HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 225 Green Parker, from near Milan, officiated. A church organization was not effected until the year 1822. In the winter of 1814-15, Hanson Read and Abram Powers built a grist mill on Huron river, in the first section, near where the Phoenix Mills now stand. This was undoubtedly the first grist mill erected in the county as now constituted. The character of the establishment was in keeping with those simple times. The first sawmill was built in 1819, by Josiah Root, on Huron river. The next was built by Hiram C Spencer, east of the center of town, on the river, a short distance below the bridge. It was built about the year 1827 or 1828, and did a large business. A few years after, Archibald Easter erected a sawmill, and at about the same time one was built by Dan Lindsey on the west branch of the river. It is impossible for the young people of the present day to understand the conditions of living in the new settlement. The first settlers in Greenfield were among the first in the county, and they were completely isolated from all the appliances of civilization. The nearest mill, at which grinding was done, was at Owl Creek, a great many miles distant, through an unbroken forest. The grain was ground in the order of its reception at the mill, and sometimes several days would be consumed in going to mill and back. It was customary for one person to take the milling of the entire neighborhood, when going with a team. While there are no instances of suffering from want of necessary food, in the history of this township, provisions were by no means plenty. 'Wheat was at one time three dollars per bushel, and other articles of food in proportion. William McKelvey on one occasion went to Owl Cheek to buy some pork, and could only find some of the "shack" variety, for which he paid forty-four cents per pound. The meat was a poor substitute for that of the domestic hog, being spongy and of ill flavor. For fresh meat the early settlers had venison and other wild game so plenty at times as to become a drug. In the matter of necessary clothing, the pioneers experienced a greater difficulty. The families, in general, came well furnished with wearing apparel, but a year or two of wear and tear in the woods sadly diminished their stock. Flax could be raised, and summer clothing of tow, butternut-dyed, and bleached linen could be manufactured when a weaver could be found to do it ; for, although every woman was a spinner, only here and there was one weaver, and each family had to await its turn. The old garments were often worn to rags before the new cloth could be put through the loom. To obtain the material for winter clothing was still more difficult.. The introduction of sheep was attended with much difficulty. They were not safe from wolves, and the new, wet lands proved unhealthy to them. The summer clothing would often have to answer for winter wear, or other expedients be resorted to. Buckskin, either wholly or in part, frequently served as material for winter apparel, but garments made entirely of it were never popular. The pantaloons would frequently be wet to the knees, and when dry would be as stiff and uncomfortable as if made of tin. The center of the township is two hundred and ninty feet above the lake and the surface of most of the township is covered with irregular, undulating hills of gravel and drift. So many years have now elapsed since the settlement of Greenfield, where our pioneers cleared away the forests, tilled the soil and at 226 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY last left all to their children and children's children, where today they live in luxury and peace on the farms that are dotted with fine homes attended with prosperity and happiness. Mr. Seba Mather opened the first public house in the township in the year 1816 which he kept until 1820, when he discontinued and established the mills east of Steuben and carried on an extensive business for thirty years when he retired to his farm and spent the remainder of his life and died at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. The first church in the township was built by the Congregationalists in 1832. It has since been greatly improved. The church is in Steuben. The Freewill Baptist church was erected in the year 1843. This church is at present without a pastor. Mr. Seba Mather erected the first frame building in the township in 1820. But now, where once were no sounds but those of nature, there has come the hum of industry, the bustling of trade, a hurrying to and fro, the greetings of man with man, the activity impelled by varied human interests, men who were babes when the country was new, grew old and went. down to their graves. In the midst of change only the Huron river went on unchanged: The Steuben cemetery has been greatly improved during the past year. It has been thoroughly graded and leveled, gravel walks and roads have been made through the entire grounds, also an addition of several acres has been added and laid out into lots and numbered. Steuben has at present two telephone stations. Many farmers through the townships also have the lines in their residences and would not do without them. We have an electric railway which has been built within the past year, and has increased the value of land in the township from ten to fifteen dollars per acre. Much might be said by way of improved machinery of all kinds, the bountiful crops, the health of the township, good prices for all kinds of produce which we are blessed with at the present time. GREENWICH TOWNSHIP. Greenwich township received its name from Greenwich, Fairfield county, Connecticut, where most of the original owners of the land resided. It is known as township number one, range twenty-one. Its surface is moderately undulating, without marshes of any great extent, and those that did exist were easily drained. The soil is mostly a clayey loam, mixed in places with gravel and sand along the streams. Butternut, black walnut and sycamore are abundant along the streams. Black walnut is also found on the uplands. In general, the land of the township may be considered of the beech and maple grade—beech being predominant. White oaks are more abundant in the first and fourth sections than elsewhere. In the second and third sections there has been a new. growth of timber since the tornado which passed over that part of the township in pioneer times and tore down all the original growth. HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 227 It is bounded upon the north by Fitchville ; east by Ruggles, Ashland county ; south by Ashland and Richland counties ; and west by Ripley. Its surface is low and quite level for the most part, though, in some places, it is slightly uneven. The principal streams are the east and west branches of the Vermillion river. The former flows through the northeast corner of the township ; the latter, formed by the union of the two streams, enters upon the south line, and thence flows north into Ripley. It again enters the township near the intersection of the east and west center and the Ripley ,town' line road, and from thence flows northerly and diagonally across the third section, and, receiving the added volume of water from a number of small streams that drain a large portion of the township, becomes, by the time it reaches the north line, a water-course of considerable size. The first school was taught by James Nixon, who, with his father, Robert Nixon, left Ireland at the time of the Irish revolution, and chose America as the country in which to begin life anew, and drifted, by some chance, to this locality. The school was held in an abandoned log house, one mile south of the center, in the winter of 1820-21. About 1825, a school house was built at the center, and Tracey Case was the first teacher who occupied it. The second school house was built by James Mitchell's, near the center of section four. Willis R. Smith, assisted by his wife, gave instruction in writing to a number of young men (some of them married), in the winter of 1824-25. About a dozen men attended this school. It was held evenings, in Mr. Smith's house, which he fitted up for the purpose, with writing desks made of slabs, which were fastened to the wall as sloping shelves. But little was done in road-making in this township until 182o. The north and south center road was the first laid out. The line was established in 1820 but only a small portion of it had been chopped and cleared half a dozen years later. The east and west center road was the second one laid out. It was surveyed and opened through the county. What is known as the "angling road" was ordered to be laid out in answer to the petition of Ephraim Baker and others in 1828 or 1829. The first mail was carried through the township in 1829, and for three years thereafter, by Robert Inscho, of New Haven. He went once a week between New Haven village and Medina county, upon horseback. The first postoffice was established at the center, and Benjamin Kniffin was the first man who held the commission of postmaster. Greenwich was attached, in 1815, to New Haven, or was within the jurisdiction of that township (for civil purposes). In 1819, Greenwich, Fitchville and Hartland were united, and an election, was held in that year, at the house of Thomas B. White, for the purpose of choosing officers for the territory included within the three. Hartland was detached in 1820, and in 1823, Greenwich was separated from Fitchville and organized as a separate township, the first election being held at Thomas B. White's house, and the following officers elected : Jeremiah Rusco, Henry Washburne, trustees ; David W. Briggs,. clerk ; Varney Pearce, justice of the peace ; Ephraim F. Barker, constable. Adna Carpenter, son of Henry Carpenter, was the first white child born in the township. 228 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY Henry Carpenter, father of the first born, was the first person who died in the township. His death, caused by over exertion, occurred in November, 1818. He was buried in a coffin constructed of hewed black walnut planks. Hannah Barker was the second person whose demise the little band of pioneers were called to mourn. The coffin, in which her remains were buried, was made from the boards of a wagon-box, which were rudely stained with logwood. The first marriage in the township, was that of David W. Briggs and Alzina, daughter of E. F. and Hannah Barker. They were made one by Squire Rundel Palmer, of Fitchville, in August, 1819. Briggs died in 1861. The first log cabin was built in 1817, near the northeast corner of the township. Henry Carpenter built the first permanent residence, a log house, a little later in the same year. The first frame house was built by Joseph Washburne, in 1827, on lot twenty-seven, section two, and the first brick house was erected at the center, by Cyrus G. Mead. The first tavern was built at the center by Benjamin Kniffin, who also had a store there. The store opened by Ezra Smith, near Joseph Washburne's, in the northeast corner of the township, in the year 1824, was the first. For a number of years after the first settlers came into Greenwich, there was no regularly ordained minister living in the township, and when there was preaching, it was by some of the ministers from neighboring townships. Religious meetings were held frequently, and preachers of all denominations had assurance when they came here that they would be met by audiences of large size (for these times) and gladly listened to. The township had a large element of Quaker population, and many of its earliest pioneers were of this people. The first Quakers, or Friends, came to Greenwich in 1818, just eighteen years after the first Friends' settlement in Ohio. The first settler in Greenwich was Henry Carpenter, who came from Ulster county, New York, in 1817, and located upon lot twenty-two, in section two. He died in the fall of the following year, from over exertion at a house raising, leaving a wife and four children. The trials of those men and women who turned their backs upon the places of their nativity, and sought to hew them out homes in the wilderness, cannot be fully appreciated at the present day. Many of them had but little to begin with. Those who had much were scarcely better off, for the comforts and conveniences of life were not procurable. The early settlers, of whom we shall treat presently, after succeeding, through almost infinite trouble, in clearing a few acres of ground and raising a small crop of wheat or other grain, were far from being in a condition to defy want. They had still to procure articles which were equally necessary. If the weather bad been dry for some time, they were obliged to go to Cold creek to have their grain ground, and the trip there and hack, about seventy-five miles, occupied eight or ten days. Two yoke of oxen were required. The price of carrying a bushel of wheat was fifty cents. Money, it was almost impossible to get in sums sufficient to pay taxes, or buy those few articles which are indispensable to the family or individual. Daniel Fancher relates that he worked three years, and did not receive, during that time, three shillings in money, but took grain, flour, meat, and other articles, which, in the early days of the settlement, Were regarded almost as legal tender. Henry Washburne once took a large load of wheat to 229 - PHOTO OF HURON RIVER VIEW, MONROEVILLE 230 - BLANK HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 231 Sandusky, consuming a week in making the round trip, and exchanged it for one barrel of salt, six milk pans, two pounds of tea, and the cloth for two shirts. With these few articles, which would seem but poorly to pay for the grain, and the time spent in getting to the market, he returned, feeling very well satisfied. He had done fully as well in his barter as others were able to do. Many of the settlers really suffered for the want of those things which a few shillings would have bought. Luxuries were unthought of. The unceasing and hard grind of daily labor was necessary to accomplish the task that lay before the pioneers—the maintenance of life and the development of the new country, which they so subdued as to make a rich inheritance for their children. And yet, with all their hard labor, with the severe simplicity of their lives, with hardships and privations unnumbered and unrecorded, the lives spent in the fulfillment of duty were made up more largely of pleasure than of pain, were fuller of joy than sorrow, anti' as they drew to a close, there was the profound satisfaction in every honest, toiling pioneer's heart, of having accomplished a great and tangible good. Although the forest abounded in game, the Indians, it is supposed, did not come here with the intention of following the hunt, but the locality was a favorite one for maple sugar making, and they frequently pursued this calling, the nearest approach to anything like an active, industrial occupation that ever received their attention. The Indians had temporary camping places in various parts of what is now Greenwich, where they resorted in the spring and remained until the flow of sap, in the sugar maples, had ceased. They made troughs to receive the sap from the bark of beech trees, and evaporated it in small kettles, most of the labor being performed by the squaws. Farther east, in the Black river vicinity, were the favorite hunting grounds of the red-men who belonged to the great tribe, a portion of which made its headquarters around Upper San- dusky. They journeyed every year to these hunting grounds, and the paths they trod were visible only a few years since, in the northern part of this township. As they always followed the same trail, and invariably passed in single file, a depression of the earth was caused, which was very easily noticeable. In the early settlement of the township all kinds of game was abundant. Deer were so numerous that they were frequently seen in droves of from a score to fifty. A good hunter like David W. Briggs would kill as many as eight or ten a day when lucky, and in the season would bring down three or four hundred. Briggs kept the settlers pretty well supplied with venison, and it was not an uncommon thing for him to have half a dozen or more frozen carcasses hanging outside of his house at once. He was hired by Mr. Beach, a pioneer of Ruggles, one time to do a day's shooting, Beach having a number of men at work for him and nothing in the house for them to eat. Briggs was to report for duty at Beach's house before breakfast, and to have two dollars for his day's hunting. He arrived there as he had agreed to, and told his employer that he had killed two deer on the way over, giving directions for finding the carcasses in the woods. Beach told him he might call it a day's work and quit, which he did, thus earning two dollars before breakfast, by doing what any sportsman would travel a hundred miles to do now-a-days. As late as 1853, when John M. Carl came into the township, deer were so numerous that he was able on some occasions, to kill two, or even three, in a day. 232 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY Briggs at this time had given up hunting because, as he said, "game had grown so scarce." Beside deer, there were all the varieties of small game common to a new country. Wolves were a great source of annoyance. They committed numerous depredations, some of them quite boldly. GREENWICH. Greenwich was incorporated as a village in 1879. It is fifty-five miles southwest of Cleveland. The village has never had a rapid growth because the land was held by a man who was adverse to the town. It has had almost its entire growth since 1874, and in that time has increased from a small cluster of houses to a village of importance and the leading place for the shipment of cat- tle in that part of the western reserve. It is a station of note on what is known as the Big Four railroad. The village is surrounded by a rich country and has within its limits the elements of enterprise, and will doubtless achieve in the future greater importance as a trading place and shipping point. HARTLAND TOWNSHIP. Hartland township was originally called Canterbury. It was attached to Clarksfield until 1826 ; at which time it was organized into a separate township and received the name of Hartland. The first election held in the township was in the school house on the Ridge in April, 1826. The surface of the township is generally level, though less so in the south and east parts than elsewhere. The soil is a clay loam, modified by gravel and sand along the streams and on the Hartland ridge, which runs a general north and south direction through the second section. There were formerly a number of swamps or marshes in the township, the largest of which were known as Canterbury swamp, Cranberry marsh, Grape swamp and Bear swamp. The first was over two miles in length, varying in width from fifty to one hundred and fifty rods, and lay south east of the center. Cranberry marshy north of the center, and contained about one hundred acres. These formerly unsightly places have been more or less reclaimed, and the soil, which is a deep black muck, is the best in the township. The principal native varieties of timber were white wood, white, black and burr oak, white and black ash, black walnut, hickory, birch and maple. The Vermillion river runs through the southeast quarter of the township, and adds a pleasing element to the landscape. Indian creek has its source in the southwest part and flows into the Vermillion near the east town line. Brandy creek, which is said to have derived its name from the peculiar color of the water, rises near the center of the township, flows through the northeast part of the township and across the northwest corner of Clarksfield, uniting with the Vermillion a short distance west of the center of Wakeman township. NATIVE ANIMALS. The animals of the forest were the bear, deer, wolf, wild cat, gray fox and other species of less importance. Bears were not numerous and seldom seen. HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 233 They seem to have collected more generally in the marshes of Ripley, where they were frequently killed. Deer were very plenty. The first white child born in the township, was a child of Jared Tolls, in 1818. The first couple married was Elijah Bills and Mary Howard, daughter of Captain William Howard. This event occurred June 2, 1822, at the residence of the bride's parents,—John Beatty, Esq., performing the nuptial ceremony. The first death was that of Jared Tolls, who died in the fall of 1818. He was buried on his farm, in a coffin made out of Daniel Bills' wagon-box, as there was no lumber to be had. A small apple tree sprout was planted at the head of the grave, which grew to be a large tree, but it has been removed, and the exact location of the grave is now unknown. The early settlers sometimes experienced a great deal of difficulty in getting their grinding done. There were grist mills in some of the adjacent townships, but they were at rest much of the time in consequence of dry weather, and at such times trips to Cold creek, and occasionally even to Mansfield, sixty miles distant, and through almost unbroken forests, were necessary to get grinding done. Families whose supply of flour would be exhausted before the return of the grist from the mill, would enjoy a week's variety of pounded wheat or "jointed corn." The first school house was built in the fall of 1821, on the ground that is now occupied by the Ridge burying ground. The size of the house was sixteen by twenty feet, with puncheon floor. The door, seats and writing desks were also made of puncheons, and greased paper served as glass for the windows. The first school was kept by Cyrus Munger, in the winter of 1821-22. The families of Josiah Kilbourn, William Howard, Daniel Bills, Joseph Osyor, Nathan Miner and Samuel White were represented in the school. In April, 1826, the township was erected by the trustees into one school district, called district number ;one. The following were at that time householders of the district : Josiah Kilbourn, William Howard, Daniel Miner, Elijah Bills, Samuel White, Jesse Taintor, Nathan Miner, Sylvester Waldron, Libeus Stoors, Allen Mead, Eli Barnum and Henry Pickard. In 1833 the first post office was established in Hartland, with Daniel Miner as postmaster, who kept the office in his house, on the ridge, for a period of twenty- one years. The first sermon preached in Hartland was by the Rev. Lot B. Sullivan, a Congregational home missionary. The first regular religious services were held at the house of Joseph Waldron; in the summer and fall of 1821, at which the Revs. True Pattee and James McIntyre, Methodist circuit preachers, officiated. After the school house was built, on the ridge, in the fall of 1821, the meetings were held there. There was at this time but one Methodist family in the township. In 1824, a few Free Will Baptist families moved into the township, among which was that of Allen Mead, a preacher of that denomination. They soon after began to hold meetings, and, under the preaching of Mead, Elder Wheeler of Greenfield, and Rev. Mr. Carlton, quite a revival followed, resulting in the organization of a church in Clarksfield, with which the Baptists in Hartland united. 234 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY The first sawmill in the township was built by Judah Ransom, on Indian creek, in the spring of 1826. There were other saw mills erected later. The. Chaffee mill, in the third section ; the Miles mill, at the center, and the Thomas mill at Olena. LYME TOWNSHIP. Lyme township was originally embraced in the present township of Groton, in Erie county, and was called "Wheatsborough," after Mr. Wheat, who owned a large tract of land in it. It was afterwards organized by itself, and called Lyme ; many of its first settlers having emigrated from a town of that name in Connecticut. The general aspect of the township is level prairie, interspersed with ridges, covered with groves of young oaks and hickories. In -many places on the prairie cottonwood trees have sprung up. The west part of the township was formerly covered by a heavy growth of oak timber. The soil of the prairies is generally a mixture of black muck and sand, while gravel and clay abound on the timber part. Quarries of lime stone have been opened in the west part of the township, which supplies stone for building and making lime. A common kind of stone is found in the center for building purposes. Pipe and Pike creeks arise in the township, which run northward into Groton. Stull brook originates in Sherman and runs a northeasterly course through the township and enters Huron river at Ridgefield. A large creek which arises in Seneca county crosses the south part of this township and enters the Huron river south of Monroeville. Deer used to roam aver the prairies, affording fine sport for the Indians and other hunters, to chase in the fall of the year after the prairies had been burned over, which was done every year. Wolves and bears sometimes troubled the sheep. The history of the settlement of the west is of constantly recurring interest. The enterprise, intrepidity and self-denial of the pioneers who left the comforts and privileges of their eastern homes and came to the Firelands, then a far-off region, associated in the minds of civilized people with savage wild beasts and Indians, must always command our highest respect and admiration. They endured hardships and privations without number, not for their own advantages merely—for they well knew that old age would steal upon them long before they should enjoy the fruits of their toil—but for their children and their children's children, that to ,them they might leave a goodly heritage. The most of those truly, but unconsciously, heroic men and women, have long rested from their labors, but the good they accomplished remains, the blessings they secured and transmitted endure, and are now the precious legacy of a happy, prosperous and intelligent posterity. Scattering settlements had been made in all the townships along the lake shore prior to the war of 1812 ; but the surrender of Detroit by General Hull, exposed that portion of country to the ravages of the enemy, that a general exodus of the settlers, southward, followed, and it remained almost entirely denuded of inhabitants until the signal victories, on both land and water, of the HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 235 forces of the United States, rendered it safe for the former residents to return to their abandoned and, in many cases, ruined homes. The early settlement of Lyme, like that of most of her sister townships, was never very rapid. Much of the land was owned by minor heirs, and entangled with unsettled estates ; more had been bought up by speculators and held by them at either so high a figure as to greatly retard immigration, or not offered for sale at all; and besides all this, government land adjoining, so soon as it came into market, could be had for less than half the price generally at which the Fire- lands' tracts were held. The first settler was Conrad Hawks, who penetrated the thick woods of Lyme in the year 1808. His location was in the northeast corner of the township on the farm afterwards so long occupied by John F. Adams. The first building erected was the log dwelling of Conrad Hawks, built in 1808. The first frame house was erected by Colonel Nathan Strong, in the year 1817, on the Bemiss place. The first brick dwellings were those of John F. Adams and Horatio Long, built in 1827. The first settlement at Hunt's Corners was made in the southeast part by several families named Sutton, and the locality has since been known as the "Sutton Settlement," or Hunt's Corners. Levi Sutton, a native of Virginia, bargained for the Moses Warren tract, consisting of eleven hundred and ten acres, for one thousand dollars, and came on and took possession in the fall of 1811. In 1818, Asaph, Erastus and Israel Cook came with their father, who settled at Cook’s corners near the eastern line of Lyme. They built a large treading mill and dry house for dressing and cleaning hemp without rotting. This business excited considerable interest and was expected to prove profitable to the owners and the community. The first saw mill was built in the south part of the township on Frink run by Levi Sutton, in 1814 or Another saw mill was built about 1830, on a creek which drains the prairies in the west part of the township in Bellevue. It was afterwards used for a brewery. A tannery was built about 1827, by Horatio Long, on a few acres of land purchased by him near the line of Abner Nims and Zadoc Strong. He carried on the business of tanning and shoemaking some ten or twelve years, when he discontinued the business and became a farmer. John C. Kinney came to Lyme about 1828, and opened a blacksmith shop near the corner of lot twelve Or thirteen. Mary Ann Strong, daughter of Francis and Mary Curtis Strong, was the first child born in the township. The date of her birth was August 3, 1817. She became the wife of Isaac D. Collins in 1840, and died a short time afterwards. The pioneer nuptials were those of Burwell Fitch and Susan Hawks, celebrated in the winter of 1816 and 1817. They settled in Sherman township, where they resided until their death, The next marriage was that of Ira Bassett and Polly Hand, which took place in the spring of 1817. The year 1834 will long be remembered as the one signalized by the first visit of that fearful scourge, the cholera, to this country. On the 20th of August, in that year, the wife of Mr. Sheffield was taken with that fearful disease, and 236 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY died in a few hours. The old famiy Bible contains a record of her death in his own hand writing. On the 22d he was himself taken with the same disease, and died just after midnight on the 23d. NORWALK TOWNSHIP. Norwalk township was incorporated by act of legislature, February 11, 1828. The following are the two first sections of the act of incorporation: Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That so much of the township of Norwalk, in the county of Huron, as lies within the following boundaries, to-wit : Commencing at the southeast corner of the town plat of Norwalk, in the center of the road leading to Medina, running along the south side of the back alley as far as it extends, from thence in the same direction to the center of the road passing widow Tice's dwelling, a distance of two hundred and sixteen rods from the starting point ; thence along the center of said road forty rods : thence northeastwardly and parallel with the first line to the center of the road passing Ebenezer Lane's dwelling to Milan, a distance of two hundred and sixteen rods ; thence along the center of said road forty rods to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby created a town corporate, and shall henceforth be known and distinguished by the name of the town of Norwalk. Sec. 2. That it shall be lawful for the white male inhabitants of said town, having the qualifications .of electors of members of the general assembly, to meet at some convenient place in said town, on the first Monday of May next, and the first Monday of May annually thereafter, and then and there proceed, by a plurality of votes, to elect by ballot one mayor, one recorder and five trustees, who shall have the qualifications of electors ; and the persons so elected shall hold their offrce for one year, and until their successors shall be chosen and qualified, and they shall constitute the town council. FIRST CORPORATION ELECTION. The following is taken from the first pages of the first book of record of the corporation of Norwalk, and comprises the poll-book and tally sheet of the first election held as an incorporated village : Poll-book of the election held in the town of Norwalk, in the county of Huron, and state of Ohio, this fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight. Joseph C. Curtiss, Benjamin Carmon and Wm. Gallup, judges, and Geo. 'I. Buckingham, clerk, of this election, were severally sworn as the law directs previous to their entering on the duties of their respective offices. "Norwalk and Bronson were together as an election district from 1817 (the time of their first organization) to 1822. For a part of this time Fairfield was included in the same organization, making an election district five miles wide and fifteen miles long, the same being called Norwalk ; and while so together, all the elections were held in the part called Norwalk proper." The first election in Norwalk township was held at the house of Hanson Reed in April, 1817. Norwalk and Bronson were at this time organized as an election district. HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 237 Hanson Reed's house was situated on the east side of the road leading from near the water works to the Fairfield road, and about thirty rods from the latter road. Soon after Hull's surrender at Detroit in August of 1812, Thomas, son of Abijah Comstock, was born on section two of Norwalk. When he was only a few days old, his parents had to flee from their home to escape the Indians, which they did just in time, taking him and their other valuables with them, for the night after their departure their house was burned. This was the first white child born in Norwalk. The first death of which he has found any record, was that of Angeline Lewis. She was the daughter of Samuel B. and Amy Lewis ; born at South Salem. Westchester county, New York, probably in the fall of 1814 ; was brought by her parents to Norwalk in the spring of 1815, and died September 1, 1817. She was probably the child stolen by two squaws, and rescued by her mother, of which an account is given in-the history of Samuel B. Lewis. In the spring or summer Of 1815, Hanson Reed, then living in Greenfield, purchased of Samuel B. Lewis; the place upon which Mr. Lewis had erected a house the previous year. He soon moved in with his family, and in 1816 or 1817, commenced building a sawmill on the creek which runs through the present L. B. Mesnard and S. J. Rogers farms, on the north side of the Fairfield road, and a few rods to the west of the stone bridge over that creek. In erecting this mill, he was assisted by his father-in-law, Mr. Abraham Powers. Soon after its completion, it was destroyed by fire. The two men then made a workshop of the house, and com- menced work on the machinery of another mill, and in about five weeks had it completed, running and doing a good business, but when the fall rains came on, a freshet swept away their dam. They were now without funds, all having been put into building and re-building, but were not discouraged ; the dam was soon replaced, and then they began to plan for a gristmill attachment to the sawmill, and carried their plans into execution in a year or two afterwards. In 1806 Nathan S. Comstock, in company with several others, started on an exploring expedition to "spy out the country" where their new possessions lay. They spent some time in looking over the country, but not being provided with suitable maps or guides, were not certain they found the particular land they were in search of. 1809.—Early in the spring of this year, Nathan engaged the services of Darius Ferris and Elijah Hoyt to accompany him on a second expedition to Nor- walk with the intention of making a permanent settlement. They started with a span of horses and wagon and such tools as would be necessary in clearing and building. At Buffalo: they found it impracticable to proceed further with their wagon, so a small boat was purchased, into which their goods were packed, with the addition of a barrel of whisky. Two of them manned the boat, and proceeded up the lake, keeping near the shore, while the other took charge of the horses, and traveled overland, keeping near the lake. In this manner they reached the mouth of Huron river. There were at that time quite a number of Indian settlements along that river, the largest of which was where the village of Milan now stands, and was 238 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY called Pequatting. They were Moravians, in charge of a missionary named Frederick Drake, and had a mission house. Being very friendly, they offered the new corners the use of their mission house until a structure could be erected to shelter them. A site was selected for the new house in section two, near a spring, and in the immediate neighborhood of the fine brick residence erected a few years ago by Philo Comstock, Esq., in section three of Norwalk. After cutting the logs, the few white men then in the country, were invited to assist in putting up the house. This was the first house erected by white men, in the township of Norwalk, of which any record can be traced, and was, most probably, the pioneer house, It was not covered by a mansard roof ; the windows were not set with crown-plate glass ; the front door was not of carved walnut, nor mahogany ; the back door did not exist; its floor was not covered with a brussels carpet ; there was no piano and no sewing machine within its walls ; upon the marble-topped center table (which was not there) lay no daily morning paper containing the latest telegraph news and the last time card of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad, nor even that of the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroad company. In fact, it was no palatial residence, but rough and strong, and made for service like the strong-willed, iron-handed men who built it. Its roof was made of "shakes ;" its walls of rough logs ; its floor was the face of mother-earth, carpeted with the moss of the growth of ages ; the bedsteads were "bunks" with poles for springs, and their mattresses were sacks filled with leaves and mosses ; its cooking range was a brass kettle hung on a pole supported by two crotched sticks driven into the floor, and its chimney was a hole left open in the roof. Rough, uncouth, homely, yet it was a home,-the first home of Norwalk. The house having been erected, they next commenced a clearing of about ten acres which they completed, in a manner, and sowed to wheat that fall. NEW LONDON TOWNSHIP. New London township was settled prior to any township adjacent, and the first settlement was within what is now the village. The first settlers were Abner Green, wife and three daughters, in the month of February, 1815, and located on lot number ten, third section. Here Mr. Green erected the first log house a small cabin—using basswood bark as covering or roofing. His furniture, or rather cook in apparatus, and farming tools and implements were few and very simple. History tells us they were conveyed on his back in a box or "chest captured from General Proctor." Green was born in the state of Vermont at a day sufficiently early for him to be a revolutionary soldier, though the date of his birth is unknown probably, about 1758. He served also during the war of 1812 as sergeant. Mr. Green cleared some two or three acres of ground in 1815, and raised the first crop of corn in the township, and the historian is informed he had a good crop, cultivated by the use of the ax and the hoe. He was noted as an honest, industrious, patriotic, and religious person, often holding religious meetings, and the then boys say he did good preaching. He also erected a cabin and lived for a few years on lot number twenty-four, second section. Thence in 1823 he moved to the HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 239 southern part of Ohio, and died about 1826, from, as is supposed, the effect of a wound received in the battle of Fort Malden, under General William H. Harrison. The township of New London was organized in 1817, and the first election was held at the house of Mr. William Sweet, on the first Monday in April. William Sweet, Isaac P. Case and Solomon Hubbard were trustees ; Sherman Smith was township clerk ; Hosea Townsend and B. Crampton were appraisers ; Philo T. Pcrter was constable, and H. Townsend acted as lister. The early records of the township were burned, with all the furniture in the house, at the time Sherman Smith and brother's house was burned, in 1818 or '19, and the want of any record compels us to say we do not knew who was elected in the spring of 1818. It is conceded there was no fall election in 1817. The first state election was held in 1818, and the poll book shows twenty votes, which at the ratio now given for boys, girls, and women .(and many of the early pioneers had large families of boys and girls) would give the town somewhere from sixty to one hundred inhabitants. The township very naturally took the name of New London from the fact that N. Douglass, N. Richards, and the Ledyards, were the principal, or largest original proprietors, or sufferers ; and they resided in New London, Connecticut. The name of the township has never been changed since its first settlement. The settlement of this township was delayed by the war of 1812-15, and again from the disputes of title from 1820 to '25, which will be more fully noticed hereafter, it being the cause of the greatest law suit ever affecting the settlers on the Firelands. The surface of the township is generally level, though, in many portions in the vicinity of the water courses, it is quite rolling, and other portions may be classed as gently undulating. It was originally, with the exception of a small portion in the .fourth section, known as the cranberry marsh, all densely covered by timber. The principal varieties of wood were black walnut ; elm of several varieties—rock, red and white ; maple—hard and soft ; beech ; oak-white, yellow and black ; basswood, whitewood, hickory, white and black ash, cherry, dogwood and willow. There has been no particular change in the forest, except the almost entire disappearance, by rise. The soil is very productive—well adapted to grass, small grains, corn, vegetables and berries-clayey, or marl, with a slight preponderance of the clay, and, in the third section, sandy ; while rich, deep muck, is abundant in the fourth section. It is about equally well adapted to the dairy products, hay, grain or stock raising. Fruits of several kinds and varieties do well. In short, for fertility and productiveness, very few, if any town on the Firelands, can surpass this. At an early day in the settlement of the township, quite a large portion of the third and fourth sections were deemed as low land and swampy ; now, all or nearly all is drained and is tillable. The streams running through the town are two. One running northwardly through the fourth and third sections, is formed by Skellenger's creek, Knowlton's creek and Carpenter's creek, uniting with the Vermillion river in the township of Clarksfield. as its east branch ; and Rawson's creek, uniting with other small streams and making East creek, a west branch of Black river. The various creeks and streams are fed by many springs, which render this section of the county quite well watered. 240 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY The first road opened was the Read, a military road from the south side of the county to the lake on the west line of New London, in 1812. The second road was for the passage of the army of General Wm. H. Harrison's division, 1814, through the northeast corner of the township. The first road made by the pioneers was what is known as the Clarksfield road to Ruggles, commenced 1816 The first mail matter was obtained at Huron, Judge Jabez Wright, postmaster, Dr. Richard P. Christopher keeping the office for the Judge. The next was obtained at Norwalk. The first mail route was from Tiffin to New London—a man in southern Ohio taking the contract for carrying the mail, but mistaking New London for London in the central part of the state, he gave up his contract, and it was then carried by Squire Palmer, of Fitchville, from Fitchville to Tiffin and back, once a week ; and by Tracy Case and Hosea Townsend from Fitchville to the office of I. P. Case, postmaster, for the revenue of the office. This was under J. Q. Adams' administration. Under Jackson's administration Peter Kinsley officiated as postmaster at "Kinsley Corners," or Merrifield's Settlement. The first route through the township was from Florence to Uniontown, or Ashland. The first religious organization was in the log school house where Miss Sophia Case was teaching ; organized by Mr. James Haney, in 1816, a Methodist from Savannah (then known as Haneytown). Mr. Haney had about thirty listeners. Probably this was the first class, and from which, as a nucleus, the Methodist church sprang. The first birth occurred on the 29th day of February, 1816. Unto John Hendryx's wife was born a son, The first adult death was that of Mrs. Francis Keyes, who died of consumption in May, 1819, and was buried on their own, lot, near John King's orchard. Mrs. Polly Day, daughter of John Corry and wife of John Day, died in the autumn of 1820, and was buried on her father's farm, being the first buried in the village cemetery. The first house erected was by Abner Green, on lot number ten, third section, February, 1815, and the first frame house by Hosea Townsend on lot number twenty-three, third section. The first frame barn was built by I. P. Case, and the first log store (a building twenty-four by thirty-six) in 1819, on his place. The first frame store was William C. Spaulding's, on lot number seven, third section. The first boy born in a frame house in the town was Ira Townsend. The first corn was raised by Abner Green, and the first wheat carried to mill was by Hosea Townsend, to Uniontown, now Ashland. The first flour and meal was obtained at Florence. The first manufacturer of boots and shoes was I. P. Case, in 1815. The first black salts or potash was made by Josiah Day and his father, Dr. Samuel Day. The first orchards from the seeds were planted by H. Townsend, William Sweet, John Corry, and Francis Keyes, in 1820 and '22. The first grist mill was put up by Captain William Blackman in 1826, and was a small concern-two sand-stones turned by hand. The first brick building was erected in the fall of 1865 and in the summer of 1866. Was used by Thomas Smith as a cellar. The Masonic hall was built the following year. The first brick store was built by C. W. Gregory in the village in 1866. 241 - PHOTO OF VIEW FROM STACK ROOM, PUBLIC LIBRARY, NORWALK 242 - BLANK HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 243 The first school house was in the third section, on lot number thirteen, in 1816, and Miss Sophia Case, daughter of I. P. Case, was the first teacher, and had fifteen scholars. The first school house in the fourth section, or in the village, was on lot two, a little north of B. B. Mead's residence, and Peter Kinsley taught the first school in 1818 ; he had about twenty pupils. When the first white men settled in New London, the black bears and wolves were the most formidable ; deer, raccoon, otter, sable and gray fox, wild turkeys, beaver, wild cat, hedgehog and fishers, or pekans, abounded to a limited extent. The deer and wild turkeys became far more abundant about 1822 evidently coming into the town from the east ; and the wolves appeared to follow the deer. There were Indian camping grounds on farms in the second section, but no villages. The hunters of the Delaware and Wyandot nations frequented their old grounds for a few years after the white man came. The first physician was Dr. Samuel Day in the second section in 1817 or 1818. He was a botanic, and did some practice by the use of indigenous plants and herbs. He died December 31, 1839. NEW HAVEN TOWNSHIP. New Haven township was so named after New Haven, Connecticut, from the fact that nearly all the early settlers were from that state, and one of the principal land owners, who inherited or purchased a large portion of the land in the township from the original grantees of soil, lived in New Haven, Connecticut. It is mostly a level township, but in some places rolling. The soil in the southwestern part is a black sandy loam ; in the north and eastern part it is more of a clay soil, or clay mixed with sand. There is a stone quarry in the southern part from which large amounts of stone have been taken for building purposes, but was more suited for flagging or foundations than for block work. But it was an important addition and convenience to the settlers of the township, for it furnished building material for far and near. The principal water course in the township is the Huron river, having its source a few miles south of the southern boundary of the township, thence north until it finds an outlet into Lake Erie, at Huron. It increases in size quite rapidly. It receives quite an accession to its waters before leaving the township, the .first of which is called Rice's run, which puts in from the east and intersects the river during the first two miles of its travel ; the second is a stream having its source in the extreme southwestern limits of the township, running north until it intersects with the river. It drains a large extent of the level land, or marsh lands, and is for this reason called Marsh river, and when its waters mingle with those of the river it is of considerable volume. The southern boundary of this township forms the line between Huron and Richland counties. In the southwestern part of the township there is a large extent of marsh lands, but these have been drained and are largely under cultivation. At an early day there were to be seen the remains of an ancient fortification, situated in the western part, and within the boundaries of the town plat. Its 244 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY embankments were in a circular form, plainly and distinctly marked, and trees of a large size were growing upon them. There were no Indian villages or settlements within this township, but there were numerous bands going and coming continually from the neighboring Wyandot settlement, and on the eastern bank of the river there is said to have been an Indian burial ground. The first settlement made in this township was sometime bet are the war with Great Britain, supposed to be about 1810 or 1811, by Caleb Palmer, a surveyor, whose calling brought him into this part of the country, although he then lived in Trumbull county. A small settlement was then made, and Palmer put up the first log cabin in the township in 1811, about one mile northeast of the present village of New Haven, on the road leading to Norwalk. Woodstock and Newcomb also came at a very early date. The settlement increased quite fast during the years 1814 and 1815. During these two years, Josiah Curtiss, Reuben Skinner, Jas. Maclntyre, David Powers, Samuel B. Carpenter, John Barney, Samuel Knapp, Martin M. Kellogg, the Inschos, Henry Barney, Royal N. Powers, Chism May, Calvin Hutchinson, George Beymer, Wm. Clark, Jacob Speeker, Rouse Bly, Joseph Dana, John Alberson, George Shirel, Matthew Bevard, William York, Prince Haskell, Stephen Stilwell, and many others cast their fortunes with the settlement. The first election in New Haven township was held on the 17th of August, 1815. John Barney was chairman ; Josiah Curtiss and Stephen D. Palmer, judges ; Daniel Powers and James McIntyre, Jr., clerks. Following are the names of the officers at that time elected: Samuel B. Carpenter, clerk ; Robert Inscho, John Barney, Martin M. Kellogg, trustees ; James McIntyre, Chisim May, overseers of the poor ; Samuel Knapp, Reuben Skinner, fence viewers ; Stephen D. Palmer, Henry Barney, supervisors ; Calvin Hutchinson, Samuel Knapp, appraisers ; Calvin Hutchinson, constable ; Caleb Palmer, treasurer. The first white child born within the limits of New Haven township, was Ruth, daughter of Caleb and Hariet Palmer. She was born April 29, 1813. She married Jesse Youngs. George Beymer was the first person who died in New Haven. He settled in the township in 1815, and died June 24, 1817, after a long illness, contracted while he was in Franklin county, Ohio. A large family was bereft of a father when he was removed, and because of this fact, and also as it was the first time that death had invaded the settlement, the occasion was one of the intensest sorrow. An old settler, speaking of the funeral, says that it was one of the most agonizing experiences that he can recall to mind, and one of the most solemn. The women who were present gave expression to their grief in the most heart rendering manner, wailing and sobbing during the whole of the sad service. The sermon was preached by the Rev. James McIntyre. The first couple married in the township, were James Skinner and Harriet Beymer. They were married in June, 1817, at Reuben Skinner's house, by Caleb Palmer. The first Masonic funeral in New Haven was that of Dr. John B. Johnson, who died in 1824. HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 245 The first school was taught by Sophia Barney, in 1815. Joseph Dana taught the first singing school, about 1820. Caleb Palmer's was the first log house. The first framed building was a small barn built by Royal N. Powers. The first brick house was that of J. K. Partello. Mrs. Joseph Darling (a daughter of "Priest" Edwards, of Ripley), taught the first Sunday school about the year 183o, upon what was later known as the Henry Trimmer farm. The first sawmill was built by William Clark, on lot sixty-five, section two, in the year 1816. It was afterwards owned by Moses S. Beach. It has long since passed away, but the old race can still be seen. The first gristmill was built by Caleb Palmer, in 1816, or the year following, upon lot fifty-seven, section two. The first Fourth of July celebration of which any information can be gleaned, was in 1822. It was held upon the square, where a green bower was erected over the speaker's stand and dinner tables. Joseph Dana was for many years the teacher of an excellent school at the village. He was a man of fine scholarship and had a peculiar ability in, and fondness for, his profession. He labored, however, against many disadvantages. One of them was the absence of the conveniences for writing, which are now thought indispensable. The pupils had no paper, slates or blackboards, upon which to exercise their chirographic abilities, and traced their "pothooks" and rude letters in sand strewn upon smooth boards. A school house was built quite. early in the history of the township, which was, for the time, an unusually good one. It was originally but one story high, but another was added by the Masonic fraternity. Most of the Indians who were seen by the early settlers in New Haven, were of the Seneca tribe, one of the divisions of the formerly powerful nation known as the Iroquois Confederacy. The southwestern part of Huron county was peculiarly the hunting ground of this tribe. The Wyandots or Hurons were also seen, but not so frequently ; and at times, some of the Delawares. Before the settlement of the country some of these tribes inhabited the Fire- lands, and held them as their own. After the pale face came, they, no longer, regarded the territory as their home, and seem only to have wandered through it, tarrying a little while here and there, hunting, fishing and making maple sugar. They had some villages in the northern part of the Firelands, but none in the southern. The Senecas passed through New. Haven, on their way to the eastern hunting grounds, sometimes in bodies of several hundreds, but more often in small companies which occasionally camped for a few days or weeks near the bank of the Huron. Some rode upon ponies, and some traveled afoot. All were clothed in characteristic Indian style. The warriors wore the peculiarly fierce appearing feathered headdress, and were clothed in buckskin. The squaws were always neatly dressed, in short skirts, beaded moccasins, and gaily bedecked blankets. They brought baskets, deer hams and various trinkets to the settlers, which they were always anxious to barter for bread, flour or meal. The first sermon delivered in the township was by James McIntyre. Jr., in the log school house. Mr. McIntyre was a Methodist preacher. He was the son 246 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY of an early settler, who bore the same given name, and who came to the county in 1814. The son was without education save that which he obtained from the few books which fell into his possession. He was awkward, uncouth, illy clad and had a poor voice, but he was in earnest and argument was his forte. His style was dry, plain, but forcible in reason and was seemingly convincing. He was a preacher of the argumentative style and was fond of a debate with some preacher of a different religious faith. Early settlers describe him as a remarkably tall, gaunt, ungainly figure, with thin, peaked face, small, deep set eyes, and sandy hair. He usually appeared at the place where a meeting was to be held, attired in a tow cloth shirt, often worn in the manner of a frock, taw cloth pantaloons, one tow cloth suspender, with a "buckeye" hat upon his head, an(' barefooted. He was the last man a stranger would have picked out in the little croup as the preacher. He would begin speaking in a cracked, squeaking vole( and those who had never seen him or heard of him before, would imagine that they saw before them some poor, cracked and crazed fanatic. Wonder would soon change to admiration, as the pioneer preacher proceeded with the argument of his sermon. He was, although poorly educated, naturally smart, energetic and earnest. His converts were numerous, and the amount of good he accomplished, great. New Haven was settled by a superior class of men. Many of them had enjoyed unusual educational advantages, and a number were much better endowed with material goods than the pioneers in a new country generally are. As the village was formed at an early day, there were many who came in without experiencing the pleasures of pains of pioneer life. This class did not, as a rule. take up land. They were not, in the proper sense of the term, early settlers They located in the village and followed trades, and their number was so great that many are not even mentioned, while others are barely referred to. The first lawyer who located in the township was Wm. Clark, Esq., who settled as early as 1815. The first chopping in the township, for the purpose of improvement, was done in 1810. The first wheat was sown by Caleb Palmer in 1810—before he became a settler upon the ground where he afterward located his home. The first orchard was put out upon the farm of Reuben Skinner. Mr. Skinner and his son took a quantity of cranberries, which they picked upon the marsh or prairie, to Knox county, and exchanged them for one hundred of very small trees. The Skinners made their, settlement in 1814. NEW HAVEN VILLAGE. The villager if New Haven was laid out by David and Royal N. ,Powers, upon the 8th of April, 1815. The plat was constructed upon the plan of the town plat of New Haven, Connecticut, and the village was as tastefully and conveniently laid out as any in the state of Ohio. This was the second town plat laid. out upon the Firelands. The center of the plat, an open space, of diamond shape, was just north of the township center. Streets were laid out, north. east, south and west, from the angles of this open common, and these were inter- HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 247 sected, at right angles, by other streets, all at an equal distance from the center of the plat. Alleys were laid out, sub-dividing the blocks. There were one hundred and eighteen lots, over sixty of which were sold and improved within the first few years of the existence of the village. In 1820, New Haven was regarded as a rival, in matters of trade and manufacture, of Norwalk and Mansfield, This rivalry was maintained until the completion of the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark railroad, when, from a combination of causes, it began to decline. New Haven village was incorporated in 1838 or '39, but it is said that officers were not regularly or properly elected until several years later. Wm. V. B. Moore was mayor in 1839. No trace of any official mention can be discovered before that date. The first and second pages of the corporation record are gone, and the first date shown is 1843, Under this date, by reference to various entries, we find that the officers were at that time as follows : P. R. Hoy, mayor ; R. L. McEwen, recorder (or clerk) ; J. K. Partello, J. C. Towne, Wm. John, D. F. Web- ber, James Graham, trustees (members of council). Almost one-fourth of the township, section number four, was originally a wet prairie or marsh. In an early day, cranberries, huckleberries, "sauger," wild ducks and pigeons were the principal products found on this marsh, but today it is reclaimed by an extensive system of drainage so that farmers have a rich re- ward for their labor, in grass, grain and corn. Celery is also extensively grown. All of this work has been accomplished within the past forty years. The marsh feeds a small stream known as Marsh run, tributary to Huron river. It is a fact not generally known that this marsh is the largest tract of this kind of land in the United States. New Haven village was on the direct thoroughfare from the south to the lake, and the merchants had not only a good home trade, but received the liberal patronage of the hundreds of teamsters who drove through with loads of produce from Mansfield and other points in the vicinity. Goods were, in those days, hauled by teams from Baltimore and Philadelphia to the lake ports north of New Haven, and the teamsters upon their back trip gave the preference to this vil- lage, over all others, as a place to purchase those articles they needed for personal use, and goods for people living along their line of travel south. These teamsters were men of considerable character and ability. They transacted their affairs in as business-like a way as does the captain of a vessel, or the officer of a freight hill takina"bills of lading, etc. They drove six-horse teams in front of their immense wagons, called "land schooners," and were thus able to transport heavy loads of produce and merchandise. Sometimes the roads for several miles would be filled with these turnouts, presenting the appearance of an immense procession or caravan. Many a time the diamond, or square common, in the center of the plat, was so filled with these teams, and those of farmers in the vicinity, who came in to trade, that it was impossible, well-nigh, for a pedestrian to cross from one side to the other. Early in the history of New Haven, when there were few banks in the country, when money was scarce, and the skins of animals, beeswax, and salts or ashes, were the principal articles of traffic, David Powers, Royal N. Powers and Martin M. Kellogg, established a banking house and issued notes, the lowest denomina- 248 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY tion of which was valued at twenty-five cents. These notes were put into circulation, but after a short time they were not receivable at par, and finally they were taken in exchange for goods by Royal N. Powers, when he opened a store. New Haven's prosperity began at an early day, increased rapidly and ceased suddenly. Fortune is fickle with communities as well as men. She smiled upon this one in its infancy ; withdrew her favor and put the past and present conditions of the village into a forcible and saddening contrast. The Sandusky and Newark railroad was built in the years 1843 and 1844. New Haven lay directly in the way of the proposed road, and its people were called upon to aid the enterprise to the extent of a few thousand dollars. The amount asked for would probably have been subscribed, had it not been for the counsel of Judge Ives. He regarded it as impossible to build the road by any other route than through the village, and advised against extending any financial assistance. On account of not receiving the assistance asked for, the road was run a mile west of the village, and from that time the town of New Haven began its decline. The Sandusky, Norwalk & Mansfield electric line now traverses its principal street north and south, but the early day prosperity of the town will never be revived. New Haven having in early times, a larger population than any of her sister townships, it followed naturally that the people led a more jolly, social life than in most other communities. Almost every Saturday afternoon was given up to amusement. and nearly the whole population was there gathered upon the square to indulge in various games, such as ball, pitching quoits, wrestling, running, jumping, etc. Many a royal frolic was had at the taverns, and many a jovial crowd assembled to engaged in some hilarious but harmless merry-making. The weddings and parties were occasions of unbounded enjoyment. There was a lack of formality and of the artificial but plenty of honest, homely hospitality and good feeling. A number of men and women would often go in an ox cart to the house of a friend where they had been invited, and there meeting many other guests, would enjoy in a genuinely sociable way the whole of a long, but seemingly short evening. Sometimes the accommodations were apparently insufficient for the number of guests. There would, perhaps, be no table large enough to hold the substantial supper or dinner that had been provided, but it was an easy matter to take a door from its hinges and lay it upon a couple of barrels, and the ladies and gentlemen of the olden time probably enjoyed the various good things, set forth upon this improvised table, as their descendants do the luxuries now more elegantly served some of the weddings were great "social events." As early as 1810, a mail was carried from Mansfield to the mouth of the Huron by a man named Facer, who continued to carry it until May, 1813, when Andrew Brewster commenced to carry it, and continued to do so for two years. His father lived in Mansfield. There was then no settlement between Mansfield and Huron, it being one unbroken wilderness and the road a mere trail. He traveled what was the old state road, running through the center of Ripley and Fairfield. He said he would see only three or four white persons on the route, though Indians were met very frequently. They made him no trouble, however, and were never so much a cause of fear as were the wolves. The country was full of these HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 249 disagreeable and dangerous animals, and it is said by old settlers that Brewbaker seldom dismounted from his horse, because afraid that he would be molested if he did so. He was accustomed to pour grain into a basin, shaped hollow, which he had chopped in a fallen tree, and sit in the saddle while his horse ate. It was some time during Brewbaker's period of service that a postoffice was established in the township. The first was a box nailed upon a post, and thus literally a post office. Joseph Dana was the first postmaster. His duties were not arduous. People who expected mail matter were accustomed to go to the box, open it, examine the contents, and, if they found any letters addressed to themselves, to carry them home. Although Darling is generally spoken of as the first postmaster, there is no doubt but that Caleb Palmer was the first man regularly commissioned to fill that office. A stage route was laid out through the township, north and south, in the year 1819. It was only a short time anterior to this date that the roads had become worthy of the name. They were at first mere trails, winding through the woods, but the spirit of improvement was abroad, and regular roads were laid out, the timber cut and travel made less tedious. Royal N. Power was the first merchant or regular trader who brought goods into the township and kept them for sale. Deer, coonskins and beeswax. were the principal articles of traffic, and were the only things that would bring money in the early pioneer times. Coonskms were twenty-five cents each, deerskins a shilling a pound dry. Beeswax, twenty cents a pound. Not long after McIntire commenced preaching the Methodist doctrine, Presbyterian services were held at the house of John Barney, by a Mr. Mathews, of Ashland. The first resident physician in New Haven was Samuel B. Carpenter, who commenced practice as early as 1814. The mercantile business was of great magnitude. The pioneers in business were Royal A. Powers, Hopkins, Hinman, and Williams, who had a large stock of goods, Ives and Askins, and there were others. Later T. W. Crowell and Sumner Webber. At one time there were five dry goods stores and it was not an unusual thing for the larger ones to take in five hundred dollars a day. New Haven was on the direct thoroughfare from the south to Lake Erie. The merchants had a good home trade and had liberal patronage from the hundreds of teamsters that drove through with their produce from Mansfield and other points. They drove six horse teams with their immense wagons called "Land Schooners." We of the younger generation in this day of rapid transit with steam and trolley cars, cannot conceive of the inconvenience of the going and coming of our forefathers. NORWICH TOWNSHIP. Norwich township was named in honor of its Connecticut namesake. At the original survey by Almon Ruggles the township contained sixteen thousand five hundred and twenty-nine acres, and the land was estimated to be worth to the original grantees about one dollar and fifty cents per acre. From the time the grant was made to the close of the War of 1812 many of the grantees had 250 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY sold their claims, or at their decease, left them to their heirs, who in some instances sold them to speculators or permitted them to be sold for taxes. The first house in the township was a cabin built by the surveying party for their own convenience. The first road opened to the township was that made by General Beall and his army in 1812, leading from Wooster to Fremont, through New Haven and Norwich. The trail came into the township at the southeast corner and ran through northwesterly and left the township on the north side about one and a half miles east of the northwest corner. Hopkins made a survey of the trail, and located the present road leading from where the B. & 0. railroad crosses the Greenwich and Norwich center road. On the 8th day of November, 1808, the township received its name and was divided into four sections, as were each of the thirty townships comprising the Firelands. Norwich was drawn by nineteen persons. As early as 1815, Daniel L. Coit had become by heirship and purchase the owner of the township of Norwich, excepting a ,portion of the first section. Later he sold sections two and three, comprising the north half of the township to Judge Canfield, of Connecticut, who soon after sold the same to James Williams, Philip R. Hopkins and David W. Hinman. In the spring of 1816 Messrs. Williams, Hopkins and Hinman surveyed the two sections into one hundred acre lots. These were in size one hundred and sixty rods east and west by one hundred rods north and south, making five tiers of eight lots each in a section, and numbering from the southeast corner of the sections. Hopkins was the surveyor. These gentlemen also laid out a village. It was named Barbadoes, and was situated on the west end of lot thirty-eight in section second, and the adjoining portion of lot six in the third section. The survey was completed in June. The .surveying party built a small log house, the first in the township, on lands now owned by Kinsman Bowen. The same year John Williamson put up the walls and roof of a hewed log house on the village plat, near where Durwin Boughton's house later stood. That was long known as the "village house," though no other was built on the plat. Williamson neither finished the house nor occupied it ; in fact, nothing further of his history is known. A small band of Seneca Indians, with Seneca, John at their head, sometimes made their camp in the township. John could speak a little English. He was honest and trusty, but others of the tribe were drunken and thievish. Their dead were usually enclosed in a bark coffin and buried near their camp. There were a few conical mounds in the southeast part of the township when first settled. These were believed to have been burial places for the dead and have long since disappeared. In the fall of the year 1816 Chauncey Woodruff and Wilder Lawrence, with their respective families, left Saratoga county, New York, for the wilderness of Ohio. After a tedious journey, they reached Trumbull county, where they rested until the, severe months of winter had passed. Chauncey Woodruff and his son, George H., came on to Norwich and selected lots for future homes. The son remained at New Haven while his father returned for the family. On the 8th of February, 1817, Woodruff and Lawrence arrived in New Haven ; HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 251 and, on the 10th, started, with their families, for Norwich. Accompanied by a few friends, they journeyed on, and before night arrived at the "village house" before mentioned. This consisted of but the walls and roof ; holes had been cut for a door and fire-place. Oak puncheons had been prepared for a floor, and lay near by under the snow, which was then about one foot deep. A few were soon fished out and placed in position and a fire started. Blankets were hung for a door, and supper prepared, over which the company made merry. In laying in stores for the occasion, a jug of the "ardent" had been procured, and doubtless added much to the jollity of the evening within the cabin, while without the wolves made night hideous with their incessant howling. Mud run is the largest stream in the township. It rises in Seneca county and enters Norwich township near the southeast corner and flows and generally runs northeasterly. It derives its name from the muddy appearance of its banks and the absence of stone and gravel in its bed. Slate run also rises in Seneca county, flows across the western line of the township on lot number thirty-four, runs northeasterly across section third, and unites with Mud run on lot number thirty-eight. It receives its names from the slate rock over which it 'runs. These streams are tributary to Huron river. Other small streams exist in the township, but as they are wholly unimportant we omit description. The soil is a clay loam, varying from light clay on the ridges to black loam between them. The whole is well adapted to agriculture. The subsoil is brick clay. A few "cat swamps," of a few acres each, lie in the southeast part of the township. The whole township was originally heavily timbered. The township was situated on the outcrop of the black slate rock, and occupies a middle position between the sandstone on the east and the limestone on the west. The slate rock dips to the east and runs under the sandstone, which appears on the surface about five miles east, in the township of Greenfield. The limestone which lies under the slate rises to the surface about five miles west. in the township of Reed in Seneca county. Above the slate rock, for about fifteen feet, the subsoil contains a large quantity of water-worn limestone of the buff-colored variety, Containing numerous fossils, such as coral and shellfish of many species. Along the streams are numerous sulphur springs. Sometimes they appear in the bed of the streams, and at others rise to the surface of the bottom lands, forming deer licks. Big lick, the longest in the township, lies near the center of section four and contains nearly an acre. Litigations as to titles of property, kept settlers from making improvements, except for living and this kept others from entering the township with a view of making settlements. In 1827 Coit resurveyed the land and sold to settlers, old and new, at two dollars per acre and improvements began in earnest, and a new era began to dawn, as the industriously inclined from the settled districts of the east began to seek a place where they might make a home for themselves and their families in the west. As the tract was heavily timbered which must be removed before the seed could be sown, which was to furnish their food, and a place for shelter yet to be built, labor and privation welcomed them when they made their arrival. 252 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY Today their ancestors are enjoying the results of their labors. Instead of the dense forest that welcomed them, we see the well fenced and tilled farm today. Instead of the small log house, which was to them, we see today the comfortable and commodious farm house and stock and grain barns. That the residents of the township of today inherited the sturdy qualities of his forefathers is manifest by fully ninety per cent owning their homes. The first birth was that of twin children of Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson, on the 24th of October, 1817. They lived in the house of Hosea Harnden. But one of these infants survived its birth, and that only a few hours. The first person born in the township that survived its birth was Owen Fletcher, son of John Fletcher, February 22, 1818, eleven days subsequent to the time Fletcher, Rossman and Moore moved into the township. He died near Toledo, a few years since, of the small pox, leaving no family except a wife. The first marriage in the township was that of Augustus Cook to Miss Martha Fletcher, March 3, 1819. The marriage contract was solemnized at the "surveyor's house," where her father lived, by Richard Burt, Esq., of Monroeville. The wedding was attended by nearly all the settlers in the township, who enjoyed a friendly social afternoon visit. Augustus Cook was born in Onondaga county, New York, and came to Norwich in December, 1818. His wife, Martha, was born in Otsego county, New York, and came to Norwich with her father, John Fletcher. Mr. and Mrs. Cook lived in the township until 1871, when they removed to Michigan, in which state he died August 14, 1878, leaving a wife and seven children. The first death was an infant son of Wilder Lawrence, February 19, 1817, only nine days after their arrival in the township. It was buried on the bank of Mud run, some twenty rods northeast of the present burying ground. Soon after, Chauncey Woodruff buried a son at the same place. One of these children was born in Trumbull county while the parents were enroute from the state of New York. The first adult person that die in the township was Richard Moon, in the fall of 1819. Elder J. Wheeler, then a resident of Greenfield, preached the funeral sermon. This was the first burial that had been attended with religious services. The body was interred on the bank of Mud run. The first frame building in the township was built in 1832. It was a barn and later stood on the farm of Lewis Bodelier. The frame dwelling house was built by Cyrus Niles. It was designed as a dwelling house and cabinet shop. It was built in 1835 and burned the following year. The first brick house was built by John Bowen, Sr. The first postoffice was established in 1827. It was North Norwich, so named to avoid repetition. there being a Norwich postoffice in Muskingum county. Naum Gilson was the postmaster for perhaps twenty years. In 1848, postoffices were established on the Mansfield and Sandusky railroad, at Havana and Centerton in the township, and the North Norwich offrce was abolished in 1858. The first corn was planted, on lot seven in the third section, by Messrs. Lawrence and Woodruff. This was in the spring of 1817. 253 - PHOTO OF MOTSON AND FRONT STREET, CHICAGO, OHIO 254 - BLANK HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY -255 Naum Gilson sowed the first wheat in the township. This was on lot twenty- eight in above section, the fall following the arrival of Mr. Gilson in the township. Asa Gilson, Naum Gilson, Jonas Gilson, George H. Woodruff and Joseph Read, each planted or set out orchards in 1827. The Gilsons brought their apple seeds with them, and raised the trees. Joseph Read procured his trees in Norwalk township, and G. H. Woodruff purchased his of Morris Read, of Sherman. Ira Halloway opened a small store on the corners, near the meeting house, in 1835. He remained long enough to sell out his stock of goods, and retired from the business. In 1840, William L. Fish opened another stock of goods m the same house. He continued in business some five years. Norwich was attached to Greenfield township in 1818, and, in the year following, Naum Gilson was elected supervisor for the township. He was the first sworn official. In 1820, the township of Sherman was organized, with 'Norwich attached. The April election was held at the house of Captain Hanford, in Sherman. The Norwich men, feeling dissatisfied at being required to go so far to election, rallied their forces, outnumbered the Sherman. voters, and elected two trustees and the township clerk, in Norwich ; Beckwith and Medad Woodruff were the trustees, and Jesse Woodruff, clerk. The next election was held at the house of Alvin Blodgett, in Norwich. A compromise was then effected. and the elections were afterwards held at the house of Burwell Fitch, in Sherman. In 1820, Russell Woodruff, of Norwich, was elected justice of the peace, and 'tis said he served the entire term of office (three years) without issuing a single process. In 1828, Asa Gilson was elected to the office of justice of the peace. He did not qualify. From that time until 1831, the office was vacant. In this year, Calvin Powell was elected. He was succeeded, in 1834, by William Robinson, who served until 1849. In 1857, Wesley Robinson was elected, and is still in office. L. W. Benham is also a justice of the peace in the township. In 1827, Norwich was detached from Sherman and organized as a separate township. The first election, held in April of that year, was at the log school house near the former residence of George H. Woodruff, and for many years were held there. The qualified electors at this election were : Asa Gilson, Augustus Cook, Medad Woodruff, Naum Gilson, Joseph Read, Russell Woodruff, Wilder Lawrence and G. H. Woodruff. The officers elected on the occasion, so far as we are able to ascertain their names, were : Augustus Cook, clerk ; Wilder Lawrence, Asa Gilson and Russell Woodruff, trustees. The only strife at this election, was over the election of a supervisor, there being but one in the entire township. Joseph Read and Wilder Lawrence each received an qual number of votes. The judges decided the contest by casting lots, declaring Joseph Read duly elected. In preparing for the fall election, Augustus Cook, the township clerk, in company with Joseph Read, made a trip to Norwalk for the purpose of procuring the new ballot box, law books, etc., belonging to the township. Two yoke of oxen were attached to the wagon and driven along, as Read designed, to bring back a load of boards with which to construct a floor, doors, etc., for his 256 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY cabin. The ballot box and books were put into a bag and placed on the load. While fording Slate run, on the return, the wagon was overturned. After buffeting the stream, and carrying out the floating lumber, they discovered that the bag and its precious contents had floated down the stream, and gave chase. Far down the run it was seen bounding along in the current ; Cook plunged in, and soon brought it safely ashore. The first physician who settled in Norwich township was Dr. Hurlburt. He located on lot number forty, in the second section, in 1825. He practiced in the township until his death, in 1828. In 1834, Peter Brown put in operation the first grist-mill in the township. This was propelled by horse power, and it is said did a good business. In 1830, Benjamin Moore built a saw mill on Slate run, on the west end of the farm afterwards owned by G. H. Woodruff. 'Two years later, Thomas Bennett, erected another saw mill on the same stream, and in 1840, Ira Wood built a third mill on the same stream. These mills were all eventually carried away by the high water. In 1842, Miner Atherton built a steam sawmill on the fourth section. James L. Couch built another steam sawmill in the same section, a few years later. In 1846, John Idler built a steam sawmill at Centerton. This was burned in 1856, and rebuilt in 1857, by Messrs. Idler & Hester. It was again burned in 1859, and rebuilt the same year. The first school house in the township was built in 1819. It was located on the east bank of Slate run, on lot six. The house was a log cabin and was covered with elm bark, size twelve by sixteen. It had neither floors, windows nor desks. A row of split oak benches constituted the furniture, and the unchinked places between the logs served for windows. The school was supported, as all the early schools were, by subscription, and Miss Aurilla Lindsey was the first teacher, in the summer following the erection of the house. In 1824, another school house was erected, also of logs, on the corners,' a few rods south of where a church was later erected. The first sermon preached in the township was by the Rev. Alvin Coe, in 1817. He was of the Presbyterian faith. The first church building was erected by the Methodists in 1837. The religious services held in the township had prior to this been at private houses and in the school houses. The first post route through the township extended from Tiffin to Fitchville. It was established in 1827. Adam Hance carried the mail. PERU TOWNSHIP. Peru township was in the early settlement called Vredenburgh, after a Mr. Vredenburgh who had bought up the claims of the sufferers until he owned the second, third and fourth sections of the township. The first section was owned by other persons in the east, from whom the first settlers of that section bought their lands. In the winter of 1820, the settlers held a meeting at the house of Joseph Ruggles, for the purpose of changing the name of the township, when the name of Peru was chosen by vote, and the name of the township has since been Peru. HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 257 The south and east portions of the township are rolling, with some bluffs along the streams. The northwestern part is more level, with considerable low lands. The principal timber was white oak, black and red oak and white wood, mostly on the first and fourth sections, black walnut and butternut along the streams, and mixed with some beech, maple, hickory, basswood, buckeye and some sugar maple near the streams. There were some small marshes in the early settlement, but they have been reclaimed. The wolves were very numerous in the early settlement, and would frequently howl around the cabins by night in different directions at the same time, though in the day time they were quite shy and kept concealed most of the time. There was no Indian village in the township at the time of the first settlements, although at that time and for a number of years after, the Indians would come twice a year or oftener and encamp near by to hunt for deer, turkey, raccoons and any other kind of game that suited them, staying several weeks at a time. Its principal stream is the river Huron which, rising in Richland county, enters the township about half a mile east of the southwest corner, runs for the most part a general northeasterly course, and leaves the township on lot eight, section three. The east branch of the Huron has its source in Fairfield, enters Peru from Bronson on lot eighteen, section one, flows a northwesterly direction, and unites with the present stream in the township of Ridgefield, about a mile north of the town line. State run comes into the township from Seneca county, flows a northeasterly course into Ridgefield where it unites with the Huron. The streams afford excellent water power privileges which are more or less improved. The earliest settlements in the township were made on the first section. The first white settlers were Elihu Clary, Henry Adams and William Smith, who together arrived on lot number five in section one on the 15th day of June, 1815. Adams, who was from Marlborough, Vermont, had come to Cleveland in the winter previous with team and wagon, and remained in the vicinity at work until his removal to Peru, then called Vredenburgh. At Cleveland he was joined by Clary and Smith in the spring of 1815 who came from Deerfield, Massachusetts, on foot. From Cleveland the journey was made by all three on foot. They entered the township on the east line, crossed the east branch of the Huron river, a few rods below the bridge that now crosses the stream in Macksville. The first township election was held at the house of Joseph Ruggles on lot twenty-eight, on the third day of April, 1820. James Vantine, Elijah Clary and Richard Eaton were elected trustees ; Elihu Clary, township clerk ; Daniel Mack and Newell Adams, fence viewers ; Joel Clark and Alexander Pierce, overseers of the poor ; Thomas Tillson and Eli Nelson, appraisers of property ; and James Ashley, treasurer. On the tenth day of October, 1820, the first state election was held at the louse of Joseph Ruggles. Wyatt Cook, Hibbard Smith and Newell Adams vere judges, and Elihu Clary and Henry Adams, clerks. The number of votes )olled was twelve. A school was opened on the center road, lot number twenty-nine, at the residence of Henry Adams, in the winter of 182o and 1821 ; Henry Adams, teacher, 258 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY with about sixteen pupils, whose parents paid their schooling in proportion to the number of days sent. The first religious meetings were held at the house of Elijah Clary, in 1816. and Mr. Coe preached the first sermon. The first school in the township was kept by Nancy Adams, daughter of Bildad Adams, of Greenfield, in the summer of 1818. She taught in Macksville, in a log house. The first house kept for the accommodation of travelers was opened by Henry Adams, in the fall of 1816. Joseph Ruggles built an addition to the Tillson cabin in the fall of 1817, when he opened it as a tavern. His sign was a pair of deer horns, and the tavern was called "the Buck Horn." The first apple orchard planted, was set out by Henry Adams in the spring of 1817, the seed being brought by his brother, Newell, from Vermont. The earliest burials were in private burying grounds. Some twenty or more bodies were interred on the farm of Henry Adams, but were subsequently removed to the center burying ground. Moses C. Sanders opened the first store at Macksville, in .1820 or 1821. Dr. Sanders was the first doctor in this township, and also the pioneer doctor of many of the surrounding towns. He was born in Milford, Massachusetts, in the year 1790. He came to Peru in August, 1818. The first postoffice was established" in 1818, under the name of Peru. Thomas Tillson was appointed postmaster, and kept the office in his own house, on lot twenty-eight. The location of the office was unsatisfactory to the residents of Macksville, and Mr. Tillson, after serving a few months, was superseded by Moses C. Sanders, and the location of the office changed to Macksville, where it has since remained, the name being Peru. The village is now generally known by that name. Daniel Mack built the first frame house in the township, in 1820. Daniel Mack built the first grist and saw mill in the township, some time in 1817. Mrs. Polly Pierce used to relate many incidents of pioneer life in Peru, only one of which, however, touching her own experience, has been preserved. In the summer, 1816, accompanied by her little dog, she went through the dense forest on a brief visit to her father-in-law, Alden Pierce, in Greenfield. The fam- ily supplied her with a quantity of provisions, which she carried home with her, and, when within a mile of her cabin, she encountered a huge bear, which seemed intent on making a meal, either of the traveler, her provisions, or the dog. The heroic woman, however, was determined that old bruin should have neither, and taking her provisions under one arm, and the dog, crouched through fear at her feet, under the other, ran for dear life to her home, which she reached in safety, but not a moment too soon, as the brute was but a few rods behind her when she arrived at the door of her cabin. A pioneer thus described his cabin, the bed and the first meal in their new home : It was sixteen feet square, with a roof of "shakers," puncheon floor, and a door made also of puncheons. His bedstead consisted of two poles, some eight or ten feet in length, one end of which was stuck into a, log in the wall of HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 259 the house, a few feet apart, and joined to a stake at the other end, triangular in shape. He used elm bark for bed-cord. Their first meal in their new home consisted of pigs' feet and hulled corn, the corn costing one dollar per bushel. Macksville, the only village in the township, is situated on the east branch of the Huron, near the east town line. It derived its name from Daniel Mack, the original owner of the land on which the village stands. The town site was subsequently owned jointly by Moses C. Sanders, John Nelson, John Atwater and John G. Taylor. Dr. Sanders kept the first store here in a small log house. Macksville was formerly a place of considerable activity. At one time there were four stores, two distilleries, three breweries, two asheries, and a hotel which frequently kept twenty to twenty-five teams and teamsters over night. This was before the time of railroads and when the wagon trade was something immense. In the summer of 1822, an academy Was established at Macksville. The principal promoters of the laudable enterprise were Dr. Moses C. Sanders, Harry 0. Sheldon, Robert S. Southgate, Eben Guthrie and Elijah Clary. The institution was incorporated under the name of the "Lima Academic Society of Peru, Huron county." The first annual meeting was held on the first Tuesday in August, 1822, at which the following persons were elected a board of trustees for the then current year, viz.: Rev. Alvan Coe, president ; Dr. Moses C. Sanders, Dr. William Gardner, Major Eben Guthrie and Robert S. Southgate. Harry 0. Sheldon was elected clerk. The school was opened the first Monday in December, 1822, with Amos B. Harris as principal teacher. The building was a two-story frame, unpainted, and stood where the brick school house does now. The institution was called Lima academy, because of the fact that it was then expected the name of the village would be changed to Lima. The academy had an existence of only one year. The building was afterwards used for a common school, and as a house of worship by some of the religious societies. RICHMOND TOWNSHIP. Richmond township was formerly called Cannon, given in honor of Samuel Cannon, a wealthy man of Norwalk, Connecticut, who was one of the sufferers during the Revolutionary war. Soon after the grants were made and partitioned into sections among the grantees, in 1808, Judge Mills, of New Haven, Connecticut, and his brother, Elisha Mills commenced purchasing the interests of the grantees and acquired a controlling influence in the lands of Greenfield and New Haven, and a complete ownership of the township of Richmond. Later part of these lands were sold to George Hoadley and from him to John M. Woolsey. Judge Mills took the south part and Woolsey the north part. The first land sold for settlement in the township was sold by Judge Mills to William Tidball, in 1825. It was lot twelve, second section. Tidball cleared a field the same year, built a cabin and set out an orchard of fifty trees, which he bought of Johnny Appleseed. 260 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY This township is bounded on the north by Norwich township ; south, by Auburn and Cranberry townships, in Crawford county ; east, by New Haven township ; and west, by Venice township, in Seneca county. Richmond is divided into upland and marsh. The upland occupies the north half of the township and a strip across the west side. This was covered with heavy timber. The north shore of the marsh is a bluff, and rises thirty or forty feet above the marsh. The soil is a clay loam, the surface generally undulating, except in the northwest part, where it is broken by streams. Honey creek rises in the marsh on the north side, east of the center of the township, and runs west along the north shore some two miles, where it enters the woodlands. It leaves the township on the west line and empties into the Sandusky river above Tiffin, in Seneca county. Originally the marsh covered over one-third of the township and contained about twenty square miles. It was six. miles from east to west and over three miles in width, and covered over five thousand acres in Richmond township. These marshes have largely been reclaimed by draining and the soil is now cultivated, being particularly adapted for the growing of celery. Before the lands of Richmond were offered for sale, the thousands of bushels )f cranberries that annually grew on the marsh allured to the north shore a settlement of squatters numbering perhaps twenty families. An important part of their business consisted of picking cranberries, which were sold to the distant settlers. Hunting necessarily claimed a good share of their attention, and as he deer flocked to the marsh to avoid the flies in the summer and the hunters in he winter, their chances for deer hunting were unusually good. With the sale of their cranberries, deer skins and coon skins, and the product of small patches of potatoes around their cabins, they managed to live, but made no improvements to entitle them to the name of settlers, nor did any of them over become owners of the soil or join in the march of improvement that has since characterized the inhabitants of the township, who are honest and industrious, with good churches and well conducted schools, and the township today stands second to none in moral worth and prosperity. Near the south shore of the marsh was a point of timbered upland and at the extreme northern point of this stood the cabin of Morehead, the pioneer hunter. His principal livelihood was in trapping and spearing muskrats, and in times of high water, made his daily rounds over the marsh in a small boat kept for that purpose. He was the first and for many years the only inhabitant of Richmond township, and many a weary hunter has sought his cabin and shared his homely are, which usually consisted of Johnny cake and venison. The township was organized in 1836, in the month of June, and on the fourth lay of July following, the first election of township officers was held. Prior to this, from 1815 to 1836, Richmond was attached to New Haven. In 1837, the township was divided into two school districts, ands a frame school house built in each, but a school was only kept in the west one in the winter of 1837. The east school house was not completed for a school that winter. These were the first frame buildings in the township. HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 261 The Methodist was the first church organization in the township. The first sermon preached in the township was by Michael Long, a preacher of the Brethren faith, at the home of Jacob Croninger. In 1839 a postoffice was established, and James Foglesong was the postmaster. There were births and probably deaths among the squatters, but the first birth among the settlers was that of Savilla Cline, daughter of John and Susan Cline. The first marriage was that of James McManigal and Eliza Day. The first death was that of the widow Higley. Section one—the southeast part of it at a very early day was thought to be a lake as decaying Indian canoes were found along its shores by the early white settlers, at this time being almost a worthless piece of land. Along the middle part of the north side cranberries grew in abundance, at the south side is the huckleberry marsh. In a few years the farmers made prairie hay from a part of it, the ground being too soft and miry, it had to be done by hand, mowed with the scythe, carried together and made in stacks, being drawn out during the winter when the ground was frozen hard. In a few years more ditches were constructed the land being tilled from the edges, corn and potatoes being the principal crops. Only a few years ago Hollanders settled along the east side beginning to experiment in celery growing which has developed into one of the finest celery gardens of the country. During this year a large acreage of the territory has been purchased by Pittsburg partes and was surveyed into one hundred acre lots. The Tiffin road was the first one opened, it began in 1836, was completed in four years. In many low places trees were cut and laid cross wise in the road, streams had to be forded. Richmond has only a few miles of railroad, the Sandusky and Newark division of the Baltimore and Ohio cuts a small corner off the northeast part, we have two men living now in the township who worked on this old road-bed P. M. Hershiser and John Carrothers. The Chicago division runs from the east side half way across the township. Street car lines we have none. Telephone service is quite well extended through the township, having our centrals at Attica, Chicago and New Washington. We have the rural mail system and have our mail carried to our doors—one of the best improvements of the day. A resident of the township writes thus : "We have had such industries as come in a farmer’s life, sawmills, cider mills, tile and brick yards, etc. The soil being very productive, the principal crops are wheat, oats, corn potatoes. The growing and baling of hay has become one of the best paying crops to the Richmond farmer. We owe a debt of gratitude to our fore-parents for their Christian zeal and principals taught and instilled into their posterity. Richmond has furnished men and women who have gone out in nearly all the walks of life some of them today filling very honorable and responsible positions. We do not think there will be found in any township in Huron county, finer country residences, better kept farm buildings, well tilled lands, more comfortable homes, better society than in Richmond." 262 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY Richmond has never been blessed with any towns save that part of Chicago called Millertown, years ago it had two small groceries. RIPLEY TOWNSHIP. Ripley township was so named after the Rev. Hezekiah Ripley, of Connecticut, who was one of the "sufferers," and who located land in the third section. Ripley is township number one in range twenty-two. It is bounded upon the south by Richland county, east by Greenwich township, north by Fairfield and west by New Haven. The first settlement in the township was made a little earlier than 1826. Some of the first settlers were advised to not settle in Ripley on account of the then wild and unbroken forest, inhabited only by a few Wandering Indians. But the lands in time were cultivated and is now an industrious and prospering community. The whole township was formerly covered with a thrifty growth of timber, or in the lower parts with swamp bushes. Most of the timber was maple and beech but there was a great abundance of the other varieties of wood, including oak, ash and walnut. The great abundance of maple trees made this part of the county a favorite camping place for the Indians. They were accustomed to come regularly in the spring and make maple sugar. For a number of years after the whites came, the red man carried on this harmless and not excessively laborious occupation, the nearest approach to anything like industry that they ever undertook. Scene of their bark sap troughs were found in the woods as late of 1830. The Indians also hunted here, but their principal object in visiting what is now Ripley township was to make maple sugar. There were other and better hunting grounds farther east, and their tribes often passed through upon a trail which led to the Black river country, where game was more abundant. The game consisted of deer and occasional bear, and the various smaller animals common to the northern part of Ohio and the entire west. There were wolves, too, and "shack hogs"-both great annoyances to the first settlers. The remains of their habitations found by the early settlers, and the dams still existing, indicated that beavers were quite numerous. No remarkable stories are told of experience with the Indians or adventure with wild animals. There was a settlement in the southwest part of Ripley township, in 1820. Seth Foster, a man by the name of Decker, and another by the name of Jaralman, and a son of the latter, lived there in the year mentioned. Foster and Decker, who were from New York state, returned there after a short residence in the new country. Jaralman died, and his son moved away. Nothing is known in Ripley of those few men, who were its transitory pioneers. The first permanent settlement was made by the families of Moses Inscho, D. Broomback, and James Dickson, in 1825, and the following year. Broomback took up lot thirteen, in section four. He did not remain long in the township. Dickson settled upon lot ten, near Broomback, but not long after moved into the eastern part of the township. Rev. Joseph Edwards, a native of Connecticut, who had been for two years a resident of Greenfield, came into Ripley in 1828, and bought a tract of land which HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 263 consisted of about nine hundred acres. His home was upon lot twenty-eight in the first section, where he remained until his death. He was a Presbyterian minister of the old school, a man of large ability. Abraham Stotts, of Virginia, came into the township in the fall of 1825, and purchased land in lot twelve, section three. John Stotts, his son, came in the spring of 1826, and located on lot eleven, in the same section. Another son of Abraham Stotts, William, came a little later, and still another, Isaac Stotts, arrived a number of years later, and located in section two, lot twenty-one. Henry Broomback was the first child born in the township. He now lives in Plymouth. The first framed house was built by Deacon Timothy Austin, one mile north of Delphi, in 1834. The first brick house was that of John Stotts, which stands upon lot eleven, section three. The first orchard was planted by Aaron Service. The first tavern was built by D. E. Merrill at the center, about 1835. It was a log building. The first mill was built about the year 1828, southwest of Delphi, upon a small creek, in which there was usually insufficient water to turn the wheel. The Rev. Joseph Edwards was the first ordained minister who preached in the township. He preached in 1827, to the first audience gathered for religious instruction, and consisting of twenty persons, representatives of seven families This meeting was held at the house of Abraham Stotts. Mrs. Harriet Russ, formerly Miss Harriet Edwards, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Edwards, then living in Greenfield, taught the first school held in the township, in the year 1827, for the sum of fifty cents per week, paid not in money, but labor at clearing land. This school was in the southwestern section of the township. The first school meeting was held also in 1827. A school house was erected in 1832, near the northeastern corner of the township, principally through the efforts of Daniel G. Barker. Sallie Fowler was the first teacher. at this school. The first practitioner of medicine known in the township, was Dr. Moses Saunders, of Peru.. He, for a number of years, had the whole of what little practice there was in the settlement. Afterwards, Dr. William M. Ladd, of Fitchvine. and Dr. Morton, or Greenwich, practiced in the township. The only resident physician of any note, in Ripley, was Dr. Cyrus Paine, who began here in 1833 and continued in practice for about five years. For a number of years after the first settlement was made there was but one road in the township upon which travel was possible, This was the one running east and west through the center. The timber had been chopped along the line, but the road was unimproved, and it was only with difficulty that vehicles could be moved over it. The road cut through the township for Harrison's army to pass through, was grown over with bushes and small timber, and it was allowed to remain in this condition for some time after the settlement was commenced. Many of the early settlers cut their way into the township through the primeval forest. 264 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY The first store in Ripley township was opened here by Uvat Close. There was a mail route through Ripley before the township was settled, upon which a man went once a week, between Mansfield and Norwalk. The first eastern mail was carried from New Haven through Ripley, Greenwich, Ruggles and Sullivan. For a few years the settlers were obliged to go to the older settled townships for their mail ; but about 1830 a postoffice was established at the locality now known as Edwards' Corners, and the Rev. Joseph Edwards was made postmaster. When Delphi begun to be a place of trade, the postoffice was removed there, arid designated as Ripleyville. RIDGEFIELD TOWNSHIP. Ridgefield township, according to the original survey and numbering, is township number four, and range twenty-three. Ranges commence at the east line of the reserve, and five miles to the range. Townships are numbered from south to north, consequently the east line of the township is one hundred and fifteen miles from the east line of the state, and the south line of the town- ship is fifteen miles north of the southern base line of the Connecticut Western Reserve and Firelands. The township as a whole is quite level, it might be termed a plateau, but along the streams there are some high banks, or bluffs, the streams having worn deep channels, and in the northeast corner of the township it is somewhat broken or rolling. Ridgefield township was divided into four sections, and these were again divided into two-hundred-acre lots, making twenty lots in each section. It is bounded on the north by Oxford township, Erie county ; south by Peru; east by Norwalk. and west by Lyme townships. The east branch of the Huron river enters the township from the south, crossing the southern boundary on lot six, in section one. Its course is slightly east of north, flowing from the township on the east line, lot two in the second section. The west branch of the Huron river is formed from two streams, which cross the south line of the township ; one on lots one and six in section four, and the other on lot sixteen in the same section. Uniting on lot seven they form the main stream. This flows a general northerly direction to near the center of Monroeville village. Here the course changes to due east, thence a northeasterly direction, and, after many devious turnings, crosses the north line of the township on lot fifteen in the second section. Another stream flows from the south- west, and empties its waters into the west branch, in Monroeville village. This is known as Frink run, from the fact that William Frink was the first to build a habitation on its bank. Frink run and the west branch of the Huron river divide the township, and on the northeast side of these streams the land is of the nature of prairie, and generally of a deep rich soil, with small islands and groves of small timber. Another small stream enters the township from the west, flows east-northeast and empties into the west branch on lot fifteen, sec- tion second. It is called Seymour brook, from the fact that a man named Seymour was killed by the Indians, in 1812, while engaged in cutting a bee- tree, which stood on its banks. On the south and east side of Frink run and the west branch of the Huron river, the lands were heavily timbered, and possess a 265 - PHOTO OF EAST MAIN STREET, LOOKING EAST FROM JAMES STREET, NEW LONDON, OHIO 266 - BLANK HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 267 deep, rich, loamy soil, not excelled perhaps, by any township of the Firelands in productiveness. The township is underlain with a slate rock, from seven to ten feet below the surface. In the early settlement of the township, game of all kinds was very plenty, as were also fish in the streams. Numerous parties of the Wyandot and other tribes of Indians had a habitation in early times along the river. They passed the time in hunting, fishing, making baskets, ax helves, etc., and were generally quiet and peaceable, except when under the influence of "fire-water," or whisky. During the War of 1812, two inmates of the Parker block house in Milan, Seymour and Pixley, were engaged in cutting a "bee-tree," standing on the south side of the small stream flowing through the Clary farm. They had nearly completed their labors, when they were fired upon by a party of cowardly Indians, and Seymour instantly killed. Pixley ran, but becoming entangled in the brushwood, was captured, and remained a prisoner for many months. William Frink is thought to be the first white man that contracted for land in Ridgefield township, for the purpose of settlement. His contract is dated in 1811, and was for the south part of lot number five in the fourth section. Frink built the first house in the township. It was of logs and stood near the site of the house now owned by Samuel Clock. Frink was more hunter than farmer, and when Seth Brown came into the township, in the spring of 1812, Frink sold his contract and left the county, Very little is now known of his history. either before or since he left the township, except that he was eventually found dead in Seneca county. He was one of those characters who prefer the solitude of the wilderness. Ridgefield township was organized the first Monday in December, 1815, and comprised the territory now included in the townships of Ridgefield, Sherman, Lyme, and the south half of Oxford. The first election was held in the spring of 1816, at the house of Joseph F. Read, on lot sixteen in section two. Schuyler Van Rensselaer was the first postmaster in Ridgefield township. The first white child born in the township of Ridgefield, was a son to Seth and Sarah Brown, born August 29, 1815. The pioneer wedding in the township was Thomas Dickey to Miss Elizabeth Myers. It transpired in April, 1819. This couple died in Ridgefield, the wife in 1854, and the husband, January 10, 1879. The first school house in the township was erected on lot number two hundred and seventy-two, m Monroeville village. It was, doubtless, built of logs, but the date of its construction, the writer could not ascertain. George Burt was the first teacher and he was paid ten dollars per month for his services. In 1818 a Baptist church was organized in Ridgefield township, composed of members residing in the territory now embraced in Huron and Erie counties. The meetings of this body were held in different localities until 1835 when, by mutual consent, the church was permanently located in Norwalk. This was the first church organization in the township. The first house in the township was built by Richard and Henry Burt. in 1817. The sawmill was built first, and the gristmill soon afterward. 268 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY A grist and sawmill was next built by George Myers, in the northeast part of the township. These were located on the Huron river. Major Underhill built a sawmill soon after. This was on the east branch, lot three, section one. In the first section of Ridgefield township, on lots number two and three, are found remains of ancient earthworks. It will be remembered the east branch of Huron river enters the township from the east on the corner of lot number three. In the first section there is a stream known as the Peru branch, which flows into the east branch on lot number three, where its course is turned north, These streams make three high banks or bluffs, which lie nearly in a triangular form. Upon these are earthwork fortifications of a circular form. There was also on lot number eighteen in the second section, on the east side of the west branch of the Huron river, an ancient mound of small size. In the fourth section is located a circular earthwork, enclosing an area of, perhaps, ten acres. The indications are that a stockade formerly surmounted the present embankment. Immediately south of this are a number of mounds. In these, as in the others mentioned above, human bones have been found, indicating to a certainty that these elevations are the burial places of a race formerly inhabiting the country, but long since extinct. FOUR CORNERS. Dr. Daniel Tilden was undoubtedly the pioneer settler at the "Corners." The date of his coming was in 1817 or 1818. The next settler was, without doubt, the grandfather of Jay Cooke. Lewis Stone wast the next settler and Martin Vroman the fourth. Colonel James Smith settled at "Four Corners" in 1828. He purchased the hemp machine property in 1832 ; made brick for several years, removed to Monroeville in 1837. A postoffice was established here as early as 1835, and Edward Cook commissioned postmaster. The corners did not settle rapidly ; in fact, the foregoing are all who may be regarded as pioneers : John Seymour, now of Lyme township, bought the Vroman property, and to him belongs the honor of selling the first merchant goods at the "corners." He sold to Lewis Stone. The second store was established by John K. Campbell in about 1835. As early as 1830, and possibly earlier, the old stone school house was built. Prior to this, however, a school was held in one room of Martiri Vroman's house. The teacher was a man named Perkins. This was as early as 1825. Religious services were held in the school house until the erection of the present church. A society of the Sons of Temperance was established at quite an early date, and also a lodge of the I. O. G. Templars. SHERMAN TOWNSHIP. Sherman township is number three, range twenty-four, and was thus named in honor of Taylor Sherman, one of the directors of the Firelands company. The HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 269 name was given at a meeting of the directors held at New Haven, Connecticut, November 9, 1808. It is bounded as follows : on the north by Lyme township, south by Norwich township, east by Peru township, and west by the townships of Thompson and Reed, in Seneca county. At this time the lands were divided by lot among those holding "sufferer's" claims. The surface is generally level, and the soil principally clay. Along the borders of the streams it is mixed with yellow sand, and is easily tilled. Away from the streams the soil is harder to work, but is productive, and improves very much with proper culture. This township contains but little waste land. Daniel Sherman, (son of Taylor Sherman and uncle of General W. T. Sherman) Burwell Fitch and Samuel Seymour, were the first white settlers of the township. The year of their arrival was 1812. They were from Norwalk, Connecticut, and the last end of their journey was over what was then known as the Portage road, their teams being the first which traveled over it. The first night after leaving Newcomb's in Bronson, was spent in the woods. They were not accustomed to this sort of a life, and were disturbed and considerably alarmed at the noise of the wild animals with which the surrounding woods abounded. They immediately commenced improvements, in the second section. The first clearing was made on Sherman's land, and the next on that of Burwell Fitch. The first house in the township was built on the land of the latter. Most of the early settlers located in the first, third and fourth sections, the second not being in the market. No particular effort was made by the original owners to draw settlers that way, except, perhaps, by the Lockw00ds. In 1814, land was held at one dollar and fifty cents per acre.—Blanchard came this year and bought fifty acres of land. Daniel Sherman gave him fifty acres more to induce him to settle, and the year following he began clearing his farm. At the first meeting of the commissioners of Huron county, held August 1, 1815, Sherman was attached to Greenfield township, and in December of the same year was detached, and together with the south half of Oxford was united with Ridgefield. About the year 1820 it was united with Norwich, but no record is given of it. March 6, 1827, Norwich was detached, and Sherman has since remained a distinct township. The first general election, while united with Norwich, was held in October 10, 1820. The first election on record after the separation from Norwich was held April 6, 1829, at which time fifteen votes were cast. The first school was taught, by George Hanford in about 1824 or 1825 in a building standing on lot number eighteen in the third section. There were some eight or ten scholars in attendance. In 1827 or 1828 the township was divided into two school districts, termed the east and west districts. The first school house was built on lot number nineteen in the first section, and the first public school was taught by Sarah Mason, one of the early settlers of Norwalk. She received the first public money that ever came into the township for school purposes, and was paid off in silver half dollars. She had fourteen or fifteen scholars. 270 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY The first sermon preached in Sherman township was, without doubt, by Rev. Alva Coe, at the house of Daniel Sherman. It was early in the settlement. The Methodist ministers were early upon the scene, and organized a church. Meetings were held at private houses, usually at Joseph La Barre's and William Williams'. There was at one time a large and flourishing lodge of Good Templars in the township. This has gone out of existence. The first death in the township, was a child of R. S. Paine, date not remem- bered. The body was interred in Lyme township. The second death was the ^vife of Daniel Sherman, in 1821. She was buried on the farm of her husband, in what is now the burying ground, in lot number six in the third section. The first frame house in the township, was built by Henry M. Read, soon after 1820. It was located on Slate run. Coles Bloomer built the first brick house in Sherman township. The pioneer "tavern" was opened by Coles and Albert Bloomer, in 1834. The present "Sherman house" was established by David Weaver. Daniel Sherman received a commission as postmaster, but did not accept the office. Rufus S. Paine was next commissioned, and became the first postmaster. After a few years, the office was removed to Weaver's corners, and C. A. Bloomer was duly commissioned postmaster. In 1871, a mail route was estab- lished from Bellevue to Lodi, and afterward an office was established at the German settlement, (lolled Bismark, one mile south of the center, with C. West- rick postmaster. In about 1.835, Messrs. Isaac and David Underhill of Ridgefield township, established a store at Weaver's corners. This closed out after a few years. Few of the present inhabitants can appreciate the privations endured by the pioneer settlers of Sherman township. Their milling was done at Eldridge, Cold Creek, and sometimes Greenfield. Wheat and corn were the principal productions, but there was no market. At one time thirty-six bushels of corn were paid for one barrel of salt. Not many of the necessaries, and fewer of the luxuries, of life were enjoyed by them. Wolf scalps and Owl creek bills constituted a large portion of the currency. The Indians were not very numerous in this township, but were often seen in hunting parties after the war. At one time they had a camp in the town- ship. Among their number was the noted chief, Seneca John. An Indian trail ran northwest and southeast through the township, and was visible for many years. TOWNSEND TOWNSHIP. Townsend township derives its name from Kneeland Townsend, who owned the greater part of the land in the first settlement. He was, prior to coming to Ohio, a merchant in New Haven, Connecticut, and was a man highly respected for his integrity, business habits and general uprightness of character. The surface of the township is generally level with slight undulations in the secoud and third sections. The soil is a clay loam, with a mixture of sand in the northern and northwestern portions. The streams are small, the largest being HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 271 Rattlesnake creek, a tributary of the Huron, flowing through the west part of the township. The name originated from the large number of rattlesnakes that were formerly found along the stream. There are two other branches of the Huron in the western part, and La Chapelle, a tributary of the Vermillion, in the eastern part. The stream is said to have derived its name from a Frenchman who discovered it, and explored it to its source. Townsend was originally clothed with a magnificent growth of timber, the principal varieties of which were white oak, whitewood, ash, hickory, black walnut, butternut, beech and maple. The manufacture of white oak staves was an important industry of this township for many years. The staves were usually marketed at Milan, and so extensive was the business that the product was known as "Townsend wheat." The first election for township officers was held, in pursuance of an order of the supreme court, October 15, 1820, at the house of Benjamin Bailey. Jasper Miles, Abijah Barber, and Isaac R. Wright were judges, and Frederick Perring and Royal Munger, clerks of election. Township officers were elected as follows : Frederick Perring, clerk ; Abijah Barber, David Lee, and Benjamin Bailey, trustees ; Thomas E. Fletcher and Isaac R. Wright, overseers of the poor; Royal Munger and avid C. Lewis, fence viewers ; Hiram Bailey, appraiser of property ; Samuel Sherman, lister ; Abijah Barber, treasurer. The earliest settlements in the township were made in the north part, in section number three, and George Miller is generally accorded the honor of being the first settler. He removed with his family from Pennsylvania to Milan, (then called Avery,) Erie county, Ohio, in 1809, and remained there until 1811. when he came to Townsend, and took up his abode on lot number five. His log cabin was the first habitation for the abode of civilized people in the township. Mr. Miller was a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in 1765. Soon after Miller, cave William Burdue and family. Burdue was also a native of Pennsylvania, and was born November 26, 1782. March 28, 1809, he married Elizabeth Blazer, who was born September 26, 1791. In 1810 he removed with his family, consisting of wife and one child, to the vicinity of Milan, then called Indian Village, but remained there only one year, when he moved into Townsend, making his location on lot number four, in section three. There was only one mill on the Firelands at that time, and that was situated at the head of Cold creek. The first postoffice was established in 1833 or 1834, with Daniel Phillips as postmaster, who kept the office in his house, on lot ninety-two, in the first section. The office was called East Townsend, which name it has retained until the present time, for the reason that there was an office in Sandusky county of the name of Townsend. The first east and west mail through Townsend was carried, on foot, by a man of the name of Coles, whose trip extended from Akron to Norwalk. At first his mail bag consisted of a large sized pocket book, locked with a padlock of about the size of a silver half dollar, but the first trip he made through Townsend his "mail bag" was entirely empty. An early mail carrier was a man by the name of Waldron, and on one of his trips through the woods he threw the mail bag at a deer, knocking it down, and before the animal could regain his feet he 272 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY jumped upon it and cut its throat with a pocket-knife. A man by the name of De Bow carried the mail from Norwalk to Medina, back in the twenties. His route passed within twenty or thirty rods of Thomas Fletcher's house, on the creek, south of the Medina road. Fletcher cut a mortise in a large white oak tree, on the road, for the reception of his mail, and made an arrangement with the mail carrier to blow his tin horn whenever his "box" contained any mail. The arrangement was faithfully carried out by De Bow, and the sound of his horn became as familiar as the song of the whippoorwill. The earliest doctors who practiced in the township were doubtless from the surrounding towns. The first resident physician was Dr. G. R, Stanton, who located at the center, and began to practice in 1847. The different settlements in Townsend were so separated from each other that election days were the only occasions on which they met together. Men and boys attended the election as a holiday, bringing their rifles with them to shoot at target. As but few votes were polled and but little excitement, politically, prevailed, they had plenty of time to engage in sports. At the presidential election, when Jackson was elected president, there was a grand wrestling match between the two political parties. It was a close contest, but the administration party prevailed, who regarded the result as significant, and the affair came very near ending in a general fight. Although the first settlers in Townsend were among the first in the county, the township was nevertheless much more slowly settled than many others. The land was difficult to bring under subjection, being generally wet and very heavily timbered, and the township was generally shunned by the earlier emigrants. Many who did take up land, and ran in debt for it, were compelled, after years of hard toil and privation, to give up the struggle, thus losing the improvements they had made. When the land was once cleared and drained, it was found to be very productive, and in the character of its soil the township now ranks among the best in the county. A substantial, two-story brick town hall was erected in the summer of 1870, at the center, costing four thousand five hundred dollars. The plan was drawn and the building erected by E. Kmney, architect and builder, living at Townsend center. William Townsend, one of the original proprietors of the township, put up a block house at the center, in which he opened a store in 1822 or 1823. It was furnished from his store in Sandusky, which he established in the winter of 1819-20, bringing his first goods from New Haven, Connecticut, in a sleigh. A store was subsequently, kept here a short time by Kneeland. Townsend, brother of William Townsend, and still later by James Arnold, who continued in merchandise for a number of years. There are two villages in the township, of nearly equal size, called Townsend center and Collins, the latter situated on the railroad, half a mile north of the center. At Townsend center there are two churches, two stores, one millinery shop, one blacksmith shop, one school house, one sawmill, one bee-house, one violin manufacturer and one architect and builder. At Collins there are one general store one grocery, one tin shop, one millinery store, one hotel, two blacksmith shops, one wagon shop, two shoe shops, HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 273 one harness shop, one broom factory, one pump factory, and one sawmill and bending works. The pioneer mill of Townsend was established by William Burdue. He brought with him from Pennsylvania a pair of small millstones and set up a hand mill for grinding grain. The rude contrivance was a great convenience to the early settlers, who were thus saved many miles of travel, through dense woods to get their milling done. The first wedding in Townsend was that of Dr. Lyman Fay, of Milan, and Miss Caroline Kellogg, daughter of Orisimus Kellogg, of this township. This event occurred at the house of the bride's father, July 21, 1816, David Abbott, Esq., tying the nuptial knot. William and Elizabeth Burdue were the parents of the first white children born in the township. They were twins, were born in the year 1816, and lived only a few months. The next birth was that of Roxena Goodell, daughter of David and Electa Goodell. She was born June 19, 1817, married Amherst Ordway, January 24, 1838, and died in Wood county, Ohio, May 11, 1876. A birth also occurred in one of the Barber families m 1817. David Sayre, was the first person that died in the township, but the date we are unable to give. The first tavern was owned by Moses D. Fowler, in the southwest part of town, on the Medina road, about the year 1834. On the southeast corner of the cross roads, where the west line road intersects the Medina road, stands the old "Blue Fly" erected by William Thompson. It was originally painted blue. Some one facetiously dubbed it "the blue fly," and the place has been known by that name. Thompson kept it as a tavern for five or six years when he sold it to Theodore Williams, of Norwalk. The first school house was built in the Barber settlement, about the year 1818. The first school teacher is not known with certainty, but is generally supposed to have been Jasper Miles, who taught a winter school. Miss Polly Barber kept the first summer school. Lucy Tenant was among the earliest school teachers in the township. "The Western Reserve Union Institute," was established at Collins, in 1855, chiefly through the efforts of W. S. Hyde. The institution derived its support from the tuition of its pupils, and was not incorporated. It had an existence until about the year 187o, when the building was purchased by the township, and has since been used as a district school. The first saw mill in this township was built by David Lee, in 1820. It was located on lot seventy-three, in the fourth section, on Rattlesnake creek. There are, at the present time, three saw mills in operation. The mill near the center was erected by James Arnold, in the winter of 1848-49. When completed, he sold it to William Humphrey, who operated it until his death, in 1874, when it passed into the hands of George Bargus, the present owner. The sawmill of L. V. McKesson was established by Cyrus Minor, in 1856. He operated it for five or six years, when he sold to James McCullough, who, a year subsequently, moved the machinery away. A man by the name of Funk afterwards bought the building and fitted it up for a grist mill, which he carried on for three years, and then removed the machinery to Mt. Vernon. 274 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY Mrs. Caroline Fay gave the following account of their flight on hearing of Hull's surrender : "The sad news was announced at my father's dwelling at the hour of midnight of the 8th of July. 'The elder members of our family arose and set themselves to work immediately, making preparations to flee for their lives. At ten o'clock in the morning we were all ready and commenced our flight from the savage foe which we imagined was in close pursuit. We directed our course for Cuyahoga, Portage county. It had been raining quite hard all of the previous night. After traveling four or five miles we fell in company with four families of our acquaintance. We got twelve miles on our journey by dark, and pitched our tents and partook of our evening meal, and were obliged to spread our beds on the wet ground, and in the morning they were nearly covered with water caused by the rain that had fallen during the night. There we were, in an unbroken wilderness, and an unfrequented road of seventy-five miles to our place of destination. We were obliged to ford all the streams that lay in our path or to stop and cut trees and bridge those that were flooded by the recent rain. We were on our journey eight days and seven nights without seeing so much as a log cabin, expecting every night when we lay down to rest to be tomahawked and scalped before morning by the Indians. Many of the youth of our company were so much fatigued by travel that they could not stand alone when they first rose in the morning. One night we camped near a sugar camp where some one had made sugar the previous spring and spread our beds on some bark that was lying on the ground. To my astonishment, when I arose in the morning, I saw a blacksnake peeping out his head from under the bed that I had rested upon. On removing the bed the men killed seven large snakes." WAKEMAN TOWNSHIP. Wakeman township was named for Jesup Wakeman, one of the original proprietors of the land, and it still retains its original name. It lies generally rolling, especially the east half, and was heavily timbered with oak, beech, maple, basswood, elm, black walnut, cherry, etc. The soil is clayey with a mixture of sand sufficient to make it easy to till. Vermillion river enters the township from the south near the center of the town line, and running a wonderfully crooked course, passes about a mile east of the center and leaves the township a short distance west of the section line. Brandy creek enters the south line of the township, in the southwest part and forms a junction with the Vermillion a short distance northeast of the center of the town. La Chapelle creek rises in Townsend, enters this township south of the center road and leaves it a mile and a quarter east of the northwest corner. The stream is said to have derived its name from a Frenchman by the name, of De La Chapelle, who discovered and explored it to its source, long before the country was settled. Wakeman was attached to Florence for township purposes until February, 1824, at which time, on petition of the inhabitants, it was set off by the county commissioners, and organized independently. The election was held at the log school house near Mr. Canfield's, in April following. HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 275 The first road was that along the west town line, called the "Reed road," a man of that name having opened it. The first road within the township was that along the line of the first settlements, called the New London road. It is a mile east of the west line road, and runs a generally north and south direction. It was opened by the settlers, being at first merely underbrushed and originally ran a more crooked course than it now does, in order to avoid swales and steep hills. The east and west center road was opened west of the center in 1825 or 1826, and east of the center a few years after. The first religious meeting in Wakeman was held at the house of Augustin Canfield, Sunday evening, January 10, 1819. Rev. Lot B. Sullivan, a missionary, was the preacher. Mr. and Mrs. Canfield, Dr. Clark and wife led the singing. They were the pioneer choir of Wakeman for many years. The first church organization was formed at the house of Mr. Pierce, October 25, 1822, by Rev. A. H. Betts and Rev. Joseph Treat. The society was of the Congregational order. The first white child born in the township was Burton M. Canfield, April 18, 1818. The first girl baby born was Mary Smith, April, 1821. The first wedding in Wakeman was that of Marshall Johnson and Marinda Bradley. They were married in October, 1820, at the house of Abram Bronson, Dr. Clark performing the ceremony. The next couple married was Nathaniel Hine, of Berlin, and Ruth Sherman, in the winter of 1821. The first death in the township was that of Mrs. Hendricks, mother of Mrs. Abram Bronson, which occurred in 1820. The death of Mr. Bronson occurred a short time after that of Mrs. Hendricks. The first burial ground was on the southwest corner of the crossroads, near where Mr. Mordoff later lived. Some of the bodies were afterwards taken up and removed to other burial grounds, and the former ground was abandoned for that purpose. The first interment in the cemetery at the center was that of Mrs. Justus Minor. The first frame building in the township was the barn of Justin Sherman, in 1823. The first completed frame house was built by Mr. Sherman in 1827. The erection of a frame house had previously been commenced by Sheldon Barnes, but before it was finished, it was taken down and removed elsewhere. The first public house was kept by Marcus French, a half mile west of the center on the section line. The first regular train of cars ran through the township was on November 24, 1852. The first and only murder committed in the township was in 1843. The victim was the wife of Alexander Lawtha. She was strangled to death by the hands of her husband, assisted by John Simpson, a neighbor. The body of the woman was thrown into a well, and when found, the prints of the fingers on her neck could be plainly seen. The murderers were convicted of the crime, and Lawtha was sentenced to the penitentiary for life, but before his removal to the county jail, he, cut his throat with a razor, but before death he made a confession of his crime. Simpson was sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of ten years, and served out his term. 276 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY The first settlers went to Esquire Merry's mill in Milan township to get their grinding done, a distance of fourteen miles as the road originally ran. Subsequently, and until the erection of a gristmill by Burton Canfield in 1824, they obtained their grist at Ruggles' mill in Florence, and at Husted's mill in Clarksfield. In 1823, Burton Canfield built a sawmill on the Vermillion, east of Wakeman village. The next year he added a frame grist mill with one run of stone. The mill stones were made out of the ordinary "hard head" stone by Elder Phillips, a pioneer Baptist preacher of Berlin. He took the job for thirty-five dollars, and realized less than a shilling a day, the stone proving harder than he had estimated. A sawmill was built on the La Chapelle in 1823 by Justin Sherman. This and the Canfield mill were erected at the same time, but the Sherman mill sawed the first log. On the same stream there were formerly three other sawmills, one built by Esquire Pierce about the year 1833, one by C. C. Canfield in 1840, and one by B. M. Canfield in 1848. That of C. C. Canfield was in operation for thirty years, and did an extensive business. The first school was opened by Mrs. Dr. Clark in her own house, in the summer of 1818. Her scholars were Calvert C., Royal R. and Sarah Ann Canfield; Lemuel B., Bennett and Minott Pierce. Mrs. Clark taught for one dollar per week, and boarded herself. Her wages were paid, not in money, but in the products of the soil, the usual legal tender in those early times. The school was also kept by Mrs. Clark in the log house of Mr. Canfield. The scholars would each carry an ear of corn to school which the teacher would boil for them, this constituting the only dinner they had. School was kept in Wakeman only a few weeks in the year, and the children, or at least the boys, the eldest of whom was not more than ten years of age, attended a school in Florence traversing an unbroken forest for a distance of three miles. In the year 1820 the first school house was built, of logs of course, on the farm of Augustin Canfield. The log school house served the double purpose of a place of teaching and a house of worship for about nine years, when it was replaced by a comfortable frame school house, twenty-two by twenty-six feet in size, with a genuine shingle roof.. The meeting to consider the question of its erection was held at the old school house, January 29, 1829. Bela Coe was chosen moderator of the meeting, and Augustin Canfield, clerk. It was decided to build the house by a tax, the cost of which was to be one hundred and seventy dollars. Among other things it was resolved that "we will have a chimney in said house," that "a writing desk shall be attached to the side of the house," etc. It was also stipulated that the house should be opened on the Sabbath to the Congregational and Methodist churches, each to occupy it one-half of the time, "but if it so happens that one denomination does not want to occupy their half of the time, and the other does more, it shall be their privilege to do so." The house had a kind of dedication by a union service of the two churches on Christmas eye, 1829, the Rev. Xenophon Betts and True Pattee officiating on the occasion. The house was trimmed with evergreens and illuminated. The first teacher in the new school house was f. M. Root. In the year 1829 the inhabitants of Wakeman attained to the felicity of a weekly mail. Isaac Todd and Cyrus Minor drew up, or caused to be drawn up, HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 277 a petition for the extension of the mail route from Grafton, Lorain county, to Norwalk, and carried it to Grafton to obtain the signatures of the settlers along the proposed route. After the mail was established, the settlers along the line turned out and under-brushed a road from Wakeman to Grafton. The first mail-carrier was one Cole, who carried the mail once a week, making his journeys on foot. The first trip he made through Wakeman he stopped at Isaac Todd's, whose house was the first on his route west of La Grange. No mail bag being visible, Mr. Todd inquired about it. "Oh, I've got it," replied the carrier, and he reached in his pocket and drew forth a large-sized pocket-book, on which was a padlock about the size of a silver half dollar. Mr. Todd, naturally taken aback at the apparent unimportance of the enterprise he had labored hard to establish, said : "You don't mean to say you carry the mail in that ?" "Yes," rejoined Cole, "and it's large enough ; there's nothing in it!" The route was established. and the mail-carrier had to make the trip, although there was not an item of mail to carry. It was not long, however, before a more capacious mail bag was substituted for the pocket-book. A man by the name of Waldron afterwards carried the mail. He frequently stopped at Joseph French's, and on one occasion brought the family a piece of venison. On being asked where he got it he replied that he "shot the deer with the mail bag." He came upon the animal while browsing in the top of a fallen tree, struck it in the head with the bag, which so frightened the deer that he caught it and cut its throat with his knife. The first postoffice was established January 1, 1833, with Justin Sherman, postmaster, who kept the office in his house. He served for seven years and three months, when he was succeeded by Merritt Hyde, and the office was moved to his dwelling, west of the center. As already stated, Dr. Harmon M. Clark was the first physician that practiced in the township. He had been engaged in the practice of medicine before he came to this country, and was a surgeon or assistant surgeon in the United States navy in the War of 1812. The first store in Wakeman was kept by Justin Sherman near the center, on lot forty-five. He erected the building in 1839, and sold the first goods on the third day of July, 1841. His goods were purchased in New York city, and transported by way of Hudson river, Erie canal and Lake Erie to Huron, and thence to Wakeman by team. The principal species wild animals originally found in the forests of Wakeman, were the bear, deer, wolf, wild-cat and fox. Bears, though not numerous, were occasionally seen. Deer were Very numerous, and were frequently captured. They were the settlers' main dependence for meat, while their skins were used as an article of clothing by the male inhabitants. Suits made wholly of buckskin were worn only when absolute necessity required, a single wetting and drying making them very uncomfortable. It was more generally used for facing the exposed portion of the pantaloons. The first election of a school board, of which there is a record, occurred Octobert 31, 1828, when Augustin Canfield was elected clerk ; Justin Sherman, Philo Sherman and Samuel Bristol, directors. 278 - HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY Until 1827, the township constituted one school district. The location of the first school house being determined by the center of the population, it was built in the third section, as previously stated. In the spring of the above year a second school district was erected, embracing nearly three-fourths of the township, and a log school house built at the center of town. A few years after a frame school house was built there. In regard to the character of her schools and school houses, Wakeman occupies a front rank among the townships of the county. The first year of the settlement, wheat was two dollars and potatoes one dollar and seventy-five cents per bushel, pork thirty dollars per barrel, and oftener of the "shack" variety than otherwise. Until the land was brought under cultivation provisions were generally obtained in the surrounding earlier settlements. The character of the population that took possession of Wakeman was of the genuine Yankee sort ; they were, almost without exception, from Connecticut, Most of them came from Southbury, New Haven county, some from Litchfield and Fairfield counties, and a few from other parts of the State. The first family to take up its abode in the wilderness was that of Augustin Canfield. Mr. Canfield started from New Milford, Litchfield county, with his wife and four children, his brother Burton Canfield, Seymour Johnson and his hired man, for the Firelands on the 29th day of April, 1817. While journeying through the "four-mile woods" west of Buffalo, the emigrants experienced a breakdown, one of the axletrees of the wagon breaking off at the wheel. The company fortunately possessed sufficient mechanical skill to repair the damage, cutting out a piece of timber from a tree and splicing it on to the remaining part of the axle, and thus completed the journey without further mishap. Many anecdotes are related illustrative of the condition of the roads through Cattaraugus swamp, or, more particularly, that portion of it known by early settlers as the "four mile woods." A traveler, seeing a hat floating on the mud, procured a pole and tried to secure it, when a voice from below cried out, "Let me alone ; I have a good horse under me, and I shall get through all right." Mr. Canfield and his associates arrived in Wakeman on the 23d day of May, performing the long journey in about three weeks. He settled on lot number twenty-three in the third section, building his cabin near the location of the present residence of John G. Sherman. The house was fourteen feet square, built of rough logs, with a roof of elm bark and a floor of the same. Two large boxes, or trunks, placed together constituted the only table in the house, and upon which the scanty meal was spread. The house being without a fireplace, the cooking was done by a log fire outside. This primitive habitation was occupied about six weeks, when it was replaced by a more substantial log house, in which the family lived until 1822, when it was sold, with seventy acres on the south part of the lot, to. Justin Sherman, Mr. Canfield taking up his residence on the north part of the same lot, where he spent the remainder of his life. The next man that penetrated the forests of Wakeman was Amial P. Pierce. He arrived with his family, consisting of wife and four children, and a hired man, about three weeks after the Canfields, making the journey from Connecticut with an ox team. He made his location on the adjoining lot, number twenty-two. He always resided on this location. HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY - 279 He was a man of large size and of great physical strength, excelling in this respect, any other of the pioneers with the exception of Mr. Bristol. He had borne the rank of captain in Connecticut, and the title was applied to him here for many years, and until that of "Squire," owing to his long service as justice of the peace, was substituted. The first settlers found this township heavily timbered, the principal varieties being whitewood, white oak, beech, maple, black walnut, butternut, chestnut, hickory and basswood. On the river bottoms the sycamore, elm and sugar maple were chiefly found. Among the early settlers of Wakeman township, were Barzilla S. Hendricks and family, in 1819. Abram Bronson and wife, in 1820. Sheldon smith and family and Burton French, in 1820. Justus Minor and family, in 1821. Chester Manville and Peter Sherman, in 1822. And about the same time came Justin Sherman, Philo Sherman, Leveritt Hill, and others. In 1823, Merritt Hyde, Amos Clark. A few years later came Russell Barnes, William Beers, Sheldon Barnes, Rufus J. Bunce, Johnson Wheeler, Isaac Todd, Elias Bell, Martin Bell, Simeon Brown, Cyrus Strong, Lewis Beers, Bela Coe, Reuben Hall, Mr. Parsons. Also comparatively early in different portions of the township : John Brooks, Jabez Hanford, Hiram Rumsey, Henry T. Peck, Isaac Haskins, Dr. Curtis and Captain Bell. WAKEMAN. Wakeman is a town of considerable importance on the Lake Shore Railroad, eleven miles east of Norwalk. It supports a local paper, which is commendable, showing the intelligence of its people.