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The Standard

The Builders

A contractor who took the county's bridges, plank road and courthouses, a miller on the Maumee, the man who laid out New Haven, and two towns platted in 1851 that the railroad treated differently.

  • A newspaper advertisement headed 1,000 Men Wanted! in heavy type, on the Wabash Valley Railroad between the State Line and the Forks of the Wabash. Below, To Contractors, offering sub-lettings, signed S. and W. Edsall and Co., Fort Wayne, July 19th.

    Fort Wayne

    The Edsalls know no such word as fail

    In March 1844 Samuel Edsall asked Fort Wayne for a bridge over the St. Mary's and took the contract himself. He took the plank road to Bluffton partly in stock, and the second and third courthouses as contractor.

  • A small newspaper notice headed Interesting to Farmers, and Save your Flax-seed. Cash and a fair price will be paid for flax-seed next fall at the Woodlawn Mills one mile east of Fort Wayne, signed M. S. Wines, Woodlawn, Feb. 4th, 1841.

    Fort Wayne

    A spirit of enterprise

    Marshall S. Wines built a sawmill on Cedar Creek in 1834 and the Woodlawn Mills on the Maumee in 1838. In 1841 he went bail for another man's debt. By July 1842 the mill was late Col. Wines', and in September he died at his canal contract.

  • A newspaper notice headed New Haven, Branch of the Niagara Store: A. B. Miller having taken the Store and Ashery lately occupied by H. Burgess offers for sale a large and general Assortment of Goods. Below, Ashes and Black Salts wanted, and Wood Choppers Wanted at the New Haven Store and Ashery.

    Allen County

    Its house of Burgesses

    Henry Burgess laid out New Haven along the canal in 1839, kept its first store and ashery, and moved the post office there. In 1842 the Sentinel said he got that office by the removal of a neighbour. In 1866 he built the Methodists a brick church.

  • Allen County

    The little city and the happy hit

    In April 1851 Louis Lopshire platted Middletown beside the new Piqua plank road, and John Barnhart laid out Monroeville in Monroe Township. The railroad came through Monroeville. By 1880 Middletown was a quiet hamlet without even a hotel or store.

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