Otsego Township

Towns, Past and Present

Enterprise, Hamilton, Otsego Center, Oufa

Settlers Before 1840
1885 History of Steuben County, Indiana page 806

John AVERY	A. GATES	John LAWRENCE
Gideon BALL	William GILLMORE	J. H. MINER
C. BURCH	John HAUGHEY	Nicanor MUNSON
James CLARK	William C. HERRICK	A. MURRAY
P. CLARK	Henry JACKMAN	George QUICK
Benedict COREY	Richard JACKMAN	D. ROBINSON
J. COREY	Theophilus JACKSON	Elias O. ROSE
Henry COY	James W. JEFFERDS	John SALISBURY
John FEE	Edward C. JOHNSON	George SWOPE
C. FRINK	James JOHNSON	Samuel TUTTLE
S. P. GAMBIA		Henry R. WILLIAMS

Township History
Abstracted from the 1885 History of Steuben County, Indiana pages 806-809

Otsego Twp. is 6 miles from north to south, and 6 miles from east to west (23,000 acres).
Contains Fish Lake, Ball's Lake, Mud Spring Lake, Johnson's Lake, Round Lake
First land entries

                John FEE            January 28, 1835       ***Note: He died April 2, 1873
                Elias O. ROSE    July 11, 1835
                Gideon BALL     September 1835
                JACKMANS     November 1835

First house built by John FEE on March 13, 1835
First teacher was Amos STANTCLIFF

Strongly Republican township

Hamilton Town History

Began as Enterprise on land owned by Nicanor MUNSON who then sold to Dr. TUTTLE
Located on the pioneer road from Lima, IN to Fort Defiance, OH
Sydney GAMBIA in 1837 built a house, store, and ashery, and later a grist mill
First frame house built by Alfred DUNHAM
Abram F. BEECHER was an early trader from Jefferson Co. NY; died in DeKalb Co. 1854
Reuben LINT kept hotel and liquor
Present businessmen (remember this is around 1885):

                Andrew SEWELL -- grist mill
                John SEWELL -- grist mill
                John W. THOMAS -- general merchandise
                Francis KLINKLE -- general merchandise
                Dr. N.E. BROWN -- drug store
                G.R. FARNHAM -- hardware and general store
                Dr. J.F. CAMERON -- hotel
                SWEET & KIMBALL -- steam saw mill
                Dr. SCHOFIELD -- saloon
                T.A. BEECHER -- tin shop
                John B. ZEIGLER -- harness shop
                H.A. STOUT -- shoe shop
                Frank FARLEY -- blacksmith
                Joseph WILER -- blacksmith
                O.P. BROWN -- barber & confectioner
                Dr. N.E. BROWN -- doctor
                Dr. J.F. CAMERON -- doctor

Only church is Methodist
Baron Steuben Post, No. 387 G.A.R. began December 13, 1884
G.A.R. Present Members (remember this is about 1885):

                Lumen H. BEARD
                Alfred BENDER
                R.A. CHAPPLE
                George H. COSPER
                Charles CULBERTSON
                Frank GRIFFITH
                Lewis GRIFFITH
                Harmon B. KELLEY
                Godfrey LADISON
                Fred D. OBERLIN
                William RENCH
                Levi STOY
                Hiram SWEET
                John WERE
                Charles WRIGHT


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Any suggestions or comments should be directed to:
Mindee Gleason