TOPE FAMILY PAGE

Great Black Swamp
Page 4    

county except the Ridge, which runs across where Ridge Road is now, and the Southwest corner of the county.[i]

Two comments place an amusing aspect on the area:  The Black Swamp was said to grow two good crops — frogs and ice. . . . It is interesting to note that as late as 1870 an old newspaper article stated that in the wintertime you could ice skate from Van Wert to Paulding over the Black Swamp.[ii]

The Levi Tope family moved into Willshire Township, Van Wert County, Ohio, which is on the southern edge of the Black Swamp.

Its surface is more undulating than any other township in the county.  The St. Mary’s River enters the township near the southeastern corner and, and runs across the southern portion of the township in a northwesterly direction.  This gives ample drainage for the southern part of the township.  The northern part of the township is drained by Twenty-seven Mile Creek and its branches, which extend across the northern portion from east to west.  These streams, together with the artificial drainage by ditching and tiling, have rendered every acre of land tillable.[iii]

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