Once upon a time in Ada
Things you didn’t know about your own hometown
By Lee Crouse
[email protected]
A Former Citizen Writes Interestingly of the Old Days
The Ada Record, Ada, Ohio Nov. 21, 1900
Brief mention was made last week of the Record having received a letter from Mrs. M. Tremain who was the first pupil present on the first day of school at the first schoolhouse in Ada. Another letter has been received from Mrs. Tremain which is very interesting indeed. It is as follows:
Blair, Neb. Nov. 11, 1900
Editor Record- I was born in Wyandot County, O., in 1840 before the Wyandot Indians left there. My mother died in 1842 and father gave me to John Lynch in 1844. He moved to Hardin county in 1845 and settled where Mr. Lynch run a brick yard [This is now South Main, west side, near what is now known as the Reed Hubble house stands. Mr. Lynch lived on the hill where Mrs. Russell now lived. Mr. Lynch owned 40 acres there-Ed.] The man who lived there before Mr. Lynch came was Jacob Sap, and it was known as the Jacques place. Sap had what we called in those days a horse mill with which to grind corn and wheat.
There were but few neighbors at that time. We lived in a round log house, very small, with one door and a window in one end, and a puncheon floor made by splitting logs and laying the flat side up. The country was covered with heavy timber and underbrush so thick one could get through only where there was a small path.
The neighbors were John Hoon and Phillip Hoon who lived a mile south; Samuel Mathews who lived a mile southwest; Mr. High,[father of the late N.High] who lived near Mr. Mathews’ cabin; Eli Pugh [father of Martin and Henry Pugh] who lived two miles from Mr. Lynch’s Mr. Lynch is, I think, the only one of them living. Dick Johnson, as he was called, lived a half mile north of Ada [near where Curtis Baker, his son-in-law, now lives.]
The railroad was surveyed in 1850 and in 1851 they began working the road and to clear the ground for the village. It was a swamp in the wet season, covered with water, and I have gone to school when the water was knee deep on Main Street, and I have picked blackberries where the center of town is now.
John Lynch and S.M. Johnson built the first house in the town and it was named Johnstown.
The school house to which I referred was built in 1853. It was just a small one; the seats were benches with no backs. The first teacher was Miss Ann Stuard and she taught a three month’s term. There were not many pupils at that time- Eliza Murray, John, William and Priscella Sprig; Jane Daley, Ben Oldridge two boys by the name of Simons, Barbara, Margery and John Johnson [Richard Johnson’s children] and myself were about all there were. In 1854 the teacher was Phineas Turner who also taught a three month’s term.
S.M. Johnson, Mr. Simons, Mr. Mitchell [Uncle Chris. Young says Mitchell lived in Kendalville, Ind., but owned a section of land east of Main street and north of the half section line, at the Presbyterian church, which would extend to the Lutheran church and the east corporation line-Ed.] were the principal men who started to build the town.
There were eleven on the surveying party who came to Mr. Lynch’s and said they wanted dinner. I was just a little girl and was alone and they did not think I could get dinner for them but I told them to wait and I would get them something. There was no other place for them to get anything. Mr. Lynch afterward boarded all of the men who worked on the road. Mrs. Lynch and I did all the work so you can see I did some work for the town.
The schoolhouse stood on the north end of Main street [on the lot where the Misses Rinehart now live] and here was held the first campaign rally held in the town. It was a Republican rally but I have forgotten who were the speakers.
I have seen wild deer, wild hogs, turkeys, wolves, porcupines where the town now is and have killed many an opossum as I helped M. Lynch clear the timber off his land, roll the logs and burn the brush. It seems like I could go to every apple tree on the place, but time changes all things. Poor old old man, it seems too bad that he should be where he is but the Good Book tells us we are to sow so shall we reap.
I have ten children, the youngest being 23 years old. Six of them were born a half-mile from Armorsville, seven miles northwest of Ada. Respectively
Mrs. M. Tremain
