USA > Ohio > Summit County > Twinsburg > Twinsburg, Ohio, 1817-1917, Part I History, Part II Genealogies > Part 1
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I
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Printed to Pagar 16 Birthday Gift. 19/7.
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00827 1790
MOSES AND AARON WILCOX-Twin Brothers
TWINSBURG, OHIO
1817-1917 PART I History PART II Genealogies
PREPARED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE SAMUEL BISSELL MEMORIAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF TWINSBURG
The Champlin Press
TERS
S
Columbus Ohio
TWINSBURG, OHIO MCMXVII
DEDICATION
To those sturdy men and women who left their well- established New England homes to found a new com- munity in the wilderness; who, with strong faith, dauntless courage and untiring industry, founded this township of Twinsburg; to whose wisdom, patience and devotion each succeeding generation is debtor, This book is gratefully dedicated.
0_5'/1
1
PART I
1247287
Centennial History of
Twinsburg, Ohio 1817
1917
An account of the settlement of the township and sub- sequent events during a hundred years, illustrated with portraits of representative citizens and views of noteworthy buildings and natural scenery.
By LENA M. CARTER
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/twinsburgohio18100insamu
CONTENTS OF PART I
-
NATURE'S CONTRIBUTION TO TWINSBURG.
9
THE SETTLEMENT AT MILLSVILLE. 13
THE NEW TOWNSHIP OF TWINSBURG. 18
AN ERA OF PROSPERITY .
28
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
40
SAMUEL BISSELL AND THE TWINSBURG INSTITUTE 44
MUSIC.
66
THE CHURCHES. 75
TWINSBURG IN THE CIVIL WAR 108
THE POSTOFFICE, AND CIVIL STATUS OF TWINSBURG I27
TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION 129
INDUSTRIES
137
PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 144
TWINSBURG'S FIGHT FOR TEMPERANCE 147
SOCIETIES .
I53
A GROUP OF INCIDENTS 162
CEMETERIES 166
DEVELOPMENTS OF RECENT YEARS 168
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
179
CENTENNIAL POEM
186
PREFACE
A T the annual meeting of the Samuel Bissell Memorial Library Association, February 22, 1913, it was de- cided to undertake the publication of A History of Twinsburg, to be issued in connection with the Centennial to be held in 1917. The entire matter was placed in charge of a committee of five which organized with Mr. Chauncey B. Lane as chairman, Miss Eliza P. Reed, secretary, Messrs. R. B. Chamberlin and W. S. Lister, in charge of finances, and Miss Lena M. Carter, historian. Rev. R. T. Cross was chosen genealogist.
It was never expected that the task would be un- attended with difficulties. Many perplexing problems have presented themselves, some of which are as yet unsolved. The willingness of both former and present citizens to assist financially, and also in furnishing necessary data, has been greater than it seemed wise to hope. It has developed that many records, supposedly existent, have disappeared. Consequently some subjects are treated generally rather than in detail, since even the most painstaking investigation cannot supply such a lack in a work involving the occur- rences of a century.
An attempt has been made to meet the desires of the different persons who may read this book. There are not a few who made their homes in Twinsburg many years ago who may desire in these pages to live over the old days, to renew acquaintance with friends long forgotten and to pass on to their posterity an enduring account of the events of years long past. There is this generation, some of whom are descendants of the early settlers, some of later advent here, and others who know of Twinsburg only as the home of their ancestors. To those who know the present town the process by which it has evolved from the past possesses much of interest. And there are those of future generations whose unquestionable right it is to know what of character and
7
PREFACE
endeavor have been incorporated in their inheritance from the century just now gone by.
The life and work of Rev. Samuel Bissell are given rather lengthy treatment, both because of the real worth of the man and his mission, and also because of the renown given the town through his work. Furthermore, as the publication of this book has been assumed by the Samuel Bissell Memorial Library Association, it has seemed fitting that proper recognition should be rendered Rev. Mr. Bissell in these pages.
Another difficulty confronting the committee was the selection of illustrations. The necessarily limited number of persons, buildings and natural scenes here portrayed were selected because it was thought they would merit the in- terest of the living and, also, of future generations. It was deemed wise to insert few pictures of the living. Against his earnest protest the committee voted to insert the picture of the chairman.
Acknowledgment is gladly made of the value to the writer of the published accounts of early life in the town prepared by Mr. Ethan Alling and Mr. Luman Lane. Mr. Samuel A. Lane's History of Summit County has also been very helpful. The opportunity is here taken to express gratitude to all who have contributed material and, in several instances, an entire chapter toward this book. Among contributors not elsewhere named are Mrs. W. C. Prentiss, Mrs. A. J. Brown, Mrs. E. B. Crouse, A. W. Elliott and Dr. R. B. Chamberlin. In addition to these are the many who have freely given valuable information, often, after much exacting research. Numberless times the many years and the active memory of Mr. Oscar A. Nichols, Twinsburg's third oldest man, have been proven of high value.
Undoubtedly many inaccuracies will be discovered notwithstanding the fact that many items have been omitted because of lack of reasonable verification. No effort has been made, nor needed to be made, to give more praise to Twinsburg's citizens than is their just due. The writer entertains the feeling that if error has been made it has been in withholding rather than adding expressions of com- mendation.
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PREFACE
If, after having read this book, the reader shall have a warmer feeling of gratitude toward the pioneers and their successors, if he shall possess a better understanding of the business of making a thriving, respectable, law-abiding and progressive community, if he shall feel a keener sense of his responsibility as a citizen, the committee charged with the preparation of this book will feel its effort and labor have not been in vain.
TINKER'S CREEK AT OLD MILLS
TINKER'S CREEK, OLD SWIMMING HOLE
THE FALLS AT OLD MILLS
WATER WORKS RESERVOIR
WHERE BIG STONES WERE QUARRIED
RICHARDSON GROVE
LEDGES AND CAVE NEAR RESERVOIR
LEACH'S FALLS, IN WINTER
NATURE'S CONTRIBUTION TO TWINSBURG
WALTER B. LISTER
S URROUNDED on all sides by hills, Twinsburg nestles comfortably in the little valley made by Tinker's creek. From above, it presents a pretty panorama of patches of green, gold, and dark brown, dotted with the black and white of houses and the red of barns, cut in all directions by the grayish-brown of the roads, while throughout the whole goes a winding path of willow-green along the serpentine course of the Tinker's. Here and there are tracts of woodland, in winter bleak and bare save for an occasional pine, in spring the brightest of greens, and turning to an artistic confusion of all colors under the witchery of fall.
That is the way it now appears. A hundred years ago the picture was changed. In place of red barns and modern houses were a few log cabins. The church-spires were not there to pierce the sky. Where now are pastures and fields of corn and grain, the forest was unbroken. Where now automobiles speed along brick pavement, a little trail wandered in and out among the trees.
Wild animals of all sorts were in abundance. The best authority that we have is Luman Lane, whose sketches give a good idea of the natural features of those early days. According to him the deer were so plentiful that they usually saw a number every day that they traveled in the woods. In the fall they were killed with some difficulty but in winter he says it was no uncommon thing for a hunter to bring down three or four in one day. Bears were rather common and used to kill the settlers' hogs in the woods. Wolves were frequently heard and their tracks often seen near houses. They caused a great deal of trouble by killing sheep. Luman Lane says in one place, "One night, my sheep not being safely shut up, I heard them howl as if they were rejoicing with full bellies. In the morning, on going to look at my sheep, found they had taken only four. This was not the
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TWINSBURG HISTORY
only time they killed my sheep." Turkeys were quite num- erous and their calls could be heard in all directions upon a still morning. A hunter would select one, go as near as possible, and then imitate the call of the hen turkey, the tom-turkey would usually come near enough to shoot. Hedgehogs were common. The dogs would bite them and get their mouths full of quills which had to be im- mediately drawn out. There were some wildcats but they stayed in the deep woods and as they did no damage little attention was paid to them. Rattlesnakes were plentiful. A large yellow spotted snake which some- times measured eight or nine inches in circumference existed upon the high land and a small dark-colored" massa-sauga" upon the low land. There were no crows but great numbers of the larger ravens. We are told that the owls used to make a "hideous noise" in the night. The passenger pigeons were exceedingly abundant here. Henry Parmelee tells about their vast numbers in 1835. They would fly from the Aurora swamp, where they stayed at night, to the Northfield swamp, where they fed. Their flight so darkened the sky that chickens started for their roost. The flock was several miles wide and made such a roaring noise that one could not hear conversation ten feet away. The raccoons and black and grey squirrels destroyed considerable corn. Luman Lane says that he once saw fifty squirrels in five minutes. All of these animals were quite unafraid of man. Sometimes the felling of a tree would be answered by the howl of wolves and a deer would occasionally be browsing upon the same tree upon which a settler was chopping.
Times have changed. Such conditions no longer exist. With the clearing away of the woodland many animals, before common, disappeared. Wolves, bear, deer, and rat- tlesnakes are things of the past. Foxes, which Luman Lane speaks of carelessly, as if they were too common to mention, are now rare. No one has seen a passenger pigeon for twenty years. Crows have replaced the ravens and the only turkeys we now have are domesticated.
Yet nature's contributions to Twinsburg have not ceased. In fact, nowhere are her beauties better displayed. In birds, flowers, and beautiful landscape she is rich beyond all comparison. Imagine, if you can, a better field for a
II
NATURE'S CONTRIBUTION TO TWINSBURG
nature student than the Aurora Pond district. The ledges of rock at one side, the open marshy country surrounding, and the dense tamarack bog, with a few pines and spruces scattered here and there, and with ferns three or four feet high rising upon the trunks of dead trees crossing pools of stagnant water, form a naturalist's paradise. In winter the place is rather deserted save for an occasional grouse or quail and the hawks which slip silently through the bare tamaracks on the watch for prey. If it were not for the chickadees, nuthatches, and small woodpeckers the stillness would be oppressive. In the spring when the tamaracks again show their little bundles of green needles many migratory birds make it their temporary home. Tiny wood warblers, with plumage containing all colors of the rainbow, inhabit the treetops, visible only to keen eyes and a field glass. Out on the pond the ducks can be seen, now flying overhead from one woods to another, and now settling for a moment upon the surface of the water. About a half dozen species of sparrows haunt the open fields and the birds are innumerable in the thickets. Just to provide a note of discord, a flock of blackbirds can generally be heard. In early summer the vegetation in the swamp becomes very dense and provides excellent cover for the great number of ovenbirds, which are often heard but seldom seen. In late summer swarms of insects take possession and remain until fall.
Bird lovers will find some other places nearly as fruitful for observation as the Pond. A large woods crossing the Dell District road is full of life and upon an early spring morning Bissell's woods upon the Bedford road is teeming with all kinds of birds. Anyone who is deeply interested in this subject soon learns to know the local habits of the birds; that in a certain grove he is likely to find woodpeckers, in a certain thicket, thrushes, and so on. The writer has himself studied over sixty-five different species of birds in Twinsburg township and a more careful study might show over one hundred and fifty species present.
The ornithologist is by no means the only one who finds Twinsburg a profitable field for investigation. While a review of the local flora would be too lengthy to permit of space here, the possibilities are unlimited for original in-
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TWINSBURG HISTORY
vestigation along this line. Such places as the marshy ground near Aurora Pond present immense numbers of plants, both marine and terrestrial. A careful study of the grasses alone there would take many months. The chance for important finds of rare or new species is great. Several years ago some plants of the pink lady's slipper, a very rare orchid, were found there. And even the ordinary "posies" which we gather on a walk through the woods are of suffi- cient number and variety to interest, surprise, and confuse one.
Rock formations of many kinds exist here. The three series of ledges present an interesting field and the under- lying strata of glacier-scratched rock form landmarks of which every resident has reason to be proud.
Such a survey shows that nature, while changing greatly during a century, has not done so for the worse. She re- mains today as wonderful and as sublime in her manifesta- tions as in the days of Luman Lane. Throughout the course of a hundred years an invisible force has been selecting the strongest and the fittest of all forms of life, that only those might survive. The natural features which we have now in Twinsburg are not what have been left by the devastating hand of man, but instead the finest of all that have ever existed here. The trees, the flowers, and the birds which we behold are those which have been tested in the laboratories of the outdoors and found to be the best. So it is always with nature; she never stands still, never retrogrades, but ever progresses onward by a process of evolution which moves steadily toward the ideal.
We may love nature and her forms today as much as or more than the naturalists did ten decades ago. The pas- senger pigeon has gone but we bestow our affections upon the cardinal, a newcomer, and need feel no whit loser for the change. The call of the wild is stronger and more irresistible than ever. And in the glorious springtime,
"When beechen buds begin to swell
And woods the bluebird's warble know,"
he who holds close kinship with nature is drawn by an unseen longing to her bountiful domains, the woods and fields, to sit at her feet and hearken to her wisdom.
. . . . .
Clevela
ETHAN ALLING
-
.
THE EARLY SETTLEMENT AT MILLSVILLE
those who know the natural advantages of Twinsburg it may seem strange that it was the last township in what is now Summit County to be settled. However, the settlements in the Con necticut Western Reserve were largely a matter of chance, as departures from the established lines of travel were attended with great hazards. Naturally the water courses and old Indian trails determined most of the earlier settlements. The nearest waterway of any consequence was several miles west of Twinsburg, and the old trails led farther north or south. This fact, and a certain clannishness prevalent in newly settled regions, probably, in large measure, account for the fact that not till 1817 did the hills and valleys we love resound with the ring of the home- steader's ax.
Back in Connecticut what we call Twinsburg was simply "Township Five in the Tenth Range" to the Connecticut Land Company, and as such was sold to several parties. Moses and Aaron Wilcox acquired the northern and north- eastern portion, Henry Champion the western and north- western part and Mills and Hoadley the southeastern part.
The most unusual feature in the early history of the town is the fact that the first settlement was made by a boy of only sixteen years, Ethan Alling. Fortunately we have available his own account of life in those early days. In 1860 he wrote as follows:
"I was born in Milford, (now Orange) Conn., five miles west of the city of New Haven, the 13th day of August, 1800. My father, Lewis Alling, was bred a farmer, but at my earliest recollection, was selling goods in New Haven, where he lent his name freely and suffered loss, as he afterwards - told me. After his failure in the above business he took heavy jobs, building turnpike roads, etc., at the same time working a small stony farm and keeping a country tavern on the Derby Turnpike four miles west of New Haven. He was an industrious saving man but unfortunate in pecuniary matters. My mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth
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TWINSBURG HISTORY
Clark, died in New Haven, July 15, 1806, leaving two chil- dren, myself and brother Lewis, who was then about fifteen months old. From that time until my father re-married in 1809 (to Nancy Wheeler of Derby, Conn., who came and died with him in Ohio), I lived or stayed with my grand- father, uncles, etc., four miles from New Haven, and fared hard, not being much cared for by anybody. There was a school kept six months in the year about a mile from where I lived to which I was sent with my little basket containing my dinner and Webster's Easy Lesson Spelling Book, with instructions that if I passed any person older than myself to take off my hat and make a bow, rain or shine. This instruction was given at both ends of the road and its ob- servance strictly required of all school children and youth in that day.
"In 1812 I had a severe sickness that made a cripple of me for more than a year and put an end to my school opportunities (which will account for my bad spelling and worse grammar), with the exception of studying the Sur- veyor's Art a few months in the fall of 1816. In the spring of 1814 my father got a situation for me in Loomis and Johnson's grocery store in New Haven, by paying my board the first year, where I stayed until the company failed in 1816. Young men now expect a large salary the first year and often get more than they can earn.
"In the winter of 1816-17 my father sold his farm and other property and took notes which he traded off (guar- anteeing payment) to the amount of five thousand dollars to Mills and Hoadley for 1000 acres of land in Tract 3, Town- ship No. 5, Range 10, Connecticut Western Reserve, which township they, after the above trade was made, called MILLSVILLE. A part of the notes were never paid, con- sequently we had but 400 acres of the land.
"On the 3rd day of March, 1817, I started for Ohio with three hired men, Zeri Alling, Rodolphus (called Tom) Wolcott and Lex Johnson. We had a muddy road all the way except one day's travel on the ice from Buffalo to Dunkirk, and arrived at Zina Post's in Hudson on the 3Ist day of March. Stayed over night and the next morning went to Esquire Gideon Mills with a letter of introduction from Isaac Mills, one of the firm from which we bought the land.
15
EARLY SETTLEMENT AT MILLSVILLE
We took an early dinner with Esquire Mills and he started with us for the north town, as he called it, not having heard of its being named Millsville. From Wm. Chamberlin's we followed a line of marked trees, called Chagrin road until we came to the line of Tract No. 2 (afterwards known as the Wilcox tract), which Esquire Mills said was the center of the town. There we sat down under a beech site tree, which spot is now the exact S. E. corner of the Public Square. The lay of the land was uneven, a bad slough a few rods south of where we stopped, and nothing looked inviting to locate a village upon. We then took a southeasterly course up the creek to the falls (since called the Mills), where we found some sticks of hewed timber which had been drawn by the people of Hudson, and I believe Aurora, to build a sawmill. They had also put up a log cabin with one roof which we afterwards occupied. Thence we passed over the hill known now as the Hawkins' farm and returned to Esquire Mills'. Thus ended my first day in this town. We stayed two weeks with Esquire Mills and cleared off a piece of his old slashing to plant with corn upon shares, and in the meantime selected the hill above named to commence operations upon. Tract No. 3 had not yet been surveyed into lots but was surveyed that season by Samuel S. Baldwin, Esq., of Newburg, O. The question having often been asked why we preferred that spot to the center I will here give the reasons. First, there we found excellent plow and grass land, water, stone, timber, sugar trees, etc. Second, the water-power at the falls was the best for miles around, probably three times the water there then that there is now, and we believed that business would center there as it had centered at Middlebury and other places regardless of the centers; and I still think there would have been a smart village built up had not the owners, Mills and Hoadley, attempted a foolish speculation by laying out a village and asking from fifty to two hundred dollars apiece for lots con- taining less than one half an acre of land, thus shutting out mechanics, etc.
"On the 15th day of April we took bed and board in the shanty at the Falls. Our stock of provisions was a barrel of poor pork that I paid Capt. Oviatt twenty-five dollars for, one bbl. of flour, eight dollars, ten bushels of potatoes, five
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TWINSBURG HISTORY
dollars, and one gallon of whiskey, $1.50. The latter being in those days, indispensable in the best of families had to soon be replenished. Our entire cooking utensils and furniture consisted of a bake kettle without a bail, two tin bake pans, one case knife, one iron spoon, and a board, two foot by six, that was got for a door to the shanty. Each one had a jack knife and provided himself with a sharp stick fork and a clean chip plate, every meal. With these I cooked and kept house for a family of from four to six and enter- tained lots of company. Ours being the only hotel in the place we had many hungry visitors and enjoyed life first rate.
"About the 20th of May Elisha Loomis and Lester Davis arrived from New Haven and stopped with us a part of the time; on the 3Ist of May Frederick Stanley arrived and on the Ist of July my brother Lewis, Gideon Thompson and Zenas Alling arrived with a drove of 104 Merino sheep, having driven them from Derby, Conn., to Hudson, O., 660 miles, in thirty days. On the 7th of July my father and mother, sister Elizabeth, then seven years old, Irena Thomas, afterwards wife of Luman Lane, Amos Cook Taylor, father of Timothy Taylor, now at Macedonia, and Wilson Whitticus, the colored boy (called Tone), arrived-making in all fifteen souls from our neighborhood in Conn. that had arrived to that date, July 7th, 1817. Two of these, however, Johnson and Davis, had returned to Connecticut.
"About the first of June we raised a log house; early the next spring (1818) we built a frame barn and in the fall of that year raised and partly finished a frame house. These were the three first buildings of their kind in the township. The sawmill was erected in 1817, the gristmill in 1818. Joel N. Thompson had a distillery in operation in 1821 at the spring where O. Appleby now lives.
"The average number of our family the first year was 14, mostly men; all lived and got along comfortably in a log house which had but two rooms, one below and one above, poorly chinked and not mudded at all; the fireplace without jambs calculated for wood 6 feet long. All were healthy and could eat three meals a day without inconvenience. Pro- visions were dear, except venison. In the fall of 1817 we paid for eight poorly fatted hogs, eight dollars a hundred. The meat of a good sized deer cost only from fifty cents to a
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EARLY SETTLEMENT AT MILLSVILLE
dollar, or less than one cent a pound. Consequently we devoured many of these noble animals. Flour was eight dollars a barrel, salt ten dollars. Goods were still higher, 34 cotton shirting was 50 cts. a yd., calico 75 cts., etc. With the best economy we could use our money was all gone before we could raise anything to sell and when that good time came (1819) money was scarce, produce was plenty and very low, wheat being fifty cents in trade, with other grain and meat in proportion. In the fall of that year I lent Oliver Brown of Hudson eight dollars in money for a few days. When I called for it he said he would deliver me twenty-four bushels of the best white seed wheat for the debt, and did so. Every prudent man stopped making contracts to pay money. Notes were given payable at a time and place, in cattle, grain, etc., at the market price, which was not under- stood to mean exactly what the article would fetch in money but less than the trade price. The price of chopping the timber on an acre of land, ready for logging was six dollars; chopping, clearing and fencing, twenty dollars. At which price Gideon Thompson, John L. Thompson and Nathaniel Palmer (known as the Twinsburgh Land Clearing Company) chopped, cleared, and fenced some eighty acres in 1819-20."
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