USA > New York > Wayne County > Landmarks of Wayne County, New York, Pt. 2 & 3 > Part 1
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Gc 974.701 W36c pt.2 1914037
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01149 0189
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https://archive.org/details/landmarksofwayne02cowl
193 LANDMARKS
OF
WAYNE COUNTY
NEW YORK
Illustrated
st. 2 +3
FORT WAYNE EPG LITT
THE PORTIG TILLERY
8.1
EDITED BY
HON. GEORGE W. COWLES
OF CLYDE, N. Y.
ASSISTED BY H. P. SMITH AND OTHERS
SYRACUSE, N. Y. D. MASON & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1895
.
РАЛАМПИАЈ
ИЕ СОЛИ
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barrel factory and saw mill, a blacksmith shop, and a small cluster of houses.
GLENMARK, or Glenmark Falls, is a hamlet and mill site on Thomas Creek about two miles west of North Rose. It is named from the beau- tiful scenery, and in days gone by was an important milling point, the stream affording excellent water power. It contains some abandoned mills, a shop or two, and the store of Albert Ellis.
CHURCHES. - The Baptist Church of Rose was organized at Rose, Valley as the Second Baptist Church of Wolcott on January 3, 1820, with these members: Hosea Gillett, John Skidmore, Peter Lamb, Joel and Chauncey Bishop, Phebe Bishop, Clara Burns, Hannah Miner, Sally Skidmore, Rachel and Martha Bishop, Lydia Fuller, Simantha Leland, Hannah Gillett, and Nancy Tieknor, The first meetings were held at the house of Joel Bishop, where was also convened the council on May 3, to extend the hand of recognition. Chauncey Bishop was the first clerk and served until July, 1855, when George Seeley was elected and held until September, 1881 being succeeded by Lucien II. Osgood. In 1834 the church joined the Wayne Baptist Association, of which it has ever since been a member. The first pastor was Rev. Da- vid Smith, who was installed January 8, 1821; the present pastor is Rev. Maxwell Il. Cusick since 1891. Their first church edifice was built in 1836, the building committee being Chauncey Bishop, Ira Mi- rick and Dr. Peter Valentine. The site was purchased in Rose Valley of Hiram Mirick. The building was remodeled in 1861 and again in 1885-86, the expense of the last renovation being $1, 100. The society has about 125 members and owns a frame parsonage. The church was meorporated March 17, 1831, with the following trustees: David Holmes, Chauncey Bishop, Ira Mirick, Dr. Peter Valentine and. Joseph Seeley.
The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Rose Valley was organized September 21, 1827. Circuit preaching and class meetings had been held for many years. The first permanent Methodist preacher in the town was doubtless Alfred Lee, who came at an early date from Ver- mont. Caleb Mills held religious services in a log school house in the Valley as early as 1819. The first class was formed in 1824 with Mr. Lee as leader, and the first members were Charles and Polly Thomas, William Watkins, Zemira Slaughter, and Abigail Bunce. The society was legally organized August 27, 1832, with these trustees: Abel Lyon, Jacob Miller, Samuel E. and Chester Ellinwood, George W. Mirick,
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Robert Andrews. Thaddeus Collins, Isaac Lamb, and Moses F. Collins. Eron N. Thomas was clerk, and the certificate of incorporation was filed September 13, 1833. February 26, 1836, the church was reorganized with three trustees instead of nine, viz. : Ellis Ellinwood, Joel N. Lee, and George W. Mirick. Thaddeus aud Chauncey Collins donated the site and a cobblestone church was erected in 1835-6 on the site of Mrs. Augusta Allen's house. It cost $1,200, had a high box pulpit and gal- leries on three sides, and was burned April 18, 1859. In 1860-61 the present edifice was erected at a cost of nearly $1, 000; it was dedicated March 3, 1864. It was repaired at a cost of $1,000 and reopened Au- gust 22, 1889. The present pastor is Rev. W. II. Rogers. The society owns a parsonage and has about 100 members.
The First Presbyterian church of Rose Valley was organized at the Closs school house February 17, 1825, by Revs. Francis Pomeroy and Benjamin Stockton, with these members: John and Eunace Wade, Aaron and Polly Shepard, Simeon and Lydia Van Auken, Rufus Wells, and Moses Hickok. Aaron Shepard was chosen deacon and John Wade and Moses Hickok elders. In 1833 their first house of worship was erected and dedicated at the Valley on a site purchased of Hiram Mirick a little east of the Baptist church; about 1862 it was sold to the village for a school house, finally became a mill, and was burned many years since. Another site was bought of William Vanderoef and upon it was built the present handsome brick structure at a cost of about $8,000. It was dedicated in 1865. January 5, 1846, the society adopted the Congregational form of government, but on April 18, 1851, it was received back into the Presbytery. The first clerk was James Van Auken, then Smithfield Beaden, and Elizur Flint from November, 1834, to October, 1882. The society owns a parsonage and has about sixty-five members. The present pastor is Rev. N. B. Knapp.
The Free Methodist church of Rose Valley was organized as early as 1861, when the charge was supplied by Revs. Mr. Burton and J. W. Stacey. In 1862 Rev. William Cooley became pastor, and during his stay their house of worship was erected on the site formerly occupied by the house of Nathan W. Thomas. It is a frame edifice and was dedicated Jannary 8, 1863. The society owns a frame parsonage and has about fifty members. The pastor is Rev. D. C. Stanton, who also has charge of the Free Methodist church in Clyde.
The Methodist Episcopal church of North Rose was organized a few years since as a mission of the M. E. church of Rose Valley. A neat
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frame edifice was built in 1884 at a cost of about $2,400. The pastor is Rev. W. H. Rogers.
A band of worshipers who called themselves " The Neversweats " sprang into existence in the Jeffers settlement a number of years ago. " They met in the Spink school house and talked in unknown tongues." They made several conversions and evoked considerable interest, but discarded all organization, creed, or ceremony. Without these they soon dropped away as quietly as they had come into notice.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF HURON.
Huron was organized as Port Bay from the northwest corner of the old town of Wolcott on the 25th of February, 1826. The name first chosen remained until March 17, 1834, when the present designation was formally adopted. It contains 21,826 acres, and is bounded on the north by Lake Ontario, on the east by Wolcott and Butler, on the south by Rose, and on the west by Sodus.
The town was originally included within the Williamson's patent of the Pultney estate, which has been detailed in the chapter devoted to Wolcott. It lies east of the center of the northern limits of Wayne county, directly north from Clyde, and has more than fifteen miles of lake and bay coast. Dense forests covered its primitive surface, and long fur- nished lucrative employment to the numerous saw mills that dotted the several streams. The largest watercourse is Dusenbury or Mudge Creck, which flows from Rose through the west part of Huron and the village of North Huron into East Bay. This bay also receives the waters of another brook a little west. Other streams are Third and Thomas Creeks, which empty into the head of Sodus Bay, and a branch of Wolcott Creek, flowing into Port Bay.
The surface is undulating and inclines toward the lake. In the west, northeast, and southeast parts of the town are large tracts of lowlands originally of a marshy formation, but by systematic drainage these have largely been brought under cultivation. The soil is mainly a sandy and gravelly loam and unusually fertile; in many places it is admixed
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with considerable clay. East and west through the southern portion of Huron is the famous ridge, which geologists claim formed the shore of Lake Ontario in past ages, and along its summit runs the Wolcott and Port Glasgow road.
The coast formation of the town of Huron is worthy of special men- tion, for its equal does not exist in Wayne county. Bold and precipi- tous, and interesting alike to the student and tourist, it is in place extremely picturesque and contributes not a little to the popularity of the Sodus region as a summer resort. The highest elevation is Chim- ney Bluff, 175 feet above the lake. Bay Bluff is 125 feet high, and several other promontories have nearly an equal eminence. In the northwest corner of the town lies the larger portion of Sodus Bay, which forms one of the finest harbors along the American shores of Lake Ontario, and which is described in the Sodus chapter. This great indentation extends to within one mile of the southern boundary of Huron, and near its head is Le Roy's or Long Island, which contains a summer hotel and four or five cottages. Newark or Little Island, an- other summer resort, is so named from its proportionate size, and is owned mainly by citizens of Newark village. Eagle or Big Island re- mains chiefly in its primitive condition. Charles Point is a series of islands and bars extending from the mainland at the lake toward Sodus Point village, its elevations being named Bute, Isley, and Arran. It was formerly called Farr's Island, and contains a number of handsome summer homes.
The first thoroughfare in Huron was the "old Galen road " from the salt works in Savannah to Glasgow, or " Floating Bridge, " as it wasthen sometimes called. It was opened by the Sah Company prior to 1808. The first highway regularly surveyed was that from Sloop Landing (Port Glasgow) to Wolcott village. The surveyor was Osgood Church, who laid out many of the carly roads and was resident sub-agent of Williamson's patent. He established this road June 8, 1810, at which time Jacob Shook and Peres Bardwell were commissioners of highways. June 29 of that year Mr. Church surveyed the road from Port Bay to Clyde.
Prior to the construction of the Erie Canal the Huron side of Sodus Bay promised a brilliant future, but the great waterway drew the prin- cipal commerce southward and killed whatever prospects the promoters of this region may have entertained. The site of Port Glasgow was intended for a port under the name of Sloop Landing. Here Obadiah
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WAYNE COUNTY.
Adams, of Wolcott, had a large warehouse and a sailing vessel to trans- port his produce to Canada. He bought quite a tract of land, laid it out into village lots, and erected several very good buildings. Jarvis Mudge also built a commodions hotel. April 9, 1819, the Sodus Bay Bridge Company was incorporated to construct a bridge "over Great Sodus Bay at or near the route of the Niagara ridge or State roads in the town of Wolcott." Considerable shipping was carried on, as the place formed the outlet for a large extent of adjacent territory. The opening of the Erie Canal was its death-blow, but long afterward im- mense quantities of lumber were sent thither to distant markets.
April 18, 1837, an act was passed authorizing William Edwards and Harlow Hyde to establish and maintain a ferry over the bay at this point for ten years at the following prices: fifty cents per coach, thirty- one cents for two horses and wagon, eighteen cents for one horse and wagon, twelve and one half cents for man and horse, six cents each for footmen, and ten cents per head for neat cattle.
About 1822 Joseph Fellows and Andrew McNab, agents for the Pultney estate, made an effort to build up the business at Sloop Land- ing, but without avail. They gave it the name of Port Glasgow in honor of the city of Glasgow in Scotland, and building a warehouse, schooners, etc., they took measures to establish a permanent commerce. In 1827 a preliminary survey for a canal from Clyde to Sodus Bay was made, and the event momentarily aroused declining interests. In 1841 the project was revived with Gen. William H. Adams as the chief pro- moter, but clashing influence prevented its consummation. In 1850 the Pennsylvania and Sodas Bay Railroad was chartered with Port Glasgow as the northern terminus. Surveys were made and enthusiasm contin- ued with more or less ardor until 1870, when the fandable plan was per- manently abandoned. And now the town is practically devoid of either ports or railway, although the R. W. & O. Railroad ents off its southeast corner. The nearest stations are Wolcott, North Rose, and Alton, all of which have furnished excellent shipping facilities since the comple- tion of the line in 1873.
The town is principally an agricultural section and produces annually large erops of fruit, grain, peppermint, etc. The primitive wilderness has passed away, like nearly all of the earlier settlers, whose labors, however, are still extant in the form of broad cultivated fields, attract- ive homes, substantial schools and churches, and thriving hamlets, em- bodying all the arts and elements of our best civilization. Their de-
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scendants and successors worthily maintain the wide prestige and sterling characteristics so ably implanted amid the privations and hardships of pioneer life.
The first town meeting convened at the tavern of Josiah Upson near South Huron on April 4, 1826. Norman Sheldon presided and the fol- lowing officers were elected: Supervisor, Norman Sheldon; town clerk; Elisha Benjamin; assessors, Wareham Sheldon, Spencer Chapin, Jed- ediah Wilder; collector, Ira Smith; overseers of the poor, Simeon Bis- sell and Josiah Upson; commissioners of highways, Alanson Jones, John C. Frazier, Simeon Bissell; constables, Ira Smith and Benjamin Parker; commissioners of common schools, Arad Talcott, Spencer Chapin, Wareham Sheldon; inspectors of common schools, Ebenezer Jones, Elisha Benjamin, Lemuel Colbath ; poundmaster, Stephen Carey. The supervisors of the town have been :
Norman Sheldon, 1826-30,
Samuel Gardiner, 1868,
Elisha Benjamin, 1831-32,
Oscar Weed, 1869,
Jedediah Wilder, 1833, Harlow Hyde, 1834-35, Philip Sours, 1836-40,
Samuel Gardiner, 1870, Oscar Weed, 1871-72,
Reuben Sours, 1873-74.
Harlow Hyde, 1841-42,
Dwight B. Flint, 1875-76,
Ebenezer Jones, 1843-44,
William W. Gatchell, 1877,
Jedediah Wilder, 1845-47, Edward W. Bottum, 1848, James T. Wisner, 1849,
Alanson Church, 1878
William W. Gatchell, 1879.
John F. Curtis, 1850, Ralph Sheldon, 1851,
Roswell E. Reed, 1883,
Reuben Sours, 18.2-53,
Oscar Weed, 1884-85,
James T. Wisner, 1854,
Samuel Cosad, 1886-88,
William W. Gatchell, 1889,
John F. Curtis, 1857,
Reuben Sours, 1858,
Elisha Cady, 1859-60, Rufus B. Sours, 1861-67,
Elisha Cady, 1880, Robert A. Catchpole, 1881-82,
Elisha Cady, 1855, Roswell E. Reed, 1856,
Samuel Cosad, 1890 93, HI. Demmon Sheldon, 1891. Samuel Cosad was chairman of the board in 1892 and 1893.
The town officers for 1894 are: HI. Demmon Sheldon, supervisor; E. B. Kellogg, town elerk; Anson S. Wood, George C. Mitchell, Charles B. Kellicutt, and (after January 1, 1895) James W. Seeber, justices of the peace; Darwin Dermond, collector; William Quereau, highway commissioner; A. F. Davenport and Walter W. Darling, overseers of the poor; Frank B. Green, John Carroll, George E. Thomas, Clarence F. Davenport, constables; John Proctor, Adonijah Church, Harvey Brundige, excise commissioners; Abram Davis, game constable.
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WAYNE COUNTY.
The first settler in this town was Capt. William Helms, who came from Fauquier county, Va., and located on the present site of Port Glasgow in 1796. He brought with him about seventy slaves, but soon afterward left them and his farm to the management of his brother, Thomas, and removed to Bath, N. Y. Thomas Helms was highly educated, possessed superior abilities, and had been a congressman from Virginia, but becoming dissipated he had lost nearly all of his inheritance. Infatuated with a poor, uncultured young woman named Lydia Mohaz he lived with her as his wife, and after having two chil- dren they ran away from Virginia and came to his brother's home in this town. This family and their slaves were the sole inhabitants of Huron until about 1807, by which time two more children had been born to them. Their daughter, Celia, born in 1803, was the first white child born in the town. Other settlers came in, and so emphatically did they express their dissatisfaction at the mode of life as it existed on the Helms homestead that Helms and his woman went through the forms of marriage. He was a brutal fellow, and his slaves were most cruelly treated, but the institution existed until his death. He cleared nearly 100 aeres with them and withont the aid of teams, rolling the timber together and burning it. The negroes lived on the place and had their own cabins, and obtaining their freedom they scattered to more congenial elimes.
In November, 1807, Ezra Knapp purchased a farm three-quarters of a mile east of the Helms homestead, upon which he settled with his family of six children. He came from New Marlboro, Mass., with three horses and two wagons. With him came the families of Jarvis Mudge, Nathaniel Hale, John Hyde, and Adonijah Church, the latter of whom located in Wolcott Mr. Mudge settled on the creek that took his name and built there one of the first saw mills in town. Abraham Knapp, a married son of Ezra, moved from Pompey, N. Y., the same year and located on a farm adjoining his father. In April, 1808, Mr. Hale's wife died and was buried on his farm; this was the first white death in Huron, and soon afterward he removed to Wolcott. Prior to this several negroes belonging to Helms had died, and in later years some of their skulls and bones were found while excavating.
Early in 1808 and 1809 other settlers arrived, among them Josiah Upson from Connecticut, Mr. Chapin, a Mr. Knox, and the Sheldons. Roger Sheldon and Elizabeth Marsh, his wife, came from Hartford, Conn., in 1809, and settled about two miles east of Port Glasgow.
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Their family consisted of six sons: Norman, Warcham, George, Grove, Ralsamon, and Ralph, and four daughters. George owned and cleared what is now the Jacob Viele farm. Grove died at sixteen and Ralsamon lived to be nearly 100, dying in Genoa, N. Y. Ralph cleared the Allen Robinson farm and died in Wolcott in 1871. On their way from Hartford the family stopped over night with Judge Johnson in Dutchess county, and Mrs. Johnson gave the children some Virginia pears, the seeds of which were saved and planted near their wilderness home. From them came the famous Sheldon pear, and the original tree is still standing on the homestead. Norman Sheldon was the first supervisor and died in Huron, aged ninety-eight.
The first white man to die in the town was Mr. Chapin. About 1809 Elihu Spencer located at North Huron. Osgood Church, as previously stated, was the sub-agent for Williamson's patent, which included the whole of Huron, and in his old book of records 117 contracts are recorded, from June 16, 1808, to October 15, 1813, after which the business was transacted with the land office at Geneva. The contracts falling within our limits are as follows:
Obadiah Adams, lot 19, 106 acres, at $3.50 per acre, July 1. 1809; Levi Wheeler, lot 45, 113 1-2 acres, August 13, 1809; Roger Sheldon, lot 22, 106 aeres, September 15 - 1809; Wareham Sheldon, lots 24 and 25, 142 1-2 acres, September 26, 1809; James Alexander, lot 411, 70 acres, October 14, 1809; Eliab Abbott, lot 43, 87 acres, at $3.50, July 26, 1810; Zenas Wheeler, lot 44, 100 acres, June 1, 1811; Ira Smith, lot 42, 59 3-4 acres, September 4, 1811; Elihu Spencer, lot 71, 156 1-2 acres, August 9, 1811; John Laraway, lot 313, 50 acres, November 22, 1811; Nathan Parker, lot 98, 111 3-1 acres, December 2, 1811; Sheldon and O. Seymour, lot 70, 100 acres, December 2, 1811; Nathaniel Graves, lot SS, 188 acres, August 17, 1811 ; Stephen Betts, lot 860, 100 acres, April 1, 1811; Lor Doolittle, lot 10, 65 1-2 acres, June 12, 1812; Jarvis Mudge, lot 74, 55 acres, December 80, 1812; William Tindall (colored), lot 291,1 66 acres, May 30, 1813; Ezra Knapp, lot 45, about 30 acres, April 27, 1813; C. Avery and C. Andrews, lots 95 .and 97, 207 acres, June 26, 1813; Simeon Van Auken, lot 126, 35 acres, July 1, 1813; Robert Mason, lots 186 and 106, 215 acres, July 6, 1813; Christopher Martin, lot 114, 128 aeres, July 9, 1813.
The last named lot was the Helms property at Port Glasgow. Mar- tin became a noted hunter and trapper. Prior to 1812 Erastus Wilder, Daniel S. Butrick, Noah Lyman, Luther Wheeler, John Wade, Noah Seymour, Robert M. Palmer, Jason Mudge, and others became settlers, but the war of that period almost checked immigration. On one occa- sion, when a report gained credence that 1,500 hostile Indians were
1 This is known as Negro Point Lot at Port Bay,
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WAYNE COUNTY.
advancing on the settlements with warlike intentions the people all fled to the interior; Joseph Watson, of Clyde, and others drove with a wagon down to the bay to bring away the only remaining family-a widow and her children.
Among subsequent comers were Richard Redfield (the first shoe- maker), John Holloway (an early blacksmith), Ebenezer Jones, Elisha Benjamin, Jedediah Wilder, Simeon Carey, Spencer Chapin, D. Barker, Ira Smith, Lemuel Colbath, Messrs. Ellis and Westcott, Daivd Vought, Levi Wheeler, James Alexander (for several years highway commis- sioner), and Rufus D. Sours (who died in February, 18;5). Horace Demmon was born in Vermont in 1803, came with his parents to this town in May, 1816, and died April 2, 1891. His father commenced making brick for the "City of Sloop Landing." Dr. Zenas Hyde, a son-in-law of the Ezra Knapp previously mentioned, was the town's first settled physician, but he soon removed to Wolcott. A child of his was the second white person born in Huron. John H. Newberry came here in 1827, bought a farm near East Bay, and died October 28, 1878. Daniel Lainb, from Hartford, Conn., settled on what is now the David Lake farm at South Huron prior to 1820, and died here, leaving two sons, William and Lewis. A son of the former is postmaster at Lum- misville. Daniel Whipple located where Aaron Sours now lives in 1836.
Prominent among other settlers may be mentioned Charles E. Reed, son of R. E., elected sheriff of Wayne county, and died in office No- vember 17, 1890; Daniel Chase, blind many years, died at North Hu- ron in November, 1872, aged nearly 100; Simon V. W. Stout, born in Lyons in 1802, sheriff in 1810, died at Port Glasgow; Benjamin Parker, who died in 1874; James M. Cosad, who built the first barn with stone basement in town; Major Farr, who purchased and settled on one of the islands of Charles Point and gave it his name; Benjamin Catchpole, living on the Dr. William N. Lummis estate; and many others noticed further on and in Part II. of this work.
In 1814 the first plat was laid out and set apart for burial purposes near South Huron, and Catherine Alexander, who died in 1815, was the first person regularly buried therein. Prior to this, however, sev- eral bodies had been removed to it from various localities. The first marriage in town was that of Dr. Gardner Wells to Paulina M. Fuller in 1813; the ceremony being performed at the house of Ezra Knapp. Dr. Wells lived in Junius, Seneca county, and was a surgeon in the War of 1812; he obtained leave of absence to consummate his mar-
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riage, after which he rejoined his regiment. Jason Mudge opened the first store a mile and a half northeast from South Huron in 1812. Giles Fitch drove the first stages through the town from Wolcott to Roch- ester about 1820.
In 1858 the town had 12, 221 acres improved land, real estate assessed at $575,999, personal property vahied at $31, 444; 985 male and 896 female inhabitants, 386 dwellings, 384 families, 315 frecholders, 712 horses, 1,091 oxen and calves, 675 cows, 8, 716 sheep, and 1, 438 swine. There were produced then 10,357 bushels winter and 113, 035 bushels spring wheat, 1,010 tons hay, 15,895 bushels potatoes, 20,361 bushels apples, 59, 850 pounds butter, 4, 814 pounds cheese, and 1, 310 yards do- mestie cloths.
In 1890 the population numbered 1,793, or 243 less than in 1880. In 1893 the assessed value of land aggregated $768, 477 (equalized $716, - 170); village and mill property, $35,560; railroads and telegraphs, $18, - 539; personal property. $8,000. Schedule of taxes 1893: Contingent fund, $1.187; town poor, $250; roads and bridges, $500; school tax, $112.03; county tax, $1,703.61; State tax, $938.78; State insane tax, $242.19; dog tax, $97.50. Total tax levy, $5, 827.86; rate per cent., .00701664. The town has two election districts and in 1893 polled 331 votes.
The first school was taught by Paulina M. Fuller (afterward Mrs. Gardner Wells), a stepdaughter of Ezra Knapp, in 1809. Her school house was an old log cabin on the Helms farm formerly occupied by a family of negro slaves. The first regular school building was erected near the Huron post office in 1813, and the first teacher therein was Gardiner Mudge. Minerva Flint, who married Ralph Sheldon, was a very early teacher in the town; she died in 1871, Huron now has eleven school districts with a school house in each, which were taught in 1892-93 by as many teachers and attended by 305 scholars; value of school buildings and sites, $5, 245; publie money received from the State, $1,296.38; raised by local tax, $1,333.81; assessed valuation of the dis- triets, $817, 240.
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