WILLIAM FLEET, of Eden Township, Seneca County, Ohio, was born on the 10th of January, 1806, at Steuben County, New York, where he remained, with his parents, until he had attained his twenty-second year. At this time he went to work for one Sylvanus Arnold, who resided in the same County, with whom he remained until the year 1887. At this period, Mr. Arnold removed to Seneca County, Ohio, and the subject of this sketch accompanied him to his new Western home. For the next three years Mr. Fleet worked for the above-named gentleman, at twelve dollars per month, and then considering himself fitted to battle with the world, he shouldered a satchel and started for the Pottawattomie Reserve, where, on his arrival, he entered one thousand and forty acres of land. He journeyed to the wilds of Indiana by an unfrequented route, and exhibited an extraordinary amount of perseverance in pushing on to his destination. He started from Tiffin to Maumee; from thence he took an Indian trail, up the river to Defiance, Ohio; from there he took another trail until reaching the Little St. Joe River, across which he had to swim. Then he traveled to John's Fee, by way of Fish Lake, in Indiana and taking an old Indian trail, he went onto a neighboring county, and there encamped for ten days, with a number of Indians and a few white men. He entered the above-mentioned amount of land, which was situated on Cedar Creek, and there built the first log cabin at what is now the county seat of DeKalb County, after which he proceeded on a trail to Fort Wayne, Indiana, swimming the St. Mary's River in order to enter the town. There he legally entered his land, and then hired a canoe and returned by water as far as the head of the Rapids, and then finished his journey home on foot.

He subsequently traded a half interest in his Indiana land for one hundred and sixty acres in Eden Township, where his residence now stand.

By industry and perseverance he has accumulated more than an ordinary competence. He owns eleven hundred acres of well improved and fertile land at an average worth of one hundred dollars per acre. In the language of the Tiffin Star, "He does more, he counts his flocks by the thousands and his herds by the hundreds; his grain by thousands of bushel and his wealth by the hundred thousands. All by forty years' hard labor, honesty, and economy. This is truly an example for our young men to emulate."


1874 Atlas