History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 53

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

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 53
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 53

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* John Ford made his various journeys to and from the Reserve on foot, in time unequaled, unless by Howard, a pioneer of Bainbridge. In the team driven by him and Marimon Cook was a famous mare, "Old Blue," who made seven trips from Connecticut to Ohio and back, returning and ending her long and useful life in Burton, aged thirty-five. She figures largely in the early history of the Carlton family. Loalma Cook, daughter of Deacon Cook, became the wife of Adolphus Carlton, and mother of a large family of boys. They lived two and a half miles southeast of the square, across the Cuyahoga, and " Old Blue" furnished the mother trans- portation to and from her father's house, even when the children numbered five,-with one in her arms, two forward, and two behind,-nud, when the number increased, the rest holding by the tail. She made the trip many times and oft, and always with "Old Blue."

t I had this from the late Eleazar Patchin.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

Carvan, Amos Andrews, and Doctor Erastus Goodwin volunteered for a month's service.

The roll of the Burton soldiers of this brief campaign will be found in the soldiers' record on a previous page of this work. While the men were away, upon an otherwise calm day, came to the people on Cheshire street fearful sounds, up over the tree-tops and hill-side, striking dismay to deserted women and children. Of course it was the approach of the Indians, who would be certain to come with a great noise like that attending the passing away of the apocalyptic heaven and carth. Finally, some of the more adventurous went up to the square for infor- mation, where it was found to come from the reedy marshes of the pellucid Cuya- hoga, where the bull-frogs were celebrating some grand centennial. The same fright, from the same cause, occurred to the few inhabitants of Troy, as related by Mrs. Pike. The soldiers were relieved and returned. The thunders of Perry's battle boomed over Burton hill on that 10th of September, 1813, and finally came news of the result, and Burton, which was then the whole of southern Geauga, was in security. With peace came a few of their old acquaintances, the Indians, trusting to the security of the treaty. Linus Brooks says that Major McFarland, of Bainbridge, and Luther Russell, of Burton, were of the final dis- posers of these. That the encampment on the Cuyahoga was broken up and the Indians killed, there can be little doubt. The names of those engaged in this act of needless and wanton, though natural vengeance, have never transpired with certainty to the public. It was then applauded. Few venture to condemn it now, and I have not called it by its right name.

I do not pursue the early annals of Burton further. The Flemings, old hunt- ers, and one a famous rifle-shot, remain myths to me. Matthew was the famous one. Had been an Indian hunter in Virginia. He built a mill and a still over East, and died at sixty-one. Used to hunt Indians, folk said. I linger for a parting word of some of the early settlers not disposed of, not so full as I wished to make it. All of the first generation have passed away, some early, and a few lingered till recent years. Many moved away and are lost to us. Of the men and women of '98, the Umberfields, the name long since perished. Harry was a hunter, unmarried, and died long ago, in 1838, aged fifty-two. Some of the children of the daughters remain. One, Mrs. Humiston, daughter of Stella Hickox, lives in Burton. . Thomas Umberfield finally built a tavern, the second in Burton, led an active life, and died in 1850, at ninety-six ; Lydia, his wife, 1849, at ninety-three. They were not without much influence on the early for- tunes of Burton.

Isaac Fowler was one of the surveying party as well as a '98 immigrant. He and his family have been mentioned.

Amariah Beard and his sons and daughters are dead. Colonel Beard and his family moved West many years ago.

From the tombstones of some of the pioneers, Mr. W. J. Ford sends me the last inscriptions :

Deacon Cook died August, 1858, at ninety-seven years ; Lola (Lowly), the first wife, in 1812, at forty-seven ; Elizabeth, the second, 1837, at seventy-six ; Loal- ma, the daughter of Deacon Cook, died in 1873, at eighty six ; her husband, Adolphus Carlton, in 1823, at thirty-nine." Of these, A. B. Carlton, Esq., now of Burton, is a son.

John Ford died in 1842, at seventy-nine; Esther, his wife, in 1851, at eighty- three.

Eleazar Hickox died in 1868, at ninety-one; Stella, his wife, in 1837, at fifty- nine. Save Mrs. Henniston, I know of no descendants in Geauga. A nephew, Cutler Hickox, son of Uri, a man of note, lives in Newbury.

Benjamin Johnson, the first justice of the peace, died in 1828, at sixty-seven ; his wife Susannah, in 1843, at seventy-two.

Thaddeus Bradley, in 1840, at eighty-four; and Parnel, his wife, in 1860, at ninety-threc.

Calvin Williams, in 1860, at seventy-four; and Betsey, his wife, the same year and same age,-a striking coincidence.

Eli Hayes, in 1857, at ninety-two; his wife, Lucy, in 1855, at eighty-three. Luther Russell, in 1851, at seventy-seven.

Lyman Benton, in 1845, at seventy-five; and his wife in the old time of 1813, at the early age of thirty-eight.

Matthew Fleming died at sixty-one, and Chloe, his wife, at forty-three; while the father, Nathaniel, died in 1811, at ninety-three. A daughter, Chloe, now Mrs. Root, lives in Claridon,

Dr. Goodwin died in 1869, at eighty-five; his first wife, Dotha, in 1846, at fifty-seven. Of the four sons, none reside in Burton. Little Nabbie Cook, who made that sad, long journey, came to Burton to consecrate its earth with her baby-form, died October, 1806, aged one year and two months.

We have had most of the first things which the reader has noticed, about which the average mind lingers with an enger interest,-a first marriage and

several early and one or two first births. Some things remain to be mentioned. Hayes says that the first death was that of a man called Shannon, drowned while attempting to swim two horses across the west branch of the Cuyahoga ; this was about 1800. He was buried on the east side of the square, near the residence of A. B. Carlton, as were two or three others, whose names are lost.

At an early day a burying-place was donated and set apart on the banks of the east Cuyahoga, near the Simeon Rose farm, where interments were made, and where the dead of Burton still receive sepulture. Many of the pioneers sleep in the north, or Williams, burying-ground. Hayes says the first Burton brick were made in the vicinity of the first burying-place by a man named Lyons and some- body else. Finch built and kept the first tavern as stated, and Umberfield must have kept the second. Peter B. Beals succeeded Finch, since which the house has been changed into the pleasant residence of M. D. Meriam, Esq. C. Pinney kept the old Umberfield tavern for years. Garry Crampton built a new one, and somebody kept in the Hickox house, all in the olden time.

Gideon Finch is thought to have been the first postmaster, and was succeeded by Beals, who retained the office long after the failure of his eyesight, when Peter Hitchcock, Jr., used to help him make up his returns.

If there is doubt about the first death, it is thought that the first regular coffin was made by John Ford and Asa Wilmot, on their first visit in 1804. It was for an Indian woman, who died in the camp down south of the square, and all the settlers were at the funeral.

The first carriage-makers were Augustus Rose, son of Simeon and Lucius Chat- field. Later came the extensive shops and works of the Carlton brothers, sons of Adolphus and Loalma.

Following Cleveland as merchants came Hickox and Peter B. Beals, Almon and Hiram Clark, James Converse, Jacob Vandeuzer, Noah Hall, James Peffers, George Boughton, Richard Beach, and other merchants, most of whom acquired a large competence. These were of a former time.

The first tailor was William Neal, a Manxman.

Justin Bradley was the first hatter, followed long after by Doolittle.

The first grist- and saw-mills were Beard's. The second grist-mill was Matthew Fleming's, and with this he run the first still. The third grist-mill was Robert Edson's, who ran with it the third still, and later the fourth saw-mill. James Gil- more built the fourth grist-mill, and later the fifth saw-mill. Selah Bradly built the second saw-mill and second still, and Calvin Williams the third saw-mill. A man by the name of Stull had a saw-mill in Burton at an carly day, and somebody thinks of a fourth still up north somewhere at the same time.

Mills now occupy all these sites except Fleming's, Bradly's, and Williams',- no stills, but the " still small voice." It is also said that Eli Fowler built a saw mill on lot 50, in 1816.

CHURCHES.

The early leading men who settled Burton were of stout New England ortho- doxy ; and whatever may be said of that faith as a dogma, or its influences on sen- timent, the colonies of the Puritans were found productive of courage, steadiness, enterprise, morality, early and advanced education. They proved the best colo- nizers in the world. On a small scale the same experiment has produced much the same results in the settlement of the Western Reserve townships, as may be seen from these sketches, not prepared with reference to that, nor by one imbued with the faith referred to. Reference has been made to public worship as an early ob- servance by the pioneers of Burton. Hayes says Mr. Badger preached the first sermon, and that the Methodists were among the early laborers there.

A cousin of Lemuel Punderson, an Episcopalian clergyman, preached in the old academy as early as 1808, and Hayes remembers his text. Rev. Dexter Witter* says that the first public worship was at the house of Isaac Clark, east of Beard's mill, and that Mr. Badger preached his first sermon in 1802. Linus Brooks says the first sermon he heard was from the Rev. Mr. Bigalow, a Pres- byterian.

THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.

The Congregational church was organized August 22, 1808, by Rev. Enoch Burt, a missionary, from Connecticut, of this church. The following constituted the first members: Andrew and Lowly Durand, Marimon Cook and Lowly, his wife, Joseph Noyes, Esther Ford, Elizabeth Patchin, and Elizabeth Durand. This list does not include several names one would expect to find there. John Ford and Calvin Williams never had much credit for orthodoxy.

Of this devoted band, Marimon Cook and Joseph Noyes were chosen deacons. Deacon Cook, the survivor of them, was living on the day of the delivery of Mr. Witter's interesting address, but passing from earth on the third day following receives a beautiful tribute from his pastor. On the first Sabbath after the or-

. Commemorative Discourse, 1858.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

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banking. Colonel H. H. Ford became a general partner at that time, and the business has since been carried on without change of name of firm. The firm is well known throughout the country, and does a very large business.

Mr. Boughton married a younger sister of Mrs. Governor Ford.

ALMON B. CARLTON

is one of the active men of the Burton of to-day. He is a son of Adolphus Carl- ton, an early Burton pioneer, who was born in New Hampshire in 1784, and moved to Burton in 1808. December 31, 1809, he married Loalma Cook, who was born in Connecticut, February 24, 1792, and was the daughter of Deacon Marimon Cook, who brought his family to Burton from Cheshire, Connecticut, June 2, 1807.

Adolphus and Loalma Carlton had seven sons,-Elisha, Hiram, Almon B., Asa, Amasa, Marimon, and John,-of these only three are now living,- John, Amasa, and Almon B. September 4, 1823, the father, Adolphus Carlton, died, and Loalma Carlton, thus early bereaved, lived a widow fifty years, dying October 9, 1873.

Almon B. Carlton, third son of Adolphus and Loalma Carlton, was born at Burton, February 19, 1815, and is largely identified with the rise and growth of Burton from the embryo town which the first settlers planted in the wilderness over three-quarters of a century ago. Mr. Carlton shared the rough disadvantages of the youth of that region and time, and grew up among the vicissitudes and hardships incident to life in a new country. He is a representative of the fair average of the men of early birth on the Reserve in enterprise and intelligence. He served a number of years as assessor of internal revenue for his district. He is at present living in Burton, and is highly esteemed among his townsmen. He was married January 9, 1842, and has children.

JOHN A. FORD

was born at Cheshire, Connecticut, September 18, 1798, and died June 23, 1878, at Wilmington, Illinois. Eliza A. Barnes was born at East Haven, Connecticut, March 30, 1804, and died at their residence in Wilmington, Illinois, January 5, 1875. They were married April 1, 1820, and resided in Burton until the fall of 1857; then in Newburg, Cuyahoga county, until the spring of 1860; after that in Wilmington, Will county, Illinois, where both died.

Of these were born the following children :

Esther Lovilla, born May 3, 1826, and died October 31, 1830. Martha Eliza, born February 5, 1829; married to A. L. Tinker, December 31, 1846; lived in Unionville, Ohio, to 1851, and since in Painesville, Ohio.

Third daughter, born May 26, 1831, died in infancy.

Wallace John, born November 21, 1832, in Burton ; married, June 7, 1868, to Mary E. Staples, of Lubec, Washington county, Maine, in the Christian church at that place ; lived in Cleveland, Ohio, Corry and Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and now in Burton.

Emily Lovilla, born in Burton, October 15, 1835; married at home to Dr. Charles B. Lacy, May 22, 1856; lived in Michigan until the summer of 1860, and since in Wilmington, Will county, Illinois.

Altha Esther, born in Burton, September 2, 1837 ; married to O. B. Hoadley, at home in Newburg, February 2, 1860, and lives in Burton.

Elias Alonzo, born in Burton, April 15, 1840; married to Lou. E. Jeffrey at her home in Cleveland, Ohio, April 15, 1863; residing in Cleveland to about 1868, except the year 1867, in Indianapolis, and since in St. Louis, Missouri.

Albert Eugene, born in Burton, August 1, 1842; married, in Wilmington, Illi- nois, August 23, 1867, to Cornelia L. McIntosh, and lived in Columbus, Ohio, until his death, July 6, 1876.

Cyrus Charles, born in Burton, June 24, 1844; married in Wilmington, Illinois. Colonel John A. Ford was the second son of John Ford, Esq., and one of the four colonels of militia produced by the family. He was a man of clear under- standing, well informed, esteemed, had largely the confidence of the community, and quite as popular as his more famous brother, Governor Ford.

ELIAS ALONZO FORD,

second son of John A. and Eliza A. Ford, was educated at Hiram, and taught school, just before the outbreak of the Rebellion, in Missouri.

In the spring of 1861 he assisted in raising a volunteer company in Geauga County for the three months' service, and reported at Chardon with the company, but was too late to be mustered in. He returned to Burton, and raised a company of " militia of the Reserve," under the Ohio State law, and was elected captain. He drilled and kept up the organization until President Lincoln called for three years' men, when he stepped out from the State company, with seven others, and

formed the nucleus around which Company B, " Hitchcock Guards," Forty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was formed.

Mr. Ford drew up the enlistment-roll himself, and was the first to sign it. The company formed, an election of officers was had by calling the roll. Mr. Ford's name being first, he nominated William R. Tolles for captain, W. W. Munn for first lieutenant, and H. W. Johnson for second lieutenant, who were elected, and commissioned by the governor of Ohio. He then took his place in the ranks, but was at once appointed by the three officers to the highest place in their gift,-that of first sergeant. The company went into service in the fall of 1861, and early in 1862 he was promoted to second lieutenant, and soon after to first lieutenant, of the company.

At the battle of Stone River, December 31, 1862, he had command of Com- pany B, Forty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The regiment had been the pivot upon which that day's battle had turned, as they had fought steadily, swinging around face to front on almost every point of the compass during the day. The terrible artillery fight, which began in the afternoon, brought the brigade in range of the enemy's shot and shell, and to save them every regiment had been ordered to a new position. After fighting gloriously, the order came for the Forty- first Ohio to " fall back" and get shelter across the pike. His company rose up in good order, and as his sword waved in the light, and his voice shouted in the roar of that awful cannonade, " Steady on the left !" a minie-ball struck his right shoulder, and, passing through the right lung, was afterwards cut from under the skin of the right breast. Giving the command of his company to the sergeant, he started for the field-hospital, feeling as if a cannon-ball had passed directly through him, but not knowing what the wound was. One of his sergeants, C. P. Bail, seeing that he was likely to fall, being weak from the loss of blood, hurried to him in time to support him across a corn field and to the hospital. The ball being taken out, by Dr. Cleveland, surgeon of the Forty-first, he was removed to the division hospital, and as the surgeons passed round that "New Year's" morning, they whispered to the private soldier at his cot, " He will die." At nine o'clock that morning he was put upon a mattress and into an army-wagon with- out springs with Lieutenant H. P. Wolcott, whose foot had been shot off, and started back to Nashville, where he had begged to go rather than stay and die in the hospital.

For nine miles that day it was a race for life, the horses running from the rebel cavalry that gained the pike and were capturing everything; but the "will of a driver," Charley Stantial, refused to surrender, though the boys in his wagon ordered him to "give up," as they could not longer stand the jar of the terrible race and jolt over the stony road. He finally drove through an artillery cut on the bank of the pike, and, crossing back of a curve, came in the rear of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, where the pursuit ended. Pushing on twenty miles, the oozing blood jolting out from Ford's lung through the wound until the mattress was cov- ered with gore, and until he was so weak he could not whisper, they reached Nashville in the evening, and the two lieutenants were well cared for in the hos- pital. The fearful ride over the stony pike that day so cleared his lung of clotted blood as, without doubt, to save his life. He was the regular army correspondent of the Forty-first to the Cleveland Herald, and from the date of his letter to the Herald, which is before the writer now, it appears that he was able to write on the 20th of January, twenty days after the ride, and on the 21st was started for home on a furlough. His recovery was slow, and his physician certifying that it would be a long time before he would be fit for field duty, he resigned, and was honorably discharged in May, 1863. His lung healed, but, on taking cold, the scar feels tight on the lung, though no serious difficulty has been experienced. Colonel Wiley, of the Forty-first, says of him at Stone River, that he " commanded his company with. coolness and steady and cheerful courage, until disabled by a wound in the body." His company passed resolutions complimentary of his service as a soldier and officer, and forwarded them to the press for publication at the time of his discharge.

April 15, 1863, he was married to Miss Lucy J. Jeffery, of Cleveland ; was agent in the Union ticket-office in Cleveland one year, and at Union depot six months. His abilities were recognized by the superintendent of the Cleveland, Cincinnati and Chicago railroad, and he was employed as general western pas- senger agent of the road; was promoted to general passenger agent of the Belle- fontaine railway the fall of 1867, with an office at Indianapolis. On consolidation with the Cleveland, Cincinnati and Chicago road he was made general passenger agent of the whole line. May 15, 1871, he was promoted to general passenger and ticket agent of the Missouri Pacific railroad at St. Louis and salary raised; was with that company until September, 1876, when he was offered a better po- sition and pay, which he accepted, and was made general passenger and ticket agent of the St. Louis and Iron Mountain railroad, controlling the passenger de- partment of six hundred and eighty-four miles of railway, where he now is. Great energy and executive ability, with steady perseverance, have given him success.

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LITH. BY L. N. EVERTS, PHILADELPHIA

RESIDENCE of A. M. BLACK , HAMBDEN TE, GEAUGA CO., O.

HAMBDEN TOWNSHIP .*

SITUATION.

HAMBDEN was one of the first settled townships in the county. It is No. 9 of the seventh range, by the original survey of the Western Reserve containing fourteen thousand three hundred and twenty-three acres. Its surface is pleasantly undulating, giving many fine and some picturesque views. While it has few streams large enough for water-power, and none of considerable size, it abounds in living springs, and few farms are without a constant supply of water.

The soil is a clayey loam, intermixed slightly with sand ; strong, better adapted to the smaller grains and grass. The township was originally purchased by Oliver Phelps, of Suffield, Connecticut, in 1798. In February, 1801, he transferred twelve thousand acres to Dr. Solomon Bond, of Connecticut, after whom the township was first named Bondstown. It was changed to Hambden by a vote of the people in 1820 or 1821. The b was inserted to distinguish it from Hamden, in another part of the State. Bond's purchase covered all except a tract a mile wide, previously sold to one Parker, and hence the Bond and Parker tracts.

SETTLEMENT.

In 1801 the township was part of the unbroken forest in possession of the Indians and wild animals. When Dr. Bond visited it, to look after his purchase, he seems to have remained on it some time, and is said to have built a shanty on the present site of the house of Philo Pease, near the southwest corner, which he occupied,-seldom seeing a white man, " milking his cow into a bottle, and baking his bread on a chip." Where he got his cow, or whence he derived the elements of his bread, we are not advised.

The years 1802 and 1803 saw eight or nine families within the limits of Hambden. The names of these settlers are given as Shadrack Ruark, James Rawlins, Joseph Bond, Jas. Bond, Jr., Thos. Evans, Thos. Evans, Jr., Wm. Evans, Steph. Bond, and Andrew Cooley,-all with families, except Steph. Bond. The Bonds commenced near Sisson's Corners, on lot 6; Ruark, on 24, near the spring, north of H. Gardner's house, and is said to have chopped down the first tree for the purpose of improvement; the Evanses, on lot 7; and Cooley planted himself on the east side of the public square, on lot 18, near Mrs. Gest's. Some of these-Ruark, Rawlins, and the Evanses-became dissatisfied with the o- cality, and moved away not long after their arrival.

In those days the only highway in Hambden was the " girdled road" crossing the southwest corner, leading from the mouth of Grand river southeasterly to the Ohio river, laid out by Thomas Sheldon in 1798, but by whom the trees were girdled I am not told. In 1804-5, the State road from Painesville south was run and chopped out, and wagons and sleds were able to pass over it,-an important event. The spring of 1808 was an important one to the infant community. John Quiggle, Stephen Higby, John Brown, Alexander Brown, Abednego Davis, and Robert Cummings, with their families, came in ; and one may imagine the joy these accessions gave, when every arrival was an event, and the erection of a new cabin an occasion of public rejoicing. These were followed in July by John Elliott and Ichabod Pomeroy and their families, accompanied by Chester Elliott, an unmarried man. In 1808 the entire population numbered about seventy, and my informant names and mentions the more prominent of them in this manner : Joseph Bond, an honest old farmer from Massachusetts; James Bond, Jr., a farmer from New York; Norman Canfield, a stirring man of business capacity, and elected justice of the peace in 1812, while Bondstown formed a part of the civil township of Painesville, which it did till 1819, with much other territory. I am told that Canfield came as early as 1804.

Stephen Higby added the calling of miller to that of farmer. He became a benefactor, and built a saw- and grist-mill just across the south line of Hambden, in Clardon. Quiggle was distinguished as a good farmer,-a somewhat rare char- acter in those wooden days, ere land grew barren and manure was discovered. After one or two removals he built on lot 9, where he lived, rounded, and ended an honored life at ninety-one. John Elliott was a farmer from Easthampton, Massachusetts. Ichabod Pomeroy seems to have been a man of mark, useful in his day and time; was the first man who honored his religion by public prayer, and performed the first public worship. He sometimes officiated on sad or solemn

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 53

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

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