USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Annals of the Early Settlers Association of Cuyahoga County, number I > Part 25
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In our public schools, especially in the lower departments, in which at least ninety-seven of every hundred of our scholars obtain all the school education they ever have, I would have adopted the pioneer plan of thoroughly learning the common branches of education, necessary in all stations of life, first, and then as much more as their time and circumstances will permit. If possible I would have every scholar a complete walking cyclopedia, but they should be taught all the elementary branches before being set to define in scientific terms the difference between catnip and Canada thistles, etc.
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For over twenty-five years our public school system has been used as a pack-horse by school book publishers to carry their books to market. Parents have been required to buy far more school books than were necessary, and pay far more than they ought to have done for necessary ones. Especially has that been, and is yet, the case with Readers from First to Sixth.
HOW IT USED TO BE DONE.
In the pioneer schools scholars were taught to form words on the plain and easy plan of combining the letters of the alphabet- which they generally learned to some extent before being old enough to go to school. often to the extent of spelling and correctly pronouncing easy words of two syllables. They were first taught to spell " b-a, ba," etc., then " b-a-k-e, bake," and many other monosyl- labic words, by which they learned the most common combinations of vowels with their long, short, and broad sounds, which was but an easy task. Then followed spelling lessons of two syllables as ba-ker. baker, la-dy, lady. sha-dy, shady, with the accent on the first. Then followed lessons of similar words as a-bate, be-late, es-tate, and others, gradually, introducing all the various sounds of the vowels, but no words containing the perplexing silent letters ; they being arranged in later lessons. The scholars were always pleased to find how soon and easily they had learned to spell and pronounce so many words that they heard every day, and still more so when they found how easily they could combine them into sen- tences on various subjects, and found themselves very good readers. After that they were taught to spell -to spell first mind you - other words of two, three and four syllables without silent letters, and to read corresponding lessons ; and the use of the comma, semi-colon and other panses and marks used in reading; all contained in Noah Webster's spelling book. Parents and scholars, then, were not bored with an interminable series of reading books, some of them composed largely of diluted stupidity, hardly equal to the " Melodies of Mother Goose," that were then, as now, used to amuse children too young to go to school, and too old to need a wet nurse.
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In learning to spell, scholars were arranged in classes, first, second and third, according to their proficiency, each class called separately on to the floor, and required to spell and pronounce cor- rectly and distinctly a given number of words or lesson ; begin- ning at the head of the class, and if one or more failed to spell any word correctly, the one who did, went above those who failed. The best spellers were those who got "to the head" the most times in a month (the one at the head in the evening taking place at the foot of the class the next morning) were promoted to the next class above ; and those records and promotions did more to make good spellers-and consequently good readers-than any plan that has ever been devised since. I speak from over fifty years' experience and close observation as scholar and school teacher. In the same thorough but simple and systematic way scholars were taught all other common branches of education just as fast as they could go and understand their lessons. They made good use of their time in those days. Many of their lessons were studied evenings by the light of a blazing wood fire, as there was neither gas nor coal oil. and even tallow candles were scarce.
Teachers of winter schools got from ten to twelve dollars per month and their board, and boarded with the parents of the scholars-the rule was in proportion to the number from each family, but the general practice was, if the teacher was a young man, in proportion to the number of large girls. The best bill of fare that could be furnished, was generally provided for teachers, who in return tried to do the agreeable to the best of their ability. The Summer schools were always taught by young women -so-called, though some of them were not as young as they would like to have been considered. Their wages were generally from four to six dollars per month and board. Their scholars were generally few and small, as then all who were large enough to aid in farm or house work, were required to do so. But in the Winter, the little log school-houses were generally crowded to their utmost capacity, and the scholars-especially the larger ones-would sometimes study fun instead of mathematics, grammar or geography. I will only take time to give one specimen which occurred in our school
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in Warrensville in the Winter of 1826-7. A lady, now residing in our city, who was then a school-mate of mine, will, probably, well remember the circumstance. One of the large boys was assisting a large girl, whom he was quite partial to, in working out some arithmetical question, and in looking on one slate, their heads very naturally got quite elose together. A lively chap thought it a good chance for a little sport, and quietly slipped a piece of stout twine, the ends of which he had tied together, over their heads, unknown to them, till they had settled the apparently difficult question, and suddenly raised another by the school-master of "What's the mat- ter?" as he sprang to his feet and reached for the then universal big switch in all school-houses; for as they raised their heads there was, of course, a sudden pulling one way and another till the twine broke, and an uproarious shout of laughter among the scholars, many of whom had watched the trick from the beginning. None of them could have answered the teacher's question for laughing for a short time. Finally the wag who was the first cause of the fun, and who stammered badly in talking at any time, answered as well as he could for laughing : "T-t-t-turner and M-m-m-man d-d-d-dana, b-b-b-broke th-th-th-their yo-yo-yo-yoke." Before he had finished his answer the teacher fully comprehended the entire case, and joined in the laugh for a short time, and then shouted "order !" and matters resumed their usual condition. Two of those three scholars are yet living in neighboring counties, and that school girl is a lively old lady, and a grand-mother quite ex- tensively. That school-master was a citizen of the adjoining town- ship of Orange, and for several years after "Grand-ma Garfield " moved there he was a neighbor of hers, as neighbors were then counted (any within five miles), and I presume she remembers Caleb Alvord, or as he was commonly called " Esquire Alvord." I mention these facts because it seems to give additional interest to past events to intimately connect them with the present time when it can well be done.
JULY, 1883.
H. M. ADDISON.
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REMINISCENCES.
CONTRIBUTED BY MELINDA RUSSELL, OF THE SHAKER UNION, WARRENSVILLE.
In 1811 my grandfather, Jacob Russell, sold his farm and grist mill on the Connecticut River, and took a contract for land in New- burg (now Warrensville), Ohio.
His oldest son Elijah, my father, shouldered his knapsack and came to Ohio to get a lot surveyed ; he made some improvements. selected a place for building, and then returned to New York where he lived. In the Spring of the following year, he with his brother Ralph came again to Ohio, cleared their piece of land, planted corn, built a log-house, and went to Connecticut to assist in moving the family to their new home, which was accomplished in the Autumn of the same year. They formed an odd procession, father's bro- ther Elisha, and brother-in-law Hart Risley accompanied them with their families, the wagons were drawn by oxen. my father walking all the way so as to drive, while grandmother rode on horseback. When they were as comfortably settled as might be, father returned to his family, whom he moved the next Summer, 1813, embarking at Sacketts Harbor, N. Y., Aug. 1st, and arriving at Cleveland Aug. 31. There being no harbor at that time, the landing was effected by means of row-boats. We then pulled ourselves up the bank by the serub oaks, which lined it, and walked to the hotel kept by Major Carter ; this hotel was then the only frame house in Cleveland. We staid there over night, and the next day walked to Rodolphus Edwards', staid there that night, and the next day walked to grandfather's home.
Our journey was attended with great suffering, my youngest sister was sick all the way, dying three days after our arrival ; storms and the perils of the war of that time added to our trials.
Father was taken sick with ague the next day after we arrived, so our house was built slowly, and with the greatest difficulty 5
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mother hewed with an adze the stub ends of the floor boards, and put them down with the little help father could give her. We moved in the last of November, without a door or window, using blankets for night protection. At that time two of the children were sick with agne. Father worked when the chills and fever left him for the day, putting poles together in the form of bedsteads, and a table. upon which to put the little we could get to eat, and benches to sit upon ; there was no cabinet shop at that time where such articles could be purchased.
War prices had to be paid for everything. The only flour we could get, had become musty in shipping, and was so disgusting to the taste, that no one could eat it unless compelled by extreme hunger. I was then eight years old and not sick, so I had to satisfy my hunger with it, and give the others more of a chance at the scanty corn meal rations. The bread made from this flour was hard as well as loathsome. I could only eat it by crumbing it into pellets and swallowing it whole ; I once or twice obtained surreptitiously a little cold mush, father said that although he could never counten- ance stealing, he did not blame me for that. I often wondered why he cried when he sat down at the table, and looked at the food ; the johnny-cake and mush appeared so luscious to my hungry eyes. Toward the last of February father and one of his brothers started for Aurora. Portage Co., where Hart Risley had settled, with an ox team, taking an ax, gun and other means for camping out. In due time they arrived, paid ten shillings a bushel for corn and two dol- lars and a quarter for wheat, bought an iron kettle for making sugar, and turned their faces homeward. A glorious surprise awaited them in the woods in the form of a bee-tree, from which they obtained nearly one hundred pounds of honey.
The kettle showed at once that it was valuable as a means of transportation as well as of boiling sap. In this latter day, when cheese, butter, and various sauces are common, one cannot justly estimate what that honey was to us.
Father bought a cow, paid for her in part, and gave his note for the rest, before the time came to pay again, the cow died, having been in use by the family only three months. When spring opened
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father made sugar, with the help of mother and the children. In May mother and three children were taken sick with ague. Every few days father would have a relapse, but he managed to get in some corn, and in the autumn some wheat. Wild meat could be had in abundance ; father received pay for his property in New York, so he could afford to hire help and prosperity dawned upon us.
I remember the bears killed a nice shoat in harvest time. We were then in need of meat. beef was an article never spoken of. A man at Doane's corners had a barrel of pork to sell. valued at twenty-five dollars. Our neighbors were also in need of pork, and agreed to take a part if father would go and buy it ; he did so. When the barrel was opened. they were surprised and dismayed to find only three heads and the ribs and shanks of three shoats. The neighbors were honest, good men, so each paid for his share of bones, and were wiser, if a littler sadder than before. We do not know whether the Doane corner's man died a millionnaire.
In the Winter of 1814, father's sister. Aunt Jerusha Deming, started to return home from Rodolphus Edwards, where she had been spinning, a distance of two miles through the woods, lost her way in a snow-path and was out all night, and the next day until evening, when she was found. Her feet were badly frozen, and she was so thoroughly chilled she could not have lived much longer; a long illness ensued.
I remember the wolves coming into enclosures for four winters, but the sheep fold was built so high that they could not get over it, they only annoyed us with their hideous noise. Rattlesnakes were common, and surprised us often, but only one ever came within six feet of the house.
The first school in Warrensville was taught by Miss Hannah Stiles in 1813, the next year Leora Hubbell taught, and the follow- ing year Mary Stillman. William Addison came to Warrensville, as nearly as I can remember, in 1815, and his son some time afterward succeeded the three ladies mentioned in teaching. Both father and son lived much of the time at our house for four years. Once when talking over previous hard times Mr. Addison remarked that
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the hardest times he had known were when the johnny-cake was the shortest.
But few remain, who can tell the story of hunger and privation from their own experience. Nearly all have gone to their rest. We bless their memory.
THE MCILRATHS.
In the year 1804. three families by the name of Mellrath came to this country and settled in the Western Reserve. The descend- ants of these families now number three hundred and seventy, and one hundred and fifty of them gathered at Coit's Grove Sept. 12th, 1883, and held a grand family reunion. It was the first time that all branches of the family had met together since the above-men- tioned date. The assembly was called to order by A. B. Jenny. A permanent organization was then effected. The officers are as follows : President. O. P. Mellrath ; Vice-President, Mrs. Corneil Mellrath Sherman ; and Secretary and Treasurer. Henry McIlrath. It was decided to publish a genealogical history of the family, go- ing back to the year 1620. The business of the occasion having been disposed of, the company sat down to a sumptuous repast, during which members of the family made speeches and told stories. Aleck told how they would cast a net in the lake and bring up bushels of fishes at a haul. He had shot deer, he said, on the very ground upon which they were gathered. One "dear" in particular he remembered, as he walked fourteen miles upon one occasion through the mud, to borrow a pair of pantaloons with which to go and see her. His own pantaloons were made of buck- skin, and when they got wet, he was compelled to stretch them before they could again be put on. Mr. MeIlrath also related his first experience in attending a funeral. The corpse was placed upon a sled drawn by oxen, as the mud was too deep for any other kind of conveyance. The body was buried in the churchyard at Colamer, the oldest cemetery in the Western Reserve. Michael McIlrath, only brother of the late Abner Mellrath, was present at
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the reunion, as was also Thaddeus, grandson of " Unele Ab," who though but nineteen years of age, wears an 8} hat. Several letters of regret were received from those who were unable to be present.
AN INTERESTING OLD RECORD.
Volume A of Records of the Supreme Court of Ohio for the county of Cuyahoga is replete with pioneer history. It includes the records of the court from the April term, 1812. to the August term, 1824, inclusive.
The first ease in the book is "The State of Ohio vs. John O'Mick," an Indian who was indicted for the murder of Daniel . Buel near Sandusky City. The Judges of the Court were William W. Irvin and Ethan Allen Brown, and Prosecuting Attorney Alfred Kelley. The Sheriff was Samuel S. Baldwin. The Grand Jurors were Asa Smith, Hezekiah King, Horatio Perry, Calvin Hoadley, Lemuel Hoadley, Plinney Mowrey, James Cudderbach, John Shirtz, Benjamin Jones, Jeremiah Everitt, Samuel Miles, Jacob Carad and Harvey Murray. The Petit Jurors were Hiram Russell, Levi John- son, Phileman Baldwin. David Bunnel, Charles Gunn, Christopher Gunn, Samuel Dille, Elijah Gunn, David Barret, Dyer Shearman, William Austin and Seth Doane. The indictment was found and the case tried at the April term, 1812. The jury returned a verdiet of guilty, and O'Mick was sentenced to be hanged on the 26th day of June next following.
WESTERN RESERVE SURVEYS.
BY CHARLES WILITTLESEY.
The agents, surveyors, and employes of the Connecticut Land Company, celebrated the 4th of July, 1796, at the mouth of Con- neaut Creek ; in all fifty-two (52) persons. Augustus Porter with Seth Pease, John Milton Holly, Amos Spafford, and Moses Warren, their chain-men, ax-men, and pack horses, started from the lake
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shore on the 7th of July, and ran south along the Pennsylvania line, which was established in 1785 and 1786, by Andrew Ellicott, Thomas Hutchins, Alexander McLean, and John Ewing. A stone was set on what they determined to be the 42d parallel of north latitude. This is about two miles south of the shore, the northern boundary of Pennsylvania, and the Western Reserve being at 42° 2', on a parallel two (2) miles and twenty-four (24) chains north of latitude 42°. This line came to the shore a short distance east of the north-east corner of New Connecticut, as the Reserve was then called, giving to Pennsylvania only a short distance on the lake, where there is no harbor. North of this the country belonged to New York, from which the State of Pennsylvania purchased a trian- gular tract, extending as far east as the meridian of the west end of Lake Ontario, including the harbor of Erie. The surveyors measured from the stone purporting to be on the 42d parallel south. along the Pennsylvania line, in order to determine the 41st parallel. which is the southern boundary of the Reserve. They could also compare their compasses with the true meridian, on which the Pennsylvania commissioners had run. A part of the field notes and diaries of the surveyors are among the papers of the Western Reserve Historical Society. On the night of the 7th and Sth of July. Holly's compass varied 53' east, Porter's the same, Spatford's 43'. On the 23d of July they reached the vicinity of the 41st parallel, at a distance of sixty-eight (68) miles, the variation of Spafford's compass being 1º 21' east. The subject of variations and the discrepancies of their compasses is one of much interest. The best astronomical and mathematical talent of the colonies was employed on the western boundary of Pennsylvania, which had long been contested by Virginia. It was fixed by a transit sight- ing from hill to hill, the timber cut away so that the instrument could be reversed, and thus cover three stations, often several miles apart. When the Ohio River was reached the Virginia commis- sioners retired, because that State had ceded the country north of the Ohio in 1784.
The report of the commissioners of Pennsylvania has long been lost, but a portion of the diary of one commissioner exists. As
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the monuments were nearly all of wood, there were few of them visible, even in 1796. The vista cut through the woods on the summits of the hills gave an approximate line, but this nearly dis- appeared when the country was cleared. In 1880 a joint commis- sion of three from each State was organized by Pennsylvania and Ohio, to correct the line where it is erroneous, and put up durable monuments. Their final report is not yet published. Seth Pease in his diary states that he traversed the lake shore from the north line of Pennsylvania to the north end of her west line, but does not give the distance. He was the mathematician of the survey, and was provided with a small sextant for determining the forty-first parallel. All the positions of latitude were somewhat out of place, but it is to the credit of all concerned with their imperfect instru- ments and few observations, that the errors were so small. Only one day and night of clear weather was allowed for the forty-first parallel. The measured distance from the Pennsylvania stone did not leave the Land Company space enough by nearly a mile, yet the United States claimed that their line was nearly half a mile too far south.
Thomas Hutchins was the geographer to the Confederated States, performing duties now performed by the surveyors general of the public lands. The first surveys were made by him and ten assistant surveyors appointed from different States. The work was done upon a plan conceived of by him in 1764, when he was a captain in the Sixtieth Royal Regiment, and engineer to the expedi- tion under Colonel Henry Bouquet. His plan has been pursued substantially up to this day in the public surveys. He first ran a line west from the north bank of the Ohio, where the State line crosses it, at the south-east corner of Columbiana county, O., as a base, for a distance of seven ranges of six miles each, or forty-two miles, protected against Indians by the military.
This is known as the "geographers' line," terminating on the Nimishillen, near the common boundary of Carroll, Stark, and Tus- carawas counties. From each six-mile post lines were run south as town meridians, to the Ohio and north to the 41st parallel. Every six miles north and south, east and west, formed the bound-
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ary of each township, which was designated by double numbers, reckoning from the Ohio northward as towns, and the Pennsylvania line westward as ranges. Each town was then, as now, sub-divid- ed into thirty-six (36) sections of one square mile each. This simplest of all known modes of survey had not been thought of until Captain Hutchins invented it in the wilds of Ohio in 1764. It formed a part of his plan of military colonies north of the Ohio as a protection against Indians.
Hutchins died at Pittsburgh in 1788. where his remains now lie unnoticed, in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church. The government surveys were purposely left open at the North on account of the unsettled position of the forty-first parallel. The late Dr. Jared P. Kirkland has stated that in 1810 the government employed Andrew Ellicott, and provided the instruments to settle that question. The party traveled with mules and horses. Near Enon Valley the paek-mule carrying the instruments ran away, and damaged them so much that Ellicott was obliged to return. In 1806 Seth Pease was again placed upon the forty-first parallel, west of the Tuscarawas, but this time by the United States government. The Connecticut Land Company had its surveyors at work west of Cuyahoga, under the general charge of Joshua Stow and Abram Tappan. The south line of the Reserve east of the Tuscarawas being run by the magnetic needle with different compasses that did not agree by several minutes, was of necessity crooked, but it was finally agreed by the government that it should not be disturbed, and the public surveys of the Congress lands were closed upon it. The townships on the Reserve were five miles square. Only the first four ranges or twenty miles of the base line were run in 1796. Pease states that his compass and Holly's agreed, but Spafford's stood to the west of them ten (10') minutes, and that the variation was determined with difficulty. He admits that there were prob- ably errors of twenty (20') minutes. Holly ran the first meridian, which is reputed to be on the lake shore one-half (}) mile west of the true meridian. The second was run by Spafford and Stod- dard, the third by Warren, and the fourth by Pease and Porter. Professor Jared Mansfield, when he was Surveyor General for the
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territory north-west of the Ohio, examined the line run in 1796 and 1797, intended to be on the forty-first parallel. He found various errors, but reported that, considering the imperfection of the instruments, and the dense and distant wilderness where the work was done, he thought it was creditable to the surveyors and ought to be accepted.
When the south-east corner was established, Porter, with a party and a troupe of pack horses, went to the mouth of the Beaver River for provisions. Warren exhausted his supplies while he was fifteen miles from the shore end of his line. All the parties met on the beach, and reached Conneaut creek the same day. Porter immediately commenced the traverse of the lake shore westerly, which he continued to Sandusky Bay. The object of this traverse was to determine provisionally the quantity of land included by a meridian one hundred and twenty (120) miles west of the Penn- sylvania line. To their chagrin it was discovered, that when 500,000 acres should be taken from the west end for the sufferers by fire and other causes during the revolutionary war, there was not 3,000,000 of acres left. The "Excess Company," who expected 500,000 acres between the above grants, were dismayed to find they had nothing. West of the Cuyahoga the Land Company had not acquired the Indian title, but Porter took the risk, and finished his traverse without interruption. Every one must admire the resolu- tion as well as the endurance of all the members of the surveying parties. The qualifications of that class of men were such, that they generally became prominent in civil and military affairs throughout the United States. On the 15th of August four parties arranged themselves on the first meridian to run four parallels westward. At the thirtieth mile post between towns 5 and 6, Moses Warren ; at the 35th, Pease ; 40th, Spafford and Stoddard ; and at the 45th, Holly. They first ran east to the Pennsylvania line, and established the corners of Kinsman, Williamsburg, An- dover, and Richmond townships. Holly found the space between the first meridian and the State line, to be nearly one-fourtli of a mile too great or 19 chs. 501. The next township to the north was still greater. The four parties returned to the meridian and
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