SENECA COUNTY OHIO - HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO
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Historical Collections of Ohio by Henry Howe LL.D.

SENECA COUNTY - Part 3

TIFFIN IN 1846. -Tiffin, the county seat, is a compactly built village, on
a level site, on the line of the railroad connecting Cincinnati with
Sandusky City, and on the east bank of Sandusky river. It is 86 miles north
of Columbus and 34 from Sandusky City. It was laid out about the year 1821,
by Josiah Hedges, and named from the Hon. Edward Tiffin, of Ross, president
of the convention which formed the constitution of Ohio, and the first
governor of the State of Ohio in 1803. The town is gradually increasing
with the growth of the county. The view was taken in the principal street,
and shows on the left the court house and in the distance the spire of a
Catholic church. It contains 2 Lutheran, 2 Catholic, 1 Episcopal, 1
Methodist Episcopal, 1 Reformed Methodist and 1 German Reformed church, 5
grocery and 9 dry goods stores, 1 foundry, 2 newspaper printing offices and
had in 1840, 728 inhabitants; it now contains with the suburbs, about 1200.
Opposite Tiffin, on the west bank of the Sandusky, is the small village of
Fort Ball, so named from a fort erected there in the war of 1812, so called
from Lieut. Col. James V. Ball, the commander of a squadron of cavalry
under Harrison, while at Fort Seneca in this county. The fort was a small
stockade with a ditch, occupying perhaps one-third of an acre. It stood on
the bank of the river, about fifty rods south of the present bridge, and
was used principally as a military depot. Vestiges of this work yet remain.
On the old Indian reservation, in a limestone soil, are two white sulphur
springs, respectively ten and twelve miles from Tiffin and about two apart.
The water is clear and petrifies all objects with which it comes in
contact. The water furnishes power sufficient for two large merchant mills,
flows in great quantities and nearly alike in all seasons. In the
northeastern corner of the county, in the township of Thompson, is a
subterranean stream, about eighty feet under ground. The water is pure and
cold, runs uniformly and in a northern direction. It is entered by a hole
in the top, into which the curious can descend on foot, by the aid of a
light. -Old Edition.
TIFFIN, county-seat of Seneca, is eighty miles northwest of Columbus,
forty-two miles southeast from Toledo; is on the T.B. & W.B. & O., and N.W.
Railroads. It is the seat of Heidelberg College and other educational
institutions, is in the midst of a very productive agricultural region and
has extensive manufacturing interests. County officers, 1888: Auditor,
James A. Norton; Clerk, Lewis Ulrich; Commissioners, Henry F. Hedden,
Truman H. Bagby, Nicholas Burtscher; Coroner, Edward Lepper; Infirmary
Directors, Daniel Metzger, John Rinebolt, William King; Probate Judge, John
Royer; Prosecuting Attorney, WilliamH. Dore; Recorder, George F. Wentz;
Sheriff, George Homan; Surveyor, George McGormley; Treasurer, Benjamin F.
Myers. City officers, 1888: Mayor, Dr. J.F.E. Fanning; Marshal, John
Hummer; Street Commissioner, Scudder Chamberlin; Solicitor, H.C. Keppel;
Clerk, William Dore; Chief of Fire Department, John Roller; Treasurer, B.F.
Myers. Newspapers: Seneca Advertiser, Democratic, Myers Bros., editors and
publishers; Tribune and Herold, Republican, Locke & Bro., editors and
publishers; Die Presse, German, George Homan, editor and publisher; News,
democratic, D.J. Stalter, editor and publisher; Heidelberg Journal,
literary, E.R. Good & Bro, editors and publishers; Village Gardener and
Poultry Breeder, Philo J. Keller, editor and publisher. Churches: 1
Presbyterian, 2 Catholic, 1 Episcopal, 3 Evangelical, 1 Methodist
Protestant, 3 Reformed, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Lutheran, 1 Baptist.
Banks: Commercial, Warren P. Noble, president, Samuel B. Sneath, cashier;
Tiffin National, John D. Loomis, president, J.N. Chamberlin, cashier.
MANUFACTURES AND EMPLOYEES. -Tiffin Union Churn Co., churns, washboards,
etc., 58 hands; Tiffin Agricultural Works, agricultural implements, 11;
E.S. Rockwell & Co., woolen goods, 90; Schuman & Co., lager beer, 11;
Enterprise Manufacturing Co., sash, doors, etc., 19; Tiffin Manufacturing
Co., sash, doors, etc., 18; Glick & McCormick, wagon supplies, etc., 25;
R.H. Whitlock, boxes, 18; Tiffin Glass Co., table ware, 90; National
Machinery Co., bolt and nut machinery, 103; Loomis & Nyman, general machine
work, 30; H. Hubach, lager beer, 7; Ohio Stove Co., stoves, 42. -State
Report, 1887.
Population, 1880, 7,889. School census, 1888, 2,836; J.W. Knott, school
superintendent. Capital invested in industrial establishments, $637,227.
Value of annual product, $966,310. -Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887.
Census, 1890, 10,801.
Tiffin is a substantial, well-built city, and occupies both sides of the
Sandusky river, including the site of the old Fort Ball. It is in a very
rich country and has a large local trade. It is well named from Ohio's
first governor -a gentleman of diversified attainments.

TRAVELING NOTES.
When any of us think of a place it is, I believe, the universal law to
have spring into our mind its prominent personalities, and according to the
characters that mentally rise, is that place pleasant or disagreeable. To
multitudes of Ohio people, when they think of the city of Tiffin, comes
into their minds Ohio's great orator for near two generations -GEN. WILLIAM
H. GIBSON, born in Ohio in 1822, who, as he says, was "the first male
infant carried into Seneca county." So well is he known that only as a
matter of record is it necessary to mention him. I presume there is not a
county in Ohio in which his voice has not been uplifted in patriotic
utterance, and in many counties many times. I know not one living who has
appeared so much in our State on public occasions as the orator of the day,
especially at out-of-door meetings of farmers and at pioneer celebrations.
And he gives so much gratification that even his own townsmen throng any
public place when it is advertised he is to appear. So, in this case, the
old saying about prophets not being honored at home, fails when he is to
appear in Tiffin.
Gen. Gibson is of the blonde order, with oval face, tall and graceful
person; but his great peculiarity is the clearness and phenomenal powers of
voice that enable him to send every word distinct to the ears of acres of
people gathered around in the open fields. Seldom has been heard a voice
like it since the days of Whitefield. Then he is such an entertaining,
delight-giving speaker, that he will hold a miscellaneous audience of men,
women and children for hours together.
Capt. Henry Cromwell, an old citizen here in Tiffin, said to me, "I have
been hearing Gibson for more than forty years, and I am amazed every time I
hear him. In the Scott campaign of 1852 he introduced Gen. Scott to our
people from the steps of the Shawhan House. A reporter of the New York
Herald present said it was the best speech he had ever heard. In 1842, when
a mere boy, I was present when he delivered the Independence Day oration at
Melmore, then a spot well out in the woods. An old Revolutionary soldier
sat by his side with long flowing white hair, done up in a queue. As he
closed he made an eloquent apostrophe to the flag waving over them, and
then turning round put both hands on the old man's head, saying 'Here is a
man who fought for that flag.' Half of the audience were in tears. In the
course of his life he has participated in twelve presidential campaigns as
a campaign speaker, and seems good for more. In the Lincoln campaign
Harriet Beecher Stowe happened to hear him, and wrote, 'I have heard many
of the renowned orators of Europe and our own country, but I have never sat
two and a half hours under such wonderful eloquence as that of Gen. William
H. Gibson, of Ohio.'"
Gen. Gibson as a youth began work on a farm, then learned the carpenter's
trade, and finally was educated to the law; was elected to the office of
state treasure in the year 1856, on the ticket with Salmon P. Chase as
governor; served as colonel of the Forty-ninth Ohio, and was breveted
brigadier-general on his retirement. Of late, having been duly qualified,
he occasionally serves in the pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
If, when we think of Tiffin, the graceful form and somewhat sad face of
the eloquent Gibson rises to our mind; so, when we think of Fostoria, the
genial face compact figure of another lights the scene. His is a phenomenal
individuality -one that has illustrated that a man can be the governor of
this great State and at the same moment "Charlie" to everybody in it. Born
there, when all around was woods; growing up with the people, ever
manifesting a cheerful, generous, helping spirit; his life illustrates the
fraternal idea; so the humblest individuals of his home community rejoice
that he is one of them. The Hon. Daniel Ryan, in his "History of Ohio,"
thus outlines his career:
"The parents of CHARLES FOSTER were from Massachusetts. They moved West
and settled in Seneca county, where he was born April 12, 1828. He received
a common-school education and engaged in business pursuits for the early
part of his life. In 1870 he was elected to Congress and served for eight
years, although his district was politically very strong against him. While
in Congress he was noted for the straightforward and businesslike view that
he took of all measures. He was one of the Republican leaders of that body.
The Republican party in 1879 nominated him for governor, and he was
elected. He administered state affairs with success. He took advanced
ground on taxing the liquor traffic, and his party -in fact, the entire
people of Ohio -have indorsed his views. He is now in private life,
devoting his attention to business affairs at Fostoria."
Other noted persons come up with the thought of Seneca county. ANSON
BURLINGAME in 1823 came with his father's family from the East -a child of
three years. His father opened up a farm near Melmore, where he remained
ten years. The family then removed to Michigan, but Anson soon returned and
for a while taught school in Eden township. Eventually he settled in
Massachusetts, after a course of law at Harvard.
In 1856, while serving as a member of Congress from the Boston (Mass)
district, he spoke in such terms of indignation of the brutal assault of
Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, upon the Massachusetts Senator,
Charles Sumner, that Brooks challenged him. He promptly accepted, named
rifles as the weapons,and Navy Island, just above Niagara Falls, as the
place of meeting. Brooks demurred as to the place for the duel, alleging
that to get there he should be obliged to go through an enemy's country.
Burlingame was an adept with the rifle, learned in his youthful days by
practice upon the wild beasts of Seneca county, and the public judgement
was that Brooks, after his challenge, had learned that fact, and feared if
the meeting took place, no matter where it might be, his fate would be that
of some of those Seneca county bears. Burlingame's conduct was largely
approved of by his party friends at the North, who on his return to Boston
received him with distinguished honors. The crowning act of his life was
when in 1858, as United States minister to China, he made that great treaty
since known as the "Burlingame Treaty." This valuable and heroic man closed
his half century of life while on a mission to St. Petersburg in 1870.
Another mentionable fact connected with the personalities of this county,
is that about a quarter of a century since, when that noted French divine,
PERE HYACINTHE, left the bosom of mother church and advocated matrimony for
priests, he proceeded to practice as he had preached and took for his bride
a Seneca county lady.
CONSUL WILLSHIRE BUTTERFIELD, the historian, born in New York, began his
career of authorship in this county, wherein for many years was a teacher
at one time head of its Public Schools. His first work was a small history
of Seneca county. Of late removed to Madison, Wisconsin, he has for his
carful study and work access to the superb collection of historical works
in the Wisconsin State Library., an institution which confers lasting honor
upon that young State.
ALFRED H. WELCH, born at Fostoria, in 1850, died in 1888, when professor
of English Literature in the Ohio State University,after a short but bright
and useful career as teacher and author. Besides, a series of school books
he published. "The Conflict of the Ages," "The Development of English
Literature and Language," and "Man and his Relations." He started a youth
of humble means and in the employment of Hon. Charles Foster, who observing
his faithfulness and capacity assisted him to obtain a college education.
He has been said in many respects to resemble Goldsmith. He was fond of
flowers and children, and it was his delight to organize parties to hunt
flowers in the wild woods or gather pond-lilies.

-continued in part 4