THE BASELINE ROAD
Last fall Dr. Ronald Stuckey, retired professor of Botany from Ohio State University and a graduate of Heidelberg College, invited me to accompany him to his home area in Crawford County. We went south on State Route l00, turned east at the Crawford-Seneca County line on what is known as the Baseline Road. Ron recorded his recollections of each property owner and their history as we traveled east.
Many of the original families that settled the land in the 1800’s remain in the area. At least eleven properties were owned by the Stuckeys along the Baseline Road between routes l00 and 19 from l833 to the present time. Some were in Seneca County and others in Crawford County. John Stuckey was the first Stuckey to come to the area. The Federal Government granted him l60 acres, l/4th of Section 32, Bloom Township, on October 21st , l833. This John is the great, great grandfather of Ronald Stuckey.
A small cemetery was established in the 1830’s along Baseline Road in Lykens Township, Crawford County. In the 1850’s several German Lutheran and German Reform families worshipped in a small school house near the cemetery. Then the group met in a barn on the John Klaiss farm and later in the Klaiss home. In 1855 these worshipers built a small brick church from land purchased from the Klaisses by the cemetery. From 1861 to 1916 burials were made in chronological order, forming nine rows.
Markers in the older cemetery carry names of the original families such as Bartholomew, Dewald, Frankenfield, Keller, Miller, Ohl, Stuckey, and Ziegler.
In l862 the Reformers wrote their own constitution and by-laws and established the St. John’s Reform Congregation. Then in l869 the congregation sold their interest in the church and erected a new brick church 50 feet farther west. Two years later the Lutheran families abandoned the original structure, dismantled it, and sold the brick to Jacob Feighner for his new home in Lykens.
The St. John Congregation continued to add new features and improvements to their church, but in the mid 1940’s, decided because of expanding membership to build a new church. The Hossler Construction Company of Tiffin erected the new building with an exterior of native bedrock limestone. This beautiful new church, completed in 1951, is known now as the St. John’s Baseline United Church of Christ. It is located on the Baseline Road, opposite the cemeteries on the Seneca County side. A descendent of one of the original families, Ferris Ohl and his wife, Dorothy, provided music for the dedication.
After traveling on the Baseline Road, I became interested in finding out how it got its name. I found information in “A Short History of Ohio Lands, copyright l994, by the Ohio State Auditor. Seneca County was established in 1820 using as its southern boundary the 41 degree parallel line which served as the baseline for surveying boundaries east and west. The Indiana-Ohio line, which is a very straight north-south line served as the First Principal Meridian. The meridian lines are widest at the equator and converge at the poles. Ranges of townships in Ohio were progressively numbered eastward from that meridian, while townships within each range were numbered northward and southward from the baseline. Each township is six miles square. The first square mile in the northeast corner is no. l, and the square mile in the southeast corner is no. 36. Seneca County has five townships east to west and three townships north to south for a total of fifteen townships or 540 square miles. Each square mile is one tract or section and contains 640 acres. In l820 public lands in Ohio were priced at $l.25 an acre with a minimal purchase of 80 acres.
The Baseline Road separates Huron and Seneca Counties on the north from Richland, Crawford, and Wyandot Counties on the south. In the original survey, the problem of decreasing distance between the meridians and the partitioning of the tracts into odd acreages led to many 90 degree turns in the early roads, as can be noted in Route l00 between Tiffin and Bucyrus, and others.
In addition to providing information for this article, Dr. Stuckey has written the family histories of his four grandparents for the recently published Seneca County History Book. That includes the Stuckeys, and the Shueys, his mother’s family. This book contains many family histories, one-room school histories, church histories, railroads that are extinct and other information.
About l50 of the l500 printed copies are unsold and available from Jerald and Beverly Wheatley, 116 Grand Avenue, Tiffin, phone 447-9628, or from Seneca County Genealogical Society, P.O. Box l57, Tiffin OH 44883. The price is $65.00 for the Deluxe Standard Edition plus $5.00 for postage and handling.
- Percy