OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS - Seneca Co., Ohio

Source:
History of Seneca County : from the close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880 :
embracing many personal sketches of pioneers, anecdotes,
and faithful descriptions of events pertaining to the organization of the county and its progress
Published: Springfield, Ohio: Transcript Print. Co.,
1880

JOHNSON FORD was born in Rensselaer county, New York, June 9th, 1796. His father died when he was but eight years old; his father was poor and had a large family, and consequently the most of the children had to be bound out. Young Johnson was one of them, but fortunately he found a good home, where he remained until he was twenty-one years old, getting all his education while he was yet bound. After he became of age he worked with his brother on a farm they had bought, in the same county, for eight years, when he sold his interest in the farm and married, and immediately removed to Venice township, Seneca county, Ohio, he being the first settler in the township. He entered a quarter section of land, upon a part of the which the village of Attica now stands, and built one of the first log cabins, in the year 1828, fifty-two years ago this June, 1880.
     He helped to clear off the land and lay out the village of Attica, giving it its name, having come from Attica, New York. For several years he was engaged in clearing up his farm, and assisting in building the Sandusky and Columbus turnpike, which was being built at that time to develop the resources of the unbroken forest. He cleared the first land, ploughed the first furrow, and raised the first wheat in Venice township. He is in reality the pioneer of this township. His wife died during the first year of his pioneer life from over exertion and exposure, to which her constitution had not been accustomed, and she failed from the trials incident to early life in the woods.
     He returned to the state of New York and married again, and returned to his new home, where he has lived to see the forest melt away like the morning dew, and the ground to be cleared from all traces of the old monarchs that formerly stood thickly over the face of the country, the pride of all Americans.
     Twelve years ago he sold his farm and retired from active work, and now his means are invested in a large hardware store in Attica, in the firm of Ford and Strandler, a son and son-in-law, from which he derives his support at present.
     He has always been an active, hard working, industrious man. He has always been religiously inclined, having united with the Presbyterians in his youth. For twenty-five years he conducted a Sabbath school in Attica, the first and for many years the only one in the township. He raised three children by his second wife - two daughters and a son. One daughter is now living in Great Bend, Kansas.
     The wife of James W. Brown is the other daughter.
     Young Ford and Brown are partners in the hardware store. Mr. Johnson Ford is wonderfully preserved, having been born June 9th, 1796, which at present, July 22d, 1880, makes him eighty-four years, one month and thirteen days, and from present prospects, he is good for another decade. For the last ten years he has received a second sight, being able at present to read fine print without his glasses, a thing he was unable to do for thirty years.
     The following sketches were kindly furnished by Prof. S. McKetrick, of College Hill, Tiffin, Ohio:
     History and literature are practically useful only so far, and to such a degree, as they inspire those who read their pages to aspire to the noble example they portray, whether it be in mental discipline or physical execution. History should be nothing but truthful facts, and therein differ from fiction. History is the truth of the past. Fiction is fancy, and belongs neither to time or place. The one is healthful and invigorating, the other weak and debasing.
     The page we present here shall be history. We present this page not to relieve memory of its burden, but to recall deeds and their actors, as we all love to do; to live again a few moments with friends of the past; to be enlivened again by their association, though they come but from memory, and from it I draw, the most hallowed associations of my life, which were acted in Venice township.
     The men who first impressed upon my mind the realities of living, lived and toiled upon its soil. The one who ranks first there was James D. Stevenson. I know little of his early life. He was born in the state of Vermont; served as a soldier in the latter part of the last war with Great Britain. A part of his life was spent as a sailor upon our northern lakes. About the year 1838 he left a wife and five children and came to Ohio. He traveled over the greater part of the state in search of a spot where he might make a home in the new country.
     He found, and entered into a contract with Mr. Zachariah Betts for the farm, he owned until 1863. The contract between the parties was that he should chop and clear one hundred acres of land, and for this service he was to receive the full and free title for the one hundred acres which he owned. All in the world he possessed was a strong body and a willing heart. He earned his living by threshing out grain with a flail by the light of a lantern. His board bill was not extravagant, for he told me of many days of hard toil with nothing to eat but batter, baked upon an iron griddle, and maple syrup.
     After such hard life for several years, he received the title for his land, and has a few acres cleared and a log house upon it. He then returned and removed his family (who knew nothing of his whereabouts all these years of toil) to their new home in the west.
     A few years of such severe toil and the deepest privation and he has changed his forest to a beautiful farm, producing abundance. But in those few years death has visited their circle and taken his wife, and soon after, fire consumes his house and its contents, save himself and children, but soon upon the ashes of that house is built a better one, and his second wife makes cheerful its hearth. Another farm is added to the first, and prosperity smiles on every effort.
     About the year 1850 he commenced to shake with the palsy. That strong frame was wrecked. It grew weaker and still less able to battle with the realities it had known so well in life, and fell to its last resting place in Ionia county, Michigan, in the spring of 1865.
     In politics my subject was an Abolitionist, a Republican and a true Union man during the dark days of the rebellion.
     In religion he was a member of the Baptist church.
     The hard circumstances through which he had past made him a close dealer, though in money, weights and measures, strictly honest. He was naturally noble, kind-hearted and true.
Source: History of Seneca County : from the close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880 - Springfield, Ohio: Transcript Print. Co., 1880 - Page 622

THEODORE M. FRINK, ESQ. - Among the few native Americans that live near New Riegel and have not yet sold out to the Germans in Theodore M. Frink, Esq., the subject of this sketch.
He was born in West Springfield, Hamden county, Massachusetts, at a place where Holyoke City now stands, on the south bank of the Connecticut river. When about 17 years old he moved with his father to Northampton. On the 25th of April, 1832 he was married to Miss Sabeah Torry, and in May, 1836, he started with his family for the west. For want of any better conveyance they took a canal boat at West Troy for Buffalo, and from there they came by steamer to Cleveland and then made their way to Ravenna, Portage county, where a brother of his wife then lived. This brother-in-law, Torry, had a son living in Tymochtee, who had come home on a visit. With him Squire Frink came west in October of that year and bought the land where he still resides. This took about all the money he had, and he made his way back to Ravenna, one hundred and fifty miles, on foot. In January following he bought a yoke of oxen, made a sled, put his wife and goods upon it and started for Big Spring. Here he opened a farm, where he is now comfortably situated. During all this time he has enjoyed the respect and esteem of the good people of Big Spring to such an extent that for eight years he served them as a trustee, and as justice of the peace ever since 1848. What better proof can be required of his good report among his neighbors? There is no man living in the township who stands better in the esteem of its citizens than Squire Frink. His good counsel is sought daily and he has saved many litigations by his good advice. His first wife died on the 3d of February, 1855. He was married to his present wife July 3, 1862. The Squire remains among his neighbors as one of the olden school, and as the years increase, the esteem of the people for his white head grows in proportion.
Source: History of Seneca County : from the close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880 - Springfield, Ohio: Transcript Print. Co., 1880 - Page

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