350 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE and the leading promoter of amusements for many years in Chicago ; John J. Bagley, of Detroit, exsgovernor of Michigan, who was a newsboy here ; Hon. Erastus Harper, formerly lieutenant governor of Colorado ; Hon. Virgil P. Kline, of Cleveland, who was at one time assistant superintendent of schools, and Edward R. Sill, the widely known poet and educator. TALLMADGE TOWNSHIP. Tallmadge township, in the eastern part of Summit county, was one of the first sections to be permanently settled. Its pioneer emigrant was the Rev. David Bacon, a missionary who was sent out by the parent society of Connecticut in the fall of 1807. It has been well said that this talented man not only formed the first settlement there, but "gave tone to the morals of society" that is evident to this very day. The township derives its name from Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, of Litchfield, Connecticut, who purchased it of the Connecticut Land Company. It was surveyed, by Amzi Atwater, one of the Connecticut Land Company's surveyors, who developed into a power in his community. An account of him is given in the Portage county chapter. BACON AND HIS COLONY. A typical New Englander of sturdy charsacter, David Bacon conceived the project of transplanting his religious faith into this western country by the establishment of a colony in Summit county, the members of which held ideas similar to his own. He therefore purchased from Colonel Tallmadge some twelve thousand acres of land at $1.50 an acre, but before he settled his colony upon this land he took the precaution to procure another survey of the township. It should be stated that Mr. Bacon, prior to settling in the Western Resserve, had labored for five years as an Indian Missionary at Detroit, Michigan, he being the first missionary sent to the western Indians from the state of Connecticut. At the end of the second year of the Bacon survey, in 1810, there were but twelve families in the colony and the settlement formally received its name of Tallmadge. Although its founder became deeply beloved throughout the entire region, he failed to carry through his enterprise in a financial sense. Finally finding himself unable to meet the payments upon the purchase, and being unable to compromise with his business-like creditors in the east, he left Tallmadge permanently in May, 1812, and died a Hartford, Connecticut, August 17, 1817, a man broken both in body and spirit. FIRST PUBLIC LIBRARY IN COUNTY . Tallmadge township was organized as a separate political territory in November, 1812, Elizur Wright and Nathaniel Chapman being elected its first clerk and justice of the peace. From the very first the community showed the intellectual impress of its founden. The village of Tallmadge opened the first public library in Summit county in 1813, and it is still in existence as a flourishing institution. In 1816 Tallmadge Academy was incorporated and opened to students, among its teachers being Hon. Sidney Edgerton, a man of national reputation, whose legal and public life was closely connected with the histony of Akron. The township has also shown extensive manufacturing activities, notably in the line of carriage making. This line of industry was established by Amos Avery and William C. Oviatt in 1827, and among well known manufacturers may be mentioned the late Gen. L. V. Bierce, a pioneer citizen of Akron. Tallmadge was further honored by his residence there, in his younger yeans, of the distinguished William H. Upson, who resided with his parents in this locality until he was about fifteen years of age and graduated from the Western Resenve College before he was nineteen. His later career as a distinguished member of the Ohio supreme court and of the National House of Representatives is nar- HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 351 rated more at length in the sketch of the city of Akron. SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP. Springfield township is chiefly noted for its rich deposits of potter's clay, furnishing as it does much of the raw material for the great manufactories of Akron. Its principal village is Mogadore. The' township itself has many potteries in active operation, and its deposits of clay ane in, such high demand .that some of the material is even sent beyond the borders of the United .States. The little Cuyahoga river, which runs through this township, offers many fine mill sites, but the' water powers are now generally owned by the manufacturers of Akron. The first settler in the township was Arid Bradley, and the first house was erected by him in what is now the village of Mogadore, in 1806. Mr. Bradley was a native of Connecticut; as a boy he served under General Washington and came into the Western Reserve during the year 1801, residing first in Mahoning county and later moving into Portage county, where he lived shortly before coming to Springfield township. The first native White child born was Jane Hall in 1809, and the first marriage occurred in the following rear between John Hall, brother of the infant mentioned, and Margaret Blair. Springfield township was organized on the first Monday of April, 1808, it being at that time a part of Trumbull county. On March 13, in the following year, Benjamin Baldwin was sworn in. as its first justice of the peace. The first school in the township was taught by Reuben Upton in the winter of 1812. Besides Mogadore, may be mentioned as flourishing hamlets, North Springfield, Mill-helm, Brittain and Krumroy. NORTHFIELD TOWNSHIP. The first settler of this township was Isaac Bacon, a Bostonian who moved to Genesee, New York, when quite young, and there became a farmer of means and standing. In 1806 he exchanged his valuable farm in Western New York for three hundred and twenty acres of wild land in this section of the -Western Reserve. A quarter section of this land lay in Northfield, and to this locality he moved his family in April, 1807. For some time after he erected his log cabin, he had as neighbors upon his farm three Indian families, who were loth to leave their wigwams. Not long after he had settled in this locality the Western Reserve surveyors laid out the road from Hudson to Old Portage, and thence to Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon's closest neighbors for some time were Zina Post, of Hudson, and a family by the name of Noble who lived on Tinker's Creek, Cuyahoga county. In 1808 they lost an infant daughter—the first death of a white person in the township. The solitude of the Bacon family was relieved in June, 1810, by the arrival of Jeresmiah Cramer, a brother of Mrs. Bacon, who established his home about half a mile away. Mr. Bacon was drafted for service in the war of 1812, and in September of that year ordered to Cleveland, but he was soon afterward discharged, returned home sick and died on November 6th of that year. At the conclusion of the war the settlers increased quite rapidly and in 1821 the township was regularly organized. Besides Northfield, the most flourishing settlements in the township are Little York and Brandywine. FOUNDING OF AKRON. The physical location of the city of Akron, situated as it is midway between the headwaters of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, and making an almost perfect triangle with New Portage and Old Portage, presdestined it to be the all-important center of commerce and industry, with perfect means of communication with the larger city of Cleveland and the great territory tributary to the lake region of the north. Immediately after the location of the Ohio canal in 1825, there- 352 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE fore, that energetic and farsseeing pioneer, General Simon Perkins, laid out the village of Akron and began upon its improvements. The village plat was recorded on December 6, 1825, and covered three hundred lots in the vicinity of the present great plant of the Goodrich Rubber Company.   The first house erected was the building at the corner of Main and Exchange streets, which was completed in the September after the town was located, and before it was named. Soon afterward a colony of laborers appeared, being sent to commence work at this point on the new canal, and the one hundred cabins which they threw together, although crude and unsightly, gave the place a decidedly busisness-like appearance. Associated with General Perkins was Paul who owned land adjoining the original Perkins plat on the east. These men, therefore, with the one hundred or more Irish laborers mentioned, may be said to be the founders of Akron, its trade, its commerce, and its industries. Mr. Williams had been settled on the site of Akron since 1811, coming to this vicinity from New London, Connecticut.   VILLAGE OF MIDDLEBURY.   At the time of the location of the Ohio canal the village of Middlebury, which has since given place to the more vigorous city of Akron, was one of the most thriving villages in the Western Reserve. Its founder was Captain Joseph Hunt, a Connecticut sailor, whose ship had been captured by a French cruiser during the naval troubles of 1797, and who in 1804 had left his sea-faring life altogether to try his fortune on the land. In 1804 Captain Hunt removed to Ohio, settling first in Atwater, Portage county, and in 1807 he purchased fifty-four acres on the future site of Middlebury, located there with his family and commenced the erection of a grist and flour mill. He did not live to see it entirely completed, but his son, William J.took up the work and made the "Middlebury Mills" famous throughout the surrounding country. A carding and clothsdressing establishment was afterward erected known as Bagley's factory. In 1818 the village was laid out by Mn. Hunt.   In October, 1825, with the commencement of work upon the Ohio canal, ,a newspaper was sarted at Middlebury, called the Portage Journal; and for some time after work upon the canal actually started this point was the headquarters of the many bidders and contractors who were pushing forward the enterprise toward Cleveland. Mills, factories, and machine shops were soon in operation, and at one time there was no less than sixteen busy stores in the village, but with the completiofn of the canal in 1827 ; the development of Akron's immense water power, in later years ; the location of the county seat in 1841, and the completion of the canal connecting Akron with Beaver, Pennsylvania, during the same year—the prospects of the village of Middlebury were completely crushed by the performances of its rival.   EXPANSION OF AKRON.   The territory from which Akron was formed was taken from both Coventry and Portage townships, and its first town election was held on the second Tuesday in June, 1836. Three years afterward that well known and remarkable man, Senator Lucius V. Bierce was elected mayor of the village of Akron. In April, 1865, the first city election resulted in the choice of James Mathews for the mayoralty.   In 1872 Middlebury was annexed to Akron as the 6th ward of the city, and as such it continued until 1900, when the addition of other territory made necessany a re-districting, in which process it became the second ward.   In 1882 the so called "Old Forge" district, lying to the northeast of Akron was annexed to the city. This interesting section of the municipality had been thus named from the fact that in 1817, Asaph Whittlesey, of Tallmadge, and Aaron. Norton and William Laird,   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 353   of Middlebury, had there established a wrought-iron industry of large proportions. This is now a portion of the sixth ward of the city.   AKRON'S FIRST RAILROAD.   But the decisive end of the old order of things for the city of Akron was marked by the coming of its first railroad train, on July 4, 1852. The event was enthusiastically celebrated, not only by the citizens of Akron but by those of other portions of the county, especially the residents of Hudson. It was from the latter city that this pioneer train came directly   MAIN STREET LOOKING NORTH, AKRON.   over the Akron branch of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Road.   THE CANAL, A SANITARY MENACE.   At Akron, as in all portions of the country, the building of the railroads marked the desdine of the canal traffic, and by the late sixties the waterways had fallen so largely into disuse as to become menaces to the public health of the city and the surrounding country. Feeling against their continued existence finally reached such a pitch that in the spring of 1868 the canal banks were cut in three places at and near Cuyahoga Falls, and the waters drained   Vol. I-23   to their very bed. In 1874 the canal channel was also cut at Akron, but; although various arrests were made, no punishment of the offenders was ever meted out. In fact, long before this time, the canals were considered "dead issues." The above may be considered the main influences which have had a decided bearing upon the development of the city, but many details must necessarily be omitted.   THE PRESENT CITY OF AKRON.   Akron is one of the greatest industrial centers in the middle west. As a manufactory of stone-ware, sewer pipes, and all kinds of pottery it stands in the very first class. One-fifth of all the matches made in the United States are manufactured at Barberton, virtually a part of Akron, and here also is one of the most important agricultural implement centers in the country. The civic spirit of the place is also high, and the citizens of Akron have always stood for the best type of patriotism. A striking evidence of this latter trait was given on Decoration Day of 1876, when the soldiers' memorial chapel at Glendale Cemetery was dedicated ; at the time this was the only building of the kind in the United States. Its erection was brought about   354 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   through the efforts and generosity of Buckley Post, G. A. R., that organization taking its name from Col. Lewis P. Buckley, one of Summit county's most beloved and famous soldiers.   The most definite and reliable information regarding the present status of Akronfursnishedshed by its newly organizedd Chamber of Commerce, which issued a report for that purpose covering the .year ending December 1, 1909. It appears from this publication that the present municipal area is eleven and forty-eight hundredths square miles and that the valuation of its real and personal property (assessed at about fifty per cent) is $27,500,000. The city revenues amount to nearly $490,000. Its water works are owned by a private corporation and draw their supply from a small lake fed by the Ohio canal and natural springs. The daily pumpage through the system 7,300,000 gallons. Akron has fifty miles of paved streets, their pavement being largely composed of brick ; aIso 103 miles of sewers, constructed at a cost of $772,000. The lighting of the streets is accomplished through contracts with private corporations, which furnish both natural and artificial gas and electric lighting. The average annual cost of lighting by electricity is $79, $18 by gas, and $22.35 by gasoline. In the city schools are enrolled 9,500 pupils. The value of the school property is $1,200,000. The city has also a well equipped public library or 23,000 volumes. Its thirteen parks and squares embrace an area of over ninety-seven acres and the death rate of the city is given at ten ninestenthsnths per thousand persons. The different sections of the city are thoroughly connected by substantial bridges and viaducts, which are valued at $135,000.   That Akron is not completely absorbed in business and material things is quite evident from a casual glance at the stately array of churches which front many of her most busy manufactory districts. This list embraces twelve Methodist, seven Reform, six Lutheran, five Catholic, four Baptist, four Disciples, and three Congregational churches. There are also six parochial schools supported by the various denominations, and the most widely known and flourishing. institution of learning in the city is Buchtel College, which is conducted under the auspices of the Universalist church.   Briefly returning to the industrial business strength of Akron, mention should be made of several of its great plants which so decidedly loom above its other establishments of importance—for instance, the American Sewer Pipe Company, with a capital of $7,000,000; the Chanute Cement and Clay Products Company, $4,500,000 ; the Diamond Rubber Company, $5,000,000 ; the B. F. Goodrich Company (also manufacturers of rubber products), $10,000,000; the Goodyear Fire and Rubber Company, $2,000,000 ; the Robinson Clay Products Company $2,000,000; the Whitman and Barnes Manufacturing Company (agricultural implements), $2,362,000 ; and the Werner Company (book manufacturers) $1,300,000. Akron has also become well known as 'a large producer of cereal products. Among the largest establishments devoted to this specialty is a branch of the Quaker Oats Company; besides which are the Great Western Cereal and the Pioneer Cereal Companies.. Barberton is the headquarters of the gigantic manufactory operated by the Diamond Match Company.   HON. SIDNEY EDGERTON.   Of the eminent men wAknonkron has sent out into public 'life there are none of whom she is more proud than the Hon. Sidney Edgerton, a New Yorker, born in 1818, who came to Akron when a young man of twenty-six and commenced the study of law with Judge Rufus P. Spaulding. He graduated from the Cincinnati Law School and was ad mitted to the bar in 1846, and sprung into public notice so quickly that two years afterwar he was sent as a delegate to the convention which resulted in the formation of the Free   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 355   Soil Party. Mr. Edgerton served as prosecuting attorney of Summit county in 1852; was elected to congress in 1858 and 1866; became chief justice of Idaho in 1863 ; prepared the bill unden which Montana was organized and served as governor of that territory. Resigning the latter office, he returned to Akron in January, 1866, resuming the practice of his profession, and died in that city July 19, 1900. He was the father of nine children, of whom Mary P. Edgerton is now in charge of the Akron Public Library.   HON. WILLIAM H. UPSON.   Hon. William H. Upson, a native of Franklin county, Ohio, was born in 1823, and removed with his parents to Tallmadge, Summit county, when a boy of nine. He read law with Judge Reuben Hitchcock, at Painesville, and was admitted to the bar in 1845, for many years after settling in Akron being in partnership with Mr. Edgerton. Mr. Upson was appointed judge of the supreme court of Ohio in 1883 and served as judge of the circuit court from 1884 to 1890. He was prosecuting attorney of Summit county from 1848 to 1850; a member of the state senate from 1854 to 1855, and a member of congress from the eighteenth district from 1868 to 1873. He also was honored as a delegate of the national Republican convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. Upon his return to private life he devoted much of his time to the furtherance of the educational interests of Northern Ohio, being for many years trustee of the Western Reserve College, Oberlin College and the Lake Erie Female Seminary. He died in 191o, a few days before this chapter was finished.   HON. RUFUS P. SPAULDING.   Rufus P. Spaulding was for years one of the foremost members of the Akron bar and a leader in the promotion of the city as the seat of justice of Summit county. Later he became a judge of the supreme court of the State of Ohio, and ably served in congress from the Cleveland district during the period of the Civil, war. Reference to him and his work appear in several places in this work.   GENERAL LUCIUS V. BIERCE.   General Lucius V. Bierce, whose writings of pioneer times have furnished much information incorporated in this sketch, practiced law at Akron for more than a quarter of a century and during that period is said to have engaged in as many suits in Portage and Summit counties as any member of his profession. During the Civl war he was very active in raising men, afterwards made an enviable record in the state, senate, and in later years was elected mayor of Akron. He was one of the most respected, forceful and able men the Reserve ever produced. General Bierce was born in 1801. His father; a Connecticut farmer, moved to Nelson, Ohio, in 1816. Earned his living at Ohio University, where he obtained his education. He was examined by Elisha Whittlesey, John C. Wright and Thomas Webb. Judge George Tod became interested in him and appointed him prosecuting attorney in 1836. He moved to Ravenna and lived there until 1837, when he went to Akron. Although he was sixty years old when the war broke out, he raised two companies of marines. He boarded them for two days and partially clothed them and delivered them at the Washington Navy Yard. Returning home he raised a company of one hundred men for the artillery service. He was too old to go himself. He was elected to the Ohio senate by 3,000 majority. Being appointed assistant adjutant general to the United States in 1863, he disbursed over a million dollars. In 1875 he gave his entire property of $30,000 to Akron for public buildings.   PROFESSOR JOHN S. NEWBERRY.   Professor John Strong Newberry was born in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1822. His father   356 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   moved to Cuyahoga Falls, Summit county, in 1824. The son was educated in Hudson and in Cleveland, where he was graduated from the Medical College in 1848. He was appointed state geologist in 1869. As a geologist he ranked among the first in America. He received numerous honors, among them being an appointment to a professorship of Geology in Columbia College, New York. To him and to Professor G. F. Wright of Oberlin, residents of the Reserve are more indebted for a knowledge of the geology of the Great Lakes and their immediate vicinity, than to any other two men. Professor Newberry was so great a figure in the relief work of the Civil war that a more extended biography of him will be found in the chapter of the general history devoted to that topic.   CHRISTOPHER P. WOLCOTT.   Christopher P. Wolcott, another distinguished citizen of Akron, located there in 1846 ; was attorney general of the state and,   BUCHTEL COLLEGE, BURNED IN 1899. Corner-stone laid by Horace Greeley.   as such, conducted the famous OberlinsWellington Rescue Case. He was a brother-in-law of Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, and served as assistant secretary of war under his great relative.   BUCHTEL COLLEGE.   Lombard University, Illinois, preceded Buchtel College, at Akron, as a Western Institute of learning under the control of the Universalist church. The preliminary steps which led to the final establishment of the school at this point covered several years. The first one was taken by the Ohio convention of Universalists, which met at Mt. Gilead in   ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, BUCHTEL COLLEGE.   1867, at which the Rev. Andrew Willson pr posed the establishment of a second co-eduational institution to be supported by his church. In the fall of that yean the Western Reserve Association of the Universalists was held at Akron, and various members of the faith in that city agreed to pledge $60,000 for the location of a college in their midst. Of these, John R. Buchtel gave $6,000 as a building fund and $25,000 as an endowment fund, and was himself, elected president of the first board of trustees, with Hon. Sanford M. Burnham, secretary, and George W. Crouse as treasurer. The corner stone of the building was laid July 4, 1871, upon which occasion Horace Greeley delivered the principal address. The ceremonies were followed by a reception in honor of the distinguished journalist at the home of Mr. Buchtel. In March, 1872,   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 357   the college buildings were completed, about $200,000 having been expended on their erection and furnishings.   The first president of Buchtel College was Rev. S. H. McCollester D. D. of Ohio who served from 1872 to 1878, and was followed by Dr. E. L. Rexford, from 1878 to 1880. Charles M. Knight served as provisional president for a number of years ; in 1897 Rev. Ira A. Pniest, D. D. was elected to the head of collegiate affairs ; since 1901 its president has been Rev. A. B. Church, D. D., LL. D. The original Buchtel Hall was destroyed by fire in December, 1899, but .in the following year the pnesent structure, thus known, replaced it. This is the administration building, as well as the assembly hall of college classes, with the exception of those who are taking chemical courses. For the accommodation of the latter, there is an especial structure known as the Knight Chemical Laboratory, erected in 1901. Besides these buildings the spacious campus embraces an astronomical observatory, the Crouse Gymnasium, the residence of the president of the college, and Curtis Cottage, which was opened in January, 1905, as a; home for women. The attendance at Buchtel college has reached two hundred and seventy-five, and is on the increase. It may be added that Crouse gymnasium bears the name of Hon. George W. Crouse, of Akron, one of the most liberal contributors to the support of the college, and that Curtis Cottage owes its existence to William P. Curtis, the well known citizen of Wadsworth. Buchtel College itself bears the name of him who was one of its faithful founders, supporters and promoters in the best sense of these words.   A WORLD'S INDUSTRIAL CENTER.   Barberton is one of the most thriving manufacturing towns of Summit county, although the territory between its corporate limits and those of Akron is so thickly interspersed with manufactories that to all outward appearances the two places comprise one great busy and prosperous community. In the opposite direction, toward the north, one passes from Akron into the village of Cuyahoga Falls, and it is equally difficult to determine when one leaves the corporate territory of the one for the other. For miles around Akron the country is but one vast hive of industry, and recalls the observation made by an enthusiastic pioneer of the city who had returned to his home place after journeying through all the noted industrial sections of the world. "I came back to Akron," he said, with great satisfaction, "firm in the belief that nowhere on the face of the earth is there so remarkable a manifestation of industrialism as in the territory surrounding this city for a dozen miles ; for here you find not only every form of modern industry fully developed, but also populous and profitable markets right at the door of the manufactories."   THE CITY OF BARBERTON.   Barberton, one of these remarkable industrial manifestations, was founded by Ohio Columbus Barber, president of the Diamond Match Company and of the First National Bank of Akron, and a leading factor in the growth of numerous other corporations. He had been reared from boyhood in the line of manufacturing and business pursuits and in 1890, with Charles Baird, John K. Robinson and Albert T. Paige, purchased about one thousand acres of land on the present site of the city which bears his name. Subsequently, these men sold a one-half interest in this property to George W. Crouse, Sr., and a Pittsburg syndicate, and in May, 1891, the proprietors united in the organization of the Barberton Land and Improvement Company, of which Mr. Barberton was president. Through this active and strong organization many manufacturing plants were established on the township site, besides the great plant of the Diamond Match Company. Mr. Barberton was chosen president of the most of the early companies thus organized and located, as well as   358 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   of the Barberton Belt Line Railway Company and the Barberton Savings Bank. In 1893 the Diamond. Match Company began the construction of its great plant at Barberton, and at its completion the Akron manufactory was removed to the new town. The company named owns and operates immense plants outside of Barberton, in a territory which stretches literally from Maine to California. The Barberton manufactory has capacity for producing two hundred twentysfive million matches a day. Some industrious mathematician has estimated that this output, if the matches were placed end to end, would stretch over eight thousand miles in length, and the product for a year would reach around the world nine times in an encircling band eight inches in width. The raw material for this immense output is obtained from the great timber holdings of the company in California and the eastern states. Besides possessing this, the largest match factory in the United States, Barberton also claims the largest boiler factory in the country operated by the Babcock-Willson Company and employing fifteen hunsdred men ; the largest valve factory (Pittsburg Valve and Fittings Company) with nearly nine hundred employes ; the leading sewer pipe factory, operated by the American Sewer Pipe Company ; and the leading 'soda-ash factory in the states. Altogether, about five thousand workmen are kept busy by the manufactories of Barberton, which have a monthly pay-roll of $200,000. The city also contains 'one of the finest high schools built in the state, valued at over $.100,000 ; an opera house; four hotels and twelve churches. The tax valuation of its entire property is nearly $3,000,000. Four trunk line railroads place Barberton in communication with the great outside world and assists in.the distribution of its manufactories. The rapidity with which Barberton sprang into life, and has continued to grow, has firmly fixed upon her the appropriate name of the "Magic City."   NORTON TOWNSHIP.   Norton township, which embnaces the site of Barberton, was one of the early settled sections of Summit county, its first permanent resident being James Robinson, who migrated from Otsego county, New York, in 1810. Five years later he sold his farm and moved to Northampton, and thence to New Portage, where he passed his last years as proprietor of a distillery. The township was organize on the 6th of April, 1818, taking its name from Birdseye Norton, its principal' proprietor. At the first election held in that month thinty-one votes were polled. In the preceding year 1817, Thomas Johnson had erected the first saw-mill in the township. Mr. Johnson settled at what has since been known as Johnson's Corners in 1823, and in 183o erected the first grist mill at Hudson Run. Western Star, another hamlet, was formerly known as Griswold's Corners, and was located on the line between Summit and Medina counties. Other settlements worthy of mention are Norton Center, Hometown, Sherman and Dennison.   RICHFIELD TOWNSHIP.   The territory now included in Richfield township, as it lies west of the Cuyahoga river, did not become a part of the United States until 1805, and then by the treaty of Ft. Industry, by which all Indian lands west of the Portage Path were ceded to the general govennment. Its first settler was Launcelot Mays, who came from Pennsylvania in 1810 and located in the southwestern part of the township. The township was organized in 1816, and two years afterward Rev. Mr. Shaler preached the first sermon within its limits. The Wyandots and Ottawas, who originally inhabited this part of the county, had abandoned it entirely about four years before, or soon after the battle of Tippecanoe. Like Twinsburg township and several others in Summit county, Richfield is distinguished for the excellence of its earlystime schools,   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 359   among its best known and most creditable in stitutions being the Richfield Academy, which was opened in 1836. It is also interesting to note that two men of national fame had their early training in Richfield township, namely : Hon. Russell A. Alger and Samuel B. Axtell. The family grave-yard of the Algers is at West Richfield and here Russell A. erected a monument to his parents and oldest sister. The township has never developed as a manufacturing district owing to its lack of transportation facilities, but has always stood high as an agricultural and stock-breeding section.   BATH TOWNSHIP.   Bath township received its first settler in the person of Jason Hammond in the year 1810. It was originally called Wheatfield, but with the coming of the Hammonds and their prominence in its affairs the name gradually disappeared and the entire township was for many years known as Hammondsburg. Deacon Jonathan Hale and Mr. Hammond left Connecticut within four days of each other, Mr. Hale filing the second claim in the township. Upon its political organization` in 1818, it was Deacon Hale who was the means of giving it its present name, Bath. At the first meeting of town officers one of the questions put was, What shall it be called, and Mr. Hale spoke emphatically as follows : "Call it Jerusalem, or Jericho, or Bath, or anything but Hammondsburg," and the majority voted to have it christened Bath.   When Messrs. Hammond and Hale located in the township, the Cuyahoga valley was inhabited by a band of Ottawa Indians, the chief of which was Skikellimus, the father of the famous Logan. The present hamlet of Hammond Corners was named after the pioneer settler of Bath township. Ghent is a flourishing hamlet, in which are several saw and grist mills and evidences of considerable business.   COPLEY TOWNSHIP.   The territory now included within Copley township originally fell to Gardner Green and others of Boston, and was first called Greenfield and later it was christened' Copley in honor of Mr. Green's wife, who was a descendant of the English lord, Copley. Its first settler was Jonah Turner, a Pennsylvanian who located therein during 1814. Mr. Turner first visited the locality of his future home during the war of 1812, when, as a member of a Pennsylvania battalion, he encamped on the ground upon which the year after he built his log cabin. Copley township was organized in 1819 as a portion of Medina county, but its first real claim to distinction did not materialize until ten years later. On the 29th of January, 1829, at the log school house, on the northwest corner of the township, was organized the first temperance society in the state of Ohio which was founded upon a constitution. The question of temperance, and even prohibition, had agitated Hudson and Tallmadge several years before. Harvey Baldwin, of the former village, "had gone so far as to refuse ardent spirits on the raising of a cider press," but until the date mentioned there is no record of any temperance society having been organized under a formal constitution. Although this is a matter of undisputed record, it is also known that as early as. 1820 Chauncey and William David had erected a distillery in Copley township, which was operated constantly and with profit until May, 1852. Three other establishments of a like nature were started and supported in this locality ; so that Copley township had a mixed reputation of being a favorable ground both for the agitation of the "wet" and "dry" side of the question.   TWINSBURG TOWNSHIP.   Twinsburg township derives its chief personal interest from the facts connected with its christening, and the founding of a school   360 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   of higher learning, known as the Twinsburg Institution, which for many years enjoyed a widespread reputation among religious and intellectual people. The "twins" who determined the name of the township were Moses and Aaron Wilcox, who were the original proprietors of its northeast section. They came from North Killingsworth, Connecticut, in 1823, having four years previously donated six acres of their land in the center of the township that they might have the honor of thus christening this portion of Summit county. Previous to this time it was called Millsvilie. The Wilcox twins were born on the 11th of May, 1771. They ,marnied sisters, Hulda and Mable Lord, of Killingsworth ; died in 1828, within a few hours of each other and were buried in the same grave near Twinsburg Center. As an addition to this singular record, it has been stated that in early life they so resembled each other that none but their most intimate friends could distinguish them. They not only married sisters, but had an equal number of children ; held all their property in common ; their penmanship could scarcely be distinguished ; their thoughts were similar, as well as their looks ; they were taken sick on the same day with the same disease, and, as stated, passed away within a few hours of each other.   THE TWINSBURG INSTITUTE.   The Twinsburg Institute, mentioned above, was founded by Rev. Samuel Bissell, a Yale graduate of 1823 who received his license to preach two years afterward, and in January, 1828, delivered the first sermon in Twinsburg township to a society recently formed at Aurora. He removed from Aurora to Twinsburg Center in the following April and was installed as pastor of the church at that point, taking with him four young men as the nucleus of a projected high school. He fitted up a rude log cabin for their residence, and a blacksmith shop was made into an academy. This was the foundation of the Twinsburg Institution, which developed into a modern co lege of three hundred students within the next forty years. During the autumn of. its initial year the enrollment had increased to one hundred and forty and in 1831, through the labors of Mr. Bissell, an edifice was erected which served for a number of years both for a church and an academy. In 1837 a separate structure was erected for the institution, and to this additions were made from time to time, until three buildings of considerable size had been provided for the accommodation of the students and faculty. In the course of time, with the springing up of -more wealthy institutions of learning and the decrease of. attendance because of the Civil war, the Twinsburg Institution suffered a serious decline ; but its founder showed a bravery not excelled by any soldier on the battle field. In 1866, then seventy years of age, without means and with but little income, he erected a new stone building two stories in height, literally with his own hands, .although he had never had experience or training as a mechanic. In course of time, however, the building was in such condition as to comfortably provide for one hundred students, and Mr. Bissell had the satisfaction of seeing the usefulness of his institute restored, although he was obliged, after a few years, on account of age, to abandon the project which had been the proudest work of his life. During its existence, it is estimated that the Twinsburg Institute educated fully six thousand students, among whom were more than two hundred Indians drawn principally from the Senecas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies and Ojibways. Mr. Bissell died in 1895, at the age of ninety-eight years.   CREATORS OF AKRON. AND SUMMIT COUNTY.   As more than intimated, Dr. Eliakim Crosby was the real father of Akron, his claims to paternity having been undisputed after, mainly through his efforts, the city became the seat of justice of Summit county. In 1840 his offer of two thousand dollars toward the erec-   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 361   tion of official buildings, provided his town secured the coveted honor, was considered quite munificent. A bitter opposition to the creation of the new county of Summit was organized throughout Medina; Lorain, Portage and Stark counties, whose choice farming territory was threatened ; but, through a political combination between the Whigs of Akron and the Democrats of Portage county, led by Dr. Crosby, Colonel Simon Perkins (the state senator) and Hon. Rufus P. Spalding (the representative), the legislative act was passed and signed, in the winter and spring of 1840, by which Summit county be-   SUMMIT COUNTY'S OLD AND NEW COURT HOUSES.   came a political unit of the state. As it emsbraced the summit, or divide of the waterbed between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, well as the most elevated level of the Ohio al (which stretches without a lock from e southern part of Akron to New Portage, d was designated as the Summit level), the me adopted for the county was unavoidable d most appropriate. Judge Spalding is said have drawn the creative act and, with Dr. rosby and ,Colonel Perkins to have presided the christening.   AKRON VS. CUYAHOGA FALLS.   The contest for the location of the county seat was lively in the most practical sense of the word, the oratorical champion of Cuyahoga Falls being Senator Elisha N. Sill and of Akron, Judge Spalding. The Whigs centered at the Falls and the People's Party, at Akron, and the county offices were divided between the two rivals until the April election of 1842, at which the dispute was submitted to popular vote. The result was to give Akron 2,978 votes and Cuyahoga Falls, 1,384, with 125 scattering. In December, 1843, a court house was erected on the commanding eminence just east of the present stately structure. Accepted by the county commissioners under protest, by dint of constant repairs and several additions (with trust in Providence) it was occupied, without loss of life, for sixty-four years. In 1907 the county building of the present was completed at a cost of three hundred thousand dollars.   COUNTY CHARITIES.   In 1849 the County Infirmary was located about two miles west of Akron, the entire   362 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE       poor farm then consisting of one hundred and fifty acres. In 1864 the little frame building of the early days was replaced by a substantial brick structure. Repeated additions have been made both to building and grounds, until today the land amounts to more than two hundred acres, and the infirmary structure is all that modern requirements can desire. The Children's Home, another beneficial county institution, was established in 1882, and is located in the southeastern part of the city.   FAMOUS AKRON SCHOOL LAW.   The schools of Summit county have always had high reputation, both from standpoints of attendance and teaching efficiency. The latest official figures show that 136 teachers are employed ; that the value of school property is $1,485,600, and that the daily average attendance of pupils is 12,871. But by far the greatest honor which attaches to the public schools of Summit county is the fact that the city of Akron has given to the entire state a system of popular education which is acknowledged by experts to be a model. Its author was Rev. Isaac Jennings, then pastor of a Congregational church of that city. He it was who started the movement for an improvement of local educational facilities, inspired and guided numerous public meetings, and, with the assistance of such citizens as R. P. Spalding, L. V. Bierce and H. W. King, formulated a legislative act which, in 1847, became the famous Akron School Law.   It created one school district for each town, and a school board of six members ; authorized a suitable number of primary schools and one central grammar school, or gave power to raise money by taxation for the same. Under the Akron law M. D. Leggett organized the Akron schools, and became superintendent. He received five hundred dollars a year salary, and a little later J. D. Cox, who was afterward governor and secretary of the interior, received six hundred dollars for the same service in Warren.   Akron ought to be proud of another thin connected with public education. In 1847 the Ohio State Teachers' Association was organized there. So not only did these two things reflect to Akron's credit, but to the Reserve as well   NEWSPAPERS OF SUMMIT COUNTY.   The press of Summit county had its inception in the founding of the Ohio Canal Advocate, by Laurin Dewey, in 1825. He was a practical printer and country editor from Ravenna. The paper was discontinued in 1829, when it became evident that Akron was to be the live town on the route of the canal. Soon after the incorporation of that place, in 1836, Madison H. White, of Medina, moved Akron and established the Post. The Western Intelligencer had already come into existence at Hudson (in 1827) and the Ohio Observer at Cuyahoga Falls (1832). In 1837 Samuel A. Lane established the Buzzard at Akron, which was transformed into the Summit Be con a few years thereafter, and has come dow to the present in the form of the Beaco Journal, now a flourishing daily, founded as such in 1869. The Beacon Journal absorbe the Daily Republican in 1891.   The Akron Times, the leading Democratic paper, is founded on the American Democrat, first issued by Horace Canfield in 1842. I 1849 he associated himself with Sidney Edgerton in the publication of the Free Democrat which, under a succession of names, was merged into the Akron Weekly Times in 1867. The daily edition was started in 1892. The Germania, which so well represents the large German element of the city and county, was `founded by H. Gentz, in 1868. The Reporter of Cuyahoga Falls, founded in 187o, has been mentioned as one of the old-time publication of the county. The Hudson Independent was founded in 1896 ; the Barberton. News in 1892, and the Barberton Leader in 1894; the Akron Press in 1892, and the India Rubber Review   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 363   Monthly (a flourishing organ of the great industry indicated), in 1901.   BANKS OF THE COUNTY.   With the organization of the Bank. of Akron, in 1845, Summit county became a fixture in the financial world. This institution endured until 1857, when it went down with the Akron Branch railroad. In the meantime, Messrs. George D. Bates and Philo Chamberlain, who had opened a private bank, purchased the old building of the Bank of Akron and continued in business until 1864, when it was merged with the Second National Bank. The First National had b,een established in the previous year, and both are still leaders in the finances of the Western Reserve—the Second, with a capital of $350,000, and the First, with $100,000. Other financial institutions are the following : National City Bank of Akron, founded in 1883 and now capitalized at $100,000; People's Savings Bank of that city, established in 1890, capital $50,000; Clinton Savings Bank, of the same year and capital ; Barberton Savings Bank, established in 1891, capital $50,000; the Central Savings and Trust Company, of Akron, which commenced business in 1904 and has a capital of $100,000; as well as the Commercial Savings, Depositors Savings, Dime Savings and Dollar Savings banks, all of Akron ; and the Cuyahoga Falls Savings Bank.   THE COUNTY 1N THE CIVIL WAR.   A long, bright and interesting chapter might be written on the patriotism of Summit county and the part taken by her sons in all the wars from 1812 to 1898. To the active, great and terrible arena of the Civil war she nobly sent forth her youth, her young and her strong men. Companies G and K, of the Nineteenth regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry ; D, G and H, of the Twenty-ninth ; the Sixth Ohio Battery ; Company H, of the One Hundred and Fourth, and various portions of the One Hundred and Fifteenth, Second Ohio Cavalry, First Ohio Light Artillery, Sixty-seventh Infantry (Colonel A. C. Voris), and the One Hundred and. Sixty-fourth—were well represented by Summit county heroes. In the Spanish-Ameridan war Company B, of the Eighth Infantry, and Battery F, First Regiment Light Artillery, O. N. G., were organized in Akron. The Eighth mobilized at Akron and saw special guard duty in Cuba. This command was among the first in the United States to respond to President McKinley's call for troops. It should be added that the Eighth Regimental Band was composed mostly of Akron musicians. Although Battery F did not serve under the first presidential call, it was later mustered into service and gave a good account of itself.   CHAPTER. XXIV.   MEDINA COUNTY.   Medina county lies south of Lorain and Cuyahoga, west of Summit and east of Lorain and Ashland, its southern boundary being the forty-foot parallel. It has seventeen townships. Its general form is that of a rectangle, and its area is more than 260,000 acres. The origin of Black river is found in the western part of the county in a swamp of some 2,000 acres lying in Harrisville township, while Rocky river, the most important of its streams, has its source near Montville at the foot of the highlands found in that locality. A number of small creeks flowing into the Muskingum river drain the county toward the south, so that both Medina and Summit counties embrace the distinct divide between the streams which flow toward the Great Lakes and the Ohio valley. Unlike Summit county, Medina is almost devoid of lakes, the only exception being the small body of water on the boundary line between La Fayette and Westfield townships, which discharges into Chippewa river. Wadsworth Run is located on the highest rise of land in the county, 1,349 feet above sea level.   PIONEER SETTLERS.   It is said that the earliest trace of the white man in Medina county was found by the first permanent settlers in Wadsworth township. On the west bank of Holmes Brook, the first comers to that section of the township found a large beech tree in whose giant body was deeply cut the inscription, "Philip Ward, 1797"; under this name were the initials, T. D., R. C., W. V. Who Philip Ward was, what brought him and his companions to this spot, is not known: They may have been hunters or some of the Connecticut surveyors prospecting.   Judge Joseph Harris was Medina's pioneer. He was a native of Connecticut and when he came west located in Randolph. He was an agent of the Connecticut Land Company and agreed to take two hundred acres of land in payment for his services ; he visited Medina county, chose his land thene, staked out his claims, built a cabin and named the place Harrisville. The following year his family joined him.   The organization formed to develop this part of the country was known as the Torrington Company, and in June, 1811, George and Russell Burr, with their wives, and Calvin and Lyman Corbin—the latter fnom Boston, Massachusetts—joined Mr. Harris and his family.   FIRST NATIVE WHITE CHILD.   About this time the Warners and others located in Liverpool township. A daughter of this family, Sally Urania Warner, was the first child born in Medina county, the day of her birth, June 1812. She was large and strong physically, and was a good shot. She had two children, one a dwarf and the other, who married a man named Noble, was murdered by her husband. She rather dominated her husband but grieved greatly at his death. "She inscribed on his grave stone: 'The beloved husband of SALLY U. WARNER, her   - 364 -   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 365   name being in such large characters-it is often taken for her tombstone."     INCREASE IN POPULATION.   "Medina county was named for an Arabian city. It was erected from Cuyahoga and Portage in 1812, but was not organized until 1818. The population of the county at the time of its onganization was probably not far from two thousand persons. Mr. Northrup, in his history of Medina county, estimates the population of the various townships at that date as 2,469. Comparing this estimate with the census of 1820, it shows only a little larger   MEDINA COUNTY COURT HOUSE.   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. Nonthnup's work seems quite the reverse. In this, seven townships which were not organized till after 1830, are credited with a population of 467. The 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 later, and by Germans generally from Pennsylvania. In the southeastern and eastern parts the original stock of New Englandens 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 1818, to 3,090 in 1820 ; 7,560 in 1830 ; 18,360 in 1840; 24,441 in 1850 ; 21,958 in 1900.   The townships as they now stand, with their dates of organization, are as follows : Liverpool, 1816 ; Harrisville, 1817 ;Brunswick, 1818 ; Medina, 1818; Wadsworth, 1818; Guilford, 1819; Montville, 1820; Westfield, 1820; Geauga, 1820; Hinckley, 1825 ; Sharon, 1830; Litchfield, 1831; Spencer, 1832 ; York, 1832 ; La Fayette, 1832 ; Chatham, 1833 ; Homer. 1833.   366 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   FIRST SURVEYS.   Captain Bela Hubbard, of Randolph, surveyed the first road in Wadsworth. David Hudson, of Hudson ; General Campbell, of Ravenna, and Mr. Day, of Deerfield, all of whom figured in the early history of Portage, were the explorers. This party named the streams in the vicinity. Finding a deer's carcass, which was the work of wolves on the bank of a stream, they called it Wolf creek. A run they named for David Hudson.   James. Redfield, of Harrisville was a famous wolf catcher. "To encourage the young people in getting married he said he caught wolves to get money to pay the minister."   THE WAR OF 1812.   The war of 1812 interfered with the settling of Medina, as it did of the whole Reserve. At that date there were only three or four families residing in the county.   On the first day of July, 1812, a messenger arrived from Randolph, Portage county, bringing a newspaper to the Harrisville colony, containing a declaration of war with Great Britain. He also presented to them a letter warning the settlers of probable danger. A consultation was therefore held in the evening, which resulted in the hurried preparations of Messrs. Harris, Burr, Corbin, and their families, for departure to the town of Randolph. George Burr and his wife had gone there some weeks before. Having seen his family safely settled at Randolph, Mr. Harris returned to his deserted home and homestead on the following Monday. As he approached the settlement, he discovered that some person had been in the vicinity during his absence, and, dismounting from his horse, he proceeded silently and carefully to examine the Indian trail leading from Sandusky to Tuscarawas, but, as he found no evidence of savages having passed that way, came to the conclusion that some white person must have occupied his house. On entering his cabin indications were that a number of persons had passed the night there. It was not until some days afterward that he leanned that the commissioners, who had been appointed by the legislature to establish a state road through this part of the country, had made use of his home, his furniture and probably his provisions.   In order to insure the harvesting of the crops of wheat, corn and potatoes, upon which the little settlement so much depended, Mr. Harris remained in this vicinity fon about five weeks, with his dog as his only companion. He then returned to Portage county, where he first learned of the surrender of Detroit to the British.   At a call from General Wadsworth, commander of the American militia on the Reserve, Messrs. Harris, Burr and others joined the home troops, mustered in and about the vicinity of Cleveland, and held themselves in readiness for whatever hostilities might occur. About this time the Corbins sold their land at Harrisville to Russel Burr and returned to Connecticut, and Messrs. Harris, Geonge Burr and their families were all that remained of the infant settlement. The war scare having subsided, they returned to Harrisville in October, 1812, and, arriving at their homes, found everything quiet and unmolested. From that time on, the settlement of Medina county was continuous, if not rapid.   FIRST SETTLER OF LIVERPOOL.   Moses Demming, a native of Southbury, Connecticut, was the pioneer settler of Liverpool. He lost both of his parents in the year 1809, and at the age of fifteen was bound out to learn the blacksmith's trade. At the age of twenty-five he removed to Waterbury, his native state, where he met Ruth Warner, whom he married in 1802. Being a typical Yankee, however, both as .to industry and enterprise, he refused at first to settle upon the small farm which he had bought, but became a widely known clockmaker and clock peddler. In a few years he sold his forty acres     HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 367   of stony land and removed his home to western New York. In the winter of 1810 his father-in-law, Mr. Warner, became so much interested in the lands of the Western Reserve that he visited, what is now known as Liverpool Township and decided to locate therein. It took but a little persuasion to induce Mr. Demming to become one of the company of emigrants which started westward in 1811.   Both Mr. Warner and Mr. Demming supplied themselves liberally with clocks, which they sold and traded as they progressed toward northern Ohio. Their journey toward the destination which afterward became their home is so interesting and illustrative of these pioneer days that it is described in words penned fifty years afterward by Mr. Demming himself, as follows : "We arrived at Columbia on the last day of February, 1811. When at Cleveland, on 'our way to Columbia, Mr. Huntington urged me to buy a lot in that town for $6o, and pay part in a clock, and the balance in any kind of trade we then had with us. The lot offered to me contained one acre and a founth, and is the same lot on which the Court House now stands. Cleveland was then reported to be sickly, and the scrub oaks seemed to indicate that the ground was too poor to naise white beans ; so we could not make a trade. I traveled many miles over what is now called Columbia, Liverpool and Brunswick, exploring and deciding upon the most available portion to purchase and prepare to locate; and, after due deliberation, made a choice of the farm on which I now (1860) reside. I contracted with a young man to make an opening and prepare a field to plant in corn the coming spring ; and on the 15th of March started for home. Nothing of import happened on my way.   FROM CLEVELAND TO LIVERPOOL (1811).   "When I got home I made preparations to move, selling off all that I could not take with me conveniently. I owned eleven head of young cattle that I determined to take with me, if possible. Late in April we filled our wagon with such articles as we supposed essential, topping of our load with a quantity of wheel heads, and, hitching on a team' of oxen and one horse, set out on our tedious journey. the driving of the cattle through the woods and across streams caused us trouble and toil. We progressed at the average speed of sixteen miles per day. Our wheel heads aided in paying our expenses at places where we tarried over night. From Cleveland to Columbia, a distance of twelve miles, there were no inhabitants, and in many places the roads were heavy. We traveled hard from early dawn to late eve in making that distance. The roads were very deep, and our chances to avoid deep mud few and far between, unless we had cut an entirely new road. Prior to our arrival there had been heavy rains, waters were high, and fordings rather dangerous. In attempting to cross' a creek, the round poles comprising the bridge were floating in an eddy over the two long stringers, I urged the cattle forward, and when they stepped on the poles they gave way and let the cattle into the water between the stringers. I stood on a stringer with a stout pole, pushed the head of each one of the cattle under the stringer and forced it through the current, and by this means, after many punches with the pole and much grappling of horns, I got all my cattle over. We left our wagon, took a few of the necessary articles, traveled up the stream to where we found it more shallow, and, after much toil and circuitous travel, we arrived at Liverpool on the 18th of May, having traveled twenty days."   The Warner family did not become permanent residents of this locality until February, 1812, so that Moses Demming has the honor of being the pioneer, as already mentioned. Mr. Demming's wife, who died July 26, 1812, was the first white person buried in Liverpool township.   368 - HISTORY OF THE. WESTERN RESERVE   WAR TIDINGS REACH LIVERPOOL.   In the previous month, war with Great Britain had been declared, but it was not until some time after the death of his wife that Mr. Demming and Mr. Warner received any definite notice of the progress of the conflict. During this time they were naturally in a state of great trepidation, although their fears were somewhat allayed by the rumor that General Hull was acquitting himself well. One night the Demming family was aroused from a sound sleep by a rapping at the door, and Mr.. Warner appeared bearing the alarming tidings that Detroit had surrendered to the British. Like the little colony at Harrisville, those at Liverpool at once packed up their belongings and started. Their destination was Hudson, Summit county. Before they were well under way, however, a messenger, Levi Bronson, returned from Cleveland bringing such word as to quiet fears. The Liverpool contingent therefore only traveled as far as Columbia, where they erected a small block house and placed themselves under the command of Captain Headley. One-half of the men were detained on military duty, while the other half were allowed to attend to their home affairs. Mr. Demming made the practice of going to Liverpool every morning and returning to Columbia in the evening. In the course of two, or three weeks, most of those who had broken up their homes at Liverpool returned, and the monotony of pioneer life was again resumed.   AN OLD-TIME TRIP AFTER SALT.   Liverpool township has been noted since-the earliest days for its salt deposits and salt works, and for months before the era of railroads the pioneer settlers for many miles around were in the habit of resorting to its territory for their household supplies. Ephraim Lindley, one of the first settlers of Hudson, thus describes his journey into this salt region when he was a boy; not long- after the war of 1812. After obtaining an empty sack in which he stowed bread, wild meat and other provisions, the youth left Hudson for Liverpool on a cold, blustering December morning.   "There was a blazed road from Hudson to Richfield. From thence I had to go to the north line of the township,. and fnom thence find my way by blazed trees to Timothy Doan's in Columbia. Between the house of Widow Payne (Brecksville) and Mr. Doan's was an unbroken wilderness of fifteen miles, excepting the blazed line made by surveyors. My first day's travel brought me to the cabin of Mrs. Payne. On the second day I got to Liverpool Salt Works, took possession of the peck of salt and learned that I could buy another peck, which I willingly punchased. I shouldered my half bushel of salt on the afternoon of the second day, and with elastic step started homeward-bound. The second night I tarried at the house of Horace Gunn, who lived near Thomas Doan's. Liverpool salt dripped much, and, my own exercise causing sweat, the two came in contact and kept me uncomfortable. The next morning, after leaving Mr. Gunn's, I had to repass thnough the fifteen miles of continued wilderness, with a short allowance of bread, loaded with a half-bushel of wet salt. The snow was about four inches in depth. After I had passed over about two miles of my lonely forest road I met a company of wolves, who seemed to be on the track I made when going to Liverpool. In passing along, I discovered that they followed, though at respectful distance. There were five in number, and their frequent stopping and pawing in the snow caused me to conjecture that they meditated an attack. I furnished myself with a stout club and determined to fight if they should attack me. After following for a distance of five miles or more they left my company and I traveled on, very well satisfied with their absence. I am of the opinion that the bitterings of the salt and my own sweat was what they scented and prompted them to follow me. I got home   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 369   safely with what remained of my half-bushel of salt, after a full share of bitterings had eked out. This was my first important errand, and I can assure you that I then traveled that distance, and carried the salt more willingly, than a young man of sixteen years will now carry a half-bushel of potatoes from the grocery to his home."   MEDINA TOWNSHIP.   The countny now included within the limits of Medina county was therefore first opened up to settlers at almost the same time in the southwestern and the northwestern portions. A few years afterward, the township and village of Medina (first called Mecca) were surveyed and platted. The principal proprietor of the township was Hon. Elijah Boardman, of New Milford, Connecticut, a leading member of the Connecticut Land Company and of the state itself. He had been six times a member of the Connecticut Legislature, and after the township had been settled to a considerable extent and Medina county had been politically organized, he was honored with a seat in the United States Senate, and at the time of his death in 1823 he was a member of Congress, his last years being spent at Boardman, Mahoning county.   Although Medina was surveyed as early as 1810 and the Hinman Brothers erected a cabin on the site of the village not long afterwards, they remained in the locality but a short time.   Zenas Hamilton, the first prominent and useful settler, did not arrive from New York until October, 1814. With his family he temporarily occupied the lone cabin erected by the Hinmans, but as he had brought with him a family of eight children he was obliged to erect a larger shelter for them.   FIRST SALE OF VILLAGE LOTS.   The next really important arrival was Rufus Ferris, who was an agent for Boardman, 'the proprietor of the township. He brought with   Vol. I-25   him a number of workmen, the party arriving on the 11th of June, 1816. Mr. Ferris and his assistants at once went to work to make a clearing and take the preliminary steps for the sale of village lots. They not only made a respectable clearing, but sowed conn and wheat, which were among the first crops raised in the county of Medina. Mr. Ferris' house, which was the headquarters of these busy operations, stood half a mile north of the public square in Medina of today.   EARLY RELIGIOUS SERVICES.   In the fall of 1816 a number of lots were selected by different individuals and the settlement grew to such encouraging proportions that in March of the following year a religious society was organized by Mr. Ferris and other influential citizens. It was on the 11th of that month that Rev. Royce Searl, rector of Saint Peters' Church, Plymouth, Connecticut, conducted the first public religious services of the township and the village.   On the l0th of April, 1817, the people of Medina assembled with teams and poles to clear away the underbrush, cut the timber and prepare for the raising of the first log meeting-house in this part of the county. About noon, as narrated by an old-timer who took part in the proceedings, notice came that Mr. Searl would be on the ground to preach the sermon at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Preparations were made for the accommodation of the audience by placing poles between the rough logs. Notwithstanding this, nearly every citizen of the township was present to give his moral support to this important event. Probably never since has such a percentage of the citizens attended divine worship. The sermon was everything that it should be, and the exercises concluded with hearty if not harmonious singing.   FIRST MEDINA SCHOOL.   The first school ever taught in Medina was by Eliza Northrup, in the house above men-   370 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   tioned, during the summer of 1817, and the first native son was Matthew, son of Zenas Hamilton, who was born June 9, 1815. He was widely known among western physicians.   PIONEER ROADWAYS.   Medina and Harrisville, as the two first settlements of any promise in Medina county, were soon connected with roads, although the intervening country was still virtually a wilderness. Before the early twenties the communication was quite complete between Medina, Harrisville, Wooster, Elyria and Middlebury. Some of these roads were constructed   B. & O. BRIDGE AT LODI; 300 FT. LONG, 85 FT. HIGH.   by legislative appropriation and some by donations of the actual settlers. The road between Medina and Harrisville was a section of the State road, for which the legislature had made provision in the shape of an appropriation. In the spring of 1816 James S. Redfield, of Harrisville, took a contract for chopping out the regions from the center of his town to the southwest corner of Medina, and for the construction of fifty-seven rods of bridges and causeways along the route. He finished his work about the first of September, and thus completed the first public highway of any consequence in the county.   Goods were brought over the Alleghany mountains in large wagons, but tinware and notions were peddled by men from Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania peddlers were honest, but some of those from Connecticut were not. So carefully did the nutmeg men have to be watched that the words, "swindled" and "Yankeed" became synonymous in this vicinity.   TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.   The settlement. of Harrisville and Liverpool townships had not far progressed before its residents were discussing and urging the political organization of Medina county. This was effected, through legislative enactment, January 14, 1818, when the territory was divided into nineteen townships. These then comprised over 100,000 more acres than the present area of the county, its pnesent limits being fixed by the taking away of the territory now embraced by Grafton, Penfield, Huntington and Sullivan townships, county of Lorain. In 1831 to 1833 the townships that now compose the county were fully organized and recognized.   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN. RESERVE - 371   FIRST COURT AND TOWNSHIP ELECTION.   The first court was held in January, 1818, in a barn erected by Rufus Ferris, within the limits of the corporation of Medina. The court consisted of Judge George Tod, of Trumbull county, as president, with Messrs. Harris, of Harrisville ; Brown, of Wadsworth, and Welton, of Richfield, as his associates. The session was formally opened by the sheriff, who invited all litigants to present their cases, but, as none were ready, the court spent the day in friendly and social intercourse.   The first election of township officers of Medina was held on the first Monday of April, 1818, and in the preceding month (March 22) the first couple in the township, Giles Barnes and Eliza Northrop, had been married by Rev. Searl, the pioneer clergyman. He was an Episcopalian, but solemnized their marriage according to the form of their church, the Congregational. The pioneer religious society of Medina was the First Congregational church, organized February 21, 1819, by Rev. William Hanford, a Connecticut missionary.   VILLAGE OF MEDINA FOUNDED.   The village of Medina was laid out in 1818 soon after the complete political organization of the county was effected. The plat is dated November 30 of that year, and is thus endorsed: "A plat of land situated in the township of Medina, given by Elijah Boardman to the county of Medina." The village was sur- veyed by Abraham Freeze, county surveyor. The first house built in the present corporate limits was a log building erected by Captain Badger on the subsequent site of the Barnard Block, and he also erected another house near by, those being the pioneer structures of Medina village. The first building mentioned was opened as a tavern in the fall of 1818, and as Mr. Badger was unmarried at that time he associated himself with a man by the name of Hickox, and together they conducted this pioneer hostelry and made it a very popular resort. The first goods sold in the town were by a man named Sholes, who opened a small store in 1819 in the first frame house which Medina could boast. In 1819 Captain Badger took a contract to clear off the public square, in preparation for the building of the County Court House. The first session of court was held in the upper story of his tavern during the preceding year.   FIRST REAL "FOURTH OF JULY."   The first noteworthy Fourth of July celebration at Medina was that observed in 1821. No church bells or firing of cannon ushered in the day, but rather the tinkling of cow bells and the singing of birds, and other sounds common to a recently settled wilderness. Notwithstanding which, the few citizens who took part in the celebration were full of enthusiasm and patriotism and, unless Medina was an exception, fire-water added to the gaieties. John Freeze, who presided over the little gathering, was especially warm, notwithstanding his unfortunate name. He was ably assisted by Dr. B. B. Clark, A. G. Hickox (who read the Declaration of Independence), and Rev. R. Searle, the popular and all useful clergyman, who delivered a fitting oration. A number of toasts were read and loudly cheered and, in line with the usual custom of a conservative community in those days, sweetened whiskey was imbibed at the cheering of every toast and was repeated after the response. Among the voluntary toasts thus given and cheered the following is perhaps the most remarkable, remembering the year of this celebration, namely : "Freedom to the Africans," responded to by Captain Herman Munson, aged 83. Thus was the Anti-Slavery principle recognized at this early date in the history of the Western Reserve.   Of course, then, as now, women baked and brewed, broiled and boiled in order that men, women and children might be well filled ; yet the toast to which men so gallantly drink today, "The Ladies," was never even thought of.   Today the negro is a real citizen, with all   372 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   the rights and privileges pertaining to citizen- ship, and the daughters of the women who did fully half the work connected with the building up of this county are still classed politically with dependents. The women of 1800 were not dependents ; neither are the women of 1910.   By the year 1835 the village of Medina had grown sufficiently in population and importance to admit of being incorporated, and for this purpose a special act of legislature was passed. The place increased slowly, but steadily and without serious interruption, until April 14, 1870, when it was virtually laid in ashes. Its citizens promptly formed the Medina Building Association with a capital of $100,000, and within a few years it was virtually restored. The place lies in the midst of a rich agricultural country and even before the era of railroads was considered as being advantageously situated on the great stage road Which ran from Cleveland to Columbus.     CITY OF MEDINA.   The Medina of today is a substantially built city of about 4,000 people, with a modern sanitary sewerage system, comprising eight miles of mains and connections, and one of the best water works in the Reserve. The water supply is brought from Rocky river, and before it reaches the consumer is filtered through a long bed of gravel and sand and carried into a well-constructed stand-pipe. The works were completed in June, 1908, and both water and sewerage systems are under the control Of the Board of Public Works, assisted by an expert sanitary engineer from Columbus, Ohio.   Medina's churches are well attended and its religious edifices substantially and tastefully built. The Congregationalists appear to be the strongest of the religious denominations, while the Baptists and Methodists are not far behind. The Catholics have but recently erected a new church edifice (St. Francis Xavier), which bespeaks their firm establishment in Medina. The St. Paul Episcopal church also has a flourishing society. Mention must also be made of the Church of Christ, both because of its strength and from the somewhat remarkable fact that within the past year some unknown friend has donated to that society $50,000.   Medina also has a pretty and commodious opera house and supports a number of flourishing secret and benevolent societies connected with the Knights of Pythias, the Masonic Order, the I. O. O. F., and the Modern Woodmen of America.   The city has three important manufacturing plants. The Medina Foundry Company manufactures furnaces, the Medina Bending Works turns out tires and rims and wheel spokes, and the A. I. Root Company manufactures bee supplies.   MANUFACTORY OF BEE SUPPLIES.   It was an ancient saying among the Arabians that "All roads lead to Mecca," and it may be stated with equal force that all citizens of Medina point with pride to this last great plant as their prime attraction and the strongest business support of their community. It is the largest establishment of its kind in the world. No bee fancier, none who desires to learn of the industry or to become completely equipped for the business, can possibly avoid being interested in this plant. The A. I. Root Company not only manufactures every device known to bee culture, but for years has issued what is known all over the world as "Glean pings in Bee Culture," a publication which constitutes a library in itself on subjects connected with this specialty. The origin and originator of this great establishment constitute an interesting feature in the industrial history of the 'Western Reserve.   AMOS I. ROOT.   Amos Ives Root, the father of this business, was born about two miles north of the present plant, and as a boy, a youth and a young   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 373   man became known in his home community for his mechanical ingenuity and invention. Although slight and frail in appearance, he was generally recognized and perhaps feared as a person of fierce determination. This manifested itself not only when he was teaching school and the older pupils attempted to "put him out," but in after years when he was: establishing himself in business.   In 1861 he became a jeweler at Medina, and within the succeeding sixteen years the firm of A. I. Root & Co. became one of the largest manufacturers of jewelry in the West. In the meantime Mr. Root had commenced contributing a series of articles to the American Bee Journal, recounting his experiences and failures in the raising of bees. He himself tells how he happened to engage in this line. It was in 1866, when he was busily engaged in superintending twenty or more workmen in the manufacture of jewelry, that his attention was called to a wild humming over his head, which he knew meant the passing of a Swarm of bees. One of his workmen jokingly asked him how much he would give for the capture. of the swarm: "One dollar," he quickly replied; whereupon' the workman rushed outside, grabbed a drygoods box, and in a few minutes   BEE SUPPLIES PLANT OF A. I. ROOT & COMPANY.   returned with the swarm safely imprisoned. This was the nucleus of the great bee and bee supply business now carried on under the name of the S. I. Root Company.   Mr. Root increased his one swarm to an apiary of thirty-five colonies in 1867, although these were cut down to eleven during the following winter, but the number was increased during the following season to forty-eight. From these he took over 6,000 pounds of honey at a net profit of $1,540. His neighbors demanded that he make hives for them, and these demands became so insistent that he sold his jewelry establishment and in 1877 began the manufacture of hives, supplies and apparatus of all kinds.   It should be understood that since that time the Root Company has never dealt in honey, but has devoted itself to the manufacture of the means by which others may produce it and place, it upon the market.   EARNEST R. ROOT.   In 1887 the elder Mr. Root withdrew from the business, and since that year his son, Earnest R. Root, has been in active control. The latter was born at Medina in 1862 and entered Oberlin College in 1881. He did not   374 - HISTORY OF THE. WESTERN RESERVE   quite complete his course of four years, as he was anxious to enter into the business which his father had already made prosperous. In 1904 the capital stock of the business was increased from $100,000 to $300,000, and an idea of its extent may be gained from the statement that its building now occupies fifteen acres of ground ; that the annual transactions amount to a half-million of dollars, and that, besides the various apparatus placed upon the market, the company sends out one thousand colonies of bees every year.   Returning briefly to the origin 'of the Root business, it will be remembered that its founder commenced his contributions to apiarian literature in 1865. Besides writing for the American Bee Journal, he sent out a great number of private circulars to his correspondents, and in 1873 the expense of these publications became so great that he commenced to issue a quarterly, and later a monthly. The latter was called "Gleanings in Bee Culture." In 1877 Mr. Root compiled the first edition of his widely known book called "The A B C of Bee Culture," which is one of the most complete, extensive and authoritative encyclopedia on this subject ever published. This encyclopedia, the monthly and the large catalogue and other business publications put forth by the company, have resulted in the establishment of a large and complete printing department. The company has also in process the formation and organization of a Poultry Department, which is designed to fill the same place in that specialty as is already occupied in the bee industry. The elder Mr. Root, whose health is somewhat broken, has been experimenting for a number of years in this line on his Florida estate.   BANKS AND NEWSPAPERS.   Medina has three flourishing banks. The oldest of these, the old Phoenix National Bank, was established in 1873 by H. G. Blake, who is best known to general history as the father of the money-order system. As at present organized, this institution has a capital of $75,000. The Savings Deposit Bank Company was founded in 1892, and is capitalized at $50,000, as is the Medina County National, established in 1898.   The city has two flourishing newspapers, one, the organ of the Republican party—which is the oldest and most influential—and the other, the organ of the Democracy. The Medina County Gazette, the Republican journal, was established in 1832, being then known as the Constitutionalist. In 1841 it was consolidated with the Medina County Whig, appearing under its present name in 1853. The Gazette came under the control of J. H. Greene & Co. in August, 1879, and during the succeeding eleven years rapidly increased in circulation and general influence. Through the strong and aggressive personality of Captain J. H. Greene, than whom no more popular man ever sat in the editorial chair in Medina county, the Gazette earned a splendid name for ability, as well as for honorable political warfare.   CAPTAIN J. H. GREENE.   Captain J. H. Greene, whose death on Decoration day of 1890, was sincerely mourned by a host of friends of both political parties, was born in Middletown, Butler county, Ohio, June 2, 1833, and at the age of fourteen entered the Hamilton (O.) Intelligencer, as an apprentice in the printing office. At this time the publisher of the Intelligencer was William C. Howells, father of the widely known novelist, and in after years the latter was an intimate friend of young Greene. At the death of his father, Mr. Greene returned to Hamilton, but not long afterwand set forth on his travels as a journeyman printer. In these years of his young manhood lie also had a taste of both the pleasures and hardships of the wild west, his experience being mostly acquired as a cattle drover in Indiana, Illinois and Arkansas. Returning to his trade and profession, Captain Greene was for some time   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 375   connected with the Milwaukee (Wis.) Sentinel, and various publications in Indiana and Kansas. While residing in the latter state political excitement was at its height over the Kansas-Nebraska bill; but in 1856 he returned to his native state of Ohio and obtained a position on the editorial staff of the Cleveland Leader. He afterwards located in newspaper work in Pnairie du Chien, Wisconsin, where he followed his calling for several years in connection with his official duties as postmaster of that city. It was from this point that he enlisted for service in the Civil war and joined the forces of the famous Eighth Wisconsin Regiment, which became known throughout the country as the "Eagle Regiment." A few army veterans of the Badger State still recall the wonderful standard bearer of that regiment known as "Old Abe," the eagle, whose fierce, yet dignified life, went out many years after the close of the Civil war. Captain Greene served with his command in all the important engagements of the southwest, and throughout his life was one of the most ardent admirers of his old commander, General Grant. He was not only a journalist of repute, but an eloquent public speaker as well. The deep and universal affection which went out to him had its birth in his earnestness, his charity and his lovable qualities as a man. To the last he was a comrade indeed to every soldier who came within the radius of his influence, and it seems pathetically fitting that his death should occur soon after he had. officiated so tenderly in the decoration of the soldier graves of the Medina veterans.   At Captain Greene's death the control of the Gazette passed to his old-time partner,. Charles D. Neil.. The latter died in December, 1896, and until August 8, 1898, the paper was published by the widow, Mrs. Nellie S. Neil. From that time until March, 1906, it was conducted by H. G. Rowe and R. M. Clarke, and since that date has been under the sole management, both business and editorial, of Mr. Rowe.   LODI AND VICINITY.   Judge Harris, who was a pioneer settler of Medina county, located both. in the center of Harrisville township and also near the center of the present village of Lodi. It was here also that the first stores of the township were built and that one of its first taverns was operated by Warren Chapman. However, it was not until the spring of 1818, when William Barnes arrived from the east and located at Lodi, that the settlement commenced really to advance as a business and industrial center. He soon constructed a dam and on the East branch, formed a good water power, erected a grist mill and made other improvements. In 1834 James Richtie erected a woolen factory two miles south of Lodi and from time to time saw mills and grist mills sprung up in the surrounding country. A large grist and saw mill were removed from Penfield and erected near the center of the village in 1868, and the Snow Flake Flouring Mill was built in 1875. This latter was on the site of the first flouring mill ever put in operation in Medina county some fifty years previous.   Preceding the war of the rebellion the leading settlements in Harrisville township were .strongly in favor of the Anti-Slavery movement. Among those best known among the Abolitionists was Uncle Timothy Burr, who then lived in a large brick building west of the village of. Lodi. His home, known far and wide as the Burr House, became a famous station of the "underground railroad," and scores of hunted and frightened colored people found shelter, protection and food at the hands of brave Uncle Timothy. It is said there often were ten to fifteen negroes secreted in his house awaiting transportation to Oberlin and thence to Canada and freedom.   Lodi, as known today, is a pretty village of about 1,000 people, but makes no strong claim to distinction as either a business or industrial center. It has only one manufacturing plant,   376 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   a saw mill devoted chiefly to the production of crates ; it also has a corn elevator, and its citizens expect in the near future to include in their industries a plant for the manufacture of automobiles. The two local banks are the Exchange, established in 1883, and the National Bank, founded in 1903. The president of the former is Albert B. Taylor, whose father was one of the oldest settlers of Lodi, and he himself has done much in the improvement of the town. The building which he erected some ten years ago, known as Taylor's Inn, is both a hostelry and a bank, and is really unique from the standpoint of architecture.   The bright local newspaper of the place, the Lodi Review, was founded in 1886, and for the past seven years has been under the editorial and business management of J. W. Dunlap.   The churches of Lodi, mentioned in the general order of their strength and influence, are the Baptist, Presbyterian , and Methodist.   The Knights of Pythias have a strong lodge of about 130 members, and the Masons, including their auxiliary, the Eastern Star, are also strong.   The country around Lodi is not only rich agriculturally, but is distinguished for its pic turesque natural features, and especially fine views are obtained in the vicinity of the B. & O. bridge, which spans a beautiful stream and ravine for a distance of 200 feet.   Before taking leave of this attractive little place, it would be inexcusable to omit mention of two of its most noteworthy citizens. They have made no striking records, but are well known throughout all this section of the Western Reserve for their remarkable contrast in physical appearance. Captain M. B. Bates and Frank Bowman have been residents of Lodi for many years, the former being seven feet, four inches in height and weighing 380 pounds, while the latter is but four feet, seven inches in height, with an unrecorded but imaginable weight. In the photograph of this giant and this midget, which is here reproduced, also appears the figure of a man of medium height and size.   FAVORITE INDIAN RESORT.   A few miles northwest of Lodi is a beautiful sheet of water known as Chippewa lake, and on its shores is one of the prettiest summer resorts in this part of the Reserve, Chippewa Lake Park.   It can well be understood why this picturesque section of Medina county should have   TAYLOR'S INN, LODI.   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 377   been the favorite resort of the various bands of Wyandot and Delaware Indians. At the time of the first settlements, from 1811 to 1818, there were several flourishing Indian villages in this vicinity, located on the shores of Chippewa lake and the Little Chippewa river and Killbuck creek. The first contact between the red. men of this locality and the white woodsmen who came to clear the forest for their future homes is thus graphically described by one of those who thus prepared the way for the flourishing settlements of the present: "The. Indians were all very. friendly to the new settlers, and furnished them with all the meat they desired at a very low price. Though visiting the cabins quite often, they were never in any way uncivil. They would not approach a house until they had apprised the occupants of their presence, when they would strike their tomahawks into the trees and advance unarmed, thus indicating their friendliness. Henry and Chester Hosmer commenced chopping near where the business portion of Seville now stands, their clearings extending acnoss the Hubbard and west to the Chippewa. Moses Noble commenced near where the lower mill now stands, and Shubael Porter a short distance therefrom in a southeasterly direction. As spring opened, the sun's warm rays fell unobstructed. upon many a spot that had never been reached by them before. An opening had been made in the forest that indicated the presence of the white man and the. near approach of industry and civilization.   THE RED MAN LEAVES.   "The Indians stood lazily looking on, sad at heart, no doubt, at seeing such havoc made of the dear old woods in which they had lived, fished and hunted, perhaps from their youth ; and the wild animals, as they galloped over trails well known to them, stood upon the edge of the clearing, amazed at what they could not understand, and then, taking fright at the sound of the axes and falling timber, fled away to the depths of the still undisturbed wilderness. The fires were kindled in the brush and log-heaps, and fine oaks, poplars and black walnuts, that would now be of great value, were burned, simply to get them out of the way and off of the land. The rubbish was cleared away, and of those fine trees, among whose branches the winds had played but a few weeks before, there remained nothing but the stumps. Many of these were very large, and so thickly did they stand that, under different circumstances, it would have seemed but of little use to cultivate the soil between them, but here the plow, harrow and hoe were introduced at once. Early in May, William H. Bell and Samuel Owen came to the settlement (Seville) from the East. Mr. Owen remained but a few days, when he returned East. Shubael Porter did the first plowing, near the Chippewa creek, south of the road leading to the lower mill. About fifteen acres in all were cleared and planted, and, when the warm days of June came on, the first corn, oats, potatoes, etc., that had ever shown signs of life in the Chippewa Valley, modestly peeped forth from the virgin soil."   GUILFORD TOWNSHIP.   Roger Newbury, of Windham, Connecticut ; Justin Ely, of Springfield, Massachusetts ; Enoch Perkins, of Hartford, Connecticut, and Elijah White, of Hudson, Connecticut, each owned a quarter of the township of Guilford. John and David Wilson, brothers, made the first opening in the northeast quarter of the township in 1816. In the same year William Moore cleared a small tract in the northwest quarter about a mile east of Chippewa creek. The first permanent settlers in the township, however, were Henry and Chester Hosmer, Mary T. Homer, Shubael and Abigail Porter, Lyman Munson and Moses Noble, who came from Massachusetts in February, 1817. The men of the party built a log house on the' south 'bank of Hubbard creek, and on the 1st of March, 1817, the entire colony moved into   378 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   it as their abiding place. The house thus occupied was within four rods of the building long afterward known as Dowd's Hotel. At that time the village of Seville was not thought of. Not far away was an Indian village of about ten wigwams.. The savages found hunting very good along the lowlands of Chippewa and Hubbard creeks ; not only did elk and deer abound, but bears and wolves, and the two streams mentioned were filled with excellent fish. Naturally a goodly number of Indians lingered in this locality several years after it had been quite generally settled by white men.   In 1821 the first log school house in the township was erected just west of the State road. A large chimney of clay and sticks was built in the end of the log house, whose roof was made of clapboards weighed down by poles, this mode of construction being forced upon the pioneers on account of the scarcity of nails. A rickety door, made also of clapboards, swung on creaking wooden hinges, and the two windows of the tiny log school house were provided with greased paper instead of panes of glass. This pioneer school house was burned down in 1822, and in 1823 a second and quite similar building replaced it.   Among the best known of the early settiers of Guilford township were the Wilsson brothers, David, John and Robent. David, it appears, was the most enterprising of the three, as he had been a permanent settler only a few months before he decided to forego the pleasures of bachelorhood and take to himse Miss Abigail Porter, daughter of one of neighbors. They were married December 1818, at the house of Lyman Munson, w then lived at Seville. Representatives fro all the nearby settlements attended the we ding, which was a very important social event. Esquire Warner, of Wadsworth, officiated. On the day following the wedding Mr. Wilson took his wife home with him, they both riding upon one horse. They were the first couple of white people married in Guilfond township, and their children and their children's children long resided in this section of Medina county, developing into useful men and women.   In 1824 the present burying grounds, just east of Seville, were surveyed and deeded to the township. The first burial therein was Mrs. Harriet Wilson, wife of Robert Wilson, who died during the year of the survey.   In 1825 a mill route was established between   CHIPPEWA LAKE, ONCE FAVORED INDIAN RESORT.   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 379   New Hampshire, Huron county, and New Portage, Portage county, Mr. Hosmer being appointed the first postmaster at Guilford.   VILLAGE OF SEVILLE.   By 1817 the township of Guilford had made decided advancement in settlement and public improvements, substantial roads having been opened in several directions. The majority of these public highways converged at what was known as the Hosmer Opening, which seemed to mark that locality as the proper site for a future town.   In 1828 Henry Hosmer, proprietor of the land at this point, called upon Nathaniel Bell, then county surveyor, to plot a town to which he gave the name of Seville. At that period Guilford had two regular mail routes, an excellent tavern kept by Dr. Eastman, a school house, a store, blacksmith shop, saw mill, and boasted numerous farmers who had already quite a substantial position in life. Thus may be traced the main causes of the birth of Seville as a village.   The present village of Seville is a pretty community of some 900 people, and is recognized as a good shipping point for live stock and farm products. It also contains a small flour mill, a planing mill and a foundry, as well as a warehouse, for the storing of tobacco, which was built in 1909. It chiefly depends for its growth, however, upon the fine agricultural country of which it is the center, and its stores are well patronized by the well-to-do farmers for several miles around.   BRUNSWICK.   Although this village is but twenty miles from Cleveland, it has never had a railroad. In the early days a stage ran regularly, and once when the author of this volume was a little child she made this journey by stage—the only time she ever rode in the old style conveyance. If she were to drive to the Pacific coast today the ride would not seem to her so long as that. Once she took the same ride, with her mother as driver, and an aunt and baby brother. After the stop at noon the family horse, "Old Charlie" started out at so brisk a gait as to alarm the driver who knew little about horses. Up and down the hills he went or stopped at will to feed at the roadside. When he arrived in Brunswick it was found that the .man who had fed him at noon had forgotten to put the bits back in his mouth, and he had safely carried his cargo—rather precious to at least one man—"back home" in safety over a distance of fifteen miles.   The first emigrants came to Brunswick in 1815. They were Samuel Tillotson and family and Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Harvey.   Mr. and Mrs. Tillotson came from Lee, Massachusetts and it is well "and family" is added to their names, for they had ten children when they arrived and four were born thereafter. One of their sons brought his bride with him and a happy time this party had. The Young Mrs. Tillotson had a beautiful voice and they sang as they journeyed. They had oxen and horses to draw them and hitched behind was a cow, who after a time followed of her own accord. They were obliged to cut a thin way through the forest the last miles of their journey. They stopped with the Doan family in Columbia until their house was done.   MRS. SARAH TILLOTSON.   Sarah Tillotson, the mother of this family, was an unusual woman, and well may Brunswick be proud of this fine mother. She acted as physician for the early settlers, until the arrival of Dr. Seth H. Blival in 1817. She thought nothing of mounting her horse with her home remedies and going any distance in any weather to people in distress. She it was who helped to bring into this world one of the first white children of Medina county, George Harvey. Her daughter, Polly, married John Pritchard and moved to Nelson, Portage county. Here in a log house on the road now known as the Garrettsville road   380 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   they lived a long and useful life. Within a radius of a few miles General William Hazen and President Garfield later began their able careers. On this same spot still lives her son, George Pritchard, and his wife, Emily, and this old home has been one of cheer, love and hospitality from its founding.   The day after Mr. Tillotson's family stopped at Mr. Doan's Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Harvey appeared. Together they built their log cabins, Mr. Tillotson's being finished a day ahead of Mr. Harvey's; but, because the Tillotson children had measles, the Harvey family were settled in the town first. It's just such little domestic things which change history and lives.   FIRST BRUNSWICK SCHOOL.   The year 1817 witnessed the organization of the first church and of the first school in Brunswick township. Sarah Tillotson, daughter of the pioneer home doctor and nurse, was the first teacher. In order to accommodate both Brunswick and Liverpool, it was held near the township line, and sixteen scholars attended. This represented almost the entire juvenile population of the two townships.   NOTHING SECTARIAN ABOUT THIS.   Religious services were held early in Brunswick, but the first society formed was Methodist, and to Jacob Ward belongs the honor of forming it. It is worthy of note that no sectarian feelings were cherished then as now, but Episcopalian, Congregationalist, Methodist and other church members, both of Liverpool and Brunswick, united to hold a general religious meeting. If the meeting happened to be held at Mr. Warner's cabin, that good man who was an Episcopalian, took the lead of the meeting, and if the gathering was in Brunswick, the leader of the religious exercises was generally of the Methodist or Congregationalist denomination. As noted by an old-timer who took part in these early religious gatherings : "Generally the small family dwelling was filled with those who revered the Sabbath and church duties. The exercises commenced with singing, in which all too part and were able to keep time and sing in unison without the aid of organ or other musical instrument. After singing, a devout and fervent. prayer was offered and then the sermon was read, one or more exhorted and the meeting closed by singing. Many of those who witnessed those religious exercises in the then wilderness cannot have forgotten the zeal, the good feeling and the unaffected solemnity that was apparent."   A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY.   One of the honest pioneers of Brunswick township claims that his neighbors were among the first in the county to make the surprising discovery that a barn could be raised without the aid of whiskey. The stony goes that Captain John Stearns had fixed upon a day to raise his new barn, when it was discovered that his supply of liquor was entirely exhausted ; that he could neither buy nor borrow in the entire township and that there was no supply nearer than Tallmadge, to reach which would require a journey of at least two day The owner of the barn-to-be made known his difficulty to some of his neighbors, who told him that under. the circumstances they thought perhaps the matter could be arranged, though they did not fully approve of his carelessness in not providing the whiskey beforehand. On the day appointed the people assembled and promptly raised the barn, thus making the remarkable discovery that men could do good work without whiskey, as well as could women,   TWO STANCH WOMEN WORKERS.   In those days men and women worked side by side, and the work of one was not harder than of the other. Sally Lane; left a widow with five children to support, the youngest six weeks old, used to walk two miles and a half each day by the blazed path to sew, and then walk back at night, because her children, of course, could not stay alone. Emeline A. Martin was one of Brunswick's citizens who endowed an orphan asylum at Racine, Wiscon-     HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE- 381   sin, and gave generously to the Cleveland Orphan Asylum, as well as to other institutions, relatives and friends.   GRANGER TOWNSHIP.   Although Gideon Granger owned much land on ,the Western Reserve, and through family connections was identified with Trumbull county history and through much property with Ashtabula county, he possibly never visited the township named for him ; at least, he never did anything with it except to sell it. In the month of October, 1815, James Gaynard, in company with Eleazer Hills, Anthony Low and Burt Codding, came to Ohio to view No. 3, Range 13, of the Western Reserve, or what is now the chief portion of Granger township. Satisfied with the appearance of the land and the general outlook of the country, they returned to Connecticut and completed their arrangements with Mr. Granger for the punchase of his land. The sale of their farms at Bristol gave them enough to make a payment and a mortgage was given for the balance on the whole township. This act made a title to the land cloudy and settlement was hindered. After the agreement was made and before it was formally signed, Gaynard transferred a portion of the proprietorship to John Codding. The former settled on lot 15 in Granger, where he died December 20; 1844, and his son and the descendants of other generations lived in that vicinity for many years afterward.   Jesse Perkins, a worthy young man who located in 1818, died while living at the house of John Turner in Copley, his death on April 8, 1819, being the first in the township.   The first cabin built was erected by Ezekial Mott, in the spring of 1816, on the land afterward occupied by George M. Codding.   The first two births in the township occurred on the same date, August 2, 1818, Hamilton Rowe and Deborah Goodwin being the additions to its population.   The first school was kept by William Paul on lot 42, in the winter of 1819-20 and numbered seventeen scholars.   The township of Granger was organized in February, 1820. Its first election was not held until the first Monday of April in that year. Opinion is divided as to whether the people of the town should feel proud over the receipt of the first money which was turned into the township treasury. It was a fine of twenty-five cents imposed for swearing, and of that money half was paid out for paper on which to record the first township proceedings.   WADSWORTH.   The township derived its name from Elijah Wadsworth, a leader in the development of the land controlled by the Connecticut Land Company, who lived for a number of years at Canfield, Mahoning county. The first actual settlers within its limits were Daniel Dean and Oliver Durham, Vermont men, who started from their native state for the Reserve in 1814. Late in February they arrived at Canfield, where they became acquainted with Mr. Wadsworth and purchased of him a large piece of land in the tract known as No. 1, or the Wadsworth tract.   On the first day of March Durham and Dean's son, Benjamin, a lad of sixteen, reached Wadsworth and made camp, Daniel Dean and his son Daniel following the next day. Benjamin Dean felled the first tree and the two boys helped to build the two log houses which later became their homes. At that time "Akron was merely a swamp." 1817 brought a goodly number of emigrants and in the next six years the township was settled, except the southwestern quarter. In 1824 there were about nine hundred inhabitants.   WADSWORTH'S PIONEER EVENTS.   Among pioneer happenings the following may be recorded : The first school in the township was taught by Harriet Warner in 1816 and was kept in one end of her father's log house. A small school house was built in the succeeding fall.   382 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE ,   Alonzo Durham, son of Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Durham, was the first child born in the township. He lived to a good old age, and the first person to die was Daniel Ware, in 1817.   The first birth was a daughter of William and Mary Rasor.   The first Sunday school was organized in 1820 by Sarah Kingsbury.   The first piano in Wadsworth belonged to Emily Pardee Hanchel.   The first religious services were held in the house of Oliver Durham in 1814. Regular services were established at the house of Salmon Warner. When first school house was erected in 1816 services were held there.   A Methodist class was formed in 1816.   A Congregational church was organized in 1819.   The Union church, German Reform and Lutherans was established in 1817.   The Baptist organized in 1821. This society was afterward the nucleus of the Disciples church.   The first death in Wadsworth township was that of Daniel Ware in 1817.   The first burial in the Center grounds was the infant daughter of Frederick and Chloe Brown in 1817.   The postoffice, established in 1820, was kept by Abel Dickinson.   The early surveyors named the western part of Wadsworth, because of its swampy condition, "The Infernal Regions," and the sluggish stream that oozed through the swamps' was named "River Styx." This part of the township was dreaded by the early traveler.   The date of the first law suit in the township is not definitely known, although the cause of the legal proceedings is Henry Falkner bought a cake of tallow of one John Reed, but found, upon investigating his purchase with a kitchen knife, that it contained a piece of green beech wood weighing about three pounds. Naturally he refused to pay for tallow which he received in the form of wood, and was sustained in his refusal by Justice Warner, who decided that Reed should not only meet the costs of the trial, but lose the tallow with its dishonest contents.   In 1816 Frederick Brown built the first house.   The first physician was Dr. John Smith; second, Dr. Austin, who lived at Eastern Star, first in the village, Dr. Nathaniel Eastman.   "The first school, above common gnade, was held in winter of 1830 and '31, in the then new Congregational church."   In 1839 Wadsworth Academy was incorporated "and the octagon house erected which has for a few years past been used as a church."   Possibly one of the most conscientious fam- ilies ever living in 'Wadsworth was that of Judge and Mrs. Eyles. They arrived in 182o. They were the grandparents of Hon. B. A. Hinsdale, who was president of Hinam College, superintendent of Cleveland schools and professor at the University of Michigan. He was a student, a scholar, a gentleman and a Christian.   Bituminous coal, which was known to exist by the early settlers, was first mined at Silver creek. The building of the Atlantic & Great Western railroad put this coal on the market and was the beginning of Wadsworth's prosperity.   PRESENT VILLAGE OF WADSWORTH.   The most important industries now at Wadsworth are the Ohio Match Company (an independent concern), the Ohio Injector Company, the Ohio Salt Company and the Wadsworth Brick Company. The Wadsworth Light & Water Company furnishes both electric and natural gas illumination, and also an abundant supply of pure water from several artesian wells in the outskirts of the city. Wadsworth has three miles of pavement, all of which has been laid within the past three years, and the system of good roads, which is being largely promoted by the citizens of Wadsworth, em   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 383   braces five miles of a well-constructed highway running through the township. A sanitary system of sewerage has also been nearly completed, and all of these enterprises place Wadsworth in the class of enterprising and progressive municipalities.   Turning to its educational facilities, it is found that its Central school building was completed in 1908 at a cost of $65,000. The school attendance is not far from 600. The system embraces a full high school and grammar course, its graduates being admitted to the state colleges and university without a special examination.   The Wadsworth churches are well sustained and include the Lutheran, the Methodist, Menonite, Disciples and Catholic. Among its strongest fnaternal organizations are the fasons, the Knights of Pythias and the I. O. O. F.   Another strong force which should be reckoned with in accounting for the good standing and progress of Wadsworth, is that erted by its well-edited local newspaper, the Banner-Press. Its editor and publisher is W. S. Hostetler. The present journal was established in 1886 under the name of the Banner. is successor was the Banner-Enterprise. The Tess was established in 1906, and two years er consolidated with the Banner under its resent title.   Wadsworth has two national banks in good ding, both established in 1901, the First ational, with a capital of $25,000, and the Wadsworth National, with a capital of opal   The village lies two miles from the east line d three miles from the west line of the township, and obtained its first start as a growing settlement from the fact that it was at the intersection of the state roads passing through the township from north to south and from east to west. The east and west highway was laid out in 1808, before the township received its first settlers. Wadsworth village grew up around these so-called Corners, and soon after the coming of its first railroad its population so increased that it was thought best to formally incorporate it. This occurred in 1866, its first election, April 4, resulting in the election of Aaron Pardee, mayor ; J. C. Houston, recorder ; C. N. Lyman, W. F. Boyer, John Lytle, W. T. Ridenour and Luman P. Mills, village trustees. The Town Hall was erected by the township taxes in 1867 at the cost of $5,000.   HINCKLEY TOWNSHIP.   In the distribution of the lands of the Western Reserve among the original land speculators, the township of Hinckley fell to the lot of Judge Samuel Hinckley of Northampton, Mass. The Judge seems to have been a born speculator in lands and owned several townships in the county besides Hinckley. This one was considered bad-land—the roughest and most broken in his entire list of purchases —and the result was that he held it back from the market longer than many of the others.   THE FAMED HINCKLEY HUNT.   Hinckley was admirably adapted to harbor wild game, and this shrewd proprietor therefore hit upon a very effective scheme for ad= vertising it to would-be settlers. It consisted of organizing what to this day is known and noted throughout the central section of the Western Reserve as the "Great Hinckley Hunt," and although the enterprise was put on foot 'ostensibly to clear the country of bears and wolves, which were a great annoyance to the settlers, the Hunt was undoubtedly organized for business purposes as well.   Pages both of prose and poetry have been devoted, with pioneer enthusiasm, to the description of this blood-stirring event, but this history must content itself with presenting the following from the pen of Mr. Cogswell who knows intimately whereof he writes : "The hunt was appointed to come off on the 24th of December, 1818, by a proclamation to the following towns : Cleveland and Newburg, which were to form on the north line of Hinckley ; Brecksville and Richfield, on the east   384 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   line ; Bath and Granger, on the south line ; and Medina and Brunswick, on the west line;—and thus complete the square. It was the intention to sweep the whole township of Hinckley, and orders were given to be on the ground about sunrise.   "Uncle Gates and myself started from his residence, on the Cuyahoga river, the day previous to the hunt, with the intention of taking a little look for game through the woods as we went, and in order to be on the ground next morning. When we were near the north line of Bath we separated with the understanding that we would meet at another certain point. I had not gone far when I discovered where a coon had come off of a large oak tree, and had turned back and went up the tree again. I knew if there was an Indian there he would contrive some way to get the game without the trouble of cutting the tree. I looked about to see how this could be accomplished. There was, a large limb on the oak, about sixty feet from the ground, and not far from the tree was a small hickory, which if felled would lodge on the limb. I chopped the hickory, it lodged, and made, as I supposed, a safe bridge by which I could reach Mr. Coon. But I was mistaken, for when within ten or twelve feet of the limb, I discovered that there was very little of the top of the hickory that was above the limb, and that it was sliding down further every move I made. This was a perilous situation indeed, and I saw that something decisive must be done. I first thought of retreating, but I soon found that this would be as bad as proceeding, as every move I made brought the hickory further off the limb. I therefore resolved to reach the tree if possible, and with several desperate grabs, I did so. I now thought I would make things safe, and I took the few remaining twigs that still sustained the hickory and withed them around. the limb of the oak. I soon discovered the retreat of my coon, and, chopping in, I pulled him out and threw him down to my dog. I descended safely, and by the time I had reached the ground Uncle Gates came up. I showed him what I had done, and he declared that he would not have undertaken it for all the land on the Cuyahoga river, from Old Portage to Cleveland. I did not undertake it for the value of the coon, but because I thought I would not be outdone by the Indians. We stayed over night at Mr. Rial Bray's near the east line of Hinckley.   "Next morning we wene on the line by sunrise. We waited some time before they were all in their places, and then the word all ready was passed from mouth to mouth. The word was forty seconds going round the twenty miles, the first telegraph known. Then came the sound of horns, which was the signal for a start. The managers had made a circle, half a mile in diameter, in the center of the town of blazing trees, and when we came to that circle we were ordered to halt It soon became evident the ring was too large, as the game had a good chance to secret themselves. The managers now came to me and said they wished I would select some good man, and go into the ring and shoot some of the large game which would drive the rest toward the outside. I selected in uncle Gates, and we proceeded toward the center. I soon came in contact with plenty of wolves and bears, and had shot several when I saw near the center a monstnous bear, I think the largest I ever saw of that species. I wounded him twice so that he dropped each time, when he retreated toward the south line, and I followed in close pursuit. About this time the south line advanced about forty rods, which brought them within a short distance of myself and the bear. My dog, seeing me after the bear, broke away from the young man who had him in charge, and came running to my assistance, and met the bear just as he was crossing a little creek on the ice. I ran up to the bank, within twenty-five or thirty feet of the bear, and stood several feet above him. About this time the men in the south line commenced shooting at the bear,   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 385   apparently regardless of me or my dog. There were probably one hundred guns fired within a very short space of time, and the bullets sounded to me very much like a hail storm. As soon as the old fellow got his head still enough so that I dare shoot, I laid him out. While they were firing so many guns, a great many persons hallooed to come out or I would be shot, but, as it happened, neither myself nor dog were hurt, and even the bear was not hit by their nandom shots ; for when he was dressed there were but three ball holes found in his hide, and those I made.   "I now returned to the center alone, as my uncle Gates had got frightened out, and finished the bears and wolves ; then commenced on the deer. I killed twenty-five or thirty, so fast that I did not pretend to keep count. I stood by one tree and killed eight as fast as I could load and shoot. The last animal I killed was a wounded wolf that had secreted himself in the top of a fallen tree. We were ordered to go down where the big bear was, discharge our guns, and stack them, and proceed to draw in the game. It was found, when the men were all together, that there were four hundred and fifty-four, and it was estimated that there were about five hundred on the lines in the morning.   "The amount of game killed was, about three hundred deer, twenty-one bear, and seventeen wolves, that were killed in the ring ; and it was estimated that about one hundred deer were killed while marching to the center. The night was spent merrily in singing songs, roasting meat, etc. In the morning we tried to hit on some plan to organize, and divide the game, but it seemed impossible to get any plan to work. About this time Major Henry Coyt came from Liverpool, and I went and asked him to assist us in bringing about an organization. He did so and succeeded in getting a committee appointed, consisting of himself, Capt. John Biglow, of Richfield, and myself. We proceeded to divide the men into four divisions, as follows : first division, Cleveland,   Vol. I-25   Royalton and Newburg ; second division, Brecksville and Richfield ; third division, Bath and Granger ; fourth division, Medina, Brunswick and Liverpool ; and then we divided the game as well as we could in proportion. This was probably the greatest hunt that has ever been, or ever will be in the United States ; and strange to say, but one accident happened. Captain Lothrop Seymour received a buck shot in his shoulder and one in his leg."   TOWNSHIP OF HINCKLEY SURVEYED.   In 1819 the township of Hinckley was surveyed by Abraham Freeze of Brunswick. He divided it into 100 lots, each containing a one-quarter section of land. In lot 69 Mr. Freeze found a squatter named Walton, who was the first settler on the township and the only one at the time of the survey. As yet, however, that township was known only by number and had not received a distinctive name. The question of its christening came up during the excitement attending the raising of the Freeze barn, in the summer of 1824. Upon that occasion all the able-bodied men of the township were present to render their assistance, and after the frame of the barn had been raised the question came up of organizing and naming the township.   JUDGE HINCKLEY'S "COME DOWN."   Mr. Freeze stated to those present that Judge Hinckley had promised him that if the citizens would name it Hinckley in his honor he would deed them a lot of 160 acres for school purposes, or for any other public use which they designated. They therefore voted unanimously in favor of Hinckley, and the next year when Judge Hinckley paid his annual visit to collect his rental and payments on the lots, Mr. Freeze reminded him of his promised donation. The judge said that he had been very unfortunate during the past year ; had met with heavy losses ; had had much sickness in his family, and really did not feel able to make so large a gift to the   386 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   township. He did offer, however, to donate two and one-half acres at the Center for a public square, and two burying grounds, each containing one and one-quarter acres ; and, although this was a sad "come-down" from his original generous offer, the people of the township accepted it, and the name of Hinckley has therefore since continued attached to it.   The first township election was held at the log school house on the present site of No. 1. The election was held September 25, 1825, and resulted in the choice of the following : Robt. Ingersoll, T. N. Eastson, Josiah Piper, trustees ; Joab Loomis, Samuel Porter, overseers of the poor ; Jared Thair, clerk ; Fred Deming, treasurer ; John C. Lane, Chester Conant, Abraham Freeze and David Babcock, supervisors.   LITCHFIELD TOWNSHIP.   From the early records it is evident that the portion of Medina county now called Litchfield was originally owned by Judge Holmes of Litchfield, Connecticut. Some time in the early 20's he caused it to be surveyed and a tract of land cleared in the center of the township, on which he erected a cabin. Soon afterward, however, the land reverted to the state of Connecticut and was again thrown into the open market. While controlled by Judge Holmes, it was generally known as Holmestown, but when it was subsequently surveyed appeared upon the, map of the Western Reserve as Litchfield ; and by that name it has since been known. The territory was included within the choicest hunting grounds of the Wyandot Indians and their wigwams were scattered along Center creek as late as 1822. Prior to that year the settlements in Liverpool on the north and Hinckley on the south had begun to spread and, to drive out the wild game, thereby thinning out to some extent the habitations of the Red Men.. The first permanent settlement within the township was not made until February, 1830, when Cyrus Cook, wife and child located on a small clearing in the northern part, and in the following May quite a colony came from Connecticut to settle in the township. Nearly all of these first settlements were in the vicinity of Litchfield Center. On the 30th of June, 1831, the township was organized by the election of E. Hood, J. Vandventer and George Olcott as trustees; Thomas Wilcox, clerk ; Asah Howd, treasurer, and Johnathan Richards, justice of the peace. At this election the voters and the officials were nearly synonomous, as only nine votes were cast altogether.   The month of May, 1832, proved of great moment to the early settlers of Litchfield township, as a colony of forty-one persons settled among them in one day. So great an influx brought vigorous life and much encouragement to the real pioneers of the township.   In 1832, when the assessor made his first list of the property valuation. of the township, there were returned one horse and twenty-four cattle, valued at $232. The township is now one of the richest in live-stock and agr .cultural products in the country, and eve twenty years after the first return of the assessor was made, as mentioned above, its liv stock had increased so as to include 500 hors 1,500 cattle, and nearly 6,000 sheep. The tot value of its live stock and agriculture in the 50's was about $75,000.   SHARON TOWNSHIP.   Sharon township, southeast of the village Medina, was among the later sections of the county to be opened and settled. It was on nally known simply as "Hart and Mathew's, from its proprietors who resided in Saybrook, Connecticut. As there were no settlements in this section of the county for a considerable time after the adjoining township had become quite well populated, and all kinds of game were found here in abundance, Sharon township may be called a common hunting ground for all the pioneers in the southern part of the county.   In 1816 David Point, a New Yorker, settled within the limits of Sharon township and   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 387   and his descendants continued to reside there for many years. His original location was in the northeastern corner of the township, his holding being afterward included in the farm owned by Jacob Rudsill.   The first death among the whites of the township was that of an infant child in the Point family, who died of croup in 1822. At this time there was no physician in the township, the nearest member of that profession being located at Wadsworth.   The first native white female child was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Point, born in June, 1618, who in her young womanhood married George Vaughn, subsequently a resident of Allen county, Indiana.   In 1829 the township was surveyed by Peter A. Moore, and George W. White, of Trumbull county, and its name changed from "Hart & Mathew's" to Gash township. This was done at the suggestion of Mr. Moore, in honor of his native province in Scotland. The name, however, was retained by the township only three months, when it was again altered to the one it now bears.   At its organization, in 1831, seventy-five votes were cast. It was in the year 1833 that a number of families came from England and located in what is known as the English Settlement, two miles northeast of the center of the township. Most of them continued to reside in Sharon and became among its wealthiest and most substantial farmers.   SHARON ACADEMY.   In 1835 a charter was granted by the legislature to create the Sharon Academy, which in after years, became one of the leading educational institutions of the county.   MEDINA IN THE WAR OF 1812.   In military matters it would be inexcusable to put forth even the outlines of history of Medina county without making grateful mention for the part her sons played in the various wars of the nation. On account of the small number of settlers who located in the county prior to the war of 1812, individual mention has been made of those who participated in that conflict. The sons and daughters of the county remained virtually undisturbed thereafter, as far as military matters were concerned ; until the outbreak of the Mexican war in 1846. During the month of June of that year, between twenty and thirty men responded to the national call for troops from Medina county, and volunteered in the three regiments assigned as the "Ohio quota" to the American Army of Occupation. --The Ohio .regiments were soon filled, but as there was not a sufficient number of men from Medina county to form a company they were sent to Wooster, Ohio, and formed a part of a company organized at that place. The organization was known as Company E of the third Regiment. A partial list of the men from Medina county, who marched under General Scott to Mexico and took part in the campaigns and battles which have become historical, is as follows : Alexander Coretsca, Samuel: Fritz, Uriah Fritz, Nathaniel Case, John Callihan, Charles Barrett, Elijah Beard, Amiah Chaffey, D. W. Rouse, C. B. Wood, Columbus Chapman, Terry Harris, Josiah Coy. W. S. Booth, Stephen M. Hyatt, Horace Potter, Luther Adkins, Ebenezer Manning, Robert W. Patterson and O. P. Barney.   MEDINA IN THE MEXICAN WAR.   An account of the first meeting called in the village of Medina for the enlistment of Mexican volunteers is thin given : Sometime about the 1st of June, 1846, notice was given that a meeting would be held at a given date in the village of Medina, for the purpose of receiving the 'names of those who desired to serve in the war with Mexico. The day and hour came ; a band of martial music paraded the streets to assemble the citizens, and, in the park, speeches were made by one or more of the prominent citizens. Volunteers were called for, but, out of the throng there   388 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   assembled, only two men signified their intention and readiness to march in battle array to the bright land of the Montezumas. These two were Alexander Coretsca, of polish descent, and Nathaniel Case. The two were loudly cheered, as they enrolled their names in their country's service. Some one said to Coretsca : "Yes, you'll die down there in that hot climate," to which the latter replied, "It will be as well to die,down there as any place." After a few days several others added their names to the roll. All the men mentioned above were in Company E, of the Third Regiment, except John Callihan, Ebenezer Manning and Stephen Hyatt, who were in the Second Regiment, and Horace Potter, who was in Company F, of the Third Regiment. The brave boys realized that it was no holiday to go in the hot months of the year from the comparatively cold climate of the Northern States to the altogether different and peculiar climate of Mexico.   The Third Regiment was mustered out of the service at New Orleans, in the autumn of 1847, and in common with the other American soldiers, the Medina county boys drew their pay for eighteen months at seven dollars per month. The three fatalties of the Mexican War, which were reported as a direct outcome of the war, among the Medina county troops, were Josiah Coy, who died at Camargo ; Amiah Chaffey, who died near Natchez, Mississippi, a few days after his discharge, of a disease contracted while in the service ; and Terry Harris, who sacriffced his life to the cause about a week after he reached home, as a result of the hardships and exposures of the campaigns in which he had participated.   THE CIVIL WAR.   A few days after the fall of Fort Sumter, a mass meeting was held at Medina for the securing of volunteers, under the first presidential call. E. A. Warner was chosen president for the day ; the usual patriotic resolutions were adopted, and thrilling speeches made, and upon the call for volunteers, about 200 men subscribed their names on the enlist ment rolls. They were formed into companies A and B, of the Eighth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Wilbur F. Pierce was captain of Company A, and O. O. Kelsey commanded Company B.   Upon the arrival of Company A at Cleveland, it was incorporated as a body into the Eighth Regiment, changing its name to Company K. Company B, however, was divided, and about fifty of its men joined a command organized from several companies. On May 2, 1861, the regiment was ordered to Camp Dennison, and the boys went forth from Medina county and were swallowed up by the great military operations of the succeeding four years.   When these first two companies raised in Medina county were dispatched to the field, the rapid enlistment of other volunteers proceeded. Companies B and E, Fonty-second Regiment, were raised almost entirely in the county, besides which there were thirteen Medina men in Company I, and twenty men in Company G, of the same regiment. The colonel of this command was James A. Garfield. Although other troops than the four companies mentioned were raised in Medina county prior to the time when the Seventy-second Regiment took the field, they were incorporated into so many commands that it is impossible to go into details. The Seventy-second, however, contained more than the equivalent of a full company of Medina county soldiers, although they were distributed among various companies. During the last three months of 1861 Company K and portions of other companies were recruited mostly in this county. Of the One Hundred and Third Qhio Infantry two companies were mostly recruited from this section of the Western Reserve—one commanded by Lyman B. Wilcox, and the other, by William H. Garrett. Company I of the Second Ohio Cavalry, which was composed chiefly of men from Medina county, was   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 389   officered as follows : Allen P. Steel, captain ; David E. Welch, first lieutenant, and William B. Shattuck, second lieutenant. The recruiting officer of the local company .was Hon. H. G. Blake, a prominent citizen of Medina. It may be stated as a rather interesting military item that in September, 1861, Quarter-Master J. J. Elwell bought fifty horses at Medina for this regiment, which was the first raised in northern Ohio to be attached to the cavalry branch of the service. The Second Ohio was ordered to Camp Dennison the latter part of November, 1861, where it received sabers and continued drilling until December 20, when it was ordered to Kentucky.   The four companies which enlisted in Medina county during the spring of 1864 were organized into the Seventy-ninth Battalion, Ohio National Guard, Hon. Harrison G. Blake, serving as Lieutenant Colonel of this command. It was largely through the efforts of this brave leader, who afterwards also became so prominent in civic affairs, that the required contingent of troops was raised from Medina county.   It has been estimated that about 1,500 men went from Medina county to the Civil war, and the two men most directly responsible for this fine showing were Hon. H. G. Blake al ready mentioned, who may be called the great promoter of enlistments, and M. C. Hills, who served as draft commissioner of the county. The first draft which occurred, October 5, 1862, resulted in the enrollment of some 380 men, and other drafts raised this number to more than 500; so that it is within bounds to say that of the 1,500 men who served their country as soldiers from Medina county in the Civil. War, two-thirds were volunteers.   TWO FAMOUS MEN.   Medina County is proud of two men who have achieved fame—one, Russell A. Alger, born in Lafayette township, and George K. Nash in York. General Alger was conspicuous in the war of the Rebellion, was United States Senator from Michigan and secretary of War under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt. During that time the Spanish War was in progress and he of course had much to do with it officially. He at one time served at the head of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was very successful in business, his fortune being laid in the lumber business of Michigan.   George K. Nash was a leader in the Republican party of the state, and discharged the duties of governor most acceptably. He was honest, conscientious and able.   CHAPTER XXV.   ERIE COUNTY.   Erie County, composed of eleven townships set off from Huron in 1838, is bounded on the north by Sandusky Bay and Lake Erie ; east, by Lake Erie and Lorain ; south, by Huron ; west, by the west boundary of the Reserve. The north-west corner of the township of Margaretta extends a little beyond the limits   ERIE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.   of the Reserve. It has an area of only one hundred and seventy-seven square miles and is therefore one of the smallest counties in Ohio.   Generally speaking, the surface of the county slopes gradually toward the lake, from an elevation of about one hundred and fifty feet. In the early years of its settlement its main commercial strength was its fine grain, but, with the prodigious development of its industries, it has long ago lost its agricultural character. It is still pre-eminent however as a fruit country. From its grapes has grown its wine industry, known all over the United States. Limestone and freestone, are quarried here in large quantities, and cement is manufactured.   Much of the narrative bearing upon the early settlement of Eric county is contained in the history of Huron county, or the Firelands; but the establishment of this section of the Reserve as a strong and growing Community of northern Ohio commences with the founding of the city of Sandusky.   HISTORY OF FORT SANDUSKY.   One of the most complete, authentic and interesting accounts descriptive of the found-   - 390 -   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 391   ing of Sandusky was published in the first directory of the city issued in 1855 by John McKelvey, who, although an active business man of today, is still considered the best living authority of these pioneer times. It is chiefly from this source that the information is derived which is incorporated in this article.   It is a matter of general knowledge that the first Indian tribe, whose territory included the shores of Sandusky Bay, comprised the Eries, or Cat nation. They were exterminated by the fierce Iroquois in 1655, and about a century afterward the Wyandots and Ottawas gradually occupied the country around Lake Erie. They still held it, in 1679, when the pioneer white men under the French voyageur La Salle, appeared. in this locality. It was on the south-eastern shores of Lake Erie that the wreck of the "Griffin" was found—a bark which La Salle had constructed a• few years before, at the mouth of Tonawanda creek, for the prosecution of his fur ventures among the Indians living around the Great Lakes. Year the middle of the seventeenth century some English traders 1settled on the present site of Venice, eight miles west of Sandusky, and there built a stockade which they occupied until they were driven out by the French in 1750. The latter then built Fort junandat, which afterwards became known as Fort Sandusky and was occupied by the English in 1760. In May of that year Fort Sandusky was captured and burned by the Indians, during Pontiac's conspiracy. In the following month Captain Dalzell, in retaliation for this, stopped at Sandusky and burned the fields of standing corn, as well as the. Wyandot village at Castalia. He then marched north to Detroit and relieved 'the garrison of that place. At this time Sandusky bay was called Lac-San-douske, meaning in the Wyandot language "cold water lake."   OGONTZ PLACE.   In 181o, the year after the completion of the survey of the Firelands by Almon Ruggles, John Garrison erected a log cabin at the rn trading post which had succeeded Fort Sandusky. At this time the post was called "Ogontz Place," so named from a distinguished Indian chief of the Ottawa tribe, educated and sent here by some missionary society in Canada.   OGONTZ AND HIS FATE.   A French priest of the Catholic church found a papoose alive in a village which had been depopulated because of smallpox. He took the child to Quebec or Montreal, educated him and sent him back as a missionary to the Ottawa Indians near the Cuyahoga--"Logem Town," the place was called. Here this priest, Ogontz, preached the gospel of love, patience and forgiveness, but he found after a time that it was easy to make Catholics out of the Indians but that it was not easy to make Christians ; that is, the forms attracted them, but the spirit was not inclined to the doctrine of turning the other cheek. So when these Indians had fought another tribe and been defeated, they withdrew to the region of Sandusky, and Ogontz dropped his priest's robes and became their chief.   On his arrival Ogontz received from his own most flattering attention and favors. That such attention should continue to be shown an Indian by Indians was not possible. Some animals, many children,, most savages, follow out openly their feelings of hatred and jealousy ; it is only grown white men and women who try to hide theirs. It was therefore not long before a jealous chief met Ogontz at a trading post on the Huron river, about two miles from the mouth, and a contest ensued. Ogontz was not killed, but his opponent was. To make amends the' son of the slain man was adopted by Ogontz and treated as his own child. The Indian boy, knowing the circumstances of his father's death, quietly kept his lamp of hatred and revenge burning, and when he had gained courage through his physical growth, he killed his parent's slayer ; and so it   392 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   happened that Ogontz slept with his father before his natural life was done.   TRAGIC DEATHS OF OMIC AND SEMO.   Previous to the war of 1812 the Indians of the vicinage became troublesome and even hostile. The frontiersmen assembled at Huron to form a company for the protection of themselves, their families and possessions. It seems they were none too soon in this action, for as they were organizing two men, named Gibbs and Buell, living about one mile south of Sandusky (on or hear the present road to the cemetery) were murdered. Twenty men went to the spot to obtain evidence. A part of a "spontoon" found buried in Gibbs' skull was identified by Alfred Ruggles, a blacksmith, as one he had but a short time before made for an Indian, Semo. Knowing where Semo lived, the party pursued him as far as Portage river and arrived just in time to see him disappear in the woods on the opposite bank. A trader, named Van Wormer, living near the river, informed the party that an Indian, Omeek, had been in the company of Semo for months, and might be found up the river. He proposed to go to Omeek, hire him to work, and bring him down where they could capture him. The plan was successfully carried out. Omeek was seized, taken to Cleveland, tried, found guilty, and hung. An account of this occurrence is given in the chapter on Cuyahoga county, but the name is more often spelled Omic than Omeek.   Semo was taken soon after, but made his escape.. A reward of one hundred dollars was offered for his body, dead or alive. His tribe, not wishing to screen so dreaded a foe of the whites, and anxious to obtain the prize money, captured him in the vicinity of Maumee bay and returned to deliver him up. On their way back, and while encamped for the night, Semo, knowing the fate of Omeek, and anticipating a similar one were he taken to Cleveland, seized a gun, placed the muzzle of it under his chin, and with his toe firing it, the charge passed through his head, killing him instantly. Thus were removed two dangerous characters, but hostilities were not ended.   THE CASTALIA MASSACRE.   During the same spring, of Semo's death, a most barbarous massacre occurred at the head of Cold creek, now Castalia. There wene living there at this time the families of Snow, Butler and Putnam, and a girl named Page. Snow had erected on Cold creek, a grist mill, in which he usually kept corn ; this the Indians continued to steal in the night time. Snow, to stop this thieving, laid the boards of the floor leading from the embankment to the mill in such a way, that when trod upon they would give way and let the Indians through.   The Indians being caught in this trap a few times were so exasperated as to plan vengeance on the whole settlement, and accordingly, one morning before the usual time of rising, concealed themselves among the bushes that grew on the bank along the creek. The men, Messrs. Snow, Putnam and Butler, had for several days been cultivating a piece of corn about one mite distant, and on the above morning, not anticipating any trouble from the Indians, started as usual for their place of work. As soon as they were out of sight, the Indians approached the cabins. Escape was impossible and resistance useless. One little boy, being old enough to understand their hostile intentions from the manner of the Indians approach, crawled into the tall grass by the fence like a quail. He, however, was discovered by one of the Indians and pulled out. Mrs. Snow being unable to travel because of her delicate condition at the time, was butchered on the spot, as were also her children, three or four in number. The. rest were secured as prisoners, taken to Malden, Canada, and were released or purchased by the whites a few months after.   FIERCE FIGHT ON JOHNSON'S ISLAND.   In the ensuing fall, soon after Hull's surrender at Detroit, thirty men fonmed them   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 393   selves into a company of "rangers," under the command of Captain Cotton. Their duty was to stand as guard at the Huron blockhouse and scout through. the country, as circumstances might require; each furnished his own horse and equipments. On a bright, clear morning, shortly after the formation of the company, a large number of Indians were seen in the vicinity of Bull's (Johnson's) Island. They were, as was afterwards ascertained, a powerful tribe from the West, known as the "Pottawatomies." After paddling about in their canoes fon a while, they disappeared. The company of rangers, anxious for a skirmish, got their boats ready and started in pursuit of them. Thinking them to be on the peninsula, they made directly for that point. They passed through the opening to the lake to the east of Bull's Island, and made their boats fast. They proceeded through the woods in search of the enemy ; but going to the "Harbors," a distance of four or five miles without seeing or hearing them they returned. In the meantime, the Indians concealed on Bull's Island had watched the movements of the whites, and as soon as they saw them disappear in the woods on the peninsula, jumped into their canoes and paddled across. Here they chopped the fastened boats to pieces with their tomahawks and started through the woods in pursuit of the rangers. The two parties met and a conflict ensued. The Indians were routed and driven back with a heavy loss. V. Ramsdell, J. Mingus and three others were killed while Jonas Lee was disabled by a bad wound in his thigh. While lying on the ground he heard footsteps and rising, he saw an Indian running towards him preparing to scalp him. He raised his gun which he had reloaded and killed his would-be slayer. Other Indians overlooked him and he lay there unmolested till found by his party. The rangers had to remain on the peninsula two days before relief reached them from this side.   In August, 1812, General Hull surrendered Detroit to the British ; and from this time to he achievement of Perry's victory, in September of the following year, the inhabitants were in constant apprehension for their personal safety. The sighing of the breeze, and the discharge of the hunter's rifle, alike startled the wife and the mother. This was true of all portions of the Western Reserve, but the danger was greatest in the northwest.   FIRST PERMANENT SETTLERS.   The first permanent settlers came to Sandusky in 1816. Money at this time was very scarce, and produce very high, prices ranging as follows: Flour, $10 per barrel and a poor article at that ; salt, $8 per barrel ; domestic shirtings, 50 to 62 cents per yard ; satinetts, $2.50 to $3.50 per yard ; green teas, $1.50 to $2.50 per pound ; brown sugar, from 25 to 30 cents per pound ; loaf sugar from 40 to 50 cents per pound, etc. There being few mills, little wheat, families depended upon flour bought by the barrel. Corn cost at least $1 per bushel and butter was usually 25 cents per pound. Prices were high all over the Reserve, but higher here because the distance from the base of supplies was greater and the cost of transportation of course was added.   There were vessels on the lake at the time, but freight could not be brought from Buffalo here short of $2.50 per barrel bulk. For several years the settlers consumed all the produce that was raised through this section ; but as soon as a surplus accumulated, a ready market was found at Detroit, Monroe and other settlements in the upper regions of Lake Erie.   ORIGINAL SANDUSKY PLATS.   In the spring of 1817, the town of Portland was laid out by its then proprietor, Zalmon Wildman, of Danbury, Connecticut. It embraced that portion of the present area of Sandusky which lies between Hancock street on the east, Decatur on the west, and Jefferson on the south. During the ensuing year, a claim was interposed by Hon. Isaac Mills, of New   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 394   Haven, Connecticut, to an undivided portion of the whole tract embraced in the present city limits, which resulted in a compromise as is usual in all cases of dispute, three-fourths was allotted to Mr. Wildman and the other fourth to Mr. Mills.   In the spring of 1818 these gentlemen united in laying out the present plat of the town under the name of Sandusky City, since changed (by the provisions of an act to provide for the organization of cities and incorporated villages) to Sandusky. Its location is on the south side of Sandusky bay, being in 41 degrees, 32 minutes, 10 seconds north latitude, near the center of the north side of the state, one hundred miles due north from Columbus, sixty from Cleveland, sixty from Detroit, forty-eight from Toledo and two hundred and eighteen from Cincinnati.   From the original plat of the city of Sandusky, dated June 5, 1818, it appears that the first thoroughfares laid out were Water, Market, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Wayne and Jackson streets, and Columbus, Miami and Huron avenues. The streets were planed to be four rods in width and the avenues six. Two open spaces in Market street were appropriated for public market grounds, and the public .parks provided for were Washington, Columbus, Miami and Huron. It is particularly specified in the deed that "Washington Square is hereby appropriated for public ground, parade, or walk, and is never to be obstructed except that part of it included in line marked A. A., which is hereby appropriated for buildings for religious, literary, state, county and city purposes, but no jail or state prison is ever to be erected thereon."   JOHN GARRISON, PIONEER MERCHANT.   To complete this article on the founding of Sandusky and its history up to the time when it attained the dignity of being platted as a town, recourse is again had to John McKelvey and his ready pen. In this case, however, the main narrative comes from John Garrison, Sandusky's first store-keeper, who tells of the founding of his business and the location of the first family on the site of the present city. A short time before his death, in 1865, Mr. Garrison prepared an account of his coming to these parts, from which the following is extracted :   "We lived on this farm (in Cayuga county, New York,) sixteen years and continued to improve it. I had under good improvement 150 acres, three good frame houses, three 30x40 good frame barns and seven acres of orchard, and had suitable stock for the farm. I had also a good stock of goods, having opened the first store in that vicinity. In 1810 I was desirous of going to the west; sold out my store, went out to Ohio to look at the country, and purchased 4,000 acres of land in Huron county, at 90 cents an acre. I then returned to Cayuga county, New York, and found that the man to whom I sold my goods had failed and that I had lost $500 by him.   "Not discouraged by this, I sold my farm for about $7,000, which was increased to $10,000 by the sale of my personal property. I went east and purchased $4,000 worth of drygoods, and goods suitable for the Indian trade, and sent them to Buffalo on April 10, 1811. I started with a four-horse team of my own and three other teams to help me as far as Buffalo, about 150 miles. There I shipped my goods to the mouth of the Hunon river, took my family in my wagon and traveled around the lake, and arrived at the mouth of the Huron one day before my goods. I stored the goods in an old Indian cabin with a French trader and went out to see my land and select a building place.   "A very singular circumstance occurred at this time. At the mouth of the Huron we met several persons with their teams waiting to cross. They had been there several days waiting for the wind, which had been blowing a perfect gale, to subside. The wind being from the east drove the water into the river and made it too deep for fording. It was at last proposed to build a raft and cross our teams   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 395   on it, one at a time. The next morning I got up very early and went down to look at the river. To my surprise I found that the wind had changed during the night to the north-. west and had driven the water out of the river and left a bare sand bar stretching entirely across. I walked out on the bar and finding it quite hard I hastened back to the wagons, and we all hitched up our teams and crossed without difficulty on dry land. In one hour after we crossed, the bar had disappeared and the vessel which brought my goods anchored over the spot.   "I found my land, or rather where my land was, for much to my disappointment it was nearly half covered with water. It lay about twelve miles back from the lake and was very. good land in a dry season. I preferred to settle near the lake, and for a few days traveled up and 'down the lake shore examining the different points.   "I finally came to the conclusion that on Sandusky bay there was destined to be a point of importance as a business place.' The land was not in market, and the shores of the bay were covered with the camps of the Indians. There I detrained to pitch my camp, and at once employed some men to assist me, building a cabin to live in, twenty feet square, and an additional ten feet wide for a store. It required but a few days to complete the whole. My family moved into the house, and I moved my goods into the store and commenced selling to the Indians and settlers. Mine was the first store ever opened in Huron county., where now stands the city of Sandusky, with its scores of fine stores, churches, railroads, etc. Then the Indian canoe moved noiselessly over the bosom of the bay, where the mighty steamboat plows her way. Where the Indian and solitary hunter or trapper pursued his way on foot and alone, guided by the trail of the blazed trees, now thunders the steam engine with its train of cars bearing multitudes to and fro. And where stood the wigwam of the Indian, or the rude cabin of the trader, now rise the dwellings and spires of a city."   ELEUTHEROS COOKE.   Undoubtedly Jay Cooke had a wider national reputation than any other Erie county man. The story of his life by Oberholtzer is told so graphicly as to be as interesting as a tale of adventure, while in it and around it is woven the history of the times. His father,. Eleutheros (meaning "Free-born"), when a young man left northern New York with a party for Indiana. When they reached the upper waters of the Alleghany they made a flatboat, and Indians paddled and poled them to Fort Du Quesne. . Here they built a larger boat and proceeded on their way down the Ohio, landing at Madison, Indiana, where the father built a brick house for the family.   When business called the father' to New York he could not go back the way he came, since there were no boats with power to pull against the streams. He therefore went overland to Lake Erie, took a boat for Buffalo and finished his journey through the wilderness. The spot where he reached the lake was Ogontz Place, (at present Sandusky), and he was so impressed with the blue lake, the green shores, the rocks and trees that he was never able to efface them from his mind. When he returned to Indiana, by the Ohio river route, he talked so constantly of the attractiveness of Sandusky that it was decided the whole party would move there. This was done in the winter of 1818-19. The journey was accomplished by sledges through an unsettled country. At Bloomingville, eight miles south of Sandusky, they took up their abode.   Jay Cooke writes, "To the south of this village (Bloomingville) the prairie was covered with waving grass, with herds of deer and wolves, and innumerable flocks of wild turkeys, prairie chickens, etc. I have often listened to my father's stories of these things, and particularly to the account of the journey from Madison and the many escapes from. Indians, bears and wolves. * * * This whole region was the paradise of the Indians."   After a time Eleutheros Cooke saw that   396 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE   Bloomingville was not so promising a location as Ogontz Place, and as Ogontz and the members of his tribe had been moved to a reservation, about forty miles away, Mr. Cooke purchased the very spot upon which the chief's wigwam had stood. Here he began to build a stone house, although his friends declared he could not find stone enough to complete it. Strange they should have so thought, when we now know how much stone there is and has been in that vicinity.   " 'It was for those days a most imposing mansion' and, although the building was in large part demolished many years ago, only the central walls remaining to serve the uses of the Second National Bank, it is still, to those who know its history, one of the landmarks of the city."   JAY COOKE IS BORN.   Into that house the family moved in 1821, having lived for a few months in a frame cottage while waiting for its completion. It was in this frame cottage that Jay was born August 10, 1821. He used to say he was "probably the first or nearly the first boy baby born in Sandusky."   Because Eleutheros Cooke had lost an election to the legislature, many people misspelling his name, he determined his children or rather his boys (for who. in that day ever thought any woman would have her name on any political ticket) should not be so hampered. The first son he named for the English statesman, Pitt ; Jay was a namesake of Chief Justice Jay, and the father determined to call the next son Fox, for the great Englishman ; but here the mother rebelled. Bless her soul ! Since she gave her children birth, nursed and reared them, it does not seem as if she were presuming to ask to name just one. She named him for her father and her brother, and after many years of struggle this Henry Davis achieved success and brought her comfort and honor—reflected honor, of course, for few women of her time were receiving honors themselves. Jay's father was the first lawyer to settle at Sandusky. He was a member of Congress with John Quincy Adams and of the state legislature with Tom Corwin. He was interested in all public and local questions. He strove hard to establish canals in Ohio. He drew the charter which provided for the Lake Erie and Mad River railroad. Jay says: "The incorporators did not avail themselves of their privileges until 1831, or 1832, when ground was broken at Sandusky and my father was the orator of the day. General William Henry Harrison and many -other notables were present and the guests all dined at our house. There was a procession, a band and a cannon, and I remember that we boys all walked in the parade and had a big time generally."   JAY COOKE.   From childhood Jay Cooke showed a disposition to make money. He clerked in a store at noon and on Saturdays, and although he was but sixteen when he left Sandusky, he was considered a promising business man. When he was twenty-one his success as a financier was well assured. Remarkable ! At twenty-four he and Dorthea Elizabeth Allen were married.   HENRY D. COOKE.   The older brother Pitt was settled, an Henry D. had just finished college. The latt had a hard time getting started in life. thought of entering the ministry, his fath having been one of the most forceful and able lawyers of his time, some expected him to follow that profession. He finally with Jay's help bought the Register and became its editor. Few papers at that time were gr financial successes. The Register was no ception. He became interested in politics a was presidential elector on Fremont's tic in 1856. He bought an interest in the 0 State Journal and became associated wi Chase, Sherman and other Republican leade Again his editorial work was good, but h   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 397   family had to help him out financially. His wife in wniting to his father, says : "For two weeks he (Henry) has not had one cent in his pocket" and the father adds : "Poor fellow ! His severe labors and his sterling merits and shining talents deserve a better fate, and I pity him from my soul." Among the young men who worked on the Ohio Journal in Henry D. Cooke's days was William Dean Howells.   Jay Cooke, in the meantime, was growing more influential. He suffered losses and regained lost ground. He was optimistic, courageous and always thoughtful of those dependent upon him for advice or money. With the beginning of the war he saw his opportunity and he really became the financier of that period. His brother had been appointed public printer and, being acquainted with Ohio's public men, was of great assistance. These two men were personally associated with Lincoln, Chase, Fessenden, Sherman and their like.   Henry D. was made governor of the District of Columbia, and some historians think if there had not been a Jay Cooke the general result of the war would have been different. The story of the part Jay and Henry played is a matter of general history and is not repeated here.   The father, Eleutheros, built a house on Columbus avenue, where the Sloan House now stands, and in this great mansion the children and grandchildren gathered for visits. This house many years after was taken down stone by stone and re-erected on Columbus avenue, and is now the home of T. Morrison Sloane, the daughter of Pitt Cooke. Eleutheros Cooke died on December 27, 1864, and was greatly mourned by his family. He understood political matters as well, if not better, than his sons. "Centainly none (of his sons) was in the same manner grounded in constitutional law and the philosophy of government, fitting him for public life."   When the war was over Jay began railroad operations in the great northwest. His opera tions were stupendous. A financial condition unlooked for brought about a failure, but from this he recovered so that in his old age he was possessed of all or more than he cared to have.   JAY COOKE'S BOYHOOD.   The following, taken from a paper read by Jay Cooke before the Firelands Historical Society at the Sandusky meeting of 'g00, tells the story of the part played by Mr. Cooke and his father in the early building of Sandusky.   "You must not expect from me on this occasion anything more than a truthful talk upon some subjects your president tells me you will be pleased to listen to, as coming from one who, although not a member of your society yet, has for long years kept himself informed as to your aims and purposes and who has taken much interest in all you have clone. I never delivered a speech in all my nearly eighty years of life. The largest body I have ever addressed was a male Bible class of sometimes 150 members, which I have conducted each Sabbath for nearly fifty years ; and yet when I recall the fact that my dear father, the Hon. Eleutheros Cooke, so frequently in the long ago met with you and addressed you, and that your society has numbered and now numbers many old friends, I could not refuse the invitation to appear before you.   "My preference would have been, however, to have met and talked with you at the fireside of my own home. Oh, what hours we could have spent together, chatting about the good old times, the old friends, the thousand and one incidents, old customs and experiences, and again of the wondrous changes that have taken place, the rapid progress in arts and sciences and inventions in steamships and railroads, and telegraph and telephones. Why a whole year of such talks would hardly suffice to exhaust the infinite sum of the items we would recall from memory's storehouse, even a memory reaching no further backwards than three score years and ten.   398 - HISTORY OF THE. WESTERN RESERVE   "My friends, I consider myself one of you. I was born near the spot where we are now assembled. I have a perfect recollection of Sandusky when it was but just changing from an Indian village. Old Ogontz many a time has carried me on his shoulders. I named my beautiful home near Philadelphia after this old chief, and now the whole country around me for miles has appropriated for their postoffice, railroad station and village the name of Ogontz.   "My father, I think, built the first stone house down on Columbus avenue. The town was then called Portland, and afterwards Sandusky City, and now Sandusky. My first recollection of any public worship was of a Methodist .meeting held in a cooper shop on Market street, our seats rough boards placed on kegs. Shortly after this a small frame church was erected by the Methodists near where the courthouse stands. After this a stone church built by the Congregationalists, also a stone church by the Episcopalians and many other societies followed, until in time this fair city has become noted as a city of churches:   "The bay was at certain times covered with ducks and wild geese and swan, and the water populous with all kinds of fish. I remember a joke which our rival neighbors used to perpetuate, i. e., that before the Sandusky people could dine or sup they would have to send us boys down to the docks to catch enough fish for a meal. But in fact this whole country was full of game and fish of all kinds, and a perfect paradise for hunters and fishermen. Deer and squirrels and prairie chickens and wild turkey, etc., abounded.   FATHER CORNERS A WHOLE FLOCK.   "My father never was a hunter, but on one occasion he beat us all in prowess by capturing a couple of dozen of fat wild turkeys without firing a gun. He had a hundred-acre field of corn out on the prairie and had built a spacious corn house in the center. One day, riding over this field after harvest, he notic a window was open, and approaching an looking in discovered a large flock of wild turkeys within and feasting on his corn. He promptly closed the window and captured the whole flock, thus providing a feast for the good old Thanksgiving day then nean at hand. "On this same prairie between Blooming ville and Strong's Ridge I have hunted with Judge Caldwell. It was a rare spot for deer and prairie chickens.   FIRST TELEGRAMS AND RAILROADS.   "And now before closing these perso reminiscences I wish to refer to an inciden which some of you will no doubt recall. It is this, at one of your meetings in Norwalk long ago my father, who was the orator on that occasion, took from his pocket the very first telegram that had been sent from Philadelph to Sandusky. He reminded you of past di culties particularly in the earlier periods, the matter of mails and messages from the East, and how that frequently letters were days and weeks before reaching their lest' nation, and how he held in his hand a messa that he had received from his son Jay fro Philadelphia in just five minutes from the time his son had written it that very mornin   "To realize the wondrous change that yo and I have witnessed we can recall the time when postage on a letter from Sandusky to Norwalk was twelve and one-half cents and from Boston to Sandusky was twenty-five cents, and if the envelope contained an enclosure beside the one sheet the postage was doubled. Why, my friends, I myself have paid seventy-five cents on a letter to my sweetheart in Kentucky just because there was so much news in Philadelphia that it required three sheets to tell it all. You and I remember when tomatoes were called 'Love Apples' an were not eaten, considered, poisonous.   FATHER AND SON AS RAILROAD MEN. "We remember the first soda water fountain, the first daguerreotype, the first steam-   HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 399   ship that crossed the ocean, the first railroad charter obtained in the world—and that by my own father—in 1826: We all remember the beginning of the road, at first between Sandusky and Bellevue, with a thin English strap rail and cars drawn by a' horse. I .was present when, about 1835, ground was broken near Foreman's rope walk and a grand celebration held. All the great men of the state were invited. 'Old Tippecanoe,' the first President Harrison, was there. My father delivered the oration. We had music and a cannon and the boys all marched in the procession.   "At this time a few other railroad projects   FIRST ENGINE BUILT IN SANDUSKY.   had been launched—a few miles of the Baltimore & Ohio, some three miles of the German-. town road, also a piece of the Albany & Schenectady road and. a mile in the Quincy granite quarries. But to my father and to the Western Reserve belongs the honor of being the pioneer in railroad. matters. From this small beginning hundreds of thousands of miles of railroad have been constructed. Why, my friends, there are today enough finished railroads in the United States alone to, reach around the world fully ten times.   "I have since 1838 when I took up my residence in Philadelphia, almost continually been financiering for railroads: As a member of the great firm of E. W. Clarke & Co., and afterwards of the firm of Jay Cooke & Co., I have until recent years been instrumental in the building of nearly all the older railroads in the country. The last of these, the great Northern Pacific railroad, now a triumphant success and which has developed one of the finest portions of this country, where, in 1870, a vast territory was filled with buffalo and Indians, can now be found over six millions of intelligent and energetic farmers and miners and merchants and ranchmen, etc., and many large cities and thriving towns, hundreds of churches, schools and colleges, and branch railroads innumerable."   FIRST ENGINE WEST OF THE ALLEGHANIES.   A remarkable addition may be made to that part' of Mr. Cooke's address—which refers to the old Mad River railroad between Sandusky and Bellevue, whose charter was obtained by his father in 1826. There is now living in Sandusky an old man in his ninety-third year named S. J. Catherman, who, when he was eighteen years old, was employed in the car