USA > Ohio > Huron County > History of Huron County, Ohio, Its Progress and Development, Volume I > Part 21
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The first tavern at Olena was kept, in a small way, by Benjamin Drake in a log house some twenty rods south of the corners about the year 1835. In 1840, Daniel Angell bought out Drake, and his son, Ephraim Angell, continued the tavern about two years, when he bought the sixteen acres of William H. Burras and erected a framed hotel on the southeast corner of the cross-roads and kept a tavern there for ten years. Andrew Godfrey built a frame tavern on the southwest corner and kept the first postoffice there. The tavern business at this point, in the olden times of wagon trade was something immense. Mr. Angell reports that he used fre- quently to keep over a single night more than a hundred teams and teamsters. The rate was fifty cents, including supper and breakfast for a man and four-horse team.
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The first store at Olena was occupied by Noah Close, but at what date we are unable to determine. The business, however, was not extensively carried on until about 1850, when C. W. Manahan and Courtland Cannon established a store on the southeast corner in the building formerly occupied as a hotel by Mr. Angell. They continued some two years and until the death of Cannon when Lewis Mana- han became a partner of his brother. The village was formerly called Angell's Corners and continued to be so called for several years, when, at a public meeting of the citizens, the name was changed to Olena.
We date the actual settlement of the township from the arrival of Benjamin Newcomb and family, who moved in in the winter of 1815-16 and settled on lot number four, section number three.
The next settler was Martin Kellogg. He and his family consisting of his wife and three daughters.
The first white child born in Bronson was Timothy T. Newcomb, son of Ben- jamin and Stata Newcomb. He was born July 6, 1816, the next day after the burial of his father, who was killed by the kick of a horse.
The first couple married was Lott Herrick and Lola Sutliff. This event oc- curred October 16, 1818, at the house of Nathan Sutliff.
The first death was that of Benjamin Newcomb, who was killed by the kick of a horse, July 4, 1816.
The first school in Bronson was kept by Lola Sutliff, in the log barn of Martin Kellogg, in the summer of 1818. Her scholars were Maudane, Lucy, Rebecca and Polly Kellogg ; Lucy, Jane, Tina, Eleanor and John Ammerman ; Peggy and John Welch. The teacher received seventy-five cents per week, her wages being paid by the parents in proportion to the number of children sent.
The first school-house was built of logs on the north part of Nathan Sutliff's farm in the fall of 1819. Martin Kellogg taught the school in it the next winter and was the first male teacher in the township. The house was unfinished at the time he opened his school, and he and William W. Beckwith put it in condition for occupancy. He had about twenty scholars and received fifteen dollars per month.
The earliest religious meetings were held at this school-house, and a remarkable revival occurred there in the winter of 1823-24 when twenty-one heads of families were converted and afterwards united with the church.
The first school-house erected for the benefit of the State road settlement was built on the north town line.
The first postoffice was established at the center of the township about the year 1829 or '30. John Lyon was the first postmaster.
In the early settlement of the township the settlers obtained their grinding usually at the grist mill of David Mack, at Macksville, sometimes at Carkhuff's mill in Greenfield, and occasionally even at Mansfield.
There have been a number of sawmills erected in the township. There were formerly five in operation on High Bridge creek at the same time.
CLARKSFIELD TOWNSHIP. BY DR. T. E. WEEKS.
In dividing the Firelands in 1808 the township of Clarksfield was assigned to the holders of the original claims of one hundred and seventeen persons whose
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claims amounted to eight thousand, three hundred and thirty-nine pounds, worth then twenty-seven thousand, seven hundred and ninety-seven dollars, but these claims had been scaled down to seventeen thousand, nine hundred and twenty-four dollars, which is a little more than a dollar an acre. After the state of Ohio had in- corporated the company known by the long name of the "Proprietors of the Half Million Acres of Land Lying South of Lake Erie, Called Sufferers' Land." the di- rectors assessed a tax of two cents on the pound on the original losses for the pur- pose of defraying the necessary expense of surveying and dividing the lands. Many of the owners failed to pay this trifling tax and the lands were sold at "Publick Vendue," as the deeds state, in 1808. Comfort Hoyt, Jr., was one of the tax col- lectors and among other claims sold to Zadock Starr claims amounting to seven hundred and forty-seven dollars for ten dollars and six cents; to Ezra Wildman claims amounting to five hundred and sixty-nine dollars for seven dollars and eighty-four cents ; to John Dodd claims amounting to eight hundred and sixty-two dollars for nine dollars and sixty-four cents, and other claims at like discounts. This indicates that the original claimants were often indifferent or too poor to pay the tax. Undoubtedly the most of the original sufferers or their heirs realized but little from the grant of the land. When the drawing for the division of the Firelands was made on the 9th of November, 1808, the several sections of Clarks- field township were drawn by the following persons and their claims entitled them to the number of acres opposite their names :
First, or southeast section,
William Walton 2253
Timothy Chittenden, Jr. 1886
Second, or northeast section,
James Clark 698
Curtis Clark 924
Joseph Trowbridge 1962
Capt. John McLean 443
Timothy Chittenden, Jr. 122
Third, or northwest section,
Jolın Dodd 685
L. Phillips 685
Philo Calhoun 683
Zadock Starr 687
Timothy Chittenden 586
Daniel Minor 809
Fourth, or southwest section,
Comfort Hoyt, Jr 2902
J. H. Gregory 26
Ezra Dibble 1178
The township was named from James Clark, who was one of the greatest suf- ferers from the incursions of the British in the Revolutionary war. The town- ship contains more than sixteen thousand acres, as it is a little more than five miles square.
At the first meeting of the commissioners of Huron county, held at the county seat north of Milan, near Abbott's bridge. on the Ist day of August. 1815. Ver-
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MILL DAM IN JANUARY, CLARKSFIELD
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million township was organized to contain the whole of the twentieth range, that is, the townships of Vermillion, Florence, Wakeman, Clarksfield, New London and Ruggles. It also included "all of that portion of Huron county east of the Fire- lands," which was a considerable of the present county of Lorain. March 2, 1818, New London township was organized to comprise the townships of Ruggles, New London and Clarksfield. March 8, 1820, the commissioner "ordered that townships number three, in the twentieth and twenty-first ranges (Clarksfield and Hartland), be and the same are hereby organized into a separate township with all the priv- ileges belonging thereto, by the name of Bethel." In 1826 the two townships were organized under their present names.
At the December meeting of the county commissioners in 1815 a road was ordered to be laid out as follows: "Beginning at the end of the north and south road which is now laid out from the lake to the south line of Jessup (now Florence), thence to continue through the twentieth range to the south line of said twentieth range through the settlement in New London." This road was cut out during the winter and is the one upon which the village of Clarksfield is located. The settle- ment in New London was south of the present town of New London. On the 28th day of March, 1816, two brothers, Hosea and Hiram Townsend, left Florence with an ox team on their way from Massachusetts to New London, and are said to have been the first persons to drive a team over this road. In 1810 Benjamin Stiles of New York city purchased of John Dodd one thousand, two hundred and ninety-five acres of land in Clarksfield township, at one dollar per acre. In 1817, Samuel Husted purchased of John Dodd an undivided interest in seven hundred and eight-two acres for one thousand, six hundred dollars. At this time all of the third section except one tier of lots on the south side was owned in common by Ezra Dibble, Comfort Hoyt, Jr., Timothy Chittenden, Jr., Benjamin Stiles and Samuel Husted. May 14, 1817, they quit claimed to each other definite portions of this land, Chittenden getting five hundred and ninety-five acres ; Dibble & Hoyt, six hundred and ninety-three; Stiles, one thousand, three hundred, and Husted, seven hundred and fifty-two. May 19, 1817, John Dodd sold to Nathaniel and Ezra Wood, brothers, of Danbury, Connecticut, a piece of land in common in the second section. to contain one hundred and twenty-six acres, for two hundred fifty-two dollars and fifty-six cents. Another deed located the land in lot seventeen and Nathaniel soon sold his interest to Ezra. In the same year, 1817, Abraham Gray purchased of Dodd and Dibble lot thirteen in the second section (the lot next east of the Daniel Rowland farm).
In September, 1817, Benjamin Benson purchased lot seven in the third section for three hundred and thirty-five dollars. In 1811 Comfort Hoyt, Jr., deeded to his son Simeon one hundred and fifty-nine acres of lot six in the fourth section and to his daughter Dolly lot four in the same section. This land which comprises the north part of Andrew Blackman's farm and the farm of George Smith was given by her to the First Congregational church in 1826, but was deeded back to the heirs of Comfort Hoyt in 1844.
In 1817, a number of the men who became pioneers of Clarksfield owned land here and in this year we find the first attempt to make a break in the forest. Samuel Husted was a stirring man of thirty-eight years of age and with a growing family, living at Danbury, Connecticut, and he decided to set up a home for himself on the
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land he owned in Ohio-that land of promise so far away from civilization. Ezra Wood, a young man whose wife was a niece of Mrs. Husted, also desired to see the new country. These two men started from Danbury in a one-horse wagon May 19, 1817. The narrative of their journey has fortunately been preserved in print. We quote from the narrative of Jonathan Fitch in the Firelands Pioneer of June, 1864: "On the 19th day of May, 1817, I left Norwalk, Connecticut, for Ohio, in company with Capt. Adam Swan, his Irishman Kelley and John and Seth Keeler. We went by the way of New York city, which we reached about noon on the 20th. After resting a few hours we crossed the river to what is now Jersey. City, and reaching Morristown we put up for the night. Moving forward the next morning, we arrived at the top of a long hill about mid-day when we stopped by the wayside, fed our horses and resorted to our provision chest. While eating we discovered two men in a one-horse wagon ascending the hill. As they came near they raised the shout : 'Hurrah for Ohio!' They proved to be strangers to us, but we were not long in making their acquaintance. They were Captain Husted and a Mr. Wood (given name not remembered). They hailed from Danbury. Con- necticut, and were bound for Ohio. Learning at Norwalk of our departure, they had hastened to overtake us. Our numbers being thus increased to seven, we moved on over hills, valleys, rivers and mountains to Pittsburg, which we reached the 8th of June. Here we rested for the Sabbath. Monday we traveled on to the west side of the Big Beaver bridge, where our new acquaintances left us, taking to the right hand road to go to Clarksfield, Huron county, while we kept on direct to Mansfield, Richland county. We arrived at Mr. Giles Swan's north of Mansfield June 17th." In the same year Mr. Fitch started back to Connecticut on horse- back. He and another man left Mr. Swan's, near Mansfield, November 10, 1817. He says: "On our journey east of Pittsburg we met an ox team with household goods. I told Smith it must be Captain Husted, but the driver was a stranger to me. We soon, however, met three horse teams. I raised a hurrah for Captain Husted, and in response he dropped his lines and waded through the mud to reach me upon my horse. He said he was overjoyed to see one he knew. A Mr. Starr, I think, was with him. After a brief interview we bade each other farewell and went on our ways." Husted and Wood went to Florence and stopped with Major Barnum, another Danbury man who had come to Florence eight years before. Fitch says that his party reached Mansfield June 17th and we may reasonably sup- pose that Husted and Wood reached Florence about the same time. Making Flor- ence their headquarters, they came over into the woods of Clarksfield on Husted's land and worked for six weeks, preparing the timbers for a log cabin and clearing off the trees adjoining. Six men raised the house and these men were probably from Florence. Wood says that Husted cut the first tree and built the first house in the township, and E. M. Barnum, who came two years later, also says that Husted put up the first house. We find no reason to dispute this claim Husted and Wood went back to Danbury after this.
There is considerable uncertainty in regard to the first actual settler in the township, but we believe the weight of evidence is in favor of the statement that the family of Stephen Post was the first to live here, although Ezra Wood, Benja- min Benson and E. M. Barnum, who have written sketches of the pioneer settle- ment of the township. fail to mention Mr. Post, but Simeon Hoyt. who came in
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1817, says that Mr. Post was here when he came. Although we believe Mr. Husted built the first house his family did not come until some months afterward. Bush- nell Post, a son of Stephen, tells the story of his father's journey to Ohio in the following words: "In the year 1815, down in the Empire state and in the rich valley of Genesee, there lived a family of Posts, a family of Miners, a family of Russells and a family of Andersons, all neighbors, or what was called neighbors in those early days, for though some miles of wooded roads lay between them, yet their social gatherings and their friendly greetings proclaimed them neighbors indeed. These four families consisted of the following persons: Stephen Post, my father ; Sally Post, my mother ; sisters Cynthia and Anna, brothers Isaiah, Stephen and William, and the baby, sister Lucinda ; and connected with the family as a hired man at this time was Zara C. Norton, in all nine persons. Asel Miner and his wife, Polly Miner, George Miner, Joel and Albert Miner make up a family of six. The Russells were three in number ; the mother and the two sons, Olcott and Charles; and in the other was Henry Anderson, his wife and a daughter, Laura, and connected with the family was Simeon Munson, who came down from Ohio to help move them. The sum total of persons were twenty-two. Some time in the month of December, 1815, these four families came together with their goods packed and piled on three or four sleds, and one wagon was loaded with goods, and these loads were to be hauled by three or four ox teams and two spans of horses. Around were gathered six cows, three hogs and one pet sheep. The little lads, with sticks in their hands, were behind to drive the drove, the women and little children were tucked in among the goods, the drivers were at their post, with their faces set toward the frozen waters of Lake Erie, and with a crack of the whip they move on over the creaking snow. * * They reach the place where * the great city of Cleveland now stands, and-what do they find? One solitary log hotel down on the bottoms of the Cuyahoga river, but are told that there are a few houses up on the hills. On, on, we trace them ; we hear the little lads com- plain of sore fect and weary limbs, the little children cry with cold and hunger, the mothers with anxious care, can but heave a sigh, and the father's whoa, haw, gee, with energy rings out along the wooded way. The most serious mishap hap- pens as they near the mouth of the Vermillion, where an ox sled capsized on the uneven ice that was cracked and bulged here and there, and scattered its contents over the ice just as the shades of night were setting thick and fast. A box of axes found a crack in the ice and slumped through and found a resting place in the gravelly bed of the lake. The goods were gathered up that night lest a wind should spring up and ice, goods and all be among the missing ere the dawn of another day. But the ice was there ; the crack was found and the box of axes wa fished out of eight or ten feet of water the next morning. Arriving at what is known as Sprague's corners in Florence, my father's family put up for the rest of the winter-it now being the last of December or some time the first of January, 1816-while the other three families held on for New London. In the spring of this year our family moved to New London and into the house belonging to Benja- min Hendricks and near the west line of the farm now owned by George Bissell. Here they raised corn, potatoes and garden sauce on the little opening that Hen- dricks had made, and during that fall they built a house in the southwest corner of Clarksfieid, and the foundation logs were laid very near where now stands the
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neat and trim white house of Mr. Dunning. They moved to this round log struc- ture some time that fall or winter-the opening of 1817-there being but one white person living in the township at the time, he being an old bachelor who had a shanty on the place now owned by Mrs. Baldwin-a Mr. Osmer by name who was there when our family moved into that good old log home built beneath the shades of the towering trees of southwest Clarksfield. * *
* And here, above all other events on the first day of June, 1817, the first white child of the township was born-my youngest sister, Almira. Here, too, occurred the first wedding of the township, Zara C. Norton, being wedded to my oldest sister, Cynthia, and the knot was tied by 'Squire Case of New London. This wedding is down in the pioneer book of this county as having taken place in New London. But this is a mistake; it took place in the first log house built in Clarksfield, it being the one built by the hands of my father. * * The nearest mill was eighty miles away, down on Owl creek, where my father went once the first year we lived in New London with a wagon loaded with corn and wheat and a pair of oxen and one horse hitched ahead of them to haul the load, my oldest brother riding the horse to lead the way and Philo T. Porter bringing up the rear with another ox team hauling another wagon like loaded. Well, they made the trip and returned home in three weeks, being delayed by high waters, where they found hungry, anxious friends awaiting them. Our people lived on the Clarksfield farm two years, but the trouble to get to mill caused them to move to Richland county and settle near where Hayesville now is. Here they lived for two years." In another article Mr. Post tells about his father's family coming to Ohio and says that it was in 1816 that they started from their home in the east and 1817 when they went to New London and moved into a house built by a Mr. William Hendrix, "and where on June Ist a little sister was born."
"Here they tarried for only a short time, until a house could be built on a sec- tion of land in the southwest corner of Clarksfield, where they moved in the fall and where they lived for a year or two." Our readers will notice that there are some differences in these two statements. One makes the date of their arrival in New London and Clarksfield a year later than the other. One says that the baby sister was born in Clarksfield, and the other that she was born in New London ; one says that the house they moved into was built by Benjamin Hendriks, the other by William Hendrix. [The latter was a son of the former.] These discrepancies lessen the historical value of the statements and we must look for corroborating evidence. Dr. Skellenger says that the younger Stephen Post said that they came to Clarksfield in 1816, but he (Skellenger) upon investigation thinks it was a year later. In the history of New London township Dr. Skellenger says that Stephen Post, Henry Anderson and Mrs. Russell and her sons came to New Lon- don in 1817. It seems the most reasonable to suppose that Mr. Post came to Clarksfield in the fall of 1817, after spending the summer in New London.
Zara C. Norton, who came to Ohio with the family of Stephen Post, was born in Wolcott, Connecticut, November 15, 1799. He was married to Cynthia Post October 14. 1818, by Esquire Case of New London, and this was the first wedding in Clarksfield. After their marriage they lived with Mr. Post, went to Richland county with him and came back with him, but then settled in a log house on the north side of the town line road east of Barrett's Corners, on a farm now owned
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by Edward Hubbard. The little red house was built by Mr. Norton in later years. In 1829 he was licensed to exhort and to preach in 1833. At this time he went on the circuit as a Methodist minister and was away from home much of the time. In 1840 he was admitted to conference and in 1841 he was assigned to a circuit in Williams county and remained for two years, but the family remained on the farm.
In the fall of 1817 Simeon Hoyt and Smith Starr started from Danbury, Con- necticut, with their families, in a wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen and one horse and after a journey lasting six weeks they reached Clarksfield in October. Hoyt settled on his farm in the south part of the township where Sherman Smith after- ward lived and died. It will be remembered that Mr. Hoyt was one of the party of surveyors who surveyed the Firelands in 1806 and later. In 1809 Comfort Hoyt, the father of Simeon, and one of the original proprietors of the Firelands, came out to see the land and was taken sick at Huron. Simeon sent to Cleveland for a doctor. After a while he recovered so as to be able to travel. Simeon had intended to remain longer, but was obliged to return to Connecticut with his father. Years afterward, when he was seventy years of age, Comfort Hoyt came to Ohio on horseback to visit his children, and returned to Connecticut the same way. In describing his experiences Simeon says: "I came with an ox team in company with Smith Starr. We were six weeks on the road. I had previously purchased the land on which I moved. It was nearly all a wilderness at that time. A few families were living in New London and Stephen Post in this town. We found it hard times. Provisions were scarce and high, and no roads. How we ever lived I can hardly tell, but we did, and in a few years became situated very com- fortably." Also in another letter: "My family the first year comprised eleven persons, and it was no easy matter to provide provisions for so large a household. We obtained some flour from Richland county and some from Huron, and made use of pounded corn some of the time. After the first year we were not troubled for the necessities of life."
Smith Starr, who came with Simeon Hoyt, was a son of Peter, son of Samuel, son of Samuel, son of Josiah, son of Thomas, son of Dr. Comfort Starr, who came from England to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1634, and later to Boston. He was born at Ridgefield, Connecticut, and was married to Joanna Knapp in 1805. When they came to Clarksfield they had a number of children, John T., the oldest, being eleven years old. They first moved into the log house which Captain Husted had built in June until their own house could be put up. This was built on the south hill near the site of the fine frame house which he built afterwards and which was his home until his death. It is now owned by Grant Johns. He was a shoe- maker by trade and brought leather on his back from the nearest tannery, some thirty miles distant. His shop and tools were destroyed by fire, so he gave up the business and built a sawmill on the bank of Spring brook in 1819, the first sawmill in the town. He was a useful man in the community and served as postmaster for many years.
The first of November, 1817, Samuel Husted again started from Danbury, Con- necticut, for Ohio, but this time he brought his family of wife and six children with him. Hester Paul and Jachim Morris must have come with them as members of the family. Eli Seger and family also accompanied them. The Mr. Starr which Fitch mentions as being with Husted was not Smith Starr. Mary Jane
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