Hiram Sarber told what it was like to be a young boy coming into the Putnam County wilderness in 1833. He gave his first-hand story to those who were putting together the Putnam County Pioneer Reminiscences 1878 and 1887, so that present-day residents could have an idea of what those early pioneers did to shape this country and make it what it is for us today.
Hiram was born 23 August, 1817, in Franklin County, Ohio. What made them move north? Hiram stated that about that time there was “considerable excitement” about buying land in this part of Ohio. His family settled one mile below Kalida. Hiram came to Putnam County in September of 1833 with his older brother, Christian, who brought a load of flour to those already living in the county.
Hiram decided to stay and get out some house logs to build a house for his parents and their six children. Three boys were older than Hiram and he had a younger sister and brother. He boarded with Joseph Clevenger, who lived 2 1/2 miles away from the location of where his family’s future home would be. His brother Abr’m lived within two miles but on the other side of the river. These were the nearest settlers to where his father decided to build their house in the woods. The balance of the Sarber family arrived in the county early in November.
Due to mishaps, disadvantages and bad weather, they were unable to get the house raised until November 20. The house was made of hewed logs. There were 14 hands present to raise the house and he had to go 14 miles to get that many hands to help with the job.
They moved into the house on the third day after it was raised, without door, windows or fireplace. The door and fireplace was cut out and the floors were laid with hewn puncheons and split boards. They got the home fixed so it was “tolerably comfortable”.
Hiram told of an event which occurred shortly before they moved into their house. It was a great sight of falling stars on the morning of the 13th of November, 1833. It was quite a show of nature in the skies.
Hiram said the winter of 1833 was bad for working out so they didn’t get much of the clearing done. They fed the cattle by chopping down brush and saplings for “brouse”, as it was called.
The deer came within three rods of the house at night to brouse where they had been chopping. The wolves howled around almost every night. The wolves were hard to catch and would chase the dogs right up to the door. Sometimes they caught a few wolves in traps. They killed all the deer they wanted for food.
Hiram said: “When spring came, up the river came the fish in abundance. We caught all we wanted for present use and to salt for summer use. We caught Sturgeon that weighed 50 pounds; Muskellunge, thirty-six; Red-horse, from six to fifteen pounds apiece. Red-horse were the plentiest of any kind that came up the river. We cleared eight acres on the up-land and four on the bottom the first spring; the eight acres on the up-land we cut everything off but the stumps, which were plenty; we planted the 12 acres in corn, it doing very well until July, when on the 2nd of the month there came a rain, and on the 4th the water was all over the bottom and destroyed all the crops along the river. This made it hard for the settlers, for most of the crops were on the bottoms. We had the eight acres left on the up-land, which we tended as well as we could, among the green roots. When our corn commenced earing along came the rabbits and squirrels. They commenced as if they would take it all.
Father said to me, “Hiram, there is a little gun and dog, I want you to watch the coon and squirrels out of the corn field.” I shot squirrels by day and hunted coon at night. This was my work till I got tired of it. The dog would lay off in the day time, but when night came he was ready for the hunt. All I had to do was to go to the door and say, ‘Go  hunt them’, and then wait until he barked.
Most of the time he would find them on the ground in the field, but would not kill them till I came to him. I followed this for sometime and got so tired of it that I would peel some bark and take the dog home and tie him up, so that I could go to sleep. If I left him loose, he would hunt ’til he found one, and then would bark ’til father would call out ‘Hiram, do you hear the dog?’, then I would have to get up and go, for I knew better than to disobey him.
The  Indians were plenty here and we had considerable sport with them shooting at mark, hopping and running foot races. The first winter and spring, if we boys wanted young company we had to go twelve miles up the river to a settlement, where there were about a dozen boys and girls that attended meeting and singing-school at a log school house.”
Kalida was surveyed in the spring of 1834 and lots were sold in June. In the fall several families moved into town and they had some young folks so they could all get to together and have their “society near home”.
Since more settlers began to arrive in that part of the county, their house became a sort of country hotel. They had to keep plenty of provisions on hand. The nearest place for provisions was Cherokee mills, 60 miles away. That’s where they got most of their flour. It would take seven to nine days to make the trip and the four-horse team could haul 10 or 12 barrels on a load.
Most of the families living along the Auglaize River had hand mills. They were made of lime-stone and set in a hollow log or gum. Some families lived for years almost entirely on corn bread made on the meal ground by those hand mills. Hiram remembers having to wait on a meal ’til the corn was shelled, ground and baked. Their meat consisted of venison, wild hogs, raccoon, turkey and plenty of fish.
When the Germans began to settle at Glandorf, some of them would work for his father and at the end of the day’s work, they would pack a bushel of corn on their backs and walk four to six miles to their homes.
Hiram told of the first Fourth of July celebration in Kalida. The people along the Auglaize turned out well, but since there was not much of a road, they all came in canoes. There was plenty of whiskey on hand and they made it quite a lively time along the river that night.
Sarber mentioned that the first person buried in the Kalida graveyard was Mrs. David Murphy, who lived at the mouth of Hog Creek, where Henry Comer later lived. The year was 1836.
The pioneers had some very rough times but according to Hiram, they had their good times also.