GETTYSBURG is on the C. St. L. & P. R. R., 87 miles west of Columbus. It is the shipping point for a very productive surrounding wheat country. Newspapers: School Visitor, educational, John S. Royer, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, and 1 German Lutheran. It is some

ARCANUM, about 80 miles west of Columbus, at the intersection of the D. & U. and I. B. & W. Railroads, is surrounded by a fine farming district, and is a point of shipment for a large part of the tobacco crop of the county, of which the crop is generally immense. Newspaper: Tribune, Democrat, S. M. Kemble, editor. Churches: 1 Methodist, 1 United Baptist, 1 German Reformed. It has two good natural gas wells and more are being put down. Milling, wood work and tile making are the main industries.

Population in 1880, 778. School census in 1886, 335.

VERSAILLES is on the C. C. C. & T. R. R. It has one newspaper, Policy, Independent. Central Bank, J. R. Jackson, president; J. W. Starbuck, cashier. Census in 1880, 1,163. School census in 1886, 433; W. W. Long, superintendent. This village was laid out in 1819 by Silas Atchison under the name of Jacksonville.

The Hardshell Baptists, says the county historian, built here in 1823 the second church erected in the county. As their rules required every applicant for membership to give in a brief experience as a test of his fitness for admission, he relates this as an illustration. A person living up the creek by the name of Stoner it appears, notwithstanding his hard name, was a little soft. Nevertheless, he wanted to join the church. He rose in the congregation and thus began: "I got up this mornin', greased my shoes, combed my head and started to meetin'. As I was a

comin' along I saw a tree; I says to myself, Kin one man pull that ar tree up? No! Kin two men pull that ar tree up? No! Kin three men pull that ar tree up? No! Kin ten men pull that ar tree up? No! Kin twenty men pull that ar tree up? No! Kin God Almighty pull that tree up? Yes! I feel like suthin' is going to happen.' He sat down. The preacher rose and said: "Brethren, extend the right hand of fellowship to Brother Stoner, for this is the true blatin' of the lamb.'

ANSONIA, about 90 miles west of Columbus, on Stillwater creek, and at intersection of the C. C. C. & I. and C. V. W. & M. Railroads, is in the centre of a grain-raising district. Newspaper: Mirror, Independent, Frank H. Jobes, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Christian, 1 German Lutheran. The Ansonia Stave Co., employing 18 hands, is the largest industry. Population in 1880, 542.

UNION CITY is on three railways and in two States, Indiana and Ohio; two counties, Randolph, Ind., and Darke, Ohio, and has two village corporations with corresponding sets of officials. In 1880 the population of the Indiana side was 2,478, Ohio side, 1,127; total, 3,605. Union City was platted in 1852, and the place has grown up in consequence of railroads. The industries here are woodenware, staves, tubs, pails, clamps, broom handles, trunk slats, shingles, heading, hubs, spokes, chairs, also drain tile, etc. It is also a prominent point for the manufacture of flour and the purchase and shipment of grain.

DEFIANCE.

DEFIANCE COUNTY was erected March 4, 1845, from Williams, Henry and Paulding, and named from Fort Defiance. It is watered by the Auglaize, the Tiffin and the Maumee; this last-named stream was anciently called "Miami of the Lake," and sometimes "Omee." The Maumee is navigable by steamers, in high water, to Fort Wayne, and in ordinary stages to that place for keel boats carrying sixty tons. The Auglaize is navigable for keel boats to Wapakoneta, and the Tiffin, which is a narrow, deep stream, is navigable, for pirogues of a few tons, about fifty miles. Prior to the building of the Wabash canal, Northern Indiana received a large part of its supplies by the Maumee. Much of this county is within the Black Swamp region, and where cleared and drained as fertile perhaps as the famed valley of the Nile. It was covered by abundant forests of oak, hickory, ash, and elm and other trees, mostly of gigantic size, rendering the clearing away a heavy labor. Area 304 squares miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated

were 113,070; pasture, 12,019; woodland, 65,823; lying waste, 906; produced in wheat, 342,352 bushels; oats, 242,330; corn, 650,887; wool, 66,570 pounds. School census 1886, 8,028; teachers, 148. It has 49 miles of railroad.

Population of the county in 1840 was 2,818; in 1850, 6,966; in 1860, 11,983; in 1870, 15,719; and in 1880, 22,515, of whom 16,711 were Ohio-born; 1,780 born in Germany; 867 Pennsylvania; and 553 New York.

The annexed plan and description of Fort Defiance is found in the memoranda of Benj. Van Cleve, communicated by his son, John W. Van Cleve, of Dayton, to the American Pioneer.

AUGLAIZE R.

At each angle of the fort was a block-house. The one next the Maumee is marked A, having port-holes, B, on the three exterior sides, and door D and chimney C on the side facing to the interior. There was a line of pickets on each side of the fort, connecting the block-houses by their nearest angles. Outside of the pickets and around the block-houses was a glacis, a wall of earth eight feet thick, sloping upwards and outwards from the feet of the pickets, supported by a log wall on the side of the ditch and by fascines, a wall of fagots, on the side next the Auglaize. The ditch, fifteen feet wide and eight feet deep, surrounded the whole work except on the side toward the Auglaize; the diagonal pickets, eleven feet long and one foot apart, were secured to the log wall and projected over the ditch. E and E were gateways. F was a bank of earth, four feet wide, left for a passage across the ditch. G was a falling gate or drawbridge, which was raised and lowered by pullies, across the ditch, covering it or leaving it uncovered at pleasure. The officers' quarters were at H, and the storehouses at I. At K, two lines of pickets converged toward L, which was a ditch eight feet deep, by which water was procured from the river without exposing the carrier to the enemy. M was a small sand-bar at the point.

FORT DEFIANCE.

The lands now embraced within Defiance county were ceded by the Indians to the United States by the treaty of Sept. 29, 1817, at the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie. Surveys were made from the Indiana line east to the line of the Western Reserve and south to the Greenville treaty line. The base line of this survey is the 41st degree of north latitude and it is also the south line of the Connecticut Western Reserve. On the 12th of February, 1820, the legislature of Ohio passed an act erecting these ceded lands "into fourteen separate and distinct counties.'

Among these was Williams county. When Williams was organized in 1824 Henry, Paulding and Putnam counties were attached to it for judicial purposes, with the town of Defiance as the county-seat of Williams county, and it so remained for many years, when Bryan, then covered with a dense forest, was selected as the site of the new county-seat of Williams. Dissatisfaction with this change led to the creation of Defiance county, with Defiance as the seat of justice.

The nucleus of the early settlement of these counties was at Defiance, and it was chiefly settled in what now constitutes Defiance county by those who were active in the early official life of Williams county.

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The first court-house (a brick structure) for Williams county was, as late as 1883, standing on the banks of the Maumee in Defiance and used as a private dwelling. A large part of the settlers of Defiance county were Germans. Many were laborers upon the railroads, who remained and took up lands.

DEFIANCE IN 1846.-Defiance, the county-seat, is on the south bank of the Maumee, at its junction with the Auglaize, on the line of the canal, 152 miles northwest of Columbus, 58 from Toledo and 50 from Fort Wayne. It was laid out in 1822 by Benj. Level and Horatio G. Philips and contains 1 Methodist and 1 Catho

lic church, 5 mercantile stores and a population of about 700. It is destined, from its natural position, to be, when the country is fully settled, a large and flourishing place; it already has an extensive trade with a large district of country. Defiance is on the site of a large Indian settlement, which extended for miles up and down the

river. Gen. Wayne, on his advance march, arrived at this place Aug. 8, 1794. His army found it surrounded by a highly cultivated country, there being vegetables of every kind in abundance, and not less than one thousand acres of corn around the Indian town, besides immense apple and peach orchards. It had been a great trading point between the Canadian French and the Indians. On the 9th of August Wayne commenced the erection of a fort, which he called Fort Defiance. The army remained here several days and then moved northward, and on the 20th routed the Indians at the Maumee rapids. On their return they completed the fortress. Fort Defiance was built at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee, traces of which work are now plainly discernible. The situation is beautiful and commanding: it is indicated in the view of Defiance by the flag shown on the left. Gen. Winchester, previous to his defeat at the river Raisin, in the war of 1812, encamped in a picketed fort, which he built on the Auglaize, about 100 yards south of the other and named Fort Winchester.

Defiance is 115 miles northwest of Columbus and 49 southwest of Toledo, at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee, formerly called "The Miami of the Lake," rivers. It is on the line of the W. St. L. & P. R. R. and the B. & O. & C. R. R. County officers in 1888: Probate Judge, John H. Bevington; Clerk of the Court, Simon M. Cameron; Sheriff, Henry Wonderly; Prosecuting Attorney, John W. Winn; Auditor, Wyatt T. Hill; Treasurer, John F. Dowe; Recorder, Geo. A. Heatley; Surveyor, Martin W. Steinberger; Coroner, D. P. Aldrich ; Commissioners, Jacob Karst, David Miller, Frank J. Clemmer. Newspapers: Defiance County Express, Rep., Jos. Ralston, proprietor; Democrat, Dem., W. G. Blymer, editor; Weekly Herald, Dem., German, J. A. Diendorfer, editor; Local News, Rep., Aaron F. Schrack, editor. Churches: 1 Presbyterian, 1 Baptist, 1 Episcopal, 2 Catholic, 2 Methodist Episcopal, 1 German, and 1 English, 2 Lutheran, 1 Albright Methodist and 1 United Brethren. Banks: Defiance National, James A. Orcutt, president, Edward Squire, cashier; Merchants' National, Wm. C. Holgate, president, E. P. Hooker, cashier.

Industries and Employees.-Karst & Fenger, doors, sash, etc., 34 hands; Burgland & Shead, butter tubs, etc., 69; Defiance Woollen Mills, 37; Defiance Machine Works, wood-working m chinery, 176; Corwin & Kiser, carriages, etc., 10; Kuhn Brothers, tobacco boxes and lumber, 75; Christ. Diehl, beer, 13; Turnbull Wagon Co., wagons and agricultural supplies, 190; L. Archembeault, wagons, etc., 5; Peter Schlosser & Son, carriages, etc., 20; C. Geiger & Son, furniture, 36; Wilhelm & Son, flour, etc., 12; Levi & Ginsburg, cigars, 32; Defiance Paper Co., wrapping paper, 25; John Marshall, lumber, etc., 11; J. V. Olds, spokes and hubs, 11; George H. Dicus, cooperage, 15; Alexander Friedman, cigars, 5; Arbuckle, Ryan & Co., flour, etc., 13; Oconto Box and Barrel Co., barrels and boxes, 40; Marshall and Greenlen, hoops and staves, 36; D. F. Holston & Son, hoops, 65; Crowe & Hooker, hoops and staves, 53; John Rowe & Son, hoops; Trowbridge & Eddy, staves and heading, 65.-State Report for

1887.

Population in 1880, 5,907. School census in 1886, 2,113; C. W. Butler, superintendent.

From early times Defiance has been an important historical point. It occupies the site of the ancient "Tu-en-da-wie" of the Wyandot and "En-sa-woc-sa” of the Shawnee. Wm. C. Holgate, in an address before the Historical Society of the Maumee Valley, describes it as the heart of the Indian nations, the great centre where the ancient races came to live, trade and counsel. He ascribes it to the peculiar topography of the Maumee valley, extending 100 miles east and west and 100 miles north and south, of which Defiance is the centre. The valley is the territory drained by the Maumee and its tributaries, which consists of about twelve counties in Ohio and parts of Michigan and Indiana. The chief tributary streams from the north, the Little St. Joseph and the Tiffin, originate in Hillsdale county, Mich., about fifty miles north of Defiance. All these streams