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DAVID M. BALDWIN was one of the earliest settlers of the south part of the township, having come from Fairfield County, and settled on lands adjoining the town of Benton.  All was a wilderness when he came, and he lived long enough to see one of the finest neighborhoods in the county.  Mr. B. was a genial, whole-souled man, ever ready to accommodate to the extent of his ability, and ever ready to resent an insult.  For years he kept a tavern, where the weary traveller always found a well laden table.  His large family are living near their old home, which is occupied by his aged widow. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 207

DR. W. H. BALDWIN was born in Champaign County, Ohio, Jan. 16, 1810, and came to Findley in 1832.  Having studied medicine and attended lectures before he came to Findley, he at once commenced the practice, and rose to a high rank in his profession, and his practice became very large, extending into adjoining counties.  An extensive practice at that day meant hard labor, long rides through a country in which there were but few roads, and no brides.  But none of these discouraged the faithful physician in his untiring efforts to relieve the afflicted.      But all these could not be endured without producing their legitimate effects.  The strong and healthy constitution of Dr. Baldwin became impaired, and he became prematurely old and feeble.  His last years were years of suffering, borne however, without complaint.      In April, 1835, Dr. Baldwin was married to Miss Mary Jane Patterson, who survived him some ten or twelve years.  Four of the Doctor's children yet survive.  He left to his widow a comfortable home, and to his children an unsullied name.  In all the relations of life he was considerate, respectful and just, and enjoyed the highest esteem of the community.  In 1842 he united with the Methodist Church, and retained his membership until his death.      In 1836 Dr. Baldwin was appointed Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, for this county, which position he held for seven years, discharging all the duties with promptness and intelligence. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 298

A. H. BALSLY, the proprietor, was born in the city of Pittsburg, Pa., Dec. 15, 1828, and whilst a resident of that city, acquired a thorough knowledge of the art of printing, and his first practical experience as an editor was in a subordinate position.  His first venture for himself was an editor and proprietor of the Grand River Record, at Painesville, O.  He then became editor of the St. Clairsville Independent.  Afterwards for thirteen years he published the Plymouth Advertiser.      After disposing of this, he in 1868 went to Fremont, O., and became proprietor of the Fremont Journal.  This paper he sold in the fall of 1875, and in May 1876, he purchased and took charge of the Findley Jeffersonian, to which he added the Daily Jeffersonian.  Besides these two papers Mr. Balsley is interested in the publication of the Milan Advertiser, and the Carey Times.      Mr. Balsley is a practical printer, a good business man, and a ready and forcible writer. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 358

JOHN BARND came to this county in 1833 from Perry county, his father's family having preceded him the year before.  Mr. Barnd had married just previous to his coming here, and being determined to make for his family and wife a home, engaged in the serious business of clearing up the forests with a will, and by his untiring industry, his economy, and intelligent use of the means at hand, he succeeded in surrounding himself with all the comforts of life, and after assisting his children, of which he had a large family, to start in life, has an abundance left for himself and aged wife, who still lives to share the fruits of their united toils, and early deprivations.      No man in the township commands a greater respect from all classes of people, than does Mr. Barnd.  Throughout his long life, he has been noted for his honesty and hospitality.  Coming to this new country, when neighbors were few and far between, when social enjoyments were almost unknown, and when strangers as well as friends were welcome, Mr. B. always, and on all occasions, displayed the natural goodness of his heart, in extending to all that generous hospitality, for which the genuine frontiersman was noted.  He was present and one of the voters at the organization of Portage township, of which this township was part.      Mr. Barnd was the first Justice of the Peace elected in the new township of Allen, and held the office of consecutive terms.  His discharge of the duties of the office was satisfactory to his constituents, and his decisions were marked with such candor and fairness, that appeals were very seldom made to the higher courts.  Mr. Barnd is still living on his old home place, spending his time peacefully and quietly in the company of his family, who are near him. Mr. Barnd has always followed the occupation of a farmer. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 190

Findley Twp. - BARNA BEARDSLEY was the oldest of seven sons of Daniel Beardsley, and was born in Delaware County, New York, on the 9th day of March, 1797.  His parents were from the State of Connecticut, and of course were Yankees.  In 1803 his father came to Ohio and settled near Newark, in Licking County.  When about fifteen years of age, Mr. Beardsley left his home and went to Columbus, Ohio, or rather to Franklinton - as there was no Columbus then - and during the war of 1812-15, he served part of the time as a wagon-boy, and part of the time as clerk in the office of the Paymaster.  He was several times sent out as the bearer of important dispatches, to the officers in command of the different posts in northern Ohio.  Dispatches were sent by him to Gen. Cass, at Zanesville, to Gen. Harrison at Fort Meigs, and to the commander at Fort Crogham at Fremont.      After the close of the war, he went to the mouth of the River Rasin, and engaged in the carpenter trade.  He also assisted in the erection of the first frame buildings in Sandusky City.  After several years absence he returned to Licking County, where on the 9th day of April, 1820, he married Mary Boylan, the eldest child of Aaron and Beulah Boylan.  From that time until 1834, he followed his trade as carpenter, and operated Hollister's Distillery until September, 1834, when he came to Hancock County, his father-in-law and one sister having preceded him, and took up his residence with his wife and seven children in a cabin on the present Infirmary farm.  The country was then very new, and being almost without means, a struggle commenced for the support of himself and his young family.      Fortunately his services as a carpenter were in demand in the new settlement, and steady employment was had, at what was then deemed good wages.  But as all materials for the building had to be wrought out by hand, not many buildings could be erected in a year, and the work was of the most laborious kind.      In 1840, Mr. B. and his sons having farmed quite extensively in addition to his work as a mechanic, he purchased of Aaron Hough thirty acres of land in Findley township, and he and his family at once went to work clearing it up, and in the fall of 1841 had so far succeeded as to be able to move on it, in a cabin which had been erected.      Here his four sons, the eldest having obtained his majority, and went out to do for himself, carried on what farming was possible on so new a tract of land, and the father worked industriously at  his trade, building many of the first frame buildings in the town, as well as in the country.      In September, 1847, the wife of Mr. B. died, and soon after the family were dispersed, the oldest son going to California in 1849, and dying there in 1850, the others beginning life for themselves at different places.      In 1856 he sold his farm, and went to Iowa, where he remained for about fifteen years, engaged most of the time in mercantile pursuits.  He then returned to Ohio, and made his home with his children, in this and Putnam Counties, until the 4th day of April, 1881, when he died at Columbus Grove, O., in his eighty-fifth year.      Mr. Beardsley was a man below medium size, but possessed of uncommon physical endurance, and the most robust health.  No one perhaps in the whole settlement could perform so much hard labor with as little fatigue as he.  An almost iron constitution enabled him to endure the greatest hardships and perform the greatest labor.  Scarcely ever needing the assistance of medicine, he hardly knew what it was to be sick,. Having been a frontiersman all his life, he was inured to all the privations incident thereto.  His last years were years of great suffering, being afflicted with an incurable malady, yet they were endured without complaint.      Mr. Beardsley united with the Methodist Church when young, and was a member for more than sixty years.  His house, in the early days of his residence here, was the home of the Methodist ministers, Conway, Hill, Allen, Heustiss, Wilson, Biggs, Tibballs, Seeley, Runnells, Breckenridge, Pope, and a host of other preachers have partaken of his hospitality.      He was the father of ten children, five boys and five girls, seven of whom are living.  He lived long enough to see all his children married, and at his death had ten children, forty-five grand-children, and twenty great grand-children. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 263

Union Twp. - REV. RICHARD BIGGS was born on the 12th day of November, 1806, in Columbia County, Pa., and died at his home in the town of Rawson, Ohio, on the 18th day of July, 1880.      In 1829 he united with the Methodist Church in Northumberland County, Pa.  He shortly afterwards removed to Summit County, Ohio, where in July 1836, he was licensed to preach.      In 1838 he removed to Hancock Co., and settled near the present town of Rawson.  Two years later he was admitted to the North Ohio Conference at its session in Norwalk, and for more than thirty years was an itinerant minister, and having the following charges:  Findley, Kalida, Defiance, Clarksfield, Amherst, Dalton, Congress, Chesterville, Marcellus, Millersburg, Shanesville, Pleasantville, Mt. Blanchard, Adrian, Arcadia, Bluffton, Bettsville and McComb.      Mr. Biggs was left an orphan when but six years of age.  His educational privileges were very limited, yet such was his diligence in his studies, that he began teaching at the age of sixteen.  He was always a close student, and kept up with the times.  He was a man of unyielding rectitude, and pure in his life, modest and retiring in his disposition, yet faithful in the discharge of every duty.  He commenced the ministry when it meant hard labor, little pay; the country being new, the appointments were long distances apart, and the people scattered and poor, yet he earnestly and uncomplainingly toiled to lay the foundations of good society, good government and good morals.  His wife still survives him, as also four of his children. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 444

PRICE BLACKFORD was born in Pennsylvania, in 1803, and came to Ohio when but a boy, and with his parents located in Wayne County, but the family afterwards removed to Stark County.  In 1834 Mr. Blackford, with his family, came to Findley, and he at once commenced the manufacture of fur hats, a trade which he had learned of his father.  No professional man, and scarcely any young man considered himself dressed properly unless he was crowned with one of Blackford's hats.      Perhaps no man ever lived in Findley who enjoyed a greater share of the respect and confidence of the people than did Mr. B.  His honesty was proverbial, and his dealings were all characterized by courtesy and fairness.  He held the office of Justice of the Peace for fifteen years, and "Blackford's Decisions" were regarded as almost infallible.  He was a member of the Baptist Church for more than thirty years.      He had a family of six children, three of whom are living.  Aaron and Jason are both practicing attorneys in Findley, and Albert is in business in Clinton, Mo.  Mr. Blackford died in 1851, at the age of forty-eight years, and universally lamented. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 299

Pleasant Twp. - CHARLES BLAKEMAN is still living, and a resident of McComb.  He, too, was a farmer, and a man of probity and industry, and has always enjoyed the esteem of his neighbors.  He is now in his old age, quietly enjoying the fruits of his labor. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 424

Findley Twp. - ROBERT BONHAM came to the township at a very early day, and commenced clearing up a farm a little north-west of Findley, and upon which he resided up to the time of his death in May, 1877.      Mr. Bonham was an industrious, economical, and unassuming man.  As a neighbor, he was kind and accommodating, as a citizen, he was true to the best interests of the people, as he understood them, as a Christian he was consistent.  Purely domestic in his habits, he very seldom went farther from home than the village, and was never in a railroad car until less than a year before his death.  He was a man of peculiar habits, but respected by all who knew him.  Mr. Bonham was a native of Virginia, and was three times married. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 261

JOHN BOYLAN, for more than forty years a resident here, came from near Newark, Licking County, Ohio, in 1832.  He was one of the first school teachers in the county, and for many years taught "the young ideas how to shoot," and how to shout too, for that matter, for I have a very vivid recollection of the energetic manner in which he swung the birch.      Mr. Boylan was a local preacher of the Methodist Church, and one of its earliest members of the county.  As a minister he was fervent and touching in his appeals and powerful in his exhortations.  After his long residence here he went west, and is now a resident of Iowa. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 388

Union Twp. - GEORGE BURKET was born in Berks County, Pa., and emigrated to Fairfield County, Ohio, at which place he was married to Mary Fox,  In 1831, he came to Hancock County with his wife and two children.  He settled on the farm afterwards owned by his son Jacob.  Mr. Burket  was a tall slender man, and of rather delicate health.  With the help of his family, he cleared a very valuable farm at which place he died about eighteen years ago. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 443

Union Twp. - JACOB BURKET, son of George, was born in Fairfield county, in December, 1811, and when about five years of age, his parents removed to Perry county, where he remained until 1831, when he came to this township.      When Mr. Burket came, there were but two other families in the township Philip Cramer, who resided where his son Jacob now does, and Nicholas Folk, who then lived on what is now known as the Teatsorth farm.      Mr. Burket was present and voted at the first election in the township.  He says that at that election, Philip Cramer, Nicholas Folk and George Burket were elected Trustees and Wenman Wade, Clerk.      Mr. Burket was married in 1832 to Sarah Cramer, by Esq. John Cramer.  This was the first marriage in the township.  Mrs. Burket died in 1850, and he was again married this time to the widow of Philip Cramer, jr.      After a long and active life on his farm, Mr. Burket removed to the village of Rawson, where he is quietly enjoying his declining years.  He has always enjoyed the esteem of his neighbors and has a host of friends. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 444

Cass Twp. - JOHN BURMAN was born in Luzerne County, Pa., in Feb. 1783, and came to Fairfield County, Ohio, where he was married to Catharine Fisher.  Mr. B. was of Dutch descent.  He was a gun-smith by trade, and worked at that business until he came to this county, in 1828, after which time he was a farmer.  Mr. B., his father and two brothers were in the service of the United States in the war of 1812, and had head-quarters at Franklinton, opposite Columbus, Ohio.  When Mr. B. came to this county with his family he took up his residence in a log cabin on the land on which he occupied up to the time of  his death.      Mr. B. was of medium height, and weighted about one hundred and seventy-five pounds, of strong constitution and robust health, he was well calculated to do battle with the hardships of pioneer life.      In religious belief; Mr. B.  was a Lutheran, and was a member of that church many years.  He built the first mill in the township.  During the first year of his residence  here, his was the only family residing in the township.  He has four sons and two daughters living.  Two of his sons were in the army during the rebellion.  Mr. B. died in 1863, and his aged wife survived him about five years. (Sharon Wick's Note:  Mr. Burman can be found in 1860 Census Allen Township, Hancock Co. - P. O. VanBuren in Film Series M653 Roll 982 Page 35 - Dwelling 457 Family 448 with his wife Catherine and 3 children. - He also lives near the family of Henry Burman) Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 231

Union Twp. - JAMES BURNS, one of the best citizens, industrious, honest, after years of toil, accumulated a competency for himself and family, died surrounded by kind friends and neighbors, regretted by all. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 443

Findley Twp. - HENRY BYAL Is the oldest son of John Byal, and was born in Stark County, Ohio, on the 23d of March, 1817.  His father's family were of French descent, and his maternal grandfather, Conrad Newstetter, was a Hessian, and was one of Gen. Burgoyne's life guards.  Mr. Byal came to this county in 1832, his father was a miller and farmer, and on his emigration to this county, settled on lands adjoining the present Infirmary Farm.  Mr. B.'s father erected a saw mill on the Blanchard in 1832, and in this mill Henry worked for seven years.  When not water enough to run the mill, he worked on the farm.  He had only a common school education, and taught school one term.      In 1842 Mr. Byal was married to Doratha Comer, daughter of the late Isaac Comer, and immediately removed to the farm now owned by Conrad Renninger, and commenced life in the woods.  In a few years, by the untiring industry of himself and wife, he had cleared up a large tract of land, and had an elegant new farm.  After five years residence here he rented his farm, and in company with the late Edson Goit, he removed to Ottowa, in Putnam County, and engaged in the dry goods business.  In this business he remained seven years, in the towns of Ottowa, Gilboa, and Pendleton, all in Putnam Co., O.  He returned to Findley in 1853, and went into the store of the late Edson Goit.      In the spring of 1854, he was elected a Justice of the Peace in Findley township, and held the office for three consecutive terms.  Mr. B., although still living in Findley, claims to be a farmer.  He is dealing quite extensively in lands in this, Wood, and Henry Counties, owning now about one thousand acres, the care of which occupies nearly all his time.      Mrs. Doratha Byal having died in 1860, Mr. Byal married Miss Mary Lamb, in 1862, who is still living.      In 1866 Mr. Byal united with the Presbyterian Church in Findley, of which he has ever since been a member, and is at present a ruling elder.  He is the father of four children, only one of whom - Mrs. S. D. Houpt - is now living. Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio By D. B. Beardsley, Findley, O. - Publ. Springfield, O. Republic Printing Company - 1881  - Page 307