USA > Ohio > Lorain County > History of Lorain County, Ohio > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90
ARTEMAS BEEBE.
that followed. Mr. Beebe was married to Miss Pamelia Morgan Oct. 4, 1820. This marriage was solemnized under peenfiar circumstances, viz., by the Rev. Joseph Lathrop, who for two generations had performed the duties of a pastor in said town. To him was it left, after performing the marriage ceremony for the last time in his life (then in his eighty-ninth year, totally blind), to send out the young couple to the western wilds with all and every good wish and fond hopes for their future welfare. No Saratoga trunk or useless finery filled the wagon-box that left Mrs. Beebe's early home. The plain and substantial comprised its contents. The brass kettle, the warming-pan, the candlesticks, the andirons, etc., yet in the family tell their own tale. A long journey full of incident, now with wagon overturned, again vexations delay from impassable roads, or rustie bridge swept away, ended Nov. 17, 1820. With earnest hearts, a will to do, and hands trained to work, Mr. and Mrs. Beebe commenced life in the " Old Beche Tavern." Many years were there passed. To Mrs. Beebe much of the reputation this tavern gained in early days was due. She not only made it the place of entertainment for the weary traveler, but many a one homesick, and longing for the eastern home, from her got words of healthy cheer and kind sym- pathy. From this time onward, until the date of her death, June, 26, 1878, Mrs. Beebe's life was one of womanly work. Noted as the housewife ; earnest and active in the church ; as neighbor kind, ever ready with helping hand to aid and comfort the sick, genial in social intercourse, she was eminently the good woman. One of the original ten who formed the First Presbyterian Church of Elyria, Nov. 24, 1824, she was always its ardent supporter, in word and deed living out her profession. Her energy and economy aided the husband in acquiring the competency that in declining years made their home so pleasant, and caused them both to forget the early privations attendant upon the " first settler."
She left at her death two sons and three daughters, all in the maturity of life. An obituary notice says of her: "She died rich in all those experiences she had garnered up with the growth of Elyria. To her was given the good fortune to watch, help, or nurture a little hamlet of one or two log houses become a town of churches, schools, and a prosperous people."
In 1826, Mr. Beebe, in partnership with Ezra Adams, purchased of Silas Wolverton the contract for carrying the mail between Cleveland and Lower Sandusky, now called Fremont. Mr. Beebe per- formed the duties of said contract between Elyria and Cleveland ; Mr. Adams and others between Elyria and Fremont. At the end of one year Mr. Beebe purchased the entire business. Increase of popula- tion demanded greater facilities than the single horse, with mail-bag, could perform. Soon Mr. Beebe, with letters from the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey and others, visited Washington, D. C., and from the Postmaster- General obtained a general contract for the transpor- tation of mails and passengers between the above- mentioned points. The coach seating six, with its four horses, soon had to give way to the more com- modious coach, which gave ample room to nine.
The coach, with its merry driver and noisy tin horn, excited as much attention, and drew as many to the " stage oflice" on its coming and departure, in propor- tion to the population, as the steam car, with more noisy steam horn, did twenty-five yearsafter. Fraught
with labor was this undertaking; poor roads, poorer bridges were ever opposing him ; shipwrecked coaches and drowned horses were not uncommon. But Mr. Beebe's untiring energy overcame every obstaele of nature and all opposing lines started by others ; and the year 1831 saw a daily line of four-horse coaches running over his route. Success rewarded his efforts until 1842, when he sold this branch of his business to Neil Moore & Co., of Columbus, Ohio.
From the years 1830 to 1833, Mr. Beebe was en- gaged in the business of general merchandise, with HI. N. Gates as partner. Shortly after disposing of his mail contracts he purchased of Deacon L. Lane the Eagle Mills, on the east branch of Black River, which he successfully operated for twenty-three years, selling them then to the late I. W. Bullock.
In 1846, remembering the " Old Beebe Tavern," and seeing Elyria in need of a first-class hotel, he built the Beebe House. A building an ornament to the town, an honor to the builder, long and favorably has it been known to the traveling public.
Motives outside of mere pecuniary gain must have actuated Mr. Beebe in this enterprise. The needs of Elyria for a hotel far better than any existing, it seems, must have indneed him, regardless of any ultimate dividend, to have erected so substantial, so complete a structure. Erected thirty-three years ago, it yet re- mains in many respects a pattern for more modern structures. At the time of its building, nothing like it for its purpose stood upon the Western Reserve in towns of similar size. A similar motive must have had much to do in influencing Mr. Beebe to buikl the beautiful Beebe House on Put-in-Bay Island, so many years and still kept by his eklest son, Henry Beebe. In this respect he may well be called a publie bene- factor. In 1847, when the subject of a bank was agi- tated among Elyria's citizens, Mr. Beebe was one of the first to respond. An original stockholder and di- rector from its birth, in its change to a national bank he has ever held both positions until the present day. In 1849, becoming a stockholder in the Plank-Road running from Black River, Lorain Co., to Homer, Medina Co., he was largely instrumental in bring- ing the advantage of said road to his fellow-citizens, and in completing it, being appointed superintendent of its construction.
The latter years of Mr. Beebe's life, although not as full of actual labor, have been none of idleness. The duties of bank director, trusts confided him by his fellows, the care of a large property, and farming interests have constantly busied him. Such is a brief outline of the life of the remaining link between Elyria's beginning and its now only surviving mem- ber of the little band of six who nearly seven decades ago laid Elyria's foundation ; he yet remains.
As a man Mr. Beebe was ever noted for strict in- tegrity ; ever careful to aid the cause of morality and religion, always an attendant upon religious obser- vanees, and ever contributing to the church. Upon May 6, 1866, making public profession of religion, he became a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Elyria. Now past the allotted age of man, hardly one remaining of his carly associates he lives Elyria's oldest citizen. The children, ay, even the grandchildren, of those with whom his yonth and middle age were spent with reverence and respect regard him, ever seeing the sterling integrity, clear business decision, and prompt action that he used so well in the building up of the town of Elyria.
105
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.
among eight hunters, and thirteen squaws, hoys and children, But they were divided equally. The next day, the hunters turned out again, and succeeded in killing one deer and three bears. One of the hears was remarkably large and fat. All hands turned out the next morning to bring in the meat.
" During the winter, a war party of four went out to the borders of Pennsylvania, to procure horses and scalps, leaving the same number in camp, to provide meat for the women and children. They returned towards spring, with two scalps and four horses. After the departure of the warriors, we had hard times, and though not out of provisions, we were brought to short allowance. At length. Tontileaugo had fair success, and brought into camp sufficient to last ten days. Tontileaugo then took me with him in order to encamp some distance from the winter cabin. We steered south up the creek ten or twelve miles, and went into camp."
This was probably in La Grange. They went to bed hungry the first night, but the next day, suc- ceeded in killing a bear, and the day after, a bear and three cubs. They remained here about two weeks, killing an abundance of game, and then returned to the winter cabin. On their arrival, there was great joy, as all were in a starving condition.
About the first of April, they dug up their canoe, but were forced to make an additional one to carry all their riches-left their winter cabin at the falls, and proceeded to the lake-Tontileaugo by water, and Smith on horseback. On reaching the month of the river, they proceeded west along the shore to Sun- yeu-deank (Sandusky), where was another Wyandotte town. Late in the fall, Smith joined a hunting party, and proceeded to the Cuyahoga river. At the distance of about thirty miles from its mouth, they formed an encampment near a small lake, and spent the winter in catching beaver. In the spring of 1757 they returned to Sandusky, and soon proceeded by water to Detroit, where they disposed of their peltry to the French traders.
In 1459, Smith accompanied his Indian relatives to Montreal, where he was finally exchanged, and re- turned home in 1760, to find his old sweetheart mar- ried, and all supposing him dead. He afterwards became a captain in the regular British army, and was engaged, principally, in protecting the border settlers against Indian raids. During the revolu- tionary war, he joined the patriot army, rose to the rank of colonel, and did good service, both against the British and their Indian allies. In 1788, he migrated to Bourbon county. Kentucky, where he represented his district in the assembly down to the present century.
After this long digression, we return to the history of Etyria in later times.
ORIGINAL OWNERS.
The township of Elyria was, in April, 1807, drawn by the following individuals of the Connectient land company, viz: Justin Ely, Roger Newberry, Jona- than Bruce, Elijah White, Enoch Perkins, John H. Buel, Jonathan Dwight, and others, whose names are not mentioned.
At the September term of the supreme court, in Portage county, in 1816, the south part of the town- ship (about one-third of the whole.) was set off to Justin Ely; the central part to Elijah White. A tract
of two thousand, one hundred and ten acres, lying immediately north of this, was assigned to Jonathan Brnce, and the remaining portion of the township to Enoch Perkins and Roger Newberry.
White conveyed his tract to Justin Ely, and he, in turn, to leman Ely, his son, who purchased the Bruce tract, making him the owner of twelve thou- sand five hundred acres lying in a single body. The following history of the settlement of the township of Elyria is prepared from reminiscences of the venerable Artemas Beebe, the Hon. Ileman Ely, the address of the Hon. W. W. Boynton, and from personal inter- views with N. B. Gates and such early settlers as are now remaining in the township.
SETTLEMENT.
In the spring of the year 1816, Heman Ely, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, came to Ohio to look after his estate. He came in a sulky, until he reached Buffalo, where, leaving his sulky, he com- pleted his journey on horseback.
A NARROW ESCAPE.
"In following the trail which wound along the lake shore, through the unbroken forest, the ground gave way, his horse's hind feet were thrown over a high wash bank. The horse, however, clung with his fore feet; Mr. Ely clung to the bridle and mane, and a vigorous use of the whip probably saved the life of the founder of Elyria."
He made his home, temporarily, with Moses Eldred, father of Clark Eldred now of Elyria, who then kept a tavern some two miles east of the river, in Ridge- ville township.
Mr. Ely immediately set about the work of im- provement. First of all, he contracted with Jedediah Hubbell, and a man named Shepard, of Newburgh, Unyahoga county, to build a dam, and erect a grist and saw mill. These were located on the east branch of Black river, near the foot of the present Broad street. There was also erected a large log house, which stood near where Mr. Beebe afterwards built his tavern stand. This was occonpied by John Bacon, late of Carlisle, who boarded the men who were en- gaged in the construction of the mills.
During his first visit. Mr. Ely, while examining his lands, in company with Clark Eldred. then a young man, came upon a spot, some two and a half miles west of the river, which pleased young Eldred, and which he selected for his future home. Though as yet unsurveyed, he made a verbal contract for it, . and after its survey, secured a deed. Mr. Eldred occupied this farm for fifty-five years, and for many years kept a hotel. He now, after a long and useful life, resides in the village, retaining his full powers of mind and memory.
Mr. Ely returned to Massachusetts, in the fall of 1816, and immediately commenced making prepara- tions for his removal to his wilderness possessions on Black river.
About the first of January. 1817, Mr. Ely sent on three men, with axes in their hands, to commence clearing land. They made the entire distance on foot
14
106
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.
(about six hundred miles), and before Mr. Ely ar- rived with his party, in March, they had made quite a hole in the woods. Their names were Roderick Ashley, Edwin Bush, and James Porter.
On the 20th of February, 1817, Mr. Ely and his party commenced their weary journey, much of the way by a wood route, barely passable at any time, but especially dithicult at that season of the year. We who live in this age of telegraphs and railroads, and can to-day take our breakfast in Elyria, and to-mor- row morning, after a comfortable night's rest in a sleeping-car, take the same meal in New York City, have but a feeble conception of the trials and difli- culties attending the same journey. from the east, sixty-one years ago. The mode of conveyance of these pioneers was, by a stont pair of horses harnessed to an equally stout wagon. This vehicle was covered with homespun tow-cloth over the bows, in the prevail- ing emigrant style. The party, six in all. started from their New England homes in high spirits. It con- sisted of Heman Ely, the founder of the present township and village of Elyria, Ebenezer Lane, after- wards chief justice of the supreme court of Ohio, Miss Anna Snow, housekeeper, Luther Lane, who drove the team. Artemas Beebe, a honse joiner and carpenter, who had been engaged to accompany the expedition ; and a colored servant of Mr. Ely's, named " Ned." They proceeded as far as Seneca Falls when. the sleighing being good, they halted. and made a sled. Loading the wagon and goods on the sled, they pushed on to the vicinity of Buffalo, when the sleighing left them. From Buffalo to Cattaraugus creek, they traveled on the ice. They arrived at Cleveland, without accident or material incident. on the 16th of March, and a few days subsequent, at the Mecca of their pilgrimage, where they were duly in- stalled in the log house, before mentioned. I quote from the interesting reminiscences of Mr. Beebe:
" Mr. Bacon and family went to their home in Carlisle, and Mr. Luther Lane went with the team for straw to fill the beds. When the river fell so that the load could be brought over, two beds were made, and a de- seription of them will not be out of place, Mr. Ely had brought some bed-ticks from the east, ready-made, and the cover of the wagon was also converted into ticks. The bedsteads were made of poles, with bark stretched across them for bottoms, and pillows were scarce. Some evarse cloth was used for sheets."
A family named Beach made a settlement, in 1816. in the western part of the township, near the site of the present Haag's mill. This was the first white family to settle in the township. On the 10th of September, 1817, Mrs. Beach gave birth to a son, the first white child born in the township. He was named Henry, and was living, at a recent date, in Rockport, Cuya- hoga county, and with him, his aged mother. Mr. Beach was taken sick soon after the birth of the child, and died on the 22d of the snecceding No- vember. Mrs. Beach took her family, and the dead body of her husband, to the log school house, opposite Captain Eldred's. He was buried in a sandy ridge, a little cast of of the center of Ridgeville. Mr. A. Beebe made the collin. This was, doubtless, the first death of a white person in the township.
Mr. Beebe says the first improvement in the way of chopping, was made by Clark Eldred, who had about two acres chopped down when the improvements were commenced in the village. The first clearing in the village was made at the foot of Broad street. and progressed westward, as required. In this clear- ing, the houses of Mr. Ely and Mr. A. Beebe were built. George Douglas and Gershom Danks, car- penters, arrived from Westfield, Massachusetts, about the first of April, 1812, and soon after the work of building was commenced. The first framed building erected was to be occupied for a store. This was located on the southwest corner of the Ely home- stead lot, at the corner of Cedar and Broad streets. It was about twenty by forty feet, one story high, and without a cellar. During the year 1816 it was used for a joiner shop, but the next year it was filled with goods by Edmund West & Co. This was the pioneer store in Elyria which has since been "noted for its trade in dry goods, and for the success which has attended the enterprise of some of its carly mer- chants." The next building was the residence of Mr. Ely, and is the same now ocenpied by his son. Hon. Heman Ely. This house was forty-five feet front by forty feet deep, with a kitchen and wood-house in the rear and a collar under the main building. It has undergone various changes and improvements both externally and internally, and its present fine archi- tectural appearance and beautiful surroundings are in striking contrast with the picture it presented in the dense forest sixty years ago. The siding of the house was all made from one whitewood tree that stood at the turn of the street near where the large willow now stands.
On the 29th day of May, 1812, Captain Festus Cooley, father of Festus Cooley late of Elyria but now of Kansas, arrived from Westfield, Mass., and took charge of both the saw and grist mills. He came the whole distance on foot. In the summer Enos Mann came to Elyria. He was from Becket, Mass. Ile located on the farm east of the river, since owned by Deacon Lane. Mr. Mann was a turner of wooden bowls, and, it is said, followed this vocation for a number of years after his arrival in Elyria. During the fall following their arrival Mrs. Mann gave birth to a son, the second born in the township. Mrs. Mann died on the 9th of March. 1823. and her re- mains were the first interred in the Elyria cemetery. A plain sandstone slabs marks the spot, and upon it the following inscription: " In memory of Mrs. Clamaney Mann, consort of Mr. Enos Mann, who died March 9, 1823, in the fortieth year of her age." A simple collection of words and figures, yet of what terrible significance to the bereaved ones, hundreds of miles from relatives, in a comparative wilderness. Friends were raised up for them. and kind, though strange hands, ministered to the wants of the mother- less ones.
Neri Gulpin, from Litchfield county, Conn., settled in Elyria in November, 1822, on the farm now occu-
--
107
HISTORY OF LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.
pied by Anson Pangburn. Seven children came with him. Of these but one resides in Elyria: Mareus D., who married Amanda Ely, daughter of Lewis Ely, who came to the Reserve in 1800, locating in Deer- field. now Portage county, with his parents, Lewis and Anna (Granger) Ely.
Lewis Ely, Jr., came to Elyria in 1823, purchased two lots of West Broad street, put up a small frame house, returned, and, with his family, removed to Elyria in the spring of 1824. Mr. Ely was killed by a runaway horse, in June, 1831. He was sheriff of Lorain county at the time of his death. Mrs. Ely died in 1863.
Francis Douglas," brother of George Douglas, came from Westfield, Mass., to Elyria in 1820. He was a carpenter, and for several years a Methodist local preacher. He built several houses, one of which is the brick front west of the public square now oceu- pied by Dr. Sherwood. In 1843, he removed to Wor- cester, Mass., where he died in March, 1878, aged eighty years.
Calvin Smith removed with his family from Nauga- tuck, Conn., to Elyria in 1819. He built a log house east of the river on the lot now occupied by Mr. L. F. Ward, where he resided several years. He removed from thence to Sheffield, where, after a long sickness, he died in 1826. He was a fine singer, and led the singing in the early religious meetings in the log school house east of the river.
lleber G. Sekins, born in Stafford, VI., came to Elyria in the fall of 1825. His family then consisted of a wife and two children. Ira B., the oklest, still resides in Elyria. He was for years connected with the military organizations. One of his daughters is the widow of the late Thomas Childs, and still resides in the village. Another daughter married Elizur Northrop. They are residents of Cleveland.
We are unable to obtain the names and history of many of the first settlers, but shall refer to some of them incidentally as we proceed.
Immediately after the first settlement of the town- ship, Mr. Ely and others felt the importance of estab- lishing and maintaining religious institutions. They had built a log school house on the triangular piece of ground between the railroad and the highway, just across the east branch of the river. Here the pioneers assembled every Sunday and engaged in public wor- ship. Mr. Ely usually read a sermon; Luther Lane and William Smith were called upon to lead in prayer; Calvin Smith, assisted by Irene Allen and others, led the singing. We again quote from Mr. Beche's remi- niscences:
"The first sermon preached in Elyria was by the Rev. Alvin Hyde, on the 5th of February, 1818. He was a son of the Rev. Dr. Hyde of Lee, Berkshire county, Mass. Ilis text was from Jonah 2: 9, 'Salvation is of the Lord.' During part of the years 1817-18, he resided in Dover, where he preached half of the time, and the other half in the adjacent town- ships.
"Our ordinary rations consisted of pork, flour and peas, Sometimes we got venison and fresh fish. The Indians furnished us with the first fish we had. They caught them below the falls. They shot the deer where they could find them, and would come riding in single file with squaws and pappooses on their ponies. They came from Upper San- dusky to hunt and fish, and belonged to the Wyandotte and Seneca
tribes. They used to camp on the ground now occupied by Mrs. Hoyle and Col. Gates, which was then covered by a small growth of hemlocks and pines.
"Mr. Chester Wright had established a distillery on the east side of the east branch, in the rear of the sand pits. The Indians, being great lovers of whisky, could obtain supplies at the distillery, whisky being considered one of the necessities of life." Mr. Beebe remarks that "distilleries were then as plenty as cheese factories are now. Some of the Indians' names were Goodhunt, Red Jacket, Betwixt-the-Logs, etc. They were civil and gave us no trouble."
WILD ANIMALS.
Bears were frequently killed by the early settlers, and were particularly destructive of the pigs that roamed in the woods in those days. In the winter of 1830, J. A. Harris, late of the Cleveland Herald, who then resided in Elyria, encountered four-an old bear and three well grown cubs-in the woods just cast of E. A. Griswold's. The three cubs ascended a tree, while the old bear maintained her position on the ground. He first lodged a ball in the oldl bear. In- stead of attacking him, she tled, leaving her young unprotected. He tired deliberately at each of the three in the tree, bringing them all down, and killing but one. He had only a squirrel ritle. With a target gun, such as are used at this time, he would probably have bagged them all. A party of hunters followed them the next day, tracking them by their blood, but did not overtake them. In the winter of 1831-2, the writer was teaching school in the yellow school house which stood west of the public square, on the ground now occupied by the town hall. One afternoon the school was thrown in great commotion by a bear pass- ing through the town just back of the school house, pursued by dogs and hunters. It erossed the river below the falls, and was killed about three miles down the river, on the farm belonging to the late Aaron R. Taylor. This was the last bear seen in this vicinity.
Wolves were quite numerous until about 1835. Their howlings could be heard almost every night in the woods north of town. One evening during the fall of 1832, the writer was passing on foot along the road which skirted a swamp near the residence of Harlow Wells, in the northwest part of the township, a pack of wolves followed him, keeping along the boarder of the swamp, so near that he could hear the pattering of their feet. Their howling's were not musical, but very much diversified. Like the retreat- ing soldier, though not frightened he was somewhat demoralized. The last wolf was seen in Elyria during the year 1844. He was evidently lonely, as he sought the society of dogs; but the dogs did not fraternize with him, but avoided his society. Many times he came into the village during the evenings, and our largest bull-dogs, after a brief encounter, retreated to their kennels in disgust. He created much excite- ment. among the citizens. Those who had brief glimpses of him greatly magnified his size, and in- agined him to be some huge wild animal, probably a panther of the largest class. At length during the ensuing winter a party of hunters got on his track which they followed for three days, killing him in New Haven, Huron county. While being pursued he
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.