USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 43
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TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS. 1840.
1880.
TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.
1840.
1880.
Akron city and Middlebury
township co-extensive,
16,512
Northfield,
1,031
1,076
Batlı,
1,425
1,039
Norton,
1,497
2,066
Copley,
1,439
1,184
Richfield,
1,108
1,253
Coventry,
1,308
2,305
Springfield,
2,332
Cuyahoga,
2,294
Stow,
1,533
911
Franklin,
1,436
2,203
Tallmadge,
2,134
1,455
Green,
1,536
1,827
Twinsburg,
1,039
776
Hudson,
1,220
1,817
Northampton,
963
977
Boston,
845
1,221
Portage,
2,382
2,540
.
1
1
2
307
SUMMIT COUNTY.
Population of Summit in 1840, 22,469 ; 1860, 27,344 ; 1880, 43,788 ; of whom 29,198 were born in Ohio; 3,354, Pennsylvania ; 1,644, New York ; 182, In -. diana ; 124, Virginia ; 42, Kentucky ; 2,081, England and Wales; 2,275, Ger- man Empire ; 1,321, Ireland ; 499, British America; 207, Scotland; 200, France; and 109 Sweden and Norway. Census, 1890, 54,089.
Summit county is the centre of a region that for a radius of about forty miles differs from any other in the State in the existence of a number of natural lakes, such as Silver, Congress, Myers, Springfield, Long, Summit, Turkey Foot, Chip- pewa, etc. The origin of these lakes was glacial, and they were formed during the same era that produced the varied natural formations peculiar to the region in the vicinity of Cuyahoga Falls. This region is one of great interest to geologists, and furnishes opportunity for study and research as to the forces producing the external formation of the State.
The map given herein, which is from Prof. G. Frederick Wright's work on " The Ice Age in North America " (D. Appleton & Co., 1890), shows that the waters of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers intermingled at one period of time. (See " The Great Dam at Cincinnati in the Ice Age," Hamilton county, also, "Glacial Man in Ohio.")
Here, at one of the highest points of the State, the dividing ridge separates, with but a few miles between them, the Cuyahoga, flowing north to Lake Erie, and the Tuscarawas, whose waters, through the Muskingum, reach the Ohio river. During the occupation of the Indians the region had many important advantages for the red men. It could be reached from the lake in canoes, and by carrying their birch-bark canoes seven miles, navigation was clear to the Ohio river. Fish and game were plentiful. OLD PORTAGE, at the head of navigation on the Cuyahoga, became a trading-post for whites and Indians. It was a recognized landmark in the western boundary line of the United States, in the treaty of Fort McIntosh in 1798. In the war of 1812 it was the rendezvous of the troops fur- nished by the Western Reserve.
The old Indian PORTAGE PATH was part of the ancient boundary between the Six Nations and the Western Indians. Its exact course is thus described with reference to present sites.
It left the Cuyahoga at the village of Old Portage, about three miles north of Akron. It went up the hill westward about half a mile to the high ground, where it turned southerly and ran about parallel with the canal to near the Sun- mit lake; there took the low ground nearly south to the Tuscarawas, which it struck a mile or two above the New Portage. The whole length of the path was, by the survey of Moses Warren, in 1797, 8 miles, 4 chains and 55 links.
The First Settlement made in this county was at Hudson, in the year 1800, by Mr. David Hudson, the history of which we derive from a series of articles writ- ten by Rev. J. Seward, and published about the year 1835 in the Hudson Observer.
In the division of the Western Reserve among the proprietors, the townships of Chester and Hudson fell to the lot of Birdsey Norton and David Hudson.
Dangerous Travelling .- In the year 1799 Mr. Iludson came out to explore his land in company with a few others. On the way he fell in with Benj. Tappan, since judge, then travelling to his town of Ravenna. They started in his boat from Gerondigut bay, on Lake Ontario, early in May, and soon over- took Elias Harmon, since judge, in a boat with his wife, bound to Mantua. On arriv- ing at Niagara, they found the river full of ice. They had their boats conveyed around the falls, and proceeded on their dangerous way amidst vast bodies of floating ice, hav-
ing some of the men on the shore pulling by ropes until out of danger from the current of the Niagara. Arrived at the mouth of the lake, they found it full of floating ice as far as the eye could reach, and were compelled to wait several days ere they could proceed, which they then did along near the shore. When off Ashtabula county, their boats were driven ashore in a storm, and that of Mr. Harmon's stove in pieces ; he procceded from thence by land to Mantua. Having pur- chased and in a manner repaired Harmon's boat, Mr. Hudson shipped his effects in it,
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SUMMIT COUNTY.
and they arrived at Cleveland on the 8th of June.
Locating a Township .- Morse's Geography having given them about all the knowledge of the Cuyahoga that they possessed, they supposed it capable of sloop navigation to its forks. The season being dry, they had pro- ceeded but a few miles when they found it in places only eight or ten inches deep, and were often obliged to get out, join hands, and drag their boats over the shallow places, and made but slow progress. After a lapse of several days, they judged they were in the latitude of the town of which they were in search. Mr. Hudson went ashore and commenced hunting for a surveyor's line much too far north, and it was not until after six days' la- borious and painful search that he discovered, towards night, a line which led to the south- west corner of his township. The succeeding day being very rainy he lodged under an oak tree, without any covering except the clothes he wore, with the grateful pleasure of rest- ing on his own land. In the morning he re- turned highly elated to the boats and gave information of his success.
Driving Cattle Through the Wilderness .- While in Ontario, New York, Tappan bought a yoke of oxen, and Hudson two yoke and two cows. These eight cattle they committed to the care of Meacham, a hired man in Tappan's service, who brought them safely on the Indian trail through Buffalo, until they found near the lake the west line of the seventh range on the Reserve. This line, it being the east line of the towns now named Painsville, Concord, Chardon, Monson, New- burg, Auburn, Mantua, Shalersville and Ra- venna, they followed due south more than forty iniles, crossing the Grand and Cuyahoga rivers, and striking the Salt Spring Indian trail near the southeastern corner of Ravenna. They followed this trail westwardly until they came to the new line recently inade by Hud- son and Tappan, which they followed to the spot where the boats were lying on the Cuya- hoga, in Boston.
The difficulties encountered by these men in driving this small drove about three hun- dred miles on an obscure, crooked Indian path, and in following town lines through swamps, rivers and other obstacles fifty miles farther, almost through an uninhabited wil- derness, were appalling ; and what rendered their circumstances truly unpleasant, and in some cases hazardous, was that they were strangers to the country and without a guide. Their mode of travelling was to have several bags of flour and pork, together with two blankets and an axe, well secured on the baeks of the oxen. They waded fordable streams and compelled their cattle to swim those that could not be forded, passing across those streams themselves with their provis- ions on rafts hastily made of sticks.
Vicious Flies .- Mr. Hudson's company being thus collected, his first care, after mak- ing yokes for his oxen, was to open some road to his land. The gullies they crossed were numerous and frequent, and often abrupt to
an angle of forty-five degrees or more. On this road, bad as it was, they performed all their transportrtion in the year 1799, while their oxen were tormented and rendered al- most unmanageable by immense swarms of large flies, which displayed such skill in the science of phlebotomy, that, in a short time, they drew out a large share of the blood be- longing to these animals : the flies actually killed one of Tappan's oxen this season.
After having conveyed their small stock of provisions on to the southwest corner of this town and erected a bark hut, Mr. Hudson's anxiety becanie very great lest he and his company should suffer for want of provisions, his stock being very much reduced in conse- quence of the Indians having robbed his boat. Not hearing from Lacey, a man he had left behind in Western New York to bring on stores, and dreading the consequences of waiting for him any longer, Mr. Hudson started to meet him. Taking a boat at Cleve- land, which was providentially going down the lake, on the 2d of July he found Lacey lying at his ease near Cattaraugus. With difficulty he there obtained some provisions, and having a prosperous voyage arrived in season, to the joy of those left in the wilder- ness, who must have been put upon short allowance had his arrival been delayed any longer.
Difficulty of Obtaining Provisions .- The company being thus furnished with provis- ions, they built a large log-house. Mr. Hud- son also set his men to work in clearing a piece of land for wheat, and on the 25th of July he commenced surveying. The settle- ment now consisted of thirteen persons. In August every person except Mr. Hudson had a turn of being unwell. Several had the fever and ague, and in the progress of surveying the town into lots, the party frequently had to wait for some one of their number to go through with a paroxysm of ague and then resume their labors. By the middle of Sep- tember they found to their surprise they had only nine days' provision on hand; and as Mr.' Hudson had heard nothing from his agent, Norton, at Bloomfield, New York, he was once more alarmed lest they should suffer for want of food.
He immediately went to Cleveland and purchased of Lorenzo Carter a small field of corn for $50, designing to pound it in mor- tars and live thereon in case of necessity. He hastened back to his station, and having previously heard that Ebenezer Sheldon had made a road through the wilderness to Au- rora, and that there was a bridle-path thence to Cleveland, he thought it probable that he might obtain pork for present necessity from that quarter. He accordingly set out on foot and alone, and regulated his course by the range of his shadow, making allowance for change in the time of day. He found the Cleveland path near the centre of Aurora, then a dense forest. Thence he proceeded about two and a half iniles to Squire Shel- don's cabin, and on inquiring found that he could obtain no provisions within a reasonable
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Cleveland
MAP OF
CUYAHOGA LAKE.
Area about 55 Sqr. Miles. Scale, 3 miles to 1 inch.
Channel of Cuyahoga R.
Edge of Glacier
DOHFAND
LEDGES
1
AK E
Falls
Cuyahoga Falls
iold Forge
AKRON
L. Cuyahoga
Summit L. 306 ft. above L. Eric
Akron
Tuscarawas
R
.
Struthers & Co., Engr's, N. Y.
From Wright's Ice Age in North America; by courtesy of D. Appleton & Co., Publishers. 300- 310
BOSTON
3II
SUMMIT COUNTY.
distance in that direction. The next morn- ing, on his return, he found that the boat had arrived with an ample supply of pro- visions.
A Perilous Voyage .- Having completed his surveying on the 11th of October, Mr. Hudson left on the next day for Connecticut, to bring out his family, in company with his little son and two men. Being disappointed in not finding a good boat at Cleveland, he took the wreck of one he had purchased of Harmon, and embarked upon the dangerous 'enterprise of crossing the lake in it. It was so leaky that it required one hand most of the time to bail out the water, and so weak that it bent considerably in crossing the waves. During their passage, the weather was gen- erally cold and boisterous ; three different times they narrowly escaped drowning by reason of the darkness of the night or vio- lence of the wind. Being under the neces- sity of lying five days on Chatague point, they lived comfortably during that time on boiled chestnuts, in order to lengthen out their sinall stock of provisions. Arrived at Goshen, Conn., Mr. Hudson found his family in health, and by the Ist of January, 1800, was in readiness to leave his native State with all its tender associations. "Thus," says he, "ends the eventful year 1799, filled with many troubles, out of all of which hath the Lord delivered mne."
Harrowing Uncertainty. - Having taken an affecting farewell of his friends and acquaint- ances, whom he had left behind, Mr. Hudson set out from Goshen in January, with his family and others. They tarried at Bloom- field, Ontario county, New York, until spring, making preparations for their voyage through the lakes and up the Cuyahoga. They pur- chased four boats, from one to two tons' bur- den, and repaired thoroughly the wreck of Harmon's boat. Lightly loading them with supplies to the value of about two thousand dollars, they completed every necessary prep- aration by the 29th of April.
"The next night," said Mr. Hudson, "while my dear wife and six children, with all my men, lay soundly sleeping around me, I could not close my eyes, for the reflection that those men and women, with ahnost all that I held dear in life, were now to embark in an expedition in which so many chances appeared against me ; and should we survive the dangers in crossing the boisterous lakes, and the distressing sickness usually attendant on new settlements, it was highly probable that we must fall before the tomahawk and scalping.knife. As I knew at that time no considerable settlement had been made but what was established in blood, and as I was abont to place all those who lay around me on the extreme frontier, and as they would look to me for safety and protection, I almost sunk under the immense weight of responsi- bility resting on me. Perhaps my feelings on this occasion were a little similar to those of the patriarch, when expecting to meet his hostile brother. But after presenting my case before Israel's God, and committing all
to his care, I cheerfully launched out the next morning upon the great deep."
The crews of their boats consisted of Samuel Bishop and his four sons, David, Reuben, Luman and Joseph, Joel Gaylord, Heman Oviatt, Moses Thompson, Allen Gay- lord, Stephen Perkins, Joseph and George Darrow, William M'Kinley, and three men from Vermont by the names of Derrick, Williams and Shefford. The women in the company were the wives of Messrs. Hudson, Bishop and Nobles, with Miss Ruth Gaylord and Miss Ruth Bishop. The six children of Mr. Hudson completed the number.
They had little trouble until they reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga. The wind on that day being rather high, Mr. Hudson, in attempting to enter the river with his boat, missed the channel and struck ou a sand- bar. In this very perilons situation the boat shipped several barrels of water, and himself and all his family must have been drowned had not a mountain wave struck the boat with such violence as to float it over the bar. When up the river, within about two miles of their landing-place, they stopped for the night a little north of Northfield, at a locality now known as The Pinery.
Waiting for the Fall of the Waters .- A tremendous rain in the night so raised the river by daybreak that it overflowed the bank whereon they slept, and even their beds were on the point of floating. Everything was completely drenched, and they were com- pelled to wait five days ere the subsiding waters would allow them to force their boats against the current. On the sixth day, May 28th. they reached their landing-place, from whence Mr. Hudson, leaving his wife and children, hurried to see the people whom he had left overwinter, and whom he found well.
About the time they completed their land- ing, Elijah Noble arrived with the cattle and Mr. Hudson's horse, which had been driven from Ontario by nearly the same route that the cattle were the preceding year.
Being busy in arranging for them, Mr. Hudson did not take his horse to the river to bring up his family for several days. When he arrived, he found his wife, who had cheer- fully submitted to all the inconveniences hitherto experienced, very much discouraged. She and the children suffered severely from the armies of gnats and mosquitoes which at this season of the year infest the woods. After all the persons belonging to the settle- ment had collected, thanksgiving was ren- dered to the God of mercy, who had pro- teeted them in perils, preserved their lives and brought them safely to their place of destination. Public worship on the Sabbath was resumed, it having been discontinned during the absence of Mr. Hudson. "I felt." said he, " in some measure the respon- sibility resting on first settlers, and their ob- ligations to commence in that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, and to . establish those moral and religious habits on which the temporal and eternal happiness of a people essentially depends."
312
SUMMIT COUNTY.
Mr. David Hudson died March 17, 1836, aged 75 years, leaving a memory revered,
and an example of usefulness well worthy of imitation.
Hudson in 1846 .- Hudson is twenty-four miles from Cleveland and thirteen northeast of Akron, on the stage road from Cleveland to Pittsburg. It contains
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Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846. WESTERN RESERVE COLLEGE.
two Congregational, one Episcopal and one Methodist church, four stores, one newspaper printing-office, two female seminaries, and about 600 inhabitants. The village is handsomely situated and neatly built, and the tone of society elevated, which arises in a great measure from its being the seat of the Western Reserve College.
The college buildings are of brick, and situated upon a beautiful and spacious green, in an order similar to the edifices of Yale, on which institution this is also modelled, and of which several of its professors are graduates. The annexed view was taken near the observatory, a small structure shown on the extreme right. The other buildings are, commencing with that nearest-south college, middle college, chapel, divinity hall, president's house, athenaeum, and a residence of one of the professors, near the roadside, nearly in front of the athenaeum.
The Medical College at Cleveland is connected with this institution. By the catalogue of 1846-7, the whole number of professors and instructors in the col- lege was 19 ; the whole number of students 320, viz., 14 in the theological depart- ment ; 216 in the medical department ; 71 undergraduates and 19 preparatory .- Old Edition.
The college, while at Hudson, did a great work in the cause of education ; its professors were largely graduates of Yale, some of whom attained national repu- tation, but it always was financially a struggling institution, and the salaries of its officers pitifully micagre. In consequence of an offer of half a million of dollars from Amasa Stone, the college was removed to Cleveland in 1882, and its classi- cal department then named ADELBERT COLLEGE, in memory of Mr. Stone's "lost and lamented son."
The old college buildings are now occupied by the WESTERN RESERVE ACADEMY, which is for the education of both sexes. It was established in 1882 under the charter of the old college, which now comprises " Adelbert College " and "College for Women," at Cleveland. It is maintained by and is under the direction of the trustees of Adelbert College, and has an annual income of $3,000.
The. academy is under the charge of Prof. Newton B. Hobart. The site is beautiful, comprising about thirty aeres of land. It began with a higher standard than that of any other preparatory school in the State and its reputation is of the highest. In the eight years of its existence it has had about 400 students from fifteen different States, of whom 111 have graduated and 79 entered varied col- leges, as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Amherst, Adelbert, Cleveland Col- lege for Women, Ann Arbor, etc.
313
SUMMIT COUNTY.
HUDSON is twelve miles north of Akron and twenty-six southeast of Cleve- land, on the junction of the C. & P. and C. A. & C. Railroads.
City Officers, 1888 : HI. B. Foster, Mayor; E. E. Rogers, Clerk ; S. Miller, Treasurer; L. E. Reed, Marshal. Newspaper : Express, Independent, D. B. Sherwood & Son, editors and publishers. Churches : 1 Congregational, 1 Catho- lic, 1 Episcopal, 1 Methodist. School census, 1888, 263. C. F. Seese, superin- tendent of schools.
The celebration of the ninetieth birthday anniversary of Mrs. Anna M. Hud- son Baldwin was held in the Congregational Church at Hudson, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 1890. From the programme of the commemoration exercises we derive these items :
Her father, David Hudson, the founder of the town, was a direct descendant of Hendrick Hudson, who discovered the Hudson river in 1609. Hendrick named his youngest son David, and he was the sixth David in that line. He was born at Branford, Connecticut, July 17, 1760. His daughter, Anna, was the first white child born in Smnmit county. This event took place in a hut of a single room, which stood at what is now the junction of Baldwin with Main street.
First Things, wheeled, arrived in March, 1802; log school-house, 1802; first burial in old cemetery, mother of John Brown, 1808 ; Congregational Church formed September 4, 1802, David Bacon, pastor, 1804 to 1807; first tannery opened by Owen Brown, father of John, 1805 ; college opened, 1826; removed to Cleveland 1882, and Western Reserve Academy organized ; town celebrations, June 18, 1850 and 1856, and October 28, 1890.
At this celebration the president was Geo. L. Starr ; the historical address by S. A. Lane, of Akron, the county historian ; and another, "First ninety years of the century," by Hon. J. C. Lce, Toledo.
Akron in 1846 .- The large and flourishing town of Akron, the county-seat, is on the Portage summit of the Ohio canal, at the junction of the Pennsylvania canal, 36 miles from Cleveland and 110 northeast of Columbus. The name of this town is derived from a Greek word signifying an elevation. Akron was laid out in 1825, where South Akron now is. In the fall of the same year, the Irish laborers on the Ohio canal put up about 100 cabins. South Akron grew rapidly for a few years ; but in 1832 some buildings were put up half a mile farther north, and business in a short time centered here. In 1827 the Ohio canal was finished from Cleveland to this place. In 1841 Akron was made the county-seat of the new county of Summit. The same year the canal connecting Akron with Beaver, Pa., was opened, and a new impetus given to the town by these advan- tages.
Akron contains 1 Episcopal, 1 Congregational, 1 Baptist, 1 Methodist, 1 Dis- ciples, 1 Universalist, 1 German Lutheran, and 1 Catholic church, 20 mercantile stores, 10 grocery, 4 drug and 2 book stores, 4 woollen factories, 2 blast and 3 small furnaces, 1 carding machine manufactory, 5 flouring mills, 1 insurance com- pany, 1 bank, 2 newspaper printing-offices, and a great variety of mechanical establishments. The mercantile business of this town is heavy and constantly increasing, and immense quantities of wheat are purchased. The water privileges here are good, and manufacturing will eventually be extensively carried on. In 1827 its population was about 600; in 1840 it was 1,664, since which it is esti- mated to have doubled. Two miles south of Akron is Summit lake, a beautiful sheet of water on the summit of the Ohio canal. Part of its waters find their way to the St. Lawrence, and part to the Gulf of Mexico .- Old Edition.
A resident of Akron has given us some facts respecting the settlement of the coun- try, and one or two anecdotes, which we annex.
In 1811 Paul Williams, Amos and Minor Spieer came from New London, Conn., and
settled in the vicinity of Akron, at which time there was no other white settlement between here and Sandusky. We give an anecdote of Minor Spicer, who is still living at Akron. In the late war, one night just before retiring, he heard some one call in front of his house,
314
SUMMIT COUNTY.
and went out and saw a large Indian with two rifles in his hand, and a deer quartered and hung aeross his horse. Spicer inquired what he wanted. The Indian replied in his own dialect, when the other told him he must speak English, or he would unhorse him. Ile finally gave them to understand that he wished to stay over night, a request that was reluctantly granted. His rifles were placed in a corner, his venison hung up, and his horse put into a large pig-stye, the only stable attached to the premises.
The Indian cut out a piece of venison for Mrs. Spicer to cook for him, which she did in the usual way, with a liberal quantity of pepper and salt. He drew up to the table and eat but a mouthful or two. The family being ready to retire, he placed his scalping- knife and tomakawk in the corner with his rifles, and stretched himself upon the hearth before the fire. When he supposed the fam- ily were asleep, he raised himself slowly from his reclining position and sat upright on the hearth, looking stealthily over his shoulder to see if all was still. He then got upon his feet and stepped lightly across the floor to his implements of death. . At this juncture the feelings of Spicer and his wife may be well imagined, for they were only feigning sleep and were intently watching. The Indian again stood for a moment, to see if he had awakened any one, then slowly drew from its scabbard the glittering sealping-knife. At this moment Spicer was about putting his hand upon his rifle, which stood by his bed, to shoot the Indian, but coneluded to wait further demonstration, which was an entirely different one from what he had anticipated, for the Indian took hold and eut a piece of his venison, weighing about two pounds, and laying it on the live coals until it was warmed through, devoured it and went to sleep. Mrs. Spicer's cooking had not pleased him, being seasoned too high. The day before he and his father lost themselves in the woods, and
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