The Arrowsmith Grist Mill at Lost Creek and the Haller Relationship

 

"Who remembers that the Arrowsmith grist mill, north and a little west of the crossing at Lost Creek, was part of logs, the oldest part and after it was abandoned, was used as a sort of blacksmith shop?  

Mr. Arrowsmith was a good millwright and understood all about grinding, dressing buhrs, etc.  Repairs were generally done to the water wheel and the tools were an inch auger, an ax and a handsaw.  The water wheel was one of his own invention, that is the one used was built according to his own ideas.

An old ax was much used at picking or chopping or whatever it was called in dressing the buhrs, and fit them for running nicely.  

John F. Haller usually helped in the repairs, though he was not a millwright.  This was the mill called 'the turkey trap,' on account of a flock of wild ones going in and taking possession and not knowing how to get out."

Bryan Press, Thursday, November 18, 1926

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"Who remembers that there is a close connection between the Arrowsmith and Haller families of early Farmer? We gather that Ezekiel Arrowsmith was born near Baltimore 1770, went to Kentucky when 23 and married Elizabeth Kenton, niece of the noted Simon Kenton, moved near Urbana, Ohio and died in 1849, his wife dying at 90.

His son, Miller Arrowsmith, one of ten children, came to Defiance County in 1833, locating first near Defiance and was chosen Deputy County Surveyor by John Perkins, shortly moved to Lost Creek where he had a grist mill, was county auditor and held other important offices.

Sarah Arrowsmith, his sister, married William Haller, son of John Haller, and after her death in 1837, he married her sister, Jane.  A son, John F., taught school in the early days and farmed southwest of Farmer.

John Haller, father of William, located at Brunersburg and had a tannery and farmed.  Jesse, son of John, married Cassandra, sister of Miller Arrowsmith and located in 1831 in Brunersburg, and in 1837, came to Farmer, the trip taking four or five days as the way was swampy; brush had to be cleared to make a road, trees had to be whacked out of the way, too.

When they moved from Champaign County, the few household goods were hauled in a sort of wagon to the Auglaize River and then shipped to Defiance in a pirogue, a large tree trunk burned and dug out into a boat and was run by a pole pushed in the water when the bottom of the stream was 'near,' and when deep, paddles were used.

The family rode horseback and fording streams, sometimes high from freshets, and landed safely. How does that compare with moving now-a-days with a motor truck about the size of a pioneer's cabin?  People these days do not know and do not want to know what those sturdy old pioneers did."

Bryan Press, September 9, 1926, page 2

Wilseyville, Farmer Township, Defiance County

In Section 31 of Farmer Township was Wilseyville (here misspelled as Wolsenville,) formerly known as the town of Arrowsmith.  From the plat map of 1866, Defiance County

Miller Arrowsmith, the surveyor of Defiance County and eventually Auditor, came early to Defiance County to survey and purchase large plots of land.  He developed the village of Arrowsmith in about 1842. After the Civil War, the town was eventually renamed Wilseyville by his nephew, William M. Haller.

It has been reported that the town once contained a grist mill, a sawmill, a tanner, a boarding house, a post office, and an oar factory.  In 1961, then Sherriff Don Kehnast took a group on a tour of some of the historical places in the county. The Defiance Crescent-News reported the guide as saying:

"It is known definitely that Miller Arrowsmith was post master there for 15 years.  Mr. and Mrs. Ridenour, who live in a century old house, north on Route 2 near there found and still have letters bearing the postmark of a station of both names.  The letters were stored in the attic of the home where the Ridenour family have lived for at least 75 years."

A Wilseyville correspondent sent regular news items to the Defiance County Express from the late 1870s to 1883.  Known as the Wilseyville Whittlings (compared with the Hicksville Hackings and the Bethel Blubbers!), all kinds of news from the village was reported.
This example was from December 15, 1881:

The Defiance County Express announced on May 24, 1883: "Hereafter the 'Wilseyville Items' will be known as the 'Lost Creek Items,' as the Wilseyville Post Office  'has gone up the spout.'  The end of Wilseyville was at hand.