Defiance As It Was By J.B. Healley Defiance Democrat 21 Oct 1875

    Perhaps a short sketch from the oldest resident of Defiance may not prove uninteresting to your readers. I say the oldest; and having lived in Defiance since 1824, I think my claim will not be disputed.
    When I was two years old, in 1821, my father emigrated from Union county, Virginia, to the banks of the Miami River in Ohio, where father worked at his trade in a tannery until 1824, when hearing about the country in the neighborhood of Defiance, he packed up his ox team followed the army trail until he reached Blodget's Island, two miles up the Auglaize River. He contracted with the owner, Dr. Blodget, to clear the island and raise what he could. In the fall of 1824 we arrived in Defiance and stopped over night with Robert Shirley who lived in a double log cabin made from a blockhouse of Fort Winchester. This cabin was located. I think on the lot now owned by A.M. Shead. (south side Third bet Jefferson and Washington). At the time the old fort (Winchester) was in a good state of preservation. The pickets were standing as also were two of the blockhouses.

    A Frenchman named Lumbar was here at that time trading with the Indians. His shop was near the present location of the Wabash tracks, on the south bank of the Maumee River.He bought furs and skins of the Indians, paying in exchange whiskey which he bought in Toledo for ten cents per gallon. Coon skins were then worth one dollar each and deer skins twenty cents a pound. In 1824 Defiance was very thick woods,except a strip running up the Auglaize, from the mouth to a short distance above the Lutheran  church now stands (Washington Street), and extending west to the present route of Clinton Street. A tannery was located on the deep ravine near the present outlet of the canal. I have seen splendid crop of wheat raised on the present site of the courthouse.
    At the time I came here there were just three houses in Defiance. We had difficulty in raising our log cabins owning to the scarcity of men. Frequently it would take us two or three days to obtain sufficient help. In a residence in Defiance of fifty-one years, I have seen the grow to be a second-class city and have witnessed the erection of every house in Defiance.
    If these little sketches of what Defiance was years ago will prove of interest you may hear from me again during the coming winter.

                                                  J.B. Healley