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MELMORE AND REPUBLIC RAILROAD.

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VAN MATRE.

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MICAGAH HEATON

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SAMUEL S. MARTIN

Of this distinguished old friend of mine I here insert an obituary notice I found in one of the Tiffin papers, and which is short but a very faithful picture of him:

DEATH OF AN OLD CITIZEN OF SENECA COUNTY.

     Samuel S. Martin was born in the town of Mifflin, Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, October 24th, 1795, and died April 10th, 1864, and was therefore sixty-eight years, six months and seventeen days old.  His father died when he was quite young, and he was obliged to depend upon his own energies to carry him through the vicissitudes of life.  He removed to Ohio in 1812, and in 1821 bought land in Eden township, to which he emigrated in 1829.  In common with the early settlers of the county he was subjected to the hardships and privations of a pioneer life.  He was a man of good natural endowments, which soon made him prominent in the community; he was twice elected assessor of the county, under the then existing laws, and held the office of justice of the peace for many years in Eden township.  He scrutinized every measure propounded to the public with great care, and when his conclusions were reached, he never departed from them.  Politically, he was a Democrat, and felt great interest in the success of the great conservative measures of his party.  Few men can boast the coolness and serenity of temper which Mr. Martin always exhibited.  Affable in his intercourse with men, scrupulously honest in business, moral and high-minded in character, he challenged the esteem of all who knew him, and left this bitter world without an enemy.

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     Mr. Martin quietly entertained his own views of religion, but upon his dying bed professed a hope in the saving pardon of God, and frequently said that he was going to the realms of endless glory.  He has left behind him a record of virtue worthy of our imitation.  His disease was chronic asthma.
     It is not singular that in writing up a short history of a township, obituary notices of father and son, both distinguished and good men, and both special dear friends of the writer, should follow each other so closely in succession?  But we all follow each other in close succession, and one has scarcely time to tell the tale of his friend before he is himself called away to realize the scenes of another mission.

ROBERT M'CANDISH MARTIN

was born in Perry county, Ohio, September 18, 1822, and died April 4, 1879, and was therefore aged fifty-six years, and six months and sixteen days.  In the spring of 1829 he came here with his father's family, Samuel S. Martin, noticed above, and has resided in Eden township to the time of his death, except only a few years, as hereafter noticed.  In his youth he taught school in the winter and labored on his father's farm during the summer and fall until 1846, when he was appointed to the office of county recorder by the county commissioners, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William H. Kessler, who had accepted a clerkship in some department at Washington.  In 1846 Mr. Martin was elected to his office and re-elected in 1850, making his aggregate term of service about seven years.  His official administration was characterized by a high degree of capacity and singular punctuality at his post of duty.   On October 12, 1848, Mr. Martin was married to Barbara Kagy, daughter of Abraham Kagy, Esq., who still resides in Bloom township.  Thirteen children resulted from this union, ten of whom, together with their bereaved mother, survive to lament their loss.  The funeral cortege which followed the corpse to the burial was the largest ever known in the township, being nearly a mile in length.  During his prostrated illness of more than two years, Mr. Martin manifested an almost heroic fortitude, and at the trying end of his earthly race he met the remorseless "King of Terrors" with such calm resignation that seemed to mock his power.  The family of the deceased realized the fact that he must leave them, only a few minutes before the end, and the wildest manifestation of grief prevailing, Mr. Martin essayed to calm their sorrow and counsel them for the future.  He retained his reason and spoke up to within a minute or two of his death, and thus peacefully and calmly he closed his timely career.  To Robert Martin, all who ever knew him record the highest

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and noblest tribute to his memory.  He was an honest and upright man and an exemplary citizen.
     The foregoing is taken from an obituary notice, slightly changed; and if there is anything to be added to describe Robert as he looked and walked, let me say that he was about five feet, seven inches in height, well proportioned, and a high and noble forehead, dark eyes, fair complexion, regular, delicate but manly features, and always met you with a smile.  His friendship was warm and firm and his notions of honor high and sound.  While he was decided in everything he had put through the crucible of his own thoughts, he had great respect for the opinions of others no matter how widely they differed.  A son of nobler impulses and warmer friendship than Robert Martin the writer never knew.
     Among the enterprising farmers of forty hears ago may be remembered also:  Richard Baker, George Denison, Thomas Baker, Selden Graves, Sylvanus Arnold, John Baker, James Watson, Jesse Koler, William Watson, David Olmsted, Benjamin Brudage, Daniel W. Eastman, Philip Bretz, John Kagy, Adam Pennington, Hezekiah Searls, John Bretz, Jonah Brown, John Gibson, John Crum, Jacob Price, John Downs, Philip Springer, Jacob Andrew, Samuel Kennedy, James Gray, William Ireland, Dr. Bates and John Lamberson.  James Stevens, Jacob Buskirk, the Arnolds and others, were among the early settlers of Melmore, also.

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

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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 embank-

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ment 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?

HUGH WELCH

For a while, it was a question in the mind of the writer as to which township in the county a sketch of this distinguished pioneer should be attached, because he has now lived in Green Springs some time, but he first located here in Eden, where he drove his stake in the woods near Rocky creek.  He has lived longer in Seneca county now than any other man in it.  His father was in Washington's army, and so was also his father's neighbor in Huron county, Mr. Seifert.  These old revolutionary veterans often talked over their scenes of strife for independence.  Both were great admirers of General Washington.
     In the month of February, 1819, Thomas and Hugh Welch, sons of the above-named veteran, started from Huron county to find homes in the wilds of Seneca.  They camped out the first night and in the morning found themselves near Honey creek.  Vegetation had already started to grow, for in the dense forest a certain degree of warmth was retained, and the ground never froze very hard in the winter.  They followed down the stream, and somewhere near the late residence of Mr. William Fleet, they came upon a band of Seneca Indians, who were making sugar, and with them they encamped for the night.  On their journey down the creek on the next day, they arrived at Mohawk village, on the Van Meter section, and already spoken of.  Van Meter made the Welches welcome at his cabin and directed them to some very eligible land in the neighborhood, which they bought, and turned into homes.  Here they opened up the first settlement in Eden township.  In June following, two other brothers, Martin and John, also came.  Thomas died soon after.  John became a member of the Ohio legislature from Seneca county.  Hugh and Martin moved to

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Wyandot county.  Martin and John are now also dead, and the Judge in the only survivor of that once large family.
     Hugh Welch was the first postmaster of Eden township, and he held the office at his opening, which was afterwards known as the Olmsted and Richardson place.  This was the first postoffice in Seneca county east of the river.  Mr. Welch was appointed by President Jackson. John McLean was postmaster-general at that time and signed the commission as such.  It is dated August 4, 1825.  Mr. Welch sold the Olmsted farm and the Richardson place and moved into Wyandot county, where he was appointed one of the associate judges of Crawford county.  Wyandot was then a part of Crawford.  This commission is dated September 22, 1834, and is signed by Robert Lucas, governor, and M. H. Kirby, secretary of state.  He was re-elected associate judge, and his second commission bears date of February 4, 1842, and is signed by Thomas Corwin, governor, and Samuel Galloway, secretary of state.  The judge sold his Wyandot farm and again moved into Seneca County.
     He laid out the town of Mexico soon after he moved into Wyandot;  helped to build the M. E. church there; donated the lot upon which it was built, and for a long time and until he sold his property near Mexico, was one of its most influential members.
     Judge Welch was born in Little Beaver township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, on the 18th day of February, 1801.  His father's name was Felix, and his mother's name was Margaret Barnes, who came from England.  His father was a native of the county of Derry, in Ireland.  The parents had six sons and four daughters.  Hugh was the fifth son. 
     In 1816 the parents moved with their children to Huron county, Ohio, where they lived until the sons found better homes, in Seneca county.  Hugh was married on the 18th day of September, 1823, to Polly, second daughter of John Gibson.  They had three children: Eliza, married to William A. Watson; a little son who died at the age of about four years, and Maria, who married Frank McBride, and who has two interesting daughters, nearly young women grown.  Judge Welch's brother, Martin, was the first stationed minister at Toledo in the M. E. church.  The Judge was well acquainted with all the Mohawk Indians on the Van Meter section, and know Charline, who was a nephew of the Brandt's and the bitter, unforgiving foe of the Americans.  He carried his hatred to the grave with him.  He had the skin of the leg and foot of a child tanned, in which he carried his trinkets.  He would not talk to a white man, and died from eating warm bread beyond the Mississippi.

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     Judge Welch says that there were three brothers of these Brandt's, Thomas, Paulus and Isaac.  Isaac was his favorite.  They were both lf about the same height and age; both full of fun and great wrestlers. Van Meter was a generous and noble man, and a great horse fancier.
     Charline was about eighty years old when he left with the Mohawks for the west.
     Mrs. Welch died June 6th, 1869, at Green Springs.  She was the first patient at the water cure.  From the 8th of October, 1825, hitherto Judge Welch has been a faithful member of the M. E. Church.

- END OF CHAPTER XXXIII - EDEN TOWNSHIP -