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 43
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County, and in Ohio, own their own clothes, and own their own limbs.
This home in the wilderness, over which Ruhamah De Wolf Pelton presided, became a mecea to which travelers and mis- sionaries came. One iron kettle served for boiling, baking and frying, and in this home were the first religious meetings of the township held. Here was the first birth and the first death. "Out of the pieces split from a chestnut log a rude coffin was made to bury" Ruhamah's baby. This pioneer had nine chil- dren. five of them girls. She was fond of reading, and in this primitive home. with all its privations and cares, she grew men- tally and morally, and lived to be nearly ninety years old. The name of Pelton has been connected with Gustavus, Hartford, Vernon and that vicinity since 1800.
In 1803 Elias Pelton, another son of Josiah, with his wife, settled in Gustavus on a tract north of the center. Josiah Pelton and the mother came with him. The former had planned that each of his sons should have a farm of one hundred acres. Apparently the daughters must manage some other way. Zilpha married Eliphaz Perkins, and this was the first marriage in the township. They waited for nearly a year for a minister to marry them. Barbara. a granddaughter of Josiah. and a daughter of Elias, was the first white girl to be born, who lived, in the township. Her brother, Storrs. was the first white boy.
In 1804 fifty people came to Gustavus. Prominent among these was Obediah Gildersleeve. He obtained permission from the court to drop the last part of his name, and the family has since been known as "Gilder." Mr. Gildersleeve settled about one-half mile east of the center. He had eight children when he arrived, and one was born afterwards. He died in 1805, when he was fifty, and he was among the first to be buried in the graveyard north of the center. His wife lived to be seventy years old, and throughout her whole life had great love for children. Several generations have been proud to claim her as their Sunday school teacher. Like most of the strong women of her time, she was an ardent abolitionist and drove wagonloads of slaves to the lakes, where they made their escape. She had a great sorrow in the death of her danghter, Chloe, who, while riding came upon the quicksand near the bank of the Pymatuning, which had undermined the crust, and was pre- cipitated into the river. The horse, and a cousin who was riding with her. escaped. but Chloe was drowned. Phoebe Gilder was
HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY
one of the most intellectual of this large family. She studied at school and at home, reading everything she could lay her hands upon. She seemed to see, as she grew older, the disabili- ties which the law placed on women, and writes: "A Mrs. Ballard had the misfortune to marry a man of small intellect, who finally became idiotie. She procured, by an attorney, the right of government over a minor, and then she bought and sold and moved at her own will. She lived to be over eighty years old." Mrs. Gilder herself lived well up into the nineties.
Calvin Cone and family came to Gustavus with the Gilder- sleeve party. He was from Hartland, and after living in Gus- tavas a few years moved to Hartford. He was the first justice of the peace in Gustavns, probably 1808, and was a state senator from Trumbull County in 1806. Mrs. Cone is commended by loeal historians for the work she did in the wilderness home when her husband was in the legislature.
Mr. Cone realized that a blacksmith was a necessity for a new country, and he indneed Jehiel Meacham, of Hartland, Connecticut, to come to Trumbull County to follow his trade, offering him fifty acres of land if he would settle in Gustavus. This was quite an inducement, so he started in 1805, with his family stowed away in sleds drawn by oxen. When they reached Canandaigua his wife, in getting into the sled, fell and injured herself. The rest of the party came on, but Mr. Mea- cham remained with his wife, who shortly died, and was buried there. He then took his little girl in his arms, put his boy be- hind him on his horse, and this sorrowful little family reached Mr. Cone's home in the early spring, when the wood flowers were just beginning to bloom and when the woods were full of the early wild birds. This little girl, Pattie, later became Mrs. Ebenezer St. John, and another daughter Lydia, Mrs. Benja- min Allen, of Kinsman.
Sally Cone, a danghter of these early settlers, married Wayne Bidwell, in 1815. In 1832 he died leaving four children. She managed the farm and reared the family.
In 1816, William Roberts, and his wife Margaret, came to Gustavus from Canton, Connecticut. He was a tanner and a shoemaker, also was a natural musician and tanght music in several places in Trumbull County. Musie was his pleasure, and he neglected his trade to his financial embarrassment. When he died he had little property to leave, and, through no mismanagement on his widow's part, it was wasted, and when
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she was old "there was no room for her at any fireside." However, Sophia, her daughter-in-law, who had more cares than the other children, gave her a home in her family, where she was comfortably cared for the rest of her life. Mrs. Phoebe Barnes Bridgeman in " Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve." says: "Thurzah Andrews Roberts was a small, round-faced woman, as full of energy as a grain of pep- per. To her the four cardinal virtues were industry, neatness, promptness, and economy. When her husband was beset with some hurrying customer for a pair of new shoes, she would thrust her snowy cap inside the door, and in tones like those of a fife major would say, Now. William, don't promise those shoes until you know you can have them done.' She criticized everybody and everything, and whether favorably or adverse- ly, with equal heartiness and good-will."
Riverius Bidwell was a well educated man of Connecticut. He married Unicia Hotchkiss in 1810, and in 1812 moved to Gustavus. She made the trip rather comfortably, since her rocking chair was put into a large wagon. Mr. Bidwell was eccentric, but earnest. At one time he was collector of taxes and he walked at a brisk gait, barefoot, from house to house, collecting. and when he was through walked to Columbus to settle with the state treasurer. He was postmaster at Gustavus, 'but being gone so much of the time, his wife really did the business. In 1834 he removed to Kinsman, where he always took an active interest. His father, Riverins Sr., married Phoebe Roberts and emigrated to Gustavus about 1813, bring- ing the most of his family with him. His daughter, Marietta, a sister of Riverius Jr., married Buell Barnes and settled on the home farm in East Gustavus. She was very musical, and conld sing sweetly all her 'days. She was an ardent Aboli- tionist and assumed part of his home duties while he was in the legislature, being glad to be able to help him indirectly to repeal the infamous black laws.
One of the well remembered families of Gustavus was the Waters, Abner and Lucy. They came from Landisfield. She was a very devout woman and her brother-in-law, Joshua R. Giddings, said. "It is an inspiration to talk with sister Lucy." She died rather early in life and in 1829 her husband married again. Their wedding was the first one in the township at which wine or whiskey was not served.
Jesse Lindsay was another of Gustavus' citizens who came
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from Granby, Connecticut. When he married Jerusha Rice they settled in Gustavus. She was one of the most industrious women that Gustavus ever had. She and a friend, Mrs. Streator, often spun half the night after having done their other work and put their children to bed. She was a very well informed woman and knew as much about politics as most of the men of the neighborhood. A Gustavus man, in speaking of her intelligence and information, said she "was, I think, as capable of voting as men."
Asa Case and his wife, Dosa Case and his wife, came to Gustavus in the antimm of 1812, from Canton, Connecticut. Hepzibah and Thurzah, the wives, walked many days, each carrying a baby in the arms. They settled near the home of Joseph Hart, in the midst of an unbroken forest, filled with all sorts of game, and both men and women applied themselves diligently to the work of making home out of the forest. Dosa had the first peach orchard in that region.
One of the men who achieved unpleasant notoriety in Gus- tavus was Ira W. Gardner, who murdered his step-daughter because she refused to yield to his lustful passion. He stabbed her with a butcher knife, hitting her heart. He was the only man hanged in Trumbull County, and Gustavus people still speak of him with the utmost contempt.
Another man known throughout the United States at the time was John Brown Jr. He married Weltha Hotchkiss, of Gustavus. Later he moved to Vernon, went to Kansas, and finally died at Put-in-Bay. When his father went to Harper's Ferry, the son was suspected of being in conspiracy with him and the authorities sought to arrest him. When the United States marshal reached Jefferson, Brown's friends told him that at least a thousand men would resist his arrest, as he was in no way guilty, whereupon the marshal withdrew.
Few people know that Elisha Gray, the inventor, lived for some time in Trumbull County. He was exceedingly poor, and one year he asked Mr. David Gilbert, the father of Judge D. R. Gilbert, to allow him to live in a little house, one story, fifteen by twenty, which stood on Mr. Gilbert's place. This was not plastered, but Mr. Gray put boards on the inside, and papered it so that it looked comfortable. However, it was exceedingly cold. One springtime, tiring of his poverty, Gray rented a sugar camp in the vicinity and urged Mr. Gilbert to allow his second son, D. R., then a lad about eighteen, to assist
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him in the sugar camp. The arrangement was made and Gray and young Gilbert went to work, and work they did, for the camp was not well equipped. They were several miles from home and they would boil as late as they possibly could and often had not time to go home at night. Being particularly tired one night young Gilbert suggested that they crawl into the schoolhouse which was not far away and sleep on the floor. This they did. A few nights later, instead of going to the schoolhouse they crawled onto the hay in a near-by barn. In the night they awakened, each shaking with a chill. When they were sufficiently aroused they found that a snow storm had come up, that the roof was so full of holes they were covered with snow. They therefore decided to walk home. Taking their lantern they started eross lots. They soon entered a piece of woods. Here young Gilbert had played, here he had hunted for squirrels and birds and he knew every bit of it. Someone had had a fire in the woods that day and there was a little of it left, not enough for warmth but so it could be seen. They started to cross the woods near this fire and in half an hour they found themselves back at the fire, although they had supposed themselves to be going straight ahead. This happened two or three times. Finally young Gilbert suggested putting ont the lantern which they were carrying, thinking possibly the first of the morning light might soon be there. They walked this way to the edge of the woods where they found the camp, and then got their bearing. Although they did not reach home until three o'clock in the morning, they went to work as usual. They "sugared off" and had enough cakes to fill the bottom of a wagon. With great joy they started home with their load. Be- fore they were half way there a rain came up, and hurry as they might, the melted sugar was running from the wagon.
Apparently Mr. Gray was more successful with electrical appliances than with farming. All the while he was wintering in this cabin he was working on inventions, and sometimes as he boiled sap he would sit and dream in front of the fire to the con- sternation of young Gilbert, who had to constantly watch lest the fire go ont or the sugar burn. A churn which at this time he patented proved unsuccessful. When he was working on the telephone his wife really became alarmed about him. He was then in Oberlin. Days and weeks at times he sat up- stairs like a man in a dream. She thought he was losing his
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mind. One day he came running down stairs calling "Eureka," Delia, Eureka."
His early friends who knew him well believed he invented the telephone which now bears Bell's name. Gray cared noth- ing for fame, but did care for the invention itself. It will be remembered that a lawsuit was begun by Gray against Bell for the infringement of patents, and that it never came to trial. Although Gray was very poor before that, afterwards he had much money, and before he was through this amounted to a mil- lion dollars. It was supposed that he allowed Bell to have the name for a certain sum of money or interest in the business.
The first physician to settle in this township was Naphtali Streator, who came early in 1800. Dr. Allen, of Kinsman, had a large practice in Gustavus. Dr. Isaac Barelay later practiced in Gustavus. He had a reputation among members of his own profession throughout Trumbull County. He was one of seven- teen children, the youngest of twelve brothers.
Gustavus was early attached to Greene in its organization, but in 1821 became a distinct township. The first trustees were Ithemur Pelton, Asa Case and Rufus Beman; Joseph Hart was the treasurer; Thaddeus Selby, township clerk.
In 1808 Sally Wakeman taught the first school in a new log barn northeast of the center. Patrons paid the tuition, and her salary was seventy-five cents a week.
The first schoolhouse was built in 1813, on Riverins Bid- well's place. Esther Bidwell, although she had but just arrived in the district, was the teacher. Clothing and food were very scarce and sometimes the children had no head covering, but tied up their ears with a pocket handkerchief. and often had no food except meat, beside grain which was boiled. There were times when they did not have this, but lived on boiled beech leaves.
Lucy Case was one of the early teachers, and she, like Esther Bidwell, was greatly beloved.
In 1841 money was contributed for the erection of an academy at Gustavus. Rev. Benjamin Fenn. Buell Barnes, and others, started this project. Stock was sold for ten dollars a share. Buell Barnes was then a member of the legislature, and he secured the incorporation of the company, and in 1843-4 the building was erected and work begun in it in the fall. Franklin B. Howe was the principal. In 1881 a boarding hall
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costing $2,300 was built. The academy building was later bought by the township and became the public high school.
Gustavus was the first township in Trumbull County to adopt the modern system of centralized schools. Previons to centralization there were seven school districts, one joint sub- district, and a township high school located at the center. Dur- ing the '90s the high school building. which had been the academy building, was condemned by the state inspector of public buildings. The school board sent a committee to the partially centralized schools of Kingsville township, Ashtabula county, to investigate its centralized rural schools. This com- mittee reported favorably, and the question of centralization was submitted to the voters of Gustavus. The first vote re- sulted in a tie; the second in a majority of 17. Some of the districts at first proposed to remain out; but all finally came in, and $3,000 was voted for a new building. The old district schoolhouses were sold for $25 to $125 each.
Unfortunate management caused a higher tax rate than the citizens had expected under the new system, and those op- posed to the plan had the strongest kind of basis for their arguments-the pocket-book. But opposition in Gustavus has ceased, and there is no serious thought of return to the old sys- tem. With this as a model, adjoining townships, profiting by the pioneer experience of Gustavus, have adopted the central school system.
As stated elsewhere preaching was had at the house of Jesse Pelton. Among the early preachers were the Revs. Badger, Robbins, Osgood. In 1809 Rev. Henry Cowles, a Con- gregationalist from Austinburg, preached at the house of Josiah Pelton, who is supposed to have paid him for his work.
In 1825 Rev. Joseph Badger and Ephraim T. Woodruff held services and nearly thirty people were organized into a Congregational church. This was done in the usual way, that is on the plan of union. In 1825 it was voted that the presby- tery take the management of the church. Rufus Beman became clerk and deacon, while he. together with AAsa Case and Abner Waters, constituted a standing committee. Rev. Joseph Badger became the pastor and served ten years. He resigned on account of infirmities of age and Rev. Benjamin Fenn suc- ceeded him. In 1844 Rev. E. B. Chamberlain; after that some of the pastors have been Allen. Cone, Spellman. Chamberlain, Dye. Mr. Dye served in 1866 and the question of slavery,
Vol. I-31
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which troubled so many of the early churches, erept into this, and the Congregationalists withdrew, forming a separate church. The Presbyterians reduced in numbers, were after a time forced to abandon their services. They had ereeted a church at the center, but it is not now in use.
It is to be regretted that so few records of the early Metho- dists of Trumbull County have been preserved. Ahnost noth- ing is to be had in regard to this denomination in Gustavus. A class was formed there about 1809, but missionaries and circuit riders rarely came into that township, the people attending the church in Kinsman. Just when the first log meeting-house north of the center was erected is not known; no list of Metho- dist ministers is kept.
At one time a factory building was remodeled and used for a church. The quarterly conference records begin with August 29, 1835. Ira P. Elder was the presiding elder, Steven Hubbard was the preacher, and the assistant was E. J. L. Baker. The eireuit at that time consisted of Gustavus Center, Boons, Kinsman, Morse, Bates, Johnston Center, Mecca, Greene, West Mecca.
Alfred Mowry had the contract in 1856 for erecting the present meeting-house. It cost $2,160. The building commit- tee consisted of S. P. Robbins, Franklin Holcomb, Draper Reeder, Harvey Moore, and David Kinleyside. The church membership was then seventy, with one on probation.
In 1908 the church was remodeled. The present mem- bership is one hundred and two.
The question of a parsonage for this church was brought np at quarterly meeting by Brother Winans in 1838, it was again considered in 1842. In 1844 a committee was appointed to estimate the cost of such a building. In 1846 two hundred and fifty dollars was subscribed, and a building committee ap- pointed. About 1857 this building was completed. Five years ago it was re-roofed and a stable erected.
In 1838 there were only two Sabbath schools on this cir- enit. In November, 1845, there were "four Sabbath schools all of which were closed for the winter." In these four schools there were 521 volumes of books. In 1855 we read that the schools were closed for the winter. As late as 1861 we find that the scholars could get to the schools in the winter time, and since then they have not been closed. Ralph G. Staley is the present pastor.
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Michael Scott gave the land for the new Congregational church, and in the deed was a clause providing that when it was no longer used for church purposes it was to revert to him or his heirs. About fifteen years ago it was torn down.
CHAPTER XXXIX .- HARTFORD.
BURGHILL, BROCKWAY'S HILL, DUTCH RIDGE .-- THE BRAINARD AND BUSHNELL FAMILIES .- ARRIVAL OF ELAM JONES .- FIRST EVENTS .- TEACHERS OF THE FIRST SCHOOLS .- CHURCH COMMUNION IN A GROVE .- FANNY DANA GAGE .-- ORANGEVILLE.
Township 5, range 1, named for Ilartford, Connecticut, has a rather interesting history. In the north part of the town- ship is a rise of ground fifty feet high with a number of springs near its base. Here four of the early families settled. Mr. Bushnell, who lived in the lower part of the township, used to call this settlement "the burg" and later it became Burghill. The portion of Orangville which is in Trumbull County, is in the northeast part of this township. A rise in the ground in the southern part of the township is known as "Brockway's Hill," while in the southeast portion the Germans early settled, and the term "Dutch Ridge" was applied to this district.
Hartford was settled very early, Ashael Brainard, Ed- ward Brockway, Isaac Jones, all of Hartford, Connecticut, coming to the township in 1799. The first named was immar- ried, and he stayed through the winter in the cabin which they built. In the fall they had sowed some wheat. The other two returned with their families in the spring, so that the first settlement might be said to be that of either 1799 or 1800.
Edward Brockway is the best remembered of these three men because of his large family connection. He married four times, had children by each wife, and as two of his wives were widows with children, his combined family numbered twenty- five. If he had been alive today "Teddy, the Lion Hunter," might have brought him some African keepsake. Of course, it is no consequence that four women gave up their lives in the rearing and caring for this numerous progeny. Eight of Edward Brockway's children were girls, and five of them mar- ried into the Jones family. A granddaughter of Lorinda
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Broekway. Rebecca Jones, remained a spinster and was for many years a successful milliner, having a large number of patrons.
Brainard spent the winter in clearing land and preparing for the coming of the two families. One night two Indian visi- tors after having partaken rather freely of whiskey became quarrelsome on their way home, and one killed the other near the farm which was so long the home of Dwight Chapman and his family. In after years some students exhumed the remains and his skeleton was a long time in Dr. Wilcox's office at Burg- hill.
When Mr. and Mrs. William Bushnell, whose descendants have been numerous in Hartford, reached that township, they slept under a covering made by partly chopping a tree, and leaning the fallen part against the stump. A hard rain came on and they had to remain there most of the time for nine days. This family was a happy one, but when fever raged ten members of it died. one being Mrs. Bushnell.
Mrs. Sarah P. Bushnell, who edited the chapter on Ilart- ford in the "Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve," tells of the inn which was opened by David Lane, and was the second hotel in that place, Aaron Broekway having kept the first. "Near it was the old military parade ground where Colonel Richard Hayes assembled his soldiers in 1812, and near the road in front of the house the same old spring is seen. The okl Pennsylvania covered wagons, loaded with freight from Philadelphia to supply the needs of the new coun- try, made this a place of rest. * It is said at one time Mrs. Lane had been baking a large quantity of pies and cakes for a special occasion, in the old brick oven outside. After taking them out she placed them in a shed back of the log house to cool, and proceeded with her work. On going to put them away it was found that a band of sneaking Indians had appropriated them to their private use."
Bathsheba Burr, a relative of Aaron Burr, was born in 1755 and lived one hundred years. Her native state was Con- nectient. She married Joseph Foot and moved to New York state. He went to the war of 1776 and left her almost destitute. At one time she left her children in the house alone, threw a sack of corn on her back and walked twenty miles to mill. ller husband died during the war, and a nearby neighbor gave her a piece of meat and a pan of meal for temporary subsistence.
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She had four children. She bound out the oldest "and with the three remaining started on foot, carrying one, leading one, while one trudged by her side." She begged as she went, "and like Naomi of old, returned to her home and her kindred in Connec- tieut." One would think that so terrible an experience as this would have made future joys impossible. But we next find her married to Isaac Fowler and going to Vienna in 1799, and later she became the third wife of Captain Thomas Thompson. If the pioneers were short on provisions and comforts they seem to have had plenty of husbands and wives. Captain Thomp- son's daughter, Abigail, was for many years deputy-post- master.
Mary Bushnell, the daughter of General Alexander Bush- nell and the wife of Simon Estabrook of Warren, lived at the beginning of the excitement occasioned by the underground rail- way. At one time a person convicted of helping many of these darkies to Canada could be punished by imprisonment and a fine of not less than $500. For this reason many a colored man has been guided to safety by women of northeastern Ohio. Mary Bushnell at one time drove alone through the dark woods. conducting some colored men till she reached the house of Levi Sutliff in Vernon, which was the nearest station to her father's house. Here the first Mrs. Levi Sutliff, Mary Plumb, joined her and they drove with their passengers at a goodly speed, reaching Andover, Ashtabula county, before daylight, where the men were again taken under cover. kept during the day and reached Canada safely. Sarah Bushnell tells how Phoebe Bushnell Borden rode to Mercer, Pennsylvania, and back, hav- ing her purchases hung on the horn of her saddle and a set of dishes in her lap. Mrs. Borden was the last of the adult pioneers.
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