Sherwood - Delaware High School Seniors - 1948

 

Sherwood Chronicle, 1948

"This is what you go to school for - to become a 'learned senior,' to graduate at long last and to take your place in the world of affairs.

The current S-D Senior Class is chockfull of students who have been prominent in class and extra-curricular events- sports, class plays, the band and glee club, cheerleading, twirling, etc.  This has been an active and cooperative class and the members will be missed next school year.

FRONT ROW,left to right: Arlene Grossenbacher, Dorothy Haase, Rolla Keesbury, Margaret Guyas (withdrawn from school), Arlene Behnfeldt, Sue Keegan, Mary Meyer, Sarabelle Ridenour, and Doris Kretzer

BACK ROW: William Mossoney, Norman Beattie, Norman Weaner, Roger Hallard, Carlton Powell, Harold Vogelsong, William Schwader, Vernon Dell, Mary Core, Principal C. M. Kretzer"

*S-D = Sherwood Delaware

Jehu Downs, Military Land Warrant Recipient

 

In reviewing the Defiance County soldiers who received military warrants from the War of 1812, only two original warrant holders were found who actually settled in Defiance County:

Pierce Evans (Click link for more info) and Jehu Downs

Jehu Downs settled in Defiance, but never lived on his land in Mark Township, and in fact, eventually, it was sold.  He tried to sell it in July, 1861, by advertising in the paper, but apparently it did not sell.  

LAND FOR SALE

I WILL SELL the west 1/2 of the northwest 1/4 Section 14, and the east 1/2 of north east 1/4, Section 15, Township Mark, 4 north Range 2 east, in Defiance County, at a bargain and on long time      JEHU P. DOWNS

Defiance July 12 1861

 According to the 1866 county plat map, he still owned that land in 1866.  He died on August 19, 1866, and by the time of the 1870 Historical Atlas of the county, the land had been sold to Lemuel Tharp.

His military warrant, giving him 160 acres in the Black Swamp, was signed by Millard Fillmore and issued on October 1, 1851.  Downs had served several terms in the War of 1812 in the Ohio militia, first as a private and finally as a sergeant.

Jehu lived in Defiance and was active in the politics of the city, serving as County Coroner for many years.  He was described in one of his campaigns for Coroner as an old citizen who "is an upright, honest man, and will no doubt, if elected, give general satisfaction."  In the 1850 census, he was 70 and living with his wife, Elizabeth, 56; he worked as a shoemaker.  In earlier stories, he had been described as a cobbler.

His will, written in March, 1862, was probated in Defiance County.  His nephew, John H. Kiser was Executor.  He left his wife, Elizabeth, who was about 15 years younger than he was, and a daughter, Julia Ann Kiser.  He also had a son, Angus Langham Downs, who died in 1857.   The will left all his real estate and personal property to his wife, while leaving his house and lot in town to his daughter, with his wife's use during her natural life. Anything else, he left to his nephew, John.  Jehu wanted no appraisement or sale of personal property.

"ANOTHER PIONEER GONE

DIED - on Sunday evening last, at his residence in Defiance, JEHU P. DOWNS, aged 91 years, 4 months and 24 days

Mr. Downs was a native of Delaware but had resided in Ohio for many years, and in Defiance since July 1834.   Much of his early life was spent at sea; in the war of 1812 he was out on the Northwest border in two campaigns, and had in his long and eventful life, seen much of the world.

Father Downs voted the Democratic ticket always and ever a prompt attendant at all conventions; his sterling party attachment will preserve for him with his Democratic friends the kindest recollections of respect

His widow, to whom he has been married 54 years, survives him in tolerable health.

His funeral was attended by a large concourse of our ciitizens, on Tuesay last, at the Presbyterian church - services by Revs. Slagle and Fegtley.

Defiance Democrat, August 25, 1866, p. 2

Old Riverside Cemetery

His wife, Elizabeth Vandevort Downs, remarried to Thomas Warren.  After her marriage, she sued Julia Kiser, for her dower rights to Jehu's property in 1870.  Elizabeth died in 1878 and was also buried in Old Riverside.

These War of 1812 veterans received land, but no record could be found of them in Defiance County:

John Dunlap (Highland)

Jacob Baker (Mark)

Dennis Goddard(Mark)

Samuel Gooshorn (Mark)

John Hesser (Highland)

Nathaniel Suit (Hicksville)

Amos Stoddard (Mark)

Edward Todd (Mark)

James Woodside (Mark)

James Black (Richland)

James Salisbury (Milford)

Flegal Valentine (Tiffin)

John Wisler (Adams)

If you have a correction, please comment or message me.

Bounty Land, Bureaucracy and Badly Patronized - War of 1812 Veterans and the Settlement of Defiance County - Part 3

 Bounty Land, Bureaucracy and Badly Patronized - War of 1812 Veterans and the Settlement of Defiance County - Part 3

In 1850, Congress included the War of 1812 Militia in the Bounty Land Program, using a sliding scale based on time of service to award land.  Finally, in 1852, Bounty Land Warrants and the Land itself were made transferable/ saleable.  In 1855, Congress went on to reduce the time of service to just 14 days for which a former soldier could get 160 acres.  If you had not served 14 days, but could prove you traveled at least 1200 miles in any military capacity, you got 160 acres.  Wagon masters, chaplains and other logistical personnel got 160 acres.  And, if along the way, you qualified but had not received a total of 160 acres, you got topped off.   

Lastly, in 1856, Congress brought naval personnel into the program, breathed a sigh of relief that everyone was equal, and patted themselves on the back just in time for an overheated American economy to experience the Panic of 1857, which, by the way, was the first worldwide economic crisis.

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN 1812 SOLDIER

Let's imagine a man born in 1793 who served as a Kentucky private in the War of 1812.  He was a veteran of the campaigning along the Maumee River, withstood the two sieges of Fort Meigs, fought with Harrison at the Battle of the Thames where Tecumseh was killed, went on to complete a five year hitch in the Army and was honorably discharged.

He then came back to Kentucky to farm and raise a family. However, of all the places he had been, he liked the area around Ft. Defiance the best, saw its agricultural possibilities, and would like to have moved there with his young family.  But the 160 acre Bounty Land Warrant he had been given could not be sold or transferred and was only redeemable in Iowa, Missouri or Arkansas.  Those places did not interest him, so he went on about his life.

In 1820, he was glad to hear that the Fort Defiance area was now surveyed as an official part of Ohio.  In 1842, now at the age of 49, he learned that he could redeem his warrant for land around Fort Defiance, but if things did not pan out, he could still not sell the land or he could only pass it on to his heirs.  The risk of this was too great for his family, though he toyed with the idea of relocating.  Once again, he went on with his Kentucky life.

In 1852, at the age of 59, he learned through a fellow veteran that the 160 acres land warrant he held for 33 years (and the land that it might get him) could now be sold to the highest bidder.  His midlife crisis was a trip back to the Fort Defiance area to investigate what land he might acquire. Of course, he found the acreage picked over, and the best he could find was some marginal swampy ground on what would become Domersville Road in Adams Township.  He returned to Kentucky, sold his warrant to a broker for $1.15 an acre ($184 - which truly was a princely amount in that time), and lived out the rest of his life.

Our fictional soldier illustrates the impediments of timing, law, and federal government patronization that stopped Veterans of 1812 from making a bigger contribution to the development of Defiance County.  But in spite of all that conspired against them, there were fifteen veterans of the War of 1812, (out of the 82 military patent grants) who purchased land with their warrants and presumably moved to the county to develop and farm their claims.  God bless them and their progeny.

Bounty Land, Bureaucracy and Badly Patronized - War of 1812 Veterans and the Settlement of Defiance County - Part 2

 Bounty Land, Bureaucracy and Badly Patronized - War of 1812 Veterans and the Settlement of Defiance County - Part 2

REALITY -

There were only 82 Military Bounty Land Warrant Patents awarded in Defiance County, totalling 5,283 acres.  When two "yahoos" in Washington Township were caught cheating and each had their 160 acre parcels revoked, the adjusted total was 4,963 acres - representing a little under 2% of the county acreage.  Hardly the economic catalyst I theorized.

Interestingly, all 80 county patents were purchased from the government in the years 1851 - 1854 (an important clue I will explain subsequently).  In every case of the 1851 patents, the purchaser of the land was the warrant holder.  Thereafter, the purchaser differed from the warrant holder most of the time.

In distribution by township, Mark (1,592 acres) had the most patent grants, followed by Richland (1,126 acres) and Adams (880 acres).  I believe this to be a reflection of the relative development of these townships in the 1850s - the wilder, wetter and woolier the land, the more it remained unclaimed and available for military bounty awards in mid-century.

The Timeline -

Northwest Ohio, including Defiance County, was technically Native American land until the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids was signed in 1817.  At the time, the United States took possession of Northwest Ohio and the native population was resettled on reservations sprinkled around the area.  Surveying the newly acquired land was completed in 1820.  Meanwhile, the wheels of progress and government largesse continued to turn.

Veterans of the War of 1812, and later their widows and heirs, could apply for bounty land under various government acts passed during and immediately after the war.  Seasoned veterans were entitled to quarter sections of land (160 acres); a few got half sections (320 acres).  But, there were two big catches to the giveaway:

 

1. The land was ONLY available in Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas.

2. The bounty warrants, as well as the land itself, were not transferable.  This meant that if you exercised your bounty warrant and bought the land at $1.25 an acre, you and your progeny had better intend to develop/ farm it because your family was stuck with it in perpetuity.

Steps to Redress -

Originally a large swath of Western Michigan not far north of Defiance County was slated for War of 1812 bounty lands.  However when it came time for Congress to decide what lands qualified, a few key politicians (apparently, Lewis Cass) wanted to protect their speculative interests and floated false rumors about the unsuitability of the land in that part of the territory.  Obliging its own, Congress did not include Michigan in the bounty lands, but instead substituted Missouri for use by 1812 veterans.  At any rate and better late than never, Congress, 30 years on (1842) opened up all land that was owned by the Federal Government for use by  bounty warrant land holders.

The galling point though, for 1812 veterans, which would become the focus of their political efforts in the next 40 years, was the inability to sell either the bounty warrants themselves or the land which they entitled a veteran to purchase.  One generation before, the ability to do both had been given to Revolutionary War veterans.  When, in consequence, there suddenly appeared money grubbing bounty warrant brokers all over the nation, Congress surely thought it had unwittingly let the "money changers into the temple.  When it came time to reprise their efforts for the veterans of 1812, they "corrected their mistake" and eliminated the transferablity of both bounty land warrants and the land itself.

What is NOT a surprise is that, like nothing else before, the Ten Regiments Act spurred 1812 veterans to organize as what we would recognize today as an effective lobbying group. (The Ten Regiments Act, passed in 1847, gave Mexican War veterans more generous terms for bounty land warrants.)  It took Washington another eight years to rectify the inequalities.  But by  1856, Congress was acting the part of a "guilty grandparent at Christmas," using both hands to ladle out perquisites to former soldiers...

To be continued in Part 3

Bounty Land, Bureaucracy and Badly Patronized - War of 1812 Veterans and the Settlement of Defiance County - Part 1

 

Ohio in 1814

WELCOME TO OUR GUEST BLOGGER -

MIKE KONIECZNY

(Mike has used the Bureau of Land Management Records of Defiance County to study bounty lands given to veteran soldiers of Defiance County.)

It seems everyone knows a Vietnam veteran who is still angry at this country's treatment of his cohort in the wake of their tours of duty.  To have done their patriotic duty, fighting an unpopular war, only to come home and be disrespected in the press and on the streets was as infuriating to them as it was confusing.  One hundred and eighty years ago, the veterans of the War of 1812 felt much the same.

Whether they looked behind their times of service to the veterans of the Revolution or forward to the veterans of the Mexican War, 1812 veterans frustratingly saw a country doling out perquisites of bounty land warrants and military pensions in a manner denied and delayed to them.  Interestingly, historians cite many reasons for this discrepancy, but always return to a reoccurring thread in our country's history: Americans love and reward winners; "place" and "show" are afterthoughts.  In both the Revolution and Mexican Wars, America won great land empires.  In contrast, the best we could do in the War of 1812 was to negotiate a return to the "status quo ante bellum."   This was codified in the 1814 Treaty of Ghent which officially ended that war.  Let's face it, Americans hate ties - a big reason soccer has never captured the national psyche.

In February, 2022, I was alerted to the power of the Bureau of Land Management Patent Deed Database.  This database is available on the internet and, in it, the BLM lists every patent deed awarded in the country's history.  Patent deeds record land passing from the federal government to an individual and are tracked at the federal level.  Thereafter, all other types of deeds tracking the transfer of property are recorded locally.

Within the BLM database exists a designator for land deeds awarded to 18th and 19th century veterans for their wartime service.  In an age when the U.S. government was land rich and cash poor, awards of land for military service were the G.I. Bill of the time and served as a thank you from a grateful nation.  In total, these awards were consequential; indeed, all land awarded to veterans up through the American Civil Wa amounted to a land mass the size of the state of Oregon.  Using this database designator, I found it a small matter to download all records of deeds for military service.

Using this database, I was certain that it would be easy to prove that Military Bounty Lands were a major catalyst in the development of Defiance County.  My hypothesis was based on two vectors:

*The first was that during the War of 1812, a noticeable percentage of military aged Kentucky men tromped up and down the Maumee River and were aware of the agricultural potential of the Black Swamp - especially around the Defiance area.

*And the second was that Defiance County was bisected by a major water course; indeed the Maumee River basin is the largest watershed in all the Great Lakes.

Combined, the two vectors would certainly explain why War of 1812 veterans came flocking back to Defiance County to exercise their Bounty Land Warrants.  What I found was considerably more complicated...

More on Part 2

Centennial Families of Defiance County

 If your family has lived in Defiance County for 100 years or more, we invite you to apply for a Centennial Families designation to honor them.  It's easy to apply; details follow.

These citizens have already been so named and their certificate awarded to the descendant/ researcher who applied:

Ayers, Elicum

Bayes, Catherine Holey

Bayes, Howard Leroy "Roy" and Sarah Ellen "Ella" Fickle Bayes

Bayes, Thomas

Bayes, William P.

Burgbacher, John W. and Louise Vollmer

Burgbacher, John and Catherine Hornish

Burgbacher, Herman F.

Burgbacher, Harold and Clara C. Hoch

Childs, George

Deckrosh, Christian

Dreher, Carrie E.

Durfey, Maria Iona Miller

Gorman, Bernard John

Gorman, Edmund Benedict and Eliza J. Carney

Gorman, Michael

Gorman Sophia Hovestadt

Gusler, David and Susannah

Helfrick, John

Himes, William Marion

Kistner, Jacob and John George

Kniss, John

Kurtz, Jacob

Kurtz, Louisa

Long, John Thomas

Mason, George Childs

Miller, Jacob C. and Louisa Heller Miller

Miller, Jacob and Vernia Walter Miller

NIcely, Effie

Nolan, John

Pask, Joseph George

Polter, August and Wilhelmina

Sanford, Samuel R. and Annzonetta M. "Nettie" Spencer

Scranton, James A.

Scranton, Ward E.

Smith, Anthony Bennett

Smith, John B.

Smith, Stanley Robert

Stuckman, Isaac

Swartz, Lewis/Louis

Todd, Edward and Frances

Toenjes, Henry John

Veith, Carl A.

Walter, Jacob and Vernia Walter Miller

Walter, John

Walters, Goldie Lovejoy

Walters, John and Orpha Gusler Walters

Walters, Nicholas and Elizabeth Margaret Roth Walters

Walters, Perry "Roy" and Carrie Polter Walters

Wilhelm, Harrison Henry

Wilhelm, Henry

Wilhelm, Walter and Frances

The Centennial Family designation honors those who were in Defiance County one hundred or more years ago from the present date.  

To apply:

1. Fill out the application form found on our website.

https://www.defiancecountygenealogy.org/centennial.html

2. Only Defiance County Genealogical members may apply.  Join our society!

Application at 

https://www.defiancecountygenealogy.org/join.html

3. Explain your connection to this family by blood or marriage, or if unrelated, present some of your research.

4. Send a copy of a document that proves the person or family has lived in Defiance County for 100 years from the present date.

When approved a Centennial Families certificate will be presented or sent to you, honoring your ancestor, and that person will be added to the Centennial Family roll.