The following is a Memorial Account of George W. Hoobler written
by Mrs. Louisa Atkinson. The text is from a book titled "Pioneer
Association Book of the
Maumee
Valley
" and was found at the Toledo Public Library.)
George
W. Hoobler
was born at
Harrisburg
, Penn, June 15th, 1798, and came with his parents to
Dayton
,
Montgomery County
,
Ohio
, in 1816. He came to
Stark County
,
Ohio
, in 1820 and married Miss Mary Bash, April 5th, 1824, and removed with his wife
the same month to Perrysburg, traveling in a one-horse wagon. He purchased a lot
in Perrysburg and erected a frame house and a cooper shop, and commenced to
making barrels for the fishermen, working at his trade during the winter and
farming rig in the summer. At one time he had a large crop of corn he raised and
cribbed on what was known as the Big Island, waiting for navigation to open in
the spring, but when the ice broke up in the spring, the water and ice from up
the river came with such force that it swept away the entire crop, and the huts
of the fishermen along the river were also swept away, causing great destruction
and loss to them, and many had to flee for their lives. He was among the first
settlers of Perrysburg, and helped to raise some of the first houses there, and
when the first houses were built in
Bowling Green
and
Portage
,
Wood
County
, he was one of the men who helped to raise them. In 1834 he removed with his
wife and three children to
Middleton
Township
,
Wood
County
, and settled on a heavily timbered farm he had purchased, getting it from a man
by the name of Joseph Wade, who had got it from the government. A small log
cabin and land enough cleared for a small garden and a potato patch were all the
improvements that had been made on it. He worked at his trade (coopering) in the
winter and the remaining part of the year on the farm, clearing off the timber
and putting out fruit trees. Apples were long coming, but they soon had peaches
and small fruit. Previous to that the fruit consisted of wild strawberries,
gooseberries, blackberries, wild plums and crab apples. He purchased some cows,
a yoke of oxen, one horse and some sheep, the latter not proving very
profitable, for the wolves would come and kill them. They were numerous and
would come near the house. He had a trap a little distance from the house in
which he caught several, that frightened others so that they were not so bold,
but previous to that they would come and scratch at the door at night. At one
time the writer remembers that he shot two near the house one morning, killing
one and wounding the other; they were devouring the sheep they had killed the
previous night.
During the summer the stock would get their living in the woods.
The hay for winter was made of wild grass that grew plentiful on
Hull
’s Prairie. He would take his ox team and his dinner, and with one of his
little girls go to he prairie, and with a scythe mow grass all day while the
girl would watch the oxen, and in the evening they would ride home on a load of
hay. So time wore on and others came, and as soon as there were children enough
to form a class, he was the first to agitate the cause of education. Being a
schoolteacher in his younger days, he felt the necessity of others as well as
his own having a school near their home. They had been attending school at the
old missionary station two miles away. So he, with another man, rented an old
log house that had been abandoned by the owner, and hired a man to teach a three
months’ term in the winter, it being the first school taught in District No 1
in
Middleton
Township
. After that, he being one of the school directors, term after term during the
winter, were continued, until there came enough to support a school in summer as
well as winter. He served as Justice of the Peace and Township Trustee for
several terms, as well as minor offices. He remained on the farm until his
death, which occurred April 30th, 1850.
Children of George W. Hoobler and Mary Bash:
Mary
Jane Hoobler
was born 1830 and married Ovedeno W. Parish.
Sara
Hoobler
was born 1832 and married Joseph Zesty.
Louisa Hoobler
was born 1834 and married William Atkinson.
George Welcome Hoobler
was born 1836 and married Alvira E. Hale.
Henry Hoobler
was born 1841 and married Harriet Ellis.
Samual Reuben Hoobler
was born 1844 and married Mary Rosellia Worth.