ALLEN COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: Part 1 (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO, By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

                                ALLEN

        ALLEN COUNTY was formed April 1, 1820, from Indian Territory, and
named in honor of a Col. Allen, of the war of 1812; it was temporarily
attached to Mercer county for judicial purposes. The southern part has many
Germans. A large part of the original settlers were of Pennsylvania origin.
The western half of the county is flat, and presents the common features of
the Black Swamp. The eastern part is gently rolling, and in the
southeastern part are gravelly ridges and knolls. The "Dividing Ridge" is
occupied by handsome, well-drained farms, which is in marked contrast with
much of the surrounding country, which is still in the primeval forest
condition. Its area is 440 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were
119,175; in pasture, 29,598; in woodland, 53,395; produced in wheat,
460,669 bushels; in corn, 1,157,149; wool, 103,654 pounds. School census,
1886, 11,823; teachers, 178; and 118 miles of railroad.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS    1840    1850
Amanda                    282   1,456
Auglaize,               1,344   1,749
Bath,                   1,512   1,532
German,                   856   1,589
Jackson                 1,176   1,893
Marion                    672   4,488
Monroe                          2,182
Ottawa                          7,669
Perry                     923   1,465
Richland                        3,372
Shawnee                   756   1,241
Spencer                         1,646
Sugar Creek                     1,032

        The population in 1830 was 578; 1850, 12,116; 1860, 19,185; 1880,
31,314, of whom 25,625 were Ohio born, 3 were Chinese, and 4 Indians.
        The initial point in the occupancy of the county by the whites was
the building of a fort on the west bank of the Auglaize in September, 1812,
by Col. Poague, of Gen. Harrison's army, which he named in honor of his
wife Fort Amanda. A ship-yard was founded there the next year, and a number
of scows built by the soldiers for navigation on the Lower Miami, as well
as for the navigation of the Auglaize, which last may be termed one of the
historical streams of Ohio, as it was early visited by the French, and in
its neighborhood were the villages of the most noted Indian chiefs; it was
also on the route of Harmer's, Wayne's, and Harrison's armies. To-day it is
but a somewhat diminutive river, owing to the drainage of the country by
canals and ditches, and the clearing off of the forests; in the past it was
a navigable stream, capable of floating heavily laden flat-boats and scows.
        The fort was a quadrangle, with pickets eleven feet high, and a
block-house at each of the four corners. The storehouse was in the centre.
A national cemetery was established here, where are seventy-five mounds,
the graves of soldiers of the war of 1812.
        Among the first white men who lived at this point was the
Frenchman, Francis Deuchoquette. He was interpreter to the Indians. It was
said he was present at the burning of Crawford, and interfered to save that
unfortunate man. He was greatly esteemed by the early settlers for his
kindly disposition. In 1817 came Andrew Russell, Peter Diltz, and William
Van Ausdall; and in 1820 numerous others.
        Russell opened on the Auglaize the first farm probably in that
county, and there was born the first white child, a girl, who became Mrs.
Charles C. Marshall, of Delphos. She was familiarly called the "Daughter of
Allen county." She died in 1871.
        From an address by T.E. Cunningham, delivered before the Pioneer
Association, at Lima, September 22, 1871, we derive the following
additional items upon the early settlers of the county:
        "Samuel McClure, now living, at the age of seventy-eight years,
settled on Hog creek, five miles northeast of where Lima now stands, in the
month of November, 1825, forty-six years ago. He has remained on the farm
where he then built a cabin ever since. The nearest white neighbors he knew
of were two families named Leeper and Kidd, living one mile below where
Roundhead now is, about twenty miles to the nearest known neighbor. On that
farm, in the year 1826, was born Moses McClure, the first white child born
on the waters of Hog creek. Mr. McClure's first neighbor was Joseph Ward, a
brother of Gen. John Ward. He helped cut the road when McClure came, and
afterwards brought his family, and put them into McClure's cabin, while he
built one for himself on the tract where he afterwards erected what was
known as Ward's mill. The next family was that of Joseph Walton. They came
in March, 1826.
        Shawneetown, and Indian village, was situated eight miles below the
McClure settlement, at the mouth of Hog creek. A portion of the village was
on the old Ezekiel Hoover farm and a portion on the Breese farm. Mr.
McClure and his little neighborhood soon became acquainted, and upon good
terms with their red neighbors. He says Hai-Aitch-Tah, the war-chief, had
he been civilized, would have been a man of mark in any community. Quilna
was the great business man of the tribe here. Soon after the McClure
settlement was made they erected a mill at Wapakoneta. The settlers had no
road to the mill, but Quilna assisted them to open one. He surveyed the
line of their road without compass, designating it by his own knowledge of
the different points and the Indian method of reaching them.
        There are many of the children of the early settlers to whom the
name of Quilna is a household word. To his business qualities were added
great kindness of heart, and a thorough regard for the white people. No
sacrifice of his personal ease was too much if by any effort he could
benefit his new neighbors.
        In the month of June, 1826, Morgan Lippincott, Joseph Wood, and
Benjamin Dolph, while out hunting, found that McClure settlement. To his
great surprise, Mr. McClure learned that he had been for months living
within a few miles of another white settlement located on Sugar creek. He
learned from the hunters there were five families: Christopher Wood, Morgan
Lippincott, Samuel Jacobs, Joseph Wood, and Samuel Purdy. It is his belief
that Christopher Wood settled on Sugar creek as early as 1824, on what is
known as the Miller farm. In the spring of 1831, John Ridenour, now living,
at the age of eighty-nine, with is family - Jacob Ridenour, then a young
married man, and David Ridenour, bachelor -removed from Perry county, and
settled one mile south of Lima, on the lands the families of that name have
occupied ever since."


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