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Chapter III.
THE EARLY SETTLERS
Pg. 14
WHEN the bright rays of civilization began to pierce the
smoke of desolation, made so by the Indian wars of the
northwest, they served as beacon lights to attract the attention
and guide the daring frontiersman into the county, and the
Maumee river and the military roads, cut by Wayne's
conquering army, became the routes and highways over which came
the first settlers. As is the case with the first setments
of almost every country, the earliest settlers of Paulding
county planted their primitive homes along the banks of its
streams. On the rich alluvial bottoms of the Auglaize are
yet to be seen the sites where were built the cabins of the
Careys, the Hudsons, the Shirleys, the
Romines, and the Shroufes. Along the Maumee
came the Musselmans, and the Banks and the Reynolds
families; also the Gordons, the Runyans, the
Murphys, the Applegates, and Gen. H. N. Curtis.
On the Little Auglaize came the Harrels, the
Mellingers and the Curtises; on Blue creek, the
Moss brothers, the Reeds, the Barnhills, and
the family of Robert Hakes; while on Flat Rock, or
Crooked creek, the Woodcocks, the Malotts, and the
Wentworths, were the first to tread the forest paths and
to swing the "settler's echoing ax."
The first white settlement made in Paulding county was
on section 19, Auglaize township, by Shadrach Hudson, in
1819. Isaac Carey came in the autumn of the same
year. He came from Miami county, Ohio, by the route which
had been opened by Gen. Wayne, to Defiance, thence up the
Auglaize to his place of location. The farm upon which he
settled is about one-half a mile east of the present village of
Junction, and is owned by Reason Johnson. Upon this
farm, Jan. 21, 1826, was born Daniel Clark Carey, who has
the notoriety of being the first white child known to have been
born within the limits of the county. He now resides at
the village of Oakwood, eight miles south of his birth-place,
and is a very worthy citizen, having held the office of probate
judge and other offices of public trust. A few years ago
he removed to Hutchinson, Kas., but only remained about two
years, when he returned to the scenes of his youth, preferring
the majestic forests of Paulding county to the broad prairies of
the "far west." Here, no doubt, he will spend the
remainder of his days, and at their close he laid to silent rest
beside the tombs of his pioneer ancestors. Shadrach
Hudson was the father-in-law of Isaac Carey.
Upon his farm stands the oldest house in the county. It
was built of hewed logs 20x30 feet in length, about fifty years
ago, and is yet in a tolerably good state of repair. It
was photographed in the summer of 1890, the picture enlarged and
distributed throughout the county as a pioneer relic.
Nathan Shirley came in 1823, and Thomas Romine in
1825, both settling on farms on the Auglaize. The
settlements on the Maumee were begun in 1825, Denison Hughes,
William Banks, David Applegate, William Gordon, Reason V.
Spurrier, and Gen. H. N. Curtis, came to the
county about that year, and may be regarded as the first
settlers of its northern part. Of these, the Banks
and Gordon families came from Cincinnati; their route lay
along the military roads which ran up the Miami river to its
headwaters; then crossing over to the headwaters of the St.
Mary's river, they loaded their household goods and wagons into
pirogues and came down that river to Fort Wayne, thence down the
Maumee to their respective places of landing. Their horses
were unharnessed and driven across the country along the winding
Indian trials that were not sufficiently wide to permit the
passage of vehicles.
Joseph Mellinger commenced the little Auglaize
settlement in the year of 1828, and was shortly after followed
by William Harrell, Benjamin Kniss and Dimitt
Mackerel. These settlers reached the county from the
southern Ohio counties by crossing the water-shed which extends
east and west through the state, and striking the headwaters of
the Blanchard river, passed down that stream to its confluence
with the Big Auglaize, thence overland to their places of
settlement.
In 1834, the Moss brothers, natives of England,
commenced improving farms on the banks of Blue Creek, while
further up that stream, about the same year, Robert Barnhill
and Joseph Reed built log cabins and began battling with
the frowning forest. In 1837, Thomas Wentworth
began the Flat Rock settlement. His nativity was the state
of Maine. In 1835, he, with his family, left the
pine-covered hills of that state, to find a home in Paulding
county. He embarked upon a coasting vessel and sailed down
the Atlantic to New York, and reached Buffalo by way of the
Hudson river and New York & Erie canal, thence on lake Erie to
Toledo, then up the Maumee to New Rochester, near the present
site of Cecil. Here he rested with his family for a year
or two, then cut a wagon-track road through the dark forest ten
miles to the south and commenced the improvement of a farm near
where now stands the interprising village of Payne.
Thus have we shown our readers the routes by which the
first settlers reached the county; also their names, date of
entry and places of location. We should now pay to them
that tribute which is their due; and would that our unskillful
pen was equal to such a task. They were men of integrity,
hardy and brave, and whether they were clearing away the
forests, engaged at the hand mill in cracking corn for food, or
chasing the bounding deer for the same purpose, they showed a
fortitude and determination of spirit which is worthy of
imitation. But they have passed away, and they who gaze
upon their last resting places may say: here rest the great and
good - here they repose after their generous toil. A
sacred band they were, and now they take their last sleep
together, while every new-born spring that is ushered in comes
with its earliest flowers to deck their graves. Theirs is
no vulgar sepulchre - although in many instances the green sod
may be their only monument; yet it tells a nobler history than
pillared piles or the eternal pyramids. Touch not, then,
the ancient elms that bend their branches over the lowly graves
of the first settlers of Paulding county, for their shadows fall
upon the resting places of those who need no columns pointing
upward to tell us that beyond the purple hills they have found a
happy home.
The habits of our first settlers were, in the most
part, exemplary, their hardships many and their wants few.
Their houses were built of logs, with puncheon floors, clapboard
roofs, and greased paper for windows. The "new country"
song, of which the writer remembers a few stanzas, tells the
whole story of pioneer life: "This
wilderness was our abode full fifty years ago,
And when we wished good meat to eat, we caught a buck
or doe;
For fish we used the hook and line.
On Johnny-cake our ladies dine -
And pounded corn to make it fine,
In this new country."
The garb of the first settlers was of the simplest homespun.
The flax patch furnished the material for the bed ticking and
the tow linen for shirts and trowsers. The wool was
carded, spun, woven and fashioned into garments by the nimble
fingers of the pioneer's wife and daughters. They were the
manufacturers of the linsey-woolsey. How often was the
tired backwoodsman lulled to sleep by the sweet hum of the
spinning wheel as the faithful and tolling wife plied her
vocation late in the night. A few of these old
dust-covered articles yet remain in the county.
Pioneer Associations - In 1885 a pioneer
association was organized in the county, and from that time to
the present, annual picnics have been held by the old settlers,
sometimes in Riverside park at Antwerp, but mostly on the fair
grounds at Paulding. These meetings are generally largely
attended and their programs consist of addresses, songs, pioneer
papers, remarks by old settlers, a sumptuous repast, general
hand-shaking, etc., etc. Although many of them who meet
are old, infirm, and tottering on the verge of the grave, yet
their hearts are still young, and the story of their pioneer
hardships, struggles and privations is ever new. They meet
to forget the cares and infirmities of the present and to renew
again the scenes of their youth. They
"Come once more to linger o'er
The grim work of their
primes;
Renewing here the grief and cheer
Of happy, hard old
times." The following are extracts
from an address made by Judge D. C. Carey, at one of
these pioneer meetings held at Paulding in 1885:
"The first fall after my father moved from Miami county
to the wilds of the Maumee valley, had had to cast about the
study how to make a living. He wasn't much of a hunter,
nor much of a farmer up to that time, as his occupation had been
that of a stone and brick mason. Seed wheat was very
scarce. He had a little mixed with cockle and chess, which
was left after moving out, and proceeded to clear off a patch of
ground and sowed the mixture of seed as above stated, and he
told me that the following harvest he has as good and as clean a
crop of wheat as he ever saw or ever afterward raised. The
chess and cockle failed that year, and that was how my father
got his start in wheat." * * * "In the early times log rollings
and house and barn raisings were quite common. In remember
one occasion of being invited to help roll logs down on Uncle
Abram Hudson's farm, four miles south of Defiance. A
good many had been invited, the logs had been cut and 'niggered,'
and made ready; two captains, so called, were chosen; the hands
equally divided, and a yoke for each division. Now, the
men start with a will and the logs began to tumble up. The
heavier ones were hauled by the oxen, and the lighter ones
carried by the men. The tow parties seemed to race all
day, and the oxen seemed to catch the same spirit, for as soon
as they were hitched to a log they started for the heap,
sometimes on the run, and generally stopped at the right place.
Well-trained oxen were fine teams for the woods.
"There were some excellent sugar orchards along the
Auglaize, Maumee and their tributaries. One fine morning
in sugar-making time I started to go to the camp about one half
a mile from our house, and as I passed through the woods, I saw
a large wolf a few rods ahead of me, with the water still
dripping off him as he had just emerged from the Auglaize river.
It was a suprise to both of us; the wolf stopped suddenly and so
did I, and I raised a fine shovel which I was carrying, to show
fight, I suppose. The wolf, after taking a good look at
me, started on and so did I, right willing to let him alone if
he would me. Wolves were plentiful those days, although I
seldom saw one, but could hear them howling almost every night.
One wolf, it is said, can make or imitate the voice of half a
dozen others.
"One lovely mourning in autumn, that beautiful season
of the year when all nature is clothed in the variegated hues of
crimson and gold, my uncle, Samuel W. Hudson, who, by the
way, was a good hunter, concluded to take a bear hunt.
He came to our house and borrowed my older brother's rifle,
which was named "Old Pick.' He went up the Big Auglaize
river to the mouth of Flat Rock, then up that stream two or
three miles. Meat was plenty that year, and game, such as
deer, squirrel, pheasant, wild turkeys, etc., was abundant, but
as my uncle had started after bear, such 'small
fry' failed to attract his attention. He traveled for some
time and was beginning to get weary, when lo! and behold, up
started a fine specimen of the object of his search. Quick
as thought, "Old Pick' was brought to my uncle's shoulder.
He took aim but a second and fired. Bruin dropped, pierced
through the heart. 'Old Pick' had done its deadly work.
The bear proved to be a very large black one and was quite fat.
My uncle came home after a team and wagon, and that evening, he
and several others, among the number myself, went and brought it
in. That is as near as I ever came to killing a bear -
helping to load it, and riding home between its hind legs.
Of course, we all had bear meat for some time in that
neighborhood, and plenty of genuine 'bear's ile' for the hair
and whiskers." * * * The above extracts are given to show
the reader the nature of subjects touched upon by the settlers
at their annual meetings. These and many other bygone scenes,
such as early births, deaths, marriages, etc., are recalled to
memory and talked over. Each has his story of toil,
privation and hardship, or incident of romance or tragedy to
relate. All are highly interesting and are listened to
with intense eagerness. Think of it, ye men and women of
to-day. Think of the stories they tell. Forty or
fifty years ago our fathers were out in the mighty forests which
covered our land, with no tools, save an ax and maul, without
nails, glass, plaster (excepting mud mortar), lumber, brick, or
anything with which to build a shelter for their wives and
children, save forest trees and the few tools mentioned.
Out there in a covered wagon, upon which fell the driving rain,
the biting frosts of autumn, or the piercing blasts of winter.
Out there alone - two, three, perhaps five miles from any human
habitation. Would not that have tried your muscles and
your souls? Yes, indeed. And these are the incidents
told by our pioneer fathers at their annual gatherings.
Last of all at these picnics the mortuary roll is called by the
secretary of the society, and at each succeeding meeting grows
larger and larger. Year by year the old settlers diminish
in numbers, Year by year many of them are called away from the
scenes of their early struggles and triumphs. May strength
and comfort be given to those who are left, that their declining
years may be their happiest ones. Sweetly rest those who
are gone. Softly fall the dews of heaven upon the hallowed
spots where sleep our county's pioneers.
"When the spring-time touch is lightest,
When the summer eyes are brightest,
Or the autumn sings most drear;
When the winter's hair is whitest
Sleep, old pioneer!
Safe beneath the sheltering soil
Late enough you crept:
You were weary of the toil
Long before you slept.
Well you paid for every blessing -
Bought with grief each day of cheer
Nature arms around you pressing,
Nature's lips your brow caressing,
With no work day woes to wound you,
With the peace of God around you,
Sleep, old pioneer."
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