Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 83

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I > Part 83

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The year 1883 came around when Foote and Cornwall, after a lapse thus of fifty years, in company visited the Legislature of Connecticut at Hartford and were received with great eclat. The House passed some complimentary resolutions, signed by the speaker and clerk, expressive of their high gratification. These Mr. Foote with com- mendable pride pointed out to me framed on his parlor wall, and we copied the last :

"That we congratulate them on their be- ing able to round out a half century of lives alike honorable to themselves and useful to their fellow-citizens with this pleasing inci-

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CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

dent which we believe to be without a parallel in the history of American legislative bodies. "CHAS. H. PINE, Speaker.

" DONALD S. PERKINS, Clerk.

" Passed February 22, 1883, Washington's birthday."

Mr. Foote told me that what struck him as the most notable thing on his arrival in Cleveland in the summer of 1833 was the caving in of the lake shore by the encroach- ments of the waves upon the sands of the bank. Whole acres disappeared in a single

season, so that in time the town site seemed doomed to disappear. They had continually to move buildings away from the remorseless waters.

Mr. Charles Whittlesey then devised the plan of driving piles along the lake shore, and it was a perfect success.

Mr. Foote is a neighbor of the highly es- teemed and widely known Harvey Rice, whom I found also a fine specimen of happy old age. He was then eighty-six years old, tall, erect, his powers well preserved and able to read and write without glasses.

BEREA is on the C. C. C. & I. and L. S. & M. S. R. R., 12 miles southwest of Cleveland. It is the seat of Baldwin University and the German Wallace Col- lege. Natural gas is used to some extent. Newspapers : Advertiser, Republican, E. D. Peebles, editor and manager ; Grit, S. S. Brown, publisher. Churches : 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Congregational, 1 Episcopal and 2 Catholic. Bank of Berea, Thos. Churchward, president, A. H. Pomeroy, cashier.

Industries .- The Berea stone quarries are renowned throughout the whole country for superior quality and inexhaustible supply. Population in 1880, 1,682. School census in 1886, 558 ; J. W. Bowles, superintendent.

At an early day there was in the village a peculiar industry to be established in what was then almost in the woods ; this was the "globe factory " of Josiah Hol- brook for the manufacture of globes and various kinds of school apparatus. At one time he employed about a dozen men and did a large business. The factory remained until about 1852.

Berea, as has been mentioned, has long been famous for its manufacture of grindstones, and many before the invention of the "Baldwin blower" died of what was called " grindstone consumption," their lungs being found after death to be filled with the fine, flour-like dust with which the air was impregnated. The disease is now unknown. We visited the spot at that period and watched the interesting process of turning out grindstones. In conversation with one of the workmen he complained to us with a sigh, as though it was hard work to breathe,. of the continuous oppressive feeling he had at his chest from the fine powder which was steadily accumulating and filling up his lungs, and there was no remedy. It was a horrible necessity, working for bread while every hour of in- dustry was but the taking in of more dust for a suffocating death.

The following article upon the Berea Sandstone industry has been contributed for these pages by Mr. E. D. Peebles, editor at Berea.

Berea Sandstone, the economic value of which is now well known all over the country, lies in a stratum about sixty feet in thickness, under the drift clay and shales that are found everywhere in Northern Ohio. The stone has no surface exposure, excepting where cut through by water courses. In color it is a grayish white, free from pebbles and bedded in layers varying in thickness from six inches to ten feet. These layers usually have a good bed-seam, so that they can be quarried separately and with regard to the use for which they are especially adapted. The best sheets are reserved for grindstones, which require a smooth, even texture, neither too soft or too hard, free from cracks, flaws or hard spots and must split well; other grades are used for building purposes, flag- ging, etc. The Berea rock is especially fine

for grindstones, while its beauty and dura- bility for architectural purposes is unsur- passed.

This rock has been worked for more than forty years. The early pioneers were not slow to discover that a grindstone worked out of Berea stone was an indispensable article to every well-regulated farm, house- hold or workshop.

The demand for it became so urgent that John Baldwin, foreseeing its value as an article of commercial industry, devoted his energies to its development.

Mr. Baldwin came from Connecticut, and was in every way suited for the grand work of a pioneer. He was possessed of keen sagacity, downright honesty, strict economy coupled with a generosity that at times was almost a fault, indomitable perseverance

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CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

that knew no defeat, and a Christianity whose mantle was charity. He was the founder of Baldwin University, located at Berea.

When Baldwin first gave his attention to Berea stone grindstones were cut out by hand,

but he conceived the idea of turning them. Having no shaft or mandle suitable for such work, he made a model of basswood, and one moonlight night placed it on his shoulder and walked to Cleveland (distant fourteen

VIEW AT THE QUARRIES, BEREA.

miles) to have one made, and with but slight improvement this model is in use at the present time.

In former times much of the rock was wasted in quarrying and cutting, but little sawing being done. Now nearly all the cut- ting is by steam-power, and about twenty gangs of the most improved saws are kept at work in season night and day. The quarries are below drainage and steam pumps are constantly at work pumping out water.

Some idea of the proportions of this in- dustry can be formed by the statement that of the 3,000 inhabitants of Bcrea, three- fourths get their living directly or indirectly from the quarries; from nine to twelve thousand cars are annually loaded with stone taken from the quarries, and if placed in a continuous line would make a train fifty miles long.

Great improvements have been made in the preparation of the stone for the market. Formerly the grindstones were sent to the consumer hung on a crude home-made shaft and frame, which was placed under the apple tree on the farm. And the farmer boy of the past can well remember how he used to

suffer while turning that stone, eagerly watch- ing to see if the hand-blistering, back-break- ing job was not most done. Now they are mounted on frames with friction-rollers so that a child can turn them without fatigue, or they can be used with a treadle.

The stone business of Northern Ohio is an immense industry, employing millions of capital and thousands of laborers ; now under one management, that of the Cleveland Stone Company, with headquarters at Cleveland. It includes the quarries at Berea, North Amherst, Columbia, West View, Olmstead and La Grange. The Garfield monument and the Cleveland viaduct are built of Berea stone; on the latter were used over two millions of cubic feet. From the quarries of the Cleveland Stone Company have been built some of the noblest public buildings of the Western States and Canada, as the Ma- sonic Temple and Central High School, Cleveland ; Parliament Buildings, Ottawa ; University Building, Toronto; Palmer House. Chicago ; Michigan State Capitol, Lansing ; Chamber of Commerce Building, Milwau- kee; Government Court House and Post Office, Columbus, etc.

CHAGRIN FALLS, about 17 miles southeast of Cleveland and south of Lake Erie, is on the C. F. & S. R. R. It is in the township of Chagrin Falls, one of the smallest townships in the State. The Chagrin river at this point has a fall of 150 feet, giving water-power to the manufacturing interests of the village. Newspaper : Exponent, J. J. Stranahan, editor and publisher. Churches : 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Congregational and 1 Disciple. Bank : Rodgers & Harper.

527

CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

Industries .- Paper, flour and grocer sacks, iron, wooden-ware handles, car- riages, canvas-boats, etc. Population in 1880, 1,211. School census in 1886, 346 ; C. W. Randall, superintendent.

The view of Chagrin Falls was drawn and engraved for the first edition in

CHAGRIN FALLS IN 1846.

1846 by Mr. Jehu Brainard, of Cleveland, who made and presented it to us to memorialize himself in the work. His picture has the newness, the crudity in appearance which the village at the time presented. It looked to us then as though it had just emerged from the woods ; its people were full of the fire of a good beginning, and fancying that some day theirs would be a great place. Among their congratulations were the facts that they had a daily stage to Cleve- land and that the Cleveland and Pittsburg stages ran through their town.

The name of Chagrin was originally applied to the river, then to the present village of Willoughby, and later to the town with the adjunct of the word "Falls." Crisfield Johnson, in his excellent "History of Cuyahoga County," issued in 1879, says : "The name of the river Chagrin is undoubtedly derived from the old Indian word 'Shagrin,' which is to be found applied to it on maps issued before the Revolution. 'Shagrin' is supposed to mean 'clear,' but this is not so certain." On Evans's map, published in 1755, the river is called "Elk." Harvey Rice, in his sketch of Moses Cleaveland, states that he with his surveying party on the 4th of July, 1796, landed at Conneant and celebrated Independence Day, and then in the course of two weeks he "left Conneaut in company with a select few of his staff and coasted along the southeastern shore of Lake Erie until he came to the mouth of a river which he took to be the Cuyahoga. He ascended the stream for some distance, amid many embarrassments arising from the sand bars and fallen trees, when he discovered his mistake and found it was a shallow stream and not noted on his map. This perplexity and delay so chagrined him that he named it the Chagrin, a designation by which it is still known."

We here introduce an incident in the life of a pioneer woman who until near the time of the issue of our original edition was living in this vicinity.

A Plucky Pioneer Woman .- Joel Thorp, with his wife Sarah, moved with an ox team, in May, '99, from North Haven, Connecticut, to Millsford, in Ashtabula county, and were the first settlers in that region. They soon had a small clearing on and about an old beaver dam, which was very rich and mellow. Towards the first of June, the family being short of provisions, Mr. Thorp started off

alone to procure some through the wilderness, with no guide but a pocket compass, to the nearest settlement, about 20 miles distant, in Pennsylvania. His family, consisting of Mrs. Thorp and three children, the oldest child, Basil, being but cight years of age, were be- fore his return reduced to extremities for the want of food. They were compelled, in a measure, to dig for and subsist on roots, which

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CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

yielded but little nourishment. The children in vain asked food, promising to be satisfied with the least possible portion. The boy, Basil, remembered to have seen some kernels of corn in a crack of one of the logs of the cabin, and passed hours in an unsuccessful search for them.

Mrs. Thorp emptied the straw out of her bed and picked it over to obtain the little wheat it contained, which she boiled and gave to her children. Her husband, it seems, had taught her to shoot at a mark, in which she acquired great skill. When all her means for procuring food were exhausted, she saw, as she stood in her cabin door, a wild turkey flying near. She took down her husband's rifle, and, on looking for ammunition, was surprised to find only sufficient for a small charge. Carefully cleaning the barrel, so as not to lose any by its sticking to the sides as it went down, she set some apart for priming and loaded the piece with the remainder, and started in pursuit of the turkey, reflecting

that on her success depended the lives of her- self and children. Under the excitement of her feelings she came near defeating her ob- ject, by frightening the turkey, which flew a short distance and again alighted in a potato patch. Upon this, she returned to the house and waited until the fowl had begun to wallow in the loose earth. On her second approach, she acted with great caution and coolness, creeping slyly on her hands and knees from log to log until she had gained the last ob- struction between herself and the desired ob- ject. It was now a trying moment, and a crowd of emotions passed through her mind as she lifted the rifle to a level with her eye. She fired ; the result was fortunate : the tur- . key was killed and herself and family pre- served from death by her skill. Mrs. Thorp married three times. Her first husband was killed in Canada, in the war of 1812; her second was supposed to have been murdered. Her last husband's name was Gordiner. She died in Orange, in this county, Nov. 1, 1846.

COLLINWOOD is 7 miles northeast of Cleveland, on Lake Erie. Its inhabitants are mostly employees of the L. S. & M. S. R. R., it being the terminus of two divisions of that road and location of large freight yards. Churches : 1 Congre- gationalist and 1 Christian. Population in 1880, 792. School census in 1886, 436; T. W. Byrns, superintendent.

NEWBURGH, a suburb of and part of the corporate city of Cleveland, connected with it by four railroads and a street car line. It is about five miles from Cleve- land centre. Newspaper : South Cleveland Advocate, Republican, H. H. Nelson, editor and proprietor. Churches : 1 Episcopal, 1 English and 1 Welsh Baptist, 1 English and 1 Welsh Methodist Episcopal, 2 Presbyterian, 1 Welsh Congrega- tional, 1 Disciple, and 1 Catholic. A State hospital for the insane is located here.

BROOKLYN, a suburb of Cleveland, is about 5 miles south of Cleveland Centre, on the Cuyahoga river, and Valley Railroad. Calvin College is located here. Newspaper : Cuyahogan, Republican, C. F. Beachler, editor and proprietor. Churches : 1 Congregational, 1 Methodist Episcopal. Population in 1880, 1,295. School census in 1886, 801 ; A. G. Comings, superintendent.

The following is a list of villages in this county not previously mentioned, with their populations in 1880 : Bedford, a place noted for its chair manufactories, 766; West Cleveland, 1,781 ; East Cleveland, 2,876 ; Glenville, 797 ; Indepen- dence, 262; Olmstead Falls, 404; and Euclid, 699. The first frame meeting- house with a spire built on the Reserve was erected in 1817, at Euclid. The township of Euclid was settled by the surveyors under General Cleaveland ; in 1798 Joseph Burke and family, and in 1801 Timothy Doane and family, settled in Euclid.

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DARKE COUNTY.

DARKE.

DARKE COUNTY was formed from Miami county, January 3, 1809, and organ- ized in March, 1817. The surface is generally level, and it has some prairie land. It is well timbered with oak, poplar, walnut, blue ash, sugar maple, hickory, elm, and beach, and the soil is exceedingly fertile. It is a granary of corn, oats, and wheat-the yield immense and the quality excellent-and it is a first-class agri- cultural county, a large proportion of the land being a deep black soil and appar- ently inexhaustible. Area unusually large-600 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 214,522; in pasture, 23,247; woodland, 72,333; lying waste, 7,207 ; produced in wheat, 996,331 bushels; oats, 472,201; corn, 3,066,476 ; broom brush, 36,545 pounds ; tobacco, 3,152,425 ; butter, 867,560 ; flax, 91,457 ; potatoes, 215,809 bushels ; sorghum, 49,559, largest in the State; eggs, 867,493 dozen ; horses owned, 13,548 ; cattle, 25,517 ; hogs, 36,977. School census 1886, 13,881 ; teachers, 255. It has 158 miles of railroad.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

Adams,

698

2,826

Monroe,

1,400

Allen,

194

1,246

Neave,

635

1,082

Brown,

293

1,909

Patterson,

1,280

Butler,

1,116

1,739

Richland,

589

1,252

Franklin,

291

1,871

Twin,

1,047

2,724

German,

1,173

1,809

Van Buren,

421

1,512

Greenville,

1,851

6,807

Wabash,

1,135

Harrison,

1,666

2,174

Washington,

898

1,612

Jackson,

304

2,850

Wayne,

727

2,762

Mississinewa,

124

1,506

York,

371

1,000

Population in 1820 was 3,717 ; in 1840, 13,145; 1860, 26,009 ; 1880, 40,496, of whom 33,062 were Ohio-born, 1,846 Pennsylvanians, and 1,208 in Germany.

Gen. William Darke, from whom this county derived its name, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1736, and removed at the age of five years with his parents to near Shepherdstown, Va. He was with the Virginia provincials at Brad- dock's defeat, taken prisoner in the Revolu- tionary war, at Germantown, commanded as colonel two Virginia regiments at the siege of York, was a member of the Virginia Conven-

tion of'88, and was repeatedly a member of the Legislature of that ancient commonwealth. He distinguished himself at St. Clair's defeat, and died Nov. 20, 1801. Gen. Darke was by profession a farmer." He possessed a hercu- lean frame, rough manners, a strong but un- cultivated mind, and a frank and fearless dis- position.

This county is of considerable historic interest. The defeat of St. Clair, No- vember 4, 1791, took place just over its northwestern border, near the Indiana line, on the site of the village of Fort Recovery. Under the head of Mercer county, a very full account of this event is given, with individual narratives and incidents.

On his march north from Cincinnati St. Clair built a fort five miles south of the pres- ent site of Greenville, which he named Fort Jefferson. His army left on the 24th of Oc- tober, and continued their toilsome march northward through the wilderness, which in less than two weeks was brought to its disas- trous close.

In the summer of the next year a large body of Indians surrounded this fort. Before they

were discovered, a party of them secreted themselves in some underbrush and behind some bogs near the fort. Knowing that Capt. Shaylor, the commandant, was passionately fond of hunting, they imitated the noise of turkeys. The captain, not dreaming of a de- coy, hastened out with his son, fully expect- ing to return loaded with game. As they approached near the place the savages rose, fired, and his son, a promising lad, fell. The

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DARKE COUNTY.

captain turning, fled to the garrison. The Indians pursued closely, calenlating either to take him prisoner or enter the sally-gate with him in case it were opened for his admission.

They were, however, disappointed, though at his heels ; he entered, and the gate was closed the instant he reached it. In his retreat he was badly wounded by an arrow in his back.

GREENVILLE IN 1846 .- Greenville, the county-seat, is ninety-two miles west of Columbus, and ten from the Indiana line. It was laid off August 10, 1808, by Robert Gray and John Devor, and contains 1 Baptist, 1 Episcopal, 1 Methodist, and 1 Christian church, 16 mercantile stores, 1 flouring mill, 1 newspaper print- ing office, and about 800 inhabitants.

Greenville is a point of much historical note. In December, 1793, Wayne built a fort at this place, which he called Fort Greenville. He remained until the

Tecumseh's Point

Greenvilletruck

Mud Creek

Ice House

Coart Hatte

25 Rods

FORT GREENVILLE.

28th of July, 1794, when he left for the Maumee rapids, where he defeated the Indians on the 20th of the month succeeding. His army returned to Greenville on the 2d of November, after an absence of three months and six days. Fort Greenville was an extensive work, and covered the greater part of the site of the town. The annexed plan is from the survey of Mr. James M'Bride, of Hamilton. The blocks represent the squares of the town, within the lines of the fort. Trates of the embankment are plainly discernible, and various localities within the fort are pointed out by the citizens of the town. The quarters of Wayne were on the site of the residence of Stephen Perrine, on Main street. Henry House, now (1846) of this county, who was in Wayne's campaign, says that the soldiers built log- huts, arranged in rows, each regiment occupying one row, and each hut-of which there were many hundred-occupied by six soldiers. He also informs us that Wayne drilled his men to load while running; and every night, when on the march, had good breastworks erected, at which the men had been so well practised as to be able to construct in a few minutes .- Old Edition.

GREENVILLE is ninety-four miles west of Columbus, on the C. St. L. & P. R. R., and seventy miles north of Cincinnati. It is on Greenville creek, also the C. J. & M. and D. & U. railroads. County officers in 1888 : Probate Judge, Sam- uel L. Kolp ; Clerk of Court, Patrick H. Maher ; Sheriff, David E. Vantilburg ; Prosecuting Attorney, James C. Elliott ; Auditor, Cyrus Minnich ; Treasurer, Henry M. Bickel ; Recorder, Daniel Snyder ; Surveyor, Elliott M. Miller ; Cor- oner, George W. Burnett ; Commissioners, William M. Smith, Reuben K. Beam, Samuel J. Stapleton. Greenville has five newspapers : Darke County Democratie Advocate, Democratic, W. A. Brown, editor; Democrat, Democratic, Charles Roland, editor ; Journal, Republican, E. W. Otwill, editor ; Die Post, German

531

DARKE COUNTY.

Democratic, George Feuchtinger, editor ; Sunday Courier, Republican, A. R. Calderwood, editor. Banks : Farmers' National, G. W. Studabaker, president,

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

VIEW ON THE PUBLIC SQUARE, GREENVILLE.

[The public square was included within the area of the fort. The old court-house, which is seen in the centre of this view, with an addition and changes, is now the town-hall ; the latter is the building shown in the distance, in the new view taken by photograph. The street on the right is Broadway. The building in the rear of the tavern sign is the site of the Farmers' National Bank. The dwelling on the extreme left is now standing, and residence of J. Riley Knox.]

T. S. Waring, cashier ; Greenville Bank Company, W. S. Turpen, president, G. H. Martz, cashier ; Second National, A. F. Koop, president ; R. A. Shuffleton,

J. Harper, Photo., Greenville, 1886.

VIEW ON BROADWAY, GREENVILLE.

[The court-house is shown on the left, the town-hall in the distance.]

cashier. Churches : 1 German Reformed, 1 German Methodist Episcopal, 1 Ger- man Lutheran, 1 German Evangelical, 1 Baptist, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Chris- tian, 1 Catholic, 1 United Brethren, 1 Episcopalian, and 1 Presbyterian. The

532

DARKE COUNTY.

largest industries here arc machinery and moulding, the Inmber business, and wagon making. Population in 1880, 3,535.

On the 3d of August, 1795, Wayne concluded a treaty of peace with the Indians at Greenville. The number of Indians present was 1,130, viz., 180 Wyandots, 381 Delawares, 143 Shawnees, 45 Ottawas, 46 Chippewas, 240 Pottawattamies, 73 Miamies and Eel river, 12 Weas and Piankeshaws, and 10 Kickapoos and Kaskaskias. The principal chiefs were Tarhe, Buckongehelas, Black Hoof, Blue Jacket and Little Turtle. Most of the chiefs had been tampered with by M'Kee and other British agents ; but their people, having been reduced to great extremi- ties by the generalship of Wayne, had, notwithstanding, determined to make a permanent peace with the "Thirteen Fires," as they called the federal States. The basis of the treaty of Greenville was that hostilities were to cease and all prisoners restored. Article 3d defined the Indian boundary as follows :

The general boundary line between the lands of the United States and the lands of the said Indian tribes shall begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, and run thence up the same to the Portage, between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing-place above Fort Laurens, thence westerly to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami river running into the Ohio, at or near which fork stood Loromie's store, and where commenced the portage between the Miami of the Ohio and St. Mary's river, which is a branch of the Miami which runs into Lake Erie ; thence a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on the branch of the Wabash ; thence southerly in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of Kentucke or Cuttawa river.

The following are the reservations within the limits of Ohio granted to the Indians by this treaty :

Ist. One piece of land, six miles square, at or near Loramie's store, before mentioned.

2d. One piece, two miles square, at the head of the navigable water or landing on the St. Mary's river, near Girty's town. 3d. One piece, six miles square, at the head of the navigable water of the Auglaize river. 4th. One piece, six miles square, at the confluence of the Auglaise and Miami rivers, where Fort Defiance now stands. 8th. One piece, twelve miles square, at the British fort on the Miami of the lake, at the foot of the rapids. 9th. One piece, six miles square, at the mouth of the said river, where it empties into the lake. 10th. One piece, six miles square, upon San- dusky lake, where a fort formerly stood. 11th. One piece, two miles square, at the lower rapids of the Sandusky river.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 83

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006