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Chapter XVIII.
pg. 203
HISTORY OF
DAMASCUS
TOWNSHIP
IT would appear that the biography of a middle aged man
could be easily written, and the information obtainable from
one person. So should the history of a county, young
as that of Henry, be accurately and speedily compiled.
We are, however, confronted with a mountain of difficulties
seemingly insurmountable. The smoke of the element, to
the music of which Nero is said to have kept time with his
fiddle, has obscured the early foot-prints; ignorance has
made no record, and when made carelessness has permitted it
to be destroyed. Unlike an old settled county one
generation has not stepped into the tracks of its
predecessor, and tradition preserved the record; but like
the Toltecs and the Aztecs, the successor has inherited no
history of its predecessor, and it is only from a few
landmarks and the impaired recollection of a very few of the
remaining members of the original tribe of Abraham that we
are enabled to gather a few recollections worth preserving
and embalming in print.
THREE STAGES OF
CIVILIZATION.
We find
three types of civilization as having existed here.
Pioneer is rather a misnomer for the first, as he came not
as a settler, removed but a few obstructions, and cleared a
very narrow way for those who were to follow; he was rather
an adventurer, restless in civilization and happy only in
the solitude of wild nature; the rifle and the dog were his
companions, and the fruit of the hunt and trap his only
means of support. Very little improvement was made by
this type; a small corn and truck patch was cleared, and a
rude log cabin erected, but the immense forests remained
comparatively undisturbed. He was followed by the man
with the ax, and in his footsteps came the saw-mill.
This was the timbering period, and the giants of the forest
fell rapidly before the woodman's ax. The monster oaks
were felled, hewed sleded to the Maumee, rafted to Toledo,
thence on vessels to Montreal and Quebec, and then to
Liverpool, England, where they were converted into vessels.
The walnut, ash and poplar were converted into lumber and
shipped to Eastern markets. The soft wood has become
valuable only in late years and since the advent of the
stave factory and hoop maker. With the lumbermen came
many who remained, and accompanied or followed by others in
search of cheap homes. These with their descendants,
eastern arrivals and foreign immigration make up the present
population and civilization.
CIVIL ORGANIZATION.
Damascus township
was organized as a voting precinct in 1823, included the
whole of what was then Henry county; with the voting place
at Independence, now in Defiance county. As time
advanced improvements multiplied and population increased,
new civil townships were formed, until Damascus is a present
limited to the original government-surveyed township No.
Five, north of range eight, east, minus so much as lies
north of the Maumee River, and forms part of Washington
township, being sections 1 and 6, the most of 5 and 7 and
parts of three and 4. It is, of course, bounded on the
north by the Maumee, on the east by Wood county, on the
south by Richfield, and on the west by Harrison township.
In 1840, when its territory, divided with Richfield and Flat
Rock, embraced all of the county south of the river, it has
a population of only 489. In 1860, reduced to its
present dimensions, it contained 761 souls, which in 1870
had increased to 1,179, this grew to 1,415 in 1880, and at
present, estimating from the voting population and including
the village of McClure, which has sprung up since, must
number not less than 2,000 persons.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The township, in
common with the county, is very level, or rather flat. It
is, however, easily drained into the several natural water
courses which run through the township, emptying into the
Maumee.
The south branch of Turkey Foot, the main creek south
of the Maumee, enters the township in the southwest of
section nineteen, running north-easterly through sections
nineteen, eighteen and seventeen and emptying into the river
in the west half of section eight. Lick Creek starts
in the southwest corner of section twenty-nine, also running
in the northeasterly direction until it reaches the river in
the northwest corner of section three, a fragment of which
lies south of the river. The east branch of this creek
commences in the south-west corner of section sixteen,
uniting with the main creek in the southeast corner of
section nine. Big Creek starts in the southwest
quarter of section thirty-four, running south, tending
slightly to the east, through sections twenty-seven,
twenty-two, fifteen and eleven, reaching the river in the
southwest quarter of the latter section. The channels
of these creeks have been greatly improved by widening and
deepening, and with the system of artificial drainage, both
surface and under-ground tiling, completely drain the
township, which is now one of the best improved and most
productive in the county, the soil being mainly black
alluvium and its fertility seemingly inexaustible.
The Coldwater, Mansfield, and Lake Michigan Railroad is
located through the township, its road commencing at the
east side of the southwest quarter of section twenty-five
and running in the southwestern direction through sections
twenty-five and running in the southwestern direction
through sections twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven,
twenty-eight, twenty and nineteen. The "Narrow Guage,"
now converted into a standard, and known as the "Clover
Leaf" route, also runs through the township, entering on the
east line at the northeast corner of section thirteen and
running diagonally through the township, southwesterly to
the southwest corner of section thirty-one. It crosses
the road bed of the C. M. & L. M. Railroad, in the northeast
quarter of section twenty-eight. The location of the
railroads, especially the construction of the narrow guage,
gave birth to the......
VILLAGE OF
McCLURE.
This, the only
village in the township, was laid out and platted into town
lots by John McCLURE, and entered of record in the
office of the recorder of Henry County, April 15, 1880, and
is situated "in the northeast part of the northeast quarter
of section twenty-eight," on the line of the Delphos and
Toledo (narrow guage) Railroad. The original plat was
711 feet square and was divided into twenty-eight lots,
including the depot grounds. On the 7th day of
February, 1881, Mr. McCLURE added an addition of
thirty-two lots on the south of the town, increasing the
number of lots to sixty. April 7, 1881, David FOLTZ
platted an addition of six lots to the east side of the
town, and August 26, 1881, added another addition of four
lots on the south of the town. October 19, 1881, J.
G. MARKLEY's addition of twenty-four lots was added to
the north of the town. Sept. 23, 1881, Mr. McCLURE
added his second addition of twenty-six lots on the west
of his first addition. Sept. 5, 1882, Ammond SMITH,
platted an addition of five lots to the west of McClure's
second addition. April 10, 1885, J. G. MARKLEY
added a second addition of sixteen lots on the west of his
first addition.
The village was incorporated in 1886, and the plat
admitted to record on the 10th day of August of that year.
The first substantial building erected in the village
was in 1880, on lot fifteen on the original plat, by
Thomas W. DURBIN, who for a number of years had been
merchandising at Texas, in Washington township. The
building is a two-story frame, one hundred and thirty feet
deep, and twenty-two feet wide. A general mercantile
business is carried on by the "DURBAN boys" -
DICKSON, CHARLES, and CLARK, sons of the
proprietor. The same year Andrew Johnson
erected a commodious hotel; the year following the
ROWLAND brothers put up an elevator and also a
store-room; following were the COUNSELMAN brothers
with still another store; then came the stave factory,
planing-mill, etc. The town at present contains a
population of five hundred, has a post, express and
telegraph office, one church, a large two-story
school-house, three general stores, one drug store, a
hardware store, saw-mill, stave factory, planing-mill, and
the various mechanical artisans. Gas and oil have
lately been struck, mains and pipes have been laid, and the
town is now heated and lighted by the natural vapor.
EARLY SETTLERS.
In 1837 there were
but three hundred and eighty-five acres of land in what is
now Damascus township, on the duplicate for taxation, and it
was a number of years after that date before settlement
commenced. John SAVAGE was, perhaps, one of the
very first actual settlers; Abraham SNYDER came from
Virginia in 1840, but first settled in Washington, at the
time called Myo township; James REID came in 1843;
James FISER, also from Virginia, came the same year;
Samuel DOMER in 1849, and Solomon DOMER
the year following; Milton JENNINGS came in 1851;
Jacob BEAVER was one of the early settlers; William
BELL, Philip W. COUNSELMAN, the SHEPARD
family, John M. McCLURE, John FOLTZ, John C. McLAIN,
may be mentioned among the pioneers to whom is due the
credit of converting the forests of Damascus into a garden.
Present Condition - Not less than three-fourths
of the lands of this township were under a high state of
cultivation, worth from $25 to $85 per acre. The
township is well ditched, ahs good roads on almost every
section line; its residences and farm buildings are
surpassed by few localities, and it has more churches and
school-houses than any other township in the county, or, in
fact, in most any other county. Its population is very
moral, sober and industrious, in fact a more desirable
community or better county in which to live, will be hard to
find.
Damascus township presents several sad examples from
which the farmer and agriculturist should profit.
Several of her pioneer and best to do farmers who purchased
government lands at a low price in the early days of the
county, settled in the wilderness, and patiently enduring
all hardships and deprivations, were in their old age
induced by their boys, who had become fascinated with town
life, or felt too proud to farm, to sell their hard earned
homes, now valuable, and remove to the neighboring town and
engage in merchandising, a business of which neither they or
their boys knew anything.
In discussing the reasons why so many of the boys born
and bred on farms, become dissatisfied with rural life, and
why so few follow the occupation at which their fathers had
won success, there is one that is too little considered.
Most of these young men expect some day to marry, and seeing
how hard a time their mothers usually have, are properly
unwilling to oblige the girls they love to assume such
arduous responsibilities. In fact, they cannot oblige
a girl to become a farmer's wife if they would. The
time for such obligation has not yet come, and in
ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, ambitious girls, who
like a man well enough for himself, suppress their feelings
and give him the go-by, if this be the prospect in life that
he holds out "for better or for worse." It is,
unfortunately, not altogether a prejudice that thus
influences young women against the farm, or rather it is the
natural prejudgment of their own fate from the facts in
farmers' wives' experiences with which they are themselves
familiar.
Undoubtedly the greatest improvement in farming life
now needed consists in greater comforts and conveniences for
farmers' wives. The farmer himself has all sorts of
labor-saving machinery. The wife often has to do with
only the same conveniences provided for her mother and
grandmother before her. As social duties become more
exacting her time and leisure are less than formerly.
Children on the farm do not "rough it" as much as they used
to. Just all the difference in their appearance marks
so much the greater care thrown upon the mother. It is
more difficult than formerly to get good help in the house
in the country. Girls who work in private families
prefer city life. They, too, had rather find a beau
among the young men in some city avocation than on a farm.
Now, as far as possible, a farmer should make his wife's
work proportionately as easy as his own, or he should quit
the business if satisfied that this cannot be done.
Usually the hardest jobs in the house may be saved by a
little timely thoughtfulness on the part of the husband and
men folks. Having a good supply of wood or other fuel
in the convenient place ought to be a requirement from every
housewife. So, too, should good hard and soft water
convenient for use. Many steps may be saved by
constructing sewage drains to convey slops from the house.
This drain should terminate in some receptacle at a distance
from the house, which, kept disinfected, will more than pay
its way in providing fertilizers for the farm.
It is presumed that most farmers' wives have sewing
machines. They are as great help in the house as
mowers and harvesters are on the farm, and may be used many
more days in the year. The ice-house and creamery
should be maintained wherever a cow is kept. They make
a great saving in the labor of caring for milk, and are
besides well worth their cost in making more and better
butter than by the old laborious methods. The ice-cold
milk from the creamer is an excellent drink for hard working
men. With every particle of cream removed it is as
nutritious as it ever was, and its coolness, combined with
nutrition, makes it valuable for a drink to men in the hay
and harvest fields. Then, too, with plenty of ice it
is easy to have ice cream easily, made cheaply and better
than nine-tenths of what is sold in cities. With
beautiful home-grown flowers in the dooryard, and perhaps a
green house for them in winter, the farmer's wife need ask
no odds of her city sisters with equal wealth in the in the
pleasures and refinements of life which each may enjoy.
The trouble with most farmers is that they do not make
the most of little things where they can easily and cheaply
increase the comforts and luxuries of life. Lacking
these they look with greater envy on the supposed advantages
of city residents, and of course become discontented and
unhappy. If farmers asked the advice of their wives
more than they do about household arrangements, and
gave them their way in these, they would find the comforts
of their homes greatly increased thereby. Perhaps then
their sons, whom they hope to leave as prosperous farmers,
would not be deterred from their father's business by their
inability to find lovable and intelligent young women
willing to share such a life with them.
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