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THIS
is the only inland township in Defiance County.
It is bounded on the north by Tiffin Township,
on the east by Richland, on the south by
Defiance and on the west by Delaware. It
is the smallest township in the county,
embracing nearly all of Town 4 north, Range 4
east, which lies north of the Maumee, a little
more than twenty-two sections. The Maumee
forms a part of its southern boundary and the
Tiffin River flows south through its territory.
Brunersburg, the only village in the township,
containing about 300 people, was laid out by
Daniel Brumer and Henry Zeller in
May, 1834. The original plat consisted of
only twenty-eight lots, but five additions have
since been made to it. PERSONAL
REMINISCENCES.
BRICE HILTON
JOHN PERKINS
JAMES PARTEE
JOHN PARTEE
BARNETT G.
STATLER
WILLIAM
TRAVIS
JOHN PLUMMER
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AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REMINISCENCES.
By Lyman Langdon.
I was born Sept. 9, 1809, at South Canton, St.
Lawrence Co., N. Y. My father was born in
Fishkill, Dutchess Co., N. Y.; my mother was
born in the town of Dorset, Bennington Co., Vt.
My childhood was spent in going to school three
months in summer and to school again next
winter, to re-learn what we learned the season
before, and helping on the farm, except on
Saturdays, where we fished for brook trout and
were very successful. At the age of
eighteen, I commenced teaching common school -
taught for nine winters. At the age of
twenty-three was married to Fannie Marie
Sanford then living in the same
neighborhood, who was born in Bridgeport,
Addison Co., Vt., July 7, 1811. We have
had ten children, four eldest and the youngest
are deceased. Tohse living are Lucia A.,
at home; Adeline A., married to J. M.
Bridenbaugh, living in Toledo, Ohio, in the
provision trade; Emma B., married to
J. A. Sheffield farmer, in this (Noble)
township; Ruth Almira, married to Oren
A. Sisco of this county, now in mercantile
trade in Augusta, Butler Co., Kan.; and Grace
E., married to J. W. Reid, of this
county, and now in business with J. M.
Bridenbaugh In 1835, farming in
Northern New York was at a low ebb; most of the
farms were purchased on time, of the
Harrisons and Van Renselaers and some
on Browns tract. Settlers had all
they could do to clear up the forests, make
roads and build necessary buildings, extinguish
the debt on their lands, and, as a consequence,
they were obliged to deal with them as best they
could. The proprietors were liberal, often
throwing off interest, giving new contracts,
many selling out their betterments, as it was
called, moving West. In 1835, in company
with Dr. Oney Rice (who had married
Miss Lydia Barrows, a cousin), John Rice,
E. Lacost, Jacob Conkey, who then lived in
Warrensville, Ohio, came to the then Williams
County, for Government lands; at this time
buyers had to go outside the canal reservations.
We left Cleveland in October, 1835, with wagon;
found dry roads through the black swamp, forded
the Maumee at Maumee City, drove around
tree-tops, through ravines, up and down the
bluff banks, without working, reaching Defiance,
a town of about 150 inhabitants; found some of
our acquaintances from St. Lawrence County.
Among these were John W. Moore, Erskine
Perkins, Edwin Phelps, William A. Brown, Amos
Stoddard and Mr. Blaokman. Left
the team and went on foot to Centertown, passing
through Brunersburg (the town at that time had
been purchased by Samuel Sargeant
of Mr. Bruner, the proprietor),
kept possession five or six years, moved the
mill down below the erected dam; got it running.
First, high water
washed the dam away; nothing more was done with
the new mill, only moving back some machinery to
the old mill. In 1836 and 1837 was built a
small steamboat to run on the Maumee.
Lacked power, and was only used in comparatively
still water. It made its way to Fort
Wayne, wintered in Rochester, fourteen miles
above Defiance. In the spring of 1838, it
came down with the ice; it was boarded by
several men who tried to save it, but of no
avail; it landed several miles above Maumee
City; it was gotten off and run between Maumee,
Perrysburg and Toledo. We followed the
road or trail, not seeing a house till we got to
Centertown; there we hired Mr.
Overlease and Mr. Skinner to
show us land. Stayed over night; next day
followed section lines and our
Page 338 -
guides. Found lands at
Farmer Center, where we located our lands, which
some of the descendants now occupy. Dr.
Rice and Jacob Conkey
located at the center; I located south
one-quarter mile, eighty acres. There were
three settlers in Farmer Township at that time.
We came back to Defiance, counted out our Land
Office money (only certain banks and specie were
receivable) and sent Mr. Jacob
Conkey to the Land Office at Wapakoneta to
get our certificate of
entry. For several years it was customary to
send packages of any amount by the mail carriers
(boys). We never heard of lost money.
How different now. At that time J. W.
Moore had a store in the Parker Tavern, with
E. S. Perkins, clerk. There we
parted company. I took my way down the
Maumee on foot, passing through Napoleon, a
village of a few log houses. Stayed over
night at Patrick's; next day called on
our former townsman, Dr. Darius Clark
(still living in Toledo), in Vistula, two
miles below Port Lawrence (now Toledo).
Took steamboat for home; it took about a week
from Defiance to Ogdonsburg. The next
spring being cold and backward, with seven
inches snow-fall on the 13th of May, accompanied
by heavy freezing, I caught the Ohio fever
in earnest. During the summer, I sold out
my effects, and started for Defiance Sept. 16,
1836, with horses and wagon. Had wife and
one child sixteen months old, with my wife's
brother, Seneca A. Sanford. Stopped
two days in Eden, Erie Co., N. Y., with friend
Barnum, who afterward became an honored
citizen of Defiance. We reached Defiance
after being twenty- two days on the road.
We stopped with Mr. J. W. Moore a week;
meantime, I went to Farmer Center to make
arrangements for moving. Found I could
take provisions with family and live with Dr.
Rice until we could build a cabin.
During my travels from Farmer to Defiance, I
fell in company with Payne C. Parker at
Mr. Craig's, in Georgetown. I then
got his terms and rented his tavern from the
25th day of January, 1837, and made arrangements
accordingly. During this time, I had
underbrushed two acres and rolled up the logs
for a house. Houses were built in those days
without nails or boards, with puncheons,
clapboards, mud hearths and stick chimneys.
Then settlers were neighbors miles away, and it
was customary to go fifteen or twenty miles to a
raising. In taking charge of the hotel, I
paid quarterly for two years at the rate of $500
per year. At that time, Horatio G.
Philips and myself went on horseback to
Maumee and purchased of Gen. John G. Hunt
the four lots fronting on Clinton street,
between Front and First streets, for $3,000.
During our stay in the hotel, we soon had the
satisfaction of hearing that we kept as good a
tavern as any on the river, but it was hard
enough. With all the improvements we were
able to make, the house, the country and
everything in its primitive state, some times
without help, and especially during the summer
and fall of 1838 and 1839, the most sickly time
in the year, and during the making of the Erie &
Wabash Canal. There were no bridges, and
travelers have been delayed for weeks.
Then tavern-keepers
had to lay in supplies when they could. It
was hard for the early settlers to get to the
river over almost impassable roads for
provisions and other necessaries of life. I have
often heard the remark, they had rather pay than
go for them. As an incident of early
settlers' life, I will note of being in Dr.
Rice's family with only a few acres
cleared about the house; had raised a few shocks
of corn. Without barn or stable or
protection of any kind, horses turned loose in
the inclosure. On the 18th of December,
1836, it had snowed the night previous, it
commenced raining and rained steadily all day
without melting the snow, which was ten inches
deep. At dusk, the wind from the
northwest, with a heavy black cloud and a few
flakes of snow in the air. It was the lot
of Mr. Osborn, of Hicksville, to
go to mill on Little St. Joe River, with an ox
team. Coming
home, the oxen gave out, and he being wet
withwalking in rain and slush, ice frozen to his
clothes and limbs, his cries for relief were
heard and assistance lent. Both limbs had
to be amputated. He was known to be an
upright, honest man. On the morning of the
19th, our pity was excited to see our horses
standing on balls of ice a foot high or more,
with icicles hanging from their manes and tails,
eyes and noses - the coldest day within the
memory of the oldest inhabitant. That
season, and for years after, it was common to go
to sleep by the music of the wolves, I shall
leave the hunting and trapping stories to those
who have the bow-and-arrow blood in their veins,
I can vouch for anything they will say. But to
return, I can hardly picture how the Maumee
country looked to me with its original
inhabitants, its virgin soil, its stately oaks,
the river with its islands, the home of the
Pottawatomies, I have in mind the assembling of
the Indians at or near the
rapids of Rush-to-Bean, Just below the battle
ground of the fallen timbers, there were
gathered together
nearly 800 Indians, preparatory to moving west
of the Mississippi. While going by, they
were congregated
at the top of the ridge and around a large
bowlder on which a turkey foot is engraved, said
to be where chief Turkey-Foot fell, Robert
Forsyth and Isaac Hull had
the contract, and our townsman, James
Colby, as Surgeon. Among the business
men in Defiance were, as merchants, Dr.
John Evans, Forman and
Albert Evans, and Benjamin
Brubacher, all doing business at the foot of
Jefferson street, and
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John and William
Seamans in the brick house owned by L.
Davidson, Esq. E. C. Case had a
small store on the corner of Front and Wayne
streets. Had two groceries, one by
George Hickox, one by Waterhouse &
Goodyear on Front streets. Our lawyers
were Horace Sessions and John and
William Seamans. William C. Holgate
was studying. Justices of the Peace,
Sydney S. Sprague and William Seamans.
County officers were John Lewis,
Treasurer; George T. Hickox, Clerk;
Bishop Adams and Payne C. Parker were
County Judge in the place of Bishop Adams,
removed to Henry County. Among the
citizens were Robert Wasson, Mr. Purcell,
plasterer; Amos Zellers, tailor;
Walter Davis, cooper; Peter Bridenbaugh,
Thomas Lewis, Jacob Kniss shoe-maker; John
Olivver, Stoddard & Blackman, keepers of the
ferry, John Downs, etc. The brick
building now occupied by Henry Hardy was
the court house and schoolhouse; a log jail on
the court house square. The old fort built
by Gen. Wayne and the stockade built by
Gen. Wilkinson were objects of curiosity.
They were then much dilapidated, the spoiler had
put in his work. The timbers of the
block-houses are doing service in some of the
old barns, and the earthworks were plainly
visible, the bastion, the moat, the entrance,
the covered way to either river for water, the
line of pickets, as also the stumps of the
pickets of Fort Winchester. The place was
admirably chosen, well built and would defy the
combined attack of all foes. There must
have been some belligerent practice by the
citizens, fishing up shells before the fort.
It is related that a shell having been brought
out of the river by the old ware-house, on the
bank and center of Jefferson street, John
Lantz and several others, speculating on its
bursting after being in the river so long,
Lantz thought, with others, that the powder
had become wet and would not burn, and in order
to prove it, touched it off with his cigar, and
it went. None were hurt, but one piece
four inches in length went through a double
battened door and lodge in the ceiling on the
opposite side of a store. While living in
Defiance, we got up a dinner on the 4th of July,
1837, and had a dancing party at C. C.
Waterhouse's in the evening.
Frequently horseback parties would ford the
Auglaize at the Shirley farm, pick
whortleberries on the openings, or cross the
Maumee for peaches at the Hivelys.
The young people had their rides, their socials,
parties and dances if in a new country.
Langdon became quite a resort, as we kept
the best of boarders. The latter part of
1837, the engineers on the canal boarded with
us. The canal drew paymasters to our
house. At the time of holding court, the
Judges and bar was at home with me. I may
name some: Hon. E. D. Potter, Higgins,
Coffinberry, Young and Waite; later
others. I just add, to show how the bench
and bar traveled, about 1839, two thirds or more
of the business for the courts originated in
Defiance, was taken on horseback to Bryan, our
new county seat, tried, brought back and
settled. There were farmers and townsmen
living in a few miles of each other, or else
there would be no need of Justices, Judges,
courts and juries, and it is to be hoped that
farmers may become so educated that all
questions of difficulty may be settled among
themselves. when that time comes won't it
be millenium year? I will mention a few of
the farmers: Five families of Shirleys,
four of Hudsons, five of Evans,
three of Travis, two of Branchers,
Hiveleys, Warrens, Lewis
Downs, Davis, Keplers,
Rhons and Dunn. Travelers from
the Wabash and Fort Wayne, in going east for
goods and on various kinds of business, were our
guests, and occasionally were prevented from
traveling by running ice, freshets, etc.
Mr. R. White, returning from Bryan, was
thrown by accident off his horse tripping into
one of those slashes, covering himself,
horse, saddle and portmanteau with mud; he
looked rather sorry. It is said that
Chief Justice Waite made his
maiden speech in our old brick court house.
Late in 1841, the canal was nearly completed,
and travel slow. I sold my property to
Samuel Rohn and C. I. Trude, and
bought the farm where we are now living, of
Addison Goodyear, and moved in April,
1842. Before leaving Defiance, I wish to
add that leaving that place, 25th of October,
1836, with team and load of 600 pounds for
Farmer, stayed at Mr. Gardenhires
tavern, in Brunersburg, for an early start next
morning. Had corn bread, venison and
coffee, without sugar or cream, for supper and
same for breakfast. Started next morning
before sunrise, drove half way, seven miles.
At noon, rummaged our victual chest for scraps
for dinner, watered and fed our horses by the
side of the road, started again for Farmer,
drove as fast as we could through mud, banging
over roots, around tree-tops, till 9 o'clock
that night. Had to go on foot forward of
team to find the trail; saw no house on that
day. Mr. Boyles started with
us at Brunersburg; he having a heavy load, I was
forced to leave him at Kibble Run. On the
third day, he drove through Farmer, lost his and
laid out two nights. We could buy neither
crackers, bread, nor provisions of any kind in
Brunersburg. Such were some of the
difficulties farmers had to contend with.
We think at some seasons we have it hard now;
our blood ran faster then than now. Before
leaving Defiance, I learned from old Mrs.
Shirley that when they came into the fort
the block-house was in a good state of
preservation. At that time, there was a
row of apple trees on each bank
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of the river from the point, standing far enough
back from the rivers to admit of a wagon road
between them and the river. They stood
thirty feet
outside of the pickets to the fort. In
1836, the trees stood on the edge of the bluff
of the river and were bearing fruit to-day; and
for years the rivers have undermined the trees,
the land has all left up to the very pickets of
the fort. The fur trade was the principal
part of the profits of the merchants. The
different families ofIndians, loaded down with
peltries, stopped off with squaws and papooses,
were met with deputations of boys in the
interest of each merchant. The Indians
were taken in the store, the skins assorted and
the price agreed upon, specie paid, then the
whisky passed around. Before they left,
all the money was paid back, and frequently were
trusted some on the nest pack. We have
prepared supper and entertained the Indians over
night; they were very civil. It was common
for the different fur buyers to hire young men
to canvass the different districts, embracing a
circuit of fifty miles from home, or more, often
leaving money with pioneers in advance,
sometimes at a loss. The Ewings of
Fort Wayne and Lafayette constituted one
company, the Hollisters, the American Fur
Company; opposition then as now. The
buyers were C. L. Noble, Mr. Brigham, of
Maumee, John Fury, of Perrysburg, and a
half-breed by name Clark, who was quite a
gentleman and educated at the Mission on the
rapids, C. Frygine, Gen. Curtis, Daniel
Ridenhauer and others. After the
removal of the county seat to Bryan, the subject
of a new county was agitated, and Defiance
County was formed from the two south tiers of
Williams County, three townships from Henry and
Putnam Counties, and a half township from
Paulding County. Noble Township was formed
from the north part of Defiance Township, after
having the one-half township added from
Paulding. In the latter part of 1849,
formed a partnership with Horace
Hilton in merchandising and buying produce
at the north end of Maumee River bridge.
Purchased an acre of ground where Joseph
Ralston now lives, cleared the grounds,
built a house and lived in it. Sold to
Mr. Ralston. Sold my interest
in the store to Mr. Hilton, my
partner. In 1851, moved back on the farm;
built the house I now live in, in 1852.
Before the Wabash Railroad was built through
Defiance County, I kept a country tavern, as all
Northwest and some of Indiana and Michigan were
tributary to Defiance for market. Sept.
13, 1882, the fiftieth anniversary of our
wedding was celebrated. Our relatives and
friends were in attendance, numbering about
eighty guests. We were the recipients of
some valuable gifts to cheer us in the down-hill
journey of life. With all its hardships,
toils and trials, we have managed to experience
more pleasures than ills; have formed extensive
acquaintances that no money could purchase.
Was where all the early settlers were obliged to
stop and lay in supplies. Among all the
inmates of our home, hired help, travelers, and
especially boarders and townsmen are remembered
with esteem. We have endeavored to live on
good terms with neighbors and friends, so that
the world would be no worse off for our living
in it. The latch-string is always hanging
out.
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