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 48
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On the 10th of July, 1800, Governor St. Clair proclaimed that all the territory included in Jefferson county, lying north of the forty-first degree, north latitude, and all that part of Wayne county included in the Connecticut Western Reserve, should constitute a new county, to be known by the name of Trumbull, and that the seat of justice should be at Warren. It will be seen that the county thus con- stituted was coextensive with the Reserve or the New Connecticut of five years before.
THE TRUMBULL FAMILY.
No better name than Trumbull could have been selected for this Western Con- nectieut. The name is imperishably stamped on almost every phase of the his- tory of the parent State, and represents distinguished achievement in statesman- ship, law, art, divinity and literature. While the name for the county was undoubtedly chosen as a compliment to the staunch soldier and statesman who was at that time governor of Connecticut, three others of the name and kin were
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at the time distinguishing their State. BENJAMIN TRUMBULL, a divine of repu- tation, had just published a history of the Connecticut colony, which has obtained a permanent place in our historical literature. JOHN TRUMBULL was distin- guished as a lawyer and judge, as well as a poet. His poem, "MeFingal," passed through thirty editions. It is in Hudibrastie verse. Two or three of its couplets have passed into permanent nse as proverbs, which have been wrongly credited to Samuel Butler, author of " Hudibras :"
" No man e'er felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law ;"
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"But opties sharp it needs, I ween, To see what is not to be seen."
Another was Col. JOHN TRUMBULL, the painter, whose carcer was just begin- ning when the name was conferred upon New Connectient. Having served with credit as aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington, and having spent considerable time in England under the celebrated painter, West, he made himself known as an artist by the production of " The Battle of Bunker Hill" in 1796. His most impor- tant works are the pictures in the rotunda of the capitol at Washington, which every visitor stops to admire. His brother was Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., in whose special honor the county was named.
Jonathan Trinnbull, Jr., was born at Lebanon, Conn., in 17440. He served during the Revolution as paymaster, and afterwards as aide-de-camp to General Washington. He was elected to the first Congress after the adoption of the Fed- eral Constitution, and in 1791 was chosen Speaker of that body. In .1795 the Connecticut Legislature elected him to the United States Senate, where he distin- guished himself as a Federalist and supporter of Washington's administration. In 1798 he was elected Governor of his State, an office which he held until his death in 1809. If there is anything in a name to direct aspiration or give in- spiration, it would have been difficult to find a more significant gift for a political division of territory. There are few names in American history possessing an equal range of meaning.
The first Governor Trumbull of Connecticut, Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., was the only governor under both the Crown and the Republic. He was born in Lebanon, Conn., Oct. 12, 1710, and died there Angust 17, 1785. His ancestor came from England abont 1639, and settled in Rowley, Mass., having three sons. His father, Joseph, was a merchant and farmer. Jonathan was graduated at Harvard in 1727, studied theology, and was licensed to preach, but in 1731 resigned the min- istry to take the place of an elder brother in his father's store. He afterward adopted the profession of law ; was a member of the assembly in 1733 and its speaker in 1739; became an assistant in 1740 and was re-elected to that office twenty-two times. He was subsequently judge of the county court, assistant judge of the superior court, and in 1766-9 chief justice of that body. He was deputy- governor in 1767-8, and governor from 1769 till 1783, when he resigned. When under the crown in 1765, he refused to take the oath of office that was required of all officials to support the provisions of the stamp act.
Bancroft says of him, in this period of his career (1767) : " He was the model of the virtues of a rural magistrate ; profoundly religions, grave in manner, dis- criminating in judgment, fixed in his principles." His opinion was formed that if " methods tending to violence should be taken to maintain the dependence of the colonies, it would hasten separation ; that the connection with England could be preserved by gentle and insensible methods rather than by power and force." But on the declaration of war he threw his whole influence on the patriot side ; co-operated with vigor in securing the independence of the colonies, and was the only colonial governor that expoused the people's cause.
When Washington wrote him of the weakness of his army in August, 1776,
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Trumbull convened his council of safety, and, although he had already sent out five Connectient regiments, he called for nine more, and to those who were not enrolled in any train-band, said : "Join yourselves to one of the companies now ordered to New York, or form yourselves into distinet companies, and choose captains forthwith. March on ; this shall be your warrant. May the God of the armies of Israel be your leader." At these words the farmers, although their harvests were but half gathered, rose in arms, forming nine regiments, each of 350 men, and, self-equipped, marched to New York just in time to meet the advance of the British. In 1781, when Washington appealed to the governors of the New England States to " complete their Continental battalions," Trumbull cheered him with the words, that he " should obtain all that he needed." He was the chosen friend and counsellor of Washington throughout the Revolution, who, says Jared Sparks, " relied on him as one of his main pillars of support, and often consulted him in emergencies." The epithet, " BROTHER JONATHAN," now applied as a personification of the United States, is supposed to owe its origin to Washington's habit of addressing Gov. Trumbull, and to the phrase that he often used when perplexed, " Let us hear what Brother Jonathan says."
In 1783, he extolled Washington's last address in a letter to him dated the tenth of June, as exhibiting the foundation principles of an indissoluble union of the States under one federal head. In the next autumn, when he retired from public life after fifty years' service, he set forth to the Legislature of Connecticut " that the grant to the Federal Constitution of powers clearly defined, ascertained, and understood, and sufficient for the great purposes of the Union, could alone lead from the danger of anarchy to national happiness and glory." Washington wrote of him as " the first of patriots, in his social duties yeilding to none." The Marquis de Chastellux, the traveller, who saw him when he was seventy years of age, describes him as " possessing all the simplicity in his dress, all the importance, and even all the pendantry, becoming the great magistrate of a small republic." Yale gave him the degree of LI. D. in 1779, and the University of Edinburgh the same in 1787.
The Trumbull family illustrate its intellectuality in living characters as Hon. LYMAN TRUMRULL, the friend of Lincoln, and senator from Illinois in the war era ; JAMES HAMMOND TRUMBULL, LL. D., Hartford, philologist, historian, bibliographer, the only man living who can read Elliott's Indian Bible in the original ; his brother, HENRY CLAY TRUMBULL, D. D., editor of Sunday School Times, Philadelphia, author, traveller and lecturer, etc .; GORDON TRUMBULL, New London, artist and ornethologist, etc.
Previous to the settlement of this county, and indeed before the survey of the eastern part of the Western Reserve in 1796, salt was manufactured by the whites, at what is frequently spoken of as the "old salt works," which were situated, we are informed, in what is now the township of Wethersfield, on or near the Mahoning. They were known to the whites as early as 1755, and are indicated on Evans' map published that year. Augustus Porter, Esq., who had charge of the first surveying party of the Reserve, thus alludes to these works in the Barr MISS., in connection with the history of his survey.
These works were said to have been estab- lished and occupied by Gen. Parsons, of Con- necticut, by permission of the governor of that State. At this place we found a small piece of open ground, say two or three acres, and a plank vat of sixteen or eighteen feet square, and four or five feet deep, set in the ground, which was full of water, and kettles for boiling salt ; the number we could not as- certain, but the vat seemed to be full of them. An Indian and a squaw were boiling water for salt, but from appearances, with poor success.
Amzi Atwater, Esq., now (1846) of Portage county, who was one of the first surveying party of the Reserve, in a communication to us, says :
It was understood that Gen. Parsons had some kind of a grant from the State of Con- necticut, and came on there and commenced making salt, and was drowned on his return at Beaver Falls. On the first map made of the Reserve by Mr. Seth Pease, in 1789, a traet was marked off and designated as " the salt spring tract." I have understood that the heirs of Gen. Parsons advanced some
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claims to that tract, but I believe without success. At an early part of the settlement, considerable exertions were made by Reuben
Harmon, Esq., to establish salt works at that place, but the water was too weak to make it profitable.
We annex some facts connected with the settlement of Warren and vicinity, from the narrative of Cornelius Feather, in the MSS. of the Ashtabula Historical Society.
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The plat of Warren in September, 1800, contained but two log cabins, one of which was occupied by Capt. Ephraim Quinby, who was proprtetor of the town and afterwards judge of the court. He built his cabin in 1799. The other was occupied by Wm. Fen- ton, who built his in 1798. On the 27th of this month, Cornelius Feather and Davison Fenton arrived from Washington county, Pa. At this time, Quinby's cabin consisted of three apartments, a kitchen, bed-room and jail, although but one prisoner was ever con- fined in it, viz : Perger Shehigh, for threaten- ing the life of Judge Young, of Youngs- town.
The whole settlements of whites within and about the settlement of Warren, consisted of sixteen settlers, viz : Henry and John Lane, Benj. Davison, Esq., Meshach Case, Capt. John Adgate, Capt. John Leavitt, William Crooks and Phineas Leffingwell, Henry Lane, Jr., Charles Daily, Edward Jones, George Loveless and Wm. Tucker, who had been a spy five years under Capt. Brady.
At this time, rattlesnakes abounded in some places. And there was one adventure with them worth recording, which took place in Braceville township.
A Mr. Oviatt was informed that a consider- able number of huge rattlesnakes were scat- tered over a certaintract of wilderness. The old man asked whether there was a ledge of rocks in the vicinity, which way the declivity inclined, and if any spring issued out of the ledge. Being answered in the affirmative, the old man rejoined, "we will go about the last of May and have some sport." Accord- ingly they proceeded through the woods well armed with endgels. Arrived at the battle- ground, they cautiously ascended the hill, step by step, in a solid column. Suddenly the
enemy gave the alarm, and the men found themselves completely surrounded by hosts of rattlesnakes of enourmous size, and a huge squadron of black snakes. No time was lost. At the signal of the rattling of the snakes, the action commenced, and hot and furious was the fight. In short, the snakes beat a retreat up the hill, our men endgelling with all their might. When arrived at the top of the ledge, they found the ground and rocks in places ahnost covered with snakes retreating into their dens. Afterwards the slain were collected into heaps, and found to amount to 486, a good portion of which were larger than a man's leg below the calf, and over five feet in length.
The news of this den of venomous serpents being spread, it was agreed that the narrator and two more young men in Warren, and three in Braceville, should make war upon it until the snakes should be principally de- stroyed, which was actually accomplished.
One circumstance I should relate in regard to snake-hunting. Having procured an in- strument like a very long chisel, with a handle eight or nine feet long, I proceceded to the ledge alone, placed myself on the body of a butternut tree, lying slanting over a broad crevice in the rocks. seven or eight feet deep, the bottom of which was literally covered with the yellow and black serpents. I held my weapon poised in my right hand, ready to give the deadly blow, my left hold of a small branch to keep my balance, when both my feet slipped, and I came within a hairs' breadth of plumging headlong into the den. Nothing but the small limb saved me from a most terrible death, as I could not have gotten out, had there been no snakes, the rocks on all sides being nearly perpendicular. It was a merciful and providential escape.
In August, 1800, a serious affair occurred with the Indians, which spread a gloom over the peaceful prospects of the new and scattered settlements of the whites, the history of which we derive from the above-mentioned source.
Joseph M'Mahon, who lived near the Indian settlement at the Salt Springs, and whose family had suffered considerable abuse at, different times from the Indians in his absence, was at work with one Richard Story, on an old Indian plantation, near Warren. On Friday of this week, during his absence, the Indians coming down the creek to have a drunken frolie, called in at M'Mahon's and abused the family, and finally Capt. George, their chief, strnek one of the children a severe blow with the tomahawk, and the Indians threatened to kill the whole family.
Mrs. M'Mahon, although terribly alarmed, was unable to get word to her husband before noon the next day.
M'Mahon and Story at first resolved to go immediately to the Indian camp and kill the whole tribe, but on a little reflection, they desisted from this rash purpose, and con- chided to go to Warren, and consult with Capt. Ephraim Quinby, as he was a mild, judicious man.
By the advice of Quinby, all the persons capable of bearing arms were mustered on Sunday morning, consisting of fourteen men
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and two boys, under the command of Lieut. John Lane, who proceeded towards the Indian camp, determined to make war or peace as cireminstance dietated.
When within half a mile of the camp, Quinby proposed a halt, and as he was well acquainted with most of the Indians, they having dealt frequently at his tavern, it was resolved that he should proceed alone to the camp, and inquire into the cause of their outrageous conduct, and ascertain whether they were for peace or war. Quinby started alone, leaving the rest behind, and giving di- rection to Lane that if he did not return in half an hour, he might expect that the sav- ages had killed him, and that he should then march his company and engage in battle. Quinby not returning at the appointed time, they marched rapidly to the camp. Ou emerging from the woods they discovered Quinby in close conversation with Captain George. He informed his party that they had threatened to kill McMahon and his family, and Story and his family, for it seems the latter had inflicted chastisement on the Indians for stealing his liquor, particularly on one ugly-looking, ill-tempered fellow, named Spotted John, from having his face spotted all over with hair moles. Capt. George had also declared, if the whites had come down the Indians were ready to fight them.
The whites marched directly up to the camp, MeMahon first and Story next to him. The chief, Capt. George, snatched his toma- hawk, which was sticking in a tree, and flour- ishing it in the air, walked up to MeMahon, saying, " If you kill me, I will lie here-if I kill you, you shall lie there!" and then or- dered his men to prime and tree! Instantly, as the tomahawk was about to give the deadly blow, McMahon sprang back, raised his gun already cocked, pulled the trigger, and Capt. George fell dead. Story took for his mark the ugly savage, Spotted JJohn, who was at that moment placing his family behind a tree, and shot him dead, the same ball passing through his squaw's neck, and the shoulders of his oldest papooes, a girl of about thirteen.
Hereupon the Indians fled with horrid yells ; the whites hotly pursued for some dis- tance, firing as fast as possible, yet without effect, while the women and children screamed and screeched piteously. The party then gave up the pursuit, returned and buried the dead Indians, and proceeded to Warren to consult for their safety.
It being ascertained that the Indians had taken the route to Sandusky, on Monday morning James Hillman was sent through the wilderness to overtake and treat with them. He came up with them on Wednes- day, and cautiously advanced, they being at first suspicious of him. But making known his mission, he offered them first $100, then $200, and so on, to $500, if they would treat with him on just terms, return to their homes and bury the hatchet. But to all his over- tures they answered, "No! No! No! we
will go to Sandusky and hold a council with the chief's there." Hilhan replied, " You will hold a council there, light the war torch, rally all the warriors throughout the forests, and with savage barbarity, come and attempt a general massaere of all your friends, the whites, throughout the Northwest Terri- tory." They rejoined, "that they would lay the case before the council, and within fourteen days four or five of their number should return with instructions, on what terms peace could be restored." For a more full and perfectly reliable statement of Hill- man's agency in this affair, see his memoir in Mahoning county.
Hillman returned, and all the white settlers from Youngstown and the surrounding set- tlements, garrisoned at Quinby's house in Warren, constructed port-holes through the logs and kept guard night and day.
On the fourth or fifth day after the people garrisoned, a circumstance struck them with terror. John Lane went out into the woods a little distance, one cloudy day, and missing his way gave some alarm. In the evening, a man's voice known to be his, was heard sev- eral times, and in the same direction twelve or fourteen successive reports of a gun. It was judged that the Indians had returned, caught Lane, confined him and compelled him to halloo, with threats of death if he did not, under the hope of enticing the whites into an ambush, and massaereeing them.
In the morning, as these noises continued, Win. Crooks, a resolute man, went out cau- tiously to the spot whence they proceeded, and found that Lane had dislocated his ankle in making a misstep, and could not get into the fort without assistance.
The little party continued to keep guard until the fourteenth day, when exactly, ac- cording to contraet, four or five ludians re- turned with proposals of peace, which were, that MeMahon and Story should be taken to Sandusky, tried by Indian laws, and, if guilty, punished by them. This they were told could not be done, as McMahon was al- ready a prisoner under the laws of the whites, in the jail at Pittsburg, and Story had fled out of the country.
MeMahou was brought to Youngstown and tried with prudence, Gen. St. Clair chief judge. The only testimony that could be received of all those present at the tragedy was a boy who took no part in the affair, who stood close by Capt. George when he said, " If you kill me, I'll lie here ; if I kill you, you will lie there.". A young married woman, who had been a prisoner among the Indians, was brought to testify, as she understood the language. She affirmed that the words sig- nified, that if MeMahon should kill Capt. George, the Indians should not seek restitu- tion ; nor should the whites, if MeMahon were killed. In regard to the death of Spot- ted John, the Indians finally claimed nothing, as he was an ugly fellow, belonging to no tribe whatever.
The Indians again took up their old abode, re-buried the bodies of their slain down the
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river two or three miles, drove down a stake at the head of each grave, hung a new pair of buckskin breeches on each stake, saying and expecting that " at the end of thirty days they would rise, go to the North Sea, and hunt and kill the white bear." An old pious Indian said, "No! they will not rise at the end of thirty days. When God comes at the
last day, and calls all the world to rise and come to judgment, then they will rise."
The Indians nightly carried good supplies of cooked venison to the graves, which were evidently devoured. A white settler's old slut, with a litter of six or eight pups, nightly visited the savory meats, as they throve most wonderfully during the thirty days.
The Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, in a note to the above, says :
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McMahon served afterwards in the war of 1812, and in the Northwestern army under Gen. Harrison. In the battle with the In- dians on the Peninsula, north of Sandusky bay, on the 29th of September of that year, he was wounded in the side. After his re-
covery, he was discharged in November and started for home. He left Camp Avery, in Huron county, and took the path to the old Portage. Being alone and happening to meet a party of Indians, he fell a victim to their hostility.
The Rev. Joseph Badger, the first missionory on the Reserve, resided for eight years at Gustavus, in this county. He was born at Wilbraham, Mass., in 1757. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, graduated at Yale College in 1785, in 1787 was ordained as a minister over a church in Blandford, Mass., where he remained for fourteen years.
In 1800 such an opportunity for usefulness offered as he had long wished for. The mis- sionary societies of the Eastern States had for many years been desirous of sending mis- sionaries to the Indians which then dwelt in the northern portion of Ohio.
At their instance, Mr. Badger made a visit to this country during that year, and was so well satisfied with the opportunity of useful- ness, which his residence among the Wyan- dots and other tribes would afford, that he returned after his family, and since that time his labors have been principally divided be- tween the Western Reserve, and the country bordering on the Sandusky and Maumee rivers. Among his papers the writer finds certificates of his appointment to the several missionary stations on the Reserve and at Lower Sandusky, as also commissions of the postmaster's appointment, for the several places where he has from time to time re- sided. Mr. B.'s labors among the scattered inhabitants on the Reserve and the Indians were arduous and interesting. Many inci- dents common to frontier life are recorded in his journals. Ilis duties as a missionary were
all faithfully discharged, and he saw this por- tion of the West grow up under his own eye and teaching.
In 1812 he was appointed chaplain to the army by Gov. Meigs. He was at Fort Meigs during the siege of 1813, and through the war was attached to Gen. Harrison's com- mand. He removed from Trumbull county in 1835 to Plain township, Wood county.
Mr. Badger was a man of energy, perse- verance and fine intellectual endowments. Ilis naturally strong and brilliant mind re- tained all its power until within the last three years of his life. He was a faithful and de- voted Christian. He ardently loved his fel- low-men-his God he loved supremely. Few men have ever lived who have given such an unequivocal proof of Christian meekness and submission-few whose labors have more highly adorned the great and responsible pro- fession of the ministry. Full of years and of honors, and possessing the paternal affec- tion of a people, who have been long accus- tomed to regard him as a father, he has at length gone to his final account. He died in 1846, aged 89.
The following miscellaneous collection of incidents and events of pioneer life in the Mahoning valley are derived' from " Historical Collections of the Mahoning Valley," published by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society :
O'MICK.
O'Mick, an account of whose execution for murder is given in Cuyahoga County, be- longed to a party of Indians who in 1800 en- camped on the bottom lands in Kinsman township. They were a source of much an- hoyance to the settlers, who were somewhat in fear of them, although they were gener- ally disposed to be friendly. Old O'Mick,
their chief, was a Chippewa, and of surly dis- position. It was his delight to frighten the whites by unexpectedly entering their cabins. Ilis son, called " Devil Poc-con," on return- ing from a visit to Washington, appeared in a military suit, and thereafter was nicknamed "Tom Jefferson" by the white settlers. Afterward, he, with two other Indians, com- ing upon two hunters, Bucl and Gibbs, at Pipe creek, killed them while asleep. It was
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