Every mark of these pioneer improvements has been obliterated, and a stranger, riding along the banks of the creek, would hardly dream that at that point were built the first saw-mill and grist-mill in St. Joseph Township. Shortly thereafter, a grist-mill was built at West Buffalo, which, for many years, did the milling for the people of the four townships cornering there.

MARRIAGES AND BIRTHS.

To Samuel Holton and wife was born the first white child in the township. This was some time in 1831 or 1832. The first persons married in the township were this Samuel Holton and his brother John. They married daughters of the Widow Fee, who then lived on the river, northeast of Edgerton, on what is now known as the Rishel farm. Later along, in 1836, William Bender married another daughter of the Widow Fee. This was a wedding of considerable consequence. The people gathered in. They came down the St. Joseph River from Denmark in boats. Daniel Farnham, who had lately moved into the township, was there.

DEATHS.

It is difficult to tell who first died in St. Joseph Township. On the farm now owned by Judge Parker are three graves. They are situated east of the Edgerton road and south of the Bellefontaine road, and not far from the bank of the river. A person riding along the Bellefontaine westward, after passing the house of Judge Long about seventy rods, and looking toward the south, will see the place of these early burials. Daniel Farnham says they were plainly marked in 1835. The names of those thus buried in the woods were Baker, Horton and Stailey. They were probably the first, but of what they died, when and by whom buried, it has been impossible to find out. A little farther south and nearer the river bank is the grave of Zediker, who once owned that land. He died at an early period, and was buried in the woods. By his side was buried a child, an infant daughter, of one Thomas Hill.

CEMETERIES.

The first graveyard in the township was located on the farm of Judge Parker, now owned by Judge Long. Persons were buried there as early as 1838. Rev. Elijah Stoddard was one of the first buried there. George Aucker was also buried about the same time. Judge Parker, who died in 1857, was buried there, and several of his children, who died before him. Later, their bodies were exhumed and removed to the cemetery at Edgerton. The wife of Judge Parker, who survived him some years, and his daughter, Urilla Stough, were also buried at Edgerton. There were

quite a number buried in this early graveyard, but at present it is difficult to find even their graves.

A little later, they began to bury on the farm of Daniel Farnham. Sallie Farnham, mother of Daniel Farnham, was the first person buried there, some time in 1844, aged sixty-seven years. Mr. Hanks was the second, and a Mr. Edwards was the third. This cemetery is still in a tolerable state of repair, and is now, and has been used by the people of the edge of Indiana for the burial of their dead. Still later, a graveyard was started southwest of Edgerton, on the Clarksville road. The people in the southwestern portion of the township buried there for many years. It is still kept in pretty fair condition. In the eastern part of the township, on the Bryan road, is another cemetery of early origin. It was connected with the first church building erected in the township. The old church fell into decay, and has been torn down, but the cemetery is kept in very good repair, and is still used by the people in that part of the township. Some of those residing in the northwestern part of the township laid their friends away in what is known as the Leonard Graveyard. er in the edge of Indiana.

In the early times, the dead were often buried in some favorite spot at home. Here and there, all over the township, on the farms of the early settlers are these graves-now almost forgotten. The last cemetery located in the township is the one at Edgerton. To this, many of those buried on farms, and in other cemeteries, have been removed. It is the most beautiful in the county, and is kept in excellent condition.

WILD ANIMALS.

Bears, wolves and deer were very abundant. Deer came in upon the wheat-fields in the fall and winter. The pioneers, lying in watch for them on moonlight nights, were able to shoot them with comparative ease, and thus kept up a good supply of venison. It is related by the earlier settlers that deer would venture so near to their buildings that they were able on moonlight nights to shoot them from their barns. Wolves were more cautious, and though they destroyed sheep and made night hideous by their wild howling, yet they were killed in comparatively fewer numbers. The Worthingtons, in St. Joseph Township, and the elder Bush, in Florence, did the largest business in that line. Bears were death on hogs. It was no uncommon thing for the settlers to find some of their hogs killed and partially devoured, or so injured as to die. Daniel Farnham killed one between his house and the farm of the elder John Casebeer. John W. Bowersox killed a very large one on his farm, in the northwest part of the township. Aaron Streets killed one, just north of that, in the edge of Florence Township. It is not related that bears ever attacked any of the

early settlers, though John Wesley Bowersox, a resident of St. Joseph, was once compelled to seek refuge from wolves by climbing a tree, just south of the tamarack swamp, in the south part of Florence Township.

FIRST FAMILIES.

In August, 1835, the following-named persons were residing in this township: The Widow Fee and her children were living on Section 10, in said township; the Widow Craig, on Section 11; George Aucker and Robert McCullough, on Section 15; Solomon Lewis, father of William Lewis, once Sheriff of Williams County, on Section 33; Samuel Holton, on Section 21, and Mr. Haskins on Section 27. Turner Jolly was a young man having no abiding place. A Mr. Talbot was in the township then for a short time, but did not remain. Most of those parties are now dead. Daniel Farnham came in 1835; Judge Parker and David Aucker in 1836; John Bratton, in 1837; John W. Bowersox, Benjamin Cornell, John Cornell and George Long, in 1838. John W. Bowersox, Daniel Farnham and wife, and John Bratton are the last of the grown up persons, then in the township, now remaining. Judge Parker moved into the township from Defiance. He had sold goods in Defiance for a number of years previous. He first came up the river to trade with the Indians. He bought a large tract of land, built a house, and then removed his family. The frame house, built as early as 1836, still stands, and is now occupied by Judge Long. He laid out, at about this time, the village of Denmark. It had its public square, storeroom, ashery and schoolhouse, and in 1840 was quite a village. This was the first village in the township. He had a large family of children, but three of whom grew to womanhood. Mary died unmarried at twenty-four; Urilla married J. S. Stough, M. D., and has since died; Harriet married George E. Long, formerly Probate Judge of the county, and is still living, the last of the family. Daniel Farnham has resided in the township continuously since 1835. He first sold goods for Judge Parker at Denmark. He was married to Miss Caroline Sawyer, at his own house, in 1840, Judge Parker performing the marriage ceremony. A large family of children grew up around them; he owns a large tract of land in the western part of the township, and considerable property in Edgerton. He and the companion of his youth are living in the enjoyment of great plenty in the village of Edgerton. Benjamin Cornell and wife are both gone. George Long lived for many years on his farm three miles north west of Edgerton. He did a mercantile business in part of his dwelling house as early as 1850, and for some years thereafter. He owned and cleared up a large farm on the Bellefontaine road, and later on removed to Edgerton, where he died in 1880. John Bratton still lives on his old farm, one and one-half miles

west of Edgerton. The companion of his youth departed this life in February, 1881, leaving him alone. John W. Bowersox resides on the farm first settled by him in 1838. His wife died many years ago, and he has never remarried. The old log cabin built by him in the fall of 1838, still stands. He lives with his daughter in the enjoyment of plenty of this world's goods, the result of his own hard labors.

David Aucker and wife, who came into the township in 1836, and lived on the river bank just north of Denmark, have both been dead several years. Mr. Blair, father of Seth and Wright Blair, and who resided at Blair's Corners, southwest of Edgerton, died there in 1839 or 1840. He was one of the earliest settlers in that part of the township. John Skelton came into the township from Stark County in 1839, and settled in the northwestern part of the township; he died a number of years ago, and his wife in 1881. Two of his sons live on the old farm, and another in the community.

Jacob Aucker now owns and lives on the farm entered by his parents in 1836. Though but a lad then, he is now comparatively an old man.

INDIAN TRAILS.

These are not well defined in this township. The Bellefontaine road, running from Defiance, Ohio, to Lima, Ind., is said to have been laid and cut out along the line of an Indian trail. It was certainly crooked enough in the beginning to have been laid out in that way. There was another Indian trail leading from where Samuel Holton lived in St. Joseph Township, along the banks of Fish Creek, to where his brother, John Holton, resided in De Kalb County, Ind. This trail has altogether disappeared, nor is there any road running along the line thereof.

BRIDGES.

The first bridge of any consequence in the township was the one across the St. Joseph River at Denmark, Ohio. It fell into decay, and was replaced by a new one, which in its turn gave place to the one that now spans the river at that point. The bridges that obtained in the early times, were those known as corduroy. By this means the new roads. across the swamps and bogs were rendered partially passable.

er.

EARLY TAVERNS.

The first tavern was at Denmark, at the private house of Judge ParkHere the early pioneers stopped and left their families while they explored the wilderness for the lands formerly entered by them. Judge Parker entertained the traveling public for many years, though he never had any hotel building than his private house, still standing. Later on,

George Long fed the traveling public at his house on the Bellefontaine road. Benjamin Cornell, who lived on the Bellefontaine road still nearer the State line, occasionally kept travelers over night. Soon after Edgerton was started, perhaps in 1855, one Mr. Thursby built the large frame hotel now standing in Edgerton, and known as the Arlington. About that time John H. Newman kept hotel on the west side of Michigan avenue, in said village.

ASHERIES.

The first ashery was at Denmark; it was started as early as 1840. It stood west and across the road from the present residence of Judge Long. Not long afterward Daniel Farnham started one on his farm. As he was selling goods at the same time, he did a large business, exchanging goods for ashes. Many years afterward an ashery was started at Edgerton.

MANUFACTORIES.

The only factories of any consequence in this township were the oar factory built in Edgerton along about 1860, the woolen factory started later, and the handle factory located there very recently. The oar factory burned down a few years after it was built; the others are still in operation. Joseph Spindler started a tannery in Edgerton soon after the town was started. He has continued in the business there ever since, making good leather and doing a good business.

VILLAGES AND STORES.

The first village was Denmark, and on the lands originally owned by Judge Parker. The first building was his residence. Its limits were on either side of the Bellefontaine road from near the river to a point west of the residence of Judge Long. It extended north of where his barns now are, the public square being not far from where his new barn stands. West and a little north of said barn was built the first schoolhouse built in the township. There is nothing left to indicate to a stranger that there was once the site of a smart little village. Judge Parker brought on the first stock of goods. Frederick Stevens and John D. Martin had sold goods before this just across the river, on the farm now owned by Mr. Dietsch. Judge Parker kept his first stock of goods in what is now the dining-room of Judge Long's residence. Daniel Farnham clerked for him about four months, in the fall of 1836. storeroom, that stood just west and across the road from Judge Long's residence, and near where a large maple tree now stands. In 1840, Daniel Farnham started a store on his farm. He rafted lumber down the St. Joseph River to Fort Wayne, and with the proceeds purchased his stock of goods. It is said that he kept his first stock of goods in a

Judge Parker then built a