SENECA TOWNSHIP

The present town of Seneca was part and parcel of Fairfield up to 1836, which also embraced Medina (since set off), as well as town 9 south, 1 east, the disputed Ohio territory out of which grew the “Toledo War.” For a year after the divorce of Medina the fractional Ohio strip remained under the jurisdiction of Seneca; after which time it was legally united to Medina. Two settlements were made in the town almost simultaneously; one known as Hayward’s in the east part of the town, and the other in the western portion, led by Gersham Bennett and others. However, it is believed that Archibald Brower and Roswell J. Hayward, who settled in 1833, built the first houses in the Township. Among other early pioneers we mention Jacob Baker, Simon Wilson, Micajah Hayward, Amos Samuel, and Richard Kinney, Dennis Wakefield, Jefferson Dunn, John Knapp, Stephen Spear, John Stockwell, etc. After their advent the town settled up quite rapidly. In 1834 Simon Wilson and a few others cut a road from the southwest part of town to the Hayward settlement, thus opening communication between the two points. The first town-meeting was held at the house of Jacob Baker, on the first Monday in May, 1836, of which meeting Elias J. Baldwin was Moderator, and by which he was chosen the first Supervisor; J. H. Sweeny, Treasurer; and Simon D. Wilson, Town Clerk. The Highway Commissioners for that year were John Knapp, William Lee, and Amos Franklin. The first magistrates of Seneca were E. J. Baldwin, Cook Hotchkiss, Alanson Briggs, and William Lee, the last two residing in town 9 south 1 east.

The year 1835 was a trying one to the settlers; there was a great scarcity of provisions, so much so that many persons went up to the Adrian settlement and procured materials to make nets, and therewith caught fish from Bean Creek, which were unusually plenty that year. Beside these mullets they had little to eat; some of the settlers even dug up the potatoes they had recently planted, in order to keep from starving. Wolves were plenty, and many thrilling stories are told of them, or held in memory by the first settlers. E. J. Baldwin tells of being followed in the fall of 1836 by a pack of wolves all the way from the woods south of Morenci, where he was erecting a log house for his future home, up to the very door of the house in the village; where he was temporarily stopping. But the wolf bounty soon thinned them off.

Archie Brower’s first wife was the pioneer white woman of Seneca, and Alma Brower the first birth. The first victim of the King of Terrors was Judith P. Hayward, who died in January, 1835. The first weddings in the two respective settlements of Seneca were celebrated over the nuptials of H. N. Wilson and Phebe Wakefield, in 1836, and Stephen Hayward and Jane Sanger in January, 1837. James H. Sweeney was the first disciple of Esculapius, and he had plenty of ague patients in those days. The first school-house was erected in the spring of 1835. The Methodist denomination were the first religious society to organize, and they erected the first church in 1841, in Morenci Village. The first saw-mill was set in motion in 1835, and the grist-mill at Morenci, which for twenty-two years has been grinding away, is probably the oldest flouring-mill. William Sutton was “mine host” of the first tavern, established at Morenci in 1836, and whose sign-board was a barrel-head nailed to a post. In 1836 Jeph Whitman built a log store where Morenci now stands.

Seneca derives its name from Seneca, New York, form which point many of her citizens emigrated. It is a good farming county, grain being the chief production, and woolen goods the principal-manufacture; these articles, together with butter and cheese, being the leading exports. The dairy interest is increasing fast, there being now three cheese-factories in the town, whose aggregate production for 1873 was about 250,000 pounds. In the Township there are five churches, representing the Methodist, Baptist, United Brethren, and Congregational denominations. At Morenci is located D. C. Gillis’s cheese factory, only established in 1873, but already doing a flourishing business.

Morenci, the only village in Seneca, is said to contain about 1500 inhabitants, and is situated on the Tiffin River, near the Ohio State line, in the southwest corner of the town. It was settled in 1835, and incorporated in 1871; contains two hotels, four churches, a number of stores and factories, and since the opening of the Canada Southern Railroad bids fair to grow, and become a very considerable village and trading point.