USA > Ohio > Erie County > A standard history of Erie County, Ohio: an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic, and social development. A chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs > Part 3
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On January 27, 1851, Captain Willson married Roseanna M. Wright. Mrs. Willson was born at the old home in Berlin Township on the shore of Lake Erie February 18, 1833, grew up there and spent all of her wonderfully aetive and interesting life near the lake and close to the scenes of her birth. Though now eighty-two years of age, she still has a wonderfully accurate memory, and is almost unexcelled as an authority on local history. On the clear panorama of her mind are impressed the events of more than sixty years, and she has a fluent expression for all that is important and essential in the life of this community during that time. Everyone in Berlin Township knows and loves "Aunt Roseanna," as she is affectionately known, and aside from the experiences and activi- ties of her lifetime her best distinction is this love and respect which she has so fully merited.
Mrs. Willson represents one of the finest old families located in Northern Ohio during the pioneer times. Her parents were Norman L. and Maria G. (Meeker) Wright. Her father was born in Watertown, New York, June 4, 1807, and her mother was born in Reading, Con- nectient, June 28, 1811. They were married in Ohio March 28, 1829, at Iluron, Erie County, and not far from the shores of Lake Eric, where they spent the rest of their lives. Norman L. Wright was a clerk and for a number of years was connected with the transportation business on the Great Lakes. He died in Berlin Township October 10, 1846, and his widow survived until May 26, 1893. Norman L. Wright was a son of Freedom and Jerusha Wright, of New York State, where they lived and died as substantial farming people. Freedom Wright was born June 22, 1748, and died August 10, 1825, while his wife was born June 12, 1765, and died when in advanced years. Both were members of the Baptist Church.
Maria G. Meeker, the mother of Mrs. Willson, was a daughter of Stephen and Polly (Platt) Meeker. The record of Stephen Meeker has a most appropriate place in any history of Northern Ohio, particularly Erie County. He was born in Vermont January 28, 1781, while bis wife was born October 24, 1778. They were married in Redding, Connecticut, in 1800, and in the following year left Connecticut and by means of ox teams journeyed as far west as Buffalo, New York, and then came. by sailing vessel to Huron, in Erie County, being of the same class of Con-
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neetient people who colonized the Western Reserve and laid the founda- tions of civilization which have ever since given character to this section of Northern Ohio. When they arrived at Huron they found hardly a hamlet, and all the country back from the lake shores was a wilderness filled with Indians and wild animals. Stephen Meeker located a plaee at Florence in Erie County. Ohio had been a state only a few years, the great bulk of population in the new state being in the south along the Ohio River Valley, while only a fringe of settlements marked the lake shore. After one year in Erie County Stephen Meeker returned to Connecticut, and brought back to Ohio on horseback $700 in gold. With this money he bought 700 acres of land at $1.00 per acre, fronting on the lake shore for two miles and extending back about 200 rods. A permanent settlement was made on this land in 1813, and there not far from where Mrs. Willson now lives, Stephen Meeker built his first habi- tation, a log cabin, with all the primitive furniture and equipment that went with frontier life. In one of the logs of the cabin wall holes were bored, pins were inserted, and slats laid across, thus making the bedstead. This was only a sample of all the erude furniture with which they did their housekeeping for several years. It was not long until the Indians became troublesome, largely through the incentive of the British Govern- ment, and while Stephen Meeker remained behind to fight and hold his own, he sent his wife and daughter back forty miles to the settlement at Rocky River. Stephen Meeker was a blacksmith and gunsmith and soon after planting his home near Lake Erie set up a smithy. In the following year the War of 1812 began between Great Britain and the United States. The Meeker shop was visited hy Gen. William H. Harrison during his memorable campaign against the British and Indians. The general was in a great hurry when he arrived at Mr. Meeker's place and offered the latter $16.00 if the blacksmith could shoe his horse in fifteen minutes. Mr. Meeker accepted the office without hesitation, and won the reward. From Mrs. Meeker General Harrison bought butter and other supplies for his staff, and paid her $1.00 a pound for the butter. While not an eye witness to Perry's victory on Lake Erie, Stephen Meeker could hear the guns. and like all his neighbors suspended business to await the news of the outcome. It was a critical time in the lives of many people along the shore of Lake Erie. It the British fleet triumphed, it would mean the immediate abandonment of all the settlements, sinee the inhab- itants would be captured or killed, and all were accordingly very jubilant when the news came that Perry had fought and vanquished the enemy. In spite of all these vieissitudes resulting from war and turbulence, from the lack of mills, markets and settled institutions, Stephen Meeker grad- nally worked his way into prosperity, cleared off some of the woods from the land, and became a grower of grain, using the flour to replace the early continuous diet of fish and wild meat. He was thrifty and pro- gressive, and in 1821 erected a substantial briek house, the first in the county. He was also more or less active in polities, and some years before his death was elected to the office of probate judge in Erie County. Stephen Meeker and wife were strict Presbyterians of the blue stocking type, but after coming to Ohio joined the Baptist Church.
Mrs. Willson is the only living child of her father's family, and is one of the few living descendants of her grandfather Meeker. All her life she has been a member of the Baptist Church and for many years sang in the choir. To her and Captain Willson was born only one ehild, John H., who died when twenty months old. Mrs. Willson has many interesting things in her beautiful home near Huron, and probably no place in Erie County has more attractive memories and associations. She still keeps the baby dress which her mother made for her in 1832 Vol. II-2
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and which was her first garment after she came into the world. She also has the silver spoons which her grandfather made more than a cen- tury ago.
PELTIAH J. CLARK. It is a grateful distinction to have spent more than three-quarters of a century in one community, and when those years have been filled with worthy accomplishments and with that old- fashioned spirit of loving kindness, such a career becomes one deserving of admiration and worthy of perpetuation in any history of a county in which it has been spent. Peltiah J. Clark, who is now living partially retired on his half urban and half rural home at Berlin Heights, is one of the oldest native sons of Erie County, where his career has been as honorable in all its relations as it has been prolonged.
Peltiah J. Clark was born not far from Ceylon Junction at Harper's Corners in Berlin Township, April 25, 1837, a son of John and Asenath (Kemp) Clark. Both his parents were born in the State of Vermont, his father at Rutland in 1802, and his mother in 1812. His mother was a daughter of Moses Kemp. The latter and his wife came to Ohio at the same time as the Clark family and lived and died as farmers in Berlin Township, and were laid to rest in Peek's Cemetery. Moses Kemp died in 1842 and his wife a little later. He was a whig in politics.
John Clark and wife were married in Vermont, and while there their daughter Mary was born. About 1835-36 they came to Ohio, making the trip as far as Buffalo by the Erie Canal, and thence by boat to Huron. They located on Old Woman's Creek in Berlin Town- ship, near the community known as Harper's Corners. There in the midst of the woods they built a log cabin, and with Indians as neigh- bors and wild game in abundance to supply their larder, they lived for several years the primitive existence of pioneer people. John Clark died there April 20, 1849, and his wife passed away on the 20th of May in the same year. They were laid to rest side by side in Peek's Cemetery. Their daughter Mary, who was born in Vermont, died soon after the family came to this county. The daughter Joanna went West after her marriage, and the last information concerning her was from South Dakota. Henry G. is a bachelor and now lives in Toledo and is eighty years of age. The next in order of age is Peltiah J. Daniel died in Berlin Township at the age of sixteen and Miles died at the age of fourteen. Lucy died after her marriage to Harrison McDonnell, and the latter and their only daughter Millie now live in Huron County.
After the death of his parents Peltiah J. Clark, who was then twelve years of age, went to the home of Amos line. Mr. Hine died four years later, but he continued to live with his wife Polly Hine until twenty-one years of age. In the meantime he had received the instruction afforded by the local school, and may be said to have started his independent career with nothing except the associations of an honored family name. and with good mental and physical qualifications for a life that must succeed through independent efforts. For three years he was a renter. and in the meantime had married, and then bought seventy-two acres on the shore of Lake Erie along what is now the Market Street road in Berlin Township, not far from Ceylon Junction. Mr. Clark in that location began the career of steady prosperity which has continued down to the present time. He improved his land with excellent farm buildings, and continued to reside there until the spring of 1895. In that year he moved to Berlin Heights, and in 1896 bought twenty-two acres of land, fourteen of which were within the corporation limits and eight just outside. This home is now marked by an attractive dwelling
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house, many improvements, well cultivated fields, and an excellent orchard.
On November 25, 1860, Mr. Clark was married near Shinroek, in Berlin Township, to Miss IIelen M. Hendrickson, who was born in Berlin Township October 20, 1842. With the exception of nine years during which time her parents lived in Sullivan County, New York, she spent practically all her life in Erie County. Her parents were Jaeob and Elizabeth (Schoomaker) Hendrickson, the former born in Ulster County New York, in 1811, and the latter in Sullivan Cemetery in 1813. They were married in Sullivan County in 1833, and started housekeeping on a farm in that community. While living there their first child, Benjamin Hendrickson, was horn in 1834. In 1835 the Hendrickson family set out for Northern Ohio, making the trip by canal as far as Buffalo and thence by boat to Huron. Jacob Hendrickson lived for a time on rented land, and in 1846 the family returned to New York State, making the journey with covered wagons and teams. After they returned to Sulli- van County, New York, four children were born, but all of them died in infancy. In the carly part of 1856 they all came back to Erie County, and Jacob Hendrickson died in Berlin Township in 1876 and his widow in 1896. Of their children the only two living are Mrs. Clark and her brother. Michael Hendrickson, whose home is in Berlin Township, and who was the father of ten children, one of them deceased and eight of them married.
Mr. and Mrs. Clark became the parents of two children. Gertrude is the wife of Dr. George W. Iline, a sketch of whom will be found on other pages. Herman P., who was born in 1876, now ocenpies the farm which was his birthplace and which belonged to his father on the shore of Lake Erie. Herman Clark married Mand Jeffries of Berlin Town- ship, and both were schoolmates in the Berlin High School. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have membership in no church, but in their relations as neighbors have found and accepted many opportunities for practical charity and for doing good according to the golden rule. Mr. Clark is a republican,
NATHAN HOAK. There are probably not half a dozen farms in all Erie County which have had a continuons ownership by one family through a hundred years. This is one of the distinctions that belong to the home of Nathan Hoak in Berlin Township on Rural Route No. 1 out of Milan. The Hoak family was established in this part of the western wilderness prior to the second war with Great Britain and Nathan Hoak represents the third successive generation to live and make a home in Berlin Township.
The Hoak family came originally from Holland. Nathan's great- grandfather, Henry Hoak, was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, May 22, 1745, and spent many years there as a farmer. He was about thirty years old when the War of the Revolution broke out, and en- listed with a Pennsylvania regiment for service in that struggle, and in the course of his service was taken prisoner and died while on a British prison ship. He probably married a Pennsylvania girl, and both were known to have been members of the Methodist Church.
John IIoak, a son of this Revolutionary soldier, and grandfather of Nathan, was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. He grew up as a farmer in his native eounty, and married a kinswoman, Rebecca IIoak, who was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, April 26. 1786. After their marriage, about 1811 or 1812, they journeyed west by canal and lake to the month of the IInron River, came np that stream to what was known as the Wagoner Flats, and after living there one year and raising one erop which was destroyed by a flood, came on to what is now the
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western line of Berlin Township and secured direct from the Govern- ment a tract of land covered by a heavy growth of fine timber. Here in the midst of the woods they made their home and constructed for their habitation a block house, designed as much for protection against wolves and human enemies as shelter from the weather or domestic comfort. This block house stood not far from the site occupied by the comfortable dwelling of Nathan IIoak. At the time John Hoak and wife settled in this section it was said there were only three other white men in that part of Erie County. In order to raise the timbers of the house they had to secure Indians to assist. John Hoak was a fine type of the early settler, but was too generous to be successful in a material sense. lle frequently put his name to the notes of his friends, and for that reason finally lost his farm as a result of security debt. Ilis wife was one of the pioneer noble women, and in the early days of Erie County was noted for her physical endurance and her ability as a horse- woman. Several times she rode all alone to Perrysburg, Ohio, seventy- five miles away through the wild country, making the trip in a day and returning on the following day. On the uplands around her home during the season she picked large quantities of huckleberries, and would take a load of these to Sandusky sixteen miles away, sell them and do her marketing, and return in the same day. Having lost his farm John Hoak and wife went out to Indiana during the '50s and settled in LaGrange County. He found employment with a man who was taken down with the smallpox and while performing his offices as a nurse likewise contracted the disease and died prior to the Civil war. His wife died there several years later. Both were members of the Methodist Church.
Soon after coming to Erie County John Hoak made the trip up Lake Erie to Windsor, Canada, and bought a number of fruit trees, which he planted on his pioneer farm. This was one of the first orchards in Erie County, and his grandson Nathan has carefully preserved the few remaining specimens of this orchard, and still has one pear tree and one apple tree on the farm. These are so far as known the oldest fruit trees in Erie County, and more than a century has passed since they were set out. They bore fruit for fully two generations. The IIoak family were living in this section of Erie County at the time of the great victory won by Perry on Lake Erie at Put-in-Bay, and the sound of the guns could be plainly heard. At that time the young wife and her two children remained in hiding in the woods near her home, since she could see the light of a campfire not far away, and feared it might mark the camp of a party of hostile Indians. On the following day it turned out that a band of Kentucky riflemen, a detachment of General Harrison's Army, was in that region.
The children of John Hoak and wife were: Sarah, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1807; Elizabeth, born in the same state in 1810; Ruth, born in Erie County in 1812; Rebecca, born in 1814; Henry ; Nancy, born in 1821; Mary, born in 1824; Jerusha, born in 1826; and George, born in 1829. All these children married, all had children of their own except Mary, and one of them, Jerusha, is still living in LaGrange County, Indiana, nearly ninety years of age.
Henry Hoak, father of Nathan, was born in Erie County June 23, 1817. Ile grew up on the old homestead where his parents had located and which they had partly improved, and after the property was fore- closed by Judge Baker, the son Henry entered into an agreement to buy it back for the amount then dne and the additional court costs, and thus save for this brief interval, the farm has been in one family owner- ship for more than a century. Henry Hoak was a man of great industry, an able farmer, and became one of the most masterful agrienlturists in
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the entire section. At one time his farm was given the first prize in a county contest of farms. A short time before the Civil war he built a substantial brick house, bringing the brick from Milan Township, while the doors and all the wooden framework was made by hand from logs taken from the farm. He also put up generous barns and for years his place was noted for its product of fields and its fine stock. Henry Hoak died on the old homestead June 26, 1886. He was reared as a Jackson democrat in politics but afterwards during the war became a republican, and was always a conservative in his political and social ideas. Henry Iloak was married in Berlin Township to Lucy Tuttle, a sister of the well known author, Hudson Tuttle. She was born in New York State March 10, 1813, and died on the old homestead at the home of her daugh- ter, Mrs. Charles Sipp, on February 23, 1909, only a few years less than a hundred years of age. She was reared and educated in Berlin Town- ship, was a devoted wife and mother, and kept the powers of her intel- leet and body fresh and vigorous until a short time before her death. Her family were among the early settlers of Erie County, and her par- ents were Nathan and Maria (Monroe) Tuttle, who secured a tract of new land on coming to Berlin Township and eventually developed a good farm out of it. Her father died when past ninety and her mother was also quite old.
Nathan Hoak was one of five children. Ilis sister Maria, now living in Milan Township, is the widow of John Millman, and she has two sons and one daughter, all of whom are married. Ruth died at the age of nineteen. John is now a retired farmer at Norwalk, Ohio, and has one son and three daughters living, all of them married except the youngest daughter. The next in age is Nathan, Caroline is the wife of Charles Sipp, a farmer who occupies part of the old Hoak homestead.
On the old Hoak farm, most of which he now owns and occupies, Nathan Iloak was born December 26, 1848. He was given a substantial education, and at the age of twenty started out in life as a teacher and was highly successful in that profession which he followed in his home township and county for several years. Later he bought and still owns fifty-two acres east of the old home, lived there two years, but then returned to the home farm to take care of his mother during her declin- ing years. He now owns a hundred acres of this farm and has con- tinned its development according to the high standards set by his able father. As a stock man he gives his attention primarily to Durham cattle and Chester White hogs. His fields show little falling off in the produetiveness for which they were noted in earlier years, and he grows large crops of grain and potatoes. Mr. Hoak has been one of the promi- nent farmers in Berlin Township for the past forty years. He has held nearly every office in the County Fair Association and is now superin- tendent of track. His father was a vice president and a director of the association many years, and the products of the Iloak homestead have probably won as many blue ribbone at the local fair as have been awarded to any one farm in the county. Mr. Hoak's father was the first man to be honored with the office of master of the Berlin Heights Grange No. 345, Patrons of Husbandry, and at the present time Nathan IIoak holds the same office, and has been prominent since the beginning of the organization. Ilis wife is likewise active in the Grange. He is a member of the blue lodge of Masons at Milan and a charter member of and active in the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Berlin Ileights since it was organized twenty-eight years ago. Mr. Hoak has served as trustee of the town- ship and is the type of substantial citizen who well merits the honors and rewards of civic position. For a number of years in addition to his farming activities he has been a stock buyer and shipper.
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In Huron Township in 1874 Mr. Hoak married Miss Della Hughes, who was born in Huron Township June 26, 1857, and was reared in the country and in the Village of IFuron. She is a daughter of George and Margaret (Everett) Hughes, both of whom were natives of Erie County and spent most of their lives on a good farm in Huron Township. Her father died there about forty years ago, and her mother passed away at the age of seventy-five. They were members of the Universalist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Hoak are likewise of the same faith.
TRUMAN BENJAMIN TAYLOR. Among the old families of Erie County the Taylors have had a prominent place from the time when the State of Ohio was on the western frontier. Fully a century has elapsed since the company of Connecticut colonists journeyed westward and established themselves in the wilderness of Perkins Township. Of the several dis- tinetive families in that party the Taylors were of special prominence. A fact of pioneer history which has often been little mentioned is that the first settlers of any community, through their leadership, their relations in family or friendly ties with later commerce, and through their public spirit in guarding the moral integrity of the community, often exercise a far-reaching and invaluable influence on the social and economic wel- fare and give a vital direction to the subsequent destiny of their locality. The Taylors and their associates in pioneer settlement were all people of substantial New England stock, moral and upright and thrifty, and in many ways the influences and results of their lives can be traced in the history of Erie County.
In 1815 a colony was organized at Glastonbury, Connecticut, for the purpose of making settlement in the Ohio wilderness. This colony comprised the following heads of families: Joseph Taylor, Sr., his sons Joseph and Jesse Taylor, Eleazur Bell, Julius House, Pliny Johnson, Harvey Corelle, Roswell Eddy, Roswell Hubbard, Halsey Aikens and Dr. Richard Christopher. It will be recalled that the date was ten years before the opening of the Erie Canal, and right at the beginning of the great westward movement which in a few years peopled all the country west of the Alleghenies up to the Mississippi. The means of transpor- tation were of the most primitive nature. America at that time had no railroads, and there were no canals across the mountains. The colony from Connecticut therefore made the entire journey with wagons and teams. To some of the wagons were attached two pair of oxen and a horse, and to others one pair of oxen and a horse. In the wagons were carried the household goods, provisions and farm implements, and every- thing not needed was sacrificed and left behind, including many comforts to which these families had been accustomed in the East. Along the way they camped out at night, and spent forty-nine days in travel. This brought them to what was then Huron County, now Perkins Township of Erie County.
Arriving in this wilderness, Joseph Taylor, at that time the head of the Taylor family, bought land, improved a farm, and spent the rest of his days in Erie County. Both he and his wife are buried in one of the old cemeteries in Perkins Township. He was twice married and had children by both wives.
In the next generation special attention is called to Jesse Taylor, one of the sons of Joseph. Jesse Taylor was born in Glastonbury, Connec- ticut, March 14, 1783, and was about thirty-two years of age when he came to Northern Ohio. He also bought land, situated about seventy rods east of the briek ehureh in Perkins township, and there built a log house which continued to be the home of the Taylor family for a number of years. He improved his land, was an industrious worker, a pros- perous eitizen, and did his share in the moral and civic upbuilding of
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