Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc., Part 111

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Akron > Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc. > Part 111

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).

A CURIOUS STORY .- The main features of Young Brown's Michigan and St. Louis exploits, as above related, were compiled from a letter from ex-District Attorney Bates, published in the Cleveland Leader, in November, 1885. Mr. Bates then goes on to relate that, having retired from the office of District Attorney, and at liberty to defend Dan, if he chose to employ him, Brown sent his sister, a very beautiful and accomplished girl, to retain him to end the trouble in which her brother was then placed; offering him $800 in gold and her watch and chain; telling him that her father, old James Brown was in the penitentiary; that Dan was married and his wife was in delicate health; that her mother was old, and that if he could and would end the prosecution against

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her brother, she would give him the money and watch, amounting to about $1,000.

Bates declined to accept a retainer, without first having an in- terview with "Dan," somewhere in Ohio, when, after showing him all the evidence against him, taken before the Grand Jury, if he concluded to take the risk, and go to trial, he (Bates) would then take the $1,000 and do his best to clear him from the indictment, and if successful he was to be paid $1,000 more. It was finally ar- ranged, through correspondence, that Mr. Bates should go to Mau- mee, where parties would meet him and take him to the trysting place, where, for the first time, he was to meet the wily young counterfeiter, face to face.

INTERESTING INTERVIEW .- Mr. Bates goes on to state that, reaching Maumee about daylight, he was taken by the party sent to meet him, to a dismantled old brick stage house, about six miles out, on the Perrysburg pike, the house being kept by a repul- sive old woman, and all of its appointments of the most dilapi- dated character, except the single room occupied by Brown, which was both elegant and luxurious. The interview itself we will let Mr. ex-District Attorney Bates relate in his own graphic, though perhaps somewhat exaggerated, language, as follows:

· "Brown received me with the grace of a prince. He apolo- gized for bringing me there alone, by saying that I had hunted him so closely, pursued him so vigorously, that he feared I might still entrap him into custody, at which I at once told him that if that was his opinion of me I would instantly leave him and walk back to Maumee ; that so long as I was attorney for the United States I would pursue any criminal unto death, but that now I was ready, if he saw fit, after reading all the evidence, to take his retainer and defend him, if I could, through the courts.

"He made a pitcher of punch and offered it to me, but I declined to drink until he first did so, to which he replied with elegant grace; 'Bates, gentlemen of our profession never drink. It won't do. Had not my father and his counsel been drunk at Columbus, at his trial, he would never have been convicted of passing a half-eagle gold coin, for we never pass spurious money. We are wholesale counterfeit coiners and only sell to retail dealers, who buy from us well-knowing that the coin is spurious.'

"So I drank the punch from a silver goblet out of a. solid silver pitcher, and went to work all that winter's day. I went over the evidence again and again, pointed out the danger of that lady witness, his old sweetheart, then living in Detroit, and now a religious old grandmother there. I told him that if United States District Attorney Norvell did not find her, I would guarantee his acquittal, but if she came into court he was a convict beyond hope. Finally he decided that the risk was too great, and that he would not venture it, but offered to pay me a large sum of money to retain me in the future, which I declined, saying: 'Pay me for my team in coming here; that is all I can or will take, for it may happen that I shall be United States District Attorney again ; and if so, I shall again go for you, and try and send you where those poor idiots whom you seduced are now, but I will not touch a dollar of your money.'

895

HIS OPERATIONS IN CALIFORNIA.

"We parted then and there, but before parting he took out his ivory flute and played the ' Last Rose of Summer' with an exquisite taste that I have never heard equalled except once, in San Francisco, when Ole Bull, Max Strakosch and Patti's eldest sister, Mrs. Thorn, united in its execution, after dinner at Felix Argenti's, in 1854."

Mr. Bates then goes on to say that his successor, as district attorney, having died in 1848, he was reappointed to that office, and soon afterwards commenced hunting for Dan, with the view of pushing the prosecution againt him, under the indictment previously found, but that he managed to elude him, and finally, in 1850, went to California.

MR. BATES CORROBORATED .- On the trial of James Brown, the father, in the United States District Court for Ohio, at Columbus, in August, 1846, as detailed in the foregoing pages, United States Deputy Marshal Thomas Mckinstry, of Cleveland, was a witness in behalf of the prosecution. Marshal Mckinstry testified that having heard that there had been a large bogus machine brought to Cleveland and afterwards removed from there, and being anxious to capture it, he had an interview with Brown upon the subject.

"Brown told me," said the Marshal, "that his son Daniel had got into difficulty in Michigan, and if I would do so and so to aid him, he would do so and so to aid me in getting the machine. I exacted from him an earnest that he would do as he proposed, and he gave me a counterfeit gold piece to show what could be done."

BRILLIANT CALIFORNIA SCHEME .- As many of the readers of these chapters will remember, the writer was one among the vast army of gold seekers that crossed the plains and mountains to California in 1850. With the two or three hundred other Summit county people who sought the golden shores, that year, was William T. Mather, a former well-known and highly respected business man of Akron. Mr. Mather was a brother of the late Mrs. Lucy M. Brown, wife of "Jim" Brown, heretofore written of, and consequently own uncle to the younger "Dan " Brown.

Mr. Mather engaged in business in Sacramento City, where, and in San Francisco, the writer had the pleasure of meeting him several times during the summer and fall of 1850, and the winter of 1850, '51. About the middle of November, 1850, Mr. Mather, then just recovering from a severe fit of sickness, in Sacramento, came down to the Bay City, to escape from the pestilential atmosphere of cholera-stricken Sacramento, in which some half dozen Akronians had just succumbed to the terrible scourge within as many days. While conversing with Mr. Mather one day, he said: "Lane, who do you suppose I saw the other day, at Sacramento, on his way home to Ohio?". "Give it up!" I replied; "there are so many fellows flitting homeward just now, it would be difficult to guess." "Well," said he, it was that hopeful nephew of mine, Dan Brown." "Dan Brown !" I exclaimed; "I didn't know he was in this country." "O, yes," said Mather, "he roughed it across the plains with the crowd, last spring." "What's he been doing ?" I inquired. "You tell !" responded Mather. "When I put that. question to Dan, he kinder laughed, and said, 'O, I've been speculating a little."' "How much of a 'pile' has he got?" Iinquired. "Well, he wouldn't tell me much about it, but I kinder guess he'll get home with

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$75,000, or $80,000-that is, if he lives to get home, for he's in mighty poor health ; consumption I guess." "Why didn't you tell him to hunt me up? I might have given him some assistance in getting off," said I. "Oh," laughingly replied Mather, "I thought it might. revive unpleasant memories between you. You used to give him and old Jim fits in the Buzzard, you know." 1

GREAT EXCITEMENT IN THE "DIGGINS."-Up to this time there had been no paper money of any description whatever, in circula- tion in California-gold and silver coin, or gold dust and nuggets, 'at so much per grain or ounce, being the only mediums of financial and commercial traffic and exchange. Up to this time, too, it was expensive sending money home to friends in the States, by express, or through the banks, and both burdensome and extremely hazard- ous, for the fortunate miner to undertake to carry his gold dust. home, or from place to place in the mines, upon his person.

In the States, following the disastrous panic of 1837, a system of State Safety Fund Banks had been established, in which the inhabitants of those States had the utmost confidence. Among the very stanchest of these institutions was the old State Bank of Missouri. What wonder is it then, that, when a gentlemanly appearing traveling broker appeared among the miners, with bright, new and crisp $50 and $100 bills on their favorite home bank, the hundreds and thousands of "Pukes," as the emigrants from Missouri had been nick-named, then in the mines, should eagerly jump at them, even paying a small premium in gold dust at current rates ?

A very brief period served to work up so large a demand for these notes, that the "Agent" of the bank, as he represented himself to be, found no difficulty in working off large blocks of his- "currency," not only among the miners themselves but also among the local brokers of the interior, the execution of the bills being so perfect as to defy detection from any but the most skillful experts, a distinction to which but few of the brokers of that country could at that time properly lay claim. It was believed that from $80,000 to $100,000 of the spurious money was thus exchanged for coin or dust.

The very nature of the supply and demand was such that for many weeks none of the crisp paper "money" found its way to the large cities, or entered into general traffic, and thus for a long time escaped detection. But when the fraud was finally discov- ered, it may well be imagined there was consternation in the camps of both digger and broker, in the mining regions. Indig- nation meetings were held, and committees were appointed and detectives employed to ferret out and bring the wily offender to justice, through the then popular tribunal of Judge Lynch.

IDENTITY, PURSUIT, ETC .- The vigilantes found little difficulty in fixing the identity of the adroit operator, and tracing him to San Francisco, and on board the Panama steamer. But he had a month or more the start of them, and there were no railroads or telegraphs there in those days, by which a fleeing criminal could be headed off before reaching his destination. They could only bide their time, and await the sailing of one of the semi-monthly steamers which left San Francisco for Panama about the first of January, 1851.

897

DEATH CLOSES HIS CAREER.

HOME IN TIME TO DIE .- In the meantime the fleeing fugitive reached New York in a greatly enfeebled condition. Here, in response to a telegram, he is met by friends who aid him to reach the family homestead in Northampton, alive. The inroads of his insidious malady (scurvy) and the fatigue of the long and tedious journey, however, had so told upon him, that it was evident to both himself and friends, his tenure of physical life was very short, and a few brief hours might bring the end.

Legal as well as medical counsel was hastily summoned and his temporal affairs speedily adjusted. The 300 acre homestead was deeded to his brother, James R. Brown, December 27, 1850, (the consideration named in the deed being $3,000); his money -whether in large or small amounts, and whether honestly or dishonestly acquired-was distributed according to his wishes, among his friends and relatives by his own hand.

Having thus closed his earthly affairs, on the 21st day of Jan- uary, 1851, at the age of 31 years and 8 months, he peacefully closed his eyes upon earthly scenes, and passed into the presence of the Great Judge, whose justice he could not question, and whose decrees he could not evade. He was quietly buried upon the home farm in Northampton, and a neat marble monument erected over his grave, his remains being subsequently removed to Akron Rural Cemetery and laid beside those of his wife, who died June 27th, 1874, aged 48 years, 11 months and 27 days.

DISAPPOINTED DETECTIVE .- The California committee, above spoken of, on their arrival in New York, found no difficulty in tracing their man to that city, and from thence to Ohio. Reaching Cleveland, inquiry revealed the fact that the man they were searching for, was dead. This statement the committee discred- ited, believing it to be a ruse to throw the officers of justice off the track. Arriving in Akron, they were referred to the attorney, Hon. Rufus P. Spalding, who had aided in closing up his business affairs, and the physian, Dr. Alpheus Kilbourn, who had attended him in his last hours, both of whom assured them that the man they were in pursuit of was in reality dead.

The committee were still incredulous, and one the number, an experienced California detective, was delegated to visit the family homestead and solicit permission to disinter the body; his state- inent being that his father, in one of the Southern or Western States, had become surety for "Daniel West," in the sum of $3,000 from the payment of which proof of West's death would relieve him. Permission for the disinterment was readily given, and the removal of the lid of the casket instantly convinced the pursuing party that the cadaverous remains therein reposing were indeed those of "Dan West," the well known alias of Daniel M. Brown.

Thus passed away one of the most expert and, for his years, one of the most successful counterfeiters in America. In conclu- sion it is but just to say that while the surviving relatives natu- rally feel extremely sensitive in regard to any mention, either public or private, of the subjects of this chapter, they are all held in the highest esteem by their neighbors and acquaintances, and should not, and will not, in any degree whatsoever, be held accountable for the wrongful actions of their talented but mis- guided ancestors.

CHAPTER XLI.

NORTHFIELD TOWNSHIP -- EARLY SETTLEMENT-MILITARY AND CIVIL STATUS- MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF RUPERT CHARLESWORTH-RUMORS OF FOUL PLAY-ARREST OF DORSEY W. VIERS, AFTER NEARLY FIVE YEARS, FOR THE CRIME OF MURDER-PROTRACTED TRIAL AND NARROW ESCAPE FROM CONVICTION-LONG AND TIRELESS SEARCH FOR THE MISSING MAN- SUCCESS AT LAST-RETURN OF CHARLESWORTH AFTER NEARLY FIFTEEN YEARS-LARGE PUBLIC MEETING-CHARLESWORTH FULLY IDENTIFIED- VIERS TRIUMPHANTLY VINDICATED - A GENUINE "ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE."

NORTHFIELD'S BEGINNING.

TT is not the province of this work to enter into a full detail of the origin and early settlement of the several townships of the county, or to give full personal descriptions of all the pioneer residents thereof, or of all their battlings with privations, hardships, Indians and wild beasts. This has already been quite thoroughly done by others, and its reproduction, here, would not only make the work undertaken by the writer too voluminous, but also involve an unwarrantable appropriation of the researches and labors of others. .

. Though regarded, by its original Connecticut proprietors, as one of the very best townships upon the Western Reserve, North- field, for reasons not necessary to enumerate here, was not fully opened to settlement as early as some of the contiguous townships now embraced within the limits of Summit county. For the purposes of this work, it is sufficient to note the fact that North- field's first settler was Mr. Isaac Bacon, from Massachusetts, who with his family located on lot 63, about a mile and a half northwest of the Center, in April, 1807; the next accession being the family of his brother-in-law, Jeremiah Cranmer, in June, 1810.

NAMÊ, ORGANIZATION, ETC .- At an informal meeting of all the male inhabitants of the township, assembled for the purpose of aiding a new-comer to erect a cabin, the question of naming the township was raised, and various names were suggested, but none seemed to meet with general favor until Jeremiah Cranmer mentioned that of Northfield ( probably from a town of that name in his native State), which was finally adopted by the company and Northfield it has been to the present day, and appropriately so, as being on the extreme north side of Portage county, then, and of Summit county, now.

THE FIRST ELECTION .- Though perhaps one or more justices of the peace had previously been appointed for the township by. the governor, the first actual organization, as far as can now be ascertained, was on the 24th day of May, 1819. On that day all election seems to have been held at the cabin of William Cranny, John Britt acting as Moderator, Jeremiah Cranmer and John Duncan as Judges, and Orrin Wilcox as Clerk. The officers elected were: Trustees, George Wallace, Jeremiah Cranmer and

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EARLY SETTLEMENT, POPULATION, ETC.

John Duncan ; Clerk, Henry Wood ; Overseers of the Poor, William Cranny and William T. Mather; Fence Viewers, Robert Wallace and Maurice Cranmer ; Constables, Edward Coyne and Abraham Cranmer ; Treasurer, Watrous Mather; Road Supervisors, John Duncan, Abel Havens, Daniel Robertson and Abner Hunt.

TAMES W. WALLACE, - son of George and Harriet (Menough) . Wallace, born at Youngstown, Ohio, November 27, 1803, soon removed with parents to Geanga county, thence, in 1810, to Cleveland, and engaged in hotel-keeping. In 1814, the father · built saw, grist and woolen mills at the Falls of Brandywine Creek, in · Northfield, also placing .quite a large stock of goods there in charge of the 13-year-old boy, James, these and other operations engaged in by the family, giving to Brandywine more than a local repute as a business .center for many years. In 1825, James, with his brother George Y. (ten years later sheriff of Portage county, and in 1842, treasurer of Sum- mit county, by appointment, for nearly a year), besides taking entire charge of the business at Brandy- wine, built several miles of canal and aqueduct near Massillon and Roscoe'; when canal opened, boated two years; was then five years with Giddings, Baldwin, Pease & Co., afterwards Andrews, Baldwin & Co., as purchas- ing agent in Winter, and in charge of boats in Summer; then two years agent for Boston Land Company ; then, in 1838, returned to Brandywine, in addition to manufacturing, largely engaging in farming. In 1871, Mr. Wallace removed to "Maple Mound," near Macedonia, where he resided until his death, September 24, 1887, at the age of 83 years, 9 months and 27

JAMES W. WALLACE.

days, Mrs. Wallace having died March 15, 1885, aged 67 years. The children are-George, who died in Pomeroy, Iowa, August 26, 1880; Hiram Hanchett and Mary Emeline (Mrs. Lorin Bliss), Northfield Center ; Warner W., Danville, Kentucky; Joseph, died young; Leonard Case, near Macedonia, and Marjorie Stan- hope, now wife of Henry P. R. Hamil- ton, of St. Paul, Minnesota.

RAPID SETTLEMENT .- For the next ten or twelve years new accessions to the population were almost continuous, so that by 1830 the township was pretty well settled and improved, including quite a hamlet at the center, a brisk manufac- turing village at the Falls of Brandywine Creek, in the south part of the township, and quite extensive lumbering operations a mile or so further up that stream, at Little York. By 1840 the township had almost reached its maximum of population, the census of that year showing the number of inhabitants in the township to be 1,031, while the census of 1880 accorded to it a population of 1,076, and that of 1890 a population of 940 souls, only ; a falling off of 91 in fifty years, though this is even better than some of the townships of the county have done during that period.

The causes for this seeming declension may largely be found in the changed and improved methods of doing business-the introduction of labor-saving machinery requiring a less number of hands upon the farm and a correspondingly greater number in

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mechanical operations-and in the absorption of the minor mechan- ical and mercantile operations of town centers, villages and hamlets, by the cities and general railroad centers of the country.

NORTHFIELD IN PUBLIC SPIRIT .- Though bounded by the Cuyahoga river, upon the west, and though more or less adversely affected, morally, by the location of the Ohio canal through its. entire western border, the township of Northfield was originally peopled with, and is still inhabited by, as intelligent and honorable a population as any other community upon the proverbially intelligent and orderly Western Reserve. It has also contributed its full share in behalf of the freedom and unity of the Nation and in support of the local institutions of the county. As young as she was, Northfield was well represented in the War of . 1812, (though only the names of Henry Wood and Jonathan Hesser are now remembered as soldiers in that war) and in War of the Rebellion she furnished more than her full quota of patriotic and faithful soldiers, as will be seen from the following roster kindly compiled for us by Ambrose W. Bliss, Esq., supplemented by the assessors' enumeration for 1865 :

NORTHFIELD'S ROLL OF HONOR.

Jacob C. Armstrong, Levi Burroughs, George Brower, Augustus. A. Belden, Lucian Bliss, Daniel Boyle (died in service), Alonzo Bain, Francis W. Bliss, Harmon H. Bliss, Theodore Bordeman, E. A. Butterfield, George L. Bishop, Horace P. Bliss (died at home of lung fever, Feb. 20, 1863), O. A. Bishop, Albert L. Bliss, Philip Brandt, Adam Bowles, Frederick Belden, Robert Brown, John Brown, Cornelius Boyle, David' Boam, Augustus Curtiss, B. C. Carpenter, J. C. Chamberlain, Frank R. Clements, Lester J. Crit- tenden, Edward Connor, James Clark (died in service), J. C. Cranmer (died in service), Marcus D. Cross, Joseph Clifford, Edward Cromax, George Cross (lost on Sultana), Andrew J. Cross, Jeremiah H. Cranmer, John Christian, Albert Case, Emery Case, Jonathan Criss, Dwight Case, Lafayette Cranmer, George Cooley, Thomas Drennen (died in service), W. H. H. Deisman, Nathan W. Doty (lost on Sultana), George Dusenbury, John Dusenbury, Simon Dallas, James A. Emmons, Henry Eggleston, Alexander Forbes, Asa H. Fitch. John Fitzwater (died in .rebel prison), Alfred Fell, W. W. France, William Fields, John Goetz, Philander Hewitt (died at Cincinnati, Oct. 1862), Sylvester Honey, Albert Herriman, - Hine, Willis Honey, Hiram H. Johnson (died of heart disease at Camp Chase, Oct. 1862), John H. Johnson (died in service), Henry Large, James Large, Albert Lawrence, James Miller, Milton B. Miller (died in service), James McElroy, Peter Murphy, John A. Means, John Montona, James H. Miller, Marion McKisson, Samuel D. McElroy, Urvan Murphy, F. D. Murphy, Daniel Martin, C. M. Myers, O. McClintock, James Nesbit, D. G. Nesbit, T. B. Nichols, Henry Pile; Geo. W. Pile, A. M. Palmer, Geo. W. Palmer, H. H. Palmer, L. L. Palmer, E. A. Palmer, Thomas Pacy (died in service), Wm. H. H. Polhamus, Samuel Perry, Thomas Parkhurst. Matthew Phaff, Edward G. Ranney (killed at Gettysburg), Jacob Rusher (killed at Shiloh), Otto Runge, John Rose, John Ririe, Nelson Stebbins, William E. Smith, John C. Seidel, Conrad Schoch, Cyrus Singletary (died in service),

901

NORTHFIELD'S ROLL OF HONOR.

Charles Skinner, Edwin Soden, George Soden, L. C. Spafford, John Sharp, Charles Scott, Lucian Stanley, Wilbur Stanley, John Sproutberry, Smith Tryon, Lucas Tryon (died in service), Alfred G. Thompson, Hiram Turner, Myron Tupper (died in service), M .. L. Trotter, Willard Trotter, Abraham Truby, George Thomas, Walter Thompson, Frederick Ungerer (died in service), C. A. Vail, J. J. White, J. C. Wilkinson, Robert F. Watson, Charles W. Way (lost on Sultana), John Wilkins, Josiah Wood.

AMBROSE W. BLISS, - born in Jericho, Chittenden county, Ver- mont, December 6, 1806; common school education ; reared on farm ; at 18 learned carpenter and millwright's trade ; in 1833, came to Ohio, working on public works at Cleveland and Black river ; May 9, 1839, was married to Miss Emeline Palmer, a native of Windsor, Connecticut, born April 5, 1815, and has since been a continuous resident of Northfield. While exten- sively engaged in farming, at the same time Mr. Bliss for many years diligently plied his trade, building aqueducts, and lock-gates on canal, bridges, etc. Politically, Mr. Bliss was originally a Whig, and since its organization has been an earnest sup- porter of the Republican party ; has held several important township offices, and for two full terms of tliree years each-from 1854 to 1860-ably filled the responsible office of county commissioner. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bliss- Ellen, living at home; Lorin, farmer in Northfield; George, living at home; and Horace, the latter enlist- ing in Company C, 115th O. V. I., in August, 1862, and dying, from disease contracted in the army, February 20,, 1863. Mr. Bliss is a brother of Hon.

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Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905 Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department Number of Pages: 1228

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228