HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY - 525

CHAPTER XIV.*

LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP—HOLMES' LAND—FIRST SETTLEMENT—A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION
—A PUBLIC PARK—CHURCH ORGANIZATION—THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

THE first settlement on certain small portions of land in this township, was made by as Eastern land speculator, Judge Holmes, of Litchfield, Conn., in the years that immediately followed the war of 1812. Mr. Holmes was the sole owner of Litchfield Township at that time. Shortly after he had come into possession of this Western property, the owner had a survey taken of it, and divided it into lots.. He caused an opening " to be made in the southwest part of the township, on lots that were adjoining. the " Smith road," a military highway that had been cut through here by the forces of Gen.. Smith in the spring of 1812, and extends from Akron to Maumee City. Among the few. different improvements that were started here by the Connecticut landowner, was a little small log cabin, and an acre or so of cleared ground, set out with fruit trees. No permanent settlement was made here, however, at that time.. The anxieties throughout the country, caused: by the war then in progress between the United States and England, and some Indian: tribes in. the West, kept people from accepting the inducements that were made by Judge Holmes to settlers to locate on his lands in. Litchfield Township. The few acres of cleared lands remained tenantless for the time being, and no further progress in the opening up and cultivation of lands in this locality was made. A fbw years after the survey and the first. improvements of the Litchfield lands, which were, during this time, quite generally known as Holmestown, they again came into possession of the State of Connecticut Under the supervision of a. Mr. Beers. the land was thrown

•Contributed by Charles Nell.

into the market. It is not definitely known that any purchases of these lands were made for a number of years. Exchanges of tracts in the township may have been made between Eastern land speculators, at various times, but no settlement occurred in the territory until in the win-ter of 1830 ; and, from that date, the real progress of Litchfield Township makes its beginning.

Under the Land Company^'s survey, the territory now comprised in Litchfield Township was set apart as No. 3, Range 16. The geographical boundaries are marked on the north and west by Lorain County, on the south by Chatham, and on the east by York The physical features of the township are not notable for any striking characteristics. The ground is generally level, and but a slight ridge runs northeast and southwest through the township, crossing the center road two miles east of the village of Litchfield. On this ridge are flowing wells, which word large supplies of water throughout the year. The soil is a tough clay, and very much like that of Lorain County, which lies immediately west. There is a thickness of eight feet of clay above the Cuyahoga shale at the " Center."

A gas well of some note, originally bored for oil, is situated one mile and a half north, and one mile west of the Center. Oil was brought up by pumping, but not in any great amount. Daring the drilling, gas escaped with a clear, whistling sound, and when set on fire it blazed up from twenty to thirty feet, the outlet being eight inches wide.,

A little stream, known as Center Creek, rises one and one-half miles southeast of the village, on the farm of Mr. Valentine Shank, and from

526 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

there, winding its way northward to the center of the town, it takes its course west and flows into Lorain County, where it enters Black River. During the summer season, this rivulet is generally dry.

Among the legendary tales of the aborigines of North America, which have been told by hunters. trappers and the earliest frontiersmen in Northern Ohio. some of them relate to .a part of the Wyandot tribe of Indians, who frequently located in Litchfield territory and there-about, and had made this a part of their favorite hunting-grounds. Some of their wigwams were seen along Center Creek as ' late as 1822. For several. years previous to that date. the Harrisville settlement on the south. and Liverpool on the north, had extended in numbers and size. With the coming of the white man, the wild game. which alone is the. only wealth the Indian possesses. and which alone affords him a means of earthly sustenance, forsook the localities, and gradually diminished. The intrusion of the white settler and the absence of game caused the copper-colored sons of freedom to desert their lodges in this neighborhood and seek for a means of livelihood elsewhere. No traces of Indians were found by the first settlers of Litchfield Township.

We now come to the time When the first real advance in the settlement of the township was made. In the month of February. 1830. Cyrus Cook. with his wife and one child. arrived from Connecticut, and squatted on a tract of land in the north part of the township. He encountered the same difficulties that meet the settler of a new country. His first labors were the construction of a place of habitation. It was at first nothing more than a brush lint ; the space between four small trees cleared out, with the trunks of small saplings placed horizontally in a fork from tree to tree. and a covering made of sticks and brush. The fireplace was by the side of the hut. in the open air ; a tool chest. perchance. and a few short logpieces. a few quilts and blankets, comprised the household furniture. This was the luxurious dwelling which the pioneer called his home. Mr. Cook did not remain alone very long in the new country. In the May following. there arrived quite a company of settlers from the little Nutmeg State along the " Sound." They were all Connecticut farmers. who had purchased and traded for tracts of land in Litchfield Township before they had left their homes in the East. These settlers were Jonathan Richards. with his wife and three children, Charles, Abigail and Julia ; Thomas Wilcox and wife ; George Wilcox and wife. with two children. Lucretia and Abigail ; Eliphalet Howd and wife : Asahel Howd. with three children. Henry, Elizabeth and Caroline : and Judah Howd and George Olcott. A few weeks after the arrival of these people. Henry Howd. with his wife and three sons—Albert. John and James-from Sheffield, Mass.. came into the settlement snd located permanently. The Howd families settled together on' a tract of several hundred acres of land. on the west side of the north-and-south center road. which had been established some years prior to the coming of these people. while Jonathan Richards located. with his family, on the opposite side of the road. These settlements were about one mile north of the center of the township. George Olcott settled near the center. and George and Thomas Wilcox. with their families, about one mile south.

In one respect, the first settlers of Litchfield were somewhat more fortunate than had been the pioneers of other sections of Medina County. There were already three roads established in the township, when the first settlers took possession of their lands, and commenced its cultivation. The " Smith Road." which has heretofore been referred to. was established in 1812. and runs through the southern part of the township from east to west. The north-and-south" road, running from Elyria to Wooster.

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY. - 527

had been cut out several years previous to the first settlements, and intersected at the town-ship center with the " east and west," or Medina and Norwalk, which had been established several years before. This, as the appended abstract, taken from the Medina County road record, will show. It reads as follows :

FEBRUARY 8, 1820.

Frederick Hamlen had this day presented a petition. signed by himself and others, praying that a committee be granted to explore the ground beginning at the west line of the county of Medina, where a road laid from the county seat in Huron County intersects said line. thence southerly till it shall intersect the east-and-west center Iine of Township No. 3, Range 16, thence easterly, as near as the ground will admit, to the west line of Medina Township, or, if the committee think proper, from the center of Township No. 3, Range 15, in a southerly direction to the seat of justice of Medina County. The Commissioners, being satisfied-that legal notice has been given, proceeded to appoint Isaac Barnes, Frederick Hamlen and James Moore a committee: and James Moore s surveyor. The third Monday in March, 1820, is fixed for commencing the duty of appointment:

The committee appointed for the purpose of building the described road, made a report to the Board of Commissioners of Medina County, on March 2i, 1827, immediately after the establishment and completion of the road.

These roads were of great value to the settlers in Litchfield. It left them at once in easily accessible intercourse with the settlements at Medina, Harrisville and Grafton, on the north, and removed many difficulties that would otherwise have been their lot.

The pioneers were not idle during the first summer of their stay in the new township. Several very good-sized clearings were made, and even a small crop of potatoes and corn was harvested by several of the farmers. In the fall of this same year, 1830, three more families came into the settlement, and located. These were D. Nickerson. Jacob Road and Z. Stafford.

The winter of 1831, was exceedingly mild,and the Litchfield people suffered but little inconvenience from the weather this season. With the coming of May, when the trees were again decked in green, came an addition of settlers for the new colony, from the far East The first two families to arrive were those of Asa Strait and Lewis Finley. They were soon followed by J. L. Hinman, D. Pickett, O. Nickerson and W. Cole, with their families. J. L. Hinman, one of the newcomers, moved his family in with one of the older settlers, for the time being, and constructed a substantial frame dwelling on the tract that he had bought, and which he commenced to clear. On the 13th of June, 1831, an event occurred which cast a shadow of sadness over the whole colony, for the time being. This was the death of little Jane, the daughter of Asa Strait. This was the first death that took place in the township, and the funeral services were the first open religious services. ever held in the colony. On the Sunday following the death, her father, who had been an Elder in a Baptist society in Connecticut, delivered a religious discourse to the people in one of the little log cabins. About twenty-five people, young and old, had congregated to listen to the sermon. Religious meetings were continued in. this way, being held at the different private houses, until a few years later, when church societies were organized, and these met for a number of years in the union meeting-house, that had been erected at the Center, for public worship.

The political organization of the township was effected on the 30th of June, 1831, and the township was admitted into the County of Medina, under the name of Litchfield—under which name the territory was already known, having been given it by Mr. Beers when he first gained control of it as agent of the original proprietor. At the first township election, held in July, there were nine votes cast. E. Howd. J. Vandventer and George Olcott, were chosen as the first Board of Trustees ; Thomas

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Wilcox, Clerk; Asahel Howd, Treasurer, and Jonathan Richards as Justice of the Peace. A commendable spirit of emulation now became manifest among the citizens of the township, to place it on an equal footing, in every respect, with some of its older sister townships in the county. In the fall of the same year, the voters of Litchfield convened and cast a voice in the State election, which took place on the 13th of October. The township records, which had been kept intact, were consumed by a fire in 1879, and no exact or definite data can now be given of these early political events. and much valuable and interesting information of the politics of the township is lost.

During the spring months of 1832. a host of emigrants came into the settlement of Litchfield. In one day in May of that year. no less than forty-one persons moved in, and all had come to stay, with the purpose of making this locality their future home. Such large additions to the number of inhabitants gave a zest to the life of the colony. That public interest was alive is well illustrated by the manner in which the great national birthday of the Amerlcan Union was celebrated in the colony on its anniversary day in the year of 1832. Special invitations and word had been passed around among the settlers, far and near. and. when the sun rose on the morning of the glorious Fourth. the farmers came trooping in from every direction, with their wives and daughters and sweethearts. Nearly all came in ox-sleds the only kind of conveyance in use among them at that time—and a few walked "cross lots" through the woods. They all congregated in the center of the township. where now is located the public park in the village of Litchfield. The oxen —about thirty or forty teams in all—were chained to the trees. There was then but a small space of open ground in this neighborhood. The woods echoed with merry sounds of song and laughter. and the greetings among these people as they came in one after another. were profuse and heartfelt. It was surely an old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration. After the compliments of the day had been exchanged, the men inn body set to work: under the :directions of one or two older men, and "cleared" away the timber from a space of ground on the northeast corner of the Center, where now is located the dwelling of A. S. Jenne. Then a number of logs were roughly hewn, notches cut in at the ends. and in a very .short time four wooden walls arose. .,Before the hour of-noon had arrived. the building had been completed. logs had been dragged in for seats and the."union meeting-house " had been completed. all within six hours. Baskets of provisions bad been brought by the farmers' wives. and, when .he work had been done. they all congregated together in the woods and had a Fourth of July picnic dinner. The formal exercises of celebrating the day and dedicating the new house look place in the afternoon. A few national nits were sung by the whole assembly. Uncle Jonathan Richards read the Declaration of Independence. while Elder Asa Strait delivered the oration. closing up with a proper-reference to the work that had been done by them that day. and giving the new building over to the people of Litchfield for all public and laudable uses. The exercises of the day closed with the formation of a temperance and moral reform society. which continued in existence for a number of years.

One of the features of the day was the gun squad. consisting of Daniel Olcott and Moses Olds. which played a very prominent part in the. celebration. intentional and accidental. The gun used by these two patriotic cannoneer. simply consisted of a chunk of a log. with a hole in one of its ends. in which the powder was plugged, and then touched off by a fuse hole. They fired the gnu for several times with rather startling effect. when. while young Olcott was pouring in the wooden gun-hole another charge of powder, it suddenly exploded.

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY- 529

caused by sparks that had been retained in the wood. The wooden bowl in which the powder was kept, was torn to pieces, part of it striking Moses Olds on the forehead, and felling him to the ground. He bled profusely, but soon recovered. The clothes of Daniel Olcott were set on fire by the flash of powder, in the confusion that took place among the people present to assist him and put out the flames. and every stitch of clothing was torn from his body. He was singed considerably, but not very dangerously. He was wrapped in a bed quilt and conveyed home. The festivities continued without further firing.

For several years following, an annual celebration of the national day recurred regularly in the colony. and was considered as a most eventful day to the inhabitants of Litchfield Township, and their neighbors in adjacent townships north and. south.

A. social event of great. importance occurred in the Litchfield settlement in the summer of 1834. This was the dual marriage of Charles Richards and Lyman Cole, to the sisters Chloe and Julia Peek. The ceremony took place, at the house of the brides' parents. one mile northeast of the center. the Rev. Asa Strait officiating as clergyman. The two young couple at once set out for themselves. after they had secured each a helpmate. Young Cole secured a tract of land adjacent to his father's possessions. and continued the occupation of a farmer ; while Charles Richards. who had quite a mechanical turn of mind, devoted his attention to industrial pursuits. A little dwelling was erected for him in proximity to his father's home. one mile north of the center. and this served him as a home for himself and. young wife, and as a workshop. While living with his parents at their' home in Massachusetts. he had, as a boy, worked in a silversmith factory, and had acquired the trade. so that he was quite an adept in this branch of workmanship. He had brought with him a few tools necessary to work at the handicraft. andfor the first few years in the new settlement, he had spent a large portion of his time in experimenting and perfecting himself in the art. After marrying, he adopted it as a profession, and opened up, as already stated, a little silversmith shop in Litchfield. He built a small smelting-furnace, secured crucibles and other apparatus at Cleveland to conduct his work. The young silversmith soon established a brisk trade, and at various times employed workmen in his shop. The demand for his goods among his brother.. settlers was easily supplied, and he. therefore, sought a market elsewhere. He met with success wherever he endeavored to sell. For a number of years. he supplied the retail stores at Elyria with domestic silverware.

The charm of life is in the incidents and variations that often crowd upon us. It was these scraps of history that made old Uncle Jonathan Richards so generally known. He, at different times, conducted a singing-class in the log schoolhouse at the Center: In his course of instruction in the art of harmony. he availed himself of a short slip of' wood placed between the compressed palms of his two hands, and then. putting the base of the thumbs against his mouth. he blew into the open space between the joints of the thumbs, and thus produced a sound. In this wise he found his scale notes. very mach for the same purpose as the. singing master of today uses his tuning-fork. One of the boys in the colony, named Erastus Dickerson, had acquired this art of blowing a scale upon his hands in imitation of the worthy singing master, and he even excelled the latter in blowing out full. strong sounds. So. upon a banter from his comrades, the lad, who was about seventeen or eighteen years old, arose one day in the crowded meeting-house, while the venerable teacher was holding forth in eloquent terms on the divinity and grandeur of music. and sounded the " sol, sil, sal." of the teacher, as well as his strong lungs would permit. The effect was startling. The whole assemblage broke out in a shout of

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laughter. This irritated and infuriated the singing master beyond all measure. He had the boy arrested for riot and disturbance of the peace on a State's warrant, as soon as time would allow it. A trial was had before a Justice of the Peace, within a practicable time, and it became the all-engrossing topic among the people for the hour. The deepest interest in the case was evinced on every side. Though many ,of the older people thought that the boy deserved punishment for the offense, still the manifest sympathy of the community seemed to be entirely on his side. Lawyers were called in .from Medina to work the case in all its bearings. The proceedings took place in the little tavern at the center. The end of it was, that the boy was fined $10 by .his Honor the Justice of the Peace, As a fitting close to the little legal farce, the witnesses-there having been about fifteen subpoenaed—signed their fees over to the prisoner before the bar. He collected it. paid his fine, and then had $8.75 left.

A source of pleasure and income alike to many of the Litchfield farmers. was the hunting of wild game which abounded in the territory in plentiful numbers in the early days of the settlement It was an occupation that was industriously followed by many of the young farmer lads, and the older ones. too, during the winter months. It is related by Mr. A. Canfield, that at one time they had as many as thirty-two deer carcasses hung up on the trees around their house. Many of the farmers killed from 100 to 200 deer during the season. and venison was the regular fare with them for more than half . the year. That which was not used for home consumption, was transported by wagon to Cleveland. and a good share of it from there transported to Eastern markets.

One of the afflictions that brought about considerable loss to the families of Litchfield. was the " bloody " or dry murrain, which at different periods for several years affected the cattle of the colony. and caused them to die in numbers. The owners of cattle were worried and perplexed with the epidemic, and tried, by all means within their power, to stop its progress and continuance. The cattle, in these days, had no other feeding ground than the woods, and were given but little other nourishment than the wild grass that they could Ind. From this, ' probably, more than anything else, the disease took its origin among the Litchfield cattle. Many and persistent efforts were made to stop the disease and its spread. but for several years it proved of no avail to check the inroads made by it upon the lives of the cattle. Not until meadows and pastures had been established, and the ruminants could feed on succulent and fresh grass, did the epidemic disappear.

A locality about one and one-half miles west of the village of Litchfield. along the banks or Center Creek, became notorious at an early day in the history of the township as a place called

Bogus Hollow, which name clings to at the present time. In the latter half of the thirties; one Rufus Moses, who had become a settler in that region. established a small tannery, and pursued the occupation pertaining thereto. He carried on a remunerative business in this line. . as he was quite an ingenious fellow. and an adept at the trade. After a few years, he added a small foundry. supplying the farming community with agricultural and domestic ironware. He enlarged his industries further by adding a carding-mill, and also a saw and grist mill. The necessary power for his mills was gained by the accumulated waters in the stream passing through a short race-course that had been constructed. There was a busy hum in this region while these factories stayed in motion ; and the enterprise of tanning hides. molding ironware. and making woolen goods. continued for a number of years. The place was of high repute among the people far and near, for the manifest enterprise tbat was displayed and the business airs that it assumed. and it was not until the certain discovery was made that spn-

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rious coin was manufactured here, that odium was cast upon it The dies for the molding of counterfeit money were found hidden in the vicinity, by special detectives, who had been sent from Columbus. No positive evidence was ever established to fasten the guilt of making spurious coin upon any one in particular, and there is no proof to show now how much of the money made here ever got into circulation. It is told that a few of the residents of this locality departed about this time in rather a surreptitious manner.

The place was then given the appellation of "Bogus Hollow." It soon fell into decay, and in later years the building was destroyed by fire and but little in the line of industries has been done there since.

Several saw and grist mills were established in the township as early as 1834. It was in that year that David Hinman built a mill for the sawing of lumber north of the Center: This was destroyed by fire in 1838. Several other saw and grist mills were erected about this time in the township. but they have gone out of use, and no definite information could be gained of the names of the persons who undertook these various enterprises: ln connection with the industrial affairs of the colony, are its cheese-making interests, which today form one of the main factors in the agricultural pursuits of the Litchfield farmers. From several reasons, it forms a. chapter of great interest in the history of the township. The first cheese-factory was established in the spring of 1866, by A. C. Benedict and Martin Brooker. The latter soon sold out to his partner, who then extended his interests in this line still further by building and conducting factories in the adjoining townships of York, Penfield and Grafton. He carried on his business on a very extensive scale, and became one of the most prominent cheese manufacturers in the Reserve. With the. panic of 1873, he was forced to make an assignment of his possessions. The effect upon the people of the township is well described by a report written by Mr. H. A. Leach at this time, from which we partially condense. It is dated November 19, 1873: " A great excitement has just broken out in financial circles in Litchfield over the failure. The news broke upon the public today, and is a great surprise to many. There is no man in town whose failure would have affected so many, and done so much injury to the township. The panic cloud has spread darkly over the township of Litchfield. Though greatly limited in proportion to the affair on Wall street, its effect will be as severely felt by the citizens here. The loss to the people of Litchfield is between $12,000 and $15,000 a very heavy loss to be borne by a farming township, and at a time when it was the only dependence of many. The manner in which the people of Litchfield have resolved to meet the panic looks encouraging. Creditors are willing to give more time to their debtors. Some are trying to sell stock, and some will be obliged to sell their farms, but all have resolved to work it out" In. the lapse of years that have followed these financial disasters, the depression that was caused by them has disappeared, and there is again a buoyant stir and a well-grounded confidence evident among the farmers of Litchfield Township.

The little hamlet at the center of the township is an unincorporated village of 269 inhabitants, according to the census of . 1880, and takes its name of Litchfield after the township. In 1832, there was only one house at the Center, which was built and owned by George Olcott The following year, five more buildings were pat up in the immediate vicinity. About the fall of 1835, Asahel Howd established a small country store ; while, about the same time, William Converse located as a practicing physician. Mr. Rufus Moses opened up a shoeshop at the Center in connection with his tannery, which was located about a mile

534 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

west In the succeeding years, William Horton, Smith Hinman, F. R. Hamblin, Mark Kilburn and Douglas Bradley opened places of local commerce. Within recent years, frequent changes have been made in the ownership of these different stores. In the spring of 1879, the northwest corns of the village was swept away by fire, causing a considerable loss.. It has now been partially rebuilt Among the . different structures—churches, dwellings, stores, taverns, etc.—that compose the Tillage townhall, a solid brick building, stands out most prominent It is of a plain style of architecture, two stories high, and one of the handsomest public buildings in Medina County. It was finished in the fall of 1871, and, after the proper dedicatory services, was given over to public use. A memorial tablet to the volunteer soldiers of Litchfield Township adorns the end wall in the rear of the rostrum in the upper hall. It is a large marble slab. 4x6 feet, and bears the following inscription :

" A MEMORIAL TABLET TO THE LITCHFIELD
VOLUNTEERS."

Beneath this are given the names of the enlisted soldiers of the township, seventy-five in number, of whom eight reenlisted after the expiration of their first term of service, eight were wounded, six died, and four were killed on the field of action. Under this, at the bottom of the tablet, is written : "Litchfield Township paid $14,162.45 for war purposes during the rebellion." Building Committee : John Sears, George R Brooker, James Booth, 1 E. H. Richards, C. A. Stranahan.

A special feature of attractiveness and beauty is the public park, located in the center of the village. The following enactment, providing for the construction of a park, was passed by the General Assembly of Ohio, through the instrumentality of Mr. F. R. Loomis, Representative for the county of Medina, on the 30th of March, 1875. It reads :

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the &ate of Ohio, That the Trustees of the township of Litchfield, Medina Co., 'Ohio, are hereby authorised to vacate and discontinue the public roads now passing through the square at the water of the town, ;and to lay out and fines of a park in the tenter of said *guars, and to lay out public roads around the outside of said park.

Sec. 2. Said park above provided for, shall be under the control of the Township Trustees.

After the passage of this act, the necessary special tax levy was made by the Trustees for the laying-out of the park. It was properly leveled and sodded, and an inclosure placed around it Young maple-trees were set out and the walks graveled. The cost for this work aggregated a little over $300. The park is of octagon shape, :and forms, today, one of the prettiest adornments to the village. A post office was established at Litchfield in the year 1845. Mr. George Olcott was the first Postmaster. In the first years of its existence as a postal station, it received a bi-weekly mail by way of Medina and Norwalk. Walker Cole was the first mail-carrier, taking it afoot between the two mentioned points. At present. the town is a station on the Burbank .and Belden mail line.

A survey of railroad, on what is :known as the Clinton Air Line Extension, was made through the town in 1854, passing directly through the center of the village. Several miles of grading was done in the township, but the project was shortly afterward abandoned. and the railroad embankment can yet be seen in its incomplete state.

The supposition has been quite prevalent among the Litchfield people, that the veins of the Grafton oil fields on the north, extended into the townships. Various attempts at drilling have been made in different localities of the township, to find a productive yield of the oil. In 1855, the Oil Boring Company, consisting of Elisha Rice, John Mattison, G. F. Peckham and J. B. Strait, was organized, and they bored

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for oil in the west part of the town. They sank their shaft over 400 feet, but found but little oil, and finally gave up the undertaking.

The second attempt was made by J. V. Straight and E. Rice, in the spring of 1860, north of the town. After going a. depth of 225 feet, they abandoned the undertaking, as no oil in sufficient and paying quantities was found. In 1876, Dr. E. R McKenzy, W. D. Orr, Norman Nicholls, Philaster Starr, A. J. McQueen and Alexander Brooker, known as the Litchfield Oil Company, made a similar attempt at Crow's Corner, located about a mile northwest of the center, to 'strike an oil vein in the ground. This also proved futile, and no further efforts have been made.

An event of a great deal of interest, and which aroused a spirit of strife and emulation among the people of the township, and which deserves to be admitted to the pages of the township history, is the great rat hunt which took place in the fall of 1875. Two. sides were chosen, each consisting of twenty men. Mr. Valentine Shank was appointed Captain on one side, and G. It. Brooker Captain of the other. The hunt continued for three days, when the sides brought in their returns. Shank's squad returned 5,000 rat tails, and Brooker's 9,000. The defeated side paid their defeat by an oyster supper at the village tavern.

An. organization of considerable social distinction is the Litchfield Lodge, No. 381, of Free and Accepted Masons. Its charter was granted by the Grand Lodge of Ohio at Cincinnati, on. the 14th of October, 1867 Its first officers were J. A. Rettig, W. 3L ; G. W. Noble, S. W. ; J. F. Hutchins, J. W. ; Ephraim Wolcott, Treasurer; D. B. Alcott, Secretary ; E. H Richards, S. D. ; and Lyman Wolcott, J. D. The lodge meets once each month on the Mon-day preceding the full moon. The services are held in the town hall.. The present officers of the lodge are E. H. Richards, W. 3L ; A. C. I Hard, S. W. ; C. A. Newton, J. W. ; W. S. Berdan, Treasurer ; H K. Canfield, Secretary ; A. D. Willis, S. D. ; R. S. Church and W. A. Rising, Stewards ; H. L. Rising, Tiler.

The first Congressional Church of Litchfield was organized in the year 1833, with twenty-two members. The Rev. William Shaler, of Shalersville, Geauga County, was the first minister of the society. The meetings were at first held at the union meeting and town hall, erected at the Center on a 4th of July. Daring the years from 1835 to 1837, Rev. Asa Smith was the presiding Pastor of the church. He was followed by the Rev. Erastus Coles. A separate church edifice was constructed by the society in 1850, on a lot donated by Benoni Alcott. This burned down a few years later, and another was constructed in 1853. The society now numbers nearly a hundred members, and is the most influential church organization in Litchfield Township.

The Methodists organized a church society in the southwest part of the township in the spring of 1833, with thirteen members. The Rev. Mr. Billings was the first officiating clergyman. The members met at the " South " Schoolhouse, at the Center, for worship. Mr. Daniel White was the first Classleader, and acted in that capacity for a number of years. In 1843, a building was erected by the society on a lot donated by Russell Brooker. It was afterward refitted and enlarged. Several other Methodist classes had been organized in different parts of the township, and it was after a meeting-house had been constructed near the Center, that they coalesced, and now form one church organization. It is now a church society of prominence and influence, and has a membership of over a hundred.

In the early church history of the township, the Baptists claim a very prominent share. The first organization of a society of this creed was made in 1833, through' the efforts of Elder Asa Strait. There were thirteen original members. The society grew in influence and numbers in a

536 - HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

very short time. In 1835, a separate meeting-house was constructed by them about a mile from the center. It was removed to that point in 1844, and was considerably enlarged. It burned down two years after its removal, and in 1847. another edifice was built, which now stands in the center of the village. and is used as a house of worship.

The school affairs of the township form a very notable feature in its history. Instruction in the rudimentary branches of learning had been given at private houses, by different per-sons. from the very first years of the colonization of the township. Miss Almira Nickerson taught the young children in the northern part, while Miss Julia Peek taught in the southwestpart. After the organization of the township, a regular district school was started at the center of the town, and the school sessions were held in the Union Meeting House. Delia Beckwith was the teacher of the district school from the time it was organized, and she continued in that capacity for several years. A subdivision of the township was made in 1843. It was divided into five districts. In later years. a reapportionment has been made, and there are now seven districts in the township. The youth, ,of proper school age, enumerated in 1879, number 205. A special and select school is now-taught during the winter months of the' year in the lower apartment of the large and commodious town hall.