History of Ashtabula County, Ohio, Part 61

Author: Williams, W. W. (William W.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Williams brothers
Number of Pages: 458

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MANUFACTURING.

The Bailey, Mc Daniel & Jones Flouring-Mill was ereeted in the years of 1874 and 1875, and first began operations in the fall of the latter year. It is a wooden structure ; main building forty by fifty feet, with an engine and boiler-room of twenty and thirty feet ; location on the line of the Franklin division of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railway, from which a side-traek leads to the mill. The propelling power is a sixty-five horse-power horizontal engine. The mill is fitted with all the latest improved machinery, has four run of stone, and does both merchant and custom grinding. The entire eost of mnill and ground is twenty-three thousand dollars. Average monthly eash receipts on merchant sales are three thousand dollars. Custom grinding averages : wheat, seven hundred bushels per month, and eoarsc feed perhaps three times that amount.

Planing-Mills .- Of these there are two; the first, which is located on the corner of Chestnut and Walnut streets, began operations in about the year 1861, under the management of Messrs. Benjamin & Hall. The present proprietor is Israel Turner, who purchased the property in the year 1868. Amount of capital invested, three thousand eight hundred dollars. Class of work done, planing, seroll- sawing, bracket-work, etc. The second mill was erected in the year 1865, by Messrs. Newton & Warren. The present proprietors are Messrs. Loomis & Bailey ; purchased the property in 1870, at which time the building was removed to its present loeation, which is on Market street, between Jefferson and Warren streets. Capital invested, four thousand five hundred dollars. Class of work donc : sash, doors, blinds, seroll-sawing, etc.

Foundries .- The " Union Foundry" was established in 1871, by Messrs. Moshier & Cartney. It is located on the corner of Market and Satin streets. Amount of capital invested, one thousand six hundred dollars. Class of work done: plows, stoop and veranda work, sleigh-shoes, etc. Are now making a specialty of " Crosby's patent sleds." The " Jefferson Foundry" began business in 1861. This foundry is located on Chestnut street ; does general work-mill gearing and fancy castings ; brass mill eastings a specialty. Capital invested, four thousand dollars. H. Leonard, proprietor.

The first tanncry established in the township (and possibly in the county) was erceted by Noah Hoskins in the year 1812, on lot No. 73, north side of Ashtabula street. Mr. Hoskins began in a small way, doing eustom-work exelusively ; gradually inereasing his business, until during the years 1862 to 1864 his yearly sales amounted from eight to nine thousand dollars. This property is now owned by John Jipson, who averages fifty sides of rough leather per week, or about eight thousand dollars per year. The machinery is run with steam and has all the modern appliances.

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.

The surface of the township is but slightly undulating, and its soil is better adapted to the interests of the dairy than to agriculture. Its timber consists chiefly of beeeh and maple, although there is a considerable quantity of chestnut, whitewood, and ash, and some cherry and black walnut. Mill ereek is the prin- eipal stream, enters the township about one muile from the southeast eorner, and flows northwestwardly until it reaches the extension of Market street, at a point about one-half mile south of the northern boundary of the township, where it changes its eourse and flows in a southwestwardly direction until it passes into Austinburg, at about one and three-fourthis iniles from the southwest corner of the township. It received its name from Sterling Mills, who settled upon its banks at an carly day, in Austinburg. The stream has several tributaries, the chief one being Mill creek, which rises in the southern portion of the township and flows northwestwardly until it reaches the main current about a mile distant, in a west- wardly direction from the northwest corner of the town-site of Jefferson. It derived its name from the fact that the first grist-mill in the township was erected upon its banks. Wolf ereek obtained its name from the fact that the early settlers built a wolf-pen on the bank of the stream.

EARLY EVENTS.

In 1809, Jolın Shook, assisted by MeDaniel, built the first grist-mill in the township, on the bank of Mill creek, about one and one-half miles northwest of the eentre of the village. It was a rude affair, but was of immense benefit to the pioneers of Jefferson. Here the first flour made in the township was manu- factured. In 1812, the mill having gotten out of repair, the dam being gone, the inhabitants of the township eolleeted in foree, rebuilt the dam, and put the mill into operation again. Not only did it do the grinding of the settlers' wheat and eorn, but grain was brought to it to be ground from Ashtabula, Austinburg, and Morgan. In 1810, Wareham Grant built a saw-mill on the same stream, a short distance southeast of Mr. Shook's grist-mill. This mill sawed the first board that was sawed in the towuship. In 1812 there was a noteworthy aecession to the population of the township in the arrival from Sheffield, Berkshire county,

MRS. HENRY TALCOTT

HENRY TALCOTT.

JOHN C. TALCOTT.

ALBERT L.TALCOTT.

RALPH H.TALCOTT

WILLIAM E.TALCOTT.

GEORGE N.TALCOTT

HARDWARE

HARDWARE.

TALCOTT'S

MILLS

BANK

TALCOTT'S DEPOSIT BANK H. TALCOTT

BANK

LAN AGENCY

RESIDENCE. BUSINESS BLOCK AND MILLS OF HENRY TALCOTT, JEFFERSON, ASHTABULA CO., O. BREEDER OF SHORT HORN DURHAM CATTLE. PROPRIETOR OF TALCOTTS FLOURING MILLS. DEALER IN HARDWARE. STOVES, TINWARE & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. ALSO PROPRIETOR OF TALCOTT'S DEPOSIT BANK.

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153

HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.

Massachusetts, of Durlin Hickok and his entire family, numbering in all sixteen persons. Mr. Hickok selected for his residence the land then known as the Granger farm, where Eldrad Smith had made the first improvement in the town- ship, in 1804. There were sixteen families living within the limits of the town- ship when Mr. Hickok arrived ; five of these familics were Websters. From E. W. Hickok's interesting and well-written communication, made as a contribution to the historical collection of the Ashtabula historical society in 1850, we make the following extract :

" It was exceedingly gloomy when we moved into Jefferson. Not a bushel of grain conld be had in the township. A few bushels of potatoes were all that could be purchased. In the winter of 1812-13 my father went to Vernon, Hartford, and Brookfield to bny provisions and other necessaries. The first in- habitants suffered severely for the lack of food and clothing; sheep would die, and it seemed useless to try to raise them. Entire flocks would run out in three years. Wolves took off many, but the greatest destruction it is supposed was occasioned by their drinking muddy water from deer-licks. The early settlers suffered not a little from apprehensions of another sort. They feared the aggressions of the British, and even in 1813 they supposed if Perry should be conqnered the fron- tier would be left to the mercy of the enemy. However, when he proved con- queror, as the Yankees always do, there was a general time of rejoicing among us. Then we could pass the winter quite comfortably in linen pants, which many of us were glad to wear in lieu of something warmer." In 1823, Mr. Hickok erected their saw-mill, and in 1838 their grist-mill.

Early Roads .- The first route along which the Jefferson settlers traveled was the bridle-path of Eldrad Smith, made in 1804, and formed into a wagon-road in the following year. In 1810, T. R. Hawley surveyed the road from Jefferson to Ashtabula. This was a county road, and followed with little variation the course of the present road as far north as to Plnm creek, where it bore to the east of this road so as to pass between the two little marshes, along a natural elevation, then across the big marsh, and onward to Ashtabula. A traveled road, which had been in use before this county road was surveyed, took a northcastward direction at Plum creek, erossing a narrow neck of the little marsh, and so on through Plymouth to Ashtabula. It was a wretched road. A causeway formed by laying the trunks of small trees across the route extended over the worst por- tion of the road, and it came to be the dread of travelers; and soon there were strewn along this causeway broken vehicles almost without number.

A portion of the county road was cleared of trees and brush soon after it was surveyed, but was not used as a wagon-road until 1817, when it became a State road. In the month of August, Q. F. Atkins and a Mr. Webster took the con- tract to make the road across the large marsh passable for wagons and travelers ; but this was not successfully accomplished until 1827-28, when the people turned out in numbers and placed the floating crossing of timbers in order once again, covering it with a considerable thickness of brush, and covering the brush with a coating of gravel.

In the following summer, the county commissioners having appropriated four hundred dollars to the building of a permanent road across the marsh, and an additional subscription having been made by residents of Jefferson and Ashtabula of five hundred dollars, and Colonel Matthew Hubbard, acting under instructions of his brother, Nehemiah Hubbard, having made a large contribution in aid of the work, to be paid in lands, the road was put in a traversable condition. In 1850 a plank-road was built over the causeway.

In 1822, Lynds Jones, Esq., living in Jefferson, and desirous of making a visit to friends in Wayne township, had to travel a distance of eighty miles to con- summate the journey, when in a direct line his friends lived but eighteen miles from Jefferson.

INCIDENTS.

Illustrative of the amusements of these early days, we give the following ac- count of a sleighing-party, which the participants, at that time all young people, enjoyed in the early spring of 1807 : Jonathan Warner and his intended wife, a young lady by the name of Miss Nancy Friethy, both mounted on one horse, early one cold, frosty morning in March might have been scen pursuing . their way through the forests along Eldrad Smith's bridle-path towards Judge Austin's residence in Austinburg. Here they were joined by Mr. Austin's two daughters and son, and the whole company with great merriment passed through the groves to the tavern stand of Gideon Leet, in Ashtabula. Here they were joined by other young people, and there being snow on the ground, and the ice of Ashtabula creek and of the lake being in excellent condition for a sleigh- ride, the young men found a rude lumber-sled, and, attaching to it two of their horses, soon had it in condition for a ride upon the icc. To the month of Ashta- bula creek the merry party sped, then ont upon the broad, smooth surface of the lake they emerged, when it was resolved to go as far as to the cabin of James Montgomery, at the mouth of Conneaut creck. It was rather a dangerons un-

dertaking, for the weather had grown warmer, and the strength of the ice might not be perfect. However, the party arrived at Montgomery's without any mis- hap. The day was now far spent and night was rapidly approaching, and the stay at Mr. Montgomery's was very short, when the young men, upon going out to put their sleigh in trim for the return trip, found that it was raining, and, worse yet, that the ice had suddenly disappeared, having embarked on a voyage to the Canada side; and where but a few moments before the happy sleighing party had glided over the smooth ice with a feeling of perfect security, now appeared the blue, turbulent waters of the sea.

To return through the woods in a drenching rain, the snow rapidly disappearing, and the road not intended for vehicles such as theirs, being filled with the stumps of small trees that projected so high above the ground as to every now and then apply the brake to the progress of their sleigh,-all this was something different from the ride upon the glazing ice of the lake. This was sleigh-riding under difficulties, but they undoubtedly enjoyed it all the same, and arriving home had an inter- esting chapter in the history of their lives, which, if they had not gone, they could not have secured.

In relation to the organization of the township of Jefferson we find on the " Record" in the office of the township clerk the following: " Be it remembered that the records of Jefferson township, prior to 1812, were destroyed by fire ; and on the 17th day of August, A.D. 1850, part of the records of this township with various bonds and papers of the township (the record books from 1812 to March 30, 1839, and various bonds and papers to 1848 and 1849), were con- sumed by fire at the burning of the court-honse in said township." The first record extant shows that on the 1st day of April, 1839, the following persons were elected: Ezra W. Hickok, Ebenezer Wood, and James Norris, trustees ; Thonias Oliver, clerk ; James Whitmore, treasurer; Jonathan Warner and Lynds Jones, overseers of the poor ; Elnathan G. Luce and Uriah Loomis, fence-viewers ; Horatio D. Hoskins and Austin Goodall, supervisors of highways.

STATISTICS FOR 1877.

240 acres.

2,350 bushels.

Oats ..

584

16,285

Corn ..

373

12,451 46

Potatoes

4,835

Orcharding

160

11,429

Meadow

1736

2,196 tons.

Maple-sugar

12,475 pounds.

Butter

326,29

Cheese.

270,100

School-houses, 8; valuation, $4000 ; amount paid teachers, $1221.88; number of scholars, 265. Valuation of school property in Jefferson village, $14,400 ; amount paid teachers, $2977 ; number of scholars, 347.

Vote for President in 1876,-Hayes, 397 ; Tilden, 108.

Population of the township in 1870, exclusive of village, 843; of the village, 869.

The following are some of the early settlers of Jefferson township, with dates of their settlement : Frederick Udell and Jonathan Loomis, 1823 ; James Hoyt, James Merrifield, Merritt Jerome, 1825 ; Silas Williams and Thomas Oliver, 1827 ; Ansell Udell, 1828 ; Erastus Goodall and Oliver Atwell, 1832 ; Eben Wood, 1835 ; R. D. Burgess, 1836; Harry Brown, 1838; Anson Alger, 1839; H. R. Green, 1843; Joseph Stevens, 1844; D. H. Prentice, 1848. For the above names and dates we are indebted to Cornelius Udell, who settled in Jefferson village in 1818.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

HENRY TALCOTT

was born in Nelson, Portage county, Ohio, December 28, 1832. His father, Nelson Talcott, was an extensive chair-mannfacturer, and Henry was placed in the paint department, at the age of eleven, to learn to do ornamental chair-painting. Winters he attended the high school in Garrettsville, Ohio, but at the age of sev- enteen his health failed him, and he had to abandon the painter's trade and learn another.

The following spring he commenced to learn the tinner's trade in Burton, Geauga county, Ohio, and serving two years' time there, at thirty-five dollars and forty-five dollars per year, he then went to Ravenna, Portage county, Ohio, and worked one year more under instruction, at one hundred dollars. Ont of thesc sums he clothed himself entirely and saved fifty-four dollars to commence business with. And the 1st of Angnst before he was twenty-one years old, he came to Jefferson, Ohio, and purchased a small tin-shop and stove-store of James Norris, -consideration seven hundred and thirty-six dollars,-rolled up his sleeves, and

Wheat ...

154

HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.

weut to work. He never received any aid or assistance from any quarter, except a loan of two hundred dollars from his father, for six months, when he first com- menced business. This was on August 1, 1852. The business interests of Jeffersou were very small at that time, and for that matter were the same all over the county.

Talcott's hardware-store was the first one, exclusively in this branch of trade, started in the county, but the following spring Geo. C. Hubbard commeneed one in Ashtabula, and has always kept even paee with him, while at the present time there are at least a dozen good hardware-stores, situated in different parts of the county, every one of them selling more hardware than was sold in the whole county, prior to 1850, each year. The first year's sales amounted to only two thousand eight hundred dollars, but steadily increased until, 1864, it reached forty thousand dollars and more, and requiring a stock of from fifteen to twenty thous- and dollars. After adding the sale of Buekeye mowing-machines, wagons, and agricultural implements, he was compelled to build a large brick bloek fifty-two by seventy-five feet, three stories high, to accommodate this greatly increased busi- ness, and in addition to this, he has an extensive wareroom thirty-two by sixty- five feet, two stories high. This business has all been built up in the past twenty-five years. In 1863, always having had a passion for a farm life, he pur- chased the old Michael Webster farm, one mile west of the court-house, one hun- dred and ninety-six aeres, moved on to it, and commeneed farming in addition to his hardware business. Still later he purchased the old Jonathan Warner farm, adjoining his other purchase and also the borough line of Jefferson, and built him a fine brick residence adjacent to it, but inside the borough, and is now doing an extensive business breeding thoroughbred short-horn Durham cattle for sale, and has some very choice animals in his herd, bred from Clarendon,-five twenty,- Duke of Clark (2d), and Royal Britain.

In 1864 he was quite instrumental in starting the First National bank of Jef- ferson, and was a director in it uutil 1869. When, February 16, 1869, W. H. Burgess, James Norris, E. C. Wade, Henry Talcott, Lorin French, and Albert Warren organized the Jefferson Savings and Loan association bank, capital stoek, fifty thousand dollars, under a corporatiou law of the State of Ohio, Henry Talcott was elected president of the association, and continued in office until 1872, when it was reorganized and the capital inereased to one hundred thousand dollars, and became the Second National bank of Jefferson. He still continued president of this bank until 1874, when Hou. Abner Kellogg was chosen his sueeessor.

In May, 1874, he started a private banking-house, known as Talcott's Deposit bank, which has thus far done a very successful business,-more than meeting his most sanguine expectations.

In 1870, feeling the necessity of better schools in Jefferson, he was very active, with a few of his neighbors, in getting a tax of twenty thousand dollars voted to build the Jefferson Educational institute, which is now one of the very best institutes of learning iu the State, and is the just pride of our citizens. He has been an active member of the board of directors since its commencement, and for several years past president of the board.

December 6, 1876, he purehased the flouring-mills, known as the Griffis mills, two and a half miles west of Jefferson, on the Austinburg road, and at present writing is prosecuting quite successfully the business of merchandising, farm- ing, banking, and milling; and is eager to push these several enterprises to their fullest extent. He pays, and has paid for several years, the largest amount of taxes of any person in Ashtabula County. His career shows what industry, economy, and a natural taste for business can accomplish.

CONNEAUT TOWNSHIP AND BOROUGH.

ASHTABULA County is the northeast corner county of the State of Ohio, and Conneaut is the northeast corner township of Ashtabula County. It is bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the south by the township of Monroe, on the east by a portion of the State of Pennsylvania, and on the west by the township of Kingsville and the lake. It is composed of township No. 13 of the first range (except an area of two miles in width from the southern portion thereof, which strip was eut off and annexed to the township of Monroe), and of No. 14 of the first range, being Conneaut gore. The township contains a surface of about twenty-five square miles. Its extreme northernmost point lies about sixty-eight statute miles from the base line of the Reserve on the south, and about two miles from the parallel of latitude 42° 2', the Reserve's northern boundary line, the width of New Conneetieut being sixty-two geographical miles, or a trifle more than seventy-one statute miles.

The face of the land in this township is somewhat diversificd, and the soil is well adapted to the growing of cereals, although a portion of it produces excellent grass. Conneaut creek and its tributaries, with numerous springs, furnish an excellent system of drainage.

The Connecticut land company set aside Conneaut gore, designated by traets one, two, and three, in township 14 of range 1, and containing five thousand seven hundred and ninety-two aeres, as one of the equalizing tracts. and cut up into parcels and attached to inferior townships of land other gores for the purpose of making each of these latter equal to an average township. No. 13 of the first range was itself selected as one of these average townships, the whole number thus selected being eight. Uriel Holmes, Jr., Benjamin Talmage, Frederick Walcott, and Roger Skinner, became the proprietors of 13-1, when the land company made partition in 1798, and Ezra Wadsworth and Lemuel Storrs of the greater portion of the gore.

The name Conneaut, it is said, was given to the beautiful stream that bears its name by a tribe of Sencca Indians, and signifies "river of many fish." The banks of this river had long been the favorite resort of not only the red man of the forest but of a prehistoric people, who, without doubt, dwelt here in the remote past. The mumuber and character of the mounds and burying-places. the exhumation of bodies from their ancient cemeteries, disclosing the fact that their

bones belonged to a race of larger size than any known Indian tribe, are proofs of the faet that here in this delightful locality there lived, in the unknown past, a numerous people, and different from any Indian tribes of which the white man possesses any knowledge. There is no other spot in the county, and probably but few others anywhere, that abounds in such striking proofs of the existence of a powerful and populous people. Its inviting character, the advantages which it possesses in many ways, were known to those rude children of the forest; and here along the banks of the " river of many fish" did they delight to live, and who can tell what happiness was theirs ? In the woodlands was plenty of game; in the stream an abundance of fish ; the rich alluvium of the lands in the valley yielded generously to their efforts of cultivation ; the birds in the forests sang for thein as sweetly as birds ean sing to-day; the sun shone down upon them as warmly then as now; the clouds opened with as delightful showers; and the bosom of the peaceful lake was as gentle in the summer of those remote years as it is in these warm, quiet summer days of 1878.

The ancient people disappeared, leaving no written reeord which might serve to enlighten us as to who they were, whenee they came, and whither they have gone. Nevertheless they have left abundant proof in their burial-place, situated a little west of the site of the old briek church, and in the character of " Fort Hill" as it is ealled, located on the southeastern bank of the creek and opposite to the present village cemetery, that they did onee exist, and that they were a numerous and powerful people. The ancient burying-grounds occupy an area of about four acres, and appeared to have been accurately surveyed into lots running from north to south, and when first seen presented the appearance of neat and orderly arrangement. When first discovered the spot " was covered with trees not distinguishable from the surrounding forest, except an opening near the eentre, containing a single butternut. The graves were distinguished by slight depressions in the surface of the earth, disposed in straight rows, which, with intervening spaces or valleys, covered the entire area. The number of these graves has been estimated to be between two and three thousand. Aaron Wright, Esq., in 1800, made a careful examination of these depressions, and found them invariably to contain human bones blackened with time, which upon exposure to the air soon crumbled to dust. ' Some of these bones were of unusual

TOWN HALL , CONNEAUT, ASHTABULA CO., O.

155

HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.

size, and evidently belonged to a race allied to giants. Skulls were taken from these mounds, the eavities of which were of sufficient capacity to admit the head of an ordinary man, and jaw-bones that might. be fitted over the face with equal facility. The bones of the upper and lower extremities were of corresponding sizc."

The imagination is pained in endeavoring to penetrate the mystery in which the history of this people is shrouded. That the multitude whose mortal remains people these receptaeles of the dead onee existed, that they were members of the human family, that they died and were buried, is incontrovertible ; but what was their origin, what their language, what their habits, their religion, and their moral, politieal, and social condition,-all this remains an insoluble mystery.

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History of Ashtabula County, Ohio, Part 61

Author: Williams, W. W. (William W.) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : Williams brothers Number of Pages: 458

Author: Williams, W. W. (William W.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Williams brothers
Number of Pages: 458