Vernon Township: Official Records of Town Council

Folio. 310 x 200 mm., [13 x 8 inches].  Manuscript in ink. 500 pp., (missing the first 3 pages). Contemporary calf, well worn, spine separating. Paper stock a bit brown with age; final 30 pages and lower board damaged by water.  With faults a legible and useful history of Vernon, Ohio.

Valuable compilation of early records for the town of Vernon, Ohio, which was organized March 9, 1825, out of the north half of Sandusky, and was, at this time, six miles square. The population in 1840 was about one thousand. After 1845, Vernon became part of Crawford County and is well watered by the tributaries of the Sandusky River.

This 'clerk's book' contains records of indenture, cattle ear marks, election results, and an alphabetized census of "white male persons subject to perform military duties," taken in 1844.  In addition there are local  ordinances, testimonials and depositions on town issues,  records of road condition and expenditures to maintain them, land conveyances, surety bonds and trustee services, and miscellaneous town financial business as recorded by the town clerk.

In addition to the records of town business and there are recorded a number of indentures from local women binding their sons to local farmers to learn the business of running a farm.  In March of 1841, Mary Ann Nicolin is recorded as making an indenture for her son John the Baptist Nicolin age seven, with Thomas Roe for four years.  The contract outlines the terms of the indenture and mentoring that John the Baptist Nicolin will receive from Mr. Roe.  Another example is an indenture between Barbara Brown and Peter Bauer, binding her son age seven to Bauer until he reaches the age eighteen.  One can only guess what the situation was that compelled Mrs. Brown to apprentice her  boy for eleven years to local farmer to learn the trade of farming. 

John Warner  and George Keller were town clerks, both coming from York County, Pennsylvania in 1837, as did several of the other early settlers to Vernon.   Names of dozens of other early settlers who populated Crawford County are found in these records, with information on their lively hoods and positions in society. "This section of country presents the evidence of real prosperity. It is inhabited largely by industrious, energetic and hardy people, who came from Pennsylvania, Maryland and other Middle States."  (886)