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 129

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 129

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'GENERAL BIERCE'S STORY .- After the safety of his client had been thus secured, through the dismissal of the suit, General Bierce took seeming delight in rehearsing the story of his escape, concealment and flight. Disclaiming any personal knowledge as- to the procurement or manipulation of the false keys, or even that an escape was contemplated, the General said that sometime dur- ing the night, he was awakened from sleep by a succession of light taps upon his bedroom window; that on going to the window to ascertain the cause, he found a muffled figure standing there, which in a timid, frightened and whispered voice disclosed itself to be his twice convicted client. Sending him around to the other side of the house, he cautiously let him in; and there, in the dark- ness, formed a plan for his concealment, which was no less a scheme than to immure him in an unused cistern in his back yard, until the excitement should blow over. Quietly gathering up one or two buffalo robes, which he happened to have in the house, together with sundry , articles of bedding, clothing, etc., and depositing them in the cistern, by the aid of a short ladder, con- veniently at hand, the ci-devant Boston dude was as completely entombed from the world as though physically dead and funereally interred. Food and other creature comforts were regularly sup- plied at night, for about six weeks, when, on a particularly ten- pestuous night, about the middle of January, 1846, in a well-con- trived disguise, the fugitive emerged from his living sepulcher, received from his faithful attorney a well-filled purse, mounted a thoroughly-caparisoned, fleet-footed horse found standing in an adjoining alley, and, "solitary and alone," rode forth into the dark- ness and the storm.

FINDS A REFUGE IN SUNNY ITALY .- Rumors from time to time reached the public ear that Willis was sojourning in Florence, Italy, but nothing definite was learned by the general public as to his whereabouts, and no efforts were made by the authorities to secure his extradition, if, indeed, there was any extradition treaty in existence for that grade of offense between the two countries, at

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RETURN TO AMERICA-DEATH, ETC.

that time. Thus matters stood until after a nolle had been entered in the case, as above stated, when, in the Autumn of 1851, he accompanied the notorious Lola Montez to New York, as her con- fidential adviser, and managing agent. The older portion of our readers will readily recall the remarkable career of this remarkable woman, both in Europe and America, and her erratic history need not be repeated here, excepting to say that during her stay in New York, where she appeared upon the stage of the Broadway theater in a piece entitled "Lola Montez in Bavaria," she quarreled with her gay and festive confidential agent and adviser and summarily ejected him from her apartments at the Astor House, and igno- miniously kicked him down stairs.

THE END OF EDWARD P. WILLIS .- After his break with his erratic mistress, Willis was for a time given a subordinate position in the office of the Home Journal (formerly the New York Mirror, of which his distinguished brother, Nathaniel P. Willis, the poet and popular prose writer, was one of the editors and publishers), his death occuring in Boston a few years later, but at what particular date, or from what particular cause, the writer is not advised. Thus ends the sad story of a young man of excellent parentage and of good native ability, who by taking the downward path, became as dishonorably infamous, in Summit and Portage counties, forty-five years ago, as, by taking the upward track, his elder brother became honorably famous throughout all the civi- lized nations of the earth. Young man ! which of the two brothers will you emulate-the famous or the infamous ?

CHAPTER L.

TALLMADGE TOWNSHIP-ORIGIN, EARLY SETTLEMENT, ETC .- A UTOPIAN PROJECT-UNIQUE ADJUSTMENT OF LOTS AND ROADS-AN OCTUPLE GUIDE BOARD-NAME, ORGANIZATION, ETC .- PET SCHEME OF FOUNDER THWARTED -- CHURCH AND EDUCATIONAL MATTERS-PIONEER DEAF AND DUMB SCHOOL IN OHIO-CURIOUS CHURCH PRIZE CURIOUSLY WON-FIRST "STRIKE" ON RECORD-PIONEER MINING OPERATIONS-EARLY LOCAL RAILROAD-BLAST FURNACE PROJECT-EXTENSIVE CARRIAGE SHOPS, SEWER PIPE WORKS, ETC .- CLEAN CRIMINAL RECORD-SPLENDID MILITARY SHOWING-BRILLIANT CIVIL RECORD, ETC.

TALLMADGE TOWNSHIP.

G NE of the most reliable and painstaking local historians of Summit county was the late Charles C. Bronson, of Tall- madge. Emigrating to that township from Connecticut, with his parents, in 1819, then a boy of 15 years, he resided upon the farm which he then helped to clear, until his death, April 11, 1886, a period of 76 years, and possessing a remarkably retentive memory, as well as being a minute observer and recorder of passing events, whatever has emanated from his pen may be received with the fullest confidence as being thoroughly correct.

In attempting, therefore, the preparation of a brief historical sketch of Tallmadge, I have availed myself of the writings of my late friend, aided by those of the late Captain Amos Seward, Colonel Charles Whittlesey, Hon. E. N. Sill and Gen. Lucius V. Bierce, and the recollections of Messrs. Daniel Hine, Andrew Fenn, Ira P. Sperry, Daniel A. Upson, George Allison and other surviving residents of the township.

ORIGIN, EARLY SETTLEMENT, ETC .- The survey of the Western Reserve lands, east of the Cuyahoga river and Portage Path, was completed, by Wareham Shepard and Amzi Atwater, for the Con- necticut Land Company, late in the Fall of 1797, Tallmadge, then unnamed, being designated as Town 2, Range 10. In the 24th draft, at Hartford, Conn., in January, 1798, the township fell to Jonathan Brace and Enoch Perkins, of Hartford, Roger Newberry, of Wind- sor, Elijah White, of Bolton, Conn., Justin Ely, of West Spring- field, Azariah Rockwell, Abner and Roswell Root, and Oliver P. Dickinson, of Pittsfield, and Stephen W. Jones, of Stockbridge, Mass .; the total number of acres within the township, thus drawn, being 15,225.

The first five parties named constituted what was known as the "Brace Company," the last five forming the "Rockwell Com- pany." Subsequently, in October, 1799, Jones sold his share to Ephraim Starr, of Goshen, and Stanley Griswold, of New Milford, Conn., Starr purchasing Griswold's interest the following year. The remaining members of the Rockwell Company, Nov. 9, 1799, transferred their interest to Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, of Litchfield, Conn. This made the Brace Company and Messrs. Tallmadge and Starr, tenants in common of the entire township,

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A TRULY PURITANICAL SCHEME.

by a subsequent arrangement the Brace Company taking the entire west half of the township, Mr. Starr three sections east of the center line, from the north line of the township southward, and Colonel Tallmadge the balance of the township.

A PROJECTED UTOPIA .- In 1806, Rev. David Bacon, of Wood- stock, Conn., who with true, Puritanic piety and devotion had, under the auspices of the Connecticut Missionary Society, given about five years to missionary work among the Indians near Detroit, made a contract with Messrs. Tallmadge and Starr and the Brace Company, for the purchase of a portion, and to act as their agent for the sale of the residue of their lands in the yet unsettled and unnamed township.

Being an earnest believer in, and preacher of, the christian religion, Mr. Bacon conceived the idea of founding, in the wilds of Ohio, a community that should be in full sympathy with his own unswerving orthodox religious notions-a sort of Ecclesiastical Utopia-to be conducted upon, and governed by, a strictly moral and spiritual code of ethics.

Hence, Mr. Bacon's first work, before any settlements what- ever were made, was to re-survey and re-arrange the lots and the roads of the township, so as to bring every portion thereof, as nearly as possible, upon a direct road leading to the contemplated sanctuary. The lands of the township had already been laid out, by Gen. Simon Perkins, of Warren, as agent of the Connecticut Land Company, into twenty-five sections of one mile square, each, with east and west and north and south roads, crossing at right angles.

The survey ordered by Mr. Bacon, divided the township into sixteen great lots of one and a-fourth miles square, not only divided by north and south, and east and west roads, but also sub- dividing one-half of the lots with diagonal roads from the north- east to the southwest, and from the northwest to the southeast corners, the other half of the lots also cornering upon said diagonal roads, all, like the east and west and north and south roads, lead- ing directly to the center of the town.

At the center a commodious public square, of seven and one- half acres, was laid out by Mr. Bacon, on which, and around which, was to be planted the church, the school-house, the store, the tav- ern, and the various mechanics' shops and private residences that were to form the future business emporium of the township, and as they have existed for the past three-fourths of a century.

PUZZLING AS WELL AS CONVENIENT .- This arrangement of the roads produced eight corners at the center, and six corners midway between the center and each of the four corners of the township, designated by the inhabitants as the northeast, north- west, southeast and southwest six corners respectively. This mul- tiplicity of "corners" has often been very puzzling to strangers -not always well posted on the points of the compass-though the local authorities have been exceptionally careful to keep a good supply of guide-boards at the several points designated.

After the country became settled up, with thriving communi- ties and villages on every hand, and before the public square had been fenced in and planted to the beautiful shade trees by which it is now adorned, an eight-fingered guide-board was placed near the center of the square, with an arm pointing towards each of the

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eight diverging roads, with the proper legend inscribed on each side thereof. This octuple guide-board, with sixteen to twenty different directions upon it, was a great source of curiosity and study to travelers passing through the town, often eliciting many facetious remarks and much boisterous merriment.

It is related that one day the people living about the square were attracted by loud and repeated peals of laughter and on looking out of their doors and windows discovered a stranger rolling upon the ground, near the guide-board, indulging in the most extravagant contortions and paroxysms of laughter. He was soon surrounded by quite a crowd, who, from his hilarious antics and prolonged and vigorous guffaws, thought the stranger must have been taken suddenly crazy. After awhile, in response to their anxious inquiries, he raised himself on end and replied:

"I've often heard (ha! ha! ha!) of the (ho! ho! ho!) center of creation (hi! hi! hi!) but I never expected to (he! he! he!) see it- and now (ha! ha! ha!) I've got there!"

At each of the six corners named, a school house was estab- lished at an early day, thus giving the inhabitants of every por- tion of the township easy access to the school as well as to the sanctuary, other school houses being erected from time to time in convenient localities as the necessities of the people required.

TALLMADGE'S FIRST SETTLER .- Previous to the arrangement between Mr. Bacon and the principal proprietor of the township, as above stated, a few lots had been sold to private parties, Mr. Jotham Blakeslee, of Kent, Connecticut, having, in 1805, purchased from Ephraim Starr a portion of lot six, tract fourteen, of the Perkins survey, on the middle south line of the township. Mr. Blakeslee soon afterwards removed from Connecticut to Ravenna, though a few years later permanently locating in Tallmadge.

There is some diversity of opinion as to who was the first .actual settler in the township. The generally accepted belief has been that it was Mr. Bacon himself, Hon. E. N. Sill, Dr. Leonard Bacon and other speakers at the semi-centennial celebration, June 24, 1857, taking that ground. Mr. Bronson, however, gives the pre- cedence to Mr. George Boosinger, who with his father had settled in Ravenna in 1801. Mr. Bronson states, that Boosinger, having bought seventy-five acres of Mr. Blakeslee's land, in March, 1807, accompanied by Mr. Blakeslee, and some eight or ten other Ravenna neighbors, came over to Tallmadge, and in a single day cut the logs and built a 16x20 foot cabin, covering it with long split shingles, and laying a floor of split and hewed puncheons, the door being constructed of the same material, with wooden hinges, latch, etc. Into this cabin, the latter part of March, or fore part of April, Boosinger moved his family, though a few weeks later Mrs. B. returned to Ravenna for a brief period, while there giving birth to twins-boy and girl-the boy dying shortly after her return to her new home in Tallmadge.

The same Spring (1807) Mr. Bacon, who had been temporarily sojourning in Hudson, hired a newly arrived Vermonter, by the name of Justin E. Frink, to clear a piece of ground for a garden, and on which to build a house. The ground selected was about a mile west of Boosinger's cabin, near the south line of the town- - ship. Of the removal of the family, on the completion of the reg- ulation log cabin, the late Dr. Leonard Bacon (son of Rev. David

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NAME, ORGANIZATION, ETC.

Bacon, born at Detroit, February 19, 1802) in his semi-centennial address said: "I well remember, among the dim and early remi- niscences of early childhood, the pleasant day in the month of July, if I mistake not, when the family made its removal from the center of Hudson to the new log house that had been prepared for it, in the township which had no other designation than No. 2, Range 10." I think, therefore, it may be accepted as a fixed fact that George Boosinger was the first actual settler in the township, and that, too, without detracting in the slightest degree from the honor due to Mr. Bacon, as the founder of the township, and the forerunner of its sterling population. Boosinger sold his property in 1836 and removed to Illinois, where he died in 1862.

OTHER PIONEER SETTLERS .- Up to February, 1808, there were in the township nine persons only-Boosinger, wife and child; Mr. and Mrs. Bacon and their three children, and Justin E. Frink. Early in 1808, came Ephraim Clark, Jr., of Southington, Conn., with his newly married wife, a Miss Sperry, of Mesopotamia, Ohio, in which vicinity he had lived about nine years. The next set- tler is supposed to have been Jonathan Sprague, also in 1808, fol- lowed the same year, by Nathaniel Chapman, his father, Titus Chapman, William Neal, George Kilbourne, and Charles Chit- tenden, the latter moving into Springfield some two or three years later.

In rapid succession came Aaron Norton, Dr. Amos C. Wright, Moses Bradford, Thomas Dunlap, Eli Hill, Edmund Strong, Cap- tain John Wright, John Wright, Jr., Jotham Blakeslee, Alpha Wright, Conrad Boosinger, Elizur Wright, David Preston, John S. Preston, Drake Fellows, Samuel McCoy, Deacon Salmon Sackett, John Caruthers, Luther Chamberlain, Deacon Nathaniel Gillett, Hosea Wilcox, Reuben Upson, Jesse Neal, followed still later by the Treats, the Fenns, the Hines, the Carters, the Stones, the Sperrys, the Upsons, the Barnes', the Wolcotts, the Pecks, the Lymans, the Morrises, the Hinmans, the Ashmuns, the Sewards, the Upsons, the Pierces, the Roots, the Bronsons, the Betteses, the Battersons, etc. The majority of the early residents of Tall- madge, were from Connecticut, with a slight sprinkling from other New England States, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and in the beginning was almost exclusively a Yankee town, though many other nationalities are at the present time represented in its population.

It will be impossible, within the limits of this chapter, to fol- low the individual fortunes of the pioneer settlers of Tallmadge township, all of whom, almost without an exception-though not all indorsing the peculiar notions of its founder-making first- class citizens, each cheerfully bearing his or her share of the labors and responsibilities of shaping the destinies of the township and in supporting the material, moral and religious institutions of the county, State and nation.

NAME, ORGANIZATION, ETC .- Originally, Tallmadge, like all the townships of the western Reserve, was five miles square, bounded on the north by Stow, east by Brimfield (Portage county), south by Springfield, and west by Portage. On the erection of the township of Cuyahoga Falls, in 1851, out of the four contiguous corners of Tallmadge, Stow, Northampton and Portage, about 1,000 acres, embracing all of tract one, and about one-fifth of tract five, were

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contributed by Tallmadge, while, in like manner, in 1858, lots three and five, and part of lots four and six, containing about 300 acres were attached to the new township of Middlebury, then erected, and now constitute a part of the Sixth Ward of Akron. As sup- posed by Mr. Bronson, some time in June, 1808, the settlers of the township met at the house of Mr. Bacon, to determine upon a name, the only designation, up to that time being Town 2, Range 10. Mr. Bacon suggested that in honor to Col. Tallmadge, the largest individual proprietary land owner of the township, it should be named after him, which was unanimously assented to.

As stated in anotherchapter, Tallmadge, though at first rather a dependency of Hudson, was under township organization with Springfield, Coventry, Suffield and Randolph, under the gen- eral name of Randolph, and after separate organizations had been provided for the others, affiliated with Springfield until November 11, 1812, when it was duly organized under its own proper name. The first town clerk was Elizur Wright, and the first justice of the peace, Nathaniel Chapman; other officers not remembered.

The first death in the township was the twin boy of the Boosingers, heretofore alluded to, in 1807; the first birth was a daughter, Clarissa, to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Chittenden, in 1808, which child, grown to womanhood, married Mr. Isaac Newton, son of Middlebury's well-known hotel keeper of fifty years ago, Mr. Samuel Newton, and brother of Mrs. Elizabeth R. Johnston, still living in Akron. Mrs. Newton (who was a sister of the late Mrs. Huldah Bowen, widow of the late Dr. Bowen, of Akron), is still living in Dakota, her husband having died some five or six years ago. The first male child born in Tallmadge, October 5, 1808, was the present well-preserved octogenarian, Dr. Amos Wright; the first marriage being Sally Chapman, daughter of Deacon Nathaniel Chapman to John Collins, January 7, 1809; the first adult death in the township being that of Mr. Titus Chapman, November 18, 1808.

TOPOGRAPHY, POPULATION, ETC .- The face of the township is generally gently rolling, though a mile or so west of the center is quite an abrupt eminence, known as Coal Hill, while there are also pretty steep hills and bluffs overlooking the valley of the Little Cuyahoga river, near the southwest corner. A point on Coal Hill, on the farm of Mr. Daniel Hine, a short distance south of his residence, is 636 feet above the surface of Lake Erie, and the highest ground in Summit county, excepting a portion of the township of Richfield.

In 1840 the population of Tallmadge was 2,134, the census of 1880 giving her a total of 1,455, and that of 1890 giving her 1.145 inhabitants, only. This apparent large falling off is due to the fact that, during the intervening fifty years, she had been despoiled of the two most populous corners of her territory, at Cuyahoga Falls and Middlebury (now Akron) the probability being that she has not only not retrograded, like some of the other townships of the county, but that the number of inhabitants within the present limits of the township, is considerably greater than that of the same territory in 1840.

The soil is generally a light loam, but with the most excellent tillage given to it by its industrious and intelligent occupants, extremely fertile and productive, the original forests, generally

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DISAPPOINTMENTS, REVERSES, ETC.

oak and chestnut, embracing also quite a sprinkling of aslı, elni hickory, black-walnut, cucumber, beech, maple, etc. The drainage of the north and northwestern portion, is into the Big Cuyahoga river, which skirts the northern border, penetrating the township at one point only, by a sharp bend on the old Adna Sperry farm, and crossing that portion of the northwest corner now embraced in the township of Cuyahoga Falls. On the south and southwest, the drainage is into the Little Cuyahoga, which, traversing the extreme north part of Springfield, and the Sixth Ward of Akron, cuts across the southwest corner of the township near the Old Forge. Several small creeks and rivulets traverse different parts of the township, the most important of which is Camp Brook in the southwest portion, emptying into the Little Cuyahoga. Water power for manufacturing purposes, was therefore not very abun- dant one or two water-propelled saw-mills, only, finding a short- lived existence, excepting such milling and manufacturing opera- tions as may have existed within the original limits of the township, at Cuyahoga Falls, upon the Big Cuyahoga, and at Middlebury and Old Forge upon the Little Cuyahoga.

UTOPIAN VISIONS NOT FULLY REALIZED.

Although the early efforts of its truly pious and devoted founder, David Bacon, peopled the township with an exceptionally worthy class of inhabitants, and though the adjustment of lots, roads, etc., was most admirable, the good man failed to realize the fruition of his scheme in an ecclesiastical point of view. It had been his desire to conform the entire township to the support of the church to which he himself belonged. To this end he caused to be inserted in the contracts and deeds of conveyance a clause binding each 100 acres sold to the annual payment of $2 for the support of the "Gospel Ministry of the Calvinistic Faith of the Congrega- tional Order forever," and also, in said deeds reserving the right. and power to distrain for said annuity in case the same should be in arrears.

In addition to this, the Congregational society, when organized in 1809, adopted a voluntary schedule of taxation for its support, fixing the valuation of property, as a basis therefor, as follows: Timber land, $4 per acre; girdled and underbrushed land, $10; cleared land, $15; horses, three years old or over, $30; oxen, four years old or over, $20; steers and cows, $15; buildings to be valued by listers.

The first plan, though lived up to for several years, by a por- tion of the land-owners, finally proved a failure, several persons, who, though good and pious men, but not subscribing to the Calvinistic faith, refusing to pay the stipulated annuity. Mr. Edmund Strong being a leading recusant, in 1811 was sued by Mr. Bacon for the amount levied on his land, as a test of the legality of such contracts. The late Peter Hitchcock, afterwards a mem- ber of Congress and judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, acted as attorney for Mr. Strong, the case being decided in his favor.

Thus ended the perpetual land tax scheme devised by Mr. Bacon, for the support of the gospel in Tallmadge, though the maintenance of the gospel, and the Congregational Church there, was by no means a failure. How long the other scheme adopted by the society, of taxation on valuation, continued, the writer is

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not advised; but that, too, finally gave way to the more modern, if not more equitable, mode of ministerial support and church usage.

R EV. DAVID BACON, - the founder of Tallmadge township, as herein written, was born at Wood- stock, Connecticut, in 1871, being bap- tized September 15, of that year. Piously reared and educated, he was ordained a minister by the mis- sionary society of Connecticut, December 31, 1800, and assigned to duty among the western Indians, with headquarters at Detroit, having already, the previous autumn, made a preliminary survey of the field, performing the journey either way mostly on foot. His salary, paying his own expenses, was fixed at one hundred and ten cents per day. On his second journey, in January, 1801, he was accompanied by his young wife, having meantime, December 24, 1800, been married to Miss Alice Parks, of Lebanon, Con- necticut, then but 17 years of age, the first part of the journey by sleigh, and the balance on horseback. Here the devoted couple, amid great dis- couragements and privations,labored faithfully some four years, their first son, the since celebrated Dr. Leonard Bacon, having been born there, Feb- ruary 14, 1802. Want of adequate support by the parent society, and other untoward circumstances,finally compelled the abandonment of their cherished enterprise, and late in the Fall of 1804, they regretfully turned their steps eastward. The balance of their story is told in the history of Tallmadge, of which township Mr.

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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