ALFRED P. EDGERTON A Founding Father of Hicksville, Ohio

    When Emphraim Burwell was sent to the Hicksville area in 1836, he had orders to set up a town to be named for the Hicks family of New York whose business had purchased well over 100,000 acres in this area.
   The idea was to sell off timber and then the land before taxes were due on the holdings. Burwell spent a lot of money but sold no land. He had to be replaced. The Hicks Land Company chose one of their young bookkeepers to go to Ohio and take over the business.
&nben. nbsp; On April 17, 1837, Alfred P. Edgerton came from New York to take over the Hicks and American Land Companies. When he arrived he found four cabins, an underbrushed road, and some Potawatamies roasting a porcupine on the high ridge of land that ran southwest through the area.
   At the crossing on the high ridge, stood a double cabin in which Edgerton stayed, setting up shop in a bureau at one end. He began selling land to the few settlers that were already nearby.
   His first sale was 100 acres @ $5.00 an acre to Buenos and Sara Ann Ayres, parents of the first child born in Hicksville.
   The next year, Edgerton brought the first mail route off the main line into Hicksville and acted as its first postmaster.

By 1840, Edgerton's land and timber sales had outgrown his bureau. He directed the building of a one story square office in the Greek Revival style. Its temple front featured four square columns with capitals. Windows and doors were surrounded with hand carved trim. The high ceiling and hardwood walls are impressive.
   The Land office was a center of commerce. Edgerton was a general trader and community leader. He redesigned Hicksville in 1841, consolidating blocks and rearranging streets. He built the first mills and had them rebuilt following fires. A.P. established the first toll road in the Maumee basin, The Antwerp Pike, now Route 49 south.

    In the late 1800's, a wing was added to the side of the building. After A.P. Edgerton's death in 1897, a variety of businesses occupied the building. The Hicksville Building and Loan was there the longest, from 1899 to 1959. When they expanded, the building was moved one lot north. Thirty years later, the Building and Loan would move The Land Office back to High Street and give it to the library. By then, the Land Office had been moved four times. It currently stores Historical Society collections.
   The Land Office is important as the place from which A.P. Edgerton sold over 140,000 acres of land to settlers, an amount topped only by the US government. Development of these lands from swampy forests to highly productive farmland changed the face of northwest Ohio forever.

A.P. Edgerton was a shrewd businessman, but he was also a community minded and generous person. Below is a chronological summary of his accomplishments.

Thanks to the Hicksville Historical Society for the above information.

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