DELPHOS HISTORY 1902

DELPHOS, on the border line of Van Wert and Allen counties, and on the T. St. L. and K. C.; P. Ft. W. and C.; D. Ft. W. and C.; C. and W.; P. and C. railroads, lies within the oil and gas belt of Northwestern Ohio, seventy-four miles southwest of Toledo, and in a country of great fertility. The Miami and Erie canal divides the town into two nearly equal parts. The post-office is in Van Wert county.

Newspapers: Courant, E. B. Walkup, editor; Herald, Democratic, Tolan &, Son, editors and proprietors. Churches: one Presbyterian, two Methodist, one United Brethren, one Catholic, one Christian, one Reformed, one Lutheran.

Banks: Commercial, R. K. Lytle, president, W. H. Fuller, cashier; Delphos National, Theo. Wrocklage, president, Jos. Boehmer, cashier.

Manufactures and Employees.—The Ohio Wheel Company, 62 hands; Hartwell Bros., handles, neck-yokes, etc., 14; Delphos Union Stave Company, 23; Pittsburg Hoop and Stave Company, 50; L. F. Werner, woolen yarns, flannels, etc., 8; Steinle & Co., lager beer, 60; Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City R. R., car repairs, 100; Weyer & Davis, hoops, etc., 17; Shenk & Lang, Miller & Morton, flour, etc.; Krift & Ricker, D. Moening, builders’ wood-work.—State Report 1887. Also Empire Excelsior Works, Delphos Chemical Works, pearl ash, etc. Population in 1880, 3,814. School census in 1886; 782; E. W. Greenslade, principal.

Delphos was laid out in 1845, directly after the opening of' the Miami and Erie canal. The different portions of it were originally known as Section 10, Howard, and East and West Bredeick. Its general name for many years was Section 10.

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 forest 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 Maumee Valley," published in 1872, has these interesting items:

"The great forest, one 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 equaling 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 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."

Information from Historical Collections of Ohio, by Henry Howe, LL.D., copyright 1888 reprinted 1902

Submitted by Ronald Kunz, rkunz@woh.rr.com

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