PUTNAM COUNTY
PUTNAM COUNTY was formed from Old Indian Territory, April 1, 1820, and named from General Israel PUTNAM, who was born at Salem, Mass., January 7, 1718, and died at Brooklyn, Conn., May 29, 1790. In 1824, when Williams county was organized, Putnam, Henry and Paulding counties were attached to it for judicial purposes, and in 1834 Putnam was organized as a separate county. The surface is generally level and, much of the land being within the Black Swamp district, is wet but, when cleared and drained, very fertile. Area about 510 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 129,123; in pasture, 16,083; woodland, 66,297; lying waste, 3,053; produced in wheat, 484,800 bushels; rye, 29,446; buckwheat, 567; oats, 210,827; barley, 4,826; corn, 1,505,147; broom-corn, 1,315 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 16,597 tons; clover hay, 4,298; flax-seed, 90 bushels; potatoes, 64,466; tobacco, 350 lbs.; butter 498,743; cheese, 4,440; sorghum, 7,408 gallons; maple syrup, 3,007; honey, 8,121 lbs.; eggs, 755,555 dozen; grapes, 1,784 lbs.; sweet potatoes, 375 bushels; apples, 6,511; peaches, 234; pears, 193; wool, 51,141 lbs.; milch cows owned, 7,289. Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888: Limestone: 1,055 cubic feet of dimension stone, 2,559 cubic yards of building stone, 1,125 square feet of flagging, 6,750 square feet paving, 3,498 lineal feet of curbing, 1,097 cubic yards of ballast or macadam.
School census, 1888, 9,893; teachers, 241; Miles of railroad track, 96.
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
Blanchard, |
670 |
1,787 |
|
Palmer, |
|
929 |
Greensburg, |
275 |
940 |
|
Perry, |
266 |
1,073 |
Jackson, |
|
1,047 |
|
Pleasant, |
325 |
3,013 |
Jennings, |
350 |
1,443 |
|
Richland, |
387 |
|
Liberty, |
125 |
1,536 |
|
Riley, |
621 |
1,484 |
Monroe, |
518 |
788 |
|
Sugar Creek, |
405 |
1,300 |
Monterey, |
|
1,354 |
|
Union, |
400 |
1,398 |
Ottawa, |
690 |
3,177 |
|
Van Buren, |
|
2,444 |
Population of Putnam in 1830 was 230; 1840, 5,132; 1860, 12,808; 1880, 23,713; of whom 19,757 were born in Ohio; 777, Pennsylvania; 230, Virginia; 174, New York; 174, Indiana; 38, Kentucky; 1,264, German Empire; 218, England and Wales; 117, Ireland; 94, France; 52, British America; 11, Scotland, and 5 Norway and Sweden. Census, 1890, 30,188.
PUTNAM COUNTY IN 1846.
A large proportion of the population is from eastern Ohio, and of Pennsylvania extraction. In Ottawa, Greensburg, Riley and Jennings are many natives of Germany. The site of old Fort Jennings is in the southwest part. There were two Indian towns in the county of some note–the upper ‘Tawa town was on Blanchard’s fork; two miles below, on the site of the present Ottawa village, was the lower ‘Tawa town.
Kalida, the [old] county-seat, is on Ottawa river, 114 miles northwest of Columbus. It was laid out in 1834 as the seat of justice, and named from a Greek word signifying “beautiful.” It contains a Methodist church, four stores, a newspaper printing-office, and thirty-six dwellings.
In Riley is a settlement of ‘Aymish or Omish,” a sect of the “Mennonites or Harmless Christians.” They derive their name from Aymen, their founder, and were originally known as Aymenites. This sect wear long beards, and reject all superfluities in dress, diet and property. They have ever been remarkable for
page 464
industry, frugality, temperance and simplicity. At an early day many of the Omish emigrated from Germany to Pennsylvania. When they first came to the country they had neither churches nor graveyards. “A church,” said they, “we do not require, for in the depth of the thicket, in the forest, on the water, in the field and in the dwelling, God is always present.” Many of their descendants, deviating from the practice of their forefathers, have churches and burial grounds.
The view, “A Home in the Wilderness,” represents a log tavern in the western part of the county, on the road to Charloe. It was built about thirty years since by two men, assisted by a female. It has long been a favorite stopping-place for travellers, as many as twenty or thirty having, with their horses, frequently tarried here over night, when journeying through the wilderness. The situation is charming. It is on the banks of the Auglaize, which flows in a ravine some fifteen or twenty feet below. All around stand massive trees, with foliage luxuriantly developed by the virgin fertility of the soil, while numerous branches have in the passing waters. We came suddenly upon the place on a pleasant day in June, 1846, and were so much pleased with its primitive simplicity and loveliness as to stop and make a more familiar acquaintance. We alighted from our faithful “Pomp,” turned him loose among the fresh grass, drew our portfolio from our saddle-bags, and while he was rolling amid the clover in full liberty, and the ladies of the house were seated sewing in the open space between the parts of the cabin, fanned by a gentle breeze–we took a sketch as a memorial of a scene we shall never forget, and to present to our readers a view of “A Home in the Wilderness.”
Gilboa, Pendleton, Ottawa, Columbus, Grove, Madeira and Glandorff are all small places in this county, the largest of which, Gilboa, contains about thirty-five dwellings.–Old Edition.
TRAVELLING NOTES.
The foregoing comprises about all my old account of Putnam county. Indeed, the entire county then was largely forest and water. The most interesting point is my picture of the “Home in the Wilderness.” That picture proved to be one of the most attractive things in my old book. It seemed to touch a chord in the hearts of multitudes who had begun life in the midst of such scenes. It is note-worthy that now, after the lapse of forty-three years, I should receive a letter from a stranger, a then boy, who sat by my side when I drew that picture, which tells me all the circumstances, but which I had long since forgotten. His letter is from Dawn, Darke county, Ohio, dated April 2, 1889, and signed S. S. HOLDEN. It gives some interesting things about the old home, long since vanished. It was prompted partly by learning that the painter of an oil painting of it had put in the claim that his painting was an original design of his own. We quote:
“I am by profession a
minister of the
Gospel, of the ‘United Brethren Church (in Christ).’ I will be qualified that
the picture on your
letter-head is a picture of the man who drew the sketch of our home
about the
year 1846. I am a
son of P. B. HOLDEN,
whose name appears on the sign as you drew it.
I was then 14 years old, and recollect it about as vividly
as if it had
occurred but yesterday–your riding into the yard on
horse-back; getting off
your horse; laying your paper, pencils, etc., about you on the old sled
or mud boat, which lay in the yard
at that
time, and is shown in the picture, and watching you draw the scene. Such an occurrence was too
rare not to make
an impression on a boy like me. A
man
named Sebastian SROUFE built the house.
He died and was buried near there.
Two of his sons were named George and Albert–the
latter was a school
teacher. His widow
married Judge
PERKINS, and they moved to Williams county.
“While you were making
the sketch, my
mother and a lady school teacher sat in the open space between the two
rooms,
sewing. Before you
had completed it, my
brother and a Mr. Whiting cam through the yard where we were sitting,
having
been to a deer lick. One of them carried his
gun at ‘trail arms’
and the other carried his gun on his shoulder,
and
with them was our dog ‘Tyler.’ ”
It was well the dog was along. His name marks the era of
the event and helps
to confirm the truth of Mr. HOLDEN’s
statement. The
hard-cider campaign had only passed a few
years before, when the old Whigs had
Page 466
Drawn
by Henry Howe on a pleasant day in June, 1846.
SCENE ON
THE AUGLAIZE—A HOME IN THE WILDERNESS.
Page 467
sung “For Tippecanoe and
Tyler too.” Hence
it was natural for them to thus name
their dogs “Tip” for Tippecanoe and
“Tyler” for Tyler too.
Humor comes from incongruous associations, so
Mark Twain named his jumping frog Daniel WEBSTER–both were
heavy weights: one
from brains and brawn, the other from shot.
The “Home” was
on the main route from Kalida
to Charloe, about five
miles northwest from the former, The Samuel HOLDEN, who lived there as
stated,
was an United Brethren
clergyman. So the
home seemed to have done service as
both parsonage and tavern. Later,
as I
have been told, the Rev. Branson GOOD made it his home, and the
building stood
until about thirty years since.
Since receiving the letter from his
son, I
find in the Pioneer Reminiscences of the county a statement by Mr.
George
SKINNER which leads me to believe that this was the first house built
in Putnam
county.
He
says: “The first building that could be designated a house
was erected by two
men and a woman on section 21, Perry township, by Sebastian
SROUFE.” He
then states it was on the Auglaize, and
that he was buried close by.
A
Strange Animal.–After
leaving this
now pet spot in my memory, making
my
way westward, I discovered a strange animal running on the ground. I sprang from my horse and
killed it with a
club, it showing no fight. I
then tied
it on my horse, back of the saddle, thinking it might be some valuable
game. I had no
sooner got it on, than
Pomp began to dance up and down, especially the back part of him; then,
trotting off, I had great difficulty in catching him, and was fearful I
should
have to pass the night in these woods of the Black Swamp. Then I saw what was the
matter. A
quantity of pin-quills were sticking in his back, gathered
from the
animal. Every
motion of his body drove
them farther in. It
was a hedgehog, or
porcupine–the only specimen I ever saw.
There are a variety of porcupines, and everywhere, we
believe, it is deemed
a harmless, sluggish animal. The
American species live largely on insects, slugs and worms, and
hibernate during
cold weather in holes in the earth; but do not take part in the role of
heavy
sleepers, for on the first advent of warm days in spring they come out
to bask
in the sunshine and see what is “up.”
The porcupine has quills and hair, and the Indian women
ornament
moccasins with the quills. Indians
have
been known to convert their skins into whiskey jugs.
The African porcupine has quills of an
immense size, with a peacock like display.
The English porcupine is sometimes domesticated, is good
for hunting
cockroaches, and is said to be good to eat; unlike the American, when
pursued
he rolls himself into a ball shape as a defense, and woe to the mouth
of the
dog that tries to bite him. It
must be a
very spunky Scotch terrier that will persevere to a conquering end. None of these kinds of
porcupines throw their
quills; that is a popular delusion.
The
only species ugly enough to do that is the human.
After relieving Pomp of his burden
and his
back of the quills, I had a lonely ride through the woods and ended my
day’s
journey at a miserable tavern near the line of the canal, at what I
think was Charloe. The fare
was hard, the night hot, and my bed cruel.
I thought I was going to my slumbers alone; never was
greater hallucination;
they came upon me in a voracious multitude.
Of all things I abhor crowds; so I sprang out as though I
had been shot
and passed the night on the bare boards of the floor.
My travelling
through Ohio in 1846 was not all “honey pie.”
OTTAWA, county-seat of Putnam, is on the Blanchard fork of the Auglaize, about ninety miles northwest of Columbus, fifty-two miles southwest of Toledo, and on the C., H. & D. Railroad. In 1866, the court-house at Kalida having been destroyed by fire, Ottawa, by a majority vote of the people of 455, was made the county-seat. County officers, 1888: Auditor, W. W. PLACE; Clerk, H. W. SCHMITSCHULTE; Commissioners, Wm. BOEHMER, James H. SMITH, John T. MALLAHAN; Coroner, Jacob F. LEFFLER; Infirmary Directors, Jos. H. MILLER, J. R. RIMER, R. E. GILBERT; Probate Judge, J. H. UPHAUS; Prosecuting Attorney, John P. BAILEY, Recorder, L. M. LUDWIG; Sheriff, Peter WANNEMACHER; Surveyor, D. W. SEITZ; Treasurer, Otho W. CRAWFIS. City officers, 1888: John GORDON, Mayor; August SHERLOW, Clerk; L. B. YOUNTZ, Treasurer; Schuyler BLAKEMAN, Marshal. Newspapers: Gazette, Republican, C. L. H. LONG, editor and publisher; Putnam County Sentinel, Democratic, George D. KINDER, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Catholic, 1 United Brethren, 1 Presbyterian. Banks: Ottawa Exchange; SLAUSON & DeFORD; A. V. Rice & Co.
Manufactures and Employees.–Rice, Brown & Co., wheels, 39 hands; J. R. SMITH, lumber, 7; Ottawa Gate Manufacturing Co., gates, sleds, etc., 15; BRINKMAN Bros., carriages, etc., 8; William ANNESSER, flour, etc., 4; ROBEAULT & REAM, planing mill, etc., 6.–State Report, 1887.
Population, 1880, 1,293. School census, 1888, 540; C. C. MILLER, school su-
Page 468
perintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $75,500. Value of annual product, $64,500.–Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887.
Census, 1890, 1,717.
PIONEER REMINISCENCES.
The pioneers organized at Kalida September 6, 1873, with George SKINNER as chairman, who appointed as committee to draft a constitution and by-laws, Dr. Moses LEE, Henry M. CRAWFIS, and George SKINNER.
The first article declared all persons resident in the county prior to 1840 eligible to membership. The society issued two pamphlets of Reminiscences–one in 1878 and one in 1886. We give items from these “talks” in abridged form.
GEORGE SKINNER, born in Hamilton county in 1816. Had his little stock of saddlery wagoned from Piqua to Kalida in 1839, and opened a shop. Nearest saddler on the south was at Lima; Findlay, east; Defiance, north; Fort Wayne, west. Two stores then in Kalida, Sheldon GUTHRIE’S and Moses LEE’S; two taverns, Dr. LEE’S and James THATCHER’s; court-house then building. First courts were held in the cabin of Abraham SARBER. First court, May 5, 1834.
The first settler in the county was
DAVID
MURPHY. He came
down the Blanchard from
Fort Findlay in a canoe, in 1824, with his family; went up the Auglaize
three
miles and settled on the bayou. Erected
a cabin of poles; ran out of provisions; none nearer than Fort Findlay;
out
also of rifle balls; recollected where he had shot a ball into a tree;
hunted
the tree, cut out the ball, recast it, and seeing a bear on the limb of
a tree,
took aim at the bear–a trying moment–killed the
bear.
H. S. KNAPP became at an early day
editor
of the Kalida Venture.
Went one Sunday to a
camp-meeting at Columbus Grove, in a wagon, with his wife. They were newly married. Started to return together
on horseback and
got dumped into a mud-hole. Knapp
tried
to pull his wife out but failed. Backed
his horse; wife caught horse’s tail and was pulled out. The Venture
appeared next morning with editorials short and crabbed. [The
opposition papers
denounced his newspaper as the “Kalida
VULTURE.” KNAPP
lived to write the history of the Maumee
valley, and dedicated it to “Rutherford B. HAYES, late
Governor of Ohio.” The
Venture
was established in 1841 by James MACKENZIE; in the course of years lost
its
unique, enterprising name, and is now the Putnam County Sentinel,
with Geo. D. KINDER, editor “on guard.”]
East from the barn of William
TURNER, in
Pleasant township, is a
low piece of bottom land some
twenty rods wide. In
1845 there was an
upheaval of the earth; a ridge formed across from bank to bank, some
four feet
high and about thirty wide, which dammed up a creek there; so that Mr.
TURNER
was obliged to cut a channel through it to let off the accumulated
waters. The cause
of this no one knows.
For many years after the
organization of
the county a session of the court was deemed a fit time for a spree, a
general
good time; so it was common to hold court all day, and have a jolly
good time
all night during the entire term of the court.
Wheat, corn, potatoes and pork were
raised
with very little trouble, and, when properly taken care of, want was
never
known. Game was
plenty. Coon and deer-skins, with
the money brought by emigrants, formed about all the currency. Hand-mills for grinding
corn were almost a
household necessity, and the meal from one ear, made into bread, was
deemed ample
for one meal for one person. On
calling
for a dinner, persons sometimes had to wait until the corn was shelled,
ground
and baked.
HIRAM SARBER, born in Franklin county in 1817, settled one mile
below Kalida
in 1833. When corn
began to ear, along
came the coons and squirrels, and it seemed as though they would get it
all. Father said to
me, “Hiram, there is
the little gun and dog. I
want you to
watch the coons and squirrels out of the corn-field.” I thought this would be
fun, but I found out
better in a few days. I
shot squirrels
by day and hunted coons by night.
The
dog would lay by daytime; when night came he was ready for a hunt, when
I would
open the door and say, “Go! Hunt them,” and wait
until he barked. He
would not kill them until I came.
At last I got so tired of this that I tied
him up to get some sleep. If
I let him
loose, he would soon find one, and then bark until father would call
out,
“Hiram! Do
you hear the dog?” and then I
would have to get up and go; for I knew better than to disobey him.
The Indians were plenty here, and
we had
considerable sport with them shooting at a mark, hopping, and running
foot-races. The
first winter and spring,
if we boys wanted young company we had to go twelve miles to a
settlement,
where there were about a dozen boys and girls that attended meeting,
and a
singing at a log school-house.
The
First
Road
in the county was the one cut
through from Fort Recovery to Defiance, by Anthony WAYNE, in 1794. This passed
Page 469
along the west side of the river, and
has ever since, with
few variations, been used as a public road.
At the intersection of Jennings creek with the Auglaize,
on this road,
Col. JENNINGS erected, in 1812, a stockade for the protection of
supplies
between Fort Recovery and Fort Defiance; and on this road the first
mail was
established, and the mail carried between Piqua and Defiance, once a
week, on
horseback, supplying between the termini the offices of Hardin, Wapakonetta, and Sugar Grove
(this was at the house of
Sebastian SROUFE, near HOVER’s
Mills), the only
post-office in the county. The
mail was
carried by a boy, C. C. MARSHALL, from September, 1829, to December 31,
1831. This boy was
afterward Mayor of
Delphos, Superintendent of the Miami and Erie Canal, and a member of
both
houses of the legislature.
JOHN WILCOX, born in Madison county in 1825; his parents
settled in Perry township in
1827. One night,
when the father was
absent and the pioneer wife alone with her two babes in the rude cabin,
“the
rains descended and the floods came;” the mother took her
babes, her axe, and
pot of fire (matches then being unknown), and started for higher
ground, which
she reached after wading through water for a quarter of a mile, and
build a
fire where the first orchard was planted in the subsequent year, the
trees
being purchased from John CHAPMAN–“Johnny
APPLESEED”–who was peddling in a boat
from his nursery near Fort Findlay.
The
rise of the waters again compelled her to seek higher ground; and here
she was
found later in the day by Demit MACKERAL, who had come to her relief in
a
canoe.
The
January Flood of
1830 was the highest
ever known to white settlers. The
river
appeared to seek its level with the neighboring swamps as tributaries. Hog creek, on a
“high,” united its waters
with the Blanchard at Prairie Run.
When
it was at its highest and the earth saturated with water, making it all
slush
and mud, the weather, being quite warm for the season, suddenly changed
to
extreme cold, and the almost boundless sea of water was frozen into a
glare of
ice to the depth of an inch and a half.
Cattle lying down at night were frozen to the ground
before morning, and
the legs of some were frozen to the knees.
On this glare of ice hundreds of deer were killed by
wolves, they being
headed off of the dry ridges upon which they had sought shelter; and
once on
the smooth ice they became an easy prey to the ravenous beasts.
WILLIAM GALBRAITH.
Ottawa Indians were his only neighbors when
he settled in Putnam county
in 1834. Sycamore and his squaw, who
had a pappoose, got
into a quarrel, when he pulled
out his knife and cut the child in two.
Each one had half, and they settled the quarrel.
Indian
Tom
would steal, so the tribe
concluded to put him out of the way.
One
evening, when the river was rising very fast, they took him down into a
low
bottom, and tied him to stakes driven in the ground, expecting the
river to
rise before morning and drown him.
But
there was a young squaw, who went down in the night and cut him loose. Tom finally went with the
Ottawa tribe west.
STANSBURY SUTTON settled on Ottawa
Green
in 1833. Indian Tom was a bad Indian.
In the spring of 1834 he stole a pony from some of his
tribe. They tried
him for stealing, found him
guilty, took him from camp, divested him of his clothing, laid him on
his back,
tied him to a stake, and left him to remain all night, subject to the
torture
of the innumerable hosts of mosquitos
and gnats. I saw
Tom the next morning; he was a fearful
looking object. He
looked as though
every pore of his skin had been penetrated by the insects. I sympathized with him,
notwithstanding I
knew he was a thief. After
Tom was
released they procured whiskey, and the whole tribe (except Pe
Donqet, the chief) got
drunk and had a general spree,
lasting two days.
In the early settlement of a new
country
there is to be found a larger development of a true and genuine
brotherly love
and magnanimity than in any other place.
In the fall of 1833 a Mr. OWENS lost two cows. Thinking he would find
them on Tawa Green, he
pursued them to that place. Finding
they had gone on, he borrowed some
money of my father to pay his expenses, and pushed on after them. On the third day he
returned with the cows,
returned the same money, saying he could not get any one to take a cent
of it.
J. Y. SACKETT settled in Riley township in 1833.
Devil Jim and two
others were claimants
for the chieftainship of the Ottawa tribe of Indians.
The tribe chose one of the other two, and
Devil Jim, stepping up to his successful opponent, knife in hand, stabbed him in the abdomen,
causing death. The
tribe decided that the heir to the
chieftainship should execute Jim.
The
executioner took the knife in hand, and commenced stabbing Jim, but
without
much effect. Jim
damned him; told him he
did not know how to kill a man, and, placing his hand on his left
breast, told
him to stab there. He
obeyed; and Jim
fell dead.
BROCKMAN BROWER settled in
Greensburg township in
1833. We
obtained our fruit trees from John CHAPMAN (“Johnny
APPLESEED”). When
I first saw him he was floating down the
Blanchard river in a
canoe, loaded with apple-trees,
distributing them among the early settlers along the Blanchard,
Auglaize, and
Maumee rivers. He
would supply trees to
all, regardless of their ability to pay for them. His
nursery was near the headwaters of the
Blanchard. Loading
a canoe, he would
descend the river, supplying all who were in need of fruit-trees. He thus devoted his time
and means for the
benefit of his fellow-man. The
year 1834
was noted for the July flood, It
rained a large
portion of the time, from the 20th of June until
the 4th
of July, at which time the river was at its highest.
It was rising nearly two weeks,
Page 470
and nearly as long going down. It will now rise to its
highest point in three
or four days, and recede in the same length of time.
Dr. R. W. THRIFT, in an address
before the
Pioneer Association, said: “When I first came into the county
the country
appeared to be a dead level, densely and heavily wooded, with swales on
every
side that fed the streams, and kept them more or less swollen all the
year
round. The main
roads had been recently
cut out, and instead of there being any ditches as now to drain and dry
them,
they were walled up on either side by massive trees, that excluded from
their
surface the sunlight and the winds, and left them moist and muddy at
all
seasons when not actually frozen.
So far
as I know, there was not a bridge across the Auglaize, Hog creek, or
the
Blanchard, anywhere along their course through the county; and perhaps
not from
their common source in the great marsh in Hardin county
to where they unitedly
empty into the Maumee at
Defiance. One of
the best qualifications
of the physician’s horse then was to be a safe, high swimmer;
and among the
first lessons the physician had to learn in manual labor was how to
‘paddle his
own canoe.’”
It is related of one of the old
settlers,
that being sick and in need of a medical man, his nearest source of
supply was
Defiance, possibly Dr. COLBY or EVANS, as they were among the first of
that
town; at all events a single visit was made, and the old settler was
subsequently told that his bill was $20.
He was astonished, and protested that it was too much. “See
here,” said the doctor, “that bill is
not high, considering the result of my visit.
Here you are sound and well again; then you looked to me
as though you
were about to die. Of
course, if you had
died, I should not have charged you so much.”
“O my1 O my!” said the old settler,
“I wish I had died then, doctor.”
I suppose really that life on the Auglaize at
that time had not as many charms as it might now have upon the banks of
the
Hudson.
THE BLACK SWAMP.
There is no other region of equal area within the State which presents such a monotonous surface as the eighteen counties included in the Maumee valley, in what is known as the “Black Swamp” region, although only a part of them properly include the “Black Swamp.”
There is no portion of the entire valley which could with propriety be termed “hilly;” yet there are portions, such as the northern part of Williams, a portion of Allen, Auglaize and other counties, which are gently undulating, yet scarce sufficiently so to merit the term “rolling.” Nowhere are hills to be found. A very remarkable feature of the surface of the valley is the distinct outline of ancient beaches, locally known as “Sand Ridge,” “Oak Ridge,” “Sugar Ridge,” and perhaps by other cognomens, and found in nearly every county forming the valley.
A
Level Road–The
principal one of these
enters Ohio near Fayette, and passes in a southwesterly direction to
Fort
Wayne, Ind., and from here it takes a southeasterly course to Van Wert,
Ohio,
from there to Delphos, Columbus Grove, Findlay, Tiffin, Milan, and
thence east. From
the western portion of Cuyahoga county
one may travel this ancient beach–for it is a good road
throughout almost its
entire length–250 miles by way of Tiffin, Forts Finley and
Wayne, and through
the counties of Defiance, Williams and Fulton, to the State of
Michigan, and
not be subject to an extreme range of seventy-five feet of variation in
elevation in the entire distance.
Its
average altitude above the lake is about 225 feet.
A second ridge enters the State in Ridgefield
township, Lucas county; passes southwesterly and crosses the Maumee
about two
miles east of Defiance; thence to Ayresville,
where
it branches into two separate ridges nearly parallel; the inner ridge
passes
through the southern part of Henry, northeasterly through Wood and into
Ottawa
county; the outer one of these branches passes through Putnam, northern
part of
Hancock, into the southern part of Wood, and east into Senecca
county, and from thence toward Fremont and Sandusky City.
Ancient
Beaches of the Lake.–These are the
principal ridges, but there are many smaller and intermediate ridges. These sand ridges are
usually very narrow,
but in places spread out over a considerable area, sometimes one-half
to
three-fourths of a mile. Then,
again,
they form vast dunes, as in Washington township, Henry county.
This entire township may be regarded as one
vast sand dune.
These ridges were undoubtedly the
ancient
shores or beaches of the lake, formed by the action of the waves, just
as
beaches are now forming on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Drainage
Obstructed.–The
course or direction
of the ridges is, as a rule, parallel to the shore of the lake; or, in
other
words, at right angles to the general direction of the most rapid
drainage. In
consequence of their
direction, drainage has most certainly been obstructed.
We do not infrequently find a marsh created
by the ridge presenting a permanent barrier to the passage of the
accumulated
waters to a lower level beyond. In
other
instances we find a stream deflected
Page 471
Top
Picture
This
map shows Maumee
Valley and the other divisions of Ohio as arranged
by the lat Prof. Klippart,
Ohio State University.
Bottom
Picture
John
H. Schell, Photo.,
Ottawa, 1887.
PUTNAM
COUNTY COURT-HOUSE, ETC., OTTAWA.
Page 472
from the direction of the shortest
and
most rapid drainage, as in the case of Blanchard’s fork or
Auglaize river, at
Findlay, where it is deflected west, and finds an outlet at Defiance
into the
Maumee, when its natural drainage–and everything is favorable
for this latter
except the ridge–would be through the middle or east branch
of Portage river,
and its waters to enter the lake at Port Clinton, instead of Toledo,
via
Defiance. It is by
no means improbable
that these beaches or ridges gave direction to the headwaters of the
St. Joseph
and Tiffin rivers, in Williams and Fulton counties, and caused them to
make
vast detours before their waters mingled with those of the lake. Williams county,
having a general elevation of 250 feet above the lake, the surface of
the
county, except for these beaches, would have directed the waters of the
St.
Joseph through Fulton county, and thus have reached the lake after a
flow of
fifty miles instead of 160. The
fifty-mile route would have afforded a fall of five feet per mile,
whilst the
actual route, estimating the sinuosities
of the
stream, is really less than one foot per mile.
Deflection
of Rivers.–The
Maumee valley is
watered by the Maumee, Portage and Sandusky rivers and their
tributaries. Notwithstanding
the fact that a well-defined
ancient beach exists in Van Wert, Allen, Putnam, Hancock and Seneca
counties,
having an average elevation of about 225 feet above the present level
of the
lake, and rudely conforming in its course to the present shore, the
general
direction of the three rivers above named is that of almost a right
angle from
this ancient beach to the lake; yet many of the principal tributaries
flow in a
direction parallel to the ancient beach, rather than in the direction
of the
principal streams.
The St. Mary river at Bremen, in
Auglaize county, is
distant from the lake about 120 miles; yet it
flows northwesterly to Fort Wayne, Ind., where it joins the St. Joseph
and
forms the Maumee, its waters flowing 160 miles from Bremen to Toledo.
Blanchard’s fork, rising
in Hardin county,
flows north into Hancock county, where it assumes the name of Auglaize;
thence
flows nearly parallel to the ancient beach in an almost due west
direction, to
the eastern boundary of Paulding county, a distance of about fifty
miles;
thence it flows northward and enters the Maumee at Defiance, having a
descent
of about 100 feet in sixty-five miles, or about eighteen inches per
mile; but
if from Findlay it flowed north, it would reach the lake in less than
fifty
miles, and have a descent of 200 feet, or four feet per mile.
The foregoing account of the
natural
phenomena which produced the Black Swamp is abridged from the report of
an
agricultural survey of the State, made in 1870, by Prof. J. H. KLIPPART.
An anecdote illustrating the
difficulties
of travel through this region early in the history of the State,
is related in Waggoner’s “History of Toledo and
Lucas Counties;”
A
Mud-hole Franchise.–Among the
cultivated industries of that region at one time was the furnishing of
relief
to travellers, chiefly
emigrants, whose teams were
found to be incompetent for the condition of the road, the chief
difficulty
arising in their being stalled in the successive
“mud-holes.” So
common had this become that some landlords
provided themselves with extra yokes of oxen with which to extend the
needed
relief. This
business came to be so far
systematized that the rights of settlers to the
“mud-hole” nearest them were
mutually recognized. It
was told that,
on a time, a certain tavern-keeper, who had long held undisputed
possession of
a particularly fine “mud-hole,” which he had
cultivated with special care for
the profit it brought him, sold his stand, preparatory to leaving the
country. Regarding
his interest in the
“hole” as a franchise too valuable to be abandoned,
he finally sold his
quit-claim thereto to a neighbor for the sum of $5, being probably the
only
case on record of the sale of a “mud-hole,” for use
as such.
Some years since an extended system
of
draining and ditching was
inaugurated in this
region. The
following account of what
was done in Wood county will give some idea of the extent and value of
the
work. It is
extracted form a
communication to the Toledo Commercial
by a very respectable citizen of Perrysburg:
Increase
in Value through Drainage.–The
improvement already made in the surface of the county has exceeded all
expectation. Lands
in this county which
but a few years since were covered with interminable swamps and forest,
purchasable at from two to ten dollars per acre, have been converted
into good
farms, now commanding from twenty to fifty dollars per acre. This marked change is
mainly attributable to
the extensive and excellent system of drainage or ditching, so
vigorously
pushed forward in every portion of the county.
It is a source of congratulation that this same system of
drainage is
not confined to this county. It
is doing
as much for the agricultural development of neighboring counties, and
is being
as thoroughly and vigorously prosecuted.
The face of the Black Swamp region at this time presents a
complete
network of ditches, draining the land of surplus water and improving
and
developing the resources of northwestern Ohio.
Ditches
in Wood County.–The
petition for the
construction of the first ditch in Wood county
was
filed in the auditor’s office April 28, 1859, and up to
September, 1869, there
were constructed and in process of construction 140 ditches, whose
aggregate
length is 495 miles. The
respective
length of the ditches is as follows:
16
ditches are less than 1 mile in length.
95
ditches are 1 mile and less that 6.
20
ditches are 6 miles and less than 12.
1
ditch is 37 3/8 miles long.
The last mentioned is designated as
Ditch No. 12, and
is “one of the institutions” of Wood
county–a fact to which taxpayers can
readily
Page 473
testify.
When entirely
completed it will drain and render fit for cultivation not less than
50,000
acres of wet and swamp land. It
has a
total fall of 67 ½ feet.
Its bottom
width varies from ten to twenty feet, and its depth from one to eight
feet. This one
improvement alone might
claim rank with ship canals without a very great degree of presumption. It is by this system of
drainage that the
entire area of country once known as the Black Swamp is being converted
into a
most fertile and productive region, and in a few years it will become
one of
the most valuable agricultural districts between the Alleghenies and
the
Mississippi.
Extensive
Ditching.–Prof.
KLIPPART reports that
up to January, 1872, there had been constructed no less than 3,000
miles of
main or county drains, and fully 2,000 miles of side or township
drains;
together with thousnads
of tile, plank and “sapling”
under-drains. Putnam
county
alone had 604 ½ miles of main and 131 miles of side ditch,
while Wood county
came next with 371 ½ miles of main and 123 ½
miles of side ditch.
In an address to the pioneers of
Wood county, delivered
in September, 1890, Mr. N. H. CALLARD, of
Perrysburg, summarizes the ditching of Wood county at that date as
follows:
“The largest ditch, the
Jackson cut-off,
is nine miles long. Its
construction
cost $110,000 and it drains near 30,000 acres of land.
The Touisant
ditch
is twenty-two miles long, the Rocky Ford seventeen miles, and the work
performed on the different branches of the Portage has been large and
effective. It has
been estimated that
the whole drainage system of Wood county, as it now is, including
railway
ditches, those on each public highway, and such as have been
constructed by the
farmers on their private property, will present an aggregate of 16,000
miles in
length, and their cost will reach into the millions.
These improvements form the basis of
prosperity to the Wood county farmers.
Without them they could have made but little progress in
the cultivation
of their farms or in the development of their crops.”
LEIPSIC is eight miles north of Ottawa, at the crossing of the D. & M. and N. Y., C. & St. L. Railroads. Newspaper: Free Press, Independent, W. W. SMITH, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Lutheran, 2 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Disciples, 1 Catholic, 1 United Brethren. Bank: Bank of Leipsic, A. ROSECRANS.
Manufactures and Employees.–O. E. TOWNSEND & Co., doors, sash, etc., 6 hands; Buckeye Stave Co., 36; O. W. Irish & Co., butchers’ skewers and flagstaffs, 33; J. H. FISHER, carriages, etc., 5; A. F. EASTON, lumber, 5.–State Report, 1887.
Population, 1880, 681. School census, 1888, 409. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $50,530. Value of annual product, $63,300.–Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
COLUMBUS GROVE is seven miles south of Ottawa, on the D. & M. and C. W. Railroads. It has five churches. City officers, 1888; James BEFORD, Mayor; J. W. MORRIS, Clerk; John KELLER, Treasurer; Jesse FRUCHEY, Marshal. Newspaper: Putnam County Vidette, Republican, W. C. TINGLE, editor and publisher. Bank: Exchange, Simon MAPEL, president, T. J. MAPEL, cashier.
Manufactures and Employees.–J. F. McBRIDE, jeans, blankets, etc., 8 hands; Buckeye Stave Co., 60; J. S. LEHMAN & Co., drain tile, 6; M. PEASE, flour, etc., 5; CRAWFORD & Co., lumber, 4; PERKINS & ALLEN, doors, sash, etc., 10; J. F. JONES, axe-handles, 15; HENDERSON & LIGHT, flour, etc., 5; W. R. KAUFMAN, drain tile, 6.–State Report, 1887.
Population, 1880, 1,392. School census, 1888, 509; E. WARD, superintendent. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $45,000. Value of annual product, $50,500.–Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
GILBOA is seven miles east of Ottawa. Population, 1880, 287. School census, 1888, 105.
KALIDA is nine miles southwest of Ottawa, on the Ottawa river. Population, 1880, 404. School census, 1888, 151.
BELMORE is eleven miles northeast of Ottawa, on the D. & M. Railroad. Population, 1880, 445. School census, 1888, 189.
DUPONT is sixteen miles west of Ottawa, on the Auglaize river and T., St. L. & K. C. Railroad. It has one Christian and one Methodist Episcopal church. School census, 1888, 150.
Page 474
GLANDORF is two miles west of Ottawa. It has one church, Catholic. School census, 1888, 375.
FORT JENNINGS is so called from a stockade erected here by Col. JENNINGS in 1812. It is eighteen miles southwest of Ottawa, on the Auglaize river and on the T., St. L. & K. C. Railroad. It has two churches: one Catholic and one Lutheran. School census, 1888 295.