USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 16
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village were: Mayor, Frank Wisnieski ; clerk, Ed Tryon ; treasurer, George Rose; councilmen, Charles Sizler, Grant Cash, Joseph Blessing, Frank R. Castle, Edward Lembecker and Herman Vunderink. At this first election Mr. Tryon was elected clerk but soon after resigned and Arthur J. Goudy was chosen. On Mr. Goudy was devolved the task of getting up the original records and establishing a system of accounts. How well he per- formed his task may be shown by the report of the state examiner, who pronounced his books the best he had examined. Mr. Goudy served nearly four years, completing the first term and being elected for two years more. He is now a deputy in the office of the Probate Court of the county. The first mayor was succeeded by William Cash and he by Alvin A. Smith, the present mayor. The other officers of the village are: Clerk, E. F. Keller ; treasurer, George Rose ; marshal, Jacob Lambacher ; assessor, H. J. Faudel; councilmen, Joe Blessing, Peter Selig, Grant Cash, H. Vunderink and William Vunderink. F. X Esculine was elected and served until his death a short time ago. H. J. Faudel, whom we have mentioned as assessor, entered the district school with a very slight command of the English language and we believe his schooling was confined largely to the "Little Red School House." He has lived in Independence from a boy. In 1893 he published a book entitled "Horse Sense," which has gone through several editions. Although Mr. Faudel makes no claim to pro- fessional knowledge, his book has been favorably commented upon by men of the medical profession in high standing. He calls his book "A school of practical science upon the perplexing problems of today, per- taining to life and health." The writer remembers Faudel as a pupil in his first school, in which he was endeavoring to teach "the young idea how to shoot." He could hardly make himself understood in English, but was keen for knowledge and industrious to a most astonishing degree. We quote a few passages from his book: "The term 'expert' is too easily won and too lightly worn to be regarded with respect." "You can remove a mountain if you take a little at a time, but you cannot remove it by hitching to it to remove it all at once." "Money serves but to bring the things we need. It is supposed to buy health, but only serves as the agent. But a life devoted to the teachings of Nature will buy more than all the coins of the realm."
Of the fraternal organizations of Independence the Grand Army Post should be mentioned first. Formed about 1870, it continued in existence for many years as a part of that great but now greatly diminished organiza- tion. Unlike many, its ranks cannot be replenished, as Time thins out its numbers. Only those who served in the army of the Union during the Civil war are eligible to membership. Among those active in Independence Post have been Thomas Goudy, C. H. Bushnell, George Lambacher, Ed Patton, C. J. Green, Francis Bramley and Hugh Goudy. There was the Good Templars Lodge, whose activities continued nearly as long. The lodge of Foresters, the Maccabees, the Ladies of the Maccabees and the Catholic Beneficial Association are still actively operating as factors in the township and village life.
An incident of historic interest which belongs to the chapter on Independence and has to do with the progress of events and particularly to a step forward in the practice of medicine in the county, is worthy of note here. William Goudy, a Scotch-Irish immigrant, one of the early arrivals in the township, who came from the north of Ireland, father of Thomas and Hugh Goudy and grandfather of Arthur J. Goudy, brought with him from the old country a stomach pump, which he sold to Doctor Streator, then the leading practitioner in Cleveland. This was the first one sold in Cleveland and the first one to be used in medical practice in the county.
CHAPTER X ROYALTON
We have referred to the passing of the township, that political sub- division of the county, lowest in the scale of authority, yet closest to the people. Adapted to the needs of a sparsely populated people in a limited area, fitting in with the neighborly fraternity that characterized the pioneers, it has stood until broken into by the village and city govern- ments. These changes have come as the natural requirement of increased population, wealth and industries, when, as Goldsmith expresses it : 'Trade's unfeeling train usurp the land." And he adds, "And thou, sweet poetry ! thou loveliest maid, still first to fly." There is a glamor of the romantic and the poetic that clings to these first organizations formed in the woods of the Western wilderness, while yet the trail of the Indian is visible and the mounds of their predecessors, the Eries, or Mound Builders, are unexplored. Royalton and Strongsville are the only townships of Cuyahoga County whose territory and political entity remain the same as when first formed. A description of Cleveland, England, the north Riding of York, from a history published in 1808, would seem to describe quite accurately these early township organizations. From Cleveland, England, came the ancestors of Moses Cleveland and also a number of the early settlers of Royalton, who did not come here direct, but stopped for some time in the East. We quote from the history of Cleveland, England :
"Farmers form a very respectable class of society and deservedly rank high among their fellows in any part of England. They are generally sober, industrious and orderly; most of the younger part of them have enjoyed a proper education and give a suitable one to their children, who, of both sexes, are brought up in habits of industry and economy. Fortu- nately this country is purely agricultural and the inhabitants, solely culti- vators of the earth, are endowed with the virtues of their profession un- contaminated by the neighborhood or vices of manufactures. Justice is impartially administered and thereby the good order and comfort of individuals and the general happiness and prosperity of the country are invariably consulted and promoted."
The Arcadian atmosphere of Royalton must have been conducive to long life, for an inscription on the tombstone of John Shepherd, standing in the cemetery at the Center, who died in 1847, shows his age to have been one hundred and eighteen years, nine months and eighteen days. And Mrs. Eleanor Jacox, one of the early settlers of Royalton, who died there in 1888, was lacking a few days of ninety-nine years of age at the time of her death. She was the mother of eleven children and had eighteen grandchildren, twenty-four great-grandchildren and two great-great-grand- children when she died.
This township number 5 in range 13 is bounded on the north by Parma, east by Brecksville, south by Medina County and west by Strongsville. There are no streams of size in the township, hence little mill power. A branch of the Cuyahoga, the Chippewa Creek, rises in the township, and a branch of the Rocky River flows through one corner. The first settle-
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ment was made by a Mr. Clark in the southeast part in 1811. This was near the home of Seth Paine, the first settler in Brecksville, who had authority as a land agent to sell, and it is probable he bought from him. Clark died and in 1816 his widow married Lewis Carter, who took up his residence on the Clark farm. Lorenzo Carter, a son of Lewis, was the first white male child born in the township. He died in 1860. Henry A. Carter, another son, was born on this farm originally taken up by Melzer Clark, in March, 1819. Another son named Louis died in infancy. Almira Paine or Payne (the name is spelled either way), who married Melzer Clark, and with her husband had the distinction of being the first settlers, after bearing him three children as we have named, lost her second hus- band, who died when Henry A. Carter was but five years of age. . She afterwards married Henry L. Bangs and they had several children.
LORENZO CARTER
Henry A. Carter married in 1844 Martha S. Frost and they had two children, Bertha E. Carter and Elwin L. Carter. Bertha married Erwin Paine, a descendant of the first settler of Brecksville, Seth Paine. Thus the lines of first settlers crossed. Henry A. Carter lived the later years of his life on the old farm and was succeeded at his death by his son Elwin L., who was married in 1879 to Amanda Snow of Brecksville, and they have resided on the old farm, the original settlement. By an unfor- tunate accident in the woods Mr. Carter was injured and died in 1923. He is survived by four children, all highly. esteemed and successful, fit representatives of those who began, in toil, the building of a new civilization.
On June 2, 1816, the second settlement was made, five years after Melzer Clark and wife located. Robert Engle and family and with him his father-in-law, John Shepherd, came from New York State and located on a farm half a mile from the Center. We have referred to Mr. Shepherd and the great age to which he lived. Mr. Shepherd had served as an attendant to a French officer under Braddock in his unfortunate Indian campaign and was present at the memorable defeat, was familiar with the historic interview when Washington, who knew of the dangers of Indian warfare, then a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Braddock, at-
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tempted to advise that gentleman. "High time," said Braddock, "high time when a young stripling can teach a British officer how to fight." Robert Engle was quite famous as a hunter and trapper and when he died his daughter married Simpson Enos, or the marriage may have been before his death, but the couple remained on the farm. Up to the time when this farm was occupied, for five years, the Clark family were the only white people in the township. In 1816 Thomas and Henry Francis brothers, settled on adjoining farms half a mile north of the Center. Both spent their lives on their farms. Rhoda Francis, a daughter of one, was the first white child born in the township. In December of the same year, 1816, John Coates came with his family from Geneseo, New York, and settled on section 21. He built a house of round logs and the next year replaced it with a double log house. He was familiarly known as "Uncle Jackie Coates." He bought 3,500 acres of land, known as the Coates tract, and the house was located near what is now called Walling's Corners. The double log house was built by Boaz Granger, who took his pay in land. It was the first house in the township to have a cellar and was regarded as an aristocratic mansion. It was located on a high ridge overlooking a large area of the new purchase. Jane Elliott Snow in a history published in 1901 gives this interesting sketch of this Royalton settler of 1816: "John Coates was born in Yorkshire, England, and in early manhood was known as a sportsman. He kept his pack of hounds and was a Nimrod of the true English type. He owned an interest in a valuable trotting horse, and at one of the races bet all that he had on the fleetness of his horse. Fortunately for his family he won. A member of the family says he won a fortune of many pounds. At a later period in his life his tastes changed and his interest in the fast horse was ex- changed for the nucleus of a library. The possession of books inspired him with a desire to learn their contents, and soon the careless sportsman was changed to the thoughtful student. He became thoroughly well read and in his later years was noted as a man of scholarly tastes and acquire- ments. For Shakespeare he had an excessive fondness, and his volumes of that work, still preserved, bear marks of careful reading. On coming to this country he brought many of his works with him, and here in the wilderness of Ohio they were looked upon as a library of no little value. Oscar O'Brien, also a pioneer, said he often visited the Coates' home, and to his boyish fancy that little library equaled in magnitude the famous Alexandrian library of ancient renown. Living as he did to witness the long struggle between England and her American colonies, his heart went out in sympathy for the scourged, bleeding, yet triumphant sons and daughters of liberty across the sea. He was a great admirer of Washing- ton and it is related of him that at a dinner party he proposed a toast to that hero, and so offended some of his friends that he was to a certain extent socially ostracised. He then declared that he would not live in a country where he could not honor so good a man as George Washington. With his wife and family of two sons and one daughter, the eldest son John coming with wife and two children, he sailed for America in 1803. Thirteen years later, there being then four heads of families, all came to Royalton, Ohio. Environment changed and fashions changed, but 'mine host' in the double log house continued to wear the short breeches and shoe buckles that were the style in his youth."
"Uncle Jackie" was sixty-seven years old when he came to his tract of wild land in Royalton, past the age when he would be expected to engage actively in the clearing of the wilderness. He had sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, who became typical pioneers. His interest it would seem was tinged with sentiment. The topography of the Cuya-
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hoga Valley is strikingly similar to that of the Leven in Cleveland, Eng- land. Call Lake Erie the North Sea, take away the great city which has arisen since he came, and you have Cleveland, England. The writer in 1910 visited Cleveland, England, to verify the striking similarity in soil and topography of the two Clevelands. In coming to this locality John Coates located his purchase and built his home where he could survey a section very like his beloved Cleveland, England, but in a country whose government accorded with his democratic opinions. He died at the age of eighty-one. A long line of descendants have been farmers in Royalton. Catherine (Coates) Teachout, daughter of John Coates 2d, was the second white female child born in the township.
In 1817 Jonathan Bunker came from New York. He had traded fifty acres of land near Palmyra, New York, for 150 acres in Royalton. Bunker belonged to that historic family that gave its name to Bunker Hill. Two of his brothers fought in the battle on Breed's Hill, nearby, June 17, 1775, one being killed and the other badly wounded. Ephraim Moody, a neighbor, accompanied Bunker to the West. They came in a sleigh drawn by a pair of horses. It must have been a well balanced trip for each one owned a horse. Some neighborly deal must have been consummated, however, for Moody stopped before reaching Royalton and Bunker com- pleted the trip alone. He reached the new farm in the morning and by night had a shanty built. For eight months he worked and when his family came they found a comfortable log house, a clearing, and crops well advanced. In all this intervening time Bunker had worked in soli- tude, often disturbed by wild beasts. Like others he hunted and trapped for recreation and profit. He was an expert rope maker and for some time in his early residence in Royalton furnished Cleveland with about all the white rope used there. For its manufacture he used flax raised on his own farm and hemp bought of Mr. Weddell in Cleveland. He started the first nursery in Royalton and the orchards that were planted over the town were largely from his stock. In the year previous came Chauncey A. Stewart, John Ferris, Solomon and Elias Keys. Boaz Granger, already mentioned, came in 1817. He was a neighbor of Bunker in New York and it seems likely that he brought Bunker's family with him, as he boarded at Bunker's for some time after arriving. He bought land of John Coates on section 11, and in part payment built the double log house referred to and later built for him a frame building for a barn, which was the first frame building in Royalton. In this year of 1817 there were a number of new arrivals. Samuel Stewart, a surveyor, who located on the State road, and was agent for Gedeon Granger for his Royalton land, Eliphalet Tousley, David Sprague, Francis Howe, Abial Cushman, Warren P. Austin, John Smith, Israel Sawyer, David Hier, Knight Sprague, Benjamin Boyer, Mr. Claflin and Mr. Hayes came that year. Samuel Stewart voted at the first election in 1818 and was the first clerk of the township. Was justice of the peace with Lewis Carter in 1819. Tousley settled in the southwest part of the township where his son James had made a clearing. James went back to school in New York and later returned to Royalton. The father resided in Royalton until his death. James removed to Brooklyn, where he died in 1879. David and Knight Sprague, brothers, came from Royalton, Vermont. Knight Sprague was blind, having lost his sight while working in a blacksmith shop in Vermont. He was astonishingly energetic and seemed to make up for his loss of sight by energy and some natural instinct. He was thought by his neighbors to locate objects as well as those who could see. An old record of the township recites the fact that in 1821 Mr. Sprague was elected fence viewer. How successful a blind man could be in that
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position we leave to the imagination, but it is a fact that he built the first town hall owned by Royalton. His activity and sagacity must have been unusual. It is related of him that at the organization of the township he succeeded in having it named Royalton, after his native town, Royalton, Vermont. He stated afterwards that it cost him a gallon of whiskey to get the designation. Just how the payment was made we also leave to the imagination. He died on the farm where he first lived. His brother David removed to Middleburgh. John Smith came from Vermont and was killed by a falling tree in 1823. His farm was located on section 7. Of the Hier brothers, who came in 1817 and located near the Strongsville line, John Hier died in Hinckley and David at Bennett's Corners.
In 1818 there were new additions to the Royalton colony. Among them, Henry Hudson, a doctor, farmer and Baptist preacher; James Baird, Asa and Samuel Norton, Kersina and John Watkins, Smith Ingalls and O. C. Gordon. Mr. Baird was one of Jonathan Bunker's neighbors in New York, and what should be more appropriate than that he should locate next to Bunker here, which he did. To make the neigh- borly bond more close he married Bunker's oldest daughter. They moved away in 1827. Asa Norton bought land of John Coates and paid for it in days' work. The only time he had to devote to his own land, until it was paid for, was nights and Sundays. Samuel Norton earned his way as a teamster between Cleveland and Medina and then took up a farm on section 11. Both Nortons lived out their lives in the town they had helped to found. Smith Ingalls settled for life on a farm next to David Sprague's. He had the distinction of being the first postmaster of Royal- ton. The first store was opened at the Center by Royal Taylor in a ten by twelve log house about 1827. Later he moved to Brooklyn and his brother Benjamin took the store and in addition to his duties in connection therewith practiced medicine. Located near the Center at this time were William and James Tousley, Kersina and John Watkins and a Mr. Bost- wick. Meanwhile the clearings grew larger, grain ripened in the fields, the sickle and the flail were in capable hands, the orchards were bearing, some propagated from the nursery of Jonathan Bunker, and some grown in part from seed brought with care by the settlers from the East. The flocks and herds had grown. Gardens flourished in the new soil and flowers were about the homes of the pioneers.
In the log house days wrestling and other feats of strength came in as recreation and amusement for the hard-working pioneers. A man's ability to lift and wrestle beyond his fellows was a distinction that gave him prominence. Scuffling in a good natured way was one of the off duty recreations. Mrs. Snow gave me this Royalton incident illustrative of the ministering hand of woman in certain emergencies. At the Annis home, a log house, two or three sons and the hired man slept in the loft. In a scuffle before retiring one man's trousers were thrown into the fire and were burned. As a result of this accident, the wardrobes of those days not being so complete as in later years, the owner of the lost trousers stayed in bed all day while Mrs. Annis made him a pair out of an old military cloak. The days of the sewing machine had not arrived.
In 1828 York Street was laid out and on it Mr. Briggs, William Ferris, William Gibson, John Marcellus, Page Claflin, John Tompkins, James Bunker and George Abrams built houses. In the west part of the town- ship Samuel Gibson built a sawmill and afterwards Thomas and James Goss built another. These were steam sawmills, there being, as we have said, little water power, but the abundance of timber made them profitable. In the southeast part of the township, in 1830, Harvey Edgerton built a steam sawmill and here located Sardis and Harvey Edgerton, Barlow
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Brown, Mr. Akins, John Edgerton, Lewis Miller and Otis Billings. The first marriage in the township was that of Asa Norton to Lovey Bunker. The knot was tied by Squire J. B. Stewart, and this was that officer's maiden effort in that line. He, no doubt, became hardened to the ordeal with a larger experience, but the justice of the peace in Royalton who held the record as the marrying justice was Squire Edwin Wilcox, whose record exceeded all others. He married for himself Jane, a daughter of John Coates II.
There was no gristmill in Royalton in the early days and the nearest was Vaughn's log gristmill, the site now included in the boundaries of Berea. Vaughn was an enterprising fellow, and, as the way led through a dense forest, he would meet his customers half way. Freeman Bunker used to relate how he went to mill with three bushels of corn on horse- back and how the wolves had gathered around him at the tryst and how they would scatter as he hallooed for Vaughn. He said bear and deer were plentiful and wild turkeys too common to notice. There was no frame dwelling in the township until 1827. This was built by Jonathan Bunker. In 1821 was held the first Fourth of July celebration. There are no minutes as to the speakers but we will assume that the Declaration of Independence was read and listened to with interest. The first tavern was kept at the Center by Francis Howe. It is claimed by some that the first tavern kept in the township was one operated by Charles Coates. This was in the north part of the township and on the site for so many years occupied by the Asper House. Across from the hotel was the Sherwood home. Here Judge W. E. Sherwood, familiarly known as Ned Sherwood, was born and spent his boyhood. He was a rare soul. After serving in various public positions in Cleveland he was in 1889 elected to the Common Pleas bench and served but a short time when death called. The writer remembers him when he began his work upon the bench and until his death was in close relationship. In his presence the social thermometer always went up. He had a personality most charming, a rare gift of expression, and as a judge was frank, knightly and fair. Gallant, gifted, brilliant Ned Sherwood! Too soon the summons came.
Until 1825 the people of Royalton had to go to Cleveland for their mail. This was usually worked out by changing accommodations. One person having an errand to Cleveland would bring the mail for the rest. Finally James W. Weld of Richfield established a sort of mail route, en- tirely unofficial. He brought letters and papers to different residents for fifty cents per week, making his trips to and from his home in Richfield, Summit County. In 1825 a postoffice was established and Smith Ingalls appointed postmaster, but as he lived in a part of the township away from the Center he deputized S. K. Greenleaf, who lived there, to transact the business of the postoffice. A weekly mail was established, and with the letters came the weekly newspaper, by reading of which the pioneers were well posted in real news. Among the early postmasters were William Tousley, Tristram Randall, Lorenzo Hopkins, W. W. Stockman, Charles W. Foster, S. W. Chandler, Lewis Granger, Joseph W. Smith, M. S. Billings, Byron Babcock and Thomas Coates.
Royalton being elevated so much above the sea level, being the highest territory in the county, a signal station was established here by the Gov- ernment, when this system was first put in use in connection with the Weather Bureau. The station was located north of the Center and be- cause of its height and the mystery of its operation was an object of interest for some time. It has been abandoned for many years.
The Teachouts came to Royalton in 1837 and Abraham Teachout, Sr., was the first man to do away with liquor at raisings. Mr. Teachout had
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