HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 109

RUSSELL.

(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE)

BY SAMUEL ROBINSON, ESQ.

Russell township is No. 7, range 9, in the Connecticut Western Reserve.

FIRST SETTLERS.

The first settlers were the Russell family, consisting of Gideon Russell, wife and five children—three sons and two daughters, namely: Ebenezer, William, Alpheus, Jemima, and Sally. They moved into the woods, in the year 1818, on the Chillicothe road, a little south of the center of the township. For about two years they were the only inhabitants that we know of. In the fall of 1820 Mr. Simeon Norton moved in with his family, consisting of himself and his wife, Sally, and one daughter, Melinda. He built a split and hewed log house, which is now standing, about half a mile south of the center on the north part of what is now known as the Benjamin Mathews farm, but was then the Russell farm. The house has been removed. It was built by Mr. Norton back from the Chillicothe road some sixty rods or more, near a spring and not far from a road that was laid out from Cleveland to Warren, and partially opened for travel. The Norton family was the second in town, and Orson Norton, the pioneer baby, was born on the thirty-first day of March, 1821, being the first white child born in Russell, now living in Solon. Mr. Norton moved, in the fall of 1821, to what was then known as the Eggleston Mills, in the southwest part of Bainbridge, now owned by James Fuller, son of Thomas Fuller the founder of Fullertown, at the northeast corner of Russell, in 1821 or 1822.

THE CHILLICOTHE ROAD

was laid out in 1802, when Chillicothe was the territorial seat of government. Gen. Edward Paine, Captain Paine's father, who was then a very young man, was one of the committee to lay our and open the road. It commenced at Painesville, running through Mentor, Kirtland, Chester, and Russell. It is said that they followed an Indian trail from the Tuscarawas river to the Scioto, where the Indians traveled from one river to the other. The old Chillicothe road passed the center of Russell to Bainbridge Center, and was, and is now, one of the leading roads of the township.

NAME-EARLY PROPRIETORS.

The township was named Russell in 1827, I suppose, in honor of the first settlers. I think it was the last township settled and named in the county of Geauga, which at that time embraced Lake county within its limits. At the commencement of its settlement, it was called the West Woods by the people of Newbury. The reason why it was not settled as soon as the adjoining townships, I suppose, to be that the speculators who bought of the Connecticut Land company, held it out of the market, or held it above the market price. In 1810 Samuel Huntington owned four hundred and fourteen acres. A little later Nathaniel Matthews had about four hundred acres in the northwest quarter of the township. Henry. Champion owned one thousand acres, and the heirs of Daniel L. Coit owned a large quantity in the north and east parts of the township. Thomas and Frederick Kinsman owned a strip, about a mile wide,

110 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.

through the center of the town east and west, and Aristarchus Champion owned. a large part of the south half of Russell.

EARLY EVENTS.

Clark Robinson moved from Shaftsbury, Bennington county, Vermont, to Middlefield, in the fall of 1820, and in 1825, moved to the west part of Newbury, and bought a lot of land in Russell Center, division of Thomas Kinsman, on the east line of the township, at three dollars per acre. He commenced in the woods near the spring, where his son, David, now lives, and on the eighth of November, 1825, moved his family, consisting of his wife, Rebecca, and four children—three sons, Clark, Edwin and David, and one daughter, Phebe, into the body of a log house, put up the day before, with no roof; had some loose boards for a floor, and in the night, had to get up and put up some boards endways to keep of the rain and snow. The old lady, between eighty and ninety years of age, lives with her son, David, on the same old farm. She has probably done more hard work in the township than any other woman, having lived in It more than fifty years.

Clark Robinson built the first frame buildings. The first was a cheese house, and is yet standing. The next was a barn. It was the custom, at that time, to name buildings when they were raised, and have a jug of whiskey at the raising. At this raising the boss, Samuel Coleman, took the jug and stood on the ridge-pole, and as many as had a mind to, and were sober enough, went up and stood with him and swung their hats and hurrahed while he named the building and threw the jug down into the gulley below the spring. Three of the first settlers in that part of the township came from Vermont, and married sisters—William Jones, Thomas Manchester, and Clark Robinson. Jones located on the north side of the center road, on the east line of the township, opposite the Clark Robinson farm, and paid two dollars and seventy-five cents per acre for his purchase, cash down; and Manchester made his purchase and located farther to the west. Roswell Jones, son of William Jones, lives on the old farm, and is the most extensive land owner in town. The three sisters were smart, energetic women, reared among the hills of Vermont, near the Green mountains, and were well calculated to endure the hardships of a new country. When David Robinson was six weeks old he started from Vermont for Ohio, in his mother's arms, on a pillow in a wagon. But few women would undertake a journey of five hundred miles under such circumstances.

First School House.-The first frame school-house in town was built on the Jones farm, and is now used as a blacksmith shop at the center, by William Chase, an ingenious workman.

We have two blacksmith shops at the center. The other is run by Jacob Chase, at present a justice of the peace, township clerk, and postmaster.

John Robinson was the first teacher in the new house, and was followed by Esquire Utley, an old settler of Newbury.

The first election held in the township was on the second day of April, 1827. There were twelve votes cast. Ebenezer Russell was elected clerk; Gideon Russell, Clark Robinson and John Lowry were elected trustees; Jonathan Rathbone and John C. Bell were elected overseers of the poor ; Thomas Manchester and James M. Smith were elected fence viewers; William Russell was elected treasurer; Alpheus Russell was elected constable; Ebenezer Russell was elected supervisor of highways for district No. 1. April l0th, the trustees met and laid off the township into two highway districts.

Clark Robinson was the first justice of the peace elected in Russell. His commission bears date October 25, 1827.

Mr. John Bell came to Russell with his family of seven children from Mass-

HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 111

achusetts, in the fall of 1821. Jonathan Rathburn and family moved in from Newburgh in 1823. Then Lewis Sweet, Silas Barker, Mr. Black, Mr. Goodwell and others soon after, settled in the south part of the township.

First School Teacher.—Lucy Squire taught the first school in the back part of Jonathan Rathburn's house, in 1829. She has been unfortunate, and became partially deranged, and after wandering about the streets for many years, became an inmate of the insane asylum at Newburg in 1877.

The first meetings were held in the south neighborhood, by a missionary sent by some society, with instructions to get what pay he could by contributions where he preached, and the society would make up the balance of his salary. It is said that the contributions were rather dry, the six pences being scarce at that time.

First Wedding.—Mr. John Bacheldor, of Newbury, and Miss Sally Russell were the first couple married in the township. The ceremony took place on the twenty-sixth day of November, 1825.

First Death.—Abel Brockway was the first man who died in Russell. He was living with Mr. Rathburn, and had been boiling sap until about nine o'clock in the evening; he came in,and went to bed apparently as well as usual, was taken sick in the night, and yelled, and then came down stairs with his pants in his hand. They saw that he was very sick, and sent George Bell to Aurora for the doctor, but before he came to Brockway, he was dead. His death, perhaps, was the most sudden of any that has occurred in the township, without any known cause.

Blacksmith.—The first blacksmith shop was built near where David Robinson now lives. William Chase, sr., was the first blacksmith.

Doctors.—The first physician located in the township, was Dr. Brown. He came to the Center in 1842, staid about a year, and was of the regular practice.

Doctors Eggleston and Ayres, both botanic physicians, came soon after Dr. Brown left, and staid a few years. Then Dr. Clark, botanic, located a little west of the Center, staid a short time, and left. It has always been too healthy in Russell for doctors to stay long.

Clark Robinson started the first store, traded in anything the people had to sell, and kept for sale such goods as were then needed. One of the staple articles of commerce at that time was black salts—something that every one could make that had land to clear up, by saving the ashes from the burnt log heaps and leaching them, and boiling the lye down to salts, which he would buy and haul to Pittsburgh and trade for nails, glass and other necessaries, there not being many superfluities when calico was forty-four cents a yard, and girls worked out for fifty cents a week. C. Robinson took the job to cut the timber and log out the east and west road through the center of the town ; he built the store and hotel at the center; was the first man in the township that bought cattle and drove them east. he died March 21, 1840. Clark Robinson, jr., married Emeline Munn, and died in Newbury, December 6, 1848. Edwin Robinson married Almena Prouty, and now lives in Newbury with his third wife. David Robinson married Candace Scott and lives on the old farm. Phebe Robinson married Theodore King, and lives in Harpersfield, Ashtabula county. Nathan Robinson, jr., half brother of C. Robinson, came to Russell in September, 1826, married Mary Morton of Newbury, and went into the grist-mill and distilling business in Newbury. They had one daughter, and in a few years his wife died, when he married Miss Laura Chase for his second wife. They had three children—George, Calvin, and Sophia, who are all living. Nathan moved from Newbury to Orange in 1837. N. S. Robinson built a saw- and grist-mill there on the Chagrin river, sold out in 1843 and dissolved partnership. Nathan Robinson moved to Russell and bought the saw-mill west of the center; run it

112 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.

until July, 1851, when he was killed while breaking a pair of colts, being run over by the wagon, and died in about an hour, at the age of forty-seven. After a few years his widow married Mr. Irben Green, and lives in the western part of Ohio.

Edwin Robinson says that about fifty years ago the winter was so mild and warm that the herbage grew in the woods so that Esquire Hickox, of Burton, drove a hundred head of cattle down to Russell, in March, to feed them there. He helped to watch and yard them nights, and they did well without any other feeding. In 1832 N. S. Robinson took a job to make a road across the gulley on the east and west center road in Russell, about three-quarters of a mile west of the center. They took an ox-team and sled, with tools and provisions, and followed the newly cut road until they came to the river, went up stream to find a place to cross, had to cut away the underbrush to get along, built a brush shanty to sleep in nights, had straw and blankets for bedding and built a fire to cook pork and potatoes over. There the writer did more cooking than ever he has done before or since. It took three of them and a team a week to do the job, for which they received seventeen dollars in cash.

LOCATION—NATURAL FEATURES,

Russell township lies about fourteen miles south of Lake Erie, and is generally of a rolling or uneven surface, and yet not very hilly; not much swampy or waste land in the township. There is a large quantity of sandstone, suitable for building and bridging purposes, in a great portion of the township. In almost every part of the east half nice sandstone quarries may be found, and in a part of the southwest quarter. The north branch of the Chagrin river rises in Munson, and is the outlet of Bass lake, or what used to be called Munson pond. There was a project talked of at one time by the mill owners at Chagrin Falls, and along the stream, of making a dam at the outlet of the lake, and putting in a floom and gate, thus making a large reservoir to supply the mills in a dry time, but has not yet been done. The river comes to this town not far from the northeast corner, at Fullertown. Thomas Fuller built a saw- and grist-mill, on the river, in the northwest corner of Newbury, about 1822, and about 1847, built his new grist-mill, a little way down the stream, in Russell, and it has been doing a good business about thirty years. 'this northeast corner of the township was not settled very much until about 1834. Lester Alexander, William Buck, Levi Savage, and some others came before. Charles Jackson bought the corner lot. Richard Ladow came from Onondaga county, New York, in 1835. Jonathan Danforth, in 1836, bought of General Simon Perkins, agent for heirs of Daniel L. Coit, of Connecticut, at five dollars per acre; then Henry Cummins, William Wyckoff, Elder Willis, James M. Smith, and others.

The river runs from the northeast corner in a southwesterly direction, winding its way to the southwest corner, and leaves Russell, plunging over the rocks at the Falls, and runs about a mile farther, where it meets its twin sister, the south branch, from Aurora, where they mingle together and flow to the north through Orange, Mayfield, and Willoughby, and goes peacefully into the bosom of Lake Erie. Russell township is well supplied with water power; there have been six saw-mills started in it; only two yet remain, timber for sawing having become scarce. Silver creek, a clear, rapid stream, comes to Russell in two branches. The east branch rises in Newbury; the south branch comes from Bainbridge. They unite about a mile east of the center, just above where Lovel Green, an old settler of Newbury, who came to Russell, in 1834, built his sawmill about 1835; thence it runs northwesterly, and unites with the Chagrin river. Griswold brook comes in from Chester on the north, and is clear, spring

HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 113

water. It is said that the speckled trout live in it. It runs southwesterly- through the northwest quarter of the township, going into Orange before it reaches the east and west colter road. About 1842, there were two saw-mills built on this brook--one by the Colton brothers, and run a short time; the other by Charles Graham, and is running yet.

This township abounds with large, beautiful springs of cold, clear, soft water. The timber is mostly beach and maple; some ash, whitewood, chestnut, cucumber, oak, and basswood. On the low lands black walnut, butternut, elm, sycamore, etc. Rail timber is getting scare, but stone is plenty. Line fences are quite common now. There are some beautiful hedges, mostly of osage orange, generally, by the road side; some of willow. They grow rapidly in wet soil. Russell was five miles square before we lost the nine hundred acres taken from the southwest corner in 184r. It is in 41* 30' north latitude, and in longitude 4' 20' west from Wasington, and 81̊ zo' west from Greenwich. The climate is healthy, soil good for grass and grain; dairying and stock-raising the leading occupation; sheep doing well on the uplands; fruit grows in abundance generally. The people are quiet, civil, and industrious; mostly Yankees ; some foreigners.

MILLS.

Mr. Orton Judson built a saw-mill in the north part of Russell, on the north bank of the Chagrin river, a little east from where it crosses the Chillicothe road and got it running in 1834. He•put in a run of stone, and so we had a grist mill. Mr. Cyrus Bailey came about 1832, and took up two lots about half a mile west from the center, where the river crosses the east and west centre road. In 1833, his father, Iddo Bailey, sr., and family, came from Gustavus, Trumbull county, Ohio, and they—Iddo Bailey, his two sons, Cyrus and Daniel, and David Patridge—built a saw-mill there, and got it running in 1833. There was yet another built by Aaron Bliss, on the river, down near the falls, about 1838.

Froth 1833 to 1837, the settlers came in very fast—Nicholas Dowen, G. S. Pelton, Mr. Shaw, Eliphalet Johnson, Robert O. Roberts, John Williams, Harvey Pelton, Jesse Pelton, and others, settled west of the center, about that time.

SCHOOLS.

The laws regulating the common schools were re-organized by the general assemby of the State of Ohio, March 1, 1853, making each township one school district, and confined to the control and management of a board of education, and the whole divided into sub-districts, and to be controlled by local directors. In 1876, the centennial year, there were nine sub-districts and a fraction, in Russell, and the average wages of teachers was: males, thirty dollars per month, and females sixteen dollars a month. Whole amount paid teachers that year was one thousand and ninety-two dollars.

CHURCHES.

Methodist Episcopal.—This was the first church established in Russell township, organized a little west of the center, about the year 1838, by Elder West, a circuit preacher. The first members were Charles T. Bailey and wife, David Patridge and wife, G. S. Pelton and wife, and Charles Shaw—seven members. Their first resident preacher was Orrin Ford, a very zealous man. Under his labors the membership increased in a few years to about sixteen. They held meetings around in private houses for a few years, when they built the first meeting house in the township, about the year 1842, on land then owned by Nicholas Dowen, now owned by S. Robinson, about quarter of a mile west of the center. The house has been moved across the road, and is now used as a dwelling house. It was not very large, or elegant, and did not suit them

is

114 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.

all. It is reported that a large, fat brother, said that if they were going to build such a house as that they need not put in anything for a pulpit, he could stand and hold out a shingle for the preacher to lay the Bible on.

The Wesleyan Methodist Church.—About the year 1848 there was a division among the Methodists on the slavery question, a part of the members withdrew, and a Wesleyan Methodist church was organized embracing two families that were left of a Congregational church, that was formed in the northwest part of Russell, in the summer of 1840, when J. M. Childs was chosen deacon, and A. H. Childs was chosen clerk, which had become reduced to the two families mentioned, when their organization was given up, and they, uniting with those who came away from the Methodist Episcopal church, formed the Wesleyan Methodist church, and in 185o they bought a piece of land of L. T. Tambling, two miles north of the center, on the west side of the Chillicothe road, a nice sandy knoll for a burying ground, and to build a meeting house on, and four of them paid for it, to-wit: H. Cummins, John Wesley, David Nutt, and J. M. Childs, and had it deeded to the trustees of the first Wesleyan Methodist church in Russell, and to their successors in office. The first three named that paid for the burying ground are dead and gone to their reward; Mr. Childs is living yet. He says that in 1851 they began to make preparations to build a meeting house, but, being poor, and new beginners, it went on slow, but with a hard struggle with poverty and bad management, it was finished.

Free Will Baptist Church.—July 25, 1839, a Freewill Baptist church was organized in the south part of Russell. The first members were: Henry Whippple, John Walters, R. R. Walters and wife, Sarah S. Morse, Hannah M. Mason, Thortine L. McConoughey, and Jehiel Goodwill. Their first preachers were: A. K. Moulton and Henry Whipple—eight members. They met at the Isham school-house, and, after a few years, located at Chagrin Falls, and are afire yet.

The Baptist Church.-The regular Baptist church, of South Russell, was organized, about 1841, by Elder Stephenson, of Chester. The first members were : Jackson Gifford and wife, Mrs. Josiah Nettleton, Harry Isham and wife, Parley Wilder, Lydia Warren, and Lemuel—eight members. Elder Stephenson preached for them awhile; also, Elders Green, Jackson, Thompson, and Willard, until he united with the Disciples. After awhile they became reduced in numbers, and finally sold their house, and it was moved away, about 1868. The Baptist meeting house was built, in 1846, two miles south of the center, at Soules Corners.

The Disciple Church.-The edifice of this organization was built, in 1848, on the east side of the road, opposite the Baptist house. The Disciple congregation was organized, in 1843, by Charles Bartlett. The first members were: A. L. Soule, Myron Soule and wife, Benjamin Soule and wife, Delia Soule, Anson Matthews and wife, Oliver Nettleton, David Nettleton, Mrs. A. C. Smith, Benjamin Matthews and wife, and Mr. Hyne and wife. Elder Wm. A. Lillie was their first resident preacher. Elder Wm. Hayden was the first to call the attention of the people to the principles of the reformation. A. Bentley, J. H. Jones, Jonas Hartzel, Dr. Belding, and other preachers, have labored there. Isaac Errett, and A. S. Hayden held the first meeting in the Disciple house, January, 1849.

Three brothers, A. L. Soule, Myron Soule, and Benjamin Soule, came to Russell, in 1839, from Onondaga county, New York. They were active business men. A. L. Soule, Benjamin Soule, and Richard Robinson, with their families, moved to Michigan, about 1855. A. L. Soule died there in a few years. Myron Soule died, March 22, 1863, in Russell.

The Union meeting-house at the center was built in 1850. Elder A. B. Green held a protracted meeting there, in the spring of 1851, and fourteen converts

HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 115

were added to the congregatron of the Disciples. Elder A. Burns is at present preaching at the Disciple bouse one-half of the time.

About 1850, the ladies of the Disciple congregation organized a sewing society. Mrs. A. L Soule was the first president, and Cordelia Robinson, treasurer. Its object was to help the needy. It continued but a few years.

BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES.

The Soldiers' Aid Society.--This was started in 1861—Mrs. James Cooper, first president; Mrs. Ahira Haven, vice-president, and Mrs. Myron Soule, secretary. Mrs. Cooper acted a few months, when Mrs. David Robinson was chosen president, and acted during the war. The society labored faithfully for the brave soldiers in the field. There was no estimate made of the value of the large amount of hospital stores sent on. They packed one dozen boxes, and sent some packages. The contents were twenty comforts, thirty quilts, twenty-nine sheets, fifty-frve pillows, seven pillow-ticks, fifty-eight pairs of pillow-cases, one hundred and seventy-one shirts, fifty-six pairs of drawers, eighty towels, one hundred and twenty-one handkerchiefs, one hundred and nineteen pairs of socks, fifty-eight pounds of bandages and compresses, one hundred and one pounds of dried fruit, twenty pounds of lint, one-half barrel of pickles, one and a half bushels of onions, one blanket, plates, spoons, pins, etc.

The village of Chagrin Falls until 1841 was about equally divided, lying in two counties, one-half in the southwest corner of Russell township, Geauga county, and the other half in Orange, Cuyahoga county, making it inconvenient for the inhabitants. Dr. Vincent was at that time a member of the Ohio legis lature, and living at the Falls, secured, the passage of an act transferring nine hundred acres of land from the southwest corner of Russell to Cuyahoga county, and attached it to Orange, and in order to make a fair show of honesty, gave in exchange nine hundred acres from the northeast part of Orange to Geauga county, and attached it to Russell While that taken from Russell was good farming land with half the village on it, that given in exchange from Orange, was nearly worthless, being rough, hilly land, lying along the east side of the Chagrin, cut up with deep gulleys. Then, when the people of Geauga county found that they had got shaved, an effort was made to get the law repealed, but failing in that, they got so much of it repealed, as compelled them to take the Orange land. Consequently Russell lost her best corner.

SECRET SOCIETY.

About the year 1854 there was an American order or subordinate council organized in Russell. Their object was said to be, to purify the body politic, and place our country upon an American platform, to Americanize America, and to resist all efforts to unite Church and State. It seemed to spread rapidly for a while. It is said that there were organized in Ohio within a year, over one thousand councils with a membership of one hundred and twenty thousand, called Know-Nothings.

A constitution and by-laws for a Grant club was signed in Russell, by one one hundred and forty-three members, in 1868.

SOUTH RUSSELL.

The South Russell cemetery is located about a half mile west of Soule's Corners, on a nice, dry, gravelly knoll. One-half acre was purchased of S. R. Willard, November 15, 1849, for forty dollars. In 1863 it was enlarged. A strip two rods wide, on the south side, was bought of Isaac Rairick for ten dollars, and added to the lot. The first one buried there was Stephen Losey, who was killed by a tree falling on him while chopping. This was the first public burying-ground located in Russell. Before this time, for about thirty

116 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.

years, many of the dead were buried in family burying-grounds. There are quite a number of them in the township.

Nathan Robinson, sr., died in Russell, December 2, 1860, at the age of ninety-seven, and was buried in the family burying-ground of his son Clark. Asa Robinson came to Newbury in 1818, from Massachusetts, and died at the residence of his son Benjamin, in Russell, in 1844, aged seventy-three. He had a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters—four sons now living in Russell. Artemus and Benjamin came in 1835. Artemus located at the center ; Benjamin a little south. John Robinson was one of the clerks at an election held in Russell in 1827, and now lives about a mile north of the center. David lives in the southwest part of the township.

Anson Mathews was a justice of the peace of Russell in 1833. He was a prominent business man, and a member of the legislature about 1847.

David Osborn, an early settler in the southwestern part of the township, died March 26, 1849, aged eighty-nine years and nine months. His wife, aged fifty-six, died the same day, and both were buried in the same grave. i

Benjamin Mathews came to Russell from Massachusetts in 1832, with his family. Mrs. Mathews died in April, 1873. The children are married; some living in Ohio, some in Michigan.

Harry Isham and Tabor Warren came to Russell about 1835, and located on the Chillicothe road, about one and one-half miles south of the center. Mr. Isham died in 1855. Mr. Warren is still living there.

Harry Burnett, one of the early settlers of Newbury, came to Russell in 1843. Mr. Burnett and wife are living with their son, Joshua, west of Soule's Corners... Both are between eighty and ninety years of age.

Ithiel Wilber and wife, also from Newbury, are living where A. L. Soule did before he went to Michigan.

Parley Wilder, one of our oldest citizens, lives east of the corners.

John Lines, living southeast of the center, on the Champion tract, paid eight dollars per acre in 1848.

POPULATION-DROUTH.

The population of Russell in 1840 was seven hundred and forty-two, and in 1850, was one thousand and eighty-three; from about that time it has been growing less. In 1852 there were over fifty scholars in the center school district, now less than ten (in other districts the decrease is less), and there are some reasons for it. One is, the children have grown up and gone, another is, one man has bought out his neighbors, their farms have become larger, and schools less. It is estimated that the population has decreased about one-third.

The great drouth of 1845 was very severe. The district of country that suffered the most, was about one hundred miles in length, and fifty or sixty in width, extending along the southern shore of Lake Erie. Geauga county suffered greatly. There was no rain from about the first of April until the tenth of June, when it rained a little for one day; no more until the second of July, when it rained enough to make the roads a little muddy ; no more until September. Many wells, springs and streams of water became dry, and others nearly so. The grass crop almost entirely failed, the pastures in some places were so dry that the dust would rise in walking over them. The grass in meadows would burn like a stubble. Corn and oats were nearly a failure, some fields of wheat were not harvested; scions set in the nursery dried up; forest trees shed their leaves much earlier than usual ; many witheredr The grasshoppers were so plenty, and green herbage so scarce that they trimmed thistles and elders by the roadside.

HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 117

DAIRY INTERESTS.

The first cheese factory started in the State of Ohio was the Maple Hill factory, in Munson. It was built in 1862 by Anson Bartlett, who went to Rome, New York, and spent one summer learning the factory mode of making cheese, The second year he conducted the factory it worked the milk of one thousand cows.

F. B. Pelton built the first cheese factory in Russell, in 1868, near the center of the town, and ran it successfully several years, then sold it to Messrs. L. M. Smith and Harry Burnett, and they have been doing a good business there the seasons of 1876-7, and are running now (1878); cheese low from five to seven and one-half cents. About fourteen years ago, at the time of the great Rebellion, it was high. It ranged from ten to eighteen cents per pound.

The Union cheese factory at South Russell, was built in 1871, by R. U. Roberts, Mark Mathews, Isaac Rairick, and other stockholders, at a cost of two thousand seven hundred and thirty-three dollars and seventy-two cents, is yet running and doing a good paying business.

SONS OF TEMPERANCE.

July 13, 1876, there was a division of the order of the sons of temperance organized at the center of Russell, with about forty charter members, called Russell Center Division, No. 44, Sons of Temperance. The first officers were: Jacob Ghase, W. P.; Mrs. Marion Wilber, W. A.; W. A. Chase, R. .; A. E. Pelton, A. R. S.; S. Robinson, treasurer; Joseph Wooley, chaplain; H. S. Black, P. G. W. P.; W. A. Pelton, 0. S.; Mrs. W. A. Pelton, I. S.; Herman Green, C.; Mrs. Herman Green, A. C.

AN EARLY EVENT.

About forty years ago it was said that there had been some land cleared in the northwest part of Russell, and had grown up to bushes and briars, and it was called Huntington place. No one seemed to know when it was done, until now, I have found a sister of the pioneer. She says her brother, David Huntington, came to Russell about 1820 or 1821, and bought a piece of land• in the northwest quarter of the township, built a log house on what is clalled the Burgess farm, made a clearing, raised a piece of wheat there; that his health failed him, and he left the place in four years. Being unable to work, he wrote to his brother Daniel, and in 1827 he came from New York State, and Went on the place and lived there a while; that their neighbors were in Chester, on the north, and in Orange, west; that he went over the river and worked for a Mr. Dean, to get corn; would take a bushel and carry it home on his back at night, and the next day take it to Fuller's mill to be ground, and home again the same way, making in all about ten miles' travel with a bushel on his back. No wonder he left.

POLITICAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS.

The politics of Russell have changed somewhat; the Democrats used to have a majority. At the presidential election of 1844, they had seven majority for 'Polk. Now the Republicans have a very large majority—some over a hundred.

The inhabitants of Russell are a reading people. In 1877 there were about two hundred periodicals taken in the township. The number taken at each house varied some. They ranged from none to five; generally one.

The great Murphy temperance wave that is sweeping over the country, struck Russell in the spring of 1877, and the National Christian Temperance union of Russell was organized May 29, 1877, by Messrs. Rising and Jackson, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. First officers: Cyrus Mathews, president; Jacob Chase, first vice-president; Marion Wilber, second vice-president; Henry Hill, third

118 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.

vice-president; Miss Lucy A. Robinson, secretary; Haven Roberts, treasurer.

BUSINESS INTERESTS.

Wagon Makers.—The first wagon makers in town were Alfred Smith & Bro. They came about 1844, built a lot of wagons for Nathan Robinson, at the sawmill, then located at the center, and stayed until 1852, when C. L. Bartlett, our present wagon maker, came.

Shoemakers.—The first shoemaker, that I know of, in town was Thomas Manchester, who located in the east part of Russell; then Hiram Jones, Ansel Savage, Emery Savage, and others. Hiram Jones built the first shop at the center; had plenty of work for a number of years. There has been no shoemaker here for the last ten or fifteen years. All have left; as also have the tailors. The people buy their boots, shoes, and clothing, ready-made.

Tailors.—Benjamin Goodell was the first tailor in town. He located in the south part, and was there in 1832. Mr. -- Heath had a tailor shop at the center for a few years. He left the place in 1850, or about that time.

Postmasters.—Ebenezer Russell was the first postmaster in the township. His compensation, the first quarter, amounted to about thirty-one cents. Christopher Edic was the next postmaster. He, living at the center, held the office awhile under postmaster Russel—when he was appointed. Iddo Bailey, jr., says that he has carried the mail from Russell to Cleveland, nineteen miles, several times on foot—but generally on horseback.

THE CONTRAST.

In the art gallery at the centennial were found two portraits, in the exhibit of that enterprising photographer, Ryder, of Cleveland: one of Col. A. S. Parks, of Elyria, Ohio, who, in 1820, carried the mail from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Cleveland, Ohio, on horseback; and, by the side of it, that of General Geo. S. Bangs, who, in 1875, inaugurated the means of carrying the mail over the same route, in fifty ton lots, a mile a minute.

Samuel Robinson came to Russell, in 1830, was married to Miranda Patterson, of Newbury, December 2, 1832; went into partnership with his brother, Nathan; continued in it about fourteen years, under the firm name of N. & S. Robinson; bought a grist-mill and distillery, that Harry Burnett and Ithiel Wilber had built, in Newbury, on the east branch of Silver creek, just before it runs into Russell. They ran them about seven years; did custom work in the mill. Besides grinding for the still, they ground many grists that men and boys brought on their backs from Russell and the west part of Newbury. They had the underbrush cut out through the woods, from the Bell settlement to the Chillicothe road, so that the people could come to mill with ox-sleds, stone-boats, on horseback, or a-foot. Some came from Bainbridge. The mill was in the woods, between two roads that were a mile apart; yet it was not very lonesome there. They had a good run of custom, for some reason or other. The millstones were worked out of solid flint rocks, or large hard-heads ; were four feet across, and the runner would weigh over a ton. Mr. Thomas Billings, of Newbury, said that he helped get them out, and that they cost about sixty dollars. They have been at works in three places—first in Newbury, next in Orange, and then in Russell, where they now lie buried, where the Bailey saw-mill stood.

CASUALTIES.

The saddest affair that has ever occurred in Russell was the burning of Mr. Cyrus Millard's house, March 7, 1843, when a brother of Mr. Millard's, aged fourteen, and four children, the oldest seven and the youngest two years old .(one son and three daughters), were burnt to death in it, while Millard and wife were gone to a neighbor's in the evening. How it took fire is not known.

HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 119

Joseph Holland, a young man about seventeen or eighteen years of age, just over from England, was drowned while trying to cross the Chagrin river in a canoe, December 2, 1847. About this time, or perhaps before, there was a man by the name of Jerome living near the northwest corner of the township; a lame man. One stormy day, late in November, he went to the center and got a jug of whiskey, started for home towards night but failed to reach there. The next day search was made for him. It having snowed that night he was not found until the following day. When found he was sitting up against a tree, dead and frozen, with his jug standing beside him.

In the spring of 1851 Mr. Lyman Washburn was killed by the fall of a tree.

In the fall of 1851 Frank Newel was killed by the fall of a limb from a tree during a shower. He was the first one buried in the new burying ground of north Russell, but it has filled up quite fast since then.

Northwest Russell began to be settled about 1833. Charles T. Bailey, George Edic, and John Wooley were about the first in the woods, about 1836. Alexander Frazer, David Nutt, and Joseph Wooley came soon after. In 1838 and 1839 provisions were very high and scarce. Joseph Wooley said that he and some others traveled in four townships before they could find anything to make bread of. They would eat coons, woodchucks and wild turkeys, but deer were then scarce, and the first settlers not used to hunting, being mostly foreigners.

In 1840, 1841 and 1842 J. M. Childs, James Logan, Allen Burgess, Orrin Ford, Van Valkenburghs, Judd, Barber, David Houghton, Washburn, the Coltons, and others, all built log houses, had logging bees, were sociable and friendly, went to meeting on foot or with ox and sled, wagon or stoneboat, worked hard, slept well, and took comfort. About 1838 there was a revival of religion when Joseph Wooley joined the Methodist church. He was very active and took a prominent part in the cause; was recemmended by the class to the quarterly conference,. and was licensed to exhort in 1845, appointed deacon in 1854, and ordained in 1859, by Bishop Scott. He is yet with us, a good, faithful, christian man, well liked as a neighbor and preacher. There have been two other preachers raised here in the woods-Henry Whipple who became an eminent preacher of the Free Will Baptist order, a self made man In 184o he had a little but made of poles and covered with poles and brush. It stood near where the Weslyan meeting house now stands. It was called " Henry Whipple's study." Henry S. Childs was born and brought up here, he went to Oberlin a year, and is now preaching for the Wesleyan order.

I am indebted to Mr. J. M. Childs for a considerable portion of the history of northwest Russell.

THE GREAT FRESHET.

On the morning of September 13, 1878, the Chagrin river rose higher than it had ever been known to rise before. It had been raining steadily for three days, the rain falling in torrents on the night of the twelfth. The destruction of property was very great. Cattle, sheep, fences, fields of grain, mill-dams and bridges were swept away.

MILITARY ROSTER.

It was the policy of our fathers to prepare for war in time of peace, hence we had company trainings and general trainings; but the militia system was so changed that trainings ceased, and the Rebellion found us unprepared for war.

120 - HISTORY OF GFAUGA COUNTY, OHIO

The first company training held in Russell was in 1835, and they were kept up until about 184—, when the law was repealed.

SOLDIERS FROM RUSSELL IN THE WAR OF THE GREAT REBELLION, FROM 1861 TO 1865.

George Terrell, killed in battle.

William Terrell,

Samuel Beswick, died of measles.

John Beswick, died of measles.

George St. John, killed in battle at Perrysburgh.

Westel Hunt.

Henry Pelton, died.

Harlow Pelton,

Alonzo Van Valkenburgh,

Philip Dines,

Wirliam Dines,

Joseph Dines,

Tames Dines, killed.

Sherman I.ogan,

Henry Logan, died at Andersonville.

Silas Childs,

Henry Scott,

A. A. Judd,

Edwin Potter,

Elwood Potter,

Henry Ladow,

Sylvester ]allow,

Frederick Bose,

William Hall,

Clay Robinson,

John Pugslev,

Zethan Perkins, died.

Orrin Snedeker,

John Sours,

Charles Ellis,

Avery Jones,

Joel Boswell,

Truman Phinney,

George Gates,

Stephen Cates,

Samuel Woolley,

H. C. Burgess,

Warren Green, came back—died from a wound.

Albert Ladow,

Daniel Nettleton,

John Mason,

Thomas Sanders,

David Ladow,

Christopher Cubler,

Herbert Fisher,

Nelson Rose, killed.

Benson Rose,

Joseph Ayres, killed at Perrysburgh.

Charles Danforth,

Robert Schuyler, killed.

John Schuyter,

Henry Schuyter, wounded.

Cornelius tames,

Frank Chappel,

Melvin Chappel,

Charles Van Valkenburgh,

Erastus Sherman, in the United States Navy. 

Mortimer Snedeker,

James Moneysmith,

James Boswell,

— Allen, substitute for Matthew Isham,

R. C. Haskins, sent substitute.

John Mason, substitute for Joshua Burnett.

Thomas Sanders, substitute for M. L. Smith.

R. U. Roberts, drafted, was under pay one day and discharged.

I have endeavored to give as full and correct a list of the brave soldiers that went from Russell to crush out the great Rebellion, as I could gather under the circumstances, after a lapse of more than twelve years since the close of the war, and no record kept of them at the time.