USA > Ohio > Trumbull County > A twentieth century history of Trumbull County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 14
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bull County, crossing townships here and there, but they were in no sense developed or finaneed by Trumbull County men or money.
In 1881 the Pittsburg, Youngstown & Chicago Railroad Company was incorporated in Ohio, and a similar company incorporated in Pennsylvania. This road intended to run from Pittsburg, through Youngstown and Akron, to Chicago Junction. These companies in the same year were consolidated.
In 1882, the Pittsburg. Cleveland & Toledo Railroad Com- pany was incorporated, as was another company, which was to rum a line from New Castle Junction to the Ohio state line. That same year these two companies were consolidated under the title of the Pittsburg. Cleveland & Toledo Railroad Company. The capitalization was $3,000,000. Chauncey HI. Andrews was presi- dent, and W. J. Hitchcock and Lucian E. Cochran, all of Youngs- town. were associated with him. This road became the Pittsburg & Western Railroad Company, and later the B. & O. Company purchased the controlling stock of the Pittsburg & Western and it became a part of the B. & O. System.
CHAPTER XVI .-- BENCH AND BAR.
INTRODUCTION .- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES .- STORIES .- LIST OF JUDGES.
NOTE .-- The first page of this chapter on Bench and Bar was written by Hon. F. E. Hutchins, assistant attorney general of the United States. IIe also wrote the sketch of Ezra B. Taylor, his life-long friend. The author of this volume wrote the rest of this chapter and is responsible for any errors contained therein, although Mr. Hutchins read it.
When Connectient sold to the Land Company, she parted, so far as she could, with all her rights, jurisdictional as well as to the soil, but whether a state could transfer its jurisdiction over half its territory to a party of private land speculators and con- fer upon them governmental jurisdiction, was a serious question.
Certainly the purchasers never attempted to exereise any such governmental jurisdiction or to enact any laws. They made frequent applications to Connecticut to extend her jurisdiction and laws over the territory, and to the United States to accept jurisdiction, but all were refused. The purchasers and settlers repndiated the Ordinance of 1787 as extending to this territory because to accept it would be to admit a superior title in the United States, which would be fatal to that of Connecticut and therefore fatal to that of the Land Company, and the settlers.
Subsequently, in 1800, acts of Congress and the Connecticut legislature confirmed the title of Conneetient to the soil on the Reserve on the one hand, and relieved the United States of all jurisdiction over it on the other. And then, for the first time in its history, the Western Reserve came within any civil juris- diction, and its people were protected and governed by law. But from the time of this sale by Connecticut to the Connecticut Land Company, in 1795, to this acceptance of jurisdiction, in 1800, the Western Reserve was absolutely without law or gov- ernment of any kind. There were no courts, no laws, no records, no magistrates or police, and no modes of enforcing or protect-
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ing land titles, contracts or personal rights. It was a veritable "no-man's land" so far as government and law was concerned. This was a poor place for lawyers, as it always is where people will behave themselves without them. It was not even a pure democracy, for there the people meet to enact laws and enforce rights. Here they did not and could not. Some seventy miles of unbroken wiklerness of forest, lakes and swamps, separated the two settlements at Cleveland and Youngstown. And yet, so trained in eivil government and obedience to law were the settlers that they felt no need of either. Lands were bought and sold, personal contraets were made, marriages solemnized. and personal rights respected as in the best governed societies. and all without government and without law. In the same year (1800) that the Reserve came within civil jurisdiction, the whole was organized into one county, with the county seat at Warren.
The first judges of the Northwest territory appointed by the president of the United States were Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum, and John Cleves Symmes. Of these three, Judge Symmes is the best remembered because of his claim of a hollow earth, and because of his connection with the famous Harrison family. He was born in New Jersey, but early emigrated to this country, where he became a valiant soldier. After army service he devoted himself to a theory, his own invention, which declared the earth to be hollow, open at the poles, and inhabitable within. His followers were more in num- ber than it is possible for us today to believe, and he even asked Congress to make an appropriation to test out his theory. It does not seem possible that a man who could believe in so foolish a theory, could have been a college graduate, a delegate to the Provincial Congress, active in framing the constitution of his own state (New Jersey). delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and judge of the Northwest Territory. Gen. Lew Wallace, in his life of President Benjamin Harrison, says:
"The wooing and winning of Anna Symmes by William Henry Harrison is not without romantic coloring. When Fort Washington was established at Cincinnati, Harrison was stationed there. Duty called the gallant captain to North Bend, and he became a guest at the Symmes resi- denee. It was not long until he succumbed to the black eyes of Miss Anna. She was at the time twenty years of age. small, graceful, intelligent and by general agreement beauti-
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ful. He was twenty-two years of age, with a reputation well established as a gallant soklier. The two were mutu- ally pleased with each other, and an engagement followed, which could hardly fail to be satisfactory to the father. The Judge, in fact, consented to the marriage; but, hearing some slanderons reports of the captain, he afterwards with- drew his consent. The lovers were in nowise daunted. They resolved to proceed with their engagement. Novem- ber 29, 1795, the day appointed for the wedding, arrived. Judge Synes, thinking the affair off or declining to be present, rode to Cincinnati, leaving the coast clear.
"In the presence of the young lady's step-mother and many guests the ceremony was performed by Dr. Stephen Wood, a justice of the peace.
"Undoubtedly the father of the bride was a person of great importance at that time. He was a high dignitary of the United States government and proprietor of a tract of land dueal in proportions. The lady was beautiful, young, charming, of Eastern education and manners. The bridegroom on his side had fought his way to a captaincy, which was a much more influential argument in that day than this, especially in social circles. With these points in mind, it would not be strange if a reader, giving reign to his fancy, should picture the wedding as of exceeding splendor of cir- «umstance. It was the very reverse. To arrive at the facts the time and the condition of the people of the region must be considered. The west was in its densest wilderness. There were no luxuries. To be comfortable was to be rich. There was no aristocracy. Store goods were scarce and at prices out of reach. Weeks of travel were required to get to and from the mills. For summer wear the settlers depended in great part upon the fibre of thistle, a certain species of which, growing spontaneously in the woods, fell down and rotted in the winter and was gathered in the spring and cleaned and woven by the women. Indeed, the probabilities are that the company assembled to witness the marriage of Captain Harrison and Miss Anna Symmes would astonish polite circles of today. They arrived on horseback. each man carrying a rifle, a powder-horn and a pouch lined with patching and bullets. Traveling by narrow paths ent through thiekets of blackberry and alder bushes and undergrowth of every variety, each step taken might be into an ambush
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of Indians. They moved in the mood and ready for instant combat. A wife, coming with her husband, rode behind him. They dismounted at the door, as it was winter; ten to one he wore buckskin for coat and breeches, and a coonskin cap, while she was gay with plaided linsey-woolsey of her own weaving, cutting and sewing. Her head was protected from the wind by a cotton handkerchief. Coarse shoes supplied the place of slippers. The wedding cake was of New England doughnuts. On the sideboard there were jugs of cider, very hard at that, and whiskey none the worse for its home brew- ing, and they were there to be drank. The dancing. with which the fete was most likely rounded off in the evening, was to a fiddle in the hand of a colored artist who knew the plantation jigs as a mocking bird knows his whistle. The pigeon-wing with which the best dancers celebrated the bal- anee all was ent with feet yellow with moccasins. Such was in probability the general ensemble of the wedding.
"The bride may have had an outfit of better material. So recently from the east, she may have had a veil, a silk froek and French slippers. The bridegroom, of course, wore his captain's uniform, glittering with bullet-buttons of burnished brass, and high boots becoming an aide in favor with his chief, the redoubtable Anthony Wayne, whom the Indians were accustomed to describe as 'the warrior who never slept.' Taken altogether, the wedding celebrated at Judge Symmes' house that November day, 1795, cannot be cited in proof of a charge of aristocratie pretension on the part of the high contracting parties.
"Sometime afterwards Judge Symmes met his son-in- law. The occasion was a dinner party given by General Wil- kinson to General Wayne.
" . Well sir,' the judge said, in bad humor, ' I understand you have married Anna.'
" 'Yes, sir,' Harrison answered.
"''How do you expect to support her?'
" 'By my sword and my own right arm,' was the reply.
"The judge was pleased, became reconciled, and in true romantie form happily coneluded the affair by giving the couple his blessing."
Judges Parsons, Varnum and Symmes, or any two of them, constituted a court of common law jurisdiction. Their commis-
Vol. 1-10
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sion extended during good behavior. The next lower court was the county court of common pleas and the general quarter ses- sions of the peace. The court of common pleas must consist of three judges, not more than seven, and their jurisdiction was concurrent in the respective counties with that of the supreme conrt. The general quarter sessions of the peace was obliged to hold three terms each year, was limited in criminal jurisdiction, and the mumber in each county was determined by the govern- ment. "Single judges of the connnon pleas and single justices of quarter sessions were also clothed with certain civil and crim- inal powers, to be exercised outside of court. The probate court of each county had the jurisdiction ordinarily grauted to it."
Judge Henry Clay White, in Bench and Bar of Ohio. says:
"The expenses of the system were defrayed in part by the national government and in part by assessment upon connties, but principally by fees which were payable to every officer concerned in the administration of justice, from the judges of the general court downward."
The quorum which is often noted in the early accounts of the history of Trumbull County consisted of five justices of the peace chosen from the county justices who were appointed by the territorial government. This quorum was required to meet three times a year (that is, every four months) and was called the "Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace." It is often called "The Primitive Court of the North-West Territory." Most of the diaries and books of the early surveyors and first settlers contain lively descriptions of the first court of quarter sessions for Trumbull County. It was held between two corn-eribs on Main street. near the spot where the Erie station now stands. in 1800. August 25th chanced to be a pleasant day, so there was no need of shelter. Some of the diaries call this spot the "Public Square" or "Common." As many men attending this session had to come on horseback, or on foot, court was not called until four o'clock in the afternoon. It lasted five days, and Calvin Pease, one of the most capable and brilliant men of that early time, reference to whom ocenrs in several places in this history, writes as follows:
"Court of general quarter sessions of the peace, begun and holden at Warren, within and for said County of Trum-
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bull, on the fourth Monday of August, in the year of our Lord 1800, and of the independence of the United States the twenty-fifth. Present, John Young. Turhand Kirtland, Camden Cleveland, James Kingsbury, and Eliphalet Austin, esquires, justices of the quorum, and others, their associates, justices of the peace, holding said court. The following per- sons were returned, and appeared on the grand jury and were empaneled and sworn, namely: Simon Persons . (fore man), Benjamin Stowe, Samuel Menough, Hawley Tanner. Charles Day, Ebenezer King, William Cecil. John Hart Ad- gate, Henry Lane, Jonathan Church, Jeremiah Wilcox, John Partridge Bissell, Isaac Palmer, George Phelps, Samuel Quinby and Moses Parks. The court appointed George Tod, Esquire, to prosecute the pleas of United States for the present session, who took the oath of office. The court or- dered that the private seal of the clerk shall be considered the seal of the county, and be affixed and recognized as such till a public seal shall be procured. The court appointed Amos Spafford, Esq., David Hudson, Esq., Simon Perkins. Esq., John Miner, Esq., Aaron Wheeler, Esq .. Esward [certainly Edward] Paine, Esq., and Benjamin Davis, Esq., a committee to divide the County of Trumbull into town- ships, to describe the limits and boundaries of each town- ship, and to make report to the court thereof."
Although Judge Parsons was, so far as we know, the first lawyer to take up land in New Connectient and to discharge his duties as a judge, John S. Edwards was the first to really prac- tice his profession. He was a graduate of Yale College. studied law in New Haven in Judge Reeve's celebrated law school in Litchfield, Conn. He was admitted to practice in 1799, being twenty-two years old. His father had obtained the town- ship of Mesopotamia in the distribution of the land by the Con- necticut Land Company, and young Edwards came into that unbroken district to prepare a settlement. His granddaughter. Louisa Edwards of Youngstown, still owns a farm in Mesopo- tamia. His son says :
"What other persons preceded him or went with him. or how long he stayed, or what he accomplished, I am not informed, but I have understood he was especially glad when *NOTE .- Undoubtedly a misprint for Perkins .- ED.
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he got a few trees ent down and let in the sun. I know of no incident but only of his first night in Warren, to which he refers in after time with amusement. The place was the floor of a cabin, crowded with emigrants, and somewhat pro- miscuous."
Ile returned to Connectient that fall, but came back in the spring and practiced law, which, of course, must have been such law as would pertain to drawing of papers necessary in the bny- ing and selling of land, the making of land contracts, etc., since there were no courts. When the county seat was established, Governor St. Clair appointed him recorder of Trumbull County. and this office he held until the time of his death in 1813. He lived in Mesopotamia until he moved to Warren. The following is a quotation from his journal, dated February 4th, 1804:
" We have been, as it were, for about six weeks shut out from the world, during a greater part of which time the snow has been from two to three feet deep and the creeks and rivers ahnost impassable. Our mails have been very irregular. I live as formerly. but, having a stiller house and my business better arranged, am able to pay more atten- tion to my books and have, for the last six months, spent all iny leisure time at them, and shall continue so to do. Law business is generally very much increasing, and my share of it in particular. Though I live very much out of the way of business, I commenced for the coming court as many suits as either of my brethren. [Probably means Tappan and Tod.] I have not as yet moved to Warren, but still have it in contemplation. Our country is rapidly improving. The pros- pects of the settlement about me seem to brighten. Next spring we elect our militia officers from a brigadier general down. The public mind begins to be considerably awakened at its near approach, and there will be a vast deal of heart- burning. As I shall seek for no promotion in that line, and of course shall not receive any, I shall remain an idle spectator of the scene."
On June 15, 1809, he says: "The business of my pro- T'ession alone is sufficient to support me handsomely, inde- pendent of my recordership, and I have the satisfaction to believe that mine is the best of any of my brethren."
On October 17, 1808, he writes: "The multiplicity of
.
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my employment and the constant attention which I am under the necessity of giving to my business leaves me but little leisure. **
* In my profession am very successful, having much the largest share of the business within the circuit."
January 22, 1810: "I have every success in my pro- fession which I have a right to expect. I am able to do con- siderably more than support my family, and the style of my living is equal to that of any of the people about me. I am not in the way of receiving any of the honors of office: and whether I could gain them if I wished I do not know. having never made the experiment."
In this Mr. Edwards was mistaken. In 1812 he was elected a member of Congress to represent the sixth district. This was the first congressional election after the division of the state into districts. At that time the district was composed of the counties of Trumbull, Ashtabula, Geauga, Cuyahoga. Portage, Columbiana, Stark, Tuscarawas, Wayne, Knox and Richmond. He did not live to take his seat.
Mr. and Mrs. Edwards were both strong and unusual char- acters, and were so closely identified with all the early life of Trumbull County that those interested in that side of this history will find much which is of interest in regard to them in the earlier chapters.
A few months after Mr. Edwards arrived in New Connecti- cut Hon. Benjamin Tappan appeared. Enroute he had many vicissitudes and misfortunes, under which most men would have succumbed ; some boats belonging to his party were thrown upon the lake shore in a storm, his first load of goods put in camp was stolen while he was transporting a load to the present site of Ravenna, one of his oxen was killed by being bitten by insects, and he found himself in a new country without food or money. He was born in Massachusetts, had a good education, was ad- mitted to the bar. In 1800 he returned to Connecticut and mar- ried Miss Nancy Wright, a member of a distinguished family and herself a strong character. Ile was attorney in many im- portant cases of the early times, and was admitted to the Ohio bar at the same time that Huntington, Edwards and Tod were. He traveled back and forth from Ravenna to Warren, attending court. and was one of the lawyers in the McMahon case. In 1803 he was chosen to represent Trumbull district in the Ohio senate.
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and served one year. Portage county was formed from Trum- bull in 1807, and the act erecting this county designated his house as the place of holding the first court. It is a tradition, not wholly verified, that when the proper officers proceeded to his house on the morning court was to open they found it burned to the ground. So the court of this county, like that of its mother, Trumbull, was first held with the trees and the skies as a cover. Mr. Tappan's life from beginning to end was eventful, but after the year 1808 its narrative does not belong in Trumbull County history. He was, however, aide-de-camp to General Wadsworth in the war of 1812, judge of the fifth Ohio circuit, United States judge for Ohio; and United States senator from 1839-45. He was a good linguist and compiled "Tappan's Re- ports."
George Tod came to New Comectient in 1800, about the time of Mr. Edwards' arrival. He was born in Suffield, Connectient, in 1773; graduated from Yale in 1797; he taught school, read law, and was admitted to the bar in Connectiont. He married Miss Salle Isaacs in 1797. She was a sister of Mrs. Ingersoll, whose husband was governor. Two of his children, Charlotte and Jonathan, were born in Connecticut. Ile was appointed proseenting attorney at the first term of court held in Trumbull Connty. Warren, in 1800. He was identified with almost every important act connected with the settlement of the new country. He was township clerk in 1802-03-04; senator from Trumbull County for 1804 and 1805; again in 1810 and 1811. In 1806 he was appointed judge of the supreme court of the state to fill a vacancy, and the next year was elected by the legislature to the same place. Ile was lieutenant colonel in the war of 1812. He held the office of judge of the court of common pleas from 1815 to 1829. and a few years later held the office of prosecuting attor- ney for one term. Ile was sixty-eight years old when he died in 1841. He was prosecuting attorney at the time of the indict- ment of Joseph MeMahon for murder.
No history nor even short historical sketch of the early Trumbull County has ever been written which did not refer to the murder committed at Salt Springs. Because this pertains largely to law, it is given here.
Joseph McMahon, a trader and somewhat of a wanderer. with his wife and children, lived in several different places in and adjoining Warren. At that time the Indians were very nu- merons in this part of the country, but gave the settlers little
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real trouble unless they were under the influence of "fire-water." McMahon was not of the same moral standing as were most of the other settlers in Warren. He lived here as early as 1797, and possibly earlier. In 1800 he lived at Salt Springs, and in July he, with two other white men, was engaged in making salt. The old Indian trail and the traders' path from Youngstown to Sandusky led by this spring. Indians, having been in Youngs- town, became intoxicated enough to be quarrelsome, and on their return stopped at Salt Springs with their squaws and papooses. A caronsal was begun in which MeMahon and the two white men joined. Bad blood was soon evident, and the Indians drove the white men away. After the men had gone the Indians began to tease MeMahon's wife, and threatened to kill her and her chil- dren. McMahon was working on an adjoining place. Mrs. Me- Mahon took her children and went to her husband, stayed over night, and he returned with her in the morning. The matter was talked over with the Indians who were encamped near them, and apparently a satisfactory agreement arrived at. McMahon re- turned to Storer's to work. However, the Indians again became abusive. and struck one of the MeMahon children with the handle of his tomahawk. As this had been going on for four of five days. Mrs. McMahon again became alarmed, and started ont to meet her husband. Again they stayed all night at the Storer's, and the matter was talked over. On Sunday McMahon came into Warren for consultation with the settlers, and about thirteen men and two boys returned with him to Salt Springs. Mr. Quinby led the party, and, when a little distance from the Springs, halted. exporting to leave the rest of the party while he went on to see the Indians. This he did. He talked with Captain George. a Tuscarawa, and Spotted John, a Seneca, who was partly white. They laughed off the matter, saying that the white men drank up all the Indians' whiskey and then would not let them have any of theirs, but agreed to do them no further harm. They agreed that McMahon and his family conld return and would not be molested. MeMahon had not obeyed orders, had not halted, and when Mr. Quinby saw him coming and tried to stop him, he would not heed. Going on to Captain George, he asked him. "Are you for peace or war? Yesterday you had your men ; now I've got mine." A tomahawk was sticking in the tree and Captain George raised himself from his position, seized it, apparently to sink it in McMahon's head. MeMahon was too near to shoot. but, jumping back. fired, hitting the Indian in the breast and
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killing him. McMahon, greatly excited, seeing the Indians spring for their weapons, called on the whites to shoot, and Storer, see- ing that Spotted John was aiming at him from behind a tree where he, his squaw and papooses were hiding, fired. "Storer's ball passed through Spotted John's hip, broke a boy's arm, passed under the cords in the neck of his girl and grazed the throat of his squaw." All was immediate confusion. The whites beat a hasty retreat, the two boys who had come with McMahon ran a distance of nearly three miles without stopping. The Indians buried the bodies-or, rather, half buried them-and departed, leaving the wounded squaw and her children. They locating their camp near Newton Falls. The wounded woman immediately set ont for the residence of Hillman, who seemed to be the friend of all in distress, and covered the nine miles in an hour and a half. Both Indians and white men were greatly astonished over what had happened. None of them expected it, unless it was MeMahon. The white men had gone with him be- lieving to find that he was an aggressor. He was arrested, and taken to Pittsburg for safety. A little later, as the rendezvous had been on the Storer place, there was some talk of arresting Storer. Having learned of this, he disappeared. In talking with Leonard Case Sr., whose mind was very fair and jndieial. Storer said he had gone to Salt Springs with the intention only of set- tling the difficulty. "He had suddenly found himself in imminent and instant danger of being shot, withont any possible means of escape. He had shot to save his own life." Storer, like many other citizens of this region, did not know that the United States had assumed legal jurisdiction over this territory, and not know- ing by whom he would be tried, feared to stay. He was a gentle- man, and never ceased to regret he had been drawn into this affair. He left Warren, after a few years' stay. "On Monday, Mrs. Storer mounted her two horses with her three children and what goods and clothing she conld carry and started for her former home in Washington county, Pennsylvania, alone, except that Mr. Mills of Nelson, who was on his way to Beaver, accom- panied her as far as the latter place. The rest of her property was left to such eare as a few friendly neighbors could give it."
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