376 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO
CLARIDON.
PREFACE.
The author of this history has lived on his farm in Claridon for sixty years, ever since Ohio became his adopted State, and being now eighty years of age, having gratuitously devoted much time in collecting materials for this history, and visited every family in the township that has resided in it long enough to become acquainted with its history, and knowing how every year increases the difficulty of reconciling different versions relating to past events, or obtaining correct dates; as his contemporaries in the trials, labors, and embarrassments attending a new settlement, partakers of each others joys and sorrows, of prosperity and adversity, health and sickness, are "sleeping that death that knows no waking," is solicitous to have the past history of the township published (imperfect as it is), before one of the last links in the chain of events connecting the past with the future—the dead with the living—shall be sundered; therefore, the author dedicates this township history to the present and future generations, in the hope that it may awaken a living and continuous sense of gratitude to the memories of those who came here to obtain homes for themselves and families, and that their children might inherit cultivated fields which they had redeemed from the primeval forest; buildings which they had erected; fruits which they had cultivated; flocks and herds which they had reared; enjoy the institutions, moral, social, educational, and religious, which they had created and cultured by self-sacrificing efforts, that posterity might know how to "honor those to whom honor is due," and with an appreciative spirit labor to sustain and perpetuate all such associations as shall, by the blessing of Almighty God, prove a rich inheritance to all future generations.
LESTER TAYLOR,
President of Geauga County Historical Society.
Claridon, December 10, 1878.
Township number eight, in the seventh range of townships in the Connecticut Western Reserve, was originally purchased from the State of Connecticut by sundry individuals, mostly living in that State, known by the name and style of the Connecticut Land company, who received their deeds of conveyance in September, 1795.
The township east and west lines were run in 1796. The range lines of the township between six and seven, and seven and eight, were run by John Milton Holly.
Seth Pease run the line between numbers seven and eight (Burton and Claridon); and Amos Stafford and Richard M. Stoddard, the line between numbers eight and nine (Claridon and Hambden).
The Connecticut Land company subsequently sold their lands in this township to an association of individuals known under the names of Lake Erie Land company, and Uriel Holmes, Smith & Wilcox, and P. H. Buel, in proportions as follows: The Erie company taking the eastern and central part, amounting to three-fifths. The Buel tract contained only four hundred and fifty acres of land in the southwestern part of the township. Smith & Wilcox took some seven hundred acres, bounded on the south by Burton, east by the Erie tract,
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and west by the Buel tract and in part by the east lines of Holmes' west tier of lots. The Erie tract was divided into three tiers of lots, each tier being one mile in width, known as east, middle, and western tiers. These tiers were divided into five sections, each making fifteen sections of nearly a mile square each. These sections were subsequently subdivided into three lots each, by Joshua Henshaw, surveyor, of Warren, in 1812. General Perkins, of Warren, was agent for the sale of the lands of the Erie company. The Holmes' tract was divided into two tiers (east and west), and those divided into twenty-lots, of about two hundred and fifty acres each, surveyed by S. Hawley, esq., being about five thousand five hundred acres.
A glance at any accurate map will show the inaccuracy of the range lines between numbers six and seven, the eastern range line verging nearer as it runs north to its parallel western line, leaving Claridon only about four and three- fourth miles in width on the north line of the township.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE TOWNSHIP.
The dividing ridge of high land is north, so that the waters in this township flow in a southerly direction. The principal streams of water are the two branches of the Cuyahoga river; the eastern one rising in Montville running through near the eastern line, between Huntsburg and Claridon, showing its respects about equally to each township. The west branch rising in Hambden, enters the township, north of the center, flowing in a southwestern direction, about a mile and a half to Aquilla lake; from the outlet, its course is southerly through the township. The elevated ridge through the central part of the town, from north to south, is much higher than the tracts along the branches of the rivers; the descent being gradual, about two and a half miles east, and an average of one and a half west. West of the western branch, the land rises gradually to Munson. So the land has sufficient inclination to carry off the water from the surface, and not steep enough to wash away much of the soil; whilst the numerous springs crop out the sides bf these ridges, making, in their descent towards the main streams, small ravines, leaving the land somewhat rolling from north to south from one spring, run to another, whilst the general descent is in another direction, east and west. These springs of water are generally pure and cold, bursting out of the conglomerate sand rock, which underlies the whole surface, which crops out most notably at the head of, and along the ravines, where the water has cut down to the bed of rock in many
places.
About midway betwixt the center and the northwest corner of the town lies Aquilla lake, about three-fourths of a mile in length, and half the distance in width. There is abundant evidence to prove that this pond extended much farther north formerly, and south through the whole delta of about one-fourth of a mile in width, to Burton, nearly four miles, and, doubtless, many miles
below.
A principal reason to establish such a belief, is the fact, that logs have been found on those bottom-lands (in so good a state of preservation that the kind of timber was discernable), imbeded in the soil, some three feet, and as low as the surface of the lake, and miles from it.
The lake is constantly decreasing in size, owing to the washing in of soil from land on the sides and from ditching below the lake, and consequently lowering of the surface, and more notably the deposits of alluvial during freshets from the river, coming in from the north.
TIMBER.
The land was heavily timbered with a great variety—beech and maple, the most abundant; gigantic elms, monarchs of the forests, chestnut, red and white
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oak, white ash, bass wood, cherry, cucumber, yellow whitewood, growing generally on every lot, which, with other soft wood timber, gave a good supply for building and fencing purposes. Amongst the large and beautiful specimens of forest trees, the yellow whitewood stood pre-eminent. If the admonition of "axeman, spare that tree" had been more heeded, much valuable timber would have been saved until such timber was wanted in market at remunerative prices. The timber on the Cuyahoga bottoms consisted mostly of elm, black ash, soft maple and yellow birch. For some distance below the pond, the land was swampy, and known as "alder swamp." Nettles, weeds, and tangled masses of wild grasses grew luxuriantly on those bottom lands.
The writer has seen here, in an early day, the uplands literally covered with leeks the first of April. Many of the herbs and plants, common, when the first settlers came, have almost disappeared, gensing, blood-root, kirkamy, colombo, and other medicinal roots, are, many of them, amongst "the things that were." The meadow plum and choke cherry were common on the intervals, and, in fruit time, were favorite resorts for the bear.
The soil of the uplands was a loamy-clay, varying much in different localities, and even on the same lots in its composition with sand, gravel and depth of vegetable mold.
Wild animals were numerous, of such kinds as were common in this part of the country—deer, bear, wolves, wild-cats, raccoons, opossum, porcupine, and a few elk. Rattlesnakes were plenty—the yellow or variegated color on the uplands, and the black, called the massasaugas, on the lowlands. The Cuyahoga bottoms were subject to an overflow every freshet, and being so level, and the water being obstructed by fallen trees, brush and herbage, would remain until dried up by the hot sun, often late in the summer months, which often proved a fruitful source of remittent and intermittent fevers to the early settlers, which, together with the change of climate, want of convenience for shelter, and different manner of living from that they had been accustomed to in their eastern homes. It was a proverb, among the early settlers, that when there were wounds from poisonous reptiles, or sickness from malarial diseases, there were, within a short distance, remedial vegetables to cure, which taxed the ingenuity and skill of the mothers of the first settlers to the utmost tension as nurses, as there were no professional men, in the healing art, near. The fever and ague were the most common diseases, and yielded easier to home medicine and home nursing, or wore itself out when frosty weather came, as the disease was not so dangerous as it became in later years, when it assumed a congestive type. The early settlers were generally of robust constitutions, healthy, strong persons, able to stand, successfully, a greater pressure of disease than at present, as diseases have become more complicated, and persons have less physical strength to resist, and especially so with those who attend to the domestic duties of house and family.
The writer of this history was long since aware that the materials to obtain an accurate history of the first settlement of the pioneers was fast being lost by the deaths of the aged and loss of papers in families, etc., collected such accounts of circumstances and dates from living witnesses, tradition and papers as he could, and put them into a history to perpetuate their names and honor their virtues.
Their examples of patient perseverance and honest toil are worthy of being recorded. It is difficult for the present generation to realize the circumstances under which they were placed. They endured hardships and privations of which the present generation practically know nothing. Children and grandchildren and others own the farms they cleared up, live in the houses they built, enjoy the moral, religious, political, and educational institutions they planted and fostered with increasing care. We write their meritorious deeds that their
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names may be held in grateful remembrance, especially by those who have profited by their labors.
In 1866, Jason C. Wells, esq., of this town, wrote several articles which were published in the Geauga Democrat, giving a detailed account of the history of Claridon, in which he wrote that "the Honorable Lester Taylor originated the idea of the first Geauga County Historical Society, in 1851, to obtain a complete history of every township, and ultimately to be published in a book; and that he had kindly furnished me with the history of Claridon, prepared and read before the first historical society." I avail myself of the Incidents and dates which he had procured, and copy some parts of his sketches, and likewise select from a series of articles written by T. Clark Wells, subsequently published in the same paper.
Before any settlement was made in Claridon, a saw- and grist-mill was put up only a rod or two over the South Hambden line. It was claimed by Captain Wells, in one of his articles, on the authority of Lewis Elliott, an old pioneer in Hambden, that the family of Higby, who built the mill, lived in Claridon, and that a child was born in that house. I have taken much pains to ascertain the facts. One of the old residents in Hambden, Mr. Quiggle, informed me that he could go to the exact place where the old cabin stood, as he had been familiar in the family, and knew the location of the house. He made a journey there at my request, called on Deacon Clinton Goodwin, who owns the farm, went directly to the place, found the old well that had been filled up, and some of the chimney foundation, and it was just over the line in Hambden.
In 1808, three years before any family moved into Claridon, Stephen Higby built the rudely constructed mill before alluded to. The grist-mill had an upright shaft, to which the upper mill-stone was attached, the lower stone resting upon a foundation of logs. The dam and floom were of the most primitive style—of logs and sticks, with earth embankments. Loose boards were placed over the hopper to protect it from storms. Rude as it was, it was a great blessing to the few families scattered about in several townships, to have their corn cracked and their wheat ground. Soon after the mill was put in operation, some of the red men of the forest who were hunting along the banks, hearing the splashing of the water and the rumbling of the stones, detailed one of their number to reconnoiter and ascertain the cause. He reported that it was the groans of the great spirit that was rolling in agony, and tossing the waters into foam high up amongst logs and whirling rocks. It was quickly decided, in council, to leave for good. In 1809, Selah Bradley, of Burton, was employed by Higby to build a one-story frame building on the timber basement which covered the machinery, and made quite a decent looking mill building, and did very good business for many years.
In June, 1810, Asa Cowles, esq., and Seth Spencer, of New Hartford, Connecticut, left to prospect for land in New Connecticut, as the Reserve was then called, upon which to make a permanent settlement. About a week afterwards Elijah Douglass, son-in-law of Esquire Cowles, left the same place on the same business, traveling on foot until he overtook them in western New York with their team. They proceeded in company to Austinburg, Ohio. About the first of July Uriel Holmes, of Litchfield, Connecticut, owner of the Holmes tract, in this township, and other lands on the Reserve, joined them, when, on horseback, they went to Burton and put up with John Ford, esq. The next day, under the guidance of Amariah Beard, who volunteered his services, they proceeded to view the tract. There had been a tornado a few weeks previous which had swept a strip of timber down, of considerable width, in its course. Mr. Beard showed them the place where he had some cattle completely hemmed in by the fallen trees, so they had to cut a road to get them out, and yet they
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were unhurt. The place was east of the Cuyahoga, and on the southern part of the Buel tract. From this point, having made their way through the windfall with some difficulty, they turned on to the Erie tract. Near the center of the township Mr. Holmes found a good spring of water, announced the discovery with' the ever-welcome "let's whiskey," where they took their lunch. This spring was on land afterward owned by Col. Chester Treat. They then went on to Holmes' west tier of lots, crossing the Cuyahoga at the ford where Butternut creek empties in, and lay that night near where Col. Erastus Spencer's house now stands. They were serenaded in the night by a pack of wolves, that approached within a few rods of their camp, making more volume of music than at singers' concerts now-a-days. Next day they viewed the lands north, and camped by a spring on the eastern side of Chardon hill.
Mr. Douglass took one of the horses, which had become lame, and started for Austinburg. Night came on while he was in the woods in Windsor, follow- ing a bridal path along a line of blazed trees. His white dog intuitively kept the trail, and was to the rider as the pole star for his course, which brought him safely to Austinburg.
After this they returned to this township, having looked at land in different places in Portage, Trumbull, and Ashtabula counties, and selected lands here as follows, to-wit: Seth Spencer, having the first choice, selected lot thirteen (Butternut creek lot) for his son, Halsey. Esquire Cowles took. lots numbertwelve, fourteen, sixteen, seventeen and twenty—about one thousand acres, varying in price from two dollars and seventy-five cents to three dollars per acre.
The next year, 1811, on the fourth of July, Esquire Cowles and wife, with their children—Laura, Ralph, Edmund, Hiram, Mariah, Minerva, and Asa; Elijah Douglass and his wife, Betsey, daughter of Esquire Cowles, and his sister, Miss Chloe Douglass, left their homes for their selected lands in the unbroken forest of this township. The journey, like all traveling in those days to the great west, was slow; from Buffalo the mud holes awful, more awful, and most awful, as the writer knows from subsequent experience. The Cataraugus woods were objects of terror to all travelers. It was said a hat was discovered one day lying on the mud. A boy jumped in to that river of mud to seize the coveted prize, when a ghostly voice exclaimed, "Let my hat alone; I have a good horse under me." Teams of oxen were kept there to help travelers through, charging exhorbitant prices. Our Yankee travelers were equal to the occasion, in avoiding the extortion, by taking a circuitous route, cutting a new road through the woods. Those families arrived at Bondstown, putting up at Bond's, within a few miles of their lands, over the Sabbath. On Monday they looked out a road through the central part of this township to Burton, cutting away logs and brush, and there found an unoccupied log school-house in the western part of that township, south of the mills now known as Gilmore's, or Alderman's, on land owned by Eli Hayes. Returning to their families, and on the sixth of August moved into the log tenement a few miles south of their own lands. Esquire Cowles selected a site on lot sixteen. They would come days from Burton, and cut and draw logs for his house. When ready for putting up the cabin, the men from Burton and Newbury responded to the invitation, among whom was the Hon. Peter Hitchcock, who, with axe in hand, carried up one corner; that is, notching the logs near the end so as to make them fit, be strong, and set close together. It was a double log house, one part of which was often given up to new-comers until they could build one for themselves. Religious meetings were held in it for years. Not being acquainted with pioneer life, the new-comers made slow and awkward work in building a tenement from materials found on the spot.
Soon after the above named families left for Ohio, another installment of fam-
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ilies from Hartland, Connecticut, had made arrangements for removal to the Reserve, and two of the families exchanged their farms for unselected lands in the Holmes tract, in this location. The removal of those families to the great west was considered of so much importance, and of such a serious nature, that the minister of the parish preached a serraon on the occasion on the Sabbath preceding their removal. Mr. Gaylord's text was from Proverbs iii, 6: "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." A sermon was likewise preached in New. Hartford, before Messrs. Cowles and Douglass left with their families. The text selected on that occasion was, Exodus xxxiii, 15 : "If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
Those sermons were looked upon rather in the light of funeral discourses, so momentous was the undertaking; so great the distance; so serious the obstacles to be overcome; so uncertain their fate from accidents, disease and massacre from'the terrible Indians, they were bidden a final adieu. To maiay, it was a reality. Two of those families—Capt. Nathaniel Spencer and Horace Taylor— who were connected with the first comers, came directly to this township. Horace Taylor was taken sick on the road, and delayed some time. In October, as these families were nearing Painesville, Captain Spencer took a lead horse from the team and came to Burton to look for a cabin, until he could select lands. Having made some arrangement for a temporary shelter for his family, he sent back word to have the families come by the way of Bondstown, where he would meet them; not getting the word, they came on through Chardon. As they were working their way through the forest in the west part of this township; they upset the wagon containing the spencer family, breaking one wheel. This occurred on the land which he aftewards selected, near where he built his cabin, and where the Spencer family mansion, so well known, has stood. Moving on with the other team until they came to the unfinished cabin of Esquire Cowles. Night was upon them, and it was resolved that the men should take their teams from the wagons and put ahead for Burton and the old school-house, where the first installment of settlers were. It was a gloomy night. From the wagons such articles as would tend to make them comfortable, that were not boxed up, were taken for bunks. As soon as morning-light the sound of familiar voices announced the return of the "scouts," with Mr. Douglass to cheer them in their loneliness and pilot them through to civilization. They were the first white families ever known to have slept within the limits of Claridon.
Captain Spencer's family remained in Burton until he could put up a cabin. Horace Taylor, not being able to find a shelter for his family, accepted Esquire Cowles' offer to use his "lone cabin" until he could put up a shelter. Returning in the afternoon, in a cold, drizzling rain, with his family, he attempted to build a fire, by means of igniting tinder from an old flint-lock on his gun; the flint was lost. It was then growing dark, and, as a dernier resort, he went back to Burton, leaving his wife with two young children, and one of them sick, and obtained fire from Mr. Fowler's (west of where the Gilmore mills now stand), about three miles distant from his family; returning with his torch he soon had a good fire to mitigate the horrors of darkness, and the suffering from dampness and cold. Mrs. Taylor often spoke of that time of terrible lonliness, chilly uncomfortableness, and anxious suspense, during her husband's absence.
Captain Spencer selected lands on Holmes' west tier of lots, north of lands selected for Halsey Spencer, and Asa Cowles, on which he built, and where he lived, and where his three sons settled, known as the "Spencer settlement."
Elijah Douglass having put up his cabin, the Cowles and Douglass families moving into their houses, and Horace Taylor moving into one he built south of those, Benjamin Andrews with his famrly moved into the settlement from Bristol, New York, was formerly from Hartland, and connected with the other
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families, built and moved into a house south of the others. Allen Humphrey and family moved into the settlement on the fifteenth of November, took one of the rooms in Esquire Cowles' double log tenement, and took lot fifteen, east of the Cuyahoga, on Holmes' east tier of lots, and directly east of Esquire Cowles. Although late in the season, the logs for his house were soon cut, and the hands in the settlement were able to put them in their places for walls, and a roof of long shingles was put on with all dispatch, as winter was upon them, and on the fifth of December, moved over into his unfinished cabin. Mrs. Humphrey often told the story of her crossing the muddy Cuyahoga. The bottom of the river was so muddy, there was but one crossing found, near which there was a fallen tree across the stream, on which she expected to walk, arriving at the deep water. She said, "now, let me get out and cross on the tree," her husband applied the whip to the oxen, in they plunged, and through, the wagon went: When safely on the other shore, he replied, "I intended to have it said you were the first woman that ever rode across the Cuyahoga in this town." Their house had neither chimney, door, window, nor floor, a mere skeleton, wagon agon box was taken to pieces, and laid upon the sleepers to place their beds and sleep; fire was made on the ground at one end of the building, a place left without any roof for the smoke to pass upward, for seats, stumps within the building for the heads of the family, and pumpkins that had been given them from Burton for the children. The oxen had been turned into the woods, a deep snow fell, after searching a while in the woods, went to Burton, found them in the settlement; borrowing a yoke and sled, bought some boards for floor and door, returning home with much joy to the family. Young America may not understand how those primitive dwellings were made without nails or iron of any description. Floors were made by splitting logs, hewing off the slivers, and placing the flat smoothest side up, doors by splitting timber thin, making hinges of wood, pinning the thin split boards to the arms; those were pinned into the upright standard, swinging in the sockets of wood; roof covered with long shingles, laid on ribs of small round timber, running from end to end of the house, poles laid on to hold them down, a piece of one of the logs cut out for a window large enough for four panes of six by eight window glass, spaces between the logs of the building chinked with wedging split sticks, clay made into mortar, and daubed over the chinks, a chimney made of sticks without any jambs, extending nearly across the end of the house, covered with mortar, some stones laid up a few feet high for a back to the chimney, and you have a pioneer house, such as necessity, the mother of invention, prompted pioneers to provide for shelter, with such variations as circumstances and taste prompted. Subsequently another house had one floor made of split thick logs, which was said to have been worn smooth, and even polished by the young people, dancing after the music of a flute, some having leather, and others using untanned foot skins. The settlement through this winter consisted of six families and four unmarried young people, thirty-nine in all.
The names of the first families have been given. The others were: Captain Nathaniel Spencer and Lydia Douglass Spencer, his wife, and their children, Orrin, Ralza, Erastus, Emily, Amna, and Julia. The latter daughter only survives, and now lives in Chardon with her husband, Austin Canfield, esq. [The term now, through this history, will refer to 1876, the Centennial year, unless otherwise stated].
Horace Taylor and Nancy. Douglass, his wife, with Louisa N., now Mrs. Brinsmade, of Cleveland, and Horace Addison.
Benjamin Andrews and his wife, Polly Douglass, with George, Franklin, Caroline and Orville.
Allen Humphrey and his wife, Polly Bodwell, with four children, as follows :
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Chloe, who married Daniel Dayton, of Burton, and lived and died there; Meriah, who married Eleazer Goodwin, and now lives at Chagrin Falls; Huron E., now living in Michigan ; and Helen, now Mrs. Tucker, of this town. The Humphrey family was from Canton, Connecticut.
Wyllis Bodwell came out with Major Humphrey, and went to Warren to live some time in the winter or spring.
All these families came from Connecticut, and were partial to the customs, laws and usages in all their varied relations to State and society as they there existed. I should have included, in the above list of settlers, Chloe Douglass, who subsequently married Matthew Fleming, of Burton, where she lived until her death, many years after, and Allen and Clarissa Spencer, relatives of Captain Spencer, who came out with him. Chloe was taken sick the next spring, and Ralph Cowles went to Warren, about thirty miles, consulted a physician, and obtained medicine, returning the third day.
Attention was immediately turned to the moral and religious instruction of the colony, as well as educational. Sabbath meetings were held regularly in Esquire Cowles' house from the time he was domiciled in it, sermons being read with other appropriate exercises:
Clarissa Spencer taught school that winter in one room of the double log house before alluded to, being the first school in the settlement giving in some measure the characteristic policy of those pioneers to establish and sustain good common schools.
We will sketch very briefly some, of the characteristics of the heads of the families, not intending now, and especially hereafter, to make many, even short, biographical notices, as space will not pernfit so much of extended particulars, as there is much similarity in the trials and deprivations of pioneer life.
Asa Cowles was one of the substantial men of his native town, having been a-magistrate in and represented New Hartford in the general assembly of Connecticut; had a good common school education, took an active interest in all matters of church and State, and a devoted Christian of the Congregational church, taking the lead in meetings until they had a minister. He possessed means more than were common to the first settlers, became known and respected throughout the county, and was subsequently one of the associate judges of the county. He died in 1836.
Captain Nathaniel Spencer was an active business man, had worked in the cabinet business east, and established a chair factory on a spring run, on his farm, which is now successfully carried on by his son Ralza. He had a strong constitution, large chest, with an uncommon strong voice. The writer, living a mile distant, has often heard him call his boys up in the morning. He accumulated a good property, introduced the first blooded stock (the Bakewell breed), had good herds and flocks, had an extensive acquaintance, and was vety hospitable, which was well understood, practically, by a host of friends. He died in 1849, leaving his homestead to his son, Colonel Erastus Spencer.
Major Allen Humphrey was not constitutionally Strong; was of a nervous, sanguine temperament, of quick perception, often difficult for him to control his feelings; was fond of reading, especially military history; was a good drill officer, and had more faith in steel and crossing of bayonets than of powder and lead. Not being a good shot, he substituted a pitchfork as a means of defense, which was invariably carried by him, as the hunting of cattle or business called him into the woods. Had he been attacked by ferocious wild beasts where rementreat would not have been the better part of valor, he would doubtless have defended himself most valiantly. He died in 1825.
Horace Taylor was an athletic, heroic man, just the right one to face the trials and privations of pioneer life—to clear the forest and put up buildings—had
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strength and energy, and could turn his hand to any kind of business, mechancal as well as farming. He was the first deacon in the Congregational church, adhering to the views of the old orthodox party of the church. He secured a good property, and was so self-sacrificing as to deny himself of his sons' help on the farm, sending them all to college. Two of them graduated— studied theology, and entered the minitsry. The eldest died in Pennsylvania in 1818. Sherman D. is preaching in this State, in one of the western counties. C. L. studied law, but chose farming and lived on the old homestead.
Benjamin Andrews was a tanner and shoemaker by trade, which had not educated him to a farming life. He was not satisfied with his occupation, nor the selection of his real estate; made more changes in location than was profitable ; raised a large family, and sold out and removed to Illinois. Two of his sons— Franklin and William—live in Cuyahoga county, and Caroline Mastick, a daughter, in Rockport, in the same county; the remainder ortliFTfiltdreri are scattered in the west.
The matrons of this colony will be mentioned incidentally in connection with subsequent events.
Elijah Douglass was a hale, strongly constituted man, of decided convictions, and imperative in the discharge of his duty according to his own judgment. He was industrions, economical, careful not to make promises without a reasonable prospect of fulfilling, and punctillious to discharge them. He was a good farmer, and left a good property, his son Edwin inheriting the homestead. He had been one of the magistrates in the township and a successful breeder of good flocks and herds, and died in 1867, aged seventy-nine years.
The colonist found supplies of provisions in Burton, and it was a common saying when they were going there to replenish their stock, "that they were going to Egypt to buy corn." Their cattle subsisted principally upon brouse. Some hay was purchased on the Otis Russell farm, in Middlefield, in 181 1, a road underbrushed and the hay hauled home to be fed out in homeopathic doses. Chopping timber for clearing in the spring, to raise corn and oats, was the great business of the winter. Deer came to brouse, occasionally, on the brush of the tree tops, as they were piled, and generally paid the "penalty of death" for their trespass. Social parties were not neglected in the wilderness ; a torch to follow the trail, either on foot or by the common mode of conveyance by oxen and sled ; and might not those social gatherings have been as pleasant and profitable in those humble dwellings, with the glowing fires burning with all the intensity of consuming a load of wood in an evening, as the select parties at the present time, with all the etiquette and culture of modern society?
In the winter Horace Taylor received a letter from Mr. Holmes, stating that he had sold the land to Deacon Truman Pitkin, before he had received notice of his selection of lots. He then selected parts of lots ten and eleven, east of She Cuyahoga river, and north of what has been known since as Kellogg's corners, selling fifty acres of lot eleven to. William Andrews They put up their cabins and moved into them in the spring. There were now three families east of the river.
In the spring of 1812, three young men, from New Hartford, Connecticut, came to this settlement and remained through the summer, to wit: Aranda Kellogg, Truman Pitkin, and Halsey Spencer.
In the latter part of August news came that Detroit was taken and all of Hull's army were prisoners, and that the British and Indians were near Cleveland. This was accompanied by a military order for every able-bodied man to report for duty, which was responded to by every one in the settlement except Esquire Cowles, exempted by age, and Wm. Pitkin, by lameness. Captain Norman Canfield commandant. The company collected at Hambden, from the different
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settlements, and marched to Cleveland, by the way of Mentor, with all haste. Alarm and consternation brooded over the unprotected families. Teams were held in readiness, and such articles of household goods as could not be readily packed in wagons were hid under brush heaps or buried. They dreamed of Indians, and every unusual noise heard was attributed to savages. Mrs. Humphrey was awakened in the night by the howling of wolves. She jumped from her bed screaming—"Indians." Involuntarily placing her hand upon her head where she supposed the scalp would be taken off, found her head was as cold as ice; and that sensation was painful, when she thought of it, ever since. The alarm at Cleveland was occasioned by some British vessels approaching the river with the prisoners taken at Detroit, who were landed and permitted to return to their homes on parole. The glad news of the returning men soon reached the settlement. Mrs. Douglass said she was milking her cow when she heard the glad news. Her joy was so great that she cried—the first tears she had shed. since the alarm.
The tenth of September was a still, cloudless day. People in the settlement heard reports, like thunder, in the west, but looked up through their little openings in the woods for clouds and signs of storm, in vain. The regularitly of the reports from the firing of broadsides satisfied some of the observing men that it was a naval battle. A writer on acoustics in "Harper's Monthly," some time since, stated that the reports of the guns in the naval battle on Lake Erie, near the islands off Sandusky, were distinctly heard at Cleveland. It may truthfully be added that they were heard in Huntsburgh and Middlefield, in this county, thirty-five miles further, as I have it from living witnesses, of whose veracity there is no question,
The capture of the British fleet by the Americans, under Commodore Perry, gave promise of security such as the settlers had not felt since the commencement of the war. During the summer a small herd of swine had wandered up Butternut creek, when the squealing of distress attracted the notice of the worshipers on the Sabbath day, at Esquire Cowles' house. Edmund Cowles was the first to discover a large bear working up the pigs' case. Captain Spencer was the first on the battle-ground with a rifle, which soon ended the contest. Instead of bruin finishing his meal of pig, he made meals for the settlers.
Before the Indian alarm, Mr. Harper, a hired man, working for Captain Spencer, feeling unwell, one day concluded to try hunting. Wandering toward the setting sun, his eyes caught sight of a fine sheet of water, and his ear of a splashing in the same. Advancing with a cat-like tread he soon discovered a herd of elk standing in the pond, frisking and stamping to make the water fly, evidently to keep off the flies. The weather was hot, without any breeze; there were calves with their elk mothers, all appearing so happy that it almost disarmed him of the nerve' to kill. After a moment's hesitation he selected his victim, drew a bead—an effectual shot—hors de combat lay the elk, whilst the remainder of the drove sped out of the water with such bounds that the spat tered waters flew sparkling in the sun like rain drops in a shower. There course was toward the Chagrin.
Munson pond, now the fashionable resort of pic-nic excursionists, and retreat for city boarders, known now as Bass lake, was the scene of the last "Mohican bands encounter," or elk drove, known in the county.
Harper and Allen Spencer volunteered, while at Cleveland, to go to the defense of Huron and Sandusky. The latter only returned.
In 1814, Aranda Kellogg returned to Claridon, married Laura, second daughter of Esquire Cowles, and purchased land south of E. Douglass' farm, where he made good improvements. He was a respectable member or the Congregational church and society. He died in 1878, aged eighty-seven years,.
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leaving the homestead in possession of Correll Kellogg, his youngest son. Dwight, the eldest, is living in Chardon.
Truman Pitkin came out this year (1814), and subsequently sold his farm to his brothers, Stephen and Amos, and moved to Portage county. Those brothers cleared up their farms, and lived and died in town, the latter having sold his farm to Stephen Tucker, who now lives on it, being a very successful grower of all kinds of fruit, great and small. None of the children of either of the Pitkin families live in the township.
Halsey Spencer came the same year, built a house, made improvements, purchased a wedding suit, and repaired to the house of his affianced at the appointed wedding day, only to find her false, being engaged to another. The shock was too great for his sensitive make (strong and energetic as he was), and he became deranged, and when the avails of his property was used up he became a public charge, and died in the county infirmary at an advanced age.
Reuben Hall,* from Connecticut, came with his family in 1812, settled on his land which he had personally selected, west of Claridon pond, in the previous year. That sheet of water was a pleasurable resort for him with line and rifle. His wife's maiden name was Mehitable Pease. He had been a joiner by trade; was a man of considerable reading, and claimed to be ranked as an independent thinker. He died in 1823, aged eighty-four years.
A Mr. Thompson came and selected lands which' were subsequently sold to Simon Gager and Simson Root, who raised families and died here, the former in 1835, aged seventy-two years, leaving the farm to his son Jarvis. Mr, Root cleared his farm, put up buildings, and died in 1878, at the advanced age of ninety-five years. The farm is now owned by Jerry Trying, being on lot four, Holmes' tract.
Late in the fall of 1814, Ozi Blakeslee, from Avon, New York, and formerly from Colebrook, Connecticut, moved into the settlement, and took up land east of the pond and north of Deacon H. Taylor's, being connected with the Taylor family. He was eccentric, often using short, pithy, proverbial expressions, and quotations from the Scripture, right to the point. When he fell the first tree for his house, it grounded in a little different direction from his intention. On snrveying its position he said, "As the tree falleth, so it lieth." The house conformed in its direction to that fallen trunk. He was captain of a volunteer company in the disastrous fight with the British and Indians at Buffalo, in the retreat through the woods. His lieutenant was fatally wounded. Being a strong man he took him in his arms and carried him about half a mile to a place of safety, and most of the way upon a run. As to the bears and wolves, he believed in the proverb, "A wise man forseeth evil and fleeth therefrom," as the following story illustrates: Owning one rifle, he occasionally borrowed another when game was plenty. It so happened when, with two guns in hands hunting cows, a bear was discovered breaking down choke-cherry shrubs and eating the berries. Creeping up within a few rods, he drew a bead with one, and then the other, doubting which was the best, and then thought, "Let us depart in peace," and went home. He was the first justice of the peace in the township. Fond of reading, and with a good memory, he knew more about our statute laws than many of the individuals of the profession at that time. He was very courteous in his intercourse, and a peace maker. He trained his large family in old school manners. If they said "yes" or "no," or wore their hats in the house, the penalty of "a basket of chips" had to be paid.
Esquire Blakeslee sold his farm in 182o to Orrin Allen, and bought a lot on
* Mr. Hall had just arrived with his family in Chardon, about the time of the Indian alarm, and
having no place for his (amily, handed his rifle to a man who had none, who went to Clevetand with it.
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the Erie tract, about half a mile north of the center, where a row of large poplar trees show the work of his hands. He moved into the settlement without much means, but, with labour and economy, and the help of his large family, accumulated a good property. He died in 1844, aged sixty-three. The place is now owned by Robert Rowlsy, who married Sophia Taylor, a daughter of Horace and Nancy Taylo1, who were among the oldest pioneers, but is now occupied by Sherwood Rowlsy, his son. Robert Rowlsy is now living at Oil Creek, or the Pennsylvania oil regions. An anecdote of conscience about Sabbath observances, at a time when Esquire Blakeslee's family were out of meat and hard up for other provisions: a deer came up to the garden fence, on the first day of the week, and the magistrate, being the head of the family, took his rifle and shot it. Mrs. Blakeslee wanted counsel as to the higher law; told the story to an orthodox female member of the church, a good old "mother in Israel," who replied, "I think your husband did right; God sent that deer to you for meat for the family ; it was like the ' manna and quails in the wilderness' for support."
In 1815 the first settlement commenced on the Erie tract. John Ransom, Shadrach Bosley, and Daniel Ames took farms on the State road, in the north part of the township. Mr. Ranson kept a good team; run an ashery; teamed to Warren, Painesville and perhaps a few times to Pittsburgh, bringing back salt, iron and nails. After partially clearing their farms, and living on them some eight or ten years, moved west.
In 1816 Holden Chase and Lot Hathaway, from Freetown, Massachusetts, came and took up land north of East Charidon, on State road. Both of these gentlemen had been familiar with the coast trade in the United States. Lot Hathaway had been mate, and Chace captain on some of their expeditrons to some of the European ports, having adopted the sailor's vocation until they resolved to locate so far in the interior as to absolve themselves from sea-faring influences. From their vocation, it was remarkable that neither of them were profane or used spirituous liquors. The writer often met with them on business and at public gatherings, and never knew them engaged in social drinking, and that long before temperance societies were formed here. Captain Chace raised a large family—the children were: Elnathan, Anna, Mary, Rebecca, Florentha, Melissa, and Edwin R. Captain Chace was a man of integrrty; of very decided opinions; good judgment, industrious, persevering, public spirited; took a deep interest in common schools. He was induced to take command of a vessel on Lake Erie, which he sailed several seasons. He accumulated a good property; put up good buildings; saw his children settled in good circumstances, and were respectable members of society. He died in 1851, aged sixty-two years.
Lot Hathaway came here unmarried, but shortly afterwards married Orpha Bushnell, a sister of Martin Bushnell, with whom she came into this State. Mr. Hathaway was very opinionated in what he thought was right, whatever the popular voice might be. He was a leading Democrat through life and, by his industry and economy, left a good property. Both of the above-named estates are in possession of their descendants.
Martin Bushnell was another Hartland man who, with his family, came in 18x5, and was the first family that settled on the Erie tract on the center road, being part of lot two, section seven, north of the center. He built a dish-mill on a small stream between Horace and Lester Taylor's which was very useful in enabling the pioneers to substitute wooden dishes for lost crockery, which could be paid for in provision, and enabled him to obtain supplies until he could raise such for himself. When he commenced an opening on his new farm, while chopping bn a log, he heard a crashing among the brush, and, looking up, saw a huge animal coming with great speed, with a "great chair on his head," as he thought. He exclaimed, "The devil," sprang from the "log with all his might,
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and, before he could jump again, the tramping elk and shaking boughs were beyond him. When living in his cabin, and about to go east on business, he engaged a young man to stay with his family nights, whilst he chopped days on his own land, which he had taken up. During Bushnell's absence the poultry was disturbed nights, in a little shanty made for their protection. The man proposed that Mrs. Bushnell should call him if she heard any more such disturbance, and he would keep his rifle well loaded for any emergency. Soon the trial came. Hurrying from the loft, he seized the rifle and approached the primitive henery. Through the chinks he saw the fire of glaring eyes. The thought, was it a panther, bear, wolf, wildcat? rushed upon his brain. Crack went the rifle. Bah! He proved to be a good marksman, and had killed the calf of an only cow of the owner.
Mr. Bushnell sold his farm to Oliver Merritt, from Connecticut, and took part of lot three, section ten, being more than a mile south of East Claridon. There he erected another dish-mill, cleared up his farm, erected good buildings, opened his house to the public as a tavern (there being at that time a great amount of travel), hauling wheat and flour to the lake from Trumbull and other counties south. He died in 1854. The Bushnell farm is now in possession of Almond Knapp, esq., one of the magistrates of this town.
The same year Gomer Bradley, of Burton, took lot two, section thirteen, in the south part of the town, on the center road, built a house, and married Emily, daughter of Captain Spencer. This was the second family on the center road. After Mr. Bradley's death, the farm changed owners several times, until it is now in the hands of O. W. Leland.
In 1812 Timothy Wells, of Hartland, Connecticut, for himself and brothers, came to look at Holmes land on the Reserve, with whom they could exchange their old worn out lands for new if they should like. He came on horseback, finding the road very good to Buffalo.
Along the sandy washed shore of the lake, the waves pack the sand harder, and makes it better traveling when the waters were quiet; along the iron bound shore under the precipices with southerly winds, or after a long calm, the teams would get along better in the water from a few inches to a foot or two feet in depth, than over the points, as they are called on the uplands where road mud was sometimes almost unfathomable. Just before reaching one of these points, an Indian came up behind him bareheaded, but profusely decorated with wampum, beads, feathers, paint, etc., reigning his horse one side for the warrior to pass with his pony, but the Indian seemed to say, go ahead; hesitating at a place whether to follow the beach or not, the Indian darted past him, beckoned him, Mr. Wells, to follow, and courteously by signs, showing the best traveling until they passed the last point, then without any ceremony galloped off for good. After traveling about two hundred miles, viewing Holmes' land in many different places, he selected lots eighteen, nineteen and twenty, in Claridon, now known as Wells hill or Wells street.
After the war they made such arrangements as enabled them to leave for their lands in June, 1815. The party consisted of Timothy Wells and Esther, his wife; Timothy, jr., his wife, Hannah, and five children, Louisa, Salonia, Flavia, Graham and Timothy C.; Ebenezer and his wife, Diantha Coe, and children, Goodwin, Mary Esther, and Chester Wells, then unmarried, fourteen in all. They brought their goods in a wagon with a Yankee team of two yokes of oxen and a lead horse, and a lighter wagon drawn by a span of horses. After thirty-eight days of travel, without any more difficulties than were usual in those days with such conveyances, they arrived in town. The families found temporary lodgment with different families until Timothy, jr., could put up a double log house which was soon done. The land divided among the three brothers in
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the order of Timothy north part, Ebenezer middle, and Chester south. Houses were soon built for all, the old folks living with Chester. Timothy Wells who was a soldier of the Revolution, serving three years, and a pensioner, died in 1820. The brothers cleared up their farms, set out good orchards, and put up good farm buildings. Timothy Wells was a good teamster, liked to break steers, and had a yoke of oxen that could make the logs fly to the heap; and Ebenezer and Chester knew how to put them up into heaps. Ebenezer dred in 1832.
Chester Wells married Honor White Bracket in 1820, and died in 1867, aged eighty-one, Mrs. Wells died previously, and Edgar, the only son, died in 1866. The homestead is now owned by Melissa (Mrs. Rev. Potter), of Hambden, the only living child.
Ebenezer's homestead went into Goodwin's (the oldest son) hands, who died in 1871, leaving the property in the hands of Franklin and Elbert.
Timothy died in 1874, aged ninety-three, leaving the homestead to his son, Captain T. C. Wells. The youngest son, H. H., lives at the center of the town, doing a commission business, such as purchasing and forwarding cheese, wool and other commodities. Jason, the second son of Ebenezer, took a farm on the diagonal road branching off south of Wells hill, and leading to the mills in Burton. He married Miss Caroline Moffett, and sold his place after he had put up good buildings and cleared up his farm, which is now owned by Spencer Smith. He then bought the farm previously owned by Chester Moffett, where he now lives, using the farm in a goodly measure as nature designed it, in raising good fruit. Esquire Wells is one of the magistrates of Claridon.
Mr. Levi Smith came here in 1815, from Cheshire, Connecticut, and bought land north of the above named Wells' tract, where he made good improvements, raised a large family—not one of whom now lives in the township—some of them living in the western States and territories. He had a number of daughters, one of whom was Mrs. Meeker. The readers will recollect the circumstance of Mr. Meeker being killed by the Indians in the late Ute war, and of Mrs. Meeker being taken captive, with some of her children, and who have since been released and returned to Colorado. Since the death of Mr. Smith, which occurred in 1843, the farm has changed ownership several times, and is now owned by Almeron Wells. Mr. Smith had two sons, Ambrose and Joseph, both of whom became music teachers.
Asahel Kellogg came here in 1814, and selected lot fourteen for himself and his brother. He built a saw-mill that summer on a small stream near the corners (which gave the name to Kellogg's corners), a little east of where C. A. Kellogg's store now stands, and returned east. The next spring he, and his brother Cotton, with their wives and one child each, came, and both families moved into the saw-mill, which was not sided, they hanging up blankets as a substitute for board siding. They had slept in their wagons one night while on their way from Hambden to their place, near Spring run, south of Judge Taylor's. Soon after moving into the mill the Rev. Humphrey called and took tea with them. A shower came up soon after their visitor left, of sufficient magnitude to raise the stream for sawing, and "the deck was immediately cleared for action f' a log rolled on to the carriage, sawed, and the boards used for one side and the end of the mill. Before winter each family were domiciled in their own dwellings. Deacon Asahel Kellogg was one of the first deacons, chosen when the Congregational church was formed. They were both substantial men, law and order abiding citizens, and liberal and efficient members of the church and of society. The mill was of great advantage to the settlement. They became independent farmers, with good buildings and improvements generally. Deacon Kellogg died in 1843, aged sixty, leaving the farm in the hands of his son Sherman, who married Nancy Taylor, a daughter of ChildeTaylor. Sherman died
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in 1848, aged thrity-two, leaving one son, Newton, who is one of the present deacons of the Congregational church. Cotton Kellogg was postmaster for many years, and died in 1865, aged seventy-nine. His eldest son, Sidney, lives in Cleveland, George Richardson owing the place west of the center, which he had left having married Eliza, daughter of C. A. Kellogg, granddaughter of Cotton Kellogg, Cyrus owning the homestead at Kellogg's corners. The Deacon Kellogg place, north of the corners, is occupied by Eugene Wilmot.
The year 1815 brought a good many into the township, either to remain or to look for land with a view to future settlement, among whom were Abraham Wilmot and Samuel Newel, from Cheshire, Connecticut. They found the roads so crowded with immigrants that, this side of Buffalo, the preceding travelers had absorbed nearly all the necessaries of life. At one time, after an early breakfast, they traveled all day without eating. Just at night they stopped at a kind of a tavern, only to find the house full—then traveled six or eight miles further before they came to a house, where they found lodging in one room, with the family, but found nothing to eat, and had to walk till ten o'clock before they found food. Traveling all the way on foot, they had no chance to carry provisions with them, as those did who had teams. Pretty hungry times they thought. They selected lot three, section twelve, south of the center of Claridon. They divided it by Newel taking the eastern, and Wilmot the western half, the price charged being three dollars per acre, but General Perkins told them that if they commenced improving it within a year the price would be reduced to two dollars and a half per acre. After leaving Warren for Connecticut they stopped in Kinsman for the night. At early dawn in the morning, with sonrc cooked fresh meat in their packs, they put ahead. Soon a wolf howled on one side, answered by one on the other, and soon continuous howling all around them. Our travelers hallooed at the top of their voices; struck trees with their canes as they hurried on, being thus serenaded for some distance, which, under the circumstance of their leaving the State, was not deemed very complimentary. As light increased the wolves withdrew. They doubtless were attracted by the fragrance of the cooked meat.
Mr. Newell came out soon enough to make such improvements as saved the half-dollar per acre on both pieces. He soon built and moved on his farm, where he continued until his death. He was, after a few years from coming here an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Not one of the family now live in Claridon. The place, after passing through several hands, is now owned by Harmon Ensign. The eldest son, Sala Newel, now lives in Chardon, and is now one of the magistrates of that township.
Abram Wilmot married Miss Nancy Turner in 1817, and returned to Ohio in 1818, found a house in Burton, into which he moved, about a mile and a half from his land, chopped and put up a cabin, and moved into it in the spring of 1819. He was so successful in hunting deer that he supplied his family with venison and a supply of tallow for lights until he was able to supply them with domestic animals of his own raising. He was constitutionally strong and energetic, cleared up his farm, put up good buildings, raised a family of six children, five of whom live in Claridon, have families, and apparently permanently settled. All of the family, and thirteen of the fourteen grandchildren are professors of religion and members of the Congregational church, of which he and his wife had been members for more than forty years. Mrs. Wilmot died in 1875, aged seventy-eight, and Mr. Wilmot in 1877, aged eighty-three. He had a logical mind and a tenacious memory, which enabled him to overcome, in some good measure, his limrted means of education in his youth. He was thoughtful and cautious in making up his mind upon any important subject, but, when he had determined what his duty was, he discharged his obligations
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with inflexible perseverance. He was one of the early anti-slavery men of the town. The farm is now in the possession of Abram Wilmot, one of the sons. The five children—Charles, Lucius T., Abram, Esther,} and Emily Ann, all live on the center road from Claridon to Burton, within a distance of two and a half miles.
Chester and Howell Treat came out prospecting for land in 1816, from Hartland, Connecticut, and purchased the north part of the lot intersected by the east and west center road. Chester Treat built a log house by a spring, about thirty rods northwest of the center, and then returned. The next year he came out with his family, which then consisted of his wife, Belinda Pinney, and one child, Chauncey P., also Miss Sophia Taylor, who died in 1835, where he lived until he erected his large house west of the public square, and near the corners. He was a good farmer, could turn his hand efficiently to most kinds of mechanical business, and worked at the stone masons' trade. An incident occurred in splitting stone which may be of interest to the naturalist, or please the curious: While quarrying stone he found a live toad imbedded in a solid sandstone rock. Particular examination was made, and it was found that the stone was perfectly solid and compact around the cavity, which was of the exact size and shape of the toad. On being released he soon hopped like other toads.
Colonel Treat exercised a good degree of public spirit, as subscription papers for objects of enterprise will show. He gave the township the land for the public square and cemetery, on conditron that the people should chop and clear the land. They failed to clear the whole amount so offered, which lessened the quantity of public land, the town receiving only the amount cleared. His moral and religious department were consistent with his professsion as a member of the Congregational church. He held the various offices of deacon in the church, colonel in the militia, postmaste1, and member of the State legislature.
His sons, four in number, who lived to manhood, appeared, in youth, healthy, with manly forms, three of whom died with pulmonary disease, to wit: Chauncey P., John C., and Lester. C. The only surviving one, Robert, lives in Cleveland. Colonel Treat died in 186o, aged sixty-nine; his wife had died in 1854. His second wife, Mrs. Frances Carter, now lives with her children, either in Cleveland or Chicago, or dividing the time with her children in those places.
W. Howel Treat: moved out a few years after his brother, having married Miss Sally Beach. They are now alive, their ages being respectively eighty-five. Mr. Treat had, previous to marriage, been in Claridon a year or more, living on their farm, next north of the center.
In 1817, Benjamin Mastic and Benjamin Sweat came from Vermont, and took up lot one, in section thirteen—two hundred and sixteen acres, at four dollars per acre. They built a small log hut, and covered it with bark, making two puncheons do duty as a door. They brought some bundles of straw and a couple of blankets from Burton and commenced keeping batchelor's hall—being unmarried. One rainy night, dark as pitch, they were awakened by the falling of the puncheon door. They soon heard the breathing and sniffing of some . animal, and supposed it to be a bear that had entered so unceremoniously. Sweat said that he felt a momentary consolation in lying on the back side, thinking the bear would take Mastick first. It proved to be a large dog belonging in Burton. They afterwards divided the lot in the center, Mastick taking the northern and Sweat the southern part. Mastick soon married, when his two brothers, Asahel and Elliott, and their sister, Lavina, with their father, Benjamin, a Revo-
* Since dead,
+ Died in January, 1879,
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lutionary soldier, came to live on the place with him. Sweat, likewise, married, and lived on his farm through life. Both of them made good improvements, and raised families, but no one of either of those families now live in the township. The Mastick families live in Rockport, Cuyahoga county—such as survive, The heads of the Sweat family died in Claridon.
Rev. Luther Humphrey, then living and preaching in Burton, purchased lot one, section twelve, it being the first lot south of the center. Mr. Humphrey hired Lewis Gorman to build the barn on the high ground, east of the road, now owned by Mr. Chidister, and gave him for the job, fifty acres of land, off the south and east part of the lot. Mr. James Preston bought thirty-two acres off the Humphrey purchase, on which he built and lived. On this land stood the famous tree, known as the handsome whitewood. Its trunk was perfectly straight and without a blemish, lessening in its girth gradually and in perfect symmetry, without a limb, for ninety feet by actual measurement after the tree was cut. When Mr. Humphrey sold the land on which that tree stood, the tree was reserved and given to assist in building the Congregational church, for which purpose it was used.
The east and west center road divides lot three, section seven, nearly in the middle. That part south of the road was purchased by Mr. Gorman, who sold the land east of the north and south road to Rufus Hurlburt. Hurlburt sold a small corner lot facing the public square, and the rest of the land east of the north and south center road to Z. P. Brinsmade, where he built a store on the south corner, which was afterwards burned. Mr. Gorman sold ten acres on the west end, joining the east and west road, to Jacob Warriner, and the remainder to various individuals.
Halsey Spencer bargained for, and had four or five acres chopped on a part of lot two, section twelve. That chopping was left to grow up where now stands that beautiful sugar maple grove. The above farm has passed through several hands—Cyrus Bisset, Elihu Pinney, D. T. Ladd, and is now owned by T. Dwight Ladd.
Among the young men that had come to the township were Ebenezer Goodwin and Roderick Kellogg. The former married Mariah Humphrey. Both of them settled in the township and raised families. Esquire Goodwin moved to Chagrin Falls, where he held the office of justice of the peace, and died in that place in 187i aged seventy-one years. Roderick Kellogg moved to Illinois.
Bildad Wright and his brother Ned, from Vermont, purchased a farm in r817, being the south lot in the township, on the county road, from Kellogg's corners to Burton. Bilbad Wright died in a few years after he moved on to his place. Neri Wright taught school winters, working on the farm in the summer with his brother. He subsequently married his brother's widow, improved the farm, put up good buildings, and lived on it until he sold it to Ozro and Orlo Newcomb, brothers„ because of his inability, on account of age, to work it, and moved to the center, on a village lot, where he died in 1864. His second marriage was to Miss Whitcomb. He was for many years a justice of the peace, and then an associate judge of the county. Judge Wright was for a short time postmaster. He was a Democrat, and held the latter offices under Democratic administrations. At the time of the formation of the Free-soil party be espoused that cause, and then the Republican, with which he continued to act through life.
The Newcombs sold the Wright farm, since which, it has passed through several hands, and is now owned by John Haffner.
Elisha Strong,* formerly from New Hartford, Connecticut, and a gunsmith by
* Since deceased.
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trade, bought a small place, and built a house near where John Warrener's saw-mill and cheese factory now stands. Mr. Strong had plenty of business in an important branch of trade (the making and repairing rifles for the hunters). He was a successful hunter, and did his part towards clearing the forest of game. He was a generous, kinded hearted man, and a good citizen. He died in this township in 1861, aged seventy-five. None of the family remain here.
Isaac Hoff, in 1817, moved into the southeast part of the township, where he remained only a few years. Ralph Cowles' name was mentioned as coming into the place with his father. He was then a young, unmarried man, who had studied surveying. He married Delia Benton, of Burton; built a house on land he took directly south of his father's, which he occupied until he removed to Chardon to commence his duties as county auditor. He was a competent and faithful public officer. He did most of the. surveying in this count, and much. in others—surveying several unsettled townships into lots for different landholders. His surveys were universally spoken of with commendation for there accuracy and nicety, and had great weight in courts of law about contested lines. He moved from Chardon to Cleveland, where he sped the remainder of his life, respected as a business man, as he had been in his professional business, and as a neighbor. He had the reputation of being an honest and honorable gentleman.
This township was formely incorporated with Burton, but had gained the local name of Canton. In 1817 it was incorporated as Burlington township, including No. 8, eighth range, now known as Munson. On the first Monday of April, the same year, the election for township officers was held at the house of Deacon A. Kellogg, and resulted in the election of Ralph Cowles, as township clerk; Asa Cowles, Allen Humphrey, and Reuben Hall, trustees; Horace Taylor and Timothy Wells, overseers of the poor; Benjamin Andrews and Aranda Kellogg, fence viewers; Truman Pitkin, lister and appraiser; Isaac Hoff, John Ransom, Martin Bushnell, Ozi Blakeslee, Ebenezer Wells, Simon Root, and Samuel Hopson, supervisors; Ozi Blakeslee, justice of the peace.
In the spring of 1819 a post-office was established in this township under the name of Claridon, to avoid the difficulty of misscarriage of mail matter, as there was another Burlington post-office in the State. In the winter of 1819-20 the name of the township was changed to Claridon.
A school-district had been formed west of the Cuyahoga, one at Kellogg's corners, and one on the State road, now East Claridon. A log school-house was put up west of the river in 1812, and Ralph Cowles taught the first school in it; Emily Spencer, the first at Kellogg's, and — Preston at the State road. Money being out of the question, teachers took their pay in farm productions; each person sending to school had to pay according to the number of days sent:
The first child born in town was a son to Elijah and Betsey Douglass, in 1812, named Samuel, who married Susanna Taylor, bought and lived on the Butternut creek farm. Oscar, his son, who married Calista Clark, of Concord, now occupies that part west of the road, and the widow and son, Clinton, live on the homestead, being the east part Mr. Douglass died in 1875, aged sixty-two. The first female child was Eliza Douglass of the same parents. The second male child was Corydon L., son of Horace and Nancy Taylor, who married Wealthy Robinson, and is now living on the homestead of his father, and the third male child was Salmon Root, who married Miss Fleming, of Burton, and is now living in Thompson.
The first wedding in town was Matthew Fleming, of Burton, and Miss Chloe Douglass, in 1812.
+ Since sold to Mr. Smith, and the family moved away.
394 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY OHIO.
The first death in the township was that of Mrs. Eaton, daughter of Simon Gager.
The three leading north and south streets and east and west street had so many plantations opened, and some of them for so many years, that a home market of demand and supply was created by increased numbers of national immigrants, to the mutual benefit of all. The township became a body "politic and corporate," with all the machinery of self-government, which has all along worked without much friction. The hardships, trials, and privations of the first settlers were now so measurably overcome that detailed accounts of settlers after this period will have to be greatly abridged.
North of the Spencer settlement (West street), Elijah Allen, from Sandisfield, Massachusetts, came in 1817, with a large family: Alvin, Elijah P., Orrin, Jemima, Electa, Orpha and Huldah. They settled on the west side of the road, west of the pond. The family were generally possessed of strong constitutions, especially the heads of the family, who lived to an advanced age. Elijah A. died aged eighty-eight. Mrs. Allen died at the age of ninety-three. Alvin took land east of the road, adjoining the west side of the pond, and hired out as a laborer in Ashtabula county, where he formed the acquaintance of, and married, Eliza Buck, of Conneaut, and moved on to his farm in 1818. He was an energetic, iron-sided man, and never knew what it was to be tired until he was forty-five, when a run of the fever and ague taught him a lesson which all the others in town knew by oft experience, of the necessity of rest after a hard day's work. He is now living [1879] aged ninety. Elijah P. married Amna Spencer, bought north of Hall's and Gager's, and put up good buildings. On account of infirmities he sold his farm, moved to Chardon, living retired from labor, where he died in 1867, aged seventy-one, leaving one daughter, Meriah, living in that town. Orrin Allen bought the Blakeslee farm, east of the lake, and married Betsey Somers. He died in 1834, leaving two sons, R. M. and Edward. The latter died in 1874. Minot S. Allen owns the old homestead. Jemima married Timothy 'Fainter, and now lives in the southwest part of the town. Electa married Henry Campbell, and lives in Kirtland, with her children. Huldah married Ralza Spencer. Orpha lives in Claridon.
Apollos Root took up land west and north of Simeon's, spent most of his. time in chopping on jobs until 1819, when he married Titzah Pomeroy, and built and settled on his land. He was allowed to be one of the easiest and handsomest choppers of the time, handling his axe with great mechanical trueness, in chopping down trees; would take about the same angle, upper and lower sides, leaving scarcely a mark to tell where the several blows cut. "There were many giants in the land" in those chopping days. He lived there many years, put up buildings, cleared up his farm, and like many others, sold and moved west.
John Strong bought the farm of Mr. Root. He was from the State of New York, and married Cornelia, daughter of Aranda Kellogg. He was an upright and industrious man who died in 1862, aged fifty-one, his son, Dwight, living on, the old homestead.
Oliver and Reuben Warriner took land south of the Spencer's, owned by Judge Cowles. They were from the State of New York; they worked hard, cleared up much land, shifted about in different localities, and finally moved west.
Barney Stone and his brother, Nathaniel, bought in the southwest part of the town. The former sold his farm subsequently to the county, which has since been used as the infirmary farm.
Barney married Miss Langdon, of Munson one of the earliest settlers of that town. He died many years since. The widow still lives on the farm.
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Rufus and Almos Beard, sons of Amariah Beard, one of the old pioneers of Burton, bought the southwest lot in Claridon, cleared lands, built houses, and raised families. The eldest died, the youngest moved away, and not one of their descendants remain in town.
Joseph Nash bought Reuben Warriner's farm between Spencer's corners and Cuyahoga. He had been apprenticed to learn the shoemaker's trade to Stephen Pitkin. It was claimed that the indenture made by his guardian with the said Pitkin bound him to his apprenticeship until he was twenty-two. On his twenty-first birthday he concluded to emancipate himself. As a shoemaker and farmer, he was successful in business, married a young lady from Utica, New York, and raised a large family of stalwart boys. One or two have died, the others are now engaged in various business in various States, the widow living in Chardon,. The two girls, Jennette and Ruth, are married, and live out of the town.
J. W. Nash, the eldest son, lives on the old homestead.
On the north Middle street Zechariah and Stephen Somers took up land east of the north part of the pond, and west of the road. They were from Trumbull, Connecticut, in 1824. Zechariah died in 1826.
Stephen married Charlotte Gilbert, of Connecticut. Their children were: Stephen, Frances, and Libbie. Stephen lives in Parkman. Frances married Lester Treat, and died in 1878. Mr. Somers was a hard laboring, quiet, peaceful man, and died almost instantly in front of Judge Taylor's house, without any apparent cause. He asked his adopted son to let him step out of the wagon, on which he was riding. He staggered, and fell dead in 1849. Mrs.
Somers died in 1878.
Lester Taylor* bought his farm on this road. [See biographical sketch.]
Ashbel Spencer,* from New Hartford, Connecticut, took his farm south of the Wells', on Middle street, about 1822, and has remained on it, making good improvements, with excellent orcharding. His wife, Mariah Cowles Spencer, died in 1878, aged seventy-eight years. Mr. Spencer is in his eighty-third year.
Joseph Leach took land lying between the Wells settlement and Spencer's, remaining only a few years, and selling out his improvements.
Lowdewick Main bought lands on the Wilcox tract, and, after clearing his farm, put up the second brick house in the township, and then sold out and moved to Illinois. The farm passed into the hands of Scovill Martin, who died in 1862, aged sixty-two years. The farm subsequently passed into the hands of Calvin Wells, who is now improving it and raising good fruit, as well as farm
crops.
Other families on Middle street, whose residence was not permanent, are omitted, as well as in other parts of the township.
Dan and Timothy Dimeck bought on the north center road. Timothy's farms of two hundred and twenty-six acres embraced the Cuyahoga bottoms along the course of the river where it crosses the road, on the banks of which he put up good buildings, being now one of our oldest residents. He was from Connecticut, and is now in his eighty-first year. His wife was from Lebanon, in the same State. He has two sons, Philip and Osmand, the latter living with his father, and Philip on the north part of the farm, with additions made by purchase. He married Miss Celestia Dixon, of Huntsburg, and Osman married Miss Flint, of Thompson. Dan Dimick took lands directly north of Timothy's, but subsequently sold and moved to Hambden. Simeon Watts, with his sons, George and Simeon, took lands on this street, where a small stream crosses the road, just west of which a deep ravine commences by the falls, over and down among the sand rocks. A fulling mill, with carding machine, was put up by the Wattses; thus utilizing the water power to
396 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
the great benefit of the settlers who then dressed their families in home-made cloth (woolen and linen). Georget sold his right to the mills to Simeon, jr. They were once burned, rebuilt, and operated by Mr. Watts until factory cloth superceded the family home-made, the raising of flax discontinued, and wool transported to eastern cities. The farm continued to remain in Mr. Watts' hands until his death in 1873, aged sixty-five years. Frank Arnold is the present owner. The old mill buildings are gone, and the stream lessened to a mere fill, except in freshets. The eastern part of the farm was bought by Daniel Robinson in 1843, who, with his wife, Electa, hailed from Vermont. He was very industrious, and particular in all his business; wanted everything connected with his farming done according to rule, as he was accustomed rn his mechanical work, being a millwright by occupation. He was an upright, peaceable man, and died in 1861, aged seventy-two years. His widow is still living, aged eighty- one years, and resides with James Andrews, who married their daughter Almira, whose death occurred in 1878. Mr. Andrews owns the farm. Their son,, George, married Ida Pease, who died within two years of their marriage, and he subsequently married Flora Hollis, who lived about the same length of time. Each of the ministers who married them preached their funeral sermon.
Theodore Newel, with his wife, Phebe Munson, with their two sons, took land. in 18z0, on the hill, and west of the road north of the center, opposite the Blakeslee farm. They were from Barkhempstead, Connecticut. He proved to be a successful farmer, and did well his part in changing the wilderness into fruitful fields, with good orcharding and good farm buildings. Mr. Newel died in 1843, aged sixty-five years, and Mrs. Newel in 1837, aged fifty-eight years, leaving the well known Newel farm to his son, Harmon. The second son, Electrus, moved to Geneva, New York. Harmon married Loanna Ensign. Their only son, Electrus, died in 1858, aged twenty-two years. Phebe, their only daughter, married John Grosvenor. Mr. Harmon Newel died in 1870, aged sixty-seven years, and Mrs. Newel died leaving the farm to Phebe Grosvenor and her children.
The original Bushnell farm, on this road, passed into the hands of Oliver Merritt, and subsequently Almeron Belding, who died, leaving a large family,. only two of whom remain in town—Mrs. H. H. Wells and E. Belding, esq. The aged mother has returned to town, living with her son. The farm has been divided; Mr. Webster living on the west part, and Mrs. Willard Beals, widow of one of the pioneers of Troy, in this county, lives with her daughter, Mrs. Bruce, on the east part of the Howell Treat farm.
Warren Dimmick selected the farm north of his brother's, and south of the present railroad crossing, and married Miss Hannum, of Huntsburg. They were quiet, industrious, unobtrusive citizens, and members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He died in 1856, aged fifty. His widow lives in Hunts- burg. The farm has been owned by Sherman Pease and Mr. Judd, but is now owned by Mr. Paine, who came from Montville.
Childs Taylor came from Hartland, Connecticut, in 1830, and took up land north of the corners, on the east tier of the:Holmes tract. The maiden name of his wife was Althea Beach, who was from the same town. His family consisted of Lusanna, Edmund, Horace S., Almeda and Almira (twin sisters), Warren K., Elijah and Elisha (twin brothers), Nancy, Lucretia, and Augustd. Edmund studied medicine, attended the medical course of lectures at Willoughby, and married Idelia Standly, of Leroy, New York, who died in 1848. Subsequently he married Cornelia, a sister of his first wife, and settled in Leroy (after practicing his profession in Chardon until 1848 or '49), where he now re-
+ Moved to Perry, Lake county.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 397
sides, retiring from practice on a sufficient capital for his support. Horace S. graduated at Hudson, studied theology, married Miss Martha Sturdevant, of Huron county, went to India as a missionary, raised a family of four children, labored there twenty-two or twenty-three years, when he fell a victim to hard labor in a debilitated climate. His widow returned and lives in this State. Their eldest son, Horace, has been a missionary to the Gilbert Islands, beyond the Sandwich group. Childs Taylor died at his farm house in 1847, aged sixty- five. The son, Elisha, married Ann Wells, and died in Painesville in 1873, aged fifty-three. Elijah lives at the center, and is one of the deacons of the Congregational church. Deacon Warren Taylor owns most of the large farm near the bridge of the Painesville & Youngstown railroad crossing, formerly his father's. The daughters of Childs Taylor are mentioned as their marriages occur with Claridon boys.
Jonathan Gould, and his son Alden, came from Vermont, and bought in the southern part, on center road. In a few years they moved on to the south part of State road, on the Smith Waters' farm, where Alden died, in 1869, aged sixty-four years; the widow and heirs owning and now living on the place.
Chester Moffet, and his son Marcus, bought and moved on to the Mastick farm, south center road. Chester Moffet remained on this place. The aged couple died at an advanced age, he being eighty-six, died in 1864; and Mrs. Margaret in x876, aged ninety-six years. Marcus Moffet married Miss Rachel Chapman for his second wife, after he returned to Claridon. He had previously moved to Indiana, where he lost his first wife, returning with four children, the youngest in his arms. The trials of sickness, and the death of his wife at the west, and the care, anxiety, and fatigue of returning, were great. He subsequently built two houses, in two different places, south of the center, which places he sold, and moved to Rock Creek. From there he went to Cleveland, his present residence, where two of his sons, Julius and Howard, reside.
A roadway opened south, between the center and State roads.
Martin Hewet had moved into the woods near Burton, living there without any established road for a few years.
Nathaniel Mastick* and Abijah Carryl, from Vermont, with their families, were really the first to break the forest in that direction. They arrived on the seventeenth of November, 1822, and took up their farms, put up shanties, and went to work with a will, taking jobs at chopping wood to support their families, filling up the balance of the time clearing their own farms. Mr. Mastick was a stout, healthy, resolute man. His sons, Owen and Nathaniel, then large enough and willing enough to put in for their share of telling blows; like most of the Green mountain boys, they had the bone, muscle and will. Some one enquired of the old man "why he came to Ohio?" He replied that he had "cleared up all Vermont that was worth clearing, and now he purposed to help clear up the rest of Ohio." Owen and Nathaniel now own the farm.
Loami Fletcher,* formerly from Vermont, but directly from Massachusetts, moved into the woods, south, where a road was soon located. Mr. Fletcher had a large family. He was a descendant from the famous Methodist preacher of that name, and a pioneer of that primitive order. Mr. Fletcher was a pioneer of that sect on this steeet, and was a consistent member of the Methodist Epis.copal church until his death. The farm is now owned by his son Cyrus, who married Miss Beach, of Hambden. They are pillars in the Methodist Episcopal church at East Claridon.
Abel, Philander, and Phileman Farr, from Vermont, moved into this part of the township. Abel Farr, in a few years moved to Troy, in this county. Phi- leman moved, I think, to ;he same place. Their farms changed owners many times. The most of it is now owned by Samuel Halderman. Philander Farr
398 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
made many changes in location, until he moved toCleveland, where he died. The Masticks, Carryls, and Farrs, were connected.
On a road laid out, running from the center to the State road, commencing about a mile south of the center, and running east, parallel with the east and west center road, David Ober, a soldier in the war of 1812, made his opening in the woods, in 1820; William Ober, on the same road, and west of his brother's, in 1822. Alvin Ober now owns the farm of his father, David, who, with his son-in-law, Chester Clapp, living west of him, are successful cultivators of fruit— especially grapes, strawberries, and other small fruits. The Wm. Ober farm is now owned by ehauncey Stebbins. The Obers were from Vermont.
Augustus Brown, from Cheshire, Connecticut, took land lying west of the Obers. He was an upright, industrious man, who successfully cultivated his farm, and raised good stock. He died, in 1852, aged sixty-two years. His wife survived him; after being bed-ridden about fourteen years, she died, in 186o, aged sixty-three years.
A road was laid out, north of East Claridon and east of the State road, to Huntsburg. John P. Bosley was the first to make an opening in this section of the township. He came here prospecting for land, in 1815, when, he said, there were but seven houses between Hambden and Warren—a distance of over thirty miles.
In 1825, having recently established himself here, he commenced the building of a grist-mill, near where the road crosses the Cuyahoga (east branch). The mill was soon completed, and did a tolerable good busrness for several years. Judge Bosley was a Pennsylvanian.
George Green, from Pennsylvania, located west of Bosley's, taking a tract of land on which John Ransom had built a saw-mill, on a small stream which empties into the main branch a little south of the grist-mill. This mill was of great advantage to the people in that vicinity for a few years, but this stream, like other small water-courses, as the country became cleared, failed to supply water sufficient to make the mill profitable. After clearing up his farm, and putting up good buildings for himself and his son, Thomas, west of him, he sold out to McCalmont. The George Green farm is now owned by I. N. Hathaway, esq., of Chardon.
Wanton Hathaway,* with his wife, Anna Hotelling, located about midway from East Claridon to Hambden; cleared up his farm, and arranged his barns for dairying convenience, and became a leading dairyman. He was a man of enterprise, and was accustomed to dealing in stock—driving in large numbers of dairy cows from the south to supply dairying farmers in the spring trade. Mr. Hathaway died in the prime of life, in 1853, aged fifty-three; his wife, Anna, died, in 1873, aged 'sixty-nine. His eldest son, John C., owns the homestead, but resides in Cleveland, where he has been in business several years. Of the other sons: Henry W. is in mechanical business, at East Claridon; Gilbert lives in Huntsburg; he has had the misfortune to lose an arm by being caught in a threshing machine; Charles is located on the north part of the State road, where a branch road runs to the north center corners.
Charles Johnson was an old settler on the State road. Heil Armstrong, who for himself and three brothers, all from Franklin, Connecticut, originally made not only the purchase of the Johnson farm, but bought other lands of General Perkins in 1833. The Bosley grist-mill and other lands were bought by the same parties. They built a substantial stone dam, moved the mill to a more eligible place, bringing the water from the small creek, thus utilizing both streams, with a deeper fall and more abundant supply of water. The mill, by division, fell to Hopestill Armstrong, who made substantial improvements on the farm, buildings, and mill. He had the confidence of the community in his
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 399
integrity and accommodating spirit. He died universally regretted. His widow married Peletiah, one of the brothers, and moved to Mentor. Most of Hopestill's farm is now owned by G. W. Stillwell, and the mill property by Brown & Williams—the former living in Concord; the latter running the mill. It being near the Painesville & Youngstown railroad, is doing a gobd flouring business as well as custom work. Heil Armstrong, after the death of his wife, married Anna, daughter of Captain Chace.
Burton Armstrong built a neat and commodious farm-house near the old sawmill run, on which stream he had built an oil mill. After a few years it was discontrnued, for the reason that the farmers thought it more profitable to keep their lands in pasture for dairy purposes than to raise flax. Mr. Armstrong made arrangements to change his place of location on to that part of his farm where the Painesville & Youngstown railroad crossing now is, he and his son, Burton, residing in the same house, above alluded to, where they have ornamented their yard with a variety of trees, making a very pretty family park, facing the railroad. His place of residence is well known, and his hospitality, enjoyed by a host of friends and railroad officials from the whole length of the narrow gauge. Mrs. Armstrong knows how to get up good dinners and preside at the table with ease and dignity. Mr. Armstrong has been crippled for a number of years, caused by breaking his leg. He takes a lively interest in public matters, having always been a public-spirited man, who dislikes a mean act, or a stingy person, and is not afraid to speak out his feelings.
Of other pioneers on the State road, Mosier Ames was prominent. His location was south of the corners on the west side of the road. He came out prospecting for land in 18/5, and moved out in 1818. He was an athletic man, and was the bully in a wrestling party at the regimental training in Burton in the fall of 1819. He was a hard-working min, minding his own business, never seeking a quarrel. One son, Reuben Ames, lives on the east side of the same road, and not far from the old stand of his deceased father, whilst three of his daughters—Mrs. Hotelling, Mrs. Charles Stafford, and Mrs. Ed Mastick, the two latter being widows—all live at or near the corners at East Claridon. The children all know how to work, and persevere on the working line.
William Preston was an early settler in that neighborhood. Nathan Ford, from Cheshire, Connecticut, took his land at the extreme south part of the State road. Subsequently, at his death, Miles Barnes became the owner, at his death, his son, Miles, who now resides there.
Walter Bosley* located on the State road, at the intersection of the south, east and west roads, taking the northwest corner lot. He was a son of Shadrach Bosley, one of the first settlers on the north part of State road. Walter Bosley died in 1864, aged seventy-eight years. His son, Reuben now lives on the homestead. Roderick and Elisha White established themselves on the east side of the road, nearly opposite to the intersection of the east road. Elisha White was an intelligent man, and surveyor by profession, and subsequently a civil engineer, engaged at various times and by different companies in laying out railroads. They subsequently moved to Chagrin Falls.
James Ford's farm is at the railroad crossing, west side. William Adams' east side of the road, and near the railroad. Andrew Johnson's on the east side of the road, where he put up tasteful dwellings; his brothers on the west side of the farm lately owned by David Johnson, deceased. The widow Alden Gould's family own the farm formerly occupied by Smith Waters, one of the early settlers. Almond Knapp, esq., owns the farm taken up by Martin Bushnell, the first settler in that vicinity. William Carver, on the east side, married one of Mr. Bushnell's daughters. He has been a good hunter, in times past, as well as farmer, and was a first-rate marksman. A. Russell, east side, formerly owned
400 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
by Robert Bosley. E. W. Hale, on the west side, on land formerly owned by George Richardson.
Robert Bosley owns the farm formerly taken up by Daniel Hathaway, which, with other lands subsequently owned by Darius Armstrong, one of the four brothers before alluded to, was considered, when under his management, one of the best grain farms in the township. Since his death the present owner has used it as a dairy farm.
Cyrus Bissel bought the farm taken up by Norman Spencer. He married Miss Amanda Case, of North Hartford. Mr. Bisset was from Torrington. After living there for many years, and having a large family of children growing up like olive plants around their table, he sold his farm and moved to Wisconsin.
Hiram Burt was an early settler on South Center street, living and dying on his place.
Frederick H. Gould, and Lovina, his wife, on the same road, came from Windham county, Vermont. They were also among the early corners, being forty days on their journey with an ox team, with two young children. The vicissitudes of their life were greater than most of those coming at that period of time. He commenced clearing land on three different places between the center and Burton, the last of which he cleared, put up buildings, and raised a large family, which taxed all his energies to support, and helped to 'sustain schools and other institutions with liberality, according to his limited means. They were members of the Congregational church. He was once treed by the wolves, who serenaded him under the branches of the tree, up and amongst which he spent the night uncomfortably holding on to the limbs. The night was cold, his limbs numb and aching, and the music grating and setting his teeth on edge. At another time, when hunting for his cows, night came on with a cold rain, and after giving up all hope of getting home, he crawled under a log. Morning light disclosed the fact that he was within a few rods of his house. They were members of the Congregational church. He sold and moved to Orwell in 1846, where he died in 1876, aged eighty-four, leaving seven children. Only one—Charles, is living in this town.
Elijah Hathaway was another of the early settlers, lived many years east of Claridon center, and subsequently, I think, in the southwest part of the town.
East of the corner, Elnathan Chace owns a farm extending to Huntsburg. He has been and continues to be one of the leading dairymen in the. town and county, has been connected in the cheese manufacturing business as long, probably, as any one in the county, and has for many years drove in lots of cows from south and west of the Reserve, for the spring trade.
Captain Theodore Ensign, another Hartland man, made his stand on the State road, north of East Claridon. His oldest sons soon located in other places in town, leaving the farm at or before his death to his son Emery, who subsequently removed to (Rock creek) Morgan, where a few years after he died. Captain Ensign died in this town in 186o, aged seventy-four. The Ensign farm is now owned by the Gorman brothers.
Moses Stebbins, esq., bought a small improved farm on the corner of the middle east and west road to Huntsburg (the mill road), worked at the blacksmiths' trade, and subsequently sold and moved a little south of the center of the town. He was a magistrate for many years here, and was a man of excellent judgment, cautious, calculating results from causes with philosophical acumen. Martin B. Hathaway now owns the place.
Daniel Eaton lived many years, near where the railroad crosses the State road in the north part.
George Sisson was another old settler on this road. He moved west. The farm is now owned by Daniel Morehouse and his son, Frank, whilst James
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 401
Morehouse, another of his sons, owns the north farm in the town, on the old State road.
* Nathaniel, * Asa, and * Parley Dimicks formerly lived on this road, and the descendants of the Chaces and Hathaways, with their farms, fill up the gaps not otherwise mentioned on the old State road, being one of the earliest roads established in the county.
The north east and west road from the State road to Huntsburg was not settled as early as most parts of the town.
About 1834 two bachelor brothers took up a tract of land in the northeast section of the town. They built at the intersection of this east and west with the north and south town line road, have made large clearings, and have had, I think, an ashery, steam saw-mill, cider-mill, etc., at different times. These corners have been known as Dow's corners.
+ Josiah Bail built in the woods, on the above described road. He was a soldier of the war of 1812. He and his wife were hard-working people, and raised a large family, none of whom live in the town, but are scattered in various States. The old soldier lives in Chardon, and is ninety years old, living with his son, Charles, a magistrate in that town.
Alanson Bail lived in Claridon many years, raised a large family, and is now, and has been for a number of years a resident of Chardon. Few men knew more of the hardships and trials of supporting families with honest, hard labor than the Bail families. On that road the resident families are Parley Dimick and his sons, Martin Durkee, and Asa Dimick*, with his son, Peter Parley Dimick.
A town line road from the northeast corner of Claridon was laid out and opened to accommodate one or two settlers and the public for mill convenience.
On this road a Mr. Dudley located; after his death, Dudley Buel, of Mesopotamia, married the widow, and lives on the farm.
On this road, near the corners, is located a cheese factory, which has been in successful operation for many years, receiving milk from Claridon and Huntsburg.
On this road lived Mr. Thomas Green, who died in 1858, aged ninety, and his wife, Hannes, in 1856, aged eighty-six.
A new road has been opened from the corners, a little north of the grist-mill, running south to the east and west center road near Elnathan Chace's for mill accommodations and public convenience to the railroad.
Mr. Redington Hathaway was inadvertently omitted to be mentioned in the proper place on the State road. He was one of the old settlers, an upright, steady home man, attending faithfully in his business. He died in 1860, aged sixty.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
The first settlers in the western and central parts of the township, were either members of Congregational churches east, or were identified with such societies in worship, and were strongly imbued with religious principles. They were somewhat puritanical and strict observers of the Sabbath, never forgetting the interest of religion or education. Being too few in numbers to form a church of their own, they connected themselves with the church in Burton, but the distance and condition of the road were such that it was deemed advisable to hold meetings regularly at Judge Cowles' house on the Sabath for worship. On Sunday, the sixteenth day of November, 18i 1, the people met " according to custom," says the record. A Rev. Mr. Harris, on his way to the Scioto valley,
+ Since dead.
+ Since the above was written, Parley Dimick has died, aged seventy-seven.
402 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
preached the first sermon ever preached in the township. Esquire Cowles was a man of considerable talent and ready speech, and usually led the meetings with dignity and propriety.
Sermons were read, and there were some good readers among the early settlers. After. Rev. Mr. Humphrey was installed as pastor of the church in Burton he preached in Claridon about one fourth of the time. On the nineteenth of June, 1827, a meeting was held by a goodly number of inhabitants. Horace Taylor was chosen chairman, and Ozi Blakeslee, secretary; when it was unanimously resolved that it was expedient to form a society in Claridon, and a committee was appointed, consisting of Timothy Wells, Horace Taylor, and Stephen Pitkin, to confer with the society in Burton. After a mutual consultation a separation was affected, and an ecclesiastical society was formed immediately. The officers were: James Preston, Chester Treat, and Abraham Wilmot, trustees; and Ozi Blakeslee, clerk. A religious enterprise was thus inaugurated, which has worked regularly, until the present time, with comparatively as little friction as other similar societies. In the summer of 1828 Rev. Orange Lyman preached a few Sabbaths. On the twenty-first of September, 1828, Rev. Myron Tracy, from Vermont, preached with such acceptance to the society and people that a subscription was circulated, and Mr. Tracy was hired to preach for three hundred and fifty dollars per year, one third in money and two thirds in farm produce, at the current prices. In 1820 a Sabbath-school was formed, which has continued until the present time. From the time of the formation of the society, and long before, the services on the Sabbath were held, alternately, at the houses of Cotton Kellogg and Judge Cowles, east and west of the Cuyahoga river. In 182i the school district east of the creek built a school-house at Kellogg's corners, when the meetings were trasferred from Cotton Kellegg's house to the school-house.
The Congregational church was formed December 26, 1827, at which time Rev. Mr. Humphrey preached from the text "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." Twenty-seven members united in forming the Claridon Congregational church. During the year 1829, Mr. Tracy's labors were greatly blessed. Fifty-two persons united with the church, all except four being by profession; being mostly the result of a powerful revival of religion.
In 1830, a large school-house was built at the center of the town, when a meeting of the people in the district was called, and it was unanimously voted to tender the use of the house to the Congregational society to hold their meetings in, until counter-ordered. At the annual meeting of the society, held January I 1, 1830, a committee of five was chosen to draw up and circulate subscription papers to raise money to build a church edifice. Another committee, of nine, was appointed to select a site, draw a draft, estimate the probable cost, and the time necessary to build it; and another committee to ascertain, and report their opinions, as to the best method of building the house. At a subsequent meeting, Cotton Kellogg, Chester Treat, and Asa Cowles were chosen as a committee on building, under whose supervision the present structure was reared. Since the erection of the church building some changes have taken place. The high pulpit has been superceded by one of modern style, with other new arrangements and repairs. The church bell now in use was purchased in 1849. Mr. Tracy continued to labor here with great acceptance to the church and people until October 8, 1834, when he received a call from the foreign missionary society of the valley of the Mississippi, to act as their agent. The matter was submitted to council, and in approving of his dismissal the statement of the council, as was put upon record, was "that it appeared that the strictest harmony prevailed between ministers and church and people."
About four years elapsed without a settled minister, having quite a number preaching as candidates for settlement. During this period, and many years
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afterwards there was an unhappy division about immediate emancipation of the slaves, old and new school theology, Presbyterian and Congregational polity, which resulted finally in becoming Congregational in fact as well as in name.
Rev. Marshal Eames, from Connecticut, came to Claridon in August, 1843. He was a young man of pleasing address, fervent zeal according to knowledge, and of more than average ability. The people united heartily in his support. He preached about five years, when, owing as it was generally supposed to his too severe labors, his health failed, and he died after a lingering illness, in 1848, aged thirty-six. The widow, Mrs. Eames, lives on the place, east of the center, where they lived at the time of her husband's death, Rev. Wm. Potter began labors here in 1848, and remained until September, 1853. Rev. E. D. Taylor came in March, 1855, and labored here until 1873. Rev. H. B. Fry preached. two years, when Rev. A. D. Barber commenced here and is now laboring with acceptance to church and people this centennial year. Rev. Dr. Pratt and Rev. Mr. Page preached the longest of any candidates prior to Mr. Potter's coming. The Congregational church now [1876] numbers sixty-eight males and eighty-eight females, making a total of one hundred and fifty-six.
At the close of 1875 I find the following financial statement of the church at the commencement of the centennial year, to-wit:
TREASURER’S REPORT.
For church poor and contingent fund - $33 30
For the American Congregational Union - 21 15
Educational society - 7 10
Bible society - 12 05
American Board - 22 31
Home Missions - 40 75.
American Missionary Association - 19 90
The deacons of the Congregational church are Abraham Wilmot, Clinton Goodwin and Newton S. Kellogg. The church raised for Mr. Barber's salary eight hundred dollars. The society has since bought and fitted up a parsonage.
Methodist church.—Not being personally very well acquainted with the history of the society, I have applied to some of the leading and intelligent members of the society for information and for documentary history, which does not appear to have been well preserved, or where they have not access to it, as some of those having such in their possession have moved away. The first Methodist class was formed at East Claridon, through the instrumentality of John P. Bosley. Esquire Bosley informed me many years ago that the class first formed died out by removals and indifference; that in 1830 or '31 it was revived, or a new organization formed, and a Sabbath-school instituted. Judge Bosley promised, after he left town, to furnish me with a connected history of the church, which I did not receive. About 1829 quite a flourishing class or church existed in the west part of the township. Not long after that there was a successful effort made to unite in a church at the center of the township. Their meetings were held in the school-house, and the church increased in numbers. and influence for several years. The anti-slavery agitation and cases of discipline created some alienation, after they built their church at the center in 1840. That church edifice was built by Marcus Moffet, who was one of the efficient members of that church. In 1867 the church edifice was drawn to East Claridon, when a thorough repair was made and a steeple added.
Since writing the above date of the building of the Methodist Episcopal church at the center, from what I supposed to be good authority, I have seen Mr. Moffet, who lives in Cleveland, who says that he built it in 1839. At the request of the writer, Rev. Mr. Hunscher, the present minister in charge, has furnished him with the following statistics, to wit: In 1858 the present circuit, Huntsburg and Claridon, was separated from Chardon. The preachers assigned
404 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO
were: For 1858 and '59, N. M. Sherick and — Aikin; 1859 and '6o, S. M. Sherick and B. J. Kennedy. John Paine, presiding elder, voted at the last conference not to use any but pure, unfermented juice of the grape at the sacraments. 1860-61, A. Norton and H. Callender; 1861-62, - Hollrster; 1862-63, separated from Montville, A. Horton, preacher; 1863-64, H. Vance; 1864-65, George Bliss; 1865-66, J. B. Hammond; 1866-67, Thomas Radcliff; 1867-68, S. B. Torry; 1868-69, S. B. Torry (sixteen added to the church); 1869-70, D. :Smith; 1870-71, B. C. Warner; 1872-72, - Fairbanks; 1872-73, S. Collier; 1873-74, S. Collier; 1874-75, — Falkner; 1875-76, A. Falkner; 1876-77, E. C. Lattimer (church repaired); 1877-78, H. J. Hunscher; Moses Hill, presiding elder; eighteen added to the church. The church building debt is extinguished, and the church out of debt. Funds raised this year for church purposes, seventy dollars; for preaching, two hundred and thirty dollars; number of church members, sixty-eight; preaching every Sabbath; number of Sabbath-school scholars, sixty.
Mrs. Alden Gould informs me that when the Methodist church was formed at the center of Claridon in 1832, there were only five members composing the class, viz: Alden Gould and his wife, S. Newel, and Marcus Moffet and his wife. John Cleater is the present class leader at East Claridon ; A. B. Knapp, superintendent of Sunday schools; A. B. Knapp, James Leslie, William Chace, stewards; A. B. Knapp, Samuel Halderman, E. H. Chace, James Leslie, John Cleater, C. Fletcher, and Lucius Merriman, trustees.
This centennial year, the Congregational and Methodist churches are the only religious organizations in the township, There is a commendable degree -of harmony existing between the two churches.
A Universalist church was organized at East Claridon in the winter of 1878, with a membership of thirty-seven. A. H. Ober, Edgar Hathaway, and Mrs. Lucy Hathaway, trustees; Rev. McMasters, minister.
EDUCATIONAL.
From the commencement of the settlement of the township a commendable educational spirit was manifested in establishing schools, and employing good school teachers. Lester Taylor taught the first select school in the township, and continued for winter terms, three or four years. He succeeded in prompting a number to seek for a higher education. Two sons of Deacon Taylor, Horace A. and Sherman D.; two sons of Deacon Preston, Charles and Austin; one of Childs Taylor, Horace S.; and one of Esquire Blakeslee, Samuel V., graduated at college, studied theology, and entered the ministry; Lyman Walworth, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, and, later, Philo Pinney, who graduated at Meadville, and is a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church—a son of Elihu Pinney.
About 1832 an academy was built at the center, and good academical schools were kept there in the winter months for several years, but it was found an uplin business, Burton and Chardon being so near, and academic schools kept through the year there, the enterprise was abandoned. The old academy building, which had been built by subscription, was sold for an ashery, and drawn away.
Three of my former scholars studied law after attending higher schools, viz: Chester T. Blakeslee, Schuyler E. Blakeslee, and Corydon L. Taylor.
Miss Rachel Chapman commenced teaching a select school at the center in 1837, and taught the most of the time for three years.
Stephen Wood kept a select school on the State road, and in the chamber of Brinsmade's store at the center. He was a professional teacher, taught in many 'of the western States, and graduated at Athens university, in this State.
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Mr. Harvey taught a select school west of the Cuyahoga river; was afterwards State superintendent of common schools. Sherman Canfield taught at the center; was afterwards a doctor of divinity, preaching in a Presbyterian church in Syracuse, New York; and Mr. Thompson, since State grange lecturer of Illinois, with others of less note.
Common schools were established in the following order, in the different places, and log cabins built. West side of the Cuyahoga river, Ralph Cowles being the first teacher in the building; at Kellogg's corners, Emily Spencer; at the center, Laura Ann Blakeslee ; East Claridon, Mr. Preston, son of William Preston; south center, Neri Wright. Subsequently new districts were formed, and changes made in others. There are, in this centennial year, eight neat, well-painted, school-houses, well arranged for convenience and comfort. Some pains has been taken to set out trees for ornamenting small parks around the school buildings. The schools are generally kept about four months in winter and four or five in summer.
The Congregational church has had, from the early days of its establishment, an educated ministry; or a succession of ministers who have, by their precepts and examples, encouraged educational interest. Many of them have made it a rule to visit the schools at stated periods to encourage them in well-doing. Rev. E. D. Taylor, of Troy, was about fourteen years the minister of the Congrega- tional church in this township, and, for a long period, one of the school examiners in Geauga county; he also taught select school in Claridon, a part of the time each year, for several years.
The characteristic influences of the pioneers in any given direction, in any locality, generally continues for several generations. This is ekemplified in the continuance of the efforts of the old settlers by the present generation, in supporting educational interests. The result of our educational system has been the exodus of a large number of young people every fall, in the direction of the south or west, to teach school, thus exerting a wide-spread influence; like birds of passage seeking a more genial clime, to return in the spring to pursue their usual avocations. For a rural township, it has probably furnished its full complement of scholars to Hudson, Oberlin, and the Female seminary at Painesville. Our educational system has been very satisfactory in progressive improvement; but, owing to the decrease of scholars in the several districts, it has been of late, very expensive.
A NIGHT IN THE WOODS.
Miss Laury Ann Blakeslee, a daughter of Esquire Blakeslee, of Claridon, was engaged in teaching school, in Munson, when there were but few families in the township. She left there one Saturday evening, in company with Miss Harvey, of that place, each on a horse, with one young colt following, intending to go to her father's; but alas! they were benighted and lost their path. On their wandering .course they became satisfied they were moving in a circle, by noticing an object previously seen, and came to the conclusion that they might as well remain in one place, as they despaired of finding the road. The night was dark and hideous; five showers of rain fell during the 'night. Towards morning, as it proved, the footsteps of some animal were heard on the leaves. It moved, in a circle around them. They put their horses close together, and the colt snuggled up close to its mother, as the noise of the footsteps continued in about the same orbit. They breathed laboriously, the horses trembled, and the fair riders, fearing the wild animal would come into dangerous nearness, thought they had better fly into unknown space. Spurs, they had not, but the beech whips played like drum sticks. Away they bounded through a small, stagnant stream, and soon heard a splash in the water behind them. Looking back, they saw an
406 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
animal as large as a big dog, of a grayish color, coming, and, apparently smelling the horses' tracks. The day was now dawning. They discovered the pathway, lost sight of the night before, the dreaded animal disappeared, and they arrived in safety at Esquire Hopson's, which they had left the evening previous, thinking and talking of their night's unpleasantness; but never dreaming that their experience in Munson's dark woods, through a stormy night, would ever be put into a pioneer history. Miss Blakeslee is now Mrs. March, of Chagrin Falls, and Miss Harvey became Mrs. Pike, and died some years since. .
MUSICAL ATTAINMENTS.
There were among the first settlers in Claridon comparatively a large number who had decidedly musical talents, which had been carefully cultivated, and which was cherished and cultivated here in the woods. It made their social gatherings pleasant, and the church music tended greatly to the edification of the congregation in connection with devotional exercises. As soon as a militia company was organized in town, a martial band of musicians was instituted and drilled with good success. The martial band association was a continuous one, receiving new impulses as the rebellion broke out. During the war it assumed greater efficiency by frequent drills for recruiting at calls for volunteers, attending the funeral of soldiers in different townships, when with muffled drums and measured tread they followed the deceased comrades (that had been brought from the front) to be laid in the "cities of the dead. They were often invited to compete for prizes with other bands, and took a banner at Garrettsville, where there were a dozen bands competing; likewise prizes at Kirtland, Little Mountain, and Chardon. A brass band now supercedes it.
Four of our young people graduated at musical colleges, to wit: Horace Treat, Josephine Treat, Franklin Wells, and Mrs. Franklin Wells. Josephine is teaching music in Missouri, and Julia Treat in California. There are other professional teachers in vocal and instrumental music. The Treats, Kelloggs, Strongs, Masticks, Rowleys, Wells, Wilmots and Rev. E. D. Taylor's familres will long be noiorably remembered for their services in the choir and bands.
A juvenile military company was organized, during the late war, of boys varying in ages from twelve to sixteen, well uniformed, equipped and drilled. At a dress-parade in Chardon, a ten dollar gold piece was presented to them for their soldierly appearance and accuracy in drill. The company was organized mainly through the instrumentality of Dunton Taylor, the first captain, who soon enlisted with his comrade, Sherman Rowley. They were in Banks' unfortunate Red river expedition. The young captain subsequently gained some repute as a humorous lecturer. He is now editor of a western newspaper. Willey Clark and Charley Kellogg followed him as captain of said company.
FATAL ACCIDENTS.
Martin Hewit was killed in his horse stable, by his horses kicking.
A son of Colonel Lester Taylor was killed by the fall of a tree March 1, 1830.
Clifton K. Chapman was drowned in Lake Aquilla (Claridon pond), July 3, 1872. He was the only son of Mrs. Harriet Allen Chapman, and grandson of Alvin Allen, with whom she lived.
A man who hung himself to the limb of a tree, lived with his family in the northwest part of the town, near where the railroad now passes into Hambden, and away from any road. Only one suicide—cause, intemperance.
BUILDINGS BURNED.
Houses-Lot Hathaway, Lester Taylor, Martin Hewit, Judge Asa Cowles, house (then occupied by Johnson Ensign, who married Minerva Cowles), Stephen Pitkin's (where Seger Steete formerly lived), and a house built by Colonel
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 407
Shumway, and occupied by Stephen Hollis), John Veen and Esquire Waters.
Barns—Robert Bosley's by lightning, and Henry Martin Wells' by lightning, and a store at the center, with goods, owned by Robert Lyon, and one at the corners in East Claridon, owned by Ermine Mastick; one owned by the Leslies, and E. Mastick & White's grocery.
PROFESSIONAL.
Lawyers.—None.
Physicians.—The first was Dr. Jewett, a young man from Burton, who had lost one hand or the use of his hand by the bursting of a gun in waking up officers on a training morning. He located at East Claridon about 1832, did not succeed in business, and soon left.
Drs. Alden, McAlpin and E. C. Taylor at the center, and several others at East Claridon. It was up hill-business.
Old physicians at Chardon and Burton held the business too exclusively. Dr. Brown was the first to make a tolerable seccessful stand at East Claridon, and left in a few years.
Dr. Chapel who had been a surgeon in the war of the rebellion, and one of the youngest ones in the army, established at East Claridon in 1868, and gained an extensive practice and was the first to establish himself on a solid pecuniary basis.
MERCHANTS.
The first shop of goods was opened at East Claridon about 1832, by Mory's Brothers. The amount of goods and capital invested were about equal to a common pack-peddler's outlay of the present time.
The small building containing the goods, stood on the southeast corner of East Claridon, and was built by a Mr. Wood from Windsor. Then followed at the above place, John M. MacIntosh, about 1835, with various changes of firm: Bolster & McIntosh, Bolster & Wells, Bolster, Kellogg & Co., C. C. Field & Charles Field, John P. Bosley and Bosley & Co., John P. Lukens & Co., the company being Hathaway & Bennett who retired in a few years, and Mr. Lukens continued in business, doing more than an ordinary amount for a country store until 1875, when he discontinued business in that place. The Leslie Brothers commenced in—. The elder Leslie continues in trade at the Luken's stand.
John Mastick, jr., and White have done business in the grocery line, and were burned out in 1879.
At the center of the town Z. P. Brinsmade built a store, and was the. first resident merchant.
William K. Williston, Charles Bolster & Co., C. P. Treat, Geauga Farmers Co., and Union Farmers Co., the two latter doing, in produce and merchandise, a large business for about three years; financially a failure in a superlative degree. C. P. Treat, Robert Lyon, then Arthur Treat, and Lucretia Taylor followed, Arthur doing business at present at the old Treat stand.
Cyrus Kellogg built a store at Kellogg's corners, and with his son, Frank, have been doing a large amount of business for a country store.
TAVERNS.
The first tavern was opened by Martin, where Esquire Knapp now lives; second, the tavern house built by Martin McIntosh on the southeast corner of East Claridon, and another built on the northwest corner, and kept by J. Wilk- inson' and for many years previous to this, kept by John Mastick.
T. W. Ensign bought the McIntosh house, and kept it as a hotel some twenty years. He died in 1862, aged forty-nine.
408 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
MECHANICS.
The township is a rural district, occupied most exclusively by tillers of the soil; even the mechanics, from the commencement to the present time, have generally been owners of small farms or a piece of land.
Lewis Gorman, a carpenter, came to Painesville from Hartland in 1818, and to Claridon in dzo. He bought and built, and shifted his location many times, and finally settled down for life on a farm at East Claridon.
Deacon James Preston built more good houses than any one. Rufus Hurl- bun, and Thomas Talbot, who owned a cabinet shop at the center, built the Congregational church. Henry Talbot, Marcus Moffett, E. C. Belding, and Eleazer Goodwin were the principal carpenters and joiners who worked and remained long in town. Mr. Moffett built several churches in neighboring towns, and one—the Methodist Episcopal church—at the center.
POLITICAL.
The township has always been Republican, or acted in opposition to the Democratic party by large majorities, under varied names, as Whig, anti-Masonic, Free-soil, and last, Republican. The Democratic party had its rise when General Jackson first run for president, by Walter Bosley casting the only vote for the Jackson ticket. The machinery of the township government has been so satisfactorily administered that local excitements have not called out a general vote, and party lines at such elections have not been very strictly drawn.
The following persons have held the office of justice of the peace in the township: Ozi Blakeslee, Neri Wright, Reuben Bourn, Elisha White, Chester Treat, John P. Bosley, Owens Mastick, Elijah Douglass, Lester Taylor, Moses Stebbins, Orrin Spencer, D. B. Ladd, Edmund C. Belden, Sala Newell, Ermine Mastick, Almon Knapp, Corydon L. Taylor, Jason Wells, and Robert Lyon.
The frrst general celebration of Independence was held at the center of Clan- don on the fourth of July, 1821. A stand or platform with stumps as supporters, and logs for seats, and a booth of branches of trees with their leaves to protect the people from the heat of the sun. From north and south, east and west, the people came with baskets of nice eatables. Men, women and children all turned out. It was the first pic-nic occasion that called out the people generally. Martial music and a few old muskets did good service as a substitute for cannon. Lester Taylor and Eleazer Goodwin were orators of the day. Patriotic toasts were drank, and a good supper closed the exercises of the day. Probably no more satisfactory celebration has been held, or more patriotic blood has coursed in the veins of any collection of the people on any such occasion since, in town.
DEBATING CLUB.
A debating club and literary society was established here in the early settlement of the place, and became one of the fixtures in consequence of its long continuance, debating questions of public interest—the young ladies' reading essays, which had a marked influence upon all who attended, in giving a taste for reading and arranging their thoughts for writing and speaking. Some of the good fathers in the church were distrustful of its tendency for good, fearing it might injure the religious interests and turn the mind to a contemplation of vain and worldly imaginations; .yet the most intellectual and influential members of that church for forty years had their minds disciplined in that association, where there was more order, courtesy, and better subordination to parliamentary rules than sometimes has existed in our legislative and congressional deliberative assemblies, as the writer knows by experience in the former, and has noticed in the latter.
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HUNTING.
Until most of the wild animals were killed or driven away, the men and boys had generally a good rifle, and knew how to use them in killing small game such as squirrels, partridges, and turkeys. To mutilate their bodies subjected such hunters to ridicule as being "greenhorns." The bullets of experts took effect only on the head of their game. A majority of the old settlers hunted only at odd spells, except during the fall snows, which were slaughtering days in the woods, to supply the families with meat for themselves, and their non- hunting neighbors with turkey and deer. Most of the then out-door population could tell some amusing stories of adventures with the beasts of the forests, and of hairbreadth escapes, and a few of the luxury of putting up with landlord tree, and lodging in the upper story of airy rooms of branches, garnished with a profusion of green leaves, and endless numbers of brilliant stars in the background of vision. As a rule, unless driven by extreme hunger, or to protect their young, or cut off from retreat, "the fear of man and the dread of man" is apparent with animals to all experienced hunters and pioneers. Some nimrods there were in the country.
Timothy Tainter, now eighty-two years old, and his son Charles, now living and owning the Rufus Beard farm, on the south part of West street, have made it a professional business for many years, during the hunting and trapping seasons (after game was gone here), to hunt in the mountainous wilds of Pennsylvania, or in Michigan's green forests. They have made it a pecuniary success. They claim to have killed over one hundred wolves, some four hundred deer, and many bears. Timothy Tainter informed the writer that at one time, in hunting in the southwestern part of this county, with a Mr. Harrington, they cut a large bee-tree, with a large hollow through the upper part of the trunk, it being a mere shell and several of the large branches hollow, which, like the trunk, were filled with honey, and that he verily believed there was a ton of honey. The tree smashed up so that for some distance around the ground flowed with streams of honey, of which he had not the means of saving but little.
To show the present generation, and natural philosophers generally, something of the habits, sagacity, and generalship of wolves, I annex a sketch written by J. C. Wells, esq., one of Clandon's newspaper reporters, and published in the Geauga Republican some years since:
"Abraham Wilmot relates that one winter, when out hunting in the southwestern part of the township, he came across the track of a deer which half a dozen wolves had driven towards Gilmore's mill-pond. As they approached the pond they appear to have spread themselves out, and thus preventing the escape of the deer in either direction, drove him into the mire, where, it seems, they killed him, and then dragged the carcass back to the dry ground, and devoured it; and here Mr. Wilmot found the well-picked bones by the side of a log, partly covered up with snow and leaves.
" I have another story to relate. Captain Paine, then living in Chardon, was one day going through the woods north of the pond in this township. It was in the winter, there was some snow on the ground, the pond was frozen, and the ice thereon very slippery. He came upon the track of a deer which had been followed by a srngle wolf. Crossing this, he soon came to the track of another wolf, and a little further on, still another. His curiosity became excited, and, on examing the whole ground, it appeared that about a dozen wolves had formed a line or semi-circle, and had thus driven a deer directly on to the ice of the pond, and there killed and devoured him. These wolves seemed to be aware of the fact that on the ice every advantage would be in their favor, owing to the difference of formation in their feet from those of the deer, and had taken this
410 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
method to secure their prey. Do brutes reason? Sheep-raising was then a very precarious business. Settlers were accustomed to build high and strong pens, into which the sheep were driven every night the year round. If by accident or carelessness they were left out a single night, the probability was that some would be the wolves before morning. Owing to the extreme cunning and shyness of these wolves, and the fact of their seldom leaving the swamps in the daytime, it was a very difficult matter to destroy them. The people at length became so much exasperated against them for their many depredations, that in the year 1822 a great wolf hunt was organized, and engaged in by the people of several of the townships of this vicinity, of which I may have occasion to speak hereafter."
CLARIDON CENTRAL PARK.
In 1870 the writer drew up a subscription paper, circulated it, went to the nurseries and purchased evergreens and set them out, invited the neighbors to help set out forest trees, and replenished such as died from year to year, raising funds by selling grass on the park grounds, and, in 1877, proposed to have a " Park Association" formed, which was accordingly done, and moneys and improvements were turned over into the hands of the committee. Julius Chidester was chosen president. The author of the enterprise declined any compensation for his services.
MANUFACTURES.
There are no large water privileges for manufacturing purposes, and the industrial pursuits are mostly in the line of farming.
Burton Armstrong put up an oil mill, on Armstrong creek, which was discontinued in a few years; because the farmers thought it more profitable to keep dairies than to raise flax. From about 1835 to 1840, the dairy buginess became a specialty, and from 1860 to 1870 and 1876, it haSattained its hrghest figure. At the centennial year it was on the decrease, whilst the amount of butter made was on the increase.
In 1862, the manufacture of cheese on the co-operative plan commenced. [See the introductory address before Centennial Pioneer meeting.]
As Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Bartlett were the first and only ladies in the county who went to Oneida to perfect their knowledge in cheese-making; and, as Mrs. Phebe Freeman Hall has continued in the business ever since, it is but just that the following testimonial of her skill and perseverance should have a place in this history :
"CINCINNATI, OHIO, AUGUST 31, 869.
"A. D. Hall, esq., Claridoa, Ohio:
"DEAR SIR—Permit us. through you, to present to your good rady, Mrs. Harr, a fine set of silver
table-spoons. The motive that actuates us is simply a testimonial of our appreciation of her untiring efforts in your behalf to have the cheese made in your factory stand among the first in the country, which reputation it has already attained in point of uniformity and sameness, and of good quality. We feel safe in saying that none in the State excel it in this pecutiarity of your home factory. For all this, we are disposed to give Mrs. Hall the full credit. Therefore, we hope this tittle token of our friendship and past business relations, will be received and appreciated by yourself and lady in the spirit intended by us. " Yours very respectfully,
"J. W. BANNING & CO."
A cheese factory, which stood at the center of Claridon was burned. E. H. Chace & Co. now own the large and commodious cheese factory, at East Claridon, formerly owned by Armstrong & Chace. Both of the factories are used as creameries, or for cheese-making, as prices, or the weather may influence them. The butter from the west factory is sent direct to Liverpool, by the way of New York. A co-operative company have a factory in the northeast part of the township, which has been in active operation for many years.
TEMPERANCE.
During several years after the commencement of the settlement of the town the families used whiskey freely as a substitute for cider, which they had been
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 411
accustomed to in their eastern homes. Rev. Mr. Humphrey preached a radical sermon against the use of it as a beverage as early as 1820, which created a storm of ridicule and contempt. The seed was sown; it took root in a few families—notably in Deacon Kellogg's. Mrs. Amanda Kellogg was the first practical "teetotaler," and the advocacy of the new doctrine found more favor with the "mothers in Israel" than with "their lords." The opposition to strong drink increased informally until about 1828. From that time it assumed an organic form in various societies, old, young, and mixed, under various names, until 1877, when a union society was formed. The friends in East Claridon, with the central and west part, merged their societies into one, which has been the most effectual of any organization. The officers were: Lester Taylor, president; C. Cummings, Lucius T. Wilmot, and Oscar Douglass, vice presidents; John Mastick, jr., secretary. One of the distinctive features of that reformation was that most of the speeches were from the members—from hoary heads to juveniles of eight and ten years. Esquire Blakeslee's papers say that up to 1831 "there had not been a tavern, distillery, or grogshop in the town." The serpent soon after beguiled many; but not, however, by the seductive influence of Eve.
No township tax was levied until some time after the above date, and no more efficient town officials has there ever been than when the duties were discharged gratuitously.
AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS.
About 1832 a proposition was made by Lester Taylor to meet on a certain day and drive in the young steers for matching, by trade, as parties could agree, thus providing a favorable opportunity to find such as would match. It met with favor, and soon embraced all kinds and ages of stock, and herds, with a good attendance of people from out, as well as in town, and closed with an address. The young folks were there, and seemed to couple and match well for the day' but whether for life this deponent saith not, He knew not of any committees for that purpose. From such a beginning a regular organization, like farmers' fairs, was instituted.
THE FARMERS' FREE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
was formed in 1852. They soon built a large hall, costing about one thousand dollars, by subscription. Hon. B. B. Woodbury was the first president, and the society had a vice-president in, every township. It was carried on with much energy and efficiency for many yews, but as it was supported by membership fees and free contributions, it created a burthen too heavy to be borne, and was discoutinued. The hall is divided into rooms for township purposes generally, and elections in particular. The grangers have made a commodious hall in another part of the upper story.
WEIGHING ASSOCIATION.
The Claridon Weighing association had its organization by a humorous challenge given by and accepted between Lucius T. Wilmot and Lester De Witt Taylor, in the fall of 187o. Mr. R. E. Waters reports in the Geauga Democrat, now the Republican, as follows:
"They were to weigh their calves on Candlemas day, February 2, r871, on the wager of an oyster supper, to be given by the owner of the calf which gained the most in the interim, the matter to be decided by Colonel E. Spencer's scales, the weight of their respective calves at that time being: Wilmot's red calf, 882 pounds ; L. D. Taylor's white calf, 912 pounds."
H. N. Spencer, in a report in the same paper, says:
"In accordance with the above arrangement, L. D. Taylor, esq., invited all who brought forward and weighed stock on the secorld, to spend the afternoon
412 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
of the tenth, with their wives, at his house, and participate in the oyster supper he had won the right to furnish. His neat, cosy house, built more for the enjoyment oF a convenient and pleasant home than for large entertainments, was well filled, and great was the enjoyment there. * * * As we sat down I could not help contrasting in my own mind the quantity and quality of the rations the sergeant-major was furnishing us, with those he was wont to draw and issue so carefully to the men of his company about Chattanooga, in the days of Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain. The chief attraction seemed to be a nice loaf of cake, which adorned the center of each table, with the following in capital letters : 'Hurrah for the white calf.'"
Such was the origin of a society which is now one of the institutions of Claridon. Colonel Spencer, with his well known liberality and public spirit, did the weighing gratuitously, as has his son, Warren E. Spencer, since the colonel. moved to Chardon. In connection with this weighing association it may be proper to record, that several good stock raisers from out of town drive their
stock here at our annual and semi-annual weighings, notably, Lucius Merriman, the Hales, and Silas Beard, of Burton, and E. Trfttle, of Munson.
C. L. Taylor saw a fine Morgan stallion from New Jersey, at the first State fair in Cleveland, and he went east and bought it, thus introducing the first Morgan blood in this place. The horse was taken on to the trotting track for practice, driven by Mr. Pease, a few evenings before the annual free fair, and was brought into collision with the shaft of the sulky of another trotting horse, and instantly killed.
Cyrus Kellogg, of Kellogg's corners, in this township, raised a heifer-a full blooded Durham, strawberry roan—which weighed in Cleveland, the morning she was slaughtered, 1,64o pounds. The dressed quarters weighed 1,098 pounds; the meat on the ribs cut three and one-half inches in thickness; tallow on the caul, 32 pounds; rough tallow, 265 pounds. It was retailed in Cleveland, best pieces selling at twenty-five cents per pound, amounting in all to two hundred and forty dollars.
Of the rival calves before spoken of, Wilmot was tempted to sell his when two years old. Taylor matched his and sold them the winter after they were three years old, for three hundred dollars, the price of the pair esimated at six dollars per hundred weight, making fifty hundred weight for the pair. At the weighing, a short time previous, the brag steer weighed 27o pounds the most,. leaving the big steer at 2,770 pounds.
Lucius T. Wilmot and L. DeWitt Taylor have dealt in stock more than any others in the township. Cyrus Kellogg, Wesley Nash, Julius Chidster, Owens Mastick, Robert Rowley, and Elnathan Chace, have dealt, moreor less extensively, in stock.
GEAUGA LODGE, NO. 171, INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS,
was instituted December 3, 1850, with J. S. Cleveland, T. W. Ensign, Warren Heaton, W. Hathaway, C. C. Fields, and A. E. Ensign, as charter members. The meetings were held in the room over Royal Dow's office, at East Claridon.. In the year 1854 C. C. and C. S. Fields built a store with a lodge room in the third story. In the month of July, 1868, said store and lodge room were burned, with all the furniture and fixtures. Lodge was then held in a room of W. Hathaway's until 1874, when they built at East Claridon station, on the Painesville St Youngstown railroad. The officers for 1878 were N. E. Woodard, N. G.; E. G. Eggleston, V. G.; W. M. McCalmont, R. S.; D. B. Ladd, P. S,; and W. H. Hathaway, treasurer. Regular meetings are held Tuesday evenings
of each week. They are prosperous financially and otherwise, having a good library.
HISTORY OF, GEAUGA COUNTY; OHIO - 413
CLARIDON GRANGE, NO. 1187,
was organized May 16, 1875, with the following charter members: C. L. Taylor and wife, E. H. Treat and wife, W. E. Spencer and wife, Clinton Douglass and wife, A. B. Wells and wife, T. D. Ladd and wife, T. C. Wells and wife, Homer Clapp and wife. The first officers were: Master, L. D. Taylor; overseer and secretary, E. H. Treat; lecturer, C. L. Taylor; treasurer, T. C. Wells. Meetings Friday evening of each week, in Agricultural hall. Officers of the grange for 1878: Master, O. C. Douglass; overseer, Homer Clapp; secretary, F. G. Wells; lecturer, Emogene- Wells; treasurer, T. D. Ladd. Present number of members, thirty-eight. Meetings now held in Grange hall.
The inhabitants of Claridon are almost exclusively engaged in agricultural . pursuits, and would compare favorably in the moral, social and intellectual culture with the people of other rural districts of our country. They are, as compared with other communities of like occupation, a reading and a church-going people, as will be seen by the following items drawn from official statements from postmasters in the centennial year: Weeklies, two hundred and sixty-eight; monthlies, sixty-five; dailies, six—three hundred and thirty-nine. The above report does not do full justice to Claridon. Chardon village is located so near the northwest corner of the township, that a portion of the people do their post office business through the Chardon department.
The Claridonians are comparatively very free from litigation. Very few suits have been ligitated to redress, either imaginary or real grievances.
THE CLARIDON FARMERS' CLUB
was instituted more than twenty years ago, by a number of prominent farmers in the place, and it has, as a rule, held its monthly meetings since, and has become one of the fixtures of the town. It is divided into the gentlemen's and ladies' departments, each selecting some appropriate subject for consideration at their next meeting. In the gentlemen's course of selections, the order of nature as to seed time and harvest, is carried out with such other subjects as the circumstances and times make most advisable.
The association meets at the houses of the members, by invitation, and when the discussion and business of both branches are closed, they mingle together in social intercourse. Coffee and tea are served with abundance of eatables such as the lady member of the house knows how to provide with substantial; and delicacies "beautiful to the eye, and good to the taste." The records of the association are well kept.
It has had a marked influence in the social, moral and intellectual improvement of the members in their varied bearings, independent of the progress in their occupations, and has exerted a happy, continuous influence in cultivating a fraternal spirit. The usual attendance will average about seventy.
SCHOOL STATISTICS FOR 1876.
Number of youth in the township between the ages of six and twenty;one years: Boys, 92; girls, 102 ; whole number, 194.
VALUE OF TAXABLE PERSONAL PROPERTY FOR 1876,
on the following items: Horses, 44; value, $16,676. Cattle, 1,369; value, 25,306. Sheep, 893; value, $2,288. Dogs, x4; value, $154. "Beware of dogs."—Phillipians iii, 2. Value of credits, book accounts, etc., $46,968.
I have selected only a few of the taxable articles, such as are of most general iuterest. The whole amount of taxable personal property is valued at $129,222.
POSTMASTERS.
Claridon.—Cotton Kellogg, Neri Wright, Chester Treat, Robert Lyon, C. P. Treat, Arthur Treat, and Miss Lucretia Taylor.
414 - HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO.
East Claridon.—Elisha White, John McIntosh, John P. Bosley, Wanton Hathaway, Charles S. Field (appointed by Pierce in 1853, and continued until he resigned, during Lincoln's administration, holding the office over eleven years), and also Mr. Morse, and John Mastick, jr., present incumbent.
Charles Field was commissioned a member of the board of enrollment of the Nineteenth congressional district of Ohio. In a note from him he expressed a Wish that the formation of a Know-nothing organization at East Claridon, "which grew in a night and perished in a night," should not be omitted in history.
CENTENARIAN.
Margaret Waters died, aged one hundred and four years and ten months; her husband, Smith Waters, died in 1857, aged eighty-seven years: there were but ten days difference in their ages. Mrs. Lucy Kellogg, the mother of Asahel and Cotton Kellogg, died at the age of one hundred years, and Mr. Jonathan Gould died, aged about ninety-nine—it was marked "one hundred" on his'coffin.
OCTOGENARIANS.
In 1870, there were fourteen persons in the township over eighty years of age. In 1878, there were sixteen persons in the township over eighty years old. The per centage of deaths rn Claridon, for the last forty years, as compared with the population, will average about one and one-fourth per cent.
VAULT.
In the spring of 1879, the qualified electors proceeded, under the notice given, according to law in such case made and provided, to vote, yes or no, for a vault to be built in the cemetery, at the center of Claridon. There being an affirmative vote, the trustees of the township contracted for a vault to be built, during the summer, of Berea grit free-stone, which has been built under the direction of Burton Armstrong, Julius Chidester, and Lester DeWitt Taylor, trustees, and Frank Kellogg, township clerk. It has been completed to the acceptance of the trustees, and is a fine structure of the kind.
MILITARY ROSTER,
REVOLUTIONARY WAR,
Timothy Wells,
Benjamin Mastick, sr ,
Reuben Kidder,
Josiah Smith.
WAR OF 812.
Eliud Boughton,
Darius Armstrong,
Lot Hathaway,
Redington Hathaway,
Daniel Robinson,
David Ober,
Fredericd Gould,
Ozi Blakeslee,
Seger Steel,
Amos Pitkin.
WAR OF THE REBELLION
SEVENTH O. V. I., CO. F.
Capt. Harlow Spencer enlisted August 21, 1862; was wounded at Ringgold. Ga., Novembr 7, 1863; and at New Hope church, near Dallas, GR., May 25, 1864; mustered out with his regiment at Cleveland, O., July 6, 1864; re-enlisted August 2, 1864 ; raised company F, 29th O. V. 1.; served as captain until The close of the war.
SIXTYITH O. V. I.
Daniel Tucker, Horace Treat, Co. E.
EIGHTY-SEVENTH O. V. I.
John C. Treat,
E. H. Treat,
George Tribbee.
EIGHTY-EIGHTH O. V. I.
Warren E. Spencer, Co. B,
Almeron B. Wells. Co. B.
HISTORY OF GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO - 415
TWENTY-NINTH O. V. I.
Shannon R. Wintersteen, Co. F.August 26, 1862; died of typhoid fever, at South hospitat. Washington, D. C., May, '63.
W. H. Kibbee, Co. F, August 30, 862; wounded at Dumfries, Va., December 7, 1862; discharged February 2, 863; re-enlisted in Co. E. 177th O. V. I., 1864; served to the close of the war.
James B. Auxer, August 30, 1862; was wounded in the face by Guerrillas, in north Alabama, while on a gun-boat on the Tennessee river— April 13, 1864.
Daniel Bennet, Co. F', enlisted August 30, 1862; wounded in the thigh.
Freeman Downing, Co. F, August 30, 1862; wounded in the neck at New Hope Church, Ga., May 25, 1864.
Marshall L. Scoville, Co. F. enlisted March 4, 1864; rost his right arm in battle near Dallas, Ga., May 25, 1864
Martin T. Durkee,
Franklin D. Dimock, Co, F.
NINETEENTH O. V. I.
William T. Andrews, Co. F, April, 1861. Died.
Allen C. Spencer, Co. F. April 1861; re-enlisted in 6th O. V. C.; was transferred to 2d cavalry,
serving three years.
John McKee. Co. F, April, 1861.
Thomas M. Rea, Co. F. April, 1861.
P, N. Dimock, Co. F., 1861.
T. F. Hawley, Co. F; and in Co. B, 41st O. V. I; wounded at Shiloh; at Stone River; at Chickamauga; at Missionary Ridge, and at Peach Tree Creek.
FORTY-FIRST O. V. I.
Burton Armstrong, Co. G.
George Cowles, Co. G, and sharp-shooter; died by starvation in Andersonville prison.
Peter Thayer, Co. G.
Chester H. Watts,
G. Mortimer Watts, Co. G. Killed.
Elmer Bennet, Co. B, sharp-shooter.
Murton E. Gager, Co. B. wounded in the leg.
John Potter, Co. B, wounded.
Rollin Bennet, Co. B.
Jonathan Green, Co. G, wounded.
FORTY-SECOND O. V. I.
Dunton Taylor, Co. A.
Sherman Rowley. Co. A.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH O. V. I
Julius A. Moffit, lieutenant.
John C. Hathaway, 2d lieutenant.
Royal Taylor, seargent,
Lester D. Taylor, seargent-major.
Alonzo S. Watts,
Homer Sanborn,
Gilbert B. Hathaway,
Philo Boughton,
Ezra Webb,
Sylvester Webb,
O. A. Dimock, wounded,
Harrison E. Nash, wounded at Perryville.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY O. V. I.
(100 DAYS MEN).
Calvin M. Wells, Co. K.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIRST O. V. I.
Elbert M. Watts, Co. K.
Almon B. Knapp. Co. K.
Norton Russell. Co. K.
Alfred Kellogg, Co. K.
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SEVENTH O. V. I.
(ONE YEAR MEN.)
Julius C. Mastick,
Daniel H. Domsife,
Emory A. Chace,
John Myers,
Martin Britton,
Martin Preston,
Reuben Ames.
SIXTH O. V. C,
James Joiner,
William R. Joiner.
NINTH O. B.
Elisha W. Taylor,
John Byers.
Edward Kellogg,
Stephen B. Somers,
George W. Richardson, Co. B.
William Robinson,
John Yeen, died at Vicksburgh, August 18, 1864 grave 2,111.
John Ladd, of Charidon, enlisted in California. whilst teaching school; sent into New Mexico through to the Cherokee Indian territory; was at one time five hundred miles from any post-office.
Capt. Irwin E. Mastick, enlisted in Iowa; was raised, and now lives, in Claridon.
LIST OF SOLDIERS, NOW LIVING IN CLARIDON, THAT ENLISTED IN OTHER PLACES
R. W. Alderman, Co. K, 29th 0. V. I., and Co. C, 177th O. V. I., enlisted in Windsor, Ashtabula county.
C. H. Robinson, 9th O. B. (Wetmore's), enlisted in Garretsville, Portage county.
F. M. Arnold, Co. K. 6th O. V. C., enlisted in
Middlefield, Geauga county, Ohio.
James R. Parks, gth O. B. of independent vetteran volunteer artillery.
Orville Crippen, Co. G, 4rst O. V. I.
Thomas Corwin Carson, enlisted in Warren, in Co. G, 19th O. V. I. veterans.