USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 40
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Wheeler. W. WILLIAMS
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necticut, set out with a one-horse wagon for Ohio, and after a journey of thirty-three days came to Newburgh. Treat and Clark took a look and then continued westward, but Marks and Bennett stayed in Newburgh and bought farms of Barr and Beardsley, the Connecticut proprietors. They bought adjoining farms on the Bedford road. Soon after, Thomas Ross, who had come to Summit County from New York State, settled near them on the farm later owned by Asa Dunham. While clearing their farms Marks, Bennett and Ross kept Bachelors' Hall in Ross' log house, but, late one fall, Ross' family came, and then Marks and Bennett were boarders. But in the meantime Marks had built himself a log house, and after the summer's work was over he walked back to Connecticut and brought his sister on to Newburgh for a housekeeper. Not satisfied with just a housekeeper, he "up and got married." The sister followed suit and married Cyrus Parmenter, a young man who had assisted Marks in clearing his farm. The Parmenters moved to Strongsville. It used to be a saying that walking was better than riding, and when Marks walked back to Connecticut to bring his sister it took him thirteen days, but on the return trip with a team the journey occupied nearly a month. He had to cut a road to and through his farm to the log house. The next year, however, a road was opened from Cleveland to Hudson. The Bedford road was opened later. Of this little settlement of early pioneers in New- burgh, Marks alone contributed to the peopling of the township. Ross and Bennett had no children, or at least none who remained in the town- ship. Ross died of cholera in 1832, and Bennett drank to excess and died a wreck in 1836. Marks married a Parmenter, a sister of the man who married the sister that he brought from Connecticut. Mrs. Marks was a real pioneer woman. She came to Newburgh in 1821 in the company of a family of Western pioneers, and worked her passage. In other words, she drove the team all the way from Connecticut and thus earned her transportation. When she came to Newburgh she began teaching school in a log dwelling, a subscription school, as it was called, the public school not then having been established. This school continued for some time, but Marks broke it up by marrying the teacher. One by one families came. This seems to have been quite the rule over the Reserve. As a fact there were no large companies coming with banners to possess the land, but a home here and a home there was established, and the growth was regular and constant. In Newburgh, or rather in number 7, range 12, the Jewetts came, John and Samuel Brooks, Nehemiah Wallace, with a wife and three sons, Ira, Chester, and Jefferson, Ira and Chester being married, and added to the little colony. In the winter of 1817 Edmund Rathbun came from New York State in a sleigh with Isaac Clark and family. Young Rath- bun bought forty-four acres near the five mile lock, as afterwards des- ignated. Soon he bought more land and increased his farm to 125 acres. George Rathbun came the next year. He was a brother, and bought a farm next to Edmund's. As following the fortunes of these early comers, Edmund Rathbun sold his Newburgh property in 1854 and moved to Solon, and from there to Cleveland. George Rathbun moved to Euclid in 1844, where he died in 1877 at the age of eighty-one. His wife was the daughter of Samuel Hamilton, who settled in Newburgh in 1801. Samuel Hamilton was the grandfather of Edwin T. Hamilton, who was for many years the dean of the Common Pleas bench of Cuyahoga County. Of him we will speak later. Mr. Rathbun's neighbors, besides his brother George, were Milton, Joseph and Erastus Rathbun ; a Mr. Burgess, who was killed by a falling tree; Jonathan Pearse, who came in 1818; John Gould and his son Myrick; Benjamin Parsons, Wildman White, Samuel Andrus, and George Beakle. Jedediah Hubbell settled in the northeast
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part of the township. It is related of him that on a Sunday in 1822, while he was at church, his house burned down. But this was in "the good old days." The next day the townspeople all gathered and built a new house and moved the family in before nightfall. The next settler to be noted was Solomon White. He located in the north part of the township, near the Cleveland line. On the old state road, afterwards called the Fisher road, there were early settlements, Parker, Shattuck, Amos Brainard, Silas Owen, Lewis Peet, and Isaac Clark, he who came with Edmund Rathbun in 1817. A. M. Remington, Lyman Hammond, and John Righter, who came as early as 1814. Mr. Righter moved to Brecksville soon after. He had been a soldier in the War of 1812. His descendants are scattered over the Western Reserve. Two daughters, Alice and Libby (Elizabeth) became locally famous as singers, Alice as a contralto, and Libby as a soprano. He had ten children. Only one is now living, Mary Righter Fessenden. Her home is in Twinsburg, Sum- mit County. She will be ninety in November. She, like others of the large family, had marked musical talent, and a little printed collection of her poems indicate that she was gifted in other lines. She said to the writer that her father, John Righter, was born in 1790 at Easton, Penn- sylvania, and at twenty-two enlisted in the War of 1812, that in 1824 he came to Cleveland with his family and others. The party consisted of her father and mother and three children, and her grandfather and grand- mother with two children. On that year Lake Erie was frozen over and there was much travel over it. The party crossed the lake to Cleveland with horses and sleighs. They stayed for a time in Cleveland, when Mr. Righter bought a farm in Newburgh. She mentioned the Stairs, Ken- dalls, Crittendens, and Rev. Mr. Ashwell, as close friends and neighbors in Newburgh. She said the party were much disappointed in Cleveland. They found it consisted of scrub oak bushes, sand, and a few scattered buildings. Mrs. Fessenden said her mother's ancestors kept slaves in New England. "In after years our grandmother would tell us children about her childhood and about her old black mammy, and how she loved her. Father and mother often discussed the subject. Mother claimed that the slave was better off with a master than to be a master of himself. Father claimed that slavery was cruel, unjust and wicked, that every human being should be free. * * * After the slaves were set free in Connecticut, the conditions were about the same as they were in the South after the Civil war. It took some time for the state to right itself. Many left for other states. My mother's father's family came to Geneseo, New York. After the Civil war my mother was decidedly changed. She was a strong abolitionist the rest of her life." Mrs. F. said when her father settled in Newburgh he had considerable means with which to commence life in a new country, that they attended church in Cleve- land until the Miles Park Church was formed. It was organized with twelve members, and her father and mother, John and Amy Righter, were two of the twelve. She said that she and five of her brothers and sisters, all born in Newburgh, were baptized in that church.
This incident of pioneer days we give in her own words: "I have a vivid recollection of a little incident that occurred in our home when I was between two and three years old. We lived in a log house, comfort- able and roomy. A large old-fashioned fireplace with a crane swung across hung with different hooks of different lengths, for cooking pur- poses, and with a large hearth stone in front, occupied one side of the room. Our grandmother was a fleshy woman, and in stepping on the stone it went down with her. She caught with her arms and shoulders. She was so heavy she could not be gotten out from above, so father built
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a staging of barrels and boards under her feet. She was finally rescued, but with a dislocated shoulder. The excitement so impressed and scared me that the scene is just as plain to me today as it was then, over eighty years ago." Another incident that happened in Newburgh, of the serio- comic character, Mrs. Fessenden relates in this wise: "A man by the name of Peck, who was sort of an exhorter or preacher, was so impressed with the idea that he would die upon a certain day that he sent for his friends to be with him in his last hours and hear his dying words. They all came. He went to his room and laid himself down upon his bed. His friends gathered solemnly around him and waited. He tried and tried to die but could not. Finally he told them he could not die with so many standing around him and sent them all away, but they insisted that they did not want to desert a brother in a dying hour. He tried a while longer and gave up the job. He lived many years after that, and ever afterward went by the sobriquet of 'Old Dying Peck.'"
Mrs. Fessenden's husband was a soldier in the Civil war. He died some years ago, leaving her the only original Civil war widow in Twins- burg, where she resides.
The Township of Newburgh was organized October 15, 1814, and the first trustees were Giles Barnes, Charles Miles, and Daniel Marvin, and the first clerk, Erastus Miles. Among those who have served as trustees since have been James Kingsbury, Y. L. Morgan, J. A. Smith, Ephraim Hubbell, S. S. Baldwin, John Wightman, Jehial Saxton, Aaron Hubbard, Peter Robison, John Brooks, Theodore Miles, Philemon Baldwin, Cyrenus Ruggles, Lewis Peet, Jesse Harris, Jonathan Pearse, Moses Jewett, Spencer Warner, Noble Bates, Stephen Titus, A. S. Chapman, Chester Hamilton, Gaius Burke, Samuel Brooks, A. H. Brainard, Aaron Shepard, Asahel Palmiter, A. B. Haight, Jabez Gallup, Stephen Titus, Wileman White, Y. L. Morgan, Jr., G. Bradford, George Rathbone, John Hopkin- son, Nehemiah Marks, B. L. Wiggins, Eben Miles, F. A. Andrews, Thomas Garfield, Alonzo Carter, Elias Shepard, I. W. Kingsbury, E. G. Simmons, William Kelly, John T. Worley, N. T. Meech, J. N. Cannell, Samuel Stewart, Henry Marble, I. Brayton, Alexander Topping, Joseph Turney, A. A. Jewett, Richard Rodway, Clark Caley, A. W. Morgan, Jabez Lovett, Moses Fish, P. Potts, G. R. Bowman, Thomas Caine, John Hopkinson, J. D. Runnels, William Jorns, C. P. Jewett, Jewett H. Carter, Henry Carter, James Walker, Edmund James, William E. Ed- wards, Cornelius Boyle, A. L. Rodway, Jacob Flick, Eli W. Cannell, and Richard Woodly. Among those who have served the township as clerks have been Erastus Miles, J. H. Shepard, J. G. Ruggles, Thomas Miles, Justus Remington, R. M. Choate, Daniel Miles, M. R. Hughes, Lewis Peet, William H. Caine, Justus Hamilton, J. Crays, Jason Hubbell, T. T. Clark, Philemon Baldwin, Anson A. Miles, Thomas A. Bayard, John Keys, Harvey Burke, E. G. Simmons, H. S. Pratt, Alexander Topping, A. B. Ruggles, E. W. Greenwood, A. J. Hamilton, Charles O. Evarts, and James Walker. The treasurers have been Theodore Miles, Jedediah Hubbell, Thompson Miles, Erastus Miles, Peter Robison, Gaius Burke, Justus Hamilton, Gideon Tupper, A. C. Chapman, Philo S. Ruggles, Spen- cer Warner, Henry Marble, A. W. Gaylord, C. P. Jewett, Elias Shepard, William Bergen, H. Burkhardt, Moses Fish, E. T. Hamilton, D. J. Wilder, N. B. Wiggins, H. C. Ruggles, M. M. Jones, A. J. Hamilton, Henry Shanks, and James Walker.
The county commissioners' records are full of orders in regard to the territory of this township. From the first, closely allied with Cleve- land, it was the first to begin the process of making way for Greater Cleveland. The territory annexed to Cleveland and forming the old
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eighteenth ward was long designated as Newburgh and even to the pres- ent is sometimes so called. The first break in the township lines which has continued until the township is no more was made March 23, 1823, when by an order of the county commissioners the township lines were so adjusted as to exclude a tract of 275 acres, which was annexed to Inde- pendence. In June, 1847, certain territory was annexed to East Cleve- land township, and in August, 1866, a tract was annexed to East Cleve- land Village. June 5th certain territory was annexed to Cleveland. This was in 1867. On May 9, 1870, territory was annexed to .Cleveland. December 2, 1877, certain territory was annexed to Cleveland. Previous to this, however, the entire remaining portion of the township was incor- porated as a village or hamlet, retaining its township organization as well. This was in 1874. March 9, 1878, a portion of the township and hamlet was annexed to Cleveland. September 9, 1893, some of its territory was annexed to Cleveland, and on February another slice was also added to Cleveland. August 7, 1874, the Village of Newburgh was established, and June 30, 1904, territory of the township was annexed to Bedford. Novem- ber 10, 1906, certain territory of the township was detached to form the Township of Corlett. February 25, 1904, the Village of Newburgh Heights was established out of territory detached from Bedford, and in March of that year the township of Newburgh Heights was established out of the village territory for judicial purposes. October, 1904, the Township of South Newburgh was established, and in December of that year the village. In 1919 the name of South Newburgh was changed to Garfield Heights, and South View Township established. December 21, 1912, Newburgh Village having advanced to the grade of a city, commis- sioners were appointed to arrange terms of annexation to Cleveland, and in 1913 the commissioners' report was approved and accepted.
Newburgh had some stone quarries in operation in the early days, but only sufficient stone was quarried for local use and very little was shipped. In the annals of the town written in 1879, after the formation of the old eighteenth (the iron ward) of Cleveland by annexation, its territory taken from the township, it is asserted that Newburgh has within its limits neither villages nor churches, but citizens pride themselves on the fact that nowhere in the township is liquor sold. The statement also is made that the only public buildings were the town hall and the schoolhouses. It is asserted also that five schoolhouses existed at that time, that the value of school property was $10,000, that the wages paid to teachers in that year was $735, and that the enrollment of pupils was 110. In explanation of the small enrollment it is stated that many children attended the parochial schools in the eighteenth ward of Cleveland. The Board of Education at that time consisted of Boardman Pierce, O. W. Quiggin, John R. Ed- wards, John B. Corlett, and Jacob Cramer. Mention is made of manu- facturing within its limits, and among them the Austin Powder Company, founded in 1833, near the five mile lock of the canal, that the company owned 400 acres of land. The production at that time was 400 kegs of powder daily. The California Powder Company, established as a branch of the Austin Powder Company in 1877 for the manufacture of dyna- mite, was then housed in several buildings in a deep ravine near the canal. The Newburgh Fertilizer Company, established in 1876 by Davidson and Palmer, was then in operation with J. B. Peck, J. H. Breck, and E. S. Peck as proprietors, manufacturing bone dust and superphosphates. Of these three only E. S. Peck is now living. He was for some time mayor of Newburgh Village.
There are three villages now in existence which were formed from number 7, range 12. Cuyahoga Heights has been but recently organized.
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Its present officers are: Mayor, Joseph P. Schmidt; clerk, Samuel E. Clapp; treasurer, Robert B. Kerr; marshal, D. L. Davis ; street commis- sioner, John H. Conners ; council, Charles F. Conners, Clint N. Gerden, Isaac G. Kennedy, Elijah Rickard, Al Smith, and Albert Shatto. Gar- field Heights, with a population at the last census of 2,550, has as its present officers : Mayor, Oliver D. Jackson; clerk, Herman Bohning ; treasurer, Fred C. Weber ; assessor, William Kramer ; council, George R. Green, Claude A. Meyers, Andrew Basel, Rudolph C. Nielson, James Ryback, and H. L. Menke. The justices of the peace are Max Berend and Joseph A. Schmidt. It has four school buildings, employs twenty- seven teachers and has an enrollment of 774 pupils. The superintendent is Glen D. King. Newburgh Heights Village had a population at the last census of nearly 3,000. The present officers are: Mavor, Charles E. Zimmerman; clerk, John A. Fitzgerald; treasurer, John C. McDowell; assessor, A. Linek; council, Harold L. Brotherton, John Dlouhy, L. Friess, J. J. Krall, Henry Lissy, and Howard E. Wilson.
Doctor Ruggles was a practicing physician in Newburgh and Cleve- land in the early days. There was an A. B. Ruggles, who served as township clerk, and Philo S. Ruggles and H. C. Ruggles, who served as township treasurers. We have not access to the genealogy of the Ruggles family and do not know the relationship, if any, of these early officers to the doctor, but Mrs. Fessenden tells a story of him worth preserving. He was the family physician of the Righter family, and made his visits on horseback astride of the saddlebags. His horse had a trick, not uncom- mon, of pulling at the halter and breaking away, when hitched. He then would canter home, leaving the doctor to get home as best he could. As Mrs. Fessenden puts it, forbearance ceased to be a virtue with the doctor. He said he would either kill or cure that horse, and he did not care much which. He put a stout hitching strap on and tied the horse to a tree on the bank of the Cuyahoga River near deep water and then hid behind a tree to watch results. The horse pulled quite softly at first and then a little harder, and then he put his whole weight on the strap. Snap it went and over and over, heels over head, went the horse into the river. He floundered about for a while and finally got out, shook himself and "sneaked" for home. He hugged the hitching post after that and never attempted to break loose again.
We have mentioned Samuel Hamilton as one of the earliest settlers of Newburgh, coming to the township in 1801. His son Jestus Hamilton is included in the list and was one of the earliest trustees of the township. Again, a son of Justus, E. T. Hamilton, was treasurer of the township. His full name was Edwin Timothy Hamilton. His record as citizen and public official is without a flaw. He rose by successive steps to be judge of the Common Pleas Court and looked up to as the dean of that court, He was educated in the public schools of Newburgh, afterwards study- ing at Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1851 he studied law in the office of Kelly, Bolton, and Griswold. Was a soldier in the Civil war. When by the annexation of certain territory from Newburgh, which contained the Hamilton farm, the old eighteenth ward was formed in Cleveland, he was one of the two councilmen to first represent that ward in the city council. Two years later he was elected to the Common Pleas bench to begin a long service there. Few judges have left so marked a record and so deep an impression on the memory of a generation.
The judge was a great lover of a quiet game of euchre as a relaxation from his strenuous duties on the bench. He never played for any con- sideration except the joy of winning. He was regular in his habits and usually retired at an early hour. One evening he called at one of the
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neighbors and when 9 o'clock arrived and he did not return, Mrs. Hamilton became anxious. Eleven o'clock came and no judge appeared. She roused the son, Walter, from his bed, something must have happened to the judge. Walter consoled her as best he could, but she spent an anxious sleepless night. About daylight the judge appeared upon his porch with his thumbs in his vest and with a jaunty air. "Oh, Judge, what happened to you, where have you been, I have been almost frightened to death." "He thought he could beat me," said the judge, as he stalked in high feather into the house.
Joseph H. Breck was an early settler of Newburgh, a grand nephew of the Brecks, after whom Brecksville was named. He was a fine farmer and stock raiser. He served in the Legisuature for several terms. He was born in Brecksville in 1831 and in 1833 came with his father to New- burgh. His family consisted of four children: George D., Dr. L. B., William M. and Mary L. The wife was Miss Hattie Brooks of Lorain County.
Charles O. Evarts, who was one of the clerks of Newburgh Township, became prominent in the affairs of Cleveland. He was city sealer and later city clerk for a number of years.
Joseph Turney, who was one of the early officers of the township, became county treasurer, and then state treasurer, and his name was long known in connection with the administration of public affairs.
Others we might mention, but the annals of the City of Cleveland will include many who began their career in Old Newburgh and gravitated into the industrial life of Greater Cleveland.
When Cleveland was a little settlement, six miles from Newburgh, two holsteries were in existence in the latter place. The Eagle House, built in the '40s, was of brick and one of the finest buildings in the county, if not on the Reserve. This became later the residence of Joseph Turney. It had a ballroom occupying the entire second floor, and by some method was provided with a spring floor, so that the old time dances could be brought out with greater effect. A Mr. Striker, John Baikel and Anson Gailord were the champions in "cutting the pigeon's wing" and their performances were a part of most dances. Some time later the Cataract House on the opposite side of the present Broadway was built and operated by Mr. Edson. He sold to A. J. Spencer and then it became the Spencer House. The Eagle House was built by Daniel Miles, who gave Miles Park to the city and after whom Miles Avenue is named. His nephew, William Miles, is now a boarder in the same building, which is operated as a boarding house, the famous ballroom having been partitioned off into smaller rooms. William Miles is now eighty-five, but is a most courteous old gentleman with faculties well preserved. Another old citizen of Newburgh is Ashley Ames, who is now nearly eighty-eight years of age and like Mr. Miles is well preserved. Through him and Mr. Miles the writer gathered a number of incidents in connection with the early history of Newburgh. The dances at these early taverns were attended by young people from the surround- ing country and they lasted all night. The orchestra usually consisted of two violins and a bass viol with Jack Leland as leader and it was considered a grand orchestra. Ned Kendall occasionally played for the dances out there. He had a reputation, having played before the king and queen of England, and his presence was an event. Jack Leland became a famous band leader of Cleveland and Leland's band was known far and wide. It was the custom of the manager of these parties to send out invitations to the desirable and attractive girls in the surrounding country and bring them to the dance in a sleigh or in the event of lack
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of sleighing, in a wagon. Then, of course, they were free to accept any invitation from the swains to "see them home" individually. Ashley Ames relates that at one of these dances, when the time for going home arrived, it was storming furiously, so they all stayed to breakfast. Then Jack Leland went up into the ballroom and began playing and they all began dancing again and danced until 9 o'clock. These were jolly times and recreations that lessened the hard burden of pioneer life. A. J. Spencer was a school teacher in Newburgh for many years and in the days when going to Cleveland was an all-day trip. At one time he ran a bus from Newburgh to Cleveland in day trips. If persons wished to go to Cleveland to the theater or any evening performance, it was neces- sary to make up a party sufficient to make the trip pay. After he had managed the Spencer House for some years, and he was a very popular landlord, he became the secretary to the chief of the fire department of Cleveland and remained through many successive administrations. Alva Brainard of Newburgh was sheriff of the county and his chief deputy, Benjamin Wiggin, also of Newburgh, lived in the jail, which was then on the southwest corner of the public square at Cleveland. Ashley Ames kept a livery stable in Newburgh, in the section which was later the eighteenth ward of the city, for nearly fifty years. He had nine brothers and two sisters and only he and one brother are living. We have referred to the first gristmill on Mill Creek. After that had been in operation for some time, Noble Bates, who acted as miller for the proprietors of the gristmill, put up a carding machine, and then a sawmill on the same stream. Then he undertook to start the silk industry. Mulberry trees were planted and silk worms procured, but the climate was not adapted to the industry and the enterprise failed.
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