Canal Story (Defiance Crescent News 16 Oct 1933)

    Miller of Florida (Ohio) remember many funny incidents of old canal days. Once upon a time the boys of this locality built a fishing raft for use on the canal. Along came a canal boat and the boys always insisted that the steer man guided the boat crookedly in order to create an unusually big wash.

    Anyhow the waves from the boat stranded the raft high and dry. The boys, vowing vengeance, hid in a corn field with a plentiful supply of dirt clods and when the boat appeared caused a wild time by clodding the mules and peppering the decks of the canal boat.

    But when the steersman called for the shotgun, and told the captain they hadn't better shoot low because it was loaded for ducks, there was an unusual commotion among the cornfield as the boys without hesitating strove to get beyond range of the gun.

Daughter of Pioneer Inn Keeper Recalls Hard Times of Early Days (Defiance Crescent News 5 Aug 1932)

Grave of Harriet Deamer, Old Riverside Cem. Defiance Ohio

   

    Mrs. Harriet Deamer, who resides at 717 Perry street, is a daughter of the pioneer Andrew Jackson St John who established the tavern out along the Ayersville road about the year 1850

    The purpose of this structure erected in the wilderness by a carpenter named Henry Stites was that of a farmhouse. And it became a tavern through necessity because so many folks stopped at the lonely dwelling along the muddy wilderness road and asked for lodgings.

    Jack St John who was a raw-bone man measuring six feet two in his socks, was a hospitable man and it is a matter of legend in the community that he never turned a weary or hungry man from his door.

    A.J. St John engaged his services to a tanner at Lebanon, Ohio, at the age of 17 receiving for his services the sum of $30.00 per year. After a thorough apprenticeship with different tanners he came to this county and established himself as a tanner and agriculturist.

    Not only was he a tanner of leather, but from hides from his vats he made shoes for the neighborhood. Many a pioneer was shod in long-wearing leather boots made by this skillful man whose good workmanship brought trade from a large radius. 

    As his tanning trade gained in volume he added two more 40s to the original forty acre home site. Bark of the best oaks was ground in a one horse power mill and the ingredients of the tanning solution so skillfully blended that the green hides that went into the vats came out as choice harness leather that commanded a splendid market.

    Seeking new territory as was the custom with many of the first settlers. Mr. St John after residing for 14 years in Defiance county, went to Camden, Mich., where he erected a tannery.

    His daughter Miss Harriet, accompanied him there, but returned in the fall to become the bride of Solomon Deamer, a brick mason by trade whose name is familiar to many residents of Defiance.
    The original home of Solomon Deamer was on the site now occupied by the Defiance Screw Machine Products Co. Mr. Deamer passed from life about 35 years ago. Mrs Deamer at the age of 87, an eighty-year resident of Defiance county is living with her niece Mrs Louis Rector, at the Perry street home. 
    In looking back to the hard times of her girlhood spend during the tragic years of the Civil War. Mrs. Deamer, who was actively engage in making a dutch girl quilt, said one reason we consider conditions difficult today is because there are so many different ways in which money may be  expended.
    In the days when the old plank road to Ayersville had lost its planking and resembled a mortar box, wagons were a common necessity and a buggy was a luxury.
    Shirts were made of flour sacks with the sleeves from the legs of old socking. Almost all the white flour available was either musty or wormy and corn meal was the standard bread staple.
    Mrs. Solomon Deamer, the widow of a Civil War veteran, recalls the stirring days of the great conflict of the 1860s when General Kirby Smith with his band of Confederate raiders threatened to invade Ohio and a company of local men whom her father, A.J. St John, was a member, was organized almost in a day and on Sept 10, 1862 enlisted with the famous Squirrel Hunters and departed to defend Cincinnati from the threatened invasion.
    That famous company contains many familiar names: John Crows, Capt
                                                                                                 C.B. Mix, First lieut.
                                                                                                 David Butler, Second lieut
                                                                                                J.B Mellin      
                                                                                                D.W. Nye
                                                                                                 John Paul Jr.
                                                                                                 Louis Godbell 
                                                                                                 D.W. Marcellus
                                                                                                John Linebrink 
                                                                                                George Hooker
                                                                                                James Brown
                                                                                                Elias Zeller
                                                                                                John Stitsel
                                                                                               William Woods
                                                                                               Jerome Murray
                                                                                               A.A Ayers
                                                                                               Robert King
                                                                                               R. Girard
                                                                                              James Richards
                                                                                             J.B Heatley
                                                                                             Dave Buckmaster
                                                                                             George Dudley 
                                                                                             Henry Miller 
                                                                                            Sam Hutchinson 
                                                                                             Abe Davis
                                                                                             Peter M Dodd
                                                                                             William B Watts
                                                                                              J.E. Willeman
                                                                                              John Andrews
                                                                                              John Moon
                                                                                              Ed Beall
                                                                                             Charles E Williams
                                                                                             William E Williams
                                                                                              William Douty
                                                                                               John Carpenter
                                                                                               J.A. Allen
                                                                                               Frank Nolan 
                                                                                              John Spangler
                                                                                              Ambrose Maston
                                                                                             Isaac Collar
                                                                                              Dave Jackson
                                                                                             George Rogers
                                                                                              C.C. Strong
                                                                                              J.A Meyers
                                                                                              John Davidson
                                                                                               T.D. Harris
                                                                                                M. Houtz
                                                                                                T.C. Breese
                                                                                                 S.S Hopkins
                                                                                                 M. Carey 
                                                                                                 John Glen 
                                                                                                  B.F. Kniss
                                                                                                  John Lewis
                                                                                                  C.C. Case
                                                                                                  A. Elliott
                                                                                                  D.M. Corwin
                                                                                                  F.H. Ferguson
                                                                                                  John Bogg
                                                                                                  Hugh Donnelly
                                                                                                  Nelson Kibble
                                                                                                  James Figley
                                                                                                  Silas Figley
                                                                                                  Frank A Masterson
                                                                                                  Ed Hatfield
                                                                                                   Fred Moninger
                                                                                                   John Hatfield
                                                                                                   Louis Daudt
                                                                                                   James Kochel
                                                                                                   George Miller
                                                                                                   Ohio Miller
                                                                                                    Andy Tuttle
                                                                                                    Mathias Elliott
                                                                                              The company of Defiance County,
                                                                                               Squirrel Hunters

Our Historic Court House (Daily Crescent News 5 Oct 1912)

Williams County, Court House Wayne Street, Defiance Ohio

    The U.S. Post Office Department, recently authorizes our postmaster, as its agent, to clear the site of the proposed local federal post office within a special time of short duration. Said he includes the plat of ground occupied by the old court house building, which was constructed in 1828. Acting in accordance with his instructions from the U.S. Post office Department, the postmaster served notice on the party who disposed of the ground occupied by the old court house to the U.S. government, to remove the building there and thus party has in turn sold the old building to a local man at private sale. This local man has announce that he intends tearing down the structure Monday, and disposing of the material constituting it to his best financial advantage. Every party connected with the proposed removal of the old court house. From the Post office Department down to the contractor who has purchased the building, are performing their respective parts in a perfectly legitimate matter, as they have a right to do, for which not even the tinge of criticism can be entertained by anyone. But there are some questing which have other than material sides to them. The destruction of the old court house in fraught with other than a material side, which is a sentimental one of more than passing notice. This building is so interwoven into the early history of Defiance city and county that it should be preserved as a relic of days gone by instead of being sent to the scrap pile after almost a century of continuous service. It first saw service 1828 in the capacity of a court house for Williams County eight year before what is now Defiance was even incorporate as a village and seven years before Defiance county organized in 1845. At the time of its At the time of its construction George Washington been dead but a decade; parts of the stockade and blockhouses were still standing. During the the early life of this courthouse there were but small number of houses at Defiance, which were mostly erected on blocks and called shanties; there were but few business houses, the entire settlement being congregated on the north bank of the Maumee opposite and northwest of the Fort Grounds, and not farther south them a couple squares from the Fort Grounds; less than a couple hundred white settlers, many of whom made their living trapping fur bearing animals and selling the pelts to traders, were outnumbered by the Indians; deer and bear abound, in the woods and thickets, and the wolves and wild cats still found refuge in the forest; travel was made by land on horseback and by water in canoes and pirogues, latter being tree dug-out; the jail, which was located on the ground now occupied by the county jail being a log affair, was in its time for its occasional escape of a Indian or white man. The famous Johnny Appleseed planted a orchard at the mouth of the Tiffin river opposite the Defiance Water Works, while this old court house was under course of construction. Most of these trees found their way to Florida (Ohio), below Defiance. All of our early lawyers tried suits in this courthouse, among them being Horace Session whose father fought under Anthony Wayne and assisted in conquering the Indians in Northwestern Ohio; William Semans, William Holgate, John H Semans, George W.B. Evans, John M. Stilwell, E.H. Leland; Judge Lane, who afterwards became judge of the supreme court of Ohio, and Judge Higgins, who succeeded him, tried cases in this same courthouse, also Curtis Bates who was later elected State Senator, Judge Latty and Phelps, were couple authorities for the statement that Morrison R. Waite who was nominated to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Grant was ratified by Congress, made his first speech in this old courthouse.

Lived 91 Years on Same Farm (Defiance Crescent News 15 Oct 1932(

Add caption

   Ninety-one years of residence on the same Defiance county farm where she was born. Is the record of Mrs. Laura V Mauge, of Farmer township. Her memory goes back prior to 1850, when the settlers in this vicinity lived in the forest and secure meat from the wild hogs and wild turkeys.

    Mrs. Mauge is the former Laura Valera La Cost. She was born Sept 24, 1841, in a log cabin that stood only a few rods from her present frame dwelling in section 8, Farmer township.

    Her father was Edward La Cost; a French Canadian.

    Losing his parents in early childhood, he was sent to an orphan's home, being afterwards bound out to work for his board and clothes until he should have attained the age of 21. But he was not satisfied with the treatment given a bound boy and at the age of 16 ran away and went to the vicinity of Pottsdam N.Y. He found work during the summer around Canton Oh, with the farmers and spent his winters in schools.
    In 1835, he joined a band of men including Spencer and Rice Hopkins, Ona and John Rice, Dr. Ona Rice, Jacob Conkey, Ezra Crary and William Pierce, who made their way from Pottsdam to Defiance in search of new homes.
    Women folks of the party were left at what was known as the Reserve near Cleveland. The men came to Defiance and then followed a faint Indian trail northwest until they reached the vicinity of what was to become the village of Farmer.
    Here about Nov. 21, 1835, they set to work erecting crude three -sided shelters of logs with the open side flanked by a great pile of dry logs to furnish heat for the rigors of winters. 
    With temporary shelters finished, the men proceeded to select their farms and to begin cleaning sites for log cabins. La Cost selected for his farm the southeast corner eighty of section 8. John Rice chose an 80 near by Lewis Stambaugh now lives, and Randall Lord took up a forty, part of the present Walter Connelly farm. Mrs. Maugel says that Rachel Ann Tharp, a daughter of Elisha Tharp claimed to have been the first white child born in Farmer township. She was born in 1837 and died in a St. Louis hospital in 1922.
    In 1840 Edward La Cost was married to Dora Elvira Hopkins, a daughter of Laura Rice Hopkins who had entered the farm which lies just across the road in section 17, in September of 1841, Laura Valera La Cost was born. She married Alexander Maugel, a veteran of the entire Civil War campaigns,who died in 1891. To this union was born one son, Roy, with whom this pioneer woman makes her home. He has one son, Donald, living in Williams county.
    Mrs. Laura Maugel says each pioneer carried out from Defiance two blankets, a skillet, sack of corn meal, coffee and coffeepot and an ax and gun. They slept in their blankets in the crude shelters back of blazing log heaps and were not molested by either Indians or animals. The Indians, according to Mrs. Maugel, were removed to reservations across the Mississippi prior to her birth.
    Her first schooling was obtained in a log corn crib on her uncle's farm where she, Selden, Araby, Truman, and Mary Hopkins were given the first elements of an education by Sabrina Hopkins.
    These pioneers were not troubled with wild animals, in fact the greatest danger seemed to have been from domestic animals gone wild. For an occasional hog would stray away from the unfenced farm sites and mingle with other hogs that formed droves from which it was the custom to get much of the winter supply of pork, and killing of these wild hogs had a tendency to make them savage and it was these droves that caused the parents the most anxiety concerning their children.
    It was the custom of each household to keep a savage dog which accompanied the children who played in the forest from morning until night. If anxiety was felt concerning the children one whistled to the dog, if they came, all was well, and if they didn't come, the parents looked them up.
    She remembers no incident in which a child was harmed and says the children so loved their savage playmates that had the dogs encountered savage beast the children no doubt would have remained to assist their dogs when wolves drew nearer. Sheep were always yard before dusk. Night after night, she has witnessed her father arise from his bed, take the musket that always was handy, and go out into the night to frighten away prowling animals that threatened the peace of the woodland farmstead.
    Mrs Maugel has an interesting volume of genealogy covering ten generation of her family, and says that the Hopkins family are members of the same branch of the family that founded Johns Hopkins University. 

A Stranger (Defiance Democrat 2 Jan 1890)

St Mary's Church  (Defiance Ohio) Our Lady of  Perpetual Help.

    The sweetest thing about religion is the fact that it soothes the dying and comforts the friendless. No matter who he is or where he is, the Christian in a Christian community is always among friends.

    A stranger, Lawrence Davitt, age 30 years, came to Defiance. He was a drummer (sales man), and sold jewelry and clocks for a Cincinnati firm. But this was his first visit to Defiance, and not a soul did he know. That evening he was taken sick, and was sick all night. He received the best of care from the people at the hotel, the Star House on Jackson street. The next morning he felt better. But the next evening he was worse and a physician was sent for. The physician gave his patient the necessary medicine, but something in his face caused the sick man to express a wish for a spiritual adviser, and, having heard of the good Father Kinkead, that gentleman was sent for. He came at once, and done everything in his power to comfort the dying man, who realized that his hour of dissolution had come. Fifteen minutes after the arrival of the father, but not until the rites of the church had been administered, the stranger was dead.
    Father Kinkead at once took charge of the body, and telegraphed the only relative of the deceased, a brother in Califoria, asking what should be done with his remains. The answer at once came back to bury them here.
    The firm for which the stranger worked was also notified and it sent $100 and a man all the way from Cincinnati to see that all that money could do was done. But money can't buy friends, and the stranger had found friends before he passed away.
    The beautiful funeral services of the Catholic church were held over the remains of the stranger in the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Not a vacant seat was in the big church, and hardly a dry eye when Father Kinkead had concluded his eloquent and appropriate sermon. All present seemed to realize that someof their loved ones might die among strangers, and many were the unexpressed wish that all strangers would find as good friends as Lawrence Davitt did in Defiance.
    

Sherwood's Marshal (Defiance Evening News 13 April 1895)

Sherwood , Defiance county, Ohio

    Amos Rutman, marshal of Sherwood is not traveling on a bed of roses, so to speak.

    He was set upon Saturday night late and nearly killed.

    A crowd congregated in a saloon and about closing time they made considerable noise to attract this officer's attention. He went to the place to take some boisterous ones into custody but when he arrived he was greeted by a shower of stones, bricks and other missiles handy to throw.

    He was struck on the head and rendered unconscious. Yesterday his life was despaired as he had not regained consciousness.
    Last Monday a young man from Bryan came to Sherwood and became intoxicated. The marshal attempted to arrest him, when Swindeman ran. The marshal called upon him to halt but he paid no attention to the demand when the marshal produced his gun and fired three shots after the retreating Bryanite. One of them took a effect in his left arm, producing a painful flesh wound, although not a serious one.
    This action incurred displeasure in Sherwood and the matter has occasioned considerable comment. It is supposed the attack on the marshal Saturday evening was the result of indignation fanned by bad whiskey.
    There has been no arrests made as yet but it is understood several Sherwood men are quite uneasy.