USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 46
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He next turned his attention to the Ohio canal, then being built from Cleveland to Portsmouth. In company with a young man of some previous experience on the Erie canal, New York, a considerable job was undertaken, which proved a much more expensive and difficult work than had been anticipated by engineers or contractors, involving a very heavy loss. To add to the difficulty, his partner, having possessed himself of all the company funds, suddenly decamped to parts unknown. This misfortune and treachery forced Mr. Atkins into hopeless in- solvency. He voluntarily placed in the hands of a trustce, for the payment of his liabilities, all the savings of his previous life, and having a large family, was unable in after-years to do much towards retrieving his ill fortune.
In 1835 and 1836 he was in the employ of the " Arcole Furnace Company," in Madison, Ohio, and was a careful and efficient agent in its then large business.
In the autumn of 1836 he went to Olcan, New York, in the employ of a land company, to take charge of a considerable property, comprising most of East Olean, with grist- and saw-mills, pine lands, etc.
The reverses of 1837-38 so crippled the company that it was forced to sell the property, and early in 1839, Mr. Atkins removed to the farm of Edward Wade, in Brooklyn, near Ohio city, now Cleveland. At this place he resided most of the time until 1834. While residing there he was appointed an associate judge of the court of common pleas of Cuyahoga county, and held the office until, by a change in the constitution, that court was abolished. In February, 1853, his amiable and much-respected wife, Mrs. Sarah Wright Atkins, died at their home in Brooklyn, they having lived together in the marital relation forty-nine years.
Subsequently he resided for a time with his son, Captain A. R. Atkins, in Chicago and Racine, but usually had a home with his daughters, Mrs. H. R. Gaylord, in Geneva, and Mrs. F. Judson, in Brooklyn.
He died at " Barber Cottage," Brooklyn, then the home of Mr. Judson, Jan- uary 23, 1859, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.
During a large part of his life Mr. Atkins was an active and efficient promoter of religious observances, and during all his later years was an earnest and un- wearied laborer for the abolition of slavery. At first he held aloof on the ground of its impracticability ; but the tendency of pro-slavery opinion to enforce its views with stale eggs and other objectionable arguments soon brought him to the side of the party weak in numbers, but using only reasonable arguments. He was a sturdy believer in free speech. and held mobs in utter abhorrence.
Between the years 1841 and 1853, Mr. Atkins devoted much time and means in aid of the anti-slavery movement in northern Ohio and western New York. His earnest and able addresses doubtless assisted in awakening the public mind in the localities he visited to the great wrong and injustice of the institution of slavery then darkening the whole country.
In a long service as justice of the peace in Jefferson, and later, as a judge of the courts in Cleveland. when party spirit was often bitter and unreasoning, his sterling love of justice and fair dealing was ever apparent. And although his
friendships and aversions were strong, he never permitted them to affect his legal administration of justice.
Through a long life his bodily and mental powers were vigorous, and whatever he undertook to do, whether chopping and clearing lands, splitting rails (in his younger days he was a famous " chopper and rail-splitter"), making roads, carrying mails on foot through the wilderness, or arresting desperate criminals as sheriff, all was thoroughly well done.
In his later years Mr. Atkins often wrote for the press ; his contributions of most general interest probably being " Recollections of Pioneer Life in North- castern Ohio," " Road-Making in Central New York at the Beginning of the Present Century," " A Trip through Iowa in its Early Days," and " Recollections of Military Service about Huron River and Sandusky Bay in the War of 1811-15."
Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Atkins, ten (one son and nine daughters) lived to maturity. The son, Captain Arthur R. Atkins, is married and resides in Chi- cago. Five of the daughters are still living, in 1878, viz., Mrs. Stella M. Gaylord, in Saginaw, Michigan ; Mrs. Ophelia Bostwick, in Oberlin, Ohio; Mrs. Mary Lynch, in Santa Barbara, California ; Mrs. Martha Todd, in Tabor, Iowa; and Mrs. Bertha Judson, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Helen Atkins died in Brooklyn, Ohio, in 1839 ; Mrs. Emily Turner, in Geneva, in 1841 ; Mrs. Flora Wheeler, in Portville, New York, in 1850; and Mrs. Sarah L. Wade, in Brooklyn, Ohio, in 1852.
The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Atkins are numer- ous, intelligent, and actively engaged in various pursuits in life. They reside in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, California, and Texas. They comprise clergymen, lawyers, college pro- fessors and teachers, railroad-builders and managers, manufacturers, mill-owners and lumbermen, ship-builders, ship-owners, and ship-captains, who have sailed on all our lakes and on every ocean and nearly every sea on the globe.
One of the latter, Matthew Turner, a native of Geneva, Ohio, while engaged in commerce between San Francisco and the Amoor river, in Siberia, in the year 1863, was the first to discover and open to the traffic of the world the Pacific cod- fisheries, in the Gulf of Tartary and on the coast of Kamschatka, and subse- quently about the Aleutian islands.
HON. ELIPHALET AUSTIN .*
Hon. Eliphalet Austin was born at Youngford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, in 1761. His father was Aaron Austin. There were six brothers, and the most of them were soldiers in the War of 1776. The elder, Judge Aaron Austin, of New Hartford, was a captain in the Revolutionary war. Nathaniel Austin, father of Jacob Austin, was a lieutenant. Cyrenius died with the smallpox in the service. Eusebius was a physician, and settled in the State of New York. Colonel Samuel Austin settled in Vernon, New York, removed to Randolph, Portage county, Ohio. Colonel Eliphalet left the army in 1781, and married Sihette Dudley, of Bethle- hem. He for some years remained in the old homestead, taking care of his then aged parents, but subsequently removed to New Hartford, and developed his natural bent and taste for a close business by keeping a tavern, a store, and an ashery, and buying beef cattle to supply the market at Hartford and New Haven, and was the president of a turnpike company.
HIS TITLE OF COLONEL.
He was colonel of an independent or uniform regiment, was one of the Torring- ford land company, and in his own name, and in that of the Connecticut land company, had some twenty thousand acres. He came to Austinburg in 1799, returned in 1800, and in 1801 moved his family to Ohio. The account of liis journey and first settling has already been given. Judge Austin's business ca- pacity was remarkable. He had a large amount of lands of his own in Summit and Medina counties, also in Morgan and Austinburg, Ashtabula County, and in Madison and Perry, Lake county. He owned lots in Cleveland and in Euclid, and at one time he had the title to over three hundred acres in the spot where Cleveland now stands; he was also agent for a large amount of land for others. This land he bought at a very small price, as it was on the first apportionment. It was never complained of him that he had taken advantage of any one. His desire was to encourage settlement, and no doubt it was largely owing to his hospitality and his business capacity that Ashtabula County became settled at so early a date. His house served to be the centre of the whole region. It was a block-house, built on the summit of the hill, bullet-proof. Aaron Austin, his son, was early engaged in cutting roads through the forest, and it is said that nearly all the roads of those days centred at his house. Some of these roads still remain. He had much to do with the laying out of the first roads of the country.
# By Rev. S. D. Peet.
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
The first road to the settlement was perhaps from Harpersfield, as that was the way to the landing and the mill. The old Salt road was, however, soon cut through from Ashtabula, and ultimately extended to Warren. He took a contract on a turnpike- or plank-road from Erie to Waterford. It appeared that money was searee. As he had sold a large amount of land to young men, he found that they were not able to pay. Taking this contract, he enabled them to earn something to pay for their land, and at the same time helped himself. The amount re- ceived was about fifty-five dollars per mile, or four thousand five hundred dol- lars for the whole. Mr. Austin was also engaged in buying and selling eattle. He always had a large number of cattle about him, and by this means he could not only sell to settlers their land, but he could assist them in getting it subdued. Anecdotes are told where he very materially assisted many persons in this way, always turning over a cow or an ox to a neighbor, and then managing in some way to get his pay.
Mr. Austin became a mail contractor. It is said that he was the first mail con- tractor along the lake-shore, and that at one time he had the contract for the mail from Cleveland to Detroit. There is a schedule among his papers giving the time of the arrival and departure of mail between Unionville and Meadville, and between Ashtabula and Poland. The promptness of Judge Austin is seen in connection with some of these mail contracts. His son says that he came one day and said to his wife, Mersey, " I want a clean shirt ; I am going to start for Washington to-morrow," and so he did. He mounted his horse and rode all the way to Wash- ington, and arranged for the mail contracts for the whole region. It is stated that there were a large number of contractors together at Washington at the same time. In waiting on the President and postmaster-general, the question came up who should be spokesman. Mr. Austin was selected to perform this delicate task.
Mr. Austin was early elected justice of the peace; some of the first deeds on record bear his signature in that capacity. He afterwards became judge of the court of common pleas. A paper is in the possession of the family which bears the signature of Governor Wm. Huntington, governor of the State, appointing him judge, in the place of John Walworth, who had resigned. In this capacity he had served for seven years; some of his decisions were regarded of very great importance. Mr. Austin was cleeted to the legislature as senator. He was a strong anti-Mason, and it was partially on this issue that he was elected. Mr. Austin's religious character was very decided, although he was not a member of any church. His religious principles expressed themselves in kindly sympathies, in genial disposition, and a mild and unruffled temper, a hopeful spirit, and a noble and pure lifc. His son says in all the instances of his life, though eir- cumstances were trying, and often great provocations, he rarely knew him ruffled in temper, and never heard him utter anything profane. He died in 1837, leaving a large family.
HON. JONATHAN WARNER
was born at Chester Parish, in old Saybrook, Connecticut, December 11, 1782. His father, Jonathan, was a farmer, and also owned some interest in vessels en- gaged at that time in the coasting trade. The young man was bred principally upon the farm, but had acquired some experience as a sailor upon his father's vessels, and had at one time made a cruise to the West Indies. In the fall of 1804, in company with a man named Olmsted, he ventured on an exploring ex- pedition to the western country. He was provided with a letter of eredit, which spoke of him in high terms of praise.
At Buffalo they procured a boat, and started upon the lake for New Connecticut, and his nautical experience was of value during a violent storm, which compelled them to run their boat ashore, where they spent a night under its shelter. They landed at the mouth of Ashtabula creek, and made their way to the interior as far as the present village of Jefferson. Here Mr. Warner selected lands em- bracing a part of the present village, while his companion made his settlement in what is now known as the township of Kingsville. At that time there was but one resident of the township of Jefferson, a man by the name of Mapes, who had previously settled upon a part of the same land, and had built a log house and eleared a few acres. Mr. Warner purchased his improvements and made provi- sion for a future home, although before locating permanently he went back to Connecticut. In the spring of 1805 he returned, and fixed his permanent resi- dence in Jefferson.
In 1806 other settlers came into the township. Among them eamc Edward Frethy, with his family, from Washington eity. He was the first postmaster, the first justice of the peace, and the first merchant in Jefferson.
Mr. Warner was pleased with the wilderness in which he had located, and which he was making every effort to destroy. As a matter of choice he had set- tled in a hermitage far from human habitations, and yet he found it not good to be alone, and on the 4th day of May, 1807, he was married to Nancy, a daughter
of Edward Frethy. His residence was three-fourths of a mile distant, and he went for his bride on horseback. After the ceremony was performed he took her upon the erupper and carried her to his eabin, near the same spot where she now resides, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years, and where she continued the partner of his joys and of his sorrows through his life.
The first scleetion of land made by Mr. Warner embraced the land upon which the court-house was afterwards located ; but to accommodate the new village and to seeurc the county-seat he was indueed to exchange a portion of his selection for lands lying farther west and adjoining the proposed town ..
In the year 1815 he was appointed recorder of deeds for the county, for the term of seven years. In the year 1825 he was appointed treasurer of the county. Soon after this time the anti-Masonie excitement prevailed in politics, and Mr. Warner was an active leader in the anti-Masonic party. In the fall of 1831 he was elected a representative to the State legislature, and in the spring of 1839 he was elected by the legislature of the State an associate judge of the court of com- mon pleas, for the term of seven years, his term expiring on April 1, 1846. He was always an active partisan in polities, and always in sympathy with the Dem- ocratic party, except during the few years that the anti-Masonie party had a po- litical existence. He had eleven children, one of whom died in infancy. Of the ten who reached maturity,-four sons and six daughters,-all but one are now living, and all have families of their own, who now hold respectable positions in society. George, his second son, was killed by accident, March 25, 1877, in Washington Territory, where he left a wife and two children. Judge Warner died at his old residence in Jefferson on the 12th day of April, 1862, in his eightieth year, respected and honored by all.
He was a vigorous man, possessed of a strong will, a kind heart, and affection- ate disposition. He was a valuable citizen, exact and trustworthy in all his deal- ings, as well in public as in private life. And as one of the pioneers of the county, who has helped to found and build up its institutions, his life and char- acter are worthy of commemoration by the present as well as by the future gen- erations of this county who may follow after him.
HON. AMOS AND MARTIN KELLOGG.
Amos Kellogg was born in Alford, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, June 17, 1782, was married to Paulina Dean, July 30, 1805, and was the seventh in a family of nine children, cach one of whom lived to maturity and reared families of their own. Amos and his brother Martin, two years his senior, who had previously married Miss Anna Lester, remained at home as the joint owners of and cultivating the old homestead until 1811, when one Colwell, of Albany, New York, who was the owner of a large traet of wild lands in western Virginia, by representing his land to be valuable for farming purposes and just coming into market, and offering him the position of surveyor and general agent for the sale of his lands, with a liberal compensation, induced Martin, who was a practical and skillful surveyor, to accept his offer. Accordingly, after the necessary preparations, on the 12th day of June, 1811, Martin with his family,-consisting of his wife and two chil- dren, aged respectively seven and three years,-started from the old homestead to seek a new home in the then far west ; their outfit consisting of a pair of horses, wagon, and harness, carrying the family and household goods. The route taken was from Alford to Newburg, where they erossed the Hudson river, from thenee to eastern New Jersey, Bethlehem, Allentown, Reading, Harrisburg, Carlisle, and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania ; Cumberland, Maryland ; Clarksburg and Parkers- burg, Virginia, to Belpre, Ohio. On arriving at his destination, after a journey of some six hundred miles, occupying some five weeks,-having crossed the Blue Ridge and seen the country,-he became satisfied that nothing could be done in the way of selling lands that then were hardly worth surveying. He was, there- fore, on the point of turning back and retracing his journey, without unloading his goods, when he was offered a house to shelter him for a season. This induced him to remain until he could better determine what to do. He remained at Belpre, on the Ohio river, until the death of his father, late in the autumn of 1812, when, on the 24th of December of that year, he started on foot to return to the old homestead, following the same route traversed on his journey the year previous, arriving at Alford about the 1st day of January, 1813. On the failure of the land enterprise, the death of their father, and the return of Martin, the brothers eoneluded to embrace one of the then many opportunities to exchange cultivated farms in the east for wild lands in what was then known as New Con- neeticut. They accordingly made such exchange, receiving for the old home- stead eleven hundred and fifty acres of uncultivated land situated in Ashtabula and Geauga counties. Early in 1813, Martin returned to Belpre, and with his family removed to their new lands in Salem, in this county, in time to ereet a log house, one mile north of the present village of Kelloggsville, in which they spent
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
the winter of 1813-14. In February, 1814, Amos with his family .- consisting of his aged mother, wife. two daughters. aged respectively eight and six years, and a son. aged two years. with a hired laborer,-started from their old home- stead for their new home in the wilderness of New Connecticut, the outfit being four horses with two sleighs. carrying the family and household goods. Arriving at Phelpstown, Ontario county, New York, where his wife had expected to meet her father. two brothers, and a younger sister, who had preceded her the year before and settled in that locality, she learned for the first time, hy a messenger whom she met but a few rods from the door. that her father had died since she had started on her journey. After a short visit among relatives in what was then known as the " Genesee country," they pursued their journey until they arrived at their new home early in March, after a journey of more than five hundred miles entirely on runners, and occupying four weeks. On the arrival of Amos with his family, in the spring of 1814, the brothers. who were still partners, and held both real and personal property in common, commenced clearing and open- ing up their new lands preparatory to cultivation, and during the following six years, while they so remained in company, they cleared, fenced, and brought under cultivation some two hundred acres of original forest lands, being very largely assisted in their labors by Mr. John Hardy, now living in Kelloggsville. hale and strong in his eighty-third year. They continued to reside together with their families until February, 1815, when they purchased from the late Hon. Eliphalet Austin, of Austinburg, a large part of the tract of land now covered by the village of Kelloggsville, then known as the " Foggerson settlement." Martin moved on this tract. where he remained until 1819, when they dissolved their partnership and divided the property, Amos taking what was known as the Foggerson farm and Martin going back to the new one. In 1815, on account of some unsettled busi- ness matters and a strong desire to revisit the scenes of his childhood and early manhood. Amos made the journey on foot to and from the old homestead. Prior to the time he had hardly made up his mind to remain permanently in Ohio : hut on his return from this journey he abandoned all desire to return to Massachu- setts. and cast his lot permanently with the new settlers of the Western Reserve. The business occupations of his life were farming, merchandising, buying, driving, and selling cattle, and keeping a village tavern.
He was appointed to and held the office of justice of the peace in his native township for one or more terms before his removal to Ohio. and in March, 1816, was elected one of the justices for Salem township. Soon after the expiration of his term in Salem he removed to Monroe, and in July, 1822, was elected justice for that township, which office he held until he resigned it to accept the office of associate judge, to which he was elected by the legislature, December 31, 1823. and took his seat at the March term, 1824, of which office he discharged the duties until his decease, April 27, 1830. He was the first postmaster in Monroe, and from him was derived the name of the post-office and village of Kelloggsville.
At the time of the severance of two miles in width of the territory from the south part of Salem and annexing it to Monroe, in 1818, the brothers were very much interested and were probably influential in procuring the annexation, for which they did not at the time receive very many thanks or congratulations from the citizens of Salem.
Having had the advantages of a fair New England common-school education. and being a man of good judgment, he was very competent to transact such busi- ness as he had been accustomed to ; but having heen induced, in 1821. to engage in the business of a country merchant, and intrusting the management of the business to younger men. like most enterprises of that kind the venture proved a failure, and caused him much embarrassment during the remainder of his life. He united with the order of Freemasons in early life, was a member of the Evergreen lodge, in Salem, and adhered to that organization through the troublous times subsequent to the alleged ahduction of Morgan. Always among the fore- most to assist in carrying forward any and every enterprise for the improvement and benefit of the public, and ready to contribute of his means to all worthy objects, he did much to develop the industrial and moral interests of the com- munity in which he lived.
Politically. he was of the old Federal school, but ardently supported Mr. Clay for President in 1524, and Mr. Adams in 1828. He was a kind, indulgent. and sympathizing husband and father, and, in short, " that noblest work of God," an honest man.
MRS. PAULINA KELLOGG.
Paulina Kellogg, wife of Amos Kellogg. Esq., was born in New Marlborough, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, May 21. 1782, and was married in the county of her birth July 30. 1805. She was the daughter of Captain Walter Dean, who entered the Massachusetts line at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, and remained in the service during the entire war, leaving the service with a cap- tain's commission. Having the advantage of a common-school education, she
taught a district school one season. but, being the oldest daughter, the early death of her mother made it necessary for her to assume the entire charge of her father's large family until her own marriage; after which, the duties of a mother and the care of her own household devolved upon her. Nine children were horn to her, two of whom died in infancy, and seven reached maturity.
Being a woman of vigorous health, she was able to and did perform most of the household labor for a large family composed of the husband, children, and farm-laborers engaged in clearing, fencing, farming, and keeping a village tavern, and manufactured the cloth and made much of the clothing for her family. On the death of her husband, in 1830, she caused herself to be appointed adminis- tratrix of his estate, and with only the aid of her oldest son, then hut cighteen years of age. she continued to keep the tavern, manage the business, and settle the estate : and to her good management and wise economy was her family largely in- debted for the retention of a home to which all were very greatly attached. After giving up the responsibilities of business to her son, who relied upon her advice and counsel in reference to important transactions with great confidence and sought it for many years. she made her home with him, and spent much of her time with her several sons and daughters. rendering such assistance in nursing and caring for their young families as only a devoted mother and grandmother could. Her affection for and kindly remembrance of her children, grand and great-grand- children, never faltered. as she was always impartial. and always anxious to aid them in any lawful enterprise. Except the death of her husband, to whom she was ardently attached and a most devoted wife, the death of her youngest daughter Paulina, who married at the age of twenty and died at twenty-one, was the greatest affliction of her life. Being her youngest daughter, delicate and lovely, recently married with fair prospects of a happy and prosperous life, her death was long and deeply mourned. She died at Conneaut, in this county, on the 21st day of June, 1875, aged ninety-three years and one month. in the enjoyment of her mental faculties unimpaired, leaving behind her two aged sisters, two sons, and two daughters, twenty-four grandchildren. and nineteen great-grandchildren, to mourn her departure. She was an affectionate and devoted wife, a kind, indul- gent. and wise mother, and in all the relations of life performed her duties with a conscientious devotion to the right.
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