Mortimer
& his wife Mary (Polly)
were among 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,
by
Thomas 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."