HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 75 top, behold, not a stalk remained! It had been cut up close to the ground, nothing remaining but the roots. "Wakeman then directed his course to the Indian camp, where he found the Indians, old and young, feasting on roasted corn. They had carried the whole crop on their backs, going a considerable distance around through the woods to prevent discovery, and, had taken it to the camp. Mr. Wakeman concluded, the next time, to till his own land." The surface of the Western Reserve, especially the county of Ashtabula, was not like that of New England—made up of rocky hills and ledges of granite and with the exception of along the streams emptying into Lake Erie, there was not much that might be called romantic or beautiful in the way of scenery. For about five or six miles back from the lake these streams had cut deep gorges ; in many places more than 100 feet deep. The banks of these streams and of Ashtabula Creek especially, were covered with a heavy growth of pine and hemlock, whose branches overhung the gorges and together with the giant sycamores growing upon the flats and occasionally black walnut, they were dark, gloomy recesses in the woods. In many places they were very narrow and the banks steep. They were given the name of "gulfs," where the sun seldom penetrated even in the summer. Along the valley of these streams there was a profusion of wild flowers. These gulfs furnished retreats for the wild animals which often made them their abode. The upland was covered with a very heavy growth of timber—giant oaks, white woods, chestnut, hickory, elm, sycamore, sugar-maple, with here and there a grove of black walnuts, covered the land. There was not much underbrush among these trees. Many of them were over 100 feet in height, 50, 60 and 70 feet to a limb and from two to five feet in diameter, affording an excellent home and range for bear, elk, deer, panthers, wild-cats, raccoons, hedge hogs, foxes and other smaller wild animals, which made this section the great hunting ground of the Red men from both East and West. The streams abounded in fish, among which were the sucker, bass, pike, muscallonge, pickerel. The muscallonge was a royal fish, reaching sometimes the weight of 40 pounds. For several years after the first settlers reached Ashtabula, the Indians in large numbers made their annual visits here for the purpose of hunting, fishing and trapping. Also for 76 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY the purpose of making sugar from the sap of the sugar maple, the time for making which was in the early spring. They came usually in September and remained until late in the spring. The intercourse between the early settlers and these Indians was in the main of a friendly character. They often furnished settlers with meat in exchange for something of more value to them. This section of the country never heard the war-whoop of the Indian, nor witnessed a midnight assault upon the white settlements, burning of houses nor the massacring of the inhabitants. It was never what might be termed "bloody ground." True the Indians did not always refrain from helping themselves and sometimes one who had imbibed too much fire water became impudent and occasionally made trouble. The reason for this peaceful condition of affairs is found, according to the best traditions gathered from the head men, in the previous events which took place before there were any white settlers here or written history. Years before the advent of the white man there dwelt upon the south shores of Lake Erie a powerful war-like tribe called Eries. They had conquered and either exterminated or amalgamated several smaller tribes and become the dominant powers in this region. They were known under the general term Algonquins. There existed also at the same time another powerful body of Indians known afterwards as the Six Nations and called the Iroquois. Their home was in the state of New York and the extent of their territory reached from the Mohawk Valley westward to near the present site of Buffalo. Each of these tribes had heard of the war-like character of the other and each lived in fear of the other. The Eries feeling themselves in danger thought to test the endurance of the Iroquois, so sent by messengers a challenge to them to select 100 of their best warriors to meet a like number of the Eries for a friendly contest in athletic sports. The Iroquois held a council over the matter and declined the challenge. Not long after, the challenge was again renewed and again declined. A third time the challenge was repeated and at the council heard to consider it the younger braves of the Iroquois decided to accept. In due time the two bodies of warriors came together with the chiefs and leaders present. They met at a point not very far from Buffalo. Unexpectedly to the Eries the Iroquois won all their games. This angered HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 77 the Eries but they were in the presence of a friendly tribe and on neutral ground and the chiefs of the neutral tribe invited the opposing tribes to a feast they had provided. During the feast the Eries made another proposition to the Iroquois to select ten men from each side to meet and wrestle, man with man, and the victor should kill his opponent. Considering the proposition, the Iroquois consented with the resolve that if they won they would not exact the penalty imposed on the loser. In the first dual contest the Iroquois won, throwing his opponent to the ground. The Erie lay there expecting to be killed but the Iroquois stepped back and left him, whereupon the chief of the Eries drew his tomahawk and himself killed the defeated warrior of his own tribe. A repetition of this occurred with the second and third defeated member of the Eries. The Iroquois were horrified and gave the signal to retreat and disappearing in the forest went home to report. The Eries also returned to their home but, stung by the ignominy of defeat, they cherished the hope of revenge. Not long after this they formed a plan to gather together a large body of warriors and secretly advance upon the Iroquois to exterminate them by taking small bands of the Iroquois unawares and killing them, repeating this method before the Iroquois had time to gather themselves together. An Iroquois woman who had married an Erie warrior, but whose husband was at this time dead, having learned of the treachery contemplated, determined to warn her people, and alone made her way to the headquarters of the Iroquois nation, who then took measures to meet the expected invaders. The two hostile bodies met near the outlet to Seneca Lake. The battle raged with relentless fury, no quarter being asked and none given. The Iroquois were the victors. They pursued the Eries with unquenchable fury and completely exterminated the whole tribe, becoming the possessors of the land once occupied by the Eries. This land was declared at that time to be forever after a neutral hunting ground. A division line between the Eastern and Western tribes was made at the Ashtabula Creek. Over this territory they might hunt, but not establish settlements. Now the Iroquois had a treaty with the English 'made at Albany, N. Y., in 1726, by which they ceded to the English the territory as far as the Cuyahoga River. 78 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY The French in the meantime had formed settlements at Quebec, Montreal; Presque Isle, now Erie, Pa. ; Le Bouf, near Franklin, Venango County, Pa.; Du Quesne, now called Pittsburg, Pa., and at Detroit, Mackinac, Vincennes, Ind., and Kaskaskee, Ill., claiming by right of discovery the whole territory lying between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi. These conflicting claims of the English and French gave rise to what was called the old French war. This continued for some years. At its close a treaty of peace between the English and French was made in 1763 by which the French ceded to the English all their territory in North America, including Canada, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, except Florida and Louisiana. In 1783 by the treaty of peace made by the British with the victorious colonists, who had secured their independence, all the British territory excepting that in Canada was ceded to the United States. These facts of history explain why this Western reserve was free from the horrors of Indian massacre. H. L. MORRISON. The Ashtabula River is said to have been the dividing line between the hunting and fishing grounds, respectively, of the Senecas, Tonawandas, Cayugas, Delawares and other tribes on the east, and the Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandottes and others on the west. These several tribes fished in the Ashtabula River, but kept religiously to their respective sides of the stream, never crossing to invade the acknowledged territory of their neighbors, except in exchange of their social visitations. The bottom-lands, the beaver-meadows, the marshes and uplands of Ashtabula County produced plenty of herbage, with grass, berries, nuts and other foods sufficient to sustain great numbers of elk, deer, bears, turkeys and smaller beasts and birds, which constituted abundant game for the Indian hunters. Elk and deer were very numerous. Bears gathered in the beaver-meadows in great numbers to feast upon the berries. In these meadows the bears would make their winter hibernations, heaping up beds of wild grass, in which they would bury themselves and lie dormant through the extreem winter. Thus it is seen that there was everything to make this immediate section attractive to the Indian. One of the best known Indian chiefs that ever frequented the Western Reserve after the coming of the white man was Amik. He was of a HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 79 variable nature, which made him both respected and feared, but most feared, perhaps, by his own people. Long years after the redmen had entirely ceased to even pay this section of the Reserve periodical visits, they were remembered with great interest by some of the early day residents, who had come in personal contact with them. Q. F. Atkins, for many years a resident of Geneva, during the latter part of his life, was probably as well qualified as any resident of the county to relate incidents of the Indian days, and, in the year 1858, he wrote a series of articles for the Ashtabula Sentinel, from which we take the following interesting history. Writing under date of Feb. 8, 1858, Mr. Atkins says : "To those unacquainted with the first settlers of the county, I would state that but few of them are now alive. I came into the county in November, 1802, and very soon after my arrival I became acquainted with Chief Amik, Conoshawa and two or three others of the Chippewa tribe. Capt. John Wright, who afterward became my father-in-law, had settled in the township of Morgan shortly before my arrival. He brought with him the only horse then owned in the township. Some time in the fall the horse, which had picked up its living outside of the small opening made by Captain Wright and Hosea Wilcox, disappeared, and was supposed to be dead or stolen by the Indians. So matters remained until the latter part of February, or beginning of March, when one of the Chippewas called at Captain Wright's and told him that while hunting up Mill Creek he had discovered fresh horse tracks on the bottoms, south side of the creek, a day or two before, which led him to look about, and that he had found 'white man's horse, but him no understand Chippewa and 'fraid of Indian'. The horse was recaptured after no little difficulty, for he had roamed at large so long, and taken care of himself so well, that he had become wild, or independent, and did not seem to wish to be returned to the comfortable stable and regular feed. This incident placed the Chippewas before the settlers as trustworthy, and during the ten winters that they hunted among us we had no occasion to regret our confidence in them. "Amik and his tribe had their summer home on the British side of the Strait of St. Mary's, and they spent ten winters, from 1802 to 1812, in old Ashtabula County, hunting, sugar-making or gathering cranberries. Their uniform practice was to leave their summer haunts about Lake Superior and St. Mary's Strait in time to reach their hunting grounds 80 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY in Ashtabula County about the time of the falling of the leaves in autumn. Each family brought their brass and sheet-iron kettles, birchbark, separated from the course outside, or ross, cut into 18-inch or 2-foot squares, and packed snugly in their canoes, and brought all the way to be moulded into sap-troughs in the spring. This was easily done by crimpling up two opposite sides and tying them fast with a strip of basswood or leatherwood bark. Thus prepared, they made the lightest and handiest sap-troughs imaginable. In this way every family came prepared for sugar making and they made large quantities. "I had another proof of the integrity of the Chippewas, on an occasion when Amik came to borrow my rifle, in 1807. He stated that the lock of his rifle was broken and he must take it to Poland or Pittsburg to get it mended. He asked to borrow my rifle to take on his journey. He offered to pay me a ham of venison every week for the use of it. My rifle was a good one and I valued it highly, and I suggested to him that I might not see it again. He seemed disconcerted at even a hint that I doubted his veracity. I took the chance and loaned him the gun, and every week that he kept it I received the promised. ham. When he returned it he was accompanied by his son, Po-ka-haw, who was subsequently hanged for murder in Cleveland. Amik expressed in glowing terms the goodness of my rifle, and told of the number of elk, deer and bear he had killed with it. He said the rifle was `cawlatch—resshissin', which, translated into English, was 'good, very good'. Always thereafter I imposed perfect confidence in Amik." Joel Blakeslee, of Colebrook, one of the early historians of the county, gave another version of the personality of Chief. Amik of the Chippewas, in whom Historian Atkins placed such great confidence and whose good traits he so greatly admired. It will be noted that Mr. Atkins had a close personal acquaintance with the Redskin named, while Mr. Blakeslee's story seems to have been made from what others had told him. Amik, Omick, O'Mick are but variations of spelling the name of the one person. Mr. Blakeslee's sketch was published in the Ashtabula Sentinel of Feb. 25, 1858, and is here reproduced : "O'Mick, a Chippewa chieftain, of whose life sundry sketches are recorded in early history of Ashtabula County, was one of the number of 150 warriors, with their families, of the Chippewa and Ottawa nations who, in the autumn of 1796, and the following winter, made their first HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 81 hunting campaign in Northern Ohio, after Wayne's treaty at Greenville, settling their families along both banks of the Cuyahoga from its mouth to its source. After these tribes scattered, O'Mick made temporary abodes in several townships in Ashtabula County, as is well remembered by sundry surviving early citizens of the county. This rather savage chieftain, it is well remembered by Hon. J. R. Giddings, Dr. Almon Hawley, Col. David Wright and sundry others, had two squaws, one of which he called his squaw. She performed his drudgery and was the mother of Po-ka-haw (Owl), the murdered. The other he called his 'Squaw Lady'. Those who saw her say she was beautiful. O'Mick's squaw dressed in a dirty blanket, pantaloons and plain moccasins. His 'Lady Squaw' wore a neat, costly blanket, ornamented with numerous silver brooches, silver ornaments in her ears and beautifully wrought wampum parti-colored moccasins. She played the lady and was the idol of O'Mick. He and his family lived a number of years in the south part of Morgan (Rock Creek). Some time previous to the declaration of the War of 1812, O'Mick resided with the Massassauga tribe in Wayne and is thought to have gone with them and to have joined the British with that tribe. He was evidently seen and recognized in the Peninsular battle, fighting with the British Indians against hiS old friends and neighbors of Ashtabula County, who belonged to Chief Cotton's party. This bloody chieftain, O'Mick, fell in this battle before the rifle of the veteran Rice, whose life was in imminent peril from the deadly weapon of the savage, a ball frOm which had just before cut off a weed close by the side of the brave sergeant, who did not wait for another shot from the savage." (4) CHAPTER III. TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY AND PLANT LIFE. NORTH AND SOUTH RIDGES-SANDSTONE -"ERIE SHALE"- STONE QUARRY -RIVERS- COUNTY'S PLANT LIFE-VARIETIES. The two distinct ridges that skirt the northern section of the county from east to west, results of erosions of the glacial period, are veritable uniform terraces, of which a third is the high bank overlooking the beach of Lake Erie. From this latter elevation there is a gradual rise to the North Ridge, and from that a continued incline to the South Ridge. Scientific deductions long ago established the fact that the lake once covered all this area, and that the ridges, which are many feet above the present lake level, were once the lake bottom ; that the storms that perturbed its waters wore out the superficial depressions and amassed the sandbars and little spits of elevation which constituted the irregular land surface that was left as the waters receded. The two prominent ridges were particularly adaptable as main highways across the country. The early Ridge roads were little more than lanes, as they wended irregularly through openings bounded by interminable lines of "worm-fences". The space constituting the public highway was seldom more than 30 feet wide and often narrowed to much less. The owners of the land through which the roads passed ceded to the public what they considered was a sufficient space to meet the needs, and some of them did not seem to think that it needed much more than barely room for passing. Leaving the ridges, a very different formation is encountered. The underlying strata is found to consist of the conglomerates and sandstones, or of the shales of the old red sandstone, the upper covering being sand, gravel, loam or clay—the latter predominating through the center line north and south through the county. - 82 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 83 Quoting a state geologist, in his comments on the difference between the two ridges in character: "The outer, or higher terrace, where exposed by railroad cuts, is shown to be a ridge, or wall of compact, unstratified clay, composed largely of the debris of local rocks, but with many fragments of granite or other metamorphic rocks, not rounded by the action of the waves, but in irregular forms—round, polished and marked with striae and scratches on all sides. This ridge contains beneath its surface the traces of an old swamp, with fragments of coniferous wood, the earth deeply stained with iron, and in places with deposits of bog-iron at the bottom. This swamp has its origin in the causes which raised the clay ridge into its position, and was evidently filled with swamp vegetation at the time the waters of the lake were resting upon the northern slope of this ridge, the winds gradually carrying the beached sands over the crest of the ridge into the swamp basin, and in time burying it beneath the constantly accumulating sandy deposit. This ridge, with its mass unstratified and without rounded, water-worn pebbles, can not be the slow accumulations of a water-washed beach, nor can the materials be deposited in water, which would rot and stratify them." Commenting on the deep ravines of the county, particularly those of the Hubbard Run and others immediately in or adjacent to Ashtabula city, former State Geologist Newberry said: "It is manifest that such a local break in the shale could be caused by neither an upheaval nor the subsidence of the strata. A vast mass of ice moving on from the north, and impinging on the exposed strata of the shale with sufficient power to cause a part of the strata to buckle upwards at some point where the sliding motion was arrested, is alone competent to produce the condition of things here seen. The movement of a glacier, like a sheet of ice, is the only known force to produce such a result." South of the ridges the soil conditions undergo a decided change. The sub-stratum of rock is of the character known as the "Erie shale", and is composed principally of soft slate, which decomposes into clay. Where streams are swift they have cut deep into this formation, here and there making deep gorges. The southern part of the county is productive of much building stone. This is particularly the condition in Windsor Township, where there was for some years a large stone quarry, the working of which was a source of great commercial benefit to that town. The eastern part of Williamsfield also produced a great quantity 84 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY of stone that was used for building purposes in that section for many years. The Cuyahoga shales underlying the conglomerate constitute the surface rocks in the central part of Wayne and the western part of Hartsgrove and Windsor Townships. The last named two townships show long stretches of sticky clay soil. In Wayne the soil is more gravelly. The "Berea grit" is also found in sections of Hartsgrove and Windsor. Its position is indicated by a ridge rising toward the west and covered with stone fragments. Underlying the "Berea grit", in the western part of the county, is found "Bedford shale". The water-shed which governs the flow of the streams between the Ohio River and Lake Erie is found in Ashtabula County. The course of this divide passes through from a point but 10 miles back from the lake, on the eastern border, where are found the head-waters of the Chenango River, at an altitude of over 600 feet above the lake level, courses toward the southwest, to Orwell, where, at a given point, it is but 360 feet high. Thence it strikes off into Trumbull County. The effect of this divide is strikingly illustrated in the township of Dorset, where from one swamp flow two streams in opposite directions, the Pymatuning toward the south and Mill Creek toward the north. Dividing this swamp east to west is an embankment which was probably made centuries ago by beavers, constituting the very apex of the water-shed. County's Plant Life.— (By Elwood V. Louth.) The wild plants growing in Ashtabula County 200 years ago numbered about 850 annuals and perennials. Today we have a list of 1,200, as this section has adopted 350 foreign plants, such as the dandelion and white daisy. These 1,200 are divided as follows : Tender plants, that die to the ground in the winter, 990 ; shrubs, 100 ; trees, 110. The list is short now seventy plants that have disappeared from our section, because of the cutting away of our forests and the cultivation of places where they made their homes. In a belt of land five miles wide, along Lake Erie from the east to the west borders of the county, may be found all excepting about 50 of the species. These 50 do not grow in the northern part. But the land south of this belt has about 300 less species than can be found nearer the lake, because of the more uneven lay of the surface in the northern portion and the railroads which bring seeds to us in stock cars. HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 85 Of the 110 varieties of trees, there are only the poplar and the willow, that are now wild everywhere, that can be called invaders from foreign lands. The shrubs have about ten newcomers since the Indian ceased to be the only human being to enjoy the vegetation of one of the richest districts in America. CHAPTER IV. EARLY SETTLERS. EMIGRATION-EARLY COLONIZATION-"OLD HARPERSFIELD LAND COMPANY"-ALEXANDER HARPER-"WESTWARD HO" PARTY-HARDSHIPS ENCOUNTERED-HARPERSFIELD AS A METROPOLIS-ITS POPULATION. It was a couple of years after the arrival of that first little party from Connecticut before there was any material emigration from the east to this far-off section of which so little was known. Means of communication were slow and uncertain and months elapsed after the party left their Connecticut homes before their friends there received any word from them. When the letters did arrive they afforded exciting news for each neighborhood and many at once decided that they would cast their lots with those who had preceded them to the Reserve. Some of them carried out their resolution and, in the course of time, those who were already here received most welcome visitors who straggled in from the old home state with personal messages from the loved relatives "back there". The first decided movement toward a permanent colonization of this immediate section resulted from the organization of the "Old Harpers-field Land Company", which was effected in Harpersfield, N. Y., in 1798. Alexander Harper was one of the prime movers in organizing this company, the purpose of which was to invest in and develop land in. the Western Reserve, which was by that time becoming well advertised in the Eastern states as the land "flowing with milk and honey". Harper was a man of action and quick to see opportunities. Those associated with him in the project were no less anxious to see things move, and no time was lost in getting about the business in hand. It became known very soon in their own and surrounding towns that an emigration movement was on foot and applications to join the party that - 86 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 87 was being organized did not have to be solicited. Land that included six townships in the Western Reserve was purchased from the Connecticut Land Company. This tract was divided by the Cuyahoga River, three townships lying west and three east of that stream. In March, 1798, the "Westward Ho" party, comprising about 25 members who were ready to try their fortunes in unknown forests, left their New York homes. The company included Alexander Harper, his wife and their children, James, William, Robert, Alexander Jr., Elizabeth and Mary; their hired man, Gleason; William McFarland and Mrs. McFarland; Ephraim Clark ; Parthena Mingus, her son, William, and an adopted son, Benjamin Hartwell ; Ezra Gregory, wife and children, Eli, Johnathan, Daniel, Thatcher, Ezra, Anna, Eleanor and Betsy. It is related that they first journeyed in sleighs as far as Rome, N. Y., and there they remained until the ice had gone, so they could proceed by water. They went to Oswego and there secured small boats, by which they voyaged to the mouth of the Niagara River. They portaged across to the foot of Lake Erie, embarking from Fort Erie in a little vessel that was taking on a cargo of supplies for military troops stationed farther west in Canada. This boat took them as far as Presque Isle (now Erie), and there they obtained passage in boats whose owners engaged to transport the party farther west. On June 28, 1798, they disembarked at the mouth of Cunningham Creek, on the south shore of Lake Erie, and camped there for the night. Next morning Mr. Harper, with the women and children of the party, started on foot inland and tramped about four miles till they came to a place that seemed to promise a good home site. Here they were joined by the others of the party, who had transported the provisions, baggage and other equipment. All set to and hastily constructed a temporary shelter to cover them for the night. Later they completed a crude but habitable abode in which the whole colony were domiciled for several weeks, while the men were casting about in various directions for suitable places in which to establish permanent homes. The Harper and McFarland families decided to locate at a point near where is now Unionville, and Mr. Gregory and his family chose a place a few miles to the southeast, on Grand River. It was well that these venturesome families included several husky boys, for two of the party did not live to realize any of the hopes of their 88 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY venture beyond the actual establishment of the new homes. The Harpers' hired man, Gleason, died soon after their arrival, and Mr. Harper was stricken and died before the snows of the winter fell. Thus the boys of that family had to assume strenuous obligations early in their career as settlers. According to records obtainable, there were but fifteen families of whites in the entire Western Reserve prior to the arrival of the party abOve referred to. Cleveland had three of those, Youngstown ten, and Mentor two. In this same year, however, three other families came from the East and settled in what is now Burton, in Geauga County, and others came to Hudson, in Summit County. The next arrivals came in the spring of 1799, Aaron Wright, Levi and John Montgomery, Robert Montgomery and family, Nathan and John King, and Samuel Bemus and family coming from the East and settling in what is now Conneaut. During the summer following, Eliphalet Austin, with his associates, George Beckwith with his family, Roswell Stephens and family, and several other men, established a settlement where now is Austinburg. In June of that year George Phelps and family cast their lots in what is now Windsor Township, Monroe received its first settlers. in the persons of Stephen Moulton and his family, and Joseph Harper and Aaron Wheeler, two of the promoters of the Old Harpersfield Land Company, arrived with their families and increased the settlement on Grand River, which afterward was given the name of Harpersfield. The number of settlers within the boundaries of this county in the winter of 1799-1800 was about fifty, of whom the greater number made Harpersfield their home, that hamlet thereby having the honor of being the "metropolis" of Ashtabula County. Conneaut, Austinburg, Windsor and Monroe boasted possession of the remainder of the population, Conneaut having the most and the others standing relatively as named. The influx of emigrants took a new start in the spring of 1800, and during that year the following acquisitions were made to the several settlements : To Harpersfield came Daniel Bartholomew and a Mr. Morse, with their families ; Conneaut's population was increased by the addition of Seth Harrington, James Harper, James Montgomery, and their families ; Austinburg's growth was given a decided impetus by the settlement HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 89 therein of Joseph and J. M. Case, Roger Nettleton, Joseph B. Cowles, Adam Cowles, Josiah Moses, John Wright, Sterling Mills and family, Noah Cowles and son Solomon, Dr. O. K. Hawley, and Ambrose Humphrey. Nearly all of the men named made the journey from Connecticut on foot or by horseback. Numerous of them braved the perils of such an arduous journey with the idea of locating and building at least a temporary home for their families who were left behind. Later several of the heads of families made the journey back to the native state to get their own and the other men's families who were to become pioneer residents of the West. According to Joshua Forbes, who wrote a history of Wayne Township, a missionary from Connecticut, named Rev. Thomas Robbins, made a complete circuit of Ashtabula County, as it was later bounded and organized, in the year 1804, and upon its completion stated that he found, in the entire county, 93 families, constituting a population of from 400 to 500. Of these families, Harpersfield had 27; Conneaut, 20 ; Austinburg, 17, and Morgan, 13. The early corners must have sent glowing accounts of the new country to their friends "back home", for the number of settlers gradually increased, starting each spring and continuing through each summer, while some of the belated ones who came across country dropped in during the rigorous winter months. CHAPTER V. ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY AND TOWNSHIPS. LEGISLATIVE ACT OF 1800-TRUMBULL COUNTY-ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS- OFFICERS- ASHTABULA COUNTY IN 1811-DIVISION INTO TOWNSHIPS- HARTSGROVE- EARLY LEGISLATION-FIRST COUNTY OFFICIALS-CENSUS ENUMERATIONS -COUNTY SEAT-COURT HOUSE. It was on July 10, 1800, that the Legislature of the State of Connecticut authorized the return to the United States government the right of jurisdiction over New Connecticut, and the Western Reserve was converted, through proclamation of the Governor and judges of the Northwestern Territory, into a county which was named Trumbull, in honor of Jonathan Trumbull, who was then Governor of the State of Connecticut. Warren was assigned as the county seat, and the first court of jurisdiction over the newly made county was called to convene in that town on August 25, 1800. During this session the court appointed a committee whose duty it was to divide the county of Trumbull into townships, and to make a report to the court at an early date, describing the boundary lines of each subdivision thus made. The original Trumbull County was therefore divided into eight townships that were named Youngstown, Warren, Vernon, Richfield, Painesville, Middlefield, Hudson and Cleveland. This township of Richfield is the one in which the readers of this work are interested, that division having embraced all of what is now Ashtabula County, excepting the two southern tiers of townships that now constitute Windsor, Orwell, Colebrook, Wayne, Williamsfield, Hartsgrove, Rome, New Lyme, Cherry Valley and Andover. Of these ten towns, Colebrook, Wayne, Williamsfield, Cherry Valley, New Lyme and Andover were included in the township laid out as Vernon, while Windsor, Orwell, Hartsgrove and Rome were in Middlefield. The present towns of - 90 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 91 Madison and Thompson, now in Lake County, were also included in the original Richfield. At the May term of court, 1801, the original eight townships were formed into election districts, called the "Northern" and the "Southern" districts. Middlefield, Richfield, Painesville and Cleveland constituted the "Northern" district, and the home of one Simon Perkins, at the intersection of Young's road and the Lake road (now Concord, in Lake County), was designated as the place of holding the elections. Youngstown, Hudson, Warren and Vernon, the "Southern" district, did their voting at the home of Ephraim Quimby, in Warren. So far as can be ascertained from available history, Noah Cowles and Nathan King were the first trustees of Richfield, Aaron Wheeler was justice of the peace, and John Harper and Miles Case were constables. In 1804 the county of Geauga was formed, and its territory embraced the greater portion of the present limits of Ashtabula County. However, this county came into its own three years later, being organized in 1811. Richfield Township was left intact until 1804, when Divisions Nos. 12, 13 and 14 were set aside as the town of Salem, which is now Conneaut. The next subdivision of Richfield was made in 1807, by setting out that territory now embracing Geneva, Harpersfield, Trumbull and Harts-grove and calling it Harpersfield Township. The following year further disintegration of Richfield was accomplished by assigning the territory now Kingsville, Sheffield, Ashtabula and Plymouth as Ashtabula, and forming Jefferson out of what ultimately became Jefferson, Denmark, Pierpont, Lenox, Dorset and Richmond. In 1810 Kingsville was taken from Ashtabula and organized, Sheffield being included in that separation. When Ashtabula County was organized, on January 22, 1811, its confines embraced six organized townships, namely : Salem, including Nos. 12, 13 and 14 of the first range ; Ashtabula, including Nos. 12 and 13 of the third range ; Kingsville, including Nos. 12 and 13 of the second range ; Jefferson, including Nos. 10 and 11 of the first, second and third ranges, and Richfield, which took in the remaining territory of the county, excepting Nos. 8 and 9 of the five ranges. In 1806 Williamsfield, Wayne and Colebrook were included in a township called Green, which embraced other territory to a considerable extent in Trumbull County. 92 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY Wayne Township was organized in 1811, and included in it were the present townships of Wayne, Williamsfield, Colebrook, Andover, Cherry Valley and New Lyme. Windsor Township was also organized in July of that year, and its territory included Orwell, which was then known as Leffingwell. In 1812 Austinburg, including what is now Saybrook, was organized. That section now embracing New Lyme and Colebrook was set aside as Lebanon, in 1813, which name it bore until 1825, when it became New Lyme. In 1813, also, Denmark was taken away from Jefferson's authority and organized with boundaries which included Pierpont, Richmond and Dorset. Pierpont and Richmond were taken. away five years later and named Pierpont. Saybrook was detached from Austinburg in 1816, and was known as Wrightsburg until 1827. The year 1816 also saw Harpersfield territory dissected and Geneva was the result. The township of Salem was reduced in territory in 1818, by cutting off what is now Monroe. In 1819 Wayne gave up Andover and Cherry Valley, the two being combined as Andover. In the same year Morgan was taken from Richfield, and Lenox was detached from Jefferson. Sheffield was organized in 1820 from the southern section of Kingsville. Leffingwell (Orwell) was attached to Richfield in 1823, and the two were known as Richfield until 1826, when. Orwell was organized into a township by itself. The township of Trumbull was detached from Harpersfield in 1825, and embraced what is now Hartsgrove. Cherry Valley broke away from Andover in 1827, and Richmond from Pierpont during the following year. All that was left of the original Richfield Township was taken away in 1828, when, upon petition by residents, the name of Rome was adopted. Hartsgrove came into its own in 1830, and the finish to more than a quarter of a century of "cut-and-dry" methods of settlement, organization and reorganization, was reached in 1838, when the major part of HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 93 No. 12 of the third range was taken from Ashtabula and named Plymouth. The organization of Plymouth was effected on Independence Day of that year, and thus closed the final chapter of the history of Richfield's division into the twenty-eight townships that now compose the county of Ashtabula. This section was embraced in what was known also as New Connecticut, and there was no civil government organized therein until the year 1800. This free condition was because of the fact that the State of Connecticut and the Connecticut Land Company had refused to give Congress the right to formulate laws to govern the inhabitants of the Western Reserve. The pioneer settlers of this county were, therefore, without civil laws and were entirely independent of any sort of government other than the dictates of their good old New England consciences. This condition could not possibly obtain at the present time in even the most remote points of this great country, but it was not abused by those sturdy sons of toil, as they had not come for selfish aims, alone, and they had proper respect for the rights of others. If, at times, some one did digress from this tranquil condition of existence, and committed some act that was not in accord with the customary way of living, the others disposed of his case as seemed most appropriate, and, it is said, always prescribed and administered an effectual cure. From the time that Moses Cleaveland and his party landed on the south shore of Lake Erie, in Conneaut, there was a lapse of 15 years before affairs so shaped themselves that Ashtabula County could be organized. On January 22, 1811, the State Legislature passed the following enactment : "Be it enacted, etc., that the county of Ashtabula be, and the same hereby is organized into a separate county, and that the townships numbered eight, in Trumbull County, shall be attached to and become a part of said county of Ashtabula." Section 8052 states : "That on the first Monday of May, next, the legal voters residing in the county of Ashtabula shall assemble in their respective townships, at the usual places of holding elections in said townships, and elect their several county officers, who shall hold their offices until the next annual 94 - HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY election. This act to take effect and be in force from and after the first day of May next." The description of the county as given provided : "That all of Geauga and Trumbull Counties which lies north of the townships numbered seven, and east of the sixth range of townships (all in the Connecticut Western Reserve), shall be a. distinct and separate county by the name of Ashtabula." The first men who served the new county as officers, and their respective positions, follow : Presiding judge, Benjamin Ruggles ; associate judges, Aaron Wheeler, Ebenezer Hewins and Solomon Griswold ; treasurer, David Hendry ; recorder, James Harper; county clerk, Timothy R. Hawley ; sheriff, Nathan Strong. In accordance with the State Constitution, the above judiciary was established, and the first term of court was called to be held in Jefferson, on June 20, 1811. Following were the first grand jurors selected : Noah Cowles, Peleg Sweet, Stephen Brown, Jesse D. Hawley, William Perrin, Walter Fobes, Ebenezer K. Lampson, Sterling Mills, Michael Webster, Gideon Leet, Joshua Rockwell, Eliphalet Austin, James A. Harper, Moses Wright and David Hendry. Eliphalet Austin was appointed by the court as foreman of this first grand jury. The jury was duly sworn and charged by the court. The first suit on record was "State of Ohio vs. Orrison Cleveland", for assault and battery. The court ordered the defendant discharged. There was, in the beginning of the judicial activities of the county, no petit jury. Peter Hitchcock was the first prosecuting attorney pro tem, and Ezra Kellogg was the first regular prosecutor. The first county surveyor appointed was Timothy R. Hawley. The first probate judge was J. Addison Giddings. The first election of county commissioners, as held in Ashtabula, Austinburg, Jefferson and Harpersfield, was declared illegal by the common pleas judge, who ruled out the returns from those townships, and that the votes of the remaining townships should be added together and that the candidates found to have the plurality of votes should be declared elected. This ruling, apparently, did not meet with popular favor. It is recorded that James Harper was the only one of those thus declared elected who did not decline to serve. Upon refusal of the others, the HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY - 95 court appointed Nathan Strong and Titus Hayes to serve until the next regular election. At the next term of court the three commissioners presented their expense bills, which, in comparison with the expense of the like body of today, is interesting. James Harper's expense was $31.50, Nathan Strong spent $28, and Titus Hayes' activities in the interest of the county had cost him but $13.10. The records show that the first case brought before the judge by the grand jury involved Isaac Cook and Amos Fisk, who were up for fighting. It is recorded that both were fined. From the arrival of the first settlers, Ashtabula County was destined to experience a healthy growth, indefinitely. In the early days the reports going back East from those who had braved dangers and suffered the privations attendant upon the breaking into a wilderness were all favorable and resulted in bringing many who contemplated casting their lots in the new West to this immediate section, rather than to some other of which they knew nothing. The records show that but very few of the early emigrants to this section were dissatisfied with what they found and as a consequence moved on. The succeeding generations also, as a rule, remained hereabouts, and as the decades passed by the newcomers and the natural increase of local population caused the number of inhabitants to increase each year. For the sake of comparisons, we give figures on population as shown by the census enumerations of 1840, 1850 and 1920: