USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 17
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entered into a partnership with Robert Brayton to build a sawmill. At the raising the usual whiskey was expected. After the neighbors had put the sills in position they called for the whiskey. They were informed that this was to be a temperance raising. This was thought to be impossible. Church brothers offered to buy the whiskey, arguing that the frame could not go up without it. Teachout mounted a log and delivered an eloquent temperance address, concluding by informing the men that if they were not willing to do the work without liquor they could go home. They finally, after much consultation, decided to try it out. Many argued that there was danger that some one would get hurt, as whiskey was supposed to supply the necessary strength at critical moments and thus avoid acci- dents. It is a historical fact that the frame went up and no one was injured. In place of the whiskey a fine feed was given the men and after a game of ball the men went home to relate the novel experience. This mill was completed and put in operation November 10, 1845. The son, Abraham Teachout, Jr., followed in the footsteps of his father on the tem- perance question. While in Royalton and after removing to Cleveland, where he built up the great industry still operated under the name of A. Teachout and Company, he was an unswerving advocate of prohibi- tion. He was at one time a candidate for mayor of Cleveland on the prohibition ticket and received the largest vote ever given a candidate for that office on that ticket.
Before 1818 Royalton was under the jurisdiction of Brecksville and in that year, October 27th, the county commissioners set off number 5 of range 13 as a separate township. The first election was held at the house of Robert Engle, November 9, 1818. Robert Engle and David Sprague were chosen judges and Chauncey A. Stewart, clerk of election. The officers elected were: Trustees, David Sprague, Francis Howe and Elias Keys; clerk, John B. Stewart; treasurer, Chauncey A. Stewart; fence viewer, Benjamin Boyer ; appraisers, Robert Engle and Elias Keys ; super- intendent of roads, Abial Cushman ; justices of the peace, John B. Stewart and Samuel Norton; constable, Abial Cushman. Through some lack in procedure the election of justices of the peace was set aside as illegal and a new election ordered. At this election John B. Stewart and Lewis Carter were elected and their commissions were dated August 10, 1819. At this first township election in which David Sprague was elected trustee and preceding which, in town meeting, the blind brother as well as David had been active in securing the name of Royalton in honor of their native town, Royalton, Vermont, we notice that David was also judge of election. The Spragues were active in township affairs for many years. In the Brooklyn Bridge Beacon, a small local paper published by the Union Trust Company, we quote a recent item reciting the death of a descendant, Calvin Sprague, who was well known over the county: "Mr. Calvin Sprague of Broadview Road, one of Brooklyn's Civil war veterans, died on Septem- ber 13th. He was born July 24, 1837, in Royalton, Ohio, and lived there until his enlistment in the Union army in 1861. He was one of the first men to enlist from Royalton. He saw service with the Sixth Ohio Cavalry. Mr. Sprague returned to Royalton and married Miss Sarah Garlock of Parma. He operated the old Pearl Street House fifty years ago, after- wards being connected with the old Brooklyn car line under Tom L. John- son. Interment at Royalton."
Since the death of Mr. Sprague, Justin Bark of West Thirty-third Street, Cleveland, Ohio, is the oldest living of the early residents of Royalton. He related to the writer an incident of his early childhood in which the joke is most assuredly on the preacher. Death and destruction were preached more in those days than the sunny side of religion. While
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a very young child Mr. Bark was permitted to attend the funeral of Boaz Granger. Other children had told him that at a funeral you could see the corpse. In his seat in the church by his mother he peered in all directions but no corpse was visible. Finally from behind the pulpit a sallow austere countenance arose to begin the service. The little fellow was all excite- ment, his curiosity had been rewarded. "Oh, Ma!" he cried aloud, "there's the corpse."
Among those who have served as township trustees were David Sprague, James Bird, Francis Howe, Eliphalet Tousley, Elias Keys, John Ferris, Lewis Carter, John Smith, Jonathan Bunker, Parley Austin, Israel Sawyer, Ezra Leonard, Isaac Isham and Isaac Isham, Jr., Samuel Norton, Jr., C. A. Stewart, Boaz Granger, Smith Ingalls, William Teachout, James Tousley, John Watkins, James W. Wild, Edward Schofield, W. D. East- man, R. K. Tousley, C. Brunson, Zara Searles, John Coates II, Ebenezer Bostwick, John B. Stewart, O. C. Gordon, Harvey Edgerton, J. B. Stewart, Robert Wilkinson, Francis Bark, Edwin Wilcox, Willian Farris, Daniel A. Miner, Rowley Leonard, Joseph Teachout, Asa Varney, S. M. Wilcox, Rufus D. Gibson, Thomas Bark, Thomas B. Coates, Sardis Edgerton, John Marcellus, Charles Bangs, John Tompkins, Henry Akins, W. W. Stockman, B. S. Tyler, Charles Robinson, O. H. Claflin, Orvill Bangs, Thomas Bolton, William Spencer, Simon Wilkinson, Hamlin Miller, George Mathews, Oliver Taylor, Freeman Norton, Joseph Turney and Justin Bark.
The spelling of some of the family names has changed with the years. Searles was originally written Sarles and old silver in the possession of the family is marked Serls. Howe was written How and Tousley, Tows- ley. Among the clerks of the township have been J. B. Stewart, James Tousley, Charles Teachout, Abram Teachout, Joseph Smith, William Hodkinson, Thomas Coates, George S. Morrell, John M. Wilcox, M. G. Billings, Farnum Gibbs and A. E. Akins. Among the treasurers have been C. A. Stewart, Thomas Francis, Parley Austin, John B. Davis, John Watkins, Francis Howe, O. C. Gordon, H. M. Munson, Lewis Howe, Edwin Wilcox, Alonzo Searles, William Searles, Martin S. Billings, James Tousley, L. S. or Lambert Searles and Oliver Taylor. In the history of the township there have been no defalcations. After L. S. Searles had held the office of treasurer for twelve consecutive terms it was charged that he had appropriated township funds and was short in his accounts. On that rumor he was defeated for reelection, but when the new treas- urer, Oliver Taylor, took office Mr. Searles turned over to him at once the funds of the township, to a penny, in currency, leaving that gentleman a little worried for the time being as to their safe keeping. The present officers of the township are trustees, Thomas Hurst, J. E. Thompson, G. H. Edgerton; clerk, B. W. Veber; treasurer, E. C. Cerney ; assessor, Jan Dolezel. As to the justices of the peace, L. W. Craddock was elected, as shown by the books of the county auditor, but the records of the county clerk show only O. D. Clark as acting justice at the present time. The constable is J. H. Brunner.
The first church organized in the township was the Baptist. Rev. Henry Hudson was the organizer and pastor until his death some twenty- five years later. It was formed in 1818. The first members were Henry and Priscilla Hudson, William Dyke, James, William, Lydia, John and Clarissa Teachout, Relief Austin and Merrick Rockwell. William Dyke was the first deacon. Reverend Hudson served at an annual salary that rarely exceeded $50. Rev. S. S. Watkins followed Mr. Hudson for a long period. Reverend Conley was the third pastor. For a long time the meetings were held in schoolhouses, but in 1850 a building committee con-
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sisting of Thomas Redrup, Francis Norton and John Edgerton was appointed and the stone church at the Center built. The Disciples were the next in order. On invitation of Ezra Leonard, Reverend Hayden held services at his house in 1828. Others came and preached in houses and barns. At one time services were held in the barn of John Ferris and a number of converts were baptised. In 1829 a church was organized in a schoolhouse by the efforts of Reverend Hayden, with Jewett M. Frosť as elder. This church now has a building at the Center. Next in order came the Free Will Baptist and the Methodist Episcopal churches. The Free Will Baptists began meetings at the Center in 1836. In 1843 the place of meeting was changed to Coates' Corners (now Walling's Corners). An entry on the church records reads as follows: "February 18, 1843, Brethren in Royalton met in monthly meeting, had a good time but under some trials. Received three members, J. Bunker, M. Varney and S. Horton, and moved the church down to Coates' Corners." Services there were held in a scholhouse until 1850, when the church was built north of the Center. Thirty years later the pastor was Rev. J. H. Bald- win; trustees, George Kendall and Francis Miner; deacons, George Ken- dall and Francis Bark. The Royalton Methodist Episcopal Church began its meetings, like the rest, in a schoolhouse. The first meetings were held in 1836. Rev. Hugh L. Parish and Reverend Fitch, circuit riders, were the first preachers. This church has never had a settled pastor, being on a circuit, first the Brooklyn Circuit, then Brunswick, then Hinckley and then Brecksville. The first elders were Jewett M. Frost, John B. Stewart, Adin Dyke and William Buck; deacons, Almon Eastman and Henry Bangs.
Mrs. Jane Elliott Snow, who was born in Royalton and lived there until her marriage, in writing of her early life says:
"On Sundays we were all carefully dressed and taken to a church some three miles distant. In those days James A. Garfield, then a student at Hiram College, and others of his classmates came there to preach, and such audiences as there were. People came from many miles around. They filled the seats, the aisles, the vacant space around the pulpit, they crowded at the door, and, in summer, they crowded outside the open door to listen to the eloquent sermons that were being preached. In those days of the Disciple Church none but able men, eloquent men and men zealous for the cause were chosen to expound their doctrine. Not all the religious meetings in country towns in those early days were as interesting and profitable as those I have mentioned. Many of the preachers were wholly uneducated and some of them exceedingly noisy. As there were two schools of churches in town, one Calvinist, the other Free Will Baptist, the question of the future state of the soul was a prolific theme of discussion. It was not unusual to see groups of men standing outside of the schoolhouse during recess at religious meetings. I learned as I grew older that they were discussing the question-Whether or not a man could work out his own salvation? One argued that if a man was born to be saved he would be saved and if he was born to be damned, no earthly power could save him. Occasionally a Universalist minister would conduct services in the little schoolhouse. At that time I was familiar with a Child's History of the United States, that was well filled with bright colored pictures representing various scenes and in- cidents in our country's history, among them being one of Mr. Dustin and his family escaping from the Indians. As the savages advanced nearer and nearer to the fleeing family. Mr. Dustin thought he would sacrifice one child to their fury, with the hope of saving the rest. But which child could he spare? Alas, none! For he loved them all alike.
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This was the illustration the Universalist minister, Rev. Mr. Hull, used to prove his doctrine. This sermon created a general discussion throughout the neighborhood, which continued for some weeks.
As all the churches in the town believed in immersion for baptism, and as none were equipped with an artificial font, the ceremony had to be performed in some natural reservoir. A pond of clear water located in the midst of a wood belonging to my uncle, Thomas Coates, and at least a quarter of a mile from his house was the place frequently chosen for these spiritual washings. Winter was the time usually chosen for the ceremony, and though the person baptised had to ride in a lumber wagon or sled, to the house with nothing but a quilt or blanket over their wet clothes, it was the claim of the believers that no serious effects had ever resulted from the ceremony. People were baptised in this pond when the ice had to be broken and the water constantly stirred with a rake to prevent its freezing before all the candidates were immersed. Besides theology, two other questions in my childhood days occupied the public mind, one was temperance, the other slavery. In my tenth year I attended the exercises at' the close of a term of school in an adjoining neighborhood, when song and recitations bearing upon these two subjects made up the programme."
In 1854 there were nine Catholic families in Royalton. At their re- quest Bishop Rappe came out from Cleveland and held services at the house of Thomas Montague at Royalton Center. Others followed in similar meetings, Fathers Hannan, John and Hally. In 1868 the building now used as a church was purchased. The first trustees were Patrick Flynn, William Manny and James Morris.
July 5, 1859, Empire Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Royalton, was instituted. The charter members were Charles and Orvill Bangs, Joseph W. Smith, John Marcellus, William Frost, Thomas S. Bark, Wesley Pope, J. T. Akers, Edwin Banks, George Johnson, Charles Heath and L. S. Searles. In 1864 the lodge built a building at the Center with lodge room above and room for a store below. In 1878 twenty of the members withdrew to form the Brecksville Lodge. This is the only fraternal order now represented in the town. The Grand Army Post has gone with the years, and the Good Templars Lodge with the trend of events.
And now as to the schools and the first teachers-William Tousley and Oren Abbott have both been mentioned as the first teacher. The con- sensus of opinion however gives the honor to Eunice Stewart, who taught in the northeast corner of section 5. John B. Stewart was the second teacher there. In a log schoolhouse put up on section 19, William Tous- ley was the first teacher and Abial Cushman the second. In 1830 the township was divided into four school districts, number one with thirty- five families, number two with twenty-two, number three with sixteen and number four with seventeen families. Later the number increased to nine districts. Fractional districts were established in many parts of the county to better accommodate the pupils. These including portions of several townships, were located according to the demands of the settlers. The woods, the heavy roads and the winter snows made them necessary. The fractional district at Bangs' Corners was made up of territory from four townships and at one time there were pupils attend- ing the school from four townships and three different counties. The advent of good roads which has made possible and brought about the use of school busses and the centralizing and classification of the schools has not been fully taken advantage of by the township, owing to the lack of buildings. There are still some schools operated in the "Little Red
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Schoolhouse." There is a high school at the Center and the town hall is used for school purposes. In November of 1922 a bond issue for $90,000 was voted by the people for additional school buildings. Plans are being drawn by Fulton, Taylor and Cahill of Cleveland for the enlarge- ment of the high school building at the Center to include larger facilities for the high school and grade schools as well. Among the teachers of the early days Sam Chandler is well remembered as a disciplinarian of so vigorous a type that he has left a lasting memory. In 1880 the school enumeration of the township was 365.
In 1866 James Wyatt opened a cheese factory in the township and in 1869 Charles Bangs and L. S. Searles continued in the same enterprise. Mr. Wyatt removing to Brecksville to continue the same business there, left the field to the latter firm. In 1871 Bangs went out of the firm and started a factory of his own and Mr. Searles formed a partnership with A. E. Akins, which continued for three years, whereupon he continued alone until 1877. Royalton being a dairy section, these industries were important until the demands of the City of Cleveland for milk warranted their discontinuance.
The first death in Royalton was that of Catherine Coates, wife of Charles Coates, mentioned as the first tavern keeper. She was buried on the family lot on the tract at Wallings' Corners and later was removed to the cemetery at the Center.
Like all the townships, Royalton has made its contribution to the county. We have referred to Judge W. E. Sherwood and to Jane Elliott Snow, author, lecturer, student and biographer. Another comes to mind as we close the chapter, Albert E. Akins, the apostle of clean politics, who served in various capacities in the courthouse and then as county auditor, was the first president of the Tippecanoe Club, after its incor- poration, one of the builders of the Cleveland & Southwestern Railway, he devoted his life to its service and gave it. Still another, Abraham Teachout, whom we have mentioned, who built up in Cleveland the great industry in sash, doors and blinds, that has been a part in the great indus- trial life of Cleveland.
CHAPTER XI STRONGSVILLE
If Strongsville had no other claim, two men that she has furnished to this community would give her a prominent place in our history. Judge Carlos M. Stone, than whom while he lived no man in the county was better or more favorably known, and Dayton Clarence Miller, pro- fessor of physics at Case School of Applied Science, author of many works. Carlos M. Stone was born in Strongsville March 27, 1846. A child in the district schools, a student at Oberlin, graduate at the Ohio State and Union Law College, admitted to the bar, at the age of twenty- five we find him prosecuting attorney of Cuyahoga County. This was in 1871. His term of two years expiring we find him practicing law in the firm of Brinsmade and Stone and then in the firm of Stone and Hessenmueller. In 1879 he is again prosecuting attorney and is reelected in 1881. His total service in that office covering a period of seven years, he resumes the practice of law in the firm of Stone, Hessenmueller and Gallup. In 1885 he began a long service as judge of the Common Pleas Court. While serving on the bench, at the earnest solicitation of his party friends who believed him to be the strongest candidate that could be named, he contested for the office of mayor of the City of Cleveland. Defeated, he again ran for reelection as judge and won by his old time majority. As a judge he was not considered the most able of an espe- cially strong bench of associates, but he was rarely reversed by the higher courts. His evident fairness in the conduct of trials so impressed the parties in controversy that few appeals were taken.
Dayton Clarence Miller, born in Strongsville, is the author of many works on physics. One bears the very comprehensible title of "The Science of Musical Sounds." He is considered a great authority on sound and the leading man in that line in this country, if not in the world. Like most men of genius he has a hobby. In his childhood he delighted to play with the fife his father used in the Civil war. He is a collector of flutes, a hobby in line with his study of musical sounds. In an inter- view in the News and Leader recently he was asked: "What is occupy- ing your attention at present?" His reply was: "Finding out why some sounds are pleasant and why others are unpleasant. I am trying to make photographic records of sounds which shall be finer than the phonograph. I am working to find the scientific causes of tone quality. I study sounds through the flute." "His laboratory at Case School," said the News-Leader, "is one of the scientific show places of the world where he is 'canning' sound to last 15,000 years, and where he photographs the human voice." His titles are Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and Doctor of Science.
Before it was named, this township was number 5 in range 14. It is the most southwestern township in the county and contains about twenty square miles or 12,800 acres, being not fully five miles square. It was ceded to the Connecticut Land Company by the Indians in 1805 and was surveyed as a township in 1806. It was not settled by the white man until after the War of 1812, when settlements began to be made slowly. It
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was purchased from the Connecticut Land Company in four parcels and is particularly distinguished by the high character of the original pur- chasers. In the division by the company, Hon. Oliver Ellsworth took the largest part, paying into the company $13,673 and Governor Caleb Strong nearly the same territory for which he paid $12,000. Two smaller pur- chasers were assigned the balance for which they paid $414. The prin- cipal purchasers, Ellsworth and Strong, were men of distinction. Oliver Ellsworth was born at Winsor, Connecticut, April 29, 1745. He was a statesman and jurist of national repute. He was United States senator from the State of Connecticut from 1789 to 1796, beginning his service with that of Washington as president, was appointed by Washington chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving as chief justice until in 1799 he was appointed envoy extraordinary to France. Caleb Strong was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, January 9, 1745. He was a leading patriot in the Revolution, a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Federalist United States senator from Massachusetts 1789 to 1796 and governor of Massachusetts 1800 to 1807 and 1812 to 1816. William Wolcott Ellsworth, a son of Oliver, also served as governor of Connecticut, 1838 to 1842. These distinguished purchasers did not come to the West, but appointed John Stoughton Strong to act for them as land agent and he came from Connecticut with a stag party consisting of Elijah Lyman, Guilford Whitney, William Fuller, Obadiah Church and Mr. Goodell in 1816. Strong was a small, active, energetic, nervous man, a good business manager, but not a typical pioneer. This party drove from Connecticut in sleighs. Strong located his headquarters a little northeast of the Center and all hands went to work on the log house, which was to serve as residence and business headquarters for the land agent of Ellsworth and Strong. The township had not been surveyed into lots and as soon as the headquarters was established and their bachelor's hall in running order the survey began. Strong was not a surveyor, but he engaged a surveyor from Newburgh, and Whitney Goodell, Church and Fuller acted as chain men. Without any information to the contrary we will assume that Lyman acted as cook at the head- quarters.
The township was surveyed into lots half a mile square containing 160 acres of land. The western tier of lots, however, were not full, as the township is not five miles square. These lots were numbered beginning with number 1 in the southwest corner, then numbering north and south until number 100 in the northeast corner concluded the survey. As in all the townships of the county the setting of corner stones by the original surveyors was carefully and thoroughly done. Once set, these monuments have been rarely disturbed. "Cursed be he that moveth a corner stone," was adopted by the pioneers as an injunction to be regarded. In the early days this act was looked upon as the basest of all criminal acts. The survey was the principal business at first, but two or three small clearings were made and some crops planted, when in March, 1816, John Hilliard and wife and a little daughter, Eliza, came from Connecti- cut. They immediately took up residence in the log mansion and Mrs. Hil- liard, then only twenty-two years of age, with her little daughter to care for, became the housekeeper for the colony, the only woman in the town- ship. Bachelor's Hall was transformed. She had her pioneer shocks and housekeeping drawbacks. After breakfast, while sweeping the floor, she was startled by a sibilant rattle and discovered a large rattlesnake on the hearth. She called in the men, who killed it, and found it to be over five feet in length. She continued her sweeping, when another warning sound was heard. The men pulled up the loose floor and killed
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another rattler, the mate to the first. These incidents, while common in pioneer life, were naturally disquieting to a lone housekeeper in the wilds of Strongsville in 1816.
Another menace aside from wild beasts was the Indians. They were supposed to be friendly after the War of 1812, but the tales of their atrocities so vividly told made their presence even singly a secret terror. One day in that first summer the men had all gone to a raising in Columbia. Lorain County, leaving Mrs. Hilliard alone with her little girl. A huge Indian armed with gun, knife and tomahawk entered the cabin and gruffly demanded, "Where is the man?" She told him that the men were not at home, answering truthfully. The Indian made no hostile demonstration, but without asking helped himself to a chair and sat down. The little girl with the fearlessness of childhood and that child instinct that detects the harmless and the harmful in human kind walked boldly up to him and gave him a piece of bread and butter which she was eating. The peace offering was a success. The Indian took the little girl on his lap and fondled her while he ate the bread and butter. The mother inwardly fearful looked on, but breathed a sigh of relief when the big warrior, shortly after, left without any parting salutation.
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