USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 31
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We must take the space to give a little of the history of some of the families, whose members have served the township in various public posi- tions. First, the Lander and Litch families. M. A. Lander, whom we have mentioned, was the son of William and Eliza (Litch) Lander. His father was born in the Town of Marcellus, Onondaga County, New York, and came to Orange at an early date. Here he married Eliza Litch, who was a native of Orange, and named his first born Marcellus in memory of his native town. Marcellus or M. A. Lander, was raised on the farm, had a common school education, enlisted when the Civil war came on as a private, and rose to the rank of quartermaster sergeant, served till the end of the war, operated with his father and uncle one of the largest cheese and butter factories in the county at Orange, and then continued in the business as sole proprietor for a number of years, came to Cleveland and entered the county treasurer's office as a deputy, became popular by reason of his uniform courtesy, was elected and reelected county treasurer, serv- ing the full time allowed by law. Another son of William Lander, the trustee, a younger son, Frank R. Lander, after the boyhood on the farm, a liberal and technical education, was elected county engineer, founded the Lander Engineering Company of Cleveland, was out of office for a while, and again elected to that position and is at present serving as county engineer and surveyor. One of his most important works, in construc- tion, is the Rocky River bridge, the concrete arch of which, at the time it was built, was the largest in the United States. He drew the plans for the Superior Street High Level bridge, with subway, a feature which he strongly advocated, and which has proved to be a fine thing for traffic. The plans were revised and the construction carried out by Mr. Stinch- comb, his successor as county engineer. Both of these gentlemen have made a name reflecting great credit on themselves in that important office. Under both administrations road construction has advanced to a point of efficiency never before reached in the history of the county. The Jackson families are identified with the history of Orange and its part in the fraternity of townships. Charles Jackson, born in the County of York- shire, England, and C. L. Jackson, of the same nativity, came with their
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parents, Row and Jane (Lonsdale) Jackson, to Orange in 1835. Charles became a republican in politics, and C. L. a democrat, but both were good republicans and good democrats. In the township Charles served as con- stable one year, assessor seven years, clerk eight years, and justice of the peace eighteen years. He also served on the Board of Education. He served the county as county commissioner for three successive terms. C. L. Jackson served as trustee of the township for three terms and held other public positions. He owned one of the finest farms in the township, comprising 248 acres. His wife was prominent in the Methodist Epis- copal Church. A son, W. W. Jackson, was the principal of the West Cleveland schools while that municipality was in existence, and when it became a part of Cleveland, Professor Jackson became a Cleveland teacher. The Mapes family deserve especial mention. John D. Mapes, born in Seneca County, New York, came to Orange in 1831. Before coming he married Henrietta Patchen, and the two started pioneer life on the Orange farm. The family grew to eight children, six of whom became school teachers. The oldest child was named Edwin. He served as jus- tice of the peace, and then his name read Edwin Mapes, Esquire. He married Mary Thorp, and their children numbered six, and four became successful school teachers. But school teaching was not the sole ambition of the members of the family, for Perry Mapes and John P. Mapes, grandsons of John D., made a great record in the county under the firm name of Mapes Brothers. Their farm in Orange became known over the county for its fine product of milk, cream, and maple syrup. In the mar- kets of Cleveland the label "Mapes Brothers" became known as the synonym of choice product. The farm became a model of attractiveness and beauty. And now as to Uncle Boynton. Fifty years ago B. A. Hins- dale, of Hiram College, wrote a sketch of the half brother of President Garfield's father, Uncle Amos, which runs as follows: Caleb Boynton, father, was a native of Massachusetts. We know but little of his gene- alogy but find him in Worcester, Otsego County, New York, early in the nineteenth century. There he married Asenath Garfield, the widow of Thomas Garfield, and the mother by her two husbands of thirteen chil- dren. Four of these were Garfields, Polly, Betsey, Abram, and Thomas, Abram being the father of James A. Garfield. Her children by Mr. Boynton were: Anna, Amos, Nathan, Alpha, Calista, Jerry, William, and John. In 1808 he moved to Madrid, St. Lawrence County, New York. In 1818, in company with his son Amos, he made a winter journey in a sleigh to Ohio, whither he was followed by the remainder of his family the next spring. He made his home in Independence, Cuyahoga County, where he died in 1821. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. Amos Boynton, the second child of Caleb and Asenath, was born in Otsego County, New York, September 9, 1805. He lived with his father in Independence, and when his father died he, at the age of seventeen, started out to shift for himself. He was employed for some time on construction work on the Erie Canal, and assisted his half brother, Abram Garfield, in carrying out several large contracts on the Ohio Canal. October 17, 1826, he married Alpha Ballou, a younger sister of the wife of Abram Garfield. These two belonged to the well known Ballou family of New England, their father being James Ballou of Cumberland, Rhode Island, and their mother Mehitable Ingalls of the Town of Richmond, New Hampshire. In 1829 Abram Garfield and Amos Boynton purchased a small farm, each, in Orange, Cuyahoga County, and on these farms established their families. Their homes were three miles from the pres- ent Town of Chagrin Falls, and four miles from the Village of Solon, but neither of these places then existed, and all around was an unbroken
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wilderness. Their nearest neighbors were the Mapes family a mile dis- tant, and the next nearest were in the north part of the township nearly three miles away. These two men, earnestly seconded by their devoted wives, fell to work to clear up their farms and to build their homes. Mr. Garfield lived but four years. He died in 1833, leaving four children to the care of their mother. Mr. Boynton lived to clear up his farm, to rear a family, and to see the wilderness of 1829 transformed into cultivated land dotted by homes of a numerous, thrifty, and happy population. But this struggle with nature was too much for his powers, and he was com- pelled to relinquish his business, little by little, until in the spring of 1866 he left the farm and removed to Cleveland in search of rest, which he so much needed. The quest was vain, his native force was too much abated and he was taken with a lingering and painful illness and died December
GARFIELD MEMORIAL
3, 1866, in his sixty-second year. Mr. Boynton had a family of seven children, William A., who died at the age of twenty-nine; Henry B., who remained on the old farm when he moved to Cleveland; Harriet A., who became Mrs. Clark of Bedford; Phoebe M., later Mrs. Clapp of Hiram; Silas A., a distinguished physician of Cleveland; Mary C., who became Mrs. Arnold of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Bentley, who died at the age of fourteen months. Mrs. Boynton, the companion of their forty years of married life, survived him many years.
Amos Boynton was of medium size, of vigorous and enduring physical powers, and of clear, strong and well poised mind. His opportunity for obtaining the education of schools was limited, being those of his time and state. He closely read the few books within his reach, but the one book that he knew was the Bible. His farm and family were the center of his life. He was a tireless worker, a close economist, a painstaking farmer. He was methodical in all things to minuteness. His farm was the best kept in the neighborhood, his products went to market in the best order and commanded the best price. In his business deals he was honest to a farthing and required men to be equally honest with him. He had
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an invincible abhorrence of anything like sham or false appearance, and the competence that he gathered was the slow result of hard labor and small savings. Boundless nature lay about him. He had himself, that was all. He must work ceaselessly and save carefully or live in poverty. Still, his heart always responded to the calls of the poor, the suffering, and oppressed. In the community he stood a standard of truth, honesty, and justice. He watched carefully over his children. Aided by his wife, who had been a teacher, he instilled into them a desire for education, and all of them but the one who died in infancy were at one time teachers. He gave them habits of industry, implanted in their minds the great law of morals and the sentiments of religion. Intemperance and profanity were unknown in his family circle. At the death of Abram Garfield in 1833 Mr. Boynton stood in a peculiarly close and interesting relationship to the family of the deceased. General Garfield gratefully recognized this obli- gation and spoke in strong terms of appreciation of the extent and kind of his uncle's influence upon himself. This came partly in the way of wise counsel and direction but more probably in the form of that uncon- scious influence, which works so silently, yet so powerfully. The hard worked farmer found time to aid the young men of the neighborhood in organizing and maintaining a debating society and he frequently took part as a critic and guide in the efforts of his children and their associates to "think on their feet" and defend their opinions. He was frequently made judge of their debates and his approval was a reward worthy of their best efforts. His type was that created in the school of John Calvin, strong, deep, narrow, just, true, severe. He was one of the last of the Puritans. His type, the pioneer engrafted on the Puritan, is passing away, but before it vanishes it should be faithfully painted in all its lights and shadows for the benefit of posterity.
We have given a larger mention of Uncle Boynton as a pioneer of Orange, first, because of his close relationship to the family and boyhood and young manhood of President Garfield, and second because he repre- sents in his character and life the dominant type of pioneer found in every township of Cuyahoga County.
CHAPTER XVII
SOLON
Township 6 of range 10, Solon, has the distinction of having formed the organization of a civil township with the smallest list of qualified voters of any in the county. It may be surmised that a community that would select for its name that of the great Athenian lawgiver would be inclined to establish the form and substance of law in its midst as soon as possible. It seems, however, that the selection of a name was brought about by another consideration than that of doing honor to the memory of the man of Athens. In August of 1820 two families "well supplied with teams, household furniture, and especially children, might have been seen making their tedious way on rough roads from Newburgh through Independence to Hudson in the present County of Summit, and thence northeast to Aurora in what is now Portage County, where they made a temporary stop." Leaving their families there, the heads of these two families began a thorough examination of the surrounding territory, searching for desirable unoccupied land. After a long search they decided to locate on the west part of the Williams and Ellsworth tract, which comprised the southern part of township 6, range 10, and was then called Milan, but later became the civil Township of Solon. These men were Capt. Jason Robbins and Samuel Bull, both originally from Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut. They were both along in years, Mr. Bull was forty-five and Captain Robbins fifty-eight. Not too old to be pio- neers, they built log cabins, did some clearing and in November of that year of 1820, moved their families into their new homes. These were the first settlers in the township, and while there were only two families, there were sixteen children in each, so that a colony of sixteen constituted the first settlers. They located on an old route or trail from Pitsburg to Cleveland, which was used during the War of 1812, but afterward abandoned for another touching the more settled region of Hudson, Inde- pendence, Newburg, and other towns to Cleveland. This old road had become impassable by reason of falling timber, underbrush and small tim- ber. It was afterwards improved and became the direct thoroughfare between Solon and Aurora. When these first settlers came, their nearest neighbors were two miles southwest in the township of Aurora. Towards Cleveland they could travel. without seeing a residence to a point three miles from Newburg and nine miles from home. Westward it was nine miles to their nearest neighbor in that direction residing in the north part of Bedford. Of the four adult first settlers all remained in the township during life. Samuel Bull died in 1838 at the age of sixty-three; Mrs. Robbins died in 1850 at the age of seventy-seven; Captain Robbins sur- vived her two years, dying at the age of ninety years, and Mrs. Fanny Huntington Bull lived to be ninety-four, dying in 1872. Of her family, Pitkin S., Lorenzo S., and Norman A. were living in the township in the '80s. A son of Capt. Jason Robbins, by his first wife, Archibald, or Cap- tain Archibald, for like his father he was a sea captain, came to Solon some years later. His career was so full of remarkable and unusual ex- periences that we will devote some space to the recital farther on. Jason
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Robbins was a sea captain for thirty years, his father before him followed the sea, and Archibald, the son, was likewise a sea captain. Captain Jason by his second wife had eight children, Honor, Sophia, Jane, Maria, Eliza; Walter W., Jason, Jr., and Corlenia. Walter W. married Sally Ann Reeves, daughter of William Reeves, an old settler of Solon. Their chil- dren were three, Cora, Grace, and Ellen.
The third family to come to the new township was that of Oliver Wells. They came from the same locality in Connecticut as the first set- tlers, and located on lot 40 in the Williams and Ellsworth tract. It was thought by prospective settlers that land was held at too high a price in the township, and settlement was slow. One arrival should be noted shortly after the Wells family came, and that was the first white child born in the township, Delia Wells. After Delia the Wells family were
BEDFORD PUBLIC SQUARE SHOWING TOWN HALL AND SOLDIERS' MONUMENT
augmented by twins, so that Mr. and Mrs. Wells were not only the parents of the first child but of the first pair of twins born in the town- ship. The first school teacher in the township was John Henry. He got $10 a month and his board. He boarded "around." His pupils numbered four from the Robbins family and three from the Bull family. Bull paid his share of the teacher's salary in shoemaking, and Robbins paid his in maple sugar. No money passed, and no pay roll robbery is recorded. In 1825 there were eight voters in the township, Robbins, Bull, Wells, P. S. Bull, John C. Carver, C. M. Leach, Thomas Marshall, and Ichabod Watrous. These all lived in the southern part. The eight proposed to have a civil township of their own. This territory at the time of their arrival and since had been under the government of Orange. It was argued that the forming of a civil township would attract immigration. These eight petitioned the county commissioners, and on their petition the commissioners erected the township and ordered an election of officers. As we have said, this township on the arrival of the first settlers was called Milan, but the petitioners had conceded to Bull and Robbins the privilege of selecting the name for the township about to be organized. They desired some name that would perpetuate on record their families as first settlers, but Bulltown and Robbinsburg did not appeal to them,
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and after much discussion they selected the second name of Mr. Bull's second son, Lorenzo Solon Bull. The county commissioners confirmed the selection and thus the name of the great lawgiver, who flourished before the Christian era, was given to the little township in the woods of the Western Reserve. At the first election Jason Robbins, Samuel Bull and Ichabod Watrous were elected trustees ; Jason Robbins, clerk ; Pitkin S. Bull, treasurer ; Pitkin S. Bull, constable ; Pitkin S. Bull, overseer of the poor, and Oliver Wells, justice of the peace. Pitkin S. Bull was numer- ously elected.
The wild denizens of the wood were found by the early settlers here in large numbers. They included deer, bear, wolf, "painter" and elk. The stately elk disappeared first. In 1821, the year after the first settlers arrived, Pitkin S. Bull and Warren Warner chased a large buck elk for three days through Milan (Solon) and the adjoining townships. It was finally killed in Northfield by another hunter, who struck the trail ahead of the unlucky hunters from Milan and gained the prize. This was the last elk seen in the township, but the other animals named re- mained for some years.
The first settlement made in the northern part of the township was in 1827 by John Morse, who located near the old state road leading from Cleveland to Aurora and running near the Bedford line. The next that came were Joseph G. Patrick, Baxter Clough and Mr. Gerrish, all from New Hampshire. These with their families made quite a settlement and this road was called Hampshire road from that time on. John C. Sill settled in the township in 1831. About the same time that the Sills arrived came Walter Stannard, John Hodge and a Mr. Martle, all locat- ing in the northwest part of the township. More rapidly now the white man came. Reuben M. Hanford, who came in 1832 and located on Hampshire Street, one and one-half miles from the center of Solon, northwest, found not a tree cut within a mile of the Center, but William Pillsbury that same year bought the land around the Center. No roads were cleared and no wagons could be used here. There were paths through the woods traversed in summer and winter by ox sleds. Wil- liam W. Higby was then working in Solon but was not a freeholder. He became a permanent resident. In the settling up of the township the next to record takes us to the southeast part of the township in the same year, 1832. Here Elijah Pettibone, William W. Richards, C. R. Fletcher and John Hale, being a delegation from Pettibone, New York, established permanent residences and began the clearing of that section. The first settlers in the north part, or what is called "The Ledge," were Elisha Wilmot and Albert Pond, who located there about 1833. These were followed by Abraham Witter, George H. Mason, Stephen Dunnell and Alvin Harrington, a Maine delegation. Deacon John Barnard settled in the township in the same year. The ground around the Center was low and wet and was the last portion on township 6, range 10 to be settled. It had in forest days a rather forbidding appearance. A story was related by Mr. Hanford illustrative of this appearance. The date of the incident was subsequent to 1833. A civil township must have a Center, and so several roads had been laid out with the Center as the apex. None were cut out but they were marked out by blazed trees. Mr. Hanford, having occasion to go to Twinsburg, had followed the line of marked trees south from the Center and was returning by the same route. When near the end of his homeward journey he met another man on horseback who was peering anxiously about trying to solve the trans- portation directions without the aid of The Cleveland Automobile Club. "See here, stranger," he said on seeing Mr. Hanford, "I wish you would
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tell me which way to go to get out of this infernal town." "Well," said Mr. Hanford, "that depends upon where you want to go. This line of marked trees to the south leads to Twinsburg, that one to the southwest leads to Aurora, that one to the north leads to Orange, and that one to the west-" "No matter about that," interrupted the traveler, "I just came from the west through that cursed swamp and I swear I don't want to go that way. I don't care where these other trails lead to either ; all I want to know is which is the quickest way to get out of this town." Mr. Hanford gave him the distance to the various points mentioned and the stranger selected the nearest and immediately started on at a rapid pace. He had scarcely gotten out of sight when the wolves were heard howling in the forest, a circumstance which no doubt confirmed the traveler in his opinion of the locality; at least it hurried Mr. Hanford forward on his homeward trip. The first man who built a house at the Center was Freeman McClintock, who settled there in 1832. He lived at the Center for three years before near neighbors came. By 1832 practically all of the land in the township had been bought from the original or speculative owners, by actual settlers. By this time also sufficient land was cleared and crops raised to provide food for the community, but clearing went forward at a rapid rate, and attention was given to roads as a surplus crop must be marketed.
In 1833 the first marriage took place in the township. The contracting parties were Baxter Clough and Hannah Gerrish, both of Hampshire Street. The officiating magistrate was Captain Jason Robbins, the second justice of the peace in Solon. Having steered so many voyages safely on the ocean, he no doubt felt confident that he could at least start this matrimonial craft on its way properly. The first death in the township was that of Mrs. Thomas Marshall, who died in 1834, fourteen years after the township was organized. Her body was taken to Aurora for burial and several who followed her in death were taken there for burial in after years. The first physician in the township was Dr. Alpheus Morrill. He came in 1834 and was the only professional man in the township for many years. This last statement should be modified if we include the preaching profession, for religion was early taught in the community and ministers came from time to time to encourage and teach. As early as 1832 the Presbyterians held meetings at Mr. Hanford's house and the Methodists had ยท held a number of meetings in various meeting places. In 1834 a Presbyterian Church was organized by the New Englanders of Hampshire Street and a year or so later the first church building was erected at the Center. This was the second frame building in the town and on account of the wet ground was set up on stilts or high posts as a health precaution. Of these churches we will speak later, giving some of the early members and pastors.
Sam Weller, the philosopher of Pickwick Papers, said: "I have noticed it as a werry particular and oncommon circumstance that verever you see a sausage shop you never see no dogs." This vague connection comes to mind in going over the annals of Solon and noting the fact that when the first doctor came to town in 1834 the bears (shall we say instinctively ?) left. This joke loses its force when it is related that the bears did not move away but were killed. Four were killed that year, one by Thomas Marshall, one by S. S. Bull, one by William W. Higby and the fourth, a very large one weighing 400 pounds and the last in the township, by Jason Robbins, Jr. Deer hunting continued long after the bears became extinct. The young men were rivals in that direc- tion but William W. Higby stood at the head as the best deer hunter in the township. He was excelled. however, by Hiram Spofford of Bedford,
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who hunted in the township but was a resident of Bedford. Neither of these men considered il a very remarkable lent to kill From six to eight fat deer in a day. Of lesser game, such as raccoons, wild turkey, etc., they killed hundreds Of the rattlesnakes, that were a menace to the pioneer urvasion all over the county, many stories are told but no fatali Les are recorded, except to the makes.
Solon exported three commodities in the early years that relieved the stringency of the money market-maple sugar and syrup, black salts, made, as we have already related, from ashes lye, Jeached from the abundance of that product in clearing the land, and deer skins. Then market was Newbig; Grain was nusalable, as transportation cost as much as it was worth in the market. The problems that confronted the pioneers are still before the farmers of the great West, In the marketing of maple sugar and syrup, each man who had a surplus would load up for Newburg of Cleveland, 'The trip with of term and wagon occupied two days, They would take along a pair of steelyards and drive from house to house, selling from ten to fifty pounds in a place. Sometimes a barrel of sugar would be sold in one place and then the Solon farmer considered himself a wholesaler, In the tide of Inunanity that pouted into the Western Reserve there were many young bachelors who came individually and not with families. A considerable number of these de tached individuals came to Solon, The method of these home founders was to make a clearing, build a log cabin, surround it with a garden of vegetables and flowers, and then repair to the nearest settlement, hunt up a good looking gul and court her with persistent energy. And they were usually successful in gaining the object of their selection, As Aurora in Portage County was the oldest settled townslup in the vicinity and most convenient of Access, and was blessed with an ample supply of "hand- some, agreeable and industrious" young ladies, the young; bachelor pioneers of Solon, led by the God Hymen, would repair to that town and with eminent success, A larger percentage of pioneer mothers of Solon chine From Amore than from any other town.
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