It is said that Delphos could not have been settled without the aid of quinine. The air was so poisoned with malarial effluvia from swamps and marshes, that not only the pioneers but also the very dogs of the settlement suffered intensely from fever and ague. Ferdinand Bredeick built the first cabin; E. N. Morton the first saw- and the first grist-mills; and Mrs. George Lang (maiden name, Amelia Bredeick) was the first child born here. The original settlers were German Catholics. In December, 1845, thirty-six male members met in a cabin, and made arrangements to build a church. It was the first established at Delphos, and "its honored founder, Rev. John O. Bredeick, was the benevolent guardian of the spiritual and material interests of the German settlers, who were pioneers in the inhospitable forests of North America." It was a huge, ungainly structure. It was succeeded in 1880 by an elegant church, erected at an expense of over $100,000; it has a chime of bells, and its appointments are all in keeping-stained glass windows, paintings, statuary, altars, frescos, organ, etc.

Samuel Forrer, the civil-engineer, is regarded as the pioneer of this region, as he ultimately settled here in Delphos. He was connected with the Ohio canal surveys from July, 1825, to 1831, and located the Miami and Erie canal; in 1871, when he was seventy-eight years of age, he still held the position of consulting engineer of this work. Earlier he had been canal commissioner and member of the board of public works.

Knapp's "History of the Maumee Valley," published in 1872, has these interesting items:

"The great forests, once so hated because they formed a stumbling-block in the tedious struggles to reduce the soil to a condition for tillage, have been converted into a source of wealth. Within a radius of five miles of Delphos, thirty-five saw-mills (now perhaps doubled) are constantly employed in the manufacture of lumber, and a value nearly equalling the product of these mills is annually exported in the form of lumber. Excepting in the manufacture of maple sugar, and for local building and fencing purposes, no use until recent years had been made of the timber, and its destruction from the face of the earth was the especial object of the pioneer farmers, and in this at that time supposed good work they had the sympathies of all others who were interested in the development of the country. The gathering of the ginseng crop once afforded employment to the families of the early settlers, but the supply was scanty and it soon became exhausted. Some eighteen years ago, when the business of the town was suffering from stagnation, Dr. J. W. Hunt, an enterprising druggist, and now a citizen of Delphos, bethought himself that he might aid the pioneers of the wilderness, and add to his own trade, by offering to purchase the bark from the slippery elm trees, which were abundant in the adjacent swamps. For this new article of commerce he offered remunerative prices, and the supply soon appeared in quantities reaching hundreds of cords of the cured bark; and he has since controlled the trade in Northwestern Ohio and adjacent regions. The resources found in the lumber and timber and in this bark trade, trifling as the latter may appear, have contributed, and are yet contributing, almost as much to the prosperity of the town and country as the average of the cultivated acres, including the products of the orchard.”

BLUFFTON, on the L. E. and W. and C. and W. railroads, is seventy-five miles southwest of Sandusky, in the northeast corner of the county. It was laid out in 1837, under the name of Shannon, which it retained many years. Newspaper: News, Independent, N. W. Cunningham, editor. Churches: one Lutheran, one Methodist, one Catholic, one Reformed, one Presbyterian, and one Dissenters. Bank: People's, Daniel Russell, proprietor and cashier.

Manufactures and Employees.-Althaus & Bro., builders' wood-work, 10 hands; A. J. St. John, handles, lumber, etc., 10; A. Klay, machinery, 5; J. M. Townsend & Son, lumber, etc., 5; W. B. Richards, flour and feed, 3.-State Report 1886. Population in 1880, 1,290. School census 1886, 464; S. C. Patterson, superintendent. West of the town is a large Mennonite settlement. Large stone quarries are in its vicinity.

SPENCERVILLE, laid out in 1844-45, at the intersection of C. A. and D. Ft. W. C. railroads, and on the Miami and Erie canal, is fourteen miles from Lima. Newspaper: Journal, Independent, S. L. Ashton, editor. Bank: Citizens', Post & Wasson; I. B. Post, cashier. Churches: one Methodist, one German Methodist, two Baptist, one Catholic, one German Reformed, and one Christian.

Manufactures and Employees.-J. S. Fogle, Sr., lumber, 5 hands; Richard Hanse, churns, 10; George Kephart, clothes-racks, etc., 10; Kolter & Kraft, flour and feed, 6; R. H. Harbison, builders' wood-work, and also staves and heading, 31; W. A. Reynolds, lumber and feed, 5.-State Report 1886. Census 1880, 532. School census 1886, 468; C. R. Carlo, principal.

Small villages, with census in 1880: Elida, 302; Lafayette, 333; Westminster, 225; Cairo, 316; Beaver Dam, 353.

ASHLAND.

ASHLAND COUNTY was formed February 26, 1846. The surface on the south is hilly, the remainder of the county rolling. The soil of the upland is a sandy loam; of the valleys—which comprise a large part of the county-a rich sandy and gravelly loam, and very productive. A great quantity of wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, etc., is raised, and grass and fruit in abundance. A majority of the population are of Pennsylvania origin. Its present territory originally comprised the townships of Vermillion, Montgomery, Orange, Green, and Hanover, with parts of Monroe, Mifflin, Milton, and Clear Creek, of Richland county; also the principal part of the townships of Jackson, Perry, Mohican, and Lake, of Wayne county; of Sullivan and Troy, Lorain county; and Ruggles, of Huron county. The townships from Lorain and Huron counties are from the Connecticut Western Reserve tract. Area, 470 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 130,947; in pasture, 47,607; woodland, 45,137; lying waste, 3,128; produced in wheat, 443,339 bushels; in corn, 861,675; cheese, 476,850 pounds; flax, 564,200; wool, 268,573; maple sugar, 57,850. School census 1886, 7,336; teachers, 153. It has 29 miles of railroad.

Population in 1860 was 22,951; in 1880, 23,883, of whom 18,852 were Ohio

born.

ASHLAND IN 1846.-Ashland, the county-seat, was laid out (1815) by William Montgomery, and bore for many years the name of Uniontown; it was changed te

its present name in compliment to Henry Clay, whose seat near Lexington, Kentucky, bears that name. Daniel Carter, from Butler county, Pennsylvania, raised. the first cabin in the place about the year 1811, which stood where the store of William Granger now is in Ashland. Robert Newell, three miles east, and Mr. Fry, one and one-half miles north of the village, raised cabins about the same time. In 1817 the first store was opened by Joseph Sheets, in a frame building now kept as a store by the widow Yonker. Joseph. Sheets, David Markley,

Samuel Ury, Nicholas Shaeffer, Alanson Andrews, Elias Slocum, and George W. Palmer were among the first settlers of the place. Ashland is a flourishing village, eighty-nine miles northwest of Columbus, and fourteen from Mansfield. It contains five churches, viz., two Presbyterian, one Episcopal Methodist, one Lutheran, and one Disciples; nine dry-goods, four grocery, one book, and two drug stores; two newspaper printing-offices; a flourishing classical academy, numbering over 100 pupils of both sexes, and a population estimated at 1,300. The above view was taken in front of the site selected for the erection of a court-house, the Methodist church building seen on the left being now used for that purpose the struc tures with steeples, commencing on the right, are the First Presbyterian church, the academy, and the Second Presbyterian church. At the organization of the

first court of common pleas for this county, at Ashland, an old gentleman by the name of David Burns was one of the grand jurors who, as a remarkable fact, it is said, was also a member of the first grand jury ever impanelled in Ohio. The court met near the mouth of Wegee creek, in Belmont county, in 1795; the

country being sparsely settled, he was compelled to travel forty miles to the place of holding court.-Old Edition.

County officers for 1888: Auditor, Samuel L. Arnold; Clerk, Milton Winbigler; Commissioners, Nathan J. Cresson, John Martin, Jacob Kettering; Coroner, William H. Reinhart; Prosecuting Attorney, Frank C. Semple; Probate Judge, Emanuel Finger; Recorder, Edwin S. Bird; Sheriff, Randolph F. Andress; Surveyor, John B. Weddell; Treasurers, James W. Brant, Thomas C. Harvey.

ASHLAND, the county-seat, is about fifty miles southwest of Cleveland, on the line of the N. Y. P. and O. railroad. It is a well-built town, with a fine farming country round about. Newspapers: Press, Democratic, W. T. Albertson, editor; Times, Republican, W. H. Reynolds, editor; Brethren Evangelist, religious and Prohibition, A. L. Garber, editor; Gazette, Republican, Hon. T. M. Beer, manager. Churches: one Presbyterian, two Lutheran, one Disciples, two Brethren, one Evangelical, one Reformed, and one Catholic. Banks: Farmers', E. J. Grosscup, president, George A. Ullman, cashier; First National, J. O. Jennings, president, Joseph Patterson, cashier.

Manufactures and Employees.-Shearer, Kagey & Co., doors, sash, etc., 16 hands; F. E. Myers & Bro., pumps, 65; Kauffman & Beer, woven-wire mattresses, 20; H. K. Myers & Co., flour, etc.; Klugston & Hughes, grain elevator.-State Report 1887. Population in 1880, 3,004. School census 1886, 1,169; Joseph E. Stubbs, superintendent.

Ashland has the high distinction of having given the first citizen of Ohio to volunteer as a soldier for the Union

army. This was LORIN ANDREWS, who was born here in a log-cabin, April 1, 1819, being the fourth child born in Ashland. His father, Alanson Andrews, later opened a farm southwest of the village. At the age of seventeen he delivered with great credit a Fourth of July oration at Carter's Grove just east of the town. From 1840 to 1843 he was a student at Gambier, but from want of pecuniary means was obliged to leave, and then took charge of the Ashland academy. He pursued his studies without a teacher, and with signal success. He lectured before institutes throughout the State, and had scarcely an equal in influence as an educator. So greatly was he valued for power of intellect and general capacity that, in 1854, he was chosen to the presidency of Gambier, and he brought up the institution from an attendance of thirty to over 200 pupils. Princeton conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. He had peculiarly winning qualities that made him a born leader. It was in February, 1861, that, believing war inevitable, he offered his services to Gov. Dennison. In April he raised a company in Knox county for the Fourth regiment, and was elected colonel. It was ordered to West Virginia, where, owing to exposure, he was taken sick of typhoid fever, and died September 18, 1861, and was buried at Gambier in a spot of his own selection. He was but forty-two years of age-in his prime-and of great moral influence. He was about five feet eight inches in height, and weighed about 130 pounds; hair sandy, and inclined to curl. His eye was a clear gray, his face manly, full of benevolence, his carriage erect, with a sprightly gait.

LORIN ANDREWS,

Mess-ENG.

Ohio's First Volunteer for the Union Army.

Upon a high, commanding site upon the outskirts of the town stand the somewhat imposing structures of the Ashland Preparatory College, W. C. Perry, principal. This institution is under the auspices of the Society of Dunkards, or German Baptists, of whom there are many in parts of this county. The following account of these peculiar and excellent people is from the "County History." The quiet simplicity and earnestness of their lives is on a par with that of the members of the Society of Friends: