USA > Ohio > Mahoning County > Youngstown > Century history of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, and representative citizens, 20th > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128
"The mill, of which the stone above men- tioned formed a part, was most likely the first grain-grinding machine in the settlement. The stones are perhaps two and a half or three inches thick. The upper stone, or runner, has an oblong eye in the center, and hole or socket not far from the outer edge, a stout stick reach- ing from the socket to a fixed timber above, with a like socket directly over the center of the stones all loosely fitted, composed the mill. The grinding, or power, was after the Arm- strong patent. The family used it and it was free to the neighbors. and the toll executed by the proprietor was good neighborship. Mrs. Snode says that she has often ground grain upon it, and eaten corn cakes and mush, and all the good things that came from the king of grain. Then in her home you will find an old sun dial, which, with the aid of the com- pass made the noon mark nearly accurate. Here are also the cards that prepared the wool for the spinning wheel. the big wheel. the little wheel, and the reel, sickles for cutting grain, an old platter with the date of 1702, an old
100
1
HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY
shackle, such as were used in slavery days, and the same as you may see any day when con- victs are employed on public works. Except the shackle, the implements could have been duplicated in almost any pioneer homestead.
OLD-TIME THRESHING.
"In separating the grain from the straw, the flail was the primitive implement, but quite as commonly the grain was thrown upon the great threshing floor, and two teams of horses put upon it, and round and round they walked, and on a cold snappy day the work was ac- complished with less labor, though by no means a light job. Flax was pulled just before the ripening point, tied in small bundles and again thinly and evenly spread upon the green meadow and turned until the woody stalk was rotted; then it was broken, scutched, hatcheled, and prepared for the spinning wheel. * * 'Tis a long jog forward from the little hand- mill (above-mentioned), which might have re- duced from one to two bushels of grain to fine meal in a day, to the Pillsbury mills with their daily output of 35,000 barrels of flour.
"Old things are passing away. Very few are now here who have lived in these primitive times and seen the wild deer scudding through the native forest on the very site of our thriv- ing town, with its great stacks belching forth clouds of black smoke that hide the noonday sun, but tell of a busy human hive underneath.
0
BOUNTY ON WOLF SCALPS.
"My Uncle Jake, father of the elder Mrs. Diver of Beloit, used to tell me the tales of the long ago, when wild game was plentiful. He said wolves were such a scourge that the State offered a bounty of $5 each for wolf scalps. His people lived then south of Damas- cus, and he knew the lair of wolves near by; year after year, as the pups came on, he would capture and scalp them. I believe he said scalps were receivable for taxes, and he felt safe for his tax money as long as his wolves were not waylaid in this, to him, useful em- ployment : but after a time Abner Woolman,
grandfather of our Abner on the hill, invaded Uncle Jake's wolf preserve, and, not regarding family ties or maternal affection, killed both the mother and her children, and so destroyed. Uncle's infant industry, very much to his disgust.
OLDEN SCHOOL DAYS.
"In his old wagon house I attended a geo- graphy school in the winter evenings. The itinerant teacher had a set of Pelton's outline maps, and the class, when the term was over, certainly had a good understanding of the physical earth, oceans, gulfs, bays, lakes, rivers, inlets, countries, population, chief cities, States and their capitals, boundaries, etc., etc., and all of this set to a song. Each pupil, as the lesson went on, took a turn at the maps with a pointer, somewhat resembling a billiard cue, and pointed to each place and gave answer as to the length of the river, or height of a volcano, or other mountain, etc., as requested by the teacher. That was a good school, and the knowledge we gained in that old wagon house has stood us in good stead all along the journey of life. Some changes have been made in boundaries and States, but otherwise the old world is about the same as we left it when we quit Uncle Jake's wagon shed."
The Captain, who refers to himself in the article so extensively quoted, as "a link between the old and the new," came upon the scene after the roughest and most primitive conditions of pioneer life had been supplanted, to some ex- tent at least, by the comforts and conveniences of a more cultivated society. The world as he knew it "was a pretty comfortable world, and the men who made it so were, many of them, still in the vigor of mature manhood, but many of the primitive habits and customs, either of choice or necessity, still clung to the old homes for a long time, and ye scribe might write on and on to tell of our school life, spelling schools, and the old literaries on the hill, the old fulling, grist, and sawmills ;" religion, also, "for we had the gospel preached to us, and none of your snippet, two-for-five sermons, but good, two-hour, all-wool-and-yard-wide ser- mons."
VIEW OF ENTRANCE TO CALVARY CEMETERY, YOUNGSTOWN
SCENE IN MILL CREEK PARK, YOUNGSTOWN
VIEW OF ENTRANCE TO OAK HILL CEMETERY, YOUNGSTOWN
103
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
"Every tinkle on the shingles Wakes an echo in the heart, And a thousand dreamy fancies Into busy being start. And a thousand recollections Weave their bright hues into woof As I listen to the tinkle Of the rain upon the roof."
Dr. Manning, who settled in Youngstown in 1811, said: "The qualifications for a school teacher in those days were few and moderate. If a man could read tolerably well, was a good writer, and could cipher as far as the rule of three, knew how to use the birch scientifically, and had firmness enough to exercise this skill, he would pass muster."
EARLY YOUNGSTOWN CITIZENS.
Some further reminiscences of those times are found in a letter from Roswell M. Grant, uncle of the late President Grant, who, in writ- ing from Mayslick, Ky., September 7, 1874, in answer to an invitation to attend the reunion of old citizens and pioneers held at Youngs- town that year, said in part :
"My father sold his tan yard to John E. Woodbridge, and moved to Maysville, Ky., leaving Margaret and myself with Colonel Hillman, about the year 1820. Colonel Hill- man about the same time sold his farm and moved over to town to keep a hotel. At that time the citizens were as follows: Ist, above Colonel Rayen was J. E. Woodbridge; 2d, John F. Townsend, hatter; 3d, Colonel Wil- liam Rayen, farmer; 4th, William Sherman, hatter; 5th, opposite, George Tod; 6th, Mr. Abraim, chair maker; 7th, Samuel Stuart, tavern (Colonel Hillman bought Stuart out) ; 8th, opposite, Dr. Dutton ; 9th, Esq. Baldwin, farmer: 10th, Kilpatrick, blacksmith; 11th, Henry Wick, merchant; 12th, Hugh Bryson, merchant; 13th, Lawyer Hine: 14th, Mr. Bis- sell; 15th, Mr. Bruce, shoemaker; 16th, Rev. Mr. Duncan. The above are all the citizens there were in Youngstown from 1805 up to 1810.
"I well remember the Indians coming down the river in canoes, and camping in Colonel
Hillman's sugar camp, at the lower end of the farm, and upon the river bank. They would stay some days. Also, the old chief would come to see Colone Hillman to settle some dis- pute between them. They would bring some thirty or forty warriors with them. They would stop at the plum orchard at the upper end of the farm. These visits were often. I had forgotten to mention the names of Mr. Hogue, a tailor, and Moses Crawford, who lived below Judge Tod's, on the bank of the river. Crawford tended Colonel Hillman's mill. Bears, wolves, deer, and wild turkey were plenty. I went to school in the old log school- house eight years; to Master Noyes five years of the time. David Tod, Frank Thorne, and myself were leaders in all mischief; so said Master Noyes.
DRAFT OF 1812.
"In the War of 1812, the whole country was drafted, and rendezvoused in Youngstown. After they left, Captain Applegate, Lieutenant Bushnell, and Ensign Reeves enlisted one hun- dred men for one year. During the enlistment Captain Dillon's son, with an elder fife, and myself with a drum, furnished the music. Colonel William Rayen commanded the regi- ment. Judge Tod had a Colonel's commission in the regular army. Colonel Hillman volun- teered, and after arriving at Sandusky, Gen- eral Harrison appointed him Wagon-Master General of the United States Army. John E. Woolbridge was paymaster. Mr. Hogue, Moses Crawford, Dr. Dutton, Henry Wick, Hugh Bryson, and Mr. Bruce, were all the men left in Youngstown during the war. I had for- gotten Mr. Thorne, a cabinet maker, who lived near the old school house.
"Jesse R. Grant left Judge Tod's in 1810. Went to Maysville, Ky., and finished his trade with my brother Peter. Went to Deerfield, O., about the year 1815. Took charge of my father's old tan vard. Sold out and went to Ravenna. Carried on the business until 1821. He then went to Point Pleasant, forty miles below Maysville. Sunk a tan yard there. Same year he married Miss Hannah Simpson, where
104
HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY
U. S. Grant was born April 27, 1822."
With the permission of Captain Hartzell, we also publish the following article, which, under the title, "Some Reminiscences of Ye Olden Time," appeared in the issue of The Sebring News, January 29th of the present year ' ( 1907) :
"Some time ago, as I was rambling through one of our big potteries, I noticed a vessel containing soft soap. The same looked mighty familiar and I made inquiry, only to find that soft soap was imported from England and finds its uses in all potteries.
HOMEMADE SOAP.
"When I was a boy, both soft and hard soap, in fact all soap, was made by the good house mothers. In our home I was the gen- eral roustabout, a very present help in time of need-if I could be found. The old Mahoning formed the north boundary of our farm and its purling, laughing, hurrying waters, as they glide over on and on to join the brimming river, chattering as they go, often beguiled me from duty's path and I often found congenial company with neighbor's boys, though if they were not present, the river was always inter- esting. And why not, for when I was a boy, any boy or man could fish with hook and line, seine or gig; so that there were times when, mother being about to set in with her annual soap-making, and wanting me to set up the ash-hopper and such like needful work, I had a foreboding of the coming siege and retired to the river for a rest, and vacation. But when the head of the house came home, there was always a settlement in which no com- promises were admitted and I paid up.
"In those days every home used wood for fuel and the big wide fire-places eat up a big lot of timber-good timber, too-and the ashes thus resulting during the entire year. were saved and safely garnered to the soap-making season. And when the time was ripe, always spring time, when grass greened and robins came back to their old haunts, then the old ash- hopper went into commission again, repairs, if needed, were made, and serious work began.
THE OLD ASH-HOPPER.
"The hopper itself was a crude affair, a thick wide slab four or five feet long from the sawmill nearby with a gutter dug in the center the whole length of the slab to catch the drip, furnished the bottom and the foundation. The hopper part was of very simple construction, made of any sort of boards cut in three and a half or four foot lengths, made wide at the top and narrow at the lower edge, the boards fitting into the groove of the slab bottom. And now we are ready for operation. First, the handy lad is sent to dig sassafras roots to put in the hopper for a starter, and after being lined on the inside with rye straw the ashes are filled in slowly, and tamped down solid until the hopper is filled. When all this is in order, water is poured on the top, perhaps a pail or two a day, and when the mass is well wet and the lye begins to drip from the groove to the vessel placed beneath for its holding, We may say the enterprise is well started.
"All the waste fat from the butchering and from the cooking, with the meat rinds sliced from the hams and bacon, having been hoarded, are now brought into use and are added to the kettle of lye as needed, the kettle is hung over a fire and the sequence of it all is soap, the same as our potters are bringing over from 'Merrie England' today.
SOAP SPOOKERY.
"There was a goodish bit of spookery about our soap-making of years agone and a common inquiry when neighbor women met was about the soap. Aunt Susan would say, 'Well, Mary has had good luck with her soap,' or mother would take her visitors out to see her soap. thrust in her long paddle to the bottom of the kettle and pry up the mass until it would bulge and crack and split into a thousand tumbling bits, and finally settle back into a solid, livery whole. Then they would say, 'You had good luck this time!'
A barrel or two of soap was made in this way each year and when the soap gave out, one neighbor would send to the other for a pail of soap, borrow it. Hard soap was made by a
105
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
little different handling. To me there was always a bit of mystery in the getting of good soap, but none at all about making and filling the hopper.
THE OLD ASHERY.
"As time passed on, my uncle, Nick Eckes, built an ashery on the side or slope of a hill near North Benton, on a farm now owned and occupied by Walter Miller, and after that my architectural genius, so often called out in the building of our home soap factory, was allowed a vacation in that direction, but continued to develop as we shall see further on.
"Uncle Nick, to my mind, was a wonder- ful man. His ashery had several great kettles set in arches where he boiled the lye after it had been leached through hundreds of bushels of ashes. The hoppers were permanent and set well above the boiling kettles, and there he made potash, pearlash, soap and the like, bar- reling up the two first named and wagoning them to market in some far off place, most likely Pittsburg. He went from house to house with his great wagon and team and gathered the ashes for which he paid ten cents a bushel in trade. He had a high seat on his wagon and a good sized box on either end with secure lid and all fast to the seat. As he sat in the middle of the seat with his treasures on either side where he could lift the lid and take out vast quantities of all sorts of valuables, he was, to my mind, a man to excite a barefoot boy's ambition.
THE STAGE DRIVER.
"There was only one other man his superior in position, culture and training to whom we boys offered unstinted homage and admiration and that was the jolly stage driver, who blew his horn, cracked his long-lashed whip over his four-in-hand team and went sailing into town, where he delivered and took on mail, pas- sengers and such light merchandise as he could carrv.
"In a talk with Uncle John Schaeffer on this line, he very well remembered the same and
said when the mail was first started (I think the route was from Cleveland, then a strag- gling village of a few thousand inhabitants, to Steubenville, the land office of these parts), the road was new and not the best. There were two bad chuck holes, one on either side of his house and the stage driver told him that if he would fill them up he would give him a free ride in his coach to Salem and back. The offer seemed so generous that Uncle fulfilled his con- tract with pick and shovel and the stage driver was as good as his word.
"When the stage coach went flying by, my, oh my! The driver fairly scorned the earth and he certainly was a grand figure, so grand that none of us boys could ever hope to gain such a high position. When I was a boy, there were no railroads, telegraph, telephones and such like conveniences and yet we didn't seem to miss them and managed to get along fairly well.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT.
"My forebears came from near Bethlehem, Pa., and settled about five miles north of Se- bring, near the time Ohio was admitted into the Union. The first settlement was made just north of the forty-first parallel and in what has long been known as the Connecticut or Western Reserve, and by an original charter for the colony, belonged to the State of Connecticut. Connecticut finally disposed of the same to the Connecticut Land Company, and by this land company to actual settlers.
"The reserve was mostly settled by down- East Yankees, a most intelligent, orderly and enterprising people. Our family formed a colony of Pennsylvania Germans, but good neighborship always prevailed and the location was a happy one.
"The writer was born in the year in which Queen Victoria began her long reign in Eng- land. and the pioneers had passed through the hardships incident to hewing homes out of virgin forests, inhabited by wild game and roving bands of Indians, and had secured homes of great comfort. When I put in my appearance. the men and women who had borne
106
HISTORY OF MAHONING COUNTY
the hardships of real pioneers, who had wielded the axe and the rifle, were still living, and I still have a most vivid memory of them and stories of the life they lived.
MATCHES UNKNOWN.
"Matches for lighting fires were not then known, or at least I have no recollection of them. The evening fires in the great fireplace before retiring, were banked. The manner of it was this way:
"The fireplace was furnished with heavy dog irons and against the back wall was placed a great log, preferably of green wood. Lighter wood was laid upon the dog irons and an iron crane was swung in the side of the wall, pro- vided with adjustable hooks to accommodate pots and kettles with any length of bail. The foresticks having been pretty well burned out in the evening, the brands were laid in the center and well covered with such cold ashes as had accumulated on the generous and al- ways hospitable hearth. In the mornings, all the first fellow up had to do was to stir up the heap, only to find that the trunks had been turned into a fine heap of glowing coals and so we soon had a blazing, cheery-looking and very comfortable kitchen. Sometimes, how- ever, there were lapses and there were no glow- ing coals in the heap. Maybe the brands were too dry or the cover too thin-something any- way. Often your scribe has been ruthlessly, cruelly, dragged from his trundle bed when it seemed as if he had only begun to sleep and rest his tired body from the toils of the previous day, and was sharply ordered to run quickly over to either Uncle Billy's or Uncle John's for fire, which was brought in a brand or a small torch of the ever-present hickory bark.
"Well, you youngsters say, that was tough, and not near so sleek and handy as to draw a match over hip, and zip, there you have it. But, now, just see here. The times of which I write, an insurance company, either life or fire, was not known in our neighborhood, and although many, in fact, I believe the most of our old neighbors lived in log houses with
chinked walls and clapboard roofs, and the same often held in place by heavy poles and a bit of chimney laid up in clay mortar, I never knew a fire to occur in my youth, either of a house or a barn, while today, with our better houses and all the convenient knick-knacks we have about us, the fire losses are appalling.
IF FIRES ALL WENT OUT ?
"Well, I was often worried; suppose the fires in the neighborhood should all go out, what would we do then? So one day, I was telling my Uncle John of my gloomy fore- bodings, and he went into his house and took down his rifle from the wooden hooks over the door, her abiding place when not in use. She had a flint lock. Every family had a little store of punk, and hunters carried it. Punk is a dry, white fungus and is found on decaying logs and timber and catches a spark, and if you have the flint and the steel you are independent of these dangerous, modern, ready-made fire- brands, called matches. So Uncle John, gun in hand, placed a bit of punk in the pan of his rifle, pulled the trigger, and lo, in the wink of an eye, my fears were allayed; no more fore- bodings of disaster to disturb my mind in the line of fire.
"We had a number of these old pioneer hunters in our neighborhood and their prowess in the chase had supplied the pioneer families with meat and they always talked of their rifles most affectionately and gave to them, in speak- ing, the feminine gender. The butts were often ornamented with inlaid silver, shell or bone devices, and the old powder horns were also decorated. Bullet pouches were real curios- ities.
"When I was a lad, the larger game was mostly gone, but the wood was full of gray and black squirrel, and both pheasant and quail were plenty. The old rifles were mostly out of commission and were not much used except at butchering time, or at an occasional shooting match on the river bottom. But those days passed all too soon; the old hand-made flint and cap-locks gave way to the muzzle-loading
107
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
cap-lock shot gun, sometimes single and often double-barreled, and then game began to thin out.
WILD PIGEONS : WHERE ARE THEY ?.
"And, by the way, can any of my old time chums tell what ever became of the wild pi- geons? You remember, long ago, when seeding time came, and the mast, beech-nuts, acorns and black and red haws began to ripen and the frosts brought the nuts to the ground, how the wild pigeons came in covies by the thousands, and, after a day's gleaning in newly sown wheat fields or the wood lands, with crops filled with everything good-for pigeons-they would wing their way to the old Beaver swamp to spend the night; and how the noise of their flight was deafening-and so many, they ap- peared like a dark cloud; the noise of them when settling to roost, and how in the early morn they started in every direction for another day's foraging, often in small parties, only to return in the evening to the same roost. 'Twas a fine place, the swamp, when one wanted pigeons. The last pigeon potpie we had at our house, we had Twing Brooks and Barbe Black- burn for guests. We took small toll of the pigeons here, but they seemed to disappear, and in a season or two, were gone.
PIONEER MILLING ENTERPRISE.
"A small stream of water with its source somewhere near Squire Armstrong's home, made its way through the Beaver swamp and meandered through the fields, here and there, crossed the state road near Joseph Ladd's, lately deceased. I called there occasionally and he told me that he was the second to own and occupy the farm where he lived so long and died. I think he told me, Pleasant Cobbs entered or took the land from the government, and he bought the same of Cobbs, so he was the second from the wilderness.
"Mr. Ladd said the first house was made of plank, whipsawed, and when they went into a more modern house, he sold the plank one and it went to the farm now occupied by David
Gempeler. But very soon they harnessed up the little stream and put it to work, and within a mile of where he lived at one time there were three mills, one grist and two saw mills, upon it. Samuel Coppock's sawmill on the Phillip Case farm, many of us remember. Scott's. grist mill a little farther down the creek, was afterward moved to Westville, where it now stands.
"There was a sawmill on the head waters of Island Creek, just north of here a mile or two, on a farm once owned in our family and near the Albert Phillips home. Of all these. and many more evidences of pioneer enterprise ;. the only indisputable evidences to be seen to- day, are the long dams, bulwarks of earth, to. hold the water in check. Any curious anti- quary can track the advance of the milling in- dustry by wandering along the banks of the stream. Now, the water mills are all or nearly all out of commission. The only one that I know of still doing duty is the Wilson or Shill- ing mill on the Mahoning near old Fredericks- burg, and that has been modernized and has iron rolls and steam attachments to be hooked. on when the water fails.
"The first mill I recollect was Barr's full- ing mill; the next was Lazarus' grist and saw- mill and the next up stream was the Laughlin mill where the old stage road from Cleveland to Steubenville crosses the Mahoning near Deerfield, and a short distance above stands Wright's old mill, then the Kirk mill at Alli- ance. All these were water mills and pioneer mills. All now stand idle, out of business, and the boy with the family grist on his horse, bound for the old mill is a legend of days gone by. The merry clatter of the old brown mill has been forever drowned out, smothered and laid to rest by the invasion of George Stephen- son with his shrieking, roaring giant-steam." :
SLAVERY.
"For nearly half a century after the first permanent settlements were made in Ohio, this Commonwealth, always opposed politically to slavery, was curiously tolerant of the presence
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.