History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 65

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 65

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The township is wholly underlaid with sand-

* Contributed by Hon. Aaron Pardee.

stone rock, in many places showing upon the surface, but generally covered with drift from twenty-five to eighty feet in depth. Though there are such considerable inequalities in the face of the land, there is scarcely an acre to be found but what is capable of the highest culti- vation. Springs, generally of pure soft water, are found in nearly all parts of the town- ship. These flow north, south, east and west. The River Styx is the most con- siderable stream of water; it rises in Mont- ville, and runs south through the west part of Wadsworth to Milton, Wayne County, where it unites with the outlet of Chippewa Lake, which is called the Chippewa, and is a tributary of the Tuscarawas. The River Styx was once quite a formidable stream, its level bottoms from one mile to one mile and a half in width, originally covered with a very heavy growth of timber, were subject to an overflow in wet seasons, rendering traveling across them, at times, quite impracticable, until cross-ways and bridges could be made. But the stream has been cleared out and straightened, so that at present, the ground is dry, the roads are good, there is no trouble from overflow, and the bottom farms are as valuable as any found in the State. Holmes' Brook, a tributary of the Styx, rises near the Sharon line and runs south- erly, emptying into the Styx in the south part of the township. Another tributary is called Blocker's Run. This stream rises in the north- east quarter of the township, and, running through Wadsworth Village, empties into the Styx near the mouth of Holmes' Brook. Both these streams were early utilized for milling purposes. Another stream used for the old

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

" Well-house Mill," drains part of the south part of the township, and flows on to the Chip- pewa. Still another, called Silver Creek, a stream of some note, rises in the southeastern portion, and meets the Chippewa a mile or two west of Clinton, in Summit County. Some of the springs in the north part of the township flow north iuto Wolf Creek, but the springs of that region generally contribute to form the Hudson Run, which rises near the northeast corner, and, running southeasterly just east of Western Star, and through Johnson's Corners, reaches Wolf Creek near its junction with the Tuscarawas.

From the general elevation, one would sup- pose the dividing ridge between the Lake and the Gulf would be found here, and that some of the waters would run into Lake Erie; but the fountain heads of the Styx and of the Rocky River, are about a mile from the north- west corner of the township, and it is all the way descending to the waters of Rocky River ; yet, by the iutervention of the Styx, the waters are all turned southerly, so that every foot of this territory must be held to be part of the Mississippi Valley.

In its native state, this was a most magnifi- cent timbered region of country. There was scarce an acre in the whole township, on which if its original timber were standing to-day, but would be more valuable for its lumber than the best acre of improved land. The forest trees were in great variety. On the bottom lands were elm, swamp oak, black walnut, white walnut, or butternut, basswood, sycamore, white and black ash, hard and soft maple, beech, cherry, hickory and an occasional buckeye, and on the ridges in addition to nearly all the above varieties, were white, black and yellow oak, chestnut, whitewood, or poplar, cucumber, pepperidge or gum-tree and sassafras. The highest lands were called chestnut ridges, and the very lowest black-ash swamps. There were many thou- sands of white oak, whitewood, white ash and

black walnut trees that, if standing to-day, might be readily sold for an average of $30 to $50 each. Alas ! how many of these sturdy monarchs of the forest were girdled and killed as cumberers of the ground, or felled by hunt- ers in the night and left to rot and waste ; how many were chopped down in windrows in the clearings ; and, when the dry time came in the spring, were set on fire and consumed, trunk and branch. Besides the more important forest trees above mentioned, there was a numerous undergrowth of smaller varieties, as ironwood, boxwood, slippery elm, crab apple and wild plum. The ironwood and boxwood were in- valuable for levers and wedges. And the box- wood flowers, large, white and lasting, gave the woods in spring a most charming appearance. The wild plums were found on the bottoms in great abundanee in the fall, while chestnuts, hickory nuts and acorns, in profusion, lay un- elaimed except by wild animals. Of still smaller vegetation there was a great profusion. There were wild roses, blackberries, raspber- ries, wild currants, gooseberries, upland whor- tleberries, several kinds of native grasses, leeks, various kinds of ferns, nettles, mandrakes, skunk cabbage, wild turnip, ginseng and winter- green. Such a region of country, in its native beauty, was a delight to the eye, and one will have to go far to find its equal in the United States or elsewhere.

The wild animals found here, when the white man made his first advent, were bears, wolves, deer, gray foxes, raccoons, wild-cats, pole-cats, woodchucks, hedgehogs, opossums, otters, minks, musksrats, weasels, black, gray, red, and fly- ing squirrels, chipmunks and wood-mice. The red fox and wharf-rat are unwelcome emigrants, and not to the manor born. On the Styx bot- toms and on Dry Run are the remains of an old beaver dam, but no beaver was ever known to have been caught in this region. Of game, birds, there were wild geese, ducks, and tur- keys, partridges, quails and pigeons. The

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

droves aud flocks of the last four mentioned kinds of birds were innumerable. Then, there were the hawks, the owls, the buzzards, the crows, the blackbirds, the whip-poor-will, the mourning dove, brown thrasher, red birds, blue- jays, woodpeckers, robins, blue birds, ground birds, meadow larks, yellow birds, hang-birds and huiuming-birds ; occasionally might be found a snipe, an eagle, a crane and a loon.

There were no lakes or natural ponds in the township, and, the streams being small, the fish were in proportion. In the Styx aud its tribu- taries, were found bull-heads, sun-fish, white bass and suckers and other smaller fish. The reptiles werc sufficiently numerous to be at times very disagreeable. The large yellow rat- tlesnake was quite common ; the black rattle- snake, sometimes called Massisauga, so uamcd, as is said, from a tribe of Indians inhabiting the neighborhood of Mahoning River, where the snake was first found, was common in the low lands of the township, and frequently around springs. Both of these were very venomous snakes. The yellow rattlesnake frequently at tained a length of six to eight fect. The Massi- sauga was a short, logy snake, but its bite was as dangerous as that of the common rattlesnake ; fortunately, both of these species are now extinct in this neighborhood. There was also a large black snake ; the spotted adder or milk- snake, so called from its being supposed to be fond of cow's milk, was frequently found in houses, and sometimes in the buttery or in the bed. There was also a small red snake, the common spotted snake and various water snakes. All of the above, except the rattle- snakes, were comparatively harmless, living on frogs, insects, and sometimes on young birds. Of other reptiles and creeping things, there was the common toad, the trcc-toad, the commou frog and bull-frog, also the land turtle. There were green, black and red lizards and the swift, which was an animal of the lizard species, called swift, because of its swift flight as soon

as seen by inan ; its body, however, was so frail and brittle that, at almost the least touch, it would break and fly to pieces.

But few signs that Indians or other human beings had visited or inhabited this territory before this township was settled, have been found. Flint arrow-points and stone axes were sometimes found by the early settlers and some- times later; but there are no well-marked mounds, or graves, or signs of fortifications, made by any prehistoric race or by the Indians, such as exist in many other places. The first white men known to have visited Wadsworth were the surveyors who marked the south line of the Reserve. This line was made by Seth Pease and a surveying party in the employ of the State of Connecticut, about the year 1797. A beech-tree formerly stood ou the west bank of Holmes' Brook, near the north side of the Center road, on which was early found in old letters carved in the bark, this inscription :

PHILIP WARD 1797

RC W V

We are iuformed by the Rev. Edward Brown, in his memorial of Wadsworth, published in 1875, that he had seen this inscription on the north side of said beech-tree, and that it was legible as late as 1834, when the tree was cut down in straightening the road, but who Philip Ward and his companions were, or for what purpose they visited that locality, is unknown. They may have been part of the surveying party of Seth Pease.

For much that follows, in pursuing the history of Wadsworth, the writer will be largely in- debted to the labors of the Rev. Edward Brown, above mentioned, who has embodied in his " Wadsworth Memorial," many things that the truthful historian could not omit. And, in tak- ing from Mr. Brown's book, quotations will not always be pointed out, but many things will be taken bodily, some of them not original with

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

Mr. Brown ; but there is mneh due to him for his faithful investigations into the early history of Wadsworth, and the writer takes great pleasure in giving him the deserved eredit.

We quote from " Wadsworth Memorial," page 43 :

" The first white man who ever had a habita- tion in Wadsworth, was a former Indian trader, of English birth, from Montreal, by the name of John Holmes, who, marrying among the In- dians, lived among them as a hunter and trap- per, and was known to the white settlers as ' Indian Holmes.' The remains of his old eabiu nsed to be pointed out to me, near the brook that bears his name. But, as he had in a great measure lapsed from eivilization, had never purehased nor eultivated land, but lived the roving, unsettled life of an Indian, he is no more entitled to the name of first settler than the aborigines themselves, and, like them, would have been forgotten but for the accident of his name having been given to the stream."

Wadsworth was originally surveyed into nine traets of land, eight of which were allotted to eight different parties, the uinth being held in common by several persons. Traet 1, or the Wadsworth Traet, was in the southeast eorner of the township, extending from the east-and- west eenter road to the south line of the town- ship, and from the east line of the township westerly about a mile and three-quarters. Traet 2 was on the north side of the eenter road, bounded east by the township line, and contained about seventy-two acres. Traets 3 and 4 were very small traets lying direetly north of Traet 2. Tract 5, or the Tappan Tract, was three miles long east and west, and two and one-half miles north and south, ineluding the whole of the northeast eorner of the township, exeept what was contained in Traets 2, 3 and 4, and also ineluding part of the northwest quar- ter of the township. Traet 6 was on the west side of Tract 1, containing about forty aeres ; and Traet 7 directly north of Tract 6, and ex-

tending to the east-and-west eenter road. Traet 8, or the Ely Traet, was two and one-half miles north and south, and three miles east and west, bounded on the east by Traets 6 and 7, and em- braeing the whole of the southwest quarter, and a half-mile in width of the southeast quar- ter ; all of the above-mentioned traets were originally surveyed into lots for settlement, gen- erally of 160 aeres. Traet 9 remained, held in eommon, for a long time, and was finally par- titioued by proceedings in court. This aeeounts for the great diversity in the size and number- ing of the lots in Traet 9. The lands in Wads- worth, after being surveyed, were held for sale at priees from $2 to $5 per aere, with easy de- ferred payments, while the Congress land south of the Reserve line, could be liad for $1.25 per aere, eash in hand. For poor people, as the early settlers generally were, to get a eredit for their land was a strong indueement, and aeeord- ingly the Reserve was settled as soon as the ad- joining Congress land.

An account of the first settlement in Wads- worth Township is given by Mr. Brown in his Memorial as follows :

" The first settlers were the families of Dan- iel Dean and Oliver Durham, emigrants from Vermont. The settlement was begun ou the east line of the township, on the ground that is now a part of the village of Western Star. Their arrival was March 17, 1814. The next family was that of Salmon Warner, February, 1815."

Mr. Benjamin Dean, the oldest son of one of these families, attended the pioneer meeting in 1874. He was then a resident of Blairstown, Iowa, and his aeeount, written by himself, was read to the meeting as follows :

"On the 1st day of Mareh, 1814, Oliver Dur- ham and the writer, Beujamin Dean, went seven miles into the wilderness, and made the first beginning in Wadsworth.

" My father, Daniel Dean, and my brother Daniel, eame two days later. We built a eamp,

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

or shelter, by sticking crotches and laying a pole on them, then cut and split planks, or puncheons, and placed them with one end on the pole and the other on the ground. At night, we built a large fire in front of our camp, and wrapped ourselves in blankets, and lay there with our feet to the fire. The wolves howled about us nearly all night, but did not come within sight. Sometimes they would get still ; but, if we would make a little noise or increase our fire a little, they would give us more musie. At one time, I rapped on a dry tree, and they yelled at the top of their voices. We soon found that they had a line of travel from Wolf Creek to the Chippewa, and that they passcd us every alternate night, following the road, until the settlement became so large that they went around it. But they always, in passing, saluted us with a specimen of their music.

"We cut and drew the logs for my father's house, 18x18, and for Mr. Durham's, 16x18 feet. We had our own help, my father, Mr. Durham, my brother, fourteen years, and myself, sixteen years old ; the rest of our help, seven men, came seven miles. They were Basley Cahow, Jacob Vanhyning (with but one arm), Indian Holmes, Theodore Parmelee, George Hethman, James and George Cahow, and with this help we raised both houses in one day. We got a roof on my father's house, and all moved into it on the 17th day of March.

" At that time there were but eight dwelling- houses between us and Talmadge Mills-after- ward called Middlebury-which was thirteen miles distant from our settlement ; they were those of Jackey Cahow, Theodorc Parmelee, Indian Holmes (these all lived where Parmelee afterward built his brick house), Pliny Wilcox -who lived near the foot of the hill, where Mr. Perkins afterward built his stone house. Paul Williams and his son Barney-afterward called Col. Williams-lived on the hill beyond where Akron now stands, and betwixt there and the Mills, we passed Major Spieer and Mr.

Hasen. (The above was written in Iowa; I have learned since I came here, to my astonish- ment, that the town of Akron now not only takes in the Williams farms, but also Maj. Spicer's, and the whole of Middlebury.) But to return. The saw-mill and the grist-mill, made of hewed logs, aud three log houses, were all that could be seen where Middlebury now stands. There was a log house, and some land cleared, where old Squire Henry Vanhyning afterward lived, on Wolf Creek, and he moved in June, 1814.

" There were, at that time, in the territory afterward formed into Medina County, including Norton, Copley, Bath and Richfield, in Range 12, only twenty families, viz. : Five in Nortou, three in Harrisville, five in Liverpool, two in Bath and five in Richfield. My mother saw no woman but Mrs. Durham until August, and Mrs. Durham saw uo woman but Mrs. Dean until Oetober, during which time she gave birth to a son, the first born in the township. He was called Alonzo; was born iu July, 1814.

" The first store in Middlebury was opened in July, 1814, in a room of Judge Norton's house, by Peleg Mason. In 1815, he and his brother built a small storehouse, and other merchants soon came in. It will be remembered that this was during the war, called the war of 1812, and provisions were closely bought up for the army.

" Before harvest, wheat was worth $3 a bushel' flour $17 a barrel, and pork could not be bought at any price. To my knowledge, salt, which had to be brought up in wagons, on account of the British fleet on the lakes, was worth $20 per barrel in Cleveland, or about 10 cents a pound. You may well conclude that these were pretty hard times."

The early settlers of Wadsworthi were from the East, and had been accustomed to farm labor. They were a hardy, industrious class of people, and were very economical. Their moral char- acter was good, aud they were mostly religious. But very few of them had money to pay for

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

419

their land, and had to buy on credit. Some of them had hard work to support their families, till they could raise a crop on their own lands. A very few had money to pay for improve- ments, after paying for their land, and this helped the poorer class, as it enabled them to get employment in helping to clear land.

It cost much labor to clear up the land, as the timber was very heavy. This, with their land debts, kept the people embarrassed for a good many years ; but they lived together in peace aud harmony. In general intelligence and literary culture they would compare favor- ably with the farmers of this day.

At that time, there was no school law in the State; and, where they got inhabitants enough together, they built schoolhouses by neighborly liberality, and employed teachers at their own option. Each had to pay in proportiou to the number of days their children were at school.

" We had good schools iu those days, and the best society I ever was in. I often think of the meetings we had in the old log sehoolhouse, mostly by reading sermons, and sometimes a missionary would come and preach to us.

" The land in Wadsworth is mostly, as you know, high and rolling. The laud in the north- ern part of the township is said to be as high as any in the State. It is certainly as health- ful, and naturally as good for fruit, as any in Ohio.

" In 1828, we swapped farms with Steward Richards; we took his land, where William Freeborn now lives, and he took that upon which we first settled, being what is now called the Duly farm, of Western Star. Our orchard on the location, began to bear in 1824; and, from that time until 1864, when I left Wads- worth for Iowa, where I now reside, the apples were never killed but once. We had a frost in 1834, that killed all the apples in the State.

" In the beginning, our land was cleared by girdling such of the large timber as would kill easily, and a good deal of that timber was per-

mitted to stand till it would fall down and rot ; doubtless, a good deal of sickness was caused in this way.

" Before we moved to Wadsworth, the old east-and-west center road had been partially opened. Men owning land iu western town- ships endeavored to have the road, to eucour- age settlements. The road was first located by an order from Trumbull County. This was when all this eouuty, and still west of us, was part of Trumbull County. Capt. Bela Hubbard, of Randolph, was the surveyor, and Squire David Hudson, of Hudson, Gen. Campbell, of Ravenua, and Squire Day, of Deerfield, were the exploring committee. Squire Day after- ward had the job of opening the road. I think this was iu the year 1808.

" In 1810, after Portage County was organ- ized (including what is uow Medina County), and Owen Brown, of Hudson, was oue of the County Commissioners, another appropriation was made, and Capt. Hubbard was employed to make more bridges, and other improvements. "The surveying party above referred to uamed the streams in this vicinity. They named Wolf Creek, in consequence of finding the carcass of a deer on its bauks, that had beeu killed by wolves ; and, when they passed Hudson's Run, Squire Hudson named it by cutting his uame on a beech-tree. All the rest of the party chose streams, and recorded them in the same way ; but when they came to River Styx aud Chippewa, they gave them other names, no one preferring to leave his name for either of them. This statement I had from Capt. Hubbard, in 1814, aud afterward from Squire Hudson. BENJAMIN DEAN."

We now quote from Mr. Brown :

" The first settlers of Wadsworth were princi- pally from three States-Vermont, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. From Vermont were the Deans, O. Durham, and his brother Calvin (who wrote his name Dorwin), his father-in-law, Salmon Warner, and sons, Reuben F., Salmon,

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

Jr., Daniel, Horatio, Amos, M. D .; (Elisha Dur- ham, brother to O. and C., died on the way from Vermont, and his widow, daughter of Ly- sander Hard, married Mr. Henry Wright), Lysander Hard and son Harlow, and step-sons, Davis and Welles Holeomb, and his brother, Abraham Hard, with his sons, Cyrus, Abraham, Jr., L. Nelson; John M., Peter and Leavitt Weeks; Timothy S. and Harry Bennett (Abel, Stanton and Elam Bennett came afterward) ; W. H. Wright and Milton Wright, and after- ward their father, Ebenezer Wright, and their brother Orris ; Samuel M. Hayden and Hiram C. Kingsbury.

"Of those from Connecticut, first, Orin Loomis, then his father, Joseph Loomis, and his brother, Sherman Loomis ; Benjamin Agard, and his sons, Alvin and Roman L .; Frederick Brown and sons, Marcus, John and Edward ; William S., Harry and Cullen Richards, after- ward their father, Jedediah Richards, and his other sons, Jededialı, Mills, Robert U., Ezekiel, Julius, and George, M. D. (part of these live just over the line of Norton); Augustus Mills and sons, Harry A., Luman P., Philo P., William and C. Curtis ; Allen Pardee and afterward his brothers, John, George K., Augustus, Aaron, and still later, Sheldon and Ebenezer, and brother-in-law, Phineas Butler; Norman and Cyrus Curtis, and afterward their father, Cyrus Curtis, Sr. The Millses, Curtises and Pardees, though from Norfolk, Conn., resided for a time in Marcellus, N. Y.

"From Torrington, Connecticut, came George Lyman, Gurdon Hilliard, Robert Hilliard, Lem- uel North, Abel Beach and his sons, George and Orlando ; Elisha Hinsdale and his sons, Elisha, Sherman, and Albert. From Winsted came Philemon Kirkum and his son, George Kirkum, just over the line, in Norton. From Hebron, Connecticut, William Eyles.

" From Pennsylvania, Samuel Blocker and sons, David and Eli ; Jacob Miller and sons, George and David ; the Rasors, George, Chris-

topher, and William ; old Mr. Everhard and sons, Jacob, John, Christian and Jonathan ; Henry, Christian and Isracl Ritter ; Lawrence, Adam and Paul Baughman, and sons, and Adam and Jacob Smith ; Peter Waltz and sons, John and David ; John Wise and Jacob Wise ; Nicholas Long and John Long.

"From Maryland, James Gifford, Henry Fal- coner and Samuel Faleoner.

" The west part of Wadsworth, along the een- ter road was, before it was cleared up, very swampy, and, because of its dismal appearance, was named by the surveyors, "The Infernal Regions ; " and the sluggish stream that oozed through the swamps, was named "River Styx," from the old mythologieal river of that name. Those swamps and River Styx were a great dread to travelers for many years. The old road was filled with eauseways, made of poles ; two of them, near River Styx, each about forty rods long, and one over the Styx, on the Medina road, over eighty rods long. The late Judge Brown ehanged those causeways into turnpikes, in 1826 and 1828.

" The first house built and clearing made, on the ground where Wadsworth Village now stands, was that of Frederick Brown, in 1816. The next house west of this, at that time, was that of George Burr, of Harrisville, as the road then ran, fifteen miles. Passing Harrisville, going dne west, the next settlement was at Upper Sandusky ; the next at Fort Wayne, Ind., and no other to the Pacific Ocean."

We give further extracts from Brown's Me- morial found on page 64, which he entitles " Humorous, Poetical and Prose Narrative of Aaron Pardee, Esq.," read at the Pioneer's meeting :

" My dear boys and girls, come and sit down beside me While I tell of the early days, things that I know. At the age of sixteen, a tall Yankee, they found me In Wadsworth, one morning, a long time ago. There were four of us, John, sister Julia, and mother, And John's wife and children, and Allen, my brother.

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 65

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