The time of
the organization of Bath township, if there ever was a
formal one, is no place on record. The better
opinion of the pioneers is that the township was
organized as early as 1831, the year that Lima was
selected as the seat of justice for Allen County, the
original village being in section 31, in Bath township.
First justices: James Daniels, Thomas
Nichols, Lewis Schrouf, 1831.
The pioneers of the township, as nearly as remembered,
are as follows: William Bowman, Andrew Beatty,
Samuel Black, William Chaffee, Joseph Crossley, Jesse
Culbison, Abraham Clark, Thomas Cochran, John F. Cole,
Simon Cochran, Joseph Carpenter, A. W. Cochran, Robert
Casebolt, H. Canon,
Hugh Crawford, William Crawford, John Crawford, William
Chenowith, William Cooms, Joseph Crandall, Dr. William
Cunningham, Miles Cowan, Benjamin Dolph, Cyrus Davis,
James Daniels, Matthew Dobbins, Nathan Daniels, Oliver
Ellsworth, William Fisher, Henry Foster, Archibald
Fisher,
John Franklin, Hamilton Davison, Benjamin Hanson, Samuel
Human, Richard Hughes, Jacob Hook, James Higgs, Edward
Hartsliorn, John Jackson, William Jones, Thomas Jackson,
Samuel R. Jacobs, Elisha Jolley, Adam Loomis, John
Lowrie,
Joseph Lippincott, Morgan Lippincott, John Lippincott,
Samuel Lippincott, Andrew McLain, James McDonald, Daniel
Musser, John McKibbin, Henry Myers, Isaac Myers, Abraham
Miller, Benjamin Moore, John Murray, James F.
Miller, John
P. Mitchell, Thomas Nichols, Abraham Osman, Ason Osman,
B, Osman, Daniel Purdy, John Purdy, W. W. Rogers, Samuel
Richards, M. J. Ross, Thomas Rhea, Michael Ridenour,
John
Rockhold, Roger Rion, Philip Rumbaugh, Samuel Sprague,
H. B. Stevenson, Lewis Schrouf, William Stewart, H.
Stevenson,
David Shaw, Elijah Stanford, Frederick Shafer, Stephen
Thomas, Peter Turget, Enos Terry, Robert Terry, John
Perry, D. D. Tompkins, C. Valentine, Samuel Vannatta,
James Vaughn, Alexander Vaughn, Richard Ward, Jacob
Ward, Asa Wright, Christopher Wood, W. G. Wood, William
Wood, A. G. Wood, Joseph F. Wood, Jacob Wood, Harman
Wood, Samuel Crossley, John Ward, John Watt, William
Watt, William Taylor, David Tracey, Frederick Shull,
George Trogger, George Shelden, S. Roach, A. Randall, John
Mark,
Evans Morgan, George M. Hoofman, Patrick G. Goode, Ezra
Edgecomb, Isaac Erskine, Abraham Devor, J. H. Daniels,
John
Campbell, Hugh Crawford, A. Boners, David Bailey,
Alexander
Allison, Matthew Allison, James Anderson, Samuel
Aldridge,
Elijah Bates, and others not now remembered.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.
MATTHEW ALLISON was
born in Pennsylvania, Aug. 20, 1800, and came to Bath
township, Allen County, in the fall of 1827, with
Alexander Allison, who died in 1871, aged 82 years.
His wife died in 1869, aged 63. After Mr.
Allison came into the township, he married
Miss Catharine Thompson. When he
settled on his land he found the following pioneers:
Joseph Woods, Tobias Woods,
Christopher Woods, Albert
[Pg. 27]
Woods, James Woods, John Woods,
Joseph Jennings, Gideon Jennings,
Asa Jennings, John Jennings,
and David Jennings. These families
were quite numerous. The first justice of the peace was
John Schrouf, in 1831, and be, Mr. A.
thinks, held the office by appointment. He
does not remember the other officers of the township. Mr.
Allison states that he helped dig the first three
wells in LIMA; one for Thomas Mitchell’s
father, one for Mr. Bashore, and one for
Mr. Musser, all yet in use. The
first school was on section 3, and taught by Daniel
Bradigan. The second teacher was Stafford
Scranton, in 1832-3. The first preaching
was by William Wilson, a Disciple, and
George Swigart, a Methodist. The first
church erected was by the Disciples, about 1840. The
Methodists built one about the same time.
The first grinding was by hand, or by hominy block.
John Crawford owned a small hand mill as
early as 1830. It had a sweep to turn it.
The mill was made like a large coffee mill, and as high
as thirty persons have been seen at one time waiting a
“turn.” It took three or four persons to turn the
lever. The mill ground quite slowly. Other
early settlers went to Sidney on horseback and some to
St. Marys. The woods were full of game, and many
of the pioneers went to the forest and killed great
numbers of deer, turkeys, and other game. The
Shawnees and Wyandots hunted all through the forests,
and killed great numbers of deer. Quilnn,
Pht, and other Shawnee hunters, often came to the
Allison cabin. Mr. A.
remembers that on one occasion Quilna and Pht
came to the cabin and complained that William
Lippincott, a near neighbor, had failed to keep his
word with Pht, and at the same time stated that
Lippincott would not-understand Pht, and
purposely denied that he was in any way indebted to
Pht. The Indian made all sorts of signs to
explain his errand to Lippincott, raising his
scalping knife, as if threatening to out the white man’s
throat. Lippincott appeared before the
squire and stated his fears, and made affidavit that the
Indian menaced his life. A warrant was issued to
be sent to the Shawnee settlement on Hog Creek, to make
the arrest of the chief. It was put into the hands
of Constable Elmer Hartshorn, who
called upon Matthew Allison to accompany
him. They had about eight miles to travel through
the forest. Mr. Allison went with
the officer, and upon reaching the village Pht quietly
surrendered and accompanied the officer to the squire,
on Sugar Creek. The chief found that before he
could go safely to trial, he would have to send for an
interpreter to Wapakonetta, and upon hearing a full
statement of Lippincott’s fears, the chief was
greatly astonished to find that Lippincott really
pretended to fear that he, the chief, intended to injure
him. The facts were that Lippincott had
borrowed a horse collar of the chief, and failed to
bring it home; but when the Indian came for it, the
white man would not understand his errand, and the
Indian using every means in his power to explain, a dull
scalping knife was flourished about his throat, to mean
horse collar. When Pht had heard a full
statement before the justice, and learning all the
facts, in his amazement and indignation he exclaimed:
“Ah, Billy Lippincott, you be all one
lie." The justice was satisfied the Indian had
made no threat, and at once discharged the case.
Mr. Allison also states that Quilna
was a fine marksman with a gun or bow, and that he has
often seen him shoot fish under the water, or a squirrel
on the trees, with a steel pointed arrow. He often
used a rifle, and was a very accurate shot with that
Weapon. He has often been visited by the Indian
Henry Clay at his cabin, also. The
Indians had a graveyard not a great ways from his cabin,
which they often visited. They buried the corpse
about 18 inches deep, without a coffin. They
buried there as late as 1831. The Wyandots also
buried in the same place. After the ground was
cleared, in plowing, Mr. Allison states
that he often turned up trinkets deposited in these
superficial graves by their Indian friends.
Mr. Allison’s family consisted of twelve
children, eight of whom are living, five boys and three
girls. These are all grown and married.
S. C. McCULLOUGH was
born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, Nov. 22, 1821.
His home was on Pigeon Creek. He came with his
parents, James McCullough and mother, to
Perry township, Allen County, Ohio, in June, 1835, and
settled on his present farm, then in Perry township.
When his father landed, he found the following pioneers
had preceded him: Benjamin Daniels,
William Chenewith, a Revolutionary soldier,
Hezekiah Stoles, a Revolutionary soldier,
William Hawthorn, John, David, and
Isaac Ridenour, William Funk,
Joseph Crossley, one of Wayne’s
soldiers, and who is stated to have burnt the first
brick in Cincinnati, Chicago, Fort Wayne, Dayton, and
Lima, George Dugan, Joseph
Lippincott, Alexander Budd, William
Hunter, Matthew Dobbins, George
Rankin, Rev. George Shelden,
Hugh Skillings, J. McFarland,
Tyler Cummings, David Shaw, and
John Carlisle, and families. These
settlers have long since all deceased. The first
school was in an old log cabin belonging to Mr.
Daniels in 1835, and taught by William
Terry, now a physician in Lebanon, Ohio. The
schools were generally in log cabins, and defrayed by
subscription at that period. Preaching at that
time was generally in log cabins in Lima. The
ministers were William Cunningham,
Presbyterian; William Chaffee, Baptist; George
Shelden, New School Presbyterian; James B.
Finly, Methodist; Father Standiford
and sometimes Father Williams. The
leading mill was that of Hindel & Co., half a
mile below town on Hog Creek, and the Ward mill
six miles further down the same stream. The early
settlers often had to go to Cherokee and Piqua to mill.
Mr. S. C. McCullough states that himself
and father visited a nursery on the present lands of
James Sunderland, in Amanda township, soon
after he commenced to clear his present farm, to
purchase young apple trees for an orchard. These
trees, he was told, had been planted in the nursery by
that eccentric and strange old man, known in eastern
Ohio as “Johnny Appleseed,” alias John
Chapman. The marvellous stories and
anecdotes related concerning Mr. Chapman
would fill a volume, and be singularly interesting were
they published. “Johnny” finally died
near Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in 1845, at the residence of
Mr. Worth. This eccentric old man had
been all along the Ottawa and Auglaize before white men
had settled in that region, seeking out alluvial bottoms
in which to plant nurseries, and be ready for the
arrival of the white man to clear and prepare homes in
the forests. No man will ever be able to
conjecture the anxieties, vexations, and hardships of
this strange but harmless old man. The secret is
only known to that Being who knows all hearts and all
men. James McCullough, father of S. C.
McCullough, died in 1859, aged sixty-seven years,
and Mrs. McCullough, his mother, in 1836,
aged forty-three years. His father was three times
married, and his last wife still survives.
Samuel C. McCullough married Miss Samantha S.
Blue, of Miami County, in November, 1849. Her
father was a prominent settler in Miami County, and had
many troubles with the Indians at an early day.
The killing of the Dibbones near him by the Miamis, at
which time they intended to kill Col. John
Johnson, but found him absent, is remembered by
many of the settlers of that day. The
McCulloughs are of Scotch Irish descent, and are
believed to have taken an active part in the Indian
border wars, as well as those in the northwest from 1790
to 1795. The noted frontier McCulloch, who
made such a brave escape at the siege of Fort Henry, in
1777, is presumed to be related to the Washington County
branch of the family, though spelling the name somewhat
variously, is still of the same Scotch-Irish family.
Mr. McCullough has but two living
children, both girls. He is a thrifty farmer, and
lives about one mile east of Lima. In the summer
of I877 he and his wife visited California by rail, and
expresses himself as being much pleased with that
rapidly improving section of our country.
DAVID CRAWFORD was
born in Trumbull County, Ohio, Sept. 10, 1811, and came
to Allen County in 1828, when Bath township had
jurisdiction over nearly all Allen County, with his
father's family. Mr. John Crawford, his
father, died in 1839, aged sixty years; and his mother
in 1861, aged about seventy-four. They came from
Washington County, Pa., and settled in Trumbull County
some years before coming to Allen. Mr. Crawford
is of opinion that Col. William Crawford, who was
burned by the Delawares, on the Tymochtee, in Wyandot
County, in 1782, was a distant relative of the Allen
County Crawfords. They settled in section
4, Monroe township, the in Bath township organization.
The township was organized at a later period. The
first justice of the peace that he remembers was
Christopher Wood, who died in 1856, aged
eighty-seven years. The firt school taught in his
neighborhood was on section 3, by Ezra H. Comb,
in an old cabin. The first church was of hewed
logs on section 4, by the Methodists, about 1836.
The mills were what was known as "horse mills," an
downed by Mr. Burch. The first saw
mill was n Sugar Creek, and owned by a Mr.
Higgs, about 1832. The earliest settlers
remembered were: Mr. Barber E. Hartshorn, David
Petit, Benjamin Moore, Albert Wood, Harman Wood,
Tobias Wood, Mr. Evans, Mr. Everett, Absalom Brown,
Alexander Allison, Matthew Allison, and a few
others. Mr. Crawford still remains a
bachelor, not having united his fortunes with some fair
lady, for reasons best known to himself. An aged
sister is the mistress of the homestead, also having
failed to marry; but frankly declared that she was not
ashamed to own her age, like most ladies, for she was
just fifty-three years of age. She appeared quite
talkative, and seemed possessed of a clear recollection
of the occurrences of the past. Whoever may be in
fault, we incline to believe this lady would have made
some industrious man of good habits happy and
prosperous.
WALTER EDGECOMB was
born in Trumbull County, Ohio, Aug. 6, 1819. In
1832 he moved with his parents to Bath township, Allen
County, where his father entered a piece of land now
known as the Marcus Miller farm. He states
they were twenty-one days making the trip, bringing
their stock with them. when they arrived Indians
were still in the neighborhood, and he rememberes seeing
them frequently passing through the woods in single
file. In 1840 Mr. Edgecomb was married to
Laura Bassitt. Eleven children have been
born unto them, seven of whom are still living, two boys
and five girls. In December, 1856, he moved to the
farm where he now resides. Mr. E. has been
a farmer all his life, and by industry and close
attention to business ha acquired a competency. He
served as township trustee a number of years, and is
much respected by his neighbors.
SUGAR CREEK CHURCH.
- END OF BATH TOWNSHIP - |
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