ALLEN COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: Part 5 (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTION OF OHIO, By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

        DELPHOS, on the border line of Van Wert and Allen counties and on
the T. St. L. and K. C.; P. Ft. W. and C.; D. Ft. W. and C.; C. and W.; P.
and C. railroads, lies within the oil and gas belt of Northwestern Ohio,
seventy-four miles southwest of Toledo, and in a country of great
fertility. The Miami and Erie canal divides the town into two nearly equal
parts. The post-office is in Van Wert county.
        NEWSPAPERS: Courant, E.B. Walkup, editor; Herald, Democratic, Tolan
& Son, editors and proprietors. Churches: one Presbyterian, two Methodist,
one United Brethren, one Catholic, one Christian, one Reformed, one
Lutheran. Banks: Commercial, R. K. Lytle, president, W. H. Fuller, cashier;
Delphos National, Theo. Wrocklage, president, Jos. Boehmer, cashier.
        MANUFACTURES AND EMPLOYEES. -The Ohio Wheel Company, 62 hands;
Hartwell Bros. Handles, neck-yokes, etc., 14; Delphos Union Stave Company,
23; Pittsburg Hoop and Stave Company, 50; L. F. Werner, woolen yarns,
flannels, etc., 8; Steinle & Co., lager beer, 60; Toledo, St. Louis and
Kansas City R. R., car repairs, 100; Weyer & Davis, hoops, etc., 17; Shenk
& Lang, Miller & Morton, flour, etc.; Krift & Ricker, D. Moening, builders'
wood-work. -State Report 1887. Also Empire Excelsior Works, Delphos
Chemical Works, pearlash, etc. Population in 1880, 3,814. School census in
1886, 782; E. W. Greenslade, principal.
        Delphos was laid out in 1845, directly after the opening of the
Miami and Erie canal. The different portions of it were originally known as
Section 10, Howard and East and West Bredeick. Its general name for many
years was Section 10. It is said that Delphos could not have been settled
without the aid of quinine. The air was so poisoned with malarial effluvia
from swamps and marshes, that not only the pioneers but also the very dogs
of the settlement suffered intensely from fever and ague. Ferdinand
Bredeick built the first cabin;; E. N. Morton the first saw __ and the
first grist-mills; and Mrs. George Lang (maiden name, Amelia Bredeick) was
the first child born here. The original settlers were German Catholics. In
December, 1845, thirty-six male members met in a cabin and made
arrangements to build a church. It was the first established at Delphos,
and "its honored founder, Rev. John O. Bredeick, was the benevolent
guardian of the spiritual and material interests of the German settlers,
who were pioneers in the inhospitable forests of North America." It was a
huge, ungainly structure. It was succeeded in 1880 by an elegant church,
erected at an expense of over $100,000; it has a chime of bells, and its
appointments are all in keeping - stained glass windows, paintings,
statuary, altars, frescos, organ, etc.
        Samuel Ferrer, the civil-engineer, is regarded as the pioneer of
this region, as he ultimately settled here in Delphos. He was connected
with the Ohio canal surveys from July, 1825, to 1831, and located the Miami
and Erie canal; in 1871, when he was seventy-eight years of age, he still
held the position of consulting engineer of this work. Earlier he had been
canal commissioner and member of the board of public works.
        Knapp's "History of the Maumee Valley," published in 1872, has
these interesting items."
        "The great forests, once so hated because they formed a
stumbling-block in the tedious struggles, to reduce the soil to a condition
for tillage, have been converted into a source of wealth. Within a radius
of five miles of Delphos, thirty-five saw-mills (now perhaps doubled) are
constantly employed in the manufacture of lumber, and a value nearly
equalling the product of these mills is annually exported in the form of
lumber. Excepting in the manufacture of maple sugar, and for local building
and fencing purposes, no use until recent years had been made of the
timber, and its destruction from the face of the earth was the especial
object of the pioneer farmers, and in this at that time supposed good work
they had the sympathies of all others who were interested in the
development of the country. The gathering of the ginseng crop once afforded
employment to the families of the early settlers, but the supply was scanty
 and it soon became exhausted. Some eighteen years ago, when the business
of the town was suffering from stagnation, Dr. J. W. Hunt, an enterprising
druggist, and now a citizen of Delphos, bethought himself that he might aid
the pioneers of the wilderness, and add to his own trade, by offering to
purchase the bark from the slippery elm trees, which were abundant in the
adjacent swamps. For this new article of commerce he offered remunerative
prices, and the supply soon appeared in quantities reaching hundreds of
cords of the cured bark; and he has since controlled the trade in
Northwestern Ohio and adjacent regions. The resources found in the lumber
and timber and in this bark trade, trifling as the latter may appear, have
contributed, and are yet contributing, almost as much to the prosperity of
the town and country as the average of the cultivated acres, including the
products of the orchard."
        BLUFFTON, on the L.E. and W. and C. and W. railroads, is
seventy-five miles southwest of Sandusky, in the northeast corner of the
county. It was laid out in 1837, under the name of Shannon, which it
retained many years. Newspaper: News, Independent, N. W. Cunningham,
editor. Churches: one Lutheran, one Methodist, one Catholic, one Reformed,
one Presbyterian, and one Dissenters. Bank: People's, Daniel Russell,
proprietor and cashier.
        MANUFACTURES AND EMPLOYEES. -Althaus & Bro., builders' wood-work,
10 hands; A. J. St. John, handles, lumber, etc. 10; A. Klay, machinery, 5;
J.M. Townsend & Son, lumber, etc. 5; W.B. Richards, flour and feed, 3;
State Report, 1886. Population in 1880, 1,290. School census 1886, 464;
S.C. Patterson, superintendent. West of the town is a large Mennonite
settlement. Large stone quarries in its vicinity.
        SPENCERVILLE, laid out in 1844-45, at the intersection of C.A. and
D. Ft. W.C railroads, and on the Miami and Erie canal, is fourteen miles
from Lima. Newspaper: Journal, Independent, S.L. Ashton, editor. Bank:
Citizens', Post & Wasson; I.B. Post, cashier. Churches: one Methodist, one
German Methodist, two Baptist, one Catholic, one German Reformed, and one
Christian.
        MANUFACTURES AND EMPLOYEES. -J.S. Fogle, Sr., lumber, 5 hands;
Richard Hanse, churns, 10; George Kephart, clothes-racks, etc., 10; Kolter
& Kraft, flour and feed, 6; R.H. Harbison, builders' wood-work, and also
staves and heading, 532. School census 1886, 468; C..R. Carlo, principal,
        Small villages, with census in 1880: Elida, 302; Lafayette, 333;
Westminster, 225; Cairo, 316; Beaver Dam, 353.


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