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Chapter IV.
TOWNSHIP HISTORY, ORGANIZATION, EARLY
SETTLERS, ETC.
Pg. 15
LOCAL history is the most
interesting of all history. Let us gather up the scattered
fragments while we may, put them in print and hand them down to
our posterity. A century hence and the pages which we are
transcribing to-day will form one of the most treasured volumes
to be found in the county. Tenderly, eagerly and carefully
will our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren peruse
it. Age will but add to its value, and the dust of time
will only make it more precious.
The smaller the territory covered by any history the
more extensive are its details. Every incident and minute
particle is gathered up and transmitted to its pages.
Therefore, the township history will form a most interesting
feature of this work. The township lines were established
in 1820, but the townships were not organized until a much later
date. Three of the townships, Crane, Carryall and Brown,
were organized before the county. Crane was organized
in 1825; Carryall, in 1829; and Brown, in 1830. Prior to
the organization of the county, the citizens of the above
mentioned townships paid their taxes, attended court, etc., at
Defiance, which was then the county eat of Williams county.
Here, with the kind permission of the reader, we will digress a
little from our subject to insert a few scraps of history taken
from Harper's Magazine for July, 1863. We do this because
the history referred to has a direct bearing upon the territory
of which we write. The extracts are incidents of the war
of 1812, and are as follows:
* * "From Fort Wayne Harrison sent out
detachments to smite the Indian villages in various directions,
and spread terror through their country. These were
successful; and a forward movement down the Maumee was about to
be commenced when General Winchester arrived at Fort
Wayne, assumed command, to the great dissatisfaction of the
soldiers, and Harrison returned to Piqua, where he intended to
collect the mounted men from Kentucky and prepare for an
expedition against Detroit. There he received a dispatch
from the secretary of war, saying:
" ' The President is pleased to assign to you the
command of the northwestern army, which, in addition to the
regular troops and rangers in that quarter, will consist of the
volunteers and militia of Kentucky, Ohio, and three thousand
from Virginia and Pennsylvania. He was promised artillery
from Pittsburgh, and was invested with extraordinary powers.
'Exercise your own discretion,' said the secretary, 'and act in
all cases according to your own judgment.' This
appointment gave great satisfaction to the army, and the
soldiery express their willingness to go wherever Harrison might
lead them: Winchester acquiesced in the change, and with
two thousand men left Fort Wayne on the morning of September
23d, 1812, for the rapids of the Maumee, about seventy miles
distant, to co-operate with the division under Harrison
in the intended operations against Detroit and Maiden. He
advanced cautiously down the river, had some bloody skirmishes
with the Indians in the van of a large force of white and red
men under Major Muir and Colonel Elliott, a
notorious Indian agent, and at the close of the month arrived at
the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee rivers, where Wayne
built a fort in 1794, and where the city of Defiance now stands.
Muir and Elliott, taking counsel of prudence and
their fears, had fled at his approach, and were then at the
Maumee rapids, a point of great strategic importance, the
possession of which would be essential to the Americans in
successfully prosecuting their designs against Malden and
Detroit."
As this detachment of troops passed down the Maumee
from Fort Wayne to Defiance, it must have traversed in its march
through what is now Carryall, Crane and Emerald townships, and,
it is said, that one of the bloody skirmishes mentioned took
place at the deep defile just below the present residence of
John Musselman, Sr., in Emerald township; and in fact it is
highly presumable that all of them took place within the limits
of the county, as it is about the distance that an advance would
be stationed, from the main body, to watch the movements and
resist the approach of an invading army; and the main body of
Muir and Elliott's forces were at Defiance.
Again we quote from the same article: "While Winchester was
making his way toward Fort Defiance, Harrison was pushing on
through the wilderness from St. Mary's, in the present county of
Auglaize, Ohio, toward the Maumee rapids. The difficulties
in the way of transportation of supplies over that swampy
region, with inadequate means, were enormous. The base of
operations, having the rapids for the first object to be
possessed, was a line drawn along the margin of the swampy
region from St. Mary's to Upper Sandusky, the former to be the
principal deposit for provisions, and the latter for artillery
and military stores. The army was to march in three
divisions, the right column to be composed of the Virginia and
Pennsylvania troops, to rendezvous at Wooster, and proceed from
there by Upper Sandusky to the rapids. The center column,
to consist of twelve hundred Ohio militia, was to march from
Urbana to Fort McArthur, and follow Hull's road to the rapids.
The left column, to be composed of the regulars under the
command of Colonel Samuel Wells and four regiments of
Kentucky volunteers, was to proceed down the Auglaize to the
Maumee from St. Mary's, join Winchester, and from thence proceed
to the rapids."
As this left column marched down the Auglaize river
from St. Mary's to Defiance, it must have passed through the
present townships of Washington, Brown and Auglaize, and traces
of hte roads cut out these troops were plainly visible to the
first settlers of those townships. Upon these routes were
constructed the first roads of the pioneers. Further, the
historian says:
"The plan was well arranged, but supplies lingered.
Winchester's troops, composing the left wing of the army, were
made a corps of observation, and Fort Defiance was designated as
an important deposit for provisions, preparatory to the grand
advance upon the rapids."
At this place fortifications were constructed and named
Fort Winchester. This fort stood eight or ten rods south
of the old fort built by Wayne in 1794. It had four
block-houses, connected by a continuous wall of pickets about
twelve feet high, composed of logs hewn so as to stand closely
together. The block-houses were considerably higher than
the pickets, with an upper story extending over the lower about
three feet. Port-holes and loop-holes were arranged at
regular distances, both in the block-houses and stockade.
The block-houses were roofed over with logs and covered with
earth to prevent the bullets from passing through. There
was an underground passage-way, extending from the inside of the
fort to the Auglaize river, built for the purpose of escape and
for obtaining water without being exposed to the shots of the
Indians. The fort faced eastward toward the Auglaize
river, and as late as 1822 two of the block-houses and two
store-houses, but inside the fort, were yet standing in very
good repair and occupied by families. In one of these
resided, about one year, Judge Robert Shirley and family,
before his removal to Brown township, near the present site of
Charloe. With these few sketches of interesting general
history, we will now proceed to the township histories direct,
giving the same in alphabetical order.
Auglaize
Township. - p. 15
Brown
Township - p. 16
Emerald
Township - p. 17
Harrison
Township - p. 18
Jackson
Township
- p. 18
Latty Township
- p. 19
Paulding Township
- p. 19
Washington Township
- p. 19
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