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| Josiah Atkins, Jr. Ledger, 1826-1827 Hayes Presidential Library and Museums |
Josiah Atkins, Jr. was born in Wolcott, Connecticut in 1789. He was the younger brother of Quintus F. Atkins who had settled in Ashtabula County, Ohio. Quintus traveled through Northwest Ohio delivering the mail and beginning a mission with Rev. Joseph Badger. Later, he was appointed superintendent of building a road through the "Maumee Swamp," land granted to the state of Ohio by Congress. Quintus sent his younger brother Josiah to survey and sell the lands. He spent three years in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont, Ohio.)
The above images are the first two pages of Josiah's 100-page ledger of the survey of the lands (divided into lots) from the line of the Connecticut Western Reserve to Perrysburg, known as the Black Swamp (now U.S. Route 20).
Josiah Atkins, Jr. detailed the location of the numbered lots by range and township. He measured the acreage, the presence of streams, and the soil quality of many lots. Atkins identified the species of trees and also measured their diameter and height: Elm, lynn (also known as poplar), black ash, burr oak, maple, and hickory were present.
Today this provides an understanding of the original environment and types of trees native to the Black Swamp region. This record is part of the Oscar Stierwalt Local History Collection at the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums. Josiah Atkins, Jr went on to work as a surveyor, builder, accountant, storekeeper and historian, postmaster, and justice of the peace.
Intelligent, well read, and curious, Atkins accumulated a large library that he willed to Tabor College in Iowa. He died in Oberlin, Ohio in 1871.
Westwood Cemetery
Oberlin, Ohio
Courtesy Find a Grave
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