TOPE FAMILY PAGE

Wert County, subject to approval by the Land Office in Lima, Ohio. ¹

It was an interesting area into which the family moved. Wildlife was

plentiful to the extent that the Columbus Journal noted eight deer were seen

near Van Wert.³A local newspaper reported seeing a bear near Van Wert.⁴

Discussion of Land Records⁵

Abel Johnson resided in Harrison County, Ohio, when he purchased this

land from the U. S. Government, but the land Patent indicates that the funds

were deposited at Lima, Ohio.¹⁴ Abel purchased several tracts of land in this

area and was reported to be quite wealthy when he died. It is said that he

gave a farm to each of his several children. This statement has not been veri-

fied, but there is no doubt that his name appears on many early land records.

The point of this observation is that although Abel Johnson owned the

property from 21 August 1837 until he sold it to Levi Tope on 12 May 1862,

he may never have resided on this particular piece of land. The northern

boundary of this property is the Willshire Township-Harrison Township line.

The first settler came to Willshire Township in 1820, surveyor J. W. Riley, the

founder of Willshire. Nevertheless, there were few settlers in the remainder

of the county until after 1835, with the first permanent settlers in Harrison

Township being listed as arriving in 1836.

Survival was the name of the game for the early settlers, and land was

cleared first to build a dwelling and then to plant food for the family. Based

on the large number of Indian arrowheads that were found (and are still be-

ing found) in this area, it can be assumed with some confidence that game

animals were relatively plentiful, especially since the Indians had departed

several years prior to the arrival of the settlers. Although Levi arrived about

26 years after the first settlers entered, he may have settled into essentially a

virgin forest environment.

The land Levi purchased lies in a part of Ohio that is identified as Congress

Lands 1819,⁶ but the deed includes the following ... according to the provisions of the Act of Congress of the 24th of April 1820, entitled, An Act making further provisions for the sale of the Public Lands, ...

These public lands were surveyed into townships of six square miles each,

under authority of, and at the expense of the national government, and sold

Notes:

1. Land Records, recorder's Office, Van Wert County, Ohio, pp. 10-11, original in possesion of William G. Tope.
2. Cited in Van Wert Weekly Bulletin, November 12, 1869.
3. Ibid.
4. William G. tope, unpublished paper written for this history, 2001.
5. A Brief History of Van Wert County, Van Wert Historical Society, p.2.
6. History of Van Wert and Mercer Counties, Ohio, Wapakoneta, O.  R. Sutton & Co., p. 166.