JUDGE WILLIAM CALDWELL.  "My advent to Lower Sandusky was in the year 1828.  Previous to this, in 1818, my father settled in Marion County.  I remember when the government surveyors first run the lines for the townships.  When the land was surveyed we found our cabin was on another man's ground and we had to move it.  We lived there about ten years before coming here.  We encountered what the people nowadays would call hardships.  All the people then lived in log cabins.  All the nails were used in building our house were for the doors, which my father made himself, being a blacksmith.  There was a loft in our house and the children slept up there.  The sweetest music I ever heard was the patter of the rain upon the roof.  In the winter the snow drifted in, and in the morning we had to shake it from our bed covers.  We all used to turn out to help a new neighbor build his house, and we had many logging, raising and husking bees.  Often when the men had a log-rolling the ladies had a quilting, which usually ended in a dance on the puncheon floor in the evening.  At these gatherings I enjoyed some of the happiest moments of my life."  In response to an inquiry Judge Caldwell stated that they had fiddlers and whisky in those days.  The whisky, sweetened with maple sugar, was drunk from a tin cup.  He related an incident of how at one time a number of families met at his father's house to go to a logging, quilting and dance at a neighbor's.  Much against his will his mother made him take on the horse with him a girl named Polly, who worked for them.  Polly weighed about 225 pounds and towered a full head above him, then a small boy of fourteen.  The party went in single file and would have made a laughable picture could it have been photographed.  They danced all night and came home in the morning.  When they reached a creek that had to be forded, on their return, Polly exchanged places and rode on the horse with the young man that took the judge's sister.  When Polly threw her arms around the young man she exclaimed, "This is something like," and said she would never go to another dance if she had to go with Uncle William's little boy.  This expression became quite a by-word and he had to take this joke for many a day.
     Judge Caldwell said, "I remember when railroads were first built and when the first roads in this section were laid out.  I remember when the Ohio and Erie canal was built.  I have seen many changes in this country; I have seen it rude and wild; I have seen its rise and progress; and have witnessed more changes, perhaps, than the next generation will witness.  Lower Sandusky always had a bright place in my memory, and always seemed like home to me.  Very few of those who were here when I came are alive today.
     "It was been my privilege to witness the rise and progress of Sandusky County and the adjacent counties of Seneca, Crawford and Marion, for a period of fifty-nine years.  There are doubtless some here today who will remember when Mayor Bush, a faithful servant of Uncle Sam who carried the mails on horseback once a week from Columbus to Lower Sandusky, when the contents of the mail bag could be carried in a half bushel basket and room to spare."
     And there are others here today that well remember with vivid recollection when fifty years ago he took possession of his new home in the Black Swamp and built his rude log house the roof of which was covered with elm bark or clapboards.  The floor of his house was of the halves of split log, the door of split plank.  His scanty windows were of oiled paper, glass was a luxury that had not reached the settlement, his household goods consisted of a bed, two chairs, a pot and kettle and a rew other indispensable articles for housekeeping - these constitute the bulk of his worldly goods.  And when dreary winter comes and no sound disturbs the echoes of the dreary woods save when some tree cracks sharply with the frost, then merrily rings his ax, and tree on tree crashes to the earth.  And when the long keen night mangles the wilderness in solemn gloom he sits beside his ruddy hearth and hears the fierce wolf snarling at his cabin door.  The task before him is a formidable one, but he has a strong arm and a stout heart; he has determined to conquer all obstacles, and the rugged spot will vet blossom like the rose.  Now let us drop the curtain for forty years.
     The scene has progressed to a consummation.  The pioneer has become an independent farmer, he has added to his primitive possessions.  He has put up a comfortable house, but has had too much reverence for his primitive dwelling to remove it.   He has erected a near frame barn,, a garden surrounded with a picket fence.  His stock has increased.  The improvements of his neighbors have reached him, and he can now look out without looking up.  A school district has been organized, and a comfortable log schoolhouse has been erected.  And she, the better part of his household, must not be lost sight of, and she need not be.  She is busy with her domestic affairs.  There is quiet and even loneliness about her, but depend upon it, there are in yonder schoolhouse, some half dozen that she cares for and hopes for. 
Source: Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. 1909 Richmond - Arnold Publ. Co., Chicago. -  - From Page 122 in Chapter VII

CHILDS BROTHERS, clothiers, proprietors of one of the largest establishments in this line, at Fremont, with place of business on South Front Street, are members of one of the old pioneer families of Ohio and are the successors of their father, the late James B. Childs, who founded the business in 1893.  The present firm is made up of Thomas and Walter Childs.
     The paternal great-grandfather, Walter Childs, was a stockman and trader and traveled all through the Western Reserve buying various commodities, dealing especially in furs.  In 1802 he traded land that he owned in Alexandria, Virginia, for the site of the present city of Wooster, Ohio, and established his home in Wayne County, coming with his possessions in a wagon drawn by oxen.  His trade was that of hatmaker but after he came to Ohio he bought furs, maple syrup, etc., and also horses, taking his purchases to New York for sale.  He started into a mercantile business when Wooster was little more than an Indian trading post and his descendants have shown the same commercial instincts.  His son, William T. Childs, was born at Wooster, in 1804, and he also was a trader.
     James B. Childs was born at Wooster and in the course of years engaged in a clothing business there.  In 1893 he founded the business at Freemont and continued to be engaged in it until his death, in 1902.  He was married at Wooster to Elinor Kammarer and six of their nine children are yet living, namely, Robert, William, James, Thomas, Walter and Clarence, all of whom were born at Wooster.
     In 1889 Thomas and Walter Childs accompanied their parents to Fremont and the father continued his business as a traveling clothing salesman until 1893.  These sons  were practically reared in the business and assumed its responsibilities and established the firm name, on the death of the father.  Walter Childs was married to Miss Jessie S. Smith who died Mar. 12, 1908, leaving three children, Alice, Jessie and Walter, the latter of whom has since died.  Walter Childs is a member of the Masons, the Modern Woodmen and the Protective Legion.  Thomas Childs is identified with a Masonic lodge at Syracuse, New York.  He is unmarried.
Source: Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. 1909 Richmond - Arnold Publ. Co., Chicago. - Page 893

Source: Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. 1909 Richmond - Arnold Publ. Co., Chicago. - Page 893

Source: Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. 1909 Richmond - Arnold Publ. Co., Chicago. - Page 893

Source: Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. 1909 Richmond - Arnold Publ. Co., Chicago. - Page 893

CALVIN C. COLLIER, one of York Township's best known citizens, who has lived on his valuable farm of eighty acres, situated one mile east of Colby, for thirty-nine years, was born July 18, 1866, at Bellevue, Ohio, and is a son of GEORGE and Mattie (Romig) COLLIER.
     GEORGE COLLIER was born in Snyder County, Pennsylvania, and when thirty years old came to Ohio and located at Bellevue.  There he was married to Mattie Romig, who was born in Thompson Township, Seneca County, Ohio.  In 1870 the family moved to the farm on which his son still resides and resided here until his death, which occurred June 30, 1909.  His widow still survives and is one of the township's esteemed and venerable ladies.
     Calvin V. Collier was mainly reared in York Township, as he was four years old when his parents brought him here.  He attended the country schools through boyhood and has made farming his business here.  He attended the country schools through boyhood and has made farming his business in life.  He has made many improvements on his place and one of these is the fine frame house, roomy and comfortable, which he built in the summer of 1905.
     Mr. Collier married Miss Augusta Ladd, who was born in Christian County, Illinois, and who is a daughter of Noyes Ladd.  They have four children: Alia, Lulu, Herbert and Irwin.  Mr. and Mrs. Collier are members of the Reformed Church.  He has never given himself many vacations, but the great exposition of 1909, at Seattle, Washington, attracted him and on July 28th of that year, he started on his journey to the Pacific coast, with the intention of making a visit of several weeks.
Source: Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. 1909 Richmond - Arnold Publ. Co., Chicago. - Page 863

JOHN EDGAR COLLINS, superintendent of the Fremont public schools, has been identified with educational work ever since he was eighteen years of age.  He was born in Adams County, Ohio, on his father's farm, situated two miles south of Peebles, and is a son of John R. and Mary (Wright) Collins.
     Although yet a young man Superintendent Collins has been for many years a participant in the school affairs of Ohio, serving on various committees of the State Association, and has the friendship and regard of the best school men of the state.  He is also an active member of the National Educational Association.
     The following sketch is based largely upon facts taken from a recent history of Adams County and written by an intimate friend and classmate of Mr. Collins:
     John Edgar Collins is a descendant of the English family of the same name, a branch of which emigrated to Maryland just prior to the opening of the War of 1812.  The great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch had spent his early life upon the sea and now rendered valiant service against England in her impressment of American seamen.  After the close of teh war he came with his family to settle in the Ohio Valley.  Isaac Wright, another great-grandfather of Mr. Collins, also served in this war, his father, John Wright, having been one of the first settlers near Manchester, Ohio.  These two families have therefore been identified with the development of the Ohio Valley from the time of the opening of the Northwest Territory.
     Superintendent Collins has one brother, H. O. Collins, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and one sister, Mrs. Robert T. Jackman.  He with his brother and sister attended the country schools for the usual term of six months, working upon the farm in the summer, until at the age of seventeen he was granted a certificate to teach.  He spent a term in study at the national Normal University, at Lebanon, Ohio, and has taught each succeeding year since he was eighteen years of age.  Although his father was able and willing to provide his children with  a college education, the prospective teacher preferred the experience of making his own way through college by teaching, believing that familiarity with all kinds and grades of school work would be no less valuable to him than his professional training in the college.  He believed from the beginning that the summer vacations were the teacher's opportunity for professional advancement.  He also believed that the judicious teacher prepared for the work he is doing had no greater need of months of rest than had the business man and that, by diligent application, college courses as a means to professional advancement could be worked out in time too often spent in accomplishing but little.  He has therefore spent the summer months each year almost without exception in college, first as a student until the regular college courses were completed, and more recently as an instructor.  Mr. Collins taught three years in the country schools, at the end of which time he graduated in the Scientific Course of the National Normal University, at that time the leading Normal school in the state.  During the next three years he served as superintendent of schools at Peebles, at the end of which time he resigned to assume similar duties at West Union, the county seat of his native county.  He continued at this place from 1896 until 1899, when, being elected to the superintendency of both the West Union and the Batavia schools, he chose the latter, as it offered him a somewhat wider field of effort, the Batavia High School having even then been considered a leading public school of southern Ohio.  Dr. Dyer, now superintendent at Cincinnati, and many other excellent men had been superintendents of the Batavia schools.  Mr. Collins served the schools of Batavia by unanimous re-election for seven years and in this time organized the township and village schools into one system, the first organization of its kind in southern  Ohio.  The grade schools took high rank and the high schools took high rank and the high school was a recognized school of the first class.  In 1906 Mr. Collins declined a unanimous three-year re-election at the highest salary ever attached to the position to accept the superintendency of the Fremont schools.
     At the age of twenty-five Mr. Collins had taught the required fifty months and upon examination was granted a state common school certificate for life.  The next year he received a state high school life certificate, the complete examination covering twenty-six branches.  He was the youngest member of the class to receive a certificate. By continued special examinations and summer work at Delaware he was graduated in 1903 from the Ohio Wesleyan University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.  He has done some postgraduate work at Harvard and in recent years has been an instructor in the Miami University summer school.  He has had many more testimonials of his efficiency in the profession which he has made his life work.  Teaching has with him been his enthusiasm, his delight, and it is needless to add, his success, for, with every effort directed toward a single purpose compensation is almost sure to follow.  His energies have aroused enthusiasm in others.  In 1893 and before the state normal schools had been established he inaugurated the Tri-County Summer Normal and personally conducted it at Peebles and West Union until 1899, an admirable training school the advantages of which were recognized by teachers in southern Ohio and also by students from other states.  Superintendent Collins in addition to his talents as an educator, has shown unusual executive ability.  Personally he gives the impression of well balanced force, tact, self control and broad culture.
     On Aug. 15, 1900, Mr. Collins was married to Miss Ina E. Treber, who is the accomplished daughter of R. W. Treber, a prominent resident of West Union, Adams County, Ohio.  After graduating from high school Mrs. Collins entered Ohio University at Athens, where in addition to the regular course she specialized in the modern languages and music Mr. and Mrs. Collins have one child, Charles Treber.  They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Source: Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. 1909 Richmond - Arnold Publ. Co., Chicago. - Page 772

Source: Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. 1909 Richmond - Arnold Publ. Co., Chicago. - Page 510