Handbook N-P - Fulton County Public Library

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James Malcolm was the first white man to lead the march of civilization into what is now
Perry Township. He came to the country as early as 1833, and obtaining a small log cabin from an
Indian village soon after fixed his home on what is now known as the Jacob Wiles farm, not far
from the southeast corner of the township. “He doubtless entered the deep forest, as did the
majority of young pioneers, with exultant hopes, looking forward to the time when the dense
woods should be cleared away, and when fine farms should appear in their stead.” He lived to see
all these changes take place, but, contrary to his expectations, instead of accumulating a
competency and living to enjoy the same, was compelled to pass his declining years in the county
poor house, where he died a common pauper. The next man who sought a home in the new
country was William Akright, who located in the southeast corner of the township, where Ananias
Harmon now lives, some time in the year 1834. Mr. Akright was in the true sense of the word a
pioneer, and, like his predecessor, was doomed to bitter disappointment, so far as the
accumulation of property was concerned, dying in indigent circumstances in the year 1884. His
son, John Akright, came the same time, figured as an early school teacher of the township, and
later sold goods for a number of years in the village of Gilead. The same year Matthias Moyer
settled near the eastern boundary of the township, where he cleared a good farm and set out one of
the first nurseries in the county. “Benjamin Musulman and Jacob Gill were early settlers in the
same locality, but did not purchase land at that time, both of them leasing a part of Mr. Moyer’s
place.”
During the year 1835, a number of substantial men were added to the population of the
little colony, conspicuous among whom was John Rhodes, who entered a large tract of land near
the central part of the township, upon which he lived the remainder of his life. Unlike the majority
of settlers in a new country, Mr. Rhodes was a man of considerable wealth, by means of which he
was enabled to secure a valuable property and live in comparative ease. His son, Adam E.
Rhodes, accompanied him to this country and settled upon the present site of Gilead, of which
village he was proprietor. He was a man of great energy and superior business qualifications, and
ranked as one of the leading citizens of the county for a number of years. Another prominent
settler of 1835 was Ira Mitchell, who located a short distance east of Gilead, on what is now the
John Baker farm. John Close came the latter part of the same year and made an improvement near
the eastern boundary of the township, and James Waddle is reputed to have been living on the
Samuel Seidner place not far from Niconza, prior to 1836. Among others of 1835, were Peter
Onstatt, two and a half miles southeast of Gilead; James Fiers, on the Tombaugh farm in the
southeast corner of the township; Rev. Wesley Borders, a Methodist preacher and early Justice of
the Peace, in the same locality; Joseph Wildman and his son Joseph, near the Keesling farm,
southwest of Gilead; Alfred Doud, a half mile west of the village; Charles Cleland, in the vicinity
of Dowd’s place; James Cleland, brother of Charles, and an early trader, about four miles
southwest of Gilead; James Biggs, northwest of Gilead; Benjamin and David Marquis, on the
Sickafoos farm; Willis Hill, on the Graft farm, in the southwest part of the township; Jacob
Richard, son-in-law of Alfred, near the central part of the township; John Walters, on the Joseph
Grogg farm; John Anderson and Matthias Bird, near Gilead; and James Bunton, who purcased
land owned at the present time by Jacob Kessling and Fred Kircher, where he died within a short
time after coming to the county.
Prominent among the arrivals of 1836 was Peter Kessling, who, the previous fall,
purchased the land where Willis Hill had settled, to which he moved his family the following
spring. He was a prominent citizen of the township until his death in 1860, and can be
appropriately classed with the early reprsentative men of Miami County. His sons, Jacob, Titus,
Peter, James and Jackson, came the same year, and Samuel a little later. They were all substantial
citizens and left the impress of their characters upon the communities in which they resided.
Jacob Kessling, the only one of the brothers here at the present time, is one of the oldest and
wealthiest citizens of the township.
Samuel Shoemaker settled in the southeast corner of the township in 1836, and before the
close of that year the population had been increased by the following comers: Samuel Essick, on
the Timothy Baker farm; Peter Sager, a short distance south of Gilead; Jacob Huffman, in the