Rozell and Voorhies Pioneers of Wolf Creek

In the years leading up to the establishment of Bettsville, Charles Rozell lived in a primitive cabin he had built next to the West Branch of Wolf Creek a few miles west of its confluence with the Sandusky River in northwest Ohio. The New Jersey native arrived in March of 1831, having purchased a plot of 80 acres in Jackson Township, Sandusky County, near the Seneca County line, on which he planned to establish his homestead. The township had been organized just two years earlier and was named in honor of Andrew Jackson, President of the United States at that time. The area was largely uninhabited when Rozell arrived. After exhausting nearly all of his savings on this piece of land and a pair of oxen, the 27 year-old tapped into his pioneer spirit during that spring and summer, clearing enough trees and brush in order to erect his cabin, establish a vegetable garden, and cultivate a small cornfield.

Computer generated depiction

At the end of the summer, satisfied that the wild lot had been adequately tamed, Charles sent for his wife Catherine and their two young daughters, Susan and Martha. They were escorted to Ohio by his brother Isaac, following the Hudson River to Albany and then cruising in comfort along the recently completed Erie Canal all the way to Buffalo. They sailed across Lake Erie, probably to the Sandusky Bay, for their rendezvous with Charles and a day or two of overland travel. Upon arrival at their cabin, it's safe to assume Catherine was both relieved and unimpressed.

But Charles and Catherine worked diligently to provide for themselves and their family. The nearest settlement with a grist mill and provisions was Lower Sandusky about nine miles away. Roads were little more than paths, and to make matters worse, much of northwest Ohio to west of the Sandusky River was mosquito-plagued marshland, the Great Black Swamp. Most potential settlers opted out because of the poor drainage and the flat and boggy terrain left behind by the receding glaciers of the last ice age. For this reason, the northwest counties were the last in Ohio to be settled, and only by the hardiest of pioneers.

Location of Rozell purchase in the Great Black Swamp

The family was thrifty and adapted to life without the conveniences they enjoyed back east. Their hard  work and diligence would pay off. In the decades to follow, their holdings would gradually increase to 174 acres of cleared land along with another 80 acres of woodland. Roads were built and ditches were dug to dry out the marsh and muck. As a result, the once uninviting wasteland was transformed into some of the most fertile farmland anywhere.

In 1849, the year Lower Sandusky was renamed Fremont, a group of prominent Sandusky County citizens organized the Lower Sandusky Plank Road Company. Their mission entailed construction of a road beginning at Fremont's Front Street, following the Sandusky River southward for five miles and then cutting southwest through Bettsville to Fostoria, modern day State Route 12. At the southwest bend, a branch would continue southward through Fort Seneca to Tiffin, modern day State Route 53. Charles Rozell was contracted to build several miles of the road, consisting of eight foot planks laid side by side on the west lane and a graded dirt road for use by teams on the east lane. After about a decade, the planks had deteriorated. Tolls collected were less than what was needed to replace the road, so the planks were removed and burned. In the 1870s, the use of crushed gravel from local quarries became prevalent in road construction.

Plank Road, computer generated depiction

In 1858, Charles and Catharine erected a beautiful and expensive home on their property alongside the plank road and furnished it neatly and tastefully. Both daughters married and remained nearby, Susan Ann, wife of John Fabian on the next farm over, and Martha, wife of Lucien Hull, a couple miles away in Seneca County. Catharine Rozell died in 1864 in her 60th year. Charles remarried to Rachel Jane Reed (nee Bay), and they had a daughter, Jennie Rachel Rozell, born in 1865.

A quote from "History of Sandusky County, Ohio," 1882:

Mr. Charles Rozell was always active in his business, strictly fair and honorable in all of his dealings, and treated every man justly. He was kind to the poor and unfortunate, and ever ready to assist the deserving. Though not a professing Christian, his moral character was above reproach, and his reputation for sincerity of friendship and integrity was unsullied. By attending diligently to his business, he became the possessor of a good property, and departed from earth honored and esteemed. He was a Republican, a strong Union man during the war, and assisted the soldiers and their widows by every means at his command. He died at his home in Jackson, November 27, 1870, at the age of sixty-seven.

Charles Rozell and his second wife Rachel Jane (Bay) Reed

While the Rozells were among the very first of European descent to settle along Wolf Creek, others soon arrived. In 1834, John Betts acquired from Jacob Garn 68 and a half acres bordered by the south bank of Wolf Creek, a mile or two upstream in Liberty Township, Seneca County. Four years later, 21 lots were plotted from the Betts acquisition to establish the original village of Bettsville. A few additions expanded the size of the community in the decades that followed. The population totaled just 23 in 1840 and 40 in 1847. But the plank road brought additional traffic through the village. Then in 1873, the Tiffin, Toledo, and Eastern Railroad was completed, and a depot was built at the west end of town. The population swelled to 515 by 1880, and Bettsville was incorporated in 1882. After a fire in old Bettsville, the business district was rebuilt further west, closer to the railroad.

"This town (is) built on three streets and has mostly fine buildings, frame and brick. We have two dry goods stores, one grocery, and not much drunkenness in that, one saw mill, three fine churches,. . . a school house two doctors, a Justice of the Peace, and I am glad to say that this year none of the inhabitants of Bettsville have been prosecuted on account of debts. We have two blacksmith shops and a harness shop, one shoe shop, two wagon and carriage shops, two cabinet makers, a plasterer, brick layer, and an ashery." -Tiffin Advertiser, August 20, 1860

In 1834, more Rozell pioneers arrived from New Jersey, including Charles' sister Jane and her husband Elijah Coert Voorhies, my 4th great-grandparents. They arrived with their four young children, Ann, Eliza, John, and William. Charles and Catharine shared their cabin with the Voorhies family through that winter, and one can only imagine what a scene that was.

By the following spring, the Voorhieses moved into their own crudely constructed cabin on an adjacent 80-acre lot that Elijah and Jane had purchased. When they first occupied the structure, it did not yet have a floor, doors, or windows. But they got to work, cleared some land, and planted five acres of wheat that summer, yielding about 200 bushels. In July of 1836, a son, Andrew Voorhies, was born, my 3rd great-grandfather, followed by George (died in infancy), Amanda, Oliver, and Enos Ezra.

The Voorhies homestead was very near a trail used by the local Indians traveling along the Sandusky River, although few remained by then, and those they encountered were generally docile. Family lore holds that they would sometimes awaken in the morning to find that Indians, having not adopted our tradition of knocking first, had made entry overnight and slept by their fireplace. The most prevalent tribes along the Sandusky Valley were the Seneca and the Wyandot. A 40,000-acre reservation existed nearby along eight miles of the eastern bank of the Sandusky River until about 1832, at which time the various tribal peoples were pressured by the United States Government to remove to Indian Territory, now northeast Oklahoma.

Historical Marker at Green Springs, Ohio

Just as the construction of the plank road was ramping up in 1849, Ann Voorhies, the oldest child of Elijah and Jane, married Amos Mull. The Mull family had land holdings downstream a bit, just into Ballville Township where the East Branch of Wolf Creek meets the West Branch. The Mulls operated a sawmill on the East Branch, and like most sawmills in the area, much of their resources were shifted to the processing of lumber for the road. Access to the mill was limited due to its proximity to the two creeks, so the Mulls petitioned the Sandusky County Commissioner and were granted $75 to construct a bridge across the creek. With their own materials, labor, and ingenuity, the Mulls completed a covered bridge in 1851, and it remained active for more than a century. With the opening of a new bridge in 1962, The Mull Covered Bridge was retired and has since undergone multiple renovations to preserve it as an historic landmark. Amos and Ann Mull raised six children and relocated to Nebraska later in life. My grandfather Joe Jeanette enjoyed taking his grandchildren on an occasional drive around the area, and the covered bridge was one of our favorite site seeing destinations.

The Mull Covered Bridge is maintained by the Sandusky County Parks System

Many of the descendants of Elijah and Jane Voorhies were prominent in their vicinity and became leaders in public affairs. They held large tracts of land in both Liberty Township in Seneca County and Jackson Township in Sandusky County. In and around Bettsville, the Voorhies name was well recognized for a number of generations. Oliver Voorhies (1843-1925) eventually acquired his father’s original homestead, just southeast of what is now State Route 12. He lived there until retiring to a house in Bettsville at Union and State Streets, at which time his son George acquired the farm. Enos Voorhies (1846-1917) purchased a farm from Dr. Rufus Norton in 1893 on the Liberty Township side of the Seneca/Sandusky County line. This land was passed down through the generations, and during my years in Bettsville, it was the Harold Klopp farm; Klopp was married to a granddaughter of Enos Voorhies. The farm butts up to the south shore of Wolf Creek, and these banks provided some favorite fishing spots for myself and many of my childhood friends. Some of the other Voorhies siblings settled around the village of Burgoon on the Sandusky County side of Wolf Creek.

Bettsville merchants ca.1940 with Vaughn Voorhies, right, grandson of Oliver

Andrew Voorhies became a successful farmer on the Sandusky County side of the homestead. He married Mary Magdelena Mowry on March 12, 1857 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Fremont. A son, Franklin Voorhies, was born in 1858, but Mary, at just 20 years of age, passed away on February 9, 1859. In 1860, Andrew remarried to Elizabeth Jackson, and they were my 3rd great-grandparents. They had three daughters, Clara, Florence, and Mina. Andrew and his family lived in a fine farmhouse on property backing up to Wolf Creek. The children grew up but stayed local, at least for the duration of Andrew’s time. His wife Elizabeth passed away in 1879, and then he married for a third time to Fanny Harley in 1880. Andrew retired to Fremont where he passed away on March 23, 1896.

Illustration of Andrew Voorhies farm

Andrew Voorhies (1836-1896)

Andrew's daughter Clara Voorhies married Richard Chapman in 1881 (originally spelled Chaplin), and they were my 2nd great-grandparents. Clara passed down a family Bible to her granddaughter Winnie (Chapman) Jeanette, daughter of Harry Raymond Chapman and his wife Edna Mertie Chapman, my great-grandparents. Clara received the Bible as a Christmas gift in 1875, and it remains in our family today, along with its trove of old photographs and clippings. A link at the end of this article takes the reader to my story about the Clara Voorhies Bible.

Richard and Clara (Voorhies) Chapman, ca.1920

Harry Chapman died during the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918 when my grandmother Winnie was just seven months old and her sister Eleanor was age three years. Edna and the girls stayed on the farm of her parents, Homer and Nettie (Flack) Chapman. Homer's father was Edwin Chapman, a veteran of the Civil War who had inherited the farm from his foster parents. Follow the link at the end of this article for stories of Edwin Chapman's life and the history of the Chapman farm.

Edna remarried to Pete Hanson in 1921, and they moved into Bettsville. They had a son, Paul "Corky" Hanson, but the marriage ended in divorce. Edna was proprietor of the Home Restaurant in Bettsville during the 1930s and 1940s, serving up lunch to the locals and a offering a hangout after high school basketball games. She was the only living great-grandparent I remember, and I have fond memories of my time with her.

Voorhies Reunion ca. 1914
Meadowbrook Park, Bascom, Ohio

Harry and Edna Chapman
Voorhies Reunion ca. 1914

Seated: Edna (Chapman) Hanson and her aunt, Ella (Flack) Kime
Standing: Eleanor (Chapman) Addis, Paul Hanson, Winnie (Chapman) Jeanette

Joe and Winnie (Chapman) Jeanette, married 1937

Home Restaurant ca. 1940

Richard Chaplin/Chapman and his brother Lewis Chaplin were orphaned at a young age. Their father Richard Chaplin had immigrated from England and married Elizabeth Hoover of Old Fort in 1853. The boys were raised by family after both parents had died as of 1862. Lewis Chaplin served a long career in the U.S. Army with an extensive list of achievements. A link to my article about the Chaplin/Chapman branch can be found at the end of this article.

1836 marked the arrival of Charles Rozell's parents to the frontier, John and Jane (Quigley) Rozell, my 5th great-grandparents, and the younger Rozell siblings. The Quigleys and Rozells were natives of the Trenton, New Jersey area. Jane's father was Isaac Quigley, a native of Northern Ireland and a patriot in the American Revolution. John and Jane purchased 80 acres from John Rosenberger a couple miles south of Charles Rozell, near what would eventually become Maple Grove, and established their home there. Back in New Jersey, Isaac was the only sibling of Charles who never moved to Ohio; Isaac's descendants adopted the Rossell spelling of the surname. The older siblings, Charles, Jane (Voorhies), Elizabeth (Shawl), and Emy (Andrews) all remained in the Bettsville area for the remainder of their lives. David went to Angola, Indiana, and the younger siblings, John Jr., Theodocia (Peake), and Enoch all relocated to Danby Township in Ionia County, Michigan in their early adulthood.

Enoch Rozell, the youngest, was last to leave after signing onto an agreement to stay and care for his parents until their demise in exchange for the deed to their property for one dollar. His mother, Jane Rozell, died in 1848, and a burial plot was established at the south end of their land near Maple Grove, still called Linden in those days. Then in 1850, John Rozell and Enoch sold the burial ground to Liberty Township for $10 for the establishment of a cemetery where many of the early settlers have since been laid to rest, including John Rozell in 1856. The cemetery is situated across Weaver Road from what was the Levi Crissa farm and came to be known as Crissa Cemetery, sometimes spelled "Creasy."

Crissa Cemetery est. 1850

Many of those mentioned in this article are among the nearly 200 interments in the Crissa Cemetery, and on a personal note, I can't imagine a worse spot for one's eternal resting place. John and Jane's land was situated on what was known as "the ridge" to the locals, a large swath of partially exposed limestone extending across some of the northeast sections of the township. A small stone quarry operated by Holran Stone Company opened nearby in 1903. H.P. Eells acquired the quarry and then mined and processed dolomite under the names Dolomite Production Company, Basic Refractories, and then Basic, Inc. For the next half century, dynamite explosions rocked the community regularly, not unlike life on an active fault line. I experienced this phenomenon personally during my youth through the 1970's, with the periodic shaking of the Bettsville School. I never quite got used to the unannounced nature of the process. The western edge of the quarry gradually infringed upon the cemetery plot, ultimately leaving nothing more than a peninsula protruding out over the abyss. The quarrying operation, on a positive note, lured many newcomers to the region and provided jobs for hundreds of local residents until Basic's demise in the 1980s. Both of my grandfathers retired from Basic, Inc. after combining for 97 years of service.

Crissa Cemetery surrounded by the quarry

When John and Jane Rozell left for Ohio in 1836, their daughter Emy was employed as a maid in Philadelphia, and she did not initially make the move with them. She was living in the home of her employers, John and Margaret (Abercrombie) Andrews. The Andrewses were a family of significant social standing within the community with Mr. Andrews being an associate of the National Bank in Philadelphia. While in the Andrews home, nineteen year-old Emy became involved romantically with their son James, who was about nine years older than she. The couple were married in April of 1837, causing somewhat of a stir within aristocratic circles. It was suggested that the couple consider a relocation to join up with the Rozells out in Ohio, and later that year, they did indeed make the move.

James Andrews, or "Doc," as he came to be known, purchased a very large tract of land from John Rosenberger and others in Liberty Township, bordering the eastern boundary of the Bettsville plot and just north of Emy's parents, John and Jane Rozell. Doc Andrews was not really a medical doctor, but he was very knowledgeable in the area of natural herbal remedies and became somewhat of a legend for that reason. But his privileged upbringing did not adequately prepare him for the labors of frontier life. This is not to say Doc was unambitious. In 1846, during the early theater of the Mexican-American War, Doc rode to Texas over land with a herd of horses to donate to the war cause, leaving Emy to tend to the farm and four young children. He delivered the team to his cousin, Colonel George W. Morgan, and enlisted in Morgan's 15th Regiment.

Doc Andrews returned to Ohio and remained on the farm until his death in 1860. The four children of Doc and Emy all married and had families, but only George spent his entire life in the area. He married Emma Shaffner in 1874 and they acquired 100 acres of farmland just south and east the original Andrews homestead, land that eventually was surrendered to the quarry. George and Emma operated the Goodyear Hotel near the railroad depot in Bettsville, and their son Charlie Andrews ran a grocery market in Bettsville for several decades until his death in 1958. My father purchased for $25 the desk from Charlie's office in the store, and this piece remains in our family. George's sister Elizabeth married David Fisher, and they lived on Emy's farm with their children before relocating across the county to Bloomville.  Additionally, after Doc's death, Emy took in two presumed orphans and raised them, as enumerated on both the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census.

1880 Census:

Emy Andrews, age 53, head of household, widowed, keeping house

Jacob Dingledine, age 19, took to raise, works on farm

Catharine Lawrence, age 23, took from poor house, does house work

In 1871, Emy Andrews contracted a surveyor to lay out lots on the westernmost sliver of her land butting against Bettsville's eastern boundary. In total, 82 residential lots were plotted along with a five-acre grove in the middle. In 1882, the village annexed these lots, extending it's eastern boundary from the center of Sullivan Street eastward to include both sides of Monroe Street and the land between Sullivan and Monroe Streets, bordered by Union Street on the north and Seneca Street on the south. It became known as the Andrews Addition, and it was the largest single annex ever made to Bettsville.

Birds eye view of Bettsville, looking east

About 1940, my grandparents Vernon and Marietta Bramel purchased three lots #225-227 at the south end of the Andrews Addition on the northwest corner of Seneca and Monroe Streets. Vernon had arrived in town in 1927 at age 17, specifically to work at the quarry, and married Marietta Semer later that year. He and his two younger brothers had been taken to the orphanage in Maumee, Ohio after their mother died near Cincinnati in 1925. He was then farmed out to the Huffords, six miles north of Bettsville, who welcomed him into their family.

Vernon and Marietta (Semer) Bramel, married 1927

Marietta's clan, the William and Nettie (Russell) Semer family, came to Bettsville in 1917 after the conclusion of William's 15-year military career in Key West, New York City, and Pensacola. He too came for work at the quarry, his sister and brother-in-law, Joseph and Jane Dunlap having previously moved to Fort Seneca for the same reason. William Semer, a native of Van Wert County, Ohio, met Nettie Russell, a native of Key West, Florida, during his deployment to Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West. The Russells were one of the original Keys families, the so called "conch families," who migrated from the Bahamas in the 1830s after the United States acquired Florida from Spain. Many of these Bahamian families were descendants of British Loyalists who fled southern states in the aftermath of the American Revolution. William and Nettie were married on Christmas Eve, 1903. My grandmother Marietta was born at Fort Schuyler, Bronx, New York in 1910, the fifth of 11 Semer children. Grandpa Semer died tragically in 1920 from injuries sustained from a dust explosion at the Kennedy Refractories facility in Bettsville where he was the night superintendent. Follow the link at the end of this article to read about the family's time in Key West.

William Semer family, Fort Totten, Queens, New York, 1914

Vernon and Marietta had been renting for $6 per month a two story house next to the railroad tracks south of Seneca Street, where all five sons were born. That same house was relocated a quarter-mile up the street to the middle lot of their acquisition, and I'm told the total cost of the land, house, and relocation was $900. Grandpa built a kitchen addition along the north side and then added a bathroom in the back. He built a large garage/barn structure in his spare time with cinderblocks he made at Marian Flack's shop, mixing cement and pouring it into molds. The neighborhood kids in the southern half of the Andrews Addition during that generation, the Bramels, Mowerys, Fogels, and others, came to be known as the "ridge rats" due to their proximity to the stony ridge running through the township. They were a close-knit bunch who wore that badge with great pride. In 1976, Grandpa received an inheritance from a relative he probably never knew, and a link at the end of this article takes the reader to that story.

My dad with his big brothers on "the ridge," 1936

 

Aunt Sally at the back of the Bramel home on "the ridge" ca. 1945

Later, in the 1970's, my other grandparents Joe and Winnie Jeanette sold their State Street home next to the Bettsville Public Library, and downsized to a home in the northern portion of the Andrews Addition near the intersection of Monroe and Union Streets. It had a basement large enough to host several of our family Thanksgiving celebrations.

Jeanette home on Monroe Street, ca. 1975

Emy Andrews died in 1912 at the age of 95. She is buried in the Crissa Cemetery near her husband, her parents John and Jane Rozell and many of her Rozell siblings. The Rozells and their Voorhies cousins were instrumental in the early settlement of Bettsville and the surrounding area. Those of us who inherited their wanderlust and thirst for adventure are eternally grateful!

Links:

Clara Voorhies documented her family history here: Clara Voorhies Family Bible

The story of Edwin Chapman and the history of the Chapman farm: Edwin Chapman of the 72nd O.V.I.

Our Chaplin heritage and stories from Lewis Chaplin: Sgt. Lewis Chaplin, Little Bighorn and Beyond

William and Nettie Semer met in Key West, Florida: William Lampson Semer, Fort Zachary Taylor 

Vernon Bramel's surprise: Grandpa Bramel's Big Inheritance

Sources:

History of Sandusky County, Ohio, with Portaits and Biographies of Prominent Citizens and Pioneers, (Cleveland, Ohio: H. Z. Williams & Bro., 1882.)

Durrett, John E. History of Bettsville, Ohio. 1984. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://ohiomemory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15005coll27/id/29643.

Lake, D. J. Map of Seneca Co., Ohio. Philadelphia: Cyrus Stone, Clarence Titus, . Phila.: Printed by Thos. Wagner, 1864. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2012592236/>.