USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 33
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Ira Sherman came soon after. When they came there was an old deer "lick" near where the upper papermill was later located and there were bark hammocks in the tops of large low beech trees where the Indians had been accustomed to lie in wait for the deer as they came to lick the salty waters and stones. The mineral was in evidence on the surface of the water and on the stones of the river banks. Both Indians and deer had abandoned the "lick" when the white man came. Deer were plentiful in the town however and many were killed. A. H. Hart and Henry Church were among the most successful hunters. Another year and the new city boomed. Several new houses and the sawmill had been built and clearings made for some distance around the homes. And now the residents awak- ened to the need of better roads. Business was hampered. Mr. Church went to Solon for a bag of wheat, carried it on his back to Bentley's log gristmill on the river, and then carried the grist home to Chagrin Falls. The gristmill built at the Falls in 1836 made it unnecessary to go elsewhere for grinding, but the wheat had to be brought over bad roads. The year of 1836 ushered in the era of "flush times." As a remedy for the rather depressed business times of 1833 and 1834, Congress in 1836 authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to distribute all the public funds, except five millions of dollars, among the several states, according to their representa- tion. The immediate result of this increased facility for obtaining bank loans especially in real estate brought about a spirit of speculation in the country, which, as one writer expresses it, amounted to a mania. A hun- dred cities were founded and a thousand villages laid out on broad sheets of paper and made the basis of large money transactions. After the 1st of January, 1837 this money was removed from the banks and overtrading and speculation suddenly checked. Then came many failures. It has been said that during the flush times paper money was as free as water and unbounded riches were expected by everybody. Men were ready to engage in any enterprise. It was at this time that the third village in Chagrin Falls Township was born. Gen. James Griffith discovered a power site on the Aurora branch of Chagrin River and bought the upper part of it. Ten men, mostly from Aurora, bought the lower part. Aurora is the extreme northeast township of Portage County. General Griffith built a sawmill and he and the others planned a village to be called Griffithsburg, which like Bentleyville was within the present limits of Chagrin Falls. Capt. Archibald Robbins, whose tragic career we have referred to in the chapter un Solon, bought an interest in Griffithsburg, built a store there and re- mained some three or four years. Thus at one time we had three rival villages in Chagrin Falls, and Bentleyville was in the lead for some years. John Oviatt came there in 1835 and built a trip-hammer shop where he made scythes, axes, and many other tools in quite large quantities. This industry continued for five years. About the time that Oviatt came William Brooks built a tannery. In 1834 or 1835 Reverend Bentley built a store there, and this was the first store opened in the limits of the present township of Chagrin Falls. In 1835 Dr. Justus H. Vincent located in the northwest corner of Bainbridge, then in Geauga County. He was the first physician who practiced in Chagrin Falls. He must have moved there, for in 1840 and 1841 he was a member of the State Legislature from Cuyahoga County. This was when Thomas Corwin was governor. Doctor Vincent was public spirited and active in promoting the interests of the Falls. Among other things he secured a charter for a bank at Chagrin Falls, but the bank never materialized. As a reminder of this effort a shanty set in the side of a hill was called the bank and the resident was dubbed the "cashier."
In March of 1836 the first religious society in the township was formed.
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It was called The First Congregational Society of Morense. There was a disposition to call the new township Morense but this idea was aban- doned. A year before this, that is in 1835, a charter was obtained for a college, to stand on College Hill. This was secured by enterprising citi- zens who saw into the future and illustrated the attitude of mind that the church and the school should go hand in hand. While the college, like the bank, did not materialize, education did, for in this year the first dis- trict school was taught in the township. Miss Almeda Vincent was the first teacher. She was afterwards Mrs. Aaron Bliss, and was later a resi- dent of Chicago, Illinois. Her husband opened the first store in the village in 1836. It was first opened in the barroom of the tavern but soon after Bliss built a store at the corner of Main and Orange streets. Soon after he opened his store B. H., and H. S. Bosworth engaged in the same busi- ness. Other changes took place. Joshua Overton and a Mr. Bennett bought and occupied the tavern, William Fay started a shingle machine, Charles Waldron, and William Pratt were shoemakers, William McGlas- han, and Dudley Thorp were in the tailoring business; George Fenkel was building a gristmill; Henry Smith was an active stone mason, and Caleb Earl was building a clothing shop. The gristmill was running by winter, and new residents were fast coming in. It was a boom town. Among those who came on the crest of the boom were James Bosworth, and wife, and sons, Freeman, Sherman, Milo, and Philetus, and sons-in-law, Jason Matthews, Robert Barrow, Justus Taylor, Justus Benedict, T. N. West, Samuel Graham, and Timothy Osborn, all with families. A family gather- ing would have been a large convention. Other families who came at this time were those of Huron Beebe, Roderick Beebe, William Church, and Zopher Holcomb. In the midst of this boom the first Fourth of July cele- bration was held. The orator of the day was the celebrated Sidney Rigdon. Just at this time he was much in the limelight, his career had partaken of the spectacular. He was an orator of wonderful power, a convincing de- bater, one who could sway a multitude and carry them with him even to the point of making "black appear white or white black." While pastor of the Baptist Church at Kirtland his fame as an orator had spread. While in that capacity he adopted the doctrines of Alexander Campbell and at once lent his peculiar genius and powers to expounding that religion and brought all, or nearly all, of his Baptist congregation over to the Disciple faith. There was at this time a large and influential Baptist Church at Mentor and when in 1826 the pastor, Rev. Warren Goodell, died, Rigdon, a Camp- bellite, was called to preach the funeral sermon. His address so pleased the congregation that he was engaged as their pastor, in the fall of 1826. Here as in Kirtland he gradually brought the entire congregation over to the new faith. He occasionally preached at the Kirtland Church as well. His preaching now took a new turn and he began to branch off upon com- mon stock, or applied socialism. This did not take, in Mentor, but kindled a blaze in Kirtland. Isaac Morley was the first convert, a large landowner there. He was so enthusiastic that he threw open his doors to all who chose to enter and make this their common home. Many came and among them the ignorant and profligate. In a short time the family numbered 100. While this fanaticism was taking root in Kirtland a deeper plot was ripening at Palmyra, New York, and Sidney Rigdon's was the directing mind. Rigdon was frequently absent for weeks at a time from Mentor and on his last return from a long absence he brought copies of the Mormon Bible or Book of Mormon. The revelation had been received on gold plates and translated by Joseph Smith. Rigdon immediately began expounding the glories of the Latter Day Saints in numerous sermons and speeches. That religion had not then adopted polygamy, and Rigdon,
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known as an eloquent speaker, was invited to deliver the oration at Chagrin Falls July 4, 1836. He accepted and among other glowing sentences pre- dicted that there would soon be one great city extending from Chagrin Falls to Kirtland, fifteen miles north, all inhabited by the Saints of the Lord. His speech took well as he was simply preaching morality and patriotic citizenship but he was the actual founder of Mormonism, that opposed both. The Smiths, the reputed founders of Mormonism, were schemers, visionary fanatics, and seekers for wealth by a quick route. Before knowing Rigdon, Joseph Smith, Jr., had been searching for gold with a divining rod such as in the old days they used before digging a well to locate the best veins of water. In the revelations as related by him, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and revealed the location of a certain chest to which he was led by a singular mineral rod, but, as he approached, it sank deeper into the earth. It was finally captured, and contained as per revelation the so called Mormon plates, from which the Book of Mormon was translated. As showing that Rigdon's was the directing mind Smith did not come at once. In November, 1830 four men came to Mentor from the scene of the "marvelous discovery." They were Oliver Cowdery, David Whitman, Zaibad Peterson, and Parley P. Pratt. The entire night of their arrival was given over to consultation with Rigdon. Soon after. they all went to Kirtland and made a visit to Morley. Here they gained an easy victory and the class that had assembled there accepted the delusion with fanatical enthusiasm. Seventeen were baptized in the new faith the very first evening and other meetings followed with similar results. In the spring crowds came to Kirtland from Palmyra and other points until it would seem this was the point at which the world was centering. Fol- lowing the crowd came Joseph Smith, Jr., and Brigham Young. They enlightened the followers more explicitly. The gold plates were twenty- four in number, 13 by 12 inches in dimension, and were not exhibited because they could only be seen by faith. Mormonism grew and the Tem- ple was erected at Kirtland. A bank was established and they. issued a Mormon script, which became a circulating medium. The whole thing was managed at first by three high priests, Joseph Smith, Jr., Sidney Rig- don, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland lay upon a roadway and the waters of Lake Erie can be seen from her temple roof. The nucleus of a great city was expanding and the conspirators must get busy. All difficul- ties were settled by additional revelations. Here polygamy was put for- ward as a fundamental principle of the church. It came about in this way. A daughter of Oliver Snow of Mantua became infatuated with Rigdon's preaching and she and the whole family followed him into Mormonism. Later she became infatuated with Smith, spiritually and otherwise, and became his secret mistress. This relationship was getting noised about and then came the "revelation" and she was "sealed," to him as a wife under the "divine" revelation. She was a person of intelligence and wrote verses among other things. Some of her lines are preserved and they reflect her attitude of mind in the premises :
We thank Thee for a prophet's voice, His people's steps to guide, In him we do and will rejoice Though all the world deride.
These "revelations" became very convenient. At one time Cowdery wanted a secretary, so he had a "revelation." It was as follows: "A command to Emma, my daughter in Zion, A. D., 1830. A revelation I give to you concerning my will. Behold thy sins are forgiven thee and
Vol. . I-8
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thou art an elect lady whom I have called. Murmur not because of the things which thou hast seen, for they are withheld from thee and from the world, which is wisdom in me in a time to come. And the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant Joseph, thy hus- band, in his affliction, with consoling words in the spirit of meekness, and thou shalt go with him at the time of his going and be unto him a scribe, that I may send Oliver whithersoever I will." At one time Joseph Smith had a "revelation" that Oliver Snow must turn over a farm to pay a debt which he (Smith) owed at the bank and take in return a certificate from some high officer of the church. The old man hesitated, but finally com- plied, and the certificate proved to be worthless. He had another farm in Mantua and they finally got that. This latter information is given in a small volume by Christopher G. Crary, who though a "Gentile" was a close friend of Mr. Snow's. The prophets had trouble among them- selves and this first Fourth of July orator at Chagrin Falls, the ring- leader, the real founder of the Mormon Church, was finally excommuni- cated by Brigham Young and consigned to the devil.
The second Fourth of July celebration in Chagrin Falls, the next year, found the community still in a bustle of excitement. The constant rise of the price of land by reason of the unlimited paper money con- tinued and there was a general expectation of wealth by reason thereof. A Congregational Church building was planned and the timber for the same drawn to the public square, which at that time had been dedicated to public use. It included the tract on which the town hall now stands. Two-thirds of this block of land was afterwards given to the Methodist and Congregational churches. This second celebration of Independence Day was gotten up on a grand scale. The orator of the day was Rev. Sherman B. Canfield, and besides delivering the oration he officiated at the first marriage in the village and township, that of Aaron Bliss and Almeda Vincent, daughter of Dr. J. H. Vincent. It is related that this ceremony was public and came in as a part of the general program of the day. But patriotism and patriotic sentiment alone could not bolster up prosperity on an unsound basis and with the year 1837 the boom at Chagrin Falls, as in many parts of the country, went down suddenly and business came to a standstill. In all this activity, so built upon a fabric of paper money, much of which became worthless, the natural and ordinary advancement of the community was neglected. There was no authorized postoffice and mail route. Serenus Burnet at his tavern kept a sort of convenient distribution place for letters and papers. Once a week Marcus Earl came from Cleveland to his father's home at the Falls and brought mail to the tavern. Coming along to the year of 1839, the first fatal acci- dent is recorded in the annals of the village. A daughter of Mr. Overton was burned to death, her clothing catching fire from a burning log heap. In 1839 Asbury Seminary was incorporated as a Methodist institution and opened its doors as an advanced school, with Mr. Williams as its first principal. Along with this came some industrial advancement. Samuel Nettleton built a furnace. This was sold in 1840 to Benajah Wil- liams. It was afterwards carried on by him. Those who came to the village in 1837 were Mr. Benajah Williams and sons named Lorenzo D., John W., William M., Francis S., Adam C., and Andrew J. Williams.
In the presidential campaign of 1840 Chagrin Falls was largely whig and it took on its most enthusiastic manner entering into the campaign with that zest that has characterized it in later years. When the whigs of the northwest part of the state held a mass meeting at Fort Meigs, almost the entire male population of the Falls attended. Doctor Vincent was in command of Company C of Chagrin Falls Whig Riflemen. Those
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going individually assumed Indian costumes to add to the hilarity and significance of the occasion. Drawn into the maelstrom by the excitement the democrats went along with the whigs. Four horse, six horse, and eight horse teams took the crowd to Cleveland where they took the boat for the meeting. The democrats who went along, entered into the fun with the rest throughout the day, and when they got home, drew off into a bunch and gave a rousing cheer for Van Buren and Johnson, and as the old annals recite, "resumed their places as democrats." In 1841 Aaron Bliss and John Mahew built a large stone flouring mill on the site later occupied by the upper paper mill. This was built with a semi-circular stone dam, which did not prove to be a success. The dam was carried out the same season taking away two bridges and flooding the village. In this year the first paper mill was built by Noah Graves, as the beginning of that industry at the Falls. The census of 1842 disclosed that there were 109 families in the village and a total population of 540. Included in the 540 were twenty-five cabinet-makers, four wagon-makers, ten shoe-makers, five merchants, three doctors, two lawyers, a very good showing for the young village. C. T. Blakeslee and John Brainard were included in the legal fraternity. Mr. Brainard became Professor of Chemistry, with resi- dence in Cleveland, and later Examiner of Patents at Washington. These two started the first newspaper. It was called The Farmers and Mechanics Journal. The first number was issued in August, 1842, and it was the first newspaper published in the county, outside of Cleveland. The total capital invested was about $100. Blakeslee sold out his interest to Hiram Calkins and he sold to M. S. Barnes. The firm name was Brainard & Barnes. The firm sold the paper to H. G. Whipple, who tried to change it to a democratic paper under the name of The Journal. We say "tried" to change it. His foreman, the late proprietor, Barnes, in his absence substituted a whig ticket and whig editorial, which he found floating at the masthead when he returned. Barnes was dismissed and he thereupon started a rival whig paper. Both journals merely survived the campaign. The next year M. P. Doolittle and H. E. Calkins started a paper called The Spirit of Freedom. The paper (not the sentiment) died the same fall. Following these journalistic attempts a paper called Labour was published in the village for a short time. The press. was bought by Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Sanford. Then Mrs. Sanford began the publication of a monthly journal for women called True Kindred. At the end of five months the management changed from Mrs. to Mr. Sanford, and the name of the paper was changed to The Independent Politician. This was discontinued after a time and there was no further newspaper pub- lished in Chagrin Falls until The Exponent was established in 1874 by J. J. Stranahan and P. Hohler. After a year Mr. Stranahan continued the paper as sole proprietor. It has continued as a paper independent in politics, but vigorous in its utterances, espousing the cause of the farmer and the laborer. It at once had a large circulation and it is no idle state- ment to make that at least under the active management of Mr. Stranahan, it was the most influential paper published in the county outside of Cleve- land. Mr. Stranahan served in the Legislature of Ohio for two terms and following his service there was appointed United States Fish Com- missioner, in which capacity he served until advancing years caused him to retire. During his service in the General Assembly The Exponent was found upon the desks of members and its vigorous editorials aided much in securing legislation in the interest of the farmers of Ohio.
In 1843 a great deal of excitement was caused in the village as else- where over the prophecy of "Father Miller" that the world was to be destroyed by fire on the 23d of April of that year. Of course the real
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Millerites put on their ascension robes and prepared for the occasion but the unbelievers, although not accepting the prophecy so positively and eloquently announced, were "from Missouri" and had to be shown. Well, at 3 o'clock in the morning of the appointed day in the year of our Lord 1843, at the Village of Chagrin Falls, Earl's woolen mill caught fire and as the roof was saturated with oil, burned with great rapidity and cast a most brilliant glare over the village, the river and the country around, lighting up the homes and starting frightened people from their beds. While it lasted the excitement was intense and a real scare gripped the village. The millenium was indefinitely postponed, but the mill burned down. As Miller did not fix a future date and the world seemed still solid Deacon Harry White bought the old site of the burned mill and erected an ax manufactory. This tool was still much used at that time and sales were large and continued until the land was quite generally cleared, when the manufactory was abandoned. In 1844 a Methodist and a Congregational Church were each built at the village. There was a daily stage line from Cleveland to Warren, touching the Falls, and the coaches were crowded. There seemed to be a healthy recovery from the depressed times following the collapse of the boom. Bentleyville, however, once ahead of the Falls, was losing ground. The chair factory built by C. P. Brooks did a good business for five or six years. The gristmill, in 1843, had been turned into a rake factory by Lyman Hatfield, and then the manufacture of wooden bowls was added. At that time the town looked prosperous. There were fifteen or twenty residences but like Albion in Strongsville there is left but a memory. Time, floods, and competition did their work and it was wiped out. Before this time, however, there had been agitation for a new township. The three villages on the river were not so much concerned about a separate organization, but the idea of a separate town- ship was gaining ground. Chagrin Falls did not like the idea of being in a corner of Orange. There were thirty or forty farms now well cleared up and they joined in the agitation for a separate township. Application was made to the county commissioners and in 1845 a separate township under the name of Chagrin Falls was formed to include the northeast corner of Solon, the southeast part of Orange and a part of Russell in Geauga County. The first official town meeting was held at the tavern of A. Griswold on April 7, 1845. Samuel Pool and Pliny Kellogg were chosen judges, and Jedediah Hubbell and Alanson Knox, clerks. They were sworn in by Henry Church, a justice of the peace. The election resulted in choices as follows: Trustees, Stoughton Bentley, Ralph E. Russell, and Boardman H. Bosworth; clerk, Alanson Knox; treasurer, Thomas Shaw; assessor, Rev. John K. Hallock. Hallock soon moved away and George Stocking was appointed in his place. The other officers elected were: Overseers of the poor, George Rathbun and Jedediah Hubbell, Jr .; constable, Thomas M. Bayard ; supervisors of the highways, Sherman S. Henderson, Obadiah Bliss, John Mahew, Phineas Upham, Duane Brown, John Goodell, Ralph E. Russell, and Noah Graves. About the time when the new township was formed there was much agitation over the prospective building of a railroad from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the line surveyed passed through the Village of Chagrin Falls, but notwithstanding the fact that the residents of the Falls sub- scribed for $24,000 in stock, it did not go through. This community seemed ever awake to any proposition that would benefit the town and they were fully alive to the doings of the outside world. They supported every enterprise that gave promise of contributing to the general welfare. More newspapers were taken in Chagrin Falls, during the first twenty years of its existence, than in any place of its size in the county. In 1847
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it had in the neighborhood of 1,200 inhabitants and the variety of its manufactures was increasing. In 1848 the Cleveland & Mahoning Rail- road was built. A large subscription was raised by the residents of Chagrin Falls, conditional upon getting the line through the town, but in this they failed and the road was built through Solon. Not daunted, the people of the Falls said if they couldn't have a railroad they would have a plank road, and the same year the Chagrin Falls and Cleveland Plank Road Company was chartered. Chagrin Falls people invested $15,000 in the enterprise. This road was completed in 1850, and a beginning made in 1849. It was never a paying proposition and the planks were not renewed and the road abondoned except between Newburg and Cleveland. In 1852 the Painesville and Hudson Railroad was incorporated with a capital of $1,000,000 and the line as surveyed passed through Chagrin Falls. With its fine water power and active industries the people of the Falls were determined to have better communication with the outside world and, be it said to their credit the people of the Falls subscribed $200,000 to this project. This enterprise failed and the people were still dependent upon the lumber wagons with which to communicate with Cleve- land, Painesville, the lake and the canal.
It is interesting to note how in this enterprising but isolated com- munity all questions of education received such earnest attention, notwith- standing the fact that some of its larger propositions along these lines, like the chartering of a college before the first district school was opened, came to naught. In 1842 a literary society was organized. This began collecting books and soon had the nucleus of a library. In 1847 Aris- tarchus Champion, who was the original owner of a large tract of land in Russell erected a large building for the use of the village. The next year he put in 800 volumes, for the free use of the citizens of the village. The Literary Society took their books there and the building was known as Library Hall. Champion kept the title of the property himself and afterwards removed the books and sold the hall to the Board of Education, which was formed in 1849. Then the educational interests were prose- cuted with much vigor. In 1858 the Asbury Seminary was sold to the Board of Education of the township for a Union school. Thus the schools advanced from year to year, the Union School being the center of educa- tional activities, until today Chagrin Falls has on these grounds three buildings. There are nineteen teachers employed, with a total enrollment of 700 pupils, and a graduating class from the high school this year of thirty-two. The superintendent is W. E. Stoneburner. Two important elements have contributed to the prosperity of Chagrin Falls, its splendid water power and the energy and public spirit and intelligence of its citizens. Their taste is shown in well kept yards and attractive homes, and, years ago, it resembled not the typical pioneer village in the wilderness, but a New England town of long standing. In a publication put out by a lecture bureau some years ago Chagrin Falls was designated as the best lecture town in the United States. As an illustration of the interest taken, a course of lectures was advertised there and the sale of seats was to open at such a time and place. The afternoon of the day before the sale of seats was to take place a line of ticket buyers assembled. Coffee and sandwiches were served to those in the line, the wives, sisters and sweethearts relieving the weary men through the long night from time to time until the ticket sale opened in the morning.
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