Events in the Life of One Family and Surrounding Neighborhood

(Samuel J. Bretz, Richfield Township, 1865-1909)

A virgin oak forest in late April in the daylight is beautiful. The forest floor is covered with an array of wildflowers, fern fronds are pushing through the dead leaves - cocoons are ready to burst, bird songs are the sweetest. Animal life has awakened but insects are not yet a bother. This must have been the setting when our 37 year-old great-grandfather, Samuel Bretz, his wife, Anna, and two sons, Dow and George crossed Beaver Creek on a wooden log bridge to enter northeastern Richfield Township (now Sec. 10-11) by way of the Wapakoneta Trail (now 1C) in 1865. They brought their chosen possessions in a horse-drawn wagon followed by their livestock to 180 acres purchased from Jonas Miller. At the top of a hill was a log cabin and stable on four acres of cleared land. For a few days, the two families stayed together until the Millers could make arrangements to move. At night, timber wolves howled loudly.

Franklin, Elma, Cecil, and Samuel J. Bretz

Grandfather Bretz was a fourth generation American. His ancestors first came to Lancaster Co., Pa., as German immigrants in the 1730's and in the early 1800's after a new road was completed called Zane's Trace from Wheeling, W. Va., to Maysville, Ky., the families moved in seven tonned Conestoga wagons to New Lancaster, Ohio - Fairfield Co., a distance of 400 to 450 miles. Later on, his branch of the family moved to Seneca Co., Ohio. Both great-grandparents were born there and spent some time as a young married couple in Iona, Michigan, and Milton Twp., Wood Co., Ohio, until the lure of the mature oak stand of trees in Richfield Twp. brought them here as Samuel was a timberman. All of the land seven miles to the west was solidly forested at this time.

After the family was settled, Samuel Mahler, a neighbor lad of nineteen, came to live for a number of years working with grandfather to make railroad ties out of the oak trees to be hauled by a horse and wagon to a distribution point at Milton Center, Ohio. The trees were felled by hand with a regular chopping ax and then markedand split square with a broad ax. The railroad tie would look like it had gone through the mill as the sides were so square. The logs were lifted onto a wagon with a skid and log chain. Poles were placed on one side so the logs would not role off on the workers. The horses were trained to obey exactly - "Giddap" - "Whoa." In winter the logs were moved by sled.

Samuel Bretz was considered to be one of the best ax-men in the area but he felt inferior to the expert French Canadians who worked out the huge oaks (some four foot across) for ship timbers that their companies had bought. It was said they could shave with their axes. The wagon wheels on their wagons were eight foot high.

After ten acres of land would be cleared, it was fenced in with split rail fences (using another acre of trees for the fence) to keep the animals out as they roamed the forest freely foraging for themselves. Grandfather's lead cow was white and short-legged and walked with a real swaying motion so that her bell could be heard well to be located at milking time.

Farming was done with a one shovel plow, a horse, and a hand planter. At first the stumps covered as much territory as the soil but eventually, of course, the stumps rotted down. Corn was hand planted around them and cultivated with a shovel plow. Corn was never sold in town as today but buyers would come to the farm and buy it by 100 wt. as weighed on a platform scales. Most of it was fed to the horses and Grandfather gave some to his cows although it was not the custom. When grain was harvested, the first threshing was done by having a horse walk around and around a gear contraption which only knocked the heads off. It was then run through a fanning mill to separate the grain and hulls.

Samuel Mahler's parents told our grandparents about life in the neighborhood when they first came in the 1840's. There were not many families so they were somewhat isolated. Tall poles had to be kept around the pigpen to keep the bears out. Deer were not seen at all because with no underbrush and big, tall trees there was no food for

them. Indians lived at Belmore, Ohio, in the winter and took the Wapakoneta Trail (which meandered in from the southwest across our grandfather's property and followed Beaver Creek) to the Maumee River to pick berries in the summer. One day, Mrs. Mahler was near the trail when she saw Indians coming on their ponies. She drew her children to her and hid behind a big tree. Indians had keen senses and as each went by he said, "How Squaw! How Squaw!"

Beaver Creek which is formed from two branches (one near 65 and one near the Deshler Road) which come together near 281 today is thought to have come by its name because a family named Beaver lived near it rather than after the animal as one might guess.

Many families moved in to the higher ridges along this trail. (Mute evidence of two homes in the 1930's in the pasture field were yellow and pink rosebushes, asparagus beds, and large stones covering old well sites.) Most had large families.

The neighborhood children attended a one room school on a hill (corner of Co. Rd. L and 1C). Approximately one hundred were enrolled but the system was for older children to attend school for four months in the winter with a schoolmaster and the younger children attended summers for four months usually with a schoolmistress in charge. Children of intermediate age could go to both sessions if they wished. Attendance was irregular as most had home responsibilities also. One had the privilege of attending until age twenty-one. The teacher boarded with some family who lived near the school. When young Eddie M., a neighbor boy, was old enough to start school, his mother walked him there personally. She said, "Now, you stay here Eddie!" "I won't!" answered Ed. "You will, or I'll use a switch," said his mother. "I won't," said Ed, stubbornly. However, he stayed until noon the first day and all day thereafter.

A general store was located on the trail just east of the farm. It was run by Mr. Mahler's son-in-law. (Eventually it became our maternal grandfather's woodshed.)

Northeast of this property and across Beaver Creek is the Angel Cemetery - now abandoned and overgrown. The tombstones that are readable show that it was used from the1830's to 1871. It was named for a family that lived south of there. When funeral caravans went there, the horses walked, never trotted, as it was felt this was the respectable way to do. Otherwise it might appear that there was a big hurry to get rid of the deceased for some reason.

A Lutheran church was just across the road in Wood Co. at what is now M and 1C with a graveyard just beyond it. After Bethany Christian Church was built in 1888, most people went there or to Laramore Church which were three miles apart on the Deshler Road. Services were every two or three weeks when a circuit minister would be able to ride through. Each year, revival meetings lasting for a period of two to five weeks were held and families then had the option of attending two or three services a day. Singing schools were also held at the churches and a local band was formed.

In 1873, Samuel sold forty acres to Charles Kistner as he had decided it was time to build a frame house for his family. (Our grandfather, Franklin was born in the log cabin in 1866.) The oak logs from the farm were cut into lumber at the Talmage Mill about one half mile away. The carpenters stayed at the site while the building was put up. Cooking and heating could now be done by using stoves. Screening for windows was not introduced until the early 1900's so insect pests were a problem.

After the land was surveyed for roads and ditches, tiling was done with oak boxes shaped in a V-trough. Crayfish worked on them and spoiled a lot of them.

Just across the ditch south of Samuel's buildings (which were seven miles north of Deshler), at Deshler, and seven miles south of Deshler was the property surveyed for the B & O Railroad line.

Grandfather Samuel was somewhat progressive for his day. He is supposed to have been the first farmer to plant red clover in Richfield Twp. He sent away for the first purebred Plymouth Rock chickens. His specialty was Rhode Island Reds though, and each spring fifteen hens set at one time in the brooding shanty. They were notorious for wanting to set and spent some time in the "jail" to get over their maternal instincts each year.

Seeds, eggs for setting and other supplies were delivered by train to Custar on the CH&D Railroad line (Cincinnati-Hamilton-Dayton Line). One person manned a hand pump to pump water for the engine when it stopped.

When illness struck in the early days, the services of a local woman who was a herb doctor living on the Trail were sought. Later on, it was common to have two or three doctors available from each town. One had to ride by horse to get the doctor. Neighbors helped each other nurse the sick also. When Augue (Malaria) struck, the chilled patient felt sick enough to die the first day, a little better the second day, and on the third day would be able to do a few chores and chop some wood. The fourth day was the beginning of the cycle all over again. Some people kept quinine on the table and dipped their knife in it after a meal believing it helped to ward it off.

Gradually the land was cleared of timber except for an area of 40 acres left for a woodlot for sheep grazing (and young cattle) in summer. The largest trees were taken out. Some trees were left at selected sites in fields so that a man and his horses could rest in the shade on hot summer days.

The farm was meant to be a self-sufficient unit. The out-buildings were: a barn (raised in 1888), granary, shed for butchering (and a workbench area), two chicken coops, carriage house for the buggies, corncrib, john, and a long shed for keeping the sheep and younger animals sheltered in winter. A woodhouse was attached to the home.

A large garden, an orchard with all types of small fruited trees, quince, pear, and apples for all purposes (applesauce, baking, eating, thickening for apple butter) - these provided the bounty for home preservation for winter as well as fresh eating. Because of the fruit orchards, many warblers lived there every summer. The Baltimore Orioles with their swinging nests were especially enjoyed.

Grandfather had several acres of commercial orchards where two kinds of apples - Pippin and Baldwin -were raised. These apple types could be handled without bruising badly and would last until spring. The apples were packed in wooden barrels using straw for cushioning. Sometimes the family packed them and later on, they were purchased as a unit and the buyer would hire his own workers to pick and pack them. Cider apples were also purchased from Samuel and so he would rent his apple butter kettle out for a quarter a day.

Left to right: Elma, Franklin, Minnie, Cecil, and Samuel J. Bretz.

One year when George was sixteen, he decided to try to train two of their heavier beef cattle calves to work as oxen. A small yoke was made for them. They responded well and as they outgrew that yoke a much larger one was made. Someone came along and offered a large sum of money for them so the oxen yoke was used just once.

Although Grandfather did use horses in the woods, the Pugh family (1C) used oxen both in the dense woods and in their stone quarry. Because one chain was used at the top of the yoke it did not tangle as much as the four tugs and doubletrees did when using horses to pull.

Flour and cornmeal were ground at the mill at Grand Rapids, 0. which is seven miles north of the farm on the Wapakoneta Trail. Store-bought goods for clothing was used (homespun days were gone for most by then). Rag carpeting was woven on looms though, and laid over fresh straw each year to cover the floors.

Because the home was located at a strategic location, many travelers would stop there to eat a meal or stay for the night. This earned the nickname "Bretzes' Tavern" among the neighbors.

Any neighbor going to Milton Center would pick up everyone's mail and deliver it personally. Mail delivery and the telephone came later, about 1906.

One year, a quite large snow came in May. It caused the branches to fall in the woods as the young men went hunting for the cows that had decided not to come home the night before. The fruit trees in the orchards had to have all of their blossoms brushed off, but it did not spoil the crop.

In March, 1896, Great-grandmother Anna died of Bright's Disease. In honor of her, a gray shirt was worn on weekdays and a black velveteen shirt on Sundays by Samuel for the rest of his life. He gave up their idea of returning to Seneca County saying, "We got stuck in the mud and couldn't get out."

Our grandfather Franklin, his wife, Minnie and daughter, Elma moved from a small house nearby to the larger home and lived as a three generation family unit. Our father, Cecil, was born in 1898 in the downstairs bedroom of the farm house.

Samuel spent his last years planting and tending the garden, chopping wood for the stoves, and creating a magnificent flower bower in the door-yard. All kinds of bushes and vines were planted for ornamentation and to screen areas that might be unsightly from the road. A pretty footbridge was built across the ditch with lilac bushes on either side. Sweetpeas and hollyhocks covered the ditchbank. Wildflowers such as columbine and spider-wort were reintroduced to the door-yard in flower beds. Pine trees were planted on the front lawn and a lacey variety of tree called a tammarack.

The powerful, muscular shoulders of the woodsman evident in a reunion photograph in 1887 had shriveled with old age but he was certainly still spry.

Sometimes he took his grandchildren to town in the surrey or buggy to run errands. One time, about 1902, Elma, Cecil, and he went to Weston to visit the other grandfather. On a country road, a butcher boy dressed in his white uniform was riding his bicycle out to a farm to get some fresh meat for his shop in Custar. His strange garb frightened Grandfather's horse and they all landed upside down in the ditch but fortunately no one was injured.

Samuel and Anna's three sons married and two eventually went in other directions. Dow, the eldest, farmed for some years, then moved to Napoleon as county clerk for one or two terms, then became justice of the peace.

George, the middle son, taught at various country schools, then became a Baptist minister, and loving to travel, gradually moved in circuits westward until he finally became the minister in a large Baptist Church called "Church of the Angels" in Los Angeles, California. Franklin remained on the family farm.

The close, "best friends" relationship between a grandfather and his grandson ended when Samuel slumped over of a stroke when dressing one December morning in 1909. This man who had created an extraordinary flower showplace asked to have just one sheaf of wheat placed on his casket. At eighty-one years and three months of age he was carried in a glass domed hearse pulled by two strong horses to the Weston Cemetery to lie beside his beloved Anna. His grandson can still hear the dirt hitting the metal casket as they stood bundled against the bitter cold.

Meanwhile, during the afternoon of that day, our father's future bride, seven year old Mary Elizabeth, the oldest child in the lively family across the field, led her playmates on a grand imaginary journey. They had the washroom filled with chairs turned backwards for a coach while she whipped the gallant horses to gallop faster.

Compiled by Martin Bretz and Ruth Bretz Kieffer from the stories told to them by their father, Cecil.