History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 45

Author: Williams Brothers
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 443

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 45
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 45

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).

The fall of 1814 was marked in the Chardon chronicle by the arrival of Aaron Canfield, his wife, Lydia, and their sons, Platt, Hilen, Orrin, and Cyrus, from Massachusetts. Platt was married, his wife's name was Polly, and they had one son, Aaron B. Aaron was a brother of Norman, with whom he lived for a time on his arrival. He traded his land East for land in Chardon. He soon became like his brother, a man of mark, and died many years ago.

The sons filled well their places, and sleep with their fathers. The Canfields became a power in the town and county, and they and their descendants have ex- ercised a wide influence.

Horace Peck, his wife and sister, his brother-in-law, Lucius Smith, and Smith's sou, Laurin, came with or soon after Aaron Canfield. The rest of Lucius Smith's family came in the spring of 1815, and commenced the settlement of King street, where the Smiths lived and died.

- Joseph Bond must have come over from Bondstown before this arrival, and his :brothers, Stephen and Eli Bond, probably came the next year (1815) from the

same place. Langdon moved into the Jordan house, as Mr. C. calls it, by the Cyrus Canfield spring, the first built in Chardon. The spring was a famous " watering-place" within my own memory. The whole town is underlaid by a mass of freestone, which crops out on two or three sides of the hill, and which precluded the sinking of wells by any means known at that day. The first and for many years the only one was by the old Canfield tavern, sunk in 1815. An- other was sunkl ater by C. C. Paine, on the Worrallo place, south of the square. An early attempt was made to sink another in the middle of the square, which was renewed from time to time till 1842 or 1843. At the day of which I now write, and for later years the spring referred to was the common supply of the village, until the one down Water street, by the old carriage-shop, divided with it the village custom.

Langdon was a miller, and went over and built a saw-mill near the Cadwell place, and thus became a benefactor to the dwellers in the woods. Peck went out on to the King street, before, or at about the same time the Smiths did. John Roper and his wife came with Langdon. They brought a family of four children. One of the daughters became the wife of Nathaniel H. Parks, already a resident of Bondstown (Hambden), one of the earliest and well-known women of the village. The Ropers went into the Jordan house. In 1818, Roper built a grist- and saw-mill in the northeast part of the township, on Big creek, the tributary of the Chagrin,-the first grist-mill in Chardon, an era in all new settlements.

As stated, the Smiths built over in the west woods. One day, in their early sojourn, a son fifteen years old wandered away into the wilderness. When missed, search was made and he was not found. The next spring a lock of hair, a shred of clothing, a button or two, fixed the identity and revealed his fate,-a prey, living or dead, to the gangs of wolves which infested the forests, and for years made the nights hideous with their howlings.

Timothy B. Robinson prospected Chardon in 1812, and became a settler in 1817. The spring of 1815 saw an important accession in the Kings, Zadock and George, accompanied by Samuel and Edward Collins. Zadock's wife, Fanny, was a sister of the Collinses. They brought two boys, Granger and Roderick. The elder died October 7, 1815, and is supposed by some to have been the first child that died in Chardon. They settled on the street which took their name. Mr. King was an honored man. His son William, born in 1816, was long a well- known physician of Chardon.

George King married-as was Samuel Collins-the evening before leaving the East, brought his wife, Ann, with him, and settled near his brother Zadock ; lived a long and prosperous life. The wife of Samuel Collins was a sister of the Kings, near whom he settled. Edward went to Burton. Of the sons of Samuel one is J. W. Collins, of Bainbridge; a man who has filled public stations with credit. In 1816 or '17, John King, father of Zadock and George, came on aud settled near the sons, who, with their families and kin, made an important group in the future current of the township history.

Nathaniel H. Parks, from Suffield, Connecticut, reached Chardon in 1815, and first settled and lived some time in Hambden, where he set up a carding-machine and voted in 1817. He also set up a carding-machine, driven by horse-power in the flesh, at the northeast corner of Chardon square, in 1820 or '21. Levi Edson must have come as early as 1815, as near as I have ascertained.

Ariel Burton visited Chardon in that year, and became a settler in 1816, accompanied by his brother Otis. Roswell Eaton, known as Captain Eaton, and Sally, his wife, came with them, as did Simon Gager, who went on to Claridon, near Reuben Hall's. Zadock Benton came in June of the same year. The Ben- tons began as soon as they came to clear land where they planted themselves, north of the village. It is said they lived in a house Ariel purchased of John Hunt the fall before,-the first mention made of him. He seems to have been the first blacksmith, and came in 1813 or '14. The year following, Zadock Benton, Sr., his wife, Lydia, with their remaining children, Orrin, Elihu, Lydia, and Nancy, with them also Warren Benton, a relative, who all became inhabitants of the township. The Bentons formed another strong and important group of citizens. I am informed that of the original settlers, Orrin, living in the village, at the age of ninety-one, is the only survivor. His son is a proprietor of the well-known Chardon House, while many of the surviving descendants are widely scattered.

In .1816, Benjamin Rider and his son Crosby arrived, followed by the residue of the family, his wife, Benjamin, Jr., Rufus, Isaiah, Samuel, and daughters, Hannah and Lucy. Many amusing anecdotes are related of the simplicity of the senior, a pious deacon of the Baptist church, of which the family were stanch pillars, and in which Rufus and Isaiah became ministering elders.

Eleazar Paine must have become a resident of Chardon soon after the county- seat was located. He was later a leading merchant of the county ; filled important places; married a daughter of the late Judge Noah Hoyt; was the father of Gen- 'eral Halbert E., George E., James, und Caroline Paine.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

Thomas Metcalf, from Enfield, Connecticut, settled in Chardon in June, 1817. He came with Samuel Smith's family, accompanied by his sister, Mrs. Converse. Thomas, after a year's labor for Smith, purchased a farm at the centre, and must have been about the first who broke the boundless " contiguity of shade" in that region. He married Paulina Beard, of Burton, in 1827. Still resides in the village, honored and esteemed. His father followed him three years later, with the rest of the family.

Samuel Smith married an elder sister of Thomas Metcalf, purchased a farm north of the " Big Creek," where he built and kept a well-known tavern. Later, he removed to the village, and, while he lived, kept the stone tavern built by his brother-in-law, Dr. Asa Metcalf. His son Comfort, and daughter, Mrs. Rexford (formerly Mrs. Randall), live in the village. The Cloughs, Jared, Ambrose, and Chester, came about the same time, and settled in the same neighborhood, with Thomas Metcalf.

A Mr. Hurlburt, a young lawyer, and relative of Captain Paine, was, at an early day, a resident of Chardon. He practiced and wrote in the clerk's office, of which Mr. Paine was chief, who, in addition, was recorder, auditor, and post- master.

Later, Daniel H. Haws came in, had an office in the little brick court-house, rented land, planted broom-corn, migrated to Cincinnati, became a ginger-bread peddler in the streets, beat General Harrison for the legislature, procured a di- vorce for a wealthy young lady, married her, and died with the first visitation of the cholera.

In the fall of 1816, Dr. George Emery located in Chardon, of whom I find nothing.

Dr. Denton came in 1820.

Dr. Justin Scott was an early resident of Chardon. He built the old Hoyt House, now owned by E. V. Canfield. These were succeeded by Drs. Perram and Hamilton.

James Bronson, the first shoemaker, came in 1814, from Connecticut; his wife, Hannah, came in 1815. Later came his sister, afterwards the wife of Samuel Magonigle, a carpenter, and J. P., who came in 1824 or 1825. This venerable couple still reside in the village.

Jonathan Bestor came in 1814; moved into the Hoyt court-house, as it came to be called, and built a log house on the site of the house of his son Jonathan, and near the present residence of Daniel, another son.

In 1815 or 1816, came the Sawins, and settled on King street.

The Hoyts (Judge Noah Hoyt), from New York, must have come in 1820 or 1821 ; and Sylvester N. in 1824,-a conspicuous man, who held county offices. His sisters-one became Mrs. Eleazer Paine, one Mrs. Dr. Hamilton, and the third, Mrs. Ira Webster-all deceased, as are the parents.

David T. Bruce, a man of large influence and widely known, came into Madi- son in 1820; thence removed to Newbury in 1821, and became a resident in Chardon in 1825.

Ralph Cowles, son of Judge Asa Cowles, became a resident of Chardon in 1820, or soon after .. He married a daughter of Lyman Benton, of Burton ; re- moved to Cleveland after a long, useful residence in Chardon ; leaving a son in Cleveland, and a daughter, Mrs. Homer Goodwin, who lives in Sandusky.

John O. Granger came early ; married a daughter of Judge Seth Phelps; was a man of much enterprise, and died many years ago.

Simeon Corbin and Julius C. Sheldon set up the first store in 1816, on the east side of the square, and stood charged on the tax duplicate of 1817 with ninety cents tax. Corbin built the first framed house in town, now a part of the residence of Mrs. C. A. Bisbee.

Samuel Squire was an early settler, and is said to have established himself down South Hambden street, 1823. Was once treasurer of the county, and a merchant. His son Samuel and family now reside in Oberlin.

Salmon Carver, Horace Hossford, and the Sawins came in 1817 or 1818.

1815 was signalized by the first wedding in Chardon, when Martin Langdon and Phebe Sanger were joined in wedlock by Esquire Hosea King, of Hambden ; and we have had first births and deaths, and other first things. Very many persons, many of worth, some of note, and a few of distinction, before and largely since the dates of our last arrivals, settled or were born in the limits of Chardon. Some of them will have mention hereafter in other connection. Sketches of many will be added. Chardon is well peopled. Why should I attempt to further note these disconnecting entrances on a stage where I cannot attend the actors ? I can give no details of individual labor, adventure, suffering, or enterprise, out of which alone can spring interest and sympathy. Genius itself has no power to impart life, give color and action to this disconnected record of the mere arrival of the settlers to which space limits me. I leave this planting of the pioneers in these forests, on the day of their arrival, to note somewhat their actions in mechanical and commercial pursuits, as individuals or in association ; their civil

organization for political purposes and the cause of education ; their dealing with threatened pauperism ; their voluntary association for religious worship, the ad- vancement of morality, for benevolent objects, social culture, or general progress.

ORGANIZATION.

In 1812 Chardon became a part of Hambden township. I find no note of the severance. Pursuant to order of the county commissioners, the first township election was held in the court-house, on the first day (Monday) of April, 1816.

The record is before me, in the hand of Edward Paine, clerk of the township. Aaron Canfield was chairman ; Norman Canfield, Chrisopher Langdon, judges of election ; Norman Canfield, Zadock King, Stephen Bond, trustees ; Norman Can- field, John Roper, overseers of the poor; George King, Jedediah Sawin, fence- viewers ; Chris. Langdon, lister and appraiser; and John Roper, appraiser ; Jos. Bond, Jr., Chris. Langdon, and Geo. King, supervisors of highways; Hilen Canfield, constable ; Aaron Canfield, treasurer. I find no poll-book nor names or the number of the voters.

The lister and appraisers performed the duties of the present assessors. The fence-viewers adjudged the sufficiency of fences on complaint, assessed costs of line fences, useful at an early day. A political reformer many years later, after zealous labor, procured the abolition of these then nominal offices, and retired from public life. The name of this benefactor sleeps with the fossil officers.

The overseers of the poor were important functionaries; and I glance through the thick little quarto record, tempted by the beautiful hands of Edward and Eleazar Paine, and others, clerks, to see how they performed their duty, or for any other bit or incident of township history.

I see that Aaron Canfield failing to give bail as treasurer, Nathan Thompson- first mention of him-was appointed treasurer January 10, 1816. It is gratify- ing to know that the supervisors did their duty then. How much road was cut out, or how much corduroy was laid, does not appear. Their places were no sinecures. Their course is approved March 3, 1817. At the election of April, 1817, the name of Calvin Thwing appears as treasurer, as does that of his brother Luther as trustee in 1818. So the Thwings were here early, and were stirring men. I also find Aaron Stebbins one of the five supervisors of that year. Road districts were increasing,-an important feature. In 1819, I find Nathaniel Clark had come on, and was elected fence-viewer, and Clark Bennett, who was made lister ; and Isaac Beebe is announced one of the supervisors. In 1820, David Gray appears as a trustee, and Zenas Warren-Swarthy Zenas-is a fence-viewer. Rodolphus Stebbins is a superintendent of roads. This year, under date of September 1, Lucius Smith and Daniel Hendryck, as overseers of the poor, issued an order to Simeon W. Bently, Stephen Hosmer, Asahel Dodge, and Bill Kenedy, to depart the township forthwith. The alleged cause was feared pauperism, never much encouraged. This order was issued to S. Corbin, who served it on them all promptly. This is all the mention made of these worthies rejected as surplusage. Their names look well enough, except that of Bill Kenedy, about which there is a flavor of disrepute. It would be curious could we trace the after-histories of the " warned out." The constable, we know, went to the dogs early. In 1821, Ezra Baily is a supervisor, as are Elijah Bushnel and Stephen Allen. This same year William Rexford was told to go, but stayed and did well, though warned again. I also find that Simeon Bently was again admonished, and Asahel Dodge, who had evaded the former notice, was likewise reminded of his social status.

Bill K., after all, was the only one who heeded, for, little later, Steve. Hos- mer got it again. He is this time coupled with one Oliver Heath. On the very next page there were two Satterlys found in the woods somewhere, and ordered to go in the same ceremonious way, and not " stand on the order" of their going, and it is to be hoped they did not.

In 1822 the township was divided into eight road districts.

Here I come upon the name of Dr. Evert Denton, one of the most remarkable men of his time, as township clerk. He, too, wrote a beautiful hand. I also find Truman Clark among the supervisors. I see that Rexford recked not, and was again warned ; as was Nelly Hosmer. One is sorry for Nelly. So, also, Zadock, Sybil, Betsey, and Laura Stebbins were directly told they were not wanted. Chardon was particular then. I find Joseph Felton a lister in 1823. Gideon Morgan is treasurer, and Thomas Metcalf became constable. Also Dorus Curtis and William O. Marshall-name of evil-were among the supervisors. This year a road tax was levied, equal to the county rate for the same purpose. In a hasty run along the track of this old record for names of the newly arrived of conse- quence enough to receive the votes of the citizens or warning of the " overseers," one looks in vain for any mention of a justice of the peace. Among the numerous attentions of the overseers one is struck by the names of some of the most con- spicuous men of the county. One is inclined to think that Chardon was full or foolish in the olden times. Among them occurs that of David T. Bruce, who had

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RESIDENCE OF THOMAS METCALF, CHARDON, GEAUGA CO. O

LITH. BY L. H. EVENTS, PHILA, PA.

RESIDENCE OF MRS. E. REXFORD & FORMER RES. OF L.J. RANDALL DECEASED. CHARDON, GEAUGA CO, O.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

this honor from the official hands of Dave Gray and Deacon Ben Rider, June 9, 1825, served on him by Austin Canfield, constable. I turn the lenf on this bit of curious history, and on the other side of the same leaf, in Mr. Bruce's marked hand- writing, I find the record of his election as township clerk. His descendants, among the first and most respected of the county in life, association, and position, can afford to permit this to transpire for the light it throws on the men and incidents of that day.

There lies before me the poll-book of the township election of 1826, by which it appears that forty votes were cast.

I find a list of householders for the year 1829, residents of the five school dis- tricts of the township, in the well-known hand of Ralph Cowles, township clerk, aggregating 133. Of these, No. 1 had 57; No. 2, 24; No. 3, 19; No. 4. 21 ; No. 5, 7; and No. 6,5. I am tempted to transcribe the list for present dwellers in Chardon. Time and the fifteen other townships forbid.

BEGINNINGS.

I have noted most of the arrivals in their order to 1818, and indicated many others to 1825-26, and later. Of the comers, few were men of means ; all began at the rude surface of the tree-covered earth, that common ground of a real and pure democracy, as each must toil or perish, and at the same labor, with the same implements, for the primal thing, subsistence. Like babies, with whom the sole test of the use of a thing is can it be eaten, and so all goes to the mouth, so the toilers of these infant settlements were the subjects of this law of alimentativeness, and the things which could not be eaten, though sighed for, could not be sought. When a whole people are thus engaged wants are primi- tive, and everything is taken at first hand, directly from the earth, the forest, and streams, or from the animals and fish which inhabit them. No middle-man, mechanic, or manufacturer, comes between producer and consumer. Each eats his own, or starves. The man, often with woman's aid, clears the forest, plants and tills, digs or reaps, shears a fleece, or strips off a skin. He and his help- meet weekly prepare, manufacture, and assimilate to their needs, living on the raw, uncultured edges of civilization, and waging relentless war on the common savagery of nature, setting up the machinery of their artificial lives by her ceaseless streams of force and energy, and bending and binding her to their will and use. So these men began here sixty-six years ago; and lo! from the brows of these beautifully-cultured hills, these happy, sheltered homes of this rich, proud, gay, careless people of the second, third, and fourth generations of descend- ants of these scarcely mentioned men, and their unnamed but more helpful, hope- ful wives, and see the wondrous change. I would gather up the items and ele- ments of this marvelous transformation, trace the individual lives and labors of these workers, trace back the forest paths to their cabins, see the woods recede, the huts and hovels give place to the neat, vine-trellised cottage, the trail of blazed trees to the perfected road. See the school-houses rise on the hillsides and the church-spire from the springing village midst ; meet troops of happy, neatly-dressed children on their way to school, with the springing up and incom- ing of all the charities of advanced human society ; mark the change in the in- dustries, note the germs of improvement, and follow them to present completeness ; follow all the advances of the new community along the rugged ways of progress till they grow smooth and bright ; pause as an old toiler falls by the wayside, and mark his resting-place; drop gentle words with tears when in the old time some mother, some tender woman, had sunk under a too-heavy burden ; lay buds and tender sprays on the forgotten graves of children buried under the shadow of what to the mother seemed the dark and awful woods. This is a labor I would gladly undertake with all the beginners of all these townships. If ever done, another hand, on more ample pages, shall do it. It is a life most precious to the few living whose unshod feet trod its rude ways. They still put their sandals reverently off as they turn back to it in memory, for that ground to them is holy ground. Some leaves-faded flowers of that life-would I gladly press between these pages here and there, that some fragrance of a day, a people, a life passed beyond recall, that lingers only in loving memory, might, like the faint odor of violets, flavor this my work.

CHURCHES.

The religious sentiment usually finds expression in advance of effort for mental culture. Unlike Burton, Claridon, and Chester, the early settlers of Chardon seem to have brought no strongly-marked preference for church organization of any sort.

Captain Paine, a man of vigorous, active mentality, had free notions, and I suspect that Norman Canfield was less orthodox than his sons, while David T. Bruce was a Universalist. To establish a church in the face of these men would require no little effort and much grace. Undoubtedly Joseph Badger tried it. Mr. Canfield says that the famous Dow preached several times in his grandfather's

bar-room. A monument marks his grave in beautiful Oak Hill cemetery, at Georgetown, D. C. John Norris and faithful Father Eddy were here early, as was Rev. Luther Humphrey. Ezra Booth, subsequently a convert of Joe Smith's, established a Methodist Episcopal church here in 1818, in which have since labored quite all the itinerant preachers of that efficient but undemocratic branch of Christians who have ridden and preached in northern Ohio since. "Old Billy Brown" held forth early, and peculiarly to the brethren there, and once as late as 1845 or '46.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH ORGANIZATION.

First class formed in September, 1818. Members, Zadoc and Polly Benton, Ariel and Lucinda Benton, Otis and Lydia Benton, David and Esther Gray, Gideon and Ruth Morgan; Rev. Ira Eddy, first minister; Zadoc Benton, first class- leader. Meetings were held in the log court-house until 1835, when a church was erected which cost three thousand dollars; has been rebuilt; is now in good repair; has a fine organ. Total membership, July 1, 1878, one hundred and twenty-three. Average attendance in Sabbath-school, sixty; William Howard is superintendent. Services, Sabbath morning and evening; free pews. Pastor's salary paid by vol- untary contributions. List of pastors from organization to present time : Philip Green, Alfred Bronson, Henry Knapp, E. Taylor, J. Crawford, R. Hopkins, D. Sharp, S. Dunham, J. I. Davis, T. Carr, W. R. Babcock, .J. Scott, L. D. Prosser, C. Brown, J. W. Hill, J. McLeon, J. Winans, T. Jemerson, B. O. and A. Plymp- ton, T. Stubbs, J. K. Halleck, J. Lucock, A. Callender, J. R. Lock, E. J. Kinney, W. Hunter, W. Wining, J. Leslie, J. O. Wood, R. A. Ailsworth, S. Smith, J. L. Holmes, J. Robison, J. Graham, -- Aiken, J. Chandler, A. Rurges, P. Burrows, J. H. Tag, A. Norton, L. W. Ely, M. H. Bettes, - Butler, H. N. Stearns, G. W. Maltby, H. D. Cole, A. Walker, S. C. Freer, T. Guy, William Sampson, T. Radcliff, E. C. Latimer, J. Akers, William Raynolds, H. Kellogg, W. A. Matson, R. Norton, E. R. Knapp, W. H. Wilson, J. D. Norton, C. N. Grant, C. T. Kingsbury, A. Van Camp, J. H. Dewart, W. N. Reno, and R. F. Keeler, the present pastor, now in his second year.

Peter Chardon Brooks had early promised a bell to the first church-edifice erected in Chardon, and when reminded of this promise, he donated the bell for the building above mentioned, in 1834. It was first tolled to announce the death and age of Mrs. Aaron Canfield, December 20, 1834, and in the same solemn tones rendered this service on the death of Zadoc Benton, January 3, 1835. Julian Teeds' hand used to awaken the clanging tones of that instrument, and I remember that once, while up engaged at his favorite labor, he fell in a fit, rolled down the roof to the eaves and dropped to the ground, but survived the fall.

THE BAPTIST CHURCH IN CHARDON .*

The preliminary organization of the regular Baptist church in Chardon was effected on September 1, 1817. The permanent organization was completed on October 1, 1817, the council from the neighboring churches called for the pur- pose consisting of Elder Joseph Call, of Mentor, Deacon Warner Goodale, of Madison, Elder Benjamin Barnes, of Kingsville, Samuel Thompson, and Abram Scott, of Geneva, Elder Azariah Hanks and Benjamin Rider acting for the church.

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 45

Author: Williams Brothers Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages: 443

Author: Williams Brothers
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 443