History of Defiance (1883)

This page supports the blog series, "Sheriff William Preston's identity crisis."

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History of Defiance County, Ohio (Chicago: Warner, Beers, 1883), pp. title, 84, 85, 156, 157, 203, 261.  

(1) p. 84 [Click here] "The first court in Williams County at Defiance was held April 5, 1824, with Ebenezer Land, Presiding Judge, and Robert Shirley, John Perkins and Pierce Evans, Associate Judges. ... William Preston was sheriff."

(2) p. 85 [Click here] "First Elections: At the first elections for county officers, held April 8, 1824, Timothy T. Smith received 37 votes, and H. Jerome 26 for Auditor; for Coroner, Arthur Burras 6 votes, John Oliver 40, and Tomas Warren 17; for Sheriff, James Shirley had 14 votes and William Preston, 48; for Commissioners, Jesse Hilton, 58, Cyrus Hunter 37, Charles Gunn, 31, Montgomery Evans, 28, Benjamin Leavell, 26, William Hunter, 4, and John Oliver, 1."

(3) pp. 156-157 [Click here] “In 1819, William Travis, a pioneer of Noble Twp, visited Fort Defiance, and found here seven cabins, occupied by French traders. A few Americans were also here. In old Fort Winchester, John and William Preston were living. The former had married a daughter of Judge Ewing, of Troy, Miami Co, Ohio, and died soon after Mr. Travis came." 

(4) p. 157 [Click here] “William Preston, who was a soldier at Fort Winchester in 1812, is regarded as the first white permanent settler of Fort Defiance. He married a Miss Butler whose brothers lived about eight miles below on the Maumee. He was a farmer by occupation, intelligent, sober and industrious. He removed to St. Joseph Township, Williams County, where he died about 1828.

(5) p. 203 [Click here] Recollections of Shirley family, “My parents were pleased to find Mr. William Preston, a gentleman of intelligence and of pleasing manners, in possession of the fort. He had been there most of the time since the war”; she continues, ”There were two good log houses In the fort, built for the officers, one of which Mr. Preston’s family occupied; in the other, my father’s family found narrow but quite comfortable quarters.”

(6) p.. 261 [Click here] “…during the year 1821-22, Mrs. Hill lived with the Prestons, who at that time occupied the old fort, using the block houses for storing grain. Preston kept tavern in a log house near the fort.”