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Chapter XXII.
pg. 235
HISTORY OF
LIBERTY
TOWNSHIP
THIS is one
of the best, one of the earliest settled and first improved
townships in the county. It possesses more intrinsic
historic interest than any of the thirteen. In the
government survey it is known as township six, north of
range seven, east. This territory was reduced by the
detachment of the two northern tiers of sections in the
formation of Fulton county. It was however, increased
by the annexation of sections one, two, three, four, five
and six, and the most of seven and half of eight, nine and
twelve, and in small slice off the northern part of ten and
eleven of the township five in the same range (Harrison) at
the time the Maumee River was made the dividing line between
the townships.
The part of section twelve taken from Harrison, and
section seven of Washington (originally Damascus)
constituted what was known to the pioneers as Prairie du
Masque, having been so named by the early French
adventurers, traders, or religious enthusiasts, who were
attracted to the valley of the Maumee, ambitious of conquest
for greed for gain or desire for religious proselytism.
This was a camping ground for ten army of General Wayne
on his march to the battle field of Fallen Timbers.
Upon this division of land, thus designated as Prairie
du Masque, and long before the division of the northwestern
territory into counties, much less townships, the white man
had dared to penetrate. He invaded the wilderness
which then enshrouded the county of Henry and the outposts
of which were guarded by the most savage of the Indian
tribes, and settled there. The names of the
representatives of the white man as can now be ascertained
were John Butler, David and Jacob Delong, Charles Gunn,
George Chilson, David Bucklin and Edwin Scribner
came in 1818. These early settlers are, alas, all
dead. The ashes of some of them rest in obscurely
marked and almost forgotten graves along the banks of the
Maumee. The last survivor of these pioneers was
Edwin Scribner, who died during the present (1887) year,
at the residence of his son-in-law in Napoleon.
At a date so early that its date cannot now be
determined with certainty, but surely no later than 1820,
Samuel Vance, already mentioned, erected on section
twelve, a double log house, called it a tavern and suspended
a sign announcing "accommodation for man and beast."
The cellar of this primitive tavern still remains on the
banks of the Maumee, close to the "old orchard" - the first
planted in the county - near the town of Damascus. The
brick for this cellar were bloated from Toledo (so at
present named) on pirogues. At that time this was the
only house between Defiance and the Rapids, where Peter
Manor then lived. A short time afterwards
Joseph Cowdrick, whose sons are now residents of
Napoleon, built a small house on the river below Vance's
but subsequently removed further up the river about half way
between Damascus and Napoleon, where Joseph Rogers
now lived.
In 1826, on the 17th of November, John Patrick,
the father of George, who still resides on the old
place, settled on the river three miles east of Napoleon.
He purchased the land of one Cornelius Thompson, who
obtained it from the government on land scrip issued to him
for services under Wayne in his Indian campaigns.
Mr. Patrick erected a large house at this place, and
also opened a house of public entertainment, and which
subsequently became the main "tavern," as they were called
in those days, between Defiance and Toledo during the days
of canal navigation and packet travel, which began in 1843
and remained brisk until the construction of the Wabash
Railroad.
Long before work on the canal had commenced Edwin
Scribner, already referred to, erected a "thunder gust"
saw-mill on Dry Creek, and this was the first saw-mill in
the county. After the completion of the canal,
Burlin & Taylor started a mill at Damascus, and
the mill has ever since been retained and is still one of
the principle stationary ones in the county. Burlin
& Taylor also opened a general store, the first in
the county, and managed the tavern which had been
established by Vance. A town was laid out at
this point, but if ever platted the plat was destroyed in
the fire of 1847. In 1859, however, under direction of
the auditor, the assessor made a plat of the lots in section
twelve (Damascus), which was recorded on the 5th of December
of that year. By this it is learned that there were in
all seventeen lots - fifteen of which are on the north of
the canal and two on the canal within the county of Henry,
and was ambitious enough to rival Napoleon for the county
seat. The inability of the canal to compete with the
railroads and retain the carrying trade, has ruined Damascus
as a town and converted it into a magnificent farm.
In those early days, to use pioneer language, "it was
pretty rough sledding." When John Patrick came
to the river in 1866, the nearest mill was a Waterville, a
distance of twenty-five miles, and the settlers were often
compelled to go to Brunnersburg, on Beam Creek, in what is
now Defiance county, and not unfrequently to Monroe,
in Michigan, taking along an ax and log chain to clear out
the Indian trail, the only road to travel.
After the completion of the canal, and the commencement
of navigation on its muddy progression, and in 1847, the
earliest preserved duplicate discloses the fact that there
were residing on the territory which at present is embraced
within the limits of Liberty township, sixty-six persons who
paid tax on personal property. Among these
contributors to the public revenues who resided on the
sections detached from Harrison, were General Ezra S.
Dodd, whose ashes repose in the Damascus grave-yard;
Joseph Cowdrick, already referred to; Samuel Bowers,
dead and buried on the farm he cut and cultivated from the
wilderness; and George Bowers, who is still living
and rejoicing in great-grandchildren; Judge MEekison,
a banker at Napoleon, being the father of the latest
addition. Prominent among those who resided in the
other part of, or rather the original-township, may be
named: Alonzo, Lorenzo, Solomon, James H., and
a large family of Babcocks, most of whom are still
living; George Chroninger, one of the jolliest old
men, surrounded by a happy family, who still lives in the
township, having by his industry, frugal habits and honest
dealings, acquired a competency which will certainly protect
him from the charity of the infirmary direction; Hosea
Harrison, Rensselaer, and several others of the
Hudson family, whose names have become interwoven into
the official history and progress of Henry county; John
and several others of the Knapp family, still
prominent in the township; John M. Meek a
brother-in-law of Judge Cory who came to the county
at a very early period, was prominent in local government,
and whose only remaining descendant by his first marriage,
is the wife of Judge J. M. Haag, of Napoleon; the
Redfield family; Samuel H. Steedman, who was the first
colonel of the Sixty-eighth O. V. Infantry; James B.
Steedman, subsequently the hero of Chickamauga, and
whose monument is now the chief ornament of the city of
Toledo; John Wright, sr., John Wright, jr., and
Nathan Wright; Ward Woodward, now of Liberty
Center, Samuel Winters, and George Crawford,
at one time county commissioner and prominent in local
politics, whose children still reside in the vicinity.
The duplicate of 1847 shows the township charged with
eighteen thousand four hundred and forty-two acres of land,
valued at $38,764.95, and chattels valued at $4,988.
The total tax paid was $1,316.66, with an additional for
school-house of $49.22.
A comparison and a calculation of the growth and
prosperity of the township may be made from teh following
figures:
The duplicate of 1887 shows seventeen thousand five
hundred and ninety-one acres of land, exclusive of town
sites, and railroad right-of-ways, valued at $330,725;
chattels listed at $136,487, paying a total tax including
the village of Liberty Center, of $10,139. The
township had a population of 1,119 in 1860; 1,766 in 1870;
in 1880 the population amounted to 1,946. It may be
safely estimated at present at 2,400.
Outside of the town of Liberty Center, there are eight
school-houses, most of them brick, and all well appointed,
with school maintained for at least half the year. The
Christian Union has a church edifice in section thirty-two
and also in section fifteen, and the United Brethren have a
chapel in section fifteen.
The main and several branches of Turkey Foot Creek
(north of the Maumee) and Dry Creek, afford the township
very good natural drainage and artificial surface and
underground ditches have contributed to make this perhaps
the best farming township in the county; and which, together
with goods roads, commodious, comfortable and
well-constructed residences and farm buildings give to it,
as a body, an average value greater than that possessed by
any other farming land in northwestern Ohio.
The construction of the Wabash Railway did much to
develop the township and hasten its improvement. While
it destroyed the plant of the towns along the canal, it
converted the wilderness along its track into many
flourishing villages. Among them is
LIBERTY CENTER,
at present a flourishing village with a
population between five and six hundred. It was the
second village in the county to become incorporated, and has
taken advantage of its corporate franchise to secure good
sidewalks, streets and drainage. It is located in
sections twenty-five and thirty-six of the original surveyed
township, is a railroad and telegraph station on the Wabash,
has the third best post-office in the county, and a printing
office from which the Liberty Press is issued weekly.
The village has a good hotel, a livery stable, a hardware
store, a drug store, three dry goods stores, several saloons
and restaurants, several find brick blocks, and the
mechanical artists usual to all villages. A handsome
roller process grist-mill is a considerable attraction to
the trade of the village, and a saw-mill furnishes a market
for the few trees which remain to be converted into timber.
It has four churches, - one Methodist Episcopal, one German
Reformed, one United Brethren and one Seventh Day Adventist.
Its greatest ornament, however, and its chief pride is its
new graded school building, erected during the year 1886.
It is a two-story, finely finished building, in which is
maintained one of the best educational schools in the
county.
On the 4th of June, 1863, Alpheas Buchanan first
conceived the idea of establishing a trading-point in
Liberty township, and on that day recorded a plat of twelve
lots in the northeast quarter of section twenty-five, on the
south side of the Wabash Railway. To this was added
his first, second and third additions.
Jan. 7, 1867, Calvin C. Young added an addition
of twelve lots; and June 7, 1868, E. T. Coon
contributed an addition of ten lots more, with requisite
streets and alleys; Jan. 2, 1869, G. P. Parrish
stimulated the growth of the village by adding eighteen more
lots to the town plat, being in the northeast corner of
section thirty-six. Ward Woodward, one of the
early settlers of the township already mentioned, not
wishing to be outdone by those to the manor born subsequent
to himself, on the 19th of July, 1869, contributed to the
village a triangular addition of ten lots and an alley, on
the south side of the Wabash Railway. Orle Buchanan,
awakening from a sort of Rip Van Winkle sleep,
determined not to be outdone by those whom he termed the
"boys," and, on the 24th of July, added an addition of eight
irregular lots, and a street of thirty feet on the north of
the railway, and caused the erection of a handle and
excelsior factory in his addition. This enterprise
served to again arouse old "Uncle George" Parrish,
who, getting on his muscle, added a second addition of four
irregular lots on the west of his former addition and
separated from it by Parrish street. On the 22d day of
September, 1882, Daniel Ehrgood gave to the village
its last contribution, which consisted of sixteen lots,
continuing East street and adding Garfield, Lincoln, Cherry
and Plum and an alley, which gives to the village one
hundred and forty-one platted lots upon most of which are
neat and handsome residences or business buildings, and is
the site of one of the pleasantest, most prosperous and
enterprising towns along the line of the Wabash Railway.
The township is divided into two voting precincts.
The elections for the eastern is held at Liberty Center, and
that for the western at Chroninger's school-house. |
