A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1), Part 24

Author: Coates, William R., 1851-1935
Publication date: 1924
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 600

USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 24

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night. They had gone east a mile or two along the line between town- ships 6 and 7, Olmsted and Dover, and had then borne southward in the former township. At length, the night being cold and damp, they built a fire at the foot of a hollow ash tree and determined to wait for the moon. The boy lay down on a grassy knoll a short distance from the fire, while his father sat with his back against a hickory tree in the oppo- site direction and both soon went to sleep. An hour or so later the old man was awakened by a tremendous crash directly overhead. The hollow ash had burned off and had fallen against the hickory by which he sat. The tough wood of the latter bent before the blow and then recoiled with such force that it threw the ash back in the opposite direction so as to fall directly across the head of the sleeping boy. His father was so frightened and horrified that he ran screaming into the woods entirely at random and by mere accident came out at Mr. Stearns' clearing." The description of the releasing of the body, the conduct of the father and the return and burial, occupy nearly as much space as that already given.

This account so minute in detail of a tragedy in the woods reflects in some measure the attitude of mind of those isolated from the larger communities. This accidental death was the topic of conversation in the township for a long time. Calvin Geer related to his descendants as his earliest remembrance the killing of a bear on the bank of Rocky River, shortly after their arrival in the new settlement. His father was the marksman and the animal, which he described as a very large bear, ap- peared near their cabin on Sunday evening. Three shots were required, as the first two only wounded the animal. This became in the mind of the pioneer boy a lasting memory. Boys of today, who view bears in Brookside Zoo, are not so impressed as were the pioneer boys who saw them, unfettered by iron bars, in the dark woods.

In the year 1815 Elijah Stearns and his son David Johnson Stearns came to the township. It was then called Kingston, and that name adhered for several years before it was changed to Olmsted. David had a large family of boys and wanted land enough to keep them em- ployed, so he bought 1,002 acres of land on Butternut Ridge, in the northwest part of the township. For this he paid $2 per acre. D. J. Stearns, his son, was then twenty-one, strong and active, and remarkably well fitted for pioneer labor. He was allotted 150 acres of land by his father, but it became necessary to make a trip to Vermont to get a perfected title. This he did after awaiting for some time for the original purchasers to send a surveyor. In the meantime he had cleared quite a tract on the allotment, which to identify was, in after years, the residence of Buel Stearns. In 1816 he came back, having straightened out the title, and brought with him Alva and Asa Knapp, brothers, who only stayed long enough to assist in the building of a log house and do some clearing. The first purchaser from the Connecticut Land Co. was Aaron Olmsted and Mr. Stearns had to get his title from the trustees of his estate, he having died after his purchase was made. This was not a cash sale, as four notes were given, one of which after its can- cellation was retained as a souvenir of the purchase. Young Stearns also took the agency from the trustees for the sale of their land. He only sold two lots when the sale was stopped for some unexplained reason. As an instance of the intensity with which the settlers worked, it is recorded that David Stearns and James Geer celebrated the Fourth of July, 1816, in clearing a roadway from Rocky River and along Butternut Ridge toward the home of Mr. Stearns. They worked from sunrise to sunset cutting out brush and saplings and opened a roadway for a distance of two miles. During this year Daniel Bunnell moved from

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Columbia to the northeast corner of Kingston, as it was then called, and put up a rough plank house, this being the third settlement made in the township. Owing to the stopping of sales by the proprietors, Bunnell remained alone in that part of the township until 1819, keeping bachelor's hall the whole time. Except in the matter of bread, he got along nicely, but in 1817 he paid $3 a bushel for wheat and had to haul it from Black River, then, being otherwise employed, he sent another man to mill. This man started with an ox team and drove to the Chagrin River before he found a mill that was open for business. The whole journey occupied just a week. Another drawback was the scarcity of salt, to one who depended to an extent upon wild game. Salt at that time was $20 a barrel. This year Amos Briggs settled on the west side of Butternut Ridge on a tract that became known as the Robb farm. In 1818 Isaac Scales built a house at the east end of the ridge and moved his family in. They had no neighbors for a year and Mr. Scales worked in Columbia, leaving his wife alone. She had many experiences. Said she often got up in the night to drive wild cats out of the loft with a broom. One day a bear came to the house and got into a controversy with the dog, which wound up by the dog getting hugged by the bear in the front yard. Mrs. Scales made what noise and demonstration she could from the house, and finally the bear ambled off into the woods. The dog sur- vived but led an invalid life from that time on. She was frequently vis- ited by wandering Indians, but they were no more annoying than the tramps that infested the township in later years, but it was trying to the nerves in view of her knowledge of Indian treachery and Indian bar- barity. The first wedding in the township was that of Harry Hartson and Eunice Parker Geer. This took place at the home of James Geer in the spring of 1817. Hartson and wife located near the Geer home. In the same spring there was a birth at the Geer cabin, a daughter Julia. She died two years later. Thus at the home of the first settler occurred the first wedding, the first birth and the first death in the township. In 1819 Stearns married Polly Barnum, this being the second marriage. This year Maj. Samuel Hoadley and family settled near the Scales farm at the east end of Butternut Ridge. The major was quite an interesting and cultivated man, but he took his family into a log house. He imme- diately began building a better one. The frame of the new house was about ready to raise and one day late in the summer, the major and his wife left home for the day leaving their two daughters, Marie and Eunice, in charge of the household. The carpenter, James Miles, and his helper, Elliott Smith, were working on the frame for the new house. During the day Mrs. Scales came over for a neighborly call. Now these girls of the major's were wide awake, vivacious and withal athletic and they planned a surprise for the major and his wife and decided to have a raising without the usual large crowd of neighbors to help. All agreed including Mrs. Scales, the caller. Under the direction of the carpenter they carried the timbers in place for the matching and pinning and then when the bents were ready, all together, with hands and pike poles and to the resonant "he o he," the bents went up to place and the raising was accomplished. When the major and his wife returned and in astonishment asked about the raising, the girls said in a casual way, Oh! we did it, indicating that it was nothing out of the ordinary for them. The next spring, one of the heroines of the raising married John Adams. This was Marie. Soon the other, Eunice, married John Barnum. They needed no matrimonial agency to advertise their qualifications to become the wives of pioneers.

From 1819 the population increased rapidly and in the five years fol- lowing came Isaac Frost, Zenas Barnum, Harry Benjamin, Crosby Baker,

PIONEER PARADE

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Horace F. Adams, Amos Wolf, Truman Wolf, Christian Wolf, Charles Usher, Hezekiah Usher, Ransom J. Adams, Hosea Bradford, H. G. See- kins, Watrous Usher, Noble Hotchkiss, Thomas Briggs, Otis Briggs, Lyman Frost, Lucius Adams, and Alva, Elijah, Jr., Vespasian, Elliott, and A. G. and R. Stearns. Besides these six Stearns brothers, a seventh, Sidney Stearns, came to the settlement and began clearing but died shortly afterwards. During this period after 1819, Lemuel Hoadley and Crosby Baker built the first gristmill and sawmill on the west branch of Rocky River, just above the east branch or the junction with it. There was a sufficient population to begin to crystallize into an organized community. A small Methodist society was organized and had occasional meetings. Clear- ings were made in all parts of the township except the southeast, which was the last to be occupied. And yet old Indian wigwams were still standing, and Indians came from time to time trapping for fur animals. D. J. Stearns found an old Indian sugar bush on the tract that in later years was known as the Taylor farm. Previous to the advent of the white man into this township the Indians were wont to come annually to this place to make sugar. The squaws made the sugar, as they did all of the labor, other than hunting, fishing, and fighting, which was reserved for the males, the warriors. They made sap troughs of birch bark. These they brought with them from Sandusky, as there is, and was, no birch in this township. Kettles in which to boil the sap they got from the white settlers on their way to the camp. After they had sugared off, the sugar was stored in a great trough made of elm bark, which would hold twelve or fifteen barrels. Here it was kept for common use while the tribe was in this locality. The residue was carried back with them to Sandusky, when the stay was over. In 1823 the township number 6 range 15 was organized under the new name of Lennox. Just why this name was selected is not known for it had previously been called Kingston and was so called when the first Stearns came as a permanent settler. The first election was held on April 14th and the following officers elected : Trustees, Amos Briggs, Hosea Bradford, and Watrous Usher; clerk, D. J. Stearns ; treasurer, Isaac Frost. Two years later the township was dismembered and made as naught. The east part, or half, was annexed to Middleburg and the west half to Ridgeville, and two years after this the township was again erected and the broken halves united into one township. The elec- tion was held in June, 1827. The name was still Lennox and the officers chosen were: Trustees, Truman Wolf, Alva Stearns, and Elias C. Frost ; clerk, D. J. Stearns; treasurer, Isaac C. Frost; justice of the peace, Watrous Usher, and constables, Joel B. Lawrence and Elliott Smith. The first tax levy made was one half of a mill on the dollar of the property of the township. The township was immediately divided into three school districts and schoolhouses built. Watrous Usher built a sawmill at Olm- sted Falls about this time. This township was quite well watered, to use the expression found in the old geographies. The west branch of the Rocky River traverses the township and meets with the east branch some distance from its border and Plum Creek, a considerable stream, adds to the water privileges. About these streams clustered quite early embryo villages, while the territory away from them was composed of much primeval forest. It has been said that bears at this period of our history were quite numerous and grew to great size fattening on the pigs of the early settlers, who often let these animals run wild in the woods. The rifles of the men thinned the bears to some extent but the busy pioneers had little time for hunting. Stearns said a good hunter did not make a good farmer. He kept a rifle just the same for emergencies.

We trust the boys and girls as well as the grown-ups will read our

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history and we must tell a bear story occasionally because these are true bear stories drawn from the experiences of the early settlers and boys and girls like true stories, even if in the telling, they do not point to a moral as do the fables. Mr. Stearns hired a boy to work for him, who was new to the great woods. He had hunted squirrels at home in the grove by his house and he was anxious to do the same in the great woods where he thought these animals must be larger and more interesting game. One day he borrowed Mr. Stearns' rifle and went out hunting. After hunting for some time he saw what he thought was a big black squirrel in a hollow tree. He put the gun up to a hole and fired. The black squirrel came out wounded and growling and pitched upon his dog. Astonished at such conduct on the part of a squirrel the boy hurried home as fast as he could run. Arriving almost out of breath he said: "Oh Johnson!" calling Mr. Stearns by his first name, "I seen the monstrousest, biggest black squirrel out in the woods that ever I seen in all my born days." He told such a vivid story that the next morning the men went with him to the tree which they found marked high with blood where the bear, for it was a bear, had rubbed his wounded head. Some thought the squirrel was too large even for a bear. They followed the trail by the blood, overtook and shot the bear. It was the largest one any of the pioneers had ever seen. The bullet of the young squirrel hunter had passed through his nose and broken his jaw. After 1830 bears disappeared entirely from the township but deer remained much longer as well as wild turkeys. Hundreds of wild turkeys were shot and they often had turkey dinners in the log cabins.

This township, as we have said, was first organized under the name of Lennox, having been called before that time Kingston. Two years after it was divided and had no name. Two years after that it was organized again with the same territory and the old name Lennox. And two years after the second organization the name was changed to Olmstead. The only change in name since has been the spelling, as it is now written Olm- sted. As related, Aaron Olmstead was the first owner. In 1829 Charles H. Olmstead, a descendant, who inherited the unsold land, which was mostly in the north part, offered to make the township a present of a library if they would change the name from Lennox to Olmstead. The offer was accepted and the name was changed and the first election under the name Olmstead was held in 1830. In 1831 seven brothers by the name of Fitch settled in the central part of the township, at least three came that year and the rest shortly after. They were Chester, Eli, Horace, Chaun- cey, Elisha, Daniel and Sanford Fitch. Their families made a large increase in the population and the town shortly became a town of Fitches and Stearnses, to almost as marked a degree as did Brooklyn in the early days become a town of Fishes and Brainards. One year before the Fitches came, Major Hoadley and his son-in-law, John Barnum, built a sawmill on Plum Creek at Olmsted Falls. Business started up at once, and, as there was no house near, and Barnum wanted to be near his work, and having as we have related a real pioneer wife, he moved at once and improvised a home until, from the product of the mill, he could get one more convenient. He cut down a whitewood tree near the bank of the creek and this formed one end of the house. Then with a few smaller logs and with saplings for a roof, he moved in. This was only temporary as he began at once the building of a convenient house. · Luther Barnum, who in later years was a prominent citizen of the township, was then only one year old.

These little communities that sprang up in the various townships of the county bred up many individual and eccentric characters. Every town- ship had its peculiar character unlike any other. They were absolutely

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original and individual. Today in the large centers of population men become types of a class. Each city to some extent is peopled with those who derive their habits of thought and expression from each other. The individual characteristics are ground off by contact with others. This was not true of many of the pioneers and a man of peculiar and unusual per- sonality was found in every settlement and often there were several. They were the court jesters, the entertainers, the necessary relief from the hard toil of the workers in subduing the forest and at the same time procuring subsistence for the home. Olmsted had a man by the name of Powell, who some claimed was not mentally balanced, but he was not a fool. It seems Uriel Kilpatrick had built a little "packet" gristmill on Plum Creek for custom work. He was as slow as "molasses in January" and the mill partook of the characteristics of its owner. The patience of his customers was tried to the utmost in the long wait for their grists and the many promises and postponements. Powell, among his other eccentricities, wrote poetry. He had some grievance against the miller, Kilpatrick, and went to Mr. Barnum, a justice of the peace for a warrant. The justice refused the request and in a joking way suggested that he write a poem about Kilpatrick, which would be just as effective as a warrant. Powell at once got off the following and included a rap at the justice. Basswood mauls or beetles were those most used by the settlers :

"Iron beetles are seldom found But basswood justices here abound. On the banks of the Rocky River, Tall Kilpatrick's nose doth quiver ; There he sits in his slow mill, Which most folks think is standing still."

The poetry did not destroy the mill, for it continued in operation for ten or twelve years. Hoadley and Barker's gristmill at the river junction was sold to Loyal Peck, who continued the business for some time. It has long since been forgotten. After Kilpatrick's slow motion had ceased altogether, Peter Kidney built a gristmill on the river below the mouth of Plum Creek. N. P. Loomis, who came to Olmsted in 1834, found no road through the village and only a path along the bank of the river. The main road had been slashed out, that is, the underbrush and saplings cut, but it was not ready for use. Where the Union school building was later erected there was a frog pond and only six houses stood on the present site of the village. Up to this time householders had kept travelers, but there was no regular hotel until this year, when William Romp built a large frame hotel and store near the river below Butternut Ridge. This was the first store, as well as hotel, for previously only householders had kept a few goods to accommodate their neighbors. In this year also the first church was built. It was a union church, built by the Presbyterians, Methodists and Universalists, each denomina- tion raising what money they could. It was an equitable arrangement, for each denomination was to have the use of the building in proportion to the amount contributed. This building was afterwards used as a town hall. It was located at Town House Corners, two miles north of Olmsted Falls. This was used as a town hall until 1849, when the town business and official capital was moved to the Falls. The first Sunday school was organized on Butternut Ridge in 1834. This section was settled with an unusually intellectual class of people, who went in for intellectual and moral improvement more than the average of the pioneers. In 1837 a lyceum or debating school was formed in district

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No. 1, which was located near the east end of the ridge. Here future lawyers, politicians and statesmen clashed in intellectual encounter. From 1834 the township emerged rapidly from the pioneer stage. The clearings were extended, stumps began to disappear, frame houses replaced the log ones, and pumps took the place of the picturesque well sweeps that were, earlier, in almost every door yard. The town was changing by the sturdy strokes of the pioneers to the uneventful life of a farming community, but like Middleburg, other interests came to the front. The younger mem- bers of the community proved to be expert with the rifle and venison was still a large factor in the food supply. This continued until the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad was built through the town- ship, when soon after, as in Middleburg, the last of the wild animals disappeared. In 1853 the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railway, which became in after years a part of the Lake Shore Railroad, was opened. This passes through the township running east and west, in about the center of the territory. About these two stations clustered a small village, in embryo. The station of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cin- cinnati road was at once named West View and the village the same. This village never was incorporated and never got a place on the map, other than as a railway station. Olmsted Falls, a station on the other railway, had a steady and healthy growth. It was incorporated as a village in 1857, but at the first election there were only twenty-six votes cast. The next year the settlement at Plum Creek was added to Olmsted Falls, and in addition to that, following the pioneer era, it was discovered that the stone that cropped out in Rocky River had the qualities of the Berea sandstone and quarries were opened, but some time afterwards. In 1870 a quarry was opened at West View, and there were employed twenty-five men in the building stone industry. A short line railroad was built for shipping the stone to the station. At one time there were two quarries in the township employing fifty men each. The growth of the village con- tinued. In the '80s there were at Olmsted Falls four general stores, four drug stores, two tailor shops, three shoe shops, a blacksmith shop, a tin shop, a gristmill, a broom factory, a felloe shop and a lumber yard, and the population of the village was about 700.

The broom factory was operated for many years by John and Joseph Lay. In addition to manufacturing a marketable product that was needed in every home, this industry also provided a new farming product mar- ket, for the broom corn must be raised for the brooms. The Lays also operated a bending factory in connection with their broom factory. Frank R. Lay of a younger generation was for some time active in the factory. He is now a resident of Indianapolis, Indiana. This industry has gone the way of many of the earlier ones that made for prosperity in the new communities, which have drifted in natural evolution to the larger manu- facturing centers. The gristmill of Edward Damp on Rocky River had a good reputation and customers came from the surrounding towns as well as Olmsted.

The Universalist Church was organized by Rev. Harlow P. Sage in 1834. This was the first church of that denomination in this part of the county. Rev. Stephen Hull, the first minister, remained for fifteen years. This church joined with others, as we have stated, in building the first church. In 1847 the congregation built a church of their own on Butternut Ridge. In 1868 the church was incorporated under the laws of Ohio. The second pastor was Rev. Isaac Henry, who stayed ten years. After Reverend Henry came Reverends Tillotson, French, Ship- man, Sykes, Rice and Canfield, in their order. In 1878 came an innova- tion, when Rev. Mrs. Danforth was called to the pastorate. It may not

Vol. I-6

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be historically correct to say that she was the first lady preacher called to a regular pastorate in the county, but she was one of the few. The trustees of this church under her pastorate, or at least at its beginning, were Buel Stearns, Jonathan Carpenter and John Foster. The Wesleyan Methodist Church was organized at West View in 1843. The first members were: Ransom Bronson and Harriet, his wife, John Adams and Maria, his wife, Lucius Adams and Electa, his wife, Mary and Sarah Banarce. As in other townships in the early days, this church was served by circuit preachers. The first were Revs. James Pearson and William Beehan. When first organized, this church was called Hoadley's Mills Church or the Station Church. In 1861 the name settled down to the West View Methodist Church. The circuit riders were called preachers rather than pastors. In 1863 Revs. A. W. Sanderson, W. B.

Moody and G. C. Hicks came. In 1864-5 Rev. E. A. Fink, in 1866-7 Rev. Thomas F. Hicks, in 1868-9-10 Rev. J. Nettleton, in 1871-2-3 Rev. J. E. Carroll. Revs. Nettleton and Moody preached again in the '70s and Rev. William Snell. The stewards in this period were H. Walk- den, Joseph Reed, J. Case, and the clerk was O. P. Smith. The trustees were R. Bronson, T. Price, J. Adams, A. J. Rickard and B. Ruple. There was a church in North Dover, the building located in the northeast part of the township, drawing its congregation largely from Rockport and Dover townships, of the same denomination and served by the West View minister. There was a Methodist Episcopal Society at Olmsted Falls as early as 1843. In 1851 a church building was erected there under the official supervision of Lestor Bradford, Charles Monks, Chauncey Fitch, William Butlin and Asahel Osborne, trustees. The stewards at that time being composed of these men and David Wright, and Stephen Brad- ford in addition. Nearly a hundred years ago a church was built by the Methodists out on Butternut Ridge. This building was in later years transferred to the Congregationalists. The first pastor was Rev. H. C. Johnson, and he was followed by Revs. Clisbee, Westervelt, Bosworth, Grosvenor and Patchin. The deacons in the '80s were Richard Carpenter, James Garrison, Mr. Young and Benjamin Salisbury.

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A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1), Part 24

Author: Coates, William R., 1851-1935 Publication date: 1924 Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society Number of Pages: 600

Author: Coates, William R., 1851-1935
Publication date: 1924
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 600