USA > Ohio > Huron County > History of Huron County, Ohio, Its Progress and Development, Volume I > Part 2
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In 1685 Louis XIV., of France, revoked the "Edict of Nantes" the charter of Huguenot liberties. Those reactionary measures placed the brightest intellects of Europe at the mercy of bigotry and intolerance and drove the independent, brainy men of many faiths and nationalities to this new world to find and estab- lish civil and religious liberty. The descendants of the composite race thus be- gotten, formed the finest body of creative statesmen since the days of "Moses the Lawgiver" and gave this country the proud title of "The Beacon Light of Liberty."
In 1779, George III., in an effort to check and destroy this new spirit of liberty which was challenging the "Divine Right of Kings to Rule" sent Gov- ernor Tryon and Benedict Arnold with an army into Connecticut that des- troyed Greenwich, Fairfield, Danbury, Ridgefield, Norwalk, New Haven, East Haven, New London and Groton by fire.
September 13, 1786, Connecticut ceded to the United States for the benefit of herself and the twelve other states, all of the King Charles grant lying west of a line parallel to, and one hundred and twenty miles west, from the west line of Pennsylvania. (West boundaries of Huron and Erie counties.) The one hundred and twenty mile strip was reserved from that concession of Con- necticut and has ever since been known as "The Western Reserve."
In 1792, the state of Connecticut, to reimburse those of her citizens who suffered loss by the Tryon-Arnold raid, dedicated five hundred thousand acres of land lying next to the west line of "The Western Reserve" (Huron and Erie counties, or Huron county as first organized). This grant to the fire sufferers is known as "The Firelands." Disputes arose between the grantors and the United States relating to the ownership of the land. May 30, 1800, the United States ceded the land titles to the fire sufferers and the representa- tives of the "Reserve" transferred the political jurisdiction to the general gov- ernment. The Indian title was extinguished by treaty July 4, 1805, on payment of eighteen thousand nine hundred and sixteen dollars and sixty-seven cents.
Thomas Comstock, of New Canaan, Connecticut, after the British raid, ex- tended shelter and such assistance as he could to many of the Norwalk suffer-
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ers. To repay his kindness, Simeon Raymond and Gould Hoyt released to him their claims in the Firelands, aggregating six hundred and twenty-three pounds, fifteen shillings and three and one-half pence, which under the plan of distrib- ution made Mr. Comstock the owner of lots numbers twenty-four to thirty-eight containing one thousand three hundred and sixty-one acres in the second section, and lots numbers fifty to fifty-six containing six hundred and eighty-four and one-quarter acres in the third section of Norwalk. In 1806, Nathan S. Com- stock, son of Thomas, came on to look at and locate his father's lands but failed to find them. Early in the spring of 1809, bringing with him from Connecticut, Darius Ferris and Elijah Hoyt, he was more successful and found the land.
Milan was then Pequattiag. a Moravian Indian village. The Indians were very friendly and gave the pioneers the use of their mission house until they could build a home for themselves. This home was made of logs, with a "puncheon" door ; its roof of "shakes;" its bedsteads were bunks made of poles driven into ciefts between the logs: its mattresses of sacks stuffed with leaves and moss ; its floor of mother earth; its cooking range a brass kettle hung on a pole supported on two crotched stakes; its window lights of greased paper. It was no palace, but rough and strong and made for service, like the strong- willed, iron-handed men who built it; it was a home, the first home of Norwalk. It stood a few rods northeast from the "Old State Road" brick schoolhouse, and near the remains of one of "Johnny Appleseed's" old apple trees and was the birthplace of Thomas Comstock, the first white child born in Norwalk, in August, 1812.
In returning to his old home after his family, in the fall of 1809, Nathan S. Comstock encountered such exposure as to impair his health and he never re- turned. but sold his possessions to Abijah, his brother, who made them his home in 1810. Abijah became the first county treasurer of Huron county. After he had collected the taxes, friends successfully importuned loans of money promis- ing repayment in time for his settlement with the county commissioners. As is usual in such cases, they failed to make good. When confronted with his de- falcation, he lost no time in returning to his old home, mortgaged all his Nor- walk property back to his brother, Nathan S. : came back to Norwalk and faith- fully fulfilled his trust, dollar for dollar. He never recovered his losses, but lived an honest and honored life. He was the brother of Mrs. Eben Boalt, who was the mother of Augusta Boalt, of Cleveland, and the late Giles and Stephen Boalt, of Norwalk. Nathan S. was the father of the late Philo, Comstock, of Milan, whose descendants still hold "the old farm." This review is but a brief outline of events which have been our lives for the hundred years now closing. It stops on the threshold of this just maturing first century.
We are to celebrate the event by the return of our sons and daughters, by reunions, reminders and rejuvenations.
On Firelands Day, there will be much in reminiscent review of this passing ten-of-tens. Come and help in the review of our century and bring some one or more contributions to the rare historic collection of the Firelands historical museum, that you may there be represented and remembered in the coming centuries.
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In October, 1826, an association of individuals was organized, under the name of "The President, Trustees, etc., of the Norwalk Academy." A three- story brick building was erected on the site of our present high school. In October, 1829, the academy was consolidated with the district schools with John Kennan as principal.
In the museum and the Firelands historical society may be seen a catalogue of the officers and students of Norwalk academy under date of March 17, 1829. Trustees : Platt Benedict, president ; Timothy Baker, Deverett Bradley, William Gallup, Henry Buckingham, Thaddeus B. Sturgess, Obadiah Jenney. John Kennan, principal. Nathan G. Sherman, Levina Lindsey, assistants.
On the eleventh of November, 1833, the Norwalk seminary was opened in the academy building under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church, with Rev. Jonathan E. Chaplin as principal. The seminary burned February 26, 1836; was rebuilt in 1838, and closed in January, 1846, and the whole prop- erty sold under execution in favor of the builders. Reopened as Norwalk insti- tute in August, 1846, under the auspices of the Baptists of Norwalk.
Rev. Jeremiah Hall was the first principal of the "Institute," and was suc- ceeded by A. S. Hutchins, who continued as principal until 1855, when the institute ceased to exist by reason of the Akron school law providing for graded public schools.
In March, 1855, the school board purchased the brick building occupied by the Norwalk institute, to be used as a central and high school building for the district. The purchase price was three thousand five hundred dollars which embraced the entire square occupied by the present beautiful high school build- ing, a small library and some apparatus. In 1884 the central school building was erected at a cost of about sixty thousand dollars. The first graduate of the high school was Sarah E. Wilkinson in 1861. The largest class graduated is the class of 1905 numbering eighteen young men and sixteen young women. In all, two hundred and thirty-one young men and three hundred and ninety- five young women have been graduated from the Norwalk high school.
HURON COUNTY'S SOLDIERS.
Huron county has always had patriots ready and willing to answer any and all calls the government made upon it for troops. Hundreds of her sons perished in the war for the Union. Hundreds also responded to the call for troops in our war with Spain.
The author of this work, a soldier himself, would gladly give the name and service of every Huron county man who served under the "old flag" in any war in which our country has been engaged, but the space allotted for this work is too limited for such notices.
The soldiers of the army of the United States have ever been actuated by the impulses and convictions of patriotism and of eternal right, and combined in the strong bands of fellowship and unity by the toils, the dangers, and the victories of war.
A G. A. R. post is maintained at Norwalk, and is well attended by the com- rades.
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In this connection, we copy the following address delivered by the Rev E. J. Craft, before the Mansfield historical society, June 12, 1902, the subject of the address being "Our Unknown Heroes." Mr. Craft is a minister of the Protestant Episcopal church, and at the time of delivering this address was rector of St. Timothy's, Massillon.
"Standing in our national cemetery at Gettysburg, one can see around him the marble shafts and granite blocks which mark the resting place of the nation's illustrious dead. Here and there among them are grim cannon, keep- ing their sombre guard over the silent city. Down the slope which stretches away south and eastward, in the early morning I saw thousands, it seemed, of little marble slabs which the sun's rays kissed into glistening beauty. They bore the simple inscription 'unknown." I knew that after the fearful battle hun- dreds, yes thousands, of dead men were carried hither and buried in these long trenches-unrecognized; no loving hand to fashion for them a last resting place ; no one to preserve their memory and hand down to future generations their honored names. What part each took in the great struggle, what deeds of daring and high courage they performed, none but God can know; but here no less than there under the fluted marble on which loving hands have caused to be engraved a fitting eulogy, sleep heroes of our nation, who toiled, suffered and died that their children might inherit the promise. Lost though their in- dividuality may be, their personal efforts unknown, intermingled with the deeds of thousands, as their bones which lie crumbling there, yet no less to them we owe a nation's debt of gratitude.
"How typical this is of the great movements of society which have brought the blessing or upliftment to the race of man. Here and there, in these great epochs of history some figures stand out clear and distinct among the multi- tudes, and around which all interest seems to be concentrated; but back, far back, in the past are souls who inflamed with holy zeal and love for eternal right, have set in motion a current of events which gathering force has burst forth from obscurity, and sweeping onward irresistibly has carried humanity on its tide farther up the height of progress.
"In the pages of the ordinary historian their names are unwritten. In- deed such research from effect to primal cause is for him an impossibility. He can only gaze upon the superstructure as it emerges from obscurity and forget those who toiled with bleeding hands upon the foundation far below. Yet no one can fully appreciate a great movement of society until by tracing back through the centuries he is able to be in affinity with the thought, condi- tions, feeling, spirit and the endeavors which gave it birth, and can count the cost by which the gift has been transmitted to him from the past. That is the glorious work which is being performed by the Richmond county historical society. In bringing to life by patient research the early history of Richland county, telling to the generations of the present the splendid story of the past, tracing out the conditions which met the pioneers, their heroic struggle and their achievements, which have resulted in the founding and developing of one of the most splendid sections of country upon the face of the globe-bringing before the present generation that history of courage and fortitude, whose re- membrance cannot but stimulate and intensify the spirit of true manhood-the
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love of home, whose every spot is sanctified by the toil and struggle of those whose bones make of all a hallowed ground.
"It is a worthy task for worthy men, for spirit touches spirit into existence. A nation's strength is in its history. Generations are what generations have been. It is the knowledge and veneration for the past which wings loyalty to jump from one generation to another, as the sun leaps from mountain peak to mountain peak around the world. For there is that in this history of our unknown heroes, and in the development upon the foundations they have laid, which cannot but call forth admiration, which is the parent of emulation, and he who presents to mankind an ideal which takes hold upon their thoughts and imagination has given to the world as great a gift as the Olympian Jove of Phidias or the Madonna of Raphael. And what a subject is here. Adventures which in interest and exhibition of courage and resource equal the fabled Ulys- ses, deeds which outrank a Hector's prowess, devotion and sacrifice beyond that of a Prometheus, heroism transcending a Thermopylae; for even I, un- skilled in this county's early history, can imagine something of that which took place in the foundation building, in the long journey from distant states, the parting of friends, the long look into the perils of the way, the paths they blazed through the trackless forest, the danger from wild beasts, the weariness, the ambush of Indians, the battle from the wagons, the shrieks of tortured cap- tives, the blazing cabins, the mutilated bodies in the embers, the anguish of be- reavement, sickness, the wayside grave, the humble prayer, the battle with the forests, the clearing of the land, the plowing of the foreign soil, the failure of crops and the wasting of the famine. Every foot of soil was won by tears and blood. For us they suffered that we might inherit the promise. Here was enacted scenes at which a world might well have wondered, and which took as much true courage as when the Light Brigade charged at Balaklava.
"You, of this historical society, are erecting a monument to the memory of the carly settlers of the county which will far outlast the marble slabs and the granite shafts. For as we are gathered here to listen to the records of the past, in the inner sanctuary of every soul, where we have placed the hallowed images of our ideals, there with warrior, statesman, poet, philosopher and heroes, we will place one of majestic outline and of lofty inspiration, which we will consecrate to the unknown heroes-the pioneers of the early days."
THE FIRELANDS.
BY DR. F. E. WEEKS.
Something over two hundred and fifty years ago, John Winthrop of Eng- land was elected governor of the colony of Massachusetts Bay. He was held in high esteem by Charles I, King of England, who gave him a magnificent diamond ring. Eleven years later, after the death of both these men, Charles II ascended the throne and John Winthrop the second was governor of the colony of Connecticut. The colonists desired larger possessions and more lib- erty, and in 1662 they delegated their governor to go to England and endeavor to obtain from the king a new charter. When Governor Winthrop reached
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England he obtained an interview with the king, and by way of introduction showed him the ring which the elder Charles had given to the elder Winthrop. The king was so much affected by the sight of it that he was moved to tears. At this opportune moment Winthrop presented before the king the prepared charter which he had brought with him. This document provided for the right of self government and extended the territory of the colony westward to the "South Sea" as the Pacific ocean was called. When the king asked how far it was to the "South Sea," Winthrop said he thought it could be seen from the western hills of the colony. The requests seemed to the king to be very modest, so he signed the charter. That charter gave to Connecticut the territory from which the Western Reserve was created, and much more came of that diamond ring than the king or John Winthrop dared even dream of. Connecticut en- joyed the possession of her unbroken wilderness, with its vague western bound- ary for more than a hundred years.
Owing to the ignorance of the English people and of the colonists them- selves, of the true extent of the western portion of our land, charters were given to other colonies which included the same western territory. Fierce disputes grew out of this as the lands were settled more. Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut all claimed wide strips from sea to sea. After the war of the revolution the United States government claimed these disputed tracts and some bloodshed followed. To settle the matter Connecticut, in 1786, ceded to the United States all claim to her western lands but reserved a portion extending one hundred and twenty miles west from the west line of Pennsyl- vania, and, of course, the same width as the state of Connecticut, with the 4Ist parallel of latitude for its southern boundary. This tract of land was called New Connecticut, or the Western Reserve. The conflicting claims of the other states were not finally adjusted until 1800. The United States claimed juris- diction over the Western Reserve, although recognizing the right of Connecticut to the ownership of the lands.
This tract of land became a portion of the Northwest Territory and was in- cluded in the state of Ohio when that state was organized. During the war of the revolution the British sent different expeditions which burned the towns along the coast of Connecticut. Among these were the towns of New London, Norwalk and Danbury.
To compensate the sufferers, the state of Connecticut, in 1792, set apart a portion of the Western Reserve, containing a half million acres of land, and granted it to them. This was called the "Sufferers" land, or "Firelands," and was set off from the western extremity of the Reserve, and comprises the pres- ent counties of Huron and Erie, as well as the townships of Danbury, in Ottawa county and Ruggles, in Ashland county.
The state of Connecticut incorporated the grantees of the Firelands, some nineteen hundred in number, into a company which had full power to transact all business necessary to be done in surveying and dividing the lands. Nothing ap- pears to have been done until after the state of Ohio was organized in 1802. In 1803 a new charter was granted to the owners of the Firelands by the state of Ohio. A board of directors was then chosen, and was authorized to extinguish the Indian titles, to survey the lands into townships and to divide them among the
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owners according to the amount of their individual losses, and to levy a tax to defray the necessary expenses. On July 4th, 1805, Isaac Mills, as agent of the company, and one Janett, representing the United States, met the chiefs of the Indian tribes at Fort Industry, where Toledo now stands, and made a treaty with them by which all Indian title was relinquished for a sum of money amounting to about nineteen thousand dollars. Thus the first owners of the soil were the last to relinquish their claims, and it is gratifying to note that the claims of the red men were recognized and respected by the Connecticut people. The title to the Firelands is derived from a monarch of England, from the state of Connecticut, from the United States and from the Indians.
In 18co the territorial government of Ohio established Trumbull county, comprising the whole of the Western Reserve. In 1805 it was divided and the counties of Geauga and Portage set off. Huron county was organized Feb- ruary 7, 1807, but was left attached to Geauga and Portage counties for judicial purposes. It comprised more than the Firelands at first, but a little later was reduced to the limits of the Firelands. In 1838 the northern part was cut off and organized as Erie county. In 1846 Ruggles township was detached to go towards forming Ashland county.
The first county seat of Huron county was located on the farm of David Abbott, north of the present village of Milan. This was in 1811, but in 1818 the location was changed to the new village of Norwalk.
On December 16, 1805 the Firelands Company, by their agent, Taylor Sher- inan, (grandfather of Hon. John Sherman) contracted with John McLean and James Clark, of Danbury, Conn., to survey the Firelands "by Almon Ruggles or some competent person," the outlines of the half million acres to be fixed and the whole to be run off into townships five miles square, the work to be done within a year, unless prevented by the Indians, and provided the Congress of the United States ratified the treaty made at Fort Industry. The United States did not run the south line of the Western Reserve as soon as expected, so the time for completing the survey was extended to June Ist, 1807. The establishment of the south line being still delayed, the directors of the Firelands Company empowered Isaac Mills and Isaac Bronson to ascertain the true south boundary of the Reserve, and the southwest corner of the Firelands, as well as the dividing line between the Firelands and the rest of the Reserve, (which had been sold to the Connecticut Land Co.). Seth Pease was employed to do the work. In the spring of 1806 a company of twelve men started from Danbury to commence the survey which Ruggles had been hired to make. Simeon Hoyt, who afterwards settled in Clarksfield, was one of the party and was em- ployed as flagman to go ahead of the compass. They had eight horses and three wagons. At Pittsburg Almon Ruggles joined them. They spent some time at Cleveland (which had but three families) while preparing tents, pack saddles and a canoe. The latter was made from the trunk of a tree which measured eight feet in diameter. Ruggles took part of the men and the canoe and started out to get the outline of the lake shore, while James Clark took the rest of the party, of which Hoyt was one, to run the west line. One of their horses was stolen by the Indians and another was drowned in Rocky river. When the west line which was to be parallel with the west line of Pennsylvania,
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was run, the men went to Huron, where they found the other party. John Flemmond had established a trading post at that place in 1805, and there were plenty of Indians and squaws as well as Canadian Frenchmen. After surveying the islands in the lake, which Hoyt says was a difficult job on account of the great number of rattlesnakes and the tree tops, they went to Cleveland to wait while the surveyors could make their calculations and know just where to run the east line of the Firelands so as to cut off the half million acres. The most of the men went back to Connecticut but Hoyt and one other remained with Ruggles and Clark and were chainmen for them during their surveys of the winter. They suffered much from the severe cold while working at running the east line and the township lines during this winter. In the spring they started for Connecticut with only twelve dollars to pay their way. They reached New York in twenty-one days with fifty cents of their money. From there they went to Danbury, after an absence of thirteen months. After a time it was found that the point from which the south line of the Reserve was measured was two miles too far west, thus making the west line of the Firelands too far west and the whole work would have to be done again.
Maxfield Ludlow, a deputy surveyor of the United States, then ran the south and west lines of the Reserve, setting a post at each mile and noting in his minutes the character of the country passed over. Ruggles then ran the east line of the Firelands again, commencing June 8th, 1808, Mr. Hoyt again assist- ing him. The east and west lines of the Firelands were supposed to be parallel with the west line of Pennsylvania. After the east line was run off the bound- aries of the townships were marked off and Ruggles returned to Danbury, but Hoyt and Jabez Wright built a log hut on the bank of Huron river and re- mained during the winter. When Ruggles returned in the spring of 1809 they proceeded to survey into lots the townships of Vermillion, Florence, Wakeman and Clarksfield, and surveyed into sections the townships of New Haven, Nor- walk and Berlin. Mr. Ruggles received the sum of three dollars per mile for this survey and it is interesting to note that subsequent calculations showed that the Firelands, as set off by Ruggles contained five hundred thousand and twenty- seven acres. Mr. Ruggles soon afterwards settled on the lake shore in Ver- million township, on the farm which includes the well known summer resort of "Ruggles Beach," and where his son, Richard Ruggles, still lives. Jabez Wright settled at Huron and Simeon Hoyt in Clarksfield.
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