USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 72
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 72
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99
Peggy picked herself up and got the basket and pies and herself together again and hurried on, when down she went, pies and all in a heap this time,-the pies on top. The wolves kept near and their noise up, and Peggy and her pies kept up their falling down and getting up, until she was finally relieved by the appear- ance of Amos and the boys. They gathered the remnants of her last fall and hurried home. When they examined the contents of the basket, they found one empty pie-crust, and about a half-bushel of leaves, sticks, and twigs.
THE HAYDENS.
In the now remote time of 1828 there came into the west part of Newbury the family of Moses Hayden, consisting of himself, his wife, Elizabeth (Crane), three sons, and four daughters. One son left at the East, and the youngest daughter was later in Ohio, making nine children in all. They purchased the Hiram Cotton farm, sold at sheriff's sale, one of the best of its size in the town- ship, and became farmers.
Moses Hayden was born in Massachusetts, January 1, 1785, and died at Char- don, August 1, 1876, aged ninety-one. With the common education of a Massa- chusetts boy, he was bred a hatter, but later turned his attention to cotton manu- facturing, and became the superintendent of a cotton-mill in Ware, which he left to remove to Ohio. He had a remarkably fine tenor voice, which was well culti- vated, and he was an accomplished vocalist. A man of much force of intellect and character, unyielding in his opinions, and not a little peculiar; a man of intelligence also, he was generally esteemed, caring little for the opinions of others, and tenacious of his own ways. A Universalist in religion, a Whig and Repub- lican in politics, he was associated with Evans, Munn Utley, and Upham, as a prominent man in the old west part of Newbury.
His wife was born in Massachusetts, January 1, 1788, and died April 11, 1848, aged sixty. A blonde, attractive in youth, intelligent, with ways of her own, and esteemed as a neighbor and by her acquaintances generally.
William, the eldest, was never a resident of Ohio, and died at the west.
Albert remained in Ohio till 1825 or 1826, when he returned East, married, and lived near New York city, where he died in 1864, at the age of fifty-four.
Elbridge was bred a merchant, worked many years on his father's farm, became a member of the firm of Gardner Hayden & Weston, was in trade many years alone, in Newbury ; turned farmer, sold his farm, removed to Willoughby, and
died in 1873, aged fifty-nine. He was a man of quick, shrewd mind, of great personal strength and activity, though not above medium height. He married Eliza Moffatt, of Claridon, an attractive woman, and they became the parents of several sons and daughters. She and most of the children survive.
Caroline, the eldest daughter, was a very attractive young girl, as were her sisters. She became the wife of J. M. Riddle, known as Colonel Riddle, and by him the mother of seven children. One died in infancy, several reside in Michigan. Corwin served through the entire war, in the Seventh Ohio, and was wounded at the battle of Cedar Mountain. The oldest son is the well-known Elmer Riddle, of Chardon. The Riddles moved to Michigan, and after the death of her husband the widow became the wife of Sherman Monthrop, and resides on the farm improved by her first husband and self. She is a woman of much strength of character.
Maria, the second daughter, married John Fisk, then of Rochester, became the mother of several children, and resides near Niagara Falls.
Charles, the fourth son, and older than Mrs. Fisk, went east to Rochester, early in life, became an engineer, married, and resides there.
Catharine, the third daughter, became the wife of D. W. Stocking, now of Chardon. She lost her only child in infancy. They have a pleasant residence there on Court street.
Laura, the fourth daughter, became Mrs. Forrester Bruce, and resides also with her husband in Chardon.
Sarah, the fifth daughter, born in Ohio, became Mrs. I. N. Hathaway, and the family reside also in Chardon.
The homestead in Newbury, where some of the daughters were in maidenhood and bellehood, attracted much company. The maturity and departure of the mem- bers of this and of two or three other families of that neighborhood left the west part a solitude. The seniors sleep in the neglected little burying-place, the fourth of a mile west of the foot of Utley's hill, where I recently read their names of a lonely August Sunday afternoon. Their children and grandchildren, as already seen, are widely scattered. Three of the Hayden daughters are fortu- nate in dwelling near each other, all pleasantly established in Chardon, and of their circle is also a grandson of Moses Hayden.
ABEL FISHER
was born in Canton, Massachusetts, April, 1767, and was married to Deborah White, October, 1789. She died in August, 1802. In 1803 he married Ruth Tilden, removed to Newbury in 1818, and died there October 1, 1831, aged sixty-five. His wife, Ruth, survived him some years. Mr. Fisher purchased and built on the east and west road a mile south of the centre, just west of Punder- son's saw-mill. In his youth was a busy man ; had been abroad, and he now took charge of the saw-mill, which he managed for many years. Was a man of good mind, intelligent, of fixed notions, and precise and nice in his modes and ways. Was many years a magistrate, and much respected. He was the father of seven children. James bought land and settled in Orange, where he died. The others were named Deborah, Hannah, Abel, Jr., Sarah, Ruth, and Elizabeth. The youngest was five years old when the family reached Newbury, and the two older quite of a marriageable age. A house full of blooming daughters was an advent in Newbury, and for many years a very attractive place, until one by one they became brides and found new homes. That man is a benefactor who carries with him such a family of daughters into a new settlement. Of these, Deborah married Apolus Southworth, in July, 1820, and moved to Strongsville, where she died, leaving a family, in June, 1869. Hannah, born in 1798, became the wife of Thomas A. Munn. (See sketch of the Munns.) In her youth she was a teacher, as were each of her younger sisters. Abel, Jr., born in 1800, married Ruth Green in 1830, and died in Chagrin Falls in 1867. Sarah, born October, 1806, married Cutler Tyler in 1825, and died in March, 1867. Her husband died in April, 1857, aged sixty-two. Sarah was the mother of eight children. Of these, Ruth, Mrs. Waterton, with her husband, lives on the Tyler homestead. Some of the sons are teachers, and John Tyler is a lawyer at Cleveland. Ruth Fisher, born January 25, 1809, was married to William Munn, April, 1833, and died May 5, 1876. Elizabeth, born September 3, 1813, remains unmarried, and resides with her brother-in-law, William Munn, in Newbury.
Of these daughters it should be said they were comely women, of superior intelligence, and most worthily filled their positions in life.
WELCOME BULLOCK
was of good Massachusetts blood. His mother was a sister of Hosea Ballou, Mary ; his father was David Bullock, and he was born at Royalston, Massachusetts,
Digitized by Google
185
HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.
May 12, 1775. He and Grace Fay, of Athol, Massachusetts, were married about 1798, and he died in Newbury, February 6, 1858. She was of a good family, a daughter of Solomon Fay, born in 1776, and died in Newbury, January 28, 1842. In the war of 1812, Mr. Bullock enlisted in the company of Captain Field, at South Orange, for the war,-a strong Republican of the war party.
Immediately on his discharge, with his wife and children, Hiram, Susan, Sabra, Mary, and Luceba, he packed in a two-horse wagon, and started for the Western Reserve and reached Newbury in December, 1815. Here he took up land and built a cabin, near where now stands the house of Ray Munn, son of William Munn. Here he remained till the spring of 1818, and then purchased about a mile east of the centre, where he built his cabin, and on the farm spent his days. At the celebration of Independence in Newbury, in 1816, he delivered an oration. An ardent hater of Great Britain and the Federalists, he remained a stanch Democrat, and was appointed the first postmaster at the centre by Mr. Peirce. He was a man of powerful frame, striking features, and dark, robust, with a strong voice; of considerable intellect, he had his uncle's religious views, and used occasionally to deliver them in public.
He became a famous hunter, killed hundreds of deer, many elk, and was a trapper of bears and wolves. A story is told of his being assailed by wolves at near morning of one night in his sugar camp. He was making sugar, and boil- ing with his kettles hung between two large logs, as the old way was. He was asleep on a board on the ground. The fire had burnt out, and the forest dark and still. His old hunting dog was with him, sleeping between him and the quite-extinguished fire. Evidently the wolves crept upon him, and were about to seize him, when the dog, awaking, leaped over his prostrate form and com- menced a fierce battle with the wolves. Bullock sprung up, seized one end of the boiling log near him and turned it over with its burning side out, and by the light saw the wolves as they fled into the woods. Had he been alone, notwith- standing his immense strenth, they doubtless would have overcome and devoured him.
He was a noted man in the days of old Newbury, and many anecdotes of him and his hunting exploits could be told. Hiram was an ingenious mechanic ; in time he built new buildings, and also a grist-mill, near where the present saw-mill of Abiather Alexander stands. He also was a hunter, and remained unmarried.
Susan hecame the wife of Dud Loveland, Jr. Sabra died as she was about to be married. Mary became Mrs. Sirenus Hawley. Luceba was the first wife of Roswell Jones. All of these are deceased years ago.
James Monroe Bullock was born November 1, 1817, in Newbury, the youngest and sole survivor of the family. He grew up in Newbury and became the owner of the farm. In May, 1842, he married Grace Ann Bittles, of Newbury. In 1860 he sold the old farm and moved to Chagrin Falls, where he still lives ; is a man of much intelligence, and an enthusiast in matters of pioneer history.
JUSTIN ALEXANDER.
" Uncle Aleck"-" The Dominie" in old-time Newbury, was a native of Ver- mont, born in 1774, married to Aseneth, in 1796, and died in Newbury July, 1854, at eighty years of age. The wife, born in 1777, died in November, 1860, at eighty-three. Of these were born Abiathur, who lives in Newbury ; Triphene, the wife of Levi Savage; Orpha, the wife of Alvin Hyde; Luther, Joseph, Vin- cent, Mahalia, Julia, and Justin, Jr., also a resident of Newbury.
The family lived for a time in Canada; settled in Newbury in October, 1817, in the west part, and removed to Fullertown in 1827.
Mr. Alexander was a man of short stature, stoutish, with a large, well-formed head, and a face beaming with serenity, sweetness, and benevolence. Of fair mental faculties, and richly endowed with the moral and humane elements. He had little culture. A devout believer in the Christian revelation, and the mission of Jesus to save the world. No gloss of Scripture, no Calvinistic logic, could ever persuade him that the Father would not in the end manage to have his way in spite of the devil and orthodox clergy. His study was the New Testament. Simple, devout, trusting as a child, he would preach not only on Sundays, but week- days, and all the time, by the wayside, in the neighbor's house, and always his theme, the marvelous goodness, the measureless mercy, and boundless power of the Father. Unitarian, and of a shade who believed that men would be punished in another world if need be, but finally restored to God and bliss.
His homilies on this aspect of the gospels were often effective, often tender, and sometimes beautiful. Dear, fond, simple, pure, old, childish heart and soul ! Brave old warrior against the dogma of cruelty and vengeance of the Creator ! Steady, hopeful, restful, adorer of Supreme Goodness and final happiness. There are many pleasant memories of gatherings, of summer Sundays, in log school- houses, flavored with the fragrance of withered leafy boughs, warm sun, and the
good man laboring with some, at times baffling argument, with his bald head, covered with a homespun cotton- and linen-checked pocket-handkerchief, and the perspiration streaming down his broad, laboring forehead. Then came the sing- ing,-bass, by Ainos Upham ; tenor, by Moses Hayden and Jerry Evans; and treble, by Mrs. Utley, Mrs. Riddle, and one or two others; and then out and away, over the pleasant hills, through forest roads, to the rude but delightful . homes of the old Newbury, now forever departed save from regretful memory.
THOMAS FULLER,
a native of England, and born January 27, 1782, was bred a millwright, emi- grated to the United States, and married Rachel Moore about 1804. They settled at Kirtland Flats in 1811, and thence removed to the northwest corner of New- bury, Geauga County, in 1821 or 1822. A house had been built in that neigh- borhood by Roswell Manchester in 1816, but never occupied, and it is said that Fuller found a man by the name of Rima or Rema residing there; otherwise it was an unpeopled region. He was drawn to this point by the fine water-power of the Chagrin river. Here he purchased two hundred acres of land, of what was known as the windfall, the timber having been swept down by one of the earlier tornadoes mentioned in the sketches of Chester and Newbury. Here, with as much dispatch as the raw condition of the country would permit, he built and started " Fuller's mill," a famous corn- and wheat-grinder in that old time, having two run of little stones, made in Burton, and hauled around by way of Maple hill through the woods. Later he erected a saw-mill, and at a later day still he rebuilt the flouring-mill, with all the later improvements, also set up a carding- machine and cloth-dressing shop, and finally a small woolen-factory.
All these works were of great importance at the period when erected, and were of the utmost advantage to the country, and Fuller is to be remembered as quite a benefactor.
Fuller was a man of ingenuity and skill as a mechanic, of courage, enterprise, and intelligence, and well esteemed in his day.
The neighborhood soon settled with rather a rough class, and for many years bore a reputation for rudeness not at all due to any example set by Mr. Fuller or his numerous family. Mr. Fuller successfully prosecuted business, at this point, and died in Newbury March 8, 1863, aged eighty-one.
His wife, born June 14, 1786, died May 25, 1863, a touching instance of how necessary each of a long and truly married pair becomes to the other, and how soon the bereaved one droops and follows the first to depart.
AMPLIAS GREEN,
eldest son of Winslow Green, an early settler in the east part of Newbury, was born in 1802, in Wayne county, New York. Louisa Fox, daughter of John Fox, of Fox's Corners, Troy, was born February 22, 1804, in New Hampshire. These two were married at Troy, June 25, 1826, and commenced keeping house on the farm of the husband, on the south road, a little more than a mile west of the State road, soon after. This was in the neighborhood of Cutler Tyler, John Ran- dolph, and Eliphalet Gay. Here they lived, worked, and passed all their useful lives till ripe years, when they moved on to the State road, in what has long been called South Newbury. He was many years the captain of a company of militia, and known as Captain Green.
Mr. Green was a man of peculiar intellectual structure, acute and shrewd, with considerable ability and much intelligence. He early made profession of ortho- dox religious faith ; was a zealous promoter of Sunday-schools, temperance, and kindred causes; was one of the foremost in the erection of the brick church, and was a pillar of strength in the church organization that worshiped there. From being a Puritan of the Puritans, he grew tolerant of differences of opinion, and gladly acknowledged the good he found in the men of other faiths, or of none. A kindly, warm-hearted man, good neighbor, and faithful friend, he died at South Newbury, April 7, 1874, aged seventy-two. His wife, now seventy-four, resides with two of the daughters at South Newbury ; has been a woman of an active life, devoted to her family, and in harmony with her husband's faith and life.
Of their ten children, seven survive. Harlan, a son, occupies the farm home- stead. The other sons reside in the west. Two of the daughters, residing at South Newbury, are active members of the Woman's Suffrage Association ; very intelligent, and devoted in the maintenance of the enlightened reformatory move- ments of the day.
Amplias Green is intimately associated with the memories of the older Newbury, -dear to many.
Digitized by
TROY TOWNSHIP.
THIS was formerly called Welshfield, from Jacob Welsh, a proprietor, and the first settler. This, like all the south part of the county, constituted a part of the original district of Middlefield. In 1806 so much of that district as was then in the county of Geauga-the twelve southern townships was by the county commissioners erected into the township of Burton, and were to hold the first election in the academy on Burton square.
An order of the county commissioners-of which no record is found-of March 6, 1820, severed the township from Burton, and it became an independent organ- ization.
The records of the commissioners, under date of December, 1834, contain the following :
"The petition of a majority of the electors of Welshfield township was pre- sented, praying that the name of said township may be changed; and the same having been read and heard and grunted, it was resolved that the said township be hereafter known by the name of Troy."
On the map of the Reserve Troy is known as township six, range eight. . It lies next south of Burton, with Parkman on the east and Auburn on the west. The south is the line of Portage county, dividing it from Hiram township.
Three main roads traverse it north and south: one through its centre and the others, one through its eastern and the other through its western section ; also a main road east and west through the centre, where is a considerable village, on a high swell east of the Cuyahoga river, pleasantly situated, and which commands a wide and beautiful outlook. From the village runs a road southeast to the village of Parkman, with other roads, at convenient distances, through the township. There is also a pleasant little ville in the southeastern corner of the township, called " Grove."
The Cuyahoga from Burton enters the township a little west of the middle, and runs a uniform course through it, making a short irregular bend eastward a little south of the centre, but shortly returns and pursues its journey southward. Owing to the sandstone formation, which crops out at the rapids in Hiram, the river through Troy is sluggish, and is bordered with more marshy and waste land than can be found in all the county besides. Within the last few years, at a considerable expense, the channel at the rapids has been deepened, much land reclaimed,and the township improved by it.
At an earlier day there was a long and bitter feud between the residents on the river border in Troy and the proprietors of the water-power at the rapids, where the dam was supposed to increase the water on their lands, producing diseases, with other injuries.
Soon after its entrance into Troy the river receives the considerable Bridge creek, also two tributaries north, and two south of the centre from the east, while a branch of Grand river rises in the southeast corner, running south. With many fine springs and streamlets, Troy is well supplied with water.
Like Burton, Troy is rolling, with many ridge-like swells, giving pleasant variety and ample surface-drainage, save the marshy grounds of the Cuyahoga river. Like all the adjoining country, its surface was covered by heavy timber, with an abundance suited for all building and farming purposes. In soil Troy is quite the equal of Auburn, and the two are deemed the best in the county. In estimated wealth Troy is quite the equal of any.
The woods along the Cuyahoga were a favorite cover and haunt of the natives, and the venerable Mrs. Pike gives the current account of the final disposition of the few who, relying on the treaty stipulation, ventured back to their old camping- and hunting-grounds after the war. In substance, that six of them camped near the rapids, when Captain Mills, who had been a prisoner to the British during the war, and with whom he saw them in their war-paint, threatened them if they returned. He collected five more soldiers and hunters, stole upon them, and at a signal, shot five of them by their camp-fire. The sixth rifle missed fire. The sixth Indian fled down the river, leaped a narrow place, but was dispatched. As the legend ran, a short time afterwards a hunter came upon a pile of logs and earth near the rapids, into which he penetrated, till he came upon the heads of five Indians.
The names of the Reddings, of Hiram, Captain Edwards, of Mantua, McFar- land and MeConoughey, of Harrington, the Judds, and many others, have been connected with the supposed fate of the Indians. The version of Mrs. Pike has
it that there was some boasting of popping over the Indians, and so much said that the governor of Ohio issued a proclamation offering a reward for the appre- hension of the slayers, when nothing more was said about it. J. M. Bullock, of Chagrin Falls, a zealous collector of pioneer incidents, says that there is also a well-defined legend of another camp of returned Indians on the Chagrin, in Orange, after the war, who would have fallen by the avengers' rifles, but that one of the elder Burnetts, an early settler on the Chagrin, where the Cleveland road east through the centre of Russell crosses it, gave them timely warning, and they probably escaped.
About the year 1819 or 1820 the high ridge of the then timbered land along the east bank of the Cuyahoga, quite across Troy, was seized upon by the innu- merable millions of the passenger pigeons for a roost, covering hundreds of acres, where nightly, for two or three years, streams, and clouds, and storms of them came from all their feeding-grounds in the wide slopes of beech-woods all over the then western world, lighting in such incredible numbers on the trees that their sheer weight broke down many of the largest, especially those that leaned & little. The noise of their coming and departing was as the roar of a mighty tempest, and at a distance sounded like smothered thunder. As may be supposed, the settlers far and near, with whom food was the predominating need, came and slaughtered the helpless things by hundreds and thousands,-a thing easily accom- plished,-these they salted and used as a staple of food.
No one who has never seen the flights of these beautiful birds, or their multitu- dinous assemblage in the beech-woods in the autumn, can form the faintest con- ception of their numbers and appearance. All the afternoon a solid black mass like a wide, dark thunder-cloud, would lie across the horizon, from middle afternoon till twilight deepened to night,-one mighty onsweeping tide of beating wings and gold and azure burnished breasts, outspeeding a hurricane in flight,-sometimes passing directly over head, and darkening the whole heavens with their fleeing clouds on their way to the roost, wherever it was. The corresponding morning flights were not in such continuous masses, though not less numerous. At places the flight would be so near a hill, or the living torrent would in places bend down so near the earth, that a man with a long pole could kill them, and men and boys with sticks and stones, at chosen points, slew great numbers of them. It was no unusual thing to find a wide extent of beech-forest ground covered with them, where they would scarcely rise at the near approach of a man. I have seen a man-a sportsman he could not be called-armed with a single-barreled shot-gun, approach a feeding mass, which would rise in a solid bank of throbbing blue, and with the noise of thunder just before him, receive his fire, light immediately down, to again rise, and in thirty minutes a farmer's corn-basket was filled with the slaughtered innocents. Pages of veracious accounts of them and their num- bers would fail to convey an idea of their multitudes, and doubtless fail to win credit with the incredulous reader.
SETTLEMENT .*
Jacob Welsh and his daughter were the conceded first settlers. They left Bos- ton, Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1810, reached and wintered in Burton, which had then been settled twelve years. The ensuing spring he went into the woods of the township, built a cabin, and commenced occupation. His father was one of the proprietors, and he came on as his, and the agent of David Hinck- ley and other land-owers, at a salary of one thousand dollars a year for five years, to survey, open the country, develop the property, and invite settlers.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.