The September meeting of the Henry County Genealogical Society featured Ed Pepper of Napoleon, as the
speaker. He spoke on Pleasant Township and Holgate, where he grew up.
The township is was formerly a part of Flat Rock in 1843, when it was a wilderness.
In 1840 Mr. Easterbook taught the first school in the settlement. Children ages between 4 and 20 years
attended.
The first road was built from Holgate to Delphos; later to Toledo. Piles of sawed wood were placed at
intervals along the tracks for the engines on the trains, when they ran low on fuel they stopped to put
on another load. The B&0 railroad was built in 1874 and the creeks were drained in the area that
was known as the Great Black Swamp. That opened the area to people and businesses. The town of Holgate
was incorporated in 1881 and many businesses started.
In 1902 Holgate had a bad fire that destroyed one block of business places.
Holgate honored its famous son, Joe E. Brown in 1949 when the ball park stadium was dedicated and 10,000
people flocked to Holgate for the day. He was born in Holgate July 28, 1891. He lived in Holgate until
age 5, then moved to North Baltimore and later to Toledo. His home where he died at the age of 81 was in
Brentwood, California.
The next meeting with be a election of officers on Oct.17 at 7 p.m. at the Deshler Library.
