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CHAPTER IX. When Lucas county was established, in 1835, there were but three organized townships - Port Lawrence, Waterville, and Waynesfield - within the limits of the new county. Prior to the settlement of the boundary dispute, the territory north of the Fulton line had been divided by the Michigan authorities as follows: West of the line between Ranges 6 and 7 East as made a part of the townships of Whiteford and Blissfield, in Monroe and Lenawee counties, and the territory east of that line was organized as a separate township and named Port Lawrence. On Feb. 23, 1835, in pursuance to Ohio's claims to jurisdiction, the legislature passed an act providing that "such part of Ranges 5 and 6 as lies between the line run due east from the southern extremity to the most northern cape of the Maumee bay, be and the same is hereby erected into a separate and distinct township by the name of Sylvania; and that all such part of Ranges 7 and 8, together with the territory east of the Maumee river, as lies between the line run from the southerly extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Maumee bay, and between Lake Erie and the line run due east from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, be and the same is hereby erected into a separate and distance township, by the name of port Lawrence." The act further authorized and directed those townships to hold elections for township officers on the first Monday in April, 1835, and provided for their complete organization. In pursuance of this act an election was held in Port Lawrence township on Apr. 6, 1835, in defiance of the Michigan authorities, but it seems that the new township of Sylvania held no election, and no township organization under that name appears until the spring of 1838. Hence, when Lucas county was created, in June 1835, Port Lawrence township occupied the territory above described, and the remainder of the county was divided between the townships of Waterville and Waynesfield. Since that time twelve townshps have been organized and three have passed out of existence. The township of Manhattan was organized in June, 1840, its limits comprising all the Town 9 north, Range 8 east, with the exception of the southern tier of sections, and Washington township, created at the same time, was made co-extensive with Town 9, Range 7, outside of the Toledo city limits; and thus the old township of Port Lawrence was restricted, it being further reduced in size by the formation of Adams township in 1856, and it finally lost its identity within the confines of the city of Toledo. Manhattan was maintained until 1874, when its territory was divided between the city of Toledo and Oregon township, and the name Manhattan, as of an existing entity, entirely ceased to be. Waynesfield township heroically withstood encroachments upon its territory by the creation of and additions to other townships, until, in 1897, it was made coextensive with the corporate limits of the village of Maumee, leaving at the present time twelve townships, as follows: Adams, Jerusalem, Monclova, Oregon, Providence, Richfield, Spencer, Springfield, Swanton, Sylvania, Washington and Waterville.
WAYNESFIELD (MAUMEE VILLAGE)
The township of Waynesfield was created by an
act of the Ohio legislature on Dec. 30, 1817, and was the first civil
township organized in the State of Ohio north of the Maumee river.
It was named in honor of Gen. Anthony Wayne, and the name also
included the "field" where that illustrious officer so signally defeated
the Indians on Aug. 20, 1794, that field being situated within the
original boundaries of the township. At the time of its creation
it was a part of the county of Logan, but it was included in Wood county
when the latter was erected, in 1820, and when Lucas county was
established, in 1835, it became a part of the new county. Hence,
Waynesfield was a civil subdivision of three different counties.
Waggoner's History of Toledo and Lucas County says: "Its
original territory, lying over against Fort Meigs, embraced Fort Miami;
the British Battery on the point opposite Fort Meigs; the scene of the
Dade massacre; the land-mark known as Turkey Foot Rock; and spread over
a soil ful of historic interest, and saturated with the blood of the
early defenders of our nation, shed over a soil full of historic
interest, and saturated with the blood of the early defenders of our
nation, shed in warfare against the British and their Indian allies.
Isaac Hull was
one of the pioneers of the Maumee valley. He came west from the
Massachusetts, about 1804, with his father, who was a brother of
Governor Hull of Michigan. Daniel Hull, a brother of
Isaac, was the first sheriff of Wood county. In 1827 Isaac
Hull was married to Chloe Spafford, daughter of Maj.
Samuel Spafford, who was prominent in the War of 1812. His
powers of physical endurance were extraordinary, he having walked
"between suns" from Maumee to Defiance, a distance of fifty miles.
He died at Maumee City in December, 1864, leaving a widow and two sons -
S. S. and W. R. Hull. Augustus Davenport Williams was born in Tolland county, Connecticut, Nov. 24, 1806, and he came from that State to Ohio in the fall of 1831, returning on horseback in the winter of 1832. In April, 1834, with his father's family, he came back and landed on the banks of the Maumee, where a very few Frenchmen and Indians constituted most of the settlers. He began farming on Big Island (between Maumee and Perrysburg), and not long thereafter he built at Maumee a hotel, which he named the Washington House. His first boarders were Dr. Daniel Cook and family.
Nortnern Light Lodge, No. 40, Free and Accepted
Masons, at Maumee, was chartered Dec. 12, 1818, the charter being signed
by Chester Griswold, Grand Master. The charter members were
Eber Ward, Almon Gibbs, William Griffith, S. H. Thurston, Charles
Gunn, Sheldon Johnston, David Johnston, William Preston, and J.
C. Adams. The first record of officers now extant is dated
June 12, 1822, and is as follows: Horatio Conant,
worshipful master; John T. Baldwin, senior warden; R. McKnight,
junior warden; Ambrose Rice, secretary; David M. Hawley,
tyler.
WATERVILLE TOWNSHIP.
Orson Ballou came to the township in 1818, the same year as John Pray, and played an important part in the development of the country. In 1833 he was elected to the office of constable, and during the "Boundary War," in 1835, he held the rank of major in the Ohio forces. Two of his sons - Oscar W. and Orson G. - served in the Union army in the Civil war, the former in Company I, Fourteenth Ohio infantry, and the latter, a lieutenant in the One Hundredth Ohio infantry, was captured and died in Libby prison. After the war Oscar W. Ballou became actively identified with the Democratic party and held several local offices, including that of councilman in the village of Waterville and president of the board of education. The first successful natural gas well in the township was sunk by him in the summer of 1887. Another prominent pioneer was Hiram G. Barlow, who first came to the Maumee valley in 1816 and located at Orleans, where he came to the Maumee valley in 1816 and located at Orleans, where he taught school in the winter after his arrival. Later he engaged in agricultural pursuits near the Turkey Foot rock; built the old Red Ox Mill," the gristmill and distillery of John Pray at Waterville, and taught the first school in Waterville township. John Van Fleet, who was elected one of the first justices of the peace, was also an active participant in public affairs in that early day. In 1834 he was elected one of the township trustees; was appointed one of the road-reviewers by the board of county commissioners of Lucas county; and in 1838 was elected county commissioner. He also served as grand juror overseer of the poor, was a delegate to the Democratic State convention in 1842, and was otherwise actively connected with the political and industrial life of the township.
SWANTON TOWNSHIP.
Huntington Larabee was one of the early settlers in Waynesfield township, but in the spring of 1834 removed to what is now Swanton township and built a log house, in which he opened the first tavern or public house in that part of the county. He was one of the first trustees, but in the spring of 1836 left the township, being succeeded in the hotel business by David Mills. William D. Herrick came to the township in 1834 and settled on the west half of the southeast quarter of section 6, and later removed to the north half of the southwest quarter of section 7, where he kept a public house for many years. He also worked at the blacksmith's trade and manufactured barrels. About 1860 he opened a country store. He served for eleven years as trustee of the township, being elected to that office first in 1838, and the last time in 1865. In the fall of 1864 he was one of the members of the committee to solicit aid for the families of soldiers. Prior to the dissolution of the Whig party he was one of its active members, and in 1851 was its candidate for county coroner, but was defeated by John G. Kemme. In 1856 he was the candidate of the American party for infirmary director, but was again defeated. He took an active interest in the Toledo & Indiana plank road, and at the meeting held at West Unity, Feb. 26, 1848, when several counties were represented, he was one of the committee on resolutions. He died in February, 1869, and his wife died in March, 1888. David Mills settled on the east half of the southwest quarter of section 7 in 1834, having been for several years prior to that time on the river at Waterville and Maumee. In the spring of 1836 he purchased the tavern established by Huntington Larabee in 1834, and for several years was engaged in that business. He was teh first treasurer of Swanton township and later served several terms as trustee. He married Asena Barnes, who bore him twelve children. Six of his sons served in the Civil war - one in the Thirty-eighth, four in the One Hundredth, and one in the One Hundred and Thirtieth Ohio infantry. He died in April, 1883, his wife having died in March of the preceding year. Philo B. Scott was born in the State of New York, and came with his parents to Painesville, Ohio, in 1807. He married Emelia Brown, a stepdaughter of Gen. Edward Paine, for whom Painesville was named, and lived in Huron and Seneca counties until April, 1835, when he came to Swanton township and settled on the southeast quarter of section 5, his father and an older brother coming with him. He took an active interest in political affairs; was an enthusiastic supporter of General Harrision for the Presidency in 1840, and was a delegate to the Whig county convention of that year; served several terms as trustee and justice of the peace, and was superintendent of the county infirmary from 1845 to 1848. After the Whig party ceased to exist, he affiliated with the Republicans until his death, in April, 1874. The first frame building in the township was erected by Luther Dodge, in the spring of 1837. It was located at.....
PROVIDENCE TOWNSHIP. Providence township is the most southwestern political subdivision in Lucas county. It is bounded on the north by the townships of Swanton and Waterville; on the east by Waterville and the Maumee river; on the south by the Maumee river, which separates it from Wood county, and on the west by the counties of Fulton Henry. It has an area of about twenty-eight squares miles, and was established
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP.
Settlements were made within the limits of the township some yeas before it was organized. Among the earliest settlers were Dennis Sage, Peter Holloway, Ellison DeMott, John Cummings, David Trumbull, John Birchfield, James Egnew, Thomas Wood, John Wiltse, Willard Barnes, Patrick Flynn, James Dean, the four Divines - John, Joseph, Samuel and Selah - and a widow named Chloe Lees with two small sons, Edmund and Simeon P. Dennis Sage settled in what is now Springfield township in 1829, being the first or at least one of the first to establish a domicile in that part of the county. He served several terms as trustee of the township after its organization, and was an influential citizen in many ways. He married Mrs. Sarah Holloway, widow of Herbert Halloway, and they had four children. A daughter, Ida, became the wife of A. P. Holland. Dennis Sage died in 1887, at the age of ninety-three yeas, and at the time of his death was the oldest citizen of the township. Peter Halloway, the founder of the family of that name in Lucas county, was a descendant of one of the three brothers who came from England and settled in Boston, Mass., in 1666. he was born at Dighton, Mass., May 21, 1778; went with his father to Taunton, Mass., in 1782; and in 1798 to Canandaigua, N. Y., where he followed the trade of blacksmith. He married Sophia Seymour and removed to West Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, where he was engaged in farming, blacksmithing and running a hotel until the War of 1812. During that war he served in the volunteer cavalry, after which he lived in Livingston county, New York, until 1833, when he came to what is now the township of Springfield, of which he was the first clerk. He died in September, 1861. He had five sons and three daughters. One son, Charles B., served as lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Ohio militia, and in 1879 was elected to represent Lucas county in the legislature. David Trumbull came to the township in 1833 and entered the west half of the southwest quarter of section 17, town 2, United States Reserve. At the April election in 1838 he was chosen one of the overseers of the poor, and his son, James served as treasurer, trustee and justice of the peace. Two of his grandsons, Rufus H. and William O. Trumbull, were members of Company I, Fourteenth Ohio infantry in the Civil war, and the former was wounded at Chickamauga. Part of the farm he entered afterward became noted for the production of cranberries. Thomas Wood came with his family from New York State in 1835, and when the township was organized the succeeding year he was elected one of the first trustees. On Jan. 4, 1837, he was appointed one of the viewers for certain roads, and in June, 1839, he was granted a license by the county commissioners to keep a tavern in Springfield. He was active as a Whig and in 1843 was a delegate to the county convention of that party. His son Harrison served in Company A, Fourteenth Ohio infantry, and was wounded at Tullalgae of Holland. Another son, Perry Wood, served several terms as justice of the peace and trustee. John Wiltse, in 1831, entered eighty acres in the southwest quarter of section 15, town 2, United States range, and was therefore one of the earliest settlers. He was an active and influential citizen; was the first treasurer of Springfield township; served on the grand jury; was appointed road viewer in 1837, and also served as school director. Samuel Divine, who located in the township prior to its organization, was one of the active Whigs of that day. He was the first surveyor of Lucas county, serving from 1836 to 1838, and as such laid out the town of Vinton in what is now Adams township. From 1841 to 1844 he was township clerk, and in 1843 was a delegate to the county convention of the Whig party. He was also county commissioner from 1850 to 1853, and served several terms as justice of the peace. The widow Chloe Lees, who was one of the pioneers, purchased a tract of land from Silas Barnes in 1831, established a home and reared to manhood her two boys, who both became useful members of the community. Simeon P. was several times elected to the office of township treasurer.
Other early settlers were John and
Jacob Gnagy. The former built the first mill in the township,
in 1834. It was located on Wolf creek. Two yeas later
John Walter built a sawmill on Swan creek in the southwest part of
the township. Jacob Gnagy was a member of the first county
grand jury, in April, 1836. In January, 1845, when the county
commissioners ordered a road from Springfield to Swanton, Jacoab
Gnagy, Solomon Salisbury and Thomas Dobbins were appointed
viewers of the same, and later in the same year Mr. Gnagy was
elected one of the trustees of Springfield township.
The first mails were carried by stage, and the
postoffice was kept by James Dean at his hotel on the Toledo &
Indiana plank road, three miles northwest of the present village of
Holland. Later the postoffice was kept by Thomas Wood at
his hotel, where the first services of the Methodist denomination were
held.
OREGON TOWNSHIP.
Joseph Prentice came to Port Lawrence in 1817, bringing his family and a few belongings in a skiff from Buffalo, N. Y. He was interested in the original Port Lawrence Company, which laid the foundations of Toledo. In 1823 he lived in one of the few frame houses in Port Lawrence, but two years later he removed to a farm on the east side of the river, where he lived until his death on Mar. 6, 1845. His name frequently appears in the county records as a member of the grand jury, etc., and he was one of the first justices of the peace in Oregon township. His son Frederick was born at Port Lawrence on Dec. 6, 1822. As there were no schools in the immediate vicinity in that day, he was educated by his mother, Mrs. Eleanor Prentice, and became a prominent business man. After the death of his father the support of the family devolved on him. His nurse was an Indian woman, and it is said that he had a better knowledge of the Indian language than he had of English. This rendered him valuable as an interpreter for the Indian agents and traders, which fact aided him very materially in contributing to the support of his widowed mother and his brothers and sisters. When about eighteen years of age he engaged in supplying firewood to the people of Toledo and the steamboats plying on the Maumee. Later he erected a sawmill on the east side and operated it with profit for a number of years, in the meantime purchasing wild land from which he cut the timber and then sold the land to settlers. About 1857 he suffered financial reverses, shortly after which he went to New York city, where he passed the rest of his life. Luther Whitmore came from Massachusetts in the spring of 1825, bringing with him his wife and six children. He first settled on the Maumee, opposite Turkey Foot rock, and during the next three years removed several times to farms in the vicinity. In 1829 he located on the tract in Oregon township where his son Luther continued to live for many years. He was frequently a delegate to Democratic nominating conventions, served as township trustee for several years, and was one of hte members from Oregon township of the committee to solicit donations for soldiers' families, in 1862. His son Leonard was the first clerk of the township after it was organized, in 1837. Luther Whitmore, Jr., spent the greater part of his early life in the employ of John Hollister, the Indian agent at Perrysburg, and was his assistant in making the annual payments to the Indians every year for six years. He married Martha Trask and lived on the old homestead after his father's death. Robert Gardner came from Wayne county, New York. His son Nathan continued to reside for many yeas on the east side of the river, where the family settled in 1831. He was one of the leading Democrats of Oregon township and in 1876 was a delegate to the Ohio state convention of that party. Robert Gardner had also two daughters - Amy and Catherine. The former married Charles Coy, one of the early settlers of Wood county, and the latter became the wife of Stephen Green, a farmer of Richfield township, Lucas county. Although Oliver Stevens is mentioned as one of the early settlers of the east side, it appears that his business interests lay on the opposite side of the river. In 1835 he was engaged with Ezra Goodell in operating a sawmill on Swan creek, about three miles from Toledo. At that time the mill was offered for sale and was advertised as having a capacity of "from 300,000 to 400,000 feet a year." Mr. Stevens rook an active interest in educational affairs and at the October term in 1839 was appointed by the county commissioners as one of the county school examiners. Later he served as clerk, treasurer and trustee of Oregon township. Gabriel Crane came to what is now Oregon township as a young man, and became somewhat prominent in local matters. He was the second clerk of the township, succeeding Leonard Whitmore in 1841, and held the office for five years. Later he served several terms as trustee, having been first elected to that position in 1846. The records show that in 1847 he was appointed by the board of county commissioners to serve with George D. Treat, John Consaul and D. L. Westcott in viewing certain proposed roads in the township. He married Mary Ann, daughter of Luther Whitmore, and they had three sons - James H., Henry J. and Amos W.
By the treaty of Maumee, on Feb. 18,
1833, the Ottawa Indians were authorized to sell the reservations held
by them under former treaties, and soon afterward these lands began to
find their way into the hands of the white men. Following is a
copy of one of these early Indian deeds:
SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP.
In the year 1835 a number of persons who afterward became prominent in political and commercial affairs were added to the population. Among them were Benjamin Joy, Eli Hubbard, Erastus Morse, Haskell D. Warren, John U. Pease and Andrew Printup. Benjamin Joy Eli Hubbard Erastus Morse Haskell D. Warren John U. Pease Andrew Printup The first schoolhouse, a frame building some eighteen by twenty-four feet in size, was erected by David White at his own expense, ......................................
RICHFIELD TOWNSHIP.
David Hendrickson Pliny Lathrop Jacob Wolfinger Araunah Lathrop Lucian B. Lathrop Isaac Washburn James Farley In the winter of 1834-35 the old Territorial road, running from Toledo to Angola, Ind., was opened through that part of Richfield........................................
John Phillips Cyrus Fisher William Tavernor In 1832 Peter C. Lewis In the yeas 1833-34 the Haughtons - Lyman, Stephen, Cyrus and Marvin - entered teh lands in the western part of the township. Lyman .................................
SPENCER TOWNSHIP.
Aaron H. Cole Benjamin Fairchild William Taylor Samuel Coleman
MONCLOVA TOWNSHIP.
Harvey Kellogg David Kaley Jeremiah Reynolds
JERUSALEM TOWNSHIP.
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