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

WILLIAM J. SCHAUFELBERGER was born January 29, 1853, at Fostoria, Ohio; graduated from Heidelberg college in the class of 1875; studied law in the office of Judge Seney; was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1877 and located here in January, 1878.
Source: History of Seneca County : from the close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880 - Springfield, Ohio: Transcript Print. Co., 1880 - Page 561

JOHN SEARLES was born in Anne Arundel county, Maryland, February 20, 1775, on a farm where he was raised. He was drafted to the army in 1812, after he was married and had settled near the town of New Lancaster, Ohio. He moved from there in the fall of 1820, with his wife and seven children, to this county and occupied for a while one of the block houses of the old Fort Ball, where he lived in one room with his whole family. Paul Butler, the man who built Spencer's saw mill, occupied another room. Mr. David Risdon boarded with him. Another room was occupied by Mr. Henry Creesy and his family. Creesy was a blacksmith by trade. The pickets were all standing then and the roofs of the block houses were covered with clap-boards. The army road ran along the river bank between the fort and the river. There was just room enough for the road.
     The fort had three block houses, one on each corner and one in the middle, all facing the river. Back of the block houses was an open yard, inside the pickets, of about half an acre. There was room enough in the block houses for about two hundred men. Mr. Bowe's tavern was a double cabin and stood in the street north of the iron bridge, and the army road ran along in front of it also. David Smith occupied, for a while, the same room with Mr. Creesy. Rollins lived on the Souder farm, (so-called afterwards).
     In the spring of 1821, Mr. Searles helped to open a road from Tiffin to Rocky creek, where the church now stands, and where he had bought 167 acres of land. Here he built a cabin in the woods, and in 1825 he built a frame barn which was probably the first one in the county. Reuben Williams was the boss carpenter. Mr. Searles attached himself to the M. E. church when he was a young man, and up to his death remained a faithful and honored member. After he located here on Rocky creek, his house became a stopping place for all the preachers, and headquarters at nearly all the camp and quarterly meetings. For several years the elections were held at his house. Except Tiffin, Eden township contained the most decided politicians, strong Whigs and strong Democrats, but in their township elections they picked their officers from both parties. Here they voted for men only.
     Mrs. Searles' maiden name was Duncan. They were the parents of nine children, five boys and four girls, of whom four sons and two daughters are still living.
     The foregoing was gathered from what Mr. Hezekiah Searles related, and he goes on to say: "Our neighbors were the Welches, who had located on the Olmsted farm. Charles Bretz, Mr. Sponable, Cal. Jacqua, the Boyds, father, Shelden, Thomas Vannatta, the Sneaths and others came on soon after.
     "One time in the winter we lost a colt. We built a fence around it with a trap lid and caught five wolves. This was before Seneca county was organized, and we took the scalps to Lower Sandusky, where we got $5 a piece for them. The rivers and creeks abounded in good fish and the woods in game. We suffered the deprivations and enjoyed the pleasures peculiar to that sort of life.
     "Father died May 14, 1844, and mother October 30, 1871."
     There is here in Eden township a sort of counterpart to the same stone fortifications described by Mr. Swigart in Bloom, near Honey creek. This one is near the same creek in the Vannatta section. After you leave the Mohawk road, turning to the right at the corner of the old Wolf farm, crossing the bridge going west, you come across the bottom and approach a hill, where you see a high bluff a little to the left, forming a rounded corner at the northeast point. Upon this bluff there is a circular embankment embracing nearly two acres of land. The embankment is now nearly flat on the top and looks as if at one time it must have been a very substantial parapet. Mr. Randall says he saw oak trees growing upon it two feet in diameter. The Mohawks lived all around over this part of the country and knew now more about it than the present generation of white people.
     In a direction of a little east of north from this rampart, and within the range of a rifle, are found very many leaden bullets of various sizes, from grape shot down to 130 to the pound. Some of these have the mark of the twist of a rifle barrel still clearly marked upon them.
     Was this parapet once a part of an old fort? Has history ever traced the march of an army along this creek? Was there ever a battle fought in this valley, and if so, by whom? What people built round fortifications? Will somebody explain all this some day?
Source: History of Seneca County : from the close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880 - Springfield, Ohio: Transcript Print. Co., 1880 - Page 534

JOHN SECRIST Was born October 27, 1803, in Frederick county, Maryland, and raised as a farmer. He married Margaret Waltman, August 4, 1825, who was born April 23, 1803. They settled in the woods on the farm where Judge Pittenger now lives, on the Melmore road, in October, 1828, and took their share of the frontier joys and hardships with the rest of the settlers.
Mr. Secrist died Apr. 6, 1848. Mrs. Secrist lives with her daughter in Tiffin, Ohio.
Source: History of Seneca County : from the close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880 - Springfield, Ohio: Transcript Print. Co., 1880 - Page 521

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