The Spokesrider » Bellefontaine OH (Labor Day weekend 2008)

They must shift for themselves

Spokesrider — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:24:50 +0000

Three books about the War of 1812 that I have been reading: Mahon, John K. 1972. The War of 1812. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. Hickey, Donald R. 1989. The War of 1812: a forgotten conflict. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Taylor, Alan. 2010. The civil war of 1812: American citizens, British subjects, Irish rebels, [...]

Manary gets no respect

Spokesrider — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 06:11:47 +0000

(More from Labor Day weekend, 2008.) As stated in the previous post, this marker for the Manary House is just outside of Bellefontaine. One source says Manary had a trading post here, even before the war broke out. James Manary’s home and farm were near Bourneville in Ross County, a hundred miles to the [...]

Manary House

Spokesrider — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 09:00:20 +0000

Saturday night we were eating at the Asuka restaurant in Battle Creek when I got to thinking it was time for more bike rides in the Bellefontaine area in Logan County, Ohio. That’s because Bellefontaine is another small town that has an excellent Japanese restaurant. We ate at the Tokyo Grill on September 2, 2008, [...]

Logan County infirmary

Spokesrider — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 13:04:16 +0000

A couple of days ago Ronald Irick posted a comment about the buildings in the distance of this scene. He says the “county home” in Logan County, Ohio has now been abandoned. But he also had some information that makes me want to go back there to visit again: Col. James McPherson is buried nearby. [...]

No treaty lines in Iowa

Spokesrider — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:37:37 +0000

I've started to mark my maps with places in Iowa where we can say, "Black Hawk Slept Here." But so far I have not found a single place where property lines or highways seem to follow one of the old treaty boundaries. That doesn't mean there aren't any such places, but the county atlases I've looked at so far give no sign of any.

Greenville Treaty Line in Jackson Township

Spokesrider — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:35:17 +0000

The road stops at the Greenville Treaty line. I spent a good part of the day following parts of the line to Fort Loramie, where the line turns north toward Fort Recovery. These were all parts of the line I had never seen before. I did skip a few places where it left marks on the landscape, though, so as to save some for another time.

Roadside memorials

Spokesrider — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:48:28 +0000

he then wanted to enact an ordinance requiring people doing business with Indians to have whiskey available for sale. That episode epitomizes the urge to regulate. But I have not been able to find the anecdote again, despite much searching. I don't know if the name of the person was given, but if it was, I'd look hard for more information about him and some way to make a Sunday afternoon bicycle ride out of it.

Latecomers

Spokesrider — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:09:20 +0000

In re-reading some of the history of Shelby County, I came to realize I should not have been surprised by the sequence of Issue Dates on the land patents. This part of Shelby County, just north of the Greenville Treaty Line, was not settled until the 1830s. Settlement proceeded mostly from the south to the north, and this was north -- about the last part of Shelby county to be settled.

In a way that seems strange. Settlement of southern Michigan was well underway by that time -- the very best lands were already taken, and there was a fairly sizeable population by the time the Black Hawk war broke out in 1832. Much of Ohio had been settled a generation earlier. Not far from here were places that already had settlers by the time of the War of 1812. But this part of Ohio around Wapakoneta did not get settled until the 1830s -- relatively late in Ohio settlement history.

Two land offices

Spokesrider — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:06:28 +0000

After having done a late ride to this site the evening before, I rode here again the next morning. It was a bit out of my way and added extra miles for the ride to Piqua. I sort of regretted this detour by the end of the day. But it worked out OK in the [...]

Freyburg

Spokesrider — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:50:56 +0000

Freyburg, OH has a big German catholic cemetery. I was looking for an excuse to post the photos I took of it on my August 29 starter ride, but haven’t found any good connections to the settlement-era stories, other than to note that this place was part of the Wapakoneta Reservation before 1832. This is [...]