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CHAPTER II.

PRE-HISTORIC RACES—REMAINS OF MOUND BUILDERS—INDIAN DOMINATION—COMING OF THE

WHITES—ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY—CIVIL DIVISIONS AND

,CENSUS—PUBLIC. BUILDINGS--POLITICAL.

THE earliest history of Medina County, in common with that of the State, is veiled in mystery, and what share it had in the prehistoric times can be only guessed. It is the opinion of antiquarians that three distinct races had inhabited North America prior to the coming of the present inhabitants. Of these the builders of those magnificent cities the ruins of which strew for miles the plains of Central America, were the first.," The mind is startled," says an eminent writer on this subject, " at the remoteness of their antiquity, when we consider the vast sweep of time necessary to erect such colossal structures of solid masonry, and afterward convert them into the present utter wreck. Comparing their complete desolation with the ruins of Baalbec, Palmyra, Thebes and Memphis, they must have been old when the latter were being built" Of this race, no trace has been found within the

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limits of this country, and whether Ohio ever shook under the step of their marching, or its wilds ever echoed to their cries, is still an open question. " The second race," continues the same writer, "as determined by the character of their civilization, were the Mound-Builders. the remains of whose works constitute the most interesting class of antiquities found within the limits of the United States. Like the ruins of Central America, they antedate the most ancient records ; tradition can furnish no account of them, and their character can only be partially gleaned from the internal evidences which they themselves afford. They consist of the remains of what were, apparently, villages, altars, temples, idols, cemeteries, monuments, camps, fortifications, etc. The farthest relic of this kind, discovered in a northeastern direction, was near Black River, on ..he south side of Lake Ontario. Thence they extend in a southwestern direction by way of the Ohio, the Mississippi, Mexican Gulf, Texas, New Mexico and Yucatan, into South America." Some of the most interesting and extensive of these works are found in Ohio. At the mouth of the Muskingum, on Licking River, near Newark, at Circleville on the Scioto, and on Paint Creek, near Chillicothe, are found some of the most elaborate of these mounds, stored with some of the most important relics ever discovered. But, with all the discoveries and investigations made thus far, but little progress has been made toward a knowledge of their origin, civilization or destiny. They existed here, and built the works over which the archaeologists spend their efforts in vain, but what was the nature of their stay here, or the character of their civilization, is as far from comprehension as ever. Col. Whittlesey, writing of this race, says : " There is no evidence that they had alphabetical characters, picture writing or hieroglyphics, though they must have had some mode of recording events. Neither is there any proof that they used domestic animals for tilling the soil, or for the purpose of erecting the imposing earthworks they have left. A very coarse cloth of hemp, flax or nettles, has been found on their burial hearths, and around skeletons not consumed by fire." The more important of these mounds are found in the southern part of the State, and it is conjectured that the remains found in the northern part may have been built by portions of the race not contemporary with the builders of the southern structures. The difference in the ex-tent and importance of these northern structures seems to indicate a people far less in numbers as well as industry, and whose principal occupation was to war among themselves or against their neighbors. Along the watershed in this State, which lies along the southern line of Wyandot and Crawford Counties, extending irregularly east and west, there is a space where but few of these ancient earthworks appear. It is conjectured, therefore, that this space was the "debatable ground" of the warlike tribes of the Mound Builders, and that the works that are found on either side of this line were the outposts of opposing forces. Whatever the truth may be in regard to these fanciful theories, the fact that Medina County was the scene of the busy activities of this strange people, is beyond question. The traces of their occupation are abundant in all sections of the county, important earthworks appearing in the townships of Granger, Medina, Montville, Guilford and Harrisville, for a description of which we are indebted to the State Geological Report.

In Guilford, an ancient fort, now quite obliterated, once stood on land one mile north and one-half mile east of Seville. In Granger, a similar earthwork stood on land one-half mile east of Grangersburg, the remains of which are but an indistinct remnant of the original fortification. It once consisted of a circular trench with embankment, and was, perhaps, ten rods across, the northern extremity being now cut off by the public road. A perpetual spring fed a small stream which flowed along

214 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

the base of the wall. On Mr. John Archer's land, in Montville, known as the Philip King farm, two miles southeast of Medina village, is found a well-defined mound, which has never been developed. It is nearly midway between Rocky River and Champion Brook, and perhaps fifty rods above their junction. The mound is now some ten feet high and seventy feet in diameter, though centuries of washing and years of plowing have extended its borders and rounded its outlines. The soil of the mound is different from that of the "bottom land" on which it is built. The nearest ridge or bank is about thirty rods distant. Flint arrowheads abound on the surface about the mound. Near the village of Weymouth, in Medina Township, is the most important fortification in the county. It is located just south of the business houses of the village, and is one of the best preserved and most interesting of its kind which can be seen in this region. Like other such evidences of the old power and importance of the race known as Mound Builders, this fortification is popularly called an Indian fort. The oldest Indian traditions, how-ever, know nothing of the building of these mounds, and the growth of trees upon them 1 places the date of their erection from six to ten centuries ago. The fort is an entrenched pro- jection of land, which has abrupt, bluff outlines, excepting at its rear connection with the main-land. The river having made an abrupt turn back upon itself, there was formed a peninsular-like projection of land, having shale bluffs over frfty feet high. The defense of this point was easy after trenches had been cut across the neck. Three such trenches are now plainly 1 discernible, and they bear on the surface evidence of the former greatness of the work. The trenches are 210 feet long, the width of the point of land ; the inner trench is 360 feet hack from the end of the point ; the middle trench is 41 feet from the inner one ; and the outer trench is 49 feet from the middle one, or 450 feet from the end of the point. The trenches run east and west, the point of land being a south-ward projection. Even now, after many centuries of change, the average depth of the trenches is three feet, while in some places it is five to six feet, the embankment projecting above the general level of the land about two feet, making the bottoms of the trenches below the tops of the embankments five feet, and in places seven feet. Early settlers of the township thought this high point of land, this old fortification, a superior place for a burying-ground, and it was used for this purpose for some years ; a few of the brown-stone slabs still stand as reminders of the pioneer whites who dispossessed the red man of this territory which had once supported the semi-civilized Mound Builders. To get at this cemetery, a road was cut through the center of the three embankments. The Clinton Line Railroad, which was never built, was to have passed just in the rear of the other trench. and some excavation was done toward cutting a roadway across the point. Fortunately, that work was not carried far before it was abandoned, leaving this old relic of a departed race hut little defaced.

In Harrisville, just south of the public green in Lodi, is located a mound of considerable importance. Upon this mound Judge Harris erected a dwelling about 1330, and made some valuable discoveries in the course of his operations. The elevation of the mound above the general level of the land upon which it stands is twelve feet. The outlines are yet quite distinct, though the grading of the yard has some-what changed the original appearance. When the first settlers came, the mound was covered with large trees, among them several black walnuts which were over two feet in diameter. The longest measurement of the mound is 160 feet—this is from north to south. The east-and-west measurement is 135 feet. Upon this large mound, were formerly two knolls 40 feet apart. Each was about two feet high and ten

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across, with a distinct ditch around it. One knoll was upon the east side, the other on the west, the house resting upon the edge of both knolls.

In digging the cellar of the house, nine human skeletons were found, and, like such specimens from other ancient mounds of the country; they showed that the Mound Builders were men of large stature. The skeletons were not found lying in such a manner as would indicate any arrangement of the bodies on the part of the entombers. In describing the tomb, Mr. Albert Harris said : " It looked as if the bodies had been dumped into a ditch. Some of them were buried deeper than others, the lower one being about seven feet below the surface. When the skeletons were found, Mr. Harris was twenty years of age, yet he states that he could put one of the skulls over his head, and let it rest upon his shoulders, while wearing a fur cap at the same time. The large size of all the bones was remarked, and the teeth were described as "double all the way round." They were kept for a time, and then again buried by Judge Harris. At the center of the mound, and some nine feet below the surface, was found a small monument of cobble-stones. The stones, or bowlders, composing this were regularly arranged in round layers, the monument being topped off with a single stone. There were about two bushels in measure of these small bowlders, and mixed with them was a quantity of char-coal. The cobble-stones, charcoal and skeletons were the only things noticed at the time of digging the cellar, in 1830. Many years later, in 1869, as digging was being done to lay stone steps at the front of the house (the north side), two other and smaller skeletons were found only three feet below the surface. The interment of these two bodies was probably much more recent than that of those found deeper down, and a different race of men may have put them there. Doubtless there are other skeletons in the mound at present, as the digging referred to was done solely for the purpose mentioned, and not for the sake of learning anything concerning these relics, and no care was taken to fully investigate this very interesting matter. Mr. Harris thinks that the ground in front of the house, if dug over would afford many valuable relics. This mound may possibly go back in history to the time when the Harrisville swamp was a lake, and the region about good hunting territory. Great quantities of flint arrow-heads and stone axes have been found about the marshes. There are large numbers of these stone relics to be found in other parts of the county, but they have long ago lost their attraction save for the few to whom they speak a "various language. Among the relics of this class to be found here are many of the Indian tribes, who, if the more modern theories are to be accepted, are a far more ancient people. But, whether we consider the red Indian the original possessor of this land, or the natural successor of the Mound Builders, his early history is equally obscure. The Indians were found in full possession of the whole country so far as the earliest white explorers could determine, but the character of their customs and habits of life, and the uncertainty of their vague traditions, have left but little material for the use of the historian. The earliest pioneers found this State inhabited by Iroquois, Delawares, Shawanoes, Miamis, Wyandots and Ottawas. These nations were all subject to the warlike Iroquois or Five Nations, and occupied their respective lands subject to the pleasure of their conquerors. The first of these tribes occupied that part of the State east of the Cuyahoga River, and a line drawn irregularly south from the source of that river to the Ohio. The Wyandots and Ottawas occupied a strip of country forty miles, lying along the south and west shores of Lake Erie, west of the Cuyahoga River. The rest of the State was divided in latitudinal sections, occuipied by the Delawares, Shawanoes and Miamis,

216 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

proceeding west of the Iroquois territory in the order named. In 1684 and 1726, the dominant nation ceded to the English all their claims west of Lake Erie, and sixty miles in width along the south shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, from the Cuyahoga to the Oswego River. In 1774, the same nation ceded to the Americans all the country claimed by that tribe west of Pennsylvania. and on January 21, in the following year, a treaty with the Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa nations, the former subjects of the Iroquois, a new boundary was fixed. In the transactions with the English, the Iroquois lost their hold on the subject nations of Ohio, and the Delawares, upon whom had been heaped the greatest indignities by their savage conquerors, suddenly assumed their former warlike prowess, and be-came the most powerful enemies of the whites. During the Revolutionary war as the allies of the British, and at the head of the Northwestern Confederacy of Indians to oppose the cessions made by the Iroquois, they became the terror of the whites, and defeated some of the best Generals of colonial times.

In the spring of 1794, an effort on the part of the State was made to retrieve the disasters in the Northwest, and Gen. Wayne, with about three thousand five hundred troops, assembled at Greenville, to subjugate the Delawares and their allies. In August of that year, the hostile forces encountered each other at the foot of the rapids in Maumee, when, after a short but deadly conflict, the Indians were completely defeated. They were not conquered, however, and it was not until their whole country had been overrun, their cornfields destroyed, and forts erected in the very heart of their domain, that they would sue for peace. On August 3, 1795, a grand council was held at Greenville, with representatives of eleven of the most powerful tribes of the Northwest. In this council, by far the larger representation was from the tribe of the Delawares, numbering 381 braves. The treaty concluded at Fort McIntosh fixed the line of boundary. beginning "at the mouth of the river Cuyahoga, and to extend up said river to the portage, between that and Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing-place above Fort Laurens, then westerly to the portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French, 1752 ; then along said portage to the Great Miami, or Omee River, and down the south side of the same to its mouth ; then along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of Cuyahoga River, where it began." At Greenville, this boundary line was confirmed, and extended westward from Loramie's to Fort Defiance, and thence southward to the mouth of the Kentucky River. This territory thus set off was given to the Delawares and Wyandots. In 1805, the different tribes relinquished their claims on all lands west of the Cuyahoga. as far west as the western line of the Reserve, and south of the line, from Fort Laurens to Loramie's Fort.

At the close of the treaty at Greenville, Buckongehelas, a Delaware chief, addressed Gen. Wayne as follows : "Father, your children all well understand the sense of the treaty which is now concluded. We experience daily proofs of your increasing kindness. I hope we may all have sense enough to enjoy our dawning happiness. Many of your people are yet among us. I trust they will be immediately restored. Last winter, our king came forward to you with two, and, when he returned with your speech to us, we immediately prepared to come forward with the remainder, which we delivered at Fort Defiance. All who know me know me to be a man and a warrior, and I now declare that I will, for the future, be as steady and true a friend to the United States as I have, hereto-fore. been an active enemy." The promise of the warrior thus voluntarily given was faithfully maintained by the people. They resisted all

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the solicitations of Tecumseh's agents, and through the war of 1S12 remained the stanch friends of the Americans, and frequently rendering valuable service as scouts and sharp-shooters.

The territory now comprised within the limits of Medina County was thus early taken from the control of the original savage possess-ors. The treaties, however, only extinguished the right of the savages to retard immigration, and did not necessarily remove them from this tract of land until forced off by the growth of settlements. It was not until the general pacification of the Indians, in 1817, that the Re-serve could be said to be free to white settlement, though, as a matter of fact, they had some years before abandoned this locality, save a few straggling bands near Wooster, at the mouth of Portage River, in Trumbull County, and near Chippewa Lake. There is no evidence that the savages ever had a permanent residence in Medina, and it is probable, that, for years before the coming of the whites, this locality was simply visited by hunting parties in quest of the game which once filled the for-est. Up to the war of 1812, it was the custom of the Indians to meet every fall at Cleveland in great numbers. and pile up their canoes at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. From this point, they scattered into the interior, and passed the winter in hunting. In the spring, they returned, disposed of their furs to traders, and. launching their bark canoes upon the lake, returned to their towns in the region of the Sandusky and Maumee, where they remained until the succeeding fall, to raise their crops. Others came by land, a trail leading from San-dusky to the Tuscarawas River, passing very near the residence of Mr. Harris. It was a narrow, hard-trodden bridle-path. In the fall, the Indians came upon it from the west to this region, remained through the winter to hunt, and returned in the spring, their horses laden with furs, jerked venison and bear's oil, the latter being an extensive article of trade. The horses were loose, and followed in single file. It was no uncommon sight to see a single hunter returning with as many as twenty ponies laden with his winter's work, and usually accompanied with his squaw and papooses, all mounted. The Indians often built their wigwams in this vicinity, generally near Chippewa Lake, but frequently within a few rods of the cabins of the settlers in Harrisville. They were seen but very little, however, after the close of the war of 1812, though it is said that the wigwams of the Wyandots could be seen occasionally along Center Creek, in Litchfield Township, as late as 1822. The earliest settlers found them friendly, though having but little occasion to have dealings with them.

The first survey of this part of the Western Reserve was made in 1796, and settlements followed at Cleveland in the same year, in Trumbull County in 1798, in Portage County in 1799, in Summit in 1800, in Medina in 1811, and in Lorain in 1817. It will be observed that settlements on the Reserve followed the retreat of the savages at a much greater distance than in most parts of the State. Some of these lands were sold as early as 1786, and, in May, 1795, the whole of the Western Re-serve, save the "Fire Lands," was disposed of by the State of Connecticut to a land company formed there. The members of this company were generally persons of wealth, who bought the land for the purpose of speculation, and frequently held the tracts falling to their possession out of the market for years. Another obstacle was found in the fact that the lands were much of them held at a price considerably higher than that asked for Government land, and tracts early disposed of were sold through personal friendship and influence or from ignorance of cheaper lands, and not be-cause they were better or cheaper. There were some advantages, however, accruing to settlers on the Reserve that may have been taken into

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consideration, and may have had considerable weight in making up the decision of the purchaser. The land was all taxable, and public improvements were not laid solely upon the few pioneers that had taken up their homes in a township. In many cases, the lands of the original proprietor were made to bear the brunt of the expense of schoolhouses and roads, and frequently secured a church or two by simply doing the work after material had been provided by the land speculator. These considerations, to the thrifty New Englander, who knew the value of church and school, were undoubtedly made to outweigh the disadvantages of the situation. In later years, when the public lands of Ohio were pretty generally taken up, these advantages, in connection with land at no higher rates than were demanded elsewhere, made the Reserve a very desirable location.

The earliest trace of the white man in Medina County was found in Wadsworth Township. Here, on the west bank of Holmes' Brook, near the north side of the road, stood a large beech-tree, which bore on its north face, the letters distorted by its growth, the legend, "Philip Ward, 1797," and beneath it. in the following descending order, " T. D., R. C., W. V." Who Philip Ward and his three companions were, or what errand brought them here, is an unsolved problem. The date is of the year following the first landing of immigrants and surveyors at Conneaut, but no such name appears in the published list of those persons. It is probable that these mementoes were cut into the tree by adventurous hunters who had pushed their way into the wilds of Ohio from some of the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania or New York. The silent witness of their presence has long since been removed, it having been cut down in 1834, when the road was straightened. The first white man to come with a view of making a settlement was Judge Joseph Harris, then a young married man, a native of Connecticut,and a resident of Randolph. in Portage County, Ohio.

In 1807, the Connecticut Land Company had made a division of their lands west of the Cuyahoga River, and Township 1, in Range 16, together with 2,000 acres in Township 1. Range 15, as a compensation for swamp land in the former, was drawn by the Torringford Company, an organization that had been formed to take a share in the great land company. The members of this organization were, Nehemiah Gaylord, John and Jabez Gillett. Solomon Rock-' well and brothers, Hezekiah Huntington, William Battell, Russell Burr. heirs of Job Curtis, Thomas Huntington, Roy Tyler, Wright & Sutleff, Joseph Haines, Martin Kellogg. Burr and Loomis, Joseph Batten and Eliphalet Austin. In 1810, this property, known now as Harris-; vine Township, and a part of Westfield, was surveyed into lots of 100 acres each. and Mr. Harris secured as agent for the sale of the land. He was given a share in the lands of the Torringford company. and the privilege of selecting 200 acres as location for a pioneer settlement, to be deducted from his undivided portion. Mr. Harris at once made a visit to the new country, and, selecting a site for his cabin, went home, to return in the following year with his family and effects. He was joined in his new home, in June of 1811, by George and Russell Burr, members of the Torringford company, with their wives, and, a little later, by Calvin and Lyman Corbin, from Boston, Mass Mr. Justus Warner had been in Liver-pool Township, during the winter. of 1810, to inspect the situation, and, being pleased with the outlook, and having corresponded with a Mr. Coit, the proprietor of the township, he bought land, and, in the same year that marked the date of settlement in Harrisville, Mr. Warner, accompanied by Alpheus Warner and his wife, and Moses Demming, made a settlement in Liverpool. Hardly had these families settled down to their new life when the startling news

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of Hull's surrender and the landing of British troops at Huron was brought to their ears. Both settlements repaired at once to a place of greater safety ; but, learning the nature of the reports, and finding that no immediate danger impended. they returned. The news of the disaster in the Northwest was more effective in re-straining immigration, and it was 1814 before the next settlers came into the. county. In this year, the Harrisville community received large accessions, and new settlements were made in Medina and Wadsworth Townships.

The latter township had been previously divided into nine tracts and apportioned to the various proprietors. Number 1 belonged to Elijah Wadsworth, then a resident of Canfield Township, in Mahoning County, and Daniel Dean and Oliver Durham, coming to that town and becoming acquainted with Mr. Wadsworth, finally purchased land in his tract, and, coming here. settled in that part of the county March 17, 1814. On October 3 of the same year, Zenas Hamilton, a native of Danbury, Conn., settled in Medina. A small clearing of some three acres bad been made, some time before this, by a Mr. Hillman and brothers, of Aurora, but, after putting up a cabin and accomplishing this little, they left, and never returned. It was in this deserted cabin that Mr. Hamilton moved, with his family of seven or eight children, in the fall of 1814.

The line of travel toward the new settlements was by the way of Cleveland. Persons from East found it most convenient to take the .established lines of travel to Erie or Buffalo, and then, shipping by the lake, to land at Cleveland. The first road toward the south was from Cleveland to Wooster, passing through the very central portion of the undeveloped country. The older settlements at Wooster attracted many persons, who came to visit friends and those prospecting for laud were naturally drawn to this locality by acquaintances there. All this travel passed through Medina, and Mr. Boardman, the principal proprietor of Medina Township, alive to the advantages of the situation, secured Rufus Ferris as an agent for the sale of his land, and, placing him in Medina with abundant means, set about utilizing the advantages offered by the location of his lands. Mr. Ferris kept open house and devoted him-self to the entertainment of strangers who were likely to buy land, and at the same time pushed the work of clearing and improving the place with all the means at his command. From this time forward, the Medina community was the principal point from which the settlement of the county was directed. In the meantime, Brunswick had been settled in 1815 ; in the following year a settlement was made in Sharon, in Westfield, Guilford and Granger in 1817, and in Chatham, Montville and Hinckley in 1819.

The settlement of Medina County was not the result of a regular advance of the line of pioneer colonies from the .East. This overflow population had found a barrier about the Re-serve," and, passing, into the public lands lying adjacent on the south, had built up thriving centers before the wilderness of this section was invaded by the white man. There were none of the regular class of squatters in this county. There were no natural or Indian clearings, and the certainty of being obliged to soon surrender any improvements that might be made, deterred this class of emigrants from locating. Others who came were brought here often by becoming heir to property located in the new country, or through the influence of neighbors who had become owners of lands. Agents for the different original proprietors, were numerous and were eager to interest per-sons likely to need cheap land for a home. The settlements were thus irregularly made in the county. Instead of proceeding from some' base of supply along one edge of the wilderness and passing to the interior as their accessions increased. the first settlers established

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themselves in the very heart of the county. " Many openings were made at a distance of many miles from each other, necessitating journeys of ten or fifteen miles for the sole purpose of getting some mechanical job done. In getting to and from mill, days were spent; and for many years the nearest post office was at Cleveland, to which place a man would spend two days in going and returning, for sake of a single letter. On such journeys the ax, blanket and bell were the pioneer's outfit, and with these he cut out his road, protected him-self from the rigors of the climate, and recovered his oxen, turned out to graze at night. Where he tarried at night an unbroken wilderness was his inn, and the howling wolf his only companion."* Of the life of this class of pioneers, an English traveler gives a vivid picture, in a series of letters written from this country in 1818. Comparing them with the class of squatters, he says : "The next class of settlers differs from the former, in having considerable less dependence on the killing of game, in remaining in the midst of a growing population, and in devoting themselves more to agriculture. A man of this class proceeds on small capital ; he either enlarges the clearings begun in the woods by his backwoodsman predecessor, or establishes himself on a new site. On his arrival in a settlement, the neighbors unite in assisting him to erect a cabin for the reception of his family ; some of them cut down the trees, others drag them to the spot with oxen, and the rest build up the logs. In this way, a house is commonly reared in one day. For this well-timed assistance, no immediate payment is made, and he acquits himself by working for his neighbors. It is not in his power to hire laborers, and he must depend, there-fore, upon his own exertions. If his family is numerous and industrious, his progress is greatly accelerated. He does not clear away the forests by dint of labor, but girdles the

* Northrop's "History of Medina County."

trees. By the second summer after this operation is performed, the foliage is completely destroyed, and his crops are not injured by the shade. He plants an of chard which thrives abundantly under every sort of neglect. His live-stock soon becomes much more numerous than that of his backwoods predecessor ; but, as his cattle have to shift for themselves in the woods where grass is scanty, they are small and lean. He does not sow grass seed, to succeed his crops ; so that his land, which ought to be pasturage, is overgrown with weeds. The neglect of sowing grass seed deprives him of hay, and he has no fodder laid up except the blades of Indian corn, which are much withered and do not appear to be nutritious food. The poor animals are forced to range the forests in winter, where they can scarcely procure anything which is green, except the buds of the underwood, on which they browse. Trees are sometimes cut down that the cattle may eat the buds. Want of shelter completes the sum of misery. Hogs suffer famine during the drought of summer and the frosts and snows of winter, but they become fat by feeding on the acorns and beechnuts which strew the ground in autumn. Horses are not exempt from their share in these common sufferings, with the addition of labor, which most of them are not able to undergo.* * * The utensils used in agriculture are not numerous. The plow is short, clumsy, and is not calculated to make either deep or neat furrows. The harrow is triangular, and is yoked with one of its angles forward, that it may be less apt to take hold of stumps of trees in its way. Light articles are carried on horseback, heavy ones by a coarse sledge, by a cart or by a wagon. The smaller implements are the ax, the pick-ax, and the cradle-scythe—by far the most commendable

of backwoods apparatus. * * * To-day, I have seen a number of young women on horseback with packages of wool, going to or returning from the carding machine. At some

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of the houses, the loom stands under a small porch by the door."

The political organization of the " Reserve," largely influenced by the private enterprise which had purchased this vast tract, was more methodical than that of the larger parts of the State. This territory was surveyed in town-ships five miles square. upon a plan which contemplated the convenience and success of the people who should develop the country. The township lines of the survey were always identical with the line of political division, and, though it was often found necessary to attach an unsettled township to one more developed, for judicial purposes, it never lost its identity, and was known upon the tax-list and in popular parlance by the name of the original purchaser or by its township and range number in the original survey. In the formation of counties the same rule has been observed, and town-ships have been transferred from one county organization to another, but never divided among several. The first survey of this vast wilderness known as the " Western Reserve" was made in 1796. and immigration invited to that portion which lay east of the Cuyahoga River. In 1800, Trumbull. the eighth county in the State, was formed by the Territorial Government, embracing within its limits the whole " Reserve." In 1805, Geauga was formed. and on June 7, 1807, the counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga and Portage, were erected. The latter included the territory that has since been formed into the counties of Portage, Summit and Medina, with the county seat at Ravenna. On February 18, 1812, Medina was erected " from that part of the Reserve west of the 11th Range, south of the numbers five and east of the 20th Range, and attached to Portage County until organized." At that time there was but a single settlement, and that but four days old. The eastern tier of townships which have since been taken off, had enough settlements which warranted this action on the part of the Legislature. In 1818, the county of Medina was organized as an independent subdivision of the State. The county was then composed of eighteen townships—Norton, Copley, Bath, Rich-field, Wadsworth, Granger, Hinckley, Guilford, Montville, Medina, Brunswick, Westfield, Liver-pool, Harrisville, Grafton, Sullivan, Penfield and Huntingdon. December 26, 1822, Lorain County was formed from Huron, Cuyahoga and Medina.. taking from the latter all the townships in Ranges 19, 18 and 17 below number five. and Township 4 in the 16th Range. On March 3, 1840. Summit County was formed from Portage. Stark and Medina, the latter contributing the townships of Norton, Copley, Bath and Richfield, in Range 12, and receiving from Lorain the townships Homer and Spencer in the 17th Range, leaving the present arrangement of townships.

The population of the county at the time of its first organization was probably not far from two thousand persons, though it is arrived at by simply guessing. Mr. Northrop, in his history of Medina County, gives an estimate of the population in 1818, of the various townships now in the county, which foot up to 2,469. Comparing this estimate with the census of 1820, and it shows only a little larger yearly increase than is shown in the decade from 1820 to 1830, which was very probably the case. But, while the aggregate seems probable, the distribution as given below from Mr. Northrop's work seems quite the reverse. In this, seven townships which were not organized till after 18:30, are credited with a population of 467. This number ought probably to be referred to the whole territory lying west of Range 15. The early settlement was principally drawn from Connecticut, though there were large ac-cessions from New England families that had moved to New York, Pennsylvania and other parts of Ohio previous to their coming here. In Homer and Spencer Townships, however, the original settlement was made considerably

 222 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

later and by Germans generally from Pennsylvania. In the southeastern and eastern parts of the county, the original stock of New En-glanders has been supplanted by a thrifty class of Germans, who, by their persevering industry, have added largely to the resources of the county. The influx of population up to 1850 was regular and rapid, the population increasing from 2,469 in ISIS, to 3,090 in 1820, 7,560 in 1830, 18,360 in 1840, and 24,441 in 1850. Since then, however, there has been a gradual falling-off in the census returns of about two thousand each decade. The reason for this retrograde movement in population is not well defined. It is probably due to the fact that many have gone further West, where cheaper lands may be secured, and to the general fact shown in the census of the State at large. that many of the youth have been called in various ways to the cities. The census of the townships and villages for the last five decades, are as follows :

Investigations into the earlier records of the Commissioners' Court is met, at the outset, by the following ominous entry on the first page of the Commissioners' Record : "Whereas, a certain book called the 'Commissioners' Records,' in which were all the records of the county since its organization, was feloniously stolen from the Commissioners' office, on thenight of the eighth of December, instant, together with certain petitions, road reports, and bonds on petitions, with the minutes of the proceedings of the regular December session ; therefore, resolved that the following orders be entered in a book, to be provided as a Commissioners' Record. etc." The serious loss thus indicated makes the history of tile first six years, among the most important in the history of a county, rest largely upon tradition. There are other sources of partial information, and this loss has been remedied to a considerable extent through the patient research instituted and placed on record by Hon. F. R. Loomis, then one of the editors of the Medina Gazette.

The first election held in accordance with the requirements of the act organizing the county, resulted in the choice of' Abraham Freese as Auditor, Lathrop Seymour as Sheriff, and John Freese as Recorder. The Commissioners were then appointed by the Court of Common Pleas, the members of which were elected by the joint ballot of the Legislature. The first court was composed of George Tod, of Warren, Trumbull County, as President Judge, and Joseph Harris, of Harrisville, Isaac Welton, of Richfield, Frederick Brown, of Wadsworth. as Associate Judges. In April, 1818, this court appointed Miles Clark, of . Timothy Doan, of Weymouth, and Andrew Deming, of Brunswick, as County Commissioners. The county seat had been fixed by the special Commissioners at Medina Village. As an inducement to this end, Elijah Boardman. the original owner of' Medina Township, had offered to the county a plat of ground containing some 300 acres more or less. This gift was subject to the condition of locating the seat of justice thereon. and was made before the county was organized. Lathrop Seymour was made " Director of Lands" to receive the gift for the county. and when the condition had been fulfilled, and the property passed into the control of the Commissioners, the "Director of Lands " was empowered to

HISTORY OF MEDIA COUNTY. - 223

dispose of this property for the benefit of the county. Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4, facing the public square on the west, were reserved for the site of the public buildings, and what is now the public square was set apart for that purpose, and a contract entered into with Austin Badger to clear it. Improvements were carried forward on the property remaining in the hands of the county until all were sold. Among the first actions of the Board of Commissioners, was the appointment of Rufus Ferris as Treasurer, and the providing of a place for the first session of the court. But little improvement had been made in the village, as the property had not been offered for sale. Mr. Ferris had a cabin which was fully occupied by his family, but a frame barn which had recently been erected a little northeast of the public square, offered accommodations which were secured by the Commissioners. This sufficed for the first term of court, when the upper part of a double log house. which had been reared on the site of the Barnard Block, by Hickox and Badger, was secured. Here the court held its sessions until the more imposing structure was erected across the street. Of the present townships, five were erected before the date of the organization of the county. Of these. Medina, Wadsworth and Brunswick were erected in the same year, by the Commissioners of Portage County. The balance, save Homer and Spencer, erected by the authorities of Lorain County, were organized under the authority of Medina officials. There has been no occasion to change the boundary lines, though for temporary purposes, the present township of Sharon was attached to Granger, La Fayette to Westfield, York to Medina, Chatham to Harrisville, Litchfield to Grafton and afterward to Liverpool, Homer to Sullivan and Spencer to Penfield.

The townships as they now stand, with their villages and post offices, with the dates of origin, will be found in the accompanying table :

224 -HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

Apropos of this table, it may be said that there are now three money-order offices in this county, Medina, Seville and Wadsworth. The rates of postage that proved so great a burden to the early pioneers, were. according to the acts of March 1825 and 1827, then in force, "on a letter composed of one piece of paper," for any distance not exceeding 30 miles, 6 cents ; over 30 miles and not exceeding SO miles, 10 cents ; over 80 miles and not exceeding 150 miles, 12i- cents ; over 150 miles and not exceeding 400 miles, 181 cents ; over 400 miles, 25 cents. "A letter composed of two pieces of paper was charged with double these rates; of three pieces, with triple, and of four pieces, with quadruple. One or more pieces of paper, mailed as a letter, and weighing an ounce, shall be charged with quadruple postage ; and at the same rate should the weight be greater." The contrast between that day and this needs no learned homily to set it forth.

The first sessions of the Commissioners were held in the cabin of Mr. Ferris, as that was the only cabin in the corporation at that time. During the next year, two double log houses were erected, which were opened to "entertain man and beast." These were the resort of the county officials, until more suitable quarters were provided. For some years the officers did not reside at the seat of justice, but came up at stated periods, as did most of' the citizens of the county, to transact such business as demanded attention. The contract for the first court house was let to Benjamin Lindsley, late in 1818, or early in the following year. It was to be a rectangular brick, two stories high, surmounted by the inevitable cupola of that time, and was to be situated on the southwest corner of liberty and Court Streets,. The brick was burned that year, in the vicinity of the village, but for some reason, the contractor failed, after carrying on the work for a while, to complete it. At any rate, on the 19th of August, 1821, the commissioners, John Bigelow, Ebenezer Harris,and Stephen Sibley, made a new contract with John Freese and Timothy Doane, to finish the structure. What it was to be, is best set forth in the following article of agreement :

This article of agreement, entered into this 19th day of August, 1821, between John Bigelow, Ebenezer Harris and Stephen Sibley, as Commissioners of Medina County, on the first part, and John Freese and Timothy Doane on the second part—witnesseth: That the party of the first part have contracted with the party of the second part, to complete for said county of Medina, the court house now building, agreeably to the following plan, viz.: In the southwest corner, a room is to be done off by lathing and plastering; the plastering is to be put on with one good, substantial scratch coat, one good and handsome overcoat, the whole to be white-washed ; the windows to be cased, and supplied with window springs; wash-board around the room ; a door to be made, and cased with one and one-half inch board or plank. In the northeast corner of said building, there is a room to be done off in a similar manner. The northwest corner room to be done in a similar manner, and a ceiling of two-inch boards, well planed and grooved, run seven feet from the northeast corner of the room seven feet west, then to angle behind the stairs, until it comes to the wall. The two halls on the lower floor to be lathed and plastered in like manner with the northeast and southwest rooms, and a seat joining on the division of each room. The windows in the southeast room to be cased with double architraves, which are to extend from the top of the windows to the ground floor. There are to be panels under each window ; the room to be lathed and plastered like the other. There is to be one panel door in each apartment, the whole to be made of one and one-half inch black walnut, or butternut, and well cased. There is to be a good, decent, substantial railing on the outside of the stairs, and the whole of the windows in the building are to be well cased and supplied with springs. The whole of the upper story of said building is to be lathed and plastered, and have wash-boards as below. There is to be a handsome circular molding struck in the wall over the center of the court room, three feet in diameter, the center of which is to project and contain a hook of suitable strength to support a large chandelier, When deemed expedient ; there are also to be additional hooks to support the requisite number of stove-pipes. There are to be two rooms partitioned off from a wall which is to be run across the landing east and west, near the head of the stairs ; there is to be a double panel door

PAGES 225 & 226 NOT THERE - MUST BE A MISSING PICTURE

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY. - 227

in this partition. The two rooms are to be partitioned off east of the stairs, and the east room is to contain two-thirds of the space. These division walls are to be lathed and plastered on both sides, and there is to be a row of seats around each of these rooms. The lathing of these divisions must be on good and substantial ads. There is to be a hatchway left over one of these small rooms as an accommodation in case of lire. There is to he a good latch, catch, etc., on each door, of brass or wrought iron, and also a bolt of the same material. For other work to be done in the upper or court room, reference is had to the plan hereunto annexed, with tills understanding, that said circular table is to be made of black walnut, butternut or cherry, supported on logs we leaf to be covered with green baize, to coverdr the edge of the table, and secured by a molding together with small brass nails in sufficient quantity for durability and ornament. The circle in front of the bar and back of the jury seats to be of long panels, two feet and eight inches high, and capped with a decent and substantial molding. The front of the Judge's seat and Clerk's seat to be of panel work in a similar manner; the molding on the top, however, to be broad and answer as a kind of table for writing. etc. The Sheriff and prisoner's box also to be of panel. The other work in the upper story to be done in a plain, good and substantial manner. All the doors are to be supplied with licks and keys, to be well hung and completed ; and finally, the whole building is to be completed in the above manner and style, so that the building, when complete, shall not be wanting in any of those small conveniences or ornaments so necessary in public building. For, and in consideration of the above, the party of the first part agree to pay unto the party of the second part, the sum of $1,500 on the 1st day of December, 1822, provided, the said house is completed in manner and form as above written, by the party of the second part, by said 1st day of December, 1822. The above-mentioned sum of $1,500 to be paid from notes in the hands of the Director of Public Lands against the proprietors of the public lands ; and for the faithful performance of the foregoing agreements, we do hereby bind ourselves, heirs and assigns. In teetimony whereof we hereunto set our hands and seals the day and year first above written.

JOHN BIGELOW. [SEAL].

In presence of EBENEZER HARRIS. [SEAL].

BENJAMIN LINDSLEY,STEPHEN SIBLEY. [SEAL].

DELA B. CLARK.JOHN FREESE. [SEAL]. TIMOTHY DOANE. [SEAL].

It may be well to add that the building fronted to the east, and that the plan shows the location of the stairs in the northwest corner of the building. A partition running east and west cut off the court-room from the stairway and left space east of the stairway that was de-voted to counsel and jury rooms, as noted above. The Judge's bench was in the south part of the room, immediately in front of which was the Clerk's desk, and in front of this was the circular counsel table referred to above. Back of this and in the line of the railing which divided the bar from the audience, were the sheriff and criminal boxes side by side. On either side of the counsel table, were long benches for the grand and petit juries. The rest of the space' was furnished with seats for the accommodation of spectators. In the lower floor, the main entrance was on Court street, from which, a large hall led back through the center of the building between the offices de-scribed above. The northwest corner was thrown into the hall and formed a sort of an ante-room, which opened on to Liberty street by a side door near the foot of the stairs. When this building was fully completed, it is impossible to discover. As late as 182(, the records show that the Commissioners ordered a purchase of 100 feet of 10x12 glass, some iron scrapers for the steps, and some fire fenders for the offices. and at the same time ordered the laying of some stone door-steps for the court house. This was probably the finishing stroke, and were things not contemplated in the con-tract. Before the court house was completed, however, the Commissioners had caused a log jail to be erected on a site about midway of the block that faces the public square on the west. But little can be ascertained in regard to this pioneer institution. It was built of hewed logs, the corners being dovetailed together. Who had the contract, or what the further character of the building was, cannot now be ascertained ; though one of the work-

228 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

men, Mr. Badger, is still living. he does not re-member any of its characteristics. In 1829, the public square, which was nearly all that remained to the county of its "public lands" at that time, was inclosed by a fence. The "Di-rector of Public Lands" had contracted with Austin Badger to clear it, and it had subsequently been sowed to oats and seeded down, and, the year mentioned, the Commissioners contracted with Benjamin Lindsley to construct a fence about it at $2.50 per rod, the fence to be completed by the 25th of May. The contractor seems to have been one of those unfortunate people who are always "behind-hand " in life, and the date set for the completion of the contract was extended to the lath of July, and it was finished then only through the Commissioners threatening to have it done at the contractor's expense. In later years, the fence was taken away, and the square made a public common. A picture of the village in 1840, which is pronounced by old citizens to be accurate, shows but two trees and a flagstaff standing on this ground. Since then, the present grove has been added, and proves a useful as well as ornamental feature of the county seat.

On March 15, 1830, an advertisement was inserted in the Cleveland Herald, then the only paper in this vicinity, calling for sealed proposals for the erection of a fire-proof building, 18x40 feet, one story high, suitable for the public offices. In the following December, the Commissioners entered into a contract with Messrs. (Matt & Bronson, for $699. to erect this edifice. It was eventually buiit two stories high, with four offices. Two were entered from the front street, and, in the middle an entrance and hall lei to the two situated in the rear part of the building. Two windows furnished the light for the offices, and an arched brick ceiling encouraged the belief that they were fire-proof. Tile upper rooms, save the southwest one, were rented for offices to the various lawyers, Judge Samuel McClure having an office there at one time. On January 3, 1833, a con-tract was entered into by the Commissioners with Stephen N. Sargent and Uriah H. Peak, for the construction of a brick jail on the rear of Lot No. I. The conditions of the contract are not fully set forth in the records, but, from other evidence, it is understood that the consideration was Lot No. 2, valued at $425, and $1,500 in cash. This sufficed the purposes of justice until 1851. though not without some risk of the escape of prisoners, which now and then occurred. On July 19 of this year, the Commissioners bought of George Anson 102 1/2 feet from the east side of Lot. No. 75, for $358.75, and at once invited proposals for the building of a new jail, to be placed upon this site, Six proposals, varying from $6.400 to $10,075 were received, and, on the 2d of December, 1851, a contract was entered into with Harris Varnim to build the jail for $7,000. The cells were constructed of stone, all "grouted,^" and the balance of the structure of brick, and is still serving the county. The old jail was sold a little later, to Barton Green, for $900.

In 1840, the Commissioners began to feel that a new court house was demanded. At this time the stone of the foundation, which was got out of Champion Creek, had begun to crumble and the brick to fall out of place, and the Commissioners began to look about for a new site for the court house which should succeed it. Lot No. SO was bought in March of this year for $1200, and, in the following September, the following entry was made upon their records : "The Commissioners. after examining the different proposals presented to them, and, after mature deliberation, have agreed to accept the proposal of D. H. Weed, which said proposal is in substance as follows, to wit: Said Weed agrees to build a new court house for the old court house and public offices and the ground on which said buildings stand, and the land adjoining belonging to the county, ex-

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.229

cept the ground reserved by the county for the jail, which said ground so reserved by the county for the jail, commences at a stake stuck by the said county commissioners, west from the northwest corner of the public offices, and to run north and west from said stake, parallel with the lines of said lot or lots, hereby intending to reserve all the ground on which the jail now stands, and southeast of the jail to the lines running north and west from said stake ; and, also, said Weed is to have the additional sum of $3,100. Said Weed is not to have possession of the court house and public offices until the new court house is finished." The contractor went to work in the following year, and, by August, had completed the foundation. The building was placed on the site where it still stands, and was completed that year. It was surmounted by a cupola which was finnished with a " gilt ball sixteen inches in diameter." Later, the Commissioners directed that the building should be painted with "red lead and Spanish brown, for which Weed shall be allowed $30. but," the record naively adds, " if he won't paint it for that, the Auditor may make the best bargain possible." The natural growth of business soon made the court house too small to accommodate it, and an agitation was begun with a view to secure greater facilities. The object was generally approved, but, upon the means to accomplish this end, there was not the same unanimity. It was finally decided by the Commissioners to make additions to the old structure, and the result has been, while the general appearance of the out-side has been greatly improved, an examination exhibits the old-time folly of " putting new cloth into old garments." After considerable deliberation, the nature of the work not demanding a vote of approval' from the people, the Commissioners gave notice of their intenstion to make additions to the court house on March 30, 1872. In the following July, the ' contract was let to W. G. Tilley, for $17,300. The improvements added two large rooms on the first and on the second floors, that were greatly needed. These are situated one on either side, the intervening space serving be-low as a re-entrant vestibule, and above as a covered balcony. The whole is surmounted by an ornamental belfry. provided with a dial for the purpose of a tower-clock. A bell of about 1,000 pounds' weight has been hung in the tower, and a fine vault constructed for the records and moneys of the county. The whole cost is set forth in the following final statement of the contractor:

To amount due under contract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 17,300.00

To extra stone work for foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .491.75
To extra galvanized iron, work and mate-

......rial ordered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 950.15
To extra plastering, work and material or-

.....dered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 558.60
To extra brickwork, work and material or-

.....dered ..........................................................296 54

To extra framing, finishing and carpenter

.....work, court room, halls, and material.........................1,320.80

To extra painting and graining ......................................310.00
To extra lumber for framing, sheathing old

.....roof, etc ......................................................908.23

To extra labor on same ..............................................800.00

To dratting details of work .........................................100.00

Total ...........................................................$23,036,07

To this there was an addition of $72.60 for furniture for the various offices by the contract-or, besides the expense of superintending the building, which formed something of an item.

The subject of an infirmary was broached as early as 1S36, but the project was not favorably received, and it lay dormant until 1854. In this year, a farm was bought in La Fayette Township, of John S. Jones, which, together with more recent additions, now reaches to 273 acres. In June, the Board of County Commissioners, consisting of Carr G. Rounds, J. 31. Henderson and James S. Redfield. contracted with William Hickox & Brother to build a brick County Infirmary building, 29x59 feet, for the sum of $²,200. The work was completed in the following December, and accepted and paid for by the Commissioners in January. Early in 1864, this building was destroyed by

230 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

fire, caused, it is supposed, by the act of some of the insane inmates ; the building proved a complete loss, save an insurance of some $1,700. On May 18, 1861, the Board of Commissioners contracted with William Hickox for the erection of the present structure for $8.900. In 1861, a two-story brick building, 30x41 feet, was erected by William Hickox, just southeast of the old Infirmary building. The contract was let by the Commissioners on the 5th of February, at a cost of $1,800. The farm is supplied with good outbuildings, including a brick wash-house, laundry and bakery combined, 20x33 feet, an ice-house and milk-room, a smoke-house, coal-house, etc. The farm is nearly all under cultivation ; a portion of it which was swamp land has been thoroughly drained, and has been cultivated for some years. A large part of the support of the institution is raised on the farm, but there is an average draft on the county of about $4.000.

The first person admitted to the infirmary, was Charles Olcott, of Medina Village, who was admitted February 5, 1855, at the age of sixty-one years. Mr. Olcott had a fine education, was a member of the bar, and had served as Prosecuting Attorney of the county ; he had filled various offices of trust, and, for many years before his misfortunes, had been a promiinent citizen. At his death the court adjourned and the bar passed the usual resolutions and attended the funeral. There were forty-three applicants for admission on the first day that the institution was fairly opened, and during the year the total number of applicants was sixty-five. The average each year since has not varied materially from that number ; usually varying at each annual report somewhere between fifty and sixty inmates. William F. Nye, appointed from Westfield in 1874, is still in charge of the institution, and is remarkably successful in his management.

Politically, Medina County is not conspicuous. Like eddies in a stream, it circles about its own center, receiving an impulse from the national political current, but is situated just beyond the broad sweep of its power. Political preferment during the first twenty-five years of the history of the county was looked upon as an expensive honor of doubtful value. The great majority of the people had come from the middle class of society in the " Land of Steady Habits," whose ambition had never soared to a loftier flight than to the time-honored position of Justice of the Peace, Supervisor, etc. The change of residence to a new country, where the necessities of the situation tasked their energies to the utmost simply to gain a subsistence, had not shown a tendency to stimulate their aspirations for public honors. In fact, the office sought the man, frequently " going a begging," and it was not an infrequent thing for a man to decline a proffered nomination simply because he could not afford to give his time. Nominations were made through the nearest newspaper, the. Cleveland Herald acting for years in that capacity for Medina, or by personal announcements and solicitation of friends of the candidate. Up to 1830, the party lines of the two great political organizations had not been very rigidly drawn, in fact, had been scarcely drawn at all, and a candidate trusted for his election far more to his personal popularity than to the allegiance of his party adherents.

The abduction of Morgan in 1827, which formed so powerful a weapon in the politics of New York and in many parts of Ohio, had its effect upon society in Medina, but it cannot properly be said to have effected the political situation here. A paper published at Ravenna in the anti-Masonic interest found a very large support here, but this sentiment was not hedged in by any party lines. Democrats and their opponents, whether by the name of Federalist or Whig. subscribed to both sides of the question, and it was never brought forward publicly as a text. In 1833, when Gen. Dothan North-

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY. - 231

rup was a candidate for Representative to the General Assembly, his friends who urged his cause, described him to the opponents of the order as " not a Mason," and to its friends as "not an Anti-Mason." and he was elected

At this time. the old parties had become disintegrated in this county, and had not as yet become fixed in the party crystallization which succeeded. The question of internal improvements by the General Government. introduced by Henry Clay, awakened a lively interest at that time among the people living in a half-subdued wilderness. Prosperous growth in Medina County had long been delayed by the lack of ways and means of transportation, and this question impressed the average mind as a practical issue, and it proved the entering-wedge which has since wrought such a marked division of political sentiment. The great tariff agitation which succeeded. changed the places of some who had taken the Whig side of the first issue. so that, while it strengthened the line of separation, it made a nearly equal division of the political forces in the county. In 1834. John Newton, of Richfield. then in Medina County, was the first candidate elected in the county, distinctively as a Whig. He was succeeded in the following year, as Representative to the General Assembly, by Philo Welton, a Democrat, who, in turn. gave way in 1836 to Mr. Newton, who was re-elected. In 1S33, James S. Carpenter, a young unmarried man from New York. established a Whig paper in Medina, and through his efforts gave the preponderance of power to the party with which he was affiliated, so that the successful candidates for the succeeding seven years were chosen from the Whig party.

In the meanwhile. just as parties seemed to have settled down to a placid state of routine existence, another disturbing element was brought into the political arena, and rapidly acquired a commanding influence. Anti-slavery sentiments were cherished by the adherents ofboth parties, but, though cherished to a greater or less extent since the date of the Missouri Compromise, they had been kept in abeyance, and all political action based on them was strongly deprecated by all alike. But the specter would not down at such bidding. Soon after the founding of the Western Reserve College at Hudson, in 1828, the Ohio Observer was established as the organ of the Presbyterian Church, and brought its weekly discussions of colonization and emancipation before its numerous readers in this county. In 1833, Oberlin College was established in Lorain County, and its radical attitude in relation to the crime of slavery kindled the flame that faintly burned into a conflagration. Art anti-slavery society, few in numbers' but powerful in influence. was established in Medina about the same time. Among its members was Timothy Hudson. a man of considerable property, and popular throughout the county, who published a small paper devoted to the dissemination of anti-slavery literature. To the sum of these influences should be added The Constitutionnalist, the paper established by Judge Carpenter, which had taken advance grounds on the question of slavery from the very first. With such influences at work among a people of Puritanic convictions, it was impossible to keep the question in political subjection.

In the local campaigns of 1S37 and 183S, there were evidences of a near uprisal of the anti-slavery sentiment, which finally came in 1839. At the Whig convention that year, a disposition was manifested on the part of some of the more conservative members of the party to rebuke the radical wing for their outspoken utterances. The challenge thus thrown down was readily accepted by the anti-slavery leaders, who declared open convention, that no nominee of that body could be elected, who did not subscribe to anti-slavery sentiments. The practice then was to hold two conventions on the same day—a delegate convention, in which

232 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

the nominations of the party were made and a ticket arranged. and a mass convention. to which the action of delegates was reported. This accomplished, the presiding officer of the delegate body repaired to the mass convention, where he submitted the ticket prepared for the indorsement of the larger assembly. The result of the deliberations of the delegate convention, after the bold utterance of the anti-slavery leaders, was the nomination of Mr. Carpenter. When his name was announced to the mass convention, it was his first intimation of the honor that had fallen on him, and he hastened at once to call the attention of that body to his position on the anti-slavery question, and to warn none to indorse him under any misapprehension of the facts. To crown the confusion of the conservative leaders, Mr. Carpenter was heartily indorsed, and elected by a handsome majority. In the succeeding year, the Whigs nominated Albert A. Bliss, of Elyria. another pronounced anti-slavery man, and elected him, Birney getting in Medina County in the same year, eleven votes for President. In 1841, Mr. Bliss was re-elected from Lorain, and Lorenzo Warner from Medina, both pronounced anti-slavery men. In the succeeding year, however, the Democrats succeeded in electing their candidate, Richard Warner, of Sharon, without any concessions to the anti-slavery element. There were several causes contributing to this result, though it in no sense indicated a change in public sentiment.

In 1828, Lorain County had been associated with Medina in a Joint-State Representative District. In the former county the influence of Oberlin had been very effective in molding the sentiment of the home society, and so long as the relation of these counties remained undisturbed, the anti-slavery branch of the Whigs controlled the party organization. In 1842. under the new census, the Whigs of Medina were thrown upon their own resources, and the more radical members of the party. distrustingthe majority, withdrew and voted with the Liberty party," or refrained from voting at all. About this time, also. the controversial war waged against the theological and political dogmas of Oberlin had reached its culminating point. many of its enemies advocating and hoping for the rescinding of the college char-ter by the Legislature, and many of the Whigs voted for the opposition candidate to express their dissent from its theological tenets. It was freely charged by the Whigs that Warner would vote to rescind the charter with the hope of thus forcing their recalcitrant members to support the regular party candidate. The result. however. was rather to lose votes for their candidate as indicated above, but, to his honor be it said, Mr. Warner indignantly denied the imputation, and, when the matter came up in the legislature, worked and voted against the measure. Mr. Warner was re-elected to the Forty-second Assembly, and in 1844, Earle Moulton was elected by the Whigs. He. was elected for a second term and was succeeded by Mr. H. G. Blake, who served two terms. Both of these gentlemen were Anti-slavery Whigs. In the meantime, the Free-Soil party had absorbed the " Liberty men," and. having secured the balance of power, received overtures from the Democrats. Without any distinct coalition, however, James C. Johnson was elected in 1848, by the Democratic organization. though many of the younger members were Free-Soil in sentiment. Early in the following year, Aaron Pardee, of Wadsworth, after consultation with many of the Free-Soil leaders in the county, issued a call for a convention of all persons opposed to slavery, making the ground of union so broad that large accessions were received from both of the dominant par-ties. There was at least one bond of union between the Free-Soil and Democratic organizations in their hostility to the Whigs. and, the younger Democrats gaining control of the machinery of their party, the convention resulted

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY - 233

curse of slavery, they were thoroughly united against its further extension. The result of this gathering was a call for a delegate convention, a little later, to pat a ticket in the field which should express the sentiment of the combined anti-slavery forces. Among the representative men of the different political elements in the later convention, were W. H. Can-field and M. C. Hills, Whigs ; F. D. Kimball, Democrat; Timothy Burr and Nathan Nettle-ton, of the Liberty party. After an interchange of views and a formulation of their purposes, the following ticket was nominated and subsequently elected : For Probate Judge, Dr. Henry Warner (Democrat); for Auditor, G. W. Tyler (Liberty); for Sheriff, John Rounds (Whig); for Recorder, S. J. Hayslip (Whig) ; for Clerk, O. S. Codding (Whig) ; for Commissioner, William Crane (Democrat). Since then the Republican organization has been uniformly successful by a majority ranging from 500 to 1,200 votes. Up to 1824, this Representative District 1 included Portage and Medina, from which two members were sent after 1819. During the four years previous to 182S, Medina was alone, when Lorain. then newly organized, was joined with this county for representation until 1841 ; since then Medina alone has constituted a representative district. The State Senatorial District has been subject to little change since the organization of the county. "After the organization of Portage County (of which :Medina was a part), in 1808. David Abbott was elected Senator in October of that year to represent the counties of Geauga and Portage in the Senate of the Eighth General Assembly, held at Chillicothe, and in the Ninth, which convened at Zanesville, the first Monday in December, 1810, he represented Geauga, Cayahoga and Portage. He also represented the same constituency in the Tenth General Assembly, held at the same place. In October, 1812, Peter Hitchcock, of Geauga County, was elected Senator to represent the counties of Geauga, Cuyahoga, Portage in another, a little later, in which the Democrats and Free-Soilers formed a coalition and nominated for Representative to the Legislature Philip Thomson, an old " Liberty man " and one of "the seven thousand" who voted for Birney in 1840. There was no little dissatisfaction expressed at this arrangement by the older members of the Democratic party, but they were eventually wheedled or forced into a support of the ticket. The Whigs, recognizing the power behind the throne, nominated Halsey Hulburt, another Birney man, but the die was east that doomed them to defeat. Mr. Thomson could have been re-elected, but, declining the honor, and the older members of the Democratic organization resuming power, the coatition fell to pieces. and Mr. James C. Johnson was elected by the Democratic organization in 1850, and re-elected in 1852. In 1853, the Whigs achieved a flual victory. In this year they nominated Dr. Edwin H. Sibley, an anti-slavery man, who was opposed by Francis D. Kimball as the regular candidate of the Democratic party. The latter organization was not heartily unanimous in the nomination of its candidate. He was an earnest temperance man and strongly imbued with anti-slavery sentiments. This nomination was looked upon as due to the prevailing influence of the younger portion of the party, and many of the older members felt greatly dissatisfied. The result was that E. A. Warner was announced as an independent candidate; and divided the strength of the Democratic party. Barney Prentice represented the Free-Soilers and received a considerable vote.

The passage of the " Nebraska Bill " in the winter of 1853—54 heated the political elements of Medina to the fusing point, and early in the following spring a convention was called to protest against this extension of slavery. This call brought members of all parties together at the court house, and, though disagreeing as to the means to be employed to rid the land of the

234 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

and Ashtabula in the Eleventh General Assembly, and took his seat in that body on the 7th of December. 1812, the session convening at Chillicothe again. He continued to repres the same counties as Senator during the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth General Assemblies and was elected Speaker of the Fourteenth. In October,1816, Aaron Wheeler and Amon Ruggles were elected Senators from Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga. Huron and Portage. Counties . They took their seats in the Fifeenth General Assembly, which conveaed in Columbus on Monday, December 2, 1816, and were both continued in the Sixteenth General Assembly. In the Seventeenth. Aaron Wheeler and John Campbell were the Senators, and in the. Eighteenth John Campbell and Almon Ruggles represented the same territory which now included Medina County as an organization."* From this point Portage and Medina Counties were associated together as a Senatorial District, until 1828, when Cuyahoga. Medina and Lorain were formed into a district. This arrangement continued until 1836. when Medina and Lorain Counties were constituted a Senatorial District, a union which has continued to the present, and is known as the Twenty-seventh Senatorial District of Ohio. Under the apportionment of 1871. a full ratio for representation in the State Senate was fixed at 70,140 inhabitants. The Twenty-seventh District, comprising the counties of Medina and Lorain, had a total population of but 50.400 ; the Twenty-ninth District. comprising the counties of Ashland and Richland, had a total population of 54,449. The two districts not having, separately, population enough to entitle them to a Senator, were, therefore, consolidated under the title of Joint District No. 27 and 29, whose joint population entitled them to six Senators in ten years. The apportionment committee assigned one Senator as the quota for the first four terms, and two for the fifth. The Sen-

•Medina Gazette, January 3, 1879.

ators elected to represent this district have been James A. Ball. of Medina, for the first term ; Andrew M. Burns, of Mansfield, for the second and third terms ; Thomas M. Beer, of Ashland, for the fourth term, and Mr. Beer and R. A. Horr, of Lorain, for the fifth term.

The Congressional District, of which Medina County was a part, changed so often, and Medina's share in its history was for many years so unimportant. that it may properly be summarized in a few words. Suffice it to say that, among the more important members of Congress. in which Medina has been most interested, were Elisha Whittlesey. John W. Allen, Sherlock J. Andrews. N. S. Townsend. Philemon Bliss, H. G. Blake. Judge Welker and James Monroe. Of these. the. only citizen of Medina County was H. G. Blake, and him the people delighted to honor. Coining to the county when a mere lad, he rose, by his own unaided efforts, from a farmer's boy to the positions of clerk, merchant, lawyer and statesman. Cordial,.sympathetic and generous in his social intercourse, active and self-reliant in his business. conscientious and liberal minded in his political career, he won the loving esteem of his friends, and commanded the respect of his foes. April S, 1876, he was attacked with the congestion of the lungs, which ultimately developed into pneumonia, and. notwithstanding the best medical aid, he died, on Sunday, the 16th inst., in the fifty-seventh year of his age.

We take the following sketch of his life from the Medina Gazette of April 21. 1870: " Harrison Gray Blake was born March 17. 1819, at New Pane, Windham Co., Vt. His parents were also natives of that State, and had four children, Mr. Blake being next to the youngest. The melancholy and yet heroic death of his mother has become historical, and been celebrated in the literature of the century. In December, 1821. Mr. Blake's father and mother started from their home in a sleigh to visit friends, their journey leading over the Green

HISTORY OF MEDLNA COUNTY. -235

Mountains. The mother had an infant of a few months' age with her, who is still living, and from whose lips only yesterday we heard the story repeated—Mrs. Rebecca De Groat. The party was caught in a snow-storm ; the road became impassable for their sleigh, and they abandoned it. unhitching the horse and proceeding on horseback. The cold was intense, and their sufferings were severe. Night was coining on, and the father, leaving his wife and child with the horse, hastened on foot to seek assistance. His cries were heard at a house in the mountains, but, owing to a misapprehension on the part of the family that it was another person. whom they knew to be out, and who did not need their help. they did not respond. In the morning, Mr. and Mee. Blake were found. He was lying in the snow but a few hundred yards from his wife, his feet frozen, and so nearly unconscious that he could only hold up his hand, with two fingers opened out, to indicate that there were other sufferers. Mrs. Blake was found totally unconscious and frozen in every limb ; but the child was alive, and sleeping, wrapped in the clothing which its mother had taken from her own body to preserve its life. They were carried to the nearest house, and restoratives applied. The mother gasped once after being taken into the warm room, but she died without showing any other sign that she lived through the horrors of the night. It may be mentioned, in this connec that, in one of his campaign tours, while H. G. Blake was speaking. in Holmes County, a couple of old men introduced themselves to him as members of the party who rescued his parents in the mountains.

"The family was broken up by this event, and H. G. Blake was taken by Mr. Jesse Rhoades to raise. They lived in Salem, Washington Co., N. Y., until 1S30, when Mr. Rhoades removed to Guilford, this county. There young Blake, a lad of eleven years, worked on a farm, clearing up new land, for several years—studying, as he had opportunity, by the fire-light, lamps and candles being an expensive luxury. During his boyhood, he at times was sent to school in the winter, but he never had the ad-vantages of academy or college training. Mrs. Blake met him the first day he came to Guilford, and their childhood was passed together, as near neighbors. For one year in Seville he studied medicine with Dr. Mills. and there is no doubt, if he had adopted that profession, he would have become an eminently successful physician.

" In 1836, he came to Medina and went into the store of Durham & Woodward as clerk. at the same time turning his attention to the study of the law, and afterward reading under the super-vision of Judge. J. S. Carpenter. The store was kept on the corner where the Pheenix Block now stands. and it is worth mentioning that from that time to his death, as clerk, merchant, attorney and banker, Mr. Blake was always in business on that corner. As boy, he was bright and active, always able to " hoe his own row," and helpful to his mates. He was a reader of solid books, having little or no taste for fiction or poetry.

" Several years after he entered the store, Mr. Woodward retired from the firm, and young Blake was taken as partner, and, later, be-came sole proprietor. For many years he continued in business as a country merchant, being associated at different times with Messrs. Chappell, G. W. Tyler, George Munson, C. J. Warner, Charles Booth, Chester Colburn and others.

"The law firm of Blake & Woodward was established about 1839. It has been, successively, Blake & Woodward; Blake, Woodward & Cod-ding ; Blake, Woodward & Lewis ; and, at the time of his death, was once more Blake & Woodward. As a business man, Mr. Blake was energetic, punctual in all his appointments, and liberal in all his dealings. His off-hand, ready wit ; his fine conversational powers ; his

236 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

reliability ; and his democratic tastes and habits, made him a great favorite—everybody knew him and liked him. After retiring from the mercantile trade, and ceasing to take the active interest in politics which distinguished his earlier life, he established the Phoenix Bank, first as a private bank, and later as a National bank. He was cashier of the institution, a large stockholder, and gave to its management his best efforts. Twice during his active life, his business property was destroyed by fire—first, in 1848, and again in 1870. Each time the block on Phoenix corner was swept away, and each time it was rebuilt larger and better than before. His will was indomitable, and adversity seemed only to incite him to greater endeavor. To his counsels, encouragement and example, as much as to any other cause, Medina is to-day a pleasant, substantial town, in-stead of a mass of ruins and rookeries. We have not allowed space to fully speak of his ability and characteristics as a lawyer. He was one of the oldest and most-sought-for attorneys of the county.

"From a very early period of his life, Mr. Blake took an interest, and, for the most part, a very active interest, in politics. He was a stump-speaker when a mere boy, and is said to have been a good one. In 1836, when Harrison was first run by the Whigs for President, Mr. Blake took an active part in the campaign, advocating Harrison's election from the stump. Again, in 1840, he was a host in that memorable campaign—rousing that enthusiasm which bore 'Old Tippecanoe' on a ground swell into the White House. From that time forward, he was thoroughly identified with the Whig party, and afterward with the Republican party. He was a popular and an effective speaker. Few could arouse the enthusiasm of a crowd equal to Blake ; yet he never consciously used the tricks of oratory to provoke applause, or shammed a sentiment he did not feel. The secret of his influence as a speakerwas alone in his intense earnestness and sincerity.

"Mr. Blake, with a single exception, was uniformly successful in his political career. In 1846, he was elected to the Lower House of the State Legislature, and re-elected in 1847, the terms of service being one year under the old Constitution. After that, he was twice elected to the State Senate, at the last session being chosen Speaker, there being no such office then as Lieutenant Governor. The contest over the election of Speaker was protracted and bitter. The Free-Soil party was then coming on the stage, and held the balance of power in the Senate. The Whigs and Free-Soilers finally coalesced and elected Blake Speaker on the three hundred and first ballot. The balloting had been going on from the 13th to the 28th of December. The ill-feeling engendered during this protracted struggle did not end with the conflict, but it rankled in the defeated party to such an extent that intimations and threats of resorting to force to oust the new Speaker were freely and openly made ; for days the Speaker carried defensive weapons to the chair, resolved to maintain at all hazards the authority with which he was intrusted. In 184S, Mr. Blake's support was early enlisted in favor of Mr. Van Buren, the Free-Soil candidate for President, and, although he voted for him, the campaign had not progressed far before his preferences were transferred to ' Old Zach Taylor,' and he was afterward an ardent supporter of his ad-ministration.

" Mr. Blake began his legislative work on the day he first took his seat in the Legislature by introducing a bill to repeal the infamous Black Laws^' which then disgraced our statute books. The measure was opposed by Vallandigham and his party, who succeeded in deferring the reform until years afterward. Mr. Blake served two terms in Congress. In 1858, Mr. Spink, who had been elected from this district to the Thirty-sixth Congress, died

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY. - 237

;During Lincoln's administration, Mr. Blake was offered the governorship of one of the Territories, but declined it. He was in the military service as Colonel of the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Regiment, serving in defense at Washington, in 1864. He was at one time Deputy United States- Collector for this district, and for many years was successively chosen Mayor of this village by the almost unanimous vote of the people.

"After a period of sickness, in 1872, it was the hope of his friends that he would cease his unremitting application to business and indulge in the recreation of travel; and his warm personal friend, Hon. James Monroe, without his knowledge, secured for him the appointment from the State Department as Consul General at Palermo. Sicily, the oldest historical town in the world. filled with works of art, and in a climate absolutely perfect. A year's residence there would have been a lease of life for a quarter of a century. The temptation was great, and the solicitations of his friends were urgent. but his devotion to business and his disinclination to go abroad prevailed, and he declined the offer. His name was prominently and generally mentioned in the fall of 1873 in connection with the Republican nomination for Governor, but he positive-1y declined to permit his friends to canvass for him, his choice being Gov. Hayes. The Re-publican State Convention of 1876 placed him upon the ticket as Presidential Elector for the Eighteenth District, a distinction which gave him unalloyed pleasure.

" We must not omit in this connection, while our columns are in mourning for our fellow-townsman who bore so distinguished a part in wider fields of action, to mention that, in his busy life, he found time to undertake the onerous cares and labors of the journalist. The files of the Gazette bear his honored name as editor. We have looked them over with peculiar interest, and find the impress of his character on every page. He slighted nothing. The planting of a tree on the village green ; the election of a Constable in the woodiest township of the county ; the dissection of the latest tariff measure, or the policy of the Ad-ministration, each received due attention. He had the versatility and readiness of the born newspaper man, and he never enjoyed himself anywhere as he did in the sanctum or printing office, tumbling over the exchanges and gossip-about the busy world, its fluctuations and vast concerns.

" He was married, January 1, 1840, to the daughter of William Bell, of Seville, the little girl who met him the clay he first came to town. They had six children, only two of whom are living."

238 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

We append a complete list of the gentlemen who have served the county in the various positions of Senators and Representatives in the State Legislature, Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, Judges of the Probate Court, and in the various official positions of county responsibility, for which the writer is indebted to the painstaking researches of Hon. F. R. Loomis.

The list also includes the residence, when elected, the year of taking office, and the term of service. It will be observed, that from 1S03 until 1831, the members of the General Assembly were elected under the old constitution for a term of one year. Under the present constitution, adopted in 1830, the members are elected biennially.

SENATORS.

1. David Abbott, Portage County, 1808, 4 years.

2. Peter Hitchcock, Geauga County, 1812, 4 years.

3. Aaron Wheeler, Ashtabula County, 1810, 3 years.

4, Almon Ruggles, Cuyahoga County, 1813, 3 years.

5. John Campbell, --- County, 1818, 2 years.

6. Jonathan Foster, Portage County, 1820, 2 years.

7. Jonathan Sloan, Portage County, 1822-27, 4 years.

8. Aaron Norton, Portage County, 1824, 1 year

9. Elkanah Richardson, Portage County, 1825, 1 year.

10. Reuben Wood, Cuyahoga County, 1822, 2 years.

11, John W. Willey, Cuyahoga County, 1830, 3 years.

12. Frederick Whittlesey, Lorain County, 1883, 2 years.

13. John W. Allen, Cuyahoga County, 1835, I year.

14. James Moore, Medina County, 1836, 2 years.

15. Herman Birch, Lorain County, 1838, 2 years.

16. James S. Carpenter, Medina County, 1840, 2 years.

17. Josiah Harris, Lorain County, 1842, 2 years.

18. John Codding, Medina County, 1844, 2 years.

19, Nathan P. Johnson, Lorain County, 1846, 2 years.

20. Harrison G. Blake, Medina County, 1848, 2 years.

21. Aaron Pardee, Medina County, 1850, 3 years.

22. Norton S. Townshend, Lorain County, 1853, 2 years.

23. Herman Canfield, Medina County, 1855, 4 years.

24. James Monroe, Lorain County, 1859, 3 years.

25. Samuel Humphreville, Medina County, 1862, 3 years.

26. L. D. Griswold, Lorain County, 1865, 4 years.

27. James A. Bell, Medina County, 1809, 4 years.

28. Andrew M. Burns. Richland County, 1873, 4 years.

29. Thomas M. Beer, Ashland County, 1877, 4 years.

30. Rollin A. Horr, Lorain County, 1879.

REPRESENTATIVES.

1. Abel Sabin, Portage County, 1808, 1 year.

2. Benjamin Wheadon, Portage County, 1809, 1 year.

3. Elias Harman, Portage County, 1810, 2 years.

4. Real McArthur, Portage County, 1812, 3 years.

5. Moses Adams, Portage County, 1815, 1 year.

6. Darius Lyman, Portage County, 1816, 2 years.

7. Jonathan Foster, Portage County, 1818, 2 years.

8. Jonathan Sloan, Portage County, 182U, 2 years.

9. James Moore, Medina County, 1820-27, 5 years.

10. Geo. B. Depeyster, Portage County, 1822, 2 years.

11. Joseph Harris, Medina County, 1822, 1 year.

12. Jacob Ward, Medina County, 1824. 1 yrar.

13. Philo Welton, Medina County, 1823-33, 2 years.

14. Josiah Harris, Lorain County, 1828-30. 2 years.

15. William Eyles, Medina County, 1824-31, 2 years.

16. Duthan Northrup, Medina County, 1832, 2 years.

17. John Newton, Medina County, 1834-36, 2 years.

18. John Codding, Medina County, 1837, 2 years.

19. James S. Carpenter, Medina County, 1819, 1 year.

20. Albert A. Bliss, Lorain County, 1540, 2 years.

21. Lorenzo Warner, Brunswick,* 1841, 1 year.

22. Richard Warner, Sharon, 1842, 2 years.

23. Earle Moulton, La Fayette, 1844, 2 years.

24 .Harrison G. Blake, Medina, 1846, 2 years.

25. James C. Johnson, Seville, 1848-31, 4 years.

26. Philip Thomson, Montville, 1819, 1 year.

27. Edwin H. Sibley, Harrisville, 185:1, 2 years.

28. James A. Bell, Seville, 1855, 4 years.

29. John Sears, Litchfield, 1859, 2 years.

30. Myron C. Hills, Granger, 1859, 4 years.

31. James A. Root, Brunswick, 1863, 2 years.

32. Hiram Bronson, Medina, 1865, 4 years.

33. Albert Munson, River Styx, 1869, 4 years.

34. Finney R. Loomis, Harrisville, 1871, 2 years.

35. E. Smith Perkins, Weymouth, 1875, 4 years.

36. Alvan D. Licey, River Styx, 1879.

* From this date Medina constituted a district alone.

Under the Constitution of 1802, the Judges of Common Pleas Court in each county consisted of a President Judge, whose jurisdiction extended over a defined circuit, including a certain number of counties, and three Associate Judges, who were to be residents of the county in which they held court, and had jurisdiction. These Judges were each elected for a term of seven years, by a joint ballot of both Houses of the General Assembly.

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY. - 239

PRESIDENT JUDGES.

1. George Tod, Warren, Ohio, 1816, 14 years.

2. Reuben Wood, Rockport, Ohio, 1830, 3 years.

3. Matthew Burchard, Warren, Ohio, 1833, 1 year.

4. Ezra Dean, Wooster, Ohio, 1834, 7 years.

5. Jacob Parker, Mansfield, Ohio, 1841, 7 years.

6. Levi Cox, Wooster, Ohio, 1848, 4 years.

ASSOCIATE JUDGES.

1. Joseph Harris, Lodi, 1818, 5 years.

2. Isaac Welton, Richfield, 1818, 7 years.

3. Frederick Brown, Wadsworth, 1818. 11 years.

4. Noah M. Bronson, Medina, 1823, 7 years.

5. John Freese, Brunswick, 1825, 7 years.

6. Reuben Smith, Medina, 1830, 6 years.

7. John Newton, Richfield, 1832, 2 years.

8. Allen Pardee, Wadsworth, 1832, 14 years.

9. Orson M. Oviatt, Richfield, 1834, 6 years.

10. Benjamin Lindsley, Medina, 1835, 1 year.

11. Philo Weltou, Montville, 1337, 3 years.

12. Stephen N. Sargent, Medina, 1830. 7 years.

13. William Eyles, Wadsworth, 1840, 7 years.

14. Charles Castle, Medina, 1846, 6 years.

15. Henry Hosmer, Seville, 1847, 5 years.

16. Josiah Piper, Hinckley, 1847, 5 years.

JUDGES UNDER CONSTITUTION OF 1851.

1, Samuel Humphreville, Medina, Ohio, 1852, 5 years.

2. James S. Carpenter, Akron, Ohio, 1857, 5 years.

3. W. H. Canfield, Medina, Ohio, 1860, 5 years.

5. Stephen Burke, Elyria, Ohio, 1862, 6 years.

5. W. W. Boynton. Elyria, Ohio, 1868, 9 years.

6. Samuel W. McClure, Akron, Ohio, 1870, 51 years.

7. Newell D. Tibbals, Akron, Ohio, 1876, present incumbent.

8. John C. Hale, Elyria, Ohio, 1877, present incumbent.

PROBATE JUDGES.

This office was not known in this State until the adoption of the Constitution of 1850, and, in October of the following year, the first Pro-bate Judge of Medina County was elected.</P>

1. Calvin B. Prentiss, Medina, 1852, 3 years.

2. Henry Warner, Spencer, 1855, 6 years.

3. Samuel G. Barnard, Medina, 1861, 6 years.

4. George W. Lewis, Medina, 1867, 6 years.

5. Charles G. Codding, Medina, 1873, 6 years.

6. Albert Munson, River Styx, 1879.

CLERKS OF THE COURT.

The provision of the Constitution of 1802, was as follows : SECTION 9. Each court shall appoint its own Clerk for the term of seven years ; but no person shall be appointed Clerk, except pro tempore, who shall not produce to the court appointing him, a certificate from a majority of the Judges of the Supreme Court that they judge him to be well qualified to execute the duties of the office of Clerk to any court of the same dignity with that for which he offers himself. They shall be removable for breach of good behavior, at any time, by the Judges of the respective courts.

1. John Freese, Brunswick, 1818, 5 years.

2. Timothy Hudson, Wadsworth, 1823, 141 years.

3. William N. Pardee, Wadsworth, 1837, 7 years.

4. Edward L. Warner, Medina, 1842, 7 years.

5. Herman Canfield, Medina, 1849, 2 1/4 years.

6. John B. Young. Medina, 1852, 3 years.

7. Oscar S. Codding, Granger, 1855, 6 years.

8. Asaph Severance, Jr., Hinckley, 1861, 3 years; re-elected in 1863, but died just before entering upon his second term.

9. W. H. Hayslip, Medina, 1864, 7 years.

10. Joseph Andrew, Medina, 1S71, 6 years.

11. George Hayden, Sharon, 1817, present incumbent.

PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS.

1. Luther Blodget,, 1819, 6 months.

2. Reuben Wood, Rocky River, 1820, 6 mouths.

3. Booz M. Atherton, Medina, 1820, 4 1/2 years.

4. Jonathan Sloan, Ravenna, 1825, 1 month.

5. Charles Olcott, Medina, 1825, 5 years; and 1833, 4 years.

6. Edward Aver, Wooster, 1829, 6 months.

7. George Tod, Warren, 1830, 1 year.

8. William H. Canfield, Medina, 1831, 3 years.

9. Israel Camp, Medina, 1837, 6 years.

10. Samuel Humphreville, Medina, served by appointment, for a term or two during Mr. Camp's illness.

11`.Whitman Mead, Medina, 1843, 2 years.

12. Chester T. Hills, Medina, 1845, 4 years; 1869, 1 year.

13. Francis D. Kimball, Medina, 1849, 4 years.

14. Henry McElheiney, Medina, 1853, 2 years.

15. Charles Castle, Medina, 1855, 2 years.

240 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

16. Nathaniel H. Bost wick, Medina, 1857, 4 years.

17. Stephen B. Woodward, Medina, 1861, 4 years ; 1879, present incumbent.

18. Charles G. Coddtng. Medina, 1885, 4 years; 18;0, 1 year.

19. William W. Pancoast, Medina, 1871, 2 years.

20. Edmund B. King, Montville, 1873, 2 years.

21. Thurman Graves, Seville, 1875, 4 years.

TREASURERS.

The first record in regard to the Treasurers is the recorded bond of Rufus Ferris, in the sum of $3,030, dated June 7, 1821. In the absence of further data, it is presumed that previous to this time Mr. Ferris acted in a semi-official capacity.</P>

1. Rufus Ferris, Medina, 1818, 14 years.

2. Gustavus V. Willard, Medina, 1832, 7 years.

3. Isaac R. Henry, Medina, 1839, l 1/4 years.

4. James W. Weld, Richfield, 1840, 1 years.

5. Charles Castle, York, 1842, 2 years.

6. Abraham Morton, Medina, 1844, 2 years.

7. Eli Baldwin, Westfield, 1840,2 years.

8. William Root, Brunswick, 1848, 1 year 10 months.

9. Josiah B. Beckwith, York, 1850, 2 years 2 months.

10. Robert Carr, Liverpool, 1852, 4 years.

11. Barney Daniels, Chatham, 1856, 2 years.

12. Samuel B. Curtiss, Lafayette, 1858, 4 years.

13, William Shakespeare, Medina, 1862, 4 years.

14. Joseph Andrew, Hinckley, 1866, 4 years.

15. Samuel J. Hayslip, Medina, 1870, 4 years.

16. Hosea P. Foskett, Medina, 1874, 4 years.

17, Francis B. Clark, Medina, 1878, present incumbent.

AUDITORS.

1. Abraham Freese, Hinckley, 1822, 2 years.

2. Peter Berdan, Brunswick, 1824, 9 years.

3. W. H. Canfield, Medina, 1833, 8 years.

4. Isaac R. Henry, Medina, 1841, 2 years.

5. Charles Lum, Medina, 1843, 2 years.

6.. W. H. Alden, Seville, 1843, 4 years.

7. Samuel H. Bradley, Medina, 1849, 4 years.

8. George A. L. Boult, Medina, 1853, 2 years.

9. Gideon IV. Tyler, Granger, 1851. 4 years.

10. John R. Stebbins, Medina, 1859, 4 years.

11. Alexander R. Whitesides, Seville, 1863, 4 years.

12. Thomas S. Shaw, Chatham, 1867, 4 years.

13. Henry C. Pardee, Wadsworth, 1871, 4 years.

14. Shepard L. Dyer, Harrisville, 1873, 4 years.

15. Chas. J. Chase, Westfield, 1880, present incumbent.

SHERIFFS.

1. Lathrop Seymour, Weymouth, 1818, 6 years.

2. Samuel Y. Potter, Weymouth, 1824, 1 year; died in office.

3. Gustavus V. Willard, Medina, 1825, 3 years.

4. Hiram Bronson, Medina, 1828, 9 years.

5. Stephen N. Sargent. Medina, 1830, 4 years.

6. William Root. Medina, 1834, 2 years.

7. John L. Clark, Medina, 1836, 4 years ; 1844, 2 years.

8. William H. Alden. Seville, 1840, 2 years.

9. William T. Welling, Brunswick, 1842, 2 years.

10. Allen R. Burr, Harrisville, 1846, 4 years

11. George W. Jordan, Medina, 1850, 4 years.

12. John Rounds, Medina, 18x4, 4 years and 2 months.

13. Morgan Andrews, Hinckley, 18.59, 4 years.

14. Jesse Seeley, York, 1863, 2 years.

15. Lucius C. Sturges, Litchfield, 1865, 4 years.

16. Nelson W. Piper, Medina, 1869, 4 years.

18. Samuel Scott, Medina, 1875, 2 years.

17. Oscar P. Phillips, La Fayette, 1873, 2 years.

19. Charles E. Parmelee, Liverpool, 1877, present incumbent.

RECORDERS.

1. John Freese, Brunswick, 1838, 5 years.

2. Timothy Hudson, Wadsworth, 1823, 13 years.

3. Oviatt Cole, Litchfield, 1836, 6 years.

4. David B. Simmons, Medina, 1812, 6 years.

5. Samuel J. Hayslip, Brunswick, 1848, 9 years.

6. Earle Moulton, La Fayette, 1857, 6 years.

7. Ashael Beswick, Medina, 1863, 6 years.

8. M. Irvine Nash, York. 1869. 6 years.

9. Franklin R. Mantz, Chatham, 1875, present incumbent.

CORONERS.

1. Moses Deming, Brunswick, 1818,4 years.

2. John Hickox, Medina, 1822, 4 years.

3. Henry Hosmer, Seville, 1826, 6 years.

4. W. R. Chidester, Medina, 1832, 2 years, ('34 1 year) '38, '40, '42, 9 years.

5. William Paull, Granger, 1834, 2 years.

6. Jonathan Deming, Brunswick, 1836, 2 years.

7. Ransom Clark, Medina, 1844, 2 years.

8. Lewis C. Chatfield, Sharon, 1846, 4 years.

9. Joseph Whitmore, Medina, 1850, 2 years.

10. Addison Olcott, Medina, 1852, 4 years.

11. Morgan Andrews, Hinckley, 1856, 4 years 2 months.

12. Josiah B. Beckwith, Medina, 1861, 4 years.

13. William H. Alden, Medina, 1865, 2 years.

14. John McCormick, Medina, 1867, 4 years.

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY - 241

15. Wm. H. Bradway, Medina, 1871, 2 years 4 months.

16. Alexander Whitesides, Medina, 1 year 8 months.

17. Hiram Goodwin, Medina, 1875, present incumbent.

COMMISSIONERS.

1. Miles Clark, -, 1818, 1 year and 7 months.

2. Timothy Doan, Weymouth, 1818, 2 years.

3. Andrew Deming, Brunswick, 1818, 2 years and 7 months.

4. John Bigelow, Richfield, 1819, 3 years.

5. Stephen Sibley, Grafton, 1820, 4 years.

6. Ebenezer Harris, Harrisville, 1820, 3 years.

7. William Evles, Wadsworth, 1822. 6 years.

8. Wiley Hamilton, Westfield, 1823, 3 years.

9. John Codding, Granger, 1824. 6 years.

10. Seth Warden, Liverpool, 1826, 3 years.

11. Rufus Vaughn, Westfield, 1823, 6 years.

12. John Newton, Richfield, 1829, :3 years.

13. Jonathan Starr, Copley, 1830, 6 years.

14. Samuel Stoddard, Medina, 1832, 3 years.

15. Alexander Forbes, York, 1834, 3 years ; and Litchfield, 1840, 3 years.

16. Henry Homer, Seville. 1835, 3 years.

17. James F. Leonard, --, 1836, 3 years.

18. Curtiss Bullard, Hinckley, 1837, 3 years.

19. Elisha Hinsdale, Norton, 1S38,1 year and 3 months.

20. Timothy Burr, Harrisville, 1839, 3 years.

21. Richard Warner, Sharon, 1810, 8 months.

22. Sheldon W. Johnson, Sharon, 1840. 4 years.

23. John Tanner, Homer, 1842, 3 years.

24, Jabish Castle, Brunswick, 1843, 3 years.

25, Sherman Loomis, Wadsworth, 1844, 3 years.

26. William Packard, Chatham, 1845, 3 years.

27. Lucius Warner, Liverpool, 1846, 3 years.

28. Joseph Overholt, Guilford, 1847, 3 years.

29. Francis Young, Granger, 1848, 3 years.

30. Solomon Halliday, Litchfield, 1849, 3 years.

31. Jonathan Simmons, Westfield, 1850, 3 years.

32. Carr G. Rounds, La Fayette, 1851, 3 years.

33. James M. Henderson, Hinckley, 1852, 3 years.

34. James S. Redfield, Harrisville, 1853, 3 years.

35. William Crane 2d, Sharon, 1854, 3 years.

36. Thomas S. Seeley, Litchfield, 1855, 3 years.

37. Samuel Miller, Guilford, 1856, 3 years.

38. Jacob H. Welcher, Spencer, 1857, 3 years.

39. Arza Pearson, York, 1858, 3 years.

40. John W. Stowe, Brunswick, 1859, 3 years.

41. George W. Wise, Wadsworth, 1860, 3 years.

42. Russell B. Smith, Chatham, 1861, never qualified.

43. Joshua Bernard, Chatham, 1862, 8 months.

44. Wilson Mahan, Homer, 1862, 8 years.

45. Joseph Fitch, Medina, 1862, 1 year; died in office.

46. E. A. Tillotson, Liverpool, 1863, 6 years.

47. L. J. Parker, Hinckley, 1863, 2 years and 6 months.

48. Nathan W. Whedon, Hinckley, 1866, 2 years and 6 mouths.

49. Joseph S Boise, Westfield, 1868, 6 years.

50. Joseph P. Wyman, Brunswick. 1569, 8 months; died in office.

51. Alexander R. Whitesides, Medina, 1870, 4 months.

52. William Kennedy, Brunswick, 1870, 8 years.

54. Benjamin Burt, Granger, 1870, 6 years.

55. F. M. Ashley, Litchfield, 1874, 6 years.

55. Spencer F. Codding, Hinckley, 1876, present incumbent.

56. Frank Mills, Wadsworth, 1878, present incumbent.

57. Sherman B. Rogers, Harrisville, 1880, present incumbent.

SURVEYORS.

1. James Moore, Medina, 1820, 5k years.

2. Nathaniel Bell, Guilford, 1826, 11 years.

3. Whitman Mead. Medina, 18:37, 1 year 3 months.

4. Abel Dickinson, Wadsworth, 1838, 4 months.

5. Abraham Freese, Brunswick, 1838, 6 years.

6. William F. Moore, Lafayette, 1844, 6 years.

7. Zachery Deam, Weymouth, 1850, 6 years.

8. Alonzo Beebe, Granger, 1856, 6 years.

9. William P. Clark, Montville, 1862, 6 years.

10. Flavius J. Wheatley, Granger, 1868, 6 years.

11. Amos D. Sheldon, Lafayette, 1874, present incumbent.

INFIRMARY DIRECTORS.

1. E. A. Warner, Medina, 1854, 6 months.

2. Henry H. Hibbard, Medina, 18.54, 1 year.

3. Hosea Foskett, La Fayette, 1854, 1 year.

4. John Albro, Medina, 18o5, 6 months.

5. Joshua Bernard, Chatham, 1855, 4 years.

6. Garrett Spitzer, La Fayette, 1855, 5 years.

7. Pemberton Randall, La Fayette, 1855, 6 years.

8. James R. Newton, Westfield, 1859, 3 years.

9. Charles Eddy, Montville, 1860, 6 years.

10. William D. Prouty, La Fayette, 1861, 3 years.

11. Henry K. Noble, Litchfield, 1862, 3 years.

12. Roswell Williams, La Fayette, 1864, 6 years

13. Albert Rounds, La Fayette, 1865, 9 years.

14. Lyman Pritchard, Medina, 1866, 6 years.

15. S. H. Pomroy, Westfield, 1870, 6 years.

16..J. B. Chase, La Fayette, 1872, present incumbent.

17. Abraham Depew, York, 1874, 3 years.

242 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

18. Sam'l B. Curtiss, Medina, 1876, present incumbent.

19. Amos Gardner, York, 1877, present incumbent.

SUPERINTENDENTS.

1. George W. Jordan, Medina, 1854, 14 years.

2. Abel Bostwick, La Fayette, 1855, 6 months.

3. William Stowell, Chatham, 1856, 3 years.

4. John Rounds, Medina. 1859, 3 years.

5. S. H. Pomeroy, Westfield, 1862, 7 years,.

6. Merit Nichols, Weymouth. 1869, 5 years.

7. William F. Nye, Westfield, 1874, present incumbent.