clearing trees and brush for a neighbor, building cabins, splitting rails for fencing, do a little fur trapping on the side and could in one season set himself up on an 80 acre farm of his own.

So it was in 1823. The new town of Saint Marys, Ohio, had been legally established. The old Forts, Barbee and Saint Marys, with their stockade fences were decaying in the ground on which they stood. In their stead were rising newer buildings to serve the needs of people rather than the needs of a military force.

Among the many names of those first settlers and some were here before Saint Marys became a reality were: Lt. John Armstrong, Pickett Doute, Rev. Asa Stearns, R.R. Barrington, John Hawthorn, John Blew, Tom Scott, Sam McKee, Herwig Smith, Henry and Isaac Helm, Christian Benner, Isreal Johns, Henry Noble, Stacy Taylor, Judge Phelps, John, Robert and William Elliott, Gideon Mott, John and William Hollingsworth, Charles Watkins, Joseph Catterlin, Thomas Sturgeon, James Gibson, Andrew Collins, R. B. Gordon, Henry Barrington, Sam Scott, S. R. Matt and William Helfenstein. The list is almost endless and no doubt those recorded here are merely a cross section of the community in those days.


Judge Stacy Taylor
First Mayor of Saint Marys

Historians of the period have recorded some of their special acts or skills. Stacy Taylor was elected as the first Mayor in 1834 when the town was incorporated. Later he moved to Columbus, Ohio, and became a character in James Thurber's "Carnival." John Pickerel and William Hollingsworth were building rafts of a special type for river travel to Fort Wayne before 1820 and lived to build on the canal. The boats built for river travel were astounding large when one considers the river conditions of the modern era. A length of 40 feet, a width of 6 feet with sides up to 4 feet were not uncommon.

Then there was James Lord, who bought the first town lot, No. 21 (where the Bungalow now is) and was taxed 1/2 of one cent in 1824. Lord is apparently the same as is recorded in other histories as James Laird who taught the first school from 1825 to 1831. He is said to have taught almost as many adults to write their own names as he had children.

Henry Helm had been building river boats also, but as the town of Saint Marys grew, he turned his skills to house building. In 1827 he erected the first hewn-log house at the southwest corner of Spring and Perry. All the houses to that time had been erected as regular log cabins, laying notched round logs one atop the other to the heighth required. The spaces between the logs would then be filled with mud to keep out the weather. Helm built a better house. He would first square up the logs with a broad axe and then fit them together so that they required no mud chinking of the cracks. A thin layer of clay would be spread on the next one to it. Helm continued active in the building trade for many years. Of course, as saw mills were available, he used cut lumber. One of the houses built by Helm is still standing in 1973. This is the Ed Baxter home at 115 North Chestnut Street. There may be others.

Christian Benner was also one of the first buyers of lots in the new town of Saint Marys. His first purchase in 1823 was of the three lots where the Baker Auto is located and the adjoining lot where the late Dr. Place lived. Benner also owned a large tract at the north edge of the town and on both sides of the river When the time came that the community needed a new cemetery, he

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