MS 1064 - Deshler Land Company (Henry County, Ohio)
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Title | MS 1064 - Deshler Land Company (Henry County, Ohio) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Subject | Business & Commerce | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Introduction | The Deshler Land Company correspondence covers a period between August 1872 and April 1876. The collection includes roughly 250 letters dealing with the business of the company and is approximately .66 linear foot of material. The documents were originally bound together in a letter book, but for preservation purposes the volume was disassembled. This manuscript collection was donated to the Center for Archival Collections from the Deshler Edwin Wood Memorial Library in June 2007, who in turn received the collection from Inez Butz of Danville, California, in September 1974. No restrictions exist on the use of this collection and duplication is permitted for the purposes of preservation and research. The register was completed by Stephen Badenhop, graduate student of history, Bowling Green State University in July 2007. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Agency History | The Deshler Land Company was established in the early 1870s to found a town at the junction of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, formerly the Dayton & Michigan Railroad, and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in the southeast corner of Bartlow Township in Henry County, Ohio. The area of the future town of Deshler at that time lay in the heart of the Black Swamp and was a wet, tree-covered area. The Dayton & Michigan Railroad was constructed through the area in 1858. During the construction process a reservoir was built to help drain the swamp water and this reservoir became a stopping point along the railroad as a watering point. This stopping place was called Portage at the time, but in 1865 the place was renamed Alma. In 1869 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began looking for prospective sites to build a railroad to Chicago. John G. Deshler, whom Deshler was named after, struck a deal with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He offered to donate the land the railroad company needed to build through southern Henry County, because he held vast land holdings the area. He knew he could profit greatly from the railroad passing through the area, as the value of his land holdings would increase significantly. The railroad accepted Deshler's offer and the Deshler Land Company was organized by John G. Deshler, Frederick H. Short, Daniel McLaren, Stephen S. L'Hommedieu, William Beckett, William E. Boven, Theodore Standwood and John W. Hartwell. The aim of the company was to found a town at the junction of the two railroads. J.S. Alspaugh surveyed the town site in 1873 and on August 23 of that year the town of Deshler was platted. Frederick H. Short, Secretary-Treasurer of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad Company, formerly the Dayton & Michigan Railroad Company, acted as Trustee for the company and was in charge of the selling of the town lots and surrounding company owned lands. In the fall of 1873 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was put through Deshler and in the spring of 1875 the town had a population of 400 persons. The Chicago Inter-Ocean reported in March 1875, that where Deshler now stands...on the B. & O. Road, deer were shot a year ago...though an old station on the Dayton and Michigan road, Deshler amounted to nothing till the B. & O. track reached it fifteen months ago. It was then laid out and began to exhibit ambitious aims. It now has seven or eight stores with two or three more about to open, church and school accommodations, two hotels, shingle and stave factories, and a saw mill and planing mill. A handle factory, a grist mill and from forty to sixty dwelling houses are to go up this season, most of them being already under contract. On April 30, 1876, the town was incorporated and in 1880 had a population of around 750 people, which grew to nearly 1,600 people at the turn of the century. The land company continued on in some form until 1907 when Frederick H. Short, the company trustee, died. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Biographical Sketch | William Beckett (1821-1895) was born March 17, 1821, in Butler County, Ohio, to Robert and Mary Crawford Beckett. He attended Miami University and graduated from there in 1844 with a Batchelor of Arts Degree. Following college he entered into the study of law with John Woods of Hamilton, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1846. While engaged in the study of law he married, Martha Woods, the second daughter of his mentor, on September 22, 1846. To this union eight children were born whole five lived to maturity. Mr. Beckett was "possessed of a tongue which, when engaged in conversation" worked "very smoothly and quite effectively." He found out, however, "that when he arose to address a jury or a public audience, that member utterly refused to perform its proper function, but rater 'clove to the roof of his mouth.'" This caused him to promptly abandon the law profession and in 1848 in partnership with Adam Laurie invested in a paper mill in Hamilton. The mill became an enormous success and he began earnestly speculating in real estate, something he had been doing slightly before he entered the manufacturing business. In 1855 his father-in-law passed away and Beckett inherited a directorship in the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad Company. He served in that capacity for fifteen years. It was during this time that he became a member of the Deshler Land Company. He was a strong supporter of the Republican Party and was a member of the National Republican Convention in 1860 that nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. In 1869 he was induced to run for state senate, but was narrowly defeated. It was also during this same year that a financial crash occurred by which he lost nearly a quarter million dollars. He recovered financially and continued to run his paper mill until his death on November 27, 1895, in Hamilton. John Green Deshler (1819-1878) the son of David W. Deshler and Elizabeth Green was born December 5, 1819, in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Miami University and studied law in Columbus under P.D. Wilcox. It was about this time that he met and married his wife Mary Louise Falconer, daughter of Isaac Falconer, the couple did not have any children, but adopted a daughter Alice. In 1841 he was appointed by President John Tyler to serve as U.S. District Attorney in Iowa. After completing his services there he traveled to Buffalo and entered in the dock firm of Reynolds & Deshler. During his time in Buffalo he served in the New York legislature. Before the outbreak of the Civil War he returned to Ohio and when hostilities broke out between North and South he enlisted on December 18, 1861, in Company K, 56th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After the war he became a director in his father's bank in Columbus, the Franklin National Bank, and began to speculate heavily in real estate. In 1869 upon his father's death he became president of the bank and inherited several of his father's real estate investments including those in Henry County. He continued in the capacity of bank president and land speculator until his death on January 8, 1878. John Hamler (1817-1893) came to Henry County on September 16, 1846, with his wife the former Mary A. Hollingshead, and family. Mr. Hamler was born April 20, 1817, in Marietta, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Alexander and Mary Hamler who followed their son to Henry County. His parents settled in Crawford County about 1836 and shortly thereafter he left home and traveled to Franklin County and engaged in various jobs, while studying in the evenings. In 1842 he returned to Crawford County and began work as a farmer. It was during this time that he married his wife on December 20, 1843. Three years later they made the trip to Henry County and settled on a 160 acre farm. At that time there were only three other families in the township with the nearest trading post was twenty miles and the nearest mill thirty miles. In 1853 he was elected county commissioner and served two three year terms. Following the election of James Buchanan in 1856 he was appointed postmaster of Ridgeland, which he held for four years. He served as township assessor for twenty-four years and also held the position of township clerk and trustee. Upon Hamler's arrival in the county he began serving as a land agent for several individuals among them the Deshler Land Company. His public service and notoriety caused the local citizens to name the town of Hamler in Marion Township after him. He died December 6, 1893, in his home in Hamler. L.S. Holmes (1822-1877) the Toledo Commercial reported was a "senior member of the firm of L.S. Holmes & Sons, came from Massachusetts to Wood county, this State, and engaged in farming, proving himself an esteemed and honored citizen, father and neighbor, and at the same time successful farmer. Impaired health compelled him to select another occupation, and since 1875 the house of L.S. Holmes & Sons has gained an enviable reputation as a first-class business firm for fair dealing on strictly honest principles, and have been the recipients of public trusts and honorable positions." He died at the age of 55 on Monday, August 20, 1877, in Deshler. Addison W. Lee (1829-1911) built the first stave mill in Deshler in 1873. He was born in Huron County, Ohio, on July 14, 1829. He headed to California during the 1848 gold rush and unlike so many others found success in the goldfields. He returned to Ohio and around the time of the Civil War entered the stave mill business forming the partnership of Lee & Weaver in Toledo. He came to Deshler as before stated and opened perhaps the second industry in the new town. The stave mill grew to become one of the "most extensive" in northwest Ohio. Lee became an important financial investor in Deshler and was the proprietor of the Bank of Deshler. He died Tuesday, March 21, 1911, in his room at the Fayram Hotel in Deshler. Stephen Satterly L'Hommedieu (1806-1875) was born January 5, 1806, at Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York. He was the son of Captain Charles L'Hommedieu who immigrated from La Rochelle, France, to the United States. In 1810 the L'Hommedieus moved to Cincinnati and Charles engaged in mercantile and manufacturing businesses. He died in 1813, but before he died he purchased a large tract of land that would eventually become the heart of Cincinnati, which the family kept upon his death. Stephen was raised by his uncle, John C. Avery, and in 1821 began working for the Cincinnati Gazette. A few years later he became a partner in the paper and in 1829 helped it become the first daily paper west of the Alleghany Mountains. He married Alma Hammond in 1830 whose father was chief editor of the Gazette. L'Hommedieu left the paper in 1848 and shortly thereafter was elected President of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company. As President of the company, he was able to raise over a million dollars in capital. The railroad opened for regular service between Cincinnati and Dayton on September 22, 1851, because of his fundraising abilities. He continued in the capacity of company President until July 4, 1871, when he retired from the office. He continued, though, to be an interested member in the railroad company and its business pursuits. He died on May 25, 1875, in West Point, New York. William M. Porter (1826-1874) one of the first land agents for the Deshler Land Company was born in Ohio in 1826. He came to then Alma in the late 1860s where he operated a log cabin hotel and was one of the earliest residents of the future town of Deshler. The telegraph office was run out of his hotel in the early years and given his early residence in the area he became a land agent for the Deshler Land Company. Porter also served as the neighborhood preacher in the days before the establishment of the town. He fell ill with Typhoid Fever in the late winter early spring of 1874 and died abruptly on June 4, 1874, after seeming to recover from his illness. Frederick S. Sherman (1846-1914) was born in May 1846 in the state of New York. He entered Company I, 3rd Ohio Volunteer Cavalry on December 29, 1863, at the age of seventeen. On April 5, 1865, he was wounded in action and consequently discharged on a Surgeon's Certificate of Disability on July 31, 1865. After the war he returned home and on March 28, 1867 married Ruth Adella Haynes. The young couple settled in Grand Rapids, Wood County, Ohio, and in 1874 moved to Deshler. Frederick inquired to Frederick H. Short shortly after his arrival about becoming a land agent for the Deshler Land Company and was accepted as a land agent. He worked as an agent for the company until it end and as a day laborer until his death on July 14, 1914, in Deshler. Frederick Henry Short (1825-1907) Trustee of the Deshler Land Company was born September 2, 1825, in Middletown, Connecticut. His parents died while he was just an infant and he was raised by his aunt and uncle Mr. and Mrs. Joseph E. Lathrop. His uncle worked as a local school teacher and Frederick received an early education. When he turned twenty-one he traveled to Northampton and while there became a clerk in a store. While employed there James Lyman of the Connecticut River Railroad took notice of him and offered him a job on the railroad. He worked as clerk for Josiah Hunt the railroad superintendent for two years. He then requested an out-door position and consequently became a conductor. Following this he traveled to New York in December 1851 and became acquainted with Stephen S. L'Hommedieu, who as President of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, had just completed that rail line. L'Hommedieu hired Short as a clerk in the General Office and he arrived in Cincinnati on January 31, 1852, to assume the position. While working in there he married Semele Reeder Bloomer of Hamilton, Ohio, on January 29, 1856. The couple did not have any children other than Semele's son Frank Bloomer from a previous marriage. Short worked in the General Office until May 1857 when he was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the railroad. In the fall of 1872 the Deshler Land Company was formed and Short was chosen as company Trustee. Shortly, thereafter the financial panic of 1873 struck and his administrative efforts during the panic were greatly commended by his peers. In April 1874 he became President of the railroad and held the position until he resigned on June 14, 1877. He then reverted back to his old office of Secretary-Treasurer a position that he held almost to the day of his death on August 24, 1907, in Cincinnati. Silas Davis Stearns (1835-1918) was born in Montgomery Township, Wood County, Ohio, to Justice B. Stearns and Sarah A. Davis on August 9, 1835. On February 26, 1865, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Company K, 185th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served until the end of the war. He returned to Wood County after the war and took up farming once again. The coming of the B. & O. Railroad through southern Wood and Henry County caused him, along with his father and brother Josiah to speculate in land, as they realized the potential for great profit. Silas came to Deshler in 1872 and constructed a large saw mill at the future site of Deshler. He worked in conjunction with the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, as he filled orders for them. This relationship with the railroad and his business interests in the area caused the railroad to select him as one of their land agents. He built a large house in Deshler at the corners of East Avenue and Maple Street. On February 8, 1875, Stearns along with his father and brother platted a large edition to the northeast corner of the village. Before the outbreak of the Civil War he married his first wife Hannah Jordan in 1859 and with her had six children. Shortly after the birth of their sixth child in August 1875 Mrs. Stearns died from Typhoid Fever on November 18, 1875. The following year Silas remarried to Jennie S. Newton and with her had four more children. However, late in the decade the families' initial land speculating and business ventures came to naught and Silas left Deshler heading west. Silas and family end-up settling in Bellingham, Washington around 1880. He resided in the area until his death on Mary 13, 1918, at the Soldiers' Home in Orting, Washington. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Scope and Content | The Deshler Land Company correspondence consist of both originals and transcripts of approximately 250 letters written between land agents, prospective property purchasers and members of the land company. Most of the letters are addressed to Frederick H. Short, Secretary-Treasurer and later President of the Dayton and Michigan Railroad, who served as Trustee for the land company. He was the individual in control of the financing, selling and deeding of the property in the town of Deshler and the surrounding company owned lands in southern Henry and Wood Counties. The letters mostly deal with inquiries of purchasing property and the purchase of property in the town of Deshler and the costs associated with making such purchases. The selling of town lots and the payments through the various land agents, Silas D. Stearns, William Porter, Frederick S. Sherman, L.S. Holmes and John Hamler, make up a majority of the collection. The crux of the collection focuses, however, on improving the town of Deshler and "building up" the budding speculative town. This process was done through various deals and bargains struck with prospective business interests - hotels, churches, stave mills and grist mills - that would help the town grow and encourage people to settle there, which in effect would guarantee the future success and permanence of Deshler. The Land Company letters show the operations of a mid to late nineteenth century land company. It shows the process how such companies typically worked and how the agents dealt among themselves and communicated with the members of the company. Anyone interested in land companies, the developmental founding of towns or the history of the Deshler area would find this collection both intriguing and fascinating. The original letter collection was bound together in a letter book format. This book was disassembled for archival purposes and each letter was placed in a folder in the original order it had been in the letter book. Letters 1 to 197 were individually numbered and a senders' index was compiled. This index is placed at the beginning of the collection and the corresponding numbers in that index are placed in [ ] at the end of the matching folder inventory item. Letters that have letter head are so noted with the information in the letter heading placed after the senders name in ( ). After giving the full letter head once the heading is thereafter abbreviated. Index of Names
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Series Description | CORRESPONDENCE CORRESPONDENCE - VARIOUS INDIVIDUALS TO FREDERICK H. SHORT CORRESPONDENCE - MISCELLANEOUS LEGAL DOCUMENTS AGREEMENT PRINTED MATERIAL BROADSIDE ARTIFACTS BOOK COVER | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Inventory | Box 1 Folder
Box 2 Folder
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