Henry Howe's "History of Ohio"--Shelby County

Henry Howe's "History of Ohio"

SHELBY COUNTY was formed from Miami in 1819, and named from Gen. Issac Shelby, an officer of the Revolution, who, in 1792, when Kentucky was admitted into the Union, was almost unanimously elected its first governor. The southern half is undulating, rising in places along the Miami into hills. The northern portion is flat table land, forming part of Loramie's summit, 378 feet above Lake Erie--being the highest elevation in this part of the State. The soil is based on clay, with some fine bottom land along the streams. The southern part is best for grain and the northern for grass. Area about 420 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 176,014; in pasture, 35,334; woodland, 37,949; lying waste, 4,192; produced in wheat, 550,866 bushels; rye, 1,548; buckwheat, 1,134; oats, 512,138; barley, 27,355; corn, 1,356,795; broom corn, 17,000 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 9,056 tons; clover hay, 6,063; flax, 354,700 lbs. fibre; potatoes, 36,845 bushels; tobacco, 11,730 lbs.; butter, 419,199; sorghum, 11,364 gallons; maple syrup, 2,816; honey, 8,594 lbs.; eggs, 523,658 dozen; grapes, 18,590 lbs.; sweet potatoes, 95 bushels; apples, 2,286; peaches, 21; pears, 283; wool, 28,125 lbs.; milch cows, 6,506. School census, 1888, 8,025; teachers, 189. Miles of railroad track, 51.

Township and Census

	1840	1880		1840	1880
Clinton,	1,496	4,618	McLean,	513	1,545
Cynthian,	1,022	1,835	Orange,	783	984
Dinsmore,	500	2,257	Perry,	861	1,242
Franklin,	647	999	Salem,	1,158	1,576
Greene,	762	1,447	Turtle Creek,	746	1,359
Jackson,	478	1,852	Van Buren,	596	1,647
Loramie,	904	1,730	Washington,	1,688	1,046

Population of Shelby in 1820 was 2,142; 1830, 3,671; 1840, 12,153; 1860, 17,493; 1880, 24,137: of whom 19,988 were born in Ohio; 573, Pennsylvania; 331, Virginia; 234, Indiana; 134, New York; 123, Kentucky; 1,272 German Empire; 353, Ireland; 262, France; 53, England and Wales; 30, British America, and 14 Scotland. Census, 1890, 24,707.

The first white man whose name is lastingly identified with the geography of this county was PETER LORAMIE, or Laramie, inasmuch as his name is permanently affixed to an important stream. He was a Canadian French trader who in 1769, seventeen years after the destruction of Pickawillany, at the mouth of the Loramie, established a trading post upon it. The site of Loramie's store, or station, as it was called, was up that stream about fifteen miles, within a mile of the village of Berlin and near the west end of the Loramie reservoir. Col. John Johnston wrote to me thus of him:

At the time of the first settlement of Kentucky a Canadian Frenchman, named Loramie, established there a store or trading station among the Indians. This man was a bitter enemy of the Americans, and it was for a long time the headquarters of mischief towards the settlers.

The French had the faculty of endearing themselves to the Indians, and no doubt Loramie was, in this respect, fully equal to any of his countrymen, and gained great influence over them. They formed with the natives attachments of the most tender and abiding kind. "I have," says Col. Johnston, "seen the Indians burst into tears when speaking of the time when their French father had dominion over them, and their attachment to this day remains unabated."

So much influence had Loramie with the Indians, that when Gen. Clarke, from Kentucky, invaded the Miami valley in the autumn of 1782, his attention was attracted to the spot. He came on and burned the Indian settlement here [at Upper Piqua], and plundered and burned the store of the Frenchman [about sixteen miles further north].

The store contained a large quantity of goods and peltry, which were sold by auction afterwards among the men by the general's orders. Among the soldiers was an Irishman named Burke, considered a half-witted fellow, and the general butt of the whole army. While searching the store he found, done up in a rag, twenty-five half-joes, worth about $200, which he secreted in a hole he cut in an old saddle.

At the auction no one bid for the saddle, it being judged worthless, except Burke, to whom it was struck off for a trifling sum, amid roars of laughter for his folly. But a moment elapsed before Burke commenced a search, and found and drew forth the money, as if by accident; then shaking it in the eyes of the men, exclaimed, "An' it's not so bad a bargain after all!"

Soon after this Loramie, with a colony of the Shawanese, emigrated to the Spanish territories, west of the Mississippi, and settled in a spot assigned them at the junction of the Kansas and Missouri, where the remaining part of the nation from Ohio have at different times joined them.

In 1794 a fort was built at the place occupied by Loramie's store by Wayne, and named Fort Loramie. The last officer who had command here was Col. Butler, a nephew of Gen. Richard Butler, who fell at St. Clair's defeat. Says Col. John Johnston

His wife and children were with him during his command. A very interesting son of his, about 8 years old, died at the post. The agonized father and mother were inconsolable. The grave was inclosed with a very handsome and painted railing, at the foot of which honeysuckles were planted, grew luxuriantly, entwined the paling, and finally enveloped the whole grave. Nothing could appear more beautiful than this arbor when in full bloom.

The peace withdrew Capt. Butler and his troops to other scenes on the Mississippi. I never passed the fort without a melancholy thought about the lovely boy who rested there, and his parents far away never to behold that cherished spot again. Long after the posts had decayed in the ground, the vines sustained the palings, and the whole remained perfect until the war of 1812, when all was destroyed, and now a barn stands over the spot.

The site of Loramie's store was a prominent point in the Greenville Treaty boundary line. The farm of the heirs of the late James Furrows now [1846] covers the spot. Col. John Hardin was murdered in the county in 1792, while on a mission of peace to the Indians. The town of Hardin has since been laid out on the spot.

Sidney in 1846.--Sidney, the county-seat, is sixty-eight miles north of west from Columbia, eighty-eight from Cincinnati, and named from Sir Philip Sidney, "the great light of chivalry." It was laid out as the county-seat in the fall of 1819, on the farm of Charles Starrett, under the direction of the court.

The site is beautiful, being on an elevated table-ground on the west bank of the Miami. The only part of the plot then cleared was a cornfield, the first crop hving been raised there in 1809 by William Stewart. The court removed to Sidney in April, 1820, and held its meetings in the log cabin of Abraham Cannon, on the south side of the field, on the site of Matthew Gillespie's store. During the same year the first court-house, a frame building, now Judge Walker's store, was built, and also the log jail. The first frame house was built in 1820, by John Blake, now forming the front of the National Hotel. The first post-office in the county was established at Hardin in 1819, Col. James Wells post-master; but was removed the next year to Sidney, where the colonel has continued since to hold the office, except during Tyler's admimistration. The first brick house was erected on the site of J. F. Frazer's drug store by Dr. William Fielding. The Methodists erected the first church on the ground now occupied by them. Mr. T. Truder had a little store when the town was laid out, on the east side of the river, near the lower crossing. The Herald, the first paper in the county, was established in 1836, and published by Thomas Smith. A block house at one time stood near the spring.

In the centre of Sidney is a beautiful public square on which stands the court-house. A short distance in a westerly direction passes the Sidney feeder, a navigable branch of the Miami canal. The town and suburbs contain 1 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Associated Reformed, 1 Christian and 1 Catholic church; 1 drug, 2 iron, 5 hardware and 10 dry goods stores; 2 printing offices, 1 oil, 2 carding and fulling, 3 flouring and 4 saw mills, and in 1840 Sidney has 713 inhabitants, since which it as increased.--Old Edition.

In Van Buren township is a settlement of COLORED people, numbering about 400. They constitute half the population of the township, and are as prosperous as their white neighbors. Neither are they behind them in religion, morals and intelligence, having churches and schools of their own. Their location, however, is not a good one, the land being too flat and wet. An attempt was made in July, 1846, to colonize with them 385 of the emancipated slaves of the celebrated John Randolph, of Virginia, after they were driven from Mercer county; but a considerable party of whites would not willingly permit it, and they were scattered by families among the people of Shelby and Miami, who were willing to take them.--Old Edition.

The first white family who settled in this county was that of James Thatcher, in 1804, who settled in the west part on Painter's run; Samuel Marshall, John Wilson and John Kennard--the last now living--came soon after. The first court was held in a cabin at Hardin, May 13 and 14, 1819. Hon. Joseph H. Crane, of Dayton, was the president judge; Samuel Marshall, Robert Houston and William Cecil, associates; Harvey B. Foot, clerk; Daniel V. Dingman, sheriff, and Harvey Brown, of Dayton, prosecutor. The first mill was a saw mill, erected in 1808 by Daniel McMullen and Bilderbach, on the site of Walker's mill.--Old Edition.

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SIDNEY, county-seat of Shelby, is on the Miami river, about sixty-five miles northwest of Columbus, forty miles north of Dayton, at the crossing of the C. C. C. & I. and D. & M. Railroads. County officers, 1888: Auditor, J. K. Cummins; Clerk, John C. Hussey; Commissioners, Jacob Paul, Thomas Hickey, Jeremiah Miller; Coroner, Park Beeman; Infirmary Directors, James Caldwell, C. Ed. Bush, Samuel M. Wagoner; Probate Judge, Adolphus J. Rebstock; Prosecuting Attorney, James E. Way; Recorder, Lewis Pfaadt; Sheriff, G. E. Allinger; Surveyor, Charles Counts; Treasurer, William M. Kingseed. City officers, 1888: Mayor, M. C. Hale; Clerk, John W. Knox; Treasurer, Samuel McCullough; Solicitor, James E. Way; Surveyor, W. A. Ginn; Marshal, W. H. Fristo. Newspapers: Journal, Republican, Trego & Binkley, editors and publishers; Shelby County Democrat, James O. Amos (adjutant-general of Ohio 1874-6), editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Baptist, 1 Colored Baptist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 German Lutheran, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Colored Methodist Episcopal, 1 Catholic, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Christian, 1 German Methodist. Banks: Citizens', J. A. Lamb, president, W. A. Graham, cashier; German-American, Hugh Thompson, president, John H. Wagner, cashier.

Manufactures and Employees.--J. Dann, wheels, spokes, etc., 3 hands; John Loughlin, school furniture, 147; Slusser & McLean Scraper Co., road scrapers, 18; Sidney Manufacturing Co., stoves, etc., 36; Philip Smith, corn shellers, etc., 31; Wyman Spoke Co., spokes and bent wood, 20; J. M. Blue & Nutt, lumber, 6; R. Given & Son, leather, 10; B. W. Maxwell & Son, flour, etc., 4; Anderson, Frazier & Co., carriage wheels, 80; James O. Amos, weekly paper, 10; Valley City Mining Co., corn meal, 6; J. S. Crozier & Son, carriages, 7; J. M. Seitter & W. H. C. Monroe, builders' wood work, 32; Goode & Kilborn, road scrapers, 23; Sidney Steel Scraper Co., road scrapers, 22; J. F. Black, builders' wood work, 10; McKinnie & Richardson, brooms, 10.--State Report, 1887.

Population, 1880, 3,823. School census, 1888, 1,497; P. W. Search, school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $616,150. Value of annual product, $1,216,100.--Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887.

Census, 1890, 4,850.

The engraving given shows on the right the court-house, and in the distance the MONUMENTAL BUILDING, a very beautiful memorial to the fallen soldiers of the civil war. The corner-stone was laid June 24, 1875. On the second floor is the Library Hall, containing the public library, and where are preserved military relics, and on marble tablets inscribed the names of the departed heroes. On the third floor is the opera hall and town hall. The entire building is dedicated to public uses, and is a credit to the public spirit of the citizens, who, in the very starting of their pleasant little city, began to mark time in the name of a hero.

The early Indian history of this region makes it an especially interesing point. About a mile south of the Shelby county line as early as 1749 was a trading house, called by the English PICKAWILLANY, which was attacked and destroyed by the French and Indians in June of 1752. This trading post has been regarded as the first point of English occupation in what is now Ohio, inasmuch as it was a great place of gathering of English traders. Its exact location was "on the northwest side of the Great Miami, just below the mouth of what is now Loramie creek, in Johnston prairie," or as at present named, in Washington township, Miami county, and about nine miles southwest of Sidney.

"There was," writes Butterfield, "a tribe of Miamis known to the French as 'Picqualinees,' which word was changed by the English to Pickawillanies, and as these (many of them) had settled here, it was called as above 'Pickawillany,' or simply, 'Picks-town,' sometimes 'Pictstown;' the inhabitants as well as the tribe being known as 'Picts.' These 'Pickqualines' were the Miami proper."

DE BIENVILLE'S VISIT TO PICKAWILLANY IN 1749.

In the year 1749 when C�LORON DE BIENVILLE was sent by the Governor General of Canada with a force of about 235 soldiers and Indians (see Scioto county) down the Ohio and took possession of the country in the name of the King of France, he visited Pickawillany on his return home. Their farthest point west on the Ohio was the mouth of the Great Miami, as later called by the English, but then known to the French as "Rivi�re � la Roche" (Rock River). This was on the last day of August, 1749. There, as at other mouths of great rivers, they buried inscribed leaden plates as evidence of possession, and then bade farewell to the Ohio. On their return route they crossed the country for Canada. This plate was the last buried at what is now in the exact southwestern angle of Ohio. One other only had been planted in Ohio and at the mouth of the Muskingum.

For thirteen days after leaving the mouth of the Miami, C�loron and his party toiled against the current of that stream until they reached Pickawillany, which villages had been lately built by a Miami chief called by the English "Old Britain" and by the French "Demoiselle." This chief and his band had only a short time before come into the country from the French possessions in Canada. This C�loron knew of and he was instructed before starting on his expedition to try and induce him to return as they feared his coming under English influence. The concluding history of the matter is thus told by Consul Willshire Butterfield in the Magazine of Western History for May 1887, article "Ohio History."

"The burden of C�loron's speeches at this last village was that the Demoiselle and his band should at once leave the Miami river and return to their old home. The crafty chief promised to do so in the coming spring.

"They kept always saying," said C�loron, in his journal, "and assuring me that they would return thither next spring." It is needless to say that the Indians did not move.

They afterward sent the following to all the governors of English provinces over the mountains:

"Last July (September, 1749), about 200 French and thirty-five French Indians came to the Miami village in order to persuade them to return back to the French settlements (Forts) whence they came, or if fair means would not prevail, they were to take them away by force, but the French finding that they were resolved to adhere to the English, and perceiving their numbers to be great, were discouraged from using any hostile measures, and began to be afraid lest they should themselves be cut off. The French brought them a present

consisting of four half-barrels of powder, four bags of bullets, and four bags of paint, with a few needles and a little thread which they refused to accept of; whereupon the French and their Indians made the best of their way off for fear of the worst, leaving their goods scattered about. But, at the time of their conference, the French unbraided the Indians for joining the English, and more so for continuing in their interest, who had never sent them any presents nor even any token of their regards for them."

C�loron's account of the reception of his presents differs from the Indians. "I showed them magnificent presents on part of Monsieur the general to induce them to return to their villages, and I explained to them his invitations," says the French commander, and adds that they carried away the presents, "where they assembled to deliberate on their answer." This was probably the truth.

The French commander found at the Demoiselle's town two hired men belonging to the English traders, and these he obliged to leave the place before he would speak to the savages.

C�loron, after remaining at this Miami village a week to recruit and prepare for the portage to the waters of hte Maumee, broke up his camp, and, having burned his battered canoes and obtained some ponies, he set out on his overland journey to the junction of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers., the site of the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The distance was estimated by him at fifty leagues, or 120 miles, and five and a half days were allowed for the journey. Had the water in the rivers been high, C�loron could have paddled up the Loramie creek sixteen miles, then a short portage would have taken them to the waters of the St. Mary's, down which he could have floated to the head of the Maumee; but in August or September this was impracticable. He reached the French post at that point on the 25th of September, where he found "M. de Raimond" in command. The latter and his men were shivering with ague--a disease, it may be said, still clinging to the region of the Maumee.
On the 26th day, the day after his arrival at the French post, C�loron had a conference with Cold Foot, chief of the Miamis, who resided near the fort, and some other savages of note, when he rehearsed to them in

the presence of the French officers of his detachment and of M. de Raimond, what he had said at the village of the Demoiselle and the answer he had received. Thereupon Cold Foot said: "I hope I am deceived, but I am sufficiently attached to the interests of the French to say that the Demoiselle is a liar!" And he added significantly: "It is the source of all my grief to be the only one who loves you, and to see all the nations of the south let loose against the French." From the French fort C�loron made his way by water to Montreal, which he reached on the 10th day of November.
C�loron's conclusions as to the state of affairs upon the Ohio are too important not to be mentioned in this connection. "All I can say is," he declared, "that the nations of these localities are very badly disposed towards the French, and are entirely devoted to the English. I do not know in what way they could be brought back." "If our traders," he added, "were sent there for traffic, they could not sell their merchandise at the same price that hte English sell theirs, on account of the many expenses they would be obliged to incur." Trade then--traffic with the Indians--was the secret spring stimulating activity on part of the French officials.

CHRISTOPHER GIST'S VISIT TO PICKAWILLANY IN 1751.

Knapp in his history of the Maumee gives some items in regard to Pickawillany that describes the place the year after the visit of C�loron. He says, "Having obtained permission from the Indians, the English [traders] in the fall of 1750 began the erection of a stockade, as a place of protection, in case of sudden attack, both for their persons and property. When the main building was completed, it was surrounded with a high wall of split logs, having three gateways. Within the inclosure the traders dug a well which supplied abundance of fresh water during the entire year, except in summer. At this time Pickawillany contained 400 Indian families and was the residence of the principal chief of the Miami Confederacy.

Christopher Gist was there in February, 1751, and in his published journal says the place was daily increasing and accounted 'one of the strongest towns on this continent.' Gist was the agent of the 'Ohio Company,' an association of English merchants and Virginia planters. He had been given a royal grant to examine the western country "as far as the falls of the Ohio," to mark the passes in the mountains, trace the course of rivers and observe the strength and numbers of the Indian nations.

Gist was a hardy frontierman, experienced and sagacious. On the 31st of October, 1750, he left Old Town, on the Potomac, in Maryland, and crossing the Alleganies, on the 14th December, arrived at an Indian village at the forks of the Muskingum, where now stands the town of Coshocton. Here he met George Croghan, an English trader, who had there his head quarters. He remained until January 15th, 1751, and then being joined by Croghan and Andrew Montour, a half-breed of the Senecas, pursued his journey west, visiting Indian villages and holding conferences, first going down the Scioto to the mouth, and finally reaching Pickawillany in February. This was his principal objective point. He remained some time holding conference with the great chief of the Miamis, the "Old Britain" as aforesaid.

While there four Ottawa or French Indians came in and were kindly received by the town Indians. They tried to bring the Miamis to the French interest, having been sent as ambassadors for that purpose. After listening in the council house to their speeches Old Britain replied in a set speech, signifying his attachment to the English, and that "they would die here before they would go to the French." The four messengers therefore departed and the French flag was taken down from the council house. After a full deliberation an alliance was formed with the Miamis and the Weas and Piankeshaws, living on the Wabash, who had sent messengers for that purpose. Old Britain himself, the head chief of the Miamis, was a Piankeshaw.

DESTRUCTION OF PICKAWILLANY BY THE FRENCH AND INDIANS IN 1752.

Pickawillany, after the visit of Gist, soon became a place of great importance. The savages by immigration from tribes farther west had continued to swell the population and all were in open hostility to the French. Here congregated English traders, sometimes to the number of fifty or more. In 1752 an expedition, consisting of 250 Chippewas and Ottawas was started from Michilimackinac by Charles Langdale, a resident there, to destroy the place. They proceeded in their canoes down the lake to Detroit, paused there a little while and thence made their way up the Maumee to its head waters, and at about nine o'clock, June 21st, they reached the town, taking it completely by surprise. Butterfield writes:

"The first to observe the enemy were the squaws who were working in the confields outside the town. They rushed into the village giving the alarm. At this time the fort was occupied by the English traders as a warehouse. There were at the time but eight traders in the place. Most of the Indians were gone on their summer hunt, so that, in reality, Pickawillany was almost deserted; only Old Britain, the Piankeshaw king, and a small band of his faithful tribesmen remained. So sudden was the attack that but five of the traders (they were all in their huts outside the fort) could reach the stockade, and only after the utmost difficulty. The other three shut themselves up in one of their houses. At this time there were but twenty men and boys in the fort, including the white men. The three traders in their houses were soon captured. Although strongly urged by those in the fort to fire upon their assailants, they refused. The enemy learned from them the number of white men there were in the fort, and, having taken possession of the nearest houses, they kept up a smart fire on the stockade until the afternoon.
The assailants now let the Miamis know that if they would deliver up the traders that were in the fort they would break up the siege and go home. Upon consultation it was agreed

by the besieged that, as there were so few men and no water inside the stockade, it would be better to surrender the whie men with a pledge that they were not to be hurt, than for the fort to be taken and all to be at the mercy of the besiegers. The traders, except Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer, whom the Indians hid, were accordingly given into the hands of the enemy. One who had been wounded was stabbed to death and then scalped. Before getting into the fort fourteen Indians were shot, including Old Britain, one Mingo, and one of the Shawanese nation.
The savages boiled and ate the Demoiselle (Old Britain) as he, of all others, because of his warm attachment to the English, was most obnoxious to them. They also ate teh heart of the dead white man. The released all the women they had captured, and set off with their plunder, which was in value about �3,000.
"The captured traders, plundered to the skin, were carried by Langdale to Duquesne, the new governor of Canada, who highly praised the bold leader of the enterprise, and recommended him for such reward as befitted one of his station. 'As he is not in the king's service, and has married a squaw, I will ask for him only a pension of 200 francs, which will flatter him infinitely.'"

The sacking of Pickawillany and the killing of fourteen Indians and one Englishman by the allies of the French who had been marshalled for the express purpose of attacking the town, must be considered the real beginning of the war, popularly known as Braddock's war, which only ended by the cession of Canada and New France to Great Britain by the treaty of Paris in 1763.

Thus after nearly four years of existence Pickawillany was completely wiped out and never again re-occupied. The traders, Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer, whom the Indians had hidden went east and carried the tidings to the friendly Indians at the mouth of the Scioto. Burney went direct from there to Carlisle with a message to the Governor of Pennsylvania from the Miamis and also to Governor Dinwiddie in Virginia. He laid before Dinwiddie a belt of wampum, a scalp of one of the Indians that adhered to the French, a calumet pipe and two letters "of an odd style," wrote Dinwiddie. Thus wrote the Miamis to him:

ELDER BROTHER! This string of wampum assures you that the French King's servants have spilled our blood and eaten the flesh of three of our men. Look upon us and pity us for we are in great distress. Our chiefs have taken up the hatchet of war. We have killed and eaten ten of the French and two of their negroes. We are your BROTHERS.
The message to the Governor of Pennsylvania was more in detail, as given by Butterfield:
"We, your brothers, the Miamis, have sent you by our brother, Thomas Burney, a scalp and five strings of wampum in token of our late unhappy affair at Pickawillany; and, whereas, our brother [the governor] has always been kind to us, we hope he will now put to us a method to act against the French, being

more discouraged for the loss of our brothers, the Englishmen who were killed, and the five who were taken prisoners than for the loss of ourselves; and, notwithstanding, the two belts of wampum which were sent from the Governor of Canada as a commission to destroy us, we shall still hold our integrity with our brothers and are willing to die for them. . . . . .
We saw our great PIANKESHAW KING [who was commonly called OLD BRITAIN by us] taken, killed and eaten within a hundred yards of the fort, before our faces. We now look upon ourselves as a lost people, fearing our brothers will leave us; but before we will be subject to the French, or call them our fathers, we will perish here.

VOCABULARIES OF THE SHAWANOESE AND WYANDOTT LANGUAGES, ETC.

A GERMAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY

The village of BERLIN, P. O. Loramies, has about 500 inhabitants. It is in the township of McLean, fourteen miles northwest of Sidney. It was laid out on December 2d, 1837, by Jonathan Counts for William Prillman, proprietor, on the line of the Miami Canal. It has in the St. Michael's Church, consecrated in 1881, one of the most beautiful of churches. It is in the Italian Gothic style and is richly decorated with paintings, staturary, frescoed walls, altars, etc. Historically the site is interesting, being on the line of Loramies Creek, or the "West branch of the Big Miami" of ancient maps. The site of old fort Loramie is within a mile of it. Several relics have been discovered in this locality, and among them a silver cross evidently belonging to the French chevaliers of that early and warlike period. This relic is preserved by the priest at Berlin, Rev. Wm. Bigot.

Sutton's County History gives the following description of the community which is valuable, as it illustrates the characteristics of teh Catholic Germans, whose industry and thrift has so largely helped to develop the wilderness of Northwestern Ohio. After stating that the people of the village and township are almost exclusively Germans or direct descendants of this nationality, the work says:

A marked characteristic of the people is the industry observable on every hand. This German element came here into the woods, and by hard incessant toil cleared away the primeval forest, wringing farms from the wilderness and building a town on the ruins of a forest. In common with the people of the township the inhabitants are almost uniformly Catholics in religion and Democrat in politics. There were peculiarities which brought about these results, among which we mention as one factor the authority of Rev. Mr. Bigot. After settlement here the Germans strove to prevent the settlement of Americans in their midst, and by different methods very nearly succeeded. Still a few straggling Americans settled on lands within the township, but each soon found it desirable to leave, and so was bought out as early as he would sell, and was generally succeeded by a German. This at least was the plan of the German settlers themselves, and keeping the plan in view, they have perserved the characteristics of nationality,

religion and politics up to the present.
Throughout the town and township the German characteristics are preserved to such an extent that a stranger would question his senses as to the possibility of a community, no larger than this, maintaining the integrity of all German habits, customs and manners. They have cleared excellent farms, erected substantial buildings, and in their own way and according to their own ideas, pursue the enjoyments of life. Perhaps their church comes first, and the building is almost fit for the abode of personal gods. Next come social customs, and fronting these is lager beer, without which it appears life would be a burden, and liberty a misnomer. Following this comes politics, in which field some one man will be found to hold an electoral dictatorship, and on election day Democratic ballots will be found thick "thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa." There are, in short, characteristics here which the next generation will not entirely outgrow nor outrun.

The rector at Berlin, Rev. Wm. Bigot, above alluded to, like many of the Catholic priests who have come to Ohio to look after the moral and spiritual welfare of their Ohio people, has had a previous training in the cause of suffering humanity. In the Franco-Prussian war he was given the pastorate over 12,000 captured and wounded French soldiers who were within the enemies' lines. He thus passed eleven months of arduous labor, enduring many privations and relieving suffering. For his services the French Government conferred upon him the "Cross of Chivalry of the Legion of Honor and the Cross of Merit." His portrait in the County History appears as that of a young man rendered strikingly refined and sweet from the indwelling of a prue and benevolent spirit.

THE LORAMIE PORTAGE AND RESERVOIR

The topography of this part of the county is interesting from the fact that it is the highest land between Lake Erie and the Ohio, and here within a few miles of each other the head streams of the Miami and the Mumee take their rise. For untold centuries it was the main route of travel between the two, the savage dwellers going in their canoes all the way excepting a few miles by portage. This portage in very high water was reduced to only six miles. Wayne's army made Fort Piqua, just below the mouth of the Loramie Creek, their place of deposit for stores. Their portage from these to Fort Loramie was fourteen miles, thence to St. Mary's twelve miles. Loaded boats sometimes ascended to Loramie, the loading frequently taken out and hauled to St. Mary's. The boats also moved across on wheels, were again loaded and launched for Fort Wayne, Defiance and the Lake! The Loramie Reservoir is on the line of the Loramie Creek. It is seven miles long, two and a-half wide in the lower part, and contains 1,800 acres, and abounds in fish and fowl.

ANNA is 7 miles north of Sidney on the D. & M. R. R. It was laid out in 1858 by J. W. Carey, and named from his daughter, Mrs. Anna Thirkield. Newspapers: Times, Independent, A. S. Long, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Lutheran. Population, 1880, 266. School census, 1888, 162. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $23,000. Value of annual product, $33,000.--Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.

LOCKINGTON is 6 miles southwest of Sidney on the Miami and Erie Canal. It has churches, 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1 United Baptist. Population, 1880, 219. School census, 1888, 80.

PORT JEFFERSON is 5 miles northeast of Sidney on the Great Miami River. Population, 1880, 421. School census, 1888, 168.

HARDIN is 5 miles west of Sidney on the C. C. C. & I. R. R. School census, 1886, 54.

MONTRA is 12 miles northeast of Sidney. School census, 1888, 117.

Reprinted from Henry Howe's History of Ohio (1889).