PLEASE EXCUSE ANY ISSUES WITH THIS
TRANSCRIPTION AS IT IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING CLEANED UP FROM ANY
ERRORS. THANK YOU.
THIS township originally included all that part of the county west of
the Sandusky River, together with parts of Seneca and Ottawa counties.
Its organization as a township of Huron county in 1815 has already been
given in connection with the history of Fremont, which, until recently,
was included within its limits. The territory was reduced to its present
boundaries in 1878, when Fremont township was established.
The sand ridges along the Sandusky River, and extending through the
central part of the township, were the chosen locations of the first
settlers, although the soil on these sand-bars is inferior to the
vegetable mould on Muskallonge or on Little Mud Creek. During the early
period of settlement, the western part being a continuous swamp, the
first pioneers had no choice in the matter of location. Besides,
numerous small Indian clearings along the river prepared the way for
white occupation. The narrative of the two first white families — the
Whittaker and Williams families — is fully given in connection with the
Indian history and discussion of land titles.
Along Muskallonge a road was opened out and clearings commenced about
1827, and the first improvement on Little Mud Creek, so far as can be
learned, was made about 1829.
On the dry lands along the east side of the Sandusky is an extensive
chain of earthworks. One of the mounds on the river bank was excavated
some years ago and a skeleton found between plates of mica. These
sepulchres of the distinguished dead of a civilized and probably
aesthetic race, which has perished, not only from the earth, but from
history, furnish interesting data for speculation. The chain of
enclosures has almost been obliterated by the gradual change of the
river channel. Here we have an illustration of the effect of progressive
civilization. The Mound Builders, as is shown by the location of these
earth-works, and the Indians who followed them, chose the dry sand-bars
for places of residence. The early white settlers followed the example
of the races which had vacated. But times have changed; axes, plows, and
tiles have converted the marshy forest, worthless years ago, into fields
far more productive than the sand acres along the river ridges.
Sandusky township is bounded on the north by Rice, on the east by Riley,
on the south by Ballville and Fremont, and on the west by Washington.
The principal streams on the west side of the river are Muskallonge and
Little Mud 'Creek, and on the east side. Bark Creek, none of which
afford available water-power for mills. This, however, was no great
inconvenience, as the mills on the Sandusky River at Ballville and
Fremont were easily reached. The celebrated "Black Swamp" region begins
at Muskallonge and takes in that part of the township lying west of this
stream.
SETTLEMENT.
The settlement of Sandusky township was not as rapid as its location
would lead us to expect. Ballville was improved before Sandusky, and the
east part of the county was filling up rapidly before any thing more
than scattering settlements were made in this township. Why this was the
case is an easy problem when the miasmatic, sickly state of the country
west of the river is taken into account. Muskallonge was dammed up by
fallen timber, and in consequence a wide tract of country was wet and
uninviting. No roads were opened up in the western part. On the whole
there was little encouragement to settle.
Except the Whittaker and Williams families, Reuben Patterson was the
first settler of Sandusky township who remained to make a permanent
improvement and home. There were more squatters down along the river
than perhaps any other place in the county, but most of them, being
unable to enter land, deserted their squatter openings and pushed on
farther west. Mr. Patterson's family consisted of a wife and six
children — Alvord, Eveline, Danforth, Julius, Harriet, and Caroline. The
family left New York in a wagon in the fall of 1816, and came to Huron,
then the stopping-place of so many Western emigrants. At the opening of
the following spring they removed to the peninsula, but sickness so
afflicted them that the new home with its improvements was deserted. Mr.
Patterson made a trip to the Maumee in search of a* home and there made
the acquaintance of Captain Rumery, who persuaded him to come to Lower
Sandusky. When the family arrived from the peninsula no room in which to
put their goods could be found, except a log house in the fort, which
had been used during the war by the officers. Esquire Morrison occupied
one end and Mr. Baker the other; the Patterson family were crowded into
the middle room, the floor of which was made of clay. A bedstead was
placed in a corner, and on this, during the day, all the clothing was
piled, and at night beds were made on the ground. One of the gates
thrown down before the fire-place furnished one small piece of floor,
which contributed to the comfort of this large family in a small room in
wet weather. Mr. Patterson and his sons set to work and cleared a piece
of land on the west side of the river, near the forks of the road, and
in the spring of 1819 the family moved into an unfinished cabin on this
place. The cracks were filled afterwards with mortar made of clay and
straw, and a chimney made of logs heavily interlaid with clay mortar was
erected on the outside of the house. The location of the cabin was on
the Whittaker Reserve, a part of which Mr. Patterson rented. When the
Government sale of lands was advertised at Delaware, Mrs. Patterson took
her little bag of silver coin, mounted her horse, and in company with
Lysander C. Ball and James Whittaker, went to Delaware. She purchased
what was for years known as the Patterson farm, on the east side of the
river. Here Mr. Patterson lived until his death in 1841, having survived
his wife one year. The living representatives of the family are:
Eveline, widow of L. C. Ball; Julius, and Harriet, widow of James Moore.
L. C. Ball was a settler in Sandusky township in 1823. He left his home
in New York in 1818, with a view to locating in the West, Detroit being
his objective point. Being without means, he employed the natural method
of travelling. High water intercepted his progress at Lower Sandusky,
where he found employment at general work. He soon engaged at the then
profitable trade of black-smithing in James Kirk's shop, and afterwards
built a shop of his own. In 1823 Mr. Ball married Eveline Patterson, and
settled on a farm just below the corporation, where he lived, raised a
family, and died. Mrs. Ball remains on the homestead. The children are:
Eveline, Alvira, Thaddeus, Oscar, Lysander C, and Sarah (Emerson).
George Shannon, a son-in-law of James Whittaker, is mentioned in
connection with Indian events of the War of 1812, in the general
history, but that event gives us an interest in the personal history of
the family. Mr. Shannon was a native of Schenectady, Schoharie county,
New York, and was born in 1787. He came to Lower Sandusky in 1809, and
married Mary, a daughter of James and Elizabeth Whittaker, by whom he
had eight children, three of whom are living — James, residing in
Oregon; John, in this township: and William, in Wood county. Mr. Shannon
lived in a cabin on the Whittaker Reserve when James, the oldest son,
was born. In 1812, when the Indian troubles began, he sought safety for
his family on the Scioto, having refused to accompany the Whittakers in
Fort Stephenson, believing that that post would eventually be captured.
His return to harvest the corn crop, and adventure with the savages
while thus engaged, is narrated elsewhere. When the war had closed, Mr.
Shannon returned from the Scioto, and settled on a piece of land given
him by Mrs. Whittaker. He built a cabin near the river, in which he
moved the entire family, now consisting of several children. Posterity
must forgive us for stating that, on account of an old prejudice, Mr.
Shannon frequently incurred the wrath of his mother-in-law, and the
relation between the two families was not always lovely. The Indians
usually camped on the river bank near the Shannon cabin. Mrs. Shannon's
"life in the woods" had familiarized her with their language and habits,
and enabled her to detect signs of danger. One day, while her husband
was at work, an Indian yell startled the family. She called to Mr.
Shannon, who did not hear at first, and, before she could repeat the
warning, an angry savage had almost approached the house. There was no
time for evading. Shannon was now facing the Indian, who drew forth a
concealed tomahawk, and, with a double oath, said, in good English: "Now
I going to kill you!" Shannon sprang forward, caught the handle of the
drawn tomahawk in one hand and the strong arm of his savage antagonist
in the other. A vigorous but brief struggle followed, in which the
redskin was prostrated. Shannon was now master of the situation. He
wrenched the hatchet from his antagonist's hand, raised the weapon, and
was already directing a deadly blow, when the savage cried:
"Friendship." By a quick movement. Shannon changed his fatal aim, and
the tomahawk, just clearing his enemy's head, was buried in the ground.
Again seizing the weapon. Shannon ordered the Indian into the house, and
then gave him a chair. Shannon also sat down, laying the tomahawk on the
table at his side. He then asked the Indian why he came to kill him.
"Is your name Joe Williams?" asked the conquered savage.
"No; my name is Shannon," was the reply.
"I was told," said the Indian, "Joe Williams lived here. I came to kill
Joe Williams. He sold me a barrel of stinking pork."
The Indian took his tomahawk and left the cabin, a warm friend of
Shannon.
John, the third son of George Shannon, was born in the Scioto Valley in
1813, and was brought to Sandusky, with his parents, after the close of
the war. In 1840 he married Eveline Patterson, daughter of Alvord and
Julia Patterson, who removed from New York to Ohio in 1833. The fruit of
this union was nine children, four of whom are living. Mr. Shannon has
always had a fondness for the woods, and had a reputation, in early
times, as an expert and successful hunter. Even in his old age he mourns
the loss of hunting grounds.
Casper Remsburg was a native of Maryland, who came to the county in
1822, and settled on the Muskallonge, where he lived as a farmer until
1849, when he died in the sixty-third year of his age. He married Mary
Bowlus, also of Maryland, who is still living, being now in her
eighty-ninth year. She is the mother of ten children, nine of whom
arrived at maturity. Four sons and two daughters are yet living. The
names of the children in the order of their ages were: Matilda,
deceased; Hezekiah, attorney at law, Fremont; William, a Protestant
Methodist preacher, residing in Des Moines, Iowa; Mary Ann, the wife of
James Rosenbarger, Sandusky township; Susan, married and residing in
Rock Island county, Illinois; Rebecca, deceased, was the wife of Adam
Crowell, of Sandusky township; Perry F., farmer, Bureau county,
Illinois; John, died in Sandusky township), in 1849; Lewis E., farmer.
Bureau county, Illinois. Mr. Remsburg was a member of the Protestant
Methodist church, to which his widow still belongs.
The first settlement in that part of the township lying west of the
Muskallonge and north of the Perrysburg road, was made by three families
from Pennsylvania, in 1817. They were the families of George Overmyer,
Michael Overmyer, and Daniel Hensel.
Daniel Hensel was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1797.
He married, in Northumberland county, Christina Reed, and in 1819
removed to Perry county, Ohio. In 1827 the fertile farms then being
opened up this part of the State attracted his attention, and having
made an entry he removed his family to the Black Swamp. It has been said
that many of the pioneers have become wealthy as an incidental result of
the developing force of progressive civilization. That is true of those
who purchased extensive tracts and then depended upon the labor of self
sacrificing neighbors to develop the country around their estates. But
those whose memory it is our desire to perpetuate, those whose busy
hands built homes and reduced the fertile soil to a state of
cultivation, have been indeed poorly paid for leaving well organized and
cultured communities and submitting to the conditions of life in the
woods. Daniel Hensel actually cut his way to the one hundred and sixty
acres of swampy forest he had purchased, and by the time of his death,
in 1842, had cleared and brought under cultivation filty acres. He also
carried on an extensive carpentering business. His family consisted of
six children, all of whom are living. Adam resides in Sandusky township;
Sarah, wife of N. Kessler, in Fremont; Eva, wife of J. Waitman, in
Sandusky township; Daniel, in Sandusky township; Christina, wife of J.
Binkly; and George, in Sandusky township. Adam, the oldest son, was born
in Perry county, Ohio, in 1825. He married in 1847, Mary J. Benner,
whose father Matthias Benner, removed to the county, from Union county,
Ohio, in 1840. Their family consisted of six children — James D., Ellen
(deceased), Sarah, Harriet (Stinewalt), Alice (Waters), and Emma, all
residing in this township, except Sarah. James D., the oldest son, was
born in 1849, and in 1873 married Villa M. Wolf, by whom he has two
children — Nora O. and Mabel M. Daniel, jr., second son and fourth child
of Daniel Hensel, was born in 1835. He married, in 1862, Sarah Hetrich,
daughter of George and Catharine Hettrich. His family consists of five
children, four of whom are living, William W., Charles H., Hattie D.,
and Emma M.
George Reed was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, in the year
1806. In the year 1829 the family, consisting of the mother, three boys
and four girls, started -for the one hundred acres lying in the
northwest part ot this township, which George had entered previously.
Three days were occupied in the trip from Fremont to the farm, a
distance of seven miles. Their slow progress indicates the condition of
the road, or rather the trail through the woods, for the State road at
that time was no more. Mr. Reed in a memorandum says: "We came out as
far as Moses Wilson's. There we staid all night. Next day we came down
to where David Engler lived. Daniel Hensel was our nearest neighbor, and
John Wagoner lived on Little Mud Creek. The country was then nothing but
a wilderness, and the pike a mud-hole. It was almost impossible to get
along with the empty wagon part of the time." Mr. Reed adds in the
spirit of the good old days gone by: "And it seems people enjoyed
themselves better then than now. They were not so selfish; had their
logrollings, and corn-huskings, and old-fashioned country dance, and all
hands engaged in it."
A description of a corn-husking and quilting winding up with a dance,
according to the fashion of the period, will be found in this volume.
Rev. Jacob Bowlus entered land, and at an early day made an improvement
south of the pike on Muskallonge. His connection with religious
organizations at Fremont is fully noticed in that connection. His son,
Jacob Bowlus, was for nearly sixty years a staid and honored citizen,
and a staunch Methodist. He once stated that he never went further than
Muskallonge after his father's settlement in Lower Sandusky.
Samuel Crowell, an early settler of this township and an early
school-teacher, was born in Pennsylvania in 1793. In 1815 he married
Mary Link, of Virginia, and about 1826 came to this county. He entered a
farm on the Muskallonge, in this township, and was a school-teacher of
prominence and more than ordinary severity. He was elected sheriff in
1829 and held the office two terms. He had five sons and three
daughters. One of the sons is living — Alexander — in Peru, Indiana.
Samuel A., who resides in this township, was born in Jefferson county,
Virginia, and came to Ohio with his father. He was married three times
and had a family of twelve children, viz: George W., Samuel, Mary C.,
Clarissa, Eugene B., Moses H., Sardis S., Reuben A., Martha L., William
E., John W., and Sarah R. Mr. Crowell died October 10, 1881, aged
sixty-three years. Eugene Crowell was born in 1851. He married, in 1873,
Sarah Stine, daughter of William Stine, and has four children, Clara,
William, Ella, and Ida. The old Crowell improvement was on Muskallonge.
Henry Bowlus settled in this township in 1828. He came from Maryland
with a family of eight children, four of whom are living. He died in
1832; his wife survived him nine years.
Aaron Forgerson was one of the first settlers of Fremont, having
emigrated from New York in 1816. The family consisted of eight children,
six boys and two girls. Sidney, the seventh child, was one of the early
settlers of this township. He married, in 1853, Hannah White, whose
father, Ebenezer White, came to the county in 1831.
Basil Coe, a native of Maryland, married Rachel Burgoon, and settled in
this county in 1833. He died soon afterwards leaving a family of eight
children, the oldest of whom, Jessie Coe, was born in Perry county,
Ohio, in 1815. He married Mary Bazar, a daughter of Henry Bazar, a
native of Pennsylvania, in 1832. Mr. Coe died in 1867, leaving ten
children living: Rebecca L., Richard A., Martha J., Francis M., Sarah
L., Charles J., Josephine A., James M., Ellen A., and William S. Mrs.
Basil Coe died in 1881. Mrs. Jessie Coe is still living. Seven of her
children survive. Richard A. Coe was born in 1844, and has always
resided in the county. He was married, in 1870, to Harriet B. Shank,
born in Cincinnati in 1841. Four children are living — William Edward,
Carrie A., John F., and James W. Lloyd N. is dead.
George Michael was born in France in 1816. He came to America, and
settled in New York in 1831. In 1834 he removed to Sandusky township,
where he has lived ever since. The family consists of eight children,
all of whom are living, viz: Caroline (Parker), Sandusky township;
Philip, Henry county; George, John H., and Christian, Wood county; Mary
(Swartz), Elizabeth Thompson and Charles reside m this county. Mr.
Michael followed coopering for forty years. He has also improved an
excellent farm.
George Engler, a native of Germany, settled in this township in 1835,
and lived here until his death in 1860. The family consisted of twelve
children, all of whom are living. Henry, the sixth child, was born in
Germany in 1831; he married Christina Will, a native of Germany, by whom
he had a family of eight children, seven of whom are living, viz:
Caroline, Frank, John, Elizabeth, Ella, Herman and Edward.
John Kuns (spelled Koons by some representatives of the family), a
native of Pennsylvania, came to this county in 1836, from Perry county,
Ohio. He married Catharine Overmyer, by whom he had five children:
Siloma and Catharine, deceased, and Samuel, John and Elizabeth, living.
Mr. Kuns died October 25, 1845, aged fifty-two years. He had been an
invalid for many years, and was so afflicted with rheumatism that he was
helpless during the last fifteen years of his life. Mrs. Kuns died
November 5, 1874, aged seventy-five years and six months. Samuel, the
oldest son, is living on the old homestead, where his grandfather, John
Overmyer, settled four years before John Kuns, sr., came to the place.
Samuel Kuns was born in Perry county in 1823. He married Mary M. Swarm
in 1845. They had five children: John, Riley township; Catharine
(Shively), Sandusky township; Mary E. (Scibert), Samuel, Sandusky
township, and Emma A. (Reed), Ottawa county. Mrs. Kuns died March 16,
1866, aged thirty-nine. Mr. Kuns was again married February 4, 1879, to
Mrs. Rosanna Bruner, daughter of Christian Auxter, of Washington
township. They have one child, Orphie R. John, brother to Samuel, was
born in Perry county in 1827. He married in 1850, Hannah M. Sebring, and
has four children living: Maria E., John E., Clara E., and Wilbur C. Mr.
Kuns was in the grocery business in Fremont for several years.
The Sebring family came from Butler county, Ohio, and settled in this
county in 1836.
Charles Lay and his parents, John and Sarah Lay, came to Sandusky
township about 1840. Charles Lay married in this county, Anna Unsbauch,
a native of Perry county. Three of their children are living: Alfred and
Albanus in Sandusky township, and Rosanna (Fought), Washington township.
Jacob Hufford, a native of Frederick county, Maryland, was born in 1773.
He married Catharine Creager, and emigrated first to Kentucky, and from
there to Greene county, Ohio. In 1836 they came to this county and
settled on the farm where she died in 1842 and he in 1851. Mr. Hufford
was a blacksmith by trade, but after coming to this county gave his
exclusive attention to farming and improving his land. James, the third
child of Jacob Hufford, was born in Greene county, in 1812. He married,
in 1838, Susan Arnold, who died in 1847, leaving three children, viz:
George W., died of disease contracted in the army, at Memphis,
Tennessee; Harriet A., wife of William Slates, lives in this township;
and Joseph N., deceased. Mr. Hufford married, in 1849, for his second
wife, Elizabeth Fisher, by whom one child was born, William T., a
resident of this township. He was born in 1851, and married, in 1873,
Sarah, daughter of William Rhidout, of Ballville township. They have two
children, Eugene L. and James F. Mr. Hufford has been a teacher in the
public schools.
Michael Wolfe crossed the mountains in 1837, for the first time, coming
and going on foot. He had been married at the age of twenty-two to
Margaret Engleman, and, in 1841, with his family, he came to Ohio and
settled in this township, where he lived until his death, in 1879. He
was one of the first settlers in the Muskallonge bottom, where he lived
until 1865, when he removed to the pike. It is said of Mr. Wolfe that he
never had an enemy. Of a family of twelve children seven are still
living, viz: Levi, Sandusky township; Solomon, Seneca county; Josiah and
A. J., Sandusky township; Ella J. (Hook), Tiffin; Anna C. (Baker),
Fremont; and Savilla (Hensel), Sandusky township. Levi, the oldest son,
was born in Union county, Pennsylvania, in 1836. In 1857 he married
Christina Lantz. Nine children are living — Robert A., Dilla C., Emma R.,
Ellen H., James H., Chester E., Michael J., Margaret E., and Addie C. A.
J., the fourth child of Michael Wolfe, was born in 1842, and married, in
1865, Jemima Stultz. They have two children — William E. and Nannie A.
Mr. Wolfe purchased the Alexander Paden farm, which was one of the first
improved in the township.
Jacob Faller emigrated from Germany and afterwards settled in this
township in 1846. He married, in 1850, Christina Wegstein, also a native
of Germany. Her parents came to America in 1840. Four children blessed
this union, viz: Sarah E., William, Emma, and George. Mr. Faller served
in the Mexican war. He has engaged in the manufacture of chairs, and
also in the grocery business, but for nine years he has been farming.
William Webster, son of Joseph and Sarah Webster, was born in
Derbyshire, England, in 1820, and came to America and settled in
Sandusky township in 1851. He lived in this township nine years, and
then moved to Washington township, his present residence. He married,
first, in 1847, Salina Wood, who died in 1858, having borne two
children, George, and John Joseph, both deceased. He married again in
1859, Mary A. Newcomer, whose father, Jacob Newcomer, settled in
Sandusky county in 1830. Mary J. and Joseph W. are the children by this
marriage. Only Mary is living. Mr. Webster followed butchering in
Fremont during his residence there.
Peter Gilbert was another of the industrious Germans who settled in this
township, and have contributed so much to its wealth. He was born in
Germany in 1804. He married Margaret E. Tickel, and emigrated to America
in 1852. He died in 1859, on the farm where he settled. Mrs. Gilbert
survived him three years. The family consisted of three boys and three
girls: Henry, Louis, Adam, Julia, Catharine and Mary. Henry, the oldest
child, was born in 1823, and came to this country with his father in
1852. The following year he married Catharine Graft, daughter of George
Tickel, who came to America in 1844. Two of their four children are
living — Louisa, the wife of William H. Greene, and Ellen H., wife of
Lewis Conicom, both residents of Sandusky township. Mr. Gilbert is a
mason by trade. He has served as township trustee, clerk, assessor, etc.
William D. Stine, the second child of Philip and Sarah Stin, was born
in Pennsylvania in 1827. He married, in Pickaway county, Ohio, in 1852,
Rebecca Stout, a native of that county, and removed to this county the
following year. Three children are living: Sarah C. (Crowell), Isaac
Franklin, and Lavina E. Mr. Stine followed the carpenter and joiner
trade for ten years.
John Shook, a native of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, came to Ohio and
settled in Pickaway county about 1812. In 1825 he removed to the present
territory of Ottawa county, where he died in 1863. His wife, whose
maiden name was Susannah Hum, died in 1856, leaving seven children.
Daniel, the sixth child, was born in Pickaway county in 1822. He
married, in 1850, Rosanna Bowlus and in 1854 settled in Sandusky
township. In 1880 he removed to his present residence in Washington. The
family consists of three children, two of them living, viz: Franklin P.,
William D. (deceased), and James D. Mrs. Shook is a daughter of David
Bowlus, of Sandusky township.
W. L. Greene was among the later settlers of this township. He was born
in Pennsylvania, in 1832, and came to this county in 1855. In 1859 he
married Abigail Ramsel, daughter of Jacob Ramsel, of Ottawa county. They
had two children, one of whom is living, James L.; Cora J. is dead. Mrs.
Greene died in 1873. In 1876 he married for his second wife Malinda
Bowlus. He was in mercantile business eight years. By her first husband
Mrs. Greene had four children: Orville, Rolla, Ada, and Charles. Mr.
Greene's father resided in this county until the time of his death in
1875. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. John Stayer, Mrs. Greene's
father, was also a soldier in the War of 1812, and is yet living (1881).
Jacob J. Seibert was born in Pennsylvania in 1820. He married Mary A.
Walborn in 1843, and in 1856 they came to this county. Four of their six
children are living: Monroe, Fremont, Emma (Loose), Michigan; Henry, and
William. Mr. Seibert has been an elder in the Reformed church about
fifteen years.
Eben Root was born in Erie county, in 1843. In 1868 he married Jemima
Fell, and settled in this county. Three children are living — Isabella,
Carrie, and Walter. The youngest child, David P., died at the age of
thirteen months. Mr. Root has a fine farm of two hundred and thirty
acres.
SHOOTING ON BARK CREEK.
The small stream which winds through Ballville and Sandusky townships,
almost parallel with the river, derives its name from the methods
employed by the early hunters for shooting deer along its course. The
stream flows through a flat country, and at places spreads out into
little ponds of considerable area and depth. In these deer were
accustomed to gather in large groups or herds, to avoid flies and other
annoyances. The professional hunters of the day had canoes in which they
embarked for game. In one end they placed a candle or torch, surrounded,
except in front, by a piece of bark stripped from an elm tree. Behind
this dark lantern he could sit in entire obscurity, while in front the
water and shores were well lighted. Deer seem to be charmed with a torch
in the night. They would stand up to their bodies in the water and watch
the approach of the destroyer with evident pleasure, little suspecting
that a charge of buckshot was being aimed at them by a man concealed in
the dark end of the boat. When the boat had reached a sure shooting
distance the hunter fired, bringing down sometimes two victims at one
shot. An old hunter informs the writer that he has brought in as many as
twelve deer as the fruit of one night's hunting.
RELIGIOUS.
The religious history of Sandusky township is so intimately connected
with the church history of Fremont that little remains to be said here.
Within this territory Rev. Joseph Badger, with his assistants,
established their missionary post while laboring among the Wyandot
Indians. There are in the township at present two churches.
METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH.
The only congregation of this denomination in the county, worship in a
commodious frame house on the Rollersville road, near Muskallonge Creek.
The Methodist Protestants established their form of worship in this
county in 1840. Dr. William Reeves, accompanied by his wife, Hannah
Reeves, held a meeting in Fremont in 1840, which resulted in gathering
together a small class, which a split in the United Brethren class, a
couple of months later, strengthened. The meeting conducted by Hannah
Reeves was very satisfactory in its good results, but the church never
prospered in town. A class was organized the following summer in the
country, composed of Alexander Paden and wife, William Rice and wife,
William Remsburg and wife, Sophia Flick, Mary Remsberg, and Polly
Remsberg.
Two years after the class was formed, a meetinghouse was built on Henry
Bowlus' farm, where services were held until 1873 when the present house
was built. The present membership of this class is about fifty.
Ministers worthy of special mention have been William Turner, William
Ross, Robert Andrews, Alexander Brown, and Robert Rice. William Hastings
is the present pastor in charge.
OTHER CHURCHES.
Lutheran service has been held in the township since 1843, very closely
connected, however, with the church at Fremont. The meetinghouse at the
four-mile stone on the pike was built in 1845, or about that time. The
congregation is composed largely of Germans or people of German descent.
The Methodist Episcopal church organized a class during the early
settlement of the township, and about 1845 built a house of worship on
the pike at Muskallonge. The maintenance of service at this point was,
however, entirely unnecessary, and when the building yielded to the
dilapidations of time, it was abandoned and most of the members
transferred their connection to the church at Fremont.
Source: History of Sandusky County, Ohio with Portraits and
Biographies of Prominent Citizens and Pioneers, by H. Z. Williams &
Bro., Homer Everett, (c) 1882, pp. 559-567.
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