History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 76

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

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 76
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 76

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).

AUBURN TOWNSHIP.

"Loveliest village of the plain."-Goldsmith's Deserted Village.

AUBURN is in the same range-eight-with Chardon, with Munson and New- bury between them. On the south lies Mantua, in Portage county, with Troy on the east and Bainbridge on the west, and was known as township six. There is said to be no record of any order of the county commissioners in reference to the name or organization of Auburn save that of March, 1817, by which it is spoken of as Troy.

At the time of the first settlement the township was divided into three tracts by lines east and west, as were all the others. The north was owned by Judge Mills and others. Of the middle tract, Solomon Cowles had over a thousand acres of the east part. Then came the Ely tract, equal to the Cowles. Next his was the Kirtland tract, of two thousand four hundred acres, covering the centre ; west and adjoining was the Root tract, of one thousand acres, between which and the township-line was the Miller tract, of one thousand acres. The south third, known as the Atwater tract, was long held out of the market, which greatly retarded the settlement of the township, and was known as the " Mantua woods."

As will be seen by reference to the history of Chardon, Auburn was esteemed as an extra good township.

The only water-course that can be called a stream is Bridge creek, rising in the southwesterly part of Newbury, which runs through the westerly part of Auburn, makes a wide circular sweep south and east of the centre, flows north- easterly, gathering in the waters of five or six unnamed tributaries, and passes the east line north of the centre; on its winding way receives the waters of Punderson's and two smaller ponds in Burton, in the borders of Troy, and unites with the sluggish Cuyahoga in that township. Another small branch of the Cuyahoga flows out of the southeast corner, as does a confluent of the Cha- grin, from the southwest. Auburn has many fine springs, and there, as generally through the county, wells are easily sunk to intervening waters.

The township is quite as level as any township in the county, with the excep- tion of Montville, which it does not greatly resemble in this respect, while portions of that has that level which means flat. Auburn abounds in wide and bean- tiful slopes and graceful swells, with pleasant shallow valleys of considerable beauty, with hardly one elevation rising to the dignity of a hill. The Bridge

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H. MILLS

187€.

RESIDENCE or HOMER MILLS, AUBURN TP., GEAUGA CO., OHIO.

LITH. BY L. H. EVERTS, PHILA. PA.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

creek valley is quite attractive, especially in the eastern part of Auburn, where it runs northerly, while the Cuyahoga near it, in the same valley, runs south.

SOIL-TIMBER-PRODUCTIONS.

In soil, the township, as a whole, is equal to the most favored in the county. It has very little poor, no waste, and much of the most fertile land known to that region. Her forests had a splendid growth of the usual varieties, especially chestnut, oak, and whitewood in abundance. There was an early impression that, with the change of the soil incident to culture or its want, the Geauga lands would cease to bear wheat in remunerative crops,-w delusion passing away with the rude, ruinous, unsystematic course of tillage which everywhere prevailed. Auburn always produced fine wheat, while much of its lands, with a sprinkling of sand, grew the most satisfactory crops of corn and other grains, grasses, and fruits.

SETTLEMENT AND SETTLERS, 1815.

One peculiarity may be mentioned as common to the colonization of the Western Reserve, which distinguishes it from all other remembered first occupa- tions of wild countries by civilized peoples. The approved method was to select some favorable point, easiest of access from the flourishing State or nation, usually on the coast of a sea or great river, which gave means of approach, and gradually extended inland. In our instance, the lake had little to do with it. Its beach furnished a wave-beaten highway to the toiling horses and slow, patient oxen, otherwise, until made accessible by the Erie canal, in 1824 or 1825, it could and did act no part in the early peopling of the Reserve. Doubtless had the territory been infested by bands of hostile Indians, the old usage of beginning at a common point for defense and military excursion would have been followed. So, too, had all the land been holden by a State, a single company, or one great individual proprietor, during the time of colonization, the settlements beginning and clustering around a common centre, in time would have extended from it over the whole.

Although purchased by a company, instead of colonizing, its members at once divided the purchase, and dissolved. It was an association to buy, and not to sell and occupy. Upon the division, each owner was anxious to sell, and sought purchasers at once-took worn and worthless eastern lands in exchange, and this was the reason why, within the space of twenty years, simultaneously in the lives of nations, every part of the vast forest-covered territory was seized upon at various independent points. This competition of sellers made the lands cheap. Each individual purchaser at once, without concert with his fellows, pushed off to the western wilds, for the lot he had secured ; and this simultaneous and yet isolated occupation of so vast a region, so remote from the parent stock, subjected each pioneer to the hardships, privations, and perils of a first settler, which would have been measurably avoided had the colonization been managed by the State or a powerful company, or had there been general concert among the pioneers.

The settlement of Auburn dates from 1815, and there were then rudimentary improvements, mills, and sources of supplies, and slight channels of communi- cation from her forest, out and away, to the remote world. The story of her settlement is a transcript of all the rest. Here, as elsewhere, I can do little but register the arrivals in her woods for the fifteen first years of her existence, with a word or two of the more noted individuals.

Bildad Bradley is said to have been the first settler, and in the northeast part, near the Newbury line, a little west of the old State road. Here he built the first dwelling. He was a brother of Adonijah Bradley, an earlier settler in what is now called South Newbury, where he resided for two or three years, when he moved across the line.

This same year, 1815, Zadock Reuwees and John Jackson arrived from Massa- chusetts, and took up land south of Bradley, made some little improvements, returned and brought on their families the same year. Reuwecs' wife was a daugh- ter of Oliver Siner. At an early day the house near the present homestead on the State road was burned, and consumed the only child, of which a sad legend used to be told by the cabin fires, in the olden time. Two other sons were born and the Reuwees were a prosperous, respected, and well-to-do family. The sur- viving son, Lorenzo S., occupies the old homestead. John Jackson built his house south of Reuwees', got well a-going, and died early. His widow became the second wife of J. M. Burnett, of Newbury. The eldest daughter became Mrs. Gilbert; a younger one Mrs. Jenks, both of Newbury, where Mrs. Jenks still resides, and her twin sister became Mrs. Calvin P. Henry, of Bainbridge. Of the sons, Edward is a farmer, John resides at Newbury, and Anson died at the west leaving a family.

William Craft was the fourth settler. At twenty-five a widower, with a child to care for, he journeyed from New York west, on foot. In Chardon he found Norman Canfield digging the first well. He went south on the " newly-cut road," then impassable for teams. Stayed at Judge Storr's in Newbury. The next house

Was " Uncle Sam. Barker's," east of Punderson's Pond. Passing on, he found respectively, Lemuel Punderson's and Joshua M. Burnett's, and then came to Harn- det Coe's, by the little stream south, with Adonijah Bradley's wheelwright-shop on the other side of the brook. Going south he came to our first settler, Bildad. This was the last day of August, 1815. He purchased the whole of the Ely tract, one thousand one hundred and seventy-six acres, of Punderson, the agent. Returned to Gorham, Ontario county, married the widow Hayes, January 9, 1816, and a month later started for Ohio, with his family, accompanied by John Craft and Joe Keyes. They reached Auburn before the middle of March. He now relinquished his purchase, except four hundred acres, which covers what is now called Auburn Corners, the most considerable place in the township. Mr. Craft became a prosperous man, quite widely known, and died in 1876 at Newbury, eighty-seven years of age .* Of a considerable family of children, Edward, born August, 1822, and married to Helen Johnson, of Newbury, in June, 1845, now owns and resides on the homestead, one of the largest and most valuable farms in the county.

During the spring of 1816, David Smith and Morgan Orton, from Connecticut, and Ethan Brewer, from Massachusetts, came in and took up land. The two first bought the rest of the Ely tract, and Brewer went west of it, on the Root truct, for land. Smith lived and died respected in Auburn. His son David, equally respected, resides in Chagrin Falls. Benjamin Wood came from Palmyra, New York, in November of that year, and moved Elihu Mott into Newbury. Mr. Wood bought out Orton, went back to Palmyra, and returned accompanied by Charles Hinckley, Amasa Turner, Philip Ingler, and James Benjamin. These young men were prospecting for land in Ohio. Though quite at middle life, Mr. Wood exhibited great energy, erected a comfortable house of hewed, split logs, on the State road, north of the corners. Wood, Hinckley, and Turner returned to New York for their families, with whom they returned in February, 1817. Hinckley and Turner bought north, on the Mills tract, built and occupied their houses. Both of these men and their wives passed away, though descendants remain. Lewis Turner, the eldest son of Amasa, resides in Mantua, and a son of Hinckley keeps a hotel at the Mantua station. Amaziah Keyes and John Cutler, with their families, came in March following. Keyes bought and built on the south end of the Ely tract, and Cutler bought west of the centre, on the Kirt- land tract, where he lived many years. From there he moved to Black Run, and subsequently to Newbury, where he lived a respected man till his death. Of his numerous and very intelligent family few remain. Sally is the wife of Phineas Upham, and the youngest son, John, is a citizen of Troy, With Cutler came David Walker, now one of the last of the pioneers living in Newbury, where he settled. I find on the county duplicate containing the names of the owners of personal property, horses and cattle, the name of Daniel Whelock, who settled in Auburn, as the owner of one head of cattle. The names of the Auburn men occur with Bainbridge. I also find the name of Lorin Snow, who must have been in Auburn, as the owner of one taxable kine kind. I subjoin this list as a curious and instructive relic of that time :

Assessment.

Name of Owner.

Horses.

Cattle.

Dolls. Cts,

Bradley, Bildad.

Cutler, John

Crafts, Wm ...

...

3343 ?

Jackson, John

Keyes, Am.

Reuwees, Z

Smith, D

...

Snow, L

...

Turner, A.

Wood, B

Wheelock, D

...

Total

$5 30

There is something a little puzzling about this duplicate, The assessment must be the tax. There was, as will be remembered, in each township an officer called a lister, and he and another were the appraisers. These together fixed the valua- tion, and the duplicate shows the property and tax, omitting the valuation. After- wards a statute put horses at the valuation of forty dollars, and cattle at eight dollars per head.

Loren Snow and Wheelock were from Massachusetts, as was John Mowrey, all young men. Snow married one of A. M. Burnett's daughters, and Mowrey one of the Antisdale girls.

George W. Antisdale, of Farmington, N. Y., visited Auburn, on horseback, in 1817, and purchased three hundred acres of land, in the Kirtland tract, em- ployed Benjamin Wood to put up a split-and-hewn log house, such as Wood built for himself, and returned about the middle of the next January ; he started with his family and goods for the home in the woods. The family was a wife and ten children; with them went A. Harrington and family, seven in all, and Gilmore, three

* He wrote a sketch of Auburn for the Geauga Democrat, December, 1868.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

more, making a party of twenty-one. To transport the goods there were two large canvas-covered ox-sleds, and for the people two large roomy, covered sleighs, drawn by horses. A crowd of old friends came to see the train start, and say the final good-bye. A small herd of cows were driven in advance, to subsist the party, and commence in the woods with. One of the sons, then a lad of ten, George W., gives a graphic account of the journey, which occupied nineteen days. Hard- ships awaited them as well. The senior Antisdale had hardly started in the woods, when he sickened and died. The mother first hired Arnold Harrington, and then married him, to the disgust of the elder children. Meantime the eldest sister died, and darkness and distress came upon them. Finally, the boys who left, returned, and things went well with them. G. W. Antisdale, Jr., now an aged, well-to-do man, resides at Chagrin Falls.

The Harringtons settled in Auburn. No account is given of Gilmore.

Pardon Wilber purchased on the Root tract, on Bridge creek. He was a most worthy man, father of William and George, and grandfather of Professor Wilbor, the geologist. Joseph Bartholomew came and went on to the same tract. Lewis Findlay and John Bosworth came in the fall of the same year. Findlay settled west on the Mills tract. Bosworth went on to a part of Wood's land. He was a God-fearing man, which seems to distinguish him from those who pre- ceded him. Something of an exhorter was he, and "Uncle Bill" (William Craft), without so saying, would seem to wish to have one believe he was little short of a preacher outright. It was high time, Auburn, then two years old, began to heed her ways. In the early part of 1818, came Elliott Craft and Jeremiah White, from Ontario county, New York, which furnished a good many to Auburn. They bought, built, brought on their families, and became residents; also, Austin Richards, who settled on the Mills tract near Jackson. He became much of a man, and a son lives on the old farm. In that or the next year came Ephraim Wright, who bought out John Cutler. He must have been followed by his brother, David, not long after. Ephraim afterwards, in 1835, sold to Gilbert Hinkly, a brother of Charles, and father of Charles D. and Jerome.

J. P. Bartholomew came in 1819, was a blacksmith, the first in Auburn, and was soon after followed by Roswell Rice, also a smith. Rice bought a place at the Corners, built a house and shop, sold out and went to Newbury, from which place he went to Mantua.

In 1819 or 1820, Oliver Snow must have come from Massachusetts, and bought just south of Reuwees. He built on the crown of a swell, on the west side of the road, sheltered by a grove of second growth, after one of the tornadoes. Here he and his wife lived and died. He was a man of wealth and influence. One daughter was Mrs. Zadok Reuwees, already mentioned. The other was Mrs. Jonathan Burnett, now a widow, and resides at the Corners. Loren, mentioned before, married a daughter of J. M. Burnett, of Newbury, and built, lived, and died just opposite the elder Snow's. The younger, Alvirus, married, became very wealthy, and with his wife, still lives pleasantly, a little farther south, on the State road. Oliver Snow and Benjamin Wood were famous debaters of Scrip- ture, of which both entertained latitudinarian notions, and each in his way was a marked man.

Henry Canfield was an early resident of the township. He was a carpenter and a man of influence; built mills, and afterwards built a large flouring-mill at the Rapids, in Hiram, which involved him in an expensive lawsuit with the people of Troy, and others, who claimed that his dam flooded the before almost dead water, back on their lands, and produced malarious diseases. His son, Hiram, who married Sally, a daughter of Asa Robinson, of Newbury, purchased land in the Atwater tract, and became a wealthy and highly respected man. John Morey also became a settler on that tract, as did one of the Hinckleys and J. P. Bartholomew ; also some of the Reeds, from Mantua,-Lewis and Oril,- and many others from elsewhere. W. H. Mills, from Mantua, and others.

It is impossible to trace further the annals with clearness. A large number of Staffords came, as did more Crafts. There were the Frazers below the Corners, and the valley, along the northeast border, filled up. John Clark, with a row of sons, came; also the Ways, on the north border, and the Barnes. The Websters were there before. Curtis Waterman, now of Troy, must have been an early settler, and Uncle Job Warren, the Quaker, and John Brown moved into Au- burn from Newbury. There were the Ensigns and the Hoards. Russel Harring- ton and his brother were among the early settlers, as was Amos Palmer and his son-in-law, S. L. Wadsworth.

Auburn early put on the appearance of an old and well-settled country, and her people have always sustained a high reputation for intelligence and good order, and have had a fair influence in the affairs of the county.

It is said that of the pioneers of Auburn, resident of the township, Jeremiah White and his wife are the oldest. They are aged respectively-the husband eighty-three and the wife seventy-eight. They came into Auburn in 1818, and are now pleasantly living a little west of Auburn Corners, and still care for and

provide for themselves and each other. The hand that gathered so much was niggard of more, and prevents an outline sketch of these venerable lingerers on the borders of the oldest of time.

ORGANIZATION.

At their March session, 1817, the commissioners of the county made an order which declares, among other things, " The towns known by the name Kentstown and Troy, or No. 6 in the ninth range (Bainbridge), and No. 6 in the eighth range (Auburn), be declared a separate township by the union of Bainbridge." It thus appears that Auburn was known on the county records by the name of Troy, of which no tradition ever before reached me. It has generally been sup- posed that this order had reference to the present Troy. This is an error; that was never attached to Bainbridge, and was then called Welshfield, while the tax duplicate above referred to, for 1817, included the people and property of Auburn, with that of Bainbridge as part of it. They are also included in the duplicate for 1818. (See history of Bainbridge.) It was pursuant to this order that the residents of both townships met at the house of Ethan Brewer, over west of the centre of Auburn, and held their first election on the first Monday of April, 1817. At this election Ethan Brewer was elected justice of the peace. It was not by any means a ceremonious thing, and Uncle Bill mentions that the man who owned the house, where the election was held, got it. He did seem to have had an advantage. One man must have been rude indeed, even for that free time, who would go into a neighbor's house for a social election and vote against him for justice of the peace, as a majority, I am glad to say, did not, and I can assure my readers that Esquire E. Brewer was a worthy good man, well and favorably known. Enos Kingsley, of Bainbridge (Kentstown, from G. H. Kent), was elected clerk, and I fail to be informed who were elected to the other offices. It has not been brought to my notice when Auburn was severed from Bainbridge, and came to be called Auburn, nor how she came to be called Auburn. Even Uncle Bill throws no light on that. Her people were assessed in 1818, as in the year before; the only old duplicates saved from the burning of the old court-house, as I am informed by Mr. E. V. Canfield, who picked them up; uor has the record of the first or early towuship elections been brought to my notice.

The first marriage in Auburn was that of Betsey Keyes to Samuel Moore, of Mantua, by Ethan Brewer, justice of the peace. The wedding took place at the residence of the bride's father, the 25th day of December, 1817.

The second marriage was that of Morgan Orton to Rebecca Moore, by the Rev. Luther Humphrey, of Burton, at the residence of Wm. Craft, in Auburn, in the winter of 1819.

The first white child born in Auburn was Jeremiah Craft, son of Wm. Craft. He was born in a log house, south of Auburn Corners, on the farm now owned by his son, Edward Craft.

The first death was that of George W. Antisdale, in September, 1818 or 1819. The second death was that of John Craft, and occurred a few years later.

The first frame barn was built by John Jackson in 1816, this being the first framed building erected in town.

The first school-house was built on the road running north from Auburn Cor- ners, in the fall of 1818, and Charles Hodkins was the first schoolmaster.

The second school-house was a split and hewed log house, built on the south- east corner (at the Corners), where W. N. White's store now stands. This house was burned; how it took fire no one seems to know. However, religious meet- ings had been held there, and rumor said it was the work of the enemies of the cause. A few years after this, the district being divided, a framed house was built at the centre, and one about one-third of a mile east of Auburn Corners. These four houses were built by subscription. In course of time there were other school-houses built in various parts of the town, as the people required.

SCHOOLS .*

The first school-house was built in the southeast corner of Auburn Corners, where White's store now stands, by William Crafts, of hewed logs, in 1821. William Crafts taught the first school in this house. Betsy Smith taught the year previous in the log house of David Smith, Sr., one mile north of the Corners. The schools were sustained many years by subscription. Later, Martha Stone and Marian Ensign taught with a good deal of credit. In 1838, J. W. Gray, afterwards editor of the Plain Dealer, taught with some credit.

In 1845 and 1846, Rufus Dutton taught a select school at the Corners. The marked period of the educational interest of Auburn began in 1842, when Wes- ley Vincent began a select school in the red store in the Corner. Vincent taught with great credit to himself, from 1842 to 1847. Afterwards, the services of

* A note from B. F. L., Auburn.

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RESIDENCE OF GEORGE SQUIRE, AUBURN TO, GEAUGA CO, 0.

FEED MILL

AUBURN BOX WORKS & PLANING MILL, GEO.W.STAFFORD, PROP. AUBURN TP. GEAUGA CO., O.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

Clark Williams were secured to teach a select school in a shop just south of the red store, on the corner; and from 1850 to 1853, Job Fish taught with success. Our township records back of 1827 have been sold, I understand, for paper rags, -a very funny thing for the clerk to do,-and I find it difficult to give facts, for that reason. In 1838 there were five hundred and twenty scholars enrolled between the ages of four and twenty ; in 1877, between the ages of six and twenty-one, only one hundred and sixty-two. In 1853 the township was divided into twelve dis- tricts. In 1878 there were only seven districts. In September, 1877, the board of education adopted the following series of books : Ray's New Practical Arithmetic, McGuffey's Readers, Harvey's Grammar, and the Eclectic Geography. We have now in general use a uniform system of text-books.

The amount of appropriations made by the board for school purposes during the past few years ranges from eight hundred dollars to twelve hundred dollars. The fact is, that our schools are so scattered, and there are so few scholars, that they are shiftlessly managed.

CHURCHES.

For the first few years there was very little preaching in Auburn. Occasion- ally a missionary passing through would give the people an old-time sermon or two, such as would do some of our aristocratic churches of the present day good to hear. John Bosworth, who came in 1817, was a Christian professor, and some- times led devotional exercises ; but not until 1820 or 1821 was there much done in the way of church matters, when Rev. Mr. Plympton, then a young man of great energy and zeal, held meetings frequently at the centre of the town. There followed a great awakening among the people, and many experienced remission of sins, as they claimed, and were made happy in the Lord. Mr. Plympton was a Methodist, and conducted his meetings in his own peculiar way, holding services in school-houses and log cabins about the neighborhood, wherever a company could be convened, preaching to a half-dozen or more, according to circumstances. He was considered a very earnest, pious young man. About this time, there was a Baptist minister of the name of Abbott, who often preached to the people, and we believe established a society of the close-communion order. There were by this time other Methodist and Baptist ministers, who held meetings in the neigh- borhood wherever a few people could be got together. In about 1822 a Methodist minister moved his family into town, by the name of Wm. Brown. "He labored faithfully." There was a wonderful revival as the result of his labors; many of the people became converted,-men, women, and children. He established a Methodist church at the centre of the town. We believe their building was a log structure. Shortly after this there was a church organized in town, called the Disciple church. They built a house also at the centre of the town. In about 1835 or 1836 there was a Free-will Baptist society organized in Auburn. They built a framed building a little west of Auburn Corners, just on the summit of the hill. The two churches-Methodist and Baptist-at present occupy the same building for worship on alternate Sabbaths.

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 76

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

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