| Notes |
- Mortimer & his wife Mary (Polly) were the founders of the village of Spring Hill (now Tedrow), Fulton County, Ohio, arriving in 1838. The Hibbards were among the first families to settle this particular area of Northwestern Ohio. Among the others to settle what is now Dover Township, Fulton County were Jacob Hoffmire, J. H. Schnall, Moses Ayers, N. Bennett, Elijah Bennett, & Peter Lott. Mortimer had once planned on a stage route and plank road connecting Toledo and Angola, Indiana, via his village of Spring Hill. The plan, however, was never realized and Spring Hill remained just another small village whose main income for many years came from agriculture.
From HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY, by Frank Reighard:
"Mortimer D. Hibbard had [a] leading part in both township and county organization. The first election in Dover Township was held in his house; and he and his father ably furthered the project which eventually resulted in the erection of Fulton county. He was the first county auditor; and he surveyed and platted the village of Spring Hill, upon land bequeathed to his children, Oscar and Jason, by their granduncle, Judge Rice, who only spent a few years in Dover Township, being "troubled with a cough," and going eventually to a warmer climate, dying in New Orleans in1841, "of Hemorrhage."
From FULTON COUNTY, OHIO: A COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL SKETCHES AND FAMILY HISTORIES, pg. 101:
"Mortimer D. Hibbard, in 1844 held a meeting in his home in that area [Spring Hill] and invited certain gentlemen from Maumee and Angola asking them to consider putting in a line of stages to travel between the two places via the Maumee-Angola Road, so called. this road is the Ottokee-Tedrow road and is today, within the confines of Fulton County, called "J" road. Mr. Hibbard apparently harbored an ulterior motive, it being his plan to establish a village to be called Spring Hill, the place presumably to be a stopping off place for the hoped for stages while en route to the east or the west. Reighard secured from Mrs. Hibbard's diary, the following statement: "Took a walk to the village of Spring Hill that is to be." The entry was dated, April 20, 1844. Under the date, March 18, 1851, Mrs. Hibbard had recorded,
"Mortimer had his village of Spring Hill surveyed today." Most of the land was purchased for the purpose and re-sold as lots, but Mr. Hibbard donated the four central lots for a "town square." (note:-- Mortimer D. Hibbard also donated the land for the village school house.)
From HISTORY OF HENRY & FULTON COUNTIES, by Aldrich; pg. 312:
"It was out of the throes of this very eventful struggle [the Ohio-Michigan War] that Lucas county was formed, in theyear 1835, from portions of Wood and Sandusky counties in Ohio, and of what had been Monroe and Lenawee counties in Michigan, over which territory, however, Wood county had exercised jurisdiction from April 1, 1820, then being one of the fourteen counties at that date, by the legislature, organized from Indian territory, the county seat being at Perrysburgh on the Maumee River. In the year 1849, there arose a demand for a new county in northwestern Ohio, the projectors of which were such prominent men as Nathaniel Leggett, of Swan Creek; William Hall, Hon. A. C. Hough, of Chesterfield; Stephen and Isaac Springer, Samuel Durgin and others, of Fulton; Michael Handy, Hon. D. W. H. Howard, Robert Howard and Lyman Parcher, of Pike; Mortimer Hibbard and Reuben Tiffany, of Dover; Ezekiel
Masters and Joseph Ely, of Franklin; [and a number of other names] ...to be composed of parts of Williams county, Henry county, and the larger part of Lucas county."
From HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY, Mikesell; pg. 104:
"The first political convention of which there is any account, was composed of people of both political parties, and met in convention at the house of Daniel Knowls, in Pike township, about the last of March, 1850, for the purpose of nominating candidates for the official positions in the newly-erected county, which positions were to be filled at the ensuing April elections. This convention was not fully characterized for harmony of purpose, but in consequence of the weakness of the then old Whig party, and its inability to succeed in the election of a party ticket, the members thereof quietly submitted to a portion of the choice of said convention. The successful ones at this convention were Mortimer D. Hibbard of Dover, for auditor; George B. Brown of Royalton, sheriff; C. C. Allman of Delta, recorder; Nathaniel
Leggett of Swan Creek, treasurer; William Sutton of Gorham, Christopher Watkins of Fulton and Jonathan Barnes, commissioners. These gentlemen were duly elected and qualified as officers of the new county, severally entering upon the duties of their respective positions."
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1809 - 1876 (66 years)
