Harriet Deamer, Wife of Solomon, Recalled Pioneer Days and the Squirrel Hunters

"DAUGHTER OF PIONEER INN KEEPER HERE RECALLS 

REAL HARD TIMES OF EARLY DAY

 "Mrs. Harriet Deamer, who resides at 717 Perry street, is a daughter of the pioneer, Andrew Jackson St. John, who established the tavern out along the Ayersville road about the year 1850.

The purpose of this structure erected in the wilderness by a carpenter named Henry Stites was that of a farmhouse.  And it became a tavern through necessity because so many folks stopped at the lonely dwelling along the muddy wilderness road and asked for lodgings.

Early Hospitality

'Jack' St. John who was a raw-boned man measuring six feet two in his socks, was a hospitable man and it is a matter of legend in the community that he never turned a weary or hungry man from his door.

A. J. St. John engaged his services to a tanner at Lebanon, Ohio, at the age of 17, receiving for his services the sum of $30 per year.  After a thorough apprenticeship with different tanners, he came to this county and established himself as a tanner and agriculturist.

Tanning the Hides

Not only was he a tanner of leather, but from the hides from the vats, he made shoes for the neighborhood.  Many a pioneer was shod in long-wearing leather boots made by this skillful man whose good workmanship brought trade from a large radius.

As his tanning trade gained in volume, he added two more 40s to the original forty acre homesite.  Bark of the best oaks was ground in a one-horse power mill and the ingredients of the tanning solution so skillfully blended that the green hides that went into the vats came out as choice harness leather that commanded a splendid market.

Seeking new territory, as was the custom with many of the first settlers, Mr. St. John, after residing for 14 years in Defiance county, went to Camden, Mich. where he erected a tannery.

Back to Defiance

His daughter, Miss Harriet, accompanied him there, but returned in the fall to become the bride of Solomon Deamer, a brick mason by trade whose name is familiar to many residents of Defiance.

The original home of Solomon Deamer was on the site now occupied by the office of the Defiance Screw Machine Products Co.  Mr. Deamer passed from life about 35 years ago.  Mrs. Deamer, at the age of 87, an eighty year resident of Defiance county, is living with his niece, Mrs. Louis Rector, at the Perry street home.

Real Hard Times

In looking back to the hard times of her girlhood spent during the tragic years of the Civil War, Mrs. Deamer, who was actively engaged in making a 'dutch girl' quilt, said that one reason we consider conditions difficult today is because there are so many different ways in which money may be expended.

In the days when the old plank road to Ayersville had lost its planking and resembled a mortar box, wagons were a common necessity and a buggy was regarded as somewhat a luxury. Shirts were made of flour sacks with the sleeves from the legs of old stockings.  Almost all of the white flour available was either musty or wormy and corn meal was the standard bread staple.

The Squirrel Hunters

Mrs. Solomon Deamer, the widow of a Civil War veteran, recalls the stirring days of the great conflict of the 60s when General Kirby Smith, with his band of Confederate raiders, threatened to invade Ohio and a company of local men of whom her father, A. J. St. John, was a member, was organized almost in a day and on Sept. 10, 1862, enlisted with the famous Squirrel Hunters and departed to defend Cincinnati from the threatened invasion.

That famous company contains many familiar names: John Crowe, captain; C. B. Mix, first lieutenant; David Butler, second lieutenant; J. B. Mellin, John Paul Jr., Louis Gobdell, D. W. Marcellus, John Linebrink, George R. Hooker, James Brown, Elias Zellars, John Stitsel, William Woods, Jerome Murray.

A. A. Ayers, Robert King, R. Girard, James Richards, C. C. Graper, D. W. Nye, J. B. Heatley, Dave Buckmaster, George Dudley, Henry Miller, Sam Hutchinson, Abe Davis, Peter M. Dodd, William B. Watts, J. E. Willeman, John Andrews, John Moon, Ed. Beall.   

Charles E. Williams, William Douty, John Carpenter, J. B. Allen, Frank Nolan, John Spangler, Ambrose Maston, Isaac Collar, Dave Jackson, George Rogers, C. C. Strong, J. A. Meyers, John Davidson, T. D. Harris, M. Houtz.

T. C. Breese, S. S. Hopkins, M. Carey, John Glen, B. B. Kniss, John Lewis, C. C. Case, A. Elliott, D.M. Corwin, F. H. Ferguson, John Bogg, Hugh Donnelly, Nelson Kibble, James Figley, Silas Figley.

Frank A. Masterson, Ed. Hatfield. Fred Moninger, John Hatfield, Louis Daudt, James Kochel, George Miller, Ohio Miller, Andy Tuttle, Mathias Elliott."

Defiance Crescent-News, August 5, 1932