USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99
23
HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
banks of Seneca river. It happened that at this period there resided among the Erics a Seneca woman, who in early life had been taken prisoner, and had married a husband of the Erie tribe. He died and left her a widow without children, a stranger among strangers. Hearing the terrible note of preparation for a bloody onslaught upon her kindred and friends, she formed the resolution of apprising them of their danger. As soon as night set in, taking the course of the Niagara river, she traveled all night, and early next morning reached the shore of Lake Ontario. She jumped into a canoe, which she found fastened to a tree, and boldly pushed into the open lake. Coasting down the lake, she arrived at the mouth of the Os- wego river in the night, where a large settlement of the nation resided. She directed her steps to the house of the head chief, and disclosed the object of her journey. She was secreted by the chief, and runners were dispatched to all the tribes, summoning them immediately to meet in council, which was held in Onondaga Hollow.
When all were convened the chief arose, and, in the most solemn manner, re- hearsed a vision, in which he said that a beautiful bird appeared to him and told him that a great party of the Eries was preparing to make a secret and sudden descent upon them to destroy them, and that nothing could save them but an im- mediate rally of all the warriors of the Five Nations, to meet the enemy before they should be able to strike the blow. These solemn announcements were heard in breathless silence. When the chief had finished and sat down, there arose one immense yell of menacing madness. The earth shook when the mighty mass brandished high in the air their war-clubs, and stamped the ground like furious beasts.
No time was lost. A body of five thousand warriors was organized, and a corps of reserve, consisting of one thousand young men who had never been in battle. The bravest chiefs of all the tribes were put in command, and spies immediately sent out in search of the enemy, the whole body taking up their line of march in the direction whence they expected the attack.
The advance of the party was continued several days, passing through, succes- sively, the settlements of their friends, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Sen- ecas ; but they had scarcely passed the last wigwam, now the fort of Ca-an-du-gua (Canandaigua) lake, when the scouts brought in intelligence of the advance of the Eries, who had already crossed the Ce-nis-sc-u (Genesee) river in great force. The Eries had not the slightest intimation of the approach of their enemics. They relied on the secrecy and celerity of their movements to surprise and subdue the Senecas almost without resistance.
The two parties met at a point about half-way between the foot of Canandaigua lake, on the Genesee river, and near the outlet of two small lakes, near the foot of one of which (Honeoye) the battle was fougbt. When the two parties came in sight of each other the outlet of the lake only intervened between them.
The entire force of the five confederate tribes was not in view of the Eries. The reserve corps of one thousand young men had not been allowed to advance in sight of the enemy. Nothing could resist the impetuosity of the Eries at the first sight of an opposing force on the other side of the stream. They rushed through it and fell upon them with tremendous fury. The undaunted courage and determined bravery of the Iroquois could not avail against such a terrible onslaught, and they were compelled to yield the ground on the bend of the stream. The whole force of the combined tribes, except the corps of the reserve, now became engaged. They fought hand to hand and foot to foot. The battle raged horribly. No quarter was asked or given on either side.
As the fight thickened and became more desperate, the Eries, for the first time, became sensible of their true situation. What they had long anticipated had become a fearful reality. Their enemies had combined for their destruction, and they now found themselves engaged, suddenly and unexpectedly, in a struggle not only involving the glory, but perhaps the very existence of their nation. They were proud, and had hitherto been victorious over all their enemies. Their superiority was felt and acknowledged by all the tribes. They knew how to con- quer, but not to yield. All these considerations flashed upon the minds of the bold Eries, and nerved every arm with almost superhuman power. On the other hand, the united forces of the weaker tribes, now made strong by union, fired with a spirit of emulation, excited to the highest pitch among the warriors of the dif- ferent tribes, brought for the first time to act in concert, inspired with zeal and confidence by the counsels of the wisest chiefs, and led by the most experienced warriors of all the tribes, the Iroquois were invincible.
Though staggered by the first desperate rush of their opponents they rallied at once, and stood their ground. And now the din of battle rises higher; the war- club, the tomahawk, the scalping-knife, wielded by herculean hands, do terrible deeds of death. During the hottest of the battle, which was fierce and long, the corps of reserve, consisting of a thousand young men, were, by a skillful move- ment under their experienced chief, placed in the rear of the Eries, on the oppo- site side of the stream in ambush.
The Eries had been driven seven times across the stream, and had as often regained their ground ; but the eighth time, at a given signal from their chief, the corps of young warriors in ambush rushed upon the almost exhausted Eries with a tremendous yell, and at once decided the fortunes of the day. Hundreds, disdaining to fly, were struck down by the war-clubs of the vigorous young warriors, whose thirst for the blood of the enemy knew no bounds. A few of the vanquished Eries escaped to carry the news of the terrible overthrow to their wives and children and old men that remained at home. But the victors did not allow them a moment's repose, but pursued them in their flight, killing all who fell into their hands.
The pursuit was continued for many weeks, and it was five months before the victorious party of the Five Nations returned to their friends to join in celebrat- ing the victory over their last and most powerful enemy,-the Eries.
Tradition adds that many years after a powerful war-party of the descendants of the Eries came from beyond the Mississippi, ascended the Ohio, crossed the country, and attacked the Senecas, who had settled in the seat of their fathers at Tushuway. A great battle was fought near the site of the Indian mission-house, in which the Eries were again defeated, and slain to a man. Their bones lie bleaching in the sun to the present day,-a monument at once of the indomitable courage of the terrible Eries and of their brave conquerors, the Scnecas.
ABSTRACT OF TREATIES CONVEYING LANDS.
Date of the Treaty.
Where made, and by whom.
Summary of the Grants.
1713.
Utrecht. England, France, and France cedes to England Bay of Hudson and its
other European powers.
horders, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
1726.
Albany, New York. Iroquois and All the claims of the Six Nations to lands west
the English.
of Lake Erie, including a strip sixty miles wide along the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie fromu Oswego river to the Cuyahoga.
1744. Lancaster, Pa. Same parties as ahove.
1752.
At Logstown, on the Ohio. Same parties as above and western Indians.
All the lands of the Iroquois that are or here- after may be within the colony of Virginia. Confirm the treaty of Lancaster, and consent to settlements south of the Ohio river.
1763. Paris. Eugland and Portugal France cedes to England islands in the West
on the one side, and France and Spain on the other.
Indies ; the Floridas ; the eastern half of the valley of the Mississippi ; all Canada ; Acadia ; and Cape Breton and its independent islands.
1783. Paris. England and the United England cedes to the United States the territory
States.
in North America lying south of the chain of lakes and cast of the Mississippi.
1784 Fort Stanwix, New York. The The Iroquois code to the United States all their Iroquois and the United States. claims west of Pennsylvania.
1785 ..
Fort McIntosh, at the mouth of The Indians cede all their claims east and south
Big Beaver. The United States and the Chippewas, Delawares, Ottawas, and Wyandots.
of the Cuyahoga, and the portage hetween it and the Tuscarawas to Fort Laurens ( Bolivar) ; thence to Laramie's Fort (northwest part of Shelby county); thence along the Portage path to the St. Mary's river, and down it to the Omee or Maumee river, and the lake-shore to the Cuyahoga.
1786 ..... Fort Finney, near the mouth of These Indians did not own the land occupied hy the Great Miami. The United States and the Shawnees. them on the Scioto, and arc allotted a tract on the heads of the two Miamis and the Wahash, west of the Chippewas, Delawares, and Wyan- dots.
1789 ...... At Fort Harmar. The Iroquois Treaty of Fort Stanwix confirmed by the Iroquois.
Treaty of Fort McIntosh confirmed by the western trihes,-the Sauks and Pottawattomies assenting.
1795
At Fort Greenville. United States with twelve tribes,- Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, Mi- amis, Kickapoos, Piankashaws, and Kaskaskias.
1796 .. At Buffalo. The Senecas and the The Senceas, represented by Brant, cede the Connecticut Land Company.
1805
At Fort Industry, on the Maumec. The United States and western trihes.
1807 ... At Detroit. The United States and western tribes.
1808 Brownstown, Michigan.
1815 ......
Springwells, near Detroit.
1817 ...... At the rapids of the Maumce.
1818.
At St. Mary's.
Connecticut Land Company their rights east of the Cuyahoga.
The Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnees, Munsees, and Pottawattomies relin- quish all lands west of the Cuyahoga as far west as the west line of the Western Reserve, and south of the line from Fort Laurens to Laramic's fort.
The Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots, and Potta- wattomies cede all that part of Ohio north of the Maumee river, with part of Michigan.
The same parties and the Shawnees grant a tract two miles wide, from the west line of the Re- serve to the rapids of the Maumee, for the purpose of a road through the Black swamp. The Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattomies, Wyan- dots, Delawares, Senecas, Shawnees, and Mi- amis, who had engaged on the British side in the War of 1812, confirm the treaties of Fort McIntosh and Greenville.
The Wyandots cede their lands west of the line of 1805, as far as Laramie's and the St. Mary's river and north of the Maumee. The Potta- wattomies, Chippewas, and Ottawas cede the territory west of the Detroit line of 1807 and north of the Maumee.
The Miamis surrender the remaining Indian ter- ritory in the north of the Greenville line, and west of the St. Mary's river.
6
and western tribes and the United States.
Boundary of Fort McIntosh and of Fort Harmar confirmed, and extended to Fort Recovery and the mouth of the Kentucky river.
24
HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
CHAPTER VIIL.
THE PARENT STATE.
ASHTABULA COUNTY may well be considered the legithuate offspring of Con- nectient. At least two-thirds of the pioneer settlers of the different townships were born within the boundaries of that State. Full one-half of her population of to-day can trace their lineage to the enlightened people who first began to dwell in the beautiful and fertile valley of the Connectieut. The names of the townships and towns attest the affection of the pioneers of Ashtabula for the parent State. It was but natural that the new colony should bear the impress of the Con- necticut character. It is pertinent, then, to inquire what this character was like, and what manner of people were they whose kindred peopled this portion of the Reserve, and made the wilderness to blossom as the rose.
As early as 1630 the valley of the Connectieut had become an object of desire. It soon became the object of dispute. The Dutch were the first to explore the river and to oeenpy the country ; but the people of Massachusetts and New Plymouth, having informed themselves of the advantages the region offered to new settlements, were eager to transplant thither themselves and their estates. A company of sixty, in the last days of October, 1635, carried their desire into execution. Settlements were begun at Hartford and Windsor and Weathersfield. Early in the following year a body of about one hundred persons, led by Thomas Hoover, " the light of the western churches," began a pilgrimage to " the delight- ful banks" of the Connecticut. The emigrants were from among the most valued citizens, the earliest settlers, and the oldest churches of the Bay. Many of them had been accustomed to affluence and the case of European life. Among them was Rodger Ludlow, unsurpassed in his knowledge of law and the rights of man- kind, and John Ilaynes, who had been for one year governor of the common- wealth of Massachusetts, and Thomas Hooker, famed as " a son of thunder," and had no rival in foree of character, liberality of spirit, and soundness of judgment. The "Duteli intruders," as they were called, no longer indulging the hope of dispossessing their more powerful neighbors, gradually retired to more congenial habitations. The vigor and courage which the infant colony displayed in the war with the Pequods-the first Indian war in New England-struek terror to the savages and secured a long period of peace.
The constitution which they adopted in January, 1639, was of unexampled liber- ality and wisely adapted to the governmental needs of the colony. The people chose their own magistrates, installed them, and obeyed them. "The foundation of authority," said the admirable Hooker, "is laid in the free consent of the people, to whom the choice of the public magistrates belongs by God's own allow- ance. They who have power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is their power, also, to set the bounds and limitations of the power and place into which they call them. Let the judge do according to the sentence of the law. Seek the law at his mouth." " In matters of greater consequence, which coneeru the good, a general couneil, chosen by all, to transaet businesses which concern all, I cou- ceive, under favor, most suitable to rule and most safe for relief of the whole. This was the practice of the Jewish church, and the approved experience of the best-ordered states."
From this seed sprang the constitution of Connecticut, the first of writteu Americau constitutions framed by the people for the people. The people were sovereign. All power was to proceed from them. From the beginning Con- uectieut was constituted a republie. We quote the following eloqueut sentences from the pen of the historian Baneroft, to whom we are indebted for the facts herein given : " More than two centuries have elapsed ; the world has been made wiser by the most varied experience; political institutious have become the theme on which the most powerful and cultivated minds have been employed, and so many constitutions framed or reformed, stifled or subverted, that memory may despair of a complete catalogue ; but the people of Connecticut have found no reason to deviate essentially from the frame of government established by their fathers. Equal laws were the basis of their commonwealth, and therefore its foundations were lasting. These unpretending emigrants inveuted au admirable system, for they were near to nature, listened willingly to her voice, and easily copied her forms. No ancient usages, no hereditary differences of rank, no es- tablished interests impeded the application of the principles of justice. Freedom springs spontaneously into life; the artificial distinctions of society require een- turies to ripen. History has ever celebrated the heroes who have won laurels in scenes of carnage. Ilas it no place for the founders of states, the wise legislators who struck the rock in the wilderness, so that the waters of liberty gushed forth in eopious and perennial fountains ?"
The government was exercised by meu who sought not their own gain or ad- vancement, but considered with eare the rights of the people. While the magis- trates were often men of liberal endowments, and gifts of learning and genius
were valued, the commonwealth was content with virtue and uprightness of intention.
Education was cherished, and there were common schools from the first. Re- ligious knowledge was carried to the highest degree of refinement and applied to moral dnties. They were interested in questions concerning the nature of God and of the soul. Their existence was one of unsurpassed tranquillity. There was mutual trust and a nniversal sense of security. " The best house required no fastening but a latchi, lifted by a string." The widest latitude was given to forms of belief. and " that heavenly man, John Haynes," would say to Roger Williams, " I think, Mr. Williams, I must now confess to you that the most wise God hath provided and cut out this part of the world as a refuge and receptacle for all sorts of consciences." Connecticut from the first possessed unmixed pop- ular liberty, and the minds of her yeomanry were kept active by the constant exereise of the eleetive franchise. "There was nothing morose in the Connect- icut character." Life was not sombre. Mirth mingled with innocence. Religion itself sometimes wore the garb of gayety. Happiness was enjoyed unconsciously. Inequalities of condition were not numerous. All were thrifty and all were prosperous. The people multiplied along the alluvium of the streams, and sub- dued the more rocky and less inviting fields. The population for a century doubled once in twenty years. "The soil had originally been justly divided, or held as common property in trust for the republie and for new-comers." Dispu- tations were infrequeut, and for a long time there was hardly a lawyer in the land. " When Connectieut emerged into scenes where a new political world was to be created, the rectitude that had ordered the officers of a ueighborhood showed itself iu the field and in couneil." For a century its history was the picture of colonial happiness.
Such was the character of the people whose progeny have spread themselves over the soil of Ashtabula. Both in population and wealth they outrank the parent State at the time of the proposed union of the colonies. In 1678 the population of Connecticut was probably not far from fourteen thousand. In 1877 the population of this small fraction of New Connecticut is two and one-half times as large.
CHAPTER IX.
PIONEER SETTLEMENTS.
A CENTURY of years ago this country was in the midst of a dire conflict with a powerful foe, waged in behalf of freedom and American independence as against the tyranuy of merciless oppressiou. At that time the district bordering the southern shore of the western half of Lake Erie was a dense forest, inhabited by wild animals and a few scattered and feeble bands of Indians. In the settled regions along the Atlantic the vaguest notions were then entertained in regard to the country situated upon the borders of Lake Erie. At about the time of which we speak, in a town in the State of Connecticut, the question was asked iu the presence of a number of intelligent men, what lake lay immediately west of Lake Ontario, and there was uot a person present who could make answer. That there was a body of water here was knowu ; but what name it bore, and what its size, its locality, none were able to explain. It was regarded as a distant, solitary lake, situated far towards the setting sun, and not far removed from the Pacific Oceau. It was believed to be surrounded with dark forests, and its shores infested with dangerous serpeuts and ferocious beasts of prey.
The explorations of the surveyors in 1796 served to dispel many erroneous uotions with which the region was nnjustly regarded, and in faet, the opposite extreme of believing New Connecticut a veritable garden of Eden, whose natural advantages and beauties were uusurpassed; whose soil was of marvelous fertility ; whose forests were magnificent in their beauty, with trees of gigantie growth, amoug which roamed the deer, the elk, and other animals affording food to man ; whose streams of elear water abounded in fish and afforded excellent sites for mills, and whose lake was the most beautiful the eyes of man had ever beheld. Iu short, it was an enchanted region, to remain away from which evineed the greatest folly. Such were the representations of the land company. Iu 1798 the settlers began to arrive. The year 1791 most probably marks the date when the first white man was introduced to the forests of this region, at which time two young men were made prisoners at the defeat of General St. Clair, on the Miami, and were brought by a band of Seneca Indiaus to the banks of the Conneaut. A full account of their captivity, of the release of one of them from death by burning by the intereessiou of an Indian maid, and their final escape from the elutches of the red men, is given in the history of Conneant township. The reader is referred to that history also for a uarrative of the Conneaut hermit,-au individual found
25
HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
residing here in 1796, when the surveyors arrived, and who had probably lived here some three or four years prior to their coming. Mr. Kingsbury's temporary residence at the mouth of the Conneaut, during the winter of 1796-97, is also mentioned in the Conneaut history.
FIRST PERMANENT SETTLERS.
The year 1798 signalizes the arrival of the first permanent colonists within the limits of Ashtabula County. The eastern half of the Reserve had been surveyed, and partition thereof had been made among the members of the Connecticut land company. This latter event took place January 29, 1798. In the preced- ing year a land company was organized in Harpersfield, Delaware county, New York, and called the Old Harpersfield land company. The object of its forma- tion was the purchase of lands in the Connecticut Western Reserve. Its mem- bers originally were Alexander Harper, William McFarland, Joseph Harper, Aaron Wheeler, and Roswald Hotchkiss. Others were subsequently included in it.
In June of the same year thicy entered into a contract with Messrs. Oliver Phelps and Gideon Granger, of the Connecticut land company, whereby they became possessed of six townships of land in New Connecticut, three of which townships were to lic east and three west of the Cuyahoga river. In September following a committee of exploration were sent out, who selected the lands. Number eleven of the fifth range was one of the townships chosen, and here it was decided to begin a settlement. The township was afterwards christened Harpersfield.
On the 7th day of March, 1798, Alexander Harper, Wm. McFarland, and Ezra Gregory, with their families, started from Harpersfield, New York, for what was to be Harpersfield, Ohio. The entire number of these emigrants was twenty- five, as follows : Colonel Alexander Harper and wife; their children, James A. and Wm. A. Harper, Elizabeth and Mary Harper, Alexander Harper, Jr., and Robert Harper ; J. Gleason, a hired man ; Wm. McFarland and wife ; Ephraim Clark ; Parthena Mingus, her son William Mingus, and Benjamin Hartwell, an adopted child ; Mr. Ezra Gregory and wife, and their children, Eli, Jonathan, Anna, Eleanor, Daniel, Thatcher, Betsey, and Ezra.
This eompany embarked in sleighs and came as far as Rome, New York, where they remained until the first of May, and then proceeded in boats to Oswego, and thence to Queenstown, and Fort Erie. Here they found a small vessel which was employed by the government to transport military stores for troops stationed at the west, and being about to sail up the lake the company took passage. Reaching the peninsula on the Canada side, opposite to Presque Isle, or Erie, they were obliged to remain at that point an entire week before they could procure boats to take them forward on their journey. Their landing at the mouth of Cunningham's creek was effected on the 28th day of June. That night they encamped on the shore of the lake, and the next day Mr. Harper, accompanied by the women and children, started on foot, following the township line from the lake, and arrived at the place of his future home about three o'clock in the afternoon, a distance from the shore of the lake of about four and one- half miles. The rest of the company having remained behind, to make sleds whereon to transport their goods, and to cut a road for their passage, arrived later in the evening.
A rude lodge was constructed by driving forked poles into the earth and plaeing upon them other poles, which latter received the bark and branches of trees, and in this wilderness home the whole company dwelt together for about three weeks. At the end of this time they had built for themselves log cabins, and the families separated.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.