USA > Ohio > Medina County > History of Medina county and Ohio > Part 36
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C
HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.
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the solicitations of Tecumseh's agents, and through the war of 1812 remained the stanch friends of the Americans, and frequently ren- dering valuable service as scouts and sharp- shooters.
The territory now comprised within the lim- its of Medina County was thus early taken from the control of the original savage possess- ors. The treaties, however, only extinguished the right of the savages to retard immigration, and did not necessarily remove them from this tract of land until forced off by the growth of settlements. It was not until the general paci- fication of the Indians, in 1817, that the Re- serve could be said to be free to white settle- ment, though, as a matter of fact, they had some years before abandoned this locality, save a few straggling bands near Wooster, at the mouth of Portage River, in Trumbull County, and near Chippewa Lake. There is no evi- dence that the savages ever had a permanent residence in Medina, and it is probable, that, for years before the coming of the whites, this locality was simply visited by hunting parties in quest of the game which once filled the for- est. Up to the war of 1812, it was the custom of the Indians to meet every fall at Cleveland in great numbers, and pile up their canoes at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. From this point, they scattered into the interior, and passed the winter in hunting. In the spring, they returned, disposed of their furs to traders, and, launching their bark canoes upon the lake, returned to their towns in the region of the Sandusky and Maumee, where they remained until the succeeding fall, to raise their crops. Others came by land, a trail leading from San- dusky to the Tuscarawas River, passing very near the residence of Mr. Harris. It was a narrow, hard-trodden bridle-path. In the fall, the Indians came upon it from the west to this region, remained through the winter to hunt, and returned in the spring, their horses laden with furs, jerked venison and bear's oil, the lat-
ter being an extensive article of trade. The horses were loose, and followed in single file. It was no uncommon sight to see a single hunter returning with as many as twenty po- nies laden with his winter's work, and usually accompanied with his squaw and papooscs, all mounted. The Indians often built their wigwams in this vicinity, generally near Chip- pewa Lake, but frequently within a few rods of the cabins of the settlers in Harrisville. They were seen but very little, however, after the close of the war of 1812, though it is said that the wigwams of the Wyandots could be seen occasionally along Center Creek, in Litchfield Township, as late as 1822. The earliest set- tlers found them friendly, though having but little occasion to have dealings with them.
The first survey of this part of the Western Reserve was made in 1796, and settlements followed at Cleveland in the same year, in Trumbull County in 1798, in Portage County in 1799, in Summit in 1800, in Medina in 1811, and in Lorain in 1817. It will be observed that settlements on the Reserve followed the retreat of the savages at a much greater dis- tance than in most parts of the State. Some of these lands were sold as early as 1786, and, in May, 1795, the whole of tlie Western Re- serve, save the "Fire Lands," was disposed of by the State of Connecticut to a land company formed there. The members of this company were generally persons of wealth, who bought the land for the purpose of speculation, and frequently held the tracts falling to their pos- session out of the market for years. Another obstacle was found in the fact that the lands were much of them held at a price considera- bly higher than that asked for Government land, and tracts early disposed of were sold through personal friendship and influence or from ignorance of cheaper lands, and not be- cause they were better or cheaper. There were some advantages, however, accruing to settlers on the Reserve that may have been taken into
218
HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.
consideration, and may have had considerable weight in making up the decision of the pur- chaser. The land was all taxable, and public improvements were not laid solely upon the few pioneers that had taken up their homes in a township. In many cases, the lands of the original proprietor were made to bear tlie brunt of the expense of schoolhouses and roads, and frequently secured a church or two by simply doing the work after material had been provided by the land speculator. These considerations, to the thrifty New Englander, who knew the value of church and school, were undoubtedly made to ontweigh the disad- vantages of the situation, In later years, when the public lands of Ohio were pretty generally taken np, these advantages, in connection with land at no higher rates than were demanded elsewhere, made the Reserve a very desirable location.
The earliest trace of the white man in Medi- na County was found in Wadsworth Township. Here, on the west bank of Holmes' Brook, near the north side of the road, stood a large beech- tree, which bore on its north face, the letters distorted by its growth, the legend, " Philip Ward, 1797," and beneath it, in the following descending order, "T. D., R. C., W. V." Who Philip Ward and his three companions were, or what errand brought them here, is an unsolved problem. The date is of the year following the first landing of immigrants and surveyors at Conneaut, but no snch name appears in the published list of those persons. It is probable that these mementoes were cut into the tree by adventurous hunters who had pushed their way into the wilds of Ohio from some of the front- ier settlements of Pennsylvania or New York, The silent witness of their presence has long since been removed, it having been cut down in 1834, when the road was straightened. The first white man to come with a view of making a settlement was Judge Joseph Harris, then a young married man, a native of Connecticut,
and a resident of Randolph, in Portage Connty, Ohio,
In 1807, the Connecticut Land Company had made a division of their lands west of the Cny- ahoga River, and Township 1, in Range 16, together with 2,000 acres in Township 1, Range 15, as a compensation for swamp land in the former, was drawn by the Torringford Com- pany, an organization that had been formed to take a share in the great land company. The members of this organization were Nehemiah Gaylord, John and Jabez Gillett, Solomon Rock- well and brothers, Hezekiah Huntington, Will- iam Battell, Russell Burr, heirs of Job Curtis, Thomas Huntington, Roy Tyler, Wright & Sut- leff, Joseph Haines, Martin Kellogg, Burr and Loomis, Joseph Battell and Eliphalet Austin, In 1810, this property, known now as Harris- ville Township, and a part of Westfield, was surveyed into lots of 100 aeres each, and Mr. Harris secured as agent for the sale of the land. He was given a share in the lands of the Torringford company, and the privilege of se- leeting 200 acres as location for a pioneer set- tlement, to be deducted from his undivided portion. Mr. Harris at once made a visit to the new country, and, selecting a site for his cabin, went home, to return in the following year with his family and effects, He was joined in his new home, in June of 1811, by George and Russell Burr, members of the Torringford company, with their wives, and, a little later, by Calvin and Lyman Corbin, from Boston, Mass. Mr. Justns Warner had been in Liver- pool Township, during the winter of 1810, to inspect the sitnation, and, being pleased with the outlook, and having corresponded with a Mr. Coit, the proprietor of the township, he bought land, and, in the same year that marked the date of settlement in Harrisville, Mr. Warner, accompanied by Alpheus Warner and his wife, and Moses Demming, made a settlement in Liverpool. Hardly had these families settled down to their new life when the startling news
219
HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.
of Hull's surrender and the landing of British troops at Huron was bronght to their ears. Both settlements repaired at once to a place of greater safety ; but, learning the nature of the reports, and finding that no immediate danger impended, they returned. The news of the dis- aster in the Northwest was more effective in re- straining immigration, and it was 1814 before the next settlers came into the connty. In this year, the Harrisville community received large accessions, and new settlements were made in Medina and Wadsworth Townships.
The latter township had been previously di- vided into nine tracts and apportioned to the various proprietors. Number 1 belonged to Elijah Wadsworth, then a resident of Canfield Township, in Mahoning County, and Daniel Dean and Oliver Durham, coming to that town and becoming acquainted with Mr. Wadsworth, finally purchased land in his tract, and, coming here, settled in that part of the county March 17, 1814. On October 3 of the same year, Ze- nas Hamilton, a native of Danbury, Conn., set- tled in Medina. A small clearing of some three acres had been made, some time before this, by a Mr. Hinman and brothers, of Aurora, but, after putting up a cabin and accomplishing this little, they left, and never returned. It was in this deserted cabin that Mr. Hamilton moved, with his family of seven or eight children, in the fall of 1814.
The line of travel toward the new settlements was by the way of Cleveland. Persons from East found it most convenient to take the established lines of travel to Erie or Buffalo, and then, shipping by the lake, to land at Cleveland. The first road toward the south was from Cleveland to Wooster, passing through the very central portion of the nndeveloped country. The older settlements at Wooster at- tracted many persons, who came to visit friends and those prospecting for land were naturally drawn to this locality by acquaintances there. All this travel passed through Medina, and Mr.
Boardman, the principal proprietor of Medina Township, alive to the advantages of the sitna- tion, secured Rufus Ferris as an agent for the sale of his land, and, placing him in Medina with abundant means, set about utilizing the advantages offered by the location of his lands. Mr. Ferris kept open house and devoted him- self to the entertainment of strangers who were likely to buy land, and at the same time pushed the work of clearing and improving the place with all the means at his command. From this time forward, the Medina community was the principal point from which the settlement of the county was directed. In the meantime, Brunswick had been settled in 1815; in the following year a settlement was made in Shar- on, in Westfield, Guilford and Granger in 1817, and in Chatham, Montville and Hinckley in 1819.
The settlement of Medina Connty was not the result of a regular advance of the line of pio- neer colonies from the East. This overflow population had found a barrier about the "Re- serve," and, passing into the public lands lying adjacent on the south, had built np thriving centers before the wilderness of this section was invaded by the white man. There were none of the regular class of squatters in this county. There were no natural or Indian clear- ings, and the certainty of being obliged to soon surrender any improvements that might be made, deterred this class of emigrants from locating. Others who came were brought here often by becoming heir to property located in the new conntry, or through the influence of neighbors who had become owners of lands. Agents for the different original proprietors, were numerous and were eager to interest per- sons likely to need cheap land for a liome. The settlements were thus irregularly made in the county. Instead of proceeding from some base of supply along one edge of the wilder- ness and passing to the interior as their acces- sions increased, the first settlers established
220
HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.
themselves in the very heart of the county. " Many openings were made at a distance of many miles from each other, uecessitatiug jour- neys of ten or fifteen miles for the sole pur- pose of getting some mechanical job done. In getting to and from mill, days were spent; and for many years the nearest post office was at Cleveland, to which place a man would speud two days in going and returning, for sake of a single letter. On such journeys the ax, blanket aud bell were the pioneer's outfit, and with these he cut out his road, protected him- self from the rigors of the climate, and recov- ered his oxen, turned out to graze at night. Where he tarried at night an unbroken wilder- ness was his inn, and the howling wolf his only companion."* Of the life of this class of pio- neers, an English traveler gives a vivid picture, in a series of letters written from this country in 1818. Comparing them with the class of squatters, he says : "The next class of settlers differs from the former, in having cousiderable less dependence on the killing of game, in re- maining in the midst of a growing population, and in devoting themselves more to agriculture. A man of this class proceeds on sinall capital ; he either eularges the clearings begun in the woods by his backwoodsman predecessor, or establishes himself on a new site. On his ar- rival in a settlement, the neighbors unite in assisting him to erect a cabiu for the reception of his family; some of them cut down the trees, others drag them to the spot with oxen, and the rest build up the logs. In this way, a house is commonly reared in one day. For this well-timed assistance, no immediate pay- ment is made, and he acquits himself by work- ing for his neighbors. It is not in his power to hire laborers, and he must depend, therc- fore, upon his own exertions. If his family is numerous and industrious, his progress is greatly accelerated. He does not clear away the forests by dint of labor, but girdles the
trees. By the second summer after this opera- tion is performed, the foliage is completely destroyed, aud his crops are not injured by the shade. He plauts an orchard which thrives abundantly under every sort of neglect. His live-stock soon becomes much more numerous than that of his backwoods predecessor ; but, as his cattle have to shift for themselves in the woods where grass is scanty, they are small and lean. He does not sow grass seed, to suc- ceed his crops; so that his land, which ought to be pasturage, is overgrown with weeds. The neglect of sowing grass seed deprives him of hay, and he has no fodder laid up except the blades of Indian corn, which are much withered and do not appear to be nutritious food. The poor animals are forced to range the forests in winter, where they can scarcely procure any- thing which is green, except the buds of the underwood, on which they browse. Trees are sometimes cut down that the cattle may eat the buds. Want of shelter completes the sum of misery. Hogs suffer famine during the drought of summer and the frosts and snows of winter, but they become fat by feeding on the acorns and beechnuts which strew the ground in au- tumn. Horses are not exempt from their share in these common sufferings, with the addition of labor, which most of them are not able to undergo. * *
* The utensils used in agriculture are not numerous. The plow is short, clumsy, and is not calculated to make either deep or neat furrows. The harrow is triangular, and is yoked with one of its angles forward, that it may be less apt to take hold of stumps of trees in its way. Light articles are carried on horseback, heavy ones by a coarse sledge, by a cart or by a wagon. The smaller implements are the ax, the pick-ax, and the cradle-scythe-by far the most commendable of back woods apparatus. * * * To- day, I have seen a number of young women on horseback with packages of wool, going to or returning from the carding machine. At some
* Northrop's "History of Medina County."
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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.
of the houses, the loom stands under a small porch by the door."
The political organization of the "Reserve," largely influenced by the private enterprise which had purchased this vast tract, was more methodical than that of the larger parts of the State. This territory was surveyed in town- ships five miles square, upon a plan which con- templated the convenience and success of the people who should develop the country. The township lines of the survey were always iden- tical with the line of political division, and, though it was often found necessary to attach an unsettled township to one more developed, for judicial purposes, it never lost its identity, and was known upon the tax-list and in popular parlance by the name of the original purchaser or by its township and range number in the original survey. In the formation of counties the same rule has been observed, and town- ships have been transferred from one county organization to another, but never divided among several. The first survey of this vast wilderness known as the " Western Reserve " was made in 1796, and immigration invited to that portion which lay cast of the Cuyahoga River. In 1800, Trumbull, the eighth county in the State, was formed by the Territorial Gov- ernment, embracing within its limits the whole " Reserve." In 1805, Geauga was formed, and on June 7, 1807, the counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga and Portage, were erected. The lat- ter included the territory that has since been formed into the counties of Portage, Summit and Medina, with the county seat at Ravenna. On February 18, 1812, Medina was erected "from that part of the Reserve west of the 11th Range, south of the numbers five and east of the 20th Range, and attached to Portage County until organized." At that time there was but a single settlement, and that but four days old. The eastern tier of townships which have since been taken off, had enough settlements which warranted this action on the part of the Legis-
lature. In 1818, the county of Medina was or- ganized as an independent subdivision of the State. The county was then composed of eight- een townships-Norton, Copley, Bath, Rich- field, Wadsworth, Granger, Hinckley, Guilford, Montville, Medina, Brunswick, Westfield, Liver- pool, Harrisville, Grafton, Sullivan, Penfield and Huntingdon. December 26, 1822, Lorain County was formed from Huron, Cuyahoga and Medina, taking from the latter all the townships in Ranges 19, 18 and 17 below num- ber five, and Township 4 in the 16th Range. On March 3, 1840, Summit County was formed from Portage, Stark and Medina, the latter con- tributing tlie townships of Norton, Copley, Bath and Richfield, in Range 12, and receiving from Lorain the townships Homer and Spencer in the 17th Range, leaving the present arrangement of townships.
The population of the county at the time of its first organization was probably not far from two thousand persons, though it is arrived at by simply guessing. Mr. Northrop, in his his- tory of Medina County, gives an estimate of the population in 1818, of the various townships now in the county, which foot up to 2,469. Comparing this estimate with the census of 1820, and it shows only a little larger yearly increase than is shown in the decade from 1820 to 1830, which was very probably the case. But, while the aggregate seems probable, the distribution as given below from Mr. Northrop's work seems quite the reverse. In this, seven townships which were not organized till after 1830, are credited with a population of 467. This number ought probably to be referred to the whole territory lying west of Range 15. The early settlement was principally drawn from Connecticut, though there were large ac- cessions from New England families that had moved to New York, Pennsylvania and other parts of Ohio previous to their coming here. In Homer and Spencer Townships, however, the original settlement was made considerably
203
HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.
later and by Germans generally from Pennsyl- vauia. In the southeastern and eastern parts of the county, the original stock of New En- glanders has been supplanted by a thrifty class of Germans, who, by their persevering industry, have added largely to the resources of the county. The influx of population up to 1850 was regular and rapid, the population increas- ing from 2,469 in 1818, to 3,090 in 1820, 7,560 in 1830, 18,360 in 1840, and 24,441 in 1850. Since then, however, there has been a gradual falling-off in the census returns of about two thousand each decadc. The reason for this retrograde movement in population is uot well defined. It is probably due to the fact that many have gone further West, where cheaper lands may be secured, and to the general fact shown in the eensus of the State at large, that many of the youth have been called in various ways to the cities. The census of the townships and villages for the last five decades, are as fol- lows :
CENSUS.
1818
1840
1850
1860
1870
1880
Brunswick.
167
1,110
1,417
1,269
980
945
Chatham.
107
555
1,167
1,1GQ
980
1,006
Granger
184
1,317
1,025
987
908
Gni ford
209
1,402
1,800
1,820
1,809
1,872
Harrisville.
231|
1,2 6
1,477
1,226
1,182
1,381
Hinckley.
11s
1,287
1,416
1,239
972
962
Homer.
72
1,102
993
886
865
La Fayette.
91
938
1,332
1,325
1,109
1,097
Litchfield.
96
787
1,312
1,118
800
851
Liverpool.
219
1,502
2,203
1,807
1,425
1,339
Medina
163
1,435
2,011
2,189
1,553
700
Montville.
87
015
1,077
957
1,097
829
Sharon
96
1,314
1,519
1,313
1,131
1,197
Spencer.
81
551
1,336
1,082
929
898
Wadsworth
227
1,481
1,622
1,703
2,283
2,837
Westfield.
79
1,031
1,122
1,122
1,023
1,048
York
124
782
1,211
1,069
886
1,001
Village of Medina ...
118
1,009
1,234
1,159
1,438
Village of Seville ...
597
Village of Wadsworth
949
1,217
Totals.
2,469| 18,300. 24,441, 22,517, 20.092 21,447
Investigations into the earlier records of the Commissioners' Court is met, at the outset, by the following ominous entry on the first page of the Commissioners' Record: "Whereas, a certain book called the 'Commissioners' Ree- ords,' in which were all the records of the county since its organization, was feloniously stolen from the Commissioners' office, on the
night of the eighth of December, instant, to- gether with certain petitions, road reports, and bonds on petitions, with the minutes of the proccedings of the regular December session ; therefore, resolved that the following orders be entered in a book, to be provided as a Com- missioners' Record, etc." The serious loss thus indicated makes the history of the first six years, among the most important in the history of a eounty, rest largely upon tradition. There are other sources of partial information, and this loss lias been remedied to a considerable extent through the patient research instituted and placed on record by Hon. F. R. Loomis, then one of the editors of the Medina Gazette.
The first election held in accordance with the requirements of the act organizing the county, resulted in the choice of Abraham Freese as Auditor, Lathrop Seymour as Sheriff, and John Freese as Recorder. The Commissioners were then appointed by the Court of Common Pleas, the members of which were elected by the joint ballot `of the Legislature. The first court was composed of George Tod, of Warren, Trumbull County, as President Judge, and Joseph Har- ris, of Harrisville, Isaae Welton, of Richfield, Frederick Brown, of Wadsworth, as Associate Judges. In April, 1818, this eourt appointed Miles Clark, of - -, Timothy Doan, of Wey- mouth, and Andrew Deming, of Brunswick, as County Commissioners. The county seat had been fixed by the special Commissioners at Medina Village. As an inducement to this end, Elijah Boardman, the original owner of Medina Township, had offered to the county a plat of ground containing some 300 acres more or less. This gift was subject to the condition of locat- ing the seat of justice thereon, and was made before the county was organized. Lathrop Seymour was made "Director of Lands" to re- eeive the gift for the county, and when the condition had been fulfilled, and the property passed into the eontrol of the Commissioners, the "Director of Lands " was empowered to
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dispose of this property for the benefit of the county. Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4, facing the public square on the west, were reserved for the site of the public buildings, and what is now the public square was set apart for that purpose, and a contract entered into with Austin Badger to clear it. Improvements were carried forward on the property remaining in the hands of the county until all were sold. Among the first actions of the Board of Commissioners, was the appointment of Rufus Ferris as Treasurer, and the providing of a place for the first session of the court. But little improvement had been made in the village, as the property had not been offered for sale. Mr. Ferris had a cabin which was fully oceupied by his family, but a frame barn which had recently been erected a little northeast of the public square, offered accommodations which were secured by the Commissioners. This sufficed for the first term of court, when the upper part of a double log house, which had been reared on the site of the
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