The Oldest Settler - William Donley, 1895

It is always a special pleasure to read a first person account of an ancestor's life.  In this letter to the editor, William Donley, at 55 years old, looked back at his life as one of the first people to settle in the wilds of Defiance County.  The article appeared in the Defiance Express on December 20, 1895; William would live but six more years.

"THE OLDEST SETTLER.

That Honor Now Claimed by Wm. Donley of Washington Township.

I was thinking today what a wonderful change has taken place in Defiance county in the past fifty-five years.  It also occurred to me while I was considering the question that I am now the oldest settler in Washington township.  

My father, John, better known as Jack Donley, came to Defiance county in 1837.  He was born in Virginia in 1804 and come to Ohio with his parents some time in 1815.  They settled at Raccoon Hill, Athens county, where I was born Dec. 11, 1833.

In my boyhood days, bears, wolves and deers were plenty in Washington township, the wolves making the night hideous with their howling.  Indians were almost as numerous as birds are now-a-days and as treacherous as any of the name could have been.  If they wanted anything to eat, there was only one way to get rid of them and that was to feed them.

My father frequently killed a deer or bear before breakfast.  Meat and Johnny cakes were the main staff of life and in that particular the neighbors all fared alike.  You bet they enjoyed it, too.

The first settlers in Washington township were Zacharial Huet, George Huet, James Huet, Jesse Donley, Hugh Donley, Andrew Bostater, H. Skeen, James Skeen, Gideon Skeen, Peter Doud and Wm. Donley, Sr.

There were but five houses on what is now known as the Bellefontaine road in those days.  One at Brunersburg, two in Washington, one at Williams Center, occupied by Mr. Dilman and one at the St. Joe river, owned by old man Parker.  It is called the Lang place now, but was known as Denmark.  Very strangely there is but one house at that point at this day.

My parents raised ten children, six boys and four girls, all of whom are dead but Malinda Hutton, of Kansas, and the writer.  My father died in Illinois in January 1866, and my mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth McKee, at Ney, this township in 1875.

Wm. Donley

(We wish to say in this connection that Mr. Donley is one of the liveliest old settlers that we know of in this neck of woods.  He is a blacksmith by trade and lives in the town of Ney.  He was in the army during the war and is now one of the leading, hardworking Republicans in Washington township.  He buried his youngest child, an infant some two weeks old, about two month ago.  Bill is grey and grizzley, but has vim enough to last twenty-five years.  We hope he will and then some.)

www.findagrave.com - Ney Cemetery