Scott Knerr is a master storyteller with his accounts of the lives of those who lived in and around Wapakoneta in Auglaize County, Ohio.
It is my pleasure to share Scott's 5-part series, with the Introduction below, detailing the "Diaries of Edward Lusk":
Scott Knerr – March 2, 2019:
**Introduction**
"The Diaries of Edward Lusk"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hello all: I’m back with a new
family for you to learn about. Bonnie (Lusk) Denig contacted me last winter
about some old diaries she had. Her great grandfather Edward Lusk wrote the
diaries between 1889-1909. Ed was a important part of his rural community back
then in eastern Auglaize county. He was a farmer his whole life but was also a
one room school teacher and many other things I’ll get into later.
Bonnie & Gary have granted me full access to the use of their copy written
material on the CD.
Their hard work on the Lusk
family needs to be seen and I feel honored to be allowed to share it with you.
But enough of the introduction it’s time for you to meet the “Lusk” family.
Hope you enjoy.
“ The Lusk Family”
I mentioned above about the
diaries of Edward Lusk. But before I get to those I want to take you back to
William Lusk III. William III was born in Virginia on August 23rd 1784 and his
future wife Charity Runyon was born Oct. 29th 1786 also in Virginia. Their love
for each other was very special, because they chose Christmas day 1806 to be
married. What a day that must have been for family and friends. I image the
celebration must have been quite an event.
After getting married they bought
some property in Tazewell Virginia and started a farm. Over the next 27 years
William and Charitys’ love stood strong. Together they had 10 children on their
136 acre farm. Things were looking good for the family but the opening of the
northwest territory of Ohio was now on Williams’ mind.
I’m sure after many talks with
Charity they decided to sell the farm and move. On Sept 4th 1833 the property
sold for $150.00 and it wasn’t long after that they started their journey with
all 10 children and all their possessions for Ohio. This trip would be nearly
400 miles long over rough terrain and take around 47 days.
During this time at least 11
other families from Tazewell decided to head to our area.
Whether they came
together I’m not sure but some of these other early families included Hugh
Rinehart, Richard and John Bailey, Joseph Davidson, Joseph Brown, Christopher
Richardson, and Williams’ brother Charles Lusk.
Also included was William and
Charles mother Mary. Mary was born sometime around 1766 and married William II.
He only lived up to around 1807. After his death Mary married Benjamin Runyon.
These two would have been well into their 70s when they arrived here and I’m
sure it had to be hard on them to move into the wilderness. But they wanted to
be here with there families. Mary was a tough old lady though and made it to
around 89 years old until her death in 1855.
William III and Charity bought 80 acres of land in Union township at the cost
of $1.25 an acre. To get to their land was no easy task. Since there were no
roads they had to cut a path to their land. Once there they cleared an area and
raised a cabin which took about 3 or 4 days to build.
After the cabin was built they built a shelter for the horses, then the
outhouse, and finally a barn.
As hard of work as all this took it was just the beginning. The family now
faced clearing land to raise crops. Imagine trying to clear acre after acre of
virgin forest all by hand. Many of these trees were massive and hundreds of
years old. As long as it took to drop just one tree was nothing compared to
removing the stumps and all the roots of each tree.
This area of Auglaize County was
also very swampy. The Lusks’ would have had to dig trenches also just to drain
the land. They also faced having to move many big boulders out of their future
fields. These early pioneers were very tough people that went through many
hardships just to survive.
William III brother Charles settled just west of him in St. Johns. Charles was
a religious man and formed the very first Methodist church in St. Johns at his
home shortly after his arrival in 1833.
The meetings were held for
several years in his home until the first church was built. Charles only stayed
here until 1855 when he moved out to Missouri, then Iowa, and finally Kansas.
Charles grandson Hugh Lusk was also a religious man. He had land between
Uniopolis and Waynesfield. In the late 1800s he leased land to the “Mount
Lookout Association. From August 11th to the 21st of 1898 Mount Lookout held
it’s first gathering in a grove of trees of which many attended.
The meetings turned out to be a
huge success. So much so that Hugh and his wife Anna deeded the land of 11
acres to the church. Hugh was a great carpenter and helped direct and build the
church. Since the floor inside the church was a dirt floor in the early years
they often kept a thick coating of saw dust over the dirt.
But now back to William III. As I
said above William and Charity had 10 children. After moving here they spent
the rest of their lives on the farm. One of their sons was named William IV.
William IV must have been a private man because there isn’t much written
history on him. He was born in Tazewell in 1823 and was just 10 years old when
he arrived here with his family.
He later married a young lady named Sarah Bennett on May 2nd 1844. Sarah's family was from Waynesfield. The Bennett family has a wonderful history about
the family that one day I hope to return to but is to long for this story. Together
William and Sarah had 10 children of only which 5 survived into adulthood. Of
these 5 one son they named Edward.
So now that I have all of you
caught up in the early years of the Lusks’ leading up to Edward's birth I’m
going to end this part here since it ran so long. Up next I’ll share some of
the diaries with you so that you will learn more about the man behind the
diaries. Until next time…
P.S. These tombstones are all
located at Mount Lookout Cemetery east of Uniopolis in Auglaize county other
then Charles and his is located out in Kansas."
