We are told in several original manuscripts that this party consisted of fifty, but as the above
numbers only forty-six, Gun, who was to have charge of the stores at Conneaut, Stiles, who was
to have like position at Cleveland, Chapman and Perry, who were to furnish fresh meat and trade
with the Indians, must be added. In some of the original records the full list of the men are given
with these words "and two females." So unused were makers of books and keepers of records to
giving a woman's name, unless she were queen or some one quite extraordinary, that this seemed
nothing unusual.
These "two females," who made the first real homes on the Reserve, were Ann, the wife of Elija
Gun, and Tabiatha, the wife of Job Stiles. Not only did they keep house, one at Conneaut and the
other at Cleveland, but they kept them so well that the surveyors took themselves there upon the
slightest pretext. They also had an oversight and care of the company.
Here is given the instructions of the directors to their agent.
To Moses Cleaveland, Esq., of the County of Windham, and State of Connecticut, one of the
Directors of the Connecticut Land Company, Greeting:
We, the Board of Directors, of said Connecticut Land Company, having appointed you to go on
to said land, as Superintendent over the agents and men, sent on to survey and make locations on
said land, to make, and enter into friendly negotiations with the natives who are on said land, or
contiguous thereto, and may have any pretended claim to the same, and secure such friendly
intercourse amongst them as will establish peace, quiet, and safety to the survey and settlement
of said lands, not ceded by the natives under the authority of the United States. You are hereby,
for the foregoing purposes, fully authorized and empowered to act, and transact all the above
business, in as full and ample a manner as we ourselves could do, to make contracts in the
foregoing matters in our behalf and stead ; and make such drafts on our Treasury, as may be
necessary to accomplish the foregoing object of your appointment. And all agents
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 29
and men by us employed, and sent on to survey and settle said land, to be obedient to your orders
and directions. And you are to be accountable for all monies by you received, conforming your
conduct to such orders and directions as we may, from time to time, give you, and to do and act
in all matters, according to your best skill and judgment, which may tend to the best interest,
prosperity, and success of said Connecticut Land Company. Having more particularly for your
guide the Articles of Association entered into and signed by the individuals of said Company.
Pittsburg and Canandaigua were the outlying posts for travelers to the Western Reserve. The
Connecticut Land Company instructed the surveying party to gather at Canandaigua and proceed.
Several of the journals of these young men are in the possession of Ne Western Reserve
Historical Society and the entries in some of them which have never been published are curious.
Mr. Seth Pease says under several dates in close succession, "I began my journey, Monday, May
9, 1796. Fare from Suffield to Hartford, six shillings ; expenses four shillings six pence. * * * * *
At breakfast, expense two shillings. Fare on my chest from Hartford to Middletown, one shilling,
six pence." In telling about his trip to New York he says, "Passage and liquor 4 dollars and three
quarters." When he arrived in New York we find the following entry : Ticket for play 75c; Liquor
14c; Show of elephants, 50c; shaving and combing, 13c." Apparently Mr. Pease was seeing New
York.
It will pay the reader to take a map and follow their route from Connecticut to Schenectady, up
the Mohawk river into Oneida lake, on to the Oswego river, into Ontario lake, along the southern
shore of this lake to Canandaigua, and then to Buffalo, from there touching at least once at
Presque Isle (Erie), on past the Pennsylvania line. They rowed, sailed and walked the shore.
Sometimes part of them turned back to help bring up those delayed, or went ahead of the party to
counsel with military officers or to make necessary preparations for the party. It was a tedious
trip.
The four batteaux filled with provisions, baggage and men were heavy, while most of the men
were unused to river boating. One of them records that pulling up the Mohawk was as hard work
as he ever did in his life. It was a relief when they began
30 - HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
going down the Oswego and came to Fort Stanwix (Rome, N. Y.) Here Mr. Stow procured the
necessary papers to allow the party to pass Fort Oswego, which was in the hands of the British.
At this very time an agreement had been reached which provided that Americans could have
access to the Lakes. The party therefore rapidly proceeded only to find they had been too
sanguine. The officers in charge of the fort had no new orders from Fort Niagara, the old ones
being to allow no Americans to pass, and consequently the party, somewhat disappointed, put
into a little bay in the river. The land was low, the soldiers at the fort were many of them ill and
dying, and the surveyors, ready and anxious for work in the far west, were not pleased at the
thought of lying idly in this unwholesome spot until a messenger could go to Niagara and return.
The directors of the Land Company had anticipated this trouble as said above, and had instructed
Mr. Stow, who was the commissary, not to pass the fort if there was opposition. The situation
was trying to Mr. Stow. Since he disobeyed orders and brought the party through successfully,
we consider him an intelligent, faithful employee. Had the winds been a little stronger, the waves
a little higher, conditions a little less favorable, so that the boats and the passengers had been lost,
he would always have been referred to as a guilty, incompetent hireling. Luck, daring, courage,
and brains often make success.
The officers of the fort at Oswego knew that the party arrived in four boats, consequently when
Mr. Stow, with one boat, went by the fort, he was not disturbed. These officers did not observe
he carried provisions, they only thought he was going to Fort Niagara to obtain permission for the
party to move on. The guard not being on the outlook, the three other boats passed the fort under
the protection of night. The party now was all safely on Lake Ontario. They had been hindered
and bothered in many ways but now they believed their troubles to be over. However, as is so
often the ease when people are sanguine, the worst they were to see was near at hand. A storm
came up quickly and violently, throwing the three boats into Sodus Bay, where one of them was
utterly disabled and where the whole party, almost miraculously, escaped drowning. One can
imagine the anxiety of Mr. Stow, who had gone on to Irondequoit (the port for Rochester) when
he learned that the three boats following him had been lost and nothing saved but an oar and a
gun, thrown on shore at Sodus Bay. Either he or
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 31
Auguster Porter (accounts disagree) with some men turned about from Irondequoit to go to
Sodus to learn how the shipwreck occurred. They were overjoyed to meet Captain Beard, who
told them that instead of all being lost except the oar and gun, the oar and gun were the only
things which really were lost. One of the boats, however, was useless and was abandoned, but
necessary rearrangements were made and the party proceeded on its way to Irondequoit,
Canandaigua and the new home.
We next see them at Buffalo. The Indians were expecting them, and like all traders they were
wondering what they dare demand; that is, how much they could get for their right to the land.
It's a wise man who offers neither too much nor too little. A man who preceded the party with the
horses was forced to pay three dollars for pasture. Since the grass was neither cared for nor used
by anybody, this was rather a large amount.
In our day of rapid transportation it fairly exasperates us as we watch the slow movement of this
party of surveyors. When they arrived at Buffalo, some of the party went to Fort Niagara,
probably on business, some took a look at the Falls, while Holly, under the date of June 18th,
says, "Porter and myself went on the Creek (Buffalo) in a bark canoe a fishing and caught only
three little ones." It seems that although the streams were full of fish, these water animals were as
capricious then as now.
Finally, the council with the red men was had, and picturesque scene it was. On the shore of the
lake, under the starry June sky, the white men, forerunners of the Western Reserve, with joy in
their faces and hope in their hearts, sat around the blazing fire prepared by the red men. Speeches
were made on both sides, and diplomatic messages exchanged, and while part of the Indians
performed a swinging dance, the rest grunted an accompaniment from their sitting position on the
ground. Negotiations were not completed then—not at all; it was too soon. The Indian was "long
on time" and short on whiskey. They must get drunk of course. What was the good of a treaty
without a pow-wow? What was the good of the white man except for his whiskey? So pow-wow
and whiskey it was, but fortunately there were no bad results.
On June 23rd, "after much talking on the part of the Indians,. Cleaveland offered Capt. Brant 500
pounds New York currency, which equals $1,000, provided he would peacefully
32 - HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
relinquish his title to the western land. This sum was not large enough to please the captain, but
after much parley he finally agreed to it, provided Cleaveland would use his influence with the
United States and obtain from the government the sum of $500 annually for his tribe. In case he
could not accomplish this he was to promise that the Land Company would pay an additional
$1,500 in cash."
Whether this agreement was kept, and whether either the government or company paid this sum
is not known to the author, but as white men were treating with Indians we presume this money
is the last they saw.
Cleaveland then gave two beef cattle and 100 gallons of whiskey to satisfy the eastern Indians,
and a feast followed. The western Indians were also given provisions to help them home and all
had been provided for during the council. It is greatly to the credit of the Connecticut Land
Company, and a source of much satisfaction to the residents of the Western Reserve today that
the title to the land was not stolen but was bought and paid for, even if the price was low; further,
that possession of the new country was given and taken under the best of feeling and without one
drop of bloodshed. To be sure, our forefathers must have had a little larger supply of whiskey
than the sentiment of today would allow them, when we remember they gave away one hundred
gallons and had plenty for all summer, but history must be studied from its own time. Whiskey
was as plentiful during the early days of the colonization as was food. To be sure, it was not our
adulterated stuff of today, but it was whiskey and it did what alcohol always has done and always
will do to men. Its stimulating qualities sometimes relieved the lonesomeness and fatigue, but the
depression following surely more than overbalanced the good. All of the misunderstandings
among travelers and early settlers and Indians were caused more or less by whiskey. The women
in the early settlements abhorred it. They feared to have their husbands take it lest trouble should
follow. Anxiously these women in their own cabins, with wolves howling near outside, and
babies huddled close within, awaited the, coming of the husband who had been to an adjoining
clearing, not knowing what had happened to him because of his fondness for whiskey or because
of the Indians. These women saw their neighbors succeed and become prosperous because of
their self-control, while they remained poor because of the "fruit of the corn." Many and
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 33
many an overworked wife who had looked forward to a logrolling for weeks went home from the
same with weeping eyes and heavy heart, her husband too drunk to guide the horse or act as her
protector. Some people believe that there was not as much drunkenness then as now and will
bring proof to bear upon it. This is not the place to discuss the temperance question, but, when
we know that in range one, number one, Poland, there were eighteen stills, that ministers were
sometimes paid in whiskey, we can scarcely believe that the drunkenness of to-day is greater.
Then, as now, women were temperate ; then, as now, they suffered from drunkenness, and its
consequences ; then as now, they persuaded and begged their very own to desist ; then, as now,
they wept and prayed, and then, as now, a few were heeded, while more were not.
One Trumbull County woman whose husband took too much at stated intervals, when he came in
in that condition, obliged him to sit in a straight-back chair till he was sober. If he started to
move, she, at her word, raised a stick of wood as if to strike him, when he immediately resumed
his seat. He finally declared there was no use in drinking if one had to sit still until sober, and he
reformed. As a rule, however, the stick, in a real or metaphorical sense, was, and is, in the hand
of man.
At last the surveyors had reached their destination. Even though they were adults, they had said
good-bye to their home friends with thick throats and heavy hearts. They had paddled slowly the
New York rivers, had outwitted the British officers, had suffered shipwreck, had endured the
discomforts of long slow travel, had successfully treated with the Indians, and now, in the
afternoon of a summer day, they had come upon the "promised land." The blue waters of the lake
lapped the shore, the creek sluggishly sought its bay, the great forest trees were heavy with bright
green leaves, the grass was thick and soft, the sky was blue, and the lowering sun bathed the
landscape with delicate reds and yellows. It was the Fourth of July, Independence Day, for which
their fathers, twenty years before, had fought, and for which they themselves held holy reverence.
They had double reason to rejoice, and they shouted, sang, fired guns across the water, adding an
additional salute for the new territory. They drank water from the creek and whiskey from the
jug; they named the spot Fort Independence, and drank toasts to the president of the United
States, the state of Connecticut, the Connecticut Land Company, the Fort of Independ-
Vol. I-3
34 - HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
ence and "the fifty sons and daughters who have entered it this day." When the camp fires had
died down, and the stars above were thick and bright, they went to sleep in the new land which
was shortly to be broken up into thirteen counties, or parts of counties (Ashtabula, Geauga,
Cuyahoga, Lake, Trumbull, Mahoning, Portage, Summit, part of Medina, part of Ashland, Erie,
Huron and Lorain). If anyone had dreamed that night that in one hundred and thirteen years these
thirteen counties would have almost as much influence in the world as the thirteen original
colonies had at that time ; that most of the huge forests would be supplanted by cultivated fields
and prosperous towns ; that Indian paths would be macadam roads ; that over tiny wires one
could talk to any part of this New Country as easily as they could talk to each other that night on
the lake shore ; that schoolhouses and churches would be thick throughout that region ; and that
both would be free; that over the very spot where they lay sleeping, powerful engines would carry
sleeping passengers at the rate of sixty miles an hour ; that vehicles without horses would spin
along the lake front from Buffalo creek to the Cuyahoga in less time than it took them to put their
camp in order; that mountains of ore would lie in the lake ships a few miles from them ; that no
man wilder than they would be east of the Mississippi; that the wildest animals would be the
youthful bull or the aged house-dog; that in the nearby valleys would be some of the most
wonderful industrial plants in all the world, and that hundreds of men would have sufficient
money to buy and pay for the whole Western Reserve without inconvenience; that on this
territory would stand the sixth largest city in the United States ; that slavery would not exist ; that
women would have a voice in making the school laws, and that men would float or fly through
the air above their heads in machines made for flying,—if any one of the party had dreamed any
or all of these things, and related them in the morning, he would have been declared untruthful or
as suffering too much from that taken from the gurgling jug.
CHAPTER VII.
INDIAN COUNCIL AT CONNEAUT.-THE START OF THE SURVEYORS.-
SETTING THE CORNER POST.-RUNNING THE PARALLEL.-
SUMMER AT CLEVELAND.-RETURN HOME.-
WINTER AT CLEVELAND.-WINTER
AT CONNEAUT.-STARVATION.
On the morning of the 5th of July, two boats put back to Fort Erie for some supphes which had
been left there. The surveyors began preparations for the field. On the following day the Indians,
who naturally liked pow-wows, and to whom a party of settlers was a curiosity, asked for another
council. Both sides were in a happy mood. The Indians made speeches full of praise to General
Cleaveland, and Paqua presented him with a pipe of peace. This pipe is still in the possession of
the family. Although it is hard for a New Englander to "roll out honied words," still the general
did the best he could, and made up his deficiency in flattery with presents. He gave them a string
of wampum, silver trinkets, and like things, besides $25 worth of whiskey. On this date, the 7th,
the members of the surveying party left Conneaut. They were ambitious not only to do their work
quickly, but well. Joyously they started into the unknown wilderness. Porter, Pease and Holley
ran the first east line. They found the north corner of Pennsylvania, and ran down five or six
miles west of that line.
Moses Warren and party had a line farther west. Before the summer was over, it is written of
Warren, sometimes, "he was a little less energetic," and other times, "he is indolent." He was
either ease-loving, or slow. However, the author owes him a debt of gratitude because he wrote a
full, clear hand and was a good speller. Manuscripts of long ago try the patience of the readers of
to-day. Both Pease and Holley left copious notes. From them we learn that the first line they ran
caused them much trouble and many vexations. The land was not only
- 35 -
36 - HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
covered with huge trees, but with smaller ones and with thick underbrush. It was impossible to
sight at long range. The spring had been a wet one, the streams swollen, and the swamps
sometimes impassable. The land lay flat, and on the whole was uninteresting. The horses often
wandered off at night and precious morning time was spent corralling them. Sometimes the
surveyors waded the swamps and streams, sending the cooks, supplies, horses, and laborers
around. This always brought about delay and more or less distress. As the surveyors took the
shortest route, they arrived first and, wet, tired, and hungry, they were obliged to wait for the rest
of the party, whose long route made them sometimes hours late. Mr. Stow, the commissary, had
his trials, first, in finding it hard to obtain fresh supplies, and second, in reaching the various
parties in the field. Very often we find notes like these : "Ate our last breakfast," or. "Only one
more dinner left," or, "Had less than a half of pint of rum left."
The mosquitoes and gnats were troublesome. The surveyors complained of "earth gas," and they
attributed the fever and ague which came later to this gas, but almost always at the same time
mentioned the presence of mosquitoes.
The plan was to find the 41st parallel at the Pennsylvania line, and then run west one hundred
and twenty miles. From this base line, five miles apart, lines were to be run north, and later cross
lines, parallel with the base line, thus making twenty-four townships across, and twelve in the
deepest place.
These townships were numbered as ranges, and from the base lines up as towns. Before towns or
hamlets were named, they were called by number. Poland was range 1, number 1, Cleveland
range 12, number 7. Again and again do we read in diaries and papers, "Went to number 4;
stopped at Quinby's." Number 4 was not only township 4, but it was range 4.
As the Porter-Holley-Pease party proceeded south they, or their workmen at least, realized that
New Connecticut was not a Paradise. The monotonous records show change when they reached
the middle-east of the present Trumbull County. When they arrived at what is now Brookfield
they could see the Pennsylvania hills with the valleys in between, and they note that this is the
first time they have seen "over the woods," and they feel cheered. The rest of the route south was
a little less troublesome and more interesting. Once they thought they heard the tinkle of a cow
bell, and hastened to find it, without success.
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 37
They thought they had just imagined the sound, but their ears had not deceived them, for there
was then a family living in that vicinity. When they reached the Mahoning river they saw some
traders in a boat, near the present sight of Youngstown. They talked with them and learned that
supplies could be had at Beaver, and that these traders were on their way to Salt Springs, whose
praises they sang.
Finally, on July 23rd, they set up a wooden post at the intersection of the 41st parallel and the
Pennsylvania line, southeast corner of Poland.
They had been seventeen days running this line. Surely they had not been idle, and they had
overcome grievous obstacles. Their poor instruments showed variations, and they did not have
time to prove their work. When the whole survey was finished, they were half a mile out of the
way. It was intended that each township should have sixteen thousand acres of land, and not one
of them has just exactly that amount.
Moses Warren, and the other surveyors, came up with the Pease-Porter party on the 23rd, and
they separated, beginning five miles apart, and ran the line back to the lake. The return trip was
about the same, except that the laborers showed less inclination to work, and the cooks became a
little more irritable.
On the 5th of July the laborers began the erection of a crude log house on the east side of
Conneaut creek, which was used for a storehouse. It is referred to in the early history as "Stow
Castle." A second house was later erected as a dwelling for the surveyors. It was then expected
that Conneaut would be the headquarters.
As soon as all was under way, General Cleaveland started by lake for the Cuyahoga river. He
reached his destination the day before the corner post was set in Poland, July 22nd. Among
those accompanying him were Stow, the commissary, and Mr. and Mrs. Stiles. There is no record
of how this spot pleased the party, although several writers have drawn imaginary pictures
and noted possible thoughts. So far as the writer knows, Moses Cleaveland did not commit to
paper his first impression. True it is, that many a purchaser of New Connecticut land, who
intended to settle near the present sight of Cleveland, when they saw the desolate sand of the lake
shore and felt the chilly winds, retraced their steps onto the Hiram hills, to the Little Mountain
district, or the ridges of Mesopotamia, Middlefield or Bloomfield.
The running of the parallels was troublesome, the work was
38 - HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
not finished the first summer as there was not time to do that and to plat the Cleveland vicinity.
As the Chagrin river was not on any of the maps, it gave most of the surveyors some trouble.
They all took it for the Cuyahoga, of course. The field work was destructive to shoes and clothes,
and, as said before, food was not always certain. Part of the laborers early became dissatisfied
with only hard work and little pay, and the company, to ease things, promised them pieces of
land and other rewards. Some of them were early discharged, and others left.
On September 16th, Holley writes, "Encamped a little east of the Chagrin river. Hamilton, the
cook, was very cross and lazy. Was on the point of not cooking any supper, because the bark
would not peel and he knew of nothing to make bread upon. Davenport wet some in the bag."
Thursday, September 22nd, "He discovered a bear swimming across the river." "Munson caught
a rattlesnake which was boiled and ate."
September 28th, "I carved from a beech tree in Cuyahoga town, 'Myron Holley, Jr.,' and on a
birch, 'Milton Holley, 1796. September 26, 1796, Friendship.' " Apparently the young man was
getting homesick.
October 16th, "Came to camp in consequence of hard rain ; found no fire ; were all wet and cold,
but after pushing about the bottle and getting a good fire and supper we were as merry as grigs."
During the summer a cabin was put up for Stiles on lot 53, east side of Bank street, where the
store of Kinney & Leven now stands. A house for the surveyors and a house for stores was
erected near the mouth of the Cuyahoga. These were the first houses built within the present
district of Cleveland for permanent occupancy. There had been a number of buildings erected by
traders, by companies, by missionaries, and so forth, but they were put together for temporary
purposes and were destroyed either by the wind and weather, or by the Indians. The latter seemed
always to rejoice when a chance was offered to burn a vacant building. Colonel James Hillman,
who figured conspicuously in the early history of Trumbull County, said he erected a small cabin
on the river near the foot of Superior street in 1786. A party of Englishmen who were wrecked on
the lake, built a cabin in which they lived one winter, probably '87. In 1797, as we shall see,
James Kingsbury occupied a dilapidated
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 39
building, put up before '86, for protecting flour which was brought from Pittsburg for Detroit
people.
The cold fall days warned the party that they must stop work. They were not satisfied with the
results, and neither was the Land Company. The latter had spent $14,000 and apparently had
little to show for it. The southern boundary of their territory had not been run west after the
fourth range. A large tract had not been surveyed at all. All of the territory "east of Cuyahoga,
west of the fourth meridian, and south of the sixth parallel" was still not touched. None of the six
townships intended for sale were ready except in the neighborhood of Cleveland. However the
surveyors had done the best they could under the conditions, and one can read between the lines
of their ordinary surveyor notes an intense desire to be at home. Holley says, "Tuesday, Oct. 18th,
we left Cuyahoga at three o'clock and seventeen minutes for home. Left Job Stiles and wife and
Joseph Landon with provisions for the winter." Porter, Holley and Shepard rowed along the lake
shore by moonlight. Pease walked, taking notes of the coast. (Pease was a poor sailor.) The pack
horses were to go back to Geneva. Atwater and others took them by land. So anxious were these
young men to reach home that they arose one morning at 2 :00 a. m. and another 3 :00 a. m. and
arrived at Conneaut on Friday, the 21st. They left Fort Erie October 23rd at 1:30 a. m. and
arrived at Buffalo at 10:30, where they struck a fire "and were asleep in less than thirty minutes."
As they proceeded and their desire for home increased, their hours of travel were longer. Once
they rowed all night. They reached Irondequoit Friday, the 27th. Here somehow they got out of
the channel and had to jump into the water up to their waists and push the boat thirty rods.
Wading in water waist deep the last of October is not pleasant, nor very safe. They reach
Canandaigua the 29th and separated. When we remember that Holley was only eighteen years
old, and all of them were young men with education, or older men without experience or
education, we believe that most of them did their duty "in that state of life which it should please
God to call them." Porter was the chief surveyor, as we have seen. Neither he, nor Holley,
returned with the party the next year. They became brothers-in-law later. Holley settled at
Salisbury, Connecticut, and his son Alexander H. became governor. Moses Cleaveland did not
return either. He retained his interest, more or less, in the history of the Western Reserve. At one
time he
40 - HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
purchased an interest in the Salt Spring Tract, of Parsons. Some of his family, however, later
settled here and among his relatives was Mrs. Chas. Howard, whose children now live in Warren.
If all who had come to the Reserve had returned we could say "Here endeth the first lesson."
When the winter set in, there were in Cleveland Job Stiles and his wife. Richard Lan-don, one of
the surveying party, had expected to spend the winter with them. It is not known when or for
what reason he left. Edward Paine, for whom Painesville was named, took his place in this cabin.
It is a tradition that in this cabin, during the winter, a child was born, the mother being attended
only by a squaw. Of this, however, we are not absolutely sure. Supplies had been left in
Cleveland, and the Indians were exceedingly good to the settlers, so even if it was a hard winter
for the three, there were some mitigating conditions. Mr. and Mrs. Stiles were there until 1800,
and Mrs. Stiles, who is described as a capable, courageous woman, lived to a good old age.
Aside from a few people at Fort Erie, there were no white people between Buffalo and "the
French settlement on the River Raisin," except those at Cleveland and Conneaut. Soon after
General Cleaveland and party arrived at Conneaut, James Kingsbury. his wife and three children,
appeared. He was the first "independent adventurer" who took up his residence on the Reserve.
They had come from New Hampshire, stopping possibly in New York for a little time. His wife
was Eunice Waldo, a woman of strong and pleasing personality. In the early fall, the Land
Company cleared about six acres of land, sowed it to wheat, and this was probably the first wheat
raised by white men in old Trumbull County. Kingsbury is credited as being the first to thrust a
sickle into the wheat field, planted on the soil of the Reserve. Just what Kingsbury did through
the summer, we are not told, but when all the surveying party had disappeared, he and his family
occupied one of the cabins, presumably "Stow Castle," Mr. and Mrs. Gun, the other. It was
dreary enough at Conneaut Creek when the winter settled down. For some reason, Mr. Kingsbury
found it necessary to go back to New Hampshire. He went all the way on horseback to Buffalo.
He expected to be gone at the latest six weeks. His trip was uneventful, but as soon as he reached
his destination he was taken with a fever, probably the kind with which the surveyors had
suffered, and it ran a long course. He had left with his family a nephew thirteen years old, a cow
and a yoke of
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 41
oxen. During the early part of his stay, the Indians furnished the family with meat, and Mr. and
Mrs. Gun were kind to them. Even when the husband's fever subsided his great weakness
rendered it impossible for him to travel, and his anxiety as to his family retarded his progress.
There being no communication at any time, Mrs. Kingsbury had the same anxiety for him, and in
addition she was starving to death. At this crisis a son was born to her, Mrs. Gun being with her
at that time. As this child is reported to be the first child born on the Western Reserve, we are led
to think that the families of Kingsbury and Stiles became mixed in the minds of some recorders,
and that there was no child born during that winter at Cleveland, and that this was the first.
Before Mr. Kingsbury was able to travel, he set out and reached Buffalo the 3rd of December.
This winter was a severe one, and the snow was over five feet deep in the lake region. However,
Mr. Kingsbury, with an Indian guide, traveled toward his family. His horse became disabled, but
he staggered along, reaching his cabin Christmas eve. Mrs. Kingsbury had recovered enough to
be up and had decided to leave with her family for Erie Christmas day. "Toward evening a gleam
of sunshine broke through the long clouded heavens, and lighted up the surrounding forest.
Looking out she beheld the figure of her husband approaching the door." So weak was she that
she relapsed into a fever, and her husband, nearly exhausted, was obliged the first minute he
could travel, to go to Erie for provisions. The snow was so deep he could not take the oxen, and
he drew back a bushel of wheat on the sled. This they cracked and ate. Presently the cow died,
and the oxen died from eating poisonous boughs. The low state of the mother's health and the
death of the cow caused the starvation of the twomonths-old baby. Tales have appeared in
newspapers in regard to this incident which stated that as Mr. Kingsbury entered his door on his
return trip he saw the baby dead on its little couch, and the mother dying. This, as we have seen,
is not so. The child did not die until a month after Mr. Kingsbury reached home.
A reliable old man who was about eighty-four years old in 1874, in talking of the hardships of
the people of New Connecticut, said, "But the hardest day's work I ever did was the one in which
I got ready to bury my boy." There were then no hearses, no coffins, no undertakers, no
grave-diggers, but there were tender, loving friends, all of whom were ready to do all in their
42 - HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
power. But here was Mr. Kingsbury, entirely alone (when the Guns left, we do not know) and
obliged to do everything there was to be done for his baby. He, and his thirteen-year-old nephew,
found a box and, laying the body in it, carried it to the top of a hill, where -Mrs. Kingsbury, on
her bed, could raise herself enough to see the body lowered to the grave. When this sad duty had
been performed, and Mr. Kingsbury returned to the house, he found his wife unconscious and for
two weeks seemed to take no notice of anything going on. Mr. Kingsbury, still feeble, was nearly
discouraged, when suddenly the severe north winds were supplanted by southern breezes, and in
the atmosphere was a slight promise of spring. Early in March, when he was hardly able to walk,
he took an old rifle which his uncle had carried in the War of the Revolution, and went into the
woods. Presently, a pigeon appeared. He was no marksman and did not feel at all sure he could
hit it with a good gun. He was so anxious, however, to get something which was nourishing for
his wife that the tears fairly came to his eyes when he saw the bird fall. He made a broth and fed
her, and saved her life. From this on the family all grew slowly better, and when the surveying
party came back in the spring, they accompanied it to Cleveland and occupied the cabin earlier
referred to. Mr. Kingsbury later put up a cabin on the east side of the public square. In the fall of
that year he had a comfortable cabin built, further to the east. Here his family was pretty well,
much better than the settlers who were near the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Later he built quite a
nice frame dwelling. The first crop he raised was on the ground near the square. He had three
children, Mrs. Sherman, Amos, and Almon. He lived to be eighty years old, and his wife
seventy-three. He had a military commission in New Hampshire, with the rank of colonel. In
1800 he was appointed judge of the court of quarter sessions of the peace for the County of
Trumbull. In 1805 he was elected a member of the legislature. His letters written to Judge
Kirtland of Poland at this time, now in the possession of Mr. H. K. Morse, are most dignified and
businesslike. He was a close friend of Commodore Perry and General Harrison. It is said the day
before the battle of Lake Erie, he was with Perry when the latter asked him what he thought
ought to be done. The judge replied, "Why, sir, I would fight." From all accounts it seems that
Judge and Mrs. Kingsbury were exemplary citizens and that the sufferings and distresses which
came
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 43
to them their first winter in the new land were wiped out by the happy, joyous years which
followed. It is a pleasant fact to record that the three women who came to the Western Reserve
the first winter of its existence courageously bore the hardships, shared the sorrows, and
conducted themselves in an exemplary manner. The Connecticut Land Company realized this
and presented to Mrs. Gun one one-hundred-acre lot, to Mrs. Stiles one city lot, one ten-acre lot
and one-hundred-acre lot. The company also gave to James Kingsbury and wife one one-hundred
acre lot.
CHAPTER VIII.
SETH PEASE.-SURVEYING PARTY OF 1797.—TRIP OUT.-SUMMER
SURVEY.-MUCH SICKNESS.-FIRST HARVEST.-
AMZI ATWATER.-RETURN HOME.
The principal surveyor of the party of 1797 was Seth Pease, who had occupied the position of
astronomer and surveyor the year before. He was born at Suffield, 1764, married Bathsheba Kent,
1785, died at Philadelphia, 1819. From Pease Genealogical Record we learn : "He was a man of
sterling worth, accurate and scientific. He was surveyor general of the United States for a series
of years and afterwards was assistant postmaster general under Postmaster General Gideon
Granger (his brother-in-law) during the administration of Jefferson and Madison." He was a
brother of Judge Calvin Pease, of whom we shall hear much later. He has descendants living in
the central part of Ohio.
Early in the spring he organized a party and proceeded west. Of those who accompanied him, the
following had been with him the year before : Richard M. Stoddard, Moses Warren (who despite
the report of his easy-going ways must have satisfied the company or he would not have been
re-employed), Amzi Atwater, Joseph Landon, Amos Spafford, Warham Shepard, as surveyors.
Employed in other capacities, Nathaniel Doan, Ezekial Morley, Joseph Tinker, David Beard,
Charles Parker. Mr. Pease not only had the management of the party but the care of the funds as
well: He left his home on the 3rd day of April and had more inconvenience than the party of the
first year because the company was not so willing to keep him in funds. He says but for the
financial help of Mr. Mathers he would have been many times greatly embarrassed. Six boats
started up the Mohawk on April 20th, and on April 25th were re-enforced at Fort Schuyler by
Phideas Baker and Mr. Hart's boat. They received other recruits at several places, and on April
30th Mr.
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HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 45
Pease obtained his trunk, which he had left at Three River Point the year before. Arriving at
Irondequoit, May 4th, others joined the party. On May 6th he interviewed Augustus Porter,
hoping to get him to take charge of the party for the summer. In this he was not successful. One
of the party got homesick on the following day and deserted. They proceeded from Canandaigua
in two parties, one going by land and the .other by the lake, and arrived at Fort Niagara on May
14th. The following day boats went back to Irondequoit for the rest of the stores. When the lake
party reached Buffalo on May 19th, they found the land party had been there two days. They
reached Conneaut on May 26th and put the boats into the creek. In the night a cry was raised that
during the storm the boats had broken loose and gone out into the lake. Fortunately, this proved
to be a mistake. On May 29th Spafford began surveying, reaching the Cuyahoga June 1st. The
Kingsbury family was found in a very low state of health at Conneaut, but the Stileses and Mrs.
Gun very well at Cleveland. Mr. Gun was at that date back in Conneaut. On the third day of June,
in attempting to ford the Grand river, one of the land party, David Eldredge, was drowned. We
find the following entry : "Sunday, June 4th. This morning selected a piece of ground for a
burying ground, the north parts of lots 97 and 98 ; and attended the funeral of the deceased with
as much decency and solemnity as could be expected. Mr. Hart read church service. The
afternoon was devoted to washing." Thus have life and death always gone hand in hand.
One of the first things they did was to make a garden, and clear and fence a bit of land. The
surveying then began in earnest, with headquarters at Cleveland. Provisions seem to have been
delivered more promptly and carefully than the year before, but there was more sickness among
the men. On the 25th of June Mr. Pease and his party began the survey of the lower line of the
Reserve, which was not finished the year before.
We find this curious and interesting notation of Amzi Atwater : "In passing down this stream
(Oswego), which had long been known by boatmen, we passed in a small inlet stream two large,
formidable looking boats or small vessels which reminded us of a. sea-port harbor. We were told
that they were, the season before, conveyed from the Hudson river, partly by water and finally on
wheels, to be conveyed to Lake Ontario ; that they were built of the lightest material and intended
for no other use than to have it published in Europe that vessels of
46 - HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
those dimensions had passed those waters to aid land speculation."
Mr. Atwater was one of the surveyors who took up his home on the Western Reserve and proved
to be a helpful citizen. He was born in New Haven in 1776. His parents were poor and his father
lost his health in the Revolutionary war. He learned to read and write, but was early hired out to
his uncle for $60 a year. At one time he went to visit his uncle, Rev. Noah Atwater, who was a
successful teacher of young men. Upon invitation he spent the winter there, studying surveying.
His title in the first Connecticut Land Company's employees was that of "explorer's assistant." He
started from Connecticut, on foot and alone, to meet Shepard at Canandaigua. He had charge of
the cattle and the pack horses and went the entire distance by land. He served in almost every
capacity. When the survey was finished here, he worked at his profession in the east, and in
1800, accompanied by his brother, came to Mantua. He bought a farm on the road between
Mantua and Shalersville, on the Cuyahoga, and here he lived and died. Judge Ezra B. Taylor, of
Warren, now in his eighty-sixth year, remembers Judge Atwater well, having first seen him when
he was a boy thirteen years old. He describes him as a gentle, dignified, influential person, who
was known to almost all the early residents of Portage county. He died in 1851 at the age of 76.
From the beginning of August, about half the record is given to the sickness of the party. Mr.
Pease is obliged to discontinue his journal because of his fearful chills and fever. Warren seems
to have escaped, or, at least, he does not mention it. During this summer, occasional prospectors
appeared at Conneaut, at Cuyahoga, and the places in between. " The three gentlemen we saw the
other day going to Cleveland hailed us. As they contemplated becoming settlers, we furnished
them with a loaf of bread." Generous !
Sunday, October 8. "Opened second barrel of pork. Found it very poor, like the first, consisting
almost entirely of head and legs, with one old sow belly, teats two inches long, meat one inch
thick."
The party was at Conneaut October 22nd, on their way home. There they met Mr. John Young, of
Youngstown, who brought them word of the drowning of three acquaintances at Chautauqua, the
murdering of a man on Big Beaver, and like news. The party, in several divisions, then proceeds
eastward,
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 47
arriving in Buffalo November 6. The winter snows had begun. The party continued to
Canandaigua and dispersed, Mr. Pease remaining some time to bring up the work.
This practically finished the survey. The facts in regard to the distribution of land, the
Connecticut Land Company, and so forth are of great interest, but there is not space to tell of
them here. How, and by whom, and when, these lands were purchased will, in part, be told later.
CHAPTER IX.
KINGSBURY 'S DEED.-SOUTHERN PORTION OF COUNTY SETTLED
FIRST.-PIONEERS OF '98- '99.—JOHN YOU NG.-J AMES HILL-
MAN .-EDWARDS.-DOAN.-CARTER.-HONEY.-HARMON .-
LOVELAND.-MORGAN.-HARPERSFIELD.-CONNEAUT.-
THORP.-TAPPAN. - HUDSON .-CANFIELD.-SHEL-
DON .-WALWORTH.-PAIN E.-ATWATER.-
HALL. - CAMPBELL. - MILLS.
James Kingsbury may be considered the first permanent settler in old Trumbull county. Stiles
and Gun were ahead of him with the party, but Gun only stayed a little while, three or four years,
and it is not sure that Stiles intended to stay when he came. It is undoubtedly true that the
Kingsbury baby that starved to death was the first white child born to permanent settlers.
That Kingsbury proved later to be a valued citizen we have seen. There is now in the possession
of Mr. H. K. Morse, of Poland, the following which was found among the papers of Judge
Turhand Kirtland, Mr. Morse's grandfather :
"May 18, 1811. Rec'd, Cleveland, of Turhand Kirtland a deed from the trustees of the
Connecticut Land Company for 100 acres, lot No. 433, being the same lot of land that was voted
by said company to be given to said Kingsbury and wife for a compensation for early settlement,
and sundry services rendered said company with me.
"James Kingsbury."
After the Connecticut Land Company had withdrawn its surveyors, the emigrants who appeared
settled in isolated spots. This was because they bought their land in large amounts and the
Connecticut Land Company scattered them as much as possible. Old Trumbull County, therefore,
was not settled in the
- 48 -
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY - 49
usual way, a few people gathering in a little hamlet and working out from there. That this was
true worked great hardships. Settlers were lonesome, far away from the base of supplies, had to
grind their own corn and grain, found 'trouble in procuring domestic animals, in having
implements repaired, or in securing the services of a physician, became sick and discouraged or,
as metaphysicians say to-day, discouraged and sick, and returned to their old homes ; others kept
no records, wrote few letters to those in the east, took no interest in politics or religion, and hence
their names are not preserved. They lived quiet, uneventful lives, and when they were gathered to
their fathers the world knew them no more. The number of those coming in 1798 and 1799 was
small, and of these little is known. Unlike the surveyors when they went back, it was not to write
reports for directors of a land company, but to get their families, and after they were in their new
homes they were too much occupied to keep diaries and, having few or no mails, wrote few or no
letters. Summer days were too precious to use in writing and winter ones, in dark cabins, too
dismal to want to tell of them. It was expected that the northern part of the Western Reserve
would be settled before the southern, but the opposite was true. The road from Pittsburg was less
hard to travel than the one from Canandaigua ; the lake winds were too severe to be enjoyed ; the
bits of land cleared long before, lying in the lower part, seemed very inviting to those who had
attempted to remove the huge trees covering almost the entire section. All these things combined
to draw settlers nearer the 41st parallel.
Of the first settlers, some men walked the entire way from Connecticut ; some rode horseback
part way, sharing the horse with others ; some rode in ox carts ; some drove oxen ; some came
part way by land and the rest by water ; some came on sleds in mid-winter ; some plowed
through the mud of spring, or endured the heat of summer; some had bleeding feet, and some
serious illnesses. Sometimes it was a bride and groom who started alone ; sometimes it was a
husband, wife and children; sometimes it was a group of neighbors who made the party. Children
were born on the way and people of all ages died, and were buried where they died. But after they
came, their experiences were almost identical.
John Young, a native of New Hampshire, who emigrated to New York and in 1792 married Mary
Stone White, a daughter of the first settler of the land on which Whitestown now stands,
Vol. I-4