Waterville --- A Canal Town

Our previous America 250 article touted the opening of the canal system as an agent of great change for our area. We want to consider some of these changes and the impact on our citizens in this one. First a little “bookkeeping” item. The Ohio General Assembly decreed in 1848 that the entire canal system within western Ohio would be called the Miami and Erie Canal. I suppose it made their administrative paperwork easier. We could still travel to Indiana or Cincinnati of course. We just didn’t call it “Wabash and Erie” anymore.

The first major change was the shift of the business district. Main Street Waterville catered mostly to the traveling public along the River Road with hostelries, shops and blacksmith service. Now travelers and commerce could take a smooth, quiet ride in a spacious canal boat, which crossed through our village just west of Third Street. Naturally these businesses moved to where the business was. So Third Street became our primary business district as it is to this day (Historic business district now) Also new businesses were created. In 1846 Louis Eastwood and his father -in-law David Hall built a hotel building called the Union Hotel at the northeast corner of Third Street at the canal which they owned and operated as a hotel store and tavern for the next 26 years. Later this building became the Fredericks House. The Ostrander General Store on the west side of Third Street built a dock on the canal out of their back door and traded with canal boat captains. Note: The business ledgers of this store are in the Waterville Historical Society Archives and are every name indexed including the canal boats and captains. Waterville businessmen Lorenzo L. Morehouse and James Brigham in 1846 built a large 3 or 4 story gristmill on the canal where it crossed Third Street at Mechanic Street, drawing water from the canal for power and running the millrace down the north side of Mechanic Street to the river. Called the Pekin Mill, it soon made Waterville” the grain center of Ohio” by many accounts. This mill also had a saw mill next to it using the same power. Two general stores soon appeared along the west bank of the canal at the Wood Street Bridge. (Wood Street is now Farnsworth Road) The J.E. Hall Store was on the north side and the one on the south corner had many owners over the years, was the Haskins Store for many years and is most famously known as the Rupp Canal Store for Jacob Rupp, the last owner. These stores traded with both the public at their street door and with canal boat customers and captains at their boat docks. By the year 1855 it is reported that no less than 400 canal boats were operating on the Mimi and Erie Canal.

Waterville transitioned from a pioneer town to a thriving and growing village in the first twenty years of its existence, thanks, in part at least, to the canal. This canal never did make money for the State of Ohio, primarily due to the high maintenance cost, but the benefits to the State in terms of opening the interior to settlers and businesses, and kick-starting cities and towns (like ours and the deepwater port of Toledo) could never be assigned a dollar value.

As for John Pray, he sold his Columbian House to business man L.L. Morehouse in 1843, who owned it until he died, to concentrate on his real estate business. In 1955 he built his final home on “Block One” at Wood and Fourth Street with a fine view of the village he successfully created, below and across the canal. He retired as John Pray, esquire, country gentleman. He died there October 18, 1872. The house still stands, looking much the same as when built.

Author: John Rose

THE CANAL ARRIVES

As noted in our last Waterville year 250 article, the State of Ohio let contracts for the northern section of the Wabash and Erie Canal in 1837. The winning contractors immediately began to hire their workers and hundreds if not thousands of people looking for work descended upon the towns along the canal route. Many, maybe most, were immigrants recruited from aboard, especially from Ireland and Germany. So far so good – lots of workers to dig the canal. Then the bad. There was a severe financial panic in late 1837. The contractors had hired their workers and suddenly the State withheld their money to pay the workers. Now we had hundreds of people in Waterville Twp. with no income. Our trustees also panicked. In January 1838 they met and ordered Constable Lewis Eastwood to warn some 540 people who were not permanent residents to vacate the township. Eastwood was paid $53.37 for this duty and the name of each person served these papers is recorded in the Township Records, Vol. 1,

1831 to 1854 (see photo). Note: Early township records can be viewed at the Waterville Historical Society Wakeman Archives. This seems cruel, but feeding and caring for over 500 indigent people could have bankrupted the Township. Apparently most of these people did not leave, but survived the 3 or 4 months until the State freed up the money to put them to work, by neighbor helping neighbor. (A loaves and fishes story if you wish.) The record shows that Dr. Welcome Pray was paid by the township several times for medical services to an indigent.

Work on the canal resumed by late spring 1838 and progress then was rapid. The work was hard, the hours long and diseases rampant. Remember there were no mechanical devices in 1838.  It was pick and shovel work for the entire canal. A horse drawn scoop was the best we could do for technology. Besides their meager pay, the men were given two “jiggers” of whisky per day (large cup) which may have made the work lighter, probably made a good Irishman more argumentative and addicted some.  I think they thought (incorrectly) that the whisky would ward off diseases. Many workers died digging this canal, usually of disease or accident. It has been suggested that the small section of our Wakeman Cemetery with few stones was a “potters field” for unknown canal workers. We should also note that they were not just digging a big ditch. There were very strict specifications for the canal. The width at bottom and top, the slope of bank and the amount of drop per mile were all requirements the contractor had to meet. This probably kept the project engineer very busy.

The level section of the canal from Providence to Toledo was probably open by some time in 1839 or 1840 but the opening of the entire length of the Wabash and Erie Canal was celebrated on May 8, 1843 when the canal boat Albert White passed through Waterville on her way to Toledo from LaFayette, Indiana, where she was met with great fanfare. Our town was now open to Eastern markets via Lake Erie and the Erie canal to New York City and Southern Markets via the Wabash to the Ohio River to New Orleans. Also, through these seaports, open to world markets. A great period of prosperity would follow this event.

We would like to discuss some of the changes to our area due to the canals (plural since the Miami and Erie leg to Cincinnati opened two years later in 1845) in our next 250 article. We would also suggest historian June Huffman’s book “Olde Waterville” published in 1994, as a good read on this and many other Waterville topics (canals, p.10 in my copy). Signed, Author, John Rose

Waterville Township Record, Vol. 1, seen at the Wakeman Archives, 401 Farnsworth Road, Waterville, Ohio

Waterville's Canal Builders

Some of our prominent families arrived in Waterville to take part in the construction of the Wabash and Erie Canal.

1.      Cornelius Van Fleet, the eldest son of Mathias Van Fleet was already here. The family arrived in Waterville in 1831 when Cornelius was only 13 years old. A bright young man, he learned the art of civil engineering so that by 1837 he contracted with the State of Ohio to be the civil engineer for the northern section of the canal from Providence to Manhattan. Now a canal cannot be built until the best route has been determined and surveyed and location of necessary locks determined. The engineer then must see that contractors build their section to specifications and solve any construction problems that may occur. This was an awesome responsibility for such a young man. When construction was complete Cornelius was appointed superintendent of the Waterville section of the canal, a position he held for eight years. Since Cornelius was one of 14 Van Fleet siblings, we were blessed with many generations of Van Fleet family.

2.      John George Isham was born in Sharon New York in 1815. He came to Waterville from Monroe, Michigan in 1840 to serve as construction superintendent for a good friend who had the contract for a section of canal from Dutch Road to Maumee. When the canal opened in 1843, John was appointed maintenance superintendent for the entire northern portion of the canal. John found love along with work in Waterville. He married a young Eliza Daggett in 1843, bought a farm on River Tract 42 and the couple settled into a log cabin on the farm. There he could work his farm in the summer and attend to repair work on the canal in the winter months when the canal was closed to boat traffic. Eliza tragically died in 1848 leaving John with two young children to care for. He soon married Sarah Cooper, daughter of Waterville pioneer Henry Augustus Cooper. Three more children were born to the couple and John completed his large Greek Revival farm house in 1853. John and Sarah raised their family there as well as five other children of close relatives. His youngest son, John F. . (Torry) Isham took over the farm when John became ill and retired. Isham descendants owned and lived in this house, located just across from the (now) Farnsworth Park shelter house, until recently.

3.      Contracting partners Elijah Dodd and James B. Steedman. James is the publisher, politician and Civil War hero. He became the brother in-law to Elijah when James married Sarah Miranda Stiles a sister to Dodd’s wife. Elijah Dodd was an experience contractor having completed a section of canal near Harrisburg, PA. The portion of the canal in their contract included the critical dam at Providence that created the slack water pool to provide water to the level stretch of canal between Providence and Toledo. The original dam was of wooden crib design, with stone abutments similar to the dam upstream near Defiance. This dam remained in place until the current concrete dam was built in 1908 by John Weckerly of Whitehouse. Dodd and Steedman were also paid $300 to build the canal overflow near Roche de Boeuf, sometimes called “the cascades.” The remains of this overflow can be seen at the east end of Farnsworth Park along the walking path.

Ruins of the Canal Overflow built by Dodd and Steedman. Located in the Farnsworth Park across from Quarry.

Canals

The success of the Erie Canal in New York set off a surge of canal building plans in many of the early states. Consider the problem of overland travel through much of the nineteenth century. Roads were packed earth and difficult to create in mountainous, rocky lands and also heavily forested areas like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Here they were usually along old Indian trails or military campaign routes where road building was a necessity. Therefore commerce was relegated to navigable waterways. A boat, sailing or steam powered, could carry tons of cargo profitably. The idea of creating waterways deep into the interior of the state was very attractive, both to open markets within the state but also to attract more settlers into the interior. For these reasons the Ohio legislature began to talk about canals soon after our 1803 beginning. Unfortunately the Federal Government was unwilling (or probably unable) to help fund the state efforts. By 1820 the State of Ohio had decided it needed two major canals; Cleveland to Portsmouth and Cincinnati to Dayton and later to Lake Erie (our part of the state was not very populated in 1820.) Financing was the problem but in 1822 a Canal Commission was formed and bonds were sold (slowly at first.) It was not until February of 1825 that a Canal Act was passed by the Ohio General Assembly authorizing construction of the canals so the survey work and construction could begin. The Federal Government helped by allowing the State of Ohio to sell government land to help finance the canal building. Author’s note: If your ancestor bought “canal lands” it did not mean a canal was near, it meant his purchase was used by the state to fund canal building. By January of 1828 the Cincinnati to Dayton leg of the Erie Canal opened and soon was very profitable.

Back to Waterville, at the time of our 1831 founding there was a working canal at the southern end of our state, but here a canal was only a rumor. No plan or survey existed. The state of Ohio authorized the 88 mile Ohio portion of Indiana’s Wabash and Erie Canal in 1834, but had to settle the Michigan – Toledo land dispute before plans could be finalized. It was not until 1837 that the construction was authorized and the folks in Waterville knew we were getting a canal through our town. This is why “our” canal was the Wabash and Erie when it finally opened in 1843. The Miami Canal extension would not join in for another two years. So surveys were made and contracts for sections of canal were granted. The impact on Waterville was considerable and we will expand on this topic in the next installment of our “Waterville 250” project. Signed John Rose

Note: Following this post in a couple days will be an article we wrote several years ago about our canal builders that fits into this story. We hope you will enjoy.

Hancock County Court House Vol.11 page 782 showing the canal land purchase

A NEW VILLAGE

Our previous articles highlighted how John Pray saw his dream come to fruition with the August 10, 1831 recording of his 50 lot Village Plat. It is important to note that he first, in April of 1831, as a Wood County Commissioner organized the formation of Waterville Township. At first the Village and Township were almost a single entity with the village providing the shops and tradespeople needed by the farmers in the township. The government over both was the Township and remained so for fifty-one years. Waterville did not decide to incorporate until 1882. (We will cover that event in a later article)

The first township government election was held April 4, 1831 with the following results: Jonas Cleveland, William Meeker and James C. Adams Commissioners; Ralph Farnsworth, Clerk; Willard Gunn and Jeremiah Johnson, Overseers of the Poor; George Evans, Treasurer; David Robbins, Constable; Richard Gunn and Jacob Eberly, Fence Viewers; John VanFleet and Whitcomb Haskins, Supervisors of Highway. Later, on June 21, 1831 John VanFleet and Daniel Larkins were elected Justices of the Peace. Elections were held every year with new and old names cycling in and out of these offices. John Pray’s name does not appear until 1833 when he was elected treasurer.

A number of noteworthy events occurred in 1835, in Waterville and other places in the Maumee Valley. First, John Pray moved his mills to the mainland end of his dam and sold Granger Island and the milling business to Theophilus Short and Ira Wilder for $7000 (per real estate transfer records) which was a considerable sum in those days.

Also in 1835 two small down river towns, Vistula and Port Lawrence, decided to merge to form Toledo and the Michigan-Toledo “War” occurred. That conflict was settled when the Federal Government granted Ohio the strip of land where Toledo was formed and compensated the Michigan Territory with the Upper Peninsula. Ohio in turn split all of the land north and west of the Maumee River from Wood County to create the new Lucas County. This meant that Waterville, Village and Township, were now a part of Lucas County, as we still are to this day. John Pray did not seek to become a commissioner in this new county. Maumee City was the county seat at that time and for many years until it was moved to Toledo. Then in August 24, 1835 the Village of Miltonville was officially formed in Wood County directly across the river from Waterville. Today it is a ghost town but in the early 1800s those folks were important to our community. There was much back and forth traffic by boat, cable ferry and eventually a bridge.

The year 1837 seems to have been a great building year for our young village. John Pray built (or completed) his grand three story addition to his 1828 “hotel” called the Columbian House. Not only did this increase the number of guests he could accommodate but with the grand ballroom on the 3rd floor, it quickly became the social center of Waterville. The grand opening drew people from far and wide. We also find a number of the houses on our historic homes walking tour were built in 1837. The rapid growth of the entire area prompted John Pray to make a dramatic addition to the village, expanding from 50 lots to about 200 lots, mostly to the west and south. The village added numbered strets 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th streets extended west, up and over the bluff above the flood plain of the early village and three east-west streets to the south (see our 1840 map). Also by 1837 there were rumors of a canal to be built through the young village. We will discuss canals in our next article.

ca. 1840 map

THE FOUNDING PART 2:

     We have been following John Pray as he built his dam from future townsite to Granger Island and building his mills on the island, These mills made the farm land in the area much more desirable. The dam created what became known far and wide as Pray’s Falls. John then put his relatives to work running the mills and busied himself with real-estate. His recorded visits to the land office in Wooster and also in Delaware were  frequent  as he bought many tracts of government land on both sides of the river and as far away as Fulton County. Land sales were also brisk as many more settlers were drawn by rich farm land, a nearby grist mill and sawn lumber available for building. So as the population grew, John could turn his attention to other things, such as commercial enterprise. The old Indian trail from Fort Wayne to Fort Detroit was now a road for travelers, a very difficult road especially in wet weather and a days travel could be very short. John Pray built a small hotel along this road in 1828 to cater to travelers needing a place to rest overnight. It was a simple story and a half structure just big enough to house the host, his growing family and several guests. There was also feed and shelter for the traveler’s horses. This was a far cry from the three story edifice he would attach later, but it was possible that some of his guests would be impressed with the area and return to settle here. John also became the area first Postmaster in 1828. Lyman Dudley built a competing inn right across the street in 1830 called the Wabash Tavern.

     The year of 1830 was a busy year for John Pray. A full twelve years from his arrival in the Maumee Valley he was now satisfied that the population was big enough and stable enough to create the village he had envisioned in 1817. John spent the year 1830 with survey equipment and a crew laying out his village. The initial village had just two streets parallel to the river and four east-west streets. It was marked off into 50 residential lots on River Tracts 36 and 37 which he had purchased earlier. He was too modest to name the village after himself and since his first impression of the area was the power of the river, he named his village Waterville, but he wasn’t quite ready to register his town plat yet. In early 1831, the Wood Couty Commissioners of which John Pray was still one of the three, created a new township from the southern part of Waynesfield Township which was called (surprise) Waterville Township.  Then in August of 1831 John filed his 50 lot plat for the Village of Waterville with the Wood County, Justice of Peace, J.C Spink at the county seat in Perrysburg, which was approved and signed August 2, 1831 and recorded August 10, by Jno. Webb, Wood County Recorder and so the Village of Waterville was born and officially recorded as an unincorporated village in Wood County, Waterville Township on August 10, 1831. The document, copied many times, can still be found in Book B., Pages 248-249 of Deed Records in the Wood County Office Building in Bowling Green, Ohio. John’s plat map shows his portion of the river road trail as Main Street and a street next to the river as Water Street. The west bound streets were Wood Street, Mechanic Street, South Street, and North Street. The plat also included a Public Square, a typical New England feature. Also we note the map includes his dam and a millrace along the mainland side of the river.

      We will write more about the new village in our next issue.     John Rose, author

  At top is John Pray’s plot map, then land record and the 3rd is a copy of a land certificate. Then the small part of Columbian House built 1828. Sign coming into Waterville, courtesy of Candice Galus Brown.

A MAN NAMED GRANGER

            We are taking a moment to expound on an incident in the life of John Pray that remains with us to this day. It seems that when Pray decided to build his mills on the island just off the village townsite, the island was occupied by “a man named Granger.” Assuming Granger owned the property he offered to buy the Island. Granger accepted his money and moved elsewhere and John built his mill as planned. Later, on a visit to the Federal Land Office he discovered that Granger had never owned the island so he had to buy it again. So who was Granger? Nothing in the literature provides any information and he remains the mysterious “a man named Granger.” Did he have family? We don’t even have a first name. Squatters were common on every frontier. These were people who had little interest in “civilization” and were happy to live independently on the frontier until it became too crowded or someone bought the land they were living on, then thy moved on to a new frontier with plenty of vacant land.

            So it seems the island on which Granger was living was known as Granger’s Island, as islands are commonly named for the owner. This one was owned by many different people over the years but most locals still referred to it as Granger’s Island. It was Dodd’s Island for years as part of the Dodd Farm and even more recently owned by our own Herb Mericle, but it appears on maps from the 1840 and 1960 to present as Granger Island. Now owned by the Lucas County MetroPark System it is still Granger Island, where there are tree houses for camping. So our island just off our riverside park bears the name of “a man named Granger” who never even owned it and has disappeared from our history.

GRANGER iSLAND 1989

THE FOUNDING

We have pointed out in our previous America 250 article, some of the families who settled in our vicinity before John Pray. Perhaps they came for adventure, cheap government land ($1.50 to $2.50 per acre) or for a new start. Maybe all of the above. John Pray, however, came basically as a land speculator. Now there were many land speculators investing in newly opened government land, most of who never saw the land they purchased. They stayed in the comfortable east and invested blindly, fingers crossed, or sent an agent to choose investment property for them. John sold his Smithfield, New York home and moved his entire family here and lived as the rest of the pioneers. He purchased large amounts of property and then invested a great amount of time and energy (and money) making his property more valuable and attractive to new settlers.  He lived here the rest of his life. This is his story.

John Pray age 34, wife Lucy 28, four young children ages 11 months to 7 years and an 8 year old nephew living in his charge left Smithfield May 3, 1818 by horse and wagon with all necessary household goods they could carry, traveling overland to Buffalo, N.Y. From Buffalo they hired a small schooner under a Captain Charter. The story, published years later, is that the ship was so ill equipped that the Prays had to use some of their own cloth for sail. In any event the schooner safely deposited the family in the fledgling village of Maumee at the foot of the rapids in the Maumee River. We should note that Maumee and Perrysburg developed as lake ports early since the ships of that day were of shallow draft and could easily make it upriver to the “foot of the rapids” From there the Pray party made their way about four miles upriver and were welcomed into one of the cabins built by the James C. Adams family in 1817. The settlers were always glad to see more settlers arrive.

Records of John Pray’s activities are scarce but we know that he, like the others, had to secure their families with shelter, food, etc. first of all. We know he visited the Federal land office in the Canton-Wooster area on August 17, 1818 so he went right to work. We know that the State of Ohio created Wood County February 12, 1820 (Split from Logan Co. far to our south) and John Pray was elected one of the County Commissioners. The Commissioners decided that Perrysburg would be the county seat and it remained so until 1868 when it was moved to Bowling Green. At this time we were placed in Waynesfield Township as was Maumee. Just to clarify a point, to buy land from the government a person had to visit a Federal Land Office. To buy land from another resident individual required a title transfer done at a county court at the local county seat. That would have been Perrysburg at that time.

1833 Wood County map

The following year (1821) John seemed ready to continue his work. Knowing that the farmers, now flowing into the valley needed a grist mill, he proceeded to build a dam across the river from north shore to Granger Island (after having to evict the squatter named Granger) and then built a mill powered by the water of the Maumee as he envisioned on his first visit. All by himself? Of course not. His investments by now making returns, he could hire the engineer and labor and import needed equipment. Why on the island? My guess is that the current was stronger or water deeper there but we don’t really know. Finding the water power more than adequate he then added a sawmill, carding mill and later a distillery. Some may question why good Christian people would build a distillery. I think it was a matter of economics. A bulky wagonload of corn could not be shipped anywhere at a profit but a barrel of corn liquor could turn a tidy profit. There is some thought that John and family lived on the island during construction of his mill.

Author: John Rose -- We will continue the saga of John Pray and the founding of Waterville in our next issue.

THE PIONEERS

We have detailed events that opened our corner of the state for settlements in our first article of America 250 series. We must add, however, that the government could not sell land until it was surveyed. Most of our land was (and still is) sold on a square grid system that we are familiar with, but land adjoining navigable rivers, which were the primary transportation routes in our early history, were divided into long and narrow numbered tracts designed to give the maximum number of land buyers access to the waterway. Many of our early settlers, including John Pray, bought a numbered River Tract along the Maumee.

We must appreciate the courage and fortitude of our true pioneers. Imagine what it takes to leave a comfortable house and town where all comforts of goods and services are available and move to a wilderness with none of these comforts. The pioneer had to create his own shelter, clear land to grow food for family and necessary animals, and be able to subsist on the available natural resources. The nearest trading post or source of goods and services were 60 to 80 miles away through the wilderness. And yet they came, they stayed and built their own communities.

The first settler of record in this post war era was Isaac Richardson who, with wife Jane, built a double log cabin in 1814 next to the river trails and opposite Roche de Boeuf in R.T. 39. This land was owned by is father-in-law. He soon turned his cabin into a tavern and traded whisky to the Indians and travelers along the trail. Mr. Richardson by all accounts was a most unsavory character. He was shot in 1830 by George Porter, his hired man who he had cheated too many times.

Elijah Gunn came in 1815 and purchased River Tract 34 which later was the Liberty Haskins Farm. His brother Elisha Gunn and wife Mindwell Carver Gunn followed later in August 1818. The Gilbert Underwood family arrived in 1816. This family demonstrates the hardships of pioneer life. Five members of the Underwood family died of the “swamp fever” (Malaria) between arrival and 1820, Gilbert himself first August 7, 1819. The swamp fever affected many of our pioneers and they did not know what caused it. Also in 1816 James C. Adams with a party from Vermont explored the area and purchased R.T. 31 (bordering present day Dutch Road and the river) and built a group of cabins for family and friends that would move there in the next year. Six families, mostly Adams kinfolk, left Vermont for an overland trip to Ohio in ox carts loaded with all goods needed for their pioneer life and some livestock in tow. Two families sent exploratory parties through the area in 1817 with intent to settle in the area. Martin Gunn from Montague, Mass. explored the lower Maumee Valley and purchased land on R.T. 33. He returned in 1818 with a party of 13 people mostly family. John and James Pray with several friends from Smithfield, Madison Co., New York explored the valley, traveling from Detroit to Fort Defiance looking for an ideal place to start a “colony”. This party sent John back along their path to choose the best spot while the rest returned to New York. John Pray chose our area because he saw the flat fertile land and water power in the rapids to power a grist mill, a must for farmers to thrive. John returned to New York and prepared to sell his farm and bring his family to the Ohio wilderness. We shall continue the adventures of John Pray and the founding of a “colony” in the next episode in our series.

Author’s note: I have borrowed freely from Waterville Historian Midge Campbell’s book “Watervillore” for this article. If you have a copy read her chapter on “The Pioneers” for more detail and also “Tales of Betsey” for more on the Adams family and pioneer life. This book is available at the library and our archives to read.   John Rose

Celebrating the Early History of our Area

Christy, H.C. Signing of the Treaty of GreenVille (oil on canvas) Nottawasepp:Huron Bend of the Potawatomi

Happy New Year to everyone. Not for the past January 1 holiday, but for the whole year as we celebrate year 250 or the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding. While a group of brave representatives of 13 independent Colonies boldly signed a document on July 4, 1776 declaring, among other revolutionary concepts (we should all read it) that we were a free and independent nation. We, all over the country in 2026 are celebrating the birth and growth of a nation dedicated to the concept that government rules by the consent of the governed. Most of the states and many local communities are taking part in this yearlong celebration by emphasizing their role in many facets of our nation’s growth. I am sure most of us have already seen “Ohio Year 250” signs in various media so the celebration has begun. The Society and the City also plan to have displays related to various topics in the Wakeman Hall for the public to view. Watch for the announcements. Let us all celebrate year 250.

We may question where the Waterville area fits in the growth of our great nation. The answer perhaps is that “small town America” is the growth of America, as much or more than our great cities. With that in mind we at WHS Archives will use this space to present stories on early beginnings to present. We hope all of you who follow us on Facebook or on our website will feel free to comment or ask questions. Better yet, visit us at the archives where the information can be found in for more detail than we can present in an article.

We are familiar with the story of our founder John Pray and his party from New York arriving here in the Maumee River Valley in 1817 but why did they come here? Let’s examine some of the back story to understand our early history.

Our fledgling United States government now owned vast tracts of land as a result of the peace treaty with England. They also owned vast amounts of debt. The government had no power to levy taxes so the main source of revenue available was to sell land to settlers who had been eager to move westward even before the war.

The 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, which we have studied extensively at the museum in the first floor of our Wakeman Hall for the past two years (Hope you all went to see it) opened the land north of the Ohio River (The Northwest Territory) to settlement. The northern part of what became the State of Ohio in 1803 remained Indian Territory according to the Treaty of Greenville signed by General Anthony Wayne and the warring Indian tribes in 1895. The Indians returned to their tribal towns and villages and all was peaceful up and down our beautiful Maumee River Valley. The tribes living in the lower valley lived in harmony with a small number of white settlers in the area. Why were White settlers in Indian Territory? The Greenville Treaty provided for something called the Twelve Mile Square Reserve centered at the foot of the rapids near present day Perrysburg. This was done to give the United States space to control any movement up the river. We did not trust the British. The 1795 imaginary line marking off a 12 mile square territory can still be found on land maps even today.

The War of 1812 destroyed the tranquility as the British and a confederation of hostile Indians tribes led by Tecumseh swept up the valley destroying all settlements in their path. The white settlers fled and their cabins were burned. We all know how that war ended and we are left with Fort Meigs and the British Fort Miami and the memory of the Battle of Lake Erie as our part in that war. The net result of these events and various treaties made was that the Maumee Valley and all of northwest Ohio was now open for settlement and the U.S. government lost no time advertising throughout the east of the Ohio lands for sale. Various Indian tribes were still there in towns or villages along the river as white settlers began to move back in.

Drawing from the Wikipedia

The Tumultuous Creation of a Great Railroad

The invention of land transportation powered by the steam engine happened in the early 1800s but efficient railroads were slow to develop. It was the canal system that opened the Ohio interior but the railroads, far more efficient, had their day later in the century. Our Waterville Railroad, the “Cloverleaf,” is the subject of this story as researched by Randy Studer primarily from a 1903 Toledo Blade story.

It seems that by 1870 business between Maumee and Toledo (also Waterville) was strong but transportation was slow and problematic. In 1873 G.W. Reynolds formed the Toledo-Maumee Narrow Gage Railroad Company and set about building a railroad. Note that building a railroad takes a large amount of capital. The right of way must be surveyed and purchased, graded, rails and ballast purchased and laid then rolling stock purchased. This railroad ran into trouble right away. The Toledo City Council would not permit the locomotive into the city as it might frighten the horses, so they had to uncouple the cars at the city line and haul them into town with horses.

One year later in 1874 another company was incorporated to build a narrow gage railroad from Toledo to Grand Rapids, Ohio running through Maumee and Waterville. Our Waterville railroad was born. The owners and money behind this road were ex-governor James M. Ashley and D. Howard. Perhaps the ex-governor’s clout was enough to change the minds of the Toledo Council for they soon built a depot on Erie Street. These short rail lines and many more throughout the state were conceived primarily for passengers, as were the electric railways two decades later. Most of these railroads were deeply in debt and their assets in poor condition. By 1879, four of the Toledo area roads decided to, or were forced to, consolidate operations and extend their reach to Cincinnati and Indianapolis. There was of course much wrangling between parties and a third Toledo railway, The Toledo, Delphos and Burlington which had built track to Kokomo, Indiana with plans to extend to St. Louis. Then much was resolved when a Calvin S. Brice of Lima purchased two thirds of Mr. Ashley’s stock under terms favorable to Ashley and the Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Narrow Gage Railroad was formed. However this road found itself over extended in debt and soon went into court ordered receivership and was sold. The new owners reorganized and decided to name the road the Toledo, Kokomo and St Louis” and promote it as “the Kokomo Route.” Their plan “went off the rails” when a Toledo “entrepreneur” caught wind of this plan, hurried to Columbus and filed articles of incorporation for that name, then offered to sell the name to the railroad owners for a considerable sum. The owners would have none of this nonsense and changed their plans. The railroad was named the “Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City” and adopted the promotional name as “The Clover Leaf route.” The owners deemed it necessary to abandon the narrow gage track and converted the entire line to standard gage between 1880 and 1887 and purchased all new rolling stock and locomotives.  Narrow gage tracks are 3 to 3 ½ feet apart, cheaper to build and require lighter equipment. Standard gage tracks are 4 feet, 8.5 inches apart, standard for all railroads in the country and built for much heavier duty. Over extended in debt again, it was put in receivership. Litigation continued for seven - and one-half years in multiple courts and emerged in another sale in 1900 as “The Toledo, St. Louis and Western” which seemed to finally become a prosperous business. So it is the Toledo, St. Louis and Western on our Waterville maps as it was in our 1903 Toledo Blade article. We know that more changes were to come but that, as they say “is another story.”

A CLEAN CHRISTMAS STORY (FULL DISCLOSURE --THE ITEM OF INTEREST IN THIS STORY IS SOAP!

Nearly all of us harbor some Christmas traditions from our past. This one began in this writer’s childhood in the 1940s. My parents were searching for something to put on the Christmas tree to resemble snow and happened on the idea that our laundry soap (Ivory flakes at that time – Ivory Soap was a big item in the 1940s) mixed with a little water and whipped up with an egg beater made a perfect white frosting to coat the branches. A little sprinkle of mica flakes (no glitter in the 40s) made the “snow” sparkle. Then Mom with her artistic bent, decided she could make a model snowman with a paper core wrapped in upholstery or medical cotton tied with string in appropriate places, could be frosted with our soapy snow which, when dry, would last a long time. This was a project where we kids could help. We dressed our snowmen with features and hats made of black (or other colors) construction paper and added other features as our imagination might create. The result was so cute we made many of these over the years, giving them as gifts to relatives, teachers and friends.

A few years ago I decided to try to re-create this childhood memory. Directions for this creation are as follows: Find a cardboard tube – toilet paper, paper towel or other roller. Wrap the tube with a thick layer of cotton batting and tie a string around the center to create two “snowballs”. Make the head with a ball of cotton wrapped around with string to create the third ball and a strand of cotton for arms. The snow frosting is the hard part in our modern era as we had to find a solid (flake or granular) soap product. Granular Ivory Snow was found and whipped with the electric mixer. Although not as good as flakes, workable “frosting” was made and our cotton snowman was given a thick coating as was a cardboard cotton covered base. Our features were thumbtacks and a short piece of electric wire instead of paper and real buttons from our button box. The hat was premade (saved from a centerpiece years before) although we could have made a paper top hat, all added before the frosting dried. We gave him a walking stick instead of a broom (I remember boom as a kid). A photo of our “lost tradition” creation is included. Don’t you want to make one of these? What traditions do you remember – or still practice? Anyway all of us at W.H.S. wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Remember 2026 is the Nation’s 250th celebration. Much more about this will be posted later.

Gambling in Waterville?

Randy Studer, in his research on local businesses turned up a series of 1950 Toledo Blade articles about slot machines in Waterville. To be fair we must note that in the 1940s and earlier, nickel, dime and quarter slot machines could be found in most stores, restaurants and some gas stations in this area, and I would guess in all of Ohio. This writer can remember one in the small rural convenience store where I bought penny and nickel candy as a kid. I assume they were all placed by “the Mob” who controlled all gambling.

In our case it seems that in early April of 1950 a Toledo anti-gambling man saw kids playing slot machines in our local restaurants and swore out a complaint against five establishments. The case was brought to our township Justice of the Peace, George Pershing of Whitehouse, who issued search and seizure warrants for these businesses. Constable Ernest Longnecker was given responsibility for carrying out the order and deputized two men, Wilbur Baumgartner and James Smith to help. On April 20, 1950 our three heroes visited the River Road Grill, Jack’s Grill, The Village Kitchen and the Waffle Dog Restaurant in Waterville and removed three slot machines from each. The River Road Ranch was spared because the twelve seized slots filled up their truck. They took their contraband slots back to Whitehouse and stored them in a small garage building, owned by the township, behind the Fire Station and the story now gets more interesting. The next day someone noticed the garage door had been “forced” and sure enough the slot machines were gone. Mr. Longnecker notified the county Sheriff George Timinay and requested an investigation but got no response until the next day. Needless to say, those slots were never found. So it was that the youth of Waterville were saved from the evils of gambling by this action, Mr. Longnecker resigned from his part time occupation as constable over the theft of the seized slots and in 1951, the State of Ohio passed antigambling laws that ended uncontrolled slot machines (forever?)

THE DITCH BOOK

Much public discussion has appeared in the media recently about ditches and proper surface water drainage. These are not new problems. Much of Lucas County and Wood County are known to be “table flat” and the drainage of the Great Black Swamp by construction of a system of ditches is well documented. It seems water wants to accumulate where we want to grow something or build something, which affects the value of our land. We at the Wakeman Archives found, among the early Waterville Township records recently donated for our safe-keeping, a book simply called “the Ditch Journal”. This book documents the origin and upkeep of many of our local ditches created from the 1860s to about 1915. The process, probably about the same as it is today, is as follows:

A land owner (farmer) perceives a drainage problem. Perhaps his newly planted crop was washed out. Land owner checks with his neighbors and probably enlists some help to determine where a ditch could be placed to drain the excess water. Landowner then petitions the Township Trustees to cause a ditch to be constructed. Trustees appoint one or more of their members and usually an engineer and/or surveyor to visit the site or area and determine the need and proper placement of the proposed ditch. Township Trustees meet, approve the petition and location of the ditch (as a public benefit) and approve the engineer’s report regarding the size and profile of the ditch to ensure it is adequate to drain the land. The Trustees hire a crew to dig the ditch and the cost of Trustees time, the engineer’s time and the labor is assessed to the landowners as determined by the acres drained and the length of ditch across each property. Sometimes the acres drained were not crossed by any part of the ditch. An example of this process can be found on pages 4 and 5 (Engineer C.W Shoemaker’s report) and pages 70, 71, and 72 of the Trustees Journal for Township Ditch No. 12. John Dunkelberger petitioned the Waterville Twp. Trustees on June 7, 1877 to create a ditch in Twp. Section 24 (near Bailey and the river) signed by petitioners Dunkelberger, John Hertzfeld, Jacob Fancher, William Fancher , Levi Krotzer and Susan Wiles.  The Trustees met at the proposed location on June 14, 1877 to confirm the need and agreed to employ C.W. Shoemaker as engineer. The Trustees met in formal session to formalize the creation of proposed ditch as a public benefit. C.W. Shoemaker’s report was filed on June 26th, the ditch was ordered to be constructed at the next meeting and to be completed by October 1877. Fourteen landowners were assessed for this ditch. The layout for this ditch was simple as it followed the roads along the section lines. Many others required more complicated survey work.

Now nature and human nature being what it is a ditch once established will often become weed choked and silted to the point it can no longer serve its intended function.  The fix for this problem is much the same as construction. The affected land owner must petition the Trustees to have the ditch cleaned and repaired. Trustees meet and view the damaged ditch, agree that it must be cleaned and in a subsequent meeting direct the township clerk to notify the land owners whose land is drained by the faulty ditch and direct them to clean out their assigned sections of the ditch. An engineer is hired to make sure the ditch is restored to its original specification and see that repairs are made as needed. A final report is sent to the Trustees. These costs are assessed to the land owners of record which must be paid by a set date or the assessment is sent to the Lucas County Auditors to be added to their tax bill.

Many of these ditches created in the late 1800s are still there, functioning as they always have. Others have been replaced by drainage tile but still drain their intended area. Some have been swallowed by urban expansion where street drains and trunk lines have been established.

We take no position on any controversy regarding area drainage. This article is intended to explore the origin of our township drainage ditches. We must remind our readers, however, that all this drainage water ends up in Lake Erie.

The Neighborhood Women's Club of Waterville

Once in a while an item crosses our desks at the Wakeman Archives that is a complete surprise and we wonder why we never heard of this before. Such is the case with the following quoted news article from the Sunday May 3, 1964 Toledo Blade. We have records of several Waterville Women’s Clubs but had no knowledge of this one. We are hoping that some of our readers may know of, or had family who belonged to this group and can tell us more. Perhaps photographs or records exist? Contact us through our website or Facebook if you can help.

“The Neighborhood Women’s Club of Waterville which was organized in 1914 as the German Ave. Ladies Social Club, observed its 50th Anniversary. They had a luncheon at Howard’s Restaurant and a trip to Brun’s Greenhouse. In observance of the golden anniversary, members wore gold orchids and lunched at a table decorated with yellow flowers and gold centerpiece and vases. The group in the beginning had 12 women but had as many as 30 members. The meetings were held monthly in the homes of members. A program or discussion was held at each meeting. It was a purely social organization. Members have contributed to various charities and have enjoyed many social activities together. Many times they were entertained by men of the Thresher Club. Members of the club included: Mrs. Robert Sharp, Mrs. Floyd McVicker, Mrs. Robert Schwartz, Mrs. Erwin Fausz, Marie Mast, Mrs. Ernest Holliker, Mrs. Arthur Holliker, Marie Hahn, Mrs. John Canfield, Mrs. Everett Burkett, Mrs. Virgil Hanifan, Mrs. Chester Beis, Mrs. Herman Moser, Marion Moser, and Mrs. John Leonhard.” (During World War I German Ave was changed to Dutch Road) (Photo and article taken from “The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, Sunday, May 3, 1964)

SUPPORT FOR HISTORY!

March 14th is Pi Day

Hello fellow history buffs. It is Pi day, the 14th of March or 3-14. We celebrate that familiar little constant, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which is 22 to 7. Theis divides out to 3.14…. to an infinite number of decimals, but 3.14 is adequate for most of us. We all learned this in school and sometimes actually use this little gem for some circular project. But why celebrate? Well it certainly is ancient, known to very early civilizations but mostly because Pi reminds us of pie, that delicious dessert that we all love and we can always use an excuse to celebrate that.

Historically, Waterville, by 1900 was surrounded by orchards, mostly apples but also cherries, pears and peaches. Our earliest Waterville Festival was the Apple Blossom Festival, held in the spring when apple trees were in bloom.  Many other fruits were also grown locally. All of these could be turned into delicious pies, so there were many celebrated pie bakers in our area. No threshing gang would have been complete without a hearty meal followed by a choice of delicious pie for dessert. While threshing gangs are no more, our love of pie remains. The choices of types of pie are huge. Besides all kinds of fruit we can choose cream pies, custard pies, crumb pies, etc. and if sweets are not your choice, choose savory pies like chicken pot pie or pizza pie, etc. So many choices! So let’s celebrate Pi day with some pie. Just make sure it is round and make the first cut on the diameter. Happy Pi/pie day all.

Note: Pi day was founded in the U.S. in 1988 and officially recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009. UNESCO General Conference designated Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics in November of 2019.

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All of us want to see our history preserved, especially our local history. There are a number of ways we can make this happen, most of which involve the donation of time, money or both. Here are some easy and painless ways to support local history.

1.      Donate part (or all) of your Ohio Income Tax refund to the Ohio History Fund. WHS has received three grants from this fund since 2021. Tax time is your time to support Ohio History! Did you know you can donate part of your Ohio income tax refund to the Ohio History Fund? It’s as simple as entering the donation amount on line 26 of Ohio Form IT1040. Line 26 asks “Amount of line 24 (refund) to be donated”. Choose “Ohio History Fund” from the six options presented and enter the amount there. In 2021 the Wakeman Building received $3867 for a new HVAC system from this fund. The Sargent House sill and beam project (2023-2024) was granted $18,000 toward this repair. The Wakeman Archives recently received $1150 to purchase scanning equipment for the glass and medium format negative digitization project. You can see these pictures on Ohio Memory at www.ohiomemory.org .

2.      Buy an Ohio History “Mastodon” license plate and $20 goes to the Ohio History Fund

3.      Become a member of the Waterville Historical Society. Your dues and donations support all of our preservation activities. You could also become a member and a volunteer. With four buildings to care for and maintain, lawn and garden work, and thousands of artifacts to care for, there is much work to do.

For more information about the Ohio History Fund, visit https://www.ohiohistory.org/preserving-ohio/ohio-history-fund-grant/.

A Grant Brings New Life to Old Negatives

Recently, thanks to a grant from the Ohio Local History Alliance, we have been able to buy a scanner to be able to scan glass negatives and other photograph negatives that then can produce images to be placed on the Ohio Memory site at https://www.ohiomemory.org/ under the collection of Waterville Historical Society. At present there are 13 of the negatives on the site from the Lester Lyon Glass Negatives that we own. Lester Lyon was one our early amateur photographers when light sensitive glass plates were the only “film” available. These images are of the Waterville area in the early 1900s. We will soon be adding more of these images. You can view these by going to Ohio Memory and under the donating society search for the Waterville Historical Society. Or you can just search for the word “Lyon, Lester” to see them. By using the WHS name in the search you will also see items photographed when the Ohio History Connection came out to the Robbins House several years ago and took pictures of the World War I Veterans and the Albert Graf Collection of World War I clothing, letters to the family from the war, etc. There are also the Welcome Pray’s (early Waterville doctor) son’s letters home from the Civil War. For those you have to search for “Pray” as these items were scanned by the Toledo Library and are listed under their organization but in the location as to where the original items are located they state Waterville Historical Society. There are 34 items. These originals are carefully preserved at the Wakeman Archives.

We also have items on the PastPerfectOnline Collection. At present we have over 320 items on there. You can find these by going to our website at www.watervillehistory.org and to the tab called “Online Collection” and click on this. In the statement about the program there is a link that takes you to our collection. At this time you can do a random search or search by Archives, Photograph or Object to see the items. We are constantly adding to each of our multimedia platforms.

Also on the website we have video collection under “WHS Video” which tells about the Robbins House and Sargent House museums, walking tours, Waterville School, Wakeman Archives, Interurban Bridge, etc. We are open every Wednesday for 10-2 weather permitting and the last Saturday of May, June, July, August and September from 10-2 for those that would like to  view original material, research their family, learn more about the area, military information, maps and atlases or just come up to see what we have.  Our staff is there to welcome and assist visitors.

NEW DONATION TO THE WAKEMAN ARCHIVES!

One of the recent donations to the Waterville Historical Archives is this Patriotic 1942 Calendar from Gustavus A. Dedrich Insurance….. Gustavus Adolphus Dedrich (1875-1956) was born in Germany to William and Henrietta Dedrich. They came to the America when Gus was five, settling in New Bremen, Ohio. Gus married Ethel Belle Brown (1881-1954) in Weston, Ohio in 1900. They moved to Waterville in 1901 where Gus went to work as a general store clerk. He served as cashier in the Waterville State Savings Bank for 31 years, retiring in 1944 to focus on his private insurance business. Gus was very involved in the community, serving on the Lucas County Board of Education, Waterville Village Council, and the Village Planning Commission. Gus also served as a member of the Waterville Rotary Club, Wakeman Lodge, F&AM of Scottish Rite Valley of Toledo. He served as director to both the Otis Avery Browning Masonic Memorial Trust Fund and Waterville State Savings Bank. At the time of Gus’s death they lived at 911 Michigan Ave in Waterville and had one daughter named Gertrude Yetta Dedrich Sweeney.  Mr. and Mrs. Dedrich are buried in Wakeman Cemetery in Waterville.

Authored by Kelly Putnam