Homepage

 

Ohio Counties

 

 

Adams  | Allen  | Ashland  | Ashtabula  | Athens  | Auglaize  |  Belmont  | Brown  | Butler  | Carroll  | Champaign  |  Clark  | Clermont   Clinton | Columbiana |  Coshocton | Crawford |  Cuyahoga  | Darke  |  Defiance  |  Delaware  | Erie  |  Fairfield  |  Fayette  |  Franklin  Fulton  |  Gallia  |  Geauga |  Greene | Guernsey |  Hamilton  | Hancock  | Hardin  | Harrison  |  Henry  |  Highland  |  Hocking  | Holmes  |  Huron | Jackson | Jefferson | Knox | Lake | Lawrence | Licking | Logan | Lorain  |  Lucas | Madison | Mahoning | Marion Medina | Meigs | Mercer | Miami | Monroe | Montgomery | Morgan |Morrow | Muskingum | Noble | Ottawa | Paulding | Perry | Pickaway | Pike | Portage | Preble | Putnam |  Richland | Ross  | Sandusky | Scioto | Seneca Shelby | Stark | Summit |  Trumbull | Tuscarawas | Union | Van Wert | Vinton | Warren |  Washington | Wayne  |  Wood | Wyandot

 

 

 

Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. I

©1888

 

HANCOCK COUNTY

Page 867

 

HANCOCK COUNTY was formed April 1, 1820, named from John Hancock, first President of the Revolutionary Congress. The surface is level; soil is black loam, mixed with sand, and based on limestone and very fertile.  Its settlers were generally of Pennsylvania origin.  Area, about 540 square miles.  In 1887 the acres cultivated were 169,013; in pasture, 44,809; woodland, 77,310; lying waste, 1,569; produced in wheat, 567,704 bushels; rye, 38,264; buckwheat, 764; oats, 491,677; barley, 1,376; corn, 1,667,873; broom-corn, 2,000 pounds brush; meadow hay, 26,271 tons;  clover, 10,351 bushels seed; flax, 2,839 pounds fibre; potatoes, 74,601 bushels; butter, 686,107 pounds; sorghum, 3,544 gallons; maple syrup, 16,598; honey, 14,803 pounds; eggs, 647,165 dozen; grapes, 11,445 pounds; sweet potatoes, 363 bushels; apples, 10,435 bushels; peaches, 486 bushels; pears, 652 bushels; wool, 206,987 pounds; milch cows owned, 8,316.  School census, 1888, 11,316; teachers, 274.  Miles of railroad track, 129.

 

 

 

 

Population of Hancock in 1830, 813; 1840, 10,099; 1860, 22,886; 1880, 27,784, of whom 23,102 were born in Ohio, 2,209 Pennsylvania, 270 New York, 252 Virginia, 143 Indiana, 35 Kentucky, 882 German Empire, 89 Ireland, 76 France, 64 England and Wales, 47 British America, 11 Scotland. 

 

The central and southern part of this county is watered by Blanchard’s fork of the Auglaize and its branches.  The Shawnee name of this stream was Sho-po-qua-te-sepe, or Taylor’s river.  We state on the authority of Col. John JOHNSTON that Blanchard, from whom this stream was named, was a tailor, or one that sewed garments.  He was a native of France, and a man of intelligence; but no part of his history could be obtained from him.  He doubtless fled his country for some offence against its laws, intermarried with a Shawnee woman, and after living here thirty years, died in 1802, at or near the site of Fort Findlay.  When the Shawnees emigrated to the West, seven of his children were living, one of whom was a chief.  In the war of 1812 a road was cut through this county, over which the troops for the Northwest passed.  Among these was the army of Hull, which was piloted by Isaac ZANE, M’PHERSON and Robert ARMSTRONG.

 

Findlay in 1846.—Findlay, the county-seat, is on Blanchard’s fork, ninety miles northeast of Columbus.  It contains one Presbyterian and one Methodist church, one academy, two newspaper printing offices, thirteen mercantile stores, one foundry, one clothing, one flouring and one grist mill, and 112 families.  A branch railroad has been surveyed from Cary, on the Mad river railroad, to this place, a distance of sixteen miles, which probably ere long be constructed.  Findlay derives its name from Fort Findlay, built in the late war by James FINDLAY, who was a citizen of Cincinnati, a colonel in the late war, and afterwards a member of Congress.  The fort stood on the south bank of Blanchard’s fork, just west of the present bridge.  It was a stockade of about fifty yards square,

Page 868

 

with block-houses at its corners and a ditch in front.  It was used as a depot for military stores and provisions.

 

About 9 o’clock one dark and windy night in the late war, Capt. William OLIVER (now of Cincinnati), in company with a Kentuckian, left Fort Meigs for Fort Findlay, on an errand of importance, the distance being about thirty-three miles.  They had scarcely started on their dreary and perilous journey, when they unexpectedly came upon an Indian camp, around the fires of which the Indians were busy cooking their suppers.  Disturbed by the noise of their approach, the savages sprang up and ran towards them.  At this they reined their horses into the branches of a fallen tree.  Fortunately the horses, as if conscious of the danger, stood perfectly still, and the Indians passed around the tree without making any discovery in the thick darkness.  At this juncture OLIVER and his companion put spurs to their horses and dashed forward into the woods, through which they passed all the way to their point of destination.  They arrived safely, but with their clothes completely torn off by the brambles and bushes, and their bodies bruised all over by contusions against the trees.  They had scarcely arrived in the fort when the Indians in pursuit made their appearance, but too late, for their prey had escaped.

 

The town of Findlay was first laid out by ex-Gov. Joseph VANCE and Elnathan CORRY, in 1821, and in 1829 relaid out, lots sold, and a settlement systematically commenced.  In the fall of 1821, however, Wilson VANCE (brother of the above) moved into Findlay with his family.  There were then some ten or fifteen Wyandot families in the place, who had made improvements.  They were a temperate, fine-looking people, and friendly to the first settlers.  There were at this time but six other white families in the county besides that of Mr. VANCE.  Mr. V. is now the oldest settler in the county.  For the first two or three years all the grain which he used he brought in teams from his brothers’ mills in Champaign county, about forty miles distant.  To this should be excepted some little corn which he bought of the Indians, for which he occasionally paid as high as $1 per bushel, and ground it in a hand-mill.

 

There are some curiosities in the town and county worthy of note.  At the south end of Findlay are two gas-wells.  From one of them the gas has been conducted by a pipe into a neighboring dwelling and used for light.  A short distance west of the bridge, on the north bank of Blanchard’s fork, at Findlay, is a chalybeate spring of excellent medicinal qualities, and from which issues inflammable gas.  In the eastern part of the town is a mineral spring possessing similar qualities.  Three miles south of Findlay is a sycamore of great height, and thirty-four feet in circumference at its base.  Ten miles below Findlay, on the west bank of Blanchard’s fork, on the road to Defiance, are two sugar-maple trees, thirty feet distant at their base, which, about sixty feet up, unite and form one trunk, and thus continue from thence up, the body of one actually growing into the other, so that each lose their identity and form one entire tree.—Old Edition.

 

FINDLAY, county-seat of Hancock, about 85 miles northwest of Columbus, about 45 miles south of Toledo, is on the L. E. & W.; T. C. & S.; and I. B. & W. railroads.  The largest natural-gas wells in the world supply manufacturers here with fuel at a nominal cost; private consumers pay fifteen cents a month per stove while in use, and for illuminating purposes five cents per month per burner.  Oil is abundant, is piped elsewhere, and some refined here.

                                                                                                                               

County officers in 1888: Auditor, William T. PLATT; Clerk, Presley E. HAY; Commissioners, Isaac M. WATKINS, George W. KROUT, Calvin W. BROOKS; Coroner, Jesse A. HOWELL; Infirmary Directors, James M. CUSAC, Alexander R. MORRISON, WM. R. McKEE; Probate Judge, George W. MYERS; Prosecuting Attorney, James A. BOPE; Recorder, John B. FOLTZ; Sheriff, George L. CUSAC; Surveyor, Ulysses K. STRINGFELLOW; Treasurer, Andrew J. MOORE.

 

City Officer in 1888.—Wm. L. CARLIN, Mayor; Jacob H. BOGER, Clerk; Jacob HUBER, Treasurer; J. W. BLY, Marshal; Jas. A. BOPE, Solicitor; Godfrey NUSSER, Street Commissioner.

 

Page 869