USA > Ohio > Huron County > History of Huron County, Ohio, Its Progress and Development, Volume I > Part 5
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
Dig zedby Google
42
HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
supply the other leg was still running in the woods. He and a neighbor started out to find a deer, and as they were traveling through the woods they came upon a deer which had just fallen from wounds received from other hands. Our hero jumped, slapped his hands, and shouted: "Fortune favors the brave! I shall have a pair of breeches yet!" The tannery was an institution which fol- lowed not far behind the first settlers. Sometimes the tanner followed the trade of cobbler as well. The shoemaker used to take his kit of tools with him from one house to another, wherever his services were required, and make up and mend the supply of shoes for the winter. This was called "whip- pin' the cat." Boots and shoes were made to order over home made lasts. They did not have high heels and the distinction between toothpick toe, coin toe or round toe was not thought of. The leather was neither kangaroo, kid. enamel calf nor pebble goat, but plain cowhide or calfskin. Buckskin moccasins and "shoe packs" were worn to some extent. Rubber boots or overshoes were un- known.
The flood of light from the fireplace in the winter evenings made the room light enough for most purposes, but tallow candles were generally used to read by. One man made tallow candles for his own use by melting deer fat in a tea kettle cover and pouring it over a twisted piece of muslin with a spoon. They were not handsome, but served to give light for him to attend an evening school. Sometimes a kind of lamp like the illustration was used. It was suspended by driving the sharp end of the pointed iron into a log of the wall. Lard or bear grease was the oil and a piece of rag, the wick. A "flip ding" or "slut" was a lamp made out of any kind of dish filled with lard with a piece of twisted rag in it. These lamps gave a dim light and furnished a cloud of smoke. Friction matches were unknown. Fire was obtained from coals on the hearth or by means of "tinder boxes." These were small iron boxes with some pieces of tinder (made by burning a piece of linen rag to charcoal) or punk, (a sub- stance found in decayed timber). A piece of steel was struck across the sharp edge of a flint stone and the spark fell upon the tinder or punk. This held the fire and a blaze was kindled from this by means of some light shavings or sul- phur matches ( made by dipping bits of wood in melted sulphur). If the set- tler neglected his tinder box and the fire on the hearth was allowed to go out a boy was sent to the nearest neighbor's to "borrow fire," and carried home a burn- ing brand between two pieces of bark.
Clocks and watches were too expensive for universal use. On clear days the housewife could tell the time of day by a mark on the floor, called the "moon mark," where the shadow of the door post reached at noon.
The New England pioneers of the Firelands were well aware of the advan- tages of educational privileges and as soon as a few families had settled con- veniently near each other a school was established, perhaps in one of the houses at first. until a school house could be erected. A young lady, daughter of one of the families was, perhaps, the teacher. After a time a log school house would be built. The seats were puncheons or slabs from some sawmill, with the flat side up and pegs inserted into auger holes for the legs. The desks were made of wide whitewood boards fastened to arms driven into holes bored into the wall. The pupil could rest his back by leaning against the edge of the desk. Not
Dig zedby Google
43
HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
many branches were taught, the "three R's" being considered about the only essentials. The teacher "boarded 'round," spending as many nights at each place as the ratio of pupils sent from that place required. Frequently the teacher hardly knew where to go for the inhabitants of the district might not all be ready to board him until they had butchered or done something else which would answer for an excuse. The wages of a lady teacher were from seventy- five cents to a dollar and a quarter a week and "found."
The settlers did not possess many books and could not obtain newspapers until some years after the settlement was made. At first they had to go long distances after mail, but post offices were established at an early day. It cost twenty-five cents to receive a letter from New York or New England, and a let- ter had often to lie in the office some time until the pioneer could obtain the money in some way to pay the postage.
Many of the early settlers were pious people and soon became acquainted with neighbors of like minds. They would meet at each other's houses on Sun- day for religious exercises. One of the number would read a sermon, hymns would be sung and one or more of them could lead in prayer. Occasionally a pioneer missionary like Alvin Coe, Harry O. Sheldon, Father Gurley or David Marks would preach a sermon, and if the house was not large enough to hold the congregation a log barn would be used. As the community increased in numbers a church society would be organized and supplied by a pastor from some neighboring settlement, perhaps. Sooner or later a church would be erected under great difficulties and with many self sacrifices on the part of the members. A perusal of the "Memoirs of Rev. David Marks" gives one some idea of the hardships and dangers which some of the pioneer preachers endured while engaged in the labors to which they thought they were called. In June, 1882, he left Black Rock, N. Y., on a schooner on his way to Portland, now San- dusky. The captain very ungenerously landed him with some others on the peninsula, six miles from Portland, after taking his last cent to pay his passage. Besides the lighthouse keeper there were no inhabitants near there. Marks had caten but one meal in the last forty hours and the keeper was nearly out of pro- visions, so they lay down supperless. After the men who landed with Marks had fallen asleep, the keeper, remembering the "poor boy that had come far from a father's house to preach the gospel," gave him a cracker and a half pint of milk. In the morning one of the men killed a fawn and their hunger was ap- peased. After waiting a day or two and seeing no prospect of getting away soon, Marks and one of the men calked an old skiff which they found in some drift wood and started for Portland. They kept afloat for some time by bailing out the water with a shoe, but were forced to return and were nearly swamped by the waves. The next day they were so fortunate as to get a ride on a boat across to Cedar Point. They walked nine miles along the beach before they came to a house. Marks walked to Milan and there found friends. He was only sixteen years of age at this time, but no difficulties dampened his ardor for the work in which he had embarked.
When the Northwest Territory was organized by the government of the United States slavery was forbidden, but when the constitution of the new state of Ohio was adopted the friends of slavery who had come from the slave states of New
Dignzed by Google
44
HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky and settled mostly in the southern por- tion of the state, attempted to insert a clause allowing a limited form of slavery, Judge Ephraim Cutler, of Marietta, a native of New England, turned the scale in favor of freedom, but the victory was barely won by one vote. Thus the in- fluence of New England was felt in this question at an early day. For a long time there was a large party in the state favorable to slavery, and their influence was felt in legislation. The colored people were not allowed to testify in courts of law, nor to vote. Separate schools were provided for colored children, and this law, the last one of the so-called "Black Laws" left on our statute books, was repealed only ten years ago, or so, although it had been a dead letter for years. Many years ago the enemies of slavery began to aid the slave to escape from his master. These anti-slavery sympathizers had a system of communication and transportation known as the "Grapevine Telegraph" and "Underground Railroad," by means of which hundreds of slaves were assisted on their way to Canada and freedom. Sta- tions on this road were the homes of the more daring of the abolitionists, a few miles apart, and the runaways were secretly conveyed from one station to the next. Some were captured and returned to bondage, but the most who were able to reach the Western Reserve, where their enemies were fewer, were successful in reaching safety. The laws of the United States made it a crime to assist a slave to escape or to refuse to help capture one when called upon to do so by the owner or officer in pursuit of him. Nevertheless hundreds of men in the Firelands stood ready to assist the slave at the risk of person and property. Rush R. Sloane and Frank D. Parish, of Sandusky, were each heavily fined at one time for defend- ing the rights in court of escaping slaves, but they were taken to Cincinnati, where the pro-slavery sentiment was stronger than at Sandusky. When the call for volunteers came in 1861 and later the Firelands furnished plenty of brave sol- diers.
The Firelands were not behind the rest of the country in the projection of rail- ways, and two of the earliest roads in the state, the Mad River & Lake Erie, and Monroeville & Sandusky, which were commenced about 1835, ran from San- dusky. Some of the most influential men in the building of the Cleveland, Nor- walk & Toledo road, now the Lake Shore, lived at Norwalk. Clarksfield's first railroad will be described later.
When the country was new fever and ague was common. The chills or "shakes" were very severe, lasting sometimes for two hours, shaking patient, bed- stead and floor. After the chill was over the patient fell into a deep slumber, but when the fever came on his sufferings were increased and he was tormented by a burning thirst. In some forms the chill would not return until the second day afterward and the patient could work some on the well day. In other cases the chills occurred every day. This condition lasted week after week and month after month, perhaps, unless the patient succumbed sooner. The patients usually re- covered, but frequently a whole family would be down sick at the same time and there would be scarcely enough well persons in a neighborhood to care for the sick. Tansy was supposed to be something of an antidote for the ague, and the oc- casional beds of tansy which are still to be seen were planted for that purpose. It was used in the form of bitters, made with whisky. It was a common practice to offer a neighbor, when he made a call, a glass of "tansy bitters," which might be no
Daszedby Google
45
HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
more than a tumbler of whiskey with a sprig of tansy in it, and some men got the reputation of being wonderfully afraid of the ague, judging by the amount of the antidote they consumed. They ran the risk of the "snakes" to avoid the "shakes !"
Along in the 30's another disease was prevalent. This was called "milk sick- ness." The symptoms were vomiting, high fever and rapid and extreme prostra- tion. It was supposed to be caused by drinking milk from cows which had eaten some poisonous weed. Such sickness, as well as the frequent accidents from fall- ing trees and limbs, slipping logs, etc., required the services of the physician and we find the pioneer doctors not far behind the first settlers in a community. Their path was not one of roses and they had to travel long distances through the woods on foot or horseback, fording streams, being chased by wolves, getting lost, etc. Their pay was scanty, but by buying a piece of timber land and getting it cleared and carrying on farming they eked out a living and brought up their families respectably.
The first settlers were sometimes obliged to go a long ways to a store, but dif- ferent men would bring a little stock of goods with them from the east, and it would not be long before there would be a store in the community. The goods would be brought to Huron by boat or by way of Pittsburg overland to the Firelands by wagon.
Saw mills and grist mills were built along the streams as soon as there was a settlement large enough to support them, and they did quite a business while the water lasted. The forests abounded with magnificent oak, whitewood and biack walnut trees, but the cost of hauling the lumber to market with ox teams over the miserable roads of the times left so small a margin for the labor that a large propor- tion of such timber was burned to get it out of the way. The early settler had no easy-riding spring carriage for a conveyance, but used a lumber wagon with chairs for seats, or maybe he hung a hickory pole on each side of the inside of the wagon box by hooks, and laid board seats on these. These "took off the sharp edge" of the jolting over corduroy roads. In many instances there would be no roads cut out between the houses of the settlers and the best way to carry the women and children on a visit to a neighbor's was to load the family on a sled, hitch the oxen on and make a "bee line" through the forest, not forgetting to carry an ax to cut away the bushes and tree tops, if any were in the way. Many used to go to mill or to the store in this way. Sometimes the velicle was a stone boat with chairs for seats. When a young gallant took his best girl out for a ride he would get a horse with saddle or pillion. The lady sat behind on the pillion and embraced the young man to prevent her falling off, and the rougher the road the tighter she hugged. As the roads became drained and settled spring wagons were made and in time came the modern light carriages.
People frequently became lost in the dense forest, if darkness overtook them where the only path was the line of blazed trees. The writer's father and aunt once were obliged to lie in the woods all night on account of being lost.
In the earlier days, before county infirmaries were built, each township was obliged to care for its own paupers. One of the duties of the trustees was to "sell the paupers," that is, to let to the lowest bidder the contract for boarding each pau- per for the year. Very often the man who bid off a pauper made up by scanty
Diezed by Google
46
HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
food and clothing for the low price which he received for the board, and the treat- ment of the unfortunate ones was much less humane than by the modern methods. Whenever a person came to live in a township and was likely to become a town- ship charge, either through sickness, intemperance, or other reason, the over- seers of the poor would "warn him out of town," so that the town from whence he came would become responsible for any help furnished him in case he required public aid. The citizens were not so hard hearted as the township records would indicate, and the persons warned did not always become paupers.
NORWALK-ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
(FROM SELECTION READ BY HON. C. H. GALLUP, AT A MEETING OF THE FIRELANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.)
"Two hundred years ago the settlement of Norwalk, Connecticut was begun. At a session of the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut, 26th June, 1650, Nathaniel Ely and Richard Olmstead in behalf of themselves and other inhab- itants of Hartford, desired the leave and approbation of the Court for planting of Norwaake; to whom an answer was returned in substance as follows: "That the Court could not but approve of the endeavors of men for the further im- provement of the wilderness, by the beginning and carrying on of new planta- tions in an orderly way; and leaving the consideration of the just grounds of the proceedings of the petitioners to its proper place, did manifest their willing- ness to promote their design by all due encouragement, in case their way for such an undertaking were found clear and good; and provided the numbers and quality of those that engage therein appear to be such as may rationally carry on the work to the advantage of the public welfare and peace; that they may make preparations and provisions for their own defence and safety, that the country may not be exposed to unnecessary trouble and danger in these hazard- ous times : that the divisions of lands there to such as shall inhabit, be made by just rules and with the approbation of a committee appointed for that end by this Court or to be rectified by the Court in case of aberrations, and that they attend a due payment of their proportions in all public charges, with a ready observation of the other wholesome orders of the country."
This is the first mention of Norwalk in the ancient records of the Colony.
Though, in itself, of small moment, yet, as the origin of our name has been called in question by respectable authority, and an error in regard to it been spread through standard books, it may be worth while to inquire whence the name? Barber, in his Historical Collections, says, that according to tradition, "the name is derived from the one-day's North-walk, that limited the northern extent of the purchase from the Indians." Whence he iearned the tradition, we know not: but that it is erroneous, if not fabulous, we do know. (1) The original deeds, in 1640, give the name Norwalke, as then designating the river, and there is the same evidence that that was the original Indian name, as that Saukatuk and Rooton were. (2) All the settlements along the coast, and in the interior, were first called by their Indian names, and were changed only for specified reasons. Thus, Quinnepiack was changed for New Haven; Cupheag and Puquannock for Stratford; Uncowa for Fairfield, and Rippowams for Stam-
Dig izedby Google
A. J. BAUGHMAN One of the Norwalk Centennial Commissioners
Digiand by Google
PROF. B. F. PRINCE
C. H. GALLUP
Norwalk Centennial Commissioners
Dkýmzed by Google
51
HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
ford. But Norwalk was never changed. (3) But, thirdly, the fancy that Nor- walk is an abbreviation of Northwalk, is dissipated the moment you open the original Colony Records. In those records, from 1636 to 1665, the name is often used, and is spelt in at least eleven different ways. Thus, in the first instance where the word occurs, the orthography is,
1. Norwaake, Col. Rec., p. 210, 1650. 7. Nor-woake. Col. Rec., p. 265, -
2. Nor-wanke, Col. Rec., p. 224, 1651.
3. Nor-waack, Col. Rec., p. 228,
4. Nor-wack, Col. Rec., p. 242, 1653.
5. Nor-worke, Col. Rec., p. 242, 1653.
6. Nor-wacke, Col. Rec., p. 277, 1655.
8. Norr-wake, Col. Rec., p. 279,
9. Nor-walke, Col. Rec., p. 290, 1656.
10. Norwalk, Col. Rec., p. 324, 1658.
11. Norwake, Col. Rec., p. 418, 1663.
Thus the record dissipates the fancied tradition. Who would ever have thought of the name being derived from North-walk, had it been uniformly spelt, as at first, in the Colony Records? Not only is there no allusion to such a derivation, but our present orthography, Norwalk was not used till 1658. Subse- quently to that period, there seems to have been more unformity-the name be- ing written Nor-walke, Nor-wake, or Norwalk-the latter finally prevailed. Here be it observed, that the ancient orthography was designed to express, as near as possible, the primitive pronunciation, but in process of time, was changed, to accord more fully with the English form of words.
ONE CENTURY OF NORWALK.
ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE FIRELANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, JULY 22, 1900, COMMEMORATING NORWALK'S CENTENNIAL BY HON. C. H. GALLUP.
I have promised to tell a little of the history of Norwalk for the past hundred years. I think it is upon the program as "One Century of Norwalk." I am going to tell you some stories,-I will try to make it a series of stories to illustrate how Norwalk has been built. I have so many times told the story of the origin of the name "Western Reserve" that I shall not tell it here again. I have so often told the origin of the name "Firelands" that it is not necessary to repeat it today, but I am going to tell you just how our ancestors built up this city and township in the last hundred years.
To commence with, I want to tell you that there were three wolves that im- mortalized themselves at the commencement of this hundred years. You have all read the story of the settlement of the Comstock family in Norwalk, the first family to come into the township in 1809 and the building of their house. They built near Milan. It wasn't Milan then ; it was a Moravian Indian settlement. They had a mission house there. They gave the use of that mission house to these first set- tlers to occupy until they should complete their own house. One day they had put their dinner to cooking,-pork and beans, and left to do some clearing. When they returned for their dinner and came in sight of the house, they saw three wolves scampering away, and when they got to their dinner pot, it was empty. Now those three wolves immortalized themselves by that failure to stop the start of Nor- walk. This was in 1809.
Digi@ed by Google
52
HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
Settlers came in very slowly. Two or three families came up to 1812. In 1815 two Connecticut Yankees came on to attend court at Avery, and that is a place now where there is no habitation or sign of life except a hill and grass and trees. There are no buildings where the county seat was in those days. Incorrectly it has been called Wheatsboro. That was a mistake. Avery was the township now known as Milan. Now these Connecticut Yankees came on there and thought they saw an opportunity. They had traveled through here land hunting and they had seen the sand ridge. They had fallen in love with it. They got their heads to- gether and said, "Well now, we will make a land speculation. We will take the county seat away from here and up to the sand ridge." Elisha Whittlesey, Platt Benedict, Frederic Falley, three of them, entered into a written agreement to that effect. They sent Platt Benedict on to Connecticut on horse back. He rode eleven days and the land that Norwalk was built on was bought for about one dollar and twelve cents an acre. They got an act through the legislature for the appointment of a commission to locate the county seat. Huron embraced Huron and Erie then. I don't know what manipulation took place, but they got the report of the commit- tee. The act authorizing the change of the county seat required that they should indemnify the owners of property at Avery for any damage they might suffer by the removal of the county seat. Elisha Whittlesey gave a bond to indemnify those people for all losses they might suffer as might be determined by a commission. The commission was appointed and acted. They awarded damages amounting to about three thousand four hundred and forty dollars. Elisha Whittlesey gave a bond to make that good. Elisha Whittlesey in behalf of the four parties ( Falley having surrendered his interest to E. Moss White and Mathew B. Whittlesey ) who purchased the property here took title in his own name as trustee for himself and the rest. He said to a certain number of the people of Norwalk, "If you will take off from my shoulders the responsibility of my bond to those Avery people, I will surrender my interest in the town plat of Norwalk" and five men stepped up and as- sumed that liability. I want to give their names; David Underhill. Peter Tice, Levi Cole, Platt Benedict and Daniel Tilden. They obligated themselves in the sum of eight thousand dollars to make good any damage that might occur. For five men to assume an obligation of eight thousand dollars away back there in 1815 or '16 was equal to men of today assuming hundreds of thousands of dollars. They were poor people, men who had come to hew out a home in the wilderness. They took their courage in their hands and signed the bond. That is the kind of spirit that builds towns. That is the kind of spirit built up at that time that has never died from that day to this in Norwalk.
In 1817 Platt Benedict came on with his family and with him the family of Luke Keeler. They were the joint settlers of the city of Norwalk. The city hasn't reached its century mark yet. We are celebrating the Norwalk Township centen- nial. These two families came, one settling just east of the Court House, the other building his home way out east on the sand ridge, so that Platt Benedict was really the first settler of the city of Norwalk.
When a few families had become settlers here, they bethought themselves of the institutions of their old home. They wanted schools ; they wanted churches. A few of them gathered themselves together and organized a church, and this is the
Detzed by Google
53
HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY
paper that records that organization. It is a quaint old paper and I am going to read you a little from it.
"Norwalk, Huron County, Ohio, Jan. 20, 1821.
At a meeting of a number of persons residing in this vicinity, Platt Benedict was elected clerk of the meeting, and the following gentlemen enrolled themselves as members or friends of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America ; Platt Benedict, John Keeler, Luke Keeler, John Boalt, Amos Woodward, Samuel Sparrow, William Gardiner, Asa Sanford, Ami Keeler, Henry Hulbert, William Woodward, E. Lane, Gurdon Woodward, William Gallup, Ezra Sprague, D. Gibbs, Enos Gilbert and Moses Sowers."
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.