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 87

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 87

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PRESENT OFFICIAL STATUS (1891) .- Township trustees, C. C. Frederick, R. R. Stimson and J. Quincy Adams; clerk, C. E. Francisco; treasurer, Dr. Byron Chapman; postmaster, Henry Harris.

COPLEY'S CRIMINAL RECORD.

Thougli some of her citizens became somewhat tainted with the counterfeiting virus with which several of the neighboring townships were so largely infected, in the early days, and though one of her sons, then temporarily residing in Akron, figured in an infamous crime some thirty years ago, she has been, almost, exceptionally exempt from flagrant crime, during her nearly three- quarters of a century's existence, the only really exciting epi- sode in her history being the insane killing of his son, by her native-born, and hitherto highly respected citizen, Mr. Delos Bos- worth, on the morning of March 3, 1891, a brief history of the sad affair being as follows:

DELOS BOSWORTH, a native of Copley, born January 11, 1818, was, in early and middle life, one of the most enterprising and influential citizens of the township. March 16, 1841, he was mar- ried to Miss Christina Wagoner, who, after bearing him three children, died, September 3, 1855. April 8, 1858, he was again mar- ried to Miss Abbie W. Whinery, of Columbiana county, who bore him one son, John C., born December 25, 1860, who, grown to man- hood, became the sole dependence of the family in the management of the farm and household. For the last eight or ten years of his life, Mr. Bosworth was 'affected by a peculiar nervous malady, which not.only very greatly impaired his physical health and enterprise, but also very greatly weakened and deranged his mental powers, involving serious financial embarrassment, by which the family homestead was about to be sold for his indebtedness. Though the son, John, was arranging for its purchase, and to secure for his parents a comfortable home in their declining years, the old gentleman, as is common in cases of mental derangement, con- ceived the notion that the wife and son were largely responsible for their troubles and determined upon putting them out of the way.

THE DEED PARTIALLY ACCOMPLISHED .- For sonie time he had been carefully watched, lest he should do violence to himself, his care-takers little dreaming of any immediate personal danger to themselves, though frequent threats of that nature had been made. Thus matters stood on the morning of Tuesday, March 3, 1891,

705

STRIKING THE FATAL BLOW.

the family having breakfasted as usual, Mr. Bosworth eating quite heartily. John, having done the barn chores, the weather being quite cold, had seated himself in an easy-chair, by the din- ing room stove, and engaged in reading a paper, Mrs. Bosworth being busy with her household duties. From having been some- what broken of his rest during the night, and from the warmth of the room, after having been out in the cold, John, at length, dropped asleep in his chair. With insane cunning the demented father now saw his opportunity, and instantly acted upon it. Though the room was abundantly warm, he handed the empty coal bucket to his wife, and requested her to get some coal, which she at once proceeded to do, passing through the summer kitchen and woodshed to the coal house in the rear. Noiselessly following her to the woodshed, he secured an ax, and retraced his steps, as he did so locking the door between the kitchen and the dining room. Then, with the superhuman strength of a madman, instead of the nerveless invalid that he really was, he raised the ax and struck the fatal blow, the blade crashing through the skull and up to the eye into the brain of his unconscious son.

AN ATTEMPT ON MRS. BOSWORTH'S LIFE, ALSO .- On returning with the bucket of coal, and finding the door locked, Mrs. Bos- worth instantly divined the cause, and setting down the bucket, she hurried around through the woodshed to the porch door open- ing into the dining room, where she met her infuriated husband, with the blade of the ax dripping with the warm life-blood of her son. He rushed at her with the bloody weapon, but she evaded him, and fled to the road screaming for assistance.

ATTEMPT TO TAKE HIS OWN LIFE .- Attracted by the screams of Mrs. Bosworth, neighbors were soon at the house, the first one, Mr. Isaiah Jacoby, grappling with, and taking from, Mr. Bosworth, a large, but not very sharp, pocket-knife, with which he was attempting to cut his own throat. Though, of course, totally unconscious, the son continued to breathe several hours, finally expiring at 2:13 P. M.

The facts of the killing were so patent that Coroner Brewster did not deem it necessary to hold an inquest over the remains. Police Sergeant Dunn, the same day, brought the unfortunate old man to Akron, and placed him in an upper room in the jail, though he was, the same evening, taken to the County Infirmary. A few days later he was brought before Probate Judge, E. W. Stuart, by whom, after proper hearing, he was adjudged to be insane, and on account of Summit county's quota being full, at the Newburg Asylum, he was remanded to the Infirmary, where, continuing to grow feeble, and paralysis intervening, he died on Sunday evening, March 22, 1891, his age being 73 years, 2 months and 11 days.

Though the loss of so promising a young man as was John C. Bosworth, in so tragic a manner, is deeply mourned and regretted by the entire community, the fearful wreckage of body and mind, without any known moral or physical obliquity, of so prominent and influential a native-born citizen as Delos Bosworth, is most deeply deplored by the great majority of the people of the town- ship, and by his hundreds of acquaintances in other portions of the county.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE "STATE OF COVENTRY"-WHY SO CALLED-WHERE AND WHAT IT IS-AN ABORIGINAL "GARDEN OF EDEN"-EARLY WHITE SETTLEMENT-AGRI- CULTURAL AND MINERAL RESOURCES, MILLING, MANUFACTURES, ETC .- THE RESERVOIRS, WHEN AND WHY CONSTRUCTED-THE CELEBRATED OLD STATE MILL-NEW PORTAGE THE ANCIENT METROPOLIS -- " QUEER" FINAN- CIAL OPERATIONS-HONORABLE MILITARY AND CIVIL RECORD-FRAT- RICIDAL HOMICIDE IN 1837-TERRIBLE FAMILY AFFLICTION-DEATH OF FRATRICIDE OF GRIEF, IN PRISON THE LEY-SWARTZ-THOMAS TRAGEDY OF 1878-IMPRISONMENT, PARDON, SUBSEQUENT GOOD CONDUCT, ETC .- IM- PRESSIVE LESSON TO YOUNG MEN.

WHERE AND HOW LOCATED.

THE township of Coventry is located immediately south of the city of Akron, a narrow strip of the northern part being, in fact, within the city limits, and that portion of its inhabitants denizens thereof. On the east lies the township of Springfield, on the south portions of Franklin and Green, and on the west the township of Norton. The south line of the township is also the south line of the famous "Western Reserve."

Unlike most of the townships of the Reserve, which were laid out with mathematical precision, five miles square, Coventry is quite irregular in shape; that portion east of Portage Path extend- ing about one-fourth of a mile further north than the portion on the west side of said Path, while south of New Portage, following the course of the Tuscarawas river, it trenches, in places, nearly a mile upon the fair proportions of Norton township, on the west. This was owing to the fact that some twenty years elapsed between the two treaties; that of Fort McIntosh, in 1785, ceding to the United States all the territory east of Portage Path and the Tus- carawas river, and that of Fort Industry, in 1805, all the territory west of those points; and to the variation in the lines of the two sets of surveyors employed to lay the two sections out.

ABORIGINAL "GARDEN OF EDEN."-Previous to the advent of the whites, the territory embraced within the township of Coventry must have been literally the Garden of Eden of the Red man. In the first place, at or a little above the present village of New Port- age, was the southern terminus of the Portage Path-a veritable port of entry and delivery-being the head of navigation on the Tuscarawas river, whence there was constant passage to and fro between Lake Erie and the Ohio river; for be it remembered that neither the Cuyahoga nor the Tuscarawas were then the diminutive rivulets that the denudation of the country of its tim- ber, and the drainage appliances of civilization, have reduced them to. In fact, for many years after white settlement began, this point (New Portage) was regarded as one of the most favorable business locations in Northern Ohio, flat-boats being built and freighted with such products as the neighborhood afforded for the Ohio and Mississippi trade.

707

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

ONAH ALLEN, -son of Jesse J Allen, Sr., was born in Tompkins county, N. Y., October 14, 1798 ; came to Coventry, with parents, in 1811, the father officiating as justice of the peace in Coventry township for many years. Mr. Allen was married to Miss Cynthia Spicer, sister of the late Major Spicer, May 12, 1821, and estab- lished a farm home for himself in Coventry, which he successfully car- ried on until his death, May 15, 1874, , at the age of 75 years, 7 months and 1 day, Mrs. Allen having died Sep- tember 11, 1860, aged 57 years, 3 months and 20 days. Mr. and Mrs: Allen were the parents of five chil- dren-Catharine, born November 5, 1822, afterwards Mrs. Oren Beckwith, who died January 23, 1855; Edward, born August 18, 1824, died July 9, 1841 ; William, born February 18, 1827, died November 28, 1886; Jolin, born October 20, 1829, still residing upon the old homestead in Coventry ; Cynthia, who died in infancy; the surviving son, John, like the brother, William, the father, Jonah, and the grandfather, Jesse, being among the most enterprising and honored residents of Coventry township; int politics an ardent Republican, and in religion an earnest supporter of the Disciple faith. John Allen was

JONAH ALLEN.

married, December 9, 1857, to Ann Morgan, of Newburg, Cuyahoga county, who has borne him four children-Emma C. (now Mrs. Henry B. Sisler, of Akron), born November 2, 1858; Jesse M., now working in Barberton, born April 6, 1864 ; Isham 'F., born Jan 2, 1868; John R., born March 23, 1871, now in Worthington's hardware store, in Cleveland.

Besides the Tuscarawas river, Summit Lake, then consid- erably larger than now, Manning's Lake, Nesmith's Lake, Long Lake, and several other similar bodies of water in the vicinity, afforded a great variety of fish, the adjacent forests being amply stocked with game, while the gentle slopes surrounding the lakes, with the rich bottom lands of the streams, supplied them with maize and such other products of the soil, as their rude implements and limited knowledge and methods of husbandry could secure.

It is also certain, from modern developments and findings, that the Tuscarawas Valley, and the neighborhood of the lakes, was formerly the seat of quite a large volume of Indian manu- factures and industry, such as the fabrication of canoes, and of flint arrow-heads, spear-heads, hammers, axes, kettles, mortars, pestles, and such other stone implements of warfare, sport, agri -· culture, domestic utensils, etc., as were then in vogue, though the material from which the most of them were made must have been brought from a distance, as nothing of the kind is indigenous to the neighborhood.

EARLY SETTLEMENT, ETC .- It is generally conceded that Daniel Haines (General Bierce has it David), was the first white settler in the township, having removed thither from Pennsylvania in 1806. Mr. Haines built himself a log cabin on lot 4, a short distance south of the present stone residence of Miss A. Louise Sumner, in the northeast corner of the township. Though Mr. Haines and his family were the only white settlers in the neighborhood for several years, sharing with the Indians the bounties of both forest, lake

708

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

and stream, on which they had to largely depend for subsistence, it does not appear that there was ever any trouble between them.

Though a few settlers had come to what was afterwards called Middlebury, where a mill had in the meantime been erected, Mr. Haines did not begin to feel crowded until about 1811, when the Spicers, the Williams' and the Allens came into the neighborhood, Mr. Haines about that time selling out his cabin and improve- ments to Mr. Jesse Allen (father of the late Hiram, Jacob, Jesse and David Allen), Mr. Haines then settling upon or near lot 16, about two miles to the southwest, where he resided until his death, at a very advanced age, some 35 years ago.

TEVI ALLEN,-second son of Jesse Allen, one of the very earliest of Coventry's pioneer settlers, was .born in Tompkins county, N. Y., February 10, 1799; moved with par- ents to Ohio, by ox team, in 1811, Levi, then but 12 years old, walking and driving cattle and sheep most of the way, arriving in Middlebury July 4. At 21 Mr. Allen purchased the farm now occupied by Levi Allen, Jr., a short distance south of city limits ; in 1824, was married to Miss Phoebe Spicer, daughter of. Major Miner Spicer; who bore him six children- Levi, Jr., born July 28, 1824, now living on the old homestead, in Coventry ; Miner S., born July 29, 1825, died Decem- ber20, 1825; Albert (whose portrait and biography appear elsewhere), born March 12, 1827, died September 25, 1888; Miner J. (see portrait on another page); born November 11, 1829; Walter Scott, born March 24, 1834, died September 13, 1834; and Cynthia A., born April 22, 1839. Mr Allen, though not an office-seeker, ever took a lively interest in public affairs, both local and general, and for sixty years was an active and influential member of the Disciple church. In 1868 Mr. and Mrs. Allen gave up the care of the

LEVI ALLEN.

farm and removed to Akron, to reside with their children, Albert and Cyn- thia, who kindly cared for them to the end-Mrs. Allen dying January 10, 1875, aged 74 years and 29 days, and Mr. Allen passing away May 11, 1887, aged 88 years, 3 months and one day.

From this time on, settlements became quite rapid, the Brew- sters, the Bellows', the Triplets, the Falors, the Viers', the Cahows, the Heathmans, the Nashes, the Roots, the Keplers, the Harters, the Wagoners, the Rexes, the Dixons, and others of the pioneer set- tlers, whose names are not now recalled, coming into the township in rapid succession and speedily converting it from its primitive wilderness condition into thrifty fields, fertile meadows and fruit- ful orchards.

ORGANIZATION, NAME, ETC .- Coventry first came under town- ship organization in connection with Springfield, under the juris- diction of Trumbull county, in April, 1808, but at just what date it was organized into a separate township, as a part of Portage county, is not now known, nor who were its first officers, or why it was christened "Coventry." Jesse Allen was early and long a justice of the peace, the names of the other justices of the peace, previous to the organization of Summit county, in 1840, not being

709

FRATRICIDAL HOMICIDE.

now ascertainable. Since 1840, the law and justice of the township, as appears by the record, has been dealt out by the following per- sons: Isaac Fries, nine years; Joshua Clark, three years; Ralph P. Russell, three years; Martin J. Housel, six years; Talmon Beard- sley, twelve years; William High, twelve years; John R. Buchtel, three years; Noah Ingersoll, six years; John Tooker, three years; Jacob France, six years; John Donner, three years; Henry Behmer, three years; Jonathan H. Brewster, three years; Oliver P. Falor, nine years; James L. Porter, six years; Houston Kepler, six years.

THE "STATE OF COVENTRY."-The township was, for many years, and by some still is, called the "State of Coventry," that cognomen having been obtained something in this wise: During the building of the canal, there was a disturbance between the workmen and some of the citizens, which was likely to culminate in a riot, when a neighboring justice of the peace, who had been hastily summoned, with law-book in hand, proceeded to read the Riot Act, and getting a little confused, concluded with: "There- fore, in the name of the State of Coventry, I command you to disperse."

EARLY HOMICIDE .- In the year 1838, there lived in the township of Coventry, upon the upper road leading from Akron to New Portage, a family by the name of Heathman, consisting of the widow of Bennett Heathman, and five sons, John, Sylvester, Elijah, Elisha and Bennett, and one daughter, Mary. One of the sons, only, Elijah, was married, occupying a house in the same lot, and but a few feet distant from the family residence, in which the other four sons and the daughter, all grown up, resided with the widowed mother Two of the sons, John and Sylvester, were, un- fortunately, somewhat addicted to the excessive use of intoxicat- ing liquors; and on the 12th day of January, 1838, had spent the day away from home, but how, or where, their time had been employed, is not now remembered; the other brothers, Elisha and Bennett, also being absent from home during the day. The first one of the brothers to return in the evening was John, considerably under the influence of liquor. While he was eating his supper Sylvester came in, also slightly intoxicated. John asked Sylvester where Elisha was, to which question Sylvester made the evasive reply that he had "gone up north," to which John immediately replied "You're a d-d liar and the truth isn't in you!" at the same time hurling his fork at Sylvester and slightly wounding him upon the nose, accompanying the act with the threat if Sylvester came up stairs that night he would "be the death of him."

THE FATAL BLOW .- The mother being temporarily absent from the room, the sister, Mary, and the little six-year-old son of Elijah (our present highly respected citizen, Mr. Alexander M. Heathman), were the only witnesses of the fatal affray. Mary's story, as told before the coroner, and upon the trial, was about this: that almost immediately after the above threat had been uttered, she heard a rattling of knives and forks near the place where John had been sitting at the table, and on looking that way, saw Sylvester seize a chair and strike John a severe blow upon his side. The recollec- tion of Mr. A. M. Heathman is that his uncle Sylvester, instead of striking his uncle John with the chair, while holding it between them, to prevent John in his, anger from getting at him, only pushed it against him somewhat forcibly. Be this as it may, on

710

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

the return of the mother, a moment after, on being hastily sum- moned by Mary, John exclaimed, "Oh, mother, I am going to fall!" and immediately sank to the floor. A strong smell of whisky was at once observable, and at the same time a large quantity of blood was seen to be running from John's shoes upon the floor. The almost frantic mother had scarcely time to kneel besides the pros- trate form before it was evident to her that he had received a fatal wound, and when Sylvester, on comprehending what he had done, also threw himself down beside the body of his brother, exclaim- ing, "Oh, John! Brother John!" the poor mother said: "You may call him now, but he cannot hear you, for you have killed him." Sylvester then endeavored to secure the attendance of a physician, but before the latter could be got to the house John was dead, having lived less than half an hour after the fatal blow was struck.

It was found, on examination, that in addition to the whisky that John had drank, during the day, he had brought home about a pint in a junk bottle, in the right pocket of his pantaloons, the force of the blow with the chair not only breaking the bottle, but driving pieces of the glass into the groin and severing the femoral artery, which of course, would speedily result in death, without instant attention from a skillful surgeon.

A GRIEF-STRICKEN FAMILY .- Not only the mother, the sister, . and the remaining brothers, Elisha, Elijah and Bennett, were deeply stricken with grief, at the dreadful calamity which had befallen them, but Sylvester, also, was almost frantic with sorrow at the fearful mischief he had wrought. He not only made no. effort to escape, but frankly told the story of the sad occurrence at the coroner's inquest over the remains of his dead brother, and voluntarily surrendered himself to the officers of the law.

TRIAL AND PUNISHMENT .- On being brought before Justice- Thomas D. Viers, of the township of Coventry, the circumstances. of the fatal affray were briefly narrated by the distressed mother and sister, and corroborated by Sylvester himself, whereupon he was held by the examining magistrate to answer to the Court of Common Pleas of Portage county for the crime of murder, and duly committed to jail until the February term of court, 1838, when he was indicted by the grand jury for murder in the second de- gree, and put upon his trial.

The case was conducted by Prosecuting Attorney Lucius V. Bierce, assisted by Rufus P. Spalding, Esq., then of Ravenna, on behalf of the State, and the accused was ably defended by David K. Cartter, Esq., of Akron, and Eben Newton, Esq., of Canfield. The charge to the jury, was delivered by President Judge, Van R. Humphrey, and, after brief consultation, a verdict was returned finding the accused

GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER .- Judge Humphrey thereupon immediately proceeded, in a very impressive manner-animad- verting upon the extreme folly and danger of indulging in intoxi- cating liquors, and enlarging upon the fact that such indulgence was the cause of more than three-fourths of the personal violence and crime, the world over-to sentence the sorrowing fratricide to one year's imprisonment in the penitentiary-the shortest period allowable by law for the crime of manslaughter.

DIED OF GRIEF IN PRISON .- Immediately after receiving his sentence, Sylvester was conveyed to the penitentiary at Columbus,

711

COVENTRY'S INDUSTRIES.

by Sheriff George Y. Wallace, where he was duly turned over to the prison authorities on the 13th day of February, 1838. Soon after his incarceration he was stricken down with sickness, as was believed by those in charge of him from excessive grief, from which he never rallied; dying in prison on the 17th day of September, 1838, five months before the expiration of his term of sentence. The entire original family are now dead, Elijah and Elisha dying in Ohio many years ago, and later, Bennett, in Michi- gan, and Mary, in Iowa, having, previous to her removal thither, been married to Mr. David Lehman, of Pennsylvania; the mother going to Iowa with her daughter, where, surviving nearly all her children, she, too, died a few years ago at the age of about 100 years.

AGRICULTURE, MINING, ETC .- With the several lakes already alluded to, and the Tuscarawas river traversing its entire width, from east to west, and forming fully one-half of its western bound- ary, there was originally a good deal of what might properly be called waste land within the limits of the township. Added to this, about the year 1840, the State of Ohio, finding the Summit Lake, and other sources of supply, rather deficient in dry seasons, established, by the erection of certain embankments from one elevated point to another, a system of artificial lakes, called reser- voirs, for the purpose of storing the waters of the contiguous streams, and the surface waters of the neighborhood, thus con- verting several thousand acres of the tillable lands of Coventry, Green and Franklin townships, into permanent bodies of water, with which, by a judicious use of races, sluices, flood-gates, etc., the canal is kept properly supplied; these immense bodies of water also furnishing fine fishing grounds, pleasure resorts, etc., for the inhabitants of the surrounding country.

Though somewhat hilly in the south part, Coventry abounds in fine farms, the primitive log cabin and barn having given place to commodious frame and brick structures, which will compare favorably with those of any other township in Summit county.

Portions of the township, during the past 40 years, have yielded vast quantities of the very best bituminous coal, and though several of the veins opened have been apparently worked out, the supply is by no means exhausted. There are, also, apparently inexhaustible beds of an excellent quality of peat, in the vicinity of the lakes, which, in process of time, may become valuable, but which now, by reason of the abundance of coal, can- not be made available.

MANUFACTURES, ETC .- In an early day, before Akron was, and while Middlebury, even, was in its infancy, the village of New Port- age, on the line between Coventry and Norton, was putting on metro- politan airs. Being at the head of navigation, on the Tuscarawas river, as elsewhere explained, quite a stroke of business is said to have been done in the boating line; and quite a traffic established with Zanesville and other early towns on the Muskingum, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, by which the inhabitants of the vicinity were supplied with salt, sugar, molasses and other household necessaries and luxuries.

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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