Iodine is also found in quantity, and is an important healing element discovered only in twd other
of the great health-giving spring's in America. Salt is also evident in its composition and it is also
highly charged with magnetism, quickly magnetising any steel implement or tool. For years the
effect of the use of this water has been marked in the great age reached by residents of the
locality 1904 the waters have been developed, bath houses erected and most satisfactory results
attained. This gives the Western Reserve a prominence to health seekers found in few other
places.
JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS.
The names of Giddings and Wade are so closely linked together in the minds of people today that
one is seldom spoken of without the other. They sleep together in the picturesque cemetery in
Jefferson. They were the two Most noted citizens Ashtabula ever has had. They Were partners at
law shared the same political fate, stood for the same moral questions and it seems appropriate
that as they lived together their bodies should rest together. They differed in temperament and in
ability, but each was a great soul, working out the problems of his own life, as well as the great
problems of the nation. Joshua R. Giddings belonged to the same family that did Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Rufus Choate. He was born in Athens, Pennsylvania, but when six weeks old was
carried to Canadaigua then the output of .civilization by his family, where he lived until he was
ten. Joshua Giddings, the father, taking his oldest son, pushed on into northern Ohio and took up
land in Wayne township. It is pitiful to record that when he was an old man, when he and his
family had given the better fart of their lives to the improvement of this property, it was lost
because of poor title and the failure of a certain party early interested in it.
In 1806 Mr. Giddings brought his entire family to the township where he and his son built a
cabin and cleared a bit of land ; and here Joshua R. really began life. In his eastern home he had
learned his alphabet and possibly had a little instruction, but of this we are not sure. His
son-in-law, Hon. George Julian, who married his youngest daughter, Laura, said he only attended
school a few weeks in all his life. "He studied. late at night by the fire-light in his father's cabin,.
or at spring time by the blazing light of the sugar camp." When he was grown he was six feet and
two inches tall, and when matured weighed 225 pounds. He was a good woodsman ; liked to
hunt and fish, although left-handed, engaged in the sports of drat time and continued his interest
in. those which came after. He loved music and bought the first piano which came into Jefferson:
He not only did his portion of the work for the family, but that of the community as. well. When
a mere boy he enlisted in the war of 1812 and was in battle. In 1813 he and Marvin Leonard
made a bier of round poles On which the body of John Inman was carried three miles for burial.
From the very beginning of his Ohio life he had a great .longing for books and learning. Every
volume he could get hold of he read and re-read. He walked miles through the forests to borrow
or to see a book which contained something he wanted. Every moment he could snatch from
work he applied to study or reading. The winter he was nineteen years old he was teaching. By
great management he was able to attend the school kept by Henry Coe in
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 567
Vernon, Trumbull county. In 1818 he surprised his friends by declaring his intention of studying
law. He was laughed at and discouraged, but this Aid not deter him. Finally two of his brothers
offered him the needed money and with three shirts, two pair of stockings, four white neck
cloths, two pocket handkerchiefs and seventeen dollars in cash, he started on a forty-mile walk to
the home of Hon. Elisha Whittlesey in Canfield.
Mr. Whittlesey was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, lawyer of his time. To be under his
instruction was the same to a youth of that time as to attend the Harvard law school at this. He
had made no previous arrangement with Mr. Whittlesey, but was gladly received. By the best. of
management he finished his studies and was admitted to the bar. He had no office, no library, no
clients, but about this time Laura Waters, who, having been born at Grandbury, Connecticut, had
moved to Gustavus (an upper township of Trumbull), came into his life, which more than
recompensed him for any of the other' things he lacked. They were married. .She was an unusual
woman. At the age of fourteen she began teaching school, supporting herself and at the same
time saving enough money to buy a small flock of sheep. One authority says she sold these and
with the money Joshua bought his first law books. Another authority says Joshua cut down
timber on the Mann farm in Andover to buy them.
In Giddings life we do not have to make the record which is so often made in the lives of other
great .men. If he had ever had any sorrows except those of his family ; if no one had never abused
him and maligned him outside of his family, his indeed would have been a sweet life. For at his
own fireside love came in the beginning and stayed there. He had eight children, and because of
his public life the care of this family devolved largely on his wife. She was capable, resourceful,
courageous and generous. Who knows much of the success of Joshua R. Giddings Was due to
Laura Waters ? For so it has been, so it is and possibly so it always will be that men, great and
small, forge ahead in life's work because of the contributions which the women make to them.
Which took the most courage, to bear and rear children alone mid the discomforts of pioneer life,
or to stand in the hall of congress pleading for the redemption of a down-trodden people ? Which
is the most stimulating—the cry of the baby, or the hiss of the enemy ? Is there a single reader of
this volume who can truthfully say he would rather have had the place of Laura Waters than
Joshua, R. Giddings ?
Together these two moved on. Both successful. He soon acquiring a large and lucrative practice,
and she having comforts accordingly.
The vigor with which Joshua R. Giddings practiced his law was astonishing, and the stories of
some of his early cases are fascinating. During his separation from his family its members were
ever present in his mind. After a hard fighting day at the capitol, we find him in his room printing
letters to his youngest children because they could not read writing. In one of his letters to his
wife he says, "I send a letter to Laura Ann which you must let her open herself." He bought for
his granddaughters the first melodian which was in Jefferson. It is still in the possession of his
family in the home of his son, which is half a mile north of the court house.
At the end of ten years Mr. Giddings was employed in almost every case of importance in his
vicinity. In 1831 he formed a partnership with Benjamin F. Wade and this continued for a
number of years. In 1826 he was elected a representative in the Ohio legislature and served one
term with great distinction. He ran for the senate in 1828 and was defeated. So successful had he
been in practice that in 1836 he considered himself able to retire. About this time he lost a good
deal of money in land and never again fully retrieved his fortune. At this date he was rather
delicate in
568 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
health from dyspepsia. In 1838 he was elected to a seat in congress, made vacant by the
resignation of Elisha Whittlesey. He was then forty years old and he served in that body for
twenty-one years, during the stormiest time our country has ever seen. When he entered he was a
Whig ; when he retired he was a Republican.
In 1838 he first started by coach to Washington, ending his trip on the Baltimore & Ohio
railroad, among the passengers accompanying him was Tom Corwin. When he took his place in
the house of representatives John Quincy Adams was serving, and these two men later stood side
by side, at first as the only representatives, and later, as the leaders of the Abolition party. The
close friendship of Adams and Gidclings lasted until the end. When the former was stricken with
apoplexy in the house, Giddings was near him and stayed by him to the end. During those last
hours Adams said to him : "I have more hope from you than any other man." Many years later
Giddings said substantially the same to Sumner. It seemed cruel that knowing of the attachment
of Adams and Gidclings, Speaker Winthrop should not have appointed the latter as one of those
to officially .attend the funeral. When a man appointed could not go, the place was tendered to
Giddings, who refused, giving his reasons. He, however, went to Massachusetts at that time as a
private citizen.
Giddings had been an ardent admirer of General Harrison and was greatly disappointed when he
went to call upon him to find that Harrison was displeased with him for some late speeches he
had made, and really treated him rudely. Giddings never returned to visit him. As soon as he was
well established in congress he became a power. As he was younger than Adams, all the rage
which the southern members and northern sympathizers felt was visited upon him. He was
insulted, threatened, challenged, socially ostracised, and still he swerved not. In the midst of hot
debate, congressmen insulted him and he openly defied them. His friends expected him to be
killed, but he never shared their feelings. In the twenty-third congress Adams and Giddings were
fighting alone. "The press of his own party did not sustain him and common courtesies usually
extended to members of congress were denied him." Later, after he had long served as chairman
of the committee on claims, he was removed and given seventh place on the committee on
revolutionary pensions, which had no business and did not meet.
Mr. Giddings' son, "Grash," who was with his father at one time in Washington, wrote to his
brother "Add" a boyish account of one of these scenes. "Father liked to have had a fracas the
other day. White Thompson, of New York,' was speaking on Utah and father asked him about the
difference between polygamy there and in the south. Thereupon, La Mar, of Louisiana, came
around where father was sitting with his fists clenched, swearing and damning that "the old, curse
should be stopped." Father watched him pretty close and when he was within about six feet .of
him he told him (without taking his feet off the desk) to go back to his plantation and make his
slaves humble. It was useless trying to scare him. Thereupon, La Mar started back like a good
boy and never stopped till he got to his seat."
In 1842 when the censure upon him was passed by a vote of 125 to 69 (seven members from
Ohio voting against him) he resigned his seat and returned to his district. As soon as he entered
he was approvingly received and almost unanimously re-elected. Five weeks from the time he
left congress, he was back at his duties. The letters which Mr. Giddings wrote home during all
the years of. absence throw so much light on the situation. He tries to allay the fears of his wife in
all ways. He was extremely particular about wearing clean linen. In one letter he says he spent
most of three clays trying to get recognition in the house and so intent was he on this that he
forgot to change his shirt, and he adds that he hopes the family will not follow the example of
congress and censure him. So it was that
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 569
Ashtabula furnished the most powerful young man that the Abolition cause had. In 1851 and
1852 an attempt was made to get rid of Mr. Giddings in gerrymandering the state. The result was
exactly opposite. Not only was he elected, but Edward Wade, of Cleveland, a brother of.
Benjamin F., was elected. Mr. Wade and. Mr. Giddings' opinions were the same on the question
of slavery.
Giddings' congressional life closed with the thirty-fifth congress. At that time he had the respect
of all the leaders in the north. Carefully kept in his son's home are letters from Lincoln, Clay,
Sumner, Garrison, Pillsbury, and so on. Lincoln appointed him consul general to Canada, Lincoln
and Seward signing the commission, and at Toronto he stayed till his death in 1864. In 1859 and
1860 he lectured on the general subject of slavery and stumped for Lincoln. He also bought the
first safe in the county, and when the Ashtabula Farmers Bank (the first bank of the county) was
organized he loaned it to them until they could purchase one. It . has ever since stood in the old
Giddings office. It locks with a huge key.. In `the office at the side of his house at his death was
material with which to write history. These papers his granddaughters are reading and arranging.
In the library are his books ; also a lifelike bust, made by John Quincy Adams Ward ; a cane from
the wood of the ship "Amistad" which carried the slaves who mutinied ; the chair of Speaker
Henry Clay presented by .congress ; a beautiful silver service given him upon his retirement from
congress. Its inscription reads "Presented by 104 members of the thirty-fifth congress to Joshua
R. Giddings, as a token of their respect for his moral worth, and personal integrity."
During the late winter of 1910 the writer went to Jefferson to obtain certain information for this
history. Calling at the home of Mrs. J. A. Giddings where she, her two sisters, her two daughters
and two grandchildren live, she was allowed to take certain papers and books to her room at the
hotel. Here she began to study before the sun was, down, and here she continued to read till long
after midnight. Then finding herself so enthused with the spirit of suppressing wrong, of standing
for right, of fearing nothing, that she wanted that very minute to start out and increase her labors
for womankind. Even when she had rubbed her eyes and realized that the town lay deep in snow,
that street cars were stalled, that to go and do was impossible, her desire did not diminish. If to
read of the deeds of a man who lived nearly a hundred years ago produced such an effect, no
wonder that those whom he led were inspired, fearing nothing; ventured all and gained
everything.
GIDDINGS FAMILY LETTERS.
"On November 24, 1838, I took leave of my family and friends and started for Washington City.
The roads were bad and the traveling uncomfortable. I passed the night principally in an open
wagon, with only one companion. He was a young man from the state of New Hampshire, just
out of college, going west to seek his fortune. He intends teaching school and appears to think he
shall shed a flood of light on these western backwoodsmen.
"November 28 five of us chartered a coach from Wheeling to Frederick, in order that we might
not be crowded. Soon after dark we ascended the western ridge of the Allegheny mountains,
called Laurel Ridge. On its top we found good sleighing, although there was no snow in the
valleys. We took tea about sunset at what is now called Brownsville, formerly known as Old Red
Stone Fort. It was anciently a frontier fortress. I had no time to look over its ruins. During the
night we passed over the famous battleground of Braddock's defeat. Indeed, it is said that the
grave of the gallant, but unfortunate Braddock, was located within the present bounds of the
national turnpike. In the afternoon we passed through the village of Cumberland, on Cumberland
creek, near where old Fort Cumberland is situated. To this place General Washington retreated
with the remains of the British
570 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
and American forces after their defeat under General Braddock. This place was for some time a
frontier post. At a village called Hancock we first struck the Potomac and had also a view of the
Chesapeake & Ohio canal. We dined at a small village called Clear Springs and reached
Frederick City at about 8 o'clock in the evening. Here we remained until the next morning.
"November 29 : Soon after breakfast we were joined by a number of members of congress who
had traveled night and day, only stopping to eat their meals. Among them I was introduced to a
gentleman by the name of Crockett—a man familiar to most of our American people ; for I think
few among us are ignorant of the biography of David Crockett, who was the father of the
gentleman just named. His father was truly an eccentric man, yet the son apepars to possess few
of the leading traits of character which distinguished his father. He appears like a modest,
unassuming man, and is said to be very amiable in his character and disposition. He spoke with
great veneration and affection. of his father.
ESTIMATE OF TOM CORWIN.
"Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, also formed one of the company that overtook us at Frederick. He is a
man of medium size, well built, dark complexion and black eyes. He was born in the lower walks
of life and up to the time he was two and twenty probably never thought of rising from obscurity.
In 1812 he was a wagoner in the northwestern army, nineteen years of age. At that time it is said
his unrivaled wit and the brilliancy of his imagination .used to draw around him the lazy throng
during the long evenings, and he then prided himself as much probably on attracting the notice
and admiration of teamsters and soldiers as he now does in standing forth as one of the most
brilliant orators in the councils of the nation. He read law at the age of twenty-five, soon rose to
the standing of an eminent lawyer, was elected to the state legislature and is now a representative
in congress. He ranks as one of the ablest debaters in the house of repr sentatives.
SWEPT ALONG AT FIFTEEN MILES AN HOUR.
"At 11 o'clock (a. m.) about 120 passengers seated in three cars, carrying from forty to sixty
passengers each, started upon the Baltimore & Ohio railroad for Washington. The cars are well
carpeted and seats cushioned. We had also a stove in each car, which rendered them comfortably
warm. Thus seated and while some were conversing, others reading newspapers and some from
loss of sleep in traveling, were sleeping in their seats, we swept along at the rate of fifteen miles
per hour. We passed a beautiful flourishing little village called Elicotts Mills, where much is
done at the manufacture of iron, cotton, wool and the like. The Potapsco affords at this place
extensive water powerwhich is here used for the purpose of manufacturing. At the usual hour our
candles were lighted and we presented the appearance of the drawing room filled with guests
traveling by land, at the rate of fifteen miles per hour. At about 7 o'clock we arrived at
Washington. The moment we stopped we were surrounded on every side with runners, porters,
hackmen and servants. One calling to know if you would go to to Gadsby's, another if you would
go to Brown's, another if you would take a hack, etc. They are a great annoyance and the police
ought to interfere to prevent it."
PRESIDENT VAN BUREN DESCRIBED.
In another entry the writer thus describes President Van Buren : "We found the president sitting
at a circular table engaged in conversation. He rose and greeted us pleasantly. He is small of
stature, low forehead, very bald, with eyes sunk far back in his head. His general appearance is
not prepossessing. To the casual observer he would present the appearance of a man of ordinary
character. Nor are you aware of evidences of extraordinary intellect until you look him square in
the face, when you are at once impressed with a con-
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 571
sciousness of his shrewdness and intelligence. He converses fluently and rapidly."
PRESIDENT'S RECEPTION JANUARY 1, 1839.
Here follows an account of the New Year's day reception at the president's house January 1,
1839: "New Year's day is universally observed as a holiday at Washington. From long continued
practice it has become a custom for the president's house to be thrown open on the first day of
each New Year. All feel free to go and pay their respects to him. From 12 to 3 o'clock it is his
custom to receive. As the clock struck twelve we started out. The hacks and coaches and
carriages of all sorts were in motion, all moving to the common center of attraction. On the
sidewalks were men, women and children, all wending their way towards the president's. As we
approached the road for a great distance and all that part of the public grounds allotted to such
use was filled. We entered with the moving mass at the front door and passing on with the crowd
through the vestibule, we entered the receiving room. There, about the center of the room, stood
the president. As we approached he gave his hand to each, and with a gentle shake you were
pushed past him and another took your place. I pronounced the name of my friend. He, too,
shook hands and we passed along with the mass of human beings from the receiving room* into
the famous East Room, immortalized by Colonel Benton's noted letter. This is a spacious room,
eighty feet by thirty, furnished in the most perfect style of American luxury. Near the center of
the room stood he Hon. Henry Clay receiving the hearty salutations of all true Whigs. He
appeared to enjoy much more of the real confidence and love of the people than did the
President. The marine band was stationed in the large vestibule and as the doors were all open we
enjoyed the music. Here were foreign ministers dressed out in all their gew-gaws of stars and
orders of knighthood. Attaches and military officers were distinguished by their warlike trappings
and flaming uniforms. The high and low, rich and poor, learned and ignorant,. virtuous and
vicious, all mingled together here on this national gala day.
A CALL ON JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
"By invitation we next called upon our venerable ex-president ( John Quincy Adams). In a retired
mansion we found him and his surrounded by some dozen friends who. showed by their
countenances and conversation that they had called in reality to pay their respects to this great
man whose name will hereafter fill the brightest page of American history. In a large and
comfortable drawing room with his matronly (wife) lady, her sister, a daughter-in-law and two
grandchildren, we found him. No noise or bustle interrupted that expression of good will which
we all felt towards him. His countenance glowed with benevolence and kindness to the friends
around him. We were introduced to the members of his family, sat awhile and after some
interesting conversation we left, feeling that we had seen a specimen of true greatness connected
with genuine Republican simplicity.
Mr. Adams belongs to no local district, to no political party—but to the nation and to the people.
He is elected by his district in Massachusetts; comes here with his family during the sessions of
'congress. While in the house of representatives he consults with no one, takes the advice of no
one, acts in concert with no one and holds himself accountable to no. one—but to the nation. He
belongs as much to the former age as to this ; perhaps he may be said to be the connecting link
between the former generation and this one now in active life.
* * * * * *
He was, strictly speaking, educated a politician and has continued in political life from his youth
up to this time. He is said to have spent more than twenty years of his life at foreign courts. He is
about five feet eight inches in height, well built, very bald, low forehead and nothing about the
shape of his head indicates unusual talent. * * * In con-
572 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
versation Mr. Adams referred to his youthful adventures during the Revolutionary war and said
that while going to France in 1778, at the age of thirteen years on board an American frigate, they
were chased and fired upon by a British ship, and he recounted the adventure with much glee and
spirit. He said he crossed the Atlantic twice afterwards in a French ship during the war. He told
me his age was seventy-two years in September last."
GIDDINGS ON CLAY.
I also find this description of Henry Clay, then a senator from Kentucky, and at the height of his
popularity : "On entering the senate chamber we took our seats nearly in front of Mr. Clay, who
was to reply to the member then speaking ( Mr. Benton, of Missouri). Mr. Benton was said to
have been somewhat personal in his remarks. All eyes were bent on Mr. Clay while the other
senator was yet speaking. In the meantime news had gone abroad that this mighty orator was
expected to speak, and a tide of spectators were moving at all the avenues of the gallery. When
Mr. Clay arose every eye was fixed on him. The gallery, filled to overflowing, was silent, some
seated, some standing and some on tiptoe stretched their necks to their utmost capacity, in order
to have a more perfect view of the man who was to address them. Every senator turned his chair
so as to sit facing him. The president of the senate turned round so as to have a full view of him,
while a breathless silence pervaded the whole auditory both above and below.
"When Mr. Clay commenced speaking his voice was slightly tremulous, but its musical tones
seemed to charm every ear. He commenced by referring to the personal attacks that had been
made upon him and the charge that he was opposed to the welfare of the new states * * * Having
disposed of the slander of his enemies, he then commenced on the argument of his subject.
Sentence after sentence was rolled upon an almost breathless audience who appeared wholly
intent on the speaker, and his subject until his voice became louder and more distinct. The grave
senators appeared as immovable as so many statues. All in the gallery appeared fixed as the work
of a sculptor. As he drew near the close of his speech he appeared to have just commenced, and
when he sat down none appeared to think he had occupied but a few minutes in the delivery of
his speech, but on looking at my timepiece I found that nearly two hours had elapsed from the
commencement to the close of his remarks. When he resumed his seat the question was put and
to the utter astonishment of his friends it was carried by a majority of three. A thrill of
approbation ran through the gallery. The senators of the Whig party smiled. The Administration
members looked astounded. The spectators slowly withdrew and the senate adjourned."
BENJAMIN F. WADE.
"They made his grave near the heart of his life-long home, and set at his head a granite shaft, less
enduring than the influence of his deeds for truth, justice, freedom and his country's good."
These words came from the heart of one of the thousands who admired and loved the great and
rugged Benjamin F. Wade, for eighteen years an honored United States senator from Ohio, a
life-long champion of freedom in every form and one whose last public act was to represent his
country on the commission to report on the proposed acquisition of Santo Domingo—the first
decisive step taken by the nation in protecting the rights of weaker people in southern America
and teaching them the nobility of a republican government. His part in the work of that
commission was in line with his learning, his sound judgment, his great fame and his splendid
character. At the age of more than three score years and ten, with his beloved wife, he returned to
the simple white frame house in Ashtabula—tree-buried and surrounded by ample grounds, and
so long his dear home-
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 573
and there died as grandly as he had lived, his last day on earth being March 2, 1878.
One who had free access to his home, so characteristic of Benjamin F. Wade, thus describes it :
"Everything about him is like the man—plain but substantial. In the lot near the house stands his
office, or 'den,' as the family, familiarly term it ; and here, for more than thirty years, when not in
congress, Mr. Wade has passed most of his time. Entering it with the senator, we found two
rooms, the floors lined from floor to ceiling with cases filled with books. This library contains
nothing but public documents, maps and charts, and is the most complete in the country,
embracing all information concerning the government from its foundation to the present day.
'Nile's Register,' ‘Madison's Notes,' Knox's Report,' and many other -books long since out of
print, can be found there. A carpet, lounge, an old-fashioned arm chair, a few common chairs, a'
table and some maps do the wall, complete the furniture of the rooms, which seemed dreary and
lonely enough in their isolated solitude." Dreary and ,lonely though they might have seemed to an
outsider, it was this very seclusion in which, through the printed page, the eloquent voices of
other great Americans spoke to him and by which were forged the statesmanlike,. rugged
utterances which made him the idol of his country, state and nation.
Whatever Senator Wade found to do was accomplished with his whole might and soul, and as his
energy was remarkable, as well as his power of self-control, every stroke of his hammer brought
not only a spark, but tended toward the fashioning of a definite object. Whether defending the
interests of Ashtabula county as its prosecuting attorney, fighting against slavery in the Ohio
legislature and the national senate, or representing the United States in the southern seas, he
spared no effort to perform faithfully the duties which came to him and to 'honor both the office
and himself. Throughout his entire active career, he stood forth as one who performed great
deeds with apparent ease, and never failed to throw around the smaller affairs of life that dignity
and significance which marks the grand soul,
Senator Wade was a native of Massachusetts, born in Feeding Hills parish, October 27, 1800. His
father was a Revolutionary soldier, who considered his duty as a patriot unfinished until he had
fought the battles of his country from Bunker Hill to Yorktown. Mr. Wade's mother was the
daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman and a woman of both fine and forceful character, and it was
under her patient and loving tuition that he learned to read and write. The boy's hunger for books
partially compensated for his lack of early school advantages, so that when he was eighteen he
was really better informed than most of his companions of that age. Up to that period in his life,
the had no other experiences to his credit than those connected with the farm homestead. When
eighteen, however, he started for Ohio with a bundle of clothing on his back and seven dollars in
his pocket. A heavy snow-storm halted his tramp in Ashtabula county, where he decided to
remain until the following spring. He spent that winter cutting wood at fifty cents a cord, and (at
night) in reading through the bible. But spring, summer and another winter passed, and the young
man was still in Ashtabula county, chopping, logging, grubbing, reading, studying and teaching ;
and the last although he had never attended school for a single week of his life. Benjamin F.
Wade next made six trips to New York as a cattle driver, taught for a winter in Albany, and in the
following Spring and summer shoveled dirt for the Erie canal. As Governor Seward once said in
the United States Senate, Mr. Wade was "the only American I know who worked with a spade
and wheelbarrow on the great improvement." Surely, characteristic of the future
statesman—independent and determined, and bravely fighting his own battles.
At the end of his summer's work on the canal the young man returned to Ashtabula county,
taught school the next winter and in the following spring commenced to study law
574 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
in the office of Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, being soon afterward elected a justice of the peace. In
1828, after two years of hard study, he was admitted to the bar. The next open step upward was
his election to the office of prosecuting attorney of the county. As an active Whig he was then
sent to the Ohio State Senate and became the leader of what was then the minority party. While
serving in that body, he took a prominent part in abolishing the law permitting imprisonment for
debt ; inaugurated the war against the Ohio "Black laws," and took a firm stand against the
admission of Texas into the Union, declaring : "So help me God I will never assist in adding
another rod of slave territory to this country." As this position was then in advance of that held by
his party he was defeated for re-election, but returned after the interim of one term. At this
session Mr. Wade pressed through the hill which founded Oberlin College on the principle of
equal education, regardless of color, and led the revolt in the State of Ohio against the resolution
of Congress, denying the right of the people to petition for the abolition of slavery. From 1847 to
1851 he served as president judge of the third judicial district, and in March of that year, while a
case was pending before him, he heard the firing of cannon in the streets of Akron which
proclaimed that the Ohio legislature had elected him to a seat in the United States Senate.
Benjamin F. Wade announced himself as an especial foe to slavery at the commencement of his
career in the United States Senate, and it was during his fierce conflict with that institution, and
all of its supporters, that his most memorable public act was performed. He reported from the
committee on territories the first provisions prohibiting slavery in all the territories of the United
States. His outspoken utterances and indifference to personal consequences earned him the bitter
enmity of the extreme southern leaders, who, upon sev•ral occasions, threatened to "call him
out," with no other effect upon the Honorable Senator from Ohio than to draw out the answer,
"come on." Of the value of his services as a member of the committee on the Conduct of the War
no adequate estimate can be made. He was a very pillar of the Union and a trumpet to its cause,
inspiring hope, courage and faith.
It was near the close of the thirty-ninth congress that Senator Wade was elected president pro tem
of the senate, and it is almost certain, had President Johnson been impeached, that he would
have been elevated to the chair as chief executive of the nation. But that was not to be, and on
the 4th of March, 1869, he retired from the upper house of congress as a great and beloved
American statesman. Two years afterward his government appointed him a place on the Santo
Domingo commission, and later as a special commissioner to report on the feasibility and
advantages of the proposed Union Pacific Railroad to the Pacific coast. The results of his
investigations and recommendations on both of these national questions have classified him as a
father of the republic of Santo Domingo and of America's first transcontinental railroad. This
furnished a fitting addition to the mighty sheaf of his life's harvest, and he might well retire with
contentment to his quiet old home in Ashtabula.
In 1840 Mr. Wade, was united in marriage to Miss Caroline Rosecrantz, of Middletown,
Connecticut. The two sons of this union are James F. and Henry B. Wade, both connected with
the United States army. The former has attained high rank in the military service. During the
Civil war he advanced from a first lieutenancy in. a United States Cavalry regiment to the rank of
brevet brigadier general, and at the outbreak of the Spanish-American war was a full brigadier
general the regular army. He served in that cold as a major general of volunteers; was head of the
Cuban evacuation commission in 1898. served in the Philippines in 1901-4, command ing the
military division covering the islands during the last year of that period; commanded the Atlantic
division from 1904
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 575
1907, and was honorably retired from the military service, by operation of law, on April 14th of
the latter year. He now resides in his fathers home. Here are at present his wife, his daughter,
whose husband is in the army, and his grandchildren.
After an active life of a warrior, General Wade and his fancily seem to think there never was any
spot more inviting than this home of their honored father and mother.
GIDDINGS AND WADE.
The comradship between Mr. Giddings and Mr. Wade was most beautiful. The early letters show
such frankness, such perfect understanding, that it is no wonder their friendship was firm and
everlasting. Before Mr. Giddings began his public life, and they were in partnership, their
earnings were substantially in common, which ever needed the money most had it. Then no one
considered the absence of money as any disgrace. Few had any and like the shoes of the
foremother, whoever needed them most had them. The following letter is characteristic of the
great Ben Wade that it is given in full :
JEFFERSON, JAN. 12, 1841.
"Dear Joshua :—I am at present in a squeak for a little cash. If you could help me to a hundred
dollars or so, it would be a great God-send. No news here. Nothing yet done in our legislature
worth mentioning. We do not expect much from you this session, but when old Tip takes the
helm, backed by majorities in both branches, we shall hold you to your promises. I have been. so
disgusted with the scramble for office that I have concluded to hold up. I can live without, and
when I cannot, I. had rather look to the law for support than to the nation, as I hold a town pauper
as honorable as a national pauper. Give the Southerners h-11. All well in these diggings.
"Respectfully yours, &c.
"B. F. WADE.
HON. J. R. GIDDINGS.
BLUFF OLD BEN AND THE SLAVE BOY.
E. L. Lampson of Jefferson, who for the past fifteen years has been Reader in the national house
of representatives, in his lecture "Under Three Speakers," tells this incident : "One day, Galusha
A. Grow of Pennsylvania, who had been speaker of the house of representatives early in the Civil
war period, said to me : 'Mr. Lampson, I served in congress with your fellow-townsman, Joshua
R. Giddings, before the war. On one occasion, Mr. Giddings and myself were walking arm in
arm, down Pennsylvania avenue, when we saw an hundred slaves, holding on to either side of a
long rope and being marched to an auction block on an island in the Potomac. This was less than
half a century ago. Continuing, Mr. Grow said : One morning, I was standing in the rotunda of
the capitol and near me was that other great anti-Slavery leader, from your town, bluff old Ben
Wade, talking with Bob Toombs and a coterie of pro-Slavery senators, when along came a
colored boy, some fourteen years of age, and handed Mr. Wade a subscription paper, asking for
money with which to buy his freedom. The senator looked at the paper and then turning to the
boy said : "My lad, we are opposed to buying and selling people, up where I live. Why in hell
don't you run away ? Here is five dollars ; take this, and run like hell the first chance you get."
EDWARD, BROTHER OF BENJAMIN F.
Edward Wade, the younger brother of B. F. Wade, was a man of unusual mind. When but a boy
he wrote an arithmetic of a good deal of merit which unfortunately was burned. He came to
Ashtabula with his family in 1821 and, although he early left the county, he was always more or
less identified with it. He served as congressman from the Cleveland district from 1853-1861. He
was an early Abolitionist and found this belief * made him very unpopular in congress. He
suffered a little of what his early friend, Joshua R. Giddings, suffered. He was in the lower house
576 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
at the same time that his older brother was in the upper. He married Sarah Louise, daughter of
Judge Q. F. Atkins. They had no children, but adopted two, the daughter becoming the wife of
Henry P. Wade, who now lives in Chicago. His second wife was Mary P. Hall, whose mother
belonged to the Kirtland family so active in the early days of the Western Reserve. There were no
children by this marriage. Mrs. Wade long survived her husband, living into the nineties. She was
devoted to her nieces and nephews, the children of Turhand K. Hall, and left them a fortune at
her death.
HON. A. J. RIDDLE.
Hon. A. J. Riddle was one of the lawyers of Ashtabula county who was greatly interested
in its history. He was successful in his practice, was elected to congress and spent the latter years
of his life in Washington. He rote several novels, the one receiving the greatest attention was
"Bart Ridgley.” He was a great admirer of Giddings and has written a number of short
biographies of this great statesman. He lived to a good old age and always kept up his interest in
his home county.
THE HOWELLS FAMILY.
For nearly fifty years some members of the Howells family have been residents of Jefferson.
They have been public spirited and useful citizens. William Cooper Howells was born in Wales.
His family was in comfortable circumstances, cultured, of Quaker descent and Swedenborgian
belief. When William was not a year old, in 1809, his parents moved to Manhattan Island and
lived in that part of New York for a number of years, sometimes up the Hudson, sometimes in
the city. Later they went to Loudoun county, Virginia. It seems strange to find them in 1813 in
Jefferson. They possibly became interested in this county through Gideon Granger. The father,
Joseph, was ingenious, industrious and made a good living in Jefferson, since he not only knew
how to manufacture woolen cloth, but could make drawings for machinery. Between the time the
family left England and arrived in Jefferson they had exhausted all their resources.
Joseph Howells and his wife were cultured and refined people and although they were in the
wilderness their children were well taught. When William was twenty-one the family removed
to Wheeling. He learned the printer's trade and published a monthly and a weekly paper without
great success. In 1831 he married Mary Dean of Columbiana, Ohio. It will be seen that his most
illustrious son got his name from both father and mother. He loved his profession and no matter
what discouragements he met, he continued it. He lived in St. Clausville, Mt. Pleasant,
Chillicothe, Hamilton and Columbus. When he was forty-five, in 1852, he became editor of the
Ashtabula Sentinel and he, and his sons, and his grandson have continued to edit that paper for
nearly fifty years. He was journal clerk and afterward official reporter in the legislature,
performing well its duties : was elected to state senate in 1863, and in 1874 was appointed
United States consul at Quebec. He had five sons and three daughters. Joseph continued to have
editorial management of the Sentinel until within a few years, when he was appointed consul to
Turk Island. At his departure his son continued the work.
William Dean was born at Matthews Ferry, Ohio, in 1837. The family all helped financially
and we are told that William Dean set type till eleven o'clock at night and was up at four a. m.
carrying papers. This was when the family was at Dayton. His first salary was four dollars a
week, which he earned as compositor on the Ohio State Journal. From his earliest years he wrote
verses and set them up himself for his own pleasure. Clean of life, steady of purpose, he
progressed from the little printer boy to the writer of verse for the Atlantic Monthly, etc., making
acquaintances of men of his profession. He was ap-
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 577
pointed consul to Venice in 1861, staying till 1865 and becoming editor of the Atlantic Monthly
in 1866. He is at this writing the best known and most largely read author of the United States.
We people of the Reserve are justly proud of him. He has ever been a philosopher and has taught
altruism through his works. He is a strong advocate of woman suffrage, being a member of the
Men's Association for Woman Suffrage of New York City.
The weakest part of his writings are his woman characters. The author has longed to have him
portray a woman, with the characteristics of his splendid Welsh grandmother, his own beautiful
mother ; his sister-in-law (Eliza Howells) who is such a help-mate to his "brother Joe," or his
own wife—anyone being stronger than his strongest character.
Mr. Howells is full of tenderness and it is beautiful to see and hear him and his brother, Joseph,
as they talk over their boyhood days. They worshiped their mother and in a personal letter to the
author William Dean says : "My mother was the heart of the family. I dearly loved her., and
whenever I went away from home it was with the foreboding and realization of homesickness
which was occasioned by longing for her. She had a certain great warmth of mind which supplied
any defect of culture, but for a new country she had been fairly well schooled. She expressed
herself from her heart with great natural poetry and she fully shared the intellectual and spiritual
life of my, father. Together they formed our church and our academy. When we went to Jefferson
we had nothing but the household staff and our strong right wills, and we all worked hard to pay
for the printing office and the dwelling house we had bought on credit ; but her long hard toil
wore my mother out. She did all our household work till my sisters grew old enough to help her
and she died, at fifty-seven, after all was paid for. Sometimes we. had the 'hands' from the office
to board and she worked to save the
Vol. I-37
greater wages they must have been paid otherwise * * * We were very happy in the home which
she knew how to create for us. An inexpressible tenderness, a devout honor for her fills me as I
speak of her. I could not have wished to have had another sort of a mother. I do not believe there
was ever a better woman. It is more than thirty years since she died, but I still dream of her
among the living who visit me in my sleep, and I dream of her often."
PLATT R. SPENCER, OF WRITING FAME.
The Spencerian writing system originated in Ashtabula county. Caleb Spencer, a revolutionary
soldier from Rhode Island, and Jerusha Covell of Cape Cod, married and moved to New York
State where eleven children. were born to them, ten of whom were boys. The father died in 1806
and. four years later the mother moved to Jefferson and the sons found homes and work in
Ashtabula county. Phoebe, the daughter, married Dr. Elijah Coleman. Platt R. was the youngest.
From his very childhood he loved to write, but he was seven and a half years old before he
owned a sheet of paper. He had to send to a neighboring town from his New York home for this
paper and it meant as much to him as all the school books of a year now mean to an ordinary
school boy.. When he was twelve years old he was at school in Conneaut furnishing copy for the
scholars. He wrote very good verses and made heroic efforts to get an education. Once he walked
twenty miles barefooted over a frozen road to get an arithmetic ; had nothing to eat but a raw
turnip which he found, and being too diffident to ask for a night's lodging slept in a barn.
Before he was twenty years old he had originated and adopted the system of writing known
thereafter as the Spencerian. He continued to teach and first published copy slips in 1848. In
1859 he put these slips into copy book form, and in 1861 he revised this system and that is the
one which has been used ever
578 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
since. As he progressed in his teaching he went to other cities, and in Pittsburg established a
school which afterward became the Duff College, and in. Cleveland his pupils established -the
Bryant, Lusk & Stratton Commercial College of Cleveland. As he grew older his sons took up
the work and people became familiar with it throughout the United States. The Spencerian
School at Washington probably taught penmanship to more government clerks than all the other
schools of that city.
MRS. SPENCER AND THE DUTYS.
Platt R. Spencer had the fortune to be born of an energetic able woman and his wife, Persis
Warren Duty, possessed great executive ability, business sense and gracious manner. His success
was due quite as much to her as to himself and the training and inheritance which she gave his
sons were invaluable. Her father, Ebenezer Duty, was one of Ashtabula's pioneers. He made the
first bricks in the county according to the record of Mr. H. L. Morrison. He was an astute man
and helped to try cases before justices of the peace. Mrs. Spencer, was one of the early school
teachers. Her brother was Andrew Duty, a well known citizen of Cleveland and her niece, Jennie,
the noted temperance and philanthropic worker of that city. Mr. Spencer fully appreciated his
talented wife and called her his guardian angel."
COLONEL ROBERT INGERSOLL.
Another distinguished citizen of Ashtabula was Colonel Robert Ingersoll. His father was a
preacher and an Evangelist of considerable note in Ashtabula for a short time. lie lived there in
1841. Robert was then eight years
FIRST SPENCERIAN WRITING SCHOOL, GENEVA.
old. The Ingersoll home still stands on Main street and is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. J. P.
Robertson. Mr. Robertson was a trustee in the church when Mr. Ingersoll lived there, and still
continues to hold that office. The Rev. Mr. Ingersoll was very strict in discipline; made his
children learn the catechism; insisting on their eating graham bread ; did not allow his children to
wear good clothes. So far as we know Ingersoll's first speech was made in the little church at
Ashtabula when he was but a small boy and he became frightened, like most small boys, broke
down and did not finish his speech. It was not until his heart was stirred, after he lived in Illinois,
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 579
with the injustice shown such people as Tom Paine, that he developed oratorical powers.
The family at one time lived at Madison, Ohio.
QUINTUS ATKINS.
Among the earliest and most respected citizens of Ashtabula county was Quintus Atkins. His
long life was filled with such activity that innumerable short stories could be written from it. At
the threatening of the war with France and England, though but a lad he enlisted and was
stationed near New Haven. He came to Morgan in 1802, just as Ohio was assuming the
responsibilities of statehood. He was young and worked for two families which had preceded
him, and in due time fell in love with the daughter of one of them, Sarah Wright, and married
her.
He was one of the early mail carriers and had the experiences of other mail carriers of the
Reserve. He was of a religious turn of mind, and under the influence of Joseph Badger he and his
wife started from Austinburg down the Grand river on a raft he had made. Mr. Badger was with
them, as was also their little daughter, who when grown lived at Geneva. She was then Mrs.
George Turner. This missionary work lasted less than two years. The unhealthy condition of the
country about Sandusky made them give it up. They returned and Mr. Atkins was again a mail
carrier ; first county sheriff ; was one of the mounted volunteers about Sandusky in the war of
1812 served a second time as sheriff, and lived in Jefferson ; lost all his fortune in canal building,
by the dishonesty of his partner ; was interested in the early furnace company at Madison,
described at length in Lake county. In 1839 he moved onto the Edward farm near Cleveland and
there he and his wife died. They lived together forty-nine years. He had been in all sorts of
things, and did them all well.
INGERSOLL 'S BOYHOOD HOME, ASHTABULA.
HOW THE TEA Box WAS EMPTIED.
James Christy, born in 1806, located in Rome in 1817. He was a rather peculiar gentleman and
kept his own house. His neighbors borrowed rather extensively of him and he finally took a box
and filled it with tea. When he was asked for a borrowing of tea he took it from this box. When it
was returned he put it back in this box. After a time the box had no tea. He had made the
demonstration which he expected to make. When he died he left his money to the county
commissioners for the advancement of education in his county, and it is now used for the
580 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
Christy School of Pedagogy in connection with the Grand River Institute.
A STANCH "MOTHER," WITHOUT CHILDREN.
One of the most remarkable characters of Ashtabula's early history was Elizabeth Marshall, who
was born in Vermont. When she was, fifteen years old she rode a horse to a magistrate with John
Barnes and became his wife. Soon they left Cortland, New York, where her childish home had
been and settled in Trumbull. Here they lived happily for a few years, when he died and was laid
to rest on the spot which she later gave to the township as a cemetery. Having had no children
she was sad and lonesome, but occupied her time doing all kinds of farm work ; she drew her
logs with her horses and tried to do that which she and her husband together were wont to do.
Samuel Bullis, believing her to be a promising partner, induced her to marry him and be a mother
to his three children. This of course she did and they built and kept the tavern known as the
Center House. However, this second husband was ugly and abusive and, as is usual with such
characters, very superstitious. Sometimes the only place where she would be safe was in the
cemetery, and many a night did she lie all night on her first husband's grave. After a time she
ceased to be patient and they separated and for many years they were not together. Then he
returned to her, begging her to take care of him and she, woman-like, did it. Women who have to
sleep on their first husbands graves now-a-days refer the miscreants to the Masonic homes or like
institutions when they return, but Mrs. BarnesBullis lived as did her generation. She had no
children of her own, but brought up several and was the nurse and mother of the vicinage. It is
recorded that she assisted at the birth of more than a thousand children. She was married the third
time in 1863, to Henry Coggswell and died a widow when she was ninety-four. If she had much
sorrow she lived so long she had many joys.
THE COWLES FAMILY.
The Rev. Doctor Giles Hooker Cowles and Sallie White, his wife, were related to some of the
oldest, most noted, most substantial people of New England. He was a preacher in Bristol,
Connecticut, for eighteen years. Mrs. Austin, the wife of the pioneer of Austin-burg, was not
satisfied at having occasional preaching in her community where the first church was organized.
She therefore started east on horseback to obtain a minister. She was a wise woman. She did not
approach the minister, but closeted herself with his wife. The result was that the Rev. Mr. Cowles
came to Austinburg, looked the field over and with his family removed there in 1811. He had
eight children, most of whom distinguished themselves and helped in the making of the history
of the Western Reserve. His oldest son, Edwin Weed, was one of the most able doctors of the
Western Reserve. He practiced in Mantua, Cleveland and Detroit. He was the father of Edwin
Cowles, the father of the Cleveland Leader, and the father of Alfred Cowles who was the
business manager of the Chicago Tribune.
BETSEY COWLES.
The youngest child of the Rev. and Mrs. Cowles was Betsey, who was an infant when the family
moved to Austinburg. Her life was quite as vigorous and remarkable as was her father's, her
brother's, her nephew's. An ardent student, she early began to teach and was so far as we know
the first to teach kindergarten on the Western Reserve. It was then called "Infant School." As was
the custom of the times, when her father died he left his property to his sons, requesting them to
support Cornelia and Betsey. Even at that early day, Betsey shuddered at the thought of support
and went to Oberlin to prepare herself for teaching. She graduated in the third class in Oberlin
and started out in the world. Sh said "Providence did not seem to open an door for me, so I
pushed one open for my
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 581
self." She taught in the southern part of the state for three years and then took charge of the
female department of the Grand River Institute as principal. She became an ardent anti-slavery
agitator and the national speakers of that association were often in her home. She herself made
forceful speeches. Her sister, Cornelia, was as interested as she.
It has been said that Joshua R. Giddings and Benjamin Wade were the leaders of the Abolition
movement in Ashtabula county, but that Betsey Cowles created the sentiment and crystallized it.
Not only did the slaves attract her attention, but she was one of the early advocates of the
political enfrachisement of woman. At the National Suffrage Convention in Salem in 185o, she
presided. As we read, we know her to have a forceful character, and what is true of all women
with such a character, is true of her. Her love for her family was extreme. She and her sister
Cornelia were inseparable, and the death of the latter almost crushed her. Entries in her diary
show this : "Six' years and forty-five weeks since dear Cornelia left us. The Lord is my helper."
Another line : "Six years and forty-seven weeks since the light of our house went out. Po they
love there still ?"
HON. O. H. FITCH.
Hon. O. H. Fitch figured conspicuously in the early history of Ashtabula county. He had been
educated and studied law in the East, but having the western fever, removed to Cleveland and
then to Canton. His parents wished to make their home with him, but preferred the northern part
of the state because so many New England people resided there. He then went to Ashtabula
where he lived the rest of his life. His acts are noted in several places in this chapter. He married
in 1835 Catharine M. Hubbard, daughter of William Hubbard. He was justice of the peace,
member of the legislature, prosecuting attorney, newspaper man, banker and connected with the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was for years the ruling elder in the
Presbyterian church. In 186o, his son, Edward H. Fitch, became associated with him in business.
HENRY HUBBARD.
Mr. Hubbard was a substantial citizen of Ashtabula. He took charge of the postoffice upon his
arrival in 1825. His brother was postmaster. He was early associated with the improvements of
Ashtabula harbor, and in 1832 was made postmaster there. He was one of the men interested in
the Ashtabula and New Lisbon Railway Company and throughout his whole life was
public-spirited and successful. His wife was Julia A. Hurlbert, of Oneida, New York. A beautiful
portrait of her is now in the possession of Mrs. Lewis Amesden, adopted daughter of Henry
Hubbard.
HORACE WILDER.
In 1827, there came to Claridon, Geauga county, Horace Wilder, whose sister Mrs. Taylor lived
there. Very shortly Mr. Wilder moved to Ashtabula county and was admitted to the bar in 1828.
He married Phoebe Coleman, who was the daughter of Elijah Coleman, the man who kept the
drug store in the hotel at Jefferson which was burned. Mr. and Mrs. Wilder moved to Conneaut
in 1837, and she died in 1847. He never remarried. He was prosecuting attorney of the county,
representative, common pleas judge and was supreme judge of the state in 1864. In 1863 he
formed a partnership with E. H. Fitch in Ashtabula, and removed to Red Wing, Minnesota, in
1867. He was an Episcopalian.
THE BURROWS BROTHERS.
William Burrows and Maria Smith were the parents of several remarkable men who figured in
Western Reserve history. They were of English and Scotch descent, had lived in New York and
Pennsylvania, and finally moved on to the Western Reserve. Sylvester Smith
582 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
Burrows, born in 1826 in New York, studied medicine in Pennsylvania, and graduated at the
Michigan University. He settled with his family, which had moved to Geneva from Ashtabula, in
1852. Here he practiced his profession with success all his life. His brother, J. B. Burrows, was
judge of the court of common pleas for many years, and later judge of the circuit court. He is at
present Mayor of Painesville, and another brother, Hon. Julius C., is United States senator from
Michigan. He once taught school in Jefferson.
WOMAN ARTISTS OF THE RESERVE.
One of the artists of the Reserve was Caroline L. Ransom who, although born in Newark, Ohio,
was in her infancy brought to Kirtland by her parents who finally established a home in
Harpersfield. As a girl, she proved an apt scholar in mathematics and the classics, graduated at
the Grand River Institute, and was later president of the women's department. When a young
woman she had a desire to become efficient in art and after many vicissitudes went east and
became a member of the family of Horace Greeley's sister, Mrs. Cleveland. Here she first studied
landscape painting under eminent professors, but upon their recommendation decided to do
portrait work. She was at one time a pupil of Huntington and under his instruction painted the
portrait of Joshua R. Giddings, which for many years hung in the old hall in the capitol. The
frame is now being repaired and will be placed in the capitol when clone. It is said this picture
was the first one which congress ever purchased from a woman artist. Her portraits of Governor
Huntington and Governor Cox were bought by Ohio and now hang in the capitol—the former in
the governor's room and the latter in the relic room.
Miss Ransom at different times had studios in New York, Cleveland and Washington. In the
latter city she surrounded herself with influential friends. Social gatherings at her house were of
the highest character. The picture which she considered her masterpiece was a portrait of General
Thomas, with the battlefield of Chickamauga in the background. This she offered to congress at a
large price and the senate passed a bill to purchase it, but the house did not confer. A little later a
bill of like nature was passed by the house, but in turn failed to pass the senate. She lived the
latter part of her life hoping to dispose of this picture to the government and upon her death, early
in 1910, it came into the possession of the government through her will. It is now in the capitol
and will be hung. Her coloring was good, but her drawing was faulty. She was artistic, but not a
great artist.
By will she also left four pictures to the Historical Society, one of them being that of Wade.
Cornelia Strong, who married Samuel Fassett, was an artist of a good deal of ability. She painted
the "Electoral Commission," which was purchased by congress and now hangs in the east
corridor gallery floor of the senate. Her price for this picture was $10,000, but congress
considered that too high and bought it for much less. Samuel Fassett was a successful
Chicago photographer, but the great fire destroyed his property and the family moved to
Washington where he had a clerkship. They had seven beautiful children, and although it was
sometimes hard for the family to have what they needed, Mrs. Fassett never lost her sweetness or
her fine looks. At the time' of her death she had a commission to paint ivory miniatures of the
presidents' wives to be exhibited at Washington.
ALBION W. TOURGEE.
Albion W. Tourgee was born in Williamsfield in 1838. He later lived in Kingsville, and at the
time of the war, being at the Rochester University, he enlisted and was wounded in the first battle
of Bull Run. He was the lieutenant of the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio and was confined several
months in Libby prison. His first wound gave him a good deal
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 583
of trouble and after the battle of Chickamauga he was discharged. He held office in North
Carolina, being at one time judge of the supreme court: He was one of the men dubbed "carpet
bagger" by southerners. His stay in the south, however, profited him much, for he wrote several
novels ; "A Fool's Errand" and "Bricks Without Straw" brought him money and fame.
STEPHEN A. NORTHWAY.
Stephen A. Northway was the second representative in congress which Ashtabula county had.
His boyhood spent in Orwell had many hardships and discomforts. He was a good student, good
teacher and able lawyer. He held the office of prosecuting attorney, state representative and
national representative. He was affable and friendly, and one of the most popular men that ever
lived in the county. His Wife, Lydia Dodge, was a true companion and his daughter, Clara,
rendered him much assistance in his professional life. These three people had much joy and
much sorrow and they bore it together.
JUDGE WOODBURY.
Judge H. B. Woodbury was a native of Kelloggsville, having been born in 1831. His education
was obtained at the public schools. When he was seventeen he began studying law with his father
and was admitted to the bar in 1852. He was a member of the last constitutional convention and
made a very capable common pleas judge. His mother was one of the most self-sacrificing and
capable women Ashtabula county has ever produced. In the early days they were exceedingly
poor and Mrs. Woodbury was so self-sacrificing that it is recorded she "more than once fainted
from work and hunger after dividing her last loaf with an unfortunate neighbor."
DARIUS CADWELL.
Darius Cadwell, born in Andover in 1821, did not suffer quite the hardships of some of his
companions. He was well educated, was a successful lawyer, was representative in 1856 and
1857, and senator in 1858 and 1859. During the war he was provost marshal for the Nineteenth
district. He moved to Cleveland in 1871, was elected common pleas judge and was highly
esteemed. His wife, Ann Eliza Watrous, was a very unusual woman and their lives were
exceedingly happy. Their daughter, Clara, married a Mr. Hubbard and resided in Ashtabula Many
years. George W. Gould, a cousin of Jay, married Betsey Hubbard and lived in Geneva in 1833.
PAUL HOWLAND.
Hon. W. P. Howland's father, Paul, came to Pierpont in 1812. Here W. Perry was born in 1831.
He was studious and successful as a teacher and a lawyer. He was elected prosecuting attorney
and represented Ashtabula county in the legislature. At the time Judge Ezra B. Taylor was elected
to congress Mr. Howland was a formidable candidate. His son, Paul, named for the grandfather,
Paul, now represents the Cleveland district in congress.
HENRY FASSETT.
Henry Fassett, .one of the able newspaper men in Ashtabula, was born in Canada, but came to
Ashtabula when he was eighteen. He was one of the owners of the Ashtabula Sentinel in. 1837.
After a time he moved to Newark, Ohio, when he became owner and editor of the Sentinel. He
held several offices and among them that of probate judge and internal revenue collector.
THE SON OF JOHN BROWN.
John Brown, who lived in many places for short times on the Reserve just prior to his raid on
Harper's Ferry made West Andover his headquarters. On the creek road in Cherry Valley was a
cabinet manufactory, and here he stored his rifles and other material. His son, bearing his name,
lived in Cherry Valley. He was ordered to appear before the United States
584 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
senate and give evidence. This he refused to do, and the residents of the vicinity, expecting
violence, organized themselves for the protection of Brown and his friends.
THREE TALENTED RESERVE WOMEN.
Dr. Susan Edson, a distinguished physician who nursed President Garfield during his last
illness, was one time living in Kingsville, Ohio, and although her professional life was spent
largely in Washington, she always considered Ashtabula her home.
Although Edith M. Thomas was born at Catham, Medina county, she was educated at Geneva
Ohio Norman Institute and really lived there until a few years since, when she moved to New
York. She is foremost among American poets and is always accredited to the Western Reserve.
Rachel Foster Avery, the noted woman suffrage advocate, is connected by marriage with the
Western Reserve. Cyrus Miller Avery, her husband, was the grandson of Mrs. Nahum Miller, of
Ashtabula.
CHAPTER XXIX.
MAHONING COUNTY.
When the surveying party, under Moses Cleaveland, had celebrated its arrival on the Western
Reserve, the surveyors immediately et out to run the north and south lines. It was early in July,
and the members of the party were more or less joyous as they left the lake with its blue waters
and invigorating air. As they proceeded southward they encountered so many difficulties that
when they had gone half the distance they were discouraged and disgusted. The timber was very
heavy and consequently the ground was wet and oozy. When swamps became impassable for the
commissary department the surveyors were left to wade, wallow and work, while the provisions
went a round-about way. Often at the- end of a hard day's work these worn and bedraggled men
waited long and impatiently for their cook and food. As they waited they were unprotected and
rain drenched them, and mosquitoes feasted upon them. It was but natural that the picture they
had drawn of this beautiful new Connecticut was fading away when they neared the present
Mahoning county line.
THE SURVEYORS ENTERING THE COUNTY.
Just on the edge of Trumbull county they had a distant glimpse of Pennsylvania and for the first
time they could look over the tree tops. From this time on their journey was more pleasant. As
they neared the forty-first parallel they heard the tinkling of a bell and concluded that a settlement
was near. Eagerly they sought to find it but failed. However, it was there and the settler would
have welcomed the young men from the east with open arms if they had only followed their
inclination and the cowbell. As it was, they continued their journey south and set a post on
MAHONING COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
the corner of township one, range one (Poland), and then started on their return trip. When they
struck the river they were delighted to see so "goodly a stream." They had penetrated on into the
woods until it
- 585 -
586 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
seemed as if they were almost lost in the forest, and here was a stream large enough to take them
away if they had seen fit to go. They found some Indians in camp on this river, who told them
that many boats went back and forth ; that Beaver, a little town, was not so very far away and that
there they could get all sorts of supplies. This information also added to their comfort and when a
few hours later they met the surveyors, who had run another line, there was rejoicing and
undoubtedly a jug was emptied.
THE FIRST "COMERS."
These first surveyors were not the first men who had visited Mahoning county. Probably not so
many missionaries or soldiers or explorers had been in this vicinity as had gone along the lake
shore between Buffalo and Cleveland, but many trappers and traders had passed through the
valley, and no one knows how many years Indians were following the path from this point to
Cleveland and Sandusky. These savages had a village on the land where the Baltimore & Ohio
station stands, having cleared the land on that bend and on the hillside opposite. However, as was
their habit, they had abandoned this place and small trees and other growth had come on, making
it necessary for the pioneers to clear again. Indians had a village, or rather a summer
stopping-place, on the edge of the swamp south of East Federal street.
There were several squatters in Mahoning county before the coming of the Connecticut Land
Company, but their stay was short, and they simply made a livelihood for themselves and are in
no way connected with the development of the county.
THE SALT SPRINGS TRACT.
As a rule, attempts at inventions and discoveries are made over and over again with final success,
but the Salt Springs tract, as far as money making was concerned or as far as good salt was
concerned, never was a success, although a great number of men tried to make it so. It is
undoubtedly true that more than half the residents of Youngstown do not know it ever existed.
The Indians made salt here, and white men from Pennsylvania erected rude cabins, where people
bringing their utensils lived, while they boiled the water for the salt. When the cabins were
vacated the Indians lived in them, so that the Salt Springs tract had more people in it in the
twenty years preceding the settlement of Mahoning county than did any other spot on the
Reserve. A full account of this interesting tract is given in the Trumbull county chapter and the
statements will not be repeated here. It consisted of 24,000 acres and was the only land sold by
Connecticut previous to the formation of the Connecticut Land Company.
Samuel Parsons, a judge, purchased this tract, came to see it, and was drowned in the Beaver
river on his return home. There was some litigation about the sale when the Connecticut Land
Company took over the Western Reserve, but the right of the Parsons heirs was finally
acknowledged, and a portion of this property laid aside for them. This portion of it was owned
later by George Parsons, of Warren, who was not connected in any way with the original
purchaser.
A firm by the name of Duncan & Wilson employed men to carry produce to Detroit and one of
the stopping places was this Salt Springs tract. Here one of their employees, who was guarding
the stores kept in one of these cabins, was murdered by the Indians in 1786.
During the Revolutionary war General Harmer, who was in charge of the American forces at
Pittsburg, ordered this camp disbanded because he thought the salt boilers were in sympathy with
the British. He was wrong in his surmise.
Although this Salt Springs tract was not properly within the limits of the present Mahoning
county, its operations had effect u the settlements in that county later and are
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 587
mentioned here for that reason. Pennsylvania people traveling back and forth became familiar
with Youngstown and the vicinity, so that it was better known to them than any other land on the
Reserve.
JAMES HILLMAN, FIRST SETTLER.
The first settler, James Hillman, was often at the Salt Springs tract. He was employed by Duncan
and Wilson to carry their merchandise to the lake and at different times had quite a caravan
accompanying him. In 1786 he had ten men and ninety horses. The only buildings which these
people could occupy (except such as they could erect themselves from bark and which stood no
longer than one season and were burned down usually by the Indians as soon as the traders were
out of sight) were the cabins at Salt Springs and the houses erected by the Moravians at the
mouth of Tinker's creek. Although these Moravian missionaries had wintered around the
northwestern part of Ohio and possibly east of the Cuyahoga on the lake shore, we have no
material evidence that they were ever as far south on the Reserve as Youngstown. However, the
deserted cabins at Tinker's creek were used by the traders and a little later Duncan and Wilson
erected a cabin or two near the mouth of the Cuyahoga. James Hillman was in their employ for
some time, and was later their Beaver agent. He staid there two years and returned to Pittsburg,
when he became a trader on his own account. He and his wife loaded canoes and paddled up the
river, exchanging their produce with the Indians, and as soon as they had sold out they returned
for another cargo. They did not make as long trips as they had for Duncan and Wilson, but they
worked leisurely and often spent some time in one place. They thus became very well acquainted
with the Indians. James Hillman, who could speak the Seneca language, knew their habits, and as
he was always perfectly straightforward in dealing with them no man in the Mahoning valley was
ever held in such esteem by the red men as was he. Because this was true, later he was able to
render great service to the people of old Trumbull county, and especially to the people of
Youngstown.
WHEN COLONIZATION SUCCEEDED.
In the settlement of this country, the Englishman brought his wife and his family to the coast of
New England, and the family and community life began, and the state was established. The
Virginia colonists made failures over and over again until they brought with them their wives,
and homes were made. So it was with the settlement of this Mahoning valley. Men had tramped
back and forth through the woods ; people had been murdered ; nothing was settled, nothing
established in Mahoning county and the vicinity until Mrs. Hillman took the lot which Mr.
Young had offered her and began making a home in the county. Mr. and Mrs. Hillman were poor
; at the time of her marriage she had no shoes. But then that was not so bad as it seems, because
for many years most women of this county had only one pair of shoes, and these they saved for
visiting, for meeting and for very cold weather. Mrs. Hillman had no children and her house was
the place where all people stopped. All strangers were entertained, and really to her quite as
much as to James Hillman himself is due the credit of the establishment of the city of
Youngstown. She lived to be eighty-three years old, dying in 1855. She is remembered by many
people in the county who as children knew her.
The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Hillman were first interred in the old cemetery, Wood street, but later
were moved to Oak Hill cemetery, and the inscriptions on the stones read as follows :
IN MEMORY OF
COL. JAMES HILLMAN.
BORN OCT. 27, 1762 ;
DIED Nov. 12, 1848 ;
AGED 86 YEARS, I MONTH,
15 DAYS.
588 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
IN MEMORY OF
KATHERINE,
WIFE OF JAMES HILLMAN.
DIED AUG. 7, 1855,
AGED 83 YEARS.
JAMES HILLMAN AVERTS MASSACRE.
James Hillman was a remarkable man. He grew from an uneducated, uncultured trader
to a legislator ; to a leader in the community. He lived to a goodly age and was respected
very highly by all who knew him. In fact, it was due to him that the people of Warren and
Youngstown and vicinity were not massacred. The killing of the two Indians at Salt Springs so
aroused the Indians in the neighborhood that if Mr. Hillman had not gone to them unarmed,
although accompanied by Mr. Randall, laid the case before them and taken the precaution which
he did to have a conference later at Youngstown, there is no doubt that the Indians would have
arisen against the community. Of course, we do not know whether they would have succeeded in
carrying out their plans, but if the Indians of the further west, who hated the encroachment of the
white men, had joined with them it might have been that the inhabitants of the valley would have
been wiped out entirely.
Howe and most of the people of his time blamed the white men in the Salt Springs case, and
believed that the trial which occurred at Youngstown was not a fair one, that the judges were
partial, etc. ; but Leonard Case, Sr., who was a very just man, and who took up the evidence
carefully and investigated for himself, said later that there was no doubt that MacMahon and
Storrs killed the Indians in self-defense. The trial was held at Youngstown undoubtedly, because
James Hillman lived there, although the county seat at that time was at Warren.
HOW ALL DEPENDED ON HILLMAN.
It is quite remarkable in reading old letters and manuscripts and printed documents to find how
many people depended upon James Hillman for aid and for advice. When Benjamin Tappan, who
settled Ravenna, was taking his goods from Hudson to his township, one of his oxen was bitten
to death by flies, and we find that the first thing he did was to go immediately to James Hillman
at Youngstown. He had no money, although his father was well-to-do. The records say that Mr.
Hillman sold him an ox on credit and at the usual price. Almost all references to this transaction
dwell on the fact that Hillman did not raise the price on Tappan because of his dire distress. And
so it was from almost every settlement in the lower part of the Western Reserve—it was James
Hillman who could tell people what to do, how to do it and when to do it, and he was able to do
this because of his great heart, just ideas and his long experience with the country.
NO HILLMAN MEMORIAL.
James Hillman served in the Revolutionary war ; was under Colonel William Rayen in the War
of 1812; was justice of the peace before and after the war. Although he accumulated some
property which debts and unprofitable business transactions swept away, he recovered, and
owned several pieces of property in Youngstown ; sometimes a farm, sometimes town property ;
and for several years was proprietor of a popular hotel. It seems remarkable that there is no
monument or memorial of any kind erected to preserve the memory of this man' and his good
wife. One unimportant street in the southwestern part of town bears his name. If only' some stone
marked the location of his first cabin, people of this vicinity would not seem to the historian quite
so thoughtless and unappreciative. John Young has a monument, in the name of a great town,
although he did little but manage his business well, while James Hillman was a real benefactor.
The Daughters of the American Revolution are attempting to have a memorial tablet placed in
the court house.
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 589
JOHN YOUNG, FOUNDER OF TOWN.
John Young was born in New Hampshire ; migrated to Whitestown, New York, where in 1792
he married Mary Stone White, (commonly called Polly), the daughter of Hugh White, who
owned land as an early settler around Whitestown. So great were White's possessions that he
gave a large farm to each of his eight children, most of whom settled near him. He was a judge
and died about the beginning of the war of 1812.
John Young became possessed with the western fever, and when the Connecticut Land Company
was forming he reserved, in his name and that of Philo White, a township. Whether the two
owned it entirely, or whether there were others interested, is not certain. Anyway, Mr. White took
very little interest in it. The purchase was made late in 1796, and early in 1797 Mr. Young and
Alfred Wolcott, his surveyor came to No. 2, range 2, and began plans for its settlement. This was
the first township on the Reserve surveyed and settled by the owner. To be sure Mr. Kingsbury,
Mr. and Mrs. Stiles and Edward Paine had spent the winter at Conneaut and Cleveland, but they
did not own these townships, and did not at first settle on their own land.
While the surveyors were laying out the town, Young busied himself in cutting the brush, sowing
grain and entertaining the people passing through, as well as those who came to buy land.
MEETING OF HILLMAN AND YOUNG.
Upon Young's arrival in the new country he put up some sort of a covering for himself and his
companion and one evening, as James Hillman was paddling down the river, on his way to
Beaver, after a trading trip he saw smoke rising, which he knew was not smoke from an Indian
camp. Wanting to investigate as to who was in his domain, he anchored and went ashore,
introduced himself and spent the evening. Now it happened that he had not disposed entirely of
his cargo. He had some whiskey left. The price of a gallon of whiskey was a deer skin and half
that amount was a fawn skin. Mr. Young was delighted to meet Hillman, because he knew all
about the country, and because he was a genial man ; and Hillman, of course, was glad to see
white men. At length something was said about celebrating the event of the meeting. Mr. Young
proposed that he buy this whiskey and that the three have an evening of it; whereas, Mr. Hillman
said this really was his territory and these were his guests, and he would furnish the whiskey.
However, Young insisted and handed over the deer skin which he had spread for his bed ; and
therefore gave up his sleeping place and his comfort for something to stimulate the inner man.
This is not related as an unusual thing, however, for men before him and men since his time have
denied themselves of precious things for a little enjoyment with
590 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
trouble thereafter. Fortunately, none of these men were quarrelsome and they had a beautiful time
that night on the banks of the Mahoning. The new corners were told much about the country.
Whether they were able to remember it or not is not known. However, Hillman urged them to go
down to Beaver and spend Independence day (Fourth of July) as the people of Beaver were going
to celebrate in the good, old-fashioned way. Mr. Young and his surveyor had but just arrived, and
it seems rather strange to us of these hustling and bustling times that they should feel they could
leave their business and accompany Hillman ; but they did. Before the end of the visit, they had
persuaded Hillman and his wife to take up their residence in Youngstown.
THE YOUNGS RETURN TO NEW YORK.
Mr. Young brought his wife and two children to Youngstown in 1799. That year his son William
was born, and in 1802 his daughter Mary. In 1803 they returned to Whitestown and lived upon
their farm, although Mr. Young did not do any farm work. He became interested in construction
and superintending of the roads of that country.
COULD NOT TAKE "No."
Wm. Law, Jr:, in his "journal," now the property of H. K. Morse of Poland, says : "May 8th—At
evening I arrived at Mr. Young's, New Connecticut.
"May 9th—Made a small excursion with Mr. King into the woods to see the country and get a
turkey or deer. Soon found ourselves tired of such work, and returned with hunter's luck ; dined
at Mr. Young's ; then went , to Mr. Stephen's and petitioned for board and lodging, till Mr.
Kirtland should arrive. They refused, telling us they had not much provisions and no
accommodations. I told them I could not receive 'No' for an answer. I carried in my portmanteau ;
turned my horse into the woods, and then started with a man to take a look at our land. Traveled
three or four miles and returned at dark much fatigued. To mention about accommodations in the
woods would be unnecessary trouble. It was as it was good enough, however. I started early with
the man again and traveled not less than two or three and twenty miles which took us till dark
before we got in, tired enough. I was not used to such tramps. Determined however to accustom
myself to them. In the course of the day, the men saw two bears; shot at one of them, but missed
it. We saw a .turkey or two and no other game.
"May. 11th—I kept near home, being very soar and dull:
"Sunday, the 12th—Spent in writing and reading.
SHORT CHAT WITH LUSTY "BARE."
"May 11th—Set out with a man to clear up the garden and cut house logs, but a man wishing to
look at land, I went out with him into the woods. We had not proceeded far before we perceived
a fine bare with three cubs which ran up a tree ; and the old one fled. We beat off one with a pole.
Then the man with me shot another ; and I shot a third: so we were victorious. I then agreed to
meet the man the other side of the creek near McFarland's. So I struck through the woods for my
horse. I soon found myself bewildered. I clem up and down banks and came to the same place. I
then considered a minute ; then clem up another bank and behold! four or five rods forward sat a
fine lusty bare. I held a short chat with him, not having a gun, and bid him good-speed.
Proceeding I found my horse. I then proceeded to Mr. McFarland's and there spent the evening
agreeably."
YOUNG'S CABIN AT WARREN.
It is not true that John Young ever lived in 'Warren. His residence there was temporary. There
was a clearing in the bend of the Mahoning river where the South Main Street bridge is. Here
Young sowed wheat, erected a log-hut, and when he had harvested his crop stored it in the house.
When snow came he
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 591
transported it to Youngstown. This Young cabin was used by men going back and forth from
Pittsburg to the lake and by the early corners to Warren. It stood about where the home of Charlie
Wannamaker now is, and was one of the first farms purchased.
FIRST LAND BUYERS AT YOUNGSTOWN.
From the records of Turhand Kirtland, who was agent for John Young, we find that Josiah
Robbins bought land in Youngstown in 1799; James Hillman, 1801 ; John Rush, 1802 ; William
Rayen, 1802,; Caleb Baldwin, 1802 ; Henry McKinney, 1802 ; John Bissell, 1802 ; and Alfred
Wolcott, 1803.
DISCOVERY OF YOUNGSTOWN WATER-POWER.
Isaac Powers and Phineas Hill were assistants to Alfred Wolcott, the surveyor, and the story is
told that one morning in 1797, as they were out prospecting they walked along the Mahoning
river until they came to the mouth of a creek and then turned in. They had not proceeded far
before they came across a rocky ledge from which the water was tumbling at a great rate.
Nothing did the pioneers want more than water-power, and these men concluded that they would
buy this section of land. The fall was twenty-seven feet and at that time there seemed to be an
inexhaustible supply of water. Of course, there was much more then than now, because at that
time the Mahoning river was navigable as far as Newton Falls. In fact, at least twenty-five years
later the legislature declared the river navigable as far as Warren. Mr. Powers had already
selected his land, and so it was agreed that Hill was to apply to Young for this. Mr. Powers was a
mill-wright and together they were going to enter into business. Upon their return to Young's
cabin, they began talking about negotiating for a certain bit of land and Mr. Hill asked to
purchase a certain lof. Either he showed his anxiety about the property, or Young was a, very
astute man, because the latter immediately suspicioned that there was something about the land
which was valuable and refused to sell it to Hill without having. seen it. Thereupon Hill told him
of the water-power there, and, after they had examined it, Hill was allowed to buy it, provided he
would erect a saw-mill and something which would grind corn within eighteen months after the
signing of the contract.
FIRST MILLS ERECTED.
Abraham Powers built a rude cabin in the vicinity and he and his son took the contract for
building the mill. Of course, this was a very crude affair and ground slowly -and unevenly, but
still it was better than nothing. It was in the construction of this mill that powder was used in
blasting for the first time on the Reserve. The saw-mill was of the old fashioned water-wheel
pattern, which artists love to paint, but which no man today would run. The stone for this mill
was dressed by Abraham Powers, and it was found in the heart of the city, near where Holmes
street crosses Lincoln avenue. It was the kind of stone known as "nigger-head." Isaac Powers and
John Noggle secured the timber for the mill from the woods on the creek.
WELL-PLACED CONFIDENCE..
It was while these two young men were cutting the wood for this mill that two Indian women
came along with a pappoose strapped to a piece of bark. They looked at the men a few moments,
set the pappoose against a tree and departed. In the middle of the afternoon they returned,
bringing with them the carcass of a deer which they had killed. They took up the baby and
proceeded on their journey. Apparently they trusted the workmen, and it was all right, because
the baby did nothing but sleep and laugh as it lay tied to a tree in its rude cradle.
FIRST MARRIAGES IN THE COUNTY.
Alfred Wolcott married Mary Gilson of Canfield, in February, 1800. This was the first marriage
of Western Reserve people, but
592 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
because there was no minister the service was performed in Pennsylvania. Miss Gilson belonged
to the pioneers of Canfield. Her brother was the first mail carrier out of Canfield.
The first marriage recorded on the Western Reserve was that of Stephen Baldwin and Rebecca
Rush. They were married in November, 1800.
SHEHY VS. YOUNG.
Daniel Shehy was a well educated Irishman who met John Young at Albany, N. Y., after he came
to this country, and was persuaded by Young to come to the Western Reserve. He was assistant
surveyor to Isaac Powers. Mr. Shehy selected two thousand acres of land. Four hundred of this
was in the east part of Youngstown, and on part of it his relatives still live. The other portion was
south of the river. He married Miss Jane McLain, of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, who was in
every way a partner for him. She was of Scotch descent. Mr. Young, like many other men
interested in western land, was honest but had a "business eye." When, therefore, Robert Gibson
offered him fifty cents per acre more than Shehy had offered, Young wished to sell it to Gibson
and refused to give Shehy a deed. This would have been exasperating to any man, but it was
especially so to Shehy because of his temperament. He therefore proceeded to threaten Young
and was imprisoned in the first jail in Trumbull county, at Warren, being the first prisoner in that
jail. He was tried and fined. As we have seen, he was an orator and the ringleader in the quarrel
about the alien vote in the county-seat case. Jane Shehy was quite as determined as was her
husband to obtain the land which he had bought, and she proposed certain plans which really
brought Mr. Young to terms. Her husband twice journeyed to Connecticut to try to adjust
matters, and after applying to the land company he finally got a deed to the four hundred acres.
He was held in esteem by his cotemporaries and his name is not only perpetuated by posterity,
but a city str named for him.
FIRST WESTERN IRON MANUFACTURED.
The first iron which was manufactured west of the Alleghany mountains was smelted in a little
furnace on Yellow creek near Struthers. Men worked then from twelve to fourteen hours daily to
turn out from two to five tons of iron.
FIRST SERMON OF THE RESERVE.
The first sermon which was preached to any white men on the Western Reserve was preached by
Rev. William C. Wick in 1799.
THE TWO YOUNGSTOWN TRAITS.
Now it seems strange that these two beginnings, of industry and religion, have been followed out
to a great degree in Mahoning county to this day.
The industrial growth of the city of Youngstown, beginning with a little, crude furnace, up to the
present time, is one of the most phenomenal things of the times. And there are probably in
Mahoning county more church-going people, in proportion to the population, than in any other
county. This is not saying that the people of Mahoning county are more spiritual, or more
intellectual, or anything of that kind ; but it is saying that the old-fashioned religion seems to be
deeper in the hearts of Youngstown people, particularly in the hearts of business men, than in the
hearts of people of other communities. Men abide by the letter of the law, attend church services
and assume responsibility in connection with church affairs. In no other city on the Reserve could
Billy Sunday convert so many people, and in no other city could so many men become
millionaires within a few short years. Surely men have applied business principles to their
religion, and it is to be hoped they have applied religious principles to their business.
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 593
JUDGE TURHAND KIRTLAND.
Among the early men interested in the development of the Western Reserve was Turhand
Kirtland. He was here in 1798, 1799 and 1800. He was agent of the Connecticut Land Company
and helped John Young lay out Youngstown ; and he surveyed the townships of Burton and
Poland. It was in the latter place that he made his home, although he raised crops and had
interests in Burton.
REMAINS OF THE "OLD FURNACE" ON
YELLOW CREEK.
(First iron manufactory west of the Alleghanies.)
We find him going back and forth from one of these towns to another and reporting the condition
of his crops. Records show the active part he took in all public affairs. He laid out the second
road on the Reserve, which ran from Poland to the mouth of the Grand river. This was in 1798.
The first road, known as the. Girdled road, ran from Conneaut to Cleveland, but the Kirtland road
ran from Youngstown, along the Indian path to Salt Springs, thence through No. 4, range
Vol. I-38
4 (Warren), up to the present Mahoning avenue, off toward Burton, and thence to Grand river.
In the agreement for cutting the road from Salt Springs to No. 1o, range 8, the Morse notes show
It is agreed, in making the road, that they cut and clear entirely one rod wide and level the ground
by filling up the hollows and plowing down the hillocks, so that carts may' safely pass it. They
are to make bridges over all hollows, gulls and runs of water, where a string-piece twenty-five
feet long will reach across, which is to be considered as cause-waying. They are to causeway all
ground that is not passable without, with good timber not less than ten inches thick, nearly of that
size, or so as to be nearly even at the top. The foregoing is considered as coming within the price
mentioned in the agreement." The contract further agrees that where a road runs on the hillside
and must have timber put in
594 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
by the bank of a brook or river on one side, and cut out on the other, there must be extra pay.
Judge Kirtland was the great-grandfather of Miss Mary L. W. Morse. She has collected and
preserved diaries and papers of this grandfather, having published the former. Probably no one in
Mahoning county has more old records and knows more facts in regard to the settlement of
Youngstown and vicinity than does Miss Morse. A large share of the original material given in
this chapter was obtained from her.
Turhand Kirtland was state senator in 1814; justice of the peace for twenty years, and obtained
his title as associate judge. He acted as agent for William Law and throughout the early entries of
the diary his name is often mentioned. Suddenly it is dropped and no mention whatever is made
of him. We therefore concluded that some disagreement took, place, but both men were wise
enough to keep it quiet.
He was rewarded in his lifetime for his work, as he accumulated a handsome property. His
children were Jared P. ; Henry T., who married Thalia Rebecca Fitch for first wife, and her sister
Mary, for his second ; Billius, who married Ruthanna Frame ; George ; Emma, who married
Richard Hall, and Nancy, who married Elkanah Morse.
JUDGE KIRTLAND KEPT HIS HEAD.
Harvey Rice says that John Blackburn and Nancy Bryan were married by Turhand Kirtland, a
churchman, in Poland, in 1800. In regard to this Poland wedding, Mr. Rice says of Turhand
Kirtland : "He yielded to the force of circumstances and consented to officiate. A stool covered
with a white tablecloth, and a prayer book lying upon it was brought and placed before him. As
he was about to proceed a guest proposed that the whisky bottle should first be passed around,
which was done ; and while the party were engaged in taking a hurried sip of the 'O-be-
joyful someone mischievously inclined purloined the prayer book which contained the formula to
be used in solemnizing marriages. Kirtland, though somewhat disconcerted, appreciated the
situation, directed the happy pair to stand up before him and take each other by the hand, when
he asked, Are you agreed to become man and wife?' They responded `Yes.' Then,' said he, 'I
pronounce you henceforth man and wife and bid you go on your way rejoicing.' "
OLD-TIME BONDS.
Here is given a bond, to show how papers were drawn at that time :
"1798, AUGUST 1.
"Articles of agreement made between William Law and Turhand Kirtland of the state of Conn.
and John Struthers, Jr., of the state of Penn. Witness—that Law & Kirtland hath sold to Struthers
two lots or parcels of Grounds situated on the Mahoning River in No. of the first range of the
Conn. Reserve (so called) viz. Lots No. 21 and 22, together with the appurtenances, and the
parties are hereby bound to make out as an ample a deed in every respect as the state of Conn.
hath given to the Conn. Land Co. at the expiration of 2 years from this date on the following
conditions (viz.) :—the party of the second part agrees to the parties of the first part $106.25 in
30 days from date and $371.87 in one year and the like sum of $71.87 in 2 years.
"And it is also agreed and mutually understood that the party of the second part shall erect on Sd
Township of No. I a good finished Corn Mill ready to grind by the first day of
Dec. 1800.
JOHN MCFARLANE,
JACK GOWELL, JR.,
WILLIAM LAW,
TURHAND KIRTLAND,
JOHN STRUTHERS, JR."
In 1811 Turhand Kirtland "agrees to lease his Poland farm to John Reeves for 100 gal-
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 595
lons of good whisky yearly." This does not lean that Judge Kirtland himself absorbed ioo gallons
of whisky, but that in those days whisky was money.
FIRST BIRTHS IN COUNTY.
The first male child born in Youngstown township was John Swager. The first female child was
a daughter of Robert and Hannah Stephens. When today we know that the women of
Youngstown are paying taxes on millions of dollars worth of property ; that a woman is president
of the Library Board ; that they are the managers of much of the philanthropy and reform work
done in the county, it is hard for us to realize what an insignificant part they played in the records
of the country of the early day. Very often if the first child born in a community was a girl the
records say "the first male child born was _____ ;" adding, "there had been a girl born before
this." It the case of Mahoning county it is not known whether the male child was born before the
female, but so unimportant was the birth of the female child that her name is not given. She was
simply the daughter of Robert Stephens.
FIRST DEATH IN YOUNGSTOWN.
The first death in Youngstown was that of Samuel McFarland. He was a music teacher and was
only twenty-eight years old. His funeral was largely attended and he was buried in the old
graveyard, a1811the stone, which was erected in 181, was removed later to the new cemetery.
YOUNGSTOWN FOUNDED.
First there were the cabins in the neighborhood of Spring Common. Then the log cabins of the
first farms began to dot the hillside and the valley. Skins .began going down the river, and
supplies coming up. Iron began to be smelted, grain ground and logs sawed. Land became more
valuable, as it was found bow fertile it was. The early settler had all he wanted of one thing,
namely, wood. People were cold in winter only because houses were too open and only one
fireplace was built. Soon houses began to grow up around the first little clump of cabins and
civic life, although crude, was lived. The letter carrier made his appearance, as did the stage
driver, and ,the tavern keeper. Coal was found. Canal boats glided through the town and
Youngstown was established.
In 1802 the town plat was recorded. In 1810 Yongstown was the third township in , population
on the Reserve. Warren had 875 inhabitants, Poland 837 and Youngstown 773.
Most of the early elections were held in the tavern of William Rayen, but after 1813 at different
public houses until 1850, when the town hall was built.
FIRST NEWSPAPER.
The first newspaper published in Youngstown was the Mahoning County Republican. It was
originally a Democratic paper and Ashael Medbury was the editor. Before that time Youngstown
depended upon Warren for its newspapers, but as the newspapers in the early days contained a
compilation of essays and foreign correspondence rather than news, they were not as important as
they are nowadays.
FIRST CEMETERIES.
As stated, there were two cemeteries in Youngstown, both near the present Wood street, one
where the present court house stands and the other east of the Elk clubhouse between that and
Phelps street. At one time when the bodies were being removed some children were coming
down Wick avenue. They had been at school, and seeing them removing the bodies, of course
stopped to watch them. One young girl, Rachel Wick, daughter of Caleb, stood by a coffin and
asked the man whose body that was. He said it was James Tayler's. There was nothing but a
skeleton ; she remembers the bones. Many
596 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
years afterwards she married the son of James Tayler.
At the time the court house was built the Youngs were opposed to asking for the land on which
the court house was to stand, because they said that John Young gave it to the city for a burying
ground and for no other purpose. This objection, however, was given no attention. Men of
philanthropic thought removed the bodies which were unclaimed ; so as far as is known, no
bodies were left on this spot. Mr. and Mrs. Hillman were buried in the oldest of these cemeteries.
COUNTY SEAT.
When Trumbull county was organized Youngstown expected to be made the county seat. From
letters and diaries we learn that there was no question in the minds of men of the vicinity. Judge
Kirtland states in his diary that "he must go to Youngstown to make final arrangements in regard
to the county seat."
PROMINENT MEN OF THE COUNTY.
The people of Youngstown vicinity were religious and financially prosperous, but they were not
politicians. The county has had one governor, David Tod ; one lieutenant governor, Asa Jones ;
three or more members of congress—Whittlesey, Woodworth and Kennedy ; one comptroller of
the treasury, Robert W. Tayler; one supreme judge, George Tod. But in the long years of its life,
with its large population, we find it has had very few men in national and state politics.
Somehow, politics has not proven as seductive as has business.
At the time of the erection of the county Cleveland was too feeble a post to think of demanding
the county seat. This was true of the towns along the lake. The young Yale graduates, born of
cultured and intellectual parents, who had settled in the neighborhood of Warren, were so well
equipped intellectually that they received the appointments to the larger offices when these
appointments were first made. When, therefore, the people of Youngstown and vicinity signified
their desire for the county seat, they found the influences were too great to be overcome. When,
however, Youngstown really determines to do a thing, it is apt to do it. This is true, more or less,
of most people, but others do not determine so often. For years and years the county seat war
went on. Whenever there was a new administration, whenever there was a new public building to
be erected, the smoldering fire burst into flame. At times at public gatherings, the question of
county seat was fought out in contests. Youngstown horses raced against Warren horses ;
Youngstown men raced against Warren men; Youngstown people hated Warren people
collectively, and vice versa.
The organization of Geauga county, in 1805, brought forward the question again, and because the
northern part of Trumbull was gone, Youngstown claimed to be nearer the center of population.
Warren kept some lobbyists at Columbus to look after its claims, and Gideon Granger, who was
associated in national politics and connected by marriage with several families in Warren and
vicinity, added his influence to the Warren side. It is noted that in the early days, as stated before,
the educated man was the politician and the politician was the power. In other words, the able
man at first ruled the country, and he was followed by the man who, education or no, made of
himself a politician, and it was this man who ruled the country. Today the politician is the
product, as a rule, of the corporate interests, and, although the early politician often did harm, the
last stage of progress ( ?) is worse by far than the first. In the beginning men, we are told, did
great things for the love of country. Time may have magnified this somewhat, but today men who
are in politics are not thinking of the country but of the group of men who elevated them to
position. However, it's all well in working
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 597
out, for the harder the taskmaster drives, the louder the servant bewails ; the louder the cry, the
sooner relief will come.
THE "ALIEN" QUESTION.
In 1808, when Ashtabula and Portage counties were erected; Warren no longer, with any degree
of truth, could claim to be the geographical center. Consequently she looked about for some other
way to carry her point, and raised the question that many aliens were allowed to vote in an
election, the result of which was to influence the county seat question. This was true, but as long
as the aliens voted for Warren, the capital had not seen the sinfulness of it. It was after they began
going into Youngstown, and siding with the Youngstown people, that the legality was
questioned.
Leonard Case, of Warren, and William Chidester, of Canfield, as justices, took the testimony in
the ease brought to throw out the "alien vote." This was one of the most extreme cases ever tried
in this region and undoubtedly, but for the wisdom and gentleness of Leonard Case, might have
resulted in harm. Some of the Irishmen refused to testify until they were threatened with jail.
When all was over, it was looked upon as a disgraceful and uncomfortable affair. Daniel Shehy,
with his oratorical powers and high temper, was anything but pacifying to his countrymen. The
adding of the lower tier of five townships in Ashtabula county to Trumbull resulted
advantageously for Warren. After a time these townships were handed back to Ashtabula. This
shifting about caused much indignation on the part of the people living in those townships and
many were the jokes cracked over the "homeless", predicament of Windsor, Orwell, Colebrook,
Wayne and Williamsfield.
CANFIELD HAS AN INNING.
The people unimportant. Although the old court house at Warren was gradually going to decay,
the people knew if they asked for a new one the county seat war would be renewed. Finally,
however, in 1840, the matter could no longer be held in abeyance. The southern part of the
county immediately rebelled. The legislators from Trumbull county were elected on the platform
of county seat removal. Youngstown asked to have the county divided, proposing Warren for one
county seat and Youngstown the other. Canfield asked that ten southern townships of Trumbull
county and five of Columbiana make a new county. It was Youngstown people who had made
the fight for the new county from the very beginning; yet when this new county was finally
erected, Canfield became the county seat. Never were Youngstown people more surprised. Of
course Warren was glad and may have "lent a hand." Such affiliation always happens in like
cases. It was not generally understood then, nor is it yet, that this result was due to Elisha
Whittlesey and his associates, who had political influence.
Canfield promised to donate a suitable lot and to give $5,000 towards a public building. A lot
belonging to Eben Newton was substituted for the $5,000 and $1o,000 was raised by private
subscription. Work was begun in 1848 and the wording of the law, which provided for the county
seat, was such that Canfield people considered the question settled forever. However,
Youngstown men had never given up their determination to win, and when they found that its
citizens paid half the taxes of the county ; had more than half the litigation of the county ; that it
was becoming a railroad center and an industrial city, their chances grew. Even their old enemy,
Warren, came to their aid, not from a Christian spirit—for even if persons do have Christian
spirit, municipalities do not—but because their lawyers and business men disliked the long drive
they were obliged to take when doing business in Canfield. They had heard war of 1812 so
absorbed the minds of that the county seat question seemed
598 - HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
the toot of the locomotive and the horse's trot seemed slow.
COUNTY SEAT QUESTION FINALLY SETTLED.
Finally in 1872 the question came up in earnest. It was not settled until it had gone through the
courts and the word permanent was decided to mean "without any intention of changing" ; that it
did not mean that the legislature could not make such provision for'Mahoning county as it could
for all other counties—that is, change the county seat when it seemed advisable to do so. The
question was presented to the electors of the county and of course the result was favorable to
Youngstown.
In 1874 the sum of $100,000 for the erection of buildings had been subscribed, and the building
committee increased this to $200,000. The city in that same year gave to the county two lots on
the corner of Wick avenue and Wood street, which were valued at $40,000, the county paying ten
dollars for the same. This land had been given to the city by Thomas Young for a cemetery, and
when it was no longer used for that purpose, the Young heirs claimed it, which fact added trouble
to the situation. The question was not finally decided until 1879. The buildings erected at that
time have done service until this date, when a fine new court house is being erected. The county
seat war in Mahoning county is settled forever.
LAST COUNTY OF THE RESERVE.
Mahoning county was the last erected on the Reserve and the eighty-third in the state. It came
into existence in 1846. Five of its townships were taken from Columbia county, those below the
forty-first parallel, are not considered in this history. The other' ten townships are — Milton,
Jackson, Austintown, Youngstown, Coitsville, Berlin, Ellsworth, Canfield, Boardman and
Poland.
THE COUNTY'S NAME.
The name is of Indian origin. Its exact meaning is not known. Some authorities says it means
"winding" ; others, "beautiful meadow," while Howe says it signifies "the lick," or "at the lick."
This may be true, because of the salt springs. At any rate, it has a musical sound and the good
judgment of the namers has never been. doubted. Another account translates the name as "way to
market" (way to Pittsburg), and gives the pronunciation as "Mauming."
ATTRACTIVE PHYSICALLY.
Because of the mines and the coal and iron industries, the idea is rather prevalent that Mahoning
county is unattractive physically. This is not true. It is rolling. It has several streams which are
swift-running. The Pennsylvania hills can be seen from it. It is quite well wooded and, although
perhaps not the most attractive of the Western Reserve counties, it at least stands high in the
ranks.
THE CITY OF YOUNGSTOWN.
Youngstown was incorporated in 1848; extended its limits in 1850, and became a secon class city
in 1867.
As soon as a traveler leaves Girard, going east, he knows he is approaching a city. A certain
bustle, a certain air overtakes him. In a moment or two he sees the great smokestacks, sees the
suburbs, hears the rumble; and there he is !
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL YOUNGSTOWN.
Youngstown is a center of the iron an steel industry, there being located here what are among the
largest of the iron and steel producing and finishing plants in the United States. These include the
Ohio and United Works of the Carnegie Steel Company : the Brown-Bonnell and Valley Works
of the Republic Iron & Steel Company, and the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. These
three industries give employment to an aggregate of about 15,000 workmen.
Besides these larger industries there are foundries and machine shops, engine builders,
HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE - 599
boiler works, and, among diversified industries, the Republic Rubber Works, reinforced concrete
plant, electric light plant and manu- facturers of electric bulbs ; carriage manufacturers and the
General Fireproofing Company engaged in the manufacture of metal furnishings, the product of
which finds sale throughout the world.
Additions are constantly being made to present plants, notably by the Republic Iron & Steel
Company, which has in the course of construction at Lansingville, a suburb of the city, another
large steel and finishing mill, besides several open-hearth furnaces.
A MANUFACTURING SECTION OF YOUNGSTOWN.
The industrial conditions of Youngstown are considered to be among the most prosperous of any
of the industrial centers of the United States, having here least of labor troubles, a management
liberal and experienced. The rapid growth of Youngstown along industrial lines has been
contributory to its rapid growth in population, which will be nearly 85 per cent of an addition in
ten years. Every facility as to location, shipping, water supply, labor supply and residence
location is offered by Youngstown.
There are also in Youngstown, engaged actively in its industrial, commercial and financial
management and promotion, a number of men who are quoted above the million-dollar mark,
and several who are placed in the ranks of the multi-millionaires.
In 1907 the tonnage, commercial and industrial, of Youngstown amounted to 15,000 tons per
year. In that year 15,000 men were employed in the various industries and the pay roll was a
million dollars a month. Two and a half million dollars' worth of new buildings were erected in
that year. These facts are vouched for by the Chamber of Commerce.
In 1907, 165 establishments making a report to the Labor Bureau stated that 17,375 males
were employed, 473 females in Youngstown ; number of superintendents, salesmen and office
help employed, 969 ; capital invested, $20,012,902 ; amount paid in wages, $11,740,012.25.
In 1907, there were in Youngstown fourteen establishments for making bread and bakery
products ; two carriage and wagon factories ; six cigar establishments ; twenty-six clothing
houses ; two flouring mills ; four foundry and machine shops ; two glass and glassware ;
two harness and saddlery ; four structural and architectural iron ; three limestone and plaster,
sand and cement ; two malt liquors ; two mattresses and pillows ; eight photograph
