History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 58

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

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 58
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 58

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

nity to the government, securing it against loss should the receipts fall below the expenditures, and in the spring of 1827 Chester had a weekly mail. The route was a self-supporting one from the start, and the following January the bond above alluded to was canceled and surrendered to the executors. The Hudson boys and E. O. Lyman, son of Azariah Lyman, then ten years of age, were the earliest mail-carriers, and Dr. Hudson was the first postmaster. A tri-weekly mail was many years subsequently obtained, mainly through the efforts of E. O. Lyman and M. W. Cottrell. The government was induced to discontinue the line south of Chester Cross-roads, through which section there were east and west routes, and to change the northern terminus from Mentor to Willoughby. Mr. Lyman was also efficient in obtaining the daily mail in 1872.

The post-office at Mulberry Corners was established in 1852. Mr. E. O. Lyman was the first incumbent of the office, and has continued in that capacity until the present time, except two years, when C. C. Shaw was postmaster. There was never a grist-mill in Chester. Silas Tanner built the first saw-mill, about 1852, on the site of the Dean mill. Bradley built one in Barnes' neigh- borhood in the eastern part, as did Coats at an earlier day another in the northern part.

There is a steam saw-mill at Mulberry Corners,-the only one in the township,- built in 1850, by M. W. Cottrell. The present owner is C. W. Fessenden. There is in connection with the saw-mill a cider-mill and a feed-mill, with one run of stone. These were added several years afterward.

Little Mountain cheese-factory was built in the spring of 1875 by I. A. Foote, of Chagrin Falls, who sold it to E. F. Shepard, the present owner, in the spring of 1876. Number of cows, four hundred. Daily consumption of milk, about seven thousand six hundred pounds, and makes twenty cheeses, of an average weight of about forty pounds each, and fifty pounds of butter per day.

Union Valley cheese-factory is managed by a stock company, the stockholders being Leverett Barnes, John Gloin, William Martin, Jonah Williams, James Hash, Orrin Barnes, and George Angell, the latter being the superintendent of the business at the factory. Built in 1871. Average number of cows since commencement of business, about two hundred and fifty, and about four thou- sand pounds of milk per day. Make about ten cheeses per day, of thirty-five pounds each.

Old Settlement cheese-factory, established some six years since, and was run at first by a stock company, is now owned by Samuel Turner, who lives in Mun- son, but is carried on by William Sander, who rents it of Turner. The number of cows furnishing milk for this factory is about one hundred ; daily consumption of milk, two thousand five hundred pounds, the produce being six cheeses of thirty-eight pounds each per day ; also makes twenty-five pounds of butter per day.

Silver Creek cheese-factory was established in about the year 1866, by Lucius Bartlett, who, after running the business about seven years, sold to James Key, who sold to the present proprietor, R. L. Neill, in the spring of 1878. Number of cows, about three hundred, furnishing about four thousand eight hundred pounds of milk per day. Manufactures twelve cheeses per day, of nearly forty pounds each, and thirty to thirty-five pounds of butter.

The first store was established by Austin Turner, which was about the year 1830, and at what is now called the Centre. There are two now at the cross- roads, one owned by King & Barber, and the other by Pugsley & Gillmore, and another at Mulberry Corners, by E. O. Lyman. There were several intermedi- ately between the first and present.

TAVERNS.

John Roberts built the first hotel in the township, which was located on the Chilli- cothe road, near the south line of township (date not given). The only tavern at present in the township is that of O. Shattuck, at the cross-roads. Austin Turner opened one at the Centre; at the same time he commenced merchandising there, which was continued till many years after his death.

PHYSICIANS.

Dr. Ira Lyman, physician and surgeon, received his degree at Dartmouth, New Hampshire, and soon after located in Chester.

Dr. Warren H. Gardner, physician and surgeon, came to the cross-roads about three months since from Nottingham, near Cleveland.

POPULATION.

In 1850 the census shows 1103 ; in 1860, 865, an astonishing falling off for ten years; in 1870, 727,-a further diminution of 138; a total of 376 in twenty years. See some observations on this grave matter in the history of Russell.

STATISTICS FOR 1878.

Wheat

224 acres.

3,163 bushels.

Oats ...

555

20,416

Corn .....

460

26,428

Meadow ..

2104

2,099 tons.

Potatoes.

861

8,566 bushels.

Orchards.

200

470

Butter

54,325 pounds.

Cheese.

225,574

Maple-sugar.

21,048

Chester, next to Newbury, has the longest list of suicides, of which Origen Miner furnishes the following account :

Some time about 1850, Elder Thomas B. Stephenson, a worthy minister of the Baptist church of Chester, became deranged, I think, during a fit of sick- ness ; but after he had recovered, his derangement continued, so that he needed watching for some time after; but at length recovered from his derangement so as to preach occasionally. I think it was during the winter of 1851 and 1852 that he committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor .while on his bed.

In the month of August, 1853, Silas Williams, a young man, son of David and Anna Williams, became partially deranged, so that his friends had applied for medical advice in his behalf. Towards the close of the month he cut his throat-I think with a pocket-knife-and died.

It was in the month of November-about 1870-that Mr. Asahel Baker, a man sixty years of age, cut his throat with an axe. He was found some distance from his house. He had shown signs of derangement previous to his death.

I believe it was in September-about 1872-that Elijah W. Scott, a worthy member of the Disciple church, in Chester, cut his throat with a pocket-knife, and was found dead, or nearly so, some distance from his house. He had been subject to seasons of depression of spirits for several years. He was about sixty- five years old.

It was in the winter-I cannot remember the year-that Mr. Edwin Her- rick, of Chester, requested his brother to take him to the lunatic asylum, as he was getting deranged; but his brother thought it was not necessary, and did nothing about it. A few days after he hung himself with a log-chain in his barn.

About two years ago. James Baker, son of Asahel Baker, told his friends that he wanted to see his father. They suspected he was deranged, and watched him as much as possible ; but he hung himself in the barn a few days later.

These were all persons of good moral character, and at least three of them professors of religion.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

LIBBEUS NORTON

was born at Killingworth, Middlesex county, Connecticut, December 1, 1788. In spring of 1812 came to Aurora, Portage county, Ohio, walking the entire dis- tance from Springfield, Massachusetts, and carrying a pack, in twelve days; in the fall of same year returned to Massachusetts, and in the spring of 1813 returned to Aurora ; in fall of that year enlisted as a volunteer in Captain Lusk's company for six months, and spent the following winter and spring at Huron and Lower Sandusky ; in January, 1815, was married to Nancy Gilmore, second daughter of James Gilmore, of Chester. In February, 1816, he moved to Chester, and settled one mile west of Hudson's Corners, on lot thirty-seven, tract three, where he remained until 1870; having lost his wife, sold his farm and went to live with his daughter, Mrs. H. A. Herrick, with whom he resided until his death, which took place December 3, 1873, at the age of eighty-five years and two days. He was a man of great physical power, and peculiarly fitted for a pioneer. A man very much respected for his good common sense; was at an early day elected justice of the peace, in which capacity he served for fifteen years; held other places of trust, all of which he discharged with fidelity, and with credit to himself. A man of large sympathies ; was ever ready to act the part of the good Samaritan. Every person in affliction was his neighbor. He left four daughters surviving him, all of whom were married; the oldest the wife of S. B. Philbrick, Esq., the second the wife of J. E. Stephenson, the third the wife of H. A. Herrick, and the fourth the wife of Wm. Quirk. All but Mrs. Stephenson still reside in Chester.

S. B. PHILBRICK.

Chester has always had a good number of men above the average in ability, in- telligence, and worth. Among the first of these stands S. B. Philbrick, Esq. He was born in Ware, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, in 1800, where he grew up a New England boy, youth, and young man, with the sturdy vigor, intelligence,

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

and granite foundations of character of the better of the race of that birth and rearing. He went to Cleveland in 1826, and from thence to Chester, in 1828, and purchased and settled on lot 35, tract 3, which placed him a little south of the Centre. Here he married Nancy A., a daughter of Libbeus Norton, and began the earnest work of life. J. E. Stephenson also became a son-in-law in this family. Every man soon becomes known and appreciated for his real qualities, good or bad, and fares accordingly. Mr. Philbrick's neighbors and townsmen soon came to know that there was among them a man of quick parts, much sagacity and shrewdness, public spirit, probity and the qualities which mark a man for useful- ness, and they availed themselves of these in the young man, and kept him in some of the more important of the offices much of the time. He has also served as a county commissioner.

He became connected with the Free-will Baptist church, and was a leading man in creating the sentiment of this young and zealous religious body in favor of planting an institution of learning that should secure a purified, progressive form of education. This sentiment he aided largely to organize and embody in the form of action. Many conventions were held, at which he presided ; was the chairman of the active committees, which prepared addresses and issued vig- .orous circulars ; and when finally, in 1843, a Democratic legislature chartered the proposed institution at Chester, and attached to it this purely Democratic condition, that if any pupil of African blood or extraction were received into it, except as a boot-black or washer-woman, then the charter was at once to become void without the useless formality of a judicial proceeding, Mr. Philbrick and his

associates, after the manner of the late lamented Greeley, indulged in some fierce and proper expectoration in the face of this section, and proceeded to organize, and vigorously prosecuted their enterprise without let or hindrance from the Democracy. The institution became widely popular and of great usefulness.

Mr. Philbrick is one of the enlightened and zealous collectors of the items of pioneer history, is the historian of his township for the historical society of the county, and was of great use in furnishing the means for the sketch of Chester in our work. When the historical society refused us the use of its material, and de- clined to return to him his own history for our use, on the ground that it had voted that we should not have it, Mr. Philbrick at once placed his material and data at our disposal, as did the historians of several other of the townships, while some not only withheld theirs, but they and their friends refused to answer questions as to matters within their personal knowledge. One or two of them had secured the military records of their townships, notably in Auburn, and, public though they were, refused us all access to them, and compelled us, at large expense, to go to the State capital to secure what was public property. If imperfections are found in some of our histories, it is not the fault of Mr. Philbrick and many of his enlightened spirit, but this remarkable course should be remembered in explanation of them.

Mr. Philbrick, now at ripe age, in the full possession of mature faculties, the fruits of a large experience, the gathering of extended observation, and enjoying the well-won confidence and the deserved esteem of a large circle of friends and acquaintances, may expect to enjoy many years of a rich and mellowed life.

THOMPSON TOWNSHIP.

THOMPSON is the northeastern township of the county, with Madison and Concord on the north and west, both in Lake County; Ashtabula east and Mont- ville on the south. It is the tenth in range six of the townships of the Western Reserve. Originally, it was surveyed into forty-two parcels or lots, forming six north and south, and seven east and west, and numbered from the southwest corner, going north.

The surface presents a singular formation,-that of a high, undulating table- land, which irregularly breaks away precipitously at what is called " the Ledge," northerly from the centre, and extends, with bends, curves, and angles, in a general direction, the right easterly and southeasterly facing northerly. The brow commands a wide outlook of the country; while from below its ragged, cliffy wall has an imposing appearance. Many caverns and fissures, with nu- merous springs, make interesting features along the bold line of this formation, which wears the appearance of having been a sea-wall, beaten against by waves for countless ages. The ledge, in a country having few striking features, affords points so attractive that they are made places of resort for picnics, excursions, and occasions of gatherings of various kinds. The rock which crops out or breaks here is of the kind called conglomerate, pebbly sandstone, which, with a dip of a few degrees to the southwest, underlies a considerable section of the township. This rock affords excellent building-stone, and several quarries of it have been opened and worked. It is the common freestone of all northeastern Ohio. The surface above this is sandy or gravelly, and is covered with a fine growth of oak and chestnut, which abounds generally in the township. There is more than the usual variety of soils in Thompson, the general character of which is good, and well adapted for either grazing or grain-growing. With no considerable streams, Thompson abounds in fine springs, and small confluents, rising in the northwestern and northeastern sections, find their way to the not remote Grand river. Some also flow from the southwest into the same stream. In the southern central part is a small natural pond, furnishing considerable power by its outlet, another trib- utary of the Indian " Raccoon river."

SETTLEMENT.

We have no real antiquity, but the first year of the century is ancient for us. In the year 1800, Dr. Isaac Palmer, of Connecticut, made his way into the township. He brought with him a wife and daughter; and, unappalled by the savage wildness and solitude of that region, he built his cabin and made his home on lot eleven, in the southwest part, which has now a good many occupants.

At that far-off time a few men were logging and chopping Burton Square : Isaac Thompson was in Middlefield ; there was not a cabin in Painesville, but two or three in Conneaut, Harpersfield, and Austinburg. If one would like to know what manner of man this Dr. Palmer was, who thus took wife and child on to lot eleven, his later neighbors of Concord would say, a curmudgeonly man was he, and a churl, unfitted for nearer community. Why he was called doctor I know not. We are told he cleared about eight acres, and after a few years removed to Con- cord, and planted himself first near " Perkins' camp," but removed to lot four, where he died in time. Nothing is told me of his brave wife, who took such a husband and home ; not even her name, as is the fortune of women. Of that daughter, whose name is also unknown to me, it is said she in time married a man in Con- cord named Balch, which is not much in sound, and that she passed away also. This is all that is to be said of the Palmers, unless we inquire for other younger ones in Concord. Soon after the Palmers' arrival, as the legend of Thompson runs, a man by the name of Davenport went on to lot four, on the west line, and " haggled" over a piece of ground, and went off and left it. This was two miles away from Palmer's, who could hardly have heard his largest trees fall. One is not a bit curious about Davenport. He may not have liked the neighborhood.

Further, it is said that Elisha Miller, of Connecticut, purchased one thousand acres of the Connecticut Land Company in 1801: two hundred acres in the southeast corner, three hundred and sixty from the centre road cast, lot twenty- seven and lot two, in the southern part,-only that don't make quite one thousand acres. In 1807 his son Elisha came on from old Connecticut on horseback, with Orestes K. and Jesse Hawly, who stopped in Austinburg. Young Miller came on to Thompson and took possession of lot two, which adjoined Doctor Palmer's. He did not remain long in the lonely woods, and returned eastward. We are told that no permanent lodging in this " vast wilderness" was made till 1808. Doctor Palmer must have found "his ride" very limited or very extensive, and doubtless went over to Perkins' camp before that date. In June of that year, 1808, we are glad to know that Joseph Bartlett came to stay. His native place was South- ampton, Massachusetts. He traversed the intervening country to Buffalo with ox-teams shod, and the yoke on the " tongue" (pole) worked in breeching of course. At Buffalo the goods were placed in small boats, which were worked up the lake to the mouth of " Cunningham's creek," which empties into the lake near the east line of Madison, and now known as Madison dock. Meantime, the trudging oxen worked their way to the same point. Here the goods were again placed in the wagon, and a way was found to lot four, on the west line of the

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township, where his settlement was made, now occupied by a grandson, Ansel Bartlett. His family at that time consisted of a wife and eight children ; all de- ceased. A daughter, later born, Annette, who became the wife of Peter Trask, and resides in Thompson. With them came Abner Stockwell, a young man, who became a son-in-law in time. The senior Bartletts occupied their new home until their deaths, about 1830.

The year after the arrival of Bartlett, in 1809, came Seth Hulburt and family, -a wife and six children,-all the way from Northampton, Massachusetts. They must have been old acquaintances of the Bartletts, and were welcomed with loud demonstrations of joy, no doubt. They settled first east of the Bartletts, and there was great runnings to and fro between the cabins. Seth, the father, died in 1813. It was a sad time in the Thompson woods. Rev. Jonathan Leslie, of Harpersfield, came through the forest path, one of the few faint trails from Thompson out, and preached a funeral sermon ; and he was laid reverently under the shadow of the forest, near his residence. As others, children and adults, afterwards died in the woods, friends came and laid them by Seth Hulburt, and the spot became sacred to sepulture, was a common burying-place of that day, never desecrated with the foreign name of cemetery. Finally, from neglect and the unfilial feeling of this later generation, this first resting-place of the dead was left to decay, and the tenderer hand of restoring nature has done what she may with her weed, plants, shrubs, and trees to hide from the day the resting-places of the kindred dust that has long passed from the care and memory of the living, -a reproach to the men and women of the Thompson of to-day, who leave the graves of their pioneers to forgetfulness.

In 1811, or about that time, Peter Trask, his wife, and nine children came also from Massachusetts, bought fifty acres from Bartlett, on which they settled. This made a large accession to the infant colony of Thompson. Mrs. Trask died soon after the death of Seth Hulburt, and rests by him in the common oblivion, whence the curious gleaner of the incidents of that far-off time, careless of her name, written on no slab, coldly brings her memory to this hasty page ; one at least, a stranger, grows tender as he lingers over the blank record.

In 1810, Daniel Pomeroy and his wife bid final adieu to the faces of kindred and the cherished hills of old Berkshire, Massachusetts, packed their few neces- saries, and loaded the younger of their six children into an ox-wagon, with a horse in the lead ; extinguished the fires on the old home hearth, closed the door of the deserted house, and started on the long, toilsome journey for the New Con- necticut, as many had, as thousands after them would. Six weeks took them to the then Harpersfield, an early resting-place, where the family remained a year on the Mixer place, now in Madison. During this year the father and two eldest boys took up and began improvements on the farm of the present Peter Trask. Of this hopeful family years and change permit me only to say, that but one re- mains, and she has become Aunt Dolly, Mrs. Howe, near the centre. I run my eye over the fuir map of present Thompson, and note the names of Pomeroys, Bartletts, Trasks, and Hurlberts, and connect them pleasantly with the pioneers. Pomeroy was a name famous at that same time in Hambden ; and especially so in Huntsburg.

Meantime, came the war and its terrors, and the feeble settlements of this far West received few accessions till assured peace. The first emigrant to break the long silence of these years in the Thompson woods was Mark Barnes, who came from Southampton, Massachusetts, with his wife and their six children. With them came a son-in-law, Aretus Clapp. They reached Thompson March 4, 1816. He, too, was an old acquaintance; brought letters and warm greetings from the dear " down country." Kindred, friends, men, and messengers came from remote settlements of emigrants from the Hampton region, for letters, which every later traveler brought, and there were great talkings over of old life and times. Pomo- roy built on lot eleven, where the Palmners had been, and there came to be quite a neighborhood in that part. He is said to have made a good farm there, and died in May, 1831, and lies hidden under the grass and young trees of that bury- ing-ground. Of this blooming family one only remains, Maria, a Mrs. Howe, at the centre. The Barneses came in early March ; a winter journey, with an ox- sled, and a wagon drawn by horses, indicating that they were well to do. They started on the 23d of January of that coldest of years in the Ohio annals, 1816, a year in which snow fell in June.

Mr. Barnes was the first justice of the peace of Thompson. I am not advised of the fortunes of Clapp, but the name, so common in Huntsburg, is found in the Thompson of to-day.

John Atkin, an Englishman, married Sally Miller, of Harpersfield, and in May, 1816, settled on lot twenty-eight, near the centre, buying fifty acres, where he lived out his life, and where his widow remains. He was an American soldier in the war of 1812. In November of the same year came Noah Mosely, from Pittsfield, Mas- sachusetts. He took up lot nineteen, two hundred and forty-six acres, north of the centre, on the north line of the township. He brought with him a wife and

nine children, made a fine farm, lived his life through, and died January 24, 1860. His wife preceded him by nineteen years. Of this family of children three live in Thompson,-Noah, on the old farm ; Elizabeth, widow of A. Breinard; Rox- anna, widow of Darius Tillottson. Mrs. Cyntha Martin lives in Unionville, Mrs. Mary A. Warren and Mrs. Margaret Dewey in Madison, and Mrs. John House in Painesville. What a lot of good wives Noah, Sr., brought to the Reserve !

Captain George Mosely, cousin of Noah, came in about the same time, and settled a little southwest, on lot nineteen. Charles Goodrich, shoemaker, and subsequently justice of the peace, from Benson, Vermont, came to Ohio, and stopped in Montville, in August, 1816, spent the winter in Painesville, and went to Thompson the next spring, and settled on the farm now owned by H. Griswold, near the Madison line. There he cleared a farm and lived the early part of his life. For many years he has resided at the centre, now quite a village. His now deceased wife was Lydia Matthews, from New Hampshire. Abijah Stearns came also in 1816, on foot and alone, from New Hampshire. He must have found a wonder- ful contrast between the New Connecticut and the stern, sterile mountains of his native State. He took up one hundred acres on what is now called the Madison gore, got in a crop of wheat, like a decent Yankee, who found himself where wheat would grow, and the next spring brought on his wife and children, arriving on the 17th of March. He brought his farm to a fine state of cultivation, and died on it in 1861. Of his family, Mrs. Sarah Miller resides in Thompson ; Zeba Stearns also, near the old homestead ; Mrs. Emily Radcliffe at Chardon, and Abraham Stearns in Montville.

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 58

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

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