Section Year Campbell, John 1 1832 Chaffe, William 1 1832 Hover, Joseph 1 1832 Porter, John H. 1 1832 NE Qtr Sec 1, over in Ottawa Twp. Adams, Demas 24 1836 Addleman, Jacob 19 1836 Anderson, James A. 8 1836 Anderson, John 17 1836 Anderson, Wm. 18 1836 Apgar, Peter 6 1837 Armstrong, Aquilla 18 1848 Bane, Thomas 5 1834 Barnet, Joseph 2 1832 Barnet, Joseph 10 1832 Barnet, Joseph 11 1832 Barnet, Joseph 15 1832 Barney, Elijah G. 7 1838 Bates, John 6 1839 Beatty, Alexander 11 1832 Bolander, George 5 1834 Boner, John 30 1834 Boner, Samuel 30 1834 Bower, Michael 4 1834 Bower, Michael 5 1834 Boyer, Daniel 8 1836 Boyer, Daniel 17 1836 Brandt, Jacob 17 1836 Brandt, Jacob 18 1836 Brandt, Wm. 17 1838 Breese, George 21 1836 Breese, Griffith 3 1833 Breese, Griffith 9 1834 Breese, Griffith 10 1832 Breese, Griffith 12 1833 Breese, Griffith 14 1833 Breese, Griffith 21 1832 Breese, Wm. D. 16 1842 Brentlinger, Andrew 18 1849 Brittain, Joseph 12 1834 Brock, Francis 27 1832 Brock, Jno. Harper 27 1835 Chambers, John 23 1836 Chambers, Samuel 22 1836 Chambers, Samuel 23 1836 Coms, Andrew 13 1833 Coms, Wm. 12 1833 Coon, Alexander 9 1834 Coon, George 4 1833 Coon, Wesley 9 1833 Crandall, Joseph 12 1833 Darling, Ann 12 1833 Darling, Derrick P. C. 23 1836 Davison, Hamilton 3 1835 Davison, Hamilton 7 1851 Decorsey, Isaac 10 1833 Delong, Jacob 27 1833 Deniston, Wm. 4 1833 Dickey, Burgess 3 1834 Dickey, Joseph 20 1836 Dickey, Samuel 20 1836 Dills, John 22 1836 Dixon, Jacob 12 1833 Dixon, Joseph 12 1833 Dowling, Campbell 24 1833 Dowling, Campbell 23 1833 Dowling, Campbell 24 1833 Edmond, Paul 19 1853 Edwards, Joseph 4 1833 Engart, Vincent D. 25 1837 Flinn, Thomas 9 1836 Francis, James F. 19 1836 Francis, James J. 20 1836 Francis, Wm. 20 1836 Fritz, Samuel 9 1833 Furness, Thomas 8 1836 Furness, Thomas 17 1836 Gardiner, Jas. P. 2 1832 Gilbert, Lorenzo Dow 24 1836 Goodnow, Levi 26 1836 Graham, Christopher 30 1847 Graham, John 30 1847 Graham, John J. 19 1850 Graham, Wm. 19 1851 Hanthorn, Thomas 3 1834 Hanthorn, Thomas 4 1834 Hardin, James 14 1834 Hardin, Nathaniel 14 1834 Haskell, Joseph 27 1832 Haskell, Joseph 26 1832 Helsel, Jacob 5 1834

Section Year Herzing, Philip 7 1837 Herzing, Philip 8 1837 Hoholer, Thomas 22 1836 Homel, Joseph 10 1832 Hoopes, Jno. B. 30 1836 Hoover, Ezekiel 22 1833 Hover, Ezekiel 3 1834 Hover, Ezekiel 4 1836 Hover, Ezekiel 11 1833 Hover, Ezekiel 15 1832 Hover, Joseph 10 1832 Hover, Joseph 15 1832 Hover, Joseph 16 1842 Hover, Julius A. 17 1841 Ireland, John 6 1836 Kauffman, Peter 30 1836 Kellar, Abraham S. 23 1836 Kelsey, Jesse 13 1833 Kelsey, Jesse 14 1835 Kelsey, Jesse 15 1832 Kelsey, Jesse 21 1833 Kelsey, Jesse 22 1832 Kelsey, Jesse 28 1835 Kelsey, Wm. 23 1835 Kessler, Andrew 29 1835 Kridler, Henry 6 1836 Kridler, Samuel 9 1835 Lippincott, Wm. 4 1833 Loveridge, Jas., Jr. 8 1836 Lowry, John 3 1833 Lucas, Francis 15 1832 Malone, Richard 17 1836 Maltbie, Harrison 24 1834 McClure, Wm. 17 1836 Megrady, Wm. 14 1836 Mendenhall, James 25 1835 Munsell, Henry W. 17 1836 Munsell, Henry Wm. 19 1836 Newton, Abiathar 24 1835 Nicholas, James 22 1832 Overhultz, Jesse A. M. 19 1852 Ovreholser, Adam 28 1834 Pearson, Enoch 17 1837 Reed, Benjamin 21 1832 Reed, James 28 1836 Reed, Manuel 13 1833 Rinehart, Samuel 22 1836 Rinehart, Samuel 23 1836 Rinehart, Samuel 8 1836 Runion, John 20 1834 Robbins, John 25 1836 Roslar, Thomas 14 1836 Runion, John 29 1834 Shaffer, Henry 29 1836 Shaffer, Henry 30 1836 Shaffer, Michael 29 1836 Sheldon, Geo. 9 1833 Siferd, John 18 1850 Skinner, Robert J. 28 1832 Smedley, Amasa 16 1842 Smedley, Samuel 16 1842 Smith, John A. 29 1836 Solomon, Wm. 29 1836 Specht, Peter 7 1836 Specht, Peter 8 1836 Spellman, Isaac 29 1836 Sprague, George 23 1835 Sprague, George 26 1835 Sprague, Henry 26 1835 Sprague, Samuel 26 1833 Sprague, Solomon 27 1836 Stebolton, David 27 1836 Stebolton, Jacob 28 1836 Stephenson, Hugh B. 14 1834 Strickler, George 26 1835 Swan, Gustavus 11 1835 Swartz, George 18 1850 Swither, Abraham 11 1835 Thomas, Richard E. 16 1842 Trissell, Elizabeth 30 1847 Truesdale, John 18 1856 Van Horn, Thos. B. 12 1835 Wait, Reuben 4 1834 Wilds, Jonathan 4 1834 Wiles, Jonathan K. 11 1832 Williams, H. D. V. 26 1836 Williams, Henry 13 1836 Williams, James 19 1848 Williby, James 9 1836 Yoakim, James 18 1848

HUME TOWNSHIP.

     Hume Village, Section 2, Shawnee Town Township, was platted as a railroad town.  The Lake Erie & Western Railroad intersects the village; twenty-two lots lying northwest of the railroad and fifty-seven lots southwest.  Main Street runs parallel with the railroad; Crider Street runs due north and Spencer Street due west.  It is the center of a rich agricultural district, about eight miles southwest of Lima by railroad, and ten by pike-road, within the limits of the old Hog Creek reservation.

REMINISCENCES OF SETTLEMENT.

     The following relations are culled from various written statements made by the pioneers, and are given here as an addition to the history of early settlement.  The Ezekiel Hover farm was the site of a Shawnee village, and during the campaigns of Harmer St., St. Clair and Wayne, was often the headquarters of the warriors.  Here Blue Jacket and other chiefs often met the venerable chief and warrior Black Hoof in consultation.  Mary French also met here during the campaign of Wayne.  The Indians were induced to plant an orchard in and about the village.  Many of the apple trees are yet standing, and continue to bear fruit.  There is one of extraordinary size still bearing fruit.  It is about three feet in diameter, and measures about ten feet in circumference.  The relations of Pht, it is stated, returned to the sit f his burial with a view of finding and removing his bones to the far West, but did not succeed.  The old council house and the apple trees are the only relics to be found of the palmy days of the Shawnees on the Ottawa.
     William D. Breese in his reminiscences states that his father settled on Section 10, a part of an old Indian farm, where he found two orchards containing about forty apple trees each; many of those trees being yet alive and bearing.  There were at the time about seven Indian cabins scattered over the land, which had evidently been the site of a Shawnee village.
     It is stated by W. U. Hover that the Shawnees had removed from that region about one year before his arrival, and before his father had located the farm home.   There were, however, a few Indians who remained and hunted with the Wyandots until their removal.  Many of the Shawnees came back in 1834 and visited the graves of their ancestors in and about the old village on Section 11, before their final departure to the West.  Many years after they came back and dug in many places for hidden relics, and the bones of their people.  They seemed to regret their removal to the West, and often viewed the localities most dear to their younger days, and finally bid adieu to the Indian hunting grounds.  The family of Ezekiel Hover reside on the farm included in the old Indian village, where the remains of the Chief Pht were buried, and where the old Council House still stands.  When Ezekiel Hover first took possession of the farm, he had the "Council House refitted for the use of his family.
     George Coon, a settler of 1832, came from Bellefontaine by the way of what is now Westminster and Lima, to Section 11 in Shawnee Township.  It was all in woods at that time, and there were no roads except Indian trails.  When he came, his neighbors were Isaac Boyer, Samuel Sprague, and Dye Sunderland, very much scattered.  He was soon joined by William Deniston and family on the same section; soon after, by Thomas Flinn, an Irishman, who settled near him on Section 12.  The first cabin had been occupied by a Shawnee family.  The forests seemed to have been often burned over by the Indians, and the young trees have grown within the last fifty years.  The first schoolhouse was built on Section 11, about 1837, and taught by Constant Southworth.  The first preachers spoke in the cabins of the settlers.  The usual place for speaking was at the house of Mr. Coon.  The earliest preacher remembered was Thomas Hicknell, a Winebrennerian.  A congregation was formed and a church built about 1840, in Allentown.  Mr. Coon and many of the early settlers were compelled to attend the mills of Piqua and Cherokee to obtain grinding, over mere paths in the forests.  He often attended the government mill built by the Quakers at Wapakonetta, and sometimes changed to St. Mary's, and finally to Lima.
     Col. George C. Johnson, of Piqua, writing in 1874, relates the following story of the burial of Blackhoof:  "The Shawnees never bury their dead until the sun is in the tree-tops, late in the afternoon.  On such occasions they generally select six pall-bearers, who carry the corpse to the grave and place it therein, the grave being two-and-a-half or three feet deep.  When the chief Blackhoof was buried, in 1831, it was in the Indian manner; the corpse was wrapped in a clean, new Indian blanket, and a large quantity of new fine goods, consisting of calico, belts and ribbons were placed about the deceased, who was laid upon a new, clean slab, prepared for the purpose.  His gun, tomahawk, knife and pipe were by his side.  All the Indians present were in deep distress, having their clothes hanging loosely about them, their hair down on their shoulders, and were painted after the ancient manner.  The chiefs sat about smoking, looking in solemn silence upon the remains of the great chief who had led the tribe for nearly one hundred years, had been their faithful counsellor in peace and war, had been present at Braddock's defeat, seventy-six years before, and for nearly a century had been in all the expeditions at 'Long Knives.'"
     For some months before their final departure, the young men of the Shawnees, and the middle-aged, who had not abandoned their old customs, were engaged in a round of dissipation brought on by the mean tricks of wicked traders to cheat the Indians out of every dollar of property they could obtain.  Whisky, that bane of the Indian, was largely distributed among the Indians by traders; in fact, all decency was violated by the wretches who dealt in fire-water.  The better portion of the Shawnees were engaged for weeks in religious ceremonies, dances, and amusements preparatory to their departure.  They carefully levelled the graves of their dead, and removed all traces of the same.
     Hon. John McIlvain accompanied the Lewistown Indians, and James B. Gardner those of Wapakonetta.  The route was by way of Greenville, Richmond and Indianapolis.  The Indians commenced to assemble in September, 1832, and mounted their horses, and such as had wagons seated themselves, while the Government teams hauled their provisions and clothing.  Many of them bid a sad adieu to the hunting-grounds and graves of their fathers. * * * * *   All things being ready their High Priest, bearing a large gourd and the bones of a deer's leg attached to his neck, led the advance.  At the moment of starting on this journey the High Priest sounded the trumpet three times, repeated this signal when halting at night, and followed this course, repeated this signal when halting at night, and followed this course until the tribe settled on their Kansas reservation.
     The Shawnees who emigrated numbered 700 souls, and the Senecas, who emigrated at the same time, 350.  When they arrived at Greenville, they encamped at Tecumseh's Point and remained a day or two to take a final farewell of that place, so dear to their memories as the home of their fathers, and the scene of so many Indian assemblies and heroic exploits.  They had before them a journey of over 800 miles across the open prairie, in an uninhabited country.
     About one-fifth of the tribe remained at Wapakonetta and among the Wyandots at Upper Sandusky, until the spring of 1833.  The Indians arrived at their new home about Christmas, 1832.  Gardner accompanied them to the Mississippi and turned back, when Joseph Parks, a half-blood Quaker, who had the job of removing them, conducted them safely to their new home.  They at once proceeded to raise cabins, split rails, and make fences, but were very short of provisions, and had to depend largely upon such game as they could find.

SCHOOLS.

     During the winter of 1834-35 the pioneer school of Shawnee Township was inaugurated, with Miss Maria Hoover, teacher, in a cabin which was formerly the home of Chief Pht, just northwest of the Shawnee council house.  In 1837 a schoolhouse was erected on Section 11, presided over by Constant Southworth.  The growth of the school system in this division of the county is shown in the following abstract of report for 1884:  Revenue for 1884 was $3,546; expenditure, $4,196.  Of the nine school buildings, valued at about $11,000, one was erected in 1884 at a cost of $750. There are 478 pupils - 230 boys and 248 girls.  Fourteen teachers were employed.

CHURCHES.

     The first religious society in Shawnee may be said to have been formed by Rev. James B. Finley, a Methodist itinerant, who preached in the homes of the people, particularly at George Coon's house.  The first house of worship, however, was erected on Section 27, Shawnee, by the Lutherans.  Thomas Hicknell, a Winebrennerian, was the first preacher.  The Methodist Episcopal Church stands just west of the old Shawnee Council House.

MISCELLANEOUS.

     The Lake Erie & Western Railroad passes through Shawnee Township from northeast to southwest, the Dayton & Michigan through the westerly and southwesterly sections, and the Chicago & Atlantic runs through the most northerly sections from east to west.  The only postoffice in the township is Hune.

- END OF CHAPTER XXVI - SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP -