAM, OF TOLEDO, BY CLARK WAGGONER. The limited mention of the hfe of Mavor Brigham, permissible here, could not be more properly introduced than by the succinct sketch- found in the "Weekly Calen- dar ol Work and Worship of the First Congregational Church of Toledo," of date ol December ii, 1892, which is as follows : / / MAYOR BklGHAM "With hearty congratulations and the fraternal love 32 ■ ' The Maumee Valleij of the Church, we greet our Venerable Deacon ot nearly a half-century, our Church Clerk for forty-six years, and our Heaven-kept and honored Brother ever." "Mayor Brigham — Born May i6, 1806, in West- moreland, Oneida County, New York." "Converted and united with the church (Vienna, N. Y.) November, 1834." "Removed to Toledo, May, 1835. Has been identi- fied with this Zion from it birth. Has been elected 46 times as Church Clerk, and was long its Choir Master. Our brother has been honored by his fellow citizens as well as by the Church. He has been Mayor of Toledo, Collector ol Tolls of Ohio canals (appointmf;nt of Gov. S. P. Chase), member of first Board of Police Commissioners (appointment of Gov. Cox), member of City Council, etc., etc. He superintended the building of this church, and the high school of Tok do. He has a record of a brave and philanthropic man in anti-slavery times, and amidst the three cholera visitations of the city." Mr. Brigham's father was a native of Fitz- William, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, born in 1781, whence, in 1 789. the family removed to Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York. He married Amanda Spaulding in 1803, and settled on a farm covered with forest in that town, which he cleared and reduced to cultivation. In that home, a log house roofed with bark peeled from elm trees, and having a single room, the subject of this sketch was born, being second of eight children, four sons and tour daughters. School privileges there were very limited, the only school being one and one-half miles distant, with bad roads intervening. As the oldest son he was charged with farm work, largely to exclusion of school attendance. Compelled by financial embarrassment to leave the farm, the family removed to Vienna, same county, in 1819, on a farm also wholly of woods, where another log house was built, without window, and with blanket as substitute for Pioneer Association. H:-^ door. In 1823 they removed to another log house seven miles distant. The father's poor health soon demanded the entire time of the son, to the total exclusion ol school privileges, for three years. When 20 years old the son attended school for three months. Arriving at 21 years, Mr. Brigham set out in active life in employ of a carpenter, at $10 per month, continuing the same for two years. In 1829 he went to Watertown, Jefferson County, New York, following his trade there for a year. In September, 1830, he was married with Miss Clarissa Bill, daughter of Deacon Oliver Bill, and cousin of Earl Bill, late Clerk of the United States Court for Northern Ohio. He remained in Watertown, working at his trade and teaching school a short time until the Spring of 1835, when, with his family, consisting of wife and one child (now Mrs. Harriet E. Beach, of Toledo), he started for " the West." Taking a canal-boat, he came to Buffalo, where he boarded the historical steamer Com- modore Perry, Captain David Wilkinson, for the locality since known as Toledo. Here he worked at his trade until the spring of 1838, when he contracted to build a church at Dundee, Mich., taking his family. While there, with Judge Ingersoll and Samuel Barber as partners, he built four and one-quarter miles of the Southern Michigan railroad, a branch to Dundee, which never was used. In the Spring of 1840 he returned to Toledo, which he had regarded as his residence during his absence, continuing his trade here. In 1841 he engaged as repairing agent at $2 per day, tor the Erie & Kalamazoo railroad, opened from Toledo to Adrian in 1836." In March, 1842, Mr. Brigham was called to his first serious affliction, in the death of his wife, who left three small childred, (Harriet E., Charles O., and Franklin S.,) the youngest but one month old. Returning with his children to Vienna, he remained there until Fall, the in- fant son meantime dying. He then returned to Toledo, 34 The Matimee Valley where he remained until April, 1843. ^^ a special elec- tion in January he had been elected as Justice of the Peace, which office he held for six years. In June, 1843, he went to Vienna, New York, re- maining there until September, meantime (July 27), being married with Miss Malinda P. Merrell, oi Westmoreland. Returning^ to Toledo he located oa Huron street, and when not engaged in his Justice office he was busy at his trade as carpenter. In 1846 he purchased the lot now No. 820 Superior street, living there until 1848, when he purchased the location (No. 719 Walnut street), where for nearly fifty years was what he so justly called his "dear, happy home," as it was of his dear, happy family, from which his children successively passed to the respon- sibilities of active, honorable lives. In 1852 Mr. Brigham was laid up in health with sciatica, so severe as to largely to deprive him of physical strength, which, with loss of his shop and tools by fire, compelled him to suspend his life-work and turn his atten- tion to other lines of business, including the Canal Collec- torship, hardware and stove trade and book-keeping. From ;ibout 1876 until his death he was unable to pursue regular business ol any sort, being largely confined to his home, but throughout that time he greatly enjoyed the blessings of home life, as he did those of church and social relations. As so justly set forth by the church oi his con- nection, his interest in its service never relaxed, but was abiding in extent of time very rarely known, thus furnish- ing an example worthy of emulation in coming years. Of his anti-slavery action it may be stated that, with four others, he organized, in 1833, one of the very earliest societies in the country for resisting the aggressions of the slave-power. Being denied the use of the school- house in Vienna, N. Y., for such purpose, they met in a wagon shop. His interest in that connection never flagged, he being permitted to Jive 32 years after the fall Pioneer Association. of the slave-power in rebellion. As an active friend of temperance he was no less prominent, his interest never abating in that behalf, as it never did in whatever con- cerned the welfare of his fellow men. Mr. Brigham largely, and no doubt justly, attributed his early and life-long religious interest and activity to his ancestors, who for generations were devoted members of the church of his choice. His grandfather held the office of Deacon in the same for fifty years, and until his death in 1849, at the age of 96 years. His. lather held the same for the period of 46 years, and until his death in 1867. As already shown, he held that relation to the Toledo church for the longer period of 51 years, making an aggregate service of grandfather, father and son of 147 years, the average being 49 years, a record probably without equal, and eminently worthy the high appreciation of descendants of such ancestry. Noticeable in this connection is the fact, that for the period of three years (1846- 1849) the representatives of the three generations were all in such service. When Mr. Brigham arrived in Toledo he united with the Presbyterian church, the only church organization there. In 1840 it was changed to the Congregational form, and in 1842 about one-half its membership withdrew and organized a Presbyterian church. Two years later the two were united in the First Congregational church, since so successfully maintained. Mr. Brigham closed his extended life of activity and usefulness January 8, 1897, leaving the jtartner of 54 years of loving association and their five children, (Stanley F., George M., William A., Frederick M. and Harry C.,) with Mrs. Beach and C. O. Brigham, already mentioned, all of whom, in the providence of God, were permitted personally to pay parting honors to the one so largely the source of their welfare. The expression of respect for the memory of the deceased, both by the church of his con- 36 The Maumee Valley nection and devoted service, and the community so fami- liar with his personal worth, left no room lor doubt as to the appreciation in which he was held. While many lives have Jbeen made more conspicuous than was his, it is deemed safe to state, that comparatively few were marked by more uniform consideration for the welfare of others. Pioneer Association. 37 OF MRS. C. D. DICKS. Alter passing through the four-score-and-five circles of this life, Mrs. C. D. Dicks catered the imperceptible circle oi life beyond, July 27th, 1897. This refined and cultured lady was perhaps better known in Northwestern Ohio than any old resident. For fifty years her home has been the one place of all places for old-time residents ot the Maumee Valley to visit. Her associations with such families as the Waites, Youngs, Backus, Hunts, Forsyths, Hulls, Commagers, Champions, Moores, Spencers, Ranneys, Bostwicks, St. Claires, Reynolds and others, names that are familiar in all Northern Ohio, was kept up until one by one the heads of these families were claimed by the Great Reaper, she being privileged to be one of the very last remaining of that band of noble pioneer men and women. The younger members of these families deemed it a privilege to keep up the acquaintance of this lovely old lady, and, until her death, her correspondents were many, and at this advanced age her letters were spoken of as being re- markable for their beauty of expression, cleverness and originality. Mrs Christina Darst Dicks was born November 25th, 181 2, in Green County, near Dayton, O. Her parents were one of those fine old Southern families who came to Ohio in its early days. Shewas married to William B. Dicks in May, 1833, and she, with her estimable husband, came to Maumee in 1847. She was the mother of three children, William B. Dicks, Jr., who died in 1882 at St. Paul, Minn., and two daughters, Mrs. Julia A. Johnson, of 88 The Maumee Valley Dayton, and Mrs. Phebe C. Bachelder, of Maumee. She was a kind mother to her children, and received from them the most extravagant devotion in return for her years of unselfish care. Her husband, a man of wealth, was remarkable for his unostentatious charity and benev- olence. He preceded her home 22 years ago. She came to Maumee in its prime. She enjoyed social life, and was a most delightful and gracious hostess, and invitations to her home were eagerly sought after. During the vicissitudes of the many years that have in- tervened, she had been very zealous in the welfare of any- thing pertaining to the interests of her chosen town. Pioneer Association. 39 ]VIE>IV10Fei.A.I^ OF ALFRED P. EDCERTON. Although not a member of this Association, he was a prominent man in the Maumee Valley, who had many warm personal triends, and whose public as well as his private life was a model for us all to imitate. For nearly or quite sixty years he made Hicksville, in Defiance County, his home, and died there on the 14th day of May, 1897. The following is a short sketch of his life which I re- ceived from him during his liletime, and for that reason deem it authentic : "REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA." 12th Congressional District, Fort Wayne, Page 44. Alfred P. Edgerton, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was born in Plattsburgh, Clinton County, New York, on the I ith of January, 1813, and is the eldest son of Bela Ed- gerton and Phebe Ketchum, who were married on the 24th of March, 181 1. His father was born in Norwich, Con- necticut, September 28, 1787, and was descended from Richard Edgerton, one of the original proprietors of Nor- wich. Bela Edgerton graduated at Middleburg College, Vermont, and early moved to Plattsburgh, Clinton County, New York. He was a lawyer by profession, and after taking up his residence at Plattsburgh was elected a mem- ber of the Assembly 18267-8. He died at Fort Wayne September 10, 1874, aged 87 years. Mrs. Edgerton was born on the Livingston Manor, Dutchess County, New York, March 27, 1790, and died at Hicksville, Ohio, 40 The Maumee Valley August 24, 1844, and was buried at Fort Wayne. Altred P. Edgerton, the son, was a graduate of the academy at Plattsburgh, and became the editor of a newspaper in his native county in 1833 ; but in the fall of that year remov- ed to the city ot New York, where he engaged in com- mercial pursuits. In the Spring of 1837 he came to Ohio, and assumed the management of the extensive landed in- terests of the American Land Company, and of the Hicks Land Company. At this office over 140,000 acres of land were sold. In 1852 Mr. Edgerton was the owner of near- ly 40,000 acres in Northwest Ohio, a large part since dis- posed of to actual settlers, towards whom a liberal policy was shown. All of this land, 14.0,000 acres, was sold under duplicate contracts ; the form was drawn by Benja- min F. Butler, who was Attorney General under President Van Buren, and the brother of Charles Butler, the Presi- dent of the American Land Company. ■ There never was any change made in the form of these contracts. Deeds were given only when payments were made in full. Dur- ing Mr. Edgerton's residence at Hicksville he was actively engaged in developing and improving th(^, town and its neighborhood In 1845 ^^ ^^^ elected to the State Senate, then comprising many able men, where he took an active part. Mr. Edgerton being a new member, little was known or expected of him, but when Alfred Kelly, then the leader of the Whig party in the Senate, intro- duced the financial policy then favored by them, with kindred issues, he was opposed by Mr. Edgerton with force and abiHty. His speeches electrified the Senate by their accurate knowledge of the finances of the state. Mr. Kelly met a redoutable foeman, and the Democrats were all delighted with the success that their speaker had gained in the debate, and thenceforth he was recognized as their leader. The next year he was proposed and strongly supported by many leading Democrats as their candidate for Governor. In 1850, after the close of a Pioneer Associalinn. 41 brilliant career in the State Senate, he was elected to the House of Representatives of the United States, and re-elected in 1852. During his first term he was the second on the Committee on Claims, but in the next Congress was chairman. This was a very important committee, and involved much arduous labor. His ser- vices in the committee-room were of great value to the country, but he did not neglect his position on the floor of the House. In debate he was forcible, logical, pungent, and refined, his speeches showing great research, and be- ing filled with information, practical good sense and dis- crimination. In 1853 he was selected by the Board of Fund Com- missioners of Ohio to represent the state as its financial agent in New York City. This was the inauguration ot a new policy by Ohio, of having its funds kept by its own agents and within its own control. In 1856 he was chair- man of the Committee of Organization of the National Democratic Convention, held that year in Cincinnati. In 1859 he was one of a committee appointed by the Legis- lature of Ohio to investigate the Irauds in the state treasury. He made an elaborate report, which was accepted by thf; public as a full exposition of the frauds and their authors. In 1857 he removed to Fort Wayne, but retained his citi- zenship in Ohio till 1862. In 1859 in conjunction with Hugh McCulioch, since Secretary of the Treasury, and Pliny Hoagland, he became a lessee of the Indiana Canal, from the Ohio state line to Terre Haute, assuming the position of general manager, and controlled the business until 1868. In 1868 he was nominated by the Democratic State Convention as their candidate for Lieutenant-gover- nor, on the same ticket as Thomas A. Hendricks as Gov- ernor, but the ticket was defeated by less than a thousand votes. In 1872 he was nominated for Governor by the O'Conor Democrats, but declined in an able and dignified letter addressed to the chairman of the convention. He 42 The Maumee VaVey concluded by saying ; "I therefore shall vote the ticket with Mr. Hendricks at its head, and I earnestly hope that all Democrats in the state will do likewise." He has been called by his friends to fill many minor positions. He was a delegate from Ohio to the Baltimore Convention in 1848, and from Indiana to the Chicago Convention in 1864. He has been an active and efficient member and president of the school board in Fort Wayne ior many years, and whatever places he has occupied he has filled with complete satisfaction to those who have conferred them upon him and with honor to himself In private life he is an excellent, accomplished and genial gentleman. He is one of the best and most successful business men ot the state, and is a prominent favorite, and respected citizen. He was married to Charlotte Dixon February 9, 1 841 at Columbus, Ohio. She was the daughter of Charles Dixon and was born near Middletown, Connecti- cut, June I, 1818, and they have six children — three sons and three daughters— all married. Their present resi- dence in Hicksville, built by Mr. Edgerton, is the first frame residence built in the township. Mr. Edgerton's legal residence is in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he has resided since 1859. — occupying at times both homes. In November, 1885. Mr. Edgerton was appointed one of the United States Civil Service Commissioners and became president of the Commission. After his retirement from the Civil Service Commission he removed to Hicksville, to his old home where his wile died a few years ago. At a Lincoln Banquet held at Hicksville on Lincoln's birthday, February 12th, 1894, Mr. Edgerton was present and responded to the toast "Lincoln as President." Mr. L. E. Griffin in his introduction of Mr. Edgerton, voiced the feelings of the people of Hicksville, which I quote. After announcing the above toast he says : " To respond to this toast I have the pleasure of an- nouncing to you our own townsman. For more than half Pioneer Association. 43 a century almost the same roof that now shelters him, has sheltered him, and during that time a generation has come and gone. Let it be said of him and in honor ot him, publicly and in his own hearing, that his life, his example, his integrity, his honor and his citizenship have been a boon to this community and this people. '• Whether he was in private life, or whether he was in the: highest causes of the nation, or whether he was the umpire between the spoilsmen of his own party, the peace keeper of the opposition party, or the mugwump astride of the fence, or whether he held his voting place in an other state, Hicksville has persistently claimed him as her foremost citizen, unwilling to share that honor with others. He needs no introduction. " His funeral was largely attended at Hicksville, Sun- day the 1 6th, the proceedings of which are too lengthy for this sketch. The last funeral rites were held in the Prot- estant Episcopal church at F"ort Wayne, Indiana, and his mortal remains found a resting place in Lindenwood cem- etery with his father and mother, and wife and two broth- ers, Lycurgus and Joseph K., both ot whom died suddenly away from home and were brought to Fort Wayne tor burial. 44 The Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 45 ]VLE^]V10T^IA.I ^OF COL. J. A. FASKIN. Col. John Faskin died at his home at io6 Meh-ose avenue, Sunday night, May 9th, 1897, ^t 12 o'clock. He had been confined to his bed but a week, and only for a few days had his condition been regarded as serious. Deceased left a wife and six g^rown children. The funeral services were held Wednesday at 2 130 P. M. Col. Faskin, besides being known as a most highly esteemed citizen, had a brilliant military record. He was born in Aberdeenshire; Scotland, September 20, 1821, On reachinor manhood he became a member of the 93d Highland Regiment, where he served tor nine years as drill sergeant. Being assigned to Quebec he there met Miss Mary McMillan, and on September 25, 1846 they were united in marriage. Purchasing his discharge, he came to the United States, and, in 1854, settled in Toledo. For 35 years he was well known here as clerk for Whittaker & Phillips, hardware dealers. At the outbreak of the civil war, he volunteered as adjutant of the 67th Ohio Regiment. His former military service came in good turn, and his ability was soon recog- nized. He resigned from the 67th Regiment, May 26, 1862, and in June of the same year accepted a position as lieutenant colonel of the 87th Ohio. Later in the war he served as lieutenant colonel ol the 130th Ohio Regiment. He was an excellent decip- linarian, and did valiant service in the numerous battles in which his command was engaged. 46 The Maumee Valley As a citizen he was most highly esteemed. He was a member of the Toledo Post G. A. R. and of Command- ery No. 7, Knights Templar. Being' a Scotchman, he was naturally interested in sports of Scotland. He was at one time an enthusiastic curler, and was known as the father of the Burns Curling Club, of which organization he was an honorary member at the time of his death. Col. Faskin had not been well for a number of years. Chronic malaria and other diseases contracted in the service told on his system. About one week previous to his death he took to his bed, and the end came not unexpectedly. His wife, five daughters and one son were at his bed side. The children are Mrs. George W. Fague, Mrs. William Midlam, Mrs J. C. Harlin, Miss Maggie Faskin, Mrs. N. Craig and James A, Faskin. Mr. and Mrs. Faskin celebrated their golden wedding in September, 1896. Dr. S. F. Forbes, who was associated with Colonel Faskin during the war, has paid this glowing tribute to him as a soldier and citizen: "He was a splendid drill- master and organizer, and his ability was recognized by the adjutant general. He had unflinching courage in the field, and while a strict disciplinarian, no one lelt that he was unjust or was asking any hardship of his men that he would not endure himsell. His knowledge, judgment and discretion when under fire, secured for him the high- est confidence of his men and other officers. "As a citizen, his life has been most exemplary. No man was better known in Toledo 25 years ago, and none were more highly respected." Pioneer Association. 47 OF CAPT. CALVIN HERRICK. This old, long-experienced and very capable lake mariner died at his home 3368 Cherry street, on Saturday evening- August i4ih, 1897, ^t 6 150 o'clock. Calvin Herrick, one ot the oldest living lake cap- tains in this section, was a son ot James S., and Martha (Sharpsteen) Herrick, and was born in Richmond, On- tario County, New York, January 19th, 1819. In 1823 his parents came to Ohio and settled at Maumee. His father carried on his trade, (blacksmithing). Shortly after they moved to Waterville, but while the subject of this sketch was quite a lad his parents returned to New York and settled in Livingston County. Here young Herrick remained until t6 years of age when he came to Perrysburg and assisted his brother Elijah in transporting merchandise by team from that place to Providence. In 1837 he commenced his career in lake navigation by en- tering the employ of Capt. Curtice Perry, on the schooner Caroline, with whom he sailed until 1845 — the last two years as mate. In 1845 he was made captain of the schooner Kentucky, owned by Mr. D. B. Smith, (now secretary of the Toledo Produce Exchange), a position he held ior a year and a half. For two years following he was mate of the propeller Clobe, commanded by Capt. Henry Whitmore. He was again selected by Mr. D. B. Smith to com- mand the schooner Alvin Bronson, owned by him, in which position he remained two years. In 1852 he be- came captain of the propeller Henry A. Kent, which he successfully commanded until she was destroyc^d by fire 48 The Maumee Valley May 1 8, 1854. Following this date he commanded the propeller Scioto for two years. He brought out the pro- peller Potomac and commanded her tor a length of time. In 1856 the marine insurance companies along the lakes formed a board of lake underwriters for mutual protec- tion, and employed men in the different divisions of their territory to inspect vessels and report their condition. Capt. Herrick was employed by this board as marine in- spector, his district extending from Toledo to Cleveland. This position he held for several years, and subsequently acted in a similar capacity for the fire and marine and To- ledo insurance companies. For many successive years appointed harbormaster by the city council, a position he filled most acceptably. Capt. Herrick was married December 3, 1846, to Margaret Van Fleet, daughter of Jared Van Fleet, an early, settler in Lucas county. Seven children have been born to them, four of whom are now living, the others having died in infancy. The living children are Thomas C, Mattie E., now the wife of Elmer Shields ; Clara, wife of Charles Beard ; and Anna, wife of John Swigart. Capt. Herrick retired from business about 25 years ago. He lived an honorable, conscientious lite, and in all his relations with his tellow-men proved worthy of trust and confidence. The funeral services were conducted at the family residence by Rev. Mr. Bethards, of St. John's M. E. church. The remains were laid to rest in Forest cemetery. Pioneer Association. 49 REUBEN B. MITCHELL. 50 The Maumee Valley REUBEN B. MITCHELL. This Association desires to put on record the ex- pression of its sincere sorrow at the passing away from earth, May loth, 1897, of one of its leading associate members. Reuben B. Mitchell, of Maumee City, a long- time member of our Association, has been suddenly called from his earthly cares and duties to a higher life. Our friend was the most genial of gentlemen, and popular in all his relations with us and all with whom he came in contact. His business career has been long and varied, but always a successful and honorable one. First a large foundry and next milling and banking. A milling and grain business occupied his chief attention. His inter- course with all men has been marked by integrity and fidelity to his engagements. Under present estimates of the length of human life, he had not attained to a very ripe age, and left us at the age of 67. It is the close of an upright and honorable life, and one worthy our imita- tion, and most heartily do we deplore his loss from our Association. A long residence on this river has endeared him to a wide circle of friends, who will equally mourn with us. His wife and four children survive him. Pioneer Association. 51 OF JOSEPH RALSTON. Joseph Ralston was born in Hanover, Dauphin County, Pa., June 20th, 1818. His parents were both Pennsylvanians by birth. He was the oldest of a family ot ten children. In 1824 his parents moved to Lebanon, Lebanon County, in the same state, where he attended the Lebanon academy, graduating from that institution in 1831. In March, 1832, he, with his parents, started for Ohio, and after 17 days' travel overland arrived at Mas- silon, Ohio, on the loth day of April and soon after set- tled on a farm near by, where his parents died — his father August loth, 1858, his mother May 30th, 1868. Joseph assisted on the farm until the age of 18, when he com- menced teaching school, and continued at that vocation six years June 23rd, 1839, he was married to Anna E. Shorb, of Stark County, Ohio, whose parents were born in Maryland, and immigrated to Stark Cou'nty in 1820. Mrs, Ralston was also one of a family of ten children. Mr. Ralston remained in Stark County about three years after his marriage, when he concluded to seek his fortune in the West. Accordingly in October, 1843, he and his family, consisting of his wife and son, took passage on a canal boat on the Ohio canal at Massilon, for Cleveland, and there embarked on the old steamer Superior for To- ledo. Here they took passage on the canal boat Red Lion for Defiance, arriving there October 10, 1843. Here he met an old acquaintance, S. P. Cameron, who induced him to settle in Washington township, where Georgetown is now located, and occupied a small log cabin on the land ot Mr. Cameron until he could secure a place for his 52 The Maumee Valley future home, which he did by selecting 80 acres of land in Tiffin township, on the bank of Mud Creek, being" the first settler on that stream. He commenced the clearing of the forest preparatory to putting up a house, which in those days was quite an undertaking, owing to the scarcity of help which had to come from two to six miles. The season was an exceedingly wet one which proved quite a hindrance, as he had to gather his help five times, but after a time he succeeded and moved into it, and was "monarch of all he surveyed," for his neighbors were neither near nor plenty, the nearest being two miles on the North, four on the South, tour miles on the East, and on the West the forest was unbroken for twenty miles. After clearing part of this farm, putting up a hewed log house, (which is in good condition yet), setting out an or- chard, carrying the trees on his back six miles, and making several improvements, he sold out in 1850, and in 1851 moved to Defiance and purchased the place which is still the family residence. Here he engaged in a general merchandising and produce business. Mr. Ralston filled several public offices during his time. In i860 he was elected Justice of the Peace. In 1863 appointed by the government Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Tenth Collection District, and Deputy Collector of Revenue thereafter. Mr. Ralston made a success of life, accumulating many acres of land, owning about a section of land at the time of his death, which occurred October 22nd, 1895. Of a family of seven children, Mrs. Ralston and three children survive him. Pioneer Association. 53 WL^^Is/LOl^lJ^J^ OF MARK RICHARDSON, THE PIONEER LOCAL PREACHER AND ORATOR OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY. BY N. B. C. LOVE, D. D. Only a few pioneers were found in the Maumee Val- ley at the commencement of the 19th century. Those who came during the first half of this century were from homes ot intelligence and morality, either in the Father- land or the Eastern States. Mark Richardson was one of this number, bringing with him refinement, knowledge and morality. He was naturally an extraordinary man with profound convictions. He was born in the Emerald Isle and came in his early manhood to America and set- tled in Perrysburg, Ohio, in 1843, ^^^ trom thence to Maumee City in 1849, where he lived respected by his fellow citizens to his death, February 22nd, 1897. He was a tanner by trade, and for many years he con- ducted an extensive business, and during all this time he improved his spare moments in reading and study, and on the Sabbath Day preaching the gospel. During the last twenty-five years the most of his time was given to the work of the ministry, sustaining to the M. E. church the relation of local elder, and serving in the regular pas- torate under the supervision of the presiding elder. He preached first in Wood County in 1846, and in Miami in 1847. ^^is last church was at Detroit Avenue church, Toledo, a most difficult charge to serve, yet he, of all who served it, was the most successful. He was 82 years of age, and last January he and his excellent wife celebrated the 59th anniversary of their wedding. 54 The Maumee Valley Eleven children came to their home, two of whom died in infancy, and the nine surviving were with him in the hours of his departure. Mark Richardson's demeanor and appearance carried the conviction ol his dignity and superiority, and yet such were benignity of his countenance and the kindness ot his manner that the humblest found him a friend. He was reliable. His word could be depended on and his friend- ship had the God-like element of continuity. He despised all shams. Time servers in church or state were in abomi- nation. He was not ashamed to own that he had a con- science, nor did he hesitate to act up to his convictions of duty. He was, however, broad and had great charity for those who honestly, in any way, differed from him. The welfare of others delighted him and any promotions or successes of his brothers seemed to give him pleasure. He was familiar with distress and often was found in the homes of the suffering. In the days of his physical vigor he was not surpassed in the Maumee Valley as a pulpit orator. His voice was reasonant and far reaching, his articulation distinct and his language ready and appropriate. His illustrations were original and happily selected and effective, his doc- trine sound and his views of life hopeful and far reaching, orthodox yet liberal. For half a century he took an act- ive part in the affairs of the church and the county. His knowledge of the Bible and of the best literature of the day was remarkable. His memory was compre- hensive and accurate. He was a patriot. During the war of the rebellion his voice was often heard in favor ot union and liberty. He was the friend of the poor and unfortunate. But the end came. Life dropped the distaff quickly and the silver chord was loosed ; then as the light of the morning shone upon his stricken form, an angel escort conducted him into the light of the eternal day. Pioneer Association. 55 His funeral was largely- attended and was in charge of his pastor, Rev. A. Hopkins, who preached an appro- priate sermon, 2 Samuel 3 ; 38, " Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel. " The singing was led by Rev. Mr. Casey. Dr. P. P. Pope pronounced an eloquent eulogy, and the closing prayer by Dr. J. M. Avann. The following ministers were present: Revs. J. R. Colgan, J. H. Bethards, F. L. Wharton, D. H. Bailey, J. W. Donnan, T. J. Pope and O. Wagner. The preachers meeting of Toledo, Ohio, took action upon his death, appointing as a committee Dr. N. B. C. Love and Rev. J. W. Donnan, who reported as follows : " We recognize the fact that in the death of Rev. Mark Richardson the church has lost one of its ablest men, and the memory of him shall not perish. " Resolved, That an expression of the sympathy of the ministers of this association be extended to the be- reaved wife and children in this, their said bereavement. " Resolved, That this report. and action o( the asso- ciation be recorded in the minutes of the association. " The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 56 The Maumee Valley MEMORIAL OF ALFRED THURSTIN, OF BOWLING GREEN. Alfred Thurstin, Bowling Green's aged first settler, died at 8 o'clock on the morning of April 21st, 1897, ^^ the age of 91 years, after a residence of over 60 years on the land now occupied by the eastern half of the city It has been granted to but few men to witness the changes that came to Thurstin's vision through these long 63 years. In 1834 he entered the 80 acres now comprised within a portion of Bowling Green. In 1834 he built his cabin on the spot now occupied by the Sentinel building. He then returned to the East to get his bride. During the winter the two or three families living in this vicinity pre-empted the vacant cabin for the first school held in Bowling Green. In the spring Mr. Thurstin returned and' has ever since resided here, an honored citizen and a venerated pioneer. He was born April 20th, 1806, in Chenango County, New York, and was married February, 1834. Alfred Thurstin's pioneer life in Wood County was beset by all the difficulties and hardships which life in the wilderness usually presents. From early life he quietly, yet persistently proceeded to conquer all obstacles which hard work could conquer. No man possessed in greater degree, the virtue of patient persistence. He opened two farms in central Wood county, and except the help of his growing family, did it without aid. Whatever he has accumulated is the result of his conquest over nature's opposing forces. He belonged to a race of pioneers, long-lived, inde- Pioneer Association. 57 pendent, resourceful and above and beyond all, persistent. With him, display provoked contempt. He loved to live near to nature in an unostentatious, patient, honest man- ner. He has a record of a very protracted and useful life. January nth, 1888, he was married to Mrs. Martha S. Van Tassel, who survives him. 58 The Maumee Valley OF MRS. V. W. GRANGER. FROM THE SUNDAY JOURNAL, MAY 13TH, 1894. Wednesday, just as the sun had passed its zenith, and with the balm of soft spring air coming in at the win- dows, a long and weary illness terminated, and a life MRS. V. W. GRANGER. Pioneer Association. 59 which had been filled with love and affection and gentle- ness for all within its touch, came to an earthly end, when Mrs, V. W. Granger fell asleep. Born among the hills of Vermont four and sixty years ago, Emeline Frances Dodge wedded with her husband, who to-day mourns her departure, when nineteen, and the young couple set up their household at that early day in Toledo, where they have passed the nearly half century intervening. To them three children were born, one, Mrs. John B. Ketcham, 2d, passing on some years since, while two remain, Mrs. Rowland Starr and Mr. V, W. Granger, Jr. Quiet and unostentatious, Mrs. Granger held her friends close to her in the details of a pure and loving life. In church work she was always among the foremost while health remained, and Trinity knew no more faithful or conscientious communicant. Not given to self-advance- ment, but ever willing to yield her service in all good and helpful endeavors, she filled the measure of her life with kindly acts and tender, aidful deeds, and leaves behind a memory fragrant with all that makes life worth living, and which having lived, death has no terrors for those called away. Within the past year Mrs. Granger has suffered the attacks of an insidious disease, whose assaults all skill and wisdom and care of loving, devoted family and friends, could not withstand. Enduring a severe surgical opera- tion the past winter, it was fondly hoped that the inevitable for mortals might be postponed, and the devoted wife and mother spared yet for many goodly years. But her feeble strength was insufficient to withstand the ordeal, and her decline has since bee;n continuous, until she was involved in the common fate of her race. The obsequies were held at the family residence Friday, and then the wife and mother was laid away in Forest cemetery, mourned most by those who knew her. 60 The Maumee Valley ]vie:^]vioi^i.a.l OF LUTHER WHITMORE. Mr. Luther Whitmore, of East Toledo, died at his residence at seven o'clock on the evening of July 12th, 1897, after a long illness. He was one of the early mem- bers of our Association, and one ot the oldest residents on this river. His age, at his passing away was a little more than d>'j. Mr. Whitmore was born in Millbury, Mass., May 18, 1 8 10, and came to Wood County when he was but 15 years of age. He located at Waterville, and later moved to Perrysburg. In 1834 he purchased a tarm of 123 acres located in Wopd County. The Wood County line was changed, thus leaving 23 acres of his land in Lucas County. The line was changed in 1836, and he has re- sided in the same place since that date. He left five children : Mrs. Henry Wood, who re- sides in Michigan; Mrs. Robert Chamberlain, Elijah, Chester and Warren, all of whom reside in this city. His wite died several years ago. Deceased was a man of ambition and energy, and watched with interest the growth of the East Side since his residence there. In the early days he built a large dock on the river bank, and engaged in the lumber busi- ness. He was fond of relating his business experiences of the days of old, and was very proud of the advance of civilization. His counsel and advice was much sought after by the younger residents, and he commanded the largest respect from all. Our friend was well known to the old residents as a man of spotless character and a genial, pleasant disposi- Pioneer Association. 61 tion. He has not been an attendant on our meetings ot late years, and generally on account of failing health. He was buried from the Memorial Baptist Church oi which he had been an active member. 62 The Maumee Valley lVIBNIOFei.A.1^ HON. JNO. R.OSBORNE. On Monday, July 5, 1897, at the residence o\ his daughter, Mrs. B. E. Bullock, the Hon. John R. Osborne passed away, ripe in years and with a record for goodly deeds that will long survive his taking off. For a score of years, before bodily ailments compelled his retirement to a life of quiet, he had been prominent as a lawyer and an active participant in the work of advancing and upbuild- ing the interests of Toledo, He was ever earnest in the advocacy of a cause that commened itself to him. There survive him six children, as follows: Major Hartwell Os- borne, of Evanston, 111.; J. R. Osborne, of Buffalo; Mrs. J. L. Beach, of Brooklyn; Mrs. W. W. Ainsworth, Mrs. L. Cratts and Mrs. B. E. Bullock, of Toledo. Mr. Osborne was born in Columbus, O., April ist, 1813. He went to the Ohio University, at Athens, O., in 1827, and graduated therefrom in 183 [. He studied law in Cir- cleville and Columbus, and in the fall of 1832 went to Lex- ington, Ky., entering the law department of Transylvania University. Upon completing his course he settled at Norwalk and formed a law partnership with a gentleman named Parrish. He came to Toledo in October, 1837, ^0^ formed a partnership with Judge Myron Tilden, late of Cincinnati. Their first office was located on the corner of Lagrange and Superior streets, where now stands the residence of Dr. Samuel Thorn. In 1839 Mr. Osborne married Elizabeth Phinney Hart- well, of Circleville, following which he returned to Nor- Pioneer Association. 63 walk, and was treasurer of the Wabash railroad until 1858, when he came again to Toledo to resume the practice of law. He associated himself with General Wager Swayne, now ol New York, and upon General Swayne's removal Irom Toledo, entered into a partnership with his nephew, HON. JOHN R, OSBORNE. Mr. Alex. L.. Smith. His sight began to fail about four- teen years ago, which forced him to give up active work, but he continued in the harness. About seven years ago he was stricken with paralysis and retired from the scenes that had known him so long. He was earnest and ac- 64 ^ The Maumee Valley tive — so long as strength permitted — in the work of Christian advancement, both at home and abroad. He was one of the organizers of the Adams Street Mission and of Westminster Presbyterian church — of this latter he was an active member up to the time that his physical in- firmities debarred him. His services as elder and as a prominent attendant at all the stated meetings of his church are a sacred memory. He at times represented the Maumee Presbytery in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, in which he was always assigned and performed honored work — and his character as a Christian gentleman and a Christian worker in the city of Toledo was one of the noblest. His time, his talents and his money were always freely given in behalf of every good work, no matter whether under the auspices of his own well loved church or not. He was active in the orgfaniza- tion and was the first president of the Soldiers' Memorial Association of Toledo. He was an esteemed citizen, whose taking off will occasion a feeling of deep regret in the hearts of all who knew him and his works. To quote the words of Rev. S. G. Anderson, who conducted the funeral service : "No words of mine can pay the tribute the world owes the example left by this man. His life is an eulogy in itself, and nothing I could say would half express what such a life as this friend lived each day means to those who knew him. He left to us all a mem- ory never to be forgotten as the years go by, and a beau- tiful example of Christian character." Pioneer Association. 65 OF SAMUEL M. YOUNG, ESQ. Another of the comparatively early residents of the Valley has exchanged the earthly for the life (Eternal. Samuel M. Young, Esq., passed away on the first of Jan- uary, 1897, ^t the ripe age of 90 years. He was born at Lebanon, New Hampshire, December 29th, 1806. I have said above that he was a comparatively early pioneer, and that expression is used to denote the contrast between the immigrants hither from 181 5 to the period of the greatly increased population beginning about 1830. Mr. Young arrived at the shore of the Maumee river in 1834. He was ferried across to Miarr^i in the horse boat where he met Mr. Hubbell, who was then a hotel keeper in a brick residence on the bank of the river a lit- tle above Fort Miami. The result of that acquaintance was an engagement as school teacher, for his intellectual capabilities and preparation for the law represented all the capital of the youthful New Englander, Mr. Young's immigration to the West was one of thousands, and illus- trated a simple problem, that the young men of New Eng- land were increasing more rapidly, at that period, than could find profitable employment in the slow growth of its commerce and trafiic. No railways had been projected to develop resources, enhance values and increase the elements for popular support. The West is greatly in- debted to New England for great numbers of bright and capable young men like Mr. Young, who have stamped their home characteristics of enterprise, industry, economy and thrift upon their newly chosen vicinities. 66 The Maumee Valley But {e\w of these immigrants equaled the subject of this memoir in the equipments of intellectual and physical capability. His was a tall, athletic and manly form, with a mind far exceeding the average, and thoroughly trained by education and the study ot his profession. It was a bright and important accession to the population of his adopted city. He was soon chosen County Auditor at the organization of this county. At the same time he opened a law office where he began the practice of his profession. In 1838 Morrison R. Waite also came to Maumee, and after the study of law with Mr. Young, the firm of Young & Waite was organized, and at once the firm became one of the leading law firms on the river. In 1852 the firm opened an office in Toledo, as the county seat had been removed thence. In 1855 Mr. Young em- barked in the banking business in Toledo, and soon after retired from his law practice. In i860 he purchased the square between 13th and 14th streets, with its residence, to which he made important additions and where his life was closed. Our friend was largely identified with the organiza- tion of the Cleveland & Toledo and the Columbus & Toledo Railways. In connection with Mr. A. L, Backus he built a large grain elevator and was connected with the grain commission business for years. He was associated with others in the building of the Boody House hotel, and was the president of the company. He had large and important interests in the Toledo Gas Company and was its president for years. During most of this period and until a few years before his death he continued the bank- ing business here. The grasp of his mind was illustrated by his ordaining success in all these enterprises. Under the outward signs of a quiet und unostentatious manner our friend developed capacities of mind of the highest rank. A long life like that of Mr. Young in one community Pioneer Association. 67 leaves upon it an index and impression of character. It is a source of satisfaction to recall some of these elements developed by him. He was a reticent but thoughtful man, and capable of originating and studying out his own plans of life. His patience and charity for those with whom he differed was a marked trait. While endowed with the New England habit of investigating the charities that ap- pealed to him, his gifts to them and the church were gen- erous. No meanness characterized him. He was a noble and worthy son of an eminent and influential New Hamp- shire family. Of late years he had retired from the ac- tivity which had signalized his life on the river, and while the world's affairs move on uninterruptedly without him, great numbers who knew and marked well his life and worth are now sorrowing at his passing away. 68 The Maumee Valley OF MRS. ANCELINE N. YOUNG. Mrs. Young came to Maumee as a child in 1825 and grew up there to womanhood. She was married at an early age to Samuel M. Young, Esq., a young attorney ot that village, who had immigrated there Irom Nev»^ Hamp- shire. The family resided at Maumee until i860 when they removed to Toledo, and into the residence where her earthly life was ended. She was the mother of six child- ren, but the discipline of great sorrow was hers in the loss of four of them, two in early life and two in a matured and splendid manhood, and again in the death of her husband, with whom she had lived nearly 56 years. For a long period Mrs. Young has been a social leader in Toledo, and her gracious and cordial hospitality was a charm to all who were privileged to participate in it. Her influence was of a quiet nature but was always ranged on the side of what was purest and best in our social and religious life, and the close of her career is a distinct and positive loss. How well and faithfully and lovingly she has ful- filled the duties of wife, mother and devoted Christian. Mrs. Young passed away on the 8th of June, 1897, ^ little more than five months alter the death of her hus- band. One by one the early residents are removed from our earthly sight. The ranks have been largely depleted in the present year. Pioneer Association. 69 ]VLBN10Fei.A.L^ OF DUDLEY C. SALTONSTALL. Dudley G. Saltonstall died at his residence, 809 Washington street, Toledo, at 4 o'clock Monday morn- ing, August 9, 1897. The cause of death was old age. DUDLEY G. SALTONSTALL. Mr. Saltonstall was born in Philadelphia 89 years ago, but, at an early age, went to Litchfield, Conn. He 70 The Maumee Valley came as far west as Cleveland with T. P. Handy, a banker, and in '42 moved to this city, where he engaged in the grain business. He built the first elevator in Toledo, and owned one of the first line of canal boats, as a member of the firm of E. Haskell & Co. Mr. Saltonstall was the father of Victor Saltonstall, who was accidentally drowned a lew weeks ago while on his way to Put-in-Bay. The surviving children are Dud- ley E., Gurdon Winthrop, William Herbert and Richard. The funeral occurred Wednesday, August 11, at 2 o'clock, from the Church of Our Father, Rev. A. G. Jennings offi- ciating. Toledo business men keenly felt the loss of Mr. Sal- tonstall. He was closely identified with the commercial life of Toledo for over half a century. In the 50s he was a member of the dry goods firm of William Bowles & Co., remaining with them until 1871, when he and O. S. Bond established the Merchants and Clerks' Savings Bank. He continued with the bank for twenty years, and Mr. O. S. Bond, who was intimately associated with him, pays the deceased a high tribute for his sterling integrity, upright life and conscientious business methods. Mr. Saltonstall was an example of the rare truth that one may live beyond the allotted span, but need never grow old. His hair was white a score of years ago; his step grew feeble in these later days, but the one trait of his personality that was prominent was the perennial youthfulness of his heart. Pioneer Association. 71 MEMORIAL OF DAVID S. WILDER. David S. Wilder was born in 1813 in Winchendon, Worcester County, Mass., and was the son of Abel Wil- der, M. D., and Fanny Richardson, his wife, both ot Wor- DAVID S. WILDER. cester County. He married Chloe H, Verry, of the same 72 The Maumee Valley County, in March, 1837, and their golden wedding eleven years ago was an event very pleasantly remembered by their large circle of friends both at home and abroad. Dr. Wilder, his father, was a prominent man in his day — a staunch Abolitionist when such men were in a small mi- nority and needed all the courage of their convictions — an associate of Garrison and Phillips and a whole-souled phil- anthropist. His eldest son, David, inherited many of his sterling qualities. Whole-souled and liberal and interested in the early growth of Toledo, he has helped by his efforts and with his means to make our city what it is to-day. He came to Toledo in June, 1851, and was an active business man for many years, retiring from business more than twenty years ago, but has kept an interest in all pub- lic affairs, and with his wonderful memory and his clear, well stored mind, has been one of the tew left to this gen- eration who could recall the early history of this century, so wonderful in its progress and development. Pioneer Association. 73 ]MB]V10Fei.A.L CHLOE HOLBROOK VERRY WILDER. Chloe Holbrook Verry Wilder was born in March, 1816, in Mendon, (now Blackstone) Worcester County, Mass. CHLOE HOLBROOK VERRY WILDER. Her parents, Foster Verry and Rachael Holbrook, 74 The Maumee Valley belonged to old and staunch New England families, whose descendants have helped to make our glorious state of Ohio one of the foremost in the Union in everything re- lating to the progress and elevation of mankind. A de- voted member oi Trinity church in its early history, promi- nently identified with all its charities and its social life, and unselfish in her devotion to everything that could promote the happiness of her family and the welfare of those who looked to her for assistance — the few old friends who are now left will recognize that this is but a feeble tribute to her sterling character and helpful life. Calm and unselfish when the hand of affliction has been laid heavily upon her — a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and now a great-grandmother — her love goes out to all with the same unselfishness, and all those bound to her by the ties of blood or friendship feel that her life is an example and an inspiration. In the calm enjoyment ot their more than four score years, she and her worthy husband, surrounded by " Ev- erything that should accompany old age, " a connecting link between " the world that hardly seems our own " to-day, so wonderful have bee:n its changes, and a re- minder that a life spent in the fulfillment of life's duties brings a blessing to all and influence for all time. Pioneer Association. 75 OF HON. S. C. CATELY. Since our last annual meeting at Antwerp, one of our oldest and most worthy members has been called to his final rest. Judge Socrates C. Cately was born in the town of New Haven, in Oswego County, N. Y., about 80 years ago. His father was a very poor man, with a large fam- ily of children, and young Socrates was " bound out " when about 12 years old to a Col. Heust, a fore handed farmer for those times, till he would be 21 years of age. He was a faithful and trusty boy, and a change in his wearing apparel was plainly seen soon after he entered upon his apprenticeship with his new master. He worked his time out with Col. Heust, and in 1836 came into the Maumee Valley, where he has since lived, near or quite 58 years. He followed teaming till the Wabash canal was completed, when he followed canal-boating for sev- eral seasons. He was prudent, industrious and economi- cal, and in a tew years had money to, and he did, buy a tract of wild land in Fulton county. Over 50 years ago he married a Miss Nearing, whose father at one time lived in Texas, Henry county. Soon after his marriage he set- tled on his land, near Delta, and made a notable farm of it. Mr. Cately was the first probate judge of Fulton county, I believe, and held ihe office one term only, as the political sentiment of the people was on the wrong side for his re-election. Something over a year ago he celebrated his golden wedding. He died a few months ago, leaving a widow and children. He was an honored and worthy man and re- spected by all who knew him. 76 The Maumee Valley MEMORIAL OF CAPT. W. H. WETMORE. Capt. W. H, Wetmore was born in Lewis county, in the state of New York, in 1819. He was the son of Ste- phen and Hannah Wetmore. Lewis county is situated in the northeast portion of the state of New York, in a cold, snowy region, and enterprising young men there would naturally feel in- clined when they arrived at their majority to seek more congenial climes. Our departed friend and brother did not wait till he was twenty-one, but at the age of eight€;en years he left his native heath for the west, as Ohio was thought to be in those days — 56 years ago. Capt. Wetmore for a number of seasons, so he told me, was the master of and sailed a vessel on Lake Erie, and in that way raised the means to buy him a home in Wood county, where he was a prominent, respected and very popular citizen lor 56 years. He was an honest, up- right, prudent, thrifty, social and an uncommonly active man, with an extensive acquaintance and well liked wherever known. He came to Wood county in 1837, and in 1842 pur- chased his farm of John Corvvin. In 1879 he was elected a representative to the Gen- eral Assembly of this state from Wood county, and re- elected in 1 88 1. During these two terms — the 64th and 65th — he was diligent and watchful of the interests of his constituents, and understood their wants, was untiring to secure them, and did good service. He was one of the Pioneer Association. 77 best representatives Wood county ever had in the Ohio Legislature — an honest worker for her good. In 1883 he retired to his (arm, with the intention to lead a quiet hfe for the remainder of his days, but in 1889 his persistent and many friends induced him to be a can- didate for state senator, with WiUiam Guyser as his col- league. They were both defeated by John Ryan, of Lu- cas county, and W. W. Sutton, of Putnam, by small ma- jorities. Capt. Wetmore's wife died a number of years ago, leaving three children, Mrs. T. B. Oblinger, of Toledo ; Mrs. A. A, Cobley, of Haskins, and James R. Wetmore, oi Toledo, all ot whom are living. Capt. Wetmore be- longed to Pheonix Lodge, F. and A. M., of Perrysburg, and was a valued member thereof. I have not the date of his death, as the notice sent me had no date, but it says " Capt. W. H. Wetmore died suddenly yesterday afternoon at his home, about one mile east of Haskins, in Middleton township. Death is sup- posed to have resulted from heart trouble. He had been in about his usual health up to the time of his demise. Some of the family heard him make an unusual noise, and on going to him found him unconscious, and he im- mediately expired. Since his wife's death he has made it his home with A. A. Cobley, his son-in-law, where he died. In the death of Capt. Wetmore Wood county has met with an irrepar- able loss and Maumee Valley Pioneer Association with one of its most genial and worthy members. I hope this, as well as future obituary notices of de- ceased members, will be published in ail newspapers ot this valley. 78 The Maumee Valley ]VIE>]VIOFei.f^I^ OF ISAAC KARSNER. Isaac Karsner, a pioneer of the Maumee Valley and a member of this Association, died at Florida, Henry County, November i, 1891. He was born February 10, 1821, in Harrison county, Va, and in 1830, when Isaac was nine yeas old, he came to Ohio with his father, who settled on a farm in Columbiana county. In 1840 the de- cedent came to Henry county and located at Florida, where he resided continuously up to the time of his death; and forever fifty-one years he was one of the leading and prominent men of that village. He came to Henry county a poor boy, when it was a vast wilderness, had his trials, tribulations, disappointments and struggles incident to a new country, heavily timbered as this was. But by his energy, "good common sense, firmness and perseverence,he succeeded in life far above the average pioneer. His early life was spent in hard labor. Some thirty years or more ago he practiced medicine. After this he embarked in the mercantile trade, and lor several years carried the largest and best stock of goods in Florida, till he sold out, built himself a splendid residence on his large farm of over 200 acres at Florida, moved into it, and therein resided at the time of his death. Mr. Karsner was three times mar- ried. In the death of Isaac Karsner Henry county has lost a good citizen and the Maumee Valley Pioneer As- sociation a valued member. Pioneer Association. 79 MEMORIAL OF CHARLES HORNING. Charles , Horning was born in Bavaria, Germany, about 72 years ago, and died in the spring of 1894. He came to Henry county with his father in the year 1837, and settled in Pleasant township, on the land where he recently died. When Charles Horning came to Henry county, 57 years ago, there were few neighbors, less com- forts and conveniences of life and no well improved farms in Henry county. He settled in a dense torest, but lived to see the change in his township irom an almost track- less wilderness to richly cultivated fields, owned by thrifty and prosperous farmers. Mr, Horning was an active, good, safe business man, and tor many years was engaged in merchandizing and " tavern keeping, " and he accumulated a large property. I have not been furnished with a sketch of his life, and do not know when, where or whom he married or the num- ber of children he left. He has a son who for many years has been a professor ot Heidelburg College, at Tiffin; Ja- cob Horning, a manufacturer and farmer; John H. Horn- ing, a merchant, and Peter Horning, a business man at New Bavaria, where he was born.. There were also sev- eral girls, but how many I am not advised. He lelt his entire estate to his worthy widow, who survives him. Charles Horning was one of the Henry county commissioners 43 years ago, and has held the same office within the last 20 years. He was postmaster for 39 years, for many years a justice of the peace of his township, and has held various other offices of trust, and in all of them discharged the duties thereof with an intel- 80 The Maumee Valley ligent fidelity and the entire satisfaction of the people whom he served. He was also a land surveyor, and was well acquaint- ed with nearly every tract of land in his county. In an early day he was frequently called upon by strangers who wished to purchase, and went with them into the dark and dense forest to show them lands in the market. Every one who put up at his "tavern,". as we used to call it, was well and hospitably treated. Mr. Horning was a man of commanding influence in his community, and lived long enough to see his sons grow up to be honorable and prosperous men, and his death leaves a missing link in business circles not easily filled. Pioneer Association. 81 CAPT. CHARLES A. ROWSEY. Capt, Charles A. Rowsey, a well-known pioneer resi- dent of Toledo celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday on Fri- day, August loth. Capt. Rowsey settled in Toledo when he was in his young manhood — being 2)7 years of age — that was in 1852. His birthplace is located in the celebrated Shenandoah Valley, at Staunton, Augusta County. In 1862 he responded to his country's call for defenders and was largely instrumental in raising and or- ganizing Co. D, ot the 67th O. V. I., and entered the field as captain of that company, and took part in the battle of Winchester, Va., March 23rd, 1862, and in the valley campaign of that year. No one of the citizens of Toledo holds a higher place in the esteem of their neighbors for honest worth and sturdy manhood than does Capt. Rowsey. Of him it can be truly said that his word is as good as his bond. Mrs. Rowsey, to whom he was married in 1838, died in 1889. One year previous to her death, with her hus- band she celebrated their golden wedding. Two sons, both deceased, and seven daughters have blessed their union. One of the sons was the well-known and well-be- loved physician, W. F. Rowsey, whose skill in healing was so generously exercised among the needy poor, and was sought by a very large body of the more favored citizens. Capt. Rowsey^s declining clays are crowded with memories of the most blessed character, and his face and bearing reflects the source and cause of most of them. 82 The Maumee Valley FIRST MAYOR OF WATERVILLE. J. E. Hall, one of the old and respected residents of Waterville, Lucas County, where he has made his home for over three score years. For a quarter of a century ot J. E. HALL. this time he conducted a tailoring establishment, after which for twenty years he was engaged in general mer- chandising, In i860 he erected a two-story building on the canal, where he carried on his trade. For one year he served as Mayor ol Waterville, when he first came to Pioneer Association. 83 the place, and under Pierce's administration was appoint- ed Postmaster, and served as such for twenty-one years. He has also been Township Clerk and Member of School Board, Our subject is a native of Portage County, Ohio, having been born April i8th, 1816. His Parents were Joel and Betsy (Smith) Hall. His father was born in Tolland, Mass., and died in 1828, aged 52 years. His early days were spent on a tarm in his native state, but in 181 5 he emigrated to Ohio, settling in Charlestown, Port- age County, having, in partnership with his brother, traded his Massachusetts land for property in the Buckeye State. Twelve children were born to Joel and Betsy Hall, but of the number two are living. In order of birth they are as follows: Clareson, Smith, Lucindai Judson, Min- erva, Joel, Pamelia, Chauncey, Edwin, Joseph E., Julia, wife of H. A. Moulton, of Vermont ; and Hewell C, late of Whitehouse. Joseph E , and his sister Julia are the only survivors of the family. Our subject spent his early days in farming during the summer season, and attended the district schools of the neighborhood in the winter terms until he reached his 13th year. Going then to Ashtabula, Ohio, he began serving an apprenticeship at the tailor's trade, and gave his time thereto for the next five years. In 1836 he came to Lucas County, and opened a tailor shop at Waterville. About 1880 he sold out his business interests, and has since passed his time quietly in his pleasant home, which has sheltered him for many years. He has held the office of Treasurer of our Association for many years. He has been a Republican since the breaking out of the civil war. Religiously, he has long been identified with, and a lib- eral contributer to the Methodist Episcopal Church for over 40 years. The lady who has for over 50 years shared the joys and sorrows of Mr. Hall's career was be- 84 The Maumee Valley fore her marriage Miss Jane Dee, a daughter of James and Abagail (Bogue) Dee. The ceremony which united the lives of our subject and wile was performed Septem- ber 1 2th, 1837. They had born to them two daughters, Pamelia C, August 13th, 1841, and Temperance L., June 27th, 1850. The elder daughter became the wife of J. L. Pray, and died April 4th, 1881, leaving three children. The younger daughter is still living with her father. Mrs. Hall departed this life September 17th, 1889, deeply mourned by the family and the friends she had made dur- ing a long and unselfish life. Mr. Hall's activity is somewhat impaired, but he is still looking after his business which he has narrowed to an easy and concise management. M. D. P. Pioneer Association. 85 PHILLIP BOYER. Phillip Boyer was born in Greencastle, Franklin County, Pa., in 1815, came to Tuscarawas County, Ohio, in 1835, his trade being" that of a miller. He remained there three years and went to Zanesville, and after follow- ing his trade for a short time went to Akron. In 1846 he came to Toledo, and from there he removed to Waterville in 185 I and took charge of the Pekin Mills, which were owned by L. L. Morehouse, where he has spent the greater portion ot his active life. The mills have changed hands a number of times, Mr. Boyer being always trans- ferred with the property, and it may be said to his credit that much of the high reputation borne by the Pekin Mills can very properly be ascribed to his efficient work. He has retired from active business and enjoys the fruits of a well spent life. The Maumee Valley JOHN G. ISHAM. John G. Isham was born in Schoharil County, New York, December 9th, 18 15, came to Toledo in 1837 ^^^ after visiting several surrounding towns, among them be- ing Ft. Wayne and Monroe, he engaged in th(! dry goods business at the latter place with J. C. Miller, and soon after disposed of his stock and joined the engineer corps of the Michigan Southern Railroad. In February, 1840, he came to Waterville where he met McCagie Barker, an old acquaintance from the then far East, who had the contract for completing Section 29 ol the Miami and Erie canal. This section lay between the Hutchinson larm and Maumee. Mr. Isham became foreman. From this on he became identified with the canal interest, holding many positions of trust, the last be- ing that of Superintendant of the Northern Division of the Miami and Erie canal. Pioneer Association. 87 LIEUTENANT O. G, BALLOU. Orson Gilbert Ballou was born in Waterville, Ohio, September 15th, 1835. His boyhood was spent upon the farm. In July, 1862, he enhsted in the service of his country becoming a mem- ber ot Co. F, looth Regt., O.'jV. I., and soon aiter was made a Heutenant. On September 8th of 1863 a part of the regi- ment was sent to Limestone Station where he was cap- tured by the confederates and hurriedly sent to Richmond, Va., and was placed in Libby Prison. He died the 6th of February, 1864, from exposure and starvation. His is one of the many cases of unwritten history of the horrors of Southern military prisons. The Maumee Valley SARAH HALL. Sarah Hall was born in Coxsakie, Green County, New York, August 22nd, 181 7 ; removed with her parents to Waterville in the fall of 1836, where she has since resided. She was never married, but has given her services to the relief of suffering humanity for miles around. The cognomen, " Aunt Sarah, " by which she is familiarly called, is a household phrase, and while the infirmities in- cident to old age are struggling for the mastery, still Aunt Sarah's noble deeds are not forgotten. Pioneer Association. 89 JOHN A. CONWAY. The Association is very much pleased to present in this issue the genial and well-known features of a Mau- mee Valley pioneer octogenarian in the person of Mr. JOHN A. CONWAY. John A. Conway, who was born at Poughkeepsie, New York, December 25th, 1816. This will make him 82 90 The Maumee Valley years oi age the 25th of December next. His father, John Conway, came to this country trom Ireland and set- tled near Utica, N. Y., in 181 2 and establis?ied the first woollen factory in that section. He died in 1824 when the subject of this sketch was but eight years of age. Young Conway came to Ohio in 1837 and was engaged in the carriage business for a time at both Dayton and Columbus. He came to Toledo in i860 and established himself in the carriage manufacturing business in a build- ing which stood on Summit street where the Meilink Fur- niture Co's store is now located. In 1864 he went into the restaurant business and in the manufacture ot tonics. He has been twice married — first to Miss Judith Wil- liams in 1849 — she died in 1873. His second wife was Harriet Dowd, of Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Conway live a quiet life respected and loved by all who know them. They have no children. Mr. Conway is a devoted Odd Fellow and has been a member of Columbus Lodge No. 9, ot Columbus, Ohio, since 1849. He is also a member of Columbus Encampment No, 6. " May he live long and prosper " is the wish of his many friends. Pioneer Association. 91 MRS. MARY ANN BONNY WHITE. Mrs, Mary Ann Bonny White was born at Palermo, Waldo County, Mass., September 22nd, 1805. Her father's name was Andrew Bonny and her mother's name was Mary Balcom. Mary Ann Bonny was married to Joseph White in Palermo, now a part of Maine, in 1822. They moved to Ohio in 1842, settled in Richland County in the Fall of the same year, and at a cost of $101 they moved to Lucas County ; arrived at Maumee October ist, Sunday, moved to the neighborhood in which they now live and moved in with Mr. Dyer. Mr. White's father was a soldier in the war of the Revo- lution and defended the flag at the battle of Bunker Hill. Joseph served in the war of 181 2 in Capt. Moses Bur- leigh Company and Lt. Col. John Cummings' Regiment raised at Palermo and served at Belfast, Maine. Joseph and Mary Ann White had one son and six daughters. The son, Andrew, went to sea and was not heard from afterwards. The daughters Nancy (Knapp), Milley, Mary Ann (Colburn), Olive (Cox), Elvira, Francis (Russel). Mary Bonny White belonged to Calvinist Baptist Church in Maine, there being no church of her choice in Ohio she had no membership here. Mr. White was a brick mason by trade. He cleared the farm and brought it to its present state of cultivation where Mrs. Bonny White now resides. 92 The Maumee Valley MRS. MARY ANN KEELER. Mary Ann (Demuth) Keeler was born in the year 1816, May I St in the Mohawk Valley in the state of New York, about 2)'^ miles from Albany on a farm. Her father, Ranatus Demuth was born in Pennsyl- vania, and was a cabinet maker by occupation. He was a member of the New York militia, and defended the United States flag at Sackett's Harbor against the British. They moved from the Mohawk Valley to Lockport. There she married Mr. David Keeler January ist, 1836 from whence they moved to Richland County, Ohio, where ten children were born to them. About 50 years ago they moved trom Richland County to Providence Township, Lucas County, where Mr. Keeler followed farming and threshing. He died in 1870. There are two sons and five daughters now living. Her son, Samuel, died November 7th, 1862, at Jackson, Tenn,, of disease, and was buried at Chattanooga. Mrs. Keeler has been a resident of Whitehouse for about 18 years, and is enjoying good health at the age of 82. Pioneer Association. 93 ADAM BLACK. Among the actual surviving pioneers of the Maumee Valley we are pleased to refer to Mr. Adam Black, of Monclova, Lucas County. He was born April 23rd, 18 1 1, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. He came with his parents, William and Anna (Bails) Black to Wayne County in 1826. Mr, William Black, his lather, was a soldier and served with Gen. Wm. H. Harrison at Fort Meigs. He died at the age of 52 and was buried in Holmes County. Mr. Adam Black came to Lucas Coun- ty in 1827 and late:r settled on the land now comprising his homestead, on which he has lived since 1836. He married Miss Anna Bails in Monclova May 26th, 1836, and has raised a family ot nine children— six sons and three daughters — Catherine, Sarah, John, William, James, Madison, Emanuel. Died in infancy: George B., Adam M. and Lydia A. Mr. Black has been diligent and useful in his neigh- borhood, has helped to subdue a wild country, and, like so many others, has made a beautiful homestead out of the natural forest. He has held positions of trust and responsibility — has served his neighbors as well as his family, and is enjoying the peace of a well spent life. He has usually voted the democratic ticket, and his church associations are with the Disciples. He is enjoying ex- cellent health at the age of dty. 94 The Maumee Valley LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS IN THE MAUMEE VALLEY. BY JOHN COWDRICK, OF NAPOLEON. About April ist, 1831, my father, Joseph Cowdrick, and wife with four children, of which I was the oldest, left Cedar Creek, Ocean County, New Jersey, for the Maumee, then the far west. With their household effects loaded onto a two horse covered wagon, traveling as was the custom then, bunking on the floor at the taverns along the road, doing our own cooking, etc. The journey oc- cupied about one month's time. We emerged from the Black Swamp, landing at Perrysburg, May 5th, 1831. The appearance was most beautiful. We crossed the Maumee over to Maumee City and proceeded down the river to Presque Isle and got permission to stay a short time with an old man by the name of Parsons, who was^ living alone. The streets of Maumee seemed alive with Indians, in every conceivable style of attire, some extreme- ly gay and rich, others just the opposite. The flats along the river were dotted with fish shanties, the fishermen spreading their seines to dry; the piles of undressed fish shining in the sun on one hand, and the young corn with background of forest on the other, formed a scene on that beautiful May morning that was very picturesque, if not enchanting, and which made a lasting impression on the memory. In a short time we moved up to Waterville where my father worked at wagon making with Mr. Eberly, who is now living at Portage, Wood County, this State. About three years since at a meeting of the pioneers at the Fallen Timbers battle ground, a man said that he rode a horse through the river along in the thirties and Pioneer Association. 95 that the: fish were so numerous in these ripples that his horse stepped on and killed many, the fish being so crowded in the shallow water that they could not get away. This was referred to a few days later in Napoleon as a capital fish story. Another citizen present, well known, averred that along about 1840 he was a passenger on a side wheel steamer, and that near the mouth of the river she encountered a school of fish so thick as to stop the action of the paddle wheels, and the steamer could not move until the fish had scattered. The gentleman no doubt is ready to verify it if called to do so. The Indians were quite an interesting study for the " new comer," and an important factor in the fur trade. The Ottawas had a village about ten miles up the river from Maumee City on their twelve miles square reserva- tion, where they staid in the summer and early fall, rais- ing corn and drying sufficient for their winter's hunting expedition. With fishing, selling baskets, berries and honey to the white settlers, some on the trail to and from Maumee, they all seemed to be full of business. They would always, either going or returning, stop at Turkeyfoot Rock on what is known as Wayne's Battle Ground, and offer their homage to the Indian Chief Turkeyfoot, who was shot in the battle with Mad Anthony 'Wayne, and expired while leaning on this rock cheering his braves to the last. They would put whiskey and to- bacco around the rock, and cry the most freely when the most drunken. When at their villages during the summer the In- dians would bring to trade with the whites, huckleberries, strawberries, plums, apples, honey, baskets (of small size) painted in gay colors, of their own make from roots and bark, done by the squaws, whose ingenuity was won- derful, especially so in the making of moccasins trimmed with braided porcupine quills. The berries were carried in a mocock made of bark shaped like a handbox, holding 96 The Maumee Valley nearly a half bushel, two ol these, one on either side of the pony, the squaw on her pack saddle (astride) with her papoose tied with its back to a board, pinioned fast on her own back, while the motion of the pony gave the child a perpendicular " jig-it-a-jig," which was amusing. The mother would stand the papoose board against the side ot a house or room while trading, seeming not concerned about the baby, who seldom cried or laughed. They were pretty little things, and as Mrs. Parthington would say " Humane Beings." The Indians would often bring to sell a pair of venison hams, lying across his pony, not caring that his bare thighs were in contact with the meat; the trader would take them all the same. The Indians would quickly discover a stranger, and when meeting one would ride up squarely before him and say in broken tongue, " where you go?" mention name of any place ahead of you, and they would let you go on your way, perhaps to meet with the same kind of annoyance again. They usually carried in their belt tomahawk and knife. They always traveled single file, one after another, and the trails about the villages were worn down deep along the hillsides, one-half or two feet in depth. When leaving a temporary camp they would leave some dried meat and parched corn for a hungry Indian when one or more came that way, which would show that they had had good luck in hunting while there. The Indians would walk right in among the goods when trading, and the trader must not object or they would be Scottish (mad). They would not steal unless very hungry, and then would take no more than they would eat at the time. When coming into a house in cold weather they would turn their feet away from the fire so as not to warm their moccasins, as they would keep them cold or frozen, or they would have wet feet. When the Indian became hungry he would tighten his belt, if more hungry, would button up another hole. Sometimes he would become very slim. Pioneer Association. 97 When after deer they would by this means with little to eat run all day. They did not hunt much on horse- back ; they hampered their ponies by tying the fore legs together with a bark braided rope, leaving a space be- tween so they could stand easily, and they would hop about with ease and were in no danger of becoming entangled. About the first of October the Indians would leave their villap'es along- the river for the huntings grrounds — the great unbroken forest westward along the banks of the Turkeyfoots, and now comprising the greatest part of Henry and Fulton Counties. They took nothing along for horse feed, as the ponies could well subsist on the rich grass growing in the swales ; as tor the Indians them- selves, the dried corn was their bread and the wild game their meat. In the spring the Indians would come from their hunting grounds to their sugar camps along the river and creeks. Here they would make maple sugar, using bark peeled from the trees for troughs ; they would also con- struct some very beautiful canoes from the same kind of material, each family occupying one canoe when traveling. In the larger boats cargoes of fur and sugar were taken as far north as Detroit, where they found a ready market. Indian syrup was supposed to be well cleansed, as they boiled their game in the sap, and small bones were fre- quently found in the sugar. At one time a land-seeker at a tavern while at the table removed the skull of a chip- munk from the sugar bowl with his spoon. In the spring- time these fleets of bark canoes would run the rapids safe- ly with their rich cargoes and happy occupants, returning to their villages about the different rapids with their apple trees (these trees were supposed to have been planted by Johnnie Appleseed, as well as the groves of wild plum), the season of fish and berries, and honey and basket-mak- 98 The Maumee Valley ing, for barter with the whites. With the Indian the ap- ple was considered marketable as soon as the seeds were formed. Spring- and summer were the times of iestivities with the Tawas. Their dances were to them great events. On these occasions some of their fleetest ponies were used to go to Maumee for whiskey, and if the case was very ur- gent two Indians would occupy one pony, one to navigate the horse, the other to carry the skins containing the whis- key. The animals were urged through the ten miles and return at a rate of speed which proved them to have both speed and endurance. At this time the Indians, all mem- bers of the several families, including dogs, went about the ist of June of each year to Maiden, Canada, and received an annuity or pension, granted them as allies ot the Cana- dians in the war of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, consisting of camp equipments, guns, blank- ets and silver trinkets of various kinds. One thing among these, very conspicious, was a plug hat with many silver bands around it ; this was worn exclusively by the aristo- cratic squaws. One never saw an Indian with a plug hat on. The Indians were generally friendly to the whites, but sometimes troublesome when drunk. Have heard an old squaw boast of having carried fagots to burn General Crawford. But if you would talk to them of Mad An- thony Wayne, they would at once become serious and peaceable, for they feared he would rise from the dead and punish them. In this summer of 1831, at Waterville, an Indian tried to get into the house to kill my mother. Wil- liam Pray helped to hold the door, the Indian meanwhile stabbing it with his long knife. My lather came to the rescue. The Indian thought my father had whipped and abused him previous to this, but when the Indian chief ex- plained to him that he was mistaken, that another man had whipped him and not my father, he was all right, and Pioneer Association. 99 afterwards came to our cabin in the woods, where he got some food and slept by the fire until morning, with a knif(i and tomahawk by him, and showed no inclination to do harm. Generally when there was trouble with the Indian the white man was equally to blame. It was the custom with the Indians before leaving the village to go to Maumee, or Acabaugwak (Ft. Meigs), to appoint one of their number to remain sober until their re- turn, as they anticipated a high time. On this occasion the lot fell upon a young squaw. Upon their return homeward they (a dozen or more) stopped under a shade tree near Waterville to have a pow- wow and more whiskey. Other boys and myself followed up for sightseeing, and soon discovered that they were mad and showed signs of fight. The young Indian wo- man, being the only sober one among them, quickly twitched the knife from the belt of each Indian and put them in her blanket or bosom; they soon grasped for their knives, but found them not. They seemed greatly en- raged, but made no attempt to attack the squaw, who stood with arms folded, faithful to the trust reposed in her. They soon calmed down and moved on toward the village. In the fall the newcomers, as they called us, began to shake every day, every alternate day and sometimes every third day, the latter being the worst form of ague and the hardest to break. Not one of the family was able to help the other to a drink of water. The two physicians, White and Conot, could not visit their patients very olten, their territory extending over such a broad area. It seemed little use to take calomel or quinine while the atmosphere was full of malaria, the rank vegetation almost checking the flow of low water in the river. The diet of the sick too often consisted of fish and corn-bread, drinking spring or river water with the wrigglers strained out — oh, the suffer- ing, from want of suitable nourishment! — no lemons, no 100 The Maumee Valley fruit. One old man declared that he shook so with ague that he grasped the rungs of the chair, and, holding up his feet, the chair would hop all over the room with him. But it was soon too serious a matter to joke over. My mother baked bread from flour brought from Monroe, Mich., and carried a loaf four miles to Mr. Hedge's fam- ily. (They afterwards lived in the stone house on Wolf Rapids, now erroneously called by some the Old Mission Building.) The family were all sick, and needed proper nourishment more than medicine. It cost 25 cents post- age on a letter, and if the postage was not prepaid it was often difficult to raise the amount. A man now well known in Napoleon (John Wilson), who came here later on, was compelled to leave a letter in the office a long time for want of 45 cents to pay postage — and the letter was from home, in the old country. Pioneer Association. 101 WM. HENRY SHEPHERD. Wm. Henry Shepherd (every one calls him "Harry" Shepherd) is past 85 years old. Born February nth, 1813 in Marietta, Ohio. His father, Daniel Shepherd, came from New Eng- land. His mother. Comfort Webb Shepherd was born in Clarksburg, Va. He is one of a family of 14 children, eight of whom lived to be very old. Matilda died at the age of 87, Elizabeth at 88, Martin at 89, Nutter at y/, Daniel at 84, Stephen at 72 and Syl- vester at 66. All these were buried in Henry County, near Grand Rapids, Ohio. Harry is the only one of the family living. The other brothers and sister died at various places and ages. W. H. Shepherd, our subject, was married at Mar- ietta, O., March 25th, 1835, to Ellen Conner. To them were born five children while living in Athens County. He came to Wood County with his family in 1854. His daughters, Cynthia and Katherine are still living at home with their father. His sons, who were the support of the parents, never returned from the war of the rebellion. Ben was in the 68th O. V. I., and was killed in battle. Dan and Ed were in the looth O. V. I. Dan took sick and died at Knoxville, and Ed was killed by very poor grub at Andersonville. Mr. Shep- herd draws a "dependent pension" to support him in his old days. His eyesight is failing and he is beginning to show his age. He always was a Whig and Republican and voted for W. H. Harrison and for his grandson, Ben Harrison. 102 The Maumee Valley JAMES WHELAND. James Wheland is 80 years old. Born in Oxford Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, on the bank of the Tuscarawas river. He had five brothers and five sis- ters. He is the fourth one of the family of 11 and only two of his brothers are now living-, both in Tuscar- awas County, where they were born, and both younger than himself. On February 24th, 1842, Mr. Wheland married Miss Mary Stocker. They have four children, all living. Sophia Sheffield, born May, 1844; Benjamin, born 1847; Joseph B., born December 12th, 1850; and Elizabeth Bortle, born July 31st, 1854, all living at Grand Rapids, Ohio. He never lost any of his family. He has five grand- children and three great-grandchildren. He tells many stories of wolves, deer and almost unbroken forest as he first remembers Tuscarawas County. Plows with wood mouidboards and flails have improved into the steel riding plow and the seperators and clover hullers. He saw the first boat ever run on the Ohio canal, they called it " Hen- ry Clay." He also saw them build the Pan Handle railroad. Mr. Wheland takes great interest in all the new im- provements and developments. He has never been out of the great state of Ohio and perhaps will remain here until he is called away to "that beautiful land. " He enjoys good health for his age and is good com- pany. He lives two miles south of Grand Rapids and is very highly respected by all who know him. He has al- ways voted Democratic and has been a member of the United Brethren church for many years. " Pioneer Association. 10." NEARLY A NONOGENARIAN. Mr. Lewis Eastwood, of Waterville, is an active wit- ness o{ the healthful atmosphere of the Maumee Valley. For sixty-six years he has enjoyed the vigorous and rigor- ous seasons of this locality. He was a son of John and Polly (White) Eastwood, and first saw light in Rensselaer County, State of New York, Jan. 26th, 1809. His father spent his early life at sea. After " A life on the ocean wave " of ten years, his father married, then at the age of 21, and took up his shipbuilders' trade and earned enough money to purchase a farm, and became a farmer. Lewis' mother died while he was an infant. He came to Waterville, Lucas County, in 1832, and in 1834 and 1835 he was constable of Waterville. He was married to Miss Amanda M. Hall in 1838. Mr. Eastwood was engaged in teaching school in the village among the very early teachers. He was also e;ngaged in gardening on the grounds now occupied by cottage homes, and was a good mechanic, having built the first gothic residence in the community. He also built the Union Hotel, where he kept hotel for 29 years ; a portion of the time also kept groceries. During the active canal times, when "Doyle & Dickey's " Packet line was the " rapid transit, " his patronage was quite brisk, and an air of activity prevailed that has not been since the cruel interposition of the Wa- bash railroad. Mr. Eastwood was quite prominent in bee culture and wrote numerous articles on apiary. He was blessed with five children, two sons and three daughters. His eldest daughter, Ellen, married Mr. Geo. Lattcham, and is living near the homestead, near Water- ville. John became a soldier in the war of the rebellion 104 The Mau7nee Valley and served in the Fourteenth O, V. I. from April to Au- gust, in i86i,and through the service of the One Hun- dreth O. V. I. After the war he took up the jewelry bus- iness, lost his health and died at Hillsdale a few years since. Angeline married Mr. Oscar W. Ballou, and is liv- ingf on a fine fruit farm at Waterville. Asa also became a soldier, and served in a New York Battery of Light Ar- tillery in the war of the rebellion, and now is on the home- stead, making the home of the venerable subject of our sketch. Mrs. Eastwood died at this home several years ago. Mr. Eastwood was a promoter ot patriotism and en- couraged integrity. In politics he was a Whig, and later a Republican. Mr. and Mrs. Eastwood were among the earliest com- municants of the Presbyterian Church, and Mr. E. keeps up his faithful attendance when health and circumstances permit. But few men have lived to see the development of a wild country to a greater degree than Mr. Eastwood. The following communication was received by our former sec- retary about three years ago: Waterville, O., May 22, 1896. Mr. Denison B. Smith. Toledo, O: Dear Sir — With regard to reminiscences of early pi- oneer life in the Maumee Valley, I will relate the following from actual experience, not hearsay. At the time ot the dispute about the boundary between Michigan and Ohio, a company was raised in Waterville to go and fight the Michiganders. A meeting was held on the pjablic square, then occupied as a mill yard. Col. Van Fleet, who was in command, mounted a saw log and made a speech, in which he hoped to see patriotism enough by volunteers so he would not have to resort to the draft. Pioneer Association. 105 The greatest valor displayed by that company was said to be the storming of a warehouse and capturing a barrel of whiskey, with which some of the volunteers cov- ered themselves with glory. I was one ot those that stayed at home, subject to the draft, which happily was not need- ed, as the war was very short. But Ohio thought her rights had been invaded, and she ought to show proper resentment, so at the next term of court, held at Perrysburg, the grand jury was instructed to find bills of indictment against a number of Michigan people who had invaded the disputed territory. I was a member of that grand jury, the only one left. I was the youngest one, and just 60 years ago. I came to this place in 1832, with not much but honest intentions and what Alexander Pope called " A dangerous thing. " I know of no man who was active at the time now living. In my case I have exhibited a weak and puny child, a blind boy Irom 9 to 14, a sickly youth, a weakened man- hood and a vigorous old age. Now what is left for me but to — Hope humbly, then with trembling pinions soar, Wait the great teacher, Death, and God adore. I thank you very much for your kind expressions and patience with me. Most truly yours, Louis Eastwood. 106 The Maumee Valley JOHN H. FISHER Was born in Orleans County, New York, December 17, 1818, and came to Toledo in 1842, Engaged in canal boating. Came to Grand Rapids and married Charlotte Gruber in 1848. Their golden wedding, celebrated last winter, was the greatest social event ever enjoyed in the vicinity. Mr. Fisher has been engaged in merchandizing, lumbering and farming, and now lives on his beautiful farm adjoining town. His father, Peter Fisher, and his mother, both lived to be 90. His maternal grandmother was 102. One brother, Christopher, lived to be 82. His parents and brother died near Battle Breek, Mich. Mr. Fisher tells of hunting rabbits and ducks where Toledo now is and saw a deer shot where the Burnett House now stands. They have one daughter, Mrs. Lillian Williamson, ot Bowling Green. Mr. Fisher delights to tell that he has taken "The Toledo Blade" for 46 years. You don't need to ask his politics. He is a member oi the Presbyterian church. Prospects are good for many years of life yet, as he is very active, doing his share of farm work with any ot them, and his hair is scarcely turning gray yet. Pioneer Association. 107 87 YEARS OLD AND ACTIVE. Samuel Shaffner makes his home at his daughter's, Mrs. W. A. Kinney, near Grand Rapids, O. Mr. Shaff- ner was born in Dauphin County, Pa., December 1 1, i8i i. Came to Ohio in 1829, to Crawford County, one mile east of Bucyrus. In September, 1834, he moved to Holmes township, three miles north of Bucyrus, and lived and voted there 50 years. His father was d>T^ when he died. One uncle and other relatives lived to be 93. His father was married three times. First family nine chil- dren, seven living, of which Samuel is one. Four of the seven are in their eighties. The second family was three children, of whom two are living. The third family consisted ot nine children, of whom seven are living. So you see out of a family of twenty-one children, sixteen are still living and four of them past 80 years old. Mr. Shaffner has one brother in Tiffin, O., one in Bloomville, O., one sister in Van Wert and one in Craw- ford County, at Wingert's Corners. Mr. Shaffner has spent most of his time near Grand Rapids for the past twenty years with his son, Martin, and later with his daughter, Mrs. Kinney. He cast his first vote in 1832 for Jackson. How many now living voted for Jackson? Raise your hands. Mr, Shaffner is strictly temperate and sometimes votes the prohibition ticket. He never uses tobacco, is well, active and can walk farther and faster than most men of 60. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church when 21 years old and is a pillar in the church to this day. 108 The Maumee Valley 83 YEARS OLD AND WELL AND HEARTY. Mrs. Nancy Sparling has been living near Grand Rapids for 26 years. Her father, William Smith, for many years lived near Loudonville, O., and was well known and very highly respected by all who knew him. Her grandfather came from Germany and served for seven years in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Sparling was born December i, 181 5, near Loudonville, in Holmes county, and married Daniel Spar- ling. They remained in the same vicinity until 1872 when they came to Grand Rapids. Mr. Sparling died several years ago, but Mrs. Sparling is hale and hearty, always has good health and now weighs over 200 pounds. One daughter, Mrs. Stump, now deceased, weighed 330 pounds, another daughter, Mrs. Stocker, deceased, was only medium or rather under the common size and weight. She has one son living, Basil (Bez.) Sparling, who is a very successful farmer, and delights in raising the finest stock in the country. Mrs. Sparling delights in telling of her father, who never went in debt. He never bought anything until he could pay for it. No wonder he was so highly spoken of by every one. Pioneer Association. 109 A VETERAN AND MAGISTRATE. Isaac Brock Snively is 84 years old. Was born near St. Catherines, Canada, in 18 14, and was married October 29, 1836. Came to Canton, Ohio, in 1838. His second marriage occurred on October 18, 1842. He came to Grand Rap- ids, Ohio, in August, 185 1. Was a chair and cabinetmaker, and was elected sev- eral times justice ot the peace. He served three years in Company D., iiith O. V. I. He has a good memory, and can tell many thrilling war stories. He was wounded at the battle of Franklin. He is lame from injury by an army mule falling on him in 1864. Republican in politics. He has been a member oi the Presbyterian church for 23 years. He has three grandchildren living. He is now living with friends near Grand Rapids and draws a pension. 110 The Maumee Valley FREDERICK SALTZ. Frederick Saltz is nearly 83 years old and has lived at Grand Rapids 26 years. He was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, where New Baltimore now stands. When 16 years old his folks moved to Licking Coun- ty. At the age of 21 he left home and went to Indiana, and after remaining there two years he came to Adams County and married Katie Neft. They lived in Adams County three years, then went to Fairfield County, where they remained until 1872, when he came to Wood County. Mrs. Frederick Saltz was born in Fairfield County in 1 8 19 and is nearly 80 years old. Fred Saltz and Katie Neff were married in 1839 and they raised five children, all still living. Mrs. Bowers, the oldest, born in 1840, lives in Petoskey, O., Minerva Right- ley, born in 1842, lives in Morris County, Kansas ; Royal B. Saltz, born 1844, lives in Grand Rapids, O.; Clara Mosier, born 1847 lives in Grand Rapids, O., Nora, born 1849, at home with her parents mostly. Mr. and Mrs. Saltz united with the United Brethren Church in 1842 and have always been faithful members and true Christians in every respect. Kind and generous to everybody, no tramp or hungry traveler ever was refused a meal of victuals at their door. How many can say that ? Mrs. Saltz is still able to look- after her cows and chickens, but Mr. Saltz is getting slow and uncertain of step, and only waiting to get fully ripe before being gath- ered in. He is a faithful Democrat, only missing one election, the day he was on the road to Wood County. He could not go Greely so he moved that day instead ot going to election. Pioneer Association. Ill DAVID HOCKMAN. David Hockman came to Grand Rapids, O., in 1830 with his brother Joseph and each one entered 160 acres in Henry County. They got something to eat at the " Howard House, " still standing just east of the town. Not a tree was cut where the town now stands, un- less it was a coon tree. James Donaldson and Emanuel Arnold were the only families on Beaver Creek at that time. Mr. Hockman was born on a farm where Lancaster now stands, in Fairfield County, Ohio, January 9th, 1813, and is now past 85 years old. His father, Henry Hockman, lived to be 70 years old and his mother, Rebekah (Dellinger) Hockman, 78 or 80, His brothers Henry and Jacob died at the age of 70 and Joseph j6. His sister, Katie Hite, lived to be 82 and Lydia Bab- bitt lived to be 70. Elizabeth, the wi(e of Jacob Fall, is still living in Missouri, aged 80. Mr. Hockman married Frances Huber at Lancaster, O., in 1835 ^1^^ came to Henry County with his family in 1 841. His son, Isaac, died when 23 years old, leaving three children, David, Washington and Frances, now liv- ing in the oil fields of Wood County. His daughter, Elizabeth, now lives at McClure, Ohio, the widow ol x^m- brose Cook, who was killed by a train on the railroad track. David Hockman's second wife was Margaret Erven, and they have one daughter, Sadie, now living at Lancaster, Ohio, with her two boys, David and Ray i\r- nold. Sadie is the widow of the late Prof. D. C. Arnold. David Hackman was a successful farmer and a very good, kind neighbor ; too kind to others for his own good. He was a Republican in politics and Presbyterian in religion. 112 The Maumee Valley JOHN RINKENBERGER. Is now 82 years 0I4 and lives in Grand Rapids, O. He was born in Wurtumburg, South Germany, October 9th, 1 8 16 and came to America in 1848. He lived in Erie county, Pa., three years; lived in Sandusky county, Ohio, ten years and came to Wood county in the spring of 1862 where he has lived ever since. His wife died April 6th, 1897. They raised a family of seven children, four of whom are now living. Mrs. Mary Daniel livens in Bowling Green, and has seven children; Mrs. Effie Morris lives in Ottawa, Kansas, and has three children; Mrs. Lizzie Steininger lives in Weston, Ohio, with four children; Mrs. Rebekah Yarnell lives in Steubenville, Ohio. Mr. Rinkenberger is in fair health for one of his age, reads German without spectacles, 'but uses them when reading English. He is well educated and is an excellent Bible scholar. He has been a member of the Evangelical Church since 1850 and is a Republican in politics, Pioneer Association. 113 ZELOTES SHERBURNE. The subject of this sketch was born in Wheelock, Vt , May 5, 1818. His ancestors resided at Stonyhurst, in the north of England, and came to America about the year 1700, landing at Portsmouth, N. H. A great-uncle lost his life in the French and Indian war, and his grandfather, James Sherburne, was a soldier of the Revolution removing to Vermont in 1786. His father, Henry Sherburne was married to Hannah Dunbar, to whom was born fourteen children, ten of whom reached maturity. His boyhood days were spent among the hills and snowdrifts of Vermont, chopping wood in winter, with only a barley biscuit for lunch, and making maple sugai" in spring, and in his twentieth year, in company with his father, came to Ohio driving four horses attached to a sled the entire distance, the only difficulty being not bare roads, but, too much snow. His father bought the farm where the village of Wellington, Lorain County, now stands, where he lived till his death. Zelotes was married in 1848 to Mary R. Brown, and began housekeeping in LaGrange. In 1851 he bought a farm in Pittsfield township, two miles south of Oberlin, and lived there two years, when he moved to Oberlin and lived there a year, working at the carpenter's trade. In 1851 he again moved to Pittsfield, where he lived, farming and making brick till 1861, when he sold out and bought a farm near Eochester depot, where he lived five years, being elected at one time as Justice of the Peace and serv- ing as Assessor. In 1866 he sold his farm in Eochester and removed to Hillsdale, Mich., where he staid three yeai'S, removing thence to Ottawa Lake, but, driven from there by ague at the end of nine months, he traded his farm for property in Centerton, Huron Co., O., where, after a three months staj^, he removed to Eandolph Co., Ind. living there one year and in Jay County two years, and in 1873 again removing to Ohio, landing in Milton Center, Wood Co., where he lived ten years, farming and working at carpentry, also running a sorghum molasses mill in its season. In 1883 he moved to Lucas County, one and one-quarter miles west of NVhitehouse, where he still resides. In this county he has served his township (Swauton) as Trustee and Justice of the Peace. He was converted at the age of seventeen, and united with the Fiee Will Baptist Church, to the prin'iiples of which chui'ch he still adheres, though being a member of the Methodist Prote>:l;iiit Church at this writing. To Mr, and Mrs. Sherburne were born .six chihlren, five of whom are still living: Henry Zelotes, Hattie -May, George Wayland, Eansom Brown and John Colby. 114 The Maumee Valley The Maumee Valley Pioneer Association has for its fandimental purjiose the cultivation of a more intimate knowledge of and an interest in the great events which are of such- varied character, that have made the Valley historical, and to more especially perpetuate the memories of the hardy pioneers by whose labors and sacrifices the greater part ot our present success in agricultural and commer- cial pursuits, and of our intellectual, religious and social development have been largely attained. No citizen of the Maumee Valley whose life work has been bounded by the number of years necessary to class him or her as a pioneer but has had some part in making our history what it is. The many quiet, painstaking and faithful lives who have here and there dropped a kind word, or done an unre- corded good deed, have in the aggregate of such, supplied the real substance of the true success we have secured. During the past year the death record has been enlarged by the names of many of whom this can be said with much emphasis — Many of them were born, reared and died in our Valley and have left sweet memories in the hearts of surviving children and friends that it would not be violating the sanctity of the home to place such memories on record with this neighbor association, many members of which would thereby be enabled to cary with them to the privacy of their homes the written record of lives, from whom they have been long separated by many social changes, so inevitable, as we can all fully testify, in the life of man. While looking over this records of such, attention has been called to a number of our pioneers who have passed the four-score year life mark and are still with us, whose presence and smile is a benediction to all with whom they come in contact. The names of those mentioned in this pamphlet are only of such as have come to mind during the few weeks that the matter of men- tioning such names has been under consideration and therefore is necessarily very incomplete. It is hoped that before next year we may be supplied with the records of many others. Anna Jones Lillelund was born in Newport, Monmothshire, South Pioneer Association. 115 Wales, December 12th, 1809. She came to America with he parents in 1832, settling for a time in New York City where she met and was married to Nelson M. Lillelund, in 1836. With her husband she removed to near Dayton in this state in 1841 and to Toledo in 1850 where she has resided continuously since. Her husband died in 1880. Two sons and four daughters, all of whom are living, will perpetuate her memory. An interesting photograph is shown by her of four generations, viz: herself, her daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter. Mrs. Lillelund has been from early life an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church, but the catho- licy of her Christian spirit is such that the neighborhoods in which she has resided have felt that they had a warm supporter of every Christian work no matter by what denomination it was fostered. Her whole life work has been a benediction to all with whom she has came in contact with. This is particularly marked in her con- nection with the younger classes with whom she will be as long as life shall last a prime favorite. Nicholas Neuhausel, Sr., was born January 1st, 1810, in Ober Eoden, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany. In the thickly settled portions of Europe many of the tillers of the soil also follow other pursuits. Mr. Neuhausel's father besides being a farmer was a tailor, and he duly instructed and brought up his son to follow that occupation, which he did. There were four brothers and two sisters in the family, three of the brothers in seeking a locality in which to settle for life removed to the south of France, while the subject of our sketch in July 1852, came to America, first settling in Baltimore, Maryland. He had been married previously to Miss Anna Mary Becker in 1833, He came to Toledo in 1858 and has since resided in that city an honored citizen, practicing industry, frugality and all those virtues that help so much to secure obedience to law by the community and love and honor among men. Five sons and two daughters who are all living and are all residents of Toledo, cheer his old age with their care and attention. Four of the sons constitute the pioneer dry goods firm of Neuhausel Bros. Mrs. Neuhausel, with whom he walked in life for 51 years and with whom he celebrated their golden wedding in 1883, passed 116 The Maumee Valley from life to the rewards of the hereafter in 1884. The family is at present one of the largest in this section, consisting, besides the aged parent, of seven children, twenty-two grandchildren and six great- grandchildren, a total of thirty-six. May the aged father be blessed with freedom from pain and have the comforts of a contented mind resulting from a well spent life as long as bis days on earth shall be extended. The names of Mrs. Sarah Chambers Southard, Mrs. Ehoda Southard Dixon, H. J. Hayes, Chas. H. Parsons, Doria Tracy, F. C. Nichols, Joel Kelsey, C. Woodruff, S. F. Dyer, Mrs. Dr. Chase and Nicholas Gilsdorf, all of whom we think are over eighty years of age, came to mind while writing, whose life experiences in the Maumee Valley it would be interesting to read and we hope that their friends will favor the Association with a brief statement of the same. • - LIST OF MEMBERSHIP. Alexander, W. Gr. . ., Toledo, Ohio Andrews, Saaiuel " " Atkins, Rosantha '' " Abbott, Eunice " " Blanchard, Samuel ' " " Bell, Robert H i " " Boos, Wm. H Blinn, N. D " Bashare, Milo " " Berdan, John Bloomfield, Robert " " Brigham, CO.... " " Boice, R. V. . . " Brigham, Mrs. M. P " '' Brigham, Stanley F. ............... . " " Blodgett, Mrs. Bliz:i . '. . " " Bradley, A. B. ...... . ........ , . Baldwin, Mrs. Maria • .> • " " Bartlett, Nathaniel . . . . ............ " " Burdick, Leander " " Brumbaugh, H. .. . . " " Bond, O. S. . . . : " " Biownlee, A. B, Jr " " Baker, Mary G " " Brainard, W. S Chase, Galusha ■ • • " Colton, Abram W " " Clark, Albert G Callahan, M "... " " Collins, D. A " " Crafts, J. A Corlett, Wm ' " Conway, John A " " Coghlin, Dennis . . .- " " Chapin, Edward . " " Cowdrick, Vien Auburndale, " " Contuse, E. C Carter, S. S Dunlap Thomas ^ . . " " Draper, James " " Dyer, Stephen F " " D'owling, P. H " " Englehardt, Jacob " " Ensign, W. O " " Eddy, Chas. H Eggleston, Mrs. H " " Eda-ar, John 606 Piatt St. " 11 Gloyd, Mary E. ......... • Toledo, Ohio Goddard, Alonzo Granger, V. W Gleason, AW Gardner, Nath. • ... East Side, Hartman, Abrahana Hertzler, Horace Howard, Mrs. N. M . Howell, A. D Hall, Cecil A. . . . " ^^ Hubbard, Franklin . .... Heime, Jacob E • • Jones, Adelaine Kelsey, Joel W Ketcham, Mrs. Eachei Ann . , " :' King, Frank J Kountz, John S Kenyon, Henry Kellogg, Joseph G " "' Kslsey, Joel H. . • Lane, Frank T " Lindsay, Mrs. S. B. . . . • Lemmon, Reuben C Myers, Jas. W. . . . • ... Marksheffel, C. A || |^ Moore, John A. . Marx, Guido Merikel, N. M " McNally, Jas. '' '' Morehouse, Wm. H. . . . Mott, Miss Anna C Norton, C. W. ........ " l^orton, Mrs. M. D " " Neubert, H. G ''^ Nay, Eccler Nopper, Christ Pelton, A. D • • Parmelee, W. E. Jr. ^'^ |^ Pratt, Charles Pike, Louis H Pheatt, Z. C • . " Plant, A. H '^ ^• Eaymond, B. P Eaymond, Paul Eowland, VV. L Komeis, Jacob . . . • • • • • • ' ■ ' Raymer, James .....••••" Richardson, LA.. . . . - • • " Robinson, James B. . . . ■ . . . '■ '' Eomeis, John . .....•••" Smith, Denison B. ...•••■■ " Seaman, ira iv. . . ■ . • , ■ • • Smith, W. H. H. • • " Snell, A. Z Toledo, Ohio Southard, Thos. J. .... . Stettiner, Samuel ...... Spencer, J. M. . Scott, Wm. H Scott, Trav. J. . . . ' . Scott, Frank J Smith, E. C Stinecamp, Geo. H. . . . . . Smith, Mrs Julia E Sisson, Jessie . .... Secor, Mrs Frances Peck li am Tiernan, Thomas ...... Tracy, J. E. Trowbridge, Anson ..... Thomer, Henry ...... Thurstin, W. S. ..... Thomas, Edwin W. . . . . . Tappan, Wm. R. . . . . . Van Fleet, J. .... . YanGunten, John ...... VanStone, Thomas ..... Waite, John A. . . Wells, Geo. E Woods, Dr. T. J. . . . . Walterhouse, J. W. Wilcox, Minot S. . . . . Wilby, Einery . West, Charles .... Winans, James ... Whittaker, C. H. Whitman, W. H. . Wilcox, Henry .... Worden, S. B. . Wilder, David .... Wagner, Mrs. Mary C. . . . Woolson, A. M. . Waggoner, Clarke .... Young, Mott W. . . . Harroun, C. H. . . . . . Woodruff, Jeannette ..... Phillipps, P. J Gerkins, Henry -Eeynolde, Geo. ....,.." " Blanchard, Samuel •......" " Banks, W. R Paulding Bordener, Henry Flat Rock, Henry County, " Blaker, Sanford G VVoodville, Wood " " Converse, N. W Elyria, " Dunlap, Jennie 7880 Broadway, New Y'ork City Donaldson, David San Antonia, Ttxas Fenton, H. C Ridgeville, Henry County, Oliio Freas, George Okalona " " " East Toledo, Ohio West Toledo, Ohio Ohio iv Foster, O. W Lamoine, Wood County, Ohio Hardy, James Texas, Henry " ." Hardesty, A. F Payne, Wood, " Hollington, Rev. A Delaware, " Jones, L.J I>igby, Wood County, " Mathews, C. W Lancaster, " McCabe, Alex Morenci, Mich. McDowell, Mrs. C. E Prairie Depot, Ohio McMahon, E. W Portage, Wood County, " Moore, J. P Fremont, " Myers, J. K. ......... . Aj-ersville, Defiance County, " Peters, B. L North Baltimore, " Peters, Mrs. Fannie " •' • " Phillips, Charles B. . . . . . . . . Blissfield, Mich. Rodgers, O. D New Haven, Ind. Rowe, John P. . . Vienna, Mich. Tubbs, W. B Tubbsville, Ohio Wilson, Wm. H. . . . . . . Richfield Center, Lucas County, " Williamson, C. W Wapakaneta, " Willson, Geo. H Fort Wayne, Ind. Whittaker, Wm Wauseon, Ohio Watkins, George Chicago, 111. Whitney, Jos. S. . Jackson, Mich. White, J. W Washington, D. C. Ballou, Oscar W. ........ . Waterville, Lucas County, Ohio Ballou, Mrs. 0. W. . Dodd, Mrs. Mary Eastwood, Lewis " " " '^ Earns worth, John P " " " Hall, Joseph E Hoobler, Geo. W i' Pray, Thomas • " " u .. u Knaggs, Miss Maria " " " " Shertzer, Joseph '• " " Van Fleet, William Van Fleet, Mrs. Jane R. ..... . " u . u Van Fleet, H. Frank Watts, Thomas . Edgar, John Weston, Wood '• " Huber, Henry .......... McDonald, C". W Shephard, W. H Atkinson, William Whitehouse, Lucas " '■ Atkinson, Mrs Louisa •' " " " Barnett, Geo. C Butler, Fred A. . . oren, John Doaan, William " " " " Goodman, Michael ........ '' " " Goodman, Mrs. Caroline " " Pray, Paris II Pray, M. W Pray, J. L Pray, Mary E Whitehouse, Lucas County, Ohio Poulson, J. H " " " '• Eakestraw, Yarnel Sly, Mrs. Martha " " " '* Andrews, James Sylvania, Lucas " " Cone, Ambrose " " " " Harroun, Oara Harroun, Mrs. E. J. P Warren, W. B. . Curtis, Nelson Swanton Fulton " " Fairchilds, Alonzo Love, Rev. N. B. C Scott, Dr. W. A White, J. S White, Mrs. Ellen Watkins, Wells Foster, Joel Tontogany, Wood " " Mawer, Mrs. Thos Mawer, Thos Warner, Martin " " " " Bowers, George Napoleon, Henry County, Ohio Brooks, William Bowers, James R " '' " " Bowers, W. E Bowers, Mrs. A. C Cadwallader, Mrs. May Curtis, S. L. . Davidson, J. S Guno, Edwin " " ^ '^ Gilson, David Furquson, Mary " - " " '' Hudson, D. P. . Hill, Matilda M Hateley, Daniel " " " " Hudson, Harrison " " " " Hufning, Julius Huddle, John Hague, S. M Mory, J. D " Ealrick, George " " " Eaiser, Mathias • • " " u • u Scribner, Allen B Shelt, John " - " Stevens, John W Scott, Eobert K Sentre, H Tyler, Justin H YanHyuig, Julius Wheeler, Caleb Wilson, D Williams,' L. B Brown, James K Leatherman, J. . . . " " " " VI Pontius, B. F Napoleon, Henry County, Ohio Slielt, Sabina " " " " Britton, O. J Neopolis, Lucas County, Ohio Keeler, W. H " " •' " Crosby, Darwin " " " " Baird, C. C Perrysburg, Wood County, Ohio Barlow, Martha " " " " Campbell, Gr. W " " " '' Cing, Eudolph " " " " ' Hollenbeck, Francis " '< " " HoUenbeck, D. K , . . . •" " " " McKnight, George " " " " Pratt, B. F " " " " Peck, Henry E " " '^ " Powell, Frank " " " " Powers, C. A . " " •' " Perrin, Mrs. Amelia " " " " Drummond, Calvin M " " " " Eoss, J. W " " " •' Eoss, Mrs, J. W . . " i' " " Eumler, Estella " " " " Spafford, Mrs. Mariah " " " " Stubbe, James F " ■' " " Tulier, E " . " " " Thornton, S. B " " " " Warner, H " " " " Weddel, George "- " " " Eoss, Mr. and Mrs Hull Prairie, Wood County, Ohio Tunison, Mrs. John " " " ". Eobertson, Ameleus ...... " " " " Croninger, George . . . . . Liberty Center, Henry County, Ohio Foot, Fred " " '• " Turney, Michael " '' ". " Gunn, Mrs. A. B " " " " Hudson, Isaac . " . " " " ■ Leist, A. C '' " " " Lamphier, John " " " " Pennock, Edward " " " " Eussell, W. H West, John T " " " " Young, C. C " " " '• Young, Mrs. C. C ' " " " " Williams, W. F. ...... . " " " " Bales, William Maumee, Lucas County, Ohio Brown, Mrs Thomas . '• " '• " Blaker, Mrs. Amanda " " " " Baker, Mary G . " " " " Drummond, C. M , " " " " Gunn, Mrs. W. B " " " " Hull, W. E Kiser, Laura B '' " " " Mitchell, Mrs. E. B " " " >< - Gunn, O. N. . . " " " " Vll Grunn, Mrs. O. N. Maumee, Lucas County, Ohio Knaggs, Maliuda " " " " Walcott, J. M Wilcox, J. E Batcbelder, Mrs. William " Durbin, Thos. W McClure, Henry Count}, Ohio Sheppard, D. S Kerr, John W Mouclova, Lucas County, Ohio Learning, Hulda " ' " '' " Lose, Williaai " Van Fleet, Cornelius " " '' Carter, S. S Delta, Fulton County, Ohio Carn, M " " Holt, John " Merrell, Osias " " " Sargent, A. L " Culberson, Eli Grand Eapids, Fulton Count}-, Ohio Judson, A. C McLain, J. C Reynolds, James " " " Sterling, Thomas Bucklin, Osman Grelton, Wood County, Ohio Johnson, W. C Yeager, A Andrews, H. E Florida, Henry County, Ohio Berdner, Mrs: Harvey " " " " Berdner, Henry " " '■ " Brubacker, David Bruback, F. N Bruback, Emily B Bowen, Jerry " " " " Rothenberger, G. F Scofield, Catherine E Sisler, Peter Lowry, Samantha A " " " " Weaver, H. S Weaver, David . i " ' " " Bernthistle, H. P. . . Haskins, Wood County, Ohio Garrett, P. F Garrett, Mrs. Kate " " " " Ainsworth, J. N Hicksville, Defiance County, Ohio Fast, H. H Holgate, Henry Countj^, Ohio Gunn, A. D Holland, Lucas County, Ohio Tucker, Albert C. HoUoway, C. B Holloway, Mrs, Mary A Conley, Michael Colton, Henry Count}-, Ohio Gramiing, Adam " " " " Hardy, Sames W Love, W. K Parrott, William " " Waler, Aaron " " " Waggoner, John B ........ . " " '■ Waggoner, Simon N Colton, Henry County, Ohio McGarvey, John Arrowsmith, Miller Defiance, Defiance County, Ohio Brawn, Mrs. W. A " Brown, Kate O. Brown, F. G Corwin, Isaac Deamer, B. F Greenler, J. S . " " '' ': Gurwell, Martin Gurwell, Jacob Hardy, Henry Hudson, S. P Hooker, Arabella H Howard, E. A Hall, H. B " Hapenhinson, W. C JarviB, Mary B Kirk, J. D Kintner, George Langdon, Lyman Marcellus, D. H Malley, J. J Miller, John Marcellus, Hugh J " " " " Mix, E. B Parry, Gibbons Perky, Martin Eohn, James . Ealston, J. B Sessioas, Horace ........ " " " " Stubbs, Wm. M Scott, Helen Brown " :' Saylor, Jacob Simpson, A. E Smith, Wm. M • " Thornton, M. B. Stephens ... Tittle, Charles P Wilhelm, Adam ...••'.. Woodcox, B. B Myers, L. E Hilton, Brice Evans, Eichard Wood, Alonzo H Van Dusel, N Crofts, Mrs. Hannah 712 Eussell Ave., Cleveland, Ohio Eobinson, James B . . . , Air Line Junction, Lucas County, Ohio Bissell, C. A Antwerp, Paulding County, Ohio Bisber, Henry Doering, P. P Ewing Wm. . , Fleck, W. F Furguson, H. E Gi'aves, F. A. , . i i . ^ . . . Antwerp, Paulding County, Ohio Harris, Henry " Harris, Jane E • • '• Hughes, D. S McCann, A. C Oswalt, Jacob " Pocock, D. A Pocock, Clara " Pocock, J. L Pocock, E. E Snooks, W. A Say lor, Jacob " Stukey, VY. W Woodcox, C. B. ........ . Zuber, John B " Zuber, J. H Dilgert, J. C Auburndale, Lucas County, Ohio Couture, B. C Cowdrick, Vien " " :' Black, Luther Bow^ling Green, Wood County, Ohio Caldwell. Geo. D Dodge, H. H La Eari-ee, Jas. H " " Newton, Daniel " " Newton, Mrs. Eveline .... '' '• Perry, Thomas • '• " Phillippi, Aaron " " Ealston, Jas. B. . , " " Simonds, Alice " " Thurston. Mrs. M. L •' " Thomas, S. H Van Tassel, S. N Lattimore, Jas. P Cecil, Paulding County, Ohio Lattimore, Mrs. Jas. F " Simpson, A. N " Colby, Dr. L ..." Downs, Geo. W Custar. Wood County, Ohio Tk Pioneer Dry Goods and Carpet House Of Toledo. ^'^^^-. 32 Years Of the pnhlics confidence to guard makes our motto, Best Goods a# Lowest PHceSf Sti'onger than ever. If you have Dry Goods, Carpets and Milliner}^ to buy, you're always safe in trading at the old reliable store. Neuiiausei Bros., iaaiJ!!i!=!i±' weFiiYouOuiFrom Head to Fooi with the best Standard Made Clothing in the country, and at the Guaranteed Lowest Prices in the city. Every suit of clothes we sell is up to date — we carry over no old goods — 'you know that when you buy clothing here that it is correct in every particular of fabric, fit and finish. We sell splendid Suits, guaranteed all wool, ^ "? T fl as low as^.^.^