History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 66

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 66

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).

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

John, he drove one wagon, and Allen the other, And I drove two cows, and I think I drove slow.

" We were two weeks in coming from old Onondaga, We stopped every Sunday, at noon for a hite. Turned off before reaching the bold Cuyahoga, And in Tinkler's Creek Hollow we stayed over night. On through the Old Portage, hy Josh King's we came twining

Our way round the hills, hy old Henry Vanhyning. At length, just at night, while the sun was still shin- ing,

The house of Phin Butler, it just hove in sight.

" This was in September, 1824. Butler mar- ried my sister Sally. They lived on the corner, where the road turns to Akron. The house stood on the south side of the stream, on Slanker's land now. Butler and Judge Par- dee moved from New York State into Wads- worth, six years before, and Al went back to help us move.

"For the next three years following, I think I was busy ; I worked on a farm, and I planted and sowed.

To think how I whirled round e'en now makes me dizzy,

And though tall then as ever, I " specs that I growed." At all parties and meetings and gatherings you'd find me

At evening, on horsehack. with some girl hehind me. I smile, and I weep, when old memories remind me Of the right arms around me those nights, as we rode.

"I knew every boy and girl in Wadsworth then, and everybody else. Here at the Center, were Judge Brown's folks, Levi Blakslee and Hiram C. Kingsbury. We moved on to the Tim Hudson farm, now called Rasor farm. Samuel Blocker's folks were on the Yaukey farm ; then old Jake Miller and John Sprague. Next came, as you go east, Squire Warner, Gus Mills, Stew Richards, and old Uncle Jed, Cul, Zeke, Mills, George and Jule. (I believe they could all fiddle, that is, the Richards could.) Then there was Capt. Cyrus Curtis, lived on the little stony knoll this side of West- ern Star, and Col. Norman on the hill north ; Henry Wright along the town line; then old

Lysander Hard owned the Dague farmn ; John Nesmith on the other side of the road. Capt. Lyman owned the Doolittle farm ; but I think he was in Canton, teaching school. Uncle Ben Agard on the Sowers farm ; Judge Eyles, and Uncle Joe Loomis, and Orin and Abel Beach. Then there were Lewis Battison, Alvin Agard, and Lemucl North. Moody Weeks lived down in the hollow, since a part of the old Glasgo farm. Moody Weeks died in Feb- ruary, 1825 ; his funeral was the first I ever attended in Wadsworth. Then there were Peter and Leavitt Weeks, Tim Bennett, Jimmy and Nancy Spillman, Elder Newcomb, Richard Clark, Gurdon Hilliard and Robert, Ben Dean, and his father, Daniel Dean. Judge Pardee then lived on the farm now owned by Jacob S. Overholt, and Harry Mills between them and Butler's. Then it was woods, over to Ete Moody's and Ira's. Then old Abram Hard, old Dr. Smith, on the Hanehett farm, Luther Hemmingway, Tom Freneh, " Spider Hanehett," Abel Diekinson and Josh Shaw, where Benja- min Tyler now lives ; then, Chauncey Hart. Then you come over toward the Center, and you find George Beach and Sherman Loomis.

" All the southwest quarter of the township was woods, exeept George Beach's farm, and David Bier's, who had a house opposite the house of O. Beach. Then, to come back into the southeast quarter, we find the Everhards, the Rasors, Christian, Christopher (called Stofel), William and George ; the Smiths, Jake Smith and Big Jake ; Samuel Hayden, the Falconers, Henry and Sam ; William and Ben- jamin Simcox ; James Platt, and Reuben Warner ; Platt lived just south of the depot, and Warner where the pine trees stand.

" So now let's go back to the scenes of our childhood, Our youth, or our manhood, and log-cabin home,

With the small spot of clearing reclaimed from the wild- wood

Where the wild deer and wolf unmolested could roam. Dream on, dear old man, or dear lady, thy dreaming

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Gives joy to thy heart, on thy countenance beaming ; Or, perhaps, may awaken those tears that are stream- ing

Down the deep furrowed cheek, for the days that are gone.

" The township of Wadsworth once shone in wild glory, As she came from the workshop of nature and God. The trees of her forests stood lofty and hoary, Giving shade to the soil where no white man had trod. But we took her and gave her a thorough reforming ; Her children are now her unrivaled adorning. We present them, all happy and smiling, this morning ; Our jewels are here, in the image of God."

The first child born in Wadsworth, was Alon- zo Durham. The first persons married were George Rasor and Margaret Smith, February 25, 1817. The rite was performed by Salmon Warner, who was one of the first Justices of the Peace. The first religious meeting was July, 1814, at the house of Oliver Durham ; the services were conducted by Squire Waruer and Daniel Dean. The first sermon was preached by Rev. O. G. Gilmore iu 1815. The first church organized was the Methodist in 1816. The first township eleetion held after Wadsworth was detached from Wolf Creek Township and organized, was April 6, 1818, officers elected : Joseph Loomis and Salmon Warner, Justices of the Peace; Frederiek Brown, Jacob Miller and Daniel Dean, Trust- ees ; Samuel Blocker and Joseph Loomis, Overseers of Poor; Samuel M. Hayden, Lister ; Lysander Hard, Treasurer ; George Lyman and William C. Richards, Constables ; Sherman Loomis, Clerk ; John Wilson and Jacob Miller, Fence Viewers. George Lyman was Constable two years, did all the business, and his fees amounted to $1, which was for selling a stray horse. The first law-suit in the township was, John Reed vs. Henry Falconer. Reed had sold a piece of tallow to Falconer, containing about three pounds of greeu beech wood. Squire Warner decided that Reed should pay the cost and have nothing for his tallow.

Benjamin Agard cleared the first field of

timber in 1818, and built the first frame house in 1825. The house is still standing, on the Sowers farm. Timothy Hudson built the first frame barn in 1819. The first tannery was carried on by Levi Blakslee. The first shoe- maker was James Platt, the next Reuben F. Warner.

" We also had shoemakers and tailors, who went from house to house and did the work for the whole family. This was called 'whipping the eat.' Our grindstones were made by Sam- nel M. Hayden. In 1819, Hiram C. Kingsbury set up a blacksmith-shop on the bauk of the brook, east of the present Village Corners. He was also an ax-maker. The first retail store was owned by Allen aud John Pardee; the second by George Lyman ; the third by H. B. Spelmau."

Mr. Brown then says :

" The first settlers came just at the close of the war with Great Britain, called the war of 1812. From the Genesee River westward, the whole country was new ; mostly heavily tim- bered forest. The emigrant on his way, found not even a common turupike road. The family of my father, Frederick Brown, accompanied by Sherman Loomis, were six weeks on their way from Connecticut with a three-horse team and wagon. That of Elisha Hinsdale eight weeks.

" The immigrant who could not hew out a new axle or a new tongue for his wagon, from a forest tree, was often in a sorry predicament. Goods for the country stores were brought from Philadelphia, over the Alleghanies, iu what was known as a Conestoga wagon-a large vehicle, about double the size of a common wagon, with box about three feet deep ; the wheels double-tired, to keep from sinking in the mud. The wagons were almost invariably paiuted blue, and covered with canvas stretched upou poles ; a large tar-bucket, for lubrication, hang- ing below the hind axle.

"Our tinware and 'notions,' were usually

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

brought to our doors by peddlers, mostly from Connecticut, who bore an opposite character to the Pennsylvania teamsters. Far too many of them for the good uame of their State, and to the grief of the moral New England settlers of the Reserve, slcek, polished knaves-so that the honest yeomen from the counties south of us, judging the race by its vagabouds (as was very natural), when they came among us, werc on the lookout lest they should be 'yankeed ' -- a synonym for swindled-and the horn guu- flints and wooden nutmegs that gave the sobri- quet of the 'Nutmeg State' to Connecticut, passed even into song.

"Salt was first brought from Pittsburgh ; afterward-about my first reeollection-from a little village on the lake shore, called Cleave- land, which the Cleaveland Herald, in 1824 (fifty years ago), told us-contained 100 houses. Since then, it has lost a letter from its name, and added considerably to the number of its houses.

"Mr. Dean tells us of paying 10 ceuts per pound for salt, in 1814, and Mr. George Lyman $11 per barrel in 1817. My father moving from Conuecticut in 1816-the memorable 'cold summer '-it was exceedingly difficult to find food enough to subsist the family upon the road ; often able to buy or beg only enough for the little ones, and retire fasting, to find food on the road some time in the forenoon. Wheat, when it was to be had at all that year, was $3 a bushel, and corn $2. The bear, the deer and the wild turkey, under the well-aimed rifles of Orin Loomis, David Blocker and Will- iam Simcox, furnished the supplies that kept the neighborhood from starvation. To that corps of hunters were afterward added Phineas Butler and Timothy Dascom. All these were ' mighty hunters ' in those days.

" Our limited trading was done at Middle- bury, until Mr. Porter opened a store at the cross roads, then called Harveystown, eight miles southeast of Wadsworth. They adver-

tised that they would give a high price in goods for dried ginseng root, and the woods were searched over the next fall to find the precious root, for there was money in it. My brother and I dug and dried enough to buy for each of us our first white cotton shirts, at the low price of only 50 cents per yard ; and the next Sunday, you may believe that 'Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.' Do you think that we wore any eoats on that day and hid the white arms ? No, indeed ! Though late in October, it was too warm, so we carried them on our arms.

" But the day of high priccs soon passed away, as the farms were cleared up, and then came on the great financial pressure, with its low priees, before the opening of the Erie and the Ohio Canals, when it was hardly pos- sible to raise enough in moucy from their farm products to pay taxes. I can remember when rye for distilling brought a better price than wheat for bread. The first grinding was done at Norton's mill-afterward known as Tall- madge Village, afterward as Middlebury, now a part of Akron-and at Wetmore's mill, in Stowe, a mile above Cuyahoga Falls, and at Northampton Mills. I can well remember when they used to put up at my father's house, going and returning from Middlebury with their grists, from as far west as Sullivan, Hun- tington and Wellingtou. Afterward, Rex's mill, east of New Portage, was built ; then the mill so long owned by George Wellhouse, in Chippewa."

Many of the houses in those days were built independently of saw-mills or planing-mills or nail or glass factories. An ax, a hammer, an iron wedge, an auger, a frow, a broad-ax, a log chain, a yoke of cattle aud a few neighbors were all that was necessary to make a dwelling-house or barn. Many a building had the logs cut in the forcuoon, drawn and laid up in the afternoon and covered with long shingles.

The shingles would be rived out and put ou,

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

and held down by weight-poles, all finished the same day. Roofs made in this manner would not only shed rain and keep out the snow, but would last for a long time. Oak, chestnut, or whitewood timber, hewn on two sides, split through the middle and laid down howed side uppermost, constituted the floor. A stick chim- ney, paper windows and a puncheon door, with the frame work and wooden hinges fastened together with pegs in gimlet-holes, the chinks between the logs plastered up with mud, and the house would be complete. In a timbered country, such as this was, such a house would be warm and comfortable. As illustrating the scarcity of materials, it is related that on the death of Julia, wife of Sherman Loomis, in 1820, Jacob Miller, in making the coffin, could find but eighteen nails in the township, and Mr. P. Butler, by the light of a torch, on the evening before the funeral, drew out four- teen more from the boards of his new house, which nails he had brought with him from Onondaga County, N. Y.

The uplands of the township were first set- tled, and clearings were commenced by cutting and piling all timber except oak, chestnut, whitewood and such others as would die by being girdled. In the driest time, the fallow, as it was called, would be set on fire, and, if the wind and weather were favorable, the brush heaps, leaves and rotten wood would all be consumed, and the ground all burnt over black. Timber left on the ground was then logged and burned, the standing trees girdled, the rails split and fenees made. A field, such as de- scribed, was then suitable for corn in the spring, which might be hacked in with the corner of a hoe, or in the fall a bushel of wheat was sown broadcast to the acre. A good yoke of oxen hitched to a drag with nine teeth, would thoroughly mellow and "get in" an acre of wheat in one day. The surface of the land was rich in vegetable mold, and the first crops were generally very fine. After several years'

cultivation in corn, oats and grass, the girdlings would be chopped down and niggered, which meant burned in two, or else cut, and, when logged and burned up, the land would be finally cleared. Good crops were obtained by clear- ing land in this way, and much time and ex- pense saved. Girdlings, however, were not un- mixed blessings. They were dangerous in a high wind. Men, cattle and fences must stand from under. Old Mr. Dean was once asked why the fences were so often broken down and so few cattle were killed by the falling limbs and timber. His answer was : "Cattle can dodge, but the fence can't dodge." In a very dry time the girdlings would get on fire ; trees would burn from bottom to top; the sparks would fly from one to another until the whole would be ablaze. New settlers generally find out what it is to fight fire. But some of the land was cleared elean from the beginning.

Many aeres of new land were originally chopped and cleared for $10 per acre. The soil on the ridges was a dry, sandy loam, and on the bottoms more inclining to sand. The soil was deep, and mixed with rich vegetable mold, and adapted to the cultivation of all kinds of grain, grapes and vegetable productions, and fruits, such as apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, and small fruits of all varieties. Wheat has always been a staple crop in Wadsworth, but our best farmers have always practiced the rotation system.

They would take a farm, say one hundred aud sixty acres, and clear off all but forty acres. Put in each year twenty acres in wheat ; secd in the fall to timothy, aud in the spring to clover. Twenty acres in oats ; after harvest put on manure and sow in wheat. Twenty acres in corn ; the next spring iu oats. Twenty acres in meadow. Twenty acres for rye, flax, potatoes, orchard, garden, grapes, berries, door- yard, barn-yard and lancs ; and twenty acres for pasture, which ought to adjoin the woodland where the stock were allowed to range. What

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

is seeded down every year becomes meadow, or pasture, and then some of the grass land is plowed up for eorn. Thus by alternating, and saving his manure, the farmer is growing rich, and his farm rieher and more productive every season. Many of the early settlers were too poor to pay for their farms in the beginning, but, by judicious farming and steady industry and economy, have become wealthy. No man could be more independent than sueh a farmer. He raised nearly everything necessary to support his family. All his grain, meat, wool and flax for eloth ; fruits, potatoes, garden vegetables, butter, eggs, sugar, if he chose to tap his maple trees ; and, with some of all these to sell, and much wheat and other grain, with eattle, horses, sheep and wool, the farmer was truly independ- ent, was rich and growing rieher.

The exeelleneies and advantages of Wads- worth Township have always been appreciated by its inhabitants. More than forty years ago, at a celebration of the Fourth of July, this was among the regular toasts. It was believed to be true then, and is undoubtedly true now- " Wadsworth Township "-

" Where is the town but five miles square, That can with this of ours compare ; Her fields and fruits are rich and rare, Her waters sweet, and pure her air, Her sons are wise, her daughters fair ; Where is the town that can compare Weask, and echo answers-where ?''

But, to return from this episode to the more early history of the township, we find that the first saw-mill was built in 1824. In the spring of that year, Joseph and Sherman Loomis and Abel and George Beach commeneed a saw-mill on Bloeker's Run, upon the same site where Yoder, Sereen & Co.'s saw-mill now stands. They made the dam by putting in log cribs, extending from bank to bank, and so as to raise the water about fifteen or sixteen feet. These cribs were then filled with dirt, and the flume constructed for a flutter-wheel at the bot-

tom. A fine frame saw-mill was then ereeted directly over the flume, and all completed about the 1st of December. A log was rolled in ; saw all set ready for business, only waiting for the water to fill the dam. The season had been dry, but about this time the rains began to descend and the floods came in the night, the banks of the stream were filled, the water was too heavy for the cribbing in the dam ; suddenly the dam gave way, taking mill, saw and saw-log, tools and every vestige of the cribbing, and everything, down the stream, seat- tering it in a thousand pieces. The saw was found about a quarter-mile below, badly bent, but still fastened to the frame. This was a great back-set to the proprietors, and a great discouragement to the neighbors, who had al- ready drawn in a large number of saw-logs, but the proprietors made a rally, and the next season, profiting by their experience, put in a framework and spars for a dam, and, using many of the old timbers for the saw-mill, soon got it in operation. The next saw-mill was made by George Lyman and Cyrus Curtis, on Holmes' Brook. In 1830, Allen and John Par- dee ereeted a grist-mill on Bloeker's Run, be- low the saw-mill of Loomis & Beach. The same frame is now standing, and occupied for a grist-mill by John Yoder, in charge of D. V. Lehman. The Pardees got their mill-stones of Samuel M. Hayden, who procured them of Dr. Crosby, from an old plaster-mill below Akron, near the old forge. Hayden had in- tended to make the millstones himself (as he was a worker in stone), from some granite bowlders in the neighborhood, but they were found to be imperfect. In 1832, Nieholas Long erected another grist-mill below, on the same stream.

Some time, perhaps about the year 1828, Cyrus Hard erected a carding-mill, the first in the township, on Blocker's Run, between Par- dee's mill and Long's mill, the site of Hard's carding-mill being now used for a grist-mill,

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erected by Hard and occupied by Myers & Leatherman.

The first store in the township, as before stated, was started in 1826, and earried on by John and Allen Pardce, on the hill east of Wadsworth Village, now the Rasor farm. In 1830, they moved to the nomiual ecnter of the township, now the village, and erected the stone building which stands on the southwest corner of the public square, and at present oc- cnpied as a grocery store. In this old stone store A. & J. Pardee continued to trade in goods of all deseriptions for a long time, and customers from great distauees, even as far west as Harrisville, frequented this store.

In 1827, the Freemasons established a lodge in Wadsworth. holding their meetings in the chamber of A. & J. Pardee's store; they con- tinued to hold meetings in the township for several years, but, finally, removed to Seville, where the lodge is now said to be acting under the same old charter. In 1867, a new lodge of Freemasons was established, and they have their bi-monthly meetings in their lodge-room, in the third story of Odd Fellow Bloek, south side ; their Worshipful Master, at present, is W. E. Beardsley, Esq .; their membership is about sixty.

In 1848, a lodge of I. O. O. F. was estab- lished, which has continued in working order to the present time; their Noble Grand, at present, is H. H. Bricker, and their member- ship about oue hundred. They own the north part of I. O. O. F. Block, hold their meetings in the third story, and derive quite a revenue from rents of the remainder of the building.

There is also a lodge called Knights of La- bor, who hold their meetings in Hickox build- ing ; the number of their membership and names of their principal officers are not known.

The first school taught in Wadsworth Town- ship was by Harriet Warner, a daughter of Salmon Warner, Esq., in a room of her father's double log house. The first log schoolhouse

was erected on the farm of Jacob Miller, at the eross-roads, one mile and a half east of the vil- lage. The first school taught in this house was by Marcus Brown, son of Frederick Brown. The second by his sister, Catharine Brown, afterward Mrs. T. Hudson. About a year later, another house was put up, near the residence of the late Judge William Eyles. The first school taught in this, was by Miss Lodema Sacket (now Mrs. Loomis), in 1819. Those houses were, for many years, known as the north and south schoolhouses. The first school at the Center (now Wadsworth Village) was in a log house owned by Frederick Brown, and was taught by Dr. William Welton. These were also the only houses of worship for sev- eral years.

Of the early teachers of Wadsworth, Sher- man Loomis, George Lyman, Lemnel North and John Nesmith deserve particular mention. And not a few who have made their mark as scholars, and in the learned professions, re- ceived their first inspiration in those log-house seminaries.

In 1837, Wadsworth Academy was incor- porated, and the octagou building erected for that purpose.

We sometimes meet with a man of brilliant mind, who seems to have been born with a mis- sion-successful in one direction, and in that one alone, yet that success so marked as to out-distance all competitors. Sueh a man was Johu McGregor. He seemed to have been made for a teacher. Iu those days, the fame of Wadsworth Academy, which was simply John MeGregor with a house to teach in, extended far and near, and was known even beyond the limits of the State. But few teachers have had so many pupils who have been successful in after life, mainly through the impulse given to them by one mind. His method was simple, perfectly natural, yet iuimitable. Graduates of a moderu normal school would have found much to criticise in the order he kept. But

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what cared the enthusiastic Scotchman, so long as his scholars were daily drinking in his in- structions, and catching his enthusiasm, while their lessons were not conned over, but learned till they knew that they knew them ?

He scorned all codes of rules for the gov- ernment of his scholars. "You are gentlemen and ladies," he would say; "you have come here for one purpose, and that alone. It is your school, not mine, and you will see to it that nothing shall call me from the one work of giving instruction. I rely solely upon your own self-respect and sense of propriety and honor." It was very rarely that he reproved, but, if it had to be administered, it left a scar. But such was his simplicity of heart, and sin- cerity, that if, on reflection, he thought he had done any injustice to a pupil, he would volun- tarily ask pardon before the whole school. He loved and took a pride in his pupils, and his pupils loved and were proud of their teacher.

In 1828, the young men met in the log schoolhouse, and organized a lyceum, under the name of the Wadsworth Literary Club. The same company also formed a rhetorical school, and chose Capt. George Lyman as teacher. They held weekly evening schools for speaking, acting of dialogues and colloquies, at the house of Benjamin Agard, and concluded with an ex- hibition in the unfinished upper story of the new house of William Eyles. The exhibition, after the ancient style of dramatic perform- ances, was opened by the recitation of a pro- logue, composed for the occasion by one of the young men, which is given verbatim from memory, and will answer as a specimen of Wadsworth pioneer poetry :

PROLOGUE.

Unused to come before an audience

To speak or act, or any such pretense, Our youthful faces, with confusion glow, When we consider what a depth below Perfection's standard our endeavors all, At such a time as this, must surely fall.

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 66

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