History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 70

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

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 70
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 70

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).

Before that event, Evi Bradly, a younger brother of Moses and Bildad, ended his life by the same means, as did his nephew, Asahel Bowers, more recently. Bradly Way was a near relative of the two last. There was melancholy in the family, with a suicidal tendency, doubtless aggravated by adverse fortunes.

ACCIDENTAL DEATHS.

The first I can recall was the case of a brother of Asahel Bowers, killed by a falling tree, while chopping with Moses Bradly, quite in the early days. A grandson of Moses Bradly was crippled by a shot from a rifle, accidental, as was said. In 1837 or 1838 the house of Thomas Paddock, about a mile west of the centre, took fire one winter night, and in it were consumed their four young children ; only paralleled by the later similar loss of the McLouths in Auburn. Earlier than either of these, a young man by the name of Owens was drowned in Punderson's pond, near the north end, under the eyes of his young sister. B. B. Woodbury and his brother Daniel, then a young officer of the army, were fishing in the pond, and recovered the body.

A few years since, a young man by the name of Moore, from Parkman, was drowned in the night season, in the same pond.

Considering the numbers who resort to this little lake, the casualties by drown- ing can occasion no surprise.

STATISTICS FOR 1878.

Wheat

331 acres.

5,322 bushels.

Oats

625

23,170

Corn

428

25,920

Potatoes

7,834

Orchard

275

1,227

Meadow

.2097

2,073 tons.

Butter.

31,140 pounds.

Cheese

243,105

Maple-sugar.

38.317

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

LEMUEL PUNDERSON.

Few of the persons now living in Newbury can remember to have seen Lem- uel Punderson, the pioneer settler of the township. He was born in New Haven, Conn., June 4, 1782, was married to Miss Sybil Hickox, Oct. 20, 1808, and died at Newbury, Aug. 30, 1822, at the untimely age of forty. His early edu- cational advantages must have been small. He learned the house-carpenter's trade of John Ford and a brother, in Cheshire, Connecticut.

In 1803 he came to Ohio, and the first point he made was Poland, the first place settled on the Reserve. From there he went to Warren, and built the old mansion-house of General Perkins. He also built a flouring-mill for a company at the rapids of the Cuyahoga river, remnants of which I remember to have seen there in 1829. He reached Burton in 1806 or 1807, and soon after formed a partnership with Eleazar Hickox to sell goods and build mills at the foot of the " Big pond," in Newbury, a then unnamed five miles square of unbroken woods.

On the same evening of his marriage, his partner, Hickox, married Stella Umberfield, and soon after the young husbands cut a road west from Beard's mills to the township line, and thence to the seat of their new enterprise. Pun- derson purchased a large tract of land, with the pond and all it covered to high- water line, so as forever to control it. Here they built a cabin, moved in, and hired workmen. This story is sufficiently told in the histories of Burton and Newbury. The mill was built, the dam swept out, reconstructed, and the mill set running. Then the whisky-still, and luter the saw-mill. Emigrants began to arrive, and all went to Punderson's. He became wider known, was agent for large quantities of lands, and in fact opened an extensive land-office. One of the most interesting of books is Lemuel Punderson's account-book, kept in his cramped, close hand, every line being an entry in his peculiar orthography. The names of his customers, the things in which he dealt, and the prices he charged, are all set there, with date and year, and altogether, matters of interest. Mean- time, Mr. Punderson built barns, and finally a fine mansion-house. He opened roads,-the old State road from Painesville south, with many a turn to his own mills and rising little burg. This in 1813 or 1814. In 1820, with a gang of hands, he went and marked and underbrushed a road to Chagrin Fulls, on the way to Cleveland, and there met a similar party from Cleveland. . At the first election he was elected a justice of the peace, and re-elected till his death. When a post-route and office was established he became the first postmaster, and held that also at his decease.

In the summer of 1822 he was taken with a prevailing fever of the country. Scott and Goodwin, and finally Denton, were called ; the disease yielded, he was pronounced convalescent ; as was said, he persuaded his attendant to give him a

little of the ripe core of a watermelon, to wet his mouth. It was left in his reach ; he ate of it; the fever returned, also the M.D.'s. This time it was too much for them, and he died.

What an almost commotion, as the word ran along roads and trails through the woods ! Punderson is dead ! It could hardly be. So much rested on him, so many interests, so many were involved.

An immense concourse assembled at the funerul. The elements of a fortune great in possibility, the achievements of the coming years, which were to be and were not, all the hopes and expectations of others, resting in the net-work of his life, vanished, leaving fragments, broken hopes, sad, sad memories, and for wife and children heartbreak and anguish.

He had at that time innumerable outstanding contracts for sales of lands for which he was agent, many of which, and their status and ternis, were known to the parties alone. He was just ready to go East with a burden of matters. He was the owner of extensive lands,-over two hundred acres on the north side of Euclid street, in Cleveland,-for some of which he was indebted in part. All the large and small schemes and plans of a strong brain and will, an extensive web reaching in various directions, dissolved like frost-work.

The man was dead, the heart cold, the brain an inert mass, the will had dis- appeared, and the hand palsied. Men buried him, talked, wondered, and went their ways.

They laid him in the new, little burying-ground on the beautiful side-hill, near his own mill-pond, where the rays of the afternoon sun fell pleasantly in the heart of the new world his brain and hand had created, and the world went on.

Mrs. Punderson, Sybil, the sister of Eleazar Hickox, of slender health, in the early years of her married life had many of the strong intellectual qualities and traits of character of her distinguished brother. The estate went into the hands of that brother and Eleazar Paine, as administrators for settlement, and was settled. This strong and resolute woman saved what she could out of the shat- tered fragments, held her family in her firm woman's grasp, and made the best and utmost of what remained to her. A true woman, a good mother, a brave heart.

In person Lemuel Punderson was not unlike his second son, Daniel,-large, a little heavy, with a big, well-formed head, florid, as I remember him ; a little slow in speech, a man of fine native powers, of great executive ability, force of will and character. He was possessed of much sagacity, and other men had the greatest reliance on his judgment.

Mr. and Mrs. Punderson were the parents of six children ; of these, the daughter and John, the third son, both unmarried, reside together, in a very pleasant home in the village of Burton ; Samuel, the eldest of the sons, died in young manhood ; Miles, the fourth son, lives in Troy ; Daniel, the second son, and one of the first, if not the first, male born in Newbury, owns a fine flouring- mill on the site of the old Punderson & Hickox mill, and has a charming resi- dence just across the old State road from his mill. He is a man much esteemed. His wife, Ann Shaw, a sister of Mrs. Elijah Haws, Mrs. Crane, and Mrs. Uzial Burnett, is a lady of unusual intelligence, widely known, and has the charm of pleasant manners, kindliness, and goodness. There are few so pleasant places the country-side through as theirs. They are without children.

Eleazar, the youngest, with wife and children, owns and resides in the old homestead of Lemuel and Sybil; and here the mother, after a widowhood of fifty years, died in 1872.

JOSHUA M. BURNETT .*

Joshua M. Burnett was born in Warwick, Franklin county, Massachusetts, May 8, 1772. Early in life he married Miss Mehitable Cobb, daughter of the Hon. Josiah Cobb, who was for twenty-one years member of the Massachusetts State Legislature. Nine children, eight of whom were born upon New England soil, were the offspring of this marriage.

In January, 1815, my grandfather, together with his oldest son, Harry, and Miss Hannah Wilber, the son's bride elect, left Warwick for the west. Owing to some detentions on the way, four weeks were occupied in making the journey, which still lives in the memory of the then happy maiden as one long continuous sleigh-ride. At this time there were seven settlements and five families in New- bury township. A double log house was erected, and the struggle for existence began.

The 4th of July following, my grandfather returned to Massachusetts for his wife and the remainder of his family, with whom he again reached Ohio in October of the same year,-1815. In 1819 he erected the first frame dwelling- house in the township. Previous to this, however, Mr. Lemuel Punderson's saw-mill, grist-mill, and barn, all frame structures, had been built.

* By a granddaughter.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

January 19, 1825, my grandmother died, aged fifty-two years. My grand- father married for his second wife Mrs. Huldah Jackson. He died December 20, 1851, aged seventy-nine years.

Of his nine children, six are living. Harry, the oldest, was born in 1794. In November, 1816, he was married to Miss Hannah Wilber, who accompanied them from the East. Seven children were born to them, two of whom only are now living. This uncle and aunt are still living, aged respectively eighty-four and eighty-five years. They retain to a remarkable degree their vigor of mind, and are devotedly attached to each other. For many years they have been residents of Russell, Ohio.

My Uncle Josiah was born May 26, 1797, in Warwick, Massachusetts. In June, 1818, he was married to Diadama Johnson, who died May 6, 1870, aged seventy-one years. Of their eight children, four are living. In 1874, my uncle sold his farm in Newbury, and moved to Mantua, Portage county, where he has since resided. He is still very active, retaining much of the natural vigor of both his body and mind.

Aunt Calista was born in Warwick, January 23, 1800. September 15, 1816, she was married by John Ford, Esq., to Eliphalet Gay. This was the first marriage ceremony performed in the township. She taught the second term of school taught in the new log school-house, Chloe Umphrey having taught the first. Previous to the building of the school-house, Miss Umphrey taught in a part of my grandfather's log house.

Eliphalet Gay was born in New Salem, Massachusetts, August 27, 1795. He died August 23, 1844, aged forty-nine years. November 1, 1849, my aunt was married to George Parker. He died January 30, 1863, aged sixty-seven years. Mrs. Parker is still living.

Aunt Serintha was born in Warwick, April 26, 1803. She was married in Newbury, Ohio, August 4, 1822, to Lorin Snow, of Auburn, Ohio. They had five children, two of whom are living. Mrs. Snow died September 11, 1865, aged sixty-two years.

Lorin Snow was born in Becket, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, January 21, 1796. He died in Auburn, Ohio, November 22, 1863.

Aunt Lauretta was born in Warwick, in May, 1806. In May, 1822, she was married to Amos Parker. Mr. Parker died January 29, 1856, aged fifty- seven years. This aunt afterwards married Ebenezer Richardson, of Tallmadge, Summit county, Ohio.

Uncle Detroit was born in April, 1809. August 4, 1830, he was married to Miss Malinda Munn. After her death (the date of which I am sorry I do not now find) he married Miss Martha C. Bradly, of Newbury. This marriage occurred February 26, 1853.

With his second wife he lived but a short time. Subsequently he married Miss Henrietta E. Granger, of Chardon, Ohio. He died November 29, 1871, from injuries received when at work in his woods, aged sixty-two years.

Nabby C. Burnett was born August 11, 1813 ; died June 11, 1827.

Robert Prelate was born July 25, 1815. In 1838 he married Miss Abigail Slocum, of North Adams, Massachusetts. After her death he married Mrs. Betsy Glazier, with whom he is still living.

My mother, Purleyette M., was born in Newbury, Ohio, in June, 1820. She was married August 2, 1842, to Rensselaer Pinney, of Granby, Connecticut.

As I mentioned in my first manuscript, there is little in the history of the nephews and nieces that would interest the public. For my cousin, Proctor Burnett, I cherish a profound respect as a most estimable gentleman. He was also a man of superior business qualifications. At the time of his death, and for a number of years previous, he was a member of the firm of Rice & Burnett, crockery merchants, of Cleveland. He was the son of Josiah Burnett, and married a daughter of Hon. Harvey Rice, of Cleveland,-Miss Fannie Rice. Almira M., his sister, married Isaac Reynolds, of Cleveland, a gentleman of excellent business capacity.

Wm. H. Parker, a son of Amos and Lauretta Parker, has for many years been a resident of Hartford, Connecticut. He is a man of fine business capacity, genial manners, and pleasing address. His sister, Etta B., married Earl Herrick, of one of the first families of Twinsburg, Ohio. For a number of years they have resided in Cleveland.

My oldest brother, Delos R., was a private in the late Rebellion. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, October 12, 1862, aged nineteen years. EVA P.

The senior Burnett, without much cultivation, was a man of unusual quickness of apprehension in all matters pertaining to his immediate interests, and possessed much keenness and shrewdness, and many pleasant anecdotes could be related of his peculiarities. He was a man of much thrift, and accumulated a handsome property. All the sons, with more culture, had the shrewdness of the father, while some of the third generation were excellent business men. The daughters

were comely, and married well. The youngest is the postmistress at South New- bury, and the preceding sketch from her daughter's pen is so neat and graceful that we give it as it came from her hand.

THE JOHNSONS.

The senior of the Newbury family was Solomon, born November 29, 1763, in Massachusetts. Married Mary Morton some time about 1791. He died at New- bury, in 1842, aged seventy-eight. Mary, born in 1765, died in Newbury, in 1830. Mrs. Johnson, at the time of her marriage, was the widow Earl, and mother of John Earl.

Solomon Johnson and his eldest son, Seth, in seeking a new home in the West, went first to New York, thence to the head-waters of the Allegheny river, in the autumn of 1814, and spent the winter in the pine woods, making shingles. In the spring, in company with another, the owner of lumber, they undertook to raft their property to Cincinnati, were wrecked; lost their cargo, made their way to that town, and across the woods to Sandusky, and down the lake to Painesville. Here they heard that an old friend, J. M. Burnett, had purchased in Newbury, and they went there, purchased near him, and sent for their family, while they remained, built a cabin, and cleared land. The family arrived in the summer of 1816. It consisted of the wife, a daughter, Diodama, who became the wife of Josiah Bur- nett (see the Burnetts), and Solomon, Jr., the youngest son, who remained single and died many years ago. With them came John Earl, Mrs. Johnson's son, his wife, Jemima, and three children (see history of Newbury) ; also Jonah Johnson, the second son, his wife, Polly, and one son, Theodore.

Seth Johnson married Saloma Curtis in 1821, built a house, and replaced it with the one in which his son Daniel now lives, where he and Saloma lived and reared a family of twelve, all of whom survive but three. The parents both died many years ago.

Helen B. is the wife of Edward Crafts, of Auburn, and reside on the homestead of William Crafts, Edward's father, wealthy and well esteemed.

William S. married Roxy Vinton, and lives in Michigan.

Mary A. married Professor Seible, and died in 1857.

Alma J. lives with a second husband in Huron county, Ohio.

Alma married Dr. Coolage, and lives in Wisconsin.

Randie is a widow, living in Portage county.

Louisa is a teacher in the high school of East Saginaw, Michigan.

Lepha is the wife of the Rev. H. L. Canfield, and lives in Norwalk, Ohio. Sarah lives in Kent, Portage county.

Lettie became the wife of G. W. Morley, of the firm of Morley Brothers, East Saginaw, and died January, 1873.

Didama died, unmarried, in 1855.

These ten daughters had an unusual share of good looks, intelligence, and character.

DANIEL JOHNSON,

the second son of Seth, was born at Newbury, June 22, 1826, had the common- school advantages of that region, was a boy of unusual intelligence, grave, and a little shy, yet with something of the wit and sparkle for which all the elders were noted, especially his father and Uncle Jonah. He was married to Belle M. Gould, daughter of Simon Gould, March 9, 1852. He became the owner of the Seth Johnson homestead, and still resides there. His neighbors and townsmen early discovered his intrinsic worth, and elected him to the various responsible township offices. He is now the senior of the board of county commissioners, and is in his second term of service. He is a man of superior capacity, much general infor- mation, of wide influence, and esteemed for his sterling qualities. Belle, his wife, was born in Summit county, Ohio, May 19, 1836 ; is a woman of pleasing person and manners.

They are the parents of four children,-Estella, wife of R. B. Roe, lives in St. Louis ; William C., now twenty-two, is at school ; S. Dayton, seventeen, is at home on the farm ; and sweet Lettie Grace, three years old, is playing the part of pet to an admiring household and neighborhood.

Of the numerous family of Jonah Johnson, not one remains in Newbury. Mrs. Jonah Johnson, much beloved, died about 1852, and the father and several other members of the family moved to Michigan, where Theodore and some of the others reside.

The Johnsons filled a prominent place in the Newbury of the old time, and Daniel and his family alone remain to preserve the name and keep alive the tra- ditions of the family of that day.

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MRS. MINERVA RIDDLE

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

THE UTLEYS.

Hamilton Utley was born in Munson, Massachusetts, April 15, 1790, died at Newbury, December 30, 1853; was the oldest son of a man esteemed wealthy in his day ; had a good academical education; was a man of rather brilliant parts, much dramatic talent, wit, and culture; was married to Polly Squire when he was twenty-one. She was born February 18, 1791, and died at Newbury, May 8, 1853. She was a woman of rare beauty, and in intellect and sparkle quite the equal of her husband. The young couple commenced the world under the most favorable conditions ; unfortunately, their property was invested in cotton-mills which had sprung into existence during the war of 1812. The peace which followed brought wide-spread ruin to manufacturers, and the Utleys were quite reduced. There was nothing for it but cmigration, and in company with their relatives, the Riddles, they started on the toilsome journey for the New Connecticut late in the year 1817. Both stopped to visit their kin, the Squires, Riddles, and Moultons, who had pre- ceded them to the Genesee country, where Hamilton Utley remained during the winter and taught school while the wife and children went on. They went on to a body of land owned by Harriet, the only sister of Hamilton, built a cabin on the top of the high bleak hill, the site of which is still marked by the remnants of a few decayed peach-trees. After a few years they moved into the more sheltered and fertile valley below. With all his talent, culture, and wit, his splendid social qualities, reared to ease, accustomed to luxury, the young head of the family was as ill fitted for the hard rude toil, coarse life, and privation of the pioneers as any man thrust by misfortune into the woods. He made his education available, and for twenty-one or more successive winters he taught school with much suc- cess. His neighbors availed themselves of his character for probity and shrewd- ness, and kept him in the position of a magistrate half his lifetime. He made available his musical talent, and for many years was the most famous violin- player of the country, till eclipsed by the performances of his sons, Lawrence and Alfred. There was but one thing in the new country to which he naturally took- the woods, and became a skillful hunter.

In 1824 he became a Jackson man ; was two or three times his party candidate for the legislature.

Standing six feet three, with a fine head, splendid eyes, and expressive fuce, of rare social qualities, he was personally very popular. He never succeeded in accumulating property. The loss of his uncle, Thomas Riddle, in 1823, was sorely felt by him.

Mrs. Utley was a woman of a hardier race, and with her kin, was of Scotch- Irish extraction. A woman whose best qualities might have remained less con- spicuous had her early prosperity continued. She had the heroic soul, mind, and fortitude to meet a lifetime of penury and toil, and remain hopeful, cheerful, and struggling to the last. The mother of thirteen children, a daily toiler for their bread, she retained her beauty of person, her sparkle of manner, her wit, and intelligence to the last. These two, their sayings and doings, are worthy of more than a scanty mention. As their family rapidly increased, and tall, fine- looking sons, and tall, comely daughters filled the narrow homestead, it became a great resort for all the young people, while the intelligence and culture of the parents made it attractive to their acquaintances through a wide circle.

It will be observed that they were nearly of the same age, married very young, and died within a few months of each other. Man and woman were never more truly wed than this pair, in body, mind, and soul. Under the adversity that darkened their early years, and only lightened up after ripe middle life, they each had the other, and it seemed to suffice. If at times the social husband evinced over-conviviality, the tried wife met, parried, and covered it, so far as the world knew, with bright persiflage, gay banter, a shower of unwounding witticisms, or an irresistible mimicry of which she was mistress. In later life they became impressed with the reality of modern spiritualism. After the serene death of the wife, the husband seemed solaced by her constant ministration, set the time for his joining her, asked a friend to be present at the time to care for his remains, who at the hour found the deserted tenement in which the heart had just beat its last throb. In this beautifully-mated pair, though the one was a dark, long- favored brunette, and the other an auburn-haired voluptuously formed blonde, yet their manner and air became so alike, the expression of the face and features so similar, that the resemblance-though none in form and feature could exist- became striking.

Of these parents were born Lavina, January, 1812, who died in February, 1877. She was the wife of Erastus Hodges, and mother of four sons, who survive. William Lawrence, born July, 1813, now of Racine, Wisconsin, sketched else- where. Laura, born January, 1815, who died in April, 1817. Alfred, born in March, 1817, who survives. Henry, born in July, 1819, now living. Rebecca Harriet, born in June, 1821, died September, 1822. Louisa Harriet, born July, 1823, became the wife of Elias Avery, Esq., died in March, 1850. She left two

children, neither of whom survive. Rosette, born in July, 1825, married to H. N. Spencer, November, 1846, has children, who, with herself and husband, sur- vive. Otis H., born in November, 1827, died November, 1834. Benjamin Franklin, born December, 1829, died in California in 1850. Ellen D., born January, 1832, married to George Shumway, lives with her husband and children near Cleveland. Horatio Nelson, born June, 1832, died November, 1854. Jane M., born in March, 1837, married - Willoughby, and resides with her hus- band in Nebraska.

The members of this numerous family are distinctly marked with the qualities and peculiarities of their parents.

THE RIDDLES,

originally a Scotch clan, were colonized by James I., in Tyrone county, Ireland. They were Presbyterians, and they and all their descendants in that country remained stanch Protestants. The Newbury Riddles trace their Scotch-Irish lineage through one Thomas Riddle, who was born in Ireland in 1739, and brought to this country in childhood by an aunt or elder sister. He had four daughters and four sons; three of the latter served during the Revolution. Thomas Riddle, Jr., the youngest of the sons, was born at Munson, Massachusetts, Sep- tember 27, 1781. He was a bright, intelligent boy, whose educational advantages were limited to the district school, and who, as one of the eight children, was early called upon to share the family struggle for a livelihood, which, dependent as it was upon the father's earnings and the produce of the small farm, never got much beyond the bare necessities of life. The personal likeness of father and son was marked as the latter approached manhood. Both were of medium height and build, and the well-developed head, fine high forehead, fair complexion, and blue eyes stamped them as men of the same mould physically. Thomas, Jr., was of poetic temperament, and possessed of a fine imagination ; had a fair share of musi- cal talent, was a superior vocalist, and in his early manhood was chorister for the Munson, Massachusetts, Congregational church. He was an earnest advocate of the war of 1812. Was prominent in a regiment of militia and leader of a band, and at one time when his band was ordered to play " God Save the King" he re- fused to allow the air to be given, and finally demolished some of the instruments rather than have them used in laudation of British royalty.

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 70

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

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