This post was contributed to the Crawford County Chapter of OGS by Kristina Stearley as part of the Florence Siefert Scrapbook in 2010.
The scrapbook is compiled from undated, unidentified newspaper clippings involving events in the lives of Crawford County citizens living in or having connections to New Washington, Tiro, Shelby, Sulphur Springs, Chatfield, Bucyrus, Ashland, Mansfield, and other areas. Only minimal spelling or punctuation corrections were made. Unreadable areas are shown by underlines, dots &/or question marks. This collection has been scanned, “optical character recognized” (OCR’d), proofed, then coded for HTML by volunteers of the Crawford County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. Since the copies are not of the best quality errors may have been made. Please contact us if you find corrections needing to be made or can verify any missing dates which could be added.
104 Years, 5 Months and 17 Days.
A CENTENARIAN DIES
The Oldest Person in the Limits of Crawford County.
HE PASSES PEACEFULLY AWAY. Born Before George Washington was Elected President.A Resident of the County for Sixty Years. A Brief Biography of the Aged Veteran.
Children GrandChildren, Great Double-Great and Thrible-Great Grand-Children Survive.
From the Evening Telegraph.
Daniel Barlitt died at 8:15 Sunday evening of old age, at the home of his daughter-in law, Mrs. Frank Lambright, in the one hundred and fifth year of his age.
Daniel Barlitt was born on the banks of the Susquehanna river, at Harrisburg, Dauphin county, Pa, June 24, 1788 He is of English-German descent, his grandfather coming from England long before the Revolutionary War, and during that war the grand-father was a body guard of General Washington, and was wounded in one of the battles; he was well-formed and robust in health, and died at the age of 90 years, at Harrisburg. His grand mother was born in Germany.
On his mother’s side, both his grandfather and grandmother were residents of Harrisburg, and during the Revolutionary War the grandmother melted bullets for the American patriots. Once in these early pioneer days, during an Indian raid and battle, she secreted her children under the floor of the cabin until all danger was passed.
Daniel Barlitt was fond of relating one of the incidents told him by his grandfather who was taken prisoner by the Indians. He was with them three months and they made him carry their furs and burdens and do all the drudgery of the camp. By the willingness with which he did their menial work, he gained their confidence and they became more lenient with him, giving him more liberty, until one day they sent him some distance from camp to bring in a deer which they had killed. He took advantage of this trip to make his escape. He made for the nearest stream, and all that day and most of the night he traveled in the stream to cover up his tracks from the sharp sighted Indians and leave no trace for the quick scented dogs to follow. As day broke he crept into a hollow log on the banks of the stream, where he soon fell asleep. Being a hunter and used to Indian life, he was awakened by the light footsteps of the Indians who had followed the stream in search of their prisoner. As they passed he could see the glitter of their rifle barrels. He remained in the log all day, and when night came again he took to the stream and continued his journey until midnight, when, tired out, having had nothing to eat but a few roots and berries, he climbed a tree for rest out of sight of Indians and out of reach of wild beasts prowling through the forest. In the morning he heard the crowing of a cock, and hurrying on he found a cabin of one of the early pioneers. Here he obtained food and needed rest, and after spending several days to recruit his strength, he started on his journey again,and in a few more days was with his family and friends, who had given him up for dead.
Daniel Barlitt grew to manhood at Harrisburg, and married his first wife Priscilla. This union was blessed with six children, four boys and two girls, none of them believed to be living now. One of the boys died on his way to California years ago, and another died of hemorrhage.
In 1823, at the age of 35 he moved with his family to Wooster, placing his worldly effects in a wagon, and himself and older children walking almost the entire distance, camping out at night, traveling slowly by day and living on the game they shot on the way.
At Wooster h(…?…)ved on the Kilbuck, about two miles from the village; he assisted farmers in harvest and did odd jobs, his principal occupation being doing odds and ends around the hotel kept by Ben Jones. His first trip to Bucyrus was in the twenties when he took a contract to drive a drove of cattle from Wooster to Upper Sandusky.
One woods he passed through was forty miles in extent; this region was then almost an unbroken forest. He traveled one with no companions; with his dog and gun he made the trip through this region filled with wild animals and many Indians. One evening after he had stopped for the night a traveler came upon him and gladly he shared with him his bed on the ground and his evening meal for the sake of his company.
About 1830 or 1831 he moved to Jeromeville, in Ashland county. Here his wife Priscilla died, and he married Betsy Dupes, by which union there were five children, three boys and two girls. Of the boys Henry died only a few years ago in Kansas, and William and Martin are still living. Of the glrs (sic), Barbara married Christian Amos, and died in Olmstead county, Minn., near St. Paul; Elizabeth also married an Amos, a half brother of Christian Amos, and she, too, died in Minnesota.
While teaming and driving he took a fancy to Upper Sandusky and moved there, doing odd jobs around the first tavern kept there and owned by a man named Garrett; from there he came to Bucyrus, assisting around the tavern where Shonert’s tannery now stand on the banks of the Sandusky.
Daniel Barlitt was getting up in years and thought it about time to settle down, so in 1834, nearly sixty years ago, he removed to Liberty township, where he settled on 31 acres of land, on the banks of the Sandusky, three miles above Bucyrus. From now on he devoted his attention to farming. Here his second wife died and was buried in the Shrull grave yard. On March 4, 1848, he married a Mrs. Trash whose maiden name was Speagle. By this union there was one child, not living. The wife died just a week ago, on Monday, Dec. 5, aged 84 years, and was buried last Thursday in Oakwood cemetery.
Daniel Barlitt came from a long lived family. His father died young–at the early age of 90 he was called away. His grandfather on his mother’s side died at the age of 112, and his grandmother at 105. Of his brothers and sisters one died at 108, another at 105 and another at 104.
When he came to Bucyrus he says that there were but two houses here. One was on the east side of Sandusky avenue at Perry street, and the other across the street on the Shonert corner. Later on he remembers the log cabin being built where the Stoll House now stands, the first house built away from the banks of the river.
His decendants can be counted by the hundreds; his eldest child if living would be over 80; there are grand-children of sixty, and of great-great grandchildren his relatives can count upward of forty, with several great-great-great grandchildren.
When Daniel Barlitt reached his hundredth anniversary in 1888 he was able to move around the house and farm, doing no work of course, except light employment for amusement, such as feeding the chickens. For two or three summers he was able to go about the yard, but during the winter of 1891-2 he had an attack of la grippe which left him very weak and since then he has seldom left the house, during last summer his only way of passing the time being to sit in an easy chair and look out of the window. Ever since last winter he has been slowly sinking, gradually growing weaker and weaker and on the death of his wife last Monday, Dec. 5, he was too weak to be up. On Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 6, he was assisted down stairs to take a last look at his wife and went back to his bed again. That night he had a slight stroke of paralysis, this was followed at 9:30 Wednesday morning by another, and from this on his relatives were satisfied the end was fast approaching. He grew weaker and weaker until on Sunday evening he breathed his last, aged 104 years, 6 months and 17 days.
During the last years of life he has received every attention at the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lambright, and as age made him more enfeebled their tender care increased, so that his declining years were made as peaceful and pleasant as possible. He was an inveterate user of tobacco up to about 20 years ago when he discontinued its use on account of his health.
The funeral services were hold at the home Tuesday, conducted by Rev. J. S. Fitterer, with burial in Oakwood Cemetery.
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