OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 550 Today's Topics: #1 Next County - HURON [Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <73777.25] #2 HURON COUNTY - PART 1 [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 15:03:29 -0400 From: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <199907271508_MC2-7E82-95C1@compuserve.com> Subject: Next County - HURON Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline HURON COUNTY OHIO DATE CREATED - 1815 PARENT COUNTY - Portage, Cuyahoga COUNTY SEAT - Norwalk SURROUNDED BY: NORTH - Lorain County NORTHEAST - Ashland County EAST - Richland County EAST SOUTHEAST - Crawford County SOUTH - Seneca County SOUTH SOUTHWEST - Sandusky County WEST - Erie County Huron County Chapter OGS http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohhuron/ P.O. Box 923 Norwalk, OH 44857-0923 OTHER INFORMATION Huron County is located about 50 miles southeast of Cleveland. The county is named for the Huron Indians. The Huron and Vermillion rivers drain in the county. The county seat of Norwalk is an example of the many English names found among Huron County towns. Norwalk was a center for education when the Norwalk Academy for men and the Presbyterian Female Seminary were open. Among those who attended the academy was Rutherford B. Hayes. Probate Judge has birth & death records from 1867 to 1908, estate & guardianship records from 1815, naturalizations from 1859 to 1900; Health Department has birth, death & death records 1908 to present except for city of Bellevue, Ohio (those records are in its health department); County Clerk of Courts has common pleas court records from 1815, divorce & naturalization records to 1859; County Recorder has land & mortgage records from 1808, Connecticut Fire Sufferers records 1792 to 1808, military discharge records from 1865; County Auditor has tax records from 1820; County Historical Library has infirmary records from 1848 to 1900, tax records from 1815 to 1825, County Commissioners Journals from 1815, Land partition records from 1815 to 1920, County militia lists 1864 & 1865, indigent soldier burial records 1880 to 1920. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 15:07:50, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <199907271907.PAA08428@mime3.prodigy.com> Subject: HURON COUNTY - PART 1 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII HISTORICAL COLLECTION OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 HURON HURON COUNTY was formed February 7, 1809, and organized 1815. It originally constituted the whole of "the fire-lands." The name Huron, was given by the French to the Wyandot tribe; its signification is probably unknown. The surface is mostly level, some parts slightly undulating; soil mostly sandy mixed with clay, forming a loam. In the northwest part are some prairies, and in the northern part are the sand ridges which run on the southern side of Lake Erie, and vary in width from a few rods to more than a mile. Huron was much reduced in 1838, in population and area, by the formation of Erie County. Area about 450 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 139,956; in pasture, 79,994; woodland, 26,032; lying waste, 2,697; produced in wheat, 495,057 bushels; rye, 5,123; buckwheat, 929; oats, 1,035,918; barley, 5,167; corn, 698,536; broom corn, 200 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 34,880 tons; clover hay 6,837; flax, 20,300 lbs. fibre; potatoes, 108,166 bushels; butter 982,978 lbs; cheese, 347,037; sorghum, 2,218 gallons; maple sugar 23,087 lbs; honey 11,672; eggs, 493,179 dozen; grapes, 3,579 lbs.; sweet potatoes, 89 bushels; apples, 35,552; peaches, 4,052; pears, 923; wool, 539,534 lbs.; milch cows owned, 7,756. School census, 1888, 9,929; teachers, 353. Miles of railroad track, 138. CENSUS TOWNSHIPS 1840 1850 Bronson 1,291 1,092 Clarksfield 1,473 1,042 Fairfield 1,067 1,359 Fitchville 1,294 822 Greenfield 1,460 900 Greenwich 1,067 1,376 Hartland 925 954 Lyme 1,318 2,575 New Haven 1,270 1,807 New London 1,218 1,764 Norwich 676 1,157 Norwalk 2,613 7,078 Peru 1,998 1,194 Richmond 306 1,014 Ridgefield 1,599 2,359 Ripley 804 1,038 Ruggles 1,244 Sherman 692 1,223 Townsend 868 1,405 Wakeman 702 1,450 Population of Huron in 1820 was 6,677; in 1830, 13,340; in 1840, 23,934; 1860, 29,616; 1880, 31,608, of whom 21,278 were born in Ohio; 3,142 New York; 963 Pennsylvania; 14 Indiana; 76 Virginia; 54 Kentucky; 1,783 German Empire; 800 England and Wales; 684 Ireland; 201 British America; 103 France; 69 Scotland, and 3 Sweden and Norway. Census of 1890 was 31,949. NORWALK IN 1846. -Norwalk, the county-seat, named from Norwalk, Ct., is 110 miles north of Columbus and 16 from Sandusky City. It lies principally on a single street, extending nearly 2 miles and beautifully shaded by maple trees. Much taste is evinced in the private dwellings and churches, and in adorning the grounds around them with shrubbery. As a whole, the town is one of the most neat and pleasant in Ohio. The view given represents a small portion of the principal street; on the right is shown the court-house and jail, with a part of the public square, and in the distance is seen the tower of the Norwalk institute. Norwalk institute is an incorporated academy, under the patronage of the Baptists; a large and substantial brick building, three stories in height, is devoted to its purposes; the institution is flourishing, and numbers over 100 pupils, including both sexes. A female seminary has recently been commenced under auspicious circumstances, and a handsome building erected in the form of a Grecian temple. About a mile west of the village are some ancient fortifications. The site of Norwalk was first visited with a view to the founding of a town, by the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, Platt Benedict, and one or two others, in October, 1815. The place was then in the wilderness, and there were but a few settlers in the county. The examination being satisfactory, the town plat was laid out in the spring following, by Almon Ruggles (see page 583), and lots offered for sale at from $60 to $100 each. In the fall of 1817 Platt Benedict built a log-house with the intention of removing his family, but in his absence it was destroyed by fire. He reconstructed his dwelling shortly after, and thus commenced the foundation of the village. In the May after, Norwalk was made the county-seat, and the public buildings subsequently erected. The year after, a census was taken, and the population had reached 109. In the first few years of the settlement, the different denominations appearing to have forgotten their peculiar doctrines, were accustomed to meet at the old court-house for sacred worship, at the second blowing of the horn. In 1820 the Methodists organized a class, and in 1821 the Episcopal society was constituted. From that time to the present the village has grown with the progressive increase of the county. In 1819 two Indians were tried and executed at Norwalk for murder. Their names were Ne-go-sheck and Ne-gon-a-ba, the last of which is said to signify "one who walks far." The circumstances of their crime and execution we take from the MSS. history of the "fire-lands," by late C.B. Squire, Esq. In the spring of 1816 John Wood, of Venice, and George Bishop, of Danbury were trapping for muskrats on the west side of Danbury, in the vicinity of the "two harbors," so called; and having collected a few skins had lain down for the night in their temporary hut. Three straggling Ottawa Indians came, in the course of the night, upon their camp and discovered them sleeping. To obtain their little pittance of furs, etc., they were induced to plan their destruction. After completing their arrangements the two eldest armed themselves with clubs, singled out their victims, and each, with a well-directed blow upon their heads, despatched them in an instant. They then forced their youngest companion, Negasow, who had been until then merely a spectator, to beat the bodies with a club, that he might be made to feel that he was a participator in the murder and so refrain from exposing their crime. After securing whatever was then in the camp that they desired, they took up their line of march for the Maumee, avoiding, as far as possible, the Indian settlements on their course. Wood left a wife to mourn his untimely fate, but Bishop was a single man. Their bodies were found in a day or two by the whites under such circumstances that evinced that they had been murdered by Indians and a pursuit was forthwith commenced. The Indians living about the mouth of Portage river had seen these straggling Indians passing eastward, now suspected them of the crime, and joined the whites in the pursuit. They were overtaken in the neighborhood of the Maumee river, brought back and examined before a magistrate. They confessed their crimes and were committed to jail. At the trial the two principals were sentenced to be hung in June, 1819; the younger one was discharged. The county of Huron had at this time no secure jail, and they were closely watched by an armed guard. They nevertheless escaped one dark night. The guard fired and wounded one of them severely in the body, but he continued to run for several miles, till, tired and faint with the loss of blood, he laid down, telling his companion he should die, and urging him to continue on. The wounded man was found after the lapse of two or three days, somewhere in Penn township, in a dangerous condition, but he soon recovered. The other was recaptured near the Maumee by the Indians, and brought to Norwalk, where they were both hanged according to sentence. -continued in part 2 -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #550 *******************************************