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Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. I

©1888

 

 

ALLEN COUNTY

Page 241

ALLEN COUNTY was formed April 1, 1820, from Indian Territory, and named in honor of a Col. Allen, of the war of 1812; it was temporarily attached to Mercer county for judicial purposes. The southern part has many Germans. A large part of the original settlers were of Pennsylvania origin. The western half of the county is flat, and presents the common features of the Black Swamp. The eastern part is gently rolling, and in the southeastern part are gravelly ridges and knolls. The “Dividing Ridge” is occupied by handsome, well-drained farms, which is in marked contrast with much of the surrounding country, which is still in the primeval forest condition. Its area is 440 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 119,175; in pasture, 29,598; in woodland, 53,395; produced in wheat, 460,669 bushels; in corn, 1,157,149; wool, 103,654 pounds. School census, 1886, 11,823; teachers, 178; and 118 miles of railroad.

 

 

The population in 1830 was 578; 1850, 12,116; 1860, 19,185; 1880, 31,314, of whom 25,625 were Ohio born, 3 were Chinese, and 4 Indians.

 

The initial point in the occupancy of the county by the whites was the building of a fort on the west bank of the Auglaize in September, 1812, by Col. POAGUE, of Gen. HARRISON'S army, which he named in honor of his wife Fort Amanda. A ship-yard was founded there the next year, and a number of scows built by the soldiers for navigation on the Lower Miami, as well as for the navigation of the Auglaize, which last may be termed one of the historical streams of Ohio, as it was early visited by the French, and in its neighborhood were the villages of the most noted Indian chiefs; it was also on the route of Harmer's, Wayne's, and Harrison's armies. To-day it is but a somewhat diminutive river, owing to the drainage of the country by canals and ditches, and the clearing off of the forests; in the past it was a navigable stream, capable of floating heavily laden flat-boats and scows.

 

The fort was a quadrangle, with pickets eleven feet high, and a block-house at each of the four corners. The storehouse was in the centre. A national cemetery was established here, where are seventy-five mounds, the graves of soldiers of the war of 1812.

 

Among the first white men who lived at this point was a Frenchman, Francis DEUCHOQUETTE. He was interpreter to the Indians. It was said he was present at the burning of Crawford, and interfered to save that unfortunate man. He was greatly esteemed by the early settlers for his kindly disposition. In 1817 came Andrew RUSSELL, Peter DILTZ, and William Van AUSDALL; and in 1820 numerous others.

 

 

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Delphos. She was familiarly called the “Daughter of Allen county.” She died in 1871.

 

From an address by T. E. CUNNINGHAM, delivered before the Pioneer Association, at Lima, September 22, 1871, we derive the following additional items upon the early settlers of the county:

 

“Samuel McCLURE, now living, at the age of seventy-eight years, settled on Hog creek, five miles northeast of where Lima now stands, in the month of November, 1825, forty-six years ago. He has remained on the farm where he then built a cabin ever since. The nearest white neighbors he knew of were two families named LEEPER and KIDD, living one mile below where Roundhead now is, about twenty miles to the nearest known neighbor. On that farm, in the year 1826, was born Moses McCLURE, the first white child born on the waters of Hog creek. Mr. McCLURE'S first neighbor was Joseph WARD, a brother of Gen. John WARD. He helped cut the road when McCLURE came, and afterwards brought his family, and put them into McCLURE'S cabin, while he built one for himself on the tract where he afterwards erected what was known as Ward's mill. The next family was that of Joseph WALTON. They came in March, 1826.

Shawneetown, an Indian village, was situated eight miles below the McCLURE settlement, at the mouth of Hog creek. A portion of the village was on the old Ezekiel HOOVER farm and a portion on the BREESE farm. Mr. McCLURE and his little neighborhood soon became acquainted, and upon good terms with their red neighbors. He says HAI-AITCH-TAH, the war-chief, had he been civilized, would have been a man of mark in any community. QUILNA was the great business man of the tribe here. Soon after the McCLURE settlement was made they heard from the Indians at Shawneetown that the United States government had erected a mill at Wapakoneta. The settlers had no road to the mill, but QUILNA assisted them to open one. He surveyed the line of their road without compass, designating it by his own knowledge of the different points and the Indian method of reaching them.

 

There are many of the children of the early settlers to whom the name of QUILNA is a household word. To his business qualities were added great kindness of heart, and a thorough regard for the white people. No sacrifice of his personal ease was too much if by any effort, he could benefit his new neighbors.

 

In the month of June, 1826, Morgan LIPPINCOTT, Joseph WOOD, and Benjamin DOLP, while out hunting, found the McCLURE settlement. To his great surprise, Mr. McCLURE learned that he had been for months living within a few miles of another white settlement located on Sugar creek. He learned from the Hunters there were five families: Christopher WOOD Morgan LIPPINCOTT, Samuel JACOBS, Joseph WOOD, and Samuel PURDY. It is his belief that Christopher WOOD settled on Sugar creek as early as 1824, on what is known as the MILLER farm. In the spring of 1831, John RIDENOUR, now living, at the age of eighty-nine, with his family-Jacob RIDENOUR, then a young married man, and David RIDENOUR, bachelor-removed from Perry county, and settled one mile south of Lima, on the lands the families of that name have occupied ever since.”

 

LIMA was surveyed in 1831 by Capt. James W. RILEY. Christopher WOOD was one of the commissioners appointed to locate the county-seat, and was on the board to plat the village and superintend the sale of lots. Both of these were remarkable men. WOOD was born in Kentucky in 1769, was an Indian scout, and engaged in all the border campaigns, inclusive of the war of 1812. RILEY was the first settler in Van Wert county. He was a native of Middletown, Connecticut. Early in life, while in command of a vessel, he was shipwrecked on the coast of Africa, and fell into the hands of the Arabs; his history of his adventures reads like a romance. For a fuller account of him see Van Wert county.

 

Page 243

John MARK, and John BASHORE, all with families, except BREWSTER, who was a bachelor. Absalom BROWN was the first white citizen, and his daughter, Marion Mitchell BROWN, the first white child born here.

Three years later, the picture Lima presented is thus given in the cheery reminiscences of Robert Bowers:

 

My father brought me to Lima in the fall of 1834. I was then a boy of twelve years of age, and as green as the forest leaves in June a rare specimen to transplant on new and untried soil, where there was nothing to develop the mind but the study of forest leaves, the music of the bull-frog and the howl of the wolf. The boys and girls were their own instructors, and the spelling schools that were held by appointment and imposed upon our fathers by turns, were our highest academical accomplishments, and unfortunately for myself I never even graduated at them. Lima was then a town of very few souls. I knew every man, woman and child in the settlement, and could count them all without much figuring. No newspaper office, no outlet or inlet either by rail or earth. In the spring we travelled below, in the summer we travelled on top. Our roads were trails and section lines. Emigrants were constantly changing the trails seeking better and dryer land for their fooling and wheeling. Yet under all our disadvantages we were happy, and always ready to lend a helping hand and render assistance wherever it was needed. The latchstring was always out and often the last pint of meal was divided, regardless where the next would come from. the nearest mills were at settlements in adjoining counties, and the labor of going thither through the wilderness and the delays on their arrival in getting their grain ground, so great that they had recourse to hand-mills, hominy blocks and corn-crackers; so the labor was largely performed within the family circle . [A very pleasing picture of this is given in the reminiscences of Mr. Bowers; he says:] The horse and hand miller, the tin grater were always reliable and in constant use as a means of preparing our breadstuff. I was my father's miller, just the age to perform the task. My daily labor was to gather corn and dry it in a kiln, after which I took it on a grater made from an old copper kettle or tin bucket, and after supper made meal for the johnny-cake for breakfast; after breakfast I made meal for the pone for dinner; after dinner I made meal for the mush for supper. And now let me paint you a picture of our domestic life and an interior view of my father's house. The names I give below; a great many will recognize the picture only too well drawn, and think of the days of over forty years ago. Our house was a cabin containing a parlor, kitchen and dining-room. Connected was a shoe shop, also a broom and repair shop. To save fuel and light and have everything handy, we had the whole thing in one room, which brought us all together so we could oversee each other better. After supper each one knew his place. In our house there were four mechanics. I was a shoemaker and corn-grater. My father could make a sledge, and the other two boys could strip broom corn. My sisters spun yarn and mother knit and made garments. Imagine you see us all at work; sister Margaret sings a song father makes chips and mother pokes up the fire; Isaac spins a yarn, John laughs at him, and thus our evenings are spent in our wild home, for we were all simple, honest people, and feared no harm from our neighbors.

 

The want of mills is everywhere a great deprivation in a new country; varied have been the devices for overcoming it. The engraving annexed shows a substitute for a mill that was used in the early settling of Western New York, and probably to some extent in Ohio. It consists; of a stump hollowed out by fire as a mortar, with a log attached to the end of a young sapling bent over to act as a pestle. The process was slow and tedious, it being a day's work to convert a bushel of corn into samp.

 

The early settlers in Western New York when they owned a few slaves, which some of them did, employed them in this drudgery, hence the process was vulgarly termed “niggering corn.” People of humanity in our time would not be guilty of using such an expression as this. No one thing shows the general moral advance of the American people more strongly than their treatment of, and increased consideration for, the humbler classes among them.

 

Page 244

Recorder, George MONROE; Surveyor, James Pillars; Coroner, John C. COUVERY; Commissioners, John AKERMAN, Abraham CRIDER, Alexander SHENK. Newspapers: Gazette, Republican, C. PARMENTER, editor; Democrat, Democratic, Mr. TIMMONDS, editor; Republican, Republican, daily and weekly, Long, Winder & Porter, publishers; Times, daily and weekly, O. B. SELFRIDGE, Jr.; Courier, German, Democratic. Churches: two Methodist Episcopal, one Colored Methodist Episcopal, one Presbyterian, one Old School Presbyterian, one Mission Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Colored Baptist, one German Catholic, one Evangelical Lutheran, two Lutheran, one German Reformed Lutheran, one Episcopalian, one United Brethren, one Christian, one Reformed English. Banks: City, T. T. MITCHELL, president, E. B. MICHELL, cashier; First National, S. A. BAXTER, president, C. M. HUGHES, Jr., cashier; Lima National, B. C. FAUROT, president, F. L. LANDGON, cashier; Merchants', R. MEHAFFEY, president, R. W. THRIFT, Jr., cashier.

 

Manufactures and Employees.-The Lima Engine Manufacturing Company, 6 hands; SINCLAIR & MORRISON, well-drilling tools, 10; W. SCHULTHEIS, leather, 23; E. F. DUNAN, builders' wood-work, 8; C. H. & D. R. R. shops, railroad repairs, 154; Lima Machine Works, locomotives, 150; the Cass Manufacturing Company, handles, sucker-rods, etc., 10; E. W. Cook, job machinery, 37. The

EARLY SETTLERS POUNDING CORN.

Lima Paper-Mills, straw-board and egg-cases, 128; Enterprise Cracker Company, crackers, 10; Woolsey & Co., bent wood-work, etc., 78; Castle & Muller, drilling and fishing tools, 8; Lafayette Car-Works, railroad cars and repairs, 300; L. E. and W. R. R. Company, locomotive repairs, 103; Dr. S. A. Baxter, boxes and staves, 8.State Report 1887. Population in 1860, 2,354; in 1880, 7,567; school census 1886, 3,345. Estimated population in 1888, 18,000.

 

Lima has several fine business blocks. The court-house is one of the most imposing in Ohio; it covers half an acre, and was erected, with the stone jail adjacent, at a cost of $350,000; it is constructed of Berea stone, ornamented with red granite columns. It is 160 feet in height, and has a tower and clock: Its interior finished in granite, and with encaustic tiled floors, is furnished in the finest cherry, and is adorned with statuary. It is the large structure with a tower shown in the street view.

 

 

Page 245

Small village. It was taken near the then residence of James CUNNINGHAM, on the Wapakoneta road. The stream shown in the view in the Ottawa river, often called Hog river—a name derived from the following circumstance: McKEE

 

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

VIEW OF LIMA FROM THE WAPAKONETA ROAD.

 

British Indian agent, who resided a the Macachac towns, on Mad river, during the incursion of Gen. LOGAN in 1786, was obliged to flee with his effects. He had his swine driven on the borders of this stream; the Indians thereafter called it

 

J. W. Mock, Photo., Lima, 1887

STREET VIEW IN LIMA.

 

Koshko sepe,which signifies Hog river. The eccentric Count Coffenbury, in his poem, “The Forest Rangers,” terms it Swinonia. A sketch of the count is given elsewhere in this work, with extracts fro his amusing poetry.

 

 

Page 246

1885, that it was discovered that Lima was in the largest oil-field known on the globe, not even excepting the famous Russian oil-fields. Its discovery was a matter of accident, the history of which, and the position of Lima a year later consequent upon it, has thus been given.

 

“It was while boring for gas at his paper-mill that Mr. B. C. FAUROT found oil at a depth of 1,251 feet, and though Eastern speculators pronounced the product worthless, they soon leased land. In the following August (1885) a citizens' company was formed and a well was put down, which yielded about Sixty barrels per diem, When the manufactories began to use the oil for fuel it brought the low price of forty cents a barrel. The work began in earnest in February, 1886, when the Mandeville company, from Olean, N.Y., leased land known as the Shade farm, at the suburbs of the city, and opened wells which made 200 barrels a day. When refined, the oil proved to be an article of excellent quality. Other wells were soon sunk, and some of them were found to yield some 600 barrels daily. A refinery was built; the work moved on rapidly, and in less than one year there was an increase of at least 1,500 more inhabitants. There are now about 116 oil-wells, with a flow of about 5,000 barrels a day from 125 or more wells. A firm has for some time been manufacturing rigs. Drilling is going on, and another refinery is about to be erected, with a capacity of 2,500 barrels per day. An average of thirty-five wells is developed each month. The Standard Oil Company is now erecting a refinery.”

By May, 1887, there were seventy wells in the city of Lima, and in the entire Lima field over 300. What is termed the Lima oil-field extends southwest about twenty-five miles, through Wapakoneta and St. Mary's, in Auglaize county, into Mercer county, just south of Celina. The entire profitable oil territory of Northwestern Ohio is much larger. It covers all of Allen and Hancock counties, the south part of Wood, and parts of Seneca, Wyandot, Hardin, Putnam, Auglaize, and Mercer counties. The general position of Lima at this period (May, 1887) was thus defined by President BAXTER, of the Board of Trade:

 

 

Page 247

the things that bring the solid wealth to our coffers. To spend it we have, to begin with, a daisy town. We have a system of public-schools that are as near perfection as can be made, and, by the way, we have scrupulously kept the schools out of politics and religion. Every denomination of church is represented. We go to the handsomest little opera-house in the West. For a nickel we can ride two miles on a splendidly equipped electrical street-railroad. For light we can use electricity or gas, each the very perfection of their kind; and for thirst and cleanliness a system of water-works has been provided that, although it broke our hearts and exhausted our purses to build them, more than compensate for all they cost. As to natural gas, we already have enough to set the ordinary village crazy.”

 

From a circular issued in Lima early in the year 1888 we extract some interest­ing details relating to the oil refineries:

 

In the development of the oil industry, the new concerns that have grown up within the past two years are too numerous to mention. Among the heaviest producers of crude oil may be mentioned the Ohio Oil Company, with a capital of one million dollars. They are producing over 4,000 barrels daily, and when a fair price is obtained for “Lima Crude,” have the territory and facilities for increasing their production fourfold. Schofield, Shermer & Teagle, oil refiners of Cleveland, have about fifty producing wells, with fifteen miles of pipe line, and a tankage capacity of 150,000 barrels. They have employed in this field somewhere near $200,000. The Buckeye Pipe Line Company have some 250 miles of pipe line, about 170 large iron tanks of 36, 000 barrels capacity each, and employ in the neighborhood of $3,000,000 in taking care of the product of the field. The Excelsior Pipe Line has something over thirty miles of pipe, with a tankage capacity of about 100,000 barrels, and employ $100,000 in taking care of the crude product. The Eagle Consolidated Refinery has a capacity of 1,000 barrels of refined oil daily. They own sixty tank cars, have fourteen acres of land upon which their works are located, and a capital of $100,000 is invested. The Solar Refinery has 121 acres of land upon which their works are located and employ a capital of half a million dollars. Their capacity is 5,000 barrels daily. The Solar is probably the largest refinery in the country, and additions are being made constantly to the works. During the past year and a half more than a million dollars has been used in the erection of new business buildings, manufacturing establishments and dwelling-houses, and the present year promises still greater investments in building enterprises. Real estate in Lima and throughout the county has always been held at very moderate values. The county is one of the finest agricultural districts in the State, wheat, corn and oats being the staple products, and there is hardly an acre in the county that is not, capable of cultivation.

 

The great enterprise of piping oil from the Lima fields to Chicago manufacturing establishments is now, in this the year 1888, being undertaken by the Standard Oil Company, who practically control all the oil territory around Lima The total length of pipe will be about 210 miles, and the entire investment aggregate over $2,000,000.

 

Page 248

destroyed. Very little else was destroyed but the tanks. No flames of consequence were seen, but immense volumes of smoke poured forth, which seemed as a protection, acting as an impenetrable curtain to outside objects.

 

The Black Swamp tract, in which this county partially lies, has been the scene of much unwritten history in the early settlement of the country. Father FINLEY a sketch of whom is elsewhere given in this work-has preserved a pleasant anecdote connected with the war of 1812 in his sketch of the life of an eminent Methodist minister, Rev. William H. RAPER. At the time he was a lad of nineteen, and volunteered in the company of Capt. Stephen SMITH, of Clermont county, which marched to the frontier. From his brightness, notwithstanding his youth, he was chosen sergeant.

J. W. Mock., Photo., Lima.

FIELD OF DERRICKS, LIMA

THE BLACK SWAMP MUTINY. A day or two before the battle of the Thames, RAPER’S company was told to march up the lake some fifteen miles to prevent the landing of the British from their vessels, and the engagement took place during their absence. This circumstance rendered it necessary for his company, which was now the strongest, to be put in charge of the prisoners taken by Commodore PERRY and Gen. HARRISON, and march them across the State to the Newport Station in Kentucky.

 

Page 249

stepping aside, asked the privilege of saying a word to his companions: it was granted, whereupon he addressed them as follows: “We have been taken in a fair fight, and are prisoners; honorably so, and this conduct is disgraceful to our king's_, flag, not becoming true soldiers. “Now,” said he, “I have had no hand in raising this mutiny, and I propose that all who are m favor of behaving themselves as honorable prisoners of war shall rally around me, and we will take the others in hand ourselves, and the American guard shall stand by and see fair play.” This speech had the desired effect, the mutiny was brought to an end without bloodshed, and RAPER delivered his prisoners at Newport. They had among the prisoners two Indians, whom RAPER forced at the point of the sword to lead them out of the swamp. After RAPER'S arrival in Newport he was offered a commission in the regular army. Such was his love for his mother that he would take no important step without consulting her. The answer was characteristic of the noble mothers of that day.” My son, if my country was still engaged in war and I had fifty sons would freely give them all to her service, but, as peace is now declared, I think something better awaits my son than the camp-life of a soldier in time of peace.” In 1819 RAPER became a minister in the Methodist Church, and while travelling in Indiana, upon the first visit to one of his appointments, a fine, large man approached him, called him brother, and said: “I knew you the moment I saw you, but I suppose you have forgotten me. I am the Scotch soldier that made the speech to the prisoners the morning of the mutiny in the Black Swamp. After we were exchanged as prisoners of war, my enlistment terminated. I had been brought to see the justice of the American cause and the greatness of the country, and I resolved to become an American citizen. I came to this State, rented some land, and opened up a farm. I have joined the Methodist Church, and, praise God! the best of all is, I have obtained religion! Not among the least of my blessings is a fine wife and noble child. So come,” said he, “dinner will be ready by the time we get home.” And the two soldiers, now as friends and Christians, renewed their acquaintance, and were ever after fast friends. At another time RAPER met with a singular accident while riding to one of his appointments. Swimming his horse over a swollen creek, the horse became entangled and sank, but with great effort he managed to catch hold of the limb of a tree overhead, where he was enabled to rest and hold his head above water. While thus suspended, the thought rushed upon him; “Mother is praying for me, and I shall be saved.” After resting a moment he made an effort and got to shore, his horse also safely landing. His mother, ninety miles away, that morning awoke suddenly in affright with the thought upon her, “William is in great danger,” when she sprang from her bed, and falling on her knees prayed for some time in intense supplication for his safety, until she received a sweet assurance that all was well. When they met and related the facts, and compared the time, they precisely agreed. This hero of the Black Swamp died in 1852, closing a life of great usefulness. Father FINLEY says of him that he was an eloquent preacher, a sweet, melodious singer, was filled with the spirit of kindness, while his conversational powers were superior, replete with a fund of useful incidents gathered from practical life in camp, pulpit and cabin.

 

DELPHOS, on the border line of Van Wert and Allen counties, and on the T. St. L. and K. C.; P. Ft. W. and C.; D. Ft. W. and C.; C. and W. P. and C. railroads, lies within the oil and gas belt of Northwestern Ohio, seventy-four miles southwest of Toledo, and in a country of great fertility. The Miami and Erie canal divides the town into two nearly equal parts. The post-office is in Van Wert county.

 

Newspapers: Courant, E. B. WALKUP, editor; Herald Democratic, Tolan & Son, editors and proprietors. Churches: one Presbyterian, two Methodist, one United Brethren, one Catholic, one Christian, one Reformed, one Lutheran. Banks: Commercial, R. K. LYTLE, president, W. H. FULLER, cashier; Delphos National, Theo. WROCKLAGE, president, Jos. BOEHMER, cashier.

 

Manufactures and Employees.-The Ohio Wheel Company, 62 hands; Hartwell Bros., handles, neck-yokes, etc., 14; Delphos Union Stave Company, 23; Pittsburg Hoop and Stave Company, 50; L. F. Werner, woollen yarns, flannels, etc., 8; Steinle & Co., lager beer, 60; Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City R. R., car repairs, 100; Weyer & Davis, hoops, etc., 17; Shenk & Lang, Miller & _.Morton, flour, etc.; Krift & Ricker, D. Moening, builders' wood-work.-State Report 1887. Also Empire Excelsior Works, Delphos Chemical Works, pearlash, etc. Population in 1880, 3,814. School census in 1886, 782; E. W. GREENSLADE, principal.

 

 

Page 250

It is said that Delphos could not have been settled without the aid of quinine. The air was so poisoned with malarial effluvia from swamps and marshes, that not only the pioneers but also the very dogs of the settlement suffered intensely from fever and ague. Ferdinand BREDEICK built the first cabin; E. N. MORTON the first saw and the first grist-mills; and Mrs. George LANG (maiden name, Amelia BREDEICK was the first child born here. The original settlers were German Catholics. In December, 1845, thirty-six male members met in a cabin, and made arrangements to build a church. It was the first established at Delphos, and “its honored founder, Rev. John O. BREDEICK, was the benevolent guardian of the spiritual and material interests of the German settlers, who were pioneers in the inhospitable forests of North America.” It was a huge, ungainly structure. It was succeeded in 1880 by an elegant church, erected at an expense of over $100,000; it has a chime of bells, and its appointments are all in keeping-stained glass windows, paintings, statuary, altars, frescos, organ, etc.

 

Samuel FORRER, the civil-engineer, is regarded as the pioneer of this region, as he ultimately settled here in Delphos. He was connected with the Ohio canal surveys from July, 1825, to 1831, and located the Miami and Erie canal; in 1871, when he was seventy-eight years of age, he still held the position of consulting engineer of this work. Earlier he had been canal commissioner and member of the board of public works.

 

Knapp's “History of the Maumee Valley,” published in 1872, has these interesting items:

 

“The great forests, once so hated because they formed a stumbling-block in the tedious struggles to reduce the soil to a condition for tillage, have been converted into a source of wealth. Within a radius of five miles of Delphos, thirty-five saw-mills (now perhaps doubled) are constantly employed in the manufacture of lumber, and a value nearly equalling the product of these mills is annually exported in the form of lumber. Excepting m the manufacture of maple sugar, and for local building and fencing purposes, no use until recent years had been made of the timber, and its destruction from the face of the earth was the especial object of the pioneer farmers, and in this at that time supposed good work they had the sympathies of all others who were interested in the development of the country. The gathering of the ginseng crop once afforded employment to the families of the early settlers, but the supply was scanty and it soon became exhausted. Some eighteen years ago, when the business of the town was suffering from stagnation, Dr. J. W. HUNT, an enterprising druggist, and now a citizen of Delphos, bethought himself that he might aid the pioneers of the wilderness, and add to his own trade, by offering to purchase the bark from the slippery elm trees, which were abundant in the adjacent swamps. For this new article of commerce he offered remunerative prices, and the supply soon appeared in quantities reaching hundreds of cords of the cured bark; and he has since controlled the trade in Northwestern Ohio and adjacent regions. The resources found in the lumber and timber and in this bark trade, trifling as the latter may appear, have contributed, and are yet contributing, almost as much to the prosperity of the town and country as the average of the cultivated acres, including the products of the orchard.”

 

BLUFFTON, on the L. E. and W. and C. and W. railroads, is seventy-five miles southwest of Sandusky, in the northeast corner of the county. It was laid out in 1837, under the name of Shannon, which it retained many years. Newspaper: News, Independent, N. W. CUNNINGHAM, editor. Churches: one Lutheran, one Methodist, one Catholic, one Reformed, one Presbyterian, and one Dissenters. Bank: People's, Daniel RUSSELL, proprietor and cashier.

 

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SPENCERVILLE, laid out in 1844-45, at the intersection of C. A. and D. Ft. W. C. railroads, and on the Miami and Erie canal, is fourteen miles from Lima. Newspaper: Journal, Independent, S. L. ASHTON, editor. Bank: Citizens', Post & Wasson; I. B. POST, cashier. Churches: one Methodist, one German Methodist, two Baptist, one Catholic, one, German Reformed, and one Christian.

Manufactures and Employees.—J. S. Fogle, Sr., lumber, 5 hands; Richard Hanse churns, 10; George Kephart, clothes-racks, etc., 10; Kolter & Kraft, flour and feed, 6; R. H. Harbisun, builders' wood-work, and also staves and heading, 31; W. A. Reynolds, lumber and feed, 5.-State Report 1886. Census 1880, 532. School census 1886, 468; C. R. CARLO, principal.

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