History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 60

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Ohio > Medina County > History of Medina county and Ohio > Part 60

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

I eut and eleared, without team, three aeres, where David Nettleton's house now stands, and planted it with eorn, and left it in eare of Jacob Marsh, and the last of May, 1816, I started for Boston, returning in October of same year. During my absence, several eabins were ereeted. In April, 1816, Mr. Hulet, in the west part of Brunswick, was, after Zenas Hamilton, my nearest neighbor in that direction, and Mr. Mott, east on the old Smith road, each about seven miles from my eabiu."

Mr. Moore had come to the new country, and prepared a home for his family, who eame on with Andrew Seaton and family in 1818. They were (Moores) from Massachusetts, and remained upon the place of his original settle- ment, viz. : Lot 52, until about 1829, when - in partnership with one of the Northrops, he ereeted a substantial log house on Lot 73, where they remained until 1832. They eleared up a good farm on Lot 73, putting up all needed buildings, planting fruit trees, ete., when they sold out to Daniel Northrop. After selling the farm opened on Lot 73, he, in company with Erastus Luce, purehased a farm in the north- west part of Medina, near Abbeyville, built a fine mansion, improved the place highly, and in a few years again sold out. He seems to have been a man who was not long contented in a plaee, as we learn of several removals made from one seetion of the township to another, when he finally sold out and removed to Lake County, Ill., where he resided for a number of years, and where he lived at last accounts of him. Mr. Moore gives the following ineident eonneeted with his trip to this township: "We spent several days in running lines, but, finding that wherever I selected a lot it was reserved, I made the best exeuse I could and left for Mr. Doan's, and soon beeame acquainted with Capt. Seymour, who volunteered to show me the mill site, where he and Mr. Doan would soon ereet a mill in the township of Medina. Aeeordingly, the Captain, with tin eup, rifle, and a most

formidable buteher knife, led the way, and, as if by instinct, found his way some ten or eleven miles through a dense forest. After viewing the mill site, we descended the branch of Roeky River, as far as Lot 52, and, after some examination, found our way to Zenas Hamil- ton's, where we spent the night. In the morn- ing the beeeh-tree, eonspieuous as the seat of justiee of Medina County, was visited; and, if size gives importanee, this tree was truly im- portant. It stood some forty or fifty feet a little north of east, in front of the old eourt house."

Another of the pioneer families of Medina Township, was Abijah Marsh's. They were from Windham Couuty, Vt., and eame to this township in November, 1816, in wagons, and were forty-two days on the road. Upon his arrival, his family consisted of the parents, two daughters, one of them named Lydia, a woman grown, and four sons, from nine to eighteen years of age. Jacob, an elder son, had eome out the winter previous, and entered some land adjoining Zenas Hamilton's on the north, and had eleared some five aeres during the summer. The family moved into a vaeant eabin a little south of Hamilton's, until they eould build on the land that had been entered by Jacob Marsh. Says Mr. Marsh in a eommunieation to the Ga- zette: "The inhabitants of the township at that time were Zenas Hamilton, living about three-quarters of a mile north of the eenter of the township, and Rufus Ferris, who settled a few mouths before near where the county seat is now loeated. There were two bachelor es- tablishments, one near the present site of Bag- dad, oeeupied by Capt. James Moore, and a sailor named Copps, the other about one and a half miles northeast of Mr. Hamilton's, oeeu- pied by James Palmer, and one or two of his brothers. These were all the residents of the township when we arrived in the fall of 1816." A eircumstance occurred soon after the arrival of the Marsh family, in which one of the daugh-

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ters (Lydia) figured prominently, which will be given in connection with pioneer incidents, further on in this chapter. In 1820, Harmon Munson aud wife aud Joseph Pritchard and family came in aud settled near the center. The Munsons are an old and respected family in the county.

Within three years from the first settlement made in Medina Township by Zenas Hamilton, the following additional settlers arrived from Connecticut and made improvements : Rufus Ferris, Noah M. Bronson, Joseph, N. B. and Duthan Northrop, the Warners, William Pain- ter, Lathrop Seymour, Gad Blakslee, aud per- haps others. Mr. Ferris, who was the agent of Boardman, the owner of the land, arrived in the township on the 11th day of June, 1816. He settled about half a mile north of the public square of Medina, where he erected a comforta- ble log house, and, as he was the land agent, his house soou became the stopping-place of new- comers. He was originally from New Milford, and, upon his arrival here, built a sort of shanty, into which they stowed their things, while they did all their work in the open air, and Mrs. Ferris did her eooking and baking every day by the side of a fallen tree. Ferris had a num- ber of men at work, and pushed forward the ehopping and clearing so rapidly that they soon had corn and wheat growing where but a short time before was au unbrokeu wilderness. In 1817, Ferris had the first frame barn put up ever built in the township. He employed J. and N. B. Northrop to do the work, and " help" for raising the huge affair was partly obtained from Liverpool and Bruuswick Townships. Not being able to complete the building the first day, the hands remained overnight and finished it next morning. The following inci- dent is related of this barn-raising : " Ferris, be- ing fond of fun, prepared too large pails of milk-punch, sweet but strong with whisky, and, in a short time, six or eight of those who drank most freely, were on their backs feeliug up-

ward for terra firma." The raising was finished in the morning, and when completed " Uncle John Hickox," as he was called, went up on the end rafter and walked the "ridge-pole" to the other eud and down again to the " plate." This barn was afterward used in which to hold some of the early courts of Medina County. Mr. Ferris was a man of considerable promi- nence in the neighborhood, and much respected among his fellow-citizens. Mr. Bronson came from Plymouth, and settled here in October, 1816. Hiram Bronson came to the township with the family when small. His mother rode most of the distance on horseback, and earried her infant. He has served two terms in the State Legislature, and has been a prominent citizen in the community. He drove the first cattle from Medina Township to market, and hauled the first flour from the same place to Cleveland ; also hauled potash there with ox team, bringing back salt. These trips usually occupied five days. Of the Warners, there were David, George, James and E. A. Warner, who came about 1817-18. The Bronsons and Warners are old and respected families, and mauy descendants are still living in town and county, and are among the most worthy eiti- zens. Mr. Brouson, in company with one of the Warners, purchased Lots 37, 54 and 55, which they improved, and upon which they settled.

The Northrops, one of the prominent fami- · lies of the township, came in 1816-17. Duthan came first and built a cabin on Lot 30, for his father, Joseph Northrop, who had stopped with his family at Nelson, in Portage County. He waited there for snow, that the trip might be more easily made by "sledding." The last of January, 1817, he came on to Medina, and went into the house with Ferris until his own could be finished. It had been put up by Duthan, and covered, and now, in order to make mud, or mortar, for the purpose of daubing the cracks, they had to heat water, and dig through the snow, then eight inches deep. But patience aud

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

perseverance triumphed, and they moved into their owu eabin on the 6th of February. It was without floor, door or chimney, aud the weather was very cold. There was, however, plenty of wood eouvenient, and they managed to keep comfortable, and in a few days a stiek chimney was added to their primitive home. Puneheons were then hewed, and a door was made ; bedsteads were manufactured from poles, a few rude stools, and their household furni- ture was complete. Mr. Northrop, as we have stated, was from Connectieut. He was born in Brookfield, and his wife in Stratford ; he died July 21, 1843, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and his wife December 26, 1851, aged eighty-two years. His family consisted of Nira B., Betsey (Mrs. Johnson), Duthan, Eliza (Mrs. Barnes), Morris and Mary. The latter died unmarried. Morris and Gen. Duthan Northrop are still living-the others are all dead. Gen. Northrop lives at Mentor, and is a neighbor to Gen. Garfield, whom he knows well. Nira B., Betsey aud Morris all lived to celebrate their golden weddings ; Duthan's wife died a short time before their fiftieth marriage anni- versary. William Painter, Gad Blakslee and Lathrop Seymour eame in the spring of 1817. Painter and Blakslee were from Plymouth, and Seymour from Waterbury. Blakslee died years ago, and of Painter we were unable to learn anything definite.

Capt. Seymour was a prominent man in the community. He left Connectieut with his family in the latter part of September, 1807, in company with four other families with ox teams. Through mud aud mire they finally arrived at Buffalo, where they took passage in a small, dirty vessel, and, after a tiresome voyage of sev- eral weeks, arrived at Erie, Penn. At this place Mr. Seymour left them and started for Euelid, while his wife continued her journey ou foot, in company with another family. Horses were procured at Euelid, and Seymour met them forty miles from Erie, and took them to Euelid,

where they spent the winter, and in the spring went to Cleveland and remained there three mouths. They then removed to Columbia, where they suffered severely with the ague, and dur- ing their stay there lost a child. They next went to Huron, and, war beiug deelared between the United States and Euglaud, soou after, Mr. Seymour enlisted as a soldier, and his wife was left alone most of the time with her children. In 1814, Mr. Seymour having served out his time in the army, they moved to Liverpool, where they boarded the hands that worked in the salt-works. From this place, they again went to Columbia, and in Mareh, 1816, eame to Medina to look at a mill site, which he and Mr. Doan had lately purchased. In April, 1817, he moved to Medina and settled permanently. He took his family into a little log shanty, so small that when their beds were spread down they covered the eutire floor. In company with Doan, he built a saw-mill in the fall of 1817, and the next year built a grist-mill at Wey- mouth. These were the first mills in the town- ship. Capt. Seymour and his family suffered all the privations common in a uew country at that early period. Once they were without bread for three weeks, and had to live on meat, potatoes and milk. This was before Seymour built his mill at Weymouth, aud the uearest mill was four days distant with ox teams. Capt. Seymour died in December, 1835, but his wife survived him mauy years, living to a good old age.

Chamberlin and Marsh, who came to the township with James Palmer in the spring of 1816, did not remain long, but soon removed to Sullivan. James Palmer, who, as we have said, eame with Chamberlin and Marsh, built a eabin on Lot 16, aud opeued a large farm, which he reduced to a fine state of cultivation ; and upon which he lived uutil his death, which oe- eurred in February, 1850. He is described by those who knew him, as a just and upright man and worthy eitizen; highly esteemed and re-

Austin Beedofr AGE 87 YEARS

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speeted by all who knew him. Timothy Doan, Samuel Y. Potter, Isaae Barnes and a Mr. Cal- ender and a few other families settled in the township in 1817. Shortly after the arrival of those mentioned above, F. A. Abbott, with his family, eame in and located on Lot 53, north half, while Augustus Philips settled on the south half of same lot. Philips' father and mother came in 1820. They were colored people, and are said to have been descendants of the noted Indian chief-King Philip. In 1818, David Allen, John Briggs, S. B. Welton, Eden Hamil- ton and their families moved in and beeame

settlers. Eden Hamilton, Jr., Jacob R. Wel- ton and David Nettleton had preceded them a short time, and were already permanent settlers of the township. Several other families eame soon after, bnt remained a short time, and then went West. Giles Barnes settled on Lot 71 in 1818 ; his brother, John Barnes, eame at the same time. They were from West Hartford, Conn. Jolin went to Michigan, where he finally died. Isaae Barnes eame from Camden, N. Y., to this township, and some years later removed to Michigan.

The Clarks were another of the pioneer fam- ilies of Medina Township. Ransom and John L. Clark, brothers, eame in May, 1817. They purchased a part of Lot 45, and, until they eould build a shanty, they slept under their wagon, which they " weather-boarded " with elm-bark. They built a eabin of sneh poles as they could themselves handle, the floor and eeiling of which were made of bark. In this they kept bach- elor's hall through the summer, and during the following winter, Ransom, who was a joiner, worked at his trade in Wooster, while John L. taught sehool in Colombia. The next spring, (1818) Dr. B. B. Clark, a brother to Ransom and John, arrived in the township, and brought the information that their father, John Clark, Sr., was eoming, and might be expected in a short time. They at onee eommeneed eutting logs for a eabin for the family, and had it up

and partly eovered when their father arrived. The roof was soon finished, and the family crossed the river on drift-wood (the river being very high at the time), leaving the teams behind. They earried their bed-ticks over with them, and filled them with straw and leaves, and lodged in their new eabin in true pioneer style, and, like those around them, fared as best they could. They were on the road forty days from Bridgewater, Conn., and arrived in June, 1818. They were good, upright citizens, and there are still numerous descendants in the county. The parents of Levi Chapin were among the early settlers in Brunswick Township, bnt afterward moved into this township, where Levi now lives, a worthy representative. They were from Berk- shire County, Mass., and eame to Ohio in 1816, by ox team. The elder Chapin had traded a farm in Massachusetts for wild land in the "Reserve," npon which he settled npon his ar- rival here. Capt. Seth S. Walker was from Mass- achusetts, also, and settled in Medina Township in 1835. He was in the war of 1812, and served in the Fortieth Regiment of Infantry. He and his good lady celebrated their golden wedding in Medina on the 9th of July, 1867, at which many friends were present, ineluding thirty-six children and grandehildren. He is now eighty-six and his wife eighty-two years of age, and are living on the old homestead with " their son Andrew. Matthew L. and A. Hamil- ton eame in 1818. They were consins of Zenas Hamilton, the first settler of the township. Each of them entered 100 aeres of land-Matthew's where he now lives. In the fall of the year, he returned to New York on foot, where he married in August, 1821, and in the fall came back to Medina in a two-horse wagon. Charles M. Cook came to the township with his father's family in 1818, from Conneetieut. He died January 1, 1877. Stephen N. Sargent eame from Boston, Mass., and settled in Medina Township about 1817, and was a man of some prominenee.

Capt. Austin Badger is another of the pio-

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

neers of Medina Township, and among the old- est in the county now living. He is a native of New York, and, during the war of 1812, bore his share of the privations of soldier life. In 1818, he came to Ohio, and in May of that year located in Medina Township. He found, upon his arrival in a new country, a striking contrast to the civilized community he had left ; the cabins were few and very far between, and of the rudest construction. He built the first double-log house on the present site of Medina Village, and with one Hickox, who was a mar- ried man, opened a tavern, the first in the neighborhood. In this tavern court was held, before the building of a court house. Capt. Badger took the contraet for clearing off the public square, in 1819, and, also, for the build- ing of the first eourt house. He is still living in the village of Medina, though, iu a few years after he came to the county, he removed into Montville Township, where he lived until he settled in Medina, some years ago. We are in- debted to him for many particulars relating to the history, both of Medina Township and the county at large. The Nettletons were among the early settlers of the township. Five mem- bers of the family eame in between 1818 and 1832, and three of them celebrated their golden weddings.

But emigrants were now coming iu rapidly, the vacant land was being taken up, and settle- ments made to such an extent as to preelude the possibility of the historian keeping paee with them. Soon there was not a vaeant lot in the township, and the settlers' cabins were found in very close proximity to each other.

For the first few years, the pioneers had to suffer more or less for the actual necessities of life. Bread and potatoes were extremely searce, in consequence of the distance to where they were to be obtained. At one time, N. B. Nor- throp went fifteen miles and paid $10 for twen- ty bushels of potatoes, and $5 to get them hauled home. Some time previously, he had

gone twenty miles for a load of wheat, paid $1.50 per bushel for it, got it ground and then paid a like sum to get it home. He also, it is said, paid $3 for the first bushel of salt, $34.50 for the first cow, and $26 for the first barrel of pork. At another time, Mr. Northrop and F. A. Abbott paid $11 for a barrel of Liverpool salt, and it fell short one-tenth. All this falls far short of the privations actually endured by the hardy settlers, who had staked their all upon hewing out a home in the wilderness. Says Howe, in his historical collections of Ohio, referring to Medina : "Owing to the want of a market, the products of agriculture were very low. Thousands of bushels of wheat could at one time be bought for less than 25 cents per bushel, and cases occurred where ten bushels were offered for a single pound of tea, and re- fused. As an example : Joel Blakslee, of Me- dina, about the year 1822, sowed fifty-five acres in wheat, which he could only sell by bartering with his neighbors. He fed out most of it in bundles to his cattle and swine. All that he managed to dispose of for eash was a small quantity sold to a traveler for 12} eents per bushel, as feed for his horse. Other products were in proportion. One man brought an ox- wagon, filled with corn, from Granger, eight miles distant, which he gladly exchanged for three yards of satinet for a pair of pantaloous. It was not until the opening of the Erie Canal, that the settlers had a market. From that time the course of prosperity has been onward. The early settlers, after wearing ont their woolen pantaloons, were obliged to have them seated and kneed with buckskin, in which attire they attended church. It was almost impossible to raise wool, in consequence of the abundance of wolves destroying the sheep." In addition to all these little annoyances and discomforts, many dangers existed. The woods were full of wild beasts, some of which would not hesitate to at- taek human beings when pressed by hunger, and if a person chanced to get lost in the for-

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ests, they ran great danger of being devoured by them.

The following ineident, which oeeurred in 1816, is told in a communieation written by the brother, of the lady who figures in the affair, and published in the Medina Gazette, De- eember 17, 1869 : ' About two weeks after our settlement [the Marshes] in Medina, the Palmers went to Sullivan to assist in surveying that township into lots, and my sister, Lydia Marsh, went there to keep house for them in their abscnee. My brother generally went over to stay with her during the night. One evening he went over just at dusk, and, not finding her in the house, went out to the cow-yard, suppos- ing she was milking the eow. He found the milk-pail hanging on the bar-post, but Lydia and the cow were absent. My brother re- mained until after dark, shouting and calling her name, but, hearing no answer to his re- peated ealls, returned home and gave the alarm. Mr. Hamilton turned out, and we proeured the assistance of Moore and Copps. Mr. Ferris lived five miles away, and was not called upon. The search for her was kept up through the night, between Palmer's and where Weymouth is now located, as the eattle were in that direc- tion, and we rightly judged that it was in an at- tempt to find the eow that she became lost. A horrid din of all kinds of sounds was kept up at Palmer's house during the night, and the party who prosecuted the search in the woods kept shouting, but no trace of the lost one eould be discovered. In the morning, we all assembled at our eabin, and, after hastily swal- lowing some breakfast, held a consultation as to the best mode of procedure. We were somewhat alarmed, and there was just eause for our fears. It had rained in the fore part of the evening, but before midnight turned eold, eommeneed snowing and froze hard. We supposed she had become exhausted with fa- tigue and bcnumbed with eold, and, if she had not already perished, would soon, if not found.

The plan adopted was to send a message to arouse the inhabitants of Liverpool, the nearest settlement of mueh extent, and renew the search at onee. A person was dispatched to Liverpool, and we had taken a few steps toward Palmer's, when Lydia suddenly made her ap- pearanee, looking some years older than she did the day before, but otherwise safe and sound. We ealled our messenger baek, who was not yet out of hearing, and all repaired to the house to hear her story. We were some- what excited; the sudden transition from fear- ful foreboding to the certainty of her safety was not ealeulated to produce coolness on our part. In the first exeess of joy at her safety, we all had to have our jokes at her forlorn ap- pearanee before we eould listen to her story ; but, when the exeitement had subsided, she gave us the history of her wanderings. The Palmers had one cow and a yoke of oxen, which ran in the woods. The eow usually eame up at night and was shut in a small yard. There was a bell on one of the oxen, but none on the eow. Mr. Palmer had told Lydia, if the eow failed to eome up at night, not to go into the woods after her; but she disobeyed his injunetion and hence was lost. The afternoon was eloudy, and Lydia, busy with her work, did not no- tiee the lateness of the hour until it began to grow dark in the house. She then took her milk-pail and hastened to the eow-yard. The cow was not there, but she heard the bell over toward where Weymouth is now loeated, and, as it did not appear to be more than half a mile distant, she hung her pail on the bar-post and started after the eow. It grew dark rap- idly, and when she found the oxen the eow was not near enough to be seen. She depended on the eow to lead her home, and hunted for her until it was quite dark, and, in wandering around in the search, she became uneertain which way home was situated. In her dilemma she started the oxen, in hopes that they would lcad her home ; she eould follow them by the

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

sound of the bell, but could not see them at the distance of ten feet. The oxen, however, had no idea of going home, and, when she became convinced they would not, she left them and undertook to find the way without them. She was in error as to the place where she left the oxen. She supposed it was north of Palmer's, on or near the line of Brunswiek, and this mis- take led to another, which cost her eight or ten miles' travel in the morning. A drizzling rain had set in early in the evening, and, in the almost total darkness that surrounded her, she fell into a creek and of course was thoroughly wet. The wind had got into the north, the snow was fall- ing, it was freezing rapidly, and she began to realize some of the discomforts of being lost in the woods in a stormy night. About midnight, she stepped on ground that seemed to have been trodden down harder than that she had traveled over, and, feeling with her hands, found ruts made by wagon wheels, and knew she was in a road. It was too dark to think of follow- ing it, and she concluded to wait until morning. Sitting down by the side of a tree, she pulled off her stockings, wrung the water out, wrapped her feet in her elothes, and awaited the coming of daylight. She supposed she had struck the road between Hamilton's and Liverpool, and, if her absence was not discovered, she intended to get baek to Palmer's in the morning, and not let anybody know she had been lost. To- ward morning, she heard the roosters crowing but a little way off to the north, but, believing they were in Liverpool, she did not go to the house in the morning, as she would have to tell them she had been lost, and she had some hopes of being able to keep the secret of her night's experience in the woods. Her stock- ings were frozen in the morning so she eould not get them on her feet, so she put on her shoes without them and started south. The place where she stayed overnight was about eighty rods south of our cabin, and a little fur- ther from Hamilton's, where she heard the

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 60

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014