GENERAL GARFIELD'S ADDRESS.
MR. CHAIRMAN AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: When I accepted the invitation to address you on this interesting occasion, I did not assume that I could contribute anything in the way of original materials for the history of this portion of the Western Reserve. I hoped, however, that I might be able to point out some of the resources from which these materials may be drawn, and to express my interest in the effort you are making to rescue a portion of them from the destroying hand of time.
From the historian's standpoint, our country is peculiarly and exceptionally fortunate. The origin of nearly all great nations, ancient and modern, is shrouded in fable or traditionary legend. The story of the founding of Rome by the wolf-nursed brothers, Romulus and Remus, has long been classed among the myths of history; and the more modern story of Hengist and Horsa leading the Saxons to England, is almost equally legendary. The origin of Paris can never be known. Its foundation was laid long before Gaul had written records. But the settlement, civilization and political institutions of our country can be traced from their first hour by the clear light of history. It is true that over this continent hangs an impenetrable veil of tradition, mystery and silence. But it is the tradition of races fast passing away; the mystery of a still earlier race, which flourished and perished long before its discovery by the Europeans. The story of the Mound Builders can never be told. The fate of the Indian tribes will soon be a half-forgotten tale. But the history of European civilization and institutions on this continent can be traced with precision and fullness; unless we become forgetful of the past, and neglect to save and perpetuate its precious memorials.
In discussing the scope of historical study in reference to our country, I will call attention to a few general facts concerning its discovery and settlement. First—The Romantic Period of Discovery on this Continent.
There can scarcely be found in the realms of romance anything more fascinating than the records of discovery and adventure during the two centuries That followed the landing of Columbus on the soil of the New World. The greed for gold, the passion for adventure, the spirit of chivalry, the enthusiasm and fanaticism of religion, all conspired to throw into America the hardest and most daring spirits of Europe, and made the vast wilderness of the New World, the theatre of the most stirring achievements that history has recorded.
Early in the Sixteenth century, Spain, turning from the conquest of Grenada, and her triumph over the Moors, followed her golden dreams of the New
* Delivered at Burton, before the Historical society of Geauga county, Ohio, September 16, 1873, on the discovery and settlement of the Western Reserve.
+ General Garfield mentions the following as among the chief books consulted in the preparation of the address : " Bancroft's History of the United States, " Vols. I, II, III, IV; "Annals of the West, James H. Perkins, St. Louis, 1850; " Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory," Jacob Burnet, New York, 1847; " History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi," 2 vols., John W. Monette, New York, 1846; Irving 's Conquest of Frorrda; Francis Parkman's four histories; "The Jesuits of North America;" "The Discovery of the Great West:" "The Pioneers of Civilization in the New World;" "The Conspiracy of Pontiac;' " Diplomatic Correspondence, 1776 to 1783," by Tared Sparks; "Early History of Cleveland, Ohio," Col. Charles Whittlesey, Cleveland, 1867; "History of the Maumee Valley, "H, Knapp, Toledo, 1872; "Land Laws of Ohio." He mentioned last in this connection what he regarded as very important, the Margury Papers, in 9 volumes, of French Discoveries, from this archives of France.
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World, with the same spirit that in an earlier day animated her Crusaders. In 1528, Ponce de Leon began his search for the fountain of perpetual youth, the tradition of which he had learned among the natives of the West Indies. He discovered the low-lying coasts of Florida, and explored its interior. Instead of the fountain of youth, he found his grave among its everglades.
A few years later, De Soto, who had accompanied Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, landed in Florida with a gallant array of knights and nobles, and commenced his explorations through the western wilderness. In 1541 he reached the banks of the Mississippi river, and crossing it, pushed his discoveries westward over the great plains; but, finding neither the gold nor the South sea of his dreams, he returned to be buried in the waters of the great river he had discovered.
While England was more leisurely exploring the bays and rivers of the Atlantic coast, and searching for gold and peltry, the chevaliers and priests of France were chasing their dreams in the North, searching a passage to China, and the realms of Far Cathay, and telling the mystery of the Cross to the Indian tribes of the far west. Coasting northward, her bold navigators discovered the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and in 1525 Cartier sailed up its broad current to the rocky heights of Quebec, and to the rapids above Montreal, which were afterwards named La Chine, in derision of the belief that the adventurers were about to find China.
In 1606, Champlain pushed above the rapids, and discovered the beautiful lake that bears his name. In 1615, Priest La Caron pushed northward and westward through the wilderness and discovered Lake Huron.
In 1635, the Jesuit missionaries founded the Mission St. Mary. In 1654, another priest had entered the wilderness of Northern New York, and found the salt springs of Onondaga. In 1659-1660 French traders and priests passed the winter on Lake Superior, and established missions along its shores.
Among the earlier discoverers no name shines out with more brilliancy than that of the Chevalier La Salle. The story of his explorations can scarcely be equaled in romantic interest by any of the stirring tales of the Crusaders. Born of a proud and wealthy family in the north of France, he was destined for the service of the Church and of the Jesuit Order. But his restless spirit, fired with the love of adventure, broke away from the ecclesiastical restraints, to confront the dangers of the New World and extend the empire of Louis XIV. From the best evidence accessible, it appears that he was the first white man that saw the Ohio river. At twenty-six years of age we find him with a small party, near the western extremity of Lake Ontario, boldly entering the domain of the dreaded Iroquois, traveling southward and westward through the wintry wilderness until he reached a branch of the Ohio, probably the Allegheny. He followed it to the main stream, and descended that, until, in the winter of 1669 and 1670, he reached the Falls of the Ohio, near the present site of Louisville. His companions refusing to go furthur, he returned to Quebec and prepared for still greater undertakings.
In the meantime the Jesuit missionaries had been pushing their discoveries on the Northern Lake. In 1673, Joliet and Marquette started from Green Bay, dragging their canoes up the rapids of Fox river, crossed Lake Winnebago, found Indian guides to conduct them to the waters of the Wisconsin, descended that stream to the westward, and, on the sixteenth of June reached the Mississippi, near the spot where now stands the city of Prairie Du Chien. To-morrow will
be the two hundredth anniversary of that discovery. One hundred and forty-two years before that time, De Soto had seen the same river more than a thousand miles below; but during that interval, it is not known that any white man had looked upon its waters.
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Turning southward, these brave priests descended the great river, amid the awful solitudes. The stories of demons and monsters of the wilderness which abounded among the Indian tribes, did not deter them from pushing their discoveries. They continued their journey southward to the mouth of the Arkansas river, telling, as best they could, the story of the Cross to the wild
along the shores. Returning from the Kaskaskias, and traveling thence to tribes Lake Michigan, reached Green bay at the end of September, 1673, having on their journey paddled their canoes more than twenty five hundred miles. Marquette remained to establish missions among the Indians, and to die three years later, on the western shore of Lake Michigan, while Joliet returned to Quebec to report his discoveries.
In the meantime, Count Frontenac, a noble of France, had been made governor of Canada, and found in La Salle a fit counselor and assistant in his vast schemes of discovery. La Salle was sent to France, to enlist the court and the ministers of Louis; and in 1677-78, returned to Canada, with full power, under Frontenac, to carry forward his grand enterprises. He had developed three great purposes. First, to realize the old plan of Champlain—the finding of a pathway to China across the American continent; second, to occupy and develop the regions of the northern lakes; and third, to descend the Mississippi river, and establish a fortified post at its mouth, thus securing an outlet for the trade of the interior and checking the progress of Spain on the Gulf of Mexico.
In pursuance of this plan, we find La Salle and his companions, in January, 1679, dragging their cannon and materials for ship-building around the Falls of Niagara, and laying the keel of a vessel, two leagues above the cataract, at the mouth of Cayuga creek. She was a schooner of forty-five tons burden, and was named "The Griffin." On the seventh of August, 1679, with an armament of five cannon, and a crew and company of thirty-four men, she started on her voyage up Lake Erie, the first sail ever spread over the waters of our lake. On the fourth day, she entered Detroit river; and, after encountering a terrible storm on Lake Huron, passed the straits, and reached Green Bay early in Sep- tember. A few weeks later, she started back for Niagara, laden with furs, and was never heard from.
While awaiting the supplies which the "Griffin" was expected to bring, La Salle explored Lake Michigan to its southern extremity, ascended the Saint Joseph, crossed the Portage to the Kankakee, descended the Illinois, and, landing at an Indian village, on the site of the present village of Utica, Illinois, celebrated mass on New Year's day, 1680. Before the winter was ended, he became certain that the "Griffin" was lost. But, undaunted by his disasters, on the third of March, with five companions, he began the incredible feat of making the journey to Quebec on foot, in the dead of winter. This he accomplished. He re-organized his expedition, conquered every difficulty, and, on the twenty-first of December, 1681, with a party of fifty-four Frenchmen, and friendly Indians, set out for the present site of Chicago, and, by the way of Illinois river, reached the Mississippi, February 6, 1682. He descended its stream, and on the ninth of April, of 1682, standing on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, solemnly proclaimed to his companions and to the wilderness, that in the name of Louis the Great, he took possession of the great valley watered by the Mississippi river. He set up a column and inscribed upon it the arms of France, and named the country Louisiana. Upon this act rested the claim of France to the vast region stretching from the Allegheny to the Rocky mountains, from the Rio Grande and the Gulf to the farthest springs of the Missouri.
I will not follow further the career of the great explorers. Enough has been said to exhibit the spirit and character of their work. I would I were able to inspire the young men of this country with a desire to read the history of these
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stirring days of discovery, that opened up to Europe the mysteries of this New World.
As Irving has well said of their work, “It was poetry put into action; it was the knight-errantry of the Old World, carried into the depths of the American wilderness. The personal adventures ; the feats of individual prowess; the picturesque descriptions of steel-clad cavaliers, with lance, and helmet and prancing steed, glittering through the wilderness of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the prairies of the far west, would seem to us mere fictions of romance, did they not come to us in the matter of fact narratives of those who were eye witnesses, and who recorded minute memoranda of every incident."
Second - The Struggle for National Dominion.
I next invite your attention to the less stirring, but not less important struggle, for the possession of the New World, which succeeded the period of discovery.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, North America was claimed mainly by three great, powers. Spain held possession of Mexico, and a belt reaching eastward to the Atlantic and northward to the southern line of Georgia, except a portion near the mouth of the Mississippi held by the French. England held from the Spanish line on the south to the northern lakes and the Saint Lawrence, and westward to the Alleghanies. France held all north of the lakes and west boundary lines were but vaguely defined; others were disputed; and the general of the Alleghanies, and southward to the possessions of Spain. Some of the outlines were as stated.
Besides the struggle for national possession, the religious element entered largely into the contest. It was a struggle between the Catholic and Protestant faiths. The Protestant colonies of England were developed on three sides, by the vigorous and perfectly organized Catholic powers of France and Spain.
Indeed, at an early date, by the bull of Pope Alexander VI, all American had been given to the Spaniards. But France, with a zeal equal to that of Spain, had entered the lists to contest for the prize. So far as the religious struggle was concerned, the efforts of France and Spain were resisted only by the Protestants of the Atlantic coast.
The main chain of the Alleganies was supposed to be impassable until 1713, when Governor Spottswood, of Virginia, led an expedition to discover a pass to the great valley beyond. He found one somewhere near the western boundary of Virginia, and by it descended to the Ohio. On his return, he established the "Transmontane Order," or " Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe." On the sandy plains of eastern Virginia, horse-shoes were rarely used; but, in climbing the mountains, he had found them necessary; and, on creating his companions knights of this new order, he gave to each a golden horse-shoe, inscribed with 1714, the motto:
"Sic jterat transcendere monies."
He represented to the British ministry the great importance of planting settlements in the western valley; and, with the foresight of a statesman, pointed out the danger of allowing the French the undisputed possession of that rich region.
The progress of England had been slower but more certain than that of her great rival. While the French were establishing trading posts at points widely removed from each other, along the lakes and Mississippi, and in the wilderness of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the English were slowly but firmly planting their settlements on the Atlantic slope, and preparing to contest for the rich prize of the Great West. They possessed one great advantage over their French rivals. They had cultivated the friendship of the Iroquois Confederacy, the most powerful combination of Indian tribes known to the New World. That confederacy held possession of the southern shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie; and their
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hostility to the French had confined the settlements of that people mainly to the northern shores.
During the first half of the eighteenth century, many treaties were made by the English with these confederated tribes, and some valuable grants of land were obtained on the eastern slope of the Mississippi valley.
About the middle of that century, the British government began to recognize
the wisdom of Governor Spottswood, and perceived that an empire was soon to be saved or lost.
In r 748, a company was organized by Thomas Lee, and Lawrence and Augustine Washington, under the name of The Ohio Company," and received a royal grant of one half million acres of land in the valley of the Ohio. In 1751, a British trading post was established on the Big Miami; but, in the following year, it was destroyed by the French. Many similar efforts of the English colonists were resisted by the French; and, during the years 1751-2-3, it became manifest that a great struggle was imminent, between the French and the English for the possession of the West. The British ministers were too much absorbed in intrigues at home, to appreciate the importance of this contest; and they did but little more than to permit the colonies to protect their rights in the valley of the Ohio.
In 1753, the Ohio Company had opened a road by Will's creek into the western valley, and were preparing to locate their colony. At the same time the French had sent a force to occupy and hold the line of the Ohio. As the Ohio Company was under the especial protection of Virginia, the governor of that colony determined to send a messenger to the commander of the French forces, and demand the reason for invading the British dominions. For this purpose he selected George Washington, then twenty years of age, who, with six assist- ants,•set out from Williamsburg, Virginia, in the middle of November, for the waters of the Ohio and Lake Erie. After a journey of nine days, through sleet and snow, he reached the Ohio at the junction of the Allegheny and the Monongahela; and his quick eye seemed to foresee the destiny of the place. "I spent some time," said he, "in viewing the rivers. The land in the fork has the abso- lute command of both." On this spot Fort Pitt was afterwards built, and, still later, the city of Pittsburgh.
As Bancroft has said, "After creating in imagination a fortress and city, his party swam arcoss the Allegheny, wrapped their blankets around them for the night on the northwest bank." Proceeding down the Ohio to Logstown, he held a council with the Shawnees and the Delawares, who promised to secure the aid of the Six Nations in resisting the French. He then proceeded to the French posts at Venango and Fort Le Boeuf (the latter fifteen miles from Lake Erie), and warned the commanders that the rights of Virginia must not be invaded. He received for his answer, that the French would seize every Englishman in the Ohio valley.
Returning to Virginia in January, 1754, he reported to the governor, and immediate preparations were made by the colonists to maintain their rights in the west, and resist the incursions of the French. In this movement originated the first military union among the English colonists.
Although peace existed between France and England, formidable preparations were made by the latter to repel encroachments on the frontier, from Ohio to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Braddock was sent to America, and, in 1755, at Alexandria, Virginia, he planned four expeditions against the French.
It is not necessary to speak in detail of the war that followed. After Brad- dock's defeat near the forks of the Ohio, which occurred on the ninth of July, 1755, England herself took active measures for prosecuting the war.
On the twenty-fifth of November, 1758, Forbes captured Fort DuQuesne,
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which thus passed into the possession of the English, and was named Fort Pitt, in honor of the great minister.
In 1759, Quebec was captured by General Wolfe; and the same year Niagara fell into the hands of the English.
In 1760, an English force, under Major Rogers, moved westward from Niagara, to occupy the French posts on the upper lakes. They coasted along the south shore of Erie, the first English-speaking people that sailed its waters. Near the mouth of the Grand river they met in council the chiefs of the great warrior, Pontiac. A few weeks later, they took possession of Detroit. "Thus," says Mr. Bancroft, "was Michigan won by Great Britain, though not for itself. There were those who foresaw that the acquisition of Canada was the prelude of American independence."
Late in December, Rogers returned to the Maumee; and setting out from the point where Sandusky city now stands, crossed the Huron river to the northern branch of White Woman's river, and, passing thence by the English village of Beaverstown, and up the Ohio, reached Fort Pitt on the twenty-third of January, 1761, just a month after he left Detroit.
Under the leadership of Pitt, England was finally triumphant in this great struggle; and, by the treaty of Paris, of the tenth of February, 1763, she acquired Canada and all the territory east of the Mississippi river, and southward to the Spanish territory, excepting New Orleans and the island on which it is situated.
During the twelve years which followed the treaty of Paris, the English colonists were pushing their settlements into the newly acquired territory; but they encountered the opposition of the Six Nations and their allies, who made fruitless efforts to capture the British posts, Detroit, Niagara and Fort Pitt.
At length, in 1768, Sir William Johnson concluded a treaty, at Fort Stanwix, with these tribes, by which all the lands south of the Ohio and the Allegheny were sold to the British ; the Indians to remain in undisturbed possession of the territory north and west of those rivers. New companies were organized to occupy the territory thus obtained.
"Among the foremost speculators in western lands at that time," says the author of "Annals of the West," "was George Washington." In 1769 he was one of the signers of a petition to the king for a grant of two and a half millions acres in the west. In 177o he crossed the mountains and descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Kanawha, to locate the ten thousand acres to which he was entitled, for services in the French war.
Virginians planted settlements in Kentucky; and pioneers from all the colonies began to occupy the frontiers, from the Allegheny to the Tennesse. Third—The war of the Revolution, and its relations to the west.
How came the thrirteen colonies to possess the valley of the Mississippi? The object of their struggle was independence, and yet, by the Treaty of Peace in 1783, not only was the independence of the thirteen colonies conceded, but there was granted 'to the new republic, a western territory bounded by the Northern Lakes, the Mississippi, and the French and Spanish possessions. How did these hills and valleys become a part of the United States? It is true that, by virtue of royal charters, several of the colonies set up claims extending to the "South Sea." The knowledge which the English possessed of the geography of this country at that time, is illustrated by the fact that Capt. John Smith was commissioned to sail up the Chickahominy, and find a passage to China! But the claims of the colonies were too vague to be of any consequence in determining the boundaries of the two governments. Virginia had indeed extended her settlements into the region south of the Ohio river, and during the Revolution, had annexed that country to the Old Diminion, calling it the County of
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Kentucky. But, previous to the Revolution, the colonies had taken no such action in reference to the territory northwest of the Ohio.
The cession of that great Territory under the treaty of 1783 was due mainly to the foresight, the courage, and the endurance of one man, who never received from his country any adequate recognition for his great service. That man was George Rogers Clark; and it is worth your while to consider the work he accomplished. Born in Virginia, he was, in early life, a surveyor, and afterwards served in Lord Dunmore's War. In 1776 he settled in Kentucky, and was, in fact, the founder of that commonwealth. As the war of the Revolution progressed, he saw that the pioneers west of the Alleghanies were 'threatened by two formidable dangers: First, by the Indians, many of whom had joined the standard of Great Britain; and, second, by the success of the war itself. For, should the colonies obtain their independence, while the British held possession of the Mississippi valley, the Alleghanies would be the western boundary of the
new Republic, and the pioneers of the West would remain subjects to Great Britain.
Inspired by these views he made two journeys to Virginia, to represent the case to the authorities of that colony. Failing to impress the House of Burgesses with the importance of warding off these dangers, he appealed to the governor, Patrick Henry, and received from him authority to enlist seven companies to go to Kentucky subject to his orders, and serve for three months after their arrival in the West. This was a public commission.
Another document, bearing date Willliamsburg, January 2, 1778, was a secret commisssion, which authorized him, in the name of Virginia, to capture the military posts held by the British in the Northwest. Armed with this authority, he proceeded to Pittsburgh, where he obtained ammunition, and floated it down the river to Kentucky, succeeded in enlisting seven companies of pioneers, and in the month of June, 1778, commenced his march through the untrodden wilderness to the region of the Illinois. With a daring that is scarcely equaled .in the annals of war, he captured the garrisons of Kaskaskia, St. Vincent, and Cahokia, and sent his prisoners to the governor of Virginia, and by his energy and skill won over the French inhabitants of that region to the American cause.
In October, 1778, the House of Burgesses passed an act declaring that " All the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia, who are already settled there, or shall hereafter be settled on the west side of the Ohio, shall be included in the District of Kentucky, which shall be called Illinois county." In other words, George Rogers Clark conquered the territory of the Northwest in the name of Virginia, and the flag of the Republic covered it at the close of the war.
In negotiating the Treaty of Peace at Paris, in 1783, the British commissioners insisted on the Ohio river as the northwestern boundary of the United States; and it was found, the only tenable ground or. which the American commissioners relied to sustain our claim to the lakes and the Mississippi as the boundary, was the fact that George Rogers Clark had conquered the country, and Virginia was in undisputed possession pf it at the cessastion of hostilities. In his "Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwest Territory," Judge Burnet says: "That fact" (the capture of the British posts) "was confirmed and admitted, and was the chief ground on which the British commissioners reluctantly abandoned their claim."
It is a stain upon the honor of our country that such a man, the leader of the pioneers who made the first lodgment on the site now occupied by Louisville, who was, in fact the founder of, Kentucky, and who, by his personal foresight and energy, gave nine great States to the Republic, was allowed to sink under a load of debt incurred for the honer and glory of his country.
In 1799, Judge Burnet rode some ten or twelve miles from Louisville into
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the country, to visit this veteran hero. He says he was induced to make this visit by the veneration he entertained for Clark's military talents and services.
"He had," says Burnet, "the appearance of a man born to command, and fitted by nature for his destiny. There was a gravity and solemnity in his demeanor, resembling that which so eminently distinguished the venerated father of his country. A person familiar with the lives and character of the military veterans of Rome, in the days of her greatest power, might readily have selected this remarkable man as a specimen of the model he had formed of them in his own mind; but he was rapidly falling a victim to his extreme sensibility and to the ingratitude of his native State, under whose banner he had fought bravely, and with great success.
"The time will certainly come when the enlightened and magnanimous citizens of Louisville will remember the debt of gratitude they owe the memory of that distinguished man. He was the leader of the pioneers who made the first lodgment on the site now covered by their rich and splendid city. He was its protector during the years of its infancy, and in the period of its greatest danger. Yet the traveler who has read of his achievements, admired his character, and visited the theatre of his brilliant deeds, discovers nothing indicating the place where his remains are deposited, and where he can go and pay a tribute of respect to the memory of the departed and gallant hero."
This eulogy of Judge Burnet is fully warranted by the facts of history. There is preserved in the war department at Washington, a portrait of Clark, which gives unmistakable evidence of a character of rare grasp and power. No one can look upon that remarkable face without knowing that the original was a man of unusual force.
Fourth—Organization and Settlement of the Western Reserve.
Soon after the close of the Revolution our western country was divided into three territories; the territory of the Mississippi; the territory south of the Ohio; and the territory northwest of the Ohio. For the purposes of this address, I shall consider only the organization and settlement of the latter.
It would be difficult to find any country so covered with conflicting claims of title as the Territory of the Northwest. Several States, still asserting the validity of their royal charters, set up claims, more or less definite, to portions of this Territory. First, by royal charter of 1662, confirming a council charter of 163o, Connecticut claimed a strip of land bounded, on the east, by the Narragansett river; north, by Massachusetts; south, by Long Island Sound, and extending westward between the parallels of forty-one degrees and forty-two degrees and two minutes north latitude, to the mythical "South Sea;" Second, New York, by her charter of 1614, claimed a territory marked by definite boundaries, lying across the boundaries of the Connecticut charter; third, by the grant to William Penn, in 1664, Pennsylvania claimed a territory overlaping part of the territory of both these colonies; fourth, the charter of Massachusetts also conflicted with some of the claims above mentioned; fifth, Virginia claimed the whole of the Northwest Territory by right of conquest, and, in 1779, by an act of her legislature, annexed it as a county; sixth, several grants had been made of special tracts to incorporated companies by the different States. And, finally, the whole Territory of the Northwest was claimed by the Indians as their own.
The claims of New York, Massachusetts, and part of the claim of Pennsylvania, had been settled before the war, by royal commissioners. The others were still unadjusted. It became evident that no satisfactory settlement could be made, except by congress. That body urged the several States to make a cession of the lands they claimed, and thus enable the general government to open the Northwest for settlement.
On the first of March,. 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee,
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and James Monroe, delegates in congress, executed a deed of cession in the name of Virginia, by. which they transferred to the United States the title of Virginia to the Northwest Territory, but reserving to that State one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, which Virginia had promised to George Rogers Clark, and to the officers and soldiers who, with him, captured the British posts in the west. Also, another tract of land, between the Scioto and Little Miami, to enable Virginia, to pay her promised bounties to her officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary army.
On the 27th of October, /784, a treaty was made at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, New York), with the Six Nations, by which these tribes ceded to the United States, their vague claims to the lands north and west of the Ohio. On the 3ist of January, r785, a treaty was made at Fort McIntosh (now the town of Beaver, Pennsylvania, with the four Western trrbes, the Wyandots, the .Delawares, the Chirnwas and the Tawas, by which all their lands in the northwest territory were ceded to the United States, except that portion bounded by a line from the mouth of the Cuyahoga up that river to the portage between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas; thence down that branch to the mouth of Sandy; thence westwardly to the portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio; thence along the portage to the Great Miami or Maumee, and down the southeast side of the river to its mouth; thence along the shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga. The territory thus described was to be forever the exclusive possession of these Indians.
In 1788 a settlement was made at Marietta, and soon after other settlements were begun. But the Indians were dissatisfied, and, by the intrigues of their late allies, the British, a savage and bloody war ensued which delayed for several years the settlement of the State. The campaign of General Harmar in 1790, was only a partial success. In the following year a more formidable force was placed under the command of General St. Clair, who suffered a disastrous and overwhelming defeat on the 4th of November of that year, near the head waters of the Wabash.
It was evident that nothing but a war so decisive as to break the power of the western tribes, could make the settlement of Ohio possible. There are but few things in the career of George Washington that so strikingly illustrate his sagacity and prudence as the policy he pursued in reference to this subject.. He made preparations for organizing an army of five thousand men, appointed General Wayne to the command of a special force, and early in 1792, drafted detailed instructions for giving it special discipline to fit it for Indian warfare. During that and the following year, he exhausted every means to secure the peace of the West by treaties with the tribes.
But agents of England and Spain, were busy in intrigues with the Indians in hopes of recovering a portion of the great empire they had lost by the treaty of 1783. So far were the efforts of England carried that a British force was sent to the rapids of the Maumee, where they built a fort, and inspired the Indians with the hope that the British would. join them in fighting the forces of the United States.
All efforts to make a peaceable settlement on any other basis than the abandonment on the part of the United States of all territory north of the Ohio having failed, General Wayne proceeded with that wonderful vigor which had made him famous on so many fields of the Revolution, and, on the 2oth of August, 1794, defeated the Indians and their allies on the banks of the Maumee, and completely broke the power of their confederation.
On the third day of August, 1795, General Wayne concluded, at Greenville, a treaty of lasting peace with these tribes, and thus, opened the State to settle- ment. In this treaty, there was reserved to the Indians the same territory
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west of the Cuyahoga as described in the treaty of Fort McIntosh of 1785.
Fifth.—Settlement of the Western Reserve.
I have now noticed briefly the adjustment of the several claims to the northwestern territory, excepting that of Connecticut./ It has already been seen that Connecticut claimed a strip westward from the Narragansett river to the Mississippi, between the parallels of forty-one degrees and forty-two degrees two minutes; but that portion of her claim which crossed the territory of New York and Pennsylvania, had been extinguished by adjustment. Her claim to the territory west of Pennsylvania was unsettled until September 14, 1786, when she ceded it all to the United States, except that portion lying between the parallels above named, and a line one hundred and twenty miles west of the western line of Pennsylvania and parallel with it. This tract of country was about the size of the present State, and was called "New Connecticut."
In May, 1792, the legislature of Connecticut granted to those of her citizens whose property had been burned or otherwise spoilated by the British, during the war of the Revolution, half a million of acres from the west end of the Reserve. These were called "The Fire Lands."
On the 5th of September, 1795, Connecticut executed a deed to John Caldwell, Jonathan Brace and John Morgan, trustees for the Connecticut Land Company, for three million acres of the Reserve, lying west of Pennsylvania, for one million two hundred thousand dollars, or at the rate of forty cents per acre, The State gave only a quit-claim deed, transferring only such title as she possessed, and leaving all the remaining Indian titles to the Reserve, to be extinguished by the purchasers themselves. With the exception of a few hundred acres previously sold, in the neighborhood of the Salt Spring Tract, on the Mahoning, all titles to lands on the Reserve east of
"The Fire Lands," rest on this quit-claim deed of Connecticut to the three trustees, who were all living late as 1836, and joined in making deeds to lands on the Reserve.
On the same day that the trust deed was made, articles of association were signed by the proprietors, providing for the government of the company. The management of its affairs was entrusted to seven directors. They determined to extinguish the Indian title, and survey their land into townships five miles square. Moses Cleaveland, one of the directors, was made general agent; Augustus Porter, principal surveyor, and Seth Pease, astronomer and surveyor. To these were added four assistant surveyors, a commissary, a physician and thirty-seven other employes. This party assembled at Schenectady, New York, in the spring of 1796, and prepared for their expedition.
It is interesting to follow them on their way to the Reserve. They ascended the Mohawk river in batteaux, passing through the locks at Little Falls, and, from the present city of Rome, took their boats and stores across into Wood creek. Passing down the stream, they arossed the Oneida lake, down the Oswego to Lake Ontario. Coasting along the lake thence to Niagara, after encountering innumerable hardships, the party reached Buffalo on the seventeenth of June, where they met "Red Jacket," and the principal chiefs of the Six Na- tions, and on the 23d of that month, completed a contract with those chiefs, by which they purchased all the rights of those Indians to the lands on the Reserve, for five thousand pounds, New York currency, to be paid in goods, to the Western Indians, and two beef cattle and one hundred gallons of whisky to the Eastern Indians, besides gifts and provisions to all of them.
Setting out from Buffalo on the 27th of June, they coasted along the shore of the lake, some of the party in boats and others marching along the banks.
In the journal of Seth Pease, published in Whittlesey's History of Cleveland, I find the following:
Monday, July 4, 1796.—We that came by land, arrived at the confines of
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 19
New Connecticut, and gave three cheers precisely at five o'clock P. H. We then
proceeded to Conneaut, at five hours thirty minutes; our boats got on an hour after; we pitched our tents on the east side."
In the journal of General Cleaveland is the following entry:
"On this creek ("Conneaught"), in New Connecticut Land, July 4, 1796, under General Moses Cleaveland, the surveyors and men sent by the Connecti-
cut Land Company to survey and settle the Connecticut Reserve, and were the first English people who took possession of it.
* * We gave three cheers, and christened the place Fort Independence; and, after many difficulties, perplexities and hardships were surmounted, and we were on the good and promised land, felt that a just tribute of respect to the day ought to be paid. There were, in all, including women and children, fifty in number. The men, under Captain Tinker, ranged themselves on the beach, and fired a Federal salute of fifteen rounds, and then the sixteenth in honor of New Connecticut. Drank several toasts. * * * Closed with three cheers. Drank several pails of grog. Supped and retired in good order."
Three days afterward General Cleaveland held a council with Paqua, chief of the Massasaugas, whose village was at Conneaut creek. The friendship of these Indians was purchased by a few trinkets and twenty-five dollars' worth of whisky.
A cabin was erected on the bank of Conneaut creek; and, in honor of the commissary of the expedition, was called "Stow Castle." At this time the white inhabitants west of the Genesee river, and along the coasts of the lakes, were as follows: The garrison at Niagara, two families at Lewistown, one at Buffalo, one at Cleveland, and one at Sandusky. There were no other families east of Detroit, and with the exception of a few adventurers at the Salt Springs of the Mahoning, the interior of New Connecticut was an unbroken wilderness.
The work of surveying was commenced at once. One party went southward on the Pennsylvania line to find the forty-first parallel, and began the survey; another, under General Cleaveland, coasted along the lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, which they reached on the 22nd of July, and there laid the foundation of the chief city of the Reserve. A large portion of the survey was made during that session, and the work was completed in the following year.
By the close of the year 1800, there were thirty-two settlements on the Reserve, though, as yet, no organization of government had been established. But the pioneers were a people who had been trained in the principles and practice of civil order; and these were transplanted to their new home. In New Connecticut, there was but little of that lawlessness which so often characterizes the people of a new country. In many instances, a township organization was completed, and their minister chosen before the pioneers left home. Thus they planted the institutions and opinions of Old Connecticut in their new wilderness homes.
There are townships on this Western Reserve which are more thoroughly New England in character and spirit than most of the towns of the New England of to-day. Cut off as they were from the metropolitan life that has gradually been molding and changing the spirit of New England, they preserved here in the wilderness the characteristics of New England, as it was when they left it at the beginning of the century. This has given to the people of the Western Reserve those strongly marked qualities which have always distinguished them.
For a long time, it was difficult to ascertain the political and legal status of the settlers of the Reserve. The State of Connecticut did not assume jurisdiction over its people, because that State had parted with her claim to the soil.
By a proclamation of Governor St. .Clair, in 1788, Washington county had
20 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
been organized, having its limits extended westward to the Scioto, and northward to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, with Marietta as the county seat. These limits included a portion of the Western Reserve. But the Connecticut settlers did not consider this a practical government, and most of them doubted its legality.
By the end of the century, seven counties, Washington, Hamilton, Ross, Wayne, Adams, Jefferson and Knox, had been created, but none of them were of any practical service to the settlers on the Reserve. No magistrate had been appointed for that portion of the country, no civil process was established; and no mode existed of making legal conveyances.
But, in the year 1800, the State of Connecticut, by act of her legislature, transferred to the national government, all her claim to civil jurisdiction. Congress assumed to the political control, and the president conveyed by patent the fee of the soil to the government of the State for the use of the grantees and the parties claiming under them. Whereupon, in pursuance of this authority, on the twenty-second of September, 1800, Governor St. Clair issued a proclamation establishing the county of Trumbull, to include within its boundaries the "Fire Lands" and adjacent islands, and ordered an election to be held at Warren, its county seat, on the second Tuesday of October. At that election, forty-two votes were cast, of which General Edward Paine received thirty-eight, and was thus elected a member of the territorial legislature. All the early deeds on the Reserve are preserved in the records of Trumbull county.
A treaty was held at Fort Industry, on the fourth of July, 1805, between the commissioners of the Connecticut Land company and the Indians, by which all the lands in the Reserve, west of the Cuyahoga, belonging to the Indians, were ceded to the Connecticut company.
Geauga was the second county of the Reserve. It was created by an act of the legislature, December 31, 1805; and by a subsequent act, its boundaries were made to include the present territory of Cuyahoga county, as far west as the fourteenth range.
Portage county was established on the tenth of February, 1807, and on the sixteenth of June, 1810, the act establishing Cuyahoga county went into operation. By that act all of Geauga west of the ninth range was made a part of Cuyahoga county.
Ashtabula county was established on the twenty-second of January, 1811.
A considerable number of Indians remained on the Western Reserve until the breaking out of the war of 1812. Most of the Canadian tribes took up arms against the United States in that struggle, and a portion of the Indians of the Western Reserve joined their Canadian brethren. At the close of that war occasional bands of these Indians returned to their old haunts on the Cuyahoga and the Mahoning; but the inhabitants of the Reserve soon made them understand that they were unwelcome visitors, after the part they had taken against us. Thus the war of 1812 substantially cleared the Reserve of its Indian inhabitants.
In this brief survey, I have attempted to indicate the general character of the leading events connected with the discovery and settlement of our country. I cannot, on this occasion, further pursue the history of the settlement and building up of the counties and townships of the Western Reserve. I have already noticed the peculiar character of the people who converted this wilderness into the land of happy homes which we now behold on every hand. But I desire to call the attention of the young men and women who hear me, to the duty they owe to themselves and their ancestors, to study carefully and reverently, the history of the great work which has been accomplished in this New Connecticut.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 21
The pioneers who first broke ground here accomplished a work unlike that which will fall to the lot of any succeeding generation. The hardships they endured, the obstacles they encountered, the life they led, the peculiar qualities they needed in their undertakings, and the traits of character developed by their work, stand alone in our history. The generation that knew these first pioneers is fast passing away. But there are sitting in this audience to-day a few men and women whose memories date back to the early settlement. Here sits a gentleman near me who is older than the Western Reserve. He remembers a time when the axe of the Connecticut pioneer had never awakened the echoes of the wilderness here. How strange and wonderful a transformation has taken place since he was a child! It is our sacred duty to rescue from oblivion the stirring recollections of such men, and preserve them as memorials of the past, as lessons for our own inspiration, and the instruction of those who shall come after us.
The material for a history of this Reserve are rich and abundant. Its pioneers were not ignorant and thoughtless adventurers, but men of established character, whose opinions on civil and religious liberty had grown with their growth, and become the settled convictions of their maturer years. Both here and in Connecticut, the family records, journals and letters which are preserved in hundreds of families, if brought out and arranged in order, would throw a flood of light on every page of our history. Even the brief notice which informed the citizens of this county that a meeting was to be held here to-day, to organize a pioneer society, has called this great audience together; and they have brought with them many rich historical memorials. They have brought old and colonial commissions giveg to early Connecticut soldiers of the Revolution, who became pioneers of the Reserve, and whose children are here to-day. They have brought church and other records which date back to the beginning of these settlements. They have shown us implements of industry which the pioneers brought in with them, many of which have been superseded by the superior mechanical contrivances of our time. Some of these implements are symbols of the spirit and character of the pioneers of the Reserve. Here is a broad-axe brought from Connecticut by John Ford, father of the late governor of Ohio; and we are told that the first work done with this axe, by that sturdy old pioneer, after he had finished a few cabins for the families that came with him, was to hew out the timbers for an academy —the Burton academy—to which so many of our older men owe the foundation of their education, and from which sprang the Wester Reserve college.
These pioneers knew well that the three great forces which constitute the strength and glory of a free government are, the family, the school and the church. These three they planted here, and they nourished and cherished them with an energy and devotion scarcely equalled in any other quarter of the world. On this height were planted in the wilderness the symbols of this trinity of powers; and here let us hope may be maintained forever the ancient faith of our fathers in the sanctity of the home, the intelligence of the school, and the faithfulness of the church. Where these three combine in prosperous union, the safety and prosperity of the nation are assured. The glory of our country can never be dimmed while these three lights are kept shining with an undimmed lustre.
22 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO
HON, LESTER TAYLOR’S CENTENNIAL ADDRESS,
DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO, IN AUGUST, 1877.
[In compliance with a vote of the Geauga County Agricultural society, at their annual meeting, at Burton, January, 1876, in accordance with a resolution of the State Agricultural convention, held at Columbus, January 5, 1876, recommending each Agricultural society in the State to select some suitable person to write an historical address, to be forwarded to the secretary of state of the State of Ohio.
Subsequently, there was a mutual understanding with the Historical society to have the address delivered at the annual meeting of the latter association, and in the interest of both societies, this matter was prepared.
General Garfield's address, delivered at the formation of the Historical society, in 1873, gave such a connected and comprehensive history of the Western Reserve and the conflicting claims thereto, that the officers of the society unanimously agreed to make it the opening chapter, and, therefore, I omit that portion of my manuscript relating thereto.]
FELLOW alums—Accepting the trust, I have the honor of submitting the following brief history of Geauga county:
It is worthy of record, and has proved of inestimable value to the residents of the Western Reserve, and a source of devout gratitude to all thoughtful owners of land, that the final arrangements, whereby the State of Connecticut had such an indisputable right to the lands, that all titles tracable to the deed of trust, executed by the Connecticut Land company, has been held so sacred and inviolable as to give security to the purchasers, and has saved that litigation which has been such a source of annoyance, bitterness of feeling, and, often, absolute loss of their possessions, once paid for, or the expense incurred by litigious suits, equal to the value of their farms, if they retained them by judicial decisions, in so many sections of the western country.
Prior to 1800, there were some settlements on the Reserve, like "angels visits, few and far between." It has been claimed that up to the above date, there were no municipal laws to protect the settlers in their rights of property, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and no certain allegiance to the rightful claimants of jurisdiction over said territory.
The good sense and moral integrity of those who came for the laudable purpose of obtaining farms for themselves and their heirs—who found so much work on their hands to put up their cabins, and make openings to plant and sow, that they might reap supplies for their families' support, and realizing a sense of dependence upon their neighbors, whether far off or near, were incentives as strong as heavy " bonds to keep the peace." Tradition says that in a certain locality on the Reserve, a man was so fortunate as to have in his possession a swine mother with a litter of pigs. Having bargained one to a distant settler, to be taken at a given price, and at a certain time, he came at the appointed day, and was informed that it had been sold to another for a higher price. In reply to the first purchaser, he said that there was no law to compel him to fulfill his engagements. Then, said the other, I will make one. From the war of words, there came a war of blows, with the belligerent parties. The
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 23
first purchaser won the victory, and took the pig as a trophy of his natural rights to purchased property, rather than on the modern policy, "to the victor belong the spoils." When Washington county was organized, in 1798, by proclamation of Governor St. Clair, it included within its limits all of the Western Reserve east of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, and the old portage trail connecting those rivers. Under the above civil division, a few families lived in Cleveland, Mentor, Burton, and in some other places before the organization of Trumbull, and within the limits of the territory subsequently embraced in Geauga.
Trumbull county was erected by proclamation of the governor of the northwestern territory, on the tenth of July, 1800. The first organization of the county, by holding court, was on the twenty-sixth day of August, 1800, at Warren, the established county seat. This county, covering an area of such a great territory, was called after Governor Trumbull, the then governor of Connecticut.
The civil division of the county into townships was made at that court term, as follows: Richfield, Painesville, Cleveland, Middlefield, Vernon, Youngstown, Warren, and Hudson. December 31, 1805, an act was passed creating the county of Geauga. This took effect March 1st, following: "That all that part of the county of Trumbull lying north and east of the line, beginning on the east line of said county, on the line between townships number eight and nine, as known by the survey of said county, and running west on the same to the west line of range number five; thence south on said west line of range five to the northwest corner of township number five, to the middle of the Cuyahoga river, where the course of the same is northerly; thence up the middle of said river to the intersection of the north line of township number four; thence west on the said north line of township number four to the west line of range fourteen, wherever, the same shall run when the county west of the Cuyahoga river shall be surveyed into townships, or tracts of five miles square each ; and thence north to Lake Erie, shall be, and the same is hereby set off and erected into a new county, by the name of Geauga." February to, 1807: "That all that part of the Connecticut Western Reserve which lies west of the Cuyahoga river, north of the township number four, shall belong to and be a part of the county of Geauga, until the county of Cuyahoga shall be organized."
On the first Tuesday of March, 18o6, Geauga was organized, and the court of common pleas was held at New Market, on the river, at the Skinner farm, between where Painesville and Fairport now are. Present—Aaron Wheeler, John Walworth, and Jesse Phelps, esqrs., associate judges for said county of Geauga. Edward Paine, jr., was appointed clerk pro ten:pare. The court also appointed Robert B. Parkman, esq., prosecutor for said county, and Abraham Tappan, county surveyor. Joel Paine was the first sheriff.
The following were the first grand jurors: Abraham Tappan, foreman; Eleazer Hickox, Samuel Holmes, William W. Williams, Nathaniel Doane, John A. Harper, Ebenezer Merry, Joseph Pepoon, Isaac Palmer, Joel Paine, Anson Sessions, Elijah Button, Elah S. Clapp, and Joseph Clark. Petit jurors: James Lewis, Joseph Rider, Theddore Roys, George Russell, Jonathan Root, Ira Blanchard, Ezra Sprague, Benjamin Hopkins, John Paxton, J. A. Andrews, Henry G. Edwards, and Jonathan Hubbard.
FIRST COURT HOUSE.
Contract entered into March, 1807, between the commissioners of Geauga county and Abraham Skinner, whereby he agrees to build of logs, hewed on two sides, a house Aithin the prison bounds (as established by the court of common pleas), twelve by fourteen feet on the ground, with two good log or plank floors, and one window with iron grates, with a good and sufficient chimney, and made
24 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
in every other respect to the acceptance of the commissioners and sheriff of said county, said Skinner, on his part, doth agree to rent said house (when built) to the commissioners or their successors in office, for a jail, and keep the same in sufficient repair, without expense to the commissioners, so long as they shall wish to use it for a jail, for the sum of fifteen dollars a year.
The name, Geauga, is said to have been taken from the Indian name of the river running through the county, and emptying into the lake at Painesville, now known as Grand river; its meaning in the significant language of the tribe on its borders ("Sheauga sepe,") Raccoon river. Geauga was reduced in its eastern limits by the organization of Ashtabula county, which included all the territory east of the sixth range of townships on the reserve, formerly included in Geauga. June 16, 1810, all that part of Geauga lying west of the ninth range, was organized with, and into Cuyahoga county. In 1840, Lake county was organized, taking off seven northern townships from Geauga, leaving but sixteen townships, (being the least amount of constitutional territory for a county) within its limits. Subsequently, nine hundred acres from the southwest corner of Russell was taken into Cuyahoga county, including about half of the village of Chagrin Falls, and the same number of acres taken from the northeast corner of Orange, Cuyahoga county, taken in exchange, after legislation returned the tract from Orange township to Cuyahoga (for particulars see Robinson's History of Russell). It is not my purpose to sketch the early history of those counties taken from Geauga, leaving it to be more appropriately written by their own historians. Much of the materials for an elaborate history was destroyed by the burning of the public buildings in Chardon, July 24, 1868. A few facts only are selected relating to adjoining counties once connected with us, such as will be more immediately interesting to Geauga readers.
The first meeting of the county commissioners' board was held at New Market, on June 6, 1806. It was ordered that the following bounties for wolf and panther scalps be paid, to wit: For every wolf or panther over six months old, one dollar and twenty-five cents; under six months, seventy-five cents. In ao8 rates increased to two dollars, and one dollar for young ones. In aro the rates doubled for scalps.
The board, at various times, established ferriage, and the rates therefor, at Conneaut, Ashtabula, Grand, Guyahoga, Black, and Vermillion rivers. One of the heaviest appropriations found on the commissioners' books was for opening a road from the mouth of Cuyahoga river to the west line of the Fire-lands, under the superintendence of Ebenezer Merry, esq. The courts were held at New Market and Champion (now Painesville), until the fall of 1811. The county seat was then established at Chardon, then an unbroken forest. Abram Tappon wrote me, not long before his death, that Gen. Rozen Beall, of New Lisbon, and — Hunter, of Jefferson, and another whose name he did not recollect, were the commissioners who located it at the above place. It was named "Chardon" after Peter Chardon Brooks, owner of the tract of land where
the town now is.
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY.
The county is well diversified with hills and valleys ranging along the water courses. The highest points are on the dividing ridge of highlands, running parallel with the lake shore, and averaging about ten miles from it. The highest point is claimed to be Thompson ledge, in the northeast part of the county. Little mountain, in the northwest corner, is computed to be seven hundred and fifty feet above Lake Erie—the surface of that lake lies five hundred and sixty- five feet above the ocean. There are places in almost every township where the summit will not vary much from six hundred feet above the lake. Assum
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 25
ing the mean surface to be five hundred feet, it will carry the isothermal lines, representing the climature degrees, much farther north of that belt of land on the lower plane along the south shore of the lake; thus accounting for the excess of cold, rain and snow over many places, lower, and far to the north. The rule for the decrease of temperature, as we ascend above the earth's surface, is about one degree for ever three hundred and fifty feet.
Geauga is bounded north by Lake county, east by Ashtabula and the north part of Trumbull, south by Portage, and west by Cuyahoga.
Geauga county lies between 41̊ 21' 44" and 41̊ 43' 28" North Latitude, and between 80̊ 38' 21" and 81'" 21' 2" West Longitude from Greenwich, according to calculations of M. L. Maynard, based on Von Steinwehr’s tables.
Meteorology, at Little Mountain, Ohio, Latitude 41̊ 38' N., Longitude 81̊ 16' W., at an elevation of 126o feet above the sea level, for the year 1876. Given by E. J. Ferris.
Thermometer in open air, Maximum July 18th Maximum July 19th - 84̊
" Minimum December 10th 8'
" Range - 92̊
Mean for the year - 44. 825̊
Amount of rain - 40.27 inches
" snow - 171.20
The wannest month of the year was July — mean temperature - 68̊
The coldest month of year was December - mean temperature - 19.5
The leading ridge of table land from which the waters rise and flow north and south, is generally in the northern part of the county. The Cuyahoga, Grand, and the eastern branches of the Chagrin rivers rise in this county. The Cuyahoga is a circuitous stream (meaning, in the Indian language, crooked), rising in the northeastern port of the county, flowing southerly, with a sluggish current, until it enters Portage, thence curving into Summit, thence in a northern direction, emptying into the lake at Cleveland—making a circuit of more than a hundred miles and discharging its waters almost as far north as the foun, Lain head, in Montville, and only about thirty-five miles from it. The head waters of the Chagrin branches in this county rise in Munson and Chardon, their sources being below the conglomerate rock, at the base of which the filtered pure water gushes forth in streams—where the speckled brook-trout, so uncommon in this State, may be found.
On the river bottoms grew gigantic elms, white maple, black ash, swamp oak, birch, and a dense growth of shrubs, notably on the Cuyahoga, and its branches, where alder, nettles, and wild grasses, grew in profusion. The soil on these bottoms was generally a deep muck, sometimes many feet deep; the surface in many places being covered with water far into the summer months, were fearful sources of intermittent fevers. The uplands were heavily timbered with beech, maple, chestnut, white and black oak, whitewood, white ash, cucumber, hickory, black walnut, butternut, wild cherry, and many other varieties of less note and value. Burton has pine sufficient for lumbering, in a small way—this being all the evergreen timber in the county. There are in this county several natural ponds, or lakes, which were formerly known as ponds, and called after the townships in which they were situated. Recently they have been christened —Geauga Lake, in Bainbridge; Crystal Lake, in Newburg; Bass Lake, in Mun- son; Aquilla Cake, in Claredon. (For particular description see histories of townships in which they are located.)
GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.
In the geological survey of Ohio, Vol. I., it is said: "The geological formations of this county, while simple and easily understood, afford an interesting example of the manner in which the geology and topography of a county determine the pursuits of the inhabitants and the boundaries of separate communities. These boundaries were fixed with no reference to the geology, but the latter has formed the tastes and determined the pursuits of the inhabitants,
26 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
and grouped them into a civil community. The debris of the clay shales, mingled with the drift, has formed the basis.of a strong tenacious clay soil, especially adapted to grazing, and the county has, from this cause, and not from the choice of the inhabitants, become noted for the excellence and abundance of its dairy products. The elevated position of the county, added to the peculiarities of the soil, has especially fitted it for the production of fruits, particularly for
apples, pears, quinces, and grapes, and these are largely cultivated."
The sand-stone formations which so often crop out, together with the coarse, loose sand-stone on the surface or within reach of the plow, where the disintegration has been so long going on by means of wet, heat and frosts, has greatly ameliorated the adhesive qualities of the clay, so that it is not such a tenacious "clay soil" as is found on oak and chestnut clay soils. A close observer, traveling in any direction in this county, will .notice that the prevailing varieties of timber changes often, so that a leading variety in any location is soon super- ceded by a different variety, or more abundant, even on the same farm. Such frequent changes of timber and shrubs affords a good index of the frequent changes of soil—or a different mixture of the constituents of the soil.
As the farmers are studying the adaptation of the different variety of grasses, and cereal crops, and fruits to the various soils, mixed husbandry is becoming more general, and is superceding the specialty of cheese making. The farmers are now raising all the necessaries and luxuries of life, which are congenial to the climate.
In the Ohio Historical collection, Geauga is represented as having been subject to terrible high winds and tornadoes in the first part of the present century, the particular accounts of which will be found in some of the township histories. In the surrounding counties the evidence of sweeping winds leveling the forests in tracts, generally laying them in an eastern direction, is as apparent, and, perhaps, to the same extent, as in this. Certainly, during the past three-fourths of the present century, this county has been as exempt from destructive winds and storms as any part of the western country.
The early settlers in this county were mostly from New England, and a large majority from Connecticut. The original land-holders of the Reserve living in that State, offered facilities for such as wished to move to the, then, far west, by taking their farms and giving them lands here.
The pioneers were generally men of small means, and consequently the land was divided into small farms, compared with such division in most of the western country. The families came into a dense forest remote from any settlement, experiencing all the trials, privations, difficulties and embarrassments incident to their isolated situation. As "necessity is the mother of invention," their inventive genius was taxed to the utmost tension in providing shelter, rude implements of husbandry and means of support, but the strong arm, the clear head—"the industry that never slept," was equal to the emergency.
Whilst gratitude has done much to snatch from oblivion the names and heroic deeds of the men, it is to be regretted that the mothers and daughters have been so much neglected in traditions and manuscripts relating to the early history of this country. The change from pleasant homes to the solitude of wilderness, the genial company of refined society to loneliness, the conveniences, comforts and luxuries of former life, to a rude cabin, with ruder utensils, and rudiest substitutes for former furniture, their fortitude and presence of mind in danger, their intuitive tenderness, their happy faculty of substituting clothing and food to hold soul and body together, from new and untried resources, their patience and sufferance in sickness, in bearing and raising of children, in traveling through woods and following trails to visit and comfort the sick, and attend at the birth of infants, and instruct their own children without schools, in intel-
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 27
lectual, moral and religious culture, was worthy of all honor, and entitles their names as "mothers in Israel" to equal, if not pre-eminent notice in their enrollment among the worthies in pioneer history.
It is worthy of note, that the heavy, hard timber which so profusely abounded and made it so laborious and protracted in making necessary openings to cultivate the necessaries of life, was not without some corresponding blessings; being rich in potash, the ashes from the burnt log heaps were carefully saved, the lye was boiled down to black salts, which found a ready market in Pittsburg, and could be exchanged for leather, salt, nails and a portion of the avails in money which grain would not bring.
One of the greatest impediments to pecuniary progress, or the limited means of support for the families, was the prevalence of "that pestilence that walketh in darkness" amongst the cattle, known as the bloody murrain.
The fatality appeared to be the greatest on the river bottoms, but no part of the county was exempt. The loss of an only cow so much relied upon as means of support, or an ox, breaking up the team, were embarrassments, somementimes almost overwhelming. Instances were known of an ox working with his third mate, the others having fallen victims to that disease. It was a common saying when the vultures were gathering in any location, that some creature was spoken for, which generally proved very true.
The wild animals, common in this State, that destroyed and hindered the raising of domestic ones, has generally been spoken of as one of the evils incident to the settlement of a new country. True, bruin lik'd his pig, and the wolf lik'd to gorge his stomach with veal and lamb, yet it is questionable, whether the meat of the elk, bear, deer, and turkeys so numerous in the woods, with the furs and peltries of other wild animals, were not of more value than detriment to the pioneers. Many families must apparently have abandoned their location, or starved, without such help. It is noteworthy that the decrease of destructive wild animals was graded to the increase of domestic ones, and when the supply of domestic animals were sufficient for the inhabitants,
the wild ones who had held the country by pre-emption right, yielding to "manifest destiny" sought new and more congenial wilds.
ROADS.
The first road laid on the Reserve has been known as the "old girdled' road." It commenced at the southeast part of Trumbull county, running near or from the salt springs passing through the northeast part of Middlefield, southwest part of Huntsburg, central part of Claridon, east of Chardon to, or near Perkins' camp in Concord, from thence to the ridge on the lake shore. It was laid out and girdled by Colonel Thomas Sheldon, of Suffield, Connecticut, for, and at the expense of the Connecticut Land company. The same year the road from Conneaut to Cleveland was laid out by the same gentleman. For the above road history I am indebted to the late Thomas D. Webb, of Warren, Trumbull county, by letter in 1852.*
The old "Chillicothe road" was laid out under the laws and supervision of the territorial government, with Chillicothe as its capital in 1802. Captain Edward Paine, t of Chardon, was one of the committee laying out the road which passed through the western tier of townships in the county from the lake shore road to its terminus at Chillicothe. For the Chillicothe road history I am under great obligation to C. C. Bronson, esq., of Tailmadge, Summit county, who has
* Geauga and Lake History speak only of the old girdled road parallel with the lake shore ; the committee to lay this out was appointed in rm.
+ Some have it.—General Edward Paine, of Painesville.
28 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
done much to bring light out of darkness, and facts from obscure early manuscript history.
The old State road, from Painesville to Warren, was laid out in 1805. Judge Abram Tappan, of Unionville, Lake county, was the surveyor in surveying this road from Painesville to the north line of Trumbull county—voucher—letter from him, dated 1852.
The county road from Painesville to the south line of Parkman township, was laid out in 1806. Justice Miner, Noah Page, and Daniel Kellogg, commissioners ; Chester Elliott, surveyor. The road was laid through Chardon and Burton. A remonstrance against adopting the report of the committee, by James Thompson, of Middlefield, and others, was submitted. The commissroners confirmed the report. (For other roads see township histories).
RAILROADS.
The topographical situation of Geauga is not as favorable for construction of railroads on a low grade as most parts of the State, rising from the lake at a distance from ten to fifteen miles from it, some five hundred to six hundred feet, the streams running generally in a northern and southern direction through the county, leaving high ridges through its whole extent.
"The certificate of incorporation of the Painesville and Hudson railroad company was fited August 4, 1852. Corporators—Timothy Rockwell, Benjamin Bissel, Storm Rosa, Aaron Wilcox, and Seth Marshall. The Clinton Line railroad, with the following corporators, filed their certificate of incorporation July 6, 1852, to wit : Van R. Humphrey, H. R. Day, H. Wheedon, Moses Messer, and F. Baldwin, The rights of way were secured, and a large amount of capital used in providing materials for construction and grading, building culverts and bridges, when a tinancial crisis caused a complete suspension of any further appropriations and work. The latter made an assignment for the benefit of its creditors; the former sold their franchise, road bed, etc., to individuals, as a basis for the formation of a new company. A certificate of incorporation of the Painesville and Youngstown railroad company was filed November 17, 1870, Joseph M. Hurlburt, William Markham, Samuel Moody, Homer H. Hine, Samuel Mathews, A. L. Tinker, Cornelius V. U. Kitridge, corporators. The Painesville and Youngstown railroad company used the road bed of the the Painesville and Hudson road from Painesville to Chardon, and laid out a road from Chardon to Youngstown. through Claridon, east part of Burton, and through Middlefierd, in this county. This road was opened to Chardon, and excursions to and from the above named places, July 1872. First freight train forwarded July 5th, freight received, 6th; East Claridon, first freight received November 4, 1873, forwarded 6th; Burton. received December 17th, forwarded 7th; Middlefield, received April 1, 1874, forwarded sand; Farmington, received August 6th, forwarded August 7, 1874. The railroad was opened to Warren and Niles about the same time as at Farmington, and about a month after, to Youngstown."
For much of the above information as to dates of opening the Painesville and Youngstown road, I am indebted to W. T. Rexford, esq., of Chardon.
It is not my purpose to enter into the personal details of the history of individuals or families, or of townships, as there was an historical society formed at Burton, on the sixteenth of September, 1873, under the name of "The Historical society of Geauga county," its expressed constitutional object being "the gathering up, and preserving in permanent form, the names of early settlers, with date of their arrival in the county; facts, incidents and reminiscences connected with the early settlements, together with such relics as may be of interest and value."
The society has held its regular annual meetings, which are increasing in interest. Able and efficient members in every township have completed, or are engaged in writing the history of their respective townships. (For local particulars see township histories).
The first settlement made wiithin the present limits of the county was in number seven, range seven, subsequently organized as Burton township. In 1798, two families from Connecticut, following township lines, pushed into the heart of the county, remotely a day's journey from any settlement, and made their location. What labor better represents perseverance than a man whose family had no shelter but his wagon, taking his axe to chop down a big tree that
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 29
might endanger his log cabin—blow after blow, chip after chip, until some monarch of the forest, after hours of labor, reels and falls, letting in the first sunlight upon the selected place of future residence. Such is not an ideal picture; it portrays, with slight variations, the experience of many a pioneer.
PIONEER CHEESE-MAKING.
The pioneer women of this county were generally skilled in cheese-making in their eastern homes. As soon as a log-cabin was up, and the family domiciled, the welcome sound of the tinkling bell, as the returning cow neared the house with that treasure of milk, "new every morning, fresh .every evening" during the season when the earth was carpeted with green herbage, might often be seen a rail or pole, with one end under the lower log of the cabin, and lying across a rudely constructed cheese-hoop, with a weight attached to the outer end, sufficient to press the cheese. To an epicure, there would have been a serious drawback in the quality of the dairy products, as the leeks covered the earth and tainted the milk in every manufactured form. When the early settlers had succeeded in enclosing and seeding pastures, cheese-making increased. The great difficulty was access to market.
In order to ascertain more fully the rise and progress of dairy productions, and the difficulty of marketing, I addressed a letter to Royal Taylor, esq., of Ravenna, a pioneer in the cheese trade, and from the reply, promptly made, I make the following interesting extracts:
" Mr. Harvey Baldwin was, undoubtedly, the first man who carried cheese to the southern market. Atom Aurora he took his first cargo of cheese down the Ohio river, in the summer of 1820. He had less than two thousand pounds, hauled to Beaver Point, Pennsylvania, by wagon, and there transferred it to a pine skiff, on which he embarked as captain, supercargo and owner, and commenced his voyage down the La Belle river, selling his cheese as he journeyed along, at Wheeling, Marietta, Catliope is, Portsmouth, Maysville, Augusta, Cincinnati, Madison, and Louisville, Kentucky, where he made sate of it, and terminated his voyage, at a good profit above cost and transportation.
" My brother, Samuel Taylor, and Aporros White, united with Harvey Baldwin. and purchased Several dairies in Bainbridge and Auburn, in 1825, and sent cheese down the Ohio. In September, 1826, Russell G. McCarty and myself gathered a cargo of thirty tons of cheese in Aurora and Bainbridge, and took it to Louisville, Kentucky, where we divided the rot into two parts. McCarty took his part to Florence and Huntsville, Alabama. I found the market at Nashville overstocked. I hired two six-horse teams, with rarge Pennsylvania wagons (as they were then called), to haul eight thou- Sand pounds each, over the Cumbertand mountains, to Knoxville, East Tennessee, at two doltars and fifty cents per hundred pounds.
“I accompanied the wagons on foot, and sold cheese at McMinnville, Sparta, and other places Where we stayed over night; and the teamsters assisted me, cheerfully, in making sares, as they thereby lessened the burdens which their teams were compelled to haul over the rugged and almost impassable mountain roads. The people with whom we stayed over night usually purchased a Cheese, called the family together around a tabte, and they generally eat nothing but cheese until they had fully satisfied their appetites, and then the balance (if anything was left) was sent to the negro quarters, to be consumed by the slaves. Frequently another cheese woutd be purchased the next morning to be consumed in the same manner. The people usually inquired where the cheese Was made, what it was made from, and how the process of making was performed. Having had some experience in that line, I took great pleasure in explaining to them the process.
My sales in Tennessee and North Carolina, at that time, ranged between twenty-five and thirty- Seven cents per pound. The trip was somewhat protracted, as the teams could not travel more than tan or fifteen miles each day, and sometimes less than ten, where the mountains were very steep, and lie mud deep. On my return to Knoxville, from the Warm Springs, in North Carolina, I purchased horse, and came home on horseback, via Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, Maysville and Chillicothe, having been absent about six months and a half.
" In 1827-8-9 bought cheese in Auburn and Bainbridge. In 830 Sherbum H. Williams & Bro. lathered about thirty tons of cheese, made in Parkman, Burton, New bury and Claridon, which I sold at Cincinnati, Louisville and Nashvitle. Continued to do business for the same parties, and sold in the market during 1834-5 to 1841-2, inclusive. During most of these years, some cheese was shipper to New York from the centrar and northern part of the county in a small way, merchants taking in some on debts."
The Messrs. Williams, of Parkman, were the pioneers of the cheese trade in Geauga county, who, by their enterprise and perseverance in connecting themselves and their interests with the first pioneers of the trade in the State, emanating from Portage county with the Messrs. Baldwins, and those subsequently associated with them, and started that trade which has grown to be a leading interest
30 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
and speciality in northeastern Ohio, the Western Reserve having manufactured more than thirty million pounds of cheese in a year. What a change! Now cheese manufactured here can be sent to any commercial port around the world in less time and at less expense than the marketing of cheese at that time, within so short a distance from us. Mr. Taylor further says:
" Until after 1834 the Western Reserve cheese had entire control of the southern markets. About that time the Yankee population, who settled on the Darby ptains, in Ohio, commenced Its manufacture, and their cheese came into competition with ours at Cincinnati, Louisville and some other markets, and was sold at lower figures than we had usually sold at, because they were much nearer to Cincinnati, and their transportation was less expensive than ours. The article they offered for sale was equal, if not superior, in quality to ours, but the quantity was muds less; consequently, they did not greatly diminish our sales. The increase of the consumers at the south and west kept even pace with manufacturers in the north, and hence the enormous quantities now manufactured find a ready sale. I only regret to say that that the quatity has not improved in the same ratio as the quantity has increased.
“In 1875 I joined a neighbor of mine, who had been a large operator, in purchasing dairy products in Ohio; and we selected some of the cheese manufactured at the best fartories of Trumbull and Portage counties, and purchased a cargo and shipped it to Liverpool. When we arrived there New York and English cheese was setling readily at $7 shillings and o pence per 113 pounds. The best offer we could get was only 45 shillings per cwt. Our cargo would have been called an A No. r, in Ohio, but, when placed alongside and examined with the cheese of other scctions, it fell far below them in quality. We pocketed a loss of less than two thousand dollars very cheerfutly, because the cheese had been paid for before we started it from home, and no one could complain of us; but, if the manufacturers, who sold it to us for "cream cheese," had sustained the same loss, I very much doubt whether they would have been so very amiable.
In 1850, the dairy productions of Geauga county were as follows: Butter, 424,547 pounds; cheese, 2,273,723 pounds. In 1876, centennial year, butter, 672,641 pounds; cheese, 4,136,231 pounds. Only three counties in the State made more than that amount—and those counties much larger in territory.
In 1862 a notable change commenced in the manufacture of cheese; dairymen sending their milk to factories to be worked up on a co-operative system, at a given price per pound, for making, curing, boxing, selling or forwarding to market, and making the necessary dividends. Anson Bartlett, of Munson, was the first to suggest, and active to introduce the change.
In 1862, Anson Bartlett, Arnold D. Hall, Burton Armstrong, and Elnathan Chace, went to Rome, and other places in Oneida county, New York, to study the process, and learn the management and progress, which had brought the Oneida dairies into such good repute in the best markets.
Bartlett put up his factory, in Munson, in the spring of that year, and Mr. Hall worked the milk of one hundred cows, on the Oneida system, and in the spring of 1863, in company with Nelson Parker, built a factory in the west part of Claridon; Burton Armstrong and Elnathan Chace erected one in East Claridon, and Budlong and Stokes one in Chardon.
When Messrs. Bartlett and Hall had determined to introduce the factory plan in Geauga, Mrs. Bartlett, of Munson, and Mrs. Hall, of Claridon, went to Oneida, spent some time in the factories, that they might bring back a competent knowledge of the practical operations, and, returning, went into their husband's cheese factories to put into operation their acquired skill and teach others to work at the same business for other localities.
In a few years every township in the county had one or more cheese factories, until, at the present time, they number fifty-six. By this revolution in the manufacture of cheese, the women in the families were relieved from that hard and heavy branch of domestic labor, which had broken down many of the mothers, who had bravely endured the privations, and cares of a family in pioneer days.
Butter is now being shipped from this county directly to Liverpool. The margin on prices of new and superior butter, over that of a common quality, is greater than most, if not any other production of our farms. Observing and calculating dairymen are looking at this subject, not merely with a view of immediate profits, but as to the loss of those constituents in the soil necessary for
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 31
supplying grass food for our pastures. Chemical analysis shows that the present cheese manufacturing business will, and has reduced the grass land on which the cows feed, by carrying off the milk from the dairy farm, much faster than the growing and fattening of stock. To obviate the loss of such an amount of fertilizing matter from the soil, in sending away the milk, Mr. Burton Armstrong commenced butter dairying on his farm, in Claridon, in 1876, by putting up a suitable building over a cold spring of water, with all of the modern improved fixtures, feeding the skimmed milk to growing stock, thereby retaining for farm improvement most of the characteristic fertilizing quality. If such consideration and practice should add largely to the benefit of the farm, the fact that springs of pure cold water are more numerous here than in other counties in the State, they may all yet be utilized, in a most important sense, for superior productions in that trade, thereby lessening the amount of cheese, and increasing the value by such reduction.
By writing an account of the rise and progressive productions of the farm and stock, it may have a tendency to correct an erroneous opinion, prevalent in many places, remote from us, in this State, and in other places, that in "Cheesedom the dairy was the great, and only staple relied upon for support and pecuniary advancement. In no part of the Union is mixed husbandry more general. While in some sections wheat, corn, tobacco, cotton, or sugar, in their several localities, are relied upon as the staple, when such fail their income for that year is lost, if the season is unpropitious for grass; here, the farmers fall back upon their cultivated crops and fruit The historic relations of agricultural progress are so nearly allied to efficient associations for the encouragement Rt. industrial development, that the marked improvements will be noted in con- Section with the proceedings of the Geauga Agricultural society.
The first organization of the Geauga County Agricultural society was at Chardon, February 10, 1823. The farmers left their log cabin homes and gathered from all parts of the county, interested in a union for the diffusion of practical knowledge in their occupation, and the cultivation of social, moral and pficumary improvements. A constitution was adopted, and the following officers elected for that year: Judge Peter Hitchcock, president; Eleazer Hickox mad Samuel Phelps, vice presidents; Ralph Granger, Lemuel G. Storrs, Lewis Runt, corresponding secretaries; Eleazer Paine, recording secretary; Edward aine, jr., treasurer; John Hubbard, Daniel Kerr, Vene Stone, prudential committee; Warren Corning, Abram Skinner, John Ford, first awarding committee; Jesse Ladd, Nathan Wheeler, Nathaniel Spencer. second awarding committee; Benjamin F. Tracy, S. H. Williams, Augustus Sissons, third awarding committee, Solomon Kingsbury, R. B. Parkman, Asa Cowles, fourth awarding committee. This was the first agricultural society formed on the Western Reserve. This society has held its annual fairs for fifty-six years.
The writer of this address was present, and one of the original members of the society. He looks back with pride upon those substantial men assembled at its first meeting, the bone and sinew of the farming community, with their strongly marked countenances of mental strength and courage, whose achievements and perseverance in clearing their farms and making improvements were Worthy of all praise. The social element was a strong incentive in that enterprise. The courts and trainings had been their principal holidays. Now a fair would give an opportunity to renew old, and make new acquaintances; to see the stock, and the samples of productions and home manufactures, were charms Sufficient to awaken much enthusiasm, and brought a large collection of both Ilexes, old and young, to witness the first fair at Chardon, October 23, 1823. The fair was a success. Only a very fery few.of the original signers to the constitution are now alive. Our fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live
32 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO
forever? Amongst those following Judge Hitchcock, as president, until the adoption of a new constitution, were General Edward Paine, Abram Skinner, John Hubbard, Nathaniel Spencer, Vene Stone, Zenas Blish, and Ralph Granger. For more than twenty years the fairs occupied only one day annually, the forenoon for exhibition and inspection by committees, and in the afternoon to hear the reports of committees, and an address on appropriate agricultural subjects. Amongst the orators of the day under the old dispensation, were Ralph Granger, Judge Hitchcock, Zenas Blish, James H. Paine, and Lester Taylor.
It would be interesting to compare the quality. of stock of those first fairs with that of the present day; but there is no criterion from which to judge, as neither the size, weight, or condition of cattle has been kept. It would be well to offer premiums to be adjudged on such conditions, and keep a record of cattle so exhibited. Other premiums are omitted, because the records do not generally show the weights or measurements—only the best exhibited.
The foundation for an improved stock of cattle was laid in this county by the introduction of breeding stock, from the east, by Deacon Holbrook, of Kirtland, and Stephen Bassett, esq., of Chester. They were of the long-horn Durhams, or a cross of that breed, and frequently known by the local names of the owners or places from whence they came—as Holbrook, or Bakewell. They were certainly the means of improving the stock in that section, taking the premiums for several years over other kinds of stock. Eleazer Hickox, of Burton, was one of the early enterprising pioneers in the improvement of stock, who bought a fine, full-blooded Devonshire bull, in Philadelphia, about 1823 or 1824, and had, him driven home. The journey was accomplished on foot by driver and animal. Thus was commenced a cross of that beautiful, blood-red, active stock, famous for working qualities, and well-known in home and eastern 'markets. Other enterprising dealers in stock—Hon. Peter Hitchcock, and other associates—have, from time to time, introduced the red Durham cattle, thereby perfecting that class of the finest stock, and of superior quality, commanding high prices, of which Burton has been an acknowledged centre. In 1824, Colonel Stephen Ford, of Burton, was principal in collecting, fitting up, and driving to Chardon, at the fair, sixty-two yoke of oxen and steers, well broke, and led by a large Devon bull in a yoke fitted for that purpose, which excited universal admiration. Philander Thompson, Alanson and Lester Moffet, of Middlefield; Virgil Barnes, of Huntsburg, and the Messrs. Carrolls, of Munson, are among the number who have introduced blooded stock. Lyman Millard, in 1832, purchased, in Onondaga county, New York, a cow and bull calf of Durham, crossed with some other valuable stock, had them shod, and drove them to his home, in Huntsburg, in person, in the winter time, being six weeks on the road on the account of being detained by snow drifts many times. What does "Young America" think of such an experience? Colonel Erastus Spencer, introduced, from the famous Blue Grass region of Kentucky, the "Land of the Clays," those heavy-quartered, clean-limbed, strawberry-roan Durhams, known as the "Improved Durhams," which were very popular in some sections. At other times he introduced the same breed from the Scioto valley, from which the farmers crossed to great advantage, for beauty, weight, and commanding high prices.
THE INTRODUCTION OF SWINE AND SHEEP.
Hon. Ebenezer Merry, one of the early pioneers of Mentor, and subsequently one of the early settlers of Huron county, 'informed me, during the session of the general assembly of 1831-32, that he purchased some hogs in Pennsylvania, drove them through Trumbull county, and found the west branch of the Cuya-
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 33
hoga, above Claridon pond, had overflowed its banks by the fall rains, and had to push them into the water, and direct them by a pole, wading until he came to the main channel, and, when they had swum across, he found a tree across the channel on which he passed over. was then raining, and growing dark. On reaching the uplands he found a ledge of rocks, under the shelter of which the swine bedded, whilst he lay under a tree, wet and cold, and in the morning found some snow, and reached home, in Mentor, that night. I do not remember the date; but in Judge Kirtland's diary I find an allusion to the subject, which fixes the date in October, 1799.
Mr. Elijah Hayes, now eighty-three years of age, one of the respected patriarchs, standing almost alone from his generation, informs me, by letter: "My father, Eli Hayes, brought a few sheep to Burton, in 1802. We came, in ifloz, with a yoke of oxen to the wagon; bought a cow in Bedford, Pennsylvania, tied her to the wagon, and brought her thus to Burton." I have no information of any earlier introduction of those kinds of stock.
The marginal difference in value of productions, between good farming and slovenly farming is far greater now than formerly, when, with a virgin soil, crops were generally abundant, which reduces the aggregate product of the present time at the expense of good husbandry.
Wheat raised in the county, in 1850, 37,096 bushels; in 1870, 64,815 bushels; in 1876, 38,964 bushels. Corn, in 1850, 238,436 bushels, in 1870 this crop decreased to 185,731; in 1875, 236,058, and, in 1876 (report of 1877), 297.851 bushels. Potatoes, in 1850, 85,464 bushels; in 1870, 185,731 bushels; in 1875, 325.285 bushels. Oats, in 865, 123,534 bushels; in 1876, 338,337 bushels. Maple sugar, gallons in molasses: 18l0, ,34 pounds and 2,000 gallons of molasses; in 1876, 529,414 pounds and 6,512 gallons of molasses.
Charles Morton raised the premium crop of potatoes-16o bushers on one-fourth of an acre of land.
The number of cattle in the county, in 1876, was 22,353, rained at $468,570; number of horses,
5,179, valued at $284,218; number of sheep, 18,761, valued at 52,502. The total value of personal property was $2,232,054.
From 1840, to 1854, the fairs were held at Burton and Chardon, alternating at those places, generally. The inconvenience was so great that the society located permanently at Burton in 1853-4, after a spirited competition. About twenty acres of land was appropriated near the town, with a beautiful grove on the eastern part, a circular trotting track, graded with half a mile drive, large and commodious buildings for exhibition erected, with suitable offices, and conveniences for seating attendants.
Notwithstanding other local agricultural societies have been formed and sustained by local enterprise, the county society has flourished, and is one of the fixtures of the county. The society now numbers four hundred and sixty-two members. The largest receipts for any one year, including those from the horse fair, were two thousand, five hundred and nineteen dollars and fifty-nine cents.
It appears from the records that the following persons have discharged the executive duties as president of the society: John P. Converse, Vene Stone, Seabury Ford, Alfred Phelps, Lester Taylor, Harvey Harrington, Lyman Millard, Erastus Spencer, Peter Hitchcock, David Robinson, Chester Palmer, R. K. Munn, Delos Williams, Thomas Carroll, D. L Pope, P. T. Thompson, Edwin Tuttle, Daniel Johnson, Luther Russell, L L Reed, W. E. Dutton, E. P. Latham, in 1879, Q. D. Millard.
The distinctive breeds of horses have not been kept with purity of blood, as horses of all kinds of business are mostly raised and sought for. The Morgan and other popular blooded horses have been introduced and crossed with apparent improvement.
The fine merino sheep are rapidly being superseded by the long wool breeds.
* Other premium crops are omitted, because weights and measures have not generally been given.
34 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
The county is indebted to Lewis Hunt, esq., of Huntsburg, for the introduction and propagation of improved fruit. He was an honorary member of a Massachusetts horticultural society. His knowledge of fruit and cultivated taste, induced him, at an early period of our settlement, to put out an orchard of pear and apple trees of superior fruit, which has proved a great blessing to a large section of country around that town. The only extensive nursery now in, or ever established in Geauga, is that owned by J. V. Whitney & Sons, in Montville, where every kind of fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers, indigenous and exotic, usually grown in extensive nurseries, may be found. In that vicinity, and in every locality where there is a good nursery, a marked improvement is noticeable in the superior fruit and more numerous trees adorning the yards and road sides, the parks and cemeteries, and their arrangements in better taste than at a distance from such an establishment.
A good nursery, with an intelligent and honorable proprietor, is a blessing to any community. The progress of science has developed that knowledge of natural law by which intelligent beings can exercise a controlling influence over the climate.
We have experienced the climatic changes which always occur in the cutting off the forests. A general cultivation of forest trees, by the road sides, along the wash banks and ravines, with a suitable proportion of wood land for building, fencing, and fuel, would not only result in a pecuniary advantage, but produce a greater equilibrium between the extremes of heat and cold, humidity and drought, so that future generations might rise up and call you blessed.
COUNTY BUILDINGS.
The first court house in Chardon was a log building, and had but one door and one room. The fire-place had no jams, and the chimney was built of split sticks, laid in mortar, and the floor was laid with rough boards, had one window in the east end, and no floor overhead. The judges occupied a large split log, or puncheon, supported by blocks, for a seat, and a similar one for a desk. For the lawyers, was placed a long, cross-legged table, belonging to Captain Paine, and the only table owned by him. Of course, the jury, witnesses, spectators, and parties, were provided with very rude and uncouth seats.
When a case was submitted to the jury, they retired to a log, in the woods, for deliberation. Perhaps the court, jury, and council, with all their primitive surroundings, might have been actuated by as high a sense of honor, as keen a sense of right, as just perception of facts, and as unsullied and unwavering integrity, as could then, or now be found, amidst all the splendor, pomp, and magnificence of court edifices or the most wealthy and cultured communities.
The first jail built in Chardon was art eight-by-ten, low-roofed, unpretending structure of logs, attached to the west end of Norman Canfield's tavern; was without fire-place' and only a primitive mode of fastening. Its first and only inmate was Hugh McDougall, for nonfulfillment of promise to pay.
There was no tavern in Chardon when the first court was held there, and the court and council traveled more than three miles to Norman Canfield's, on the old State road, in Bondstown (now Hambden), to stay at night, and return next day. They persuaded Mr. Canfield to remove to Chardon, which he did, on the fourth of March, 1812, into his log cabin—first-class hotel.
The next court house was built in 1813, by Samuel King, for the sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars, and court was held in it in the fall of that year. Captain Edward Paine was the first clerk of the court of common p:eas, and remained as such until 1828. The first jail, referred to above, cost 23.50. I find in the "Ohio Statistics," for 1876, that the estimated value of the Geauga county buildings is $108,950.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 35
The present court house is a substantial and elegant fire-proof brick, erected the year after the destruction, by fire, of the county buildings, July 25, 1868.
The only conviction and execution for murder, was that of Benjamin Wright, jr., who was executed on Thursday, May 15, 1823. The murder was committed in Leroy township, without the limits of the present county lines.
For the benefit of the legal profession, and to show the genius of the criminal laws in 1809, I select the following recorded criminal case:
"State of Ohio vs. Robert Meeker—indictment for larceny. Defendant, being arraigned, plead guilty, and put himself upon the mercy of the court. Whereupon it was considered, sentenced and adjudged, that the said Robert Meeker shall be publicly whipped, ten stripes, upon his naked back, that he return the property stolen, and confess and pay to William A. Harper, the person (tom whom the property was so stolen, the value thereof, to wit:—one dollar and fifty cents. That he pay a fine of three dollars into the treasury of the county of Geauga, and also pay the costs of suit, and be committed to prison for the term of twenty-four hours, and stand committed until sentence is complied with."
COMMON SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES.
The organization and efficiency of our common school system are well understood. The first settlers showed the importance they attached to common school education, from which they had received so much benefit, by voluntary associations for district schools, wherever a sufficient number of youths and children could be gathered in any locality for a school, and school-houses built before any legal organizations were effected. From such a beginning the result of universal school educational facilities has answered the most sanguine expectations. Not only common schools, but academical education was instituted. Burton academy was instituted in 1804. The first building burnt, and a commodious one was erected in 1819. In Chardon a brick academical building was put up in 1825, and a school for the higher branches of education commenced that fall. Burton and Chardon academies have been merged into hip graded schools, with fine, costly buildings, modern improvements, and convenient arrangements. Parkman academy was built in 1839. Chester Geauga seminary was established in 1842, large and suitable building put up in 1843, and the school has been in successful operation since. Every township has, more or less, kept up a school for the benefit of advanced scholars, to study higher branches, during winter months. From all classes of these schools there has been graduated a ctass of qualified teachers, largely in excess of the home demand, who have for the last forty years gone south and west to teach in the winter, leaving in the fall as uniformly as the wild geese and other migratory birds, and returning to spend the slimmer in labor.
The number of youths, between six and twenty-one years, enjoying school privileges and funds in Geauga county, in 1876, is 3,704. Amount of moneys paid teachers, in 1876, $22,372 48. Total expenditures in 1876, $33,371 11. Local tax for school and school-house purposes, $26,907.
PERIODICALS.
The eminent British statesman, Burke, signalized "newspaper circulation as a more important instrument of the popular intelligence than was generally imagined." A popular Greek scholar was accustomed to say, that "a single newspaper, published in the days of Pericles (had that age produced any such phenomenon), would, if handed down to us, he a better index of Athenian life
and manners than can now be found in any existing memorial of the Grecian civilization."
36 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
Periodicals taken at the several post-offices : Auburn, 290; Bainbridge, 220; Burton. 574; Chardon, 1,123; Chester, 348; Claridon, 339; Hambden, 228; Huntsburgh, 243; Middlefield, 268; Montville, 204; Munson, 287; Newbury, 292; Parkman, 267; Russelr, 215; Thompson, 260; Troy,
309. Total number periodicals, 5,367.
A part of Bainbridge and Russell townships take their mail at Chagrin Falls. Claridon, Hambden.
and Munson take, for some parts of their township, their mail from Chardon, and other townships receive more or less mail matter from other offices, so that the division is not equal.
The following census returns were taken and forwarded to me by Hon. Peter Hitchcock, copied from returns of the Ohio State library:
POPULATION OF GEAUGA COUNTY FROM 1820 TO 1870.
Townships. - 1820 - 1830 - 1840 - 1850 - 1860 - 1870
Auburn 215 428 1,198 1,284 942 783
Bainbridge 199 439 988 1,014 798 660
Burton * 506 646 1,022 1,063 1,045 1,004
Chardon 430 881 2,064 1,622 2,539 1,772
Chestern 269 550 962 1,103 865 727
Claridon 398 637 897 1,029 993 909
Hamden 767 902 919 846 410 296
Huntsburgh — 449 921 1,007 265 824
Middlefield 335 336 771 918 872 732
Montvil — 226 567 702 760 705
Munson — 354 1,263 1,143 1,006 761
Newburg 337 594 1,209 2,253 2,048 861
Parkman 522 732 1,181 1,383 1,007 953
Russell — 115 742 1,083 959 805
Thompson 332 737 2,028 1,237 1,211 1,095
Troy 102 262 1,228 1,254 959 832
Totals 3,919 7,916 16,297 17,827 15,817 14,168
The township of Middlefield was known as "Batavia" until 1850, and Troy as "Welshfield" until 1840. Huntsburgh, Montville, Munson, and Russell, were not down in the census returns of 1820, and their population is probably credited to other townships.
* From other sources we learn that Burton in 1800, had a population of 42, which had increased, in 1809, to 237; and that the total population of the county, in 1809, was 2,917, then embracing the larger portion of the Reserve.
INTERNAL DUTIES IN THE NINTH COLLECTION DISTRICT OF OHIO IN 1818
In the summer of 1877, whilst looking up documents in Chardon, relating to ..the early settlement of Geauga, and making inquiries about materials for its history, E. V. Canfield, esq., courteously informed me that he had in his possession an official document, which he put in my hands.
COPY OF THE DOCUMENT.
"Statement of the amount of internal duties imposed by the United 'States (except those on watches and stamps), paid by each person in the Ninth collection district of Ohio, from the first day of May to the thirty-first day of December, 1818, inclusive:
Carroll, Thomas, jr - $108 29
Ford, Eli and E - 62 28
Fleming, Matthew - 81 62
Greer, David - 22 60
Graham, John - 107 72
Hall, Levi - 98 87
Mason, Peleg S - 70 44
Wetmore, William - 159 19
Westbrook, James - 54 18
Youngs, Silas - 45 78
Total - $812 83
"I do here certify that the foregoing statement exhibits the full amount of duties aforesaid, paid to me in the ninth collection district of Ohio, from the first day of May to the thirty-first day of December, 1818, inclusive.
DANIEL. MILES,
Collector of the Ninth collection district of Ohio.
Collector’s office. Newbury, January 1, 1819."
The thoughtful mind will recognize the changes wrought within the present century of discoveries, improvements, inventions, and their results in application to industrial pursuits. It has opened and amplified sources of wealth and intelligence. The early laborers here strained the muscles of their strong arms to the utmost tension with rude tools—the axes of the common blacksmith, the
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 37
scythes, the flail, the forks; they used the wild goose drag, and the pointed iron share on the wooden plow, made by themselves or neighboring mechanics. Such implements are now superseded by modern improvements in the skill of manufactured tools, and the motor power of steam has worked a great revolution in the industries and exchanges throughout the world. The old domestic implements of labor, with the large and small spinning-wheels, hand-cards, swifts and looms, may be found in the museum halls, as relics used in the first quarter of the present century. At home, and all around us, such changes of base with labor-sPving power may be seen. Large numbers of our laboring classes have improved the opportunity of attending the Centennial exhibition at Philadelphia. The numbers in this rural county visiting there, would equal about one-fourth of the voting population, as found by a canvass taken in many of the townships. Such had an opportunity to examine the natural productions of every nation and every clime, the achievements in the arts and sciences of every nation, kindred, and language. The responsive exclamations of the wise and curious were, "the half was not told us." Whilst the devout in view of such an exhibition of the ornamental and useful in art and science, up to the triumph of the great force of the Corliss engine, would intuitively turn their thoughts to the Great Unseen, with ascriptions of honor, dominion, power, majesty and glory to him that sitteth on the throne, who has delegated to his finite intelligence such wisdom to devise and execute such improvements within the last hundred years.
The remarks on the establishment of the first newspaper in the county, the number subsequently established, and time of each, are omitted. (See J. 0. Conver's article on the "Press").
We have no known mines of wealth below the reach of the plow, no railroads of such magnitude, or such large manufacturing establischnents as to intensify the labor question and excite fears of riotous uprising of the employes. No where is there more regard for law and order. No where are reputation, property, life, and the pursuit of happiness more respected and safe. No where do the rural population travel more on business and recreation. In no locality probably within the State has a greater percentage of the population (from as great a distance) availed themselves of the opportunity of attending the Centennial exhibition at Philadelphia.
Now, in this centennial year, standing on this hill, more than six hundred feet above the lake's surface, over a thousand higher than old ocean's restless waters,
"Let us roll back the world on its axle of fire.
Let us halt, if we can, just a breath or two higher."
Where the woodman's axe first resounded, the first cabin built, the first crops raised, the first white child born, the first school established, the first church organized. A retrospective view of! only seventy-eight years reveals facts that some of the old pioneers who have stood like faithful sentinels on the watch towers of time, until the frosts of' so many winters have impressed the white seal on their heads like the summit of old hoary Alps, witnessing the magical changes and wonderful developments since the curling smoke of the wigwam rose amongst the wild shrubberry and thick branches of forest trees, where the Aborigines chanted their war songs with their chorus of avenging "whoops," or celebrated their festivals or religious rites; where no sunlight reached the earth's surface, except occasional rays through the foilage of shrubs and trees in summer months, where were only foot-prints along their hunting trails and tramping courses, and the burthen of transportation was the trophies of Indian experts hunting for sustenance, and carried on the backs of their squaws.
38 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
Now, from this standpoint, around which these buildings have been dedicated to industrial exhibitions, where are now gathered a large well-dressed and cultivated audience with "upturned faces, evidently entering into the spirit of this pioneer meeting, where thrilling speeches, both humorous and grave, have been made, interspersed with enchanting music from the Burton brass band with all the improvements of modern musical science, and where are near us, temples of learning and worship—turn your eyes which way you please, what marvelous developments, industry and art have added to the natural scenery, on, and around this beautiful town, "set on a hill" within the hearing of the locomotive's whistle and the rumbling of the railroad cars, and along the line of which the lightning is made subservient to man's control, carrying messages over continents and under the deep ocean's waters. Not exclusively so, within the vision of this hill's landscape, but all along the highways throughout the whole length and breadth of the county, the diversity of ridges and intervals, the varied productions of the soil, the grazing stock of "the cattle on a thousand hills," with houses and out-buildings for convenience and comfort, as seen from farm to farm, many such, elegant in design and beauty of finish, with orchards of delicious fruit, and choice vines congenial to the climate, where the yards and buildings are so beautified and protected from the burning sun of summer and the piercing winds of winter by ornamental trees, the road sides being so often adorned with shade trees, where so many well-arranged and well-painted school-houses meet the eye, where, at convenient centers, so many church buildings may be seen, dedicated to Almighty God, with their steeples pointing heavenward, catching'the first rays of the morning sun and the last brilliant hues of evening— all along, the occupants are owners of the soil, and their houses are castles of their sovereignty.
Their occupation imbues them with the love of order by constantly beholding their surroundings, the regularity of day, night and the seasons, of seed time and harvest, looking to heaven through its dews, rains and sun light, that their labors may be crowned with success. Around their homes are entwined the consecrated affection of birthplace, childhood and maturer years. May not such be depended upon for that patriotism which will defend their country in case of emergency,",and that piety that shall find solace in the hour of extremity.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 39
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
On the twenty-fourth of July, 1873, a family gathering was held in the shade of the woods on the fair grounds, being the grove on the farm of Col. H. H. Ford, on the old homestead. In response to invitations to two hundred and fifty relatives and descendants of John and Easter Ford, one hundred and seventy-two were present. At the suggestion of W. J. Ford, then of New Castle, Pennsylvania, the reunion had been called, and he was made president of the day. The stories of pioneer times were told by the boys, now old and gray-haired, reminding that not long would any remain to tell of early days. General Garfield was with the company, and in his talk spoke of something being done to save the history of the pioneers.
At the close of the enjoyable day, Homer Goodwin, esq., of Sandusky, offered a resolution, which was adopted, that W. J. Ford, George H. Ford and Peter Hitchcock be a committee who shall consider, and, if they deem it fitting to do so, to report to a meeting to be called for the purpose, a plan for a Historical Society for the county of Geauga.
For years Judge Taylor had been interesting the peOple on the subject. Goodwin thought the time had come. A meeting fair was called, and General Garfield engaged to make the address, and the time set September s6, 1873. The people came early and in large numbers on that day. A stand had been erected in front of the permanent rows of seats on the grounds, to which, as the post of honor, as many of the pioneers as could be seated, were appropriately invited. The meeting was called to order at half past eleven A. m., by W. J. Ford, esq., chairman of the local committee, and a temporary organization effected by the appointment of Hon. Peter Hitchcock as chairman, and 0. S. Farr, esq., as secretary.
The Hon. Peter Hitchcock, from the committee on "plan of organization," reported the order of the day and a draft of a constitution. The report was adopted, as follows :
ORDER OF THE DAY.
1st. Permanent Organization.
2d. Exhibition of Relics. Hon. P. Hitchcock.
3d. Dinner.
4th. Toasts and Responses and Stories by Old Folks.
5th. Address by General Garfield.
CONSTITUTION.
The name of this society sharl be the Historical Society of Geauga county. its object the
gathering up and preserving in permanent form the names of early settlers, with date of their arrival he county, facts, incidents and reminiscences connected with the early settlement, together with relics as may be of interest and value.
The officers of the society shall be a president, one vice-president from each township in the county, a recording secretary, a corresponding secretary, who shalt also discharge the duties of treasurer, and an executive committee of three, who, with the president and corresponding secretary, shall constitute the board of managers of the society, and a majority of whom shall be a quorum for business.
Officers shall be elected annually, and their duties be the same as those of similar officers in other like organizations. Vice-presidents shall be advisory members of the board of managers, charged ;with looking up historical data and relics in their respective townships.
The society wilt meet annually, on the fair grounds in Burton, on the tenth day of September, except, when the, tenth comes on Sunday, it will meet on the Saturday preceding. Will also hold other meetings on call of the president, at request of the board of managers.
Any person may may become a member of the society by subscribing to the constitution and paying admittance fee of ____
The society will keep open rooms, fitted up for reception and preservation of objects and articles
40 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
of interest which may be furnished to the society, where the same can be visited by all interested.
The officers elected for the year, were :
PRESIDENT.
Hon. Lester Taylor, Claridon.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
John Sanborn, Newbury.
O. Miner, Munson.
S. B. Philbrick, Chester.
Samuel Robinson, Russell.
Austin Canfield, Chardon.
H. H. Benjamin. Bainbridge.
Hiram Canfield, Auburn,
L. G. Maynard, Hambden.
Osman Beals, Troy.
Alonzo Hosmer (deceased), Parkman.
D. Witter, Burton.
F. M, Leonard, Thompson.
E. R. Thompson, Middlefield.
H. S. Pomeroy, Huntsburgh.
Anson Shaw, Montville.
Noah Pomeroy, Claridon.
RECORDING SECRETARY.
S. E. Clapp, Huntsburg.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY AND TREASURER.
R. N. Ford, Burton.
BOARD OP MANAGERS.
The president and corresponding secretary, Henry Rice, Hon. Peter Hitchcock, Burton, and Eli Dayton, Troy.
MEMBERS.
J. W. Bears, Troy.
J. Button, Burton.
S. S. Bates, Mesopotamia.
W. H. Chapman, Troy.
William Crafts (deceased), Auburn.
William Cay, Burton.
Col. Stephen Ford, Burton.
G. H. Ford, Burton.
Col. H. H. Ford, Burton.
W. J. Ford, Burton.
Horace Ford, Parkman.
William Howard, Bainbridge.
A. Hare, Munson.
Elijah Hayes, Burton.
C. G. Hayes, Burton.
Henry Hotchkiss, Burton.
J. C. Hinkston, Burton.
D. C. Hollis, Chardon.
Jonathan Houghton, Newbury.
Ahira Messenger, Auburn.
J. M. Moore, Burton.
Lyman Millard (deceased), Huntsburgh.
W. W. Morse (deceased), Huntsburgh.
Dr, A, McGraw, Burton. Joseph Nash, Troy.
Orman Newcomb, Parkman.
John Punderson, Burton.
0. H. Parsons, Newbury.
Rev. Wm. Potter, Hambden.
Edward Rice, Burton.
Ashbel Spencer, Claridon.
Deacon Genvase Spring (deceased), Burton.
Philip Silvernail, Burton.
J. N. Skinner, Montville.
E. S. Tones, Burton.
Rev, E. D. Taylor (deceased), Claridon.
Martin Truman, Huntsburgh.
Mr. Woods (deceased), Auburn.
0. W. Weeks, Burton.
Delos Williams, Burton.
James Wintersteen, Montville.
J. C. Wells, Craridon.
The same officers have been continued to the present, except the vice-presidents who are:
William Howard, Bainbridge.
W. H. Chapman, Troy.
Horace Ford, Parkham
Abire Messenger, Auburn.
J. C. Wells, secretary, Claridon.
W. J. Ford, corresponding secretary and treasurer.
The society was a fixed fact—organized and ready for work. Ample provision for dinner was made, and it was enjoyed by the "old folks," at tables prepared for them. Songs were sung, and stories told. The address was made—full of historic lore, commanded by a great intellect, and, uttered from the breast of so able an orator, it was the magic repeat of lives that are gone, and a grand close of the day. Many quaint things were brought, looked upon, and noted down at the time, by the secretary, Mr. Farr, which adds to the record.
Mrs, B. Hosmer, Troy, spinning-wheel (little wheel), 80 years; hetchel, 200 years ord.
Hiram Canfield, Auburn, a horn from the last deer killed in Geauga county. The deer was killed
by Mr. Canfield, in the fall of 1845.
Stirrups and saddle-frame, found while clearing on the farm of Mr. Canfield, in 1846, supposed to
have been lost by one of General Wayne's men.
William Crafts, Auburn, tin lantern sit years old; iron wedge 58 years old.
Mrs. McKay Brown, Burton, a plate 200 years old.
Mrs. Brown, a set of chest-hangings made by her father, Freeman Hyde, in 1807. Have been in
use till three Years ago
Mrs. Sarah. White, Auburn, a hair wreath, 129 years old; a creamer 60 years old; and a piece of
table linen spun by her mother at the age of 65, thirty-five years old.
Charles Woods, Auburn, powder-horn carried in the war of the Revolution, on which is carved a
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 41
ship, and " Benjamin Woods powder-horn. "Dun by his brother Samuel, at Ticonderoga, October
ye 24."
Jeremiah White, Auburn, pod augur, over 100 years old; a rumlet carried by a Mr. Gregory in the war of 1812; a powder-horn 70 years old.
Mrs. S. Gould, Troy, a kettle, two-gallon stone crock and a plate, 100 years ord.
Mrs, V. A. Florence, wooden box 125 years old.
L. Norton, Chester, powder-horn made and carried in the war of the Revolution by his father, 90 years old.
Alonzo Hosmer, hay-fork, 100 years old.
J. W. Fox, Troy, history of New Ipswich, from its first grant in 1736, to date, 1852; formerly belonged to Josiah P. Wilder.
W. A. Jenks, Newbury, silver snuff-box, made in 1750; powder-horn, made in 1800; gold-headed cane, made in 1800.
L. G. Maynard, Hambden, a copy of the City Gasette and Daily Advertiser, published at Charleston, South Carolina, and bearing date November 24, 1797. Among the advertisements, were some for runaway slaves.
Mrs. Burt, Parkman, old papers, Warren Chronicle of 1826, and The Supporter, published at Jefferson, in 1809, and later.
Mrs. J. B. Bartholomew, string of gold beads, 130 years old or more. Formerly belonged to Judith Towne.
G. W. Fox, Troy, cane, made in 1740.
Mrs. C. Nash, pocket worn by ladies 100 years ago; large back comb so years old. Simeon Hayes, fire-tongs, 70 or 80 years old.
A. .4. Snow, Indian ax, made of stone, found in Auburn.
Mrs. Maria Burt, Parkman, candle-stick, 69 years otd; some linen thread, so years old.
Mrs. C, B. Hosmer, bed-curtain 125 years old.
J. W. Fox, Troy, looking-glass, 100 years old; home-made pocket-book, 100 years old.
Luther Russell, Burton, tomahawk. In one side is set a silver diamond, in the other a silver strip on which is engraven " Techumse."
John Ford, esq., Broad-ax of 1780.
Bell Palmer, watch carried in the Revolution by Major Crafts, great-great-grandfather of the owner.
Mrs. P. Parmele, an account-book, bought by Merriman Cook, January 7, 1795. Price $1.37 1/2. Several evangelical magazines, published in Connecticut, in 1814 and 1815. Sheet and towel 200 years old. The sheet was made and kept for a winding sheet. Set of silver teaspoons made of the knee-buckles and shoe-buckles of the great-grandfather of Mrs. Parmele. The first set of communion cups used in the Congregation society of Burton. Part of the small clothes and buttons worn by the great-grandfather of Mrs. Parmele. A copy of Watt’s Hymns, pubtished in 1809.
Probabty the oldest relics exhibited were two earthen plates, formerly the property of Governor Bradford, the second governor of Ptymouth colony. They were brought by him from England, in the pilgrim ship "Mayflower," in 1620. They are now in the possession of Mrs. Rebecca Crane, of Burton, who is a lineal descendant of Governor Bradford.
Chief engineer Sharpless, of the Painesville and Youngstown railroad, sent from Youngstown a deed from William Penn to James Wallis, of five hundred acres of tand, on Brandywine creek, Chester county, Pennsylvania, dated 1st day 12 mo., in 1st year of Queen Anne. A. D. 1702. Witnessed by Edward Shippon, Griffith Owen, Thomas Story, James Logan. The seal is of wax, inclosed in a tin box, and was attached to the deed by a string. It is four inches in diameter, and three-fourths of an inch thick.
"Recorded in the Rolls Office at Philadelphia, in Patent book, vol. 2, page 449, the 8th, 12th mo., 1702. Tho, Story." "Seal 6s. Record 45. 7d. Box 15. 6d."
To the following the names of the owners were not attached :
Cradle blanket of Robert B. Parkman, the first settler of Parkman township. He was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, in 1771.
A sand box which R. B. Parkman brought into the county.
Bills for change issued by Parkman & Paine, in 1815, fifty cents, twenty-five cents, twelve and one- half cents, and six and one-quarter cents.
Connecticut Courant and Hartford Weekly Intelligencer, dated Monday, December 5, 874, containing the ."Freshest advices, both foreign and domestic."
A copy of the Cleveland Herald, dated Friday, March 24, 1826, being number twenty-two of volume seven, of that paper,
A spinning-wheel, belonging to the Cook family, over one hundred years old.
SENTIMENTS OFFERED.
The Press.—Let her advance boldly in all her field, under a high moral standard, and she becomes the giant power of our country and the world.
Response by J. 0. Converse, of Chardon.
By Hon. P. Hitchcock:
The Pioneers.
Response by William Crafts, of Auburn.
Early Settlers —Through their earnest and faithful toil, we inherit the land and enjoy the blessings
Response by Noah Pomeroy, of Claridon.
By W. J. Ford:
The Temperance of the Fathers.—Their log cabins and hard cider better than the big houses and "benzine" of this generation.
Response by Rev. William Potter, of Hambden.
42 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO
The Geauga County Historical Society, May the success of this first day be but the beginning of a continued success in the future.
Response by L. G. Maynard, esq,, of Hambden.
From the first, the annual meetings have been largely attended. Many articles of historic value are given the society, or brought for exhibition on these occasions. Clocks, spinning-wheels, shoe-brushes, razors, pincers, pitchforks, Indian tools, arrows, books, maps, newspapers, and a great number of things accounting upwards of one hundred on the list of relics, have been placed with the society in the office room of the town hall. So much of peculiar interest attaches to these "olden time mementos," that a portion of the address of the corresponding secretary before the society, September 30, 1873, relative to them, is here given.
W. J. FORD'S ADDRESS,
Man passes away, but his works remain; some of them to endure through the ages that are beyond his day. The king dies, and his crown passes to his heir, and is kept in the royal family, while the kingdom stands, or the empire is known among men.
In the grand free land where we have found our homes, thanks to the true and tried men of an early time, there are no crowns to be inherited, no kingdoms to break, no empires to fade or pass away, but a nation of men, free born, or free by the enactments of a people, bravely fitting the broadest and largest types of humanity to the God grven rights of the human race, are dwelling in peace, and to-day, are thankful to the fathers that have passed, and are passing away, for the untold blessings handed down by them—in these priceless homes of liberty—an inheritance greater to be desired than all the crowns and kingdoms of earth.
And not only this, but they leave unto us relics of their days of toil, of their years of trial and times of privation, upon which we may look and read lessons of care and prudence, of patriotism and service, such as may justly make us prouder than if we were the sons and daughters of kings and conquerors.
In the exhibit, first, I bring to your attention, the singular and costly specimens of work presented by Mrs. Polly Norton, of Troy, Ohio, in 1873, a widow lady, seventy-seven years of age, and an early settler in that township. Her husband was a farmer, and died some years ago. First, the waist of a dress; second, a portion of the skirt to another dress; third, a window curtain—all made of linen, the waist being striped with blue, the other two pieces white, all worked in flowers, made of woolen floss. In this floss may be found, at this date, twenty-three different shades of color, and upon the waist are forty-seven different kinds of buds and flowers. Upon the skirt, which is supposed to be about one width, there are one hundred and sixty kinds, and it is estimated that upon the whole skirt there must have been no less than eight hundred buds and flowers worked. Upon the curtain there are one hundred and thirteen kinds, no two of which are considered to be alike. The flax as carded, spun
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 43
and wove for the fabric of these relics, and the wool was carded and spun for the floss, and it was colored into all the various shades, and then worked into the almost countless flowers upon the fabric. 'Then the dresses were made, and the curtains stitched and worked, all this having been done by one and the genie person, the great-great-grandmother of Mrs. Polly Norton, thus running back, on the line of descent, four generations, or more than six generations of the average life of men. These garments, so skillfully made, must have cost more than twelve months of work to perfect them, including the full set of curtains. The dresses look like the completion of a "sensation" toilet upon the charming person of this great-great-grandmother, as she moved in society more that two hundred years ago, in the colony of Massachusetts. Indeed, they take us back to the threshold of the days of the Pilgrims, and it would almost seem that this dress had brushed against the sword at the side of Miles Standish, or touched the gallant arm of a Governor Carver or Bradford. It was made in the old Bay State, far back beyond the days of cotton mills and whizzing spindles.
General Putnam left the plow in the furrow, and a thousand sons rallied to the call of the piping fife and the flying messengers that told of blood spilled at Lexington one hundred years ago, and to-day the fourth relic I lift before you is a powder-horn, which bears the date "1775," carved upon its side. Cut with the point of a knife, upon the larger end, are the figures of a crane and a rooster, and also representations of flowers from the primitive forests. This is undoubtedly an American rooster, as there were no Democratic roosters known until a later day. The wire to which was attached the shoulder-straps still remains upon either end of the horn, as does also the iron hoops upon this fifth gift, a wooden canteen which is presented with the horn. Upon the horn are the initials " E. C.," and on one side is a scar, which may have been the bruise of a bullet glancing upon the old horn. Upon the canteen, also, is marked " E. C." These initials stand for Ephraim Clark, a patriot of 1776. These gifts descended to Jonathan Brooks and his daughter, Sovira Hoadley, and to John Hoadley, great-grandson of Clark, and were presented by him to the society.
"The Columbian Orator," prefaced at Boston, Massachusetts, May 17, 1797, presented by David Walker, of Newbury.
A grape-shot from Sackett's Harbor, war 1812, presented by Jonathan P. Bartholemew, of Auburn.
A pair of wooden shoes, found on the farm of Hiram Canfield, in Auburn, while clearing in 1846, and supposed to have been lost by one of Anthony Wayne's men.
A bill of continental money—four dollars—issued according to act of congress, passed at Baltimore, February 26, 1777, to pay four Spanish milled dollars, or value thereof, in gold or silver, and signed " J. Kelso,” in black ink, " R. Cromwell," in red, "No. 27,958," in red ink; presented by W. C. Dutton, of Auburn, September 9, 1874.
This table, upon which rest the relics we are examining to-day, is in possession of G. H. and R. N. Ford, sons of the late ex-Governor, Seabury Ford. It was used in his office, now the north wing of his old home. In this office he used to compile the facts and figures, and lay out the frame-work of his message, when governor of Ohio, and many a State document has been written, re-written, crossed, revised, and perfected upon this table, to say nothing of the pleas and answers drawn up for court, that have rested in the department of this table- drawer, which is divided off with tin partitions. The ink spots upon a lawyer's table are countless; this one has few.
The chair, occupied by our worthy president, Judge Taylor, has a piece of oak wood veneered upon the front of the back, which was cut from a plank
44 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
sawed from a tree felled by O. B. Hoadley, in the fall of OW, upon the old homestead of John A. Ford, just west of Burton village. The tree, by count of rings, or growths, was two hundred and sixty-five years old. This cut shows the work of an axe-man chopping to fall a tree, which, after being partly cut down, was left standing, and the oak wood, in a handsome curl, has knotted in and filled the cut solid, the wood growing over on the outside of the cut, until it became a great tree. A letter from General Garfield to W. J. Ford, relating to this axe-cut, mentions " that the rings of wood indicate the chopping was done more than two centuries ago"; and says further:
" Since meeting you, I have heard of two other facts which probably relate to the same period. Mr. Zeb Rudotph, of Hiram, Ohio, informed me, that, on the farm of Harry Paine, son of General Paine, near the mouth of Grand river, very early in the present century, an oak tree was found nearly two feet in diameter, and near its heart an otd cut, bearing ptain marks of an axe, with a stone lying in it as large as a man's fist. Also, on the farm of General Paine, on the bank of the Grand river, between Fairport and Painesville, where the bank of the river caved off, a stone fireplace was found, evidently the work of civilized man. These relics doubtless relate to the same period as the one exhibited in the back of your chair,"
Colonel Charles Whittlesey, afterwards wrote from the Historical rooms, at Cleveland :
"We have portions of two trees with clearly cut axe mnrks of about that age, and I have heard of three more besides yours. As yet we have no retiable history to show by whom they were made. We hope the Magury manuscripts, which General Garfietd and other members induced congres to purchase, may solve the mystery. Evidently white men were here about that time, and probably La Salte crossed from Lake brie to the Ohio, but precisely when, cannot yet be decided. To make so many choppings upon trees there must have been either a large number of white men, or they must have remained here a considerable period."
Three relics are exhibited by Mrs. John Tuttle, of Burton.
A piece of linen bed curtain, over one hundred years old; a piece of English chintz calico, from a dress worn by a Mrs. Goodwin, of Litchfield, Connecticut —great-grandmother to Mrs. Tuttle, and related to the Doctor Goodwin family, of Burton. Mrs. Goodwin's husband was in the Revolutionary war, aid her brother died in the terrible prison-ship, "Jersey." She wore the dress one hundred and fifty years ago. It cost forty English shillings, the pattern, or one dollar and sixty-six cents per yard.
Enclosed in a frame, and glassed to preserve it, is the most precious relic of all. It is parts of the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of Matthew, on a leaf from a Bible that came over in the "Mayflower," in z62o, and it has come down to Mrs. Tuttle.
Here is an exhibit—a piece of the Plymouth rock itself. It is the same rock upon which Mary Chilton pressed her foot, gallantly aided by John Alden, as she stepped from the boat of the "Mayflower," December 22, 1620, and was the first to land from that band of pilgrims who came to plant the "Tree of Liberty" on American soil. This specimen of the rock was brought from Pilgrims hay, Massachusetts, by W. J. Ford, in 1867, and has only about three-fourths of an inch face surface, but is laid in marble, for a paper weight. It was sold by the keeper of Pilgrims hall, at three dollars for three-fourths of an inch of this granite rock.
While all these relics are interesting, as relating to the past, these two last named call out solemn reflections. This Bible was on the "Mayflower" when the pilgrims bound themselves in a sacred obligation, or contract, for the control of the colony which they had undertaken to plant "For the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith," upon a shore to which they had come, fleeing from the bigotry, tyranny, and oppression of the established church of England—and this rock was a granite base of hope beneath their flying feet. Before the first of April, the following year, forty-four of the one hundred and one that landed, were buried in the hill by the sea, and the graves were leveled and sown with grain to cover the losses from the knowledge of the wild Indian
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 45
tribes. April 5th the "Mayflower" sailed for England, and the little band was alone. What hope for the world now? On a barren coast, a continent of wilderness before them, savages threatening, and all the dark day of disease fallen until it had shrouded nearly half their number in the sleep of death; their ship gone, the dawn of liberty seemed but the beginning of endless night.
Leap the mountains and pass the valleys, as swiftly as have swept the two and one-half centuries since that trial day, and we stand by graves on another hill, 'which is back from the sea shore. Beyond us three thousand miles of a cultivated and civilized land spread westward, and northward, and southward. The descendants of those pilgrims have been on trial for the rights of mankind, and in defence of liberty. How well they, the children, have preserved the sacred truths that came with that lonely band, left by the "Mayflower," let the history of the great war for the Union answer; and, standing, as it were, by the graves of Gettysburg, after the serried hosts and broken columns of that terrible field have passed away, let the song of one who has written well remind us of the sacrifice made in our day :
" Here for Liberty they stood,
Writ their records in their blood
On the forehead of the epoch
In a grand historic mood.
" Here we laid them side by side,
In their awful martyr pride—
They will slumber well and sweetly,
Spite of waitings far and wide.
"Lay them where their work was done,
Where the day was proudly won,
In this nook that bloomed with battle—
There's no rarer 'neath the sun."
In the outset, attention was called to the remarkable dress of two hundred years ago, and the curious kind of labor spent upon it, being not less than six months for the garment—twelve months for all.
Think of the progress that has been made, and how swift are the feet of the children of such ancestors; how nimble the fingers of this day, with its vast machinery, its railroads and telegraphs, all built in the sunlight of the liberty that was born in the blood of the Revolution.
To mark the contrast between Massachusetts and New York, in the day of the linen dress and curtains, which it took twelve months to make, that earnest friend of the society, Henry Rice, esq., who has given me timely aid in arranging the relics, has clipped from the Geauga Leader, of September 3, 1875, the following:
"The feat of that Yorkshire woolen manufacturer who sat down to dinner at seven o'clock in a suit made from the wool that was sheared from the sheep after sunrise on the morning of the same thy, has been rivaled by a man in Chautauqua county, New York, who had a pair of Angora goats sheared at sunrise, their fleece carded, spun, woven, dyed and finished, and the cloth made into a ,fashionable dress which his wife wore at sunset. The ctoth was ready to be made up early in the afternoon. Four dressmakers at once took it in hand, and at the appointed time not a flounce or furbelow was lacking or imperfectly finished."
To the old fathers and mothers, in whose toils we have joined, in whose privations in the years that are gone, we, the children, have secured more of education, more of knowledge, if not more of wisdom, and in the fruits of whose labors we now find a cultivated land of broad farms, good houses and kind Christian homes, in which churches and free schools are yielding their immeasurable blessings to us, and, while we may sometimes seem proud and over-haughty, as though we forget the cost of all this, and not thankful, yet, I trust, day may show that we are not always unmindful, but do think of the rude cabin and the hickory torch, the rough log-way and the wild forests, the cold
46 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
damps of the (every days of fall, the sickening chills and sallow faces that lived through the early privations, the rude stones that you set in the burial ground to mark the place of those that endured with you, and fell by the wayside of that hard road. Again, I repeat, we do not forget, but will ever be thankful that through your patience and perseverance, and your unyielding trust in the right, we are the rich inheritors of a cultivated land, dedicated by your blood and suffering forever to freedom, and preserved in its great day of trial by the sacred blood of your sons. So we have it, and by the blessing of God will preserve it.
Of the variety of curiosities exhibited at the meetings since 1875, associating all manner of recollections, a few are mentioned :
By Lyman Millard, of Huntsburg, pair worsted hatchets, with teeth like a mill saw; eighty years ord.
Piece of brick, presented July 5, 1876, by William Cay. This brick was taken from the fire-place of the house in which Washington had his headquarters on Staten Island,
Brick, presented by S. D. Cook, October 5, 1876 ; made on the farm of Ephraim Cook, Burton, in 1819, and has plain stamp of a deer's foot in it.
Painesville Telegraph, presented by Lucius Merriman, October 5, 1876, and published by E. D. Howe, August 30, 1831 ; contains oration of J. Q. Adams, on nullification and anti-masonry.
A case-knife, used by a reber in the late war ; notched on the back edge of blade for sawing meat, and marked on the handle " L. M." It was found on the battle-field of Chicamauga, September 19, 1863, by C. P. Bait, of Chardon, Ohio, who was in the fight. Left by him in care of the society October 6, 1876.
A letter, name of writer torn oft This letter was written and dated New York, September 6, 1776; tells about the battle on Long Island, which the writer says continued several days, and that the Americans lost more men than in any battle since the war began ; presented October 6, 1876 ; donor's name not given.
Pocket compass, owned and used by Jacob Burroughs in tracing through the forests in early time. This compass was so arranged that on sunny days it showed the exact time. The little glass through which the sun shone on the figures to indicate the time, is rost. Presented by L A. Burroughs, August 7, 1877.
Bottle of boiled cider made in 1845 ; presented by W. A. Messenger, of Auburn, August 30, 1877.
Ancient grain fan, used before fanning mills, woven of willow ; presented by Mrs. Rev. William Potter, of Hambden, formerly Miss H. Melissa Wells, of Claridon, October 5, 1878.
A China pitcher, presented October 15, 1878, by Mrs. Elizabeth Abell, used by her grandmother before the Revolution, and in it a skein of worsted yarn spun by her more than one hundred years ago. This pitcher was presented to Mrs. Abell's grandmother, at her wedding, in the time of the Revolution, and by her to her daughter at her marriage during the war of 1812.
Judge Taylor's centennial address was prepared for 1876, and delivered at the regular meeting in 1877. In May, 1878, the society undertook the publication or this pioneer history of the county. The Agricultural society cordially extended their aid in this work, by resolution passed in the board meeting May 18th.
The last meeting of the society was held at Burton on the fifteenth of October, 1878, at the fair buildings. There were a grand turn-out of the people, a fine day, good speeches and good music; a roll of the people present was made, which will be called at the next meeting, and those who shall have finished their course, will have their names, age and date of death recorded in the secretary's book. Most of the speeches made were on topics selected appropriate for insertion in the history, and are given hereafter.
From the report of the meeting by Hon. George H. Ford, to the Cleveland Leader, is copied the part relating to the music:
"A chorus of seventy-five voices, under the leadership of Mr. Benjamin F. Pratt, formerly of this county, but now a resident of Cleveland, joined in the rendition of old 'Coronation,' in a manner that stirred men's souls, and brought the sympathetic tear to many an eye, and other old tunes so familiar to the generation of men and women now passed away, by reason of old age. First came ' Russia' and Northfield,' then 'Sherburne,' all of them fugue tunes, so well rendered that we doubt whether the choirs of the early days could have excelled at. 'Sherburne’ excited a great deal of laughter and applause, being sung by note. The only notes used were ' fa, do, la, mi, fa.’ General Northrop, of Mentor, eighty-five years old, led the singing of one tune. He was a leader seventy years ago, and this day favored the audience by singing the ballad, ‘The Vale of Avoka.’"
Professor Pratt used the old fashioned "pitch-pipe" to get the key-note of the old tunes. How quick to memory came the words :
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 47
" And the angel descended to dwell with us here,
Old Hundred, and Corinth, and China, and Mean"
"Oh, be lifted, ye gates! Let me hear them again,
Blessed song blessed singers !" forever, Amen!"
The names and residences of these "old folks" singers were reported by B. H. Pratt, of Troy, as follows:
Tenor.—M. L. Maynard, Chardon; John Nash, Troy; H. Greer, Missouri; Prof. Heywood, Chester; Leonard Lamson, Chagrin Falls.
Bass.—Prof. Pratt, Cleveland; L. G. Maynard, Hambden; H. Crittenden, Burton; B. N. Shaw, Chardon; L, A. Burroughs, Hiram; S. E. Clapp, Huntsburg; B. H. Pratt, John Cutler, Troy; Gen.
D. Northrop, Mentor.
Soprano.—Miss A. C. Hitchcock, Mary Thrasher, Mrs.: Mary E. Hotchkiss, Seabury Ford, S. C. Dayton. George Boughton, Mary Ford, Burton; Helen M. Stone, New York; Mrs.: W. Howard, L.
E. Durfee, S. W. Osborn, Chardon; Mrs.: T. Caldwell, H. I. Ford, 0. E. Lyman, Parkman; Mrs. James G. Lindsley, Cheshire, Allegan county, Michigan; Mrs.: Darling, Garrett, Indiana; Mrs.: J. E. Wales, John Cutler, B. H. Pratt, Troy; Mrs. C. W. Heywood, Chester; Mrs. Leonard Lamson. Chagrin Falls.
Alto.—Mrs. Cadaell, Parkman; Mrs. Ettie Fox, Emily Parsons, Minot Olds, Troy.
To the above we append the following list: Mrs. Colonel Spencer, Mrs. Theron Smith, Mrs. M. L. Maynard; J. C. Hollis, W. Howard, Chardon; Cyrus Kellogg, Mrs. Frank C. Kellogg, Frank Wells and lady, Horace Treat, Mrs. Rufus Waters, Claridon. There are many others whose names we could not obtain. Some of them, not very old, sang with the peculiarities of the style and voice
of a hundred years ago.
* HON, PETER HITCHCOCK’S ADDRESS,
MR. PRESIDENT.-By your direction I come to speak words of welcome to this assembled people. Members of Geauga County Historical society, friends and neighbors, It is with the greatest pleasure and utmost cordiality this welcome is given. Welcome to this beautiful autumnal day, with its changing light and shade; fleeting clouds and chasing sunshine; its sweet balmy air and many colored dressing. Welcome to you, fathers and mothers, links with the past, as you once more gather to rehearse stories of "ye olden times," and aid us in gathering its history. Welcome to that additional beauty which clothes your declining days, as do the many changing hues clothe yon maple woods in surpassing beauty. Welcome to you, young people, who are so soon to fill the places made vacant by us, gathered to-day in such numbers to hear, revere and remember the doings of the early pioneers in our county's history. Welcome to you, "Singists" of the days gone by. And to you, sir (Prof. Pratt), once of our number, who, after so many years of absence, have come to renew old acquaintance, and, by your songs, add so much to our pleasure, bringing, as they do, fresh to our recollection, so many memories of childhood's early days, to you is this welcome extended. To one, and all, is sent most cordial greeting.
For many years since the organization of this society, we have annually met for social enjoyment, and with the ultimate purpose of securing a correct history of the facts and incidents attending the early settlement of our county. I welcome you to the probable completion of this work, of which you heard from the president of the society this morning.
* The addresses of Messrs. Hitchcock, Robert Murray, and W. J, Ford, were delivered before the meeting; others, hereinafter given, were subsequently prepared for publication.
48 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
Thrice welcome to this spot, where first commenced the settlement of this county. Almost within reach of my voice, near by yonder hillside spring, was planted the first cabin of a permanent settler within its limits. One mile northwest of this was erected a school-house of logs. In this, a few years subsequently, my own father taught school, taking his pay in pork, at ten dollars a month—glad to get it, too, for it came very convenient in supplying the wants of a rapidly increasing family. In 1798, now eighty years since, was this first settlement made. Eighty years! Almost three generations of men. How long a period in prospect! How brief in retrospect! As we turn back the page of time and think of the countless blows required to level its gigantic forests, and the vast labor to bring about the changes accomplished between then and now, long as is this time, it seems all too short for this work. Then, no fire upon the hilltop, or curling smoke from the valley, told of more than the bivouac of the solitary hunter or camp of the Indian. Now the twinkling lights over hilt and valley, and the ascending smoke from thousands of chimneys reach the abodes of civilization. Then, no ringing church bell broke the stillness of the Sabbath morning, calling the people to worship. Now, upon each returning Sabbath day, from hill-top to hill-top, ring out the clear notes, and, answering to their call, the people gather in their accustomed places for church service.
Then, no school-house opened its doors to the rising generation, and there were no children to enter were they thus opened ; now, the white school-house is seen upon all our corners, and daily hundreds of children are found therein acquiring elementary education. Then, the first wheat sown was among stumps and girdled trees, simply stirring the virgin soil with a wood-tooth harrow, or hoeing in the seed among fire weeds; now, the same thing is accomplished upon well-cleared, well-tilled fields, with the most approved, combined drill. Then, no whirling mill-stones made flour for the thousands. It only could be obtained by mashing the grain by hand, between stones, upon the top of a hard stump, or by carrying it long miles to a remote mill, through woods untrodden, save by wild beasts and wilder aborigines; now, upon our streams, at convenient distances, all over the county, are found these accompaniments of civilization. Then, no bridges spanned the streams, no roads, and scarce a bridle path traversed any portion of the county; now, good straight roads and substantial bridges make every point easily accessible. Then, mighty oaks, grand old chestnuts, stately poplars, sturdy maples, beeches and hickories, and along her water-courses, and in her valleys, magnificent elms and walnuts, with other woods, covered the entire surface. No village centers, with their beautiful residences; no farm homes, with barns and accompanying out-buildings, were to be seen, but all, from one extreme of the country to the other, was one entire wilderness of woods; now, all is changed. Largely, these grand old monarchs of the forest have been removed—even their very stumps eradicated; substantial and beautrful farm-houses dot every hillside, are found in every valley and along all our well-made highways. Then there was no such county as Geauga, no such county organization. Not until four years after this first settlement was the State admitted into the Union; now, the county, although shorn of a large portion of her original territory, limited in extent, small in population, and of moderate wealth, is, from the known intelligence of her people and the character of the men she has furnished the State, recognized as one of the counties, second to none in point of standing and influence.
I have often thought I would love to see this country just as it was when our fathers came to rt. One entire, interminable, trackless wilderness of woods. Imagine, if you can, the difference between now and then. In place of finely cleared, fenced and cultivated farms, straight, smooth roads, and substantial bridges ; of beautiful residences, convenient mills, commodious churches
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 49
and school-houses ; of towns and villages—one unbroken forest of heavy timber, unscarred even by the woodman's axe. How and by whom has this change beep wrought ? ' Gladly I speak words of welcome to the rush of memories that come thronging upon our minds of those who have gone before. Those pioneers who, by their faith, bravery, strength, labor and endurance, commenced the settlement and laid the foundations of society in this county of Geauga —the result of which has been that, while without mineral wealth, and whatever may be said as to her productiveness of soil, yet with her beauty of landscape, changing scenery, healthfulness of climate, intelligence and general thriftful character of her people, Geauga county is one of the pleasantest places to live God ever made.
I speak in Our hearing to-day, the names of the first settlers of the various townships in the county, and ask a welcome to their memory.
Thomas Underfield and Amariah Beard were first settlers in Burton, coming in 1798. Middlefield was first settled in 1799, by Isaac and James Thompson. Dr. Isaac Palmer made the first settlement in Thompson, in the year 1800. In 1801 the settlement of Hambden was commenced by Dr. Solomon Bond, and of Chester by Justice Minor. Robert B. Parkman, the first settler in Parkinan, commenced the settlement of that township in 1804. In 1807 Stephen Pomeroy commenced the settlement of Huntsburg. Newbury was first settled in 1808, by Samuel Punderson. The following townships were first settled in 1811 : Bainbridge by David McConnoughey, Troy by Jacob Webb, and Claridon by Asa Cowles. It is claimed by some that, in the year 1808, Stephen Higby built a primitive grist-mill, and settled just inside of the north line of the latter township, but about this there is dispute. Norman Canfield made the first permanent settlement of Chardon in 1812, although a man by the name of Jordan lived there a short time, some years earlier. Auburn was first settled in 1815, by Bildad Bradley, and the same year was Montville by Roswell Stevens. Samuel Hopson was the first settler of Munson in a 1816, as was Ebenezer R. Russell, of Russell, in 1818.
These men, with their families, and others of the earlier pioneers whose names will appear in the history about to be published, under Providence, are entitled to our grateful recognition for laying the foundation of our present prosperity and happiness. Coming almost all of them from New England homes, with their rugged character, sterling worth, economic habits, love of liberty and equality, ideas of religion and interest in education, they indelibly stamped like characteristics upon their offspring. To them toil was nothing, privation nothing, only that they might secure homes for themselves, and competence for their families, surrounding them with churches, schools, and other advantages of civilized life.
"They climbed the blue embattled hills,
Against uncounted foes,
And planted there, in valleys fair,
The lily and the rose;
Whose fragrance lives in many lands,
Whose beauty stars the earth,
And lights the hearths of happy homes,
With loveliness and worth."
Let us revere their memory, emulate their worth, practice their virtues, passing to those who come after us the rich boon committed to our charge.
As we walk to the humble cemeteries where repose their remains, and upon the quaint old stones which mark their resting places read their names, let, us lightly press the sod, covering their graves, and reverently whisper our acknowledgment of the great debt we owe to them.
50 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
Finally, Mr. President, * with grateful recognition of that kind providence, which has spared you until this time, I bid you welcome.
Welcome to this day, to this occasion, and especially to the near accomplishment of that purpose to which, with such earnest zeal, constant labor and eminent success, you have devoted the declining years of your life—the collection and publication of a correct history of the facts attending the settlement, growth and present status of the county of Geauga.
I said "declining years." Allow me, sir, to say that yours is "a green, old age." That, however, the body may "decline" in strength, the mind is in full strength and vigor, of which abundant evidence has been shown during the years of this labor.
Thus welcoming this assemblage of people, the memories that cluster about us, and yourself, sir, I fear in words not fitly chosen, the duty assigned me by • you is discharged, and I give way to others.
ADDRESS BY ROBERT MURRAY,
I commenced driving cattle in 1832. I bought two or three droves that year—prices for oxen from twenty-five to fifty dollars per pair; steers three to four years old, from ten to fifteen dollars a head. In 1864 I paid for oxen from two hundred to three hundred and fifty dollars per pair; steers, three to four years old, from sixty to one hundred and twenty dollars per head. It took from twenty-eight to thirty days to drive a drove of cattle from Geauga county, Ohio, to Chester county, Pennsylvania. When I first began driving, experience taught me that a slower pace was much better. When we had learned ,how to drive it took from thirty-five to forty days. In driving fast the cattle would bunch up—get close together—and lame one another ; step on each other's heels. They would get so lame by huddling them together, and fast driving, that many were left on the road, where they would stay until the next drove followed, then if they were well they would go into market. Expense per head for driving when I commenced was from one dollar and fifty cents to two dollars and fifty cents per head; in war times from four to eight dollars per head. If the cattle were wholesaled one hundred or one hundred and fifty miles this side of their destination, then the expense was very much lessened. We had two butes to drive, and could take either—one by Franklin, Philipsburg (old Fort), thence to the Susquehanna river, about fifty miles below Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The other route was by way of Pittsburgh, thence to Bedford, Chambersburg, Carlisle, Harrisburg, and on to Chester county.
In going east from Prttsburgh you soon strike mountains. The first is Chestnut Ridge, and the next, Laurel Hill. It is more than a hill; it is a large mountain, I assure you. Next is the Alleghany mountain, twenty miles over it from one base to the other. Soon you come to Bedford, noted for its mineral springs, and has been a popular place of resort for a great many years. From Bedford to Bloody Run—a small place—but the stream called Bloody run was so named on account of a battle said to have occurred with the first settlers and Indians. The stream was red with blood, is the tradition. From
* Judge Lester Taylor.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 51
Bloody Run to the foot of Siding Hill, six or eight miles, following near the same stream, said to have been blood at one time, then you rise a distance of three miles; then you are on a level for three or four miles; then down three miles to Fannettsburg, a little town, and very old, with three or four hundred inhabitants; thence over what is called the Three Brother mountains. It generally takes two days to cross all three; but they could be driven in one, as it is but thirteen miles over them. From the top of the last Brother mountain you can see a very great distance; just as far as the eye can behold objects, the sight is a beautiful one indeed. You can see Shippensburg, a distance of thirteen miles. It is fifty miles from Strasburg, a little town at the base of this last Brother, to Harrisburg, and about the same distance to Little York, in York county. Sometimes drovers went by the way of Little York, and at other times by the way of Harrisburg. glide were many counties east of the Susquehanna river that were large feeding counties for many years.
Chester and Lancaster counties were both large feeding counties. Chester fed, say thirty thousand, and Lancaster thirty-five thousand head of cattle per year, for many years, but now they do not feed any at all compared with what they did years gone by. So it is all over that district. Feeding cattle, sheep, or other animals, was an almost universal matter of olden times, in that section of the country, but not now, they keep cows and make butter, preferring that the farmers in the far west should feed their beef, pork, and mutton, as the men east say their land is too valuable to raise cattle on.
I get letters from many of my old acquaintances within the feeding districts, who tell me they have gone back pecuniarily—that they are not near so well off as in olden times when they fed from one to five pair of oxen, and from five to seventy-five and even one hundi-ed steers per year. I fully believe they are right in the matter, especially those who bought of us and did not raise their feeding stock then. Would it not be better for us to commence raising good nice oxen and steers again? They are as good as yellow gold to any and all farmers who have them on hand. Our Reserve cattle, compared with western, were very much better, much more thrifty, and better in color. I think our early breeds came from Connecticut here. The first good cattle I remember, or the first improved cattle, were the Holbrook or Bakewell cattle. They were especially good for working oxen—they had similarity—were made alike, consequently they were easily matched. Many were of the brindle color, and had a white line along the back. Their horns were similar; many had broad, long horns. Next woe the Durhams and Devons; and now we have a multitude of breeds, too numerous to mention. The very last drove of oxen I ever bought were bought mostly in Burton. It was in the spring, or in the early part of the year. Almost every pair was a nice red color, and of sufficient age to be a good size. They were the nicest oxen I ever saw or expect to see. I bought two pair of Governor Ford, one or two of Colonel Henry Ford, one of *Olen Ford, one of Noah Page, one of Deacon Cook, one of Deacon Hotchkiss, one or two of Mr. Williams, the old gentleman, a very nice pair of Joel Merriman, one pair of Lewis Welton, one of James Peffers, one of Horace Cook. The most of the drove came from Burton and its immediate vicinity.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 53
W. J. FORD’S ADDRESS ON RELICS.
MR. PRESIDENT: The duty to which you have assigned me to-day, to speak of Relics, their Uses and Associations, is only a recall from the now to the past.
Their uses to remind—their associations!—what memories do they stir along the line of years, and how kindle again the thought of bravery and endurance, of patient suffering and of toil.
Why keep the old axe, with blunted edge, and slivered helve, dropping it away in a corner, or fast on the wood-shed siding? The strong arm that sent its once shining bit, cleaving the wood to the eye, and the pulse that beat steadily to the forest music of its ringing stroke is at rest now. Keep it. Keep it alway, to remind the children, and the children's children, of the work of the fathers hewing their way through the wilderness in the march of civilization.
Some eye will look upon the rifle. Its breech may be broken and the rust of an age have gathered on its long barrel. The flint, dusty and unused, will hold its fire, and the heart of some beholder will picture it back again in the loops above the log cabin door, or hear its sharp crack, when the "head was drawn" on the wild game, or see the smoke of its flash defending a home against the knife and the torch of the treacherous red man. Leave it then, that it may forever point as defender against dangers encountered by those who stood to the front of the west, at the dawn of the century just closing.
A chair is by the fire, and the logs of hickory crackle, and the hot flames leap high on the jam stones of the wide chimney, flashing queer shadows on the dog and the children on the floor, and along the bench of pots and baking pans— against the cupboard of blue plate and pewter platters, and give wierd forms to the phantoms that play upon the rude bed in the corner, with the "trundle" beneath, wide enough, lengthwise,' for six boys—brown of face, with heads of tow, hand and leg and foot of tan—half of them drowsing with the great dog by the fire; while the patient mother has cleared the "bench table," washed the "trench" and "poked back" the ashes from the hot corn loaf, baked on the hearth stone, and shelved it for the morrow, and before she has had time to "tuck" them side by side on the bark slats of the "trundle," for the night.
That chair, though its arms be worn away, and the legs carry the scratches of dogs; though its back is scarred with the hacks of the boys, and the woven bark of the' seat is half gone, let it stand and recall the days when the father sat there, and the mother, by his side, told of the day when they wed—then came from the hills of New England, from the land nigh the sea; toiling for weeks along the hundreds of miles of rough and wearisome way. Let it stand to call up that old fire-side, for then, by the ashes and glow of the coals they were kept, when chill were the frosts and high were the snows, nor forsook it when the sunshine had smiled. When the gloom of death had shadowed the house, by it they have wept and have prayed. Let us keep it, while thus it calls up the old cabin's hearth-stone.
On the shelves of the Society's case is a Bible, given by Deacon Gervase Spring—the "Book of all books!" what spirit has it cultured? In the spread of civilization, the light of its leaves has been as the "uprising and going down of the sun," in millions of houses—brightening and gladdening always. In the
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 53
wilds of the then Ohio forests, when the woodman came from his toil, and the rude repast was served, as the evening shadows gathered, the wife took it from the chimney-shelf, and calling the children around, in the blaze of the fire-light he read, (Isaiah xxxv, 1)—"The wilderness and the solitary places shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." And again, (Deuteronomy xxxii, 4)—"He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment ; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." With most implicit confidence in this Godkf the Bible, he closes the lids and kneels in prayer. \Vas not this the way of life with Deacon Marimon Cook in the old house days. When the children are grown, and one after another is claimed to make happy other homes, the binding tie that unites them, gains solemnity from its pages. "What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder;" and farewell tears are shed over the blessed book.
Come the darkness of the night and the evil day, when the fever rages and wild is the pulse, and father or mother wasting fast, go close down on the borders of the deep sea, waiting the call from the land unknown, when Faith is the angel that breaketh the gloom; 'tis with the song of Israel (Psalm xxiii, 4): "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Blessed book! the "old, old Bible that lay on the stand."
Ephraim Clark was in the Revolution, and marched with the flag to push back the drilled armies of the foe. How thought is swift, on the field of Monmouth, as the great commander rides to the front in time to check Lee's retreat, and in the sweep of battle and awful heat of the day, changes defeat to victory. Washington comes before you at the Delaware, Germantown and Yorktown, and starving men stir the snows of winter with bloody and shoeless feet, marching to freedom.
Ephraim Clark sleeps. The powder-horn and canteen that were with him on the field one hundred years ago, are with us, and to look upon them stirs our hearts to-day. Our fathers deeded the first public property ever given in Burton—the square—to this soldier, and others, thus honoring his name.
A piece of wood, a present from Mrs. Captain George McFadden, of Lubec, Maine, I bring from that port of the sea, to enlarge the collections. It is "live oak." Hold it firmly, for it has trembled beneath the cannonade of a great ship's broadside, closing down in the contest with the mightiest naval power of earth, when in the war of 1812, she came to battle on the high seas and swept victory from the best guns that ever manned an English quarter-deck.
Captain Uriah Coolidge, commander of the United States revenue cutter, "Swift Sure," by order of the government, when the great ship was raised, secured whatever was valuable. He took, also, from the wreck, one of the ship's knees, and it came down to his son Uriah, then to his granddaughter Julia, and from her to Mrs. McFadden. With her consent, I cut this block from the knee. It was so hard it seemed an hour's steady work to saw it off.
On the nineteenth of August, 1812, the ship from which it was taken, was commanded by Captain Hull, and with a loss of only seven killed and seven wounded, fought the British ship "Guerriere," causing her surrender with fifteen killed and sixty-three wounded. On the twenty-ninth of December, when off the coast of Brazil, in command of Commodore Bainbridge, she bore down on the "Java," and a fearful battle ensued, her loss being nine killed and twenty- .five wounded. The terrific carnage of that day, in the English ship, given in history, was sixty killed and one hundred and twenty wounded. The mighty ship from which this block was cut, and that waited' silently that day, unmoved by the fire of the enemy, until the right position was gaihed, then poured broad- Side after broadside into the very hull and decks of foe, crimsoning the sea
54 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO
with blood and darkening the heavens with the smoke of battle, until the British flag went down, while the American stars blazed in triumph from her mast head, was the grand old ship "Constitution."
The last of this recall to-day, is the canteen, cup, haversack and knapsack, from the Forty-first Ohio. The canteen was on the field of Stone River, December 31, 1862, and was presented to the donor by a rebel prisoner. They are all the gift of John C. Chellis. By-and-by, they may not tell the story of that brave soldier in the war against rebellioq, and of the leg he lost at Mission Ridge, nor speak of Talcott and Patchin at Shiloh, or Hitchcock at Perryville, for the passing years will, in a measure, cover these names from the coming generations, but the sight of these relics will ever revive the fields on which these brave men did such noble duty, and the armies of a hundred more marching from Vicksburg to Atlanta, sweeping by Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain, or swinging from Antietam to Gettysburg—along the Wilderness to Petersburg and Richmond—and over again the mind will repeat the tramp of the boys with Sherman wheeling for the sea.
The stroke of the pen of Freedom's martyr—Abraham Lincoln—severing the bonds of the slave, proclaiming all races free and equal before God—and in the American Union, will be known as the breath of Jehovah sweeping away the darkness of centuries. The march of the millions who trod the clay and mortar in the best blood of the land, that all States in the mighty circuit from sea to sea might be cemented in a union never to be broken, will be the sublime review of the ages that number the flag of the fathers, planted by the heroes of these grand memories on every citadel from shore to shore, unfolding above every bulwark in the land and from our ships on all oceans, the victory of right and the triumph. of truth.
GOD BLESS THE BRAVE OLD PIONEERS.
God bless the brave old pioneers
Who forged our native land !
Their names and deeds my soul reveres,
I love that noble band.
Methinks I see my country now,
As once it was possessed,
A forest on the fertile brow
Of all the teeming West.
Where Learning her rich tribute brings
Dwells Sloth Ind Ignorance,
Where Labor’s voice of tumult rings
I bear the savage dance.
No church-spire points to Him on high.
Beneath the purple dome.
A fugitive is Industry,
There is no school nor home.
No steamer plies the river's blue.
No railroad spans the plain.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 55
No Stars and Stripes of stainless hue,
Wave o'er the wide domain,
All, all a desert wild and lone,
As trackless as the setts;
To the Caucasian foot unknown,
A boundless waste of trees.
Methinks I see a stalwart few,
With axe and trusty gun,
Bid the Atlantic coast adieu,
And face the setting sun.
They penetrate the darksome woods,
Where counttess foes reside,
Where bears and panthers nurse their broods
And human beasts abide.
I hear the ringing of the axe
Re-echo thro' the glen,
I hear the rifle's sharp, fierce cracks
And shouts of angry men.
And lo! there is a peaceful lult,
When over all the land
Spring states and cities beautiful,
As by the enchanter’s wand.
The Indian is but a name,
The wilderness is gone,—
The night was storm and battle-flame,
Behold the glorious dawn!
God bless the brave old pioneers!
Most all are passed away,—
A few of venerable year
Are with us still to-de?.
Alas! Their number smaller grows
As each year hurries by,
And soon in Death's long, sweet repose
The last true heart will lie.
The harvests they have sown we reap ;
The benefits they thought
If purchased with their lives were cheap;
Our happiness they sought.
All kindness, reverence bestow,
And let us strive to pay
The debt of gratitude we owe
To them, not long we may.
0 twine a garland for each brow,
And kiss each withered cheek,
And let the heart of deeds tell how
The powerless tongue would speak.
God bless the brave old pioneers!
Their names shall grace Fame's page
As long as a free man reveres
His priceless heritage.
0 yes, as long as Freedom’s sun
On Hopes bright sky appears,
Next to the men of Lexington
Shall be the pioneers.
—FRANKLIN E. DENTON.
56 - HISTORY OF GRAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
THE PAST AND PRESENT OF SURVEYING
Most of the nations of antiquity knew nothing of the science of surveying.
The Jews, at the time of the distribution by lot of the land of Canaan, after its conquest under Joshua, knew nothing of surveying by the use of the magnetic needle. They, like other nations, made their boundaries to correspond with natural objects, such as mountains, rivers, and other objects.
The Romans laid out their cities and lines of estates by getting the meridian by the sun, by marking the distance and direction of the shadi my of a rod or pole on a level, smooth surface, say at ten o'clock A. M., and again at two o'clock P. it., and then marking the section of a circle from one point to the other, then equally dividing this section of the circle for the true meridian. This would be very correct at the time of the solstices.
Land survey was in use by the Egyptians at a very-remote period, mostly by angle to re-establish monuments and lines obliterated by the overflow of the Nile.
The Chinese first used the magnet to guide them in the darkness of night and when the sun was obscured by clouds, both on the land and water, more than one thousand years before Christ. It is certain they used the magnetic needle before the birth of Christ
It was introduced into Europe from China about the year goo, for we find in history that King Alfred of England, in the year 900, had the landed estates of his kingdom surveyed, the first surveying with the compass in that country. England was again surveyed in the reign of William the Conqueror in 1080, and again by Charles II in the year 1668.
Down to the year 1180 the mariners of Europe were guided, while on their voyages, by keeping in sight of land, or by the sun and stars. At that time the mariners' compass was first used.
It was first used in Italy in the year 1300. The compass was mentioned by Guyot in his writings in the year 1190, and by Raymond Luly in 1286.
The Vernier plate was first invented by Vernier, a Frenchman, in 1631, but was not in general use for many years. And many of the older compasses now in a condition to be used are without it.
The variation or declination was first discovered by Columbus on his voyage of discovery in 1492, without the knowledge of which no correct retracing of old lines can be made.
One hundred years ago the surveyors' compass was a simple and rude instrument compared to the best now. It was extremely difficult to be very accurate without great labor. Surveyors did not expect to run an accurate line at the first trial, but would stake out a trial line, and ascertain how far they varied from a true line, and then correct it by moving the stakes into a true line.
When the lands composing the Western Reserve were first surveyed, they were all covered by a dense forest, and were considered of little value, so were surveyed very carelessly. They connected but few or no lines. Many of the townships were surveyed by the job, as it is called.
The townships of our county are called five miles square, but they all vary. Some are more and some less than five miles. The eastern tier of townships
* By Jam V. Whitney, of Montville.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 57
average about five miles, but on the north it is more, and at the south it is less. The second tier is much less thon five miles in its whole length—about one hundred rods less. The third tier is about one hundred rods more than five miles, measured east and west; the west tier a little more than five miles. The lots and sections are no better; it is very uncommon to find one perfectly square.
The township line between Huntsburg and Montville, as marked at the original survey at one point, made an angle of ten degrees from a straight line for the distance of thirty or forty rods, and then turned back to the original line ; the departure from the true line was for the distance of sixty rods. In the township of Huntsburg one tier of lots will lack the quantity of land stated by the original survey, ten or fifteen acres, and the adjoining tier will have that amount more.
Any one can easily imagine what a difficult task a surveyor at the present time has in retracing those old lines. No two running exactly parallel, and no two intersecting in a perfect right angle. There has been a great improvement in the last century in the science, and, perhaps, a greater improvement in the instruments used; and yet there are still existing many defects both in the science and in the instruments now used. First, the defects in the science. The variation or declination from the true meridian is a serious difficulty. This variation being different at different localities, and increasing or diminishing at different points, and in the opposite direction on opposite sides of a certain line. Again, the needle is affected by heat or cold, the time of day or night, by local attractions, by electricity in the atmosphere, by lightning, and many other things.
Again, there are defects in the best instruments, both in correctness and in precision ; for, as I have stated, it will not point exactly alike, if its surroundings are different; and it is not perfectly precise, for the point may not quite point to the mark on the circle, and a very slight variation will change the line in a great distance enough to make a serious error. An inaccuracy of one-fourth of a degree will, in running a mile, make an error of twenty-three feet. A difference of only one-tenth of a degree, in the same distance, will make an error of nine and one-fourth feet.
Now, all this need not make any one lose confidence in the science. By carefully considering all of the surrounding circumstances and influences, and a correct estimate of the variation, the work can be made correct enough for all practical purposes. For, when an engineer can survey a tunnel through a mountain, five mils long and several hundred feet under the surface, and, beginning at opposite ends, five miles apart, meet in the centre so as not to make an error from a true line of more than one-half of an inch, we need have no fears about the correctness of the science or instruments, if carefully used.
58 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO
THE PHYSICIANS OF THE COUNTY,
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :—I have been invited to say something from a medical standpoint upon this occasion. I am sure that a much better selection could have been made. There are older members of the profession, whose professional career far antedates my own, and whose early experience was made up of incidents connected with the early history of the settlement of the Western Reserve.
I am proud to be able to say that the medical profession has borne its full share of the hardships and privations incident to the early settlement of this county. But it gives me pain when I think that there is not one of those faithful servants of the past generation left to tell us their experience. All are gone! Hard work and exposure to storms and frosts have done their worst "The places that once knew them, know them no more." The faces of those who were looked upon by the sick and the afflicted for relief and consolation, during the early part of the present century, are not here to-day, but the memories of their noble work still live in the hearts of all who were in any way connected with the settlement of this and adjoining counties.
Tradition has preserved for us many incidents connected with their lives; it tells us of their self-sacrificing devotion to the work of their chosen profession, under difficulties which none but the most heroic would dare to undertake. In visiting their patients they often had to travel from ten to twenty miles, with no roads, save a bridle-path, and many times naught but marked trees by which they could find their way; fording bridgeless streams, swollen by recent rains or the melting of the heavy snows which are wont to fall in this region; sometimes becoming lost in the woods, they had to spend the night without fire, food, or shelter, their ears saluted by the howls of the wild beasts which beset their pathway. This, my friends, is but a dim picture of what the early practitioners of medicine underwent in the discharge of their arduous duties—battling with disease, and robbing death of its victim.
Perhaps the first physician of note who come to this county to settle was Dr. Kennedy. He settled in Burton in 1812, and had quite an extensive practice in the northern part of the county.
Dr. Clark settled the same year on the State road, near the northwest corner of Middlefield. As far as I can learn he did not succeed very well as a practitioner.
Dr. Goodwin settled in Burton in 1814. He was a surgeon in the war of 1812. He was a man of sterling integrity and worth. He possessed a strong will and a fixedness of purpose, which but few possess. He enjoyed the entire confidence of the people of the whole county, and also portions of the adjoining counties. His practice, as a result of that confidence, was very extensive, and on account of the obstacles which at that early day must be overcome, rendered it necessarily arduous.
Dr. Denton came to this county and settled in Chardon in 1820. He was a graduate of Columbia college, both in the arts and medicine. He was an accom-
* An address prepared for delivery at the annual meeting of the Geauga Historical society, held at Burton, October 15, 1878, by Orange Pomeroy, M. D.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 59
plished scholar and a fine physician. He acquired a fine practice all through the northern towns of the county. He died in 183o.
There were other physicians who came into the county at a more subsequent date to those already mentioned, but my time will only permit me to mention but briefly some of them. Among them I will mention the name of Dr. L. A. Hamilton, who located in Chardon in 1830, and continued to practice his profession at that place until his death, which occurred January 7, 1867. He had a fine reputation as a surgeon all over the county.
Dr. Ludlow located in Auburn township in 1820. He had an extensive practice through the southern towns of the county.
Dr. E. Breck located in Huntsburgh in 1826. He had a local reputation as a successful practitioner. He lived there for many years, and finally removed to Brecksville, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, where he died a few years ago. There are others who from time to time came to the county, but did not stay long enough to become generally known.
The deceases from which the early settlers suffered were from natural causes-- malarial. The soil, in all parts, consisted of decomposing vegetable matter, which, upon the clearing away of the dense forests and the overturning with the plow, exposed this rich compost to the sun's rays, causing the development of a subtitle poison, which becoming mixed with the atmosphere to an extent sufficient to develop intermittent and remittent fevers, which were, at an early day, very general upon the high as well as upon the low lands.
There was another cause which may still be said to exist, but only to render those diseases endemic—that is, the general topography.
Geauga county is an elevated plateau, and is drained by the following streams : the Grand river drains about onementhird of the area on the north and east; the Cuyahoga, the central third; and the Chagrin river, the western third. The branches of the Grand river are generally rapid, and there is but little swamp land in that portion. Therefore, there is not a suitable field for the development of the miasmatic poison. The same may be said of the Chagrin and its branches, with the exception, perhaps, of that portion which runs through Munson township; that, however, for a number of years, has been quite free from malarial diseases, but some years ago they prevailed to an alarming extent.
With the Cuyhoga river the condition is different—it has but little fall and therefore the curent is sluggish, from its sourse in the northern part of the county to the extreme southern end of the same. It has broad bottoms, which, in Middlefield, Burton and Troy townships, become very low and swampy. A few years ago a special tax was raised for the purpose of lowering the bed of the river at the rapids and also to ditch the swamp. That work has now been completed, and has resulted in materially lessening sickness, which was formally so severe among the inhabitants in the viciniry. It has also had the effect of reclaiming thousands of acres of, heretofore, worthless land, and rendering it valuable for meadows and pasture.
I will now briefly touch upon the history of the various epidemics which have from time to time visited this county. As I have said before, the first and most prominent diseases which prevailed here were the malarial fevers. There were some years in which they had more the appeareance of an epidemic, as in such years nearly all of the people were more or less severely affected with intermittent or remittent fever. In the years of 1812 and 1814 those diseases were particularly prevalent, during the autumn and spring. About the same time (I am unable to learn the exact year), an epidemic of erysipelas prevailed in the eastern part of the county, as well as in Ashtabula and Trumbull counties. It was called at the time "black tongue." It was very fatal And was accompanied by puerperal fever, which was also exceedingly fatal in its results.
60 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
In 1816, typhus fever made its appearance, and was very fatal, on account of its malignity and the mistaken ideas of its pathology. The most of the physicians having come from New England, where the diseases were of an inflammatory type, requiring the free use of the lancet and other active depleting agents, were not prepared to meet a new disease differing so completely from those with which they had had to deal—a disease the essence of which was a peculiar blood poisoning, and the treatment best adapted being tonics and stimulants and not sedatives. This fever left an impression which is felt to this day—all diseases being more or less of an asthmic type.
After the typhus fever I have no information to lead me to think that there was any unusual sickness until 1821, when remittent fever prevailed to n alarming extent in the valley of the Cuyahoga. In Burton it was particularly severe, and there were a great many fatal cases.
An epidemic of dysentery occurred in 1832, which was very fatal, particularly, in Chardon and vicinity. This disease has never been so much of a scourge in this locality as it has along the lake shore.
In 1843, pneumonia made its appearance, and became quite general in the western part of the county, along the eastern branch of the Chagrin river. In 1845, as many here can remember, there was scarcely any rain from April to September. The streams and swamps, as a result of such a drought, were in many places completely dried up.
The following year, 1846, was unusually wet, and as a result of these extremes in the hydrometric condition of the atmosphere, was a development of a severe epidemic of the malarial fevers, which were unusually severe in the valley of the Cuyahoga, particularly in Burton township. Mr. Luther Russell informs me that there were not enough that were well to take care of the sick.
About 1844, typhoid fever made its appearance in the vicinity of North Newbury. It was very fatal, especially at the above locality. From this starting point, it gradually spread over the county, and was the most severe and fatal Upon the highest lands and during the wrnter season. It continued with variable severity till about 1865, since which time it has been so changed by the influence of the local malaria that it has lost most of its destructive features, and gradually merged into what is known as "typo-malarial fever."
In the spring of 1846, small-pox broke out in East Claridon. It was very malignant, though confined wrthin narrow limits. There were about ninety cases of the disease, with nine or ten deaths. There was the greatest excitement among the neighboring community, and the roads leading to the little hamlet were fenced up, and scarce any intercourse was allowed with the outside world for about two months.
In 1850, an epidemic of erysipelas made its appearance, and was very fatal in the northern towns of the county.
No disease occurred from this time, except such as are endemic to certain localities, until 186o. In the fall of that year diphtheria made its appearance, first in Chardon, but it soon became general all over the county. It was a fearful scourge among children; it being more fatal among them and feeble adults, than any other class. The epidemic lasted about two years, but as is the case wrth all diseases, became milder in its form, until it is now not so much dreaded as formerly. There are still sporadic cases of the disease, which occur occasionally to show that it is still alive among us.
With the exception of diphtheria there has been no prevailing diseases, and during the last three years it has been particularly healthy.
The question is often asked of physicians—have diseases changed in their character since the first settlement of this county? I answer in the affirmative. Many causes may be alleged to account for the change—among them I will
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 61
mention first, as a cause which would be likely to produce such a result, difference in the mode of living.—One need but compare the present style with that of forty or sixty years ago. The dwellings are large and more convenient now, but not as well ventilated as formerly. There was then the large, open fireplace, with its massive chimney. The crevices between the logs of the structure and the thatching of its roof, giving to the inmates plenty of God's pure air, which has not had its vitalizing properties burnt out of it by stoves and furnaces. The dietary is not the same. The coarse bread, from corn and rye, are now seldom seen upon the table, but a substitute, made from finely ground wheaten flour, with its most nutritous parts bolted out of it, forms the chief article of food for all classes, having the effect of enfeebling the digestive organs, and by that means setting in motion all the evils in the train of dyspepsia. I have not the time to mention other articles of food which are not as wholesome as they formally were.
Next among the causes of the change, I will mention the clearing away of the forests—letting in the cold, bleak winds that chilled to the very heart all those that are exposed to their influence, producing catarrhal diseases of the lungs and air passages. And, also, dessiminating over a wider range of country the miasmata which are developed in the valleys of the streams, thus modifying the type of all diseases.
I will lastly mention a condition which has recently challenged the attention of physicians generally. That is the undoubted increase of diseases of the nervous system. The causes are manifold—some have already been mentioned. But there is one other to which I will direct your attention. That is the training of the mental organism to the utter disregard of the physical. To have a healthy and vigorous mind it is necessary that there be a healthy and vigorous physical organization.
There is too much pushing and crowding of the child forward in his mental training. He is kept in school nine months of the twelve, and is expected at ten years of age to be as far advanced in all branches as the youth of forty years ago was at twenty, and at the age of eighteen this modern youth is master of the sciences. This result is wrought during the time when the growth and development are taking place, with the effect of checking and dwarfing both mind and body, and laying the foundation for diseases of the nervous system, which unfit the victim for either mental or physical labor. I have not time to go farther with this subject, which is a vital one, and one which demands a thorough investigation by all classes. I will now thank you for your kind attention, and leave the matter with you.
62 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO
THE PRESS OF GEAUGA COUNTY,*
The press, as the chronicler of passing events and the exponent of current sentiments and opinions, writes its own history, which can be found complete only in its pages, and is as voluminous as the files of its daily and weekly issues. Though every paper, especially every one directed by a single mind, must have a certain individuality, recognized by all who habitually read it, and which cannot fail to make its impress upon the community from which it derives its support, it is in this distinctive impersonal character alone that the press is generally known, or its influence permanently felt.
The history of the press of Geauga county, in the restricted sense which admits of its being brought within the scope of this volume, may be more briefly written. A few names, dates, and comments, showing what papers have been published, and who have conducted them, with their general character, political or otherwise, and time of establishment and discontinuance (if not still rn existence), will suffice. Much that might be appropriate under this head is omitted, because in other articles.
The first paper ever published within the present limits of Geauga county was the Chardon Spectator and Gazette, established, probably, early in the summer of 1833, Alfred Phelps, esq., editor and proprietor. Prior to that time, Chardon, though the county seat of the undivided county, had been dependent entirely upon Painesville for newspaper facilities, the Telegraph being the leading, and, for several years, the only paper published in that place. Its venerable founder, Mr. Eber D. Howe, in his "Autobiography and Recollections of a Pioneer Printer," recently published, states that, local and personal dissensions, in which he had been editorially involved, led to the establishment, at Painesville, in September, 1828, of a rival newspaper, and that he soon discovered, as is often the case, that old and trusted friends were engaged in the plot. When the new paper first appeared, it was printed by two young men brought from Buffalo for the purpose, whose names he does not recall. Respecting this enterprise, and its results, he further says:
"After spending all the time and money which they [the young men mentioned above] could afford, they disappeared. Several other printers that came along were put aboard the teaky ship to navigate it as best they could. This paper was called the Geauga Gazette,, and put on a very respectable appearance.
“The next year our old friend, William L. Perkins, esq., who had recently come among us as a lawyer, and then in the prime of life, took charge of the editorial department for about a year, with what success I know not. He was succeeded by Mr. Henry Sexton, who kept the paper going one Or two years longer, when it was sold and taken to Chardon, and printed by Alfred Phelds, esq., for a year two longer, and finally disappeared from the county."
The Chardon Spectator and Geauga Gazette was a six-column folio of rather more than medium size. Its editor, Mr. Phelps, was a Whig in politics, of rare intelligence and conservative views, a true gentleman of the old school, whose editorials were well written, whose literary taste was apparent in his selections, and whose ideal of a model political newspaper was the old National
Intelligencer, of which he was a careful and appreciate reader. But he was not, as, every country editor should be, a practical printer, and, after publishing the paper nearly two years and a half, "at a constant pecuniary loss, besides the loss, of his own services, by no means inconsiderable, however inefficient," (as he
" By J. O. Converse.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 63
modestly suggests in his valedictory, November 27, 1835), he was reluctlantly compelled to abandon the enterprise. The establishment was sold to J. I. Browne, esq., editor of the Toledo Gazette, by whom it was removed to that city.
After the Spectator, no paper was published in Chardon until the spring of 1840, when (May 23d) appeared the first number of the Geauga Freeman, as the county organ of the Whig party, the late Joseph W. White, editor and proprietor. This also was a six-column folio, a little larger than its predecessor. The division of the county occurred the same year, since which event it has never been without a county paper. The year 1840 will always be remembered for the exciting and otherwise very remarkable and unprecedented campaign, which resulted in the election of General Harrison to the presidency. Of all the Whig counties in the State, Geauga, if not the banner county, was among the strongest and most enthusiastic for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." Editorially, Mr. White, though styling himself a Democratic-Republican," was accepted as, like Mr. Phelps, a Whig, but in other respects very unlike him, as the kind of paper demanded for the campaign of 1840, and which Mr. White provided, was unlike the dignified and conservative. Spectator, which answered five years before. In him was presented that strange anomaly in politics, a Whig with Democratic antecedents and proclivities. His life had been a varied and stormy one, and his character, which had doubtless been greatly influenced thereby, was both strong and angular. Born in Fort Duquesne, July 3, 1788, his parents, with many others, having taken refuge in the fort, from the Indians, then very numerous and troublesome to the settlers, his boyhood was spent in that city, where he served an apprenticeship at the printing business; and, after marrying Miss Polly Keisinger, near Beaver, Pennsylvania, January 4, 1810, he soon started with his young bride and her younger sister and husband, Porter Sawyer, also a printer, in midwinter, and in an open canoe, down the Ohio river, then filled with floating ice, for Marietta, where they arrived in safety, and, going thence to Zanesville, the two young men established at the latter place the Ohio Patriot, of which Mr. White became the leading editors The Patriot sustained the war of 1812, and correlative issues, as it was the boast of its editor that he sustained every war in which his country engaged; while its rival the Ohio Federalist, supported the other side, the latter being edited by Charles Hammond, in later years connected with the Cincinnati Gazette. It is also related of Mr. White that he was a schoolmate of Lewis Cass, and served with him a portion of the closing year of the war of 1812. He was a man of honest motive, but great eccentricity and hard, Puritanic notions, and, as may be supposed, was an ardent and aggressive partisan, who was believed to possess just the qualifications required in a conductor of a political paper in 1840. The last of the several newspaper enterprises in which he had embarked at different times, was at Medina, from which place he was induced to remove to Chardon, to supply the want, then beginning to be more seriously felt than ever, of a paper at the county seat. For many years previous to his death, which occurred near Youngstown, November 17, 1869, in his eighty-second year, he considered himself the oldest resident ex-editor and .printer in Ohio. The people of the county rallied to the support of the Freeman, making it a success from the outset; but Mr. White, in business as well as politics, was erratic, fond of change, and it was probably this disposition more than anything else that induced him to dispose of the paper, which he did after publishing it about two years and a half. During the campaign of 1844, his ion, Thomas J. White, published a small four-column folio, called the Geauga Polk-Eater; and he himself, having experienced another political change, or, as he explained in his salutatory, discovered his mistake and returned to his first Utica) love, started, on June 26th, of the same year, a-six-column Democratic
64 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
folio, called The Young Hickory and Spread-Eagle, but, lacking the requisite support, it was soon discontinued, and is by few remembered.
The Geauga Freeman was purchased in November, 1842, by David T. Bruce, who changed its name to the Geauga Republican and Whig. Mr. Bruce was connected with the paper for six years, or until infirmity, and especially failing eyesight, necessitated his retirement. For a year or more, William P. Lindsey was his editorial associate. In 1846, he took into copartnership his two sons, William W. and Eli Bruce, the firm being styled D. T. Bruce & Sons, still retaining the editorship himself; and at the expiration of the six years, he resigned the paper into the hands of his sons, who, December 25, 1849, changed the name to Geauga Republic. They continued its publication until January 17, 1854, and immediately thereafter removed, with their material, to Cleveland (West Side, or "Ohio City"), and established the daily and weekly Express. This was at first a neutral paper, but subsequently removed to the East Side, and converted into a Know-Nothing, or American organ, and died with the party whose cause it espoused. From November 12, 1850, until the Republic was discontinued, William W. Bruce, only, was named as its editor.
The elder Bruce was a man of great intelligence, positive character, and earnest convictions, always forcibly and fearlessly expressed, and, moreover, an intense and uncompromising Whig; and, as his sons were not wholly unlike him, the paper, during the years of overwhelming Whig ascendancy in which it flourished, enjoyed, in an eminent degree, the confidence and support of the people of the county. But the inevitable login of events not only annihilated all th4 old issues that had divided parties, and forced the important and soon overshadowing question of slavery to the forefront of national politics, but determined the destiny of the paper, and the Whig party as well. The Whig sentiment of the county was of the anti-slavery type represented by Joshua R. Giddings, and which found practical expression first in the Free-Soil, and finally and more effectually in the triumphant Republican party. This sentiment was so strong that when, in 1848, General Taylor became the Whig candidate for president, the old Whig majority was transferred to the new Free-Soileparty. But the paper, though never pro-slavery, still adhered to the Whig organization, and the result was the establishment, a few years later, of the Free Democrat as the organ of the Free-Soil party. However men may differ as to the wisdom of the course pursued by the Bruces, at this critical juncture, in the political history of the country, there can be no doubt that it was adopted honestly, and in accordance with their best judgment, in which many anti-slavery Whigs concurred.
As showing a marked difference between the conduct of our county papers then and now, we will here mention that a notable improvement was made by William W. and Eli Bruce, during the last year of the Republic, in the introduction of a local column devoted to home affairs, "which," as the former writes us, "caused some ridicule at first, but was a step in the right direction."
The first number of the Free Democrat, a six-column folio, was issued in December, 1849. A number of prominent citizens were interested in its establishment, but only the names of 0. P. Brown and M. C. Canfield appeared as editors. Both were able writers, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the Free-Soil movement which had called the paper into existence, and under their conduct it at once took a leading position in the politics of the country. Their connection with it, however, was brief, for, in August following (1850), it passed into the hands of the late Hon. J. F. Asper, whose first number was issued on the thirteenth of that month. Mr. Asper, who, in after years, became better known as lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh O. V. I., and finally as member of congress from Missouri, to which State he removed near the close of the war, had
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 65
been editorially connected with the Western Reserve Chronicle, and was regarded as a vigorous writer. For a time, he was assisted by Dr. B. W. Richmond and Miss Harriet N. Torrey, as corresponding editors. In a political sense, the paper prospered under his management, as it had done under that of his predecessors; but, it proving pecuniarily a poor investment, after conducting it nearly twenty months, he disposed of his interest to J. S. Wright, who became its editor and proprietor March 23, 1852. Mr. Wright, being a practical printer of large experience, prudent and industrious, by his own labor and personal attention to the business interests of the paper, made it for the first time self sustaining, and thus laid the foundation of whatever prosperity it has since enjoyed.
In January, 1854, he enlarged it to a seven-column folio, and changed its name to the Jeffersonian Democrat. A quiet, unambitious man, his native ability was best appreciated by those who most intimately knew him. His selections, as a rule, were excellent, his editorials well considered, and none of his contemporaries were more sincerely devoted to the anti-slavery cause. The public appreciation of hft efforts is evidenced by the fact that during the nearly seven years of his editorship, he was generally chairman of the Republican central committee of the county, and twice elected to the office of county treasurer. He died August 12, 1859, only a few months after resigning his editorial labors, aged forty-eight years. As our immediate predecessor, early and long-time associate and friend, we shall ever gratefully remember him.
The present editor and proprietor of the Geauga Republican, J. 0. Converse, having purchased the Jeffersonian Democrat, of Mr. Wright, assumed its management January 1, 1859. January 3, 1866, he changed the name to Geauga Democrat as being more appropriate and expressive of its local character, and finally, January 3, 1872, to the name it now bears, which indicates alike its locality and its politics. January 7, 1874, it was enlarged to a six-column quarto, which it still remains. It is now issued every Wednesday. How well it has been conducted during the unusually long and eventful period (now nearly two decades) it has been in our hands, we leave for others to judge. We can only say that it has been our aim to make it in some measure representative, as before us it always had been, of the loyalty, intelligence, and morality of the people who have so long and so generously supported it.
The above are all the papers ever published in this county, except the Western Reserve Times, afterwards the Chardon nines, a well-printed and very readable eight-column folio, established in August, 1872, by the Times Printing company (Messrs. H. F. Canfield, E. R. Eggleston, and N. H. Bostwick), and the Geauga Leader, noticed elsewhere, a five-column quarto, also independent, established at Burton, December 18, 1874, by Mr. J. B. Coffin, and still published by him, being issued every Friday. The Times, at the close of its first year, was sold to W. C. Chambers & Son, of the Painesville Journal, and subsequently discontinued.
Various are the reflections suggested, and many the cherished memories revived, by this hurried and imperfect review. Some of the dates given may be inaccurate, as unfortunately no files of all the earlier papers of the county are preserved. How strange that a matter so important should be thus neglected It is even more sad to reflect upon the changes wrought by time and death since the first paper was issued in the county. A host of names once familiar in the columns of the county papers are now unheard and forgotten. Of all our editorial predecessors, only two are still living. Alfred Phelps, Joseph W. White, Thomas J. White, David T. Bruce, Eli Bruce, William P. Lindsey, 0. P. Brown, M. C. Canfield, J. F. Asper, B. W. Richmond, J. S. Wright, all have ceased from their labors, some of them many years since. William W. Bruce still lingers, a helpless invalid, but with intellect undimmed and interest
66 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
unabated, to tell the story of the past, Miss Harriet N. Torrey, no longer known to the reading public, resides in the State of Illinois. As it is ever thus with the world, its activities and associations, surely we who are actors in the fleeting present cannot realize too fully our responsibility or duty to improve its golden opportunities to honor and bless our kind.
CIVIL ROSTER
The names of such persons as were elected, and the dates of their election to the various executive, legislative and judicial offices, together with the presidential electors, as were living within the limits of the county as originally constituted with the subsequent changes of boundaries, together with the names of such as were elected in districts where Geauga was included; also, the names and dates of those holding county offices are given, as far as could be ascertained. Some of the records were destroyed by fire when the court-house was burned ; are others so incomplete as not to furnish the desired data, notably so with the commissioners' books, which do not give the name of any commissioner during a certain time. When I could not obtain the facts from records, I took the best evidence which the nature of the case admitted of, which was often unsatisfactory, even when obtained from those most interested, owing to their , inability to furnish dates from memory, and often contradictory in families and others having the same means of knowing. Having done the best I could under the circumstances, doubtless inaccuracies will be found, notwithstanding the abundant time and labor bestowed. My thanks are due to the county officers for the courtesies extended and assistance rendered in examining records.
GOVERNORS.
Samuel Huntington in 1808,
Seabury Ford in 1848.
MEMBERS OF CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS
for forming a State constitution: First, in 1802, when we were incldued in Trumbull, David Abbot and Samuel Huntington; second, in 1850, Judge Peter Hitchcock and Rufus P. Ranney ; third, in 1873, Hon. Peter Hitchcock.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS
from the district with which Geauga was connected—in 1804: in – 1808; David Abbot, 1812; Aaron Wheeler, 1816, Lewis Dille, 1820; William Skinner, 1824; Walter M. Blake, 1828; William S. Tracy, 1832; Jared P. Kirtland, 1836; Storm Rosa, 1840; William L. Perkins 1844 ; John W. Allen, 1848; E. T. Wilder, 1852; Aaron Wilcox, 1856; Samuel B. Philbrick, 1860; Seth Marshall, 1864; Frederick Kinsman, 1868; Aaron Wilcox, 1872; Benjamin F. Wade, 1876.
CONGRESSIONAL.
Delegates from Ohio, from the organization of the territorial government until the adoption of the State constitution, William H. Harrison, William McMillan, of Hamilton county, and Paul Fearing, of Washington county. Jeremiah Mor-
HISTORY OF GPAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 67
row, of Warren county, from 1803 to 1813. In 2823 Geauga was in the Sixth district, and was represented by John S. Edwards, of Trumbull, who resigned in April; was succeeded by David Beall, of Wayne county, who resigned in 1824, and was followed by David Glendennen, of Trumbull, from 1824 to 1817 ; Judge Peter Hitchcock, from 1817 to 1819; John Sloan, of Wayne county, from 1819 to 1823. Thirteenth district—Elisha Whittlesey, of Trumbull, from 1823 to 1838, when Mr. Whittlesey resigned; Joshua R. Giddings, from 1838 to 1859. In 1833 and 1834, the district was changed to Sixteenth congressional district. Mi. Giddings, of Ashtabula county, resigned in 1842,on account of the action of the house, reflecting on his anti-slavery course, but was sustained by his constituents and triumphantly re-elected by a largely increased majority. In 1843 and 1844 the number was changed to Twentieth district.. From 1852 to 1863, John Hutchins; from 1863 to 1869, James A. Garfield, of Portage, since removed to Mentor, Lake county, the present incumbent; received the unanimous vote of the Republicans for speaker of the house of representatives of the last congress, and is the acknowledged leader of the house. In 1863 and 1864 it numbered the Nineteenth district, and continues the same. In 1860 Geauga was placed in the then Nineteenth congressional district, with Cuyahoga and Lake. Mr. Riddle was a Geauga boy, reared in Newbury, dependent upon his own resources, studied and practiced law in Chardon, in this county, rose to be the leading member of the bar, removed to Cleveland in 1850 to practice his profession in that city, was elected to congress in 1860, the delegation from Geauga supporting him in convention. At the next election Geauga had been placed back in association with the old district. The people of Geauga felt that they had been ably and faithfully represented, and would, no doubt, have supported him in convention for re-election, had they had an opportunity. Many members of congress, from this congressional district, have justly made a national reputation. It is not our purpose, neither will our limited space allow,. of extended eulogies of public men.—For such see biographical sketches.
LEGISLATIVE.
Those representing the senatorial district with which Geauga was connected: Calvin Pease, 1806 and 1807; Daniel Abbott, 1808 to 1811 ; Judge Peter Hitchcock, 1812 to 1815 ; Aaron Wheeler and Almon Ruggles, 1816 and 1817; Aaron Wheeler and John Campbell, 1818; Almon Ruggles and John Campbell, 1829; Aaron Wheeler, 1820; Samuel W. Phelps, 1822 and 1822; Samuel Wheeler; 1823 to 1828; Eliphalet Austin, 1829 and 1830; Uri Seely, 1831 and 1832; Judge Peter Hitchcock, 1833 and 1834; Ralph Granger, 1835 and 1836; Benjamin F. Wade, 1837 and 1838; Benjamin Bissel, 1839 and 1840; Seabury Ford, 1841 and 1842. William Lake Perkins, 1843 to 1846; Brewster Randall, 1847 to 1850, Laban Sherman, 1852 to 1854; Lester Taylor, 1856 and 1857; Darius Cadwell, 1858 and 1859; John F. Morse, 1860 and 1861; Peter Hitchcock, 1862 and 1863; William C. Howells, 1864 and 1865; Abner Kellogg, 1866 and 1867 ; J. B. Burroughs, 1868 and 1869; Decius S. Wade, 1870 and 1871 ; John Casement, 1872 and 1873; I. N. Hathaway, 1874 and 1875; S. S. Burrows, 1876 and 1877; W. P. Howland, 1878 and 1879; Peter Hitchcock, present incumbent, elected for 188o and 1881.
STATE REPRESENTATIVES.
George Todd, 1802 to 1805 inclusive; John P. Bissell and James Kingsbury,. 1806; John W. Seely and James Montgomery, 1807; Nehemiah King, 1808; Amos Spafford, 1809; Judge Peter Hitchcock, aro; Samuel Huntington,. 1811 ; Samuel S. Baldwin, 1812; John H. Strong and William A. Harper, 1813; :William A. Harper and Alfred Kelley, 1814 and 2815; William Kerr and Alfred Kelley, 1816; Lewis Dille and Levi Gaylord, 1817; Lewis Dille and
68 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
Ebenezer Merry, 1818; Alfred Kelley and Ebenezer Merry, 1819; John Hubbard, 1820 and 1821; Samuel Wheeler, 1822; Eleazer Hickox, 1823; John Hubbard, 1824 to 1826; C. C. Paine, 1827; Samuel Butler and C. C. Paine, 1828; Vene Stone, 1829; Isaac Gillet and Chester Treat, 1830; Isaac Gillet, 1831-2; Lewis Dille and Lester Taylor, 1832; Lewis Dille, 1833; Lewis Dille and Lester Taylor, 1834; Seabury Ford, 1835; Seabury Ford and Timothy Rockwell, 1836; Seabury Ford and Thomas Richmond, 1837; Seabury Ford and Silas Axtell, 1838; Seabury Ford and John F. Morse, 1839; Seabury Ford, 1840; John P. Converse, 1841 and 1842 ; Alfred Phelps, 1843; Seabury Ford, 1844; Alfred Phelps, 1845; Anson Mathews, 1846 and 1847; Isaac Lee and A. G. Riddle, 1848; John Hutchins and A. G. Riddle, 1849; M. C. Bradley and G. H. Kent, 1850, Samuel Durand, 1851 to 1853; Lester Taylor, 1854 and 1855; Lewis C. Todd, 1856 and 1857; Peter Hitchcock, 1858 to x861; Benjamin B. Woodbury, 1862 to 1865; Peter Hitchcock, 1866 and 1867; D. W. Canfield, 1868 and 1869; Peter Hitchcock, 2870 and 1871; George Ford, 1872 to 1875; Peter Hitchcock, 1876 to 1879 inclusive; I. N. Hathaway, present incumbent, elected for 1880 and 1881.
JUDGE OF SUPREME COURT.
Hon. Peter Hitchcock was elected judge of the supreme court in 1819, was re-elected three times, for the term of seven years each term, and was chief justice of the State for many years.
DISTRICT OR PRESIDING JUDGES.
Calvin Pease and Turhand Kirtland when we were in Trumbull; in 1810; Benjamin Ruggles was elected ; in 1815 George Todd and continued to 1830 ; Reuben Wood from February, 1830 to 1833; (the date of the commencement of their official duties will include the time to the date of their successors). Matthew Birchard, 1833; Van R. Humphrey, 1837; John W. Wiley, 1840; Reuben Hitchcock appointed to fill vacancy by the death of Judge Willey September, 1841 ; Benjamin Bissel, 1842; Philemon Bliss 1848 ; Reuben Hitchcock, 1852; E. T. Wilder, appointed June term, 1855 ; Horace Wilder, 1856: N. E. Chaffee, 1861 ; M. E. Canfield, 1871; E. Lee was appointed to fill vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Canfield in 1874 ; D. W. Canfield, 1875; by special election of another judge in this judicial district, H. B. Woodbury L. S. Sherman-Messrs. Woodbury and Sherman being the judges in 1879.
ASSOCIATE JUDGES.
Nehemiah King, Eleazer Hickox, Aaron Wheeler, Eliphalet Austin, Abram Tappan, Eliphalet Austin, Vene Stone, Arris Clapp, R. B. Parkman, Solomon Kingsbury, Dr. Scott, Daniel Kerr, Asa Cowles, John Hubbard, Storm Rosa, Neri Wright, John T. Bosley, Joseph W. Bracket, D. D. Aiken, B. F. Avery, John P. Converse, Lester Taylor, Samuel Bodman.
PROBATE JUDGES.
Alfred Phelps commenced the official duties of this office in 1852, M. C. Canfield in 1854, H. K. Smith in 1867 to 1879 inclusive.
COUNTY CLERKS.
Edward Paine, Jr., appointed in 1816, held the office until 1828, David D. Aiken, appointed April 12, 1828, continued until 1842, Reuben St. John, appointed June 15, 1842, resigned June 30, 1846, Lorenzo J. Rider, appointed June 30, 1846, and held the office until the second Monday of February, 1852, A. H. Gotham succeeded him under the new constitution when it became elective, continued until his death, June, 1857. H. K. Smith was appointed in June, 1857, discharging the duties of that office until January, 1858. William
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 69
N. Keeny took his oath of office the first Monday in January, 1858, holding the same until the present time, 1879.
SHERIFFS.
Joel Paine, 1806; Abram Tappan, 1810; Elisha Norton, 1812; Eli Bond, 1815; Hezekiah King, 1819; James R. Ford, 1824; Uri Seely, 1828; P. A. Tracy, 1833; Abel Kimball, 1837 (Sheriff Kimball is now living in the newly organized county of Lake); George King was appointed the spring term of 1840;. Erastus Spencer commenced in 1841; T. W. Ensign, 1845; James Hathaway, 1849; C. H. Foote, 1854; J. M. Clapp, 1856; E. J. White, 1858; B. N. Shaw, 1862; A. J. Walton, 1866; S. E. Clapp, 1868; Lester Moffett, 1872; Silo P. Warriner, 1876-the present incumbent.
AUDITORS.
Edward Paine, jr., appointed in 1820. The commencement of their official duties by appointment or election, was as follows: Eleazer Paine, in 1822; Ralph Cowles, 1827; William Kerr, 1835; Ralph Cowles, 1839; William K. Williston, 1844; Marsh Smith, 1852; C. C. Field, 1857; A. P. Tilden, 1865;. M. L Maynard, 1873, and William Howard, 1877, and present incumbent 1879.
TREASURERS
C. C. Paine, 1820 to 1828; Sylvester N. Hoyt, 2828 to 1834; William Wilber, 1834 to 1837; S. N. Hoyt, 1837 to 1840; Samuel Squires, 1840 to 1842; A. P. Wilkins, 1842 to 1847; J. 0. Worallo, 1847 and 1848; C. H. Foot, 1849 to 1851; Warren Loomis, 1851 to 1853; Job. S. Wright, 1853 to 1858; Harlow N. Spencer, 1858 to 1862; Ozro R. Newcomb, 1862 to 1866 (he died January 1, 1866, and C. C. Field was appointed at the October election to fill the vacancy); Edward Patchin, 1867 to 1869; H. T. Marsh, 1869 to 1872 (at his death Theron C. Smith was appointed to fill the vacancy, and was subsequently elected;) S. E. Bodman, L. Chapman, commenced his duties in 1878, and is the present incumbent.
RECORDERS.
James A. Harper was appointed April 28, 1806, and served until April 30, 1811; each of the following acted in their official capacity from the date given until the date of their successors. Edward Paine, jr., May 22, 1811; Alfred Phelps, appointed deputy recorder July 31, 1832; George E. H. Day, elected in October, 1832, and William Wilder was appointed deputy recorder October 23, 1832, and did the business of the office during Wm. Day's term; Ralph Cowles, November 2, 1835; Wm. Kerr, November 5, 2838; B. T. Avery, deputy recorder, November 7, 1838; William Wilber, deputy recorder from December 3, 1840 to January 1, 1841; William Wilber, January 11, 1842; Ralph Cowles, deputy recorder, May 13, 1841; John Packard, jr., October 16, 1841; John French, October 14, 1844; Linnaeus Ludlow, November 2, 1856; C. H. Lamb, January 6, 1863; A. W. Young, deputy recorder, June 15, 1867 to September 20, 1868; A. W. Young, September 10, 1868, to November 15, 1875; W. Young, November 15, 1875-term expires January 5, 1880. The duties of the office have been very satisfactorily discharged by Miss Hannah Young, now Mrs. Doctor Dimmick, of Chardon.
CORONERS.
Joseph Pepoon, E. Norton, Isaac Palmer, Calvin Cole, William Holbrook, Horace W. Morse, Philander Kile, Sidney Bostwick, John S. Cleveland, Benjamin Bidlake, Dr. Sawyer, A. E. Miller, Joseph E. Durfee, Samuel Bodman; E. L. Chapel, one term, re-elected, declined qualifying; Lewis G. Maynard appointed. P. M. Cowles elected present incumbent.
70 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS.
R. B. Parkman, 1816 and 18 17 ; Samuel Wheeler, 1817 to 1819; Alfred Phelps, 1819 to 1828 ; Stephen Mathews, 1828 to 1835; William L Perkins, 1835 to 1837; Reuben Hitchcock, 1837 to 1839; William L. Perkins, 1839 and 1840; 0. P. Brown, appointed in 1840, there being a vacancy by the division of the county, continued until 1841 ; A. G. Riddle, 1841 to 1847; M. C. Canfield, 1847 to 1850; A. H. Thrasher, 1850 to 1854 ; M. C. Canfield, 1854 to 1858; H. K. Smith, 1858 to 1862; D. W. Canfield, 1862 to 1866; I. N. Hathaway, 1866 to 1870; 0. S. Farr, 1870 to 1872; L. E. Durfee, 1872 to 1876; James E. Stephenson, 1876 to 1878; H. N. Bostwick, 1878; present incumbent, C. W. Osborn, elected October, 1879.
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.
Nathaniel Doane and 0. K. Hawley, 1806; Abraham Tappan, 1807; N. Doane, 1808; Jedediah Beard, 1809; Joel Paine, 1810; John A. Harper, 1811; Norman Canfield, 1812; Noah Paige, 1813; J. Beard, 1814; S. Kingsbury, 1815; J. A. Harper, 1816; J. Beard, 1817; Jesse Dodd, 1828; Jesse Ladd, 1819; Charles Curtiss and Christopher Langdon, 1822; Ralph Cowles and Robert Blair, 1824; Augustus Sisson, 1825; Isaac Moore, 1827; Vene Stone, 1828 ; John F. Morse, 1831 ; Colbert Huntington, 1832; James Thompson, 1833; Russel G. McCarty, 1835; James Hathaway, 1836; A. C. Gardner, 1838; Hiram Bishop. and Alvin Kyle, appointed in 1840 to fill vacancy of other commissioners, who were transferred to the newly-organized Lake county; Samuel Bodman and Harvey Nichols, 1841; Gilbert Curtiss, 1842; Augustus Tillotson, 1843; Elijah S. Scott, 1844; Thomas A. Munn, 1845; Moses Stebbins and Sylvanus W. Gray, 1847; David Shepard, 1849; S. B. Philbrick and Horace Lampson, 1850; D. W. Mead and Jacob Thrasher, 1851; Lester Perkins, 1852; H. D. Johnson, 1853; Spencer Dayton, 1854; John A. Ford, 1855; H. D. Johnson, 1856; John V. Whitney, 1857; Marsh Smith, appointed to fill vacancy, 1857; Marsh Smith and B. B. Woodbury, 1858; J. W. Collins, 1859; Silas Gaylord, 1860; L. C. Reed, 1861 ; J. W. Collins, 1862; John T. Field, 1863; Alanson Moffet, 1864; J. W. Collins, 1865 ; Benjamin Bedlake, 1866; Alanson Moffet, 1867; J. W. Collins, 1868; John V. Whitney, 1869; Daniel Johnson, 1870; Horace J. Ford, 1871; M. V. Scott, 1872; Daniel Johnson; 1873 ; Darius Wolcott, 1874 to 1876 ; Daniel Johnson, 1877; Orrin M. Barnes, 1878; D. H. Truman and W. W. Wilbur, 1879.
INFIRMARY DIRECTORS.
In 1839 the county commissioners, in behalf of the county, bought of Nathaniel Stone his farm, situated in the southwest part of Claridon, for the consideration of two thousand four hundred dollars, and put up suitable buildings for the accommodation of paupers, and appointed infirmary directors. The following are the names of those who were appointed and of those since elected : Erastus Spencer, Sylvester N. Hoyt, John F. Morse, Vene Stone, Elijah Douglass, James Gilmore, Orrin Spencer, T. C. Webb, Asa Cowles, Chester Treat, Ralza Spencer, Abram Woodward, Seth W. Brewster, George Manly, Alonzo Richmond, Samuel C. Douglass, A. McNish, A. D. Hall, C. P. Bail, Stephen Hollis, R. E. Waters, C. 0. Dutton, J. W. Nash, L. T. Wilmot, Amander Gates, 0. C. Douglass, Silas L. Beard, David C. Hollis, — Wilber.
COUNTY SURVEYORS.
Daniel Kerr, Mentor; — Harvey, Concord; Chester Elliot, Hambden; Ralph Cowles, Claridon; Levi Edson, Chardon ; Peter Beals, Troy; George E. White, Claridon; George Smith, Munson; Anson Bartlett, Munson; Seth Edson, Hambden ; John V. Whitney, Montville; Milton L Maynard, Hambden;
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Royal Burton, Parkman; Ledyard Phelps, Chardon; Lemuel Punderson, Newbury; Willard W. Beals, Troy.
COUNTY SCHOOL EXAMINERS.
William L Perkins, Painesville; Lester Taylor, Claridon; Ralph Cowles, Chardon; Dr. — Denton, Chardon; Dr, Scott, Parkman; T. W. Harvey, Chardon; Abel Wilder, Chester ; Harvey Swift, Chardon; William Wilber, Alfred Phelps, Rev. Mr. Carr, 0. P. Brown, Chardon; — Colgrove, Burton; John C. Treat, Claridon; B. F. Abel, Troy.
The following were appointed under the present school law: Job Fish, Auburn; A. H. Gotham, Chardon; William Russel, Dr. John Nichols, Chardon; J. 0. Worallo, Richard Denton, Rev. S. Hayden, Waters, C. W. Carroll, Chardon; Rev. E. D. Taylor, Troy; Edmund Truman, Burton; Noah Pomeroy, Hambden.
MILITARY HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY..
The military history of any people surrounds itself with as much of interest as attaches itself to any other portion of that people's history. The true patriot, ever on the side of his country, fondly exclaims: "My country, may she ever be right," and as plainly declares, "My country, her flag forever." His patriotism manifests itself by his every-ready response to her cry for help, whether against external or internal foes.
This country has passed through three great wars that of the Revolution, of 1812, and the war of the great Rebellion. The first, a controversy to secure the right to be a people, independent and self-governing; the second, to secure safe protection by our flag to all over whom it floated; the last, to settle the ability of the people to maintain their unity and govern themselves. The great battle of the Revolution was fought years before the birth of Ohio, or any settlement had been made upon the territory of the county of Geauga. Still quite a goodly number of those who served the country in this struggle were among its early settlers, and their sturdy descendants helped largely to fill the ranks of the early pioneers. Memory, swiftly rushing towards these early days, calls to mind one, another, and still another of these old veterans; but, fearing that in the attempt to recall names some would be omitted, and that it would be invidious to mention some and not all, I leave them with only a passing notice. Peace to their ashes, and blessings upon their memories.
The war of 1812 came, finding an infant settlement in the county. The first settler within its limits established himself only fourteen years before, and its whole population at this time, probably, not exceeding, if it equaled, fifteen hundred people. In 1810, the population of Geauga county, including the territory embraced in Lake county, was two thousand nine hundred and seventeen. In 1809, the population of Burton, then covering the greater part of the territory now constituting Geauga county, was two hundred and thirty-seven.
* By Peter Hitchcock.
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This population furnished its full proportionate share of the men necessary to fill the ranks of the army. On one notable occasion, it is said, that every able bodied man of its number fell in, and marched to the defence of the frontier port of Cleveland against an anticipated attack of the enemy. One man only, and he not able-bodied, remained to assist in removing to a place of safety the women and children, with their already packed goods, should their defenders be overcome. This, happily, was not the case, the attack not being made.
In command of the regiment marching to Cleveland at this time, was Col. Jedediah Beard, of Burton, settling there in. 1779, with Eleazer Hickox as . major, and Peter Hitchcock (afterwards judge), adjutant.
The fact that so many of the pioneers were descendants of, and closely related to, the soldiers of the Revolution, of the part they were themselves so soon compelled to take in the war of 1812, and that they were only separated by the lake from a province of that nation with which our country had been twice engaged in deadly strife, impelled them for many years to maintain reasonably efficient military organizations under the various militia laws of the State. Fortunately, I am relieved from giving any account of these various organizations, as this is covered in the general history of the county written by another.
From about the time named by that writer, there was, until 1861, no military organization within the limits of the county. On the fifteenth day of April, in that year, the roaring guns in Charleston harbor, and the rattling shot upon the turreted walls of Sumter, woke the nation as from a dream, telling to the people that the cloud so long hanging over the nation had burst in blinding fury upon the government and its supporters. Before the first echoing sound had died upon the ear, President Lincoln's proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand men had, upon the electric flash, pierced every hamlet in the country, and in response men were wildly rushing to their appointed rendezvous. Among those answering this call, little Geauga furnished her quota, more than could be received. Of those received from this and Lake counties, a company was formed, under command of Captain George E. Paine, and assigned to the Nineteenth regiment for three months' service. Readiness to respond to the call of the government for help was manifested alike by nearly all parties. No matter what had been the differences before existing, when a blow was struck at the nation's life, and by those enjoying the richest blessings flowing from the government, and until ;just now controlling the affairs of that government, all sprang as one man to resist that blow. Forgetting personal interests and party differences, unitedly were the best energies of all bent to the accomplishment of this. True, here and there one occupied an antagonistic position, but they were exceptions to the rule, and the cases were rare indeed.
With the breaking out of the war came a revival of military spirit among the people. Companies were formed in Chardon, under command of Captain V. Ganson, in Huntsburgh under Captain Philander Rile, and in Burton under Captain H. H, Ford. By these, frequent competitive and othei drills were held, making their members accustomed to the handling of arms and military tactics. The sounds of the ringing fife and the rattling drum were familiar ones. Military parades were frequent, and witnessed by large numbers of people. The crisis found the State with little efficient military law or organization, as it did the nation with no experience fitting it for the terrible struggle. These men were a law unto themselves, as they submitted to rigid military discipline that they might be prepared for efficient service when it should be required. Soon came the call for three years' men. The county, embracing within its limits no city or large town, furnished no headquarters for recruiting,. and its young men were constantly finding places in organizations built up in the large towns surrounding it, of Painesville, Cleveland, Akron and Warren,.
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In August, 1861, five young men of Burton—Elias A. Ford, Chauncey N. Talcott, Henry W. Johnson, Lester T. Patchin, and James B. Cleveland— determined that one company at least should go into the field under its chosen officers, and all its members from the county. Procuring an enlistment roll, and affixing their names thereto, they marched from township to township throughout the south part of the county, holding meetings and taking names as they passed through, until soon they were prepared to, and did take into camp the first full company of what afterwards became the Forty-first Ohio volunteer infantry, under command of Colonel (afterwards General) William B. Hazen. Almost simultaneously was started another company in the northern townships, the result of the first movement being the placing of two full companies in the regiment, and many other men, enlisted through them, assigned to other com- panies of the same command. These companies were designated B and G, and were under command, the first of Captain William R. Tolles, and the latter of Captain M. H. Hamblin. To the writer, General Hazen expressed himself as under greater obligation that he had a regiment so soon ready to go into the field, than to any other source.
The same year, a little later, was organized the Ninth (independent) Ohio battery. The men of this battery were also largely enlisted, and it was partly officered from Geauga county, the men being taken to camp by the same person as the company first named above. In the same year, also, many men from the county enlisted in the Twenty-ninth regiment, organized in Ashtabula county. In filling up the cavalry regiments, known as "Wade and Hutchins' cavalry," Geauga, from her northeastern townships, also furnished her quota of recruits.
In August, 1862, Geauga furnished full Company E, under Captain Byron W. Canfield, of Chardon, and part of Company F, under Captain Sherburn H. Williams, of Parkman, to the One Hundred and Fifth regiment; as also some men in B. C. and I., of the same regiment. In June preceding, a large number of men were enlisted and taken to Columbus by the Hon. B. B. Woodliury, a part of whom were embodied in a company under Captain V. Ganson, and assigned to the Eighty-seventh regiment for three months' service, and the balance were mustered into the Eighty-eighth regiment of three years' men, for guard duty at Camp Chase, a very important but disagreeable service, which, after a short experience, they would gladly have exchanged for active service in the field. The same is true of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth regiment, to be hereafter mentioned, in which were quite a number of Geauga men, and which was organized for and kept at similar duty at Johnson's Island.
Those mentioned constitute all the separate organizations, except for brief periods, hereafter to be mentioned, furnished and officered from the county. For reasons before given men were constantly enlisting in different branches of the service: and the names of Geauga men are found on the rolls of a large number of companies and regiments. The aggregate number entering the regular volunteer service during the war was about twelve hundred, the entire quota required of the county.
In addition to this, Geauga was one of those counties that on two occasions furnished extraordinary numbers. On the threatened attack upon Cincinnati by Kirby Smith, in 1862, two companies went from the county to aid in repelling 'him in what was known as the "Squirrel Hunters' " campaign, one from the northern townships, under command of M. C. Canfield, (afterwards judge), with thirty-two men, the other of thirty-five men from Burton, under command of the writer, the two companies being consolidated on reaching Cincinnati. More especially was this extraordinary aid furnished in 1864. In the early winter of 1861-62, under a law of the State providing for a volunteer militia, called the
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"Ohio National Guard," a company was organized, uniformed, equipped and placed under drill by the writer in Burton, its members corning from that township and Middlefield, with a few from Claridon and Huntsburgh. In the summer of 1863, a similar company was formed in Newbury, under Captain John Cutler, being made up from that township, Munson and Russell, the two companies constituting the Eighty-sixth battalion, Ohio national guards.
In the opening of the campaign of 1864, so decisive of the result of the conflict, at a meeting, in Washington, of loyal governors of western States, by request of President Lincoln, it was determined to call into service a large number of men for a brief period—known afterward as "One-hundred-day men." Ohio, having some forty thousand of her "National guard" organized, they were, by Adjutant General Cowen, ordered out and on their way to their various rendezvous, almost before the return of Governor Brough to Columbus. Among this number were the two companies above named. They were directed to report to Colonel J. F. Asper, of the Fiftieth regiment, 0. N. G. at Johnson's Island, which they did, on the fourth day of May, two Bays after they were ordered to their respective headquarters. In consolidation with that regiment, the Newbury company was divided, a part being assigned to the Burton company, and the balance to a company in Lake county, commanded by Captain W. D. Shepherd, the consolidated regiment being marked, One Hundred and Seventy-first, 0. N. G. These men were ordered out as State troops, under command of Governor Brough, but, on arriving at the place of rendezvous, were asked to enter into the United States service, which every man present with the companies did, including Captain John Cutler, of the Newbury company, who, deprived of command by the consolidation, notwithstanding remained and served in the ranks with his men. The two companies from Geauga and Lake were on detached duty most of the time, and so acquitted themselves, while at Camp Dennison, as to be highly complimented through the public press by an officer high in position at that post. Not a man was at any time sent to the guard-house, or was publicly reprimanded. These were a portion of the troops relieving the veterans, by whom Grant was reinforced, and enabled successfully to pass through that fiery ordeal of the "Wilderness," in 1864. In the two companies from this county were one hundred and forty-five men, being that number actually in excess of the number required to be furnished from the county, and for which no credit was received. These, taken with the twelve hundred before mentioned, make nearly ten per cent. of the entire population. On the first day of May, 1866, in pursuance of an act passed in April previous, on account of this extraordinary service, the members of these companies were, by the governor, discharged from State service, and exempted from military duty in time of peace. Thereupon, their organization was abandoned, since which time there has been no military organization in the county.
While, as before stated, men of this county were found scattered in different branches of the service, very much the larger part were found in the Seventh, Nineteenth, Twenty-ninth, Forty-first, Eighty-seventh, Eighty-eighth, One Hundred and Fifth, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth, One Hundred and Seventy- first, and One Hundred and Seventy-seventh regiments of infantry, the Second and Sixth cavalry, and the Ninth (independent) battery. The Seventh, Twenty-ninth, Forty-first, and One Hundred and Fifth were especially known as fighting regiments; and, while many a brave boy enrolled in them sealed his valor with his blood, none came back open to the taunt of not having well acted his part in tie fiery ordeal.
The Seventh was among the actively engaged regiments in the three months' service, and in its subsequent career was known as the " Bloody Seventh." Among the fields on which it fought are mentioned: Cross Lanes, Port Re-
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public, Cedar Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburgh, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, and Resaca.
The Twenty-ninth participated in the battles of Winchester, Port Republic, Cedar Mountain, second Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Resaca, Pine Knob, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Siege of Atlanta, and many other minor engagements, always bearing itself bravely and gallantly when brought to face the enemy.
The Forty-first was especially noted for its thorough discipline and exact drill. In its first battle, that of Shiloh or Pittsburgh Landing, it was called upon to occupy a very important position, and do serious work. By one of its number, who participated in that fight, it was said that its first fire was so exact and well-directed, "that the chapparel brush in its front was cut entirely away, clean shaven at a uniform height." It carried upon its banner the names of the hard-fought fields of Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Orchard Knob, Mission Ridge, Resaca, Dallas, Piney Top ;fountain, Granny White Pike and Overton Knob. It also took part in the siege of Atlanta. Always in the brigade of General Hazen until he was placed in command of a division, the Forty-first took a very important part in the battle of Chickamauga. When the left and center of the army had given away, and General Thomas was only maintaining himself on the right, the interval separating them was filled with sharp-shooters. General Hazen volunteered to and did take his brigade across this unexplored interval, and, forming in column by regiments, met the rebels, who were advancing on the left of Thomas' line, and by firing successive volleys checked their advance and closed the fighting at Chickamauga.
The severest engagement, in which this regiment took part, was the one resulting in the charge upon and capture of the position known as Orchard Knob. It is said that Generals Grant and Thomas passed along the new line after this action, viewing the ground within fifty feet of the rebel ranks, where the fight had been fiercest, and where lay the horses of the colonel and lieutenant-colonel. Noticing the evidence of the severe struggle, General Thomas sent for the regiment's officers, and said to Colonel Wiley: "Colonel, I wish you to express to your men my thanks for their splendid conduct this afternoon. It was a gallant thing, colonel, a vet', gallant thing." This, from General Thomas, was a very unusual compliment.
The One Hundred and Fifth was one of those regiments hastily thrown into the field in August, 1862. Before two months old, it found itself called upon, in an exposed situation, and under a flank fire, to support a battery in- the opening of the bloody and non-decisive fight of Perryville. It fought also at Milton, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, and the battles around Atlanta; was also with Sherman in his march to the sea. It was at Chickamauga highly complimented by General Reynolds, commandant of the division, as also by General Rosecrans himself, for the check given by it to the rebels 'threatening the flank of the former officer. This regiment, from the time of the Perryville battle, during its entire period of service, always was in the front of battles. As in that first fight its ranks were decimated, so all along its course ere its slain helping to fill nameless graves, and raised those little hillocks that 1 over so thickly dotted the South. Many also came back maimed for life, none of its whole number to blush at a banner trailing in the dust. Its
ry is its pride.
Illustrative of the promptness with which the sons of Geauga responded to calls made, one incident is well remembered. As one of the county military committee, the writer visited the township of Russell to secure her quota the three hundred thousand first called in August, 1862. While there, a dispatch came, saying, "Father Abraham calls three hundred thousand more."
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The very announcement seemed to waken fresh zeal, and the evening closed with a long list of added names.
The county boasts of no officers of high rank, reaching marked positions, for hone such were commissioned from her midst. Field and staff officers she had, and good ones, too. None are named, else some should unintentionally be omitted, and an invidious distinction seem to be made. She only says that every call made upon her was promptly responded to; that she furnished good and true men in full numbers whenever asked; that there is no blot upon her record; that none of the soldier boys leaving her, bound for the fierce arena of strife, but bore well their part in the bloody drama.
Early in his administration, Governor David Tod determined to, and did, appoint military committees in the various counties through the States, the business of these committees being to secure recruits under the various calls made, recommend proper persons to be commissioned for recruiting, to look after the welfare and protect the interests of soldiers in the field, and see that their families were properly cared for, and their wants supplied. B. B. Woodbury, of Chardon, Chester Palmer, of Chester, David Robinson, of Russell, J. S. Tilden, of Parkman, and P. Hitchcock, of Burton, were constituted such committee in Geauga county. Subsequently, Joseph Smith, of Thompson, was appointed in place of Mr. Tilden, resigned. This committee, by the devotion and efficiency of its members, accomplished very much in aiding the county to so fully do its part in every respect.
It is not fit to pass by what was done by the mothers, wives and sisters of the brave men who volunteered to fill the ranks of the nation's army. So soon as came the first call, as upon each successive call during those four years of trial, not only did they cheerfully surrender their loved ones, but bravely pressing back unhidden tears and stifling all murmuring, they set themselves at work to do all possible for their comfort upon the field and in hospital. On the twentieth day of April, 1861, only five days after the first call for seventy-five thousand men, was formed the "Northern Ohio Soldiers' Aid society," with headquarters at Cleveland, the first organization of the kind in the country, and which continued its operations during the entire war, by its labors doing much in aid of the government, and for the comfort of its soldiers. The townships of Geauga county had similar societies auxiliary to this, doing their full share of this work. It is regretted that no data is at hand, showing the exact amount of this aid; but an approximate estimate, made from such as is available, shows that not less than twenty thousand dollars were thus furnished, nearly half in money. In addition to this, these noble women, as opportunity offered, were constantly sending necessaries and comforts to their country's defenders direct, without intervention by any organized society, this amounting to as much in the aggregate, perhaps, as was furnished in the other manner. Upon one notable occasion, word came that oui rapidly gathering recruits in camp at Cleveland, were without blankets to protect them from the chilling blasts of early spring. Not another sun was permitted to go down before a large supply, furnished by the good housewives, was on the way, under the charge of the Hon. B. B. Woodbury.
Thus much has been written that, in the published record of Geauga county, the deeds of the brave men filling the ranks of the army in deadly strife, of the sacrifices of heroic women left behind, and of all those who so loyally sustained these men, shall not be forgotten. What is written is known to be very imperfect, perhaps inexcusably so. None know these imperfections better than the writer. It has been written in snatches of time purloined from other pressing business, and must be regarded more in the nature of personal reminiscences than of complete history, which could not be embraced in the limit allowed.
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MILITIA,
Some recollections are here given about militia trainings, regiment and brigade officer musters, with such facts as I could obtain from public documents, which are almost entirely lost, supplemented with such information as I gathered in early pioneer days from cotemporaries and older participants.
The first settlers under the great law of self-protection had good rifles, and knew how to use them to protect themselves and their crops from wild animals and procure their animal food from the woods, and the fear of Indian combinations against the settlements to obtain plunder and massacre the whites, were sufficient inducements to organize with or without law. This chapter of miscellaneous history will refer to incidents (except incidentally), to events and organizations with which the militia of Geauga were concerned.
To Colonel Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland, who has taken such a deep interest in pioneer events, and who has gathered and put into form a mass of historical information which would otherwise have been sunk in oblivion, I acknowledge myself greatly indebted. I gather some facts from an interesting newspaper article published in the Cleveland Leader, November 22, 1879, and from some other of his publications. There are no records in the adjutant- general's office, at Columbus, of those early military organizations and events. Time and fires have done their work.
Colonel Whittlesey says that the law of Ohio made the governor and military officers nearly absolute, as they must have been in order to be effective.
" Previous to the war of 1812, there had not been any full regiments organized under the militia laws," probably owing to the sparse population, often requiring a large territory for even a half regiment commanded by a lieutenant-colonel or major. The seventeen organized counties were divided into four divisions during the sessions of 1812-13. The fourth division with which we were connected, was commanded by Major-General Wadsworth, of Canfield, then in Trumbull county. We were in the fourth brigade, commanded by General Joel Paine, of Painesville, Geauga county, embracing the territory of Geauga, Portage, and Cuyahoga, and west of those generally. The first regiment in Geauga, Cuyahoga, etc., was commanded by Captain Jedediah Beard, of Burton.
By the returns of Lieutenant-Colonel Beard, August 30, 1812, of the First regiment, Fourth brigade, Fourth division, Ohio militia, I make some corrections from personal knowledge of their locations as affixed to their names. Major, Samuel Jones, major, Eleazer Hickox, Burton ; adjutant, Eleazer Patchin, Newbury; quartermaster, Samuel W. Phelps, Painesville ; paymaster, S. S. Baldwin ; clerk, Peter Hitchcock, Burton ; surgeon, William Kenedy, M. D. Burton ; surgeon's mate, Erastus Goodwin, who was subsequently attached to the medical staff under General Perkins at Huron and after the "war located at Burton, where he practiced for nearly sixty 'years.
Sergeant major, Fred E. Paine; quarter master sergeant, James Strong; drum major, Stephen iond; fife major, David Hill; captain, Vene Stone, Newbury; captain, Charles H. Payne, Geauga county; captain Clark Parker, Mentor; captain, Norman Canfield, Bondstown (now Hambden); captain, James Thompson, Middlefield; captain, Wm. H. Hudson, Chester; captain, Alvin Gaylord, Cuyahoga county; captain, Harvey, Cleveland; captain, David Hendershot,
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Euclid; lieutenants, Eli Fowler, J. Forbes, Theron Graham, Allyn Humphrey, Claridon; Samuel Hardy, Walter Strong, Dyre Sherman, Lewis Dille, Euclid; ensigns, Simeon Moss, Huntsburg; Hezekiah King, Painestille; Horace Taylor, Claridon; John Hopkins, Elijah Nobles, Elias Cozan, Caleb Baldwin. After the war the new or unsettled townships began to fill up rapidly with permanent settlers, so that new companies were formed, and the numbers of the divisions, ' brigades, and regiments, were often changed. When companies were organized in the various townships of Geauga, they were divided into three regiments, constituting one brigade. The First regiment had its headquarters at Painesville. That town had one militia company,* one light infantry, one artillery company (commanded by Captain Huntoon, who had seen service in the war of 1812), and a squad of cavalry. Some members of the independent company had enlisted from adjoining townships. Mentor, Concord, Perry, Leroy, Madison, and Thompson, each had a militia company, and Madison and Perry a light infantry company, and, perhaps some other townships had the same.
The First regiment had the following colonels-commandant: Joel Paine, Eli Bond, Hezekiah King, Justin Cole, Julius Huntington, Abel Kimball, Hendrick E. Paine, Josiah Tracy, Benjamin Frisby, Wilcox and Billings.
The Second regiment (Chardon) had one militia company and one light infantry company; Kirtland, one militia and one rifle company. The followrng townships had each a militia company: Chester, Munson, Claridon, Hambden, Huntsburgh and Montville.—Colonels-commandant: C. C. Paine, Jeremiah Ames, John F. Morse, Lester Taylor, Erastus Spencer, Col. Ames, of Chester, Huron E. Humphrey, and L J. Rider.
The Third regiment (Burton) had one militia and one light infantry company; Bainbridge, one militia and a squad of cavalry. The following townships had one militia company each: Parkman, Troy, Middlefield, Newbury, Auburn, Russell.—Colonels-commandant were: Jedediah Beard, Major Allyn Humphrey and Major Horace Taylor, each commanded one or more regimental musters.— Colonels P. D. McConoughey, C. C. Paine. Until this time it had embraced the territory of the Second regiment. S. H. Williams, Chester Treat, Stephen Ford, Elijah Ford, of Troy; Seabury Ford, John McFarland, Colonel Henry, of Bainbridge; Colonel Riddle, of Newbury. Benjamin Mastick, and Henry Ford were their respective colonels.
The militia of Geauga connected with divisions who were commanded by major-generals : E. Wordsworth, of Canfield ; Peter Hitchcok, of Burton ; Eli Bond, of Painesville; General Brainard, of Willoughby, and General Knapp, of Conneaut.
The commanders of brigades with which the Geauga regiments were conceded were as follows: Joel Paine, Eli Bond, Hezekiah King, C. C. Paine, Abet Kimball, Seabury Ford, James H. Paine, Eleazar Paine, a cadet graduate of West Point.
During the latter part of the decade preceding 1840, the efficiency of the militia system, and good discipline, began to decline, no fears of aggressive wars, or insubordination to civil government were sufficient incentives to those who were able to pay their fines, to induce them to turn out at musters; the rank and file grew less; independent companies, well uniformed, became more numerous, and the militia were stigmatized as the "rag-shag, barefooted companies," until the system gave way to the popular will.
Regimental training and brigade officer musters are among the institutions that were—now unknown to young America—may be classed the militia trainings. One day, in the fall, for company training, when the captains drilled their
* The independent companies in different years.
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companies ready for regimental display. Regimental training, one day, soon after the company muster. The colonel, lieutenant colonel, major, with the regimental staff, drilled the regiment in evolutions according to Baron Stuben or Scott, as fashion, caprice, or knowledge of modern military tactics were in ascendancy. The companies were inspected and reviewed by the brigade major, under the eye of the brigadier with his staff, accompanied by the regimental staff officers. It was a grand holiday for old and young to meet and have a good time—shaking hands with their acquaintances, and living over their lives in their boyhood native States, and telling marvelous stories of their forest homes and progress in their adopted places of abode.
The boys were jubilant over the new cider, ginger-bread and watermelons. It is but just to give the officers and soldiers a complimentary notice of good subordination to law and order. They went home, and were in better subordination to civil law, and better citizens and neighbors for such a day of military rule and display.
Brigade-officer musters were held two days, and prior to the company and regiment trainings, that officers might be better posted to drill their respective commands. The general and his staff, the colonels with their staff, had each their marque, and each captain with his subaltern officers a tent. As Chardon was the most central place, it was generally selected as headquarters for muster. Inspection and drills were given by the brigade and field officers for the two days.
At night, guards were set on lines for self-protection, respective beats for sentinels assigned—watch-words and countersigns given. Gentlemen and ladies of the village were promenading; many young, and some old boys out for fun— to run the lines, or plague the sentinels, which was sometimes carried to an extent resulting in capturing and putting the culprits under guard for the night, or into the county jail until morning. Some amusing incidents occurred. A young man in running through the lines, was shot at with blank cartridge with such a heavy wad that, striking the heel of his boot, it tore it from the upper leather half-way to the toe. Another burning wad from an old musket produced such a concussion that, passing through between his legs, the man stopped on his race-course, and jumped up with all his might, supposing he was wounded, until captured. Many threatening conflicts between the civil and military powers were made, which generally ended in a war of words. In some instances, good citizens, only mere lookers on, were treated rudely on suspicion. The officers did not always make proper discrimination.
In the fall of 1846, the brigade officer muster was held in Burton—Brigadier General Eleazer Paine, commandant. A fatal conflict occurred between Lieut. Allen, a subordinate company officer from Montville, when on duty as sentinel, and Luther Britton, of Burton. Britton. was a stout, thick-necked and bullheaded fellow, and had been classed as a dissipated man. On being arrested, or when the attempt to arrest him was made, he stabbed the officer fatally. He was indicted for murder, and convicted of murder in the second degree. He was most ably defended by Judge Carter (now a judge of the court in the District of Columbia), William L Perkins, of Painesville, and Judge Andrews, of Cleveland. Judge Andrews made the closing speech for the defense. It was a happy display of eloquence and pathos. He dwelt upon a fact drawn out in evidence, that when Britton was staked down in his tent, surrounded by the enraged officers, his little dog came into the tent, ran round his master who was lying helplessly on his back, nestled down by his side nearest his heart, apparently to find if there was pulsation, to warm it into activity and restore his loved master. Tears flowed down the face of many a stalwart form who had never been suspected of delicate, moral sensibilities or- tenderly enlightened consciences.
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The current of a popular feeling had long been increasing against militia trainings. The fatal occurrence at that officer-muster caused a tidal wave of sufficient strength to break up in a few years, the old time-honored system. Many of those militia officers were well posted in drill exercises, exerted a magnetic influence over their comrades which made subordination cheerful, had moral worth and decision of character, and were respected as citizens. They had been accustomed generally to hard drill in bone and muscle in clearing up their farms; they had a practical knowledge of back woods, full of endurance, and would, doubtless, have made better officers in the late war, where so many of the battles were fought in woods and thickets, in handling men, and in strategy, than many such irregulars as were taken from behind the counter, or from the offices of professional men. My cotemporaries of the occasional "tented- field" are nearly all gone. Peace to their ashes. To the living ones, peace and good will.
MASONS.
A grand convention of Free and Accepted masons assembled at Chillicothe, Ohio, January 4, iflo8, for the purpose of forming a grand lodge. Brother Robert Oliver was called to the chair, and Brother George Tod appointed secretary. There were six lodges represented, by about a dozen members, at the convention. But for some reason, which does not fully appear, the delegates of New England Lodge, No. 4, were not allowed to take seats in the convention, and a part in its deliberations. On the evening of January 7th an election of grand officers was had, and Rufus Putnam was elected grand master. January 8th, each member having subscribed to the proceedings, they adjourned.
The first grand communication of the Grand lodge of Ohio, was held at Chillicothe, January 2, 1809.
At the grand communication held in January, 1810, Samuel Huntington, grind master, but who was succeeded by the election of Lewis Cass during the session, we find it ordered "that the dispensation granted to the lodge in Geauga county be continued in force until a warrant, or charter, be procured and issued to said lodge, by the name of Meridian Orb," and, "that the grand secretary cause the same to be done as soon as conveniently may be." We also find that Edward Paine, of said lodge, was a member of a committee of one from each lodge, to consider the constitution and by-laws of the grand lodge, and report such amendments, alterations and additions, as they deemed expedient, to the next annual session for action by the grand lodge. We find no date of dispensation, or charter, nor do we know who were its charter members. The last representative it is credited with in grand lodge was L. Humphrey in 1829. This lodge was located in Painesville, Geauga county.
The first masonic organization within the present limits of Geauga county was Western Phoenix Lodge No. 42. May 28, 1817 a dispensation was issued by
* By Harlow W. Spencer.
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Henry Brush, grand master of masons in the State of Ohio to brothers Otis Guild, Jairus T. Andrews, Charles C. Paine, Bill Kennedy, Oliver R. Guild, John Chapman, Jarius Guild, Theodore Dowd, Lewis Smith, Simon Burroughs, jr., and Allen Humphrey, as Western Phoenix Lodge No. 42, to be located at Parkman.
On the tenth of July, 1817 Edward Paine, jr., past master of Meridian Orb Lodge No. to, at Painesville installed the officers of No. 42 at Parkman, to wit: Otis Guild, W. M.; Janus T. Andrews, S. W.; Charles C. Paine, J. W.; Lewis Smith, treasurer ; Bill Kennedy, secretary ; John Chapman, S. D.; Oliver R. Guild, J. D.; Jairus Guild, steward ; Simon Burroughs, jr., tyler.
The officers of a lodge under dispensation are considered as proxies of the grand master for certain purposes and are not installed as these seem to have been. When a trial of their skill has satisfied the grand lodge of their ability they received a charter and number from the officers of the grand lodge which determines their rank in that body. The grand master by himself, or proxy, then appoints a time and constitutes the new lodge and installs its officers. December 15, 1818, the grand lodge granted a charter to Western Phoenix Lodge No. 42.
March 11, 1819, the first election of officers took place in Western Phoenix Lodge No. 42 and resulted as follows, to wit : Charles C. Paine, W. M.; John W. Scott, S. M.; Sherburn H. Williams, J. W.; Barton F. Avery, secretary ; Erastus Goodwin, treasurer ; R. Scoville, S. D.. R. Hopkins, J. D.: I. Davis and A. H. Fairbanks, stewards. The last communication of said lodge was held October 30, 1828, as per record.
December 23, 1856, Benjamin F. Smith, deputy grand master, issued a dispensation to the following brethren, to wit: Hardin Bennett, Henry Inman, Alexander Dunn, Nathaniel Moore, M. E. Francis, Martin McClintock, Ephraditus Fuller, F. B. Smith, Win. A. Hopkins, Nathaniel Moore (second), Josephus C. Hinkston, E. W. Young, Alonzo Hosmer, and John Young, to be called Western Phoenix Lodge U. D. N. D. Smith, and A. P. Tilden were the first initiates. A charter was granted said lodge, and No. 296 assigned it at the annual session of the Grand lodge, in October, 1857—Horace M. Stokes, grand master They held their first annual election December 31, 1857, which resulted in the election of the following officers, to wit: Henry Inman, W. U.; M. E. Francis, S. W.; N. D. Smith, J. W.; Nathaniel Moore, treasurer ; A. B. Sessions, secretary; Ezra B. Hopkins, S. D.; Nathaniel Moore (second), J. D. M. McClintock, tyler. The officers for the centennial year (1876) were: T. L Cadwell, W. U.; C. D. Hosmer, S. W.; J. W. Davis, J. W.; R. L. Blackmarr, treasurer; J. L. Johnson, secretary; P. B. Scott, S. D.; W. B. Payne, J. D.; Ezra B. Hopkins, N. D. Smith, stewards; W. Hodkinson, tyler. Number of members, in 1876, 51; stated communications on second Saturday evening of each month.
The second lodge organized within the present limits of Geauga county, came by a dispensation from Charles R. Sherman, grand master, some time in 1824, to brethren living in Burton and vicinity, to be called Village Lodge, No. -Said dispensation was continued to said brethren at the annual communication of the Grand lodge, in January, 1825. According to the printed proceedings of the Grand lodge, they agreed to the following resolution, January 10, 1826:
Resolved. That a charter be granted to Amos Upham, and his associates, for a lodge, to be called Village Lodge, No, 78, in the town of Burton, and county of Geauga.
In January, 1828. said lodge was represented by Charles C. Paine, who also represented Western Phoenix Lodge, No. 42, in the Grand lodge for the last time. The records and charter of Village Lodge, No. 78, may be still in existence ; at least they were some twenty-five years ago, and the record book was being used as a private account book—but they are beyond our reach at present.
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On the twenty-third of June, 1855, Benjamin F. Smith, deputy grand master, issued a dispensation to Erastus Goodwin, Isaac Chatfield, S. M. Sumner, Harlow N. Spencer, Merritt Nettleton, Franklin Spencer, Stephen Ford, Laban Patch, Arad Way, Joel Way, Lewis S. Pope and Lyman Millard to open a lodge under the name of Village Lodge No. On the twenty-sixth of October, of the same year, the grand lodge granted them a charter and numbered it 274 —Harlow N. Spencer, W. M.; Isaac Chatfield, S. W., and S. M. Sumner, J. W. William B. Dodds was grand master. This lodge flourished, built a hall, which, at the great fire in Burton in December, 1871, was consumed, together with their charter, furniture, and lodge funds. A dispensation to meet and continue work until the annual communication of the grand lodge, was soon after issued by Alexander H. Newcomb, grand master, and on the sixteenth of October, 1872, that body granted them a new charter in place of the one destroyed by fire. They now have a convenient hall in the brick block, and are in a flourishing condition. Their membership in 1876, the centennial year, was sixty. Their officers were : Elias L. Ford, W. M.; George W. Dayton, S. W.; Henry E. Ford, J. W.; Henry H. Ford, treasurer; George H. Ford, secretary; William R. Norton, S. D.; A. J. Spencer, J. D.; Morris Truman, tyler ; Almon B. Carlton, Daniel L. Johnson, Aaron Williams, trustees. On the fifth of May, 1878, they buried Joel Way, one of their charter members, and possibly the oldest mason in Ohio. He was made a mason in Connecticut in 1806, and was ninety-three years of age at the time of his death.
January 15, 1828, the Grand lodge of Ohio granted a charter to Chardon lodge U. D., and gave it the No. 93. The date of dispensation, etc., we have failed to find. It was probably issued in 1827, by John W. Goodenow, who was grand master that year. The charter was signed by Thomas Corwin, grand master, who was elected to that office on the day said charter was granted. The members named in the charter are Edward Paine, jr., David T. Bruce, C. S. Ferris, Stephen V. R. Laraway, Thomas R. Wheeler, Asa Foote, D. St. Clair, jr., Orrin Spencer, Chandler Pease, Merrick Pease, Reuben Bowen, and Roderick White. Edward Paine, jr., W. M.; Reuben Bowen, S. W.; David T. Bruce, J. W. It was last represented in grand lodge by William Coolman, in 1829, though borne upon the grand lodge rolls some time longer.
May 27, 1842, a dispensation was issued by William R. Reese, grand master, for Chardon Lodge, No. —, to be holden at Chardon, Geauga county. October x8th, of the same year, the grand lodge granted the charter under which they are now working, giving it the old number, as well as name. The charter members were Barton S. Avery, Henry H. Merrill, Roderick White, Edward Paine, jr., Orrin Spencer, E. P. Norton, David T. Bruce, Manning Shum way, John Wiley, Hiram Wescott, Samuel Force, Jeremiah Johnson, Stephen V. R. Laraway, and Watrous J. Menter. William J. Reese, grand master ; David T. Disney, deputy grand master. The first officers were: Henry H. Merrill, W. M.; Barton F. Avery, S. W.; Roderick White, J. W.; Orrin Spencer, treasurer; David T. Bruce, secretary; Watrous T. Menter, S. D.; Manning Shumway, J. D.; John Wiley, E. P. Norton, stewards. This lodge had several places of meeting, and finally built and owned a hall, clear of debt, and were prospering finery, when, on the twenty-fifth of July, 1868, the disastrous fire swept their hall and part of its contents, with all the business portion of the town. They, however, saved their charter and records, built a larger and finer hall, furnished it, and are prospering. Their new hall was dedicated June 24, 1869, which, with its new furniture, cost five thousand dollars and over. Their stated communications are on the second and fourth Saturday evenings in each month. Their membership in 1876 was one hundred. It officers were: A. W. Benton, W. M.; L M. Moffitt, S. W.; L C. Cowles, J. W.; B. N. Shaw, treasurer ; I.
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W. Canfield, secretary; C. W. Osborne, S. D.; Mark Toop, J. D.; William G. Munsell, tyler; Silo P. Warriner, James A. Wood, stewards; Henry K. Smith, Henry Bartlett, Byron W. Canfield, trustees.
At the annual convocation of the grand chapter of Ohio in October, A. D. 1867, a dispensation was issued to the following named Royal Arch masons: Harlow N. Spencer, Isaac N. Hathaway, Henry K. Smith, Royal P. Munsell, Perley Fuller, Joel T. Sherman, Tracy W. Scott, Hercules D. Carroll, Luther P. Scott, Rufus H. Tucker, Henry S. Wood, Henry Bartlett and Byron W. Canfield, to open a chapter of Royal Arch masons in Chardon, Geauga county, to be called Chardon Chapter No. —.
This organization suffered by the fire July 25, 1868, about three hundred and fifty dollars. No insurance. At the grand chapter in 1868, George Rex, M. E. G. H. P., and Charles Keifer, D. G. H. P., a charter was issued to Chardon Chapter No. 1o6, and bearing date October 17, 1868, A. I. 2,398.
The first officers of this body were H. N. Spencer, H. P.; I. N. Hathaway, K.; H. K. Smith, S.; H. S. Wood, C. of H.; R. H. Tucker, P. S.; T. W. Scott, R. A. C.; H. Bartlett, G. M. 3rd V.; P. Fuller, G. M. 2nd V.; J. T. Sherman, G. M. 1st V.; R. P. Munsell, treasurer; B. W. Canfield, secretary, and L P. Scott, guard.
The number of members, August 1, 1876, was sixty-four. The officers of the chapter at the same time were: I. N. Hathaway, H. P.; B. W. Canfield, K.; John Gloin, S.; L. M. Moffitt, C. H.; T. C. Smith, P. S.; J. A. Wood, R. A. C.; 0. S. Farr, G. M. 3rd V.; S. P. Warriner, G. M. 2nd V.; L. V. Carpenter, G. M. 1st V.; W. C. Parsons, treasurer; J. W. Canfield, secretary, and A. W. Benton, guard.
Stated convocations on the first and second Wednesday evenings in each month. This chapter has recuperated from its losses, has funds in its treasury, and is flourishing; as are all the masonic bodies now in Geauga county.
ODD FELLOWS *
The first lodge of Odd Fellows in Geauga was " Geauga Lodge No. 171 instituted at Claridon December 3, 1850, by Horace Beebe, grand representative and special deputy. The charter members were T. W. Ensign, J. S. Cleveland, C. C. Fields, A. E. Ensign, Warren Heaton and Wanton Hathaway. The first officers were : Wanton Hathaway, N. G.; T. W Ensign, V. G.; Emory Ensign, R. S.; C. C. Field, P. S. The officers for the year 1878 are N. C. Woodward, N. G.; E. J. Eggleston, V. G.; W. McCalmut, R. S.; D. B. Ladd, P. S.; and W. H. Hathaway, treasurer.
The past grands of said lodge are Wanton Hathaway, T. W. Ensign, J. S. Cleveland, C. C. Field, Warren Heaton, A. E. Ensign, C. J. Bellows, F. C. Conly, C. C. Clapp, H. T. Bradley, G. I. Stanhope, J. M. Clapp, C. S. Field, Alvord Church, Charles Stafford, H. S. Pomeroy, A. W. Strong, D. B. Ladd. N.
* Judge H. K. Smith.
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C. Woodard, J. C. Hathaway, George Waters, C. S. Hathaway, J. E. Woodard, Horace Tucker, A. Beardsley, W. H. Hathaway, John Houghtaling, Russell Gray, I. F. Hughes, P. K. Tucker, A. S. Watts, C. H. Chace, E. E. Hodges, E. E. Warren, G. B. Hathaway, B. Armstrong, J. T. Field, E. R. Knapp, S. T. Crofeet, C. H. Chace, and L L. Segar. This lodge held its meetings over the office of Dr. R. Dow, until the year 1854, when a new hall was erected over the store of C. C. & C. S. Field, which hall they occupied till the month of May, A. D., 1868, when the hall, with all its contents, including regalias, emblems, and records, was destroyed by fire. After this, for about six years, the order met in the second story of the dwelling house of W. H. Hathaway, when in the year 1874, they erected a new,hall at the P. & T. railroad station, some eighty rods east of the village of East Claridon, which they now occupy. The society has a library of about one hundred volumes, and is prospering financially and otherwise; and as one of its oldest members remarked, that as Geauga lodge was the first one established in the county, it may be regarded as the father of the lodges subsequently established in the county of Geauga.
CHARDON. LODGE.
Chardon Lodge; No. 213, was next instituted at Chardon, March 5, 1853 by the grand representative.
The charter members were: L A. Hamilton, J. L. Comstock, A. L. Rogers, Daniel Warner, jr., and L. E. Durfee, The first officers were: A. L. Rogers, N. G.; L. A. Hamilton, V. G.; L E. Durfee, secretary; David Warner, jr., treasurer; A. H. Gotham, C.; S. McGonigal, W.; Eli Bruce, I. G.; J. S. Wright, R. S. S.; A. Cook, L. S. S.
The past grands of said lodge who are now members of the same, are: L. E. Durfee, A. Cook, Samuel McGonigal, Alonzo Pease, D. L. D. Pease, 0. C. Farr, Philo Pease, 0. C. Smith, D. W. Canfield, Z. S. Warren, 0. 0. King, B. W. Canfield, H. K. Smith, I. T. Hathaway, Austin Canfield, C. A. Sanger, W. S. Hayden, E. A. Johnson, J. W. Buttery, S. L. Griffith, F. C. Conly.
The officers for the year 1878 are: H. Bickle, N. G.; A. H. Chamberlain, V. G.; Z. S. Warren, W.; W. S. Canfield, C.; I. W. Canfield, R. S.; L D. Pease, P. S.; 0. 0. King, R. S.; E. A. Johnson, L. S.; A. Pard, I. G.; C. A. Sanger, R. S. S.; M. H. Hamilton, L. S. S.
Present membership, sixty; regular meetings Monday evening of each week, in Odd Fellows hall, second story, No. 9, Union block. The lodge is in a flourishing condition.
AUBURN LODGE.
On the fourteenth day of July, 1853, Auburn Lodge, No. 226, was institued at Auburn Corners, with D. L. Pope, G. M, Baird, John H. Williams, A. G. Ethridge, 0. L. Gilson, Jerome Hinkley, F. Wilmot, L. C. Ludlow, Miles Punderson, George Parker, Laban Patch, and J. Patch, as charter members. The first officers were: Laban Patch, N. G.; D. L. Pope, V. G.; F. Wilmont, R. S.; A. G. Ethridge, P. S.; Jerome Hinkley, treasurer.
The officers for 1878 are: N. M. Goff, N. G.; T. C. Bartholomew, V. G.; C. S. Harrington, R. S.; W. N. White, P. S.; C. C. Carlton, treasurer.
The lodge is in a very prosperous condition. It owns a fine hall, over Union hall, at Auburn Corners, and an interest in the real estate upon which the building stands; has a library, etc.
PEBBLE ROCK LODGE.
The last lodge organized in this county was Pebble Rock Lodge, No. 535. This lodge was instituted at Thompson, August 2, 1872, by Amri Axtel, D. G. M. The charter members were: Joseph Smith, J. Johnson, A. M. Stocking, Set Barnes, R. C. Smith, H. Webster, S. W. Hickok, N. Ganis, N. Stratton, jr.,
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R. M. Smith, and J. B. Cottam. The following named persons are the past grands of said lodge, to-wit: A. M. Stocking, S. N. Barnes, J. Johnson, R. M. Smith, R. C. Smith, Horace Webster, J. B. Cottam, N. Ganis, J. McKough, E. Hulbert, William D. Wilber, J. W. Fowland, L N. Long. The first officers were: S. N. Barnes, N. G.; James Johnson, V. G.; R. M. Smith, R. S.; A. M. Stocking, P. S.; and Joseph Smith, treasurer. The present officers are: H. M. Pike, N. G.; S. 0. Billings, V. G.; J. W. Smith, R. S.; R. M. Smith, P. S., and R. C. Smith, treasurer. The lodge, until this year, have held their meetings in the town hall, but have this season built a new hall (which they now occupy) at a cost of about one thousand five hundred dollars. They have a library of one hundred and fifty volumes, and are in a very flourishing condition. The regular meetings are Thursday evening of each week.
The first and only encampment of Odd Fellows, organized in Geauga county, is Chardon Encampment, No. 204, instituted at Chardon, June 2o, 1876. The charter members were: S. L Griffith, C. A. Sanger, George D. Colby, J. W. Buttery, C. M. Turner, 0. 0. King, and M. H. Hamlin. The first officers were: S. L Griffith, C. P.; 0. 0. King, H. P.; C. A. Sanger, S. W.; C. M. Turner, J. W.; A. H. Chamberlain, scribe; J. W. Buttery, treasurer; B. W. Canfield, guide; E. A. Johnson, first IV.; H. D. Osmond, second IV.; J. W. Bickle, third W.; H. Bickle, fourth IV.; M. H. Hamlin, J. S.; G. W. Stillwell, first G. of T.; E. E. Warren, second G. of T.
This institution is in a very flourishing condition at the present time.
GRANGERS,*
The first grange in Geauga county was organized in Thompson, May 30, 1873, and was called Union Grange, No. 62. 2d, Middlefield Grange, No. 539, in Middlefield; 3d, Montville Grange, No. 666, Montville; 4th, Bennett Grange, No. 976, Bainbridge; 5th, Claridon Grange, No. 2287, Claridon; 6th, Russell Grange, No. 2203, Russell ; 7th, Chester X Roads Grange, No. 2257, Chester; 8th, Huntsburg Grange, No. 1257, Huntsburg; 9th, Hambden Grange, No. 2264, Hambden; 10th, Centennial Grange, No. 2287, South Newbury; 12th, Westfield Grange, No. 2293, Troy; 12th, Parkman Grange, No. 2295, Parkman. The above is the order in which the granges were organized prior to, or during, 1876. Union Grange had, during the year 1876, seventy-two members, and, I think, the granges in the county would average forty-five or fifty each, making, at the time, five hundred and fifty or six hundred patrons in the county.
Mrs. George Wilbur, of Thompson.
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GEAUGA BAR.
The legal profession is pre-eminently calculated to arouse and constantly exert a powerful influence in developing the mental energies to the utmost tension. To such as are endowed with a logical mind, and had the industry and perserverance, with suitable helps, devoting much time to the study of first principles, the only sure foundations on which to build and attain eminence as good counselors, advocates, and jurists, a thorough knowledge of Jewish, Roman, and Grecian laws and literature, passing through to English jurisprudence—a familiar and profound understanding of the organic laws of our own country, with the genius of our institutions—familiarity with statutory laws, with their frequent changes; a practical knowledge of men, with their different characteristics, on the bench, the jury-box and witness-stand, arising from different temperaments, occupations, education, and modes of thought, and local causes—memory's storehouse filled with treasures, new and old, to be used at will, as questions of interest involving their reputation for legal profoundness and acumen are met and answered impromptu. Such qualifications, with its wide range of thought in philosophical investigations, have produced the most eminent men in the executive, legislative, judicial, and ministerial offices—men of letters, filling places of highest honor and trust in our country; and in every civilized country throughout the world, the legal profession have directed the machinery of government, and swayed the public mind.
Geauga county was fortunate in having, at first, men in the legal profession of established character, which has given a moral tone to the bar. Peter Hitchcock and Samuel W. Phelps were the first. Judge Hitchcock is too well known to need any comment. [For particulars see biography in this volume.] Mr. Parkman was largely engaged in the real estate business for himself, and in agencies for others, so that his energies were not directed in prosecuting suits for others extensively. Mr. Phelps was reputed a good lawyer, with an extensive practice. In the early settlement of the county the business was in the direction of Pittsburgh. Black salts was the most extensive article of exchange with the farmers, for Pittsburgh manufactures. Mtich of that commodity passed through or was disposed of at Warren, which accounted, in some measure, for the professional business being done so largely by the Trumbull county lawyers. Elisha Whittlesey and Thomas D. Webb were for many years engaged on almost every important suit, and generally on opposite sides. When the old Commercial bank of Lake Erie, at Cleveland, failed, Leonard Case and Alfred Kelly had for years much business in collecting and foreclosing mortgages in our courts. Ralph Granger, from Canandaigua, New York, located at Fairport about 182o. His natural and acquired abilities were exceedingly good. As a classical scholar, and for general and varied knowledge, he had no peer, probably, on the Reserve. He had a large real estate business in lands belonging principally to his father, General Granger, paymaster-general under Madison's administration. Subsequently, Reuben Wood, S. J. Andrews, John W. Willey, Judges Prentice and Bolton were the most prominent of the Cleveland bar doing business here. Giddings, of Ashtabula, and Sloan, of Ravenna, were for years regular attendants with business at our courts. Governor Huntington was a prominent attorney in Painesville in early times. In 1818 Noah D. Matoon located in Painesville, where he practiced many years. When Benjamin Bissel became his law partner the business of the office largely increased. Soon after the dissolution of the law firm, Mr. Matoon located in Madison, Lake county, where his business was mostly in magistrate courts and as a conveyancer. The latter part of his life is said to have been very exemplary. Stephen Mathews and James H. Paine
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located in Painesville in 1821 or 1822. Their business increased rapidly. The docket shows they had more cases than any others for some years, generally in opposition. Samuel Wheeler and Robert Harper, of Unionville had a large amount of business, especially the former, who had the reputation of being a profound lawyer. William L. Perkins, of Painesville, commenced practice in our courts in r824, and rapidly rose to eminence in his profession. He was noted as a safe counsellor. A good advocate, systematic in business arrangements, courteous to the court and his associates, gentlemanly in his demeanor to all classes, his business was large. His life has been exemplary. He lives while his cotemporaries in profession are gone. Benjamin Bissell had for many years a good share of legal business. After his official business as judge of the court, and his return to the bar, his business was not as great as before. He was considered a good lawyer. He was of a nervous sanguine temperament, and at times was a good deal nettled when he was overruled, after he had been judge. Seabury Ford was admitted to the bar in 1827. Reuben Hitchcock inherited a strong mind, which was well cultivated in educational and legal science. [See biographies.]
Eli T. Wilder, for many years a prominent member of our bar, was reputed a good attorney; had a large run of business, and had the confidence of the court and bar. [See a short biographical sketch, prepared by an eminent member of the bar, from an adjoining county, whose experience and intuitive knowledge of judging of men and character are well known. The sketch of H. and E. T. Wilder was forwarded to me with a request to publish, and doubtless unknown to the Messrs. Wilder.] Mr. Axtell, a young practitioner of Painesville, had considerable business here. He was a promising young man in his business, much respected, and removed to Cleveland, where he died. A. L. Tinker, of Painesville, has done more business in our court than any other lawyer, out of the county, for twenty years, and is one of the strong men in his profession, in the judicial district a noted advocate, and his opponents never "catch a weasel asleep" in business with him. L. P. Burrows, of Painesville, stands next in amount of business done at Chardon. C. T. Blakeslee, lately located at Chagrin Falls (since dead), with others in the profession, had considerable business in this county, owing to their location so near the line of Geauga. Members within the limits of the present county: Alfred Phelps commenced business in Parkman, and subsequently removed to Chardon. Not being an eloquent advocate he was not, for many years, credited with as much good sense and knowledge of law as he was entitled to--until young Riddle entered the office as his law partner. Their business rose rapidly, until they were retained and did more business than any other firm, if not all others in the county. For some time Judge Phelps developed powers, while doing business in this firm, as counselor (he wanted time for consideration], and system in preparing cases creditable to himself and bar. Mr. Riddle rapidly rose to the head of his profession in this and adjacent counties. [See biography.]
Messrs. Knights, Hawes, and Hurlburt, successively, planted themselves in Chardon, but did not take deep root, and the farmer ones soon left, and the latter died soon after his location there.
O. P. Brown came from Ashtabula county here. He read law in J. R. Giddings' office. His politics were unfavorable to bring him forward in business for many years. Although acting with a party so largely in the minority, he
88 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
continued to gain in business until he had a fair practice. Leaving here, he established himself in Ravenna, where he had a good business, and was a leading member of the bar. He was elected to the State senate from that district, in 1856. He was reputed by that body as a strong debater; Was a radical Freesoiler, and a determined and outspoken opposer of slavery, which brought him into frequent collision with opponents of talents and legislative experience—in which he sustained himself well. Being engaged with strong minds, debating on first principles was sufficiently exciting to wake up his large brain to great effort. He was re-elected to the senate, and died a few years after with a tumor, after being successfully operated upon, by Cleveland surgeons, once. He was a great sufferer.
Arthur Thrasher was raised in Troy, in this county, son of Doctor Thrasher, find inherited a sterling mind; read law with Hitchcock and Wilder, of Painesville; was admitted to the bar in 1848, and was very successful in business, gaining a high reputation, as was expected by all who knew him. Such a close student, with such untiring industry, with a perseverance unsurpassed, could not fail to bring him to the front. He made his client's case his own, and fought it out on that line. His close application to business hurried on that disease, which he was constitutionally predisposed to—consumption which closed his earthly career. Greer, from Munson, judge of the court, in Michigan. [Since dead.]
Milton Canfield, a Chardon boy, son of Hilen Canfield, was a long trme member of the bar; was a good, candid counsellor, a close student, diligent in business, gentlemanly in deportment, and enjoyed the confidence of court and community; was probate judge many years, and was elected judge of this subAdicial district, and died, before his first term expired, universally respected.
We now come to the living members of the bar doing business in Chardon. L. E. Durfee is now the oldest member of the bar. I. N. Hathaway is next. For particular account of their history and professional business, see their biographies, and D. W. Canfield, Henry Canfield, and 0. S. Farr's.]
It is not my purpose to enter into the details of those practicing at the bar living in this county—want of space precludes it. I have been obliged to clip from the early practitioners, especially the dead, some facts and anecdotes of interest.
BAR ROSTER.
L E. Durfee, James E. Stephenson, under the firm of Durfee, Stephenson & Co.;I. N. Hathaway, G. W. Osborn, and W. H. Osborn, under the firm of Hathaway & Osborn; D. W. Canfield, 0. S. Farr, and — Metcalf, of the firm of Farr & Metcalf; H. N. Canfield, N. H. Bostwick, of Chardon; [In Geauga and Lake history it is said "Bostwick died in June, 1865." Any one stepping into his office, in the Bank block, will find him alive and ready for business.] George H. Ford, Charles E. Ward, of Burton; N. C. Woodard, of Huntsburg; L. P. Barrows, of Troy; B. F. Abel, of Troy; [Since dead ] Charles Baldwin, E. D. Ford, E. Wood, R. H. Merrill.
Many young men of this county have studied law and located in other counties and States, notably, Gen. Halbert Paine represented the Milwaukee district in congress, and now practicing law in Washington, District of Columbia; W. 0. Forrest, of Missouri; Homer and Lewis Goodwin, of Sandusky City; S. E. Blakeslee, of Williams county; .A. C. White, of Jefferson, Ashtabula county ; Lucius Goodwin, of Illinois; John Tyler, of Cleveland, and A. A. Benjamin, of Cleveland. Several are pursuing other occupations—J. 0. Converse, editor; C. L Taylor, farmer.
The Geauga bar has sustained the reputation of preparing their business and contesting their cases as critically and judiciously as in any of her sister counties.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 89
EQUAL RIGHTS IN NEWBURY,
D. M. Allen, of Newbury, says of this report:
"It is a record of one of the most important events in the history of the county, and one that be read with interest when the consummation of this great work shall have been reached. It seems also but just; that inasmuch as the prime movers in this effort have been so extensively misrepresented and vilified throughout the county, a fair and impartial statement of their actual work should go down to posterity."
In the fall of 1871, a more decided demonstration was made by the proposition of Mrs. Lima H. Ober, that the women attend the October election. The idea met with considerable favor, and Mrs. Lima H. Ober, Lovina Green, Mrs. Hopkins Smith, Mrs. Ruth Munn, Mrs. P. M. Burnett, Mrs. S. L. 0. Allen, Mrs. Mary Hodges, Mrs. Lydia Smith, and Mrs. Sarah A. Knox, pre. sented themselves before the judges of election, and offered their ballots, which, of course, were refused.
A mass convention for the discussion of human equality before the law, was convened at the Union chapel, South Newbury, April 23, 1873, and continued two days. Mrs. M. S. Organ, M. D., of Yellow Springs, Ohio, delivered the principle addresses. The meetings were well attended, and much interest was manifested. The following month a memorial, signed by eighty-two persons, was forwarded to the constitutional convention, then in session at Columbus.
January 4, 1874, pursuant to call, a number of citizens of South Newbury and vicinity convened at Union chapel, for the purpose of organizing a woman suffrage political club. D. M. Allen called the meeting to order, and nominated Deacon Amplius Green for chairman. Henry Redfield was made secretary. The following constitution was unanimously adopted:
PREAMBLE.
WHEREAS, We believe in the absolute social, civil and poritical equality of the entire human family, without regard to race, sex or nationality; and, whereas, the declaration of independence and the constitution of the United States recognize the fundamental truth that "all just governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed," we, the undersigned, in order to promote the practical realization of these principles, do hereby organize ourselves into a woman suffrage poritical club, adopting the forlowing :
CONSTITUTION.
ARTICLF. 1.—This society shall be called the Newbury woman suffrage potitical club.
ART. 2.—The object of this organization shatl be, by the circulation of newspapers and tracts, by
lectures and discussions, and arl legitimate instrumentalities, to aid in placing woman on a pecuniary, social, and political equality with man.
ART. 3.—The officers of this society shall consist of a president, two vice-presidents, a recording and corresponding secretary, a treasurer, and an executive committee of five.
ART. 4.—The annual meeting of the society shall be held on the second Monday of January of each year, and may be adjourned from time to time, as the members shall determine.
ART 5.—Special meetings may be called by lhe executive committee.
ART. 6.—All monies paid out of the treasury sharl be on order of the executive committee.
AIM 7.—Any may become a member or the society by signing the constitution and con- tributing to the funds.
ART. 8.—This constitution may be amended at any regular meeting of the society by a majority of the members present, the proposed amendment having been submitted in writing at a previous meeting.
Twenty-four persons signed the constitution, and the organization was completed by the election of the following board of officers: Ruth Munn, presi-
* Reported by Miss Erlen Munn.
90 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
dent; Joel Walker, D. M. Allen, vice-presidents; Ellen Munn, recording secretary; Julia P. Green, corresponding secretary; Mary Hodges, treasurer; William Munn, Sophia L. O. Allen, Anna M. Green, Apollos D. Green, Ransom Knox.
GEAUGA COUNTY SOCIETIES:
THE WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION OF GEAUGA COUNTY.
This is an organization which was one of the outgrowths of the temperance agitation of 1874 and 1875, commonly known as the "Crusade." The ladies of Geauga county were perhaps less active in carrying on the " Crusade" element of warfare against the liquor interest than those of some other localities, but they strove diligently, nevertheless, for the accomplishment of their object by other means, and early in 1875 a county organization was formed in addition to the merely local societies which existed in nearly all of the larger townships. The first officers elected were the following: president, Mrs. Julia Spencer; secretary, Mrs. O. S. Farr; treasurer, Mrs. C. S. Herrick; vice-presidents— Chardon, Mrs. D. W. Canfield ; Chester, Mrs. H. W. Johnson; Newbury, Mrs. Ann Jenks; Troy, Mrs. Maria Welsh ; Burton, Mrs. Seabury Ford; Auburn, Mrs. Ellen Crafts; Parkman, Mrs. Dr. Flint; Russell, Mrs. Dwight Tiffany;. Thompson, Mrs. Truman Hardy; Hambden, Mrs. Melissa Potter; Claridon, Mrs. H. B. Fry; Middlefield, Mrs. O. N. Glendenning; Munson, Mrs. Thomas Carroll; Bainbridge, Mrs. C. P. Haskins; Huntsburg, Mrs. Lucy Strong; Montville, Mrs. Dr. Baldwin.
UNION MUSICAL ASSOCIATION.
At a meeting of the old Geauga county musical association held at Thompson, August 23, 1861, it was resolved to disband that organization and establish one which should comprise the singers of both Geauga and Lake counties. In accordance with this plan a meetin? was held at Painesville, October 12, of the same year. But little was accomplrshed at this meeting, besides the adoption of some resolutions, and it was not until November 14th, when a meeting was held at Hambden, that the constitution was adopted and the following officers'elected: President, John H. Merrill, Painesville; vice-president, C. L. Warren, Thomson; secretary, E. F. Adams, Hambden; executive committee, E. A. Merrill, Chester; J. C. Wells, Claridon; S. S. Wheeler, Madison.
The organization soon obtained a very large membership, held monthly meetings through the winters from 1861 to 1868, inclusive, and then the interest seemed to decline, and the association relapsed into an inactive condition. The flourishing condition of this musical organization, during the several years above named, enabled the association to employ the best conductors, and to take up for study a high class of compositions. The musical spirit in Geauga and Lake counties was quickened to a great degree, and a permanent effect for good was caused. An interesting episode in the history of the association was the
* Taken from Williams Bros: History of Geauga and Lake Counties.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 91
breaking up of a meeting, held at Hambden, September 4, 1862, by the reception of the news that Cincinnati was in danger of invasion and destruction by the Confederates. The meeting had only been called to order a few minutes and three or four tunes sung, when a messenger dashed up to the door on horseback and conveyed to the assemblage the news of Ohio's peril. "Governor Brough," he said, "wanted every man who had a rifle, and knew how to use it, to go immediately to Cincinnati." Had a firebrand been thrown by the enemy's hand into the midst of the peaceful convention of people, who supposed themselves safe from war's alarms, the result would not have been more startling or stirring. The meeting was immediately and informally adjourned, and in a few minutes the men were hurrying in all directions to prepare for the memorable trip towards the Kentucky border, which the "minute-men" of Ohio made for the protection of their State.
THE GEAUGA COUNTY HORTICULTURAL AND POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
The society, having for its chief object the dissemination of knowledge concerning the culture of fruit, was organized February 24, 1869, at a meeting held in the Agricultural hall at Claridon, of which J. O. Converse was chairman, and J. C. Wells, secretary. An address was delivered by the late Colonel S. D. Harris, editor of the Ohio Farmer, after which the following officers were elected: piesident, J. V. Whitney, Montville; vice-president, Sylvester Clapp, Huntsburg; secretary, J. C. Wells, Claridon; corresponding secretary, Dr. J. Nichols; treasurer, E. V. Canfield.
THE GEAUGA COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY,
auxiliary to the State society, was organized in 1851 or 1852, and is consequently, at the time of the compilation of this history, twenty-six years old. Another society [Judge Hitchcock was president] existed before the formation of the present organization. The first president of the society, as reorganized, was Judge Lester Taylor, of Claridon, and the secretary, W. C. Parsons, of Chardon. J. O. Worrallo, of Chardon, has been treasurer and depositor of the new and the old societies for thirty years. The society is in a prosperous condition, and has been for many years, not only doing the work in its own field, but frequently making liberal gifts to the parent society.
GEAUGA COUNTY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.
This association, having for its object the diffusion of knowledge valuable to the profession, was organized in 1865. Its members were: L. A. Hamilton, Chardon; L. A. Baldwin, Montville; D. G. Proctor, Thompson; S. D. Steer, Huntsburg; Aaron McGraw, Newbury; D. Martin, Burton; E. S. Chappel, East Claridon; J. R. Culvertson, Chardon ; Orange Pomeroy, Munson; John Nichols, Chardon. The original officers were: L. A. Hamilton, president; J. R. Culvertson, vice-president; Orange Pomeroy, corresponding secretary. Dr. Nichols was elected president on the death of Dr. Hamilton, in 1867, and the other officers were continued in their respective places.
GEAUGA COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION
was organized January 19, 1878, at Chardon, the members enrolled at the first meeting being twenty-six in number, as follows: Edward Truman, Chardon; C. W. Carroll, Chardon; C. E. Williams, Burton; G. R. Stephenson, Chardon; E. J. Thwing, Chardon; Frank Smith, Chardon; Alvan Smith, Chardon; Worrallo Whitney, Montville; D. A. Carver, Chardon ; Ida Robinson, Chardon; Fina Shuart, Chardon; Emma Shuart, Chardon; Ella L. Leland, Huntsburg; Olive M. Osborne, Burton; Mary Bennett, Chardon; Florence Westcott, Chardon; Laura Bartlett, Chardon; E. M. Rogers, Chardon; Rose Burnett, Chardon; Ella Fox, Chardon; Jennie Hollis, Chardon; Nona Dudley, Chardon;
92 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO
Ella Pitkins, Chardon; Chloe Parks, Bundysburg; Esther A. Larraway, Fowler's Mills; Henry C. Durfee, Chardon.
The officers elected upon organization were : C. W. Carroll, president; Edward Truman, vice-president; E. Metta Rogers, secretary; George R. Stevenson, treasurer; Abram Smith, H. C. Durfee, and Laura Bartlett, executive committee.