History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 63

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

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 63
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 63

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).

Of this husband and wife were born eight children, of whom the two eldest died in infancy. Frederick D., born 1829, unmarried, resides in Parkman. Sherburn H., born in 1826, married Lydia Eaton, and resides in Kansas. Harriet, born in 1828, died at the age of thirteen. Russell M., born in 1829, married Sophia Pitner, and resides in Kansas. Christopher M., born in 1831, and died, unmarried, in 1864. Mary M., born in 1834, divides her time among many friends-too glad to secure her.

After the death of her husband, Mrs. Williams reared the family, while the outside affairs were managed, until his death, by the rare uncle Russell. A more delightful home, a more charming place for the numerous friends and visitors, than the homestead was rarely found. This ceased with the death of the mother, November 26, 1871, at seventy-four years of age. The house then passed into other hands.

RUSSELL WILLIAMS,

the elder brother of S. H., Sr., was also born at Salem, Connecticut, May 11, 1793; was married to Mary Morgan, at Aurora, and died at Parkman, October 5, 1846, aged fifty-three. He was a large, tall, stout, robust man, of good person, much intelligence, rare judgment of men and the values of property ; led an active out-door life, lacked the polish of his brother, had an excellent understanding, and, under an abrupt manner, carried a kindly nature; was just, and could be generous. The death of his brother was a severe blow, long felt. Without children of his

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own, he supplied the care of a father to his brother Sherburn's family, so far as the management of their property was concerned. This, and his own, consisted largely in notes secured by mortgages, and yet required care. His death was a disaster to their interests, which greatly reduced a handsome fortune.

Mrs. Mary Williams, as stated, was childless. Lucy Morgan, a niece of hers, was reared in the family and became the wife of Samuel Huntington, of Paines- ville.

Something more wishes to be said. I recall the Parkman of my early days, not of the old time of Robert B. Parkman and Colonel Williams, but when Mrs. Sherburn H., at her best, was surrounded by her family and kind-hearted uncle Russ and his wife, whom we called Aunty, and gentle Lucy Morgan lived just

beyond the wall, and really in the same inclosure; when Judge Converse was in middle life, and his three daughters, of rare intelligence, were in the Converse homestead ; when S. J. Tilden, bred to business by Sherburn H., was a blooming young merchant there; when the old academy stood up the hill a little from the highway, north, and Mrs. Harry Cook kept a hotel on the corner. Was there in the world a pleasanter place than Parkman ? Were there gentler, kinder, warmer hearts, or more cultivated people ? Of them all, Fred. Williams, an elderly, middle- aged bachelor, full of rare thought, is still there, and Mrs. Lyman (the eldest Miss Converse), in the old Converse mansion, with the younger sister, the gentle Amelia,-alone remain. She has devoted the later hours to the pleasant, melancholy labor of writing the history of Parkman, which I thus supplement.

BAINBRIDGE TOWNSHIP.

WITH all the southern townships of the county, this, in 1806, was made a part of the Burton as then constituted, by an order of the county commissioners. It remained a part of that semi-municipality, and at some time came to be called " Kentstown ;" afterwards, at the session of the commissioners, March, 1817, Kentstown and Troy (Auburn) were severed from Burton and erected into a civil township by the name of Bainbridge, in honor of the naval hero of that name.

I am unable to say when Bainbridge and Auburn were severed. The first record brought to my notice of a separate election in Auburn shows that to have taken place in 1827, although the first election in 1817 was held at Esquire Brewer's house, just west of the centre of that township.

Bainbridge is the southwest corner of the county, with Russell north, and Aurora, in Portage, south. Its twin, Auburn, is on her east, and the less favored township of Solon, in Cuyahoga county, on the west.

STREAMS.

The main stream of the Chagrin flows out of the Harmon pond in Aurora, and, running northwesterly, enters the south margin of Bainbridge a little west of the centre, and, keeping a uniform course northwest, passes the west line west of the centre. Just before leaving the township, it receives the waters of a considerable branch, called McFarland's creek, which, rising in the west part of Auburn, runs with a bend to the north, receives a creek from the south part of Russell, and traverses the township westerly. A two- or three-branched tributary of the Chagrin also rises in the southeast corner, runs southwesterly, and joins the main stream in Aurora. Between this and the first named another small branch runs into the Chagrin, which, avoiding Geauga, runs a due course north to the not-distant lake. One of the most beautiful of the Western Reserve rivers is the Chagrin rapid, with high banks, and not a foot of bordering marsh-land. The valley is narrow, but of great fertility and very considerable beauty. Elsewhere will be told the tale of this charming river's name. A stupid party of surveyors, mistaking her for her sluggish sister to the west, in their mortification at their own blunder reflected their chagrin upon her. What they splenetically intended as a reproach she has modestly worn and made beautiful. She is really a Geauga river.

Giles pond is a gem of water, with low-lying but not marshy shores, in the south corner of Bainbridge, its southern margin cutting the boundary into Au- rora. From this flows the beginnings of Tinker's creek, which traverses a pond in Aurora, and makes its rocky way to the Cuyahoga, though rising within half a mile of the more attractive Chagrin.

The general elevation of the surface with these streams indicates the appearance of the face of the township, which, without being hilly, has a pleasing variety, with fine valleys and ample surface-drainage. Indeed, save on the upper Cuya- hoga, there is not a rood of waste land in the whole county.

In soil, Bainbridge ranks with the good, and has the same general qualities and capabilities of the county ; certainly better than either townships on her west or south. It had the usual variety of timber, and the emigrants found the forests filled with the same wild animals,-elk and deer in abundance, more bears than they could well employ, and a surplus, rather than a scanty supply, of wolves.

In the survey the usual course was pursued, and Bainbridge was divided into three tracts by parallel lines east and west. Of these the first and third were equal to each other, while the middle was considerably the smallest. The tract on the

north was subdivided into forty-eight equal lots by lines parallel and at right angles, and numbered from the southeast corner, north and back ; the middle into twenty-eight, of unequal size, numbered from the northwest east, omitting the northeast corner lot. Tract three is divided into thirty-two lots, numbered from the northeast corner south.

ROADS AND HIGHWAYS.

While Bainbridge is amply supplied with convenient roads, the township pre- sents some conspicuous peculiarities. The old Chillicothe, laid out by General Edward Paine, under the authority of the State, in 1802, traverses her from the north directly south, a little east of the geographical centre; east of this she has two, quite parallel with it, but west she has not a mile of north and south highway, nor has she but two running west from the Chillicothe. There are, however, two running to Chagrin falls, at her northwest corner, one from the centre and another from the east and west centre road in Auburn, commencing about a mile cast of the township-line. Besides these, she has several very short ones, and one traverses the southwest corner, making some eccentric turns.

SETTLEMENT .*

David McConoughey and family were the first settlers of Bainbridge They reached its unbroken forests on Thanksgiving-day in 1811,-doubtless the day of that pious festival of the dear old Massachusetts, whence they came. From a well-written memoir of the McConougheys before me, prepared by the Rev. A. W. McConoughey, the first child of European blood born in Bainbridge, I am inclined to accord some space to this pioneer family, as to others who followed them.

At the time of their advent there was considerable of a settlement in Burton, Hambden, and Middlefield. Punderson had started his mill in Newbury the year before. The Miners were in Chester, and stout Dr. Hudson, with his young bride on an ox-sled, had camped the summer before on the western Silver creek, on his way from Hudson to Chester; not a blow had been struck in Auburn, Russell, Munson, or Chardon.

David's grandfather David came from north Ireland about 1725, bringing his young wife with him, and settled in then Watertown, near Boston. There his son, the second David from him, was born in February, 1732, the month and year of George Washington's birth. In 1752 the family removed to Blandford, Hampden county, in the west of Massachusetts. There the two elder Davids both died, the son in 1806, at seventy-four. He was a soldier of the Revolution, received an honorable discharge and land-warrant. He was a cultivated man, and a prominent citizen of his town.

Here, in Blandford, David the third, our pioneer, was born August 6, 1767, in the stormy prelude to the old war. He died in Bainbridge, September 25, 1849, a little over eighty-two years of age.

His wife was Mary Cartter. Her father was Scotch, her mother of English- Welsh blood, on the father's side tracing back to the royal blood of King Robert the Bruce. The name McCarter was said to have been changed to Cartter in one of the males, who was knighted for gallantry. This branch came to America about 1700, and settled, as a man of such lineage would, in Virginia. His plantation was broken up by an incursion of Indians, and he removed to

* From notes in the hands of Mrs. Wm. Howard, of Bainbridge.

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Boston. The son of this man, J. Bruce, was educated for the ministry, pre- ferred the sea, and went; became owner and master of an Indiaman, and a famous trader to the East. Ultimately he was wrecked, with loss of ship and cargo. He then removed to Westfield, and became a teacher of the classics. There the son Nehemiah was born, the father of Mary, the pioneer. She was his third child, born also in Westfield, June 22, 1770, three years after her husband She died at Oberlin, January 22, 1864, aged ninety-three years and seven months.

This couple were married in 1792, when David was twenty-five and Mary twenty- two, and they now rest together on a beautiful swell of land in the northeastern part of Bainbridge, consecrated to the burial of the McConougheys, and marked with a fine monument.

David was a quiet, rather silent, unambitious man, clear-headed, not caring for large accumulation. Mary, on the contrary, was ambitious, aspiring, energetic, and enterprising,-ambitious for her sons, of fine mental endowments, and devoted to her children-almost more than mothers are. To them seven children were born. One died in infancy, and was buried in old Blandford. We may fancy a tearful adieu to the little grave, the last thing ere the final departure. For an unex- plained reason, McConoughey chose the late autumn for the journey, and started on the 9th of November, 1810. The migration was said to be due to the deter- mination of the mother to escape the threatened curse of intemperance, and the earliest possible moment of departure was the fittest. The journey was made with an ox-team,-father, mother, and six children, three of each sex. The six hundred miles were traversed in forty days. I find no details of the journey, nor are we told the route. The next we hear of them, they are encamped in the Bedford woods, on the night of December 31, with the township of Solon, Cuyahoga county, between them and Bainbridge. Here they were serenaded by bands of wolves howl- ing forth their own death-songs, for there was a young and mighty hunter who came almost specially for their extermination. Porter D., to become so renowned, was then not quite nineteen ; his sister, Mary E., in her seventeenth year, the destined first bride of Bainbridge; Selina M., in her fifteenth; Sally, in her eleventh; Portia, in her twelfth; David C., in his seventh ; Eli H., then the youngest, in his third. In Aurora, to the southeast of them, was a younger brother of David's,-Samuel,- who migrated thither in 1806, and settled on the farm where he afterwards died. They reached his cabin the next day, January 1, 1811. Here the family re- mained for quite a year, becoming inured to pioneer life, during which, doubtless, Porter D. took his first lessons in hunting and woodcraft.

In the early part of the year Mr. McConoughey purchased one hundred acres of land in the southeast corner of Bainbridge, now owned by L. H. Hurd, in lot three, tract three, bounded by an east-and-west highway, on the north, and run- ning east to the town-line, one lot lying south of it. Here a log house was erected and put in such readiness as pioneers prepare, and the family moved in on the Thanksgiving-day of 1811. A rude structure, eighteen by twenty- six feet, of round logs, notched and "saddled" together at the corners; a " puncheon" floor, made of logs split through the centre, and laid with the flat surfaces upward ; a wide-mouthed old chimney, of stone back, topped,-" a stick- chimney," made of sticks, split an inch square, laid up, and plastered inside with as much clay-mortar as could be made to stick to it, and then there was danger of its taking fire from the roaring furnace of beech and maple logs below in the winter-time; no hearth at the first ; no chamber-floor overhead; a rude cover of split shingles, four feet long, held to their ill-fitting places by heavy " weight-poles"; one door, opening north ; and two windows. All the furniture such as could be brought on an ox-wagon six hundred miles, with the other effects eked out by the rude pioneer mechanics of axe and jack-knife. Not another cabin nearer than the brother's in Aurora. Not the echo of another woodman's axe could be heard ; hemmed in by the everlasting woods, which were to be hewed down, burned, and worn away, and bread won from its stumpy, rooty, weedy soil. A spring was found ; the oxen browsed near ; a cow was procured ; after a while a. pig; and the woods receded; tame grasses and domestic plants, the seeds of which were brought from the East ; sage and savin, pinks and batchelor-buttons ; and a log barn in time; and then fowls; and civilization and a firm human ex- istence took vigorous root in the strong virgin soil.

On the 12th of the first August in Bainbridge, 1812, was born to the faithful couple the youngest son, Austin N., who graphically describes his earliest recollec- tions of his surroundings. He found the home manufactures of his mother and elder sisters all set up, and Porter D. and his father were furnishing plenty of veni- son and bear-meat ; and yet he can remember when, as his eyes wandered about his father's narrow clearing, there was the light of no other coming to it through the trees and the nearest cabin was a mile away. Thus isolated and driven in and compacted each on the other, how close and tender must be the union of such a family ! Lonely hours, sad and dark hours, there were, days of misgiving and nights of sorrowing, when the hearts of the elders would turn to the memories of home, and the little deserted grave in the Blandford burying-ground.

Then came the Laceys, the Kents, the Osborns, the Smiths, Kingsleys, and, later, many more, and their memories turned less and less to the past.

As intimated, Porter became a mighty hunter of elk, deer, bears, and wolves, unsurpassed for skill and success with his rifle, an old flint-gun with a deerskin cover over the lock to keep the exposed powder in the pan in a condition to ignite when a blow from the flint, fastened into the cock, should knock the " hammer" back and drop a spark of fire into it. At its quickest a " dipper" would always dodge its flash, and it often became necessary to freshen the priming, throw the powder out of the tiny magazine, called the " pan," under the hammer, and fill it from the horn. Thus armed, Porter has been known to kill five grown bears in a single day. The senior also became quite a bear-hunter,-a sport which may have accorded with his taciturn nature,-and the son tells a bear-story of the two and a famous bear-dog of his father's worth relating.

A large hollow tree had been felled for bears. Porter and a cousin Jarvis had fired through a small opening at a bear inside, when the dog rushed in at the large hollow and attacked the bear, but slightly wounded. The howls, growls, and general din which immediately issued from the inside of the log indicated a furious battle, and evidently against the dog. Instantly the senior threw off his coat and went down the hollow to the rescue of his favorite. It was twenty feet from the entrance to combatants. Here he seized the dog by the hind parts, and with his great physical power worked himself back, drawing dog and bear, who had each other locked with teeth and paws, until Porter could reach his father's feet, and all were drawn out together. When the outside world was reached, the bear-a she one-retained her grip on the dog, and was run through the heart with a lance called the " bear-spear." She weighed over four hundred pounds. On further investigation two more bears were found in the hollow, each of more than half the size of the monster mother.

At about fifty Mr. McConoughey became a convert, and a member of the Metho- dist church, with which his wife also became connected a little later. Both were in that communion at their deccase. Porter D., the well-known colonel, was born at Blandford, March 18, 1793; died at Bainbridge, June, 1867, at seventy- four. He was compactly made, dark, quiet, of few words, a man of local note, and much esteemed. He was twice married,-first to Margaret Nettleton, in 1821, of which union were born eight children. She died in 1848. He married Mrs. Maria Marsh, in 1851, and she became the mother of five children and was living in 1876. Porter and his first wife sleep on the hill by his parents.

Mary Eliza, born at Blandford, March 20, 1795, was the first bride of Bain- bridge, where she was united with Zabina Kenedy, February 22, 1813, ere her eighteenth birthday. She became a widow in less than three months. Of this short union no child was born, nor do I find any account of the man who died ere he ceased to be a bridegroom.

Young widows were not permitted to mourn long among pioneers, and Mary Eliza was courted and wedded the second time, in August, 1814. His name, Julius Riley, Aurora his residence. Of this union six children were born. She died in Aurora, April 1, 1867, at seventy-two. Her husband and five children were living in 1876.

Selina M., born at Blandford, Jan. 19, 1797. March 20, 1826, she was mar- ried to Horace Crosby, who died in 1873. She became the mother of one daughter, and was living, in 1876, at Oberlin.

Sally, born at Blandford, March 17, 1799, was the one who died and was buried there, in 1802.

Portia Ann, born also at Blandford, May 21, 1801, married to Asahel North, Jr., July 4, 1822, and died at Clyde, Ohio, in 1870. She became the mother of seven children.

David C., also born in Blandford, Sept. 30, 1804, was twice married. First to Eliza Howard, of Montville, in 1838, which marriage was followed by nine chil- dren. She died in Minnesota in 1858. He was married a second time, in 1862; had a son, and died in 1874. He was much of a man in his time.

Eli H., the last of Massachusetts birth, saw light Jan. 1, 1808. Like most of the McConoughey's, he was twice married. First to Amanda Snow, of Mantua, in 1833, who died in Illinois in 1848, bringing him four children between the two events. His second was a Mrs. Wooster, in 1849. He died in Illinois, 1869.

The youngest son was born as stated. He married Martha Nettleton in 1835, at Bainbridge, after which he entered Oberlin College, graduated, and became a minister in the Congregational church. Is a man of attainment and ability. Five children were born of this union, four of whom, with the parents, survive.

As stated, Lacy-Jasper Lacy, and his wife, entered Bainbridge next after the McConoughey's, and settled on lot seven, tract three, now owned by Leverett Gorham, whose father was a pioneer in Newbury. The Lacys stayed a short time, and moved to Aurora.

The family of Gamaliel H. Kent were the third of the pioneers of Bainbridge. The Kents were of good Litchfield, Connecticut, birth, and left that town in

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1805, migrated to Warren, of which they were, of course, among the pioneers. There they remained a year, and removed to Aurora, where they lingered five years longer. Then came the important change to Bainbridge, where he took up lots six and nineteen, in tract three, and I know not what beside, and where now lives his youngest son, A. E. Kent, a lad of nine when his father reached there, now at the age of seventy-six. This placed the Kents within a mile or two of the McConaughey's, northwest of them. The Kents' house and contents were burned in the winter of 1812, when they went to Aurora, and men came over through the woods and rebuilt it. On their entrance into the Bainbridge woods the family con- sisted of a wife and five children,-three sons and two daughters,-all of whom grew up, married, and settled in the township near their father. The senior Kent died April 30, 1831, at sixty-six. The time of Mrs. Kent's death has not been made known to me. They were persons of much intelligence, and the family became one of wide influence, not only in Bainbridge, but through the surrounding country. Gamaliel, Jr., settled on a farm, of which H. Nichols owns a part, married, raised a family, became forehanded, and died May 28, 1871, at the age of seventy-three. He was a man of superior capacity, of extensive reading, a good public speaker, filled important town and county offices, and represented Geauga in the State legislature. Few men of as much worth have been reared in the county. The eldest of the Kent sons died in 1827.

The eldest daughter married Russell G. McCarty, a prominent man, and settled on the farm now owned by Mrs. Nelson Root. The youngest daughter became the wife of Harvey Baldwin, and settled on a farm, a part of that now owned by Delos Root, on lot seventeen, tract three.

Of the original family, the daughters and youngest son are the only survivors. As will be remembered, Bainbridge was known on the record of the county com- missioners as Kentstown.

It is further said of the senior, that he brought in the first merchandise, and Kent & Son were the first merchants of Bainbridge, and he also built the first framed barn of the township, in 1817, recently repaired and " in good standing."

Next after the Kents came Alexander Osborn, in the later part of the winter of 1811. He came from Blandford, Massachusetts. He traded the property he owned in New York for land in Bainbridge. While absent in Ohio searching for a future home, his wife and a young daughter of five died. The residue of the family, five in number, were too tender to endure the hardships of a journey and pioneer life deprived of the mother, and they were left in the care of friends in Massachusetts. In 1814, Mr. Osborn visited his old home, and returned with the oldest son, and they lived alone three or four years, when the second son, Alexander, came on. Three years later, Russell went East and brought on his oldest sister, Maria, then married. A few weeks after their arrival, the cabin and contents, all of their personal effects, were burnt. Of these, many were valuable and never to be replaced. This was settling a new country under adverse cir- cumstances. But the Osborns weathered it. Another son, David, also came. All married and all settled in Bainbridge except Russell, who, after living fourteen years in Munson, removed to Illinois, and died there many years ago. Our pioneers who run off to Illinois always die. Maria's husband was Robert Smith, and they are now in Kansas. Alexander died in April, 1864. Russell, the oldest, now eighty, lives in Cleveland, hale and vigorous. Sully, the other daughter, remained, married, lived and died in Massachusetts.

The senior died in March, 1838, at sixty-two. The Osborns are spoken of as intelligent, excellent people, and so we dispose of them.

In the winter (everybody went to Bainbridge in the winter) of 1814, George, Mrs. Smith, and six junior Smiths, having parted with the other Smiths of Washington, Massachusetts, entered Bainbridge and bought the old Lacy place. Smith made the journey in less than four weeks, with one horse- and two ox- teams, which explains why the Massachusetts men chose winter travel. It is said that in the old time, sixty-four years ago, there was perfect sleighing all the way till the last day. It is sad to know that one child, a boy of seven, died of whooping-cough on the road, and was buried in Leroy, western New York. Luckily, there was no time to mourn; and laying the smitten one under the snow and frozen earth, the stricken family hurried forward after three days to the wintry woods of the West. How dreary it must have seemed to the burdened mother, as the tears half froze in her sad eyes, to turn ever away from the lonely, deserted grave! In the years following three children more were sent them, but there was ever a place in the mother's heart filled with a sad, regretful memory. It is said the house in Bainbridge, for several years, was the place where Methodist and Congregational meetings were holden. Harriet, the eldest daughter, married Honorable David McIntosh, and resides in Shalersville, at the age of eighty ; " very smart yet," is added. The second, Laura, became the wife of Lyman Fowler, and many years ago removed to Newburg, und died there. George, Jr., married, lived on the farm now owned by J. K. Smith, moved to Illinois, and died there, as many have done. William farmed it till he went

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 63

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

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