Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1876-07-07

| have been unable to. ascertnin what IL
any action was taken under this last act.
but Judging from the lanenage of the act of
Congress, passed Feb, 2Sth. 1922 n il fair
to assume that nothing Of importance was
done. by this last named act. 10 would
seem that Congress had despaired OF ever
constructing road over this route for, by
this act, Congress krOnied 10 the State Of
Ohio, all the land fos this purpose obtained
oy the treaty OF BrOwnstown. Section l Of
said act provides that the State of Ohio is
construct n road from the lower Tapids of
the Miami Of Lake Erie 10 the Western
boundary Of the Connecticut Western re-
serve in such manner as the Legislature of
of said State may by law provide, With the
appreciation Of the President Of the United
States, which road, when constructed, shall
forever remain public highway. BY an
act of the Legislature, the State of Ohio
accepted the grant made TO her by the last
recited act of Congress, and at once set
about building the road
TOWN or PERRYsBuRo SURVEYED.
In the meantime the United States gov.
ernment had laid out the town of Perrys-
burg at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee
river The survey was made in the year
1917, but no great progress in building
town had been made at the above date.
Indeed the town had remained about two
miles up the river from the present site Of
Perrysburg, under the walls of Fort Meirs
In locating this road it was so laid out rs
to pass through Perrysburg and Lower
Sandusky. The contracts were let and
work commenced in the year 1924, but the
| road was not completed until the year 1926.
II, indeed, such road could be called com
pleted, but such as il was it was accepted
| and for years served rs the thoroughfare
through which the thousands in search of a
paradise in the West were obliged to pass
the almost impossible Black Swamp.
II woHld be difficult to describe this worst
OF oil roads. and the agony bordsrng on
despair to which the emigrant was reduced
in his effort to pass over to the land flowing
with milk and honey beyond 1t is said
nature is equal to all emergencies, and it
proved so here. On the desert the caravan
may stop at any point and pitch their tents.
but travellers wading all day in mud and
water, require place Of rest for the night,
where they can dry as we'll as rest their
weary limbs. On the route of this road,
their wants in this respect were well sup
piled, for there was a tavern to each mile
OF the distance between Perrysburg and
Lower Sandusky, and travellers were some
| times compelled to stay two nights at the
same tavern, notwithstanding the most Wig
| orous efforts to proceed. Things remained
in this situation until the year 1898 when
the State commenced to Mncadamize the
road, which was completed in the year
1871, and from that time to the present has
been one of the best roads in Ohio. From
this period the real prosperity of Wood
county began, and was materially aided BY
the completion of the Wabash & Erie Canal
to Toledo few years later. 70 these i'm
provcmen's have been added many railways
centering at Toledo, which have put the
future prosperity of the Maumee Valley be-
yond question.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS on THE MAUMEE RIVER
WITHIN THE LIMITS or WOOD COUNTY.
! Here as elsewhere, man preceded gov
ernment, and long before the organization
Of Wood county, the country along the
Maumee river was settled by adventurous
pioneers seeking the philosophers stone in
the dense, unbroken forests of country
| inhabited and claimed by a race hostile to
the elements OF progress and civilization,
which are the motive power of the white
man. Braving the hostility OF an adversary
| in whom no age, however tender, excites
mercy, no feebleness of sex wins compass
! sion. The early settlement of the West is
due to this race oe bold, hardy men. They
have penetrated every nook and corner of
the new world. No frightfu solitudel IN the
wilderness no impenetrable recess in the
frozen North has been proof against their
energy. To them these were happy chimes,
Where nature guides, and virtue rules"
The earliest settlements on the Maumee
OF which we have a definite knowledge, not
trying TO lose ourselves in the conjectural
fogs of an imaginary antiquity, were begun
between the years 1900 and 1910. These
settlements were made at what is known
as the foot of the rapids. At or near where
Harrison built Fort Meigs and near which
the villages of PerrysLurg aud Maumee City
were subsequently located BY the year
1910 this settlement had become so con
siderable that the United States government
deemed it worthy of sufficient consideration
to establish for them post-office and Sc
cure to them mail route. 1t is not posi-
bic to obtain the names of more than one
or two settlers at this point prior to 1910,
but from the establishment of the post-otiice
at that date, and a port of entry about the
same time. it is evident the population had
been gradually increasing for years The
name OF Col. John Anderson is give as the
first white trader on the Maumee. Tradi-
ton fixes the date of his settlement in the
year 1900 His trading post was at Fort
Miami, which was in the possession of the
British at the time Wayne came on to the
river in 1894. Peter Manor came to the
river to reside in the year 1903. He had
been here prior to that time but not to set
tie, and he had most likely acquired a
knowledge of the locality through his con-
nection with some of the French Canadian
| L
period they had made their way up the
Maumee river and carried their canoes from.
the head waters of the Maumee to the
Wabash and passed down that river to the
Ohio. Manor was adopted by the Indian
chief Tontogany, and by the treaty at the
foot of the rapids of the Miami of the Lake,
concluded Sept, 29th, 1917, his adopted
father caused a section of land to be grant
ed to his son.
The treaty says it was granted at the
special request of the Ottawas. The grant
is in these words To Sa-wan-dc-bans, or
the Yellow Hair or Petar Manor, an adopted
son OF Tondaganie or the Dog, and at the
special request of the Ottawas, out of the
tract reserved by the treaty of Detroit. in
1907, above Roche De Boeuf, at the village
of the said Dog, section of land to contain
6l0 acres to be located in square form,
on the north side of the Miami at the Wolf
Rapid. This land was within the original
limits of Wood Co.
EARLY SETTLERS.
The names of the settlers who located
within the limits of Wood Co. prior to 1910
so far as can be ascertained, are Mai. Amos
Spaiford, Andrew Race. Thomas Leaning,
Halsey w. Leaning, James Carlin Wm.
Carter, George Blalock, James Slawson,
Samuel II. Ewing, Jesse Skinner, David
Hull, Thomas Dick, William Peters, Am
brose IIickoX, Eichard Clifford, these all
resided within radius Of five miles of the
foot OF the rapids.
Maj. Amos Spafford came here to dis
charge the duties of Collector of the Port,
and was also appointed Post master, his
commission bearing date June 9th, 1910.
His first official report as Collector of the
Port, shows the exports for the first quarter,
ending June 30th, 1910, to be S5,6i0 S5.
The items which make up this aggregate,